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AARIAAA A \AAAAAAA AARAAAAARA AABARBARAS ant Annan Ana arwanaa BAA RAR AN AAA AAARAAAAAAAAR AAA AAA a man ACRACAA AAAAIAAL\ apryy. \ , ARARRAAARAA AA cc i a 3 Aar aA FN ) AAAAL.\. jAnhnaaasaa.& lA\ ao Aan aah aA - af AAA Yi ~\ TN ARAAAAAY AIA AA AAA AAAAAAAAAAAA ARAR AA AARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS “mAAAbOdornnannhahenAbGaae a AAWARA yi AAAAAAARAAS ARAAA lal AARAAA AAA SNAAAANAAAARA MAA AAAs AMARA MAAARAesac aan NW AAAA AAA AARA ARARRARRARARA AAA YA | ARAAAA YY \, AA AAAIAA 1 \gn ap ; ‘a | . Ne NA AANA Vn a AA AA AARARRAAA | Aan | / PNA FV | [\aaAAL AAAAAGA AAAAAAAAAA | \a\ala’ ala ANAAA AAAAAHAAAAABARAAAARAAAAARAAMAAAA CC WAAAAAAI A GAAAAR vaaln @ 7 a y r Bi eel ’ Nature A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE mone UM RE x xX 1 MAY to OCTOBER, 1905 “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for ave.” —WWORDSWORTH ¥ ondon More iet AN. AND CO, LimitED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Nature, December 14, 1005 PNDES Appor (Bric.-GENERAL Henry L.), Problems of the Panama Canal Abderhe water) (Emil), Recent Advances in the Chemistry of bumin, 437 Abdominal Diseases, Clinical and Pathological Observations | on Acute, E. M. Corner, 122 _ Aberration, the Constant of, Prof. Doolittle, 592 \boriginal India, 105 \boricinal Methods of determining the Seasons, William | &. Rolston, 176 | \\oreho. (Henri), Electrolytic Production of Very Fine ' Wires, 143; Recueil d’Expérience ¢lémentaires ee Physique, 172 Absence of Vibration in a Turbine Steamship, Prof. David Todd, 603 Absorption Spectra. Prof. H. Kayser, 627 Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in_ the Region, on the, Dr. E. C. C. Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R-S., 239, 630; Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 557: Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra, the Phenols, | E. C. C. Baly and E. K. Ewbank, 239 Academic Side of Technical Training, Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., 256 Academy ‘of the Lincei, Prize Awards, 461 Acoustics : Propagation of Musical Sounds in a Tube of | 3 Metres Diameter, J. Violle and Th. Vautier, 95; the | Amplitude of the ‘Minimum Dr. P. E. Shaw, 503; Can Fish Hear? Dr. 638 Acquired Characters, the Inheritance of, W. Woods Smyth, O. Korner, 152 Adams (John), Effect of Very Low Temperature on Moist | Seeds, 143 Adams (Prof.), the Orbit of ¢ Tauri, 592 Aérolite Falls, Periodicity of, W. H. S. Monck, 230 Aéronautics: Atmospheric Electricity observed Balloons, George C. Simpson, 92; nautical Committee’s Ascents in January to April, 229; the Exploration of the Atmosphere above the Atlantic, A. Lawrence Rotch, 244; Projects of Artificial Flight, Arnold Samuelson, 329; Dr. Federico Sacco, 329; ““ Hélicoptére Aéroplane’’ of H. and A. Dufaux, Réné de Saussure, 329; Experiments with the Langley Aéro- drome, Dr. S. P. Langley, 645 Africa: an Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony, A. W. Rogers, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 35; the Geology of South Africa, F. H. Hatch and G. S. Corstorphine, 346; Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, 59 (see British Association); the Masai, their Language and Folklore, A. C. Hollis, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 83; Antelopes, Heuglin’s “Giant Eland,’’ A. L. Butler, 133; Ticks Concerned in the Dissemination of Disease in Man, Tick Fever in Congo Free State, R. Newstead, 354; Guinea Worm and its Hosts, Dr. Graham, 354; a Gigantic Gorilla, Prof. E. T. Hamy, 434; the Magic Origin of Moorish Designs, from Audible Impulsive Sound, | Ultra-violet | International Aéro- | Agriculture : Dr. Westermarck, 435; Death and Obituary Notice of M. de Brazza, 515; New Gladiolus from Victoria Falls, 539; Science in South Africa, a Handbook and Review, 628 Agassiz (Prof. Alexander), Influence of the Humboldt Current on the Marine Life West of Callao, 17 Calcium Nitrate in Agriculture, Da" Sh Effect of Plant Growl and of Manures upon the Soil, A. D. Hall and N. J. Miller, o4: Agricultural Notes, 138; Phosphatic Rees on Limed and on Unlimed Land, Mr. Nagaoka, 138; Work Done at the Rothamsted Experimental Station for the year end- ing March 31, A. D. Hall, 138; Sugar Cane Experiments in the Leeward Islands, Dr. F. Watts, 157; Determin- ation of Sulphuric Acid in Soils, J. Howard Graham, 205; Ripening is due to Moulds and Bacteria in Camembert Type of Soft Cheese, = Brusca. ea Disease of the Olive, Prof. Cuboni, 276; Diseases of Citrous Plants and Fruits caused by the Fungus Colleto- trichum gloeosporioides, P. H. Rolfs, 277; the State and Agriculture in Hungary, Dr. Ignatius Daranyi, 291; British Fruit Growing, 297; Alfred O. Walker, 342; Spencer Pickering, F.R.S., 396; Recent Publications in Agricultural Science, 324; Concimi, Mangimi, Sementi, &c., Commercie, frodi, e repressione delle frodi, Special- mente in Italia, Italo Giglioli, 324; Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903, 325; Science and Practice of Agriculture, Farmer’s Handbook, T. Jamieson, 325; the Seeding of Pastures, A. N. M’Alpine, 328; Cultivation of Oranges in Dominica, H. Hesketh Bell, 328; the Banana Industry in Costa Rica, 328; the Woburn Ex- perimental Fruit Farm, Prof. T. H. Middleton, 461 ; Insect Pests of Field and Garden Crops, Prof. Theobald, 539; Leaf-hoppers and their Enemies, R. C. L. Perkins, 539; Indigo Planting and Synthetic Indigo, 637; Birds in the Field and Garden, 638; Manurial Experiments with Cacao in Dominica, West Indies, 639; Recent Developments in Agricultural Science, A. D. Hall, 642; Chemical Survey of the Soils of Cape Colony, 642 Bellenoux, 47; 22 Aitken (John), Evaporation of Musk and other Substances, | Algebra : 391 Albrecht (Prof. T.), Variations of Latitudes, Alcohol, ) Aldrich (J. M.), Alessandri (Dr.), Alexander (A. D.), Explosions of Mixtures of Coal-gas and 110; Jupiter's Sixth and Seventh Satellites, 352; Observations of Jupiter’s Seventh Satellite, 424 Albumin, Recent Advances in the Chemistry of, Emif Abderhalden, 437 Alchemical Equipment in the Eleventh Century a.p., H. E. Stapleton and R. F. Azo, 452 Duty-free, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, 344 a Catalogue of North American Diptera or Two-winged Flies, 317 the Monte Rosa Observatory, 565 Air in a Closed Vessel, 311 Modern Algebra, A. B. First Algebra, W. M. hasset, Baker and A. DARE, OE A. Bourne, 393 ; lv Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Algebraical Grounding, D. E. Shorto, 393; Algebra, Charles M. Clay, 393 ; Algeria : Monographie des Cynipides d’Europe et d’Algérie, V’Abbé J. J. Kieffer, 455 Algiers, New Observatory in, Lucien Libert, 207 Allen (E. T.), the Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of Examples in the Felspars, 258; the Scorification Assay for Gold Telluride Ores, 493 Allen (Dr. F. J.), the Critical Temperature and Pressure of Living Substances, 7 ; : Alpheraky (Sergius), the Geese of Europe and Asia, 266 Alternating Currents, A. Russell, Maurice Solomon, 99 Alvarez (Eugenio Pinertia), New Reagent for Potassium, 47; a New Osmium Compound, 72; a Reaction of Rhodium, 96 Amann (M.), the Rings of Saturn, 388 America: Astronomical Society of America, 19; Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Frederick Ducane Godman, F.R.S., 49; University of Pennsylvania, Transactions of the Department of Archeology, Free Museum of Science and Art, H. R. Hall, 98; Manual of the Trees of North America (ex- clusive of Mexico), C. S. Sargent, 197; a Catalogue of North American Diptera or Two-winged Flies, J. M. Aldrich, 317; American Research in Asia, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 366; the American Thoroughbred, C. E. Trevathan. 395 Anatomy : First International Congress of Anatomists, 400; Importance of Selecting Generalised Species for Ana- tomical Demonstrations, Dr. H. W. Rand, 302; Coral Anatomy and development, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185 Ancient Antarctica, Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., 244 Andersen (K.), Some Species of Bats of the Genus Rhino- lophus, 11 Anderson (E. L.), Riding and Driving, 197 Anderson (Prof. R. J.), Physical Deterioration, 331 Andoyer (M.), Further Results obtained by the French Eclipse Expeditions, 567 Andrews (Leonard), Electricity Control, a Treatise on Switch-gear Systems of Electric Transmission, 99 Andrews (Thomas, F.R.S.), Wear of Steel Rails on Bridges, cs2 73 Angler’s Hours, an, H. T. Sherringham, 220 Anglo-Saxons, Latins et, Races supérieures et Races inférieures, Prof. N. Colajanni, 533 Animals: Animal Photography, 54; Animals I Have Known, A. H. Beavan, 125; the Preservation of Native Plants and Animals, Prof. W. B. Benham, 534 Annandale (Dr. N.), Occurrence ef the Fresh-water Worm Cheetogaster in India, 24; Four New Barnacles from the Neighbourhood of Java, 360; the Farées and Iceland, Studies in Island Life, 506 Anomalous Dispersion and ‘‘ Flocculi,’’ Prof. Julius, 19 Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, a Monograph of the, S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston, Dr. J. W. W. Stephens, 73 Antarctica: Scientific Results of the National Antarctic Expedition, 57; Antarctic Expedition, Dr. J. Charcot, 202: Ancient Antarctica, Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., 244 Anthropology: the Probable Racial Constituents of the Portuguese, A. da Costa Ferreira, 87; a Penitential Rite of the Ancient Mexicans, Drawing Blood, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, 88; Anthropological Institute, 118: I Nuovi Indirizzi e le Promesse della Odierna Antropologia, Fabio Frassetto, 173; the Magic Origin of Moorish Designs, Dr. Westermarck, 435: Les Six Races com- posant la Population actuelle de 1’Europe, Dr. Deniker, 464; Remains of Neolithic Buildings in Scandinavia, H. Schetelig, 515; Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supéri- eures et Races inférieures, Prof. N. Colajanni, 533: Machine-made Eoliths, M. Boule, 538; on the Origin of Eoliths, Marcellin Boule, 635; Dr. Hugo Obermaier, 636; Greek Grotesque Figures as Charms against the Evil Eye, A. J. B. Wace, 560; Decorative Objects Worn by the Natives of Borneo, R. Shelford, 638 Anthropometric Survey, Physical Deterioration, being the Report of Papers and Discussions at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, 1904, on the Alleged Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an, 152 Anti-typhoid Inoculation, a Short Treatise on, Dr. A. E. Wright, 122 Antlitz der Erde, das, Prof. Eduard Suess, 193 Appendix Vermiformis, the Surgery of the Diseases of the, and their Complications, W. H. Battle and E. M. Corner, 122 Appleyard (Rollo), Contact with Dielectrics, 215 Aquilz, Nova, No. 2, Prof. Max Wolf, 494, 611; Dr. P- Guthnick, 494, 611; Prof. Hartwig, 518; Mrs. Fleming, 542; Prof. Pickering, 640 Arachnida: on Two Orders of Arachnida, Opiliones, especially the Suborder Cyphophthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Cryptostemmatoide, Dr. H. J. Hansen and Dr. W. Sorensen, R. I. Pocock, 577; Palaeozoische Arachniden, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch, R. I. Pocock, 577 Arber (E. A. dendrez, 166 Archeology: Relation between Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Grovely Castle, Colonel Johnston, 16; Notes on Stonehenge, Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., 32, 246, 270; Prehistoric Graves and Dwelling Places near Breslau, 63; the Evolution of Engraving in the Stone Age, Ed. Piette, 81; University of Pennsylvania, Trans- actions of the Department of Archeology, Free Museum of Science and Art, H. R. Hall, 98; an Inverted Slab in a Cromlech, Edward Greenly, 152; Results obtained in Egypt by Prof. Flinders Petrie, 228; British Archeology and Philistinism, Worthington G. Smith, 294; Money- boxes in the Form of Mamme, F. Rosen, 386; Forty Years’ Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, J. R. Mortimer, 398; Death of Prof. Jules Oppert, 421; Obituary Notice, 432; the Annual of the British School at Athens, H. R. Hall, 558; Dr. Arthur Evans’s Work at Knossos, 558; Excavations at Palafkastro, Messrs. Dawkins and Currelly, 559; the “ Aryanism ’’ of the Minoans, R. S. Conway, 560 Architecture, Naval: Institution of Naval Architects, 303 ; Experiments with Models of Constant Length and Form of Cross Section, but with Varying Breadths and Draughts, Lieut.-Colonel B. Rota, 303; Experiments upon the Effect of Water on Speed, Harold Yarrow, 303 ; Influence of the Depth of Water on Speed, W. W. Marriner, 303 ; Causes of Accidents to Submarine Boats, Captain R. H. Bacon, 306 Arctica: the Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893- 1896, Scientific Results, 265; Commander Peary’s Ex- pedition to North Pole, 274; Return of the Ziegler North Polar Expedition, A. Fiala, 422; New Island dis- covered, Terre de France, Lieut. Bergendahl, 461; Death and Obituary Notice of Captain J. Wiggins, 515 Area-scale, Radial, R. W. K. Edwards, 150 Argentine Republic, Ben Nevis Observatory William S. Bruce, 485 Arithmetic: a Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic, Horace L. Wells, 556; Examples in Arithmetic, C. O. Tuckey, 580; the Primary Arithmetic, 580 Arloing (Prof.), the Infection of Man by Bovine Tubercle Bacilli, 582 Armstrong (Dr. E. F.), the Réle of Enzymes in Plant Economy, 642 Arnold (F.), Consciousness and its Object, 464 Arnold (Prof. J. O.), Thermal Transformations of Carbon Steels, 572 Arrhenius (Prof. Svante), the Electrical Charge of the Sun, N.), Seed-bearing Habit in the Lygino- and_ the, 43 Arsonval (Prof. d’), Apparatus for Generation and Auto- matic Compression of Oxygen, 541 Artificial Diamonds, Dr. C. V. Burton, 397 Ascent of Sap in Trees, the Mechanics of the, Larmor, Sec.R.S., at Royal Society, 644 Ashworth (James), Outbursts of Gas and Coal at Morrissey Collieries, British Columbia, 131 Asia: the Geese of Europe and Asia, Sergius Alpheraky, 266 ; Asiatic Society of Bengal, 24, 120, 360, 452 Asphalt Pavement, the Modern, Clifford Richardson, 316 Assaying, Notes on, and Metallurgical Laboratory Experi- ments, Prof. Richard W. Lodge, 340 Assheton (R.), Morphology of the Ungulate Placenta, 391 Prof. Jz the Nature, ] December 14, 1905 Index V Assyriology : Death of Prof. Jules Oppert, 421; Obituary Notice of, 432 Asteroids: Occlo [475], an Interesting Asteroid, R. H. Frost, 330, 388; Variation of a Newly Discovered Asteroid, Dr. Palisa, 494; the Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., Dr. Palisa, 518; Prof. Berberich, 518; Ephemeris of the Variable Asteroid (167) Urda, A. Berberich, 542 Astronomy: Recent Spectroheliograph Results, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 9; Phillip Fox, 183; Interpretation of Spectroheliograph Pictures, M. N. Donitch, 495; Prof. Hale and Mr. Ellerman, 495; Our Astronomical Column, 19, 43, 66, 89, 110, 135, 158, 183, 207, 230, 255, 279, 302, 330, 352, 388, 424, 436, 465, 494, 518, 542, 567, 591, 610, 639; Discovery of a Tenth Satellite to Saturn, 19, 135; Prof. W. H. Pickering, 19; Observations of the Satellites of Saturn and Uranus, Messrs. Frederick and Hammond, 230; the Rings of Saturn, MM. Amann and Rozet, 388; Light-variation of Saturn’s Satellites, Dr. P. Guthnick, 611; Observations of Phaebe, R. H. Frost, 330; the Alleged Identity of Comets ‘‘ Brooks 1889 ”’ and Lexell, Dr. Charles L. Poor, 19; Ancient Drawings of Celestial Phenomena, Dr. W. Lehmann, 19; Mount Wilson Observatory, Prof. Hale, 19; Anomalous Dis- persion and ‘‘ Flocculi,’’ Prof. Julius, 19; Astronomical Society of America, 19; Astronomy for Amateurs, Camille Flammarion, 29; Notes on Stonehenge, Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., 32, 246, 270; Death of Prof. Otto von Struve, 38; Obituary Notice of, 61; Ephemeris for Comet 1905a, M. Ebell, 43; Orbit of Comet 19054, Miss Lamson, 66; Elliptical Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1905a, Prof. Banachiewicz, 207; A. Wedemayer, 207; Comets 1905 II (1904e) and 1904 I, Dr. Strémgren, 43; Herr Nijland and Herr van d. Bilt, 43; Observations of Jupiter, MM. Flammarion and Benoit, 43; a Sus- pected Sudden Change on Jupiter, Major Molesworth, 207; Observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Stanley Williams, 330; Eye-estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spots, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 518; Provisional Elements for Jupiter’s Sixth Satellite, Mr. Crommelin, 66; Bright- ness of Jupiter’s Satellites, Prof. Wendell, 66; Prof. W. de Sitter, 207; Jupiter’s Sixth and Seventh Satellites, Prof. Perrine, 135; Dr. Albrecht, 352; Dr. Frank E. Ross, 352; Observation of Jupiter’s Seventh Satellite, Prof. Albrecht, 424; Observations of Jupiter’s Satellites, Profs. A. A. Nijland and J]. van d. Bilt, 567; the Elec- trical Charge of the Sun, Prof. Svante Arrhenius, 43 ; Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905, D. Antonio Tarazona, 77; Mechanical Lantern Slide Illustrative of the Phenomenon of a Total Solar Eclipse, W. Shackleton, 91; Geodetic Measure- ments from Solar Eclipses, C. E. Stromeyer, 230; Pro- posed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 244; the French Eclipse Expeditions, 279; French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, Prof. Janssen, 518; M. Bigourdan, 518; M. Stephan and M. Trépied, 518; M. Bourget, 518; M. Nordmann, 518; M. Salet, 518; M. Moye, 518; Further Results obtained by the French Eclipse Expedi- tions, MM. Deslandres and Andoyer, 567; M. Salet, 591; Prof. Janssen, 639; E. Stephan, 640; M. Bigourdan’s Eclipse Results, 610; Eclipse Shadow Bands, A. Law- rence Rotch, 307; Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observ- ations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 342; the Forthcoming Total Solar Eclipse, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 399; the Total Solar Eclipse, August 30, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 4©7; Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse in Tripoli, Barbary, Prof. David Todd, 484; Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmosphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, Prof. F. Elster, Prof. H. Geitel and F. Harms, 490; the Solar Physics Observatory Eclipse Expedition, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 508; Influence of the Eclipse of August 30 on Plants, Ed. Bureau, 528; Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun at Guelma, Ch. Trépied, 576; Eclipse Predictions, J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S., 603; Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., 629; Eclipse Phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., 620; Observations of ‘‘D,’’ in the Solar Spectrum, Dr. H. Kreusler, 66; Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the Solar Spectrum, Prof. A. Fowler, 184; A. Buss, 184; Solar Changes and Weather, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 129, 175; A. B. M., 175; Solar and Terrestrial Changes, 249; Observations of Prominences on the Sun’s Limb, Prof. Mascari, 158; the Solar Activity, 279; the Solar Activity, January-June, Prof. Mascari, 518; Dutch Observations of the Corona, Prof. Julius, 303; a Solar Outburst? Arthur Mee, 320; Cosmic Dust of Solar Origin, Prof. Schaeberle, 424; a Proposed New Method for determining the Solar Radiation, Prof. Ceraski, 437 ; the Figure of the Sun, C. Lane Poor, 567; Vegetation and the Sun-spot Period, Camille Flammarion, 303 ; Sun-spot Spectra, W. M. Mitchell, 330; Another Large Sun-spot, 610; the Recent Large Sun-spot, 639; Atmo- spheric Origin of ‘‘ Shadow Bands,”’ T. Zona, 611; the Problem of ‘‘ Shadow-bands,’’ Catharine O. Stevens, 631; a Spectrographic determination of the Solar Parallax, F. Kistner, 611; the International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research, 490; Variability of Minor Planet (15) Eunomia, Prof. Wendell, 43; Faintness of Planetary Nebulz, J. E. Gore, 43; Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Miss Leavitt, 66; Obsery- ations and Light-curves of Several Variable Stars, Dr. L. Terkdan, 66; Twelve Stars with Variable Radial Velocities, Prof. Wright and Dr. Palmer, 89; a Remark- able Variable Star, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 110; Variable Stars in the Clusters Messier 3 and 5, Prof. Bailey, 183 ; Winter Fireballs in 1905, Mr. Denning, 66; Newly dis- covered Nebulz, Prof. Max Wolf, 89; the Bruce Tele- scope Reference Photographs, Prof. Pickering, 89 ; Comet 1904 II (1904d), M. Ebell, 89; Double ‘‘ Canals’ on Mars in 1903, Mr. Lowell, 89; Photographic Reality of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lowell, 135; Photographs of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lampland, 302; Mr. Lowell, 302; a Projection on Mars, Mr. Lowell, 279, the North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904-5, Messrs. Lowell and Lampland, 303; the Formation of the Martian Snow- caps, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 255; the Formation of the New North Polar Cap on Mars, Mr. Lowell, 352; the Planet Mars, Mr. Wesley, 388; Mr. Denning, 388; Major Molesworth, 388; Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere, Mr. Lowell, 465; Mr. Slipher, 465; Cata- logue of New Double Stars, Prof. Hussey, 90; Astro- nomical Occurrences in June, 110; in July, 207; in August, 302; in September, 436; in October, 542; Radial Velocities of Thirty-one Stars, Prof. Lord, 110; Magni- tudes of Nova Persei and Nova Geminorum, Prof. A. A. Nijland, 110; Oxford University Observatory, Prof. Turner, 110; Variations of Latitude, Prof. T. Albrecht, - 110; New Refraction Tables, Prof. Eichelberger, 110; the Motion of the Tail of Borrelly’s Comet (1903 iv), Prof. Jaegermann, 135; Double Star Observations, J. A. Miller and Prof. W. A. Cogshall, 135; Stars with Spectra of the Orion Type, Prof. Pickering, 135; the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 135; a Probable Nova in Ophiuchus, Mr. Fleming, 158; Miss Cannon, 158; Prof. Pickering, 158; Determination of Meteor Radiants, Mr. Denning, 158; Aboriginal Methods of determining the Seasons, William E. Rolston, 176; Stars with Peculiar Spectra, Mrs. Fleming, 183; Prof. Pickering, 183; West Hendon House Observatory, 184; Perturbations of the Bielid Meteors, Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., 189; Royal Astronomical Society, 190; Determination of Heat Radiation from the Moon, Earl of Rosse, 190; Diurnal Variations of Nadir and Level of the Greenwich Transit Circle, Astronomer Royal, 190; Recent Positions of Eros, Mr. Manson, 207; Recent Observation of Eros, Prof. Millosevich, 256; New Observatory in Algiers, Lucien Libert, 207; Telescopic Work for Observers of Planets, W. F. Denning, 208; Monochromatic Photographs of the Orion Nebula, Prof. Hartmann, 230; Periodicity of Aérolite Falls, W. H. S. Monck, 230; the Reality of Supposed Changes on the Moon’s Surface, M. Puiseux, 230; the Circumzenithal Apparatus, MM. Nusl and Fric, 230; Determination of Constant of Aberration by Observ- ation of Three Stars Close to the Pole, H. Renan and W. Ebert, 239; the Constant of Aberration, Prof. Doo- little, 592; the Planet Uranus, W. F. Denning, 244; July and August Meteors, 255; Standard Time in Various Countries, Rear-Admiral Chester, 256; Harvard College Observatory Annual Report, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 256; Prof. Wendell, 256; Mrs. Fleming, 256; Prof. Frost, Vil 256; Observations of Perseids, Robert Dole, 279; a Remarkable Meteor, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, 279; Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of Venus, M. Hansky, 303; Determinations of Meteor Radiants, M. Eginitis, 303; Prof. A. A. Nijland, 303; Astronomischer Jahresbericht, Walter F. Wislicenus, 317; an Interesting Asteroid, Occlo [475], R. H. Frost, 330; the Minor Lndex Planet Ocllo (475), R- H. Frost, 388; Periods of the Variable Stars S Sagittee and Y Ophiuchi, M. Luizet, | 330; CSuvres complétes de Christiaan Huygens, 362; | Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars, Dr. Auwers, 388 ; Harriet Bigelow, 388; the Royal University Observ- | atory of Vienna, 388; the Orbit of y Coronz Borealis, Doberck, 424; Atlas of Emission Spectra of most | of the Elements, Drs. Hagenback and [Konen, 426; Observations of Planets, Mr. Denning, 436; Proper Motions of the Hyades, Prof. Donner, Profs. Kapteyn and W. de Sitter, 436; Variation of Latitude, Messrs. Kimura: and Nakano, 437; the Cape Observatory, 437; Discovery of a Nova, Mrs. Fleming, 465; Prof. Picker- ing, 465; Real Paths of Lyrid Meteors, Mr. Denning, | 465; Observations of Satellites, Dr. C. W. Wirtz, 465; Handbuch der geographischen Ortbestimmung fiir Geo- graphen und Forschungsreisende, Dr. Adolf Marcuse, 481; Variation of a Newly Discovered Asteroid, Dr. Palisa, 494; the Observatory of Paris, M. Loewy, 495; Nova Aquilz No. 2, Prof. Max Wolf, 494, 611; Dr. P. Guthnick, 494, 611; Prof. Hartwig, 518; Mrs. Fleming, 542; Prof. Pickering, 640; the Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., Dr. Palisa, 518; Prof. Berberich, 518; Our Stellar Universe, a Road-book to the Stars, Thomas Edward Heath, 531; Our Stellar Universe (Six Stereograms of Sun and Stars), Thomas E. Heath, 531; Ephemeris of the Variable Asteroid (167) Urda, A. Berberich, 542; the Ultra-violet Chromospheric Spectrum, H. Des- landres, 542; International Union for Cooperation in | Solar Research, 563; Bibliography of Halley, 567; a Lost Double Star, Prof. Doolittle, 567; Elements Comet 1886 viii., E. Fagerholm, 567; Death of Rev. S. J. Johnson, 588; Cosmical Evolution, J. H. Jeans, 591; Visibility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observ- atory, Mr. Lampland, 592; Mr. Lowell, 592; the Orbit of ¢ Tauri, Profs. Frost and Adams, 592; the Natal Government Observatory, 592; Incandescence of Meteors, George A. Brown, 604; A. S. H., 604; Star with a Large Proper Motion, Miss Leavitt, 640; Observations of Perseids, August, 640; see also British Association Athens, Annual of the British School at, H. R. Hall, 558 Atlantic, the Exploration of the Atmosphere above the, A. Lawrence Rotch, 244 Atlas of the British Colonies, the Oxford, 293 Atlas of Emission Spectra of most of the Elements, Drs. Hagenback and Konen, 426 Atmosphare, Beitrage zur Physik der freien, 53 Atmosphere, the Exploration of the, above the Atlantic, A. Lawrence Rotch, 244 Atmospheric Electricity observed from Balloons, George C. Simpson, 92 Atmospheric Origin of ‘‘ Shadow Bands,” T. Zona, 611 Austen (Ernest E.), the Plague of Flies, Dilophus febrilis, at Cardiff Docks, 87 Australia: Botany of Cook’s First Voyage, Illustrations of Australian Plants, Sir Joseph Banks, Pei Sasi cberal JDie, D. Solander, 221 Austria: Geologie der Umgebung von Sarajevo, Ernst Kittl, 51 Author and Printer, an Attempt to Codify the best Typo- graphical Practices of the Present Day, F. Howard Collins, 100 : Automobiles, Cause and Prevention of Dust from, W. R. Cooper, 485, 507; J. Vincent Elsden, 507 Auwers (Dr.), Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars, 388 PoEEER (Prof. W. E., F.R.S.), the Distribution of Power, 12 Azo (R. F.), Alchemical Equipment in the Eleventh Century a.p., 452 Backlund (Dr. O.), Bacon (Captain R. Boats, 306 Geodetic Survey of Spitsbergen, 641 H.), Causes of Accidents to Submarine of | Bastian (Dr. Baud (E.), Nature, December 14, 1905 Bacovesco (A.), Isostrychnine, 600 Bacteriology : Manual of Serum Diagnosis, O. Rostoski, Dire the Simplest Kind of Protoplasm, Dr. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S., 92; the Isolation of B. typhosus from Water by Means of Alum Precipitation, H. S. Wilson, 92; Possible Relationship between Bacteria and the Gum of Hakea saligna, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; Origin of Natural Immunity towards the Putrefactive Bacteria, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; Probable Bacterial Origin of the Gum of Linseed Mucilage, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; the Sterilisation of Water in the Field, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 431; Corr., 515; Oligodynamical Action of Copper Foil on Certain Intestinal Organisms, Mr. Kraemer, 462; a Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology, Dr. William Dodge Frost, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 483; Réle of Agglutination in Immunity, R. Greig Smith, 552; Acid-fast Bacilli, Drs. Besangon and Philibert, 582; Decomposition of Dilute Solutions of Alkaline Selenites or Tellurites as a Delicate Test for Living Bacterial Contamination, B. Gosio, 609 Bahama Islands, the, 154 Bahnbrecher moderner Geologie, Hoff, Dr. Otto Reich, 123 Bailey (Prof.), Variable Stars in the Clusters Messier 3 and 5, 183 Bairstow (L.), Explosions of Mixtures of Coal-gas and Air in a Closed Vessel, 311 Baker (C.), Ettles-Curties Ophthalmometer and Ophthalmic Microscope, 208 Baker (W. C.), Device for Illustrating the Superposition of Simple Harmonic Motions of Different Periods, 541 Baker (W. M.), a First Algebra, 393 Ball (W. W. Rouse), Mathematical Recreations and Essays, Karl Ernst Adolf von 36. Ballistics : Dynamical and Hydrodynamical Effects of the Modern Small-bore Bullet, Fleet-Surgeon Beadnell, 332 Ballooning: Atmospheric Electricity observed from Balloons, George C. Simpson, 92; see Aéronautics Baly (Dr. E. C. C.), the Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra of Aromatic Compounds, part i., Benzene and Certain Monosubstituted Derivatives, 239, part ii., the Phenols, 239; the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra- Violet Region, 630 Banachiewicz (Prof.), Elliptical Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1905a, 207 Banks (Sir Joseph, P.R.S.), Botany of Cook’s First Voyage, Illustrations of Australian Plants, 221 Barber (C. A.), the Parasitic Nature of the Sandal-tree, 205 Barbieri (N. A.), Protagon and the Cerebrines and the Cerebric Acid Preexisting in the Nervous Tissue, 168 Bardin (M.), Action of Sodium Sulphite upon Ethanal, 336 Barger (G.), Synthesis of Substances Allied to Epinephrine, 239 Barker (Captain D. Wilson), the Connection of Meteorology with other Sciences, 328 Barnes (A.), the Rudiments of Practical Mathematics, 393 Barratt (Dr. J. O. Wakelin), the Phagocytosis of Red Blood-cells, 600 Barrett (Prof. W. F., F.R.S.), Entoptoscope, a New Form of Ophthalmoscope, 208; Diagnosis of the Eye by Means of Pin-hole Vision, 288 Barrow (G.), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, the North Staffordshire Coalfields, 612 Barrowcliff (M.), Constituents of the Seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, 165; Con- stituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia odorata, 165 Basset (A. B., F.R.S.), Modern Algebra, 30; Fictitious Problems in Mathematics, 78; on the Class of Cubic Surfaces, 484 Charlton, F.R.S.), the Simplest Kind of Protoplasm, 92; the Origin of Life, 492 Battelli (Prof. A.), van *t Hoff’s Hypothesis of Osmotic Pressure of Solutions, 541 Battle (W. H.), the Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Complications, 122 Combination of Aluminium Chloride Carbonyl Chloride, 239 with Bauer (Dr. G.), Marine Engines and Boilers, their Design and Construction, 453 Nature, December 14, 1 ell L[ndex Vil Bauer (Dr. L. A.), Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observ- ations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30, 342 Baxandall (F. E.), Dr. H. M. Reese’s Observations of ““ Enhanced ’’ Lines in the Fe, Ti, and Ni Spectra, 134 Bayer (Dr. Fr.), Neue Fische und Reptilien aus der bohmischen Kreideformation, 454 Bayeux (Raoul), Estimation of the Red Corpuscles Human Blood made at the Summit of Mont Blanc, 288 Beadnell (Fleet-Surgeon), Dynamical and Hydrodynamical Effects of the Modern Small-bore Bullet, 332 Beadnell (H. J. L.), the Relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous Rocks in the Esna-Aswan Reach of the Nile Valley, 263; the Topography and Geology of the Fayam Province of Egypt, 535 Beavan (A. H.), Animals I Have Known, 125 Becker (George F.), Experiments on Schistosity and Slaty Cleavage, 20 Becquerel (Henri), Properties of the a Rays of Radium, in 52 Becquerel (Paul), Action of Liquid Air on the Life of the Seed, 216 Beddard (F. E., F.R.S.), Natural History in Zoological Gardens, being some Account of Vertebrated Animals, with Special Reference to. those usually seen in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in London and Similar In- stitutions, 13; the Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the Boine Snakes, 630 Bees: Queen-rearing in England and Notes on a Scent- producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker-bee, the Honey-bees of. India and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa, F. W. L. Sladen, 126 Behaviour of Lower Organisms, Contributions to the Study of the, Prof. Herbert S. Jennings, 3 Behring (Prof. E. von), the Suppression of Tuberculosis, 122; Method of Treating Tuberculosis, 581 Beilby (G. T.), Action of Actinium or Emanium Emanation on a Sensitive Screen, 90; Opening Address in Section B at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Gold and Science, 378; Experiments on the Influence of | Phase Changes in the Tenacity of Ductile Metals at the | Ordinary Temperature and at the Boiling Point of Liquid Air, 642 Beilby (H. W.), Experiments on the Influence of Phase Changes on the Tenacity of Ductile Metals at the Ordinary Temperature and at the Boiling Point of Liquid Air, 642 | Belgium and Holland, Education in, F. H. Perry-Coste, 221 Bell (Alexander), Death of, 347 Bell (G. M.), a Note-book of Experimental Mathematics, 507 Bell (H. Hesketh), Cultivation of Oranges in Dominica, 32 Bellenoux (E. S.), Calcium Nitrate in Agriculture, 47 Belloc (G.), Osmosis through Tubes of Fused Quartz, 72 Belluci (Dr. Italo), Hydrated Platinum Oxide in Reality a Platinic Acid, 109; Metallic Stannates and Plumbates derived from Similar Acids, 109 Ben Nevis Observatory and the Argentine Republic, William S. Bruce, 485 Benedicks (Dr. C.), Troostite, 573 Bengal, Asiatic Society of, 24, 120, 360, 452 Benham (Prof. W. B.), Can Birds Smell? 64; the Pre- servation of Native Plants and Animals, 534 Bennett (G. T.), the Spirit-level as a Seismoscope, 80; the Hydrometer as a Seismometer, 198 Benoit (M.), Observations of Jupiter, 43 Bentley (Richard), an Omitted Safeguard, 269 Benzene, on the Absorption Spectrum of, in the Ultra- violet Region, Dr. E. C. C. Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., 239, 630; Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 557 Beraneck (Dr.), Results obtained by Treatment in Tuber- culosis, 583 Berberich (Prof.), the Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., 518; Ephemeris of the Variable Asteroid (167) Urda, 542 Bergendahl (Lieut.), New Island Discovered, Terre de France, 461 Bergonié (J.), New Method of Protection against the Roéntgen Rays, 168 Berkeley (the Earl of), Vapour Pressures, 222 Berner Oberland, der Oeschinensee im, Max Groll, 197 Berry (Mrs. F. M. Dickinson), Physical Deterioration, 332 Berthelot (M.), New Researches on Chemical Combination, 47; Researches on the Permeability of Fused Glass Vessels to Gases at High Temperatures, 88 Bertrand (Gabriel), State of Matter in the Neighbourhood of the Critical Point, 360 Besancon (Dr.), Acid-fast Bacilli, 582 Bettoni (V.), Part Played by the Copper Salt in Deacon’s Process of Preparing Chlorine from Hydrogen Chloride, the ‘* Bubbling ’’ Methed and 277. Betts (A. G.), the “‘ Lead Voltameter,’’ 42 Bevan (P. V.), Physical Properties of Sodium Vapour, 142 Bewegungslehre, die Grundlagen der, von einem moderner Standpunkte aus, Dr. G. Jaumann, 51 Beyer (S. W.), Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, 388 Bezold (Dr. W. von), Death of, 563 Bianco (Prof. O. Zanotti), Dante’s ‘‘ Quaestio de Aqua et Terra’’ in Light of Modern Geodesy, 350; Helmert’s Formula for Gravity, 534 Bibliography of Halley, 567 Bichat (Prof.), Death of, 347 Bidet (Félix), Chemical Equilibrium of the Ammonia Gas, Isoamylamine Chlorhydrate, 336 Bigelow (Harriet), Declinations of Certain North Stars, 388 Bigelow (H. B.), Shoal-water Deposits of the Bermuda Banks, 40 | Bigourdan (M.), French Observations of the Total Solar | Eclipse, 518; Eclipse Results, 610 Bingham (Lieut.-Colonel C. T.), the Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, 290 Biochemie der Pflanzen, Prof. Escombe, 169 Biology: Contributions to the Study of the Behaviour of Lower Organisms, Prof. Herbert S. Jennings, 3; Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Frederick Ducane Godman, _ F.R.S., 49; Species and Varieties, their Origin by Mutation, Hugo de Vries, 314; Experiments on the Correlation of Sex, C. Hurst, 332; Experimental Parthenogenesis in Asterias, Yves Delage, 119; Vortrage uber Deszendenz- theorie gehalten an der Universitat zu Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. August Weismann, 200; Development of the Ascus and on Spore Formation in the Ascomycetes, J. H. Faull, 327; Senility in Gastropods, B. Smith, 38s ; Rejuvenation, E. Schultz, 385; the Origin of Life, Mr. Burke, 492; Dr. Charlton Bastian, 492; Marine Biology, Influence of the Humboldt Current on the Marine Life West of Callao, Prof. Alexander Agassiz, 17; Hydro- graphical and Biological Investigations in Norwegian Fjords, O. Nordgaard, 45; the Protist Plankton and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples, E. Jérgensen, 45; Schizo- poda Captured in the Bay of Biscay, E. W. L. Holt and W. M. Tattersall, 118; the Coral Siderastraea radians and its Post-larval Development, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185; Medusee Found in the Firth of Clyde, E. T. Browne, 191; Free-swimming Crustacea Found in the Firth of Clyde, Dr. T. Scott, 191; les Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs, Eugéne Penard, 218; les Concrétions Phosphatées de 1’Agulhas Bank (Cae of Good Hope), Dr. Leon W. Collet, avec une Description de la Glauconie qu’elles renferment, Gabriel W. Lee, 286-7; Alcyo- narians of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Prof. J. A. Thomson and James Ritchie, 287; Explor- ation of the Indian Ocean, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., 341; Four New Barnacles from the Neighbourhood of Java, Dr. N. Annandale, 360; the Millport Marine Station, S. Pace, 456; Morphology of the Madreporaria, the “ Fossula’’ of the Extinct Rugose Corals, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 515; the Percy Sladen Expedition in H.M.S. Sealark, the Chagos Archipelago, J. Stanley Gardiner, System, Polar Friedrich Czapek, F. 571 Badse Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum, 28; Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Frederick Ducane Godman, F.R.S., 49; British Bird Life, W. Percival Westell, 196; Bird Life Glimpses, E. Selous, 367; Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands, B. Hantzsch, 454; Protective vill L[ndex Nature, December 14, 1605 Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds, W. Ruskin Butterfield, 534; Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music, F. Schuyler Mathews, 602; a Rare Game Bird, John S. Sawbridge, 605; Sir Herbert Max- well, Bart., F.R.S., 630 Birth-rate, Decline of, 422 Bissell (G. W.), Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, 388 Bjerrum (Neils), Determination of Oxygen in Sea-water, 139 Blaise (E. E.), the Acid y-aldehydes, 264 Blanford (Dr. William Thomas, F.R.S.), Obituary Notice of, 202 Blondlot (Prof. R.), a Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens, 195 Blyth (B. H.), Rainfall of the Drainage Area of the Talla Reservoir, 143 Boine Snakes, the Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the, Frank E. Beddard, F.R.S., 630 Bond (Charles), | Sex-correlation and mutism, 332 Bond (C. J.), Ascending Currents in Mucous Canals and Gland Ducts, 331 Bone (W. A.), Thermal Decomposition of Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde, 141 Bonney (Prof. T. G., F.R.S.), Chalk Masses in the Cliffs near Cromer, 8; Microscopic Structure of Minerals Form- ing Serpentine, 215 Bonola (Dr. Roberto), the Theorems of Padre Gerolamo Saccheri on the Sum of the Angles of a Triangle, 387 Borrelly’s Comet (1903 iv), the Motion of the Tail of, Prof. Jaegermann, 135 Botany: a Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, J. H. Maiden, 6; Eucalypts of the Blue Mountains, N.S.W., J. H. Maiden and R. H. Cambage, 312; Botany of the Balearic Islands, J. W. White, 17; Undergrowth in Woods, P. Fliche, 23; Floral Diagram of the Cruciferz, M. Gerber, 23; Chlorophyll Assimilation in Young Shoots of Plants, Applications to the Vine, Ed. Griffon, 23; a Gooseberry Mildew Introduced from the United States into Ireland, E. S. Salmon, 40; New South Wales Linnean Society, 47, 192, 312, 528, 552; Conditions of Development of the Mycelium of Morchella, G. Fron, 47; Flower-gardens ’? made by Ants in the Crowns of Trees in Amazonia and Peru, E. Ule, 64; Regeneration in Zamia, Dr. J. M. Coulter and M. A. Chrysler, 65 ; Vegetationsbilder, 100; Linnean Society, 118, 166; an Indian Garden, Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar, Dr. Otto Stapf, 125; Interesting Taxonomic Characters of the Gymnospermous Genus Torreya, Dr. J. M. Coulter and W. J. G. Land, 133; Effect of very Low Temperature on Moist Seeds, John Adams, 143; Constituents of the Seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, F. B. Power and M. Barrowcliff, 165; Constituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia odorata, F. B. Power and M. Barrowcliff, 165; Two Photographs of a Palm, Corypha elata, J. F. Waby, 166; Seed-bearing Habit in the Lyginodendree, E. A. N. Arber, 166; Abortive Development of the Pollen in Cross-bred Sweet Peas, R. P. Gregory, 166; Biochemie der Pflanzen, Prof. Friedrich Czapek, F. Escombe, 169; Streifziige an der Riviera, Eduard Strasburger, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 171; Handbuch der Heidekultur, Dr. P. Graebner, 173; Bacteriological Study of “ Barszez,’’ M. Panek, 182; the Blackwood of Southern India, Two Species, T. E. Bourdillon, 182; Possible Relationship between Bacteria and the Gum of Hakea saligna, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; Origin of Natural Immunity towards the Putre- factive Bacteria, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; Probable Bacterial Origin of the Gum of Linseed Mucilage, Dr. R. Greig Smith, 192; Amount of Variation obtained in Cultivating a Five-rayed Form of Trifolium pratense, Miss T. Tammes, 205; the Parasitic Nature of the Sandal-tree, C. A. Barber, 205; Action of Liquid Air on the Life of the Seed, Paul Becquerel, 216; Botany of Cook’s First Voyage, Illustrations of Australian Plants, Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., and Dr. D. Solander, 221; Calcium Oxalate in the Eucalyptus Barks, Henry G. Smith, 240; Poisonous Plants of all Countries, A. B. Smith, 243; Sugar-parasites, R. C. L. Perkins, 254; Death and Disease, Deaf- Bourquelot (Em.), Boyce (Rubert, the Microsporangia of Lyginodendron, R. Kidston, F.R.S., 262; Existence in the Black Elder of a Com- pound furnishing Hydrocyanic Acid, M. Guignard, 263 ; Hydrocyanic Glucoside in the Leaves of the Elder, Em. Bourquelot and Em. Danjou, 264; Nature of the Hydro- cyanic Glucoside of the Black Elder, L. Guignard and J. Houdas, 336; the Botanical Congress at Vienna, Dr. A. B. Rendle, 272; Death of Charles Moore, 275; ‘* Brusca,’’? a Disease of the Olive, Prof. Cuboni, 276; Diseases of Citrous Plants and Fruits caused by the Fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, P. H._ Rolfs, 277; the Law of Biogenesis that ‘‘ Ontogeny Repeats Phylogeny,’’ G. H. Shull, 278; Perception in Plants, Prof. L. Kny, 278; Comparative Study of the Dominant Phanerogamic and Higher Cryptogamic Flora of Aquatic Habit, George West, 286; Supply of Water to Leaves on a Dead Branch, Prof. H. H. Dixon, 288; on the Develop- ment of Green Plants in Light in the Complete Absence of Carbon Dioxide and in an Artificial Soil Containing Amides, Jules Lefevre, 312; the Native Flora of New South Wales, R. H. Cambage, 312; Death of H. Lamb, 325; Death of Prof. L. Errera, 347; Obituary Notice of, Prof. Jean Massart, 537; Experiments with Plants, Dr. W. J. V. Osterhout, 364; Sterigmatocystis nigra and Oxalic Acid, P. G. Charpentier, 392, 480; Pure Culture of Green Plants in a Confined Atmosphere in Presence of Organic Substances, M. Molliard, 424; How to Know Wild Fruits, a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf, Maude Gridley Peterson, 428; Toxic Effect of Heat on Stems, Prof. H. H. Dixon, 435; Cause of Accumulation of Starch in Bruised Apples, G. Warcollier, 452; Trees, H. Marshall Ward, 482; Hydrocyanic Acid obtained from Gooseberry Leaves, L. Guignard, 504; Fungal Diseases on Cauliflowers, Dr. H. von Schrenck and G. G. Hedgecock, 516; Influence of the Eclipse of August 30 on Plants, Ed. Bureau, 528; Death and Obituary Notice of H. T. Tisdall, 538; New Gladiolus from Victoria Falls, 539; Vegetation of Open Bay Islands, New Zealand, Dr. L. Cockayne, 540 ; Notes on the Drawings for Sowerby’s ‘‘ English Botany,’’ F. N. A. Garry, 556; Thorns merely Xerophytic Structures, Dr. L. Cockayne, 565; Prof. G. Haberlandt’s Investigations on the Sense-organs of Plants, G. C. Nuttall, 565; Sensibility of the Chlorophyll Apparatus in Ombrophobe and Ombrophile Plants, W. Lubimenko, 576; Cytology of Apogamy and Apospory, Miss L. Digby, 623; Sam- bunigrin, Em. Bourquelot and Em. Danjou, 624; the Mechanics of the Ascent of Sap in Trees, Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S., at Royal Society, 644; Development of Amylase during the Germination of Seeds, Jean Effront, 648; Das Pflanzenreich, Supp. to October 10, ix; see also British Association Boudouard (O.), High Temperature Measurements, 293; Influence of Water Vapour on the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide by Carbon, 336 ; Boule (Marcellin), on the Origin of Eoliths, 438, 635; Machine-made Eoliths, 538 Boulenger (G. A., F.R.S., V.P.Z.S.), Opening Address in Section D at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, the Distribution of African Fresh-water Fishes, 413 Boulenger (Dr. G. S.), Amphioxus, Fishes, 103 Boulouch (R.), Sub-iodide of Phosphorus and its Part in Allotropic Transformation of Phosphorus, 336 Boulud (M.), Distribution of Sugary Substances in Blood between the Plasma and the Corpuscles, 311 Bourdillon (T. E.), the Blackwood of Southern India, Two Species, 182 Bourget (M.), Eclipse, <18 Bourne (A. A.), a First Algebra, 393 Hydrocyanic Glucoside in the Leaves of the Elder, 264; Sambunigrin, 624 Bouty (E.), Passage of Electricity through Gascous Layers of Great Thickness, 360 Bouveault (M.), Action of Sodium on the Esters of the Fatty Acids, 192 Hemichordata, Ascidians and French Observations of the Total Solar Boxall (George E.), the Evolution of the World and of Man, 150 F.R.S.), Report on the Sanitation and a Nature, ] December 14, 1905 Index ix Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, 67 Boyle Lecture at Oxford, the Cerebellum, its Relation to Spatial Orientation and Locomotion, Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 389 Brace (Prof. DeWitt Bristol), Death of, 636 Bradley-Birt (F. B.), the Story of an Indian Upland, 105 Braithwaite (Dr. R.), the British Moss-flora, 425 Branner (Prof. John C.), the Omission of Adaresses on Scientific Subjects, 534 Braune (Hjalmar), Influence of Nitrogen on Iron and Steel, Titles of 540 Brazza (M. de), Death and Obituary Notice of, 515 Breathing in Living Beings, Dr. William Stirling at Royal Institution of Great Britain, 355 Bremer (Dr. F.), Leitfaden der Physik ftir die oberen Klassen der Realanstalten, 170 Breton (M.), Transference of Infection in Ankylostomiasis through the Skin, 107 Bridge (Dr.), Hemichordata, Fishes, 103 Brightness of Jupiter’s Satellites, Prof. W. de Sitter, 207 British Archeology and Philistinism, Worthington G. Smith, 294 British Association: Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, 59; Arrangements for the Forthcoming Meeting of, 222; the South African Meeting of the British Association, 368, 403, 560, 583; Inaugural Address by Prof. G. H. Darwin, M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S., President of the Association, part i., 368; part ii., 439; Diamonds, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 593; the Distribution of Power, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F. Ascidians and Amphioxus, Section A (Mathematics and Physics)—Opening Address by Prof. A. R. Forsyth, Sc.D., LL.D., Math.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, 372; Mathematical and Physical Science at the British Association, Dr. C. H. Lees, 640; Ancient Japanese Mathematics, Prof. Harzer, 640; Instrument for Stereoscopic Surveying, H. G. Fourcade, 640; Teaching of Elementary Mechanics, Prof. Perry, 640; Kinetic and Statistical Equilibrium of Ether in Ponderable Matter at any Temperature, Lord Kelvin, 641; Geodetic Survey in South Africa, Sir David Gill, 641; Geodetic Survey of Spitsbergen, Dr. O. Backlund, 641; Star Streaming, Prof. Kapteyn, 641; Observations on the Light Fluctu- ations of Certain Southern Binary Stars, Dr. A. W. Roberts, 641 Section B (Chemistry)—Opening Address by G. T. Beilby, President of the Section, 378; Gold and Science, 379; Recent Developments in Agricultural Science, A. D. Hall, 642; Researches on the Assimil- atory Processes of Plants, Dr. Horace T. Brown, 642; the Rdle of Enzymes in Plant Economy, Dr. E. F. Armstrong, 642; Researches on the Propagation of Explosions in Gases, Prof. H. B. Dixon, 642; the Atomic Weight of Chlorine, Prof. H. B. Dixon, 642 ; Experiments on the Influence of Phase Changes on the Tenacity of Ductile Metals at the Ordinary Temperature and at the Boiling Point of Liquid Air, G. T. and H. W. Beilby, 642; Determinations of the Viscosities of Liquid Mixtures at the Temperature of their Boiling Points, Dr. A. Midlay, 642; Remark- able Thermal Chalybeate Spring at Caledon, in Cape Colony, Prof. P. D. Hahn, 642; Chemical Survey of the Soils of Cape Colony, 642; the Character of Cape Wines, Dr. H. Tietz, 642; Investigation of the Part played by Oxygen in the Dissolution of Gold by Cyanide Solutions, H. F. Julian, 642; Action of Thio- cyanates on Gold, H. A. White, 643; the Law Govern- ing the Solubility of Zinc Hydroxide in Alkalis, Dr. J. Moir, 643; Nitrogen in Pretoria Rainfall, H. Ingle, 643; Chemical Constituents of Transvaal Soils, H. Ingle, 643; Fuel Ashes as Manure in the Midland Districts of South Africa, E. H. Croghan, 643 Section C (Geology)—Opening Address by Prof. H. A. Miers, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., President of the Section, 405 Section D (Zoology)—Opening Address by G. A. _Boulenger, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., President of the Section, the Distribution of African Fresh-water Fishes, 413 Section E (Geography)—Opening Address by Rear- Admiral Sir W. J. L. Wharton, K.C.B., F.R.S., Presi- dent of the Section, 445 Section G (Engineering)—Opening Address by Colonel Sir GC. Scott Moncrieff, K.C.S.1., K.C.M.G., R.E., LL.D., President of the Section, Irrigation, 465 Section H (Anthropology)—Opening Address by A. C. Haddon, Sc.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, 471 Section I (Physiology)—Opening Address by Colonel D. Bruce, M.B., F.R.S., C.B., President of the Section, the Advance in our Knowledge of the Causation and Methods of Prevention of Stock Diseases in South Africa during the Last Ten Years, 496 Seclion K (Botany)—Opening Address by Harold Wager, '.R.S., H.M.I., President of the Section, on Some Problems of Cell Structure and Physiology, 519 Section L (Educational Science)—Opening Address by Sir Richard C. Jebb, Litt.D., D.C.L., M.P., President of the Section, University Education and National Life, 545 British Association: Physical Deterioration, being the Report of Papers and Discussions at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, 1904, on the Alleged Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an Anthropometric Survey, 152 British Bird Life, W. Percival Westell, 196 British Colonies, the Oxford Atlas of the, 293 British Fruit Growing, 297; Alfred O. Walker, 342; Spencer Pickering, F.R.S., 396 British Islands, a Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the, in the Museum of Practical Geology, F. W. Rudler, 76 British Islands, the Mythology of the, Charles Squire, 145 British Medical Association, the Meeting of the, 330, 354 British Moss-flora, the, Dr. R. Braithwaite, 425 British Museum, Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the, 28 ; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalanz in the British Museum, Sir George F. Hampson, Bart., 174 British Pharmaceutical Conference, Presidential Address at, Standardisation in Pharmacy, W. A. H. Naylor, 334 British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, Forty Years’ Researches in, J. R. Mortimer, 398 British School at Athens, the Annual of the, H. R. Hall, 558 55 British Science Guild, the, 585 British Slugs, the, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 245 “Brooks 1889’? and Lexell, the Alleged Identity of Comets, Dr. Charles L. Poor, 19 Broom (Dr. R.), the Age and Affinities of Tritylodon, 285 Brown (George A.), Incandescence of Meteors, 604 Brown (Dr. Horace T.), Researches on the Assimilatory Processes of Plants, 642 Brown (J. C.), Precise Method of Estimating the Organic Nitrogen in Potable Waters, 239 Browne (E. T.), Medusa found in the Firth of Clyde, 191 Browne (Frank Balfour), Reports on Sea Fisheries, 138 Browne (Sir James Crichton, F.R.S.), the Prevention of Senility, 306 Bruce Telescope Reference Photographs, the, Prof. Picker- ing, 89 Bruce (Dr. A.), Distribution of the Nerve Cells in the Intermedio-lateral Tract of the Dorso-lumbar Region of the Human Spinal Cord, 191 Bruce (Colonel D., M.B., F.R.S., C.B.), Opening Address in Section I at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, the Advance in our Knowledge of the Causation and Methods of Prevention of Stock Diseases in South Africa during the Last Ten Years, 496 Bruce (William S.), Ben Nevis Observatory and Argentine Republic 455 Briihl (Prof. J. W.), Desmotropic Form of Substances of the Ethyl Acetoacetate Type, 141; the Development of Spectrochemistry, Lecture at the Royal Institution, 158 Bryan (Prof. G. H., F.R.S.), Fictitious Problems in Mathematics, 102, 175; Streifziige an der Riviera, Eduard Strasburger, 171 , ‘© Bubbling ’? Method and Vapour Pressures, the, the Earl of Berkeley and E. G. J. Hartley, 222 Buchanan (J. Y., F.R.S.), Eclipse Predictions, 603 Bucherer (Dr. A. H.), Mathematische Einfuhrung in die Elektronentheorie, 170 the b x Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Buckton (George Bowdler, F.R.S.), Obituary Notice of, W. F. Kirby, 587 Building, Ferro-concrete, Ed. Noaillon, 213 Burch (Dr. George J., F.R.S.), Studien ueber elektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, Erik Harnack, 602 Burdon (E. R.), Beitrage zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, 339 Bureau (Ed.), Influence of the Eclipse of August 30 on Plants, 528 Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, Forty Years’ Researches in British and Saxon, J. R. Mortimer, 398 Burke (John Butler), on the Spontaneous Action of Radio- active Bodies on Gelatin Media, 78; on the Spontaneous Action of Radium on Gelatin Media, 294 Burke (Mr.), the Origin of Life, 492 Burnside (Prof. W.), Conditions of Reducibility of any Group of Linear Substitutions, 190; Criteria for the Finiteness of Order of a Group of Linear Substitutions, 190 : Burton (Dr. C. V.), the Hydrometer as a Seismometer, 269; Artificial Diamonds, 397 Burton (W.), Connection between Scientific Training and Industrial Development, 608 Busquet (Raymond), Précis Blanche, 427 Buss (A.), Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the Solar Spectrum, 184 Butler (A. L.), Antelopes, Heughlin’s ‘‘ Giant Eland,” 133 Butler (W.), the Swingeam Camera Stand, 89 Butterfield (W. Ruskin), Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds, 534 Butterflies: the Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, Lieut.-Colonel C. T. Bingham, 290 Butterflies, Moths and, Mary C. Dickerson, 76 — Byrom (T. H.), the Physics and Chemistry of Mining, Haut- Dr. d’Hydraulique—La_ Houille 557 Cacao, Manurial Experiments with, in Dominica, West Indies, 639 Cain (J. C.), Action of Water on Diazo-salts, 239; the Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Products from which they are Derived, Supp. to October 19, vii Calculus, Elements of the Differential and Integral, William Anthony Granville, Prof. George M. Minchin, F.R.S., 26; D. F. Campbell, 126 Calcutta : Asiatic Society of Bengal, 24, 120, 360, 452 Callendar (Prof. H. L.), a Bolometer for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation, 118 Calmette (M.), Transference of Infection in Ankylo- stomiasis through the Skin, 107 Calmette (Dr.), Specimens from Goats and Kids, 582 Calorimetry, Gas, 186 : Cambage (R. H.), Eucalypts of the Blue Mountains, N.S.W., 312; the Native Flora of New South Wales, 312 Cambridge Natural History, the, 103 Cambridge Philosophical Society, 142, 166 Camera in the Fields, the, F. C. Snell, 153 Cameroons, on a New Species of Guenon from the, Dr. Henry O. Forbes, 630 Camichel (C.), Fluorescence, 336 Campbell (D. F.), the Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, 126 Campbell (Prof. E. D.), Copper, Cobalt, and Nickel in American Pig-irons, 573 Campbell (M. R.), the Coal and Lignites of the United States, Preliminary Report, 493-4 Campbell (N. R.), a Null Method of Measuring Small Tonisation, 142 Canada, Glacial Studies in, Dr. William H. Sherzer, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 310 “Canals ’’? on Mars in 1903, Double, Mr. Lowell, 89; see Astronomy ; Cancer: the so-called ‘‘ Cancer Bodies ”’ (Ruffer’s Bodies) of Malignant Tumours, C. Walker, 86; the Immunisa- tion of Mice against Cancer, Dr. Clowes, 86; Re- semblances between ‘‘ Plimmer’s Bodies ”’ of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Repro- ductive Cells of Animals, Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore and C. E. Walker, 164; the Present Position of the Cancer Problem, Prof. R. T. | Death of, 537; Hewlett, 295; X-Rays, their Employment in Cancer and other Diseases, Richard J. Cowen, 395 Cannon (Miss), a Probable Nova in Ophiuchus, 158 Cape Colony, an Introduction to the Geology of, A. W. Rogers, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 35 Cape Observatory, the, 437 Carbutt (Sir Edward H.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 585 Carmichael (N. R.), Physical Experiments, 126 Carpenter (Dr. H. C. H.), High-speed Tool Steels under Varying Thermal Treatment, 69 Carson (C.), Interaction of Hydrogen Sulphide and Sulphur Dioxide, 71 Cash (Dr. J. Theodore, F.R.S.), Pharmacology of Inda- conitine and Bikhaconitine, 551 Castle (Frank), Machine Construction and Drawing, 533 Caunt (G. W.), Geometrical Conies, 393 Cause and Prevention of Dust from Automobiles, W. R. Cooper, 485, 507; J. Vincent Elsden, 507 Celestial Phenomena, Ancient Drawings Lehmann, 19 Cell Structure and Physiology, on some Problems of, Open- ing Address in Section K at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Harold Wager, F.R.S., H.M.1., 519 Celtic Pony, the, Dr. Francis H. A. Marshall, 558 Celts, the Literature of the, its History and Romance, Magnus Maclean, 145 Ceraski (Prof.), a Proposed New Method for Determining the Solar Radiation, 437 Cerebellum, the, its Relation to Spatial Orientation and Locomotion, Boyle Lecture at Oxford, Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 389 Chablay (E.), Action of Metal Ammoniums on the Halogen Derivatives of Methane, 72; Action of the Metal Ammoniums on Alcohols, 96; Action of the Metal Ammoniums on the Polyatomic Alcohols, 119 Chagos Archipelago, the, the Percy Sladen Expedition in H.M.S. Sealark, J. Stanley Gardiner, 571 Chalk Masses in the Cliffs near Cromer, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., 8 Challenger Society, 118, 263 : Chamberlin (Thomas C.), Geology—Processes and their Results, 289 Chanoz (M.), the Effect of Membranes in Liquid Chains, 312; Experimental Researches on the Effect of Mem- branes in Liquid Chains, 336 Chapman (D. L.), Synthesis of Formaldehyde, 141 Chapman (F.), the Older Tertiary Foraminiferal Rocks on the West Coast of Santo, New Hebrides, 552 Chapman (H. G.), the Physiology of the Pancreas, 47 Characters, the Inheritance of Acquired, W. Woods Smyth, of, Dr. Ws: 152 Charcot (Dr. J.), Antarctic Expedition, 203 Charpentier (P. G.), Sterigmatocystis nigra and Oxalic Acid, 392, 480 Cheese, Ripening is due to Moulds Camembert Type of Soft, 229 and Bacteria in Chelifers and House-flies, Prof. Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S., 629 Chemistry: Practical Methods of Electrochemistry, F. Mollwo Perkin, 5; the Critical Temperature and Pressure of Living Substances, Dr. F. J. Allen, 7; Determination of Neon and Helium in Atmospheric Air, Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., 21; Chemical Society, 23, 71, 141, 165, 238; Preparation of Terpenes and Related Sub- stances, W. H. Perkin, jun., and S. S. Pickles and K. Matsubara. 23; Estimation of Potassium Permanganate in Presence of Potassium Persulphate, J. A. N. Friend, 23; a Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners, Dr. A. F. Holleman, 28; a Text-book of Physiological Chemistry, Charles E. Simon, 29; New Researches on Chemical Combination, M. Berthelot, 47; Preparation of Anhydrous Chlorides of the Metals of the Rare Earths, Camille Matignon, 47; Czsium Amide, E. Rengade, 47; New Reagent for Potassium, Eugenio Pinerua Alvarez, 47; Calcium Nitrate in Agriculture, , E. S. Bellenoux, 47; a Combination of Methzemoglobin containing Fluorine, H. Ville and E. Derrien, 47; Camphoryl-pseudo-semicarbazide, M. ©. Forster and H. E. Fierz, 71; a Condensation Product of Mandelo- Nature, - ae December 4, 1905 L; ndex Xi nitrile, F. R. Japp and J. Knox, 71; Atomic Weight of | 166; Gases Liberated on Pulverising Monazite, R. J. Nitrogen, R. W. Gray, 71; Philippe A. Guye, 119; the | Moss, 167; Expansion and Density of some Gases at Romance of the Nitrogen Atom, Rev. A. Irving, 151; High Temperatures, the Application to the Determination Dr. E. P. Perman, 176; Action of Compounds of Nitrogen, MM. Moissan and Lebeau, 206; Reactions between Fluorine and the Compounds of Nitrogen and Oxygen, MM. Moissan and Lebeau, 183; Methylation of Gallotannic Acid, O. Rosenheim, lie Interaction of Hydrogen Sulphide and Sulphur Dioxide, W. R. Lang and (om Carson, 71; Formula of Cyano- maclurin, A. G. Perkin, 71; Increase of the Rotatory Power of Fatty Molecules in Passing to the State of Cyclic Compounds, A. Haller and M. Desfontaines, 71; New Synthesis of Oxalic Acid, H. Moissan, 71; Action of Potassammonium upon Barium Bromide, A. Joannis, 71; Electrolytic Reduction of the Nitrocinnamic Acids, C. Marie, 71; Action of Carbon Monoxide upon Silver Oxide, Henri Dejust, 71; Decomposition of Silver Oxide at High Temperatures, G. bE Lewis, 350; Strontium Ammonium, M. Roederer, 71-2; a New Osmium Com- pound, Pinerta Alvarez, 72 ; Acetol a Pseudo-acid, André Kling, 72; Action of Metal Ammoniums on the Halogen Derivatives of Methane, E. Chablay, 72; Action of the Metal Ammoniums on Alcohols, E. Chablay, 96; Action of the Metal Ammoniums on the Polyatomic Alcohols, E. Chablay, 119; Relation of Ammonium to the Alkali Metals, A. E. H. Tutton, 165-6; on the Menthones and Menthols obtained by the Reduction of Pulegone by the Catalytic Action of Reduced Nickel, A. Haller and C. Martine, 95; Potato Starch, L. Maquenne and Eug. Roux, 95; Basic Magnesium Carbonates from the San- torin Eruption of 1866, A. Lacroix, 95; a Reaction of Rhodium, Pinerda Alvarez, 96; Hydrated Platinum Oxide in Reality a Platinic Acid, Dr. Italo Bellucci, 109 ; Metallic Stannates and Plumbates derived from Similar Acids, Dr. Italo Bellucci and N. Parravano, 109; Efficiency of Method of Synthesising Nitric Acid from the Gases of the Atmosphere Increased by Working with Air under a very Great Pressure, E. Rossi, 109; New Method of Preparing Mesoxalic Esters, Ch. Schmitt, 119; Researches on Animal Lactase, Ch. Porcher, 119 ; Basicity of Pyranic Oxygen, R. Fosse and L. Lesage, 119; Determination of Oxygen in Sea-water, Neils Bjerrum, 139; Action of Oxygen upon Casium-ammonium, E: Rengade, Ethyl Acetoacetate Type, J. W. Briihl and H. Schréder, 141; Chlorination of 2-Methylpyridine, W. J. Sell, 141; Chemical Structure and Physical Properties Associated with the Theory of Colour, W. N. Hartley, 141; Thermal Decomposition of Formaldehy de and Acetaldehyde, W. A. Bone and H. L. Smith, 141; Synthesis of Formaldehyde, D. L. Chapman and A. Holt, jun., 141; Constitution of Nitric Acid and its Hydrates, W. Noel Hartley, 142; Physical Properties of Sodium Vapour, P. V. Bevan, 142; Application to Electrolytes of the Hydrate Theory of Solutions, Dr. T. Martin Lowry, 142; Cyanocampho- acetic, Cyanocampho-a-propionic, Cyanocampho-a-butyric Acids and their Derivatives, A. Haller and A. Couré- ménos, 143; Methylnataleemodine and Nataloemodine, E. Léger, 143; Acidity of some Ethyl Alcohols of Commerce, René Duchemin and Jacques Dourlen, 143 ; Examination of Phosphorus Sulphide for the Presence of Free White Phosphorus, Léo Vignon, 143; Physical Properties of Propane, Paul Lebeau, 143; Methyl-acetyl-carbinol, André Kling, 143; the Development of Spectrochemistry, Prof. J. W. Briihl at the Royal Institution, 158; Atomic Weight of Chlorine, Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., and E. C. Edgar, 165; Action of Chlorine on Boiling Toluene, J. B. Cohen, H. M. Dawson, and P. F. Crosland, 239; Constituents of the Seeds of Hydnocartus W ightiana and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, F. B. Power and M. Barrowcliff, 165 ; Constituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia odorata, F. B. Power and M. Barroweliff, 165; New Diamines, G. T. Morgan and W. O. Wootton, 166 ; Action of Magnesium Methyl Iodide on Pinenenitroso- chloride, W. A. Tilden and J. A. Stokes, 166; Estimation of Hydrogen Peroxide in the Presence of Potassium Per- sulphate, J. A. N. Friend, 166; Replacement of Hydroxyl by Bromine, W. H. Perkin, jun., and J. L. Simonsen, 166 ; Influence of Phosphates on the Fermentation of Glucose by Yeast Juice, A. Harden and W. J. Young, 168; Desmotropic Form of Substances of the Fluorine on some | of their Molecular Weights, Louis Perrot, 168; Protagon Cerebric Acid Preexisting in Barbieri, 168; Constituents E. Knecht, 167; Chloride Adrien Jacquerod and F. and the Cerebrines and the the Nervous Tissue, N. A. of Manchester Soot, Prof. and Bromide of Thorium, H. Moissan and M. Martinsen, 167; Biochemie der Pflanzen, Prof. Friedrich Czapek, F. Escombe, 169; Chitin in the Carapace of Pterygotus osiliensis, Dr. Otto Rosenheim, 189; New Method of Preparing Esters, Dr. W. W. Taylor, 191; Mode of Formation of Acetol by the Direct Oxidation of Acetone, M. Pastureau, 192; Action of Sodium on the Esters of the Fatty Acids, M. Bouveault and R. Locquin, 192; Aromatic Substitution Derivatives of Ethylene Oxide, MM. Fourneau and Tiffeneau, 192; Sparteine and its Reaction with Methyl lodide, Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur, 192; Spar- teine the Stereoisomerism of the Two Iodomethylates, Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur, 216; Action of Ethyl Iodide on Sparteine, Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur, 264; Determination of Sulphuric Acid in Soils, J. Howard Graham, 205; an Intensely Radio-active Sub- stance, Actinium X, T. Godlewski, 206; Isomorphous Mixtures of the Tartrates of Thallium and Potassium, Jean Herbette, 216; Alkyl Thujones and the Combin- ations of Thujone with Aromatic Aldehydes, A. Haller, 216; Influence of Concentration on the Magnetic Proper- ties of Solutions of Cobalt, P. Vaillant, 216; Chemical Properties of the Anhydrous Chloride of Neodymium, Camille Matignon, 216; Death of Prof. P. T. Cleve, 226; Synthesis by Means of the Silent Electric Discharge, J. N. Collie, 238; Combinations of Aluminium Chloride with Carbonyl Chloride, E. Baud, 239; Condensation of Chloral with Aromatic Hydrocarbons under the Influence of Aluminium Chloride, Adolphe Dinesmann, 312; Different States of Oxidation of Aluminium Powder, M. Kohn-Abrest, 360; the Aluminium Steels, Léon Guillet, 264; Steels containing Tin, Titanium, and Cobalt, Léon Guillet, 239; Reduction of Aldoximes, A. Mailhe, 239; Bromination of Paraldehyde, P. Freundler, 239; a Bi- valent Phytosterine Alcohol, T. Klobb, 239; Combustion of Sulphur in the Calorimetric Bomb, H. Giran, 230; Hydrolysis of very Concentrated Solutions of Ferric Sulphate, A. Recoura, 239; Synthesis of Substances Allied to Epinephrine, G. Barger and H. A. D. Jowett, 239; Action. of Water on Diazo-salts, J. C. Cain and G. M. Norman, 239; Precise Method of Estimating the Organic” Nitrogen in Potable Waters, J. C. Brown, 239; Bromine in Solutions of Potassium Bromide, F. P. Worley, 230; Tetramethylammonium Hydroxide, J. Walker and J. Johnston, 239; Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra, Benzene, Dr. E. C. C. Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., 239: Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra, the Phenols, Dr. E. C. C. Baly and E. K. Ewbank, 239; Absorption Spec- trum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region, Prof. W. N. Hartley, E-R°S-, 57; Dr. E. ©. ©. Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., 630; Calcium Oxalate in the Eucalyptus Barks, Henry G. Smith, 240; Camphoacetic and B-Camphopropionic Acids, A. Haller, 263; Existence in the Black Elder of a Compound Furnishing Hydro- cyanic Acid, M. Guignard, 263; Hydrocyanic Glucoside in the Leaves of the Elder, Em. Bourquelot and Em. Danjou, 264; Nature of the Hydrocyanic Glucoside of the Black Elder, L. Guignard and J. Houdas, 336; Hydrocyanic Acid obtained from Gooseberry Leaves, L. Guignard, 504; Synthesis of the Three Tertiary Dimethyl- cyclohexanols and of the Hydrocarbons Connected with them, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 263; New Method of Synthesis of the Monoatomic and Polyatomic Alcohols, V. Grignard, 264; Combinations of Ferrocyanides and Sulphuric Acid, Paul Chrétien, 264; the Acid -y-Alde- hydes, E. E. Blaise and A. Courtot, 264; Densities of Carbonic Anhydride, Ammonia and Nitrous Oxide, Philippe A. Guye and Alexandre Pintza, 264; Part Played by the Copper Salt in Deacon’s Process of Pre- paring Chlorine from Hydrogen Chloride, M. G. Levi and V. Bettoni, 277; Auto-catalytic Decomposition of Silver Oxide under the Influence of Heat, Gilbert N. Lewis, 277; the Society of Chemical Industry, 279; x Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Hydrogenation of the Ketoximes, a Synthesis of New Amines, A. Mailhe, 288; New Preparation of Rubidium and Czsium, L. Hackspill, 288; Molecular Transform- ations of Hydrated Ferric Sulphate, A. Recoura, 288; the Gradual Dissociation of Mellitic Acid, A. Quartaroli, 302; Explosions of Mixtures of Coal-gas and Air in a Closed Vessel, L. Bairstow and A. D. Alexander, 311; Action of Ethylamine and Jsobutylamine on Czesium, E. Rengade, der Naturwissenschalftliche Unterricht bei uns und im Auslande, Dr. Karl T. Fischer, 333; Wie sind die physikalischen Schilertibungen praktisch zu gestalten? Oberlehrer Hahn, 333; Influence of Water Vapour on the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide by Carbon, O. Boudouard, 336; Sub-iodide of Phosphorus and its Part in Allotropic Transformation of Phosphorus, R. Boulouch, 336; Action of Sodium Sulphite upon Ethanal, MM. Seyewetz and Bardin, 336; Gentiine, George Tanret, 336; Chemical Equilibrium of the System: Ammonia Gas, Isoamylamine Chlorhydrate, Félix Bidet, 330; Catalytic Decomposition of Monochlor-derivatives of Methane Hydrocarbons in Contact with Anhydrous Metallic Chlorides, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 336; Duty-free Alcohol, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, 344; Connec- tion between Atomic Weight of a Substance and the Amount of Secondary Radiation which it Emits when Subjected to the B and y Rays of Radium, Prof. A. Righi, 350; Researches on Explosives, Sir Andrew Noble, Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S., 358; a Secondary Reaction of the Halogen Organo-magnesium Compounds, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 359; Conversations on Chem- istry, W. Ostwald, 364; Thermochemistry of the Hydr- azones, Ph. Landrieu, 392; Sterigmatocystis nigra and Oxalic Acid, P. G. Charpentier, 392, 480; Gases Pro- duced by Actinium, A. Debierne, 424; Production of Heavy Liquids with the Alkaline Iodo-mercurates, M. Duboin, 424; Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, Drs. Hagenback and Konen, 426; Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Albumin, Emil Abder- halden, 437; Sal-ammoniac, a Study in Primitive Chem- istry, H. E. Stapleton, 452; Cause of Accumulation of Starch in Bruised Apples, G. Warcollier, 452; die Bedeut- ung des Experimentes fiir den Unterricht in der Chemie, Dr. Max Wehner, 455; a New Formation of Diamond, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 527; Physical Units of Albuminoid Material and on the Part Played by Lime in its Coagulation, G. Malfitano, 528; the Calcium Carbide Industry in France, 541; Apparatus for Generation and Automatic Compression of Oxygen, Prof. d’Arsonval, 541; van ’t Hoff’s Hypothesis of Osmotic Pressure of Solutions, Prof. A. Battelli and A. Stefanini, 541; the Isolation of erbium, G. Urbain, 552; Theoretical Chemistry, Prof. Walther Nernst, 555; a Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic, Horace L. Wells, 556; the Physics and Chemistry of Mining, T. H. Byrom, 557; a System- atic Course of Practical Organic Chemistry, Lionel Guy Radcliffe and Frank Sturdy Sinnatt, 579; Isostrychnine, A. Bacovesco, 600; Index Phytochemicus, Drs. Is a Ritsema and J. Sack, 603; Derivatives of Cyclohexane, P. Freundler and E. Damond, 624; Sambunigrin, Em. Bourquelot and Em. Danjou, 624; Report of the Prin- cipal Chemist upon the Work of the Government Labor- atory for the Year Ending March 31, 1903, 634; the Absolute Desiccation of Vegetable Products, L. Maquenne, 648 ; Halogen Compounds of Dinaphthopyryl with Metals and Metalloids, R. Fosse and L. Lesage, 648; Develop- ment of Amylase during the Germination of Seeds, Jean Effront, 648: the Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Inter- mediate Products from which they are Derived, J. C. Cain and J. F. Thorpe, Walter M. Gardner, Supp. to October 19, vii Chester (Rear-Admiral), Standard Time in Various Coun- tries, 256 Chick (Dr. Harriette), a Study of the Process of Nitrifi- cation with Reference to the Purification of Sewage, 117 Chrétien (Paul), Combinations of Ferrocyanides and Sulphuric Acid, 264 Christophers (Lieut.), Parasites of Indian Field Rat, s1s Chromospheric Spectrum, the Ultra-violet, H. Deslandres, Eien 542 Chronology : Utilisation of the Telephone System for the Exact Transmission of Time, M. Guyou, 134; Intro- duction of a Standard Time on the Railways of India, 181; New Sundial that Tells Standard Time, Prof. Albert Crehore, Sir W. H. Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S., 209 Chrysler (M. A.), Regeneration in Zamia, 65 Circumzenithal Apparatus, MM. Nu&l and Fri¢, 230 Citizen, the, a Study of the Individual and the Govern- ment, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, 578 Clarke (C. B., F.R.S.), Fictitious Problems matics, 102 Clarke (H. Herbert), Report on the Sanitation and Anti- malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, 67 Clay (Charles M.), Examples in Algebra, 393 Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, S. W. Beyer, G. W. Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston, 88 Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, H. Ries and H. B. Kimmel, 388 Clayton (John), the Cowthorpe Oak, 43 Cleavage, Experiments on Schistosity and Slaty, George F. Becker, 20; Alfred Harker, 152 Cleavage of Slates, the, Rev. O. Fisher, 55 Cleve (Prof. P. T.), Death of, 226 Cliffs near Cromer, Chalk Masses in the, Bonney, F.R.S., 8 Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases, E. M. Corner, 122 Clock and Chronometer by Thomas Mudge, A. Mallock, EAR YS-.91 Clowes (Dr.), the Immunisation of Mice against Cancer, 86 Coal: Digest of the Evidence given before the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies (1901-1905), 395 Coalfields, the North Staffordshire, Memoirs of the Geo- logical Survey of England and Wales, W. Gibson, G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, and J. Ward, H. W. Hughes, 612 Coal-tar Colour Industry, Organic Preparations and the, J. ©.’ Cain and J. EF. Thorpe, “Walter M-~ (Gardner, Supp. to October 19, vii Cockayne (Dr. L.), Vegetation of Open Bay Islands, New Zealand, 540; Thorns merely Xerophytic Structures, 565 Cockerell (Prof. T. D. A.),, the British Slugs, 245; the Spread of Injurious Insects, 397 Cogshall (Prof. W. A.), Double Star Observations, 135 Cohen (J. B.), Action of Chlorine on Boiling Toluene, 239 Colajanni (Prof. N.), Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures, 533 Cole (Prof. Grenville A. J.), Growth of Crystals in the Contact-zone of Granite and Amphibolite, 23; an Intro- duction to the Geology of Cape Colony, 35; Glacial Studies in Canada, Dr. William H. Sherzer, 310; Ex- plorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, Raphael Pumpelly, R. W. Pumpelly, Prof. W. M. Davis, and Ellsworth Hunt- ington, 366 College of Applied Science, the Proposed, 250 Collet (Dr. Leon W.), les Concrétions phosphatées de V’Agulhas Bank (Cape of Good Hope), 286-7 Collie (Prof. J. N., F.R.S.), Synthesis by Means of the Silent Electric Discharge, 238; the Ultra-violet Absorp- tion Spectra of Aromatic Compounds, part i., Benzene and Certain Monosubstituted Derivatives, 239; the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region, 630 Collier (Dr.), the Treatment of Sleeplessness, 331 Collier (P.), Riding and Driving, 197 Collieries, Outbursts of Gas and Coal at the Morrissey, British Columbia, James Ashworth, 131 ; Collinge (Walter E.), Report on the Injurious Insects and other Animals observed in the Midland Counties during 1904, 340 Collins (F. Howard), Author and Printer, an Attempt to Codify the Best Typographical Practices of the Present Day, 100 Coloration in Polistes, Wilhelmine M. Enteman, 19 Coloration, Protective, of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds, W. Ruskin Butterfield, 534 Colour, Luminosity and, Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, 222 Colour Phenomena, an Introduction to the Study of, Joseph W. Lovibond, 603 Colquhoun (Dr. W.), New Form of Bolometer for Physio- in Mathe- Protapeemer | Nature a) wats December 14, 1905] Index Xiil logical Investigations, 167; Action of Radium Bromide | Cromer, Chall Masses in the Cliffs near, Prof. T. G. on the Electromotive Phenomena of the Eyeball of the Frog, 287 Comets: the Alleged Identity of Comets ‘‘ Brooks 1889 ”’ and Lexell, Dr. Charles L. Poor, 19; Ephemeris for Comet 1905a, M. Ebell, 43; Orbit of, Miss Lamson, 66; Elliptical Elements for the Orbit of Comet 19054, Prof. Banachiewicz, 207; A. Wedermayer, 207; Comets 1905 ii (1904e) and 1904 i, Dr. Strémgren, 43; Herr Nijland and Herr van d. Bilt, 43; Comet 1904 ii (1904 d), M. Ebell, 89; the Motion of the Tail of Borrelly’s Comet (1903 iv), Prof. Jaegermann, Elements of Comet 1886 viii, E. Fagerholm, 567 Cencimi, Mangimi, Sementi, &c., Commercie, frodi, e repressione delle frodi, Specialmente in Italia, Italo Giglioli, 324 Conference at 510, 562 1353 Innsbriick, International Meteorological, Congresses : an Optical Congress and Exhibition, 112; the Fourth International Ornithological Congress, 177; the Botanical Congress at Vienna, Dr. A. B. Rendle, 272; Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, 306; First International Congress of Anatomists, 400; the International Congress on Tuberculosis, 581; Inter- national Congress on Radiology and Ionisation, 611 Consolidation of the Earth, Current Theories of the, Dr. D. J. J. See, 30; Rev. A. Irving, 79 Constant of Aberration, the, Prof. Doolittle, 592 Consterdine (A.), the Rudiments of Practical Mathematics, 39 Be aremoulins (G.), Apparatus for Measuring X-Rays, 264 eaway (R. S.), the “ Aryanism "’ of the Minoans, 560 Cooke (W. Ernest), Islands for Weather Forecasting Pur- poses, 343 Cooper (W. R.), Cause and Automobiles, 485, 507 Cooper-Key (Major A.), a Primer on Explosives, 507 Copper Foil, Oligodynamical Action of, on Certain Intes- tinal Organisms, Mr. Kraemer, 462 Corals: the Coral Siderastraea radians and its Post-larval Development, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185 Cerner (E. M.), Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases, 122; the Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Com- plications, 122 Corona, Dutch Observations of the, Prof. Julius, 303 y Coron Borealis, the Orbit of, Mr. Doberck, 424 Coerstorphine (Dr. G. S.), the Large Diamond found in the Premier Mine, Transvaal, 41; the Geology of South Africa, 346 Cosentini (Frangois), la Sociologie génétique, 482 Cosmic Dust of Solar Origin, Prof. Schaeberle, 424 Cesmical Evolution, J. H. Jeans, 591 Cothen, the Naumann Festival at, Prof. Alfred Newton, IPMS 216) Cotton (A.), Magnetic Double Refraction, New Active Liquids, 392 Coulter (Dr. J. M.), Regeneration in Zamia, 65; Interest- ing Taxonomic Characters of the Gymnospermous Genus Torreya, 133 : Couréménos (A.), Cyanocampho-acetic, Cyanocampho-a- proprionic, Cyanocampho-a-butyric Acids and __ their Derivatives, 143 Courtot (A.), the Acid y-Aldehydes, 264 Cowen (Richard J.), X-Rays, their Employment in Cancer and other Diseases, 395 Cowper-Coles (Sherard), Copper, 359 Cowthorpe Oak, the 43, 182; John Clayton, 43 Cracknell (A. G.), a Preparatory Course in Geometry, 150 Craniology : History of a White Rhinoceros Skull, Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, 127; Dr. C. Stewart, F.R.S., Prevention of Dust from Rapid Electro-deposition of 175 Crehore (Prof. Albert), New Sundial that Tells Standard Time, 209 Creighton (Dr. Charles), Plague in India, 86 Critical Temperature and Pressure of Living Substances, the, Dr. F. J. Allen, 7 Croghan (E. H.), Fuel Ashes as Manure in the Midland Districts of South Africa, 643 Bonney, F.R.S., 8 Cromlech, an Inverted Slab in a, Edward Greenly, 152 Crommelin (Mr.), Provisional Elements for Jupiter’s Sixth Satellite, 66 Crookes (Sir William, F.R.S.), Action of Light and of Radium upon Glass, 90; a New Formation of Diamond, 527; Diamonds, 593 Crosland (P. F.), Action of Chlorine on Boiling Toluene, 239 Crossley (Mr.), Large Gas-engines, 213 Crowell (H. C.), Water Jet Method of applying the Power carried by High-pressure Water, the Doble Needle Regulating Nozzle, 42 Crystallography : Mechanical Properties of Iron in Isolated Crystals, F. Osmond and Ch. Frémont, 392; the Crystallisation of Iron and Steel, an Introduction to the Study of Metallography, Dr. J. W. Mellor, A. McWilliam, 532 Cubic and Quartie Equations, Graphical Solution of, H. Ivah Thomsen, 295 Cubic Surfaces, on the Class of, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., 484 Cuboni (Prof.), “* Brusca’? a Disease of the Olive, 276 Cunningham (Lieut.-Colonel A.), High Pellian Factor- isation, 95 Cunningham (Prof. D. J.), Cape Hunting Dogs in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of Ireland, 287 Currelly (Mr.), Excavations at Palatkastro, 559 Currents at the Entrance of the Bay of Fundy and Southern Nova Scotia, Report on the, for the Year 1904, Bell Dawson, 205 Cuthbertson (C.), Refractive Index of Gaseous 480 Cynipides d’Europe et d’Algérie, Monographie des, l’Abbé J. J. Kieffer, 455 Czaki (Prof. Friedrich), Biochemie der Pflanzen, 169 Fluorine, d. Bilt (J. van), Comet Jupiter’s Satellites, 567 Dakin (H. D.), Physiological Activity of Substances In- directly Related to Adrenalin, 551; Synthesis of a Sub- stance Allied to Adrenalin, 575 Dale (Elizabeth), Investigations on Intumescences, Observations on Nuclear Divisions in Tissues, 22 Dall (W. H.), Relation of the Miocene of Maryland to that of other Regions and to the Recent Fauna, 162 Damond (E.), Derivatives of Cyclohexane, 624 Dampfturbinen, Bau der, Prof. A. Musil, 219 Danjou (Em.), Hydrocyanic Glucoside in the Leaves of the Elder, 264; Sambunigrin, 624 1904 I, 43; Observations of with Pathological Dardnyi (Dr. Ignatius), the State and Agriculture in Hungary, 291 ; Darboux (Gaston), Etude sur le Developpement des Méthodes géometriques, 313 Darby (J. H.), Recent Developments in the Thiel Process of Steel Manufacture, 68 Dark Hemisphere of Venus, Visibility of the, M. Hansky, Bertrand- 303 Darwin (Prof. G. H., M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S.), In- augural Address at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, part i., 368; part ii., 439 Das (Sarat Chandra), a Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms, Supp. to October 109, iii Davey (Henry), Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, 213 Davis (F.), the Sleep of Fishes, 133 Davis (Prof. W. M.), Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, 366 Davis (Messrs. and Son), a New Slide Rule, 45, 102 Dawkins (Mr.), Excavations at Palatkastro, 559; Notes from Karpathos, 560 Dawson (Bell), Report on the Currents at the Entrance of the Bay of Fundy and Southern Nova Scotia for the Year 1904, 205 Dawson (H. M.), Action of Chlorine on Boiling Toluene, 239 Bios (Avenine L.), the Isomorphism and Thermal Proper- ties of the Felspars, 258 Day (David T.), Mineral Report for 1903, 540 Resources of United States, xiv Lndex [ Nature, December 14, 1905 Dean (Dr. George), Inquiry into the Nature of the Sub- stance in Serum which Influences Phagocytosis, 551 Debierne (A.), Gases Produced by Actinium, 424 Dejust (Henri), Action of Carbon Monoxide upon Silver Oxide, 71 ‘ Delage (Yves), Experimental Parthenogenesis in Asterias, II Deion (Prof. Georges), Mécanisme et Mouvements, Supp. to October 19, v Deniker (Dr.), les Six Races composant actuelle de l’Europe, 464 Denis (Prof.), Results obtained by Treatment in Tubercu- losis, 583 Denning (Dr. A. D.), a Simple Method of Determining the Radiation Constant, 118 Denning (W. F.), Winter Fireballs in 1905, 66; Determin- ation of Meteor Radiants, 158; Telescopic Work for Observers of Planets, 208; the Planet Uranus, 244; the Planet Mars, 388; Observations of Planets, 436; Real Paths of Lyrid Meteors, 465 ‘Derbyshire, Highways and Byways in, J. B. Firth, 100 Derrien (E.), a Combination of Methzemoglobin containing Fluorine, 47 Desfontaines (M.), Increase of the Rotatory Power of Fatty Molecules in Passing to the State of Cyclic Compounds, 71 Deskartes, die Schneider, 292 Deslandres (H.), the Ultra-violet Chromospheric Spectrum, Education des la Population Stellung Gassendis zu, Dr. Hermann , 2 Desandies (M.), Further Results obtained by French Eclipse Expedition, 567 ‘Deszendenztheorie, _Vortrage iiber, gehalten an der Universitat zu Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. August Weismann, 200 Determination of Meteor Radiants, M. Eginitis, 303; Prof. Nijland, 303 Dewar (Sir James), on the Thermo-electric Junction as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures, and on ‘Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters, Papers read at Royal Society, 352 ‘Dexter (Dr. E. G.), Weather Influences: an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Conditions, 147 Diamond, a New Formation of, INBIRESis5) Ge Diamonds, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 593 Diamonds, Artificial, Dr. C. V. Burton, 397 Dickerson (Mary C.), Moths and Butterflies, 76 Differential and Integral Calculus, Elements of the, William Anthony Granville, Prof. George M. Minchin, [ele Sha5 toe IO 1A Campbell, 126 Digby (Miss L.), Cytology of Apogamy and Apospory, 623 Dillner (G.), Magnetic and Electric Properties of Sheet Steel and Steel Castings, 69 ‘Dinesmann (Adolphe), Condensation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons under the Aluminium Chloride, 312 Diplodocus Skeleton, the New, 82 Diptera or Two-winged Flies, American, J. M. Aldrich, 317 ‘Diseases: Diseases of Forest Trees, 163; the Treatment of Diseases of the Eye, Dr. Victor Hanke, 292; the Advance in our Knowledge of the Causation and Methods of Prevention of Stock Diseases in South Africa during the Last Ten Years, Opening Address in Section I at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Colonel D. Bruce, M.B., F.R.S., C.B., 496 Dixon (Prof. H. B., F.R.S.), Atomic Weight of Chlorine, 165; Researches on the Propagation of Explosions in Gases, 642; the Atomic Weight of Chlorine, 642 Dixon (Prof. H. H.), Supply of Water to Leaves on a Dead Branch, 288; Toxic Effect of Heat on Stems, 435 Doberck (Mr.), the Orbit of y Coron Borealis, 424 ; Doflein (Dr. F.), Ants, the Habits of @. smaragdina, 422 Dole (Robert), Observations of Perseids, 279 Donitch (M. N.), Interpretation of Spectroheliograph Pic- tures, 495 Donner (Prof.), Proper Motions of the Hyades, 436 Doolittle (Prof.), a Lost Double Star, 567; the Constant of Aberration, 592 Sir William Crookes, Chloral with Influence of a Catalogue of North Double Star Observations, J. A. Miller and Prof. W. A. Cogshall, 135 Double Star, a Lost, Prof. Doolittle, 567 Double Stars, Catalogue of New, Prof. Hussey, 90 Douglas (J. W.), the Plague of Flies, Dilophus febrilis, at Cardiff Docks, 87 Douglas (J. W.), Death of, 461 Dourlen (Jacques), Acidity of some Ethyl Alcohols of Com- merce, 143 Downing (Dr. A. M. W., F.R.S.), Perturbation of the Bielid Meteors, 189; Eclipse Predictions, 629 Drawing, Machine Construction and, Frank Castle, 533 Drawings of Celestial Phenomena, Ancient, Dr. Lehmann, 19 Drawings for Sowerby’s ‘‘ English Botany,’’ Notes on the, F. N: A. Garry, 556 Driving, Riding and, E. L. Anderson and P. Collier, 197 Dublin Royal Irish Academy, 23, 240, 359 Dublin Royal Society, 142, 167, 288 Duboin (M.), Production of Heavy Alkaline Iodomercurates, 424 Duchemin (René), Acidity of some Ethyl Alcohols of Com- merce, 143 Duclaux (J.), Conductivity of Colloidal Solutions, 143 Dudeney (H. E.), a New Problem on Superposition, 92 Duerden (Dr. J. E.), the Coral Siderastraea radians and its Post-larval Development, 185; Morphology of the Madreporaria, the ‘‘ Fossula’’ of the Extinct Rugose Corals, 515 Dufaux (H. and A.), ‘ Hélicoptére Aéroplane’’ of, René de Saussure, 329 Duhem (P.), Origin of the Principles of Virtual Displace- ments, 57' Dumas (L.), Reversible and Irreversible Transformations of Nickel Steel, 573 Dunbar (Charles Franklin), Economic Essays by, 52 Duncan (Robert Kennedy), the New Knowledge, 241 Dunkerley (Prof. S.), Mechanism, 4 Dunn (E. J.), the Mount Morgan Gold Mine, Queensland, Ww. Liquids with the 41 Dunstan (Prof. Wyndham R., F.R.S.), Pharmacology of Indaconitine and Bikhaconitine, 551 Dupare (Prof. Louis), Eruptive Rocks of the Chain of Tilai-Kanjakowsky-Cérébriansky, Perm, 18 Duparc (L.), Gladkaite, 192 Dust, Cause and Prevention of, from Automobiles, W. R. Cooper, 485, 507; J. Vincent Elsden, 507 Dutch Observations of the Corona, Prof. Julius, 303 Dutton (Everett), Human Tick Fever, 332 Dutton (Dr. J. E.), Death of, 15; Obituary Notice of, 37 Duty-free Alcohol, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, 344 Dyestuffs, the Synthetic, and the Intermediate Products from which they are derived, J. (G2 Gatneandy a) nbs Thorpe, Walter M. Gardner, Supp. to October 19, vii Dynamics: the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of Radi- ation, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 54; J. H. Jeans, 101 Earth, Current Theories of the Consolidation of the, Dr. el eSees zorwReva Ae Irving, 79 Earth, the Face of the (Das Antlitz der Erde), Prof. Eduard Suess, 193 Earth Sculpture, the Agents of, Thomas C. Chamberlin and Rollin D. Salisbury, 289 Earth’s Interior, the Rigidity of the, Rev. A. Irving, 8 Earthquakes : Earthquake Shocks in Italy, 16, 514; Earth- quake of April 29, M. Mascart, 47; Earthquakes in the Vale of Llangollen, in the Rhone Valley, 16; Earth- quake in Switzerland, Prof. F. A. Forel, 16, 63; at Chamonix, 384; at Bandar Abbas, 38; in Montenegro, 131; at Bombay, 229; in Siberia, 298; in Scotland, 208, 537; at Macao, at Hong Kong, 384; the Kangra Earth- quake of April 4, 1905, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 428; Earthquake at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.A., 461; at Calabria, 491; at Lundby, 563; Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption at Samoa, 563 ; Earthquake at Monte- leone, 608; Earthquakes at Constantinople, at Batum, at Kutais, and at Sukhum-Kaleh, 636 East, the Far, Archibald Little, 626 Nature, ] December 14, 1905 Index XV Ebell (M.), Ephemeris for Comet 1905a, 43; Comet 1904 ii (19044), 89 f Ebert (W.), Determination of Constant of Aberration by Observation of Three Stars close to the Pole, 239 Eclipses: Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905, D. Antonio Tarazona, 77; Pro- posed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 342; the Forthcoming Total Solar Eclipse, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 399; the Total Solar Eclipse, August 30, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 457; the Solar Physics Observ- atory Eclipse Expedition, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 508; Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse in Tripoli, Barbary, Prof. David Todd, 484; French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, Prof. Janssen, 518; M. Bigourdan, 518; M. Stephan and M. Trépied, 518; M. Bourget, 518; M. Nordmann, 518; M. Salet, 518; M. Moye, 518; Further Results obtained by French Eclipse Expeditions, MM. Deslandres and Andoyer, 567 ; Further Eclipse Results by French Observers, M. Salet, 591; M. Bigourdan’s Eclipse Results, 610; Further Results of the French Eclipse Expeditions, Prof. Janssen, 639; E. Stephan, 640; Geodetic Measurements from Solar Eclipses, C. E. Stromeyer, 230; Proposed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 244; Eclipse Shadow Bands, A. Lawrence Rotch, 307; Eclipse Predictions, J. : Buchanan, F.R.S., 603; Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., 629; Eclipse Phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, F-.R.S., 629 Economic Essays by Charles Franklin Dunbar, 52 Edgar (E. C.), Atomic Weight of Chlorine, 165 Edinburgh Royal Society, 143, 167, 191, 286, 391 Edridge-Green (Dr. F. W.), Luminosity and Colour, 222 Education: the State and Higher Education, 58; Death of M. Fernet, 62; Higher Education in London, Sir Arthur Riicker, F.R.S., 69; Lord Londonderry, 70; School Teaching and School Reform, Sir Oliver Lodge, 195; the Empire and University Life, 217; Gunga- Gunga, 319; Education in Belgium and Holland, F. H. Perry-Coste, 221; the Needs of Our Oldest University, 231; Preliminary Report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines, 232; the Academic Side of Technical Training, Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., 256; Entrance Ex- amination to the Indian Forest Service, 274; Death of Alexander Bell, 347; Death of Rev. Dr. J. Keith, 384; Colony of Natal Report of the Technical Education Com- mission, 460; Science Teaching in Elementary Schools, 512; Physical Laboratories in Germany, Prof. G. W. Wiichler’s Report to Director-General of Education in India, 605; Connection between Scientific Training and Industrial Development, W. Burton, 608; Mécanisme et Education des Mouvements, Prof. Georges Demeny, Supp. to October 19, v Edwards (R. W. R.), Radial Area-scale, 150 Effront (Jean), Development of Amylase during the Germination of Seeds, 648 Eggar (Mrs. Henry Cooper), an Indian Garden, 125 Eggar (W. D.), Mechanics, a School Course, 601 Eginitis (M.), Determination of Meteor Radiants, 303 Egypt: Summary of the Dimensions of the Nile and its Basin, Captain H. G. Lyons, 349; the Relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous Rocks in the Esna-Aswan Reach of the Nile Valley, H. J. L. Beadnell, 263; the Topo- graphy and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, H. J. L. Beadnell, 535 Egyptology: Results obtained in Egypt by Prof. Flinders Petrie, 228 Eichelberger (Prof.), New Refraction Tables, 110 Eldridge (George H.), Death of, 275 Electricity: Practical Methods of Electrochemistry, F. Mollwo Perkin, 5; the High-frequency Electrical Treat- ment, Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith, F.R.S., 7; Messrs. Isenthal and Co.’s Installation for the Production of High-tension Electricity, 18; Variations of Lustre given by a Crookes’s Tube, S. Turchini, 23; the ‘ Lead Voltameter,’’ A. G. Betts and E. F. Kern, 42; Electrical Charge of the Sun, Prof. Svante Arrhenius, 43; Magnetic and Electrical Properties of Sheet Steel and Steel Cast- ings, G. Dillner and A. F. Enstrém, 69; Electrolytic WN A Reduction of the Nitrocinnamic Acids, C. Marie, 71; Second Stage Magnetism and Electricity, Dr. R. Wallace Stewart, 77; Use of Electric Valves for the Production of High-tension Continuous Current, Sir Oliver Lodge, 90; Oscillation Valve for Rectifying Electrical Oscilla- tions, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., 91; (1) Resonance Induction Coil and High Potential Apparatus, (2) Re- sonance Electromagnet, Messrs. Isenthal and Co., g1; New Models of Laboratory Electric Furnaces, R. S. Hutton, 91; Atmospheric Electricity observed from Balloons, George C. Simpson, 92; Normal Electrical Phenomena of the Atmosphere, G. C. Simpson, 216; Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmo- sphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, Prof. F. Elster and Prof. H. Geitel and F. Harms, 490; Continuous Observations of the Rate of Dissipation of Electric Charges in the Open Air, Dr. C. Coleridge Farr, 94; New Type of Electric Furnace with a Re-determination of the Melting Point of Platinum, Dr. J. A. Harker, 94; Effects of Foucault Currents and the Hysteresis of Iron on Oscillatory Sparks, G. A. Hemsalech, 95; Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy, H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland, Maurice Solomon, 99; Experiments with the De Forest. Wireless Telegraphy in Moving Trains, 228; Experiments with Different Methods of Earth Connection for Wireless Telegraphic Installations, Lieut. Evans, 492; Alternating Currents, A. Russell, Maurice Solomon, 99; What Do We Know Concerning Electricity? Antonia Zimmern, Maurice Solomon, 99; Modern Electricity, J. Henry and K. J. Hora, Maurice Solomon, 99: Modern Electric Practice, Maurice Solomon, 99; Electricity Control: a Treatise on Electric Switch-gear Systems of Electric Transmission, Leonard Andrews, Maurice Solomon, 99; Electrical Phenomena: Shoals of Dead Fish thrown up at Karachi, 106; Application to Electro- lytes of the Hydrate Theory of Solutions, Dr. T. Martin Lowry, 142; a Null Method of Measuring Small Ionisa- tions, N. R. Campbell, 142; Striation of the Positive Column in Electric Discharges, Prof. Thomson, 142; the Calculation of the Coefficient of Re-combination of the Ions and the Size of the Ions, Prof. Thomson, 142 ; Electrolytic Production of very Fine Wires, Henri Abraham, 143; Conductivity of Colloidal Solutions, J- Duclaux, 143; the Insulation of Electric Machines, H. W. Turner and H. M. Hobart, Prof. Ernest Wilson, 149; Mathematische Einfiihrung in die Elektronentheorie, Dr. A. H. Bucherer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170; Ex- perimentelle Elektrizitatslehre, Dr. H. Starke, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170; Leitfaden der Physik fur die oberen Klassen der Realanstalten, Dr. F. Bremer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170; Electric Discharges, the Poisonous Action of Ozone, Prof. E. Wiedemann, 182; ““Osmi’’ Incandescent Lamp, 208; Electric Winding Machines, Paul Habets, 212; Ratio between the Mean Spherical and the Mean Horizontal Candle-power of Incandescent Lamps, Prof. Fleming, 215 ; Electrical Con- ductivity of Flames, Dr. H. A. Wilson, 215; Contact with Dielectrics, Rollo Appleyard, 215; Synthesis by Means of the Silent Electric Discharge, J. N. Collie, 238; Manuale dell’Ingegnere Elettricista, Attilio Marro, 243; le Four Electrique: son Origine, ses Transform- ations et ses Applications, Adolphe Minet, R. S. Hutton, 267; Gaiffe Auto-motor Mercury-jet Interrupter, 277; the Comparison of Electric Fields by Means of an Oscillating Electric Needle, D. Owen, 286; Electric Furnace for the Direct Production of Steel from Mag- netic Iron Sands of Taranaki, New Zealand, D. R:°S. Galbraith, 299; the Effect of Membranes in Liquid Chains, M. Chanoz, 312; Experimental Researches on the Effect of Membranes in Liquid Chains, M: Chanoz, 336; Contribution to the Study of Liquid Dielectrics, P. Gourée de Villemontée, 312; Death of Prof. Bichat, 347; Compact Form of Direct-reading Cymometer for the Measurement of Wave-lengths and Frequencies in Con- nection with Electric-wave Telegraphy, Prof. J. A. Fleming, 350; a New Carbon, Mr. Howell, 351; Rapid Electro-deposition of Copper, Sherard Cowper-Coles, 359 ; Passage of Electricity through Gaseous Layers of Great Thickness, E. Bouty, 360; Special Form of Voltameter, D. Albert Kreider, 387; Minimum Potential of a Point Discharge is Increased by the Discharge, Blunting is Xvi Index Nature, December 14, 1905 not Responsible for Rise in Potential, F. R. Gorton, 387; the Transverse Momentum of an Electron, Oliver Heaviside, F.R.S., 429; Electrons and Matter, Prof. C. H. Wind, 574; an Electric Micrometer, Dr. P. E. Shaw at Royal Society, 495; Death of Dr. Oscar May, 514; Alternate Current Electrolysis, Prof. E. Wilson, 517; Earth in Collieries, Electricity in Mines, Sydney F. Walker, 519; Setting Type by Telegraph, Donald Murray, Maurice Solomon, 568; die Entwickelung der electrischen Messungen, E-. O. Frélich, 579; Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, Dr. Erik Harnack, Dr. George J. Burch, F.R.S., 602; a New Thermojunction, A. de Forest Palmer, 610; the Distribution of Power, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., 612; a Phenomenon of Cooling Silver Wires Plunged into Water and through which Electric Currents are Passing, E. Rogovsky, 648 Elements of Comet 1886 viii, E. Fagerholm, 567 ‘ Ellerman (Mr.), Interpretation of Spectroheliograph Pic- tures, 495 Elliptical Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1905a, Prof. Banachiewicz, 207; A. Wedemayer, 207 ; Elsden (J. V.), Igneous Rocks between St. David’s Head and Strumble Head (Pembrokeshire), 166; Cause and Prevention of Dust from Automobiles, 507 Elster (Prof. F.), Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmosphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, 490 Emch (Dr. Arnold), an Introduction to Projective Geometry and its Applications, 77 Empire and University Life, the, 217; Gunga-Gunga, 319 Engineering : Mechanism, Prof. S. Dunkerley, 4; a Manual of Mining, M. C. Ihlseng and E. B. Wilson, 53; Death and Obituary Notice of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, P.C., Bart., F.R.S., 60; New Form of Compound Locomotive Engines, John Riekie, 65; Iron and Steel Institute, 68; High-speed Tool Steels under Varying Thermal Treat- ment, Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter, 69; Experimental Re- searches on the Flow of Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, A. Rateau, 101; the Investigation of Mine Air, Sir C. Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., and Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S., 124; Death of Edouard Simon, 155; Death and Obituary Notice of James Mansergh, F.R.S., 181; Death of Archibald P. Head, 202; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 212; Superheating for Loco- motives, M. Flamme, 212; Mr. Robinson, 212; Electric Winding Machines, Paul Habets, 212; Ferro-concrete, Ed. Noaillon, 213; Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, Mr. Mellanby, 213; V. Pendred, 213; Mr. Saxon, 213; Henry Davey, 213; Mark Robinson, 213; Large Gas-engines, R. Mathot, 213; Mr. Crossley, 213; Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Turbines, Dr. A. Stodola, 219; Bau der Dampfturbinen, Prof. A. Musil, 219; Absence of Vibration in a Turbine Steamship, Prof. David Todd, 603; Death of Sir Peter Nicol Russell, 275; the Mechanical Handling of Material, G. F. Zimmer, 290; Manuale dell’Ingegnere Elettricista, Attilio Marro, 243; the Academic Side of Technical Training, Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., 256; the Modern Asphalt Pavement, Clifford Richardson, 316; Problems of the Panama Canal, Brig.-General Henry L. Abbot, 394; Death of Prof. Franz Reuleaux, 421; History of the Steam-engine, 423; the Standardisation of Screws, 431; Marine Engines and Boilers, their Design and Construc- tion, Dr. G. Bauer, 1<3; Institution of Mining Engineers, 518; Machine Construction and Drawing, Frank Castle. 533; Death and Obituary Notice of Sir Edward H. Carbutt, 588 Eppraving in the Stone Age, the Evolution of, Ed. Piette, I Enock (Fred), Life-history of Wood-boring Wasps, 209 Enstroém (A. F.), Magnetic and Electric Properties of Sheet Steel and Steel Castings, 69 Enteman (Wilhelmine M.), Coloration in Polistes, 19 Entomology : Hymenopteren-Studien, W. A. Schulz, 7; Coloration in Polistes, -Wilhelmine M. Enteman, 19; Life-history of Wood-boring Wasps, Fred Enock, 200; Wasps, Social and Solitary, George W. Peckham and Elizabeth G. Peckham, 395; “ Flower-gardens ’? made by Ants in the Crowns of Trees in Amazonia and Peru, E. Ule, 64; Elephant Mosquito Larva is Carnivorous, E. E. Green, 64; a Monograph of the Anopheles Mos- quitoes of India,,S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston, Dr. J. W. W. Stephens, 73; Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Histoire Naturale Ethnographia, iv., Os Mosquitos no Para, Prof. Dr. Emilio Augusto Goeldi, 607; Moths and Butterflies, Mary C. Dickerson, 76; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalzenz in the British Museum, Sir George F. Hampson, Bart., 174; the Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, Butter- flies, Lieut.-Colonel C. T. Bingham, 290; Origin of Slavery among Ants, Rev. Father Wasmann, 86; Social Spiders, N. S. Jambunathan, 86; W. J. Rainbow, 385; the Plague of Flies, Dilophus febrilis, at Cardiff Docks, Ernest E. Austen, 87; J. W. Douglas, 87; Entomological Society, 95, 238, 647; Queen-rearing in England and Notes on a Scent-producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker-bee, the Honey-bees of India and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa, F. W. L. Sladen, 126; Life- history of the Pine Sawfly, 133; Insect Life, a Short Account of the Classification and Habits of Insects, Fred. V. Theobald, 150; Sugar-parasites, R. C. L. Perkins, 254; a Catalogue of North American Diptera or Two- winged Flies, J. M. Aldrich, 317; Fights between Two Species of Ants, J. A. Hill, 326; Remarkable Habit of Oriental Ant C®cophylla smaragdina, 385; Ants: the Habits of Gi. smaragdina, Dr. F. Doflein, 422; Report on the Injurious Insects and Other Animals observed in the Midland Counties during 1904, Walter E. Collinge, 340; the Spread of Injurious Insects, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 397; a Parasite of the House-fly, M. D. Hill, 397; Prof. Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S., 429; R. I. Pocock, 604; Chelifers and House-flies, Prof. Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S., 629; Monographie des Cynipides d'Europe et d’Algérie, l’Abbé J. J. Kieffer, 455; Death of J. W. Douglas, 461; the ‘‘ Bee-hole ’’ Borer of Teak in Burma, E. P. Stebbing, 493 ; Death of George Bowdler Buckton, F.R.S., 537; Obituary Notice of, W. F. Kirby, 587; Leaf-hoppers and their Enemies, R. C. L. Perkins, 539; Insect Pests of Field and Garden Crops, Prof. Theobald, 539; Dimorphism in the Female of Ischnura heterosticta, R. J. Tillyard, 552; on Two Orders cf Arachnida, Opiliones, especially the Suborder Cypho- phthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Crypto: stemmatoide, Dr. H. J. Hansen and Dr. W. Sorensen, R. I. Pocock, 577; Palzozoische Arachniden, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch, R. I. Pocock, 577 Entwickelung der electrischen Messungen, die, Dr. O. Frélich, 579 Environment, Experiments on Variations of Lepidoptera by, Arnold Pictet, F. Merrifield, 632 Eoliths, on the Origin of, M. Marcellin Boule, 438, 635; Dr. Hugo Obermaier, 636; Machine-made Eoliths, Marcellin Boule, 538 Eros, Recent Observations of, Prof. Millosevich, 256 Eros, Recent Positions of, Mr. Manson, 207 Errera (Prof. L.), Death of, 347; Obituary Notice of, Prof. Jean Massart, 537 Escombe (F.), Biochemie der Pflanzen, Prof. Friedrich Czaki, 169 Essays and Addresses, Miscellaneous, Henry Sidgwick, 149 Essex Field Club, the, 606 Ethnography of the Philippines, W. Allan Reed, 300 Ethnology: Das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick, Ed. Hahn, 6; the Masai, their Language and Folklore, A. C. Hollis, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 83; the Story of an Indian Upland, F. B. Bradley-Birt, 105; Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians, Dr. Clark Wissler, 260; Decorative Art of the Huichol Indians, Dr. Carl Lumholtz, 260; the ‘‘ Aryanism”’ of the Minoans, R. S. Conway, 560 Eucalyptus, a Critical Maiden, 6 Eunomia, Variability of Minor Planet (15), Prof. Wendell, 43 Europe : the Geese of Europe and Asia, Sergius Alpheraky, 266; Monographie des Cynipides d’Europe et d’Algérie, V’Abbé J. J. Kieffer, 455 Evans (Arthur), Report on the Sanitation and Anti- malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, 67 Eyans’s (Dr. Arthur) Work at Knossos, 558 Revision of the Genus, J. H. Naiure. December 14, 1905 Index XVil1 Evans (Dr. J. W.), Identity of the Amiantos of the Ancients with Chrysotile, 215 Evans (Lieut.), Experiments with Different Methods of Earth Connection for Wireless Telegraphic Installations, 492 Evolution: the Evolution of Engraving in the Stone Age, Ed. Piette, 81; the Evolution of the World and of Man, George E. Boxall, 150; Vortrage uber Deszendenztheorie gehalten an der Universitat zu Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. August Weismann, 200; the Causation of Vari- ations, Dr. G. Archdall Reid, 318;, La Sociologie génétique, Francois Cosentini, 482; l’Evolution de la Matiére, Dr. Gustave Le Bon, 505; Cosmical Evolution, J. H. Jeans, 591 Ewbank (E. K.), the Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra of Aromatic Compounds, part ii., the Phenols, 239 Experimental Mathematics, a Note-book of, C. Godfrey and G. M. Bell, 507 Experimental Morphology, Dr. Hans Przibram, 426 Exploration of the Atmosphere above the Atlantic, the, A. Lawrence Rotch, 244 Exploration of the Indian Ocean, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., 341 Explosives, Researches on, Sir Andrew Noble, Bart., KEG IB. HEeReS= 6355 Explosives, a Primer on, Major A. Cooper-Key, 507 Eye, the Treatment of Diseases of the, Dr. Victor Hanke, 292 Eye-estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spots T. E. R. Phillips, 518 Rev. > Feer6es and Iceland, the, Studies in Island Life, N. Annan- dale, 506 Fagerholm (E.), Elements of Comet 1886 viii, 567 Faint Stars, Visibility of, at the Lowell Observatory, Mr. Lampland, 592; Mr. Lowell, 592 Faintness of Planetary Nebulae, J. E. Gore, 43 Far East, the, Archibald Little, 626 Farabee (Dr. W. C.), an Hereditary Abnormality in the Human Hand and its Relation to Mendelism, 254 Faraday Society, 142, 359 Farmer (Prof. J. B., F.R.S.), Cellular Constituents Peculiar to Cancerous and Reproductive Tissues, 92; Resemblances between ‘‘ Plimmer’s Bodies ’’ of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Repro- ductive Cells of Animals, 164 Farr (Dr. C. Coleridge), Continuous Observations of the Rate of Dissipation of Electric Charges in the Open Air, 04 Faulds (Henry), Guide to Finger-print Identification, Supp. to October 19, iv Faull (J. H.), Development of the Ascus and on Spore Formation in the Ascomycetes, 327 Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, Butterflies, Lieut.-Colonel C. T. Bingham, 290 Fauna of Deep Lakes, the Sarcodine, Eugéne Penard, 218 Fayum Province of Egypt, the Topography and Geology of the, H. J. L. Beadnell, 535 Feather-like Form of Frost, H. M. Warner, 80 Felspars, the Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, 258 Fernet (M.), Death of, 62 Ferreira (A. da Costa), the Probable Racial Constituents of the Portuguese, 87 Fiala (A.), Return of the Ziegler North Polar Expedition, 422 Fictitious Problems in Mathematics, An Old Average College Don, 56; the Reviewer, 56; A. B. Basset, 78; Dr. E. J. Routh, 78, 127; ©. B. Clarke, F.R.S., 102; Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R-S., 102, 175 Field Club, the Essex, 606 Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903, 32° Field, Sterilisation of Water in the, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 431; Corr., 515 Fierz (H. E.), Camphoryl-pseudo-semicarbazide, 71 Figure of the Sun, the, C. Lane Poor, 567 Finger-print Identification: Identification presiones digito-palmares (La Alberto Yvert, 628 Finger-print Identification, Guide to, Henry Faulds, Supp. to October 19, iv Finlayson (D.), the Ashe-Finlayson Comparascope, 90 Im- Dr. por las Dactiloscopia), { Fireballs in 1905, Winter, Mr. Denning, 66 Firth (J. B.), Highways and Byways in Derbyshire, 100 Fische und Reptilien aus der bohmischen Kreideformation, Neuc, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch and Dr. Fr. Bayer, 454 Fisher (Dr. Karl T.), der Naturwissenschaftliche Unter- richt bei uns und im Auslande, 333 Fisher (Rev. O.), the Cleavage of Slates, 55 Fisheries : Fishery Investigations in the Norwegian Fjords, 45; Reports on Sea Fisheries, Frank Balfour Browne, 138; Work of Sea Fish Hatchery at Piel, Andrew Scott, 138; Biology of the Plaice, with Special Regard to the Danish Plaice Fishery, Dr. A. C. Johansen, 139; the Transplantation of Shell-fish, 430 Fishes: the Distribution of African Fresh-water Fishes, Opening Address in Section D at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, G. A. Boulenger, E.R.S., V.P.Z:S., 413; a Guide to) the Study of Fishes, David Starr Jordan, 625 Fishing : an Angler’s Hours, H. T. Fitzgerald (Prof.), Messrs. Michelson and Morley’s ments on Ether, 566 Flammarion (Camille), Astronomy for Amateurs, Observations of Jupiter, 43; Vegetation and the Sun- spot Period, 303 Flamme (M.), Superheating for Locomotives, 212 Fleming (Prof.), a Probable Nova in Ophiuchus, 158 Fleming (Prof. J. A., F.R.S.), Oscillation Valve for Rectifying Electrical Oscillations, 91; Direct Reading Cymometer for Measuring the Length of the Waves used in Wireless Telegraphy, 91; Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys, 190; Ratio between the Mean Spherical and the Mean Horizontal Candle-power of Incandescent Lamps, 215; Compact Form of Direct-reading Cymometer for the Measurement of Wave-lengths and Frequencies in Connection with Electric-wave ‘lelegraphy, 350 Fleming (Mrs.), Stars with Peculiar Spectra, 183 ; Harvard College Observatory Annual Report, 256; Discovery of a Nova, 465; Nova Aquila, 542 Fliche (P.), Undergrowth in Woods, 23 “ Floceuli,’? Anomalous Dispersion and, Prof. Julius, 19 Flow of Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, Experimental Researches on the, A. Rateau, 101 Flow of Underground and River Waters, 25 Focusing Screen for Use in Photographing Ultra-violet Spectra, a, Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 581 Folklore: Tree Worship at Naihati, H. P. Shastri, 17; the Masai, their Language and Folklore, A. C. Hollis, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.G-B., 83 Food: Ammonia in Milk, Evidence of Pollution, A. Trillat and M. Sauton, 72; the Food Inspector’s Handbook, Francis Vacher, 243; Bacteriological Standard of Purity of Milk, Dr. Newman, 307; Experience of Mill to which Sodium Citrate had been Added in the Feeding of Infants, Dr. F. J. Poynton, 354 Forbes (George S.), the Elimination of Accidental Loss of Heat in Accurate Calorimetry, 206 Forbes (Dr. Henry O.), on a New Species of Guenon from the Cameroons, 630 Forbes (Mr.), New White Sturgeon, 156 Forel (Prof. F. A.), Earthquake in Switzerland, 63; Le Leman, Monographie Limnologique, 148 Forestry: the Cowthorpe Oak, 43, 182; John Clayton, 43; Life-history of the Pine Sawfly, 133; Tree Planting in South Africa, D. E. Hutchins, 138; Diseases of Forest Trees, 163; Manual of the Trees of North America (ex- clusive of Mexico), C. S. Sargent, 197; Entrance Examination to the Indian Forest Service, 274; the “ Bee-hole’ Borer of Teak in Burma, E. P. Stebbing, 93 pees of Ice and the Grained Structure of Glaciers, the, Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S., at Royal Society, 543 Forster (M. O.), Camphoryl-pseudo-semicarbazide, 71 _ Forsyth (Prof. A. «Re (SciDs)) LE Dee Math De PR=S:)} Opening Address in Section A ac the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, 372 Forthcoming Books of Science, 619 Fosse (R.), Basicity of Pyranic Oxygen, 119; Halogen Compounds of Dinaphthopyryl with Metals and Metalloids, 648 Sherringham, 220 Experi- 290; eee Nature, XVIIL Lndex lioeeomerne 1905 Fossils: Catalogus Mammalium, tam viventium quam | Garry (F. N. A.), Notes on the Drawings for Sowerby’s fossilium, E. L. Trouessart, 427 cup : Foster (Sir C. Le Neve, F-.R.S.), the Investigation of Mine Air, 124 q : Fourcade (H. G.), Instrument for Stereoscopic Surveying, 640 ‘ Fourneau (M.), Aromatic Substitution Derivatives of Ethylene Oxide, 192 Fowler (Prof. A.), Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the Solar Spectrum, 184 Fox (Phillip), Spectroheliograph Results, 183 Franklin (Cooper), Medical Education, Past, Present, and Future, 330 Frassetto (Fabio), I Nuovi Odierna Antropologia, 173 Frederick (Mr.), Observations of the Satellites of Saturn and Uranus, 230 Frémont (Ch.), Mechanical Properties of Iron in Isolated Crystals, 392 French Glacier Commission, Two Reports of the, 561 French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, Prof. Janssen, 518; M. Bigourdan, 518; M. Stephan and M. Indirizzi e le Promesse della Trépied, 518; M. Bourget, 518; M. Nordmann, 518; M. Salet, 518: M. Moye, 518 French Observers, Further Eclipse Results by, MM. Deslandres and Andoyer, 567; M. Salet, 591; Prof. Janssen, 639; E. Stephan, 640 Freundler (P.), Eromination of Paraldehyde, 239; Deri- vatives of Cyclohexane, 624 Fric (M.), the Circumzenithal Apparatus, 230 Friend (J. A. N.), Estimation of Potassium Permanganate in Presence of Potassium Persulphate, 23; Estimation of Hydrogen Peroxide in the Presence of Potassium Per- sulphate, 166 Fritsch (Prof. Dr. Anton), Neue Fische und Reptilien aus der bodhmischen Kreideformation, 454; Palaeozoische Arachniden, 577 Frolich (Dr. O.), die Entwickelung der electrischen Messungen, 579 . Fron (G.), Conditions of Development of the Mycelium of Morchella, 47 Frost, a Feather-like Form of, H. M. Warner, 80 Frost (Prof.), Harvard College Observatory Annual Report, 256; the Orbit of ¢ Tauri, 592 Frost (R. H.), an Interesting Asteroid Occlo [475], 330; Observations of Phoebe, 330; the Minor Planet Occlo (475), 388 Frost (Dr. William Dodge), Elementary Bacteriology, 483 Fruit Farm, the Woburn Experimental, Prof. fits, BB Middleton, 46r Fruit Growing, British, 297; Alfred O. Spencer Pickering, F.R-S., 396 Fuchs (C.), Method for Determining the Specific Heats of Solutions, 216 Fungus-galls : Beitriige zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339 Furnace, the Electric, Adolphe Minet, R. S. Hutton, 267 Fursac (J. R. de), Manual of Psychiatry, 363 a Laboratory Guide in Walker, 342; ‘Gadow (Dr. LEI, Reptilia, 191 Galbraith (D. R. S.), Electric Furnace for the Direct Pro- duction of Steel from Magnetic Iron Sands of Taranaki, New Zealand, 299 Game Bird, a Rare, John S. Sawbridge, 605; Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., 630 Gans (Dr. Richard), Einfiihrung in die Vektoranalysis mit _ Anwendungen auf die mathematische Physik, 483 Garden, an Indian, Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar, Dr. Otto Stapf, 125 Gardens, Stone, Rose Haig Thomas, 629 Gardiner (J. Stanley), the Percy Sladen Expedition in H.M.S. Sealark, the Chagos Archipelago, 571 “Gardner (Walter M.), the Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Products from which they are derived, J. C. Cain and J. F. Thorpe, Supp. to October 19, Vii ‘Garnett (J. C. Maxwell), Colours in Metal Glasses, in Metallic Films, and in Metallic Solutions, 359 Distribution of Mexican Amphibia and “English Botany,"’ 556 Garwood (Prof. E. J.), Tarns of the Canton Ticino, 215 Gas Calorimetry, 186 Gas-engines, Large, R. Mathot, 213; Mr. Crossley, 213 Gas Turbines, Steam Turbines with an Appendix on, Dr. A. Stodola, 219 Gases: the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of Radiation, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.RIS., 54; J. H. Jeans, ror Gassendis zu Deskartes, die Stellung, Dr. Hermann Schneider, 202 Gaupp (Prof.), the Origin and Nature of the Mammalian Lower Jaw, 4o1 Geese of Europe and Asia, the, Sergius Alpheraky, 266 Geikie (Sir Arch., F.R.S.), Scientific Worthies, Eduard Suess, 1 Geikie (Dr. Jas.), Structural and Field Geology, 223 Geitel (Prof. H.), Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmosphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, 490 Gelatin, Action of Radium Salts on, W. A. Douglas Rudge, 631 Gelatin Media, on the Spontaneous Action of Radio-active Bodies on, John Butler Burke, 7 Gelatin Media, on the Spontaneous Action of Radium on, John Butler Burke, 204 Geminorum, Magnitudes of Nova Persei and Nova, Prof. A. A. Nijland, 110 Geodesy: Geodetic Measurements from Solar Eclipses, C. E. Stromeyer, 230; Trattato di Geodesia Theoretica, Paolo Pizzetti, Captain W. J. Johnston, 242; Dante’s Quaestio de Aqua et Terra” in Light of Modern Geodesy, Prof. O. Zanotti Bianco, 350 Geography: Scientific Results of the National Antarctic Expedition, 57; Antarctic Expedition, Dr. J. Charcot, 203; the Bahama Islands, 154; der Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland, Max Groll, 197; Death and Obituary Notice of Sir Augustus Gregory, K.C.M.G., 204; Death and Obituary Notice of Elisée Reclus, 252; Summary of the Dimensions of the Nile and its Basin, Captain H. G. Lyons, 349; Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, Raphael Pumpelly, R. W. Pumpelly, Prof. W. M. Davis, and Ellsworth Huntington, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 366; New Island Discovered, Terre de France, Lieut. Bergendahl, 461; Handbuch der geographischen Ort- bestimmung fiir Geographen und Forschungsreisende, Dr. Adolf Marcuse, 481; the Position of Ophir, W. Kings- mill, 491; the Fzerées and Iceland, Studies in Island Life, N. Annandale, 506; Death of Sir William Wharton, Be Cab aeeeece 563; Obituary Notice of, 586; Death of Ferdinand Baron von Richthofen, 588; Death and Obituary Notice of M. de Brazza, 515; Death and Obituary Notice of Captain J. Wiggins, 515; the Far East, Archibald Little, 626 Geology : Scientific Worthies, Eduard Suess, Sir Archibald Geikie, FURUS.) a-Ghait Masses in the Cliffs near Cromer, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., 8; the Rigidity of the Earth’s Interior, Rev. A. Irving, 8; the Con- solidation of the Barth, Or.) Dear See, 30; Rev. A. Irving, 79; Eruptive Rocks of the Chain of Tilai- Kanjakowsky-Cérébriansky, Perm, Prof. Louis Dupare and Dr. Francis Pearce, 18; Experiments on Schistosity and Slaty Cleavage, George F. Becker, 20; Alfred Harker, 152; the Cleavage of Slates, Rev. O. Fisher, 55;_an Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony, W. Rogers, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 35; les Con- crétions phosphatées de VAgulhas Bank (Cape of Good Hope), Dr. Leon W. Collet, avec une Description de la Glauconie gu’elles renferment, Gabriel W. Lee, 286-7 ; the Geology of South Africa, F. H. Hatch and G. S) Corstorphine, 346; Shoal-water Deposits of the Bermuda Banks, H. B. Bigelow, 40; Geological Society, 46, 118, 166, 215, 263, 284; the Blea Wyke Beds and the Dogger in North-east Yorkshire, R. H, Rastall, 46; Geological Aspect of North-eastern Territories of the Congo Free State, G. F. J. Preumont and J. A. Howe, 46; Geologie der Umgebung von Sarajevo, Ernst Kittl, 51; a Hand- book to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Practical Geology, F. W. Rudler, 76; Geology of Upper Assam, J. Malcolm Maclaren, 108; Geology of Dunedin (New Zealand), Dr. Nature,* December 14, 1905 Lndex Sb P. Marshall, 118; Carboniferous Limestone of the Weston-super-Mare District, T. F. Sibley, 118; Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff, der Bahnbrecher moderner Geologie, Dr. Otto Reich, 123; Relation of the Miocene of Maryland to that of Other Regions, and to the Recent Fauna, W. H. Dall, 162; Igneous Rocks between St. David’s Head and Strumble Head (Pembrokeshire), J. V. Elsden, 166; Rhatic and Contiguous Deposits of Glamorganshire, L. Richardson, 166; Rhetic Rocks at Berrow Hill, near Tewkesbury, L. Richardson, 166; the Face of the Earth (Das Antlitz der Erde), Prof. Eduard Suess, 193; Death and Obituary Notice of Dr. William Thomas Blanford, F.R.S., 202; Microscopic Structure of Minerals forming Serpentine, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., and Miss C. A. Raisin, 215; Tarns of the Canton Ticino, Prof. E. J. Garwood, 215; Structural and Field Geology, Dr. Jas. Geilie, 223; Continuation of Saar- brucken Coal-measures into Lorraine, B. Schu!z-Briesen, 236; Geological Structure of the Mining District of Iglesias, G. Merlo, 236; Mineral Deposits of the Banks of the Meuse, G. Lespineux, 236; Geological Survey of India, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 254; the Glacial (Dwyka) Conglomerate in the Transvaal, E. TL. Mellor, 263; New Oolitic Strata in Oxfordshire, E. A. Walford, 263; the Relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous Rocks in the Esna-Aswan Reach of the Nile Valley, H. J. L. Beadnell, 263; the Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, H. J. L. Beadnell, 535; Death of George H. Eldridge, 275; a Glacial Conglomerate, the Pakhuis Bed, in the Table Mountain Series, Mr. Rogers, 285; the Sources of the Superficial Deposits found Above the Jurassic and Cretaceous Strata on the South, North-west, and West of London, Dr. A. E. Salter, 285 ; Geology of the Provinces of Tsang and U in Tibet, H. H. Hayden, 285; Geology, Processes and their Results, Thomas C. Chamberlin and Rollin D. Salisbury, 289; Glacial Studies in Canada, Dr, William H. Sherzer, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 310; Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, Raphael Pumpelly, R. W. Pumpelly, Prof. W. M. Davis, and Ellsworth Huntington, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 366; Clays and Clay InduStries of Towa, S. W. Beyer, G. W. Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston, 388 ; Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, H. Ries and H. B. Kiimmel, 388; the Kangra Earthquake of April 4, 1905, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 428; a Large Block of Serpentine traversed by Veins of Asbestos from Canada, George P. Merrill, 433; on the Origin of Eoliths, Marcellin Boule, 438, 635; Dr. Hugo Obermaier, 636; Machine-made Eoliths, Marcellin Boule, 538; Geological Features of the Diamond Pipes of the Pretoria District, H. Kynaston and A. L. Hall, 464; the Coal and Lignites of the United States, Preliminary Report, E. W. Parker, J. A. Holmes, and M. R. Campbell, in Coal-measure Stratigraphy, John T. Stobbs, 519; the Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of Glaciers, Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S., at Royal Society, 543; the Older Tertiary Foraminiferal Rocks on the West Coast of Santo, New Hebrides, F. Chapman, 552; Ice or Water, another Appeal to Induction from _ the Scholastic Methods of Modern Geology, Sir Henry H. Howorth, F.R.S., 553; Two Reports of the French Glacier Commission, 561; Death of A. C. Pass, 607 ; Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and W ales, the North Staffordshire Coalfields, W. Gibson, G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, and J. Ward, isl, WW Hughes, 612 ; see also British Association Geometry : an Introduction to Projective Geometry and its Applications, Dr. Arnold Emch, 77; a New Problem on Superposition, H. E. Dudeney, 92; a Preparatory Course in Geometry, W. P. Workman and A. G. Cracknell, 150; Etude sur le Développement des Méthodes géometriques, Gaston perheus 313; Introduction a la Géométrie générale, Georges [Lechalas, 313; Geometrical Conics, G. W. Caunt and C. M. Jessop, 393 ; Geometry of Posi- tion, Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., 629; Oblique and Iso- metric Projection, John W atson, 629; on the Traversing of Geometrical Figures, J. Cook Wilson, Supp. to October 19, vi; see also British Association Gerber (M.), Floral Diagram of the Cruciferz, 2 493-4; Value of Fossil Mollusca | Germany, Physical Laboratories in, Prof. G. W. Kiichler’s Report to Director-General of Education in India, 605 Gernez (D.), Light Emitted by Crystals of Arsenious Anhydride, 23 ; Triboluminescence of Potassium Sulphate, 7X | Gibbs (J. W.), Diagrammes et Surfaces thermodynamiques, 338 Gibson (W.), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, the North Staffordshire Coalfields, 612 Giglioli (Italo), Concimi, Mangimi, Sementi, &c., Com- mercie, frodi, e repressione delle frodi, Specialmente in Italia, 324 Gill (Sir David), Geodetic Survey in South Africa, 641 Giran (H.), Combustion of Sulphur in the Calorimetric Bomb, 239 Girardin (Paul), Glaciers of Maurienne, Vanoise, and Tarantaise, 562 Glacial Studies in Canada, Dr. William H. Sherzer, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 310 Glacier Commission, Two Reports of the French, 561 Glaciers, the Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of, Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S., at Royal Society, 543 Glaciers of Maurienne, Vanoise, and ‘Tarantaise, Paul Girardin, 562 Glass Vane, the Pressure of Radiation on a Clear, Prof. Gordon F. Hull, 198; T. H. Havelock, 269 Glazebrook (Dr. R. T., F.R.S.), Inaugural Optical Congress and Exhibition, 112 Godfrey (C.), a Note-book of Experimental Mathematics, Address at 507 Godiewste (ee) Radio-active Substance, Actinium X, 206 Godman (Frederick Ducane, Ar-ericana, Aves, 49 Goeldi (Prof. Emilio Augusto), Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Historia Natural e Ethnographia, v., Os Mosquitos no Parad, 607 Gold and Science, Opening Address in Section B at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, G. T. Beilby, 378 Gold Mine, the Mount Morgan, an Intensely F.R.S.), Biologia Centrali- Queensland, E. J. Dunn, 41 Gold Mining: Ore at Bendigo, Victoria, at 4162 feet, Gore (J. E.), Faintness of Planetary Nebula, 43 Gorton (F. R.), Minimum Potential of a Point Discharge is increased by the Discharge, Blunting is not Responsible for Rise in Potential, 387 Gosio (B.), Decomposition of Dilute Solutions of Alkaline Selenites or Tellurites as a Delicate Test for Living Bacterial Contamination, 609 Gotch (Prof. Francis, F.R.S.), Retinal Excitability, 174 Gottingen Royal Society of Sciences, 240, 576 Government Laboratory, Report of the Principal Chemist upon the Work of the, for the Year ending March 31, 1903, 634 Graebner (Dr. P.), Handbuch der Heidekultur, 173 Graetz (L.), View that Hydrogen Peroxide gives Rise to a Special Radiation capable of affecting a Photographic Plate, 109 Graham (Dr.), Guinea Worm and its Hosts, 354 Graham (J. Howard), Determination of Sulphuric Acid im Soils, 205 Granderye (L. M.), Determination des Espéces minérales, 131 the Spinthariscope and 54 Granville (William Anthony), Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, 26 Graphical “Solution of Cubic and Quartic Equations, H. Ivah Thomson, 295 Graphs, Easy, H. S. Hall, 393 W. Jamieson, 533 Graphs for Beginners, Ottavio Zanotti Gravity, Helmert’s Formula for, Bianco,. 534 Gray (R. W.), Atomic Weight of Nitrogen, 71 Greek Archzology, the ek of the British School Athens, H. R. Hall, 555 Green (E. E.), Elephant-mosquito Larva Greenly (Edward), an Inverted Slab in a | Greenwich, the Royal Observatory, 135 at is Carnivorous, 64 Cromlech, 152 XX Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Gregory (Sir Augustus, K.C.M.G.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 204 Gregory (R. P.), Abortive Development of the Pollen in Cross-bred Sweet Peas, 166 Griffon (Ed.), Chlorophyll Assimilation in Young Shoots of Plants, Applications to the Vine, 23 Grignard (V.), New Method of Synthesis of the Monoatomic and Polyatomic Alcohols, 264 Groll (Max), der Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland, 197 Grosser (Dr. O.), the Segmental Origin of Colour Stripes, 635 Grosvenor (Gilbert H.), Work of the U.S. Weather Bureau, 157 Guenon, on a New Species of, from the Cameroons, Henry O. Forbes, 630 Guignard (L.), Existence in the Black Elder of a Com- pound furnishing Hydrocyanic Acid, 263; Nature of the Hydrocyanic Glucoside of the Black Elder, 336; Hydro- cyanic Acid obtained from Gooseberry Leaves, 504 Guillet (L.), Special Steel, 237; Steels containing Tin, Titanium, and Cobalt, 239; the Aluminium Steels, 264; Special Steels used for Motor-car Construction in France, 573; Use of Vanadium in Metallurgy, 573 Guinchant (M.), Triboluminescence of Arsenious Acid, 47 Gulliver (G. H.), Phenomena of Permanent Deformation in Metals, 609 Gum-bichromate Process, the, J. Cruwys Richards, 455 Gunga-Gunga, the Empire and University Life, 319 Giinther (R. T.), Recent Changes in Vesuvius, 455 Gurney (J. H.), Early History of a Young Cuckoo, 132 Guthnick (Dr. P.), Nova Aquila No. 2, 494, 611; Light- variation of Saturn’s Satellites, 611 Guttenberg (Hermann Ritter von), Beitrage zur physio- logischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, 339 Guttmann (L. F.), Determination of Melting Points at Low Temperatures, 239 : Guye (Ch. Eug. and H.), Electrostatic Rigidity of Gases at High Pressures, 95 Guye (Philippe A.), Atomic Weight of Nitrogen, 119; Densities of ‘Carbonic Anhydride, Ammonia and Nitrous Oxide, 264 Guyou (M.), Utilisation of the Telephone System for the Exact Transmission of Time, 134 Dr. Haberlandt (Dr. G.), die Lichtsinnesorgane der Laub- blatter, 323 Haberlandt’s (Prof. G.) Investigations on the Sense- organs of Plants, G. C. Nuttall, 565 Habets (Paul), Electric Winding Machines, 212 Hackspill (L.), New Preparation of Rubidium and Czsium, 256 Haddon (A. C., Sc.D., F.R.S.), Opening Address in Sec- tion H at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, 471 Hadfield (R. A.), Effect produced by Liquid-air Tempera- tures on the Properties of Iron and its Alloys, 68; Alloys of Iren and Steel Tested at Liquid Air Temperature, 91; Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys, 190 Hagenback (Dr.), Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, 426 Hahn (Ed.), das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick, 6 Hahn (Oberlehrer), Wie sind die physikalischen Schiiler- ubungen praktisch gestalten? 333 Hahn (Prof. P. D.), Remarkable Thermal Spring at Caledon, in Cape Colony, 642 Haines (T. H.), the Synthetic Factor in Tactual Space Perception, 464 paidane (Dr. J. S., F.R.S.), the Investigation of Mine Air, 124 Haldane (R. B.), Science and the State, 184 Hale (Prof.), Mount Wilson Observatory, 19 Hale (Prof.), Interpretation of Spectroheliograph Pictures, Chalybeate 495 Hall (A. D.), Effect of Plant Growth and of Manures upon the Soil, 94; Work done at the Rothamsted Experi- mental Station for the Year ending March 31, 138; Recent Developments in Agricultural Science, 642 Hall (A. L.), Geological Features of the Diamond Pipes of the Pretoria District, 464 Hall (H. R.), University of Pennsylvania: Transactions of the Department of Archeology : Free Museum of Science and Art, 98; Greek Archeology, the Annual of the British School at Athens, 558 Hall (H. S.), Easy Graphs, 393 Hall (William), Influence of Environment on Physical Development, 331 Haller (A.), Increase of the Rotatory Power of Fatty Molecules in passing to the State of Cyclic Compounds, 71; on the Menthones and Menthols obtained by the Reduction of Pulegone by the Catalytic Action of Re- duced Nickel, 95; Cyanocampho-acetic, Cyanocampho-a- propionic, Cyanocampho-a-butyric Acids and __ their Derivatives, 143; Alkyl Thujones and the Combinatiors of Thujone with Aromatic Aldehydes, 216; Campho- acetic and $-Camphopropionic Acids, 263 Halley, Bibliography of, 567 Hallock (E. S.), Animals in Menageries in U.S.A., 434 Hammond (Mr.), Observations of the Satellites of Saturn and Uranus, 230 Hampson (Sir George F., Bart.), Catalogue of the Lepido- ptera Phalanz in the British Museum, 174 Hampson (Dr. W.), the Measurement of Mass, 8 Hamy (Prof. E. T.), a Gigantic Gorilla, 434 Hanke (Dr. Victor), the Treatment of Diseases of the Eye, 292 Hansen (Dr. H. J.), on Two Orders of Arachnida, Opiliones, especially the Suborder Cyphophthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Cryptostemmatoidz, 577 Hansky (M.), Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of Venus, 303 Hantzsch (B.), Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands, 454 Harbours, Suggested Use of Floating Breakwaters moored to the Bottom to prevent the Silting up of, Dr. J. Joly, F.R.S., 300 Harden (A.), Influence of Phosphates on the Fermentation of Glucose by Yeast Juice, 166 Hardy (G. H.), a Class of Many-valued Functions defined by a Definite Integral, 190 Harker (Alfred), the Cleavage of Slates, 152 Harker (Dr. J. A.), New Type of Electric Furnace, with a Re-determination of the Melting Point of Platinum, 94; Specific Heat of Iron at High Temperatures, 142 Harmer (Dr.), Hemichordata, Ascidians and Amphioxus, Fishes, 103 Harms (F.), Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmosphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, 490 Harnack (Dr. Erik), Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, 602 Harrington (B. J.), Foetid Calcite found near Chatham, Canada, 158 Hartley (E. G. J.), the ‘‘ Bubbling ’’ Method and Vapour Pressures, 222 Hartley (Prof. W. N., F.R.S.), Chemical Structure and Physical Properties Associated with the Theory of Colour, 141; Constitution of Nitric Acid and its Hydrates, 142; Absorption Spectrum and Fluorescence of Mercury Vapour, 504; on the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region, 557; a Focusing Screen for Use in Photographing Ultra-violet Spectra, 581 Hartmann (Prof.), Monochromatic Photographs of the Orion Nebula, 230 Hartwig (Prof.), Nova Aquila No. 2, 518 Harvard College Observatory Annual Report, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 256; Prof. Wendell, 256; Mrs. Fleming, 256; Prof. Frost, 256 Harvey and the Progress of Frederick T. Roberts, 258 Harzer (Prof.), Ancient Japanese Mathematics, 640 Hasselberg (Dr.), Investigation of the Arc Spectrum of Tungsten, 134 Hatch (Dr. F. H.), the Large Diamond found in the Premier Mine, Transvaal, 41 Hatch (F. H.), the Geology of South Africa, 346 : Hatton (George), Recent Developments in the Bertrand- Thiel Process of Steel Manufacture, 68 Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, Studien ueber, Dr. Erik Harnack, Dr. George J. Burch, F.R.S., 602 Havelock (T. H.), the Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane, 269 Medical Science, Dr. Vature, 4 ms | Index December 14, 1605 Hayden (H. iis) 5 U in Tibet, 285 Head (Archibald P.), Death of, 203 Health: Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Milk Depots, G. F. McCleary, 6; Public Health and Sewage Purifi- cation, 97; the Effects of Tropical Light on W hite Men, Major Charles E. Woodruff, 172 ; Congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health, 306 Heape (Walter), Ovulation and Degeneration of Ova in the Rabbit, 188 Heat: the Critical Substances, Dr. Geology of the Provinces of Tsang and Temperature and Pressure of Living F. J. Allen, 7; Difference in Tempera- ture of Bodies in Contact, E. Rogovski, 47; New Type of Electric Furnace, with a Re-determination of the Melting Point of Platinum, Dr. J. A. Harker, 94; Deter- mination of the Specific Heat of Superheated Steam by Throttling, &c., A. H. Peake, 116; a Simple Method of Determining the Radiation Constant, Dr. A. D. Denning, 118; a Bolometer for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation, Prof. H. L. Callendar, 118; Thermal De- composition of Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde, W. A. Bone and H. L. Smith, 141; Specific Heat of Iron at High Temperatures, Dr. J. A. Harker, 142; the Elimin- ation of Accidental Loss of Heat in Accurate Calori- metry, Theodore W. Richards, Lawrence J. Henderson, and George S. Forbes, 206; Fery Radiation Pyrometer, 209; Methed for Determining the Specific Heats of Solu- tions, P. Th. Muller and C. Fuchs, 216; Determination of Melting Points at Low Temperatures, L. F. Gutt- mann, 239; Combustion of Sulphur in the Calorimetric Bomb, H. Giran, 239; the Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the’ Felspars, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, 258; Auto-catalytic Decomposition of Silver Oxide under the Influence of Heat, Gilbert N. Lewis, 277; a Text-book of Physics, Heat, Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., and Prof. J. J. Thomson, 293; High Tempera- ture Measurements, H. Le Chatelier and O. Boned) 293; Note on the Boiling Points of Solutions, S. Johnson, 392; Thermochemistry of the Hydrazones, oe Landrieu, 392; State of Matter in the Neighbourhood of the Critical Point, Gabriel Bertrand and Jean Lecarme, 360; a New Thermojunction, A. de Forest Palmer, 610; a Phenomenon of Cooling Silver Wires Plunged into Water, and through which Electric Currents are Passing, E. Rogovsky, 648 Heath (Christopher), Death of, 347 Heath (Thomas Edward), Our Stellar Universe, a Road- book to the Stars, 531; Our Stellar Universe (Six Stereo- grams of Sun and Stars), 531 Heaviside (Oliver, F.R.S.), the Transverse Momentum of an Electron, 429 Hedgecock (G. G.), Fungal Diseases on Cauliflowers, 516 Heidekultur, Handbuch der, Dr. P. Graebner, 173 Heilprin (Prof. Angelo), the Tower of Pelée, New Studies of the Great Volcano of Martinique, 101 Heller (W. Mayhowe), Elementary Experimental Science, an Introduction to the Study of Scientific Method, 317 Helmert’s Formula for Gravity, Ottavio Zanotti Bianco, 534 Hemsalech (G. A.), Effects of Foucault Currents and the Hysteresis of Iron on Oscillatory Sparks, 95 Henderson (Laurence J.), the Elimination of Loss of Heat in Accurate Calorimetry, 206 Henry (J.), Modern Electricity, 99 Herbette (Jean), Isomorphous Mixtures of the Tartrates of Thallium and Potassium, 216 Herdman (Dr.), Hemichordata, Fishes, 103 Heredity: the Inheritance of Acquired Characters, W. Wocds Smyth, 152; Mendelian Heredity in Rabbits, C. C. Hurst, 209; an Hereditary Abnormality in the Human Hand and its Relation to Mendelism, Dr. W. C. Farabee, 254; the Causation of Variations, Dr. G. Archdall Reid, 315 Herman (Otto), Migration of Birds, 326 Hermite et de Stieltjes, Correspondance d’, 313 Herpetology: the Story of Reptile Life, W. P. Pycraft, 395; the Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the Boine Snakes, Frank E. Beddard, F.R.S., 630 Hess (Prof.), Influence of Light in causing a Migration of Pigment in the Retina of Cephalopods, 354 Accidental Ascidians and Amphioxus, Hewitt (C. G.), the Buccal Pits of Peripatus, 624 Hewlett (Prof. R. T.), Report on the Sanitation and Anti- Malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, Prof. Rubert Boyce, F.R.S., Arthur Evans and H. Herbert Clarke, 67; the Present Position of the Cancer Problem, 295; Sterilisation of Water in the Field, 431; Corr., 515; a Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology, Dr. fee Dodge Frost, 483 Hickson (Prof. Sydney J., F.R.S.), a Parasite of the House- fly, 429; Chelifers and Hoccanee 629 Hidden (W. E.), Remarkable Finds of Rare Minerals in Texas, 206 High Temperature Measurements, Boudouard, 293 High-frequency Electrical Jervis-Smith, F.R.S., 7 Highways and Byways in Derbyshire, J. B. Firth, 100 Hill (J. A.), Fights between Two Species of Ants, 326 Hill (M. D.), the Habits of Testacella, 199; a Parasite of the House-fly, 397 Hillebrand (W. F.), the Telluride Ores, 493 History of Pharmacy, Hermann Schelenz, 27 Hobart (H. M.), the Insulation of Electric Machines, 149 Hoff (Karl Ernst Adolf von), der Bahnbrecher moderner Geologie, Dr. Otto Reich, 123 Hoff’s (van "t) Hypothesis of Osmotic Pressure of Solutions, Prof. A. Battelli and A. Stefanini, 541 Holland (T. H., F.R.S.), Mineral Production of India, 162 ; Geological Survey of India, 254; the Kangra Earth- quake of April 4, 1905, 425 Holland, Education in Belgium and, F. H. Perry-Coste, 221 Holleman (Dr. A. F.), a Laboratory Chemistry for Beginners, 28 Hollick (Dr. A.), Amber in United States, 40 Hollis (A. C.), the Masai, their Language and Folklore, 83 Holmes (J. A.), the Coal and Lignites of the. United States, Preliminary Report, 493-4 Holt (A., jun.), Synthesis of Fermaldehyde, 141 Holt (E. W. L.), Schizopoda captured in the Bay of Biscay, 118 Hooper (D.), Ancient Eastern Medicine Lycium or Rusot is Berberis Extract, 435 Hopkinson (Prof. B.), the High Temperatures, 480 Hora (J. Henry and K. J.), Modern Electricity, 99 Horrocks (Major), the Causative Organism of Mediter- ranean Fever, 17; Goats Capable of ‘Transmitting Mediterranean and Malta Fever, 462 Horses: the American Thoroughbred, C. E. Trevathan, H. Le Chatelier and O. Treatment, the, Rev. F. J. Scorification Assay for Gold Manual of Organic Elastic Properties of Steel at 395 Hersley (Sir Victor, F.R.S.), to Spatial Orientation and Locomotion, at Oxford, 389 Houdas (J.), Nature of the Hydrocyanic Glucoside of the Black Elder, 336 Houghton (Sidney A.), Note on the Failure of an Iron Plate through Fatigue, 68 House-flies, Chelifers and, F.R.S., 629 House-fly, a Parasite of the, M. D. Hill, 397; Sydney J. eS BRS AZO). kU Pocock, 604 Howe (J. Geological Aspect of North-eastern Terri- tories of ee Congo Free State, 46 Howell (Mr.), a New Carbon, 351 Howorth (Captain H. G.), the Presence of Greenish Coloured Markings in the Fractured Surfaces of Test- pieces, 573 Howorth (Sir Henry H.), the Cerebellum, its Relation Boyle Lecture Prof. Sydney J. Hickson, Prof. Ice or Water, another Appeal to Induction from the Scholastic Methods of Modern Geology, 553 Hubbard (Mr rs. Emma), Death and Obituary Notice of, 131 Hughes (H. W.), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, the North Staffordshire Coalfields, W. Gibson, G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, and J. Ward, 612 Huichol Indians, Decorative Art of the, Dr. Carl Lum- holtz, 260 Hull (Prof. Gordon F.), Clear Glass Vane, 198 the Pressure of Radiation on a Index Nature, December 14, 1905 XXII Hungary, the State and Agriculture in, Dr. Ignatius .Daranyi, 291 Turkestan, with and Sistan, Huntington (Ellsworth), Explorations in an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia 306 Hurst (C. C.), Mendelian Heredity in Rabbits, 209 Hurst (C.), Pelee on the Correlation of Sex, 332 Hussey (Prof.), Catalogue of New Double Stars, 90 Hutchins (D. E.), Tree Planting in South Africa, 138 Hutchinson (A.), Chemical Composition of Lengenbachite, 215 Hutton (Captain F. W., F.R.S.), Ancient Antarctica, 244 Hutton (R. S.), New Models of Laboratory Electric Furnaces, 91; le Four Electrique: son Origine, ses Transformations et ses Applications, Adolphe Minet, 267 Huygens (Christiaan), GEuvres completes de, 362 Hyades, Proper Motions of the, Prof. Donner, Kapteyn and W. de Sitter, 436 Hydraulics: Essais d’Hydraulique souterraine et fluviale, Edmond Maillet, 25; Water Jet Method of Applying the Power carried by High-pressure Water, the Doble Needle Regulating Nozzle, H. C. Crowell and GisGs DE Lenth; 42; Death and Obituary Notice of James Mansergh, F.R.S., 181; Problems of the Panama Canal, Brig.- General Henry L. Abbot, 394; Précis d’Hydraulique— La Houille Blanche, Raymond Busquet, 427 Hydrography: Hydrographical and Biological Investi- gations in Norwegian Fjords, O. Nordgaard, 45; Bathy- metry, Deposits and Temperature of the South-western Pacific, Sir John Murray, K.C.B., 391; Death of Sir William Wharton, K.C.B., F.R.S., 563; Obituary Notice of, 586 Hydrometer as a Seismometer, C. V. Burton, 269 Hygiene: a Study of the Process of Nitrification with Reference to the Purification of Sewage, Dr. Harriette Chick, 117; the Prevention of Senility, Sir James Crichton Browne, F.R.S., 306; Method for the Steril- isation of Drinking Water during a Campaign, Lieut. Nesfield, 307 ; Bacteriological Standard of Purity of Milk, Dr. Newman, 307; Physical Deterioration, Dr. Dawson Williams, 331; Prof. R. J. Anderson, 331; W. D. Spanton, 332; Mrs. F. M. Dickinson Berry, 332; In- fluence of Environment on Physical Development, William Hall, 331; the Sterilisation of Water in the Field, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 431 the Government Analyst of Trinidad, Profs. the, G. T. Bennett, 1098; 462 Hymenoptera : Hymenopteren-Studien, W. A. Schulz, 7 Ice, the Formation of, and the Grained Structure of Glaciers, Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S., at Royal Society, 543 Ice or Water, another Appeal to Scholastic Methods of Modern Geology, Howorth, F.R.S., 553 Iceland, the Birds of, B. Hantzsch, Iceland, the Ferdes and, Annandale, 506 Ichthyology: the Sleep of Fishes, of the Plaice, Induction from the Sir Henry H. 454 Studies in Island Life, N. F. Davis, 133; Biology with Special Regard to the Danish Plaice Fishery, Dr. A. C. Johansen, 139; New White Sturgeon, Messrs. Forbes and Robinson, 156; New Type of Scom- broid Fish from Argentine Waters, Chenogaster holm- bergi, F. Lahille, 348; Nesting Habits of Paradise, or Rainbow, Fish (Polyacanthus opercularis), Dr. Waite, 348; Migrations and Growth of Plaice, A. Meek, 348; Life-history of Hag-fishes or Myxinoids, Miss Worthing- ton, 589; a Guide to the Study of Fishes, David Starr Jordan, 625; Can Fish Hear? Dr. O. Kérner, 638 Identification por las Impresiones digito-palmares Daetiloscopia), Dr. Alberto Yvert, 628 Identification, Guide to Finger-print, Henry Faulds, Supp. to October 10, iv Ihlseng (M. C.), a Manual of Mining, 53 Ijima (Dr. 1.), New Cestode Worm, 348 Image, the Latent, Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S., 308 Ineandescence of Meteors, George A. Brown, 604; A. S. H., 60. Index Phytochemicus, Drs. J. C. Ritsema and J. Sack, 603 India: a Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, (La ; Corr., 515; Report of | S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston, Ser Wise Stephens, 73; the Story of an Indian Upland, F. B. Bradley-Birt, 105; an Indian Garden, Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar, Dr. Otto Stapf, 125; the Survey of India, 129; Mineral Production of India, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 162; Introduction of a Standard Time on the Railways of India, 181 ; Entrance Examination to the Indian Forest Service, 274; the Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, Butterflies, Lieut.-Colonel C, T. Bingham, 290; Exploration of the Indian Ocean, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S.; 341; the Sterm of July 22 and 24 at Gujarat, 463; Plant Remains, A. C. Seward, 539; Vertebrate Remains, Dr. A. S. Woodwa 539; Physical Laboratories in Germany, Prof. G. W. Kiichler’s Report to Director-General of enon in India, 605; Indigo Planting and Synthetic Indigo, 63 Inertia, the Electromagnetic iheaey Of, Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Mill McCleary, 6 Ingle (H.), Nitrogen in Pretoria Rainfall, Constituents of Transvaal Soils, 643 Ingold (Edwin G.), Elementary Experimental Science, an Intreduction to the Study of Scientific Method, 317 Inheritance of Acquired Characters, the, W. Woods Smyth, 152 Injurious Insects, observed in the E. Collinge, 340 Injurious Insects, the Spread of, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 397 Innsbruck, International Meteorological Conference at, 510, 562 Inoculation, a Short Treatise on Anti-typhoid, Dr. Wright, 122 Insanity : Manual of Psychiatry, J. R. de Fursac, 363 Insects: Insect Life, a Short Account of the Classification and Habits of Insects, Fred. VY. Theobald, 150; Report on the Injurious Insects and Other Animals observed in the Midland Counties during 1904, Walter E. colnes 340; the Spread of Injurious Insects, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 397 170 Depéts, G. BF: 643 ; Chemical Report on the, and Other Animals Midland Counties during 1904, Walter ACY E. Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the, 212 Institution of Mining Engineers, 518 Institution of Naval Architects, 303 Insulation of Electric Machines, the, H. W. Turner and H. M. Hobart, Prof. Ernest Wilson, 149 International Congress of Anatomists, First, 400 International Congress on Radiology and lonisation, 611 International Congress on Tuberculosis, the, 581 International Meteorological Conference at Innsbruck, 510, 562 International Ornithological Congress, the Fourth, 177 International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research, the, 490, 563 Inventor’s Guide to Patent Law the, James Roberts, 53 Inverted Slab in a Cromlech, an, Edward Greenly, 152 Ionisation, International Congress on Radiology and, 611 Iowa, Clays and Clay Industries of, S. W. Beyer, G. W- Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston, 388 Irby (Lieut.-Colonel L. H. L.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 62 Ireland: Dublin Royal Irish Academy, 23, 240, 359 Iron and Steel Institute, 68, 572 Iron and Steel, the Crystallisation of, an Introduction to the Study of Metallography, Dr. J. W. Mellor, A. McWilliam, 532 Irrigation; Opening Address in Section G at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Colonel Sir C. Scott Moncrieff, K.C.S.1., K.C.M.G., R.E., LL.D., and the New Practice, 405 Irving (Rev. A.), the Rigidity of the Earth’s Interior, 8; the Consolidation of the Earth, 79; the Romance of the Nitrogen Atom, 151 Isenthal (Messrs. and Co.’s) Installation for the Produc- tion of High-tension Electricity, 18; (1) Resonance In- duction Coil and High Potential Apparatus, (2) Reson- ance Electromagnet, 91 Islands for Weather Forecasting Purposes, Dr. J. S. Lockyer, 111; W. Ernest Cooke, 343 William | Nature, December 14, ses] XXII Isometric Projection, Oblique and, John Watson, 629 Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars, the, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, 258 Israélites, le Systéme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des, d’aprés la Bible, B. P. Moors, 506 Jacquerod (Adrien), Compressibility of Different Gases below Atmospheric Pressure, 119; Expansion and Density of some Gases at High Temperatures, the Application to the Determination of their Molecular Weights, 168 Jaegermann (Prof.), the Motion of the Tail of Borrelly’s Comet (1903 iv), 135 Jambunathan (N. S.), Social Spiders, 86 James (S. P.), a Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, 73 Jamieson (T.), Science Farmer’s Handbook, 325 Jamieson (W.), Graphs for Beginners, 533 Janssen (Prof.), French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, 518; Further Results of the French Eclipse Ex- peditions, 639 Japan: Medical and Surgical Ability of the Japanese, Sir Frederick Treves, 38; Why Japan is Victorious, 128; Pulse-rate and Atmospheric Pressure, T. Okada, 253; a Magnetic Survey of Japan, Prof. A. Tanakadate, 580; Methods of the Japanese Naval Medical Service, Surgeon- General Suzuki, 589; Ancient Japanese Mathematics, Prof. Harzer, 640 Japp (Dr. A. H.), Death of, 563 Japp (F. R.), a Condensation Product of Mandelonitrile, 71 Jasche (G. B.), Immanuel Kant’s Logik, 396 Jaumann (Dr. G.), die Grundlagen der Bewegungslehre von einem modernen Standpunkte aus, 51 Jeans (J. H.), the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of Radiation, 1o1; Application of Statistical Mechanics to the General Dynamics of Matter and Ether, 261; a Comparison between Two Theories of Radiation, 203 ; Cosmical Evolution, 591 Jebb (Sir Richard C€., Litt.D., D.C.L., M-.P.), Opening Address in Section L at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, University Education and National Life, 545 Jennings (Prof. Herbert S.), Contributions the Behaviour of Lower Organisms, 3 Jervis-Smith (Rev. F. J., F.R.S.), the Electrical Treatment, 7 Jessop (C. M.), Geometrical Conics, 393 Joannis (A.), Action of Potassammonium Bromide, 71 Johansen (Dr. A. C.), Biology of the Plaice, with Special Regard to the Danish Plaice Fishery, 139 Johnson (Rey. S. J.), Death of, 588 Johnson (S. N.), Note on the Boiling Points of Solutions, and Practice of Agriculture, > to the Study of High-frequency upon Barium 392 Johnston (Colonel), Relation between Stonehenge, Sarum, and Grovely Castle, 16 Johnston (Sir H. H., G.C.M.G., K.C.B.), the Masai, their Language and Folklore, 83 Johnston (Sir H. H.), Criticisms of the Hon. Walter Rothschild’s Proposed Classification of the Anthropoid Apes, 119 Johnston (J.), Tetramethylammonium Hydroxide, 239 Johnston (J. A. H.), the Intersection of Two Conic Sec- tions, 95 Johnston (Captain W. J.), Trattato di Geodesia Teoretica, Paolo Pizzetti, 242 Jolly (W. A.), Contributions to the Physiology of Mam- malian Reproduction, part i., the CEstrous Cycle in the Dog, part ii., the Ovary as an Organ of Internal Secre- tion, 358 ° Joly (Prof. Charles Quaternions, 121 Joly (Dr. J., F.R.S.), Suggested Use of Floating Break- waters moored to the Bottom to Prevent the Silting up of Harbours, 300; the Latent Image, 308 Jordan (David Starr), a Guide to the Study of Fishes, 625 Jérgensen (E.), the Protist Plankton and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples, 45 Jottrand (F.), Method of cutting Metals by a Jet of Oxygen, 236 ; Jasper, F.R:S.), a Manual’ of Jowett (H. A. D.), Epinephrine, 239 Julian (H. F.), Investigation of the Part played by Oxygen in the Dissolution of Gold by Cyanide Solutions, 642 Julius (Prof.) Anomalous Dispersion and ‘‘ Flocculi,’’ Dutch Observations of the Corona, 303 Jupiter: Observations of Jupiter, MM. Flammarion and Benoit, 43; Brightness of Jupiter’s Satellites, Prof. Wendell, 66; Prof. W. de Sitter, 207; Observations of Jupiter’s Satellites, Profs. A. A. Nijland and J. van d. Bilt, 567; Provisional Elements for Jupiter’s Sixth Satellite, Mr. Crommelin, 66; Jupiter’s Sixth and Seventh Satellites, Prof. Perrine, 135; Dr. Albrecht, 352; Dr. Frank E. Ross, 352; Observations of Jupiter’s Seventh Satellite, Prof. Albrecht, 424; a Suspected Sudden Change on Jupiter, Major Molesworth, 207; Observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Stanley Williams, 330; Eye- estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spots, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 518 Synthesis of Substances Allied to 19 ; Kangra Earthquake of April 4, 1905, the, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 428 Kant’s (Immanuel) Logik, G. B. Jasche, 396 Kapteyn (Prof.), Proper Motions of the Hyades, 436; Star Streaming, 641 Kasner (Dr. Edward), Modern Concepts of Infinity fore- seen by Galileo, 329 Kayser (Prof. H.), Handbuch der Spectroscopie, 627 Keith (Rev. Dr. J.), Death of, 384 Keltic Researches, E. W. B. Nicholson, 145 Kelvin (Lord), on the Kinetic and Statistical Equilibrium of Ether in Ponderable Matter at any Temperature, 641 Kennedy (Dr. Alex. B. W., F.R.S.), the Academic Side of Technical Training, 256 Kern (E. F.), the ‘‘ Lead Voltameter,’’ 42 Kidston (R., F.R.S.), the Internal Structure of Sigillaria elegans, 143; the Microsporangia of Lyginodendron, 262 Kieffer (l’Abbé J. J.), Monographie des Cynipides: d’Europe et d’Algérie, 455 Kimura (Mr.), Variations of Latitude, 437 Kingsmill (W.), the Position of Ophir, 491 Kirby (W. F.), Death and Obituary Notice of George Bowdler Buckton, F.R.S., 587 Kittl (Ernst), Geologie der Umgebung ven Sarajevo, 51 Klein (Dr. E., F.R.S.), a Treatise on Plague, Dr. W. J. Simpson, 529 Kling (André), Acetol a Pseudo-acid, 72; Methyl-acetyl- carbinol, 143 Klobb (T.), a Bivalent Phytosterine Alcohol, 239 Knecht (Prof. E.), Constituents of Manchester Soot, 167 Knott (Dr. C. G.), Influence of Cross Magnetisation on the Relation between Resistance and Magnetisation in Nickel, 392 Knowledge, the New, Robert Kennedy Duncan, 241 Knox (J.), a Condensation ‘Product of Mandelonitrile, 71 Kny (Prof. L.), Perception in Plants, 278 Kohn-Abrest (M.), Different States of Oxidation of Aluminium Powder, 360 Konen (Dr.), Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, 426 i Korner (Dr. O.), Can Fish Hear? 638 Kossel (Prof.), the Infection of Man by Bovine Tubercle Bacilli, 582 ‘ Kraemer (Mr.), Oligodynamical Action of Copper Foil on Certain Intestinal Organisms, 462 Kreideformation, Neue Fische und Reptilien aus der boéhmischen, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch and Dr. Fr. Bayer, aeretder (D. Albert), Special Form of Voltameter, 387 Kreusler (Dr. H.), Observations of “* D,”’ in the Spectrum, 66 Kronthal (Dr. P.), Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie, 29 Kiichler’s (Prof. G. W.) Report to Director-General of Education in India, Physical Laboratories in Germany, 605 Kultur der Menschheit, das Alter der wirtschaftlichen, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick, Ed. Hahn, 6 Kitimmel (H. B.), Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, 388 Kuss Solar (G.), Intra-organic Combusticns Measured by the XXIV Index aVature, December 14, 1905 Respiratory Exchanges as affected by Residence at an Altitude of 4350 Metres, 336 Kistner (F.), a Spectrographic Determination of the Solar Parallax, 611 Kynaston (H.), Geological Features of the Diamond Pipes of the Pretoria District, 464 Laboratories: Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners, Dr. A. F. Holleman, 28; Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology, Dr. William Dodge Frost, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 483; Physical Laboratories in Germany, Prof. G. W. Kiichler’s Report to Director- General of Education in India, 605; Report of the Prin- cipal Chemist upon the Work of the Government Labor- atory for the Year Ending March 31, 1903, 634 Lacroix (A.), Basic Magnesium Carbonates from the Santorin Eruption of 1866, 95; the Earthquake at Stromboli on September 8 and the Present State of the Volcano, 624 Lahiile (F.), New Type of Scombroid Fish from Argentine Waters, Chenogaster holmbergi, 348 Lakes: die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Seen, Otto, 316 Lamb (H.), Death of, 325 Lambert (P.), Absorption Spectrum of Manganous Salts, 392 Lampland (Mr.), Photographs of the Martian Canals, 302; the North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904-1905, 303; Visibility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observatory, 592 Lamson (Miss), Orbit of Comet 19054, 66 Land (W. J. G.), Interesting Taxonomic Characters of the uymnospermous Genus Torreya, 133 Landrieu (Ph.), Thermochemistry of the Hydrazones, 392 Lang (W._R.), Interaction of Hydrogen Sulphide and Sulphur Dioxide, 71 Langley (Dr. S. P.), Experiments with the Langley Aéro- drome, 645 Lankester (Prof. E. Ray, F.R.S.), Romanes Lecture at Oxford, 184 Larmor (Prof. J., F.R.S.), Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George Stokes, 29; the Mechanics of the Ascent of Sap in Trees, Paper at Royal Society, 644 Latent Image, the, Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S., 308 Dr Nature and Man, Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures, Prof. N. Colajanni, 533 Latitude, Variations of, Prof. T. Albrecht, 110; Mr. Kimura, 437; Mr. Nakano, 437 Latter (Oswald H.), Notes on the Habits of Testacella, 176 Laubblatter, die Lichtsinnesorgane der, Dr. G. Haber- landt, 323 Laumonier (Dr.), New Methods of Treatment, 122 Laveran (A.), Treatment of Trypanosomatous Disease (Surra, Mbori) by Arsenious Acid and Trypan Red, 288 Lazarus der Begriinder der Volkerpsychologie, Dr. Alfred Leicht, 396 ; Le Bon (Dr. Gustave), ’Evolution de la Matiére, 505 Le Chatelier (H.), High Temperature Measurements, 293 Leavitt (Miss), Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 66; Star with a Large Proper Motion, 640 Lebeau (Paul), Physical Properties of Propane, 143 Lebeau (M.), Reactions between Fluorine and the Com- pounds of Nitrogen and Oxygen, 183; Action of Fluorine on some Compounds of Nitrogen, 206 Lecarme (Jean), State of Matter in the Neighbourhood of the Critical Point, 360 Lechalas (Georges), Introduction 4 la Géometrie générale, 313 Lee (Gabriel W.), les Concrétions phosphatées de l’Agulhas Bank (Cape of Good Hope), Dr. Leon W. Collet, avec une Description de la Glauconie qu’elles renferment, 286-7 Lees (Dr. C. H.), Mathematical and Physical Science at the British Association, 640 Lefevre (Jules), on the Development of Green Plants jin Light in the Complete Absence of Carbon Dioxide and in an Artificial Soil containing Amides, 312 Léger (E.), Methylnataloeemodine and Natalcemodine, Lehmann (Dr. mena, 19 143 W.), Ancient Drawings of Celestial Pheno- Leibniz (G. W. v.), Neue Abhandlungen tuber den mensch- lichen Verstand, 396 Leicht (Dr. Alfred), Lazarus der Begriinder der V6lker- psychologie, 396 Leishman (Brevet Lieut.-Colonel), the Parasite of *‘ Kala Azar,’’ 92 Leman, le, Monographie Limnologique, Prof. F. A. Forel, 148 reat (G. C. D.), Water Jet Method of applying the Power carried by High-pressure Water, the Doble Needle Regulating Nozzle, 42 Lepidoptera: Moths and Butterflies, Mary C. Dickerson, 76; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalzenz in the British Museum, Sir George F. Hampson, Bart., 174; Influence de 1’Alimentation et de 1’Humidité sur la Variation des Papillons, Arnold Pictet, F. Merrifield, 632 Lépine (R.), Distribution of Sugary Substances in Blood between the Plasma and the Corpuscles, 311 Lesage (L.), Basicity of Pyranic Oxygen, 119; Halogen Compounds of Dinaphthopyryl with Metals and Metal- loids, 648 Lespineux (G.), Meuse, 236 Levi (M. G.), Part played by the Copper Salt in Deacon’s Process of preparing Chlorine from Hydrogen Chloride, ant Mineral Deposits of the Banks of the / Lewis (Gilbert N.), Auto-catalytic Decomposition of Silver Oxide under the Influence of Heat, 277; Decomposition of Silver Oxide at High Temperatures, 350 Lexell, the Alleged Identity of Comets ‘‘ Brooks 1889” and, Dr. Charles L. Poor, 19 Libert (Lucien), New Observatory in Algiers, 207 Liége Mining and Metallurgical Congress, the, 236 Light : the Effects of Tropical Light on White Men, Major Charles E. Woodruff, 172; Properties of Photographic Plates Exposed to Light, L. H. Winn, 485 Light-perceiving Organs of Plants, the, Dr. G. Haber- landt, 323 Light-variation of Saturn’s Satellites, Dr. P. Guthniclk, 611 Lightning, Flashes of, which Leave a Glow in their Wake, Em. Touchet, 18 Liquid Air: on the Thermoelectric Junction as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures, and on Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters, Sir James Dewar at Royal Society, 352 Limnology : Monographie Limnologique, le Leman, Prof. F. A. Forel, 148; die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Seen, Dr. Otto, 316 Lindgren (W.), Cripple Creek Gold Deposits in Colorado, 493 Linnean Society, 118, 166 Linnean Society, New South Wales, 47, 192, 312, 528, 552 Linton (A.), Rainfall in British East Africa, 590 Lippmann (G.), Photographs in Colour of the Spectrum, Negative by Transmission, 167 Lister (J. J., F.R.S.), on the Dimorphism of the English Species of Nummulites, and the Size of the Megalosphere in Relation to that of the Microspheric and Megalospheric Tests in this Genus, 188 Liston (Dr. W. G.), a Monograph of the Anopheles Mos- quitoes of India, 73 Literature of the Celts, its History and Romance, the, Magnus Maclean, 145 Little (Archibald), the Far East, 626 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Report on the Sani- tation and Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, Prof. Rubert Boyce, F.R.S., Arthur Evans, and H. Herbert Clarke, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 67 Liversidge (Prof. A.), the So-called Gold-coated Teeth in Sheep, 504 Living Substances, the Critical Temperature and Pressure of, Dr. F. J. Allen, 7 Lockyer (Sir Norman, K.C.B., F.R.S.), Notes en Stone- henge, 32, 246, 270 Lockyer (Dr. William J. S.), Recent Spectroheliograph Results, 9; Islands for Weather Forecasting Purposes, 111; Solar Changes and Weather, 129, 175; the Thames Flow and British Pressure and Rainfall Changes, 178; the Forthcoming Total Solar Eclipse, 399; the Total Nature, December 14, eee Lnadex Solar Eclipse, August 30, 457; the Solar Physics Observ- atory Eclipse Expedition, 508 Locquin (R.), Action of Sodium on the Esters of the Fatty Acids, 192 Lodge (Sir Oliver, F.R.S.), Use of Electric Valves for the Production of High-tension Continuous Current, 90; School Teaching and School Reform, 195; Electric Phenomena, 629 ; Geometry of Position, 629 Lodge (Prof. Richard W.), Notes on Assaying and Metal- lurgical Laboratory Experiments, 340 Loewy (M.), the Observatory of Paris, 495 Lomondésoff as a Natural Philosopher, B. N. Menshutkin, 42 London: Higher Education in, Sir Arthur Ricker, F.R.S., 69; Lord Londonderry, 70; the Opening of the Medical Session in London, 592; Scientific Research in Medicine, Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S., at London School of Tropical Medicine, 643 Londonderry (Lord), Higher Education in London, 70 Lord (Prof.), Radial Velocities of Thirty-one Stars, 110 Lorentz (Prof.), Messrs. Michelson and Morley’s Experi- ments on Ether, 566 Lost Double Star, a, Prof. Doolittle, 567 Love (Prof. A. E. H.), Stability of a Loaded Column, 95 Lovibond (Joseph W.), an Introduction to the Study of Colour Phenomena, 603 Lowell (Mr.), Double Canals on Mars in 1903, 89; Photo- graphic Reality of the Martian Canals, 135; a Projection on Mars, 279; Photographs of the Martian Canals, 302; the North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904-5, 303; the Formation of the New North Polar Cap on Mars, 352; Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere, 465; Visi- bility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observatory, 592 Lowry (Dr. T. Martin), Application to Electrolytes of the Hydrate Theory of Solutions, 142 Lubimenko (W.), Sensibility of the Chlorophyll Apparatus in Ombrophobe and Ombrophile Plants, 576 Lucas-Championniére (J.), the Treatment of Bone Fractures by Movement, 288 Luciani (Dr. Luigi), Physiologie des Menschen, Supp. to October 19, x Luizet (M.), Periods of the Variable Stars Y Ophiuchi, 330 Lull (Prof. R. S.), Restoration of Huge Miocene American Perissodactyle of Genus Megacerops, 348 Lumholtz (Dr. Carl), Decorative Art of Indians, 260 Luminosity and Colour, Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, 222 Lyons (Captain H. G.), Rainfall of the Nile Basin in 1904, 88; Summary of the Dimensions of the Nile and its Basin, 349 Lyrid Meteors, Real Paths of, Mr. Denning, 465 S Sagittz and the Huichol Macallum (Prof. A. B.), Nature of the Silver Reaction in Animal and Vegetable Tissues, 188 M’Alpine (A. N.), the Seeding of Pastures, 328 McCleary (G. F.), Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Milk Depots, 6 McClelland (Prof. J. A.), Relation between the Atomic Structure and Secondary Radiating Power of Substances, 158 Macdonald (Prof. J. S.), Structure and Function of Nerve Fibres, 189 MacDowall (Alex. B.), a Relation between Spring and Summer, 56 Machine Construction and Drawing, Frank Castle, 533 Machinery fer Handling Raw Material, G. F. Zimmer, 290 McKendrick (Prof. John G., F.R.S.), a Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens, Prof. R. Blondlot, 195; Action of Radium Bromide on the Electromotive Pheno- mena of the Eyeball of the Frog, 287 Maclaren (J. Malcolm), Geology of Upper Assam, 108 Maclean (Magnus), the Literature of the Celts, its History and Romance, 145 McLeod (Prof. C.), Records of Differences of Temperature between McGill College Observatory and the Top of Mount Royal, Montreal, 328 XXV McMurry (L. B.), Nature-study Lessons for Primary Grades, 483 McWilliam (A.), Thermal Transformations of Carbon Steels, 572; the Crystallisation of Iron and Steei, an Introduction to the Study of Metallography, Dr. J. W. Mellor, 532 Magellanic Cloud, Variable Stars in the Small, Miss Leavitt, 66 Magnetism: Magnetic and Electric Properties of Sheet Steel and Steel Castings, G. Dillner and A. F. Enstrém, 69; Second Stage Magnetism and Electricity, Dr. R. Wallace Stewart, 77; Effects of Foucault Currents and the Hysteresis of Iron on Oscillatory Sparks, G. A. Hemsalech, 95; Magnetic Quality of a Boschovichian Assemblage of Molecular Magnets, Dr. W. Peddie, 167 ; Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and R. A. Hadfield, 190; Influence of Concen- tration on the Magnetic Properties of Solutions of Cobalt, P. Vaillant, 216; Magneto-optics of Sodium Vapour and the Rotatory Dispersion Formula, Prof. R. W. Wood, 286; Magnetic Properties of Demagnetised and Annealed Iron, James Russell, 287; Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 342; Influence of Cross Magnet- isation on the Relation between Resistance and Magnetisation in Nickel, Dr. C. G. Knott, 392; Mag- netic Double Refraction, New Active Liquids, A. Cotton and H. Mouton, 392; a Magnetic Survey of Japan, Prof. A. Tanakadate, 580; Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, Dr. Erik Harnack, Dr. George J. Burch, F.R.S., 602 Maiden (J. H.), a Critical Revision of the Genus Euca- lyptus, 6; Eucalypts of the Blue Mountains, N.S.W., 312 Mailhe (A.), Reduction of Aldoximes, 239; Synthesis of the Three Tertiary Dimethyleyclohexanols and of the Hydro- carbons connected with Them, 263 ; Hydrogenation of the Ketoximes, a Synthesis of New Amines, 288; Catalytic Decomposition of Monochlor-derivatives of Methane Hydrocarbons in Contact with Anhydrous Metallic Chlorides, 336; a Secondary Reaction of the Halogen Organo-magnesium Compounds, 359 Maillet (Edmond), Essais d’Hydraulique souterraine et fluviale, 25 Malaria: Report on the Sanitation and Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Free- town, Prof. Rubert Boyce, F.R.S., Arthur Evans, and H. Herbert Clarke, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 67; the Possi- bility of reducing Mosquitoes, Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., 151; Anti-malaria Measures in Malay States, 252 Malfitano (G.), Physical Units of Albuminoid Material, and on the Part played by Lime in its Coagulation, 528 Mallock (A., F.R.S.), Clock and Chronometer by Thomas Mudge, ot Mallock (W. H.), Attacks on Science, 516 Man, Nature and, Romanes Lecture at Oxford, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 184 Man, Nature and, Prof. John Perry, F.R.S., 199 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 167, 624, nix Mancerdh (James, F.R.S.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 181 Manson (Mr.), Recent Positions of Eros, 207 Maquenne (L.), Potatoe Starch, 95; the Absolute Desicca- tion of Vegetable Products, 648 Marcuse (Dr. Adolf), Handbuch der geographischen Ort- bestimmung ftir Geographen und _ Forschungsreisende, 481 Marie (A.), Toxic Extract from the Cerebral Substance, Moris (C.), Electrolytic Reduction of the Nitrocinnamic Acids, 71 Marine Biology : Influence of the Humboldt Current on the Marine Life West of Callao, Prof. Alexander Agassiz, 17; Hydrographical and Biological Investigations in Norwegian Fjords, O. Nordgaard, 45 ; the Protist Plankton and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples, E. J@rgensen, 45 ; Schizopoda captured in the Bay of Biscay, E. W. L. Holt.and W. M. Tattersall, 118; the Coral Siderastraea vadians and its Post-larval Development, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185 ; Medusz found in the Firth of Clyde, E. T. XXVI1 Lndex Nature, December 14, 1905 Browne, 191; Firth of Clyde, Dr. T. Scott, 191; les Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs, Eugéne Penard, 218; les Concrétions phosphatées de 1’Agulhas Bank (Cape of Good Hope), Dr. Leon W. Collet, avec une Description de la Glau- conie qu’elles renferment, Gabriel W. Lee, 286-7; Alcyonarians of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedi- tion, Prof. J. A. Thomson and James Ritchie, 287; Ex- ploration of the Indian Ocean, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., 341; Four New Barnacles from the Neighbourhood of Java, Dr. N. Annandale, 360; the Millport Marine Station, S. Pace, 456; Merphology of the Madreporaria, the ‘* Fossula’’ of the Extinct Rugose Corals, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 515; the Percy Sladen Expedition in H.M.S. Sealark, the Chagos Archipelago, J. Stanley Gardiner, 57 Marine Engines and Boilers, their Design and Construc- tion, Dr. G. Bauer, 453 Marmorek (Dr.), Results Obtained by Treatment, 583 Marriner (W. W.), Influence of the Depth of Water on Speed, 303 Marro (Attilio), Manuale dell’Ingegnere Elettricista, 243 Mars: the Planet Mars, Mr. Wesley, 388; Mr. Denning, 388; Major Molesworth, 388; Double ‘‘ Canals’’ on Mars in 1903, Mr. Lowell, 89; Photographic Reality of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lowell, 135; Photographs of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lampland, 302; Mr. Lowell, 302; the Formation of the Martian Snow-caps, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 255; the North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904-5, Messrs. Lowell and Lampland, 303; the Formation of the New North Polar Cap on Mars, Mr. Lowell, 352; a Projection on Mars, Mr. Lowell, 279; Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere, Mr. Lowell, 405; Mr. Slipher, 465 Marshall (Dr. F. H. A.), Contributions to the Physiology of Mammalian Reproduction, part i., the Qistrous Cycle | in the Dog, part ii., the Ovary as an Organ of Internal Secretion, 358; the Celtic Pony, 558 Marshall (Dr. P.), Geology of Dunedin (New Zealand), 118 Marston (A.), Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, 388 Martin (Arthur J.), the Sewage Problem, 97 Martin (Hilda P.), the Effect of Radium on the Strength of Threads, 365 Martine (C.), on the Menthones and Menthols obtained by the Reduction of Pulegone by the Catalytic Action of Reduced Nickel, 95 Martinique, the Tower of Pelée, New Studies of the Great Volcano of, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, ror Martinsen (M.), Chloride and Bromide of Thorium, 167 Maryland, Relation of the Miocene of, to that of other Regions and to the Recent Fauna, W. H. Dall, 162 Masai, the, their Language and Folklore, A. C. Hollis, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M‘G., K:€-B., 83 Mascari (Prof.), Observations of Prominences on the Sun’s Limb, 158; the Solar Activity, January-June, 518 Mascart (M.), Earthquake of April 29, 47 Mass, the Measurement of, Dr. W. Hampson, 8 Massart (Prof. Jean), Death and Obituary Notice of Prof. Leo Errera, 537 Material, the Mechanical Handling of, G. F. Zimmer, 290 Mathematics: Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, William Anthony Granville, Prof. George M. Minchin, F.R.S., 26; the Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, D. F. Campbell, 126; Modern Algebra, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., 30; Death of Prof. L. Warren, 38; a New Slide Rule, Messrs. John Davis and Son, 45, 102; Fictitious Problems in Mathematics, An Old Average College Don, 56; the Reviewer, 56; A. B. Basset, IOS Seren Oe 1 lls Lehn, IIIS) Gite eA Om 18h Clarke, F.R.S., 102; Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 102, 175; Principien der Metaphysik, Dr. Branislav Petronievics, 75; an Introduction to Projective Geometry, and _ its Applications, Dr. Arnold Emch, 77; Verb Functions, with Notes on the Solution of Equations by Operative Division, Prof. Ronald Ross, F.R.S., 88; the Inter- section of Two Conic Sections, J. A. H. Johnston, 95; High Pellian Factorisation, Lieut.-Colonel A. Cunning- ham, 95; Stability of a Loaded Column, Prof. A. E. H. Love, 95; Mathematical Society, 95, 190; Introductory Mathematics, R. B. Morgan, tor; a Manual of Quaternions, Prof. Charles Jasper Joly; RaReSe cen: Free-swimming Crustacea found in the | an Introduction to Elementary Statics (Treated Graphically), R. Nettell, 126; a Preparatory Course in Geometry, W. P. Workman and A. G. Cracknell, 150; Radial Area-scale, R. W. R. Edwards, 150; Mathe- matische Einfuhrung in die Elektronentheorie, Dr. A. H. Bucherer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170; a Class of Many- valued Functions defined by a Definite Integral, G. H. Hardy, 190; Conditions of Rudicibility of any Group of Linear Substitutions, Prof. W. Burnside, 190; Criteria for the Finiteness of Order of a Group of Linear Sub- stitutions, Prof. W. Burnside, 190; the Problem of the Random Walk, Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S., 294, 342; the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 318; Graphical Solution of Cubic and Quartic Equations, H. Ivah Thomsen, 295; la Philosophie naturelle in- tégrale et les Rudiments des Sciences exactes, Dr. A. Rist, 313; Etude sur le Développement des Méthodes géometriques, Gaston Darboux, 313; sur le Développe- ment de ]’Analyse et ses Rapports avec diverses Sciences, Emile Picard, 313; Introduction a la Géométrie générale, Georges Lechalas, 313; Introduction 4 la Théorie des Fonctions d’une Variable, Jules Tannery, 313; Corre- spondance d’Hermite et de Stieltjes, 313; Modern Con- cepts of Infinity foreseen by Galileo, Dr. Edward Kasner, 329; Two-foot Rule designed by Mr. Scott, 329; Manuel Pratique de Cinématique navale et maritime, Captain Leon Vidal, Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R-S., 361; (Euvres complétes de Christiaan Huygens, 362; Mathe- matical Recreations and Essays, W. W. Rouse Ball, 364; Curious French and German Poetical Tributes to Archimedes, 385; Rhymes on the Value of z, F.R.S., 558; 7, 631; the Theorems of Padre Gerolamo Saccheri on the Sum of the Angles of a Triangle, Dr. Roberto Bonola, 387; Interesting Application of the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity, Prof. Vito Volterra, 387; Easy Graphs, H. S. Hall, 393; the Rudiments of Practical Mathematics, A. Consterdine and A. Barnes, 303; Elementary Practical Mathematics, H. A. Stern and W. H. Topham, 393; a First Algebra, W. M. Baker and A. A. Bourne, 393; Algebraical Grounding, D. E. Shorto, 393; Examples in Algebra, Charles M. Clay, 3903; Geometrical Conics, G. W. Caunt and C. M. Jessop, 393; Einfiihrung in die Vektoranalvysis mit Anwendungen auf die mathematische Physik, Dr. Richard Gans, 483; on the Class of Cubic Surfaces, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., 484; a Note-book of Experimental Mathematics, C. Godfrey and G. M. Bell, 507; Graphs for Beginners, W. Jamieson, 533; Mathematical and Physical Papers by the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart., 555; a Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic, Horace L. Wells, 556; Examples in Arithmetic, C. O. Tuckey, 580; the Primary Arithmetic, 580; Oblique and Isometric Projection, John Watson, 629; on the Traversing of Geometrical Figures, J. Cook Wilson, Supp. to October 19, Vi Mathews (F. Schuyler), Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music, 602 Mathot (R.), Large Gas-engines, 213 Matiére, ’Evolution de la, Dr. Gustave Le Bon, 505 Matignon (Camille), Preparation of Anhydrous Chlorides of the Metals of the Rare Earths, 47; Chemical Proper- ties of the Anhydrous Chloride of Neodymium, 216 Matsubara (K.), Preparation of Terpenes and Related Sub- stances, 23 Matter, Electrons and, Prof. C. H. Wind, 574 Maudsley (Dr. Henry), Medicine, Present and Prospective, 331 Maxwell (Sir Herbert, Bart., F.R.S.), a Rare Game Bird, 630 Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy, H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland, Maurice Solomon, 99 May (Dr. Oscar), Death of, 514 Measurement of Mass, the, Dr. W. Hampson, 8 Mechanics: Mechanism, Prof. S. Dunkerley, 4; die Grund- lagen der Bewegungslehre yon einem modernen Stand- punkte aus, Dr. G. Jaumann, 51; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 212; Application of Statistical Mechanics to the General Dynamics of Matter and Ether, J. H. Jeans, 261; the Mechanical Handling of Material, G. F. Zimmer, 290; Device for Illustrating the Super- position of Simple Harmonic Motions of Different Nature, ] December 14, 1925 Lndex XXVil Periods, W. C. Baker, 541; Mechanics, a School Course, W. D. Eggar, 601; Elements of Mechanics, Prof. Mans- field Merriman, 601; an _ Intermediate Course of Mechanics, A. W. Porter, 601; Phenomena of Per- manent Deformation in Metals, G. H. Gulliver, 609; the Mechanics of the Ascent of Sap in Trees, Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S., at Royal Society, 644; Mécanisme et Education des Mouvements, Prof. Georges Demeny, Supp. to October 19, v Medicine: Medical and Surgical Ability of the Japanese, Sir Frederick Treves, 38; New Methods of Treatment, Dr. Laumonier, 122; the Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Complications, W. H. Battle and E. M. Corner, 122; Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases, E. M. Corner, 122; a Short Treatise on Anti-typhoid Inocula- tion, Dr. A. E. Wright, 122; the Suppression of Tubercu- losis, Prof. E. von Behring, 122; Death of Prof. Hermann Northnagel, 252; Harvey and the Progress of Medical Science, Dr. Frederick T. Roberts, 258; Medical Education, Past, Present, and Future, Cooper Franklin, 330; the Meeting of the British Medical Association, 330, 354; Hospital Isolation, Dr. George Wilson, 331 ; Medicine, Present and Prospective, Dr. Henry Maudsley, 331; the Treatment of Sleeplessness, Dr. Collier, 331; Lycium or Rusot is Berberis Extract, D. Hooper, 435; Phar- macology of Indaconitine and Bikhaconitine, Dr. J. Theodore Cash, F.R.S., and Prof. Wyndham R. Dunstan, F.R.S., 551; the Opening of the Medical Session in London, 592; Scientific Research in Medicine, Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S., at London School of Tropical Medicine, 643 Mee (Arthur), a Solar Outburst? 320 Meek (A.), Migrations and Growth of Plaice, 348 Mees (C. E. K.), the Theory of Photographic Processes, part ii., on the Chemical Dynamics of Development, including the Microscopy of the Image, 141 Mellanby (Mr.), Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, 213 Mellor (E. T.), the Glacial (Dwyka) Conglomerate in the Transvaal, 26 Mellor (Dr. J. W.), the Crystallisation of Iron and Steel, an Introduction to the Study of Metallography, 532 Mendelism, an Hereditary Abnormality in the Human Hand and its Relation to, Dr. W. C. Farabee, 254 Menschen, Physiologie des, Dr. Luigi Luciani, Dr. J. A. Milroy, Supp. to October 19, x Menschen, Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmag- netismus des, Dr. Erik Harnack, Dr. George J. Burch, F.R.S., 602 Menschheit, das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick, Ed. Hahn, 6 Menshutkin (B. N.), Lomondésoff as a Natural Philosopher, 42 Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteor- ological Conditions, Weather Influences, an Empirical Study of the, Dr. E. G. Dexter, 147 Mercury, Proposed Observation of, during the Solar Eclipse, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 244 Mercury Lamp, a New Ultra-violet, Dr. O. Schott, 513 Merlo (G.), Geological Structure of the Mining District of Iglesias, 236 Merrifield (F.), Influence de 1’Alimentation et de 1’7Humidité sur la Variation des Papillons, Arnold Pictet, 632 Merrill (George P.), a Large Block of Serpentine traversed by Veins of Asbestos from Canada, Merriman (Prof. Mansfield), Elements Messier 3 and 5, Variable Stars in Bailey, 183 Metallography: the Crystallisation of Iron and Steel, an Introduction to the Study of, Dr. J. W. Mellor, A. MeWilliam, 532 Metallurgy: the ‘‘ Lead Voltameter,’’ A. G. Betts and E. F. Kern, 42; Effect Produced by Liquid-air Tempera- tures on the Properties of Iron and its Alloys, R. A. Hadfield, 68; Recent Developments in the Bertrand- Thiel Process of Steel Manufacture, J. H. Darby and George Hatton, 68; Note on the Failure of an Iron Plate through Fatigue, Sidney A. Houghton, 68; Behaviour of Sulphur in the Blast Furnace, Prof. F. Wiist and F. Wolff, 69; Magnetic and Electric Proper- ties of Sheet Steel and Steel Castings, G. Dillner and 433 of Mechanics, 601 the Clusters, Prof. A. F. Enstr6ém, 69; Alloys of Iron and Steel Tested at Liquid Air Temperature, R. A. Hadfield, 91; Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and R. A. Hadfield, 190; the Liége Mining and Metal- lurgical Congress, 236; Method of Cutting Metals by a Jet of Oxygen, F. Jottrand, 236; Special Steel, L. Guillet, 237; Electric Furnace for the Direct Production of Steel from Magnetic Sands of Taranaki, New Zealand, D. R. S. Galbraith, 299; Notes on Assaying ard. Metal- lurgical Laboratory Experiments, Prof. Richard W. Lodge, 340; Influence of Nitrogen on Iron and Steel, Hjalmar Braune, 540; the Elastic Properties of Steel at High Temperatures, Prof. B. Hopkinson and F. Rogers, 480; Copper, Cobalt, and Nickel in American Pig- irons, Prof. E. D. Campbell, 573; Thermal Transform- ations of Carbon Steels, Prof. J. O. Arnold and A. McWilliam, 572; Overheated Steel, A. W. Richards and J. E. Stead, F.R.S., 573; Special Steels used fer Mctor- ear Construction in France, L. Guillet, 573; Use of Vanadium in Metallurgy, L. Guillet, 573; Segregation in Steel Ingots, B. Talbot, 573; Reversible and Irre- versible Transformations of Nickel Steel, L. Dumas, 573; Investigation of a Series of Steels of Constant Nickel with Varying Carbon Percentages, G. B. Water- house, 573; the Presence of Greenish Coloured Markings in the Fractured Surfaces of Test-pieces, Captain H. G. Howorth, 573; Wear of Steel Rails on Bridges, Thomas Andrews, F.R.S., 573; Experiments on the Influence of Phase Changes on the Tenacity of Ductile Meta!s at the Ordinary Temperature and at the Boiling Point of Liquid Air, G. T. and H. W. Beilby, 642 Metaphysics: Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie, Dr. P. Kronthal, 29; Principien der Metaphysik, Dr. Branislav Petronievics, 75 Meteorology: Flashes of Lightning which leave a Glow in their Wake, Em. Touchet, 18; Meteorological Results obtained at the Magnetical Observatory at Toronto for the Year 1904, 41; New South Wales Meteorology, 41; Beitrage zur Physik der freien Atmosphare, 53; a Rela- tion between Spring and Summer, Alex. B. MacDowall, 56; a Feather-like Form of Frost, H. M. Warner, 80; Rainfall of the Nile Basin in 1904, Captain H. G. Lyons, 88; Continuous Observations of the Rate of Dissipation of Electric Charges in the Open Air, Dr. C. Coleridge Farr, 94; Rainfall of the Ben Nevis Observatories, Andrew Watt, 108; Islands for Weather Forecasting Purposes, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 111; W. Ernest Cooke, 343; Weather Report for the Week Ending June 3, 131; Measurement of Evaporation, R. Strachan, 141; Royal Meteorological Society, 141, 216; Rainfall of the Drainage Area of the Talla Reservoir, B. H. Blyth and W. A. Tait, 143; Solar Changes and Weather, Dr. William Sen leockyer T2Q,mml7giie rn qe len nti Weather Influences, an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Con- ditions, Dr. E. G. Dexter, 147; Work of the WES Weather Bureau, Gilbert H. Grosvenor, 157; Aboriginal Methods of Determining the Seasons, William E. Rolston, 176; the Thames Flow and British Pressure and Rainfall Changes, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 178; Frequency of Sunshine at the Summit of the Sonnblick with that at Other Mountain Stations, A. Edler von Obermayr, 183; Relation between Variation of Baro- metric Pressure and Sea Level on the Coast of Japan, Prof. Omori, 228; Rainfall of Bombay, 229; the Explor- ation of the Atmosphere above the Atlantic, A. Lawrence Rotch, 244; Report on the Currents at the Entrance of the Bay of Fundy and Southern Nova Scotia for the Year 1904, Bell Dawson, 205; Normal Electrical Pheno- mena of the Atmosphere, G. C. Simpson, 216; Use of Rockets Against Hail, E. Vidal, 288; Fernley Observ- atory Report, 253; Pulse-rate and Atmospheric Pressure, T. Okada, 253; the Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896, Scientific Results, 265; an Omitted Safe- guard, Richard Bentley, 269; Report of Mauritius Observatory for 1904, 300; Records of Differences of Temperature between McGill College Observatory and the Top of Mount Royal, Montreal, Prof. C. McLeod, 328; the Connection of Meteorology with Other Sciences, Captain D. Wilson Barker, 328; some Aspects of Moderr Weather Forecasting, Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., at XXVIll Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Royal Institution of Great Britain, 354; Weather Report for the Week Ending August 12, 384; Weather for Week Ending August 31, 433; the Storm of July 22 and 24 at Gujarat, 463; October Rainfall, 463; Ben Nevis Observ- atory and the Argentine Republic, William S. Bruce, 485; Observations of the Electric Conditions of the Atmosphere during the Recent Solar Eclipse, Prof. F. Elster and Prof. H. Geitel and F. Harms, 490; Weather during Last Week, 494; the Gales from the Great Lakes to the Maritime Provinces, Canada, B. C. Webber, 494; International Meteorological Conference at Innsbruck, 510, 562; Snowfall and Avalanches during 1904 on the South-west Flank of Mont Blanc, M. Mougin, 561; Death of Dr. W. von Bezold, 563; the Monte Rosa Observatory, Dr. Alessandri, 565; New South Wales Rainfall for 1901-2, 566; Rainfall in British East Africa, A,.Linton, 590 Meteors: Winter Fireballs in 1905, Determination of Meteor Radiants, Mr. Denning, 158; Perturbation of the Biclid Meteors, Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., 189; July and August Meteors, 255 ; Observations of Perseids, Robert Dole, 279; Observ- ations of Perseids, August, 640; a Remarkable Meteor, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, 279; Determination of Meteor Radiants, M. Eginitis, 303; Prof. Nijland, 303; Real Paths of Lyrid Meteors, Mr. Denning, 465; Incan- descence of Meteors, George A. Brown, 604; A. S. H., 60. Meeuluay le Systéme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des Israélites d’aprés la Bible, B. P. Moors, 506 Metschnikoff (M.), the Microbe of Syphilis, 85 Meyer (A. B.), Studies of the Museums and Kindred Insti- tutions of New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and Chicago, with Notes on some European Institutions, 340 Michelson and Morley’s (Messrs.) Experiments on Ether, Prof. Fitzgerald and Prof. Lorentz, 566; E. W. Morley and D. C. Miller, 566 Micrometer, an Electric, Dr. P. E. Shaw at Royal Society, 495 Microscopy : Royal Microscopical Society, 23, 142, 262; the Ashe-Finlayson Comparascope, D. Finlayson, 90; Microscopic Preparations Illustrating the Development of Caleareous Spicules in Varicus Invertebrate Animals, Prof. E. A. Minchin and W. Woodland, 92; Microscopic Structure of Minerals forming Serpentine, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., and Miss C. A. Raisin, 215 ; Elementary Microscopy, F. Shillington Scales, 268 Middleton (Prof. T. H.), the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, 461 Midlay (Dr. A.), Determinations of the Viscosities of Liquid Mixtures at the Temperature of their Boiling Points, 642 Miers (Prof:- H. A., M-A:, D.Sc., F-R-S.), Opening Address in Section C at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, 405 Milk, Bacteriological Standard of Purity of, Dr. Newman, Mr. Denning, 66; 397 Milk Depéts, Infantile Mortality and Infants’, G. F. McCleary, 6 Millais (J. G.), the Black Rat (Mus rattus ater), 2 Miller (D. C.), Messrs. Michelson and Morley’s ments on Ether, 566 Miller (J. A.), Double Star Observations, 135 Miller (N. H. J.), Effect of Plant Growth and of Manures upon the Soil, 94 Millosevich (Prof.), Recent Observations of Eros, 256 Millport Marine Station, the, S. Pace, 456 Milne (James R.), General Principles of Absorption Spectro- photometry, and a New Instrument, 391 Milroy (Dr. J. A.), Physiologie des Menschen, Dr. Luigi Luciani, Supp. to October 19, x Minchin (Prof. E. A.), Microscopic Preparations illustrating the Development of Calcareous Spicules in Various In- vertebrate Animals, 92; Sponge Nomenclature, 95 Minchin (Prof. George M., F.R.S.), Elements of the Differ- ential and Integral Calculus, 26 Mineralogy: Growth of Crystals in the Contact-zone of Granite and Amphibolite, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 23; Amber in United States, Dr. A. Hboollick, 40; the Large Diamond found in the Premier Mine, Transvaal, Dire sHatch jand! Dr sGe aS! Corstorphine, 41; 29 Experi- Determination des Espéces minérales, L. M. Granderye, 54; Foetid Calcite found near Chatham, Canada, B. J. Harrington, 158; Gladkdaite, L. Dupare and F. Pearce, 192; Chemical Composition of Lengenbachite, A. Hutchinson, 215; Chemical Composition of Hutchin- sonite, G. T. Prior, 215; Identity of the Amiantos of the Ancients with Chrysotile, Dr. J. W. Evans, 215; Mineralogical Society, 215; the JIsomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, 258; Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, S. W. Beyer, G. W. Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston, 388; Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, H. Ries and H. B. Kiimmel, 388; Mechanical Properties of Iron in Isolated Crystals, F. Osmond and Ch. Frémont, 392; a New Formation of Diamond, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 527; Troostite, Dr. C. Benedicks, 573 Minerals: a Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Practical Geology, F. W. Rudler, 76; Mineral Production of India, T. H. Holland, F.R.S., 162; Remarkable Finds of Rare Minerals in Texas, W. E. Hidden, 206; Mineral Resources of United States, Report for 1903, Dr. David T. Day, 540; Mineral Statistics of Peru for 1904, 609 Minet (Adolphe), le Four Electrique, son Origine, ses Transformations et ses Applications, 267 Mining : the Mount Morgan Gold Mine, Queensland, E. J. Dunn, 41; a Manual of Mining, M. C. Ihlseng and E. B. Wilson, 53; the Investigation of Mine Air, Sir C. Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., and Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S., 124; Gold Ore at Bendigo, Victoria, at 4262 Feet, 131; World’s Copper Production in 1904, 131; Discovery of Tin Ore in the Transvaal, 131; Mines and Quarries Statistics for 1904, 228; Preliminary Report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines, 232; the Liége Mining and Metallurgical Congress, 236; Discovery of Coal at Abancourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle), René Nicklés, 264; Report on Mines and Quarries for 1903, 300; Digest of the Evidence given Before the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies (1901-1905), 395; Mining in New South Wales, Dredging for Tin Ore, 433; the Scorification Assay for Gold Telluride Ores, W. F. Hillebrand and E. T. Allen, 493; Cripplé Creek Gold Deposits in Colorado, W. Lindgren and F. L. Ransome, 493; the Coals and Lignites of the United States, Preliminary Report, E. W. Parker, J. A. Holmes, and M. R. Camp- bell, 493-4; Institution of Mining Engineers, 518; Earth in Collieries, Electricity in Mines, Sydney F. Walker, 519; the Physics and Chemistry of Mining, T. H. Byrom, 557; Mineral Statistics of Peru for 1904, 609 ; Statistics of the Persons Employed in Mines and Quarries, and Accidents that Occurred in 1904, 609 Miocene of Maryland, Relation of the, to that of other Regions and to the Recent Fauna, W. H. Dall, 162 Mitchell (W. M.), Sun-spot Spectra, 330 Modern Electric Practice, Maurice Solomon, 99 Modern Electricity, J. Henry and Kk. J. Hora, Maurice Solomon, 99 Moffat (C. B.), Duration of Flight among Bats, 132 Moir (Dr. J.), the Law Governing the Solubility of Zine Hydroxide in Alkalis, 643 Moissan (H.), New Synthesis of Oxalic Acid, 71; Chloride and Bromide of Thorium, 167; Reactions between Fluorine and the Compounds of Nitrogen and Oxygen, 183 ; Action of Fluorine on some Compounds of Nitrogen, 205 Molecular Data, the Constant of Radiation as calculated from, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., Dae Molesworth (Major), a Suspected Sudden Change on “Jupiter, 207; the Planet Mars, 388 Molliard (M.), Pure Culture of Green Plants in a Confined Atmosphere in Presence of Organic Substances, 424 Mollusca: the British Slugs, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 245 Monck (W. H. S.), Periodicity of Aérolite Falls, 230 Moncrieff (Colonel Sir C. Scott, K.C.S.1., K.C.M.G., R.E., LL.D.), Opening Address in Section G at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Irrigation, 465 Nature, ] Index on i December 14, 1905 Monpillard (F.), Method for Establishing Coloured Screens to Isolate Groups of Radiations, 264 Moon’s Surface, the Reality of Supposed Changes on the, M. Puiseux, 230 Moore (Charles), Death of, 275 Moore (J. E. S.), Cellular Constituents Peculiar to Can- cerous and Reproductive Tissues, 92; Resemblances between ‘‘ Plimmer’s Bodies ’’ of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Reproductive Cells of Animals, 164 Moors (B. P.), !e Systeme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des Israélites d’aprés la Bible, 506 Morbology: Death cf Dr. J. E. Dutton, 15; Obituary Notice of, 37; the Causative Organism of Mediterranean Fever, Major Horrocks, 17; the Microbe of Syphilis, MM. Metschnikoff and Roux, 85; Plague in India, Dr. Charles Creighton, 86; a Treatise on Plague, Dr. W. J. Simpson, Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S., 529; the so-called “Cancer Bodies’’ (Ruffer’s Bodies) of Malignant Tumours, C. Walker, 86; the Present Position of the Cancer Problem, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 295; Resem- blances between ‘‘ Plimmer’s Bodies’’ of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Repro- ductive Cells of Animals, Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore, and ©. E. Walker, 164; the Parasite of ‘*‘ Kala Azar,’’ Brevet Lieut.-Colonel W. B. Leishman, 92; Transference of Infection in Ankylo- stomiasis through the Skin, MM. Calmette and Breton, 107; Virulence of Micro-organisms and their Immu- | nising Powers, Dr. Strong, 108; Tuberculosis among the Coloured People of New York, 228; Human and Bovine Tuberculosis, Bovine Infection in Children, Dr. Nathan Raw, 354; the International Congress on Tuberculosis, 581; Anti-malaria Measures in Malay States, 252; Human Tick Fever, Dr. Todd and Everett Dutton, 332; Sex-correlation and Disease, Deaf-mutism, Charles Bond, 332; Vicks Concerned in the Dissemin- | ation of Disease in Man, Tick Fever in Congo Free State, R. Newstead, 354; Guinea Worm and its Hosts, Dr. Graham, 354; Outbreak of Yellow Fever at New Orleans, 421; Goats Capable of Transmitting Mediter- | ranean and Malta Fever, Major Horrocks and Dr. Zammit, 462; Cholera in Germany, 514; Cholera in Berlin, 563; Parasites of Indian Field Rat, Lieut. Christophers, 515 Morgan (G. T.), New Diamines, 166 Morgan (R. B.), Introductory Mathematics, ror Morley (E. W.), Messrs. Michelson and Morley’s Experi- ments on Ether, 566 Morley’s (Messrs. Michelson and) Experiments on Ether, Prof. Fitzgerald and Prof. Lorentz, 566; E. W. Morley and D. C. Miller, 566 Morphology: Morphology of the Ungulate Placenta, R. Assheton, 391; the Developmental History of Ornitho- rhynchus, Prof. J. T. Wilson, gor; the Origin and Nature of the Mammalian Lower Jaw, Prof. Gaupp, 401; Einleitung in der experimentelle Morphologie der Tiere, Dr. Hans Przibram, 426; Papillary Ridges and Grooves on the Sole of the Foot in the Primates, Dr. O. Schlaginhaufen, 564 Mortality, Infantile, and Infants’ Milk Depéts, G. F. McCleary, 6 Mortimer (J. R.), Forty Years’ Researches in British and Saxon Mounds of East Yorkshire, 398 Morton (Prof. W. B.), the Effect of Radium on the Strength of Threads, 365 . Mosquitoes: a Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, S: P. James and Dr. W: G. Liston, Dr. J. W. W. Stephens, 73; the Possibility of Reducing Mosquitoes, Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., 151; Anti- Malaria Measures in Malay States, 252; Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Historia Naturale Ethnographia, iv., Os Mosquitos no Parad, Prof. Dr. Emilio Augusto Goeldi, 607 Mors (R. J.), Gases Liberated on Pulverising Monazite, 107 Moss-flora, the British, Dr. R. Braithwaite, 425 Mosso (Prof. Angelo), Mountain Sickness, Respiration at High Altitudes, 65; Physiological Effects of Rarefaction on the Respiration of the Orang-utan, 436 Moths and Butterflies, Mary C. Dickerson, 76 Mougin (M.), Snowfall and Avalanches during 1904 on the South-west Flank of Mont Blanc, 561 ; Mount Wilson Observatory, Prof. Hale, 19 Mountain Sickness: Respiration at High Altitudes, Prof. Angelo Mosso, 65 Mountaineering: Estimation of the Red Corpuscles in Human Blood made at the Summit of Mont Blanc, Raoul Bayeux, 288; Intra-organic Combustions measured by the Respiratory Exchanges as affected by Residence at an Altitude of 4350 Metres, G. Kuss, 336 Moureu (Charles), Sparteine and its Reaction with Methyl Iodide, 192; Sparteine, the Stereoisomerism of the Two Iodomethylates, 216; Action of Ethyl Iodide on Sparteine, 264 ; Mouton (H.), Magnetic Double Refraction, New Active Liquids, 392 Moye (M.), French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, 518 Muller (P. Th.), Method for Determining the Specific Heats of Solutions, 216 Muller (Prof. Victor René), Death of, 62 Murray (Donald), Setting Type by Telegraph, 568 Murray (J.), Tardigrada of the Scottish Lochs, 191 Murray (Sir John, K.C.B.), Bathymetry, Deposits and Temperature of the South-western Pacific, 391 Murray’s Handbook of Travel-talk, 269 Museums: a Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Practical Geology, F. W. Rudler, 76; Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalzenz in the British Museum, Sir George F. Hamp- son, Bart., 174; Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum, 28; Studies of the Museums and Kindred Institutions of New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and Chicago, with Notes on some European Institutions, A. B. Meyer, 340 Music, Field Book of Wild Birds and their, F. Schuyler Mathews, 602 Musil (Prof. A.), Bau der Dampfturbinen, 219 Mutation, Species and Varieties, their Origin by, Hugo de Vries, 314 Mycology: Beitrage zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339; the British Moss-flora, Dr. R. Braith- waite, 425 Mythology of the British Islands, the, Charles Squire, 145 ““N’’ Rays, the, a Collection of Papers Communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens, Prof. R. Blondlot, Prof. John G. McKendricix, Bakes. e195 Nagaoka (Mr.), Phosphatic Fertilisers on Limed and on Unlimed Land, 138 Nakano (Mr.), Variations of Latitude, 437 Natal, Colony of, Report of the Technical Education Com- mission, 460 Natal Government Observatory, the, 592 National League for Physical Improvement, 235 Natural History: Rival Parents, Kennedy J. P. Orton, 8; Natural History in Zoological Gardens, being some Account of Vertebrated Animals, with Special Reference to Those Usually Seen in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in London and Similar Institutions, F. E. Beddard, 13; Death and Obituary Notice of Colonel N. Pike, 38; New South Wales Linnean Society, 47, 192, 312, 528, 552; the Cambridge Natural History, 103; Linnean Society, 118, 166; Death and Obituary Notice of Mrs. Emma Hubbard, 131; the Camera in the Fields, F. C. Snell, 153; the Bahama Islands, 154; Develop- ment of the Ascus, and on Spore Formation in the Ascomycetes, J. H. Faull, 327; the American Thorough- bred, C. E. Trevathan, 395; Nature-study Lessons for Primary Grades, L. B. McMurry, 483; the So-called Gold-coated Teeth in Sheep, Prof. A. Liversidge, 504; the Fzrées and Iceland, Studies in Island Life, N. Annandale, 506; the Preservation of Native Plants and Animals, Prof. W. B. Benham, 534; Death of Dr. A. H. Japp, 563; the Essex Field Club, 606 Natural Selection: the Causation of Variations, Dr. G. Archdall Reid, 318 Nature, XXX Lndex December 14, 1905 | Nature and Man, Romanes Lecture at Oxford, Prof. E. | Nuttall (G. C.), Prof. G. Haberlandt’s Investigations on Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 184 Nature and Man, Prof. John Perry, Naturalistische und Religidse Weltansicht, Naturwissenschaft, Prinzipienfragen in der, Supp. to October 19, viii Naumann Festival at Cothen, BARES:,. 36 Naval Architecture: Institution of Naval Architects, 303 ; Experiments with Models of Constant Length and Form of Cross Section, but with Varying Breadths and Draughts, Lieut.-Colonel B. Rota, 303; Experiments upon the Effect of Water on Speed, Harold Yarrow, 303; Influence of the Depth of Water on Speed, W. W. Marriner, 303; Causes of Accidents to Submarine Boats, Captain R. H. Bacon, 306; Institution of Naval Architects, a Century’s Progress in Warship Design, Sir Philip Watts, 320 Naval Strategy and Tactics, F.R.S., 199 Rudolf Otto, 77 Max Verworn, Prof. the, Alfred Newton, the Mathematics of, Captain Leon Vidal, Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., 361 Navigation: Submarine Navigation, Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 209; | Causes of Accidents to Submarine Boats, Captain R. H. | Bacon, 306 Navlor (W. A. H.), Standardisation in Pharmacy, Presi- dential Address at British Pharmaceutical Conference, 334 Nebulz, Faintness of Planetary, J. E. Gore, 43 Nebulae, Newly Discovered, Prof. Max Wolf, 89 Nernst (Prof. Walther), Theoretical Chemistry, 555 | Nesfield (Lieut.), Method for the Sterilisation of Drinking | Water during a Campaign, 307 Nettell (R.), an Introduction to Elementary Statics (Treated Graphically), 126 New Jersey, Clays and Clay H. B. Kimmel, 388 New South Wales Linnean Society, New South Wales Royal Society, Newman (Dr.), Bacteriological Milk, 307 Newstead (R.), Ticks Concerned in the Dissemination of Disease in Man, Tick Fever in Congo Free State, 354 Newton (Prof. Alfred, F.R.S.), the Naumann Festival at Cothen, 36 Newton (E. T., F.R.S.), 15 Nicholson (E. W. B.), Keltic Researches, 145 Nicklés (René), Discovery of Coal at Abaucourt (Meurthe- et-Moselle), 264 Nijland (Prof. A. A.), Comet 1904 I, Nova Persei and Nova Geminorum, of Meteor Radiants, 303; Satellites, 567 Nitrogen Atom, Industries of, H. Ries and | 47, 192, 312, 528, 552 240, 504, 576, 648 Standard of Purity of Death and Obituary Notice of, 43; Magnitudes of | 110; Determination Observations of Jupiter’s the Romance of the, Rev. A. Irving, 151; Dr. E. P. Perman, 176 Noaillon (Ed.), Ferro-concrete, 213 Noble (Sir Andrew, Bart., K. @ B., F.R.S.), Researches on | Explosives, 358 | Noble (H. R.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 491 | Nordgaard (O.), Hydrographical and Biological Investi- gations in Norwegian Fjords, 45 Nordmann (M.), French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, 518 Norman (G. M.), Action of Water on -Diazo-salts, Northnagel (Prof. Hermann), Death of, 252 Norwegian Fjords, Hydrographical and Biological Investi- gations in, O. Nordgaard, 45 Norwegian North Polar Expedition, Results, the, 265 Nova, Discovery of a, ing, 465 Nova Aquilz No. 2, Guthnick, 494, 611; 542; Prof. Pickering, Nova Geminorum, Magnitudes of Nova Persei and, Prof. A. A. Nijland, 110 Nova Persei and Nova Geminorum, Magnitudes of, A. A. Nijland, 110 Number of Strokes of the Brush in a Picture, 198 Nu! (M.), the Circumzenithal Apparatus, 230 239 1893-1896, Scientific Mrs. Fleming, 465; Prof. Picker- Prof. Max Wolf, 494, 611; Dr. P. Prof. Hartwig, 518; Mrs. Fleming, 640 Prof. the Sense-organs of Plants, 565 Nuttall (Dr. George, F.R.S.), Scientific Research in Medicine, Address at London School of Tropical Medicine, 643 : Nuttall (Mrs. Zelia), a Penitential Rite of the Ancient Mexicans, Drawing Blood, 88 Nutting (P. G.), Study of the Spectra of Alloys of Different Metals, 591 Oak, the Cowthorpe, 43, 182; John Clayton, 43 Obermaier (Dr. Hugo), on the Origin of Eoliths, 636 Obermayr (A. Edler von), Frequency of Sunshine at the Summit of the Sonnblick with that at Other Mountain Stations, 183 Oblique and Isometric Projection, John Watson, 629 Observatories: Mount Wilson Observatory, Prof. Hale, 19; Oxford University Observatcry, Prot. Turner, 110; the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 135; West Hendon House Observatory, 184; New Observatory in Algiers, Lucien Libert, 207; Harvard College Observatory Annual Report, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 256; Pref. Wendell, 256; Mrs. Fleming, 256; Prof. Frost, 255; the Royal University Observatory of Vienna, 388; the Cape Observatory, 437; Ben Nevis Observatory and the Argen- tine Republic, William S. Bruce, 485; Observatory of Paris, M. Loewy, 495; the Sclar Physics Observatory Eclipse Expedition, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 508; the Natal Government Observatory, 592; Visibility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observatory, Mr. Lampland, 592; Mr. Lowell, 592 | Occlo [475], an Interesting Asteroid, R. H. Frost, 330 Oceanography : Exploration of the Indian Ocean, A. Sedg- wick, F.R.S., 341; the Percy Sladen Expedition in H.wl.S. Sealark, the Chagos Archipelago, J. Stanley Gardiner, 571 Ocllo (475), the Minor Planet, R. H. Frost, 388 Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland, der, Max Groll, 197 Okada (T.), Pulse-rate and Atmospheric Pressure, 253 Oldham (C.), Habits ef British Bats, 132 Oldham (R. D.), the Rate ef Transmission ef the Guatemala Earthquake of April 19, 1902, 285 | Olive, *‘ Brusca ’’ a Disease cf the, Prof. Cuboni, 275 | Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects, the, Prof. John C. Branner, 534; A. P. Trotter, 581 Omori (Prof.), Relation between Variation of Barometric Pressure and Sea Level cn the Coast of Japan, 228 Y Ophiuchi, Periods of the Variable Stars S Sagittae and, M. Luizet, 330 Ophiuchus, a Probable Nova in, Mr. Fleming, 158; Miss Cannon, 158; Prof. Pickering, 158 Ophthalmology: the Treatment of Diseases of the Dr. Victor Hanke, 292 Oppert (Prof. Jules), Death of, 421; Obituary Notice of, 432 Optics: Light Emitted by Crystals of Arsenious Anhydride, D. Gernez, 23; Variations of Lustre given by a Crookes’s Tube, S. Turchini, 23; Triboluminescence of Arsenious Acid, M. Guinchant, 47; Triboluminescence of Potassium Sulphate, D. Gernez, 71; Action of Light and of Radium upon Glass, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 90; Optical Congress and Exhibition, Inaugural Address, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F-R.S., 112; the Optical Convention, 137; New Method of Producing Coloured Plate Glass, H. Stansfield, 167; the Spinthariscope and Retinal Excita- bility, Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S., 174; Entoptoscope, a New Form of Ophthalmoscope, Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., 208; Ettles-Curties Ophthalmometer and Ophthalmic Microscope, C. Baker, 208; Luminosity and Colour, Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, 222; Magneto-optics of Sodium V apour and the” Rotatory Dispersion Formula, Prof. R. W. Wood, 286; the Fluorescence of Sodium Vapour, Prof. R. W. Wood, 286; Action of Radium Bromide on the Electromotive Phenomena of the Eyeball of the Frog, Prof. McKendrick and Dr. W. Colquhoun, 287; Diagnosis of the Eye by Means of Pinhole-vision, Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S., 288; Luminescence Emitted by Certain Crystals under the Action of Radium and R6ntgen Rays, A. Pochettino, 300; Fluorescence, C. Camichel, 336; the Limit of Visibility of Fluorescence, Eye, Nature, ] December 14, 1905 Index XXXI Prof. W. Spring, 350; Influence of Light in Causing a Migration of Pigment in the Retina of Cephalopods, Prof. Hess, 354; Colours in Metal Glasses, in Metallic Films, and in Metallic Solutions, J. C. Maxwell Garnett, | 359; General Principles of Absorption Spectrophotometry, and a New Instrument, James R. Milne, 391; the Synthetic Factor in Tactual Space Perception, T. H. Haines, 464; Method for Study of a Luminous Pheno- menon Varying in Intensity with the Time, A. Turpain, | 480; Refractive Index of Gaseous Fluorine, C. Cuthbert- son and E. B. R. Prideaux, 480; an Introduction to the Study of Colour Phenomena, Joseph W. Lovibond, 603 Orbit of Comet 1905a, Miss Lamson, 66; Elements for the, Prof. Banachiewicz, 207; A. Wede- mayer, 207 Orbit of y Coronz Borealis, the, Mr. Doberck, 424 Orbit of ¢ Tauri, the, Profs. Frost and Adams, 592 Organic Chemistry, a Systematic Course of Practical, Lionel Guy Radcliffe and Frank Sturdy Sinnatt, 579 Organisms, Contributions to the Study of the Behaviour of Lower, Prof. Herbert S. Jennings, 3 Origin of Eoliths, on the, Marcellin Boule, 438, 635; Dr. Hugo Obermaier, 636 Orion Nebula, Monochromatic Photographs of the, Prof. Hartmann, 230 Orion Type, Stars with Spectra of the, Prof. Pickering, 135 Ornithology: Rival Parents, Kennedy J. P. Orton, 8; Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum, 28; the Naumann Festival at C6then, Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 36; Young Diamond-birds and a Nestling Bronze-cuckoo, 40; Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Frederick Ducane Godman, F.R.S., 49; Death and Obituary Notice of Lieut.-Colonel L. H. L. Irby, 62; Can Birds Smell? Prof. W. B. Benham, 64; the Habits of Rooks, 64; Osteology of the Eurylemidz, W. P. Pycraft, 95; Early History of a Young Cuckoo, J. H. Gurney, 132; the Fourth International Ornithological Congress, 177; British Bird Life, W. Percival Westell, 196; the Geese of Europe and Asia, Sergius Alpheraky, 266; Migration of Birds, Otto Herman, 326; Bird Life Glimpses, E. Selous, 367; Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands, B. Hantzsch, 454; Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds, W. Ruskin Butterfield, 524; the Habit of Depositing Eggs in the Nests of Other Birds, 589; Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, F. Schuyler Mathews, 602; a Rare Game Bird, John S. Sawbridge, 605; Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S., 630; Greenland and Iceland Falcons in Ireland, E. Williams, 608; Birds in the Field and Garden, 638 Ortbestimmung, Handbuch der geographischen, fur Geo- graphen und Forschungsreisende, Dr. Adolf Marcuse, 481 Orton (Kennedy J. P.), Rival Parents, 8 Osborn (Prof. Henry Fairfield), History Rhinoceros Skull, 127 Osmond (F.), Mechanical Properties of Iron in Isolated Crystals, 392 Osterhout (Dr. W. J. V.), Experiments with Plants, 364 Ostwald (W.), Conversations on Chemistry, 364 Otsuki (Prof.), View that Hydrogen Peroxide gives Rise to a Special Radiation Capable of Affecting a Photo- graphic Plate, 109 Otto (Dr.), die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Seen, 316 Otto (Rudolf), Naturalistische und Religidse Weltansicht, of a White ae Ovulation, Researches on, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., 176 Owen (D.), the Comparison of Electric Fields by Means of an Oscillating Electric Needle, 286 Oxford: Oxford University Observatory, Prof. Turner, 110; Nature and Man, Romanes Lecture at Oxford, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 184; the Needs of our Oldest University, 231; the Oxford Atlas of the British Colonies, 293; the Cerebellum, its Relation to Spatial | Orientation and Locomotion, Boyle Lecture at Oxford, Sir Victor Horsley F.R.S., 389 Pace (S.), the Millport Marine Station, 456 Pacific, Bathymetry, Deposits and Temperature of South-western, Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., 391 the Elliptical | Palzobotany : the Investigation of Fossil Seeds, 108; Plant Remains, A. C. Seward, 539 Palzontology: Death and Obituary Notice of E. T. Newton, F.R.S., 15; the New Diplodocus Skeleton, 82 ; the Internal Structure of Sigillaria elegans, R. Kidston, 143; Relation of the Miocene of Maryland to that of Other Regions, and to the Recent Fauna, W. H. Dall, 162; on the Dimorphism of the English Species of Nummulites, and the Size of the Megalosphere in Re- lation to that of the Microspheric and Megalospheric Tests in this Genus, J. J. Lister, F.R.S., 188; the Age and Affinities of Tritylodon, Dr. R. Broom, 285; Re- storation of Huge Miocene American Perissodactyle of Genus Megacerops, Prof. R. S. Lull, 348; Catalogus Mammalium, tam Viventium fossilium, E. L. Trouessart, 427; on the Origin of Eoliths, Marcellin Boule, 438, 635; Dr. Hugo Obermaier, 636; Neue Fische und Reptilien aus der bohmischen Kreideformation, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch and Dr. Fr. Bayer, 454; Dinochoerus hollandt from the Loup-Fork Beds of Nebraska, O. A. Peterson, 492; Value of Fossil Mollusca in Coal-measure Strati- graphy, John T. Stobbs, 519; the Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, H. J. L. Beadnell, 535; Vertebrate Remains, Dr. A. S. Wood- ward, 539 Palzozoische Arachniden, Prof. Dr. Anton Fricscn, R. I. Pocock, 577 Palisa (Dr.), Variation of a Newly Discovered Asteroid, 494; the Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., 518 Palmer (A. de Forest), a New Thermojunction, 610 Palmer (Dr.), Twelve Stars with Variable Radial Veloci- ties, 89 Panama Canal, Problems of the, Brig.-General Henry L. Abbot, 394 Panek (M.), Bacteriological Study of ‘‘ Barszez,’’ 182 Papillons, Influence de 1’Alimentation et de 1’Humidité sur la Variation des, Arnold Pictet, F. Merrifield, 632 Pard, Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Histoire Natural e Ethnographia, iv., Os Mosquitos no, Prof. Dr. Emilio Augusto Goeldi, 607 Parasite of the House-fly, a, M. D. Hill, 307; Sydney J. Hickson, F.R.S., 429; R. I. Pocock, 604 Parents, Rival, Kennedy J. P. Orton, 8 Paris Academy of Sciences, 23, 47, 71, 95, 119, 143, 167, 191, 216, 239, 263, 288, 311, 336, 359, 392, 424, 452, 480, 504, 528, 552, 576, 600, 624, 648; on the Origin of Eoliths, Marcellin Boule at the, 438 Paris, the Observatory of, M. Loewy, 495 Parker (E. W.), the Coal and Lignites of the United States, Preliminary Report, 493-4 Parravano (N.), Metallic Stannates and Plumbates derived from Similar Acids, 109 Pass (A. C.), Death of, 607 Pastureau (M.), Mode of Formation of Acetol by the Direct Oxidation of Acetone, 192 Patent Law and the New Practice, the Inventor’s Guide to, James Roberts, 53 Pathology : Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases, E. M. Corner, 122 Pavement, the Modern Asphalt, Clifford Richardson, 316 Peake (A. H.), Determination of the Specific Heat of Superheated Steam by Throttling, &c., 116 Pearce (Dr. Francis), Eruptive Rocks of the Chain of Tilai-Kanjakowsky-Cérébriansky, Perm, 18 Pearce (F.), Gladkaite, 192 Pearson (Prof. Karl, F.R.S.), Walk, 294, 342 Peary’s (Commander) Expedition to North Pole, 274 Peckham (Elizabeth G.), Wasps, Social and Solitary, 395 Peckham (George W.), Wasps, Social and Solitary, 395 Peddie (Dr. W.), Magnetic Quality of a Boschovichian Assemblage of Molecular Magnets, 167 Pelée, the Tower of, New Studies of the Great Volcano of Martinique, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, ror Penard (Eugéne), les Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs, 218 Pendred (V.), Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, 213 Pennsylvania, University of, Transactions of the Depart- ment of Archewology, Free Museum of Science and Art, H. R. Hall, 98 Prof. the Problem of the Random | Periodicity of Aérolite Falls, W. H. S. Monck, 230 | Perkin (A. G.), Formula of Cyanomaclurin, 71 XXXtIi Perkin (F. Mollwo), Practical Methods of Electrochemistry, 5; Duty-free Alcohol, 344 Perkin (W. H., jun.), Preparation of Terpenes and Related Substances, 23; Replacement of Hydroxyl by Bromine, 166 Perkins (R. C. L.), Sugar-parasites, and their Enemies, 539 Perman (E. P.), the Romance of the Nitrogen Atom, 176 Perrine (Prof.), Jupiter’s Sixth and Seventh Satellites, 135 Perrot (F. Louis), Expansion and Density of some Gases at High Temperatures, the Application to the Determin- ation of their Molecular Weights, 168 Perry (Prof. John, F.R.S.), Nature and Man, 199 Perry (Prof.), Teaching of Elementary Mechanics, 640 Perry-Coste (F. H.), Education in Belgium and Holland, 221 Persei, Magnitudes of Nova, and Nova Geminorum, Prof. A. A. Nijland, 110 Perseids, Observations of, Robert Dole, 279 Perseids, Observations of August, 640 Peterson (Maude Gridley), How to Know Wild Fruits, a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf, 428 Peterson (O. A.), Dinochoerus hollandi from the Loup- Fork Beds of Nebraska, 492 Petit (Prof. G.), Tuberculosis of Dogs, 582 Petrie (Prof. Flinders), Results Obtained in Egypt by, 228 Petronievics (Dr. Branislav), Principien der Metaphysik, 7 Pflanzenreich, das, Supp. to October 19, ix Pharmacology of Indaconitine and Bikhaconitine, Dr. J. Theodore Cash, F.R.S., and Prof. Wyndham R. Dunstan, F.R.S., 551 Pharmacy, Standardisation in, Presidential British Pharmaceutical Conference, W. A. H. Naylor, 334 Pharmazie, Geschichte der, Hermann Schelenz, 27 Philibert (Dr.), Acid-fast Bacilli, 582 Philistinism, British Archzology and, Smith, 294 Phillips (Rev. T. E. R.), Eye-estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spot, 518 Philology: Keltic Researches, E. W. B. Nicholson, 145; the Literature of the Celts, its History and Romance, Magnus Maclean, 145; Death of Prof. Jules Oppert, 421 ; Obituary Notice of, 432; Notes from Karpathos, Mr. Dawkins, 560; a Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sans- krit Synonyms, Sarat Chandra Das, Lieut.-Colonel L. A. Waddell, Supp. to October 109, iii Philosophy: Naturalistische und Religidse Weltansicht, Rudolf Otto, 77; Neue Abhandlungen tber den mensch- 254; Leaf-hoppers mn Worthington G. lichen Verstand, G. W. y. Leibniz, 396; Immanuel Kant’s Logik, G. B. Jasche, 396; Lazarus der Begriinder der Vo6lkerpsychologie, Dr. Alfred Leicht, 396; Death of Prince Serge Troubetzkoi, 607 Phisalix (C.), Presence of Poison in the Eggs of the Viper, 240; Presence of Poison in the Eggs of Bees, 336 Phoebe, Observations of, 330 Photography: Recent Spectroheliograph Results, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 9; the Swingcam Camera Stand, Address at | Index W. Butler, 89; the Bruce Telescope Reference Photo- | graphs, Prof. Pickering, 89; the Practical Photographer, No. 16, Pictorial Composition, No. 17, Animal Photo- graphy, 54; View that Hydrogen Peroxide gives Rise to a Special Radiation Capable of affecting a Photo- graphic Plate, L. Graetz, 109; Profs. Precht and Otsuki, 109; Photographic Reality of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lowell, 135; Photographs of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lampland, 302; Mr. Lowell, 302; the Theory of Photo- graphic Processes, part ii., on the Chemical Dynamics of Development, including the Microscopy of the Image, S. E. Sheppard and C. E. K. Mees, 141; the Camera in the Fields, F. C. Snell, 153; Photographs in Colour of the Spectrum, Negative by Transmission, G. Lipp- mann, 167; Monochromatic Photographs of the Orion Nebula, Prof. Hartmann, 230; the Practical Photo- grapher’s Annual, 1905, 268; the Latent Image, Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S., Address to the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom, 1905, 308; the Practical Photo- grapher, 341; the Gum-bichromate Process, J. Cruwys Richards, 455; Properties of Photographic Plates Exposed to Light, L. H. Winn, 485; the Royal Photographic Nature, December 14, 1905 Exhibition, 536; the Three-colour Process, a Focusing Screen for Use in Photo- Spectra, Prof. W. N. Hartley, Society’s “ Pinatype,”’ 537; graphing Ultra-violet F.R.S., 581 Physical Deterioration, being the Report of Papers and Discussions at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, 1904, on the Alleged Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an Anthropometric Survey, 152 Physical Deterioration, Dr. Dawson Williams, 331; Prof. R. J. Anderson, 331; W. D. Spanton, 332; Mrs. F. M. Dickinson Berry, 332; Influence of Environment on Physical Development, William Hall, 331 Physical Improvement, National League for, 235 Physics: the Rigidity of the Earth’s Interior, Rev. A. Irving, 8; Properties of Rotating Bodies, E. W. Rown- tree, 8; the Measurement of Mass, Dr. W. Hampson, 8; Current Theories of the Consolidation of the Earth, Dr. T. J. J. See, 30; Rev. A. Irving, 79; Lomonésoff as a Natural Philosopher, B. N. Menshutkin, 42; Permea- bility of Tubes of Fused Silica, M. Berthelot, 47; Beitrage zur Physik der freien Atmosphare, 53; Death of M. Fernet, 62; Death of Prof. Victor René Muller, 62; Osmosis through Tubes of Fused Quartz, G. Belloc, 72; Notes and Questions in Physics, Prof. John S. Shearer, 74; the Spirit-level as a Seismoscope, G. T. Bennett, 80; Researches on the Permeability of Fused Glass Vessels to Gases at High Temperatures, M. Berthelot, 88; Electrostatic Rigidity of Gases at High Pressures, Ch. Eug. Guye and H. Guye, 95; Experi- mental Researches on the Flow of Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, A. Rateau, 101; the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of Radiation, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 54; J. H. Jeans, 101; Determination of Specific Heat of Superheated Steam by Throttling, &c., A. H. Peake, 116; Physical Society, 118, 142, 215, 286; a Simple Method of Determining the Radiation Con- stant, Dr. A. D. Denning, 118; a Bolometer for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation, Prof. H. L. Callendar, 118; Compressibility of Different Gases below Atmospheric Pressure, Adrien Jaquerod and Otto Scheuer, 119; Physical Experiments, N. R. Carmichael, 126; the Calculation of the Coefficient of Re-combination of the Ions and the Size of the Ions, Prof. Thomson, 142; Physical Properties of Sodium Vapour, P. V. Bevan, 142; Leitfaden der Physik fiir die Oberen Klassen der Realanstalten, Dr. F. Bremer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170; Recueil d’Expériences élémentaires de Physique, Henri Abraham, 172; the Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane, Prof. Gordon F. Hull, iateteedts isl. Havelock, 269; the Hydrometer as a Seismometer, G. T. Bennett, 198; C. V. Burton, 269; the ‘* Bubbling ”’ Method and Vapour Pressures, the Earl of Berkeley and E. G. J. Hartley, 222; the Constant of Radiation as Calculated from Molecular Data, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S.. 243; Application of Statistical Mechanics to the General Dynamics of Matter and Ether, J. H. Jeans, 261; die Stellung Gassendis zu Deskartes, Dr. Hermann Schneider, 292; a Text-book of Physics, Heat, Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., and Prof. J. J. Thomson, 293; a Comparison between Two Theories of Radiation, J. H. Jeans, 293; Effect of Membranes in Liquid Chains, M. Chanoz, 312 ; Experimental Researches on the Effect of Membranes in Liquid Chains, M. Chanoz, 336; der Naturwissenschaftliche Unterricht bei uns im Auslande, Dr. Karl T. Fischer, 333; Wie sind die physikalischen Schiileriibungen praktisch _ gestalten? Oberlehrer Hahn, 333; on the Thermoelectric Junction as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures, and on Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calori- meters, Sir James Dewar at Royal Society, 352; Re- searches on Explosives, Sir Andrew Noble, Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S., 358; State of Matter in the Neighbourhood of the Critical Point, Gabriel Bertrand and Jean Lecarme, 360; Death of Dr. T. R. Thalén, 384; Obituary Notice of, 403; Interesting Application of the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity, Prof. Vito Volterra, 387; Evapor- ation of Musk and Other Substances, John Aitken, 391; Artificial Diamonds, Dr. C. V. Burton, 397; Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, Drs. Hagen- back and Konen, 426; the Transverse Momentum of an the , Nature. December 14, 1905 L[ndex XXXII Heaviside, F.R.S., 429; Electrons and H. Wind, 574; the Elastic Properties of Steel at High Temperatures, Prof. B. Hopkinson and F. Rogers, 480; Death and Obituary Notice of H. R. Noble, 491; an Electric Micrometer, Dr. P. E. Shaw at Royal Society, 495; VEvolution de la Matiére, Dr. Gustave Le Bon, 505; Physical Changes in Iron and Steel, Dr. J. W. Mellor, A. McWilliam, 532; Helmert’s Formula for Gravity, Ottavio Zanotti Bianco, 534; Van ’t Hoff’s Hypothesis of Osmotic Pressure of Solutions, Prof. A. Battelli and A. Stefanini, 541; Device for Illus- trating the Superposition of Simple Harmonic Motions of Different Periods, W. C. Baker, 541; Mathematical and Physical Papers by the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart., 555; Physical Chemistry, Prof. Walther Nernst, 555; the Physics and Chemistry of Mining, T. H. Byrom, 557; Messrs. Michelson and Morley’s Ex- periments on Ether, Prof. Fitzgerald and Prof. Lorentz, 566; E. W. Morley and D. C. Miller, 566; a Polarisa- tion Pattern, T. Terada, 581; Physical Laboratories in Germany, Prof. G. W. Kiichler’s Report to Director- General of Education in India, 605; International Con- gress on Radiology and Ionisation, 611; Handbuch der Electron, Oliver Matter, Prof. C. Spectroscopie, Prof. H. Kayser, 627 Death of Prof. DeWitt Bristol Brace, 636 Physiology: Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles, Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S., 22, 189; a ees book of Physiological Chemistry, Charles E. Simon, ; the Physiology of the Pancreas, H. G. Chapman, 47; Be "the Spontaneous Action of Radio-active Bodies on Gelatin Bodies, John Butler Burke, 78; Cellular Con- stituents Peculiar to Cancerous _ and Reproductive siscies wrote ab sharers. oye Ee Se Moore, and C. E. Walker, 92; Resemblances between ” ** Plimmer’s Bodies ’’ of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Reproductive Cells of Animals, Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore, and C. E. Waller, 164; the Simplest Kind of Protoplasm, Dr. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S., 92; Researches on Animal Lactase, Ch. Porcher, 119; Weather Influences, an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Conditions, Dr. E. G. Dexter, 147; New Form of Bolometer for Physiological Investi- gations, Dr. W. Colquhoun, 167; Protagon and the Cerebrines, and the Cerebric Acid Preexisting in the Nervous Tissue, N. A. Barbieri, 168; the Spinthariscope and Retinal Excitability, Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S., 174; Researches on Ovulation, A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., 176; Ovulation and Degeneration of Ova in the Rabbit, Walter Heape, 188; Nature of the Silver Reaction in Animal and Vegetable Tissues, Prof. A. B. Macallum, 188; Structure and Function of Nerve Fibres, Prof. J. S. Macdonald, 189 ; Distribution of the Nerve Cells in the Intermedio-lateral Tract of the Dorso-lumbar Region of the Human Spinal Cord, Dr. A. Bruce, 191; Action of Radium Bromide on the Electromotive Phenomena of the Eyeball of the Frog, Prof. McKendrick and Dr. W. Colquhoun, 287; Estimation of the Red Corpuscles in Human Blood made at the Summit of Mont Blanc, Raoul Bayeux, 288 ; Distribution of Sugary Substances in Blood between the Plasma and the Corpuscles, R. Lépine and M. Boulud, 311; Ascending Currents in Mucous Canals and Gland Ducts, C. J. Bond, 331; Growth in Weight of the Chicken, Mlle. M. Stefanowska, 336; Intra-organic Combustions measured by the Respiratory Exchanges as affected by Residence at an Altitude of 4350 Metres, G. Kuss, 336; Breathing in Living Beings, Dr. William Stirling at Royal Institution of Great Britain, 355; Contributions to the Physiology of Mammalian eo duction, part i., the Géstrous Cycle in the Dog, part i the Ovary as an Organ of Internal Secretion, F. H. Marshall and W. A. Jolly, 358; the Cerebellum, = Relation to Spatial Orientation and Locomotion, Boyle Lecture at Oxford, Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 389; Toxic Extract from the Cerebral Substance, A. Marie, 424; Physiological Effects of Rarefaction on the Respira- tion of the Orang-utan, Prof. Angelo Mosso, 436; Physio- logical Activity of Substances Indirectly Related to Adrenalin, H. D. Dakin, 551; Synthesis of a Substance Allied to ‘Adrenalin, H. D. Dakin, 575; Inquiry into the Nature of the Substance in Serum which Influences Phagocytosis, Dr. George Dean, 551; the Phagocytosis of Red Blood-cells, Dr. J. O. Wakelin Barratt, 600; Study of the Blood in the Case of a ‘*‘ Bleeder,’’ P. Emile Weil, 624; Guide to Finger-print Identification, Henry Faulds, Supp. to October 19, iv; Mécanisme et Education des Mouvements, Prof. Georges Demeny, Supp. to October 19, v; Physiologie des Menschen, Dr. Luigi Luciani, Dr. J. A. Milroy, Supp. to October 19, x; Plant Physiology : Investigations on Intumescences, with Observations on Nuclear Division in Pathological Tissues, Elizabeth Dale, 22; die Lichtsinnesorgane der Laubblatter, Dr. G. MHaberlandt, 323; Beitrage zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339 Physique, Education and, Prof. Georges Demeny, October 19, Vv Phytochemicus, Index, 603 Picard (Emile), sur le Développement de l’Analyse et ses Rapports avec diverses Sciences, 313 Pickering (Prof. E. C.), the Bruce Telescope Reference Photographs, 89; a Remarkable Variable Star, 110; Stars with Spectra of the Orion Type, 135; a Probable Nova in Ophiuchus, 158; Stars with Peculiar Spectra, 183; Harvard College Observatory Annual SSH 256; Discovery of a Nova, 465; Nova Aquilz No. 640 Pickering (Spencer, F.R.S.), British Fruit Growing: 396 Pickering (Prof. W. H.), Discovery of a Tenth Satellite to Saturn, 19; the Formation of the Martian Snow-caps, 255 Pickles (S. S.), Preparation of Terpenes and Related Sub- stances, 23 Pictet (Arnold), Influence de 1’Alimentation et de 1’Humidité sur la Variation des Papillons, 632 Pictorial Composition, 54 Picture, Number of Strokes of the Brush in a, 198 Piette (Ed.), the Evolution of Engraving in the Stone Age, 81 Pike (Colonel N.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 38 Pilzgallen, Beitrage zur physiologischen Anatomie der, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339 ‘* Pinatype,’’ the Three-colour Process, 537 Pintza (Alexandre), Densities of Carbonic Ammonia, and Nitrous Oxide, 264 Pizzetti (Paolo), Trattato di Geodesia Teoretica, 242 Supp. to Drs. J. C. Ritsema and J. Sack, Anhydride, Plague, a Treatise on, Dr. W. J. Simpson, Dr. E. Klein, BR.S., 529 Planets: Discovery of a Tenth Satellite to Saturn, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 19; Discovery of Saturn’s Tenth Satellite, 135; Observations of the Satellites of Saturn and Uranus, Messrs. Frederick and Hammond, 230; the Rings of Saturn, MM. Amann and Rozet, 388; Light- Variation of Saturn’s Satellites, Dr. P. Guthnick, 611; Variability of Minor Planet (15) Eunomia, Prof. Wendell, 43; Observations of Jupiter, MM. Flammarion and Benoit, 43; a Suspected Sudden Change on Jupiter, Major Molesworth, 207% Observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Stanley Williams, 330; Eye-estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spots, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 518 ; Brightness of Jupiter’s Satellites, Prof. Wendell, 66; Provisional Elements for Jupiter’s Sixth Satellite, Mr. Crommelin, 66; Jupiter’s Sixth and Seventh Satellites, Prof. Perrine, 135; Dr. Albrecht, 352; Dr. Frank E. Ross, 352; Observations of Jupiter’s Seventh Satellite, Prof. Albrecht, 424; Observations of Jupiter’s Satellites, van d. Bile, 567; a Projec- 279; Double “ Canals Zon 89; Photographic Reality of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lowell, 135; Photographs of the Martian Canals, Mr. Lampland, 302; Mr. Lowell, 302; the Formation of the Martian Snow-caps, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 255; the North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904-5, Messrs. Lowell and Lampland, 303; the Formation of the New North Polar Cap on Mars, Mr. Lowell, 352; the Planet Mars, Mr. Wesley, 388; Mr. Denning, 388; Major Molesworth, 388; Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere, Mr. Lowell, 465; Mr. Slipher, 465; Faintness of Planetary Nebulz, J. E. Gore, 43; Telescopic Work for Observers of Planets, W. F. Denning, 208; Proposed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 244; Profs. A. A. Nijland and J. tion on Mars, Mr. Lowell, Mars in 1903, Mr. Lowell, XXXIV L[ndex Nature, De ember 14, 1905 the Planet Uranus, W. F. Denning, 244; Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of Venus, M. Hansky, 303; an Interesting Asteroid, Occlo [475], R. H. Frost, 330; the Minor Planet Ocllo (475), R. H. Frost, 388 ; Observations of Planets, Mr. Denning, 436;.Observations of Satellites, Dr. C. W. Wirtz, 465; Variation of a Newly Discovered Asteroid, Dr. Palisa, 494; the Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., Dr. Palisa, 518; Prof. Berberich, 518; Ephemeris of the Variable Asteroid (167) Urda, A. Berberich, 542; see also Astronomy Plankton, the Protist, and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples, E. Jérgensen, 45 Plant Physiology: Investigations on Intumescences, with Observations on Nuclear Division in Pathological Tissues, Elizabeth Dale, 22; die Lichtsinnesorgane der Laub- blatter, Dr. G. Haberlandt, 323; Beitrage zur physiolo- gischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339 Plants: Biochemie der Pflanzen, Prof. Friedrich Czapek, F. Escombe, 169; Poisonous Plants of all Countries, A. B. Smith, 243; Experiments with Plants, Dr. W. J. V. Osterhout, 364; the Preservation of Native Plants and Animals, Prof. W. B. Benham, 534 ““ Plimmer’s Bodies,’? Resemblances between, of Malignant Growths and Certain Normal Constituents of Reproduc- tive Cells of Animals, Prof. J. Bretland Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore, and C. E. Walker, 164 Pochettino (A.), Luminescence Emitted by Certain Crystals under the Action of Radium and Rontgen Rays, 300 Pocock (R. I.), on Two Orders of Arachnida, Opiliones, especially the Suborder Cyphophthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Cryptostemmatoide, Dr. H. J. Hansen and Dr. W. Sorensen, 577; Palaeozoische Arachniden, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch, 577; a Parasite of the House-fly, 604 Poincaré (H.), Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy, Poisonous Plants of all Countries, A. B. Smith, 243 Polar Cap on Mars, the Formation of the New North, Mr. Lowell, 352; see Astronomy Polar Stars, Declinations of Certain North, Dr. Auwers, 388 ; Harriet Bigelow, 388 Polarisation Pattern, a, T. Terada, 581 Polistes, Coloration in, Wilhelmine M. Enteman, 19 Pony, the Celtic, Dr. Francis H. A. Marshall, 558 Poor (Dr. Charles L.), the Alleged Identity of Comets ** Brooks 1889 ’’ and Lexell, 19 Poor (C. Lane), the Figure of the Sun, 567 Porcher (Ch.), Researches on Animal Lactase, 119 Porter (A. W.), an Intermediate Course of Mechanics, 601 Porter (Charles), Sanitary Law and Practice, 97 Position, Geometry of, Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., 629 Power (F. B.), Constituents of the Seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, 165 ; Con- stituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia odorata, 165 Power, the Distribution of, Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., 612 cd Poynting (Prof. J. H., F.R.S.), a Text-book of Physics, Heat, 293 Poynton (Dr. F. J.), Experience of Milk to which Sodium Citrate had been Added in the Feeding of Infants, 354 Precht (Prof.), View that Hydrogen Peroxide gives Rise to a Special Radiation Capable of affecting a Photo- graphic Plate, 109 Preece (Sir W. H., K.C.B., F.R.S.), New Sundial that Tells Standard Time, 209 Preservation of Native Plants and W. B. Benham, 534 Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane, the, Prof. Gordon F. Hull, 198; T. H. Havelock, 269 Preumont (G. F. J.), Geological Aspect of North-eastern Territories of the Congo Free State, 46 Prideaux (E. B. R.), Refractive Index of Gaseous Fluorine, 480 Primitive Religious Art, 260 Prior (G. T.), Chemical Composition of Hutchinsonite, 215 Projection on Mars, a, Mr. Lowell, 279 Prominences on the Sun’s Limb, Observations of, Prof. Mascari, 158 Properties of Photographic Plates Exposed to Light, L. H. Winn, 485 Animals, the, Prof. Properties of Rotating Bodies, E. W. Rowntree, 8 Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nest- ling Birds, W. Ruskin Butterfield, 534 Protoplasm, the Simplest Kind of, Dr. Charlton Bastian, FIR.S., 92 Przibram (Dr. Hans), Einleitung Morphologie der Tiere, 426 Psychiatrie, Metaphysik in der, Dr. P. Kronthal, 29 Psychiatry, Manual of, J. R. de Fursac, 363 Psychology : Contributions to the Study of the Behaviour of Lower Organisms, Prof. Herbert S. Jennings, 3; Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie, Dr. P. Kronthal, 29; Volkerpsychologie, Wilhelm Wundt, 126; die Stellung Gassendis zu Deskartes, Dr. Hermann Schneider, 292 ; Lazarus der Begriinder der V6lkerpsychologie, Dr. Alfred Leicht, 396; the Synthetic Factor in Tactual Space Per- ception, T. H. Haines, 464; Consciousness and its Object, F. Arnold, 464; Prinzipienfragen in der Natur- wissenschaft, Max Verworn, Supp. to October 19, viii Puiseux (M.), the Reality of Supposed Changes on the Moon’s Surface, 230 Pumpelly (Raphael), Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, 366 Pumpelly (R. W.), Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, 366 Pycraft (W. P.), Osteology of the Eurylamidz, 95; the Story of Reptile Life, 395 in der experimentelle Quartaroli (A.), the Gradual Dissociation of Mellitic Acid, 302 . Quartic Equations, Graphical Solution of Cubic and, H. Ivah Thomsen, 295 Quaternions, a Manual of, [raIRaSag Bede Queen-rearing in England, and Notes on a Scent-producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker-bee, the Honey- bees of India and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa, F. W. L. Sladen, 126 Quincke (Prof. G., For.Mem.R.S.), the Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of Glaciers, Paper at Royal Society, 543 Prof. Charles Jasper Joly, Rabinowitsch (Dr. Lydia), Specimens Indicating the Results of Inoculation of Bovine, Human, and Avian Tubercle, 582 Radcliffe (Lionel Guy), a Systematic Course of Practical Organic Chemistry, 579 Radial Area-scale, R. W..R. Edwards, 150 Radial Velocities of Thirty-one Stars, Prof. Lord, 110 Radiants, Determination of Meteor, M. Eginitis, 303 ; Prof. Nijland, 303 Radiation, a Comparison between Two Theories of, J. H. Jeans, 293 Radiation, the Constant of, as Calculated from Molecular Data, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 243 Radiation, the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 54; J. H: Jeans, rox Radiation, the Pressure of, on a Clear Glass Vane, Prof. Gordon F. Hull, 198; T. H. Havelock, 269 Radiography : on the Spontaneous Action of Radio-active Bodies on Gelatin Media, John Butler Burke, 78; on the Spontaneous Action of Radium on Gelatin Media, John Butler Burke, 294; Action of Light and of Radium upon Glass, Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., 90; Phosphor- escence Caused by the B Rays of Radium, G. T. Beilby, 90; Action of Radium Bromide on the Electromotive Phenomena of the Eyeball of the Frog, Prof. McKendrick and Dr. W. Colquhoun, 287; Luminescence Emitted by Certain Crystals under the Action of Radium and Roéntgen Rays, A. Pochettino, 300; Connection between Atomic Weight of a Substance and the Amount of Secondary Radiation which it Emits when Subjected to the B and y Rays of Radium, Prof. A. Righi, 350; the Rate of Formation of Radium, Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R-S., 365; the Effect of Radium on the Strength of Threads, Hilda. P. Martin and Prof. W. B. Morton, 365; Properties of the a Rays of Radium, Henri Becquerel, Nature, ] December 14, 1905 L[hdex XXXV » 528; Action of Radium Salts on Gelatin, W. A. Douglas | Rudge, 631; Action of Actinium or Emanium Emanation | on a Sensitive Screen, Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., | F.R.S., 90; Relation between the Atomic Structure and | Secondary Radiating Power of Substances, Prof. J. A. | McClelland, 158; New Method of Protection against the Roéntgen Rays, J. Bergonié, 168; Apparatus for Measur- | ing X-Rays, G. Contremoulins, 264; X-Rays, their | Employment in Cancer and Other Diseases, Richard J. Cowen, 395; the Radio-active Minerals, Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., 190; a Collection of Papers Communi- | cated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes | and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens, Prof. R. Blondlot, Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 195; an Intensely Radio-active Substance, Actinium X, T. Godlewski, 206; Method for Establishing Coloured Screens to Isolate Groups of Radiations, F. Monpillard, 264; Activity of Radiotellurium, Prof. B. Walter, 277; Minimum Potential of a Point Discharge is Increased by the Discharge, Blunting is not Re- sponsible for Rise in Potential, F. R. Gorton, 387; a New Ultra-violet Mercury Lamp, Dr. O. Schott, 513 Radiology and Ionisation, International Congress on, 611 Radium: on‘the Spontaneous Action of Radium on Gelatin Media, John Butler Burke, 294; the Rate of Formation of Radium, Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S., 365; the Effect of Radium on the Strength of Threads, Hilda P. Martin and Prof. W. B. Morton, 365; see also Radiography Railways : Superheating for Locomotives, M. Flamme, 212 ; Mr. Robinson, 212; Wear of Steel Rails on Bridges, Thomas Andrews, F.R.S., 573 Rainbow (W. J.), Social Spiders, 385 Rainfall Changes, the Thames Flow and British Pressure and, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 178 Raisin (Miss C. A.), Microscopic Structure of Minerals forming Serpentine, 215 | Ramsay (Sir William, K.C.B., F.R.S.), Determination of | Neon and Helium in Atmospheric Air, 21; Action of Actinium or Emanium Emanation on a Sensitive Screen, 90 Rand (Dr. H. W.), Importance of Selecting Generalised | Species for Anatomical Demonstrations, 302 Random Walk, the Problem of the, Prof. Karl Pearson, 5., 294, 342; the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 318 Ransome (F. L.), Cripple Creek Gold Deposits in Colorado, 493 Rare Game Bird, a, John Sawbridge, 605; Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S., 630 Rastall (R. H.), the Blea Wyke Beds and the Dogger in North-east Yorkshire, 46 Rate of Formation of Radium, the, Hon. R. J. Strutt, BERES 305 Rateau (A.), Experimental Researches on Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, 101 Ravenel (Prof.), the Infection of Man by Bovine Tubercle Bacilli, 582 Raw (Dr. Nathan), Human and Bovine Tuberculosis, Bovine Infection in Children, 354 Rayleigh (the Right Hon. Lord, O.M., F.R.S.), the Dynamical Theory of Gases and of Radiation, 54; the | Constant of Radiation as Calculated from Molecular | Data, 243; the Problem of the Random Walk, 318; In- | fluence of Collisions and of the Motion of Molecules in the Line of Sight, upon the Constitution of a Spectrum Line, 575 Reality of Supposed Changes on the Moon’s Surface, the M. Puiseux, 230 Reclus (Elisée), Death and Obituary Notice of, 252 Recoura (A.), Hydrolysis of very Concentrated Solutions of the Flow of Ferric Sulphate, 239; Molecular Transformations of Hydrated Ferric Sulphate, 288 Red Spot, Jupiter’s Great, Observations of, Stanley Williams, 330 Reed (W. Allan), Ethnography of the Philippines, 300 Reese (Prof. Albert M.), the Alligator in Florida, 349 Reese’s (Dr. H. M.) Observations of ‘‘ Enhanced ’’ Lines in the Fe, Ti, and Ni Spectra, F. E. Baxandall, 134 Reeves (E. A.), Tangent-micrometer for Theodolites, End- | The Inventor’s less-tangent Screw for Sextants, 91 Refraction Tables, New, Prof. Eichelberger, 110 Reich (Dr. Otto), Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff, der Bahn- brecher moderner Geologie, 123 Reid (Dr. G. Archdall), the Causation of Variations, 318 Religidse Weltansicht, Naturalistische und, Rudolf Otto, 77 Religious Art, Primitive, 260 Renan (H.), Determination of Constant of Aberration by Observation of Three Stars Close to the Pole, 239 Rendle (A. B.), the Botanical Congress at Vienna, 272 Rengade (E.), Casium Amide, 47; Action of Oxygen upon Czsium-ammonium, 168; Action of Ethylamine and Iso- butylamine on Czesium, 312 Reptiles : the Story of Reptile Life, W. P. Pycraft, 395 Respiration: Breathing in Living Beings, Dr. William Stirling at Royal Institution of Great Britain, 355 Retinal Excitability, the Spinthariscope and, Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S., 174 Reuleaux (Prof. Franz), Death of, 421 REVIEWS AND Our BOOKSHELF. Contributions to the Study of the Behaviour of Lower Organisms, Prof. Herbert S. Jennings, 3 Mechanism, Prof. S. Dunkerley, 4 Practical Methods of Electrochemistry, F. Mollwo Perkin, 5 Das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick, Ed. Hahn, 6 Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Milk Depots, G. F. McCleary, 6 A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, J. H. Maiden, 6 Hymenopteren-Studien, W. A. Schulz, 7 Natural History in Zoological Gardens, being some Account of Vertebrated Animals, with Special Reference to those usually seen in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in London and Similar Institutions, F. E. Beddard, 13 Coloration in Polistes, Wilhelmine M. Enteman, 19 Experiments on Schistosity and Slaty Cleavage, George F. Becker, 20 Essais d’Hydraulique Maillet, 25 souterraine et fluviale, Edmond | Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, William Anthony Granville, Prof. George M. Minchin, F.R.S., 26 Manual of Serum Diagnosis, O. Rostoski, 27 Geschichte der Pharmazie, Hermann Schelenz, 27 Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum, 28 A Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners, Dr. A. F. Holleman, 28 Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie, Dr. P. Kronthal, 29 A Text-book of Physiological Chemistry, Charles E. Simon, 29 Astronomy for Amateurs, Camille Flammarion, 29 An Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony, A. W. Rogers, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 35 Hydrographical and Biological Investigations in Norwegian Fjords, O. Nordgaard, 45 The Protist Plankton and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples, E. Jérgensen, 45 Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., and Frederick Ducane Godman, F.R.S., 49 Die Grundlagen der Bewegungslehre yon einem modernen Standpunkte aus, Dr. G. Jaumann, 51 Geologie der Umgebung von Sarajevo, Ernst Kittl, 51 Economic Essays by Charles Franklin Dunbar, 52 Beitrage zur Physik der freien Atmosphare, 53 Guide to Patent Law and the New Practice, James Roberts, 53 A Manual of Mining, M. C. Ihlseng and E. B. Wilson, 53 The Practical Photographer, No. 16, Pictorial Composition, No. 17, Animal Photography, 54 Determination des Espéces minérales, L. M. Granderye, 54 Report on the Sanitation and Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown, Prof. Rubert Boyce, F.R.S., Arthur Evans, and H. Herbert Clarke, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 67 A Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston, Dr. J. W. W. Stephens, 73 Notes and Questions in Physics, Prof. John S. Shearer, 74 Principien der Metaphysik, Dr. Branislav Petronievics, 75 XXXV1 Index [ Nature, | Decentber 14, 1905 A Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Practical Geology, F. W. Rudler, 76 Meths and Butterflies, Mary C. Dickerson, 76 Second Stage Magnetism and Electricity, Dr. R. Wallace Stewart, 77 Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905, D. Antonio Tarazona, 77 Naturalistische und religidse Weltansicht, Rudolf Otto, 77 An Introduction to Projective Geometry and its Applica- tions, Dr. Arnold Emch, 77 The Masai, their Language and Folklore, A. C. Hollis, Sir EH H. Johnston, (G.C.M.G., K-C.B., 83 Sanitary Law and Practice, W. Robertson Porter, 97 The Sewage Problem, Arthur J. Martin, 97 Simple Methods of Testing Sewage Effiuents, Thudicum, 97 University of Pennsylvania, Transactions of the Depart- ment of Archeology, Free Museum of Science and Art, H. R. Hall, 98 Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy, H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland, Maurice Solomon, 99 Alternating Currents, A. Russell, Maurice Solomon, 99 What Do We Know Concerning Electricity? Antonia Zimmern, Maurice Solomon, 99 Modern Electricity, J. Henry and K. J. Hora, Maurice Solomon, 99 Modern Electric Practice, M. Maclean, Maurice Solomon, 99 Electricity Control, a Systems of Electric Maurice Solomon, 99 Vegetationsbilder, 100 Author and Printer, an Attempt to Codify the Best Typo- graphical Practices of the Present Day, F. Howard Collins, 100 Highways and Byways in Derbyshire, J. B. Firth, 100 The Tower of Pelée, New Studies of the Great Volcano of .Lartinique, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, 101 Experimental Researches on the Flow of Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, A. Rateau, 1o1 Introductory Mathematics, R. B. Morgan, tor Hemichordata, Ascidians, and Amphioxus, Fishes, Drs. Harmer, Herdman, Bridge, and G. S. Boulenger, the Cambridge Natural History, 103 The Story of an Indian Upland, F. B. Bradley-Birt, 105 A Manual of Quaternions, Prof. Charles Jasper Joly, Rg RESe ewer New Methods of Treatment, Dr. Laumonier, 122 The Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Complications, W. H. Battle and E. M. Corner, 122 Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases, E. M. Corner, 122 A Short Treatise on Anti-typhoid Inoculation, Dr. A. E. Wright, 122 The Suppression of Tuberculosis, Prof. E. 122 Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff, der Bahnbrecher Geologie, Dr. Otto Reich, 123 The Investigation of Mine Air, Sir C. Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., and Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S., 124 An Indian Garden, Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar, Dr. Otto Stapf, 125 Animals I Have Known, A. H. Beavan, 125 Queen-rearing in England, and Notes on a Scent-producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker-bee, the Honey- bees of India, and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa, F. W. L. Sladen, 126 Physical Experiments, N. R. Carmichael, 126 An_ Introduction to Elementary Statics Graphically), R. Nettell, 126 The Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, D. F. Campbell, 126 Volkerpsychologie, Wilhelm Wundt, 126 Extracts from the Narrative Reports of the Survey of India for the Season 1902-3, 129 Report for 1904 on the Lancashire Sea Fisheries Labor- and Charles George Treatise on Electric Switch-gear Transmission, Leonard Andrews, von Behring, moderner (Treated atory at the University of Liverpool and the Sea-fish Hatchery at Piel, Frank Balfour Browne, 138 Keltic Researches, E. W. B. Nicholson, 145 The Mythology of the British Islands, Charles Squire, 145 The Literature of the Celts, its Histery and Romance, Magnus Maclean, 145 Weather Influences, an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Con- ditions, Dr. E. G. Dexter, 147 Le Leman, Monographie Limnolegique, Prof. F. A. Forel, 148 Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses, Henry Sidgwick, 149 The Insulation of Electric Machines, H. W. Yurner and H. M. Hobart, Prof. Ernest Wilson, 150 Insect Life, a Short Account of the Classification and Habits of Insects, Fred. V. Theobald, 150 The Radial Area-scale, R. W. K. Edwards, 150 A Preparatory Course in Geometry, W. P. Workman and A. G. Cracknell, 150 The Evolution of the World and of Man, George E. Boxall, 150 Physical Deterioration, being the Report of Papers and Discussions at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, 1904, on the Alleged Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an Anthropometric Survey, 152 The Camera in the Fields, F. C. Snell, 153 The Bahama Islands, 154 Biochemie der Pflanzen, Escombe, 169 Mathematische Einfuhrung in die Elektronentheorie, Dr. A. H. Bucherer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170 Experimentelle Elektrizitatslehre, Dr. H. Harold A. Wilson, 170 Leitfaden der Physik fiir die oberen Klassen der Real- anstalten, Dr. F. Bremer, Dr. Harold A. Wilson, 170 Streifziige an der Riviera, Eduard Strasburger, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 171 Recueil d’Expériences Abraham, 172 The Effects of Tropical Charles E. Woodruff, 172 Handbuch der Heidekultur, Dr. P. Graebner, 173 I Nuovi Indirizzi e le Promesse della Odierna Antropologia, Fabio Frassetto, 173 Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalanz in Museum, Sir George F. Hampson, Bart., 174 The Coral Siderastraea radians and its Post-larval Develop- ment, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185 The Face of the Earth (Das Antlitz der Erde), Eduard Suess, 193 A Collection of Papers Communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens, Prof. R. Blondlot, Prof. John G. McKendrick, F.R.S., 195 School Teaching and School Reform, Sir Oliver Lodge, 195 British Bird Life, W. Percival Westell, 196 Riding and Driving, E. L. Anderson and P. Collier, 197 Der Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland, Max Groll, 197 Manual of the Trees of Nerth America (exclusive of Mexico), C. S. Sargent, 197 Vortrage iiber Deszendenztheorie gehalten an der Uni- versitat zu Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. August Weis- mann, 200 Les Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs, Eugéne Penard, 218 Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Turbines, Dr. A. Stodola, 219 Bau der Dampfturbinen, Prof. A. Musil, 219 An Angler’s Hours, H. T. Sherringham, 220 Botany of Cook’s First Voyage, Illustrations of Australian Plants, Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., and Dr. D. Solander, BRE weet Structural and Field Geology, Dr. Jas. Geikie, 223 The New Knowledge, Robert Kennedy Duncan, 241 Trattato di Geodesia Teoretica, Paolo Pizzetti, Captain W. J. Johnston, 242 The Food Inspector’s Handbook, Francis Vacher, 243 Manuale dell’Ingegnere Elettricista, Attilio Marro, 243 Poisonous Plants of all Countries, A. B. Smith, 243 Prof. Friedrich Czapek, F. Starke, Dr. élémentaires de Physique, Henri Light on White Men, Major the British Prof. Nature, ] Decenther 14, 1905 L[nadex The Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars, part i., Thermal Study, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians, Clark Wissler, 260 Decorative Art of the Huichol Indians, Carl Lumholtz, 260 The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896, Scien- tific Results, 265 The Geese of Europe and Asia, Sergius Alpheraky, 266 Le Four Electrique, son Origine, ses Transformations et ses Applications, Adolphe Minet, R. S. Hutton, 267 Elementary Microscopy, F. Shillington Scales, 268 The Practical Photographer's Annual, 1905, 268 Murray’s Handbock cf Travel-talk, 269 Geology—Processes and their Results, Thomas C. Chamber- lin and Rollin D. Salisbury, 289 The Mechanical Handling of Material, G. F. Zimmer, 290 The rauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, 290 The State and Dardnyi, 291 The Treatment of Diseases of the Eye, Dr. Victor Hanke, 292 Die Stellung Gassendis zu Schneider, 292 A Text-book of Physics, Heat, Prof. J. H. F.R.S., and Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., 293 The Oxford Atlas of the British Colonies, 293 High Temperature Measurements, H. Le Chatelier and O. Boudouard, 293 Glacial Studies in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, Dr. William H. Sherzer, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 310 La Philosophie naturelle intégrale et les Rudiments des , Sciences exactes, Dr. A. Rist, 313 Etude sur le Développement des Méthodes géométriques, Gaston Darboux, 313 Sur le Développement de 1|’Analyse et ses Rapports avec diverses Sciences, Emile Picard, 313 Introduction a la Géométrie générale, Georges Lechalas, 313 Intreduction A la Théorie des Fonctions d’une Variable, Jules Tannery, 313 Correspondance d’Hermite et de Stieltjes, 313 Species and Varieties, their Origin by Mutation, Hugo de Vries, 314 The Modern Asphalt Pavement, Clifford Richardson, 316 Die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Seen, Dr. Otto Freiherr von und zu Aufsess, 316 A Catalogue of North American Diptera or Two-winged Flies, J. M. Aldrich, 317 Elementary Experimental Science, an Introduction to the Study of Scientific Method, W. Mayhowe Heller and Edwin G. Ingold, 317 } Astronomischer Jahresbericht, Walter F. Wislicenus, 317 Die Lichtsinnesorgane der Laubblatter, Dr. G. Haber- landt, 323 Concimi, Mangimi, Sementi, &c., Commercie frodi e re- pressione delle frodi, Specialmente in Italia, Italo Giglioli, 324 Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903, 325 Science and Practice of Agriculture—Farmer’s Handbook, T. Jamieson, 325 Abhandlungen zur Didaktik und Philosophie der Natur- wissenschaft, Heft 3, der Naturwissenschaftliche Unter- richt bei uns und im Auslande, Dr. Karl T. Fischer, 333 A Modern Utopia, H. G. Wells, 337 i Thermodynamik, Dr. W. Voigt, 338 Diagrammes et Surfaces thermodynamiques, J. W. Gibbs, 338 Beitrage zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen, Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg, E. R. Burdon, 339 Report on the Injurious Insects and Other Animals observed in the Midland Counties during 1904, Walter E. Collinge, 349 Studies of the Museums and Kindred Institutions of New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and Chicago, with Notes on some European Institutions, A. B. Meyer, 340 Notes on Assaying and Metallurgical Laboratory Experi- ments, Prof. Richard W. Lodge, 340 The Practical Photographer, 341 Agriculture in Hungary, Dr. Ignatius Deskartes, Dr. Hermann Poynting, XXXVI1 The Geology of South Africa, F. H. Hatch and G. S. Corstorphine, 340 Manuel Pratique de Cinematique navale et maritime, Cap- tain Leon Vidal, Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F-R.S., 361 (Euvres complétes de Christiaan Huygens, 362 Manual of Psychiatry, J. R. de Fursac, 363 Experiments with Plants, Dr. W. J. V. Osterhout, 364 Conversations on Chemistry, W. Ostwald, 364 Mathematical Recreations and Essays, W. W. Rouse Ball, 36 Baslorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, Raphael Pumpelly, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 366 Bird Life Glimpses, E. Selous, 367 Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa, S. W. Beyer, G. W. Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston, 388 The Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, H. Ries and H. B. Kimmel, and G. N. Knapp, 388 Easy Graphs, H. S. Hall, 393 The Rudiments of Practical Mathematics, and A. Barnes, 393 Elementary Practical Mathematics, H. A. Stern and W. H. Topham, 393 A First Algebra, W. M. Baker and A. A. Bourne, 393 Algebraical Grounding, D. E. Shorto, 393 Examples in Algebra, Charles M. Clay, 393 Geometrical Conics, G. W. Caunt and C. M. Jessop, 393 Problems of the Panama Canal, Brig.-General Henry L. Abbot, 394 The American Thoroughbred, C. E. Trevathan, 395 The Story of Reptile Life, W. P. Pycraft, 395 Digest of the Evidence given before the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies (1901-1905), 395 Wasps, Social and Solitary, George W. Elizabeth G. Peckham, 395 X-Rays, their Employment in Cancer and Other Diseases, Richard J. Cowen, 395 Neue Abhandlungen uber G. W. v. Leibniz, 396 Immanuel Kant’s Logik, G. B. Jasche, 396 Lazarus der Begriinder der Volkerpsychologie, Dr. Alfred Leicht, 396 Forty Years’ Researches in British and Saxon Mounds of East Yorkshire, J. R. Mortimer, 398 The British Moss-flora, R. Braithwaite, 425 Einleitung in. der experimentelle Morphologie der Tiere, Dr. Hans Przibram, 426 Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, Drs. Hagenback and Konen, 426 A. Consterdine Peckham and den menschlichen Verstand, Burial Précis d’Hydraulique—La Houille Blanche, Raymond Busquet, 427 Catalogus Mammalium, tam viventium quam fossilium, E. L. Trouessart, 427 How to Know Wild Fruits, a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf, Maude Gridley Peterson, 428 Marine Engines and Boilers, their Design and Construc- tion, Dr. G. Bauer, 453 Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Vogelwelt Islands, B. Hantzsch, 5 Nore Fische und Reptilien aus der béhmischen Kreide- formation, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch and Dr. Fr. Bayer, Die Bedeutung des Experimentes fiir den Unterricht in der Chemie, Dr. Max Wehner, 455 Monographie des Cynipides d’Europe et d’Algérie, l’Abbé J. J. Kieffer, 455 The Gum-bichromate Process, J. Cruwys Richards, 455 Handbuch der geographischen Ortbestimmung fir Geo- graphen und Forschungsreisende, Dr. Adolf Marcuse, 481 La Sociologie génétique, Frangois Cosentini, 482 Trees, H. Marshall. Ward, 482 A Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology, William Dodge Frost, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 483 Nature-study Lessons for Primary Grades, L. B. McMurry, 483 Einfuhrung in die Vektoranalysis mit Anwendungen auf die mathematische Physik, Dr. Richard Gans, 483 Dr. XXXVI Lndex Nature, December 14, 1905 L’Evolution de la Matiére, Dr. Gustave Le Bon, 505 The Fzrées and Iceland, Studies in Island Life, N. Annan- dale, 506 4 a. Le Systéme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des Israélites d’apres la Bible, B. P. Moors, 506 Z A Primer on Explosives, Major A. Cooper-Key, 507 A Note-book of Experimental Mathematics, C. Godfrey and G. M. Bell, 507 x Science Teaching in Elementary Schools, 512 12 A Treatise on Plague, Dr. W. J. Simpson, Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S., 529 x Our Stellar Universe, a Road-book to the Stars, Thomas Edward Heath, 531 : 2 6 Our Stellar Universe (Six Stereograms of Sun and Stars), Thomas Edward Heath, 531 ‘ The Crystallisation of Iron and Steel, an Introduction to the Study of Metallography, Dr. J. W. Mellor, A. MeWilliam, 532 : Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures, Prof. N. Colajanni, 533 Machine Construction and Drawing, Frank Castle, 533 Graphs for Beginners, W. Jamieson, 533 : The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, H. J. L. BeadneH, 535 Ice or Water, another Appeal to Induction from the Scholastic Methods of Modern Geology, Sir Henry H. Howorth, F.R.S., 553 Theoretical Chemistry, Prof. Walther Nernst, 555 Mathematical and Physical Papers by the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart., 555 Notes on the Drawings for Sowerby’s ‘‘ English Botany,” F. N. A. Garry, 556 , A Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic, Horace L. Wells, 556 The Physics and Chemistry of Mining, T. H. Byrom, 557 The Annual of the British School at Athens, H. R. Hall, 558 Two Reports on the French Glacier Commission, 561 Setting Type by Telegraph, Donald Murray, 568 On Two Orders of Arachnida, Opiliones, especially the Suborder Cyphophthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Cryptostemmatoide, Dr. H. J. Hansen and Dr. W. Sorensen, R. I. Pocock, 577 Palaeozoische Arachniden, Prof. Dr. Anton Fritsch, R. I. Pocock, 577 The Citizen, a Study of the Individual and the Govern- ment, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, 578 A Systematic Course of Practical Organic Lionel Guy Radcliffe, 579 Die Entwickelung der electrischen Messungen, Frolich, 579 Zoologischer Jahresbericht fir 1904, 579 Examples in Arithmetic, C. O. Tuckey, 580 The Primary Arithmetic, 580 Mechanics, a School Course, W. D. Eggar, 601 Elements of Mechanics, Prof. Mansfield Merriman, 601 An Intermediate Course of Mechanics, A. W. Porter, 601 Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music, F. Schuyler Mathews, 602 Studien Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen, Dr. Erik Harnack, Dr. Geo. J. Burch, F.R.S., 602 An Introduction to the Study of Colour Phenomena, Joseph W. Lovibond, 603 Index Phytochemicus, Drs. J. C. Ritsema and J. Sack, 603 Yearbook and Calendar for 1905-6, Essex Field Club, 606 The Coming of Age of the Essex Field Club, 606 Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Historia Natural e Ethnographia, iv., Os Mosquitos no Para, Prof. Dr. Emilio Augusto Goeldi, 607 A Guide to the Study of Fishes, David Starr Jordan, 625 The Far East, Archibald Little, 626 Handbuch der Spectroscopie, Prof. H. Kayser, 627 Identification por las Impresiones digito-palmares Dactiloscopia), Dr. Alberto Yvert, 628 Science in South Africa, a Handbook and Review, 628 Stone Gardens, Rose Haig Thomas, 629 Oblique and Isometric Projection, John Watson, 629 Chemistry, Diego} (La Influence de 1’Alimentation et de 1’Humidité sur la Vari- ation des Papillons, Arnold Pictet, 632 Report of the Principal Chemist upon the Work of the Government Laboratory for the Year ending March 31, 1905, 634 “ LITERARY SUPPLEMENT. A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms, Sarat Chandra Das, Lieut.-Colonel L. A. Waddell, Supp. to October 19, iii Guide to Finger-print Identification, Henry Faulds, Supp. to October 19, 1v Mécanisme et Education des Mouvements, Prof. Georges Demeny, Supp. to October 19, v On the Traversing of Geometrical Figures, J. Cook Wilson, Supp. to October 19, vi The Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Pro- ducts from which they are derived, J. C. Cain and J. F. Thorpe, Walter M. Gardner, Supp. to October 19, Vil Prinzipienfragen in der Naturwissenschaft, Max Verworn, Supp. to October 19, viii Das Pflanzenreich, Supp. to October 19, ix Physiologie des Menschen, Dr. Luigi Luciani, Dr. J. A. Milroy, Supp. to October 19, x Rhinoceros Skull, History of a White, Prof. Henry Fair- field Osborn, 127; Dr. C. Stewart, F.R.S., 175 Rhymes on the Value of 7, F.R.S., 558; z., 631 Ricco (Prof. A.), Crater of Etna Extending, 300 Richards (A. W.), Overheated Steel, 573 Richards (J. Cruwys), the Gum-bichromate Process, 455 Richards (Theodore W.), the Elimination of Accidental Loss of Heat in Accurate Calorimetry, 206 Richardson (Clifford), the Modern Asphalt Pavement, 310 Richardson (L.), Rhetic and Contiguous Deposits of Glamorganshire, 166; Rhatic Rocks at Berrow Hill, near Tewkesbury, 166 Richthofen (Ferdinand Baron yon), Death of, 588 Riding and Driving, E. L. Anderson and P. Collier, 197 Riekie (John), New Form of Compound Locomotive, 65 Ries (H.), Clays and Clay Industries of New Jersey, 388 Righi (Prof. A.), Connection between Atomic Weight of a Substance and the Amount of Secondary Radiation which it Emits when Subjected to the B and y Rays of Radium, 35° Rigidity of the Earth’s Interior, the, Rev. A. Irving, 8 Rings of Saturn, the, MM. Amann and Rozet, 388 Rist (Dr. A.), la Philosophie naturelle intégrale et les Rudiments des Sciences exactes, 313 Ritchie (James), Alcyonarians of the Scottish National Antarctic Expeditions, 287 Ritsema (Dr. J. C.), Index Phytochemicus, 603 Rival Parents, Kennedy J. P. Orton, 8 Riviera, Streifziige an der, Eduard Strasburger, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R-S., 171 Roberts (Dr. A. W.), Observations on the Light Fluctu- ations of Certain Southern Binary Stars, 641 Roberts (Dr. Frederick T.), Harvey and the Progress of Medical Science, 258 Roberts (James), the Inventor’s Guide to Patent’Law and the New Practice, 53 Robertson (W.), Sanitary Law and Practice, 97 Robinson (Mr.), Superheating for Locomotives, 212 Robinson (Mark), Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, 213 Robinson (Mr.), New White Sturgeon, 156 Roederer (M.), Strontium Ammonium, 71-2 Rogers (A. W.), an Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony, 35 Rogers (Mr.), a Glacial Conglomerate, the Pakhuis Bed, in the Table Mountain Series, 285 Rogers (F.), the Elastic Properties of Steel at High Temperatures, 480 Nature, | December 14, 1905 Index XXXIX Rogovski (E.), Difference in Temperature of Bodies in Contact, 47 Rogovsky (E.), a Phenomenon of Cooling Silver Wires Plunged into Water, and through which Electric Currents are Passing, 645 Rolfs (P. H.), Diseases of Citrous Plants and Fruits caused by the Fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, 277 Rolston (William E.), Aboriginal Methods of Determining the Seasons, 176 Romanes Lecture at Oxford, Nature and Man, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 184 Réntgen Rays: Apparatus for Measuring X-Rays, G. Contremoulins, 264; see Radiography Rosen (F.), Money-boxes in the Form of Mamme, 356 Rosenheim (O.), Methylation of Gallotannic Acid, 71 Rosenheim (Dr. Otto), Chitin in the Carapace of Ptery- gotus osiliensis, 189 Ross (Dr. Frank E.), Jupiter’s Sixth and Seventh Satellites, 352 Ross (Major Ronald, F.R.S.), Verb Functions, with Notes on the Solution of Equations by Operative Division, 88 ; the Possibility of Reducing Mosquitoes, 151 Rosse (Earl of), Determination of Heat Radiation from _ the Moon, 190 Rossi (E.), Efficiency of Method of Synthesising Nitric Acid from the Gases of the Atmosphere increased by Working with Air under a very Great Pressure, 109 Rostoski (O.), Manual of Serum Diagnosis, 27 Rota (Lieut.-Colonel B.), Experiments with Models of Constant Length and Form of Cross Section, but with Varying Breadths and Draughts, 303 Rotating Bodies, Properties of, E. W. Rowntree, 8 Rotch (A. Lawrence), the Exploration of the Atmosphere above the Atlantic, 244; Eclipse Shadow Bands, 307 Rothschild’s (the Hon. Walter) Proposed Classification of the Anthropoid Apes, Criticisms of, Sir H. H. Johnston, 119 Routh (Dr. E. J.), Fictitious Problems in Mathematics, 78, 127 Roux (M.), the Microbe of Syphilis, 85 , Roux (Eug.), Potatoe Starch, 95 Rowntree (E. W.), Properties of Rotating Bodies, 8 Royal Academy Banquet, Science at the, 14 Royal Astronomical Society, 190 Royal College of Physicians, Medal Awards, 15; Harvey and the Progress of Medical Science, Dr. Frederick T. Roberts, Harveian Oration at the, 258 Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines, Pre- liminary Report of the Departmental Committee on the, 232 Royal Commission on Coal Supplies (1901-1905), Digest of the Evidence given before the, 395 Royal Institute of Public Health, Congress of the, 306 Royal Institution: the Development of Spectrochemistry, Prof. J. W. Brithl at, 158; Submarine Navigation, Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., 209; some Aspects of Modern Weather Forecasting, Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., at, 354; Breathing in Living Beings, Dr. William Stirling at, 355 Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 23, 240, 359 Royal Meteorological Society, 141, 216 Royal Microscopical Society, 23, 142, 263 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the, 135 Royal Photographic Society’s Exhibition, the, 536 Royal Society: Royal Society, 21, 94, 116, 141, 164, 188, 261, 285, 311, 358, 391, 480, 503, 527, 551, 575, 600, 623 ; the Royal Society Conversazione, go, 208; the Early History of the Royal Society, Henry B. Wheatley, 109 ; on the Thermo-electric Junction as a Means of Determin- ing the Lowest Temperatures, and on Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters, Sir James Dewar, 352; an Electric Micrometer, Dr. P. E. Shaw, 495; the Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of Glaciers, Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S., 543; the Mechanics of the iy of Sap in Trees, Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S., 44 Royal Society, Dublin, 142, 167, 288 Royal Society, Edinburgh, 143, 167, 191, 286, 391 Royal Society, New South Wales, 240, 504, 576, 648 Royal Society of Sciences, Gottingen, 240, 576 Royal University Observatory of Vienna, the, 388 Rozet (M.), the Rings of Saturn, 385 Ricker (Sir Arthur, F.R.S.), Higher Education in London, 69 Rudge (W. A. Douglas), Action of Radium Salts on Gelatin, 631 Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the Boine Snakes, the, Frank E. Beddard, F.R.S., 630 Rudler (F. W.), a Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Prac- tical Geology, 76 Russell (A.), Alternating Currents, 99 Russell (James), Magnetic Properties of Demagnetised and Annealed Iron, 287 Russell (Sir Peter Nicol), Death of, 275 Sabatier (Paul), Synthesis of the Three Tertiary Dimethyl- cyclohexanols and of the Hydrocarbons connected with them, 263; Catalytic Decomposition of Monochlor- derivatives of Methane Hydrocarbons in Contact with Anhydrous Metallic Chlorides, 336; a Secondary Re- action of the Halogen Organo-magnesium Compounds, 359 Saccheri (Padre Gerolamo), the Theorems of, on the Sum of the Angles of a Triangle, Dr. Roberto Bonola, 387 Sacco (Dr. Federico), Projects of Artificial Flight, 329 Sack (J.), Index Phytochemicus, 603 Safeguard, an Omitted, Richard Bentley, 269 : S Sagittae and Y Ophiuchi, Periods of the Variable Stars, M. Luizet, 330 Salet (M.), French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, 518; Further Eclipse Results by French Observers, 591 Salisbury (Rollin D.), Geology—Processes and _ their Results, 289 Salmon (E. S.), a Gooseberry Mildew introduced from the United States into Ireland, 40 Salter (Dr. A. E.), the Sources of the Superficial Deposits found above the Jurassic and Cretaceous Strata on the South, North-west, and West of London, 285 Salvin (Osbert, F.R.S.), Biologia Centrali-Americana, Aves, 49 Samuelson (Arnold), Projects of Artificial Flight, 329 Samuelson (Sir Bernhard, P.C., Bart., F.R.S.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 60 Sanitation: Report on the Sanitation and Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Free- town, Prof. Rubert Boyce, F.R.S., Arthur Evans, and H. Herbert Clarke, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 67; Sanitary Law and Practice, W. Robertson and Charles Porter, 97; the Sewage Problem, Arthur J. Martin, 97; Simple Methods of Testing Sewage Effluents, George Thudicum, 97 Gargkcit Synonyms, a Tibetan-English Dictionary with, Sarat Chandra Das, Lieut.-Colonel L. A. Waddell, Supp. to October 19, iii Sap in Trees, the Mechanics of the Ascent of, Prof: J. Larmor, Sec.R.S., at Royal Society, 644 Sarajevo, Geologie der Umgebung von, Ernst Kittl, 51 Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs, les, Eugéne Penard, 218 Sargent (C. S.), Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico), 197 Satellite to Saturn, Discovery of a Tenth, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 19 Satellites, Brightness of Jupiter’s, Prof. W. 20 Satellites, Observations of, Dr. C. W. Wirtz, 465 Saturn: Discovery of Saturn’s Tenth Satellite, 19, 135; Prof. W. H. Pickering, 19; Light-variation of Saturn’s Satellites, Dr. P. Guthnick, 611; the Rings of Saturn, MM. Amann and Rozet, 388; Observations of the Satel- de Sitter, lites of Saturn and Uranus, Messrs. Frederick and Hammond, 230 Saussure (René de), ‘‘ Helicoptére Aéroplane”’ of H. and A. Dufaux, 329 Sauton (M.), Ammonia in Milk, Evidence of Pollution, 72 Sawbridge (John S.), a Rare Game Bird, 605 xl L[ndex Nature, December 14, 1905 Saxon (Mr.), Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, 213_ Scales (F. Shillington), Elementary Microscopy, 268 Schaeberle (Prof.), Cosmic Dust of Solar Origin, 424 Schelenz (Hermann), Geschichte der Pharmazie, 27 Schetelig (H.), Remains of Neolithic Buildings Scandinavia, 515 a Scheuer (Otto), Compressibility of Different Gases below Atmospheric Pressure, 119 Schistosity and Slaty Cleavage, Experiments on, George F. Becker, 20; Alfred Harker, 152 Schlaginhaufen (Dr. O.), Papillary Ridges and Grooves on the Sole of the Foot in the Primates, 564 Schmidt (Ch.), New Method of Preparing Mesoxalic Esters, 119 Schneider (Dr. Deskartes, 292 School Teaching and School Reform, Sir Oliver Lodge, in Hermann), die Stellung Gassendis zu Par sacs Science Teaching in Elementary, 512 Schott (Dr. O.), a New Ultra-violet Mercury Lamp, 513 Schrenck (Dr. H. von), Fungal Diseases on Cauliflowers, 516 Schroder (H.), Desmotropic Form of Substances of the Ethyl Acetoacetate Type, 141 Schroeder (O.), the Abdominal Sense-organ of the Palolo Worm, 64 Schultz (E.), Rejuvenation, 385 Schulz (W. A.), Hymenopteren-Studien, 7 Schulz-Briesen (B.), Continuation of Saarbriicken Coal- measures into Lorraine, 236 Science: Science at the Royal Academy Banquet, 14; Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George Stokes, Prof. J. Larmor, F.R.S., 29; Scientific Results of the National Antarctic Expedition, 57; Science and the State, R. B. Haldane, 184; the New Knowledge, Robert Kennedy Duncan, 241; the Proposed College of Applied Science, 250; Elementary Experimental Science, an In- troduction to the Study of Scientific Method, W. May- howe Heller and Edwin G. Ingold, 317; Science Teach- ing in Elementary Schools, 512; Attacks on Science, W. H. Mallock, 516; the Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects, Prof. John C. Branner, 534; A. P. Trotter, 581; the British Science Guild, 585; Forth- coming Books of Science, 619; Science in South Africa, a Handbook and Review, 628; Scientific Research in Medicine, Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S., at London School of Tropical Medicine, 643; Prinzipienfragen in der Naturwissenschaft, Max Verworn, Supp. to October 109, viii Scientific Worthies, IAI SSSI Sclater (Dr. P. L., F.R.S.), the Transposition of Zoo- logical Names, 30 Scott (Andrew), Work of Sea Fish Hatchery at Piel, Eduard Suess, Sir Arch. Geikie, I Scott (Dr. T.), Free-swimming Crustacea found in the Firth of Clyde, 191 Scott (Mr.), Two-foot Rule Designed by, 329 Screws, the Standardisation of, 431 Sea Fisheries, Reports on, Frank Balfour Browne, 138 Seasons, Aboriginal Methods of Determining the, William E. Rolston, 176 Sedgwick (A., F.R.S.), Researches on Ovulation, 176; Exploration of the Indian Ocean, 341 See (Dr. T. J. J.), Current Theories of the Consolidation of the Earth, 30 Seen, die physikalischen Eigenschaften der, 316 Seismology : Earthquake in Switzerland, Prof. F. A. Forel, 63; the Spirit-level as a Seismoscope, G. T. Bennett, 80; the Hydrometer as a Seismometer, G. T. Bennett, 198; C. V. Burton, 269; Horizontal Pendulum Observ- ations at Tokyo, 228; the Rate of Transmission of the Guatemala Earthquake of April 19, 1902, R. D. Oldham, 285; the Kangra Earthquake of April 45,0905, dh.) eHe Holland, F.R.S., 428; the Earthquake at Stromboli on September 8, and the Present State of the Volcano, A. Lacroix, 624 Sell (W. J.), Chlorination of 2-Methylpyridine, 141 Selous (E.), Bird Life Glimpses, 367 Dr. Otto, | Serotherapy : Manual of Serum Diagnosis, O. Rostoski, a 27; the Immunisation of Mice against Cancer, Dr. Clowes, 86; Inquiry into the Nature of the Substance in Serum which Influences Phagocytosis, Dr. George Dean, 551; Réle of Agglutination in Immunity, R. Greig Smith, 552; Method of Treating Tuberculosis, Prof. y. Behring, 581; Specimens Indicating the Results of Inoculation of Bovine, Human, and Avian Tubercle, Dr. Lydia Rabinowitsch, 582; Specimens from Goats and Kids, Dr. Calmette, 582; Tuberculosis of Dogs, Prof. G. Petit, 582; the Infection of Man by Bovine Tubercle Bacilli, Profs. Arloing, Kossel, and Ravenal, 582; Results obtained by Treatment, Prof. Denis, 583; Dr. Beraneck, 583; Dr. Marmorek, 583 Sewage Effluents, Simple Thudicum, 97 Sewage Problem, the, Arthur J. Martin, 97 Sewage, a Study of the Process of Nitrification with Reference to the Purification of, Dr. Harriette Chick, 117 Seward (A. C.), Plant Remains, 539 Seyewetz (M.), Action of Sodium Sulphite upon Ethanal, 336 Shackleton (W.), Mechanical Lantern Slide Illustrative of the Phenomenon of a Total Solar Eclipse, 91 ““ Shadow Bands,’’ Atmospheric Origin of, T. Zona, 61 Shadow Bands, Eclipse, A. Lawrence Rotch, 307 ““ Shadow-bands,’’ the Problem of, Catharine O. 631 Shaler (Nathaniel Southgate), the Citizen, a Study of the Individual and the Government, 578 Shastri (H. P.), Tree Worship at Naihati, 17 Shaw (Dr. P. E.), an Electric Micrometer, Lecture at Royal Society, 49s; the Amplitude of the Minimum Audible Impulsive Sound, 503 Shaw (Dr. W. N., F.R.S.), Some Aspects of Modern Weather Forecasting, Lecture at Royal Institution of Great Britain, 354 Shearer (Prof. John S.), Notes and Questions in Physics, Method of Testing, George Stevens, 74 Sheep, the So-called Gold-coated Teeth in, Prof. A. Liver- sidge, 504 Sheffield, the University of, 282 Shelford (R.), Decorative Objects Worn by the Natives of Borneo, 638 Shell-fish, the Transplantation of, 430 Sheppard (S. E.), the Theory of Photographic Processes, part ii., on the Chemical Dynamics of Development, in- cluding the Microscopy of the Image, 141 Sherringham (H. T.), an Angler’s Hours, 220 Sherrington (Prof. C. S., F.R.S.), Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles, 22, 189 Sherzer (Dr. William H.), Glacial Studies in Canada, 310 Shorto (Dr. E.), Algebraical Grounding, 393 Shull (G. H.), the Law of Biogenesis that Repeats Phylogeny,’’ 278 Sibley (T. F.), Carboniferous Limestone of the Weston- super-Mare District, 118 Siderastraea radians, the Coral, and its Post-larval De- velopment, Dr. J. E. Duerden, 185 Sidgwick (Henry), Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses, “* Ontogeny 149 Simon (Charles E.), a Text-book of Physiological Chem- istry, 29 Simon (Edouard), Death of, 155 pumoasen (J. L.), Replacement of Hydroxyl by Bromine, I Simpson (George C.), Atmospheric Electricity Observed from Balloons, 92; Normal Electrical Phenomena of the Atmosphere, 216 Simpson (Dr. W. J.), a Treatise on Plague, 529 Sinnatt (Frank Sturdy), a Systematic Course of Practical Organic Chemistry, 579 Sioux Indians, Decorative Art of the, Dr. Clark Wissler, 260 Sitter (Prof. W.), Brightness of Jupiter’s Satellites, 207 Sitter (W. de), Proper Motions of the Hyades, 436 Skull, History of a White Rhinoceros, Prof. Henry Fair- field Osborn, 127 Nature, | December 14, 1905 Lndex xli Sladen (F. W. L.), Queen-rearing in England, and Notes on a Scent-producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker-bee, the Honey-bees of India, and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa, 126 Sladen, the Percy, [Expedition in H.M.S. Chagos Archipelago, J. Stanley Gardiner, Slates, the Cleavage of, Rev. O. Fisher, 55 Slaty Cleavage, Experiments on Schistosity and, F. Becker, 20; Alfred Harker, 152 Slide Rule, a New, Messrs. John 102 Slipher (Mr.), Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere, Sealark, the 571 George Davis and Son, 45, 465 Slugs, the British, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 245 Smith (A. B.), Poisonous Plants of all Countries, 243 Smith (B.), Senility in Gastropods, 385 Smith (Henry G.), Calcium Oxalate in the Eucalyptus Barks, 240 Smith (H. L.), Thermal Decomposition of Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde, 141 Smith (Dr. R. Greig), Possible Relationship between Bacteria and the Gum of Hakea saligna, 192; Origin of Natural Immunity towards the Putrefactive Bacteria, 192; Probable Bacterial Origin of the Gum of Linseed Mucilage, 192; Réle of Agglutination in Immunity, 552 Smith (Worthington G.), British Archeology and Philistinism, 294 Smyth (W. Woods), the Inheritance of Acquired Characters, 152 Snakes, the Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the Boine, Frank E. Beddard, F.R.S., 630 Snell (F. C.), the Camera in the Fields, 153 Society of Chemical Industry, the, 279 Sociology: a Modern Utopia, H. G. Wells, 337; la Sociologie génétique, Francois Cosentini, 482 Soils, Field Operations of the Bureau of, 1903, 325 Solander (Dr. D.), Botany of Cook’s First Voyage, trations of Australian Plants, 221 Solar Activity, the, 279 Solar Activity, the, January-June, Prof. Mascari, 518 Solar Changes and Weather, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, P2Q wu 7ice WA. Ss. Mi 175 Solar Eclipse : Proposed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S. 244; Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30, Dr. L. A. Bauer, 342; the Forthcoming Total Solar Eclipse, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 399, 457; Observations of, in Tripoli, Barbary, Prof. David Todd, 484; French Observations of Illus- the Total Solar Eclipse, Prof. Janssen, 518; M. Bigourdan, 518; M. Stephan and M. Trépied, 518; M. Bourget, 518; M. Nordmann, 518; M. Salet, 518; M. Moye, 518; Geodetic Measurements from Solar Eclipses, C. E. Stromeyer, 230; see also Astronomy Solar Origin, Cosmic Dust of, Prof. Schaeberle, 424 Solar Outburst? a, Arthur Mee, 320 Solar Parallax, a Spectrographic F. Kustner, 611 Solar Physics Observatory Eclipse Expedition, the, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 508 Solar Radiation, a Proposed New Method for Determining the, Prof. Ceraski, 437 Solar Research, International Union for Cooperation in, 490, 563 Solar Spectrum, Observations of ‘‘ D, Kreusler, 66 Solar Spectrum, Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the, Prof. A. Fowler, 184; A. Buss, 184 Solar and Terrestrial Changes, 249, 332 Solomon (Maurice), Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Tele- graphy, H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland, 99: Alternating Currents, A. Russell, 99 ; What Do We Know Concerning Electricity? Antonia Zimmern, »: Modern Electricity, J. Henry and K. J. Hora, 99; Modern Electric Practice, 99; Electricity Control, a Treatise on Electric Switch- gear Systems of Electric Transmission, Leonard Andrews, 99; Setting Type by Telegraph, Donald Murray, 568 Sérensen (Dr. Determination of the, ” m they Dr. El: W.), on Two Orders of Arachnida, especially the Suborder Cyphophthalmi, and Ricinulei, namely, the Family Cryptostemmatoida, 577 Sowerby’s ** English Botany,’’ Notes on the Drawings for, F. N. A. Garry, 556 Spanton (W. D.), Physical Deterioration, 332 Opiliones, Species and Varieties, their Origin by Mutation, Hugo de Vries, 314 Spectrochemistry, the Development of, Prof. J. W. Bruthl at the Royal Institution, 158 Spectroheliograph Pictures, Interpretation of, M. N. Donitch, 495; Prof. Hale and Mr. Ellerman, 495 Spectroheliograph Results, Recent, Dr. William J. 5S. Flocculi,’ Lockyer, 9; Phillip Fox, 183 Spectrum Analysis: Anomalous Dispersion and “‘ Prof. Julius, 19; Observations of ‘* D,’’ in the Solar Spectrum, Dr. H. Kreusler, 66; Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the Solar Spectrum, Prof. A. Fowler, 184; A. Buss, 184; New Spectrum Observed in Gadolinium, G. Urbain, 71; Investigation of the Arc Spectrum of Tungsten, Dr. Hasselberg, 134; Dr. H. M. Reese’s Observations of ‘* Enhanced ’’ Lines in the Fe, Ti, and Ni Spectra, F. E. Baxandall, 134; Stars with Spectra of the Orion Type, Prof. Pickering, 135; Photographs in Colour of the Spectrum Negative by Transmission, G. Lippmann, 167; Stars with Peculiar Spectra, Mrs. Fleming, 183; Prof. Pickering, 183; the Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra of Aromatic Compounds, part i., Benzene and Certain Monosubstituted Derivatives, E. ©. ©. Baly and J. N. Gollie, 239; part ii., the Phenols, E. C. €. Baly and E. K Ewbank, 239; the Ultra-violet 542; on the Chromospheric Spectrum, H. Deslandres, Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region, Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 557; a Focusing Screen for Use in Photographing Ultra- violet Spectra, Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 581; the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region, Dr. E. C. C. Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, I’.R.S., 630; the Fluorescence of Sodium Vapour, Prof. R. W. Wood, 286; Sun-spot Spectra, W. M. Mitchell, 330; General Principles of Absorption Spectrophotometry and a New Instrument, James R. Milne, 391; Absorp- tion Spectrum of Manganous Salts, P. J.ambert, 392; Atlas of Emission Spectra of Most of the Elements, Drs. Hagenback and Konen, 426; Absorption Spectrum and Fluorescence of Mercury Vapour, W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 504; the Isolation of Terbium, G. Urbain, 552; Influence of Collisions and of the Motion of Molecules in the Line of Sight upon the Constitution of a Spectrum Line, Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 575; Study of the Spectra of Alloys of Different Metals, P. G. Nutting, 591; a Spectrographic Determination of the Solar Parallax, F. Kistner, 611; Handbuch der Spectroscopie, Prof. H. Kayser, 627 Spinthariscope and Retinal Excitability, the, Gotch, ERS.) 174 Spirit- -level as a 'Seismoscope, Spring and Summer, a _ Relation between, MacDowall, 56 Spring (Prof. W.), 35° Squire (Charles), the Prof. Francis the, G. T. Bennett, So Alex. B. the Limit of Visibility of Fluorescence, the British Mythology of Islands, 145 : Staffordshire Coalfields, the North, Memoirs of the Geo- logical Survey of England and Wales, W. Gibson, G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, and J. Ward, H. W. Hughes, 612 Standard Time in Various Countries, Rear-Admiral Chester, 256 Presidential Address at W. A. H. Naylor, Standardisation in British Pharmaceutical Pharmacy, Conference, 334 Standardisation of Screws, the, 43 Stansfield (H.), New Method of Produce Coloured Plate Glass, 167 Stapf (Dr. Otto), an Indian Garden, Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar, 125 Stapleton (H. E.), Sal-ammoniac, a Study in Primitive Chemistry, 452; Alchemical Equipment in the Eleventh Century, A.D., 452 Starke (Dr. H.), Experimentelle Elektrizitatslehre, 70 xlii Index Nature, December 14, 1905 Stars: Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Miss Leavitt, 66; Observations and Light-curves of Several Variable Stars, Dr. L. Terkan, 66; Twelve Stars with Variable Radial Velocities, Prof. Wright and Dr. Palmer, 89; a Remarkable Variable Star, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 110; Variable Stars in the Clusters Messier 3 and 5, Prof. Bailey, 183; Periods of the Variable Stars S Sagittee and Y Ophiuchi, M. Luizet, 330; Catalogue of New Double Stars, Prof. Hussey, 90; Double Star Observations, J. A. Miller and Prof. W. A. Cogshall, 135 ; a Lost Double Star, Prof. Doolittle, 567; Radial: Veloci- ties of Thirty-one Stars, Prof. Lord, 110; Magnitudes of Nova Persei and Nova Geminorum, Prof. A. A. Nijland, 110; Stars with Spectra of the Orion Type, Prof. Pickering, 135; a Probable Nova in Ophiuchus, Mr. Fleming, 158; Miss Cannon, 158; Prof. Pickering, 158; Stars with Peculiar Spectra, Mrs. Fleming, 183 ; Prof. Pickering, 183; Recent Positions of Eros, Mr. Manson, 207; Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars, - Dr. Auwers, 388; Harriet Bigelow, 388; Discovery of a Nova, Mrs. Fleming, 465; Prof. Pickering, 465; Nova Aquilze No. 2, Prof. Max Wolf, 494, 611; Dr. P. Guthnick, 494, 611; Prof. Hartwig, 518; Mrs. Fleming, S420 Prop Pickering, 640; Our Stellar Universe, a Road-book to the Stars, Thomas Edward Heath, Beinn Our Stellar Universe (Six Stereograms of Sun and Stars), Thomas E. Heath, 531; Visibility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observatory, Mr. Lampland, 592; Mr. Lowell, 592; the Orbit of ¢ Tauri, Profs. Frost and Adams, 592; Star with a Large Proper Motion, Miss Leavitt, 640 State and Agriculture in Hungary, the, Dr. Ignatius Daranyi, 291 : State, the Citizen and the, 378 State and Higher Education, the, 58 State, Science and the, R. B. Haldane, 184 Statics: an Introduction to Elementary Statics (Treated Graphically), R. Nettell, 126: Origin of the Principles of Virtual Displacements, P. Duhem, 576 Statistics : Decline of Birth-rate, 422 ‘ Stead (J. E., F.R.S.), Overheated Steel, 573 Steam: Experimental Researches on the Flow of Steam through Nozzles and Orifices, A. Rateau, 101; Deter- mination of the Specific Heat of Superheated Steam by Throttling, &os AS ie: Peake, 116; Efficiency of the Steam Jacket, Mr. Mellanby, 213; V. Pendred, 213; Mr. Saxon, 213; Henry Davey, 213; Mark Robinson, 213; Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Turbines, Dr. A. Stodola, 219; Bau der Dampfturbinen, Prof. A. Musil, 219; History of the Steam-engine, 423 Stebbing (E. P.), the ‘ Bee-hole ” “Borer of Burma, 493 Steel Institute, Iron and, 572 Stefanini (A.), van ’t Hoff’s Hypothesis of Osmotic Pressure Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, Teak in ‘ M.), Growth jn Weight of a Chicken, 33 Stellar ; see Stars Stephan (M.), French Observations of Eclipse, 518; Further Results of the French Expeditions, 639 Stephens (Dr. J. W. W.), a Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India, S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston, d Sterilisation of Water in the Kield; Prof. R Ts Hewlett 431; Corr., 515 Stern (H. A.), Elementary Practical Stevens (Catharine Oz), t 631 Stewart (Dr. Skull, 175 Stewart (Dr. Electricity, 77 Stieltjes, Correspondance d’Hermite et de, 313 Stirling (Dr. William), Breathing in Living Beings Lecture at Royal Institution of Great Britain, 355 a Stobbs (John T.), Value of Fossil Mollusca in Coal-measure Stratigraphy, 519 Stodola (Dr. A.), Steam Turbi e vith ix GeCIeAiic ss. Ines, with an Appendix on the Total Solar Eclipse Mathematics, 393 the Problem of ‘ Shadow-bands,”’ (Ons JERS) History of a White Rhinoceros Isc Wallace), Second Stage Magnetism and Stokes (the late Sir George), Scientific Correspondence of, Prof. J. Larmor, F.R.S., 29 Stokes (the late Sir George Gabriel, Bart.), Mathematical and Physical Papers by, 555 Stokes (J. A.), Action of Magnesium Methyl Iodide on Pinenenitrosochloride, 166 Stone Age, the Evolution of Engraving in the, Ed. Piette, Sr Stone Gardens, Rose Haig Thomas, 629 Stonehenge, Notes on, Sir Norman Lockyer, BRIS .40 32,2405 270 Stoney (Dr. G. Johnstone, F.R.S.), Proposed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse, 244; a Remark- able Meteor, 279 Strachan (R.), Measurement of Evaporation, 141 Strasburger (Eduard), Streifziige an der Riviera, 171 Streifziige an der Riviera, Eduard Strasburger, G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 171 Strength of Threads, the Effect of Radium on the, Hilda P. Martin and Prof. W. B. Morton, 365 Strokes of the Brush in a Picture, Number of, 198 ReGabe, Prof. Stromeyer (C. E.), Geodetic Measurements from Solar Eclipses, 230 Stroémgren (Dr.), Comet 1905 II (1904e), 43 Strong (Dr.), Virulence of Micro-organisms and their Immunising Powers, 108 Structural and Field Geology, Dr. Jas. Geikie, 223 Strutt (Hon. R. J., F.R.S.), the Radio-active Minerals, 190; the Rate of Formation of Radium, 365 Struve (Prof. Otto von), Death of, 38; Obituary Notice of, 61 Submarine Boats, Causes of Accidents to, Captain R. H. Bacon, 306 Submarine Navigation, Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 209 Suess (Eduard), Scientific Worthies, Heese Suess (Prof. Eduard), the Face of the Earth (Das Antlitz der Erde), 193 Sun: the Electrical Charge of the Sun, Prof. Svante Arrhenius, 43; Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905, D. Antonio Tarazona, 77; Observations of Prominences on the Sun’s Limb, Prof. Mascari, 158; the Figure of the Sun, C. Lane Poor, 567; Vegetation and the Sun-spot Period, Camille Flammarion, 303; Sun-spot Spectra, W. M. Mitchell, 330; Another Large Sun-spot, 610; the Recent Large Sun-spot, 639; see also Astronomy Surgery: the Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Complications, W. H. Battle and E..M. Corner, 122; the Treatment of Bone Fractures by Movement, J. Lucas-Championniére, 288; Ascending Currents in Mucous Canals and Gland Duets, C. 4/2 Bond, 331; Death of Christopher Heath, 347; Methods of the Japanese Naval Medical Service, Surgeon-General Suzuki, 589 Survey of India, the, 129 Surveying : Tangent-micrometer for Theodolites, Endless- tangent Screw for Sextants, E. A. Reeves, 91 Suzuki (Surgeon-General), Methods of the Japanese Naval Medical Service, 589 Switch-gear Systems of Electric Transmission, Electricity Control, a Treatise on, Leonard Andrews, Maurice Solomon, 99 Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Products from which they are derived, the, J. ©. Cain and J. F. Thorpe, Walter M. Gardner, Supp. to October 19, vii Sir Arch. Geikie, Tait (W. A.), Rainfall of the Drainage Area of the Talla Reservoir, 143 Talbot (B.), Segregation in Steel Ingots, 573 Tammes (Miss T.), Amount of Variation Obtained in Cultivating a Five-rayed Form of Trifolium pratense, 205 Tanakadate (Prof. A.), 580 Tannery (Jules), Introduction & la Théorie des Fonctions d’une Variable, 313 Tanret (George), Gentiine, 336 a Magnetic Survey of Japan, Vature, December 14, 1905 Lndex xh Yarazona (D. Antonio), Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905, 77 Tattersall (W. M.), Schizopoda Captured in the Bay of Biscay, 118 ; ¢ Tauri, the Orbit of, Profs. Frost and Adams, 592 Taylor (Dr. W. W.), New Method of Preparing Esters, 19l Teaching of Practical Chemistry and Physics, the, Dr. Karl VY. Fischer, 333; Oberlehrer Hahn, 333 Teaching Value of Menageries, the, 13 Tebb (Dr. Scott), the Metropolitan Water Supply, 386 Technical Education: Colony of Natal, Report of the Technical Education Commission, 460; Connection between Scientific Training and Industrial Development, 608 ; see also Education : Technical Training, the Academic Side of, Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., 256 Telegraphy: Direct Reading Cymometer for Measuring the Length of the Waves used in Wireless Telegraphy, Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., 91; Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy, H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland, Maurice Solomon, 99; Experiments with the De Forest Wireless Telegraphy in Moving Trains, 228; First Three Months’ Working of the Wireless Telegraph Act, 351; Experiments with Different Methods of Earth Connection for Wireless Telegraphic Installations, Lieut. Evans, 492 ; Setting Type by Telegraph, Donald Murray, Maurice Solomon, 568 A Telephony: Utilisation of the Telephone System for the Exact Transmission of Time, M. Guyou, 134 Telescope, the Bruce, Reference Photographs, Pickering, 89 clescepic Work for Observers of Planets, W. F. Denning, 20 Temperature, High, Research on the Felspars, Arthur L. Day and E. T. Allen, 258 Temperature Measurements, High, H. Le Chatelier and O. Boudouard, 293 Terada (T.), a Polarisation Pattern, 581 Terkan (Dr. L.), Observations and Light-curves of Several Variable Stars, 66 Terrestrial Changes, Solar and, 249, 332 Testacella, Notes on the Habits of, Oswald H. Latter, 176; M. D. Hill, 199 Thalén (Dr. T. R.), Death of, 384; Obituary Notice of, Prof. 403 Thames Flow and British Pressure and Rainfall Changes, the, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 17 7 Theobald (Fred. V.), Insect Life, a Short Account of the Classification and Habits of Insects, 150 Theobald (Prof.), Insect Pests of Field and Garden Crops, Therapeutics: the High-frequency Electrical Treatment, Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith, F.R.S., 7; Treatment of Trypanosomatous Disease (Surra, Mbori) by Arsenious Acid and Trypan Red, A. Laveran, 288; X-Rays, their Employment in Cancer and Other Diseases, Richard J. Cowen, 395 Thermodynamics: Thermodynamik, Dr. W. Voigt, 338; ee et Surfaces thermodynamiques, J. W. Gibbs, 33 Thermoelectric Junction as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures, on the, and on Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters, Sir James Dewar at Royal Society, 352 Thomas (Rose Haig), Stone Gardens, 629 Thomsen (H. Ivah), Graphical Solution of Cubic and Quartic Equations, 295 Thomson (Prof. J. A.), Alcyonarians National Antarctic Expeditions, 287 Thomson (Prof.), Striation of the Positive Column in Electric Discharges, 142; the Calculation of the Co- efficient of Re-combination of the Ions and the Size of the Ions, 142 Thomson (Prof. J. J.), 293 Thoroughbred, the American, C. E. Trevathan, 395 Thorpe (J. F.), the Synthetic’ Dyestuffs and the Inter- mediate Products from which they are derived, Supp. to October 19, vii of the Scottish a Text-book of Physics, Heat, Threads, the Effect of Radium on the Strength of, Hilda P. Martin and Prof. W. B. Morton, 365 Thudicum (George), Simple Method of Testing Sewage Effluents, 97 Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms, a, Sarat Chandra Das, Lieut.-Colonel L. A. Waddell, Supp. to October 19, iii Tiere, Einleitung in der Experimentelle morphologie der, Dr. Hans Przibram, 426 Tietz (Dr. H.), the Character of Cape Wines, 642 Tiffeneau (M.), Aromatic Substitution Derivatives Ethylene Oxide, 192 Tilden (W. A.), Action of Magnesium Methyl Iodide on Pinenenitrosochloride, 166 Tillyard (R. J.), Dimorphism in the Female of Ischnura heterosticta, 552 Time, Standard, Chester, 256 Tisdall (H. Y.), Death and Obituary Notice of, 538 Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects, the Omission of, Prof. John C. Branner, 534; A. P. Trotter, 581 Todd (Prof. David), Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse in Tripoli, Barbary, 484; Absence of Vibration in a Turbine Steamship, 603 Todd (Dr.), Human Tick Fever, 332 Tomek (Prof. von), Death of, 203 Topham (W. H.), Elementary of in Various Countries, Rear-Admiral Practical Mathematics, Toncaeapley: the, and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt, H. J. L. Beadnell, 535 3 Touchet (Em.), Flashes of Lightning which leave a Glow in their Wake, 18 Toxic Extract from 424 eee 7 Toxicology : Presence of Poison in the Eggs of the Viper, C. Phisalix, 240; Presence of Poison in the Eggs of Bees, C. Phisalix, 336 Transits of Jupiter’s Spots, Eye-estimates of the, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 518 Transplantation of Shell-fish, the, 430 Transposition of Zoological Names, the, Dr 2. 1) Sciater, BeReS. 30 Transverse Momentum of an Electron, the, Oliver Heavi- side, F.R.S., 429 Travel-talk, Murray’s Handbook of, 269 Traversing of Geometrical Figures, on the, J. Cook Wilson, Supp. to October 19, vi Treatment, New Methods of, Dr. Laumonier, 122 Trees, H. Marshall Ward, 482 Trees, Diseases of Forest, 163 Trees of North America, Manual of the (exclusive of Mexico), C. S. Sargent, 197 Trees, the Mechanics of the Ascent of Sap in, Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S., at Royal Society, 644 Trépied (Ch.), French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse, 518; Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun at Guelma, 576 the Cerebral Substance, A. Marie, | Trevathan (C. E.), the American Thoroughbred, 395 Treves (Sir Frederick), Medical and Surgical Ability of the Japanese, 38 f Trillat (A.), Ammonia in Milk, Evidence of Polution, 72 Tropical Light, the Effects of, on White Men, Major Charles E. Woodruff, 172 Tropical Medicine, London School of, Scientific Research in Medicine, Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S., at, 643 Trotter (A. P.), the Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects, 58: Troubetzkoi (Prince Serge), Death of, 607 Trouessart (E. L.), Catalogus Mammalium, tam viventium quam fossilium, 427 Tuberculosis: the Suppression of Tuberculosis, Prof. E. von Behring, Method of Treating Tuberculosis, Prof. v. Behring, 581; the International Congress on Tubercu- losis, 581; Specimens Indicating the Results of Inocu- lation of Bovine, Human and Avian Tubercle, Dr. Lydia Rabinowitsch, 582; Specimens from Goats and Kids, Dr. Calmette, 582; Tuberculosis of Dogs, Prof. G. Petit, 582; the Infection of Man by Bovine Tubercle Bacilli, Profs. Arloing, Kossel, and Ravenal, 582; Results Obtained by Treatment, Prof. Denis, 583; Dr. Beraneck, 583; Dr. Marmorek, 583 122: xliv Lndex Nature, December 14, 1905 Tuckey (C. O.), Examples in Arithmetic, 580 Turbine Steamship, Absence of Vibration in a, David Todd, 603 Turbines: Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Turbines, Dr. A. Stodola, 219; Bau der Dampfturbinen, Prof. A. Musil, 219 Turchini (S.), Variations of Lustre given by a Crookes’s Tube, 23 Turkestan, Explorations in, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan, Raphael Pumpelly, R. W. Pumpelly, Prof. W. M. Davis, and Ellsworth Hunting- ton, Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, 366 Turner (Prof.), Oxford University Observatory, 110 Turner (H. W.), the Insulation of Electric Machines, ag) Turpain (A.), Method for Study of a Luminous Pheno- menon Varying in Intensity with the Time, 480 Tutton (A. E. H.), Relation of Ammonium to the Alkali Metals, 165-6 Type-writing by Solomon, 568 Typography: Author and Printer, an Attempt to Codify the Best Typographical Practices of the Present Day, F. Howard Collins, 100 Prof. Telegraph, Donald Murray, Maurice , Ule (E.), *‘ Flower-gardens ’? made by Ants in the Crowns of Trees in Amazonia and Peru, 64 Ultra-violet Absorption Spectra of Aromatic Compounds, part i., Benzene, E. C. C. Baly and J. N. Collie, 239; part ii., the Phenols, E. C. C. Baly and E. K. Ewbank, 239 Ultra-violet Chromospheric Spectrum, the, H. Deslandres, 542 Ultra-violet Mercury Lamp, a New, Dr. O. Schott, 513 Ultra-violet Region, on the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in| the; Prof. §W. N. Hartley, BoR°S. 557; Dr: E. C. C, Baly and Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., 630 Ultra-violet Spectra, a Focusing Screen for Use in Photo- graphing, Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S., 581 Union Society of University College, London, Dr. Alex B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., on the Academic Side of Technical Training at the, 256 Universities : University and Educational Intelligence, 20% 4050970701935) eULOueGgue LOS. a TSO: 214, 237 260, 285, 311, 335, 357, 399, 479, 503, 527, 550, 574, 599, 622, 646; University of Pennsylvania, Transactions of the Department of Archeology, Free Museum of Science and Art, H. B. Hall, 98; Oxford University Observ- atory, Prof. Turner, 110; the Empire and University Life, 217; Gunga-Gunga, 319; the Needs of our Oldest University, 231; the University College of South Wales, 235; Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., on the Academic Side of Technical Training at the Union Society of University College, London, 256; the University of Sheffield, 282; University Education and National Life, Opening Address in Section L at the Meeting of the British Association in South Africa, Sir Richard C. Jebb, Wetted Deg JOR Ue Wie iirc Uranus, Observations of the Satellites of Saturn and, Messrs. Frederick and Hammond, 230 Uranus, the Planet, W. F. Denning, 244 Urbain (G.), New Spectrum observed in Gadolinium, Fp the Isolation of Terbium, 552 Urda, Ephemeris of the Variable Berberich, 542 Utopia, a Modern, H. G. Asteroid (167), A. Wells, 337 Vacher (Francis), the Food Inspector’s Handbook, 243 Vaillant (P.), Influence of Concentration on the Magnetic Properties of Solutions of Cobalt, 216 ; Valeur (Amand), Sparteine and its Reaction with Methyl Iodide, 192; Sparteine, the Stereoisomerism of the Two pees pits, 216; Action of Ethyl Iodide on Sparteine, 264 Vapour Pressures, the ‘‘ Bubbling ’? Method and, the Earl of Berkeley and E. G. J. Hartley, 222 Variability of Minor Plaret (15) Eunomia, Pre‘ Wendell, 43 Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y., the, Dr. Palisa, 518; Prof. Berberich, 518 Variable Asteroid (167) Urda, Ephemeris of the, A. Ber- berich, 542 Variable Radial Velocities, Wright and Dr. Palmer, 89 Variable Stars: Observations and Light-curves of Several Variable Stars, Dr. L. Terkdan, 66; Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, Miss Leavitt, 66; a Remark- able Variable Star, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 110; Variable Stars in the Clusters Messier 3 and 5, Prof. Bailey, 183 ; Periods of the Variable Stars S Sagittae and Y Ophiuchi, M. Luizet, 330 Variation: Influence de l’Alimentation et de 1’Humidité sur la Variation des Papillons, Arnold Pictet, F. Merri- Twelve Stars with, Prof. field, 632 Variation of a Newly Discovered Asteroid, Dr. Palisa, 494 Variations, the Causation of, Dr. G. Archdall Reid, 318 Variations of Latitude, Prof. T. Albrecht, 110; Mr. Kimura, 437; Mr. Nakano, 437 : Vautier (Th.), Propagation of Musical Sounds in a Tube of 3 Metres Diameter, 95 Vector Mechanics: die Grundlagen der Bewegungslehre von einem modernen Standpunkte aus, Dr. G. Jaumann, 51 Vegetation and the Sun-spot Period, Camille Flammarion, 393 Vegetationsbilder, 100 Vektoranalysis, Einfiihrung in die, mit Anwendungen auf die Mathematische Physik, Dr. Richard Gans, 483 Velocities, Twelve Stars with Variable Radial, Prof. Wright and Dr. Palmer, 89 Venus, Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of, M. Hansky, Ascidians and Bridge, Vee the Lower, Hemichordata, Amphioxus, Fishes, Drs. Harmer, Herdman, and G. S. Boulenger, 103 Verworn (Max), Prinzipienfragen schaft, Supp. to October 19, viii Vesuvius, Recent Changes in, R. T. Giinther, 455 Vibration, Absence of, in a Turbine Steamship, Prof. David Todd, 603 Victorious, Why Japan is, 128 Vidal (E.), Use of Rockets against Hail, 288 Vidal (Captain Léon), Manuel Pratique de Cinématique navale et maritime, 361 Vienna, the Botanical Congress at, 272 Vienna, the Royal University Observatory of, 388 Vignon (Léo), Examination of Phosphorus Sulphide for the Presence of Free White Phosphorus, 143 Ville (H.), a Combination of Methzmoglobin containing Fluorine, 47 Villemontée (P. Gourée de), Contribution to the Study of Liquid Dielectrics, 312 Violle (J.), Propagation of Musical Sounds in a Tube of 3 Metres Diameter, 95 Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of Venus, M. Hansky, 393 Visibility of Faint Stars at the Lowell Observatory, Mr. Lampland, 592; Mr. Lowell, 592 Viticulture : Chlorophyll Assimilation in Young Shoots of Plants, Applications to the Vine, Ed. Griffon, 23; Ravages of the Phylloxera in Northern Spain are very Serious, 541; the Character of Cape Wines, Dr. H. Tietz, 642 P Voigt (Dr. W.), Thermodynamik, 338 Volcanoes : the Eruption of Stromboli, 65; the Earthquake at Stromboli on September 8, and the Present State of the Volcano, A. Lacroix, 624; the Tower of Pelée, New Studies of the Great Volcano of Martinique, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, 101; Renewal of Activity of Mont Pelée, 155; Vesuvius in Eruption, 106; Recent Changes in Vesuvius, R. T. Giinther, 455; Crater of Etna Extending, Prof. A. Ricco, 300; Volcanic Eruptions on Savaii, Samoa, 491; Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption at Samoa, 563 Volkerpsychologie, Wilhelm Wundt, 126 in der Naturwissen- Dr. A. B. Rendle, Nature, | December 14, 1905 Index xlv Volkerpsychologie, Lazarus der Begriinder der, Dr. Alfred Leicht, 396 Volterra (Prof. Vito), Interesting Application of the Mathe- matical Theory of Elasticity, 387 Vreeland (F. K.), Maxwell's Theory and Wireless Tele- graphy, 99 Vries (Hugo de), Species and Varieties, their Origin by Mutation, 314 Waby (J. F.), Two Photographs of a Palm, Corypha elata, 166 Wace (A. J. B.), Greek Grotesque Figures as Charms against the Evil Eye, 560 Waddell (Lieut.-Colonel L. e =. a = -RicHarp CLay anp Sons, Limirep, BREAD STREET HILL. E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. j 4 : ‘ { i \ y 4 . Wie de c E ‘ ‘se Jt y p A } Soh : i ) i ‘ ‘ vy : Jud 1. oy ' Le 4 q " A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL, OF SCIENCE ‘“ To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind whic h builds for aye.’’ —WORDSWORTH. No. 1853, VOL. 72] THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1905 [Price SIXPENCE Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.) [All Rights are Reserved. NEWTON & CO.’S & CAINS LONG-RANGE ELECTRIC LANTERN. xR Single Long-range Lantern, brass front with 44-in. condensers, and extra large front lenses 3 in. in diameter. Com)lete with the *‘ New Universal” Hand-feed Arc Lamp in case, £22. This Lantern is as efficient as any we can make for showing slidesin large halls where electric current is available. 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. Improved Pattern NERNST | PROJECTION LAMPS with Electrical Heating Circuit. Double filament earrying 2 amps. Descriptive Lamphiet Post free on application to JOHN J.GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., | 20-26 SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. |! VERLAG VON CUSTAV FISCHER IN JENA. SORBEN ERSCHIEN: VEGETATIONSBILDER herausgegeben von Dr. G. KARSTEN, Dr. H. SCHENCK, Prof. a. d. Universitat Bonn. Prof. a. d Technischen Hoch- schule Darmstadt. Zweite Reihe. Heft 8. (Schluss der 2 Reihe.) G. SCHWEINEURTH und LUDWIG DIEHLS, VEGETATIONSTYPEN AUS DER KOLONIE ERITREA. Tafel ss. Flachtaler mit Hyphaene thebaica (Dom-Palmen) am Thor Mansura, oberer Barka. Tafel 56. Ficus Sycomorus im Trockenbett des Anseba, éstlich von Keren. Tafel 57. Rosa abyssinica bei Halai, 26co m. tt, M. Vafel 58. Boswellia papyrifera am Nordabfall des Hochlandes yon Dembelas, oberer Barka. Vafel co. Aloé Schimperi am Eingange zur Schlucht von Gua, 2200 m. i. M. Tafel 60. Kolkual-Hain (Euphorbia abyssinica) bei Godofelassi. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S ANEROID ROMETERS. NEW ILLUSTRATED AND REVISED PRICE LISTS Free by Post. “The Waten Size Aneroid for foretelling weather and measur - ng heights. Ge 38 Holborn Viaduct, Cc. Branches— 45 Cornhill; 122 Regent Street, ii NATURE [May 4 1905 ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The ANNIVERSARY MEETING of the Society for the ELECTION of PRESIDENT and COUNCIL, &c., will be held in the THEATRE, BURLINGTON GARDENS, on Monday, May 22, at 3 p.m., the PRESIDENT in the Chair. In place of the Annual Dinner of the Society a BANQUET in honour of the retiring President, Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., will be held on the Evening of the Anniversary Meeting, May 22, at the Hotel Metropole, Whitehall Rooms, Whitehall Place, at 7-0 p.m. for 7.30. Dinner charge, 411s. Friends of Fellows are admissible permit. Applications for tickets should 1 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens, W. LEONARD DARWIN, J. F. HUGHES, 1 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens, W. I At the SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, Manresa Road, Chelsea, S.W., Day College Courses of thirty hours per week are conducted in preparation for the London University Degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, in Chemis- try, Physics and the Natural Sciences. The composition fee for the Session of three terms, 1904-1905, is £15. These Courses are recog: nised for ‘Internal Students” of the University, and consist of lecture and laboratory instruction. The Courses are conducted by :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, W. W. F. Pullen, A. Mack'ow Smith; ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, A J. Makower; CHEMISTRY, J. B. Coleman, J. C. Crocker, and F. H. Lowe; MATHEMATICSand PHYSICS, S. Skinner, W. H. Eccles, J. Lister and L. Lownds; BOTANY, H. B. Lacey and T. G. Hill; GEOLOGY, A. J. Maslen, In the evenings similar Courses will be conducted, but at £2 per Session. Also TECHNICAL DAY COURSES of three years’ duration are arranged as a preparation for the Engineering, Electrical and Chemical and Metallurgical pro- fessions. The Laboratories and Workshop are open for RESEARCH under the direction of The Principal and the Heads of Departments. be made to the Chief Clerk, Hon. J Secretaries, Further particulars may be obtained on application to The SEcRETARY, who will send either the Day College Prospectus and Calendar or the Evening Class Prospectus for 33¢. The Prospectuses may be had at the Office for rd. each. ee EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. In view of the extension of Secondary Education in Egypt, applications are invited for new ASSISTANT-MASTERSHIPS in Secondary Schools under Ministry of Public Instruction. Masters to begin work in September, in Cairo or Alexandria, and to teach in English exclusively. Over 400 boys in each school, mainly Mohammedans. In the case of one of the Masters now required, the subject mainly essential is Science (Experimental Physics and Chemistry) ; six of the new Masters will be principally engaged in teaching Mathematics (Arithmetic, Geometry, and Algebra); the others will | be concerned more particularly with the teaching of English. Candidates must be not less than 23 nor over 30 years of age, have a robust constitution, and have taken a University Degree in Honours. They must have ex. perience as Teachers: preference will be given to applicants who hold a Diploma in Teaching. Salary, £295 per annum (4Eg.24 per mensem), rising to £393 per annum (4Eg.32 per mensem). Allowance for passage out to Egypt. Teaching hours, on an average, four daily, Fridays only excepted. Summer vacation not less than two months. Applications, with full statement of qualifications, and accompanied by copies only of testimonials, must be sent in before May 15, 1905, marked outside “ Assistant Masterships,” and addressed to the SECRETARY- GENERAL, Ministry of Public Instruction, Cairo, Egypt, to whom candidates may apply for further information. ——— ee THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. GARTSIDE SCHOLARSHIPS of COMMERCE and INDUSTRIES, Three Scholarships may be awarded in June. Candidates must be of British nationality, under the age of 23 at the date of election. The scholarships will be tenable for two years, and over the age of 18 and approved by the electors). Candidates must send in their application, together with testimonials of good character and record of previous training, on or before June 1, to the Recisrrar, from whom further Particulars can be obtained. SS ee eee NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY. There is a vacancy for a JUNIOR ASSISTANT in the Metallurgical Department. His duties will be to assist general work of the Department It is important that he should have had practical experience in the manu- facture of Copper Alloys on a commercial scale, Stipend, £1s0a year. Applications should be made i Physical Laboratory, Teddington, in the Alloys Research work, and in the n writing to the Director, to the dinner as far as space will | NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATH EMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Accommodation and apparatus provided for research in either Pure or Applied Chemistry and Physics, and Engineering, in rooms specially adapted for this purpose. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard, REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. ———————————— BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. oa4 ENTRANCE SCHOLARSHIPS. a A Reid Scholarship in Arts, annual value 43t tos. first year, £28 7s. second and third years, and an Arnott Scholarship in Science, annual value 448, both tenable for three years, will be awarded on the results of the examination to be held at the College on June 28 and 29. For further information apply to the Principat. DEPARTMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN TEACHING. Students are admitted to the Training Course in October and January. Two Scholarships, each of the value of 410, will be awarded for the course of Secondary Training beginning in October, 1905. Applications should reach the Heap OF THE Tratninc DepaRrMENT not later than July 7, 1905. — UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. PROFESSORSHIP OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, The Council of the University wish to elect a Professor of Civil Engineering to co-operate with the Professors of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He will have charge, with an assistant, of the teaching of Surveying, Strength of Materials. Hydraulics, and other branches of Civil Engineering, and will superintend the laboratories for Hydraulics and Strength of Materials. The Stipend will be £600 a year. The Professor will be allowed to take Higher Consultative work, to keep in touch with Civil Engineering practice, provided that it does not interfere with his University duties. Y Applications, accompanied by seventy five copies of testimonials, should be received by the Secretary, not later than May 20. The successful Candidate will be expected to begin his duties on October 2, 1905. Further particulars may be obtained from GEO. H. MORLEY, Secretary. eo THE AGENT-GENERAL for the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE has been instructed wb receive applications for the vacant post of PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY to the SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE, CAPE TOWN, up to June x next. Candidates ss¢ be under 35 years of age, and their applications should be supported by cofies of testimonials and a medical certificate. The salary offered is £500 per annum on appointment, £600 per annum after three years’ service, 4700 per annum after ten years’ service, together with a merit grant of £75 per annum after five years, increasing to £100 after ten years. An allowance of £50 will be made to cover the cost of the journey to the Colony. The accepted Candidate is to assume duty in Cape Town during the first week in July, or so soon thereafter as possible. roo Victoria Street, London, S.W., May 2, 199s. ec COACHING ‘THEORY ann PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- COLOGY and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, 8.W.), | (Registered National apart 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C, May 4, 1905] NATURE iii For Sale, Pritchard’s History of Infusoria, § 4th Edition, 1861, cloth. Quarterly Journal Microsc opi al Science and ‘Transactions of the Microscopical Society 1863, 1866, 1867. Particulars from J. E. ArNET?Y, The Library, Tenby. ““Nature’’ to Sell, 16 volumes. Volume 54 Specialities. to current issue. Perfect condition. What offers?—HoL_psworrn, Cecil Avenue, Bradford. | Radium Brom. in 5 mg. Tubes RE, TYPE-WRITING UNDERTAKEN BY ES I HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOMED TO SCIEN- i er 0Z. minimum TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Caicium Metal, 1 6 p ( 4 oz. ) Local, thorough acquaintance with Modern Languages). Research, Revision, Translation. Scale of charges on application. The Cam- Lithium Metal (Chem. pure) { gram. {ubes. bridge Type-writing Agency, 1o Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. Rubidium ,, ‘3 “ r For ordinary work this is the finest in- i strument obtainable ; Bari u m oh ) a) a it can be used either ee TG in the hand or on a = ‘and. le ie sued | Beryllium, r ‘3 i with an accurately speeded roller blind = shutter, brilliant view Strontium a] yy ) oi} finders, rising and cross fronts and three o double dark slides of Tel ljurium yy an on on improved design. Also an accurately = engraved focussing U ran | u m yy yy on yy scale. Price without lens but as above, £5, Any makeoflenscan Above and the rest of the Rare Elements can be fitted ; no extra be immediately supplied from stock. charge made for fitting. A. KERSHAW, DORRINGTON so Ses -ARMBRECHT, NELSON & CO., Solel andvauthorised makerof the original SEROUD| AND RENDELL 71 & 73 DUKE ST., GROSVENOR SQ., LONDON, W. SCIENCE LANTERNS. Beware oF FEEBLE IMITATIONS. List of Rare Elements, Post Free. for Special AT REASONABLE PRICES, Apply Telephone: GERRARD, 4942. ————— Dy MEETS = 1-21 1900) IX mi) } GR AND PR ST. LOUIS = 1904. And other High Awards. HEELE’S: NEW SPECTROGRAPH of original Construction, equipped with Optical parts made from the New ULTRA-VIOLET-GLASS, for Special Researches on the Ultra-Violet. Length of Spectrum on plate 16 cm. Also, similar Construction, of somewhat smaller Dimensions, for use in Technical Institutes, with three prisms. Length of Spectrum on plate 5 cm. Prices on application. A large Spectrograph of this kind can be seen and tested at my Showrooms by appvintment. PETER HEELE, 115 High Holborn, London, Ww. oe Maker of Astronomical, Physical, Chemical, and other Instruments, and every kind of INSTRUMENTS TO SPECIAL DESIGNS A SPECIALITY. Polarimeter and Spectroscope. NATURE | May 4, 1905 Sale by Auction. IMPORTANT COLLECTION OF LEPIDOPTERA. TUESDAY axpn WEDNESDAY, MAY 16 anp 17, AT ONE O'CLOCK. MR. J. C. STEVENS will Offer at his Rooms, 38 King Street, Covent Garden London, W.C., the second poriion of the unrivalled COLLECTION OF BRITISH LEPI- DOPTERA formed by the late Pottip B. Mason, M.R.C.S., F.C.S.. F.ZS., F.ES., &c.. of Trent House, Burton-on-Trent, comprising long and superb series of most of the rare and extinct species, fine varieties and local forms in the best state of preservation, also many valu ble and historic specimens and types from the Haworth and other Collections, together with the first rate Standish and other Cabinets in which they are arranged. On View the Monday prior and Mornings of Sale. Catalogues ready a week prior to Sale, post free on application. THE EXECUTORS OF THE LATE | COLONEL WAFKIN, C.B. (Inventor of the Range Finder) are offering the following for sale :— I. 6 in. Holtzaffel Lathe, with divided headstock and overhead gear and a very complete set of fittings. for engine, wood and metal turning, with a numerous assortment of small tools. II. 4 H.P. de Dion engine, water cooled with tanks, &c., and dynamo by Canning and Co., 30 volts, 20 amps. III. 7-6 volt Accumulators in teak cases, 9 amps. IV. 4 H.P. Crocker Wheeler Motor. V. 4in. Spark Coil. VI. X-Ray Apparatus, consisting of 12 in. spark coil, 3 Crookes’ tubes, screens, &c. VII. Carpenter's Bench and Tools. The whole can be seen by appointment at Ordnance House, Enfield Lock, Middlesex, or particulars may be obtained from Mr. Hicks, Mathematical Instrument Maker, 8 Hatton Garden, London. for Photography, Unsurpassed for finé definition. Send a card merely quoting 2159. TAYLOR. TAYLOR© HOBSON. fi? 5, LEICESTER, AMBRELL BROS. CATALOGUES FREE. ELECTRIGAL TESTING INSTRUMENTS, DuRHAM Houst, NORTH SIDE, CLAPHAM COMMON, LONDON, s.W. MANUFACTURERS c. BAKER’S APLANATIC LENSES. & Magnifying » 6, 10, 15, and 20. 15/- each, in Tortoiseshell or Nickel Plated Pocket Mounts. By post upon receipt of remittance. 244 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Se a NOTICE. Proof Copies of the Photogravure Portrait of PROF. SUESS appearing in “‘Nature” of to-day ean be obtained from the Publishers at 5s. eaeh. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. | | PHOSPHORESCENT POWDERS | In neat Ebonite and Brass Boxes with LIQUID AIR ayo LIQUID HYDROGEN. Dr. HAMPSON’S AIR-LIQUEFIER is now made to a standard pat- tern, and numbers are in use in University Laboratories and elsewhere in various countries. The whole apparatus is neat and compact and its parts very easily moved ; the Liquefier, without stand, being a cylinder 17 inches high and 8 inches in diameter. ; aH : It begins to liquefy air in from 6 to ro minutes after the admission of air at from 150 to 200 atmospheres pressure, making over a litre of liquid per hour. t Itrequires no auxiliary refrigerant and producesa perfectly clear liquid which requires no filtering. The operator has only one gauge to watch and one valve to control. HYDROGEN LIQUEFIER to the designs of Dr. MORRIS W. TRAVERS for use in conjunction with Air-Liquefier. For Prices and Particulars apply to the Sole Makers :— BRIN’S OXYGEN COMPANY, LIMITED, ELVERTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. JAMES SWIFT & SON’S NEW PAN-APLANATIC OBJECTIVES OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE OPTICAL EXCELLENCE. Apochromatics. 1” N.A., 1.30, oil immersion Si ke £8 8 0 i” See Geer ey i aa “a ah con «« J0510%0 rd pe ee shiny) 3 an ce i we co 8 8 0 Pan-Aplanatics. 1” oilimmersion, N.A., 1.30 ; ae ti3 a ia 4 00 5 relalie oy ore ae ‘ eo 4 00 or ES tse es & on 5 5 0 Dry Series Pan-Aplanatics. £2 5 0 4” N.A.. 0.80 ... as) de 1G) 10 2 0° 0 is ENG. BB rece x 2 Sie ©. 3 1 40 a 0.92 «.. Ro eer 0) ga Nature says:—‘‘In the excellence of their 1/12-in. homogeneous capacity which is a marvel of cheapness.” LISTS POST FREE ON APPLICATION. UNIVERSITY OPTICAL WORKS, 81 Tottenham Court Road, London. OBTAIN COPIES A PRICES COMPLETE IF YOU WANT TO oo (O Circulars, Price Lists, No. 1. 12} by 6}” ... 9/2 Plans, Diagrams, Speci- No. 2. rq} by” ... 12/3 fications,«Music, &c., No. 3. 2zibyxs” =. 19/6 USE 1HE “HECTO SHEET” The Simplest Cheapest Duplicating Process. Including a roll of **‘ Hecto Sheet,” 6’ 6” long, and bottle of ink. Each roll can be used two or three tumes. and * nee S Beas > see BEg2 S222 i ASUS _.NO WASHING. NO MELTING. NO INKING. Write for Specimens, &c., or call and see this useful Invention, AUTOCOPYIST CO. (Dept. I), 64 Queen Victoria St., London, E.C. to Phosphoresece by Day or Ultra-Violet Light. Mica Window. Price 8/6 each, or 18/6 set of six. anaes A. C. COSSOR, 64 Farringdon Road, E.C. ELEPHONE 10547 CEN1RAL. Gold Medal awarded St. Louis Exhibition, 1904. AY ORWAY- 12 12/- —S.Y. “MIDNIGHT SUN.” 3,178 VYons. Two Berth Cabins. All Berths on same level, Finest yachting steamer afloat. Sailing June 10 24; July 8, 22; August 5, 19. Apply ALBION S.S. CO, LTD., Newcastle-on-Tyne. May 4, 1905 | NATURE Vv THE SYTAM SYSTEM Saves an ineredible amount of wall space and completely utilises dark corners, recesses, and out-of-the-way places. Prevents crowding and confusion. Allows for extension as and when required. Always room for more, hence reorganisation seldom or never necessary. Saves time, lightens work, and inereases comfort by producing perfect order in the Laboratory, Library, Study, Home, Office, &e. PURE SOME SYTAM FITTINGS. @) 1. THE BOTTLE ELEMENT. RADIUM BROMIDE One hundred 4o0z. bottles are arranged in one Sytam Bottle - Element occupying less than 1 sq. ft. of wall space, each bottle is instantly We have a limited consignment of of the located, removed or replaced, and any size from | j-oz. to a Winchester can be accommodated in VERY HIGHEST A CTIVITY, one and the same element. ; 2. THE CLOSED-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. and are open to supply same in . 2) 3, THE OPEN-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. 5 mg. tubes at a 2 : 4. THE AUTHOR'S FILE. REA SONA BLE PRICE. | For division of subject into headings, chapters or sections. W. MARTINDALE, ) 5. THE TWIN DESK-TRAYS. Manufacturing Chemist, 6. THE PAMPHLET FILE. 10 NEW CAVENDISH STREET, LONDON, W. Telephone : 1797 Paddington. — THE SYTAM FITTINGS CO:, Telegrams: Martindale, Chemist, London. ( 118 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. GLEW’S SO SES Nas Rare Chemicals, ad nes et sae Rare Metals, eer eee eee eee a ep ar screen of the Scintilloscope. which is far more sensi- For Laboratory, Scientific, and all other “ae aes afi RESTS: RADIUM SALTS & RADIO-ACTIVE PREPARATIONS. Be eye sees an inexhaustible shower of stars of white light, giving a very realistic idea of the ceaseless / . es activity of these marvellous substances which are pro- CALCIUM METAL 1, 6 oz. 5 20) lb. ducing the terrific bombardment causing this beautiful display. Jm&- See Narure, September 29, page 535. Glew’s Scintilloscope Superior Lens, with Extra-sensitive Pitchblende and Polonium Screens, giving brilliant effects, Complete, 7s. 6¢., Post free, U.K. Foreign Postage extra, weight 2 ounces. H A R R | NGTO N B ROS °9 Pieces of Pitchblende mineral, ground flat and polished, with Sensitive Price List on Application. S tached, for use in Scintilloscope ith t ket . magnifier, from 7s. 6d. each, according aes a ee ee Chemical Manufacturers and Dealers, Radi t lies of every description, o ale Hi Radium Ree eat reeshinils pesivetondeciiesy it Lh 4 OLIVER’S YARD, CITY ROAD, F. HARRISON GLEW, Radiographer (Silver Medallist, Paris, 1900), LONDON, E.C. 156 Clapham Road, London, S.W. | SCHOOL LEAST Bee aS ——— ROWLAND ‘WARD, ee We have prepared for use in Primary & Secondary Schools COLLECTIONS OF SPECIMENS of VARIOUS WOODS AND OTHER BOTANICAL OBJECTS. The former are very care- fully selected in cross and long sections, in order to show the distinctive features and marks of each individual wood, and also to show their well-marked Botanical Characteristics, such as the Bark, Rings of Growth, Medullary Rays, &e., &e. 3 Catalogues Post Free. DE New Lllustrated List in Botany MG Plant Physiology (nereiae full particulars and prices of above) now ready, post | free. ogi! nae en ss concen TITHE JUNGLE, 166 PICCADILLY, LONDON 19 & 21 SUN STREET, Finsbury Square, LONDON, E.C. SSeS Naturalists and Manufacturers of ENTOMOLOGICAL APPARATUS AND CABINETS. MAMMAL SKINS. BIRD SKINS. BIRDS’ EGGS inclutches with full data. BOOKS ON ALL NATURAL HISTORY SUBJECTS. vi THE SANITAS ELECTRICAL GO., Lt0.| # Complete 4-Cell Bath Installation By Dr. SCHNEE for application of Sinusoidal, Galvanic, Faradic, Galvano- Faradic, and all other currents. a LARGE INDUCTION COILS FOR RESEARCH WORK a Speciality. Also MANUFACTURERS of X-RAY and HIGH-FREQUENCY APPARATUS of various patterns LIGHT BATHS of all kinds, Cabinet, Reclining, Portable Baths, with three-colour arrangements, with Incandescent and Arc Lamps, &c., with Arc-Light Projector for simultaneous local treatment. (Combined Patent.) NEW PATENT SHENTON-SANITAS X-RAY COMBINATION OPERATING TABLE. “TRIPLET” and ‘*DERMO”’ LAMPS with Carbon and Iron Elec- trodes for ‘‘ Finsen’’ Treatment. VIBRATORY AND PNEUMATIC MASSAGE APPARATUS. APPARATUS FOR 3-PHASE SINUSOIDAL AND ALL OTHER CURRENTS. NEW PORTABLE CAUTERY TRANSFORMER, with Terminals for Light, &c., taking only 2 Ampéres from 200 Volts Continuous Main MULTINEBULIZER, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC AND SWEDISH EX- ERCISE APPARATUS, &c., &e. 33 & 7a, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Lto. Scientific Instrument Makers to the Indian Government and Science and Art Department. LABORATORY FURNISHERS AND MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC DARK ROOM LAMP THE “RYSTOS” ELECTRIC LAMP (No. 1) For Standing or Hanging, with Cord and Plug to fit ordinary lamp socket, and Reversing Switch. The insulated switch handle on top will be found safe and well adapted for turning on the current to either ruby or white light, or instantly exchanging the one for the other. The white light is convenient when making bromide prints, transparencies, &c. The ruby glass provided is of special quality, being spectroscopically tested. It gives a soft diffused light, while its semicircular shape secures the illumination of the whole developing table. Dimensions, 4 in. x 84 in. Price 18s. 6d. (When ordering, please mention voltage.) LAMPS FOR GAS ALSO WITH BYE-PASS. New Photographic Requisite List on application. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NATURE [May 4, 1905 CARL ZEISS, |} JENA BRANCHES— LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W- Berlin. Frankfort o/M. Hamburg. Vienna. St. Petersburg. Palmos Cameras. WITH MADE FOCAL OF PLANE mn LICHT SHUTTER. METAL. Fitted with ZEISS LENSES. SizEs—6 x9 and 9X12 cm., and 3} in. x 4}-in. and 5-in. x 4-in. Also 9X 18 cm. for Stereo and Panorama. SUITABLE FOR PLATES, PACK FILMS, AND ROLL FILMS. Illustrated Catalogue, ‘‘ Pn,” Post Free on application. Us Se THE JUBILEE CATAE@GEE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instrue- tions and about 3000 illustrations. NATURE says:-—‘‘ The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.’”’ (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. AY WISIRISIONS SUEIDIOTS AD) | ONVARIN AME, Os STCIORIN I Glek, “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’ --Worbsworttl. "THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1905. SCIENTIFIC WORTHIES. XXXV.—EpbuarD SuEss. A MONG the living leaders of geology none is more widely known and more highly honoured than Eduard Suess. The amount and value of his original contributions to science, the broad, philosophic grasp he has displayed of every department of research on which he has entered, the vivid, imaginative insight | was thenceforth the family home. Bohemian product declined so much that at last, in November, 1834, the Suess family left England for Prague, The father in 1845 became a partner in a great industrial establishment in Vienna, and that city It had been at first intended that the son should enter the same business, and accordingly at the end of the usual school train- ing he was placed in the polytechnic school. But it soon became apparent that his natural bent did not lie in the commercial direction, but wholly towards natural history studies. As early as the year 1850, _ when he was only nineteen years of age, he ventured which has enabled him to marshal a multiplicity of | scattered facts into connected order and sequence, the unwearied industry with which he has made himself | acquainted with the geological literature of almost | every country on.the face of the globe, and the noble | march of the literary style in which he has clothed not a little of his reasoning and speculation, have com- bined to give him a place apart, like that of one of the great masters in the heroic age of geology. Full of years and honours, and president of the Academy of Sciences, he still moves as the centre of the scientific life of Vienna, still enriches the world with his im- pressive pictures of the structure and history of the earth, and still manifests an ardent interest and enthusiasm in all that concerns the advancement of natural knowledge. But for a wave of change in the world of commerce we might have claimed Suess as an Englishman, and his achieveménts might have added their lustre to the scientific fame of this country instead of Austria, for he was born in London and spent here the earliest years of his childhood. His fether, who was a native of Saxony, had settled here as a German merchant, importing wool from Bohemia, and it was during the residence of the family in London that the eldest son and future geologist was born on August 20, 1831. When wool began to arrive in abundance from the vast sheep-runs of the Australian colonies, the trade in the NO. 1853, VOL. 72] upon his first publication—a short sketch of the geology of Carlsbad and its mineral waters, specially prepared for the use of foreigners. So completely had his tastes now decided his future life that in the following year he was appointed an assistant in the Imperial Museum of Vienna, and thus made his formal entry into the official ranks of science. From that day until now the long intervening half-century, though un- eventful in personal experiences, has been with him a time of ceaseless industry and fruitful research. A few more specially notable epochs in his career may here be noticed. In the vast palezontological collections of the Vienna Museum Suess found a wide domain for the exercise of his powers of observation and comparison. He at first specially devoted himself to the study of the brachiopods of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations, and for some ten years continued to publish the results of his researches among these interesting and im- portant fossils, but with incursions into other depart- ments of the animal kingdom, which displayed a general enthusiasm for biological inquiry from the geo- logical point of view. His zeal and ability were soon recognised by his being appointed in 1857, at the age of twenty-six, professor in the university. In 1862 he relinquished his post in the museum and devoted him- self thenceforth to the duties of his chair. It was in this early part o° his life that he entered upon those studies in paleogeography on which his scientific renown B NATURE [May 4, 1905 now largely rests. As far back as 1863 he published a brief statement of the results to which his inquiries had led him as to the former connection of northern Africa with southern Europe. In 1855 he married the daughter of Dr. Strauss, a distinguished physician in Prague, and then entered on a life of great domestic happiness, which largely contributed to the success of a strenuous career wherein science and politics came to be strangely blended. From his youthful days, when he described the Carls- bad springs, he had been interested in underground waters, and among the inquiries which he pursued while attached to the museum was one that embraced the relations of the soil and water supply of Vienna to the life of its inhabitants. In 1862 he published a small volume on this subject,! in which he gave a comprehensive account of the economic geology of the | district. At that time the city was suffering from an impure water supply and consequent typhoid fever. The luminous essay of the young professor at once attracted attention. He was the same year elected into the town council, that he might give the benefit of his advice in the steps to be taken towards the attainment of better sanitary arrangements. He boldly advocated a scheme for bringing the abundant pure water of the Alps into Vienna by means of an aqueduct 110 kilometres length. This project, eventually adopted, was brought to a successful termin- ation in 1873. So grateful were his fellow-citizens for the signal service thus conferred on them that they bestowed on him their highest civic distinction by elect- ing him an honorary burgess. By this time he had made his mark in the town council as one of its most useful and able members, so that it was not surprising that he should have been chosen as one of the parlia- mentary representatives. For more than thirty years he sat in the Austrian Parliament as a powerful leader of the Liberal party, only retiring in 1896, when advancing age made the strain of the two-fold life as a politician and man of science too great to be longer borne. When the political history of the country during the last half of the nineteenth century comes to be written, a prominent place in it will be given to Eduard Suess. in But it is his seientific work that has to be chiefly | dwelt upon here. As an enthusiastic and able teacher he has exerted a notable influence on the successive generations of students at the university, until after forty-four years he resigned his professorship in the summer of 1901. Throughout his career he has shown a keen interest in those branches of geology which more especially deal with the evolution of the earth’s surface features. The problems of mountain-building were suggested to him by his excursions among the eastern Alps, and in 1875 his views were so far matured that he published a little volume entitled ‘‘ Die Entstehung der Alpen.’’ This work contains the germ of those later contributions to science which have placed 1 ‘* Der Boden der Stadt Wien nach seiner Bildungsweise, Beschaffenheit, und seinen Beziehungen zum Biirgerlichen Leben.”” (Vienna, 1962.) NO. 1853, VOL. 72| him on so conspicuous an eminence among the geologists of the day. It sketches the general prin- ciples of mountain-architecture, especially revealed by a study of the Alpine chain. But he did not confine his view to the particular area with which he was him- self personally familiar. Already his eye looked out on the wider effects of the unequal contraction of the terrestrial crust, and swept across the European con- tinent eastwards into Asia, and westwards across the Atlantic into America. He still held the general belief in the upheaval and depression of continental areas, and dwelt on the evidence of these movements in Scandinavia, which he has since rejected with much elaboration of argument. To thoughtful students of | i : Scie ae : | the science this treatise, in its firm hold of detail com- bined with singularly vivid powers of generalisation, was full of suggestiveness. But the interest and im- portance of its subject did not obtain general recog- nition until it was followed ten years afterwards (1885) by the first volume of the great ‘‘ Antlitz der Erde ’’ —the work which has chiefly given Suess his place among his contemporaries, and by which his name will be handed down to future time. In its striking arrangement of subjects, in its masterly grouping of details which, notwithstanding their almost bewildering multiplicity, are all linked with each other in leading to broad and impressive con- clusions, and in the measured cadence of its finer passages, the ‘‘ Antlitz ’? may be regarded as a noble philosophical poem in which the story of the continents and the oceans is told by a seer gifted with rare powers of insight into the past. The order of treatment is not that of a systematic text-book. On the contrary, the casual reader who looks over the contents of the chapters might suppose them to consist of a series of desultory essays with no very clear sequence of thought. Yet a more leisurely study soon shows him how closely interwoven is the texture of the whole composition. He is astonished at the almost incredible range of literature which the author must have consulted, and he finds himself borne.onward page after page by the luminous array of facts and the brilliant conclusions drawn from them. From the ancient traditions of the Deluge he is led through other human records, and made to see by what combination of physical con- ditions changes are worked on the surface of the earth. Upheaval and subsidence, volcanic eruptions, the elevation of mountain-chains, the depression of sea- basins, the structure and disposition of continents, the formation and boundaries of the different oceans in the past as well as at the present day, the successive plications that in the course of geological time have produced the land areas and mountain-ranges of the globe—in short, the gradual evolution of the existing topography of the surface of the globe—this vast theme is here treated with a fulness of knowledge and a breadth of view which are to be found in no other author. The work at once commanded attention among the geologists of every country, and the influence of its Supplement to ‘ Nature,” May 4, 1905. Veh ii Ge Ate rt i ? ie A i Avie nf i, iti May 4, 1905 | NATURE (os) ‘teaching before long became apparent in geological literature. It was first translated into French in an ‘edition which, thanks to the singular erudition of its editor, M. E. de Margerie, has been so enriched with footnotes as to become an invaluable work of reference for published papers in every department of the wide ‘range of subjects whereof it treats. Within the last few months the first volume of an English translation ‘by Miss Hertha Sollas, under the direction of her ‘father, Prof. Sollas, of Oxford, has been issued by the Clarendon Press. The labours of Prof. Suess are thus ‘placed within the reach of all English-speaking geologists in a version which reads more like an original treatise in our language than as the trans- lation of a German work. “That in covering so wide a field as that of the “ Antlitz ’? the author has necessarily had to rely on recorded observations of unequal value, and that con- sequently the deductions he has drawn may need to be corrected from subsequently obtained fuller and more accurate data, will doubtless be admitted by no one more frankly than by himself. But even in regard to questions which have long been discussed, and re- garding which abundant facts have long been known, ‘there is room for different interpretations from those which the professor has adopted. Thus the pheno- mena of submergence and emergence of land in Sweden and the basin of the Baltic are treated by him in great fulness and with much ingenuity, but he arrives at conclusions strongly opposed to those to which prolonged study has led the northern geologists. This problem is one of fundamental importance in regard to our conceptions of the nature of the move- ments to which the surface of the globe is subject, and it is much to be desired that some general agreement in regard to it should be attained. Nevertheless, apart from differences of opinion, which are inseparable from the growth of such a science as geology, and even where one may be most disposed to dissent from the views of Prof. Suess, the transcendent value of his life-long labours is none the less vividly realised now by all who have studied his writings. Their importance in the history of science will assuredly be no less fully acknowledged by the future generations who will gain from them inspir- ation and enlightenment. Meanwhile, he has the satisfaction of abundant recognition from all civilised countries. The learned societies of Europe have vied with each other in doing him honour, and not the least prominent among them has been our own Royal Society, which ten years ago elected him as one of its foreign members, and in the year 1903 awarded him the Copley medal—the highest distinction which it has to bestow. The ‘‘ Antlitz’’ is not yet completed, but the second part of the third volume is far advanced. Let us trust that years of rest and quiet work are in store for the illustrious geologist, and that he may live to finish his work amidst the hearty congratu- lations of the many fellow-workers who look up to him as their master. ArcH, GEIKIE. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] THE RUDIMENTS OF BEHAVIOUR. Contributions to the Study of the Behaviour of Lower Organisms. By Prof. Herbert S. Jennings. Pp. 256. (Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1904.) HE author has been for about ten years a careful observer of the rudiments of behaviour which are exhibited by unicellular and other relatively simple animals, and we have read with interest several of his previous studies on the reactions of infusorians and the like to various sets of stimuli. The general impression conveyed was that infusorians and the like gave evidence of an exceedingly simple and stereotyped mode of behaviour—a mere reaction method. When effectively stimulated by agents of almost any kind, the animalcule moves backwards and turns to a structurally defined side of its minute body, while at the same time it may continue to revolve on its long axis. In relation to all sorts of | stimuli, the behaviour seemed exceedingly simple and machine-like. But Prof. Jennings has been gradually discovering that the simple reaction-formula does not cover all the facts, and he now gives us news which seems almost too good to be true. He finds that even among unicellulars ‘‘ the be- haviour is not as a rule on the tropism plan—a set, forced method of reacting to each particular agent— but takes place in a much more flexible, less directly machine-like way, by the method of trial and error.” This is a momentous conclusion, notably in relation to comparative psychology. The data are foundation- stones for the science of animal behaviour, and the author is to be congratulated on his demonstration that the ways of even very simple creatures are more than series of ‘‘ tropisms.”’ In his ‘‘ Introduction to Comparative Psychology ”’ (1894), Dr. Lloyd Morgan told the story of his dog’s attempts to bring a hooked walking stick through a narrow gap in a fence. The dog ‘‘ tried ’’ all possible methods of pulling the stick through the fence. Most of the attempts showed themselves to be “ error.’ But the dog tried again and again, until he finally succeeded. He worked by the method of trial and error; and so, Prof. Jennings now assures us, do the infusorians. ‘“This method of trial and error involves many of the fundamental qualities which we find in the be- haviour of higher animals, yet with the simplest possible basis in ways of action; a great portion of the behaviour consisting often of but one or two definite movements, movements that are stereotyped when considered by themselves, but not stereotyped in their relation to the environment. This method leads upward, offering at every point opportunity for development, and showing even in the unicellular organisms what must be considered the beginnings of intelligence and of many other qualities found in higher animals. Tropic action doubtless occurs, but the main basis of behaviour is in these organisms. the method of trial and error.” This is not the first time that the dawning of intelligence has been discovered in the Protozoa, but on previous occasions the discovery has been reported by casual observers or by investigators unacquainted | with the tropisms. Prof. Jennings has made a special NATURE [May 4, 1905 study of the tropisms, and we find him declaring that it is almost impossible to describe the behaviour of the unicellulars intelligibly without using terms like ““perception,’’ ‘‘ discrimination,’’ and ‘ intelligence.’’ Of course these are used in an ‘“ objective sense,’ and “when their objective significance is kept in mind there is no theoretical objection to them, and they have the advantage that they bring out the identity of the objective factors in the behaviour of animals with the objective factors in the behaviour of man.” From our point of view, Prof. Jennings does not strengthen his position by using these pre-occupied psychological terms; ‘‘‘ perception’ of a stimulus,” he says, “‘ means merely that the organism reacts to it in some way; ‘ discrimination ’ of two stimuli means that the organism reacts differently to them; ‘ intelli- gence’ is defined by the objective manifestations mentioned in the text.’’ But this does not seem to us the sound line of progress; it leads back to saying that the lucifer match perceives the sandpaper on the box. It seems safer, in the meantime, to say that infusorians alter their behaviour, and alter it effectively, in respect to their experience. “Stentor does not continue reacting strongly to a stimulus that is not injurious, but after a time, when such stimulus is repeated, it ceases to react, or reacts in some less pronounced way than at first. To an injurious stimulus, on the other hand, it does continue to react, but not throughout in the same manner. When such stimulus is repeated, Stentor tries various different ways of reacting to it. If the result of re- acting by bending to one side is not success, it tries reversing the ciliary current, then contracting into its tube, then leaving its tube, &c. This is clearly the method of trial and error passing into the method of intelligence, but the intelligence lasts only very short periods.”’ : With such difficult subjects any evidence of the registration of experience was not to be expected, and the author is to be congratulated on having discovered considerable evidence in support of the thesis that the behaviour of unicellulars is largely a method of trial and error, one reaction by trial and error be- coming the basis for a succeeding reaction. This is surely a pathway leading to the high-road of intelli- gence. It is easy to make an inanimate system—a little potassium pill on a basin of water, or a tiny wound- up engine on a smooth table—which, once set a-going, will charge against an obstacle, will fail to overcome this, will recoil passively and charge again, and some observers have thought that, mutatis mutandis, the animalcule did little more. But Prof. Jennings has shown that the infusorian, in relation to its experience of “ error,’’ changes its little tactics, and changes them again, until it succeeds. In a word, it profits by experience. The very essence of vitality, as Spencer pointed out, is in effective re- sponse to environment; but when we find an in- fusorian ‘‘trying’’ one response after another, abandoning those that spell ‘‘ error,’? we cannot but feel that vitality has been raised to a second power ; it is just beginning to be intelligent. The infusorian is more than a tropic automaton, it is playing a little game of tactics; perhaps if we could educate NO. 1853, VOL. 72] | one it would develop the rudiments of strategy. It is, of course, extremely difficult to keep to a scrupu- lous objective record of what occurs, but we incline to think that Prof. Jennings has supplied what com- parative psychologists have been waiting for, namely, quite trustworthy accounts of the beginnings of selective or controlled behaviour. ‘The method of trial and error involves some way of distinguishing error, and also, in some cases at least, some method of distinguishing success. The problem as to how this is done is the same for man and for the infusorian. We are compelled to postu- late throughout the series certain physiological states to account for the negative reactions under error, and the positive reactions under success. In man these physiological states are those conditioning pain and pleasure. The ‘method of trial and error’ is evidently the same as reaction by ‘ selection of over- produced movements,’ which plays so large a part in the theories of Spencer and Bain, and especially in the recent discussions of behaviour by J. Mark Baldwin. The method of trial and error, which forms the most essential feature of the behaviour of these lower organisms, is in complete contrast with the tropism schema, which has long been supposed to express the essential characteristics of their be- haviour.” Instead of referring in detail to the author’s studies—(1) reactions to heat and cold in the ciliate infusorians; (2) reactions to light in ciliates and flagellates ; (3) reactions to stimuli in certain rotifers ; (4) the theory of tropisms; (5) physiological states as determining factors in the behaviour of lower organisms; and (6) the movements and reactions of amcebz—we have sought to explain the chief result of his studies in the infant school of life, and to emphasise its importance in relation to the general theory of animal behaviour. Prof. Jennings has rescued the animalculz from the bonds of automatism too hurriedly thrust on them, and has afforded a secure basis for the study of the evolution of intelli- gence. JvAvedie MECHANISM. By Prof. S. Dunkerley. Pp. vi+408. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price gs. net. Ve of text-books on mechanism have, of late years, been much influenced by the views of Realeaux on the classification of mechanisms, and the present work shows clearly the impress of these views; but the author has not hesitated to depart from the order in which Realeaux presented his theory of machines in order to suit the needs of beginners, who are apt to find the elaboration of the systematic theory somewhat dry if not accompanied by a wealth of illustration drawn from actual machines, even if these contain elements the properties of which have not been fully explained. The author, as appears from his preface, is fully alive to the difficulties which the logical treatment of the subject presents, and he expressly states that his work is not intended to be a philosophical treatise on the subject. From this standpoint the arrangement of the sub- Mechanism. May 4, 1905] NATURE : re) ject-matter appears to be quite a proper one, for at the present time almost everyone is familiar with the elementary properties of gear-wheels, clutches, the mechanism of steam engines and the like, because of their increasing use in everyday life, and more especially of late, owing to their applications to self- propelled vehicles. On the other hand their less obvious, although not less important, properties are possibly not so well understood; thus, to take a single instance, the conditions to be satisfied in order to produce true rolling motion by gear wheels require a knowledge of the properties of various curves, and this latter subject may well be left to a later stage, as is done in the present work, although it need not pre- vent a study of machines containing gear wheels when this knowledge is not absolutely necessary for the purpose. The author has therefore described many machines using higher pairing quite early in the book, and has left the more detailed examination of some of the elements for later chapters; this adds very much to the general interest of the reader, while its drawbacks are small. The work opens with an introductory chapter in which the usual definitions occur relating to machines, kinematic chains, lower and higher pairs, and the like, and this is followed by a chapter which is exceedingly interesting on simple machines and machine tools. Chapters iii. and iv. deal chiefly with mechanisms | of the quadric crank and double slider crank chain forms, all those possessing important geometrical properties being grouped together. Naturally the pantograph finds an important place here, and to amplify this section there are descriptions of the copying lathe and also a machine on the same prin- ciple for drilling square and hexagon holes. In a future edition it might be worth while to insert, in a suitable place, an account of the epicyclic trains which form an essential part of some machines for turning nuts and bolts to a practically perfect square or hexagon section. The next two chapters deal with velocity and acceleration diagrams, and we are sure that all students of mechanism will feel greatly indebted to the author for the clear manner in which he has pre- sented this part of the subject. The remainder of the book deals with gear wheels, non-circular wheels and cams, and these are discussed on the usual lines. There is also a section devoted to gear-cutting machinery, which gives an interesting account of this special branch of machine tool work. It is somewhat remarkable that no place is found in the book for the consideration of so fundamental a subject as the degrees of freedom possessed by a body and the applications which follow from a recognition of these principles in geometrical slides and clamps, such as are described in Thomson and Tait’s ‘‘ Natural Philosophy.” Ignorance of these fundamental prin- ciples has been one of the most fruitful causes of bad design in mechanism. The illustrations are mainly line drawings, exceed- ingly well adapted for descriptive purposes, and with a few exceptions the photographs of machinery are clear and distinct. A series of numerical examples at the end of the book will be of much value to students. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] The author has succeeded in writing a valuable text-book on mechanism which will repay a careful study by engineers’ and others who wish to obtain a knowledge of something more than the elements of this branch of science. Be Gi: PRACTICAL ELECTROCHEMISTRY. Practical Methods of Electrochemistry. By F. Mollwo Perkin. Pp. x+322. (London: Longmans and Co., 1905.) Price 6s. net. LECTROCHEMICAL methods, both of analysis and preparation, have in recent years under- gone such rapid development, and have reached such a degree of importance, that systematic instruction in their employment has become an indispensable part of the training of the modern student of chemistry. This book, therefore, forms a welcome addition to the ordinary laboratory manuals. After a general account of electrical magnitudes and units, measuring instruments, and electrolytic apparatus, the author gives practical instructions for electrochemical analysis. The conditions for the quantitative electrodeposition of the individual metals are first discussed; then follows a section on quanti- tative oxidation and reduction at the electrodes, and, finally, directions are given for the separation of metals from mixed solutions of their salts. The last and longest section of the book deals with preparative electrochemistry. The primary subdivision of the sub- ject is into the preparation of inorganic and of organic compounds, the latter section being treated in three chapters on organic electrolysis, reduction of organic compounds, and oxidation of organic compounds re- spectively. The practical instructions are on the whole adequate and accurate, so that the student could acquire with little assistance a sufficient acquaintance with the working methods of electrochemistry. Whilst the bool is satisfactory in this, the most im- portant, feature, it shows in other respects many signs of hasty composition, which greatly detract from its value. For example, there are frequent evidences of haste in the treatment of electrical units. In the table on p. 9 the heading of the last column but one is ‘electrochemical equivalent per coulomb in mg. per sec.’’; the words ‘‘ per sec.’’ are not only superfluous but misleading. On p. 29 we find “7 kilowatt= 101-93 kilogrammeters,’’ and ‘‘ 1 horse- power is 75 kilogrammeters,’’ where the words “* per second’? should have been added in both cases. Nothing is more detrimental to clear thinking on the part of the student than slipshod statements of this kind. Again, in the table of “useful data” on p. 286 we find ‘1 kilowatt= 1000 watt-hours,’’ and ‘« volt x amperes =watts.’? Such data are the reverse of useful. A curious batch of mistalxes is to be found on pp. 231-232. It is stated on p. 231 that the electro- lyte for the preparation of diethyl succinate is “ acid potassium or sodium malonate ’’ instead of “ ethyl potassium or sodium malonate.”’ On the same page we twice find ‘‘ diethyl adipic acid ’’ instead of diethyl adipate, and on the succeeding pages a similar error 6 NATURE [May 4, 1905 is repeated. On pp. 226-227 it is surely wrong to ascribe the formation of the trace of ethylene found during the electrolysis of an acetate to the same cause as that which produces the plentiful yield of ethylene during the electrolysis of a propionate. The fact that equation v. is divisible by 2, and that equation iv. is not so divisible, is almost in itself sufficient evidence that the actions are of essentially different character. It is somewhat surprising to find that the kathodic reduction of nitrites, nitrates, and arsenical com- pounds finds treatment under the heading ‘‘ Metals deposited as Oxides at the Anode’’ (pp. 145-150). These and similar slips are minor blemishes; but it is to be hoped that the author will subject his book to a thorough revision for their removal when a second edition is called for. The references to original papers are numerous, and a convenient table of five-figure logarithms, with instructions for its use, is contained in an appendix. The value of the table might be still further augmented by the inclusion of instructions for the use of the decadic complements of logarithms, a device of which the chemical student is almost in- variably ignorant. OUR BOOK SHELF. Das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick. By Ed. Hahn. Pp. xvi + 256. (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1905.) Price 6.40 marks. In the opinion of Dr. Hahn, well known as the inquirer who revolutionised our ideas on the so-called ‘“ three stages ’’—hunting, pastoral pursuits, agriculture—the mass of the reading public will not change its traditional views on pre-history and primitive culture unless the specialist is prepared to do more for it than issue specialist literature. With the object of making propaganda for his views on the domestication of animals, the forms of cultivation, the transition from hoe-cultivation to plough-cultivation, the invention of the plough, the use of the ox as draught-animal, the share of woman in primitive culture, and especially the development of personal property, Dr. Hahn has written the present work, and his object in so doing is commendable. Even specialist literature, however, is not above all considerations of form and _ logical sequence of ideas; in an oeuvre de vulgarisation it is a fortiori necessary that there should be an orderly de- velopment of facts and of the conclusions to be drawn from them; and this, unfortunately, Dr. Hahn has not given us. Not only is the book in places indigestibly full of facts the connection of which with the main argument is not always made clear, but too much is attempted; to the list of subjects given above must be added the description of the economic conditions and interrelations of China, Babylonia, India, and Egypt, a discussion of the origin of the wheel and the waggon, much polemical matter, dealing with criticisms which the public has never read, and finally excursuses on the fiscal question, socialism, and other subjects uncon- nected with his immediate purpose. It would be unfair to deny that the book is interesting and stimulating, but it is rather a causerie than an exposition of the author’s theories. This is the more unfortunate be- cause his views on the domestication of animals, the forms of cultivation, and the stages of economic evolu- tion are largely accepted. From mere lack of literary skill Dr. Hahn will leave his readers comparatively NO. 1853, VOL. 72] unmoved. As an example of the deficiencies of the book we may mention that the process of domestica- tion of cattle is dismissed with a mention. Many of the author’s theories are improbable; it is unnecessary to suppose that the curved horns imitating the shape of the crescent moon first led to the sacro-sanctity of cattle; there are animal cults everywhere. Personal property, even in vegetable food, was known before domesticated plants; the Australian natives store up bunya-bunya nuts. We do not need to look to the apparent motion of the stars for the explanation of the origin of Babylonian god-processions, which are a natural method of disseminating the holy influence. The connection of sexual ideas with agriculture may be secondary; syncretism is disregarded in this and other instances. It may not be out of place to say that a few maps of culture areas would have been very helpful, and not to the general reader only. Wee Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Milk Depéts. By G. F. McCleary, M.D., D.P.H. Pp. xiv--135- (London: P. S. King and Son.) Price 6s. net. Tue publication of the evidence before. the Inter- Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration has directed general attention to such _ subjects as infant feeding. The decreasing birth rate and the appallingly high death rate among infants are dealt with by the author in the earlier chapters of his book. An increasing number of mothers are unable to nurse their children, so that some method of artificial feeding has to be adopted. The death rate in 1904 among children under one year was 146 per 1000 births, and even these figures by no means represent the total evil, for many of the survivors must be seriously affected. How can this fearful waste of life be stopped? Dr. McCleary deals with one solution, viz. the establishment of depédts worked by the municipality and partially rate-supported. It is generally agreed that cow’s milk is the best substitute for human milk. Various opinions are held as to the degree of modification that may be necessary, but pure cow’s milk is the basis from which to work. Even if a pure milk were on the market the poor could not afford to buy it. The question of State assistance arises. Dr. McCleary leaves the moral question as to whether it is for the ultimate good of a people to relieve them of their parental duties. Within the compass of 130 pages he wisely restricts himself to the practical working of the depéts, and as he speaks with knowledge of the Battersea depét his testimony is of interest. In France the milk depé6t system is carried out to a considerable extent, unmodified sterilised milk usually being supplied (Budin’s method). In America the tendency is to follow Rotch in giving modified unsterilised milk. The author repeats the necessary warning that a dirty milk is not made clean by sterilisation, and from this it follows that no depét is on a satisfactory basis unless it has absolute control of its own milk supply. Dr. McCleary advocates much more stringent super- vision of the general milk supply, and the establish- ment of municipal depéts on the lines of that at Rochester, U.S.A. The book is well illustrated. A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus. By J. H. Maiden. Parts i. to vy. Pp. iv+146. (Sydney: W. A. Gullick, 1903-4.) Tue classification of the Australian eucalypts presents similar difficulties to those which confront the botanist who undertakes the arrangement of the Hieracia or Rubi of our native flora, with the additional disad- vantages that the eucalypts are trees or shrubs, and their distribution is more extensive. In the cir- May 4, 1905] NATURE : cumstances it is natural that monographers should - have expressed diverse opinions as to the limits of the species, and that different characters and parts of the plant should have been taken as a basis for classi- ’ fication. Bentham grouped the species according to the shape and mode of dehiscence of the anthers, and von Mueller followed his lead. Prof. Tate has proposed a system based upon the structure of the fruit, whilst of vegetative characters, the cotyledons, Jeaf-veins, stomata, gums, and timber have all been tested in the hope of finding satisfactory criteria. Mr. Maiden attaches considerable importance to the bark and timber for the guidance of the forester, but recognises that the anthers and fruit are the best characters for the systematist. In the present monograph the object of the author has been to include, with a description of the impor- tant characters, the substance of all recorded observ- ations and investigations which might assist in determining the position and value of species or varieties. Synonyms are considered in detail, with the original description of each where it has been proposed as a species, and the range of each species is noted; finally, the author’s views are crystallised in a discussion of the affinities of allied species. These views are based not only on the examination of specimens from important herbaria, but also upon much careful study of the growing trees in their native localities. Whilst recognising the desire of the author to render the work as comprehensive as pos- sible, it must be said that its practical value would be increased by a considerable reduction in the amount of material, in the size of print and in the spacing. The five parts issued amount to 145 pages, and con- tain twenty-four plates for eight species, so that the complete worl: will be bullky and exclusive as to price. It may be suggested that a supplement to this treatise in the shape of a compendium suitable for foresters and students generally would be most useful. Hymenopteren-Studien. By W. A. Schulz. Pp. 147. (Leipzig: Engelmann; London: Williams and Nor- gate, 1905.) Price 4s. net. Tue present work consists of three essays, the first relating to African Hymenoptera (chiefly Vespidz and Fossores), the second describing new genera and species of Trigonalide, and the third discussing Vespidz and Apide from the Amazons. The work is chiefly descriptive, and will hardly appeal to any but specialists, who must of course consult it when work- ing at the faunas and groups which are discussed in it. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake - to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The High-frequency Electrical Treatment. Tue inquest on a lady who died in the Charing Cross Hospital on April 11 must be of interest to those who employ the high-frequency electrical treatment. The re- port of the case in the Standard of April 17 is as follows :— ‘*On April 11 she (the deceased) was under treatment, lying on the electrical couch. Suddenly witness observed the perspiration break out on her face, and immediately stopped the current. He watched her for a while, and as she seemed to be in a collapsed state he administered a spoonful of sal volatile. Then he recognised symptoms which pointed to ‘a serious state of affairs,’ and sent for Dr. Bailey. The lady was removed to another ward and died in the evening. Death was caused by hemorrhage of the brain, following a rupture of an artery. This was not a consequence of the electrical treatment; she would No. 1853, VOL. 72] probably have died just the same if she had been in the waiting-room, instead of on the electrical It was a mere coincidence. Dr. Bailey and Dr. Frey- berger gave evidence supporting this view of the case.”’ The treatment was that of the high-frequency electrical current. Now that high-frequency electrical discharges are much employed in medical work, being the newest and most up-to-date method of treatment for many diseases, it is somewhat important that even “‘ mere coincidences,’ such as that cited, should not be overlooked or treated lightly ; it is only by collecting evidence on such points that any real knowledge respecting the action of the treatment can be obtained. Shortly after the experiments of N. Tesla on electrical discharges, I carried on many experiments on the subject, and from somewhat painful experience I have learned that one source of trouble may be overlooked by many, since it is a secondary action, so that while the utmost attention may be given to the behaviour of the discharge itself, but little may be given to the action of the air which has been subjected to an electrical discharge. The danger of breathing such air was pointed out by me long ago (Nature, 1896), and by many other workers with electrical discharges since then, Air which had been acted on by the high-frequency discharge, when breathed, caused irritation to the throat and lungs, and a feeling of suffocation, in some cases very severe. This is rather to be expected, since ozone and ozonised air act on blood, albumen, and organic substances readily. Profs. Roscoe and Schorlemmer write thus in their treatise on “* Chem- istry,”’ p- 243, vol. i. (subject, ozone) :—‘‘ Whilst blood is completely decolorised, the albumen being entirely, and the other organic matters being nearly all destroyed.”’) The trouble mentioned was removed to a considerable extent by inducing a strong draught of warm air across the chamber where the apparatus was used. I feel that I am taking a great liberty in suggesting anything to the high-frequency specialist, who will give me at once the reason why self-induction is expressed as ““a length,’’ and why a rapidly varying electromagnetic field causes flashes of light to be seen when the head is placed in such a field. I would suggest that in connection with the method of treatment with the high-frequency discharge, all evidence of new phenomena should be collected and sifted in a scientific spirit, whether it be for or against it. Operators now take every possible precaution to guard themselves against the evil effects of the X-ray, which at first was treated as quite innocuous. May not the high- frequency discharge in a modified form have a somewhat similar kind of action, and should it not be treated with as much, or at least some, caution? F. J. Jervis-Smitu. sitting couch, The Critical Temperature and Pressure of Living Substances. It is well known that living substance is in a labile state, its constructive or destructive metabolism being determined by minute changes, sometimes of temperature or pressure, sometimes of other dynamic conditions. But Mr. Geoffrey Martin’s suggestion (Nature, April 27, pP.- 609) that the lability is due to the great number of atoms in the molecules of living substance, or to the complex “carbon compounds ”’ present, gives only a partial explanation. The decomposition of a chemical compound under raised temperature, diminished pressure, &c., depends not only on the size and complexity of the molecules, but also on the tendency of the atoms to re-arrange themselves and form more stable compounds, generally with dissipation of energy. For instance, the paraffins with large molecules are fairly stable, the products of their decomposition being hydrocarbons still. Fatty acids with equally large mole- cules are less stable, for there is a tendency to split off substances of higher oxidation, leaving a hydrocarbon residue. This tendency increases with the increase of oxygen in compounds, and so the small molecule of glucose is less stable than the large molecule of fatty acid. The presence of nitrogen is often a cause of instability, especially when the nitrogen forms a link between elements (or groups) of opposite polarity ; and the instability is most marked when the nitrogen is combined with oxygen on the 8 NAL ORE [May 4, 1905 one hand, and with carbon and hydrogen on the other, as in the explosives, e.g. nitroglycerine. Living substance has apparently all the above mentioned sources of instability, and perhaps not the least important | is that it has for its pivot nitrogen, the element which above all others is remarkable for the lability of its com- pounds. I have elsewhere’ indicated the probability that the active molecule of living substance consists of an enormous complex of proteids, carbohydrates, &c., linked together by means of the nitrogen atoms, and that the oxygen store is more or less combined with the nitrogen. At the death of the molecule its constituent groups (pro- teids, &c.) are released, and the store of oxygen passes from the nitrogen into other and more stable forms of combination. F. J. ALLEN. Cambridge. Chalk Masses in the Cliffs near Cromer. At the present time the cliffs near Cromer exhibit some interesting chalk masses in the Glacial drifts. Between East and West Runton Gaps are several of great size and remarkable in position. One, a very long slab-like mass, is bent from being nearly horizontal until it is almost vertical, and thus comes to within a short distance of the top of the cliff. The masses near Trimingham will now repay a close study, for they have changed greatly during the last five years. Both my friend, the Rey. E. Hill, and I have made notes and rough sketches, with the intention of sending to the Geological Magazine a short account of what can now be seen; but we earnestly hope that some geologists who are adepts at photography will visit both localities at the earliest possible opportunity, in order to secure a permanent and accurate record of these exceptionally interesting sections. T. G. Bonney. The Rigidity of the Earth’s Interior. Yue letter of Dr. T. J. J. See (Nature, April 13, P- 559) deals with a subject of profound interest to students of the larger problems connected with physical geology. But it appears that, in Dr. See’s treatment of the subject, he has overlooked an important point, which I dealt with in a paper read before Section C of the British Association at Birmingham in 1886. Therein I directed attention to the fact that ‘‘ gravitation’ is only a special instance of | the law of universal attraction, and as a corollary to this, at any considerable depth within the sphere of the earth, an appreciable factor of what I may call negative gravity must be allowed for, owing to the attraction of the mass of matter situated nearer the surface of the sphere; so that a body placed at the centre of gravity of the earth, whatever its mass or density, would have no weight at all. I am glad to see that the consideration of ‘‘ critical temperatures ’’ of quasi-solids (the importance of which was emphasised in my little work on metamorphism some fifteen years ago) is receiving serious attention, and I may also point out that the idea of a potentially liquid (or even gaseous) condition of a mass at depths in a practically rigid state is not new; it was treated in a masterly way by Prof. Albert Heim, of Ziirich, some twenty years ago, in his magnificent work ‘‘ Ueber den Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung.’’ ‘‘ Ueberlastet ’’ is the word used by Heim to express such conditions, where the pressure is so far ‘‘ hydrostatic’? as to consist of com- pression acting equally (for the time being) in all direc- tions. Any disturbance in a given portion of the litho- sphere of the equilibrium thus existing must result in shearing movement if the disturbance be small, and in flow in a given direction if the relief in that direction from pressure is great and rapid enough. In the former case we should get ‘‘metataxic change,’? in the latter schistosity; for I still challenge the statement, made recently by a high authority, that ‘‘it is only a question of degree between the cleavage of a slate and the foliation of a crystalline schist or gneiss.”’ Questions relating to tidal action in the rotating litho- sphere, and even Lord Kelvin’s oft-repeated objection on 1 Report Rrit. Assoc., 1896, p. 983; and Proc. Birmingham Nat. Hist. and Philos, Soc., 1849. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] counter- | that ground to the impossibility of any considerable por- tion of the lithosphere being fluid, because the earth does not undergo the deformation which the physicist would expect owing to the tidal action which should be set up within it, might possibly be seen in a fresh light on taking into account the remarkable facts demonstrated by Prof. John Perry in his lecture on spinning tops, which he gave to an audience of working men on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association at Leeds in 1890. As a “working man’’ in a real sense of the word, I con- sidered myself privileged to attend that lecture, and was rewarded by finding in my own mind a great difficulty cleared up by Prof. Perry’s masterly demonstrations of the practically rigid condition of non-rigid bodies, if only made to rotate with sufficient rapidity, as the equatorial regions of the earth do—something like 1000 miles an hour. Bishop’s Stortford, April 17. A. IrvING. Rival Parents. A curious example of the rival claims of a pair of thrushes and a pair of blackbirds for the parentage of a young blackbird is being observed in my garden. A pair of blackbirds built a nest in a small thick laurel, and in another shrub, some 4 feet off, a pair of thrushes also built a nest. The young in both nests were hatched out at the same time, and were successfully reared until they were some eight or nine days old, when a cat attacked the nests (Monday, April 17), killing all the young thrushes and all the blackbirds except one, which was found hidden under the shrubs. It was continually visited after the tragedy by both the old thrushes and old blackbirds, and two or three hours later was removed in some way not observed to a shrubbery twenty or thirty yards away. There for the last five days it has been fed and looked after by both pairs of birds, who mob with exceptional vigour any intruding cat or dog. The young bird seems to have thriven mightily under the attentions of its true and foster parents, who appear in no way to be jealous of one another. Kennepy J. P. Orton. University College of North Wales, Bangor, April 21. The Measurement of Mass. In the notice of my little book, ‘‘ Radium Explained,” on April 6, twenty-nine lines are devoted to showing that I have reached a wrong conclusion through not knowing that mass is measured by inertia, and I am corrected in these words :—‘‘ how is the quantity of matter to be ascer- tained? The choice practically lies between defining mass by inertia at a given speed or by gravity. . . . As, however, gravity depends on local circumstances, while inertia (at given velocity) does not, the latter property is preferred for the definition of mass, as being more fundamental.” So far from rejecting this principle, I state it, in almost the same terms, on p. 84 of my book :—‘‘ Mass, or quantity of matter, is usually ascertained by weighing. But weight is merely the force with which the earth attracts, and this varies with our position on its surface. To get an absolute test of mass, which would be in- dependent of position, we may measure the force required to move or stop a body at a certain speed.’’ And nowhere in the book have I supported any argument by the re- pudiation of the principle here clearly stated. This is a question of fact; the other objection taken is equally ill- founded, but, being on a controversial point, it cannot be dealt with so briefly. W. Hampson. West Ealing, May 1. Properties of Rotating Bodies. Pror. W. H. PickerInG, in Nature of April 27 (p. 608), refers to the property which a rotating body possesses of assimilating, in certain circumstances, its axis of rotation to a secondary axis of rotation or revolution impressed upon it, and he mentions the fact that this property is rarely described. It was fully discussed in an elementary lecture given by Prof. Perry at the Royal Institution about fifteen years ago, and afterwards published in the Romance of Science Series under the title ‘‘ Spinning Tops.”’ E. W. Rown TREE. 20 Queen Square, W.C., May 1. } May 4, 1905] NATURE 9 RECENT -SPECTROHELIOGRAPH RESULTS. i a previous number of this Journal (vol. Ixix. p. 609, 1904), under the heading of “CA New Epoch in Solar Physics,’’ I gave an account of the magnificent work that Prof. Hale had recently been accomplishing at the Yerkes Observatory with his latest form of spectroheliograph, the instrument being worked in conjunction with the great 42-inch Yerkes refractor, which forms an image of the sun seven inches in diameter. In the present article it is proposed to give a brief description of another instrument based on the same principle, an account of which was published by M. Janssen, and to indicate some of the results which have been obtained with it. This instrument has been at work at the Solar Physics Observatory during the past year, and in a recent communication to the which the solar image is moved across the primary slit by means of the declination motor which moves at the same time and rate the photographic plate; or the primary slit, and with it the whole spectro- heliograph, may be moved across the image formed at the focus of the equatorial. The first method is that adopted at the Yerkes Observatory, and the second that at Potsdam. There is a further method in which a stationary solar image is formed by means of a siderostat and lens, and the spectroheliograph is mounted hori- zontally and moved in an east and west direction across this fixed image. Such a mode of procedure is that employed at South Kensington. The advantage of the last mentioned arrangement is that there is no limit to the size or weight of the spectroheliograph; the uniform motion required can efficiently be easily and secured, and lastly, this Fic. 1.—The spectroheliograph, showing the general arrangement of the two slits, the collimating and camera tubes, the moving (upper) and fixed (lower) triangular frameworks. Royal Astronomical Society I gave a more full account of it, to which reference can be made for more detailed information than is here given. it is not necessary in this place to refer at any length to the principle which underlies the construction of a spectroheliograph, since this was referred to in the article above mentioned. It will suffice here to say, therefore, that the pictures produced by this new method of solar research give us photographs of the sun in monochromatic light, or in rays of any par- ticular wave-length that is desired. Thus if we re- quire to study the distribution of hydrogen on or around the solar disc we employ a line in the spectrum of hydrogen, if calcium a calcium line, or iron an iron line. There are, however, several methods of using the spectroheliograph. This instrument may either be employed in conjunction with a large equatorial, in No. 1853, VOL. 72] motion does not in any way affect the steadiness of the solar image under examination. The South Kensington instrument was erected in the year 1903, but it was not until last year that satis- factory photographs were secured and routine work begun. This success was due to the use of a larger lens (12-inch) for throwing the solar image on the primary slit, the previous lens of 6 inches aperture not giving a sufficiently bright image. In this curtailed description of the instrument refer- ence of any length need only be made to the spectro- heliograph proper. There. is nothing particularly novel about the siderostat, except, perhaps, its more than usual size, the large mirror of 38 inches diameter, the two small motors for operating the slow motions in right ascension and declination, and a modified form of Russell control for regulating the speed of the driving clock. This instrument is placed in a separate house the upper portion of which can be rolled back towards the north. Some distance due south of this, in another building, is the 12-inch Taylor photo-visual lens mounted on a concrete pillar, and still further south, and in the same building, is the spectroheliograph, also mounted on _ concrete pillars. Wtih this arrangement the solar beam is thrown by the siderostat mirror continuously due south and in a horizontal direction; this beam then falls on the 12-inch lens, and the solar image in the focus of this lens is thrown on the primary slit plate of the spectro- heliograph. In order to analyse the solar image by allowing each portion of it to fall successively on the primary slit, the latter, and consequently the whole of the spectroheliograph, has to be moved - horizontally in an east and west direction, a distance a little more than the diameter of the solar image (in this case 24 inches). Further, this motion has to be extremely | uniform. The method adopted to accomplish both of these requirements is as follows :—A triangular iron frame- | work (Fig. 1) is supported on three levelling screws on three concrete pillars. A second framework of the same size and material is placed on the first, but separated by steel balls free to roll between small steel plates fixed to each framework near the corners. The longer side of this isosceles triangle is placed in a north and south direction. The direction motion of the upper framework is restricted to an east and west line by means of a guide bar fixed to | the lower framework; two small levers with rollers attached to the upper framework are pressed against this guide bar by means of small weights, thus en- suring the correct direction. The actual motion of the upper framework is obtained by weights attached to one end of a steel strap the other end of which, after passing over a pulley mounted on an arm on the lower framework, is fixed to the western corner of the upper framework. This weight always tends to pull the upper frame- work towards the west, that is towards the right in Buse Te The motion is controlled by a plunger projecting downwards from the upper framework operating a piston in a cylinder full of oil attached to the lower framework. The outlet valve can be so adjusted that any desired rate of motion can be obtained. Owing to changes of temperature of the oil, different rates of movement can be obtained for any one reading of the micrometer head regulating the outlet valve. It is necessary, therefore, when making an exposure for a “‘ disc ’’ or “‘ limb ’’ picture to take the temperature of the oil into account. © This js accomplished by employing a table, made from previous “runs,’’ in which the valve setting can be directly read off from the temperature reading and the required length of exposure. It is on the upner framework that the optical parts of the spectroheliograph are placed. These consist of a double tube carrying the two slits (Fig. 2) at the northern or siderostat end and the two lenses (4-inch) of equal focal leneth at the southern end. The dis- persion is produced by a single prism of 60°, and a reflector is inserted in the system in order to make the total deviation of the beam 180°. Thus the vart of the solar image which passes through the primary slit falls on the collimating lens, is reflected by the 6-inch mirror on to the prism, traverses the latter, and finally, after passing through the camera lens, is brought to a focus in the plane of the secondary slit in the form of a spectrum. By isolating any par- of | NATORE ticular line in this spectrum by means of the secondary | a NO. 1853. VoL. 72] [May-4, 1905 slit (Fig. 2) the solar image can be analysed in this wave-length. For photographing the whole disc of the sun or its immediate surroundings with one exposure the lengths of the slits must be greater than the diameter of the solar image (2} inches); in the present case they are 3 inches long. Further, owing to the fact that the lines in the spectrum are curved, the secondary slit jaws are curved to the same radius; this necessi- tates very accurate adjustment of the secondary slit on the line, and means are provided to facilitate such requirements. In order to obtain a photographic record of the sun in monochromatic light, a fixed photographic plate is held by means of a wooden support as close to the secondary slit as possible (Fig. 2). In this way, as the primary slit moves over the stationary solar image, so the secondary slit traverses with equal speed the stationary photographic plate. Up till now the secondary slit has usually been Fic. 2.—\he primary slit is on the left and the secondary behind the plate carrier is se-n on the right. This illustration shows also the metal disc in position for a ** limb ’’ exposure. adjusted on the ‘“‘K”’ line of calcium by eye estim- ation aided by a small watchmaker’s lens, a check being made by taking a photograph of the spec- trum, if possible with a sun-spot region, on the primary slit. On bright days this setting can be made with little difficulty, but during the late autumn, with a low sun, the “‘K”’ region of the spectrum is not easy to see, and the setting is in consequence very uncertain. A new method just brought into operation entirely eliminates this difficulty, for at a constant distance on the red side of the “‘K”’ line a small glass plate has been set with a cross engraved on its surface which can be adjusted on a known line in the more visible region of the spectrum. By bisecting a particular line with the cross the ‘“‘K ”’ line is adjusted on the slit jaw simultaneously. The photographs taken during the past year have been of two kinds, the first to investigate the dis- tribution and area of the calcium clouds, or flocculi as Prof. Hale has termed them, on the sun’s disc, and May 4, 1905] the second the distribution and forms of prominences round the limb. To obtain the latter, a metal disc just a little smaller than the solar image close up to the primary slit plate (Fig. 2), and re- tained there by a metal wire fixed to a firm bas disc is so adjusted that it is concentric with the solar image. While in use it becomes extremely hot, and it is therefore necessary that it be made of metal and riveted to the wire which supports it. These limb pictures, an example of which is given in Fig. are 3? Fic. 3.—Limb and disc of sun in “ K” lizht, July 19 to 1th, 53m. 48s. (interval 18s. of a composite nature in that after the exposure of the limb has been made the metal disc is removed from the primary slit, and a ‘“‘disc”’ exposure is made on the same plate. It has been found by ex- perience that a “‘ limb ”’ exposure requires about sixty times the time that is necessary for a ‘disc ”” ex- posure. Under very favourable conditions fifteen seconds is necessary for the latter and fifteen minutes for the former. No. 1853, vor. 72] Limb exposed rom NATURE 1 z —_—— — Without entering into too minute details, the follow- ing brief summary of the more salient facts derived is placed | from a general survey of the photographs taken | during the past year may be given. e; this Dealing with the ‘‘ disc” pictures in the first in- stance; all of them show a ‘ mottling’ of very definite character extending from the equator to the poles. Nearer the equatorial regions this mottling seems to become exaggerated in size in patches, some of the interspaces becoming filled up, giving rise to S) 1th. 36m, to rth. 52m. (interval 16m.) ; Disc expose 1 from 11h, 53m. 30s. Enlarged nearly 2} times. ). the prominent flocculi, the mode of structure. appearance in the photogr many of which clearly indicate Fig. 3 gives an idea of their aphs. It will be seen that there are frequently long streaky bright portions springing apparently from a central nucleus and | having subsidiary ramifications. A three-legged form- | ation is a very common type of structure in many of the photographs. These flocculi, in the first instance, exist alone, but NATURE [May 4, 1905 in some of them spots appear at a later stage. No spot has been photographed unaccompanied by < flocculus; in fact, the duration of a spot is only a brief interval in the life-history of a flocculus. Another interesting subject of inquiry is the position of a spot in relation to the flocculus. Spots more generally make their appearance near the head of, or, in other words, precede the apparently trailing masses of the calcium clouds with respect to the solar rotation, which is from east to west. Some examples of these are given in Fig. 4. When there are two fairly large spots in one flocculus, the larger one nearly always precedes the smaller one. The composite pictures (Fig. 3) showing the 1904 April 27 | | | | April 27 July 14 August 2 August 29 West East- Fic. 4.—Typical cases of spots situated in the front portions of flocculi. “limb ”’ and “ disc ’’ have also brought to light many interesting points which call for further inquiry. In the first place prominences both near the solar poles and equator give strong images in calcium light. Secondly, prominences, which occur nearer the solar poles than the flocculi, do not appear to disturb | the regular mottling on the disc in these high lati- | tudes. Again, an intense flocculus, when on the limb, is not always accompanied by a large prominence. These two last mentioned facts seem to indicate that flocculi and prominences are not always interdepen- dent phenomena. On continuous fine days, when several photographs NOWIS53,,0Onn72)| of the limb are secured, an opportunity is afforded of studying the changes in the form of large promin- ences after intervals of a few hours. Two examples of such changes are here illustrated and briefly de- Fic. 5.—Showing changes in prominences after an interval of one hour. (Lower picture taken last.) scribed. In Fig. 5 we have two photographs (only the portions of the limb indicating the particular region of the sun in question are shown) which were taken on July 14, 1904, at 11h. 8m. a.m. and 12h. 8m. p-m. respectively. It will be noticed that during this interval of about one hour a startling change has occurred to the largest prominence; not only has its height been considerably increased, but its form has entirely changed. The material radiating the calcium light seems to have been ejected from the chromo- sphere and then to have apparently met a strong current moving polewards (that is, from left to right in the figure) which has thrown this material in that par- ticular direction. The change of height from about 50,000 miles to 60,000 miles in this interval corre- sponds to a velocity of nearly three miles a second. Not less interesting is the apparent disappearance of the second large prominence in the figure situated on the left. Another example of a change of form of an enor- Fic. 6.—Two views of a large prominence taken with a four hours’ interval between them. (Lower picture taken last.) mous prominence photographed on July 19 at ith. 45m. a.m. and 3h. 59m. p.m. respectively is that shown in Fig. 6. This prominence was situated in the south-east quadrant. The approximate dimensions May 4, 1905] as deduced from measurements of the photographs were as follows :— Time Length in Height in bers miles miles II 45 192,000 55,000 3 59 216,000 60,000 When it is mentioned that our earth has a diameter a little less than Sooo miles, an idea of the magnitude of this solar disturbance can be roughly grasped. An interesting point to notice further in the original is the apparent falling towards the limb of the material forming the highest part of the prominence in the lower picture. Enough, perhaps, has now been written to give the reader an idea of the instrument at work, and a few deductions from the photographs obtained during the summer months of the past year. When it is considered that the results described, and others of which no mention has been made, only apply to the photo- graphs secured Ryithie the, SK 2? line of calcium, and that other lines in the solar spectrum, such as hydrogen, iron, magnesium, &c., still remain to be examined, some notion of the vast field of work open to investigators becomes apparent. To avoid too much duplication of work beyond what is absolutely necessary, steps should be taken as soon as_ possible to subdivide the labour. The past year has seen the formation of a re- presentative body to undertake such a scheme, and it is hoped that more instruments will soon be erected and at work to cope with the large demand of facts relating to our sun rendered now possible by the pioneer work of Prof. Hale and M. Deslandres. Wuuiam J. S. Lockyer. THE TEACHING VALUE OF MENAGERIES.’ O far as the general public is concerned, there is always a very considerable danger lest menageries should be regarded merely as places of amusement and curiosity, and that their great value as teachers of zoology should be more or less completely ignored. The main object of the volume before us appears to be to emphasise the teaching value of institutions of this nature, and to show what admirable schools for acquir- ing the rudiments of practical zoology lie ready to our hand, if only we will take advantage of our oppor- 1 “Natural History in Zoological Gardens; being some Account of Vertebrated Animals, with Special Reference to those usually seen in the Zoological Society’s Gardens in London and Similar Institutions.” By F. E. Beddard. Pp. x+ 310; illustrated. (London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 6s. net. No. 1853, VOL. 72] Fic. 1.—Flamingoes in the Regent's Park. zi i3 tunities; in other words, we have nature-teaching of a unique description awaiting our attention. Mr. Bed- dard treats, indeed, his subject almost exclusively from this point of view, so that his volume forms, in great degree, a sketchy kind of text-book of vertebrate zoology, illustrated by a number of first-class phoro- graphs and drawings of the animals under discussion. Such a mode of treatment necessarily prevents the in- clusion of any great amount of matter that is really new in his work, and from one point of view it is a matter for regret that the author, with his long ex- perience of the establishment in the Regent’s Park, has not seen his way to give us more information with regard to the behaviour and life-history of animals in menageries. One point in this connection on which information is sadly lacking is the duration of life of animals in menageries, and the periods during which individuals of long-lived species have survived in captivity. So far as we have seen, information on this From Beddard’s ‘* Natural History in Zoological Gardens.” namely, in that latter point is given only in two cases, f Possibly, of the polar bear and that of the pelican. ) however, the author may have in view a companion volume, in which these phases will form the leading theme; and if so, we feel sure that it will supply a marked want. Restricting, and very wisely so, his volume to the vertebrata, the author commences with a general sketch of the leading features of that group, and then takes in systematic order the various representatives selected for description. Mammals accordingly come first; and it is not out of place to mention that Mr. Beddard directs attention to the fact that a good popular name for this group is still a desideratum. In the case of both mammals and birds, the species taken as examples of different types are in the main well selected, and in nearly every instance the illustrations are almost everything that can be desired. As one of the best, among those reproduced from photographs, we have chosen the group of flamingoes, taken in the gardens, to set before our readers. 14 NATURE | May.4, 1905, Typographical errors appear to be comparatively few. The meaning of the last sentence on p. 22 is, however, obscured by the misplacing of the word “much ’’; while on p. 125 we have Suiae for Suidae, and on p. 149 Australia for Australian. As regards other matters for criticism, it may be pointed out that the author admits that the term aurochs properly be- longs to the extinct wild ox, and it is therefore not easy to see why he applies it to the bison in the plate sef that animal. In the section on the wild ass (p. 60), “the non-scientific reader will probably find it difficult to ascertain the proper name and the number of races of the Asiatic representative of that group; while the sportsman will gasp with astonishment when told (p. 63) that this animal may be ridden down by an expert horseman after a run of five-and-twenty miles (or does the author mean minutes?). On p. 139 the Tasmanian devil, under the synonym of the ursine dasyure, is made to do duty for two species. Finally, the palzontologist is likely to be staggered by the suggestion (p. 185) that the horn of the American birds commonly known as screamers is a direct in- heritance from a dinosaurian ancestor. Throughout, Mr. Beddard has made his boolx read- able and mildly interesting; and it is especially satis- factory to find that he is conservative as regards the scientific names of the animals he discusses, and is, moreover, sparing in the use of such of these names as he selects to designate the various species. The book should form a valuable companion during a visit to the gardens in the Regent’s Park, and likewise an excellent work of reference to those who really desire to learn something from visits of this nature. 1G SCIENCE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY BANQUET. AGO the guests of the Royal Academy of Arts, at the anniversary banquet on Saturday last, were eminent representatives of many branches of science. The president of the Academy, Sir E. J. Poynter, pre- sided; and the Prince of Wales responded to the loyal toast proposed by the chairman. Sir E. Seymour having replied for the Navy and the Duke of Con- naught for the Army, the president proposed the toast of ‘‘Science,’? the domain of which, he remarked, appeals to innumerable interests from its utilitarian side, and in its higher aspects deals with matters which, while they transcend the imagination with their specu- lative possibilities, require for their verification the utmost capacity of the intellect for exactitude and minuteness of research. Sir William Huggins, pre- sident of the Royal Society, replied to the toast in the following speech, which we take from the Times report of the banquet :— I rise, as representing the Royal Society, ledge the toast of science, so cordially honoured by her younger sister, the Royal Academy. I say sister, because art and science have in common the same object of worship and study—nature, in her varying moods and aspects ; art ‘to exalt the forms of nature,’’ science ‘‘ to enlarge her powers.’’ More than this, for to be accepted of nature, to be true artists or true men of science, both must possess an intuitive and profound insight into nature. The fine paintings which surround us are not mere transcripts of nature, but created visions of nature, revealing to the common eye the cryptic poetry and prose visible only to the second sight of the true artist— to acknow- . . a painter gazing at a face Divinely through all hindraces finds the man behind it.’ As truly, the man of science must be a seer, with the open eye and power of imagination. At this point the sisters part company. The muse of-art fixes on the canvas a momentary aspect of nature, or of the human NO. 1853, VOL. 72] endowed ‘has in recent years attended Japanese enterprise. face divine. The muse of science strains her eyes to see~ what is behind the outward show, her quest is for the | why and wherefore of nature’s changes. But science is more than a presiding muse; she is in very deed a great beneficent power imminent in the lives of her votaries, a power such as was feebly foreshadowed in the tales of folk-lore by the Queen of the Good Fairies, richly reward- ing by enchantment with all good things those who made ° her their friend. The seven-league boots and the magic steeds were but poor anticipations of the gifts of science —the railway, the motor, and the turbine-driven vessel. The enchantment of gold, jewels, feasts, and palaces are more than realised by the boundless resources which science places at man’s disposal. Science, indeed, brings back the age of Methuselah. Even literally life is prolonged by increased power over disease. True life is not measured by the passing of the suns, but by the sum of our activi- ties; not by the falling sands of the hour-glass, but by the living pulses of the mind. The flying train, the flash- ing of intelligence, night turned into day, and the thousand and one appliances of machinery crowd into one year a fulness of life which was possible to our fathers only, if at all, in many years. How great, then, would be the gifts of science to the nation in return for full national recognition—by placing science on an equality with the humanities in our universities and public schools, and by the endowment of laboratories worthy of the nation! With science nationally honoured, our armies and our ships could know no defeat, our machinery and our manufac- tures no rivalry in the world’s markets, our every under- taking must prosper. Shall we then remain in deadly apathy and take no steps to have it so? NOTES. On Sunday, the President of the French Republic enter- tained the King at the Elysée at a dinner party, at which 120 guests were present. The guests included dis- tinguished authors, artists, musicians, and other repre- sentatives of intellectual activity, almost exclusively members of the Institute of France. By inviting leaders of literature, art, and science to meet the King, graceful recognition was given of the high place occupied by the muses in the polity of the Republic. In the days when sheer muscular force was the mainstay of a nation, bodily strength and prowess were rightly regarded as recom- mendations for Court favours; but now that brain-power instead of muscle determines the rate of national progress, the State that desires to advance must foster all the intel- lectual forces it possesses. This principle is well under- stood in France, and is also clearly recognised in Germany, where every man who makes notable contributions to know- ledge of any kind, assists industrial progress, or creates works of distinguished merit, whatever they may be, is. sure to receive personal encouragement from the Emperor. The presence of these leaders of thought is a striking characteristic of the German Court; while, on the other hand, their absence, and the overpowering influence of military interests, are distinguishing features of Russian, and, let us add, of British Court functions. On many occasions reference has been made in these columns to the excellent object lesson of the intimate con- nection between a scientifically organised system of educa- tion and national prosperity afforded by the success which It is gratifying to find that this insistence on our part is, in view of affairs in the Far East, now being echoed by our contemporaries. Commenting upon the account of its Tokio correspondent of the battle of Mukden, the Times, in a leader in the issue of April 25, remarked :—‘‘ We have before us evidence of national education in its highest and most complete manifestation—education such as we in this country have hardly begun to conceive. We have co- May 4, 1905] NATURE l tn ordinated intelligence at its best, fortified by an invincible moral, and employing a physical education capable of earrying out all its behests. We see these things not merely producing a small corps d’élite insignificant in com- parison with the mass of the nation, but turning out half a million of men with brain power adequate for their direction.’’ When it is remembered that Japan has estab- lished and perfected its system of education in the years since the passing of our first Elementary Education Act in 1870, it is easy to appreciate how profound and speedy can be the effect of an earnest and sustained effort on the part of the Government of a nation to develop its educa- tional resources. There is hope that now our great news- papers are advocating the paramount claims of higher education and science we may see both more generously treated by the Government of this country. Tue inactivity shown by our statesmen in matters con- cerning the preservation of our ancient monuments com- pares very unfavourably with the measures taken in other countries to cherish their structures of antiquity. A timely article in the April number of the Quarterly Review directs attention to several cases of vandalism to show the pre- carious tenure on which this country holds so many of its artistic and historical treasures. Here we are almost devoid of the official and semi-official machinery which is actively engaged abroad. France and Austria have State- appointed commissions» which exercise a general super- vision over historical and artistic monuments, and see to their preservation and proper repair. The French list of structures regarded as of unmistakable national value con- tains about 2200 monuments, of which 318 are prehistoric in the form of dolmens or cromlechs. The care of monu- ments in all the German States is in the hands of official custodians or monument commissions, who are responsible to the Ministers of Public Instruction or of the Interior. The minor States of Europe exhibit a similar official interest in historical monuments. In our own country, however, only tentative efforts have been made at arrange- ments which on the Continent are in full working order. So far as any expenditure is concerned, the Ancient Monu- ments Acts are almost a dead letter. The indifference of the Government to the whole matter is sufficiently in- dicated by the fact that since the death of the inspector of ancient monuments, General Pitt-Rivers, in 1900, no successor has been appointed to the post, although no emoluments are attached to it. It seems impossible to get our so-called statesmen to see that unless the State shows active interest in the preservation of our ancient monuments, many of our national assets of the highest historical value are doomed to destruction. The public and public bodies would soon learn to prize such monuments if the Govern- ment would take steps to show that these structures are of national importance. Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., paleontologist to the Geological Survey, retired on May 4 after a distinguished Service extending over forty years. In 1865 he joined the Geological Survey as assistant naturalist under Prof. Huxley, while Murchison was director-general; and when Huxley severed his connection with the Museum of Prac- tical Geology, he worked under the late Robert Etheridge until 1881. On Mr. Etheridge’s transfer to the British Museum, Mr. George Sharman and Mr. E. T. Newton were appointed joint palzontologists to the Geological Survey, and on Mr. Sharman’s retirement in 1897 Mr. Newton remained as chief of the palzontological depart- ment. The loss of his great experience and knowledge on all branches of paleontology, to say nothing of the NO. 1853, VOL. 72] ; personal loss, will be widely felt in the museum at Jermyn Street by the officers and by the visitors who come for assistance in the study of fossils. It is satisfactory to learn that Dr. F. L. Kitchin has been appointed to succeed Mr. Newton; he received his palzeontological training under Zittel, and joined the staff of the Geological Survey in 1898. He has published important monographs on fossil Invertebrata in the ‘‘ Palzontologia Indica.”’ Mr. Joun Gavey, C.B., engineer-in-chief to the Post Office, has been nominated for election as president for 1905-6 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. News has just reached this country that Dr. J. E. Dutton died at Kosongo, in the Congo, on February 27, while actively engaged in the investigation of trypanosomiasis and tick fever. Tue Paris Natural History Museum has accepted a bequest made by M. Emmanuel Drake del Castillo con- sisting of a herbarium, a botanical library, and a sum of 25,000 francs. Pror. Hans Meyer, of the University of Vienna, we learn from Science, has accepted the invitation to deliver the Herter lectures at Johns Hopkins University on October 5 and 6. His subject will be ‘“The Physiological Results of Pharmacological Research.”’ It is announced that the New Mexico legislature has passed a law authorising a geological survey of the State ; the sum of 1200]. has been voted for the purpose, and is to be expended under the direction of the New Mexico School of Mines at Socorro. Pror. W. Konic, of Greifswald, has been appointed ordinary professor and director of the physical laboratory at Giessen; Prof. M. Disteli, of Strassburg, professor of mathematics at Dresden; and Dr. Ernest Orloch professor at the National Physical Laboratory at Charlottenburg. Pror. H. M. Howe, professor of metallurgy at Columbia University, Bessemer medallist of the Iron and Steel Institute, has been elected foreign correspondent of the Paris Society for the Encouragement of Industry to succeed Sir Lowthian Bell. The other four recipients of this honour are Cannizzaro, Mendeléeff, Solvay, and Sir Henry Roscoe. Mr. J. H. Hammonp has given roool. to establish a mining and metallurgical library at San Francisco. The State Mining Bureau already possesses an extensive library, but, for want of funds, it has not been possible to add new books during the past ten years. The new library is to be placed in the rooms of the Mining Bureau, but as a separate unit. Three trustees are to select the books. Tur President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has appointed a departmental committee to inquire, by means of experimental investigation and otherwise, into the pathology and etiology of epizootic abortion, and to consider whether any, and, if so, what, preventive and remedial measures may with advantage be adopted with respect to that disease. The chairman of the committee is Prof. J. MacFadyean, principal of the Royal Veterinary College. Tue Baly medal, given every alternate year on the re- commendation of the president and council of the Royal College of Physicians of London for distinguished work in the science of physiology, especially during the two years immediately preceding the award, has been awarded to Prof. Pawloff, of St. Petersburg. The Bisset Hawkins 16 NATURE {May 4, 1905 gold medal for 1905, given triennially for work deserving special recognition as advancing sanitary science or pro- moting public health, has been awarded to Sir Patrick Manson, K.C.M.G. A DECIDED earthquake shock was felt in the Vale of Llangollen, North Wales, about 1.40 a.m. on May 1. The disturbance lasted about four seconds, and was accom- panied by loud rumbling sounds. The river Dee, which runs through the district, rose several feet during the night. Tue Paris correspondent of the Times reports that earth- quake shocks were experienced at about 2 a.m. on April 29 over the whole of the Jura, the Rhone valley between Lyons and Valence, and the eastern portion of the Central Massive. All the shocks appear to have occurred simul- taneously, and were accompanied by sudden and violent squalls, as well as by rumblings like distant thunder. An earthquake shock, lasting eight seconds, was recorded also at Chamonix. Subsequently the shocks recurred, though in a mitigated degree. At this place a new spring suddenly gushed from the ground as the result of the seismic dis- turbance, and the waters of the river Arve were swollen in consequence. The shock was felt at 2.45 a.m. at Turin and Domodossola. The seismographs at the observatories of Pavia, Padua, Ferrara, Modena, Ischia, and other towns also recorded disturbances. At Heidelberg Observ- atory the seismograph registered a decided earthquake of short duration at 2.49 a.m. ATTENTION was recently directed in these notes (vol. Ixxi. p- 492) to a statement made in the Times that the Tower of Galileo on the hill of Arcetri, near Florence, has been practically destroyed in the course of recent building operations. Prof. A. Ricco, having been led by our note to make a special inquiry at Florence, now writes to point out that the so-called Torre del Gallo cannot in any way be considered as associated with the name of Galileo. Such an association was first suggested comparatively recently and purely gratuitously by the late proprietor of the tower, but no evidence in support of it can be traced either in the numerous letters or writings of Galileo. This was clearly pointed out by Gebler in 1878 in an article in the Deutsche Rundschau, and the most recent examination of Galileo’s writings made on the occasion of the publication of the ‘‘ national edition’ of his works has given support to the same opinion. It may perhaps be surmised that a confusion of names has occurred, Torre del Gallo, literally the Cock’s Tower, being wrongly re- garded as a corruption of Torre di Galileo. In one of his recent articles on Stonehenge (vol. Ixxi. p. 391, February 23) Sir Norman Lockyer referred to the interesting fact, pointed out to him by Colonel Johnston, director of the Ordnance Survey, that the solstitial line in 1680 B.C. passes through not only the present centre of Stonehenge, but also through Sidbury Hill to the north- east, and the earthworks at Grovely Castle and Castle Ditches to the south-west. This continuation of the ~ solstitial line from Stonehenge to other ancient structures is of great interest; but an even more remarkable relation found by Colonel Johnston is that Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Grovely Castle occupy the points of an equi- lateral triangle each side of which is exactly six miles in length. A very definite connection is thus shown to exist between the various primitive works in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge. We notice that Mr. J. H. Spencer de- scribes these relationships in an article in the April number NO. 1853, VOL. 72] of the Antiquary, but he does not mention that the credit of the discovery of the connecting lines between the various monuments belongs to Colonel Johnston. WE learn from the Journal of the Society of Arts that funds have been placed at the disposal of the council of the Society of Dyers and Colourists for distribution in the form of prizes for the solution of technical problems. The following prizes are now offered :—(1) 201. for a satis- factory systematic tabulation of the reactions of dyestuffs on the fibre, and a comprehensive scheme for their identifi- cation on dyed fabrics; (2) 1ol. for a trustworthy method of distinguishing between unmercerised and mercerised cotton of various qualities, and for the estimation of the degree of mercerisation without reference to lustre ; (3) 2ol. for a full investigation of the causes of the tendering of cotton dyed with sulphide blacks, and the best means of preventing such tendering; (4) 20l. for a _ satisfactory standardisation of the strength and elasticity of cotton yarns of various qualities and twists in the grey and bleached conditions; (5) 2o0/. for a full investigation of the average degree of tendering brought about in cotton yarn of various qualities by—(a) cross dyeing with acid colours ; (b) dyeing aniline black; and-(c) various other dyeing pro- cesses, with the object of fixing standards for the trade. Further information can be obtained from the hon. secre- tary, Mr. E. T. Holdsworth, Westholme, Great Horton, Bradford. SaTISFACTORY progress and general prosperity form the key-note of the report of the Zoological Gardens at Giza for the past year. The report is iliustrated by the repro- duction of a most interesting photograph of an aard-vark, or ant-bear, slightly marred by the effect of a shadow by the side of the nose. In a communication published in the Anales of the Buenos Aires Museum (vol. xii. pp. 1-64), Dr. F-. Ameghino gives reasons for concluding that the single facet by which the astragalus of marsupials articulates inferiorly with the caleaneum is a specialised feature, derived from the more common type in which there are two such facets. Tue April issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy is devoted to a list of Irish Coelenterata, in- clusive of the Ctenophora, by Miss Stephens. The list includes about 250 species, but since the north-west coast of Ireland has not yet been thoroughly worked, it cannot be regarded as complete. Museum News is the title of a periodical issued by the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Institute of Arts and Sciences to replace the Children’s Museum News, and intended to deal with matters connected with both the Central and the Children’s — Museum in that city. Special attention will be devoted to informing the public with regard to new exhibits and additions to the collections. AccORDING to its seventy-first report, Bootham School (York) is making a vigorous push in the direction of encouraging the study of natural science, and the natural history club has entered a period of renewed life and vigour. The report is illustrated with reproductions from two excellent photographs, one showing the nest and eggs of a black-headed gull, and the other the same eggs in the process of hatching. Tue seals frequenting Killala Bay and the Moy Estuary, in Mayo, form the subject of an article by Mr. R. Warren in the April Zoologist. Both the common and the grey seal frequent and breed in this district, the young being apparently born in most cases in caverns difficult of access. May 4, 1905] NATURE 17 The largest grey seal ever killed weighed 560 Ib., but ‘specimens scaling 740 Ib. and 770 lb. are recorded from the Farne Islands, on the Northumberland coast. ” ** DIE SOGENNANTEN RIECHSTABCHEN DER CLADOCEREN ”” is the title of a paper in vol. xii. of Ploner Forschungs- berichte, in which the author, Mr. D. J. Scourfield, of Leytonstone, discusses the function of the so-called olfactory sete in this group of minute crustaceans. From the stronger and more numerous development of these bristles ‘in the males, it is inferred that their sensory functions are -a number of interesting and important papers. prevalence of these two organisms. more acute in this sex than in the females. As regards their probable function, the author is of opinion that while they are largely concerned in the perception of taste, yet that they may also serve in the recognition of other senses which may be as far removed from taste as is the latter from hearing. THE Journal of Hygiene for April (v., No. 2) contains Dr. Petrie discusses the relationship of the pseudo-diphtheria and diphtheria bacilli, and Dr. Boycott the relative seasonal Dr. Petrie also de- scribes trypanosomes observed in rabbits, moles, and certain birds. Dr. Savage, as the result of experiments made to ascertain the degree of sewage pollution of tidal waters, considers that mud samples yield more trustworthy evidence of the degree of contamination than either water or oyster samples. Other papers are by Dr. Hamilton Wright on preventive measures against beri-beri, Drs. Newsholme and Stevenson, and Dr. Hayward on statistical methods applied to birth-rates and life tables, and Dr. Mackie on a handy -method of determining the amount of carbonic acid in air. _ just Part i. of the reports of the commission appointed for the investigation of Mediterranean fever under the super- vision of the advisory committee of the Royal Society has been issued. The first two reports, by Major Horrocks, R.A.M.C., deal with the problem of the sapro- phytic existence of the causative organism (the M. meli- tensis) outside the human body. It is found that the organism will retain its vitality in sterilised tap water for thirty-seven days, in dry soil for forty-three days, and in moist soil for seventy-two days. The same observer was able to isolate the micrococcus from the urine, but not from the faces, sweat or breath of patients. A series of experiments was instituted which showed that the micro- coccus is absorbed by, and gives rise to the disease in, monkeys exposed to dust, or given food containing it. -Staff-Surgeon Gilmour, R.N., and Dr. Zammit detail ex- “periments on the isolation of the M. melitensis from the blood, and Staff-Surgeon Shaw, R.N., writes on the same subject and on experimental work in relation to animals. AN interesting article on polished stone axes in history until the nineteenth century, by Dr. Marcel Baudouin and Lionel Bonnemére, will be found in the Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris (5e. sér., tome v., p. 496). ' they are credited with therapeutic efficacy. Examples are given of their use at the present day as charms against lightning, storm, and other evils, and also The Bairvaos of the Greeks was a polished stone implement; from classical times onwards these stones were supposed to have fallen from heaven, and at the present day this belief is current from western Europe to Malaysia. Various folk-tales and other items of folklore will be found in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; in vol. Ixx., part iii., p. 99, Mr. S. C. Mitra records a new NO. 1853, VOL. 72] accumulation-droll or cumulative folk-tale from Bihar; in vol. Ixxi., part iii., p. 4, in the same Journal, Mr. H. P. Shastri describes a form of tree worship at Naihati; a female deity is supposed to reside in a date palm, when clods of earth are thrown at the tree as offerings to her, she at once pacifies children crying at the home of the devotee. Ten years later the author re-visited the spot, and found that sweets were then offered well, that various other boons were prayed for, and a myth had grown up about the tree. The marriage customs of the Khonds are described by Mr. J. E. F. Pereira, from which it appears that they are gradually Hinduising their customs. as Tue ideal forestry college forms the subject of an article in the Indian Forester (February); the suggestions made are based upon a selection of the advantages observed at various institutions, all of which, it is hardly necessary to state, lie outside the British Isles. College gardens and forests are mentioned as the most important adjuncts to laboratories and museums, and in these particulars the forestry school at Tharandt, Saxony, is well provided. In the matter of getting wider experience than can be obtained in the college forests, the students of the St. Petersburg In- stitute have the advantage of inspecting and completing a final course in some of the great forest areas of Russia. Jupcine from the account by Mr. J. W. White published in vol. xxii., part iv., of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the Balearic Islands offer many attractions to the botanist who is contemplating a holiday. Not only do the islands lie outside the general track of tourists, but the flora is unusually rich, and a considerable number of the plants are endemic or confined to one of the neighbouring countries. Amongst the rarer curiosities a fragile vetchling, Vicia bifoliata, Lepidium Carrerasii, and a curious little shrubby Daphne velloeoides were obtained in Minorca, and in Majorca Pimpinella Bicknelli, which grows in splendid isolation, and a delicate rock-sheltered labiate, Salvia Vigineuxti, were discovered. A RECORD of the progress of the Albatross Expedition to the eastern Pacific is given in a letter from Prof. Alexander Agassiz dated January 6 (Amer. Journ. Science, April). The influence of the Humboldt current on the marine life west of Callao was investigated. As far as 800 miles from the mainland, it affected both the surface and bottom fauna. Towards Easter Island, the surface fauna first became less abundant, and at a distance of from 1200 to 1400 miles from South America the trawl hauls were absolutely barren. The bottom of the greater part of the line was covered with manganese nodules on which were found attached a few siliceous sponges, an occasional ophiuran, and a few brachiopods and worm-tubes. The pelagic and intermediate fauna from Easter Island to Te south latitude, in the direction of the Galapagos, was very poor, and indicated that the region was to the westward of the great Humboldt current. Beyond this limit the marine fauna was again rich and abundant, and great changes were noted in the temperature of the water between 50 and 300 fathoms. Soundings made eastward of the Galapagos and Easter Island indicate a gradual deepening of the ocean bed towards the Continent, as observed during the Challenger Expedition. On Easter Island some time was spent in examining the prehistoric monuments and the great quarries from which colossal images had been cut. Sculptured rocks were noted, and it was remarked that some of the cyclopean stones used in the ancient buildings exhibited excellent workmanship. 18 NATURE [May 4, 1905 GEOLOGICAL and petrographical researches on the northern Urals have for some years been carried on by Prof. Louis Dupare and Dr. Francis Pearce. Their latest work (Mém, Soc. de Physique et d’Hist. nat. de Généve, xxxiv., fasc. v.) embraces a description of the eruptive rocks of the chain of Tilai-Kanjakowsky-Cérébriansky, in the Government of Perm. This range is composed of basic igneous rocks, of pyroxenites passing into koswites, which form the principal axis of the chain, with bordering gabbros elsewhere prominent; there are diorites, norites which are intercalated locally in both gabbros and pyroxenites, and dunites which are massive in places and also send veins into the gabbros and pyroxenites; and there are other eruptive rocks. All these are described in con- siderable detail and illustrated. Continuing their observ- ations eastwards, the authors describe the quartzites and crystalline conglomerates of Aslianka and of Tépil, with, in the latter region, Devonian strata and various igneous rocks; and finally they deal with the crystalline schists and intrusive rocks of. Koswinsky-Katéchersky-Tilai. The memoir is illustrated by pictorial views of the topo- graphic features, by longitudinal sections, and by micro- scopic sections of the rocks. THE report of the observatory department of the National Physical Laboratory for the year 1904 shows, as usual, a large amount of useful work; it is published separately, as appealing to a different class of workers from that interested in the engineering and physics departments. The work of the observatory deals with magnetic, meteorological, and seismological observations (separately), experiments and researches, verification of instruments and watches (separately), and miscellaneous commissions for inland, colonial, and foreign institutions, &c. It is observed that the electric trams have interfered with part of the magnetic work ; the mean declination for the year was 16° 37/-9 W. The tabulations and automatic records of the meteorological observations are sent to the Meteorological Office for pub- lication: in detail; the Kew report contains monthly and yearly summaries of the results. The seismological observ- ations are published in the report of the British Associ- ation; the largest disturbance recorded during the year took place on April 4, when the maximum amplitude ex- ceeded 17 mm. The verification of instruments, exclusive of watches and chronometers, amounted to 25,797, of which 15,903 were clinical thermometers. DurinG a thunderstorm it has often been noticed that some flashes of lightning appear to “‘ flicker,’? while others seem to leave a glow in their paths which lasts a second or two before entirely disappearing. In the first case the apparent trembling of the light is due to the fact that the observer is actually watching the passage of more than one flash following the same route. In multiple or inter- mittent lightning flashes there are sometimes as many as five or six separate flashes in a very brief interval of time, and the impression on the retina is an apparent flickering of a single flash. In the Comptes rendus (April 10) M. Em. Touchet directs attention to those particular flashes which leave a glow in their wake, and gives an illustration of a photograph of one he secured with a moving camera on April 12 of last year. The object of the communi- cation is to point out that this glow is attributable to the incandescence of the air; but it seems to us that this is a fact already very well known. In photographing very bright lightning flashes with movable cameras it is a very common occurrence to get trails on the plate of the brighter portions of the flash, and if the plate and lens be very rapid it should be the rule rather than the exception. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] There are numerous examples of flashes which have beer photographed showing this peculiarity, and it is a simple matter to’ differentiate between those due to multiplicity, and those due to the incandescent air resulting from the original flash. Anyone interested in this question will find some typical photographs published by L. Weber (Sitz. d. k. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss., vol. xxxviii., 1889), Ladis- laus von Szalay (Met. Zeit., vol. xxxviii., 1903, p. 341), and B. Walter (Jahrbuch d. Hamburgischen Wiss. Anstalten, vol. xx., 1903). As M. Touchet refers to Dr. Hoffert’s. paper on intermittent lightning-flashes (Phil. Mag., August, 1889), reference is there made to ‘streaks of light, showing that a very considerable residual illumin- ation remains between the discharges,’’ which indicates. that the writer was quite familiar with the incandescence of the air due to the flash and its effect on the photo- graphic film. AN installation for the production of high-tension elec- tricity, on view at Messrs. Isenthal and Co.’s, 85 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, W., has been examined by a representative of Nature. The original source of the energy is an ordinary uni-directional current, and an im- portant feature of the apparatus is a commutator which does away with the necessity for an interrupter. In the main circuit is a condenser of very large capacity, and the commutator breaks the circuit when the condenser is charged, so that no sparking is produced. The condenser employed is not large, and owes its compactness to the use of thin layers of aluminium oxide, prepared electro- lytically, as the dielectric. The commutator has the appearance of a piece of engineering work, and should not require much attention. Oscillatory currents, with a frequency of about a thousand per second, are set up in the primary of an induction coil, and it is claimed that the impulses in the secondary are much stronger in one direc- tion than in the other. The apparatus is also intended for the production of alternating currents, and some very interesting experiments are shown. An alternating current is sent through the coil of an electromagnet, the core being: vertical ; a sheet of paper is placed over the upper pole, and on the paper is scattered some iron dust (not filings); the, dust forms itself into little spiked heaps which move and dance about. When the paper and iron dust are removed, and the forehead is placed near the pole of the magnet, the light of the room appears to fluctuate in intensity. Messrs. A. Brown anv Sons, Ltp., will publish during this month a work by Mr. J. R. Mortimer entitled ‘‘ Forty Years’ Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, including Romano-British Discoveries and a Description of the Ancient Entrenchments on a Section of the Yorkshire Wolds.”’ Tue report of the council of the Hampstead Scientific Society and the proceedings for 1904 have been received. Fifty-six new members were elected during the year, and the number of members is now 333. The number of meetings held in 1904 was thirty-three, and in addition there were four Christmas lectures to children and a course of six lectures on nature-study. Among lectures delivered at general meetings of the society may be mentioned one by Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S., on Japanese magic mirrors, and one by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., on the incoming of the Brythons into Britain. Messrs. S. RENTELL aND Co., Lrp., have published a fifth edition of ‘‘ The Telegraphists’ Guide to the Depart- mental and City and Guilds Examinations in Telegraphy,’’ by Messrs. Tames Bell and S. Wilson. The contents have May 4, 1905] NATURE 19 been revised thoroughly, the chapters re-arranged, and much fresh matter introduced. The extra pages supply a description of Wheatstone’s ABC instrument, a more de- tailed reference to batteries, single-needle working, duplex and Wheatstone automatic systems, repeaters, test cases, concentrator switch, wireless telegraphy, and other subjects. No. 5 of the Central—the magazine of the Central Technical College—is very good, and may be regarded as even constituting an advance on its predecessors. It con- tains an account by Mr. R. Freeman of the design and construction of the steel-work of the bridge over the Zambezi at Victoria Falls, a continuation of the series of articles by Prof. Armstrong on the mechanism of com- bustion, and a description of the Klingenberg carriage switchgear by Mr. J. D. Griffin. The magazine is well and copiously illustrated. WE have received from Mr. Geoffrey Martin a copy of a paper on the theory of solution, published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry (vol. ix. p. 149), giving a detailed account of views already briefly stated in a letter to Nature (vol. Ixx. p. 531). An attempt is made to explain the fundamental facts that for all substances there is a limit of solubility in each solvent, that the solubility in- creases as a rule with the temperature, and that molecules often dissociate on passing into solution. AmonG the popular science lectures to be delivered at the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, during May are the following :—May 9g, fishes old and new, Dr. Smith Woodward, F.R.S.; May 23, some summits of the lost continent Atlantis, Mr. H. Ling OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Discovery OF A TENTH SATELLITE TO SATURN.—A tele- gram from the Kiel Centralstelle announces the discovery of a tenth satellite to Saturn by Prof. W. H. Pickering, who, it will be remembered, also discovered Phoebe, the ninth satellite. The newly discovered satellite is very faint, being re- ported as three magnitudes fainter than Hyperion, the seventh satellite, which has a magnitude of about 17; its period is given as 21 days, and its orbital motion is direct. THE ALLEGED IDENTITY OF Comets ‘‘ BRooKs 1889 ’’ AND Lexety.—An abstract of a paper by Dr. Charles L. Poor, wherein he discusses the identity of Brooks’s 1889 comet with the object known as Lexell’s comet, is given in No. 4, vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy. After mentioning the discovery and subsequent history of each body, he discusses the various perturbations to which each has been subjected, and then gives the results obtained from a re-computation of the orbit of Brooks’s comet, using the observational data secured during the re-appearance of 1903. Finally, he arrives at the conclusion that the objects are not identical, although further evidence will be necessary before the question can be settled definitely. ANCIENT DRAWINGS OF CELESTIAL PHENOMENA.—Parts xiii. and xiv. of the current volume of Das Weltall con- tain an interesting article by Dr. W. Lehmann, of Berlin, in which the ancient Mexican accounts of solar eclipses, comets, &c., are discussed. The article is freely illustrated by drawings of eclipses, comets, the moon, planets, Xc., taken from the old accounts, and these drawings are most interesting as depicting the old Mexican ideas of these phenomena. For instance, the first is a contemporary drawing of the total solar eclipse of 1531 a.p., and shows plainly immense prominences and coronal wings. Mount Witson Osservatory.—In No. 2, vol. xxi., of the Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Hale gives an account of the conditions of solar research at Mount Wilson, Cali- fornia, where he has recently established the Solar Observ- -atory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In the NO. 1853, VOL. 72] 6 plates. first of the two articles he enumerates the requirements of the site of such an observatory, and then discusses in detail the meteorological conditions, the seeing, the transparency of the atmosphere, and the instruments available at Mount Wilson. In the second article the author describes the foundation, the equipment, and the programme of the observatory, and illustrates his description with photographs and diagrams of the site and of the various instruments and houses already erected or in course of erection. AnoMALous DISPERSION AND ‘‘ FLoccutt.’’—In No. 3, vol. xxi., of the Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Julius advances the theory of anomalous dispersion to explain the varying appearances of the flocculi on spectroheliograph photographs. The “ dark flocculi’’ of Prof. Hale are ex- plained by the incurvation of the direct rays producing an excess of light in the bright flocculi, and therefore a deficit elsewhere, hence the dark regions naturally ensue. The differences between the H, (calcium) and HB (hydrogen) pictures obtained by Prof. Hale are explained by the supposition that the Hf rays are less strongly incurvated, and therefore rays of more varied refractive indices pass through the secondary slit, thereby producing a less dark and less defined image. On this assumption Prof. Julius states that the hydrogen photographs would show the fine details seen on the K, photographs if the dispersion employed were greater, or if the secondary slit were used narrower. Without requiring any other hypo- thesis, Prof. Julius explains by this theory all the anomalies seen on the spectroheliograms. In the same journal, the same author also discusses the ““ dispersion bands ’’ seen in the spectra of 6 Orionis and Nova Persei, and, inter alia, arrives at the conclusion that the former star is not a spectroscopic binary. ASTRONOMICAL Society OF AMERICA.—Abstracts of sixteen of the numerous papers read at the sixth meeting of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, held at Philadelphia last December, are given in No. 533 of Science by Mr. Frank B. Littel. The various titles are too numerous to mention here, but amongst them we may notice ‘‘ The Constant of Aberration,’’ by Prof. C. L. Doolittle, in which the author obtains the value 20"-540+ 0-0055 from a series of zenith telescope observations made between December, 1889, and December, 1903; ‘‘ The Re- flex Zenith Tube,’’ by the same author; ‘‘ Variation of the Bright Hydrogen Lines in Stellar Spectra,’’? by Miss Annie J. Cannon; “ Planetary Spectrograms ’’ and ‘‘ The Canals of Mars,’’ by Mr. Lowell; ‘‘ The Coordination of Visual and Photographic Magnitudes,’’ by Mr. J. A. Parkhurst ; and “* Recent Researches of the Henry Draper Memorial,”’ by Prof. E. C. Pickering. COLOCGR IN WASPS OF POLTSIRES: IN the paper referred to below’ the author deals very fully with the various colour variations observable in the species of the genus under notice, and a very interesting account is given of the variability in colour-pattern, and of its gradual development in the nymphal and imaginal stages, illustrated by coloured plates i. and ii. A chemical analysis of the nature of the pigments is also given, and illustrations of the layers in which the pigments are located. Coloured plates iii. and iv. give figures of several of the dif- ferent species of the genus—besides these plates there are ex- cellent maps, showing the distribution of the various forms, and elaborate diagrams are provided, indicating the vari- ations observable. The author has evidently spared no pains to render the treatment of the subject as exhaustive as possible, and as a study of colour variation this treatise seems to leave little to be desired. The problem attacked in this work, viz. ‘“‘ an inquiry into the nature and probable causes of specific differentiation in the genus Polistes,’’ is one which is both difficult and perplexing. The author commences at once by saying, ‘‘ apart from differences in size, the characters used to separate the species are based almost exclusively on colour; accordingly, this in- Pp. 88 THE GENUS 1 **Coloration in Polistes.” By Wilhelmine M. Enteman. (Carnegie Institution"of Washington, November, 1904. 20 vestigation resolves itself into a study of coloration in the genus.”’ The conditions which make for variation in the different species are well indicated, as the author points out that, even where the inmates of a single nest are examined, the following points have to be considered :—First, that two or three females may work together for the good of one com- munity, and may be very differently coloured ; secondly, that each may be fertilised by several males, which again may be differently coloured ; thirdly, that intruders from other nests may be present as they “‘ are not always so certainly driven away from strange nests as has been aftirmed for other social Hymenoptera.” In these circumstances, the attempt to distinguish the species by colour characters seems to be almost hopeless— a point, however, which seems to the present writer to have been overlooked is the possibility of the presence of un- observed plastic characters which might serve as better and more satisfactory guides to classification. That such char- acters exist among the palzearctic species has been demon- strated by F. F. Kohl in Ann. K.K. Naturh. Hofmuseum, Wien, xiii., heft i., pp. 87-90, taf. iii., who shows that five forms of the males can be easily separated by well-defined characters in the form of the clypeus and genz, the grooves of the face, and the shapes of the subapical joints of the antennz, and although their respective females and workers have not been satisfactorily identified, it is not improbable that careful investigation may yet disclose characters to associate the sexes of the different species together ; as also it is quite probable that all the species would vary in colour in more or less parallel directions—any investigation into the distribution of the species, unless conducted with special reference to these characters of the males, would be very liable to lead to wrong conclusions. One conclusion especially to which one would like to apply the male character test is summed up in the following words :—‘ It is hardly probable that we have in P. variatus a primitive species which has differentiated in two directions, but, as we shall see from the study of the geographical distribution of the species, aurifer and pallipes are two originally distinct species which, from the course of their migration northwards, have come together in the Mississippi valley, and by their commingling produced a species having, in some measure, the characters of both.’’ These remarks are made with no wish to depre- ciate, even if it were possible, this very careful attempt to in- vestigate a most difficult problem, but merely to point out that there are characters in our Palzarctic species of Polistes which might be well looked for in those of the other hemi- sphere. : THE CLEAVAGE OF SLATES. “T° HE memoir described below* contains an account of experiments undertaken to test the author’s theory, propounded some years ago, of the cause of the cleavage property in slates. Dr. Becker’s theory, substantially the same as that put forward earlier by the Rev. O. Fisher, is that cleavage-planes are planes of maximum tangential strain, or in other words shear-planes. This is opposed to the theory of Sharpe (or, as we might say, of Sharpe and Sorby), which makes the cleavage-planes perpendicular to the maximum compression. The author has misunder- stood Dr. Sorby’s position, having apparently overlooked the earlier papers of that writer. The question whether heterogeneity in the rock is necessary for the production of cleavage* seems to be beside the mark, since all. rocks (other than glasses) are heterogeneous in this sense. Both Tyndall’s wax and Dr. Becker’s ceresin, being crystalline bodies, are heterogeneous, and their behaviour must depend on the orientation of the minute component crystals. The experiments described were carried out with ceresin, a substance of the paraffin series, and some also with clay. These were submitted in one series of tests to simple com- pression, and in another series to shearing by means of a machine devised for the purpose. In the small masses dealt with the strains developed vary greatly from point to point, and the resulting structure is of a complex kind. We must confess that we are not convinced that the effects 1 “Experiments on Schistosity and Slaty Cleavage.” Becker. Pp. 34; 7 plates. Washington, 1 04.) NO 1853, VOL. 72] By George F. Bull. No. 241 of U.S. Geological Survey. NATURE [May 4, 1905 observed are such as to be rightly described as cleavage— they have rather the character of fractures, depending on the application of the forces which produce them, as well as on the intimate structure of the material. It is unfortunate that no attempt is made to collate the results of the experiments with actual examples of cleaved rocks. As the author remarks, the position of the strain- ellipsoid affords a crucial test. On the Sharpe-Sorby theory the principal diametral plane of the ellipsoid must coincide with the cleavage-plane; on Dr. Becker’s hypothesis it should be inclined at some angle of less than 45°. Now there are many slates in which the strain-ellipsoid is- actually presented in deformed spherical concretions or colour-spots. The “ birdseye’’ slate of Westmorland and the green-spotted purple slates of Llanberis are examples familiar to every English geologist. In every case the orientation of the ellipsoid is that which agrees with the received theory. Moreover, the spots are elliptic in the cleavage-plane itself, being elongated, as Dr. Sorby pointed out fifty years ago, in the line of cleavage-dip. If the cleavage-plane were a plane of shearing, it would corre- spond with a circular section of the ellipsoid. We might object further that, since there are two direc- tions of circular section, or of shearing, there should, on Dr. Becker’s hypothesis, be always two directions of cleavage, perpendicular to one another with incipient cleavage and making an acute angle in well cleaved slates. Our author endeavours to meet this difficulty in discussing his shearing experiments. One .direction of shearing is parallel to a fixed face of the block undergoing deform- ation, while the other is continually changing, ‘‘so that any one set of particles undergoes maximum tangential strain along these planes only for an infinitesimal time.’” Even assuming such conditions to be realised in nature, which cannot be the general case, we should still suppose that the cleavage-property (as distinguished from fractures set up in the process of deformation) will depend on the actual structure of the rock, not on the manner in which that structure has been arrived at. It will be apparent from the foregoing criticism that, while recognising the intrinsic value of these experiments and the clear manner in which the author’s views are set forth, we do not find in them anything which assails successfully the generally accepted interpretation of the cleavage structure. Acwrs UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CaMBRIDGE.—By direction of the Board of Geographical Studies, part ii. of the examination for the diploma in geography will be held on June 21 and two following days. No person is qualified for admission to part ii. who has not previously passed part i. (or the special examination in geography for the ordinary B.A. degree). The names of intending candidates, together with the subjects they pro- pose to take up, should be notified to the registrary not later than May 24. The fee for admission to the examin- ation is, for members of the university, 3/.; for persons not members of the university, 5/. The fee must be paid to the registrary not later than June 15. The subjects are regional geography, surveying and mapping, geomorph- ology, oceanography and climatology, the history of geo- graphy and anthropogeography. Copies of the schedules defining the range of examination may be obtained by application at the registry. The council of the Senate has recommended that the University of Queen’s College, Kingston, Ontario, be adopted as an institution affiliated to Cambridge University. It is understood that the syndicate for considering the studies and examinations of the university, the report of which in favour of the abolition of compulsory Greek in the previous examination was thrown out last term, will continue to meet. It is proposed to add to the syndicate Mr. E. S. Roberts, master of Gonville and Caius College ; Dr. Adam, one of the tutors of Emmanuel College; Mr. S. H. Butcher, late professor of Greek at -Edinburgh University; and Mr. G. H. Hardy, of Trinity College. These gentlemen were on the ‘‘non-placet’’ side at the May 4, 1905] NATURE 21 last vote, but it is understood that the majority of them are in favour of some alteration in the present state of things. A VERBATIM report of the proceedings of the Welsh national conference on the training of teachers and pupil teachers, held at Shrewsbury last November, has just been published. An account of the conference appeared in Nature of November 17 (p. 66). Tue council of the City and Guilds of London Institute has conferred the fellowship of the institute on Mr. H. Cecil Booth in recognition of the engineering work done ‘by him since he gained his diploma of Associate of the City and Guilds Institute in 1892. | On Wednesday, June 7, Viscount Goschen, as Chan- ‘cellor of Oxford University, will lay the foundation-stone of the new buildings of Reading University College, to be erected, at a cost of about 80,000l., upon a site presented by Mr. Alfred Palmer. Ar the recent installation of Dr. Edwin A. Alderman as president of the University of Virginia, it was announced, says Science, that in addition to the conditional gift of 100,000]. from Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Rockefeller had given 20,0001., Mr. Jefferson Coolidge 10,o00l., and alumni and friends 10,0001. towards the endowment fund. Mr. CarneGie has added another handsome donation to his many princely gifts to higher education. This time he has given 2,000,000l. to provide annuities for college pro- fessors prevented by old age or other physical disability from continuing to earn salaries. The gift is to be for the benefit of the United States, Canada, and Newfound- jand, and applies to all universities, colleges, and technical schools without regard to race, colour, or creed, but ex- eluding State or colonial institutes, and excluding also purely sectarian institutions. The fund is to be vested in trustees, among them Presidents Hadley, of Yale Uni- versity; Eliot, of Harvard University; Harper, of the University of Chicago; Butler, of Columbia University ; Schurman, of Cornell University; and Wilson, of Prince- ton University, all of whom have accepted. Mr. Carnegie hopes that by this endowment the best men available will be attracted to professorial work, since in view of the ‘retiring pension, which will now be secured, present day ‘salaries will not appear very inadequate in comparison with those of other professional men. __ Own his way to Simla for the summer months, Lord Curzon visited Pusa and laid the foundation-stone of the agricultural college there. The Pusa estate comprises some 1280 acres of soil on which almost any crop may be grown. The Government proposes to concentrate there all the agricultural skill, scientific, practical, and educational. to be procured. The buildings will cost 16} lakhs of rupees, of which amount the laboratory and its fittings will absorb 7} lakhs. Pusa will provide for agricultural students research in the laboratory, experiment in the field, and instruction in the class-room. After laying the stone Lord Curzon, we learn from the Times, referred to the circumstances in which he received from Mr. Henry Phipps, the American millionaire, the munificent bequest which was the origin of the institute. The college, Lord Curzon continued, will form a centre of the application of Science to Indian agriculture, and it is hoped that each province of India will in time possess its own staff, its own institute for research and experiment, in fact, a properly organised agricultural department. The Government has no desire to monopolise the field, and will lend every possible advice to great land holders conducting their own experiments, improving their own seed and the breed of their own cattle. Earlier in the day Lord Curzon, reply- ing to an address of welcome from the Behar planters, said that the problem confronting the indigo growers since the synthetic indigo of Germany was perfected some eight years ago is so to combine scientific methods with cheapen- ing of the cost of production as to enable them to produce a natural colour at a price permitting of competition with | the artificial product. WE have received from the Agent-General for New South ‘Wales a copy of a ‘‘ Statistical Account of Australia and New Zealand, 1903-4,’’ by Mr. T. A. Coghlan. An im- NO. 1853, VOL. 72] portant section of the volume deals with education, and a prominent place is given in this summary to university and technical education. It appears that the Government endowments to the universities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmania in 1903 were respectively 15,533/., 13,5001., 6611/., and 4oool. In addition to the annual en- dowment, the Adelaide University has received a perpetual endowment of 50,000 acres of land from the Government of South Australia. The University. of New Zealand— which is an examining, and not a teaching, body—has a statutory grant of 30001. a year from Government, and of the affiliated colleges Auckland University College is in receipt of a statutory grant of 4oool. a year. The Uni- versity of Otago derives a sum of about 5500/. annually from rents of reserves. The Australasian universities are empowered to grant the same degrees as the British universities, with the exception of degrees in theology. Women are admitted to all the universities. As regards technical education, the State expenditure upon it in five of the Commonwealth provinces and New Zealand is as follows :—New South Wales, 26,500l.; Victoria, 16,400l. ; Queensland, 7200l.; Western Australia, 5710l. ; Tasmania, 2500). ; and New Zealand, 21,0001. In addition to ordinary technical classes throughout New Zealand, there are schools of mines in the chief mining districts, and the Government makes an annual grant of sool. towards the endowment of the chair of mining and metallurgy at the Otago Uni- versity. Facts such as these show that administrators in Australia and New Zealand are alive to the part which higher education should take in the life of the State, and are willing to supply funds from the public treasury to assist the work of their colleges and universities. A wetter from Prof. W. Ridgeway in the Times of April 27 contains a number of wise suggestions for the improvement of the education given to boys in secondary schools. Referring to the recent vote on the Greek ques- tion, he says, careful inquiries give reason to believe that many voted to make Greek optional simply because they believe that the system of education at present in vogue in public schools is bad, that too much time is given up to Latin and Greek, that, as a rule, science is not taught at all, that the universities are in a large measure responsible for the existing state of things, and that something must be done to improve matters; and accordingly, as somebody must be thrown overboard, Greek was the proper Jonah. Prof. Ridgeway goes on to argue that the mere abolition of compulsory Greek would not have effected any improve- ment in the method of teaching the older subjects in the schools or have done anything to make the teaching of science general. Moreover, he rightly remarks, there can be no reform worthy of the name which does not ensure that boys whose tastes are literary should learn the methods of science, whilst boys whose bent is to science should get a literary training to give them the power of expressing their ideas with lucidity and to imbue them with a taste for culture. The faulty teaching of the schools, he con- tinues, is due in the main to the specialisation which is required by the open scholarship system, and to the sacrifice of the average boys to those who show greater promise and are likely to win scholarships. The universities are largely responsible for this state of things, for they de- liberately encourage premature specialisation in boys of promise by their system of open scholarships, and permit the interests of the average boys to be sacrificed by allow- ing boys to matriculate before they have passed any ex- amination to show that they have acquired a sufficient modicum of liberal education to serve as a basis for a university training. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 16.—‘‘A Determination of the Amounts of Neon and Helium in Atmospheric Air.’’ By Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. The author had already attempted to estimate the amounts of krypton and xenon in air by the evaporation of relatively large quantities of liquid air. No doubt much krypton and some xenon ,evaporated, hence the figures given were necessarily minimum estimates. Dr. Travers 22 NAT ORE | May 4, 1905 and the author made a rough guess at the proportions of neon and helium in air; the amount of each gas obtained was known, but the quantity from which they were derived could only be guessed at. The figures were :—of helium one or two parts per million, and of neon one or two parts per 100,000. The ingenious method devised by Sir James Dewar of cooling a dense form of charcoal with liquid air, and using it as an absorbent for gases, made it easy to obtain a nearly correct estimate of the amounts of the more volatile constituents. After oxygen, nitrogen, and argon had been absorbed from about 16,800 c.c. of air by ex- posure to 100 grams of charcoal cooled with liquid air, the neon and helium were removed with the pump. They were freed from traces of heavier gases by a_ similar method, and a partial, but fairly complete, separation of the two was effected in the same way. The total quanti- ties were measured by a form of burette, in which the ‘level of the mercury was set to a point, and the differences of pressure read. The results are :— Inair Incrude argon Percentage 1 vol. in r vol. in By weight By volume Neon 80,790 757 0 000086 0°0000123 Helium.. 245,300 ... 2300 000000056 ... 00000040 Together 61,000 Tyke s8e — are — It was not possible to detect the free hydrogen in this quantity of air; after the crude mixture of neon and helium had been mixed with a trace of oxygen and sparked for a few minutes, no contraction was. observed; the volume of the gases was the same before and after sparking. April 6.—‘ On Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles.—Seventh Note.’’ By Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. If the crossed extension reflex of the limb be examined before and after a prolonged flexion reflex an alteration is evident in it. When a carefully adjusted electrical stimulus is at regular intervals applied to the afferent path of one limb and the resultant extensor reflex of the crossed limb is noted, it is found that if in one of the intervals a flexion reflex of the latter limb is induced and maintained for twenty seconds or more, the extensor reflex becomes altered in consequence. For a period immediately following the flexion reflex the extension reflex is in- creased. The intensity of the reflex is heightened, its duration is prolonged, and its latent time is reduced. If the testing stimulus be subliminal the threshold value of the stimulus required by the reflex is found to be lowered. In short, the activity of the flexion arcs directly or in- directly induces in the extension arcs a super-excitability as tested by crossed extension just as when tested by the extensor thrust. But although this after-effect of the activity of the flexion arcs upon the antagonistic arcs, both direct and crossed, is one of increase of activity, the primary effect is, as shown previously, one of depression. In these instances there supervenes on the spinal inhibition a re- bound effect of augmentation.* The ‘‘ spinal induction ’’’ is obviously qualified to play a part in linking reflexes together in a coordinate sequence of successive combination. If a reflex arc A during its own activity not only temporarily checks the discharge- action of an opposed reflex arc B, but also as a subsequent result induces in are B a phase of greater excitability and capacity for discharge, it predisposes the spinal organ for a second reflex opposite in character to its own in immediate succession to itself. Much of the reflex action of the limb that can be studied in the ,“‘ spinal”? dog bears the character of adaptation to locomotion. ‘‘ Spinal induction ’’ obviously tends to con- nect this ‘‘ extensor thrust ’’ as an after-effect with pre- current flexion of the limb. In the stepping forward of the limb the flexion that raises the foot and carries it forward clear of the ground, though temporarily checking the reflex discharge of the antagonistic arcs of extension, is, as it continues, so to say, sensitising them to respond later in their turn by the supporting and propulsive ex- tension of the limb necessary to progression. In reflex 1 Sherrington, Schafer's “ Text-book of Physiology,” vol. ii., p. 841, 1900. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] sequences an antecedent reflex would thus not only be the means of bringing about an ensuing stimulus for the next reflex,’ but in such instances as the above will pre- dispose the are of the next reflex to react to the stimulus that will arrive. “Further Experiments and Histological Investigations on Intumescences, with some Observations on’ Nuclear Division in Pathological Tissues.’’ By Miss Elizabeth Date. Communicated by Prof. H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. (1) This paper is the third of a series on intumescences, and deals chiefly with two plants, Solanum tuberosum and Populus tremula. On the potato plant intumescences were obtained experimentally in about twenty-four hours, either on the uninjured plants or on small fragments of leaves. The effect of nutritive solutions on the formation of in- tumescences was investigated. (2) Additional anatomical observations were made, and a classification of various types of intumescences has been | drawn up. The cell contents were examined and compared. (3) The occurrence of acids and salts was investigated. (4) The experiments show that the internal causes of | intumescences are extremely local, and quite independent — of root pressure. The osmotically active substance is prob- ably oxalic acid. The present experiments show the importance of irritability and active powers of assimilation, as well as of | moist air, heat, light, and, generally, oxygen. | (5) Finally, the nuclear phenomena were investigated and | compared, and were found to be in every respect identical in various intumescences and in wound-callus. Patho- logical tissues in certain plants and animals are also compared, and a strong resemblance is seen to exist between certain rapidly formed outgrowths in plants and animals, caused not by any parasitic organism, but simply by the influence of some stimulus, probably. always ex- ternal, acting upon a plant or animal in such a condition of irritability that it is able to respond. A similar re- semblance occurs between regenerative wound tissues in certain plants and animals, the formation of which is in all cases accompanied exclusively by the more rapid form of nuclear division known as amitotic or direct. Zoological Societv, April 18.—Mr. H. Druce, vice- president, in the chair—The horn-core (with sheath attached) of an Urus (Bos primigenius): J. G. Millais. The specimen was believed to be the only British example of the actual horn of the Urus in existence. The curious corrugations on the surface of the lower end were similar to those found on the American and European bison, and incidentally supported the view that the white cattle of Chillingham, Chartley, and Cadzow were not descended from this animal.—Photograph of the horns of a Roberts’s gazelle (Gazella grantii robertsi) obtained by Mr. C. L. Chevalier : O. Thomas.—The discovery of the skeleton of Diplodocus carnegu, Hatcher: Dr. W. J. Holland. Dr. Holland discussed the osteology of Diplodocus, briefly pointing out some of the more interesting structural features of the skeleton, and in this connection anim- adverted upon certain so-called ‘‘ restorations’? made public in popular magazines. Dr. Holland concluded his— account by exhibiting in rapid succession pictures of a few of the more remarkable skeletons which had been recovered by the paleontological staff of the Carnegie Museum from various localities in the region of the Rocky Mountains. —A unique specimen of Cetiosaurus leedsi, a sauropodous dinosaur from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough: Dr. Smith Woodward. The author described the fore and hind limbs and the tail, and confirmed the observation of the late Prof. O. C. Marsh, that Cetiosaurus was one of the more generalised Sauropoda. —On a young female Nigerian giraffe: Dr. P. C. Mitchell. On the evidence afforded by a young female giraffe, obtained by Captain Phillips in the district of Gummel, about 300 miles due west of Lake Chad, and now deposited in the Society’s Gardens, the author was inclined to believe in the distinctness of the 1 Loeb’s “‘ Ketten-reflexe,”” discussed in his ‘‘ Vergleichende Gehirn- physiologie u. Vergleichende Psychologie,” Leipzig, 1860. p. 96, and S09. 5 compare also Exner, ‘‘Entwurf einer physiologischen Erklarung psychis- cher Erscheinungen,” Vienna, 1894, p- 102, and seg., under ‘‘ Successiv Bewegungscombinationen.”’ May 4, 1905] NATURE 23 Nigerian giraffe (Givaffa camelopardalis peralta of Thomas), which, however, was closely allied to the Nubian form (G. c. typica).—The ento-parasites obtained from the Zoo- logical Gardens, London, and elsewhere: A. E. Shipley. Thirteen species were enumerated, one of which was de- _scribed as new.—The muscular and visceral anatomy of . a leathery turtle (Dermatochelys coriacea) : R. H. Burne. , The animal was a young female about 4 feet long, and was thus considerably larger than the few examples of this rare chelonian that had previously been dissected. It came from Japan. The muscles of the neck, trunk, and limbs were described in detail, and notes were made of numerous hitherto unrecorded or imperfectly described features of the alimentary and other internal organs.— A third collection of mammals made by Mr. C. H. B. Grant for Mr. C. D. Rudd’s exploration of South Africa, and presented to the National Museum: O. Thomas and H. Schwann. The present series was obtained in Zulu- -land, and consisted of 222 specimens, belonging to 49 species, of which several were described as new, besides a number of local subspecies.—Description of a new species of newt from Yunnan: G. A. Boulenger.—Hybrid hares between Lepus timidus, Linn., and L. europaeus, Pall., in southern Sweden: Dr. E. Lénnberg. The hybrids had become comparatively common in this part of Sweden owing to the introduction of the latter species for hunt- ing purposes.—Description of the giant eland of the Bahr- el-Ghazal: A. L. Butler. Mr. Butler was of opinion that this eland was more nearly allied to the West African form than to that of South Africa, and proposed to dis- tinguish it as Taurotragus derbianus gigas. It differed from the typical T. derbianus in its much lighter body- colour (a pale café-au-lait fawn instead of a rich ruddy brown), in the greyish white of the black-maned dewlap, and in carrying grander horns. Chemical Society, April 19.—Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Complex nitrites of bismuth: W. C. Bal. A series of double salts of bismuth nitrite with alkali and ammonium nitrites and nitrates were de- scribed. These salts, though unstable, appear to be per- fectly definite substances.—Experiments on the synthesis of the terpenes, part ii., synthesis of A*-p-menthenol (8), A3:8(9)-p-menthadiene, p-menthanol (8), A‘%(®)-p-menthene, and p-menthane: W. H. Perkin, jun., and S. S. Pickles.—Part iii., synthesis of aliphatic compounds similar in constitution to terpineol and dipentene: W. H. Perkin, jun., and S. S. Pickles.—Part iv., synthesis of A‘-normenthenol (8), 43:5(9)-normenthadiene, normenthanol (8), and AS(9)-normenthene: K. Matsubara and W. H. Perkin, jun. These three papers described the preparation of terpenes and related substances. The results showed that the lemon-like odour of certain terpenes is associated with the simultaneous occurrence of two ethylenic linkages, one in the ring and the other in the side chain, and that by the disappearance of the ethylenic linkage in the ring terpenes having a peppermint odour are produced. The interesting fact was also observed that when the two ethylenic linkages occupy the so-called Tiemann position with regard to each other only one of them becomes saturated by the addition of halogens, and that conse- quently the property of forming a tetrabromide is not dis- tinctive of a particular class of terpenes possessing only one double bond, as has frequently been supposed.—C-Pheny]l-s- triazole: G. Young. This compound and certain of its derivatives were described.—The resolution of inactive glyceric acid by fermentation and by brucine: P. F. Frankland and E. Done. In view of Neuberg and Silbermann’s observations (Ber., 1904, xxxvii., 339), the authors have re-examined the barium salts of fermentation glyceric acid and of the synthetic acid deracemised by means of brucine, and have confirmed the results obtained by Frankland and Frew and Frankland and Appleyard, which are at variance with those recorded by the German workers.—Estimation of potassium permanganate in presence of potassium persulphate: J. A. N. Friend. Small quantities of potassium permanganate may be esti- mated iodometrically in presence of potassium persulphate provided that the solution is dilute, only faintly acid, and that the iodide is added only in slight excess of the amount required to reduce the permanganate. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] Royal Microscopical Society, April 19.—Dr. Dukin- field H. Scott, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—A slide of Bacillus typhosus and the method adopted in staining and mounting, also photomicrographs of the slide x 2500 and 5000 diameters with flagella well displayed: W. J. Dibdin.—On the application of the undulatory theory to optical problems: A. E. Conrady. DUBLIN. Royal Irish Academy, April 10.—Mr. F. Elrington Ball, vice-president, in the chair.—On the growth of crystals in the contact-zone of granite and amphibolite: Prof. Gren- ville A. J. Cole. Attention is directed to the growth of crystals in amphibolites when these come under the stimulus of an invading mass of granite. Garnet and horn- blende may thus appear upon a larger scale than that adopted by them in the original amphibolite. Hornblende especially grows in large prismatic forms in the composite rocks produced along such junction-surfaces, and serves as evidence in these cases that contact-alteration has taken place rather than dynamic metamorphism. Under dynamic influences, the secondary hornblende is of the granular type common in epidiorites. The instances quoted are from both sides of the Gweebarra estuary in Co. Donegal. Paris. Academy of Sciences, April 25.—M. Poincaré in the chair.—Two observations relating to the undergrowth in woods: P. Fliche. Certain forms of plants requiring plenty of light for their proper development appear to die out when the undergrowth reaches a certain height. After clearing, however, these plants again re-appear at the same spots, and as an example of the great persistence of such plants the author instances groups of E. lathyris, probably planted by the Romans, which are found near Gallo-Roman remains.—On a new clutch: le Due de Guiche and Henri Gilardoni.—On the light emitted by crystals of arsenious anhydride: D. Gernez. The author has made a careful study of the luminous phenomena pro- duced during the crystallisation of arsenic trioxide, and finds that, contrary to the statements of Rose, the light is not produced at the moment each minute crystal is de- posited on the sides of the flask, nor during its growth, but that the least contact between a hard body and a recently formed crystal, or between two crystals, causes a brilliant evolution of light. It is a case of the develop- ment of light by the fracture of crystals, many examples of which are known in the field of organic chemistry. This property of arsenic trioxide crystals is not a fugitive one, but is exhibited after a long interval of time.—On the application of the methods of interferential spectro- scopy to the solar spectrum: Ch. Fabry. A description of a modification of an arrangement given in an earlier paper. It possesses the advantage of allowing a larger number of lines to be studied, and may be of use in deter- mining very small displacements of lines.—On the vari- ations of lustre given by a Crookes’s tube: S. Turchini. The brightness of the fluorescent screen, when acted upon by a given Crookes’s tube, was measured photometrically, each of the constants of the circuit being varied in turn. The luminosity of the screen increased with the equivalent spark up to a spark length of 10 cm. to 12 cm., after which it remained constant. Measurements were also made of the effect of the frequency of the contact breaker, of coils differing in size, and of variations in the self- induction of the coil—The application of the microscope to the examination of india-rubber: Pierre Breuil. It was found that the progress of the yulcanisation of rubber could be followed under the microscope, the absorption of the sulphur being accompanied by changes in the crystal- line structure.—The floral diagram of the Cruciferze: M. Gerber. The floral formula of the Cruciferz is given as S(2:+ 2,,).P(4a).E(2;+ 42).C(275 + 2my)- —The experimental production of the ascospore apparatus of Morchella esculenta: Marin Molliard. From the ex- periments described the best conditions are worked out for the cultivation of this mushroom.—Chlorophyll assimil- ation in young shoots of plants; applications to the vine: Ed. Griffon. Boussingault, in 1807, studied the question 24 NATURE | May 4, 1905 as to whether young shoots, almost colourless, possessed the power of decomposing carbonic acid, his experiments leading to a positive result. The method used was in- direct, the assimilation being proved by the evolution of oxygen. The author has taken up this question again, using the method of gaseous exchanges in a confined atmo- sphere containing from 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. of carbon dioxide. In the cases studied the assimilation was extremely small, and was easily masked by the respiration. CaLcuTta. Asiatic Society of Bengal, April 5.—The colouring principle of the flowers of Nyctanthas arbor tristis: E. G. Hill. The author describes the uses of the flowers of the ““Narsinghar ’’ plant in dyeing, and gives an account of the separation and properties of the crystalline yellow colouring matter. A sweet principle, recognised as mannitol, and wax were also extracted from the flowers. —On some forms of the Kris hilt, with special reference to the Kris Tadjong of the Siamese Malay States: N. Annandale. The Kris is the most characteristic weapon of the Malays, but its origin is probably not very ancient. The hilt takes various FOrinee all of which, however, have much in common, and can be reduced to one general type. Examination of a series of specimens shows that this type was originally Hindu.—On the occurrence of the fresh-water worm Chztogaster in India, with a diagnosis of a species from Calcutta and notes on its bionomics: N. Annandale. The genus Chetogaster does not appear to have been recorded hitherto from India. A species (Chaetogaster bengalensis, sp. nov.) common in the Calcutta tanks lives in close association with water-snails, but is not parasitic upon them, feeding on small Crustacea. It progresses by the aid of an anterior and a posterior sucker, and uses its seta in insinuating itself between the snail and its shell. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, May 4. Rovat INstTiTuTION, at 5.—Flame: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. Cuemicat. Society, at 8.—The Synthesis of Substances Allied to Adrenaline: H. D Dakin.—Methylation of #-Aminobenzoic Acid by Means of Methyl Sulphate : J. John-ton.—Some Notes on Sodium Alum: J. N. Wadmore.—Camphory]--semicarbazide: M. O. Forster and H. HK. Fierz. R6NTGEN Soctkrry, at 5, (1) to Medical Members only. Forty-two Cases of Ureteral Calculus Diagnosis by X-Rays proved by Operation on the Passage of the Calculi; (2) at 815 p.m., to the Genera! Meeting, Measurement and Technique in Therapeutic Dosage: Dr. C. Lester Leonard, Philadelphia. LINNEAN SociETy, at 8.—(Ecology: Development: A. G. Brown. Civit anD MECHANICAL ENGINEERS’ SOCIETY, at 7 30.—Annual General Meeting —At 8.—Card-Indexing and Filing : J. C. Osborne. [INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEFR*, at §.—Discussion on A. M. Taylor's paper ‘‘ Standby Charges and Motor Load Development.” FRIDAY, Mav 5. Roya. INstTiITUTION, at 9.—Problems underlying Nutrition : Armstrong, F.R.S. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.30.—Discussion on Dr. Buchanan's paper on The Spread of Smallpox occasioned by Smallpox Hospitals during 1900-1904 : Dr. Newsholme. Geovocists’ AssociaTION. at 8.—Explorations for Fos:il Bones in West- ern North America, with Special Reference to the Skeleton of Diplodecus, of which a Plaster Cast is now being Mounted in the British Muscum (Natural History): Dr. W. J. Holland SATURDAY, May 6. at 3.-—Moulds and Mouldiness : its Present P. sition and Probable ‘Yansley.—The Flora of Gough Island: R. N. R. Prof. H. E. Rovat IwnstiTuTION, Prof. Marshall Ward, F.R.S. MONDAY, May 8. Royat GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, at 8.30.—The Nile Provinces and West- ern Uganda: Lieut -Col. C. Delmé-Radcliffe. TUESDAY, May 9. Rovat InstituTIoN, at 5.—The Study of Extinct Animals: Miall, F.R.S. Prof. L. C. WEDNESDAY, May tio. Socretry oF Arts, at 8.—The Native Races of the Unknown Heart of Central Africa: The Viscount Mountmorres. GeoLocicat Socirety, at 8.—The Geology of Dunedin (New Zealand) : P. Marshall.—The Carboniferous Limestone of the Weston-super-Mare District : F. Sibly. THURSDAY, May 11. Royat Socigery, at 4, Election of Fellows.—At 4-30, Probable Papers: On the Resemblance existing between the *‘ Plimmer’s Bodies’ of Malignant Growths and certain Normal Constituents of Reproductive Ceils of Animals: Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore, and C. E. NO. 1853, VOL. 72] Walker.—Whe Effect of Plant Growth and of Manures upon the Soil : the retention of Bases by the Soil: A. D. Hall and N. H. J. Miller.— A Study of the Process of Nitrification with Reference to the Purification of Sewage: Miss H. Chick.—Pathological Report on the Histology of Sleeping Sickness and Trypanosomiasis; with a Comparison of the Changes found in Animals infected with 7. gazzdzezse and other Trypano- somata: Dr. A. Breinl.—(1) The i xperimental Treatment of Trypano- somiasis in Animals ; (2) Remarks on Mr. Plimmer’s Note on the Effects produced in Rats by the Trypanosomata of Gambian Fever and Sleeping Sickness : Dr. H. Wolferstan Thomas. Roya INSTITUTION, at 5.—Flame: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. Society oF Arts, at 4.30.—The Manufactures of Greater Britain. IIT. India: H. J. Tozer. InsTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at. 8.—Telephone Traffic: H. L. Webb. SocioLocicaLt Society, at 8.15.—Some Guiding Principles Philosophy of History : Dr. J. H. Bridges. MaTHFMATICAL SOCIETY. at 5.30.—On the Intersections of two Conic Sections: J. A. H. Johnston.—On a System of Conics yielding Operators which Annihilate a Cubic and its Bearing on the Reduction of the Cubic to the Sum of four Cubes: H. G. Dawson. FRIDAY, May 12. Rovat INSTITUTION, at 9.—The Pressure due to Radiation : Prof. E. F. Nichols. Puysica Socirty, at 8.—A Simple Method of Determining the Radiation Constant ; suitable for a Laboratory Experiment: Dr. A. D. Denning. — A Bolometer for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation: Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S.—The Resistance of a Conductor the Measure of the Current flowing through it: W. A. Price. Matacotocicat Society, at 8.—Note on Helix pellita, Fér., and other Shells from the Pleistocene Cave-deposits of East Crete: Rev. R. Ashing- ton Bullen.—Notes un Recent Spanish Shells from Granada and Carmona : Rey. R. Ashington Bullen.—Description of a new Species of Vitrea from Greece : E. A. Smith.—Descriptions of new Forms of Marginellide and Pleurotomidz : E..R. Sykes. Rovat. ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5. in the SATURDAY, May 13. Rovat InsTiTuTION, at 3.—Moulds and Mouldiness : Ward, F.RS. Prof. Marshall CONTENTS. PAGE Scientific Worthies|s XXXV.—Eduard Suess. By Sir Arch. Geikie, RS. ... ee I The Rudiments of Behaviour. By J. A. T. 3 Mechanism. By E. G. C. BLP SASS 4 Practical Electrochemistry See bt Our Book Shelf :— Hahn: “Das Alter der wirtschaftlichen Kultur der Menschheit, ein Riickblick und ein Ausblick.— McCleary: ‘Infantile Mortality and Infants’ Milk Depots” ; 6 Maiden: ‘‘A Critical Revision ‘of the Genus Euca- Ly PLNS':: eae oN eee 6 Schulz : “< Eymenopteren. Studien ” deh Tap Re y, Letters to the Editor: — The High-frequency Electrical Treatment.—Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith, F.R.S... . 7 The Critical Temperature and Pressure of Living ‘Sub- stances.—Dr. F. J. Allen .. . 7 Chalk Masses in the Clifis near Cromer.—Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. . . 8 The Rigidity of the Earth’s ; Interior.—Rev. A. Irving 8 Rival Parents. —Kennedy J. P. Orton F 3 8 The Measurement of Mass.—Dr. W. Hampson 8 Properties of Rotating Bodies. —E. W. Rowntree. . 8 Recent Spectroheliograph Results. (///ustrated.) By Dr. William J. S. Lockyer. . . 9 The Teaching Value of M enagerics. (Uiustrated) By 15 Me : ge be aH! Science at the Royal Academy Banquet Pita ages oc a Notes ie EN Ret ed tees Sov Our Astronomical Column :— Discovery of a Tenth Satellite to Saturn . . pt) The Alleged Identity of Comets ‘* Brooks 1889” Lexell . : Pes 6S | Ancient Drawings of Celestial Phenomena. aoe) Mount Wilson Observatory. . Se ob ecneeecins: 12) Anomalous Dispersion and ‘* it cen en 19 Astronomical Society of America. . . ....... 19 Colour in Wasps of the Genus Polistes... . ibis. LS) The Cleavage of Slates. By A.H.. . MO eet: 40) University and Educationar Intelligence 0 : 120 Societies/and Academies! see eeee en eee Diary'of(Societies| 7: tip eine pene) ee ee May 4, 1905 } NATURE vil 433 STRAND, LONDON. | MANUFACTURER of Patented Induction Coils, other Scientific Instruments and Engineering Appliances to the Government Departments. JOINTLESS SECTION COILS, my system of 1868, to order, 1o1n. Coil, 4000 ohms R, very thick discharge. Primary Coils for ro to 230 volts. COMMERCIAL SERIES OF COILS, as Fig., at about one-half of cata- logue prices. Maker and Designer of the following Coils :— |) POLYTECHNIC, 29 in. spark. SPOTTISWOODE, 44 in. spark. | THE SOUTH KENSINGTON COIL, 48 in. spark. Wireless Telegraphy. 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The AUTOTYPE COMPANY’S Processes of Per- manent Photographic Reproduction are extensively employed by the. Trustees of the British Museum, the Local Government Board, many of the Learned Societies, and leading Publishers. Copies of Coins, Seals, Medals, MSS., Drawings, Engravings, Art Objects, Microscopic Work, &c. Inquiries are invited from those requiring Book IIlustra- tions of the very highest quality. Specimens and Estimates submitted. The Autotype Fine Art Gallery, 74 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C. OPEN FREE DAILY FROM 10 TO 6. MR. EDWARD ARNOLD'S NEW BOOKS. THE EVOLUTION THEORY. By AUGUST WEISMANN, Professor of Zoology in the University of Freiburg. TRANSLATED BY Professor J. ARTHUR THOMSON and» MARGARET THOMSON. Two volumes, Royal 8vo. With many Illustrations. 32s, net. ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERY By HERBERT HALL TURNER, D.Sc., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford. 10s. 6d. net. 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ATHEN 4 UM.—‘ Whilst Sir Archibald’s wide experience in the field as a professional geologist has led to his intimate acquaintance with British scenery in every phase, his constant use of the hammer has in no way lessened the power of his pen, and the volume of essays under review, like his former collection of ‘Sketches,’ forms a charming contribution to the literature of his favourite science.” TWENTY-SIX GRADUATED EXERCISES IN GRAPHIC STATICS, some in Two Colours, and with Skeleton Data to practise upon, and including the Application to Roofs, Moving Locomotives, Retaining Walls, Levy’s Steel Arches, Girders (Original Constructions), Masonry Arches, Leévy’s Weight Tables, with an Essay on Graphical Statics, in the form of a Running Commentary on the Exercises, each of which has full Instructions printed on its face, the whole forming a Supplement to the Authors’ Elementary Applied Mechanics. By T. ALEXANDER, M.Inst.C.E.I., Professor of Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin; and A. 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Implements of Savage Warfare, Idols, Sacred Masks, Peruvian Pottery, Netsukis China, Lacquers, Gongs, Sheils, and other Curios. i NATURE "THE NEW COLLECTION OF 336 SPECIMENS AND SLIDES OF ROCKS, according to H. ROSENBUSCH: ‘‘ Elemente der Gesteinslehre, 2d ed. 1901.” Accompanied by a text-book: “Practical Petrography,” giving a short description of the polarizing microscope and its application, and also of the macroscopical and microscopical features of every specimen of this collec- tion, by Professor Dr. K. Busz of the University of Miinster. This collection is intended for the practical use of students, and contains typical representatives of all important types of rocks; it is composed of 277 massive rocks (gq deep-seated rocks, 50 dike rocks, 133 volcanic rocks), 28 sedimentary, and 31 crystalline schists. Outof it two smaller collections of 250 and 165 specimens have been selected. The prices are as follows :— Collection J. 836 Specimens of Rocks 380 Marks. 5 la. 336 Slides 420 AG Il 250 Specimens of Rocks 270 %9 sn Ila. 250 Slides 310 ri > Ill. 165 Specimens of Rocks 170 s ~ lila. 165 Slides ... sa 205 ne COLLECTIONS OF MINERALS, FOSSILS, METEORITES, PURCHASED FOR CASH OR EXCHANCED. The fifth edition of Catalogue No. 4, Petrography, has just been published (210 pages), and will be sent free of charge on application. Dr. F. KRANTZ, RHENISH MINERAL OFFICE, BONN-ON-RHINE, GERMANY. ESTABLISHED MICROLOGICAL LABORATORY AND SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCE. GRATIS AND POST FREE. Scientifically arranged Catalogue of Megascoyic and Microscopic Specimens is now being prepared.. Gentlemen are iuvited to send in their applications without delay, as only 5000 copies will be issued. Sample Slide of expertly prepared ROCK SECTION, 1/-, post free. Metals, Minerals and Rocks ex/ert/y mounted for Microscope, 1/- each, from material supplied. 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TOWNSON & MERCER al AL & CO., 85 Mortimer St., London, W. ee tors & Avan: War, India, & Chine Offices, Bon 34 CAMOMILE STREET, E.C. Cc. E. MULLER, ORME & CO.’S NEW RESISTANCE GLASS excels Jena Glass in its power to stand sudden variations of temperature. N.B.—The « fficial test at the Charlottenburg Institute showed that with this glass the alkali dissolved by 100 c.c. of distilled | water is ,} 4, milligrammes as compired with ;}%5 milligrammes dissolved from Jena glass under the same conditions. | IT IS AS CHEAP AS THE COMMON BOHEMIAN GLASS. May be had in BE AKERS (various forms), FLASKS (all shapes), TUBING (any size). f Price List free on application to Cc. E. MULLER, ORME & CO., Ltd. (Hm Goveenment)s 148 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY’S LATEST INTRODUCTION Che “Artist” Reflex Camera For Day-Light Loading Flat Films or Plates. The Ideal Camera for Photographing Figure Studies, Animals. Natural History Subjects, Architecture, Landscapes, &c. The picture can be viewed the full size and focussed right up to the moment of exposure. Write for Fully Illustrated Booklet (N) Free from 106 & 108 REGENT ST., W., or 54 CHEAPSIDE. Printed by Ricuarp Cray anv Sons, Limrrep, at 7 & 8 Bread Street Hill. Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MACMILLAN AND Co., Limirep, at St. Martin’s Street, London, W.C., and Tue Macmitian Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York,—THURSDAY, May 4, 1995. POST FREE. ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL. OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground __No. 1854, VOL. 72] [ PRicE SIXPENCE [All Rights are Reserved. CATALOG UR Can be seen at work at NEWTON & CO.’S, 3 FLEET ST., LONDON. NEW COMPLETE Apparatus, patient. Entirely self-contained, 14” x 6” x 10 Price S12 12 0 THE NEW BOOK PRICE ONE SHILLING. easily carried in the hand to bedside of ” Containing an eripinal description of the principles: and function of the photographic lens. Together with the latest workshop methods. 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NNN HE OPTICAL CONVENTION will be held at the Norru- AMPTON INSTITUTE, CLERKENWELL, E.C., from May 31 to June 3, inclusive. The object of the Convention is to bring into co-operation those interested in Optical Matters, from all sides of the question, theo- retical, practical, and commercial. | The mornings will be devoted to papers and discussions on Optical subjects. These will be collected in a volume to be issued by the Convention. There will be an EXHIBITION OF OPTICAL & SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS | of British manufacture, in the Jarge ha!l of the Northampton Institute, during the Convention, open daily from 12 toro p.m. In connection with this, a catalogue is in preparation, which will be a useful work of reference in regard to instruments manufactured in this country. The Subscription for Membership of the Convention will be five shillings. Applications for membership should be acdressed to the Hon. Sec., Mr. F. J. Setsy, M.A., Elm Lodge, Teddington, Middlesex, who will be glad to furnish further particulars if desired. ADMISSION to the Exhibition, daily, ONE SHILLING, after 7 p.m., Sixpence. Tickets admitting to the Exhibition at any time while it is open, 2/6. ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The ANNIVERSARY MEETING of the Society for the ELECTION | of PRESIDENT and COUNCIL, &c., will be held in the THEATRE, | BURLINGTON GARDENS, on Monday, May 22, at 3 p.m., the | PRESIDENT in the Chair. | In place of the Annual Dinner of the Society a BANQUET in honour of the retiring President, Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., will be held on | the Evening of the Anniversary Meeting, May 22, at the Hotel Metropole, | Whitehall Rooms, Whitehall Place, at 7.0 p.m. for 7.30. Dinner charge, 411s. Friends of Fellows are admissible to the dinner as far as space will permit. Applications for tickets should be made to the Chief Clerk, 1 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens, W. LEONARD DARWIN,)_ Hon. J. F. HUGHES, J Secretaries. 1 Savile Row, Burlington Gardens, W. THE AGENT-GENERAL for the CAPE | OF GOOD HOPE has been instructed to receive applications for the vacant post of PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY to the SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE, CAPE TOWN, upto June r next. Candidates st be under 35 years of age, and their applications should be supported by cofies of testimonials and a medical certificate. The salary offered is £500 per annum on appointment, £600 per annum after three years’ service, £700 per annum after ten years’ service, together witha merit grant of £75 per annum after five years, increasing to £100 after ten years. | An allowance of £50 will be made to cover the cost of the journey to the Colony. The accepted Candidate is to assume duty in Cape Town during the first week in July, or so soon thereafter as possible. roo Victoria Street, London, S.W., May 2, 1905. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR. (A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES.) Applications are invited for the post of ASSISTANT LECTURER IN THE DAY TRAINING I)EPARTMENT now vacant. Special sub- jects: Elementary Science, Blackboard Drawing. Salary, £120. Applications and testimonials should be received not later than Monday, June 12, by the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained. JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A., May 5s, 1905. Sccretary and Registrar. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES. fJ. E. Macxenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc Chemistry “H. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B.Sc. ALBERT GRIFFITHS, D.Sc. Physics ... ...4D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. \B. W. Crack, B.Sc. . E. H. Smart, M.A. Mathematics AWG. Birt, B.A., B.Sc. A. B. RENDLE, M.A., D.Sc. Botany... = 0» = { FE Frinsci, Ph.D. B.Sc. Zoology ... ~ H. W. Untuank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy . Gro. F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Gero. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, & Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES also in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Land and Quantity Surveying, and Estimating. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. At the SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, Manresa Road, Chelsea, S.W., Day College Courses of thirty hours per week are conducted in preparation for the London University Degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, in Chemis- try, Physics and the Natural Sciences. The composition fee for the Session of three terms, 1904-1905, is 415. These Courses are recog- nised for ‘‘Internal Students’ of the University, and consist of lecture and laboratory instruction. The Courses are conducted by :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, W. W. F. Pullen, A. Macklow Smith; ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, A J. Makower; CHEMISTRY, J. B. Coleman, J. C. Crocker, and F. H. Lowe; MATHEMATICS and PHYSICS, S. Skinner, W. H. Eccles, J. Lister and L. Lownds; BOTANY, H. B. Lacey and T. G. Hill; GEOLOGY, A. J. Maslen. In the evenings similar Courses will be conducted, but at 42 per Session. Also TECHNICAL DAY COURSES of three years’ duration are arranged as a preparation for the Engineering, Electrical and Chemical and Metallurgical _pro- fessions. The Laboratories and Workshop are open for RESEARCH under the direction of [he Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on application to The SECRETARY, who will send either the Day College Prospectus and Calendar or the Evening Class Prospectus for 3}¢. The Prospectuses may be had at the Office for rd. each. HIGHER MATHEMATICS FOR SCIENCE AND OTHER STUDENTS. =) by highly qualified graduates of Correspondence Tuition Oxford, Cambridge, London and Royal Universities, in Algebra, Trigonometry, Theoretical Mechanics, Differ- ential and Integral Calculus, Phre Geometry, Geometrical Drawing. &c. Departments are at work preparing for London and Royal University Examinations, Science and Art, Civil Service Examinations, and all Prof. Preliminaries —Apply to Mr. J. CHarceston, B.A., Burlington Corre- spondence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, BATTERSEA PARK ROAD, S.W. Principal-SIDNEY H. WELLS, Wh.Sc., A.M.LC.E., A.M.I.M.E. A special SUMMER COURSE of Eight Lectures, followed by Labora- tory Work in GAS ANALYSIS, will be held by Mr. J. WiLson, M.Sc. (Head of Chemical Department), on Wednesday Evenings, commencing | May 17. Lecture, 7.15 to 8.15. Lab., 8.15 to 9.45. Fee, 5s. For other special courses for Int. and Final B.Sc., see prospectus. |The “N” Fellowship, tenable at Cambridge and open to former science students of Newnham and Girton Colleges, will be vacant in the autumn. The holder is required to conduct original research in science during her tenure of the fellowship, with preference to the chemical physiology of animals and plants. Appli- cations must be sent in by June 8 to the PrincipaAL OF NEWNHAM Co.iece, from whom further particulars may be obtained. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see page xvi. TYPE-WRITING UNDERTAKEN BY HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOMED TO SCIEN- TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Local, thorough acquaintance with Modern Languages). Kesearcli, Revision, Translation. Scale of charges on application. The Cam- bridge Type-writing Agency, 19 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. ee May rt, i905| NATURE Typewriter for Beautiful Work. O Quiet, Swift, and Convenient. lllustrated Booklet Post lree The YOST TYPEWRITER CO., Ltd., 50 Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C. WILSON. VERNIER MICROSCOPE. Horizontal and Vertical Scales ; 16 cm. in length. The microscope rotates on a horizontal axis, and can be clamped in any position. One power and one Eye-piece. With Scales reading to'1 mm. £6 10 ” ” “05 ” 7 0 ” ” “O02 ” 7 10 = Fi ss [Olers oO) 0 { BELMONT STREET, CHALK FARM, N.W. RADIUM BROMIDE OF THE HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN 5 mg. TUBES. Only a Few Tubes left. ARMBRECGCHT, NELSON & CO., 71 & 73 DUKE STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. Telephone : GERRARD, 4942. 18-inch Apps-Newton Coil for sale, in perfect | condition. No trace of oxidation on the vulcanite. G. Bowron, 57 Edgware Road, W. Metallurgical Laboratory, well equipped for experimental work, to let at low rent. One minute from Station. Fifteen minutes to City. Apply Marsuact & Co., Campbell Works. Stoke Newington, N. (close to Station, G-E.R.). Tel., 79 Dalston. eS q| Prize Competition First Prize - Five Guineas Second , - Three Gu nas Third ,, - Two Guineas Prizes as above are offered by Burroughs Wellcome and Co., for negatives developed with vst “TABLOID? sas» PYRO-METOL DEVELOPER Competition closes May 15, 1905 Entry forms and full particulars from all chemists, or from AND Co. PHO. 123 a | «sf THE SYTAM SYSTEM Saves an ineredible amount of wall space and completely utilises dark corners, recesses, and out-of-the-way places. Prevents crowding and confusion. Allows for extension as and when required. Always room for more, hence reorganisation seldom or never necessary. Saves time, lightens work, and inereases comfort by producing perfect order in the Laboratory, | Library, Study, Home, Office, &e. BuRROUGHS WELLCOME Lonpon, E.C. OVYRIGHT] SOME SYTAM FITTINGS. THE BOTTLE ELEMENT. One hundred 40z bottles are arranged in one Sytam Bottle - Element occupying less than 1 sq. ft. of wall space, each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, and any size from j-oz. to a Winchester can be accommodated in one and the same element. THE CLOSED-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. THE OPEN-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. THE AUTHOR'S FILE. For division of subject into headings, chapters or sections, THE TWIN DESK TRAYS. THE PAMPHLET FILE. THE SYTAM FITTINGS CO., /18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. Pow Oa XIV NATURE (May 11, 1905 _ NEW DOUBLE THE “IDEAL.” the market; all delicate parts are protected by outer jacket, and the water cannot over- flow into the distillate. and 8”, 4/6 and 5/6 each. 3m Narure says :—“ This is one of the most com- pact and efficient condensers which has come before our notice. We have tested it for condensing such volatile substances as ether, carbon disulphide, and acetone, and have found that even with rapid distillation the condensation is very complete. Generally speaking, in order to condense these substances satisfactorily, it is necessary to employ a very long condenser ; of course, this means using a great amount of bench space. As the new condensers are used in a perpendicular posi- tion, the saving in space is very great.” SOLE MAKERS— BREWSTER, SMITH & CO., 6 CROSS STREET, FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON, E.C. All kinds of Apparatus for Science Teaching. FREDK. JACKSON & Co. (Late MOTTERSHEAD & CO.), | 14 CROSS STREET, MANCHESTER Goods Entrance: 10 Half-Moon Street. LABORATORY FURNISHERS, Importers, Manufacturers, and Dealers in CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL APPARATUS Of every Description. Fine Chemicals, Volumetric Solutions, Plain and Stoppered Bottles, AND EVERY LABORATORY REQUIREMENT. Illustrated Catalogue of Apparatus, with Priec List of Chemicals, free on application. Telegraphic Address—‘t APPARATUS, MANCHESTER." Telephone Number—2238. ~ i (area wy Wwe We Wen eS eer Apparatus for estimation of sulphur in spew oxide SECOND-HAND TELESCOPES. 6 in. Dallmeyer Equatorial. Clock, complete, £100. 43 in. Alvan Clark, Equatorial by Cooke, £50. Several 3 in. Student Telescopes, by leading makers, £4 10s., £6 10s., £8 10s., £10. SECOND-HAND SPECTROSCOPES, Single, 2, and 3 Prism, by Browning, £4 10s., £8 10s., £10. SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES. Watson’s Edinburgh H., 3 powers and fittings, complete, as new, £16 10s. Swift Army Bacteria, complete, £15. Leitz 2b, with rack, substage, and fittings, £6 10s. MANY OTHERS, ALL KINDS. LISTS ON APPLICATION. A. CLARESON & CoO., 28 BARTLETT’S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON. ALFRED E€E. DEAN, THE LARGEST MAKER IN ENGLAND of Apparatus in all Departments of ELECTRO-THERAPEUTICS including Radiography, High Frequency, Hydro-Electric and Light Baths, Finsen and other Light, Cautery, Electrolysis, &e. INDUCTION COILS AND STATIC MACHINES A SPECIALITY. CONTRACTOR TO THE WAR OFFick, INDIA OFFICE, AND ADMIRALTY, BriTIsH AND ForeIGN Hospitats, &c. LISTS ON APPLICATION, 82 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON. Made in two sizes, 6” | | | This is the best and cheapest Condenser on | COX’S IMPROVED CONDENSER. HICH FREQUENCY APPARATUS This apparatus, when working off a 10 in. Coil, will give from 800 to 1000 milli amperes. Price, as illustrated, --L but with New Pattern Spark Gap and New Connections, #12. Chaplin’s Universal Holder & Electrodes, #4 10s. it C) Full particulars of above, and all other forms of Electro- Therapeutic Apparatus, are contained in our ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE in X-RAYS, &c. (ineluding Instructions to Beginners), post free. HARRY Wr. COX, Ltd., FACTORY AND OFFICES— {a ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL ST., LONDON, E.C. G. BOWRON, 57 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON, W., has always on hand a large and varied stock of SECOND-HAND. ELECTRICAL . AND. PHYSICAL APPARATUS BY STANDARD MAKERS, IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER, AT EXTREMELY MODERATE PRICES. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory ; Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow Universities ; Bedford, Bradford, Clifton, Heriot Watt and Yorkshire Colleges ; and twenty other Scientific Institutions, Polytechnics, &c. Be Nature says: ‘Teachers requiring efficient apparatus at a low cost for lecture or laboratory purposes, might consult the list with advantage.” List on application by mentioning NATURE. Accurate and Inexpensive. : PRICE wy — es) = a 21/- F THE NEW PATENT ; PIESMIC BAROMETER. Descriptive To be obtained of all Opticians, or Pamphlet the SOLE MAKERS, Post Free. ij 4 EF. DARTON &CO., ~ CLERKENWELL OPTICAL WORKS, 142 ST. JOHN STREEA; LONDON, E:C: May 11, 1905] NATURE XV SCIENTIFIC ano EDUCATIONAL BOOKS NEW & SECOND HAND. @e LARGEST STOCK in LONDON of SECOND- HAND School, Classical, Mechanical, ELEMEN- TARY and ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC BOOKS at about HALF PUBLISHED PRICE. Mathematical, Theological, and Foreign Books. KEYS AND TRANSLATIONS. POOLE & CO. J. (ESTABLISHED 1854), 104 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. (Formerly of 39 HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND) Hee Enquiries by letter receive immediate attention. ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY PROCEEDINGS. Volume XXV. Section B. No. nee Sewed, 6d. ‘ON THE GROWTH OF CRYSTALS IN THE CONTACT- ZONE OF GRANITE AND AMPHIBOLITE. By GRENVILLE A. J. COLE. WILLIAMS & NORGATE, 14 Henrietta Street, London, W.C. The Official Organ of the British Electrotherapeutiec Society. MEDICAL ELECTROLOGY AND RADIOLOGY, AN INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY REVIEW COVERING ALL BRANCHES OF ELECTROTHERAPEUTICS. Subscription, 12/- per Annum, Post Free throughout the World. Single Numbers, 1/-; Post Free, 1/2, Lonpon: A. SIEGLE, 2 LANGHAM PLACE, W. FOREIGN SCIENTIFIC BOOKS and Periodicals promptly supplied at lowest rates. CATALOGUES POST FREE ON APPLICATION. ww. MULLER, 59 CASTLE STREET EAST, OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W. THOMAS PRINCE, SCIENTIFIC BOOKSELLER. ONTOS SSS SSS All books advertised and reviewed in NATURE are supplied at lowest cash prices. Orders by post promptly dispatched. 85 PRAED STREET, LONDON, W. With 30 Original Illustrations. Price 2s. 6d. The HYGIENE of the MOUTH. A Guide to the Prevention and Oontrol of Dental Diseases. By R. DENISON PEDLEY, L.D.S. Eng., F.R.C.S. Ed., Dental eee to the Evelina Hospital, Southwark. Y THE SAME AUTHOR. The DISEASES of CHILDREN’S TEETH Well Illustrated. Price 7s. 6d. SEGG & CO., 284 and 291 Regent Street, London, W. CALCIUM METAL 99°3 to 99°6 | at 1°7/G per pound bar, or 4 0z. G/= minimum. ARMBRECHT, NELSON &CO., 71 & 73 DUKE STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. | Telephone : GERRARD, 4942. REMAINDERS OF STANDARD WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY, &c., at very low prices. ALL NEW AS PUBLISHED. Adams (Henry, F.L.S., and Arthur)—The Genera of Recent Mollusca, with 138 full-page plates, containing thousands of figures arranged by Sowerby, 3 thick vol< (pub. £4 10s.) ... sr fF « 16s. 6d., postage 1 od. Browne (Montagu, F.G.S.)—Artistie and Scien- tific Taxidermy and Modelling, a Manual of Instruction in Foliage, the Methods of Preserving Natural Objects, Modelling of &c., 22 full-page engravings and rx text illustrations, extra (£1 Is.) A. & C. Brack, 5s., post 56 Cooke (M. C.)—The British Fungi: A Plain and Easy Account of, coloured plates of 40 species, cr. 8vo (6s.) 3s., postage 4d. -——Mieroseopie Fungi: : An Introduction to the Study of Microscopic Fungi, Rust, Smut, Mildew, and Mould, 269 coloured figures, by J. E. Sowerby, cr. 8vo (6s.) 3s., postage 4d. Dallas (W. S.)—Elements of Pnranelonye An Outline of the Natural History and Classifieation of British Insects. Illustrated with 21 text engravings of Beetles, Grasshoppers, Butterflies, Moths, &c , post 8v a (pub. 8s. 6d.) 1s. 6d., postage 4d. Dixon (Charles)—The Story of the Birds, the Origin and Salient Characteri-tics of Birds, their Groups, Dis- tribution in Space, Means of Dispersal and Migrations, General Habits and Functions, Love Displays, Repro luc tion, Nest, and Eggs, cr. 8vo (pub. 5s.) GrorGe ALLEN, 1S. 9d., Aostage 4d. Emerson (P. H.)—Birds, Benet: and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland, 68 full-page and text illusirations, 8vo (pub 12s. 6a.).. Nutt, 4s. 6d., postage 5d Greg (R. P., F. G. S.) and William Lettsom— Manual of the Mineralogy oe CEN: Britain eure! Ireland, illustrated, 8vo (pub. 15s.) {isi » postage 5d. Jenyns (Leonard) — Oecervations in Natural History rene a companion work to White's ‘*Selborne”’], with an in roduction on habits of observing as connected with the study of that science, also a Calendar of Periodic Phenomena in Hy atural History, post 8vo (pub. ros. 6.) 3s., postage 4a. Jones (Professor T. Rymer, F.R.S.)—The Aqua- rium Naturalist, A Manual for the Seaside, containing about roo coloured illustrations of interesting objects of the seashore, thick post 8vo (nearly 530 pages) (pub. 18s.) 358., postage 4d. “The best of all the seaside books which have come under our notice.” Rimmer (R.)\—The Land and Freshwater Shells of the British Isles, illustrated, 8vo (pub. 5s.) 2s., postage 4d. Smith (J., A.L.S.)—British and Foreign Ferns: with a mreatise on their Cultivation. Revi- ed and greatly enlarged, with many illustrations, 450 pp., cr. 8vo (pub. 7s. 6d.). 2s., postage 4d. Taylor {J. E.)—Flowers: Their Origin, Shapes, Perfumes, and Colours, 32 coloured figures, and 164 woodcuts, cr. 8vo (pub. 7s. 6d.) 2s. 6d., postage 4d. The Aquarium : Its Inhabitants, Manageinent, with 238 woodcuts, cr. 8vo (pub. ‘ Srructure, and 3s. Od.) 2S., postage 4d. Half-Hours at the Seaside, illustrated with 250 wooucuts, cr. 8vo (pub. 2s, 6d ) .. 2S., postage 4d. Half-Hours in the Green Lanes, with 300 woodcuts, cr. 8vo, gilt edges (pub. 2s. 6d.) 2s., postage 4d. Theobald (F. V.)—The Parasitic Diseases of Poultry [Animal and Vegetable, including Chapters on Protozoa, Insects, Mites and Worms, with List of Parasites upon Domestic Cocks and Hens, &c.], 23 illustrations, post 8vo (pub. 2s. 6d ) 1s. 6d., postage 3d. illustrated New Catalogue free on application. JOHN GRANT, Wholesale Bookseller, 31 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE, EDINBURGH. XVI NATURE [May 11, 1905 Complete in THREE VOLUMES, Half-Bound. Vol. I., with 236 Illustrations, 8vo, £2 2s. Vol. II., with 240 Illustrations, Svo, £2 2s Vol. III., with 352 Illustrations, 8vo, £3 3s. DICTIONARY of APPLIED CHEMISTRY By T. E. THORPE, C.B., Ph.D. D.Sc., &c., Director of Government Laboratories, London. ASSISTED BY EMINENT CONTRIBUTORS. WORKS by G. S. NEWTH, F.I.C., F.C.S., Demonstrator in the Royal College of Science, London; Assistant Examiner in Chemistry, Board of Education, A TEXT-BOOK OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. Tenth Edition. With 155 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS, QUANTITATIVE & QUALITATIVE. Fifth Edition. With roo Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. CHEMICAL LECTURE EXPERIMENTS. New Edition. With 230 Diagrams. Crown 8vo. 6s. ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY. With 108 Illustrations and 254 Experiments. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d, LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. MACKINNON RESEARCH STUDENTSHIPS. There are two Studentships each of the value of £150. One of them is awarded for research in the group of the Physical Sciences, including I. 6in. Holtzaffel Lathe, with divided headstock and overhead gear, | Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy and Physics. The other is and a very complete set of fittings. for engine, wood and metal awarded for research in the group of the Biological Sciences, including turning, with a numerous assortment of small tools. Anatomy, Botany, Palzontology, Pathology, Physiology and Zoology. The Studentships are awarded annually for one year, but are renew- able for a second year. Under exceptional circumstances they may be renewed for a third year. The Studentships are restricted to British THE EXECUTORS OF THE LATE COLONEL WATKIN, C.B. (Inventor of the Range Finder) are offering the following for sale :— II. 4 H.P. de Dion engine, water cooled with tanks, &c., and dynamo by Canning and Co., 30 volts, 20 amps. III. 7-b volt Accumulators in teak cases, 9 amps. subjects. IV. 4 H.P. Crocker Wheeler Motor. Applications must be received not later than June s5. Further V. 4 in. Spark Coil. particulars and forms of application can be obtained from the Assistant VI. X-Ray Apparatus, consisting of 12 in. spark coil, 3 Crookes’ tubes, Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W. SECON) BS: GRALIS ON APPLICATION. JI. s Bench and Tools. WAL. 9) Gecpeater g Benchiand too Catalogue of Second-hand Books on Natural Science, Zoology, Botany, Geology, &c., 2000 items.—W. HEFFER AND Sons, Booksellers, Cambridge. THE ENTOMOLOGISTS’ MONTHLY TO SCIENCE MASTERS, especially those MAGAZINE. : = a Pri i Monthly. taking ELECTRICITY as a special subject. Wanted by July rnext | Edited by G.C Catencd Posy, W. Doueias W. W. Fowtrr for important College, well-qualified Master for Electricity and who M.A., F.L.S i R Mclacrwant FR ae SAUNDERS, F.L.S and : has had some experience in the organisation of the work of a local gS Lorp WA.sincHAM, M A.) LL.D RERESSt a Technical Instruction Committee. Salary, 4150 to £200 per annum. This Magazine, commenced in 1864, anita standard articles and notes Candidates for the above and those seeking posts for the term com- | oy al] subjects connected with Entomology, and especially on the Insects of mencing in September next should apply forthwith, giving details as theiBritichiteles to qualifications and enclosing copies ot testimonials, to GriFFITHS, Smiruy, Powe.t. & SmirH. School Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. The whole can be seen hy appointment at Ordnance House, Enfield Lock, Middlesex, or particulars may be obtained from Mr. Hicks, Mathematical Instrument Maker, 8 Hatton Garden, London. Subscription—Six Shillings per Annum, post free. London: GURNEY & JACKSON (Mr. Van Voorst's Successors), t Paternoster Row. JUST PUBLISHED. TWENTY-SIX GRADUATED EXERCISES IN GRAPHIG STATICS, some in Two Colours, and with Skeleton Data to practise upon, and including the Application to Roofs, Moving Locomotives, Retaining Walls, Levy’s Steel Arches, Girders (Original Constructions), Masonry Arches, Levy’s Weight Tables, with an Essay on Graphical Statics, in the form of a Running Commentary on the Exercises, each of which has full Instructions printed on its face, the whole forming a Supplement to the Authors’ Elementary Applied Mechanics. By T. ALEXANDER, M.Imst.C.E.I., Professor of Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin; and A. W. THOMSON, D.Sc., C.E., Professor of Engineering, College of Science, Poona. FCAP. BROADSIDE. SEWED. 10s. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. May 11, 1905} NATURE XVil JUST PUBLISHED. _|IMICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL OF THE ANTHROPO- LOGICAL INSTITUTE. ana LANTERN SLIDES | : a - speek of Natural History Subjects, from G/- per doz. | Vol. XXXIV. Part I. JULY—DECEMBER, 1904. Write for Catalogues to the ACTUAL MAKERS Contents -— FLATTERS & GARNETT, Lid., Les Six Races composant la Population actuelle de l'Europe (the Huxley Lecture). Dr. J. Deniker.—The Magic Origin of Moorish Designs. 48, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. Dr. E. WesTERMARCK.—Native Stories from Santa Cruz. Rev. W LABORATORIES : CHURCH ROAD, LONGsicHT, M/c. O’FerRRALL.—A Sea Dyak Love Philtre. Rev. W. Hower and R. Microscopical Slides for Students of Botany. 43 Slides in SHELFOoRD.—Further Notes on the Kikuyu Tribe of British East Africa. box, and special Book of Diagrams, 22/-. Transverse Sections of H. R. Tare.—A Method of Estimating Skull Capacity by Peripheral Leaf and Flower Buds (all the parts zz s/f), 6d. each. Measures. J. Beppor, M.D., F.R.S.—Languages of the Wiradyuri and NATURE STUDY REQUISITES. other Tribes of New South Wales. R. H. MatrHEews.—Notes on some Chilian Skulls and other Remains. R. E. Larcuam —Further Excavations on a Paleolithic Site at Ipswich. N. F. Layarp.—Ethnology of the StsEélis and Sk-aiilits of British Columbia. C. Hitt Tour. WITH MANY FULL-PAGE PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. , S Bi N i i A a4 j SG 0 Pp E Price 10s. net. as devised by SIR WILLIAM CROOKES. Lonpon : THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 3 Hanover Showing the SHEE of Radium, Soguarx, W.; OR THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER Price, witH LENs.. oe Soe 8). CHEAPER ForRM OF ABOVE : oo 15 0 NITGROSCOPritc SLIDES! The Scintillations seen in this instrument are from Pure Radium Bromide of the Highest Known Activity, MARINE OBJECTS, Hydrozoa extended without pressure, sponge and are brighter and more plentiful than those pro- sections, &c, Apply for Lists. duced from Pitchtlende or other bodies of low Dispersal of Mr. HORNELL’S collection. Flower and Leaf Buds, radio-activity. Stems, Roots, &c., new, from 3¢. each. Lists. A. C. COSSOR, 54 Farringdon Rd., London. « Exhibition Groups of Diatoms, &c , in symmetrical patterns. Telephone 10547 Central. EDINBURGH H., by Watson, for sale, and others ; several Objectives, Gotp MEpat awarded St. Louis Exhibition, 1904. Condensers, &&. PRISMATIC BINOCULARS, LANTERN SLIDES, : Church Architecture, Swiss, Egypt and Holy Land views, all first class. Fine mounted collection of Grasses, Mosses, Ferns, Marine Algz. RUBIDIUM TANTALUM GERMANIUM Detailed List sent on application, as stock is always changing. ] j j Mr. HERBERT CLARKE, 104 LEADENHALL STREET, E.C. | : CASIUM BERYLL M Tel. :—1316 CENTRAL. ; IU ) AND OTHERS, in Gramme Tubes at Reasonable Prices DRAWING INSTRUMENTS. | ask for table of rare Elements by E. L. N. ARMBRECHT, BestiMake and Rinish, 71 & 73 DUKE STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. Telephone: GERRARD, 4942. SET SQUARES, T SQUARES JUST PUBLISHED. 290 pages, 8vo, cloth, price 4s. 6d. net. 5 Important New Publication issued by the Chemical Society. DRAWING BOARDS. | aNNUAL REPORTS on the PROGRESS ’ Obtained through any Optician. of CHEMISTRY for 1904. An enitome of the principal definite steps in advance which have been ROBERT NICHOLL, 153 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, 9 ““orpicbes during the year 1908 GURNEY & JACKSON, 10 PaTERNosTER Row, Lonpon, E.C. RECENT & COMING ECLIPSES. BY Sir NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S. Second Edition, containing an account of the Observations made at Viziadrug, in India, in 1898, and of the conditions of the Eclipses visible in 1900, I901 and 1905. 8vo. 6s. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. MARVEL & PEAK (BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.) WAVE MOTION. Makers of the new Apparatus illustrating Wave Motion, designed and used by Dr. J. A. FLEMING in the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. READING MICROSCOPES, RESISTANCE COILS, &c. 56 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. g§- SPECIAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, INSTITUTES, &c. — XVIll NA TOTE [May 11, 1905 DR. H. STROUD’S Apparatus for VELOCITY OF SOUND IN AIR, BY THE METHOD OF RESONANCE. The Resonance Tube is 3 ft. long, with a graduated scale fixed at the side. The sliding reservoir moves easily in a grooved frame, so that the water level can be quickly altered. Price, in Polished Mahogany Stand, 24/- SOLE MAKERS— BRADY & MARTIN, Lro, Scientific Apparatus Makers, NEWCASTLE - UPON - TYNE. Makers and Dealers in all kinds of Chemica) and Physical Apparatus for Schools and Colleges, Works’ Laboratories and Special Research Work. CONSTRUCTION OF NEW FORMS OF APPARATUS UNDERTAKEN. CHARLES GRIFFIN & CO.,LTD.,. PUBLISHERS. NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Illustrated. 25s. net. THE METALLURGY OF STEEL. By F. W. HARBORD, A.R.S.M., F.I.C. With a section on The Mechanical Treatment of Steel, by J. W. Haut, A.M.1.C.E. With 37 Plates, 280 Illustrations in the Text, and nearly 100 Photo-micregraphs of Steel. Now Ready Very Just Out. In Large Crown 8vo, with 201 Illustrations. 6s. net AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DESICN OF BEAMS, GIRDERS, AND COLUMNS IN MACHINES AND STRUCTURES. By W. H. ATHERTON. M.Sc., M.I.Mech.E. In Medium 8vo. Handsome Cloth. — With over 100 Illustrations. 105. 6d. net. CONSTRUCTIONAL STEELWORK: Being Noteson the Practical Aspect and the Principles of Design. Together with an Account of the Present Methods and ‘Tools of Manufacture. By A. W. FARNSWORTH, A.M.I. Mech. E. In 1 arge ‘Crown 8vo. Cloth. F ully Illustrated. OIL FUEL: Its Supply, Composition, and Application. By SYDNEY H. NORTH, Late Editor of the ‘‘ Petroleum Review.’ ‘« Everyone interes sted i in this important question will welcome Mr. North's important Text Book "—Natuze- In Medium 8vo. Handsome Cloth. Illustrated. 15s. net. CALCAREOUS CEMENTS: Their Nature, Manufacture and Uses, with some Observations upon Cement Testing. By GILBERT R. REDGRAVE, eae I.C.E., and CHARLES SPACKMAN, F.C.S. ** One of the standard works on the subject.” —Swrvevo7. 5s. nee In Large Crown 8vo. Fully Illustrated. 6s. net THE INVESTIGATION OF MINE AIR: An Account by several Authors of the Nature, Significance, and Practical Methods of Measurement of the Impurities met with in the Air of Collieries and Metalliferous Mines Edited by Sie C. LE NEVE FOSTER, a Se., F.R.S., and . S. HALDANE, M.D., F.R.S. LONDON : ee STREET, STRAND, W.C. DETERMINING THE Fully | AND SELF-RECORDING (ELECTRICAL) RAIN » GAUGES. THE ‘ WILSON’ SELF-REGISTERING RAIN GAUGE, 3 Descriptive Circular Post Free. The ‘WILSON’ SELF-RECORDING ELECTRICAL RAIN GAUGE. Records auto- matically on a Weekly Chart. ie a | mm) | MAY BE OBTAINED THROUGH ANY OPTICIAN. If any difficulty be found in securing any of our Instruments through your Dealer kindly communicate with the Manufacturers, PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, (Established 1750), LTD- Contractors to H.M. Government, 46, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. Telephone No. 1981, Holborn. Telegrams—‘‘ Rapkin, London.” ACTUAL WHOLESALE) MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Write for Circular. VOLUMETRIC APPARATUS Verified and Stamped at the NATIONAL PHY SICAL LABORATORY. JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. SELF-RECISTERING | sources of the WVanne several THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1905. FLOW OF UNDERGROUND AND RIVER WATERS. Essais d’Hydraulique souterraine et fluviale. By Edmond Maillet, Ingénieur des Ponts et Chaussées. Pp. vi+218. (Paris: Librairie scientifique, A. Her- mann, 1905.) Price rr francs. HIS treatise, which was presented in the first instance to the Academy of Sciences of Paris in 1903, is divided into two parts, the first theoretical and the second practical, to which a paper has been appended, mainly of a practical nature, on the curves of the discharge of springs and the abatement of river floods. The book is addressed to mathematicians, physicists, geologists, geographers, meteorologists, engineers, and all who are interested in the motion and the distribution of rainfall, both on the surface of the land and underground; and its object is to investigate theoretically and practically the variations in the discharge of springs, and the low-water flow of rivers, in order to be able to foretell the amount of this minimum flow, precisely as the height of the floods of rivers is predicted, as already effected in certain cases by French hydraulicians, such as Dupuit, Belgrand, Lemoine, de Preaudeau and others, and also recently by the author with respect to two of the sources of the River Vanne. M. Maillet believes that he is the first to have in- dicated a method by which exact quantitative dis- charges can be systematically predicted, such as a graphic curve, based upon Dausse’s law concerning the permeable strata of the Seine basin, enabled him to determine the yearly minima discharges of two months beforehand. Later on, by means of the hypothesis of a particular form of the free water-surface, he succeeded in obtain- ing a law which proved to be in accordance with ex- perience, as indicated in the first half of the theoretical portion of the book. In the second half of this por- tion, the stability, or the nature of the motion of underground waters, under different conditions, is investigated, allowing for the increase in volume pro- duced by rain; and assuming a simple form for the impermeable bed over which the water flows, it is shown that where the line of the bed is convex up- wards the maximum height of the flood will be rapidly attained, and where concave, the flood will rise slowly, and that the influence of a part of the stream on the maximum will be greater in proportion to the fall of the bed. The connection, also, between the low-water levels, or minima discharges, at any point of a water- course or spring and the rainfall, is considered in as general a form as possible; and it is proved that, in practice, the lowest discharge may often be regarded as a function of the combined rainfall of the preceding hot and cold seasons, and experiences very slight variations from year to year, especially in large river basins, unless the warm season is very rainy and im- permeable strata intervene. The results of the theoretical investigations com- prised in the first six chapters are summed up in the vo 1854, vor. 72] NATURE 2 three following laws :—(1) A certain number of hydro- logical facts, corresponding to the low stages, or minima discharges, of springs or watercourses, in many cases depend almost exclusively on the total rainfall of several preceding warm and cold seasons. It is only in the case of restricted watersheds that the rainfall of the last one or two cold seasons exercises a predominating influence, the number of preceding years on which the results depend increasing in pro- portion to the size of the basin. The preceding warm seasons have less influence than the following cold seasons; and they both have less influence in propor- tion as they date further back, though this loss of influence varies inversely with the size of the basin. The immediately preceding spring and summer rain- falls may introduce an element of disturbance if they are heavy and widespread, supposing that the per- meable strata predominate in the basin; but where the basin is almost wholly permeable, the rainfall of the preceding warm seasons may often be neglected. (2) The lowest level at a given point of a watercourse in any year is approximately a function of the mini- mum level of the preceding year, and of the amount of rain during the preceding cold season, and some preceding months of the warm season if very wet or very dry, provided the proportion of impermeable strata in the basin is small. In the case of many watercourses, the minimum yearly level varies little from year to year; and a succession of several years, or several cold seasons, more rainy or more dry than the average, needed to produce modifications, which, moreover, are slow and progressive with the lapse of time. (3) In the Seine basin, the low-water levels at given points of many of the watercourses draining almost wholly permeable strata, differ little from their mean secular height. These variations cannot be abrupt, except under the immediate in- fluence of rainy summers on the impermeable strata of the basin; and in any case they would be pro- gressive, as a result of a gradual increase in the mean rainfall for a certain number of years. Subject to these reservations, an appreciable variation in the low-water level must be due to other than meteor- ological causes. The second, practical, part of the book occupies little more than a third of the space devoted to theoretical considerations, though divided into ten chapters, which are, consequently, very short for the most part. It contains some practical applications of the views and theories developed in the first part, to the prediction of various hydrological phenomena, and also some experimental verifications; and the works of Belgrand, and the observations and publications of the hydrometric service of the Seine basin, form the basis of this inquiry. After a very brief introduction, the chapters deal successively with proportion of rain- fall which feeds underground waters, prediction of the drying up of the sources of the Somme from the rain- fall, prediction of the discharges of Cérilly spring, a source of the Vanne, prediction of the minima dis- charges of the sources of the Vanne, application to the sources of the Dhuis, prediction of the low-water levels of the Marne at La Chaussée, drying up of the Laignes, remarks on springs supplying Havre, and c is 26 NATURE great floods of the Seine; and thirty-one tables are appended at the end of the volume, giving the rain- fall, discharges, and water-levels at different dates in various parts of the Seine basin, and eleven sets of graphic curves indicating the decrease in the dis- charges of the Seine, some of its tributaries, and certain sources, at different periods. Table xxiii., giving the rainfalls of the warm seasons, and the high floods of the following cold seasons, at the Auster- litz Bridge, Paris, and at Mantes, from 1874 to 1900, shows that none of these warm seasons in which the rainfall was below the mean of 14.88 inches, was followed by floods of the Seine rising higher than 14-44 feet on the gauge at Paris, and 19-72 feet at Mantes; and the eight cold seasons in which the Seine reached or exceeded 16.40 feet at Paris, and 21.06 feet at Mantes, were all preceded by warm seasons in which the rainfall exceeded the mean. Moreover, with the exception of 1890, when the warm season came between two very dry cold seasons, all the warm seasons having a rainfall above the average have been followed by floods of the Seine, attaining at least 10.17 feet at Paris and 16.40 feet at Mantes; whereas none of the fourteen warm seasons with a rainfall below the average was succeeded by floods in the next cold season, reaching the height attained in eight of the cold seasons preceded by warm seasons in which the rainfall exceeded the average. A NEW AMERICAN WORK ON THE CALCULUS. Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus. By William Anthony Granville, Ph.D., with the editorial cooperation of Percey F. Smith, Ph.D. Pp. xiv+463. (Boston and London: Ginn and Co.) Price tos. 6d. HIS is a book the main object of which seems to be to enable the student to acquire a knowledge of the subject with little or no assistance from a teacher; and, after a very careful study of it, we are enabled to say that the work is admirably constructed for the purpose. There is a complete absence of the stilted formality which is usually supposed to be appropriate to a mathematical treatise. In foot-notes, and sometimes in the text, the student is given scores of useful hints and warnings against errors into which he would probably fall. Thus the work possesses a very high value for the student; and it will be found no less helpful to the teacher, for it contains a very large number of examples in every part of the subject, while it abounds in excellent diagrams. The portion on the differential calculus occupies 285 pages, and terminates with 6 pages containing nothing but figures of all the curves more or less famous which present themselves in the subject, such as the conchoid of Nicomedes, the cycloid, the catenary, the cissoid of Diocles, the probability curve, various spirals, &c. The work is very strictly logical in its method—here and there a little too much so, perhaps. Thus in p. 97 the proof that the angle between the radius vector and the tangent to a curve has rdé/dr for its tangent is quite unnecessarily accurate, and No. 1854, VOL. 72] has involved an error in work, which, however, is a mere slip. The theorem of mean value is very well explained and used in the deduction of Taylor’s theorem for the determination of the remainder, a little geometrical figure assisting the student to under- stand the nature of this remainder. (Correct, how- ever, the errors in sign in the first equation of p- 169.) The discussion of the convergency and divergency of series is very good, and a somewhat uninteresting © subject is rendered simple and attractive. An in- cautious statement, however, is made with regard to an alternating series, p. 241, according to which if we stop at the nth term of such a series the error made is numerically less than the value of the (n+1)th © term. Clearly this is not in general true if the alternating series is one in which the numerical values © of the terms increase for a while and then diminish. For example, the series for sin x is an alternating one of this kind. If x=5, the numerical values do not begin to diminish until after the third term. The property asserted, and the proof in p. 226, must be applied to cases in which we stop after the greatest numerical term has been passed. The theory of maxima and minima is well illus- trated by examples taken from various branches of physics. Even at the risk of being a little hyper- critical, we must, however, point out that the time taken by a ball to roll down a plane the base of which is of length a and the inclination of which is ¢ is not 2\/a/g sin 2¢, as it is said to be in p. 128, for the simple reason that the acceleration of the centre of the ball (if the ball is solid and homo- geneous) is not g sin ¢, but 5/7 g sin ¢. This fact is of importance in dynamics, and the matter should be set right. The part of the book dealing with curves is very good, and, in particular, we would commend the systematic manner in which (pp. 267, 268) the student is taught to trace a curve from its equation. In the portion dealing with the integral calculus an exhaustive exposition of all the devices used in integrating functions is given. The reduction formulas to be applied to the binomial integral [xm(a+ bx”)pdx are given in tabular form on p. 345, and the student is told very properly that he should not memorise them. Instead of memorising them, he should apply a single simple rule which was given long ago by Hymers in his “ Integral Calculus.”’ This rule enables us to obtain, without an effort of memory, the exact formula appropriate to the reduc- tion of any given binomial integral. Besides areas and volumes (accompanied by excel- lent figures), polar moments of inertia of plane areas are dealt with. The author speaks of these as moments of inertia about ‘‘a point ’’—an expression which leaves something to be desired, since it is always an axis that is involved. What we always require in this connection in dynamics is the mean square of distance of a body from an axis, and we should look to writers on the calculus to emphasise this notion of a mean square of distance, instead of the ‘‘ square of the radius of gyration,’’ k?. The i | [May 11, 1905 | May 11, 1905] NATURE student might easily learn to regard k as the distance _ of mean square, just as we spealx of the velocity of _ mean square in a gas. _ The book has a useful chapter on the simpler forms _ of differential equations, and concludes with a figure _ and description of the integraph for finding the area of a curve. It might well include a description of _Amsler’s planimeter, and show how it finds areas, positions of centres of gravity, and moments of inertia ‘of plane figures; and, as to the proof of the theory of Amsler’s planimeter, it need occupy no larger space _than the area of a shilling, notwithstanding the length and complication of proofs which are usually given. The author’s attention may be directed to the follow- ing misprints :—p. 44, note, Leibnitz was Gottfried, not Gottfreid; p. 206 (A), read f!, for f,; p. 216, €x. 15, read v,” for v,; p. 225, line 5, read 223 for 225; p- 275, line 6, read P’ for P; p. 374, line 1, read y for dy. GEORGE M. MIncHIN. SERUM DIAGNOSIS. Manual of Serum Diagnosis. By O. Rostoski. Authorised translation by Charles Bolduan. Pp. vit+96. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price 1 dollar. HIS small work forms a companion volume to that by Wasserman on ‘‘ Hemolysins and Cytotoxins,’’ which has already been noticed in these columns. Each volume forms a monograph on some part of those newer developments of bacteriology which concern immunity and kindred subjects. The aim of the series is to provide simple yet compre- hensive accounts-of our present knowledge suitable for those who do not make a special study of the laboratory aspects of disease rather than exhaustive treatises adapted for special students. That the in- formation is authoritative and trustworthy is vouched for by the list of authors, which includes some of the most distinguished names in contemporary bacteri- ology. Each volume is the work of one who has himself made important contributions to the study of the subject. The present volume deals with the practical use of agglutinins, bacteriolysins, and precipitins in diag- nosis. More than two-fifths of the whole is devoted to an account of the Widal reaction in enteric fever. This section is extremely good, and for it alone the book is well worth reading. The author points out very clearly that the “‘ test’’ is not to be regarded as more than the *“‘ first of the cardinal symptoms of typhoid.’’ Some discredit has been cast on the value of the reaction, because clinicians have not always found that infallibility which is so often expected of the laboratory, but which can never be present in dealing with so variable a complex as living matter. Removed from the pedestal of a ‘“‘test’’ to the common ground of a ‘‘symptom,’’ the phenomenon seems to have a better chance of receiving the appre- ciation which it deserves. There is an admirable account of the mixed and ‘“‘ group”’ agglutinations in typhoid and paratyphoid infections, and due notice is taken of the use of typhoid cultures which have been killed by the addition of formalin. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] practically as well as living cultures; and, though the increased time required to obtain a result and the slight loss of delicacy render the use of living cultures still desirable in the laboratory, the safety and convenience of the dead cultures place the “‘ test ’’ within the personal practice of every not-too-busy practitioner. It is, however, strange to read (p. 13) that the use of an oil-immersion objective is necessary. The author then considers briefly the agglutination phenomena found in tuberculosis, dysentery, and other diseases. Serum diagnosis of tubercle is considered to be of very doubtful value. Appropriate stress is laid on the fact that in many diseases (especially plague and cholera) agglutination, in comparison with other symptoms, is of very little use for the direct diagnosis of the disease, though of the greatest value in the identification of the isolated organism. This part of the book is, however, less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Indeed, the serum diagnosis of Malta fever is not mentioned, though the practical value of the phenomenon in the diagnosis of this variable and often very obscure disease has been demonstrated beyond. question. The book concludes with an account of the identifi- cation of blood stains by the precipitin test. Readers will find here a wise injunction to make sure that any given stain is blood before deciding whether it is of human or animal origin; the precipitin will not dis- tinguish between the different tissues of the same- species of animal in the same way as it will separate the same tissue from different species. In the translation several useful additions have been. made; the last chapter, which attempts an impossibly precise and entirely arbitrary definition of the Widal reaction, might, however, well have been omitted. A. E. B. HISTORY OF PHARMACY. Geschichte der Pharmazie. Pp. ix+934. (Berlin: Price 20 marks. A hae successful practice of pharmacy implies some acquaintance with plant chemistry and with that branch of economic botany known as materia medica. For this reason the history of pharmacy, although it appeals particularly to the pharmacist and the physician, presents also many points of interest to the chemist and the botanist. Herr Schelenz does not consider that the classes of readers here enumer- ated form a sufficiently wide circle for his purpose, and he states in the preface to this volume that he hopes also to interest the legislator, the antiquarian, and the philologist. The book begins with a description of the con- ditions under which pharmacy was practised among the Jews. A summary of’ the political history of the nation is first given, and this is followed by sections dealing with Biblical and Talmudic references to the practice of pharmacy and the social condition, &c., of the practitioners of the art. The most interesting portion of this section is that describing the drugs employed by Jewish apothecaries. It is curious that By Hermann Schelenz. Julius Springer, 1904.), These react ' so many of these are still in use at the present day; 28 IATA TEL: | May 11, 1905 for example, myrrh, Indian hemp, cassia (or cinna- mon), coriander, colocynth, galls, almonds, galbanum, and storax are among those mentioned by the author. The Jews also appear to have made use to some ex- tent of natural mineral waters and various medicated baths as remedial agents. Similar accounts of the practice of pharmacy among the Pheenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Hindus, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and other peoples are given, and then this racial method of treatment is interrupted, and a chapter is inserted giving an account of the methods of the professors of magic, astrology, and alchemy in the Middle Ages, and show- ing how the practice of these secret arts gradually led to a knowledge of natural science. Resuming his narrative after this digression, the author deals with pharmacy among the Copts and Syrians, the Arabs, and the Teutonic races, and brings it to the close of the eighteenth century with a short account of the condition of medicine and pharmacy in Italy, when the school of Salermo exer- cised a paramount influence on these arts. It was at this period that a definite separation of pharmacy from medicine first took place. Each of the succeeding chapters deals with the progress made during a particular century, an out- line of the additions to physical, chemical, and botanical sciences being first given, with short bio- graphies of the more famous exponents of these sciences. The bearing of these discoveries on phar- maceutical methods is then outlined, and finally the legislation of the periods, the social and commercial conditions, and other matters in so far as they affected the practice of medicine and pharmacy are discussed. The book is evidently the outcome of much literary and antiquarian research on the part of its author, but it is unfortunate that more care was not exercised in selecting the material to be included. There is no reason why so much space should be taken up in re- counting the political and religious histories of the various peoples. Similarly, the short and necessarily inadequate biographies of eminent men of science, which are scattered broadcast through the second half of the book, might well have been omitted, since they are already better done elsewhere. By omitting these and other not strictly relevant matters, the size of the volume could have been much reduced, and at the same time it would have been unnecessary for the author to write in the compressed, unreadable style which now characterises the book. As it is, the volume can only be regarded as a useful work of reference on the history of pharmacy and allied subjects, and to this purpose its index (26,000 entries) is well adapted. ay. GAY GEte OUR BOOK SHELF. Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum. Pp. iv+228; illustrated. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1905.) Price 2s. 6d. Tuts handsome volume is a new departure in the matter of ‘* guides,’? so far as the natural history branch of the museum is concerned, being larger in size, more fully illustrated, different in style, and (perhaps most important of all) higher in price than NO. 1854, VOL. 72] those to any of the other sections. The text is, in fact, a concise synopsis of the leading groups of birds, with special reference to the specimens exhibited in the galleries. The plan of the synopsis necessarily follows the system adopted in the museum, and it would therefore be quite out of place to criticise that system on the present occasion. A similar remark applies to the fact of the illustrations (which are admirable of their kind) being taken from the stuffed specimens in the collection instead of from living birds—the guide is to illustrate the collection, and therefore it is quite right and proper that the figures of the birds should be taken from those shown in the gallery. In addition to the general synopsis, there is a guide to the series of British nesting birds. That the general plan and execution are in the main excel- lent cannot be denied; whether it will suit the taste —and the purses—of the public remains, however, to be seen. When a new edition is called for, certain emenda- tions may with advantage be made in the text. The most serious error we have detected is the statement (p. 11) that the largest AZpyornis was probably not more than 7 feet in height, whereas there are actually limb-bones in the museum itself which are nearly of these dimensions; such an error implies a want of cooperation between the zoological and _ palzonto- logical departments of the museum. Of less import- ance, although far more embarrassing to the public, is the discrepancy between the terminations of the ‘orders ”’ of ostrich-like birds in the list on p. 8 and those in the synopsis on that and the following pages. Again, we venture to think that the public will not be likely to understand the semi-scientific jargon fre- quently employed in the text. The expression, for instance, on p. 106, ‘‘the remarkable Australian forms constituting this order,’’ would have been much better had the word ‘‘ birds’’ been used in place of “‘forms.’’ Neither is the construction of the sen- tences in all cases so good as it might be, as witness the following (p. 64) :—‘‘ The appendage opens under the tongue and is largest in the male, giving the bird a very peculiar appearance. Like its allies it is an expert diver. . .” Roe A Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners. By Dr. A. F. Holleman. Translated by A. Jamieson Walker, Ph.D. Pp. xiv+78. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price 4s. net. THE preparation and properties of a number of organic compounds are dealt with in short paragraphs in a manner reminding one of the text-books of qualitative analysis, which are now so_ universally condemned. But little attempt is made to indicate the quantities which should be used, and no emphasis whatever is laid on the importance of making organic preparations in a quantitative manner. We even doubt whether the beginner would attain the required result in performing many of the preparations de- scribed. It will be a sad day for the future of organic chemistry if text-books such as Dr. Holleman’s come into general use; it is indeed difficult to imagine anything more calculated to encourage scamping of laboratory work. A growing complaint of the chemical manufacturer abroad at the present time is that the university graduates from the large modern laboratories are ruined by the elaborate apparatus, ready-made reagents and other time-saving appli- ances placed at their disposal, so that they are no longer themselves capable of facing practical problems properly or of making the best use of the ordinary technical appliances. The physical chemical epoch from which chemicai science is now slowly recover- May 11, 1905] NATURE 29 ing has caused it to be forgotten that for successful work in chemistry it is essential that the investigator be a highly skilled manipulator. It is too often found that the best student in the examination room is all but worthless when set to perform even the simplest piece of experimental work; good workers can only be trained by the most careful and thorough ground- ing in making pure chemical preparations and by being taught to appreciate the importance and necessity of even the minutest details in the process. As a glance at the modern chemical literature shows, it is precisely this attention to detail which is so conspicuous a feature in some of the best work. We fear that the book under notice would not lead the student to attach importance either to accuracy of method or to thoroughness of detail; it seems a pity even that it should have been found worth while to translate it and so add another to the legion of text-books. Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie. By Dr. P. Kronthal. Pp. 92. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905.) Price 2.50 marks. Tus costly little work is written to ventilate a grievance. It would appear that certain authorities on mental diseases, including Krapelin and Bins- wanger, employ in their works such terms as association, apperception, power of imagination, anger, and the like. These, according to our author, are metaphysical terms, and must be carefully ex- cluded from Psychiatrie, which is a purely natural science. New sciences spring up like mushrooms nowadays, and it is a misfortune that those who specialise in one, or seek to exploit it, so rarely know with precision what is being done in others, even when these are most closely akin to their own darling pursuit. We fear that this writer hardly understands that the terms which he criticises are used every day in psychology with a minimum of metaphysical refer- ence, and that he is almost bound, before he proceeds a step, to show due cause why the terminology of Psychiatrie should differ seriously from that accepted by ordinary psychology. In spite of his parade of foot- notes and his references to such grand conceptions as that of Allbeseeltheit, it may be doubted if this writer is competent to discuss so general a question. At any rate, his present work does not impress one as being well arranged, clear, or convincing. A Text-book of Physiological Chemistry. By Charles E. Simon. Second edition. Pp. xx+500. (Lon- don: J. and A. Churchill, 1905.) Price 15s. net. AttHouGH Dr, Simon’s book has reached a second edition, it is one which has been hitherto un- known on this side of the Atlantic. Dr. Simon’s name is not associated with any researches in physio- logical chemistry, and there is nothing strikingly new or original in his book, either as regards subject- matter or arrangement. The work has, however, many excellent features. It is clearly written, and is free from inaccuracies; the sections dealing with the proteids and their cleavage products are especially good, and fully abreast of the recent advances which have been made in this important and interesting branch of the subject. The author is conversant with chemical technique, and his descriptions of analytical processes are specially lucid. It is evident that he is a careful student of chemico-physiological literature. and more especially with that part of it which originates in Germany. This is frequently seen in the nomen- clature he adopts. Thus he speaks of casein and paracasein instead of caseinogen and casein re- spectively as employed in most English | books. Occasionally the adherence to German terms leads to No. 1854, VOL. 72] confusion; for instance, the two German words Eiweissko6rper and Albumine are both translated as albumins. The work is primarily intended for students, and therefore references to literature are omitted. A desire to keep the book within a moderate compass has no doubt induced the author to leave out a con- sideration of many subjects which might well have been expected to find a place in it. Thus we find no reference to the important subject of immunity and its side issues, like the precipitin test for blood. The numerous investigations now in progress on the velocity of ferment action are passed over in silence. Physical chemistry has during the last decade made great progress, and many and important are its appli- cations to physiology. Such questions as absorption, secretion, Osmosis, gaseous exchanges, and electrical conductivity have all been made clearer by the work of the physical chemist; but there is no reference to any of such investigations. The strangest and most important omissions, how- ever, are the absence of any account of general meta- bolism, animal heat, and respiration. Turning to the title-page, one searches in vain for the words vol. i., for the omitted material would easily fill a second volume of the same size. One cannot help thinking that, interesting and instructive as the book undoubtedly is, it cannot be expected to take its place as a favourite until the deficiencies alluded to are rectified. Astronomy for Amateurs. By Camille Flammarion. Translated by Frances A. Welby. Pp. 340. (London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.) Price 6s. Mucu that is interesting to amateur astronomers may be found in this volume. The descriptions are often discursive, but the matter is there, and in a readable form providing the reader’s leisure is not too limited. After a general exhortation to his readers to study and contemplate the marvels of the sky, the author pro- ceeds to a study of the constellations, the stars them- selves, the sun, and then the planets. Next follows a chapter on comets, containing some interesting facts concerning the ancient ideas of these “ glittering, swift-footed heralds of Immensity,’’ and a_ brief account of comets in general and of a few in particular. Shooting stars are then dealt with, and in chapters viii., ix., and x. the earth, the moon, and eclipses are severally discussed. In chapter xi. the more elementary methods of determining stellar distances and masses are described, whilst the next, and last, chapter is de- voted to a discussion of life universal and eternal. The book contains eighty-four illustrations—the re- levance of some of which is open to question—and it will be read with both interest and profit by those whose previous acquaintance with astronomical truths has been slight. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George Stokes, ARRANGEMENTS are in progress for the publication of a selection from Sir George Stokes’s scientific correspondence. The letters addressed to him, which are now in my custody, show that there must be many from him to others, of permanent scientific value, to which I have not access. I shall therefore be glad if owners of letters of substantial scicntific interest will entrust them to me, to be treated with care and ultimately returned. J. Larmor. St. John’s College, Cambridge, May 8. 30 NALORE {May 11, 1905 The Transposition of Zoological Names. I wisH to say how thoroughly I agree with Mr. Lydekker in his remarks on the unwisdom of transposing zoological names, and on the confusion caused by this ‘objectionable practice. To the instances which he has mentioned I may add the following cases relating to two well known and familiar species of animals. Linnzeus called the only European hare known to him Lepus timidus, and for many years that name was applied to the common brown hare of Central Europe, while the northern hare, which changes to white in winter, was known by Pallas’s appropriate name, Lepus variabilis. This was the nomenclature used by Blasius, by Bell in his ‘‘ British ‘Quadrupeds,’’ and in all the ordinary text-books of zoology. It was, however, pointed out some years ago, first, I believe, by Lilljeborg, that the Lepus timidus of Linnzeus had been based mainly upon the northern or variable hare, or that at all events Linnzus had confounded the two species together. In these circumstances obviously the best plan was to call the middle-European brown hare by its next given name, Lepus europeus, and this course has been adopted by most writers. But the advocates of un- restricted priority are not content with this, and insist upon calling the variable hare Lepus timidus, the con- sequence being that when that name is used it is impossible to know which of two perfectly distinct animals is in- tended by it. Another still more objectionable transposition of two well known names has been lately suggested. Linnzeus, in the twelfth edition of the ‘‘ Systema Nature,’’ gave the name Turdus musicus to the song-thrush and that of Turdus iliacus to the redwing, and these familiar terms have been used by all writers for these well known birds respectively ever since. But about a year ago it was dis- covered by an ardent member of the new school of priority | that in his tenth edition of the ‘‘ Systema’’ Linnzeus had unfortunately (by some error in his MS. or of his printer) attached the diagnosis of Turdus musicus to T. iliacus, and that of T. iliacus to T. musicus. It was admitted that Linnzus had corrected the mistake in his later edition of 1760, but even Linnzeus could not be allowed to correct his own errors in the face of the inviolable law of ““priority.”’ In future, therefore, it was maintained, the song-thrush must be called T. iliacus and the redwing T. musicus! This course has been actually adopted by a subsequent writer, but we may trust that it will not meet with general approval, and that the song-thrush and red- wing will remain under the old names given to them by the father of scientific nomenclature in 1760, and used by every subsequent writer until 1904. P. L. Scrater. Modern Algebra. Tue publication of Messrs. Grace and Young’s treatise on algebra will direct attention to the importance and difficulty of the theory of the concomitants of ternary and quaternary quantics in connection with plane and solid geometry. There are one or two points on which I propose to make some remarks. In the first place, canonical forms are sometimes de- ficient in generality, and this will be the case whenever the form is the analytical expression for some special property of an anautotomic curve. Of this defect the canonical form of a ternary cubic furnishes a_ striking example, for it is the analytical expression for the theorem that through each of the three real points of inflexion one real straight line can be drawn which passes through one pair of conjugate imaginary points of inflexion’ on an anautotomic cubic curve; and since autotomic cubics do not possess this property such curves cannot be represented by the canonical form. In the next place, anautotomic curves are not by any means the most interesting species of curves, and ‘to go through the process of calculating their concomitants, and then specialising them for some particular species of auto- tomic curves, is often. very laborious. In the case of unicursal quartics, many interesting results might be obtained by calculating directly the concomitants of the quantic (* By, ya, aB)?, and this would give results applic- able to all unicursal quartics, except those which possess NO. 1854, VOL. 72] the five compound singularities called the tacnode, the rhamphoid cusp, the osenode, the tacnode cusp, and the triple point. Also, since an evectant is the tangential equation of a curve which is related in a special manner to the original one, an examination of the evectants of the above quantic would lead to interesting results con- cerning conics and other curves connected with trinodal quartics. In this subject geometrical methods are a powerful assistance to pure analysis. For example, let U be a ternary cubic in (a, B, y); eliminate y by means of the equation B=ky, and equate to zero the discriminant of the resulting cubic equation in a/8. This will give a sextic equation A(k)=o, which determines the six tangents drawn from A to the curve. The condition that the curve U=o should have a node is that the equation A(k)=o should have a double root; hence the discriminant of this binary sextic is the discriminant of the original ternary cubic U. Many other examples of a similar kind could be men- tioned, and we may observe that from the discriminant of a binary duodecimic, all the conditions that a quartic curve should possess point singularities may be obtained. April 28. A. B. BASSET. Current Theories of the Consolidation of the Earth. In Lord Kelvin’s philosophical and justly celebrated paper on the secular cooling of the earth (Thomson and Tait’s ‘‘ Nat. Phil.,’’ vol. i., part ii., Appendix D), the assumption is made that the earth was once a fiery molten mass, liquid throughout, or melted to a great depth all round. He cites Bischof’s experiments showing that “melted granite, slate, and trachyte all contract by some- thing about 20 per cent. in freezing,’’ and continues :-— “Hence, if, according to any relations whatever among the complicated physical circumstances concerned, freezing did really commence at the surface, either all ,round or in any part, before the whole globe had become solid, the solidified superficial layer must have broken up and sunk to the bottom, or to the centre, before it could have attained a sufficient thickness to rest stably on the lighter liquid below. It is quite clear, indeed, that if at any time the earth were in the condition of a thin shell of, let us suppose, 50 feet or roo feet thick of granite, enclosing a continuous melted mass of 20 per cent. less specific gravity in its upper parts, where the pressure is small, this con- dition cannot have lasted many minutes. The rigidity of a solid shell of superficial extent so vast in comparison with its thickness, must be as nothing, and the slightest disturbance would cause some part to bend down, crack, and allow the liquid to run over the whole solid. The crust itself would in consequence become shattered into fragments, which would all sink to the bottom, or meet in the centre and form a nucleus there if there is none to begin with.’’ In adhering to these views, Lord Kelvin has_ been followed by Prof. G. H. Darwin (cf. ‘‘ Tides and Kindred Phenomena of the Solar System,” p. 257) and other eminent mathematicians; so that the theory that the earth consolidated by the building up of a solid nucleus through the sinking of portions of the crust of greater specific gravity is no doubt generally accepted by geologists and others interested in the physics of the earth. Recent researches on the pressures within the planets (cf. Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3992) have thrown great doubt on this mode of consolidation of the globe. The line of argument by which we reach this conclusion is a double one :— (1) It is shown that the effect of pressure in the highly heated fluid assumed to have constituted the molten earth would have been to dissolve the portions of the sinking crust before they attained any considerable depth. (2) The increasing density of the fluid itself would have prevented sinking of the crust below one-tenth of the radius, so that a solid central nucleus could not have been built up in this way. To see this clearly. let us suppose that the earth were a molten mass, and that a crust of rock several kilometres in area, and a considerable fraction of a kilometre in thick- ness, had formed, and begun to sink in the molten fluid May 11, 1905] INGA IMCD Ses 3! by its superior gravity. What would happen to it as it descended towards the earth’s centre? The densities and pressures in the outer layers of the earth, found by Laplace’s law, are as follows :— Depth below Pressure in Radius the =urlage Density atmospheres m,. 1°000 Zens 1000 0°995 31°85 2°608 8,610 0°990 63°70 2 667 16,470 0'985 95°55 2°725 25,080 o"980 127°40 2°785 33,690 0°97 NOWsrOn lye) | 21904 51,670 0°96 ZEA SOMe aes) 3,02 70,410 0°95, Ble 5O 8 | 35144) 89,400 0°94 BS2)20).e ee 1 632205, 109,860 0°93 44590 ... 3°38 130,130 092 29760.) =... | 93°508 152,940 o°9l 593930 --- 3629 175,479 09) OS ROOM. est 751 195,760 The above table shows that before the mass has de- scended 31-85 km. (1/200th of the radius) the pressure about it would have become more than 8000 atmospheres, which would force the molten fluid deep into the heated rock. The rising temperature at that depth would also rapidly dissolve the mass, and before the solid has sunk through another equal space in the viscid liquid, and thus reached a depth of 63-7 km., it seems almost certain that it would be completely dissolved. It must be borne in mind that the solid is not much denser than the liquid; and as the liquid is highly viscous the mass would sink slowly, while the increase of tempera- ture and pressure would conspire together in the most powerful manner to dissolve the mass and reduce it to the same temperature and density as the enclosing liquid, which would be forced into it on all sides by a pressure vastly greater than any known in our laboratories. Even if we make the violent assumption that the sink- ing mass is a kilometre, or several kilometres, thick, it is difficult to see how it could continue its downward course, undissolved by temperature and pressure, below a depth approximating one-tenth of the radius, or 637 kilo- metres. The sinking would be quite slow, owing to stiff- ness of the fluid, and could hardly be accomplished to this depth inside of several days, or more probably weeks. Moreover, before the mass reached a depth of 260 kilo- metres, or less than one-twentieth of the radius, the density of the molten fluid would become 20 per cent. greater than it was at the surface, owing to pressure; and when the solid mass was no denser than the surrounding fluid it would cease to sink. Or, if it had acquired a small velocity downward in the fall from the surface against the viscous resistance of the fluid, which is enormously in- creased by the eddy arising from the condition of con- tinuity, it might go down a little lower until the motion was overcome by the buoyancy of the denser fluid below. Accordingly, so far as one can see, solidified crust in sink- ing could by no possibility go lower than one-tenth of the radius, which would hardly accomplish the building up of a solid nucleus. In considering the effects of pressure in forcing molten fluid into the sinking solid, we have not assumed that, the density would thereby be increased; for at the great temperature of the fluid it is obvious that the solid into which the hot liquid entered would be dissolved, and heat from the fluid would be conducted rapidly through the solid mass. Thus no cause seems to be overlooked which could invalidate our conclusion, It rests primarily upon the enormous pressures known to exist at great depths in the earth, and their undeniable effect in forcing the molten fluid into any possible solid body, so as to prevent it-attaining any considerable depth without dissolving; and upon the assumption that even molten rock under such forces would take approximately the density given by Laplace’s law, which hardly admits of reasonable doubt. In considering these questions heretofore, the hypothesis of incompressibility for the molten fluid has been tacitly implied or assumed. Whether such an hypothesis is justi- fied will appear differently to different minds, but for our No. 1854, VOL. 72] part we cannot hesitate in rejecting it on account of the known porosity of all matter, and its observed yielding and condensation under great forces. On account of the difficulty in handling liquids, especially when at high temperatures, they have not been so care- fully investigated in the laboratory as solids; but there remains scarcely any doubt that under planetary pressure they would all yield like sponges. In indicating his interest in the paper on planetary pressures (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3992), one of the most eminent British mathematical physicists has pointed out that to his mind the present writer has under- estimated the probability that the earth has a metallic nucleus. I have since pointed out in a letter to the editor of Nature (April 13, p. 559) that pressure, and not metallic constitution, is the true physical cause of the earth’s rigidity ; for under such pressure any kind of matter would assume a hardness greater than that of steel; and as the material is above the critical temperature of every sub- stance it is really gaseous, and would expand with in- credible violence if the pressure could only be relieved. In the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3992, I have shown that in any mass of considerable size, so condensed that the pressure amounts to millions of atmospheres, circulation at great depth becomes practically impossible, on account of the friction due to the increasing pressure as we descend within the mass. The pressure and friction which prevent circulation also prevent separation of the elements according to their densities. While it may” not be possible to say that there is not an increasing amount of metals, such as iron, towards the centre of the earth, it is, I think, clear that there is no distinctively iron nucleus; for the existence of such a nucleus would imply that the earth’s mass had unimpeded circulation -when in a fluid state, all of which is to the last degree improbable. When the earth was less condensed it was at lower temperature, and the elements may not have been fused ; and as condensation advanced, and the temperature rose, the friction due to pressure operated with increasing in- tensity to destroy circulation, which would thus be re- stricted to the subsidence of compact masses decidedly denser than the surrounding fluid. As the fluid was necessarily at high temperature, a compact mass would soon be dissolved, and further circulation of its elements practically cease. It seems, therefore, very difficult to escape the con- clusion that the earth’s interior is a magma of all the elements, the increasing density towards the centre being due primarily to pressure. If any separation of the metals from the rocks took place, it could only be near the sur- face where the pressure is slight; but because the rocks predominate at the surface, we must not conclude the same material does not exist abundantly in the great central nucleus of the globe. The difference in the point of view here adopted and that held by the older school of physicists is based primarily upon the effects of pressure. While there is a certain dis- appointment in negative results, they are sometimes useful in leading us to new conceptions, and perhaps we may hope that further study of these difficult questions will produce results admitting of general acceptance. It should be added that the pressures for the interior of the earth, calculated in the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3902, would not be very greatly modified by any other admissible law of density. The researches of Radau and Darwin (cf. Monthly Notices, Roy. Astron. Soc., December, 1899, pp- 122-3) have shown that, so far as the mathematical conditions are concerned, the law of density within the earth might depart considerably from that of Laplace. But on physical grounds, including the incontestably steady vise of pressure towards the earth’s centre, whatever be the exact law of density, and especially the observed yielding and con- densation of all matter under such forces, I hold that the true law is essentially that of Laplace, and any departure from it in the actual arrangement of the matter of the globe is likely to be extremely small and unimportant. he dejo Seat U.S. Naval Observatory, Mare Island, California, March 31. Go NATURE [May 11, 1905 NOTES ON STONEHENGE.’ VI.—On THE SOLAR OBSERVATIONS MADE IN BRITISH STONE CIRCLES. I N my last notes I referred to the star observations which might be made by means of stone circles. I now pass to “solar observations. I have already pointed out that much time has been lost in the investigation of our stone circles, for the reason that in many cases the exact relations of the monuments to the chief points of the horizon, and | therefore to the place of sunrise at different times of the year, have not been considered; and when they were, to the magnetic north, which is different at different places, and besides is always varying; few indeed have tried to get at the real astronomical conditions of the problem. The first, I think, was Mr. Jonathan Otley, who in 1849 showed the ‘‘ orientation ”’ of the Keswick circle *“ according to the solar meridian,’’ giving true solar bearings throughout the year. the observations were made only with reference | and alignments in 1gor, but other pressing calls on my time then caused me to break off the inquiry. Quite recently it occurred to me that a complete study of the Stenness circles might throw light on the question of an earlier Stonehenge, so I have gone over the old papers, plotting the results on the Ordnance map. Now that the inquiry is as complete as I can make it without spending some time in Orkney with a theodolite, I may say that in my opinion Mr. Spence’s contention in his pamphlet on Maeshowe is confirmed, | although many of the alignments to which he refers in support of it prove to be very different from those he supposed and drew on the map which accompanies his paper. The alignments on which he chiefly depended were two, one running from the stone circle past the entrance of Maeshowe to the place of sunrise at Hallo- ween (November 1), another from the same circle by the Barnhouse standing stone to the mid-winter sun- rise at the solstice. I give a copy of the Ordnance map showing the true orientation of these and of other sight lines I Fic. 14.—Maeshowe, in the foreground, and the Stones of Stenness. I wrote a good deal in Nature? on sun and star temples in 1891, and Mr. Lewis the next year ex- pressed the opinion that the British stone monuments, or some of them, were sun and star temples. Mr. Magnus Spence, of Deerness, in Orkney, pub- lished a pamphlet, ‘‘ Standing Stones and Maeshowe of Stenness,’’?* in 1894; it is a reprint of an article in the Scottish Review, October, 1893. Mr. Cursiter, F.S.A., of Kirkwall, in a letter to me dated March 15, 1894, a letter suggested by my ‘‘ Dawn of Astro- nomy,’’ which appeared in that year, and in which the articles which had been published in Nature in 1891 had been expanded, directed my attention to the pamphlet; the observations had no pretension to scientific accuracy, and some of the alignments are wrongly stated, but a possible solar connection was pointed out. I began the consideration of the Stenness circles 1 Continued from vol. Ixxi. p. 538 2 See especially NaTuRE, July 2, "xBox, p. 201. 3 Gardner : Paisley and London. No. 1854, VOL. 72] From “* Notice of Runic Inscriptions, "’ by James Farrer, M.P. (1862). have made out. From this it will be seen that observations of the sun were provided for on the days in question, and that the circles and outstanding stones were undoubtedly set up to guide astronomical observations relating to the different times of the year. Of course, as I have shown elsewhere, such astro- nomical observations were always associated with religious celebrations of one kind or another, as the astronomer and the priest were one. I shall not refer to all the sight lines indicated, but deal only with those, bearing upon the Stonehenge _ question, which I have without local knowledge been able to test and justify. But first we must consider the astronomical differ- ences between the rising of a star and of the sun, by which we mean that small part of the sun’s limb first visible. It is too frequently imagined that for determining the exact place of sunrise or sunset in connection with these ancient monuments we have to deal with the May 11, 1905] NAL ORS 22 pore) sun’s centre, as we should do with the sun half risen. As a matter of fact, we must consider that part of the sun’s limb which first makes its appearance above the horizon; the first glimpse of the upper limb of the sun is in question, say, when the visible limb is 2’ high. AZIMUTHS. shown that the half-way time between an equinox and a solstice is when the sun’s centre has a declination approximately 16° N. or S. In Orkney, with the latitude of 59°, assuming a sea horizon, the amplitude of sunrise or sunset is 32° 21’, the corresponding 32 azimuth being 57° 30/. ah. Riissestiesst ; { Hse a t bashes To make this quite clear I give a table which has been computed by Mr. Rolston, of the Solar Physics Observatory, showing the true azimuth with hills up to 13° high for lat. 59° N., the latitude of Stenness, and 51°, nearly the latitude of Stonehenge, of the sun’s upper limb for the solstitial year. SoLAR AZIMUTHS SumMMER SOLSTICE. . Sun’s centre ; uncorrected ” ” ” ” »” ” WEE o ” ” ” WINTER SOLSTICE. 1. Sun’s centre ; uncorrected 2. Upper limb; corrected for semi-diameter and refraction 3 4. 5. The first important thing we learn from the table is that although at any solstice the azimuths of the rising and setting of the sun’s centre are the same, the azimuths of the upper limb at the summer and oe) ” oe) ” ” ” ” ” 7 winter solstices differ in a high northern latitude by | some 5°. The difference arises, of course, from the fact that the limb is some 16’ from the sun’s centre, so that considering the sun’s centre as a star with fixed declination, at rising the limb appears before the centre, and at setting it lags behind it. It will also be seen that at sunrise hills increase the Se . Upper limb ; corrected for semi-diameter and refraction .:. azimuth from N., and refraction reduces it; while at | setting, hills reduce the azimuth from S. and refrac- tion increases it. Not only does calculation prove the worship of the May and June years, but I think the facts now before us really go to show that in Orkney the May year was the first established, and that the solstitial (June) year came afterwards, and this was the chief question I had in view. I will begin with the May year. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] I have already 36 Fic. 15,—The Azimuths of the Sunrise (upper limb) at the Summer Solstice. The Values given in the table have been plotted, and the effect of the height of hills on the azimuth 1s shown. He Se ee aie i ed Now the most interesting and best defined line with this azimuth on the Ordnance map is the one stretching S.E. from the centre of the Stenness circle to the Barnstone, with an azimuth of 57° 15’. The line contains between the two points I have named another stone, the Watchstone, 18} feet high, in the Tatasis Rising N. of E. or Setting N. of W. Lat. 59° Rising N. of E. or Setting N. of W. ee oe 39 16 50 40 a8 ee os es 37 ul 49 20 and hill 4° high ae BAe 38 34 50 16 ai Pelle be tn 40 8 51 12 Pe LEE! pp en 41 30 52 4 Rising S. of E. or Rising S_of E. or Setting S. of W. Setting S. of W. 39 16 50 40 2 nae ane 4 24 2 © and hill 4° high 39 54 Be: Ap “Bp 38 23 50 8 per pe 36 54 49 14 precise alignment; and from the statements made and measures given it is to be inferred that a still more famous and perforated stone, the ‘‘ Stone of Odin,’’ demolished seventy years since, was also in the same line within the extremities named. If we may accept this we learn something about | perforated stones, and can understand most of the folk lore associated with them, and few have more connected with them than the one at Stenness. I suggest that the perforation, which was in this case 5 feet from the ground, was used by the astronomer- priest to view the sunrise in November over the Barn- house stone in one direction, and the sunset in May over the circle in the other. There is another echo of this fundamental line; that joining the Ring of Bookan and the Stones of Via has the same azimuth and doubtless served the same purpose for the May year. But this line, giving us the May sunset and November sunrise, not the December solstitial sun- rise as Mr. Spence shows it, is not the only orienta- 34 WATE Tee [May 11, 1905 tion connected with the May year at the stones of Stenness. The November sunset is provided for by a sighf-line from the circle to a stone across the Loch of Stenness with an azimuth of S. 53° 30/ W. To apply the table to the solstitial risings and set- tings at Stenness, and the sight-lines which I have plotted on the map, it will be seen that the table shows us that the lines marked Nasongou nb Seq Ou N. qe 16’ E. Sy ae? gyal WWE are solstitial lines; to get exact agreement with the table the heights of the hills must be found and allowed for. I have roughly determined this height from the r-inch map in the case of the Barnstone- Maeshowe alignment. On the N.E. horizon are the Burrien Hills, four miles away, 600 feet high at the sunrise place, gradually Mee, x Tianalas We have the November sunset marked by a stand- ing stone on the other side of the Loch of Stenness, Ame5gcegol. June rising, Az. true 39°. The top of Hindera fiold, more than 500 feet high, the highest peak, triangula- tion station. December rising, tumulus (Az. 41°) on Ward Hill. December setting, tumulus Onston 36° 30’. General Remarks. It is not a little remarkable that the winter solstice rising and setting seem to have been provided for at the Stenness circle by alignment on the centres of two tumuli across the Loch, one the Onston tumulus to the S.W. (Az. 36° 30/), the other tumulus being on Ward Hill to the S.E., Az. 41° (rough measurement). It looks also very much as if the Maeshow tumulus fic. 16.—Copy of Ordnance Map showing chief sight lines from the Stones of Stenness. ascending to the E., vertical angle=1° 36’ 30”. The near alignment is on and over the centre of Maeshowe. Colonel Johnston, the Director-general of the Ordnance Survey, has informed me that the true azimuth of this bearing is N. 41° 16’ E., and in all probability it represents the place of sunrise as seen from the Barnstone when Maeshowe was erected. What is most required in Orkney now is that some one with a good 6-inch theodolite should observe the sun’s place of rising and the angular height of the hills at the next summer solstice in order to determine the date of the erection of Maeshowe. Mr. Spence and others made an attempt to determine this value with a sextant in 1899, but not from the Barnstone. The Ordnance maps give no indication of stones, &c., by which the direction of the midsummer setting or the midwinter rising and setting might have been indicated from either the Maeshowe or the Barnstone. To sum up the solar alignments from the circle. We have the May sunrise marked by the top of Burrien Hill, from 600 to 7oo feet high, Az. 59° 30!. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] was an after structure to use the Barnstone for the summer solstice rising; then these two other tumuli, to deal with the winter solstice at Stenness circle, may have been added at the same time. All these provided for a new cult. There are also tumuli near the line (which cannot be exactly determined because the heights of the hills are unknown) of the summer solstice setting; none was required for the sunrise at this date, as the line passes over the highest point of Hindera fiold, a natural tumulus more than 500 feet high, and on that account a triangulation station. . Another argument in favour of the tumuli being additions to the original design is that the place of the November setting from the Stenness circle is marked, not by a tumulus, but by a standing stone. As the stone near Deepdale and the tumulus— at Onston are only about 1200 yards apart, the sugges- tion may be made that in later times tumuli in some cases replaced stones as collimation marks. ‘Norman LOCKYER. May 11, 1905] SOUTH AFRICAN GEOLOGY. INES ROGERS has produced a handbook to the = geology of Cape Colony which is sure to re- main a standard treatise. New observations will be recorded in future editions, as the work of his survey is carried on; but results made public as recently as 1904 are included in the present volume. The book appears with especial appropriateness, now that the visit of the British Association to South Africa has been officially organised; and the included geological map, on the scale of about one inch to ninety miles, gives an admirable impression of the country. In it we see the huge Karroo synclinal, occupy- ing almost all the colony, and lying be- tween the pre-Devonian masses that crop out upon the north and the closely folded rocks of the Cape system along the south; while Mr. Rogers’s introduction connects the scenic features with the geological structure in a manner that attracts us at the outset. It is unfortunate that the names chosen for the colonial systems of rocks are not readily represented by adjectives. | Hence such ungrammatical expressions as ‘‘ pre- Cape”’ and “ pre-Karroo’’ have been re- ceived indelibly into literature. Even the International Congress may hesitate to speak of an “‘ étage bokkeveldien,’’? though we have, to be sure, ‘* purbeckien ’’ and ““bathonien ’’ in Europe. This use of local names is, of course, greatly to be com- mended, in view of the scarcity of fossils in the great majority of the series. The invasion of the old Malmesbury beds in the west of the colony by granite is econ- cisely described on p. 38; and it is interest- ing to note how gneissic structures have arisen in the granite, as in so many other instances, without ‘‘ evidence of a great amount of crushing or rearrangement of its component minerals after it solidified.” The foliation-planes in the gneissoid granite are parallel with the strike and cleavage of the adjacent sedimentary rocks, and the whole structure seems one of sub- terranean flow. The granulites of the Darling area will clearly bear comparison with those that have been so much dis- cussed in Saxony. The intercalation of orthoclase crystals from the granite in lenticular areas between laminz of slate (p. 43) reminds us, again, of the composite rocks of Donegal. Mr. Rogers gives an interesting account of the stages in the passage from the well known blue crocidolite to the more siliceous Ria yellow ‘‘ griqualandite’’ in the slates of the Griquatown series. The slates them- , selves are converted into jasper-rocks where the most altered amphibole occurs; and the crests and troughs of the folds have afforded hollows in which the fibres of amphibole have crystallised across from one surface to another. The Cape system, including the Table Mountain series at its base, has been greatly contorted and overfolded in the south; but the southern edge of the Karroo beds is also involved (p. 407), and the great east-and-west ridges of the continental margin date from somewhere about Jurassic times. Flattened and striated pebbles occur in the Table Mountain times. By A. W. Rogers, 1 “An Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony.” Pp. M.A., F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Cape Colony. xvill++463. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price gs. net. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] NATURE 35 beds, and are regarded as the first evidence of a neighbouring highland on which glaciers gathered. The Devonian Bokkeveld beds follow, and the still higher and famous Dwyka conglomerate is, as all geologists know, of Permo-Carboniferous a It is somewhat fascinating to conceive the growth of glacial conditions through at least two long geo- logical periods, until the flood of ice at last spread southward from the Transvaal territories, and scored and rounded all the preceding rock-masses down to the region of the Cape itself. The Dwyka beds, a facies of the Kimberley-Ecca series, and long regarded as volcanic tuffs, are here 1,—Overfolded quartzites of the Table Mountain Series, Meiring’s Poort, repre- sentative of the great upheaval, which probably took place in early Jurassic From Rogers’s “‘ Geology ot Cape Colony.” very adequately described, with several effective illus- trations. The glacial series at Vereeniging is associ- ated with beds containing the Glossopteris flora, and also Sigillaria and other northern forms; and Mr. Rogers points out that the cold cannot have been responsible for preventing a more frequent mingling of these two well marked floras. The most novel portion of the account of the reptiliferous Beaufort beds of the ‘‘ Karroo system ’”’ is the strong hint (p. 198) that they should be regarded as Permian rather than Triassic. This view, based on Ama- litzky’s work in Russia, would lead to a reconsider- ation of the Elgin Sandstone also, and to the accept- ance of a development of reptilian life- in Permian 36 NATURE [May 11, 1905 times as surprising and swiftly various as that of the Eocene Mammalia. We presume that the Stormberg series must then include the whole of the Trias, and not merely the Rhetic, as Feistmantel and Seward have proposed. The consideration of this and similar questions is made far more interesting by the appear- ance of Dr. Corstorphine’s address on the history of stratigraphical investigation in South Africa (‘Report of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science,’’ 1904, p. 145), to which is appended a table showing the classifications of various authors, starting with the brilliant and per- ceptive work of Bain in 1856. Prof. R. Broom has provided Mr. Rogers with a chapter on the Karroo reptiles, in which the early carnivorous types, Ailurosaurus, Lycosuchus, &c., are separated from the Theriodonts as ‘‘ Therocephalia.”’ The pose given to the skeleton of Pareiasaurus in Fig. 18 is more erect than that at present adopted in the British Museum. The well known work of Prof. H. G. Seeley is mentioned later in the biblio- graphical appendix. Mr. Rogers, quoting the view of Mr. Kitchin, who compares the fossils with those of similar beds in India, does not allow the presence of Jurassic strata in the Uitenhage series, so that the Jurassic system may be represented merely by the underlying un- conformity (compare p. 408). The perforation of the Stormberg and preceding rocks by the diamant- iferous volcanic pipes occurred, in all likelihood, in Lower Cretaceous times. The bending up of the strata round these vents presents us with a curious reminder of the old ‘‘ crater of elevation ’’ theory. Denudation has attacked the surface of the in- terior of the colony “‘ uninterruptedly from the close of the Stormberg period (Rhztic) to the present day,’’ and the folded belt of the south seems to have furnished a fairly complete barrier against inroads of the Cretaceous sea (p. 414). A useful chapter on the geological features to be observed along the main lines of railway concludes this compact and highly attractive handbook. GRENVILLE A. J. CoLe. THE NAUMANN FESTIVAL AT COTHEN. IN 2UMANN is but a name to nine out of ten British ornithologists, and the proportion of them who have held in hand a volume with that name on the title- page must be smaller still. Yet it was borne by two men who, taking them all round, were the most prac- tical ornithologists that ever lived, for their personal knowledge of the birds of Central Europe was not ex- ceeded by that of any of their contemporaries, and it may be fairly doubted whether any of their successors, vastly improved as are the modern means of acquiring such knowledge, have attained to the like acquaintance. The elder Naumann, Johann Andreas, seems hardly ever to have quitted the little village of Ziebigk, near Cothen, in the duchy of Anhalt, where he was born in 1744, the son of a small landed proprietor, to whose estate he succeeded. He has left a curious autobio- graphical sketch, which was prefixed to the first volume of the edition of the joint work of himself and his son, Johann Friedrich, published in 1822. If ever a man devoted himself to the observation and study of birds it was this Johann Andreas, who from his boyhood passed days and nights in this sole pursuit. How he found time to take a wife—for he tells us that he often forgot his dinner—is marvellous; but marry he did, and had three sons, the eldest, Johann Friedrich, already named, born in 1780, and two others; one of them, Carl Andreas, born in 1786, became a_ fair assistant to his father and brother, without, however, publishing anything on his own account. The father NO. 1854, VOL. 72] brought up these three boys to follow his own tastes and live his own life. A gun was put into their hands as soon as they could hold it, they were made familiar with every device for catching birds, and they were also taught to draw. In this last respect the eldest attained so much proficiency that by the time he was fifteen he had executed a great number of drawings of birds, which the father proceeded to have engraved on copper and to publish in folio form. The work thus produced proves to be one of the rarest in ornithological litera- ture, if literature it may be called, seeing that not a word of letterpress accompanied the plates. Whether a complete set of them exists anywhere is uncertain, and Dr. Leverkthn’s labours seem to show that not quite a dozen more or less imperfect copies are known, though there is no room here for bibliographical details. The next thing the father did was to bring out in small octavo the first volume of what was called ‘“A Detailed Description of the Forest-, Field-, and Water-birds of the Principality of Anhalt and the Neighbouring Districts.’’ This appeared in 1797, and was illustrated by coloured figures by the son Johann Friedrich. Some of them are reproductions of those in the older series, but the style of drawing was mani- festly improved, and, moreover, went on improving as the work itself did, for it quite outgrew the bounds of its native principality, and the fourth and last volume, published in 1803, appeared as ‘‘ The Natural History of the Land- and Water-birds of Northern Germany and the Adjoining Countries.’’ This was followed by a series of eight supplements, the last of which came out in 1817. A remarkable feature of this worls is its extreme simplicity and truth, and the absence of all scientific pretence. There is not even a Latin name in it! Yet there was no attempt by ‘‘ writing down ”’ to gain popularity, and whether it became popular is doubtful. All that can be said is that copies are now not easily to be had. In England when a man tries to do a thing of this kind we know too well what is gener- ally the lamentable result. He makes a fool of himself on almost every page; but this is just what Johann Andreas did not. He wrote with quiet dignity from his own knowledge, and his knowledge was sound. There was no need for him to borrow from anybody else. The father’s work being thus successfully concluded, the son, Johann Friedrich, lost no time in bringing out a new edition of it, and it is on this edition that the latter’s fame rests, and rests securely. The preface ij dated 1818, and some copies of the first volume are said to bear 1820 on the title-page. Doubtless it was then ready for publication, though for some reason it seems to have been delayed for a couple of years. Twelve volumes (parts they are called) appeared at long inter- vals, the last in 1844, and it may be truly averred that for completeness nothing like them exists in any lan- guage. They continue the same simple and direct style of the father’s work; but the son willingly cited other authors and showed that he had read them. He also extended his area of observation, journeying to Jutland in the north and to Hungary in the south, beside voyag- ing to Heligoland—the ornithological peculiarities of which he was the first to detect. Moreover, he dis- covered that anatomy was not to be neglected, and ac- cordingly each genus as he treated of it had prefixed to it a brief account of its internal structure, and to this end he had the good fortune to obtain the services of Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, who carried on this portion of the work until his death in 1837, when his place was taken by Rudolf Wagner. Two years after the work was ended the author began a supplement, which had not proceeded far when he died, in 1857, and this was left to be completed by two of his friends, the late Prof. J. H. Blasius and Dr. Eduard Baldamus. Carefully elaborated as this great worl: had been, its information had, of course, fallen behind the times, and May 11, 1905] a natural desire was expressed for a new edition. The first part of this appeared in 1897, under the general editorship of Dr. Carl R. Hennicke, of Gera, who has been assisted by a company of thirty-six coadjutors, comprising the chief ornithologists of Central Europe, and to celebrate the recent completion of this grand undertaking in ten folio volumes a Naumann-Feier is to be held at Céthen on Sunday, May 14, under the direction of Dr. Jacobi von Wangelin, of Merse- burg, and Prof. Rudolf Blasius, of Brunswick, the pre- sidents respectively of the German Bird Protection Union and the German Ornithological Society. The business of the day is announced as of the simplest character, just as one may suppose would be consonant with the wishes of the men to be honoured—an inspec- tion of the Naumann collections, now housed in the ducal palace, a pilgrimage to the graves of the Naumanns at Ziebigk, their old abode, on which a laurel wreath will be laid, and a visit of respect to the daughter-in-law of Johann Friedrich, a return to Céthen for a festival dinner—that is all. Who will attend I know not, but assuredly every German ornithologist will be present in the spirit, and my chief object in writing these lines is that British ornithologists should sympathise with their German brethren on the occasion. Making every allowance for the ordinary Englishman’s linguistic de- ficiencies, it is not to the credit of our predecessors in this country, though there are many of whom we may be justly proud, that until the year 1850 not one of them seems ever to have heard of the Naumanns and their incomparable works. It was Mr. G. R. Gray who, in a British Museum catalogue, first cited that of Johann Friedrich, and then merely on nomenclatural grounds. It was there that I first met with its title, and I lost no time in seeking the work in the library of Cambridge University. Words fail me to express the delight with which I looked into one volume after another of this huge store of information, or the admiration with which I regarded its unpretentious but exquisitely exe- cuted plates. That was nearly five-and-fifty years ago, but much as the study has since advanced, the opinion I then formed I hold now, that for fulness of treatment, perspicuity, and general accuracy, the work of Johann Friedrich Naumann has not been surpassed. Willingly would I dwell longer on the subject, but I think I may have said enough, though I must add that for many of the details above given [ am indebted to two articles by Dr. Lindner published in ‘“ Die Schwalbe ’’ of Vienna for 1894 (Nos. 7 and 8), and still more to Dr. Paul Leverkithn’s excellent biographical preface to the first volume of the recent edition already mentioned, which has been separately printed, ‘‘ Bio- graphisches tiber die Drei Naumanns ”’ (Gera-Unterm- haus: 1904). Later still that gentleman has come into possession of much of Johann Friedrich’s correspon- dence, which it is sincerely to be hoped he will find the means of publishing, as it can hardly fail to be of great interest. ALFRED NEWTON. DR. J. E. DUTTON. T is with deep regret that we announce the sudden death of Dr. Dutton (Walter Myers Fellow) at Kosongo, in the Congo, on February 27, while actively engaged in the investigation of trypanosomiasis and tick fever, The expedition which Dr. Dutton was leading was a very completely equipped one, and commenced work in the Congo in September, 1903. It consisted origin- ally of Drs. Dutton, Todd, and Christy, and was sub- sequently joined by Dr. Inge Heiberg. The Belgian Government erected a special hospital for them, and placed every possible facility at their disposal both for investigation and travelling. | Whilst conducting the NO. 1854, VOL. 72] NATURE 25 o/ investigation and mapping the distribution of sleeping sickness and tick fever, they travelled several thousand miles by river and road, and reached a station beyond Stanley Falls. In the death of Dr. Dutton, not only have the Tropical School and the University of Liverpool lost a brilliant graduate, but medicine has lost one of its most promising men, a man who, although only twenty-nine years of age, had already won a recognised position throughout the scientific world. Educated at the King’s School, Chester, Dr. Dutton proceeded to the University of Liverpool, where he rapidly made his way to the front. In 1897 he was appointed to the George Holt fellowship in pathology, a post which has had a marked effect in stimulating men to devote time to research and in supplying able investigators in tropical medicine. In 1g00 he commenced the study of tropical medicine under the leadership of Dr. Annett, and together with Dr. Elliott, of Toronto University, he proceeded to Nigeria in order to study the habits of the Anopheles and the most- effective measures of pre- vention of malaria. In 1901 he proceeded alone to the Gambia, and drew a comprehensive and useful anti- malarial report which has proved of the greatest ser- vice to the colony. It was during this expedition that he identified in the blood of the patient shown to him by Dr. Forde, of Bathurst, the trypanosome which he described and named as Trypanosoma gambiense. Having established the presence of the trypanosome in man, Dr. Dutton immediately set off on another expedition to ascertain how far it was distributed in ihe native population. This expedition formed the basis of his first trypanosomiasis report (Senegambia, 1902). The first progress report of the Congo expedition was published in 1904; this has been followed by others, including the description of the ‘‘ Congo Floor Mag- got,’? by Drs. Dutton, Todd, and Christy, and the “ Cerebro-spinal Fluid in Trypanosomiasis,’’ by Dr. Christy; ‘‘ A Comparison of the Animal Reactions of the Trypanosomes of Uganda and Congo Free State Sleeping Sickness with that of Trypanosoma gam- biense,’’ by Drs. Thomas and Linton; ‘‘ Two Cases of Trypanosomiasis in Europeans,’’ by Drs. Dutton, Todd,-and Christy; and ‘‘ Supplementary Notes on the Tsetse-flies,’”? by Mr. E. E. Austen. More recently Dr. Dutton wrote an interesting paper on the “ Interme- diary Host of the Filaria cypseli’’ (the filaria of the African swift), in which he described the intermediate host as a louse (subfamily Leiothinz) in the abdominal cavity of which he observed the various stages of the development of the filaria. He showed that the infection was probably spread by the birds eat- ing the infected lice. Toward the end of 1904 the investigators had reached Stanley Falls, and quite independently Drs. Dutton and Todd verified the discovery of the cause of tick spirillum fever in man made a few weeks pre- viously by Milne and Ross in the Uganda Protectorate ; but, furthermore, they were able to transmit the disease to monkeys and rabbits by means of the bite of the in- fected tick. They were able to make post mortem exam1- nations on cases of the fever, in the course of which Dr. Dutton contracted the disease by a post mortem wound and Dr. Todd an abortive attack apparently directly through a tick bite. From this fever they re- covered, in Dr. Dutton’s case after four typical relapses. Their researches into the relationship between the in- fection in man and the tick were so far advanced that they were able to prepare a report which is due by the next mail. In the meantime, they have given an account of an experiment in which tick spirillum fever has been conveyed to a monkey by the bites of young ticks during the first feed after hatching from the ova of naturally infected adults. 38 ING ATE OS Ses [ May 11, 1905 NOTES. Tue gentlemen’s soirée of the Royal Society will take place at Burlington House on Wednesday next, May 17. In a murder trial concluded last week, a finger mark left by one of the prisoners upon a cash-box tray at the shop where the crime was committed was used for pur- poses of identification. An inspector gave evidence that there were 80,000 or 90,000 sets of finger prints in the finger print department of Scotland Yard, and that he had never found two such impressions to correspond. The right thumb print of one of the prisoners agreed in twelve characteristics with an impression made with perspiration upon the cash-box tray, and therefore gave corroborative evidence of identity. Tt is probable, as Mr. Galton pointed out some years ago, that no two finger-prints in the whole world are so alike that an expert would fail to distinguish between them. The system was largely used in India by Sir William Herschel nearly fifty years ago, and was found by him to be most successful in preventing personation, and in putting an end to disputes about the authenticity of deeds. He described his methods in these pages in 1880 (vol. xxiii. p. 76); and in the previous volume (vol. xxii. p. 605) Mr. Henry Faulds referred to the use of finger- marks for the identification of criminals. There is no doubt as to the value of this system of identification, which was described in the pages of Nature long before its practical applications had been realised, and we regret that anything should have occurred to throw discredit upon it. It appears from the reports of the trial referred to that a person who professed to be properly qualified wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and also to the solicitors for the defence, offering to give evidence as an expert on the finger impressions, although he had not seen the impressions. It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Justice Channell should denounce such action in strong language, and whether the jury agreed with him or not—that the witness was ‘ abso- lutely untrustworthy ’’—they no doubt considered that evidence which could be given on either side could not be of much importance. From the scientific point of view, we regret that a method which is associated with the names of men of such scientific eminence as Sir William Herschel and Mr. Francis Galton should be brought into disrepute. Finger prints are not only of value for personal identifi- cation, but also for hereditary investigations, and any action which produces comments like those made by Mr. Justice Channell is to be deplored, because it tends to ‘shake the confidence of men in methods which rest on secure scientific foundations. Tue council of the Linnean Society of New South Wales has appointed Mr. Harald J. Jensen to be the first Linnean Macleay fellow. Tue. Athenaeum announces the death of Prof. Otto Struve, who succeeded his father as director of the Nicholas Central Observatory at Pulkowa in 186r. Science announces that Prof. L. Warren, for twenty-seven years professor of mathematics at Colby College, died on April 21, at the age of sixty-nine years. Tue Times understands that the trustees of the British Museum have expressed their willingness to receive care- fully selected phonographic records of the voices of dis- tinguished living men. The records will be for posterity only, and will in no circumstances. be available for con- temporary use. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] Pror. E. B. Frosr has been appointed director of the Yerkes Observatory by the trustees of the University of Chicago, in succession to Prof. G. E. Hale, who now gives his whole time to the establishment of the new Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution at Mt. Wilson, California. A party of zoological students from the Birkbeck College spent part of the Easter vacation trawling, dredging, and shore collecting at West Mersea, on the Essex coast. Although the temperature was very low for the time of year, many specimens were collected, and much experience was gained. A Reuter correspondent at Bombay reports that a severe earthquake occurred at Bandar Abbas on April 25. Five shocks were experienced during the afternoon, and shocks have been occurring daily since. Sarn, a town west of Bandar Abbas, is reported to have suffered severely. Tue death is announced, in his eighty-eighth year, of Colonel N. Pike, known for his contributions to the natural history of birds, reptiles, and amphibia. For several years Colonel Pike held the post of American consul in the Island of Mauritius, and during this time he collected extensively the local fauna and prepared from the living specimens many coloured drawings. His most extended work was his ‘‘ Sub-Tropical Rambles in the Land of the Aphanopteryx.”’ A Reuter telegram from Christiania reports that the Belgica, with the members of the Duc d’Orléans’s Arctic Expedition on board, left Sandefjord on May 6 for Bergen, where the duke will embark. From Bergen the Belgica will go to Spitsbergen, Greenland, and Shannon Islands, where the Duc d’Orléans intends to visit the depéts of the Ziegler Expedition. His intention is to bring the members of that expedition back with him on the Belgica, and he hopes to return to Ostend in September. Tue Rome correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette states that it is again proposed to affix a marble tablet to the Villa Medici, which is French property, to remind passers by and posterity that Galileo was kept prisoner there from June 24 to July 6, 1633. Italy has already erected a small monument to Galileo at the very door of the villa, with the following inscription,:—‘ The neighbouring palace, which belonged to the Medici, was the prison of Galileo Galilei, guilty of having seen the earth revolving round the sun.” THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society will be held on Monday, May 22. The annual convyersazione will be held in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, on Tuesday, June 27. In place of the annual dinner of the society this year, a banquet in honour of the retiring president, Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., will be held on the evening of the anniversary meeting, May 22, at the Hotel Metropole. Tue Paris correspondent of the Times remarks that about 150 physicians and surgeons have arrived there from England, many of them with their wives and families, to return the visit which the French doctors paid to London last year. The formal reception took place last night at the Sorbonne. During the stay of the English medical men, besides the many attractive excursions and_ social entertainments arranged in their honour, every facility is to be given them for inspecting the hospitals. In proposing the toast of ‘‘ The Japan Society ’’ at its annual dinner on May 3, Sir Frederick Treves referred to the medical and surgical ability of the Japanese. Nothing May 11, 1905] NATURE 39 astounded him more, he said, in his recent visit to Japan than the way in which the Japanese have inquired into the medicine and surgery of the western world and ‘the mar- vellous thing they are making out of it. It is difficult to credit the astonishing advance made by the Japanese in medical equipment in time of war. Many of the problems which have been the terror of war in European countries the Japanese are solving or have solved. British troops enter a war with many determinations—one of which is to have 10 per cent. of sick, and they get it. The Japanese are quite content with 1 per cent. of sick, and they get it. The Japanese have all the qualities of a surgeon. They have infinite patience and infinite tenderness. Sir F. Treves is confident that not many years hence there will be seen in Japan one of the most progressive schools of medicine the world has ever known. THE annual congress of the South-eastern Union of Scientific Societies will be held at Reigate on June 7-10 inclusive, under the presidency of Prof. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. Among the papers to be contributed are the following :—‘‘ Mendel’s Law,’’ Miss Saunders ; ‘‘ Botany of Reigate District,’’ Messrs. R. H. Welchman and C. E. Salmon ; ‘‘ Local Orchids,’’ Dr. Hodgson; ‘‘ Eggs of Lepi- doptera,’’ Mr. Tonge; ‘“‘ The Law of Treasure Trove in Relation to Archzological Research,’’ Dr. William Martin ; ““The Land and Fresh-water Shells of S.E. England,” Mr. A. Santer Kennard. There will be excursions to Worth Church; Gatton; Mr. Maw’s observatory, Outwood ; Reigate Castle; Mr. Brown’s Atherfield clay pit, &c. The Mayor of Reigate will give a reception on Friday, June 9. The congress secretaries are Mr. G. E. Frisby, Redhill, and Mrs. Taylor, Clear’s Corner, Reigate, from whom all information can be obtained. DurinG the forthcoming eclipse of the sun, on August 30, aéronautical ascents will be made at Paris, Burgos, Prague, and very likely in Algeria. It is intended to study the variations, not only of the temperature of the air in the shade and in the sun, but also the solar radiation at several altitudes. If it is possible to take aérial photographs of the corona from the balloons it will be done at Burgos, and possibly at Wargia. M. Trépied, director of the Algiers Observatory, has left for Guelma, on a railway 36 miles south-west of Bona, and really a desert oasis. The sky is anticipated to be quite clear at that place, as at the end of August northerly breezes, which are very frequent on the coast, are hardly to be felt in the Sahara. The Algerian eclipse observatory will be housed in the French public school. For the last twenty years a weather bureau has been established in Algeria, and is situated on the terrace of the City Hall. The establishment is connected by telegraph with forty stations, which are sending regularly each morning observations used in the reduction of the warnings and forecasts. Lorp Avesury delivered his presidential address at the soirée of the Selborne Society on May 3. In the course of his remarks he referred to the animated discussion which took place recently in the newspapers as to whether Greek should be a compulsory subject in university examinations —which is euphemistically termed ‘‘ maintaining the Greek basis of education against the material tendencies of the | present day.’’ It is not we, he continued, who wish to pit Greek grammar against nature-study. Greek—even a little Greek—is very useful. But nothing was said, Lord Ave- bury contended, about science being a compulsory subject— which alike from a practical and an educational point of view is even more important. Education without science NO. 1854, VOL. 72] is incomplete and one-sided, and the greatest classical scholar, if he know nothing of the world we live in, is but a half-educated man after all. Sir James Crichton Browne spoke of the value of the society’s work from the point of view of mental health, while Sir John Cockburn urged the usefulness of that study of nature which is not rigidly scientific. Among the many exhibits of natural history and antiquarian interest was some honey gathered by bees in the ‘‘ East End.’? This was shown by the Stepney Borough Museum, and it is practically certain that it was derived from sugar on the ships in the London Docks, a mile from the hive. Tue Belgian Royal Academy has issued the following lists of prize subjects for 1905 and 1906:—for 1905, in mathematical and physical sciences, on the combinations formed by halogens; on physical, particularly thermal, phenomena accompanying dissolution ; on linear complexes of the third order ; and on the deviation of the vertical treated from the hypothesis of the non-coincidence of the centres of mass of the earth’s crust and nucleus. In natural sciences, on the function of albuminoids in nutrition; on the reproduction and sexuality of Dicyemide; on the silicates of Belgium; on the formations of Brabant between the Bruxellian and the Tongrian; on certain Belgian deposits of sand, clay, and pebbles ; on the sexuality of the individuals resulting from a single ovum in certain dicecious plants; and on the development of Amphi- oxus. For 1906 the subjects in mathematical and physical sciences are:—on critical phenomena in physics; on n-linear forms (n>3); on thermal conductivity of liquids and solutions; and on the unipolar induction of Weber. In natural sciences, on the Cambrian series of Stavelot ; on the effect of mineral substances on the assimilation of carbon by organisms; on the effects of osmotic pressure in animal life; on the tectonic of Brabant; on the soluble ferments of milk; and on the physiological action of histones. The essays for 1905 and 1906 are to be sent in by August 1 of the respective years, and the prizes range from 241. to gol. in value. In addition, prizes bequeathed by Edward Mailly and in memory of Louis Melsens are offered under the usual conditions for astronomy and applied chemistry or physics respectively. Tue codling-moth forms the subject of Bulletin No. 222 issued by the entomological division of the Michigan Agri- cultural College Experiment Station. This insect is a serious enemy to fruit-growers in the district, and the author, Mr. R. H. Pettit, has carefully worked out its life-history and devised effective means for its destruction. Ar the first congress of the Association of Economic Biologists, held in Birmingham University on April 19-20, Mr. A. E. Shipley directed attention to the circumstance that bacteriological and parasitical science is unrepresented on the committee appointed by Parliament to inquire into the nature of grouse-disease. The president, Mra erie Theobald, emphasised the importance of closer study of the aphids affecting cultivated plants in this country, while parasites in the liver of swine, the porosity of wood, the injuries inflicted on plants by spring-tails, and ticks and fleas as conveyers of disease formed the subjects of other communications. Articte No. 4 of vol. xx. of the Journal of the College of Science of Tokyo University is devoted to the descrip- tion of the spoon-worms (Gephyrea) of Japan, and is illus- trated by one coloured and three black and white plates. The author, Mr. I. Ikeda, states that hitherto only four species of these worms appear to have been recorded from 40 NATURE [May 11, 1905 Japanese waters, and of one of these no specimens have come under his notice. From a study extending over several years, he has been enabled to add 34 additional species to the fauna, thus bringing the number up to 38. Of the 34, no less than 24 appear to be new forms, all of which are provisionally referred to previously known generic types, although there are grounds for considering that some of those included in Thalassema might advan- tageously be assigned to a new genus. Some excellent photographs of Australian bird-life are reproduced in the March number of the Victorian Naturalist, among which may be specially menioned a group of young diamond-birds (Pardalotes) and a nestling bronze-cuckoo in the act of ejecting the rightful occupant of the nest in which it was hatched. ‘‘ When discovered, the nest contained two young birds. The cuckoo, blind, featherless, and apparently not more than a day old, struggling till it got beneath its victim, gradually lifted it to the edge of the nest, resting at intervals, all the while balancing the resisting nestling in the hollow between the wings immediately at the back of the neck. Slowly and relentlessly it pushed the unfortunate wren over the side. . .. The young wren was replaced in the nest half a dozen times, but always with a like result the cuckoo was thoroughly exhausted.” until Two interesting Antarctic organisms obtained during the Scotia Expedition are described in the Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, vol. xvi., No. 2. In the first article, by Dr. J. Rennie, are discussed a number of isolated tentacles of a zoophyte belonging to the group Siphonophora. The specimens are _ barely sufficient for definite identification, but appear to indicate a type allied to the Mediterranean Apolemia, which attains a length of two or three yards. Mr. T. V. Hodgson, in the second communication, describes a five-limbed sea- spider (Pycnogonida) distinct from Pentanymphon antarc- ticum recently described on the evidence of a Discovery specimen. With the assistance of Dr. Calman, of the British Museum, the author has been enabled to identify the Scotia pycnogonid with Decalopoda australis, an almost forgotten generic type described so long ago as 1837. The occurrence of two five-limbed pycnogonids in the Antarctic is, in view of the absence of this type from all other seas, very remarkable. Mr. F. Fiercuer, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Bom- bay Presidency, is the author of a small volume, published at Bombay, entitled ‘‘ Notes on some Egyptian Insect Pests.’ In the autumn of igor the author, it appears, was engaged to teach agricultural entomology to the students at the Khedivial Agricultural School, Giza, and found himself seriously hampered in his task by the fact that practically nothing was known with regard to the insects which are harmful to the Egyptian agriculturist. Accordingly, during a two years’ sojourn in the country, Mr. Fletcher set himself to study such insects whenever opportunity occurred, and the present ‘‘ booklet ’’ is the result. It contains an introduction showing the position of insects in the animal kingdom, followed by a short sum- mary of the life-history and structure of insects in general, after which comes an account of the species forming the proper subject of the ‘‘ notes.’ The publication seems admirably adapted to the needs of those for whom it is intended. Tue catalogue forming appendix ii. to the Kew Bulletin of books and pamphlets added to the library of the Botanic Garder.s during the past year has been received; as usual, NO. 1854, VOL. 72] the printing is confined to one side of the paper only, in order that, if desired, the separate titles may be cut out. le collection of phenological records by teachers and pupils of schools in Nova Scotia has been proceeding for some years, and the number of schools sending in lists has been increasing. The data supplied by about 300 selected schedules in 1903 have been utilised for the compilation of phenochrons or average dates for different regions of the and these have been tabulated in vol. x., part xvi., of the Transactions of the Royal Soctety of Canada. province, Since the year 1900, a gooseberry mildew, Sphaerotheca mors-uvae, which appears to have been introduced from the United States, has been observed in Ireland and Russia- Mr. E. S. Salmon, who reported the first appearance in Ireland, and has since notified the spread of the disease, announces in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (vol. xxix.) its continued increase in these countries. The yellow varieties seem to suffer most. Spraying checks the fungus, but the only effectual remedy is to burn all the diseased bushes. Mr. Salmon contributes also to Annales Mycologici an account of a disease observed on plants of Euonymus japonicus in the south of England and else- where caused by an oidium or conidial stage of one of the Erysiphacea. Herr Paut Grosser has recently visited and described the site of the Tarawera eruption of 1886, in the north island of New Zealand (‘‘ Vulkanologische Streifziige im Maoriland,’’ Verhandlungen des naturhistorischen Vereins” der preuss. Rheinlande, 1904, pp. 37-58). He lays stress on the linear grouping of the eruptive centres, the ash- cones of which are almost as contiguous as pearls on a string. A fine photograph is given of a crater exploded through rhyolite on Ruawahia, with basaltic ashes cover- ing the country above. Incidentally, Herr Grosser ex- amined the ground affected by the Port Nicholson earth- quake of 1855, which is described in the later editions of Lyell’s ‘‘ Principles of Geology ’’; and he adds the interest- ing detail that the elevation of the floor of a lagoon by two metres enabled it to be successfully drained into the sea, a work previously attempted, but abandoned. Tue shoal-water deposits of the Bermuda banks are described by Mr. H. B. Bigelow (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, xl., No. 15). The oceanic character of Bermuda, due to its great distance from the neighbour- ing continent, prevents its receiving much foreign detritus, and its submarine deposits are almost wholly local. The great bulk of these is calcareous, with some spicules of siliceous organisms. True coral sand is absent; indeed, there is a great rarity of coral fragments, for although corals flourish on the reefs, they do so in a subordinate manner. The Bermuda plateau is of interest in illustrating the growth of a limestone island where reef-building corals are of slight importance. The organisms chiefly active in the formation of the shell-sands are corallines, molluscs, tube-building worms, millepores, and foraminifera. Algz probably form the greatest mass of the sand. White marls are described as due to the slow trituration of wind- borne material. There are also limited areas of blue mud. This seems to be of terrigenous origin, being the fine detritus washed down by rain from the calcareous hills, with vegetable matter. Yo the March number of the American Naturalist Dr- A. Hollick contributes a paper on the occurrence and origin of amber in the eastern United States. Although amber has for many years been known to occur in several May 11, 1905] NATURE 4I the been districts in America, a occurrence of recently made in the Cretaceous deposits of Kreischerville, Staten Island, N.Y. The which is being ex- tensively worked for commercial purposes, occurs in a bed this part of this discovery of substance in large masses has amber, containing layers and masses of vegetable débris, together with lignite and pyrite. The bed appears to be _ lens- shaped. Some at least of the amber is presumed to be the product of sequoias, but it is possible that a species of Pinus, and perhaps a the Austro- Malayan genus Dammara, contributed to its production. Hallow on the structure of the vascular cylinder in hybrid 5, and G.C. 7027 are 1: 245-3X10°, 1: 1095-5X10°, and 1:434X10° re- spectively ; thus the brightest of them, i.e. h 336s, has a surface luminosity of only 1/400 that of the moon. THE COWTHORPE OAK. IN the Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (vol. xxii., part iii., 1904, p. 396) we notice a very interesting article on the Cowthorpe Oak from the pen of Mr. John Clayton, This venerable tree, which stands near the church of Cowthorpe, a small village near Wetherby, is unique among oaks in that its girth is greater than that of any other known tree of its species. Recorded measurements taken about 1700 show that it had at that time a height of 80 feet with a girth of 78 feet on the ground. Since then various observers have recorded its dimensions and noted at the same time the gradual process. of decay, damage by storm, and other points likely to be of interest. The latest measurements were taken by Mr. Clayton himself, and they show that the height is now reduced to 37 feet including dead wood, while the girth on the ground has diminished to 54 feet 3 inches. In 1893 a crop of acorns was produced, from one of which a seedling was reared, and is now planted near its parent as a memorial. The tree stands in a warm, sheltered spot in a field which has a gentle slope to the river, and near enough to get a constant supply of water. The process of decay has been going on for the last 200 years. Between 1703 and 1722 much damage was done by various storms; never- theless, new leaves are put forth annually. The acorns produced in 1893 were on long stalks—hence the species is Quercus pedunculata. As regards the age of this giant opinion seems to differ. The trunk, being now hollow, precludes all possibility of ever ascertaining the number of year-rings, and no trustworthy data are available before the year 17oo—hence the author has been compelled to rely upon a comparison with the age of other trees. In a tree the duration of life may be taken as composed of NATOKE [May 11, 1905 three periods, one of growth, one of maturity, and lastly one of decline and decay. Between the number of years in each period a certain ratio is found to exist, and, taking this as a basis, together with what is known of the tree since 1700, Mr. Clayton arrives at the conclusion that its age is not more than 500 years—certainly much nearer the mark than the age of 1600 years assigned to it by Prof. Burnett in 1842, who based his calculation on the theory of the elder De Candolle that a tree increases by one-twelfth of an inch in diameter annually, an altogether untrustworthy basis of calculation. There is quite a number of other interesting historical trees dealt with in the article, for example, the Greendale Oak in Welbeck Park, which belongs to the Duke of Portland. Its height was recorded by John Evelyn in 1846 as 88 feet, while the altitude of the highest twig at the present day is only 54 feet. In 1724 a roadway was cut through the trunk, which girths 30 feet 1 inch at 4) feet from the ground. The height of the archway was Cowtborpe Oak, seen from North. The tree is supported by twenty-five props, disposed mostly on the South and East sides. sacred edifice, such as this yew and the Cowthorpe Oak, and the association no doubt affords them protection. Another notable veteran is the great chestnut of Tort- worth, Gloucester, which girths 49 feet 2 inches at 4 feet from the ground. It also stands about roo yards from a very old and beautiful church. As regards the longevity of trees, the theory was pro- mulgated at the beginning of the nineteenth century by De Candolle that the duration of life in trees was prac- tically unlimited, neglecting accidents due to unfavourable external conditions, such as the ravages of parasites, injuries from storms, lightning, and other causes. Pass- ing in review the vegetable kingdom, we find there are some lowly organised plants, such as certain alga and fungi, the whole life cycle of which may be completed within the short space of a few days, or even hours. Among the higher plants we have annuals and _ biennials the existence of which terminates with the production of seed. Then we have the agave and certain palms, the There isa paling about 5 ft. high, whichseems as if it had been put up from twenty to forty years ago. then 10 feet 2 inches, but recent measurements show that the highest point is now only 9 feet 3 inches, and the lowest 8 feet 6 inches. This shows conclusively that a subsidence of the trunk must have taken place within the last 200 years, and, by assuming that a similar sinking into the ground has occurred in the case of the Cowthorpe Oak, Mr. Clayton explains the apparent discrepancies between the earliest and latest recorded girth dimensions of the veteran. The trunk being somewhat tapering, the diameter naturally lessens as the sinking in proceeds. Mr. Clayton adds a note on the testimony of a Cowthorpe man named Oates, who said, ‘* The tree has shrunk very much in my time, and in shrinking the tree has twisted—the Eastern branches towards the South.”’ _ Another notable tree as regards size and age is the Crowhurst Yew, which girths 34 feet 4 inches on the ground. It stands in the churchyard of that place. The contains monuments of The author points out that the oldest trees are usually in close proximity to a NO. 1854, VOL. 72] church must be very old, as it Saxon and Norman workmanship. aérial portions of which may live from ten to forty years until the production of flower and fruit terminates their span of life, their place being taken by new aérial por- tions developed from lateral buds at the base of the plant. In the case of trees and woody shrubs, on the other hand, new growing points are formed annually, but this vege- tative process does not end in the production of flower and fruit, so that, excluding accidents, there is no reason why that vegetative process should not be continued for an unlimited time. The giant Wellingtonias of California are well known examples of the age and dimensions which trees may attain. A stem ‘in the British Museum shows 1330 year- rings with a diameter of about 15 feet. On the other hand, certain Japanese dwarf trees are known to be of very great antiquity, although lacking the size of the Welling- tonias. At the same time, one must not lose sight of the fact that the living cells are continually being renewed, and that in a tree like the Cowthorpe Oak the living parts are at most but a few years old. May 11, 1905] NWATOLRE. 45 FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS IN THE NORWEGIAN FJORDS. R. NORDGAARD has collected the results of investi- gations made in some of the fjords of northern Norway in the winters of 1899 and igoo, during the course of researches in the fishing waters of Lofoten, carried out at the expense of the Bergen Museum and the Norwegian Government. Two ‘‘ expeditions’’ were made. ‘The first, January to May, 1899, included the Vest Fjord and the sea beyond Lofoten, Vesteraalen, Sengen, and Finmarken, besides a large number of fjords, as the Kirk, the @gs, the Kanstad, the Sag, and many others. The second, in the winter of 1900, was made so as to obtain material from the fishing banks which would compare with that of the previous year, and it included visits to the Morsdal, Salten, Skjerstad, and Folden fjords. The hydrographical observations, which are numerous, have been made according to recognised standard methods, and are therefore comparable with observations made further out at sea, in the regions in which the full ex- planation of many of the facts brought to light here is doubtless to be found. The chief hydrographical result arrived at by Dr. Nordgaard is that the northern fjords can be divided into two groups, those in which the bottom temperature is 6° C. to 7° C., and salinity about 35 pro mille, and those in which the bottom temperature is below 6° C., and salinity less than 35 pro mille. As examples of the former, the Salten, Folden, Tys, Ofot, and Vest fjords are given, and as examples of the latter the Malang, Lyngen, Kvaenang, Porsanger, Tana, Varaanger, Skjer- stad, Skjomen, Kanstad, @gs, and Kirk fjords. It is suggested that while in some cases, as the Skjerstad fjord, the inflow of ocean water is cut off by a submarine ridge, the occurrence of the two typical groups may be accounted for by the distribution of rainfall. The heavy winter rainfall in western Norway affords a large supply of fresh water to the surface layers of the fjords, which accordingly remain specifically light, notwithstanding the fall of temperature. In northern Norway the rainfall is much less, hence the surface waters retain a high salinity, and as their temperature falls they sink to considerable depths. Dr. Nordgaard also discusses at some length the vary- ing influence of different amounts of rainfall on the currents within the fjords. Heavy rainfalls, which raise the sur- face level of the water, are for the most part the result of winds from the ocean, which produce a similar effect ; it is difficult to separate the effects of the two causes, but a rainfall above the average is taken as a fairly certain index of abnormal strength in the oceanic streams. In the ‘ biological notes’’ which accompany the tables a number of points are brought out showing and defining the connection between fauna and hydrography. It is shown that whereas in the first or warm-water group of fjords the deep-water fauna is chiefly boreal, in the second group, where cold water of lower salinity males its way downwards, the predominant forms are Arctic. The effect of the increased precision of modern methods of investi- gation in greatly reducing the number of so-called cosmo- politan species is also emphasised. The section of this memoir which deals with fisheries is specially important and suggestive. In discussing the Lofoten fisheries, Dr. Nordgaard adopts the view that the currents in the Norwegian Sea are controlled by the winds, and that, as already explained, abnormal move- ments of the currents off-shore or on-shore can be associ- ated with rainfall above or below the average. Again, he says, ‘It is clear that during the movements to or from the coast of the surface water, a compensating current must be set in motion in the deep water; it has long been a recognised phenomenon in the fjords, that the surface and under currents go in contrary directions.’’ From an examination of the observations, Dr. Nordgaard concludes that herrings move coastwards specially in the surface layers, while the cod travels along in the deeper layers. 1 Bergens Museum. ‘‘ Hydrographical and Biological Investigations in Norwegian Fjords.” By O. Nordgaard. ‘‘ The Protist Plankton and the Diatoms in Bottom Samples.” By E. Jorgensen. Pp 254; with 21 plates and ro figures in the text. (Bergen: John Grieg, 1905.) NO. 1854, VOL. 72] 4 It must therefore, he continues, ‘‘ be supposed that as cod and herrings, to a certain extent, depend upon contrary current phases, a particularly good spring herring fishery would prevent a correspondingly good cod fishery in the same district; for a strong tendency of the upper layers towards the coast certainly takes herrings along in the current, but this at the same time causes a compensation current in the deep water, and this current hinders the cod in its passage to the spawning places.”’ The statistics of the yield of the cod and _ herring fisheries for some years are discussed and compared with corresponding values of rainfall, with results which appear to support the hypothesis brought forward. It would of course be easy to suggest difficulties, such as the ex- tension of the current régime observed in fjords to areas which can hardly be regarded as such, and may _ there- fore have a different system of movements. But as the whole question is at present under investigation on the large scale by the International Council, we content our- selves with an attempt to summarise Dr. Nordgaard’s results, deferring fuller discussion of them until the more abundant data are available. A NEW SLIDE RULE. M EssRs. JOHN DAVIS AND SON, of Derby, the well known instrument makers, are bringing out a variation of the slide rule which is likely to increase its value for certain classes of calculation without interfering with the simplicity and convenience of the form with which we are all familiar. The lower groove on the outside of the rule, which ordinarily is only wide enough to hold the inturned edge of the cursor, is made wider, so as to take one of the tongues of a spare slide, and this slide is held in place when required by two light aluminium clips which grasp the ends of the rule and of the spare slide while leaving the usual slide free to move. An extra cursor is also provided which is long enough to grasp both the rule and the extra slide. By this means any rare or special scales upon the extra slide are for the time being equivalent to scales upon the rule, and these may be read against scales upon the other slide by means of the long cursor. If desired, the extra slide can take the place of the ordinary slide, or may be removed altogether when the rule, if provided with an ordinary cursor adapted to the altered lower groove, becomes an ordinary slide rule. In the example submitted, the extra slide carries what are called E and —E scales. The E scale is a log log scale, and is always being re-invented ; it was called a P line or power line by Lieut. Thomson, who showed it at the Inventions Exhibition, and it was long before invented by Dr. Roget. This P or E line is very handy, for it at once enables the logarithm of any number on any scale, i.e. to any base, to be read accord- ing to its position against an ordinary A line, while frac- tional or high powers of numbers are read with equal facility. Compound interest, pressures and volumes of gases under isothermal or adiabatic conditions are readily evaluated with the aid of the E line read against an A line. If, however, a pair of E slides are used, one in the usual position and one attached below the rule by means of the clips, then against any value, say of v, on one, the cursor will show the value of vY on the other, y having any desired value according to the relative position of the two slides. The slide rules made by Messrs. Davis and Son are too well known for their accuracy and finish for it to be necessary to refer more to such points, but by some curious perversity or accident there is one little fault in the rule sent for examination which only needs to be pointed out to be put right. On the feather edge a scale of inches in 16ths is provided; on the lower face outside the rule there is no scale at all, while inside, to be used like a hat measure, there is a scale of millimetres beginning at 550. If, therefore, the rule is required for the prosaic but very useful purpose of measuring a length, this can only be measured in inches if it is 20 inches or less, or in milli- metres if it lies between 550 and 1040 millimetres. If, 40 therefore, the bald outside edge were divided in milli- metres, the whole range would be available for metric measurement, and if the lower half of the space at the back of the slide now empty were divided in inches, hat measurements from 20 to 41 inches would complete the range for the English scale. CP VB: UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CampripGe.—Mr. Frederick Willin, Wood, Wadhurst, Sussex, proposes to found a studentship in memory of his son, Mr. Anthony Wilkin, late of King’s College, and for this purpose he proposes to make over to the university the tithe rent charge on Wadhurst Parish. This benefaction is for the furtherance of ethnological and archeological research, and the holder is to be termed “The Anthony Wilkin Student.’’ It is proposed that the student shall be selected by the board of anthropological studies; the income is estimated at about 4ol. a year, and the board suggests that this should be accumulated for periods of five years in order that a substantial sum of about 2001. may be available for the selected candidate. The first studentship will be offered in 1910. Mr. W. W. Watts, of Sidney Sussex College, Wile, Vals NW Oldham, of King’s College, Mr. A. R. Hinks, of Trinity College, and Mr. G. G. Chisholm have been appointed examiners for part ii. of the examination for the diploma in geography. A combined examination of non-resident candidates for open scholarships, exhibitions, &c., will be held at Trinity College, Clare College, Trinity Hall, Peterhouse, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, beginning on Tuesday, December 5. Forms of application for admission to the examination may be obtained from any of the tutors of Trinity College, the senior tutor of Clare College, the tutor of Trinity Hall, the senior tutor of Peterhouse, or the master of Sidney Sussex College, to one of whom the form of application (when filled up), together with cer- tificates of birth and of moral character, should be sent. Entries should be made not later than November 23. of Lower Consley A TEACHING observatory will, it is reported by Science, be established by the Ontario Government at the University of Toronto. Dr. C. A. Chant expects to visit the observ- atories of the United States to study their plans and methods. A CONFERENCE of scientific students was held at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, on April 28 and 29, and re- presentatives of leading universities and colleges were present. A number of papers upon subjects relating to the scientific problems of the Rocky Mountain country were read. A similar conference, held a year ago at the same institution, was of such importance that it led to this second series of meetings. With the view of making the municipal museum a centre of education in the broad principles of natural science, the Hull authorities have arranged with the curator, Mr. T. Sheppard, for the delivery by him of simple lectures to school children on geology, zoology, and anthropology. The lectures are given in the mornings by arrangement. Permission for pupils to visit the museum must be obtained from the clerk of the education committee. Each lecture lasts about half an hour, and is illustrated by objects from the cases. The remainder of the morning is occupied in examining the specimens, taking notes, and making sketches. Mr. A. C. Benson contributes to the National Review an important article on an Eton education. Mr. Benson, though a classicist, is by no means satisfied with the exist- ing state of educational matters at Eton. Describing the average boy who leaves Eton, Mr. Benson says :—‘ The basis of his education has been, as a rule, the classical basis; that is to say, the greater part of his working hours have been devoted to Latin and Greek. A small percentage of fair classical scholars and a still smaller sprinkling of distinguished classicists is the result. But the average boy leaves Eton with no mastery of either of these languages. NO. 1854, VOL. 72| NATURE [May 11, 1905 He cannot, as a rule, construe at sight an easy passage in either, or turn a piece of English into either language without a large crop of mistakes.’’ In another place Mr. Benson states that the boy ‘‘ never reaches the stage at which classics become literature.”’ He urges that for the large class of boys who are not intended for the university, the strictly classical programme might be with advantage modified. Mr. Benson believes that a boy who left school with a thorough knowledge of French, ‘‘ who knew the elements of science, so as to be able to understand some- thing of what was going on in the world around him, in heaven and earth and sea, in field and wood,’’ who knew arithmetic and had a reasonable knowledge of geography and history, would leave school a fairly educated man. Mr. Benson would have a very simple core of education on the lines just indicated, and then any evidence of special capacity, linguistic, mathematical, scientific, or historical, should be carefully observed, and at a certain age a boy’s studies should converge more closely upon a special sub- ject, care being taken at the same time that the general education should not be neglected. A vaLuaBLe address was delivered by Prof. A. Pedler, F.R.S., Vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta, and Director of Public Instruction with the Government of Bengal, at the recent convocation of the Senate of the university for conferring degrees. During the course of his remarks, Prof. Pedler said that fifty years ago uni- versity education in Bengal had no existence, the doors of western learning had not been opened, and the knowledge of western science was absolutely beyond the reach of any- one in the country. During the last half-century the possibilities of obtaining western knowledge and western culture, and the facilities for higher education, have been rapidly developed, until a whole network of educational institutions has been spread over Bengal. Inquiring as to whether the form of education being given to the people is affecting them in the most satisfactory way, Prof. Pedler came to the conclusion that it is not. The arrangements he said, are wanting in concentration of effort, in thorough- ness of method, and in the intelligent appreciation of means to ends. After instituting a comparison between what has been accomplished in Japan and in Bengal, he came to the conclusion that the secret of the brilliant success of university education in Japan is to be found in the observ- ance of certain cardinal principles, viz. patience in obtain- ing results; thoroughness in work; concentration of uni- versity work in a few really well equipped and strongly staffed colleges, each institution being devoted to one special section of learning, which is taught thoroughly ; adaptation of the courses to the practical wants of life and of modern civilisation, as exemplified by the large proportion of graduates who elect the practical rather than literary courses of study; originality as shown by the large number of young men who undertake research work, and also shown by the large number of original contributions in science. In the future, Prof. Pedler remarked, it will be necessary in Bengal to adopt all these principles and to adhere to them with uncompromising tenacity, if university work is to be placed on a really satisfactory footing. The principles could also be applied with profit to a large part of the work of our own educational institutions. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Geological Society, April 19.—Mr. H. B. Woodward, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair—The Blea Wyke beds and the Dogger in north-east Yorkshire: R. H. Rastall. The author describes the type-section at Blea Wyke in detail, dividing the rocks into the following divisions, enumerated in descending order :—(5) Dogger; (4) yellow beds; (3) Serpula beds; (2) Lingula beds; (1) Striatulus shales. Descriptions and fossil lists from these divisions are given, and the succession is compared with others.— Notes on the geological aspect of some of the north-eastern territories of the Congo Free State: G. F. J. Preumont, with petrological notes by J. A. Howe. This paper is a brief sketch of the geological structure of the northern part of the Congo State, from Buta on the. River Rubi and Bima May 11, 1905} NATURE 47 on the Uelle in the west, to Lado and Dufile on the Nile. In the whole of this region, the only post-Primary rocks met with, other than those of comparatively modern alluvial origin, were chocolate-coloured shales (Buta Shales) and sandstone, and an Oolitic limestone, on the extreme west. From the Lipodongu Falls on the Rubi, and thence through Poko to Rungu, on the Bomokandi River, none but granitic rocks (gneisses) were observed. Along the Uelle, from Bima to Bomokandi, the same rocks were seen. In the centre of the region mica-schists, quartzites, and similar metamorphic rocks replace the granite wholly or in part. A noticeable feature here is the presence of a range of isolated hills, composed almost completely of great beds of magnetite and hamatite occurring in the schistose series. In the south-eastern portion of the region visited, between the Uelle-Kimbali and Bomokandi rivers, a great plutonic massif is laid bare in the mountainous district of Arebi. The plutonic massif itself contains microclinic gneiss, and abundant diabasic rocks, and the same rocks in all stages of dynamo-metamorphism. On the boundary between the Congo State and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, several hills made up of rocks of coarse gneissose and schistose character are described; some of these rocks are rich in tourmaline, kyanite, and garnet in large crystals. From the region of the Enclave de Lado and the western side of the Nile between Lado and Dufile, mica-schists, quartzites, and microcline-gneisses are described. The alluvium of a large part of the Uelle is covered, on the higher ground, by a deposit of limonitic conglomerate; in places this may be due to the decomposition in situ of the alluvium, but in the neighbourhood of the iron-mountains a sort of passage may be seen between a conglomerate of fresh iron-ores and the more general type of limonitic conglomerate (laterite ?). Paris. Academy of Sciences, May 1.—M. Troost in the chair.— New researches on chemical combination: M. Bertheiot. Various substances were sealed up in fused quartz tubes, heated for one hour at 1300° C. in an electric furnace, and suddenly cooled by dropping into water. Nitrogen and hydrogen gave no trace of ammonia; ammonia was com- pletely split up into its constituents, and the stability was not increased by the presence of hydrochloric acid. The latter gas, heated alone, was not decomposed, and hydrogen sulphide behaved similarly if the cooling was slow, but showed evidence of dissociation into hydrogen and sulphur with instantaneous cooling.—On the permeability of tubes of fused silica: M. Berthelot. At the ordinary tempera- ture, no hydrogen will pass through the walls of a fused quartz tube, even into a barometric vacuum, and even at 600° to 800° no appreciable amount passes through. At 1300° C., on the other hand, the amount transpired is considerable. Neither hydrochloric acid nor carbon dioxide get through at 1300° C.; the transpiration of nitrogen is not sensible at 600° C., very slight at too0° C., becoming marked at 1300° C. to 1400° C. Some preliminary experiments with glass at lower temperatures appear to show similar effects, and these observations are being continued.—The action of mercuric iodide on sulphuric acid and on the sulphates of mercury: Alfred Ditte.—On the earthquake of April 29: M. Mascart. The seismograph at Bagnéres-de-Bigorre showed horizontal vibrations at 2h. 1m. 20s., whilst the same oscillation was indicated at Grenoble at rh. 59m. 15s., a difference of time corresponding to the rate of transmission through the ground.—On the triboluminescence of arsenious acid: M. Guinchant. The light given off by arsenious acid is due to the breaking and transformation of the crystals after their formation. The radiations are actinic, and are with- out any effect on the electroscope. Similar phenomena taking place during the reduction of hypochlorites and hypobromites are described, the effects in this case being attributed to the production and decomposition of haloid compounds of nitrogen.—On the physical impossibility of putting in evidence the motion of translation of the earth : P. Langevin. In a discussion of an experiment by Trouton and Noble it is proved that it ought to give a negative result for all orders of approximation and what- ever system of suspension be employed for the condenser. NO. 1854, VOL. 72] —QOn the heat of vaporisation of liquefied Mathias.—Heat in the displacement of a capillary sy M. Ponsot.—On the difference in temperature of bodies in contact ; E. Regowski. Fine wires of different diameters were heated by an electric current, and cooled by water flowing at known rates. The temperature of the wire was measured by means of its electrical resistance, and the difference of temperature between the wire and the cooling water determined as a function of the rate of flow of the water and of the diameter of the wire.—The preparation of anhydrous chlorides of the metals of the rare earths: Camille Matignon. The solid material obtained by the evaporation of the solution of the oxide in hydrochloric acid is heated in a current of chlorine and hydrochloric acid gas charged with the vapours of chloride of sulphur. It is possible to obtain in this way very rapidly either large or small quantities of anhydrous chlorides. Par- ticulars are given with analyses showing the purity of the products, of the chlorides of lanthanum, neodidymium, praseodidymium, samarium, and yttrium.—On cesium amide: E. Rengade. The amide is prepared by the action of dry ammonia upon the fused metal at 120° C., the purity of the product being fixed by the determination of the amount of hydrogen evolved. The amide dissolves readily in liquid ammonia, and the solution absorbs oxygen at —60° C. giving a precipitate, the hydroxide and nitrite of czsium being formed, together with ammonia.—On a new reagent for potassium: Eugenio Pinerua Alvarez. The reagent proposed is a 5 per cent. solution of sodium amido-naphthol sulphonate.—On the conditions of develop- ment of the mycelium of Morchella: G. Fron. ‘The mycelium of this edible mushroom requires for its strong growth plenty of hydrocarbon food, inulin and starch being especially favourable; the mineral food is of less import- ance.—Calcium nitrate in agriculture: E. S. Bellenoux. The author proposes to replace nitrate of soda by the nitrate of calcium, and gives results of comparative trials of the two showing the superiority of the latter as a manure.—The variation of the osmotic pressure in muscle caused by contraction: Stéphane Leduc. It is shown ex- perimentally that an elevation of the osmotic pressure in a muscle is a consequence of contraction, the rise of the pressure being more marked as the stimulations are more prolonged.—The variations undergone by glucose, glycogen, fat, and soluble albumens in the course of the metamor- phoses in the silkworm: C. Vaney and F. Maignon.— On a combination of methzmoglobin containing fluorine : H. Ville and E. Derrien. In a previous paper the authors have shown that the addition of fluorine compounds to a solution of methzmoglobin causes a marked change in the absorption spectrum, and they were thus led to the conclusion that a definite compound might possibly be produced. This compound has been isolated in the crystalline form, details of its preparation and properties being given in the present note.—Philocatalase and anticatalase in animal tissues : F. Battelli and Mile. L. Sterm.—On the action of formic acid in nervous diseases accompanied with trembling: E. Clément. The use of formic acid has been attended with great success in certain cases.—The volcanic regions traversed by the Sahara expedition: F. Foureau and Louis Gentil. gases : New Souta WaALtgs. Linnean Society, March 29.— Mr. T. Steel, president, im the chair.—The botany of north-western New South Wales : F. Turner. The characteristics of the indigenous vegeta- tion and the exotic weeds of the country lying between the New South Wales-Queensland border and 33° S. lat., and 147° and 151° 20’ E. long., are discussed. The census of the phanerogams and vascular cryptogams given comprises a total of 452 genera and 1137 species——Contribution to our knowledge of the physiology of the pancreas: H. G. Chapman. The conclusions arrived at in this paper, which is a preliminary communication, may be summarised as follows :—(1) secretins from the echidna, wallaby, Australian water-tortoise, and ibis are active upon the dog in causing a flow of pancreatic juice; (2) secretin does not appear to cause pancreatic secretion in the echidna; (3) the flow of pancreatic juice produced by pilocarpine is inhibited by atropine, while the flow produced by secretin is not so 48 NATURE [May 11, 1905 inhibited; (4) stimulation of the vagus nerve does not inhibit the secretion due to secretin; (5) the pressure under which the fluid is secreted in the pancreatic duct is equi- valent to 9 inches of the juice; (6) pancreatic juice may be activated by leucocytes so that it acts upon proteids. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, May 11. Rovat Society, at 4, Election of Fellows.—At 4.30, On the Resemblances existing between the*‘Plimmer's Bodies” of Malignant Growths and certain Normal Constituents of Reproductive Cells of Animals: Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S., J. E. S. Moore, and C. E. Walker.—The Effect of Plant Growth and of Manures upon the Soil; the retention of Bases by the Soil: A. D. Hall and Dr. N. H. J. Miller.—A Study of the Process of Nitrification with Reference to the Purification of Sewage: Miss H. Chick.—Pathological Report on the Histology of Sleeping Sickness and Trypanosomiasis; with a Comparison of the Changes found in Animals infected with 7. gamdzense and other Trypanosomata: Dr. A. Breinl.— (x) The Experimental Treatment of Trypanosomiasis in_ Animals ; (2) Remarks on Mr. Plimmer’s Note on the Effects produced in Rats by the Trypanosomata of Gambian Fever and Sleeping Sickness: Dr. Wolferstan Thomas. Roya INSTITUTION, at 5.—Flame: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. Society oF ARTS, at 4.30.—The Manufactures of Greater Britain. India: H. J. Tozer. INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, H. L. Webb. ee p SoctotocicaL Sociery, at 8.15.—Some Guiding Principles in the Philosophy of History: Dr. J. H. Bridges. ; , MaTHEMATICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30.—On the Intersections of two Conic Sections: J. A. H. Johnston.—On a System of Conics yielding Operators which Annihilate a Cubic and its Bearing on the Reduction of the Cubic to the Sum of four Cubes: H. G. Dawson.—High Pellian Factorisations : Lt.-Col. A. Cunningham. FRIDAY, May 12. Rovat INSTITUTION, at 9.—The Pressure due to Radiation : Prof. E. F. Nichols. Puysicat Soctety, at 8.—A Simple Method of Determining the Radiation Constant ; suitable fora Laboratory Experiment : Dr. A. D. Denning. — A Bolometer for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation: Prof. H. L Callendar, F.R.S.—The Resistance of a Conductor the Measure of the Current flowing through it: W. A. Price. MAaLaco.ocicaL Society, at 8.—Note on Helrx fellita, Fér., and other Shells from the Pleistocene Cave-deposits of East Crete : Rev. R. Ashing- ton Bullen.—Notes on Recent Spanish Shells from Granada and Carmona : Rey. R. Ashington Bullen.—Description of a new Species of Vitrea from Greece ; E. A. Smith.—Descriptions of new Forms of Marginellide and Pleurotomidz :; E. R. Sykes. Roya ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.—Discuseion of the Observations of the Satellite of Neptune made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the years 1902-3-4 : F. W. Dyson and D. J. R. Edney.—Further Note onthe Density and Prolateness of Close Binary Stars : A. W. Roberts.— On Hansen's Coefficients for the Inequalities in the Moon's Longitude: kK. Nevill.—A Supposed Instance of Sudden Change on Jupiter: Major P. B. Molesworth.—Optical Distortion of the Object Glass of the Astro- graphic Telescope, deduced from Measures of the Eros Photographs, Communicated by the Astronomer Royal : Royal Observatory, Greenwich. —Promised Papers: On the Formula for Connecting Photographic Diameters with Stellar Magnitudes : H. H. Turner.—The Determination of Stellar Proper Motions without Reference to Meridian Observations : A. R. Hinks.—-Notes on the Use of Thorp Gratings for Eclipse Work : Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer. SATURDAY, May 13. Rovat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Moulds and Mouldiness : Ward, F.R.S. III. at 8.—Telephone Traffic: Prof. Marshall MONDAY, May 1s. Society oF Arts, at 8.—The Uses of Electricity in Mines: H. W. Ravenshaw. Royarj GROGRAPHICAL SociETy, at 8.30,—Exploration and Survey in =Central Tibet and to the Sources of the Brahmaputra: Captain C. H. D. Ryder. Vicrorta INSTITUTE, at 4.30.—The Messiah of Quadian: The Rev. Dr. Griswold. TUESDAY, May 16. Roya. INSTITUTION, at 5.—The Study of Extinct Animals: Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S. Roya STaTisTIcaL SOCIETY, at 5. Zoo.LoGcicaL Society, at 8.30.—A Contribution to the Knowledge of the Encephalic Arterial System in Sauropsida: F, E. Beddard.—On Stridu- lating Halyinz. with Descriptions of New Genera and Species: Dr. E. Bergroth.—On the Classification of the Anthropoid Apes as Proposed by the Hon. Walter Rothschild: Sir Harry Johnston. Society or ARTs, at 8.—Excavation of the Oldest Temple at Thebes: H. R. Hall. WEDNESDAY, May 17. Society Or Arts, at 8.—The Use of Wood Pulp for Paper Making: S. Charles Phillips. Royat Microscopicat Society, at 8.—The Movements of Diatoms and other Microscopic Plants; D, D. Jackson.—Exhibition of Slides of the Oribatidz. Rovat METEOROLOGICAL SOcIETY, at 4.30.—Measurement of Evapora- tion; R. Strachan.—Logarithmic Slide-Rule for reducing Readings of the Barometer to Sea-level: Dr. J. Ball. CHEMICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30.—The Chlorination of Methyl Derivatives of Pyridine. Part I. 2-Methyl Pyridine: W. J. Sell.—The Absorption NO. 1854, VOL. 72] Spectra of Uric Acid, Murexide and the Ureides in Relation to Colour and to their Chemical Structure: W. N. Hartley.—Further Studies on Dihydroxymaleic Acid: H. J. H. Fenton.—The Thermal Decomposition of Formaldehyde and Acetaldehyde : W. A, Bone and H, L. Smith.—The Synthesis of Formaldehyde: D. L. Chapman and A. Holt, Jun.—The Influence of Light on Diazo-reactions. Preliminary Notice: K. J. P. Orton, J. E. Coates, and (in part) F. Burdett. THURSDAY, May 18. Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Pvobable Papers: On Lesage’s Theory of Gravitation and the Repulsion of Light: Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S.— The Atomic Weight of Chlorine; an Attempt to Determine the Equiva- lent of Chlorine by burning with Hydrogen: Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., and E. C. Edgar.—The Flow of the River Thames in Relation to British Pressure and Rainfall: Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B,, F.R.S., and Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer.—Thorianite, a. New Mineral, from Ceylon: Prof W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., and G. S. Blake.—The Elastic Properties of Steel at High Temperatures: Prof. B. Hopkinson and F. Rogers.—Modified Apparatus for the Measurement of Colour, and its Application to the Determination of the Colour Sensations: Sir William de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S. —Further,Observations on the Germination of the Seed of the Castor Oil Plant (Aiczmus eommunis): Prof. J. Reynolds Green, F.R.S., and H. Jackson.—On the Efferent Relationship of the Optic Thalamus and Deiter's Nucleus to the Spinal Cord. with Special Reference to the Cerebellar Influx Theory (Hiighlings Jackson) and the Genesis of Decerebrate Rigidity (Sherrington): Dr. F. H. Thiele.—On Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles. Eighth Note: Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S.—The Structure and Function of Nerve Fibres : Prof. J. S. Macdonald.—On the Occurrence of Anopheles (Myzomyia Listoni in Calcutta: Major A. Alcock, C.I.E., F.R.S., and Major J. R. Adie, Roya. INSTITUTION, at 5.—Flame: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. Socisty or ARTS, at 4 30.—Plague in India: Dr. C. Creighton. Farapay Society, at 8.—An Application to Electrolytes of the Hydrate Theory of Solutions: T. M. Lowry. FRIDAY, May 10. Roya INSTITUTION, ato.—The Native Races of the British East Africa Protectorate : Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 8.30. SATURDAY, May 20. Roya. InsTiTuTION, at 3.—The Evolution of the Kingship in Early Society: Dr. J. G. Frazer. CONTENTS. PAGE Flow of Underground and River Waters... .. . 25 A New American Work on the Calculus. By Prof. George M. Minchin; EJRISi-) nnn ee Serum) Diagnosis:; (BycA rh. 2 5 eens ie nen 7] History of Pharmacy. By T, A. H. ee a eee Our Book Shelf :— “* Guide to the Gallery of Birds in the British Museum.” —R. L. ar wire coy eho eS aj ak 2) Holleman: ‘*‘A Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners”)... 2-2 5 7 eees Kronthal: ‘‘ Metaphysik in der Psychiatrie” .. . . 29 Simon : ‘‘ A Textbook of Physiological Chemistry” . 29 Flammarion : ‘‘ Astronomy for Amateurs” 29 Letters to the Editor :— Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George Stokes.—Prof. J. Larmor, F.R.S....... . 29 The Transposition of Zoological Names.—Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. . VUNG. Pe, ales. hone Reem Modern Algebra.—A. B. Basset, F.R.S..... . 30 Current Theories of the Consolidation of the Earth.— IBY WE Yo Ife See 30 Notes on Stonehenge. VI.—On the Solar Observ- ations made in British Stone Circles. (///ustrated.) By Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B.,F.RS.... 32 South African Geology. (Ji/ustrated.) By Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole The Naumann Festival at Céthen. By Prof. Alfred 3 Newton, F.R.S. thee Gi Rs Bibra, Ue eS Dr. J. E. Dutton. 5 rep le Li mS oe Notes! (Z//ustrated:)nn 2 38 Our Astronomical Column ;— Eyphemeris for GometslQos ize) ene eentT Comets 1905 II (1904 e) and 1904 I NS Pras Observations of Jupiter . siete! ty We ey een Ag The Electric Charge ofthe Sun... | eee as Variability of Minor Planet (15), Eunomia . .. . . 43 Faintness of Planetary Nebule .......2.2.. 43 The Cowthorpe Oak. (//lustrated.)......... Fishery Investigations in the Norwegian Fjords . . 45 AMNew Slide Feule sp By) Calvi -5 een enna University and EducationalIntelligence. .... 46 Societies and Academies DiaryiOsiS@cleties a. . value. In the Royal Society range a gneissic plat- form was found, probably of Archean age, and above it in order are granites, sandstone, andi basalt. The granites are, according to Mr. Ferrar, of two ages; the sandstone is 2000 feet thick, while the basalt caps the sandstone, forming plateaux which have been dis- sected by denudation, and probably also broken up At the base of the basalt a thin carbon- -O 55 aceous seam, not more than one-eighth of an inch in thickness, was found. This seam yielded carbon- aceous matter which it is agreed must be due to vegetation, but the plant remains are beyond identification. unfortunately NATURE [May 18, 1905 being scars inflicted that few skins escape by the killer whale. collected much valuable material doubtful species of birds, especially cases like the emperor and king penguins and the white-winged where in the adults it is hard reason the unsightly The expedition with regard to and royal albatrosses, With regard to questions of climate, it is more necessary to await the full dis- cussion of the observations, but a number of interesting points have already cropped up. The smoke from Mount Erebus blew almost persistently to the east, but every record of the Ross Expedition de- scribes it going to the west. At the Discovery’s winter quarters as the prevailing winds were south- easterly ; the observers are strongly of opinion that this is a_ local phenomenon. Captain Scott’s general conclusions are to the effect that the prevailing direction of the surface winds is west-by- south throughout the winter, and more southerly during summer; and that there no snowfall ex- cept in the summer and on the rare is occasions when the wind blows almost due south. These snow- bearing winds were warm, rising to a temperature of 10° C. to 15° C. even in the depth of winter. Their occurrence seems somewhat difficult of explanation, but they obviously have a very important bearing on the relation of tempera- ture and quantity of moisture in causing glacial periods, and modifying their intensity. In describing the distribution of Antarctic seals, Dr. Wilson records that the Weddell seal was the one most often met with near the land. The expedition Fic. 3.—Pinnacled ice flosting in McMurdo Bay, made an addition to the list which Dr. Wilson thinks “will prove to be a wanderer from the Southern Ocean islands, representing the now rare sea-elephant of the M’Quaries.’? Dr. Wilson thinks little of the prospects of the Antarctic seal-fishery, notwithstanding the increased demand for skins of hair-seals, the chief NO. 1855, VOL. 72] ers Reece 2 neers = Sebo LI OVS ARS Fic. 4 —Emperor Penguin Rookery. to find specific differences, the chicks are quite distinct. although Pe srhaps the most significant point in Mr. Hodg- son’s report is that, contrary to expectation, it was found that outdoor biological work could be carried on all the year round, ‘‘ and that even with comfort.’’ As a result, a continuous daily routine left no time for examining the material collected. Everything goes to show that animal life is very abundant in the southern seas, and a predominant feature is the enormous quantity of sponges. One organism, regarded as a Nemertine, though suspected to be something else, appeared when it arrived frozen at the ship to be ‘“close on 20 feet long, of a light brown colour, and about the diameter of an ordinary boot- lace.”? In summarising the observations on the sea ice, Captain Colbeck has ‘Sno hesitation in saying that the pack should be entered between long. 178° and 180° E., as early in December as possible.’ THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. ME: CHAMBERLAIN, in moving a vote of thanks ' ta the Lord Chancellor—who as Warden of the University of, Birmingham gave an address in Birmingham on May 13—delivered a speech empha- sising the importance to the nation of higher scientific [ees During his remarks Mr. Chamberlain | directed attention to the fact that the University of May 18, 1905] NATURE 3) Birmingham is indebted to the local authority for an income of 60001. a year, and referred regretfully to the circumstance that the neighbouring local authori- ties have not contributed very largely to the funds | of the university. It must be admitted that the con- tribution of the city of Birmingham to its university is a handsome tribute to the value attached by the local authority to university instruction, and we join with the Chancellor of the university in hoping that suitable sums of money will be devoted in the near future by local authorities in adjoining areas to the purposes of higher education in the Midlands. It is, however, to be regretted that Mr. Chamber- lain made no reference on this occasion to the im- portant principle—a principle he has conceded already more than once—that higher education, especially in science, is primarily a national charge. As was pointed out in the issue of Narure for March 16, the present State grant to the University of Birmingham is 4500l., an amount which compares unfavourably with the sum voted by the local city authority. Pre- siding at the annual meeting of the court of governors of the university on February 6 of this year, Mr. Chamberlain remarked :— - ““T may say in passing that the liberality of the local contribution is a ground for the claim which we make for some further State support. It is something that we have found that the Government are becoming alive to our needs and to our deserts, and that they have been able to double the sum _ previously given for university education. But we may bear in mind at the same time that the present Chancellor of the Exchequer has promised to double it again in his next Budget, and, therefore, I anticipate that from that source we shall receive a very considerable addition. I do not at all accept it as in any way a satisfacti8n of our demands, because it is my con- viction that public opinion will soon insist upon larger sums being devoted to this purpose. When I think that we are spending thirteen millions a year at least on primary education I say the sum now given for the purpose of the highest education, the most profitable of all the investments we can make in that direction, is altogether inadequate.”’ If it were necessary many similar quotations could be made from Mr. Chamberlain’s speeches, for he has always maintained enthusiastically the value of higher education, and recognised, at least in theory, the duty of the State to provide for it adequate financial assist- ance. It is noteworthy, indeed, that on the part of our leading statesmen there is an almost complete unanimity of opinion as to the paramount importance of higher scientific training for the citizens of a nation which expects to occupy a foremost place in the industrial and commercial pursuits of the world. The Lord Chancellor said in speaking to the under- graduates at Birmingham on Saturday last, that in his judicial capacity he has noticed that ‘* the number of patents invented in Germany and brought over to England is very large indeed; the German Govern- ment has contemplated the improvement of its national resources by physical, chemical, and other scientific research, and has established places for physical investigation.”’ Lord Halsbury might also have pointed out the amount of State aid to universi- ties afforded in Germany. The yearly sum, found chiefly by the State, for the upkeep of the University of Berlin is 130,000l., and six other universities each receive from the same source annual sums varying from 56,0001. to 37,0001. It will be remembered that Sir Norman Lockyer said in his address in 1903, as president of the British Association, that the State does really concede the principle that higher education should be a national responsibility, by its contribution to our universities and colleges. Since that address was delivered the No. 1855, VOL. 72] grant to university colleges has been increased, and it may now be said that the Treasury provides for higher education of the whole country something like the amount that is given by the State to the Uni- versity of Berlin alone. But in face of the fact that we have the concession by the Government of the principle we have main- tained consistently in these columns, that university education, of the modern kind at least, should be provided by the State; and that our statesmen profess to appreciate the value of higher scientific study so far as our national welfare is concernéd, and to trace to their colleges and laboratories for research the success of other nations competing with us in the struggle for national existence; no serious and states- manlike action is talken by our Government to place our system of higher education upon a broad and generous foundation. Despite years of earnest advocacy by men of science, and repeated object lessons abroad of the advantages which early follow national sacrifices on behalf of education, little progress is made by us in the direction of supplying means to provide trained intelligences to perform the work of the country in the world’s markets and manu- factories. Yet, unless something in the direction adumbrated is done, knowing the earnest worls which is being accomplished elsewhere, this country must, so far as industrial and economic prosperity are con- cerned, expect soon to talke a third or fourth place in the competition of the nations. A statesman imbued with the modern spirit, aware of present-day tendencies, possessed of the power of persuasion and clear exposition, would have little difficulty—if he really desired the best interests of the nation—in carrying the country with him by insist- ing that an adequate provision of higher education for those who will manage and control its industrial activities must be made a national charge. OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA. HE seventy-fifth meeting of the British Associa- tion, to be held in South Africa, under the pre- sidency of Prof. G. H. Darwin, in August, promises to be of an unusually interesting character. Though on two previous occasions the association has met in the “ British Dominions beyond the Seas,”’ this is the first on which it will hold its annual meeting in the southern hemisphere and in a part of the British Empire so remote from its headquarters. As early as the year 1900, the possibility of holding such a meeting was discussed by the council of the British Association in consultation with Sir David Gill, who, however, pointed out that the local circum- stances were at that time unfavourable. Two years later, however, Sir David Gill informed. the associ- ation that he was empowered to transmit an invita- tion to visit South Africa in 1905 on behalf of the various Governments, municipal, scientific, and com- mercial bodies in South Africa. Arrangements have now so far advanced as to enable us to give a pre- liminary account of the general features of the meet- ing and its probable character. The invitation was issued on behalf of the above-men- tioned bodies, and substantial financial assistance has been rendered by the South African Governments. The various centres to be visited are also making extensive progress, both financially and by way of private hos- pitality, to render the arrangements workable and adequate. A central organising committee, under the chair- manship of Sir David Gill, has been formed to see to the general arrangements and coordination of the MEETING 60 NATURE [May 18, 1905 work of the different centres to be visited by the asso- ciation, and by means of correspondence, circulars, &c., to keep them in touch with each other and with the executive in England. The centres, which are seven in number, are as fol- lows :—Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Johan- nesburg, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, and Bulawayo. Influential local committees have been formed at all these places, the municipal authorities of which have taken a prominent part both in making general arrangements and in affording financial support. Sub- committees for finance, publications, excursions, and hospitality have been formed at the two chief centres (Cape Town and Johannesburg), and are now engaged in the respective parts of the work allotted to them. At the other centres where a stay of only a day or two is contemplated, special committees have also been formed. Details are as yet uncertain, but the follow- ing may be mentioned, though some of them are sub- ject to slight revision. The officers of the association and invited guests to the number of 200, along with ordinary members, will arrive by the Saxon at Cape Town on August 15, though a number have already booked their passage by steamers arriving at an earlier date. The presi- dential address will be delivered on the evening of the same day in the large new Town Hall, which has been placed at the disposal of the British Association by the municipal authorities of Cape Town, not only for this purpose, but also for the accommodation of the various sections should it prove suitable. The sections will meet for the purpose of reading papers and for discussion on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, August 16, 17, and 18. The afternoons of these days will be partly devoted to excursions to places of interest, such as Table Mountain, Hout Bay, Simons Town, and Royal Observatory. The whole of Satur- day, August 19, will be devoted to excursions. The evenings will probably be devoted to a reception by the Mayor, and two lectures, one by Prof. Poulton on Burchell’s work in South Africa, and another by Mr. C. V. Boys on physics. On Saturday night, August 19, visitors will leave by a special steamer for Durban. In Natal an influential general committee has been formed by the Govern- ment, with local committees at Durban, Pietermaritz- burg, and Ladysmith. On the evening of August 20 a lecture will be delivered at Durban and another on August 24 at Pietermaritzburg. As the reading of papers, discussions, receptions, &c., in Cape Colony will fully occupy all the time of the visitors, it is in- tended to afford as much facility as possible for inde- pendent action on the part of visitors in Natal, and special arrangements will be made by the Natal com- mittee for visiting the battlefields and other places of interest. The sectional work will be again resumed on arrival of the party at Johannesburg on Monday, August 28. There, as at Cape Town, a large and influential local committee has been formed, with subcommittees for finance, hospitality, publication, and excursions. The first-named subcommittee has already met with a ready response, both from the municipal authorities and from private sources, and the other committees are in capable hands. While the natural facilities for excursions to be found near the Cape peninsula are not to be met with here, the interest of the mining operations and gold extracting processes will be an adequate compensation, and a Friday’s visit to Pre- toria will be of special interest. The proceedings will be begun at Johannesburg on Monday evening, August 28, and the presidential address there will be delivered on the Wednesday even- ing. In addition to sectional papers and discussions, there will be two lectures delivered at Johannesburg, NO. 1855, VOL. 72| | workers in these subjects in the country. one on distribution of power by Prof. Ayrton, another on steel as an igneous rock by Prof. Arnold, and one at Pretoria by Prof. Porter on mining. Bloemfontein will be visited on Saturday, September 2. There also an influential local committee has been formed, and preparations are being made for the re- ception of visitors. A lecture will be delivered there on the Saturday night by Mr. A. R. Hinks on an astro- nomical subject. At Kimberley, which will be reached on Tuesday, September 5, a large local committee has been formed, with subcommittees for special objects. | Two lectures will probably be delivered here, one on a zoological sub- ject by Mr. A. E. Shipley, and one on diamonds by Sir William Crookes. The De Beers Company has natur- ally taken a prominent part in the preparations, and will probably make this visit one of the most interest- ing. Through the kindness of the Chartered Company a limited number of members of the British Association will be enabled to proceed from there to the Zambezi, where the Victoria Falls will be visited, and facilities will be afforded for the visit of a select party of special- ists to the ancient ruins of Zimbabwe. A special com- mittee at Bulawayo has been formed to make pre- parations there for the visit. ; Special attention will be directed to certain interest- ing problems connected with the geological formation at the Victoria Falls, and Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, who will go out in advance to study this subject, will probably be able to give the results of his observations in an afternoon address to Section C. Though this meeting of the association will be characterised by the number and variety of the places visited, a special feature will be the study of local scien- tific problems and discussions of a general nature such as fossil reptiles, Antarctica, &c. With this in view the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, with the support of the various Governments, is preparing a handbook, which will be a general re- view of the various branches of scientific activity in South Africa, the articles being contributed by actual The book is now in an advanced stage of preparation, and a copy will be presented to each member of the association before leaving England. SIR BERNHARD SAMUELSON, P.C., BART., F.R.S. us BERNHARD SAMUELSON, F.R.S., who died on May 10 in his eighty-fifth year, will be remembered as one of the pioneers of the Cleveland iron trade, and a strenuous advocate of technical edu- cation. He exerted a great and formative influence upon an industry which owes its progress largely to the application of scientific methods, and the extension of facilities for technical education is largely due to his efforts. Sir Bernhard Samuelson was born on November 22, 1820, and began in 1853 the business which speedily made the Cleveland district the greatest iron-producing centre in the world. Blast furnaces were erected near Middlesbrough, and in 1872-1880 collieries and iron- stone mines were added. Not content with making pig-iron, the manufacture of finished iron was under- taken on an extensive scale, and no less than 25,o00l. were spent in preliminary experiments in steel-making. The Britannia Ironworks at Middlesbrough, covering an area of twenty acres, have grown out of this enter- rise. i He was the author of several reports on technical subjects to the House of Commons, including one on technical education of artisans at home and abroad. May 18, 1905] NATURE 61 This report was undertaken by Sir Bernhard Samuel- son in 1867 at the request of the vice-president of the Committee of Council, and for the purpose of obtain- ing particulars he visited the principal manufacturing centres of Great Britain and the Continent. The re- port was published as a Parliamentary paper, and the Times records that it was for years referred to in all debates on technical education. He followed up this report by a Parliamentary inquiry into the education of the workmen of our manufactories in 1868, and was chairman of the committee, the report of which was adopted by the House of Commons. He was a mem- ber of the Duke of Devonshire’s Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction, which issued a valuable report, and also of the Royal Commission on Elementary Edu- cation, presided over by Viscount Cross. Sir Bernhard Samuelson was appointed chair- man of the Royal Commission on Technical In- struction, the labours of which extended over the years 1882, 1883, and 1884, and embraced an examination into the systems in use in all parts of the United Kingdom and a great por- tion of the Continent of Europe. The exhaustive re- port of the Commission has become the standard authority upon the questions with which it deals. In 1888 he was appointed a member of the Parliamentary Committee for inquiring into the working of the Edu- cation Acts. | For his scientific work, Sir Bernhard Samuelson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1881, and for his many public services he was created a baronet in 1884, and was afterwards made a Privy Councillor. He was a member of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers, and was the recipient, in 1871, of the Telford gold medal for a paper on improvements in iron manufactures. He was a member of the council of the Iron and Steel Institute, of which he occupied the presidential chair for two years. At the annual meeting of the institute held last week, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : ‘““The council have received with the deepest regret the intimation of the death of their esteemed col- league the Right Hon. Sir Bernhard Samuelson, Bart., past-president, P.C., and one of the founders of the institute, and they desire to convey to Lady Samuelson and his family an expression of sincere sympathy in their bereavement. The council feel that it would be difficult to over-rate the services that Sir Bernhard rendered to the Iron and Steel Institute in the promotion of the objects for which it was formed, and they will ever remember with gratitude his constant readiness to devote his time and energies to the advancement of those objects. ”’ De OMmEOw WON “SlRU VE. HE announcement of the death of Dr. Otto von Struve does more than awaken a profound regret. His name recalls a period of past history, and summons up before us the memory of times when astronomy occupied a different position from that it assumes to- day, when it had fewer objects of interest wherewith to attract, and offered fewer problems for solution. Fifty-five years have gone since Otto von Struve re- ceived at the hands of the late Astronomer Royal the medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his paper on precession and solar motion, and sixty-five since the paper was published. Seeing that Struve was born in 1819, he early came into prominence as an astronomer, and the value attached to the results and the confidence inspired by the paper are not a little remarkable, for there were some very obvious objections which might have been taken to the conclusions stated, or at least NO. 1855, VOL. 72 | it appears so when viewed from a later standpoint. Accompanying the paper was also a discussion of the amount and direction of the solar motion. Only four years had elapsed since Argelander had published his paper assigning with some precision the place of the solar apex, and thus perhaps settling a doubt which had long divided astronomical thought. Prevost and Klugel had taken one side of the question, and Burck- hardt and Lindenau led the party who were unwilling to accept the evidence. | Men’s minds were certainly divided as to the possibility of detecting the sun’s motion, and Struve’s paper came at a fortunate moment and strengthened the evidence produced by Argelander, for, based on very different material, Struve’s position scarcely differed two degrees from that assigned by the Abo astronomer. Also, Struve was fairly fortunate in fixing the annual amount of the solar motion at about twice that of the radius of the earth’s orbit. Later investigations have shown that a greater velocity is probable, but he was certainly correct in asserting that the linear motion of the sun appeared to be less than that of stars in general. But it was in the domain of double stars that Otto von Struve won his reputation, and it was in this direction that he exhibited untiring industry. His father at Dorpat, and later at Pulkova, had not only devoted himself with great energy to this branch of astronomy, but had introduced a degree of accuracy into the observations that up to his time had been wanting. Otto von Struve, anxious to uphold the family reputation, was as diligent to detect these objects and as accurate in his observations as was his father before him, though he laboured under some peculiar difficulty as an observer, and was obliged to remove a systematic error which affected his observations by in- troducing a correction depending upon the distance of the component stars-—a correction investigated with great care by means of artificial double stars. ~ From 1861, on the failing health of his father, Otto von Struve became the director of the Imperial Obser- vatory at Pulkova, and in every department maintained the reputation for accuracy the observatory had won. In meridian places of stars, in cometary observations, in geodesy, in spectroscopy, the activity and efficiency of the institution have been everywhere acknowledged. In expeditions, whether for the transit of Venus or for eclipse work, the observatory has displayed its zeal and its desire to cooperate with similar work carried on elsewhere. Instruments have been renewed as needed, and the erection of the 30-inch refractor testifies to the determination to keep the observatory on a level with those best equipped. Under the care of the late director, splendid laboratories have arisen devoted to spectroscopic inquiries, and it is not too much to say that his direction of a world-famous observatory has been of a most enlightened and beneficent character. The recipient of many honours, he retired from the observatory in 1893 to enjoy the repose to which he was so well entitled amid the society of his many friends. NOTES. Tne Croonian lecture of the Royal Society will be delivered by Mr. W. B. Hardy, F-R.S., on Thursday next, May 25, on ‘‘ The Globulins.”’ By the creation of the Committee of Defence, the func- tions and views of which were described by Mr. Balfour in the House of Commons on Thursday last, an expert advisory body has been introduced into the councils of the Government. In the discussion which followed the speech of the Prime Minister, Mr. Haldane remarked that millions of money uselessly expended would have been saved to the 62 country if such a committee had existed years ago. The | address, idea underlying the formation of the committee is that for the handling of great national problems the Government must have expert assistance on a_ scale departmental inquiry cannot supply. Mr. Haldane suggested that it would be to the advantage of the nation if the principle of consultative committees were applied to the scientific organisation of the whole of our executive Government. “‘We shall never get the best service for the State until we cease to assign it merely to departments, until we can find some body to which it can be assigned that will be working under the head of the State himself. The work of the Committee of Defence illustrates the application of a new principle which will be a very familiar one before the country is much older.”’ Tue Jacksonian prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England has been presented to Mr. Herbert J. Paterson. Tue Elisha Kent Kane medal of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia has been awarded to Prof. William B. Scott, of Princeton University. THE seventy-seventh annual meeting of the Society of German Naturalists and Physicians will be held this year at Meran on September 24-30. Tue Prince of Wales, as honorary president of the Royal Statistical Society, has consented to attend the opening meeting of the tenth session of the International Statistical Institute, which is to be held this summer in London. Tue Hanbury gold medal of the Pharmaceutical Society has this year been awarded to Prof. Ernst Schmidt, pro- fessor of pharmaceutical chemistry to the University of Marburg. This medal is awarded biennially for high excel- lence in the prosecution or promotion of original research in the chemistry and natural history of drugs, and Prof. Schmidt is the thirteenth man of science to whom the medal has been awarded. He is the first to receive, with the medal, the sum of 5ol., which is presented to the medallist by Sir Thomas Hanbury, K.C.V.O. WE have been requested by the council of the Society of Arts to give publicity to the following resolution passed at a meeting held on May 8:—‘In view of the feeling which appears to have been aroused amongst some of the proprietors of the London Institution with regard to the proposed amalgamation with the Society of Arts, and the consequent probable difficulties of effecting a harmonious fusion of the two corporations into a single institution, the council of the Society of Arts have decided not to take any further action in the matter, and hereby discharge the committee which, at the instance of the board of managers of the London Institution, they appointed to con- sider the scheme for amalgamation.”’ THE programme has been issued of the optical conven- tion to be held at the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, E.C., from May 30 to June 3, under the presidency of Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., director of the National Physical Laboratory. The list of papers to be read and discussed includes many of great scientific interest and practical value. Among the subjects and authors we notice :—the spectroscope in astronomy, Mr. H. F. Newall, F.R.S. ; spectroscopic optics, Prof. Schuster; polishing of glass surfaces, Lord Rayleigh; parallel plate micrometer, Prof. Poynting; early history of telephotography, Major- General Waterhouse; tri-colour photography, Mr. A. J. Bull; and some directions of progress in optical glass, Mr. W. Rosenhain. The opening NO. 1855, VOL. 72] ceremony, — presidential NATURE {May 18, 1905 and conversazione will be held on Tuesday, May 30. A special lecture will be given by Prof. S. P. Thompson on ‘‘ The Polarisation of Light by Nicol Prisms and their Modern Equivalents ’? on Thursday, June 1. Ox May 20 Dr. J. G. Frazer will deliver at the Royal Institution the first of two lectures on “* The Evolution of the Kingship in Early Society,’’ and on Thursday, May 25, Prof. J. A. Fleming will deliver the first of three lectures on ‘‘ Electromagnetic Waves.’’ These are the Tyndall lectures. On Saturday, June 3, Mr. A. H. Savage Landor will begin a course of two lectures on “ Explor- ation in the Philippines.” The Friday evening discourse on May 26 will be delivered by Prof. J. W. Bruhl on enn Development of Spectrochemistry,’’ on June 2 by Mr. George Henschel on “‘ Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms,’ and on June 9 by Sir William H. White on “* Submarine Navigation.”’ Tue Times announces the death of Lieut.-Colonel L. H. L. Irby at sixty-nine years of age. Throughout his life Colonel Irby took an intense interest in all branches of natural history, ornithology being his favourite subject. In 1875 he published a work on the “ Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar ’’ (south-west Andalucia and northern Morocco), a second edition of which appeared in 1894; and in 1887 appeared his ‘‘ Key List of British Birds,”’ which has proved to be of great utility to all lovers of birds. He was for many years a member of the council of the Zoological Society. He assisted in the formation of the life groups at the British Museum (Natural History), and some of the most remarkable of the cases of British birds there bear his name. Tne deaths are announced of M. Fernet, general honorary inspector of public instruction, and Prof. Victor René Muller, of Le Puy, both physicists. Or the many valuable instruments bequeathed to the French Physical Society by the late M. Félix Worms de Romilly, the most interesting is the telescope bearing .on the glass of its mirror the signature of M. Foucault. An account of this historic instrument is given by M. Cotton in the Bulletin of the French Physical Society (No. 226). The mirror has a diameter of 15-2 em. and a focal length of 68 cm., giving a numerical aperture of about f/4-5. The resolving power is 200,000, giving an angular separ- ation of 1”. This is the only instrument constructed by Foucault with such a large aperture, and it is to be placed in the Observatory after being re-silvered and adjusted by M. Cotton. Paris A BANQUET in aid of the funds of the London School of Tropical Medicine took place at the Hotel Cecil on May to. Mr. Chamberlain, who presided, in proposing ‘ The London School of Tropical Medicine,’’ said he could not conceive of any subject of scientific research and philan- thropic enterprise which was more interesting than tropical diseases, and it was a duty which we owed to the Empire, a duty which had increased in recent years with the con- tinual extension of our territory. He thought we owed first to Sir Patrick Manson the idea of a tropical school. Almost abreast of him, if not before, came the promoters of the Liverpool School. There was room for all in this work, and they congratulated the Liverpool School on the success it had achieved. There was only one thing he envied them, and that was the liberality and energy of their citizens. He wished that in every other institution they could have a man as energetic, as devoted as Sir Alfred Jones. The London School now had accommodation for 4o students, and since its foundation six years ago 503 May 18, 1905] NATURE 63 students had passed through it. John Craggs for founding a scholarship and prize, and Mr. Bomanji Petit, a Parsee gentleman, for a contribution of zoool. The committee now asked for the sum of 100,0001. for endowment, which amount was a mere drop in the bucket in comparison with the Liverpool subscrip- tions. The other speakers were Sir P. Manson, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, M.P.; Lord Strathcona, and the Duke of Marl- borough, and among the 4oo guests were Lord Rothschild, Sir Douglas Powell, Sir T. Barlow, the Hon. Holland, Sir Alfred Jones, Prof. Blanchard, Prof. Dunstan, the Hon. John Cockburn, Major Ronald Ross, Sir A. W. Rticker, Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, Sir W. S. Church, and Mr. Watson Cheyne. Subscriptions and donations to the amount of more than 10,000]. were received. They had to thank Sir Sydney Tue visit of the French doctors to London last summer that a return visit of their British confréres to Paris was arranged, and the party arrived on May 10. The proceedings commenced with an evening reception at the Sorbonne. M. Ziard, president of the university council, and Dr. Bouchard, Sir William Broad- bent, chairman of the London executive committee, Prof. Clifford Allbutt, of Cambridge, and Dr. George Ogilvie, senior physician to the French Hospital, London, changed mutually congratulatory speeches. The extensive and beautiful university buildings were thrown open, and were much admired. On Saturday the visitors attended a reception at the Pasteur Institute. Dr. Roux, the director of the establishment, welcomed the visitors in a short speech, in which he recalled the great rendered to Pasteur by Lister. In the crypt of the insti- tute, the dean of the medical faculty of the University of London, Dr. J. K. Fowler, laid a wreath Pasteur’s tomb bearing the following inscription :— ““ A ce grand Pasteur, le bienfaiteur de la race humaine.”’ In the course of his address Dr. Fowler is reported by the Paris correspondent of the Times to have said :—‘‘ We ‘desire to offer a tribute of our profound admiration for the great Frenchman whose noble life and example will ever be an inspiration to those who, like him, are devoted to the cause of science. The discoveries of Pasteur alone would suffice to give the nineteenth century a preeminent place in the annals of science. Science knows no frontiers ; it unites in a common brotherhood all who devote their lives to its service. ‘Those who humbly follow, no matter at how great a distance, in the footsteps of Pasteur help to unite the peoples of the world. We are convinced that the friendship between France and Great Britain will ever continue to increase in cordiality, and that the two nations will work in accord for the advancement of science and will only strive for the attainment of one noble aim, the peace of the world.’’ On Saturday evening a banquet was held under the presidency of Prof. Bouchard, who, after reading a congratulatory telegram from M. _ Loubet, announced that he had received from the President of the Republic the mission to bestow upon Sir William Broad- bent the insignia of the rank of Commander of the Legion -of Honour. was so successful ex- services upon A Reuter telegram from Berlin reports that in the course of excavations in the neighbourhood of Breslau 400 graves and 150 prehistoric dwelling places were brought to light. The oldest of the graves contained bones dating from a period previous to the Bronze age, and in another grave near by were found urns showing that they had contained bodies interred five centuries later. The excavators have been able to trace the site of a village NO. 1855, vol. 72] About a dozen huts are clearly recog- collection of spinning and of the Bronze age. nisable. A whole appliances has also been dug up. weaving Pror. F. A. Foret, writing from Morges, directs our attention to an earthquake which occurred on April 29 last. The centre of the disturbance appears to have been in the neighbourhood of Martigny, Argentiere, and Chamonix, and its intensity at the centre was vili. on the Rossi-Forel The time of the principal shock was April 29, th. 45m. Greenwich time. radius, and included 200,000 square kilometres, comprising Valais, western, central, and eastern Switzerland, upper Italy, and western France. Further shocks were experienced at Martigny and Chamonix on May 1 at rgh. 22m. and 21h. 53m.; on May 2 the move- ments were very slight, and on May 6 a shock occurred seismic scale. The seismic area was of 250 kilometres at 4h. 45m. Reuter’s Agency is informed that Mr. W. Champ, the leader of the expedition which is being dispatched to Franz Josef Land to rescue the twenty-six American explorers who have been in the Arctic for the past two winters with their ship, the America, left England on Saturday for Bergen. He was accompanied to Norway by Dr. Oliver L. Fassig, who has been dispatched by the United States Weather Bureau and the National Geographic Society of Washington to be their representative on the second relief ship, which will be dispatched from Norway to the east coast of Greenland. The main relief expedition, of which Mr. Champ is in command, will leave Troms6 in about a fortnight on board the Terra Nova, and will make straight for Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, where it is expected that records will be found, and probably also some of the explorers who, under Mr. Fiala, the leader of the expedi- tion, have been cut off from all communication with the outside world since July, 1903. Messrs. FRIEDLANDER AND SON, of Berlin, have sent us a copy of a catalogue of books and pamphlets dealing with the anatomy and physiology of invertebrates. To the April issue of our Scandinavian namesake, Naturen, Dr. H. Magnus contributes the final instalment of his account of South Polar expeditions. Tue birds of the Isle of Pines (about 60 miles south of Cuba), by Messrs. Bangs and Zappey, and the fifth instal- ment of Dr. B. M. Davis’s studies on the plant-cell, con- stitute the contents of the April number of the -lmertcan Naturalist. of the ‘‘ Cold Spring Harbour Monographs,” by Miss Smallwood, is devoted to the Salt-Marsh amphipod Orchestia palustris, a species showing decidedly terrestrial habits than its immediate relatives, and there- fore, presumably, a more specialised type. No. 3 more Tue two plates issued in No. 3 of vol. xxv. of Notes from the Leyden Museum illustrate papers on molluses. In the first of these Mr. M. M. Schepman describes a new species of Trochus from the Indian Ocean, and the adult condition of Bathybembix aeola, a Japanese form originally described from an immature specimen collected during the voyage of the Challenger. In the second Dye) Isla JP. Nierstrasz reviews the collection of chitons in the Leyden Museum, describing new species. Tue hereditary relations of plants to the diurnal and seasonal periods of their environment form the subject of an instructive article by Dr. R. Semon in Biologisches Centralblatt of April 15. In the same issue Dr. Wasmann 64 NATURE [May 18, 1905 continues the account of his researches into the develop- ment of slavery among ants. It is interesting to note that the various local races of the widely distributed Polyergus rufescens respectively possess different types of slave-ants, which are for the most part subspecies of Formica fusca, although in one case the enslaved species is F. nitidi- ventris. IN connection with the latter part of the preceding para- graph, it may be mentioned that the April number of Himmel und Erde (Berlin) contains an illustrated popular account of the ‘‘ flower-gardens’’ made by ants in the crowns of trees in Amazonia and Peru, as discovered and described by Mr. E. Ule. These “‘ gardens,”’ or perhaps we might rather say ‘‘ baskets,’’ are shown in various stages of growth, from the time when the plants are just budding until the long slender leaves of Streptocalyx angustifolius, which appears to be the favourite species, are fully developed. All the plants cultivated appear to have very minute seeds, or spores, which seem to be sown by the ants in their nests. Mr. L. M. Lamse has sent us a copy of a paper by himself from the Ottawa Naturalist (vol. xix., part i.) on a large new species of sponge of the genus Esperella from the Pacific coast of Canada. We have also received a pamphlet on the life-history of the pear-midge (Dtplosis pyrivora), by Mr. W. E. Collinge, published by Cornish Brothers, Ltd., Birmingham, as No. 2 of ‘‘ Reports on Economic Zoology.’’ It contains good figures of the various stages of the development of this pernicious insect, show- ing the manner in which it destroys young pears. AmonG other articles in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochen- schrift for April 30 is one by Dr. J. Meisenheimer sum- marising the results of recent investigations with regard to the origin and formation of pearls. Several illustrations indicate the positions in which pearls are usually found in shell-fish, while others show their internal structure, and others, again, the parasites usually constituting the nucleus. The researches of Mr. H. L. Jameson and of Messrs. Herdman and Hornell form the basis of a large portion of the paper. Iv has been repeatedly noticed that when a pair of rooks attempt to build apart from the rest in a tree previously unoccupied, the other members of the colony not un- frequently set to work to destroy the nest. An event of this nature is recorded in the Craven Herald of April 28 as having taken place in the churchyard of Christ Church, Skipton. In this instance a pair of rooks had built in a tree overhanging Cross Street, and the female was in- cubating her eggs. While thus engaged she was attacked by the other rooks, who pecked her to death, throwing the body, together with the broken eggs and the ruined nest, to the ground. The attack was witnessed by many persons. Accorp1InG to Mr. E. E. Green, in the March number of Spolia Zeylanica, the elephant-mosquito (Toxorhynchites immisericors) differs from Anopheles and many _ other members of the gnat family in that the larva is carni- vorous. This carnivorous habit was suggested by the structure of the head of the larva, and observation showed that these larve prey upon one another as well as upon those of other gnats. In fact, but a single survivor was eventually left when a number of larve were placed in the same receptacle. In a second article Mr. A. J. Chalmers records the species of Anophelinze found in Ceylon, while in a third Mr. H. Schoutenden contributes NO. 1855, VOL. 72] notes on Ceylonese aphides, with descriptions of new forms. Con- siderable interest attaches to a note by J. Hagenbeck in the same issue on an incubating python which safely brought off a number of young snakes. In the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. Ixxix., part i., Mr. O. Schroeder, of Heidelberg, discusses the abdominal sense-organ, or so-called abdominal eye, of the palolo worm (Eunice viridis) of Samoa. This organ differs so widely from all definitely known types of eyes that it is difficult to find a basis of comparison. Indeed, whether it is an organ for the perception of light at all is extremely doubtful. The reasons that it has been re- garded as such are the presence of nerve-cells, pigment, and a lens; but similar pigment is found in other parts of the creature’s° body, while the so-called lens would not come under the optician’s definition of such an instrument. Pigment and lens-like structures are not unfrequently met with in luminous organs, but the so-called eye of the palolo worm certainly does not come under this category. In no other annelid has a similar organ been detected. The other articles in the same issue include one by Mr. P. Heinemann on the development of the mesoderm and the structure of the tail in the ascidian larva; a second, by Dr. M. Lass, on the histological anatomy of the female dog-flea; and a third, by Mr. A. Rufini, on the existence of an undescribed sheath in the terminal tract of human sensor nerves. Pror. W. B. Benuam, writing from the Otago University Museum, Dunedin, comments upon Dr. Alex. Hill’s letter in our issue of February 2 on “‘ Can Birds Smell?” Prof. Benham says that several points concerning the structure and habits of the kiwi suggest that its sense of smell is possibly highly developed. The nostrils, instead of being at the base of the beak, are at the extreme tip and on the under surface. The olfactory sacs, with their complex of turbinals, extend so far back as to project into the orbits, the eyes being separated by them instead of by a thin bony interorbital septum. The eyes of the bird are small and inefficient, notwithstanding its nocturnal habits, and observers state that the kiwi seeks its food by its sense of smell or hearing. In searching for food, the bird thrusts its beak into moss, piles of leaves, or into holes in the ground, and assumes an attitude suggestive of trying to obtain evidence of the presence of food either by smell or by listening for the sound of movements made by a worm in its burrow, These statements suggest the probability of a well developed sense of smell by the kiwi, and Prof. Benham hopes to have experiments carried out on the apteryx, oxydromus, and stringops in order to obtain evidence upon the matter. Tue Century Magazine for May contains articles by Mr. Brush on the evolution of the are electric light, by Mr. Holland on the recently discovered white bear of north- western British Columbia, and by Dr. McGee on the Japanese Army medical service. In the last named the organisation is described, particularly the arrangements in force for treating and transporting the large number of wounded from the seat of war, and the sanitary arrange- ments whereby typhoid and dysentery, the great scourges of armies in the field, are hardly known. Tue April number of the Bulletin of the Trinidad Botanical Department contains articles on the phosphoric acid requirement of cacao plants, and on coffee curing for the small settler. The record of the visits paid by the two agricultural instructors to different districts and schools shows that their services are highly appreciated throughout the island. — May 18, 1905] NATURE 65 Tue fact is not generally known that species of the eyead Zamia can be artificially multiplied by cuttings. The subject of regeneration in Zamia is treated by Dr. J. M. Coulter and Mr. M. A. Chrysler in the Botanical Gazette (December, 1904). As a rule, new growth proceeds from meristematic tissue of the cork, but an instance is mentioned in which a portion consisting only of cortex gave rise to new shoots and root. Tue Department of Agriculture at Nairobi has instituted a series of leaflets which should be most useful to settlers in British East Africa. The first, issued in January, gives the native names in different dialects for the principal crops. A second provides some useful hints for cotton cultivators. Egyptian seed is recommended in preference to Sea Island or upland American, because, so far as experience goes, it has produced heavier crops, and also because it has been less affected by unfavourable conditions of the weather. WE have received vol. xxvii. of Aus dem Archiv der deutschen Seewarte, for the year 1904. This valuable work, like its predecessors, contains some important dis- cussions of meteorological and kindred subjects by well known men of science. One by Dr. W. J. van Bebber, entitled ‘‘ Barometer and Weather,’’ is of especial interest to meteorologists. burg more particularly, the relations of barometrical con- ditions to rainfall, temperature, and weather generally for the year, seasons, and months, for a period of twenty-five years. On this subject he brings to bear the special know- ledge obtained as chief for many years of the Hamburg weather forecast department. j ‘ Tue Meteorological Office has issued a circular stating that it will, as before, supply forecasts of weather by telegraph to agriculturists during the coming harvest season, at the cost of telegraphy only. These forecasts are prepared each afternoon from June 1 to September 30, except Sundays; but in view of the suspension of agri- cultural’ work on that day the office will, if required, transmit special forecasts on Saturday evening, giving, in very general terms, the prospects of the weather for the ensuing forty-eight hours. In the last published annual report of the office it is stated that many of the recipients of these forecasts keep a record of the weather experienced during the time the forecasts are sent, and return them to the office for the purpose of checking the results. From this comparison it appears that about 50 per cent. of the telegrams were completely successful. Messrs. Cart ZeEtss, of Jena, have issued a new cata- logue (in English) of their photomicrographic outfit for use with ultra-violet light of wave-length 0-275 mw, in addi- tion to several catalogues of new ordinary microscope stands. The whole of the glasses—eye-piece, objective, slips and cover glasses—are of fused quartz, and the source of light is supplied by the current of sparks of a Leyden jar between cadmium electrodes. We notice one correc- tion—dissolving power should be resolving power. AMSLER’S planimeter is so well known to mathe- maticians that there is no need to direct their attention to its usefulness. We have, however, just received a small pamphlet by Mr. William Codd (London: E. and F. N. Spon) entitled ‘‘ Land Area Computation made Easy,’’ the object of which is to show non-mathematical readers how simple is the process of computing areas from maps or plans with this instrument. Mr. Codd has also, we learn, published “land area tables’’ to facilitate reduction to acres, roods, and perches, thereby saving the tedious calcu- lations which are unnecessary in countries using the metric system. NO. 1855. VOL. 72] He discusses, with reference to Ham- | A series of observations on respiration at high altitudes is described by Prof. Angelo Mosso in the Atti dei Lincei, xiv. (1) 6. A special feature of these observations is the effect of carbon dioxide as a remedy for mountain sick- ness, a property regarding which experiments performed both on human subjects and on monkeys have led to most conclusive results in Prof. Mosso’s hands. It is recom- mended that about 8 per cent. of carbon dioxide should be added to the compressed oxygen carried for use in high balloon ascents, as pure oxygen is not in itself sufficient to remedy the effects of great barometric depressions. In the Transactions of the Institution of Engmeers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (xviii., 5), Mr. John Riekie dis- cusses the various systems of compound locomotive engines, and describes a new form with which he has experimented. In it there are two equal high-pressure cylinders and one low-pressure cylinder of about 1} times the volume of the combined pair. It appears to differ from the well known ‘Webb’? compound in that the crank-rods are all con- nected to a single three-throw crank set at angles of 120°, instead of working on the cranks of the axles of the two different driving pairs. It requires no special starting gear. Tur Atti of the Lincei Academy (xiv., 4) contains the announcement of the foundation by the King of Italy of a new international institution of agricultural studies. Among the advantages likely to accrue from the establish- ment of such an institution, the advancement of our know- ledge of the best methods of combating against plant- diseases is specially mentioned. On this latter branch of study an interesting paper occurs in the same number of the Atti, by Dr. Vittorio Peglion, on the pathology of Euonymus japonica. This shrub, so common in Italian gardens, has been for many years subject to diseases, traceable in the first place to a scale insect, and in the second to a species of Oidium described by Saccardo and Arcangeli under the name of Ordium evonymi-japonicae, with which the present paper deals. From a copy of the Corriere di Catania received from the Observatory of Catania, we gather some interesting particulars of the sudden eruption of Stromboli which took place about four weeks ago. On April 16, at about 2.9 p.-m., a tremendous explosion as of a big cannon was heard, and the whole of the eruptive portion was enveloped in a dense black smoke. A large number of masses about one metre in diameter, and other smaller ones, were projected to a distance of 200 metres, and rolled down the Sciara del Fuoco to the sea, raising clouds of dust in their Four or five minutes later there was a fall of descent. scorize, about 5 cm. in diameter, over an area 4 kilo- metres long and 4oo metres broad running E.N.E. of the volcano, in which direction the wind was blowing. A shower of ashes followed, and a quarter of an hour later a slight shower of rain occurred. At the time of the eruption Dr. Schulze was 300 metres to the south of the eruptive cone, where he was wounded in the head and leg by falling stones, fortunately not seriously. According to him, the opening by which this explosion took place is in the centre of the six others; it is known as No. 4. A considerable panic occurred throughout the island, and many of the inhabitants declare that such an eruption has never been witnessed before. In the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society (1904, No. 4) we notice the following papers :— An elaborate sketch and scientific analysis of the work, in organic chemistry, of Prof. Egor Egorovitch Wagner, by 66 V. V. Lavroff, followed by a full bibliographical index.— Determination of the inner energy of the gas-liquid systems, by A. N. Tschoukareff, with a résumé in French. By sealing various liquids in steel “* sparklets,’’ capable of supporting considerable pressures, the author could thus bring these liquids to high temperatures, above the critical temperature, and thus determine the specific heat of these substances in the critical state-—On the theory of the singing Voltaic arc, a mathematical inquiry by S. Maysel, which brings the author to conclusions opposed to those of Duddell, Janet, and Granqvist. inner Messrs. MacMiLLaAN AND Bowes, Cambridge, will pub- lish in a few days a small book on ‘** Mendelism,”’ by Mr. R. C. Punnett, Cambridge. The volume will give an out- line of Mendel’s work on heredity, and its recent develop- ments. In the of (Die ID: on ‘* Museums ”’ in our issue of April 13 (p. 554), the reviewer referred to the list of museums in the United Kingdom given in the work as being based on one prepared by the Museums Mr. E. Howarth writes to point out that the list was a reprint of one prepared by a com- mittee of the British Association in 1887, and not by the notice Murray's volumes Association. Museums Association, which did not commence the pre- paration of a museums directory until 1902. Messrs. GEORGE BELL AND Sons have published the second part of the key to the ‘‘ Elementary Algebra ’’ of Messrs. W. M. Baker and A. A. Bourne. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Orpit oF Comer 1905 a.—A graphical representation of the orbit of comet 1905 a, according to the elements com- puted by Miss Lamson, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, is given in No. 5, vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy. From this it is seen that the comet, at its perihelion, passed within 12,000,000 miles of the earth, but the latter body had, about a month before, passed the point where closest proximity was pessible. The comet will continue, there- fore, to grow fainter, and on May 30, according to Miss Lamson’s ephemeris, it will be only 0-3 as bright as when first discovered, and it was only a faint telescopic object then. PROVISIONAL ELEMENTS FOR JUPITER’S SIXTH SATELLITE. —Whilst awaiting more definite information from Lick, Mr. Crommelin has computed provisional elements for Jupiter’s sixth satellite from the data already available. These data are not sufficient to decide the eccentricity of the orbit, so a circular ferm has been assumed. Although the Lick observers have now stated definitely that the “retrograde ’’ in their first telegram did not refer to the orbital motion, the observations yet made have not settled the question of direction, and Mr. Crommelin has therefore computed elements both for ** direct ’’ and ‘“* retrograde.” He finds the distance from the parent planet to be about 6,200,000 miles, and a comparison of this with the observ- ational data favours a “‘ direct ’’ orbital motion, although, of course, much uncertainty exists. The inclination of the satellite’s to the planet’s orbit is 23°-8 or 23°-9, according to whether the motion is *‘ direct *’ or ‘‘ retrograde,’’ whilst the inclination of the orbit to Jupiter’s equator is either 20° or 24°-7. This inclination is unusually large as com- pared with other satellite orbits in the solar system, and according to the reports so far received the orbit of the seventh satellite has a still larger inclination. According to the ‘‘ direct *’ hypothesis, the pole of the sixth satellite’s orbit is only about from our own North Pole, so that the major axis will always point nearly due east and west. A determination of the position angle next July, when it again reaches western elongation, should decide the question of the satellite's motion. The semi- minor axis of the apparent ellipse on December 25 (W. NO. 1855, VOL. 72] 1°-5, NATURE [May 18, 1905 elongation) was 4/-96, and from this it is deduced that the inclination of the orbit plane to the line of sight on that date was 5°-7 (Monthly Notices, vol. Ixv., No. 5). WINTER FIREBALLS IN 1905.—In No. 357 of the Observ- atory Mr. Denning summarises the accounts of fireball observations, during January and February, which have been forwarded to him. Quite an unusually large number of these objects were observed. One slow meteor seen on January 27 at 11h. 59m., and another seen on February 28d. 12h. 10m., were at least as bright as the full moon, whilst one on January 14 at 10h. 16m., which was brighter than Venus, was noted by one observer as being followed by a slight rumbling noise at an interval of 23 minutes. The probable radiant of this object was 119°+ 3°, and it travelled from a height of 60 miles to a height of 29 miles, along a path of about 55 miles, with a velocity of 15 miles per second. A meteor seen at 1oh. 15m. on February 28 from a radiant at 220°+ 40° divided into two parts at dis~ appearance, whilst the last named of the eighteen objects. mentioned in Mr. Denning’s report, seen at gh. rom. on March 18, swelled out and exploded three times with lightning-like flashes during its four seconds’ flight. OBSERVATIONS AND LiGHT-CURVES OF SEVERAL VARIABLE: Stars.—In No. 4011 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. L. Terkan, of the O-Gyalla Observatory, publishes the results of a series of observations, and some light-curves, of several important variable stars. The observations were made during 1904 with a Zollner photometer, and the results are compared with the various published elements: of each object. The stars dealt with are S Sagitt, T Vulpeculze, 8 Cephei, 7 Aquila, 8B Persei, and A Tauri. OBSERVATIONS OF ‘‘D,”’ IN THE SOLAR SpECTRUM.—In No. 4012 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. H. Kreusler, of Berlin, records two observations in which he saw the helium line, D,, as a dark line in the spectrum of the region about a sun-spot. The first observation was made between noon and 2 p.m. on June 12, 1904, the second on the following day, and on both days the facula surrounding the spot were exceptionally bright. Dr- Kreusler suggests that, as it was near a maximum epoch of solar activity when Prof. Young recorded a_ similar observation in 1870, this phenomenon may be a character- istic of sun-spot maxima. BRIGHTNESS OF JUPITER’S SATELLITES.—In an attempt to settle the question of the variability of Jupiter’s four brightest satellites, Prof. Wendell, of Harvard, made a series of photometric comparisons of them with a_polar- ising photometer attached to the 15-inch telescope. The satellites were compared, for brightness, among themselves, and a large number of “ settings’? was made in such a manner to eliminate accidental errors. The order of brightness was always iii., i., ii., iv., and the results afford no evidence for any variability during the period over which the observations extended, viz. from J.D. 2416900: to J.D. 2416928 (Circular No. 95 of the Harvard College Observatory). as VARIABLE STARS IN THE SMALL MaGELLANIC CLoup.— Some time ago it was reported in these columns that Miss. Leavitt had newly discovered 57 variable stars in the small Magellanic cloud. In order to provide material for a closer study of the light-curves of these objects, sixteen negatives were taken at Arequipa with the 24-inch Bruce telescope, with exposures varying from two to four hours. each. When the plates arrived at Cambridge (U.S.A.) in January, Miss Leavitt was greatly surprised to find that in this same region there were hundreds of variables which had not been seen on the previous inferior plates. In Circular No. 96 of the Harvard College Observatery the number in each half-degree square of the region is given, and, including the 57 previously announced, there are g1o new variable stars in all. This means that within the limits of the clouds there is one variable to every 308 stars, whereas of the 40,000 stars in the surrounding region shown on the plates only one in 3300 is apparently a variable, although all have been examined with equal care. During the examination of the plates it was found that a thirteenth magnitude star, the position of which for 1900-6 was R.A.=rh. 6m. Is., dec. =—72° 45'-5, has a large proper motion amounting to +0o013s. in R.A... +o"-42 in dec., and o"-73 in a great circle. May 18, 1905] NATURE 67 SANITATION IN THE TROPICS: ROF. BOYCE and Messrs. Evans and Clarke, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, recently re- turned from a journey to the west coast of Africa, the Fic. 1.—Principal Boulevard in Conakry, showing factoriesand Decauville rails the footpath on the left. object of which was to study the present sanitary condition | Bathurst, | of, and anti-malarial measures practised ater Conakry, and Freetown, to investi- of any Kind, the pail system being in use, and a pure water supply is brought from watercourses 41 kilometres distant. In consequence, the private wells have fallen into disuse, but they have not been closed or filled up, and therefore serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Anti- malarial measures do _ not seem to be carried out, mos- quito nets are not made use of to any extent, and malaria is still very rife. The authors remark that (p. 20) ‘* With model water supply under the control of the authorities, no streams, a good porous soil, and perfect sanitation mosqui- toes should be got under con- trol, and the freedom of the Europeans and of the natives from malaria guaranteed.”’ Freetown, in Sierra Leone, is not well laid out, and cess- pits are the rule. Of these there were 2650 in 1897, and their number has since in- creased, while more than 2000 of the inhabitants have no sanitary accommodation — of any kind. The street drain- age is still imperfect, and numerous opportunities exist for Anopheles mosquitoes to breed; but this condition of things is undergoing gradual improvement, and mosquito nets are in general use. The authors think that the health of the Europeans has in con- sequence improved, but evi- dently no striking result has yet been achieved. On the whole, we are disappointed that more definite results can- not be chronicled as the outcome of the health propaganda The main drain is under gate how far the teaching of Ross [ax has there been accepted and acted upon, and if, as a consequence, the health of these communities has im- proved during the last four years. This report embodies the results of their observations, together with suggestions for the further develop- ment of tropical hygiene in the future. At Bathurst sanitation is clearly of no low order, the town is well laid out, the streets are drained, and earth closets are the rule in the European quarters; but in the native compounds there are many cess-pits which tend to foul surface- wells, of which there are a number still in use, though there is a good public supply from deep wells. Anti-mosquito measures have been in force since 1902, consisting of the removal of old tins and rubbish, levelling and clearing of roads, ex amination of wells and water re- ceptacles for larve, &c., and the more regular use of the mosquito net by Europeans. These precau- tions have made people think and be more careful, and the Europeans, it is stated, have been more free ae. from malaria than formerly, but Culex mosquitoes still abound. Conakry, in French Guinea, is town, well planned and laid out. 1 “ Report on the Sanitation and Anti-malarial Measures in Practice in Bathurst, Conakry, and Freetown.” By Prof. Rubert Revce, M.B., F_R.S., Arthur Evans. M.R.C.S., T..R.C.P., and H. Herbert. Clarke, M.A.. B.C. (Cantab.), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Memoir xiv. (Liver- pool: Univer-ity Press. London: Williams and Norgare, 1rgcs-) NO. 1855. vol 72] 2.—A street in a comparatively new There are no cess-pits Freetown col nsisting of rock surface, in which there are innumerable pools breeding Anopheles (Rainy season) so ably preached by the Liverpool School and its energetic staff, but obviously such success as has been attained should prove a stimulus for further effort, and not lead to any relaxation of present measures. The authors formulate a number of suggestions for the improvement of the health of the districts visited, of which the principal are :—(1) the 68 NATURE [May 18, 1905 instruction of newcomers in the part played by mosquitoes | in conveying malaria, and in the habitual and proper use of mosquito nets; (2) the segregation of the native popula- tion away from the European quarters; (3) the total aboli- tion of cess-pits; (4) the rational and systematic use of anti-malarial measures; (5) the public control of drinking water ; and (6) the establishment of laboratories on the spot for the study of health problems. R. T. HEWLETT. IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. E annual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute was held at the Institution of Civil Engineers on May 11 and 12, and was very largely attended. The report of the council, read by Mr. Bennett H. Brough, the secretary, shows that the institute continues to make satisfactory progress. The membership now amounts to 2000. The proceedings began with the adoption of a resolution of regret at the death of Sir Bernhard Samuelson, Bart., P.C., F.R.S., past president, referred to elsewhere (p. 61). After the usual routine business, the retiring president, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, inducted into the chair the presi- dent-elect, Mr. R. A. Hadfield, whose first duty was to present the Bessemer gold medal to Prof. J. O. Arnold (Sheffield). Mr. R. A. Hadfield then delivered his presidential address. It dealt chiefly with the history of metallurgy and with those branches of the subject to which his atten- tion had been directed, more especially with the alloys of iron with other elements. He urged the necessity for constant research. In progressive manufacture, the com- plexity of which increases year by year, there is, in addi- tion to the many ordinary difficulties met with, that of the solution of new problems which constantly present themselves. This can only be done by research, which should form an actual part of industrial operations, and demands almost as much attention as is devoted to the manufacturing side. It is more than ever necessary not to rest satisfied with the knowledge of to-day, or to think that this will satisfy the needs of to-morrow. Rapid and great changes are constantly occurring in metallurgy as in other branches of scientific knowledge. The thanks of the meeting for the address were expressed by Sir E. H. Carbutt and Sir William White, K.C.B. Mr. S. Surzycki (Czenstochowa) submitted results obtained with the continuous open-hearth steel process as carried out in fixed furnaces in Poland. The process, which has proved eminently successful, is based on the principle of the Talbot process, with the essential difference that it can be carried out in any fixed furnace of not less than 25 tons capacity. The advantages do not consist solely in the continuity of the process, but in the longer life of the furnace, the higher production and yield, the lessened fuel consumption, and the simplicity of the plant. A very elaborate paper was read by Mr. R. A. Hadfield, the president, describing some experiments relating to the effect produced by liquid-air-temperatures on the properties of iron and its alloys. About eleven hundred specimens were tested. The bars, which were prepared with great care, were submitted to various heat treatments, the exact temperatures being recorded, and then forwarded to Sir James Dewar’s laboratory at the Royal Institution. The tests were carried out on a small hydraulic testing machine, to which the necessary arrangements could be readily applied for immersing the specimens in liquid air. The results showed that, with certain exceptions, the effect of low temperatures is to increase in a remarkable degree the resistance of iron and iron alloys to tensile stress, and to reduce the ductility from the highest point to practically nil. The changes take place even in the softest wrought iron. The absence or presence of carbon in ordinary carbon steel in which other special elements are not present has little influence. Subjected to Brinell’s hardness ball test, a specimen of Swedish charcoal iron at normal temperature had a hardness number of 90, whereas when tested at about —182° C. this increased to no less than 2606, or about equal to the hardness of o-So per cent. carbon steel at normal temperature. This almost seems incredible when it is remembered that this iron shows by analysis | NO. 1855, VOL. 72] pH 99:82 per cent. of iron, and normally has only 20 to 22 tons tenacity with 25-30 per cent. elongation. This iron becomes brittle to an extraordinary degree under the in- fluence of the low temperature —182° C., whereas nickel tested at the same low temperature has improved rather | than deteriorated, not only in tenacity, which iron also does, but in ductility, in which latter quality iron entirely breaks down. If nickel, therefore, is present in an iron alloy containing but little carbon or comparatively low in that element, it acts as a preventive of brittleness, or is a very considerable modifier of that objectionable quality. This action of nickel is simply marvellous in certain of the alloy specimens, for example, in the case of an alloy of iron, carbon 1-18 per cent., nickel 24-30 per cent., and manganese 6:05 per cent. Here the ductility is extra- ordinary at not only ordinary but low temperatures, prob- ably the highest known for any iron alloy, and certainly for an alloy having such tenacity as 84 tons per square inch. There is still present in this alloy 68 per cent. of iron, yet the tendency of the latter metal to wander into the paths of brittleness is not only entirely checked at the liquid air temperature—and this brittleness, as shown so clearly in this research, occurs to an extraordinary extent in pure iron cooled to —182° C.—but the elongation or ductility, already so great, is considerably increased, namely, from 60 per cent. to 673 per cent. There is also an in- crease of tenacity in both cases, namely, a rise of from ro per cent. to 38 per cent. Thus the nickel present enables the bar under this high tension and at —182° C. to remain far more ductile than the very best of ductile iron of one-third the tenacity. Although the action of nickel has been specially referred to, it must not be over- looked that in this alloy there is also present 6 per cent. of manganese, which in its ordinary combination with iron, that is, with no nickel present, would confer intense brittle- ness upon the iron and render it more brittle than if not present. This treble combination of nickel-manganese with iron appears to reverse all the known laws of iron alloys. Mr. J. H. Darby (Brymbo) and Mr. George Hatton (Round Oak) summarised the recent developments in the Bertrand-Thiel process of steel manufacture. This process, which was first used in Bohemia in 1894, consists in carrying out the preliminary refining in an upper open- hearth furnace, and the steel-making is completed in a secondary open-hearth furnace. The original plan of having furnaces at different levels has not proved so satis- factory as having the furnaces arranged in line with a mixer at one end. Pig iron of almost any ordinary com- position may be used. At Brymbo, with a highly phos- phoric pig iron, seven 20-ton charges per day have been attained, and at the Hoesch works in Dortmund ten charges per day have been regularly produced. At the New York meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti- tute, the paper read by Mr. James Gayley on the appli- cation of the dry air blast created quite a sensation in the iron industry. Mr. Gayley now gives, in a supplementary paper, a record of operations of the Isabella furnaces at Pittsburg from November, 1904, to March, 1905, showing that the increased iron output and the decreased coke con-_ sumption derived from the use of dry air were well main- tained. The rapid development of the gas engine of recent years has given special value to the gas escaping from the blast furnace, previously often described as waste gas. The gas leaving the blast furnace carries with it a varying amount of gritty dust, which has proved a serious obstacle to the successful operation of large gas engines. The various methods of cleaning the gas were described in the paper submitted by Mr. Axel Sahlin, who has designed a slowly revolving apparatus for the purpose. Dr. O. Boudouard (Paris) submitted a lengthy account of experiments made to determine the fusibility of blast- furnace slags. He gave a chart enabling metallurgists to determine the fusion temperature of a given alumino- calcic silicate. The information given in this lengthy paper is of great value, inasmuch as one of the most important considerations in the satisfactory running of a blast furnace is a knowledge of the degree of fusibility of the slag. Mr. Sidney A. Houghton contributed a note on the failure of an iron plate through fatigue. The plate was May 18, 1905] NATURE 69 from the boiler of a portable engine about twenty years old. Microscopic examination showed that the effect of fatigue stresses on the plate had been to form cracks com- mencing as a rule from irregularities on the inner surface, which cracks were due to weakness in the cleavage planes of the crystals from continual slipping, and to a less degree to some loss of adhesion between the crystals. Some of the crystals appeared to have been broken up, and the slag flaws seemed to have a restraining effect on the progress of the cracks. Mr. B. H. Thwaite (London) directed attention to accidents due to the asphyxiation of blast-furnace work- men, and described an apparatus for the rapid detection of the presence of carbon monoxide in air. Prof. F. Wiist and Mr. F. Wolff (Aachen) submitted a paper on the behaviour of sulphur in the blast furnace. They showed that, contrary to the generally held opinion, the sulphur in the coke does not reach the level of the tuyeres of the blast furnace without undergoing alteration, but a great portion of it is previously volatilised by the ascending gases. It is then largely absorbed from the gases by the descending charge, and in this condition arrives in front of the tuyeres. Up to Soo° the sulphur is principally absorbed by the oxides of iron from the sulphur-laden gases, while from 800° upwards the position is reversed, and the lime becomes the chief absorbent of the sulphur. Reports of research work carried out during the past year by Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter (National Physical Laboratory), by Mr. J. C. Gardner (Birmingham), by Mr. EB. Rogers (Cambridge), and by Mr. Gunnar Dillner and Mr. A. F. Enstrém (Stockholm), holders of the Carnegie tesearch scholarships, were submitted. Dr. Carpenter dealt with the types of structure and the critical ranges on heating and cooling high-speed tool steels under vary- ing thermal treatment. In the light of the author’s experiments the rationale of the advantageous presence of tungsten and molybdenum in high-speed tool steels appears fairly evident. The action of either of these elements consists in hindering, under certain conditions, and in altogether preventing, under suitably chosen conditions, changes in iron carbon alloys which would have for their result the softening of the material and its consequent unfitness for tool steel use. By suitable heat treatment it is possible to arrest the softening process at any desired stage, and thus obtain an alloy of any desired hardness. The metallographical results of the investigation are extremely interesting. They show that in spite of comparatively large percentages up to 17 per cent. or 18 per cent.—of special elements, iron and carbon still remain as the all-important factors in determining the types of structure of high-speed tool steels. Except that the polyhedral or ‘‘ austenitic ” type of struc- ture has never been obtained alone in a pure carbon steel, the types of the high-speed tool steels might all be obtained from pure iron carbon steels by appropriate thermal treat- ment. The austenitic structure appears to be that of the nose of the tool in actual use. Put briefly, the hardening of rapid tool steels at the present time appears to involve two factors, viz. (1) the widening, splitting, or lowering of the critical ranges by the special alloy element, and (2) the complete, or practically complete, suppression of the widened, split, or lowered range by a mild quenching, e.g. in an air-blast. Mr. G. Dillner and Mr. A. F. Enstroém’ dealt with the magnetic and electric properties of sheet steel and steel castings. The results obtained have rendered it possible to make some comparisons as to the relative suitability of the different methods for producing a soft steel for electrotechnical purposes (sheet material). It has appeared that Bessemer steel has a lower magnetic quality than open-hearth steel. On comparing basic and acid open- hearth steel, the basic steel has been found to be preferable and scarcely inferior to Lancashire iron. The reason why the Bessemer material is inferior in quality to the open- hearth sheets may possibly be that the Bessemer steel has a greater opportunity of dissolving gases when the air is passed through the bath of molten metal. In general, basic steel does not contain such large quantities of silicon and manganese as acid steel, and at the same time it is possible ‘to get a lower percentage of carbon in the first mentioned NO 1855, VOL. 72] metal ; these facts may cause the hysteresis loss to be lower in basic than in acid steel. Mr. J. C. Gardner dealt with the effects caused by the reversal of stresses in steel, and Mr. F. Rogers submitted memoirs on troostite and on the heat treatment of steel. It was announced that Andrew Carnegie research scholarships for this year, of 5o0l. each, were awarded to P. Breuil (Paris), Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter (National Physical Laboratory), E. G. L. Roberts and E. A. Wraight (London), and W. Rosenhain (Birmingham), and that scholarships, each of the value of 1ool., were awarded to H. C. Boynton (Cambridge, U.S.A.), L. A. Guillet (Paris), and W. H. Hatfield (Sheffield). The council carefully examined the reports of the re- search work carried out by the holders of the Carnegie research scholarships during the past year, and decided that the report prepared by Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter (National Physical Laboratory) was deserving of the gold medal. The council also decided that special silver medals should be awarded for the research carried out conjointly by Mr. Gunnar Dillner and Mr. A. F. Enstrém (Stock- holm). The researches submitted by Mr. Gardner and Mr. Rogers were highly commended. The medals were presented by Mr. Carnegie at the banquet on May 12 at the Hotel Cecil, when 500 gentlemen were present. During the meeting it was announced that Mr. Carnegie would give to the institute a further sum of soool. to cover the cost of printing the reports submitted by the Carnegie research scholars. HIGHER EDUCATION [IN LONDON. JQ ECENT events inspire hope in the future of higher education in London. The report presented by Sir Arthur Riicker, F.R.S., principal of the University of London, at the celebration of presentation day on May 10, and the speech of Lord Londonderry in proposing ‘‘ The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy’’ at the annual dinner of its members, are both highly encouraging and indicative of the growing importance attached in the metropolis to education of university standing, especially in science and technology. Sir Arthur Riicker, in the course of his report, dealt in detail with the operations of the University of London, and was able to show that some of the preliminary work done since the re-organisation of the university has begun to bear fruit in the academic year now approaching its termination, and that the activity of the university has been extended in several directions. The question of the conditions of entrance to universities has been prominently before the public during the year, and a very important step has been taken by the Universities of Oxford, Cam- bridge, and London, which have agreed upon a scheme for the mutual recognition of the certificates given for their respective entrance examinations. Already twenty- five persons have been matriculated as students of London University under this agreement. Considerable progress has been made, also, with the project for the concentration of the teaching of the preliminary and intermediate studies of medical students in a few centres under the control of the university. Arrangements are in progress under the auspices of the university for establishing centres at Uni- versity and King’s Colleges, and Mr. Alfred Beit has given a munificent donation of 25,0001. in aid of the scheme for the establishment of a third centre on the South Kensington site. It is much to be hoped that this generous gift will be supported by other large subscrip- tions. It is a matter of vital interest to the public that the unique opportunities for medical education afforded by the great metropolitan hospitals shall not be wasted, and, if they are to be utilised, it is essential that the whole curriculum of medical education shall be easily accessible to London. It is necessary, continued Sir Arthur Riicker, that medical education shall receive public help similar to that which is ungrudgingly given to engineering. It is not too much to say that medical men do more unpaid work for the public than do the members of any other profession, and that, in return, less help has been given by the public to medical education, in London at. all events, than to any other of the principal branches of applied science. Large as the gifts to the university are, 7O NATURE {May 18, 1905 it is unfortunately true that much money is needed to make up for the neglect of university teaching in London in the past. Though the increase in the Government grant to university colleges will be of great value, the equipment of both University and King’s Colleges needs improvement, and the salaries of the professors are quite inadequate. The whole question of retiring pensions, to which a private donor has just devoted 2,000,000!. in America, is untouched in London. After the presentation for degrees at the University of London, there was a reception at Bedford College. The occasion is always one for the assembling of the friends of the higher education of women in London, and about five hundred guests were received by the principal, Mrs. James Bryce, and Mrs. Leonard Darwin. The students who were presented at the university included eight for science degrees. The college authorities are contemplating a great re-building scheme, for the lease of the present premises in Baker Street is almost on the point of ex- piring, and an appeal is being made for a quarter of a million sterling, of which 100,o00l. would be devoted to endowing a college capable of accommodating five hundred students. Lord Londonderry, in his speech at the annual dinner of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, referred to the work of the committee appointed by the Government to consider the coordination of the Royal College of Science at South Kensington with other institutions for higher scientific and technological instruction in London. An interim report has been presented by the committee. The Government has definitely informed the committee that, provided satisfactory arrangements can be arrived at for the due coordination of the work of the various higher scientific teaching institutions in London and elsewhere, and provided that guarantees are obtained for the adequate management of what will practically be a congeries of highly organised technical courses, and for the provision of a thoroughly satisfactory annual income for the upkeep of a great centre for this higher work, the Government is prepared to entrust the management of the Royal College of Science, including the Royal School of Mines, to a committee to be newly established for the purpose. This procedure, it is expected, will bring the work of the Royal College and School of Mines into the closest possible relations with that of the other higher teaching institu- tions, so that a higher degree of cooperation and coordin- ation may be attained in this important portion of the educational field. Lord Londonderry announced that he has good grounds for believing that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been considering the financial aspect of the new condition of things that will be brought about in re- gard to the Royal College of Science if the changes out- lined actually take effect, and that a reasonable increase in the sums at present annually devoted towards the ex- penses of the Royal College of Science will be made. Thus the Royal College, in its immensely enhanced possibilities of usefulness owing to its large new buildings, will be able to bring to the common aim, not only its fabric and its excellent equipment, and, of course, its good will and prestige, but also a satisfactory annual income as a sub- stantial contribution to what must be the heavy annual expenditure involved in the great work to be carried on for higher scientific and technological education in the metropolis. As Mr. Haldane, the chairman of the committee referred to by Lord Londonderry, said on the same occasion, there is now a prospect of the establishment of such a school of mining and metallurgy as will make London the first city of the Empire in point of education in these matters. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CAMBRIDGE.—Some five or six years ago a special com- mittee was called together at Cambridge, and an effort was made to obtain the cooperation of the colleges and the town and county councils in a scheme for the improve- ment of the milk supply of Cambridge. The committee had as its primary object the eradication of tuberculosis, beginning with bovine tuberculosis, from the county of NO. 1855, VOL. 72] Cambridge. Concurrently it took up the question of the housing of cattle, the sterilisation of milk, the methods of storage and distribution of milk, ‘and the question of what milk should be refused by the colleges and by private purchasers. All these points were considered, not only with regard to tuberculosis, but also in connection with other infectious diseases, e.g. diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever. The Cambridge Town Council undertook to pay the expenses of a veterinary surgeon, and the follow- ing colleges undertook to consider the matter favourably, and in most cases offered a certain annual subven- tion :—Gonville and Caius, Trinity Hall, King’s, Christ’s, Sidney, Emmanuel, Downing, and Girton, but the larger colleges stood out, and the scheme fell through. Prof. Woodhead, in an interesting article in the Cam- bridge Review of last week, raises the question whether some such scheme should not be revived, and points to the recent outbreak of scarlet fever, which was especially prevalent in one or two colleges, as an instance of a disease which might easily have been avoided if the com- munity had taken proper precautions. It is proposed to erect a building containing examination rooms on a site on the north-east corner of the museum grounds. At present the university is put to great cost in hiring rooms which, apart from their expense, are not well adapted for examinations. The syndicate appointed to consider this question estimates that for a sum of 7500!. it could provide for all examinations held in the university throughout the year, except, perhaps, for a week or two in June and December. The Vice-Chancellor announces the generous offer of the Drapers’ Company to find the sum of 5o00o0l. towards the cost of a building for the department of agriculture pro- vided that a further sum of 50001. is raised by voluntary subscriptions by the end of the current year. The long vacation course in pathology, public health, and pharmacology will begin on Monday, July 3. Special courses of lectures have been arranged on phagocytosis, by Prof. Woodhead, with the assistance of Mr. W. Malden; on illness caused by unsound food, by Mr. H. E. Durham; on diphtheria, agglutinins, precipitins and hzmolysins, by Mr. G. S. Graham-Smith; and on protozoa and protozoal diseases, by Dr. Nuttall. Further information about these courses may be obtained by writing to Prof. Woodhead, The Museums, Cambridge. Special courses on physiology, osteology, human anatomy, and histology will be given during the long vacation by Mr. Barcroft and Mr. Cole, Dr. Barclay-Smith, Dr. A. Hill, and Mr. Manners-Smith. These will begin on July 5. Tue jubilee of Cheltenham Ladies’ brated on Saturday last, and a new science wing was declared open. The new laboratories and lecture-rooms have been erected at a cost of 18,o00l., and include rooms well equipped for the teaching of physics, chemistry, and botany. College was cele- Tue following resolution was carried at a meeting of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, held on Thursday last :—‘‘ That it be referred to the Com- mittee of Management to consider and report as to the desirability of treating chemistry, physics, and biology as subjects of preliminary education, and of requiring that an examination in them should be passed before the re- cognition of the commencement of medical studies, and to report further as to the desirability of the two colleges approaching the Universities and other examining bodies with the view of adopting a five years’ curriculum of pro- fessional study from the date of passing the Preliminary Science Examination.” , Aw entrance scholarship in science, value 48/. for three years, will be awarded by the council of Bedford College for Women (University of London) on the result of an examination to be held June 28-30. Full particulars can be obtained from the principal, and forms of entry must be received by June 12. The council, on the recommendation of the Reid trustees, will award the Reid fellowship in June to a graduate of the University of London who is also an associate of Bedford College. Applications should May 18, 1905] NATURE 71 be received by the hon. secretary of the Reid trustees by May 30. Miss Alice Ravenhill is to begin a course lectures on May 18, at 4.30 p.m., on the ** Teaching Hygiene.” of of SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Chemical Society, May 4.—Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., president, in the chair—Notes on sodium alum: J. M. Wadmore. The author has confirmed the observations of Augé, Zellner, and Dumont as to the existence and certain of the properties of sodium alum.—Camphoryl-pseudo- semicarbazide: M. O. Forster and H. E. Fierz. This compound was obtained by reducing camphorylnitroso- pseudo-carbamide with zine dust in dilute acetic acid; it condenses readily with aldehydes and ketones, yielding products characterised by high specific rotatory powers.— Some derivatives of anhydracetonebenzil: F. R. Japp and J. Knox. Descriptions of the condensation products of benzil with certain unsaturated ketones are given.—The dihydrocyanides of benzil and phenanthraquinone, part ii. : F. R. Japp and J. Knox.—A condensation product of mandelonitrile: F. R. Japp and J. Knox. It is shown that Minovici’s compound, C,,H,,ON, (Ber., 1899, Xxxxii., 2206), obtained by saturating mandelonitrile in dry ether with hydrogen chloride, is identical with the substance obtained by Japp and Miller by the action of hydrogen chloride on a solution of benzil in alcoholic hydrocyanic acid (Trans. Chem. Soc., 1887, li., 29).—Action of hydra- zine on unsaturated y-diketones: F. R. Japp and J. Wood. The authors have used Paal and Schulze’s re- action to distinguish the configurations of certain analogous unsaturated diketones. By this means they have obtained confirmatory evidence for the configuration assigned by Japp and Klingemann to the two modifications of aB-dibenzoylstyrene and of dibenzoylstilbene.—The syn- thesis of substances allied to adrenaline: H. D. Dakin. —Methylation of p-aminobenzoic acid by means of methyl sulphate: J. Johnston.—The atomic weight of nitrogen : R. W. Gray. By the examination of (1) the relative densi- ties and compressibilities of nitric oxide and oxygen, and (2) the decomposition of nitric oxide with finely divided nickel, a mean value of 14-006 (which is regarded as possibly too low) was found for this constant.—The methyl- ation of gallotannic acid: O. Rosenheim. A _penta- methyl-derivative was obtained, by methylation with methyl sulphate, and this on hydrolysis furnished a mixture of trimethyl- and dimethyl-gallic acids.—The interaction of hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide: W. R. Lang and C. Carson. An investigation of Wackenroder’s solution showed that the action of hydrogen sulphide produces first sulphur and water, and that by the further action of sulphur dioxide on sulphur polythionic acids are produced. —The formula of cyanomaclurin: A. G. Perkin. It is now found that the formula C,,H,,O, is to be preferred in place of C,,H,,O, formerly used. Paris. Academy of Sciences, May 8.—M. Troost in the chair.— The increase of the rotatory power of fatty molecules in passing to the state of cyclic compounds: A. Haller and M. Desfontaines. A comparison is given of the rotatory powers of alkyl esters of B-methyladipic acid with the esters of the corresponding §-cyclopentanonecarboxylic acids, the rotations of the latter being found to be about thirty times those of the former. The densities and boil- ing points of the various esters under examination are also given.—On a new synthesis of oxalic acid: H. Moissan. It has been shown in a previous paper that whilst per- fectly dry carbonic acid is without any action upon potassium hydride, in the presence of a minute trace of water the two substances react with the quantitative formation of potassium formate. It is now shown that if this reaction is allowed to take place at a higher tempera- ture, 80° C., a mixture of potassium formate and oxalate is produced. The oxalic acid formed was separated, and its identity proved by analysis and numerous reactions.— Endoglobular pseudo-hematozoa: A. Laveran. As some of the normal elements of blood, more or less modified in NOTS55, VOL 724 their appearance, have on more than one occasion been mistaken for endoglobular hematozoa, a detailed account, with diagrams, is given of some of the more common cases leading to this error.—On the magnetic hysteresis produced by an oscillating field superimposed on a constant field : P. Duhem. A theoretical investigation completing a former paper on the same subject.—Geodesic and magnetic work in the neighbourhood of Tananarive: P. Colin. The triangulation of the rectangular section between the south and west of Tananarive has been completed at sixty- seven points. At the same time magnetic observations have been carried out at twenty-six stations, a tabular view of the results being given.—The oscillations of rail- way carriages on entering and leaving a curve: Georges Marié.—Observations of the Giacobini comet (1905 a) made with the large equatorial of the Observatory of Bordeaux: Ernest Eselangon.—On Voss surfaces and non-Euclidean geometry : Alphonse Demoulin.—On the in- determinate equation x@+y4@=bs@: Ed. Mailtet.—On some points in the theory of numbers and the theory of func- tions: Georges Rémoundos.—On a _ new _ spectrum observed in gadolinium: G. Urbain. The author, having obtained a specimen of gadolina of such purity that twenty successive fractions gave the same value for the atomic weight, has examined the spectrum. There is no absorp- tion spectrum in the visible region, but there are some strong absorption lines in the ultra-violet. The ultra-violet phosphorescence given by this gadolinium in the kathode rays proved to be the same as that attributed by Sir W. Crookes in 1898 to a new element named by him victorium. The author proposes to submit the question as to the identity of gadolinium and victorium to further experiment.—On the triboluminescence of potassium sulphate: D. Gernez. The experiments of the author are not in accord with those of Bandrowski on the same sub- ject. The emission of light appears to be the result of breaking up of crystals already formed, and if due pre- cautions against shock be taken, the phenomenon is not observed at the moment of separation of the crystals from their mother liquor.—The specific volume of a liquid in a capillary space: M. Ponsot.—On the electrical resist- ance of metallic wires for high-frequency currents: André Broca and M. Turchini. The authors have compared the resistances obtained experimentally with those calculated from Lord Kelvin’s formula. For non-magnetic metals, copper and platinum, the deviations from the law calcu- lated by Lord Kelvin are small for moderate frequencies. These deviations, however, are greater than the experi- mental error, and follow a definite law.—A new method of calculating the exact molecular weights of liquefiable gases from the experimental determination of their densities : Philippe A. Guye. The method described, the detailed proof of which is reserved for a later paper, has been applied to the cases of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and acetylene. The values for the atomic weights of carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, and chlorine agree very closely with those determined by chemical methods. The value for nitrogen (14-006) is lower than the value deduced from chemical data (14-04), and there is reason to suppose that the latter is too high.—The action of potassammonium upon barium bromide: A. Joannis. The reaction has been found to be in accord- ance with the equation BaBr, +2NH,K=2KBr+H,+Ba(NH.,),. —On the colloidal forms of ferric chloride: G. Malfitano. —The electrolytic reduction of the nitrocinnamic acids : C. Marie. Meta- and para-nitrocinnamic acids give by electrolytic reduction in alkaline solution the correspond- ing azoxy acids. The position of the nitro or the amino group has a marked influence on the ease with which the hydrogen is added to the lateral chain. Para derivatives give hydrocinnamic compounds much more easily than the corresponding meta compounds.—The action of carbon monoxide upon silver oxide, and its application to the determination of small quantities of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere: Henri Dejust. Silver oxide, dissolved in ammonia, is immediately reduced by traces of carbon monoxide. The author proposes a colorimetric method based on this reaction for the estimation of minute traces of carbon monoxide in the air.—On strontium ammonium : “I te M. Roederer. Strontium ammonium is prepared in a similar manner to the compounds of ammonia with barium and calcium, and has the analogous formula Ba(NH,),-— Osmosis through tubes of fused quartz: G. Belloc. The passage of gases through quartz tubes appears to be the result of a kind of devitrification caused by moisture and high temperature, the tendency to crystallisation being clearly made out under the microscope.—On a new osmium for osmium: Pinerta compound and a new reaction Alvarez. The process is based on the formation of a green compound of hydriodic acid and osmium iodide of great tinctorial power.—The ac tion of alkalis on aqueous solutions of acetol: André Kling. The behaviour of acetol on neutralisation with bases seemed to point to its being a pseudo-acid, and this view was confirmed by a study of the changes in its electrical conductivity—On the saccharification by malt of artificial starch: Eug. Roux. —The action of metal ammoniums on the halogen deri- vatives of methane: E. Chablay. The equation 2NH,Na+ 2CHi,Cl=2NaCl+ CH,+CH,.NH,+ NH, was found to represent the reaction between methyl chloride and sodium ammonium. The reactions with and iodoform were more complicated.—On the use of metal chloroform | NATURE ammoniums in organic chemistry: the formation of | primary amines: Paul Lebeau.—On a new method of | characterising the purity of milk based on the estimation of the ammonia: A. Trillat and M. Sauton. Ammonia should not be present in normal pure milk; its presence is evidence of pollution—On polymorphic transformations by mechanical action: Fred. Walierant.—On the state of preservation of minerals in arable earth : M. Cayeux. In opposition to the views of MM. Delage and Lagatu, the author finds that minerals in an-altered state are always present in arable earth.—New species of endophytes of orchids: Noél Bermard.—The culture of Morchella: Ch. Répin.—The elective action of chloroform on the liver : M. Doyon and J. Billet.—On the toxicity of the urinary | alkaloids: H. Guillemand and P. Vranceano.—The estimation of the sugar in the blood at the moment of accouchement in. the goat without udders: M. Porcher. —The ‘influence of sexuality on the nutrition of Bombix mori at the later stages of its evolution. The localisation of the glycogen, fat, and soluble albumen in the course of nymphosis: C. Vaney and F. Maignon. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, May 33. Roya Society, at 4.30.—On Lesage’s Theory of Gravitation and the Repulsion of Light: Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S.—The Atomic Weight of Chlorine ; an Attempt to Determine the Equivalent of Chlorine by direct burning with Hydrogen: Prof. H. B. Dixon, F.R.S., and F. C. Edgar, [May 18, 1905 SATURDAY, May 20. Rovat Institution, at 3.—The Evolution of the Kingship in Early Society : Dr. J. G. Frazer. MONDAY, May 22. Society oF ARTs, at 8.—The Uses of Electricity in Mines: H. W. Ravenshaw. Victoria INSTITUTE, at 4.30.—Minerals and Metals of the Old Testa- ment: Cavaliere W. P. Jervis. TUESDAY, May 23. SocreTy oF ARTS, at 4.30 —The Cape to Cairo Railway: Sir Charles H. T. Metcalfe, Bart. ANTHROPOLOGICAL’ INSTITUTE, at 8.15.—The Great Zimbabwe: Franklin White. ° WEDNESDAY, May 24. LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 8.—Anniversary Meeting. GroLocicat Society, at 8.—Onthe Igneous Rocks occurring between St. David's Head and Strumble Head (Pembrokeshire): J. V. Elsden.— (1) The Rhztic and Contiguous Deposits of Glamorganshire ; (2) On the Occurrence of Rhetic Rocks at Berrow Hill, near ‘lewkesbury (Gloucestershire): L. Richardson. Society oF ARTS, at 8.—Modern Lightning Conductors: Killingworth Hedges. THURSDAY, May 25. Royat Society, at 4.30.—Croonian Lecture on ‘* The Globulins’’: W. B. Hardy, F.R.S. RovAL INSTITUTION, at 5.—Electro-magnetic Waves: Prof. J. A. Flem- ing, F.R.S. INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8.—Wireless Telegraphy Measurements: W. Duddell and J. E. Taylor. FRIDAY, May 26. Roya. INsTITUTION, at 9.—The Development of Spectro-chemistry : Prof. J. W. Brihl. SATURDAY, May 27. Roya InstiTuTION. at 3.—The Evolution of the Kingship in Early Society: Dr. J. G. Frazer. CONTENTS. PAGE The Birds of Central America. By A.N. ..... 49 Vector Mechanics < .). 2 2/52 hen pee | (Greater\Austria, By (G)-An21C)) oe en eee i Economic (Science). 290) ya. see- ante —The Flow of the River Thames in Relation to British Pressure and | Rainfall: Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., and Dr. W. J. S Lockyer.—Thorianite, a New Mineral, from Ceylon: Prof W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., and G. S. Blake.—A Modified Apparatus for the Measurement of Colour, and its Application to the Determination of the Colour Sensations: Sir William Abney, K.C.B., F.R S.— Further Observations on the Germination of the Seed of the Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus communis): Prof. J. Reynolds Green, F.R.S., and H. Jackson.—On the Efferent Relationship of the Optic Thalamus and Deiter's Nucleus to the Spinal Cord. with Special Reference to the Cerebellar Influx Theory (Hughlings Jackson) and the Genesis of Decerebrate Rigidity (Sherrington): Dr. F. H. Thiele-—On Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles. Eighth Note: Prof. C S. Sher- rington, F.R.S.—The Structure and Function of Nerve Fibres. liminary Communication and Addendum: Prof. G. S. Macdonald.—On the Occurrence of Anopheles (Mysomyia) Listoné in Calcutta: Major A. Alcock, C.1.E., F.R.S., and Major J. R. Adie.—On the Chemical | Mechanism of Gastric Secretion: Dr. J. S. Edkins.—Contributions to the Physiology of Mammalian Reproduction. Part I. The Cstrous : in the Dog. Part Il. The Ovary as an Organ of Internal S tion: F. H. A. Marshall and W. A. Jolly. Roya. InstiTuTION, at s.—Flame: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. SOCIETY OF ARTS, at 4.30 —Plague in India: Dr. C. Creighton. FARADAY Society, at 8.—An Application to Electrolytes of the Hydrate ‘Theory of Solutions: Dr. T. M. Lowry. FRIDAY, May 30. Rovav InstiTUTION, at9.—The Native Races of the British East Africa Protectorate : Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M G. 3 PIDEMIOLOGICAL SocieEry, at 8.30.—Phthisis Rates; their Significance and their Teaching: Dr. A. Ransome, F.R.S.—Demonstration of a New Method for Recording the Incidence of Infectious Disease: C. H. Cooper. No. 1855, VOL. 72] Pre- | Our Book Shelf :— “* Beitrage zur Physik der freien Atmospbiire.”’— GiCS eae “eee aca ; 53 Roberts : ‘‘ The Inventor’s Guide to Patent Law and the New Practice.” —B. : me ooo St Ihlseng and Wilson: ‘‘A Manual of Mining” . . . 53 “c'The Practical| Photographers -js) see ree Granderye: ‘‘ Determination des Espéces minérales” 54 Letters to the Editor: — The Dynamical Theory of, Gases and of Radiation. — ord Rayleigh, O°Mees holes. 00 eee an eeSa: The Cleavage of Slates. —Rev. O. Fisher... . 55 A Relation between Spring and Summer. (2th Diagram.)—Alex. B. MacDowall_. . Bes 3 Fictitious Problems in Mathematics.—An Old Aver- age College Don; The Reviewer .. ... 56 Scientific Results of the National Antarctic Expedi- tion. (/dlustrated.) Me ie co SE The State and Higher Education ' 58 Meeting of the British Association in South Africa 59 Sir Bernhard Samuelson, P.C., Bart., F.R.S. . . 60 Dr; Otte von Struve . 4) 3 5) a Notes foe ar pelpuneiget eo ut apce lc oe Secs ani an ala a Our Astronomical Column :— Orbit of Comet 1905 a : 66 Provisional Elements for Jupiter’s Sixth Satellite. . . 66 Winter Bireballsanero05) = (2 =a: oe. oy 6 Observations and Light-curves of Several Variable Stars . : ae LF on 40S ee 66 Observations of ‘*D,” in the Solar Spectrum GD) Brightness of Jupiter's Satellites . . Stes oes) Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud . . 66 Sanitation in the Tropics. (//ustrated.\ By Prof. R. T. Hewlett . ne 3 MSS cs tile (5// Iron and Steel Institute . ~ el 3 2 OS Higher Education in London Edie: See) Cal of ai University and Educational Intelligence . oS ~7o Societies\and Academies: 7°) 3 59: ee DiaryiofSocieties? £0) seen eee ee re May 18, 1905 | NATURE XXVIl 7800 ¢. is the temperature of the Sun (black body temperature), as determined by Professor C. Fery by means of | his Radiation Pyrometer. The Féry Radiation Pyrometers are available for temperatures from 500 C. (i.e. below a red heat) up to, any higher limit. WRITE FOR LIST 30N TO The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd., CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. SOLE ACENTS for the United Kingdom, British Colonies, and United States of America. (AGENTS ALSO FOR THE SALE OF THESE INSTRUMENTS IN RUSSIA.) MARCONI’S WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 0., Ltd., MANUFACTURERS OF High-Class Apparatus for Rontgen | Ray and High Frequency Work. 10", 12’ & 14° INDUCTION COILS. PORTABLE HOSPITAL SETS, SWITCHBOARDS, &c., &c. New Descriptive Price List Free on Application to 18 Finch Lane, London, E.C. . | PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd., | Dublin. | F. E. BECKER & CO. Autotype Company} Invite Enguiries from those seeking PERMANENT ~——— Photographic Reproductions Of the flig rhest Po sstble Excellence. eee ee THE COMPANY’S PROCESSES— Autotype Solar (Carbon). Autotype Mechanical (Collotype). Auto-Gravure (Copper-plate Engraving). ARE EMPLOYED BY— The Trustees of the British Museum. The Local Government Board. Many Learned Societies, Leading Publishers, and Artists of Repute. Examples of Work nay be inspected and all tnformation obtained at— The Autotype Fine Art Gallery, } 74 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON, WG; o => Resisting in a high degree sudden . . changes ue temperature and the y action of corrosive chemicals. YEN Combustion Tubing for Elemen- (Gee ce-list sent free LAN PAN ALYS Sr cece sete |" SCHOTT & GEN. Glassworks, Jena (GERMANY). The Jena Glasses are, in the U.K., on sale with the following firms : Aberdeen. Manchester. A. & J. SMITH, 23 and 25 St.) FREDK. JACKSON & Co., Nicholas Street 14 Cross Street. Jae tee JAMES WOOLLEY, SONS & F. E. BECKER & CO. (W. and Co., Ltd., Victoria "Bridge. Ve George, Ltd., Successors), 15 and 160 Great Charles Street. 2 ae ene Ltd oandbena. BAIRD & TATLOCK Ltd., 14 Cross Street, Garden, E.C. TRADE MARK. Edmund Street. (London) (W. and Hattor i George, Ltd., Successors), 182 Great Brunswick Street. PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd., 179 Great Banec Street. Glasgow. F. E. BECKER " CO. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 36 Renfrew Street. Leeds. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., 14 Commercial Street. Cc. BAEKEER?R’S 3 APLANATIC LENSES. Magnifying 15/- each, in Tortoiseshell or Nickel Plated Pocket Mounts. receipt of remittance 244 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C | F. E. BECKER & Co. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 33 to 37 Hatton Wall, Hatton Garden, E.C. A. GALLENKAMP & Co., Ltd., 19 & 20 Sun Street, Finsbury, E. G JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 Sardinia Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, W.C. TOWNSON & MERCER, 34 Camomile Street. h.C 6, 10, 15, and 20. By post upon XXVill NATURE [May 18, 1905 LIQUID AIR ano LIQUID HYDROGEN. PHCENIX ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. Dr. HAMPSON’S AIR-LIQUEFIER is now made to a standard pat- | tern, and numbers are in use in University Laboratories and elsewhere in F I R E O F F I Cc E. various countries. The whole apparatus is neat and compact and its parts very easily moved ; the Liquefier, without stand, being a cylinder 17 inches 19 LOMBARD ST., E.C., and 57 CHARING CROSS, S.W. high and 8 inches in diameter. it begins to liquefy air in from 6 to 10 minutes after the admission of air EsTABLISHED 1782. at from 150 to 200 atmospheres pressure, making over a litre of liquid per Moderate Rates. Absolute Security. Blectric hour. Lighting Rules Supplied. Liberal Loss Settiements. It requires no auxiliary refrigerant and produces a perfectly clear liquid Prompt Payment of Claims. which requires no filtering. | LOSSES PAID OVER £26,000,0%O. The operator has only one gauge to watch and one valve to control HYDROGEN LIQUEFIER to the designs of Dr. MORRIS W. TRAVERS for use in conjunction with Air-Liquefier. RB | R K B F C K i] A N K For Prices and Particulars apply to the Sole Makers :-— ESTABLISHED 1851. BRIN’S OXYGEN COMPANY, LIMITED, : oon Ae ELVERTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. Current Accounts. 2% Interest allowed on minimum SS monthly balances when not drawn below £100. | Deposits. 24% Interest allowed on Deposit Accounts. CA LC | U Mi Ni ETAL Advances made. Stocks and Shares bought and sold f Apply C. F. RavENscrorT, Secretary, 99°3 to 99°6 | Southampton Buildings, High Holborn, W.C. SS at 1°7/G per pound bar, or 4 02, G/= INORMWAY. — Sv. {MIDNIGHT SUN.” minimum. 3,178 Tons. Two Berth Cabins. All Berths A RMB RE Cc H Tr, NEL Ss e) N & Cc (O}, on same level. Finest yachting steamer afloat. 1 2 12 /_ Sailing June to, 24; July 8, 22; August 5, 19. / Apply ALBION §S.S. CO., LTD., Newcastle-on-Tyne. 71 & 73 DUKE STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. Telephone : GERRARD, 4942. MACMILLAN & CO.”S NEW BOOKS. TWENTY-SIX GRADUATED EXERCISES IN GRAPHIC STATICS, some in Two Colours, and with Skeleton Data to practise upon, and including the Application to Roofs, Moving Locomotives, Retaining Walls, Lévy’s Steel Arches, Girders (Original Consiructions), Masonry Arches, Lévy’s Weight Tables, with an Essay on Graphical Statics, in the form of a Running Commentary on the Exercises, each of which has full Instructions printed on its face, the whole forming a Supplement to the Authors’ Elementary Applied Mechanics. By T. ALEXANDER, M.Inst.C.E.I., Professor of Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin; and A. W. THOMSON, D.Sc., C.E., Professor of Engineering, College of Science, Poona. A Fragment of a Treatise on the Industrial Mechanism of Society, and other Papers. By the late W. STANLEY JEVONS, LL.D., M.A., F.R.S. With a Preface by HENRY HIGGS. 8vo. AOs. net. A MANUAL OF QUATERNIONS. at By CHARLES JASPER JOLY, M.A., D.Se., F.R.S., See. R.I.A. ; Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin ; Andrews’ Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. 8vo. 10s. net. GUARDIAN.—“ The thanks of all mathematicians will be heartily accorded to the author for bringing so important a weapon as quaternions within more moderate limits in so striking a treatise.” THE TRADE POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES SINCE 1860. By CarL JOHANNES Fucus, Professor of Political Economy in the University of Freiburg i. B. Translated by CONSTANCE H. M. ARCHIBALD. With a Preface by the Right Hon. J. PARKER SMITH, M.A.,M.P. Extra Crown 8vo, 75. 6d. net. PROBLEMS OF THE PANAMA CANAL, including Climatology of the Isthmus, Physics and Hydraulics of the River Chagres, cut at the Continental Divide, and Discussion of Plans for the Waterway. By Brig.-Gen. Henry L. Appot, U.S. Army, retired; Consulting Engineer, New Panama Canal Company. With Map. Crown 8vo, gilt top, 6s. 6d. net. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF BALTIMORE. THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. Edited by Gerorce BursBank Suattuck, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiographic Geology in the Johns Hopkins University. With Maps and TIlustrations. Super royal 8vo. 425. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. : May 18, 1905] NATURE XX1X MICROSCOPIGAL PETROGRAPHY. ‘Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., for a Prospectus of THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Half: Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. Subseription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-; or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections, £4 4s. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Amceba, Arcella, Actinospherium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix ‘pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for ‘Dissection purposes. THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :— Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia; Actinia, Tealia, Caryophyllia, Alcy- Onium ; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana ; Lineus, Amphiporus, Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Terebella; Lepas, Balanus, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone, Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus, AScidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &c. For prices and more detailed lists apply to Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. NOTICE. Proof Copies of the Photogravure Portrait of PROF. SUESS appearing in ‘‘Nature” of May 4 can be obtained from the Publishers at 5s. each. W.C. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, WATKINS & DONCASTER, Naturalists and Manufacturers of CABINETS AND APPARATUS FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS. SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing Classes, &c. Preserved and Mounted by First-class Workmen true to Nature. All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied, 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) ie” New Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, post free. ALBERT EDWARD JAMRACH (Late CHARLES JAMRACH), NATURALIST, 180 ST. GEORGE STREET EAST. Implements of Savage Warfare, Idols, Sacred Masks, Peruvian Pottery, Netsukis China, Lacquers, Gongs, Shells, and other Curios. MINERALS, ROCKS, FOSSILS. A large stock of BRITISH AND FOREIGN MINERALS always on view. CORNISH MINERALS A SPECIALITY. Special display for Teachers and Students on Saturdays. RICHARDS’ SHOW ROOMS. 3 Beauchamp Place, Brompton Road, South Kensington, London, S.W. ROCKS, MINERALS, FOSSILS. For Colleetors, Students, Teehnieal Sehools, Colleges, &e. COLLECTIONS IN POLISHED DEAL BOXES. 25 Specimens, 5/6; 50 do., 10/63 100 do., 21/-3; 200 do., 42/- 20 Coal Measure Rocks and Fossils, 12/6; do., larger, 15/-. Adapted for the Board of Education Examinations in Geology, Physiography, and Mineralogy. A large stock of Minerals, Rocks, Fossils and Microscopic Objects for selection. Specimens sent on approval. Cabinets, Geologists’ Hammers, Chisels, Card Trays, Glass-capped Boxes, Models of Crystals, &c., &c. NEW CATALOGUE POST FREE. THOMAS D. RUSSELL, 78 Newgate St., London, E.C. Birds, Mammals, &c., Open till 7 p.m. RECENT & COMING ECLIPSES. Sir NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S. Second Edition, containing an account of the Observations made at Viziadrug, in India, in 1898, and of the conditions of the Eclipses visible in 1900, 1901 and 1905. 8vo. 6s. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. NOTICE.—Advertisements and business letters for NatuRE should be addressed to the Publishers; Editorial Communications to the Editor. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘ NATURE." The telegraphic address of Nature is ‘‘ Puusis,’”” LONDON. CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. £ s.d.|Toavtt Praces AproaD:— & s. d. ean nae : 26 One at 18 Go CL ree Lines in Column o 2 uarter Page, or Ha aed k Es ° cp ss . 1 aes Per Lineafter . ° 9 a Column I%5 0 ali-yearly ° 14 all-yearly 015 One Sixteenth Page, or Eighth Col. 10 0 Halfa Page, oraColumn 3 5 0 Quarterly eyeoue7) 6 Quarterly o 8 o| One Eighth Page, or Quarter Column o 18 6] Whole Page . 6 60 * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Ties Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CC., Limited. OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, WC. XXX NATURE [May 18, 1905 LATEST IMPROVE FORM = = rs —— ae DOUBLE- SURFACE CONDENSER. Overcomes the many disadvantages of previous patterns. which militate to a great extent their usefulness and gen- eral adoption in laboratories. Patent applied for, Answers equally well for distillations with direct steam, ordinary distillations, or under reduced pressure. Easily cleansed by removing inner con- densing tube. In case of breakage (chances of which are re- duced to a minimum), any part may be readily renewed at very small cost, or, in fact, replaced U HE from the stores of any ordinary laboratory. a May be used in any position, with or without iB: WOODHOU E vacuum. Takes less than one-third the bench room of an | Ss ordinary Liebig type condenser. For distillations under reduced pressure, where fractions have to be separated, the fractionating a end (as shown in Fig.) will be found extremely Price @255'= useful and convenient Condenser, 5/G; Fractionating End, 10/6; ; 1. eee nh: Complete Apparatus (as shown), 2o/-. C.E. MULLER, ORME & CO., Ltd., | TOWNSON & MERCE R, 148 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. | 34 CAMOMILE STREET, E.C. THE NEW HIGH POTENTIAL APPARATUS (GRISSON RESONANCE TYPE). i= Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlet now ready, post free. THE NEW GRISSON VALVE (ELECTROLYTIC RECTIFIER). j= Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlet also now ready, post free. ISENTHAL & CO., 85 Mortimer Street, London, W. Contractors to the Admiralty, War, India, and Colonial Offices, &c. THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY’S LATEST INTRODUCTION Che “Artist” Reflex Camera For Day-Light Loading Flat Films or Plates. The Ideal Camera for Photographing Figure Studies, Animals, Natural History Subjects, Architecture, Landscapes, &c. The picture can be viewed the full size and focussed right up to the moment of exposure. Write for Fully Illustrated Booklet (N) Free from 106 & 108 REGENT ST., W., or 54 CHEAPSIDE. Printed by RicHarp CLay anv Sons, Limirep, at 7 & § Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MacmILLan AND Co., Lrm1TEp, at St. Martin's Street, London, W.C., and THe MacmiLian Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—Tuurspay, May 18, 1905. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’—WoRDSWORTH. No. 1856, VOL. 72] THURSDAY, MAN G25 tOO5n ames [Price SrxPENcE | ; [All Rights are Reserved. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] THE NEW “‘ADIX” CALCULATOR. | RESONANCE COIL of the NEW HIGH POTENTIAL APPARATUS. i ae — 5 = ‘be neatest, simplest, smallest and cheapest calculating machine ever designed. For adding up columns of figures rapidly and accurately. Can be used by anyone. ‘A necessity for all who have to add.” Made entirely in steel and aluminium. Price 1/G complete in leather case 6” « 3}” « 1”. NEWTON S& CO., iii i is i : = Xxxlii in this issue. Scientific Instrument Makers to H.M. the King, H.R.H, the See also page ae 2 ! Bee, Eeecao! alee ind the, Government ons. | ISENTHAL: &,CO., 85 Mortimer St, London, W- ISENTHAL' & CO., 85 Mortimer St, London, W: NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S PHOTOGRAPHIC LENSES. ~ — ANEROID A SIMPLE TREATISE. BAROMETERS. By CONRAD BECK and HERBERT ANDREWS. ; 1/=-, Post Free 1/3. NEW ILLUSTRATED AND REVISED PRICE LISTS This somewhat difficult subject is made clear without Free by Post. the use of mathematics. R. & J. BECK, Ltd., 68 CORNHILL, LONDON. ; PRACTICAL NOTES ON TELEPHOTOGRAPHY. Free on application to R. & J. BECK, Ltd., 68 CORNHILL, LONDON. 38 Holborn Viaduct, E.C. Branches— 45 Cornhill; 122 Regent Street. XXxil NATURE [May 25, 1905 OPTICAL CONVENTION, 1905. President: Dr. R. T. GLAZEBROOK, M.A., F.R.S., Director of the National Physical Laboratory. Vice- Presidents: « Str Wm. DE WIVELESLIE ABNEY, K.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S. Tue Ricut Hon. THe Lorp BLyTHswoop. Sir W. H. M. Curistiez, K.C.B., M.A., F.R.S., Astronomer Royal. Tur Ricut Hon. Tue Eart or Crawrorp, K.T., LL.D., F.R.S. Mr. Tuos. R, Dattmeyer, F.R.A.S. Tue Hon. Atsan G. H. Gipes, M.A., M.P., Master of the Worshipful Co. of Spectacle Makers. Sir Howarpv Gruss, F.R.S. Tue Ricut Hon. Tue Lorp Ketvin, O.M., G.C.V.O., F.R.S. Tue Ricut Hon. THE Lorp Rayvercu, O.M., D.C.L., F.R.S. Tue Ricut Hon. THe Eart or Rossg, K.P., D.C.L., F.R.S. {pez OPTICAL CONVENTION will be held at the Nortu- AMPTON INSTITUTE, CLERKENWELL, E.C., from May 31 to June 3, inclusive. { The object of the Convention is to bring into co-operation those interested in Optical Matters, from all sides of the question, theo- retical, practical, and commercial. The mornings will be devoted to papers and discussions on Optical subjects. These will be collected in a volume to be issued by the Convention. There will be an EXHIBITION OF OPTICAL & SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS of British manufacture, in the Jarge ha!l of the Northampton Institute, during the Convention, open daily from 12 toro p.m. In connection with this, a catalogue is in preparation, which will be a useful work of reference in regard to instruments manufactured in this country. The Subscription for Membership of the Convention will be five shillings. Applications for membership should be addressed to the Hon. Sec., Mr. F, J. Secsy, M.A., Elm Lodge, Teddington, Middlesex, who will be glad to furnish further particulars if desired. ADMISSION to the Exhibition, daily, ONE SHILLING, after 7 p.m., Sixpence. Tickets admitting to the Exhibition at any time while it is open, 2/6. BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. BURLINGTON HOUSE, LONDON, W. The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held this year in SOUTH AFRICA, commencing at Cape Town on Tuesday, August 15. PRESIDENT-ELECT : Proressor G. H. DARWIN, M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. Owing to the exceptional circumstances of this Meeting, contributions to the Sectional proceedings have been specially invited. Authors of Papers accepted by the Sectional Committees are reminded that all abstracts (together with the original Papers, if possible) must be sent in to the Office of the Association not later than June 1s. Abstracts received after that date will appear in the Annual Report, but cannot be printed before or during the Meeting. A. SILVA WHITE, Assistant Secretary. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. BROWN ANIMAL SANATORY INSTITUTION. (UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.) THE Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with the Will of Mr. Brown, a course of Five Lectures will be delivered by the Professor-Superintendent (T. Grecor Bropie, Esq., M.D., B.Sc., F.R.S.) in the Physiological Laboratory of the University of London, South Kensington, S.W., on Tuesdays, May 30, and June 6, 13, 20 and 27, at Five o'clock each after- noon. Subject: ‘* The Work of the Brown Institution,” The Lectures are free to the public. By Order of the Senate, PERCY M. WALLACE, Secretary to the Senate, University of London, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) The Council will shortly proceed to fill the vacancy in the Chair of Civil Engineering and Surveying occasioned by the resignation of Professor Vernon: Harcourt. Candidates for the appointment are requested to send their applications (accompanied by at least twenty printed copies of any testimonials they may wish to submit) not later than June ro to the ACTING SECRETARY, from whom fall particulars may be obtained. WALTER W, SETON, M,A., Acting Secretary May 109, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C, FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES. J. E. Macxenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc. Chemistry ovis 9 os 1s Sen ERs nae Ses ALBERT GRIFFITHS, D.Sc. Physics ... ne é3 ~{B: Owen, B.A., B.Sc. Bees BSc, + . H. SMart. Ae Mathematics a sey Se 7 o: Bie B.A., B.Sc. A. B. Renp eg, M.A., D.Sc. Botany... 0 0 {BE Friscu, PhD. B.Sc, Zoology... « H. W. UntTHANK, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy . Gero, F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Geo. Patcuin, A.R.S.M, RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, Duteh, & Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES also in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, | Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Land and Quantity Surveying, and Estimating. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY, BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C, HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY. A Course of Nine Lectures will be given by Dr. J. E. MACKENZIE on Saturdays, commencing May 27, at 12 noon, Fee for the Course, 5s. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. A Reid Scholarship in Arts, annual value £31 ros. first year, £28 7s. second and third years, and an Arnott Scholarship in Science, annual value 448, both tenable for three years, will be awarded on the results of an examination to be held at the College on June 28 and 29. For further information apply to the PriNcIPAaL. DEPARTMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN TEACHING. Students are admitted to the Training Course in October and January. Two Scholarships, each of the value of £10, will be awarded for the course of Secondary Training beginning in October, 1905. Applications should reach the Heap oF THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT not later than July 7, 1905. EAST LONDON TECHNICAL COLLEGE. A Course of Four Lectures on Electrical Measurements will be given at the East London Technical College on Wednesdays, May 31, June 7, 14, 21, ats.30p.m. Fee for the Course, 5s. TUITION BY CORRESPONDENCE. For MATRICULATION, B.A., SCHOLARSHIPS, and PRO- FESSIONAL PRELIMINARIES. Tuition in Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Mathematics, Mechanics, Physics, Chemis- try, Psychology, Logic, Political Economy, Book-keeping. The Staff includes Graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Royal Universities. Address Mr. J. CHaRLEston, B.A., Burlington Correspond- ence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. TO SCIENCE MASTERS, especially those taking ELECTRICITY as a special subject. Wanted by July r next for important College, well-qualified Master for Electricity. One who has had some experience in the organisation of the work of a local Technical Instruction Committee. Salary, 4150 to £200 per annum. Candidates for the above and those seeking posts for the term com- mencing in September next should apply forthwith, giving details as to qualifications and enclosing copies of testimonials, to GrirFiTHs, SmirH, Powett & SmirH, School Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. MEERUT COLLEGE. (NORTHERN INDIA.) Applications are invited for the FIRST (European) PROFESSORSHIP (PHYSICS). Salary, £320 per annum (£50 passage money). Candidates should be University Graduates, under 30 years of age, and unmarried. For particulars apply to Professor WoRTHINGTON, Mohuns, Tavistock. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages XXX1V and XxxV. May 25, 1905] NATURE XXXiii At the | OPTICAL | bss — | TOGRAPAIC CONVENTION, CAEMICALS _ May 31 to June 3 NO WEIGHING NO MEASURING NO WASTE (At the Northampton Institute, ALWAYS READY ALWAYS ACCURATE Clerkenwell, London, E.C.), ALWAYS RELIABLE a number of Optical and other RGR . ° TO TOURISTS Physical Instruments will be ya exhibited by i} y See THE GAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC st a INSTRUMENT 60., LTD., BURROUGHS WELLCOME & Co. SNOW HILL BUILDINGS, LONDON. CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. This Illustration represents the NATURE OF SPARK produced by the NEW HIGH POTENTIAL APPARATUS, which also yields ALTERNATING CURRENTS OF BOTH HIGH AND LOW POTENTIAL. Je=- The apparatus is now on view here, or Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlet may be had post free upon application. ISENTHAL & CO., 85 Mortimer Street, London, W. Contractors to the Admiralty, War, India, and Colonial Offices, Gc. XXXIV NATURE [May 25, 1905 GOURSE OF INSTRUCTION ON OCEAN RESEARCH. T is intended this year, as previously, to give a course of instruction in Bergen, from August 8 to October 14, on Ocean Research. This will consist partly of lectures, partly of practical instruction and assistance in laboratory work; excursions will also be made, during which the use of various appliances and instruments will be practically demonstrated. All pupils must, however, bring microscopes and magnifying glasses. Each student is charged a fee of about four guineas (Kr. 75.00). Special pupils who desire to continue their studies after the conclusion of the regular course are permitted to do so, and are not required to pay any additional fee. The course will be conducted according to the following plan :— I. Dr. A. APPELLOF :— (1) Systematic examination of representative forms of the fish and invertebrate animals in the fiords, the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Demonstration of the most important species and guidance as to classifying them. (2) A review of the distribution of the bottom fauna in the same districts, and its dependence upon the configuration of the bottom and upon hydrographical conditions. — : fi ; L (3) Excursions in the adjacent fiords, for the purpose of studying the invertebrate fauna. Opportunities will also be given for morphological study (dissections, &c.) of various types of invertebrates. II. Dr. D. DAMAS :— Systematic examination of the pelagic Copepoda and Appendicularia, their morphology and biology, with demon- stration of the various species. lll. Dr. H. H. GRAN :— The plankton algae (diatoms and peridineae), their systematising, biology and distribution. IV. B. HELLAND-HANSEN :— (1) Instruction, combined with laboratory practice, on the methods of oceanographic investigations. (2) Review of the results of oceanographic researches of the North-European waters. (3) Lectures on theoretical oceanography, including hydrodynamical calculations of ocean currents. V. Dr. JOHAN HJORT :— Review of the biology of the foodfish. VI. Docent C. F. KOLDERUP :— (1) Ocean bottom deposits. (2) Glacial and post-glacial deposits in Norway. The fisheries in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. All wishing to attend the above course should apply to THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE OF BERGEN MUSEUM, BERGEN, Norway, before July 1, 1905. Information as to lodging, &c., will be furnished if desired. NOTE.—Please state clearly in your application, to what extent you Wish to take part in the course of instruction, and give the hames of the lecturers, whose lectures you propose attending. | a 2 I TE ST THE AGENT-GENERAL for the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE has been instructed to receive applications for the vacant post of PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY to the SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE, CAPE TOWN, up to June x next. Candidates szxst be under 35 years of age, and their applications should be supported by cofses of testimonials and a medical certificate. The salary offered is £500 per annum on appointment, £600 per annum after three years’ service, £700 per annum after ten years’ service, together witha merit grant of £75 per annum after five years, increasing to £roo after ten years. Ap allowang of £50 will be made to cover the cost of the journey to the olony. The accepted Candidate is to assume duty in Cape Town during the first week in July, or so soon thereafter as possible. too Victoria Street, London, S.W., May 2, 190s. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR. (A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES.) Applications are invited for the post of ASSISTANT LECTURER IN THE DAY TRAINING DEPARTMENT now yacant. Special sub- jects: Elementary Science, Blackboard Drawing. Salary, £120. Applications and testimonials should be received not later than Monday, June 12, by the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained. JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A., Secretary and Registrar. May 5, 1905. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. The Governing Body invite applications for the following appointments dating from September next :— HEAD of the DEPARTMENT of MATHEMATICS. Commencing Salary, 4250 per annum. WOMAN LECTURER in BOTANY for part time. salary, £120 per annum. _ For particulars send stamped addressed envelope to the SECRETARY, Battersea Polytechnic, S.W. Commencing THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. VULCAN FELLOWSHIP IN ENGINEERING. (FouNDED BY THE VuLcaAN BoILerR Company.) The first award of this Fellowship, which is open to graduates of the University of Manchester or of other Universities who can furnish satisfactory evidence of being able to pursue original research, will be made shortly. The Fellowship is of the value of £120, Applications should be forwarded to the REGISTRAR on or before July 1 next, from whom detailed conditions may be obtained. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. The Council invites applicitions for the post ofp DEMONSTRATOR in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. Duties to begin on October 1, 1905. Stipend commencing at £150 per annum. Apply, with one set of testi- monials, o or before June 8, 1905, to the undersigned, from whom full particulars may be obtained. F. H. PRUEN, Secretary. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. DAY TRAINING DEPARTMENT. The Council invites applications for the post of MISTRESS _ of METHOD and LECTURER in EDUCATION. Stipend commencing at 4150 per annum. Applications, with one set of testimonials, must be sent to the undersigned mot dater than June 8, 1905, from whom full par- ticulars may be obtained. F. H. PRUEN, Secretary. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages Xxxil and XXxv. May 25, 1905] NATURE XXXV BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL. India Office, Whitehall, S.W., May 23, 1905. WANTED, for service at the India Store Depét, Belvedere Road, Lamheth. London, S.E., an ASSISTANT INSPECTOR OF SCIEN- TIFIC SUPPLIES. Candidates must have a knowledge of optical work as applied to survey- ing and similar instruments,'and of balances as used for chemical, assay, and mint purposes. Thev must also have a thorough knowledge of physics and he acquainted with the general princip'es of electricity. Age, 25to 30. Salary, £200 per annum, rising by annual increments of #10, on satisfactory report, to £350 per annum. Pension under Civil Service Regulations. The selected candidate will he examined by the Medical Board at the India Office, and will only be appointed if passed by the Board. Forms of application can be obtained by writing to the Director General of Stores, India Office, Whitehall, London, S.W., not later than June 5, 1905. a E. GRANT BURLS, Director General of Stores. THE GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE. The Governors invite applications for a LECTURESHIP in CIVIL ENGINEERING which it is proposed to establish. The salary attached to the post is £250 per annum, and the lecturer must be prepared to give his whole time to the College. Applications and testimonials must be sent not later than May 31 to the SECRETARY, 38 Bath Street, Glasgow. LONDON INTER-COLLEGIATE SCHOLARSHIP BOARD. SCHOLARSHIPS at University, King's, and East London Technical Colleges. Intending candidates should apply at once, to the SECRETARY of the Board, King’s College, Strand. Last day for entry May 30. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM. A LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR required in the Chemical Department. Salary commencing at £130, and rising by £10 per annum to 4180. Applications to be sent in by June 30 addressed to the REGrtsTRAR, from whom application forms and particulars as to duties, &c., may be obtained. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER IN MATHEMATICS. Commencing Salary £175, to date from September 1 next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifica- tions, teaching experience, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the PRINCIPAL not later than Tuesday, June 20. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pases Xxxii and xxxiv. A FIRST-CLASS BINOCULAR MICRO- SCOPE (ROSS PATTERN), in good condition, circular movable Stage with spring clips substage, rack movement, flat and concave mirror with double arm, polariscope, wheel of diaphragms, stand con- denser, pair of eyepieces, triple nose piece, 4 objectives (4, 7. 1 and 2 in.), live box, stage forceps, parabolic illuminator, camera lucida, in mahogany boxes, also with mahogany stand and glass shade; cost about £45, price £30.—Address ‘‘ Bera," at the office of this Journal. Metallurgical Laboratory, well equipped for experimental werk, to Jet at low rent. One minute from Station. Fifteen minutes to City. Apply MArsHacr & Co.. Campbell Works, Stoke Newington, N. (close to Station, G.E.R.). Tel., 79 Dalston. 18-inch Apps-Newton Coil for sale, in perfect condition. No trace of oxidation on the vulcanite. G. Bowron, 57 Edgware Road, W. TYPE-WRITING UNDERTAKEN BY HIGHLY KDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOMED TO SCIEN- TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Local, thorough acquaintance with Modern Languages). Research, Revision, Translation. Scale of charges on application. The Cam- bridge Type-wri.ing Agency, 10 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. THE SYTAM SYSTEM Saves an ineredible amount of wall space and eompletely utilises dark corners, recesses, and out-of-the-way places. Prevents erowding and confusion. Allows for extension as and when required. Always room for more, hence reorganisation seldom or never necessary. Saves time, lightens work, and inereases comfort by producing perfect order in the Laboratory, Library, Study, Home, Office, &e. SOME SYTAM FITTINGS. 1. THE BOTTLE ELEMENT. One hundred 4 o0z. bottles are arranged in one Sytam Bottle - Element occupying less than 1 sq. ft. of wall space, each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, and any size from j-0oz, to a Winchester can be accommodated in one and the same element. 2. THE CLOSED-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. THE OPEN-FRONT BOOK BLEMENT. 4. THE AUTHOR'S FILE. For division of subject into headings, chapters or sections, THE TWIN DESK TRAYS. 6. THE PAMPHLET FILE. THE SYTAM FITTINGS CoO., 18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. DR. H. STROUD’S Apparatus for DETERMINING THE VELOCITY OF SOUND IN AIR, BY THE METHOD OF RESONANCE, grooved frame, so that the water level can be quickly altered. oo oO Price, in Polished Mahogany Stand, 24/- SOLE MAKERS MARTIN, Lro., Scientific Apparatus Makers, NEWCASTLE - UPON - TYNE. Makers and Dealers in all kinds of Chemical and Physical Apparatus for Schools and Colleges, Works’ Laboratories and Special Research Work. CONSTRUCTION OF NEW FORMS OF APPARATUS UNDERTAKEN, XXXVI IMPROVED APPARATUS for DEMONSTRATING WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. Especially suitable for Colleges and Scientific Institutes. PRICE, complete with Oscillator, £7 5s. Cc. Full instructions with diagram of connections sent with Apparatus. LLL HARRY wW. Cox, Ltd., ACTUAL MAKERS of X-Ray, &c., Apparatus to the Admiralty, War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c. 4a ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-24 LAYSTALL ST, , LONDON, E.C. ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE (including Instructions to Besanes) Post Free. a G. BOWRON, 57 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON, W. ELECTRICAL APPA RATUS AND. PHYSICAL BY STANDARD MAKERS, IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER, AT EXTREMELY MODERATE PRICES. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory ; Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow Universities ; Bedford, Bradford, Clifton, Heriot Watt and Yorkshire Colleges ; and twenty other Scientific Institutions, Polytechnics, &c. BM Nature says: ‘‘ Teachers requiring efficient apparatus at a low cost for lecture or laboratory purposes, might consult the list with advantage.”’ List on application by mentioning NATURE. FREDK. JACKSON & Co. (Late MOTTERSHEAD & CO.), 144 GROSS STREET, MANCHESTER Goods Entrance: 10 Half-Moon Street. LABORATORY FURNISHERS, Importers, Manufacturers, and Dealers in CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL APPARATUS Of every Description. Fine Chemicals, Volumetric Solutions, Plain and Stoppered Bottles, AND EVERY LABORATORY REQUIREMENT. Illustrated Catalogue of Apparatus, with Priee List of Chemieals, free on application. Telegraphic Address—'‘ APPARATUS, MANCHESTER.” Telephone Number—2238. “e E fa We os a hay Apparatus for estimation of sulphur in spent oxide NATURE [May 25, 1905 THE “BB.” MICROSCOPE (MANUFACTURED BY THE BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL C0.), | As illustrated here, is specialised by us, and constitutes nearly one half of oursales. It has | been still further improved in its mechanical construction. We supply this instrument | complete in case, with 2/3rd and 1/6th | Objectives, and 1” Eyepiece, for £7 4s. 10d. A VISIT WOULD CONVINCE You OF ITS SUPERIORITY. Sole Representatives for U.K. and Colonies, ALE. STALEY & 60., 19 THAVIES INN, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON; E.C. Write for Illustrated | Microscopical Catalogue (84 pages), 3 Stamps to cover postage. Also Lists of Microtomes, Centri- | fuges, Photographic = | Lenses, Shutlers anc | Chemicals of all de } scriptions post free. |W. WILSON, Maker of SPECTROSCOPES, SPECTROMETERS, GONIOMETERS, OPTICAL BENCHES, OPTICAL AND OTHER MEASURING INSTRUMENTS. BEST WORK. MODERATE PRICES. Price List Free. {, BELMONT STREET, CHALK FARM, NW. Accurate and Inexpensive. PRICE 5 23f j| 21 / 4 ‘ou = Sa% piste ¥ a THE NEW PATENT PIESMIC BAROMETER. Descriptive To be obtained of all Opticians, or Pamphlet the SOLE MAKERS, Post Free. EF. DARTON &CO., CLERKENWELL OPTICAL WORKS, 142 ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C. May 25, 1905 | NATURE XXXVii Physical and Illustrated Chemical Price Laboratories ! | Lists completely a fitted up. HEELE’S FAMOUS SPECTROMETER. Price £10 10 O Universally acknowledged to be the } Including dense flint glass prism, with micrometer movement, reading to I minute. most efficient instrument on the market. Also, smaller size, Price SSG nett, including two prisms, one being a hollow prism. As supplied to the Royal College of Science, Dublin, University College, Gower St., London County Council, St. Munchin’s Colleg2, Limerick, and many other leading Institutes. DELIVERY FROM STOCK. PETER HEELE, 115 High Holborn, W.C. MAKER OF PHYSICAL, ASTRONOMICAL, AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS, W. G. PYE & CO., “GRANTA” WORKS, CAMBRIDGE. PHYSICAL, ELECTRICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INSTRUMENT MAKERS. Best Quality Apparatus for Teaching and Research, at most moderate Prices. High Voltage Battery, consisting of 500 cells, giving at least 1000 volts. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, U.S.A., etc. Price complete with regulating switch, ammeter, charging and discharging eonnectors, in lock-up cabinet, B55 :O: O. Catalogues and Pamphlets free. XXXVill NATURE [May 25, 1905 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS. A TREATISE ON PLAGUE: Dealing with the Historical, Epidemiological, Clinical, Therapeutic, and Preventive Aspects of the Disease. By W. J. SIMPSON, M.D.Aberd., F.R.C.P.Lond., D.P.H.Camb., Professor of Hygiene, King’s College, London; Lecturer on Tropical Hygiene, London School of Tropical Medicine ; formerly Health Officer, Calcutta ; Medical Adviser to the Government of Cape Colony during the Outbreak of Plague in 1901 ; Commissioner for the Colonial Office to Inquire into the Causes of the Continuance of the Plague in Hong-Kong. With Maps and IIlustra- tions. Royal 8vo, 16s, net. LANCET.— We congratulate Prof. Simpson upon the completeness of his work. He has given to the practical physician an accurate guide to the diagnosis and the treatment of plague ; the bacteriologist will find here a trustworthy account of the plague bacillus, its nature, its virulence, and its vitality ; the sanitarian will read of the way in which to deal practically with an epidemic ; and the politician, if he will but realise the condition of India as recorded in these pages, will be enabled to form some idea of the pressing calamity, which threatens to assume aspects and proportions that may in the near future require most strenuous endeavours to allay.” THE GEOGRAPHY OF DISEASE. By Frank G. CLEMOW, M.D.Edin., D.P.H.Camb., Physician to H.M. Embassy, Constantinople. With 12 Maps and Charts. 15s. (‘‘ Cambridge Geographical Series.’’) THE PRESERVATION OF ANTIQUITIES: a Handbook for Curators, Translated, by permission of the Authorities of the Royal Museums, from the German of Dr. FRIEDRICH RATHGEN, Director of the Laboratory of the Royal Museums, Berlin, by GEORGE A. AUDEN, M.A., M.D.Cantab., and HAROLD A. AUDEN, M.Sc.Vict., D.Sc.Tiibingen. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net. KUMMER’S QUARTIC SURFACE. By R. W. H. T. HUDSON, M.A., D.Sc., late Fellow of St. Jobn’s College, Cambridge, and Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Liver- pool. Demy 8vo, 8s, net. NOW READY. Vol. V. Demy 8vo, 15s. MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL PAPERS. By the late Sir GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES, Bart., Sc.D., LL.D., D.C.L., Past. Pres. R.S., &c. Reprinted from the Original Journals and Transactions, with brief Historical Notes and References. Vol. V. (Concluding Volume). Demy 8vo, 15s. Volumes I., II., III., and 1V. already published, 15s. each. London: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, Ave Maria Lane, C. F. CLAY, Manager. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, L® a THE RYSTOS STAND DEVELOPING TANK. For Developing plates or eut films slowly in a very weak developer. Clean in use; gives excel- lent results with a minimum of trouble. MADE OF STOUT POLISHED COPPER. Tank to take 6 plates 15” x 12”, and with Adapters to suit any smaller plate; complete, &1: 10:0 This arrangement is specially recommended to Radiographers and other Scientific Photographers. Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only a 4/6 each. Tank to hold 1 doz. 5” x 4” plates only S/- 4, Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only G/- 55 Postage on any of above three sizes, 4d. extra, NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PRICE LIST, 25th EDITION, ON APPLICATION. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS, THE NEW “STUDENT’S” STANDARD BAROMETER. (Rd. No, ¢20,297-) This Instrument has been designed to meet the re- quirements of Students and others who find the need of a Barometer which will give exact readings, and cost but a moderate sum. It appeals especially to Colleges and Schools fcr Demonstration purposes. The construction is on that of the well-known “‘ Fortin” principle. The level of the cistern mercury is reducible to zero, in exactly the same manner as in the more expensive forms. The diameter of the mercurial column is "25 inch, and affords a bold, well-defined reading. The scales, by means of the double vernier, are capable of being read to ‘or inch and ‘x millimetre. It is mounted on a well- polished, solid mahogany board, with plates for attach- ment to wall, opal glass reflectors for reading off, and screws for vertical adjustment. The metal portions are all well bronzed and lacquered, and the scales are silvered brass. We confidently recommend this Instrument for use as a ‘*Standard’’in Colleges and Schools, private Observa- tories. and by Gas and other Engineers. Price, complete, mounted as illustrated, £3 7 6 each, or may be had with one scale (either inches or milli- metres), and with thermometer on other scale, at same price. 2 : gm=- Nature says :—‘‘ Provides an accurate instru ment at a moderate cost.” FULL SIZE STANDARD BAROMETER o same design, bore o’5” diameter, inches and millimetre scales, verniers reading to o’ooz inch and o’r m/m, on polished mahogany board with brackets and opal glass reflectors, £7 10 O Sole Manufacturers and_ Proprietors of the Registered Design. PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, Lto., 46 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. WHOLESALE MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS Contractors to H.M. Government. Estd. 1750. Telegrams, ‘*‘ Rapkin, London." Telephone,1981 Holborn. W.H. SMITH & SON'S LIBRARY EMBRACES ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS, BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS, TRAVEL AND SPORT, HISTORY, THEOLOGY, SCIENCE AND SOCIOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, LITERATURE AND ART, POETRY AND ESSAYS, TOPOGRAPHY, FICTION, REVIEWS, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. eee eee 1/roth scale. The newest and best books of popular interest are added as published. The books are delivered to the Bookstalls to Sub- scribers’ orders, carriage paid. Over 800 branches to which Subscribers can be trans- ferred. Special Travelling Subscriptions entitling Members to exchange at any branch without previous notice. Terms on application. Books exchanged by Parcels Post, Rail, or other means from the Head Office to any part of the United Kingdom. Boxes supplied gratis. Prospectus and list of recent books in circulation and any other information can be obtained upon application. A catalogue of Surplus Library and New Remainder Books, offered at greatly reduced prices, is published monthly, and supplied gratis on application. HEAD orrice: 186 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. BRANCHES at all the Railway Bookstalls. IMA TOME? | 73 THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1905. THE ANOPHELES MOSQUITOES OF INDIA. A Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India. By S. P. James and Dr. W. G. Liston: Pp. 132 and plates. (Calcutta and London: Thacker and Co.) Price 24s. net. HERE is one feature in which this. book far surpasses any other devoted to mosquitoes, viz. the coloured plates. The authors and their artist, Dr. Turkhud, are to be congratulated on the excel- lence of these pictures. It will be now possible to compare an Indian Anapheline with a plate, and with practical certainty to be sure of its identity. The same could not be said of any representations of mosquitoes hitherto produced. These plates are beautifully executed, and depict faithfully the bands on the palpi, the spots on the wings, and the leg markings. It is a pity that some few Anophelines are not represented, but of these, we have, of, course, the systematic description. The book is divided into two parts: (1) general, (2) systematic. The first chapter gives a general account of mosquitoes, egg, larva, nymph, and ex- ternal anatomy of the imago. The description is clear and adequate for medical men, for whom the book is primarily written. We think perhaps a short account of the internal anatomy might have been added, as a knowledge of this is so important. The chapter ends with a short account of Theobald’s classification of mosquitoes, which the authors are unable to accept. Instead of dividing the subfamily Anophelina into twelve genera as Theobald has done, they place them all (at least the Indian ones) in the old genus Anopheles. We cannot help thinking that this, in spite of some of the difficulties of Mr. Theobald’s classification which they point out, is a retrograde step. The authors deal with a total of twenty-four Indian species; the total number of Anophelines, how- ever, now amounts to nearly a hundred, and, to say the least, it would be very inconvenient, if not impossible, to deal with these if we placed them all in a single genus. In some of these, e.g. Lophoscelomyia, Christya, the difference in scale structure is so marked from, for example, a typical Myzomyia that we prefer to follow Mr. Theobald and put them in separate genera. Again, we do not know whether the authors would propose, ignoring scale structure, to arrange the rest of the Culicidze in a single genus, Culex, and take no notice of the obvious differences in scale structure, e.g. between Mucidus and Culex, or be- tween Stegomyia and Culex. We think, to be logical, they should do so, and try to classify them by palpal bands and leg markings; but this would be well-nigh impossible. We think the authors would have made their position more secure if they had been content with placing in the same genus only those in which they failed to recognise the differences in scale struc- ture defined by Mr. Theobald. It may be granted that doubts sometimes arise, but we cannot regard NO. 1856, VOL. 72] this as an excuse for merging into a single genus those in which the differences are well marked and easily appreciable. The second chapter contains a synoptic table of the Indian species of Anophelines, based upon the author’s classification according to palpal bandings, wing spots, and leg markings; the chapter concludes with a description of the method of identifying Anopheline larve. The essential points are very clearly set forth, and there follows a classification—a modification of that originally constructed by Stephens and Christo- phers. One point noticeable as showing that even all the Indian Anopheline larvae are as yet unknown is that the table only contains eighteen species, whereas the table of imagines contains twenty-four. This table should be of great assistance in helping actual workers in identifying their catch of larvze from any source. The third chapter is devoted to the habits of Anophelines. These most interesting questions are, as the authors admit, only beginning to be studied, and now that a book of this kind enables observers to identify their mosquitoes, we may expect much light on these questions—questions of vital import- ance, but to which many pay no attention. One of the most interesting problems is the distance of flight of Anophelines. Christophers and myself found in Africa instances which proved conclusively that nor- mally the flight of Anophelines was quite a restricted one, to be counted in yards and not in miles, as was not uncommonly stated. A striking example of this we found in the central portion of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Although we lived there for several months during the dry and rainy seasons, we never discovered Anophelines in our rooms, yet a quarter of a mile away they existed in myriads in the native huts; and many other similar instances were observed by us. Yet in Mian Mir observations are quoted to show that P. fuliginosus will on occasions fly two and a quarter miles, and M, rossii three-quarters of a mile. But, of course, the conditions at Mian Mir are very different—in one case an open plain, in the other a crowded town. Closely bound up with this problem is the question of dispersal of Anophelinés. Two of the most important means are (r) by flight, (2) ‘‘ by a gradual spreading, by short stages, from areas in which they are abundant.’ This latter method is, it seems to us, one of the most important and over- looked by those who have no intimate knowledge of mosquito habits, but who readily draw up schemes for their wholesale destruction. We agree with the authors when they state, ‘‘ observers who consider that Anopheles can be materially reduced in numbers by the obliteration of all breeding places in the imme- diate vicinity of dwellings, rely chiefly upon the sup- positions that the range of flight of these insects is very limited and that they do not disperse any considerable distance from their breeding grounds. It would appear from the observations just recorded that such suppositions are incorrect, and if this is so, the task of materially reducing the number of Anopheles in any place will undoubtedly be one of great magnitude.” B 74 NATURE [May 25, 1905 Again, granted that Anophelines have been dimin- ished in numbers in a certain area, it by no means follows that the malaria will be diminished. We could furnish many instances observed by us in Africa where Anophelines were extremely scanty (but present) yet the malarial index was high. In fact, it is not always possible to trace any relation between the number of Anophclines and the value of the malarial index, although on the contrary it often is so. Finally, we may point out that we have at our dis- posal an accurate and easily applied method of determining whether anti-mosquito measures have diminished malaria. It is now universally accepted by medical men, but not generally known to the lay- man, that the great source of malaria in the tropics lies in the native children, who to the outward eye show no signs of ill-health, though they contain in their blood malarial parasites. The malarial index or endemicity is the percentage of children under ten years of age that harbour parasites. It is not uncommonly too per cent. If, then, the anti-malarial measures have reduced malaria, this figure must decrease. If malaria has been abolished it must be zero. (It is hardly necessary to state that, in determining this index, children of the same age must be selected for com- parison, and the comparison must be made at the same time of the year before and after operations; such precautions are obvious, and are, of course, always taken by those engaged in such observations.) To sum up, no facts are convincing where this proof is not adduced. If the malarial endemicity is reduced to zero, then anti-mosquito measures have been completely successful—but not until then. Let us return, however, to the book. We think it would have been advantageous, considering the great ‘importance of the subject, if the authors had compiled a tabular statement of those species that are known to transmit malaria in nature, though the data on this point can be found by search. At present, then, out of twenty-four Indian Anophelinze it has only been shown that three convey malaria in nature, viz. :— M. culicifacies, by Stephens, Christophers, and James; M. listoni, by Stephens, Christophers, and James; P. fuliginosus, by Adie; and we know with practical certainty that M. rossii does not. The third chapter contains many interesting details of larval life, but it is to be hoped that many observers, using this book as their guide, will study the subject further and fill up the many lacune. Chapter iv. is devoted again to the vexed question of classification. Then follows part ii., containing the systematic description of each species. The de- scriptions are excellently done, clear, and sufficient, and not overloaded with details which terrify the already overburdened medical man in the tropics. In fact, this book admirably fulfils the object of enabling “medical men engaged in tracing the connection between mosquitoes and human disease to identify and speak with precision of the species implicated.’ These words are attributed to Prof. Ray Lankester, and if they represent his words we cannot but think that the elaborate monograph of the Culicide, excel- NO. 1856, VOL, 72] lent as it is, issued by the museum authorities has not had this result. The majority of medical men in the tropics can ill afford the time or inclination to read these detailed descriptions. We think if the museum authorities would issue concise but adequate accounts of, say, the Anophelina only, medical men would be greatly helped. For a few shillings the United States authorities publish excellent bulletins on various subjects, e.g. the ticks, the flukes, and so forth, but if a medical man in British possessions wants to identify the Species of tsetse-fly he is working with he must buy a monograph issued by the museum costing fifteen shillings. If he wants to know anything about ticks, the museum leaves him in the dark. Seeing what medical men have done recently in elucidating malaria, sleeping sickness, and, most recently of all, tick fever, we think they might reasonably expect some help in return. We would point out finally one small matter which might be corrected in a future edition. In the list of illustra- tions only i-x are mentioned, though these number xv at least. The arrangement of the plates is erratic, €.g. V, Xi, Vi, Xiv, vii, &c., so that they are very difficult to find. The proofs have evidently been care- fully read, and we have detected no error of any importance. The authors have had the great advantage of describing species caught on the spot and studied under their natural surroundings. We trust some- body will be found in Africa to write an equally good text-book of African Anophelines. We think that all medical men in India will feel grateful to the authors for this excellent work. J. W. W. STEPHENS. EXERCISES IN PHYSICS. Notes and Questions in Physics. By Prof. John S. Shearer. Pp. vii+284; illustrated. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net. HE present volume has been written to take the place of a similar book prepared several years ago by Prof. C. P. Matthews and the author. Actual experience in the class-room indicated the desirability of certain extensions and changes in the text, and also of many explanatory notes and solutions. The book is, in reality, a collection of problems— many of which have been selected from examination papers—together with occasional hints with regard to solving them, and very brief introductory paragraphs to each section which explain the principal technical terms referred to therein. It will be easily under- stood, therefore, that the book is not intended to take the place of regular text-books, lectures, or of labora- tory practice. It is designed, indeed, to accompany these. The supply of problems in many text-books is exceedingly scanty—the present volume amplifies the supply. It will be found of great service to the teacher in suggesting problems to set as class work. As no answers are given, there will be less temptation to the teacher merely to quote the selected problems; anyone who is alive in his subject will modify them to suit his May 25, 1905] NAROGKE AS own preferences. The absence of answers makes the MATHEMATICAL METAPHYSICS. book of no use to the private student who requires Principien der Metaphysik. By Dr. Branisqy some check on the worl he does. On the whole, Patconeeen Violin: art i. Pp. xxxit+44 we think that the utility of the book would be : pee: 1 ae increased by the addition of these; or, if this is not favoured, then by their publication in a separate volume. The whole ground of physics is covered, including mechanics. The general difficulty is only slight. By far the largest number of the problems could be tackled by a first-year university student. In mechanics very many are even of matriculation standard; thus, ‘‘ The Washington Monument is 169 metres high. In what time will a stone fall from top to bottom? ’’ Mingled with these are a few requiring the calculus. Many re- quire only a qualitative answer; thus, ‘ Explain why it is difficult to walk up an icy hill.’’ These remarks are equally true of the other sections; thus, in electricity, the following is a commonly occurring type of ques- tion :—‘‘Two copper wires are of the same cross-section, but one is twice as long as the other. Compare their resistances.’’ Indeed, this question illustrates the general character of the book very well. Take each clause of an ordinary text-boolx and express it in ques- tion form—that seems to have been the mode of formation. We miss the bright sparkle of genius which flashes out from the examination papers of many of the examiners that we know. Still, we think, and we have said, that many will find it a very useful book. Turning next to the hints, which, we think, might be multiplied with advantage, these are not always above criticism. Take, for example, the following :— “Prove that a gun free to move backward and the bullet fired from it have the same momentum when the bullet leaves the gun. Note: Action and reaction are ‘equal and opposite. Force on gun = force on bullet. M,A,=M,A, [A=acceleration ] Multiply by ¢ MyVg=M.V».” We are of opinion that equality of the two momenta is the fundamental fact which can be proved only by experiment. The operation of changing from a variable acceleration to the change in velocity is inadequately represented by a multiplication by the time. The arrangement of the problems seems to have been imperfectly attended to; very many questions are to be found in sections with which they have nothing to do. For example, under the head ‘‘ Colour ”’ occur a series of questions such as ‘* Why does an object appear equally bright at all distances from the eye? ”’ A series of useful tables completes the volume. The numerical constants given are not always scrupulously exact. For example, log s=0.497150 and not 0.497149 (as given) when only six figures are to be retained. Again, why should a student (or teacher) be misled into taking log ~? as 0.994299 when the much simpler num- ber 0.994300 is more exact? There are two other examples of this on the same page. This is the kind of number which, if quoted at all, ought to be checked and re-checked until the author is sure that he has it right. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] (Heidelberg : Carl Winter, 1904.) Price 15 marks. ee is the first instalment of a new work on metaphysics. It discusses only general ontology and the formal categories (in other words, the general ontological and the quantitative problem). The second part of the same volume, we are informed, will deal with the qualitative and hyper-metaphysical problems, and the second volume will then go on to cosmology and psychology. The author’s guiding principle is expressed in the motto, ‘* Correct mathematical ideas are the key for the solution of the riddle of the universe.’’ We doubt if this will command the acceptance of any meta- physicians whose interests are not primarily mathe- matical. Mr. Balfour, in a well-known passage, has pointed out how often the battles of theology are decided beyond the borders of that study; it is a little hard if the metaphysician, who contemplates all time and all existence, is to be fettered by the geometrical views of his age, and before he makes any headway in prima philosophia must study closely the hundred- page account of the new geometry ‘‘ with 3 tables containing 56 geometrical figures.”’ We doubt in particular whether ordinary meta- physicians will ever accept the ‘‘ discrete’? or atomic view of space here given, however fashionable it may be among modern mathematicians. That view goes back to the Arabic school of the Mutakallimun. Dr. Petronievics adopts, with some slight differences, the development of the theory advocated by Giordano Bruno. He distinguishes two kinds of “ point,”’ Mittelpunkt (der reale mit Inhalt erfiillte Punkt) and Zwischenpunkt (der irreale die leere nichtseiende Liicke darstellende Punkt). The discussion of time follows the same atomic lines. The plain man won- ders in what fashion precisely his old friend ‘‘ Achilles and the tortoise’’ is to be dealt with on these principles. (That fallacy, it is true, appeals in the first instance to those who combine an atomic view of Time with a non-atomic view of Space, but it has surely its difficulties for any who regard either Time or Space as discrete.) The same guileless inno- cent, while understanding readily the general data which enable a Kelvin to calculate the approximate size of “‘atoms’”’ of water, does not see quite so readily how we can ever hope to reach the data for determining the size of atoms of impalpable Time or Space. Nor, again, does he see the special benefit of abolishing the old Euclidean point in favour of the new one endowed with both position and magnitude, when to all intents he is compelled, a moment later, to revive in the term Zwischenpunkt the “ point ”’ of his earliest geometrical affections—‘‘ that which has position but not magnitude’’; and he recalls the Horatian tag, ‘‘ Expelles furca, tamen usque re- curret.”’ Still, the discussion contained in this volume is stimulating, and considerable dialectic power is dis- played. One will watch with interest in the later volumes whether the author succeeds in dealing with NATURE [May 25, 1905 his vArious problems without always recurring to the mathematical point of view. Unfortunately, one word must be said regarding the typography. The present reviewer has seldom read a book so badly corrected for the press. There are two pages of corrigenda; but a full statement of all the small misprints would with difficulty be contained in four or five pages more. If it is not c for o or e, it is u for n, or | for t, or b for h, or das for dass. This is the more to be regretted because—granted the author’s point of view—the i’s of the philosophy are quite carefully dotted. BRITISH MINERALS. A Handbook to a Collection of the Minerals of the British Islands in the Museum of Practical Geology. By F. W. Rudler, I.S.0. Pp. x+241. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1905.) Price ts. iG INCE his retirement from the post he so long and efficiently held as curator of the Museum of Practical Geology, Mr Rudler has installed in that museum a collection illustrative of the modes of occurrence of British minerals. The museum has long possessed collections of British rocks, fossils, and ores, the last named arranged under the various metals which they contain. In the new collection, which is neatly arranged in twelve table-cases, the minerals found in each district are brought together; half the space is allotted to Cornwall and Devon, one- eighth to Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, and the remainder to the rest of England, the divisions being roughly according to the several mining districts, with a general group for the minerals of the Neozoic strata. The specimens, to the number of 1652, have mostly been selected from the Ludlam collection, which was bequeathed to the museum in 1880; though mostly small in size, they are of excellent quality. In addition to the name and locality attached to each specimen, there are many explanatory labels in the cases, and the present volume admirably serves the purpose of a guide to the collection. The volume is by no means a tedious catalogue or descriptive list of all the individual specimens, but is rather an extremely readable and interesting account of the mode of occurrence and history of the more common British minerals, especially those which are of economic importance. Instead of long descrip- tions of the characters of species, much is said of their paragenetic relations, and many _ valuable suggestions are made as to their possible modes of origin. The bool: will therefore be found interesting and instructive not only to mineralogists, but also to geologists and miners; whilst quite apart from the collection, for which it is primarily intended, it will have a permanent value as a treatise. In this con- nection mention may be made of the numerous and extremely valuable references to original authorities consulted in the preparation of the work. The mode of treatment is a novel one, and neces- sarily involves a certain amount of repetition, especially in the case of some of the more commonly NO. 1856, VoL. 72] occurring minerals, such as quartz, calcite, galena, &e., which may be found in almost all the different districts; but this repetition is not tedious. As an example, the district of Cornwall and Devon may be taken, in which the main groups are as follows :— cassiterite, minerals associated with cassiterite, copper sulphides and sulpho-ferrites, copper-bearing minerals of the gozzans, arsenates and phosphates of the copper-gozzans, ores of lead, zinc, antimony, &c., sulphides and sulpho-salts, ores of iron, &c., minerals of the rarer metals, the spars of the mineral veins, miscellaneous minerals. Apart from a few minor misprints, the only point which calls for criticism is that undue importance seems to have been attached to many quite trivial and local names. As for the printing, there is certainly much room for improvement; the lines are so badly broken that it is surprising that the whole did not fall to pieces in the course of printing. WARE Ue, 4S OUR BOOK SHELF. Moths and Butterflies. By Mary C. Dickerson. Pp. xviii+344; with 200 photographs from life by the author. (Boston, U.S.A., and London: Ginn and Co., n.d.) Price 5s. net. Tuts is a-prettily got-up book, intended for the training of classes in ‘* nature-study,’’ with reference to a considerable number of common and conspicuous North American butterflies and moths, the life-history of which is very fully described and illustrated. The concluding chapter, on collecting, keeping, and studying, recapitulates the points to be noted in practical observations on the insects themselves. To English readers the book will be useful for the information it supplies about American forms, and also as indicating a similar method of study for British insects, but many of the species here noticed are much larger and more conspicuous than those likely to fall under our own observation, among them being several species of Papilio, and large Saturniide. The figures, of which (including apparatus, &c.) there are 233 in all, are generally very good, though some are indistinct. The frontispiece, representing a Smerinthus at rest, and Fig. 17, on p. 147, repre- senting a procession of the young caterpillars of Saturnia, may be specially noticed. But it looks odd to sce a Smerinthus closely allied to our own S. ocellatus called ‘a most beautiful little moth ” (p. 232); and, though we do not object to the use of appropriate English names, we are sorry to see on p- 231 a Sphinx allied to S. convolvuli called ‘“ the Humming-Bird Hawkmoth,” a name by which the very different Macroglossa stellatarum has been known all the world over, ever since the commencement of the study of entomology. We had expected to find some notice of the gipsy moth, the crusade against which has recently been given up in America in despair, but find only a passing reference. A few British species are noticed, such as Vanessa antiopa, called in America the mourning cloak, a translation of its German name; V. atalanta, Pieris vapae, &c. A great deal of useful general information is given in the book, and it seems on the whole to be careful and accurate. One statement, however true in the abstract, ought not to have been made without quali- fication or explanation in a popular book. On. p. 267 we read, ‘“‘ We are familiar with the fact that all living May 25, 1905] NAT OTE creatures develop from eggs.’’ Further comment is needless. Although published in 1901 and mentioned in the Zoological Record for that year, this book has not previously been brought under our notice. Second Stage Magnetism and Electricity. By Dr. R. Wallace Stewart. Second edition. Re-written and enlarged. Pp. viii+416. (London: W. B. Clive.) Price 3s. 6d. Tuts book is primarily intended to serve the purposes of a candidate preparing for the second stage examina- tion under the Board of Education (secondary branch). In reading it, we have by no means made our first acquaintance with Dr. Stewart, and the perusal has left us of our old opinion that, whether re- garded as text-books intended to prepare a student for a particular examination or as a source of culture, the books prepared by the author can be very earnestly recommended. He is a lucid and accurate writer. He knows where to draw the line so that an elementary student shall not be repelled by the complication of a subject. The present volume is brought up to date. The im- portance of the field—that is, the medium surrounding an electrified conductor or magnet—is insisted on; perhaps even their importance is emphasised too much. The tendency of modern thought amongst physicists is to restore to a conductor part, at any rate, of the position that it held in pre-Maxwellian days. The di- electric plays a most important part—that is a position, won for it by Maxwell, which it can never lose. At the same time, one should not lose sight of the fact that there must be some mechanism at the ends of a line of induction, and to-day that mechanism is being studied under the name of electron. The electron is an essen- tial part of a conductor, and the complete phenomena of electricity are not fully accounted for without includ- ing it. The volume is almost entirely re-written. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are some unfortunate slips which have escaped the vigilance of the reader. As these are misleading, we will state that on the bottom of p. 33 ‘‘ positive ’’ and ‘‘ negative ’’ should be interchanged. The following phrase (p. 42) is very misleading :—‘‘ The portions of those walls, which are, as it were, in the shadow of these objects, possess no induced charge.’? We think that the first thirty pages might be improved in any later edition. Consider- able care has evidently been taken; yet in many cases confusion is introduced by the neglect of some tiny detail. Thus, in describing the attraction and repul- sion of a pithball with subsequent re-attraction, if in the interval it comes in contact with an earth-con- nected body, the phrase that we have put in italics is omitted; and in several cases where a body is touched to earth it is not explicitly said whether the contact is to be broken before a succeeding operation is per- formed or not. Why is it ‘‘evident’’ (p. 16) that doubling a charge will double the force it exerts on another charge ? Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia 30 de Agosto de 1905. By D. Antonio Tarazona. Pp. 125. (Madrid: Bailly-Bailliere E. Hijos, 1904.) Tuose who are familiar with the Spanish language and have made up their minds to go abroad and see the approaching total eclipse of the sun will findin this book a great amount of useful information relating to this interesting event. The work is issued from the Madrid Astronomical Observatory, the director, Fran- cisco Imiguez, having contributed a brief preface, and contains full particulars concerning the elements of this eclipse; in fact, it might be considered a treatise on the subject, so complete is the information. In NO. 1856, VOL. 72] addition to a great many data which will be of special use to astronomers, there will be found a very full list of towns, in alphabetical order, at which totality occurs, with the times of the different phases of the eclipse. More generally useful perhaps wi!l be found the maps at the end of the volume. These include a map of the world showing the position of the track from the commencement to the end of totality over the earth’s surface. A second illustrates on a larger scale the Spanish portion of the track, with special lines showing the times of occur- rence and duration of totality. The third, on a much larger scale (1: 1,000,000), indicates that part of Spain alone over which the shadow sweeps, and is very com- plete as regards names of places, railways, &c. Lastly, two star charts are added, one showing the position of the eclipsed sun among the stars, and the second a key map to this chart giving the designations of the stars and planets in this region. Visitors to Spain will do well to supplement their literature by securing this volume, and thanks are due to the Madrid Observatory for producing so useful a books so far in advance of the event, Naturalistische und religidse Weltansicht. By Rudolf Otto. Pp. 296. |{Ttbingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1904.] Price 3 marks. No better book than this could be recommended to the young philosophical or theological student who wishes to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the de- batable ground where science, philosophy, and theology meet. The author is well read, a skilful debater, a vigorous writer; and as handbooks ought not to be unnecessarily multiplied, it is to be hoped that this one will be translated. Like many other works in defence of religion in general, the book is not so strong on the constructive as on the critical side. The author refers with approval to the attitude of Kant when he solved cer- tain contradictions or antimonies by a reference to the world of things in themselves. As this is precisely -the point where Kant’s philosophy is most seriously questioned, the argument probably suffers to that extent. But, on the other hand, the author fully realises the unity of the various phases of the one problem religion versus naturalism, and the harm which has been done by concentrating the attention on one phase (e.g. the question of miracles) as if it were the whole. The work is valuable mainly for its survey of the most interesting biological theories of the last cen- tury, from Darwin, Hackel, Weismann, down to Wolff, Korschinsky, Driesch. The philosophical de- velopment of this last writer is sketched in an enlightening fashion. With regard to the general theory of development and ‘“‘descent,’’ the author comes to the conclusion that with the confirmation of any such theory only something relatively external is given, a clue to creation, which does not so much solve its problems as group them afresh. The index at the end of the work gives an explanation of the more difficult terms employed by modern theorists. An Introduction to Proiective Geometry and its Ap- plications. By Dr. Arnold Emch. Pp. viit+267. (New York :. Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price tos. 6d. Tuts text-book of modern projective geometry forms an admirable introduction to the subject, and should be known to all who are interested in this branch of mathematics. The first chapter deals with the general properties of projective ranges and pencils. and their products, including harmonic and perspective projec- tion, and the projective properties of the circle. Then 78 NATURE [May 25, 1905 follows an investigation of collineation in a plane, com- prising perspective transformations, and the linear transformations of translation, rotation, and dilata- tion, with combinations of these. The intimate relation that exists between projective and descriptive geometry is shown. The third chapter gives the general theory of conics, the projective properties of the circle being extended to conics by perspective transformations. The next chapter deals with pencils and ranges of conics and their products, and especially with cubics, the latter being classified under the five standard types by the help of the Steinerian transformation. Through- out the book analytical and geometrical methods are employed side by side, some portions of the subject being better suited to the former treatment; moreover, the analysis affords excellent illustrations of modern analytical geometry. The main purpose of the author has been to develop the subject in regard to its prac- tical applications in mechanics, and the last chapter is devoted to such examples. Thus we find problems in graphic statics, plane stresses, and in the stress ellipse | of an elastic material, and there is an interesting ac- count of various linkages by means of which linear and perspective transformations can be mechanically ob- tained. The book is excellently got up in every way, and the diagrams are quite perfect and may well serve as models of what such figures ought to be. The author is a very clever draughtsman, and his skill as a writer is equally pronounced. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTuRE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Fictitious Problems in Mathematics. IN my younger days it was well recognised that such statements as ‘“‘ perfectly smooth’’ and the like were mere conventional phrases for designating an ideal state of matter, which was assumed to exist for the purpose of simplifying the mathematical conditions as far as possible. Nobody can learn mathematics without working out a large number of problems and examples, and in order to make these sufficiently easy for the beginner, various fictitious hypotheses have to be introduced. Similar objections would apply to the phrase “‘ friction- less liquid ’’; but it would be impossible for anyone to learn hydrodynamics without first studying the mathe- matical theory of this fictitious form of matter. In fact, the introduction of viscosity leads to such formidable difficulties, that nobody has yet succeeded in solving such a simple problem as the motion due to a doublet situated at the centre of a sphere; and the solution, if it could be obtained, would throw much light on the mode of attacking more difficult problems. A. B. Basset. May 28. In Nature of May 18 the wording of a problem set near the beginning of my “‘ Rigid Dynamics”’ is rather adversely commented on. In the problem a man is de- scribed as walking along a perfectly rough board which rests on a smooth table, and the criticism is that the two Suppositions are inconsistent; but this depends on what is meant by the words used, and perhaps I may be allowed to make an explanation. When bodies are said to be perfectly rough, it is usually meant that they are so rough that the amount of friction necessary to prevent sliding in the given circumstances can certainly be called into play. In art. 156 of the treatise on dynamics, just after the laws of friction have been discussed, the words “‘ perfectly rough”? are defined to have this meaning. The board in question has there- fore no special peculiarity. All that is stated is that the NO. 1856, VOL. 72] coefficient of friction between the man and the board exceeds a certain finite quantity. The board rests on a smooth table, but the coefficient of friction now depends on both the board and the table, and this may be quite different from that between the man and the board. There is nothing amiss in supposing this coefficient to be zero. One way of effecting this experimentally would be to polish the table and remove all roughnesses from it. This was the plan indicated. Where, then, is the inconsistency ? By using the ordinary abbreviations of language, the wording of the question has been made concise, and thus attention was specially directed to the dynamical principle involved in the solution. The problem has been understood by so many students in the sense above described, and worked without a single objection having been raised, that I think the meaning must be perfectly clear. Indeed, I cannot imagine what other meaning it could have. E. J. Rouru. May 20. , On the Spontaneous Action of Radio-active Bodies on Gelatin Media. In the course of some experiments on the formation of unstable molecular aggregates, notably in phosphorescent bodies, I was led to try whether such dynamically unstable groupings could be produced by the action of radium upon certain organic substances. It will scarcely be necessary to enter here into an account of the many speculative ex- periments which I have at one time or another tried, but it will suffice if I describe, as briefly as possible, the ex- periment which, amongst others, has led to a very curious result, and that is the effect of radium chloride and radium bromide upon gelatin media, such as _ those generally used for bacterial cultures. : An extract of meat of 1 lb. of beef to 1 litre of water, together with 1 per cent. of Witter peptone, 1 per cent. of sodium chloride, and 10 per cent. of gold labelled gelatin, was slowly heated in the usual way, sterilised, and then cooled. The gelatin culture medium thus pre- pared, and commonly known as bouillon, is acted upon by radium salts and some other slightly radio-active bodies in a most remarkable manner. In one experiment the salt was placed in a_ small hermetically sealed tube, one end of which was drawn out to a fine point, so that it could be easily broken. This was inserted in a test-tube containing the gelatin medium. The latter was stopped up with cotton wool in the usual way with such experiments, and then sterilised at a temperature of about 130° C. under pressure for about thirty minutes. Controls without radium were also at various times thus similarly sterilised. When the gelatin had stood for some time and become settled, the fine end of the tube containing the radium salt was broken, from outside, without opening the test-tube, | by means of a wire hook in a side tube. The salt, which in this particular experiment consisted of 23 milligrams of radium bromide, was thus allowed to drop upon the surface of the gelatin. After twenty-four hours or so in the case of the bromide, and about three or four days in that of the chloride, a peculiar culture-like growth appeared on the surface, and gradually made its way downwards, until after a fortnight, in some. cases, it had grown fully a centimetre beneath the surface. If the medium was sterilised several times before the radium was dropped on it, so that its colour was altered, probably by the inversion of the sugar, the growth was greatly retarded, and was confined chiefly to the surface. It was found that plane polarised light, when transmitted through the tube at right angles to its axis, was rotated left-handedly in that part of the gelatin containing the growth, and in that part alone. The controls showed no contamination whatever, and no rotation. The test-tubes were opened and microscopic slides examined under a twelfth power. They presented the appearance shown in Fig. 1. At first sight these seemed to be microbes, but as they did not give sub- cultures when inoculated in fresh media they could scarcely be bacteria. The progress of any of the sub- cultures after a month was extremely small, and certainly May 25, 1905] NATURE 79 too small for a bacterial growth. It was not at all obvious how bacteria could have remained in one set of tubes and not in the other, unless the radium salt itself acted as a shield, so to speak, for any spores which may originally have become mixed with the salt, perhaps during its manu- facture, and when embedded in it could resist even the severe process of sterilisation to which it was submitted. On heating the culture and re-sterilising the medium, the bacterial-like forms completely disappeared; but only temporarily, for after some days they were again visible when examined in a microscopic slide. Nay, more, they disappeared in the slides when these were ex- posed to diffused daylight for some hours, but re- appeared again after a few days when kept in the dark. Thus it seems quite conclusive that whatever they may be, their presence is at any rate due to the spontaneous action of the radium salt upon the culture medium, and not alone to the influence of anything which previously existed therein. When washed they are found to be soluble in warm water, and however much they may resemble microbes, Fic. 3. they cannot for this reason be identified with them, as also for the fact that they do not give subcultures as bacteria should. ‘ Prof. Sims Woodhead has very kindly opened some of the test-tubes and examined them from the bacteriological point of view. His observations fully confirm my own. He assures me that they are not bacteria, and suggests that they might possibly be crystals. They are, at any rate, not contaminations. I have tried to identify them with many crystalline bodies, and the nearest approximation to this form appears to be that of the crystals of calcium carbonate, but these are many times larger, and, in fact, of a different order of magnitude altogether, being visible under comparatively low powers; and are, moreover, insoluble in water. A careful and prolonged examination of their structure, behaviour, and development leaves little doubt in my mind that they are highly organised bodies, although not bacteria. Unfortunately the quantity is so very minute that a chemical analysis of their composition is extremely difficult. The amount of salt in the first instance is so small, and the number of aggregates, or whatever they may be, thus produced perhaps still smaller. The most effective method of studying their properties, NO. 1856, VOL. 72] from the physicist’s point of view, is that of long and, so far as possible, continual observation, a method similar to that which the astronomer is bound to adopt in his study of bodies over which he has not the control to deal with as he pleases. From the accompanying photographs it will be observed that they are not all of the same size; they range from about 0-3 mw to the minutest specks; they are mostly, if not altogether, all of the same shape, and show distinct signs of growth; the larger ones appear to have sprung from smaller forms, and these in turn from still smaller ones, and they have all probably arisen in some way from the invisible particles of radium. Fig. 2 distinctly shows the existence of nuclei in the larger and more highly developed forms, whilst Fig. 3 reveals, though indistinctly, what is their most remarkable property of all, and that is their subdivision when a certain size is reached. They do not grow beyond this size, but subdivide. These photographs, together with the numerous results of eye observations, which indicate that a continuous growth and development take place, followed by segrega- tion, leave little doubt that whilst on the one hand they cannot be said to be bacteria, they cannot be regarded as crystals either in the sense of being merely aggregates of symmetrically arranged groups of molecules, which crystals are supposed to be. The stoppage of growth at a particular stage of development is a clear indication of a continuous adjustment of internal to external relations, and thus suggests vitality. They are clearly something more than mere aggregates in so far as they are not merely capable of growth, but also of subdivision, possibly of reproduction, and certainly of decay. The subcultures do show, however slightly, some indica- cation of growth after four or five weeks, although that growth is, I understand, too small for a bacterial sub- culture. Moreover, when examined in the polariscope they have not been found to yield the characteristic figures and changes of colour which crystals generally give. Thus for these reasons I have been led to regard them as colloidal rather than as crystalline bodies, and prob- ably more of the nature of ‘‘ dynamical aggregates’? than of “static aggregates,’ of which crystals are composed. There appears to be a tendency amongst text-book writers to classify minute bodies which are not bacteria as crystals, but really without sufficient reason, and as these bodies cannot be identified with microbes, on the one hand, nor with crystals on the other, I have ventured, for convenience, in order to distinguish them from either of these, to give them a new name, Radiobes, which might, on the whole, be more appropriate as indicating their resemblance to microbes, as well as their distinct nature and origin. Some slightly radio-active bodies appear also to produce these effects after many weeks. A more detailed account of these experiments will be published shortly. This note merely contains some of the principal points so far observed. I have to thank Mr. W. Mitchell, who sterilised the tubes, for the assistance he has rendered in these experi- ments. Joun Butler BurRKE. Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, May 10. The Consolidation of the Earth. THERE are several points in Dr. See’s last letter (NATURE, May 11) calling for remark from the geological point of view. (1) The effect of (hydrostatic) pressure at depths tends not to liquefaction (as in the case of the ice of a glacier) but to promote crystallisation, the condition of the greatest density of mineral matter, as I showed years ago in my little work on metamorphism in discussing the relation of the crystalline to the vitreous states. It is here that the importance of “ solid-liquid critical state ’’ comes in. (2) We have no right to assume the existence at any stage of the history of our planet of a mere molten ball radiating heat directly into cold space, since in that “* pre-oceanic stage ’’ it was surrounded by a non-conduct- 8o NATURE [May 25, 1905 ing mantle or ‘‘ jacket’’ of such enormous density and altitude as to contain (as its main constituents) (a) the greater part of the water of the present hydrosphere in the vapour state; (b) the CO, locked up in the lime- stones and other carbonates of the lithosphere, as well as that represented by the coal and the living vegetation of the globe; (c) the hydrocarbons possibly represented by Archean graphite, together with (d) the halogens (if atomic evolution had reached that stage), including the Cl, of the 73 per cent. of the NaCl of the salts of the present ocean. It is conceivable that a vast convection system existed, as the outer zones of the primordial atmo- sphere underwent cooling with consequent condensation, and descended towards the molten globe; but there could scarcely be contact generally between such cooler portions and the heated molten mass. The conditions would be rather such as are partly illustrated by what a student of cane 5 2 " : 5 physics is familiar with as the “‘ spheroidal state’? of a liquid floating on a cushion of steam above a hot plate of metal. Under the enormous pressure prevailing at the surface of the globe in that pre-oceanic stage of its history great quantities of superheated steam and other gases must haye been mechanically included, and in some cases, perhaps, occluded, in the hot crust in the inceptive stages of its development by congelation; and in such circum- stances, as I suggested seventeen years ago, superheated water in traces would probably enter into the composition of such ‘silicates as hornblende and mica, the two most characteristic of the minerals of the heavier metals of the Archzean gneisses and schists. A year or two later that hypothesis received demonstration from the splendid work of de Kroustchoff (see Nature, vol. xliii. p. 545, also Bulletin de l’Académie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, tome xiii., “* Uber kiinstliche Hornblende,’’ by K. von Chrustschoff). So, I fake it, we can understand how such a crust could float on a magma of molten rock material, just as air- charged fragments of pumice or of charcoal float on water, yet sink quickly to the bottom under the exhausted re- ceiver of an air-pump; or as even a coil of platinum foil (sp. gr. 21-5) can be made to float in water inside a good air pump, as it is pontooned by innumerable bubbles of distended atmospheric gases previously condensed upon its surface ; or, again, as masses of lava slag of large dimensions are seen to float for a time upon the vast lake of liquid rock material in the crater of Kilauea. With tidal action in the magma greater when the moon was nearer the earth than at present, such a thin crust would easily undergo disruption, while portions of it would float off and be engulfed in the magma. This view, which I propounded some seventeen years ago, had been antici- pated partly by Zéllner, and was adopted by the dis- tinguished American geologist, Dr: A. C. Lawson, to ex- plain the phenomena presented by the enormous inclusions of more basic rock masses in the gneiss of the Rainy Lake region, which excited great interest among our leading British geologists at the International Geological Congress in London in 1888, though it seems at the time to have been very imperfectly perceived by most of them. So far the evidence we have goes to support Dr. See’s contention that the descent of such masses into the magma would be arrested long before they even approached the centre of the sphere; but one feels sreat difficulty in following his argument based on ‘‘ Laplace’s law,’’ for reasons given In my former letter (NATURE, May 4). _By a slip I wrote, it appears, “ impossibility ’? for possi- bility in the top line of p. 8 in my last letter. Bishop's Stortford, May 17. A. IrvInG. The Spirit-level as a Seismoscope. A MISCONCEPTION seems to prevail among seismologists as to the behaviour of a spirit-level. A displacement of the bubble is regarded as conclusive evidence of the tilting of the instrument. It should be pointed out, however, that this is far from being the case. For a second cause, equally effective in producing displacement of the bubble, is a horizontal acceleration of the instrument in the direc- tion of the tube. The position of the bubble should be taken as indicating, not the normal statical vertical, but NO. 1856, VoL. 72] the dynamical residual vertical obtained by subtracting the acceleration of the instrument (as a vector) from that of gravity. (I disregard, in this statement, the slight lag due to viscosity.) ; A couple of simple experiments, serving to emphasise this, may be suggested. A spirit-level is suspended in a horizontal position by two equal strings attached one to each end. In one case the strings hang vertically from two hooks; in the other case they are attached both to one hook. If the level is set swinging in the plane of the strings, then in the first case the bubble will be found to have an oscillatory movement relatively to the tube, the tube having linear acceleration but no tilting movement. In the second case the tube has both movements, but their effects exactly neutralise each other, and the bubble re- mains stationary in the tube. The expert waiter (may it be added?) who hurries about with plates of soup has a very effective empirical knowledge of this last case of compensation. The motion of the bubble of a level has been brought forward as evidence in favour of the undulatory character of the disturbance producing the motion; but if the above suggestions are to be accepted, the motion might as reason- ably be urged as evidence of a horizontal disturbance; the truth being that the instrument is sensitive to both dis- turbances, and is quite ineffective as a means of dis- criminating between them. The evidence referred to is contained in the British Association report, 1902 (seismological committee report, p- 72). The view finds acceptance in some recent and authoritative works,’ and seems, so far, to have passed unchallenged. G. T. BENNETT. Emmanuel College, Cambridge. A Feather-like Form of Frost, THE accompanying photograph shows a form of frost not, I believe, usually seen except at a comparatively high altitude and unsheltered position. This photograph was Cia Fic. 1.—Frost ‘‘ feathers" on windward side of rock. taken on April 22 near the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn, N. Wales (3484 feet above sea-level). These delicate frost “feathers” appear gradually to grow outwards from the rock face on the windward side, and the delicacy of their form is, no doubt, modified in some degree with the vary- ing rate of the wind and the temperature. I have found, in the same district, these “‘ feathers”? 9 inches from root to tip; those shown are about 6 inches long. They form a comparatively solid mass where they touch, but the tips keep distinct, and the whole mass is in reality very brittle, and easily breaks up into small pieces. H. M. Warner. 44 Highbury Park, N., May 16. 1 Dutton, “ Earthquakes in the Light of the New Seismology," p. 137 ; Davison, “A Study of Recent Earthquakes,” p- 280, May 25, 1905] NATURE 81 THE EVOLUTION OF ENGRAVING IN THE | design groups (Fig. 3). In the upper layers signs are STONE AGE. Wee have at various times directed the attention of our readers to this interesting subject, but new discoveries are continually being made. M. Ed. Piette, whose name is so well known in connection with his investigation of the famous cave of Mas- d’Azil, has given in l’Anthropologie (xv., 1904, p. 129) a classification of the deposits formed in caves during the age of the reindeer; starting as a geologist, he was firmly impressed with the fact that stratigraphy is at the root of fruitful advance in prehistory, and this end he has kept steadily in view. He gives the following table of relative chronology of the epochs which form part of the age of the reindeer :— Epochs of Epochs of Epochs of Lartet and Christy G. de Mortillet E. Piette Madelaine and | Magdalénienne Gourdanienne Laugerie-haute ( Solutréenne Papalienne Moustier Moustérienne Mostérienne The following is his cultural sequence, in which the epoch of Moustier does not take part, ‘‘as at that time the fine arts were not yet born’’: Age or series Epoch or stage Layer ‘Of engravings and harpoons of | reindeer antler Ofengraving ) Of engravings without harpoons Glyptic (Gourdanienne) ) _ or with very few harpoons | Of engravings with cut-out con- tours Of sculpture / Of sculptures in low relief (Papalienne) | Of sculptures in the round The sculptors in the round used their flint tools for many purposes, including carving, chiselling, scrap- ing, engraving, and burnishing; they certainly sketched their statuettes before modelling them, and -they polished them. The sculptors in low relief scraped and burnished. Their works were not child’s play, but the product of a real artistic sense. They studied and drew heads, limbs, and feet (Fig. 1). The sculptors in the round figured the flayed animal and even the skeleton. When mammoth ivory became rare reindeer antlers were employed for carving, and this appears to have led the way to the next artistic developments. Many of the figures in this copiously illustrated paper are from the layer of sculptures in low relief; it was in this layer that several pieces were found decorated with circles and bold spirals (Fig. 2). At first these designs were carved deeply, they gradually became less deep, until in the Gourdanienne epoch they were merely lines. M. Piette believes the spirals were symbolic, and suggests that they had reference to snakes. Plant forms were rarely drawn, and of the very numerous animals engraved by far the most frequent were those upon the flesh of which the men fed. . As the relief in the designs became less and less, the artist had to employ the graver. At the end of the Papalienne epoch the artists undertook to execute very low reliefs on plates of bone not more than two millimetres in thickness. They made silhouettes, modelling the contours on both sides; but the great difficulty of carving such thin objects soon led to its abandonment. They replaced this style by cutting out contours and engraving the surface. This technique was common in the region of the Pyrenees, but rare to the north of the Garonne; being a transitional form it did not last long, whereas sculptures in low relief persisted into later layers. At first, following the traditions of the sculptor, the engraver represented isolated animals, but the artists of Laugerie-basse appear to have been the earliest to NO. 1856, VOL. 72] engraved which M. Piette considers to be of the nature of inscriptions. Thanks to the rigid stratigraphical method em- ployed by M. Piette, he has been enabled to upset the Fic. 2.—Portion of rein- deer antler decorated Fic. 1.—Bone Throwing-stick with circles and other (Mas-d’Azil). Layer of sculp- signs (Lourdes). Layer of sculptures in low relief. tures in the round, Less than natural size. a priori argument that sculpture was a later form of pictorial art than engraving, and has established that the reverse is the case. ; In a subsequent paper, entitled ‘‘ Les Ecritures de 82 NAFURE {May 25, 1905 V’Age glyptique ’’ (tome xvi., 1905, p- 1), M. Piette claims to have discovered ‘‘ inscriptions composed of characters forming a primitive writing,’’ all of which are from the layer of sculptures in low relief, and consequently from the earlier glyptic epoch. The first specimen figured by the author is that reproduced here as Fig. 2. First of all one must point out that only one side of this rod of bone is figured, but before the design can be understood it will be necessary to know what the whole design looks like. The author says, ‘The circle with central prominence appears to be a simplification of the circle with radiating centre which evidently signifies the sun or solar god. The rays have been suppressed in order to write the sign more quickly ’’; he then briefly gives the distribution of Fic. 3.—Engraving on bone (Lorthet). similar markings in prehistoric Europe and in Egypt. The lozenge is stated to be ‘‘ certainly a symbol,”’ | and other signs are similarly believed to be symbols or hieroglyphs. ‘‘The spiral,’ for example, ‘has held a large place in primitive symbolism.’’ This is possibly true, but spirals may mean many things in the art of existing backward peoples, and may be conventional symbols or more or less realistic repre- sentations; but it is extremely hazardous to make guesses as to what any given spiral may be intended to represent; the probability is that all such guesses will be incorrect, and the same remark applies to other elementary designs. Several spirals and concentric No. 1856, VOL. 72] Layer of engravings without harpoons. circles are figured by the author in juxtaposition, and the evidence seems. to point to the conclusion that here, as in so many other instances from various parts of the world, the concentric circle or oval is a simplification of the spiral; if this be so, the theory that the concentric circles are degenerate rayed circles, i.e. suns, falls to the ground. The bold decoration on these bone objects in all probability had a meaning. Some of the designs may have been symbols; but, surely, it is somewhat far-fetched to describe them as hieroglyphs, and we cannot follow the author when he states (as he does in a letter to the editor), ‘‘ Accord- ing to me this inscription (Fig. 2) is the glorification of light.” M. Piette also directs attention to certain linear markings on bones from various. sites of the reindeer age. These he boldly claims to be true linear scripts, and suggests that the writings of la Madeleine and Rochebertier were continued into: the linear script of Abydos with- out undergoing much change. - Archeologists are deeply in- debted to M. Piette for the thoroughness with which he has carried out his investigations, and we must not unfairly criti- cise him if that enthusiasm which has carried him through his labours sometimes runs away with his more dispassionate judgment. He is probably quite correct in believing that the decoration on the bone objects he has discovered has a meaning, but judging from our experience of the decorative art of existing primitive peoples it is extremely improbable that we shall ever be able to decipher its meaning or unravel its symbolism. More evidence is needed before we can pass judgment upon the sup- posed linear script. A. C. H. THE NEW DIPLODOCUS SKELETON, (ON Friday, May 12, in the presence of a large and re- presentative company, Lord Ave- bury, on behalf of his fellow trustees, received from Mr. Andrew Carnegie the gift of the full-sized model of the skeleton ot the gigantic American dino- saur known as Diplodocus car- negii, which has been mounted in the reptile gallery of the Natural History Branch of the British Museum under the superintendence of Dr. Holland, of Pittsburg, who has charge of the original specimens on which the complete restoration is based. Although the gigantic four-footed dinosaurs constituting the group Sauropoda were first made known to the world on the evidence of detached bones and teeth described by Mantell (Pelorosaurus) and Owen (Cardiodon and Ceteosaurus), it has been reserved for American pale- ontologists, working in the rich Upper Jurassic beds of Wyoming and Colorado, to give to the world an adequate conception of the huge proportions and ex- traordinary form of these strange reptiles. Strangest of all is perhaps Diplodocus (so named on account of May 25, 1905] NATURE 83 the double chevron-bones, which were at first thought to be peculiar to this form, although now known to be common to the entire group), which appears to be distinguished from all its relatives by the weakness of its dentition, the teeth being reduced to a small num- ber, of the size and form of lead pencils, confined to the front of the jaws. Another remarkable feature, which may, however, have been common to other members of the group, is the position of the nasal aperture at the markable oneness in language of the Bantu tribes in the southern half of Africa from the Equator to Natal | and Cape Colony, and he was therefore puzzled to find top of the skull, this being not improbably indicative | of partially aquatic habits, an inference confirmed by the nature of the dentition of Diplodocus, which can scarcely have been adapted for anything else than a diet of soft and luscious water-plants. / Diplodocus was apparently one of the largest repre- | sentatives of the group, the length of the skeleton, as mounted, being about 75 feet, while if the vertebral column were placed in a straight line the length would be some 1o feet more. The height at the shoulder is about 14 feet. The only rival to such bulk at the pre- sent day is presented by the skeleton of Sibbald’s rorqual. That such a monster should have a skull considerably smaller than that of a large crocodile is one of the most remarkable facts made apparent by this restoration; while scarcely less noteworthy are the ex- IY . 4 = a Cy Bis D We ceed ee Vie Fig. r.—Restored Model of the Skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii as origin- ally set up in the Museum at Pittsburg. From a photograph presented by Dr. Holland to the British Museum. a eS Re tas, treme elongation of the neck and tail (the latter for several feet of its length being comparable to a huge whip-lash), and the shortness of the trunk. With the exception of the bones regarded as the clavicles, of which only one original specimen was found, and the position of which in the skeleton may be doubtful, there is full authority for every bone in the model; so that we are now practically as well acquainted with the osteology of these monsters as we are with that of crocodiles. Mr. Carnegie’s gift, which is due to the initiation of the King, is not only of immense value and interest to the man of science, but will likewise prove a great attraction to the ordinary visitor to the Museum. It is almost an appalling thought that the skeleton of a creature which lived at least several million years ago should have come down in such marvellous preservation to our own day. THE MASAI OF EAST AFRICA.’ HE Masai (the word should be pronounced with a stress on the first syllable—Masai) were first dis- tinguished and described as an East African people by the missionary Krapf, who, with Rebmann, was the discoverer of Mounts Kenia and Kilimanjaro. Krapf, who commenced the exploration of equatorial East Africa in 1848, had begun dimly to perceive the re- By A C. Hollis. With 1 “ The Masai, their language and Folklore.” (Oxford : Claren- an introduction by Sir Charles Elliot. Pp. xxviii+356. don Press, 1905.) Price 14s. net. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] in the Masai a race intruding into Bantu East Africa which spoke a language absolutely different from the Bantu type. At this period—let us say about 1850—the Masai had forced themselves on the attention of the Arab rulers of East Africa by their raids on the cattle of the Bantu tribes, raids which brought them occasionally to within sight of the island-town of Mombasa. In the ‘fifties | of the last century, nevertheless, the Masai had not established that reign of terror which during the ’six- ties, ’seventies, and ’eighties did so much to obstruct the exploration of eastern equatorial Africa, and so long prevented the white man from travelling direct from the Mombasa coast to the eastern shores of the Fic. 1.—Masai girls, showing ornaments. From Hollis's “The Masai.’ Victoria Nyanza. Therefore, in the ‘fifties of the nineteenth century, Swahili, Arab or Baluch traders managed to reach the east and north-east coasts of the Victoria Nyanza from Mombasa or Lamu. The stories they told to Krapf and other missionaries gave to Europeans the first hint of the existence beyond the Masai of tribes allied in speech and physical character- istics and habits. During the ‘seventies the Masai pushed their raids further and further south, until they were almost heard of—so to speak—ain the regions immediately to the north of Lake Nyasa. In this direction they were ultimately checked by the sturdy. resistance of the Bantu Hehe people, a vigorous race that long resisted German dominion in the same territory, a race made more warlike and coherent by a slight infusion of Zulu immigrants from the south. To the south-west the Masai were checked by the war- like Wagogo, to the west by the distantly allied tribes of Lumbwa and Ja-luo, and to the north by the Galas and Somalis. It is possible, however, that but for the eventual interposition of the European they might have 84 NATURE [May 25, 1905 subdued the Bantu coast people and the Arab half- breeds to the shores of the Indian Ocean. All observers of the Masai have noted their superiority in physical appearance to the pure-blooded negro, There has evidently been a good deal of intermixture, especially during the last three decades, with women of Bantu race, and the original Masai stock itself is only one of the many hybrids between the Caucasian and the negro; but still the average man or woman of | Masai race is a negroid rather than a negro, with a skin of coppery-brown, not black,! with a more defined bridge to the nose and a better developed chin than the | ordinary negro possesses. They are, however, far more negro in appearance than, for example, the Hamitic (Hima) aristocracy of the lands lying to the north, | west and south of the Victoria Nyanza; yet they retain | a larger infusion of Caucasian blood (due, of course, to Hamitic intermixture) than the pure type of Nilotic | negro, to which in other respects they are nearest allied in origin, language, and, above all, in habits and customs, Fic. 2.—Masai warriors of various ‘tages’ and “‘districts,’’ each with the shield of his ‘“‘age" and “district.” From Hollis’s ‘‘ The Masai.” Now that our knowledge of eastern equatorial | Africa is so extensive, we realise that the Masai are no isolated phenomenon in racial distribution, but are simply a southward extension of the Nilotic peoples. They probably originated several hundred years ago in | the northern part of the present Uganda Protectorate, | in the mountainous country between the present abode | of the Lotuka tribe (the nearest allies of the Masai in | language) and the Turkana peoples to the east. In this region they were simply one of the many blends be- tween the Hamitic (Gala) invaders of equatorial Africa and the Nile negroes. The writer of this review, in his work on the Uganda Protectorate (p. 841), has computed that the proportion of Caucasian intermix- ture in the case of the Masai is from one-quarter to one-eighth. Their language, which for classification 1 Owing to their habit of smearing their bodies with a red clay, they strike the casual observer as being a red-skinned rather than a brown race. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] | Wadai and Lake Chad. | evidence of Somali or Gala influence. | due to the ancient intermixture of blood between the | may be grouped with the Lotuka, Elgumi or Wamia, | Bari (on the White Nile), Karamojo, and Turkana, is, together with the nearly allied group of the Nandi- | Dorobo, distinctly, though distantly, related to the well | marked Nilotic family of negro languages which in- cludes the Dinka, Shiluk, Dyur, Acholi, &c., and links on to the negro languages stretching away to In the Masai language, as in the kindred tongues of the Masai group, there is distinct This may be Gala and the Nilotic negro which formed the Masai, and also to the contiguity of the Masai in some of their wanderings with outlying groups of Hamitic people. For the first time the civilised world has been pre- | sented with an authoritative work on the Masai lan- guage, customs, and folklore, by Mr. A. C, Hollis, of the British East Africa Protectorate. Nothing of the kind worth serious notice has appeared since the works of Krapf and Erhardt. Though a Masai dictionary remains to be composed which shall give a full vocabulary of this interesting language, the book under review can scarcely be bettered in fulness or cor- rectness as a grammatical study. Equally admirable is the collection of Masai legends. These are not given in the form of generalised ‘stories’? with a Hans Andersen flavour; but the original is first of all pre- sented in the Masai with an interlinear translation, and then follows a correct but more readable version in colloquial English. Of neces- sity, a worl: like this is more interesting to students than to the general public (though it is admirably illustrated with appropriate photographs). But for the students of African ethnology and languages it is a work of permanent value; it is the authoritative study of the Masai people; and it is satisfactory to record that the author confines himself mainly to facts and not to theories, and that Sir Charles Eliot in his introduction does not trace the origin of the Masai to the ten lost tribes of Israel. A recrudescence of this irritating mania having recently appeared amongst German. writers on Africa who ought to have known better, it is a relief to find that English authorities on African questions can still re- tain their sanity on the subject of the proper place in history and ethnology of that mixed Armenian, Dravidian, and Semitic people which we call by the racial name of Jew. H. H. JOHNSTON. NOTES. THE anniversary dinner of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday was really a complimentary banquet to | Sir Clements Markham, the popular and active president of the society, who has just retired from office after twelve years of zealous service. During this period Sir Clements Markham has watched over the affairs of the society, and has guarded the interests of geography, with a devotion May 25, 1905] NATURE 85 and untiring energy which it is easier to admire than to | our hospitals had become institutions in which the most emulate. But his influence has not only been exerted while directing the affairs of the society as president, for he was honorary secretary of the society from 1863 to 1888, and the Founder’s medal awarded to him upon his retirement was a mark of appreciation of his work for the promotion of geography, both in connection with the society and otherwise. It is, indeed, difficult to think of the Royal Geographical Society apart from the personality of Sir Clements Markham, for in all the affairs of the society he has long been ubiquitous. Wherever and when- ever geographical interests could be advanced, he has championed them with a strength of view and courage of conviction which have commanded the admiration even of those who have differed from him. He has always been jealous of the honour of his charge; and only those who have been closely associated with him can appreciate adequately how carefully he has cherished the society’s welfare. At the banquet on Monday, the chairman, Sir George D. T. Goldie, who has succeeded Sir Clements Markham in the presidential chair, referred in eloquent terms to Sir Clements’ work as explorer and author, and his great achievement in the introduction of the cultivation of the Cinchona plant from South America into India. Messages of regret upon the retirement of Sir Clements Markham were read from the King and the Prince of Wales. After Sir Clements had replied to the toast of his health, a testimonial was presented to him from the relatives of the officers and members of the scientific staff of the Discovery in recognition of his courtesy in keeping up communication with them. This souvenir consisted of a reproduction of the Cashel cup, and bore a suitable in- scription. There was also a gold pin studded with jewels for Lady Markham. MM. Merscunikorr and Roux, who have recently shown that syphilis is inoculable on the higher apes, at a meeting of the French Academy of Medicine on May 16 announced that they have at last detected the microorganism of this disease. The microbe appears to be a long, delicate, spiri!- lar form, difficult to observe, and readily destroyed by any manipulations. It seems to have been seen first by MM. Bordet and Gengou, of the Pasteur Institute, three years ago, and subsequently by Herren Schaudinn and Hoffmann, by whom it was named Sphirochaete pallida. I+ measures 4-14 # in length by 1 pw in breadth, and though resembling similar organisms in mucus, &c., is readily distinguished from these. The spirochzete has been found in four out of six human cases of the disease, and also in the inoculated monkeys, and Dr. Levaditi also exhibited preparations of it obtained from a child suffering from hereditary syphilis. Tue Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society celebrated the centenary of its foundation by a dinner on May 22, which was attended by the Prince of Wales and a large and distinguished company, the president, Sir Douglas Powell, Bart., presiding. In- responding to the loyal toasts, the Prince of Wales (who is an honorary Fellow of the Society) expressed his pleasure at being present. He regarded his position as president of King Edward’s Hospital Fund as a precious trust, and he watched with keen interest and satisfaction the gradual but steady development of medical science. He congratulated the Society on celebrating the rooth anniversary of its foundation, a period which had been prolific in advances in medicine and surgery. Physi- ology had become established as a precise branch of learn- ing; bacteriology had laid bare the foundations of disease ; antiseptics and the clinical thermometer had been invented ; NO. 1856, voL. 72| beneficent treatment is carried out with scientific thorough- ness; and in the sphere of public hygiene nothing short of a revolution had been effected. Among the guests were the Duke of Northumberland, Lord Strathcona, Lord Alver- stone, Sir W. Huggins, P.R.S., Mr. John Tweedy, P.R.C.S., Surgeon-General Keogh, Prof. Ray Lankester, Sir Ww. Ramsay, Sir F. Treves, Sir P. Manson, Prof. Christian Bohr, Prof. Pierre Marie, and many others. Last night the Fellows and their friends and other guests were enter tained at a soirée at the Natural History Museum. As a fitting supplement to the centenary festivities, it may be mentioned that the society recently invited delegates from the other medical societies to confer on the practic- ability of an amalgamation between the various societies and the foundation of an ‘‘ Academy of Medicine,’’ such as exists in Paris and other cities. In connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the Société des Sciences naturelles de Lucerne, which takes place this year, the Société helvétique des Sciences naturelles will hold its eighty-eighth annual meeting at Lucerne on September 10 to 13 inclusive. The business of the meet- ing will be carried on in seven sections, dealing respectively with mineralogy and geology, botany, zoology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, medicine, and civil engineering. Lectures to the general assemblies have been promised by Profs. F. Zschokke, A. Heim, and H. Bachmann. Five scientific societies will hold their annual meetings at Lucerne on the same occasion, namely, the Swiss societies of geology, botany, zoology, and chemistry, and the Zurich Physical Society. Full particulars can be obtained by writing to the president of the meeting, Dr. E. Schumacher-Kopp, Adligenschwylerstr., 24, Lucerne. : In commemoration of the first admission of women. to, the full fellowship of the Linnean Society, a dinner, was given to the lady fellows of the society on May 18, at the invitation of the treasurer, Mr. F. Crisp. Mr. A. Howarp has been appointed by the Secretary, of State for India economic botanist to the Imperial Department of Agriculture of India. He will be stationed at the experiment station at Pusa, Behar, Bengal. A course of instruction in oceanic research will be held at Bergen, during the university vacation, from August 8 to October 14. The course, as in previous years, , will consist of lectures, practical instruction and assistance in laboratory work; excursions will also be made, during which the use of various appliances and instruments will be practically demonstrated. The work will be in charge of Dr. A. Appelléf, Dr. D. Damas, Dr. H. H. Gran, Mr. B. Helland-Hansen, Dr. Johan Hjort, and Mr. C. F. Kolderup. Further particulars can be obtained from the Oceanographical Institute of Bergen Museum, Bergen, Norway. Tue association which maintains an American woman’s table in Dr. Dohrn’s marine laboratory at Naples also offers at stated times a cash prize of 200l. for the best thesis presented by -a woman of any nationality embody- ing original laboratery research. This prize was awarded at the annual meeting in Boston, on April 29, to Miss N. M. Stevens for a paper on the germ cells of Aphis rosea and Aphis oenothera. The theses offered in com- petition fer the next prize should be presented to the executive committee of the association, and must be in the hands of the chairman of the committee on the prize, Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Massachusetts Institute of 86 NATORE [May 25, 1905 Technology, Boston, Mass., before December 31, 1906. The prize will be awarded at the annual meeting in April, 1907. At the meeting of the Pathological Society of London on May 16, Mr. C. Walker gave a demonstration which seems to solve the nature of the so-called ‘‘ cancer bodies ”’ (Ruffer’s bodies) of malignant tumours, which have been believed by many to be parasitic protozoa. He showed specimens of the normal reproductive cells of the testis containing bodies which are apparently identical with the ““ cancer bodies,’’ but are really the archoplastic vesicles of those cells. In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for April (xvi., No. 169) the most interesting and important com- munication is by Dr. Clowes on the immunisation of mice against cancer. In certain mice which had been inoculated with mouse cancer, the disease underwent an unexpected and spontaneous retrogression, and it was found that the serum of these animals produced a marked curative effect on the cancerous tumours in other mice suffering from the disease. Dr. W. B. Wuerry records some interesting observations on the biology of the cholera spirillum (Bull. Bureau of Gov. Laboratories, Manila, No. 19), in which he shows that the slight variations in cultural and other characters so often met with in different strains of this micro- organism are largely due to slight differences in the culture media employed, particularly in their reaction, and sugges- tions are given for the more accurate preparation of standard media. Tue Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute (xxvi., No. 4) contains a report of a discussion on the aérial dis- semination of small-pox round small-pox hospitals, in the course of which Dr. H. E. Armstrong, Dr. T. M. Clayton, and others adduce a good deal of evidence against the commonly accepted view of the danger of aérial infection in the neighbourhood of such hospitals. Municipal milk depéts and milk sterilisation is the subject of another paper by Dr. G. F. McCleary. Dr. Cuartes Creicuton, who recently paid a special visit to India for the purpose of inquiring on the spot into some of the circumstances connected with the pre- valence of plague, read a paper on this disease before the Society of Arts on May 18. Dr. Creighton first criticised the composition of the British Plague Commission of 1898, complaining that there was no epidemiologist upon it. He next gave a somewhat detailed account of the geographical distribution of plague, and directed attention to the difference of incidence of the disease in the villages of the district of Ratnagiri and those of the adjoining district of Satara. In the former all the buildings, road- ways, &c., are of stone, and plague occurs little or not at all; in the latter the villages are plague-stricken, and the crowded dwellings are of mud, the floors, &c., being saturated with offal. Dr. Creighton believes that crowded sites too long inhabited and without drainage are the cause of the trouble, which is explicable on the laws of soil- infection enunciated by Pettenkofer and his school. A PRICED catalogue of pinned specimens of Lepidoptera, issued by Mr. H. Fruhstorfer, of Turmstrasse, Berlin, from whom we have received a copy, should prove useful to collectors. AMONG our weekly budget are included three papers on North American zoology. In the first, from the Bulletin of the Brockly Institute (vol. i., No. 5), published by the SO 1856, VOL. 72] Macmillan Company, Dr. J. A. Allan gives a list of mammals from Beaver county, Utah, several of which are described as new. The mammals of this elevated region are stated to differ considerably from their representatives in the adjacent foot-hills. In No. 6 of the same serial Mr. C. Schaefer describes new American beetles, and in the third paper (from the Proceedings of the U.S, Museum). Mr. W. D. Kearfoot diagnoses new tortricine moths from Carolina. In the April issue (vol. i., part iv.) of the Records of the Albany Museum Dr. R. Broom discusses the proper signification of the Owenian term ‘* Anomodontia,’’ and comes to the conclusion that it is applicable only to the dicynodonts. He also describes certain new fossil reptiles from Aliwal North, and contributes some important notes. on the localities of type specimens of other South African reptiles, especially those in the British Museum. In the course of these remarks, it is pointed out that Anthodon is of Wealden age, and probably, therefore, a dinosaur instead of a pariasaurian, and that the limb-bones de- scribed by Owen as Platypodosaurus are almost certainly referable to Udenodon. In the issue of Biologisches Centralblatt of May 1 the Rev. Father Wasmann brings to a close his important series of articles as to the origin of slavery among ants, and formulates the conclusions at which he has arrived, which are too long to be recapitulated in our columns at length. It may be mentioned, however, that, in the author’s opinion, this system of slavery had indepen- dent origins at different dates respectively in the formicine and the myrmecine sections of the ant family, and that it has also been independently acquired in different genera and species of these two subfamilies at different times. In general, it seems to have been of later origin in the Formicine than in the Myrmecinze. Moreover, the pheno- menon affords confirmation of the biological doctrine that the ontogeny of a group constitutes a brief recapitulation of its phylogeny. In another article in the same issue Dr. O. Zacharias emphasises the importance of modern methods of studying ‘* hydrobiology ’’ in relation to fish- culture and fisheries. Part iii. of vol. xlvii. of the quarterly issue of Smith- sonian Miscellaneous Contributions contains an article by Mr. C. D. Sherborn on the species of birds described as new in Vroeg’s ¢atalogue, published in 1764. P. S. Pallas is believed to be the real author of the names. The only copy of this work that has come under the author’s notice is in the library of the Linnean Society, where it might have been left in well merited obscurity: Social spiders (Stegodyphus sarasinorum) form the subject of another article, by Mr. N. S. Jambunathan, in the same serial. The spiders of this species, which was discovered by the author at Saidapet, Madras, in 1898, live in a sponge-like nest formed of branching net-work with com- municating canals and a number of external openings. These nests, which may be attached either to the tips of branches of trees or to leaves of the prickly pear, are ashy-grey in colour, and constructed of leaves and refuse from the spiders’ food. Externally is a coat of stout sticky threads of the same colour as the spiders them- selves, and sheet-like webs spread in all directions from the nests. Five or six nests are often found together, each of which may be the home of from 40 to 100 spiders, usually in the proportion of seven males to one female. A number of spiders will cooperate to overpower a single large insect. May 25, 1905] NATORE 87 DurinG the last few days paragraphs have appeared in the newspapers stating that a plague of flies has invaded Cardiff Docks, causing much inconvenience. The flies are said to have made their appearance with a southerly wind on Sunday, May 14. Mr. Ernest E. Austen, of the British Museum (Natural History), informs us that specimens for- warded to the museum show that the trouble has been caused by the fly known as Dilophus febrilis, Linn., a very common British species of the family Bibionidz, met with from April to September, but especially abundant in May. In colour the flies are black, with a shining thorax, and measure about 5% millimetres, or rather less than a quarter of an inch, in length. As in all Bibionidz, the males are distinguished from the females by the large size of the head, which in the former sex appears from above to be entirely composed of the eyes. Of five specimens sent to the British Museum, all were males. Dilophus febrilis breeds in horse and cattle droppings, in which the larve—white footless grubs measuring half an inch in length, with a dark brown head capsule at the anterior extremity—are found in small masses. This fly is quite incapable of biting, as are also all the other species of the same family, so far as at present known, though the possession of an elongated proboscis by two Mexican representatives of the genus Plecia suggests that there may be forms that suck blood. The occasional occurrence of Bibionidz and other Diptera in immense numbers is well known, and notes on the subject have already appeared in these columns (cf. Nature, vol. xlviii., 1893, pp. 103, 127, 176). With regard to Dilophus febrilis, Mr. J. W. Douglas, writing in the Eniomologist’s Monthly Magazine for 1880 (p. 142), describes a swarm of this species at sea off the Norfolk coast on September 2 of that year. It is stated that the air was obscured by the flies as ‘by a cloud, and that a schooner sailing at about a cable’s length from the shore was so covered with them that for five hours persons were unable to remain on deck; the air cleared at about 4 p.m. The cause of these phenomenal swarms is still uncertain, but it is probably to be found in ex- ceptionally favourable climatic conditions, which, by accelerating: the growth of the larvee and shortening the pupal stage, cause myriads of flies to appear at practically the same time. In the Biological Bulletin (February) Mr. R. S. Lillie discusses the conditions determining the disposition of the chromatic filaments and chromosomes in mitosis, and advances a physicochemical theory, based upon mutual repulsions of the particles of a colloid solution, to explain the sequence of the stages in nuclear division. A REVISION by Mr. B. Hayata of the Euphorbiaceze and Buxacez of Japan, as represented in the herbarium of the University of Tokio, forms article iii. in vol. xx. of the Journal of the College of Science in that university. The number of genera is limited to twenty-four under Euphorbiaceze and two under Buxaceew, and seven new species are recorded. The author has provided figures of the flowers for most of the species. A BRIEF survey of the progress of the Nilambur Teak Plantations, Madras, from its inception by Mr. Conolly in 1840 to its present condition, when the receipts more than balance the cost, is contributed by Mr. R. McIntosh to the Indian Forester (March). The harvest time is still thirty-five years ahead, when the fellings are expected to produce a revenue of 40,0001. a year. The difficulty ex- perienced at first in getting the secd to germinate was overcome by soaking the seeds before planting, and by NO. 1856, VOL. 72] keeping the soil thoroughly moist after planting. The teak forests of Burma form the subject of another article, -in which Mr. R. S. Troup comes to the conclusion that useful as fire protection may be in most forests, annual burning in moist mixed forests of teak and bamboos is decidedly efficacious. THE appearance of a Nature-study Review, edited and published by Mr. M. A. Bigelow in Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, indicates that the subject is making progress in the United States. A discussion in the first number as to the scope of nature-study has led to a general expression of opinion that it differs from natural science in so far as it lacks the characteristic organisation of science, and that it should be confined to elementary schools; further articles on the subject appear in the March number, which is the second of a bi-monthly issue. Amongst the articles giving the experiences of teachers one by Dr. E. A. Bigelow directs attention to the convenience of putting up the salts required for plant food solutions in tabloid form. In Spelunca (Bull. de la Soc. de Spéléologie, tome v., Nos. 39 and 4o) there are interesting articles on the caverns and subterranean water-courses of the Mendip Hills, by Mr. H. E. Balch, and on those of the Jura Mountains by M. E. Fournier. Mr. E. C. Davey, who in 1874 contributed to the Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club an essay on the sponge-gravel beds near Faringdon, with photo- graphs of some of the fossil sponges, has revised and amplified his article under the title ‘‘ The Neocomian Sponges, Bryozoa, Foraminifera, and other Fossils of the Sponge-gravel Beds at Little Coxwell, near Faringdon.”’ This is now published by Messrs. Dulau and Co., price 5s. net, and it contains five photographic plates of sponges, Echini, and Foraminifera. The nomenclature of the sponges is revised in accordance with the researches of Dr. G. J. Hinde, but the author does not wholly agree with the determinations made by that paleontologist, and adds other species, one new species being figured and briefly described. Under the heading “‘ Bivalves,”’ the author includes brachiopods and lamellibranchs; he makes no reference to the occurrence of Belemnites, to which Mr. G. W. Lamplugh directed special attention in 1903 (Geol. Mag., p. 32). Bastnc his conclusions largely on the capacity of the cranium, but also taking into account other characters, Mr. A. da Costa Ferreira has attempted to dissect out, as it were, the probable racial constituents of the Portuguese, and has set forth his results in the Bulletin de la Soctété d’Anthropologie de Paris (5e. sér., tome v., P- 473). He finds a short, mesorhine dolichocephalic type with a small head which he thinks belongs to the Cro-Magnon race, and a tall, leptorhine dolichocephalic type with a large head. The mesaticephals are partly attributed to a brachycephalic mixture; those of short stature, leptorhine, and with a large head, are thought to belong to the race of Grenelle or to a Celtic invasion. The small headed, leptorhine mesaticephals are probably of Semitic origin, while the mesorhines may be of Berber extraction. In order to make more widely known and more easily accessible to American students the results of important researches on the Maya hieroglyphs, printed in the German language, the Peabody Museum Committee on Central American Research has begun a series of translations of which the first, on the representation of deities of the Maya manuscripts, by Dr. P. Schellhas, has been pub- lished as vol. iv., No. 1, of the Papers of the Peabody 88 NATURE [May 25, 1905 Museum, Harvard University. In this valuable enumer- ation Dr. Schellhas is very careful not to theorise or to go beyond the warrant of the manuscripts themselves. In several cases he refers to diverse views concerning the names of the gods in question; but, as he truly observes, “‘ these different opinions show on what uncertain grounds such attempts at interpretation stand, and that it is best to be satisfied with designating the deities by letters and collecting material for their purely descriptive designation. In vol. iii. of the same Papers are illustrated accounts of the Cahokia and surrounding mound groups, by Mr. D. I. Bushnell, and of the exploration of mounds in Coahoma, by C. Peabody. In vol. i. Mrs. Zelia Nuttall gives a very interesting account of a penitential rite of the ancient Mexicans mainly derived from Spanish co. Mississippi, sources. Blood was drawn from cuts in various parts of the body, including the tongue and ears; the rite of voluntarily drawing blood, principally from the ear, was a feature of every-day life in ancient Mexico, and was per- formed by and old. It constituted an act of humility, thanksgiving, penitence, or propitiation. young Tue Survey Department of Egypt has published an important paper on the rainfall of the Nile basin in 1904, by Captain H. G. Lyons, director-general of the service. Five years ago there were only six or eight places where the rainfall was being measured regularly; now, thanks chiefly to the efforts of Captain Lyons, there are more than forty, of which thirty-two lie to the south of Berber (lat. 18° N.). He points that to understand the seasonal variation of the rainfall the relative positions of the equatorial low-pressure belt, and the high-pressure areas to the north and south of it at different seasons, must be taken into consideration. out In the low-pressure area there is an ascensional movement of the air, so that its moisture is condensed to form clouds and rain. This ascensional movement depends upon the heating effect of the sun, and it is shown month by month how the low- pressure area varies with respect to the sun’s position from south to north, and back to south again. The care- fully prepared tables and diagrams show, as a general result, that the rainfall of 1904 in the Nile basin was below the average; in the equatorial regions it was some- what deficient in the earlier part of the year, and above the average in the autumn. A SOMEWHAT striking paper has been published by Prof. Ronald Ross, F.R.S., of Liverpool University, en verb functions, with notes on the solution of equations by operative division (Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, xxv., A, 3). The writer points out that whereas symbols such as f and ¢ are used to denote functions in general, no notation exists which can explicitly represent the operation of forming any particulary function of any argument, apart from the argument itself, except in certain simple cases as exemplified by the prefixes leg, sin, &c. The notation proposed by Prof. Ross meets this want. It depends on the use of a purely symbolical letter B to denote the base of a given operation, this symbol occurring in the “verb function’? or operator. When this verb function operates on a subject x, it produces the result obtained by writing x for 8 in the operator. For example, [8™/"\(ab)=(ab)”!", [Blog B—1]x=« log «- 1, [e8 cos B]x=e* cos x, and so on. Another peculiarity is the use of square brackets to enclose each separate operation, the necessity of which may be illustrated by the following example :— [(a+-B)*]x represents (a+ x)*, whereas la+B)}'x=[a+B]la+B)v=[a+h]a+x)=a+(a+x)=2a+2. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] In connection with inverse operations, Prof. Ross intro- duces the notation of a double fraction or solidus line as a distinction from the ordinary division symbol; thus, accord- ing to his notation, we should have- tb W(02= 420) [aB?+oB+c] 24 as the symbolical enunciation of the expressions for the roots of a quadratic equation. Tne peculiar magnetic properties of the so-called Heusler’s bronzes, consisting of copper, manganese, and aluminium, are the subject of a paper by E. Take in the Verhandlungen of the German Physical Society (vol. vii., 133). The ‘‘ transformation points ” of a number of samples of the bronze were determined, as well as the effect of heating and re-heating upon them. The results are shown in a series of striking curves. REFERENCE has already been made in these notes (Nature, vol. Ixx. p, 583) to the simple form of telescope pyrometer invented by M. Féry for measuring high temperatures. This instrument is now being sold by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd., who have been appointed sole agents for its sale in the United Kingdom, the British colonies, and in the United States; it is made in two forms, a mirror pyrometer, recording temperatures between 500° C. and 1100° C., and a lens pyrometer, read- ing between go0° C, and 3500° C. Pror. Moissan has published, in the form of a pamphlet having the title ‘‘ La Chimie minérale, ses Relations avec les autres Sciences,’’? an address delivered last September at the Congress of Arts and Sciences at St. Louis. Prof. Moissan, who by his own researches and those of his colleagues has so widely enlarged the domains of inorganic chemistry, whilst regretting that this branch of science is still systematically imperfect as compared with organic chemistry, emphasises the fact that during the past few years its study has again resumed a place of honour. This has been due largely to the discovery of the gases of the atmosphere, to research at high and low temperatures, the investigation of the rare earths, and to the increasing tendency to the fusion of chemical and physical methods. ““Many important investigations still remain to be made in inorganic chemistry, but for success very refined methods and a high degree of accuracy will be required. Chemical research must acquire the precision of physics.’’ Finally, it must be recognised that experiment is the sole guide to truth, and that Faraday’s saying still holds true that chemistry is essentially an experimental science. THE recent researches of M. Berthelot on the per- meability of fused quartz vessels to gases at high tempera- tures have led him to study glass from the same point of view, with very interesting results. In many analytical processes, and more especially in the analysis of organic compounds, it is tacitly assumed that at temperatures below its melting point glass is impermeable to oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide and dioxide. In the current number of the Comptes rendus, M. Berthelot gives an account of some experiments on glass, the mode of work- ing being the same as that used for the quartz tubes (see Nature, April 13, p. 568) with the exception that the tubes were necessarily slowly cooled, and finds that at temperatures between 550° C. and 800° C. glass tubes are permeable to gases. He compares the passage of gases through slightly softened glass to the gaseous exchanges taking place at the ordinary temperature through the walls of indiarubber tubing, and emphasises the importance of this property of glass, hitherto unsuspected, in many chemical and physical investigations at high temperatures. May 25, 1905] NATURE 89 Messrs. Crosspy Lockwoop anp Son will publish shortly a work on ‘‘ Modern Lightning Conductors,’’ by Mr. Kil- lingworth Hedges, honorary secretary of the Lightning Research Committee. - AN appendix to Mr. R. L. Taylor’s ‘“‘ Student’s Chemistry ’’ has been published by Mr. John Heywood. It consists of two sections; the first part deals with the radio-active elements, and the second is an introduction to the study of organic chemistry. WE have received from the Art. Institut Orell Fiissli, of Zurich, Nos. 177, 178, and 179 of their “ Illustrated Europe ’’ series of handbooks. The three parts are bound together in a convenient little volume with the title ““Grisons Oberland.’? The guide book is by Dr. Chr. Tarnuzzer, and a historical sketch has been contributed by Prof. J. C. Muoth. The translation into English was done by Dr. and Mrs. Spéndly-Blakiston. Visitors to this interesting part of Switzerland will find interesting scien- tific, historical, and topographical information in this guide book. The book may be obtained in this country from Messrs. Hachette and Co. Messrs. OLIVER AND Boyp have published the ninth volume of the ‘‘ Reports from the Laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.’’ The volume is edited by Sir J. B. Tuke and Dr. Noél Paton. The papers in- cluded fall under two categories; the first comprises four- teen papers describing researches on the ductless glands under the Mason fund, and the second consists of general researches in physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. WE have received from Mr. John Grant, of Edinburgh, a catalogue of scientific books, chiefly on botany, zoology, and geology, and a catalogue of recent purchases—including some well known works of science—all of which are offered at greatly reduced prices. Mr. W. Burrer, Southport, has devised a new type of camera stand—called the Swingcam—to facilitate the photography of natural history subjects. The stand enables a photographer to point the lens of a camera at any angle and fix it in that position, without the use of a swinging back or front or any other independent attach- ment. The Swingcam tripod head can be fixed in a hori- zontal or vertical position, or at any angle, and is also capable of being inverted if desired. Naturalists and others who occasionally have to use cameras in awkward positions will no doubt find these devices a convenience. New editions of two standard works already reviewed in these columns have just been received from Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. One is the seventh edition of the ‘* Lehr- buch der Botanik’’ by Profs. Strasburger, Noll, Schenck and Karsten, and the other is the seventh edition of Dr. R. Hertwig’s “‘ Lehrbuch der Zoologie.’? Both works have been revised, so that they will maintain their high position among text-books of science. WE have received from Messrs. Henry Sotheran and Co., 140 Strand, W.C., a copy of their latest catalogue of second-hand books, including numerous scientific works ; and from Messrs. John Wheldon and Co., 30 Great Queen Street, W.C., a catalogue of a miscellaneous collection of books, comprising many dealing with biology, geology, and mathematics. Messrs. DawBARN AND Warp, Ltp., have published a second revised edition of ‘‘ Photographic Failures: Pre- vention and Cure,’’ by ‘‘ Scrutator ’’ of the Photogram. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Newry Discoverrep Nesut&.—In No. 4013 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Prof. Max Wolf announces the discovery of a small, but beautiful, nebula the position of which, referred to the equator of 1900-0, is as follows :— a=13h. 58m. 33-44s., 5=—9° 39’ 36”. This object was discovered on a plate exposed during a search for minor planet (126), Velleda, and is of a spiral form, of the un- usual S-shaped variety, the nucleus being of the fourteenth magnitude. Its diameter in R.A. is about 0/-75, and in dec. about 1/-0. A second nebula of especial interest was found in the position (1900.0) R.A.=13h. 58m. 15-17s., 5=—9° 40’ 10". This object is 1’ in length along its major axis, which has a position angle of about 120°, and is of the Andromeda nebula form. Tur Bruce TELEsScopE REFERENCE PHotoGRapHs.—When the 24-inch Bruce telescope of the Harvard College Observy- atory was being planned it was expected that the instru- ment might be useful in assisting in the discoveries of new satellites, and this expectation was realised in the discovery of Phaebe. A number of plates of each planet have been taken since 1893, and of these Prof. Pickering now gives the details as to object photographed, exposure, date and region, in Circular No. 97 of the Harvard College Observatory, hoping that the knowledge of their existence may assist other observers of possible satellites. The list includes 12 plates exposed for Mercury, 2 for Mars, 6 for Vesta, 21 for Jupiter, 12 for Uranus, and 3 for Neptune. The Saturn plates were fully described when the manner of the discovery of Phoebe was related in a former publication. The limiting magnitude of the objects shown on these plates may be taken as 17-0 or 17-5, and therefore the photo- graphs may prove useful in the correction of the elements of Jupiter’s newly discovered satellites when more is known of the positions of these two objects. Comet 1904 II. (1904 d)—A continuation of the ephemeris for comet 1904 d is given in No. gor2 of the Astronomische Nachrichten by Herr M. Ebell. This comet is now only about one-sixth as bright as when discovered, and is gradually becoming fainter. Its position on May 26, according to the ephemeris, will be a (true)=2h. 23m. 48s., 6 (true)=+64° 50’, which is about 2° south of 1 Cassiopeia, and the object is travelling slowly towards the constellation Camelus with a very slightly increasing declination. TWeELveE Stars witH VARIABLE RADIAL VELOCITIES.— Further results of the spectrographic work performed by the D. O. Mills expedition from Lick Observatory to the southern hemisphere are published in Bulletin No. 75 of that observatory. Twelve stars have been found by Prof. Wright and Dr. Palmer to be spectroscopic binaries, some of them, mentioned below, having features of especial interest. a Phoenicis has a period of about 190 days. The system of @ Eridani has been found to be very similar to that of Mizar, the brightest component, @,, having a composite spectrum similar to that of the star named. a Puppis, a Volantis, a Carina, and.«% and p Velorum are amongst the other stars of which the radial velocities have been found to be variable. DousteE ‘‘Canats’* oN Mars 1N 1903.—In Bulletin No. 15 of the Lowell Observatory Mr. Lowell gives, and discusses in detail, the results of his observations of the Martian “‘canals’’ during 1903. Before proceeding to the account of the actual observations, he comments on the various theories which have been advanced in argu- ment against the reality of the ‘* doubling ’’ phenomenon. The ‘‘ diplopic’’ or out-of-focus theory is refuted for five reasons, the chief of which is that for any special epoch the width of each individual double canal remains con- stant. The ‘‘interference’’ theory is met by the statements that in the case of these features there is no bright streak such as would be necessary to produce the two dark streaks to give the idea of a double canal, and that the width of each double canal does not vary with the aper- ture employed. Lastly, the ‘‘illusion,’? or, as Mr. Lowell refers to it, the *‘ Small Boy,’’ theory is considered, 90 NATURE [May 25, 1905 the chief argument against it being that the ambiguity of real and false effects only exists at the limit of vision, whereas most of the canals considered are, when well seen, far within this limit. A number of interesting points concerning the canal systems are deduced from the 1903 observations, but only one or two of the more striking may be mentioned here. (1) The majority of the double canals do not exceed 37:2 (degrees on the planet’s surface) in width; (2) at the time of maximum visibility the two members of each double are generally of equal strength, but as they wane one of them usually becomes apparently stronger than the other ; (3) the double canals appear to congregate in special longi- tudes and latitudes, in the latter case especially favouring the equatorial regions, a fact which Mr. Lowell urges as an argument against the ‘‘ diplopic ’’ theory ; (4) the double canals are peculiar to the lighter regions of the planet’s surface, although single canals are, apparently, just as numerous in the darker as in the lighter regions; the double canals, however, are always connected, directly, or through the medium of similar objects, with the darker areas. . Catatocur or New Douste Srtars.—Prof. Hussey’s ninth catalogue of double stars, discovered with the 12-inch and 36-inch refractors of the Lick Observatory, and mostly measured with the latter instrument, is contained in Bulletin No. 74 of that observatory. The preceding cata- logues have severally appeared in Nos. 480, 485, and 494 of the Astronomical Journal, and Nos. 12, 21, 27, 57, and 65 of the Lick Observatory Bulletins. The present publication gives the catalogue and D.M. numbers, the position and the distance and position-angle determined at each observation for each of the double stars recorded. The catalogue numbers extend from 801 to 1000 inclusive, and run consecutively. THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. ANY instruments and devices of scientific interest were shown at the Royal Society’s conversazione on Wednesday, May 17. As usual, the exhibits illustrated methods and results of recent work in various branches of science, and the subjoined summary of the official cata- logue contains a few particulars relating to them. In the course of the evening lantern demonstrations were given in the meeting-room by Dr. E. A. Wilson, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Mr. Perceval Landon. Sir Oliver Lodge demonstrated the use of electric valves for the production of high-tension continuous current. Electric vacuum valves, which it is now found were suggested in a letter by Sir George Stokes twenty years ago, have as their function the entrapping of a portion of electricity by per- mitting its passage in one direction and stopping its return. They therefore can be employed to accumulate electricity supplied from an intermittent or jerky source and to store it at a steady high potential; so that it may there- after maintain a current through a very high resistance, as in electrostatics, and may produce X-rays, or point- discharge, or other continuous high-tension effects, and enable a small portable coil to imitate some of the effects of a much larger one by storage and accumulation of impulses. Among the applications contemplated are the separation of metallic fume and the dissipation of fog.— Dr. Edward A. Wilson showed a number of Antarctic views illustrating the life and work done on board the Discovery during the years 1902 to 1904, and views of the seals, penguins, and other birds met with in the Antarctic circle; and Mr. Perceval Landon exhibited pictures of the road to Lhasa. The other exhibits are here grouped together according to subjects more or less closely related to one another. Specimens illustrating the action of light and of radium upon glass: Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. (1) It is well known that many samples of colourless glass containing manganese slowly assume a violet tint when exposed to sunlight. In some specimens of glass exhibited the pieces were of all depths of tint, from deep violet, almost black in thick pieces, to pale amethyst. Analysis shows the glass to contain manganese. Heating the glass in a coyered crucible to its softening point discharges the colour, No. 18 6, VOL. 72] leaving the glass white and transparent. The coloration is not superficial. On immersing a piece of the coloured glass in a liquid of about the same refractive index as itself, the colour is seen to have penetrated throughout the mass. Radium, acting for a few days, even through quartz, will produce as intense a coloration in a piece of this glass as exposure to the sun on the Pampa has taken years to effect. Six pieces of glass from the greenhouses at Kew Gardens illustrated changes which took probably about fifty years to complete in our climate. Purple spots were produced on two of these specimens by Sir William Crookes by the action of 15 milligrams of radium bromide in a quartz tube in the course of ten days, the beginning of change being well marked at the end of two days. In a specimen of manganese glass exposed to light for forty years as a pane of a greenhouse, the ends of the glass which had been protected from light by the window frame were colourless. In the expectation that radium might have a reducing effect on the manganese compound, Mr. F. Soddy submitted a portion of the pane to the action of 30 milligrams of radium bromide for three days in May, 1904. The colour, however, instead of being diminished, was intensified. Specimens were also shown illustrating the coloration of glass, quartz, and fluorspar by the 6 rays of radium. Action of actinium or emanium emanation on a sensitive screen: Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. Actinium or emanium are different names, adopted by Debierne and Giesel respectively, for the same substance, separable from pitchblende, and accompanying lanthanum. It gives off an emanation, of which the period of activity is very short—a few seconds. When this emanation impinges on a sensitive zinc sulphide screen, the screen becomes luminous. The luminous patch can be blown away, and in a second or two reappears.—Phosphorescence caused by the B rays of radium: Mr. G. T. Beilby. Phosphorescence of calcspar and other substances—(t) during exposure to the rays; (2) after removal from the rays; and (3) revived by heat after secondary phosphorescence has died down. The storage of phosphorescence and the coloration effects are due to partial electrolysis of the calcium carbonate or other substance by the stream of negative electrons. A proportion of the ions re-combine at once, others continue to re-combine after the rays have ceased to act, and the remainder only re-combine when the mobility of the crystal molecules is increased by heat.—Skiagrams of the hands of Machnow, the Russian giant, and of O’Brien, the Irish giant: Mr. S. G. Shattock. Large echelon spectroscope: Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S. This echelon spectroscope, constructed by Messrs. Adam Hilger, Ltd., consists of 33 plates, and has a resolving power equal to that of an ordinary grating of 329,000 lines in the first order.—A hand refractometer: Mr. G. F. Herbert Smith. By means of this form of refractometer the refractive indices of any translucent substance, the refractive power of which lies within the effective range of the instrument, 1-400 to 1-760 approximately, may be determined with ease and celerity, to units in the second place of decimals if ordinary light, and to two or three units in the third place of decimals if the monochromatic light emitted by a volatilising sodium salt be the source of illumination.—The Ashe-Finlayson comparascope: Mr. D. Finlayson. This accessory to the microscope has been designed to enable the images of two different objects, separately mounted, to be projected side by side into the field of view, thereby enabling a thorough comparison to be made of their respective points of difference and re- semblance. The apparatus consists of a prism placed above the primary objective which reflects to the ocular the rays from a secondary objective placed at right angles to the optic axis of the microscope.—(1) Torsion balance, used in radiation pressure measurements, by Nichols and Hull; (2) vacuum tube, of Nichols and Hull, to illustrate the repulsion of comet tails by the sun: Prof. E. F. Nichols.—An optical appliance to facilitate visual percep- tion of ultra-microscopic particles: Mr. Carl Zeiss. The apparatus consists of a projection table provided with an arc lamp, optical bench, two projection aplanats, and a precision slit. (The use of sunlight instead of the are lamp is preferable.) Particles of far less than half a wave-length can be made visible with this apparatus.— May 25, 1905] NATURE gI Mechanical lantern slide illustrative of the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse: Mr. W. Shackleton. A white disc representing the sun is projected on a screen; by moving an opaque disc representing the moon, this is gradually obscured, and the preliminary partial phases of a total solar eclipse are shown. A moment before com- plete obscuration a twin shutter is opened, which allows the corona and chromosphere to be projected, thus re- producing totality, which may last as long as desired.— Stereoscopic views of the sun and stars of estimated parallax: Mr. T. E. Heath. The perspective drawings were made from a plan and elevations in which the scale of stellar distances was ten light-years to 1 inch, and of stellar discs such that the sun (or a star which gives equal light) was 1/5oth of an inch in diameter. The magni- tudes were made to vary with the varying distance of the spectator.—(1) Microscope and goniometer stage for ex- amining the optical qualities of minute grains of sand; (2) set of petrological quartz wedges; (3) photomicro- graphic camera, designed by Mr. J. W. Gordon for taking small direct photomicrographs while the instrument is in use after observation without attention to the adjustments : Messrs. R. and J. Beck, Ltd. (1) Photomicrographs of section of gun tube showing change in structure of steel after 2000 rounds; (2) photo- micrographs of alloys of aluminium with nickel; (3) photo- micrographs of alloy of copper with cobalt and nickel : Dr. Hodgkinson, Captain Playfair, R.A., and Mr. Coote. —(1) Apparatus for polishing and preparing metals for microscopic examination; (2) specimens of steels in the cast and forged condition containing phosphorus: Mr. J. E. Stead, F.R.S.—Transverse sections of slip-bands and other microscopic features of metallic surfaces: Mr. W. Rosenhain.—A series of alloys of iron and steel tested at liquid air temperature: Mr. R. A. Hadfield. The speci- mens showed the effect of liquid air (temperature —182° C.) upon almost pure iron (Swedish charcoal iron “*S.C.1.,’’ 0-04 carbon, 99:82 iron) and a large number of alloys of iron with other elements. The well known ductility of iron disappears, while its tenacity is more than doubled. Similar effects occur with nearly all the alloys of iron with carbon and other elements, except those containing nickel, which metal appears to modify con- siderably the embrittling effect of low temperatures upon iron. Clock and chronometer by Thomas Mudge: Mr. A. Mallock, F.R.S. The clock was made about 1776, and contains Mudge’s moon motion. Mudge’s object in making this motion was to show that any desired velocity ratio could be approximated to very closely with comparatively few wheels. The train of wheel-work he employed makes the mean lunation 0-03 second less than the actual mean lunation, that is, the error is less than 1 in 24 millions. There are other remarkable features in this clock con- nected with the balance wheel, escapement, and tempera- ture correction.—(1) Tangent-micrometer for theodolites, &c.; (2) endless-tangent screw for sextants: Mr. E. A. Reeves. By the addition of a micrometer ‘‘ drum,’’ and a simple arrangement for clamping the outer rim or dial carrying the numbers, combined with a special indicator, a carefully constructed tangent-screw serves also as a micrometer, and renders it possible to read the are with the same accuracy as with the usual form of micrometer, while the instrument need not be larger than the ordinary vernier theodolite. The sextant device consists of a tangent-screw constructed with an endless thread, by means of which the vernier arm can be made to pass from any one part of the arc to another. For making rough con- tacts the tangent-screw is raised from the arc by means of a lever pressed by the finger. When the pressure on the lever is released the tangent-screw, actuated by a spring, again comes in contact with the arc, and serves as a clamp. A direct reading cymometer for measuring _ the length of the waves used in wireless telegraphy: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. The instrument consists of a sliding tubular condenser and an inductance coil, the capacity and inductance being varied together in the same proportion by one movement of a handle. The circuit is closed by a copper bar, which is placed alongside the aérial wire indicating the electric waves. NO. 1856, VOL. 72] The handle of | the cymometer is then moved until a neon vacuum tube used as an indicator shines most brightly, and thus de- termines when the cymometer circuit is tuned to the frequency of the aérial. A pointer moving over a scale then indicates the wave-length of the radiated wave in feet or metres.—An oscillation valve for rectifying electrical oscillations and rendering them measurable on an ordinary galvanometer: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. The valve consists of a bulb enclosing a carbon filament made like an incandescence lamp. ‘The filament is surrounded by a metal cylinder. The bulb is highly exhausted. When the filament is incandescent, negative electricity can move through the vacuum from the hot filament to the cylinder, but not in the reverse direction. Hence the arrangement can separate out the two opposite currents in an electric oscillation. It can be used in combination with a dead beat galvanometer as a receiver in wireless telegraphy. The valve replaces the coherer and other appliances, and the signals are given by long and short deflections of the galvanometer.—(1) Resonance induction coil and _ high potential apparatus; (2) resonance electromagnet: Messrs. Isenthal and Co. Electrolytic condensers of very large capacity are charged from the mains through the primary of a suitably wound induction coil, and the circuit broken and reversed at zero potential by means of a motor-driven commutator of special construction. The advantages are :—no motor transformer is required in primary circuit, no rectifying device in secondary circuit, and there are no interruptors to be cleaned. The apparatus enables a current to be converted sparklessly into pure sine current suitable for space telegraphy. An electromagnet excited from a source of this kind exhibits peculiar physical and physiological phenomena.—(1) High-tension resonance transformer ; (2) X-ray stereoscope: Mr. Russell Wright. The special form of ‘‘ step-up’’ transformer exhibited works direct from the alternating current mains, and pro- duces an alternating discharge of sufficient tension for X-ray work or high-frequency effluve. By means of a small revolving shutter, driven by a synchronous motor, between the observer’s eye and two X-ray tubes, stereo- scopic images could be clearly seen on an X-ray screen. High temperature electric furnaces: Director of the Vational Physical Laboratory. These furnaces are con- structed of rare earths such as are used in Nernst lamps. They are available for temperatures between 800° C. and 2000° C. The apparatus used in a recent determination of the melting point of platinum was shown at work, in addition to that for other experiments of a_ similar character.—New models of laboratory electric furnaces : Mr. R. S. Hutton. The furnaces consist of a carbon tube, rod, or plate heated by an electric current. In the tube furnaces the carbon is surrounded by some material of low thermal conductivity, which also serves to protect the hot tube from oxidation. The substance to be heated is placed in a carbon boat or crucible inside the tube, and can thus be brought to a very high temperature. The method employed for conveying the current to the carbon by soldering water-jacketed sleeves to the electro-coppered ends of the carbon forms a novel feature of the construc- tion. Photographs taken in China by the Carnegie expedition under Mr. Baily Willis in 1904, illustrating a presumably Glacial deposit underlying the base of the Cambrian rocks of the region: Sir Archibald Geikie, Sec.R.S.—Photo- graphs, cast, and model of skull of Diplodocus, a Jurassic dinosaur from Wyoming, and other fossils from the middle west of North America: Dr. W. J. Holland.—Remains of fossil mammals from Crete: Miss D. M. A. Bate. Numerous mammalian remains were found in 1904 in the Pleistocene cave and fresh-water deposits of Crete. These include remains of the following animals :—antelope, deer, elephant, pigmy hippopotamus, shrew, and two species of rodents.—The great Indian earthquake, April 4: Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S. Five seismograms of this disturbance were shown from Shide, Isle of Wight. (1-2) Open diagrams on smoked paper showing north-south and _ east-west motion. (3) Open diagrams of east-west motion on photo- graphic paper. The instrument was a Milne horizontal pendulum. (4-5) Photographic records from a pair of Milne horizontal pendulums vibrated north-south and east- west. The exhibit also included seismograms of east-west 92 NATURE [May 25, 1905 motion from Edinburgh, Paisley, Beirut, and Toronto.— Charts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, showing the co-tidal lines at mean time of Quebec: Captain ‘Tizard, C.B., F.R.S.—Photographs of the ‘‘ Cullinan’’ diamond: Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. Microscopic preparations illustrating the development of calcareous spicules in various invertebrate animals: Prof. E. A. Minchin. and Mr. W. Woodland. Calcareous spicules are small skeletal elements to be found in most of the lower animals. These spicules assume varied and often beautiful forms, those of sponges and ‘sea cucumbers ”’ (Cucumariidz and Synaptidae) being especially striking in this latter respect, and are built up in all instances by the agency of scleroblasts—small nucleated protoplasmic masses which deposit the lime. The causes underlying the production of the curious forms which these spicules assume (triradiates, perforated plates, wheels and anchors, &c.) are not by any means yet understood, but are probably several in number, some being purely mechanical in nature, others, perhaps, being those which give rise to crystals.—Cellular constituents peculiar to cancerous and reproductive tissues: Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S., Mr. J. E. S. Moore, and Mr. C. E. Walker. In the cells of malignant tumours, structures known as “Plimmer’s bodies’’ are present in most cases. These structures have been regarded as parasitic organisms or as specific cellular peculiarities confined to such malignant tissues. They have recently been identified as also being present in normal reproductive tissues. They form a definite organ of the cell during its conversion to a sper- matozoon, and they also can be identified in the two pre- ceding divisions. They are absent from other cells of the body.—The simplest kind of protoplasm: Dr. Charlton Bastian, F.R.S. One drop of a fluid swarming with common bacteria had been introduced into one ounce of distilled water containing ten grains of neutral ammonic tartrate in solution. The bacteria grow freely in this fluid, and as the constitution of the ammonia salt is 2NH,0, C,H,O0,,+2HO, they must fashion their proto- plasm in some way from C, H, O, and N only, though sulphur and phosphorus, one or both, are commonly re- garded as necessary constituents of living matter. The parasite of “‘kala azar’’: Brevet Lieut.-Colonel W. B. Leishman. This protozoal organism is found in the spleen and other organs in cases of ‘‘ kala azar,’’ an extremely fatal disease occurring in epidemic form in Assam, and also, in endemic form, in other parts of India and the tropics. Nothing is yet known as to the mode of infection or as to the life of the parasite outside its human host. In artificial cultures it develops into a flagellated organism closely resembling a trypanosome. Specimens and sketches were shown of the parasites as they occur in the tissues, and of the flagellated forms into which they develop in artificial cultures.—The isolation of B. typhosus from water by means of alum precipitation: Mr. H. S. Willson. Alum is added to the infected water in the proportion of 0-5 gram to the litre. When the pre- cipitate of aluminium hydrate has fully formed, the water is centrifugalised and the sediment containing most of the bacteria present in the water is spread on plates of suit- able media, and incubated at 42° C. The precipitate, which is known to be destructive to many water and sewage organisms, has no germicidal action on B. ty phosus. (1) Stone adze heads in various stages of manufacture, and chips from the neighbourhood of Suloga, Woodlark Island, British New Guinea; (2) photographs of straight-haired in- dividuals from Nara district central division, British New Guinea; (3) wood carvings and drawings, principally from Massim district, British New Guinea: Mr. C. G. Selig- mann. Specimens of cross-bred maize illustrating inheritance in accordance with Mendel’s law: Mr. R. H. Lock.—Living representatives of the Plymouth marine fauna: Marine Biological Association. Material obtained with the dredge from certain typical grounds in the neighbourhood of Plymouth was shown, together with representatives of the animals living on each ground.—Photographs illustrating young cuckoo in the act of ejecting egg and young bird from nest of foster-parent: Mr. W. Percival Westell. A new problem on superposition: Mr. H. E. Dudeney. This was a demonstration that an equilateral triangle can NO. 1856, VOL. 72] be cut into four pieces that may be re-assembled to form a square, with some examples of a general method for transforming all rectilinear triangles into squares by dis- section. Oil painting, a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution: Mr. H. J. Brooks. ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY OBSERVED FROM BALLOONS. I? is now some years since attempts were first made to investigate the electrical conditions of the upper atmo- sphere by aid of manned balloons; but it is only within the last three years that the difficulties of the observations and the proper methods to be used have been anything like understood. Measurements of the normal potential gradient were first attempted. The early observers worked very much in the dark, Linke being the first, in 1901, to investigate the errors due to the mere presence of the balloon itself. He found that for the influence of an uncharged balloon to be small enough to be neglected, the upper of the two collectors used must be at least 10 metres below the basket. Linke also investigated the efficiency of different forms of collectors. The original form of collector used in balloon work was a modification of Kelvin’s drop collector. A wire was lowered from an insulated vessel out of. which water flowed and ran down the wire; the drops forming on the end of the wire and then falling off brought the whole wire to the potential of the air at its end. There are many objections to this form of collector; it is very slow in action, uses a large quantity of water, and will not work when the temperature falls below freezing. Flame collectors are obviously out of the question for balloon work on account of their danger, and, much to the regret of the experimenters, radium did not come up to expectation. The difficulty with radium collectors is that the radium ionises a large volume of air, which, on account of the absence of relative motion between the balloon and the surrounding air, travels along with the balloon and completely alters the electrical conditions of the atmosphere in its neighbourhood. By a simple device Linke has finally overcome all difficulties connected with the col- lectors. A vessel containing spirits is insulated on a shelf fastened to the outside of the basket. From this vessel hangs a long thin lead or other flexible pipe. At the lower end of the pipe is a nozzle which forms the collector proper. As stated above, the collector must be 10 metres below the balloon; thus there is at least a 10-metre head of liquid acting at the nozzle. The pressure due to this causes a very fine jet to escape from a pin- hole in the nozzle. As the iet breaks up into exceedingly fine drops, a very rapid collector action takes place. Col- lectors of this form have acted splendidly, and their use makes it possible to measure the potential gradient with accuracy and ease. The rate of dissipation of electricity from a charged body, and the degree of ionisation of the air, have also been made subiects for investigation in the upper atmo- sphere. Ebert and Linke have devoted several ascents to measurements of the dissipation, and Ebert designed the first instrument to measure the natural ionisation of the air; but the ionisation has been most carefully investigated by Gerdien, who improved Ebert’s instrument so that it Measures not only the ionisation, but the conductivity of the air also. It was when making these latter investigations that a number of difficulties connected with the casting of ballast were first observed. Ebert found that the pouring of sand from the ballast bags so highly charged the balloon with friction electricity that electrical observations became im- possible. Gerdien found that after sand had been cast the balloon remained for some minutes in an atmosphere filled’ with fine sand dust, which greatly affected the measurements of the ionisation. Linke also found that on account of the sudden upward acceleration given to the balloon after sand had been cast the position of the electro- scope leaves changed without any change of voltage. Gerdien was the first to overcome these difficulties. Besides sand, he took two large watertight sacks filled | May 25, 1905] NATURE O35 with water. By having pipes and taps fitted to the sacks water could be discharged as desired. Sand still remained the ordinary ballast; but when electrical measurements were being made water only was used. In order to prevent the water freezing in the cold upper atmosphere, Gerdien filled the sacks with boiling water, which, experience proved, kept sufficiently warm to prevent freezing before it was all used. This method was found to be entirely satis- factory, for it not only got over all difficulties connected with the sand, but by regulating the flow of the water much greater control could be exercised over the balloon than had before been possible with sand. These and other difficulties have been so recently recog- nised and overcome that trustworthy results have as yet hardly been obtained, but the observations appear to justify the following conclusions :-— The normal potential gradient remains positive to the highest point yet investigated (5900 metres by Gerdien), but decreases in magnitude as the height increases. This points to the lower regions of the atmosphere containing a positive charge equal to the negative charge on the earth’s surface, so that the globe as a whole is not charged. The number of ions in a cubic metre of air is the same at all heights. Electricity is dissipated more rapidly from a charged body the higher it is in the atmosphere, this being, no doubt, due to the greater ease with which ions move in rarified air. These results require further verification before they can be accepted as final, and it is to be hoped that facilities will be forthcoming for the investigations to be followed up in this country. It is a strange fact that no English- man has yet devoted himself to a study which combines science and sport in such an attractive manner. GEORGE C. SIMPSON. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CampripGE.—The syndicate the proposals of which with regard to the previous examinations were thrown out by the Senate last term, was elected to consider the studies and examinations of the University, and, although it has so far considered but one examination, a determined attempt is being made to bring its deliberations to a close. The period for which the syndicate was appointed lapses at the end of this term, and the grace which authorises its re-appointment will to-day be ‘‘ non-placetted’’ in the Senate. A short time ago four members were added to the syndicate. Their nomination was not objected to, though the action of the council in appointing them was termed inexpedient. It seems a strange piece of courtesy to acquiesce in the appointment of men like the master of Gonville and Caius, Mr. S. H. Butcher, late professor of Greek in Edinburgh, Dr. Adam, and Mr. Hardy to a syn- dicate which the opponents of change intended, so far as lay within their power, to render moribund. The natural sciences tripos continues to increase. There are 149 candidates entered for part i. and 30 candidates for part ii., both of which began this week. In the first part of the mathematical tripos there are 57, and in the first part of the classical tripos there are 102 candidates, in the second part 12. The entrances for the mechanical sciences tripos, part i., are 45. The Board of Agricultural Studies reports a continuous increase both in the number of students attending the agricultural courses and in the number presenting them- selves for the examinations. The number of students is now close upon fifty, and shows an increase of seven within the last twelvemonth. The honorary degree of M.A. will to-day be conferred on Mr. Robert Stephenson, late chairman of the Cambridge- shire County Council, in recognition of his services to education, and especially to the promotion of agricultural education in the university. The Rede lecture will be delivered on Saturday, June 10, at 11.30 a.m., by Sir Francis Younghusband, K.C.I.E. His subject is ‘‘ Our True Relationship with India.” The council of the Senate has promulgated a grace pro- posing that a svndicate be appointed to consider the de- NO. 1856, VOL. 72] sirability of establishing in the university a diploma in forestry, and to draw up, if it thinks fit, a scheme of in- struction and examination in forestry; that it be em- powered to consult with any persons or bodies; and that it report to the Senate before the end of the Lent term, 1906. The next combined examination for sixty-two entrance scholarships and various exhibitions at Pembroke, Gon- ville and Caius, King’s, Jesus, Christ’s, St. John’s and Emmanuel Colleges will be held on Tuesday, December 5, 1905, and following days, commencing at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, December 5. Mathematics, classics, and natural sciences will be the subjects of examination at all the above-mentioned colleges, and certain colleges examine in history, modern languages, and Hebrew. Oxrorp.—Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., has presented 1ool. to the Hope Department of Zoology for the purchase and preparation of specimens illustrating mimicry and _pro- tective resemblance. The Romanes lecture for 1905 will be delivered by Prof. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., in the Sheldonian Theatre on Wed-~- nesday, June 14, at 2.30. The subject of the lecture will be ‘‘ Man and Nature.” Mr. R. de J. Fleming Struthers has been elected to a senior scholarship in chemistry at Exeter College. The Junior Scientific Club will hold a conversazione at the Museum on Tuesday, May 30. Mr. E. P. CuLveRWeELL has been elected to the pro- fessorship of education founded by the Board of Trinity College, Dublin, for a period of five years. A Reuter telegram from Toronto reports that the Ontario Government has announced a provisional grant of 100,0001. to the University of Toronto toward the pro- posed new buildings which, it is estimated, will cost 320,000. Ir has been announced, Science states, that the trustees of Columbia University have received 100,000]. from an anonymous donor for the construction of a new college hall; and that the Legislature of Minnesota has made direct appropriations for the University of Minnesota for the next two years amounting to 142,000l., besides 12,000l. derived from the insurance on the old main building, destroyed by fire last September. An International Exhibition of Pedagogy, under the patronage of H.M. the King of Spain and of H.M. Queen Maria Christina, will be held in Barcelona from May to October. Particulars as to the scope of the exhibition and the conditions attaching to exhibits are given in the official programme, a limited number of copies of which can be obtained on application to the Director of Special Inquiries and Reports, Board of Education Library, St. Stephen’s House, Cannon Row, Whitehall, London, S.W. PRESIDING at the annual meeting of the British and Foreign School Society, Mr. A. H. D. Acland moved the adoption of the report on the year’s work of the associ- ation. During the course of his speech, he remarked that in many schools too much is done for the brain and too little for the body. If hygiene, instead of being merely a special subject, were made part of the teacher’s general outfit, much would be done for the health of the nation. Mr. Acland said he hopes also that by degrees the pest of examinations will be modified and got rid of—a matter in which the old universities are among the greatest sinners. Whoever could wipe out two-thirds of the ex- aminations would be one of the greatest benefactors of the human species. THE question of the concentration of the teaching of the preliminary and intermediate subjects of the medical curri- culum in London at a few centres has long occupied the attention of those interested in medical education, as it has been felt that this step must result in greater efficiency in teaching, as well as economy in expenditure. The Westminster Hospital Medical School has been the first to take definite action in the matter, and has just com- pleted negotiations with King’s College by which arrange- ments have been made for the teaching of physics, chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology, and: materia medica (that is to say, the subjects of the preliminary and intermediate examinations) to Westminster students 94 NATURE [May 25, 1905 of King’s College. Students will enter Westminster Hospital Medical School as in the past, and will remain Westminster men; they will not become matriculated students of King’s College, but they will be taught the earlier subjects of study at that institution. The scheme will come into effect at the commencement of next winter session in October. At the same time, the teaching of the subjects of the final examination is being completely re-organised. It is believed that this commencement of a probably more general concentration of the teaching of the preliminary and intermediate subjects of the curriculum cannot but promote the best interests of medical education in London. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 9.—‘‘ On some Continuous Observ- ations of the Rate of Dissipation of Electric Charges in the Open Air.’’ By Dr. C. Coleridge Farr. Communi- cated by Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S. During part of 1902 and 1903 the author resolved to take as many observations of the rates of dissipation of electric charges as possible, and to continue them over the whole day, and, when opportunity offered, over longer periods. The observations were made on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand, about 20 feet above sea-level, and five miles due west from the sea coast. The apparatus used was Elster and Geitel’s' Zerstreuungsapparat. Corre- sponding observations were made of the direction and in- tensity of the wind (Beaufort), the humidity, and the potential difference between a point about 10 feet above the ground and the earth. This was determined by a Kelvin portable electrometer and a water-dropper. The dissipation apparatus was read by a telescope, and at night it was illuminated by a bull’s-eye lantern, but only during the actual time of reading. The conductivity of the air is very irregular, but on an average negative electricity is dispersed more rapidly than positive. conductivity of air for —ve electricity Takin = <= ; e 4 conductivity of air for +ve electricity six ordinary days, embracing several hundreds of observ- ations, gave an average of q=1-16. Yet on several occasions for some hours together during these six days, positive electricity was dissipated the more rapidly. The examples considered apparently indicate that a low value for q is, as might be expected, accompanied with a reversal of sign of the atmospheric charge. On one occasion, however, the potential became —185 volts with q about unity. Again, considering the six days only, as more typical of ordinary conditions than two others to be referred to, there is distinct evidence of a double maximum and minimum value for the conductivity throughout the day for charges of both signs. : Of two other days, viz. February 1 and 2 and December 15 and 16, the former exhibits no distinct maxima and minima, but a strong south-west gale was blowing ; the latter day is incomplete. Observations on February 1 and 2, and on March 1 and 2, during south-west gales gave a much higher value for the conductivity for both positive and negative charges than usual. Since the wind on these two days was in the same direction, there is only a slight amount of evidence that the excessive conductivity is due to the strength rather than to the direction of the wind. Two days not yet mentioned, viz. February 348 and March 16, may now be referred to. On the first of these a strong gale from the north-west was blowing when the observations were begun. On the latter, at 6.30 a.m., it was calm; at 8 a.m. there was a light south-west wind, and at 9.30 it was blowing strongly from the north- West with a characteristic falling barometer. These “nor’westers ’’ blow over a range of mountains reaching 7000 feet, and deposit their moisture on the western slopes though the rain often extends to the eastern side. In 1 Elster and Geitel, ‘‘ Terrestrial Magnetism,” vol. iv., p. 213 e¢ seg. No. 1856, VoL. 72] Christchurch they are invariably dry and hot, being of the nature of ‘‘ Foehn’’ winds, and have a depressing effect upon most people. Though the above days are the only two of the class upon which, so far, the author has taken dissipation observations, yet potential observations indicate that the winds are negatively charged relatively to the earth, which is contrary to the usual condition. On both days the dissi- pation curves show marked peculiarities. The earliest observation, at 11.15 a.m. on February 18, gave q=o-4, with a negative potential difference between water-dropper and earth of —300 volts at 10.20 a.m., —150 volts at 11.40 a.m., and —50 volts at 12.45 p.m. Corresponding with this rise of potential there is also a marked rise in the value of q. On March 16 the whole history is apparent. At 7.30 a.m. the wind was light south-west, q=1-3, potential +90 volts. At 9.45 a.m., wind north-west, strong, q=0-7, potential —250 volts. At 10.30 a.m., wind north- west, strong, q=1-1, potential —1o0o volts approximately. The north-west wind seemed then to have thoroughly established itself. The values of q became less and less, the curves indicating the conductivity of the air for positive and negative charges diverging rapidly, that for positive reaching a high value, whilst the negative curve reached remarkably low values. Corrgsponding with the extremely low value for q the potential reached its greatest negative value, —1885 volts. After this gq increased and the negative potential decreased, until at 4.30 p.m. q=0-94, potential —3o0 volts. March 30.—‘ On a New Type of Electric Furnace with a Re-determination of the Melting Point of Platinum.” By Dr. J. A. Harker. Communicated by Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S. The first part of the paper deals with a description of a new type of electric furnace for the attainment in absence of noxious gases of temperatures between 800° C. and 2200° C. The conductor conveying the electric current is a tube of solid electrolytes similar in composition to the filament of a Nernst lamp. An essential feature is that, for many purposes, the usefulness and life of a furnace constructed in this way may be much increased by adopting a ‘‘ cascade ’”’ system of heating. That is, the energy supplied may be divided, so that only sufficient is put through the tubular conductor itself to ‘raise its temperature, say 1000° C. above its surrounding, the surrounding itself being maintained at 1o000° C., thus enabling a temperature of 2000° C. to be attained in the tube without straining it unduly. The regulation of temperature in small furnaces of this type is so perfectly under control that very well defined melting points may be taken with very small quantities of substance. The second half of the paper deals with a re-determin- ation of the melting point of platinum by the thermo- electric method in these furnaces, the highest value found being 1713° C., the lowest 1702° C., and the mean result of the experiments 1710° C.+5° C. May 11.—‘ The Effect of Plant Growth and of Manures upon the Soil: the Retention of Bases by the Soil.’’ By A. D. Hall and N. H. J. Miller. Communicated by Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S. The investigation deals first with the variations in the amount of calcium carbonate—the only basic substance usually available in soils—in the experimental plots at Rothamsted. In four of the fields which have been un- manured during a long period, the loss of calcium car- bonate amounts to about 1000 Ib. per acre per annum. This rate of loss is much increased on some of the manured plots; the use of ammonium sulphate and chloride, as sources of nitrogen, causes an increased loss of calcium carbonate which is equivalent to the amount required to neutralise the acid of the salts applied. When sodium nitrate is used as a manure the rate of removal of calcium carbonate is lower than on the un- manured plots. Farmyard manure has also a similar con- serving effect on the calcium carbonate in the soil. Evidence is also brought forward showing that many soils which .are initially very poor in calcium carbonate retain their fertility unimpaired for many years, and even show May 25, 1905] ° NATURE 95 no decline in the small amount of base they contain, although nitrification is always going on and requires a supply of base from the soil. The authors show, from experiments with water cultures and from a consideration of the analyses of field crops, that the growing plant withdraws more acid than base from the neutral salts dissolved in the soil water, leaving behind a basic residue in the form of bicarbonate. Calcium oxalate and other organic salts in plant residues are converted by bacterial action in the soil into calcium carbonate. These two agencies restore bases to the soil in quantities approxi- mately equivalent to their removal by nitrification, and so maintain a neutral reaction in the soil. Zoological Society, May 2.—Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—Specimens of domestic chicks to illustrate peculiarities in the hereditary trans- mission of white plumage: W. Bateson.—On_ Leuco- solenia contorta (Bowerbank), Ascandra contorta (Haeckel), and Ascetta spinosa (Lendenfeld): Prof. E. A. Minchin. The author pointed out that the nomenclature of the Calcarea Homoccela was in a more tangled state than that of any other group of the animal kingdom, with, perhaps, the exception of the malarial parasites. Dr. Bowerbank, who founded the species, gave a diagnosis that would fit any Ascon, and his type specimens were jumbles of three or four species; consequently Prof. Minchin declared his name to be of no systematic value whatever. To Haeckel’s name Ascandra contorta, Prof. Minchin referred a sponge extremely abundant on the Mediterranean coasts of France. Prof. Minchin preferred to name Ascandra contorta, H., as Clathrina contorta. He believed that the Ascetta spinosa was only an age variation of Clathrina contorta, not yet possessing monaxon spicules.—Anatomy of the ferret- badger (Helictis personata), based on a dissection of a specimen that had recently died in the society’s gardens : F. E. Beddard.—tThe osteology of the Eurylemidse, and the question of the systematic position of this group: W. P. Pycraft. While agreeing with the general con- sensus of opinion as to the primitive character of these birds, the author held that the isolated position which they were supposed to occupy with regard to the remaining Passeres was by no means justified by facts. The ptery- lography, osteology, and myology of the Eurylemidz all tended to show that the nearest allies of these birds were the Cotingida. Although undoubtedly primitive, the group, Mr. Pycraft pointed out, presented a number of specialised characters, which were especially marked in the skull and muscles of the wing. Entomological Society, May 3.—Mr. F. Merrifield, president, in the chair.—A series of Nenarthra cervicornis, Baly; from Ceylon, illustrating the curious structure of the antennze of the g: M. Jacoby.—Specimens of Tephrosia consonaria, ab. nigvya, and melanic examples of Boarmia consortaria, all from a wood in west Kent: G. T. Porritt. These forms were exactly on the same lines as the melanism in west Yorkshire, and it is curious they should occur in such widely separate localities. The two genera, however, are evidently prone to melanism, as Mr. Porritt had now seen black, or almost black, specimens of all the British species except Tephrosia punctulata.— (1) Two specimens of the very rare Staphylinid, Medon castaneus, Gray., taken in the Oxford district during the last week of April; (2) several examples of both sexes of the giant flea Hystrichopsylla talpae, Curtis, from field- mouse nests in the same district; (3) the type-specimen of the Bostrichid beetle Dinoderus ocellaris, Steph. (taken by the late Prof. Westwood at ‘‘ Little Chelsea ’’ previous to 1830), from the Hope collection at Oxford: Commander J. J. Walker.—Heliotropism in Pararge and Pyrameis : Dr. G. B. Longstaff.—The structure and life-history of Psychoda sexpunctata, Curtis: J. A. Dell.—The three- colour process as applied to insect photography: Dr. D. H. Hutchinson. Mathematical Society, May 11.—Prof. Forsyth, presi- dent, in the chair.—The following papers were communi- cated :—The intersection of two conic sections: J. A. H. Yohnston. The object of the paper is to determine the number (0, 2, or 4) of the real intersections of two real conics by means of formule involving the invariants, or other concomitants of the system. The discrimination NO: 1856, VOL. 72] depends upon the signs of the coefficients of a certain cubic equation, one root of which can be interpreted, when all the intersections are real, as the area of the quadrilateral formed by them. It is shown that one of the conditions of reality obtained by previous writers admits of very great simplification.—On a system of conics yielding operators which annihilate a cubic, and its bearing on the reduction of the cubic to a sum of four cubes: H. G. Dawson.— Informal communications were made as follows :—High Pellian factorisations; Lieut.-Colonel A. Cunningham. A method was explained for constructing very large factorisable numbers of the form y*+1 (with complete resolution into prime factors) from the Pellian equation y’—Dx*=—1. Examples were given, among them being a number of 78 digits, viz. (2'**+3-2")?+1; this was shown to be expressible as (2°*+1) (2°°+1)?, for which the resolution of the factors 2°*+1 and 2°°+1 had been obtained by Lucas.—The stability of a loaded column: Prof. A. E. H. Lowe. When the column can be treated as a “‘thin’’ rod, and the contraction of the longitudinal filaments is taken into account, the critical length is slightly greater than that obtained by the ordinary method, due to Euler, in which this contraction is neglected. The correction of the critical length is found to be 47k, where k is the radius of gyration of the cross-section of the column about an axis through its centroid at right angles to the plane of bending. Paris. Academy of Sciences, May 15.—M. Troost in the chair.— The president announced the death of M. Potier, member of the section of physics.—The permeability of glass vessels: M. Berthelot (see p. 88).—The propagation of musical sounds in a tube of 3 metres diameter: J. Violle and Th. Vautier. Notes of low pitch carry much better than those of high pitch, the distance at which the sound ceases to be clearly a musical note being inversely as the square root of the number of vibrations, this result being in accord with the theoretical investigations of Lord Ray- leigh. From a large number of observations the con- clusion is drawn that the velocity of sounds of different pitch is the same to an accuracy of 1 part in 1000.— On the menthones and menthols obtained by the reduction of pulegone by the catalytic action of reduced nickel : A, Haller and C. Martine. Pulegomenthone was obtained when the nickel was maintained at 140° to 160° C.; its physical and chemical properties are given, and there is reason to suppose that the ketone obtained is a mixture of menthones, and further work is being carried out in this direction. By slightly modifying the conditions of the reduction an additional pair of hydrogen atoms is taken up, giving pulegomenthols, two of which, in addition to ordinary menthol, were isolated from the product of the reduction.—On the constitution, saccharification, and re- trogradation of potato starch: L. Maquenne and Eug. Roux. Natural starch is regarded by the authors as a mixture of two substances, distinguished by the names amylocellulose and amylopectine, possessing different re- actions towards iodine and malt extract.—The basic mag- nesium carbonates from the Santorin eruption of 1866: A. Lacroix. The structure of this mineral, the quantities of which were too small for quantitative analysis, agrees with that of the basic carbonate 4MgCO,.Mg(OH),.4H,O. As this appears to be a new species, the name of giorgiosite is proposed for it.—On the lifting power of a motor-driven helix: Prince of Monaco.—M. Louis Henry was elected a correspondant for the section of chemistry in the place of Prof. Williamson.—On a photographic meridian tele- scope for determining right ascension: Jean Maseart and W. Ebert.—On the forces giving rise to conical trajec- tories: Cyparissos Stéphanos.—On the _ electrostatic rigidity of gases at high pressures: Ch. Eug. Guye and H. Guye. Measurements were made of the explosive potential in gases at varying pressures. The gases studied were nitrogen, air, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, the pressures varying from 2 to 65 metres of mercury, Up to 10 atmospheres, the explosive potential is a linear function of the pressure, but for higher pressures the ratio of explosive potential to pressure diminishes. The results were unaffected by the presence of a radium salt.—On the effects of Foucault currents and the hysteresis of iron on oscillatory sparks: G. A. Hemsalech. By means of a 96 NATURE {May 25, 1905 photographic method it has been found that the effect of Foucault currents is to augment the frequency of the oscillations per Second without influencing the number of oscillations in each discharge. Hysteresis destroys the oscillations and diminishes, more or less, the frequency. —A study of the radiographic power of an X-ray tube: S. Turchini. The radiographic effects, as measured by the action on a photographic plate, are found to follow the same laws as the radioscopic effects, and there is reason to suppose that the radiotherapeutic effects will follow similar laws as regards the relation between efficiency and the length of the equivalent spark.—On the conductivity of the gases from flames: Eugéne Blech. The ions con- tained in the gases given off from a flame, at the end of a time sufficiently long take a mobility of the order of o-or mm., and hence should be classed as large ions.—On the ionisation and coefficient of magnetisation of aqueous solutions : Georges Meslin.—The properties of pyrrhotine in the magnetic plane: Pierre Weiss.—On the causes of varieties of halation in photographic plates: A. Guébhard. —The triboluminescence of metallic compounds: D. Gernez. The luminous effect observed when certain crystals are broken is not, as has been supposed, essentially a property of organic compounds, and a list of seventy-four inorganic compounds is given in which this effect has been observed.—The properties of some anhydrous chlorides of metals of the rare earths: Camille Matignon. Details are given of the crystalline form, colour, density, melting points, heats of solution and formation of the chlorides of lanthanum, praseodymium, neodymium, and samarium. —On a reaction of rhodium: Pinertia Alvarez. Chlorine, acting on an alkaline solution of a rhodium salt, gives a characteristic blue colour, due to the formation of sodium perrhodate.—The action of the metal ammoniums on alcohols: a general method for the preparation of the alcoholates: E. Chablay. The alkali ammoniums, acting upon a solution of the anhydrous alcohol in ammonia, give a quantitative yield of the alcoholate.—Propionylcarbinol and its derivatives: André Kling.—Contribution to the study of the derivatives of benzodihydrofurfurane: A. Guyot and J. Catel.—On methemoglobin: M. Piettre and A. Vila.—Researches on the mode of action of philo- catalase: F. Batelli and Mlle. L. Sterm. The name philocatalase is given to a ferment which is present in many animal tissues, although without direct action on catalase it possesses the property of protecting the cata- lase against the destructive action of anticatalase. The present paper deals with the mechanism of this reaction. —Researches on the comparative power of adhesion of different copper solutions employed as a remedy against mildew: E. Chuard and F. Porchet.—On a bacterial decay of cabbage: Georges Delacroix.—The classification and nomenclature of arable earths according to their mechanical constitution: H. Lagatu.—The termination of the motor nerves in the striated muscles of man: R. Odier.—On the problem of statical work: Ernest Solvay. —On the overlapping strata in the Piedmont zone: Maurice Lugeon and Emile Argand.—On an extraordinary halo: M. Pernter. ; DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, May 2 5 Rovat Soctery, at 4.30.—Croonian Lecture, ‘‘ The Globulins’’: W. B. Hardy, F.R.S. obulins B Rovat | NsTITUTION, at 5.—Electro-magnetic Waves: Prof. J. A. Flem- ing, F.R.S. INsTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEFRS, at 8.—Wireless Telegraph Measurements: W. Duddell and J. EK. Taylor. pee FRIDAY, May 26. RovaL InsTituTION, at 9.—The Devclopment of Spectro-chemistry : Prof. J. W. Briihl. 5 : sd oa Puysicav Soctety (at the National Physical Laboratory), at 3.30.—The Specific Heat of Iron at High Temperatures: Dr. Harker.—The Measurement of Small Inductances : Mr. Campbell.—Two New Optical Benches: Mr. Selby. SATURDAY, May 27. Rovat Institution. at 3.—The Evolution of the Kingship in Early Society: Dr. J. G. Frazer. THITRSDAY, June t. I GES at 5.—Electro-magnetic Waves : Prof J. A. Fleming, {NSTITUTION OF MINtisG FNGINEERS (in the Rooms of the Geological Society), at 11 A.m.—The Firing of Babcock Boilers with Coke-oven Gases: T. Y. Greener.—Compound Winding-engine at Lumpsey Mine: M. R. NO 1856, VOL. 72] Kirby.—Note Supplementary to a Paper on the Electric Driving of Winding-gears: F. Hird.—Electric Winding-engines at the Exhibition of the North of France, Arras, Pas-de-Calais : Ed. Lozé.—The Education of Mining Engineers in the United States: Prof. Howard Eckfeldt.—An Outline of Mining Education in New Zealand : Prof. James Park.—Goaf- blasts in Mines in the Giridih Coal-field, Bengal, India: Thomas Adamson. LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 8. CHEMICAL Society, at 8.—(1t) The Constituents of the Seeds of Hydno- carpus Wightiana and Hydnocarpus Anthelmintica. Isolation of a Homologue of Chaulmoogric Acid.—(z) The Constituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia Odorata: F. B. Power and M. Barrowcliff.—The Relation of Ammonium to the Alkali Metals. A Study of Ammonium Magnesium and Ammonium Zinc Sulphates and Selenates: A. E. H. Tutton.—Cam- phorylazoimide : M. O. Forster and H. E. Fierz.—Influence of Substitu- tion on the Formation of Diazoamines and Aminoazo-compounds. Part III. Azo-derivatives of the Symmetrically Disubstituted Primary Meta- diamines: G. T. Morgan and W. O. Wootton.—Diazo-derivatives of Mono-acylated Aromatic Para-diamines : G. T. Morgan and Miss F. M. G. Micklethwait.—The Significance of Optical Properties as Connoting Structure ; Camphorquinone-hydrazones-oximes ; a Contribution to the Chemistry of Nitrogen: H. E. Armstrong and W. Robertson.—Solubilit asa Measure of the Change undergone by Isodynamic Hydrazones. (S Camphorquinonephenylhydrazone. (2) Acetaldehydephenylhydrazone : W. Robertson.—The Design of Gas-regulators for Thermostats: T. M. Lowry.—The Constitution of Barbaloin. Part I.: H. A. D. Jowett and C. E. Potter.--Influence of Substituticn on the Formation of Diazoamines and Aminoazo-compounds. Part 1V. 5-Bromo-as(4}-Dimethyl-2: 4- diamine-toluene: G. T. Morgan and A. Clayton.—The Action of Hypobromous Acid on Piperazine : F. D. Chattaway and W. H. Lewis.— The Action of Magnesium Methyl Todide on Pinene Nitroso-chloride : W. A. Tilden and J. A. Stokes. —Racemisation Phenomena during the Hydrolysis of Optically Active Menthyl and Bromyl Esters by Alkali : A. McKenzie, and H. Bb. ‘Vvhompson. FRIDAY, June 2. INsTITUTION OF Min1InG ENGINEERS (in the Rceoms of the Geological Society), at 10.30 A.M.—The Conveyor-system for filling at the Coal-tace, as practired in Great Britain and America: W. C. Blackett and R. G. Ware.—Underground Fires at tbe Greta Colliery, New South Wales: J. Jeffries.—The Geology of Chunies Poort, Transvaal: A. R. Sawyer.—Underground Horses at an Indian Colliery: ‘l. Adamsoa.— Description of the Eimbeck Duplex Base-line Bar : W. Eimbeck. SATURDAY, June 3. Royat INSTITUTION, at 3.—Exploration in the Philippines: A. H Savage Landor. CONTENTS. PAGE The Anopheles Mosquitoes of India. By Dr.J. W. W. Stephens my Terns) Ey Sa pegte pple) mmage PA gees hs Se Exercises in Physic E Ce ONO OS 6 WE Mathematical Metaphysics ... 5 ‘none BritishtMinerals: ~ By Us))Ss0en ese vn ees cs ene Our Book Shelf :— Dickerson: ‘‘ Moths and Butterflies”. . 2-2... . 7G Stewart : ‘‘ Second Stage Magnetism and Electricity” 77 Tarazona : ‘* Memoria sobre el Eclipse Total de Sol del dia) 30ide Agostode 1005c7 . .-- sees oe an ene Otto: ‘‘ Naturalistische und religiose Weltansicht” =: . 77 Emch : ‘‘ An Introduction to Projective Geometry and its: Applications’) "20 DER MALAYISCHEN HALBINSEL. oe - f Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse einer Reise durch die eS (| Zz Vereinigten Malayischen Staaten. ae Von Dr. RUDOLF MARTIN, iv Prof. der Anthropologie und Direktor des Anthropologischen Institutes der Universitat Ziirich. NEWTON & CoO., MiT 137 TEXTABBILDUNGEN, 26 TAFELN U. I KARTE. OPTICIANS TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING AND GOVERNMENT, | — Preis: 60 Mark. 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. GRiIiFEeIinN’S NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S =) Improved Pattern & AN FRO| ) NERNST ; PROJECTION —a/ BAROMETERS. LAMPS = NEW ILLUSTRATED AND with REVISED PRICE LISTS . Electrical Heating | Free by Post. Circuit. The Watch Size ; % Aneroid for foretelling Double NE weather and measur- filament ing heights. carrying = \ 2 amps. 38 = wee Descriptive Pamphlet Post Free on application to Za AN nah Wack Bra nehes— é E ; “i Committ 4) \ } uv ‘733 Regent Street. JOHN J.GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. 4 3 OO “38 2 Yrica One ve ne ——— a xliv NATURE [JUNE I, 1905 NOTICE. IN ACTE Wn Bs Of THURSDAY NExT, JUNE 8, will contain the INDEX TO VOL. LXXI. ITS PRICE WILL BE ONE SHILLING. ** Advertisements intended for this number should reach the Publishers by Tuesday, June 6. OFFICE OF “NATURE,” ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, WC. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL. India Office, Whitehall, S.W., May 23, 1905. WANTED, for service at the India Store Depét, Belvedere Road, Lambeth, London, S.E., an ASSISTANT INSPECTOR OF SCIEN- TIFIC SUPPLIES. Candidates must have a knowledge of optical work as applied to survey- ing and similar instruments, and of balances as used for chemical, assay, and mint purposes. They must also have a thorough knowledge of physics and be acquainted with the general principles of electricity. Age, 25 to 30. Salary, £200 per annum, rising by annual increments of 10, on satisfactory report, to £350 per annum. Pension under Civil Service Regulations. The selected candidate will be examined by the Medical Board at the India Office, and will only be appointed if passed by the Board. Forms of application can be obtained by writing to the Director General of Stores, India Office, Whitehall, London, S.W., not later than June 5, 1905. E. GRANT BURLS, Director General of Stores. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. A Reid Scholarship in Arts, annual value £31 ros. first year, £28 7s. second and third years, and an Arnott Scholarship in Science, annual value 448, both tenable for three years, will be awarded on the results of an examination to be held at the College on June 28 and 29. For further information apply to the PrinciPaL. DEPARTMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN TEACHING. Students are admitted to the Training Course in October and January. Two Scholarships, each of the value of £10, will be awarded for the course of Secondary Training beginning in October, 1905. Applications should reach the HEAD oF THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT not later than July 7, 1go05. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. VULCAN FELLOWSHIP IN ENGINEERING. (FouNDED BY THE VULCAN BorLer Company.) The first award of this Fellowship, which is open to graduates of the University of Manchester or of other Universities who can furnish satisfactory evidence of being able to pursue original research, will be made shortly. The Fellowship is of the value of £120: Applications should be forwarded to the REGisTRAR on or before July 1 next, from whom detailed conditions may be obtained. HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RICHARDSON, D.Sc., B.A. A SUMMER COURSE OF BOTANY, for Teachers and others, will be held at the above College, July 31 to August 13, 1905. This course, which will consist chiefly of practical work in the Botanical Laboratory of the College with field-excursions, will be conducted by Professor Cavers, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.L.S. Fee for the course, 15s., payable in advance to the Registrar of the College, Mr, D. Kipp.x, from whom full particulars may be obtained on application. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Accommodation and apparatus provided for research in either Pure or Applied Chemistry and Physics, and Engineering, in rooms specially adapted for this purpose. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, : HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. The Governors of the above Institute invite applications for the following appointments to date from September 1, 1905 :— (1) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Drawing office and shop experience essential. Salary, £150 per annum. (2) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Architectural and Building Trades Department. Salary, £125 per annum. Applications to be made on special forms, which must be returned not later than June 19, to be obtained from W. M. MACBETH, Secretary. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. GOLDSMITHS’ COLLEGE, NEW CROSS. DEPARTMENT FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. In view of the opening of the above Department in the latter part of September next, TEACHERS (Men and Women) of the various subjects included in the Scheme of Studies will shortly be appointed. The Scheme includes both General Education and Professional Instruc- tion. The majority of the salaries will be between £150 and 4250 a year, but higher or lower salaries may be paid in exceptional cases. Applications must be received not later than Saturday, June 17, 1905. Particulars may be obtained from the WarpeNn, Goldsmiths’ College, New Cross, S.E. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER IN MATHEMATICS. Commencing Salary £175, to date from September 1 next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifica- tions, teaching experience, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the PRINCIPAL not later than Tuesday, June 20. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. BOROUGH OF LEICESTER—EDUCATION COMMITTEE. MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL. ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR in ENGINEERING wanted for Sep- | tember 1, to teach chiefly Applied Mechanics and Machine Construction and Drawing—Day and Evening Classes. Salary, £150 per annum. Applications, accompanied by copies of recent testimonials, to be sent to Education Department, T. GROVES, Secretary. Town Hall, Leicester, May 24, 1905. TO SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL MASTERS.—September (1995) Vacancies.—Graduates and other well qualified Masters seeking posts in Public and other Schools for next term should apply at once, giving full details as to qualifications, &c., to Messrs. GRIFFITHS, SMITH, Powett & Situ, Tutorial Agents (Est. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Immediate notice of all the best vacancies will be sent. MEERUT COLLEGE. (NORTHERN INDIA.) Applications are invited for the FIRST (European) PROFESSORSHIP (PHYSICS). Salary, £320 per annum (450 passage money). Candidates should be University Graduates, wnder 35 years of age, and unmarried. For particulars apply to Professor WoxTHINGTON, Mohuns, Tavistock. JUNE 1, 1905] NATURE xlv THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER AND MANCHESTER ROYAL INFIRMARY. ENTRANCE MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIPS. Two Scholarships will be offered, one for proficiency in Arts and one for proficiency in Science. Each Scholarship is of the value of £100, and the successful candidates will be required to enter for the full medical curriculum both in the University and in the Manchester Royal Infirmary. The Scholarships will be awarded only to candidates who give evidence of a high standard of. proficiency in Arts and Science respectively. Applications should be sent in on or before July 1, 1905, to the REGIsTRAR, from whom further particulars may be obtained. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. The Council invites applications for the post of DEMONSTRATOR in MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. Duties to begin on October 1, rgos. Stipend commencing at 4150 per annum. Apply, with one set of testi- monials, on or before June 8, 1905, to the undersigned, from whom full particulars may be obtained. F. H. PRUEN, Secretary. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. DAY TRAINING DEPARTMENT. The Council invites applications for the post of MISTRESS of METHOD and LECTURER in EDUCATION. Stipend commencing at 4150 per annum. Applications, with one set of testimonials, must be sent to the undersigned ot later than June 8, 1905, from whom full par- ticulars may be obtained. ‘ F. H. PRUEN, Secretary. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS. The Council invite applications for the post ofp DEMONSTRATOR in PHYSICS. Salary, 4100 per annum. Duties to commence on October 1, " rg05. Apply, with one set of testimonials, ox or before June 14, 1905, to the undersigned, from whom full particulars may be obtained. F. H. PRUEN, Secretary. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. The Governing Body invite applications for the following appointments dating from September next :— HEAD of the DEPARTMENT of MATHEMATICS. Commencing Salary, £250 per annum. WOMAN LECTURER in BOTANY for part time. Salary, £120 per annum. For particulars send stamped addressed envelope to the SECRETARY, Battersea Polytechnic, S.W. INDIAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT. Selection will be made on or before July 15 next for a vacancy in the grade of ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT. Candidates should address the UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INpia, India Office, London, S.W., from whom particulars can be obtained regarding qualifi- cations and other conditions of appointment. Preliminary notice is also given that in 1906 there will be at least one more vacancy, for which applications should be made in July, 1906. India Office, London, May 27, 19c¢5. Commencing UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM. A LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR required in the Chemical Department. Salary commencing at £130, and rising by 410 per annum to 4180. Applications to be sent in by June 30 addressed to the ReGtsTRAR, from whom application forms and particulars as to duties, &c., may be ~ obtained. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL. The Council invite applications for the post of LECTURER in BOTANY. Salary, 4120 per annum. Applications and three copies of three recent testimonials to be sent in by June 16 to the undersigned, from ~ whom further particulars may be obtained. JAMES RAFTER, Registrar and Secretary. (THEORY AND COAC H I N PRACTICE) In BLOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- corey and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. To SCIENCE & MATHL, MISTRESSES. —Required (1) Mistress for Advanced Physics, some Maths. and Chemistry. Salary, £120, non-res. High school. (2) Elem. Physics, Chemistry, Botany, and Maths. £110. Important school in London. (3) Graduate for Botany and Chemistry. £60, resident. (4) Botany and Elem. Physics. 465, resident. County school. (5) Science Mistress for important Girls’ Grammar School. Graduate preferred. Fair Salary.—For particulars of the above, address, giving full details as to qualifications, &c., GriFFitHs, SMITH, Power, & SmiTH, Educational Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand. Many other vacancies for Science and other mistresses. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC. The Governing Body invite applications for the following appointment in connection with their Secondary Day School, dating from September next :— SCIENCE MISTRESS—Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Elementary Mathematics. Commencing Salary, £110. For particulars send stamped addressed envelope to THE SECRETARY. BRUNTS TECHNICAL SCHOOL, MANSFIELD. WANTED, after the Summer Holidays, FIRST ASSISTANT MIS- TRESS in above Secondary Endowed School (mixed). Principal subjects English and Botany. Commencing salary, £100 per annum. Further particulars on application to W. N. SARLL, Clerk. Metallurgical Laboratory, well equipped for experimental work, to let at low rent. One minute from Station. Fifteen minutes to City. Apply Marsuact & Co., Campbell Works, Stoke Newington, N. (close to Station, G.E.R.). Tel., 79 Dalston. Partnership offered in a commercial research firm to physicist, preferably with some mechanical engineering experi- ence and some capital. Send full particulars as to experience, qualifications, and capital available for investment in approved concern to No. 1858, NaTuRE Office. 18-inch Apps-Newton Coil for sale, in perfect condition. No trace of oxidation on the vulcanite. G. Bowron, 57 Edgware Road, W. Laboratory and Office to Let, Gracechurch Street. Good light, gas, water, electricity, lavatory. Rent, £34. Furniture and fittings, £40.—Apply No. 1857, NATURE Office. . For Photography, Unsurpassed for fine definition. Send a card merely quoting Z190. JAYLOR. [AYLOR& HOBSON..L” SIOUGHTON STREET WORKS, LEICESTER. ta, BERWERS ETREET, LONDON, 3 akaaoway, Mew YORK. CUTTELL’S ROCK CUTTING MACHINE is the most simple and practical for section cutting, &c., £3 15s. Prize Medal Exhibition of Inventions.—19 Abbotstone Road, Putney, S.W. INICEWAY: —S.Y. “MIDNIGHT SUN.” 3,178 Tons. Two Berth Cabins. All Berths 12 12/- on same level. Finest yachting steamer afloat. Sailing June 10, 24; July 8, 22; August 5, 19. Apply ALBION §.S. CO., LTD., Newcastle-on-Tyne. xlvi Tue SANITAS ELEGTRIGAL CO., Lro Complete 4-Cell Bath Installation f By Dr. SCHNEE ————— for application of Sinusoidal, Galvanic, Faradic, Galvano- Faradic, and all other currents. me LARGE INDUCTION COILS FOR RESEARCH WORK a Speciality. eaniras Also MANUFACTURERS of X-RAY and HIGH-FREQUENCY APPARATUS of various patterns. LIGHT BATHS of all kinds, Cabinet, Reclining, Portable Baths, with three-colour arrangements, with Incandescent and Arc Lamps, &c., with ine Projector for simultaneous local treatment. (Combined atent. NEW _ PATENT SHENTON-SANITAS X-RAY COMBINATION OPERATING TABLE. ** TRIPLET” and ‘*DERMO” LAMPS with Carbon and Iron Elec- trodes for ‘‘ Finsen” Treatment. VIBRATORY AND PNEUMATIC MASSAGE APPARATUS. APPARATUS FOR 3-PHASE SINUSOIDAL AND ALL OTHER CURRENTS. NEW PORTABLE CAUTERY TRANSFORMER, with Terminals for Light, &c., taking only 2 Ampéres from 200 Volts Continuous Main. MULTINEBULIZER, ELECTRO-MAGNETIC AND SWEDISH EX- ERCISE APPARATUS, &c., &c. 33 & 7a, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, w. EY DEVELOPING TANK. For Developing plates or cut films slowly in a very weak developer. Clean in use; gives excel- lent results with a minimum of trouble. MADE OF STOUT POLISHED COPPER. Tank to take 6 plates 15” x 12”, and with Adapters to suit any smaller plate; complete, SL: 10:0 This arrangement is specially recommended to Radiographers and other Scientific Photographers. Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only 4/6 each. Tank to hold 1 doz. 5” x 4” plates only S/- 56 Tank to hold 1 doz. + plates only G/- is Postage on any of above three sizes, 4d. extra. NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PRICE LIST, 25th EDITION, ON APPLICATION. 14 COMMERGIAL STREET, LEEDS, _ NATURE i [JUNE I, 1905 CARL ZEISS, JENA. LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W. Berlin, Frankfort o/M. Vienna. Hamburg. St. Petersburg. «, MICROSCOPES A Suitable for Every Class of Scientific and Technical Research. PHOTO- MICROGRAPHIC AND PROJECTION APPARATUS. Write for Illustrated Catalogue ‘‘Mn’’ post free on application. & THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instruc- tions and about 3000 illustrations. SOIL OL LLLOOseewst NATURE says:—‘' The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.”” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. ee NAT Ue 97 THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1905. PUBLIC HEALTH AND SEWAGE PURIFICATION. Sanitary Law and Practice. A WHandbook for Students. By W. Robertson, M.D. (Glas.), D.P.H., and Charles Porter, M.D., B.Sc. (Public Health), M.R.C.P. Edin. Pp. xiii+756. (London: Sani- tary Publishing Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price tos. 6d. net. The Sewage Problem. A Review of the Evidence Collected by the Royal Commission -on Sewage Disposal. By Arthur J. Martin, Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., M.R.San.1. Pp. xvi+363. (London: Sanitary Publishing Co., Ltd.) Price 8s. 6d. net. Simple Methods of Testing Sewage Effluents. For Works Managers, Surveyors, &c. By George Thudicum, F.I.C. Pp. 60. (London: Sanitary Publishing Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 2s. 6d. net. HE official responsibility for the safeguarding of the public health rests mainly with the repre- sentatives of four professions, viz. the medical officer, with his colleague the sanitary inspector, the bacteri- ologist, the engineer, and the chemist. A study of the volumes under review has strengthened the belief that it is desirable that members of each profession, while working cordially together for a common end, should severally recognise their respective limitations. The text-book on ‘‘ Sanitary Law and Practice ’’ by Drs. Robertson and Porter is written in sections, each section referring to some special branch of public health work. A considerable portion of each section is occupied by a digest of the legal enactments affect- ing the subject, this being followed by paragraphs dealing, by description and advice, with the practical duties of the health officer. The condensation of legal information, so far as can be estimated by references to special points coming under the ex- perience of the reviewer, is done with judgment, and constitutes a feature of the book, of great value alike to the student and to the practitioner. Many useful hints from the wide experience of the authors are to be found in the descriptive portions of the book. Their experience, however, is naturally not all-embracing, and it is not difficult to note where their information is derived from the statements of others. The subject of destructors, although coming within the province of the engineer, is evidently one with which the authors are familiar. The descriptions are clearly written, and the essential points in construc- tion, choice of site, and proper management well brought out. In the section on food and drugs no attempt is made to instruct the medical officer in duties which properly belong to the public analyst. This is satis- factory in view of the attempt frequently made by small authorities to combine the offices of public analyst and medical officer. Even in such a com- paratively simple matter as the analysis of a sample of water, which in the chapter on water supply (p. 433) is referred to as part of the medical officer’s NO. 1857, VOL. 72] duties, unsuspected pitfalls may lurk. It is doubtful whether bacteriological examinations should ever be undertaken by any but a trained bacteriologist, at any rate where identification of a given species is required: In the section on disinfection a questionable prominence is given to the use of sulphur. The authors themselves, in a later paragraph, deprecate the use of superheated steam as being “no better than a gas,’’ and in view of the obvious disadvantages in the use of sulphur, which have given rise to serious complaint of destruction of fabrics and fittings, especially on board ship, it can hardly be compared with liquid disinfectants such as formalin. No refer- ence is made to the use of hypochlorites, which in certain circumstances have been found to give excel- lent results. A wise reserve is maintained on the vexed question of sewer ventilation, a qualified approval being given to upeast shafts. It is unfortunate that a similar reserve has not been exercised in the chapter on sewage purification. In a book intended for students it is unwise to select, even for description, any form of patented appliance which is not thoroughly estab- lished. The choice for special commendation of one particular patented apparatus, concerning the merits of which competent opinion can at least be said to be divided, is certainly to be deprecated. A clear ex- position of general principles of sewage treatment would have been more valuable. This leads to the consideration of the able con- densation of the bulky volumes of evidence given before the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal which is to be found in Mr. Martin’s book on the ‘Sewage Problem.’? Mr. Martin has provided a book which will. be eagerly sought after by members of sewage committees and others who are appalled at the mass of matter in the numerous blue-books published by the commission. He is to be congratu- lated upon the impartial way in which he has mar- shalled the evidence. Possibly because of this im- partiality the impression left upon the reader is that in spite of the great amount of work that has been done on the subject, sewage purification is still rather an art than a science, The Royal Commission has been criticised for the slowness of its methods. A more just criticism would be that it might have devoted more energy to ques- tions affecting the theory of the processes in use: As it is, a mass of empirical and sometimes conflicting information has been accumulated, from which it is extremely difficult to extract underlying certainties. While fully realising that a large part of the sewage problem is concerned with purely practical questions of cost and local conditions, yet ultimately the economic solution must depend on a full knowledge of the changes taking place in the course of various methods of treatment; and these are as yet by no means per- fectly understood. It is curious, e.g., that no witness deals in any detail with the purely physical effects produced by contact with the filtering medium, although many observers, especially on the Continent, believe that these play a very large part in connection with the changes produced. It is by no means ip 98 NATURE [JUNE 1, 1905 certain even yet that anaérobic action is absolutely necessary at any stage of sewage purification. Many other equally important questions might be instanced on which knowledge is still extremely limited. The outstanding result of the Royal Commission’s labours which will most appeal to local authorities is the statement that adequate purification can be effected without land treatment, which, if recognised by the Local Government Board, will remove what is, in many cases, an impossible restriction. Their recommendation in regard to a central controlling and advisory authority, if resulting in the creation of a department similar to the Massachusetts Board of Health, may prevent great waste of public money. Such a board might exercise wise discretion as to the amount of purification necessary under given con- ditions. No central control, however, can be effective without efficient local management, and Mr. Thudicum’s little book of simple methods of sewage analysis will be of great assistance to local engineers and intelligent works managers, and will help to lighten the work of the traiged specialist, with whom the solution of difficulties ultimately rests. G. J. F. AN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TU ARCHA OLOGY. University of Pennsylvania: Transactions of the Department of Archaeology: Free Museum of Science and Art. Vol. i. Parts i. and ii. Pp. 125. (Published by the Department of Archaeology, 1904.) HE most important article in this volume is the description of the American excavations at Gournia, in Crete, which have already been referred to in the pages of NaTuRE (September 15, 1904, p. 482). Miss Harriet A. Boyd, the leader of the expedition, gives a full and very interesting description of her work, illustrated by photographs which give the reader a very good idea of the beautiful scenery of the Gulf of Mirabello (well bestowed name!), on the shores of which she found her work. No more delightful spot for archaeological exploration could be imagined. Leaving the rather arid and uninteresting Candiote shore, near which Knossos lies, dominated by the towering hill of Iuktas, on the top of which, so legend says, the god Zeus died and was buried, the traveller skirts the base of the Lasithiote mountain- mass and reaches the narrow isthmus of Hierdpetra (the ancient Hierapytna). Before him rises a magnifi- cent rocky wall of mountain, Thriphte by name, behind which is the peak called the Aphendi, or Lord of, Kavousi, the village which lies at its foot. This wall is rent by a mighty cleft, the chasm of Thriphte, which is one of the dominating features of the landscape. Along the base of the wall runs the high-road from Kavousi to Hierapetra across the isthmus, which is low-lying land, forming a complete brealk in the mountain-backbone of Crete. On the northern shore of the isthmus is a good beach, Pachyammos (‘‘ Deep- sand ’’) by name; in the centre of it the traveller will see a large white house. This was Miss Boyd’s headquarters. All around are splendid mountains and ‘‘a coast-line as picturesque NO. 1857, VOL. 72] | as any in Southern Europe,’’ to quote her description, which is not exaggerated; she might have said ‘‘ more picturesque than,’’ with reason. Away to the left are the snowy heights of Las{thi, the hills above the skdla or landing-place of Ayios Nikélas, and distant rocky Spinalonga, still the home of a peculiar race of Mohammedan fishermen—corsairs not so very long ago. To the right is the little isle of Psyra, swimming in the blue water. One would think that the excavators on the monotonous plains of Babylonia, whose doings are chronicled by Prof. Hilprecht in the last contribution to this volume,' would have given much sometimes to have been able to transport them- selves for a brief space to such goodly surroundings! Pachyammos lies a mile or so beyond, and east of, the scene of Miss Boyd’s work, the low hill of Gournia, on which she has discovered the remains of a “* Mycenzan,’’ or more correctly ‘‘ Minoan,”’ town, a Bronze age settlement. It is a small Pompeii. One can walk up the sinuously curving little main street and look right and left into the ruined houses of the Bronze age ‘‘ Minoans.’? There is even a sort of court-house or ‘‘palace,’’ to give it the stereotyped appellation, with its right-angle of low steps quite on the model of the splendid right-angled stairways of Knossos and Phaistos, which Dr. Evans considers to have been theatres, the prototypes of the stepped Greek theatres of the classical period. This ‘‘ palace ’? must have been the official centre of the town. Formerly, judging from classical analogies, one talked of a prince or ‘“‘dynast’’ ruling from every one of these little palaces over his own little méAus or city-state; but it will probably eventually be found that the ruler who, lived in such a ‘‘ palace’ as that of Gournia was no more than a mere mayor or demarch, a member of an official bureaucracy analogous to that of ancient Egypt, dependent upon the metropolitan authorities at Knossos. It becomes more and more probable that Crete in Minoan days was a homogeneous and highly organised State like Egypt, not a mere congeries of a hundred warring villages, as in classical times, The official centre was not the religious centre of the town. The cathedral of Gournia stood in the middle of the town, and was approached by a special street of its own. ‘“Not imposing as a piece of architecture,’’ writes Miss Boyd (p. 41), ‘‘ it is yet of unique importance as being the first *‘ Mycenaean’ or ‘ Minoan’ shrine dis- covered intact. The worshipper ascended three steps and through a doorway 1.50 m. wide entered an enclosure, about 3 m. square, surrounded by walls half a metre thick and 50 to 60 cm. high. The floor is of beaten earth.”’ The more noteworthy of its contents are ““a low earthen table, covered with a thin coating of plaster, which stands on three legs and possibly served as an altar, four cultus vases bearing symbols of Minoan worship, the disc, consecrated horns and double-headed axe of Zeus, a terra-cotta female idol entwined with a snake, two heads of the same type as 1 Very curiously described as ‘‘A Lecture delivered before German Court and University Circles, by H. V. Hilprecht.’’ In it Prof. Hilprecht tells us little or nothing about the excavations at Nippur that has not already appeared in his ‘‘ Explorations in Bible Lands, ” and the photographs pub lished are already well known to archeologists. JUNE-1, 1905] NATURE 99 the idol; several small clay doves and serpents’ heads, all of coarse terra-cotta, and a fragment of a pithos, on which a double-axe and disc are modelled in relief.” This important find has since been paralleled by Dr. Evans’s discovery at Knossos of a similar shrine of the snake-goddess with fine glazed faience figures, re- ferred to in Nature (vol. Ixx. p. 482). But Miss Boyd was the first to discover the Minoan snake-goddess, of whose existence we had no inkling before the excay- ations at Gournia. Another good find, of which Miss Boyd gives a fine facsimile plate, was the head of a bull in terra-cotta, a typically ‘‘ Mycenzean”’ object, paralleled by the famous silver bull’s head found by Schliemann at Mycene, and the Egyptian representations of golden protomae of bulls being brought as gifts to the court of Thothmes III. by the Mycenzan (or rather ‘* Minoan ’’?) ambassadors from ‘‘ Kefti’’ (Crete). Miss Boyd’s work has contributed results to Mycenzan lore which are of the highest importance, results upon which the officers of the American Explor- ation Society at Philadelphia, which dispatched her expedition, are to be heartily congratulated, Pia Ro HALL. ELECTRICAL THEORY AND ‘PRACTICE. Maxwell’s Theory and Wireless Telegraphy. By H. Poincaré and F. K. Vreeland. Pp. xi+255. (Lon- don: A. Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price ros. 6d. net. Alternating Currents. Vol. i. By A. Russell. Pp. xii+ 407. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1904.) Price 12s. net. What Do We Know Concerning Electricity? Antonia Zimmern. Pp. vii+ 140. Methuen and Co., n.d.) Price 1s. 6d. net. Modern Electricity. By J. Henry and K. J. Hora. Pp. 355. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) Price 5s, net. Modern Electric Practice. Vol. v. Maclean, Pp. vi+287. (London: Publishing Co., 1904.) Price 9s. net. Electricity Control: A Treatise on Electric Switch-Gear Systems of Electric Transmission. By Leonard Andrews. Pp. xv+231. (London: Chas. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1904.) oa electrical engineer who wishes to keep pace with the development of his profession and de- sires to know something more than that which con- cerns only the particular branch in which he is engaged has a very hard task before him at the present day. He must, in the first instance, endeavour to keep an eye on the technical literature—the innumerable journals and proceedings, the monthly magazines, and the weekly papers—of at least four countries in three dif- ferent languages. This is in itself a task of no mean difficulty, which is heightened rather than diminished by the various ‘‘ abstracts” available. So rapid is the multiplication of journals and papers that one is tempted to think that the best advice to give a student would be to read nothing, as if he tries to read much he will waste more time over what is of no value to him NO. 1857, VOL. 72] By (London : Edited by M. The Gresham than he will spend wisely on the one useful article in a thousand; one is tempted still more to wish that a rigorous technical censorship might be instituted which would allow nothing to find its way into print but that which was of permanent value to the world. In this way the amount of technical literature might be brought within reasonable limits by being reduced to, say, one-tenth of its present volume. If this is true of the matter which is published in journals—which has, at least as a rule, the merit of originality—it is still more true of the matter which appears in the form of technical text-books. We imagine these books find a ready sale, else we cannot account for their publication; yet we do not know by whom they are read except the reviewers, This is exemplified by the six volumes before us, all of which have appeared within the last few months. With the exception of the first two, we would venture to say that it would have been just as well, and possibly even better, had they not been published. We do not mean thereby that they are bad books, though one of them we think, should not be left about where young elec- tricians might see it; but they are not of merit enough to justify the expense of their publication or purchase. Take, for example, Miss Zimmern’s little volume ; it is tastefully bound and clearly printed on good paper— there is something in its appearance strongly sugges- tive of a book of minor poetry. Add to this that it is pleasantly written and that there is nothing very seriously wrong with its statements, and its merits are summed up. On the other hand, we are confident that it would fail in its object of explaining the complex theories of modern electricity to the ‘‘ general reader ”’; he might put down the book with the feeling that his knowledge had been increased, but it would be a mis- taken notion. It requires genius of a very rare kind, such as was shown by Faraday in his ‘‘ Chemical His- tory of a Candle,’’ or by Prof. Perry in his ** Spinning Tops,”’ to write a book of this kind; we intend no dis- paragement to the writer of this volume by saying that such genius is not shown in ‘it. Messrs. Henry and Hora’s volume is of another stamp; in a preface which reads like a publisher’s advertisement, the authors state that ‘‘ the work will be found eminently practical, scientific, and accurate.’” We have found it quite the reverse, and feel sorry for the ‘‘ apprentice’? or ‘artisan’? who “ gains a complete knowledge of the fundamental principles of electricity”? from its pages. This is a book which no self-respecting electrical censor, however lenient, would have allowed to appear in print. The two last books on the list are not without merit or value, but it is at best of an ephemeral kind. Of “© Modern Electric Practice ’? we have already expressed our views in writing of the previous volumes; the pre- sent one does not depart from the same high standard in production, and the three articles in section iv., deal- ing with boilers, engines, and auxiliary plant, are well written and well illustrated. The article on electro- chemistry and electrometallurgy is less satisfactory. We must confess, however, that the inaccuracies noticed in previous volumes make us, unjustly per- haps, suspicious of the figures and data in the one be-~ 100 NATURE [JUNE 1,-1905 fore us. Mr. Andrews’s book on ‘‘ Electrical Control ”” is a descriptive treatise on ‘switch-gear. It possesses the same disadvantages as ‘‘ Modern Electric Prac- tice ’?; one cannot learn electrical practice from a book ; there is only one school—the practical school—in which one can learn the principles and details of construction of apparatus in one-tenth of the time and ten times as thoroughly as by means of written descriptions. Prac- tical men’are apt to complain that text-books are value- less, as they are written by theorists; we have read a great many text-books of late written by practical men, and have come to the conclusion that it is only the theorist who should write them. He can describe the underlying principles which persist when the fashion of their application alters; the practical man describes the methods of his practice which even as he writes become antiquated. We have reserved to the last the two volumes which head our list. Messrs. Poincaré and Vreeland’s book de- serves a place in any electrical library on account of its remarkably simple and lucid explanation of Maxwell’s theory and of the work of Hertz, Lodge, and others which led to the development of Hertzian telegraphy. This is from the pen of M. Poincaré, translated by Mr. Vreeland, and forms the first part of the book. The second part, written by Mr. Vreeland, deals with the problems presented by the practice of wireless tele- graphy, and the writer, by wisely confining himself to principles rather than details, has succeeded in writing a worthy sequel to M. Poincaré’s work. Mr. Russell’s book is the first volume of a mathe- matical treatise on alternating currents. Alternating current machinery is growing so steadily in import- ance, and the mathematical theory in connection with it is so complex, that there is plenty of room for a thorough and comprehensive work of this kind. The present volume deals with the general theorems, and the second will be devoted to the more specific theory of alternating current machines and the transmission of power. Maurice SOLOMON. OUR BOOK SHELF. Vegetationsbilder. Edited by Dr. G. Karsten and H. Schenck. Second series. Parts i.—viii. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1904.) Tue first series of the *‘ Vegetationsbilder well-merited success, and a second series has been appearing at intervals during the past year. Of the contributors to the first series, Drs. G. Karsten and E. Stahl have again supplied material, the former taking up a never-failing source of interest in the mangrove vegetation, whilst Dr. Stahl, in a double part, deals with the xerophytes and conifers of Mexico; amongst the latter the primeval Taxodium trees growing in the park of Chapultepec and the sombre cypresses on the road to the sacred mount of Amecameca bear the impress of historic antiquity. Another number, con- sisting of parts v. to vii., is devoted to the representation of mid-European forest trees, in accordance with an expressed desire for subjects taken from native sources. The photographs taken by Dr. L. Klein include typical specimens of conifers and beeches in the Schwarzwald and Switzerland, and others showing the changes wrought by browsing animals and devastating winds; many of them are excellent, notably a scene of wind- blown pines which have been entirely cleared of NO. 1857, VOL. 72] ” met with branches except to leeward, but similar subjects are accessible to most botanists, and for this reason they do not possess the interest attaching to photographs from less accessible countries. The names of several new contributors are announced, among them Mr. E. Ule, whose character sketches of epiphytes in the Amazon region of Peru appear in the first part of this series. Of the Cactacez, which are widely spread through South America, a number of genera include epiphytic species, and in this region Cereus is pre- dominant. Cereus megalanthus, a species which might be called a climbing epiphyte, is shown perched on a Ficus tree. Another curious condition is that of a flourishing bromeliad, Streptocalyx angustifolius, where, according to the writer, the exuberance of vege- tation is so directly traceable to ants that he compares the phenomenon with the fungus gardens described a few years ago by Dr. A. Moeller. The last part of the series contains photographs taken in the Italian colony of Eritraea by Dr. Schweinfurth. Hyphaene thebaica, the doum palm, familiar on account of its branching habit, the sycomore fig, and an arboreous Euphorbia are among the characteristic specimens chosen to illustrate different regions in the country. Author and Printer. An Attempt to Codify the best Typographical Practices of the Present Day. By F. Howard Collins. Pp. xv+408. (London: Henry Frowde, 1905.). Price 5s, net. Tur want of uniformity of spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, and use of italic type causes continual trouble to all who are responsible for the editorial supervision of scientific literature in any form. Some authors are more German than the Germans in their use of capitals, while others underline their manu- scripts as freely as ladies do their correspondence. It is frequently difficult to decide questions of ortho- graphy, and to reduce individual practice to the con- sistent style, which is desirable in the columns of a periodical, but is mot always maintained. Mr. Collins has prepared his book to help in this end, as a standard guide for ‘‘ Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists.”’ The volume contains more than twenty thousand separate entries of words arranged alphabetically. Included among these are abbreviations, disputed spellings, foreign words and phrases, divisions of words, and various rules and explanations which should prove of service to authors and editors. The proofs of the work have been read by many writers and others who can give authoritative opinions as to what is correct or customary, so that the book does not contain merely Mr. Collins’s decisions, but a con- sensus of opinion edited by him. Highways and Byways in Derbyshire. By J. B. Firth. With illustrations by Nelly Erichsen. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price 6s. WitH this book as a guide, a tourist could spend many pleasant weeks in Derbyshire, and he would learn that every part of the county has literary and historical associations of great interest. But while the human side is so well represented, little notice is taken - of nature, except from the zsthetic point of view. “Of natural history and geology,’’ says the author, “there is frankly nothing in this book, of science nothing, of sport nothing.’’ Notwithstanding this confession of what we may be permitted to describe as sins of omission, notes and descriptions of places in which scientific readers are particularly interested occur here and there. For instance, a short account is given of the stone circle of Arborlow, the Stonehenge of the Midlands. The monument consists of a circular enclosure in which are a number of blocks of limestone, all lying flat on ‘JUNE 1,1t9d5] NATURE GOT the ‘ground in a rude’ circle, while at the centre ate large blocks ‘which probably formed the central dol- ‘men. ‘* There are two entrances to the enclosure, a northern and a southern, and on the east side of the latter is a large detached mound. Four hundred yards west of the main enclosure is a still larger mound, Known as Gib Hill, connected with it by a low rampart of earth, now nearly worn away.’’? Buxton and Matlock lead Mr. Firth to male some quotations from Erasmus Darwin’s poetical references to them in his *‘ Botanic Garden: Economy of Vegetation,’’ and “Loves of the Plants.’’ Dr. Darwin knew and loved the scenes he described, whatever opinion may be held as to his possession of the divine afflatus. There are a few other references to people and scenes of especial interest to the scientific world, but the book will not be valued for these so much as for its bright narrative of literary and historical centres of Derby- shire, and its fine illustrations. The Tower of Pelée. Volcano of Martinique. Pp. 62+xxii plates. Lippincott, 1904.) Pror. HEILPRIN’s latest volume on chiefly remarkable for the beautiful photographic plates with which it is illustrated; they give an excellent idea of the features of the great tower of solid lava which for nearly three years has been the centre of interest in the crater of Pelée. One of these plates, however (No. xi), seems to have been accidentally printed upside down. In the accompany- ing text there is an account of the author’s fourth visit to the volcano in June, 1903, and a good deal of somewhat discursive matter regarding the lessons to be learnt from the recent eruptions. The number of points which are still unsettled concerning the mechanism of the explosions and the concomitant phenomena is very large, and the author shows a wise caution in dealing with some of them. He advances the opinion that the tower of Pelée is a volcanic core of ancient consolidation, and not an extrusion of solidified new lava, as the French observers believe. We cannot believe this is at all likely to obtain general acceptance. New Studies of the Great By Prof. Angelo Heilprin. (Philadelphia and London: Martinique is Experimental Researches on the Flow of Steam Through Nozzles and Orifices. By II. 13h. 3m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). +, 12. 8h. 22m. to gh. 24m. Moon occults 2? Virginis (mag. 4°9). », 13. Saturn. Outer major axis of outer ring=40"'87; outer minor axis of outer ring =6"'03. ys 9» 9h. Mars in conjunction with moon, Mars 6° 14’S. »> 14. 9h. 52m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). », 15. Venus. Illuminated portion of disc=0°365 ; of Mars =0'938. »> 21. 15h. Sun enters Cancer, Summer commences. »> 9) 22h. Saturn in conjunction with Moon, Saturn To2Ou8. 3) 23. 23h. Uranus in opposition to the Sun. 6, 27. 14h. 48m. to 16h. 33m. Transit of Jupiter’s Satel- lite III. (Ganymede). > 29. 14h. tom. to 15h. rm. Moon occults 6° Tauri (mag. 3°6). »> 9» 4h. 15m. to 14h. 56m. Moon occults 6’ Tauri (mag. 3°9). A REMARKABLE VARIABLE STaR.—In a note published in No. 4017 of the Astrenomische Nachrichten Prof. E. C. Pickering states that the light-changes of the variable star 154428, R Coronz Borealis, are unlike those of any other | known variable. A series of observations, made by Mr. Leon Campbell, showed that during the period March- September, 1903, the magnitude underwent remarkable changes between the limits 6.0 and 9-4. Since then until March of the present year it remained stationary at 6.0 m. The unusual character of the changes during April and May is shown in the following table :— 1905 Mag 1905 Mag. April 1 60 May I II"4 II 73 7 a 12°56 21 84 Observations with large telescopes are now desirable in order to see whether or not this object disappears entirely. NO. 1857, VOL. 72] It is easily recognised on the Harvard ‘* Map of the Sky,” plate No. 18 (118-75), and is nearly equidistant from y, 4, and e« Corone. RapiaL VELOCITIES OF THIRTY-ONE Stars.—For the past ten years line-of-sight observations have been made at the Emerson McMillin Observatory (Columbus, Ohio), but Prof. Lord has now arrived at the conclusion that, as so many better equipped observatories, situated in more favourable atmospheres, are engaged in this work, it seems advisable to discontinue the observations there and direct the available. resources into some other channel of research for which they are better equipped. Con- sequently he has collected all the results obtained during the decennary, and has published them in No. 4, vol. xxi., of the Astrophysical Journal. Complete catalogues of the plates taken and of the standard lines employed, and the collected results, are embodied in his communication. Amongst the thirty-one stars dealt with there occur a, Cassiopeia, Aldebaran, a Arietis, a Persei, Capella, Pollux, Dubhe, Arcturus, 8 and y Cygni, and 6 Cephei. Macnitupes oF Nova PERSEI AND Nova GemMinoRuM.—In No. 4017 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Prof. A. A. Nijland publishes the results of a number of magnitude observations of Nove Persei and Geminorum. ‘The observ- ations of the former covered the period November 15, 1901, to January 13, 1905, and the figures given show frequent increases of brightness, which were, however, very small. A gradual decrease of magnitude underlies these minor fluctuations, and on January 13 the Nova was of magnitude 10-74. The Nova Geminorum observations extended over the period March 27, 1903, to December 30, 1904, and on the latter date the magnitude recorded was 13-3, more than 2-7 magnitudes fainter than Nova Persei on the same date. Oxrorp University OssERVATORY.—Prof. Turner's re- port of the work done at the Oxford University Observatory during the twelve months ended April 30 informs us that the Oxford work in connection with the International Astro- graphic Catalogue is at last within measurable distance of publication. The measures and reductions were completed last year, and the whole thing is now ready to print. What is still more satisfactory, the university has set aside roool. for this purpose, and this is to be supplemented by a similar contribution from H.M. Government. The stereo-comparator has been used to compare some of the newer with some of the older plates, but, so far, nothing of importance has been discovered ; more time will be given to this work when the coming eclipse is past and the Oxford contribution to the International Catalogue is safely in the press. As some of the earlier plates for the catalogue are less satisfactory than the later ones, they are being duplicated, and the new ones are being measured and reduced as opportunity occurs. An expedition from the observatory, comprised of Prof. Turner and Mr. Bellamy, will observe the total solar eclipse of August next in Egypt. VARIATIONS OF LatiTuDE.—The provisional results of the work accomplished by the International Latitude Service during 1904 are given by Prof. T. Albrecht in No. 4017 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. The results obtained at the six stations employed in the service are grouped, and the variation of the momentary from the mean pole during the years 1900-4 is graphically shown. From this curve it appears that the year 1904 was marked by a diminution in the amplitude of the variation. New Rerraction Tas_es.—Appendix ii., vol. iv. (second series), of the Publications of the U.S. Observatory con- tains a number of reduction tables for transit-circle obsery- ations compiled under the direction of Prof. Eichelberger. All of them, except the refraction tables, are of no use at any other observatory, but these may be found useful by other transit observers. They consist of nine separate tables, in which the logarithms of the various arguments necessary for determining the exact refraction correction for each minute of apparent zenith distance from 0° to 85° are given. An example which precedes the tables clearly illustrates the method of using them. The tables are based upon those of Pulkowa. _ June 1, 1905] NATURE HALAL ISLANDS FOR WEATHER FORECASTING | tate ets so PURPOSES, TH E aim of méteorology from a practical point of view approach of storms. is the forecasting of the amount of rainfall and the The former’ will tell us- whether we may expect high and in many regions is, paid to the region from which the prevailing winds come, due consideration being given to |jthe particular barometric system of which the wind forms art. : From the above the important functions of islands con- veniently situated become obvious. It is not, however, ‘every country bordering on the ocean that is blessed with such an island in the direction of the Sa SASS SES “S SA WN ~ SSSR Fic. 1.—The wind system during summer in the northern hemisphere an = es hemisphere. The black dots represent islands, and the letter H the centres of regions of high pressure or anticyclonic areas, river flows producing floods and much damage, an average amount of water for successful crop production, or a deficiency of rain which might result in a disastrous drought and possibly a famine. In the case of storms, a’means will be afforded of saving many lives and ships, and also, probably, much property ashore. The study of the weather, there- fore, should be fostered to its fullest extent, and every advantage should be taken of means which will bring us nearer the goal of satisfactory fore- casting. : Investigations carried out during the last decade have indicated the importance of each weather bureau extending its’ area of inquiry beyond the region for which it is making its forecasts. Needless to say, many of these institutions have for some years been in telegraphic communication with outlying stations. Thus, for instance, the Indian Meteorological Service receives information from a station so far distant as Mauritius, while the U.S. Weather Bureau utilises valuable observations by tele- graph from stations in the West Indies, Azores, Europe, &c. It is important to bear in mind that rain-bearing winds are those that have passed over large stretches of water, and that the rainfall of a country is deficient or well supplied with this commodity according to its geographical position in relation to. the oceans or inland seas, mountain ranges, and the prevailing winds. It is for these reasons that the nearer the coast is approached | from the centre of any continent, the greater becomes the rainfall. Thus, for instance, the interior of Australia, the | Sahara, the Arabian Desert, Tibet, &c., are all very dry | areas. For forecasting purposes, therefore, attention should be, NO. 1857, VOL. 72] SER SS hemisphere. Notati cyclonic area. SS 2 tke FN Fic. 2.—The wind system during winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern prevailing wind, and the British Isles, in consequence, suffer very much from this very defect. In Great Britain the main rain-bearing wind is that from the south-west. In summer this forms part of a large anticyclonic system situated in mid-Atlantic to- wards the south-west (see Fig. 1), while in winter it is a portion of a cyclonic system, the centre of which is near Greenland (see Fig. 2). With no islands in the track, the only meteorological information that is at once useful is that which can be gathered from messages sent by the Marconi system of wireless tele- graphy from steamers en voyage. British weather forecasters are thus undoubtedly heavily handicapped by the lack of some permanent outlying source of information in this region. Mention has already been made of the use of islands by the United States and India. The latter is par- ticularly fortunate, for Mauritius, Seychelles, Chagos (marked with dots in the figures), and other islands are all conveniently situated to render in- formation if necessary. Another region which very probably would gain considerably by utilising observations made at island stations is South Africa. In a previous number of this Journal (vol. Ixxi. p. 342, February) Mr. E. Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Cape | Town, gave an excellent account of the general weather | conditions in this region. He pointed out that South Africa d winter in the southern = SS on as in Fig. 1. The letter L indicates the centre of a low pressure or lies on the border of the south-east trade area. In summer, from Cape Town to the Zambesi, the country comes entirely under the influence of the south-east trade winds. In winter, on the other hand, the southern portion of Cape Colony is subject to ‘‘ another type of weather, due to the passage of storms from the South Atlantic, the Pr2 NATURE hath . [JUNE 1, 1905 e ‘roaring forties’ of mariners.’’ He further directs atten- tion to the need of distinguishing between these two weather systems, which play distinct parts in the meteor- ology of this region. A study of the accompanying two figures will indicate the importance of the islands of Tristan d’Acunha and Gough (indicated by a black dot . towards the south-west), and also of Mauritius (the dot east of Madagascar). The two former islands lie in the wind system pertaining to the anticyclonic (high-pressure) area on the west, the centre being indicated by the letter H, while Mauritius, situated to the east of South Africa, is in the south-east trade area in the system formed by the high-pressure (anticyclonic) region, the centre of which is marked also with an H. By observing the general trend of the air currents in- dicated by the large arrow, it willbe seen that for the winter season in South Africa (Fig. 1) meteorological observations made in either Tristan d’Acunha or Gough Islands would undoubtedly render valuable aid to the weather forecasters. In the case of the summer months (Fig. 2) there is no conveniently placed island that could furnish equal assist- ance, but it seems very possible that use could be, and most probably has been, made of the observations at Mauritius for determining the strength of the south-east trade current which impinges on the African coast at this time of year. For forecasting purposes Mauritius, and possibly Rodrigues, would have greater value for regions further up the African coast. Unfortunately, the Amsterdam and St. Paul islands (marked with one dot) lie too far south and east to serve as useful outlying stations for South Africa. On the other hand, these islands should be undoubtedly utilised by the Australians. An examination of the accompanying figures indicates the relative positions of the Australian continent and this large southern Indian Ocean wind system. These islands will thus be seen to be right in the track of the current which strikes the south and west coasts of Australia, and should form ideal out-stations for gauging the general con- dition of this wind system. That the prevailing winds on the west coast of Australia come from a southerly direction is indicated in the follow- ing table, which gives the number of times the wind has blown from each point of the compass at the Perth Observ- atory during the year 1902, the readings being taken eight times a day :— N. 08 NIN. ae NLW. a W.N.W é W. a WS. 1 S.W. a S.S.W aaa S. 425 S'S.E see S.E fee E.S.E eu E. : E.N.E ae NOEs te: ee N.N.E. 98 Another table shows that the resultant direction of the wind, at the same observatory for the same year, was south for the months January to April and October to December inclusive. There seems every reason, then, to hope that the utilisa- tion of information from one of these islands for several months in the year would in time amply repay the initial cost and maintenance of the station. It is not without interest to remark that the air current which passes the west coast of Australia in July (that is, in winter in Australia) becomes later the south-east trade wind of the Indian Ocean, and eventually reaches the Indian area in the form of the south-west monsoon in the summer months of the northern hemisphere. In the months about July, Western Australia is thus apparently closely connected, meteorologically speaking, with India, NO. 1857, VOL. 72] | stations. to live in, but a change every few months, and the adop- but in the months about January the connection is between Australia and South Africa. ' The natural deduction to be made from the above is that the meteorological services of all these countries should be closely in touch with each other. Their combined efforts will certainly considerably increase our knowledge of the meteorology of this vast region, and each ‘will benefit by this mutual interchange of information. » f Although mention has only been made of one or two instances in which the employment of islands as meteor- ological stations would most probably be rewarded with practical results, there are other countries that might equally profit by adopting the same principle. It is, however, important for the study of world meteor ology that many islands should be employed as observing They may not be very ideal places for observers tion of self-recording instruments, would possibly simplify matters. Where cables are lacking, and the island in question is of great meteorological importance to some continent, wireless telegraphy might be employed with advantage. WiviiamM J. S. Lockyer. AN OPTICAL CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION. ‘THE aims of the optical convention, which was opened at the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, on Tuesday, May 30, are to increase the interest taken in optical science in this country, to promote an improvement in technical education in optical matters, and to aid the development of the British optical industry. In his address, the chief part of which is subjoined, the president, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., after explaining the origin of the proposal to hold a convention, and the steps taken to realise it, gives an outline of the history of optical progress during the past two hundred and fifty years with the view of illustrating the close union which has existed between theory and practice at times of marked progress, and of showing how each has reacted on the other in assisting this progress. The programme of the convention includes meetings for papers and discussions, which will be sub- sequently published in a volume, and an exhibition of optical and scientific instruments of British manufacture, with a catalogue which is intended to serve as a work of reference illustrating the productions of opticians in this country. A description of some of the exhibits follows the president’s address abridged below; and an article on the nature and matter of the papers and discussions will appear in these pages after the close of the convention. PROGRESS OF OPTICAL SCIENCE AND MANUFACTURES." The study of optics is a fascinating one, and its history full: of interest. I do not propose to-night to attempt to cover the whole ground, but to ask you to look at one or two special periods during which, it seems to me, theory and practice reacted on each other in a marked manner, and to consider what lessons we may draw as to the relation which should in these days of ours subsist between the two. For this purpose I might go back to very early days. Ptolemy in his attempt to discover the laws of refraction —and wonderfully good the attempt was, as we know now —Archimedes with his burning glass, if, indeed, he ever made it, had both practical aims in view. But we will start to-night nearer our own time. The end of the seventeenth century is such a period. The telescope was invented about 1608, the microscope at rather an earlier date, about 1590, both, probably, in Holland. Galileo, hearing of this, made his first telescope in 1610. In 1611 Kepler, in his ‘‘ Dioptrica,’’ described the astro- nomical telescope with one or more convex lenses as the eye-piece; with this exception, up to Descartes’s book on ““Dioptrics ’? in 1637, no other form of telescope but Galileo’s was known. The law of refraction was first enunciated by Snell in 1621. Thus by the year 1660 the importance of the telescope to the astronomer was fully appreciated, and its limitations were being realised. In 1663 Gregory published an account 1 From the inaugural address delivered before the Optical Convention on May 30 by the president, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S. June 1, 1905] —_—~ NATURE it of the first reflecting telescope designed to meet some of these defects, and about this time two men, whose work has left indelible marks on the science, were led. to study it in a great measure from their interest in astronomy— Christian Huyghens, who lived from 1629 to 1695, and Isaac Newton, 1642 to 1727. Huyghens, was the discoverer of the waye theory and of the law of double refraction, but he was also a skilled mechanic, and he worked himself at grinding his lenses and erecting his telescopes. He realised from a consider- ation of the theory that many of the most marked defects were due to the fact that the rays from a distant star traversing the various parts of the lens were not brought to a focus at the same point on the axis, and that, for a lens. of given aperture this axial aberration decreased rapidly as the focal length increased. The magnification of the telescope depends on the ratio of the focal length of the object glass to that of the eye-piece. Hence by keeping this ratio constant, and increasing both focal lengths in the same proportion, the magnification could be maintained and the spherical aberration decreased. Thus he was led to make lenses of 120 feet focal length. Tubes for such instruments could not be produced, and they were mounted on the top of .tall poles and moved from below by ropes. With one of these telescopes, which he afterwards presented to the Royal Society, he dis- covered Saturn’s rings and its fourth satellite. In this case the desire to improve an instrument caused an appeal to theory, and theory led the optician to make a real advance. The advance, it is true, was an inconvenient one, and the defects, as we shall see, were not entirely due to spherical aberration, but the fact remains. In another branch of instrument making Huyghens is famous for applying science to manufacture. His treatise “‘Horologium Oscillatorium,’’ which discussed most ably many problems of motion, was long the standard work on clocks, and he was the first to bring into practical use, in 1657, the pendulum as a regulator for time measurements, though according to Sir E. Beckett the first pendulum clock actually made was constructed in 1621 by Harris, of London, for St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. In 1665 a posthumous work of an Italian Jesuit, Francis Maris Grimaldi, entitled ‘‘ Physico Mathesis de Lumine, Coloribus et Iride aliisque annexis,’’ was published at Bologna. It contains some notable observations, par- ticularly the discovery of diffraction. Newton, who in the previous year had taken his B.A. degree at Cambridge, purchased a prism at Stourbridge Fair in 1666 ‘‘ to try therewith the celebrated phenomena of colours,’’ and to repeat some of Grimaldi’s experiments. During that year also he had applied himself to the grinding of ‘‘ Optic Glasses of other figures than spherical.’’ He was already interested in astronomy, possibly had already made, but not confirmed, his great discovery. Writing to Halley in 1686 about some of the controversies which followed the publication of the “‘ Principia,’’ he says :—‘‘ But for the duplicate proportion I gathered it from Kepler’s theorem about twenty years ago.” The celebrated apple is supposed to have fallen in his mother’s garden at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, in 1665, where he was driven by the plague, and the story has some authority. It is stated to be the fact by Conduitt, the husband of Newton’s favourite niece; it was told by Mrs. Conduitt to Voltaire, and the tree from which it was said to have fallen was seen by Sir David Brewster in 1820. Various suggestions have been made, for the reason why the discovery that the same cause which produced the apple’s fall also maintained the moon in her orbit was not published for many years; the true one is probably due to Dr. Glaisher, who pointed out that it was necessary to know the attraction not merely between two particles of matter, but between two spherical bodies of large size, and that this problem was not solved until much later ; but, be this as it may, we are sure that in 1667 Newton was an astronomer, and realised the necessity for accurate astronomical observations, and all that the improvement of the telescope meant to astronomers. Now his experiments with the prism in 1666 led to the discovery of the spectrum; little was known about colours at that time, and Dr. Barrow’s ‘‘ Treatise on Optics,”’ No 1857, VOL. 72] published with Newton’s help in 1669, contains very erroneous: views; but some time shortly after that date Newton was able to draw the important conclusion that white light is not homogeneous, but consists of rays some of which are more refrangible.than others; the pictures of the spectrum, so familiar to us in numerous text-books, come from Newton’s ‘‘ Optics,’* published first in 1704, though his discoveries as to the analysis of white light were laid before the Royal Society in various papers in 1671, and were given in lectures on optics as Lucasian professor in Cambridge in 1669, 1670, and 1671. The bearing of all these physical experiments and re- searches on the practical manufacture of the telescope was at once obvious; the lenses behave like prisms, and decompose the light into its constituent colours. No alter- ation of shape will remove this entirely, and Newton was driven, too hastily as we know now, to the conclusion that the refracting telescope could not be greatly improved ; its defects were inherent in the refraction of light. The defect, however, does not exist in images formed by reflection, and he came to the conclusion that optical in- struments might be brought to any degree of perfection imaginable provided a reflecting surface could be found which would polish as freely as glass and reflect as much light as glass transmits, and provided a method of com- municating to it a parabolic figure could be found. In 1668 he thought of a delicate method of polishing by which he believed ‘‘ the figure would be corrected to the last,”” and the Newtonian reflecting telescope was the result. An instrument made with his own hands is now in the possession of the Royal Society, and the many noble instruments which have added so greatly to advance our knowledge of the stars are the direct outcome of Newton’s experiments with the prism and the deductions he drew from them. But these experiments convey another lesson, for Newton, misled by his observations on dispersion, decided, wrongly, as we know now, that achromatic lenses were impossible, and that the colour defects must always exist in reflecting instruments; and as a result attempts to improve these instruments were almost in abeyance for nearly ninety years. Two or three achromatic telescopes were made by Mr. Hall about 1730, but it was not until 1757 that Dollond re-invented this instrument and commenced the regular construction of such lenses. “Thus the discoveries of Huyghens and of Newton reacted powerfully on the instruments of their day. Indeed, in each of these two instances the discoverer and the instrument maker were the same person. Such a combination may be less possible now ; still, there are mathematicians skilled in the theory of optics and opticians skilled in the practice of their art. : The Optical Convention aims at coordinating the efforts of the two. But if 200 years ago the progress of the telescope was determined by the advance of optical theory, theory itself was no less indebted to the interest in instru- ments and observations thus aroused for the progress that took place. Huyghens was the founder of the wave theory, though the labours of Young and the genius of Fresnel were necessary before Newton’s rival theory of emission was displaced. For nearly 100 years after “‘ Optics”? progress was slow. ; in assimilating what he had taught. English mathe- maticians, overawed, perhaps, by his transcendent great- ness, employed themselves in expounding his teaching. In England, at any rate, the emission theory was supreme, and few, if any, questioned his dicta as to the impossi- bility of achromatism. ue But a change came with the new century. Thomas Young, 1773-1829, was the first in his various papers between 1801 and 1811 again to direct attention to Huyghens’s work, and to place on a firmer basis the sround-work of the wave theory. He it was who estab- lished clearly the principle of the superposition of waves, and showed how interference may be explained by it. Young’s work, however, would have been incomplete without Fresnel (1788-1827), who re-discovered for him- self the principle of interference and extended it to explain diffraction, besides enunciating his theory of double re- the date of Newton’s The world was occupied 114 NATURE [JUNE I, 1905 fraction and deducing the well known expressions for the intensity of the light reflected from or transmitted by a transparent surface. ae Young, in his ‘‘ Lectures on Natural Philosophy,’’ illus- trated in an admirable way. the applications of optical theory to instruments. Fresnel was an engineer by profession attached to the service of the bridges and roads, and as such was the inventor of the arrangements of lenses em- ployed in the French lighthouses. The discoveries of these two men changed the whole of the theory on which the construction of optical instruments is based; it is idle to attempt to explain the action of a microscope, the resolution of a double star or of the fine lines of the spectrum, to discuss the conditions for such resolution, or, instead, to attempt the construction of any of the more delicate of the beautiful apparatus about us without clearly understanding the fundamental laws dis- covered by these two, and verified with marvellous skill by Fresnel in his country home in Normandy, not by the aid of modern apparatus, but by such means’ as his own hands, aided by the skill of the village blacksmith, could construct; and though it is true that only recently have we appreciated the full importance of the wave theory in its bearing on the construction of optical instruments, it is the fact that without their labours and the work of those who followed: in:their path few of the’ modern dis- coveries of the astronomer, few of the results which the skilled optician of to-day has arrived at, would have been possible. The object glass of a microscope, the lens of a camera or a telescope, have reached their present perfec- tion because men have been found who could apply to the art of lens grinding the highest teaching of Young and of Fresnel. In the earlier years of the last century Englishmen were well to the fore in this work. In astronomy the labours of the two Herschels are well known, and though, perhaps, the success of the elder Herschel was due rather to his mechanical skill than to a profound knowledge of optical theory, Sir John Herschel advanced in no small measure the application of theory to practice. At a somewhat earlier date Fraunhofer, of Munich (1787-1826), a contemporary of Young and of Fresnel, had realised the fact that the development of the achromatic lens “‘ depended on the exact determination of refractive indices, and that the chief difficulty in that determination lay in the difficulty of obtaining homogeneous radiations to serve as standards *’ (Schiister, ‘‘ Theory of Optics’). For these he used the dark lines of the solar spectrum, originally observed by Wollaston, and in this we have an example of the manner in which practical needs react to assist in the advance of science, for from these observations springs the whole of spectrum analysis and all that’ is involved in that. Thus theory and practice progress together; each alone carries us but a short way, but the judicious use of hypo- thesis and reason, supported by the verdict of experiment, carries us on to new knowledge, and brings us nearer to the truth. Until after the middle of last century we in Britain took our full share in promoting this advance. We might add to the names already mentioned those of Sir George Airy and of the distinguished men who, in the first half of the century, adorned Trinity College, Dublin, notably Sir William Hamilton. Sir George Airy gave, about 1802, an account of the aberration of the lens of the camera obscura of the utmost value to the early designers of the photographic lens, while Sir William Hamilton’s essay on the ‘‘ Theory of Systems of Rays” contains the essence of all that is needed to calculate to a high degree of accuracy the aberration of such a lens. But at that date photographic lenses were not thought of, and when Daguerre announced his invention in 1839 the work of Airy and of Hamilton was forgotten. Thus to quote, as I did lately in the Traill Taylor lecture, from the recent work of Dr. M. von Rohr. “The important signification of Airy’s writings for photo- graphic optics does not seem to have been appreciated until a later date. Although they exercised an influence on English text-books, like that of Coddington, they seem NO. 1857, VOL. 72] unfortunately never to have become known in wider circles on the Continent. It appears, then, that the theoretical opticians of later years to whom his investigations into the astigmatic deformations of oblique pencils would have been of great interest did not base their work on that of Sit G. B. Airy,’’ while Sir W. Hamilton’s paper remained un- noticed by the optician until Finsterwalder directed atten- tion to it, and another distinguished German, — Profi Thiessen, quite lately put his results into an accessible form. . ; There was a divorce between theory and practice* in England. The importance of Daguerre’s discovery was2at once realised, and English opticians set to worl with no small success to develop the lens and to make «it perfect| and splendidly in many ways they performed their’ task } but the work was empirical. A certain amount of progress was possible, and was achieved, but without the guitiance of well founded theory the progress could not be for long.! “> The learned Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of the Royal Society of Dublin were perhaps the last places to which the practical optician would ‘apply for help, and so it came about that because the opticians of another nation first recognised that a full knowledge’ of the action of a lens on the light that traverses it was a condition precedent to further truth, .for some years past the great improvements in the products of the optician’s skill which have taken place have had their origin mainly in Germany. i sty This brings me to our last example of the manner in which science and practice may combine to produce effects unattainable by either singly. But before dealing with this I would mention one great advantage which, until a few years ago, the English optician possessed in a special degree, an advantage to which much of the progress of our English lenses is undoubtedly due. The story of Gunand’s invention of optical glass is deeply interesting. A poor carpenter, and later a watch-case maker, of Brenetz, in canton Neuchatel, he was born in 1740, and became at an early age interested in telescopes. Prompted by the desire to possess a pair of spectacles, he undertook to make the glass for the lenses. A little later, through M. Droz, a gentleman of the neighbourhood, he was allowed to ex- amine one of Dolland’s achromatic lenses, and learnt of the difficulty of obtaining the flint glass required. This he determined to make, and years of penury and un- remitting toil followed, until at last he succeeded in castt ing discs sufficiently homogeneous to be used for optical work. zs Fraunhofer persuaded him to migrate to Munich, but the venture was not a success. He returned to Switzer= land, and again started glass making. After his death his son told the secret of the art to George Boutemps, a Frenchman, who some years later was brought to England by Messrs. Chance, and helped them to establish the optical glass works which for so long were practically the sole source of the supply of raw material for the optician.’ Our catalogue to-day bears witness to the progress in glass manufacture that has taken place since Boutemps’s time, and it is right to recognise the influence that progress has had on opticians’ work. But to return to our main subject. An optical conven- tion in 1905 would be incomplete without some reference to the work of that master optician who a few months ago was taken from us, the more so since the work of Ernst Abbe affords perhaps the most striking illustration of the effects of the reasoned combination of theory and practice. A comparison of the statistics of the optical trade of Germany now and twenty years ago will suffice to prove this. The story of the growth of the Jena industry has been told frequently, still I will repeat it in barest outline. Abbe, then a young man, had settled at Jena as a privat docent in 1863, and soon after Carl Zeiss, who then made microscopes of the ordinary class, applied to him for help in the development of the instrument. Abbe’s task was a hard one; the theory of the microscope was at that date only partially understood, the corrections to the lenses were made by a rough trial and error method, and the results were doubtful. The first step was to solve a mathe- matical problem of no small difficulty, to trace the paths NATURE Tip i JUNE 1, 1905] of the pencil through the object glass. Abbe soon realised the defects of the ordinary theory. He found it necessary to apply the principles of the wave theory, the teaching of Young and Fresnel, to the problem, and was led in 1870 to the theory of microscopic vision which bears his name. His work was the direct outcome of that of Fresnel. He soon realised that it followed from the mathematical theory that with the glass then at the optician’s disposal no great improvement in the microscope object glass could be expected. Certain relations between the dispersion and refraction in the various lenses were requisite to secure achromatism, and no glass having these relations existed. An inspection of the instruments in our loan exhibition at South Kensington in 1876 confirmed this view, and he published it in a report in 1878 on the results of the ex- hibition :—‘* The future of the Microscope as regards its future improvement in its dioptric qualities seems to be chiefly in the hands of the glass maker.’’ The investigations of Petzval and of von Seidel led to a similar result with regard to photographic lenses. Von Seidel’s work dates back to 1856-7, but his main paper was not written until 1880, after the date of Abbe’s report, and was not published in full until 1898. It follows from these investigations that with the glass then on the market it was impossible to make the field of a photographic lens at once flat and achromatic. Thus the theoretical work indicated a bar to future progress which could only be removed by the manufacture of new glasses having certain definite properties. It is fitting to say that at an earlier date this fact had been recognised by our countrymen Mr. Vernon Harcourt and Prof. Stokes, who for some eight years previous to 1870 had endeavoured, but with scant success, to make the glass required. Abbe was more fortunate; his report fell into the hands of Dr. Otto Schott, a glass maker of Witten, in West- phalia, who realised its importance. In 1881 Schott com- municated with Abbe, and the next year he removed to Jena, and the firm of Schott and Partners was born. In the first catalogue of the Jena Glass Works they write :—‘ The industrial undertaking here first brought into public notice and which has arisen out of a scientific investigation into the dependence between the optical proper- ties and the chemical composition of solid amorphous fluxes was undertaken by the undersigned (Schott and Abbe) in order to discover the chemicophysical foundations of the behaviour of optical glass.’’ The inquiry was aided by large grants from the Prussian Minister of Education. The practical result is seen in the catalogue of the Jena firm and the enormous export of German optical goods. Nor is this all, for in virtue of the distribution of profits settled by the scheme of the Carl Zeiss Stifting, drawn up by Abbe some years ago and ratified by the Bavarian Government, the University of Jena alone has received a sum approaching 100,0001. Abbe’s’ work at Jena is perhaps the most striking illustration of the way in which progress depends on the cooperation of science and ex- perience. One could give statistics to illustrate the truth of this and the important effect it has had on German trade and prosperity. They are hardly necessary; the facts are patent, and their cause well known to all who care to inquire. We can progress too if we follow the path laid down for us of old by Newton, Young, Herschel, Airy, and the others of whom I have spoken. EXHIBITION OF OPTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. The exhibition of optical and scientific instruments which is being held during the present week at the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, E.C., in connection with the optical convention, presents many features of interest, and all who have had any experience in the use of an optical instrument, from the wearing of a pair of spectacles to the handling of an accurate spectrometer, will find something to repay the trouble of a visit to Clerken- well, still the centre of the optical industry. While the number of actual novelties offered is not, perhaps, very large, there are few classes of instruments unrepresented, and though the names of certain important firms are con- spicuously absent from the list of exhibitors, the exhibition as a whole may be taken as well representative of the NO. 1857, VOL. 72] activities of the British manufacturers of optical and other scientific instruments. In the main of an optical character, the scope of the exhibition has been extended to cover such other scien- tific instruments as are usually manufactured by optical instrument makers. Meteorological instruments and thermo- meters, mathematical and drawing instruments and calcu- lating machines, and laboratory apparatus generally, are thus included. Electrical measuring instruments, however, are not shown, It is for many reasons to be regretted that the exhibition has been confined to the work of British makers; a foreign section would have had much interest for the ordinary visitor, and would have been of great educational value both to the British manufacturer and his competitors; we understand, however, that the limit- ation was dictated by considerations as to space, and the necessity of restricting the magnitude of a somewhat novel undertaking. In the catalogue which has been prepared in connection with the exhibition, the convention committee is to be congratulated on having produced a yolume which should be of considerable value as well to the user of scientific instru- ments as to the firms whose instruments are there de- scribed. The volume is not confined to apparatus actually exhibited ; the aim has been to provide a convenient work of reference generally descriptive of the productions of British firms, and in which particulars as to the types offered by different makers of any special instrument may be readily found. Yo this end the instruments have been arranged in classes, which are in many cases further sub- divided, and in addition to a table of contents, an alpha- betical list of exhibitors, with general information as to their manufactures, and an index of instruments have been provided. A short introduction to each class furnishes some particulars as to the instruments included thereunder, with notes as to recent advances in the mode of construc- tion. In class i., tools and materials, the most interesting exhibit is that of Messrs. Chance Bros., which includes some varieties of optical glass only quite recently produced by the firm, and not previously shown. Some special opal glass of low coefficient of expansion for speculum discs is also exhibited. Messrs. Jas. Powell and Sons, of the Whitefriars Glass Works, show specimens of glass for thermometers and other purposes. Tools for lens grind- ing, and exhibits illustrating processes of manufacture, are shown by Messrs. Geo. Culver and other firms. Class ii., simple elements and instruments, includes some accurate glass work by Messrs. A. Hilger, while Lord Blythswood shows specimens of his diffraction gratings ruled on speculum metal, 14,400 lines to the inch, up to a length of 6 inches. Replicas of Rowland gratings, with spectroscopes of various forms in which they are employed, are shown by Mr. T. Thorp, of Manchester. Class iii., astronomical instruments, and class _ iv., nautical instruments, are by no means representative of the best English work, and it is to be regretted that the cata- logue is here so meagre. In class yv., surveying instruments, on the other hand, few firms of importance are omitted, and some excellent work is shown. In. particular may be mentioned the Wells theodolite of Messrs. Elliott Bros., which embodies several novel features; Messrs. Joseph Casartelli and Son, of Manchester, also show instruments of somewhat special pattern. Messrs. W. F. Stanley, J. J. Hicks, and E. R. Watts and Son are well represented. The chief characteristics of the more modern instruments are the use of larger and more powerful telescopes, and the increased accuracy of graduation. Class vi. is devoted to range finders and heliographs, and the exhibits of most interest are the naval and field range finders of Messrs. Barr and Stroud, and the stereoscopic range finder of Prof. Geo. Forbes. Messrs. Ross, Ltd., show specimens of their new variable power gun sighting telescopes, in which by a simple device the power can be altered while the image remains always in focus on the cross Wires. Class vii. includes meteorological instruments and thermo- meters, and most of the well known makers have sent exhibits. In class viii., spectacles and eyeglasses, the ex- hibits are also sufficiently representative of the best English 116 NATURE eee work. . An-historical collection of no little interest is shown by Mr..M. W: Dunscombe, of Bristol. eS “In class ix., small telescopes and binoculars, are exhibited various patterns of prism binoculars by Messrs. Aitchison, Dallmeyer, Ross, Ltd., &c. Messrs. Aitchison show also a field glass of novel type with a body machined from a solid casting, focusing being effected by moving each object glass in its own tube. In class x., microscopes and accessories, the catalogue furnishes a very complete account of the English micro- scope as produced by the best makers, including binocular microscopes and various forms of instrument for special purposes. Photomicrographic cameras are shown by Messrs. Beck, and Ross, Ltd. Information of interest with regard to different types of photographic lenses is given in class xi., though too much space is perhaps devoted in the catalogue to illustrations of camera bodies. In the careful classification and Selection of instruments to illustrate the various types, class xii., optical projection apparatus, appears to us to be the most successful in the catalogue. The class includes an exhibit by Messrs. Chance Bros. of a complete lighthouse optical apparatus of the fourth order. Other exhibits of interest are Mr. R. W. Paul’s projector lamps, the triple rotating lantern of Messrs. Newton, and animatographs by Messrs. Paul, the Prestwich Manufacturing Co., and J. Wrench and Son. In class xiii., apparatus for optical measurement, some new optical benches are shown by Messrs. Aitchison and Beck, and there are interesting exhibits from the Cam- bridge Scientific Instrument Co. and Messrs. Hilger. A half-shadow polarimeter is shown by Prof. Poynting, the half-shadow field being produced by the tilting of two glass plates forming a WV _ between the polariser and analyser. Under photometric apparatus the Ediswan Co. show specimens of’ Prof. Fleming’s large bulb standard lamps, and various forms of photometer are exhibited by Messrs. Alex. Wright. Class xv. is devoted to ophthalmic appa- ratus, and includes a novel form of ophthalmoscope of British design and construction. The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co. and Messrs. Griffin show laboratory appa- ratus under class xvi. Under class xvii., mathematical and drawing instruments, some new forms of slide rule are shown, including one with additional slides by Messrs. Davis, of Derby, and an optical slide rule with reciprocal division for determination of conjugate foci, &c., by Mr. A. Salomon, of Huddersfield. An arithmometer of English make is exhibited by Mr. S. Tate, and an adding machine by the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CampripGe.—Among the twelve distinguished men who will receive honorary degrees on June 14 only two are connected with scientific work. These are Commander R. F. Scott, R.N., of the Discovery, and Colonel Sir Francis E. Younghusband, K.C.I.E. The latter has been appointed Rede lecturer, and has chosen as his subject “Our True Relationship with India.’’ The lecture will be delivered in the Senate at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday, June ro. Mr. L. A. Borradaile, of Selwyn College, who is well known for his researches on the crustacea, has been appointed assistant secretary for lectures to the local ex- aminations and lecture syndicate. A university lectureship in mathematics will shortly be vacant owing to the resignation of Mr. G. B. Mathews, F.R.S., of St. John’s College. The special board for biology and geology has nominated Mr. J. J. Lister, Fellow of St. John’s College, to occupy the university table at the laboratory of the Marine Bio- logical Association at Plymouth for one month during the present year. In spite of the efforts of the master of Pembroke, Prof. Ridgway and others to bring the work of the studies and examination syndicate to an end, the Senate decided by 112 votes to 99 that its deliberations should be continued. It seems evident that a majority of residents is in fayour of some change. NO. 1857, VOL. 72| The “syndicate entrusted with the building of the new medical’ schools has exceeded the sum granted by Grace of the Senate by 25711. 15s. 6d. It is now asking for authority to pay this amount, and for 9201. for the ‘com- pletion and fitting of the Humphry Museum, and 380l. for extra fittings and furniture in the departments of surgery, midwifery, medicine, pharmacology, and pathology. = Tue Pioneer Mail states that a grant of 10,000 rupees has been made to the Victoria Diamond Jubilee Technical Institute of Lahore for buildings and appliances. A _per- manent grant of 100 rupees a month has also been made, and the assistance thus given will enable the governors to complete the equipment for the teaching of practical and applied chemistry. aT At a meeting of the School Nature-Study. Unions held at the College of Preceptors on Friday, a paper was read on the training of teachers for nature-study by Miss R. Lulham. In it the necessity for a proper ground work was brought out, and during the discussion which followed a resolution was passed urging upon the London County Council the need of providing classes for those who have to teach nature-study, and suggesting that a wild garden for their benefit should be established in at least one of the London parks, in which the botanic gardens arranged for the students of systematic botany have already proved so useful. WE have received the first number of the University Review, which is published by Messrs. Sherratt and Hughes at 6d. net. Dr. Bryce contributes an introductory note on the university movement, and among other articles deal- ing with many aspects of higher education may be mentioned one by Prof. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., on ‘* Uni- versities and Examinations,’’ and another by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., :on ‘‘ Questions for Discussion.’’ Prof. Schuster formulates briefly what the aims of an ideal uni- versity should be, and proceeds to divide its work into two parts. These are the acquisition of knowledge and the power of applying it. The second part of the work of the university is the higher, and is what is required for success in life. Prof. Schuster says that it can be taught, and therefore should be taught, in the university, but that this power of applying knowledge cannot be tested satisfactorily by examination. He then considers exhaustively the func- tion of examinations, and shows what they are capable of doing and the qualities they are incompetent to gauge. He concludes by remarking that when a student ‘‘ has shown that he deserves a degree, it is right and proper that an opportunity shall be given him to develop his special powers and to distinguish himself.*’ Prof. Schuster makes a pro- posal to secure this by giving a year which is absolutely at the student’s disposal to be used under the guidance of his teachers as he thinks fit. Sir Oliver Lodge discusses the possibility of introducing a change in the ‘‘ time of year when examinations should be held :—whether candi- dates should be examined directly lectures cease, and before Session ends; or whether they should be given time for revision and digestion, and perhaps oblivion, and be ex- amined just before a new Session commences.’’ The review also supplies full information of current events in British and foreign universities. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 30.—‘‘The Determination of the Specific Heat of Superheated Steam by Throttling and other Experiments.””. By A. H. Peake. Communicated by Prof. Ewing, F.R.S. This paper is an account of original investigations undertaken to determine the specific heat of superheated steam. Two methods have been followed :—(r) the throttling or wire-drawing of steam to obtain the law connecting the variation of temperature with pressure, for constant total heat; (2) the direct heating of a current of steam by electrical means. An account of an investigation on the same lines as method (1), by Mr. J. H. Grindley, was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, A, vol- JUNE 1,-£905 | NATURE 117 exciv. pp. 1 to 36. The results here given differ from those obtained by Mr. Grindley in one important particular. Mr. Grindley came to the conclusion that steam taken from a separator contained a definite proportion of suspended moisture, because when he caused such steam to expand through an orifice to a slightly reduced pressure the steam did not become superheated, but its temperature fell to that corresponding to saturated steam at the new pressure. In the research here described, however, it was found that steam taken from a separator and reduced in pressure in the slightest degree by wire-drawing became superheated. This result was only obtained after a con- siderable amount of experimental work had been done, and a number of improvements made in the apparatus as first constructed. The experimental results obtained in the throttling ex- periments are represented in the accompanying figure. purposes of these calculations, and that a great degree of accuracy would be necessary before such was the case. In method (2) the rise in temperature was observed in steam flowing at a measured rate, due to the heat imparted by an electric current, and the specific heat calculated from the formula electrical input in watts x 0-236 Kp grams of steam passing per sec. x temp. rise ° C. The connection between grams of steam passing per minute and the input of electrical energy in watts for a definite rise in temperature was obtained for rates of flow differing over a considerable range; the points thus obtained were plotted on squared paper, and were found to lie on a straight line which did not pass through the origin, but cut the watts ordinate at a height correspond- The curves a, B, C, D, E, and F show the connection | ing to the radiation loss expressed in watts. between the temperature and pressure of superheated The difficulty experienced in keeping all the conditions steam for constant total heat. The method of obtaining | constant during the long time necessary for a complete & set of points was always mic ita aI considerable. Numerous a6 | ote lL experiments were carried i ; out, but the results varied 38 too much amongst them- § selves to enable con- 37 + = clusions to be drawn as to the manner in which the 560 i specific heat may vary with pressure or tempera- S5) ture, except that any such a F | variation must be small, 4 sen and by no means of the u 530 order indicated by the re- Oo sults of the throttling ex- % 320) | periments based on Reg- b> 1, Als nault’s tables. 2 5101p The mean value of the a specific heat of super- s 300 heated steam at constant = Cc ‘ y ° pressure obtained from the anaes most satisfactory experi- 3 28 Spy ments was 0-46. 2 May 11.—‘A Study of 2 270) a = the Process of Nitrifi- = ale : | cation with Reference to #2 260 E t—— the Purification of Sew- age.’”’ By Dr. Harriette 50 Chick. Communicated by ae FE Prof. Marshall Ward, B.R.S, 230 ea lL The process of nitrifi- cation during sewage puri- 2207 fication was studied by means of small experi- 210 mental filters erected in 200° the institutes of hygiene in 0 10 2 30 40 50 & 70 80 90 100 10 120 150 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 20 220 Vienna and Munich. Absolute pressure in Ibs. per square inch. The oxidation of sewage each of these curves was as follows:—The pressure of steam in the separator was maintained constant at the point where the constant total heat curve meets the curve which connects the pressure with temperature for saturated steam; the pressure on the low-pressure side of the orifice could be regulated by means of a wheel valve, which allowed the steam to escape at any desired rate. This lower pressure was adjusted to various values, and the temperatures corresponding were observed when the con- ditions had become steady. By plotting these results points were obtained which enabled the curve to be drawn. The total heat corresponding to each of the curves was obtained from Regnault’s tables for saturated steam, and the specific heat at constant pressure calculated for various pressures. The specific heat as thus calculated was found to increase rapidly with increase of temperature from 0-43 at 230° F. to 1-0 at 350° F. This apparent increase in the specific heat led the author to suspect the accuracy of Regnault’s tables, and caused him to turn to the direct | heating method, with the result that he is now convinced that Regnault’s tables are not sufficiently accurate for the NO. 1857, VOL. 72] passing through the filters was investigated during the maturing period, and also when the filters were mature, a special study being made, chemically, of the oxidation of the nitrogen from the ammoniacal form to that of nitrites and nitrates, and of the distribution of these processes both in time and space. Nitrification was traced to the activity of two sets of organisms, the first of which oxidised ammonia to nitrous acid, and the second completed the oxidation to nitric acid. These bacteria were found to differ only very slightly from those isolated from the soil by Winogradsky, thus confirm- ing the recent results of Schultz-Schultzenstein. The activity in sewage filters of these organisms, which are very sensitive to the presence of organic matter, requires explanation, and various explanations are considered, based upon experimental foundation. The theory of previous physical absorption of ammonia upon the surface of the filtering material and subsequent nitrification was found to be unsupported by experiment ; nitrification is rather to be considered as a very rapid biological process, requiring only the time taken by the sewage to trickle through the filter. ars NATURE. [JUNE I, 1905 Linnean Society, May 4.—Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The botany of Gough Island, part i,, phanerogams and ferns: R, N. Rudmose- Brown. Gough Island, or Diego Alvarez, lies in the mid South Atlantic, lat. 40° 20’ S., long. 9° 56’ 30” W., and may be regarded as the most outlying member of the Tristan da Cunha group, a small island between seven and eight miles long, and half as wide, rising to a height of 4000 feet. It has been occasionally visited, but never permanently inhabited The chief features of the vegeta- tion are the tree Phylica nitida and the tree-fern Lomaria Boryana. Four of the seventeen species of phanerogams are almost. certainly introduced, while two are new to science, a species of Cotula and an Asplenium. The Scottish Antarctic Expedition lay off the island for three days in April, 1904, but owing to high sea landing was only, practicable on one day, when the materials for the present paper were collected.—The study of vegetation: its present condition and probable development: Prof. A. G. Tansley. The word cecology, introduced by Prof. Haeckel, means the study of the vital relations of organisms to their environment, and by Prof. E. Ray Lankester was termed bionomics. Restricting his remarks to a special branch of the subject, the author proceeded to consider the plant-association as the unit, the great fact being the association of plants under definite conditions of environment. Instances were given of sets of plants found in meadows, woods, cultivated fields, moors, and dunes.—Schizopoda captured in the Bay of Biscay during a cruise of H.M.S. Research: E. W. L. Holt and W. M. Tattersall, with an appendix dealing with the distribution statistically by Dr. G. H. Fowler. The paper forms part v. of the series on Biscayan plankton. Ten genera and eleven species were described; of these one species is new to science, and one, previously known from a single example, is represented by eight specimens. All the commoner forms are epiplanktonic, but of these some are represented by scattered specimens from greater depths. Euphausia pellucida, essentially epiplanktonic, with a centre of distribution about 50-75 fathoms, seems to show a marked vertical oscillation, rising by night and sinking by day; it was plentiful in bright moonlight; by day scattered specimens occurred between 250 and roo fathoms. Meganyctiphanes norvegica, caught in small numbers and on few occasions, was only captured by night, never by day at any depth whatsoever. Messrs. Holt and Tattersall suggest that this species is sufficiently sharp-sighted to see and avoid a net by daylight, even at a depth of 100 fathoms. Nematoscelis megalops, with the same distribu- tion as Euphausia pellucida, showed a less clearly marked oscillation. Anthropological Institute, May 9.—Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—Some tribes of the Uganda Protectorate: Lieut.-Colonel C. Delmé-Radcliffe. The author described the customs and habits of the natives with whom he came in contact, including the Kavirondo and other tribes on the Victoria Nyanza, and the Acholi in the Nile Province. The paper was illustrated by numerous lantern slides, illustrating the peoples, animals, and scenery, and by a large and interesting collection of ethnographical specimens from the Protectorate. Challenger Society, May 10.—Prof. d’A. W. Thompson, C.B., in the chair.—A new species of Tuscarusa from the North Atlantic: Dr. Wolfenden.—Observations on the temperature and salinity of the water of the North Atlantic, made during two cruises of Dr. Wolfenden’s yacht Silver Belle during the summers of 1903 and 1904: Dr. H. N. Diekson. In 1900-2 much valuable work had been done by Dr. Wolfenden in the Farée Channel, but | as this area lay within the field of the International Council for the Study of the Sea, he worked in 1903 farther out in the Atlantic, to the west of Ireland, and at the entrance to the Far6ée Channel south of the Wyville- Thomson Ridge, the observations connecting directly with those of the International Council in the Channel itself and in the Norwegian Sea during the August cruises. The work in 1904 was more directly concerned with the general oceanic movements of Atlantic waters; a line of soundings was run from the south-west of Ireland to the Azores, | thence into the Mediterranean NO. 1875,VOL. 72| through the Straits of Gibraltar, and thence to the English Channel. Dr. Dick- son illustrated the observations by diagrams of temperature and salinity along the sections, and discussed the con- siderable light thrown on the behaviour of the easterly drift on reaching the shores of Europe, the exchange of waters between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the volume of :current in the straits, and the extension in the Atlantic of Mediterranean water of high temperature and salinity. Geological Society, Mav 10.—Mr. R. S. Herries, vice- president, in the chair.—The geology of Dunedin (New Zealand): Dr. P. Marshall. A detailed account of the petrography of the district was given. The age of the oldest rocks seen, mica-schists, is not definitely known. They are followed by Tertiary sandstones and limestones. Fine, plant-bearing shales succeed unconformably, and upon these, again, rests a light scoria-bed. The igneous rocks next described cover them. These rocks include an ill-exposed, gold-bearing syenite, a diorite, lavas, rhomb- porphyry, tinguaite, hypabyssal trachydolerite, a teschenite- dyke, and trachyte. Trachytoid phonolites occur as inter- bedded sheets. The andesites are characterised by horn- blende and augite. Dolerites of two principal types occur in dykes, one type being the commonest of all the rocks in the area. A considerable series of chemical analyses follows, showing that the silica-percentage varies from 66 in the Portobello trachyte to 44-84 in one of the dolerites. The relative ages of the volcanic rocks are worked out so far as possible-—The Carboniferous limestone of the Weston-super-Mare district: T. F. Sibly. The Carbon- iferous limestone of the Weston-Worle ridge includes part of the Syringothyris-zone (C), extending from the ‘‘ laminosa-dolomites ’? upwards, and part of the Seminula- zone (S). While the dip of the rocks of the ridge is towards the south, a reversed fault throws the Syringo- thyris-beds on the south against the Seminula-beds to the north, and the latter rocks are over-folded on the north side of the fault. The lower part resembles the equivalent part of the Clevedon sequence, and indicates shallow-water conditions; the upper part of C resembles the correspond- ing part of the Burrington section, and indicates the pre- dominance of a Mendip-facies. The Woodspring ridge shows a sequence exactly similar to that of Clevedon. There were two periods of volcanic activity, one of which occurred at the close of Zaphrentis-time and the other early in Syringothyris-time. Physical Society, May 12.~-Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S., vice- president, in the chair.—A simple method of determining the radiation constant, suitable for a laboratory experi- ment: Dr. A. D. Denning. The apparatus consists of a hemispherical copper cap to the outside of which is affixed a jacket through which steam or water can be passed. The receiving surface consists of a silver plate, and the rate of rise of temperature of the plate is measured by means of a silver-constantan thermo-junction. When per- forming the experiment, a non-conducting pad is placed between the hemisphere and the silver disc until the temperature of the jacket is uniform. Then the pad is slid out, and the deflections of the galvanometer in the thermo-junction circuit are noted every few seconds. By plotting these deflections on a curve the initial slope of the curve, i.e. the initial rate of rise of temperature of the silver disc, is obtained; and from this, knowing the constants of the disc, &c., the radiation constant can be calculated.—A bolometer for the absolute measurement of radiation: Prof. H. L. Catlendar. It is now generally agreed that the electric compensation method, in which the heat received by radiation on a metallic strip is deter- mined by measuring the electric current required to pro- duce the same rise of temperature in the strip, is the most satisfactory and accurate method for absolute measure- ment. In the practical application of the bolometric method for the absolute measurements of solar radiation, the author has introduced certain modifications suggested by experience in platinum thermometry, with the object of securing (1) temperature compensation, so that the zero remains constant in spite of changes in the surrounding temperature ; (2) conduction compensation, so that loss of heat by conduction at the ends of the strips may not affect the readings; (3) accurate measurement of the area of radiation absorbed. Comparisons have been made between June I, 1905] NATURE 119 the bolometer, in which the platinum strips are directly exposed to radiation, and one of the author’s ordinary sunshine receivers enclosed in a glass bulb, in order to determine the effect, if any, of the glass bulb in selective absorption. The values of the reduction constant obtained for the glass receiver showed no certain variation over a wide range of quality of radiation, from sunshine or arc- light down to a dull red heat. This result is probably to be attributed to a self-compensating action of the glass bulb, which radiates to the enclosed coils precisely those rays which it absorbs.—Results of experiments carried out at Crompton’s works at Chelmsford, by Mr. C. H. Wright, on the possibility of using the resistance of a conductor heated by an alternating electric current as a measure of the current: W. H. Price. Zoological Society, May 16.—Mr.G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—Examples of a new golden mole obtained in connection with Mr. C. D. Rudd’s ex- ploration of South Africa: O. Thomas. It is proposed to call the mole Amblysomus corriae, sp. n.—Microscopic slides of Lankesterella tritonis, a hzmogregarine parasitic in the blood-corpuscles of a newt, Triton cristatus: H. B. Fantham. This parasite was recently found by Mr. A. S. Hirst and the exhibitor, and their observations had since been independently confirmed by Dr. A. C. Stevenson.—A contribution to the knowledge of the encephalic arterial system in Sauropsida: F. E. Beddard.—Criticisms of the Hon. Walter Rothschild’s proposed classification of the anthropoid apes: Sir H. H. Johnston. The author was disposed to agree with Mr. Rothschild’s classification of the African apes, but suggested that the proper transcription of the native name for the bald chimpanzee should be nkulunkamba instead of (as Du Chaillu wrote it) kooloo- kamba. He, however, could not agree with Mr. Roths- child’s proposed change of the generic name of the orang from Simia to Pongo, and although considering him right in applying the former name, at present used for the orang, to the chimpanzees, he was of opinion that either Satyrus or Pithecus was a far preferable name to Pongo for the orang. He concluded the paper with a list of words used in several African languages for the name of the chimpanzee, and with a précis of the history of Euro- pean knowledge of the anthropoid apes down to the eighteenth century.—Some species of bats of the genus Rhinolophus: K. Andersen. The author showed the pro- pressive evolution from the Austro-Malayan R. simplex (allied to megaphyllus), through a long series of Oriental forms, to the W. Palzarctic R. ferrum-equinum, and a similar chain from the Oriental R. lepidus (allied to minor) to the W. Palzarctic R. blasii and R. euryale. R. hippo- siderus was traced back to the Oriental R. minor. A slight difference between the British colony of R. hippo- siderus and the central European form of the same species was pointed out. All the Ethiopian species of Rhinolophus were shown to be of Oriental origin.—Results of observations on the stridulating-organs and descriptions of five new species (two of which were referred to new genera) of the hemipterous family Halyine: Dr. E. Bergroth.—On the anatomy of limicoline birds, with special reference to the correlation of modifications: Dr. P. C. Mitchell. The paper dealt with the anatomy, chiefly muscular, of Charadriidz, Chionididz, Glareolida, Thino- coridz, Q(&dicnemidz, and Parrida.—Results of observ- ations made upon a female specimen of the Hainan gibbon (Hylobates hainanus), now living in the society’s gardens : R. I. Pocock. Paris. Academy of Sciences, May 22.—M. Troost in the chair.— New experiments in experimental parthenogenesis in Asterias: Yves Delage. Additional proof is given of the fact that it is not an increase in the osmotic pressure alone which determines parthenogenesis, several of the re- agents employed, manganese ¢hloride, sodium phosphate, &e., acting as well, if not better, when the total concen- tration of the mixture is lower than that of sea water. Attention is directed to the marked action of solutions of manganese chloride, a salt which is not present in sea water.—Magnetic hysteresis produced by an_ oscillating field superposed on a constant field. Comparison between theory and experiment: P. Duhem. The author compares NO. 1857, VOL. 72] the results obtained by him in a theoretical study recently published with some experimental results of M. Maurain, and shows that his theoretical conclusions are completely confirmed.—On the voyage of the Princesse Alice: the Prince of Monaco. A sketch is given of the work attempted in oceanography, bacteriology, chemical biology, zoology, and the meteorological exploration of the upper atmosphere by means of kites.—On a condition of con- vergence of Fourier’s series: Henri Lebesgue.—On minimal curves: E. Vessiot.—On the compressibility of different gases below atmospheric pressure and the deter- mination of their molecular weights: Adrien Jaquerod and Otto Scheuer. The compressibility of several gases has been measured at 0° C. for pressures between 400 mm. and 800 mm. of mercury, and for ammonia and sulphur dioxide for pressures between 200 mm. and 400 mm. From the measurements the coefficient of deviation from Boyle’s law has been determined, and this has been applied to the formula of D. Berthelot for the limiting density of gases and the estimation of their molecular weight. The mole- cular weights calculated agree with those obtained by the best analytical methods with the exception of nitrogen compounds, for which an atomic weight of 14-01 must be assumed.—The atomic weight of nitrogen deduced from the ratio of the densities of nitrogen and oxygen: Philippe A. Guye. From a consideration of the whole of the experi- mental data available, the mean value N=14-009 must be regarded as the most probable value for the atomic weight. —On the fusibility of the mixtures of antimony sulphide formed with cuprous sulphide and mercuric sulphide: H. Pélabon.—The equilibrium between acetone and hydroxyl- amine hydrochloride: Philippe Landrieu. This equilibrium has been previously studied by means of the acid set free during the reaction, but owing to the rapidity with which the equilibrium is displaced this method is not trustworthy. In the present paper the reaction is followed by calori- metric studies.—Physicochemical researches on hamo- lysis: Mlle. P. Cernovedeanu and Victor Henri.—The action of the metal ammoniums on the polyatomic alcohols : E. Chablay. The alcohol is dissolved in liquid ammonia and is then acted on by the solution of the alkali metal, sodium or potassium, also dissolved in ammonia, and the result of the reaction washed several times with liquid ammonia at —40° C, In this way one of the hydroxylic hydrogen atoms of the alcohol is replaced by potassium (or sodium), the alcohols studied being mannite, erythrite, and glycerol.—On benzhydroxamic and dibenzhydroxamic acids : R. Marquis.—A new method of preparing mesoxalic esters: their condensation with cyanacetic esters: Ch. Schmitt. The corresponding malonic esters are treated with nitrous fumes, descriptions being given of the pre- paration of the methyl and ethyl esters. These condense with cyanacetic esters in the presence of piperidine, one or two molecules of the cyanacetate entering into the reaction according to the experimental conditions.—The basicity of pyranic oxygen. Double halogen salts of some metals and dinaphthopyryl: R. Fosse and L. Lesage. The group dinaphthopyryl, C,H GI patie pho C,H, possesses basic properties attributable to tetrabasic oxygen strikingly analogous to an alkaline metal, and the present communication gives details of the preparation of several double salts of this radical—On some circumstances in- fluencing the physical state of starch: J. Wolff and A. Fernbach.—Researches on animal lactase: Ch. Porcher. It is shown that ether saturated with water is capable of extracting from the intestines of certain animals consider- able quantities of lactase.—Contribution to the study of histological staining substances: G. Halphen and André Riche. The albuminoid substances in animal tissues pre- served in formol solutions are profoundly altered, and the methods of staining to be employed require considerable modifications.—On some minerals of Djebel-Ressas (Tunis) : L. Jecker.—Variation in the histological characters of leaves in the galls of Juntperus Oxycedrus from the Midi and Algeria: C. Houard.—On the biology of Melampyrum pratense: L. Gautier.—On the transformations of the nitrogenous materials in seeds in the course of maturation : G. André.—Observations on the fibrous intersections of 120 NATURE [JuNE 1, 1905 the polygastric muscles: J. Chaine.—The respiratory curve in the newly-born: L. Valois and Cc. Fleig.—On the food value of different kinds of bread: Pierre Fauvel. CALCUTTA. Asiatic Society of Bengal, May 3.—Contributions to Oriental herpetology, iii., notes on the Oriental lizards in the Indian Museum (part ii.), Lacertidae, Scincide, and Dibamide: Dr. N. Annandale. Three new Indian skinks are described, and four imperfectly diagnosed species re-described, while one, Lygosoma pulchellum, is added to the fauna. of Burma. Notes on other examples of the family and of the Lacertidz are given, based on the late Dr. J. Anderson’s collection from N.W. Asia and the late Prof. J. Wood-Mason’s from Sinkip Island and Malaya, as well as.the extensive Indian, Burmese, and Persian collec- tions in the museum. A revised list of the species recorded from India, Burma, and Ceylon is appended, with their distribution within these limits.—Materials for a flora of the Malayan Peninsula, No. 16: Sir G. King and J. S. Gamble. The present contribution to these materials con- tains the account of the genus Psychotria required to conclude the joint account by the authors of the natural order Rubiaceae commenced in part xiv. and continued in part xv. of this series. This account of Psychotria comprises descriptions of 26 completely represented and 3 imperfectly known species; of these, 11 species are new to science. In addition, this fasciculus contains accounts, for which the authors are jointly responsible, of several natural orders. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, Junet. oe INSTITUTION, at 5.—Electro-magnetic Waves: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S {INSTITUTION OF MrIninG ENGINEERS (in the Rooms of the Geological Society), at rr A.M.—The Firing of Babcock Boilers with Coke-oven Gases: T. Y. Greener.—Compound Winding-engine at Lumpsey Mine: M. R. Kirby.—Note Supplementary to a Paper on the Electric Driving of Winding-gears: F. Hird.—Electric Winding-engines at the Exhibition of the North of France, Arras; Pas-de-Calais : Ed. Lozé.—The Education of Mining Engineers in the United States: Prof. Howard Eckfeldt.—An Outline of Mining Education in New Zealand : Prof. James Park.—Goaf- blasts in Mines in the Giridih Coal-field, Bengal, India: Thomas Adamson. LINNEAN SOCIETY, at 8. Cuemicac Society, at 8.—(1) The Constituents of the Seeds of Hydno- carpus Wightiana and Hydnocarpus Anthelmintica. Isolation of a Homologue of Chaulmoogric Acid.—(2) The Constituents of the Seeds of Gynocardia Odorata: F. B. Power and M. Barrowcliff.—The Relation of Ammonium to the Alkali Metals. A Study of Ammonium Magnesium and Ammonium Zinc Sulphates and Selenates : A. E. H. Tutton.—Cam- phorylazoimide : M. O. Forster and H. E. Fierz.—Influence of Substitu- tion on the Formation of Diazoamines and Aminoazo-compounds. Part III. Azo-derivatives of the Symmetrically Disubstituted Primary Meta- diamines: G. T. Morgan and W. O. Wootton.—Diazo-derivatives of Mono-acylated Aromatic Para-diamines : G. T. Morgan and Miss F. M. G. Micklethwait.—The Significance of Optical Properties as Connoting Structure ; Camphorquinone-hydrazones-oximes ; a Contribution to the Chemistry of Nitrogen: H. E. Armstrong and W. Robertson.—Solubility asa Measure of the Change undergone by Isodynamic Hydrazones. (1) Camphorquinonephenylhydrazone. (2) Acetaldehydephenylhydrazone: W. Robertson.—The Design of Gas-regulators for Thermostats: T. M. Lowry.—The Constitution of Barbaloin. Part I.: H. A. D. Jowett and C. E. Potter.—Influence of Substitution on the Formation of Diazoamines and Aminoazo-compounds. Part IV. 5-Bromo-as(4)-dimethyl-2 : 4- diamine-toluene: G. T. Morgan and A. Clayton.—The Action of Hypobromous Acid on Piperazine ; F. D. Chattaway and W. H. Lewis.— The Action of Magnesium Methyl Iodide on Pinene Nitrosochloride : W. A. Tilden and J. A. Stokes.—Racemisation Phenomena during the Hydrolysis of Optically Active Menthyl and Bromyl Esters by Alkali : A. McKenzie, and H. B. Thompson. RONTGEN Society, at 8.15.—The Réntgen Congress in Berlin: Dr. W. Deane Butcher. FRIDAY, June 2. INSTITUTION OF MiniNG ENGINEERS (in the Rooms of the Geological Society), at ro.30 a.M.—The Conveyor-system for filling at the Coal-face, as practised in Great Britain and America: W. C. Blackett and R. G. Ware.—Underground Fires at the Greta Colliery, New South Wales: J. Jeffries.:—The Geology of Chunies Poort, Transvaal: A. R. Sawyer.—Underground Horses at an Indian Colliery: T: Adamson.— Description of the Eimbeck Duplex Base-line Bar : W. Eimbeck. Geotocists’ AssociaTion, at 8.—Note on a Piece of Mosasaurian Jaw obtained by G. E. Dibley from the Chalk of Cuxton, Kent: Dr. A. Smith Woodward.—The Chalk Area of North-east G. W. Young. Surrey : SATURDAY, June 3. Royat InsTiTuTION, at 3.—Exploration in the Philippines: A. H. Savage Landor. MONDAY, June 5. Royat Geocrapuicat Society, at 8.30.—Exploring Journeys in Asia Minor: Colonel P. H. H. Massy. NO. 1857, VOL. 72] Socmry or CuEemicat INpusTRY, at 8.—The Manufacture and Use of Art Papers: R. W. Sindall.—The Influence of Gelatine Sizing on the Strength of Paper: C. Beadle and H. P. Stevens, 4 INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES, at 5-—Annual General Meeting, TUESDAY, June 6. i ZootocicaL Society, at 8.30.—Notes on the Natural History of Western Uganda: Colonel C. Delmé-Radcliffe.—Descriptions of New Species of Gidionychis and:Allied Genera : M. Jacoby.—On the Intestinal Tract of Mammals: Dr. P..C. Mitchell. WEDNESDAY, June7. | Entomotocicat Society, at 8.—New African Lasiocampidz: Prof. C. Aurivillius—Rhynchota collected by Dr. A. H. Willey at Birara and Lifu: G. W. Kirkaldy, with an introduction by Dr. David Sharp. | GEoLocicaL Society, at 8.—The Microscopic Structure of Minerals forming Serpentine, and their Relation to its History: Prof. T. G. Bon- ney and Miss C. A. Raisin. —The Tarus of the Canton Ticino: Prof. E. J. Garwood. ys VicToRIA INSTITUTE, at 4.—Annual Meeting, The Earl of Halsbury will take the chair. . : Society oF PusLic ANALYSTS, at 8.—The Separation of Strychnine and Brucine: D. L. Howard.—Ammonium Oxalate, its Formula and Stability: P. V. Dupré.—(z) Notes on some Abnormal Milks from Cleveland and South-east Durham; (2) A Simple and Convenient Camera for Photomicrographic Work; A. C. Wilson.—The Composition and Analysis of Milk: H. D. Richmond. THURSDAY, June 8. 4 Roya Society, at 4.30.—Probable Papers: (1) On the Thermoelectric Junction as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures ; (2) Studies with the Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters: Sir James Dewar, F.R.S.—Colours in Metal Glasses, and in Metallic Films and Metallic Solutions: J. C. M. Garnett.—Correction to Dr. H. A. Wil- son’s Memoir ‘‘On the Electric Effect of Rotating a Dielectric in a Magnetic Field”: S. J. Barnett.—On the Application of Statistical Mechanics to the General Dynamics of Matter and Ether. The General Method of Statistical Mechanics: J. H. Jeans.—On the Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys not containing Iron: Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and R. A. Hadfield.—On the Phosphorescent Spectrum of $6 and Europium: Sir William Crookes, F.R.S.—On the Perturbations of the Bielid Meteors: Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S.—1lhe Pharmaco- logy of Indaconitine and Bikhaconitine: Prof. J. T. Cash, F.R.S., and Prof. W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S.—And other papers. Rovac InstiTuTION, at 5.—Electromagnetic Waves: Prof. J. A. Flem- ing, F.R.S. eM, Society, at 5.30.—On a Class of Many-valued Functions Defined by a Definite Integral: G. H. Hardy. FRIDAY, June 9. tae Rovat INsTITUTION, at 9.—Submarine Navigation : Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R S. Roya ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 5. CONTENTS. Public Health and Sewage Purification. . ... 97 An American Contribution to Archeology. By IRs \Elallingeg) ° ° . (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) 4 ane ee See maae or Roeiss M pi % ie- New Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, post free i Illa. 165 Slides’... ie sa ays is ALBERT EDWARD JAMRAGH COLLECTIONS OF MINERALS, FOSSILS, METEORITES, (Late CHARLES JAMRACH), PURCHASED FOR CASH OR EXCHANGED. NATURALIST, The fifth edition of Catalogue No. 4, Petragrap/y, has just 180 ST. GEORGE STREET EAST been published (210 pages), and will be sent free of charge on application. Implements of Savage Warfare, Idols, Sacred Masks, Peruvian Pottery, ppicaty ee Asie = Netsukis China, Lacquers, Gongs, Shells, and other Curios. ee Faces Dr. F. KRANTZ, MIGROSCOPIGAL PETROGRAPHY. | RHENISH MINERAL OFFICE, BONN-ON-RHINE, GERMANY. ; : nti ESTABLISHED 1833. Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., | 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., OF for a Prospectus of | . THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF | By E. L. N. ARMBRECHT. 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SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘ NATURE.” CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. &£ s.d.|To art Praces AproaD:— 4& Ss. a. ai as a % Siide 6 a we & s4 a: *Three Lines in Column ce ee bl uarter Page, or ha Seay: ; : eaves Wey pO Seiimecise 6 oe. 5. © © al a Column Sass: (o Half-yearly . c - 014 6 Half-yearly . - - 015 6) One Sixteenth Page,or Kighth Col. 10 ©| yrai¢g Page, oraColumn 3 5 2 Quarterly ¢ 5 Se os Quarterly é ° . o 8 o| One Bighth Page, or Quarter 2 > | Column 5 . . 018 6]| Whole Page . eo ofeh Ah * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CC., Limited. OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. l NATURE [JUNE 1, 1905 ELECTROLYTIC CONDENSERS of 100 mf. mf Capa Occupy a space of only I2X12X1I4in, high. Full particulars ow WOODHOUSE ~ INCLINED PLANE. The NEW SESONANGE APPARATUS Price 25/- Is Now ON YWIEW, Or Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlet may be had on applicatio TOWNSON & MERCER, ISENTHAL & 60., ae Mortimer St., ‘onion, w. . India, & Co. 34 CAMOMILE STREET, E.C. GE. MULLER, ORME & CO., CONTRACTORS TO HIS dt ’S GOVERNMENT, 148 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON WW:.. MANUFACTURERS OF APPARATUS FOR TEACHING CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS, MECHANICS, HYDROSTATICS, &c. DEALERS IN PURE AND COMMERCIAL CHEMICALS. STUDENTS’ SETS OF APPARATUS. LISTS:—Chemical Apparatus—Chemicals—Balances—Assay—Thermometers—Electrical Apparatus—Focus Tubes, X-Ray, and Wireless Telegraphy Apparatus—or SPECIAL WHOLESALE (for Quantities)—free on application. THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC GOMPANY’S | LATEST INTRODUCTION | Che “Artist” Reflex Camera For Day-Light Loading Flat Films or Plates. The Ideal Camera for Photographing Figure Studies, Animals, Natural History Subjects, Architecture, Landscapes, &e. The picture can be viewed the full size and focussed right up to the moment of exposure. Write for Fully Illustrated Booklet (N) Free from 106 & 108 REGENT ST., W., or 54 CHEAPSIDE. Pri ates by. Ri ICHARD CLay AND Sons, Limitep, at 7 & 8 Bread uae eet ‘Hil, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MacmiLtan , Ltm1rep, at St. Martin's Street, London, W.C., and THE MacmiLian feat 66 Fifth Ave nue, New Yor! k.—T'HURSDAY, June 1, 1905. eit | A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF. SCIENCE | “To the solid ground ; Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’—WoORDSWORTH. INDEX NUMBER - NO Moyo Olen 72)| [Price ONE SHILLING __ THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1905. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] [All Rights are Reserved. » NEW PATTERN ‘‘NEWTONIAN” ELECTRIC LANTERN. 5067 New Iron-Body Lantern, with brass front, fitted on mahogany board, 4-in. double Condenser, best full-size achro- matic Front Lens, and ‘‘ Newtonian” Hand-Feed Arc Lamp. Complete in Case £10 10s. NEWTON & CO., OPTICIANS TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING AND HR.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE GOVERNMENT, 3 BLEET STREET, LONDON. THE NEW “LONDON” MICROSCOPE. With Eye-piece % inch, } inch Object - glasses, in Mahogany Case, £5 12s. 6d. Double Nose-piece, 9/- extra. Focussing Substage, 14/6 extra. <= R. & J. BECK, Ltd., 68 CORNHILL, LONDON. CHEAP | LABORATORY THE “IDEAL” | CLAMP. Price Lists Special Pamphlet. ww. G PYE & CO., SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS, GRANTA WORKS, CAMBRIDGE. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S ANEROID BAROMETERS. NEW ILLUSTRATED AND REVISED PRICE LISTS Free by Post. The Watch Size WE Aneroid for forételling E weather and measur- ing heights. 38 Holborn Viaduct, E.C. Branches— 45 Cornhill; 122 Regent Street. NATURE [JuNnE 8, 1905 COUNTY OF LONDON. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL PAD- DINGTON TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. SUMMER COURSES OF LECTURES. | : Short Courses of Lectures in the undermentioned subjects will be given at the L.C.C. Paddington Technical Institute, Saltram Crescent (near Westbourne Park Station), provided a sufficient number of students be enrolled :— Gas and Oil Engines. Practical Workshop. The work of some great British Physicists. Chemistry of Alkaloids. Mathematics. Slide Rule. House Sanitation. Land Surveying. Experimental Mechanics for Building Trades. Railway Economics and Mechanics. Botany. Art. : A fee of 2s. will be charged, and this will admit students to all or any of the classes. Full particulars as to the length of the courses, evenings and time of meeting of the classes, may be obtained on application to the SECRETARY of the [nstituté. G. L. GOMME, Education Offices, Clerk of the London County Council. Victoria Embankment, W.C., June 1, 1905. METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD. DIRECTOR OF WATER EXAMINATIONS. The Metropolitan Water Board are about to appoint on their permanent staff a Chief Officer who will be styled DIRECTOR OF WATER EXAMINATIONS, and whose duties will be to advise the Board as to the buildings, equipment and staff to be provided (under section 25 of the Metropolis Water Act, 1902), and subsequently to take charge and super- vision thereof. The Director will also be required to give his whole time to the work, and to superintend and be responsible to the Board for all examin- ations, analyses, experiments and reports, and to undertake such research work and chemical analyses and bacteriological investigations, whether of water or otherwise, as may from time to time be required of him by the Board. The appointment will be held during the pleasure of the Board, and the salary will be £1000 per annum. Applications for the appointment must be made in writing, and must state the age, qualifications, experience and present occupation of the applicants. Official forms of application may be obtained from the undersigned, and should be used if practicable. Applications must be enclosed in sealed envelopes endorsed ‘ Director” and addressed to the undersigned; the last day for receiving them is Tuesday, July 11, 1905. Canvassing members of the Board will be strictly prohibited and will be regarded as a disqualification. A. B. PILLING, Savoy Court, Strand, W.C., Clerk of the Board. May 31, 1905. ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. The SECRETARYSHIP of this Society will be Vacant on August 31. Salary, £200 per annum. The gentleman holding the office would require to be willing to give his whole time to its duties. Written applications, stating age, qualifications, references, &c., should be addressed to ‘* THE HONORARY SECRETARIES, GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, I Queen Street, Edinburgh,” not later than June 26, 1905. It is particularly requested that there be no canvassing of Members of Council. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER IN MATHEMATICS. Commencing Salary £175, to date from September x next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifica- tions, teaching experience, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the PRINCIPAL not later than Tuesday, June 20. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. a TO SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL MASTERS.—Required (1) For Technical School, Special Subjects, Electro Technics and Electricity, £160 to £200. (2) Chemistry, Physics, Mechanics, and Maths., £120, resident, or the post might be non-resident. School in Ireland. (3) Well-qualified Master to teach Electricity, must have had experience in the organisation of the work of a Local Technical Instruction Committee, £150 to £200. (4) Graduate, or A.R.C.S. for Chemistry, Physics, and Mechanics, 4100, resident. Endowed Grammar School. (5) Maths., Chemistry, and Physics, £120. County School. For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GrirFiTHs, SMITH, Powett & Situ, Tutorial Agents (Estd, over 70 years), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London, E | BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES. J. E. Macxenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc. Chemistry .. .. AE. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B-Sc. ALBERT GRIFFITHS, D.Sc. Physics ... aot 5 ~({B: Owen, B.A., B.Sc. B. pi eo Be . E. H. Smart, M.A. Mathematics eee W. G. Birt, BA. B.Sc. : A. B. RENDLE, M.A. .Sc. Botany ... mmo fF Fritscu, Ph.D., B.Sc. Zoology ... = Ans “43 « H. W. UntHank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy «. Gero, F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Gero. Parcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, & Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES also in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Land and Quantity Surveying, and Estimating. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS. Each of the value of about £96. (Founded by the late T. Ausrey Bowen, Esq., of Melbourne, Australia. (az) Two BOWEN SCHOLARSHIPS in ENGINEERING. (4) One BOWEN SCHOLARSHIP in METALLURGY. (c) Three PRIESTLEY SCHOLARSHIPS in CHEMISTRY. The object of these Scholarships is to encourage higher work and research in Scientific Professional Engineering and in Chemical and Metallurgical Science. Applications, supported by details of educational training, and references to former teachers and others, should be sent to the REGISTRAR on or before June 19, 1995. The Scholarships will be tenable during the Session 1905-6. Further particulars may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAk. UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. LONG VACATION COURSE, 1905. PATHOLOGY, PUBLIC HEALTH AND PHARMACOLOGY. This year the work of the Long Vacation Course will be divided into three sections: (1) (for D.P.H. Students) commencing on Monday, June 26, and (2) (for Junior Students of Medicine) and (3) (for Advanced Students, Medical Men, Veterinary Surgeons, &c.) commencing on Monday, July 3. Any further information may be obtained from Mr. E. E. Stuppincs, Pathological Laboratory, Medical School, Cambridge. Cambridge, May 19, 1905. B.Sc. EXAMS. B.A. ano MATRICULATION, INTERMEDIATE, FINAL. PREPARATION by CORRESPONDENCE and ORAL TUITION on a THOROUGHLY INDIVIDUAL SYSTEM. Fees based on success. The STAFF includes Graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Royal Universities, Science Medallists, Prizemen, Scholars, &c. SINGLE SUBJECTS TAKEN: Science, Mathematics, Logic, Psychology, Political Economy, Latin, Greek, French, German, &c. For terms, &c., address Mr. J. CHarteston, B.A. (Lond. and Oxon.), Burlington Correspondence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET ROAD, LONDON, E.C. The Governing Body invite applications for the following vacant appoint- ments :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. DRAWING OFFICE and LECTURE ASSISTANT, full time. Salary, £120 per annum. PATTERN MAKER and INSTRUCTOR in PATTERN MAKING, full time. Salary, £120 per annum. JUNIOR DRAWING OFFICE INSTRUCTOR, full time. Salary, 4100 per annum. LABORATORY DEMONSTRATOR for the Engineering Laboratories, full time. JUNIOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANT, full time. EVENING INSTRUCTOR in AUTOMOBILE WORK. two even- ings per week. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. JUNIOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANT, full time. JUNIOR LECTURE ASSISTANT, full time. Further particulars of any of the above, with forms of application, which should be returned not later than ro a.m. on Thursday. June 29, 190s, can be obtained on application by letter to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.5Sc., Princ’pal. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see gage liv. NATURE litt Typewriter for Beautiful Work. Swift, Quiet, and Convenient. Illustrated Booklet Post Free The YOST TYPEWRITER GO., Ltd., 50 Holborn Viaduct, London, E.C. DR. H. STROUD’S Apparatus for DETERMINING THE VELOCITY OF SOUND IN AIR, BY THE METHOD OF RESONANCE. The Resonance Tube is 3 ft. long, with a graduated scale fixed at the side. The sliding reservoir moves easily in a grooved frame, so that the water level can be ‘quickly altered. Price, in Polished Mahogany Stand, 24/- SOLE MAHKERS— BRADY & MARTIN, Lio, Scientific Apparatus Makers, NEWCASTLE - UPON - TYNE. Makers and Dealers in all kinds of Chemica] and Physical Apparatus for Schools and Colleges, Works’ Laboratories and Special Research Work. CONSTRUCTION OF NEW FORMS OF APPARATUS UNDERTAKEN. PTR DIOL vc Metol-Quinol Developer. Equally good for plates, films, bromide papers, gas- light papers and lantern slides. Economical and compact : portable and keeps. Sold by all dealers and chemists. WRITE FOR BOOKLET GRATIS. BURROUGHS WELLCOME AND CO., LONDON, SYDNEY AND CAPE TOWN. Chief Offices—Snow Hill Buildings, London. PHO. 70 coryaiahT] W. WILSON. STUDENT'S SPECTROMETER. Telescope and prism table reading to I min. ; clamp and fine adjustment to both. Rack-motion to tele- scope; prism table adjustable vertically and horizontally. Ad- justable slit to colli- mator. Protected = — circle. In case. Price oe . £6 00 A very large number of these instruments have been sold, nd have given exceptional satisfaction. 1 BELMONT STREET, LONDON, N.W. Accurate and Inexpensive. cy | =e 21 / 4 p* @ Bo, ou = Nae ree a c S THE NEW PATENT PIESMIC BAROMETER. Descriptive To be obtained of all Opticians, or f]- AKuOLS KN 44 Pamphlet the SOLE MAKERS, Post Free. EF. DARTON &CO., CLERKENWELL OPTICAL WORKS, 142 ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C. liv NATURE [JuNE 8, 1905 INDIAN FOREST SERVICE. An Examination will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners on August 29, 1905, for the selection of not less than nine candidates for appointment as PROBATIONERS for the Indian Forest Service. Age limits :—18 to 21 years, on January 1, 1905. Subjects of examination :—Mechanizs and Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. 3 Applications for admission to the examination must be made on a printed form to be obtained (with further particulars as to the appointments, &c.) from the SECRETARY, Judicial and Public Department, India Office, White- hall, London, S.W., and to be returned to him not later than Saturday, July 1, 1905. No applications received after that date will be considered. A. GODLEY, Under Secretary of State. India Office, London, May 11, 1905. INDIAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT. Selection will be made on or before July 15 next for a vacancy in the grade of ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT. Candidates should address the UnpER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA, India Office, London, S.W., from whom particulars can be obtained regarding qualifi- cations and other conditions of appointment. Preliminary notice is also given that in 1906 there will be at least one more vacancy, for which applications should be made in July, 1906. India Office, London, May 27, 1905. AGRICULTURE AND LANDS DEPART- MENT, SUDAN GOVERNMENT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as DEPUTY INSPECTORS in the Agriculture and Lands Department of the Sudan Government. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess the National Diploma, a University Degree or College Dip- loma, in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorough knowledge of Agriculture from the practical standpoint. The commencing salary will be £420 per annum (about £430 sterling). The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birth certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. FoapEn, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may be obtained. KHEDIVIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, CAIRO, EGYPT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as INSPECTORS under the Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess a University Degree or Diploma in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorough knowledge of agriculture from the practical standpoint. The commencing salary will be £350 per annum. The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible after September 1 next. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birth certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. Foap=n, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may be obtained. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. The Governors of the above Institute invite applications for the following appointments to date from September 1, 1905 :— (2) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Drawing office and shop experience essential. Salary, £150 per annum. (2) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Architectural and Building Trades Department. Salary, £125 per annum. Applications to be made on special forms, which must be returned not later than June 10, to be obtained from W. M. MACBETH, Secretary. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. The Council of the College invites applications for the Post of DEMONSTRATOR and ASSISTANT LECTURER in GEOLOGY. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications with testimonials (which need not be printed) must be sent on or before Tuesday, July 4, 1905. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, B.A., Registrar. June 6, 1905 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL. The Council invite applications for the post of LECTURER in BOTANY. Salary, £120 per annum. Applications and three copies of three recent testimonials to be sent in by June 16 to the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained. JAMES RAFTER, Registrar and Secretary. PETERHEAD BURGH SCHOOL BOARD. WANTED, as RECTOR for PETERHEAD ACADEMY (Higher Grade School), a Graduate in Arts, with Teaching and Organising experi- ence ; Science qualifications a recommendation. Minimum salary, £300. The Rector is also organising Headmaster of the Evening Classes at an additional remuneration of Ten Guineas. To commence duty about Sep- tember 1 next. Applications, with nine copies of testimonials, to be lodged on or before 23rd instant with THOMAS MACKIE, School Board Offices, Clerk to the School Board. Peterhead, June 5, 1905. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. Applications are invited for the post of JUNIOR ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Some acquaintance with Experi- mental Mechanics, and with the practical teaching of Mathematics generally, is desired. The appointment will be made for a term of three years at asalary of £150 per annum. Applications should be sent to the REGISTRAR not later than June 24. BOROUGH OF LANCASTER MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL. STOREY INSTITUTE. WANTED, a SCIENCE TEACHER. Principal subjects, Electro- Technics, Electricity. Salary, A160 to 4200. Form of application, PRINCIPAL, Storey Institute, Lancaster. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. The Council invite applications for the vacant CHAIR of ENGINEER- ING. The income of the Chair consists of a fixed stipend and share o fees, and is guaranteed at not less than £900 per annum for five years. | Applications, with references and, if the candidate desires, testimonials, are requested not later than June 21. Further particulars on application to the REGISTRAR. COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. A JUNIOR ASSISTANT who can help in the teaching of elementary classes is required in the PHYSICS Department. Some knowledge of Electrical Engineering essential. Salary, £50 per annum. For further Particulars apply to THOS. THORP, Secretary. INDIA.—Two Masters wanted in August for Church School at favourite Hill Station, (1) for Mathematics, (2) for Science. Must be Graduates and Communicants. Salaries, Rs. 300 a month; resident. Organist could earn Rs. 60 extra. Free passage. Testimonials and statement of age, &c., must accompany enquiries.— Address Professor Lewis, Cambridge. Metallurgical Laboratory, well equipped for experimental work, to let at low rent. One minute from Station. Fifteen minutes to City. Apply MarsHatt & Co., Campbell Works, Stoke Newington, N. (close to Station, G.E.R.). Tel., 79 Dalston. 18-inch Apps-Newton Coil for sale, in perfect condition. No trace of oxidation on the vulcanite. G. Bowron, 57 Edgware Road, W. PHOTOMICROGRAPHY for Publishers, Lecturers, Manufacturers, and general scientific research. Good work, moderate charges.—Saxpy, 80 Ampthill Road, Aigburth, Liverpool. For Sale, the last 20 volumes of ‘* Nature,”’ 14 vols. uniformly bound in cloth.—J. Cu1tweEtt, Wednesbury. F. G. CUTTELL, Preparer of ROCKS, MINERALS, &c., for Microscopic Examination.—19 Abbotstone Road, Putney, S.W. MICROSCOPICAL and LANTERN SLIDES of Natural History Subjects, from G/= per doz. Write for Catalogues to the ACTUAL MAKERS— FLATTERS & GARNETT, Ltd., 48 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. LABORATORIES ; GHURCH ROAD, LonasicHT, M/c. Microscopical Slides showing Karyokinesis in Pinus, 1/- Hundreds of Marine Zoology Slides from 9d. each. Textile Fibres and Paper Making Materials, 1/= each. NATURE STUDY REQUISITES. JUNE 8, 1905] NATURE lv HEELES FAMOUS SPECTROMETER The axis, carrying the divided circle and observing-telescope, is carefully ground into the exceedingly durable cast-iron stand ; the collimator is firmly connected with the stand, while the divided circle and observing-telescope can be turned about their axes independently as well as together ; both have clamps and micrometer motion ; goniometrical determinations may also be done after Wollaston’s method, and, when a Gauss’s eye-piece is used, according to Gau-s’s method. . These spectrometers are especially for universal use, as there is plenty of space between the telescopes, and supplied with circle divided into 4°, reading to I minute by means of verniers ; collin ator and observing telescope have a diameter of } in. and a focal length of 7 in. ; with one eye-piece, magnifying four times ; adjustable slit with micrometer-screw and comparison-prism. SESS 3s AS =: OC net. PETER HEELE, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Maker of Physical, Chemical and other Instruments, and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeter. Grand Prix, Paris, 1900; St. Lowis, 1904; and other high awards, Telegrams: ts RRA London. FOR VIEWING NEGATIVE PLATES. Made to take any size Plate. PRICE COMPLETE, &6& 10s. ELECTRIC LIGHT BATHS of all kinds. Special Illustrated List Post Free. HARRY W. COx, Lta., ACTUAL MAKERS of X-Ray, &c., Apparatus to the Admiralty, War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c., 4a ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL ST., ; LONDON, E.C. ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE (including Instructions to Beginners) Post Free. HART EY & PEAK (BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.) WAVE MOTION. Makers of the new Apparatus illustrating Wave Motion, designed and used by Dr. J. A. FLEMING in the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. READING MICROSCOPES, RESISTANCE COILS, &c. 56 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. g@&- SPECIAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, INSTITUTES, &c. —33i ee NATURE CHARLES GRIFFIN & CO., Ltd., PUBLISHERS. Jusr Reavy. In Medium 8vo. Handsome Cloth. THE SYNTHETIC DYESTUFFS And the Intermediate Products from which they are Derived. By JOHN CANNELL CAIN, D.Sc., and JOCELYN FIELD THORPE, Ph.D. Theoretical. Part III. Practical. APPENDIX. In Large Bvo ~ ‘Handsome Cloth. 16s. net. A Dictionary of DYES, MORDANTS, & OTHER COMPOUNDS Used in Dyeing and Calico Printing. By CHRISTOPHER RAWSON, F.I.C., F.C.S., WALTER M. GARDINER, F.C.S., and W. F. LAYCOCK, Ph.D., F.C.S. “Turn to the book as one may on any subject, or any substance in connection with the trade, and a reference is sure to be found. The authors have apparently left nothing out.” —Textile Mercury. Part I. Analytical. Part II. In Large 8vo. Handsome Cloth. Fully Illustrated. Qs. net. THE TEXTILE FIBRES OF COMMERCE. A Hand-book of the Occurrence, Distribution, and Industrial Uses of the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Products used in Spinning and Weaving. By WILLIAM I. HANNAN, Lecturer at the Ashton Municipal Technical School, Chorley Science and Art School, &c. . . Admirable illustrations.” —Textile Recorder. “Useful information. . Large 8vo. Profusely Illustrated with Plates and Figures in the Text. 16s. net. THE SPINNING AND TWISTING OF LONG VEGETABLE FIBRES (Flax, Hemp, Jute, Tow, and Ramie). A Practical Manual of the most Modern Methods as applied to the Hackling, Carding, Preparing, Spinning, and Twisting of the Long Vegetable Fibres of Commerce. By HERBERT R. CARTER, Belfast and Lille. ‘“We must highly commend the work as representing up-to-date practice."’—Nature. REYNOLDS a BRANSON, L™ RYSTOS STAND DEVELOPING TANK. For Developing plates or cut films slowly in a very weak developer. Clean in use; gives excel- lent results with a minimum of trouble. MADE OF STOUT POLISHED COPPER. Tank to take 6 plates 15” x 12”, and:with Adapters to suit any smaller plate; complete, &1: 10: o This arrangement is specially recommended to Radiographers and other Scientific Photographers. Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only 4/6 each. Tank to hold 1 doz. 5” x 4” plates only S/- ss Tank to hold 1 doz. 4 plates only 6- ,, Postage on any of above three sizes, 4d. extra. NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PRICE LIST, 25th EDITION, ON APPLICATION. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. [JUNE 8, 1905 A NEW PATTERN FORTIN’S STANDARD BAROMETER Registered Design No. 420,297. As will be seen by the illustration, this Barometer is built on original lines. By the absence of the ordinary tubular enclosures (in the usual form of instrument) the mercurial column is FULLY EXPOSED to view, NO SHADOWS are thrown upon the column, and therefore an extremely accurate and in- stantaneous reading is made possible. The scales being graduated upon the flat side p'eces the DIVISIONS AND FIGURES ARE ALWAYS IN VIEW, and the vernier is very much more legible than in the ordinary tubular patterns. The bore of the tube is 0°5 ineh. The scales are graduated in inches and millimetres, and, by means of the verniers, are capable of being sub-divided to read to 0°002 inches and 0°1 m/m. The attached Thermometer on the body of the instru- ment is graduated in Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales. It is the BOLDEST Standard Barometer made. The PRICE IS LOWER than that of any other form of Standard Barometer of the same dimensions. _ It yields readings equally close as the highest priced instruments. Price complete, mounted on handsome Polished Solid Mahogany Board, with Brackets for Sus- pension, and Opal Glass Reflectors, £7 10s. Od. SMALLER SIZE, “THE STUDENTS,” designed for Schools for demonstration work, and small private Observatories ; bore *25 ; reading to ‘01 inch and *1 millimetre. £3 Js. Gd. Sole Manufacturers and Proprietors of the Regd. Design: PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, LtD., 46, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. WHOLESALE MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Telegrams: Rapkin, Lonpon. Nar. Tet.:1981 Holborn. Estd. r50 years. Write for Circular. | VOLUMETRIC APPARATUS Verified and Stamped at the NATIONAL PHY SICAL LABORATORY. JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Litd., SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. NATURE I2] THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 105. A MANUAL OF QUATERNIONS. A Manual of Quaternions. Joly, F.R.S. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Pp. xxvii+320. Price ros. net. ROF. C. J. JOLY’S ‘‘ Manual of Quaternions ”’ is an important addition to the literature of the sub- ject. It at once takes rank with Tait’s ‘‘ Treatise ’’ as an eminently serviceable exposition of Hamilton’s great calculus. Hamilton’s own works, the { Lectures ”’ and the «*Elements,’’ are in their way inimitable. Unfortu- nately, their style is not suited to the average student eager to acquire a working knowledge of the mathe- matical method developed in them. Tait alone of the younger contemporaries of Hamilton seemed to have been able to appreciate the ‘‘ Lectures ’’; but he him- self used to relate how, as he laboriously read through the first six, he began to despair of his own powers. There seemed to be such diffuse discussion, and withal so little apparent progress. But the seventh lecture came like a transformation scene. Every page dis- played new beauties, every paragraph disclosed the marvellous power and variety of the method. From it Tait drew his inspiration, and proceeded to enlighten the world as to the meaning and purpose of the quaternion. To the student who has grasped the essentials of the method Hamilton’s second volume, the ‘ Ele- ments,’’ will always prove a happy hunting ground; but experience has shown that its very completeness acts as a deterrent. In the much smaller treatise written by Tait, the important practical aspects of quaternions are more rapidly though less logically de- veloped, and the chief value of Tait’s work lies in his characteristic treatment of dynamical and physical problems. It has been long felt, however, that a good working manual of quaternions was needed, by use of which the mathematical student could come quickly into touch with all that is essential in the calculus. This is what Prof. Joly has endeavoured to supply. For reasons clearly explained in the preface, the author has (reluctantly, he confesses) forsaken the Hamiltonian approach. Instead of developing the cal- culus logically from the definition of a quaternion as the ratio of two vectors, he defines independently the quantities Sa8 and Vaf, and then writes the product a8 as equal to the sum of these two. The student must, of course, take on trust that there is some good reason for defining Se8 as minus the product of the length of one vector into the length of the projection of the other upon it. This is, at root, the peculiarity of Hamilton’s system which troubled O’Brien nearly sixty years ago, and has not ceased to trouble occasional critics since. There is a kind of notion hovering about in some minds that the positive sign in algebra is more natural than the negative sign, the truth being, of course, that the one necessarily implies the other. It is to be feared, however, that this apparently arbitrary assumption of the negative sign in translating Saf into ordinary trigonometrical notation (Clifford calls it a 0. 1858, VOL. 72] By Prof. Charles Jasper convention) will puzzle many a student. Prof. Joly soon gives the reason for the negative sign, though not quite so definitely as might be desirable; but it is questionable if its full significance will be appreciated until considerable progress has been made in acquiring quaternionic skill. The reader is advised to exercise a strong faith, and to proceed nothing fearing. If he persevere he will soon get out of the valley of the shadow of the negative sign. It is possible that some critic may regard this for- saking of Hamilton’s logical basis as a confession of weakness. But this is not so. The weakness is in the average student, for whom a somewhat simple intel- lectual diet must be prepared in the hope that the mental digestion may be strengthened sufficiently to assimilate the strong Hamiltonian food which Prof. Joly serves up a little later. The truth is that very few students are able to appreciate to the full an absolutely logical argument until they have a certain amount of practical knowledge imparted to them more or less by authority. So far as the principle of the method is concerned, Prof. Joly ranges himself at first on the side of those vector analysts who neglect the quaternion, But it is only for a couple of pages at the beginning of chapter ii. On p. 8 the important formula (ab = SaB + Vas) is introduced as a definition of the quaternion, and the quaternion is never afterwards lost sight of. Its fundamental importance and analytic value are in evidence on every page. It must be admitted that by this line of approach the reader is rapidly brought into touch with the essential elements of the subject. There is, nevertheless, a certain arbitrariness which is not satisfying to the mind, nor is it clear when all is done what is really fundamental. A critically minded student might possibly be inclined to say, Why not define Saf as plus the product of the lengths of the vectors into the cosine of the angle between them, and then define the quaternion 8 by the formula Va8— Sap? At first sight it seems to amount to the same thing, and yet, as will be found on trial, it leads to a system clothed in quaternion garments, but more like the fabulous ass in the lion’s skin than the real lion. Having thus established in chapter ii. the funda- mental properties of the quaternion, Prof. Joly rapidly runs over certain important transformations of vector products and ratios (chapters iii. and iv.), and simple applications to the geometry of the straight line, plane and circle (chapters v. and vi.). Then follow, treated in separate chapters, differentiation, linear vector functions, quadric surfaces, and the geometry of curves and surfaces. Here the power of the calculus asserts itself strongly. Numerous examples are supplied throughout for the student to work upon and develop his analytical skill. In subsequent chapters dynamical problems of various kinds are taken up—such as as- tatic equilibrium, screws and wrenches, strains, central forces, constrained motion, motion of a rigid body, and the like. A valuable and well arranged chapter on the operator v treats of heterogeneous strain, spherical harmonics, hydrodynamics, elasticity, electromag- netic theory, and wave propagation generally. The G 122 NATURE [JuNnE 8, 1905 treatment is by no means superficial, and is, in. many places highly condensed. It is all done in forty-two pages, a remarkable testimony to the compactness of quaternion notation and the brevity of quaternion proofs. In chapter xvii., on projective geometry, Prof. Joly gives his own interesting extension, in which a new interpretation is assigned to the quaternion, and he concludes in chapter with quaternions generalised so as to be applicable to space of any number of dimensions. There can be no question as to the high merits of the ‘* Manual of Quaternions.’’ It is a worthy com- panion volume to the master’s own great works. Like the *‘ Elements ’’ of Hamilton and the ‘‘ Elementary Treatise’? of Tait, it is characterised by the extra- ordinary range of mathematical subjects which come within its scope. It is not merely the substitution of one symbol for three or one for four which makes this condensation possible, for that, after all, is a question simply of notation. But the quaternion calculus re- joices in the possession of two remarkable operators, the linear vector function ¢ and the vector differen- tiator y. They operate singly and in combination according to laws which naturally evolve them- selves. from the fundamental laws of the calculus. They can be linked together in an endless variety of ways, and go far to give to Hamilton’s quaternions a flexibility, power, and pictorial compactness not possessed by any other general method which is directly applicable to problems of mathematics pure and apphed. These features are exquisitely brought out in Prof. Joly’s ‘‘ Manual.” Gy 'Gavk XViil. SOME MEDICAL WORKS. (1) New Methods of Treatment. By Dr. Laumonier. Translated from the second revised and enlarged French edition, and edited by Dr. H. W. Syers. Pp. xvii+321. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (2) The Surgery of the Diseases of the Appendix Vermiformis and their Complications. By W. H. Battle and E. M. Corner. Pp. xi+208. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (3) Clinical and Pathological Observations on Acute Abdominal Diseases. (The Erasmus Wilson Lec- tures, 1904.) By E. M. Corner. Pp. 98. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 3s. 6d. net. (4) A Short Treatise on Anti-Typhoid Inoculation. By Dr. A. E. Wright. Pp. x+76. (London: Con- stable and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 3s. 6d. net. (5) The Suppression of Tuberculosis. By Prof. E. von Behring. Authorised translation by Dr. Charles Bolduan. Pp. v+85. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price 4s. 6d. net. (1) VERY year a multitude of substances, chiefly synthetic, is introduced, every one being extolled as a certain cure for this or that ailment. By good fortune one of them is now and then found to be of real value, and for a time at least finds a place in the *‘ aramentaria medica,’’ but the majority in a year or two pass into oblivion. Similarly new NO. 1858, \OL. 72] modes of treatment come and go, most of them being of littlke worth. But the medical practitioner is ex- pected to know of-all these medicinal substances and vagaries of treatment, and must be prepared to employ any one of them at the suggestion of some faddist who happens to consult him. From this point of view the first book on our list may be a useful guide, but otherwise one would be inclined to ask, cui bono? Some of the substances included in the volume are by no means new, e.g. thyroid, guaiacol, and the anti- toxic sera, while others which have a greater claim to novelty, and are, moreover, of real value, such as aspirin, acetozone, urotropine and cystamine, and purgen, are omitted, In dealing with tetanus anti- toxin, no mention is made of injection into the spinal cord or nerve trunks. As regards phosphorised prin- ciples, lecithin, glycerophosphates, &c., which have of late been extolled in wasting diseases and nervous affections, the administration of a couple of eggs a day would probably be of far greater benefit than any of the medicinal preparations of these substances. (2) Messrs. Battle and Corner give a_ succinct account of the anatomy, pathology, symptoms, and treatment of that common and fashionable malady appendicitis which may be safely recommended as a guide for the medical practitioner. The origin and function of the vermiform appendix are discussed, that little blind tubular appendage of the bowel in- flammation of which gives rise to so much trouble. The appendix has usually been regarded as a vestigial structure and useless in function, but the researches of Mr. R. Y. A. Berry, of Edinburgh, suggest that it is a specialised mass of lymphoid tissue which the authors conceive may serve as a defensive mechanism against bacterial invasion in a portion of the bowel where, for anatomical and other reasons, there is a delay in the passage of the intestinal contents on- wards, and special protection is therefore required against the absorption of bacterial products. (3) This work is based on material collected in com- pilation of the Erasmus Wilson lectures, 1904. The author states that the main object of his lectures was to direct attention to the identity of the pathological changes concerned in the production of all acute per- forative and gangrenous processes of the alimentary tract. He suggests that two extremes of tissue death or necrosis may be recognised, viz. that due to de- privation of blood and that caused by the action of micro-organisms. Between these two there are various grades and admixtures; the former is slow in action, the latter very rapid, and it is this which plays so important a part in abdominal necrosis. The work is practically a collection of notes, but is interesting reading. (4) Prof. Wright has done well to collect into a single volume the various papers, with amplifications, he has from time to time contributed to various journals on the subject of anti-typhoid vaccination. The method of preparation of the vaccine, theoretical and practical considerations as to its use, and statistics of its value are all considered. With regard to the last named, it must be mentioned that some con- troversy has taken place in the medical Press as to June 8, 1905] NAL OLE 13 the validity of Prof. Wright’s conclusions from the | statistical evidence. (5) This little book should be in the hands of every hygienist, and, since it deals largely with bovine tuberculosis, of every scientific stock owner. Behring is one of those who not only disbelieves the dictum of Koch of the essential distinction between human and bovine tuberculosis, but the other ex- treme, and asserts that ‘‘ the mill fed to infants is the chief cause of consumption,’’ and he would insist on the pasteurisation of all milk. He asserts that pul- monary tuberculosis (phthisis or consumption of the lungs) & not an infection from inhaled tubercle bacilli. Besides pasteurisation, Behring also recom- mends the use of formalin as a preservative of milk, a procedure which will probably not commend itself to the authorities here, though there is a good deal to be said in its favour. Finally, he describes a method of vaccinating cattle against the tubercle bacillus by the aid of which he hopes eventually to stamp out bovine tuberculosis, and as a consequence human tuberculosis, a consummation devoutly to be hoped for. ie is Lal goes to THE PIONEERS OF GEOLOGICAL THOUGHT. Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff, der Bahnbrecher moderner Geologie. By Dr. Otto Reich. Pp. xvi+144. (Leipzig : Veit and Co., 1905.) Price 4 marks. HIS clearly written work, undertaken with a just enthusiasm, is a welcome and permanent con- tribution to the biography of scientific men. Von Hoff’s position as an original thinker is at least equal to that of Lyell, though both writers, of course, found notable Bahnbrecher before them, in Hutton, Des- marest, and_ others. Karl von Zittel, in his “Geschichte der Geologie,’’ held the balance very wisely between von Hoff and Lyell when he wrote, “The third volume (of von Hoff’s ‘‘Geschichte der... naturlichen Veranderungen der Erdoberflache ’’) is clearly influenced by Charles Lyell’s first volume of the ‘Principles of Geology,’ which had appeared in the meantime. Von Hoff unreservedly adopts the point of view of the great British investigator; yet Lyell’s views corresponded on the whole with what von Hoff had put forward ten years before as the result of his historical researches. The fact that von Hoff’s meritorious work was not properly valued, and was put in the shade by Lyell’s epoch-making book, which appeared almost simultaneously, is easily explained by the circumstance that the modest German man of science derived his material mainly from books, that his position did not allow him to examine in the field the questions which he discussed, and that he enriched science by no new facts; he faced his problem as a historian, and not as an observer.”’ Let us frankly admit, on the British side, that Lyell was not among the great original observers, and that his eminence rests on his brilliant perception of the meaning of correlated facts; yet his energy of movement and his frequent travels gave him an im- mense advantage over his contemporary. Dr. Reich shows us how von Hoff was occupied in many other affairs while preparing himself for his ‘‘ Geschichte,” NO 1858, VOL. 72] a work of immense originality, and free indeed fron» the prejudices of his day. In 1788 von Hoff entered the University of Jena, in his native region of Thiiringia, and proceeded after two years to Géttingen. Here he found inspiration in the character and friendly help of Blumenbach; but his professional work lay in diplomacy, and in 1791 he was appointed Secretary of Legation under his own Government of Gotha, where his father was already a Privy Councillor. As in France, the scien- tific renaissance was accompanied by national move- ments that might well have extinguished private calm and study. Von Hoff was one of the delegates who, in 1806, pursued Napoleon’s court from Berlin to Posen, and who secured the entry of Gotha into the saving grace of the Confederation of the Rhine. True to the interests of his State, he bore greetings to Jerome of Westphalia two years later, and helped to steer Gotha again into safe waters, this time under a German zgis, when Leipzig had seen the downfall of his alien suzerain. Yet, amid all the excitement of the times, when princes scampered rabbit-like from hole to hole, von Hoff founded a geological journal in 1801, met Werner in Gotha, and was struck by his mental limitations, spoke and corresponded heartily with Goethe, and explored the Thiiringian Forest in a number of geological excursions. In the sanguinary year of 1806 he encountered Humboldt in Berlin, and the diplomat of Gotha was describing his native wood- lands when the echoes of Friedland spread dismay through Germany. In 1822 the first volume of his famous ‘‘ Geschichte der durch Uberlieferung nachgewiesenen natiirlichen Veriinderungen der Erdoberflache ’’ appeared from: the house of Justus Perthes in Gotha; and Dr. Reich does well to press the claims of this work as the foremost and most rational attempt to free geologists. from their popular catastrophic school. Dr. Reich (p- 107) quotes from Blumenbach to show that Hutton’s views had spread to Germany in 1790, and that Voigt of Jena had already prepared the way by prior and independent conceptions of his own. Von Hoff surpassed Hutton in urging the power of exist- ing causes working through long periods of time. This position had been reached by him as early as 1801 (p. 111), and his biographer is inclined on this account to accuse Lyell of overshadowing wilfully his predecessor. It is idle, however, to quote from the edition of the ‘‘ Principles of Geology ”’ issued in 1872 (p 131), in which numerous alterations and additions had led to much excision. Instead of the solitary quotation from von Hoff referred to by Dr. Reich in support of his contention, we find five references in the first edition of vol. i. (1830), and two more in the second edition of vol. ii. (1833). Five references, moreover, to von Hoff remain in the eighth edition of the ‘‘ Principles,” issued in one volume in 1850. Since Lyell in his first edition devoted nine pages to the views of Hutton, out of the seventy given to the history of geology, he can hardly be said, as Dr, Reich would have us believe, to have shown ingrati- tude to Hutton also. In 1826, in a memorial notice of Blumenbach, vom 124 Hoff proved how far he was prepared to go in accept- ing organic changes as the result of changes of the earth’s surface. Side by side with a progressive de- velopment of the surface-features, he saw the necessity for a transformation in the nature of the organic world. The quotation given on p. 134 may not imply so much as Dr. Reich reads into it; but we are grateful to him for setting before us the absolute mental pre-eminence of von Hoff in the world of Continental geologists of his day, and the fact that, from one cause or another, no conception of his great- ness and originality can be gained from the historical vésumé of Lyell, with which all English readers are familiar. G. A. J. G. MINE AIR. The Investigation of Mine Air. By Sir C. Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., and Dr. J. S. Haldane, F.R.S. Pp. xii+191; illustrated. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 6s. net. > INCE the Hon. Robert Boyle published in 1671 > his essays on ‘‘ The Temperature of the Subter- raneall Regions’ and on “‘ The Strange Subtilty of Effluviums,’’ and Athanasius Kirscher devoted a chap- ter of his ‘‘ Mundus Subterraneus ”’ (1678) to the occur- rence of inflammable gas in the Herrengrund copper mines, there has been a constant succession of memoirs dealing with the gases met with in mines. The latest addition to the series, by making accessible the results of German, French, and British investigations, should do much to add to the knowledge of the composition of mine gases and of their influence on human life. A large portion of the work was left in manuscript by Sir Clement Le Neve Foster at the time of his death, and such revision as was necessary has been undertaken by Dr. J. S. Haldane, who has added a section of great value, embodying a description of rapid methods of analysis that he himself has devised and an essay on the interpretation of mine-air analyses in the light of recent investigations. The book is of a composite nature. The first section is a translation of the introductory treatise on mine-air analysis by Prof. O. Brunck, of the Freiberg School of Mines. The second section is a translation of a paper by Mr. Léon Poussigue on the measurement of air currents and fire damp at the fiery Ronchamp collieries, the deepest mines in France. The third and longest part contains a summary of Dr. Haldane’s work on the examination of mine air. As an appendix is added a detailed account, from Sir Clement Le Neve Foster’s reports to the Home Secretary, of the effects of carbonic oxide in connection with the Snaefell mine disaster in the Isle of Man in 1897. Sir Clement’s exposure to carbonic oxide during the recovery of the bodies of the miners killed was the starting-point of the illness that ultimately proved fatal. The methods of analysis for mine gases described by Prof. Brunck are simple, and in no respect less accu- rate than the most delicate methods of exact gas analysis. The fulness of the instructions and the sim- plicity of the methods should induce mining engineers to practise gas analysis and to regard it as an impor- NO. 1858, VOL. 72] NATURE [JUNE 8, 1905 tant guide to the safety of the workings placed under their charge. Since November, 1891, a special department has been organised at the Ronchamp collieries for the purpose of determining the proportion of fire-damp in the work- ings. The Le Chatelier combustion apparatus is em- ployed, and an assistant makes two hundred deter- minations a day. In the third section the methods of determining oxygen, carbonic anhydride, nitrogen, and fire damp described by Dr. Haldane well fulfil the practical re- quirements of being very accurate and rapid. His method of obtaining and transporting samples of mine air in two-ounce stoppered bottles is trustworthy and much more convenient than Poussigue’s method of using a 13-litre bottle, or Winkler’s method of using a to-litre sheet-zinc vessel recommended by Brunck. One cannot help thinking that in the latter case pro- longed storage in a zinc vessel would have an effect on the composition of the gas. In Dr. Haldane’s dry bottles no sensible alteration of the contained sample occurs within a fortnight or more. His method of gas analysis is similar to that originally described by him in the Journal of Physiology in 1898; and he now describes for the first time a portable apparatus, en- closed in a wooden case measuring 7 by 12 by 23 inches and weighing 53lb., by means of which accurate de- terminations may be made, on the spot underground, of various impurities in the air. He also describes a con- venient method of determining the quantity of stone- dust in the air of working places in metalliferous mines. The disastrous effects produced by the habitual inhalation of air containing stone-dust are now gener- ally recognised. The air of an “ end”? or “‘ rise ’’ just after blasting contains large quantities of dust, and the men ought not to return until there is less than 1 milli- gram in to litres of air. The average air of a ““stope ’? where men are working should not yield any weighable dust in that quantity of air. Obviously a complete analysis of mine air is useless unless the significance of the results is understood. The chapter on the interpretation of mine-air analyses is consequently of far-reaching importance. Dr. Hal- dane advocates the use of the convenient term “ black damp ”’ for the nitrogen and carbonic anhydride. It is the gaseous residue resulting from the slow oxidising action of air on oxidisable substances in a mine. It is very commonly confused with carbonic anhydride, but it really consists chiefly of nitrogen. Black-damp, which was nothing but pure nitrogen, was described by Mr. H. A. Lee (Proc. Colorado Scientific Society, vol. Vii., p. 163, 1904) as occurring in a metalliferous mine in Colorado. A useful section on the effects of air im- purities on men concludes part iii. Much of the infor- mation in this part has already been published by Dr. Haldane in Home Office reports and in papers read before the Institution of Mining Engineers; but an authoritative summary of the results arrived at is a welcome addition to technical literature. The book, which was originally intended for Le Neve Foster’s students at the Royal School of Mines, should prove invaluable, not only to mining engineers at col- lieries, but also to those engaged in metalliferous mines. BSH. B: June 8, 1905] NATURE 125 AN INDIAN GARDEN. An Indian Garden. By Mrs. Henry Cooper Eggar. Pp. viiit+181; illustrated. (London: John Murray, 1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net. N unpretentious little book, written in an easy vein, printed on very light paper and in the best of type, ‘‘ An Indian Garden’’ might well be ‘suited to while away pleasantly an idle hour. There is so much freshness about the book, so much enthusiasm for the author’s garden, such a lovable unconsciousness of the inward triviality of the hun- dred and one little incidents, servant, cobra, and dog stories and harmless gossip woven into this tale of personal acquaintance of the writer. As we read on, our interest centres more and more in the healthy, vigorous, and amiable personality that sways this old Indian Garden of 53 acres, whilst the garden itself, with its old trees, its amaryllis and caladium beds, its fernery, its obstreperous lawn of ‘* Dooba”’ grass (Cynodon Dactylon), and its general propensity to run back to jungle, becomes so much background. In those circumstances one forgets to look out for any systematic information on the conditions of gardening in India, nor is there any room for criti- cising seriously the author’s botany. One does not stop, for instance, to ponder over the curious “* almond tree’? (p. 43) with the convolute embryo, or mind that the lycopodium (p. 50) ‘‘ that turns a beautiful electric blue in the shade ”’ is in reality a Selaginella (S. uncinata), or that the deodars (p. 141) which ripen their berries in July are evidently the debdars (Poly- althia longifolia) mentioned repeatedly in the earlier pages. It must all be beautiful, and one longs to see it. We are not told where the garden is. Its where- abouts, like other things in the book, are hidden under a delightful incognito. It is just a few feet above the sea in a vast plain ‘‘ with never a rise, sufficient to be called a hill anywhere near for 100 miles.’’ It may be, and very likely it is, in Bengal, as the locality from’ which the preface is dated and other indications suggest; but that, again, matters very little. It is in keeping with the light, playful humour which pervades the whole book. Still, it would be unfair to pass over the fact that there are passages in it which for keenness of observation, terseness and descriptive power, rise high above the average level of the book. Thus on p. 41, “ I like the Casuarinas, though they are bad gardeners, and suck up all the moisture in the earth for some long dis- tance round their roots, so that nothing can possibly live near them; sometimes in the early morning they weep it all back copiously like rain’’; or on p. 145, “Tf one wanted to photograph the movements of an opening blossom, one should select the Crinum augustum. It is a noble plant, this lily; about 4 feet high, with scented flowers, numbering 22 in a bunch at the end of a long stalk as thick as a ruler. I passed by one just after a shower of rain this even- ing, and noticed that four or five of the 4 inch long, pink-striped buds were just ready to open. I came NO. 1858, VOL. 72] by again shortly after, and lo! and behold! they were open, quite wide open, too. In my next turn, 20 minutes after, the long petals had entirely curled themselves backwards like rams’ horns. One could see them all a-quiver with the intensity of the move- ment still. In one hour the points of those petals must have described an are of 8 or g inches or more! ”’ There is a dainty coloured frontispiece representing a branch of an Antigonon (evidently A, leptopus)— though it is difficult to see why a representative of an exclusively American genus should usher in ‘“‘ An Indian Garden ’’—and eighteen illustrations, photo- | graphic prints, some of them veritable gems for their amateur gardening, that one would fain make the | general beauty and exquisite clearness. Otro Srapr. OUR BOOK SHELF. By A. H. Beavan. Pp. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.) Animals I Have Known. 304; illustrated. Price 5s. Ir the present rate of issue be much longer maintained, popular books on mammals _ (or ‘“animals,’’? as they are still called by the man in the street) will soon begin to rival in number those devoted to birds. In the volume before us the author, without having anything specially new to com- municate, discourses pleasantly enough on _ the mammals (both wild and domesticated) of our own islands, as well as on those of two other countries, namely, Australia and South America, with which he is personally familiar. His anecdotes and descrip- tions are emphasised by the numerous reproductions from photographs with which the work is illustrated. Most of these are first rate, the one of the thylacine, or Tasmanian wolf, showing to perfection that gradual merging of the tail in the body to which the author specially alludes, and which so markedly dis- tinguishes many of the lower mammals from their more specialised relatives. Unfortunately, the text is marred by a number of more or less inexcusable blunders and errors, which cannot but deceive the class of readers for whom the book is intended. On the very first page we are told, for instance, that there lived in Britain during the mammoth period ‘‘ tapir-like three-hoofed creatures with long snouts.’? This can evidently be nothing else than the Oligocene palzotherium, an animal to which reference is again made on p. 279, where the author observes that he has momentarily for- gotten its name—a nice admission to make in print! A similar ‘‘ muddle’? in regard to palaontological chronology is made on p 16, where we find opossums included among the British Pleistocene fauna. Even more serious is the deliberate statement on p. 222 that the duckbill, or platypus, is the only known oviparous animal—more especially in view of certain doubts that have been expressed of late years as to whether this species does actually lay eggs. Again, on p. 291 we are told that all South American monkeys are furnished with prehensile tails, while ten pages later we are informed that the vampire bat taps the blood of its victims with its canine (instead of incisor) teeth. Moreover, in the plate on p. 299 the author figures as that of the true blood-sucking vampire the head of a javelin-bat (Phyllostoma) or a nearly allied species. Possibly the latter species may occa- sionally suck blood, but it is not the vampire par excellence. In the figures of a bat on p. 91, which 126 NATURE [JUNE 8, 1905 may be presumed to be intended for the pipistrelle, the tail is entirely omitted, so that there is nothing to support the median extension of the interfemoral membrane! The following remarkable sentence (p. 202), we are glad to aiclksnioel ledge, is not typical of the author’s style :— ‘““The koala’s habits are sluggish, and though able to climb well, moves about the trees in a most deliberate manner.”’ Rees Qucen-Rearing in England, and Notes on a Scent- producing Organ in the Abdomen of the Worker- Bee, the Honey-Bees of India, and Enemies of the Bee in South Africa. By F. W. L. Sladen. (Houlston and Sons, 1905.) Tue scope of this little work by a practical bee- keeper is sufficiently indicated by its title, and the bulk of its contents has already appeared in the British Bee Journal and the Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine. There is a coloured frontispiece repre- senting the queen and worker of the Golden Italian bee, and there are numerous text-illustrations of no remarkable excellence After a chapter on queen- rearing in nature, several chapters are devoted to the best artificial means of securing a supply of queens for multiplying or improving bee-colonies; and a brief account is given of different races called the Italian (or Ligurian) Bee, the Golden Italian Bee, and Carniolan Bee, and the Cyprian Bee. In a later chapter Mr. Sladen remarks that when vibrating their wings, and especially when swarming, bees produce a peculiar tune which has been supposed to attract their comrades; but the author thinks the attraction is at least parlly due to a powerful scent emitted when a membrane situated between the fifth and sixth dorsal segments of the abdomen is exposed. This is fully described and figured. Short chapters on the honey bees of India (Apis dorsata, florea, and indica), and on enemies of bees in South Africa; ‘“ Bee Pirates ’’ (sandwasps belonging to the genera Palarus and Philanthus), a Tachinide parasite in the abdomen; and a species of Chelifer conclude the work. Physical Experiments. xi+127; with diagrams. Uglow and Co., 1904.) ANYONE drawing up an elementary course of mechanical and physical experiments, and wishing for a manual to accompany it so as to make the prepara- tion of a special volume unnecessary, could hardly do better than adapt his course to the manual before us. It contains just the short description which would otherwise be produced by some copying process for distribution to a class, or, failing this, would pro- bably be written on a blackboard. That is to say, there is just enough description to indicate to a pupil what he is expected to do, and which would be copied by him into his notebook. A teacher will require to amplify the book verbally, either in the course of a short demon- stration at the beginning of the class, or, if his lectures and the practical work run together very well, this might sometimes be done in the course of the lectures. The aim that Mr. Carmichael has had before him has been to state concisely the nature of the quantity to be measured in each experiment and the theory under- lying the method suggested. Descriptions of instru- ments are entirely omitted, as the students are ex- By N. R. Carmichael. Pp. (Kingston, Ontario: R. pected to have the apparatus given them by an instructor. With regard to the selection of experiments, the object has been to give students who have but a limited time for laboratory work a practical acquaint- ance with as many physical quantities as possible. The no. 1858, vou. 72] fact that the author is a teacher in a school of mining is a guarantee that the technical student is intended to be served; but it is the more academic, but equally. necessary, sside of his training that is here catered for. An Introduction to Elementary Statics (Treated Graphically). By R. Nettell. Pp. 64. (London: Edward Arnold, 1905.) Price 2s. Tuts book consists of a set of graduated exercises in graphical statics. The first seventy, about half the total number, are restricted to problems on the equi- librium of three forces at a point, and are intended to be worked by means of the parallelogram of forces. In succeeding problems the triangle of forces and the polygon of forces are introduced. The principle of moments is also employed. A few examples are given of the determination of the centre of gravity of simple plane figures, and in the final examples the subject is carried as far as the equilibrium of four non-concurrent forces in one plane. ‘The link polygon is not used, se that parallel forces are scarcely referred to. It will be seen how extremely limited is the ground covered by this book. The constructions are not founded on or verified by experimental work of any kind. No vectors other than force vectors are introduced. Trigonometri- cal calculations, even of the simplest kind, are rigidly excluded. The book is intended to be used by classes of young boys, but its scheme does not harmonise with the ideas now prevalent as to the way in which ele- mentary mathematics should be taught to youths. The Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus. By D. F. Campbell. Pp. x+364. (New cue! The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price zs, 6d. Tus book seems well adapted to serve as a text-book for a first course in the differential and integral cal- culus. Fourteen chapters deal with the differential calculus and its applications to maxima and minima values, expansions in series, and the geometry of plane curves. The fundamental ideas of integration are very fully explained, the second fourteen chapters being de- voted to the integral calculus and its application to finding plane areas, lengths of curves, areas of sur- faces, and volumes. In a short chapter dealing with approximate integration, the first and second elliptic iereeras are introduced, and three-figure tables for F(k, ¢) and E(k, ¢) are given. A few elementary chapters on mechanics have been introduced, so that the student may be able to view from the mechanical, rather than from the purely mathematical, side the principles of attraction, centre of gravity, and moment of inertia. Numerous exercises, with answers, are given with each chapter. The diagrams are clear, and the type is excellent. Volkerpsychologie. By Wilhelm Wundt. Vol. i. Die Sprache. Second revised edition. 2 parts. Pp. xv +667, x+673. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann; London: Williams and Norgate, 1904.) Price 14s. net and 15s. net; bound, 17s. net and 18s, net. Tue first volume of this monumental work has reached a second edition, some sixty or seventy pages bulkier than its predecessor (reviewed in NATURE on January 16, 1902). The most important changes affect the fourth chapter, Der Lautwandel, the sixth, Die Wortformen, and some parts of the theory of the sentence. A first edition of the other volumes, deal- ing with myth and custom, has not yet appeared; it is to be hoped that it will not be unduly delayed by the necessity of revising the present instalment, and that in any parts still to appear the wood will be less closely concealed by the trees. June 8, 1905] NATURE 127 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake te return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTuRE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] History of a White Rhinoceros Skuil. IN his interesting ** Natural History Essays,’’ in which occurs the description of the white rhinoceros, Mr. Graham Renshaw makes the following reference to the first skull of this animal which was brought to England :— “It would be interesting to know if the white rhinoceros head brought to England by the Rev. John Campbell, about 1815, is still in existence. It appears to have been preserved as late as 1867 in the Museum of the London Missionary Society at Finsbury, but there seems to be no mention of it during recent years in zoological literature. In a figure now before me the artist has absurdly furnished the open jaws with an imaginary series of perfectly regular pseudomolar teeth: the square mouth has been distorted to resemble the prehensile lip of the black species, though the slit-like nostrils, position of the eye and semi-tubular ears are delineated with fair correct- ness. The anterior horn of this individual is said to and, as figured, from its slender- have been 3 ft.: long: : | pees me Fic. 1.—Skull of the White Rhinoceros in the American Museum of Natural History. ness recalls Col. Hamilton Smith’s description of the mysterious horn, brought from Africa, from which he sought to deduce the existence of a true unicorn in the interior of that Continent ’’ (p. 146). In 1902 this very skull was purchased from Mr. Cecil Graham for the American Museum of Natural History by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Graham has made a large and valuable collection of rhinoceros horn weapons, clubs, _knob-kerries, and battle axes, and in course of corre- spondence he wrote of his discovery of the skull as follows :—*‘ There is no record as to how or when the specimen was first brought to England. I found it by chance a few years ago in the City, lving neglected and dirty on the floor of a back room of the London Missionary Society. No doubt it was presented by a missionary before 1821. I especially value the letter dated 1821.” The letter referred to by Mr. Graham is from William Cooke, of the Royal College of Surgeons. It is dated November 20, 1821, and addressed to William Alers Hankey, Esq., Fenchurch Street. It reads as follows :— “My dear Sir, ““The head in the missionary museum supposed to be the head of the unicorn, appears to belong to a species of Rhinoceros previously unknown in this country, at least, there is no such specimen in the Hunterian Museum which may be regarded as the National Depository for com- parative anatomy. In that grand collection there are No. 1858, VOL. 72] heads which nearly resemble it, but there are points in which the diversity of conformation indicates a decided Specific difference. “Permit me to suggest to you, and through you to the Directors of the Missionary Society, that a rare specimen of that nature is entitled to a place where it can be more justly appreciated than it ever will be in their collection. I need not suggest to you the advantages which result from a concentration of the different productions of nature —from bringing under one view the genera and _ species of the various natural sciences—especially when they are not only rendered available for minute distinction, but by a liberal policy are accessible to men of science from all parts of the world. 1 can have no selfish motive in suggesting that the head possessed by the Missionary Society would become much more an object of interest if deposited in the Hunterian Museum, than it ever will be should it remain in the Old Invry. If deposited at the College of Surgeons it will not only fall under the notice of Naturalists from all quarters, but it will likewise be a subject of reference in the lectures on comparative anatomy annually delivered at that Institution. ‘“ The Missionary directors unquestionably will consider the advantages which may result to their own Society, as well as the promulgation of scientific knowledge; and if I might presume to express an opinion on this subject, it would be in favour of the head being presented to the College. It would there be preserved as a testimony of praiseworthy liberality—it would soften prejudice, where perhaps there is a deep-rooted antipathy to religion, but where conciliation is of great importance; and if it re- main in its present situation for a few years it will be liable to destruction, or to essential injury at least. “Tf you have never seen the Museum of the College of Surgeons it would afford me great pleasure to accom- pany you thither any Friday. ‘“T feel assured, my dear Sir, that you will excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing you on this topic ;—and believe me to be “Yours most obediently and ““ respectfully *(signed) WILLIAM CooKe.”’ In spite of this appeal, the skull evidently remained in the possession. of the Missionary Society until Mr. Graham rescued it from oblivion. Although the occipital portion has been sawn off, it is a remarkably fine specimen, as shown by the accompanying photograph. The nasal horn is firmly attached to the skull; the frontal horn is de- tachable, but readily fits in place. The principal measure- ments are as follows :— Total length of skull, along top 778 mm. = 30% inches Length of grinding series Bae ey Be Oy ea ES frontal horn’s..2.00 cee eee oO s5 a nasal horn 890 ,, =35 (Measured on a straight line.) The skull is now exhibited with two war clubs manu- factured from the nasal frontal horns of the white rhinoceros, with a skull of the related woolly rhinoceros from Siberia, presented by the Moscow Museum, through Madame Pavloff, also with a skull of the Rhinoceros pachygnathus, a related or ancestral form, from Pikermi, presented by the Munich Museum through Prof. von Zittel. Henry FairFIELD OSBORN. American Museum of Natural History, New York, April 24. Fictitious Problems in Mathematics. Your reviewer. gives a new definition of “‘a perfectly rough body’? (NatuRE, June 1), which he says is that of the mathematician. The definition appears to me to con- tradict what he has elsewhere said. But I need not enlarge on this point, for his criticism of a problem should be | tried, not by his definition, but by that given in the book in which the problem occurs. The reviewer accuses Cambridge examiners “‘ of endow- ing bodies with the most inconsistent properties in the matter of perfect roughness and perfect smoothness ’” 128 NATURE [JUNE 8, 1905 (Nature, April 27). He adds, as an explanation, that “‘the average college don’’ forgets an elementary law of friction. But the proper inference is that the definition of the reviewer is different from that in common use. It is difficult to believe in this general forgetfulness. The various letters sent to NaTurE sufficiently show what meaning is usually attached to the words. June 3. E. J. Routu. WHY JAPAN IS VICTORIOUS. EN years ago, after the conclusion of the war between Japan and China, it was remarked that the sound of the Japanese cannon at the mouth of the Yalu River awoke the nations of the world to the fact that a new Power had arisen in the Far East which in future would require to be taken into account when any political problems arose. It is, of course, recognised by all who know modern Japan that the most important factor in the making of new Japan has been the applications of science to the arts both of peace and war. Without these, even the spirit of the samurai would have been as powerless before the attacks of Western Powers armed with all the latest warlike appliances, as were the dervishes at the battle of Omdurman. Spectators speak with admiration of the bravery of these men and with pity that their lives were thrown away in a vain resistance. Without the help of science and its applications it is very certain that, before this time, Japan would have been overrun by a European Power after immense slaughter, for the last man would have died, fighting with his primitive weapons, rather than recognise a foreign domination. A careful study of the evolution of modern Japan shows plans founded on enlightened principles and carried out in every detail. In fact, one of the secrets of the success of the Japanese in the present war is that nothing is left to chance; every detail is worked out and carefully provided for. They soon recognised that their national ideals would never be realised without a system of education, com- plete in every department, which would supply the men who were required to guide the nation under the new conditions which had emerged. Elementary education was organised all over the country, secondary education in central districts, and technical education wherever it seemed to be required. Above all, there are two national universities which in equipment and quality of work done will bear favourable com- parison with similar institutions in any other country in the world. : 5 The educational work of the country was directed not simply to personal or sectional purposes, as is unfortunately too often the case in the West; it was also consciously directed to the attainment of great national ends. Every department of the national life was organised in a rational manner, and, therefore, on scientific principles. In many departments there is still much to be done, but past achievements promise well for the future. Special attention has been paid by the Government to the applications of science. Without the rail- ways, the telegraphs and telephones, the dock- yards, the shipbuilding yards, the mines, and the engineering establishments, the existence of the army and navy would have been impossible; at least, if they did exist they would have been nearly powerless. The operations of the present war with Russia have clearly demonstrated the importance of the introduc- tion of the scientific spirit into all the national activi- ties. The railways which have been built in Japan have been fully utilised to convey men and materials and the ships to transport them oversea. NO. 1858, VoL. 72 The telegraphs have been used to communicate in- structions and to keep the authorities informed regarding movements and requirements. The dock- yards and shipbuilding yards have been ready to undertake repairs, and the arsenals and machine shops to turn out war material of all kinds, as well as appliances which aid operations in the field. Light railways have been laid down on the way to battle- fields, and wireless telegraphy and telephones to convey instructions to the soldiers; in short, all the latest applications of mechanical, electrical, and chemical science have been freely and intelligently used. The Japanese have not only modified Western appliances to suit their conditions, but they have also made numerous distinct advances. The ships of their navy are probably the best illustra- tion of the Japanese method of procedure. In naval matters they accepted all the guidance the Western world could give them, but at the same time they struck out a line of their own, and the fleet which they have created is unique in the character of its units. British designs have in many respects been improved upon, with the result that they have obtained in their latest ships many features which have won the admiration of the world. The training of Japanese naval officers is very complete in every way, and in some respects offers an example to the British authorities, and the men are devoted to their profession. Japan now sends her picked men to Europe to complete their studies, so that in every department of national life they are kept up with the latest developments. The siege of Port Arthur, the battle of Mukden and the other battles in Man- churia, and the exploits of the Japanese Navy prove most distinctly that they have profited by their experience. The intense loyalty of the Japanese, which compels them to make any sacrifice, combined with their great intellectual ability, enables them to take full advan- tage of the modern science and organisation necessary for the attainment of the objects of their ambition. Their great power of foresight prepares them for all their enterprises, both of peace and war, with exact and scientific precision. While they are permeated by Eastern ideas they have been able to appropriate much that is best in Western thought, and thus they unite many of the best qualities of the East and the West. The lesson which our educationists and statesmen have to learn from Japan is that the life of a modern nation requires to be organised on scientific lines in all its departments, and that it must not be directed chiefly to personal ends, the attainment of which may, to a large extent, intensify many of our problems, but that it be consciously used for the pro- motion of national welfare. But though the lesson is plain enough, apparently it is not understood by those whose business it is to promote national welfare by guidance or counsel. With one consent our newspapers have attributed Japanese success to all reasons except the right one; and, instead of opening the eyes of the nation to our pressing needs and deficiencies, they have been blind leaders of the blind. Our public men and our Press will not see that scientific education has brought Japan to her present position in thirty years, and that, if we choose to educate ourselves, we may arrive at the Japanese standard of national efficiency. The progress which this country has made since the Middle Ages is due to the discoveries of men of science, whose work has been done in spite of dis- couragement or national indifference. In the new atmosphere of Japan a scientific spirit prevails, which encourages development, with the result that the nation has in a generation arrived at a position which has taken us centuries to reach. It is not compli- JuNE 8, 1905] NATURE 129 mentary to us as a nation to say that our patriotism, fear of death, or nerves compare unfavourably with similar attributes of the Japanese; and, after all, this is a matter of opinion. The fact to face is the trans- formation which science has effected in Japan, and the sooner our statesmen are educated to see it, the more promising will be the outlook for the British nation. SOLAR CHANGES AND WEATHER. INS the last few years more than usual atten- tion has been paid to the question of the relationship between sun-spots or prominences and ‘*weather,’’ and to the possibility of being able in the near future to forecast the characters of approach- ing seasons. Quite recently in this Journal (vol. Ixxi. p- 493, March 23) we referred briefly to a pamphlet published by the United States Department of Agricul- ture, Weather Bureau, summing up the general state of the problem of long-range weather forecasting. In this it was stated that advances in the period and accuracy of weather forecasts depend upon a more exact study and understanding of atmospheric pres- sure over large areas, and a determination of the influences, probably solar, that are responsible for normal and abnormal distributions of atmospheric pressure over the earth’s surface. In the April number of the Popular Science Monthly the question of the relationship between sun-spots and weather is summarised in an article by Prof. Ernest W. Brown, of Haverford College. In this we have an interesting account of the problems waiting solu- tion, and he brings together in a very clear manner a general survey of the relationship, or rather non- relationship, as he concludes to be the case. Thus he says, ‘‘it is highly probable that the direct effect of the spotted area is unimportant compared with the effects produced in our atmosphere by other causes.” In his final summing up he remarks that his opinion is expressed by Prof. Cleveland Abbe, who stated that :—‘‘ The key to the weather problem is not to be found in the sun or indeed in any external influence, but that the solution is to be worked out by the conditions which hold in the atmosphere itself—con- ditions which can only be discovered by a thorough examination of the internal laws of motion, quite apart from any external forces which may modify the results.” _ In referring to the difficulties which are met with in examining the meteorological conditions on the earth’s surface, Prof. Brown points out that observ- ations made ‘‘at one place should be lkept separate from those at other places, for it is theoretically possible and even probable that a maximum at one place of observation may occur at the same time as a minimum at another place. For example, the yearly averages might show that a maximum rainfall in one place always occurred with a minimum rainfall in another and vice versd.”’ In the last quotation Prof. Brown makes a sugges- tive remark which recent work has shown to be an actual meteorological fact; it has already been com- pletely established for pressure, and must therefore hold good as regards rainfall, since the latter depends on the former. In the case of these variations of barometric pres- sure it has been shown, and referred to at some length in this Journal (vol. Ixx. p. 177, June, 1904), that there exists a barometric see-saw on a large scale the presence of which has been amply corro- borated by Prof. Bigelow, of the United States Weather Bureau. There seems little doubt that it is this pressure change that will eventually prove the “key” to the situation, and its solar origin has No. 1858, VOL. 72] already been suggested in the changes in the frequency of prominences, which are, after all, allied to sun-spots. Up to the present time those who have been at- tempting to explain variations of weather on the supposition of solar changes have been looking for the effect of solar action as either increasing or decreasing simultaneously the rainfall over the whole earth. The consequence has been that a_ study of a great number of statistics has shown that in some regions the rainfall varies directly with the number of sun-spots, and that in others the variation is inverse, while, again, in other parts there seems to be no apparent relation at all. In fact, these deduc- tions, though quite correct, have led to the conclusion that the solar connection is of a very questionable character, as it was considered impossible for such opposite results as the first two just named to have their origin in one solar change. It is the employment of this incorrect working hypothesis that has probably retarded the progress of the study of the connection between solar and meteor- ological changes. The now recognised existence of this barometric see-saw shows that the sun’s action must have a double effect on our atmosphere, and this of an opposite nature. Such a result is quite natural, and it is curious that use has not been made of it before. When it be considered that the amount of air in our atmosphere is a constant quantity, a greater piling up of it on one side of the earth must necessarily mean a diminution in the antipodal regions. If greater heating power of the sun takes place, then the atmo- sphere must also be heated to a greater extent, and consequently more intense up-currents of warm air are formed, resulting in more pronounced low-pressure areas. There must, however, be a compensating effect somewhere, and this is found on the opposite side of the earth when the previously heated air arrives, descends, and creates an area of excess pressure. This backward and forward transference of air becomes, therefore, of great importance in studying the weather changes in any one region, because the rainfall phenomena are so closely related to the pressure changes. Away from the middle portions of those two large areas which behave in this see-saw manner, the varia- tions of pressure should, and actually do, have a different periodic nature. It is of extreme import- ance, therefore, when trying to trace the sun’s action on our atmosphere, to separate the regions over which the variations may be truly solar from those which exhibit variations modified by the mechanism of the atmosphere itself. There is therefore no reason why we should take a pessimistic view of the attempts made to solve this fascinating riddle of the relationship between changes of solar activity and the vagaries of the weather. An enormous amount of accumulated material is ready for discussion, and efforts should be made to secure the continuity of these observations and at the same time to coordinate the data along lines most suitable for this particular research. Witii1am J. S. Lockyer. THE SURVEY OF INDIA." Ape extracts from the narrative reports of the Survey of India for the years 1902-3 are con- tained in a thin and attenuated volume of some eighty pages, which, as compared with previous reports, re- presents the effects of Indian financial economy applied to one of its most interesting departments. 1 “* Extracts from the Narrative Reports of the Survey of India for the Season 1902-3.’’ (Calcutta : Government Printing Office, 1905.) Price 2s. 3d- 130 NATURE JuNE 8, 6905 A committee is now sitting somewhere in India to decide on the best method of increasing the efficiency of the Indian survey department from the point of view (amongst others) of the English expert. It may ‘be doubted whether the Indian surveyor has much to learn from the English expert, excepting in the science of map reproduction; but it may be that the Indian financier will learn thereirom that the way to improve and develop a department is not to starve it under the pressure of each successive spasm of financial de- pression, but to give consistent support to its work in the field and encourage the publication of such results as are of world-wide interest. Compare this half-starved production with the survey reports of North America, of Canada, of any Continental coun- try, or even with the intermittent publications of South America, and it would really appear as if India offered no field for scientific research that was worth a descriptive record. The report is unworthy of the Government of India. There is apparently but one triangulation party now existing in India which works on geodetic prin- ciples, and this is gradually pushing its network of triangles through Burma, giving a good basis for two topographical surveys to extend their minor triangulations and lay out a framework for detailed mapping. Only these two topographical parties figure in the report, and the narrative of their pro- gress is confined to the dullest of all dull statistics. Yet one of them is working in the Shan States on the Chinese frontier, where, if anywhere in the eastern world, there must be a most delightful field for new experiences and original observation. Of geographical exploration on or beyond the Indian frontier, or of scientific investigations in the Hima- layas, there is not a word in the report; nor, for that matter, is there the faintest reference to the solid work of the revenue and forest surveys which are spread in more prosaic form over half the continent. Possibly there may be much of really stirring narra- tive rendered by the officers concerned in trans-frontier work to which it is not deemed well to make any allusion. This is comprehensible on the grounds of political prudence, but the worst feature of this form of suppression is that it is apt to be permanent. A report once pigeon-holed in an Indian office might almost as well be solemnly committed to the earth with a spade. .The man who wrote it, and who knew what he wrote about, leaves India at the mature age of fifty-five, and thereafter has nothing further to say to it. His opinion is never consulted, and it becomes merely a matter of academic interest to him to watch a new generation of frontier administrators flounder- ing along by the light of experiences gained, let us say, in South Africa or in Egypt. He faintly wonders what has become of all the detailed information of the Indian frontier gathered in his time at the cost of so much labour and expense. There is, however, doubtless much to be learnt from the series of tidal, levelling, and magnetic tables which take up nearly fifty of the eighty pages of the report, although it is not easy to recognise their claim to be considered narrative. Presumably these tables are published for the benefit of the compara- tively few men of science who are interested in these special classes of investigation, but they hardly seem to justify the title of the report, and should certainly be preserved (as they probably are) in other forms more readily accessible for purposes of reference. There is an account of a local survey (including levelling operations) which was undertaken for the benefit of the salt revenue department in order to ascertain the source of the Sambhar Salt Lake water supply. The result of the investigation would have been interesting had it been stated. The lake was NO. 1858, VOL. 72] after in some other form. surveyed fete “eight years ago, supply carefully examined then. was pigeon-holed. It would be pleasant to congratulate Colonel Longe on the success of his first administrative report as Surveyor-General of India, but, as a matter of fact, it is obvious that hardly even the skirts of narrative have been touched so far as the Survey of India is concerned, and we can only hope that there may be another and a more comprehensive report issued here- AN alsa ale and the source of Probably the report NOTES. Ir cannot be too often emphasised that Japan owes its triumphs chiefly to the adoption of the scientific spirit as the essential principle of national progress. The State that accepts this axiom of practical politics secures for itself a place among leading nations; while, on the other hand, the country that gives little or no encouragement to science must fall behind in the future. The Paris corre- spondent of the Times states that this view is taken by M. Ludovic Naudeau, who, in the course of a telegram from Tokio on the causes of the Russian defeat, re- marks :—‘‘ It is now idle to attempt to hide the fact that never the Russian lack of. science, of the modern spirit, or, to speak frankly, of intelligence—never was the absence of training and of enthusiasm which retards the efforts of the whole Empire displayed in a more melan- choly fashion than in the Sea of Japan. All the Russian inferiority is in the intellectual sphere.’’ We understand that even in the midst of the war, the subject of education is being keenly discussed in Japan. In our own country it is necessary to urge that satisfactory provision for the future can only be made by taking a wide view of scientific education, and by insisting that all who have the affairs of State under their control should possess such a know- ledge of the methods of science as will enable them to understand that the most potent factors of success in the arts of peace of war are was or or scientific education and research. UNbER the name of the Potentia Organisation, an inter- national association has been formed with the object of establishing among nations a mutual relationship and cooperation for the diffusion of accurate information and unbiased opinion concerning international events and movements, and to combat narrow, prejudiced, and often interested views and news that contribute so much to international mistrust and misunderstanding. It is pro- posed to publish throughout the world, through the medium of newspapers and reviews, statements of simple fact and of opinion by eminent public men of all all important political, social, philosophical, scientific, and artistic questions, to present the sincere views of experts on all current international events, and to refute false or biased news and views calculated to spread error and to endanger the peace and progress of the world. A cosmopolitan ‘alliance of this kind should meet with many adherents in the world of science, in which the sole aims the discovery of truth and the extension of natural knowledge. We trust that the will do something to show that scientific culture is at the foundation of all national progress. Mr. STANLEY GARDINER, leader of the Sladen Trust Ex- pedition for the exploration of the Indian Ocean between Ceylon and the Seychelles in H.M.S. Sealark, has sent Prof. Herdman a letter from Colombo (May 7) in which he gives the following provisional programme :—Leave expressions nations on economic, are organisation JuNE 8, 1905} NATURE 131 Colombo May 8, arrive Chagos Archipelago about May 20 and work there until about July 15; arrive Mauritius about August 1, and stay until about August 15; arrive Seychelles about September 8, leave about September 15, and return there on October 15 after visiting the various Amirante Islands. Column : 2) =o 8 6)|) Whole: Page 0°.) (Gn iGuae * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CC., Limited. OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, WC. ‘ \ Ix NATURE [June 8, 1905 | GAIFFE IMPROVED WIMSHURST MACHINE. A Standard Instrument for Laboratory and Research Work. Gives absolutely uniform con- tinuous current for X-Rays, High Frequency, Wave Current, &c. No enclosure (works in open air), no spindle, no sectors. Plates are readily detachable. 2 Descriptive Pamphlet gratis on application from the Sole Agents for Great Britain and its Colonies— THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, . | 228 GRAY’S INN ROAD, LONDON, W.C., where the apparatus may be seen working. GROSSLEYVS GAS ENGINES RECENTLY GREAT REDUCTION | REMODELLED. NG fs GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L types, giving 3°5 H.P. Up to the end of 1904, and 5 H.P over 50,000 engines respectively. have been delivered, representing about three-quarters of a million actual | horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS. LTD., OPENSHAW:, MANCHESTER a a i S WEICROSCOPIC OBJECTS. NEW AND BEAUTIFUL PREPARATIONS IN WATSON’S UNIQUE COLLECTION. /mmediate Delivery for Stock Sizes of Engines. Very fine Series, illustrating the dexplopsicay of an Ascidian Sa ae Groups of Diatomacez, Spicules, &c. A large variety ats. d. . (Aspersa), 16 preparations in case ... bet 3 Rat - 29. 0 reduced prices ... 8/6 to 25 0 Section through entire bud of Lily __... 2 0 | NEW Edition of Supplementary List of latest Micro. Objects x Beautiful Slides of Stephanoceros with cilia extended, price € now ready, post free. It gives full papculas of our beautiful f according to perfection a7 een 5 from 3/6 to 2 series of Aquatic Organisms, &c., &c: eat Lophopus crystallinus mS) = he 2 fF Ke Trypanosoma Brucei (Tsetse fly disease)... fl a8 40 Vermes' (Marine), various &: each Malarial parasites—many phases eac 3 6 Section of precious Opal, with matrix (opaque) Séction of Quartz with fluid cavities Leaf of Pampas Rasen pretty section Radium for the Microscope. Mounted on a 3 x 1slipasa Micro. Object. Shows scintillations Sedat with low ere Objective. Quite new yy ne 5 6 For a Guinea a year you can ine 240 avr Slides on hire from Watson & Sons’ Cabinets. Sena ae ‘particulars. NEW.—WATSON’S DIFFRACTION BUTTONS. A scientific Novelty. These buttons are made of polished steel upon which spiral lines yalyqth inch apatt are engraved. A beautifully soft radiated appearance is imparted by these lines, the colours being in the order of the Spectrum. Made in two sizes. & j-inch diameter, 4/6 each; 6 in case for 25/- 34-inch diameter, 2/6 each; or 6 in case for 15/- Send: for Watson's Illustrated Catalogues of Microscopes (No. 2), Microscopic Objects (No. 3), Telescopes and Field Glasses (No. 6), Post free on application to W. WATSON & SONS, (*523:"°") Opticians to H.M. Government, 313 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. ietheHes— 46 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH, and 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. Awarded 42 Gold and other Medals. DALLMEYER’S TELE-PHOTO. LENSES & ATTACHMENTS Enable you to take Photographs of Distant or Inaccessible Subjects of sufficient size to be of practical value. 3 Indispensable for use in all departments of Natural History Field Work (especially Ornithology), and also to Architects. ; _ Price from £38 15s. Ags Prices and Par ticulars on application. Estimates and advice Tr ee. Boer Por -ODAARO 7 J. H. DALLMEYER, Ltd, — }Stigmatie Lens fitted with Tele-Photo. Attachment. 25 Newman ‘Street, London, W., (These Avgebments can be fitted to’any good Lens.) THE CELEBRATED DALLMEYER LENSES. Brinted by RicHARD GEAy AND SONs, Limamepyat 7 & § Bread Street Hill, Queen | Victoria Street, in the City of Lonaon, and published by MacmILLAN AND Co., Limipep.at St. Martin "s Street, London, W.C., and Tue MacmiLLan Company, €6 Fifth Avenue, New York ae HURSDAY, June 8, 1905. | A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED. ; JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for Ce eWennanarat No. 1859, VOL. 72] THURSDAY, JUNE iby EQOS cas tee gD . [Prick SIXPENCE Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] {All Rights are Reserved. DR. MORTON'S | FARADIC ALTERNATOR. Sole Makers: REYNOLDS & BRANSON, L°: LABORATORY OUTFITTERS and SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS. BENCHES MADE and DESICNED aug NEWTON & CO = ee Oy ie REQUIRE- MENTS. 3 FLEET STREET, 80. LONDON. APPARATUS OF New Supplementary ouALiTY: List of X-Ray 2 aN and High Frequency ea at Apparatus 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. free on application. GRIEF IN SS NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S ANEROID Improved Pattern NERNST PROJECTION BAROMETERS. LAMPS NEW ILLUSTRATED AND with REVISED PRICE LISTS Electrical Heating Free by Post. Circuit. The Watch Size i= Aneroid for foretelling Double E weather and measur- filament IE ing heights. earrying IE 2 amps. J 38: Holborn Viaduct, Descriptive Paniphlet Post Free on application to JOHN J.GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. E.C. Branches— 45 Cornhill; 122 Regent Street. Ixii NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 COUNTY OF LONDON. EDUCATION ACTS, 1870 To 1903. THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL invites APPLICATIONS for two appointments of ASSISTANT-INSPECTORS under the Chief Inspector (Education). They will be required to assist the Council's dis- trict inspectors in the inspection of public elementary day schools and evening schools and, if required, any other educational institutions within the areas allotted to them. The salary in each case is £250 year, rising by annual increments of 415 to a maximum salary of £400 a year. The persons appointed will be under the control of the Chief Inspector, and will be required to give their whole time to the duties of the office, and will in other respects be subject to the usual conditions attaching to the Council’s service, particulars of which are contained in the form of appli- cation. In connection with these appointments there is no restriction with regard to sex. Applications should be made on the official form to be obtained from the Clerk of the London County Council, at the County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W., or at the Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C. The applications must be sent in not later than 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, 1905, addressed to the Clerk of the Council at the Education Offices, as above, and accompanied by copies of not more than three recent testi- monials. Canvassing, either directly or indirectly, will be held to be a disqualifi- cation for appointment. G. lL. GOMME, Clerk of the London County Council. The County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W., June 7, 1905. COUNTY OF LONDON. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL PAD- DINGTON TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. SUMMER COURSES OF LECTURES. Short Courses of Lectures in the undermentioned subjects will be given at the L.C.C. Paddington Technical Institute, Saltram Crescent (near Westbourne Park Station), provided a sufficient number of students be enrolled ;— Gas and Oil Engines. Practical Workshop. The work of some great British Physicists. Chemistry of Alkaloids. Mathematics. Slide Rule. House Sanitation. Land Surveying. Experimental Mechanics for Building Trades. Railway Economics and Mechanics. Botany. Art. A fee of 2s. will be charged, and this will admit students to all or any of the classes. Full particulars as to the length of the courses, evenings and time of meeting of the classes, may be obtained on application to the SECRETARY of the [nstitute. G. L. GOMME, Education Offices, Clerk of the London County Council. Victoria Embankment, W.C., June 1, 1905. METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD. DIRECTOR OF WATER EXAMINATIONS. The Metropolitan Water Board are about to appoint on their permanent staff a Chief Officer who will be styled DIRECTOR OF WATER EXAMINATIONS, and whose duties will be to advise the Board as to the buildings, equipment and staff to be provided (under section 25 of the Metropolis Water Act, 1902), and subsequently to take charge and super- vision thereof. The Director will also be required to give his whole time to the work, and to superintend and be responsible to the Board for all examin- ations, analyses, experiments and reports, and to undertake such research work and chemical analyses and bacteriological investigations, whether of water or otherwise, as may from time to time be required of him by the Board. The appointment will be held during the pleasure of the Board, and the salary will be £1000 per annum. Applications for the appointment must be made in writing, and must state the age, qualifications, experience and present occupation of the applicants. Official forms of application may be obtained from the undersigned, and should be used if practicable. Applications must be enclosed in sealed envelopes endorsed ‘ Director” and addressed to the undersigned; the last day for receiving them is Tuesday, July rr, 1905. Canvassing members of the Board will be strictly prohibited and will be regarded as a disqualification. A. B. PILLING, Savoy Court, Strand, W.C., Clerk of the Board. May 31, 1905. ——— UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. The Council of the College invites applications for the Post of DEMONSTRATOR and ASSISTANT LECTURER in GEOLOGY. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to. whom applications with testimonials (which need not be printed) must be sent on or before Tuesday, July 4, 1905. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, B.A., Registrar. June 6, 1905 NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Accommodation and apparatus provided for research in either Pure or Applied Chemistry and Physics, and Engineering, in rooms specially adapted for this purpose. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RICHARDSON, D.Sc., B.A. A SUMMER COURSE OF BOTANY, for Teachers and _ others, will be held at the above College, July 31 to August 13, 1905. This course, which will consist chiefly of practical work in the Botanical Laboratory of the College with field-excursions, will be conducted by Professor Cavers, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.L.S. Fee for the course, 15s., payable in advance to the Registrar of the College, Mr. D. Kippix, from whom full particulars may be obtained on application. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET ROAD, LONDON, E.C. The Governing Body invite applications for the following vacant appoint- ments :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. DRAWING OFFICE and LECTURE ASSISTANT, full time. Salary, £120 per annum. PATTERN MAKER and INSTRUCTOR in PATTERN MAKING, fulltime. Salary, 4120 per annum. JUNIOR DRAWING OFFICE INSTRUCTOR, full time, 4100 per annum. : eee ee DEMONSTRATOR for the Engineering Laboratories, ull time. JUNIOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANT, full time. EVENING INSTRUCTOR in AUTOMOBILE WORK, two even- ings per week. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT, JUNIOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANT, full time, JUNIOR LECTURE ASSISTANT, full time. Further particulars of any of the aboye, with forms of application, which should be returned not later than 10 a.m, on Thursday. June 29, 1905, can be obtained on application by letter to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. INDIAN FOREST SERVICE. An Examination will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners on August 29, 1905, for the selection of not less than nine candidates for appointment as PROBATIONERS for the Indian Forest Service. Age limits :—18 to 21 years, on January 1, 1905. Subjects of examination :—Mechanics and Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, and Botany. Applications for admission to the examination must be made on a printed form to be obtained (with further particulars as to the appointments, &c.) from the SECRETARY, Judicial and Public Department, India Office, White- hall, London, S.W., and to be returned to him not later than Saturday, July 1, 1905. No applications received after that date will be considered. A. GODLEY, Under Secretary of State. Salary, India Office, London, May 11, 1905. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. REG. S. CLAY, D.Se., Principal. The Governors of the above Institute invite applications for the following appointments to date from September 1, 1905 :— (a) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Drawing office and shop experience essential. Salary, £150 per annum. (2) CHIEF ASSISTANT in the Architectural and Building Trades Department. Salary, £125 per annum. Applications to be made on special forms, which must be returned not later than June 19, to be obtained from W, M, MACBETH, Secretary, JUNE 15, AGRICULTURE AND LANDS DEPART-. MENT, SUDAN GOVERNMENT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as DEPUTY INSPECTORS in the Agriculture and TI.ands Department of the Sudan Go- ernment. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess the National Diploma, a University Degree or College Dip- loma, in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorcugh knowledge of Agriculture from the practical standpcint. The commencing salary will be 4420 per annum (about £430 sterling). The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birth certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. FoapEn, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may | be obtained. KHEDIVIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, CAIRO, EGYPT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as INSPECTORS under the Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess a University Degree or Diploma in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorough knowledge of agriculture from the practical standpoint. The commencing salary will be £350 per annum. The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible after September 1 next. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birth certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. Foapsn, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may be obtained. COUNTY BOROUGH OF WEST BROMWICH. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. MUNICIPAL DAY TECHNICAL SCHOOL. A LADY ASSISTANT will be required in the above Secondary School in September next. Candidates must be well qualified for ordinary Form work both as regards educational and teaching qualifications. Preference will be given to one who is willing to take an active part in the school games. Commencing Salary, £90 per annum. Application, giving full particulars and enclosing copy of three recent testimonials, should be sent to the Head Master, not later than Monday, July 10 J. E. PICKLES, Secretary. COUNTY COUNCIL OF DURHAM. SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND PUPIL TEACHERS’ CENTRES. HEAD AND ASSISTANT TEACHERS REQUIRED. A number of Teachers (Male and Female) are required for Secondary Schools and Pupil Teachers’ Centres. Full particulars with forms of application are now obtainable. Applications must be delivered before 10am. on June 26, 1905, to the SECRETARY FOR HIGHER EDpucATION, Shire Hall, Durham. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. Applications are invited for the post of JUNIOR ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Some acquaintance with Experi- mental. Mechanics, and with the practical teaching of Mathematics generally, is desired. The appointment will be made for a term of three years at a salary of £150 per annum. Applications should be sent to the REGISTRAR not later than June 24. BOROUGH OF LANCASTER MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL. STOREY INSTITUTE. WANTED, a SCIENCE TEACHER. Principal subjects, Electro- Technics, Electricity. Salary, 4160 to £200. Form of application, PRINCIPAL, Storey Institute, Lancaster. JUNIOR SCIENCE MISTRESS required in September for MUNICIPAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, DONCASTER. Special subjects, Physics, Botany. The Mistress appointed would have charge of a Form and be required to take some ordinary Form subjects. Salary, 4100, non-resident. Apply before June 22, HEAPMISTRESs. IN DIA.—Two Masters wanted in August for Church School at favourite Hill Station, (x) for Mathematics, (2) for Science. Must be Graduates and Communicants. Salaries, Rs. 300 a month; resident. Organist could earn Rs. 60 extra. Free passage. Testimonials and statement of age, &c., must accompany enquiries.— Address Professor Lewis, Cambridge. SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS. — Sales Assistant required, sound knowledge of Chemistry, Electricity and Physics essential, together with up-to-date business methods. Apply with Testimonials to ‘f PHILLtps,”” c/o NATURE. 18-inch Apps-Newton Coil for sale, in perfect condition. No trace of oxidation on the vulcanite. G. Bowron, Edgware Road, W. NATURE lxili BROWNING’S POCKET ANEROID BAROMETERS. WITH ALTITUDE SCALES, For Mountaineering, Touring, and General Purposes. With Fixed Scale, not Compensated, from AU wl O », Revolving Seale, to 8000 ft., Compensated 25 2° +0 sp) do. do. keyless action 34 as 210 0 oF do. to 12,000 ft. eS 215 0 a0 do. do. keyless a Baby 0) 3. do. to 15,000: ft. i 3 10-0 33 do. do. keyless “A 4 00 an do. to 20,000 ft. Af 4 00 99 do. do. keyless np 410 0 In Morocco Cases. Sent Post Free on receipt of Remittance. JOHN BROWNING, o¥ft5%, 78 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. (THEORY AND COACHIN PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- COLOGY and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH. LECTURESHIP IN MATHEMATICS. The Council invite applications for the Post of Lecturer in Mathematics at the above College. Applications, together with copies of testimonials, must reach the undersigned, from whom full particulars may be obtained, not later than Monday, July 10, 1905 J. H. DAVIES, Registrar. ES TO SCIENCE AND MATHL. MASTERS. —Required (1) Science Teacher. Special Subjects, Electro-tecbnics and Electricity. £160 to £200. Technical School and Institute. (2) Science and Maths. £130. County School, London. (3) Flementary Maths., Physics and» Chemistry. £130. Secondary School. (4) Mhysics, Chemistry and Maths. £110 to £120, resident. School in Ireland. (5) Graduate or A.R.C.S., Chemistry, Physics and Mechanics. 4&1co, resident. Endowed Grammar School.— For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GriFFITHS, SMITH, POWELL, AND SMITH, Tutorial Agents (Estd. over 70 years), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. The Council invite applications for the vacant CHAIR of ENGINEER- ING. The income of the Chair consists of a fixed stipend and share of fees, and is guaranteed at not less than £900 per annum for five years. — Applications, with references and, if the candidate desires, testimonials, are requested not later than June 2r. Further particulars on application to the REGISTRAR. Se ——————— CUTTELL’S ROCK CUTTINGMACHINE is the most simple and practical for section cutting, &c., £3 15s. Prize Medal Exhibition of Inventions.—1g9 Abbotstone Road, Putney, SAWe Ixiv NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 COUNTY BOROUGH OF ST. HELENS. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL, THE GAMBLE INSTITUTE. The Education Committee invite applications for the following appoint- ments, dating in each case from September 1, 1905 :— I. LECTURER on FRENCH and ENGLISH. An English Graduate who has resided in France preferred. Salary, 4130 per annum. II. LECTURER on PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS, possessing good qualifications in Electricity. Salary, £130 per annum. The gentlemen appointed will not be permitted to undertake any other duties, but they will have opportunity for study and research, the teaching in each case being mainly in the evening. Forms of application, which must be returned on or before Monday, June 26, together with further particulars, may be obtained from JEFF. J. BROOMHEAD, Education Office, Director of Education. St. Helens, Lancs, June 13, 1905. ASSISTANT MASTER required for the Higher Grade Department of the Titchfield School, Port Antonio, Jamaica. Applicants must be prepared to teach Elementary Science, Geometry, Algebra and Arithmetic. Salary, £150 a year, non-resident. Passage out will be provided. Application should be made to T. Capper, Esq., c/o W. H. Whitfield, Esq., Brookland, Royston, Herts (from whom any further information can be obtained), before June 30, stating qualifications, &c. The selected candidate will be expected to leave England in August or September. Advertiser (22) seeks post as Technical Assistant in Technical College or Laboratory ; has had three years’ training in a Technical College, four years’ practical experience in high- class instrument making firm, Highest refs.—Apply 15, c/o NATURE. FOR SALE.—Collection of over 500 Rock and Mineral Sections in Cabinet, also Collection of Rocks, Minerals, | Gems, &c., in two 18-drawer mahogany Cabinets, over 1500 specimens, many very fine.—Box 59, c/o NATURE. UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. EXAMINER IN PHYSIOLOGY. The UNIVERSITY COURT will, ata MEETING in JULY, proceed to appoint an Additional EXAMINER in PHYSIOLOGY. : Applications, along with fifteen copies of testimonials (should the candi- date think fit to submit any), are to be lodged with the SECRETARY on or before 3rd prox. . ROBERT WALKER, Sec. Univ. Court. University of Aberdeen, June 13, 1905. THE RADIAL AREA-SCALE (Patented by R. W. K. Epwarps) for estimating the area of irregular figures, such as indicator diagrams, &c., can be had on celluloid, price 3s. 6d. each, from MORGAN & KIDD, KEW FOOT ROAD, RICHMOND, S.W. ON SALE. Astronomical Telescope, with 3} in. clear aperture, on expensive mahogany altazimuth stand, x day and 1 astro. eyepiece, in travelling case, price £12, Another 38” by Dottonp, an excellent object glass, with finder, two Hook's joint handles for slow motions, two eyepieces, altazi- muth stand, cost £30, for £14. Another with 2} in. aperture, on oak tripod altazimuth stand, for £2. Microscopes, Zeiss [Va, with swing- out substage condenser, triple nosepiece, No. 1 and No. 3 eyepieces, objectives 3” and }” by Bauscu & Loms, cost £17 5s., offered at £8 10s. Watson’s ‘' Fram” with substage and Abbé condenser, 2 eyepieces, and 2 objectives, t in. and 4 in., in spotless condition, cost £8 5s., offered £6 10s. Student’s Microscope, by Baker, with 1” and }” objectives (a good modern instrument), cost 47 10s., offered at £4 10s. Society of Arts Microscope, with two objectives, live box, forceps, &c., cost £6 4s., offered for £2 10s. Objectives, }.” oil immersion, Watson, N. A. 1.10, offered at £3 10s. Another ;” oil immersion, PiLtiscHER, £2. Another ./,” oil immersion, GowLLanp, N. A. 1.30, for £2 10s. Rev. H. MILLS, Greenside, Kendal. COURSE OF INSTRUCTION ON OCEAN RESEARCH. T is intended this year, as previously, to give a course of instruction in Bergen, from August 8 to October 14, on Ocean Research. This will consist partly of lectures, partly of practical instruction and assistance in laboratory work; excursions will also be made, during which the use of various appliances and instruments will be practically demonstrated. All pupils must, however, bring microscopes and magnifying glasses. Each student is charged a fee of about four guineas (Kr. 75.00). Special pupils who desire to continue their studies after the conclusion of the regular course are permitted to do so, and are not required to pay any additional fee. The course will be conducted according to the following plan :— I. Dr. A. APPELLOF :— (1) Systematic examination of representative forms of the fish and invertebrate animals in the fiords, the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Demonstration of the most important species and guidance as to classifying them. (2) A review of the distribution of the bottom fauna in the same districts, and its dependence upon the configuration of the bottom and upon hydrographical conditions. (3) Excursions in the adjacent fiords, for the purpose of studying the invertebrate fauna. Opportunities will also be given for morphological study (dissections, &c.) of various types of invertebrates. Il. Dr. D. DAMAS :— Systematic examination of the pelagic Copepoda and Appendicularia, their morphology and biology, with demon- stration of the various species. Ill. Dr. H. H. GRAN :— The plankton algae (diatoms and peridineae), their systematising, biology and distribution. IV. B. HELLAND-HANSEN :— (1) Instruction, combined with laboratory practice, on the methods of oceanographic investigations. (2) Review of the results of oceanographic researches of the North-European waters. (3) Lectures on theoretical oceanography, including hydrodynamical calculations of ocean currents. V. Dr. JOHAN HJORT :— Review of the biology of the foodfish. The fisheries in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. VI. Docent C. F. KOLDERUP :— (1) Ocean bottom deposits. (2) Glacial and post-glacial deposits in Norway. All wishing to attend the above course should apply to THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE OF BERGEN MusEUM, BERGEN, Norway, before July 1, 1905. Information as to lodging, &c., will be furnished if desired. NOTE.—Please state clearly in your application, to what extent you wish to take part in the course of instruction, and give the names of the lecturers, whose lectures you propose attending. Ixv JUNE 15, 1905] ‘yO6I ‘SINO1 "LS NATURE. "mopuo’7] ‘epngz3.oay—-sureasole.L - ‘sIgjoWTIejOg pue adoosoijsadgG jo puly AawoAo pue ‘s}USUINA}sUuy JOYy}JO pue ‘JeorwaYyD ‘[Teorshyg jo sayep "0" AR S‘NIOGCNO'I ‘RMOSDIOCH EXDIEZ SIt Bic ip Cc 4c OSC F< qc sic C= 6 ‘Susi OM] SUIPNjIU! ‘006! ‘SIUVWd —XINd GNVYD @) O °F Pee Sug — SHALIINOYL04dS$ NOLLdIadsad 4 SNOWv4 Ss. StS oe Ixvi NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instrue- tions and about 3000 illustrations. ODD NATURE says:—'' The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions, After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION, | CARL ZEISS, JENA BRANCHES— LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W- Berlin. Frankfort o/M. Hamburg. Vienna. St. Petersburg. Palmos Cameras. LICHT Fitted wih ZEISS LENSES. Sizes—6 9 and gX12cm., and 3} in. x 4}-in. and 5-in. x 4-in. Also 9X 18 cm. for Stereo and Panorama. SUITABLE FOR PLATES, PACK FILMS, AND ROLL FILMS. Illustrated Catalogue, ** Pn,” Post Free on application. STAR MICROMETERS. The illustration shows a star micrometer of the form designed by Mr. A. R. Hinks, and made by us for the University Observatory of Cambridge, England, as well as for the Observatory of Tacubaya (see Monthly Notices, Roy. Astron. Soc., Vol. LXI., p 444). The coordinates of astar upon acelestial photograph impressed with a standard reseau are obtained very readily, the errors being imperceptible. We also make a simple form of star micrometer, which is highly accurate in performance, although the adjust- ments are less elaborate, We make a special feature of in- struments for research, and we may mention as examples of our design and construction the Spectrohelio- graph at Kodaikanal, and an appar- atus for enlarging and rectifying stellar spectrograms at Poona. We shall be glad to answer the enquiries of interested parties. The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Ltd., CAMBRIDGE, ENCLAND. IN AIM OU GI 145 DHURSDAY, JUNE xs; 1905. SOME RECENT BOOKS ON CELTIC. Keltic Researches. By E. W. B. Nicholson. Pp. XViii + 212. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London : Henry Frowde, 1904.) Price 21s. net. The Mythology of the British Islands. Squire. Pp. x+446. (London : Ltd., 1905.) The Literature of the Celts, its History and Romance. By Magnus Maclean. Pp. xv+qoo. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., rg02.) HOSE who have the study of Celtic at heart can- not but be rejoiced at the strides which it has made in recent years. At no period have the inhabi- tants of the Celtic countries—those of Wales and Ire- land more especially—shown a keener interest in their languages and institutions than at the present day, the number of scholars engaged in Celtic research has never been so great; and this Celtic revival, so-called, is like to prove no passing outburst, fanned by eccen- trics and sentimentalists; rather we should see in it the coming of the race into its own again, the reap- ing after many days of a rich harvest of literature and legend. In the case of the Welsh, the movement has been partly the cause, partly the effect of the movement to- wards improved education, and is no longer of yester- day. It can be traced back some seventy years, to the founding of the British schools by the late Sir Hugh Owen. Thirty years later the enlightened patriot added discussions, both learned and practical, on matters affecting the Principality, to the musical and literary contests at the Eisteddfod. About the same time the study of the Welsh language, which owed what life it had to the devoted labours of Chancellor Silvan Evans, received a fresh direction from the papers and speeches of Prof. Rhys, who in- veighed against the school of Dr. Owen Pughe, and pointed the way to more scientific methods. The last fifty years have been marked by a steady, if gradual, advance; the interest in Wales and things Welsh, and the sense of nationality, have become ever keener and more real, the language has secured a fresh lease of life, and the study of philology and history has been, and continues to be, vigorous and fruitful; not the least happy augury for the future is the fact that a number of younger men, natives of the Principality, have already made a name in these fields. Unlike the Welsh, by which it may have been in part suggested, the Irish revival is of comparatively recent date. It is none the less vigorous on that account. Within the last few years, owing largely to the efforts of the Gaelic League, Irish has been studied with eagerness by persons of every shade of opinion, and a determined attempt has been made to develop native industries. A society has been founded for the publica- tion of Irish texts—it has already done considerable work—and a special school, the School of Irish Learn- ing, has been started to give students a scientific train- ing in the language and to open up the rich treasures of Irish literature. The necessary funds are provided NO. 1859, VOL. 72] By Charles Blackie and Son, same | the ancient Goidelic languages and peoples. in part by voluntary subscription, and the generous donor may hope that he is helping to raise up a race | of scholars as devoted as O’Curry and O'Donovan, as distinguished as Stokes and O’Grady. there has been movement among the Scotch Highlanders or the other Celtic peoples, but it will not be the fault of their congeners if their national aspirations remain unawakened. The Pan-Celtic Congress, which met for the first time in Up to this pre- sent, no corresponding 1901, has for one of its aims to increase the feeling of union among ‘‘ the sea-divided Gaels ’’ themselves; it is attended by delegates from all the Celtic districts, as well from Brittany as from those on this side of the Channel. Apart from the enthusiasm of the Celtic-speaking races for their own language and institutions, there is a growing tendency among the other inhabitants of these islands—themselves far from purely Teutonice— to recognise the importance of the Celtic element and to wish to be enlightened as to its history and litera- ture. It is doubtless to meet this demand that there have appeared of late years a number of books on Celtic subjects, written not so much for the specialist as for the general public. Of the books at the head of this notice two—Mr. Squire’s ‘‘ Mythology’’ and Mr. Maclean's ‘‘ Literature ’—are of this more or less popular character. All three alike are the work of men whose distinctions are not confined to Celtic, and bear witness to the increasing interest which it is exciting among the British nation as a whole. Mr. Nicholson’s ‘* Keltic Researches,’’ as the sub- title indicates, are a series of studies in the history of The author’s first object is to demonstrate to philologists certain unrecognised or imperfectly recognised — lin- guistic facts; but, inasmuch as he has not made Celtic his one and only study, he does not write in a narrow, specialising spirit; his linguistic facts are important, but he values them chiefly for the light which they throw on history in general, on the Pictish question, on the Menapian settlements, and on the distribution of the Celtic languages in Britain and on the Continent. The main philological result of the book is to show that the loss of original fp, a loss supposed to be the main characteristic of the Celtic languages, is of com- paratively late date in the Goidelic group, that, in fact, p was kept at Bordeaux until the fifth century a.p. Those who wish to be satisfied as to the soundness of his linguistic foundation are advised to turn to the ap- pendices, which make up a third of his book, imme- diately after reading the first eight pages. We need scarcely point out that much of his matter is controversial, and that some of his conclusions are liable to be disputed. For instance, many will refuse to admit that the Picts spoke a tongue virtually iden- tical with Gaelic; they will maintain with Stokes that they spoke something nearer akin to Welsh, or with Zimmer and Rhys that their language was not Aryan at all. On the other hand, there can be little doubt as to the correctness of his main linguistic results. Ex- ception may be taken to the interpretation of his piéces justificatives, the Rom tablets and the Coligny calen- dar; but he is certainly right in inferring that, besides those of the Gallo-Brythonic branch, there existed in H 146 NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 Gaul a language or languages closely akin to Goidelic or ancient Gaelic of the British Isles. Strange to say, although every Celtist knows that the peoples of the Gallo-Brythonic group had p for qu from time immemorial—petor in Gaulish petorritum=Latin qua- tuor—and that those of the Goidelic branch retained qu like the Romans, the greater number have chosen to assume that Gaulish was co-extensive with Celtic on the Continent. In spite of the evidence of such names as Aquitania, Sequana, Sequani, it was the fashion to suppose that qu was unknown in Gaul and that all the Celts alike dropped the consonant p of the Indo-European parent speech, as, for instance, in Aremorica, Armorica, where are is approximately equi- valent to the Greek mapa. In laying stress on the fact that the retention of the old qu and Indo-European p are characteristic of the Pictavian and Sequanian lan- guages he has done valuable service to the cause of philology, and recalled Celtic scholars from a path of error. He does not, indeed, claim to be the first to point out that the Celtic languages of the Continent were not of one and the same type. He tells us that as early as 1847 Jacob Grimm showed that the charms in the work of Marcellus of Bordeaux were in a lan- guage virtually identical with old Irish, and that Pictet afterwards proved that Indo-European p was retained in one of these charms in the prefix pro. Half a cen- tury later (in February, 1891), in a paper read before the Philological Society, Prof. Rhys brought together certain qu names from the Continent to prove the same thesis, and proposed that the language in Gaul akin to Goidelic should be called Celtican. He insisted on the significance of the words of Sulpicius Severus in Dialog. I. 27, ‘‘ Tu vero, inquit Postumianus, vel Cel- tice, aut si mavis, Gallice loquere, dummodo jam Mar- tinum loquaris.’’ So, too, Mr. Macbain, in the intro- duction to his etymological dictionary of the Gaelic Language (Inverness, 1896), inserts among the q group by the side of Goidelic “‘ dialects in Spain and Gaul.”” This was not long before the Coligny calen- dar and the Rom inscriptions came to light, showing that the Sequani and the Pictones, at any rate, spoke languages belonging to the same group as old Irish. There can be no question that the book deserves study. If it sometimes betrays inexperience—and the author would be the first to admit this—it shows signs of many-sided learning, and in some cases of rare in- sight; the whole breathes an impartiality and generous candour which are wanting in many searchers after truth. ‘The Mythology of the British Islands,’’ by Charles Squire, is an introduction to Celtic myth, legend, poetry, and romance. It is intended, as we have seen, not for the learned, but for the ordinary reader, and the subject is approached from the literary rather than from the scholastic standpoint. Believing that the classic fount from which the poet so long drew inspira- tion has lost its potency, that the Greek stories can no longer be handled save by the genius alone, the author has attempted to put the natives of these islands in possession of a new heritage of myth and tradition, a heritage which is as much their own as that of the Teutons and Scandinavians, NO. 1859, VOL. 72| Although the Welsh mabinogi and romances, and much of the Gaelic saga, have been made accessible in translations, it is unlikely that the British public as a whole can have formed anything like an adequate idea of Celtic mythology. The works in yoint contain but few explanations, and he who opens them for the first time, while he may be sensible of their charm, cannot but be bewildered by the novelty of his sur- roundings. He feels that he has ventured into a new world, peopled by characters whose very names are, for the most part, unfamiliar. If he wishes to under- stand their setting, to trace the connection between them, he must peruse innumerable lectures and learned essays, a task which is like to prove no light one. Mr. Squire’s book is calculated to meet his difficulty. In it he will at last be formally introduced to the person- ages of Celtic mythology, to the gods and giants of the Gaels, to the champions of the Red Branch of Ulster— heroes of an epic almost worthy to rank with that of Troy—and to Finn and his Fenians. He will also make acquaintance with the chief figures of the Bry- thonic Pantheon, with the earlier race of gods, and with Arthur and his knights, who will be seen to be- long to the same company. ‘ As our author does not claim to have written an original work, it goes without saying that we are not called upon to enter into a discussion of his subject- matter. He has studied the works of the best scholars, and for the most part he adheres to them faithfully. It is possible that in some cases he may show him- self over positive, that he may be inclined to treat as certain what his authority has advanced as a conjec- ture. But since his sole object in writing is to gain a larger audience for the studies of others, slips of this kind cannot be regarded as serious. In our opinion his book is both useful and attractive. His treatment of his subject is thorough and conscien- tious, and he has realised his hope of presenting it in a lucid and agreeable form. It will be matter for sur- prise if he does not inspire his readers with some at feast of his own enthusiasm. Of Mr. Maclean’s ‘‘ Celtic Literature ’’ there is no need to say more than a few words. It is some time since it appeared, and we doubt not that many of the readers of this Journal are already well acquainted with it It is the first attempt to give in brief compass an account of Celtic literature from the earliest times to the present day. Like Mr. Squire’s ‘‘ Mythology,”’ it is intended to serve as a popular introduction; at the same time, it aims at satisfying those in quest of in- formation as to original sources and books of reference. From both points of view it has much to recommend it; it will leave the general reader with a clear idea of the main outlines of the subject, while the student will find in it a painstaking and, within certain limits, a trustworthy guide. We are inclined to prefer the chap- ters dealing with Celtic literature in modern times, with the Highland bards before the Forty-five, with the master gleaners of Gaelic poetry, &c. The pages which describe the influence of Celtic on English litera- ture are also interesting reading. The book ends with a survey of Celtic studies and a list of Celtic scholars past and present. JUNE 15, 1905] NATURE 147 WEATHER INFLUENCES. Weather Influences: an Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteor- ological Conditions. By Dr. E. G. Dexter. Pp. xxxi+286. (New York: The Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price 8s. 6d. net. HE effect of changes of weather on human activities has been the subject of much discus- sion, and each of us has no doubt formed an opinion on how he individually is affected by different meteor- ological conditions. The problem as affecting the behaviour of humanity in the mass has, however, received but scant attention hitherto. The statistical method affords the means of obtaining numerical re- sults which enable us to estimate the importance of such effects. Meteorological statistics are nowadays available from most centres of population; social statistics are also plentiful, yet of these only a limited number can be made to yield information on the general conduct or the working capacity of the community as a whole. In the book before us Dr. Dexter has collected and discussed sixteen classes of data culled from school records, covering both questions of attendance and conduct, police records dealing with cases of assault, drunkenness, murder, suicide, arrests for insanity, discipline in penitentiaries and the health of the force, the death register, registers of attendance in the out-patient departments of hospitals, and records of the number of clerical errors discovered in the books of certain banking establishments. The latter are the only data studied which deal exclusively with mental activities. All the records refer to New York City or to Denver, Colorado. The meteorological statistics with which they have been compared were obtained | from the U.S. Weather Bureau. The effects of seasonal changes are first discussed, and then the influence of each of the meteorological elements is considered separately. The general method of arranging the material for this purpose will be clear from the following description of that of dealing with the connection between temperature and assault. The days falling within the period con- sidered were arranged in groups according to their mean temperatures, each group extending over a range of 5° F. On the assumption that temperature has no effect on assault, the number of days in each group is proportional to the ‘‘ expectancy ’’ of assault for that group. The actual number of occurrences of assault on the days of the group is computed as a percentage of the ‘‘ expectancy,’’ and curves have been drawn using the ‘ occurrences ’’ as ordinates and temperatures as abscissa. In dealing with the element rainfall the usual meteorological distinction has been drawn between days of rainfall, on which o.or inch of rain or more was measured, and drv days. It seems a pity that a further subdivision was not made. Most of us would be inclined to draw a wide distinction between showery days with only a few hundredths of an inch of rain- fall and days of steady downpour. Even if such a further subdivision had been adopted, days with a NO. 1859, VOL. 72] few heavy showers would not be distinguishable from days of continuous fall; probably a classification on the basis of duration rather than amount of rainfall would yield results which would repay the labour involved in tabulating the records of self-registering rain gauges. The majority of the curves show fluctuations which are greatly in excess of any which could be due merelv to accidental variations. The number of data is in some cases extremely large (about 40,000 cases of assault), and there can be no doubt about the genuine- ness of the effects of meteorological changes. The interpretation of the results is, however, a matter of considerable difficulty, and the possible influence of other than meteorological causes has to be steadily borne in mind. The general line of argu- ment adopted regards the curves as compound func- tions of ‘irritability’? or ‘*‘ emotional state’? and ‘available’? or ‘reserve energy.’’ Thus, to return to the temperature-assault curve, we find a marked deficiency of occurrences at low temperatures. This has been taken to mean that under these conditions so large a portion of the vital energy is used up in supporting normal metabolic processes that the sur- plus available for active disorder is small. Under warmer conditions our pugilist, in addition to being more out of doors and thus seeing more of his neighbour, has more reserve energy available for active warfare, and the work: of the police is propor- tionately increased. Above 65° the curve commences to rise with increased rapidity. Fighting energy is now at its prime, and at the same time “‘ irritability ’” or quarrelsomeness is rapidly increasing. The tem- perature group 80°-85° shows a conspicuous maxi- mum in the relative frequency of assaults. In the next group, 85°-90°, the curve exhibits a sudden drop. Irritability may very possibly be at a maximum, but the energy necessary to commence war is lacking, and a mere desire to fight is not a punishable offence. It is an interesting fact that the curve for women shows the above effects even more conspicuously than the one for men. A similar accentuation of the general charac- teristics is shown in all cases in which the number of data is sufficiently large to justify a separation of the sexes, so that it would appear that women are, on the whole, more susceptible to weather influences than men. Some of the most interesting and at the same time most inexplicable curves are those which show the effect of the height of the barometer on human activities. With a few exceptions all classes of data show a marked excess of occurrences for periods of low barometer and a corresponding deficiency when readings are high. We cannot set this down to the direct effects of the diminution of pressure on the human organism; crime, &c., does not increase with altitude. Attempts at explanation by calling to our aid the usual accompaniments of a low barometer, viz. wind, rain, or cloud also fail, for when the effects of these elements are considered separately we find that in a number of cases the fesults contradict the hypothesis. Dr. Dexter directs attention to the peculiar ‘‘ feel’? which some people have for the approach of a storm, but this hardly amounts to an 148 NATORE [JUNE 15, 1905 explanation. It has been suggested that the radio- | Geneva, but is besides of the utmost value as a active emanation which is always present in the | general study of the nature of fresh-water lakes. In atmosphere in varying quantities may not be without influence on the human organism, and if, as Elster and Geitel suppose, this emanation is mainly derived from the underground air, which is more copiously discharged into the atmosphere as pressure decreases, it may be possible to establish a connection between the ‘*‘ storm feel’’ and the presence of radio-active emanation. If this be so we should expect to find the effect more pronounced with a falling than with a rising barometer, and, in the absence of direct measure- ments of the amount of emanation, the results obtained from a classification of the days, or perhaps better still, by a subdivision of the data used in constructing the present curves, on this principle would probably be in- teresting. Such a separation might prove profitable from a purely meteorological point of view, apart from all considerations of emanations, radio-active or other- wise. Possibly the peculiar abnormalities shown by most of the data for days of calm may be to some extent due to similar causes. The connection is, how- ever, a very complicated one; attempts to trace a similarity between days of calm and days of low barometer fail signally. We cannot here enter into a discussion of all the results or criticise the individual conclusions arrived at. In the final chapter Dr. Dexter further develops his thesis of the ‘‘ available energy ’’ and ‘‘ emotional state’? in the light of all the accumulated evidence, and comes to the conclusion that the effect of weather changes is greater on the former than on the latter, at any rate in its practical effects on conduct. The study of the problems dealt with in the book is not without a certain practical interest to all who are responsible for the control of large numbers of individuals. If certain meteorological conditions can be shown to have a deleterious or beneficent influence on conduct or working capacity, it is well that we should recognise the fact as clearly as possible, and do what we can to mitigate the harmful conditions. Man cannot hope to control the weather, but he can modify the highly artificial conditions under which he lives to a very large extent. A LIMNOLOGICAL MONOGRAPH. Le Leman, Monographie Limnologique. By Prof F. A. Forel. Vol. iii. Part ji: (Lausanne: F. Rouge et Cie., 1904.) Pp. 410-715. N the issue of this, the second part of his third volume, Prof. Forel completes his great mono- graphic study of the Lake of Geneva. The veteran pioneer of scientific limnological research is to be con- gratulated on the successful termination of his monu- mental task, commenced some half-century ago. The impetus which the study of lakes has received from the labours of Forel has now carried us so far that we find it difficult to realise the arduous nature of the work accomplished by him, who had in so many different directions to make the first tentative trials of methods of research with which all students of limnology are now familiar. The completed work is not merely a compendious study of the Lake of NO. 1859, VOL. 72] his painstaking study of this one lake he has been so fortunate as to observe and explain in a satisfactory manner many phenomena of general scientific interest and importance, among others the mysterious rise and fall of the waters of the lakes now known as seiches, the peculiar abyssal fauna of the lake, &c. The present part of the work, which is mainly historical, deals with such varied subjects that it is difficult to particularise. Nothing having the slightest connection, direct or indirect, with the Lake of Geneva is destitute of interest for Prof. Forel, and we find here discussed many questions which a less enthu- siastic limnologist might have been content to leave to students of other departments of knowledge. He gives a résumé of the history of the surrounding countries, of legislation, the fluctuations of population, local traditions, &c. More particularly apposite to the subject are the history of the lake dwellings, undertaken fifty years ago, in company with a band of archeologists of which he laments that he is the only survivor, the history of navigation, of fishing, and of pisciculture. The history of navigation is treated very fully, from the canoe of the lake dweller to the modern steamer, and is illustrated with reproductions of many ancient pictures of ships; with such fulness of detail is the subject treated that we have a list of steamers plying on the lake from the Guillaume-Tell of 1823 to those of the present day. The ancient tradition of the ‘‘ éboulement du Lauredunum ”’ is discussed in its scientific bearings. The tradition, supported by contemporary chronicles, is that in the year 563 a.D. a mountain was precipi- tated into the lake, destroying a castle, villages and churches, causing a flooding of the shores of the lake, and much destruction of property and life in Geneva. He shows that a landslip, such as has occurred several times in history, could not account for the production of great floods. Although he has abandoned the belief that earth movements habitually produce seiches, he admits that a great earthquake might be the cause of the land-slide, and coincidently of a great seiche, which would cause destruction on the shores of the lake. He thinks it more probable, however, that at a time of ordinary flood, when the waters of the lake were very high, an ordinary seiche of no more than a metre of amplitude might cause considerable flooding in Geneva, and perhaps wash away some wooden bridges and houses, the connec- tion with the landslip being a mere coincidence. In his philosophical reflections at the conclusion of his work, Prof. Forel claims that there have been few problems presented to him in the course of his in- vestigations which he has not been able to solve, and the more difficult of these few are general problems, not belonging to his special province, and the solu- tion of which must be sought in other lakes. He would, however, guard against this assertion being misunderstood as a boastfully complacent assumption that he has exhausted the subject. Every naturalist has his limits, determined from within by the extent of his powers, from without by the state of the } JUNE 15, 1905] sciences in the age in which he lives. What is accomplished in one generation is the foundation for the achievements of the next. That the subject is not exhausted we may easily see by remarking the progress that has been made in one of its departments most Prof. Forel finished that part of his work. In biology, even in the simple cataloguing of the lacustrine animals and plants, it is obvious that the worl accom- easily reviewed, since plished under his guidance is no more than a_ be- ginning in this direction, and specialists in any branch find abundance still to do. belittling the work of Prof. Forel that this aspeet of the subject is adverted to. It is a great work patiently carried through, and will serve as a found- ation for all future limnological studies. It is with no intention of HENRY SIDGWICK’S ESSAYS, Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses. By Henry Sidgwick. Pp. vii+371. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price tos. net. N this volume we have the first instalment of the shorter essays of that brilliant thinker, Henry Sidgwick. They have been chiefly collected from journals and reviews, but two are now published for the first time. His philosophical lectures and papers are reserved for a companion volume. In a way, the selection of articles now before us illustrates a period of thirty-six years of the life of one of the most striking personalities of our time, and on that account, and from their breadth of view, they have a value even though the occasion of their appearance is long past. Of the sixteen papers, six are literary or critical, six deal with questions of socialism and economics, and four with education and university affairs. We were surprised and somewhat disappointed to find no reminiscence of his activity in connection with the education of Englishwomen, but perhaps more may be expected when the histories of Newnham and Girton come to be written. A detailed review of the essays on Shakespeare, Matthew Arnold, and Clough, or of those on political economy or sociology, hardly falls within the sphere of this Journal, but few of our readers who are interested in the burning question of the best education for men of science will regret having read Sidgwick’s essay on ‘* The Theory of Classical Education,’’ reprinted from F. W. Farrar’s ‘‘ Essays on a Liberal Educa- tion,’’ which was originally published in 1867. In the light of the recent controversy on the Greek question much of this excellent paper reads as if it had been written yesterday, and it is difficult to avoid the reflection that if several of the of contro- versial letters to the Times had read this essay of forty years ago, both their matter and manner might have been improved. With respect to the classical element in a scientific education, Sidgwick was of opinion that although science had at kength broken its connection with what was so long the learned language of Europe, yet everyone who aspires to become a ‘ learned ’’ man of science will require to read Latin with ease, but that wo. 1859, VOL. 72] writers NATURE 149 the sole stock-in-trade of Greelx him would be a list of words that he could learn in a day necessary for and the use of a dictionary that he might acquire in a week. In other words, he appeared to be in favour of the retention for the highest students of that modicum of Greel which is at present compulsory at Oxford and Cambridge, only he would perhaps have liked to see it reduced and treated as a distinct part of the direct teaching of English. A clear distinction is drawn between natural and artificial educations, and between the effects of literary and of scientific training. With regard to the latter Cuvier’s famous remark is quoted with approbation :- class of science ‘“ Every discussion which supposes a classification of facts . is performed after the same manner; and he who has cultivated this science merely for amuse- ment, is surprised at the facilities it affords for dis- entangling all kinds of affairs.” He admits that a student of languages could not honestly claim an analogous advantage for his own pursuit. The editors are justified in the inclusion of the essay on ** Idle Fellowships ’’ in spite of the fact that the evils of which it complains have greatly diminished. The general educational considerations discussed are of so wide a bearing that they are not less true now than in 1876, when the essay was published. We feel certain that those who peruse this volume will share our gratitude to the editors for their share in the re-publication. OUR BOOK SHELF. The Insulation of Electric Machines. By H. W. Turner, and “Hl. MM.) Hobart. ‘Pp. © xvi--297. (London : Whittaker and Co., 1905.) Price tos. 6d. net. Tue perfecting of the modern dynamo electric machine, and the necessity of high potential differences have within recent years quite altered our ideas about insulation. Electrical engineers have come to view the subject from a different standpoint on account of the importance of disruptive strength of the material apart from conduction pure and simple. The bools under review appears at a very appropriate time. Our knowledge of the physical properties of insula- tors is now sufficient, and the want of a really good book on the subject is great enough to justify its appearance. It will be welcomed by the electrical engineer as a most valuable addition to his library. The book opens with an account of the requisites for insulating materials, and the most perplexing phenomena met with during the testing of the same. Why is it that air has comparatively such low di- electric strength, and yet it is a very good insulator as ordinarily understood? Again, why does the apparent dielectric strength per unit thickness of such a substance as mica vary with the thickness? These and many other matters difficult to understand are laid before the reader. The properties of insulating materials and the influences of temperature and moisture upon them are next dealt with. The authors quite rightly lay stress upon the testing of insulators at, or even exceeding, their working limits of temperature, and the futility of baling to obtain temporary insulation unless moisture be permanently excluded. When dealing with the influence of brush discharge mention might with advantage have been made of the production of nitric acid, and the ultimate 150 NATURE | JUNE 15, 1905 breaking down of the insulation. The production of ozone—the forerunner of the above effect—is a matter of the utmost importance to electrical engineers, especially in damp climates. ’ That portion of the book dealing with varnishes is most valuable. The pros and cons. of the use of linseed oil, which undoubtedly has a very extended use at the present time, and other acid bodies are well set forth, as are those of the use of insulators of paraffin origin. The uses to which oils can be put as insulators, their various characteristics, their purity and methods for purifying and drying are carefully dealt with. Presspahn-mica is advocated instead of micanite for high tension working. An important part of the work is that which deals with insulation of armatures, field-coils, and trans- formers. It is well shown upon what the so-called “* space-factor,’’ that is the ratio of area of copper to gross area of slot, depends. Very valuable sugges- tions are made with regard to pressure tests. Long time high pressure tests are likely to injure apparatus, and are not recommended—a few seconds’ application is sufficient. The appliances in use for taping and handling insulation material, and a most interesting description of the tools employed, together with a useful bibliography, close what is really a valuable book. ‘The printing is good, and the illustrations are excellent. ERNEST WILSON. Insect Life. A Short Account of the Classification and Habits of Insects. By Fred. V. Theobald, M.A. With numerous illustrations (53 in the text). Second edition, revised. Pp. xi+235. (London: Methuen and Co., 1905.) Price 2s. 6d. Tue first edition of this work was published in 1896, and the public interest in entomology is evidenced by the increasing number of books on the subject which reach a second edition within a comparatively short time of publication. A cheap popular illustrated book on insects seems at present to be assured of a sale at least sufficient to cover expenses, which was not the case a few years ago. f The second edition is exactly similar to the first as regards its size, illustrations, and general contents; but here and there we notice occasional additions. There is much useful information in the book, but we regret that the second edition has not been more carefully revised, for, apart from occasional misprints, several erroneous or obsolete statements contained in the first edition have been repeated in the second. Thus on p. 3 (note) we read, ‘‘ The total number [of insects] described, however, is under 250,000.” This is probably based on Kirby’s estimate in his “Text-book of Entomology ”? (1885) of 222,000; but the later estimate given in the second edition (1892) was 270,000, which would require to be augmented by many thousands to be correct for 1905. On p. 87, “The so-called Apples of Sodom found near the Red Sea,’’ should, of course, be the Dead Sea. While it is true, as stated on p. 105, that Danaus chrysippus is the only European species of the genus, the much larger insect occasionally found in England is the common North American D, erippus (or D. archippus), introduced, but which may not improbably become naturalised in Europe, and has established itself within the last half-century in many of the Pacific Islands, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Lastly (p. 166), it is possible that the bite of the species of tsetse fly which destroys cattle in South Africa may be ‘‘ comparatively harmless to man’; yet, as Mr. Theobald must certainly know, the terrible sleeping sickness of Western and Central Africa is now ascribed to the bites of different species of tsetse flies infesting those regions. We hope that when this little book reaches a third NO. 1859, VOL 72] edition Mr. Theobald may have an opportunity of enlarging it, for entomology, like other sciences, advances so rapidly that it is not possible to bring it up to date, unless the author gives himself a free hand in this direction. The Radial Area-Scale. Patented by R. W. K. Edwards. (Richmond, Surrey: Morgan and Kidd.) Price 3s. 6d. Tuts ingenious instrument is designed for use in find- ing the approximate areas of irregular plane figures such as indicator diagrams. It consists of a sheet of transparent celluloid marked with eleven scales on lines radiating from a point at equal angular intervals of about 3°, and so divided that a scale reading is pro- portional to the area of a sector from the centre up to that point. When used, the sheet is laid over the figure to be measured, and is adjusted until the figure is just contained within the bounding radials, with its outline cutting the nine inner scales each in two points. The outer and inner readings at these points are now taken and the two sets added; the difference between the two sums gives the required area. The entire opera- tion occupies about three minutes. Applied by the writer to a 3" circle and a 6” semicircle, the results were correct in both cases to within ~ per cent. As the outside radials include an angle of about 30°, the instrument is quite quickly adjusted over large or small figures of any shape, and the scales are clear and easy to read. To ensure a good approximation, Simpson’s rule has been cleverly applied in figuring the scales. The instrument seems likely to be of consider- able service, and should be widely known. By W. P. Work- A Preparatory Course in Geometry. (London : man and A. G. Cracknell. Pp. viii+56. W. B. Clive, 1905.) Price od. THE little book by Messrs. Workman and Cracknell is preparatory to a forthcoming work on ‘‘ Geometry, Theoretical and Practical,’? on which the authors are now busily engaged. It consists essentially of a set of exercises on the accurate scale drawing of lines, angles, triangles, and polygons, and requires the reading off of quantitative results as regards lengths and angles. Areas, ratios, and the general proper- ties of circles are not reached in this volume. It trains the youth in the proper use of the drawing-pencil, straight-edge, scale, protractor, set-square, and com- pass, and gives him a concrete knowledge of, and prac- tical insight into, geometrical truths as a preliminary to more formal work. Teachers using the book would do well when valuing class work to act on a sugges- tion contained therein, and give varying credit accord- ing to the degree of accuracy disclosed by the results. The book gives good promise of another very interest- ing class book of elementary geometry. The Evolution of the World and of Man. E. Boxall. Pp. xi+1g91. (London: Unwin, 1905.) Price 5s. A SINGLE example to show how Mr. Boxall proposes to supplement the deficiencies in the story of evolution as told by science will enable possible readers to estimate the value of his book. On p. 30, after stating that geology tells us the order in which various strata were laid down, he continues :—‘‘ but no attempt has as yet been made to estimate the temperature, for instance, when the granite was first deposited, and yet this should not be a difficult problem to solve. Thus, of the true metals, aluminium is the only one which appears in the granite, . . .”’ and the account continues with the same disregard of scientific fact. Mr. Boxall expresses his own view of the value of the book by not troubling to provide an index to it. By George T. Fisher JUNE 14, 1905] IVA ORE 151 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake te return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NAtTuRE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The Possibility of Reducing Mosquitoes. Ix his able review of James and Liston’s interesting ““ Monograph of the Anopheles Mosquitoes of India,’’ pub- lished in your issue of May 25, Dr. Stephens recapitulates the arguments of these authors in favour of their hypo- thesis that “‘ the task of materially reducing the number of Anopheles in any place will undoubtedly be one of great magnitude.’’ As the subject is one of the greatest sanitary importance, it may perhaps be advisable to add that the validity of these arguments is by no means accepted by all students of the subject. They are based for the most part on the results of some anti-mosquito work done at Mian Mir by Dr. Christophers and Captain James. Perhaps those of your readers who are not medical men may not be cognisant of the fact that an exhaustive and, I think, destructive criticism of this work has been pub- lished by Colonels Crombie and Giles, Captain Sewell, and myself—vide British Medical Journal, September 17, 1904, and Journal of Tropical Medicine, 1904. My own conclusions were that the operations cost too little to be effective, and that no exact method was employed for enumerating the numbers of mosquitoes present before and after their commencement. So far as I am aware, Dr. Christophers and Captain James have not replied to our criticisms, and I therefore feel justified in assuming that the case has gone against them by default. I should add that I hear on very good authority that the operations at Mian Mir are now being continued on a better basis. The principal argument of our authors appears to be that the local reduction of mosquitoes will be wholly or largely impracticable because of immigration of the insects from outside. Thus they mention four methods by which Anopheles are dispersed, namely, by flight, by streams, by carriages, and by gradual spreading in all directions ‘‘ by short stages,’’ and think that the last method is ‘‘ over- looked by those who have no intimate knowledge of mosquito habits, but who readily draw up schemes for their wholesale destruction.’’ I fear that these very self- evident facts were well known and carefully considered long before the authors commenced their researches, and, moreover, that they do not by any means establish their case. It is quite obvious that a considerable number of mosquitoes must always find their way by diffusion into any area of operations; but this is not enough. What the sceptics have to prove is that the number of immigrants must be so large as nearly, or completely, to compensate for the local destruction. This is quite a different pro- position, and one which will, I think, tax their ingenuity to maintain. If the local mosquito-density is to remain the same in spite of local destruction, it can only be by means of an abnormally large compensatory immigration setting in coincidentally with the commencement of the work of reduction. But what is there to determine such an extraordinary and suicidal influx? Mosquitoes do not, like a gas, exist under a pressure which compels them to fill up a vacuum, and we can scarcely suppose that they voluntarily move in the direction of their own destruction. But, even if they do rush in to fill the local vacuum, they must, in order to do so, forsake the outlying tracts of country (which wili be correspondingly benefited by their absence), so that the total average reduction over the whole area influenced by the operations will be exactly the same whether migration takes place or not—an argu- ment which appears to have been overlooked by the sceptics. ; Owing to the fact that the to and fro movements of all random wandering must tend to annul each other—that is, that the vectorial sum of such movements must tend to zero—]I think that migration is not likely seriously to counteract the effect of anti-propagation measures. I should like to refer those interested in this part of the subject to a paper by me, published in the British Medical Journal for May 13, in which I have endeavoured to NO. 1859, VOL. 72] approach the subject analytically. My results agree with those of the late Mr. Ronald Hudson, who kindly com- menced a similar analysis for me shortly before his | lamented death, and also, I may add, with general ex- perience, which shows that though a few mosquitoes may occasionally wander to considerable distances, the large bulk of them remain near their breeding pools. I venture to think that those who would prove the converse must do so, not by citing individual cases of long wandering, but by making a much more exact numerical determination of the amount of immigration than they have yet attempted, and by showing that it greatly exceeds the local birth-rate—a somewhat difficult task. That their observations are not always those of others may be seen from the following quotation from Dr. Malcolm Watson’s report on the highly successful anti-malaria measures carried out in the Federated Malay States (Journal of Tropical Medicine, April 1, p. 104) :—‘ A definite improve- ment in the health of Klang was evident when only the swamps nearest to the main groups of houses had been dealt with, and while other swamps within the town were still untouched. The mosquitoes from these did not appear to travel any distance, and there has been no evidence of dangerous immigration of Anophelines from the extensive breeding places which until the middle of 1904 existed just outside the town boundary, and some of which still remain.”” So far as I can see, the case must be the same for mosquitoes as for most other organisms, including man. We should be very much surprised if anyone were to maintain that the population of the British Isles, for instance, would remain the same after abolition of the birth-rate. Why, then, should we assume such a _ pro- position for mosquitoes ? Ronatp Ross. The Romance of the Nitrogen Atom. Tue letter of Dr. F. J. Allen (Nature, May 4) on the critical temperature of living substances has interested me immensely. The ideas contained in it have often presented themselves to me in a crude way, and I hope Mr. Allen will find opportunity for elaborating them. I have often thought, when pondering over what one may venture to call the versatility of nitrogen, that a useful book might be written on the chemistry of the nitrogen compounds, ineluding the mineral and organic compounds of that element in one view. If it did no other service it would help to save the mind of the chemical student from being enslaved by the phrase, ‘‘ the chemistry of the carbon compounds.”’ If the phrase ‘‘ Ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke ’’ is true, may we not with equal truth say “Ohne Stickstoff kein Leben’’? The marvellous powers stored in the carbon atom are sufficiently en evidence in chemical science; yet may we not recognise the nitrogen atom as the magic ‘‘demon’’ (borrowing a figurative term from Clerk Maxwell) that holds the wand, that (under given conditions such as are noted by Dr. Allen) turns the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen hither and thither in the multiplex atomic relations of growth and metabolism in the living organism, and especially in that little under- stood complex we call chlorophyll? We know that the inert N, molecule of the atmosphere is made up of atoms which, in the nascent state, are possessed of great chemical energy, and we may fairly, I think, explain the inert- ness of ordinary atmospheric nitrogen by the stability of its molecule (N,) as arising out of a difference in the ionic constitution of the two atoms which form the molecule. Is it not here that we may seek for the explanation of the otherwise puzzling fact that in the extremely stable com- pound NH, the nitrogen atom is trivalent, while in the oxides, halides, &c., it is pentavalent? The action of the nitrogen atom, in- the way suggested by Dr. Allen, is illustrated by the well known necessity in the fertilisation of soils for the conversion of NH, into nitrates of alkaline bases, in order that the nitrogen in a more unstable state of combination may do its special work in the internal economy of the plant. I recollect discussing this matter some years ago with Dr. Voelcker, when I had the pleasure of meeting him at an agricultural gathering in this neighbourhood. The modern idea of ionisation of atoms seems also to throw light upon the fact that N, 152 NATORE [JUNE 15, 1905 and H, combine to form NH, under the influence of the silent electric discharge, while at the temperature of the spark-discharge NH, is again split up into N, and H,. The running down also of HNO, through the whole series of oxides into ammonia in the Grove cell is full of interest from this point of view, and the subject, with its mani- fold ramifications, is a fascinating theme for a thesis. Bishop’s Stortford, May 30. A. IRVING. An Inverted Slab in a Cromlech. fue remarkable articles on Stonehenge and other monu- ments by Sir Norman Lockyer have naturally stimulated reflection upon all that concerns megalithic remains, and therefore, perhaps, the following curious circumstances may be of some interest. At Henblas, in Anglesey, is a cromlech, or rather, I suppose, a dolmen, of remarkably rude and massive aspect. Two uprights remain, the larger of which is about 15 feet high by 9 feet thick, and both are very rough and irregular in shape. Resting against these, at an angle of about 20° or rather less from the horizontal, is a thinner stone, about 3 feet thick and some 13 feet square, presumably a top-stone. All are of a hard quartzite, which occurs among the schistose rocks of the district. No good ex- posure of this is known within a mile or so of the crom- lech (a fact which Captain Evans, of Henblas; informs me was pointed out to him long ago by Sir Andrew Ramsay). But at the base of the uprights are some obscure exposures that appear to me to be in situ, and I am inclined to think, therefore, that the materials were obtained on the spot. Now the supposed top-stone is rough, like the uprights, on its upper surface, but its under-side is beautifully and finely ice-worn! Jt is clear, therefore (for it is certainly not a boulder), that it has been turned upside down. Further, not only is it ice-worn, but the direction of the ice-moyement can be made out, there being distinct lee-sides to its finely striated bosses, and these lee-sides look to N.N But the natural direction of glaciation in the district is to S.S.W. Therefore, the stone has not only been turned upside down, but turned round as well. If the materials were brought from some distance, these facts are, of course, of less interest. But if, as I think much more probable, they were obtained on the spot, it is clear that they throw a little light upon the proceedings of the builders in their work of lifting these great stones. Achnashean, near Bangor. Epwarb GREENLY. The Cleavage of Slates. I Finp that IT owe Mr. Fisher some apology for a care- lessly worded allusion in my notice of Dr. Becker’s memoir (p. 20, May 4). In pointing out that the theory which I criticised had been anticipated by Mr. Fisher, I ought, perhaps, to have mentioned that the latter had somewhat qualified his original hypothesis, though the postscript notifying this qualification was, I believe, only privately printed. i ‘ Mr. Fisher’s further contribution to the question (pp. 55, 56, May 18) is of interest. If it be granted that the cleavage of the Westmorland slates coincides with the plane of. greatest distortion, it becomes less necessary to urge the case of the colour-spots in the Llanberis slates; but the suggestion that these have been formed sub- sequently to the cleavage seems to raise some difficulty. I have seen examples in which the ellipsoidal green spots are shifted by small faults, which are quite obsolete as planes of weakness. This seems to imply that the faults, and a fortiori the spots, are older than the cleavage- structure. ALFRED HARKER. St. John’s College, Cambridge, June 7. The Inheritance of Acquired Characters. Is the following an instance of such inheritance? Lately I heard a missionary at a May meeting tell of the marvellous facility with which Chinese children memorise whole books of the Bible: the four Gospels, and some- times the Acts also, being an easy feat for children of ten er twelve years. Having carefully sought information NO. 1859, VOL. 72] from other authorities, I find these facts confirmed, and that the same applies to Mohammedan children. We are aware that for ages their ancestors have been compelled to memorise long portions of their sacred books, and although occasionally we meet with a child of any nation with a gigantic memory, that differs widely from the case of a people where it has become a general characteristic. June 7. W. Woops Smyru. THE UTILITY OF AN ANTHROPOMETRIC SURVEY.2 HE Government which has shown so scientific a spirit as to create a Council of Defence, a constant spirit of intelligence to safeguard the Empire amid the development of armaments of other nations, might surely devote attention to that recommendation which stands first in the report of the interdepart- mental committee on physical deterioration :—‘t With a view to the collection of definite data bearing upon the physical condition of the population, the com- mittee think that a permanent anthropometric survey should be organised as speedily as possible. so. What are the results to be expected from such a survey as was sketched out at the Cambridge meet- ing of the British Association last summer? An improvement in the education of the people will surely follow. At the time of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, the re-distribution of the populace, that progressive change by which the increasing majority become citizens and cease to be country folk, was not realised. The increasing demands of intellectual exercises upon the time of the children and loss of domestic education were not foreseen, or their effect in making the requirement most urgent that the physical side of education should be brought under educational authority or otherwise definitely provided for. Hence a generation passes and there is an outery for physical education. Let us hope a coming generation may not be crying in turn that the moral side of education suffers from want of due attention. The effect of registration—the national survey of deaths—has been a clear guide and a very great safe- guard to the public health. One may quote some of the words of Dr. Farr which are to be found in his first letter to the first annual report :—‘‘ Diseases are more easily prevented than cured, and the first step to their prevention is the discovery of their exciting causes ’’; again, “* indirect influence (of these reports) upon practical medicine must have been very great. The constant endeavour after exactness of diagnosis and precision of nomenclature is itself a wholesome discipline, which reacts inevitably upon treatment.’’ Who at that time could prophesy the value, topo- graphical and historical, we now find in these reports ? The anthropometric survey will) have upon the sphere of education an equally large and discrimin- ating, if often indirect, influence; it will react upon medicine as well as upon education; it will detect any deterioration of the young adult that is due to the factory and workshop; it will determine the in- fluence of environment upon physique, and, as Mr. John Gray says, ‘‘ without an anthropometric survey, we are in this important question of sound national physique ‘like a log drifting nowhere’; with a survey, we should be like a ship, steering by chart and compass to its destination.”’ In the influence of body and mind upon one another, it is to anthropometry we must look for certainty of judgment. Mr. H. G. Beyer pointed out to the 1 Physical Deterioration ; being the Report of Papers and Discussions at the Cambridge Meeting of the British Association, to04, on the Alleged Physical Deterioration of the People and the Utility of an Anthropometric Survey. (Occasional Papers of the Anthropological Institute, No. 2.) JUNE 15, 1905] NAT URE Ue American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education how important it was to make a study of ‘“ fatigue ’’ in its relation to training and education, to find out the conditions under which our work has its maximum beneficial effect, and the limits to the exercise of our muscles favouring the performance of intellectual work. From data worthy of credence, he was of opinion that brain work influenced favour- ably bodily development, as well as vice versd. The basis of these and similar observations requires it to be broad, and was interesting to note at the Cambridge meeting how the want of the proposed survey was evident to nearly every: speaker. Prof. Cunningham has pointed out how changed conditions of life are palpably attended by changes of physical standard, but we have no clear knowledge of these changes, the best facts concerning our country being still those collected five-and-twenty years ago by the anthropometric committee of the British Association. The racial substitution of a dark element for a fair in the population of London, noted by Dr. Shrubsall as an outcome of his investigations on _ hospital inmates and healthy individuals, demands a survey to determine its extent and nature. In the remarks upon deterioration, made at the Cambridge meeting by the president, Mr. Balfour, this requirement stands out quite plainly again in his expression of opinion that fresh air has so large an influence upon the physique of the race. That a knowledge of the conditions of respiration in towns is at the present day of eminent importance is also patent to everyone who may read, in a recent report of the Registrar General, that in the urban districts of England the death rate from respiratory system diseases is no than double that of the rural districts. Now while much attention has been paid to the air less of schools and buildings, we have no knowledge whether the lung movement—the chest expansion— of the town dweller is much less than the country- man’s, and the answer of a survey to this question is highly desirable. It may be that want of exercise of lung is a deteriorating influence like bad quality of air. Now that a practical scheme of anthropometry with a responsible recommendation of such a scheme lies before our legislators, concerning a matter abso- lutely beyond the reach of private effort, surely the nation cannot Bord to despise such knowledge, nor is the day past when this country can give a lead the organisation of information to aid the public health. Unlike Sweden, Germany, and Italy, we have no conscripts to form a source of similar information. The methods proposed are simple :—height, weight, chest girth; head-length, breadth, and height; breadth vision and degree of pigment- Economy and efficiency of shoulders and hips; measured. ation are to be } 1 will be observed by the provision of whole time surveyors instructed at a single centre, and 80,000 adults and 800,000 children should be measured annually, re-visiting each district every ten years. The eugenics of Mr. Galton are not at present practical politics, though, as an analogous subject, it is interesting to note that the stud books of hunters, shires, and hackneys have not only improved the breed, but raised the standard of health and improved the average of health in horses exhibited. As to expense, the sum required is less than that spent on stud books, and similar to that of the Geo- logical Survey. Provision is made, though not too liberally, for the survey of the land on which we live; surely it is not too much to ask that a scheme for the survey of the people should be established upon a national basis. NO. 1859, VOL. 72] PHOTOGRAPHY AND NATURAL AISTORY} RY plate photography cannot be altogether re- garded as an unmixed blessing. The facilities which it affords to the amateur have brought down upon us a veritable avalanche of on natural history subjects, some of which had better never have been written. Mr. Snell’s unpretentious little volume is, however, not this number. On the contrary, it of its kind excellent, and will prove a boon to those who are fond of nature-photography but, by force of circumstances, are unable to afford an expensive camera or to spend time and money in search of subjects far afield. d Commencing with a most useful chapter on the books of is methods to ‘be adopted in photographing living animals, the author, in the following chapters, demonstrates the practicability of the rules he has I's ‘* The C: mera in the Fields_, Fic. 1.—Spider’s Web or Snare, From Snel laid down. Small mammals, birds, reptiles, Amphibia, fishes, and insects are each, in turn, made to furnish illustrations. Finally, some very valuable hints are given on the photography of botanical subjects. There are tricks, it is said, in every trade! This is notoriously true of photography. Some of the more harmless sort are lucidly described in this volume. The methods, for example, employed in the photography of mice and rats, snakes, and young birds will come as a surprise to many. Many of us, have been amazed at the apparent skill and patience displayed by many * nature -photographers ”” in securing pictures of field-mice climbing wheat stalks, or rows of nestlings sitting peacefully along bough. Such pictures, it now appears, may be 1 ‘*The Camera in the Fields.” By F. C. Snell. T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.) Price 5s. pre ybz ibly, a Pp. 256. (London : IPL TOTEE [JUNE 15, 1905 154 secured in the privacy of a small back yard! It is only necessary first to catch your mouse. This done, he is penned in a glass cage and confronted by the camera. So soon as an attractive posture has been assumed, the exposure is made. A suitable back- ground is all that is needed to deceive even the very elect ! Thus is the mystery explained of some of the wonderful pictures of ‘‘ wild life with the camera ”’ that have excited the envy and admiration of many who have sought, and sought in vain, in our fields and hedgerows to obtain similar pictures ! The illustrations in this book are unusually good and plentifully distributed. The specimen given here- with was selected with no little difficulty, inasmuch as the high standard of excellence, both in taste and execution, which these pictures present rendered choice difficult. Wiebetbs THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BAHAMAS.? Tr WO years ago there was published in this country an account of a cruise to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? by an American party for the pur- pose of obtaining natural history and ethnological specimens for the National Museum at Washington, and every Englishman worthy the name who read that work can scarcely have failed to experience a feeling of shame that it was not long ago anticipated and rendered superfluous by the enterprise of his own countrymen. If such a feeling exist in the case of a work dealing in a more or less cursory manner with the results of a private expedition to remote islands of little or no commercial importance, how must it be intensified when we find an American scientific society undertaking a systematic biological, geological, historical, and sociological survey of a group of islands which are supposed to rank among the more important possessions of the British Crown ? That the work should have been undertaken by American enterprise is, ipso facto, a confession that it required doing; in other words, that it ought to have been done by Englishmen, and the fact of its being left to our Transatlantic cousins is virtually an admission that our rulers—in spite of what we are being continually told as to the all-importance of science if we are to continue to hold our position as a nation—are blind to the needs and signs of the times in matters scientific! That we should have hitherto possessed no detailed and comprehensive account of a group of islands dotted over an area about as large as the British Islands, which has formed part of our Empire for generations, is, indeed, little short of a national disgrace, and the fact that Americans have cut in and done our own work for us in our own possessions speaks volumes as to the amount of attention that has been paid to the cry of “Wake-up, England! ”’ : The contrast between our own apathy and American enterprise in scientific matters of this nature is in- tensified when we compare what is being done for the natural history of the Philippines by their new Owners with what has been left undone in the case of the West Indies (and many other islands we could mention) by their ancient lords. We were about to urge our rulers, for very shame, to set about doing for the other West Indian islands what Americans have already accomplished for the Bahamas, but we 1 “The Bahama Islands.” Edited by G. B. Shattuck. Pp. xxxii+630; 93 plates. [New York: The Macmillan Co.; London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd. (published for the Geographical Society of Baltimore), 1905.] Price 2¢é. 2s. nel. * “Tn the Andamans and Nicobars.” Murray, 1903.) NO. 1859, VOL. 72] By C. B. Kloss. (London: John fear we should only be speaking to deaf ears, and therefore refrain. Let us add that in all this we have not one spark of jealousy, but rather unbounded and respectful admiration, in regard to the work our American cousins have so successfully and so thoroughly carried out. The trustees of the Geographical Society of Balti- more have, it appears, set themselves to accomplish two main objects by means of the body they govern, namely, in the first place, to furnish their public with an annual course of lectures connected with geography, and, in the second place, to foster geo- graphical research in general, and from time to time to publish monographs dealing with some particular piece of geographical investigation carried out under the auspices of the society. The volume before us is the first of these proposed monographs, and its com- pleteness and wealth of illustrations render it a more than usually striking and handsome example of American thoroughness. The object of the expedition was to investigate the origin and natural history of the Bahamas, and also to conduct studies on lines intimately associ- ated with the well-being of their inhabitants. The scientific staff included no less than twenty-four members, with Dr. G. B. Shattuck as director, most of whom are specialists in one or more particular departments, the special subjects of investigation being geology, tides, terrestrial magnetism and climatology, soils, botany, mosquitoes, fishes, other © vertebrates, medicine, and history. Even this, how- ever, by no means represents the full force employed in making public the results of the expedition, for many of the collections were handed over to specialists who did not accompany the latter, the reptiles and amphibians being, for instance, consigned to Dr. L. Stejneger, the birds to Mr. J. H. Riley, the mammals to Mr. G. S. Miller, and so on. For months previous to the departure of the ex- pedition, the director was engaged in equipping and organising its various sections, procuring the necessary apparatus, so that everything, even down to the most minute detail, should be in such a state of completeness that work might be commenced the very moment of arrival. The expedition sailed from Baltimore on June 1, 1903, equipped for a two months’ cruise. Since a number of its members were in Government offices, from which they could only “obtain leave during the months of June and July, the length of the cruise had been necessarily limited to that period, and every effort had consequently been made that work should progress with the greatest possible despatch during the time available. Un- fortunately, bad weather was experienced during the outward voyage, so that Nassau, the first stopping place, was not reached until June 17, and as it was necessary to start on the return journey before the end of July, only about five weeks were left for work. The more southerly islands of the Bahama group had in consequence to be left unvisited; but apart from this omission, the greater part of the work which had been planned was brought to completion, and all the members of the staff are to be congratulated on the rapidity with which they executed their respective tasks. Except dredging and fishing, most of the work was done on shore, but all the field-work was, of course, merely preliminary to study in the labor- atory. In examining the living products of the sea- bed—a sight of rare beauty—great advantage was derived from the glass-bottomed boat which formed part of the equipment. Our statesmen should not fail to notice that, accord- ing to opinion in America, the construction of the Panama Canal in the near future (which is said to be assured) is destined to bring renewed prosperity to JuNE 15, 1905} NATURE 155 the West Indies, and the hope is expressed by the editor that the facts recorded in the work before us “may be instrumental, if only in a small degree, in causing the Bahama Islands to share’’ in this pros- perity. Commentary on this statement is superfluous. The picture presented by the islands is well de- scribed in the following passage by the editor :— ““No words can describe the beauty of Nassau as one approaches the harbour from the sea. The ocean of deep sapphire suddenly changes to a lagoon of emerald green surrounded by shores of snow-white coral sand. Beyond, the white limestone houses of the town, intermingled with groves of graceful palms, and half-concealed by gorgeous poincianas, rise in a gentle slope against a sky of purest blue. The green transparent water; the intense blue of the sky; the blotches of blood-red poincianas; the snow-white drifts of coral-sand; the vivid green of the foliage— all these unexpected and yet harmonious contrasts strike the eye together, and stamp on the memory a picture of rugged beauty which nothing can efface. The impression thus received does not suffer when later the tourist wanders about the quaint old town to examine at leisure the details of the picture.”’ Our limits of space allow of only a brief reference to the details of the work of the expedition. An interesting and important feature connected with the geology of the Bahamas is that they are composed almost entirely of débris derived from corals and other caleareous organisms, and rest on a shallow, sub- merged platform, separated by deep ocean-troughs from the adjacent land-masses of North America and the West Indies. Few of the Bahama animals appear to be distinct from those of the mainland, although some of the mammals have been described (in earlier publications) as separate local races. Of some of these latter the skulls are now for the first time figured. An attractive feature of the volume is formed by the numerous coloured plates of marine Bahama fishes, which convey an excellent idea of the brilliant hues characteristic of all fishes which haunt coral-banks. Of especial interest is the plate of the ‘‘ mouse-fish ’’ or Sargasso-fish, the remarkable shape and coloration of which are doubtless developed to harmonise with its surroundings of floating sea- weed. This notice may be fitly brought to a close by the expression of our opinion as to the high value and importance of the work initiated by the Baltimore. Geographical Society, and by the tendering of our congratulations to all those by whom it has been so successfully and faultlessly executed. Rage NOTES. Tue council of the Society of Arts has awarded the Albert medal of the society for the present year to Lord Rayleigh, ‘‘ In recognition of the influence which his re- searches, directed to the increase of scientific knowledge, have had upon industrial progress, by facilitating, amongst other scientific applications, the provision of accurate electrical standards, the production of improved lenses, and the development of apparatus for sound signalling at sea.”’ Tue De Morgan medal of the London Mathematical Society has this year been awarded to Dr. H. F. Baker, F.R.S., for his researches in pure mathematics. Tue annual conversazione of the Institution of Electrical Engineers will be held at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, on Thursday, June 29. Tue annual general meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry will be opened on Monday morning, July 10, at University College, Gower Street, when the president, Dr. Wm. H. Nichols, will deliver an address. NO. 1859, VOL. 72] Tue fourth International Ornithological Congress was opened by Prof. Oustalet at the Imperial Institute on Tuesday. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, the new president of the congress, delivered an address. Tue death is announced of M. Edouard Simon, the eminent French engineer. He took an active part in the management of the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie nationale, and contributed twenty-four papers to its proceedings. Ar the National Museum at Washington a series of specimens has been arranged to illustrate the associ- ations and mode of occurrence of gold in nature, and Mr. George P. Merrill, the curator, has published in the Engineering and Mining Journal a useful list of associ- ations represented in the collection. In the forty-eight cases enumerated, the gold occurs native, and in particles of sufficient size to be recognised by the unaided eye. Witu the view of lessening the danger of lead-poisoning now encountered by diamond-cutters, the Dutch Govern- ment has offered a prize of 6000 florins for the most satisfactory substitute for the tin-lead alloy now used for holding the diamonds during the process of cutting. Applications, which may be written in English, should be sent before January 1, 1906, to Dr. L. Aronstein, Poly- technic School, Delft, Holland. In the Free Library at Hampstead there is displayed at present a selection from the collection of flint imple- ments made by the late Mr. Henry Stopes. The exhibit gives a sample, not only of the whole collection, but of that part which deals with the ancient inhabitants of the Thames Valley, and it has been selected to interest the passer-by and educate his eye what to look for in his walks abroad. Science announces that Dr. Franz Boas has resigned the curatorship. of the anthropological department of the American Museum of Natural History. He will con- tinue his connection with the museum, conducting the re- searches and publications of the Jesup North Pacific Ex- pedition and of the East Asiatic Committee. A REUTER message from Fort de France (Martinique) dated June 12 reports that Mont Pelée in the past few days has been displaying some renewal of activity. It is reported that on Saturday night, June 10, “‘the dome suddenly became illuminated. The dome collapsed on Sunday morning, and a mass of mud overflowed into the valley below, while a cloud of smoke rose to a height of 1000 yards.”’ Tue departmental committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to inquire into the nature and causes of grouse disease has made the following appoint- ments :—Dr. C. G. Seligmann as bacteriologist to the commission, Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., as expert on the subject of internal parasites, Dr. H. Hammond Smith as assistant bacteriologist and additional field observer, and Mr. G. C. Muirhead as field observer. Tue Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland has arranged with Mr. J. J. Harrison to publish a full scientific report upon the physical and psycho- physical characteristics of the pygmies whom the latter has brought to this country. For this purpose the council of the institute has appointed a select committee consist- ing of the following anthropologists and medical men, who, with the assistance of Mr. Harrison, will carry on the necessary investigations :—Sir Harry Johnston (chairman), 156 NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 Keith, Dr. W. Prof. W. Gowland, 18h, 1 Mr. Prof. Arthur Thomson, Dr. A. Rivers, Dr. R. Murray Leslie, J. Gray, and Mr. T. Athol Joyce. Tue committee of the Privy Council appointed to con- sider and determine certain points in connection with the establishment of a National Museum and _ National Library in Wales has decided that the two institutions should be separate, the National Museum to be established at Cardiff and the National Library at Aberystwyth. The support, local and otherwise, offered by Cardiff for the foundation and maintenance of the museum and library included :—(1) four acres at Cathays Park (20,000l.) ; (2) collections in municipal museum and art gallery (38,000l.) ; (3) a capital sum of (7500l.); (4) public subscrip- tions amounting at present to (32,500l.); (5) a dd. rate under Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891 (1940l.); and (6) collections of books in municipal library (81,766 volumes and 9118 prints, drawings, &c:) (30,000l.). Dr. Henry pe Roruscnitp (says the Paris correspondent of the Chemist and Druggist) has recently offered two prizes for competition which will be awarded next year. The first one is a prize of 2001. for the best work on the subject of the best alimentary rations of a child from its birth until the age of two years. The is a second one prize of r2ol. for the best study on the supply of milk to a big city (hygiene, technology, transport, legislation, sale, &c.). These prizes may be divided should the jury of award consider it advisable. The competition is open to foreigners, and papers should be sent in before June 1 1906. The secretary is M. Péres, Paris. y C. Nourry, 49 rue des Saints- Ir was mentioned last week that the U.S. Weather Bureau is taking up the discussion of meteorological observations from the point of view of their relations to solar physics. The programme of the bureau with regard to the coordination of solar and terrestrial observations is, it may be noted, on the lines of the resolution of the Southport meeting of the International Meteorological Committee, which constituted a commission for the express purpose of that coordination. The commission held its first meeting at Cambridge last year, and will meet again at Innsbruck in September. Prof. Bigelow is one of the members, and there is no doubt that the work in this direction of the Washington Weather Bureau will be carried out in cooperation with the commission. THE provisional programme drawn up and circulated by Prof. Hildebrandsson for the meeting of the Inter- national Meteorological Committee, referred to in the preceding paragraph, is mentioned in Symons’s Meteor- ological Magazine (May). Among the subjects put forward for discussion are suggestions for improving observations which may be used for the cumparison of phenomena over wide areas, especially with regard to noting the exact time of observing each instrument, re- ducing observations to standard conditions, and the like. Attention is to be directed to the ‘very important question of the causes and the prognostics of widespread heavy rains, the importance of which as affecting floods is naturally felt much more on the Continent than in our country of mild extremes. Prof. Pernter is to suggest a more precise classification of meteorological stations accord- ing to the equipment and the nature of the observations carried on. The question of the possibility of extending the use of wireless telegraphy for obtaining reports from the eastern Atlantic, and many others on which an inter- national understanding is desirable, will be talken up. NO. 1859, VOL. 72] A LARGE portion of the March issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy is occupied by the first por- tion of a paper by Mr. H. A. Pilsbry on the terrestrial molluses of the south-western United States. In the American Geologist for April Mr. L. M. Lambe describes in detail, with an excellent figure, the structure of the cheek-teeth of a Canadian representative of the genus Mesohippus, one of the forerunners of the horse. Tue Perthshire Museum, which from the very beginning of its existence has devoted its energies to the illustration of the biology and physiography of the district, has just published an illustrated hand-book to the collection, which forms a short but excellent guide to the animals, plants, and rocks of the county. This is as it should be, and the museum is to be heartily congratulated on the line it has taken up. In the Johns Hopkins University Circular, No. 5, Mr. E. A. Andrews discusses the so-called annulus ventralis of the crayfishes of the genus Cambarus, and confirms the view that its function is to serve as a sperm-receptacle. It is, however, further shown that this structure, which is common to all the members of the genus in question, and is unknown in other crayfishes, is essential to repro- duction, if eliminated would lead to the extinction of the group. In the same issue Mr. R. E. Coker dis- cusses Dr. H. Gadow’s theory of orthogenetic variation among tortoises and turtles, and comes to the conclusion (from the examination of a very large number of speci- mens) that it is not confirmed by the evidence available. and FISHERMEN and fishmongers in Illinois appear to have been aware for some time of the existence of a shovel- beaked sturgeon belonging to a species unknown to science. Eight specimens of this white sturgeon, as it is called by the local fishermen, have, however, recently come under the observation of Messrs. Forbes and Robinson, by whom the species is described as the representative of a new genus, under the title of Parascaphirhynchus albus, in the Bulletin of the Illinois Laboratory of Natural History (vol. vii., art. 4). Its uniformly light colour, long small eye, long and narrow snout, bare under-parts, small and numerous plates, and superior number of ribs differentiate it sharply from the common shovel-beak or ** switch-tail ’’ (Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus), About one specimen in 500 of the sturgeons taken at Grafton, Illinois, belongs to the new species. Tue occurrence of a layer of mesodermic tissue in the anterior part of the head of embryos of the laughing- gull forms the subject of an elaborate article by Mr. H. Rex in parts ii. and iii. of vol. xxxiii. of Gegenbaur’s Morphologisches Jahrbuch. The occurrence of mesoderm in this part of the head of sauropsidan embryos is, it appears, a comparatively new discovery, and the laughing- gull was selected as a good subject for further investi- gations concerning this feature. Three articles, two by Mr. G. Ruge and one by Mr. P. Bascho, in the same issue are devoted to the discussion of the nature of certain alleged vestiges in man of the panniculus carnosus of the lower mammals, such as the musculus sternalis, and the so- called achselbogen. Much turns on whether the former of these muscles constitutes a superficial branch from the upper layer of the pectoral muscles, or whether it has no genetic connection therewith. The view that the struc- tures in question are really functionless representatives of a skin-muscle is supported. In a fifth article Mr. E. Goppert discusses the last part of Dr. Fleischmann’s studies on the cranial skeleton of the Amniota. JUNE 15, 1905] NATURE 157 We have received the year-book for 1905 of the Livingstone College, which gives interesting details of the past year’s work, experiences of past students from the mission fields in all parts of the world, and a few hints on risks to health in the tropics and how to avoid them. Tue Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute (vol. xxvi., No. 5, June) contains notes on minimum sanitary require- ments for building bye laws by Mr. Searles Wood, on isolation hospitals by Dr. Davies, a lecture on canned foods by Prof. Kenwood, and other interesting papers, reviews, and notes. THe Sitzungsberichte der kaiserl. Akad. der Wissen- schaften (Wien, Bd. ecxiii., Heft viii. and ix., Abt. iii.) contains a paper by V. L. Neumeyer on intraperitoneal cholera infection in the salamander; this animal he shows is fifty to sixty times less susceptible than the guinea-pig, an extremely active phagocytosis taking place on injection of the microbe. Prof. M. Léwit contributes an exhaustive study of intravascular bacteriolysis. Lizut. Curistopuers, I.M.S., in a third report (Scien- tific Mem. Gov. of India, No. 15), details experiments on the cultivation of the Leishman-Donovan body of kala- azar, a disease of Assam. Rogers and Leishman have obtained flagellated protozoa in cultivations of the para- site. Christophers corroborates this, and although the flagellated forms are very like Trypanosomata, he does not commit himself as to their exact nature. A rourtH fascicle of Mexican and Central American plants, described by Dr. J. N. Rose, and forming vol. viii., part iv., of the Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, contains several revisions of genera in addition to the enumeration of many new species. Synopses are provided for Mexican species of Ribes, Parosela, otherwise known as Dalea, and Heterocentron ; the opinion that Cinothera is a polymorphic combination leads to the formation of a new genus Raimannia, con- current with Hartmannia and Lavauxia, and several species of Ternstroemia are collated under the nane of Taonabo. Tue Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies has published the full report by Dr. F. Watts on sugar cane experiments in the Leeward Islands during the year 1903-4, and the results are presented in an abridged form in the pamphlet series Nos. 33 and 36. Reference has previously been made to the experiments with different varieties of canes, in addition to which manurial experi- ments have again been carried out. As the result of trials for four years the conclusion is arrived at that when, as is the custom, pen manure is worked into the soil, no advantage attends the addition of other artificial manures, and that phosphates may even tend to decrease the yield of plant canes. It has, however, been found advantageous to add nitrogenous manures to land planted with ratoon canes. The importance of nitrogenous manures is also affirmed by Prof. J. B. Harrison in his report referred to in the Agricultural News, May 6, which relates to sugar cane experiments in British Guiana. We have recently received three circulars, Nos. 21, 22, and 23, also a bulletin, No. 55, from the Forestry Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture. Circular No. 33, entitled ‘‘ What Forestry means to Representative Men,”’ contains extracts embodying the opinions of fifty experts, including President Roosevelt, regarding the value of scientific forestry. They all agree without exception that proper forest conservation is of vital importance to NO. 1859, VOL. 72| the welfare of the country. That the Department of Agri- culture thoroughly realises this fact is shown by circulars Nos. 21 and 22, wherein is set forth the very liberal con- ditions which _ practical farmers, lumbermen, and others in handling their forest lands, as well as the practical assistance offered to all tree planters. Bulletin No. 55, entitled ‘‘ Forest Conditions of Northern New Hampshire,” of the condition, composition, and stand of timber in this region, with valuable suggestions as to the possibility of extended afforestation and the much needed forest organisation and conservation in New Hampshire. under assistance is given to gives a detailed account seemingly Tue Century Magazine for June contains an interesting article by Mr. Gilbert H. Grosvenor entitled ‘* Our Heralds of Storm and Flood,’’ and gives a graphic description of the work of the U.S. Weather Bureau. The author rapidly reviews the whole of the useful operations of this service, but deals more especially with the predictions of floods, cold waves, and storm warnings. The cost of the Weather Bureau and branches at one million and a half dollars yearly, while the amount of saving to property is estimated at thirty millions. One of the most remarkable cases of flood prediction cited was that of 1903, which announced twenty-eight days in advance, after torrential rains extending over some 300,000 square miles. This flood caused terrible damage to property, but the public was prepared for it, and the loss was many millions of dollars less than it otherwise would have been. Much care is given to warnings of cold waves in early spring and autumn; the bureau aims at giving at least twenty-four hours’ notice of their occur- rence, and occasionally issues many thousand telegrams within a few hours. These blighting frosts sometimes destroy in one night the prospects of the agriculturist for the year. The storm warnings issued to the seafaring community form, perhaps, the greatest success of the efforts of the bureau. It is estimated that on the Great Lakes alone, the loss to shipping caused by storms has been reduced by 50 per cent. The article is beautifully illustrated with photographic reproductions of damage by floods, representations of clouds, and_ the freaks of tornados; the fact of straws, &c., being driven into trees can, fortunately, scarcely be realised in this country. its numerous is set down was Messrs. ARMBRECHT, NELSON AND Co. have issued a special price-list of the rare elements and their salts; a noticeable feature is the quotation for 16 oz. bars of metallic calcium. This metal, which for so long has been sold at a prohibitive price, is now obtained by a simple electrolytic process, and has become a comparatively cheap commercial article. Tue influence of a magnetic field on luminous radiation forms the subject of the Nobel lecture which was delivered by Prof. Zeeman before the Swedish Academy of Science in 1903, and has recently been printed (Stockholm : 12a, Ja\s Norstedt & Fils). It deals with the history of the dis- covery and the theoretical significance of the ‘* Zeeman effect.” Tue fourth volume of Ostwald’s ‘‘ Annalen der Natur- philosophie’’ contains a brief sketch, by B. N. Men- schutkin, of the life and work of M. W. Lomonossoff. Reference has already been made in these columns (Nature, vol. Ixxii. p. 42) to Prof. Menschutkin’s more complete study in the Russian language of the work of this eighteenth century philosopher; the present abstract being written in German deserves notice, as it will serve 158 NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 to make more widely known the views of a man of science whose speculations were in advance of the age in which he lived. In the American Journal of Science (vol. xix. p. 345) Mr. B. J. Harrington describes an investigation of a peculiar variety of foetid calcite found near the township of Chatham, in the Grenville region of Canada. The calcite, although nearly pure, when struck or scratched evolves a powerful and unpleasant odour, which is shown to be due to hydrogen sulphide occluded in the mineral in minute cavities, probably in the liquid state. The proportion of hydrogen sulphide is about 0-016 per cent. of the weight of the calcite. A striking property of this variety is that when heated to 160° C. it shows a strong, deep yellow phosphorescence, which persists during several minutes after its removal from the source of heat. In part i. of vol. ix. of the Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, Prof. J. A. McClelland continues the investigation which has already been mentioned in these notes (vol. Ixxi. p. 543) of the relation between the atomic structure of substances and their power of giving rise to a secondary radiation under the influence of the 8 and y rays of radium. It is shown that as the atomic weight increases the secondary radiation also increases, and that, as regards the latter, the elements may be arranged in a series of groups which correspond strictly with the periods of Mendeléeff’s classification. The curve connecting atomic weight and the power of giving rise to a secondary radiation is of particular interest, as it throws light on the manner in which atoms are built up from electrons. It is important to note that the density of a substance has comparatively little influence on its power of producing secondary radiation. TuE catalogue of geological literature added to the Geo- logical Society’s library during the year ended on December 31, 1904, has just been issued. The catalogue is published by the Geological Society at the price of 2s. Tue index number of the Psychological Review for 1904 has just been published by the Macmillan Company of New York. The index is a very complete bibliography of the literature of psychology and cognate subjects for the year 1904, and has been compiled by Prof. Howard C. Warren, of Princeton University. It occupies no less than 240 pages, and contains 3445 entries of separate papers or volumes by psychologists of all nations. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. A PropaBLe Nova 1n Opiitucnus.—From an examin- ation of the Henry Draper memorial photographs in 1899, Mr. Fleming came to the conclusion that the star R.S. Ophiuchi was of the Nova type. Its spectrum, as shown on a plate taken on July 15, 1898, contained the hydrogen lines H¢, He, Hd, Hy, and H£, and the lines at AA 4656 and 4691 as bright lines, thus resembling Nove Sagittarii and Geminorum. Resisting in a high degree sudden D changes of temperature and the action of corrosive chemicals. Combustion Tubing for Elemen- € tary Analysis, (Fricezlist sent tree TRADE MARK, SCHOTT & GEN. Glassworks, Jena (GERMANY). The Jena Glasses are, in the U.K., on Bale with the following firms : Aberdeen, Manchester. FREDK. JACKSON & Co., | F. E. BECKER & CO. Nicholas Street Birmingham, (W. and Veo (George, Ltd., Successors), 159 and 160 Great Charles Street. PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd., Edmund erect Dublin. | F. E, BECKER CO. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 182 Great Brunswick Street. PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd., 179 Great Beanewich Street. ow. F. E. BECKER. "e CO. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 36 Renfrew Birects REYNOLDS i BRANSON, Ltd., 14 Commercial Street. 14 Cross Street. JAMES WOOLLEY, SONS & Co.. Ltd., Victoria Bridge. Neweastle-upon-Tyne. BEND a DEB DING Ltd, on, BAIRD & TATLOCK (London) Ltd., 14 Cross Street, Hatton Garden, B.C. F. E. BECKER & Co. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 330 37 Hatton Wall. Harton Garden, E.C. A. GALLENKAMP & Co., Ltd., 19 & 20 Sun Street, Finsbury, E. ee JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 Sardinia Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. TOWNSON & MERCER, 34 Camomile Street, E.C JACKSON-DAVIS DOUBLE SLIDE RULE. A Slide Rule for ascertaining any power and any root of a giyen number within the limits for which it is constructed. It can also be used as an ordinary slide rule. Prices and particulars upon application. JOHN DAWIS & SON (Derby), Saints Works, 63 All Ltd., Derby, 36 CAMOMILE STREET, LONDON. Ixviil NATURE [JUNE 15, 1905 THE IRISH NATURALIST. READY SHORTLY. A Monthly Magazine of Irish Zoology, Botany, and JOHN WHELDON AND CO.’S Geology. Price 6d. means one Ooooed ‘BOTANICAL CATALOGUE. y - H. CARPENTER, B.Sc., and R. LLOYD PRAEGER, B.A. Part I.—CRYPTOGAMIA. Annual Subscription, 5s. Post Free to any Address. Comprising Books and Papers on Algae, Fungi and Bacteria, Lichens, Dublin: EASON & SON, Ltp, 40 Lower Sackville Street Mosses and Hepatic, Ferns, &c (to which Address Subscriptions should be sent) SENT POST FREE ON APPLICATION. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO.,Ltd. 88 GREAT QUEEN ST., LONDON, W.C. MACMILLAN & CO.'S LIST. NEW AND REVISED EDITION, READY NEXT TUESDAY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I —The Non-Metallic Elements. New Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Rosco, assisted by Dr. H. G. COLMAN and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations. 8vo. 21s. net. THIRD EDITION. Entirely Re-written and Enlarged. CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF OILS, FATS, AND WAXES. By Dr. J. LEWKOWITSCH, M. A., F.1.C., ae Consulting and Analytical Chemist and Chemical Engineer ; Examiner in Soap Manufacture and in Fats and "Oils; including Candle Manufacture, to the City and Guilds of London Institute With 88 Illustrations and numerous Tables. In Two Volumes. Medium 8vo, gilt tops. 36s. net. NATURE.—“ The standard English book of reference on the subject.” THE LABORATORY COMPANION TO FATS AND OILS INDUSTRIES. By Dr. LEWKOWITSCH, F.I.C. S8vo. 6s. net. CHEMICAL TR: ADE JOURNAL.-—‘‘ Bound to become a constant companion to the chemist who deals with oils and fats.’ ? THE TRADE POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES SINCE 1860. By CARL JOHANNES FUCHS, Professor of Political Economy in the University of Freiburg i. B. Extra Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. THE TIMES, reviewing Professor Fuchs’s work and another, says :—‘‘ Both books, the works of men of wholly different training and experience, whose attainments and impartiality are not open to question, merit careful study. We are not sure that it is overrating the two volumes to say that they contain as cogent a presentment of the case for tariff reform as any yet put forward.’ “SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. THE ADVANCED PART OF A TREATISE ON THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM OF RIGID BODIES. Being Part II. of a Treatise on the Whole Subject. With numerous Examples. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, Sc.D., LL.D.,; F.R.S., &c. 8vo. 14s. TWENTY-SIX GRADUATED EXERCISES IN GRAPHIC STATICS, some in Two Colours, and with Skeleton Data to practise upon, and including the Application to Roofs, Moving Locomotives, Retaining Walls, Levy’s Steel Arches, Girders (Original Constructions), Masonry Arches, Levy’s Weight Tables, with an Essay on Graphical Statics, in the form of a Running Commentary on the Exercises, each of which has full Instructions printed on its face, the whole forming a Supplement to the Authors’ Elementary Applied Mechanics. By T. ALEXANDER, M.Inst.C.E.I., Professor of Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin; and A. W. THOMSON, D.Sc., C.E., Professor of Engineering, College of Science, Poona. FCAP. BROADSIDE SEWED. 10s. A MANUAL OF QUATERNIONS. | By CHARLES JASPER JOLY, M.A., D.Se., F.R.S., See. R.I.A. ; Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin; Andrews’ Professor of Astronomy in the University ol Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. 8vo. 10s. net. NATURE.—‘‘ There can be no question as to the high merits of the ‘ Manual of Quaternions.’ volume to the master’s Ss own great | works.” WOOLWICH MATHEMATICAL PAPERS, for Admission into the Royal Military Academy for the years 1895-1904. Edited by E. J. BROOKSMITH, B.A., LL.M. Crown 8vo. 6s. EASY GRAPHS. By H. S. Hatt, M.A. Crown 8vo, ts. MENDELISM. By R. C. Punnett, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 16mo. 2s. net. * areas of low pressure travelling over the country in a north-easterly or easterly direction. It should therefore be expected that on the average the greater the rainfall the more numerous the cyclones, and conse- quently the lower the mean value of MIDLANDs0 COUNTIES, , (APR- MAR) RAINFALL ENGLAND so SOUTH (APR-MAR,) pressure. In the United Kingdom, — gainFALL 5, therefore, the rainfall variations from THAMES = year to year should correspond very BASIN» ~° closely with the inverted pressure (errors. changes. That this is so can be seen “FyameS_ 6+ by comparing the inverted Oxford TEDDINGTON °° pressure curve in Fig. 2 (curve viii.) Ra with the rainfall curves underneath. THAMES '9 Instead of Oxford, any other town j¢yet 10 in the United Kingdom, such as AT ul Armagh, might have been taken SURBITON * (curve ix.), for the pressure changes © are so remarkably similar over a very wide area. 3 YEAR It will thus be seen that the PERIOD pressure, rainfall, and river flow are all intimately related, and any method of forecasting pressure would make it possible to determine beforehand the rainfall. Since the Thames flow has a lag of five months on both rainfall and pressure, a means is possibly available of stating the ‘“ expectancy ’’ of excessive or deficient amount of water in the river. It may here be pointed out that it does not seem necessary to collect and discuss the data over the whole of this region before any deduction for practical pressure (cur lines represen 18600 Fic. 2.—Curves illustrating the similarity between ves inverted) in the British Isles. To illustrate this, the accompanying figure is given J i] e i hi} J i A the Thames flow, and rainfall and [The continuous and dotted vertical t the epochs of sun-spot maxima and minima respectively. | (Fig. 4). The upper curve represents an hypothetical curve with a period of 3.8 years, and beneath it the South American (Cordoba) pressure curve. At the very bottom is given the inverse of this hypothetical | curve, and above this the Indian (Bombay) curve. | Between the Bombay and the Cordoba curves is given | that of Oxford. purposes can be made regarding the flow of the | Thames. made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, exhibit variations from 1860 up to the present time so very similar to those of the Thames flow that all three curves are very nearly interchangeable. So striking is the agreement that they are here reproduced (Fig. 3). NO. 1860, VOL. 72] The barometric and rainfall observations | It will be noted that the Cordoba curve disagrees with its hypothetical curve in the years 1892 and 1900 to 1903, while the Bombay curve shows anomalies in 1892 and Igor to 1903. If, now, the Oxford pressure be compared with those of Cordoba and India, and a list made showing the years in which high pressure at Oxford coincides with years of high pressure at Cordoba or India, or low pressure at Oxford with low pressure at Cordoba 180 or India, the following table is the result (omitting average conditions) :— Years of simultaneous excess Agreement between Oxford and High pressure Low pressure Cordoba 1874 ~ s 1875 — 38 YEAR a —_— 1877 PERIOD India — 1878 (IN, 2855 5p 1889 _ 53 » — 1882 CORDOBA | a 1884 — (WAN- DEC) _ 1886 ibe Cordoba 1893 — oe » cm 1895 OXFORD India 1896 obs = (JAN- DEC.) 33 Sco alits}2/2) Een _ Bes It will be seen that there is a very even 20k balancing between Cordoba and India. BOMBAY ” A most interesting point is that the Gay orc) ® Oxford curve seems to favour for series Ze of years the two main pressure types S8YEAR alternately. From i1g00 the type of PERIOD . . . ae INVERTED variation seems somewhat indefinite. ( ) This table seems to suggest that during some years the British area is enveloped in the pressure system that extends over the large region in which India is about the centre, while for another series it is dominated by the antipodal pressure system of which South America is the middle portion. It is possible that it is this alternate reversion from one type to the other that prevents the 3.8-year change of the Indian and Cordoba curves from occurring in the British curves, and substitutes for it an apparent shorter period of about three years, which is very noticeable for some series of years in the British curves (Fig. 2, curve i.). It will thus be seen that it is difficult at present to forecast British pressure correctly, but further research Fic. 18800 18900 16700 1860:0 IN. PRESSURE INVERTED 7! OXFORD «, (APR- MAR) IN. RAINFALL OXFORD * (APR- MAR) re. THAMES LEVEL SURBITON (SEPR-AUG) 0 1860.0 18700 18800 1830.0 Fic. 3.—Curves to show the similarity between the flow of the Thames and the rainfall and pressure (inverted) changes at one station, namely, Oxford. NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 4860.0 4.—Curve to illustrate the relation between the British (Oxford) pressure change and those will very probably render it possible when more is | known about the mechanism of the atmosphere. In conclusion, it is interesting to note that in addition to this short period variation the curves (Fig. 2) indicate one of longer duration. An ex- amination of these statistics, when the curves are smoothed by taking three-year means to eliminate the the rainfall was highest and the pressure lowest, which is exactly what was to be expected from the 4900.0 1890.0 18700 18800 1890.0 1900-0 of India (Bombay) and S. America (Cordoba). relationship between pressure, rainfall, and river flow in these islands. Another point here indicated is that this long period change is real, and that there is a tendency now for the low river levels, deficiency of rainfall, and excess pressure of the last decade or more to be replaced by a greater mean flow of the river, increase in the rainfall, and a diminution in the barometric pressure. Wittiam J. S. Lockyer. NOTES. A Roya garden party was held on Wednesday, June 14, and was attended by about 1900.0 six thousand guests. At the end of the official record of notable people present, supplied to the Times _ by the ‘‘ Court Newsman,’’ we read :— ““Invitations were issued to their Excel- lencies the Foreign Ambassadors and Ministers, with the personnel of their Embassies and Legations, the members of the Government, the Households. of the King and Queen and of the Royal Family, and to many peers, members of Parliament, naval and military officers, clergy, and representatives of the musical, dramatic, and literary pro- fessions, many of whom with their wives and daughters were present at the party.”’ We believe His Majesty the King is interested in the scientific as in the other activities of his subjects; but if so, it is clear that he is very badly served by the Lord Chamberlain’s office, which is re- sponsible for’ the issue of the invitations. Apparently, this department of the State has not yet realised that science is the only true basis of a nation’s welfare and progress, and that scientific men exist in Britain. A few of the most distinguished Fellows of the Royal Society would represent the best interests 19000 of the nation even more effectively than actors and | musicians. Tue Royal Society’s annual conversazione, to which short period changes, shows that when the river flow | was greatest, 1.e. between about the years 1873-1883, NO. 1860 VOL. 72] ladies are invited, will take place on Friday, June 23. JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 181 Pror. E. Ray Laxkester, F.R.S., has been elected president of the British Association for the meeting to be held at York next year. Tue Stephen Ralli memorial—a laboratory for clinical and pathological research—will be opened at the Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, on Thursday next, June 29. At the Borough Polytechnic Institute on Wednesday next, June 28, marble busts of Joseph Lancaster and Michael Faraday (the work of Mr. H. C. Fehr), presented to the institute by Mr. Passmore Edwards, will be formally unveiled by Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S. Mr. Edric Bayley, chairman of the governors, will preside. Tue annual conversazione of the Royal Geographical Society will be held at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, on Tuesday next, June 27. At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society to be held in the evening of June 26, a paper will be read by Dr. Charcot on the French Antarctic Expedition. Dr. Charcot has just been created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. WE learn from the Times that the Government of India has ordered the introduction of a standard time, with effect from July 1, on the railways (other than small local lines, where the change might be inconvenient) and in all tele- graph offices in the country, and also in Burma. Hitherto Madras time has been adopted by most of the Indian rail- ways. The standard now to be introduced is nine minutes in advance of the ‘‘ railway time,’’ as it is called in all parts of India, and is thus 53 hours in advance of Green- wich, being the local time of longitude 82° 30’. The standard for Burma is to be exactly an hour earlier, viz. 63 hours in advance of Greenwich and five minutes earlier than Rangoon local time. In inland places it has been found convenient generally to follow railway time; but the great seaports of Calcutta, Bombay, and Karachi have followed the local time of their respective longitudes. The Government of India does not prescribe the new standard for these and other places following local time, but if a general desire to adopt the new standard is evinced, the Government will be prepared to support the change and to cooperate in bringing it about. In all probability, therefore, there will, ere long, be a uniform time through- out India exactly 53 hours in advance of Greenwich, while that of Burma will be 6% hours in advance. “ec Tue death of Mr. James Mansergh, F.R.S., on June 15, at seventy-one years of age, deprives applied science of an acknowledged authority upon water supply and sewage disposal. Mr. Mansergh had unique experience and know- ledge of these subjects, and was associated for many years with almost every important construction connected with them in this country. The extensive schemes which he initiated and directed for the improvement of water supply and drainage will long remain as monuments to his memory. He was the designer of the waterworks and sewerage of Lancaster (where he was born in April, 1834), Lincoln, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Rotherham, Southport, Burton-on-Trent, Melbourne (Australia), Birmingham, and many other large towns. These designs include some of the largest schemes of water supply and drainage ever carried out, such, for instance, as the sewerage scheme for the metropolitan district of Melbourne, embracing an area of 133 square miles, and the supply of water to Birmingham from a source in Radnorshire seventy-three miles away. This scheme utilises water from the rivers Elan and Claerwen, and natural reservoirs have been NO. 1860, VOL. 72] formed for the water by constructing immense dams below the point where the two rivers meet. Mr. Mansergh was the author of about 150 reports upon schemes of water supply, sewerage, and sewage disposal for many large towns. He was also the author of ‘‘ Lectures on Water Supply : Prospecting for Water, Prospecting and Boring,” delivered at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, ‘‘ The Water Supply of Towns,’’ and other works. While president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1900-1, the Engineering Standards Committee was formed, and Mr. Mansergh was elected chairman. At the time of his death, as chairman of the main com- mittee, he had mgre than thirty committees working on standardisation in different branches of engineering. Mr. Mansergh was a member of the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Water Supply, and he was on the council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901 for his eminent work as a hydraulic engineer. In the Irish Naturalist for June Dr. R. F. Scharff records the capture of two female bottle-nosed dolphins in Dublin Bay in April last. The only other record of the occurrence of Tursiops tuysio in Irish waters dates from 1829. Dr. Scharff figures one of the Dublin specimens. WE have received a copy of the March issue of the Bulletin of the Cracow Academy, to which Mr. V. Kulezynski contributes the continuation of an article on certain spiders, treating in this instance of Araneus curcubitinus and its allies. In other articles Mr. T. Browicz discusses the secreting function of the nucleus in the cells of the liver, while Mr. K. W6jcik describes the infra-Oligocene strata of Riszkania, near Uzsok, with lists of the fossils. A NOTICEABLE feature in the report of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia for the past year is the attention paid to the causes of the deaths which take place in the menagerie. In 140 instances a pathological examination was instituted, mostly with definite results in determining the cause of decease. The results are tabulated, and show that tuberculosis is by far the most fatal ailment, next to which comes inflammation of the stomach and intestines, followed, with a considerable diminution in the numbers, by nephritis, necrosis of the liver, and non- tubercular pneumonia. In the April issue of the Emu the editors continue the excellent practice of giving coloured illustrations of some of the more remarkable Australian birds, the plate, which is drawn by Mr. H. Groénvold, depicting in this instance representatives of Xerophila, Mirafra, and Amytis. In the case of Xerophila castaneiventris, one cannot help wonder- ing what is the purpose of the pair of yellow eye-like spots at the root of the beak. Among the articles is an interest- ing account, with photographs, by Mr. A. J. Campbell, one of the editors, of that remarkable bird the kagu of New Caledonia, in the course of which attention is directed to the danger of extermination now threatening that species. Thirty yeats ago it had already disappeared from the more settled parts of Caledonia, and the writer urges that steps should be taken, while there is yet time, to preserve such an interesting bird (the sole representative of its genus) from extermination. Tue problems of ‘‘ vitalismus’’ are discussed by Mr. K. C. Schneider, of Vienna, in Biologisches Centralblatt of June 1 at considerable length; while in another article Dr. H. Schmidt, of Jena, enters on the consideration of the fundamental law of biological development. In a 182 NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 third communication Dr. R. Rossle insists on the import- ance of immunity-reactions (that is to say, serum reactions and blood-immunity) in determining the systematic affinities of the higher animals, pointing out that by this method the intimate affinities respectively existing between fowls and pigeons, horse and ass, fox and dog, and sheep and goats, have already been established. The trans- lation of an article by Prof. Marcus Hartog, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, constitutes the next most important part of the contents of this issue. THE most important articles in Indian Public Health for May (vol. i., No. 10) deal with the mill question in India and the Calcutta milk supply. Some interesting observations on the influence of the root nodules upon the composition of soy beans and cow- peas have been made by Messrs. C. D. Smith and F. W. Robison (Bulletin No. 224 Michigan State Agricultural College Experiment Station). The conclusion is arrived at, after two years’ work, that while on fairly fertile soils the root nodules may not notably increase the yield, they do cause an important and pronounced increase in the relative and absolute amount of nitrogen in the plants. Buiietin No. 23, by Dr. Herzog, of the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila, is devoted to a con- sideration of plague, and a description of the pathological findings in twenty cases which occurred in Manila. A new species of rat flea (Pulex philippensis) is described. Bulletin No. 24, by Dr. Wherry, gives a report of two cases of human glanders which occurred in Manila, and some notes on the bacteriology and morphology of the Bacillus mallei. In the Bull. Internat. de l’Acad. des Sciences de Cracovie (No. 1, January) M. Panek contributes a chemical and bacteriological study of the Polish ‘‘ barszcz,” a product of the fermentation of red beetroot. It is brought about by a micro-organism, named by the author Bacterium betae viscosum, which causes a fermentation of the cane- sugar with the production of viscous substances and mannite. M. Tochtermann describes the action of thionyl chloride on thiobenzamide, M. Niemezycki discusses syntheses effected by means of zinc chloride, and Madame Krahelska the merogonic development of the egg of Echinus microtuberculatus. THERE has been a considerable amount of uncertainty with regard to the blackwood of southern India, whether it was possible to distinguish two species. Mr. T. E. Bourdillon, writing in the Indian Forester (March), is able to show that Dalbergia sissoides and Dalbergia latifolia should be regarded as distinct species. The natives re- cognise dark blackwood, species latifolia, and pale black- wood, species sissoides, and although there are several points of distinction, the wood forms the best means of identification. To the Cowthorpe oak which grows near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, and was illustrated in Nature of May 11 (p. 44), is generally assigned the honour of being the largest tree in the British Isles. The claim is based upon the girth and spread of the tree, as it is doubtful whether it ever attained a great height. The Yorkshire Herald, May 29, provides an illustration, reproduced from a paint- ing, which is believed to be an accurate representation of the tree as it appeared sixty years ago, and extracts are given from a pamphlet issued with the picture. There is no doubt that this oak passed through its seedling stage NO. 1860, vol. 72] several centuries ago; Dr. Jessop, in 1829, suggested an age exceeding 1500 years, but this is mere conjecture, as the tree has been hollow for at least two centuries. Tue eighteenth and latest volume of the Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society contains the accounts of the society’s meetings during 1904, the jubilee year. The president, Mr. W. S. Fotheringam, in review- ing the progress of the society, announced that the list of members had reached a thousand. The yearly excursion which was held in France provided an opportunity of visiting some of the magnificent State forests. At Champenoux and Haye the forests are principally oak, but beech and hornbeam are also grown, since they provide useful cover. Previously the system adopted was coppice- with-standards, but in both cases this is being converted into high forest. A very fine forest of silver-fir worked with a rotation of 144 years was inspected at Celles, in the Vosges. Pror. E. WrrpeMANN, of Erlangen, sends us a short statement of observations described in his work on electric discharges (Wied. Ann., xx., p. 793, 1883) relating to the effects referred to by the Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith in our correspondence columns on May 4 (p. 7). He agrees with Mr. Jervis-Smith as to the action of ozone, and advises persons who work for a long while with influence machines not to have these machines situated in the working room. “Ozone belongs to the poisonous gases and is the more dangerous, since the injurious effects are not manifest at the time; on the contrary, breathing the gas produces at first a feeling of exhilaration, but afterwards it has a depressing effect on the nervous system. Binz has shown that it may cause sleep. I may add to what I have mentioned that during my observations I have suffered somewhat severely from nervous disturbance (hyperasthesia of the feet) due to breathing ozone. These lasted for one or two years. Moreover, I always experience discomfort after performing experiments in my lectures on Tesla dis- charges.”’ Stvce March, 1904, several meteorological stations have been established by the Japanese Government along the coast of Korea. In April of that year the Japanese meteorological observatory in Chemulpo commenced to record observations. Mr. H. Mukasa, writing from Chemulpo, informs us that a new building for the obsery- atory was completed lately on the top of the highest hill in Chemulpo (lat. 37° 29’ N., long. 126° 37’ E.), seventy metres above mean sea-level, where observations have been taken since January 1 last. At the invitation of Dr. Y. Wada, the director, the important residents of Seoul and Chemulpo visited the observatory on March 25 last. Various pieces of apparatus relating to meteorology, as well as the horizontal seismograph devised by Prof. F. Omori, were exhibited. Among the visitors were the Japanese, French, and British Ministers, and several Korean dignitaries. The exhibition succeeded in arousing the interest of the visitors in meteorology, and made a deep impression on the Korean guests. We have received a copy of the first report of the Transvaal Meteorological Department, containing observ- ations for one year ending June 30, 1904, with an appendix giving monthly and seasonal rainfall records for a number of years, from observations taken before the establish- ment of the meteorological department. This was only constituted in April, 1904, consequently the records are very incomplete, so far as official stations are concerned. In some cases a complete year’s observations are pub- JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 183 of volunteer observers. The no time in obtaining properly difficulties may be gathered two consignments of grass lished, thanks to the courtesy department has, however, lost verified instruments, but the from the fact that out of minimum thermometers only one instrument suryived the transport. The heights of the stations are not yet accurately known; many of them have an altitude of 5000 feet to 6000 feet. Tue thirteenth yearly report of the Sonnblick Society for the year 1904 contains an interesting account of some of the results obtained at the highest mountain meteor- ological stations of Europe, with photographic illustrations ; the arduous work done in the interest of meteorological and physical science at some of these inhospitable localities has from time to time been referred to in our columns. In the present report A. Edler von Obermayr discusses the frequency of sunshine at the summit of the Sonnblick (3106 metres) with that at other mountain stations. The tables exhibit some peculiarities:—on Ben Nevis the greatest frequency occurs in June, on the Obir and Santis in July and August, but on the Sonnblick the - greatest frequency occurs exclusively in the winter months, from November to February. A useful index is given in a separate paper of the various items and unusual occurrences contained in the Sonnblick reports for the twelve years 1892-1903. In his earliest researches on the properties of gaseous fluorine, M. Henri Moissan showed that it reacted vigorously with nitric acid, fluorine and the vapour of the acid producing a violent explosion. In the current number of the Comptes rendus MM. Moissan and Lebeau give an account of a systematic research on the reactions between fluorine and the compounds of nitrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen peroxide and nitrous oxide proved to be perfectly indifferent towards fluorine, but a lively reaction, accom- panied by flame, was found to take place between fluorine and nitric oxide. With the nitric oxide in excess, the gaseous products proved to be nitrogen, nitric oxide, and nitrogen peroxide, the fluorine appearing in the form of a solid product of indefinite composition containing platinum (from the tube by which the gas was led in) and nitrous compounds. But with the fluorine in excess, the reaction appeared to be more definite, and a gaseous com- pound containing fluorine, nitrogen, and oxygen was pro- duced, the substance being solid at the temperature of boiling oxygen. This solid, when allowed to boil off, could be condensed to a colourless liquid at —80° C., and further work is being carried out with the view of establishing its composition and properties. A sHoRT report has been received upon the present state of the work done in connection with the ‘‘ Technolexicon ”’ of the Society of German Engineers. In the compilation of this universal technical dictionary for translation pur- poses (in German, French, and English), which was com- menced in 1901, about 2000 firms and _ individual collaborators are assisting at present. Up to now 2,700,000 word-cards have been collected; and this number does not include hundreds of thousands of cards that will result from the working out of the original contributions not yet taken in hand. The editor-in-chief of the “* Technolexicon ’’’ is Dr. Hubert Jansen, Berlin (NW. 7), Dorotheenstrasse 49, and he will be glad to give any in- formation concerning the work. A xey to the first part of ‘‘A New Trigonometry for Schools,’’ by Mr. W. G. Borchardt and the Rev. A. D. Perrott, has been published by Messrs. Geo. Bell and Sons. NO. 1860, VOL. 72 | OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Srars witH Pecuttar Spectra.—Mrs. Fleming has dis- covered several more new variable stars and other objects having peculiar spectra whilst examining the Henry Draper memorial plates. The designation, position for 1900, magnitude and spectral peculiarities are given for each of these in No. 98 of the Harvard College Observatory Circulars. Several of the objects mentioned have bright lines in their spectra, and one or two call for special remark. For example, a star in Cepheus at R.A. = oh. 7-6m., dec.=+71° 32’, was found to have a spectrum containing five bright bands at AA 3869, 4101, 4340, 4688, and 4861. The first of these coincides with the bright band seen in certain gaseous nebula, the second, third, and fifth will be recognised as due to hydrogen, whilst the fourth, the brightest of all, corresponds to the character- istic line seen in fifth-type stars. The chief nebula line at A 5000 was not seen. Prof. Pickering suggests that this object may have arrived at an intermediate stage between a nebula and a fifth-type star. Another star situated in the position R.A.=1h. 50:2m., dec. =+62° 49’, in the constellation Cassiopeia, is now classed as a gaseous nebula, its spectrum consisting of the chief nebula line at A 5000. A second table in the same Circular describes the spectra of twenty-one known variables, and Prof. Pickering states that in most cases of long-period variables the bright hydrogen lines are not seen during the epochs of minima. VARIABLE STARS IN THE CLUSTERS MESSIER 3 AND 5-— The hundredth Harvard College Circular contains a dis- cussion by Prof. Bailey of the variable stars discovered in the clusters Messier 3 and Messier 5. These two clusters contain a greater proportion of variable stars than any other hitherto examined. Of every seven stars in the former one is a variable, whilst in Messier 5 the ratio is 1:11. Periods have been determined for most of the variable stars, and their similarity is remarkable. Only two stars, Nos. 42 and so in Messier 5, having periods of 25-74d. and 105-6d. respectively, appear to depart from the rule, all the other variables in both clusters having periods differing but little from 13h. The average devi- ation from the mean (13h.) in Messier 3 is th. om., and in Messier 5 (mean 12h. 45m.) 1h. 13m. All the variables are of nearly the same magnitude, varying from 13-0m. to 16-om., and there is a slight suggestion that the periods of them undergo a secular variation in length. SPECTROHELIOGRAPH Resutts.—In No. 4, voli xxi OF the Astrophysical Journal, Mr. Phillip Fox, of the Yerkes Observatory, discusses the observations made with the Rumford spectroheliograph during 1904. The plates secured with the H, radiation, i.e. the radiation of the centre of the H calcium line, show a decided increase of activity in the flocculi over that observed during 1903, and are being measured in order to determine the solar rotation period at the height, above the photosphere, of the high- level flocculi. Many series of plates, on which the individual exposures were made at intervals of a few minutes, the successive settings of the secondary slit being made in ten or twelve steps from A 3952-4 to A 3968-6, were secured, and Mr. Fox briefly discusses these in regard to the distinction between faculz and flocculi in the calcium vapour images. Such a series of photographs, taken on August 25, is reproduced on one of the plates accompanying the paper, and shows that few, if any, flocculi appear in the high levels without their bases appearing, although usually diminished, in the lower levels. Even the bright patches designated “‘ eruptions ’’ by Messrs. Hale and Ellerman can be traced as such as far down as the photograph taken with the secondary slit set at A 3967. The photographs secured with the hydrogen radiations Hf, Hy, and He generally show flocculi coincident with those seen on the calcium photographs, and in nearly all cases where the eruptions could be traced to the limb associated promin- ences were discovered above the flocculus. No prominences of great height or unusual form were photographed on the limb during 1904, but some of the plates show a fair number, and one or two beautiful examples are reproduced on the second plate of the paper. 184 NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 Visiptuity oF D, as A Dark Ling IN THE SOLAR SpecTRuM.—At a recent meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Prof. A. Fowler stated, in a paper on the spec- trum of the great sun-spot of February last, that he had, on February 2, observed the helium line D, as a dark and distorted line in the spectrum of the sun in the region about the spot disturbance. This observation was regarded as unusual, but according to a letter written by Mr. A. Buss to the Observatory (No. 358) it is not at all an uncommon phenomenon, and can be seen frequently if the solar spectrum be closely watched. In fact, Mr. Buss states that, according to his observations with a curved slit spectroscope, D, may be seen as a dark line in every really agitated solar disturbance. West Henpon House Orsservatory.—No. 3 of the Publications of the West Hendon House Observatory (Sunderland) is devoted to the observations of variable stars made by Mr. Backhouse during the years 1866-1904. The observations of each of the forty-nine stars discussed are set out in detail in tables showing the times of observ- ation, the comparison stars, and the magnitudes accord- ing to other catalogues. For a number of stars the observed magnitudes are plotted on a series of curves placed at the end of the volume, with a diagram showing the various gradations of colour employed in the de- scriptions. NATURE AND MAN. HE annual Romanes lecture was delivered by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, on June 14, on the subject of ‘‘ Nature and Man.”’ The complete lecture has been published by the Clarendon Press (London: Henry Frowde), and the following abstract indicates a few of the points considered in it. Prof. Lankester remarked that the subject of his dis- course is one which has largely occupied the attention of biologists during the five-and-forty years in which he has followed the results of scientific discovery. Much mis- conception prevails as to the signification attached to the word *‘ Nature,”” but the lecturer used it as indicating the entire cosmos of which this cooling globe with all upon it is a portion. Until the eighteenth century the study of nature—nature-knowledge and nature-control—was the appropriate occupation of the learned men at Oxford, and the present peculiar classical education is a modern inno- vation. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the observations of mnature-searchers made it possible to establish the general doctrine of the evolution of the cosmos, with more special detail in regard to the history of the earth and the development of man from a lower animal ancestry. The general process by which the higher and more elaborate forms of life, and eventually man himself, have been produced was shown by Darwin to depend upon heredity and variation. By the process of natural selection, those organisms survive which are most fitted to the special conditions under which they live. Man eventually emerged from the terrestrial ‘animal population strictly controlled and moulded by natural selection. The leading feature in the development and separation of man from other animals is the relatively large size of his brain, which has five or six times the bulk (in proportion to his size and weight) of that of any other surviving Simian. The development of the mental qualities has given rise to attributes which are peculiar to man, and justify the view that man forms a new departure in the gradual unfolding of nature’s predestined scheme. “* Civilised man has proceeded so far in his interference with extra-human nature, has produced for himself and the living organisms associated with him such a special state of things by his rebellion against natural selection and his defiance of nature’s pre-human dispositions, that he must either go on and acquire firmer control of the conditions or perish miserably by the vengeance certain to fall on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs.’ It is practically certain that all epidemic disease could be abolished within a period so short as fifty years if the State cared to take the matter in hand and employ the means at the command NO. 1860, VOL. 72] of science. If more men were encouraged to study and experiment on this matter, there would soon be an end of all infectious disease. By the exercise of his will, man has done much to control the order of nature, and it is urgent for him to apply his whole strength and capacity in gaining further control. Little, however, is being done in this direction, but when a knowledge of the situation reaches the masses of the people, ‘‘ the democracy will demand that those who expend the resources of the community, and as Government officials undertake the organisation of the defence and other great public services for the common good, shall put into practice the power of nature-control which has been gained by mankind, and shall exert every sinew to obtain more. To etfect this, the democracy will demand that those who carry on public affairs shall not be persons solely acquainted with the elegant fancies and stories of past ages, but shall be trained in the acquisition of natural knowledge and keenly active in the skilful application of nature-control to the development of the well-being of the community.’” The concluding subject of the lecture was the influence exerted by the University of Oxford upon the welfare of the State and of the human community in general. Oxford by its present action in regard to the choice of subjects of study ‘“is exercising an injurious influence upon the educa- tion of the country, and especially upon the education of those who will hereafter occupy positions of influence, and will largely determine both the action of the State and the education and opinions of those who will in turn succeed them.’’ Is it desirable to continue to make the study of two dead languages the main, if not the exclusive, matter to which the minds of the youth of the well-to-do class are directed by our schools and universities? In view of modern needs it would be more sensible to make the chief subject of education for everybody ‘‘ a knowledge of nature as set forth in the sciences, which are spoken of as physics, chemistry, geology, and biology.’? The ablest youths of the country should be encouraged to proceed to the extreme limit of present knowledge of one of these branches of science so that they might become makers of new know- ledge, and the possible discoverers of enduring improve- ments in our control of nature. The great prizes of life ought to be given to the young man who pursues nature- knowledge successfully rather than to him who takes up less important subjects. In other words, it is desirable that our scheme of education should centre round a know- ledge of nature and not continue to be mainly classical and historical. Though men of science would make natural knowledge the core of education, they would consider it incomplete if a serviceable knowledge of foreign languages, and a real acquaintance with the beauties of English and other literature, were not added. ‘‘ The studies of the past carried on at Oxford have been charming and full of beauty, whilst England has lain, and lies, in mortal peril for lack of knowledge of nature.” The suggestion ‘‘ that Oxford should resign herself to the overwhelming predominance given to the study of ancient elegance and historic wisdom within her walls ”” is an insult to her and an impossibility. Only a few decades have passed since Oxford sent out Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren. Moreover, Oxford exerts an immense influence on the schools, and for this reason men of science cannot be content with the maintenance by the university of the compulsory study of Greek and Latin, and the neglect to make the study of nature an integral and predominant part of every man’s education. For “‘ the knowledge and control of nature is man’s destiny and his greatest need.’’ SCIENCE AND THE STATE. A cae seventh of the series of weekly pamphlets which are appearing under the editorship of Mr. W. T. Stead, with the general title of ‘‘ Coming Men on Coming Questions,”” is by Mr. R. B. Haldane, and is entitled “The Executive Brain of the British Empire.’ Mr. Haldane is an enthusiast for higher education. He is a thorough believer in the policy which has been advocated JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 185 consistently by Naturr, that the surest and best way to secure national efficiency is to educate our manufacturers and merchants liberally along scientific lines, and to enlist the cooperation of distinguished men of science in the work of national administration. In considering the task that lies before a progressive political party, Mr. Haldane has much of interest to the man of science to say about things the party has to accomplish in the process of winning complete public confidence in its capacity to direct national business. He points out that the importance of each Department of State depends mainly on the personality of the Minister who presides over it. But apart from personality there are other forces —such as clear conception and resolute purpose—which profoundly affect administration. To bring into play greater brain power in administration is, Mr. Haldane insists, a task of the first magnitude, and he proceeds to show its importance and how it may be accomplished. The appointment of the Explosives Committee by Lord Lansdowne in 1900 is the first illustration taken by Mr. Haldane. After the outbreak of the South African war, it came to light that the British military and naval guns were being corroded rapidly by the chemical action at high temperatures of the products of combustion of the nitro- glycerin in the cordite. Lord Lansdowne, who summoned outsiders to advise him, was told that an expert com- mittee on the national explosives required the best scientific brains in the country, and, following the earlier example in France, a committee, presided over by Lord Rayleigh and including Sir Andrew Noble and Sir William Crookes, was appointed. The committee has solved the problems presented to it, made further discoveries, and is now a permanent body. But the committee is performing its work under great difficulties, due entirely to our system of administration. As Mr. Haldane says, ‘“‘ the Army gives its rewards to genius on the field, and not to genius in the laboratory.’’ He says later:—‘‘If the British Government is to have adequate command of scientific talent of the highest order, it must make arrangements which will enable it to reward and honour that talent on an adequate scale, without exciting ill-feeling.”’ There ought, in fact, Mr. Haldane contends, to be an advisory body with a corps scientifique attached to it, which should include the exceptional talent which the State stands more and more in need of every day. Not only would such a scientific committee provide a new opening for talent, but, more important, prove a source of new strength to the nation. As a further instance of the good results which promptly follow the application of scientific methods to national problems, Mr. Haldane cites the case of the discovery among miners of the disease ankylostomiasis, after the Home Office had obtained the permission of the Treasury to appoint a committee of investigation, and indicates how great would have been the saving of suffering and money had there been a corps scientifique to appeal to as a matter of course. Referring to the fall in the amount of exports in some branches of industry, Mr. Haldane traces this to the need for more mind in the process of manufacture, that is, for the improvement of higher education in this country, and goes on to remark that comparatively little State aid has been devoted to this important necessity. Exception is taken, too, to the somewhat mechanical methods of distri- bution of the present grant from the Treasury to university colleges, and it is urged that in this direction also the executive brain ought to be strengthened. The Centralstelle of Germany, the function of which is to put at the disposal of inquirers, in the solution of problems arising in manufacture, the best scientific know- ledge available which cannot otherwise be obtained by the private manufacturer, is an example of Germany’s appreciation of men of science. Not only are such central research institutions established in Germany, but also in the United States and in France. The same principle has been conceded among us, for the State gives a small grant —just about a tenth of what the Germans give to their corresponding institution—to the National Physical Labor- atory, an invaluable institution which is at present being starved. Well may Mr. Haldane say that “ it is time for the State to take the lead in this direction also, if we are to hold our own in the international competition which No. 1860, VOL. 72] is more and more coming to depend on the application of science to industry.”’ The essay as a whole is a powerful plea for the intro- duction of the methods of science into every department of national life, and should convince every reader that disregard of scientific method and procedure is of necessity accompanied by a want of national efficiency and well- being. CORAL ANATOMY AND DEVELOPMENT.* N writing this account of his observations and researches I on Siderastraeza, Dr. Duerden has added an important contribution to his already extensive publications on the anatomy and development of the Madreporaria. Siderastraa is a common West Indian coral forming colonies of 10 cm. to 60 cm. in diameter, which encrust stones and some- times the shells of hermit crabs on the coral flats. It appears to be exceedingly hardy, as it will suffer exposure to the hot sun at low tide and partial burying in the mud without injury, and it is often found living under con- ditions on the reef which very few corals of other species could withstand. This hardiness renders it an admirable type for thorough investigation, as it enables it to live and grow and reproduce itself freely in the unfavourable conditions of an aquarium in the tropics. Siderastraea, although a colonial coral having a general superficial resemblance to the Astraeida, or star corals, is allied to the Fungida, or mushroom corals. The tissues of the expanded zooids are so transparent that the white Fic. 1.—Three larve of Siderastraa settling down upon a stone, in close proximity, by their narrow aboral poles. skeletal structures can be seen through them. Each zooid has, in the adult state, two rows of capitate tentacles, and several of the members of the inner row are bifurcate. This remarkable and, among corals, unique condition of the tentacle is brought about by the growth of a common peduncle for a pair of neighbouring tentacles of the entoccelic series which are primarily distinct. — In all the zooids that were examined anatomically only ova were found; Dr. Duerden, however, gives reasons for believing that the coral is not strictly dicecious, but protogynous, a point of some interest when compared with the case of Flabellum rubrum, which Mr. Stanley Gardiner has shown to be protandrous. The early stages of the development of the coral take place within the cavity of the parent zooid, and the ciliated top-shaped larve are discharged with four pairs of mesenteries already developed. The larve can be kept alive in the aquaria for several weeks, but unless they settle down within the first two or three days from liber- ation it seems impossible for them to fix themselves, and they ultimately perish. In general the larvae fix themselves at the same time and in groups. So close do they cluster together that they are often in touch with one another, 1 “The Coral Sidevastraca radians and its Pest-larval Development.” By Dr. J. E. Duerden. Pp. 130+plates. (Washington: Carnegie Institu- tion, December, 1904.) 186 NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 and by mutual pressure produce a distortion of the normally circular base. There can be no doubt that in this coral, as in others investigated by Dr. Duerden, these clusters of larvee become organically connected, and form aggregated colonies. In dealing with the later stages of the development, the author discusses many questions of great interest to those who have made a special study of the anatomy of corals. We may refer especially to the light thrown upon the vexed question of ‘‘theca’’ and ‘‘ epitheca,’’ to the demonstration that the primary ectosepta do not become entosepta as they were supposed to do in some other corals, and to the valuable suggestion as to the scientific method of writing the septal formulz of corals. These and other matters, which are fully discussed, render the memoir of greater value than a mere record of facts and observations of the natural history of a single species of coral would be. There is a great deal to be said in favour measured rate, and the products of combustion are cooled | down by a stream of water also flowing at a known rate, | accurately measured. | of the old type system, the system of presenting to the | reader a plain, unvarnished tale of the natural history of , a species and leaving him to draw his own conclusions ; but the dangers of the system may be clearly recognised Fic. 2.—The disc of a young Zooid of Siderastreza with expanded tentacles showing (I.1.) the four bifurcate tentacles of the inner row. in this memoir. The coral under review is a common, and many might think a common-place, coral, and if the author had thought fit to limit himself to a description of facts only, it would probably have been chosen as a type of its order by writers of the conventional text-book. Fortunately, however, we are warned on almost every page that Siderastreea is not a type, but in many respects an exceptional and rather archaic form. In conclusion, a word of praise must be said for the manner in which the memoir is presented to the public. Like the other scientific treatises that have been recently published by the Carnegie Institution at Washington, the paper, printing, and illustrations are all of first-rate quality. S35 ly II GAS CALORIMETRY. N the recent report of the Departmental Committee appointed to consider the question of the control of the gas supply of the metropolis, a proposal was made that the calorific power of the gas should be regularly deter- mined, thus recognising the growing importance of the heating value of gas as distinguished from its illuminating power. The use of gaseous fuel both for heating and power purposes having led to a demand for exact gas calorimetry, several types of calorimeter have come into use. In those of the Junker type, the gas is burned at a NO. 1860, VOL. 72] | congesta the ingoing and outgoing temperatures of which can be In spite of the difficulties of securing accurate measurements of the rate of flow of gas and water, on account of the speed with which consecutive determinations can be carried out instruments of this type are mostly used by gas engineers. Their chief defect is want of portability, and as an alternative a sample of the gas is frequently analysed, and the calorific value deduced from the results of the analysis. Apart from the difficulty of exactly determining the constituents of such a com- plicated mixture as coal gas, this method implies that the exact calorific value of each substance present is accurately known, and this, unfortunately, is far from being the | Case. Most of the data regarding heats of combustion in actual use are derived either from the experiments of Berthelot and his pupils with the calorimetric bomb, or from the experi- ments of Julius Thomsen, and in the case of gaseous sub- stances the differences between these two experimenters may amount to as much as 2 per cent. In the current number of the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie Julius Thomsen has a critical paper on the causes of these differ- ences, and comes to the conclusion that fer gases the explosion with compressed oxygen in a bomb gives quite untrustworthy results. His chief argument is based on the comparison of the values obtained for the heats of com- bustion of homologous series of hydrocarbons and their halogen derivatives, and it is shown that whereas the method of combustion at ordinary atmospheric pressure gives remarkably constant differences between the con- secutive members of such a series, the results obtained by means of the calorimetric bomb lead to differences between consecutive members which are quite irregular. It follows that the values obtained for heats of formation, which lie at the basis of all theoretical speculations in this field, are still more irregular in the case of figures obtained with the bomb, since they are based on the differences between the heats of combustion. The weak point in most physical work on gases is usually on the chemical side, and on account of the extreme practical and theoretical importance of the subject and the great advances made in the last ten years in the methods of preparation of pure gases, there is still room for a re-determination of these constants. In this connection it may be pointed out that the ultimate mode of calibration of gas calorimeters of the Junker type is the combustion of a known quantity of a pure gas the heat of combustion of which is taken as known. Ga INe He UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxrorp.—The following is the text of the speech de- livered by Prof. Love in presenting Prof. E. Ray Lankester for the degree of D.Sc. honoris causa on June 13 :— Salutat Academia nostra Edwinum Ray _ Lankester, alumnum suum. Hic ille est, cuius magna apud nos est memoria Anatomize Comparative cathedram olim tenentis, quod et discipulis ardorem suum miro modo inspirare potuit, et specimina in usum Muszi nostri diligentissime ita novis rationibus collocavit ut Historie Naturalis principia luce clariore illustraret: qui hane | Academiam ut suos mores emendaret toties hortatus est, | que ad inauditam perfectionem iamdudum pervenisset si monitori amicissimo in Actis Diurnis contionanti obtem- perare voluisset. Hic est cuius ex repertis laudis aliquid ad suam Almam Matrem redundavit, cum inter insig- nissimos doctores qui hodie de animalium figuris disputant fere princeps sit et in omnibus virorum doctorum societatibus summo in honore habeatur. Nihil profecto quod ad Anatomiam Comparativam pertinet non in huius viri scientiam cadere videtur. Neque enim huic satis erat edendi curam suscipere cum Acta illa, que summve auctoritatis in hoc genere apud nos sunt, labore per quinque et triginta annos iam continuato, tum luculentissimorum librorum seriem, e quibus plures iam typis impressi in manibus omnium habentur, quod onus JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 187 pergrave videri plerisque potuit: sed de omnigenum animalium figuris et mutationibus, sive in ipsa mundi iuventa sive hodie exstantium, commentarios fere in- numerabiles ipse conscripsit. Nullum est animalium genus de quo aliquid non scripserit, neque quicquam scripsit nisi preclare. In hoc viro admiramur cum summi_ artificis patientiam nullam rem tenuiorem esse docentis quam ut scientia dignum sit, tum doctrinam latissimam_ et subtilissimam nova inventa cum prioribus colligantis et suo quidque loco reponentis. Sed ulterius etiam progressus est. Quid enim? Incrementum fit scientiz non solum ex indefessa diligentia et doctrina coacervata summorum veri indagatorum: quin ipsa diligentia et doctrina parum fertilis est nisi conclusiones ita verbis et tabulis expressze sint ut in memoria nostra hereant et novissimum quodque repertum suo loco residere patiantur. Veluti hic noster, qui iuvenis adhuc rationes a Ioanne Millero et Huxleio excogitatas, quo melius omnia ad Historiam Naturalem pertinentia subtilissime litteris mandarent, se optime callere ostenderat, postea novos modos invenit, nova nomina commentatus est, veteres etiam rationes correxit et excoluit: qua omnia iam adeo omnibus comprobata sunt ut nemo inquirat a quo fonte emanarint. Quod si ex hac preclara supellectili unam quasi margaritam potissimum sumere fas sit, eos commentarios singulari laude ornaverim, quibus Limulum illum aquatilem scorpiones et araneas terrestres inter se similes esse ostendit. Nihil profecto in hoe genere perfectius, nihil quod posterorum imitatione sit dignius. Following the announcement in the University Gazette, the age limits in the examination to be held on August 29 for the selection of probationers for the Indian Forestry Service were stated in our note on June 8 (p. 139) to be from eighteen to twenty years on January r, 1905; Prof. Schlich writes to point out that the correct age limits are from eighteen to twenty-one years on that date. Dr. W. T. Brooks (Christ Church) has been appointed Litchfield clinical lecturer in medicine for two years from June. A statute has been passed in Convocation establishing a diploma in anthropology, and providing a committee to organise the course of study in that subject, and to make regulations for the diploma examination. The committee will consist of seventeen members, including the professors of anthropology, comparative anatomy, moral and meta- physical philosophy, comparative philology, the reader in mental philosophy, the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, and the curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Candidates who are not already members of the university will be admitted under the same conditions as candidates for the degrees of B.Litt. and B.Sc. Magdalen College has announced a_ fellowship in chemistry, election to which will be made next October term after an examination. Further details will be pub- lished shortly. : CamBrIDGE.—The following are the speeches delivered by the Public Orator, Dr. Sandys, on June 14, in presenting the two recipients of the degree of Doctor in Science honoris causa :— Captain Ropert Fatcon Scott, R.N., C.V.O. Poli australis e regione salyum sospitemque nobis redditum laetamur virum intrepidum, cui disciplina et gloria navalis ab avo velut hereditate obvenerat. Abhinc annos quinque navis magister designatus est, rerum naturae miraculis prope polum australem explorandis destinatae. Illic, primum terrae Victoriae montes asperos conspicatus, deinde ex transverso oppositum glaciei velut murum immensum diu _ praetervectus, tandem nivis aeternae regionem quandam excelsam detexit, detectam Regis Edwardi nomine nuncupavit. Quid commemorem navem illam prope montem Erebum, prope ipsa Volcani spiracula, glaciei solidae in mediis molibus per biennium compressam ? Quid geographiae, geologiae, meteorologiae, biologiae denique in studiis, scientiarum fines, talium virorum auxilio, feliciter propagatos? Quid itinera longa glaciei perpetuae inter pericula tolerata? Tot virorum fortium de duce intrepido illud primum dixerim :—omnium mortalium nemo umquam ad ipsum polum australem propius pene- travit. Deinde, “‘numquam”’ sociis suis ‘‘ plus laboris NO. 1860, VOL. 72] imposuit quam sibi sumpsit; ipse cum fortis, tum etiam felix.” Sir Francis YOuNGHUSBAND, K.C.I.E. Hodie corona nostra suprema viro destinata est, qui matris suae fratrem, exploratorem indefessum, olim aemulatus, omnium mortalium solus, oceani Pacifici a litore trans Asiae mediae recessus intimos septem milia passuum milies emensus, montium formidolosorum per ambages prope inextricabiles, Indiae demum ad castra prima pervenit. Idem nuper, Britanniae legatus, cum copiis nostris fortissimis, Indiae per Alpes silvasque, post moras infinitas fortiter et prudenter devictas, per apertam portam, Tibetorum ad loca praecelsa ultra lacum illum caeruleum progressus, tandem, inter nemora late virentia, arcis summae tecta aurea conspicatus, religionis anti- quissimae sedem sacram, tot laborum, tot itinerum metam ultimam, intravit. In legatione vero illa obeunda, viri huiusce potissimum auspicio, terrae spatia immensa accuratissime explorata sunt; fluminum ingentium cursus patefacti; saeculorum denique priorum monumenta plurima aut intacta relicta aut diligenter conservata. Iuvat autem recordari regionem illam remotissimam cum exercitu nostro legatum nostrum ita peragrasse, ut nullum crudelitatis, nullum inhumanitatis vestigium reliquerit, sed benevolentiae mutuae, etiam foedere ipso potioris, fundamentum iecerit. Mr. E. T. Whittaker, of Trinity College, appointed a university lecturer in mathematics. has been The Home Secretary has approved the university for the purposes of the Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amend- ment Act, 1903, in respect of its diploma in mining engineering. The Harkness scholarship in geology and palxontology has been awarded to Mr. F. A. Potts, of Trinity Hall, and the Wiltshire prize for geology and mineralogy to Mr. A. McDonald, of Emmanuel College. The treasurer to the Sedgwick memorial fund, which was inaugurated in the Senate House on March 25, 1873, has issued a final balance sheet. The original subscription list amounted to 11,157/. 1s. 6d., and this sum increased by investment to 27,453/. 2s. gd. A thousand guineas were spent on the bronze statue of Sedgwick, and 26,125/. on the Sedgwick Museum; the balance was mainly expended on printing, but a small sum left over has been paid to the financial board. Dr. James Gow will distribute the certificates and prizes at King’s College, London, on Wednesday, July 5. The museums and laboratories of the college will be open to visitors upon this occasion. Dr. A. B. W. Kennepy, F.R.S., will deliver the found- ation oration of the Union Society of University College, London, on June 29; his subject will be *‘ The Academic Side of Technical Training.”’ AmonG the honorary degrees accepted by the Senate of the University of Dublin on June 17 was the degree of Se.D. to be conferred on Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S., and on Prof. Sydney Young, F.R.S. Mr. G. F. Carson, formerly on the staff of the Uni- versity College, Sheffield, has been appointed head of the department of mathematics in Battersea Polytechnic, and Miss Lilian J. Clarke has been appointed lecturer in botany. At the entrance examination for the day courses in engineering to be held next September, the governing body of the Northampton Institute, Clerkenwell, has decided to offer three scholarships for open competition. These scholarships will give exemption from fees, amounting to during the whole of the four years’ course in mechanical or electrical engineering. DurinG December next, in the department of physics of the Columbia University, New York City, a course of fifteen lectures will be delivered by Prof. V. F. Bjerknes, professor of mechanics and mathematical physics in the University of Stockholm. The subject will be ‘‘ Fields of Force,’’ including the discussion of hydrodynamic analogies of the electrostatic and electromagnetic fields. A similar 52l., 188 NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 course will be delivered in March and April, 1906, by Prof. H. A. Lorentz, professor of physics in the University of Leyden. Unper the title ‘‘ The Education of the Examiner,’’ Dr. Charles E. Fawsitt publishes, in the Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, an interesting note on the statistics of examination marks as revealed by graphic methods. Most examiners who have had to draw curves showing the distribution of marks in any examin- ation know the difficulty of obtaining an even uniform curve rising continuously to a maximum and then descend- ing continuously. However carefully the scale of marking is adjusted, the curve has an unpleasant habit of showing two maxima, usually of unequal height, instead of the one maximum of the generally recognised standard curve. Dr. Fawsitt, as the result of observations on class examin- ations conducted at Edinburgh, brings forward the welcome suggestion that this irregularity is not the fault of the examiner, but is due to the fact that the candidates naturally divide themselves into two sets, namely, workers and non-workers, and that while the students in either set vary in every conceivable way in respect of ability, a marked line of division is drawn with regard to work. The superposition of two error curves, in accordance with this theory, gives results closely agreeing with those of common experience. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 16.—‘‘ On the Dimorphism of the English Species of Nummulites, and the Size of the Megalo- sphere in relation to that of the Microspheric and Megalo- spheric Tests in this Genus.’’ By J. J. Lister, F.R.S. The results obtained in this investigation are summarised as follows :— (t) Both microspheric and megalospheric forms of N. variolarius and N. Orbignyi var. elegans are present in the Eocene beds of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, as the author believes they will be found to be present elsewhere, except when the materials of a bed have been re-arranged under the influence of currents. (2) In these species and in N. laevigatus and N. gizehensis the size of the microsphere is nearly constant— the diameters in the specimens measured being between 15 M and 20 w. (3) In the nine species and one variety of Nummulites which the author has examined, the size of the megalo- sphere is approximately proportional to the volume of the eontents of the microspheric form. By this result additional proof is given of de la Harpe’s conclusion, founded on the mode of occurrence in the beds, and on structural features of the tests of the two forms, that these are in each case truly members of ‘a pair,”’ or, as we now say, are related as alternating or recurring forms in the life-history of a species. By (2) and (3) the two modes of reproduction come into marked contrast, the asexually produced megalospheres being proportional in size to the protoplasmic volume of the parent, while the microsphere, probably arising as a zygote, is uniformly small throughout. (4) In several of the species examined, as the micro- spheric member of the cycle preponderates in the life- history, the megalospheric (or gamete-producing) member decreases, not only in proportion to the size of the micro- spheric form, but in proportion to the megalospheric members of other species in which the two forms attain approximately equal sizes. April 6.—‘ Ovulation and Degeneration of Ova in the Rabbit.” By Walter Heape. Communicated by Adam Sedgwick, F.R.S. ; This paper is an abstract of several years’ experimental work. The growth of the graafian vesicle and ovum, and the modification of the adjoining ovarian tissue, are referred to. The maturation of the ovum tales place in the ovary. It is dependent upon coition, and follows a cessation of NO. 1860, VOL. 72] the supply of nutriment to the ovum. Ovulation occurs ten hours after copulation, and does not occur if coition is prevented. The cause of the rupture of the graafian vesicle is probably due to the stimulation of ovarian contractile tissue, to effect which, in the domestic rabbit, the excite- ment of sexual contact appears to be necessary. The prevention of coition results in the degeneration of ripe follicles, and the production of false corpora lutea. Such degenerate follicles do not rupture, and the ovum contained therein is not discharged. The structure and fate of the true and false corpora lutea are _ briefly described. The persistent prevention of breeding causes degener- ation of young as well as ripe follicles on a large scale, and results in more or less obstinate sterility. Degeneration of young follicles occurs normally. While this may be due to want of nutriment, caused by competi- tion of neighbouring follicles, it may also be due to in- capacity to assimilate the nutriment which is supplied. In this latter case, failure is due to a peculiarity in the constitution of the ovum, constituting it a ‘‘ sport.’? As there is evidence that the production of variable offspring depends upon the quality or quantity of nutriment supplied to the mother, it is urged that the study of nutrition from this point of view becomes a matter of very great interest and importance to students of heredity. A brief review of the evidence concerning the forces which influence breeding results in the conclusion that changes are induced in the constitution of the blood by means of a ‘‘ generative ferment ’’ of extraneous origin ; the effect of which upon the generative glands causes their secretion of ‘‘ gonadin,’’? which exercises a profound effect upon the rest of the generative system. ““On the Nature of the Silver Reaction in Animal and Vegetable Tissues.”’ By Prof. A. B. Macallum. When fresh preparations of animal and vegetable tissues are treated with a solution of nitrate of silver containing free nitric acid and then exposed to light, they become coloured, the colour varying in intensity and tint. The author endeavoured to determine to what the reaction is due, and how far one may go in employing it for micro- chemical purposes. It was found that of the organic con- stituents of tissues, the only ones which form compounds with silver *‘ reducible’? under the action of light are sulphocyanic acid, creatin, and taurin. As creatin is pre- sent only in vertebrate muscle fibre, and not at all in invertebrates, while the other compounds mentioned occur in tissues only in infinitesimal, and, therefore, in negligible, quantities, the silver reaction cannot be attributed to their presence. It was further ascertained that neither phos- phates, carbonates, nor sulphates give “ reducible ’’ silver compounds in.the presence of free nitric acid. There re- mained, among organic compounds in tissues, only the proteids, and as these have been, and are, generally held to form, with silver salts, compounds which are ‘‘ reduced ’” in light, it was necessary to determine whether the coloured compounds so formed are ‘‘ albuminates’’ or simply the subchloride of silver. For this purpose proteids were freed from chlorides by repeated precipitation with pure ammonium sulphate, and it was found that egg and serum albumins and globulins, as well as the gelatins, after the eighth precipitation give no colour reaction whatever with nitrate of silver under the influence of light, and that the compounds eliminated by the precipitation, and to which the silver reaction is due, are chlorides. Nucleo-proteids also were found to be reactionless. In the case of vege- table proteids the methods employed were different, but the result was the same. Silver nitrate may, consequently, be used as a microchemical reagent for determining the presence of chlorides in animal and vegetable tissues, and its use for this purpose has already furnished some im- portant results. Amongst these may be mentioned the absolute freedom of the nucleus from chlorides, the absence of the latter from the head of the spermatozoon, and the demonstration that they alone are the cause of the silver reaction in the “cement substance”? (of von Reckling- hausen) as well as in ordinary cell protoplasm. JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 189 May 18.—* Reciprocal Innervation of Antagonistic Muscles.’’ Eighth Note. By Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. Exhibition of strychnine converts reflex inhibition of muscles into excitation; so also, more gradually, but just as potently, does tetanus-toxin. This conversion sets in before and under smaller doses of strychnine or toxin than are required to produce the convulsive seizures character- istic of strychnine poisoning or general tetanus. The conversion of inhibitory effect into excitation effect by strychnine is more easily obtained in the case of some nerves than of others. The conversion of spinal inhibition into excitation by strychnine explains the simultaneous contraction of large inharmonious groups of muscles in strychnine convulsions. It also explains the occurrence, under a given stimulus of reflex contraction, of muscles that previously do not seem, under superficial examination, to be reached by the re- action. These muscles are really included in the reflex effect normally, but the effect on them then being inhibition, it passes unnoticed, unless special means are adopted for seeing it. Thus, in the ordinary ‘“‘ flexion reflex,’’ initiated, say, from the right foot, the flexion of the homonymous knee is easily seen to be due to contrac- tion of its flexor muscles, also the concomitant extension of the crossed knee is easily seen to be due to contraction of its extensor muscles. But it requires special prepar- ations to detect that, with the contraction of the right knee-flexors, there goes reflex inhibition of the right extensor, and that, with the contraction of the left knee- extensor, there goes reflex inhibition of the left knee- flexors. This being so, when under strychnine, the reflex is suddenly changed in character, both flexors and extensors being in both legs thrown into contraction together, it appears to an observer, unaware of the previous inhibitions, that, under the strychnine, the reflex action reached muscles which it did not reach before, e.g. right knee- extensor and left knee-flexor. Hence arises the hypothesis that the alkaloid breaks down a supposed spinal “‘ resist- ance,’’ previously intervening between the afferent nerves and various motor spinal cells ordinarily inaccessible to them. Strychnine does lower the threshold stimulus for spinal reflexes at one stage of its action; but the central fact of strychnine effect appears to the author that it destroys spinal taxis for the skeletal musculature by up- setting the fundamental coordination of reciprocal inner- vation. It upsets reciprocal innervation because it trans- forms inhibition into excitation. On the view advanced in these notes previously that the cortex of the brain exercises reciprocal innervation of antagonistic muscles, strychnine and tetanus-toxin should transform the functional topography of the ‘‘ motor ”’ cortex. This on examination proves to be the case. Strychnine and tetanus-toxin change cortical flexion of leg and arm into extension. Reflex ‘‘ opening ’’ of the jaw is in the decerebrate animal converted into reflex closure by tetanus-toxin and by strychnine, the inhibition of the pre- dominantly powerful closing muscles being converted into excitation of them. Similarly, when the “‘ face-area ’’’ of the monkey’s cortex is tested by faradisation after exhibition of strychnine or tetanus-toxin, the points of surface that, prior to the drug, yield regularly the free opening of the jaw, yield strong closure of the jaw instead. Closure of the jaw is, com- paratively, an infrequent movement to obtain from the cortex of the monkey. On the other hand, opening of the jaw is always readily and regularly elicitable from a large field of the ‘ face-area.’? Under tetanus toxin and strychnine the whole of this area not only ceases to yield opening of the jaws, either maintained or rhythmic, but yields closing of them instead. The foregoing observations give an insight into the essential nature of the condition brought about by tetanus and by strychnine poisoning. These disorders work havoc with the coordinating mechanisms of the central nervous system, because, in regard to certain great groups of musculature, they change the reciprocal inhibitions, normally assured by the central nervous mechanisms, into excitations. The sufferer is subjected to a disorder of coordination which, though not necessarily of itself accom- NO. 1860, VOL. 72] panied by physical pain, inflicts on the mind, which still remains clear, a torture inexpressibly distressing. Each attempt to execute certain muscular acts of vital import- ance, such as the taking of food, is defeated because exactly the opposite act to that intended results from the attempt. The endeavour to open the jaw to take food or drink induces closure of the jaw, because the normal inhibition of the stronger set of muscles—the closing muscles—is by the agent converted into excitation of them. Moreover, the various reflex arcs that cause inhibition of these muscles not only cause excitation of them instead, but are, periodically or more or less constantly, in a state of hyper- excitement, and yet attempt on the part of the sufferer to restrain, to inhibit, their reflex reaction, instead of re- laxing them, only heightens their excitation further, and thus exacerbates a rigidity or a convulsion already in progress. ““The Structure and Function of Nerve Fibres.—Pre- liminary Communication.’’ By Prof. J. S. Macdonald. Communicated by Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S. In contradiction to certain conclusions’ arrived at by the author as a consequence of his experimental observ- ation of the “‘ injury current’’ of nerve, it has recently been denied * that inorganic salts occur in any appreciable quantity within the internal structure of the nerve-fibre. This conclusion has been formed as the result of observ- ations made with the use of a reagent—cobalt nitrite— which precipitates potassium salts in a manner open to investigation with the microscope. It has been shown that the reagent does not give rise to precipitates at every point in the length of the nerve-fibre, but only at certain points of infrequent occurrence. The author has checked this statement, also using microscopical methods, and con- firms it. He draws, however, an entirely different con- clusion from these observations, since he has further observed that these points of infrequent occurrence are points at which the axis-cylinder has been injured in the course of preparation. He concludes that potassium salts are really present in very considerable quantity uniformly distributed along the axis-cylinder, but that they appear in a state of simple solution only at injured points. The author directs attention to the possible general im- portance acquired by this observation, when account is taken of the parallelism between injury and “‘ excitation.” The sudden appearance of inorganic salts (electrolytes) in a state of simple aqueous solution at an excited point means a transitory increase in local osmotic pressure, new processes of diffusion, and disturbances of electrical potential. In this he sees a sufficient explanation of nerve- conduction. In the case of muscle, also, the influence of similar phenomena is considered, and a possible relation between such an increase in local osmotic pressure and ““contraction.’’ He also refers to the possibility of the influence of this factor in the conditions determining the flow of water in plant structures. June 8.—‘‘ The Perturbations of the Bielid Meteors.” By Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S. As the general result of the calculations described in this paper, it appears that the most probable date for the centre of a shower of Bielid meteors this year is November 18, 1oh., G.M.T. If there be a shower at that date, it will indicate that the meteor stream is, in this part, of sufficient length to occupy at least thirty-three days (October 16 to November 18) in passing a definite point in its orbit—or that there is another swarm following the main swarm at this interval—and is also of sufficient extent in the direc- tion sun-earth to allow of some of the meteors encounter- ing the earth, although the centre of the stream is more than 1,000,000 miles outside the earth’s orbit at the time. “‘ Chitin in the Carapace of Pterygotus osiliensis, from the Silurian of Oesel.’’ By Dr. Otto Rosenheim. Com- municated by Prof. W. D. Halliburton, F.R.S. Fragments of the carapace of certain fossil Eurypterids found in Oesel in rocks of Silurian age, from specimens 1 J. S. Macdonald, ‘‘ Thompson-Yates Laboratory Reports,’’ vol. iv., part ii., pp. 213-348, 1902; Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. Ixvii., pp. 315-324 ; z7d., Pp. 325-328; Proc. Physiol. Soc., December 17, 1904; z67d., March 18, 1905, 2 A. B. Macallum, Journal of Physiology, vol. xxxii. p. 1 190 NATO [JUNE 22, 1905 in the British Museum (Natural History), have been ex- amined by the author for chitin. The conclusion drawn from the experiments is that the general behaviour of the substance towards acids and solvents is such that it is probably chitin, and this is con- firmed by the fact that, after such treatment, it yielded, on hydrolysis with concentrated hydrochloric acid, a_ strongly reducing substance which is presumably glucosamine. ““On the Magnetic Qualities of some Alloys not Con- taining Iron.’’ By Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., and R. A. Hadfield. For the purposes of exact magnetic measurements two homogeneous rings of regular form of alloys not containing iron were made at the Hadfield Steel Works, Sheffield, and sent to the Pender Electric Laboratory of University College, London. These two rings were respectively numbered No. 1871 and No. 1888/7. The ring No. 1871 had the following composition :—manganese, 22-42 per cent. ; copper, 60-49 per cent. ; aluminium, 11-65 per cent. There is a certain amount of intermingled slag, probably 2 per cent. or 3 per cent., mostly consisting of MnO and SiO, and slight traces of other metals. Analysis showed that there was present also:—carbon, 1-5 per cent.; silicon, 0-37 per cent.; and iron, 0-21 per cent. Hence it may be said that nothing but a trace of iron occurs in this sample of alloy. The other ring, No. 1888/7, had an approximate composition :—manganese, 18 per cent.; copper, 68 per cent.; aluminium, 10 per cent.; lead, 4 per cent. These alloys unfortunately have poor mechanical properties and are brittle and cannot be forged. Rings were cast from the material and turned in the lathe to the desired form. From the observations the following conclusions are drawn :— (1) The alloy No. 1871, composed of copper, aluminium, and manganese in the proportion mentioned above, exhibits magnetic properties which are identical with those of a feebly ferro-magnetic material. (2) The magnetisation (or B, H) curve is of the same general form as that of a ferro- magnetic metal such as cast iron, and indicates that with a sufficient force, a state of magnetic saturation would most probably be attained. (3) The alloy exhibits the phenomenon of magnetic hysteresis. It requires work to reverse the magnetisation of the material and to carry it through a magnetic cycle. (4) The material has a maxi- mum permeability of 28 to 30, which is not greatly inferior to that of the values reached for cobalt or a low grade of cast iron for small magnetic forces, and occupies a position intermediate between the permeability of the ferro- magnetic and the merely para-magnetic bodies, such as liquid oxygen and ferric chloride. (5) The material exhibits, therefore, the phenomenon of magnetic retentivity and coercivity. It is not merely magnetic, but can be permanently magnetised. The authors are led by these results to conclude that the magnetic properties of this alloy must be based on a certain similarity of molecular structure with the familiar ferro-magnetic metals. Experiments on the magnetic qualities of the alloy No. 1888/7 give results similar to those of the alloy No. 1871. For both alloys No. 1871 and No. 1888/7 the hysteretic exponents are not very different, being respectively 2-238 and 2-288, whereas the hysteretic constants are very different, being respectively 0-0005495 and 0.000776. It is clear, therefore, that both these alloys, although magnetic, have far greater hysteresis than pure iron, nickel, or cobalt for corresponding cycles of magnetisation. ‘““ Note Supplementary to a Paper ‘ On the Radio-active Minerals.’’’ By the Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S. In a paper read before the society on February 28, the author directed attention to the fact that all thorium minerals, so far as could be ascertained, appeared to con- tain uranium and radium. Since then he has examined a number of additional minerals, in order to test the induction further. The result has been quite confirmatory of the original conclusion. The author, in this further investigation, contented himself with determining the thorium and radium, for it may now be considered proved NO. 1860, VOL. 72] that radium is a product of uranium, and it is much easier to establish the presence of radium by its emanation than to detect uranium by chemical analysis. The experi- mental methods explained in the former paper were employed. The results are as follows :— Thorium Radium, Mineral | Locality oxide, | millionths of per cent. | 1 per cent. Thorite Geyloniiw omer: 610 1'00 *) Brevig, Sweden 53°9 o'81 Monazite Johannesberg ... ... 5°94 1°06 Alvite ... Raade Moss, Norwa 4°95 1°81 Xenotime ae AS 3°89 0'90 Monazite N. Carolina? 3°79 0°53 rs ... | Nigeria 2°98 3°78 Anerodite?... | Ceylon... 2°27 g‘8o Monazite Malay Straits 1°53 4/02 Fergusonite ? 1°31 26°7 Malacone Hitteroe, Norway ids 1°40 Allanite ... | Amherst Co., Virginia | 07492 108 Yttrotanialite | Ytterby, Sweden 0°437 5°56 Polycrase ? 0°334 0°36 Zircon ... N. Carolina 0°307 0°34 x» Virginia 0'217 0'52 1 This consisted of pure grains of monazite, picked out from the commercial sand. Mathematical Society, June 8.—Prof.A. R.Forsyth, presi- dent, and temporarily Prof. W. Burnside, vice-president, in the chair.—On the conditions of reducibility of any group of linear substitutions, and On criteria for the finiteness of the order of a group of linear substitutions: Prof. W. Burnside. In the first of these papers it is proved that a group of linear substitutions on a finite number of symbols is reducible if, and not unless, one or more linear equations holds between the coefficients of every substitu- tion of the group. In the second paper it is shown that in order that a group of linear substitutions may be of finite order it is necessary that both the real part and the imaginary part of every coefficient should lie between two fixed assignable numbers, and this condition is sufficient—On a class of many-valued functions defined by a definite integral: G. H. Hardy. The integral een yan) Ses - du Fy Utx is a many-valued function of x having no singularities save x=o, and the behaviour of the function depends on the character of a and A as rational, algebraic or trans- cendental numbers. In a number of cases the function can be represented in the neighbourhood of the singular point by a convergent combination of two divergent power series.—Informal communications were made as follows :— The first principles of Cauchy’s theory of functions : G. H. Hardy.—On differential equations whose integrals are expressible by partial quadratures: Prof. A. R. Forsyth. Royal Astronomical Society, June 5.—Mr. W. H. Maw, president, in the chair.—The discordant values of the principal elliptic coefficients in the moon’s longitude: P. H. Cowell.—Determination of heat radiation from the moon: the Earl of Rosse. The author had found that the lunar heat varied with the phase, that it was negligible at new moon, and attained its maximum at full moon. He con- sidered it a surface heat, not regularly reflected, but absorbed and re-emitted. Suggestions were made for future observations during lunar eclipses. Prof. Turner stated that the maximum at full moon might indicate that some of the heat was reflected.—The diurnal vari- ations of nadir and level of the Greenwich transit circle : Astronomer Royal. The variation of the level has a period of twenty-four hours, with a maximum about 6 a.m. JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE 191 The variations of nadir not show any conclusive result 6 p-m.—On the determination of stellar proper motions without reference to meridian places: A. R. Hinks.—The meteors from Biela’s comet : W. F. Denning and Dr. Downing.—General scheme for determinations of stellar parallax from photographs taken at the Cambridge Observatory: A. R. Hinks and Dr. H. N. Russell. A brief account was also given of results already obtained for the parallax of Lalande 21185 and y Virginis. Zoological Society, June 6.—Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—Specimen of a new bushbuck, which it is proposed to call Tvragelaphus haywoodi, sp. n.: O. Thomas. Mr. Thomas also ex- hibited some mammals and birds from Japan obtained by a collector sent out by the society’s president, the Duke of Bedford, K.G., who proposed to further zoological science by having systematic collections made in that part of the and a minimum about 6 p.m. are much smaller, and do except a discordance near world. Of the present series Mr. Thomas directed atten- tion to a fine marten, different from the true Mustela melampus, and which he proposed to call Mustela melampus bedfordi, subsp. n.—On the intestinal tract of mammals: Dr. P. C. Mitchell. In the course of the last eight years, the author had taken every possible opportunity of studying the alimentary tract of mammals from speci- mens that had died in the society’s gardens, and had obtained additional material elsewhere, with the result that his investigations covered more than two hundred individuals, and included the greater number of the mammalian orders. —The natural history of western Uganda, deduced from observations and collections made by the author while acting as British Boundary Commissioner on the Uganda frontiers: Lieut.-Colonel C. Delmé-Radcliffe.—Distribu- tion of Mexican Amphibia and Reptilia: Dr. H. Gadow. After a critical revision of the speciés recorded from Mexico, the author stated that he grouped them according to the prevailing physical features of the country. It was found that Mexico had received its present fauna from both the northern and the southern continents. The northern immigrants had spread over high tablelands and moun- tains, whilst not a few species had descended into the hot lowlands, even into Central America and still further south. On the other hand, the southerners were divided by the plateau into an Atlantic and a Pacific mass, each having had time to modify many of its members according to the very different physical features. Scarcely any of these southerners had ascended the plateau, but they were not averse to ascending high outlying mountains. A com- parative list of species confined to high altitudes was given, and the conclusion arrived at, with the help of geological data and the fauna of the Antilles, was that the exchange between the north and south took place during the Miocene epoch, at which period alone the Antilles were connected with Central America.—New species of reptiles discovered in Mexico by Dr. H. Gadow: G. A. Boulenger.— Batrachians and reptiles collected in South Africa by Mr. C. H. B. Grant and presented to the British Museum by Mr. C. D. Rudd: G. A. Boulenger.—Notes on the anatomy of the yellow-throated lizard, Gerrhosaurus flavigularis: F. E, Beddard.—Notes on the cerebellum in the exanthematic monitor, Varanus exanthematicus, and on the cerebral hemispheres in the Taraguira lizard, Tropi- durus hispidus: F. E. Beddard.—The fcetus and placenta of the spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus: R. Assheton. —Some new Coleoptera from South Africa: Rev. H. S. Gorham. The beetles referred to were of the families Malacodermata, Cleridz, and Erotylidz, and had been collected by Dr. H. Brauns, of Willowmore, in Cape Colony, either at Willowmore or at Delagoa Bay in 1900 or 1go1, and indicated that the fauna of South Africa was rich in species of the two first families, and more so than had been supposed in members of the latter family. One new genus was described—Remarks on the supposed clavicle of the sauropodous dinosaur Diplodocus: Baron Francis Nopesa. EDINBURGH. Royal Society, June 5.—Prof. Geikie in the chair.—The distribution of the nerve cells in the intermedio-lateral tract of the dorso-lumbar region of the human spinal cord: Dr. No. 1860, VOL. 72 | A. Bruce. The region was found to extend from the end of the upper third of the eighth cervical to the lower extremity of the second or, perhaps, the upper part of the third lumbar segment, and to occur, not as a continuous tract, but as clusters or groups of cells, separated in some of the upper and lower segments by distinct intervals in which there were no cells, but in the greater part of the dorsal region by incomplete intervals in which there were present a small number of cells. The clusters appeared to be arranged in a manner characteristic more or less of each segment, attaining their maximum number in the third dorsal. The cells lay in the white matter behind the lateral portion of the anterior cornua in the eighth cervical and first dorsal segments; below that point they occupied the apex.of the lateral horn, and from the lower part of the second dorsal region they occupied also the grey matter subjacent to the formatio reticularis, and occasionally ex- tending into the formatio reticularis itself. The clusters of cells in this, the reticular group, were frequently con- tinuous with those at the apex of the horn, and belonged undoubtedly to the same system. It was found that the symmetry between the two sides of the cord was not quite complete—The Tardigrada of the Scottish lochs: J. Murray. Twenty-one species were identified, of which six were considered new. It has been usual to distinguish species of Echiniscus by the number and arrangement of the spines and other processes, but in some of the species it was found that spines continue to increase in size at the moult, and that new ones may appear. Also one or two species lay eggs when hardly larger than larve, and at successive moults thereafter lay more and larger eggs. In the study of the order there is, in fact, great need for careful tracing of life-histories—Report on the Medusz found in the Firth of Clyde (1901-2), and notes on the pelagic fauna: E. T. Browne. The report deals with thirty species of Hydromedusz and five species of Scyphomedusz, most of which had not previously been found in the Clyde. The fauna is distinctly littoral. Important information as to the seasonal changes in the fauna was obtained. Medusze are very scarce in winter, and begin to appear about the middle of March. Most of the forms appear during summer, and begin to die off in September and October. The notes on the pelagic fauna contain an account of a number of miscellaneous animals found in the tow-net at different times of year.—Report on the free-swimming Crustacea found in the Firth of Clyde (1g01-2): Dr. T. Seott. The summer months were the best and richest for plankton in the Clyde, a characteristic feature of the summer being the vast quantities of diatoms. During the winter months the plankton consists almost entirely of five species of copepods.—On a new method of preparing esters: Dr. W. W. Taylor. The water formed by the interaction of the acid and alcohol was removed by the addition of benzene, and distillation of the ternary mixture of alcohol, benzene, and water.—Vanishing aggregates of determinant minors: Prof. W. H. Metzler. Paris. fgJAcademy of Sciences, June 13.—M. Troost in the chair. —The action of fluorine on the oxygen compounds of nitrogen: Henri Moissan and Paul Lebeau (sce p- 183).—The moving shadows of the total eclipse of the sun of May 12, 1706: G. Rayet. Reference to some re- marks of De Joly concerning the phenomena of moving shadows observed by him during the total eclipse of the sun, May, 1706.—On a solution of Monge’s problem re- lating to the equation f(dx,, dx., dx,)=0o with variable coefficients: M. Bottasso.—The measurement of the capacity of long submarine cables: M. Devaux- Charbonnel. The principle of the method consists of charging the cable and a condenser of known capacity placed in cascade, the capacity of the cable being deduced from the charge taken up by the condenser. The method has several advantages over those in current use, and has been applied with success to the cable recently laid between Brest and Dakar.—Thermoelectric power and the Thomson effect: M. Ponsot.—Pyrrhotine, ferromagnetic in the magnetic plane and paramagnetic perpendicularly to that plane: Pierre Weiss. The atomic susceptibility of iron in pyrrhotine, measured perpendicularly to the magnetic plane, is very near the atomic susceptibility of iron in paramagnetic bodies.—On the true atomic weight of 192 NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 nitrogen: G. D. Hinrichs. The author gives his reasons for supposing that the atomic weights of the elements can be more accurately determined by calculation than by experi- ment.—On a mode of formation of acetol by the direct oxidation of acetone: M. Pastureau. By the oxidation of acetone in acid solution by hydrogen peroxide, the author shows that in addition to the peroxide already described by Baeyer and Villiger, acetol and pyruvic acid are always formed, the yield of the latter amounting to 75 per cent. of the weight of acetone taken. The appli- cation of the reaction to higher ketones would appear to show that in addition to the ketone peroxide, the keto- alcohols and ketonic acids are always formed.—The action of sodium on the esters of the fatty acids: M. Bouveault and R. Loequin. By the action of sodium on.a cooled ethereal solution of ethyl butyrate, the principal product is the keto-alcohol C,H,—CO—CH(OH)—C,H,, a small quantity of dibutyryl also being obtained. —On some aromatic substitution derivatives of ethylene oxide: MM. Fourneau and Tiffeneau. The substituted ethylene R—CH =CH, is treated with iodine and yellow mercuric oxide, and the iodohydrin thus obtained digested with powdered caustic potash. Details are given of the prepar- ation and properties of phenyl, benzyl, ‘methoxyphenyl, and methylphenyl ethylene oxide-——The action of chloroacetic esters on the halogen magnesium derivatives of aniline: F. Bodroux.—On some compounds of azelaic acid: A. Bouchonnet. The preparation of the phenyl ester and of thioazelaic acid is described.—On sparteine and its reaction with methyl iodide: Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur. The authors have isolated from this reaction, besides the iodomethylate already known, an isomer, probably a stereoisomer, distinguished by its higher rotatory power and its solubility in water.—On the pyrolysis of gum lac: A. Etard and E. Wallée.—On the affinity of artificial colour- ing matters for conjunctive tissue: M. Curtis and P. Lemoult. A study of the various stains in use in histo- logical work from the point of view of their permanence. —On the reserve carbohydrates in evergreens: Leclerc du Sablon.—On a new banana tree of Madagascar : Pascal Claverie. The species described appears to be new, and is named by the author Musa Perrieri—On Oidium lactis and the ripening of cream and cheese: P. Mazé. Remarks on a paper on the same subject by M. Arthaud-Berthet.—The ancient coastal lines of the Sahel d’Alger: General de Lamothe.—On gladkaite, a new rock in dunite: L. Dupare and F. Pearce. Veins of the new mineral are found in the dunite mass on the river Wagran in the N. Ural. It is a silicate of iron, alumina, lime, magnesia, soda, and potash.—On the probable yield of the springs in the basin of the Seine during the second quarter of 1905: F. Launay and. E. Maillet. SoutH WALEs. Linnean Society, April 26.—Mr. T. Steel, president, in the chair.—Revisional notes on Australian Carabide, part ii., tribe vi., Scaritini: T. G. Sloane. Critical observations and tabular lists are offered, and six species are described as new.—The possible relationship between bacteria and the gum of Hakea saligna: Dr. R. Greig Smith. The conclusions to which this research has led are as follow :—(1) The gum of Hakea saligna is neither arabin, metarabin, nor pararabin. The hydrolytic pro- ducts consist of reducing bodies that yield indefinite osazones, and are probably akin to the furfuroids of Cross, Bevan, and Smith. Jt is not pectin, although it approaches this substance in some respects. (2) Of the bacteria occurring in the tissues of the plant, the most probable producer of the gum is one intermediate between Bact. acaciae and its variety Bact. metarabinum, but as we do not yet know that the host plant can alter a gum once formed by a bacterium, it cannot be said that the gum is produced by this micro-organism.—The origin of natural immunity towards the putrefactive bacteria: Dr. R. Greig Smith. The author shows:—(1) That there is a close analogy or identity between the production of bacteriolytic bodies and the digestion of food. (2) That bacteria do traverse the intestinal wall, and that negative experimental results regarding the same are untrustworthy. (3) That natural immunity, especially towards the bacteria that NO. 1860 VOL. 72] NEW normally inhabit the intestinal tract, is occasioned and maintained by the comparatively few bacteria which, in crossing the intestinal wall and possibly gaining access to the body fluids and organs, stimulate the cells to produce immune bodies. (4) That the agglutination of’ bacteria may claim a much more active part in the production of immunity than is generally supposed.—The probable bac- terial origin of the gum of linseed mucilage: Dr. R. Greig Smith. Following is a summary of the research :—(1) The gums of linseed mucilages vary in their chemical reactions, and, therefore, probably vary in their chemical constitu- tion. (2) The products of hydrolysis consist of galactose and reducing substances which yield indefinite osazones that are possibly akin to the furfuroids of Cross, Bevan, and Smith. (3) The gum bacteria in the tissues of Linum are relatively very numerous, and consist chiefly of races of two species. (4) The chemical reactions of the gums from these are practically identical with the reactions of average linseed gum. (5) The gum of one of the bacteria is hydrolysed to galactose, and of the other to galactose and a reducing substance that yields an indefinite osazone. Both gums contain a large proportion of the furfuroid substances: (6) The gum formed by bacteria is probably altered by the plant into mucilage and other substances required in the plant economy. (7) A number of so-called species of gum bacteria have probably one common origin ; the host plant can alter the nature of the gum product which influences the growth characters. CONTENTS. PAGE The Chemistry of Plants. By F. Escombe ... 169 The Electromagnetic Theory of Inertia. By Dr. Harold A. Wilson. . . Be cers) A Botanist’s Recreations on the Riviera, “By Prof, G. H. Bryan, F.R.S. ayia es UL International Physics, . Sf ‘epithet UTe Light and Health . 2st com eee Our Book Shelf :— Graebner : ‘‘Handbuch der Heidekultur” . . . 173 Frassetto: ‘‘I Nuovi Indirizzi e le Promesse della Odierna Antropologia.”—N. W. T. . 173 Hampson : ‘‘ Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phaleenee in the British Museum,” Vol. v. . Be 174 Letters to the Editor :— The Spinthariscope and Retinal RNG = Prof. Francis Gotch, F.R.S. & oy og Solar Changes and Weather.—A. B° M.; Dr. William J. S. Lockyer : 175 Fictitious Problems in Mathematics. Prof. ict H. Bryan) FauRsS oes «0, LS History of a White Rhinoceros Skull. _Dr, Cc. Stewart, F.R.S.. . 175 The Romance of the Nitrogen ‘Atom.—Dr, E. P,_ Perman aes 176 Notes on the Habits of Testacella. —Oswald H. Latter ‘ 176 Researches on Ovulation, ae Sedgwick, ie R. s. 176 Aboriginal Methods of Determining the Seasons, By William E. Rolston . 176 The Fourth International Ornithological Congress 177 The Thames Flow and British Pressure and Rain- fall Changes. (With Diegpames.) By Dr. William es. eOCky.eren, re 2. ahieg hese Bil a) ae caren Notes ‘ 180 Our Astronomical ‘Column: — Stars with Peculiar Spectra 5 183 Variable Stars in the Clusters Messier 3 and 5 183 Spectroheliograph Results 183 Visibility of D, as a Dark Line in the Solar Spectrum 184 West Hendon House Obsers tai 184 Nature and Man ay ee Seale eat aaa eA Science and the State. . . 184 Coral Anatomy and Development. (Uilustrated.) By Sh oes G : 185 Gas Calorimetry. "By GN. ET ane Snes ae ERO. University and Mauearionel Intelligence peaesareasi polite) Societies and Academies bcd 188 JUNE 22, 1905] NATURE [xxvii NEW WAVE-LENGTH SPECTROSCOPE “= (CONSTANT DEVIATION). The special advantages of this Spectroscope are—the Collimator and Telescope are fixed at right angles, thus the instrument will stand in a corner, and is always ready for use and in adjustment. The Prism is of the now well known CONSTANT DEVIATION ‘ype. Reads in Wave-lengths Direct and with Great Accuracy. Jani “No. 5” SPECTROMETER. | Designed with special reference to STANDARD ANGULAR MEASUREMENTS. [LLUSTRATED LIST OF SPECTROSCOPES AND SPECTROSCOPIC ACCESSORIES FREE UPON APPLICATION. — ml ADAM HILGER, Lid. 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. GOLD MEDAL AWARDED, ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 1904. { A | AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, All other air A including 9 at the great Paris Exposition of 1909. ramos suneseeet | | JAS. J. HICKS, WHOLESALE MANUFACTURER OF SCIENTIFIC AND CHEMICAL APPARATUS TO THE TH WAR OFFICE, INDIA OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, ‘ ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE (LONDON), 66 G E R 99 GOVERNMENT LABORATORY, Y K MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, &c., Kc. (Fleuss Patent) Selected and used for the Vacuum Pump. official records on board the Antarctie ship ** Discovery.” Results hitherto only pos2 sible with mercury pumps are readily obtainable by | | cos a the ‘‘ GeryK.’’ Used by as oe et ae all leading scientists. Far CAMPBELL-STOKES SUNSHINE RECORDER, id th WITH CURTIS’S IMPROVEMENTS, more rap! than any other as supplied to the Meteorological Office for their Standard Pattern. aC UU ae ANY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MADE TO ORDER. Price from Write for Prompt Attention to all Orders and Inquiries. $4: 5 ° OC. LIST F.45. De EXCEPTIONAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, INSTITUTIONS, &c. Quotations submitted for Laboratory ( utfits or Single Instruments. * CH THERMOMETERS FOR STUDENT WORK A SPECIALITY. Pulsometer Cngineering Git? Dine Elms tronworks, Reading, HICKS}SO. Catalogues Post Free. (State which required.) 8, 9, & 10 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON. Ixxviii yey = w30 D> Oo 09 *, oes na Crees P34 ac ied a) Descriptive Pamphlet Post Free. 142 ST. Apparetus for estimation of sulphur in spent oxide 49 Woe gp wos | a S WHT WHOLE BONN BIYy 3> 8 JQHIN STREET, LONDON, E.C. ., FREDK. JACKSON & Co. seconp-uano TOURIST TELESCOPES. NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 Giass BLowina. All kinds of Seientifie and Experimental 91 |- Glass Blowing earried out on the Premises. Any form of Glass Apparatus repaired. Accurate and Inexpensive. THE NEW PATENT | ) PIESMIC BAROMETER. H. HELM, mweonseaersigucns >" [Be HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, EC. EF. DARTON & co., Actual Maker of all kinds of X-Ray and Vacuum Tubes, Mercury Pumps, High Frequency Electrodes, &c. mm CLERKENWELL OPTICAL WORKS, (Late MOTTERSHEAD & CO.), Signalling Telescope, Power 25, 21/8 glass, £1 10s. (3) Military HA GROSS STRERT. MANCHESTER mneSTVERAS, SPECIAL SARGAING, Goods Entrance: 10 Half-Moon Street. Fortification Telescope, Power 435, 2 3/8 glass, £2. (4) Admiralty Cadet Telescope, £1 5s. (5) Admiralty Coastguard Telescope, LABORATORY FURNISHERS, £1 10s. | (6) Several Target BO eas enitable for Rifle Clubs, sh cocTlRe Importers, Manufacturers, and Dealers in Sen ce AUS See NIRS RteTSE one eee ces CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL These Telescopes are by the leading London Makers. APPARATUS cig pammninis ost cco Coe \ POtevery Descripiion. 28 BARTLETT’S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON. Fine Chemicals, Volumetric Solutions, Plain and Stoppered Bottles, RORWAY. S.-Y. “MIDNIGHT SUN.” AND EVERY LABORATORY REQUIREMENT. 31178 Se Berth aeuey All ae Illustrated Catalogue of Apparatus, with Priee 1.3 SRNAe TERE ee Te eek a List of Chemicals, free on application. 12 12; meet Le Seat raTe 3S. co. LTD,» Telegraphic Address—‘‘ APPARATUS, MANCHESTER.” Newcastle-on-Tyne. Telephone Number—2238. AED ul oo ELECTROMETER, NEW PATTERN. BS HARVEY & PEAK, BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL INSTITU- TION OF GREAT BRITAIN. POST OFFICE BRIDGE SETS AND DEAD BEAT GALVANOMETERS. POTENTIOMETERS. STUDENTS’ SPECTROMETERS. SPHEROMETERS. INDUCTION COILS A SPECIALITY. CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W .C. MACMILLAN & COVS LIST. NEW AND REVISED EDITION, JUST READY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I —The Non-Metallic Elements. New. Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Roscor, assisted by Dr. H. G. Cotman and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations. S8vo. 21s. net. THE SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. ADVANCED PART OF A TREATISE ON THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM OF RIGID BODIES. Being Part II. of a Treatise on the Whole Subject. With numerous Examples. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R-S., &c.- S8vo. 145. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. 1905 | PHCENIX ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. IRE OFFICE. 19 LOMBARD ST., E.C., and 57 CHARING CROSS, S.W. EsTABLISHED 1782. Moderate Rates. Absolute Security. Blectric Lighting Rules Supplied. Liberal Loss Settlements. Prompt Payment of Claims. LOSSES PAID OVER £26,000,000. BIRKBECK BANK ESTABLISHED 18sr. Current Accounts. 2% Interest allowed on minimum monthly balances when not drawn below £100. Deposits. 24% Interest allowed on Deposit Accounts. Advances made. Stocks and Shares bought and sold Apply C. F. Ravenscrort, Secretary, Southampton Buildings, High Holborn, W.C. June 22, MICROSCOPICAL ana LANTERN SLIDES of Natural History Subjects, from G/- per doz. Write for Catalogues to the ACTUAL MAKERS— FLATTERS & GARNETT, Ltd., 48, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. LABORATORIES : CHURCH RoAD, LonasicHT, M/c. New Lantern Slide Storage Cabinets, for classifying slides, very compact. Holding 600 slides in 6 drawers, 14/6 ; 1200 slides in 12 drawers, 25/6. Send for particulars — any size to order. NATURE STUDY REQUISITES. ROCKS, MINERALS, FOSSILS. For Collectors, Students, Teehnieal Sehools, Colleges, &e. COLLECTIONS IN POLISHED DEAL BOXES. 25 Specimens, 5/6; so do., 10/6; 100 do., 21/-; 200 do., 42/- 20 Coal Measure Rocks and Fossils, 12/6; do., larger, 15/-. Adapted for the Board of Education Examinations In Geology, Physiography, and Mineralogy. A large stock of Minerals, Rocks, Fossils and Microscopic Objects for selection. Specimens sent on approval. Cabinets, Geologists’ Hammers, Chisels, Card Trays, Glass-capped | Boxes, Models of Crystals, &c., &c. NEW CATALOGUE POST FREE, THOMAS D. RUSSELL, 78 Newgate St., London, E.C. MIGROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY. Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., for a Prospectus of THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Hall-‘lone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. Subscription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-; or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts& 48 Sections, £4 4s. NATURE Ixxix WATKINS & DONCASTER, | Naturalists and Manufacturers of CABINETS AND APPARATUS FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS' EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. N B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. Workmen true to Nature. All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied. 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) pe- New Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, post free. TABLE o RARE ELEMENTS. By E. L. N. ARMBRECHT. Symbols, Atomic Weight, Discoverer, Isolater, Specific Gravity, Principal Source, Melting Point, Properties, Salts of, Price, &c. ARMBRECHT, NELSON & CO., 71 & 73 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, N.B.—Sent Free on application. ALBERT EDWARD JAMRACH (Late CHARLES JAMRACH), NATURALIST, | 180 ST. GEORGE STREET EAST. Implements of Savage Warfare, Idols, Sacred Masks, Peruvian Pottery, Netsukis China, Lacquers, Gongs, Shells, and other Curios. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR | THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Ameeba, Arcella, Actinospharium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price 1s. per Tube, Post Free. Helix pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. Ww. MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :— Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia; Actinia, Tealia, Caryophyllia, Alcy- onium; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana; Lineus, Amphiporns, Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Terebella; Lepas, Balanus, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone, Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus. Ascidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Rala, &., &c. For prices and more detailed lists apply to Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. NOTICE.—Advertisements and business letters for Communications to the Editor. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘ NATURE.” 4 s. d.|Toart Praces Aproap:— & s. Yearly . c ° 5 obey 2) Yearly 110 6 Half-yearly . o1m 6 Half-yearly . os 6 Quarterly o 7 6 Quarterly o 8 Oo * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Creques and Money Orders payable GFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S Nature should be addressed to the Publishers; Editorial The telegrabhic address of Nature is ‘‘ Puusis,’” LONDON. | CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. 4 s. da. SS. a: *Three Lines in Column o 2 6] Quarter Page, or Half | PerLineafter_ . . 009 Pueyiierh 4 Gg 6 es sy One Sixteenth Page, or Eighth Col. Io 0 One Eighth Page, or Quarter Column : 3 Halfa Page, oraColumn 3 5 Whole Page. . By et o 18 6 to MACMILLAN & CC., Limited. STREET, LONDON, W.C. Ixxx NATURE [JUNE 22, 1905 GAIFFE-D ARSONVAL MACHINE Machines. Producing, perfectly regulating, and exactly measuring | X-RAYS, HIGH-FREQUENCY CURRENTS, AND | STATIC EFFECTS. Silent in Working, Simple in Manipulation. This apparatus has been already installed by many of the chief workers in Electro-Therapeutics in France and England, and is giving the very best results (w/de testimonials). ee Replaces large Induction Coils in Laboratory and Research Work requiring High Electric Tensions or Electric Oscillations of great power and uniformity. Descriptive Pamphlet gratis on application from the Sole Agents for Great Britain and its Colonies— THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, j 228 Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C., wrere, the apparatus "y may be seen working. New WIICROSCOPIC SLIDES From the New Issue of W. WATSON & SONS’ No. 3 CATALOGUE, just published. Post Free on application. A Sane Tsetse Flies (G. palpalis), whole insect an 6 Perfume Glands on Leaf of Lavender ... a5 cho va ma Ti6 Dissections of all Pe arts may be had mx ounted separately. Also in Bugula plumosa (Bird's Head coralline). Spee fine mounts 2 6 set of 12 : COG) Karyokinesis in root of Water Lily... 33 = .. B/- & 4/- Send for Special Desc riptive List. Leg of Flea, showing muscular structure oo 1 Blood-sucking Maggot (from the Cong ») 1S Set of 16 Slides alas trating the development of an Ascidian Fly hatched from above, A uchyzer omyt t liteola fifo} (Aspersa). Incase ... “ 555 a. 25 0 Section of Brazilian Quartz, showing cavities containing , fluid. Trypanosoma Brucei (Tsetse Fly disease) . 4 0 Very interesting 3 6 Set of 5 Slides of the Garden Spider, showing different stages 0 of Eggs of Emperor Moth, fertile and ste srile, on x slide 126 growth. In Case 7 6 SEND FOR THE ABOVE NEWLY PUBLISHED CATALOGUE OF MICRO. OBJECTS. WATSON’S CATALOGUE OF MICROSCOPES (158 pages) is of special interest to all Microscopists, post free. W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holjborn, London, W.C. Branches—16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH, and 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. CROSSLEWY’S GAS ENGINES RECENTLY GREAT REDUCTION REMODELLED. IN GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L | types, giving 3°5 H.P. Up to the end of 1904, and 5 H.P | = ace ~ VE over 51,000 gas and respectively. | ie 4 ren J) ) A oil engines have been Ganon delivered, represent- ing about three- | quarters of a million | actual horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS., LTD., OPENSHAW., MANCHESTER. ET DALLMEYER’S Immediate Delivery | | for Stock Sizes of Engines. IMPROVED —= PRISMATIC at “THE SERVICE.” Will not get out of Adjustment. Easy to Clean. Easy to Handle. Lightest Glass Made. Powers 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. Im [lustrated Pamphlet Post Free. J. H. DALLMEYER, LTD., 25 NEWMAN ST., LONDON, W. Makers of the Celebrated Dallmeyer Lenses. Printed by RICHARD CLAY AND Sons, Limiten, at 7 & 8 bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MAcmMILLAN AND Co., Lim1TED, at St. Martin's Street, London, W.C., and THE MacmiiLan Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—Tuurspay, June 22, 1905. AN NAIDU NY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE ‘To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’” THURSDAY, Nok 1861, Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] VOL. 72] “APPS-NEWTON ” INDUCTION COILS _are the finest and most efficient in the world. OO ees The capacity of our Factory (Newton Works) is now 10 large coils per week. We have at present in hand orders which will take the whole output for about the next 5 months, but we can still take a few orders for Coils for immediate delivery. Supplementary ik of NEW «Xx. ray” and ‘ High Frequency ” apparatus and reduced prices of ‘t Apps- Newton” Coils por free on pap teaiom: SOLE MAKERS— NEWTON & CO., SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS To H.M. THE KING, H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES and the GOVERNMENT, 3 FLEET ST., LONDON, E.C. “GRIFFIN. LONDON Post Free Particulars LINEAR THERMOPILE. RUBENS’ JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., MAKERS OF_ SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, Sardinia Street, London, Wwr.c. —WORDSWORTH. UNE 29, 1905 " [Price Srxrence Di SEO Tall Rights are GREE REYNOLDS & BRANSON, L?: LABORATORY OUTFITTERS and SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS. BENCHES MADE and % DESIGNED ——E————————EEe FOR ALL ED OTE TELLS RO TEDL ICMR ROA TAETA i T wh “| REQUIRE- MENTS. Also. . APPARATUS OF RELIABLE QUALITY. Enquiries Solicited. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS. THE GLYCERINE BAROMETER. This Barometer has a tube containing both Mercury and Glycerine. The lighter specific gravity of the latter and the difference in the bore of the tube in which it rises and falls increases the scale to about 8 inches for -each inch of the ordinary mercurial column. By means of this intere ting instrument the smallest variations in the atmospheric pressure are quite notice- able, differences of rooth of an inch being easily read without the aid of enN vernier or Deere Further Particulars and Prices of this and other lang range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers— NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 45 CORNHILL, and 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON, Branches: Ixxxil NATURE [June 29, 1905 ENGINEERING AND CHEMISTRY. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. SESSION 1905-1906. The COURSES of INSTRUCTION at the Institute's CENTRAL Tecunicat CoLiLeGcE (Exhibition Road) are for Students not under 16 years of age; those at the Institute’s Tecunicat CoLLEeGE, FINSBURY, for Students not under 14 years of age. The Entrance Examinations to both Colleges are held in September. Particulars of the Entrance Examin- ations, Scholarships, Fees, and Courses of Study, may be obtained from the respective Colleges, or from the Head Office of the Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. OITY AND GUILDS CENTRAL TEOHNIOAL COLLEGE. (ExuisiTion Roan, S.W.) A College for higher Technical Instruction for Day Students not under 16 preparing to become Civil, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineers, Chemical and other Manufacturers, and Teachers. The College is a “School of the University of London” in the Faculty of Engineering. Fee for a full Associateship Course, £30 per Session. Professors :-— Civil and Mechanical Engineering { ee ae oe M.A., B.Sc, W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., Past Pres. Inst.E.E., Dean for the Session. Chemistey a re my Bee ener RONEs Ph.D., LL-D., Mechanics and Mathematics O. Henrici, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. OITY AND GUILDS TECHNIOAL COLLEGE, FINSBURY. (LEonarpD STREET, City Roan, E.C.) A College for Day Students not under 14, preparing to enter Engineering and Chemical Industries, and for Evening Students. Fees, 415 per Session for Day Students. Professors :— Electrical Engineering Was oe { S. P. THompson, D.Sc., F.R.S., Physics and Electrical Engineering { Principal of the College Mechanical Engineering and {¥E.G.Coxer, M.A.,D Sc.,F.R.S.E., Mathematics ro seis M.Inst.M.E., A.M. Inst.C.E. Chemistry one ae nes «» R. Merpotra, F.R.S., F.I.C. City and Guilds of London Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES (BANGOR). SESSION 1905-6 will open on OCTOBER 3. DEPARTMENTS of MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, and BIOLOGY. AS f Prof. G. H. Bryan, Sc.D., F.R.S. MATHEMATICS \ Assistant Lecturer, H. Hitron, M.A. f Prof. E. TayLor Jongs, D.Sc. PHYSICS ......... 1 Assistant Lecturers and Demonstrators, D. FARRAR, \ M.Sc., and A. H, Fercuson, B.Sc. Prof. K. J. P. Orton, M.A., Ph.D. CHEMISTRY... { Assistant Lecturers and Demonstrators, Miss A. E. Situ, B.Sc., and E. Towyn Jones, B Sc. Botany—Prof. R. W. Puittirs, M.A., D.Sc. { rT Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator, J. BIOLOGY ..... Lioyp WILLIAMS. Zoology and Physiology—Prof. Puitiip J. Wuire, M.B., F.R.S.E. The Classes and Laboratory Courses of this College are arranged to suit the requirements of Students of Practical Science, as well as of Students preparing for University and other Examinations. The Lectures in Chem- istry, Physics, Botany, and Zoology are recognised for the first year of medical study. The extensive Laboratories (Physical, Chemical, and Biological) are fully equipped for Study and Research. Inclusive Tuition Fee, £11 1s. Laboratory Fees (per Term) on the scale of £1 1s. for six hours a week, in each Department. A considerable number of Scholarships and Exhibitions are open for com- petition at the beginning of each Session, and several are awarded at the close of each Session on the result of the year's work. For full information as to Courses, apply for Prospectus to the Secretary and Registrar, J. E. LLOYD, M.A. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. PLATT BIOLOGICAL SCHOLARSHIP. One SCHOLARSHIP of the value of 450 will be offered this year. The Scholarship is open to persons who have studied Zoology or Botany in any University or College Laboratory. The Scholar will be required to devote himself to research in the Zoo- logical and Botanical Laboratory of the University during the tenure of his Scholarship. Applications should be sent, before July 7, to the ReGistrRaR from whom further particulars may be obtained. GUY’S HOSPITAL. PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC (M.B. London). The next Course of LECTURES and PRACTICAL CLASSES for this Examination will begin on October 2. Full particulars may be obtained on application to the Dkan, Guy’s Hospital, London Bridge, S.E. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Accommodation and apparatus provided for research in either Pure or Applied Chemistry and Physics, and Engineering, in rooms specially adapted for this purpose. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RICHARDSON, D.Sc., B.A. A SUMMER COURSE OF BOTANY, for Teachers and others, will be held at the above College, July 31 to August 13, 1905. This course, which will consist chiefly of practical work in the Botanical Laboratory of the College with field-excursions, will be conducted by Professor CAvERs, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.L.S. Fee for the course, 15s., payable in advance to the Registrar of the College, Mr. D. Kipp1x, from whom full particulars may be obtained on application. (THEORY AND COACH IN PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- coroex and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE, WHITE STREET AND ROPEMAKER STREET, MOORFIELDS, E.C. Required, from September 29 next, a DEMONSTRATOR IN CHE- MISTRY AND PHYSICS. Salary, 4120 per annum. The person appointed will be required to devote five evenings a week and Saturday mornings and afternoons to his duties at the College. Applications, with copies of three testimonials, must be sent not later than July 8, addressed to Davin SavaGE, Secretary. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. The Council of the College invites applications for the Post of DEMONSTRATOR and ASSISTANT LECTURER in GEOLOGY. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications with testimonials (which need not be printed) must be sent on or before Tuesday, July 4, 1905. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, B.A., Registrar. June 6, 190s. UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK, FREDERICTON, N.B., CANADA. Applications are invited until August 15 for the position of DEAN of the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying in connection with the Univer- sity. Salary commencing October 1, £240, with suite of rooms in College, suitable for a married man, and heated at the expense of the College. Required also at the same time, a PROFESSOR of ENGLISH and FRENCH who has some knowledge of German. Salary, 4200, with rooms in College for single man. Duties begin October 1. Applications and testimonials should be sent to the REGISTRAR of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., Canada. THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. Applications are invited for the post of DEMONSTRATOR. Salary, 4130 perannum. Applications should be sent not later than July § to the ! REGISTRAR, from whom further particulars may be obtained. JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE Ixxxiit®? The GOVERNORS of the WOOLWICH POLYTECHNIC invite applications for the following appointments, | which will date from next September :— t. Five Teachers for Mathematics and Physics at commencing salaries ranging from £130 to £160 per annum. Two of these appointments are confined to Teachers (men and women) who have had experience _in Secondary Schools. Six Teachers for the Day Secondary School (mixed) at commencing salaries ranging from £109 to £140 per annum. The appointments, which are open to men or women, will be divided, (a) two Teachers for English, History and Latin; (6) two Teachers for French and German; (c) two Teachers for general form work in the Lower School. 5 3. One Teacher (woman) for Chemistry and Botany at a commencing salary of £r4o per annum. Experience in Secondary Schools essential. One Teacher in the School of Domestic Economy at a commencing salary of £90 per annum. 5. One Teacher for Engineering subjects at a commencing salary of 4150 per annum. One Teacher (evening classes only) for Building Construction, Builders’ Quantities, &c. 7- Two Art Pupil Teachers, each at a commencing salary of £30 per annum. One Teacher to take Evening Classes in English, French and Latin preparatory for the London University Matriculation Examination. Further particulars of the appointments may be obtained by sending to the Principal a stamped addressed foolscap envelope. The last day for receiving applications is Friday, July 14. A. J. NAYLOR, Clerk to the sovernors. EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT. MINISTRY OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. The following posts at the School of Medicine, Cairo, are vacant :— (2) ASSISTANT to the PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY (Dr. G. Elliot Smith) ; (4) ASSISTANT to the PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY (Dr. Alex. R. Ferguson). Each appointment is for two years, and may be renewed at the end of that time. Applicants should forward copies of testimonials and such other particulars as are mentioned below. The pay of each post is £E.320 per annum, the Egyptian pound being worth 6d. more than the pound sterling. Private Practice is not allowed. It is to be distinctly understood that the appointment gives no claim to pension or indemnity. The Government reserves to itself the right to dismiss the Assistant for misconduct or incapacity. In the Government Schools, as in all State Administrations in Egypt, Sunday is a working day. The Schools are closed on Fridays. é Leave will be granted on the same terms as to other Government officials. The possibility of taking leave, and the period of the year at which it is granted, depend upon the exigencies of the service. ¥ ‘ Pay commences from date of arrival in Cairo. On taking up his duties in Cairo, each Assistant will receive one month's pay in lieu of passage money. a f All applicants should attach a certificate from a legally qualified medical man, stating that in his opinion the candidate is in a fit state of health to undertake the duties of the post. All applicants should state their age, what foreign languages they know, and if they can be in Cairo by October 1. The latest mail by which applications may be posted will leave London on Friday, July 14. Applications to be addressed to the DirecTor, Government School of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt. MINISTRY of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, EG YEA POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING. An INSTRUCTOR in ENGINEERING is required to begin work on September 3o in the Polytechnic School of Engineering, Ghizeh (near Cairo). ane a Instructor appointed will be engaged in teaching Descriptive Engineering and Hydraulics. s Candidates must have had practical experience as engineers, and have been engaged on work of a class,intimately related to the subjects to be taught. They should be from 2sfo 35 years of age, unmarried, and have a robust constitution. 5 peat K " A University Degree or Diploma in Engineering is an essential qualifi- cation. a Salary about £430 per annum (£ Eg. 35 per mensem), rising to about 553 per annum (4Eg.45 per mensem). Allowance for passage out to Egypt. Bachelor quarters are provided. = Applications, with full statement of qualifications, and accompanied by copies only of testimonials, must be sent in before July 22, 1905, addressed to W. C. Mackenziz, Esq., D.Sc., 5 The Crescent, Cromer, to whom candidates may apply for further information. eee WANDSWORTH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. TEACHER of APPLIED MECHANICS and of MACHINE CON- STRUCTION (Elementary) required for next Session. Particulars and form of application may be obtained from the REGISTRAR. DO YOU WISH — = WARE oF a TO BE IMITATIONS 2=,UP TO DATE in Scientific Demonstrating ? If so, send for our full descriptive pamphlet of the Kershaw- Patent Lantern (Stroud and Rendall’s and Kershaw Patents), made of best seasoned mahogany, French polished, lined with asbestos and Russian iron. Fitted with two double achromatic objectives, go” silvered prism, complete with B.T. or mixed jet, in travelling case, measuring REX TORO rs ALL ACCESSORIES SUPPLIED. ARC LAMPS, RESISTANCES, STANDS, &c. A. KERSHAW, Dorrington St., Leeds. SOLE MAKER CONTRACTOR TO #.M.’s GOVERNMENT. MINISTRY of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, EGYPT. SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. An INSTRUCTOR in LAND SURVEYING and FARM ENGINEERING is required to begin work on September 30 in the School of Agriculture, Ghizeh (near Cairo). Preference will be given to candidates having experience of Practice and Teaching. They should be from 23 to 33 years of age, unmarried, and have a robust constitution. A University Degree or College Diploma is an essential qualification. Salary about £295 per annum (4 Eg. 24 per mensem), rising to about 4393 per annum (4 Eg. 32 per mensem). Allowance for passage out to Egypt. Bachelor quarters are provided. Applications, with full statement of qualifications, and accompanied by copies only of testimonials, must be sent in before July 22, 1905, addressed to W. C. Mackenzig, Esq., D.Sc., 5 The Crescent, Cromer, to whom candidates may apply for further information. AGRICULTURE AND LANDS DEPART- MENT, SUDAN GOVERNMENT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as DEPUTY INSPECTORS in the Agriculture and Lands Department of the Sudan Government. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess the National Diploma, a University Degree or College Dip- loma, in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorough knowledge of Agriculture from the practical standpoint. The commencing salary will be £420 per annum (about £430 sterling). The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birth certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. Foapen, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may be obtained. KHEDIVIAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, CAIRO, EGYPT. Applications are invited for two vacancies as INSPECTORS under the Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo. Candidates must be from about 22 to 30 years of age and unmarried. They must possess a University Degree or Diploma in Agriculture. Preference will be given to those who possess a thorough knowledge of agriculture from the practical standpoint. The commencing salary will be £350 per annum. The successful candidates will be required to take up their duties as soon as possible after September 1 next. Applications, accompanied by copies of testimonials, birtb certificate and medical certificate, must be sent on or before June 30 to G. P. Foapen, Esq., Laburnums, Ashburton, Devon, from whom further particulars may be obtained. To SCIENCE MASTERS—(1) REQUIRED as soon as possible, PRINCIPAL OF TECHNICAL SCHOOL and TEACHER OF ELECTRICITY. Candidates should have had ex- perience in the organisation and work of a local Technical Instruction Committee. Salary, £250. (2) Science Master for Electro-Technics and Electricity. Salary, £160 to £200, Technical School and Insti- tute. Also several Science and Mathematical Masters required in September for Secondary Schools. Liberal salaries. Apply, giving full details, to GRIFFITHS, SmitH, PowELt & Smirn, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand. JOHNSTON SCHOOLS, DURHAM. ASSISTANT MISTRESS required for Secondary Day School for Science, Mathematics, and some general work. Salary, £100 per annum, rising to £120 per annum. Applications, with full particulars, to be sent to the Principat before July 8. lxxxiv NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RicHarpson, D.Sc., B.A. The Council of the College invite applications for the following appointments :— 1. ASSISTANT LECTURER IN ENGLISH, who will also be re- quired to give some elementary instruction in LATIN. Salary, 4130 per annum. 2, ASSISTANT LECTURER IN MATHEMATICS, who will also be required to give some elementary instruction in PHYSICS. Salary, 4130 per annum. P £ Applications, giving particulars of age, training, qualifications, and experience, with copies of three recent testimonials, must be sent to the ReEcistTRAR (of whom further particulars may be obtained) on or before July 17, 1905. COUNTY BOROUGH OF WEST BROMWICH. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. MUNICIPAL DAY TECHNICAL SCHOOL. A LADY ASSISTANT will be required in the above Secondary School in September next. Candidates must be well qualified for ordinary Form work both as regards educational and teaching qualifications. Preference will be given to one who is willing to take an active part in the school games. Commencing Salary, £90 per annum. Application, giving full particulars and enclosing copy of three recent testimonials, should be sent to the Head Master, not later than Monday, July 10 J. E. PICKLES, Secretary. COUNTY BOROUGH OF BLACKBURN. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. WANTED in the Blackburn Municipal Technical School, an ASSIS- TANT LECTURER on the Science side, to commence duties in September next. The gentleman appointed will have to take charge of classes in pure physics, and to devote his whole time to the work. Honours Graduate in Physics preferred—opportunities of research. Salary, £120 to £140 per annum, according to qualifications. Applications, stating experience and accompanied by copies of not more than three recent testimonials, should be sent not later than July 11, 1905, to the SEcrETARY, Education Offices, Blackburn. N. TAYLOR, Secretary. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. DEPARTMENT OF METALLURGY. Applications are invited for the post of ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in METALLURGY. Stipend, 4150 per annum. The successful candidate will be required to commence work on September t next, to devote his whole time to the duties of the office, and to work under and carry out the instructions of the Professor of Metallurgy. Applications, accompanied by copies of three recent testimonials, should be forwarded to the undersigned on or before Tuesday, July 11. Further particulars may be obtained from GEO. H. MORLEY, Secretary. MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOLS, LIMERICK. A PRINCIPAL is required for the above Schools who would also undertake to teach Electricity in the evenings. Salary, 4200 to £250, according to qualifications and experience of organising work. Application to be sent before July 31 to THE SECRETARY, 69 George Street, Limerick. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. The Governing Body invite applications for the post of ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in the Department of Mathe- matics and Physics. Commencing salary, £150 per annum. Application forms, to be returned not later than July 5, may be obtained from the SECRETARY. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. The Council will require at the beginning of October next the services of an ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in ZOOLOGY. Applications to reach the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained, by July ro. ¥ W. M. GIBBONS, Registrar. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. The Council will require at the beginning of October next the services of an ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Applications to reach the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained, by July 10 W. M. GIBBONS, Registrar. EGLIPSE «:- SUN. Cook’s Select Conducted Tours THE BALEARIC BURGOS ISLANDS, (SPAIN), including including Barcelona, Palma, Cape Figuera, Miramar, Raxa and Nimes. INCLUSIVE FARE, 33 Guineas. Paris, Biarritz, Burgos, Bordeaux, &c. INCLUSIVE FARE, 30 Guineas. Leaving London Friday, August 25th. Including First-Class Travel from London back to London. Hotel accommodation. Carriage Excursions, Fees to Hotel and Railway Servants, and for Sight- seeing. . Services of Conductor. Programmes free on application. INDEPENDENT TICKETS BY ALL ROUTES. THOS. COOK & SON, Ludgate Circus, London, AND BRANCH OFFICES. THE SYTAM SYSTEM Saves an incredible amount of wall space and completely utilises dark corners, recesses, and out-of-the-way places. Prevents crowding and confusion. Allows for extension as and when required. Always room for more, hence reorganisation seldom or never necessary. Saves time, lightens work, and inereases comfort by producing perfect order in the Laboratory, Library, Study, Home, Office, &e. SOME SYTAM FITTINGS. 1. THE BOTTLE ELEMENT. One hundred 4 oz. bottles are arranged in one Sytam Bottle - Element occupying less than 1 sq. ft. of wall space, each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, and any size from j-oz. to a Winchester can be accommodated in one and the same elem( nt. 2. THE CLOSED-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. 3. THE OPEN-FRONT BOOK ELEMENT. 4. THE AUTHOR'S FILE. For division of subject into headings, chapters or sections, 5. THE TWIN DESK TRAYS. 6. THE PAMPHLET FIL&. THE SYTAM FITTINGS CO., 18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE Ixxxv ROWLAND WARD, LTD., Naturalists and Manufacturers of ENTOMOLOGICAL APPARATUS AND CABINETS. MAMMAL SKINS. BIRD SKINS. BIRDS’ EGGS inclutches with full data. BOOKS ON ALL NATURAL HISTORY SUBJECTS. We have a limited consignment of PURE RADIUM BROMIDE of the VERY HIGHEST ACTIVITY, Catalogues Post Free. THE JUNGLE, 166 PICCADILLY, LONDON, LABORATORIES FURNISHED SS Chemical, Physical, and all Science Laboratories completely equipped with Benches, Fume Chambers, Cupboards, Xc., and Scientific Apparatus of every description. SEND SPECIFICATION FOR OUR PRICES. We also supply Sinks, Gas and Water Fittings specially designed for Science Laboratories. A. GALLENKAMP & CO.,L'?- 19 & 24 Sun Street, Finsbury Square, LONDON, E.C. DIFFRAGTION GRATINGS 3 by S cms. 10 7- each. | Prof. H. A. ROWLAND’S GRATINGS, and are open to supply same in 5 mg. tubes at a REASONABLE PRICE. WW. MARTINDALE, Manufacturing Chemist, 10 NEW enue STREET, LONDON, W. iielephon 7 Pa Telegra Ma rtir Sante, aches ist, London 14,438 lines to the inch. PLANE AND CONCAVE, from &7 10s. : PETER HEELE, Maker of Astronomical Instruments, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. pee 1900. : E | GRAND PRIX St. Louis, 1904. And other High Awards. | Telegraphic Address: ** ARCTITUDE, LONDON,” lxxxvi NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 ; THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE | LT, | ZEISS FIELD- “GLASSES | ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS' EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF F. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practieal instrue- tions and about 3000 illustrations. WITH ENHANCED STEREOSCOPIC EFFECT. Aerie 5 aeetae Weitere Gola | FoR Tourists. NATURE says:—The firm of Leybold Nachfolger | x8, £610 G. in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and | SPECIAL TYPES FOR NATURALISTS, interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and | MARINE WORK, HUNTING, &c. fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history | @ ///ustrated Catalogue, “Tn,” Post Free on Application. of the instruments made in Cologne during the last | century. In its second section we find an account C A R L. y 4 E 4 S S of the construction and fittings of various chemical k] and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely | JENA. illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be | most useful to the teacher.”’ (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) Branches: LONDON: 209 Margaret St., Regent Street, W. THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS Berlin, Frankfort o/M, Hamburg, Vienna, St. Petersburg. AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. | ND NO MUSEUM OR BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY IS COMPLETE WITHOUT THE SMEDLEY MODELS OF PALAOZOIC FRUCTIFICATIONS AND JURASSIC MONSTERS. SERIES FOSSIL SEEDS AND CONES. Models of the Calamitean Cones, Gymnospermous Seeds, and Carboniferous Fern Pinnules. SERIES B.— Consists of Models to comparative scale of the Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Rham- phorhynchus, Dimorphodon, and the gigantic Dinosaurs, including SMEDLEY’S .RESTORATION OF DIPLODOCUS CARNEGII. SERIES C.— Models of recent Plant Structures, including the expanded flowers of Rafflesia, Amorphophallus, &c. FOR PRICES AND PARTICULARS APPLY— SMEDLEYS MODELLING LABORATORIES, 628 Green Lanes, Harringay, London, N. (Principal: Mr. H. E. dt. SMEDLEY, F.L.S., F.G.S., Curator of the Tottenham Museum.) Modeller to the Museums of thé Royal College of Science ; Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh ; British Museum ; Botanic Garden, Oxford ; Owens College, Manchester: Univ- srsity Colleze, London ; Liverpo 31 Museum, &c. NATIT 193 THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 19035. THE FACE OF THE EARTH. The Face of the Earth (Das Antlits der Erde). By Prof. Eduard Suess. Translated by Dr. H. B C. Sollas, under the direction of Prof. W. J. Sollas, F.R.S. Vol. i. Pp. xii+604; illustrated. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1904.) Price 25s. net. |G NGLISH-SPEAKING geologists will be grateful to Dr. Hertha Sollas and the Clarendon Press for this excellent translation of the first volume or the work which has probably had the deepest influence on geological thought since the publication of Lyell’s “© Principles.’’ No higher complimertt could be offered to such a book than that, twenty years after its publi- cation, it should be worth while to issue a translation without amendment, comment, or other addition than the author’s charming letter of introduction. This fact is all the more striking as this volume is mainly a description of the geology of the mountains of the world, and it describes areas of which comparatively little was known in 1884. As Prof. Suess remarks in his introduction, ‘‘the reader will meet here and there in the two first volumes with a description already antiquated.’’ This matters the less since we have already an excellent French edition, which has been brought up to date by abundant references to recent literature, and been illustrated by an additional series of maps. The example of the French trans- lators has not been followed, perhaps from the senti- mental feeling that as this work is now one of the recognised classics of geology, it should be rendered into English exactly as it came from the hands of the master. This decision will no doubt increase the value of the Oxford edition to future geologists, though it may detract somewhat from its immediate educational usefulness. The absence of the extra maps is an especial drawback to British students, since many of the place-names used are synonyms or transliterations not usually adopted in British atlases. Anything that lessens the educational value of this edition is regrettable, as Suess’s work is such magnificent educational material. Prof. Suess’s method is to give the detailed evidence upon which he relies; and his readers have the pleasure of working up to the conclusions by the path the author trod. We see his mental process as well as read his results. This volume opens with a brief statement of some of the geographical homologies which it is the object of the whole work to explain. Prof. Suess dismisses all geometrical plans of the earth, such as Elie de Beaumont’s famous Pentagonal reseau, as mislead- ing Wills-o’-the-wisp. He fully realises that the first essential to an explanation of the present distribution of oceans and continents is a competent comparison of the facts. As he savs, a detailed comparison of observations is necessary before an attempt be made to formulate laws. Suess declines hints ‘as to probabilities from geodesy, and he distrusts specula- tion as to the hidden parts of the earth. So he studies, with exquisite care, those deeper parts of the crust which have been brought to the surface in the exposed NO: 1861, VOL. 72] roots of mountains, or which are opened to view by the work of the miner. The two parts of this volume are devoted to a study of the movements in the crust of the earth, and to a description of the mountain system of the world, excluding Australia and some parts of other continents. Prof. Suess concludes from his synthetic study of this wide range of material that the earth’s crust is disturbed by movements of two different kinds; firstly, the folding and crumpling of belts of the earth’s crust by lateral pressure; and secondly, the foundering of the crust owing to the withdrawal of underground support, consequent on the radial contraction of the globe. Before Suess’s time it was usual to regard the distribution of land and water as determined by the uplift as well as the sinking of wide regions. But according to Suess, regional uplifts have never yet been proved, and, excepting perhaps to some local extent, he regards them as impossible. An actual uplift of the surface of the western coast of South America was said to have resulted from the earthquakes of 1822 and 1835. The uplift of the latter was described by Darwin; but Prof. Suess discusses the evidence and dismisses it as wholly inadequate. Any horizontal uplift being, according to Suess, impossible where horizontal marine beds, beaches, or shore-lines occur above sea level, they must be explained by the lowering of the sea, and not by the uprise of the land. Prof. Suess does not hesitate to believe, on the evidence of the plateaus of the Rocky Mountains, that the sea level once stood 30,c00 feet higher than at present. If Prof. Suess were to discuss the possibility of regional uplift at the present time, he would have to deal with much weightier evidence than any which he had against him in the year 1884. For the secular uplift of the lake regions of the United States is better established than any of the supposed earthquake elevations of Chili. Moreover, the doctrine of isostasy gives better reason to believe in its possibility. The pendulum work in the Rocky Mountains has rendered it at least possible, that isostasy may account for the horizontal deposits of the high plateaus, which Prof. Suess has described in one of the most brilliant chapters of this volume. Regional uplifts, however, being dismissed by Prof. Suess, it follows that the main influence in shaping the continents has been the subsidence of wide tracts of the earth’s surface beneath sea level. The great ocean basins, and those of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caribbean Sea, represent sunken areas of the earth’s crust; and foundering to a less depth has caused the rift valleys of Ethiopia, of the Rhine and of Australia, and the basins of Suabia and Franconia. The cause of such subsidences is deep- seated, whereas the crumpling of the long, narrow belts that form the folded mountain chains is due to comparatively superficial action. The two modes of movement may act in the same area at different times. Thus vertical subsidences may destroy the continuity of a folded mountain chain; thus the present form of the Basin Ranges of Utah and Nevada is due to the breaking up, by Cainozoic subsidences, of a series of ranges formed by earlier, post-Jurassic folds. Similarly the outlines of the continents, even when Kk 194 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 dependent upon the course of mountain chains, are embayed where the sea has flowed over foundered blocks. The vertical relief of the continents is determined mainly by subsidences, by the resistance of great blocks of strata which remain as plateaus high above the general level of the country, and by the crumpling of bands into mountain chains. The course of such crumpled bands is very sinuous, because they have to adapt themselves to the passive resistance of stronger blocks of the crust; they curve round the margins of the resistant masses, on to the edges of which they may be overthrust. Suess follows, for example, the course of the great Alpine mountain system from its western end in southern Spain, through the Atlas Mountains of Africa, along the the Apennines through Italy, across central Europe as the Alps and Carpathians, and then through the great curve around western Roumania and Servia into the Balkans. Its continuity eastward has been broken by the recent foundering of the Black Sea; but the Alpine system is continued through the Crimea and the Caucasus, and after another gap, caused by the subsidence that formed the southern basin of the Caspian, it is continued across Asia through the Himalaya and the chains of Burma into the islands of Malaysia. Suess explains the sinuous course of this folded band by tracing its dependence upon the unfolded blocks, against which it has been pressed. The theory of the permanence of oceans and con- tinents inevitably receives slight consideration from Prof. Suess. He does not trouble us with the a priori arguments on this question. He simply tells us the contemporary evidence as to the actual age of the continents. Thus he points out that in the Cretaceous period North America was not; but it had come into existence at the beginning of the Laramie period, and has lasted ever since. Similarly the Indian peninsula and Africa south of the Atlas are remnants of the Mesozoic plateau-continent of Gondwanaland, which has been severed into two by the foundering of the Indian Ocean in late Cainozoic times. ; Consideration of Prof. Suess’s work inevitably suggests a comparison with that of Lyell. Suessism is sometimes regarded as a rival school to Lyellism. But Suess’s essential doctrines are a development of Lyell’s views rather than being in direct opposition to them. Lyell, for instance, attacked the belief that volcanoes are craters of elevation; but, in the necessary darkness of the days before Sorby’s in- genuity had rendered microscopic petrology possible, he retained his belief in an axis of elevation for the mountain chains. Suess has now taught us that the axes of elevation of mountain chains must follow von Buch’s craters of elevation of volcanoes. Even in re- gard to what is sometimes considered as Prof. Suess’s arch heresy—his acceptance of great variations in the ocean level—he is opposed to ultra-Lyellists and not to Lyell. The following passage from the ‘ Prin- ciples *’ shows that, with Lyell, Ordnance Datum was not a fetish :— “This opinion is, however, untenable; for the sink- ing down of the bed of the ocean is one of the means by which the gradual submersion of the land is pre- vented. The depth of the sea cannot be increased at NO. 1861, VOL. 72] any one point without a universal fall of the waters, nor can any partial depositions of sediment occur without the displacement of a quantity of water of equal volume, which will raise the sea, though in an imperceptible degree even to the antipodes. The preservation, therefore, of the dry land may sometimes be effected by the subsidence of part of the earth’s crust (that part, namely, which is covered by the ocean), and in like manner an upheaving movement must often tend to destroy land; for if it renders the bed of the sea more shallow, it will displace a certain quantity of the water, and thus tend to submerge low tracts.” One chief difference between Suess and Lyell is that Lyell was naturally inclined to exaggerate the import- ance of local earth movements. Prof. Suess, with the benefit of a much wider knowledge than was possible to Lyell, and equal intellectual insight, realises that the geological systems are defined, not by independent local movements, but by changes that are world-wide in scope. Suess’s views are not essentially opposed to the uniformity, which Lyell established, in opposi- tion to the preceding belief in catastrophes of extraneous origin. Suess and Lyell both teach us that geological changes are due to causes that are still in action. Geographical evolution, like organic evolu- tion, has not been interrupted by external influences or unnatural catastrophes; but it does not necessarily follow that the rate of progress has been uniform. There have been periods of geographical revolution due to a rush of movements, that relieved stresses pro- duced by long periods of slow change. Such dis- turbances affect the whole world; and it appears probable that the correlation of strata in distant regions will depend on paleontology only for general homotaxis, and on the events of physical geology for the determination of exact synchronism. A second difference between Lyell and Suess is that the former attached a, perhaps, exaggerated belief to the importance of denudation in modelling the surface of the globe. His own studies lay in lands wherein denudation has been more powerful than recent earth movements. The sub-title of his ‘‘ Principles *’— “the Modern Changes of the Earth and its In- habitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology ’’— shows his point of view. He taught men that the common geographical features of Europe and Eastern America were due to the long-continued operation of slow and still active forces; but he did not fully realise that, elsewhere, the major geographical features are the direct expression of recent disturbances of the crust. As to the cause of the distribution of these dis- turbances Prof. Suess has not yet given us his full explanation, and in this volume he rightly held such questions premature. But it is now possible, mainly thanks to his work, to trace one controlling factor in the existing plan of the earth—the alternation of periods of spheroidal recovery due to the earth’s rota- tion, with periods of deformation due to the shrink- ing of the earth’s internal mass. This factor promises the clue to the periodicity of geological events, to the general world-wide correspondence in the geological formations, and to the distribution of the folded bands and foundered blocks of the earth’s crust. Jan WeG: JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE 195 TELE oe Nee RANE: A Collection of Papers communicated to the Academy of Sciences, with Additional Notes and Instructions for the Construction of Phosphorescent Screens. By Prof. R. Blondlot. Translated by J. Garcin. Pp. xii+83. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. net. Hi n-rays, so called because the first announcement of their existence came from Naney, have attracted the attention of physicists and physiologists all over the world; but the peculiarity about them is that the phenomena said to be pro- duced by these rays when they fall on a slightly fluorescing screen have been observed chiefly in France by Prof. Blondlot and others of his school, while many experienced observers in Germany, America, and England have wholly failed to obtain a satis- factory demonstration even of their existence. The reason is that the so-called proof of their existence depends, not on objective phenomena that can be critically examined, but on a subjective impression on the mind of the experimenter, who sees, or imagines he sees, or imagines he does not see, a slight change in the degree of luminosity of a phosphorescing screen. It is true that, more than once, a photo- graph has been taken of such a screen supposed to be unaffected and contrasted with a photograph of the same screen when it was supposed to be affected by the rays, with the result that the patch of luminous surface appears to be a little brighter in the latter case than in the former. Even this photographic evidence, however, is unsatisfactory, as a slight differ- ence in the time of exposure or in the method of development would readily account for the apparent contrast. Yet, in this little book, we have a reprint of Prof. Blondlot’s original papers, in which experimental evidence is adduced, with a wonderful appearance of accuracy in detail, of the polarisation of the rays, of their dispersion, of their wave-length, and of other physical phenomena attributed to them. Prof. Blond- lot’s experiments are well contrived, and they give every appearance of being arrangements by which accurate data should be obtained; but in every case the ultimate test is the subjective one made on the mind of the observer as to whether a_ spot of slightly phosphorescent surface becomes more luminous or not. The n-rays, according to Prof. Blondlot, are a new species of light, light, however, which only affects the retina with the aid of a fluor- escent substance. They traverse many metals, black paper, wood, &c. They cannot pass through sheet lead, but they pass readily through aluminium. They influence not only a fluorescent substance, but the spark of an induction coil. They can be reflected from a polished glass surface or from a plate of polished silver. They have a kinship with well known radiations of a large wave-length. They exist in solar rays. Produced from an Auer burner they can be focused by a quartz lens; the lens itself may even become a source of m-rays. Calcium sulphide can store up the rays, while NO. 1861, VOL. 72] aluminium, wood, dry or wet paper cannot do so. Ordinary light, when it falls on the retina, causes a more luminous sensation when accompanied by n-rays. Bits of wood, glass, rubber, &c., emit the rays when compressed. Bodies in molecular strain, like Rupert’s drops, hardened steel, &c., emit the rays. An old Knife, found in a Gallo-Roman tomb, equally with a new knife, sends out rays. There are other rays also, which must be called n,-rays, which are emitted from a Nernst lamp. These diminish the glow of an induction spark. Ethylic ether, ‘‘ when brought to a state of forced extension,” emits the n,-rays, &c. To see all these wonderful phenomena the eye must be not only kept in the dark for a considerable time, but it must be specially trained. A. Broca states that in his own case it required practice for six weeks before he could see the effect of the rays. The eye must be adapted not only to darkness, but to very feeble light. The mind must be free, so as to con- centrate itself on the observation to be made. These seem to be admirable arrangements for obtaining an illusive subjective impression! It is said that MM. d’Arsonval and Mascart have also observed some of the phenomena. Many other French observers, with less weighty names, have also been cited as witnesses. The general body of men of science are doubtful, as they cannot receive evidence of such a strangely sub- jective character, while not a few, and the writer places himself in this category, are of opinion that while they do not for a moment reflect on the bona fides of the French observers, they hold that these observers have been the subjects either of an illusion of the senses or a delusion of the mind. Joun G. McKEnprick. THE SCIENCE OF School Teaching and School Reform. Lodge. Pp. vili+ 171. Norgate, 1905.) Price 3s. EDUCATION. By Sir Oliver (London: Williams and ‘HE science of eduéation is as yet rudimentary and ill-defined. So little has it developed, indeed, that many schoolmasters deny its existence. An art of educa- tion they recognise, and that they claim to practise. Teachers, it is urged, are born, not made, and pro- fessional training is useless. Yet it is the possibility of the future existence of a complete science of educa- tion which is the inspiring belief of the best modern educators. These teachers are now approaching the problems of the class-room and the difficulties of school organisation as subjects for investigation and experiment by scientific methods, and there is every reason for hopefulness in the results which have been obtained in recent years. The formulation of the fundamental principles of a complete science of education will probably be the work of some great educationist as yet unborn, who will be able from the educational material at his command to extract the essentials and to weave them into living generalisations round which the science will crystallise into an orderly and harmonious whole To the elucidation of such a science many workers 196 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 must contribute, and to ensure success men both familiar with science and aware of the difficulties with which teachers have to cope must lend their aid. It is for this reason we welcome these lectures by Sir Oliver Lodge, representing as they do the experience gained by a man of science in many departments of work. The lectures range over a great variety of topics, and the subjects are presented with but little arrange- ment. But informal and disconnected though they are, the chapters will cause earnest teachers to re- consider their methods, and strenuously to strive after the improvements adumbrated. Sir Oliver Lodge rightly affirms that the two most important questions for educators to-day are, ‘‘ What subjects should be selected for teaching? ’’ and ‘‘ How should they be taught?’’ But these are precisely the problems teachers have had to face since the Renascence, and we seem little nearer solutions than were the educators of three hundred years ago. A complete answer to the questions propounded will remain im- possible until psychology has demonstrated the precise stages in the growth of the immature human intelligence and determined what instruction will assist best each step of such development. For psychology to accomplish this task many carefully planned experiments, carried out by practical teachers imbued with the scientific spirit, are necessary, and the results arrived at must be chronicled and subjected to the most searching criticism. Mere expressions of opinion will not greatly assist the coming of the new science. What is wanted is investigation. If the man of science will cooperate with the practical schoolmaster, there is no reason why it should not be possible to answer the two vital questions re-stated by Sir Oliver Lodge. But it is imperative that we formulate, after exhaustive dis- cussion, clearly defined problems to be put to the test of experience in schools, and that when we have agreed upon the results we act upon them. It is in this direction that the most fruitful work for educa- tion is to be done. It is unnecessary to summarise the contents of the lectures before us. It is sufficient to say they touch upon the whole field of education. Sir Oliver Lodge is always suggestive, and his obiter dicta may | be commended to the attention of men of science and school teachers alike. Of all the subjects calling for scientific study and research, the education of the young is the most important. This deserves pre- eminently to occupy the serious attention of all who desire the well being of the human race. A. T. S. BRITISH BIRDS. British Bird Life. By W. Percival Westell. Xxxv+ 338. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Price 5s. Pp. 1905.) HE wearisome procession of books on British birds still drags on—a long train of volumes, all of necessity telling the same tale, and for the most part badly. NO 1861, VOL. 72] The laboured apologies which most of | these weaklings bring with them show, indeed, that their respective parents realise how slender is the chance of their finding favour even at the hands of a public proverbially long-suffering. Yet still they come. ; The present volume endeavours to justify its exist- ence on the plea that ‘‘ there is need for a work entirely devoted to those species which nest amongsi us year by year .. .’’; and yet a number of species are included in this book which, on the author’s own admission, do not breed with us year by year. Such are the Canada goose, little owl, golden oriole, hoopoe, and fire-crested wren. To these may be added the white-tailed eagle, spotted crake, roseate tern, and quail! On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the snow-bunting—included in this book—nests annually in Scotland, yet this fact is not even hinted at. No more trustworthy are the author’s statements as to ‘“‘ where our summer migrants spend the winter,” While we heartily agree with much that Mr. Westell has to say on the subject of the relentless persecution which of late years has been meted out to the birds of prey, we must protest against the hysterical notions of justice which he expresses in re- gard to a case wherein four men were fined thirty shillings apiece for taking a nest of young peregrines ‘“ A good dose of the cat,’’? he contends, ‘‘ or imprison- ment without the option of a fine, would probably have had a better effect than a fine of a few shillings ””! As touching this same species, the author gravely assures us that falconry is ‘‘ a very costly hobby, even the most ordinary Hawks used for falconry costing as much as tool. apiece. They require the most careful attention, and it is difficult to get men qualified to take charge of them under a salary of, say 200]. a year.”’ The photograph purporting to be that of a sparrow hawk is really a picture of a kestrel. At times Mr. Westell becomes ecstatic, and, blinded by the intensity of his emotions, rushes onwards re- gardless of obstacles—even of the rules of grammar —as witness the peroration which forms the con- cluding paragraph of his book :— ‘“For the good most birds do, for their cheery voices and winning ways, their charming forms and delicate colouring, their beautifully woven nests and exquisite eggs, their fairy-like flight, and other interesting characteristics, I appeal to my readers to study them with a bloodless intention, and to endeavour to learn practical lessons from their in- dustry and devotion to their young; to study them as animate beings, and not as gazed upon as wretched caricatures of bird-life too often found in Museums and collections, and to endeavour to be of some service in specially inculcating and fostering within young and growing children an intelligent love for the bird life of our country ’’!! This bool is profusely illustrated, partly by photo- graphs, some of which are very pleasing, and partly by “ original’ drawings, all of which are bad. Wipe Peaks JUNE 29, 1905 | NATURE 197 OUR BOOK SHELF. and Driving. (American Sportsman’s By E. L. Anderson and P. Collier. Pp. (New York: The Macmillan Riding Library.) Niiit+ 441; illustrated. Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 8s. 6d. net. In almost all books on subjects connected with animals there is a growing tendency at the present day to introduce something concerning the natural history of the species under consideration. Too often in this country such remarks betray an insufficient knowledge of zoological science on the part of the writer, but this failing is seldom noticeable in American works. In the present volume, truth to say, there is some matter for criticism in Mr. Collier’s remarks on the origin of the horse on p. 169, more especially in regard to the sense given to that much abused word “‘ prehistoric.’’ On the other hand, the author furnishes some very interesting information with regard to the early history of the European horse in America. In the first place he refuses to credit the theory that the horses seen by Cabot in La Plata in 1530 were indigenous. Secondly, he shows that the horses which have run wild in Mexico and South America are the descendants of Spanish barbs, and therefore of the same blood as the English thoroughbred. This is very important in view of a fact recently communicated to the present writer by Mr. Yearsley, the well known surgeon, namely, that an Argentine horse living some years ago had a functional ‘* larmier,’’ or tear-gland, on each side of the face. To review the work before us from its own special point of view would obviously be out of place in this Journal, and it must therefore suffice to say that it appears, so far as we are capable of judging, to maintain the high standard of excellence set in the earlier volumes of the same series. Riding falls to the lot of the first-named of the two authors, while Mr. Collier is responsible for the section on driving. The numerous reproductions from photographs are almost life-like in their sharpness and definition, although it must be confessed that some of them do not convey by any means a pleasing idea of the manners and disposition of the American saddle- horse. Rk; Der Oeschinensee im Berner Oberland. By Max Groll. Pp. vi+78; illustrated. Buchdruckerei, 1904.) THis pamphlet, an extract from the nineteenth volume of the Berne Geographical Society, is the result of a careful study of the Oeschinensee at intervals from 1gor to 1903. Nestling at the foot of the limestone precipices of the Blumlisalp group, about 5200 feet above sea-level, and reflecting like a mirror the snows of their highest peaks, its romantic beauty makes it a favourite resort of visitors to Kandersteg, on the northern side of the Gemmi Pass. Herr Max Groll’s memoir is a valuable contri- bution to physical geography. After some _pre- liminary information about the position and surround- ings of the lake, which lies roughly along the strike of Eocene and Cretaceous limestones, and about other matters of a topographical character, he de- scribes its banks and basin, its dimensions and contents, its variations in level, the transparency, colour, and temperature of its waters, the amount of mud yearly deposited, and adds a note on the literature. Of these topics, the form of its basin is, perhaps, of most general interest, and of that Herr Groll gives No. 1861, VOL. 72] (Bern: Haller’sche an excellent map and sections plotted from numerous soundings. Its dimensions, of course, vary somewhat with the season, the greatest length and breadth (in summer) being 1750 and 950 metres, when its greatest depth is 56-6 metres; in winter it is about 200 metres less one way and too metres the other, and shallower by 15 metres. Under the former conditions its cubical content is estimated to be forty million metres. Its bed deepens at first rather rapidly, a circular diagram of the progressive depth reminding us of an ordinary dinner plate. The ring in which the drop is from o to 50 metres is barely an inch wide; the radius of the remainder, which nowhere attains 57 metres, is almost an inch and a half, or, on a rough estimate, about half the lake bed is not less than 50 metres deep. The shallowing is rather more gentle on the western than on the eastern or Blumlisalp side. Near the middle part of this, the 50-metre contour comes rather near the cliffs, those less than 30 metres being closely crowded. This would be yet more con- spicuous but for a fan of débris at the south-east angle. The lake, in fact, lies in a kind of corrie at the head of a mountain glen, and it is held up by a natural dam which has been formed by bergfalls from the rocky spurs about a mile below the cliffs at its head. Thus its history is to a considerable extent par-llel with that of the Lago d’Alleghe, near Caprile, in the Dolomites. Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). By ©. S. Sargent. Pp. xxii+826. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1905.) Price 6 dollars. THE manual under notice embodies the most recent, exhaustive, and detailed account of the trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico). It cannot fail to be of the greatest value to students of botany and forestry, as it brings into available form all the in- formation concerning the trees of North America which has been gathered at the Arnold Arboretum during the last thirty years. As the author points out in the preface, there is probably no other region of equal extent where the indigenous trees are so well known as those of North America, but in spite of this fact much investigation yet remains to be done as regards their sylvicultural requirements, and also the diseases to which they may be liable. The object of this volume is to stimulate further inquiry into the cultivation requirements and diseases of forest trees. The classification adopted is that of Engler and Prantl’s ‘‘ Die naturlichen Pflanzen- familien.’’ At the beginning of the book a synopsis of the families of the plants described is given. This is followed by a very useful analytical key to the families based on the arrangement and character of the leaves, which will enable the student readily to determine the family to which any North American tree belongs. In the text a full description of each family is given, and also a conspectus of the genera based on their more salient and easily made out con- trasting differences. Under each genus a_ similar conspectus of the species is given by which the exact name of the tree may be finally determined. The frontispiece consists of a map of North America showing the eight principal regions of arborescent vegetation, each of which is indicated by a letter, and in the conspectus above referred to a letter occurs after the name of each species, thus indicating the region in which the tree grows. This is a further aid in determining any given species provided the region from which it comes is already known. A valuable feature of the book is the numerous illustrations, which number between six and seven hundred, from drawings by Mr. Faxon. 198 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.| Number of Strokes of the Brush in a Picture. THE number of strokes of the paint brush that go to making a picture is of some scientific interest, so I venture to record two personal experiences. Some years ago I was painted by Graef, a well known German artist, when, finding it very tedious to sit doing nothing, I amused myself by counting the number of strokes per minute that he bestowed on the portrait. He was methodical, and it was easy to calculate their average number, and as I knew only too well the hours, and therefore the number of minutes, I sat to him, the product of the two numbers gave what I wanted to learn. It was 20,000. A year and a half ago I was again painted by the late lamented artist Charles Furse, whose method was totally different from that of Graef. He looked hard at me, mixing his colours the while, then, dashing at the portrait, made his dabs so fast that I had to estimate rather than count them. Pro- ceeding as before, the result, to my great surprise, was the same, 20,000. Large as this number is, it is less than the number of stitches in an ordinary pair of knitted socks. In mine there are 100 rows to each 7 inches of length, and 102 stitches in each row at the widest part. Two such cylinders, each 7 inches long, would require 20,000 stitches, so the socks, though they are only approxi- mately cylinders, but much more than 7 inches long, would require more than that number. The following point impressed me strongly. Graef had a humorous phrase for the very last stage of his portrait, which was “ painting the buttons.’’ Thus, he said, “‘ in five days’ time I shall come to the buttons.’’ Four days passed, and the hours and minutes of the last day, when he suddenly and joyfully exclaimed, ‘‘I am come to the buttons."" I watched at first with amused surprise, followed by an admiration not far from awe. He poised his brush for a moment, made three rapid twists with it, and three well painted buttons were thereby created. The rule of three seemed to show that if so much could be done with three strokes, what an enormous amount of skilled work must go to the painting of a portrait which required 20,000 of them. At the same time, it made me wonder whether painters had mastered the art of getting the maximum result from their labour. I make this re- mark as a confessed Philistine. Anyhow, I hope that future sitters will beguile their tedium in the same way that I did, and tell the results. {ate The Hydrometer as a Seismometer. A sHorT time ago (NATURE, May 25) I directed attention to a misconception which seemed to prevail among seismologists as to the behaviour of a spirit-level. It may perhaps be useful to point out another fallacy, also of an elementary hydromechanical nature, involved in some of the unsuccessful attempts to record vertical motion. It was first proposed by Dr. Wagener, we read, to record vertical disturbance by means of a floating buoy free to rise and fall in a vessel of water. The buoy was to provide a steady point when the vessel suffered a vertical disturbance. The device was improved, we are told, by Prof. Thomas Gray, who gave the buoy the form of a hydrometer with only a slender stem projecting above the surface of the water. Prof. Milne experimented with both forms; but even with the hydrometer form, adjusted to a state of the most sluggish stability, several earthquakes left no record of vertical motion. The instrument was abandoned as not sufficiently powerful to be self- registering. But the theory involved in these attempts is entirely fallacious. Any body, be it buoy or hydrometer, floating in liquid, suffers no displacement whatever relatively to the liquid when the containing vessel is moved vertically. 1 Milne. ‘‘ Earthquakes,” Pp. 33; Milne, ‘‘Seismology,” 65; 7 Seismological Soc. of Japan, vol. i., P- 70, vol. iii., p. cee Be SS ea NO. 1861, voL. 72] The whole moves as one rigid system. More generally, it may be claimed that any system which is in_ statical equilibrium, and which would remain undisturbed despite a change in the value of gravity, may suffer a vertical displacement of its supports without any relative dis- turbance of its parts. The whole of such a system moves as if rigid when displaced vertically. Of such a kind is the hydrometer floating in the vessel filled with liquid; of the same kind, also, is a common balance with equal weights in the two scale-pans. These two systems present a true dynamical analogy, and are equally useless for detecting vertical disturbance. A spring supporting a load, on the other hand, or any form of apparatus the potential energy of which is partly elastic, is not of this class, and is available as a seismometer for vertical motion. It would seem as though a false analogy between the hydro- meter and the spring balance had led to the fallacy in question. The spirit-level (if my previous contention is conceded) is sensitive alike to each of two kinds of disturbance between which it was expected to discriminate. The hydro- meter, on the other hand, is insensitive to the very dis- turbance which it was designed to record. The freezing of the water, indeed (contemplated as an inconvenient contingency with the proposed instrument), would, very precisely, make no difference at all in its behaviour. The instrument has, it is true, been long superseded; but the false principle involved remains as a source of grave con- fusion for the unwary reader of seismological writings. It may be remarked that violent earthquakes have been known to damage the rigging of ships in a neighbouring harbour, and to jerk guns from the decks, without any visible movement of the water. Assuming the correctness of the view now urged, a sudden alteration of sea-level would completely account for this. The ship is not in any way spring-borne for such a displacement, but may be subjected to a vertical impulse of any degree of severity. It should be added, also, that a severe shock of earth- quake is credited’ with having disturbed a hydrometer instrument to the extent of 1-1 mm. If the onus of ex- planation rests with me, I can only suggest that the effect (if really caused by vertical motion at all) may perhaps have been due to the elasticity of the walls of the contain- ing vessel or of the hydrometer. G. T. BENNETT. Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane. In an article on ‘‘ The Elimination of Gas Action in Experiments on Light Pressure,’’ read before the American Physical Society in December, 1904, and published in the Physical Review, May, the writer made the following statement :—‘ A thin vane of clear glass, accurately vertical and mounted radially, may be used to adyantage to demonstrate light pressure. If the light has been filtered through several thicknesses of glass there will be but little absorption by the thin vane and its two surfaces will be warmed nearly equally. Consequently the radio- metric effect will be small. The reflection of the radiation at the two surfaces will make a difference of about 16 per cent. between the energy in front of and behind the vane. Hence the light pressure will be about one-sixth of that due to the same light beam falling upon a black surface. The throws for such a vane had only about a ten per cent. variation in a range of air pressures from about 10 mm. to 200 mm. of mercury.”’ Although a large number of observations had been taken on both clear glass and _ silvered glass vanes, the data were not published at that time. It was then felt that the elimination of gas action was the important point, and the final statement in the paragraph quoted, that the throws for such a vane had only a 10 per cent. variation in a range of air pressures from about 10 mm. to 200 mm. of mercury, was considered sufficient experimental evidence that gas action had been eliminated. Since this paper appeared, the writer has learned that there is a difference of views among mathematical physicists concerning the pressure of radiation on a non- absorbing medium. On this account he has gathered 1 Trans. Seismological Soc, of Japan, vol. iii., p. 55% JUNE 29, 1905] NWA LURE 199 together the original data in order to compare the light pressure upon a vane of clear glass with that upon a silvered surface. The experiment may be here recalled. earrying a thin vertical glass vane, A torsion balance 14X10X0-1 mm., silvered on one side, was suspended in a bell jar, and the | air was pumped out until the pressure was about 4o mm. of mercury. A beam of light was thrown upon this vane at a definite distance from the rotation axis, and by turns on each side of it. The deflections were read by a tele- scope and scale. A Nernst lamp was used as a source, the intensity being given by a precision wattmeter. The balance was then turned through 180° by the rotation of the external control magnet, and readings were again taken. The mean was proportional to the pressure of the incident and reflected beam. The mean reflection coefficient of air-silver and air-glass-silver for the radiation used has been found to be 85 per cent. The pressure, according to Maxwell’s theory, should therefore be 1-85 times that due to the incident beam. The throw obtained (contain- ing certainly less than 1 per cent. of gas action) was 22-8 divisions. Hence the pressure of the standard beam upon a black surface would be 22-8+ 1-85 or 12-4. The balance was then taken from the bell jar, the silver removed from the vane, and the glass surface cleaned. The balance was then replaced, and the air pumped out as before. The deflections were small, only about 2 mm., and therefore could not be read to a greater accuracy than 5 per cent. The throw obtained for standard lamp was 2-1 divisions (the mean of forty observations at four different air pressures). The normal reflection coefficient of glass (u=1-52) for this kind of radiation is 4-1 per cent. The amount re- flected from the two surfaces is approximately 8-2 per cent. Hence the energy per unit volume in front of the glass is about 1-o82 times that of the incident beam, and that behind the vane (since the absorption is negligible) is o-g18 times that of the incident beam. The former quantity is greater than the latter by 16-4 per cent. of the energy of the incident beam. Assuming that the pressures on the front and back surfaces of the glass are proportional to the energies per unit volume, the pressure of the standard beam upon a black surface would be 2-I+0-164 or 12-7. The agreement between this result and the similar result obtained from the silvered surface shows that light passing through a plate of glass exerts pressures upon the surfaces equal to the difference between the energies per unit volume in front of and behind these surfaces. Gorpon F. Hutt. Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., U.S.A. The Habits of Testacella. Untit reading Mr. Latter’s letter in this week’s NATURE I was unaware that it was not a matter of common know- ledge that Testacella appears on the surface during heavy rains. My garden is liable to be flooded, as also, un- happily, is much of this neighbourhood, in spring and late autumn. After the water has stood for a few days the ground is covered by hundreds of these slugs, which leave their burrows and try to find dry quarters. They can. survive, however, a week’s immersion. In June, 1903, when much of the Thames valley was flooded, I collected a number of these slugs for various malacological friends. In normal circumstances they live at such a depth as never to be unearthed during garden operations. Eton College, Windsor. M.D: Hint: NATURE AND MAN. ROF. LANKESTER in his Romanes lecture began by a statement of the theory of evolution, direct- ing attention to unwarranted inferences commonly drawn by clever writers unacquainted with the study of nature. He described how the change in the character of the struggle for existence, possibly in the Lower Miocene period, which favoured an increase in the size of the brain in the great mammals and the horse, probably became most important in the development No. 1861, VOU. 72] | for others as well as himself, he says :— of man. The progress of man cut him off from the general operation of the law of natural selection as it had worked until he appeared, and he acquired knowledge, reason, self-consciousness, and will, so that ‘‘ survival of the fittest,’’ when applied to man, came to have a meaning quite different from what it had when applied to other creatures. Thus man can control nature, and the ‘‘nature-searchers,’’ the founders of the Royal Society and their followers, have placed boundless power in the hands of man- kind, and enabled man to arrive at spiritual emanci- pation and freedom of thought. But the leaders of human activity at present still attach little or no im- portance to the study of nature, They ignore the penalties that rebellious man must pay if he fails to continue his study and acquire greater and greater control of nature. Prof. Lankester did not dwell upon the possible material loss to our Empire which may result from neglect of natural science; he looks at the matter as a citizen of the world, as a man who sees that within some time, it may be only too years, it may be 500 years, man must. solye many new problems if he is to continue his progress and avert a return to nature’s terrible method of selecting the fittest. It seems to us that this aspect of the question has never been fully dealt with before. Throughout Huxley’s later | writings the certainty of a return to nature’s method is always to be felt. Prof. Lankester has faith in man’s power to solve those problems that seem now to be insoluble, and surely he is right. The dangerous delay now so evident is due to the want of nature knowledge in the general population, so that the responsible administrators of Government are suffered to remain ignorant of their duties. Prof. Lankester shows that it is peculiarly in the power of such universities as Oxford and Cambridge, which are greatly free from Government control, to establish a quite different state of things from that which now obtains in England. He says :—‘‘ The world has seen with admiration and astonishment the entire people of Japan follow the example of its governing class in the almost sudden adoption of the knowledge and control of Nature as the purpose of national educa- tion and the guide of State administration. It is possible that in a less rapid and startling manner our old Universities may, at no distant date, influence the intellectual life of the more fortunate of our fellow citizens, and consequently of the entire community.” Considering Oxford more particularly, and speaking “The Uni- versity of Oxford by its present action in regard to the choice and direction of subjects of study is exercising an injurious influence upon the education of the country, and especially upon the education of those who will hereafter occupy positions of influence, and will largely determine both the action of the State and the education and opinions of those who will in turn succeed them.’’ As to Greek and Latin studies, he says :—‘‘ We have come to the conclusion that this form of education is a mistaken and in- jurious one. We desire to make the chief subject of education both in school and in college a knowledge of Nature as set forth in the sciences which are spoken of as physics, chemistry, geology and biology. We think that all education. should consist in the first place of this kind of knowledge, on account of its commanding importance both to the individual and to the community. We think that every man of even a moderate amount of education should have acquired a sufficient knowledge of these subjects to enable him at any rate to appreciate their value, and to tale an interest in their progress and application to human life.” He points out that it is only in the 200 NATURE [JUNE 209, 1905 last hundred years that the dogma of compulsory Greek and the value of what is now called a classical education has been promulgated. Previously, Latin was learnt because all the results of the studies of natural philosophers were in that language. It is evident that Prof. Lankester includes in his study of nature the study of intellectual and emotional man through history, biography, novels, and poetry, but we think that he made a tactical mistake when he neglected to state this clearly. It seems to us that besides the study of nature, the most important thing in a child’s education is to make him fond of reading in his own language, for this leads to a future power to make use of books and self-education for the rest of his life. When Prof. Lankester doubts the value of the study of history he is evidently doubting the value of that study as carried on at Oxford, and surely no person who has read the scathing criticism of Prof, Firth will disagree with him. When he speaks of a reform being possible, it may be that he is taking into account a movement of which but little is known outside Oxford itself, the growing indignation of the average under- graduate at being made to pay extravagant sums of money for tuition which is mischievous. The readers of Nature are well acquainted with the views put forward in this address. Huxley and many others, dwelling, perhaps, more upon material loss to our Empire, have published them over and over again, but we do not think that anybody has ever presented them with so much grace of style or so much of an endeavour to secure the goodwill of his audience as Prof. Lankester. But, alas! we fear that this fine address will share the fate of many others ! ; When, thirty-three years ago, Japan began her new career, there were a few people like Ito clever enough to see and say that the study of ancient classics alone, to the neglect of the Study of nature, meant ruin to the country; but such ideas would never have been adopted had not Japan been in deadly peril. All the nations of Europe bullied and insulted her, and it was only their mutual jealousies which saved her from complete subjugation. In the presence of that peril the pedants held their peace, and everybody saw the necessity for an immediate, radical reform. In time nature was studied by every child in Japan, and in consequence scientific methods of thinking and acting have permeated the whole nation. All ancient and modern European literature is Open to the Japanese who knows English, and English is the one language other than Japanese which every cultured man must know. In the matter of self-protection, anyone can See the result. Because the Japanese have studied nature their scientific officers and men have marched or sailed to victory in every engagement; their states- men will do exactly what is best for Japan in the negotiations for peace; their country will quietly take its place as one of the first-class Powers of the world and every person who knows anything about Japan is quite sure that ambitious, wrong-headed schemes of conguest are altogether impossible to the scientific minds of the Japanese. If Japan had not been in great danger we know that she would not have taken to nature-study, and some of us think that it may need a state of danger in England to produce the necessary desire for reform. The South African muddle was worried through, and almost everybody seems to think that all such muddles may also be worried through, but some of us think that we may not always be so lucky. Danger is close enough even now, and we can only hope that if it becomes great it may grow slowly enough to let us learn something from the object lesson which is being NO. 1861, voL. 72] given us day by day in the news from Russia and the Far East.- Fain would we hope that Oxford will pay attention to what has been said by one whom some of us regard as her cleverest son; but, alas! we have no such hope. Oh, Shade of Clough, how can we help saying that “ the struggle nought availeth ’? when your own best admirers seem unable to think for themselves? Joun Perry. A LIFE’S WORK IN THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION.* ie this elaborate and carefully written treatise the veteran biologist of Freiburg has brought together and presented in connected form the fruit of his life-long investigation of the principles and methods of organic evolution. It would be an easy matter to show—indeed, the author admits as much with perfect candour—that his present standpoint differs in many important respects from that adopted by him at former periods of his career. The fact that Weismann has more than once shifted his ground has often been brought against him as a kind of re- proach—we think with scant justice; for in a sub- ject like the present, where new facts come crowding upon us almost daily, it is unreasonable to expect that a far-reaching theory should at once attain finality. If the author of such a theory should be willing to recognise that some parts of it become untenable and others require modification in the light of fresh dis- coveries, this should be reckoned to his credit rather than otherwise. The practice of putting forward ill- considered and hasty views deserves severe con- demnation ; but it is characteristic of our author that even his boldest speculations rest for the most part on a basis of observed fact, and that he has always honestly striven to render his theory consistent both with itself and also with the new facts that have from time to time come under the observation of other investigators. Moreover, his plan of, so to speak, taking the scientific world into his confidence, and enabling his colleagues to follow the workings of his own mind, has not only added greatly to the interest of his contribution to the biological thought of our time, but has acted also as a powerful stimulus to fellow-workers in the same field. So much may fairly be said, whether his final conclusions meet with general acceptance or the reverse. The first eleven chapters of the present bools traverse familiar ground. Starting with a brief historical account of evolutionary theory up to and including the work of Darwin and Wallace, they proceed to a more detailed discussion of such branches of the subject as the coloration of animals, mimicry, instinct, symbiosis, protective adaptations in plants, the origin of flowers, and sexual selection. These are well-worn topics, but their treatment is interesting and by no means trite. Next comes a discussion of Roux’s suggestion of the ‘ Kampf der Theile ’? which strikes us as somewhat of an excrescence on the general structure of the treatise. The existence of a metabolic response to functional stimulus is un- deniable, but we do not think that either Roux or Weismann has plumbed the matter. to the bottom, and the latter author’s use of the term ““ selection ”” in this connection appears to involve some overstrain of language. 1 “‘Vortrage iiber Deszendenztheorie gehalten an der Universitat zu Freiburg im Breisgau.” By Prof. August Weismann. Second revised edition. 2vols. Pp. xii + 34°; vi+344. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1904.) Price to marks. “The Evolution Theory.” By Prof. August Weismann. Translated with the author’s co-operation by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson and Margaret . Thomson. 2 vols. Pp xvi + 4163 iv+ 405; illustrated. (London : Edward Arnold, 1904.) Price 32s. net JUNE 29, 1905 | NATURE 201 Chapters on reproduction and the process of fertil- isation in both unicellular and multicellular organisms lead us on to a copious exposition of the author’s theory of the germ-plasm and its constitution, with the building up of the assumed ultimate vital units or ““biophors ’’ into the successive complexes of ‘‘ deter- minants,’’ ‘‘ids,’’ and ‘‘ idants.’’ After a discussion of the facts brought to light by the labours of the oe Entwicklungsmechanik ’ school, and a fairly full notice of recent work on regeneration in its relation to the germ-plasm hypothesis, we come to what is in many respects the strongest part of the book, the refutation, namely, of the Lamarckian view of the transmissibility of functional modifications. Here Weismann has always been at his best, and to him undoubtedly belongs the credit of having awakened and sustained so fresh and vigorous a body of opinion in reference to this point as virtually to have created one of the most important epochs in the history of evolutionary doctrine. The two next chapters deal with the author’s hypothesis of “germinal selection,’’ as to which it may be sufficient to remark that, however ingenious and interesting the theory may be as an attempt to explain the chief phenomena of variation, it is as yet far from having reached the stage of verification. In the succeeding chapters, which deal with inbreeding, par- thenogenesis, and reproduction, both sexual and asexual, it is interesting to observe that Weismann has considerably modified his standpoint with reference to amphimixis, his present view approximating in some degree to that advanced several years ago by Hay- craft. This section is preceded by a discus- sion of the “ biogenetic law ’’ of Haeckel, and is followed up by chapters on the in- fluence of the environment and of isolation in the formation of the specific type, together with the various causes of extinction. The book concludes with some theoretical considerations on the subject of spon- taneous generation, and a final vindica- tion of the principle of selection, the dominance of which principle over all the categories of vital units may be taken as the key-note of the entire treatise. It will be seen that the ground covered by this work is very extensive. Though most of the topics dealt with are considered by the author chiefly or solely with an eye to his theory, his treatment never lacks in- terest, and the result is worthy of his high reputation. There are some points as to which we should have welcomed a more thorough discussion, and others on which we confess to remaining unconvinced for reasons quas nunc perscribere longum est; but it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge to the full the immense services rendered to biological science by the stimulating labours in the domain both of theory and practice of which this book is a monument. The illustrations are for the most part excellent. Of the two here reproduced, the first serves to illus- trate the basis of one of the chief arguments brought forward by Weismann, as also by Strasburger and O. Hertwig, in favour of regarding the nuclear chromatin as the true hereditary substance, viz. the numerical equality of the chromosomes and the dis- parity in amount of the cell-protoplasm in the generative products of the two sexes. The second (from Fischer) supplies evidence of the possibility of NO. 18€1, VOL. 72] Fic. 1.—Process of fertilisation in Ascar?s megalocephala. second polar body ; sf, spermatozoon with two chromosomes, a protrusion of the egg-protoplasm is meeting it; of spermatozoon ; chromosomes (c/7); only the male nucleus has a centrosphere (csph), which in C has already divided “Evolution Theory.” certain external conditions, in this case temperature, influencing the germ-plasm even while contained within the body of the parent. We have little space left for detailed criticism, but must point out that by some unaccountable oversight the letterpress of plates i. and ii. contains several serious errors—patent at once to the trained entom- ologist, but calculated to mislead the general reader. These mistakes appear uncorrected in the English | translation, where also, as if to make confusion worse confounded, ‘ die folgende Art’’ (plate ii., Fig. 20) is rendered ‘“‘ the foregoing species.’ For- however, tunately, the lapses in question are not of Rk 1, Rk 2, first_and Eik, reduced nucleus of the ovum; sf#, nucleus $é k, @ ky sperm nucleus and ovum nucleus, each with two into two; /s/, segmentation spindle. From Weismann’s Translated by Prof. and Mrs. Thomson. a nature to impair the value of the argument which the figures are meant to illustrate. Other slips in the translation are plainly due to the fact that the translators are unfamiliar with por- tions of the subject-matter, as in vol. ii., p. 348, where the point of the argument is blunted by the rendering of ‘‘.Nachtfalter’’ as ‘‘ butterfly ’’?; such imperfections, though they should be remedied in a new edition, are of little real importance. More serious is a mistranslation, or perhaps a misprint (vol. i., p. 290) by which the words of the original, Sin wrelehern die eigentliche Chromatinsubstanz nur in vielfacher Zertheilung enthalten ist,’’ are perverted into a statement which is almost grotesquely incorrect. ‘NALTURE [JUNE 29, 1905 202 Again, on p. 304 of the same volume, an entirely | soon have been placed at its head; but in 1882 he wrong meaning is given to a sentence by the failure | resolved to retire on the pension which he had well of the translators to make it clear that ‘‘ wenn es | earned, and to establish himself in London. Among nothwendig ware ’’ must refer, not to “‘ fertilisation,’’ | the great services which he rendered to science during but to the “‘ limitation of polar divisions.’’ On p. 136| his stay in India, perhaps the most important was (vol. ii.) the sense of the original is obscured by the | the preparation, in concert with his colleague, H. B. inadequate rendering of ‘‘dann’’ as the enclitic | Medlicott, of a ‘*‘ Manual of the Geology “of India.’ “then.”? Chaerocampa (for Choerocampa) is found | This invaluable treatise gave for the first time a in the original; the translators, however, are re-| succinct general view of the geological structure and sponsible for ‘* Ccenogenesis.”’ But in spite of these and other blemishes of a like nature, the translators are to be congratulated on having performed their difficult task with skill and success, the result being a work which, in its English Fic. 2.—A, an aberration of Avctia caja, produced by low temperature. &B, the member of its progeny most divergent from tbe normal. 3B, though reared at the ordinary temperature, is aberrant in the same direction as its parent. After E. Fischer. From Weismann’s “ Evolu- tion Theory.’ Translated by Prof. and Mrs. Thomson. no less than in its German dress, will be read with extreme interest and with the greatest sympathy and respect for its indefatigable author. Ie dani) DR. WILLIAM THOMAS BLANFORD, F.R.S. HE tidings of Dr. Blanford’s death will be re- ceived with sorrow among men of science all over the world. His many-sided accomplishments had given him a notable place among geologists, geographers, palzontologists, and zoologists, and his gentle, kindly, unassuming nature had gained him an abiding place in the affectionate regard of all who came to be associated with him. Born on October 7, 1832, in London, he early developed a taste for scientific pursuits, and was accordingly sent to the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, where he dis- tinguished himself as a student, under De la Beche, Play fair, Edward Forbes Ramsay, Smyth, and Percy. From London he passed to the famous mining academy at Freiberg. Having thus obtained an ex- cellent training, he was, in 1855, appointed to the Geological Survey of India under its founder, Thomas Oldham. For some twenty-seven years he continued to devote his energies to Indian geology, making wide acquaintance with the rocks and scenery of the great Dependency, and enriching the publications of the Survey with mz aps and descriptive memoirs. Had he chosen to remain longer in the service, O. 1861, VOL. 72] ; become too ill to look at them. he would | he passed away on the morning of Friday, June 23, history of the whole country. It has taken its place as one of the classic text-books of the science. While attached to the Indian Survey, Dr. Blanford’s proved ability led to his being employed in several missions or expeditions. Thus when, in 1867, pre- parations were made in India for the dispatch of an armed force against Theodore of Abyssinia, he was selected as geologist to accompany the Army. The wisdom of this selection was well proved by the ex- cellent volume in which he gave the results of his observations during the march to Magdala and the return to the coast. Again, in 1872, he accompanied the Persian Boundary Commission, and his notes of this journey were embodied in another valuable book. During his travels in India and beyond it, Dr. Blanford did not confine himself to the study of the rocks, but always kept a keen eye on the wild animals of each region. His published journals showed him to be as capabie a zoologist as he was a geologist. Indeed, during the later years of his life his main scientific work lay amidst the fauna of British India, in regard to which his published memoirs were re- cognised as the chief authority on the subject. His wide experience as a traveller over the surface of the earth likewise enlisted his sympathies with geo- graphical exploration, and made him a valued member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society. In his writings there is often a suggestiveness or prescience that shows how keen was his insight, how far-reaching his grasp of scientific problems, more especially of those in which questions of zoology and geology were intermingled. Some of his papers in which he unfolded his views on these subjects are well deserving of attentive study. His address to the geological section of the British Association at the Montreal meeting in 1884, and his presidential dis- courses to the Geological Society in 1889 and 1890, may be cited as examples of his characteristic manner of treatment. Dr. Blanford’s high qualities as a man of science were fully re scognised by his contemporaries. He was early elected into several of our leading scientific societies, and was chosen as a member of their councils. He received the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society and a Royal medal of the Royal Society. A few years ago, in recognition of his services to Indian science, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Up to the end he continued to interest himself in the affairs of the societies with which he was connected. For years he had been treasurer of the Geological Society, and he attended the council meetings to within a few weeks before his death. His colleagues at the council board then saw with regret that his health was obviously failing, but they did not anticipate that they were never again to see his familiar face among them. A few weeks ago he was asked by the council of the Royal Society to write for them an obituary notice of his old friend and colleague, Medlicott, who had recently died. He complied with this request, and it proved to be his last piece of work. The printed proofs of his manuscript were but before they could reach him he hax After a short illness sent to him, JuNxE 29, 1905] NATURE 203 _in the seventy-third year of his age. He was laid to rest on Tuesday last in Highgate Cemetery, every society with which he was associated sending re- presentatives to his funeral, while among the mourners were some of his old colleagues in India. ds (EE NOTES. Tue Civil List Pensions granted during the year ended March 31 show more generous recognition of the claims of science than has usually been the case. The list in- cludes the August 8.—Mr. W. F. Denning, in consideration of his services to the science of astronomy, August 8.—Miss Elizabeth Parker, in recognition of the services rendered to science as an investigator by her late father, Mr. W. Kitchen Parker, F.R.S., rool. August 8.—Lady Le Neve Foster, in consideration of the services rendered to mining science by her late husband, Sir Clement Le Neve Foster, F.R.S., and of the fact that his death was due to the effects of poisoning by carbonic oxide gas while carrying out his official duties, tool. 1905, January 17.—Dr. J. G. Frazer, in recognition of his literary merits and of his anthropo- logical studies, 2001. March 22.—The Rev. Lorimer Fison, in recognition of the originality and importance of his re- following pensions :—1904, 150l. searches in Australian and Fijian ethnology, 15ol. March 22.—Dr. W. Cramond, in consideration of his antiquarian researches, more particularly in connection with the ecclesiastical and burghal history of Scotland, Sol. March 22.—Miss L. C. Watts and Miss E. S. Watts, in recognition of the services of their late father, Mr. Henry Watts, to chemistry, 75/. It is satisfactory to record these tributes of national regard for lives devoted to the advance- ment of knowledge; and we congratulate the Government upon the great improvement which this year’s list shows as regards the acknowledgment of the services rendered to the State by scientific workers. WE regret to learn that Prof. von Tomek, president of the Imperial Bohemian Academy of Sciences at Prague, died on June 12 in the eighty-eighth year of his age. Sir JouNn Wotre Barry, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been elected to succeed the late Mr. James Mansergh, F.R.S., as chairman of the Engineering Standards Committee. THE annual conversazione of the Society of Arts will be held in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s Park, on Tuesday next, July 4. Tue International Institute of Sociology has accepted the invitation of the Sociological Society to hold its next congress in London in the summer of 1906. A general committee has been appointed to promote the success of the congress. Lord Avebury is the chairman of the com- mittee, and Mr. David Mair the secretary for the time being. Tue Guy medal in silver has been awarded by the Royal Statistical Society to Mr. R. Henry Rew for his work in connection with the preparation of the reports of the special committee appointed by the society to investigate the production and consumption of meat and mill in the United Kingdom, and for his paper entitled ‘‘ Observations on the Production of Meat and Dairy Products.”’ AmoneG those who lost their lives in the railway disaster at Mentor, Ohio, on June 21 was Mr. Archibald P. Head, a brilliant young engineer and senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Jeremiah Head and Sons, of Westminster. NO. 1861, VOL. 72] museums having Mr. Head was the author of several valuable papers on mining and metallurgy contributed to the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, the Society of Arts. and Ir is announced in the Times that the Board of Trade and the Trinity House have concluded a contract with Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company (Limited) providing for the equipment of lightships with Marconi wireless telegraph installations. This arrangement will enable the lightships to communicate with the shore and with one another by wireless telegraphy for the ordinary purposes of the lightship service, and also to report ships in distress. A Reuter telegram from Paris reports that an Inter- national Congress on Colonial Agriculture opened there on June 22, Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil being represented. The members of the congress decided to form an international committee for the study of all questions relating to agricultural science and colonial industries. An organising committee, with headquarters in Paris, under the chairmanship of M. de Lanessan, has been formed. was Towarp the close of the fourth International Ornitho- logical Congress, an account of which appeared in our issue of last week (p. 177), a party of members paid a visit on June 20 to Cambridge. They were received by Prof. Newton, who had arranged several exhibits for the benefit of the visitors. These included a. case of. great auks’ eggs and a selection of letters, papers, and books from Prof. Newton’s library. A catalogue of these documents and books, some of them belonging to the fifteenth century, was distributed among the visitors, as was a leaflet on Legaut’s giant bird by Prof. Newton explaining its origin and species. A pamphlet by Dr. Gadow on the effects of insularity, illustrated by birds of (a) Madagascar and Mascarene Islands, and (b) the Sandwich Islands, was also circulated to explain the exhibits arranged in the room of comparative anatomy. A visit to the been concluded, a dinner was given to Prof. Newton in the hall of Magdalene, after which Dr. Fatio in a cordial speech referred to Prof. Newton as ““the father of ornithology.’’ The congress concluded on June 21 with a visit to Flamborough Head. lecture Dr. J. Cuarcot gave an account of his expedition to Antarctic regions before the Royal Geographical Society on Monday. The general programme of the expedition was to survey the north-west coast of the Palmer Archipelago (Hoseason, Liége, Brabant, and the Antwerp Islands) ; to study the south-west entrance to the Gerlache Strait, wintering as far south as was practicable, to make ex- cursions in spring, and in summer to continue the explor- ation of Graham Land, with the view of elucidating the Bismarck Strait, and follow the coast as far as Alexander I. Land: in a word, to continue the labours of the Gerlache and Nordenskjéld expeditions. The expedition left Buenos Ayres in the Francais (245 tons) on December 23, 1903, reached Smith Island (South Shetlands) on February 1, 1904, and after coasting for a few weeks was compelled by ice to return to Wandel Island, where it wintered. The temperature varied much and suddenly; the lowest was —30°-4 F., but a rise from —22° F. to +26°-6 F. in a few hours was not uncommon, and was always followed by violent gales from the north-east, which broke up the ice between Wandel and Hovgaard Islands, and so pre- vented any move being made, in spite of many efforts. In December, 1904, a channel was made, and the Francais returned to Wincke Island, which had been visited before 204 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 the winter set in. In January the vessel was turned north again past the Biscoe Islands, the expedition com- pleting its survey as it went, and finally reached Puerto Madryn on March 4. Dr. Charcot expressed himself thoroughly satisfied with the results of the work of the expedition in hydrography, astronomy, biology, the measurement of tides, the analysis of colour and density of sea-water, and gravity, which was measured by means of one of M. Bouquet de la Grye’s comparison pendulums. The exterior contour of the Biscoe Islands has been fixed and their breadth determined; the survey of the exterior coasts of the Palmer Archipelago completes the geography of that region, and the bearings of Alexander I. Land have been found by astronomical observation. Tue International Congress of Mining and Metallurgy at Liége, which began on June 25, and will continue until July 2, is proving a most successful gathering. Nearly fifteen hundred members have registered, and an attractive programme of papers, and excursions, and social functions has been arranged. Mr. Alfred Habets was elected president, and the official representatives nominated by seventeen foreign Governments were elected honorary presidents. Great Britain, though not included in this list, was represented by a strong contingent of members of the Iron and Steel Institute, and by a number of leading mining engineers. The congress was divided into four sections, dealing respectively with mining, metallurgy, applied geology, and mechanics. Inthe metallurgical section the first paper read was by Mr. R. A. Hadfield, who gave an account of his recent investigations of the properties of steel at the temperature of liquid air. Papers were also read on the influence of arsenic and titanium on pig iron, on the use of coals poor in agglutinating material for the manufacture of coke, and on the cutting of metals by oxygen. In the mining section several papers on shaft-sinking were read, and in the applied geology section attention was chiefly devoted to the recent coal discoveries in the north of Belgium. visits WE regret to see the announcement in the Times that Sir Augustus Gregory, K.C.M.G., the Australian explorer, died a few days ago. Sir Aweqistie was born in Notting- hamshire in 1819, and entered the Civil Service of Western Australia in 1841. Five years iater he began the series of explorations which were afterwards to make him famous. In 1846 he started with two brothers into the interior from Bolgart Spring, but their eastward progress Was stopped by an immense salt lake which compelled them to turn north-west. The deviation led to the discov ery by the party of some fine seams of coal in the country at the mouth of the Arrowsmith. , Two years later he was sent northwards to explore the Gascoyne River, and he succeeded in reaching a point 350 miles north of Perth. A third exploring expedition was undertaken in 1855, this time under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society of London. The expedition had the dual object of exploring the interior and of searching for traces of the lost explorer Leichhardt. The party was absent for nearly a year and a half, and though sure traces of Leichhardt were not found, much rich country and new watersheds were dis- covered. Under the auspices of the New South Wales Government, the search for Leichhardt was renewed in 1858, but again little success rewarded the efforts of the explorer. The Royal Geographical Society, however, showed its appreciation of his labours by conferring upon him the gold medal. In the following year he was appointed Surveyor-General of Queensland, and he after- NO. 1861, VoL. 72| wards held several posts of distinction under the Queens- land Government. He was the author of several papers on Australian geology and geography. Tue editor of the Berlin Post has been kind enough to bring under our notice some flagrant instances of the publication in German newspapers, without acknowledg- ment, of translations of articles and other contributions which originally appeared in our columns. These translations have been published under the title of ‘* Allgemeine wissen- schaftliche Berichte,’? and the editor of the Berlin Post has supplied us with a list of no less than twenty cases in which articles have been taken from Nature and trans- lated into German without any indication of their source. The free use which has thus been made of contributions to our pages may doubtless be regarded as a flattering testimony to their scientific interest and precision; but at the same time, we must express regret that the morality of some writers on scientific subjects in Germany should have sunk so low that they can calmly render our con- tributions into their own language and offer the translations to newspapers as original descriptive matter. We are glad to know that this iniquitous practice has been discovered by the editor of the Berlin Post, and we trust that it will be exposed by the newspapers which have unknowingly printed translations of contributions to our pages. AmoncG the biological contents of the second part of the ninth volume of the Bulletin International issued at Prague by the Académie des Sciences de 1’Empéreur Francois Joseph is an article by Mr. F. Brabenec on a new discovery of fossil plants in the Tertiary deposits of Holede¢, Bohemia. In addition to a new acacia, the author records remains of two species of the S. European aquatic genus Salvinia, one of which is very rare. In another article Dr. B. Némec discusses the influence of light on the position of the leaves in Vaccinium myrtilus, while in a third Mr. J. Smoldk records the existence of multinuclear cells in certain euphorbias. The European representatives of the insect family Dictyopterygidz form the subject of the one article, by Prof. F. Klapdlek, relating to morphological zoology. REGENERATION and development constitute the leading features of the second part of vol. Ixxix. of the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, which contains three articles. The first of these subjects is discussed by Prof. J. Nusbaum, of Lemberg University, who takes as his. text the polychaete annelids Amphigene mediterranea and Nerine cirratulus, and shows how almost every part of the: organism may be reproduced. As regards development, Dr. E. v. Zeller discusses the vesiculz seminales in newts, and Dr. E. Zander contributes an article on the male generative organs of the Microlepidoptera of the family Butalidz. The latter communication has an interest not indicated in the title, since it discusses the statement that these insects: depart from the normal type in possessing only nine (in place of ten) abdominal segments. According to the author, this is an error, due to the wrong orientation of preparations and the consequent mistaking of a true seg- ment for part of the generative apparatus. In honour of the International Ornithological Congress, the current issue of Bird Notes and News forms a double number, of which the contents include a four-page supple- ment dealing with protective legislation for birds through- out the British Empire, and likewise an article on inter- national bird-protection, in which attention is directed to the urgency of international agreement on the subject, more especially in regard to rare species, migratory birds, JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE 205 and species persecuted for the sake of their plumage. Among other cases meriioned in the article on international bird-protection, special reference is made to the wholesale destruction of penguins in Macquarie Island, and perhaps elsewhere, for the sake of their oil, a destruction which if continued and extended can only result in the extermin- ation of these remarkable and interesting birds. If certain current reports be true, not only is there need of the best efforts of the Bird Protection Society, but the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has also a field for its operations, if its arm be long enough to reach the Antarctic. THE amount of variation that was obtained in culti- vating a five-rayed form of Trifolium pratense is the sub- ject of a paper by Miss T. Tammes in part xi. of the Botanische Zeitung. The production of more than three rays may be regarded as the dominance of the variety, while the production of trifoliate leaves is a reversion to the original form. In the early stages, that is, on first order branches, the leaves generally showed more than three leaflets, but later the trifoliate character was almost constant. Tue avocado or alligator pear, Persea gratissima, is rapidly growing in favour with Americans as a salad fruit. On this account Mr. J. H. Rolfs has prepared an account of its cultivation in Florida, which forms Bulletin No. 61 of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Budding affords the most satisfactory method of propagation, as plants do not come true to seed. Two forms are cultivated, the West Indian and a smaller-fruited Mexican variety. The fruit, which only resembles a pear in shape, is eaten like an egg, with- out condiments or with salad accompaniments. ALTHOUGH sandal-wood is an important source of revenue in the Indian States of Mysore and Coorg, the parasitic nature of the sandal-tree has been little studied. Mr. C. A. Barber, who originally pointed out that the sandal is a root parasite, producing haustoria, by which it absorbs nourishment from the roots of such host plants as Casuarina and Lantana, has published in the Indian Forestey (April) an account of further investigations on the subject. The haustorial tissue penetrates the root along the line of the cambium, and thrusts aside the cortex of the host, while absorbent cells and trachez are formed to abstract and carry off the food solutions from the wood. In the Engineering and Mining Journal Mr. F. Danvers Power, professor of mining in the University of Sydney, publishes an important memoir on the Gympie Goldfield of Queensland. The district is of special geological interest in view of the enrichment of the gold-bearing quartz veins where they pass through four beds of black shale contain- ing graphite. The deepest shaft in the district has attained a depth of 3130 feet. WE have received from the Engineering Standards Com- mittee three further reports, dealing respectively with structural steel for shipbuilding, with screw threads, and with pipe threads for iron or steel pipes and tubes. These standard specifications have been drawn up by influential committees composed of representatives of the Institutions of Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers and Naval Architects, the Iron and Steel Institute, and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and will doubtless be generally adopted. In the case of screw threads, no departure from NO. 1861, VOL. 72] the Whitworth thread is recommended, and terms used by the British Association small screw gauge committee have, to a large extent, been adopted. IN a recent paper on the determination of sulphuric acid in soils, attention was directed to the enormous loss of sulphuric anhydride due to the solubility of barium sulphate in ferric chloride solution. If low results are obtained when determining the sulphur in the presence such of small quantities of iron, what losses must be entailed where large amounts of iron are present, as in the case of iron ore? An experimental investigation of the subject has been made by Mr. J. Howard Graham, and the results are published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute. They show that barium sulphate is not soluble in ferric chloride to the extent mentioned, but rathér that it acts restrainingly upon the act of solution of the barium sulphate in hydrochloric acid until too large quantities of the acid are present. Since their discovery, the various constituents of steel have been the object of numerous researches; but the knowledge of the internal structure of steel has been to a great extent obscured by the acrimonious controversies that have been introduced into the discussion of this sub- ject at meetings of the Iron and Steel Institute. An attempt to remove the existing confusion has been made by Dr. Glazebrook and Prof. H. Le Chatelier by suggest- ing the formation of an international committee to in- vestigate the matter. The committee is composed as follows :—France: MM. Charpy, Pérot, and H. Le Chatelier; Great Britain: Mr. Hadfield (president of the Iron and Steel Institute), Prof. Arnold, Mr. Stead, F.R.S., and Dr. Glazebrook, F.R.S.; Germany: Prof. Martens; Russia: Mr. Kournakoff; Sweden: Messrs. Brinell and Gunnar Dillner; United States: Messrs. H. M. Howe and Sauveur. The scheme of investigation is published in the current issue of the Bulletin de la Société d’Encourage- ment pour l’Industrie nationale. Tue twenty-seventh report of the Deutsche Seewarte, Hamburg, for the year 1904, shows that the work of marine meteorology and weather prediction is being prosecuted with the usual vigour shown by this useful organisation, and that Admiral Herz is careful to maintain the high efficiency which it attained under the able direc- tion of Dr. von Neumayer. At the end of the year 1904 the number of observers at sea amounted to no less than 837; they are encouraged in their work by the presentation of medals and diplomas, in special cases, in addition to free distribution of atlases and sailing directions. Eleven hundred pilot charts of the North Atlantic Ocean are pub- lished monthly, and a similar publication is contemplated for the Indian Ocean; and twelve hundred charts for the North Sea and Baltic are issued quarterly. These are in addition to the publication of larger general discussions at irregular intervals. In the department for weather telegraphy and storm warnings, it may be mentioned that the comprehensive daily weather report shows a consider- able improvement by the insertion of kite observations on p. 1. Storm warning telegrams were issued on sixty days, the number of messages to hoist storm signals amounting to 2593. The report exhibits similar activity in other branches of the Seewarte. Tue report on the currents at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy and southern Nova Scotia for the year 1904 has recently been issued. The season from May to September was chiefly occupied by Mr. Bell Dawson, the surveyor in 206 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 charge of the work, in examining the currents at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy Manan Island to Cape Sable. These currents were found to be strong, steady, and deep, and therefore contrasted with those previously surveyed on the coasts of Newfound- land. A correct knowledge of the currents in the region surveyed is of great importance to navigation, as it includes waters that lie on the lines of ocean steamships running to St. John’s, N.B., as well as of steamers from the United States ports which round the southern end of Nova Scotia on their way to Europe. extending from Grand It has been ascertained from the tide gauges which have been fixed during the survey and the tides recorded since 1902 that from Cape Sable westward the tides can be satisfactorily referred to St. John’s, while eastward of Cape Sable they can be referred to Halifax. One noteworthy fact brought out by the survey is that the difference in range between spring tides which fall at perigee or apogee respectively is as great as the difference between mean springs and neaps, show- ing the dominating influence of the moon’s distance in this region; and the variation in the strength of the current is found to follow the same law. Thus at St. John’s the range at S.T., when the moon is at perigee, is 27-10 feet, and at apogee 20-35 feet, showing a difference of 6.75 feet. Mean spring range is 23-72 feet, and neaps range 17-43 feet, showing a difference of 6-29 feet. Also the diurnal inequality which is a dominant factor in parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not very strongly marked in this region, although still quite appreciable. It was found that wind disturbance seldom affects the currents at a depth of more than ten fathoms, and that while along the centre line of the Bay of Fundy between the fifty fathoms’ line on each side the ebb current runs only at the rate of 13 to 23 knots, nearer the shore about eight miles to the right or left the rate is nearly double, or from 3 to 4 knots. The report is accompanied by a map of the Bay of Fundy showing the direction and strength of the tidal currents. AN index to the literature of indium, by Dr. P. E. Browning, has just been published by the Smithsonian Institution, and forms part of vol. xlvi. of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. SoME remarkable finds of rare minerals have been made during the opening up of the noted gadolinite locality in Llano County, Texas; they are reported upon by Mr. W. E. Hidden in the June number of the American Journal of Science. The development of the mines was undertaken by the Nernst Lamp Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., and among the most notable discoveries were a double crystal of gadolinite weighing 73 lb., a mass of yttrialite weighing 18 Ib., and a piece of pure allanite that weighed more than 300 Ib. A single crystal of smoky quartz had a weight of 600 Ib., and in a single year more than 1000 Ib. of nearly pure gadolinite were extracted. Many of the minerals were radio-active, and deep work in the locality seems likely to bring to light new combinations of the rare earths and of uranium and thorium, In No. 4 of the Bulletin International of the Academy of Sciences of Cracow, M. T. Godlewski shows that it is possible to separate from actinium by a similar method to that used for isolating ThX from thorium an intensely radio-active substance to which the name actinium X is given. The residual actinium is nearly inactive, retain- ing only 5 per cent. of its original activity, but it re- covers its activity with time according to an exponential NO. 1861, VOL. 72] curve; the activity of actinium X, on the other hand, decays according to an exponential curve complementary to the curve of recovery. As in the case of thorium, the emanation of actinium is shown to be due to a trans- formation of X. A complete analogy thus appears to exist between the radio-activity of actinium and thorium. It is interesting, however, to note that actinium itself is probably inactive, whilst thorium free from thorium X has never been obtained with less than 25 per cent. of its original activity. Moreover, the 8 rays of actinium are completely distinct in character from the B rays emitted by other radio-active elements, inasmuch as they are completely homogeneous with regard to their absorption by solid bodies. actinium A parPerR by Prof. Theodore W. Richards, Lawrence J. Henderson, and George S. Forbes, which is published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. iv., No. 1), deals with the question of the elimination of accidental loss of heat in accurate calori- metry. It is shown that the lag of the thermometer behind the temperature of a slightly cooling or slightly warming environment causes an appreciable error in estim- ating the temperature of the environment; by a simple method this lag can be accurately determined and allowed for. A new method for obviating this and all other cor- rections for cooling is shown to consist in systematically altering the temperature of the environment at the same rate and to the same degree as that of the calorimeter proper ; this may be effected by allowing a chemical action which liberates heat to take place outside the calorimeter at a graduated velocity. This method is shown in a series of experiments to give a more constant result than can be obtained by introducing a correction for cooling according to the method of either Regnault or Rumford. It is shown, moreover, to give essentially the same value as that afforded by the older methods when these are corrected for the lag of the thermometer. In studying the action of fluorine on some compounds of nitrogen, MM. Moissan and Lebeau found that whilst there was no reaction between fluorine and _ nitrogen peroxide (Nature, June 22, p. 183) there was a vigorous reaction between fluorine and nitric oxide. In the current number of the Comptes rendus they give a further account of their work on this reaction, from the products of which they have succeeded in isolating a new compound of fluorine, nitrogen and oxygen, nitryl fluoride, NO,F. The gaseous products of the reaction, cooled to the temperature of boiling oxygen, gave a white solid which on fraction- ation at a low temperature proved to consist of a mixture of fluorine and a new substance, condensable at —8o° C. By repeated distillation this latter was obtained in a pure state, and gave figures on analysis corresponding to the formula NO,F. In the gaseous state this has a density of 2-24, the theoretical density being 2-26, a melting point of —139° C. and a boiling point of —63°-5 C. Nitryl fluoride possesses very active chemical properties, com- bining at the ordinary temperature with boron, silicon, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and iodine. It is without action in the cold on hydrogen, sulphur, and carbon, but decomposes water, producing nitric and hydrofluoric acids, and reacts with a large number of organic compounds, giving nitro- and fluor-derivatives. Tuere will be an extra meeting of the Physical Society on Friday, June 30, at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, when the following papers will be read :—the comparison of electric fields by means of an oscillating JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE 207 electric needle: Mr. David rotatory dispersion of sodium vapour, of sodium vapour: Prof. R. W. Weod. In addition to illustrating his papers by experiments, Prof. Wood pro- poses to show a number of other experiments. Owen; (1) the magnetic (2) the fluorescence AT a meeting of the Faraday Society to be held on Monday next, July 3, the following papers will. be read :— some notes on the rapid electrodeposition of copper : Sherard Cowper-Coles; the use of balanced electrodes : W. W. Haldane Gee; (1) electrolytic oxidation of hydro- carbons of part il., ethyl eumene and cymene ; (2) electrolytic analysis of antimony : H. D. Law and F. Mollwo Perkin; notes on heat insula- tion, particularly with regard to materials used in furnace R. S. Hutton and J. R. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN JULY :— , 3 the benzene series, benzene, construction ; Beard. illuminating and controlling the instruments and the dome are described in detail, and appear to be as near perfection as possible. A comple te meteorological equipment is attached to the institution, and M. Libert pleads for the foundation of a similar observatory in southern Algeria, where the sky is but very rarely covered. also A SuspectED SUDDEN CHANGE ON JuPITER.—At the meet- ing of the Royal Astronomical Society held on May 12, a note from Major Molesworth, R.E., was read in which he described a suspected instance of sudden change on Jupiter. Observing at Trincomalee, Ceylon, on December 17, 1903, he made a sketch of the neighbourhood surround- ing the dark spot F 87, situated on ‘the southern edge of the S. equatorial belt. This observation was made at th. 455m. G.M.T. At 2h. the observer suddenly noticed a minute white spot, bright enough to cause him some surprise at having omitted it from his previous observation, preceding and touching F 87. At 2h. 3m. this spot was so obvious that its existence could not have escaped the most casual observer, and later, at 2h. 5m., it had developed into a bright oblique rift only separated by a narrow streak from the spot F 83. This appearance lasted so long as the region remained readily observable. The region Was again examined on December 20, but no trace of the outburst could be discerned. When first observed the bright spot was preceding F 87, but later the oblique rift appeared to enter the belt from a point immediately | following that feature. July 4. 4b. Venus and Jupiter in conjunction, Venus 2° 30'S. > 5. Ith. 34m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). », 6. Th. Venus at greatest elongation, 45° 44’ W. >» 15. Venus. Illuminated portion of disc=0'551 ; of Mars =o'88r. >» 16. Uranus passes 1’ north of 1 Sagittarii (Mag. 5°3). 9» 23. Saturn. Outer major axis of outer ring=43"'22; | outer minor axis of outer ring=6"'88. >, 26. 1th, Conjunction of Jupiter with the Moon, Jupiter 4° 24’ N. » 27. Oh. 6m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). 93) 27-31- Epoch aor Aquarid meteoric shower (Rediant 339° — 11°). New OsservaTory IN ALGERIA.—The accompanying illustration of the Mustapha-Supérieur Observatory wherein and (Algeria) is reproduced from La Nature (No. M. Lucien Libert describes in detail the 1671), situation Fic. 1.—Vhe Mustapha-Supérieur Observatory, Algeria. equipment of the institution. This founded privately by M. Jouffray, and east of Algiers, on a spur which extremity of the Sahel plateau, at an 72 metres (about 564 feet) above the sea-level. A special feature of this institution is its exclusive use of the decimal observatory was is situated to the forms the eastern altitude of 172 system. The equipment includes a Leroy ‘‘ tropométre,’’ i.e. a centesimal chronometer, which divides the day into forty parts or ‘‘ decagrades,’’ and makes 100,000 beats per day instead of the 86,400 beats made by the ordinary chronometer. The elaborately fitted micrometer, which is used in connection with a Secretan equatorial of 135 mm. (5+ inches) aperture and 187 cm. (6-1 feet) focal length, has its circle divided into 4oo grades, the pitch of the screw being 1! (centesimal), and M. Libert contends that the use of these scales effects an immense saving of time and labour. The electrical and mechanical arrangements for NO. 1861, VOL. 72] | of the photographic plates obtained at the | and photographic With a lengthy experience in observing Jupiter, Major Molesworth has never before noticed any such change in this region of the planet, but he is perfectly as sured that the phenomenon was real. The observations were made under almost perfect conditions of seeing with a 12}-inch Calver reflector fitted with a Steinheil monocentric eye- piece magnifying 270 times (Monthly Notices, May). BRIGHTNESS OF JuPITER’S SATELLITES.—In a recent note in these columns (May 18) attention was directed to the results obtained by Prof. Wendell from a photometric in- vestigation of the relative brightnesses of Jupiter’s satellites. He found that the invariable order of bright- ness of the satellites was iii., i., ii., iv., but, from a study Cape Observ- atory during 1891, 1903, and 1904, Prof. W. de Sitter finds that the order of magnitude was, invariably, iii., ii., i, iv., the interval ii.—i. being always of the same order as the intervals iii.ii. and i-iv. It thus appears that there must be a considerable difference between the visual magnitudes of these objects (Astrono- Nachrichten, No. 4026). mische ELLipTicAL ELEMENTS FOR THE ORBIT OF COMET 1905 a. —Finding that the places derived from parabolic elements for the orbit of comet 1905 a did not agree sufficiently well with those observed, Prof. Banachiewicz calculated the following set of elements for an elliptical orbit from several observations made at various places on March 27, April 7, and April 27, and publishes the same in No. 4027 of the Astronomische Nachrichten : T =1905 April 408096 (Berlin M.T.). © = 358 12 17°40 Ing g = 070470173 2 =157 27 41°75 [1905"0 log e = 9 9856436 @—) 40,0 20; 76 | = 200°62 years The places derived from these elements were found to agree far more satisfactorily with the observed places. According to a set of elements published by Herr A. Wedemayer in No. 4023 of the same journal, the period of this comet is about 279 years. Recent Positions or Eros.—The following positions for Eros, on the dates. named, have been derived from photo- graphs taken by Mr. Manson at Arequipa with the Bruce telescope, apparently the first photographs of the asteroid to be obtained since its recent conjunction with the sun :— 1905 G: Mt Abr Exposite; a (1900) 5 (1900) hice e F April 11 ie ST 8 20 36 37 —25 4°5 12 20 41 134 20 38 34 —24 556 14 20 40 45 20 42 12 —24 39°1 (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4027). oe NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 TELESCOPIC PLANETS. ‘|>HE possessors of telescopes now have an_ interesting variety of planetary objects for examination. These are Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. _ Venus is visible, as a crescent, in the morning sky, increasing to half-moon shape in the second week of July, and arriving at her greatest elongation, west of the sun, on July 6, when her distance from that luminary will be 45° 44’. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will form an attractive spectacle on July 4. . Mars has now declined in diameter to 13”, but the principal markings are still very distinct, and some of the more delicate canals remain observable. After July the planet will have receded so far from the earth that further telescopic study of his physical lineaments cannot be pur- sued successfully. Jupiter has just emerged into view as a morning star, rising about 21 hours before the sun. The most interesting point to be determined is the present position of the great red spot. The motion of this remarkable object has been curiously variable in recent years. Between October, 1904, and March, 1905, the rotation period corresponded very closely with that of system ii. of the ephemeris based on gh. 55m. 40-63s., and the longitude remained constant at about 26°, so that the spot followed the passages of the zero meridian by 43 minutes. The exact position of the marking should be ascertained as early and as frequently as possible during the coming opposition, and the follow- ing are the probable times of a few transits during ensuing weeks :-— Date Approximate | Date Approximate 1g05 Transit Time | 1905 Transit Time ew) ale | h. m. UB 8 ee, orc HO GP AO ey tea HR AG Gh bes Mop = 1G AUS 4u) sep ee metus Phy USE, SOE ORB ECS Gis ee OMe 28 1} Uren ica) Bio) BAX) Oh ksh kes SIGEESS TSW. ee T5530 fh ened milie ae 2300. Sra, TA Ae je Tle er 17, 10 CS BR a PE 16) 2 PHN Wise isca eas Yate) The large dark spot seen in the south temperate zone of Jupiter in and since 1901, if still visible, will be in longitude 191° at the end of June, and will therefore follow the zero meridian by 5} hours and the great red spot by 43 hours. Saturn rises 5 hours before the sun. It is most im- portant to learn whether there are any lingering signs of the extensive disturbance which affected the northern hemi- sphere in the summer and autumn of 1903. It is singular that, though a large number of observations of the spots were made and promptly reported in 1903, we, have heard practically nothing of similar results in 1904. Yet the markings remained visible, if much less conspicuously, in 1904. : Uranus was in opposition to the sun on June 23, and is therefore easily discernible at the present time, though his southern declination is 233° An excellent opportunity will be afforded of identifying this planet during the third week in July, when he passes about 1 minute of are north of the star 1 Sagittarii (mag. 5-3). Added June 25.—The great red spot on Jupiter was seen by the writer at Bristol, and estimated central on June 24 15h. 43m. Its longitude was therefore 25°-1, and this sufficiently shows that its motion has exhibited no further change during the last three months. Saturn was also carefully examined on the same morn- ing, but no conspicuous spots were seen in a 123-inch reflector by Calver, power 235. The observation of Jupiter was obtained with a 10-inch reflector by With-Browning, power 205. W. F. DENNING. THE ROYAL SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. HE second, or ladies’, conversazione of the Royal Society was held in the rooms of the society at Burlington House on Friday last, June 23, and was attended by a large and distinguished company. As on former occasions, many objects of scientific interest were exhibited, but most of them were shown at the earlier NO. 1861, VOL. 72] conversazione on May 17, and have already been described in these columns (May 25, p. 90). It is therefore only necessary now to refer to additional demonstrations and exhibits. sf In the course of the evening there were demonstrations, with lantern illustrations, on recent work in mimicry and protective resemblance, by Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., and on the three-colour photographic process, by Sir W. de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S. The photographs in colour that were shown were prints from three negatives taken of each subject. Each of the three negatives was taken through an appropriate coloured medium, and the three transparent prints were projected on a screen with appropriate coloured screens behind them, giving the colours of nature. The process and apparatus employed were based on those of Mr. Ives. < Brief descriptions of the new exhibits are given in the subjoined abstract of the official catalogue. The metal sodium, prepared so as to show its true colour and lustre: Mr. G. T. Beilby. The specimen was prepared by Dr. Thomas Ewan by melting the metal in vacuo in one vessel and running the clean, bright part of the liquid into another communicating vessel which had been freed from condensed air or moisture by heating during exhaustion. After solidification of a crystalline crust on the glass, the surplus liquid was run back into the first vessel and the specimen globe was sealed off.—(1) Pictures produced in the dark on a photographic plate by different woods ; (2) ordinary photographs of the same woods; (3) the woods used in the experiments: Dr. W. J. Russell, F.R.S. The pictures taken in the dark were obtained on an ordinary rapid photographic plate, the wood being in contact with the plate from one to eighteen hours at a temperature of 55° C. The pictures were developed in the same way as if they had been produced by light. The entoptoscope, a new form of ophthalmoscope: Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S. The instrument was devised by the exhibitor for the self-examination of the eye by means of pinhole vision—entoptic diagnosis (Listing). When an illuminated fine pinhole in a sheet of metal is held near the eye, sharp shadows of any opaque or semi-opaque object in the path of the rays within the eyeball are thrown on the retina. By this means the growth of cataract from its earliest stages can be traced. By using two closely adjacent pinholes in the revolving diaphragm, and the transparent scale in the eye-piece, the exact magnitude and distance from the retina of the opacity can be deter- mined.—The Ettles-Curties ophthalmometer and ophthalmic microscope: Mr. C. Baker. The opththalmometer is an instrument for measuring the radius of curvature of the cornea, and consequently of ascertaining the dioptric value of the refracting medium bounded by that curvature. The instrument consists of an attachment by which the patient's head is steadied, and a telescope with Wollaston prism for observing the images of the ‘‘ mires.’’ The latter are carried on an are graduated in terms of dioptres and radius of curvature, and prismatic steel bars provide a steady movement by rack and pinion to the adjustable parts. The whole is mounted on a telescopic floor standard which contains a plunger actuated by a spiral spring; by slight pressure this can be pushed down to the Ievel of the patient’s eye and clamped. The ophthalmometer can be detached and a microscope provided with electric illumin- ation substituted. Tantalum, and tantalum electric lamps: Messrs. Siemens Bros. and Co., Ltd. The exhibit comprised (1) specimens of the metal tantalum in the form of small blocks of more or less purity, also sheets and metallic powder, and speci- mens of wire of various thicknesses; (2) a series of tantalum glow lamps, requiring 110 volts and 0-34 ampere to give a light of 25 N.C. (13 watts per candle-power).— The ‘‘ Osmi’’ incandescent lamp: the General Electric Company. The lamp in appearance is similar to the ordinary electric bulb, but in place of carbon the filament is made from the rare metal osmium, which, when in a state of incandescence, glows with extreme brilliancy. The advantages claimed are :—high fusing point, white light, higher electrical efficiency, longer life, saving of current, less heat. The blackening of bulbs is inappreciable. The consumption of current with ordinary carbon filament lamp is 3-5 to 4 watts per candle-power. Consumption of current JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE 209 with Osmi lamp, 1-5 watts per candle-power.—Fery radiation pyrometer : the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. By means of a concave mirror the image of a hot body or of the inspection hole in a furnace wall is focused upon a copper-constantan thermo-couple connected to a direct- reading galvanometer on the centigrade scale. The instru- ment was shown working, being sighted upon a disc of hot iron within an electrical resistance furnace. Drawings made from combined photographs of the solar corona in 1898, 1900, and 1901: the Astronomer Royal. In 1901 a change in the corona on the west side appears to have taken place in the interval (thirty-seven minutes) between two photographs taken at different stations. The drawings were by Mr. W. H. Wesley.—(1) Photographs, maps, curves, and diagrams, in connection with the more recent researches on the astronomical significance of British stone circles. (2) Contact positives showing some of the results taken with the Solar Physics Observatory spectro- heliograph. Also four enlarged pictures showing disc and disc-and-limb photographs, and a photograph of the instru- ment itself. (3) A series of curves to illustrate the relation- ship between the flow of the river Thames and pressure and rainfall changes in Great Britain. The close associ- ation between British pressure and the barometric see-saw between the Indian and South American areas was also indicated: Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S.—A new sundial that tells standard time, designed by Prof. Albert Crehore: Sir W. H. Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S. The gnomon of the common form of dial is abandoned, and the shadow of a small bead fixed on a wire is cast on the interior of a true cylindrical surface, upon which figure-of-eight curves are drawn marking standard noon for each day of the year. The cylindrical surface is inclined so that its axis, upon which the bead is fixed, is parallel to that of the earth. It thus represents the latitude of the place. The shadow of the bead travels across the cylindrical surface parallel to, or on, one of the circles drawn thereon. These circles represent days of the month. Each hour described in the circle is always of the same length, and a scale of minutes engraved on the cylinder enables true mean time to be read off directly to a few seconds. Photographs illustrating the annual growth of a deer’s antlers: Mr. H. Irving. The deer photographed was a wapiti, full grown. The first photograph showed the deer on the second day after the antlers were cast. Succeeding photographs were taken at fortnightly intervals covering four months” growth. The antlers were also shown with the velvet in strips, and finally clean and hard. The antlers of the previous year were shown for comparison. —Mendelian heredity in rabbits: Mr. C. C. Hurst. A pure-bred ‘‘ Belgian hare,’’ mated with a pure-bred white Angora, gave all wild-grey rabbits. These, bred together, gave the ten types exhibited, in which appear all the possible combinations of four pairs of coat characters, viz. short and angora, coloured and white, grey and black, self-coloured and Dutch-marked. The breeding behaviour of these types demonstrates clearly the Mendelian prin- ciples of dominance, segregation, and gametic purity. Dominant characters are short, coloured, and grey coat. Recessive characters are Angora, white and black coat. The black and Dutch-marked characters were introduced by the white Angora.—(1) Individual, local, and ortho- genetic variation in Mexican lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus; (2) three specimens of Chirotes canalicu- latus from Rio Balsas, South Mexico: Dr. H. Gadow, F.R.S. The former exhibit included :—Cnemidophorus deppei, showing orthogenetic variation in the number of white dorsal stripes from 7 to 11. Local variation from completely white to black underparts; from lateral white spots to double red bands. C. striatus and C. guttatus. Leading from a sharply striped pattern to the dull-coloured and completely spotted form which is characteristic of the eastern forest region. C. gularis, C. mexicanus, C. bocourti, and other closely allied forms, varying in size, colour, pattern, and scales.—(1) Demonstration illustrating the life-history of wood-boring wasps (Crabronidz) ; (2) photographs from life of transformations of the brim- stone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni): Mr. Fred Enock. The Crabronidz, or wood-boring wasps, excavate (with their mandibles) deep burrows in decaying tree trunks, palings, &c., their work being carried on day and night NO. 1861, VOL. 72] until a sufficient depth has been reached. The female wasp then flies off in search of prey to stock her cells with food for the larvae. A number of species inhabit Great Britain. Each selects its prey from certain insects, and invariably keeps to the species so selected. The intelli- gence exhibited by the wasp when “ collecting ’’ is marvellous, a momentary glance as the insects dart past being sufficient to identify the right one.-—The membranous labyrinth of man and some animals: Dr. Albert A. Gray. The exhibit represented the membranous labyrinths of man, illustrating normal and pathological conditions ; the mem- branous labyrinth of the seal showing otoliths; the mem- branous labyrinths of the mouse, the rat, the rabbit, the sheep, the cat, the lemur, the duck, the hen. The brain of the haddock, with the otoliths in their natural position. (1) Restoration of a British Jurassic theropodous Dino- saur of the genus Streptospondylus from the Oxford Clay, Oxford ; (2) British armoured Dinosaur: Dr. Francis Baron Nopesa. The bipedal dinosaurian reptile shown in the first exhibit is the most complete representative of the genus discovered in this country. The type exists in the Paris Museum, but is very imperfect. The specimen from which Baron Nopcsa’s restoration is prepared is in the private museum of Mr. J. Parker, of Oxford, and is about to be described by the exhibitor. The restoration was executed under the direction of Dr. Francis Baron Nopcsa by Miss Alice B. Woodward. Diagram reconstruction of skeleton and bony dermal armour of Polacanthus Foxt, Hulke, from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight. Re- constructed by Dr. Francis Baron Nopesa, under the direc- tion of Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, F.R.S., and set up in the geological department of the British Museum. Ethnological specimens from southern Mexico : Gadow. The specimens comprised embroidered leather dancing dress; decorated cotton huipiles, from eastern Oaxaca and South Guerrero; white cotton shifts, em- broidered with beads, South Guerrero; dancing masks, from Coacoyulichan, South Guerrero; clay and stone idols and sacred vessels; clay whistles, kitchen utensils, ancient and modern; copper, flint, and stone implements; and duck-shaped water vessels. Photographs of the White Nile and its tributaries, taken by the Survey Department of Egypt, 1903: Captain H. G. Lyons. (1) Bahr el Jebel. The stations of Gondokoro, Lado, Mongalla, and Kiro; in this part the valley floor is about 2-4 feet above low-water level; at Ghaba Shambe and Hellet Nuer it is only 1-2 feet above it, and in this reach the greatest development of the marshes occurs, as well as the blocks of vegetation (Sudd). (2) Bahr el Ghazal and Bahr el Zaraf, showing their flat flood plains. (3) Sobat River in flood near its junction with the White Nile. (4) The White Nile. (5) Shilluk Negroes of the White Nile and Sobat.—Photographic views illustrative of the scenery of Tibet: the Royal Geographical Socicty. : Mrs. SUBMARINE NAVIGATION.* UBMARINE navigation has engaged the attention of inventors and attracted general interest for a_ very long period. Its practical application to purposes of war was made about 130 years ago. Under the conditions which prevailed a century ago in regard to materials of construction, propelling apparatus, and explosives, the con- struction of submarines necessarily proceeded on a limited scale, and the type practically died out of use, almost at its birth. Enough had been done, however, to demon- strate its practicability and to make it a favourite field of investigation for inventors, some of whom contemplated wide extensions of submarine navigation. Every naval war gave fresh incentive to these proposals, and led to the construction of experimental vessels. This was the case during the Crimean War, when the Admiralty had a sub- marine vessel secretly built and tried by a special com- mittee, on which, amongst others, Mr. Scott-Russell and Sir Charles Fox served. Again, during the Civil War in America, the Confederates constructed a submarine vessel, and used it against the blockading squadron off Charles- town. After several abortive attempts, and a considerable 1 Abstract of a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, June 9, by Sir William H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S. AINUO) NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 loss of life, they succeeded in destroying the Federal Housatonic, but their submarine with all its crew perished in the enterprise. It is impossible to give even a summarised statement of other efforts made in this direction from 1860 onwards to 1880; but one cannot leave unnoticed the work done in the United States by Mr. Holland, who devoted himself for a quarter of a century to continuous experiment on submarines, and eventually achieved success. The Holland type was first adopted by the United States Navy, and was subsequently accepted by the British Admiralty as the point of departure for our subsequent construction of sub- marines. In France, also, successive designs for sub- marines were prepared by competent naval architects, and a few vessels were built and tried. The Plongeur, of 1860, Was a submarine of large size, considerable cost, and well considered design; but her limited radius of action and comparatively low speed left her for many years without a successor on the French Navy List. The modern development of submarines for war purposes is chiefly due to French initiative. During the earlier stages of this development progress was extremely slow. The Gymnote was ordered in 1886 and the Gustave Zédé in 1888, and her trials continued over nearly eight years, large sums of money being spent thereon. In 1896 com- petitive designs for submarines were invited, but no great activity was displayed in this department of construction until the Fashoda incident two years later. Since that time remarkable developments have been made in France, considerable numbers of submarines have been laid down, rival types have been constructed, and many designers have been engaged in the work. Up to the present time about seventy submarines and submersibles have been ordered ; in July, 1904, the total number of completed vessels was twenty-eight, and at the end of 1907 it is estimated that France will possess sixty completed submarines, with a total displacement of nearly 13,600 tons. The first French submarine of modern type, the Gymnote, was 56 feet long and of 30 tons displacement. The latest types are nearly 150 feet long and of 420 tons displacement. The cost of a French submarine designed in 1898 was about 26,oool. The estimated cost of the latest and largest vessels is about 70,0001. Two years elapsed after the date when the French resolutely undertook the construction of submarines before the British Admiralty ordered five vessels of. the Holland type from Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, who had acquired the concession for the use of the Holland Com- pany’s patents. These first vessels in essentials were repetitions of the type which had been tried and officially approved by the authorities of the United States Navy. It was agreed that all improvements made by the Holland Company should be at the service of the British Admiralty through the English concessionnaires. Our first five sub- marines are 63 feet in length, 120 tons in displacement, with gasolene engines of 160 horse-power for surface pro- pulsion, giving a speed of 8 to 9 knots. The electric motors for submerged propulsion are estimated to give a speed of about 7 knots. The contract price for each vessel in the United States was about 34,000l., and that is about the price paid for our earliest vessels. The latest type of which particulars are available is said to be about 150 feet in length, 300 tons in displacement, and with gasolene engines of 850 horse-power for surface propulsion, giving a surface speed of 13 knots and a radius of action of 500 miles. The under-water speed is 9 knots, and the radius of action when submerged about 90 miles. In French official classification a distinction is made between submarines and submersibles, and this terminology has been the cause of some confusion. Both classes are capable of diving when required, and both can make passages at the surface. In this surface condition a con- siderable portion of the vessel lies above the water-surface and constitutes what is technically called a ‘reserve of buoyancy.’’ In the submersible this reserve of buoyancy and the accompanying freeboard are greater than in the submarine type, and in this respect lies the chief difference between the two types. The submersible has higher free- board and greater reserve of buoyancy, which secure better sea-going qualities and greater habitability. The deck or NO. 1861, VOL. 72] platform is situated higher above water, and to it the crew can find access in ordinary weather when making passages, and obtain exercise and fresh air. Recent ex- haustive trials in France are reported to have established the great superiority of the submersible type when the service contemplated may involve sea passages of consider- able length. The French policy, as recently announced, contemplates the construction of submersibles of about 400 tons displacement for such extended services, and pro- poses to restrict the use of submarines to coast and harbour defence, for which vessels of about 100 tons displacement are to be employed. All recent British submarines would be ranked as submersibles according to the French classifi- cation, and it is satisfactory to know, as the result of French experiments, that our policy of construction proves to have distinct advantages. In addition to these two types of diving or submarine vessels, the French are once more discussing plans which have been repeatedly put forward and practically applied by M. Goubet, namely, the construction of small portable submarine vessels which could be lifted on board large ships and transported to any desired scene of operations. In the Royal Navy, for many years past, it has been the practice similarly to lift and carry second-class torpedo or vedette boats about 20 tons in weight. Lifting appliances for dealing with these heavy boats have been designed and fitted in all our large cruisers and in battleships, and a few ships have been built as “‘ boat-carriers.’’ The first of these special depot ships in the Royal Navy was the Vulcan, ordered in 1887-8, the design being in essentials that prepared by the lecturer at Elswick in 1883. The French have also built a special vessel named the Foudre, which has been adapted for transporting small submarines to Saigon, and performed the service without difficulty. Whether this development of small portable submarines will take effect or not remains at present an open question, but there will be no mechanical difficulty either in the production of the vessels themselves or in the means for lifting and carrying them. Progress in mechanical engineering and in metallurgy has been great since Bushnell constructed and used his first submarine in 1776, during the war between the United States and this country. These advances have made it possible to increase the dimensions, speed, and radius of action of submarines; their offensive powers have been enlarged by the use of locomotive torpedoes, and superior optical arrangements have been devised for discovering the position of an enemy while they themselves remain sub- merged. But it cannot be claimed that any new principle of design has been discovered or applied. From descrip- tions left on record by Bushnell, and still extant, it is certain that he appreciated, and provided for, the govern- ing conditions of the design in regard to buoyancy, stability, and control of the depth reached by submarines. Indeed, Bushnell showed the way to his successors in nearly all these particulars, and—although alternative methods of fulfilling essential conditions have been introduced and practically tested—in the end Bushnell’s plans have in substance been found the best. The laws which govern the flotation of submarines are, of course, identical with those applying to other floating bodies. When they are at rest and in equilibrium they must displace a weight of water equal to their own total weight. At the surface they float at a minimum draught, and possess in this “awash ”’ condition a sufficient freeboard and reserve of buoyancy to fit them for propulsion. When submarines are being prepared for ‘‘ diving ’’ water is admitted to special tanks, and the additional weight increases immersion, and correspondingly reduces reserve of buoyancy. In some small submarines comparative success has been attained in reaching and maintaining any desired depth below the surface simply by the admission of the amount of water required to secure a perfect balance between the weight of the vessel and all she contains, and the weight of water which would fill the cavity occupied by the submarine when submerged. For all practical pur- poses and within the depths reached by submarines on service water may be regarded as incompressible; the sub- marine should, therefore. rest in equilibrium at any depth if her total weight is exactly balanced by the weight of JUNE 29, 1905] NATURE ZINA water displaced. If the weight of the vessel exceeds by ever so small an amount the weight of water displaced, that excess constitutes an accelerating force tending to sink the vessel deeper. On the contrary, if the weight of water displaced exceeds by ever so small an amount the total weight of the vessel, a vertical force is produced tending to restore her to the surface. In these circum- stances, it is obvious that if the admission or expulsion of water from internal tanks (or the extrusion or withdrawal of cylindrical plungers for the purpose of varying the dis- placement) were the only means of controlling vertical movement, it would be exceedingly difficult to reach or to maintain any desired depth. This difficulty was antici- pated on theoretical grounds, and has been verified on service—in some cases with considerable risks to the ex- perimentalists—the submarines having reached the bottom before the vertical motion could be checked. It has con- sequently become the rule for all submarines to be left with a small reserve of buoyancy when brought into the diving condition. Submergence is then effected by the action of horizontal rudders controlled by operators within the vessels. Under these conditions, submergence only continues so long as onward motion is maintained, since there is no effective pressure on the rudders when the vessel is at rest. The smallest reserve of buoyancy should always bring a submarine to the surface if her onward motion ceases, and, as a matter of fact, in the diving condition that reserve is extremely small, amounting to only 300 lb. (equivalent to 30 gallons of water) in vessels of 120 tons total weight. This is, obviously, a narrow margin of safety, and necessitates careful and_ skilled management on the part of those in charge of submarines. A small change in the density of the water, such as occurs in an estuary or in the lower reaches of a great river, would speedily obliterate the reserve of buoyancy and cause the vessel to sink if water was not expelled from the tanks. Moreover, variations in weight of the submarine (due to the consumption of fuel, the discharge of torpedoes or other causes) must sensibly affect the reserve of buoyancy, and arrangements must be made to compensate for these variations by admitting equal weights of water in positions that will maintain the ‘‘ trim ’’ of the vessel. Additional safeguards against foundering have been pro- vided in some submarines by fitting detachable ballast. The more common plan is to make arrangements for rapidly expelling water from the tanks either by means of pumps or by the use of compressed air. In modern sub- marines, with locomotive torpedoes, compressed air is, of course, a necessity, and can be readily applied in the manner described if it is desired to increase their buoyancy. The conditions of stability of submarines when diving are also special. At the surface, owing to their singular form, the longitudinal stability is usually much less than that of ordinary ships. When submerged, their stability is the same in all directions, and it is essential that the centre of gravity shall be kept below the centre of buoyancy. This involves no difficulty, because water- ballast tanks can be readily built in the lower portions of the vessels. Small stability in the longitudinal sense, how- ever, necessitates great care in the maintenance of trim, and in the avoidance of serious movements of weights” within the. vessels. Moreover, when a vessel is diving under the action of her longitudinal rudders, she is ex- tremely sensitive to changes of trim, and great skill is required on the part of operators in charge of working the rudders. As the under-water speed is increased, the pressure on the rudders for a given angle increases as the square of the velocity, and sensitiveness to change of trim becomes greater. This fact makes the adoption of higher under-water speed a matter requiring very serious consider- ation. Some authorities, who have given great attention to the construction of submarines, have been opposed to the adoption of high speeds under water, because of the danger that vessels when diving quickly may reach much greater depths than are desirable. Causes of disturbance which might be of small importance when the under- water speed is moderate may have a greatly exaggerated effect when higher speeds are reached. Cases are on record where modern submarines in the hands of skilled crews have accidentally reached the bottom in great depths of water, and have had no easy task to regain the surface. xo. 1861, VoL. 72] For these reasons, it is probable that while speeds at the surface will be increased, under-water speeds will not grow correspondingly. Indeed, the tactics of submarines hardly appear to require high speed under water, seeing that it is an important element in successful attack to make the final dive at a moderate distance from the enemy. It is authoritatively stated that in our submarines complete control of vertical movements has been secured by means of skilled operators, and that a constant but moderate depth below the surface can be maintained. Proposals have been made and successfully applied to small submarines for automatically regulating the depth of submergence by apparatus similar to that used in locomotive torpedoes. For the larger submarines now used such automatic apparatus does not find fayour, and better results are obtained with trained men. The possibility of descending to considerable depths h to be kept in view when deciding on the form and _ struc- tural arrangements of submarines, which may be subjected accidentally to very great external pressure. It is abso- lutely necessary to success that, under the highest pressure likely to be endured, there shall be rigidity of form, as local collapse of even a very limited amount might be accompanied by a diminution in displacement that would exceed the reserve of buoyancy. This condition is not difficult of fulfilment, and the approximately circular form usually adopted for the cross-sections of submarines favours their resistance to external pressure. Under former conditions, there was difficulty in remain- ing long under water without serious inconvenience from the impurity of the air. Now, by suitable arrangements and chemical appliances, a supply of pure air can be obtained for considerable periods, sufficient, indeed, for any operations likely to be undertaken. The use of gasolene engines for surface propulsion has many advantages. It favours increase in speed and radius of action, and enables submarines to be more independent and self-supporting. Storage batteries can be re-charged, air compressed and other auxiliary services performed independently of any ‘‘ mother’’ ship. At the same time, it is desirable to give to each group of submarines a sup- porting ship, serving as a base and store depét, and this has been arranged in this country as well as in France. With gasolene engines, care must be taken to secure thorough ventilation and to avoid the formation of explosive mixtures of gas and air, otherwise accidents must follow. Little information is available as regards the success of ““ periscopes’? and other optical instruments which have been devised for the purpose of enabling those in command of submarines to obtain information as to their surround- ings when submerged. In this department, secrecy is obviously desirable, and no one can complain of official reticence. From published accounts of experimental work- ing abroad as well as in this country, it would appear that considerable success has been obtained with these optical instruments in comparatively smooth water. It is also asserted that when the lenses are subjected to thorough washing by wave-water, they remain efficient. On the other hand, the moderate height of the lenses above water must expose them to the danger of being wetted by spray even in a very moderate sea, and experience in torpedo- boats and destroyers places it beyond doubt that the re- sultant conditions must greatly interfere with efficient vision. In heavier seas, the comparatively small height of the lenses above water must often impose more serious limitations in the use of the periscopes and similar instru- ments. Improvements are certain to be made as the result of experience with these optical appliances, and we may be sure that in their use officers and men of the Royal Navy will be as expert as any of their rivals. But when all that is possible has. been done, it must remain true that increase in offensive power and in immunity from attack obtained by submergence will be accompanied by unavoid- able limitations as well as by special risks resulting from the sacrifice of buoyancy and the great reduction in longi- tudinal stability which are unavoidable when diving. These considerations have led many persons to favour the construction of so-called surface-boats rather than sub- marines. They would resemble submersibles in many re- spects, but the power of diving would be surrendered, although they would be so constructed that by admitting as 2472 NATURE [JUNE 29, 1905 water by special tanks they could be deeply immersed and show only a small target above the surface when making an attack. There would be no necessity in such surface vessels to use electric motors and storage batteries, since internal combustion engines could be used in all circum- stances. Hence it would be possible without increase of size to construct vessels of greater speed and radius of action, and to simplify designs in other important features. It is not possible to predict whether this suggestion to adopt surface-boats rather than submersibles will have a practical result; but it is unquestionable that improve- ments in or alternatives to internal combustion engines will favour the increase of power in relation to weight, and so will tend to the production of vessels of higher speed. Submarines and airships have certain points of re- semblance, and proposals have been made repeatedly to associate the two types, or to use airships as a means of protection from submarine attacks. One French inventor seriously suggested that a captive balloon attached to a submarine should be the post of observation from which information should be telephoned to the submarine as to the position of an enemy. He evidently had little trust in periscopes, and overlooked the dangers to which the observers in the car of the balloon would be exposed from an enemy’s gun-fire. Quite recently a proposal has been made by M. Santos Dumont to use airships as a defence against submarines, his idea being that a dirigible air- ship of large dimensions and moving at a considerable height above the surface of the sea could discover the whereabouts of a submarine, even at some depth below the surface, and could effect its destruction by dropping high explosive charges upon the helpless vessel. Here again, the inventor, in his eagerness to do mischief, has not appreciated adequately the risks which the airship would run if employed in the manner proposed, as sub- marines are not likely to be used without supporting vessels. Hitherto, submarines themselves have been armed only with torpedoes, but it has been proposed recently to add guns, and this can be done, if desired, in vessels possessing relatively large freeboard. No doubt if gun armaments are introduced, the tendency will be further to increase dimensions and cost, and the decision will be governed by the consideration of the gain in fighting power as compared with increased cost. As matters stand, submarines are practically helpless at the surface when attacked by small swift vessels, and it is natural that advocates of the type should desire to remedy this con- dition. Surface boats, if built, will undoubtedly carry guns as well as torpedoes, and in them the gun fittings would be permanent, whereas in submarines certain por- tions of the armament would have to be removed when vessels were prepared for diving. Apart from the use of submarine vessels for purposes of war, their adoption as a means of navigation has found favour in many quarters. Jules Verne, in his ‘‘ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,’? has drawn an attrac- tive picture of what may be possible in this direction, and others have favoured the idea of combining the supposed advantages of obtaining buoyancy from bodies floating at some depth below the surface with an airy promenade carried high above water. Not many years ago an eminent naval architect drew a picture of what might be accomplished by utilising what he described as the “‘ un- troubled water below ’’ in association with the freedom and pure air obtainable on a platform carried high above the waves. These suggestions, however, are not in accord with the accepted theory of wave-motion, since they take no note of the great depths to which the disturbance due to wave-motion penetrates the ocean. The problems of stability, incidental to such plans, are also of a character not easily dealt with, and consequently there is but a remote prospect of the use of these singular combinations of submarine and aérial superstructures. There is little likelihood of the displacement of ocean steamships at an early date by either navigable airships or submarines, and the dreams of Jules Verne or Santos Dumont will not be realised until much further advance has been made in the design and construction of the vessels they contemplate. ; NO. 1861, VOL. 72] THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. HE summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was held last week in Belgium. The open- ing proceedings took place in the city of Liége, the presi- dent, Mr. E. P. Martin, occupying the chair at the preliminary sitting. Six papers were down for reading and discussion, the mornings of June 20 and June 21 being devoted to their consideration. The following is a list of the papers :—Superheaters applied to locomotives on the Belgian State railways, by M. J. B. Flamme; the growth of large gas-engines on the Continent, by M. Rodolphe Mathot; ferro-concrete, and some of its most characteristic applications in Belgium, by M. Ed. Noaillon ; electric winding machines, by M. Paul Habets; strength of columns, by Prof. W. E. Lilly; an investigation to determine the effects of steam-jacketing upon the efficiency of a horizontal compound steam engine, by Mr. A. L. Mellanby. The first paper taken was the contribution by M. Flamme on superheating for locomotives. The author first dealt with the Schmidt superheater for simple expansion - locomotives as applied on the Belgian State railways. Arrangements were made for superheating the steam, in order further to increase the power of the engines. As a result of experiments made, extending over some months, it was recognised that the utilisation of steam slightly superheated did not offer any appreciable economy of fuel or increase of power. On the other hand, with the Schmidt apparatus, when the steam was superheated from 570° F. to 662° F., favourable results were obtained. Two engines were tried, one using superheated steam and the other saturated steam. ‘The saving in favour of the super- heated steam locomotive amounted to 12-5 per cent. for fuel and 16-5 per cent. for water. Moreover, the speed reached showed an average increase of 9-5 per cent., all conditions being exactly the same. In regard to main- tenance, the superheated steam locomotive type did not require special attention during its one and a half years’ service. These favourable results led to the Belgian State railways venturing on the application of superheat to locomotives on a larger scale. With this in view, twenty- five locomotives, comprising five different types, all pro- vided with the Schmidt superheater, were, at the time of the reading of the paper, actually in course of construc- tion, or were about to be put to work. The Belgian State railway authorities had decided to persevere in their ex- periments in combining superheating of steam with com- pounding of the engine. The results obtained will be of very great interest. It was desirable to find whether it was more economical to divide the superheater into two parts in such a manner as to raise the temperature at the entrance to both high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders. The Cockerill Co., of Seraing, had completed a super- heater which would enable this question to be settled. The discussion on this paper was opened by Mr. Robinson, of Messrs. Sharp, Stewart, and Co., who stated that the Schmidt superheater had been tried on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and had been found to answer, whilst on the Cape railways the results had not been so satisfactory. He attributed the latter effect to the fact that the superheating tubes were placed at the lower part of the barrel of the boiler, instead of at the upper part as they should have been. Mr. Mark H. Robinson and the president also spoke. The next paper taken was that of Mr. Paul Habets on electric winding machines. This was a long and some- what abstruse paper, illustrated by many diagrams, and containing a large number of formula. It was read in brief abstract by the secretary of the institution. The author gave a dynamic investigation of haulage, dealing with the questions of resistance, statical moments, inertia of suspended loads, inertia of rope-roll, the head gear and winding gears of motors, and other elements of design. Formulz were given for moments of the accelerating forces and power and expenditure of energy. Details of construc- tion of motors were discussed, and some special devices explained. As a practical conclusion, the author stated that it might be safely concluded from trials of which particulars were given that the electric haulage machine, June 29, 1905] NATURE 273 even if it were not more economical than the best steam- driven machines, was certainly not more expensive. The greater facility and safety with which electricity can be used, the smoothness with which it works, and its much greater flexibility, would often make it preferable to the use of steam, even in a case where transmission of energy was not required; there could be no hesitation in the choice between the two systems when the power had to be transmitted from a distance, or where the production of energy could be centralised at one power station. M. Ed. Noaillon’s paper on ferro-concrete was next read. Ferro-concrete constructions, as is well known, consist of a mass in which iron or steel reinforcement is bedded. The author stated that round bars were generally used, as they facilitated the escape of air and the proper ramming of the concrete; there were also no sharp angles which would cut the concrete. On the other hand, the round section gave the lowest coefficient of adhesion for a given cross-section of metal. The following rules govern- ing the construction had been prepared by Prof. Rabut :— (1) No connection should be made of iron to iron, as the concrete itself holds the parts together in the most economical manner. (2) At least two distinct systems of reinforcement should be used, one to take up the tensile stress and the other to take up the shearing stresses in the concrete ; when necessary a third system should be used to take up the compressive stresses. (3) The reinforcement should be so arranged that the separate members may be stressed in the direction of their length, so that the stresses produced between the iron and the concrete should be tangential, and not normal to the axis of the members of the reinforcement. (4) Homogeneity of the structure should be taken advantage of by prolonging the iron parts of one portion of the structure into the thickness of the concrete of the adjoining portion. Other points were also given. Methods of construction were described and illustrated. Some examples of reinforced concrete were given in the paper, the handsome dome of the new Central Railway Station at Antwerp being a prominent instance. This dome is a fine piece of architecture, but was designed first of all for an ordinary masonry structure, a fact which made it somewhat difficult for the architects to adapt it for ferro-concrete. The entire structure is r800 tons in weight, and rests wholly upon the columns at the angles of the glass lights; these columns are Y-shaped in cross-section. The external shell has a uniform thickness of 3-15 inches, and is relieved by six moulded ribs following the meridian lines. The Renommée Hall at Liége was the next example of this kind of construction. It was designed expressly for the use of this material. The principal hall is covered by three cupolas, each 55 feet in diameter, placed at a height of about 50 feet above the level of the ground. Each cupola forms part of a sphere, which continues in haunches, pierced with lights, and descending to the corners of the circumscribed square. The intersections of the spheres with the vertical spans passing through the sides of the squares are formed by arched beams, which spring from the capitals of short cylindrical columns. The cupolas are 44 inches thick, and are made of concrete com- posed of cement clinker finely broken up; they are re- inforced by a layer of expanded metal with a lattice work of bars. Members of the institution had a good oppor- tunity to examine this structure, as one of the banquets during the meeting was given in the Renommée Hall. An interesting application of reinforced concrete was also described in the widening of La Boverie Bridge at Liége. Particulars were also given of another bridge, built upon the Hennebique system; the length between abutments was 260 feet, and comprised a central span of 180 feet and two side spans. The total width of the road- way was 32-8 feet. An interesting feature about this bridge is the design of the foundations, and the way they were erected by mechanical compression of the soil. The piers and. abutments rested upon a group of concrete piles driven deeply into the bed of the gravel, which thus became strongly compressed. The concrete piles were reinforced by vertical bars of steel which were continued into the piers and abutments, so that the whole was solidly bound together. By this method the advantage was obtained had a resistance amply sufficient in case of a floating accumulation of ice, such as would temporarily transform the bridge into a dam. . 4 es Dr. William Thomas Blanford, F.R.S. By A. G. 202 Notes apa ee ee 7 ‘ aos 203 Our Astronomical Column :— Astronomical Occurrences in Jitly).: cigep nee een 207 New Observatory in Algeria. (Lilustrated.) . . . 207 A Suspected Sudden Change on Jupiter se, 209, Brightness of Jupiter’s Satellites Bee tal Gre 207 Elliptical Elements for the Orbit of Comet 1905 a. 207 Recent Positions of Eros . : Bae 0S Sh, Telescopic Work for Observers of Planets. By WWiGR eID ERDINE: <5) 3, «yoncnys cur WW eae Rae The Royal Society Conversazione. . , . . caleeecrezas: Submarine Navigation. By Sir William H, White, KC) By ERS: PRPC ORONS Go edn mn 0G) The Institution of Mechanical JOIEIMISES GS 5S eG BID University and Educational Intelligence Sy The Government reserves to itself the right to dismiss the Assistant for misconduct or incapacity. , In the Government Schools, as in all State Administrations in Egypt, Sunday is a working day. The Schools are closed on Fridays. Leave will be granted on the same terms as to other Government officials. The possibility of taking leave, and the period of the year at which it is granted, depend upon the exigencies of the service. Pay commences from date of arrival in Cairo. On taking up his duties in Cairo, each Assistant will receive one month's pay in lieu of passage money. All applicants should attach a certificate from a legally qualified medical man, stating that in his opinion the candidate is in a fit state of health to undertake the duties of the post. All applicants should state their age, what foreign languages they know, and if they can be in Cairo by October 1. The latest mail by which applications may be posted will leave London on Friday, July 14. Applications to be addressed to the Director, Government School of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt. MINISTRY of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, EGYPT. POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING. An INSTRUCTOR in ENGINEERING is required to begin work on Sane 30 in the Polytechnic School of Engineering, Ghizeh (near ‘airo). The Instructor appointed will be engaged in teaching Descriptive Engineering and Hydraulics. Candidates must have had practical experience as engineers, and have been engaged on work of a class intimately related to the subjects to be taught. They should be from 25 to 35 years of age, unmarried, and havea robust constitution. A University Degree or Diploma in Engineering is an essential qualifi- cation. Salary about £430 per annum (4 Eg.35 per mensem), rising to about 553 per annum (4Eg.45 per mensem). Allowance for passage out to Egypt. Bachelor quarters are provided. Applications, with full statement of qualifications, and accompanied by copies only of testimonials, must be sent in before July 22, 1905, addressed to W. C. Mackenzig, Esq., D.Sc., 5 The Crescent, Cromer, to whom candidates may apply for further information. MINISTRY of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, EGY Pa. SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. An INSTRUCTOR in LAND SURVEYING and FARM ENGINEERING is required to begin work on September 30 in the School of Agriculture, Ghizeh (near Cairo). Preference will be given to candidates having experience of Practice and Teaching. They should be from 23 to 33 years of age, unmarried, and have a robust constitution. A University Degree or College Diploma is an essential qualification. Salary about 4295 per annum (4 Eg. 24 per mensem), rising to about #393 per annum (4 Eg. 32 per mensem). Allowance for passage out to Egypt. Bachelor quarters are provided. Applications, with full statement of qualifications, and accompanied by copies only of testimonials, must be sent in before July 22, 1905, addressed to W. C. MackenzikE, Esq., D.Sc., 5 The Crescent, Cromer, to whom candidates may apply for further information. HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RicHARDSON, D.Sc., B.A. The Council appointments :— 1, ASSISTANT LECTURER IN ENGLISH, who will also be re- quired to give some elementary instruction in LATIN. Salary, 4130 per annum. 2, ASSISTANT LECTURER IN MATHEMATICS, who will also be required to give some elementary instruction in PHYSICS. Salary, £130 per annum. Applications, giving particulars of age, training, qualifications, and experience, with copies of three recent testimonials, must be sent to the of the College invite applications for the following REGISTRAR (of whom further particulars may be obtained) on or before July 17, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES. J. E. Macxenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc. “LH. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B.Sc. (ALBERT GriFFiTHs, D.Sc. Physics ... a3 see Bee ..,D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. \(B. W. Crack, B.Sc. E. H. Smart, M.A. is iS Beer ev ree : A. B. Renpig, M.A., D.Sc. Botany... . {BE Fritscu, Ph.D., B.Sc. Zoology... ee ree 56% « H. W. Untuank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy . Geo. F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Geo. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, & Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES also in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Land and Quantity Surveying, and Estimating. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. Chemistry _... Mathematics At the SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, Manresa Road, Chelsea, S.W., Day College Courses of thirty hours per week will be conducted in preparation for the London University Degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, in Chemis- try, Physics and the Natural Sciences. The composition fee for the Session of three terms, 1905-1906, is £15. These Courses are recog- nised for ‘‘Internal Students” of the University, and consist of lecture and laboratory instruction. The Courses are conducted by :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, W. W. F. Pullen, A. Macklow Smith; ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, A. J. Makower; CHEMISTRY, J. B. Coleman, J. C. Crocker, and F. H. Lowe; MATHEMATICS and PHYSICS, S. Skinner, W. H. Eccles, J. Lister and L. Lownds; BOTANY, H. B. Lacey and T. G. Hill; GEOLOGY, A. J. Maslen. In the evenings similar Courses will be conducted, but at £2 per Session. Also TECHNICAL DAY COURSES of three years’ duration are arranged as a preparation for the Engineering, Electrical and Chemical and Metallurgical pro- fessions. The Laboratories and Workshop are open for RESEARCH under the direction of The Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on application to The SECRETARY, who will send the Calendar and Prospectus for 34d., or it may be obtained at the Office, price rd. TUITION BY CORRESPONDENCE. For MATRICULATION, B.A., SCHOLARSHIPS, and PRO- FESSIONAL PRELIMINARIES. Tuition in Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Mathematics, Mechanics, Physics, Chemis- try, Psychology, Logic, Political Economy, Book-keeping. The Staff includes Graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Royal Universities.—Address Mr. J. CHarcesvon, B.A., Burlington Correspond- ence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. BOROUGH OF ASTON MANOR EDUCATION COMMITTEE. MUNICIPAL’ TECHNICAL SCHOOL, The Committee invite applications for the following vacant appoint- ments :-— ASSISTANT, qualified to teach Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Steam, Applied Mechanics, and Engineering subjects generally. Com- mencing salary, £120 per annum. ASSISTANT, qualified in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. Com- mencing salary, £110 per annum. Graduates preferred. Applications, giving full particulars and enclosing copies of three recent testimonials, should be sent to THE SecreTary, Education Office, Albert Road, Aston Manor, not later than July 10, 1905. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee REQUIRES the services ofan ASSISTANT MASTER for the COUNCILCENTRAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, Suffolk Street. Salary, 4100 to 4160 per annum, according to qualifications and expe- rience. Candidates must be well qualified in Engineering Subjects and Mathematics. ; : 4 Form of Application may be obtained from the undersigned, which should be returned immediately. JNO. ARTHUR PALMER, Secretary Education Department, Edmund Street, June 20, rg0s5. JuLy 6, 1905] NATURE XCill The GOVERNORS of the WOOLWICH POLYTECHNIC invite applications for the following appointments, which will date from next September :— 1. Five Teachers for Mathematics and Physics at commencing salaries ranging from £130 to £160 per annum. Two of these appointments are confined to Teachers (men and women) who have had experience in Secondary Schools. 2. Six Teachers for the Day Sécondary School (mixed) at commencing salaries ranging from 4100 to £140 per annum. The appointments, which are open to men or women, will be divided, (a) two Teachers for English, History and Latin; (4) two Teachers for French and German}; (c) two Teachers for general form work in the Lower School. One Teacher (woman) for Chemistry and Botany at a commencing salary of £140 per annum. Experience in Secondary Schools essential. 4. One Teacher in the School of Domestic Economy at a commencing salary of £90 per annum. 5. One Teacher for Engineering subjects at a commencing salary of £150 per annum. 6. One Teacher (evening classes only) for Building Construction, Builders’ Quantities, &c. 7. Two Art Pupil Teachers, each at a commencing salary of £30 per annum. 8. One Teacher to take Evening Classes in English, French and Latin preparatory for the London University Matriculation Examination. Further particulars of the appointments may be obtained by sending to the Principal a stamped addressed /foo/scaf envelope. The last day for receiving applications is Friday, July 14. A. J. NAYLOR, Clerk to the Governors. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, W. The College provides instruction for Students preparing for the Uni- versity of London Degrees in Arts, Science, and Preliminary Medicine, also instruction in subjects of General Education. There isa Training Department for Teachers, a Hygiene Department, and an Art School. Students can reside in the College. DEPARTMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN TEACHING. (Recognised by the Cambridge Syndicate.) HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT—MiIss Mary Morton, M.A. Students are admitted to the Training Course in October and in January. The Course includes full preparation for the examinations for the Teaching Diplomas granted by the Universities of London and Cambridge, held annually in December. A Course of Lectures for Teachers on School Hygiene is held on Saturday mornings. Full particulars on ‘application to the PRINCIPAL. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. The Governors of the above Institute invite applications for the following appointment :— PART-TIME ASSISTANT in the CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT, day and evening work. Applications to be made on special forms, which must be returned not later than July 17, to be obtained from W. M. MACBETH, Secretary. UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK, FREDERICTON, N.B., CANADA. Applications are invited until August 15 for the position of DEAN of the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying in connection with the Univer- sity. Salary commencing October 1, £240, with suite of rooms in College, suitable for a married man, and heated at the expense of the College. Required also at the same time, a PROFESSOR of ENGLISH and FRENCH who has some knowledge of German. Salary, £200, with rooms in College for single man. Duties begin October r. Applications and testimonials should be sent to the REGisTRAR oc the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., Canada. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN CHEMISTRY. The Research Fellowships founded by the Salters’ and the Leathersellers’ Companies for the encouragement of Higher Research in Chemistry in its relation to Manufactures, tenable at the City and Guilds Central Technical College, being now vacant, the Executive Committee of the Institute are prepared to receive applications from candidates. The grants made by each Company to the Institute for this purpose are £150 a year. Copies of the schemes under which the Fellowships are awarded may be had from the Honorary SECRETARY OF THE INSTITUTE, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, EC. ee Partnership offered in a Commercial Re- search Firm. Applicant must have first-class experimental training and about £3,000 capital. Send full particulars as to experience and qualifications to Box No. 1862, c/o NaTure Office. —h—— eS nur” Ta b / 0 1 G ; Bana Intensifier. The best cure for weak, thin or flat négatives. Intensifies the shadow detai's as well as the denser deposits in one No Economical, portable and keeps. operation. risk of stain. Sold in tubes by all chemists. LEAFLETS GRATIS. BURROUGHS WELLCOME & Co. LONDON, SYDNEY AND CAPE TOWN. Chief Ofices—Snow Hill Buildings, London, SP 2 PF PHO. 68 coerriGhT] To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED (1) Graduate for Science and Maths. Important School near Loncon. Salary, £120 to £150, resident. (2) PRINCIPAL of Technical Institute and Teacher of Electricity, £209 to 4250. (3) Assistant Master for General Elementary Science. Degree not neces- sary. 22 hours’ work a week. Technical Institute in Kent. £140 to £160, non-res. (4) Two Masters required for Physics and Chemistry under Dept. of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, £100 each, resident. Important Schools in Ireland. (5) Physics and Maths. Technical Day School. £120 to £150, non-res. (6) Five Mathl. and Science Masters required for Public Institution near London. Salaries up to 4160 each. (7) Graduate mainly for Practical Science. £80 to 4100, resident. Grammar School. (8) Maths. to Scholarship Stand. £120, resident. Preparatory School. (9) Mathematical Mas- ter for County School. 120, non-res. (10) Chemistry, Physics and Maths. £120, non-res. County School. For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address :—GrirriTus, SmiTH, PowELi & Smiru, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford St., Strand. COUNTY BOROUGH OF CROYDON. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee require the services of a TEACHER OF CHEMIS- TRY at the Central Polytechnic, Scarbrook Road, Croydon, for Session 1905-6. The person appointed will be required to teach on two evenings per week at a fee of 20s. per evening. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications, stating age, qualifications, &c., accompanied by copies of testimonials, must be sent not later than Wednesday, July 12, 1905. JAMES SMYTH, Clerk. Education Office, Katharine Street, Croydon, Ju'y 4, 1905. 3 MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOLS, LIMERICK. A PRINCIPAL is required for the above Schools who would also undertake to teach Electricity in the evenings. Salary, £200 to £250, according to qualifications and experience of organising work. Application to be sent before July 31 to THE SECRETARY, 69 George Street, Limerick. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL. The Councit invite applications for the post of ASSISTANT LEC- TURER IN MATHEMATICS. Full particulars may be obtained on application. JAMES RAFTER, Registrar. XCIV NATURE [Jury 6, 1905 MACMILLAN & CO.S NEW BOOKS. NEW AND REVISED EDITION, NOW READY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I.—The Non-Metallic Elements. New Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Roscok, assisted by Dr, H. G. Cotman and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations, 8vo. 21s. net. SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. THE ADVANCED PART OF A TREATISE ON THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM OF RIGID BODIES. Being Part II. of a Treatise on the Whole Subject. With numerous Examples. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &¢. -8vo. 145. JULY NUMBER NOW READY. THE SCHOOL, WwoRLbD. A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF EDUCATIONAL WORK AND PROGRESS, PRICE SIXPENCE MONTHLY. PRINCIPAL CONTENTS FOR JULY. The Alternative to Greek at School. By F. W. Headley, M.A.—A School Holiday in France. By G, F. 3urness, B.A.—The School Journey. By Ernest Stenhouse, B.Sc.(Lond.). _ (Illustrated.)—The Scholastic Career in Sweden. By Gustaf Aae, Fil. Kand.(Lund}, and C. S. Fearenside, M.A.(Oxon.).—Selection by Interview, By C. M. Stuart, M.A.—School Cadet Corps. ITI. By Edward C. Goldberg, M.A.—Studies in School Management. V. The Supply of Text-books to Secondary Schools. II. By E, Sharwood Smith, M.A.—A School Fire Brigade. IT. Organisation. By C. C. Carter, M.A. (Illustrated.)—The Cost of Building, Equipment and Maintenance of Secondary Schools.—The Education of Pupil Teachers in Secondary Schools. By Caroline E. Rigg.—Correspondence: The Use of Graphs. By Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S.—A State Department of Education for Ireland. By the Rev. Father Andrew Murphy and Our Irish Correspondent. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. THE ENTOMOLOGIST: | AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF GENERAL ENTOMOLOGY. G. B Oo W R O N Edited by RicHarp Sourn, F.E.S., | t With the Assistance of | Rosert Apkin, F.E.S. Dr. D. Suarp, F.R.S., F.E.S., &c. | 57 EDGWARE ROA L W. W. Lucas Distant, F.E.S., &c. G. H. VerrRatt, F.E.S. ! D, ONDON, ’ Epwarp A. Fitcn, F.L.S., F.E.S. | W. F. Kirsy, F.E.S. | F. W. Frouawk, F.E.S. G. W. Kirkatpy, F.E.S. | has always on hand a large and varied stock of Martin Jacosy, F.E.S. W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. Founded by the late Edward Newman in 1840, this Journal has been ae ~ the popular organ of British Entomologists since 1864. Its contents deal E = chiefly with the home fauna, but there are frequent articles and notes on , th matters of interest pertaining to the Entomology of various parts of the - : ELECTRICAL AND PHYSICAL f annum post free to any country, 2 Y London: WEST, NEWMAN, & CO., 54 Hatton Garden, E.C. , | BY STANDARD MAKERS, IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER, AT THE manna Fecdesss ee MONTHLY EXTREMELY MODERATE PRICES. Price Sixpence, Monthly. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory ; Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, world, Published on the first of each month. Price 6:2. Subscription, 6s. per Edited by G. C. Cuampion, F.Z.S., J. W. Doucras, W. W. Fow ter, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow Universities ; Bedford, Bradford, M.A., F.L.S., R. McLACHLAN, F.R.S., E. Saunpers, F.L.S., and Clifton, Heriot Watt and Yorkshire Colleges ; and twenty other Scientific ‘ Lorp Watsincuam, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S Institutions, Polytechnics, &c. This Magazine, commenced in 1864, contains standard articles and notes Sia Ata t on all subjects connected with Entomology, and especially on the Insects of Be” Nature says: ‘Teachers requiring efficient apparatus at a low the British Isles. cost for lecture or laboratory purposes, might consult the list with Subscription—Six Shillings per Annum, post free. ad vantage. i oe phe London: GURNEY & JACKSON (Mr. Van Voorst's Successors), List on application by mentioning NatuRE. 1 Paternoster Row. HARVEY & PEAK ma (BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL INSTITUTION RG OF GREAT BRITAIN.) WAVE MOTION, Makers of the new Apparatus illustrating Wave Motion, designed and used by Dr. J. A. FLEMING in the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. 4 READING MICROSCOPES, RESISTANCE COILS, &c. 56 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.c. ~@- SPECIAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, INSTITUTES, &c. “Bl JuLy 6, 1905] NATURE XCV NOW READY. Nos. 1-15. 1S. PER NUMBER. BACTERIA. (THE SCIENTIFIC ROLL.) Subscription for Vol. II. and for each subsequent Vol., 1o/-; for the entire work, 50/-, if paid before Dec. 31, 1905. The most rapid, most exhaustive, and most economical reference work for over 30,000 pages of literature. No. 16, completing Vol. I., will be issued shortly. Contents of Vol. I. (price 16/- after August 3r): Introductory (p. 1) ; General Bibliography (2-111) : General Notes (112-124): Descriptive Notes (125-167) ; Essay on Specific Descriptions (168-359, with two Charts); List of Diseases associated with Bacteria (370-373); Affinity Notes (375-385) ; Characters, Notes (386-460); Essay on the Value of Characters (461-466) ; Classification, Notes (467 to about 484); Organic Grade Lists,(No. 16). Vol. II. will be on Vital Chemistry; Vols. III. to end on Organic Systems, Habits, Physiological Effects on Hosts, Medial Influence, Biological Influence, Geological and Geographical Distribution, Biblio- graphy and Notes for each Genus and Species, and Index to all the volumes (between six and twelve innumber). Separate pages are obtainable at the rate of 4 for rd. The rate of publication depends on the number of paid subscriptions. At present there are 74 subscribers for Vol. I., and the rate of issue is one number per quarter; with 200 subscribers it will be one number per month ; with rooo subscribers 4 vols. per year. Bacteria, be it remembered, are essential agents in connection with life, health, disease, and many industries. Ignorance of them means loss and disadvantage to all individually and collectively. For fuller particulars apply to A. RAMSAY, 4 Cowper Road, Acton, London, W. DAVID NUTT, 57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C. Importer of Foreign Literature and Publisher. All FOREIGN WORKS reviewed in Narure are on sale or can be procured at shortest notice from Davip Nutt, at Continental Prices. SUBSCRIPTIONS can be effected through Davip Nurr to all FOREIGN PERIODICALS. RARE and OUT OF PRINT FOREIGN WORKS sought for with- out charge, and supplied at the most moderate prices. SECOND- HAND FOREIGN CATALOGUES supplied regularly on demand, and orders executed therefrom. The Official Organ of the 8ritish Electrotherapeutiec Society. MEDICAL ELECTROLOGY AND RADIOLOGY, AN INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY REVIEW COVERING ALL BRANCHES OF ELECTROTHERAPEUTICS. Subscription, 12/- per Annum, Post Free throughout the World. Single Numbers, 1/-; Post Free, 1/2. Lonpon: A. SIEGLE, 2 LANGHAM PLACE, W. FOREIGN SCIENTIFIC BOOKS and Periodicals promptly supplied at lowest rates. CATALOGUES POST FREE ON APPLICATION. Ww. MULLER, 59 CASTLE STREET EAST, OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W. SCIENTIFIC ~WORTHIES. A List of this Series of Steel and Photogravure Portraits of Men of Science will be sent post free to any reader of ‘‘ Nature” on application to the Publishers. NOTICE. Proof Copies of the Photogravure Portrait of PROF. SUESS which appeared in ‘‘Nature” of May 4 ean be obtained from the Publishers at 5s. each. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. An Authoritative Work of National Interest. FORTY YEARS’ RESEARCHES IN BRITISH AND SAXON BURIAL MOUNDS EAST YORKSHIRE. Including Romano-British Discoveries, and a Description of the Ancient Entrenchments on a Section of the Yorkshire Wolds. BY J. R. MORTIMER MORTIMER MUSEUM AT DRIFFIELD), (FOUNDER OF THE With over 1000 Illustrations from Drawings by AGNES MORTIMER. 800 pages, 12 x 8, bound in a Seal Back, Cloth Sides, Gilt Top, 50s. net. There are few parts in the British Isles that have yielded so many interesting relics of pre-historic times as has East York- shire, and few districts have been so thoroughly explored. For over forty years Mr. J. R. Mortimer has been investigating the various barrows and other early monuments of the Riding. The results of his labours are now given to the world in the form of a volume, and, unquestionably, the work is one of the most valuable contributions to archzology that has been issued for some time. Mr. Mortimer’s museum at Driffield, in which his geological and archzological collections are arranged, has long been a place of reference alike to professors and students. A detailed prospectus will be posted free to any address on appli- cation, London: A. BROWN & SONS, Ltd., 5 Farringdon Avenue, E.C. And at Hull and York. NOW READY. With Illustrations, 2s. Gd. net, by post 2s. 9d. X-RAYS: THEIR EMPLOYMENT in CANCER and other DISEASES. BY RICHARD J. COWEN, L.R.C.S.1., LRP, &c. London: H. J. GLAISHER, 57 Wigmore Street, W. Now Ready, Price 9d. net (postage extra). PROGRAMME OF DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY, CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTI- TUTE, containing Regulations for the Registration, Conduct and Inspection of Classes and Examination of Candidates in TECHNO- LOGICAL SUBJECTS, and for the Award of Teachers' Certificates in MANUAL TRAINING and DOMESTIC ECONOMY, with Notices of Prizes, Scholarships and Exhibitions, To be obtained from any Bookseller, or from Mr. JoHN Murray, Albemarle Street, London, W. THOMAS PRINCE, SCIENTIFIC BOOKSELLER. All books advertised and reviewed in NATuRE are supplied at lowest cash prices. Orders by post promptly dispatched. 85 PRAED STREET, LONDON, W. xcvl NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 REYNOLDS & BRANSON, L* i THE RYSTOS STAND DEVELOPING TANK. For Developing plates or eut films slowly in a very weak developer. Clean in use; gives excel- lent results with a minimum of trouble. MADE OF STOUT POLISHED COPPER. Tank to take 6 plates 15” x 12”, and with Adapters to suit any smaller plate; complete, &1: 10:0 This arrangement is specially recommended to Radiographers and other Scientific Photographers. Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only ae Ae .. &/6 each. Tank to hold 1 doz. 5” x 4” plates only a oe l= | as Tank to hold 1 doz. 4 plates only = ae .. G/- 93 Postage on any of above three sizes, 4d. extra. NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PRICE LIST, 25th EDITION, ON APPLICATION. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. The New Manifolding Hammond Typewriter. A Hammond Typewriter will do anything any other typewriter does—and do it better. Beside, it has twenty exclusive features, not one of which is possessed by any other writing machine, WHY is the Hammond the Best Machine for Stenographers ? BECAUSE Perfect and Permanent Alignment, Work in Sight, Manifolding, Speed, Durability, Noiselessness, Interchangeable Type, Light Elastic Touch, Perfect Paper Feed, Any Width Paper, On account of the TYPE being interchangeable, it is most useful to SCIENTIFIC work. Call and test Machine or write for Catalogue, free on appli- cation to :— The Hammond Typewriter Co., 50 QUEEN VICTORIA ST., E.C. MANCHESTER BRANCH: 164 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. 1/roth scal2. THE NEW “STUDENT’S” STANDARD BAROMETER. (Rd. No. 420,297.) This Instrument has been designed to meet the re- quirements of Students and others who find the need of a Barometer which will give exact readings, and cost but a moderate sum. It appeals especially to Colleges and Schools for Demonstration purposes. The construction is on that of the well-known ‘* Fortin” principle. The level of the cistern mercury is reducible to zero, in exactly the same manner as in the more expensive forms. The diameter of the mercurial column is ‘25 inch, and affords a bold, well-defined reading. The scales, by means of the double vernier, are capable of being read to ‘or inch and ‘x millimetre. It is mounted on a well- polished, solid mahogany board, with plates for attach- ment to wall, opal glass reflectors for reading off, and screws for vertical adjustment. The metal portions are all well bronzed and lacquered, and the scales are silvered brass. We confidently recommend this Instrument for use as a ‘‘Standard" in Colleges and Schools, private Observa- tories. and by Gas and other Engineers. Price, complete, mounted as illustrated, £3 7 6 each, or may be had with one scale (either inches or milli- metres), and with thermometer on other scale, at same price. vl Zm@— Nature says :—‘‘ Provides an accurate instru- ment at a moderate cost.” FULL SIZE STANDARD BAROMETER of same design, bore o's” diameter, inches and millimeter scales, verniers reading to o’oo2 inch and o'r m/m, on polished mahogany board with brackets and opal glass reflectors, £7 10 O Sole Manufacturers and Proprietors of the Registered Design. PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, Lto., 46 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.c. WHOLESALE MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, Contractors to H.M. Government. Estd. 1750. Telegrams, ‘‘ Rapkin, London.” Telephone, 1981 Holborn KAHLBAUM’S | CHEMICALS Sole Depot: JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, LIMITED, SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, wW.c. Telegram and Cable Address: ‘*GRAMME, LONDON.’’ NATURE a ~“) TAURSDAY, JULY 6; 1905. THE EMPIRE AND UNIVERSITY LIFE: V E publish to-day a statement signed by more than forty professors and heads of depart- ments of the University of Oxford setting forth a scheme for large increase in the facilities research and for teaching. We have no hesitation in stating that these forty signatures include the majority of Oxford workers with a reputation for learning which extends beyond the borders of that ancient university. They also represent, with singular completeness, the varied lines of research which happily are pursued at Oxford; and it is an encourage- ment among the many unsatisfactory features in the intellectual life of the nation that they are ready and willing to stand side by side, each sympathising with the needs of other workers, each desiring to grant the fullest opportunities for research on the broadest lines. They doubtless feel in Oxford, as we recognise in London, and as Britain generally is beginning to know, that the real conflict in this country is not between science and classics, between theology and philosophy, or between the true followers of any branches of learning, but that the great educational struggle of our time and race is of an utterly different kind. On the one side are ranged those who hold that the much needed intellectual inspiration of our youth can only be received in an atmosphere of re- search, can only be given by men who are themselves researchers; on the opposite side stand those who uphold the ancient Chinese and the modern British educational methods. We recognise to the full the Imperial importance of the subject. Young men in- structed by purveyors of second-hand word knowledge are not likely to develop the germs of imagination and originality, and to deal effectively with the problems presented in the modern world which deals with things; and the time in which such development is generally possible is all too brief. When once the critical period of intellectual growth has been devoted solely to the collection and re-collection of material for the examiner, any awakening of original power is rare indeed. We have merely created one Briton the more incapable of using his birthright, out of sym- pathy with the movement which would help others to gain what he has lost; and his want of sympathy may mean a great deal. He may become a journalist and help to frame the opinion of the nation, he may enter Parliament and help to marshal the educational forces upon which our future existence most surely depends, he may be a power in the Treasury and help to determine the expenditure of the national income, he may become a schoolmaster or a college tutor and do unto others even as he has been done by. It cannot be disguised that things are in many respects worse than they were half a century ago. The University Commissioners of 1850 said of NO. 1862, VOL. 72] for Oxford :—‘ It is generally acknowledged that both Oxford and the country at large suffer greatly from the absence of a body of learned men devoting their lives to the cultivation of science, and to the direction of academical education.”’ The commissioners of a quarter of a century later did, indeed, largely increase the number of university professors, but it left them powerless—muzzled lions chained by the leg. The whole power of influencing the passing generations of young men it left in the hands of a score of independent corporations—nearly all of them ancient, and with noble traditions of high learning and profound research; but, in the intel- lectual backwater of our time, each has strained to become a petty university and the successful rival of all the other petty universities—the successful rival, that is, in the qualities developed by examination, and in nothing higher. To this end each has freely spent its endowment in entrance scholarships to compete with others for the men who will do best in examin- ations, and each has striven to secure, before and beyond all others, the most successful purveyor of knowledge which will be useful in examinations. We say, intentionally and deliberately, that each college has done these things, but are far from implying that all of them have no higher aims at the present time. We are only too glad to recognise in recent years a change of spirit which has led to significant de- partures from the scheme of the last university com- missioners. Magdalen, New College, and Brasenose have been noble leaders in a noble cause—the return of Oxford to ideals of learning which have been sup- pressed, but not altogether killed, by a false and in- jurious educational system. We gladly recognise clear evidence of the same spirit in other societies, and we are well aware that others, again, strongly desire to make provision for the highest learning, but are unable to do so while their whole available funds barely suffice to enable them to keep their place in the unfortunate and wasteful inter-collegiate com- petition which dominates both our ancient universi- ties. There is, however, one college in which the necessity for such competition is reduced to a mini- mum, and it is precisely here that the last com- missioners inflicted the crowning injury upon the intellectual life of Oxford—they set their seal on the existing constitution of All Souls. A college almost without the responsibility and the care of under- graduates is created, it would seem, to be the home of the highest learning and research. And what is it? Well, apart from a distinguished professoriate, a generous assistance to the Bodleian, and a rare and occasional election of men of learning to her fellow- ships—for all of which we freely and gladly express our gratitude—All Souls merely exists in order to encourage the worst features of an intellectual train- ing which exists by and for examination alone. Only recently the governing body rejected the move- ment, which happily existed among some of the members, to ask for evidence of original power in the candidates who compete for the fellowships. Yet L 218 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 All Souls might readily do as much for learning in Oxford by her fellowships as she now does to pre- vent learning—as she now does to turn the attention of the ablest men towards what will pay in examin- ations, and to shut their ears to the still small voice of latent imagination and original power. If All Souls gave her two fellowships each year for evidence of research, the ablest of the men studying the sub- jects of her choice would demand of their teachers inspiration and guidance in the highest work. Where the ablest men lead others would soon follow, and the whole intellectual atmosphere would rapidly change. All Souls unaided could do an immense deal to induce the other colleges to provide higher teach- ing, or, even better, to encourage their men to get help outside the college walls. As it is, she provides the strongest of all the forces which chain Oxford to that unhappy infatuation which has had so disastrous an effect on the imagination, the initiative, the re- sourcefulness of the nation. The title of this article was chosen in the profound conviction that interests much wider and more im- portant than those of Oxford and Cambridge are at stake. Our ancient universities have heavy responsi- bilities, extending far beyond their historic walls. Every new university and university college in the Empire draws its teachers from Oxford and Cam- bridge, and, for good or for evil, moulds the broad features of its intellectual life upon the pattern sup- plied by these ancient seats of learning. In the supreme interests of the Empire, as well as of the university itself, we fully sympathise with the aims of those who desire to render Oxford a more efficient instrument of research and the highest and most stimulating teaching, but we have no right to claim their sympathy or support for our own views on university and collegiate life. It may well be that the onlooker sees weaknesses and obvious measures of reform hidden from those on the spot, or appearing to them as a far-off ideal impossible of realisation, at least in this generation. Speaking for those who watch from without, who admire and would preserve and strengthen the truly inspiring elements of the academic life at both our ancient universities, we would gladly see them subject to the following simple, but, as we believe, efficient measure of reform. The whole of the teaching should be entirely under the control of the university, which in its boards already possesses at least the foundation of the necessary apparatus. The college fellowships should be given in part for university teaching combined with original work and in part for research alone, to be held only during the continuance of -investi- gation. A career would thus be open for originality of a high order, and the ablest men would flock to our ancient seats of learning and render them indeed worthy of the name. Residence in homes of ancient learning would gain added inspiration when the greatest traditions of the past were re- newed and maintained. Even with things as they NO. 1862, VOL. 72] are, Oxford and Cambridge, though much injured by competitive examinations, have been far less injured than England in general; and _ this they owe to the residential system. Little thought of, perhaps neglected, by the builders, the head-stone of the educational edifice is here to be found. Where mind meets mind in the free intercourse of youth there springs from the contact some of that fire which, under our present system, is rarely to be obtained in any other way; and not only this, but many other priceless advantages in the battle of life are also con- ferred. To these influences we owe in large part all that is best in the English character, and so valuable are the qualities thus developed, or at least greatly strengthened, that we regard residential colleges as essential to the success and usefulness of the newer universities. The changes we have advocated in the older universities would only add to this beneficent system increased power for good by substituting for the barren pride of first classes and university prizes the enthusiasm for a society which nobly holds its own in those achievements which bring renown wherever the advancement of learning is held in honour—a sufficient answer to the contention that to deprive a college of teaching is to render it a board- ing-house and nothing more. That the advancement of learning is the desire of those who have signed the memorial we do not doubt, however much they may disagree with the methods here suggested for the attainment of their ends. On our part we feel such confidence in the beneficent influence of the increase in efficiency for which they plead, that we should gladly see funds provided for the purpose. In former centuries the highest learning was encouraged in this country by the munificence of “founders and benefactors”’; and we are glad to know that one of the needs set forth in the accom- panying statement has already been generously met, and even more than met, by the establishment of a department presided over by a Beit professor of colonial history. But the signs of the times do not encourage us to anticipate any very large or fruitful following of this fine example; and we see no pro- spect of carrying out the suggested scheme in any- thing like completeness, except by a re-arrangement of the revenues of the university and the colleges, or by the action of a Government which is convinced that the national well-being is imperilled, the national existence at stake. THE SARCODINE FAUNA OF DEEP LAKES. Les Sarcodinés des Grands Lacs. By Eugéne Penard. Pp. 133. (Geneva: H. Kundig, 1905.) R. PENARD’S enthusiastic and minute investi- gations into this group of the Protozoa are well known. In the course of many years’ study of the Sarcodina of the Lake of Geneva and of the sur- rounding’ country, he became convinced that there is a special sarcodine fauna of deep lakes. The facts on which he founded his theory, already embodied in his Jury 6, 1905 | NATURE 219 two great monographs of the Rhizopods and Heliozoa, are here presented in a form more accessible to the student. About fifty species and varieties are de- scribed and figured, the majority being peculiar to deep lakes, the others characteristic of, though not confined to, deep lakes. On looking over the diagnoses of the species, it cannot fail to be remarked that many of them are distinguished by very~ trivial differences from other known species. Considering the intolerable burden of synonymy in zoological nomenclature which results from the practice of describing species on insufficient grounds, it is a pity that Dr. Penard should have conferred a specific name upon a form (Difflugia curvicaulis, Penard) which he naively admits he re- gards as scarcely even a fixed variety. Other in- stances are not wanting in the volume of species which seem to be of very little value. It is obvious that he makes insufficient allowance for the recognised variability of the species of the group. He puts too much reliance on size as a specific character, and gives an exaggerated value to minute differences in the size and form of the scales which encrust many species. Making all allowance for the slight differences on which he separates the abyssal species from the re- lated species of shallower waters, it appears that there is really some considerable amount of peculiarity among the abyssal Sarcodina. in the abyssal region under different forms or varieties from those found elsewhere. We would ask, how- ever, whether this peculiarity is any greater than one would expect from the influence which must be exerted by the very different environment upon the individuals produced in this region? Of interest in this country is Dr. Penard’s assertion that some representatives of the abyssal fauna of the Swiss lakes have been found by him in Loch Ness. The difficulty of accounting for the passage of abyssal forms from one lake to another is just touched upon, and dismissed with the short statement that several of the species have also been found at the margins of the lakes, as well as in the depths. One is tempted to make another explanation of this fact, and say that it proves that they are not peculiarly abyssal. Dr. Penard does not say whether he regards this coming to the shore as a normal mode of migration of abyssal species. In the special case of Loch Ness, there are facts which make it difficult to believe that the abyssal Rhizopods are peculiar species. No abyssal species of any other class has yet been found in Loch Ness. Some of the forms which are regarded as purely abyssal in the Swiss lakes are found in the shallow bays of many Scottish lochs, and even in peat bogs. This may prove an interesting fact in distribution if it can be shown that species which are superficial in Scotland have to descend to some depth in Switzer- land in order to find congenial conditions of tempera- ture. Among Dr. Penard’s abyssal forms which have been found in Scottish moss may be mentioned Helio- pera petricola, var. amethystea, Penard, and Cypho- deria ampulla, var major, Penard. Making due discount for his too high appreciation of minute differences, and appraising his species at INO 1802. VOF. 72) Species tend to appear | our own value, this volume is valuable to students of the Sarcodina, as there is no question of Dr. Penard’s painstaking accuracy of observation. His descrip- tions are clear and concise, while the illustrations in the text are excellent. STEAM TURBINES. (1) Steam Turbines, with an Appendix on Gas Tur- bines. By Dr. A. Stodola, of Zurich. Translated from the second revised and enlarged German edition by Dr. L. C. Loewenstein. Pp. xvit434; illustrated. (New York: D. Van Nostrand Com- pany; London: Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 21s. net. (2) Bau der Dampfturbinen. By Prof. A. Musil. Pp. 6+233. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1904.) Price 8 marks. COs steam turbine has for some years now, thanks to the inventive genius of Mr. Parsons, become a formidable rival of the reciprocating steam- engine on land, and the past three years have seen a rapid increase in its use for marine purposes. On cross-channel steamers there is no doubt that in a few years it will completely oust its rival, while the adop- tion of this type of engine for two of the Allan line steamers, and the decision to use steam turbines for propelling the great Cunarders now being built, prob- ably herald the approach of the day when on these big liners also the reciprocating marine engine will be entirely displaced. It is not surprising, therefore, that there has grown up a rapid demand for good text-books on the steam turbine in which both the theory and the constructive details of the numerous types now on the market are fully dealt with. In addition to numerous papers and articles which have been printed in the Transactions of our leading engineering societies and in the technical journals, we have had two editions of Mr. Neilson’s book, and now, by this English translation, the latest edition of Dr. Stodola’s classic work is made available to British engineers. In his preface to the second edition, Dr. Stodola points out that he has been able in the period which elapsed since the issue of the first edition to investi- gate experimentally several important problems un- touched in the first edition, as, for example, the fric- tional resistance of turbine wheels in, air. In the first section, after dealing with the elementary theory of the steam turbine, a concise and clear classification is given of the various types which have so far been practically successful. The more advanced thermo- dynamic problems which are met with in the theory of the steam turbine form the subject of the second section, and details are given of a series of valuable experiments on the flow of steam from orifices; these experiments are of great importance, and the results are very striking, and will undoubtedly prove of great value to those engaged in the design of diverging nozzles for turbines. In connection with this chapter, Mollier’s diagrams for the properties of saturated steam are explained; these diagrams have been re- produced, and, for the English edition, similar 220 diagrams, expressed in English units, have been pre- pared by the translator. The design of the details of the more important types of turbines is then investi- gated, and such details as the shape, the construction, and the strength of the blades, and the design of the bearings of the shafts are fully dealt with. In section iv., a full description is given of the various types of steam turbine which have so far been constructed and have been practically successful, and, in the case of several, the results of experiments by trained observers are given in detail. This portion of the book will be found of particular value to users of steam power who are anxious to have some know- ledge of the relative merits of the various types of turbine now on the market. The application of the steam turbine to marine purposes is scarcely dealt with in as fulland comprehensive a manner in Dr. Stodola’s book as the rest of the subject, and a little more information might well have been given as to the relative merits of the steam turbine and the re- ciprocating engine for various purposes. The last section of the book deals with some of the more advanced scientific problems, treated largely from a mathematical point of view, which occur in connection with the theory and construction of the turbine. We might instance such problems as that of the distribution of pressure in any cross section of an expanding gas or steam jet, the deflection, due to its own weight, of a horizontal disc of variable thicl- ness, and the straightening out of such rotating discs under the action of centrifugal forces. In an appendix, the possible future of the heat engine is briefly discussed; the main directions in which increased economy may be hoped for appear to be in the decrease of the passive resistances, such as friction, &c., in the supply of the heat to the motor only at the highest possible temperature and in the abstraction of the waste heat only at the lowest possible temperature, and in the avoidance, so far as possible, of all non-reversible changes of condition. Dr. Stodola is of opinion that in the future a heat motor which combines the high thermal results of the gas engine with the constructive advantages of the steam turbine will supplant all other types. Such a motor will be found in the gas turbine, a motor which at present has not reached practical constructive stages. (2) After a brief account of the history of the steam turbine from, the days of Hero, and a discussion of the lines upon which recent invention has proceeded, Prof. Musil gives a very useful bibliography; then, as is usual in books on this subject, there follows a classification of the various steam turbines now in use. The theory of the well known Laval nozzle is then dealt with mathematically, and the proportions of such nozzles are worked out in detail; the results of experi- mental investigation into this question are given, and the effect on the flow through such nozzles of super- heating the steam is discussed. The thermodynamic problems involved in this branch of the theory of the turbine are also treated by the author with the aid of entropy diagrams. The remainder of the book is devoted to detailed NO. 1862, VOL. 72] NALORE [JULY 6, 1905 descriptions of several types of turbines, beginning with the Laval, which is described in detail with a number of illustrations. The important problems due to the use of a flexible shaft in this turbine are investi- gated, also the question of the governing of the tur- bine. The steam consumption of this type when under test is given in a series of tables, and the relation of the actual steam consumption to the theoretical is dealt with in some detail. The second type of turbine taken up is the Parsons, again illustrated with a number of well drawn plates, and here also the question of the governing of the turbine forms an important section; details of the actual steam con- sumption under varying loads are given, and the results have been put into the form of a series of curves, which will be of great use to the student. It may be well to point out that Prof. Musil ex- pressly excludes from the scope of his text-book the application of the steam turbine to marine purposes. The other types of turbines which are dealt with by Prof. Musil include the Zoelly, the Riedler-Stumpf, the Curtis, and the Rateau. For each type good de- scriptions of the mechanical details are given, with very clearly drawn illustrations, and in the case of the Zoelly and the Rateau results of tests are also given. Prof. Musil’s book will be found of especial value by students in engineering colleges, and by draughts- men in those engineering works where turbines are now built. AT PETS: OUR BOOK SHELF. An Angler’s Hours. By H. T. Sherringham. Pp. xiit+264. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 6s. net. Mr. SHERRINGHAM deserves the thanks of all anglers who have an idle hour and no fishing for having re-published his essays in book form, and he who is forced by sad circumstances to enjoy his fishing vicariously will find his time well spent in our scribe’s company. There is a pleasant and old-world flavour in his style; whether he rises early to catch tench while the dew is still thick, or drowses away his Sunday afternoon in the July heat of a sunny garden, he is an entertaining companion, who boldly confesses to his crimes in the first person or conceals his triumphs, like Julius Casar, in the third with equal art. But there is instruction in his essays too, such mild instruction as may best suit an idler, and much shrewd observation of the habits of fishes delicately imparted in pointing the moral of a failure or adorning the tale of a success. Many important considerations are thus put forward and discussed; for instance, the possibilities of the fly as a lure for other fish than trout and their kind, and the hopes held out to the fisherman who finds himself by some sluggish southern stream if he will only not despair but go forth and tempt the Cyprinids that haunt its troutless waters with flies and tackle suited to their tastes. Again, there is the harmless, necessary worm; Mr. Sherrington handles him gently (especially when dragging him from his burrow), and adjures us to treat him as a friend in need and no mere despicable device for luring fish to an undeserved and unedify- ing end. We may be cursed with the instincts of a poacher, but must confess to a leaning towards that conception of the angler’s art which advocates the JuLy 6, 1905] NATURE removal of fish from the water by the most effective means if fish are wanted, and by the most pleasant if amusement is our aim or if the waters hold few fish. We recall a schoolboy who fished for loaches with a gentle if he wanted loaches, but used a kitchen fork tied to the end of a stick if he wanted sport, and we have known others who rose superior to adverse circumstances, one who found all he wanted with a fly rod and small dace on the Cambridge Backs and another who could glory in the capture of eels with a gaff in the same unpromising water. Mr. Sherringham has not withdrawn the veii that shrouds his early exploits, and he may have been more orthodox; but now he despairs of nothing, but finds good in all; if there are no fish he can study nature, and if there is no water he can shrewdly meditate on the ways of fish and men; an hour with him and his rod by a troutless tarn is as good as an hour by the Kennet in the mayfly time. We will not attempt to cull passages and quote them, or to draw invidious distinctions between one essay and another, but will leave each idle angler to do this for himself, with a candid admission that our own hours with Mr. Sher- ringham were all pleasant and instructive, but we should like more of them. A word of praise is also due to the publishers, who have produced a book the size and print of which add to its convenience as an adjunct to aspipe, an easy chair, and idleness. L. W. B. Botany of Cook’s First Voyage. Illustrations of Australian Plants. By Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., and Dr. D. Solander, F.R.S. Part iii. Pp. iv+25; with 75 plates. (Trustees of the British Museum, 1905.) Price 25s. InasMucH as Solander was a pupil of Linnzus, this work furnishes a link with the founder of systematic botany, and it is known that Linnzeus himself looked forward with great anticipation to the publication of the results of the collections made on this the first voyage of Captain Cook. The expectation was not fulfilled, and although certain of Solander’s original descriptions were transcribed for sending to press, the MS. on Australian plants did not even reach this stage. A draughtsman, Sydney Parkinson, accom- panied the expedition and executed a number of draw- ings, of which less than a third were finished for engraving purposes. Parkinson died on the voyage home, and other artists continued the work. The specimens and drawings were available, and were consulted by Gaertner and Sir Joseph Hooker, but unfortunately Bentham failed to do so when com- piling his ‘“‘ Flora Australiensis.’? Possibly Banks was responsible for some of the work, but the text is taken from a MS. by Solander, and this is repro- duced with brief notes and determinations by Mr. J. Britten, who has also written the interesting intro- duction printed with this part. In the notices of the earlier parts reference was made to some of the generic names, and, at a time when the rules of nomenclature are being discussed, it is appropriate to instance the name Banksia, that the majority of botanists associate with a genus of the order Pro- teacez, whereas Mr. Britten, in accordance with his views, adopts Isostylis, and refers Banksia to the genus of the order Thymelaceze, otherwise known as Pimelea. This is merely quoted as an illustration of the confusion of names which renders it most desirable that a uniform system should be universally adopted. The present volume, with the two preceding parts, completes the Australian plants, and for this worthy tribute to the authors botany is indebted to Mr. Britten for his careful revision and to the British Museum for the production. No. 1862, VOL. 72] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTuRE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Education in Belgium and Holland. DurinG a recent cycling tour in parts of Belgium and Holland, as well as during the outward and homeward voyages on a Dutch trading steamer plying between a neighbouring Cornish port and Amsterdam and Antwerp, I have been greatly struck by several examples of the apparent educational superiority of Holland and Belgium over our own country, and at the present moment these examples may not be without interest to your readers. (1) We were staying at a little inn near Dinant, in Belgium, and our hostess, seeing us occupied in drying some botanical specimens, brought us the herbarium of her son, a boy of about thirteen. These specimens were admirably dried and mounted, and were labelled with details concerning the characters of the order, &c., in such wise as to constitute a valuable educational asset. On inquiry, we found that the lad was a pupil at the lycée of Dinant, and that botany was a compulsory sub- ject there, although the lad had not yet reached the stage of learning foreign languages. The boy himself was so bright and intelligent, and so brimful of enthusiasm for botany, that we at once supposed him to be exceptionally intelligent; but some old friends of the family informed us that until a year ago he was shy and “ lumpish,’’ and that the transformation had been effected by the lycée- Commend me to such schools ! (2) The skipper of the Dutch steamer on which we re- turned told me that in the elementary schools of Amster- dam the children are taken at intervals to the ‘‘ Zoo’” to receive object-lessons on the animals about which they read at school, and on other occasions are taken into the fields to receive object-lessons on the wild flowers; and what struck me especially was that this ‘‘ mere sailor "” —this skipper of a tramp steamer—fully appreciated the value of such practical instruction as giving an interest and sense of reality to his children’s school-work. It was also rather surprising to hear such a man express the opinion that a little knowledge of astronomy rendered certain theological doctrines impossible of belief. (3) The skipper of the outgoing Dutch steamer ex- plained to me that the standard for mates’ and masters’ certificates in the Dutch mercantile marine is higher than in ours, there being three stages of mates’ certifi- cates instead of our two, and that before taking out a master’s certificate it is necessary to attend a course of simple medical instruction for some months—surely a very reasonable regulation. On the subject of Englishmen’s usual inability to speak a foreign language, he opined that this inability was due to our laziness—not realising, prob- ably, the absurdities of our traditional school system. (4) The second mate of one of these steamers—a rough lad of twenty-one—seeing me reading a volume of verse in a well known “series ’’ with distinctive binding, asked me if I knew a book like that with Longfellow’s poetry, for he had it at home and liked it! I cannot imagine an Englishman of the same age and status knowing a poet even in his own language, much less a foreign poet. I must not occupy your space by drawing from these facts the moral that is obvious enough, but will conclude with two statements on which it is not pleasant to reflect. These Dutch steamers have driven out a line of English steamers which formerly traded between Fowey and Ant- werp, and now practically monopolise the china-clay trade between these two ports; and of the total crews of forty-one carried by the two boats mentioned above, thirty- nine were Dutchmen and two were Germans from the Dutch border, whereas everyone knows that on Engli vessels often only a small minority of the crew are English. Are such results surprising ? F. H. Perry-Coste. Polperro, Cornwall, June 22. 222 NATURE [JULY 6, 1905 The ‘‘ Bubbling’? Method and Vapour Pressures. In the course of an endeavour to determine the osmotic pressure of a solution by measuring the relative lowering of its vapour pressure, we have been led to abandon Oswald and Walker’s bubbling method on account of its inherent inaccuracy. As the disabilities of this method seem to have been overlooked, we think that this note may be of use to other workers in the same field. Oswald and Walker, it will be remembered, bubbled dry air through the solution, then through the water, and absorbed the moisture by means of sulphuric acid. The loss of weight of the water measures the relative lower- ing of the vapour pressure of the solution, and the gain in weight of the sulphuric acid represents the vapour pressure of the pure solvent, water. Assuming the air to be at the same temperature through- out, it can easily be seen that the space occupied by a bubble of air, when leaving the solution, will be less than that which the same bubble will occupy when leaving the water, that is, the bubble expands while travelling up the water column, and will have taken up more water vapour than it should. The expansion of the bubble (and con- sequently the amount of vapour necessary to saturate the space occupied by it) is proportional to the difference in pressure at the top and bottom of the water column. If the total depth of the latter be, say, 6 inches, and the barometer stand at 30 feet of water, then an error of I part in 60 is induced. This can conveniently be verified by passing air through two or more Winkler’s tubes filled with water; it will always be found that the exit tube has lost weight. Owing to the form of the equation connecting osmotic and vapour pressures, the effect of the above error is magnified. BERKELEY. Foxcombe, near Oxford. E. G. J. Harttey. Luminosity and Colour. IN conjunction with my other methods of testing colour vision, I have been using Rayleigh’s apparatus for match- ing yellow with a mixture of spectral red and green. I find that the proportions of red and_ green depend upon the luminosity of the match (both the mixed colour and the simple one being of similar luminosity) ; for instance, I require two and a half times as much green in the mixed colour when the match is bright compared with a match at a lower luminosity. Some persons make a match which is nearly the same at several luminosities, others require more and more green as_ the luminosity is diminished, and others when the luminosity is diminished cannot make a match at all. So three normal sighted persons may make a similar match at one luminosity, and at another one may appear to be an anomalous trichro- matic and the other colour blind. I find that a colour blind person (a dichromic with considerable shortening of the red end of the spectrum) may make a match like a normal sighted one. F. W. EpripGe-Green. St. John’s College, Cambridge. MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA. “THE arrangements for the forthcoming meeting of the British Association in South Africa have now been completed, and Mr. Silva White, the assistant secretary of the association, sailed for Cape Town in the Walmer Castle on Saturday last, July 1. The number of members who will proceed to South Africa to attend the meeting is 385, and of these no less than 276 members have intimated their intention to visit the Victoria Falls at the conclusion of the ordinary work of the association. The official party, consisting of leading representatives of science and guests of the association, with the general and sectional officers for this meeting and the president, numbers 140 in all, and will sail by the Saxon on July 29. Most of the other members will proceed to the meeting by the Durham Castle and the Kildonan Castle, both of which sail on July 22. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] In a previous article (May 18, p. 59) the local arrangements for the meeting were described. There will be receptions and social functions, excursions, &e., at Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, Kimberley, and Bulawayo. The central organising committee for South Africa (chairman, Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S., hon. secretary, Dr. Gilchrist) has carried out the coordinating work of the programme. The lists of local committees and subcommittees contain nearly one thousand names, from which it may be concluded that much interest is taken in the meeting. As already mentioned, lectures of a popular character will be delivered at the chief towns visited. These lectures have now been definitely arranged as follows :— Cape Town: W. J. Burchell’s discoveries in South Africa, Prof. Poulton; some surface actions of fluids, Mr. C. V. Boys. Durban: Mountains: the highest Himalaya, Mr. D. Freshfield. Pietermaritzburg: Sleeping-sickness, Colonel D. Bruce. Johannesburg: Distribution of power, Prof. Ayrton; steel as an igneous rock, Prof. Arnold. Pretoria: Fly-borne diseases, malaria, sleeping-sickness, &c., Mr. A. E. Shipley. Bloemfontein: The Milky Way and the clouds of Magellan, Mr. A. R. Hinks. Kimberley: Diamonds, Sir William Crookes; bearing of engineer- ing on mining, Prof. Porter. Bulawayo: Zimbabwe, Mr. Randall-MaclIver. The president’s address to the association will be delivered at Cape Town on August 15, and at Johannesburg on August 30. Mr. G. W. Lamplugh’s report on the geology of the Victoria Falls will take the form of an afternoon address to Section C at Johannesburg. Subjoined is a draft programme of the work of the sections :-— Section A (Mathematics and Physics).—Cape Town: President’s address; progress of the are of meridian and geodetic survey of South Africa, Sir D. Gill; to what extent can the ether affect the motion of matter? Prof. J. Larmor; observations of atmospheric electricity in South Africa, Prof. Beattie and Mr. Lyle; leak of electricity from certain heated substances, Prof. Beattie; the found- ations of the kinetic theory of gases, Mr. Burbury; appli- cation of the kinetic theory of nebulz, Mr. J. H. Jeans; radiation at low temperatures, Dr. J. T. Bottomley. There will also probably be communications from Mr. Hough on tides, and from Dr. Roberts on the Algol variables. Johannesburg: On the teaching of elementary mechanics (jointly with Section L if possible), Prof. J. Perry; on flight, Prof. G. H. Bryan; (1) electrical conductivity in relation to chemical action; (2) magnetic survey of South Africa, Prof. Beattie; report of the seismological com- mittee, Prof. J. Milne; a form of dry Daniell cell, Mr. J. Brown; the strength of winding ropes in mines, Prof. Perry; the experimental foundations of the theory of heat conduction, Dr. C. H. Lees. There will probably be a_ communication from Mr. Sutton on the meteorology of South Africa. Section B (Chemistry).—Detailed information regarding papers offered by members in South Africa has not yet been received, but the following provisional arrangement has been made :—Cape Town: Recent advances in agri- cultural science, A. D. Hall; vegetable assimilation, Dr. Horace T. Brown; enzyme action, Dr. E. F. Armstrong. These communications are intended to serve as a basis of discussion of agricultural chemical problems. Johannes- burg: President’s address; reports on various aspects of the metallurgy of gold by local experts. Communications by Dr. H. Marshall on the experimental basis of the dissociation hypothesis, and by H. Ingle on the soils of the Transvaal, have been provisionally accepted. Section C (Geology).—Cape Town: Opening remarks by the president; the continent of Africa in relation to the physical history of the earth, Prof. W. J. Sollas; the classification of the Karroo beds of South Africa, Prof. R. Broom; report of the committee on the fauna and flora Jury 6, 1905] NATURE 223 of the English Trias, J. Lomas; extraordinary daily fluctu- ations in a Karroo well, Prof. A. Young; and other papers on the Karroo or Trias. Joint meeting with Section E (Geography).—The physical geography of Cape Colony, H. C. Schunke-Holloway ; Glacial periods in South Africa, A. W. Rogers; changes of climate, as shown by move- ments of the snow line and upper tree line since Tertiary times, Prof. A. Penck; physiographical subject, Prof. W. M. Davis; Baviaan’s Kloof, a contribution to the theory of mountain folds, E. H. L. Schwarz; the Storm- berg formation in the Cape Colony, A. L. Du Toit; on the geology of South Victoria Land, H. T. Ferrar. Johannesburg: President’s address; magnetic segregation of sulphide ores, Dr. A. P. Coleman; marginal phenomena of granite domes, Prof. G. A. J. Cole; relation of the igneous rocks to the crystalline schists, F. P. Mennell; the indicators of the goldfield of Ballarat, Prof. J. W. Gregory ; petrographical subject, Prof. R. B. Young; the diamond pipes and fissures of South Africa, H. S. Harger ; recent work of the Transvaal Geological Survey, H. Kynaston; the Victoria Falls, G. W. Lamplugh; the great laccolitic intrusions of the Bushveld, Dr. G. A. F. Molengraaff; evidences in the Transvaal of Glacial con- ditions in permo-Carboniferous times, E. T. Mellor; geo- logical notes on the excursion to Pretoria, A. L. Hall; the great West Rand upthrust, Dr. J. T. Carrick; notes on a sedimentary formation older than the Witwatersrand beds, E. Jorissen; interesting outlines of the Witwatersrand formation, Dr. J. T. Carrick. Section D (Zoology).—Cape Town: President’s address; the Triassic reptiles of South Africa, with remarks on the origin of mammals, Dr. Broom; a comparison of the Permian reptiles of Russia with those of South Africa, Prof. Amalitzky; South African scorpions, Dr. Purcell; recent work on gametogenesis and its bearing on theories of heredity, L. Doncaster; the migration of birds in the southern hemisphere, W. L. Sclater; the ostrich, A. H. Evans. Johannesburg: Pearl oysters and pearls, Prof. Herdman; recent discoveries in the South African deep sea, Dr. Gilchrist ; cephalodiscus, Dr. Harmer; the grow- ing-point in vertebrates, Prof. Cleland ; South African ticks, Drs. Cooper-Foster and Nuttall. Section E (Geography).—Cape Town: President’s address; afforestation of South Africa; the unveiling of the coasts of Africa (lantern views of old maps), H. Yule Oldham; the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom, Colonel Johnston; a comparison of the periodicity of the meteorological conditions of London and Cape Town, Dr. H. R. Mill; Gough Island, Rudmose Brown; terrestrial globes as a necessary adjunct to the teaching of geography, Captain Creak; excursions as a means of teaching geo- graphy (lantern), J. Lomas. Johannesburg: The evolution of Africa, Dr. J. Scott Keltie; a new rainfall map of Africa, A. J. Herbertson and P. C. Waite; boundaries and areas in Africa, J. Bolton; the physical geography of the Transvaal, Tudor Trevor; notes on the geography of Africa south of the Limpopo, F. S. Watermeyer; the game preserves of the Transvaal, Major Stevenson Hamilton, D.S.O.; the Sikhim Himalayas and Tibet, Douglas W. Freshfield; Asiatic subject, Prof. Cordier. Section G (Engineering)—Cape Town: Metcalfe on Zambezi Bridge and Rhodesian railways; ocean turbine boats, Prof. Byles; roller bearings, wire ropes in mines, and probably automobiles. Johannesburg: President’s address (irrigation); strength of winding ropes in mines, Prof. Perry. Section H (Anthropology).—Cape Town: President’s address; the totemism of the Bantu, E. S. Hartland; the musical instruments of the natives of South Africa, Hy. Balfour; American Negroes, Miss Pullen-Burry ; artificial deformation in Africa, Dr. von Luschan. Johannesburg: arts and crafts among the natives of South Africa, Dr. Schoenland; stone implements in South Africa, Mr. John- stone; bushman paintings with reproductions, Dr. Squire ; the affinities of the Hottentots, Dr. von Luschan; the Modjadje, Rev. Reuter; the Bawenda, Rev. Gottschling ; report on Zimbabwe, Mr. Maclver; the Basuto, H. E. Mabille. Section I (Physiology).—Cape Town: Discussion on the effect of climate on health, opened by Sir T. Lauder Brunton (Dr. David Ferrier, Prof. McKendrick, Dr. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] Gregory, Dr. Jasper Anderson, Prof. Bohr, and Dr. J. A. Mitchell will take part); so-called scurvy of South Africa, Dr. Gregory; on plague, Dr. J. A. Mitchell; leprosy in Cape Colony, Dr. A. S. Black; South African drugs, Dr. Moberley ; discussion on horse-sickness and allied diseases, opened by Dr. Edington (Dr. Hutcheon, Mr. du Plessis, Dr. Wm. Robertson, Colonel Bruce, and Prof. Sims Wood- head will take part); stock diseases in South Africa, Dr. Hutcheon; ticks as a means of conveying disease in South Africa, Mr. Lounsbury. Johannesburg: President’s address ; horse-sickness, Dr. Theiler; rinderpest, Dr. G. Turner; a discussion on lung diseases in connection with mining (Dr. Sims Woodhead) is under consideration; nervous diseases, Prof. Ferrier; the life-history of coloured labourers in the Transvaal, Dr. D. Macaulay and Dr. Louis Irvine; dysentery, Colonel Cecil Birt. Section K (Botany).—Cape Town: The present position of our knowledge of seaweeds, Prof. R. W. Phillips; the fossil floras of South Africa, A. C. Seward; educational methods in the teaching of botany, Harold Wager; notes on irrigation farming on the Orange River, F. B. Parkin- son. Johannesburg: President’s address; photography as an aid to cecological research, Prof. F. E. Weiss; the problems of heredity, R. P. Gregory. It is expected that Prof. Engler, Prof. Pearson, and others will contribute papers. Section L (Educational Science).—Cape Town : President’s address; the teaching of science, Prof. H. E. Armstrong ; the teaching of science in South Africa, Dr. Hahn; rural education, appropriate to colonial life in South Africa, and agriculture, A. D. Hall; the higher education of women in South Africa, Miss Clark; disabilities of South African school boys, W. A. Way; Cape education, its difficulties and development, Rev. W. E. C. Clarke. Johannesburg: Changes in the Dutch language since its introduction into South Africa, Dr. Brill; education on the veldt, Mr. Corbett ; prospects of secondary schools in the Transvaal, Mr. Hope; teaching of agriculture, F. B. Smith; native education, Hobart Houghton; progress of education in the Transvaal, H. Warre Cornish; education in Rhodesia, G. Duthie; a school of forestry, T. R. Simms; the teach- ing of architecture, R. G. Kirkby; education in the Orange River Colony, Hugh Gunn; manual instruction in the Transvaal, T. Lowden; recent improvements in the train- ing of infants, with special reference to South Africa, Miss Welldon; discussion with Section A, the teaching of elementary mathematics. THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY.* Ape principles are, notwithstanding the origin of the word, the last things you attain to in the course of scientific investigation; but they are what you first explain to another who is commencing his study. You may make a further selection of such parts as are for any reason the easiest or most suit- able for him to begin with, and call them the elements. Lyell’s classic work has pretty well fixed what shall be the conventional meaning of ‘‘ The Principles of Geology.’ They are the laws or ex- planations which we arrive at in respect of the pheno- mena exhibited in the earth’s crust from direct observ- ation of those phenomena themselves or of the recent operations of mature which we see producing analogous results. Their value depends upon the opportunities afforded of obtaining evidence and upon the personal faculty of eliminating sources of error. In the case of geology, the subject is so vast that its different branches are growing further and further apart, until they seem to have an intergrowth with the branches from other subjects the original stem of which was far removed from their own. From the observation of rock masses inferences have been drawn as to the conditions which prevailed in past times, and theories have been propounded as 1 **Structuraland Field Geology.”” By Dr. Jas. Geikie. Pp. xx+ 435. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; London: Gurney and Jackson, 1905.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 224 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 to the forces which have rolled up the strata and pro- duced such varied superficial and deep-seated pheno- mena. These form the principles of dynamical geology, and it is the description of the resultant structures and the methods of observation which form the chief subject of the interesting handbook just published by Dr. James Geikie under the title “ Structural and Field Geology.”’ The two first chapters are devoted to an examin- ation of the rock-forming minerals. These are very few in number if we leave out all except those which are the essential constituents of the common rocks. After studying their composition and characteristics in hand specimens or small slices adapted for ex- amination under the microscope, there is much to be Photo. by H.AM. Geological Survey. Fig. 1.—Fault-rock, River Garry, at Dalnacardoch, Perthshire. (Reproduced on a reduced scale from ‘‘ Structural and Field Geology,” J. Geikie.) learnt as to the history of the earth’s crust from the | observation of large masses of rock. We can see whether they were laid down in comparatively tran- quil water, or hurled along by torrents, or dashed against a shore. We notice that what was once mud | or sand or shingle is now solid rock, and we try to make out in each case whether this was brought about by the introduction of some cementing material or caused by the pressure of superincumbent masses, and | whether the changes were helped by the action of the high temperature experienced by rocks depressed to great depths or crushed by irresistible earth move- ments. Chemical reactions and the crystallisation of | NO. 1862, VOL. 72] various minerals out of the material of the rock pro- duce changes on a small scale, as seen in concretions and drusy cavities, or on a large scale as in the case of the formation of vast beds of crystalline lime- stone from the calcareous fragments of various organisms. We can infer from a comparison of certain rocks with the products of recent volcanoes that ancient volcanoes also injected molten matter through the riven rocks, poured out vast sheets of lava, and covered wide areas with volcanic ash. The rocks so formed and so altered have yet to be regarded from another point of view. They have been depressed, uplifted, and thrown into all sorts of posi- tions, now being dragged out, now crumpled up into every variety of fold, the compressible portions often making up by vertical thickening what they lose in horizontal extent, and those that would not yield to such molecular re-arrangement being reduced to the “same dimensions by crumpling. Divisional planes are developed in them, some being due to crush, some to shrinkage, some to the variety in the succession of deposits, and when the strained and bending rock must break it is apt to give along these lines of weakness, so that we find faults commonly coinciding with master joints, thrusts with bedding planes, and so on. : The last seven chapters are more .specially devoted »to the second subject in the title of the book, namely, field geology. This could not be altogether dis- sociated from the observations recorded in the earlier part of the work. The information there given is the outcome of original observations in the field, but our author now deals more with the methods employed, and explains what are the most useful appliances for the work and what are the indications which the surveyor must be on the alert to detect. Perhaps, having regard to the numerous monographs which have recently been published on the subject of scenery, he has given greater prominence to the causes than to the effects, to the earth structures to which most scenic features must ultimately be re- ferred rather than to the total result of movement and denudation by which anomalous river flows and abnormal features must be explained. A study of recent erganisms enables us sometimes to establish the relation between the soft and perish- able parts and the hard parts which alone are commonly preserved in the rocks, and thus by a com- parison of the fossil forms with their nearest. recent representatives to learn something of the order of succession of life upon the earth and the conditions under which fossil plants and animals existed. Such analogies must not; however, be pressed too hard. Even such a recent case as the occurrence together of the remains of lion, hyena, and hippopotamus with the hairy elephant and woolly rhinoceros in our gravel terraces can hardly yet be said to have received an altogether satisfactory explanation. Before we draw inferences from the abundance or rarity of certain fossil organisms we must carefully consider their mode of entombment and the conditions which favour the preservation or the destruction of their remains. Dr. Geikie has dealt very shortly with these prin- ciples of palzeontology, but devotes most of his work to the inorganic side of geology. Even with this limitation of subject the worl tales a somewhat encyclopaedic character owing to the great number and variety of the observations and inferences which have to be recorded. The treatment is rather dogmatic than critical. With an author so experi- enced and acute in observation this may be for many an advantage, but students require a discussion of arguments where conclusions differ, and references to other authors where they.may find the matters more fully treated which are here of nécessity briefly stated. JuLy 6, 1905] NALURE ays The formation of ripple marks, for instance, wants fuller explanation than the statement that ‘‘ they owe their origin to a wave-like motion set up in the semifluid’ sediment by the water passing over it.”’ The work is illustrated by a large number of diagrammatic sketches by the author and photographs by members of the staff of the Geological Survey. As examples, we reproduce the pictures of two common phenomena which haye many points of general resemblance to one another but a _ very different origin. Plate xxxix. represents a fissure the strata on either side of which have been relatively displaced by earth movements, either repeatedly in one direction or with a to-and-fro motion, that the walls of the fissure have been rubbed smooth, 10) Fig. 2.—Basalt Dyke Cutting Sandstone and Shale, Kilbride Bennan, Arran, fluted, and polished by the movement. The triturated rock and the fragments broken off fill the crack, and this débris is often penetrated by mineral matter and consolidated into a mass harder than the rocks through which it passes. The walls of the fissure are sometimes altered mechanically and by infiltering water to a considerable depth. In Plate xliv., on the other hand, we see a rift in the rocks filled with matter which has welled up from deep-seated rock which has become molten. In this case, also, the immediately adjoining portion of the rock which it traverses is altered, and very commonly shows slickensides when earth movements have acted upon these two rocks of such different tenacity and hardness; but the composition of the traversing rocks is so unlike in the two cases, and the character of the marginal alterations so dissimilar, that there is seldom any room for doubt as to the origin of each. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] Our author has wisely avoided most of the shibbo- leths which it is the fashion for specialists to introduce into their explanations.of the simplest phenomena, but though students may escape the interruption of having to consider the exact application of mylonisa- tion and schillerisation, which are not in the index, though one is found in the text, they must learn the meaning of such terms as synclinorium or geanticline. Difficulties and absurdities in nomenclature are perhaps characteristic of the present phase of scientific literature, and our author has been wonderfully con- siderate in this matter, and has given us a very useful handbook, admirable in the freshness and terse- ness of its descriptions and the clearness and abund- ance of its illustrations. aed ] Photo..by H.M. Geological Survey. (From ‘Structural and Field Geology,” J. Geikie.) NOTES. Amonc those who are the recipients of the King’s birth- day honours we notice the following :—Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., has been made a Privy Councillor; Knight- hoods have been conferred upon Prof. T. McCall Anderson, of the University of Glasgow; Mr. E. W. Brabrook, C.B., formerly Registrar of Friendly Societies; Dr. A. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., Emeritus professor of engineering and mechanical technology at University College, London, and president of the Admiralty Committee on Machinery Dr. Boverton Redwood; and Dr. W. J. Smyly, president of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. Colonel D. Bruce, F.R.S., has been made a Knight Com- mander of the Bath. Dr. W. T. Prout, principal medica officer, colony of Sierra Leone, and Dr. J. W. Robertson, late Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairying of the of Canada, have been made C.M.G.’s. The Designs ; Dominion 226 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 honour of Knight Bachelor has been conferred upon Dr. E. S. Stevenson, member of the medical council of the Cape of Good Hope; and Mr. Philip Watts, F.R.S., Director of Naval Construction, is made an ordinary member of the Civil Division of the Second Division, or Knight Commander, of the Order of the Bath. A MEETING of Members of Parliament, presided over by Mr. Haldane, met on Tuesday last in a committee room of the House of Commons to consider the question of a request for an additional State grant to the National Physical Laboratory. Dr. Glazebrook having made a statement as to the aims and needs of the laboratory, was followed by Mr. Chamberlain, who in the course of his remarks said that the real problem of the nation was how to improve our highest education. He felt convinced that if they were to speak of the whole matter as an investment, it was from higher education that they would gain the largest return. He asked in what way the National Physical Laboratory was distinct from other uni- versities, such as those of Birmingham, Liverpool, Man- chester, and Sheffield. He asked this because it was not merely the object of the universities to educate young persons; it was their object to carry on post-graduate research in the largest possible way—to make precisely the experiments which the laboratory was making. They did not want in any way to discourage that work in these separate universities ; they did not want to centralise any branch of scientific work. He had himself rather a horror of central institutions, and he had a great belief in the freedom and the competition of a number of separate centres. He was sure that there was no idea of injurious competition in the minds of the promoters of the meeting ; but he would like to be certain that it might not have that effect. After all, they were all more or less de- pendent, and they would be increasingly dependent, upon State aid, of which they had had very little up to the present. Were the universities, éach of them, to apply separately and frighten the Treasury, or were they to ‘put their forces together, and go as one body representing the whole and ask for a very largely increased grant, leaving it for consideration afterwards how that grant should be divided? Why were they making a special demand at that time for that particular institution? He was all in favour of giving assistance to any institution of the kind. But he should like to know in what way this was to be distinguished from the University of Liver- pool or any of the others where they were carrying on the work of physical research. He would even ask why the promoters of this institution should operate alone—whether they would not do much more if they all came together. In that case they would, of course, have very much larger Parliamentary support. If each institution was to ask for what it wanted he was afraid the chances of success would not be great. He might be considered to be throw- ing cold water on the matter at the beginning, but as a fact he most entirely sympathised with the general object. He thought that such an_ institution was absolutely necessary, and if there were no others, then he would say most distinctly that it would have a special claim upon them. But as there were, and as they were all in their infancy, he wished to know in what way it was thought best to treat the matter when they approached the Govern- ment, whether as a whole on behalf of scientific instruc- tion generally or whether on behalf of the claims of that particular institution. The chairman said they were all interested in what Mr. Chamberlain had said, and his Suggestion of a collective movement in favour of the NO. 1862, voL. 72] | highest education. He thought the work that the National Physical Laboratory was doing could not be organised in connection with any of the universities. The following resolution was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously :—‘‘ That this meeting, being satisfied of the necessity of further State aid to the National Physical Laboratory, at Teddington, as regards both equipment and maintenance, requests the chairman and conveners of this meeting to prepare and present a memorial to the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer asking for such additional aid, and that the memorial be signed by members here present or who, being absent, may be in sympathy with its objects.’"” Mr. Chamberlain, who had to leave before a decision was arrived at, said that if the meeting decided in favour of the resolution his name might be attached to it, On Monday last Mr. Ailwyn Fellowes, President of the Board of Agriculture, was waited upon by a deputation from the Pharmaceutical Society respecting the proposed legislation to extend to other than chemists the right of selling poisonous products used in agriculture and_horti- culture. It was argued on behalf of the society that it would be dangerous to the public to allow any one to sell poisonous articles; that there was no difficulty in the way of farmers or horticulturists getting the articles through a chemist as cheaply as through any other person; and the public would be safeguarded by the special knowledge of the chemist and druggist. In reply, the President of the Board of Agriculture said he had received an enormous number of resolutions from all over the country in favour of a relaxation of the present law. The new regulations under the proposed Bill would provide :—(1) that no poisonous substance shall be kept in any shop or premises . where articles of food are stored or kept for sale; (2) that poisons must be kept in a separate cupboard from other goods; (3) all poisons shall be sold in an enclosed vessel, labelled with the word ‘* Poison ’’; (4) liquid poisons shall | be sold only in bottles or tins easily distinguishable by touch from ordinary bottles or tins; (5) in granting licences the local authority shall have regard to the facilities already existing in the neighbourhood for the purchase of poisonous compounds. AccorpinGc to the Berlin correspondent of the Daily | Chronicle, Dr. Robert Koch has written from German} East Africa stating that he has been studying the nature, habits, and anatomy of the tsetse fly, and that he has dis- covered a certain parasite in the fly to which he attributes | the disease to which the cattle bitten by the fly succumb. Tue death is announced, at the age of fifty-five years, of Prof. von Mikulicz-Radecki, of the University of Breslau, well known as a surgeon and for his numerous papers and memoirs on surgical subjects. About a year ago he delivered the Cavendish lecture before the West London Medico-chirurgical Society, and last year he was the presi- dent of the surgical section of the German Association of Men of Science and Medical Men. Tue death is announced of Prof. P. T. Cleve, of Upsala, on June 18. He was born in 1840, and was the leading exponent of chemical research in Sweden. His hydro- graphical investigations were also of great importance. He was an honorary member of the Chemical Society. Tue Barnard medal of Columbia University has just been awarded to Prof. H. Becquerel for ‘‘ important dis- coveries in the field of radio-activity, and for his original discovery of the so-called dark rays from uranium, which discovery has been the basis of subsequert research into Jury 6, 1905 | NATURE 227 > the laws ‘of radio-activity, and of our present knowledge of the same.’? The medal has been previously awarded to Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Ramsay, and Prof. R6ntgen. A portrait of Prof. W. Osler has been presented to the University of Pennsylvania by the members of the classes which from 1885 to 1891 studied under Prof. Osler when he occupied the chair of clinical medicine at the university. A MEDAL has been struck to commemorate the successful completion of the Simplon Tunnel. On one side of the medal is a figure of Mercury and a locomotive emerging from the tunnel, with the inscription ‘‘ Aux Collaborateurs et Ouvriérs du Percement du Simplon’’; on the other is a representation of the meeting of the workmen when the last obstacle had been broken down, and bears the words “Souvenir de la Rencontre des Galeries, Fevr. 1905.”’ Busts of Joseph Lancaster and Michael Faraday—the gift of Mr. Passmore Edwards—were unveiled on Wednes- day of last week in the entrance hall of the Borough Polytechnic Institute by Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., who delivered an address. To commemorate the anniversary of the one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday of Audubon, the American Museum of Natural History has placed on exhibition a collection of Audubon relics, among which is the portfolio in which Audubon carried specimen plates while securing subscribers to his great work, together with sketches and finished plates. A sCHEME for the establishment of a Central Research Institute at Kasauli, and a laboratory for scientific, medical, and sanitary work at the headquarters of each provincial Indian Government, to provide more adequate means for the scientific study of etiology and the nature of the diseases of the country, has been published. It is hoped that when the project has been developed, not only will it be no longer necessary for officers to go to Europe to study the bacteriology and parasitology of tropical diseases, but that workers from England and the Euro- pean Continent will avail themselves of the Indian labor- atories and the unrivalled material for study which the diseases of the country afford. The scheme has the approval of the Secretary of State, and the Government of India proposes to appoint as the first director of the Central Research Institute Lieut.-Colonel Semple, M.D., well known for his work in connection with the Pasteur Institute of India. A NEW society, to be known as the Harvey Society, has been established in New York under the patronage of the New York Academy of Medicine. Its purpose is the diffusion of scientific knowledge of anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, pathology, pharmacology, and physiological and pathological chemistry by public lectures given by men who are workers in the subjects presented. Each lecture is intended to represent the state of modern knowledge concerning the topic treated, and will be addressed to the general medical profession who are interested in the scientific side of medicine. The president is Dr. Graham Lusk. The members of the society consist of two classes, active and associate members. Active members are labor- atory workers in the medical sciences residing in New York; associate members are such persons as may be in sympathy with the objects of the society, and reside in New York, The first course of lectures will be given at the Academy of Medicine on Saturday evenings during the winter of the years 1905-6. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] A CONVERSAZIONE took place at King’s College, London, on Thursday last, when many scientific and other exhibits were on view. An interesting item was a set of various forms of glow-lamps, a demonstration of which was given by Prof. E. Wilson in the Siemens electrical engineering laboratory, and which included mercury-vapour, Nernst, tantalum, and osmium lamps. There was an ex- hibition of crystallisation shown on the screen by Prof. Herbert Jackson. also Tue annual conversazione of the Institution of Electrical Engineers was held on June 29 at the British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington. It was attended by upwards of 1000 guests. Tue third International Electric Tramway and Railway Exhibition was opened at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, on Monday last by Lord Derby. Tue annual general meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry will begin in London on Monday next, June to. The society numbers among its members some 1500 Americans, and at the last annual meeting, which, with special reference to the St. Louis Exhibition, was held in the United States, an American, Dr. W. H. Nichols, was elected president in succession to Sir William Ramsay. The American visit was a great success, and the British members of the society have looked forward to the time when they would be able to welcome in Great Britain their president and American and Canadian co-members. The proceedings in connection with the forthcoming meeting have therefore been specially arranged in view of this return visit. Dr. Nichols has already arrived in England, and we understand that the guests of the society will number in all about 120. A lengthy and interesting pro- gramme has been arranged. Tue sixty-fourth annual meeting of the Medico-psycho- logical Association of Great Briain and Ireland will be held at 11 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, on July 20 and 21 under the presidency of Dr. T. Outterson Wood. The annual dinner of the association is to take place on July 30 at the Whitehall Rooms. Tue American Anthropological Association is to meet in San Francisco, Cal., from August 29 to 31 next under the presidency of Prof. F. W. Putnam, when papers re- lating to ethnology, archzeology, prehistoric man, physical anthropology, linguistics, and general anthropology will be read. The museum of the department of anthropology of the University of California at the affiliated colleges in San Francisco, which has recently been installed, but not yet opened to the public, will be the headquarters of the association. A PRELIMINARY circular has been issued to announce that the tenth International Geological Conference will be held in 1906 in Mexico. An executive committee has been appointed, with M. José G. Aguilera, director of the National Geological Institute of Mexico, as president, and M. Ezequiel Ordéiez, assistant director of the same institu- tion, general secretary. It is expected that the congress will open on September 6, 1906, and last for eight days. Tue Postmaster-General again directs attention to the fact that pathological specimens and articles of a similar nature may be forwarded only by registered letter post and in proper cases. The Post Office regulations provide that any deleterious liquid or substance sent by post must be enclosed in a receptacle hermetically sealed, which re- ; ceptacle must itself be placed in a strong wooden, leathern, 229 NATURE [JULY 6, 1905 or metal case, in such a way that it,.cannot shift about, and with a sufficient quantity of some absorbent material (such as sawdust or cotton wool) so packed about the receptacle as absolutely to prevent any possible leakage from the packet in the event of damage to the receptacle. The packet must also be marked ‘‘ Fragile with care.” An exhibition of the results obtained last year by Prof. Flinders Petrie and his coadjutors in the field of Egyptian archeology was opened at University College, Gower Street, on Thursday last, and will remain on view for a month. Last winter excavations were carried on in the peninsula of Sinai. At Sarabit el Khadem the mines were of turquoise, and no copper was found. The interesting feature on this site is the evidence of the Semitic—not Egyptian—worship which was practised. The whole region is scattered over with shelters for pilgrims, usually con- taining a Bethel stone, some of which have Egyptian in- scriptions of the twelfth dynasty. The pilgrims came for oracular dreams like Jacob’s, and the shelters are only in the region of the temple. They are quite distinct from the miners’ dwellings, such as are common at Wady Maghara. This Bethel custom is a special feature of Semitic belief, and is quite unknown in Egypt. The temple at Sarabit was originally a sacred cave—perhaps as early as Seneferu. It was carved by Amenemhat LU Lae and furnished with altars for the worship of Hathor. In front of it, on the edge of the hill, was an enormous mass of ashes of burnt offerings, showing the burnt sacrifices on high places familiar to Semitic worship. The temple was extended over these burnt offerings by Tahutmes III. and other kings until Sety I. Of the temple itself a beautiful and instructive model is shown, the scale being one-fiftieth. The whole length of the building is nearly 250 feet. Though it has been known since the time of Niebuhr, no clearance had been made; but now many new features have been brought to light from under the rubbish. The primitive shrine of Hathor was a rock cave, and the discovery of a hawk with the finely cut name of Seneferu makes it probable that the shrine is as old as the third dynasty. It is announced in the Electrician that as a result of the successful- experiments with the De Forest wireless telegraphy. in. moving trains, the Chicago and Alton Rail- way. will supply wireless telegraphy apparatus on its two express trains running daily between Chicago and St. Louis, and ultimately on its whole system. Messages were received while the train was running at fifty miles per hour. For some time while the train was approaching the Mississippi River above the elevated stretch leading to Merchants’ Bridge, the increase in strength of the signals was very marked, but when the train entered the frame- work of the bridge it was found that signals became almost imperceptible owing to the screening action of the bridge. It was observed also. that’ the signals were stronger when the train was broadside on to the trans- mitting station and running at right angles to it. The fact that the radiations were following the course of the river in preference to overland paths was very marked. as the train pulled out of Alton, Illinois. At one point the track. runs: within a few hundred feet of. the river, and -at this point the signals from St. Louis, thirty miles away, which. had just. previously. become very weak, were in- creased in intensity to a surprising degree. . No difficulty seems to have been experienced even when the train was many miles from the transmitting station and was thread- ing through the yards and sidings of Chicago, completely NO. 1862, VOL. 72] hidden by large elevators and steel structures of. every description. Tue New York correspondent of the Lancet states that a subcommittee of twenty-one coloured physicians and clergymen has been organised by the New York Charity Organisation Society’s Committee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis to fight tuberculosis among the coloured people of New York. The New York health board is cooperating with the movement, and has placed its dis- pensary under the supervision of the medical members of the subcommittee for three evenings a week. A course of illustrated lectures treating of tuberculosis will be given shortly in the churches for coloured congregations. It is stated that there are between 60,000 and 65,000 coloured persons in New York city, and that their death-rate from tuberculosis is 5-33 per 1000, as against 2-37 per 1000 among the whites. Tue first part of the Home Office “‘ Mines and Quarries : General Report and Statistics for 1904’’ has just been issued. The total number of persons employed at the mines of the United Kingdom was 877,057, of whonr 847,553 worked at the 3333 mines under the Coal Mines Act and 29,504 at the 673 mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act. The total number at coal mines is the highest recorded since 1873, and that at metalliferous mines the lowest. The output included 232,428,272 tons of coal, 3,043,045 tons of fireclay, 7,557,733 tons of ironstone, and 2,333,062 tons of oil shale. The coal production is the highest recorded. The deaths from accidents amounted to 1055 in collieries and 35 in metalliferous mines, the death rate per 1000 persons employed being 1-24 in the former case and 1-19 in the latter. It is gratifying to note that the former rate has never been lower. No. 21 of the Publications of the Earthquake Investi- gation Committee (Tokyo) contains a lengthy paper by Prof. Omori on horizontal pendulum observations at Tokyo; the most interesting of the results is the conclusion that the first movement is usually towards the origin in the case of near or moderately distant earthquakes, but in a smalh proportion of the records it is away from the origin. The author attributes this difference to a distinction in the cause of the earthquakes, the first type being due to the sudden collapse of a subterranean cavity, or the crushing down of a horizontal stratum, and the second type to the sudden splitting asunder or widening of a vertical cavity by the expansive action of steam or gases. In another. part of the paper, however, he points out that in the case of artificial earthquakes caused by explosions, the first movement is outwards if these take place on the surface of the ground, but inwards if the explosive is buried at some little depth. Other points which are commented on are the resemblance between the records of earthquakes of similar intensity and originating in the same region, and the occasional occurrence of long-period undulations combined with shorter-period vibrations in the first phase of distant earthquakes. THE investigations of the relation between variation of barometric pressure and sea level on the coast of Japan, which were noticed in NaturE of November 3, 1904, has been continued by Prof. Omori, who shows, in the Pro- ceedings of the Tokyo Physicomathematical Society (vol. ii:,. No. 20), that the relationship found on the Pacific extends to the western coasts of Japan, so that all round these islands the rise of sea-level is greater than that. due to: the local diminution of barometric pressure alone. The consequence of this is that a low barometer means a Jury 6, 1905] NATURE 22.0 decrease of pressure on land but an increase of pressure on the surrounding sea bottom, the latter being about 1-6 times as great as the former. An interesting result, attributed to this cause, is given in No. 21 of the Publi- cations of the Earthquake Investigation Committee, where the behaviour of a horizontal pendulum during the storm of October 10-11, 1904, is described; the low-pressure area passed to the east of Tokyo, and during its passage the horizontal pendulum indicated a tilting, which reached 3-5 seconds of arc, to the east—that is, in the direction of the low barometric pressure—indicating an increase of pressure on the sea bottom in that direction. WE have received the report of the Government Observ- atory, Bombay, for the year 1904. This observatory deals chiefly with terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and seismology ; it has issued a long series of valuable publi- cations, and many years ago Mr. Charles Chambers, then director, prepared an elaborate discussion of the meteor- ology of Bombay. The care bestowed upon the records of the photographic self-registering instruments may be gathered-from the fact that the watchmen go round once every hour, night and day, to see that the clocks are all going and the lights burning. Their regular attendance is automatically recorded on the photograms themselves. The total rainfall for the year amounted to only 33-4 inches, being 41-7 inches below the normal value for twenty-four years (1873-96); this is the smallest fall recorded at the observatory. Milne’s seismograph registered thirty-five earthquakes during the year. ‘ From information received from the president of the International Aéronautical Committee, we find that in the months of January to April last the average monthly number of stations participating in the balloon and kite ascents was sixteen; kite observations were made each month at Oxshott by Mr. Dines, and at Aldershot, by the military balloon section, in February and March. The most notable heights attained, by means ot unmanned balloons, were 19,420 metres at Strassburg and 21,733 metres at Berlin. In April kite and unmanned balloon observations were made from the Prince of Monaco’s yacht in the Mediterranean. These are the first ascents made with unmanned balloons in the open sea, and these successful experiments show that Prof. Hergesell’s idea of obtaining such observations over the oceans may possibly be realised. Burretin No. 35 of the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, Conn., deals with the Camembert type of soft cheese. The conclusion is. arrived at that the ripening is due to definite moulds and _ bacteria. One mould (? Penicillium candidum) seems to produce the changes which result in the texture of the cheese, and it, together with the Oidium lactis, produces the flavour, lactic acid bacteria giving the necessary acidity and retarding the action of other bacteria. It is found possible so to control the process of ripening that the desired result may be obtained with reasonable uniformity. WE have received the first number of a new periodical, the Medico-technologisches Journal, edited by Dr. Berthold Beer, which is to be devoted to medical and surgical instru- ments and the various apparatus employed in bacteriology, photography, radiography, hygiene, &c., and appertaining to the. medical sciences and physical. therapeutics. It contains a prefatory article by Dr. Beer, and descriptions of Zeiss’s apparatus for the demonstration of ultra- microscopic particles and of various surgical instruments NO. 1862, VOL. 72] and pharmaceutical. preparations, together with photo- graphic and balneological notes and literature. Such a journal, provided it gives concise descriptions of the principal new inventions of the various countries, and not of Germany only, should supply a decided want. new IN a paper contributed to the June number of the Zoologist Mr. J. G. Millais points out that the English black rat—the type of Mus rattus of Linnaus—is by no means the blackest representative of the species, that dis- tinction falling to a race which it is proposed to call M. rattus ater, and of which specimens have been taken in England. No doubt this is right enough, but when the author proceeds to suggest English names for the various local races of the species in question he follows a course which, in our opinion, cannot but land him in difficulties. The species itself he rightly calls the black rat, but for its local races the name of Alexandrine rat is taken, so that the typical form becomes the northern Atexandrine rat, while the new race is termed the black Alexandrine rat. Their proper designations should be the Alexandrine black rat and the Black Sea black rat. In the Transactions of the» Royal Society of Edinburgh (vol. iii., part iii., No. 22) Sir Charles Elliot describes the nudibranch molluscs collected during the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. These comprise but two species, two of which are, however, referable to new and interest- ing generic types. The most remarkable feature is the absence in the collection of all representatives of Doris and its allies, a feature common to the Discovery collec- tion of this group, which has been entrusted to the author for description. Certain holothurians of the genus Psolus from the Antarctic present a superficial resemblance to dorids, although this is not regarded as more than accidental. As a supplement to part iii. of Prof. Herdman’s report on the pearl oyster fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar, published by the Royal Society, Messrs. Shipley and Hornell describe several new parasitic worms (some referred to new generic types) obtained from elasmobranch fishes frequenting the pearl-banks. Possibly, although not probably, some of the cestodes may be the parent form of the pearl-producing larvee. No direct light is thrown by the investigations on the problem of the provenance of the pearl-producing parasite. Tue departmental committee appointed to investigate certain matters connected with the sea-fisheries of Suther- land and Caithness reports that cod and ling have of late years been much less abundant than formerly on the coast. As regards a proposed close time for herrings, it was con- sidered that the fishermen themselves are the best judges as to whether such a protective measure is advisable. Trawling in the Moray Forth (which is not permitted. to British craft) by foreign vessels is, held to be responsible for considerable injury to the fishery. : AccorpinG to the report for 1904, the Marine Biological Association of the West of Scotland has had a» very successful year, the only drawback being certain difficulties with regard td the staff. The year witnessed the practical completion of the large extensions of the station generously provided by Mr. J..Coats, jun., which were opened by Sir John Primrose in September last; and promise to meet all present requirements. The hope is expressed that it. may be found possible to retain the invaluable services of the S.Y. Mermaid during the present season. 230 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 Nos. 4 and 5 of the admirable series of Cold Spring Harbour Monographs are respectively devoted to the life- history of the chrysomelid beetle Chlamys plicata, commonly called ‘‘ case-bearer,’’ and of the ‘‘ mud-snail ’’ (dog-whelk), Nassa plicata, E. M. Briggs and A. C. Dimon being the respective authors, or, as some would say, authoresses. The case-bearer is remarkable for the fact that its encased larve resemble not only undeveloped buds of the alder, but likewise the fruit of the high-vine black- berry. Of the ‘‘ mud-snail’’ the life-history and habits are described in considerable detail, and a number of observations recorded with regard to its reactions to light, &c. Two addresses, on ‘‘ Spirals’’ and ‘* Ambidexterity,”’ which were delivered before the Hampstead Scientific Society by Sir Samuel Wilks, Bart., F.R.S., on April 14 and May 12 respectively, have just been issued in pamphlet form by Mr. S. C. Mayle, of Hampstead. The society is to be congratulated on having the active support of so eminent a man as Sir Samuel Wilks. Ar the meeting of the Aéronautical Society of Great Britain to be held on Wednesday next, the following com- munications will be read:—‘‘ Some Remarks on Aérial Flight,’’ by G. H. Wenham; ‘‘ Demonstration of a Bird- like Flying Machine,’’ by Dr. F. W. A. Hutchinson; ““ Balloon Varnishes and their Defects,’’ by W. F. Reid; and ** The Thrust of Aérial Propellers,’? by W. G. Walker. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. OBSERVATIONS OF THE SATELLITES OF SATURN AND Uranus.—An important set of observations of the satellites of Saturn and Uranus, involving some hundreds of individual “‘ settings,’’ was made by Messrs. Frederick and Hammond with the 26-inch equatorial of the U.S. Naval Observatory during 1904. The position angle and distance of each satellite were measured from a second satellite, the angle about the inner body always being taken. The observations extended over the period May 24 to October 11, and the detailed results are published in No. 4026 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. GEODETIC MEASUREMENTS FROM SoLaR_ Ec.ipses.—The Journal of the British Astronomical Association (vol. xv., June 22) contains a paper in which Mr. C. E. Stromeyer points out that if the central shadow of the coming August eclipse be accurately located, all the necessary data will be available for the determination of the geocentric difference of any two observation stations. He proposes two methods for eye observations, and two photographic methods, of which one in particular seems capable of being carried out with the desired precision; it consists in photographing a trail of the central phase of the eclipse on to a moving film. The method described can be carried out both within and outside the shadow, but the best results will be obtained if the observer is just on the edge of the shadow. The method can also be used with annular eclipses, and if found to be trustworthy would be a valuable means for gradually determining the geocentric distances of various points, even of islands in mid-ocean, which can never be triangulated. ‘ MonocuromMatTic PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ORION NEBULA.— On obtaining a series of spectrograms of the Orion nebula with a small objective-prism quartz spectrograph, Prof. Hartmann found that different parts of the nebula emit light of very different composition, whilst large areas, of characteristic forms, shine solely by the ultra-violet radi- ation at A 3727. This variety of the light emitted by the several areas of the nebula led Prof. Hartmann to employ colour screens in obtaining direct photographs with a Steinheil .reflector of 24 cm. aperture and go cm. focal length. Three screens were used; the first completely absorbed all wave-lengths shorter than A 4800, but allowed NO. 1862, VOL. 72] HB and the two chief nebular lines, N, and N,, to pass through almost without any diminution of intensity. The second screen freely transmitted all radiations between A 3880 and A 3740, but absorbed all others, whilst with the third the absorption commenced at A 5050, increased rapidly to totality at Hf, extended to A 4ooo, and then quickly decreased until at A 3727 the transparency was very nearly complete. In this screen the two chief nebular lines were faintly transmitted, but it was an easy, matter to eliminate their action by employing a plate of suitable sensitiveness. Combining the first and third screens cut out H8, leaving only N, and N, effective. Marked differences of the intensities of several areas, as shown on the various photographs obtained with different screens, are plainly seen on the reproductions accompanying Prof. Hartmann’s paper. Evidently the radiation A 3727 is extraordinarily intense in all parts of the nebula, whilst in some parts it .is almost the sole radiation, producing strong photographic images where the eye sees nothing. The nebula G.C. 1180 surrounding the star c Orionis is scarcely visible on the N, and N, photograph, but it is a prominent feature on that obtained with the ultra-violet light, and is fairly bright on the HB plate. This differential action suggests to Prof. Hartmann the presence of at least three gases in the Orion nebula, one of which emits the chief nebular radiations, the second hydrogen, and a third, which emits the radiation at A 3727 (Astrophysical Journal, No. 5, vol. xxi.). PERIODICITY OF AEROLITE FaLtts.—Among a number of interesting papers published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (‘‘ Selected Papers and Proceedings,” 1904) we notice one by Mr. W. H. S. Monck in which the author suggests that aérolites, like meteors, effect a certain periodicity. He first shows that the months of May and June stand out prominently in his catalogue of aérolites as the two months of the year in which a greater proportion of known falls have taken place. The number per diem for these two months is 1-34, whilst for the rest of the year it is only o.8r. In an argument supporting the suggested periodical re- lation between various aérolite falls, Mr. Monck cites instances in which (1) aérolites fell within one or two days of each other in the same year; (2) aérolites fell on almost the same date in two consecutive years ; (3) aérolites fell on nearly the same date after an interval of two or three years; and the number of cases quoted seems to place the matter beyond one of chance coincidences. Further, an analysis of the catalogue dates and numbers indicates a marked tendency for series of falls to congregate about certain dates, and for these falls Mr. Monck tentatively deduces periodicities varying from seven to twenty years. Tue ReaLity OF SuPPOSED CHANGES ON THE Moon’s Surrace.—In a paper published in the June number of the Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France M. Puiseux discusses at some length the various observ- . ations of alleged changes on the lunar surface under the influence of the solar radiation. Going back to the earliest observations of details, he carefully considers each authoritative report of suspected change up to the most recent observations of the reported increase of the diameter of Linné during lunar eclipses. Summing up all the evidence thus examined, M. Puiseux arrives at the con- clusion that the case for real changes taking place on the surface of our satellite is not established. He believes that the change of sensitiveness of the retina when observing faint objects is sufficient to account for the changes visually observed, whilst the different conditions of exposure when photographing the eclipsed moon might easily introduce the changes suspected from the examination of photographs. Tue CircuMZENITHAL APPARATUS.—A new circumzenithal apparatus, devised by MM. Nu&l and Fric for the deter- mination of latitude, &c., was briefly described in these columns for August 20, 1903. A full and illustrated de- scription of the instrument, and of the various improve- ments suggested by experience in its use, is now given in the Bulletin International of the Académie des Sciences de Frangois Joseph I. (Prague, 1904) by the inventors, together with a detailed account of the observations already made and the methods employed in reducing the same. Juty 6, 1905] NATURE THE NEEDS OF OUR OLDEST UNIVERSITY. THE following statement has been drawn up by those professors and heads of departments of the University of Oxford whose names are appended, each being responsible for the details of his own and allied subjects, but expressing also a general sympathy with the scheme as a whole. It indicates the cost at which, in their opinion, all important existing deficiencies (except those of law) may be met by a generous provision for research as well as for teaching. To carry out the scheme here set forth would require a capital outlay of about 564,o00l., and an annual income of about 93,0001. A large proportion of the capital sum proposed for building the new laboratories, together with the whole sum proposed for the purchase of land near the museum, might be saved if the chemical and physical departments were moved from their present position. , It is estimated that at a cost of about 60,0001, all existing or proposed departments in these branches of science could be accommodated, and space found for other proposed laboratories in the buildings thus set free. With the sums hereafter named, in addition to her present resources, Oxford could successfully meet every pressing need as well as those demands which it is believed will pour in from many parts of the Empire, from the United States, and from Germany. The present occasion has been thought a favourable one for stating clearly the full cost which, in the opinion of those who have signed this document, would enable Oxford con- fidently and hopefully to face the great responsibilities which have been placed upon her. But whatever be the outcome, her professors and heads of departments gladly welcome the inspiring opportunity for research and for education _which these new responsibilities will assuredly bring. They will cheerfully attempt to meet the coming needs, even with the present inadequate resources, but they consider it right to point out that their work will be done under the greatest difficulties and therefore inadequately. The insufficient endowment of many university departments and the necessity for further equipment have been subjects of anxious consideration for many years, culminating in the Vice-Chancellor’s letter of February 20, 1902, to heads of institutions and departments—published with the answers in the “‘ Statement of the Needs of the University ’’ (Oxford, 1902). The estimates of expenditure given below have been largely based upon these published replies to a letter which was issued before our necessities became still more press- ing in consequence of the will of Mr. Rhodes. Many addi- tional needs not contemplated in the replies to the Vice- Chancellor have also come to light in the course of this inquiry, and are provided for in the following scheme. The published statement of needs is itself introduced by the fol- lowing sentence (p. 3): ‘‘ It is hardly necessary to add that in dealing with prospective needs it is generally impossible to form even an approximate estimate of the new and ever- increasing wants which the rapidly-growing requirements of our time may bring, and indeed in some instances (even since these statements were prepared) have already brought within view. It has been assumed in the following statement that every important university chair, including all those to which the care of a department providing for one of the chief scientific subjects is attached, should be of the value of gool. a year. In fixing this sum the traditions of the last Commission have been followed, but it is necessary to bear in mind that the growth of universities in the future and the competition be- tween them may ultimately render such a sum insufficient to attract and retain the greatest workers and_ teachers. Under existing conditions we are convinced that it is adequate, but the university would require a large increase of income before she could provide for every important chair the stipend with which it is sometimes erroneously believed to be endowed. Each new laboratory devoted to one of the principal branches of natural science has been estimated to cost 30,0001., exclusive of site. It is believed that this sum would provide fittings and sufficient apparatus to begin teaching and research on an adequate scale, allowance being made for the material now in the possession of the university. It has been assumed that every important laboratory, both new and old, should receive an income of 3oool. a year, for pro- NO. 1862, VOL. 72] fessor’s stipend, demonstrators, assistants, apparatus, and material for research and for teaching, and the general ex- penses of maintenance. With such an income a professor could encourage several of his most promising men to do original work, giving them employment in teaching or working for the department during a part of their time, Attention to the large and insistent needs of the existing and proposed scientific departments has been accompanied by a generous provision for the necessities of other subjects, and especially by the suggested increase of the Bodleian income to 23,0001. a year—even then less than one-third of the annual sum supplied to the National Library. We feel that it is not too much to claim that the annual output in research and teaching from the small inadequately endowed—often miserably endowed—departments of the university, justifies the confident conclusion that a liberal provision for existing and imminent needs would be fol- lowed by results of the highest importance to the Empire as well as to the university. The results would be three- fold—the advancement of learning, which is the highest and noblest function of a university; the adequate teach- ing of many subjects of the first importance, now im- perfectly provided, or not provided at all; the inestimable benefits conferred upon students by living in an atmosphere of research. H. B. Baker, F.R.S., Lee’s reader in chemistry ; Henry Balfour, curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum; R. E. Baynes, Lee’s reader in physics; T. K. Cheyne, Oriel professor of the interpretation of Holy Scripture; R. B. Clifton, F.R.S., professor of experimental philosophy: S. R. Driver, Regius professor of Hebrew; F. Y. Edgeworth, professor of political economy; E. B. Elliott, F.R.S., Waynflete professor of pure mathematics; Robinson Ellis, Corpus professor of Latin literature; W. Esson, F.R.S., Savilian professor of geometry; Arthur J. Evans, F.R.S., keeper of the Ash- molean Museum; C. H. Firth, Regius professor of modern history; P. Gardner, Lincoln and Merton professor of archeology ; Francis Gotch, F.R.S., Waynflete professor of physiology; H. Goudy, Regius professor of civil law; F. Li. Griffith, reader in Egyptology; W. Lock, Ireland professor of exegesis of Holy Scripture; A. E. H. Love, F.R.S., Sedleian professor of natural philosophy; R. W. Macan, university reader in ancient history; A. A. Macdonell, Boden professor of Sanskrit ; D. S. Margoliouth, Laudian professor of Arabic; Henry A. Miers, F.R.S., pro- fessor of mineralogy; W. R. Morfill, professor of Russian ; A. S. Napier, Merton professor of English language and literature; E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley’s librarian; W. Odling, F.R.S., Waynflete professor of chemistry; R. L. Ottley, Regius professor of pastoral theology ; H. F. Pelham, Camden professor of ancient history ; E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Hope professor of zoology; Arthur Sidgwick, university reader in Greek; W. A. Raleigh, professor of English literature; John Rhys, Jesus professor of Celtic; James Ritchie, reader in pathology; W. Sanday, Margaret pro- fessor of divinity; A. H. Sayce, professor of Assyriology ; Henry Sweet, university reader in phonetics; W. J. Sollas, F.R.S., professor of geology; John S. Townsend, .S., Wykeham professor of physics; H. H. Turner, . Savilian professor of astronomy; E. B. Tylor, professor of anthropology; Sydney H. Vines, Sherardian professor of botany; W. F. R. Weldon, F.R.S., Linacre professor of comparative anatomy ; Joseph Wright, professor of comparative philology. The late Regius professor of medicine, Sir John Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., has expressed his approval. Bodleian Library.—Fire-proofing, additional _ storage, additional reading-room, warming picture-gallery, electric lighting of camera (see also Central University Institu- tion below, which it is suggested might. liberate additional: space. for the Bodleian) (25,0001. : —); large increase of staff, filling up deficiencies in and maintaining special departments, printing the catalogue, binding (includ- ing arrears) (— : 13,000l.). In this: and all other cases the sum placed before the colon indicates capital outlay, that placed after the colon annual expenditure. Central University Institution.—Containing workrooms and lecture-rooms for professors not otherwise provided for, university chest, delegates’ rooms, committee rooms, &c., Led oS, F-R-S:, ldeIGS a, 232 &c. The Clarendon building might be incorporated in Bod- leian (cost, including site in a central position, 80,0001. :—) ; custody of same, warming, lighting, cleaning (— : 4ool.) ; stipend of librarian for departmental libraries (— : 200l.). Examination Schools.—Installation of the electric light (1000. :—). Theology.—Oriel professor of interpretation of Holy Scrip- ture, stipend (the chair to be detached from the canonry at Rochester) (— : gool.) ; Dean Ireland’s professor, increase of stipend (—: 5ool.); two additional professors, ecclesiastical history (—: gool.), Christian archeology (—: 6ool.); four additional readers (3001. each), ecclesiastical history, liturgi- ology, Rabbinical Hebrew, Biblical archeology (— : 1200l.) ; Grinfield lecturer on Biblical Greek, increase of stipend, making the lectureship equal to a readership, with reader’s duties (— : 23ol.); [additional readers (not exclusively con- cerned with theology)—Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic] (— : 12001.) ; travelling fellowships (2) (— : 4ool.) ; capital fund from which payment might be made for occa- sional lectures (30001. : —). Greek, New Professor of Mediaeval and Modern Greek.— Stipend (— : gool.). Classical Palaeography.—Stipends of new readers, Greek and Latin (3001. each) (— : Gool.). New chairs of Pali and Persian philology and literature (7ool. each) (— : 1400l.). Reader in Prakrit Philology and Literature.—Stipend (— : 300l.); increased stipend of rool. to each of the five teachers of Indian vernacular, and additional grant to Indian Institute for purchase and care of Indian antiquities, &c. (3001.) (— : Sool.). Ashmolean Musewm.—Extension of ‘site, increase of museum, cases and fittings, including a numismatic depart- ment and space for growth of the departments mentioned below (30,0001. : —); increased staff both for the museum and common service of the Ashmolean museum and univer- sity picture-gallery, and stipend of librarian (—: post-graduate studentship in archeology, art, &c. toool.) ; purchase of specimens, books, &c. (— : 1500l.). Classical Archaeology.—Increased stipend of chair, three new readerships (— : 1500l.). Increase required for creation of new chairs of Greek and Roman Epigraphy and Inscriptions (7ool. each), Egyptology (7ool.), Assyriology (zool.), History of Religions (7ool.), Northern Archaeology (gool.), History of Architecture (g00!.) (—: 5300.) University Picture Gallery.—Extension of site, increase of gallery (10,0001. : —). Slade Professor of Fine Art.—Increased stipend for resi- dent chair, wages of attendant (— : 6ool.); increase of sti- pends, purchases, &c. (— : 1000l.). Pitt-Rivers Museum (Ethnology).—Increased space, build- ing (Sooo!.), cases and fittings (4oool.), electric lighting (250l.), (12,2501. :—); increase of stipend, a professorship of anthropology might, at some future time, be combined with the curatorship (— : ool.) ; assistants, service, general expenses and purchase of specimens (— : 7ool.). Astronomy, Savilian.—Building and apparatus (10,0001. : —); annual grant to make up a moderately efficient and well-equipped observatory with an income of soool. (— : 35001.). Increase required for creation of new chairs in scientific subjects and the building and new laboratories, &c. Under each chair the first-named sum represents capital expenditure for a new building, or for adapting an existing structure ; the second sum represents the annual expenditure for the stipend of the chair, provision of demonstrators and assist- ants, the expenses of research and of service and main- tenance : Engineering (30,0001. : 30001.);_ Organic Chemistry (30,0001. : 3000l.); Physiological and: Applied Botany (20,0001. : 20001.) ; Biochemistry (12,0001 : 2000l.); Experi- mental Psychology (15,000l.: 2000l.); Pathology (—: 15o0l., allowing for existing readership); Pharmacology and Materia Medica (15,000l. : 1500l., allowing for existing lectureship) ; State Medicine and Hygiene (10,0001. : 20001.). The Regius professorship of medicine might perhaps be com- bined with one of the suggested new chairs of medicine. Increase required for building new or adapting old | laboratories and other capital expenditure, for existing chairs NO. 1862, VOL. 72] NATURE [JuLY 6, 1905 in scientific subjects, &c., for increase of the stipend of the chairs, for additional demonstrators and assistants, and for the expenses of research and of service and maintenance. The capital expenditure is placed first, the annual second, under each chair : Experimental Philosophy, Clarendon.—Light and Sound (25,000l., to include provision for elementary students and for examinations : 2000l.); Electricity and Magnetism, Wyke- ham (30,0001. : 20001.) ; Heat, Lee’s (30,0001. : 20001., allow- ing for Lee’s readership) ; Inorganic Chemistry, Waynflete (30,000l., old laboratory for extension of mineralogy, geology, and the Radcliffe library : 22001.); Physical Chemistry, Lee’s (30,0001. : 2000l., allowing for Lee’s readership); . Mineralogy, Waynflete (15,0001. : 22001., including an assis- tant chair of metallurgy) ; Geology (20,0001. : 3000l., includ- ing two assistant chairs); Comparative Anatomy, Linacre (— : 10001.) ; Zoology, Hope (7oool., chiefly for cabinets (— : 2500l., including the maintenance of a tropical biological laboratory); Systematic Botany, Sherardian (— : 1000l.); Animal Physiology, Waynflete (6000l.: 1000l.); Human Anatomy (— : t1oool.). Secretary of the Museum Delegates and of the Scientific Departments.—Increase of staff for the general purposes of the museum and to enable the secretary to collect all fees of the scientific departments (— : 4ool.). Sites for Scientific Departments.—For purchase of land in the neighbourhood of the present museum (50,000/. : —). Geography.—Stipend of new chair (— : 7ool.); assistant lecturers (— : 750l.). University Chest.—Increased income to meet expenses in connection with additional buildings (— : 2000l.). Modern History.—New chairs of economic history, colonial history, and military history (gool. each) (— : 2700l,); “‘ seminars,’* maintenance and equipment of (rool. for each of the chairs) (—: 5ool.) ; Lectureships—additional payment of existing lecturers and appointment of new lec- turers, class expenses (— : 1500l.). Political Economy.—Increased stipend of chair (200l.), see’ also the new chair of economic history proposed under Modern History; lecturers in economic theory, in statistics and applied economics, and in economic geography (2ool. each) ; expenditure on examinations, &c. (5o0l.) ;.secretary and clerk (150l.), (— : roool.). English Language.—Two assistants in English language (— : 6ool.). English Literature.—Increased stipend of chair (qool.) ; two assistant lecturers in English literature (1501. each) ; one reader in rhetoric and criticism (300l.) (—: 1oool.). Modern Languages.—Increase of stipends of Taylorian teachers to 600!. each (— : 1600l.); assistant lecturers (— : 1000l.). New Chair of Phonetics.—Stipend (—: gool.). Total (546,250l. : 93,88ol.). PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE DEPART- MENTAL COMMITTEE ON THE ROVAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ROYAL: SCHOOL OF MINES. To tHE Most HonouraBL—E THE Marguess oF Lonpon- DERRY, K.G., PRESIDENT OF THE BoaRD OF EDUEATION. My Lorp Marougess, We, the Departmental Committee appointed by Your Lordship in April last to inquire into the present and future working of the Royal College of Science (including the Royal School of Mines), and into questions connected therewith, have the honour to submit a Preliminary Report. I. In conducting the inquiry referred to us, we have held 17 meetings, at which we have examined 21: witnesses, - the remainder of the time having been devoted to con- sideration of the information thus supplied to us. The ° evidence which we have received has been largely con- cerned with the history of the Royal College of Science (including the Royal School of Mines), with the character | of the instruction now given therein, and with the possi- bility of attracting students more advanced in their educa- tion than the majority of those who now seek admission. On this branch of our inquiry we should be prepared to submit recommendations which we think would conduce Juty 6, 1905] NATURE 233 to increase the great usefulness of these institutions, even though conducted in the main upon their present lines; but we have thought it desirable to defer making such recommendations at the present time for reasons which we will now proceed to state. II. It will be remembered that the terms of reference to the committee were as follows :—‘‘ To inquire into the present working of the Royal College of Science including the School of Mines: to consider in what manner the staff, together with the buildings and appliances now in occupa- tion or in course of construction, may be utilised to the fullest extent for the promotion of higher scientific studies in connection with the work of existing or projected Insti- tutions for instruction of the same character in the Metro- polis or elsewhere: and to report on any changes which may be desirable in order to carry out such recommend- ations as they may make.”’ We recognise the admirable work accomplished by the Royal College of Science not only in training teachers, but in its general method of science teaching and in the promotion of research. Notwithstanding the marked increase in the number of institutions where teachers of science can be trained, the demand has also so increased that the need for teachers of science who have been well trained in scientific method is no less now than when the college was established as a normal school of science. At the same time it is agreed that there is an urgent national necessity for increased facilities for advanced in- struction and research in science, especially in its appli- cation to industry. In view of this fact, and in view of certain munificent offers of aid towards the provision of such facilities in London, we have felt that it was necessary, in order to discharge the reference to us, to survey the resources available for, and the potentialities of, the principal existing and projected institutions of the character contemplated in .our terms of reference. We have now proceeded far enough in this survey to satisfy ourselves that the moment is primd facie opportune for a comprehensive scheme. The accomplishment, however, of such a scheme as we have in mind can only be brought about by the realisation of the offers of aid which are referred to above, and by the cooperation of certain influential bodies possessing an interest in such institutions as are dealt with in our proposals. It has, therefore, become necessary for us to approach these bodies and the persons who have made _ these munificent offers. But before we proceed any further in this direction, we feel that our position would be strengthened if we could be assured that our proposals will meet with the approval of the Government, and we have accordingly decided, in view of the stage at which we have arrived, to present this preliminary report, in which we outline the scheme we think desirable, and specify the conditions which in our opinion would make it possible. III. The conditions which, if fulfilled, would, in our opinion, ensure the success of the scheme are :—(1) The gift of a large capital sum (say not less than 100,000l.) for buildings and initial equipment. (2) The gift of a considerable additional site (say not less than 4 acres) at South Kensington. : (3) The willingness of the Board of Education to allow their college at South Kensington to be brought into a scheme of common government and administration. (4) The similar willingness of the City and Guilds of London Institute in respect of their college at South Kensington. (5) The continuance of the Government contribution in- cluding the necessary provision for the maintenance of the new laboratories and other buildings of the Royal College of Science, now approaching completion. (6) The continuance of the support given by the Cor- poration and Livery Companies of the City of London to the Central Technical College. (7) The provision (in the proposed College of Applied Science at South Kensington) of instruction in certain departments of engineering either by new foundation or by transfer and enlargement of part of the work of some existing college or colleges (e.g, “Jniversity College or King’s College). : (8) The cooperation of the University of London. NO 1862, vor. 72] (9) The assurance of a sufficient maintenance fund.* IV. Given the fulfilment of the above conditions, we should be prepared to recommend such a scheme as is indicated in outline in the following paragraphs :— (1) In considering the problem laid before us by the Government, we are impressed by the fact that the most urgent need in scientific education is the establishment of a centre in which the specialisation of the various branches of study and the equipment for the most advanced training and research should be such as ultimately to make it the chief technical school of the Empire. So large a scheme cannot be carried out in a day, but we believe that the present is a favourable opportunity for making a beginning, and in the suggestions which follow we have kept the above end steadily in view. The exist- ence of the Royal College of Science with the Royal School of Mines and of the Central Technical College in close proximity points to South Kensington as the best position for such a centre as we contemplate; and we have made careful inquiry as to the extent of the accommodation which is at present concentrated in that neighbourhood. It is as follows:—(a) Accommodation for about 200 students in the permanent part of the existing buildings of the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines. (b) Accommodation for from 300 to 350 students including accommodation for work for about 100 advanced students in the physics and chemistry laboratories in the Royal College of Science, now approaching completion. (c) Accommodation for about 300 students in the existing buildings of the Central Technical College. With the exception of the new laboratories of the Royal College of Science, these buildings are fully occupied by students, but the accommodation for mining and metallurgy is quite inadequate, and is to a great extent merely temporary. Further, the accommodation for engineering, whether in the Royal School of Mines or in the Central Technical College, is insufficient to meet the wants of many qualified students who are annually refused admission for want of space, and in no branch of applied science is sufficient provision made for advanced or specialised work. There is no doubt that if arrangements could be made between the Government on the one hand and the City and Guilds of London Institute on the other, the resources of the above mentioned institutions could be used with far greater effect and economy. (2) The buildings and equipment, even if such arrange- ment were made, though in many respects excellent and extensive, are quite inadequate for existing requirements, and still more for the purpose in view. The provision to be made for the future should include not only a fully developed School of Mining and Metallurgy and depart- ments for the principal branches of engineering, but also for other special subjects. We do not attempt in this Preliminary Report to draw up a detailed scheme, but the following principal subjects should be within the purview of the institution :— As preparatory subjects—mathematics, physics, chem- istry and geology. Under the general heading of civil engineering—works of construction, mechanical engineer- ing, electrical engineering, mining engineering, marine engineering and naval architecture. Some branches of chemical technology, and certainly metallurgy. ‘ As illustrations of the kind of higher or more specialised application of these subjects, some of which we. suggest should be dealt with, we need only mention the appli- cations of engineering to railway, dock, and hydraulic work: the development of electricity in the direction of electric traction, lighting and telegraphy, and electro- chemistry. It would be impossible to provide for the whole of the above subjects at once. Some of the more specialised subjects, such as the advanced metallurgy of 1 For such a maintenance fund we look to the following sources in addi- tion to those mentioned above under headings 5 and 6. F “pn (a) Any grant from the vote for university colleges to which the institu- tion may be able to establish its claim. ; (4) An annual grant from the T.ondon County Council. 3 : (c) The Bessemer Memorial Fund (so far as not applied to capital expenditure). (d) Fees of students. : : 4 4 (ce) Endowment of special forms of instruction given by persons or bodies interested. F f : ; : (/) Any portion of funds given for capital purposes which may remain available for income after the nece:sary. capital expenditure, 234 iron and steel, and certain branches of manufacturing chemistry, would probably be better dealt with in institu- tions which are, or may be, established in the provinces. Even, however, if the scheme be restricted by the exclusion of such subjects, its realisation would require at least the whole of the site still available at South Kensington, and great advantage would be obtained by grouping the first extensions immediately round the nucleus provided by the Royal College of Science and Central Technical College. We believe, however, that if the various London institu- tions concerned were willing to cooperate fully in the matter, and proper arrangements were made for coordin- ation of the considerable resources already existing, the necessary special departments might be established early. It is quite compatible with an effective realisation of the scheme that separate departments might be conducted in detached colleges. In view of the terms of reference, we have given special consideration to the provision required for higher education in mining and metallurgy, and we are satisfied that the maintenance of a fully equipped Central School of Mines is desirable. While facilities for advanced instruction in coal mining and in the mining and metallurgy of iron are now available in some of the larger centres of those industries, it is important that there should be a central school affording a full course of instruction in the mining and metallurgy of metals produced in India and the Colonies, but not found, or not found in large quantity, within the United Kingdom. As London is the financial centre of many great engineering, mining, and metal- lurgical industries in the Colonies, it is in the opinion of several witnesses the best site for a more highly developed School of Mines which shall provide for the needs of the Empire. It has been proved to us that the number of Englishmen who rise to important posts in connection with the mining industries of India, Australia, and South Africa is less than is desirable. We have, for the present, deferred consideration of the biological department of the Royal College of Science. (3) We consider that the advantages of the higher technical courses, which we contemplate at South Kensington, should only be available for students who can pass a satisfactory test for admission thereto. The pre- liminary science and such rudiments of engineering as may be prescribed for candidates before entering on these higher courses might be obtained either in the laboratories of the Royal College of Science and Central Technical College, or elsewhere in London or the provinces. Admission to these higher courses should be restricted to duly qualified students who, it is hoped, would be attracted from all parts of the Empire. (4) We think it is important that the interests both of pure and applied science should be adequately represented on the body which administers the new institution. It is of the first importance that there should be no divorce between teaching and research in technology on the one hand and in pure science on the other, and we therefore regard it as an advantage that ample provision has already been made by the Government for the teaching of certain sciences on a site which we hope may be connected even more closely than at present with the highest and most specialised branches of technology. With regard to both subjects, we believe that it may be necessary hereafter to limit the instruction to the higher branches of both pure and applied science. (5) We do not contemplate that either the educational or financial administration of the Central College should be vested entirely in His Majesty’s Government. Indeed, in the present case there is a special consideration which makes such an arrangement practically impossible. Our scheme, if carried into effect, will entail the hearty union and cooperation of several independent bodies in a common enterprise, and it would be an advantage to be able to accord to each cooperating institution an adequate share in the general control. These considerations point to the creation of a council representing all the large interests concerned, including, of course, His Majesty’s Government, who must always remain by far the chief supporters of the institution. We do not now enter into the details of an arrangement of the constitution of the council, as such details will largely NO. 1862, VOL. 72] NATURE [JULY 6, 1905 depend on the success of negotiations which must await the decision of His Majesty’s Government on the outlines of our proposals as now submitted. Should the above proposals be accepted, it will follow that the State contribution to the institution will take the form of an annual grant in aid, the governing body retaining the power to carry over any balance remaining unexpended at the end of a year. V. We feel that we should not be justified in inquiring whether the Board of Education would be willing to give their support to the foregoing scheme, depending as it does on the fulfilment of all or most of the conditions previously mentioned, unless we had taken steps to ascer- tain what prospect there is of their being fulfilled. We have good reason to believe that private munificence is prepared to provide a capital sum in excess of the mini- mum which we consider necessary to a successful issue, and that the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition are prepared, with their accustomed liberality where the advancement of higher education is concerned, to make available for a scheme, such as we have sketched, the additional site which will be required. We also confidently look for the cooperation of the University of London. Further, although public bodies or local authorities which contribute largely to the funds of the proposed institution may fairly ask for the reservation of some accommodation there for scholarship holders sent to it by themselves, yet it would appear that a considerably increased income would be available for the support of such an institution from the fees of fee-paying students. With this nucleus of additional resources thus provisionally secured, we feel justified in approaching the Board of Education. We accordingly desire to ask whether the Board are in a position to inform us (1) that, if it is found possible to establish a scheme such as we have sketched in outline, they will be willing to allow the Royal College of Science (including the Royal School of Mines) to be brought into it under a common government and administration; and (2) that the existing Government contribution to the sup port of these institutions will be continued under the new conditions on the scale already made necessary by the provision of the new laboratories of the Royal College of Science. With such an assurance, and with such new resources as we have mentioned above, we feel that we could approach, with good prospect of success, other bodies whose cooper- ation we believe to be desirable, if not necessary, for the complete success of our proposals. In conclusion, we desire to observe that absence of detail where it might have been looked for in certain portions of our proposals is not to be taken as meaning that we have not considered in some detail the ends which we wish to see attained. Our proposals at the present stage indicate only in outline what we have in view: how near an approach can be made to its attain- ment must depend on the resources which prove to be available, and cannot, therefore, from the nature of the case, be estimated with precision at the present time. Without, however, attempting now to exhaust the subject, we have submitted proposals framed in such a way as to suggest the establishment of an institution which will be pre-eminent in its combination of advanced teaching in certain branches of applied science, with instruction in pure science also developed to a very high standard. We have the honour to be, My Lord Marquess, Your Lordship’s obedient servants, R. B. Haldane, chairman, W. de W. Abney, E. H. Carbutt, W. S. Church, A. H. Leech, Philip Magnus, Walter McDermott, Francis Mowatt, F. G. Ogilvie, Reay, Arthur W. Riicker, Sidney Webb, J. Wernher, W. H. White, J. C. G. Sykes, secretary, F. E. Douglas, assistant secretary. Letter from the Board of Education to the Secretary of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science, Gc. Boarp oF EpucaTion, WHITEHALL, S.W., April 3, 1905. Sir, I am directed by the Board of Education to state that careful consideration has been given to the very valuable Preliminary Report of your Committee, dated February 20, JuLy 6, 1905] NATURE 235 and I am to say that, while the point raised in sub- section (2) of paragraph V. on page 5 of that Report cannot yet be definitely decided, the answer to subsection (1) in that paragraph is in the affirmative. In sending this information, with the consent of His Majesty’s Government, I am directed to express the warm appreciation of this Board for the great care with which this difficult subject has been thus far investigated by your Committee, and to say that the necessary discussions with His Majesty’s Treasury upon the point involved in subsection (2) of paragraph V. will be completed with the least possible delay and, on a settlement being reached, information will be promptly sent to you as to these financial arrangements. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, Rosert L. Morant, Secretary of the Board of Education. Extract from the Speech of the Marquess of Londonderry, President of the Board of Education, at the Annual Dinner of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, May 10, 1905. ““T need not say that we have the hearty goodwill of the Treasury in endeavouring to carry out the recommend- ations of this strong Committee presided over by my friend,’ and I am able to tell you that, so far as the question of money—and, after all, money is the important question—is concerned, I have good grounds for believing that the Treasury, or rather the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been very carefully considering the financial aspect of the new condition of things that will be brought about in regard to the Royal College of Science, if the changes I have hinted at actually take effect, and that he will see his way to make a reasonable increase in the sums at present devoted towards the expense of the Royal College of Science, so that the College, in its immensely enhanced possibilities of usefulness, owing to its large new buildings, may bring to the common aid, so to speak, not only its fabric and its excellent equipment, but also a satisfactory annual income, as a substantial contribution to what must be a heavy annual expenditure involved in the great work to be carried through.” NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PHYSICAL IMPROVEMENT. aN MEETING, over which the Lord Mayor presided, was held at the Mansion House on June 28 for the purpose of establishing an association which for the time is described as a National League for Physical Education and Improvement, but the precise official title of which has not yet been decided. Among those present were the Bishop of Ripon, Sir Lauder and Lady Brunton, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir William Broadbent, Sir James Crichton Browne, Sir Norman and Lady Lockyer, Sir Henry Cunningham, Sir Henry Craik, Sir Benjamin Baker, Prof. Howard Marsh, and Sir Victor Horsley. The chief objects of the association are to stimulate public interest in the physical condition of the people throughout the kingdom, to establish close association and centralisation of all societies and individuals trying to combat such influences as tend to produce national physical deterioration, to aid existing organisations, and to start organisations for physical health and well-being wherever none exists. As the purposes of the league are closely connected with medicine, it has been thought advisable to have it strongly backed by medical men before other classes of the community are asked to join, because most of them are less able to judge of its merits or demerits than medical men, and will consequently be led to decide their action in regard to it chiefly by the example of the leaders of the medical profession. The council has published a draft scheme of the pro- posed association, according to which it would consist of territorial branches working in connection with a central body. It is suggested that each branch should see that instruction is furnished to the people on the laws of health generally, to mothers on the care of their own health and on the nurture and care of children, to girls on the methods NO. 1862, VOL. 72] of domestic and personal hygiene, and of cooking and housekeeping. Physical exercises and opportunity for open- air games should be obtained for both boys and girls; while the natural desire of young men to become volunteers should be encouraged, and marching drill, shoot- ing practice, and all healthy sports fostered. A plan is outlined also for securing the cooperation of all persons in authority in different centres of population so that each section of the community may receive ultimately physical education of a suitable kind. The following resolutions were adopted at the meeting :— (1) That the causes which tend to impair the health of the nation, as disclosed by the report of the departmental committee, ought to be combated by united action. It is, therefore, recommended that all the agencies at present engaged in isolated work for that purpose should have the opportunity of combining, and thus cover the whole country. (2) That this meeting assembled at the Mansion House, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London, there- fore heartily approves of the federation designed for this purpose, and of the proposed effort to start organisations in those parts of the country where none exist. In proposing the first resolution, the Bishop of Ripon said the result of the inter-departmental committee’s re- port had been to point out that there are certain conditions at work which are not creditable to the civilised com- munity. The report states that still-births ought to be registered, and that infantile mortality is very great; and that whereas during the last fifty years an improvement has taken place in the health of the people and in their dwellings, and the average length of life has been increased, it yet remains true that the percentage of infantile mortality has not decreased. The number of deaths in a year per thousand among children was 154 in the decade from 1851 to 1860, and the figure was the same in the decade 1891 to 1900. This shows that the benefits of the improved conditions go to the adult and not to the child. Conditions exist which must be remedied if the health of the popu- lation is to be sturdy, robust, and vigorous. The awakened interest in the question is largely due to the agencies which have been toiling to better the conditions and health of the people. If these agencies or societies and individuals have been able to achieve such admirable results by isolated effort, then by federation they could do a great deal more. The federation needs the cooperation of three great classes of public workers—the practical, the scientific, and the Parliamentary. A council would thus be formed of well digested and well considered thought as to the best means of helping forward every agency and initiating every kind of new enterprise which might con- tribute to the health, well-being, and physical stature, as well as to the moral greatness of the people of this country. In seconding the resolution the Lord Chief Justice urged that innocent amusement and healthy education be provided throughout the country, through the municipal authorities, for a reasonable proportion of the lads and girls, so that their tastes may have an opportunity of being developed in a wholesome and healthy way. THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES. HE Prince of Wales, in his capacity of Chancellor of the University of Wales, visited Cardiff on June 28 for the purposes of laying the foundation-stone of the new University College buildings in Cathays Park and of con- ferring a number of honorary degrees of the University of Wales. The ceremony of laying the foundation-stone took place in the afternoon in the presence of a large and dis- tinguished assembly. The president of the college, Sir Alfred Thomas, read an address of welcome to the Prince of Wales in which he outlined briefly the events which have led up to the possibility of the provision of buildings worthy ‘of the educational work being accomplished by the University College of South Wales. The address stated that the Government in 1882 invited proposals from public 236 bodies for the location of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire. In their memorial the cor- poration of Cardiff promised that, in the event of Cardiff being selected, they would make adequate provision for the college. , The address continued :—‘‘ How they recognised their obligations is manifest by the noble site upon which we now stand. Your Royal Highness, by your presence here to-day, places the seal of your approval on the manner in then as mayor, made in their name. We have had the good fortune to secure the services of an architect whose plans and designs have won the enthusiastic approval of educational experts. By the contributions of the people of South Wales and the splendid munificence of the Worshipful Drapers’ Company, we are now in a position to build and maintain the arts, the administrative, and the research departments of the college. Our treasurer, to whom and to whose family we are so deeply indebted, trusts that this ceremony will prove such a stimulus to the patriotism of our people that the work now begun by Your Royal Highness will not cease until the whole scheme is completed.” During the course of his reply, the Prince of Wales remarked :—‘‘ As Chancellor of the University of Wales I am delighted to take part in this important ceremony and to lay the foundation-stone of the first block of what is hoped will some day grow into a building beautiful and dignified in design, complete and practical in its equip- ments. I congratulate you and all here present to-day in the proud fact that it is the liberality of the people of South Wales and Monmouthshire that makes it now possible to carry out a portion of the great scheme for the establishment in Cardiff of buildings worthy of their University College and worthy of the conception of its founders. I further note with great satisfaction that one of the largest of the London city companies has shown a practical sympathy in this great undertaking, and that the library buildings, one of the most important features in any college, will be the gift of the Worshipful Company of Drapers.”’ After referring to the fact that the site of the new buildings was formerly a monastic centre of learning, renowned at home and abroad, His Royal Highness con- tinued :—‘‘ The new teaching and character from that which in the past rendered her colleges famous, for the Welsh people have determined that their university education shall be compatible with the modern wants of a new world. Its promoters and its authorities have recognised that this university should not exist merely for the purpose of the literary or the academic life, but should place itself in touch with and try to serve every form of intellectual activity, and to-day Cardiff is a con- stituent of the university, for under the charter the town council appoints two members of the university court, and by a standing ordinance of the town council the mayor is ex officio one of the members. So our university is by its constitution interwoven more closely perhaps than any other with the national life of the country; and this is no mere sentiment on the part of the people of Cardiff, for they have not only given this site for the college, but also presented to the university itself another site in this park and 6o0o0l. for the erection of its registry.” The University College at Cardiff was founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1884, and is the largest of the three colleges constituting the University of Wales. It began with 150 students. In 1893 the number had increased to 347, and in 1903 to 647. Since its foundation the college has been housed in temporary quarters which used to be the premises of the Cardiff Infirmary. In 1895 the Government promised a grant of 20,0001. on condition that an equal amount was raised from private sources, and this was done. Then the Drapers’ Company offered 10,000l., which has subsequently been increased to 15,o00l. The town gave the site, and altogether 132,000]. has been con- tributed. The total cost of the new buildings is estimated at 290,800l., so that about 159,000l. is still required. The conferring of degrees took place later in the day, and among the recipients of honours was Sir John Williams, upon whom the honorary D.Sc. was conferred. NO. 1862, VoL. 72] training differs in | NATURE | | untouched up to which the corporation has redeemed the pledge which I, | tinuation. of [JuLy 6, 1905 THE LIEGE MINING AND METALLURGICAL CONGRESS. At the International Congress of Mining, Metallurgy, Mechanics, and Applied Geology held at Liége on June 25 to July 1, of which a brief report was published in NaTurE last week, numerous papers of great scientific interest were read. In the geological section an important paper on the con- the Saarbriicken Coal-measures into the territory of Lorraine and of France was submitted by Mr. B. Schulz-Briesen (Diisseldorf). In recent years numerous coal discoveries have been made in the Saarbriicken field by the Prussian Government in an area that had been the end of the last century, the beds of quicksand above the coal having proved an obstacle. In French Lorraine coal was discovered last year at a depth of 650 metres. A map accompanying the author’s paper indicated the coal-bearing area that has been proved, and showed the vast economic importance of the discovery. ‘The genesis of metalliferous deposits and of eruptive rocks formed the subject of a paper by Mr. Paul F. Chalon (Paris). He summed up the matter in the following rules :—primary metalliferous deposits are not met with in stratified rocks that are not traversed by eruptive or | igneous rocks; rocks with a fragmental structure contain more metalliferous deposits than compact rocks; in ex- tended areas traversed by eruptive rocks the deposits are never regularly or irregularly distributed, but are con- centrated at one or more centres; metamorphic rocks indicating the vicinity of eruptive rocks are favourable for prospecting, particularly in mountainous districts. The geological structure of the mining district of Iglesias, in Sardinia, was described by Mr. G. Merlo. The district is one of considerable economic importance, there being 117 mines in operation, and the value of the mineral output is more than 21 million francs annually. The principal deposits are veins of galena and blende, and contact deposits of galena and calamine. The Paleozoic beds of the district are, in descending order, as follows :— (1) Monteponi sandstone; (2) Gonnesa schist of Silurian age; (3) Cambrian sandstone; (4) metalliferous limestone ; (5) Malacalzetta slates. There are thus three horizons of the Cambrian system. The mineral deposits of the banks of the Meuse and of the east of the province of Liége were described by Mr. G. Lespineux. He showed that these calamine masses, like those of the Moresnet district, are not the results of erosion of mineral veins, but were formed in their present condition. The deposit of cinnabar at | Monte Amiatia, in Tuscany, was described by Mr. V. Spirek. The deposits occur exclusively in serpentine, and were divided by the author into four classes. In the metallurgical section the papers read were mostly of a practical character. Mr. Hadfield gave a summary of his researches on the effect of the temperature of liquid air on the properties of steel. Mr. F. Jottrand described a method of cutting metals by a jet of oxygen. The oxyhydrogen blowpipe is directed against the portion to be cut, and heats it to whiteness. The hydrogen is then turned off, and a rapid current of pure oxygen cuts the metal. In practice two blowpipes are used simultaneously, one for heating and one for cutting. The double blowpipe moves at a velocity of 20 centimetres per minute in cutting a steel plate 15 mm. in thickness. The metal is cut almost as cleanly as with a saw. The width of the slit is not | more than 2 mm. for plates 15 mm. thick, and is only 3 mm. for plates 100 mm. thick. In order to cut a plate 15 mm. thick there is required per metre cut 540 litres of hydrogen and 540 litres of oxygen, the operation lasting five minutes. Tubes and curved sections can also be cut. Mr. H. Hennebutte described the use of coal poor in agglutinating materials for the manufacture of coke. Mr. E. Bian gave an account of the methods of cleaning blast- furnace gases. Mr. P. Delville read a paper on the influence of titanium on iron and steel. The manufacture of blast-furnace slag cement was dealt with by Prof. H. Wedding and by Mr. C. de Schwarz. Mr. P. Acker de- scribed the new modifications of the open-hearth steel process. Mr. R. M. Daelen discussed the methods of obviating “* piping ’’ in steel ingots. Electric steel-making processes were dealt with by Mr. G. Gin and by Mr. R. JuLY 6, 1905] NATURE 237 Pitaval. Mr. L. Guillet, Carnegie scholar of the Iron and Steel Institute, submitted an elaborate monograph on special steels. Of the nickel steels described, the most remarkable are Guillaume’s invar, with 36 per cent. of nickel, with an elastic limit of 70 to 75 kg. per square mm., a breaking stress of 45 to 55 kg. per square mm., and an elongation of 35 to 25 per cent.; and platinite, with 46 per cent. of nickel, with an elastic limit of 60 to 70, a breaking stress of 30 to 40, and an elongation of 45 to 35 per cent. The latter is used instead of platinum in incandescent lamps. The paper summarises in an admirable manner the existing knowledge of nickel, manganese, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, silicon, and aluminium steels. Other papers read in this section dealt with the application of electricity in rolling mills, by Mr. L. Creplet ; the double hardening of large steel forgings, by Mr. A. Pierrard; the metallographical examination of iron and steel, by Mr. H. Le Chatelier; and an apparatus for charging mercury furnaces so as to obviate the liberation of deleterious gases, by Mr. V. Spirek. In the mining section, papers on shaft sinking were read by Messrs. Bodart, Portier, Tomson and Duvivier, and on winding engines by Mr. Henry. The use of super- heated steam was dealt with by Mr. Weiss, and the use of steam accumulators by Messrs. Rateau and Chaleil. Modern pumping engines were described by Mr. Schulte, the De Laval high-lift centrifugal pump by Mr. Sosnowski, and the Sulzer high-lift centrifugal pump by Mr. Ziegler. The water-flush system of packing colliery workings was described by Mr. Jiingst and by Mr. Lafitte. Fire-damp detection was dealt with by Messrs. Chesneau, Watteyne, Stassart, and Daniel. Electric haulage was discussed by Messrs. Lapostolet, Halleux, and Henry; and the driving of the great adit-level from Gardanne to the sea was described by Mr. Domage. Altogether the pro- gramme was one of great interest, and the discussions on the papers were well sustained. The president of the congress was Mr. Alfred Habets, and the presidents of the sections were:—for metallurgy, Mr. A. Greiner, member of council of the Iron and Steel Institute; for mining, Mr. E. Harzé; for mechanics, Mr. Hubert; and for géology, Mr. Max Lohest. Among the honorary presi- dents of the sections who presided in turn were :—for metallurgy, Mr. R. A. Hadfield, president, and Mr. H. Bauerman, honorary member of the Iron and Steel Insti- tute; and for mining, Mr. H. C. Peake, chairman of the Institution of Mining Engineers. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxrorp.—The following is the text of the speech delivered by Prof. Love in presenting Prof. G. H. Darwin for the degree of D.Sc. honoris causa at the Encenia on June 28 :— Salutamus Georgium Howard Darwin, magni patris magnum filium, non solum inter astronomos insignissimum, sed, ut decebat tali patre ortum, quasi clavis repertorem qua altissima nature arcana reseraret. Ille quidem, Carolum dico, de vita animantium doctor insignissimus, ostenderat quo modo sensim immutata figura simplici- oribus et rudioribus perfectiora animalia succederent: hic noster docuit quo modo ipsa mundi compages lentas muta- tiones subiret. Duces quidem in hac re secutus est Newtonum, Laplacium, Kelvinum, sed suis viribus fretus est magis. Quid enim? Omnia que de reciproco maris motu litteris tradita sunt ipse denuo pertractavit, siderum celo decurrentium meatus summa diligentia et scientia amplissima investigavit: idem tenuissimo quoque et sub- tilissimo mathematicz genere instructus, ingenio audaci et vegeto pollens, luculentissime ostendit quo momine et nutu variz maris agitationes tam multiplices gignantur : quod cum faceret id assecutus est ut terra, lune, solis, planetarum primordia et vices satis clare adumbraret. In hoc viro agnoscimus hominem, dictu mirum, mundorum nascentium annales conscribentem. CampBripGE.—The Raymond Horton-Smith prize for 1905 has been awarded to Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth, of Jesus No. 1862, VOL. 72] College, for a thesis for the degree of M.D. entitled ‘‘ On the Nature of Certain Anomalous Cases of Cerebral Development. ’’ Supject to the Enfield Council agreeing to contribute one-third of the total cost of the buildings and necessary alterations, it has been decided by the Middlesex County Council to acquire the Ediswan Institute, Ponders End, the object being to convert it into a technical institute for the eastern portion of Enfield, that suitable technical in- struction may be given to those engaged in the Small Arms Factory, Enfield Lock, the works of the Edison and Swan Co., &c. A NEW movement for the encouragement of tropical re- search has been inaugurated in connection with the University of Liverpool. The school of research, of which Lord Mountmorres is to be the first director, will seek in every way to inquire into the natural resources of the tropical possessions of the Empire. Sir Alfred Jones, of the Elder-Dempster line of steamers, has promised to contribute roool. a year for four years towards the expenses of the movement. AccorDING to Science, the following appointments have recently been made in America :—Dr. A. W. Harris, presi- dent of North-western University; Dr. C. H. Smyth, pro- fessor of geology at Princeton University; Dr. N. Senn, professor of surgery, and Dr. F. Billings, professor of medicine, at the University of Chicago; Dr. H. K. Wolfe, professor of philosophy and education at the University of Montana; Mr. I. E. Wallin, professor of natural history in Upsala College, New Orange, N.J. Tue department of general pathology and _ bacteriology of King’s College, London, announces a course in clinical and practical bacteriology suited to the requirements of medical practitioners and senior students. The course, which will begin on July 26 and end on August 5, will consist of lectures, demonstrations, and practical work. In connection with the same department there will be from July 27 to August 4 a vacation course in clinical pathology consisting of demonstrations and practical work. Further particulars may be obtained from Prof. Hewlett or the secretary of the college. DurinG the coming session courses of general and ex- perimental psychology will be held at King’s College, London. During the first and second terms Prof. Caldecott will deliver a series of lectures on general psychology. Prof. W. D. Halliburton, F.R.S., will lecture during the first term on the general structure and histology of the nervous system and of the organs of sense. During the second and third terms lectures on experimental psychology, accompanied by demonstrations and laboratory work, will be given by Dr. C. S. Myers in the new psycho- logical laboratory. A departmental library has been opened at the college containing the principal English and foreign books and journals devoted to psychology. Tue Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion for Ireland has issued its regulations and syllabuses to guide the teaching of science in Irish day secondary schools for the session 1905-6. The complete conditions regarding regulations for grants, qualifications of teachers, syllabuses of subjects, and a list of official forms are now issued in a single volume. The regulations are materially the same as those which were in force during last session. Some few syllabuses have been modified in the light of the experience gained in the last two years. It is announced that the summer courses for teachers will be continued as heretofore, but it is hoped they will, after 1908, develop into ‘‘ post-graduate courses on _ special subjects for those already qualified.”’ Tue British University Students’ Congress met on June 28 at University College. All the universities of the United Kingdom were represented except Oxford and Cam- bridge, these having no organisation which can send delegates to represent their undergraduates generally. The report of the subcommittee appointed last year to consider the question of residential halls at home and abroad was presented. Fourteen British universities and colleges, 238 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 eleven American universities, and four Australian universi- ties have been communicated with. It was resolved to elect a committee to formulate recommendations as to what should be done to help to develop the residential system. It was decided also to extend the scope of the constitution of the congress so as to include delegates from the uni- versities of Ireland as well as of England and Wales, and to invite universities of Scotland also to send _ repre- sentatives annually. Ir is announced that Mr. J. D. Rockefeller has given 2,000,0001. to the General Educational Board, a body in- corporated by a recent Act of Congress for the purpose of promoting education in the United States, and the income is to be used for the extension of higher education in the United States. Mr. Rockefeller has also presented 200,0001. to Yale University. It is stated the gift to the Educational Board is to be held in perpetuity, and the income, after payment of administrative expenses, is to be used for the benefit of such institutions as the Board may select for periods, in amounts, for purposes, or on con- ditions to be determined by the Board, which may also employ the income in such other ways as it may deem best adapted .to promote a comprehensive system of educa- tion in the United States. The income is to be used with- out distinction of locality, and its use is to be confined to higher education. It is designed especially for colleges as distinguished from the great universities, although there is no prohibition of grants to universities. The benefits of the donation are to be open to all, although the fund cannot be employed for giving specifically theological in- struction. The fund may be used for endowment, for building, for paying off debts, or meeting current expenses. THE report for the year 1904 of the council to the members of the City and Guilds of London Institute has been received. We notice that the number of university students attending the Central Technical College continues to increase, and that more than 110 such students are in attendance during the current session. At the last degree examination in engineering for internal students of the university, open to all engineering schools in London, eleven degrees in all were conferred, and of these eight were obtained by this college. The total number of students in the college during 1904 was 409, as compared with 304 in the preceding year. This increase in number of the students has made it necessary to provide an in- crease in the teaching staff, and the appointment of five new assistants has been sanctioned at a cost in salaries of Sool. a year. The council, in their last report, announced the steps which had been taken towards the extension of the building of the Technical College at Finsbury. Since then the plans of the new building have been approved, a tender accepted, the foundations excavated, and the building begun. In settling the details of the plans and on the question of the equipment of the new building, the committee had the benefit of the advice of Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R.S. The work of the department of technology of the institute continues to increase with the growing demand for instruction in the application of science and art to specific industries and trades. There are two directions in which, in the opinion of the council, improvements might be effected jin the technical education of artisans. First, in the preparation of students before entering upon their courses of evening technical instruction, and secondly, in the standard of qualifications of the teachers nominated by local authori- ties to give such instruction. It is satisfactory to find that in the different branches of technology the number of students registered as attending classes in the United Kingdom was 41,089, as compared with 38,638 in the previous year. The report as a whole is an excellent record of a substantial year’s work. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Entomological Society, June 7.—Mr. F. Merrifield, presi- dent, in the chair.—An earwig, Apterygida arachidis, Yers., found by Mr. Annandale, of Calcutta, in a box of specimens received from the Andaman Islands: M. Burr. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] When placed in a small box the earwig was alone, but next morning there were five larvae present; two dis- appeared, apparently being consumed by the parent, and the remaining three were those exhibited. Mr. Burr also showed a locustid of the family Pseudophyllidz, taken in Queensland by Mr. H. W. Simmonds among twigs and plants which it greatly resembled, together with a photo- graph of the insect in its natural position.—(1) Three examples of Gnorimus nobilis, L., taken at Woolwich on May 20 last under the bark of an old dead cherry tree, a beetle supposed to be becoming extinct in Britain; (2) a malformed specimen of Lochmaea suturalis which had the left posterior tibia bifid for about one-third of its length, and two tarsi, one of which had the joints considerably enlarged: E. C. Bedwell.—A _ living specimen of Omophlus betulae, Herbst, a beetle not known to occur in Britain, found near Covent Garden, and probably im- ported: O. E. Jamson.—One ¢ and three 9 Q of Agrion armatum taken this year by Mr. F. Balfour Browne, and sent to the exhibitor alive: W. J. Lucas.—Four specimens of the rare Acrognathus mandibularis, Gyll, captured on the wing towards sunset near Woking at the end of May: G. C. Champion.—Two aberrations of B:ston hirtaria, Cl., both females, taken at rest on tree-trunks at Morte- hoe, North Devon, April 23: Selwyn Image. The first aberration was tolerably normal in general coloration, but the anterior half of the fore-wings was much suffused with fuscous, and at the costa was broadly emphasised with rich black. The second aberration was semi-transparent black all over both fore- and hind-wings, the veins strongly delineated with black, powdered with ochreous.—Empty pupa-cases of Zonosoma pendularia demonstrating the wide variation of methods in the placing of the silken girth round the pupa: W. J. Kaye.—Leaves of strawberry, Berberis japonica, and cherry-laurel which had _ been attacked by a minute fungus—in the case of the Berberis identified by Prof. S. H. Vines as Phyllosticta japonica, Thnem.: Prof. E. B. Poulton. The attack was local, leaving a roundish or oval window outlined with brown, sometimes in the form of a narrow line, sometimes spread- ing peripherally into the leaf for a greater or less distance. In the strawberry leaves the edges of the windows were somewhat ragged, but those of the other two leaves had smooth contours, and resembled strikingly the oval trans- parent areas upon the fore-wings of Kallima inachis, K. paralekta, &c. Prof. Poulton had believed that these “windows ”’ of Kallima represented holes gnawed by larvee, and that the altered marginal zone reproduced the effect of the attacks of fungi entering along the freshly exposed tissues of the edge. But he now desired to with- draw his earlier hypothesis in favour of the more probable and convincing suggestion made by Mr. Grove.—Photo- graph of the fungus-like marks on the wings of the Oriental Kallimas : Prof. Poulton.—The variability of the genitalia in Lepidoptera: Dr. Karl Jordan.—Scents in the male of Gonepteryx: Dr. G. B. Longstaff. It was mentioned that whereas in G. cleopatra 3 the odour was strong, the author had been unable to detect any appreciable fragrance in G. rhamni G. Such a difference, he said, seemed to imply a physiological difference of the two forms pointing to specific distinction. Dr. F. A. Dixey, in connection with Dr. Longstaff’s observations, exhibited and explained the several forms of Gonepteryx occurring in the Palzarctic region.—The geographical affinities of Japanese butterflies : H. J. Elwes. Summing up his remarks, the author said that during the winter and spring months the plants and insects of Japan were, like the climate, Palearctic in character, yet during the summer and autumn they were tropical.—New African Lasiocampide in the British Museum: Prof. C. Aurivilius.—Memoir on the Rhynchota taken by Dr. Wyllie chiefly in Beira and Lift: G. W. Kirkaldy. Chemical Society, June 14.—Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S. president, in the chair.—Influence of various sodium salts on the solubility of sparingly soluble acids: J. C. Philip. —The dielectric constants of phenols and their ethers dis- solved in benzene and m-xylene: J. C. Philip and Miss D. Haynes.—Synthesis by means of the silent electric dis- charge: J. N. Collie. The facts of special interest are that ethylene under the influence of the silent electric dis- charge at the ordinary temperature will unite with carbon JuLy 6, 1905] NATURE 239 monoxide, and will also polymerise, yielding a series of complicated hydrocarbons; the chief substances formed boil at about 150°-160°, and apparently approximate in composition to C,,H,,.—The ultra-violet absorption spectra of aromatic compounds, part i., benzene and certain mono- substituted derivatives: E. C. C. Baly and J. N. Collie. The ultra-violet absorption spectra of benzene and of some of its mono-substituted derivatives were described. It has been found that benzene presents seven separate absorption bands, and it was shown how the formation of these may be accounted for by attributing each one to a separate and distinct process of dynamic isomerism connected with the linkage changes within the benzene molecule. A similar explanation of the absorption spectra of benzene mono-substituted derivatives was given.—The ultra-violet absorption spectra of aromatic compounds, part ii., the phenols: E. C. C. Baly and E. K. Ewbank. The absorption band produced by the dynamic isomerism existing in solu- tions of acetylacetone and similar tautomeric substances of the aliphatic series occupies very nearly the same position as the band given by phenol. The existence of a similar type of dynamic isomerism in the case of phenol is suggested as explaining the difference between the spectra of phenol and its ethers.—Association in mixed solvents : G. Barger.—Synthesis of substances allied to epinephrine : G. Barger and H. A. D. Jowett. The authors have attempted to synthesise a compound having the formula OH ye Ww CH-OH | CH."NHMe proposed by one of them (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1904, Ixxxv., 192) for epinephrine, but although the methylene and dimethyl ethers were prepared, the base itself could not be isolated.—The determination of melting points at low temperatures: L. F. Guttmann. A method has been worked out for readily determining melting points at low temperatures (—142° to —55° is the range so far used) by means of a constantan-copper couple connected to a delicate galvanometer.—The action of water on diazo-salts, a pre- liminary note: J. C. Cain and G. M. Norman. One of the authors has shown that little or no hydroxy-compound is obtained by boiling certain ortho-substituted diazo-salts of the diphenyl series with dilute acids. A number of similarly substituted compounds which are said not to yield phenols on boiling with water or acids have now been examined.—A precise method of estimating the organic nitrogen in potable waters: J. C. Brown. The process consists in distillation to dryness of a mixture of a portion, without previous evaporation, with potassium hydroxide and potassium permanganate. The ammonia evolved is estimated by Nessler’s solution.—Synthesis of 1 : 1-dimethyl-A*-tetrahydrobenzene: A. W. Crossley and Miss N. Renouf.—Bromine in solutions of potassium bromide: F. P. Worley.—The solubility of bromine in aqueous solutions of potassium bromide has been determined over a wide range of concentrations at 18°.5 and 26°-5. There are indications that with the higher concentration of bromine, compounds more highly brominated than KBr, are produced.—Tetramethylammonium hydroxide: J. Walker and J. Johnston. A solution of tetramethyl- ammonium hydroxide is readily prepared by mixing alcoholic solutions of tetramethylammonium chloride and potassium hydroxide.—Tetrethylsuccinic acid: J. Walker and Mrs. A. P. Walker.—The ultra-violet absorption spectra of aromatic compounds, part iii., disubstituted derivatives of benzene: E. C. C. Baly and E. K. Ewbank.—Studies in chlorination, ii., the action of chlorine on _ boiling toluene, preliminary notice: J. B. Cohen, H. M. Dawson, and P. F. Crosland. The results show that, under the conditions of the experiments, electrolytic chlorine enters the nucleus only, and also that the rate of chlorination appears to be more rapid than with ordinary chlorine evolved from pyrolusite and hydrochloric acid.—Purpuro- gallin: A. G. Perkin. A description of various derivatives is given.—The electrolytic oxidation of hydroxybenzoic acids : A. G. Perkin and F. M. Perkin. NO. 1862, VOL. 72] Paris. Academy of Sciences, June 26.—M. Troost in the chair, —On a determination of the constant of aberration by means of observations of three stars very close to the pole: H. Renan and W. Ebert. Arising from researches onthe determination of latitude and of the absolute coordinates of the circumpolar stars, a long series of accurate observations has become available for the calcu- lation of the constant of aberration. An advantage of this method is that no correction is necessary for the variation of latitude. The final value obtained is 20’-434, with a probable error of 0-030s.—On isothermal surfaces: L. Raffy.—The motion of the earth and the velocity of light: M. Brillouin. An analysis of the method proposed by M. Wien and M. Schweitzer for solving the problem as to whether the ether is carried on by the earth, in which the author shows that the desired result will not be attained.—An apparatus for controlling actions produced at a distance by means of electric waves : Edouard Branly. An account of alterations in an apparatus already de- scribed, the chief improvement being the substitution of an electric motor for the clockwork movement.—On the specific inductive power of metals: André Broca. In a preceding note the author, with M. Turchini, has shown that the experimental results are not in accord with’ the theory for the resistance of fine metallic wires for continuous currents and alternating high frequency currents, the calculations being carried out according to Lord Kelvin’s hypothesis. In the present note it is shown that the introduction of the specific inductive power, neglected in the first calculations, will account for the observed differences.—On the phenomena of the singing arc: A, Blondel.—An apparatus and method for measuring coefficients of magnetisation: Georges Meslin. A modification of the arrangement proposed by MM. Curie and Chenéveau.—The hydrolysis of very concentrated solutions of ferric sulphate: A. Recoura. A concentrated solution of ferric sulphate in a well closed vessel becomes slowly converted into a solid basic sulphate and a soluble acid sulphate. From the time required for this change the author regards this action as not due to a simple hydrolysis, but as due to a molecular transformation.— Combinations of aluminium chloride with carbonyl chloride: E. Baud. Three compounds of these substances are shown to exist, containing aluminium chloride and carbonyl chloride in the following molecular ratios, 1: 5, 1:3, and 2:1. The last is found in commercial aluminium chloride.—The constitution and properties of steels containing tin, titanium, and cobalt: Léon Guillet. These metals enter into solution in the iron, the carbon being in the form of carbide. The mechanical properties of these steels are such as to prevent their commercial application.—On the reduction of aldoximes: A. Mailhe. Aldoximes can be readily reduced to amines by the Sabatier and Senderens reaction, but the primary amine is not the only product. Acetaldoxime gave a mixture of the primary, secondary, and tertiary amines, and cenanthaldoxime behaved similarly ; owing to the decomposing action of the reduced nickel on benzaldoxime the reduction of this com- pound was irregular.—On the bromination of paraldehyde : P. Freundier. At a low temperature bromoacetaldehyde can be obtained; under different conditions tetrabromo- butyric aldehyde is produced.—On some new _ {-keto- aldehydes: F. Couturier and G. Vignon.—The _ iodo- mercurates and chloroiodomercurate of monomethylamine : Maurice Framgois.—On some derivatives of butyroine and capronoine: L. Bouveault and René Locquin.—On a bivalent phytosterine alcohol: T. Klobb. This alcohol, described in a previous paper under the name _ of arnisterine, a neutral crystalline principle extracted from Arnica montana, has now been shown by its reactions with acetic anhydride, benzoyl chloride, and _ phenyl isocyanate to be an alcohol containing two hydroxyl groups, and it is proposed to revise the name to arnidiol.—A method for determining the purity of cocoa butter: E. Milliau.—The toxicology of mercury-phenyl: E. Louise and F. Moutier. This substance proves to be only very slightly toxic in comparison with the corresponding com- pounds of the fatty series——On the combustion of sulphur in the calorimetric bomb: H. Giran. In a _ preceding paper the author has attributed the variation of the heat 240 NATURE [JuLy 6, 1905 of combustion of sulphur with pressure to the formation of persulphuric acid, but calorimetric determinations carried out with this, substance show that this view is incorrect. The effects observed are due to the presence of traces of hydrogen and nitrogen in the compressed oxygen employed. —Oxyhemoglobin from the guinea-pig, and its reaction with fluorides: M. Piettre and A. Vila.—On the simul- taneous variations of the organic acids in some plants: G. André.—On the production of a soft cider: G. Warcollier. The must prepared for fermentation is freed as far as possible from oxygen, and the fermenting liquid is protected from the air during the process.—The genus Alabes of Cuvier: Léon Vaillant.—The physiological signification of the urate cells in solitary honey-bearing insects : L. Semichon.—The hemolytic action and general toxicity of eel serum for the marmot: L. Camus and E. Gley.—On the presence of poison in the eggs of the viper : C. Phisalix. At the moment of ovogenesis in the viper the active principles of the venom accumulate in the ovules, and probably play a part in the development.—On the problem of statical work: Ernest Solvay.—The treat- ment of cutaneous cancer by radium: Jules Refhns and Paul Salmon. A description of two cases in which radium was used with successful results.—On the existence of a remarkable Pliocene layer at Tetouan, Morocco: Louis Gentil and A. Boistel.—On the origin of eoliths: Marcellin Boule.—The drawings of the lion and cave bear and of the Rhinoceros tichorhinus on the walls of caves by man in the reindeer epoch: MM. Capitan, Breuil, and Peyrony. GOTTINGEN Royal Society of Sciences.—The Nachrichten (physico- mathematical section), parts i. and ii. for 1905, contains the following memoirs communicated to the society :— February 11.—O. Waliach: Researches from the uni- versity chemical laboratory, xiv. :—(1) on the constituents of the sage-oils; (2) on the proportion of phellandrene in the ethereal oil of Schinus molle, L.; (3) on the occurrence of an alcohol with the properties of pinocarveol in the ethereal oil of Eucalyptus globulus; (4) on the semi- carbazone of d- and I-fenchone, and the occurrence of l-borneol ester in Thuja-oil; (5) on the preparation and behaviour of + methyl(1)-phenyl(2)-hexene; .(6) on the bromine-substitution-products of cyclohexanone and cyclo- pentanone. January 28.—A. von Koenen: On the underground effects of earth-pressure in salt-mines. February 2.—Dr. H. Schering: Gottingen in the year. 1904. February 11.—W. Blitz: Further contributions to the theory of tinctorial processes. (1) Measurements relating to the formation of. inorganic analogues of substantive dyes; (2) on the ‘‘ affinity of condition’? of certain sulphuretted dye-stuffs. February 25.—W. Nernst and H. von Wartenberg : On the dissociation of water-vapour. W. Nernst and H. von Wartenberg: On the dissociation of carbonic anhydride. E. Wiechert: Remarks on the motion of electrons with velocities exceeding that of light. C. Carathéodory: On the general problem of the calculus of variations. L. Maurer: On the differential equations of mechanics. M. Laue: On the propagation of radiation in dispersive and absorptive media. T. Tamaru: Deter- mination of the piezoelectric constants of crystallised tartaric acid. (1) General sketch of theory and method of observation ; (2) pressure arrangements and the piezoelectric excitation; (3) electrometric methods; (4) results. D. Hilbert : Contributions to the calculus of variations. Seismic records at New Soutu WaALtEgs. Royal Society, May 3.—Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S., vice- president, in the chair.—On the occurrence of calcium oxalate in the barks of the Eucalypts: Henry G. Smith. The author announces the presence, in large quantities, of calcium oxalate in the barks of several species of Euca- lyptus. It is similar in form and appearance in all species, being well defined monoclinic crystals in stout microscopic prisms, averaging 0-0174 mm. in length and 0.0077 mm. in breadth, and containing one. molecule of water. JUST OUT. In Crown 8vo, With 59 Illustrations. SMOKE ABATEMENT. A Manual for the Use of Manufacturers, Inspectors, Medical Officers of Health, Engineers, and others. By WM. NICHOLSON, Chief Smoke Inspector to the Sheffield Corporation. in Six Volumes:—IV. FRUITS and VI. GENERAL CHAR- NOW READY. Seconp Epition. In Crown 8vo Handsome Cloth. With 30 New Illustrations. 7s. 6d. ELECTRICAL PRACTICE IN COLLIERIES. By D. BURNS, M.E., M.Inst.M.E., Certificated Colliery Manager, and Lecturer on Mining and Geology to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. IMMEDIATELY. Seconp EDITION, greatly Enlarged and Re-set throughout with 7 New Plates, 30 New Figures in the Text, and a new chapter on ‘‘ The Electrical ‘Transmission of Power.” THE PRINCIPLES AND CONSTRUCTION OF PUMPING MACHINERY (Steam and Water Pressure). By HENRY DAVEY, Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, F.G.S., &c. IMMEDIATELY. Sixtu Epition. Revised. With 716 Illus- trations. 345. ORE AND STONE MINING. By Sir C. LE NEVE FOSTER, D.Se., F-.R.S. Revised and brought up-to-date by BENNETT H. BROUGH, F.G.S., Assoc.R.S.M. “A MosT ADMIRABLE account of the mode of occurrence of practically ALL KNOWN MINERALS. Probably stands UNRIVALLED for completeness.’ —Mining Journal. pene ao TS In large Crown 8vo. With Frontispiece and 43 other Illustrations. 6s. net. THE INVESTIGATION OF MINE AIR: An Account by several Authors of the Nature, Significance and Practical Methods of Measurement of the Impurities met with in the Air of Collieries and Metalliferous Mines. Edited by Sir CLEMENT LE NEVE FOSTER, D.Se., F.R.S., and JOHN SCOTT HALDANE, M.D., F.R.S. “An INDISPENSABLE PRACTICAL GUIDE to Mining Engineers of both Coal Mines and Metalliferous Mines.” PPA London: CHARLES GRIFFIN & CO., LTD., Exeter Street, Strand. NATURE {JuLy 13, 1905 CARL ZEISS, | JENA. BRANCHES— LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W. Frankfort o/M. Hamburg. St. Petersburg. MIGROSCOPES Suitable for Every Class of Scientific and Technical Research. PHOTO- MICROGRAPHIC AND PROJECTION APPARATUS. Write for Illustrated Catalogue ‘‘Mn’’ post free on application. ——— THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instrue- tions and about 3000 illustrations. LAL 4 Vienna. Berlin. NATURE says:—‘‘ The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. NATURE 241 THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1905. THE POPULARISATION OF SCIENCE. The New Knowledge. By Robert Kennedy Duncan, Professor of Chemistry in Washington and Jeffer- son College. Pp. xviiit263. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) I1E author of this attempt to make the progress of recent discovery in chemistry and physics understanded of the people remarks in his preface :— “The great expositors are dead, Huxley and Tyndall and all the others; and the great expositor of the future, the interpreter of knowledge to the people, has yet to be born.” And (but it must be added quite modestly) he attempts to wear the cloak of the prophet. He is right, on the whole, when he says that ‘‘ the pro- gressive teacher, particularly in the high school or smaller college, finds it often exceedingly difficult to gain access to the original sources of knowledge,”’ and, it may also be remarked, to understand them when he does. Hence any serious attempt made by one sufficiently versed in science to avoid error, and with sufficient appreciation of the difficulties of one who has not made science his speciality to know how to present facts and their interpretation, is deserving of a cordial welcome. are in the position of outsiders towards sciences not their own; and an allusion to the recent effort. made by the Chemical Society to present the year’s progress to their Fellows is here not inappropriate, for to such an extent is specialisation now carried that it is prac- tically impossible for the physical chemist to follow | the researches of the organic chemist, and vice versa. Their ‘‘ Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry for 1904’ will be much appreciated by all chemists. It is true that the organic chemist, for example, may consider the amount of space devoted to his branch insufficient, and the treatment of the subject-matter somewhat scrappy; yet to one who has no time to follow in detail the work of the specialists published ‘in numerous journais during the year, a summary like this is of the greatest value. It is very desirable, in subdivisions of a science, as well as in separate sciences, that the bearing of one branch of knowledge on another should be realised, and so far understood ; and the Chemical Society is to be congratulated on its new effort. It is to be hoped that a similar plan will be adopted by physiologists, geologists, and, indeed, by all those who labour for the ‘“ promotion of natural knowledge.” But to return to Prof. Duncan’s book. Beginning with the ‘ three entities,”’ matter, ether, and energy, an attempt is made in seven pages to give the reader some idea that these are the conceptions in terms of which the modern man of science interprets nature. The doctrines of the conservation of mass and of energy, and the necessity for the assumption of the existence of ether are indicated. I doubt whether an entire outsider would gain much by reading this chapter; still, if it stimulates him to think, and to NO. 1863, VOL. 72] Indeed, most scientific men | try to acquire clearer ideas on the subject, much will have been accomplished. We have then certain elementary conceptions of chemistry expounded, molecules, atoms, compounds, and elements, and so closes part i., which consists of eleven pages. To give the reader an idea of the author’s style, a quotation from the first paragraphs of part ii. may be made. ““We believe—we must believe, in this day—that everything in God’s universe of worlds and stars is made of atoms, in quantities x, y or z respectively. Men and women, mice and elephants, the red belts of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn are one and all but ever shifting, ever varying, swarms of atoms. Every mechanical work of air, earth, fire and water, every criminal act, every human deed of love or valor : what is it all, pray, but the relation of one swarm of atoms to another ? “Here, for example, is a swarm of atoms, vibra- ting, scintillant, martial,—they call it a soldier,—and, anon, some thousands of miles away upon the South African veldt, that swarm dissolves,—dissolves, for- sooth, because of another little swarm,—they call it lead. ““What a phantasmagoric dance it is; this dance of atoms! And what a task for the Master of the Ceremonies. For mark you the mutabilities of things. These same atoms, maybe, or others like them, come together again, vibrating, clustering, interlocking, combining, and there results a woman, a flower, a blackbird or a locust, as the case may be. But to-morrow again the dance is ended and the atoms are far away; some of them are in the fever germs that broke up the dance, others are ‘ the green hair of the grave,’ and others are blown about the antipodes on the winds of ocean. The mutabilities of things, and likewise the tears of things: for one thing after another, “Like snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face Lighting a little hour or two—is gone,’ and the eternal, ever-changing dance goes on.”’ Now this purports to be very fine writing, but does it gild the pill of science? I am inclined to think not. Still, tastes may differ. It would be unfair to judge of the book, however, by this quotation. The subsequent sections deal with the periodic classification, gaseous ions, corpuscles, and here a very lucid account is given of the method of estimating the velocity of a corpuscle, and of the relation of the charge to the mass; really in these sections the author has established his character as a clear expositor. Positive ions are then considered, and then natural radio-activity, in which there is a capital sketch of the discovery of radium and of its properties. A subsequent chapter treats of thorium, uranium, radium, and actinium, with the reproduction of Prof. Rutherford’s latest results, and the section concludes with the radio-activity of substances in general. The next *‘ part ’’ deals with the resolution of the atom and with atomic disintegration, and an intelligible account is given of Prof. J. J. Thomson’s most recent work. The heat-emitting property of radium is next dealt with, and then there is a sum- mary of the “ electrical nature of matter.’’ The book concludes with part y., entitled ‘‘ Inorganic Evolu- tion and Inorganic Devolution,” discussing intelli- gently and intelligibly Sir Norman Lockyer’s theories : M 242 NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 relating to stellar temperatures and stellar change, and the problems of the sun’s heat, the mechanical pressure of light, and the re-construction of a universe are the concluding chapters. The last chapter of all, the validity of the new knowledge, deals with the question, Is all this true? And here there is a touch of philosophy. For ‘A system is ‘true’ if it is entirely consistent and coherent, if it is completely self-explanatory.”’ ““There is no criterion of absolute truth, there is no way of attaining to absolute truth, and we may as well acknowledge it. Should we therefore abandon the world-riddle? Assuredly not. If we may never know a system to be true, we may believe it to be true. We may not have a knowledge of truth, but we may have a recognition of it.’’ ‘‘ Meanwhile this system of the new knowledge... is simply the outermost circle covering the greatest area of know- ledge, and while its diameter is by no means infinite, it is the truest expression of the truth attainable at this time, and as such is vastly useful. Its utility in the evolution of knowledge is its sole apology for existence.” This work is the first attempt which I have seen to bring into suitable compass, in an_ intelligible manner, the various problems which are occupying the attention of many physicists and chemists. There are few errors, and these are unimportant. Whether the author might not have omitted much fine writing is a question of taste. But even if it be regarded as ill-placed, it does not destroy the intrinsic value of his work. W. R. THEORETICAL GEODESY. Trattato di Geodesia Teoretica. By Paolo Pizzetti. Pp. ix+467. (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1905.) IGNOR PIZZETTI has treated the subject of geodesy in a thoroughly exhaustive manner. The theoretical portion of the book, dealing with the formulz used in geodesy, is very ably demonstrated, and the mathematical proofs of the various problems are sufficiently clear to be easily followed by those practically uninitiated in the subject. The same, how- ever, cannot be said of the descriptive narrative of geodetical operations in general. The book, in fact, impresses one far more from the theoretical than from the practical point of view. The absence of practical demonstrations of the use of the various formule must be a great loss in a work of this nature, and for this reason it compares unfavourably with such standard treatises as Puissant’s ‘‘ Traité de Géodesie ” and Clarke’s ‘‘ Geodesy,” where ample practical illustrations of the application of geodetical formulz are given to help the student in this complicated sub- ject. Even a few examples taken from any modern geodetic triangulation would have been of the greatest assistance. Theory alone is almost bound to have a deterrent effect. The book contains a short and concise history of the several hypotheses as to the form and constitution of the earth prior to any actual geodetical operations, but the account of the several measurements of ‘‘ arcs of meridian ’’ is very meagre, and confines itself prac- NO. 1863, VOL. 72] tically to mentioning those measured in Peru and Lapland in the eighteenth century. Doubtless these ‘‘ arcs’? played a most important part in geodesy, but subsequent measurements have been of equal importance, and have been carried out with the advantage of superior knowledge and more perfect instruments. Like most Continental geodesists, the author adheres to the data for the figure of the earth deduced by Bessel in 1840, and it is only in an appendix that any reference made to Clarke’s determination. This, I think, is scarcely fair to English geodesy, considering that Clarke had the advantage of a far larger number of arcs whence to deduce his values, as given in his excellent treatise in 1880. A reference to these values should find a place in every standard work on geodesy, and it is noteworthy that the American Geodetic Survey, which previously employed Bessel’s values, has, within recent years, discarded them in favour of Clarke. This was in great part due to the close agreement between Clarke’s values and those deduced by the Americans themselves in their various arc measurements. Several chapters are devoted to the mathematical proof of the various functions of a spheroid of revolu- tion. On the whole, they are easily followed, and differ but slightly from those used by Puissant in his great work. The formule in chapter iv. for the deter- mination of the geographical coordinates are similar to those used in the Indian auxiliary tables. Here, particularly, the want of definite examples is greatly felt, and I cannot but think that Signor Pizzetti would greatly enhance the value of his work by adding a few taken at hazard from any survey. The actual is | illustration given in this chapter is one but rarely used in geodesy. Three chapters are given up to the description of base measurements and the practical observation of geodetic angles. It may at once be said that the account is far from thorough, and the practical student desirous of studying the methods to be employed in the field would glean but a scanty know- ledge. Mention is made of some of the more im- portant instruments used in base measurement, such as Borda’s rods, Ibenaz’s apparatus, and’ the American contact duplex bars, but no word is given of Colby’s compensation bars, and only the slightest reference is made to measurements by means of steel or invar tapes or wires. There is little doubt that in future all geodetic bases will be measured by the latter means. Only quite recently in South Africa bases have been measured with an extraordinary degree of precision with invar wires. As regards the measurements of the angles, there is but little information as to the practical work to be done, but a very exhaustive treatise is given of the causes of the various instrumental errors. It is mainly in agreement with those chapters in Chau- yenet’s ‘‘ Astronomy ”’ dealing with this subject. Reference is made to the various instruments used for astronomical work, such as transit—altazimuth— and zenith telescopes. The various errors to which such instruments are liable is very carefully gone into, JuLy 13, 1905] NATURE 4 243 A short history is given in chapter viii. of the general development of triangulation from the time of Snellins to the present day, but it consists mainly in mentioning some of the more striking incidents connected with the subject, such, for instance, as the use of electric light in the work connecting Spain and Algiers. The question of lateral refraction is gone very fully into, and a table is given showing the mean triangular errors proportional to triangles of different sizes. The deduction is then made that the effect of lateral re- fraction increases with the mean length of a side of a triangle up to about 90 kilometres, after which it begins to decrease again. This is a particularly interesting problem, and the table, which is taken from a recent triangulation in Germany, certainly confirms the deduction. It is of course assumed that the closing errors of triangles are due in most part to lateral refraction. The usual methods of calculating and computing triangulation are very thoroughly dealt with. Precise levelling forms the greater part of chapter ix., but an exceedingly full and clear demon- stration is given at the beginning of the various formule relative to atmospheric refraction and to trigonometrical differences in heights of stations. This is treated in a really very clear manner. Three chapters are devoted to the theory of prob- ! ability and its application to geodesy. The theoretical portion has been well demonstrated, and differs but little from the numerous text-books on this subject; but where the attempt is made to apply the method of least squares to a network of triangulation, the want of taking a practical example is at once felt. Clarke, in his ‘‘ Geodesy,’’ gives numerous examples of how to apply theory to practice, but Signor Pizzetti leaves the student utterly in the dark on this important point. Perhaps the two most interesting chapters are left to the end. They deal with the subject of projections, which is gone into with every care. There is scarcely any well known projection which is not very fully explained. Altogether this book is a distinct addition to any geodetic library. W. J. JOHNSTON. OUR BOOK SHELF. The Food Inspector’s Handbook. By _ Francis Vacher. Fourth edition. Pp. xvi+231; illustrated. (London: The Sanitary Publishing Co., 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. net. THis is a pocket volume intended for the use of sanitary and other officers concerned in the inspec- tion of food. It describes, in simple, untechnical language, the naked-eye characters of the various foodstuffs met with in ordinary commerce, and points out the physical signs by which unwholesome food may be detected. The first sixty pages deal chiefly with the statutory powers by virtue of which the food-supply of the community is supervised. They include a summary, with explanatory comments, of the various enactments —Public Health Act, Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and so on—bearing upon the control of food from the inspector’s point of view. Next follow chapters treat- NO. 1863, VOL. 72] ing of meat, poultry, and fish. This is the most important part of the book, and the notes upon the ante- and post-mortem signs of those diseases which render flesh-food unfit for consumption, or which seriously depreciate its quality, will be especially valuable to sanitary officers who have had no veterinary experience. A subsequent chapter is allotted to fruit and vegetables, and one to milk; the rest of the book gives short descriptions of cereals, dairy products, tea, sugar, spices, and so forth. This section, though of interest to the food inspector, is of less concern to him than the foregoing, the quality of the articles mentioned being generally .a matter for decision by analysis, not for condemnation at sight. The author gives sensible advice, and his little volume should be found very useful to those for whom it is written. The only inaccuracy we have noted is suggested in the statement that ‘‘ Dutch cheese is below the standard per cent. as regards fat’’; this might imply that there is a legal standard, which is not the fact. (G8 Ss Manuale_ dell’Ingegnere Elettricista. By Attilio Marro. Pp. xv+689. (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1905.) Price 7.50 lire. Tuts book forms one of the useful series of ‘‘ Manuali Hoepli,’’ which already comprises over 800 distinct treatises. Its aim is to give to engineers and elec- trical constructors most of the information and data that they are likely to require in practice. On this account it is not so much a text-book as a*classified collection of rules and data; but on account of its containing a large amount of explanatory matter it lies intermediate between a treatise on_ electrical engineering and a pocket book of electrical rules and tables. The type being small but clear, a very large amount of useful information is collected in a small compass. The numerical data have been obtained principally from recent papers published in the journals of electrical engineering, and are collected in 115 tables. The worl: is illustrated with 192 cuts and is furnished with a good index. Its size well adapts it to be a handy pocket book of reference, and it is likely to prove of considerable use. Poisonous Plants of all Countries. By A. B. Smith. Pp. xvi+88. (Bristol: J. Wright and Co., 1905.) Price 2s. 6d. net. Tue author has collected a fairly representative list of poisonous plants, which he has arranged according to the action produced and the organs affected, but there is no mention made of the part or parts of the plant which furnish the poison. The descriptions, which form the main part of the text, are sufficient where reference is made to the whole plant, but the majority are too meagre to be diagnostic. The string of vernacular names which is quoted in several cases does not serve any useful purpose, whereas beyond the mere name of the toxic principle inform- ation which is much required is not given. IIR AMIEID ROS) ARO) DLisild) IDOI ON EC [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The Constant of Radiation as Calculated from Molecular Data, In Nature, May 18, I gave a calculation of the coefficient of complete radiation at a given absolute tem- perature for waves of great length on principles laid down in 1900, and it appeared that the result was eight times 244 NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 as great as that deduced from Planck’s formula for this case. In connection with similar work of his own, Mr. Jeans (Phil. Mag., July) has just pointed out that I have introduced a redundant factor 8 by counting negative as well as positive values of my integers é, 7, ¢ I hasten to admit the justice of this correction. But while the precise agreement of results in the case of very long waves is satisfactory so far as it goes, it does not satisfy the wish expressed in my former letter for a com- parison of processes. In the application to waves that are not long, there must be some limitation on the prin- ciple of equi-partition. Is there any affinity in this respect between the ideas of Prof. Planck and those of Mr. Jeans? Terling Place, Witham, July 7. RAYLEIGH. Proposed Observation of Mercury during the Solar Eclipse. Durine the eclipse of the sun on August 30 next there will be an opportunity of making a very interesting observation on the planet Mercury, to which I ask per- mission to direct attention. Mercury at the time of the eclipse will be very close to the line joining the earth and sun—about 2° 54’ south and 2° 54’ preceding the sun—i.e. at an angular distance from the sun’s centre of nearly 4° 6’. Accordingly, the illuminated part of Mercury will be an excessively thin crescent which, if Mercury have an atmosphere, will have its horns prolonged by atmospheric refraction. If a sufficiently skilled observer is provided with a telescope upon which he can use a power of 200 without loss of definition, and mounted—probably as an_alt- azimuth—so that it can be set beforehand upon Mercury, the apparent size of Mercury will be that which would be presented by a circle one-tenth of an inch across, viewed with the naked eye from a distance of ten inches. This ought to be sufficient magnification to see whether the horns of the crescent are prolonged, and, if so, it is perhaps not impossible that the light would be sufficient to enable a spectrum of the tips of the crescent to be seen. If the whole of this programme can be carried out, we should find out whether Mercury has an atmosphere, and possibly learn something as to the constituents of the atmosphere. G. JOHNSTONE STONEY. 30 Ledbury Road, W., July to. The Planet Uranus. ASTRONOMICAL amateurs will have an excellent oppor- tunity of identifying Uranus on about July 16 next, for the planet will be in conjunction with the star r Sagittarii (mag. 5-3) on the night following that date. The position of Uranus at transit (10h. 30m.) will be :— R.A. 18h. 5m. 58s., Dec. S.°23° 42! 21", while that of the star will be (1905-5) :— R.A. 18h. 5m. 57s., Dec. S. 23° 43! 16", so that the planet will pass about 1 minute of arc north of the star. The latter may be easily picked up, as it is nearly 4° S. of the triple star gw or 13 Sagittarii (mag. 4-1). Unfortunately, the objects will be low in altitude (5S) and the moon happens to be full on the date of conjunction. On June 24 and July 8 I found Uranus a little fainter than the star 1 Sagittarii. I have carefully observed the planet on several nights in a 12iin. Calver reflector, powers 100 to 475. The disc appeared faint with a bluish tinge, and no belts or other markings could be detected, but the telescope is too small ‘to deal effectively with an object of this description. Bristol, July 9. W. F. DeEnninc. The Exploration of the Atmosphere above the Atlantic. A pLan for systematic work of this kind, which was pro- posed by the writer in 1901 at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association (Report, p. 724) after he had obtained the first observations with kites flown from a Transatlantic NO. 1863, VOL. 72] steamer, is now being partially realised. Last summer Prof. Hergesell, on board the Prince of Monaco’s steam- yacht Princess Alice, executed sixteen kite-flights above that part of the Atlantic bounded by Spain, the Canaries and the Azores, but without finding the expected south- west anti-trade, although a height of nearly 15,000 feet was reached (NATURE, vol. Ixxi. p. 467). The present expedi- tion, which will repeat Prof. Hergesell’s investigations and continue them further south, is made possible through the cooperation of our distinguished French colleague, M. Teisserenc de Bort, whose steam-yacht Otaria, of 350 tons, with a speed of 11 knots, and fully equipped for aérial exploration, has just sailed from Gibraltar, and, at the joint expense of her owner and the writer, will proceed towards the equator by way of Madeira, Canary and Cape Verde Islands, making frequent soundings with kites through the trade winds and equatorial calms. By means of the self-recording instruments lifted by the kites, it is expected that there will be ascertained the thermal and hygrometric conditions of the various strata traversed, and the depth and force of the trade wind in the different latitudes. If the kites do not reach the south-west return trade, which has been observed on the Peak of Teneriffe, the vertical range of observation may be increased by liberating hydrogen balloons from Madeira and noting their drift. Mr. Clayton, meteorologist of the Blue Hill Observ- atory, left Boston on June 3 to join the Otaria at Gibraltar. During his voyage to the Azores on the White Star liner Romanic he flew kites, with instruments attached, almost daily to the height of from five-eighths to three-quarters of a mile, thus securing the highest observations in mid- Atlantic, and it is interesting that this was done on June 7h the day appointed for the international observations in the upper air here at Blue Hill and in Europe. In general, the temperature was found to decrease with altitude at less than the adiabatic rate, and the relative humidity to decrease also, but in one ascent there was a rise of temperature with altitude, preceding a change of wind from west to south. A new form of folding kite was employed, and it is encouraging to iearn that the heights attained were limited by the length and strength of the wire on the hand-reel, which did not permit more than one of these kites to be attached. On the two days when no flights were made, a following wind became too light on board the steamer to lift the kites, whereas, on the yacht, this condition would have been obviated by simply lying-to, or steaming against the wind. While the cruise of the Otaria, which is to last only six weeks, can hardly do more than elucidate certain questions relating to the high atmosphere in the tropics, it will demonstrate the possibilities and difficulties attend- ing the extensive survey that the writer desires to under- take, and which received the endorsement of the Inter- national Meteorological Committee at Southport in 1903. A. Lawrence Rortcu. Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Hyde Park, Mass., U.S.A., June 26. Ancient Antarctica. Pror. H. F. Ossorn has said that the demonstration of “the former existence of an Antarctic continent is one of the greatest triumphs of modern science.’ But even if this be true, everyone must allow that it occurred a very long time ago. This “is proved by the great differences that exist between the floras and faunas of the three great southern continents. These differences are much greater than those between the floras and faunas of North America and Eurasia, and consequently the land connections must have been broken up in the south long before they were in the north. We infer the former existence of an Antarctic continent from the existence of granite and foliated schists in South Victoria Land, and evidence that it was formerly connected with northern lands is found in the existence of flightless insects living there in the few patches of mosses and lichens which manage to struggle through the winter. These insects are not flightless through degener- ation, but belong to an order which never possessed wings. JuLy 13, 1905] It is very improbable that the ancestors of these minute insects were carried or blown to where they are now found ; they must have travelled to their present positions by land. That is, the Antarctic continent south of New Zealand and Patagonia must, at some time or other, have joined on to northern lands. In the islands of the Antarctic Ocean we have further evidence of a former land connection in the earthworms belonging to the family Acanthodrilide, which are characteristic of Antarctic regions. A spider also lives on Bounty Islands which is closely related to one from Cape Horn. But spiders seem to have special facilities for crossing barriers, and the insects found on Bounty Islands are all related to New Zealand forms. I do not include here the evidence of the plants of the Antarctic islands, for most plants do not require that the land should be actually continuous to enable them to spread. But if the flightless insects and the earthworms imply a former connection with northern lands, that connection must have been a very long time ago, before the spread of insects and angiospermous plants over the world, that is, not later than the Jurassic period. If there had been any land connection in Tertiary times, there would have been a much greater mixing of the animals and plants. It is evident that the flora, and perhaps the fauna, of Antarctica were formerly much richer than at present, as is proved by the fossil plants of South Victoria Land, and it is also probable that both fauna and flora were killed off by an increasingly rigorous climate. It is not necessary to assume a former Glacial epoch for this, for higher plants and animals could hardly resist the present climate, and there is no palzontological evidence of a period of greater cold than now having ever existed in the southern hemi- sphere. On the contrary, the biological as well as the palzontological evidence is against the idea. For the much modified plover, Chionis, and the insects of Kerguelen Land, as well as the remarkable flora of the Antaretic islands, show that the islands could not have been covered with ice for a very long time. The relations between the avifaunas of Australia and South Africa are much closer than exist between those of Australia and South America, and this is just what we should expect if the ancestors of the present birds had spread down from the north under the present condition of land and sea, for the land connection between Australia and South Africa is far more intimate than that between the former place and South America. But the contrary is the case with the Mammalia, some of the tortoises, snakes, frogs, some of the fresh-water fishes, a large number of insects, and the family Cryptodrilidze of earth- worms. This implies that at some former time a closer connection existed between Australia and South America than between Australia and Africa. The question is, Was this connection by means of an Antarctic continent? Or was it by a Pacific continent? The principal objection to the southern route is that the connection between Australia and South America is shown by a number of subtropical animals—such as Osteoglossum and Ceratodus—none of which have left any trace of their passage through New Zealand. We cannot suppose that New Zealand was disconnected at the time from the Antarctic continent, for it, also, has distinct relations with South America, but for the most part by means of different animals from those which show the Australian connection. . If the connection was in either the Cretaceous or the Eocene period, we might suppose that the climate was warm enough for the passage of the subtropical animals by the Antarctic route, but, if so, why are there no traces of marsupials and South American frogs in New Zealand? If, on the other hand, we sup- pose the ancestors of these animals to have crossed from Australia to South America by a South Pacific continent, we can understand how the subtropical forms would not have come so far south as New Zealand, while the New Zealand forms would have crossed at a higher latitude. In favour of this we have a member of the Iguanide in Fiji, as well as the evidence of the land shells of Polynesia, which are not a collection of waifs and strays, but form a distinct group of a very early type, which, however, has not yet been found in South America. NO. 1863, VOL. 72] NATURE 245 We still have to consider the floras and the marine faunas of the Antarctic islands. Here we see a number of birds—such as cormorants and gulls—as well as fishes and plants, which could hardly spread round the world under the present conditions of land and water. That this spreading was a comparatively late one is proved by the near relations between the species. But if there had been continuous land at the time, land animals would have spread with the marine ones. It is therefore necessary to suppose that this last spreading of species in Antarctic latitudes was by means of a number of islands. Probably this was in Pliocene times, if we may judge by the amount of differentiation which has taken place since then. I therefore conclude that the hypothesis which best explains the phenomena is the following :— (1) That in the Jurassic period an Antarctic continent existed which connected South America with New Zealand and South Africa. (2) That this continent sank in the Cretaceous period, and that Antarctica has never since been connected with northern lands. (3) That in the Cretaceous or early Eocene a Pacific continent connected New Guinea and New Zealand with Chili. (4) That this land sank at the close of the Eocene. (5) That in the Pliocene a number of islands existed in the Antarctic Ocean, which have since then disappeared. F. W. Hutton. The British Slugs. Mr. J. W. Taytor has just published part ii. of his admirable ‘‘ Monograph of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the British Isles,’’ containing a discussion of the slugs of the genus Arion. It is a matter of interest that, notwithstanding the great amount of information gathered in recent years, the beautiful bicoloured varieties of A. ater appear to hold their own as truly endemic inhabitants of Britain. These are three in number, though Mr. Taylor treats the third as merely a sub- variety. (1) Arion ater, var. albolateralis, Roebuck, 1883. black, sides white. (2) Arion ater, var Roebucki (bicolour, Roebuck, in error). Back brown, sides yellow. (3) Arion ater, var. Scharffi, Cockerell, 1893. Back black, sides yellow. Mr. Taylor retains the name bicolour for the second variety, but it is not the bicoloury of Moquin-Tandon, as was formerly supposed, and a new name is necessary. It is appropriate to name it after Mr. Roebuck, who first made it known. These magnificent slugs are of western distribution in the British Islands, and have quite a wide range. The only evidence of their occurrence on the Continent is Scharff’s statement that Simroth found speci- mens ‘similar’? to var. Roebucki on the shores of the Baltic; and the possibility that the Norwegian var. medius, Jensen, may be similar to albolateralis, though it is very likely not even of the same species. A quite different variety of A. ater is the wholly black form ater- rima, said to be especially northern and montane. Accord- ing to Mr. Taylor, this is exclusively British, except that it appears to be represented in Spain and Portugal by a similar animal named hispanicus by Simroth. However, I had always regarded this aterrima variety as the one so described from France by Dumont and Mortillet (cf. Science Gossip, 1889, p. 212, ‘‘the pitchy black variety found in swamps ’’), and if it is not, the name aterrima, applied to it by Mr. Taylor, cannot stand. At the opposite pole of variation from aterrima is the brilliant red form A. ater, var. coccinea (Gistel), which is hardly ever found in England, but is abundant in the warmer and drier regions of Central Europe. Incidentally, it may be remarked that the name Arion hortensis, var. subfusca, employed by Mr. Taylor, cannot be retained, as it is founded on Limax subfuscus, C. Pfr., a homonym of L. subfuscus, Draparnaud. T. D. A. CockEReELt. University of Colorado, June 26. Back 246 NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 NOTES ON STONEHENGE. VII.—On THE DartMooR AVENUES. —*OME years ago I referred in Nature to the numerous alignments of stones in Brittany, and I was allowed by Lieut. Devoir, of the French Navy, to give some of his theodolite observations of the directions along which the stones had been set up. The conclusion was that we were really dealing with monuments connected with the worship of the sun of the May year, a year which the recent evidence has shown to have been the first recognised after the length of the year had been determined; thus replacing the lunar unit of time which was in vogue previously, and the use of which is brought home to us by the reputed ages of Methuselah and other biblical personages, who knew no _ other measurer of time than the moon. There was also evidence to the effect that in later times solstitial alignments had been added, so that the idea that we were dealing with astronomically oriented rows of stones was greatly R. Burnard as a portion of the Great Fosseway (Rowe’s ‘‘ Perambulation,’’ third edition, p. 63); it has been traced for eighteen miles from beyond Hameldon nearly to Tavistock, the stones being about 2 feet thick and the road to feet wide. There are two notable avenues of upright stones at Merrivale; they are in close connection with a circle, and could have had no practical use. These stones, then, we may claim as representing the oppo- site extreme of the Fosseway and as suggesting an astronomical, as opposed to a practical, use; the adjacent circle, of course, greatly strengthens this view. It is between these extremes that difficulties may arise, but the verdict can, in a great many cases at all events, be settled without any very great hesita- tion, especially where practical or astronomical use- lessness can be established. But even here care is necessary, as I shall show. The stones now in question, originally upright, are variously called avenues, rows, alignments or strengthened, not to say established. So long as the Brittany align- ments were things of mystery, their origin, as well as that of the more or less similar monuments in Britain, was variously explained; they were models in stone of armies in battle array, or they represented funeral - processions, to mention only two suggestions. JI should add _ that Mr. H. Worth, who has devoted much time to their study, considers that some sepulchral interest at- taches to them, though he thinks it may be argued that that was secondary, even as are interments in cathedrals and churches. About burials associated with them, of course, there is no question, for the kistvaens and cairns are there; but my observations suggest that they were added long after the avenues were built, as some cairns block avenues. Perhaps a careful study of the mode of burial may throw light on this point. The equivalents of the Brittany alignments are not common _ in Britain; they exist in the greatest number on Dart- moor, whither I went recently to study them. The conditions on high Dartmoor are peculiar. Blinding mists are common, and, moreover, some- times come on almost without warning. From its conformation the land is full of streams. There are stones everywhere. What I found, therefore, as had others before me, was that as a consequence of the conditions to which I have referred, directions had been indicated by rows of stones for quite other than ceremonial purposes. Here, then, was a possible third origin. It was a matter of great importance to dis- criminate most carefully between these alignments, and to endeavour to sort them out. My special inquiry, of course, was to see if they, like their apparent equiva- lents in Brittany, could have had an astronomical origin. The first thing to do, then, was to see which might have been erected for worship or which for prac- tical purposes. In doing this there is no difficulty in dealing with extremes. Thus one notable line of large flat stones has been claimed by Messrs. R. N. Worth and 1 Continued from p. 34. NO. 1863, VOL. 72} Photo. by Lady Lockyer. Fic. 17.—The Southern Avenue at Merrivale, looking East, parallelithons. Their study dates from 1827, when Rowe and Colonel Hamilton Smith examined those at Merrivale (Rowe, op. cit., p. 31). Their number has increased with every careful study of any part of the moor, and doubtless many are still unmapped.’ The late Mr. R. N. Worth, of Plymouth, and his son, Mr. H. Worth, have given great attention to these monuments, and the former communicated a paper on them to the Devonshire Association for the Advance- ment of Science in 1892 (Trans., xxv. pp. 387-417). A word of caution must be said before I proceed. We must not take for granted that the stone-rows are now as they left the hands of the builders. The disastrous carelessness of the Government in the matter of our national antiquities is, I am _ locally informed, admirably imitated by the Devonshire County and other lesser councils, and, indeed, by any- body who has a road to mend or a wall to build. On this account, any of the rows may once have been much longer and with an obvious practical use; and 1 Only yesterday (June 1s) that excellent guide of the Chagford part of the moor, Mr. S. Perrott, showed me an avenue (Azimuth N, 20° K. true) near Hurston Ridge which is not shown in the 1-inch map. JuLy 13, 1905] NATURE 247 those which now appear to be far removed from circles may once have been used for sacred pro- cessions at shrines which have disappeared. Again, the rows of stones we are now considering must not be confounded with the ‘“‘ track lines ’’ or “boundary banks ’’ which are so numerous on Dart- moor and are represented in Wiltshire according to Sir R. C. Hoare; these serve for bounds and path- ways, and for connecting and enclosing fields or houses. Dealing, then, with stone rows or avenues, which may be single, double, or multiple; any which are very long and crooked, following several directions, are certainly not astronomical; and it is easy to see in some cases that they might have been useful guides at night or in mist in difficult country with streams to cross. This possible utility must not be judged wholly by the present conformation of the ground or the present beds of streams. For multiple avenues it is hard to find practical uses such as the above, and we know how such avenues were used in Brittany for sun worship. Mr. Baring Gould considers there were eight rows in an avenue on Challacombe Down 528 feet long; of these only three rows remain, the others being represented by single stones here and there (Rowe, p. 33). I shall have something to say about this avenue further on. Although, as I have said, long rows bending in various directions are not likely to have had an astronomical origin, it must not be assumed that all astronomical avenues must be exactly straight. This, of course, would be true for level ground, but if the avenue has to pass over ridges and furrows, the vary- ing height of the horizon must be reckoned with, and therefore the azimuth of the avenue at any point along it. ; I think it possible that in the Staldon Moor row we have the mixture of religious and practical inten- tion at which I have before hinted. Both Mr. Lukis and Mr. Hansford Worth have studied this monu- ment, which is two miles and a quarter long. There is a circle at the south end about 60 feet in diameter, while at its northern end there is a cairn. Where the line starts from the circle the direction of the row is parallel to many sight-lines in Cornwall, and Arcturus would rise in the azimuth indicated. But this direction is afterwards given up for one which leads towards an important collection of hut circles, and it crosses the Erme, no doubt at the most convenient spot. More to the north it crosses another stream and the bog of Red Lake. All this is surely practical enough, although the way indicated might have been followed by the priests of the hut circles to the stone circle to prepare the morning sacrifice and go through the ritual. But there is still another method of discrimination. If any of these avenues were used at all for purposes of worship, their azimuths should agree with those already found in connection with circles in other parts of Britain, for we need not postulate a special race with a special cult limited to Dartmoor; and in my inquiries what I have to do is to consider the general question of orientation wherever traces of it can be found. The more the evidences coincide the better it is for the argument, while variations afford valuable tests. Now, speaking very generally (I have not yet com- pared all my numerous notes), in Cornwall the chief alignments from the circles there are with azimuths 10°-20° E. watching the rise of Arcturus, 24°-28° E. watching the rise of the May sun, . 75°-82° E. watching the rise of the Pleiades. The NO. 1863, VOL. 72] CPAs variation in the azimuths is largely due to the different heights of the horizon towards which the sight-lines are directed. The conclusion I have come to is that these align- ments, depending upon circles and menhirs in Corn- wall, are all well represented on Dartmoor associated with the avenues; and further, so far as I have learned at present, in the case of the avenues con- nected with circles, there are not many alignments I have not met with in connection with circles in Cornwall and elsewhere. This is not only a prima facie argument in favour of the astronomical use underlying the structures, but it is against the burial theory, for certainly there must have been burials in Cornwall. In order, therefore, to proceed with the utmost caution, I limit myself in the first instance to the above azimuths, and will begin by applying a test which should be a rigid one. If the avenues on Dartmoor had to deal with the same practices and cults as did the circles in Corn- wall, they ought to prove themselves to have been in use at about the same time, and from this point of view the investigation of the avenues becomes of very great importance, because of the destruction of circles and menhirs which has been going on, and is still going on, on Dartmoor. We have circles with- out menhirs and menhirs without circles, so that the azimuths of the avenues alone remain to give us any chance of dating the monuments if they were used in connection with sun worship. The case is far different in Cornwall, where both circles and menhirs have in many cases been spared. On Dartmoor, where in some cases the menhirs still remain, they have been annexed as crosses or perhaps as boundary stones, and squared and initialed; hence the Ordnance surveyors have been misled, and they are not shown as ancient stones on the map. In some cases the azimuth of the stones suggests that this has been the sequence of events. It will be seen from the above that I have not tackled a question full of pitfalls without due caution, and this care was all the more necessary as the avenues have for long been the meeting ground of the friends and foes of what Rowe calls ‘* Druidical speculations ’’; even yet the war rages, and my writing and Lieut. Devoir’s observing touching the similar but grander avenues of Brittany have so far been all in vain; chiefly, I think, because no dis- crimination has been considered possible between different uses of avenues, and because the statements made by archeologists as to their direction have been quite useless to anybody in consequence of their vagueness, and last of all because the recent work on the Brittany remains is little known. I began my acquaintance with the Dartmoor monu- ments by visiting Merrivale, and the result of my inquiries there left absolutely no doubt whatever on my mind. I was armed, thanks to the kindness of Colonel Johnston, the director of the Ordnance Survey, with the 25-inch map, while Mr. Hansford Worth had been so good as to send me one showing his special survey. The Merrivale avenues (lat. 50° 33! 15”) are com- posed of two double rows, roughly with the azimuth N. 82° E.; the northern row is shorter than the other. Rowe, in his original description (1830), makes the northern 1143 feet long; they are not quite parallel, and the southern row has a distinct ‘‘ kink’? or change of direction in it at about the centre. The stones are mostly 2 or 3 feet high, and in each row they are about 3 feet apart; the distance between the rows is about 80 feet. 248 NATURE {JuLy 13, 1905 I have before pointed out that an avenue directed to the rising place of a star, if it is erected over | straight. I paradox. avenues are directed to the rising place of the same | star at different times, they cannot be parallel. not a little curious that absence of parallclism has been used against avenues having had an astro- undulating now ground, cannot be mention another apparent nomical use! g Atm | ofanolith i; AWE © Wat Pas rest them, used as a processional road, a via sacra, to watch the rising of the Pleiades. I said roughly parallel; its azimuth is about the same (N. 82° E. roughly) ; but the horizon is only about 1° high; it was therefore in use before those at Merrivale; the exact date of use must wait for theodolite values of the height of the horizon, but in the meantime we can see from the above estimates that the declination of the Pleiades was about N. 5° 28! 30” and the date of use 1950 B.C., that is some 300 years before the solstitial restoration. Mr. Worth’s survey gives another line of stones which is not shown in the Ordnance survey. It is un- doubtedly, I think, an ancient line, although it is not shown in the Ordnance map, a clear indication of the difficulty of discriminating these avenues on land cumbered with stones in all directions. Its azimuth is N. 24° 25’ E., and the height of the horizon 5° 10’. This gives us Arcturus at the date 1860 B.c., show- ing that, as at the Hurlers, Arc- turus was used before the Pleiades. AB : Hence a possible astronomical use is mi) evident, while this row, like the a others, could have been of no prac- may two If It is i aStane Fic. 18.—Plan, from the Ordnance Map, showing the avenues, circle and stones at Merrivale, with their azimuths. Both the Ordnance surveyors and Mr. Worth have shown the want of parallelism of the two avenues, and Mr. Worth has noted the kink in the southern one. The height of the horizon, as determined from my The results of these inquiries, assuming the Pleiades to have been observed ing May morning, are as follows :— measures, is 3° 18/. Azimuth Authority N.Declina- Date tion B.C. N. 83°15 E. Worth 6 47 47 1710 82°30 Worth 7 16 20 1630 82°10 Ordnance 7 320 1580 80°40 Worth 8 260 1420 80°30 Ordnance 8 300 14cO To simplify matters we may deal with the Ordnance values and neg- lect the small change of direction in the southern avenue. We have, then, the two dates 1580 B.c. and 1420 B.c. for the two avenues. The argument for the Pleiades is strengthened by the fact that at Athens the Hecatompedon was oriented to these stars in 1495 B.c. according to Mr. Penrose’s deter- mination of the azimuth. Now this is not the first time I have referred to avenues in - these notes. The azimuth of one at Stone- henge was used to fix the date at which sun worship went on there. That avenue, unlike the Dartmoor ones, was built of earth, and it is not alone. the Cursus. But how about the other ? NO. 1863, VOL. 72] There is another rearly two miles long called So far, I have found no solstitial worship on Dartmoor, so there are no avenues parallel to the one at Stonehenge leading N.E. from the temple. It is roughly parallel to the avenues at Merrivale, and I think, therefore, was, like tical use to anybody. It is interest- ing to note that this single row of stones is older than the double ones; this seems natural. It is worth while to say a word as to the different treatment of the ends of the south avenue now that it seems probable that it was used to watch the rising of the Pleiades. At the east end there is what archeologists term a ‘‘ blocking stone ’’; these observ- ations suggest that it was really a sighting stone. At the west end such a stone is absent, but the final i eyes eig Wes Dip - x 6 ne Ps ey Meliliprise \S ip peg fone .4 ‘ LER Monet own 924 Wwarn- er w> "8S Dows aire “439 ! 3 cA a pelea le aoe ate ys EE PAM i i | tere ' S A! Fic. 19.—Reprint of Ordnance Map showing that the Cursus at Stonehenge is nearly parallel to the Merrivale Avenue. The azimuth is 82° and not 84° as shown in the figure. stones in the avenue are longer than the rest. This may help us to determine the true direction of the sight-lines in other avenues, and, indeed, I shall show in the sequel that it affords a criterion which in some cases is entirely in harmony with other considerations. Norman LOCKYER. Jury 13, 1905] NATURE 249 SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL CHANGES. Apel problem of the relations between sun-spots and other solar phenomena and weather has engaged the attention of men of science for many years past. The results of their investigations have not, perhaps, been so satisfactory or conclusive as were at first anticipated, but this, fortunately, has not diminished the enthusiasm of those interested in the solution of the problem. The ordinary public who were attracted by the apparent simplicity and prob- ability of the relations suggested have undoubtedly been disappointed with the results. There has hence been a tendency for some time past to depreciate in- vestigation in this field of science. On the other hand, the experience of the recent droughts and famines in India, Australia, and South Africa has directed attention strongly to the probable relation between variations of solar activity and the larger variations of rainfall over the earth’s surface. The aqueous vapour precipitated as rain over large land areas such as India is produced by evaporation over distant oceanic areas, and is thence carried to the areas of discharge by the larger atmospheric currents. These actions are the direct results of the conversion of solar energy, and any large variation in the supply of that energy must be accompanied with, and followed by, corresponding changes in the amount of evaporation and atmospheric movement, and hence, also, of amount and distribution of rain. The determination of the relations thus indicated is not merely of value from the scientific standpoint, but has important practical bearings, as it may lead to a satisfactory method of long-period weather forecasting —a question which is largely engaging the attention of meteorologists at the present time. Three lines of observation (and hence also of in- vestigation) carried on at the present time furnish data for the solution of the problem. These are the observa- tions of terrestrial magnetism, of terrestrial atmo- spheric meteorology, and of solar phenomena. A large number of magnetic observatories, furnished with the most delicate and sensitive instru- ments, provide a continuous record of the changes of the earth’s magnetic state by its action on magnetised needles at the earth's surface. The work of meteorological observation has made great progress during the past twenty-five years. It has not only been extended and im- proved, but is carried on much more systematically than hitherto. Unfortunately its record is very im- perfect, as it is probably not too much to say that over at least five-sixths of the earth’s surface, including the greater part of the interior of Asia and Africa, and over the larger oceanic areas and the Polar regions, the amount of observation is exceedingly small and of little value for the solution of the problem. There is hence a continuous record of the meteorological changes of the earth’s atmo- sphere over barely one-sixth of its surface. There is, moreover, no general collection and publication of the meteorological data in such a form as to give a continuous history of the larger atmospheric vari- ations and changes in progress over even that sixth part of the earth’s surface. The third branch of observation, that of solar phenomena, has made wonderful progress during the past fifty years. Previously the telescopic examination of the sun’s surface had disclosed the eleven-year periodicity of the sun-spots. Latterly the combination of the spectroscopic and telescopic observation of the sun has revealed the complexity of the changes in pro- gress throughout the depth of its atmosphere, and of which the sun-spots are only one and a very partial ex- pression. This field of investigation is so promising NO. 1863, VOL. 72] that solar observatories have been established in many countries, and a continuous record of the solar changes, so far as they are indicated by present methods of observation, is now possible by combining the data furnished by all the observatories. The work of correlating the three classes of observation has, how- ever, not yet been commenced in a systematic manner, although the necessity is now fully recognised. It is now generally, if not universally, admitted that the sun is practically the sole source of the energy which maintains the movements of the earth’s atmo- sphere. It is the centre of a continuous outflow of radiant energy, a very small portion of which is inter- cepted and appropriated by the earth, where it is converted into other forms of energy. The investi- gation of the rate of this flow of energy and its time variations, the analysis of the total energy into its elements as that of a series of oscillatory move- ments of different periods and amplitudes or wave- lengths, and the problem of its distribution in its passage through the atmosphere and at the earth’s sur- face are each in little more than the initial stages. In some departments of the investigation, as, for example, the laws of the absorption of the solar energy during its passage through the earth’s atmo- sphere, much work has been done, but with com- paratively little result. The appropriation of solar energy by the earth affects it mainly in two ways, first, as a whole, determining or modifying its magnetic condition, and secondly, partially, affecting the atmosphere and a thin surface layer of the solid or liquid mass. Any variation in the flow of solar energy, periodic or irregular, will theoretically give rise to correspond- ing changes in the earth's magnetic condition and its atmospheric movements. The determination of the relations between the three classes of variation is on the whole the most important problem in this field of inquiry into the solar energy and its variations and effects. The first part of the problem, that is, the relation of the variations of solar energy (as manifested and measured by the observable changes in the number and extent of the sun-spots, prominences, &c.) to those of the magnetic condition of the earth shown by its action on a magnetised needle suitably suspended, is comparatively simple, as the earth appears to be similarly affected as a whole and throughout its whole mass. The variations are indicated as clearly and satisfactorily by an observatory in India or Australia as at Kew in England. There are undoubtedly local variations which may require to be eliminated in order to obtain the general variation. It has, how- ever, been conclusively established by observations in different regions that there is a general parallelism between the amount and extent of the magnetic vari- ation or disturbance and the number and magnitude of the sun-spots and prominences. The rule is, the larger the number of sun-spots the greater the amount of the magnetic variation and disturbance. The re- lation can, however, at the present stage only be considered as statistical, as it has not been estab- lished for single sun-spots. In other words, the observed outburst or sudden appearance of a single spot or prominence is not invariably accompanied by a. terrestrial magnetic disturbance. Various reasons have been given for the failure of parallelism in detail. Hence all that can be inferred at the present time is that definite relations (of a statistical kind) of great importance have been obtained which more than justify the continuance of this branch of the inquiry, and make it desirable that the work of terrestrial magnetic observation and _ investigation, and of comparison with solar phenomena, should be maintained and if possible extended. 250 Numerous attempts, only very partially successful, have been made to establish similar definite relations between solar and terrestrial atmospheric variations. The South Kensington observatory has done much valuable work in this direction. It is, however, doubtful whether the results obtained by any of the investigators in this branch are generally accepted. The reasons for this very partial success are almost self-evident, and are due to the complexity of the problems presented by the movements of the atmo- sphere, more especially as modified by the presence of very varying amounts of aqueous vapour, the result of the processes of evaporation and conden- sation. The effects of the solar variation on the earth’s atmosphere are, in fact, distributed and mani- fested in very varying proportion between the different elements of observation, and the direct effect of a solar variation on one element may be followed by an opposite effect due to variation of another element, so that the final result may be opposite in character to the initial effect. Thus an increase of solar radiant energy would, if there were no increase of aqueous vapour amount, cloud or air movement, undoubtedly increase pressure and temperature. If these changes, however, give rise to increased vertical and horizontal movement, it is possible that as a later result pressure probably, and temperature possibly, might both be decreased below their original or normal level, and hence that the observed change might be the opposite to that of the direct effect of the original variation. Also there is another source of difficulty in this branch of the inquiry, due to the fact that in the case of some of the elements of observation a positive variation over a considerable area of the earth’s surface must necessarily be accom- panied with a negative variation of corresponding amount in some other region as part and parcel of the total change. The changes in these elements, taken over the earth’s surface, must either be com- pletely compensatory, as is probably the case for pressure, or partially compensatory, as is un- doubtedly the case for rainfall. It is also necessary to bear in mind that the instru- mental appliances for magnetical and meteorological observations are of very different orders of exact- ness. Magnetic instruments, more especially those for continuous autographic registration, are of great delicacy. Meteorological instruments are, on the other hand, much less delicate, and the most important of all from certain points of view, viz. the instruments for registering the direction and rate of air movement, are especially coarse, and their individual observations are necessarily affected with large errors. The problem of the relations between solar and terrestrial meteorological variations is hence com- plicated and difficult. It evidently requires for its complete solution the collection and coordination of data for the whole of the earth’s surface, and the careful employment of statistical methods regulated by thorough knowledge of the physics of the atmo- sphere. The difficulties of the problem are great, and explain the comparative want of success of investi- gators hitherto. It is, however, certain from theoretical considerations that there are definite re- lations, and that their determination is of great importance, equally from the scientific and the utilitarian point of view. The observational data for a more systematic investigation are now considered by many to be sufficient, if collected, compared, and discussed as a whole, to promise more satisfactory and valid con- clusions than have hitherto been obtained, and NO. 1863, VOL. 72] NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 perhaps a first approximate solution. This opinion found expression fully at the meeting of the British Association at Southport in 1903. Sir Norman Lockyer, director of the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, read a report giving a summary of the results of previous investigations in ‘ Simul- taneous Solar and Terrestrial Changes ”’ to Section A of the British Association. The members of the International Meteorological Committee present at the meeting joined in the discussion, and it was decided that the time had arrived for joint and concerted action. A commission to act as a subcommittee of the International Meteorological Committee was formed to discuss meteorological observations from the point of view of their connection with magnetism and solar physics. The commission held several meetings at Cambridge in 1904 during the British Association week. Several additional members were added to the commission, which now includes the names of the lead- ing authorities in the three associated branches of science. The chief work of the commission at Cambridge was to lay down principles for the selection of the data required for comparison, and to arrange for the choice of stations and observatories from which it would be desirable to obtain data prior to entering into communication with the various organisations that it would be necessary to ask for assistance in the collection of data. It has been arranged that a meeting of the com- mission shall be held in connection with the meeting of the International Meteorological Committee at Innsbruck in September. A number of important matters will there be considered. Amongst these are the final selection. of magnetic and meteorological observatories from which data are to be collected, the mode of publication of the data received by the com- mission, and probably, also, of the methods to be employed in the work of comparison and discussion of the data. Hofrath Prof. Julius Hann has suggested for consideration a method of determining the variation of temperature during a sun-spot period. This will, it is hoped, lead to an interesting dis- cussion on the methods of investigation most suited and appropriate for the determination of the relations between solar and terrestrial phenomena. THE PROPOSED COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCE. PR appearance of the preliminary report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines, which was pub- lished in our issue of last week, brings us an important step nearer the realisation of an object after which men of science have long striven; the provision, that is, of a great metropolitan college—liberally endowed, handsomely housed, adequately equipped, and gener- ously staffed—designed amply to supply that higher technical instruction for which there has been little provision hitherto, but upon which our well-being as a commercial and manufacturing nation ultimately depends. The report shows that the committee has been en- gaged wisely in determining what precisely the exist- ing facilities for instruction in applied science are, and in gathering the information necessary to decide what the new college should supply in. addition to these, so as to place London, as the centre of the Empire, in a condition to compare educationally with Berlin, for example, or with many great American cities. It is unnecessary here to recapitulate the recommenda- tions of the committee, but the special wisdom of JuLy 13, 1905] NATURE 251 one or two of its conclusions cannot be insisted upon too earnestly or too often. The new institution must be in no sense parochial, mor must it be allowed to become merely metro- politan. From the beginning the design must be to give the college an Imperial character, and every means must be taken to encourage young men pos- sessed of the necessary qualifications, in whatever part of the Empire they may be, to attend its courses and avail themselves of the means offered by it of becoming familiar with recent advances in technology and with any branch of applied science in its highest form. The new institution must not be allowed to become merely another technical college on a larger scale—of technical institutes we have many already. The ‘ duly qualified students’’ referred to by the committee should have already received collegiate training, and have taken a degree. To quote the report :— “* Admission to*these higher courses should be re- stricted to duly qualified students who, it is hoped, would be attracted from all parts of the Empire.”’ The public must be taught to estimate the success of the new institution, not by the number of its roll-call, but by the number of expert engineers of all kinds, of original technical chemists, of machine designers, and so on, who are trained within its portals. But besides being able to supply the future manu- facturer with the very latest results from the research laboratories of workers outside its walls, the new in- stitution, if it is to be really successful, must itself be an active centre of research. As the report says :—‘‘ It is of the first importance that there should be no divorce between teaching and research in technology on the one hand and in pure science on the other,’’ and the new college must be as notable for its success in research in technology as for the ability possessed by its staff to acquaint the student with the findings of recent scientific work. Unless from the beginning the student feels he is under the influence of professors who are not only familiar with all the conditions of actual manufacture in its most successful form, but who are responsible also for the improvements in technical processes which win success, the institution will neither do the work expected of it nor win the confidence of our manufacturing magnates and mer- chant princes. Only that science—whether pure or applied—really lives which grows continually, and such growth without patient research is impossible. The new institution must above all things be the growing point of our national system of technical instruction. To fulfil these two functions—on which the report rightly lays very great emphasis—the staff of the Imperial college must be both numerous and the best available. In other words, the institution must of mecessity be a costly one, judged, that is, from the standard adopted previously in this country for estim- ating educational expenses. But if properly selected such a staff will very soon show, by the results accom- plished, that generous expenditure on higher educa- tion is a remunerative form of national expenditure. It is gratifying to find from the report that there is every prospect that a sufficient revenue will be eventu- ally forthcoming, in the provision of which funds the State will take its part. We learn from the Times that the Government has decided to allocate 20,000l. a year to the college out of the Treasury subsidy for the maintenance of the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines, and that an intimation to this effect has been made by the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer to Mr. Haldane, the chairman of the Depart- mental Committee. There is every reason to hope that London will ere NO. 1863, VOL. 72] 1 in the Midland Railway Company’s Steamers,” long have at South Kensington a college of applied science which will be as much admired as the similar institution at Charlottenburg, and prove as useful to the industries of this country as the Berlin college has to those of Germany. NOTES. As the new buildings of the University of Sheffield were opened by the King at the time the present issue of Nature was being prepared for press, we cannot do more than record the fact, reserving a description of the buildings and an account of the opening ceremony for a subsequent number. Tue annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund was held on July 5 at Marlborough House, the Prince of Wales presiding. Sir William Church moved the adoption of the secretary’s, superintendent’s, and treasurer’s reports, which was seconded by Mr. Tweedy. Mr. Henry Morris moved that the best thanks of the meeting be given to His Royal Highness for presiding, which was carried with acclamation. The Prince of Wales in reply alluded to the researches which had been carried out in the laboratories of the fund, and expressed his satisfaction that the committee had again secured the services of Sir William Church as chairman of the executive committee. THE summer show of the Royal Horticultural Society was opened on Tuesday last, and will remain open until this evening. It is being held for the first time in the grounds of Chelsea Hospital. The society appears to be in a very flourishing condition, more than 1000 new fellows having been added within the last few months. Tue Albert medal of the Society of Arts for 1905 was, on Wednesday, July 5, at Marlborough House, presented by the Prince of Wales, as president of the society, to Lord Rayleigh ‘‘in recognition of the influence which his re- searches, directed to the increase of scientific knowledge, have had upon industrial progress, by facilitating, amongst other scientific applications, the provision of accurate electrical standards, the production of improved lenses, and the development of apparatus for sound signalling at sea.”’ Tue French Association for the Advancement of Science will this year meet at Cherbourg. The session will extend from August 3 to ro. THE summer meeting of the Institution of Naval Archi- tects will take place on July 19, 20, and 21 in the hall of the Society of Arts. The following papers will be read and discussed :—‘‘ Tactics and Strategy at the Time of Trafalgar,’’ by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, G.C.B. ; ““The Ships of the Royal Navy as they Existed at the Time of Trafalgar,’’ by Sir Philip Watts, K.C.B., F.R.S., vice-president ; ‘‘ The Classification of Merchant Shipping, illustrated by a Short History of Lloyd’s Register,’’ by H. J. Cornish; ‘‘ Experiments with Models of Constant Length and Form of Cross Sections, but with varying Breadths and Draughts,’’ by Lieut.-Col. B. Rota; “‘ Ex- periments on the Effect of Depth of Water on Speed, having Special Reference to Destroyers recently Built,” by H. Yarrow; ‘‘ Deductions from Recent and Former Experiments on the Influence of the Depth of Water on Speed,’’ by W. W. Marriner; ‘‘ The Failure of some large Boiler Plates,’’ by J. T. Milton; and ‘‘ A Comparison of the Performances of Turbines and Reciprocating Engines by W. Gray. 252 NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 Tue London congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health will be held from Wednesday next, July 19, to Tuesday, July 25, under the presidency of Sir James Crichton Browne. The meetings will take place at King’s College, Strand, and at the Polytechnic, Regent Street. In connection with the congress there will be an exhibition of sanitary and educational appliances at the Regent Street Polytechnic, and this will remain open until July 28. Tue British Medical Journal announces that a tuber- culosis exhibition, arranged under the auspices of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, and of the Committee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis of the Charity Organisation Society, will be held in New York in November next. The object of the exhibition is the education of the people. In addition to exhibits illustrating different phases of the tuberculosis problem, and especially the treatment of the disease, popular lectures will be delivered by specialists. Tue Long Fox memorial lecture for this year will, says the Lancet, be delivered in November by Dr. E. Markham Skerritt. M. Curie was last week elected a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. THE Mary Kingsley medal of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been awarded to Dr. Laveran, of the Pasteur Institute, Sir Patrick Manson, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., and Col. Sir D. Bruce, K.C.B., F.R.S. Lorp KeEtyin anp Sir WILLIAM Curisti£, Astronomer Royal, were at the final meeting of the present session of the Optical Society made honorary members of the society. Ir is stated in Science that Prof. William Osler has been made honorary professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. Tue president of the Board of Agriculture (the Right Hon. Ailwyn E. Fellowes) will distribute the diplomas and | prizes at the South-eastern Agricultural College, Wye, on Friday, July 21. : We learn from the Royal Society that as an adjunct to the International Laboratory of Physiology on Monte Rosa, a lower laboratory, with a hostel, has been established at Col d’Olen. This lower laboratory is mainly intended for biological research, but it is understood that provision has also been made for the study of terrestrial physics and meteorology. The Royal Society has the permanent nomination to two posts, each of which includes a living room in the hostel, a bench in the laboratory, and the use of apparatus; but the expenses of living and of special researches must be borne by the investigators. The. labor- atory is especially connected with the University of Turin, but is under the immediate direction of a committee. Applications for nominations to the two posts referred to above may be addressed to the secretaries of the Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W. ; A Reuter telegram from Florence states that the in- struments of the Delle Quercie Observatory of that place recorded on Sunday last severe earthquake shocks as taking place in a distant country. Tue death is announced from Belgium of M. Elisée Reclus, the French geographer, in his’ seventy-sixth year. At the University of Berlin he studied under the great geographer Karl Ritter. Having in 1851, because of his political opinions, to leave France, he travelled for six NO. 1863, VOL. 72] years, visiting England, Ireland, North America, Centrat America, and Colombia. Returning to his native country in 1857, he contributed numerous articles on his travels to periodical literature, and published a small volume entitled ‘* Voyage a la Sierra-Nevada de Sainte Marthe.’” Later he wrote two books dealing respectively with the earth and the ocean. He began at Clarens, on the Lake of Geneva, the work of his life—the ‘* Nouvelle Géographie Universelle,’’ the first volume of which appeared in 1876. The work was issued in parts, and was completed in 1894, the whole occupying nineteen volumes. On the conclusion of this great task Reclus began another work dealing with the historical side of human development, i.e. with history as influenced by geographical conditions. He left this book, it is said, in a complete state, ready for publication. Tue death of Prof. Hermann Northnagel, of Vienna, in his sixty-fifth year, is announced. He made many contributions to medical literature, and by these and his discoveries’ in regard to heart action he was well known in the medical profession. Prof. Northnagel was a corresponding member of the Royal Medical Society of this country. Many of our readers will be glad to learn that steps are being taken to raise a memorial to the late Prof, G. B. Howes, F.R.S. In the circular letter on the subject which has reached us it is pointed out that his death was probably due most of all to overstrain occasioned by his unsparing zeal in the acquisition of full and accurate knowledge and the undeviating readiness with which he imparted the fruits of his genius and learning, not only to his regular pupils, but to every association which asked for his assistance. It is proposed that the memorial shall take the form of an endowment fund for his widow and daughter. Subscriptions should be sent as soon as possible to the honorary treasurer, Mr. Frank Crisp, 17 Throg- morton Avenue, E.C., marked on the cover ‘* Howes Memorial Fund.’’ We trust there will be a generous response to the appeal. A MEETING of members of the Essex Field Club took place, by invitation of Lady Warwick, at Easton Lodge on Saturday last to inaugurate a photographic and pic- torial survey and record of Essex. The object of the scheme is to make a permanent collection of photographs and other pictures of objects of interest, also maps, plans, and other documents, in order to give a comprehensive survey and record of all that is valuable and representative of Essex. The pictures, plans, &c., will be deposited and placed on view in the museum of the Essex Field Club at West Ham, and it is hoped that all the photographic societies and unattached photographers of the country will assist the committee in its work that its object may be attained. We are indebted to a correspondent for a copy of a supplement to the Selangor Government Gazette, dated April 28, containing a report from the district surgeon of Klang on ‘‘the progress of anti-malarial measures carried out at Klang and Port Swettenham,’’ in the Federated Malay States, during the past four years, from which we learn that in 1901 malaria was very prevalent both at Klang and Port Swettenham, there being much swampy ground in which, as well as in wells, ditches, and pools, Anopheles were found breeding. Active work was undertaken in the shape of tree felling, the clearing of undergrowth, the filling up of abandoned drains, the inauguration of a system of drains to carry off and prevent JuLy 13, 1905] NATURE 253 the stagnation of rain water, the notification, and if necessary the removal to hospital, of cases of malaria, and the use of kerosene and the administration of quinine, with such marked success that at the present time malaria has practically, if not absolutely, disappeared from the places where the aforesaid measures have been carried out, while the remainder of the district remains much as it was. The report is a striking testimony to the value of the dis- covery by Major Ronald Ross. A COMMITTEE appointed some years ago by the labor- atory section of the American Public Health Association has recently issued its report on standard methods of water analysis. The committee in formulating the report has ascertained in a comprehensive manner the views of American analysts in regard to the bacteriological, chemical, physical, microscopical examinations of water, and much cooperative work has been done in con- nection with the differentiation of species of bacteria. The need for greater uniformity in water analysis methods is universally recognised, and in the further standardisation of analytical and bacteriological methods in this country regard should be had to the report of the American com- mittee. The part dealing with the identification of species of bacteria would appear to be specially valuable. The report is reprinted from the Journal of Infectious Diseases (May). and IN connection with the Forestry. Exhibition at the Agricultural Society there Agricultural recent Education and show of the Royal was a section devoted to meteorology, organised by the Royal Meteorological Society. One feature was a typical climatological station with all the necessary instruments; another was an ex- hibition of diagrams, maps, photographs, the effect .of weather upon agriculture. Barometers, thermometers, rain gauges, sunshine recorders, &c., were also shown, and an address was given each day by Mr. W. Marriott on meteorology in relation to agriculture. &e., illustrating We have received from the meteorological reporter to the Government of India (Dr. G. T. Walker) the Monthly Weather Review for November, 1904, and the Annual Summary for 1903. In the Monthly Review the data are presented from two different points of view :—(1) the pre- valence and spread of diseases, and (2) their connection with agricultural questions. For this purpose India has been divided into two large groups of divisions, from what may be termed the medical and agricultural stand- points. The vastness of the area, and the number of tables that the discussions necessitate, are somewhat bewildering. The Annual Summary, however, completes the discussion, and the aggregate data are presented in an elaborate but clear and able manner. From the agricultural standpoint, India is divided into 57 meteorological districts; the tables show, for each element, the departures of the monthly and annual mean values for 1903 from the averages of past years, and the leading features are clearly illustrated by a series of carefully prepared charts. : Tue English titles of the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan for May show that it contains several in- teresting articles, e.g. on the earthquake of April 15, the hot wind at Taito in Formosa, and others. Mr. T. Okada contributes a note in English on the relation between the pulse-rate and atmospheric pressure. The author quotes a table by Prof. Clayton, who made an ascent of Pike’s Peak in 1901 by means of the railway, and therefore without exertion, and Mr. Okada has calculated the atmospheric pressure at each station up to 4313 NO. 1863, VOL. 72] simplified barometric formula. A that the pulse-rate regularly and he metres, from Hann’s glance at the table shows increases with decrease of atmospheric pressure, gives a simple equation by the use of which the actual and calculated values exactly agree. This formula shows that a decrease of 9 mm. of pressure causes an increase of one beat of the heart per minute. We have received a copy of the report and results of observations for the year 1904 at the Fernley Observatory, Southport. The work carried on at this institution is of considerable importance; the observatory represents the coast district of the north-west of England, between Liver- pool and Fleetwood, while somewhat to the east is the inland Stonyhurst. All these stations, except, perhaps, Fleetwood, are equipped with complete The Southport Observatory undertakes, in the usual work of a first order station, work nected with rainfall, evaporation, wind, &c., at various subordinate stations in its vicinity. It also publishes a useful table of comparative climatological statistics at health resorts and large towns. The tables show that at Southport the year 1904 was very dry, the rainfall being >-4 inches below the average. The maximum shade temperature was 82°-4, on July 11, and the minimum 22°-0, on November 27; the lowest radiation temperature was 13°74, on February 29. The director is Mr. J. Baxendell, meteorologist to the Southport Corporation, and the chief assistant Mr. F. L. Halliwell, who, in connection with Mr. Baxendell and Mr. W. H. Dines, has invented seyeral large sensitive recording instruments which are now adopted at various important stations. observatory of self-recording instruments. addition to con- considerable experimental Tue Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has received, through the Foreign Office, a copy of a despatch from the British Consul at Munich reporting that 200,000 eggs of a new kind of whitefish (Coregonus Albula) of the Salmonide family, Lake Peipus, in Russia, were hatched last year with excellent results at the fish-breeding station at Starnberg, near Munich. It is the intention of the Bavarian Fisheries Society, under which the experiments have taken place, to continue trials for five consecutive years to the same extent as hitherto, in the hope that the fish first placed in the different lakes may have spawned by then. imported from Tue Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for May (xvi., No. 170) contains papers on various medical subjects and on cancer, &c., in bitches. Dr. Hemmeter, in an article of considerable interest, discusses the history of the discovery of the circulation of the blood. He remarks that no less than six individuals have been credited with this discovery—Servetus by the Spaniards, Colombus, Ruini, and Cesalpinus by the Italians, Harvey by the English, and Rabelais by the French. He then proceeds critically to survey the evidence for and against the claims of these, and also of Galen, Malpighi, and others whose anatomical discoveries were almost necessarily precursors of the con- ception of the blood circulation. Dr. Hemmeter finally concludes that ‘‘the discovery of the circulation of the blood was the work of almost a millennium from Aristotle and Galen to. Harvey, but the one who first logically drew true consequences out of hundreds of years of preceding work, and upon whose broad intellectual shoulders all sub- sequent investigations rested, was William Harvey; and to-day, 328 years after his birth, we may side without reservation with the words of Bartholin: “At Harveyo omnes applaudunt circulationis auctori.”’ 254 : NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 ANOTHER mounted specimen of the great auk has just been sold to a Continental museum by Messrs. Rowland Ward for 4ool. There are, it is said, practically seventy known specimens, most of which are in State museums. EXPERIMENTAL work for the purpose of protecting the sugar-growing industry in the Sandwich Istands has been undertaken by the new owners of the group with character- istic energy, and we have before us the first issue of Entom- ological Bulletins published at Honolulu on behalf of the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association. The present part is the first instalment of a series to be devoted to the homopterous insects commonly known as leaf-heppers (jumping relatives of the ordinary aphides, or plant lice) and their enemies, and treats of the minute parasites known as Dryinide, by which these pests are themselves attacked. Attempts have been made to introduce foreign dryinids into Hawaii in order that they should assist in keeping down the leaf-heppers, but at present with only partial success, owing to the fact that some of the introduced kinds do not prey on these insects. Any leaf-hepper attacked by a dryinid may be reckoned as good as dead, for even the contents of its head and eyes are mercilessly sucked dry by its uninvited “ suest.’’? The truth of the old rhyme about “‘ little fleas and lesser fleas’’ is, however, forcibly emphasised in the case of these parasites, which are in turn attacked by what our American friends are pleased to call hyper- parasites. ‘‘ How hardly the dryinid parasites,’’ writes Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, the author of the paper and director of the experiment station, ‘‘ are at times pressed by their various hyperparasites, we often observed. To cite one instance, from about fifty cocoons of several species of parasites obtained near Cairns, one solitary male alone emerged, all the rest being hyperparasitised, and similar observations were made in several localities.”’ Dr. Witits’s annual report of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon, for 1904 is chiefly devoted to the work connected with investigations in economic botany. As a new departure, the formation of a cotton experiment station in the dry region of north-central Ceylon, supplied with water from irrigation tanks, is of primary importance. The difficulty of clearing the land was enhanced by scarcity of coolie labour, but the soil is excellent, and the situation seems to be well suited to the production of Sea Island cotton; rubber is also being experimentally cultivated in this region. In connection with rubber, the checking of the canker disease observed on two Hevea plantations and the high values obtained for some samples of Castilloa rubber are of interest. Mr. E. P. STEBBING contributes a note to the Indian Forester (May) on the satisfactory results which have been obtained by soaking bamboos in crude Burma petroleum in order to keep off the boring beetles, species of Dino- derus known as shot-borers. The article by Mr. G. H. Myers, a member of the Bureau of Forestry, on ‘* Forestry Education in the United States,’’ is noteworthy as in- dicating the aspirations which stimulate this and similar departments. The importance of practical training and of a knowledge of American requirements is emphasised. AN hereditary abnormality in the human hand and foot and its relation to Mendelism form the subject of an article published in the papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology (vol. iii., No. 3). The abnormality in question came under the notice of the author, Dr. W. C. Farabee, some years ago in Penn- sylvania, and consists in the suppression of one phalange, NO. 1863, VOL. 72] or joint, in each of the fingers and toes, with the excep- tion of the thumb and great toe, which were abnormally shortened. The whole hand was extremely short and “podgy,’’ and this feature was associated with shortness of bodily stature. Thirty-seven persons, all related, were affected with the malformation, which was inherited in accordance with Mendel’s law for five generations. Although a tradition that every other child in the family had short fingers did not prove to be exactly true, yet almost precisely half the number of offspring displayed the abnormality. In one instance a regular alternation of normal and abnormal individuals continued until the eighth child. The total number of offspring descended from the original abnormal individuals is 69, of whom 33 are normal and 36 abnormal, distributed as follows :—in second gener- ation, 4 normals and 4 abnormals; in third, 5 and 7; in fourth, 7 and g; and in fifth, 17 and 16. The case affords strong confirmation of the general truth of the Mendeiian doctrine. Tue general report of the Geological Survey of India drawn up by the director, Mr. T. H. Holland, F.R.S., shows that during the past year much valuable work has been done, and that results of scientific interest as well as of immediate economic importance have been obtained. Among adyances of unusual scientific interest is the dis- covery of a new series of the remarkable family of elzolite- syenites near Kishengarh, in Rajputana. In economic work the department has kept in touch with the numerous developments of private enterprise in the mining of coal, gold, manganese ore and salt, and has demonstrated the existence of iron ores of industrial value. An interesting discovery is that India possesses a possibly valuable asset in the deposits of laterite, which cover considerable areas in the peninsula and in Burma, as it is shown that laterite often exhibits the essential characters of bauxite. The subject is dealt with exhaustively in the Records of the Geological Survey of India (vol. xxxii., part ii.) by Mr. Holland, who gives analyses of the best samples which have so far been tested. These laterites or bauxites were collected in the Madras Presidency, in the Central Provinces, in Central India, in Bengal, and in Bombay, and the percentages of alumina reach as high as 67-88. In the same issue of the Records Mr. Holland publishes returns of the Indian imports and exports of mineral products in 1904. The export of 154,880 tons of manganese ore is a remarkable feature, and the rapid increase in the export of Indian mineral oil is also noteworthy. WE have received from the Peruvian Government copies of Bulletins Nos. 22 and 23 issued by the Corps of Mining Engineers. The former is a monograph on the mineral resources of the province of Otuzco, by Mr. F. Malaga Santolaya. The province contains rich deposits of gold and silver ores and coal of good quality, as well as ores of copper, lead, manganese, and antimony. The second bulletin is a report of a commission on the Cerro de Pasco mines, signed by the chairman, Mr. C. E. Velarde. It contains a useful summary of the Peruvian mining law and a detailed description of the Cerro de Pasco deposit, originally worked as a silver mine, but now with increasing depth yielding chiefly copper ore. TueE Sociological Society has issued a pamphlet contain- ing an address by Dr. James Bryce on the aims and pro- gramme of the society, together with the first annual report of the council and a list of members. The report outlines the circumstances attending the inauguration of the society, and enumerates the aims which it has in view. A brief account of each of the meetings held during the Juty 13, 1905] NATURE 255 year with which the report is concerned is given, and a statement of accounts supplied. Dr. Bryce points out in his address that the members of the society may be divided into three classes, viz. those who devote themselves specially and scientifically to the business of research in all those lines of inquiry which concern man as a social being ; those interested in sociology as educated and intelligent men; and practical men who are not able to devote them- selves entirely to scientific study, but have to deal with sociological problems in the course of their daily life. Tue first number of a new periodical devoted to birds has just made its appearance at Cape Town. It is called the Journal of the South African Ornithologists’ Union, and is the organ of the association recently formed under that name. Besides information relative to the new union and reports upon the proceedings of its first meetings, this number contains original articles upon South African birds by Major Sparrow, Mr. F. J. Ellemor, Mr. G. C. Short- ridge, and Mr. A. Roberts. The journal is edited by Mr. W. L. Sclater (the president of the union), Dr. Gunning, and Mr. Bucknill, and will appear at irregular intervals, ““when sufficient matter has been received.” Many inquiries having been made for part ii. of the Museum Boltenianum, 1798 (which relates to Mollusca, and is very scarce), it has been decided to reproduce a few copies by photographic fascimile from the Crosse copy now in the British Museum (Natural History), and to sell the same at 2/. per copy if a sufficient number of subscribers be forthcoming. The work, if issued, will be produced under the supervision of Mr. F. W. Reader. Those wishing to subscribe should apply to Mr. E. R. Sykes, 3 Gray’s Inn Place, Gray’s Inn, London. Tue Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute (vol. xxvi., No. 6) is mainly devoted to housing problems. Mr. Turton introduces a discussion on re-housing tenants dispossessed from insanitary property, Dr. Louis Parkes a second on housing in mansions let as flats, and Dr. Robertson a third on certain aspects of the housing problem. Tue Psychological Bulletin (vol. ii., No. 6) contains a report of the proceedings of the north central section of the American Psychological Association, a paper by Raymond Dodge on the illusion of clear vision during eye movements, various reviews, notes, &c. A SECOND edition of the ‘‘ Key to the Classifications of the Patent Specifications of France, Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland in the Library of the Patent Office’’ has now been published at the Patent Office. The price of the ‘‘ Key ”’ is 6d. Mr. Joun Murray has just issued the ninth edition of Mr. Edward Whymper’s guide to ‘‘ The Valley of Zermatt and the Matterhorn,’’ and the tenth edition of his guide to ‘‘ Chamonix and the Range of Mont Blanc.’’ The price of each volume is three shillings net. WE have received from Messrs. Hurst and Blackett a copy of a map of Lhasa drawn to a scale of 4 inches to a mile. The map is based on the survey in 1904 of Captain C. H. D. Ryder and Captain H. M. Cowie, with a few additions by Mr. Perceval Landon. Tue first of a series of illustrated papers by F. J. Sprague on ‘“‘ The Electric Railway’’ appears in the Century Magazine for July; it gives many interesting particulars of the early experiments made in electric traction. NO. 1863, VOL. 72] Tue articles contained in the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for June (vol. xvi., No. 171) are all of considerable medical interest, and comprise papers on the ztiology and pathogenesis of pernicious anemia, by Dr. Bunting, on recurrent phlebitis, by Dr. Briggs, on heart block in mammals, by Dr. Erlanger, Xc. Messrs. GURNEY AND JACKSON announce the preparation in three volumes of a translation by Dr. C. A. Keane of Lunge's ‘‘ Technical Methods of Chemical Analysis.” WE are asked to state that Mr. C. S. Sargent’s ‘‘ Manual of the Trees of North America (exclusive of Mexico),”’ which was reviewed in our issue for June 29 (see p. 197), is published in England by Messrs. Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 16 James Street, Haymarket, and that its price is 25s. net. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Juty anp Aucust MertTgors.—We have now nearly arrived at what is the most interesting period of the year for the meteoric observer. With skies often clear, with the air at an agreeable temperature, and with meteors visible in more than usual abundance, success is promisingly offered to everyone who practically enters upon the study of this important and complicated branch of astronomy. In the previous months of May and June, with their strong twilight and a scarcity of meteors, there has been no special inducement to observers, but after the third week in July the nights will become perceptibly darker, early Perseids will begin to manifest themselves, and many Aquarids will probably appear towards the close of the month from a radiant at 339°-10°. Active showers in Sagittarius, Pegasus, Draco, Cygnus, Cepheus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia will also be observed, but the radiant points will be more remarkable for their variety and number than for striking activity in individual cases. It is an interesting feature in observations at this time of the year to watch the Perseids from their earliest arrivals (about July 15) to their most belated apparitions (about August 21), and to trace the motion of the radiant point towards the E.N.E. In the following table the position of the radiant is given for every third night :— Date Radiant Date Radiant a 5 a 6 July 18 18o+50'1 | Aug. 5 37 6+55°7 ny eb 20:5 - 5 Lota (esi nS) 41°5+56°5 >» 24 23;5-t52-2)\\ ee ue ou 45°7+57 1 » 27 27-E 45352 | oy 14 Jose S97 » 30 30°5 +541 » 17 §4°4+58°2 Aug. 2 33°9+550 | ,, 20 58°9+58°7 Moonlight will not much interfere with observation during the period from July 25 to August 9. At the time of the Perseid maximum (either on the morning of August 12 or 13) the moon will set as follows :— h. m. Thursday, August 10 12 52 Friday, August II ... 3 45 Saturday, August 12 14 45 The moon will be increasingly gibbous, and though many meteors will doubtless be exhibited before moonset, it will be very advisable to count the number visible in the dark sky after our satellite has gone down, and particularly on the last two dates mentioned above, as the maximum is likely to occur between 2h. and 3h. gom. a.m. when the radiant. is high. To give anything like a comprehensive list of the radiant points visible in July and August would require a large space, and is, moreover, unnecessary, a pretty complete summary of them having been published in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3874, for 1903 June 3. THE FORMATION OF THE MartIAN SNOW-caAps.—A short note communicated by Prof. W. H. Pickering to No. 6, ! vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy states that on examin- 250 NATURE [JuLy 13, 1905 ing a number of photographs of Mars, which were secured with the 11-inch Draper telescope during the period March 31 to April 30, it was seen that no snow-caps properly so-called appeared until April 23. The photograph of March 31 showed clouds on both the terminator and the limb, but no polar caps. On April 23 a clearly visible and extensive light area appeared at the southern pole, but was not bright enough for snow, rather resembling an extensive region of clouds. A very small light area appeared near to the northern pole on April 15, but was only seen with difficulty. A visual examination with a 24-inch reflector revealed the southern polar cap on April 30 as extending far towards the north in long. 340°. Prof. Pickering thinks that when the clouds disperse snow will probably be revealed lying in their place. He also contends that the observed seasonal colour-changes from brown to green on such features as the Mare Erythreum is the surest evidence of the existence of vegetation on Mars. RECENT OBSERVATION OF Eros.—From an_ equatorial observation of Eros on June 12, in which the planet’s position was referred to that of 6 Capricorni, Prof. Millose- vich determined the following position :— (1905 Tune 12d. gh. 32m. 24s. M.T. Rome). a (app.)=2Th. 48m. 4174s. 8 (app.) = — 16° 41’ 35/3 (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4029.) STANDARD TIME IN VaRtous CountTRIES.—An interesting and useful summary of the present status of the use of standard time the world over is given in appendix iv., vol. iv., of the Publications of the U.S. Naval Observatory. The director of the observatory, Rear-Admiral Chester, has prepared various tables in which he shows the relation of the standard time employed in each country, state, or colony, to the meridians of Greenwich and Washington. In the first table is given a summary of nations that use standard time, and it shows that, of the thirty-six mations specifically mentioned, twenty employ Greenwich time as the basis of their systems. The areas and population concerned in these twenty nations form a very large majority of the totals, and of the remaining sixteen no two agree. This Mr. Chester regards as a powerful argument in favour of the adoption of a universal time system. Other tables show in detail the present status of the time systems employed ‘in a large number of localities, and enumerate the dividing lines separating those con- tiguous areas in which different standards are in use. HarvarpD COLLEGE OpsERVATORY ANNUAL ReEPoRT.—In the forty-ninth annual report of the Harvard College Observatory Prof. E. C. Pickering, dealing with the year ending September 30, 1904, gives a brief outline of the progress made in each of the many and various researches which are being carried out at that observatory. Variable stars and asteroids were photometrically ob- served, with the polarising photometer, by Prof. Wendell, who, inter alia, found that the asteroid [7] Iris varies about one-quarter of a magnitude in a period of 6h. 12m. The measurement of all the Durchmusterung stars in zones 10’ wide at intervals of 5° was continued with the 12-inch meridian photometer, and the observations of many of the zonés are now practically complete. 543 photographs taken with the 11-inch Draper telescope brought the total number secured with this instrument up to 15,030, and 1116 photographs were secured with the 8-inch Draper telescope, raising the total up to date to 32,094. It is proposed to extend this work to the spectra of the fainter stars by giving exposures of sixty minutes’ duration and using only one prism. Many objects having peculiar spectra were discovered by Mrs. Fleming during the examination of the Draper photographs. The Boyden and Bruce telescopes were employed con- tinuously, and from the examination of the long-exposure chart plates Prof. Frost discovered many new nebulz, &c., including 203 nebula in Virgo where the Dreyer (N.G.C.) catalogue mentions only 58. The meteorological observations were continued at the Blue Hill Observatory, kites being employed on fourteen occasions. The average maximum height reached by the kites was 7750 feet above sea level, the maximum altitude attained on one occasion being 14,660 feet. No. 1863, VOL. 72] THE ACADEMIC SIDE OF TECHNICAL TRAINING. T is not so very long ago that engineers, at any rate, became willing to recognise that technical training had an academic side at all. Almost the first, and still un- doubtedly the greatest, representative of the academic side of our profession was the late W. J. Macquorn Rankine, who, after eighteen years of practical engineer- ing experience, became professor of engineering in Glasgow in 1855, and held the chair until his death in 1872, and some of whose pupils have occupied, and now occupy, very high positions in the profession for which he did so much. Perhaps it may be said that Rankine was by nature rather a physicist dealing with engineering problems than an engineer (in spite of his love for the ‘‘ three-foot rule” *) dealing with engineering problems. But only those of us who have had occasion carefully to study his work from the point of view of trying to teach subjects similar to his can ever know what an extraordinary physicist he was. But up to the years 1870 and 1880, Rankine’s pupils and their contemporaries were not yet old enough to influence the body of the engineering profession, and there still existed a pronounced dislike on the part of an enormous number of engineers to anything academic, a dislike which can hardly be realised now by those who see the various professional bodies vieing with one another in their endeavours to ensure that their members shall have a proper and complete scientific training. Now all the great engineering societies have recognised formally that no engineering training is complete without its academic side, and a very important committee, consist- ing of delegates from the five great engineering societies, with Sir William White as president, has been at work for some time, formulating their ideas as to the nature of the qualifying training, and going so far as to formulate also ideas as to the preliminary education of young engineers before they commence their academic training. I do not wish—rather I do wish very much, but it is not my subject to-day—to enter upon the very thorny questions involved in what that preliminary education ought to be according to the notions of a grown-up engineer. I will say, however, for it is no secret, that communications received from many headmasters of our great schools, while not going so far as some of us would like, are yet quite astonishingly radical in their ideas as compared not only with thirty, but even with fifteen years ago. As to the general trend of our academic training, I think we engineers are entitled to say that it should be so arranged as best to train the best engineers. I put it in this way because I mean it to be understood that while on the one hand the best engineer is certainly not the man who knows his own business only and narrowly; on the other hand, I think we are entitled to demand that the engineer should not be looked upon as the mere bye- product of the training, but as the chief result to which other things are to be subordinated. I think that University College is not likely to fall into this mistake, but the point has really to be kept in mind in cases where, as here, the engineering education is only one branch of the wide range of education covered by the whole work of a university college. In saying this, however, I particularly do not mean that the academic training of engineers should be laid out exactly on superficially utilitarian lines. The idea of giving a young man just as much mathematics, just as much physics, or just as much chemistry as the minimum that he can professionally require, is not only pernicious, but absolutely fallacious. I am sure that the only way of knowing a subject up to a certain point in such a fashion that, up to that point, it can be thoroughly utilised, is to study the subject up to a point very much further advanced. It is not at all a valid objection to the teaching of any particular point in mathematics or physics that it is more 1 Abridged from an Address delivered before the Union Society of Uni- versity College, London, on June 29, by Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S. 2 Some talk of millimétres, and some of kilogrammes, And some of décilitres, to measure beer and drams ; But I'm a British workman, too old to go to school ; So by pounds I'll eat, and by quarts I'll drink, and I'll work by my three-foot rule.”’ JuLy 13, 1905] NATURE 250 complicated or more advanced than anything which the engineer will be likely to require. That, in itself, is not an objection at all, because, as I have said, it is impossible really to master a scientific subject up to a certain, often wery elementary, point without having at least a superficial knowledge of a much greater extent of the subject. But it is desirable, indeed necessary from our point of view, that the advanced work in purely scientific subjects should be specially chosen so as best to deepen and make certain the knowledge of the earlier work. This may be, and almost certainly is, a very different thing from choosing it so as to form the best basis for still further study of the particular science in question. In this connection [| must point out—at least as my opinion—that it is a mistake to consider that there is only one mathematics or ‘one physics, and that either the preparatory work or the whole teaching must necessarily be the same for everybody —for the man who is to devote himself to engineering, or for the man who intends to spend his life in physical work. For instance, I think an engineering student may be allowed to take for granted that A times B is equal to B times A (he is always quite prepared to believe it), and that it is perfectly reasonable to make to him dogmatic and probably in a sense erroneous, statements as to atoms (let us say) or as to the ether, without any of the qualifi- cations which would be necessary supposing the atoms and the ether were to form the basis of the man’s future studies. It is no doubt a noble conscientiousness which some- ‘times prevents a man who is in the front rank among men of science from making to his students, as quite ‘general, statements which he knows to be true only with qualifications or limitations. But the case is one in which often the general statement, given with authority, will really give the student a truer conception of the facts than a more accurate statement which is guarded by reasoning and explanations which he (that is, the student) cannot understand, and will almost certainly misunder- stand. As a writer in Nature put it a few days ago, re- ferring to the theory of quaternions, “‘ the truth is that very few students are able to appreciate to the full an absolutely logical argument until they have a certain amount of practical knowledge imparted to them more or less by authority.” There is one matter in connection with the teaching both of mathematics and physics to engineering students which I think might well be emphasised more than is generally the case. Whether it is desirable that it should be emphasised in dealing with the general student I do not venture to say. I mean the point that the answer to any question can only be as accurate as the data of that question. For the ordinary examination question in mathematical physics it is necessary and unavoidable to presuppose certain data which in real life are absurd and impossible. In the ordinary everyday questions of engineer- ing there is nothing more misleading than to take for granted the data of the examination paper, and a very great deal of the disrepute into which mathematical work had fallen at one time among engineers was due to the fact that although the average student was able to use his methods rightly, he was unable to perceive whether they led him to a right result. I think it must be possible, even if it is not exactly easy, to point out to the student the extent to which the accuracy of his answers is influenced by the assumptions which he makes. It is, I am afraid, too often presumed that the method | of working out the answer is the chief thing; perhaps it may be from some particular point of view. But for our purposes, foolish as it may sound, the method of working out the answer is only secondary; the answer itself is the chief thing, and we really must have that answer right when it finds itself translated into steel or stone. We would much sooner have a right answer got by an im- perfect method than a wrong answer got by the best method in the world. And an answer may be wrong in two ways; it may be wrong because the data are in themselves wrong, that is to say, inapplicable to the par- ticular case, or it may be wrong by being stated in a form much more accurate than the real data will allow of, as when we find the indicated horse-power of engines given NO. 1863, VOL. 72] to six significant figures, when we know perfectly well that the fourth must always be doubtful. It would be most useful if our scientific professors would discuss these points with their students and show them specially the extent to which the methods and theorems of the mathematician and the physicist may be properly applied when the only data available for the problems are such as actually are found in practice. It is hardly fair co leave the engineering professor to tell his pupils, or to leave the engineer to tell his assistants, that the methods they are using are quite inapplicable, and the results which they are getting obviously in- accurate. This is in every way inadvisable, and may lead the otherwise guileless student to discount all his teachers instead of only one. Every scientific experimenter knows that it is often the most difficult part of his work to say how alterations in data or want of knowledge of accuracy in data may affect the result, and I should like much to see this matter systematically dealt with by the teachers who have actually to do with the scientific or theoretical treatment of the questions concerned. If they have any doubt as to what is the general nature of the complex engineering questions which have to be solved, a letter addressed to any engineer in Westminster would bring them the fullest information. But happily most of the university colleges now have engineers on their Senates, so that the information can be had without going outside their own walls. As to the more advanced part of engineering teaching in colleges, I want to put forward an idea that I have more than once had occasion to express. I should much like to see the development of some such connection between old and distinguished students of a college, who become later on older and more distinguished engineers, and the college at which they have studied or some other college, as exists in the similar case of the medical pro- fession. My suggestion is that to get the full benefit from its best pupils, a college should, if possible, keep in touch with them after they have left it. A few years after they have left college, and when they have fairly got into the swim of professional work, but before they have so much lost touch with the difficulties of their college days that they no longer appreciate the student’s point of view, they might be made to help in teaching by giving lectures on the special branches of engineering with which they were specially and actively familiar. They should do it before they have forgotten what they formerly learnt, or have had it driven out of their heads by the pressure of other ideas, and while college methods and points of view are still familiar. They would be men still making their way in their profession, still, let us hope, full of enthusiasm for their work, and certainly they would be daily finding out the differences between actual and academic problems. Teaching of this kind could in no way replace the general preliminary teaching of engineering subjects in the college, which must continue to be given, as it is given now, by a professor or professors, the bulk of whose time is spent at the college, and who are thoroughly in touch with all the students. I confess that I hope a time will come when in any case professors of engineering will not remain permanently in academic harness, but will come out and take their place—a most important one—as colleagues among the active and leading engineers of the country, and will look | upon such a position as that which they ought to reach rather than a solely academic position, however eminent. But, in addition to the work of the permanent professor or professors, I believe that old students coming back in the fashion I have indicated, not in one only, but in several branches of engineering, and giving short courses of special lectures to third year students, would very much help both the students and the rest of the teaching staff. The arrangement would also have the very great advantage of bringing about a closer and warmer con- nection between the men who are at.work in their pro- fession and the colleges where they were trained. It would also help to keep the colleges themselves in that actual and continual touch with engineering things and ideas which is so absolutely essential for their continued. usefulness. 258 NATORE [JuLY 13, 1905 It will be noticed that the scheme 1 have outlined is closely analogous to the system already general in con- nection with medical training, where the lecturing and professorial staff on the technical side consists almost entirely of old students (occasionally from other colleges) who are beginning to make their way professionally, or who, by the time they have become professors, have actually made their way to the highest ranks of their profession. HARVEY AND THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. FTER some introductory remarks, Dr. Roberts re- ferred to Harvey’s work, and especially to His great discovery of what is commonly spoken of as the “ circu- lation of the blood,’’ though his published treatise is really on the “‘ movements of the heart and of the blood.’’ He re-affirmed their implicit belief in the absolute priority of Harvey’s claim to this discovery, and spoke of its magnitude and far-reaching effects, which had been de- scribed in various and glowing terms, in no way ex- aggerated. Nor must they forget the formidable difficulties under which Harvey carried out his investigations; the profound errors which he had to combat and overthrow, and the confusion he had to clear away; his indomitable perseverance; and the masterly yet courteous manner in which he disputed and ultimately overcame the objections which had been raised against his views. The orator then gave an outline of Harvey’s career, dealing more especially with his association with the College of Physicians, where he held the position of Lumleian Lecturer from 1615 to 1656, in the very first course of lectures presenting a detailed exposition of his views concerning the circulation of the blood, which con- tinued to form one of his subjects for several years. In the deed by which Harvey conveyed to the college his estate, he laid down three definite and distinct injunctions or instructions as to the subject-matter of the oration, which it was their duty to follow. The first injunction is that “‘ there shall be a commemoration of all the bene- factors of the said College by name and what in particular they have done for the benefit of the said College, with an exhortation to others to imitate these benefactors and to contribute their endeavours for the advancement of the society according to the example of those benefactors.’? Dealing with this injunction, Dr. Roberts first mentioned individually Harvey himself; Thomas Linacre, the prac- tical founder of the College of Physicians ; and John Caius. He then ‘considered generally as benefactors those who had held high office, alluding specially to that of Presi- dent; those who had founded lectureships, or had given endowments for prizes, medals, or scholarships ; those who had contributed to the library or to the general funds; and those who by their professional or. scientific attain- ments and achievements, as well as by their high personal character, general culture and scholarship, and intellectual and moral qualities have shed unfading renown and lustre upon the College of Physicians. In discussing the second injunction, namely, to ‘‘ exhort the Fellows and Members of this College to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment,’’ the orator made a passing allusion in favour of vivisection, claiming for this method of investigation the cordial sup- port of the medical faculty as a whole, with comparatively few exceptions. After referring to what the College had done as a body in advancing scientific research, he enlarged upon the great activity and promising aspects of modern research, more particularly in relation to subjects con- nected with the medical profession, and expressed his belief that Harvey would be amazed and fully satisfied were he to come on the scene at the present time, and realise the extent and thoroughness with which his exhort- ation is being carried into effect in all directions. Dr. Roberts then gave an abstract of what he had prepared for the oration with reference to the progress of know- 1 Abstract of the Harveian Oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians on June 21 by Dr. Frederick T. Roberts, NO. 1863, VOL. 72] ledge and practice in connection with the circulatory system since Harvey's time, and the methods by which it had been brought about. He also directed attention to some of the more prominent examples of the beneficial results on an extensive scale of scientific and practical research, and alluded specially, as being closely connected with the circulatory system, to the “ brilliant victories ’’? which had been achieved against malaria in various parts of the world, many of them forming an integral part of this vast Empire. While paying a tribute of respect and admiration to all those who at the risk of life and health have gone forth to dangerous climates to study and fight against this and other tropical diseases, Dr. Roberts mentioned specially Dr. J. E. Dutton, the latest ‘‘ martyr of science,’’ as he had been aptly called, whose lamented death recently occurred on the Congo, where he had gone to study sleep- ing sickness on behalf of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He expressed on behalf of the college their deep sense of the great services which Dr. Dutton had rendered to the medical profession and to humanity, their profound regret at the premature cutting off of such a valuable life and promising career, and their heartfelt sympathy with his bereaved family and friends. The orator concluded as follows:—The last and most agreeable duty laid upon me by Harvey’s direction is to “exhort the Fellows and Members, for the honour of the profession, to continue in mutual love and affection among themselves, without which neither the dignity. of the College can be maintained, nor yet particular men receive that benefit by their admission into the College which they might expect, ever remembering that concordia res parvae crescunt, discordia magnae dilabuntur.’’ With regard to the future position and reputation of this college in relation to scientific research and the progress of medicine, there can be no doubt or misgiving when we see amongst our younger fellows and members so many who are endowed with great abilities, who are full of energy, intellectual vigour, and enthusiasm in their work, and whose achieve- ments have already brought them into conspicuous promin- ence and, in some cases, into the foremost ranks of our profession. May we not confidently hope that they will also ever keep in mind Harvey’s last exhortation, and unflinchingly strive to maintain the high standard of character and conduct which he has placed before them? But should they at any time feel the need of an example, a stimulus, or an inspiration, let them steadily fix their attention and thoughts upon the personality, the life, and the work of our ‘‘ immortal and beloved Harvey,’? whom it is our privilege and pride and happiness to commemorate on this anniversary. HIGH TEMPERATURE RESEARCH ON THE FELSPARS. AX elaborate investigation of the melting points of the felspars, devised and carried out by Messrs. Day and Allen in the physical laboratory of the United States Geological Survey, is described in a memoir just received. The geological importance of laboratory research at high temperatures was strongly urged by the late Clarence King and Dr. Becker, and the well known work of Dr. Carl Barus has already furnished petrologists with a number of valuable data. The laboratory, discontinued in 1892 for want of funds, has been re-established by the exertions of Dr. Becker, and the piece of work before us has been in part subsidised by the trustees of the Carnegie Institution. The authors describe in detail, for the benefit of other experimenters, the thermoelectric method by which they have been enabled to measure high temperatures with an error of not more than one degree. It was also found necessary to adopt some method of determining the instant of melting (where such exists) independently of the personal judgment of the operator. It appears that in 1 “The Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars.’”’ Part i. Thermal Study. By Arthur J.. Day and E. T. Allen. Part ii. Optical Study. By J. P. Iddings. With an introduction by George F. Becker. P. 95; Xxvi plates. (Washington, 1905.) JULY 13, 1905] NATURE 259 such minerals as the felspars the viscosity of the fused | substance may be of the same order as the rigidity of the | solid crystal approaching fusion, so that there is to the eye no abrupt change. The discordance between the results Fic. 1.—Tabular Crystals of Bytownite from Middle ot Crucible. Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars.”’ of different experimenters is largely attributable to this fact. The method followed was therefore to plot as a curve the relation between temperature and time, and to note the place where a change in the shape of the curve indicates an absorption of latent heat. To avoid the disturbing influence of impurities, the several felspars to be examined were prepared artificially. Thin slices of the crystallised pro- ducts were studied optically by Prof. Iddings, and they are illustrated in the memoir by a series of beautiful plates. Anorthite was the felspar most easily crystal- lised, and its curve gave a sufficiently sharp melting point at 1532°. Other varieties ex- amined had the compositions Ab,An,, Ab,An,, Ab,An,, Ab,An,, Ab,An,. These gave progres- sively lower melting points; but it was found that, in passing from anorthite towards the albite end of the series, viscosity rapidly in- creases and obscures the phenomenon of fusion, the break in the curve of heating becoming for Ab,An, a_ barely perceptible deviation. For albite, and also for orthoclase, the method fails to give any result, and in a certain sense it may be said that the allali-felspars have no melting point. In this connection, a special series of experiments gave some remarkable results. A small fragment of crystalline albite, embedded in albite glass, was heated to 1200° and slowly cooled. Thin slices showed that the crystal had melted to a glass only along cleavage and other cracks. The experiment was repeated with higher temperatures of heating up to 1250°, and it was found that, though the lanes of glass encroached more and more upon the crystal, con- siderable relics of the latter were still left, pre- serving undisturbed their original orientation. It thus appears that a mineral like albite, which melts to an ultra-viscous liquid, may be maintained for half an hour at a temperature well above its normal melting point without being completely fused. It seems doubtful whether the crystalline substance at such a NO. 1863, VOL. 72] om From temperature is to be regarded as a superheated solid or as a liquid crystal, in which deorientation is prevented by extreme. viscosity. Specific Gravity Melting ? Felspar Temperature Crystals Glass Anorthite 1532 2°765 2°700 Ab, An; 1500 2°733 2°648 Ab, An, 1463> 2°710 2°59 Ab, An, 1419- 2°679 2°533 Ab, An, 1367" 2 660 2°483 Ab3An, 349° 2°649 27458 Albite — 2°605 2°382 We reproduce in tabular form the chief numerical results obtained. The general con- clusions arrived at are of great importance. The melting point curve for the lime-soda-felspars, as well as the curve of specific volume, is con- tinuous, and not very different from a straight line, and we have almost conclusive proof that this group of minerals forms a truly isomorphous series. Further, it belongs to type i. of Bakhuis Roozeboom, the melting point falling steadily from one end of the series to the other. Here a further point of interest arises. According to theory, the crystals first formed from the fused mass should be richer in anorthite than the liquid from which they separate, and should contain an increasing proportion of albite as crystallisa- tion proceeds. Day and Allen, however, verified in several cases that their crystals had the same composition as the mother liquid. This can only be due to undercooling, the beginning of crystal- lisation being deferred until the temperature had fallen below the range proper to normal crystallisation. Those natural rocks in which the felspar crystals show a zoned structure (the outer zones richer in albite) must have crystallised without undercooling, and, indeed, their felspars “The hig WT ppt as. at SO é Fic. 2.—Spherulite of Plumose Bundles of Prismatic Crystals of Labradorite. From ‘©The Isomorphism and Thermal Properties of the Felspars.”’ must have been formed within a certain range of tempera- ture, which can be more or less closely determined. In this and other petrological applications the work of the authors affords a valuable supplement to that of Vogt. A. H. 260 NATURE [JuLy 13, 1905 _ PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS ART.* E have on several occasions directed attention to works by American ethnologists dealing with in- vestigations on the meanings of the designs and patterns of aboriginal decorative art. This fruitful and interesting field of inquiry is by no means exhausted, and two papers on the subject have recently been published by the American Museum of Natural History which merit the careful atten- tion of students. Dr. Clark Wissler has made a valuable study of the decorative art of the Sioux Indians which is a model of clear and concise expression and of adequate illustration. As he truly states, the investigation becomes psychological, because it is necessary to know what ideas the artists have of their designs, and what motives lead to their execution. The assumption that all primitive decorative designs are executed with consciousness that they symbolise some definite object or relation in nature is fairly supported by the facts so far accessible, but does it follow that these symbolic designs were produced by a gradual transition from the realistic representation? That some of them were so produced has been satisfactorily demonstrated; but is this the law of growth for decorative art? It appears, among the American Indians, that the more abstract the idea, the simpler and more geometric the design. On the other hand, it is obvious that a vigorous conventionalisation of representative forms must tend to reduce them all to a few simple geometric designs. In such an event, confusion as to the symbolic aspect of similar designs must arise in the minds of the artists, necessitating re-interpretation or creation of new symbols. Thus any given interpretation need have no certain relation to the origin of the design itself; indeed, the association of the symbol and the idea can be shown in some cases to be quite secondary. Amongst the Sioux there are two main kinds of decorative art—realistic painting and con- ventional bead- or quill-work; the former is done by the men and the latter by the women, and there is every reason for assuming that the pictographic mode is on the whole the older. One sex has often appropriated the designs used by the other to express divergent ideas, and thus we see how even within the same tribe two or more modes of expressing symbolic motives may make simul- taneous use of the same graphic designs. In a short paper of fifty pages on the decorative art of the Huichol Indians of Mexico, Dr. C. Lumbholtz has managed to crowd some 350 figures, so that we have abundant material for study. All these designs, he says, are expressions of religious ideas that pervade the entire existence of these people; in other words, they are permanent prayers. Girdles and ribbons, inasmuch as they are considered as rain serpents, are in themselves prayers for rain and for the results of rain, namely, good crops, health, and life. All the designs on pouches, shirts, skirts, and so forth express prayers for some material benefit, or for protection against evil, or adoration of some deity. Thus the magic double water-gourd, even in its most conventionalised form, means a prayer for water, the source of all life and health. Animals like the puma, jaguar, eagle, &c., express prayers for protection, as well as adoration forthe deity to which the creatures belong. The little -white* flower, toto, which grows in the wet, corn-producing season, is at once a symbol and a prayer for corn, and in all sorts of forms it is to be found woven in their costumes. Flowers play, and always have played, an important part in the religion of these Indians; with them flowers, like the plumes of birds, are prayers for rain and life. Dr. Lumbholtz doubts if there is such a thing as ornamentation solely for decorative purposes among the Huichol, or, for that.matter, among any primitive people. Prof. Boas points out that on the whole the style of decoration of ceremonial objects differs considerably from that of the ornamental parts of garments. The former are crude and pictographic, with slight tendency to con- ventionalism, while the latter are regular, well executed, and strongly conventionalised, and the general character 1 “Decorative Art of the Sioux Indians.” By Clark Wissler. Bu//. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii., pp. 231-278. (New York, 1904.) ““Decorative Art of the Huichol Indians.” By Carl Lumholtz. em. Am. Mus. Nat, Hist. Whole series, vol. iii. Anthropology, vol. ii. part iii. (New York, 1904.) : No. 1863, VoL. 72 | | of instruction next October. of these designs much resembles that of similar designs found in other parts of Mexico and in Central and South America. These textile designs, which are of great variety and beauty, acquire much more interest from the suggestive interpretation of their symbolism which Dr. Lumholtz has afforded us. The American Museum of Natural History is to be con- gratulated on possessing collections about which so much valuable information has been obtained, and students are to be congratulated on having these riches made accessible to them by means of such beautifully illustrated memoirs. Ain Gangs UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxrorp.—An examination for a geographical scholar- ship will be held on October 12 next. Candidates, who must have taken honours in one of the final schools of the university, should send their names to the reader in geo- graphy, Old Ashmolean Museum, by, at latest, October 2. The value of the scholarship is 60l. Dr. J. Ritchie, reader in pathology, has been constituted professor of pathology so long as he holds the readership in question. At the recent congregation of the University of Leeds a fellowship of the value of 100l. was awarded to Mr. Joseph Marshall, of the Victoria University School of Chemistry. Pror. STEPHEN M. Dixon, holder of the chair of civil engineering in the Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, has been appointed to the new professorship of civil engineering in the University of Birmingham. Ir was mentioned by the principal of King’s College, London, at the recent distribution of prizes and certificates to the successful students that Prof. W. G. Adams, F.R.S., is about to resign his chair after forty-two years’ work in the college. Tue Rogers prize of rool. of the University of London has this year been awarded to Dr. B. J. Collingwood for his essay on ‘‘ Anesthetics, their Physiological and Clinical Action.” The essay submitted by Dr. A. G. Levy was highly commended, and an honorarium of 5ol. was awarded him. A MOVEMENT is now in progress for providing the North Wales University College with new buildings at an estimated cost of 175,00ol., of which 30,0001. has been already promised. The site has been given by the cor- poration, which has presented the deed of gift to Lord Kenyon, president of the college. The president has ex- pressed the hope that the rest of Wales will follow the liberality shown at Bangor, and that there will be no more need for the best professors of the college to leave Bangor for more lucrative positions in other parts of the United Kingdom. AccorpiNnG to the Electrician, a committee of the Liver- pool City Council, instructed by the Finance Committee to report as to how far the educational methods employed at the Liverpool University were in the interests of the city and met its requirements, have reported that they are satisfied that the University is doing its best to ensure that its students shall enter into the business of life with their intellectual powers fully developed by providing the students with a wide range of duty and sound methods of instruction, and they have therefore recommended that the sum of 10,000/. should be granted during the present year upon the same conditions under which a similar grant was made for the first time last year. The report of the finance committee has come before the City Council and has been approved. Of the amount in question, 1000l. is devoted to scholarships for Liverpool men. Copies have been received of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity Circular containing the programme of courses for the session 1905-06, and of the Yearbook of the Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago, for 1905-06. The Johns Hopkins University will begin its thirtieth year The work will be carried on JuLy 13, 1905] in three divisions:—The graduate department, in which arrangements are made for the instruction of advanced students in the higher branches of science and literature ; the medical department, in which students (men and women) who have already received a liberal education are received as candidates for the degree of M.D., and in which doctors of medicine may attend special courses ; the collegiate department, in which students receive a liberal education leading to a degree. The Armour In- stitute of Technology was founded in 1892, and the work of instruction was begun in September, 1893. Courses are now offered in mechanical engineering, electrical engineer- ing, civil engineering, chemical engineering, fire protection engineering, general science, and architecture, and all lead to the degree of Bachelor of Science. In the course of an address on degree day, July 8, at the University of Liverpool, Lord Derby, the chancellor, said that since they last met they had several new laboratories, some complete and some in progress. Another building, to be opened in November, will be for the study of natural history. They had also an extension to record of the chemical laboratories, to provide accommodation for the department of physical chemistry, and an addition to the existing department. This had been provided at an estimated cost of 10,500l., which the president of the council, Mr. E. K. Muspratt, had promised to contribute. Since they last met 10,0001. had been given by Mrs. Barrow, the borough of Birkenhead had given an annual grant of sool., and a grant of 10,0001. had been received from the Liverpool City Council, 1000]. from the county of Lancaster, from Cheshire 300/., and from, the borough of Bootle 5ool.. Lhe sum of 1500l. had been given to endow a lectureship in memory of Sir William Mitchell Banks. Mr. E. Whitley had promised t1oool., and under the will of the late Mr. J. L. Bowes the University would receive a legacy of Soool. for the benefit of the department of chemistry and other purposes. The company subsequently proceeded to the new electrotechnical laboratory, and Sir Joseph Swan formally opened the building, which he described as eminently suited for the purpose for which it was intended. The cost of the laboratory has been defrayed by a’ sum of 12,000l., drawn from the university fund, and the Lancashire County Council has contributed toool. towards meeting the more pressing demands for equipment. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, May 18.—‘‘ On the Chemical Mechanism of Gastric Secretion.’” By J. S. Edkins. June 8.—‘‘ On the Application of Statistical Mechanics to the General Dynamics of Matter and Ether.”’ By J. H. Jeans. Communicated by Prof. J. Larmor, Sec.R.S. The object of the paper is to apply the methods of statistical mechanics to questions connected with radiation and the energy of the ether. An attempt is made to examine whether or not the modern theory of thermo- dynamics of radiation can be regarded as resting on sound dynamical principles. The result arrived at is that the use made of the second law of thermodynamics in this theory, in particular in the proof of Stefan’s law, is one which cannot be justified, and hence that those parts of the theory of thermodynamics of radiation which are based upon the use of the second law must be regarded as unsound. The problem is obtained in its simplest form by con- sidering either a finite universe, or else a finite portion of an infinite universe, enclosed within a perfectly reflect- ing boundary. Let the number of degrees of freedom of the matter inside this boundary, neglecting the interaction with the ether, be N, so that there are 2N coordinates of the aggregate system which very nearly represent motion of matter only. The number N is known to be actually finite, although it may be supposed to be so large that the error involved in treating it as infinite will be negligible. Let the number of degrees of the ether be M, giving 2M | coordinates to the aggregate system. No. 1863, VOL. 72] If we suppose the NATURE 261 ether to have an absolutely continuous structure, the number M will be absolutely infinite. The energy of the 2M coordinates of the ether is ex- pressible as a sum of 2M squares. The energy of the 2N material coordinates may, again neglecting small terms, be divided into kinetic and potential energy. The kinetic energy is expressible as a sum of N squares, namely, the sum of the three components of energy of each electron of which the matter is composed. Thus the total energy is expressible as the sum of 2M+N_ squares, plus an unknown potential energy of electrons. It now follows, as in the proof of the well known theorem of equi- partition of energy, that after an infinite time the sum | of any p of these squares stands to the sum of the remain- ing q squares in a ratio which is equal to p/q, subject only to the condition that p and q are large enough to be treated as infinite without appreciable error. Since 2M and N satisfy these conditions, it follows that the system tends towards a state in which the energy of the ether is infinite in comparison with the kinetic energy of the matter. In other words, there is a general tendency for the ether to gain energy at the expense of matter. It is, however, obvious that our own universe is at present far removed from its final state, so that the study of this final state is of less interest than the study of the stages through which the final state is being reached. In discussing the transition to the final state, a principle proved elsewhere (‘‘ The Dynamical Theory of Gases,”’ chapter ix.) is of service. Suppose that a vibration of any dynamical system is influenced by an external agency. Then the principle in question asserts that the ultimate effect of this influence is infinitesimal, except when the external agency changes to a considerable extent in a time comparable with the period of the vibration. If the time of change in the external agency is n times the period of the vibration, where n is large, then the ultimate change in the energy of the vibration vanishes to the same order as e-®, a quantity which soon becomes negligible as n increases. Thus, if @ is some small interval of time, so small that the material system may be regarded as perceptibly un- altered through a time @, then the change produced in the energy of ether vibrations of which the period Is less than @ will be very slight. The energy of such vibrations may therefore be treated as though it were incapable of change, so long as our consideration of the system does not extend over a very long period. The total number of modes of vibration of any enclosed | or unenclosed piece of ether is, as has been said, either very great or infinite, but the number of vibrations of an enclosed piece of ether of which the frequencies are below an assigned value is finite. hus, we can now suppose M replaced by some small number M’, and the value of M’ will be finite. So long as we limit our consideration of the system to a finite time, say a million years, we may regard the energies of the remaining modes of vibration as constant and very small. The ratio of ethereal to material kinetic energy is now 2M‘/N, a quantity which cannot be infinite and may be very small. If @ is a small time satisfying the conditions specified, then the rate at which an ether vibration of high frequency p gains energy will involve a factor e—7*, so that the time required for the vibration to acquire a perceptible amount of energy will involve a factor e7*. ‘This is, of course, only true when p@ is large. The energy of those vibrations for which p@ is not large is rapidly adjusted, and a state will soon be reached in which these vibrations have the share of energy allotted to them by the theorem of equipartition of energy. With the progress of time the energy of the remaining vibrations gradually becomes per- ceptible, until ultimately the final state is reached. We cannot, however, realise in nature the boundary impervious to all forms of energy, so that it is important to consider whether these predictions have to be modified if the boundary, instead of being perfect, is simply as perfect as we can make it. It is found that there is no longer any tendency for the energy of the matter, even after infinite time, to vanish in comparison with that of the ether inside the enclosure ; the two tend to assume a finite ratio, although neither of the actual energies can be permanent, as the system 262 NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 inside the enclosure is no longer a conservative system. This definite ratio between matter and ether, however, lends a meaning to the expression ‘“‘ radiation at a given temperature,’’ at any rate so long as we are concerned with the same enclosure and the same enclosed matter. Stefan’s empirical law states that the radiation is pro- portional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature, and Bartoli and Boltzmann have attempted to raise the law to the level of a theoretical law. Their argument rests fundamentally upon the application of Carnot’s principle to the working of a heat engine, in which the working substance is the ether. Carnot’s principle is, in effect, identical with the second law of thermodynamics, and this in turn is a special case of a special proposition in statistical mechanics. In the present investigation the most general methods of statistical mechanics are used, and the conclusion arrived at is different from that of the second law. The general in- vestigation ought, of course, to take precedence over the attempted extension of the special case. It is, moreover, easy to find the exact point at which the general argument parts company with that used in the special case. In the special case, we are dealing only with forms of material energy such that there is an easy and rapid transfer of energy to the final state. The increase of entropy in- dicates simply the tendency to move towards this final state, and Carnot’s principle is seen to be a special case of this general tendency in which it is supposed that the working substance is at every instant in the final state appropriate to its energy at that instant. When the ether is in question, it is found that the transfer of energy to vibrations of short wave-length, instead of being in- finitely rapid, is, in point of fact, extremely slow, so that we never have to deal with a final state at all. Moreover, it has to be assumed for Bartoli’s argument that the energy of the working substance is a function of only two independent variables, e.g. the temperature and the density. This is not true in the case of an engine in which ether is the working substance; the ether energy is the sum of a number of vibrations of different wave- lengths, and the number of vibrations which have to be included in this sum will depend on the nature as well as on the temperature of the matter with which the ether is in communication. Again, in the proposed argument for Stefan’s law, the piston of the pump forms a moving boundary for the ether. The action of such a pump would change the frequency of vibrations in the ether, and energy which at one instant belonged to a vibration of one period would, after passing through the pump, belong to a vibration of some entirely different frequency. The energy of the vibrations of high frequency no longer remains unaltered and very small, for there is a transfer of energy to the c Vibrations at every stroke of the pump. The system will rapidly assume the final state appropriate to the value ot this total energy, and this is a state in which the energy of matter vanishes in comparison with that of ether. Thus Bartoli’s proof might be applicable to a universe in which pumps of the kind assumed had an actual existence, but has no application to our own universe in which the vibrations of highest frequency do not come into play at all. It now appears that in attempting to obtain a law of radiation in conformity with the analysis of the present paper, we shall not be able to use any method so general as-that of the second law of thermodynamics. The whole question is not one of partition of energy, but of transfer of energy. ““The Microsporangia of Kidston, F.R.S. In a preliminary note a description was given of the microsporangia of Sphenopteris (Lyginodendron) Héning- hausi, Brongt. It had been thought by some that the Telangium Scotti, Benson, might be the microsporangia of Lyginodendron, but the discovery of sporangia possess- ing all the characters of Crossotheca, Zeiller, in organic connection with the sterile foliage of Lyginodendron (Sphenopteris Héninghausi) shows that Telangium Scotti must belong to another plant. The members of the genus Crossotheca (of which several NO. 1863, VOL. 72] ce Lyginodendron.”’ By R. species are known) had previously been regarded as true ferns, but now they must be classed with the Pterido- spermez. The barren foliage of the species included in Crossotheca is very varied, and though the majority of the species possess sphenopteroid pinnules, one at least bears pinnules of the pecopteroid type. In Sphenopteris (Crossotheca) Héninghausi each “ fertile lobe bore six to eight broadly lanceolate sharply-pointed microsporangia. In the early condition the sporangia are bent inwards, and form a small hemispherical bunch with their apices meeting in the centre. At maturity the sporangia spread outwards, when they appear as a fringe hanging from the margin of the fertile pinnule, but are in reality connected for some distance to its lower surface. The microsporangia are bilocular, the parallel loculi being only separated by a narrow band of tissue. Dehiscence took place by a longitudinal cleft which passes down the inner surface of the sporangium in the line of the dividing wall of the two loculi.”’ shows a penultimate pinna enlarged The figure two times. The ultimate pinne c and d bear sterile pinnules at their base, above which are some fertile pinnules. These latter, however, are better seen at e. It has previously been shown by Prof. Oliver and Dr. Scott that the ‘‘seed’’ of Sphenopteris Héninghausi is the Lagenostoma Lomaxi of Williamson. Sphenopteris Honinghausi is thus the first pteridosperm of which the male and female organs are known. The specimens described were derived from the 10-foot Ironstone-measures, Coseley, Dudley, which belong to the Westphalian series of the Coal-measures, and were com- municated to the author by Mr. H. W. Hughes. Royal Microscopical Society, June 21.—Mr. G. C. Karop, vice-president, in the chair.—Dr. Lazarus-Barlow exhibited and described a new form of warm stage, devised by him, that could be heated by oil or gas.—Mr. Cecil R. C. Lyster exhibited an improved form of warm stage, heated by electricity—Mr. C. L. Curties exhibited an arrangement for obtaining dark ground illumination with high powers, which had been suggested to him by a con- trivance made by Leitz for attaining this object. He showed Pleurosigma angulatum on a dark ground under a 1/12-inch oil immersion objective—Mr. Rheinberg directed attention to an experiment showing that the ap- JuLY 13, 1905] NATURE 263 pearance of a grating could be produced in the field of the microscope without there being anything on the stage. The lines seen were achromatic interference bands pro- duced with the help of two of Thorp’s gratings of equal pitch placed behind the objective—Mr. Rousselet directed attention to a living specimen of Plumatella punctata (Hancock) sent by Mr. Hood, of Dundee. The rare fresh- water polyzoon has apparently not been recorded in England since its discovery by Hancock in 1850. It differs from other species of Plumatella mainly in having a soft, transparent ectocyst—A communication by Mr. E. M. Nelson on the tubercle bacillus was taken as read.— Mr. A. E. Conrady gave a résumé of his second paper on theories of microscopic vision. In his former paper he dealt with the formation of the image of a simple plane grating, showing that it could be fully accounted for on the basis of Abbe’s theory. In the present paper he considered more complicated structures, such as dot- and cross-line patterns. Geological Society, June 21.—Dr. J. E. Marr, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The relations of the Eocene and Cretaceous rocks in the Esna-Aswan reach of the Nile Valley: H. J. L. Beadnell. At the meeting of the Inter- national Geological Congress held in Paris in 1900, the author brought forward evidence from the Baharia Oasis and Abu Roash to show that there was a marked un- conformity between these two systems in the northern part of the country. The Jebel-Awaina succession shows that in the southern part of the country, where the Upper Cretaceous and the Lower Eocene occur in their fullest development, there is no sharp line of demarcation between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary, and no disturbances in the stratigraphical succession. This is confirmed by the succession in the Kharga Oasis, where there is no trace of an unconformity. Dr. J. Ball’s conclusions to the con- trary were mainly based on the supposed irregular varia- tion of the Esna Shales; but, where this occurs, it is mainly due to the fact that, with a slight increase of carbonate of lime, these beds became almost indistinguish- able from the overlying marls and marly limestones of the Eocene. The author finds in Jebel Nur el Ghenneiem some 180 feet of green clays between the Echinocorys- Chalk and the Eocene marls and limestones, and a _per- fectly conformable succession throughout. Near Ain Amur there is a considerable development of fossiliferous lime- stones at the summit of the Cretaceous rocks, and many of the fossils are hardly distinguishable from Eocene species. The author is of opinion that the Farafra suc- cession falls into line with that which obtains in the southern part of the country. An important piece of confirmatory evidence is furnished by the discovery of a rich fauna in ‘‘ ashen-grey clays’’ in the Esna-Aswan reach of the Nile Valley by Dr. W. F. Hume, in the clays above the Pecten-Marls in the neighbourhood of Esna.—A contribution to the study of the Glacial (Dwyka) Conglomerate in the Transvaal: E. T. Mellor. The survey of a district lying east of Pretoria and extending from near the diamond-fields to Middelburg has _ recently afforded much additional information with regard to the Glacial Conglomerate in this part of South Africa. The district lies on the northern edge of the principal area occupied by the Karroo system, and includes a number of outliers, the area between which affords information as to the source of the material of the Conglomerate and the character of the land-surface on which it was de- posited. This surface is smoothed, grooved, and scratched by ice-action. The Karroo system is here only 400 or 500 feet thick, and the Conglomerate usually about 50 feet; but, where deposited in hollows, it may reach 200 feet or more in thickness. The fragments are usually from 1 to 3 feet in diameter, but may attain as much as 8 or 10 feet; they are often facetted and sometimes show striations. The majority of the boulders are of local origin. True bedding-planes are rare in the conglomerate, but there are included patches of sandstone, mudstone, or shale, some of which show ripple- or eddy-markings. The stria are remarkably constant in direction, and they and the transport of boulders indicate an ice-movement from the north-north-west to the south-south-east. In the Prieska district Rogers and Schwarz found the movement NO. 1863, VOL. 72] to have been from north-north-east to south-south-west, and the same direction is given by Schenck from near the junction of the Orange and Vaal Rivers. During 1904 outliers of the Conglomerate were found farther north, near the junction of. the Elands and Olifants Rivers.—On new Oolitic strata in Oxfordshire: E. A. Walford.—The causes of variegation in Keuper Marl and in other calcare- ous rocks: G. T. Moody. The author concludes that the variegation of the Keuper Marls and of other calcareous rocks has been brought about by the percolation of chaly- beate water through the light-coloured mass, the more porous parts of which have in consequence become stained with ferric oxide, while the harder and more crystalline parts, being non-porous, have remained unchanged. The uniformity in distribution of ferric oxide in some red rocks, such as the New Red Sandstone, suggests that the iron contained in them has probably been derived from chalybeate water in a similar manner. Challenger Society, June 28.—Dr. R. N. Wolfenden in the chair—Dr. H. R. Mill exhibited the new chart of the world, recommended by the International Geo- graphical Congress, and published at the cost of the Prince of Monaco. From 72° N. to 72° S. are sixteen sheets on Mercator’s projection; each polar chart of four sheets is on a circular projection. The submarine contours and soundings are in metres, symbols indicating the bottom deposits. The land is black; the contours of the ocean are coloured in deepening shades of blue. Meridians (from Greenwich) and parallels are ruled for each degree.—Dr. W. T. Calman exhibited the two Decapoda brought from the Antarctic region by the Discovery, Cranzon antarcticus and Chorismus antarcticus, and explained their bearing on ‘“bipolarity.’".—The Secretary showed a chart repro- duced in line-process from one of the society's blank charts, in order to show the method of preparation.—On ‘behalf of Messrs. E. W. L. Holt and W. M. Tattersall, Dr. Calman read a preliminary note on the Antarctic Schizopoda captured by the Discovery. The collection con- tained several new species of Euphausiidze and Myside, and the authors were able to show that Euphausia superba (Dana), Sars, E. Murrayi, Sars, E. australis, Hodgson, E. glacialis, Hodgson, and EF. antarctica, Sars, are all referable to a single species.—The Secretary read a note on the probable time required by the larva of an epibenthic animal to cross the Atlantic, and made some remarks on the desirability of revising the nomenclature of ocean currents on an international basis. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 3.—M. Troost in the chair. —The theory of algebraic surfaces: Emile Picard.—The propagation of waves along a liquid compressible column, composed of strips of unequal velocities and filling an elastic horizontal tube, without longitudinal tension: J. Boussinesq.—On camphoacetic and f§-camphopropionic acids: A. Haller. Methyl camphocarbonate heated with sodium methylate and iodoacetic ester gives methyl carb- oxymethyleamphoacetate, which, with alcoholic potash, furnishes camphoacetic acid. A corresponding compound is obtained by substituting ethyl B-iodopropionate for the ethyl iodoacetate in the original reaction, and from which B-camphopropionic acid is obtained.—On the existence in the black elder of a compound furnishing hydrocyanic acid: M. Guignard. The number of plants from which hydrocyanic acid can be obtained is increasing every year, and it has been suggested that it represents the first recognisable product of the assimilation of nitrogen in plants. In the elder, the fresh leaf furnishes the largest proportion of the acid, averaging 0-01 per cent.—Synthesis of the three tertiary dimethylcyclohexanols and of the hydrocarbons connected with them: Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe. The cresols are converted into methylcyclo- hexanones by means of the reduced nickel reaction, and these are converted by methylmagnesium iodide into the corresponding tertiary alcohols, good yields being obtained. The preparation, physical properties, and reactions of the ortho-, meta-, and para-tertiary alcohols are described.— On the evolution of the tertiary mammals. A reply to the observations of M. Boule: Charles Depéret. A con- troversial note dealing more especially with the ancestry of the horse and bear.—M. P. Curie was elected a member 264 NATURE [JuLy 13, 1905 in the physical section in the place of the late M. A. Potier.—On the specific inductive power of metals in the case of the calorific and luminous waves: André Broca. The author concludes that the hypothesis of the existence of a considerable specific inductive power for the metals, although perhaps not sufficient to explain all the optical properties of metals in detail, is at least no more in con- tradiction with the facts than the hypothesis of Planck that this specific inductive power is zero.—An apparatus for measuring the factors, penetration, and quantity of X-rays, and a radiophotometric totaliser: G. Contre- moulins. Silver plates of varying thicknesses are fixed on to rotating sectors, and the effect of interposing these in the path of the rays upon a phosphorescent screen is noticed.—The magneto-optical properties of ionoplastic iron: L. Houllevigue and H. Passa.—A method for establishing coloured screens, destined to isolate certain groups of special radiations: F. Monpillard. A given weight of a colouring matter is diluted to a certain volume with an aqueous solution of gelatin, and this poured on to a glass plate of fixed area, thus giving an invariable weight of colour per square centimetre. The author has succeeded in producing screens giving a maximum of luminosity in the green (A 530), yellow orange (A 588), yellow (A 500), and red (A 630). —The preparation of binary compounds of metals by thermochemical reactions: A. Colani. Some examples of the application of aluminium powder for reduction at a high temperature; the products are usually contaminated with aluminium and sometimes with iron.—The constitution and properties of the alu- minium steels: Léon Guillet. So long as the percentage of aluminium is below 2 per cent., there is no marked change in the properties of the steel. Up to 15 per cent. the aluminium enters into solution in the iron, the iron- aluminium solution thus formed not dissolving carbon.— Combinations of ferrocyanides and sulphuric acid: Paul Chrétien. Hydroferrocyanic acid, dissolved in sulphuric acid without any gas being evolved, forms a_ sulphonic acid of the composition H,FeCy,(SO,H). With fuming sulphuric acid another compound is produced, FeCy,SO,, the decomposition and reactions of which have been studied.—A modification of the initial quality of iron and steel used in the manufacture of rivets consequent on the heating required in fixing: Ch. Frémont. It is found that the metal, after being heated and cooled under traction, is improved in quality mechanically—On_ the acid y-aldehydes: E. E. Blaise and A. Courtot. The authors have been successful in obtaining these aldedydes in a pure state for the first time. An unsaturated acid is treated with bromine, the dibromo-acid formed heated, a bromo- lactone being then formed by the loss of hydrobromic acid. Hydrobromic acid is then removed from this by boiling with quinoline, and the lactone’ thus produced, hydrolysed with an alkali, gives the acid aldehyde required. -—The synthesis of the lactone of, erythric acid: M. Lespieau.—A new method of synthesis of the monoatomic and polyatomic alcohols: V. Grignard. This important synthesis has becn achieved by the author by acting with organometallic derivatives of the type RMgX on the halogen derivatives of the mono- or poly-atomic alcohols. The reaction takes place in two stages, RMgX+CICH,.CH,.OH =RH+CICH,.CH,.OMgX and this on heating gives with a. fresh molecule of a magnesium compound R/MgX/+CICH,.CH,OMgX = MgX/Cl+R’. CH, -CH,.OMgx. The action of water on this last substance gives the alcohol R.CH,.CH,.OH. Several examples of the application of this synthetical method are given.—On -decahydro- naphthylketone and £-decahydronaphthylamine: Henri Leroux.—Some new derivatives of the mesoxalic esters : Ch. Sehmitt.—The action of ethyl iodide on sparteine: Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur. The reaction gives sparteine iodohydrate and two isomeric iodoethylates.— The densities of carbonic anhydride, ammonia, and nitrous oxide: Philippe A. Guye and Alexandre Pintza. The results for the densities of nitrous oxide and. carbon dioxide agree with those of Lord Rayleigh within the limits of experimental error, 1/6000 to 1/19,000. Special precautions were taken in the case of ammonia to ensure the absence NO. 1863, VOL. 72] of amines, the result being 1/700 lower than the figure of M. Leduc. -The limiting densities for these gases were worked out, and the atomic weight of nitrogen deduced as 14,006.—The thermochemistry of neodymium: Camille Matignon.—The influence of the elements of brown flour on the extraction of the gluten and bread-making: M. Lindet and L. Ammann.—On the cause of the withering of the vines in Tunis, Algeria, and the Midi: L. Ravaz. —On the presence of a hydrocyanic glucoside in the leaves of the elder, Sambucus nigra: Em, Bourquelot and Em. Danjou. The elder leaf contains a glucoside containing nitrogen, which, under the influence of emulsin, gives glucose, hydrocyanic acid, and an aldehyde.—Modifications and rédle of the segmentary organs in some annelids: Louis Fage.—On _ the epipodites of the Eucyphote Crustacea: H. Coutiére. On the discovery of coal at Abaucourt (Meurthe-et- Moselle): René Nickles. A layer of coal, 2-65 metres thick, has been found at Abaucourt, near Nomeny. It is at a depth of 896 metres, and on chemical analysis proves to resemble the gas coal of Saarbriick.—Observations on the preceding note: R. Zeiller.—On the geology of the Pre-alps in the neighbourhood of Jaen: Robert Douvillé. —Contribution to the tectonic of the southern Carpathians : G. M. Murgoci.—On the origin of lactose. The ablation of the mammez in lactation: Ch. Porcher.—The fixation of chemical substances on living cells: MM. Charrin and Le Play. . CONTENTS. PAGE The Popularisation of Science. By W.R. . near Theoretical aia. 1 oe aa W. J. sees RyEt ey 3 242 Our Book Shelf : — Vacher: ‘* The Food Inspector’s Handbook.” —C. S. 243 Marro: ‘‘Manuale dell’Ingegnere Elettricista” . 243 Smith: ‘* Poisonous Plants of all Countries”’ 243 Letters to the Editor: — The Constant of Radiation as Calculated from Mole- cular Data.—The Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, OSM oes ae vee 70243) Piacoa Gbscmation of Mercury quate the Solar Eclipse.—Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S. . 244 The Planet Uranus.—W. F. Denning i 244 The Exploration of the Atmosphere dae the Atlantic.—A. Lawrence Rotch 244 Ancient Antarctica.—Captain F. W. ipfiitton, BeRUS hs cee A aleve The British Slugs. Le rete T. D. A. (ose bere) . 245 Notes on Stonehenge. .VII.—On the Dartmoor Avenues. (///ustrated.) By Sir Norman Lockyer, Ka CuBlhy RiGee users (ifoba" alpina mabe Solar and Terrestrial Changes . 249 The Proposed College of PERHES Sciencen 250 Notes 251 Our Astronomical Colusa — July and August Meteors . : 255 The Formation of the Martian Swen. Wnts 255 Recent Observation of Eros . Msg mete 256 Standard Time in Various Countries... . 256 Harvard College Observatory Annual Repoud 0 » 256 The Academic Side of Technical Training. By Dr. Alex. B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S. ; 256 Harvey and the Progress of Medical Scisdee, By Dr, Frederick T. Roberts. . .. . 258 High Temperature Research on tHe: Felspars, (ZHustrated.)| “By ASH: | 2S 258 Primitive Religious Art. By A.C. H........ 260 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 260 Societies and Academies. (///ustrated.) ... . . . 261 JuLY 13, 1905] NATURE cvil By using .. THE SYTAM Bottle s Specimen Partette IN YOUR LABORATORY, MUSEUM, STOREROOM, &c., you can save =ths of your wall space and find what you want on the instant. IN THE SYTAM SYSTEM One hundred 4 oz. bottles occupy less than one square foot of wall space; each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, and any size from }0z. to a Winchester ean be acecommo- dated in the same sized Element. WRITE FOR THE TO THE SYTAM FITTINGS CoO., 18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. MARCONI’S WIRELESS TELEGRAPH C0., BROWN LIST MANUFACTURERS OF High-Class Apparatus for Rontgen Ray and High Frequency Work. 10’, 12’ & 14° INDUCTION COILS. PORTABLE HOSPITAL SETS, SWITCHBOARDS, &c., &c. Descriptive Price List Free on Application to 18 Finch Lane, London, E.C. The New Manifolding Hammond Typewriter. A Hammond Typewriter will do anything any other typewriter does—and do it better. Beside, it has twenty exclusive features, not one of which is possessed by any other writing machine. Hammond the Best Machine for Stenographers ? WHY is the BECAUSE Perfect and Permanent Alignment, Work in Sight, Manifolding, Speed, Durability, Noiselessness, Interchangeable Type, Light Elastic Touch, Perfect Paper Feed, Any Width Paper, are essential requisites, and the Hammond possesses them all. On account of the TYPE being interchangeable, it is most useful to SCIENTIFIC work. Call and test Machine or write for Catalogue, free on appli- cation to :— The Hammond Typewriter Co., 50 QUEEN VICTORIA ST., E.C. MANCHESTER BRANCH: 164 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. BEWARE OF DO YOU WISH FEEBLE a TO BE IMITATIONS UP TO DATE in Scientific Demonstrating ? ? the Kershaw-Patent Lantern (Stroud and Rendall’s and Kershaw Patents), made of best seasoned mahogany, French polished, lined with asbestos and Russian iron. Fitted with two double achromatic objectives, 90° silvered prism, complete with B.T. or mixed jet, in § travelling case, measuring ALL ACCESSORIES SUPPLIED. “ARC LAMPS, RESISTANCES, STANDS, &c. A. KERSHAW, Dorrington St., Leeds. CONTRACTOR TO H.M.'s GOVERNMENT. LABORATORIES FURNISHED Chemical, Physical, and all Science Laboratories completely equipped with Benches, Fume Chambers, Cupboards, Xc., and Scientific Apparatus of every description. SPECIFICATION FOR OUR PRICES. We also supply Sinks, Gas and Water Fittings specially designed for Science Laboratories. A. GALLENKAMP & CO., L™- SOLE MAKER SEND 49 & 21 Sun Street, Finsbury Square, LONDON, E.C. eVvill NATURE [JULY 13, 1905 MACMILLAN & CO.’S BOOKS FOR STUDENTS OF BOTANY. THE LIFE HISTORY OF BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS. By the Rt. Hon. Lord AVEBURY, P.C., D.C.L., &c. Illustrated. 8vo. [ Shortly. A TEXT-BOOCOK OF BOTANY. By Dr. E STRASBURGER, Dr. FRITZ NOLL, Dr. H. SCHENCK, the late Dr. A. F. W. SCHIMPER. Translated from the German by H. C. PORTER, Ph.D. Revised with the Fifth German Edition by W. H. LANG, M.B., D.Sc., Senior Assistant in Botany, University of Glasgow. With 686 Illustrations, in part coloured. Medium 8vo. 18s. net. BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. By ERNEST EVANS. 4th Impression. Globe Svo. 2s. 6d. PRACTICAL BOTANY for BE- GINNERS. By Prof. F. O. BOWER, Sc.D., F.R.S., and D. T. GWYNNE-VAUGHAN, M.A. Second Edition. Globe 8vo. 35. 6d. EES Ss ONS iint{E ly EM. EN ia Rey. BOTANY. By DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S. With numerous Illustrations. Feap. 8vo. 45. 6d. FIRST BOOK of INDIAN BOTANY. | By DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S. With numerous IIlustra- tions. Globe 8vo. 6s. 6d. BOTANY. An Elementary Text for Schools. By L. H. BAILEY. With numerous IIlustra- tions. Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. BOTANY. ‘By ‘Sir J: D. :Hooxerr, F.R.S. With Illustrations. Pott 8vo. Is. These sSeUDENLS”~ FLORA ‘of “the BRITISH ISLANDS. By Sir J. D. HOOKER, F.R.S. Third Edition. Globe 8vo. tos. 6d. STRUCTURAL BOTANY: or Organ- ography on the Basis of Morphology. To which is added The Principles of Taxonomy and Phytography, and a cea of Botanical Terms. By ASA GRAY. 8vo. Ios. 6d. BOTANICAL SEABEES. -By, A= B. BUCKLEY. Fcap. 8vo. Is. 6d. FURST: LESSONS ine RACTICAL BOTANY. By G. T. BETTANY, M.A., B.Sc., F.L.S. Pott 8vo. Is. THE TEACHING BOLANIS@T, FA: | Manual of Information upon Botanical Teaching, with an outline for a general course. By WILLIAM F, GANONG. Crown 8vo. 5s. UNIVERSITY TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY. By Prof. DOUGLAS HOUGHTON CAMP- BELL, Ph.D. With many Illustrations. Svo. 17s. net. LABORATORY PRACTICE” “FOR BEGINNERS IN BOTANY. By W. A. SETCHELL, Ph.D. Feap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. net. The BOOK of the ROSE. By Rev. A. .FOSTER-MELLIAR. Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. CYCLOPZADIA.. OFF ORME UL TURE. By Prof. L. H. BAILEY, assisted by WILHELM MILLER and many Expert Cultivators and Botanists. Illustrated with over 2000 Original Engravings. In Four Vols. Imperial 8vo. Vol. I., A.-E. Vol. II., F.-M., Vol. III., N.-Q., Vol. IV., R.-Z. 215. net each. BRITISH FOREST TREES and their A the late Illustrated. SYLVICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS and TREATMENT. By JOHN NISBET, of the Indian Forest Service. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., Third | EXPERIMENTS WITH PLANTS. By Prof. W. J. V. OSTERHOUT, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. “55. net. BIOLOGICAIE LABORATORY METHODS. By P. H. MELL, Ph.D. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. INTRODUCTION: to: THE Siam OF SEAWEEDS. By GEORGE MURRAY, F.R.S.E. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. TIMBER and some of its DISEASES. By H. MARSHALL WARD, D.Sc., F.R.S., F.L.S. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. [Nature Series. DIS EASE UN,

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WATCH, CLOCK & CHRONOMETER MAKERS By Special Appointment to H.M. the King. On account of the TYPE being interchangeable, it is most MakeERS OF THE GREAT WESTMINSTER CLOCK, useful to SCIENTIFIC work. Bic BEN. MAKERS OF THE STANDARD CLOCK OF THE Rovat OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, AND THE PRINCIPAL OBSERVATORIES THROUGHOUT THE Wor-p. Call and test Machine or write for Catalogue, free on appli- cation to :— The Hammond Typewriter Ca., - a Only Addresses— 50 QUEEN VICTORIA ST., E.C. 61 STRAND, and 4 ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON. MANCHESTER BRANCH: 164 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. } CXxvl NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 VAPOUR PRESSURE APPARATUS. A convenient modification of Regnault’s classic form. The barometer tubes are of syphon form, and are completely enclosed in a brass water-bath with plate-glass inspec- | tion windows. Price complete (with- out Mercury), #5 :5 oO. WRITE FOR DESCRIPTIVE PAMPHLET. The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd., sy; ENGLAND. | JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, LTD., MANUFACTURERS OF SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS. Complete Equipments Apparatus & Chemicals FOR CHEMICAL, BACTERIOLOGICAL, ELECTRO-CHEMICAL, METALLURGICAL, AND AGRICULTURAL LABORATORIES. SARDINIA ST., LONDON, W.C. Ope ens CT A NEW PATTERN FORTIN’S STANDARD BAROMETER Registered Design No. 420,297. As will be seen by the illustration, this Barometer is built on original lines. By the absence of the ordinary tubular enclosures (in the usual form of instrument) the mercurial column is FULLY EXPOSED to view, NO SHADOWS are thrown upon the column, and therefore an extremely accurate and in- stantaneous reading is made possible. The scales being graduated upon the flat side p‘eces the DIVISIONS AND FIGURES ARE ALWAYS IN VIEW, and the vernier is very much more legible than in the ordinary tubular patterns. The bore of the tube is 0°5 inch. The scales are graduated in inches and millimetres, and, by means of the verniers, are capable of being sub-divided to read to 0°002 inches and 0°1 m/m. The attached Thermometer on the body of the instru- ment is graduated in Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales. It is the BOLDEST Standard Barometer made. The PRICE IS LOWER than that of any other form of Standard Barometer of the same dimensions. ; It yields readings equally close as the highest priced instruments. Price complete, mounted on handsome Polished Solid Mahogany Board, with Brackets for Sus- pension, and Opal Glass Reflectors, £7 10s. Od. SMALLER SIZE, “ THE STUDENTS,” designed for Schools for demonstration work, and small private Observatories ; bore °25 ; reading to “01 ineh and “1 millimetre. £3 7s. 6d. Sole Manufacturers and Proprietors of the Regd. Design: PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, Lto., 46, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. WHOLESALE MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Telegrams: RapKin, Lonpon. Nat. TEL.: 1981 Holborn. Estd. 150 years. W.H. SMITH & SON'S LIBRARY EMBRACES ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS, BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS, TRAVEL AND SPORT, HISTORY, THEOLOGY, SCIENCE AND SOCIOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, LITERATURE AND ART, POETRY AND ESSAYS, TOPOGRAPHY, FICTION, REVIEWS, AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. eee en en ee The newest and best books of popular interest are added as published. The books are delivered to the Bookstalls to Sub- scribers’ orders, carriage paid. Over 800 branches to which Subscribers can be trans- ferred. Special Travelling Subscriptions entitling Members to | exchange at any branch without previous notice. Terms on application. Books exchanged by Parcels Post, Rail, or other means from the Head Office to any part of the United Kingdom. Boxes supplied gratis. Prospectus and list of recent books in circulation and any other information can be obtained upon application. A catalogue of Surplus Library and New Remainder Books, offered at greatly reduced prices, is published monthly, and supplied gratis on application. HEAD orric=: 186 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. BRANCHES at all the Railway Bookstalls. NA LORE 265 THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1905. ARCTIC METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896; Scientific Results. Edited by Fridtjof Nansen. Vol. vi. Published by the Fridtfof Nansen Fund for the Advancement of Science. Pp. xiv+659; 20 plates. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price 36s. net. ie is a misfortune that meteorological results de- mand so many figures for their discussion, and so much space for their exhibition. Vol. vi. of the Norwegian North Polar Expedition, dealing with the climatology of the area through which the Fram drifted in its memorable voyage, 1893-6, is a most | interesting book, but its size and appearance might repel any but the most ardent meteorologist. The discussion of the observations has been undertaken by Prof. Mohn, of Christiania, and the arrangement is a model of clearness and efficiency. Prof. Mohn superintended the whole meteorological equipment, suggested the plan of work to be carried out during the voyage, and arranged with Captain Scott-Hansen the general management of the meteorological work. We imagine Prof. Mohn must be gratified with the success of his arrangements, and the intelligent interest which the officers of the expedition have shown in the work. Notwithstanding the severity of the climate, there is hardly a gap in the series of observations. At sea, the observations were taken at intervals of four hours, but for the greater part of the time the readings were made every two hours, with a regularity that compels admiration. The result is that we have, with very considerable accuracy, the climatological elements of a region in the circum- polar Arctic Ocean, where the surface of the earth during the whole time was of a unique homogeneous nature, consisting of a level of frozen water, remote from continents and islands, and with an uninter- rupted free horizon. The wind, particularly with regard to direction and velocity, is the first element discussed. To obtain a sufficiently long series of observations for investi- gation, Prof. Mohn divides the interval into three groups, a dark season when the sun was below the horizon, a sunny season during which the sun was above the horizon for practically twenty-four hours, and the equinoctial months, during which there was regular day and night. The discussion shows that during the dark season the wind shifts generally against the sun. Only during four hours in the twenty-four does the wind veer with the sun, while in the sunny period the wind veers with the sun, backing about six hours, divided into periods of two hours each at three different periods of the day. In the equinoctial months the backing and veering are equal, the wind shifting with the sun during the night and morning, and against the sun from 10 a.m. to to p.m. The diurnal period of the wind’s direction is a phenomenon which still awaits an explanation, and the different direction of the shift of the wind in NO. 1864, VOL. 72] the dark and in the sunny season seems to be of some importance for the solution of the problem. With reference to the velocity of the wind, it is shown to be greater when the sky is overcast than when it is clear. In the former case, the average velocity is 5-09 metres per second (11-4 miles per hour), and in clear weather only 3-54 metres per second (8 miles per hour). The greatest velocity recorded appears to be 40 miles an hour in February, 1896. The discussions of the variations of temperature are very interesting, but the results drawn from them re- garding the periods of the meteorological elements must of necessity be less trustworthy than if there had been a longer series of observations at disposal. It may therefore be premature to draw conclusions as to the connection between the different observed pheno- mena, and between those phenomena and their prob- able causes. The desirability of a longer period, and the character of the errors that can be introduced by the comparison of but few values, are shown very readily if we attempt to derive the month of lowest temperature from the figures given. The readings are centigrade, and show the mean temperature for each month :-— January February March April {804M a= S5R7 20 ee 35 97M 378k!) = 2 Uae 1895 = el — 37°18 = RCrOL — 28°89 1896 137133 = 34°73 — 18°89 — 18°15 Mean — 35°59 — 35°83 — 30°33 = 2278 The great variation of temperature in March, 1896, making it nearly equal to that of April, demonstrates the uncertainty that must accompany any attempt to derive mean values from short periods. But the de- ductions drawn directly from the observations, and supported as they are in many instances by similar observations made in Arctic latitudes, are not liable to the same uncertainty. Among these results may be placed the following :—Throughout the dark winter months, when the sky is clear, the lowest temperature occurs in the day, the highest during the night. Generally, in the other months, we have the ordinary diurnal period. With the sky overcast, the diurnal period, with a minimum in the early morning hours and maximum after noon, is very well developed in all the months except January. “The most striking feature,’’ says Prof. Mohn, ‘© seems to me to be the distinct diurnal period of the | ordinary march in the winter and dark season, with the sky overcast and relatively higher temperatures. The inverted period with clear sky in the dark season seems to be due to the diurnal period of the wind’s direction. The dark-season period with its stronger, south-easterly winds, is hardly to be accounted for by the radiation from the sun or sky.’’ The forms of cloud, the relative humidity, and the amount and character of precipitation are discussed at full length, but do not present results of unusual importance. With regard to the latter, however, it is not altogether uninteresting to notice that the number of days in a year on which rain is probable is 49, while snow may be expected on 157 days, and some form of moisture will be collected on 180 days. N 266 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 Hail fell on only 5 days throughout the whole period. Rain can fall only from May to October, and July has the greatest number of rainy days, also it is the month which gives rise to the greatest amount of fog. Very considerable care was taken to determine the temperature of the Polar ice, but, naturally, much difficulty was experienced in recovering the thermo- meters from the bore-holes, in which they might be frozen fast, while during the summer, the viscous ice would close round them, requiring the thermometers to be dug out. Neither is it easy to remove the sources of error from the observations, especially from the effects of brine contained in the ice, which was apt to fill the bottom of the holes even during the coldest season, whilst during the summer all the holes were filled with briny or saline water, the salinity of which decreased inversely as the temperature. This brine percolated from a different level to that in which the thermometer was placed. In the winter time the temperature of the ice increased from the surface downward, and therefore the brine at the bottom of the hole was probably of too low a temperature. On the other hand, in the summer time, the ice near the surface was warmer than that lower down, and the brine would be less saline, and consequently lighter in the upper layers than in the deeper, so that in the summer time the temperature reading would again be too low. The result drawn from the observations is that the surface of the ice, in all months with the single exception of June, is warmer than the air. The difference is greatest in December, amounting to 16° F. The surface of the ice, being covered, except during a short time in summer, with snow, is pro- tected from cooling by radiation upwards, and receives heat from the underlying warmer layers. This, no doubt, is the main factor in the explanation, though other causes are suggested by Prof. Mohn. The book contains also an account of the meteor- ological observations made during the sledge expedi- tion to Franz Josef Land in 1895-6. From this account we can quote only one remark, which illus- trates the determination of the leader of the expedi- tion to secure an unbroken series of observations. ““We had no lantern for the reading of the thermo- meter, and I tried in vain to construct one, which would not burn more oil than we could afford to use. But our eyes of course became gradually trained to see in the dark, and even in mid-winter, with ‘no moonlight, there was so much light reflected from the snow that the column of the darkly coloured Metaxylol was dimly visible, and also the figures of the thermometer scale, but not the division marks.’ Dr. Nansen therefore apologises for the absence of the decimal reading, which is missing about the time of new moon. - The interest of the book is neces- sarily largely centred in the fact that the crew of the Fram laboured so diligently and so well to overcome the difficulties that were imposed upon them by the situation in which they were placed. To go up to the crow’s nest to take additional readings of the instru- ments in dark, wintry weather seems to have been a source of positive enjoyment to those who took part in these observations. No. 1864, VOL. 72] EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC GEESE. The Geese of Europe and Asia. By Sergius. Alpheraky. Pp. viii+198; 24 plates. (London: Rowland Ward, Ltd., 1905.) Price 3. 3s. net. Ao the present day most works on ornithology of 4 a general character are of little permanent value’ because the broad outlines of the northern fauna have already been adequately dealt with. What we want, and what we so seldom see, are complete life-histories of separate groups of birds, adequately illustrated and described by ornithologists who are both well acquainted with them in the field and are capable of summarising their labours in an accurate scientific account. To do this a very large series of birds must be collected, examined and digested, and this means years of travelling and study with little monetary reward as the result. Nevertheless, the works of such men are of great and permanent value, although their costly nature must ever be a constant drawback to the producer. No good form of colour printing is cheap, and as this is a sine qua non in works of this kind, the results can only pass into the hands of a public ‘ fit but few.” The latest of these monographs is that of “ The Geese of Europe and Asia,’’ by Mr. S. Alpheralsy, and the Russian naturalist is to be congratulated in giving us the first detailed account of this interesting and, we may say literally, confusing group of birds. It is an admirable treatise, full of research in field and museum, and the work of one who has carefully studied the subject from all points of view. There are twenty-four coloured plates by Mr. F. W. Frohawk, which are unfortunately only moderately successful. Twenty-one of these represent the different kinds of geese described by the author, and for the most part the lithography is weak and hard, and evidently does not do justice to the artist’s careful work; whilst the three plates representing the bills of four various kinds are excellent, and will be of the greatest use both to sportsmen and naturalists in the determination of species. The frontispiece to the work represents the assemblage of white-fronted and red-breasted geese on a sandspit, and is from the brush of Dr. Sushkin. The idea of movement exhibit- ing the various attitudes into which these birds throw themselves is very fairly represented, but the technical work of painting and the drawing of some of the wings, as well as the general composition, leave much to be desired. It seems a thousand pities that chromolithography is a dying art, and that no firm in Europe is capable of turning out first-class work except W. Greve, of Berlin. For all we know, these drawings by Dr. Sushkin and Mr. Frohawk may have been soft and truthful representations of nature, but here we only see hard and black lines such as nature never shows. Mr. Alpheraky is evidently a keen sportsman as well as a good naturalist, and he rightly holds a high view of the remarkable intelligence of this class of birds. “* Geese,” he says, ‘‘ afford one of the most difficult kinds of fowling. owever cunning man may be, he JULY 20, 1905] NATURE 267 finds it extremely difficult to over-reach these wary birds, and in some places one may see them in hundreds of thousands for several weeks at a stretch without the possibility of securing a single specimen. This is especially the case in thickly populated regions, where the geese already know that danger may threaten them.’’ By this we know that the writer has toiled and suffered many disappointments. In certain British where for three Brent were abundant we never obtained more than one good shot with the punt gun in a season. waters seasons geese This was generally at the commencement, when the birds arrived in late October. After this date we could only ‘ look ’’ and “long.’? Other species are equally cunning. The key to genera, species, and subspecies with which the author furnishes us is an excellent com- pilation, although he does not make clear the differ- | ence between species and subspecies. For instance, it appears that full specific rank is accorded to Branta bernicla, Branta bernicla glaucogaster, and Branta bernicla nigricans, the three varieties of the Brent goose which visit our shores. If those which are furnished with trinomial names are intended to be subspecies, and it is a very doubtful point if they deserve even this distinction, the author should say so in his table. Personally we do not think that there is any reason for separating these three well marked varieties. We have killed all three from one flock, and visitors to the northern breeding-places of these birds have also found all three, as well as intermediate forms, breed- ing together on the same ground. If such splitting were to come into general use, endless new subspecies must be created amongst the goldfinches, crows, skuas, &c., and many other birds we could mention the slight local peculiarities of which afford small points of distinction. Neither is the author consistent in this respect, for he refuses to recognise ‘‘ two geo- graphical races, much less two species,’’ of grey geese living in eastern and western areas, and also the American and European forms of the white-fronted goose as distinct. With regard to the bean goose, Mr. Alpheraky recognises three distinct races, A. segetum, the common bean goose, A. arvensis, which possesses white feathers at the base of the bill, and the eastern bean goose, A. serrirostris, a bird described by Swinhoe, which is larger, dis- tinguished by its more massive bill. Another species closely allied to the last named, namely, A. mentalis, but which was first described by Przewalski in 1876, seems to be of very doubtful rank, and may be only a large form of the Siberian bean goose. In this excellent monograph the author gives us all we wish to know about the difference of sexes, gradual growth from nestling upwards, plumage variation, moulting, local names, chase, and colour of the soft parts, the latter, perhaps, the most im- portant point of all in the determination of species. Many excellent outline figures of the bills are also given, so that the reader has no difficulty in recog- nising the differences of the various races even if he feels inclined, as he must sometimes do, to question the necessity of specific separation. NO. 1864, VOL. 72 | To the oologist, too, the table and descriptions to be found on pp. 185-190, furnished by Mr. G. F. Gobel, are of the most exact and comprehensive nature, and the book is one that every worling naturalist or wild- fowler should possess in his library, for it is by far the best work that has as yet appeared on this interesting family of birds. Je Gaee THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. Le Four Electrique: son Origine, ses Transformations et ses Applications. By Adolphe Minet. ter Fasci- cule. Pp. 76. (Paris: Librairie Scientifique, A. Hermann, 1905.) Price 5 frances. HE application of electric heating to various metallurgical and other industries has of late been making very rapid progress. The time seems, therefore, to be well chosen for examining the various stages of development which the electric furnace has passed through. M. Minet has taken great pains to collect together as much as possible of the available information, and has certainly succeeded in producing an interesting study. Chronologically, he divides his subject into three periods :—(1) laboratory furnaces (1808-1886) ; (2) industrial furnaces (1886-1890) ; (3) development of the industrial applications of the electric furnace from 1890 to the present day. The furnaces themselves are classified in nine groups, according to the function of the current and the method of its application. Any historical treatment of such a subject as this, which expects to be generally recognised as authori- tative, demands very great care and judgment in its preparation. The present review certainly promises to be the most complete which the electric furnace has yet received. It is, however, not so clear that the author has succeeded in accentuating just those developments which have been of the greatest influence to the general progress. There are no doubt difficulties in deciding between two such different claims as those of a brilliant invention and of a painstalxing scientific investigation. The successful historian must, how- ever, accurately estimate the value of each and decide on the relative merit according to the influence exerted by each upon subsequent development. The classification of electric furnace processes is complicated, not only by the large number of separate cases which have to be considered, but more especially by the very different purposes for which the electric current is applied. In the first place it is necessary to distinguish between the purely electrothermal and the electrolytic functions of the current. The latter case embraces all such electrolytic methods as are carried out at a moderately high temperature. Here the electric current serves the double function of main- taining the necessary temperature and separating by electrolytic decomposition one or more of the con- stituents of the materials treated in the furnace. During recent years the most extensive develop- ments in electric furnace worlk have centred around the production and application of extremely high temperatures. The direct results of the scientific and 268 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 industrial discoveries along these lines have been very far-reaching. The success attending the investigation of various chemical reactions occurring at high temperatures has caused a marked revival in the interest taken in inorganic chemical research. This has been especially noticeable on the Continent, where, to a much greater extent than with us, the brilliant and rapid development of organic chemistry had led to a marked neglect of this older branch of the science, The technical results are hardly less important. Several new and flourishing industries have been firmly established, some of them supplying hitherto unknown materials, which are proving themselves of great value in the arts. A still wider field of useful- ness for the electric methods of heating seems now to be opening up. So far as the electrolytic and high temperature applications are concerned, there has been no direct competition with any existing technical processes. But now that the engineer and chemist have become familiar with the use of the electric furnace, there is a great tendency to extend its employment to work which requires temperatures already attainable by fuel heating if properly applied. The possibility of generating the heat just where it is required, the ease of regulation of temperature, and the accompanying economy of heat losses, are the chief factors which tell in favour of electric heating under these conditions. The production of carbon bisulphide and the rapid development of the electrical manufacture of steel form excellent examples of what is being achieved technically in this direction; whilst even in the laboratory electrically heated tube and muffle furnaces are being largely employed in place of those heated by gas. It is with the interesting details of such subjects as these that M. Minet is concerned. In view of the fact that this is but the first part of his complete work, it is impossible to do more than point out these main divisions of the subject. The author has drawn largely on the patent literature, and has copiously illustrated his descriptions with excellent diagrams and with the portraits of many of the leading investi- gators in this field of work. R. S. Huron. OUR BOOK SHELF. Elementary Microscopy. By F. Shillington Scales, F.R.M.S. Pp. xii+ 179. (London: Bailliére, Tindall and Cox, 1905.) Price 3s. net. No instrument of research has such wide application in various branches of science and commerce as the microscope. It is, perhaps, scarcely too much to say that the principles underlying its construction and use are often disregarded by those who employ it, and sometimes totally ignored. Any treatise, therefore, on this subject, however unpretentious, is to be cordi- ally weleomed, and the book now under notice is one that should meet a pressing need. It is written for beginners or for those who have used a microscope without troubling to understand it, and who conse- quently have never by any chance used it at its best. The book commences with a description of various simple magnifiers and a descriptive diagram showing the essential parts of a microscope. These parts and NO. 1864, VOL. 72] the various accessories are in turn described more fully, as well as such appliances as are usually only found in the best instruments. The most important points, such as substage con- densers and fine adjustment construction, are treated somewhat fully. As to the choice of a microscope, reference is made to the fact that in medical schools and elementary science laboratories, where the cheaper form of instrument is usually provided, still no in- struction is given as to its use, and that it is too often looked on as a mere magnifying glass. This is unquestionably true, and it is much to be deprecated that, in cases where the microscope performs such an important part in the work of instruction, no attention whatever is bestowed on its principles and use. The most interesting paragraphs in the book are, perhaps, those in which a comparison is made between the English and Continental stand. That the form of instrument now known as the English model is generally much superior in design and con- struction to the Continental stands is admitted and insisted on by the majority of those whose opinion is of value. At no period for many years past has the English microscope stand held such a high place, and it is greatly to be hoped that those who are in a position which gives them opportunities of recom- mending one form or another will recognise this. It is much to be regretted that, so far as objectives are concerned, the same cannot be said. Some English makers do undoubtedly produce lenses of good quality, but the average is not so high, and the finest objec- tives produced by Messrs. Zeiss are still unexcelled by those of any other makers. In the production of substage optical appliances, this country holds, as it has always done, a very high position, and it is difficult to understand why the same cannot be said of objectives. All the usual microscope acces- sories, as well as their method of use, are described as fully as the circumstances permit. Chapters vi. and vii. are devoted to the practical optics of the microscope and its manipulation. This is the most important section of the book, and should be carefully studied. Perhaps more space might have been devoted to this, although it is quite easy to understand the difficulties that might arise in at- tempting anything like an exhaustive treatise on microscopic optics, debatable as the subject still is. Altogether, the book is to be commended as a genuine attempt to treat the subject in a sim straightforward manner, so that the reader for whom it is primarily intended may grasp its meaning with- out difficulty. The Practical Photographer's Annual, 1905. Edited by Rev. F. C. Lambert. Pp. xxxvi + 160. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) Price Is. 6d. net. THESE pages, as we are told in the preface, are intended to serve no other purpose than to aid the memory of the busy photographer, and if possible to anticipate his daily needs. An examination of the book shows that the editor has very successfully accomplished his task, and at the same time has not made the volume of such a bulky nature as to render its size inconvenient. It is true that more references might have been inserted, but such an addition would perhaps be questionable. The four sections into which the book is divided include a dictionary of practical hints, dodges, &c. ; a collection of tables, weights, measures, everyday formulz, &c.; a directory of the photographic societies of Great Britain and Ireland; and finally, a set of indices to the first twelve numbers of the present (library) series of the Practical Photographer. Each Jury 20, 1905] NATURE 269 of these sections is arranged so far as possible alphabetically, so that ready reference is greatly facilitated. - We thus have a concise and practical dictionary which should be found of very general utility. Murray’s Handbook edition. Pp. 688. 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. Tuar this little pocket-book meets the requirements of travellers is shown by the fact that this is the nineteenth edition that has been issued. The success of such a companion depends mainly on the arrange- ment and scope of the material which it contains, and on these points it seems difficult to suggest any improvements. This edition is divided into fourteen distinct but comprehensive groups of subjects, each one containing exclusively those words and phrases which naturally belong to each section. Great pains seem to have been taken to bring the information up to date, motoring, for example, having quite a large part devoted to it. The Britisher is equally helped in either French, German, or Italian, and such a vade mecum as is here presented should be found of great service to everyone who crosses the Channel. of Travel-Talk. (London : Nineteenth Edward Stanford, ILI APALTS IRS AO) IMIEWD, IRON ON cee [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane. In Nature, June 29, a letter from Mr. G. F. Hull appeared under the above title. In it the writer claims to have verified experimentally that the pressure upon a transparent vane is equal to the difference in the density of energy in front of and behind the vane, and reference is made to a difference of views regarding the theory of the pressure in a non-absorbing medium. In regard to the latter point, the same result is obtained for the particular case in question whether the beam of light is considered simply as a carrier of momentum or whether the pressure due to radiation is regarded as arising from a mechanical bodily force integrated throughout the material medium in which the radiation is being pro- pagated. Consider the latter theory for steady radiation consisting of plane polarised waves of simple harmonic period 2m/kc propagated along Ox (see Larmor, Phil. Mag., vol. vii., p. 578, 1904). We have where € is complex if the medium is absorbing. The mechanical force per unit volume is directed along Ox and is given by Kk “Y . (true current) = ile t a y )} 2-4 raat? If all the interfaces are perpendicular to Ox, then y and Y are continuous throughout, whether the medium vary con- tinuously or abruptly ; consequently the mean value of the mechanical force upon any slice of the medium can be expressed as a pressure per unit area upon each surface equal in amount to the mean value of (y*+Y7)/87 at the surface. Thus for any vane suspended in free ether (or air) the resultant mechanical force is equivalent to a pressure per unit area equal to the difference in energy- density in front of and behind the vane. The apparent confusion arises from the usual statement that the mean value of y*+Y* can only vary along Ox in the case of an absorbing medium, but this is true only for progressive waves. For a transparent medium of re- NO. 1864, VOL. 72] fractive index n conveying progressive and regressive waves the mean value of (y?+-n?Y*)/87, or the mean value of the energy density, is constant; but the mean value of (y?+Y?)/8x varies harmonically along the direction of propagation. For a plate extending from x=o to as and subjected to a normally incident beam of mean energy- density I, it can easily be verified that the mean value of (7° +Y°)/82 within the plate is equal to H(222 + 1)2 — (222 — 1)? cos 2rtn(h — x) }/{(22? + 1) sin? seh + 4x” cos? zKh} ; consequently the resultant pressure is equal to 21(u2 —1)2 sin? ich/{(222+ 1)? sin? nkh + 4° cos? Kh}, or equal to 2J,I, where J, is the normal reflecting power of the plate for the radiation used. T. H. Haverock. St. John’s College, Cambridge, July 14. An Omitted Safeguard. In two schemes set out in a recent issue of NATURE, one dealing with the requirements of Oxford and one with the organisation of applied science in London, there appears a noteworthy omission. If the weather is proverbially the first topic of con- versation of Englishmen, it is surely because of the in- fluence it has on the well-being of the community. Yet in both the schedules referred to no provision is made for research in meteorology. It is singular how tardy is the recognition of so important a factor in the national welfare. It is to meteorology that we constantly appeal for help. By its daily survey of rainfall it safe- guards our water supply (now a very anxious problem, being outpaced by the ever-increasing demands of popula- tion, sanitation, railways, or manufacturing machinery). We turn to it for the comparison of localities and to study the effects of climate or fog upon health and disease, or to ascertain the relations of temperature, sunshine, or rain- fall to the prosperity of the crops and fruit gardens. We look to the readings of the barometer to protect the safety of those working underground. Meteorology takes cognisance of the force of the wind for the protection of structures, or of storms likely to imperil the mariner on his voyage, and by the extension of, and the improved modes of, forecasting the weather is becoming each year of greater service to all. Without encroaching further upon the lim; of your space, sufficient has perhaps been said to show primd facie grounds (while so much is proposed to be devoted to physics, geology, or botany) for the consideration of a possible chair in meteorology, or for in some other way repairing an omission of so serious a kind in the schemes lately propounded. The large amount devoted annually to meteorology in the United States shows the appreciation of its utility to all classes of the community by so practical a people as the Americans, and that the outlay is amply recouped by the value of the services rendered by it. RicHaRD BENTLEY. The Hydrometer as a Seismometer. In Nature of June 29 Mr. Bennett discusses the motiorm of a floating hydrometer when vertical motion is imparted to the (rigid) vessel containing the (incompressible) fluid in which the hydrometer floats. The solution offered is that the whole system moves precisely as a rigid body would move, and this solution clearly satisfies the very simple equations of motion in the problem considered. But is such motion stable? In general it is not, and I believe that Faraday studied experimentally the ‘‘ crisp- ations’? of a free surface of liquid when small vertical oscillations were imparted to the containing vessel. This hardly affects Mr. Bennett’s conclusion that a floating hydrometer is an unsatisfactory form of seismo- meter, but perhaps it may explain the positive results which some observers have obtained; elastic yielding of vessel or hydrometer, although conceivably an adequate explanation, is not the only one open to us. Cambridge. C. V. Burton. NATURE [JuLy 20, 1905 NOTES ON STONEHENGE.* VITI.—On rne Darrmoor AVENUES (Continued). M Y inquiries began at Merrivale because there isa circle associated with the avenues a little to the south of the west end of the longest; and again nearly, or quite, south of this there is a fine menhir, possibly used to give a north-south line. There is another men- hir given on the Ordnance map, azimuth N. 70° 30! E., which, with hills 3° high, points out roughly the place of sunrise from the circle in May (April 29). ee this stone has been squared and initialed, I think Iam justified in claiming it as an ancient_ monument. There is still another, azimuth N. 83° E., giving a line from the circle almost parallel to the avenue. I hope some local t acheologist will examine it, for if = sh ancient it will tell us whether the N. avenue or the circle was built first, a point of which it is difficult | to overrate the importance, as it will show the strict relationship between the astronomy of the avenues and that of the circle, and we can now, I thinks, deal with the astronomical use of circles after the results obtained at Stonehenge, Stenness and the Hurlers as an accepted fact. With the above approximate values the date comes out 1750 B.c., the declination of the Pleiades being Wi62'35/ I now pass on from Merrivale as = an example of those avenues the direction of which lies somewhere Pao ieee 2 in the E.-W. direction. Others = which I have not seen, given by Rowe, are at Assacombe, Drizzle- to or combe and Trowlesworthy ; these Mr. Worth adds Harter Har Tor (or Black Tor). The avenues which lie nearly N. and S. are more numerous. Rowe gives the following :—Fern- worthy, Challacombe, Trowles- worthy, Stalldon Moor, Batter- don, Hook Lake, and _ Tristis Rock. Of these I have visited the first two, as well as one on Shovel Down not named by Rowe, and the next two I have studied on the 6-inch Ordnance map. Fernworthy (lat. 50° 38/).—Here . : are two avenues, one with Ere ore azimuting Nes nse 45! EE: hills 1° 15’. There is a sighting stone Fic. at the N. end. We appear to be dealing with Arcturus 1610 B.C. This is about the date of the erection of the N. at Merrivale. The second avenue has its sighting stone built into a wall at the south end. Looking south along the avenue, the conditions are azimuth S. 8° 42’ W., hills Bou Ole Both these avenues are aligned on points within, but not at the centre of, the circle. Challacombe (lat. 50° triple avenue, probably the remains of eight i1ows, in a depression between two hills, Challacombe Down and Warrington. There is no circle. The azimuth is 23° 37’/ N.W. or S.E., according to direction. The northern end has been destroyed by an old stream work; there is no blocking stone to the south on 1 Continued from p. 248. NO. 1864 VOL. 72] avenue 36').—This is a case of a | 20.—The sight-lines at the Hurlers, spewing high northern azimuths among others. either of the remaining avenues, but one large menhir terminates one row of stones. The others may have been removed. So it is probable that the alignment was to the north. If so, we are dealing with the setting of Arcturus, warning the summer solstice sunrise in 1860 B.c. To the S. the hills are 4° 48/, to: the N. 4° ‘so’. To this result some importance must be attached, first, because it brings us into presence of the cult of the solstitial year, secondly, because it shows us that the system most in vogue in Brittany was intro- duced in relation to that year. In Brittany, as I have before shown, the complicated alignments, there are 11 parallel rows at Le Ménac (p. 99) (there were 8 Barrow nore Ba S son | a LEO ‘petri FRO 2 Nahotigt eget LF ~ AB igen From the Ordnance map. parallel rows at Challacombe), were set up to watch the May and August sunrises, and the solstitial align- ments came afterwards. The Brittany May align- ments, therefore, were probably used long before 1860 B.c., the date we have found for Challacombe, where not the sun rise, but the setting star which gave warning of it was observed. It is worth while to point out that at Challacombe, as elsewhere, the priesi.astronomers so located their monuments that the nearly circumpolar stars which were so useful to them should rise over an horizon of some angular height. In this way the direction-lines would be useful for a longer period of time, for near the north point the change of azimuth with change in the declination of the star observed is very rapid. Shovel Down, near Batworthy (lat. 50° 39! 20").— Jury 20, 1905] NATURE 27 “I I A group of five rows of stones, four double, one single, with two sets of azimuths. One set gives us 22°, 25°, and 28°. They seem to be associated. I will call them A, B, and C. A is directed to the circle on Godleigh Common. Its ends are free. B is a single line of stones to the E. of the triple circle, about which more presently. It is not marked on the Ordnance map; its ends are also free. C has its south end blocked, I think in later times, was towards the north; the height of the horizon I measured as 45’. It may have been an attempt to mark the N. point of the horizon. The triple circle to which I have referred is not an ordinary circle. I believe it to be a later added, much embellished, cairn. According to Ormerod, the diameters are 26, 20, and 3 feet, and there are three stones at the centre. All the above avenues are on the slope of the hill to the north. On the south slope ea eT) aa Pelt Ss, Fic. 21.—The sight-lines at Trowlesworthy, showing high northern azimuths among others. the Ordnance map. by a kistvaen. The astronomical direction may be, therefore, either N.W. or S.E. We find, however, a probable use in the N.W. quadrant, as at Challa- combe, Arcturus setting at daybreak as a warner of the summer solstice. we find the longest of all, as AR shown on the Ordnance map Dw Jone survey of 1885. There is a “ long stone’ in its centre, and at the southern end was formerly a cromlech, the ‘‘ three boys.’’ Part of this avenue, and two of the three ‘‘ boys,’’ have been taken to build a wall. The long stone re- mains, because it is a boundary stone ! The azimuth is 2° 30’ W. of north or E. of south. Looking N. from the long stone, the heigh* of the horizon is 2° 30/. I think this avenue was an attempt to mark the S. point. Trowlesworthy (lat. 50° 27! 30"). —The remains here are most interesting. This is the only monument on Dartmoor in which I have so far traced any attempt to locate the sun’s place at rising either for the May or solstitial year. But I will deal with the N.-S. avenue first, as it is this feature which associates it with Fernworthy and Challacombe, and in order that a comparison may be made I append a map showing the sight-lines at the Hurlers (Fig. 20). As at Merrivale, the avenue has a decided ‘kink’? or change of direction. The facts as gathered from the 6-inch map are as follows :— Fron Az. Hills Dec. Star Date ° ers, i he S. partof Avenue N. 7E. 2 52 4129 10 Arcturus 2130 B.c. oy N.z2E. 2 52 4: 6:20 aa 2080 B.C. Fic. 22.—The remains of the eight rows of the Challacombe Avenue looking North of East, terminal menhir to the extreme right. The height of hills is 46’; we have then :— Az N. Dec. Star Date ° o “ 22 36 19 14 Arcturus 1210 B.C. 25 35. 238205) ee BS 1040 ,, 2 See ee 4a S 0; mance 50 cab S5OMees Adjacent to A, B, C, is another avenue, which I will call D. Unlike the others, points 2° E. of N. Its southern end is blocked by a remarkable triple circle, the end of the avenue | close to it being defined by two tall terminal stones. We are justified, then, in thinking that its orientation NO. 1864, VOL. 72] its northern end | This date is very nearly that of the use of the S. circle at the Hurlers, and it is early for Dartmoor ; but it is quite possible that local observations on an. | associated avenue a little to the west of the circle which terminates the N.-S. avenue will justify it. This is not far from parallel to that at Merrivale, but its northern azimuth is greater, so that if it turns out to have been aligned on the Pleiades its date will be some time before that of Merrivale, that is, before 1680 B.c. I can say nothing more about it until I have visited it. The new features to which I have referred are two 272 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 tumuli which in all probability represent more recent additions to the original scheme of observation, as we have found at Stenness; and show that Trowles- worthy was for long one of the chief centres of worship on Dartmoor, Their azimuths are S. 64° E. and S. 49° W., dealing, therefore, with the May year sunrises in November and February and the solstitial sunset in December. It is probable that, as at the Hurlers, tumuli were used instead of stones not earlier than 1900 B.C. Stalldon Moor (lat. 50° 27! 45”) I have already incidentally referred to. The azimuth of the stone row as it leaves the circle, not from its centre as | read the 6-inch map, is N. 3° E.; as the azimuth gradually increases for a time, we may be dealing with Arcturus, but local observation is necessary. The differences between the Cornish and Dartmoor monuments give much food for thought, and it is to be hoped that they will be carefully studied by future students of orientation, as so many questions are suggested. I will refer to some of them. (1) Are the avenues, chiefly consisting of two rows of stones, a reflection of the sphinx avenues of Egypt? and, if so, how can the intensification of them on Dartmoor be explained? (2) Was there a double worship going on in the avenues and the circles at the same time? if not, why were the former not aligned on the circles? On a dead level, of course, if the avenues were aligned on the centre of the circle towards the rising or setting of the sun or a star, the procession in the via sacra would block the view of those in the circle. We have the avenue at Stonehenge undoubtedly aligned on the centre of the circle, but there the naos was on an eminence, so that the procession in the avenue was always below the level of the horizon, and so did not block the view. (3) Do all the cairns and cists in the avenues re- present later additions, so late, indeed, that they may have been added after the avenues had ceased to be used for ceremonial purposes? The cairn at nearly the central point of the S. avenue at Merrivale was certainly not there as a part of the structure when the avenue was first used as a via sacra for observing the rising of the Pleiades. I have always held that these ancient temples, and even their attendant long and chambered barrows, were for the living and not for the dead, and this view has been strengthened by what I have observed on Dartmoor. There was good reason for burials after the sacred nature of the spot had been established, and they may have talken place at any time since; the most probable time being after 1000 B.c. up to a date as recent as archeologists may consider probable. Mr. Worth, whose long labours on the Dartmoor avenues give such importance to his opinions, ob- jects to the astronomical use of those avenues because there are so many of them; he informs me that he knows of 50; I think this objection may be considered less valid if the avenues show that they were dedicated to different sacred uses at different times of the year. For instance, Challacombe is not a duplicate of Mer- rivale; one is solstitial, the other deals with the May year, ‘and a complete ‘examination of them—I have only worked on the fringe—may show other differ- ences having the same bearing. In favour of the astronomical view it must be borne in mind that the results obtained in Devon and Cornwall are remarkably similar, and the dates are roughly the same. Among the whole host of heaven from which objectors urge it is free for me to select any star I choose, at present only six stars have been considered, two of which were certainly used after- wards at Athens; and these six stars are shown by NO. 1864, VOL. 72] nothing more recondite than an inspection of a pre- cessional globe to have been precisely the stars, the ““morning stars,’’ wanted by the priest-astronomers who wished to be prepared for the instant of sunrise at the critical points of the May or solstitial year. NorMAN LOCKYER. THE BOTANICAL CONGRESS AT VIENNA. HE International Botanical Congress, held at Vienna on June 11-18, was an_ impressive demonstration of the activity of botany as a science, and of the enthusiasm of its adherents. Vienna is not the most central town for a meeting-place, but, nevertheless, more than six hundred botanists, men and women, representing nearly all the important, and many of the less important, botanical institutions of the world, met together there. As might have been expected, the central European element predominated, but there were a goodly number of Americans re- presenting the southern and far western as well as the eastern States, while from the Far East came a deputation of two Chinese. On the first day of the Congress, members were invited to be present at the opening of the Botanical Exhibition, which was held in the orangery of the historic Palace of Schénbrunn, just outside the town. The exhibition was an interesting one, and gave a good ‘dea of the present position of botany from a teaching as well as from a more genera) point of view. There were fine series of diagrams, and coloured photographic lantern-slides of microscopic preparations, flowers, plant associations, and other objects; living cultures of Algz; apparatus of all kinds; and some beautiful photographs of tropical vegetation in Brazil, Malaya, and elsewhere. A re- markable feature was the unique specimen of Fockea capensis, a member of the family Asclepiadacez, which, originally brought from the Cape, still remains the only known specimen. The plant has a hard, woody rhizome, as big as a child’s head, from which in the rainy season numerous shoots are developed. It was figured and described by Jacquin in his ‘* Fragmenta ’’ at the beginning of the last century. The Botanic Garden of Sché:brunn brings to mind, at any rate for the systematic botanist, the name of Jacquin, and some of his manuscript and original drawings were an important feaiure of the exhibition, and a subject of envious admiration of certain American botanists; we in London are proud to possess some of Jacquin’s work, in the form of botanical letters to Sir Joseph Banks’s librarian, Dryander, copiously illustrated with exquisitely deli- cate drawings. His herbarium, consisting largely of plants cultivated in the Vienna and Schénbrunn gardens, was bought by Banks, and is now in the general collection at the Natural History Museum. Nicolas Joseph Jacquin was professor of chemistry and botany at Vienna from 1768-96; later in the week of the congress a bust was unveiled in his honour in the Fest-Saale of the university. To quote from Prof. Wiesner’s appreciation at the ceremony :—‘ His broad horizon and great powers of organisation were shown in the fact that, in the second half of the eighteenth century, no scientific, and especially no natural scientific, undertaking was started in which Jacquin did not take an important part. He embodied the ideal of the academic teacher.’? On the same occasion was also unveiled the bust of Jan Ingen- housz (1730-99), a Netherlander by birth, who spent the greater part of his working life in Vienna. Physician to the Empress Maria Theresa and the Emperor Joseph II., botanists know him best as one of the earliest workers in the sphere of plant JuLy 20, 1905] NATURE 273 physiology; to quote the inscription beneath the bust, ‘*“Qua ratione plantae aluntur, primus conspexit.’’ On the evening of June 11, the members met in the Hall of the ‘‘ Kaufmannscher Verein,’’ when Prof. Julius Wiesner, the well-known head of the Institute of Plant Physiology, welcomed the botanists of the world to the home of Clusius, Jacquin and Unger; and the botanists renewed old friendships or made new ones over the Abendskarte and the inevitable Bier. At the official opening, in the great festal hall of the university, on Monday morning, greetings were given by the famous geologist and president of the Academy of Sciences, Prof. Eduard Suess, Prof. Wiesner, and others. The general programme included lectures or papers by well-known men on topics with which their names have become associated. Thus Prof. Goebel discussed the subject of *‘ Regeneration,’? and Dr. D. H. Scott gave an account of the present state of our know- ledge of the Pteridosperms—the fern-like seed-plants of the Carboniferous flora—the illustration of which, by actual specimens, in the form of lantern-slides, was especially appreciated. The development of the European flora since Tertiary times formed the subject of a group of papers. Prof. Engler, in stating the general problems, referred to the part played by man and his works, especially during the last century. He pleaded for the preserva- tion of such plant-formations and plant-societies as throw a light on the past history of the European flora, citing as an example the National Park in the United States of North America. In the same con- nection Dr. Lauterbonn asked the help of the con- gress towards securing the preservation of part of the primitive forests of Bosnia, which, he stated, were in imminent danger of destruction. An _ interesting paper on the history of the development of the flora of the North German ‘ Tief-land ’’ was read by Prof. Weber. Covered by the sea since Oligocene times, this area became dry land during later Pliocene times, and the earliest vegetation of this period is remarkable for the occurrence of the vine, which is now generally regarded as an introduced plant in Central Europe. The plant-life of this area was, during the diluvial period, repeatedly crushed out of existence by land- ice, the intervening periods of vegetation being re- markable for the appearance of plants indicating a milder climate than do those composing the existing flora. Another subject, taken up by Dr. Molisch and Prof. Hueppe, of Prague, was the present state of our knowledge of CO,-assimilation. Mention should also be made of a very fine series of photographic slides with which Dr. Hochreutiner, who has just returned from a prolonged stay in Buitenzorg, illustrated his account of a botanical institute in the tropics. But for many of the members the most important work came in the afternoon, a time devoted by the majority to relaxation, which often took the form of excursions to places of botanical interest within easy reach of the town. Meanwhile the conference on botanical nomenclature sat in the lecture hall of the Botanic Gardens. At the entrance to the gardens is the former residence of the director, and we passed the window of the room in which Kerner wrote most of the well-known ‘* Pflanzenleben.’? Kerner’s successor, Prof. von Wettstein, is lodged in the new Botanical Institute—a large and well-arranged building. The arrangement of the gardens is mainly a geographical one—in one bed a collection of Himalayan plants, in another plants from the Cape, and so on. The result, though doubtless helpful to the student, illus- trates the limitations to which such an arrangement is subject in any one climate. The work of the con- ference was to discuss the recommendations of the No. 1864, VOL. 72] commission on nomenclature appointed by the Inter- national Congress of Paris in 1900, These were em- bodied in the Texte synoptique, a formidable quarto volume in which the rapporteur général, Dr. Briquet, had collated the numerous emendations and modifica- tions of the original code of De Candolle, which during the last five years have been submitted by various societies, institutions, groups of botanists, and individuals. The numerous suggestions had _pre- viously been voted on seriatim by the members of the commission, and from the results of the voting certain recommendations were drawn up by Dr. Briquet for the consideration of the members of the conference, about a hundred and fifty of whom were present. The new American school was strongly re- presented by Dr. Britton, Mr. Coville, and others, while Dr. Robinson, of Harvard, represented the more moderate school which has worked on_lines similar to those adopted in England. The Berlin school was present in force, and most of the Con- tinental botanical societies and institutions were re- presented. As the president, Prof. Flahault, remarked, in answer to Dr. Otto Kuntze’s protest against an ‘‘ incompetent congress,”’ it would be difficult to bring together a body of botanists more competent to discuss botanical nomenclature, and, one may add, more seem- ingly anxious to arrive at some solution of the various problems, and some agreement on the points at issue. From three to seven or eight o’clock each afternoon the members steadily worked through the Texte. It was decided at the start to refer the question of cellular cryptogams and fossils to separate commus- sions, which should report to the next congress. The present conference, therefore, dealt only with flower- ing plants and vascular cryptogams. The results will in due course be arranged and published in English, French, and German. Brief reference may be made to the more important. The code of laws approved by the conference is based on that of De Candolle, and will consist of rules and recommendations, the difference between the two sets being expressed thus :—* A name contrary to a rule cannot be kept up; a name contrary to a recommendation is not a model for imitation but cannot be rejected.’? The most important result was the passing by an overwhelming miayjority of a list of generic names, which from long established usage are to be retained, though on the principle of priority they should be rejected. There was considerable discussion on the question as to the trivial name to be adopted when a plant is transferred from one genus to another, or from subspecific or varietal to specific rank. English, and a minority of American, botanists have followed the so-called “ Kew rule’? of adopting the first correct binominal, while the majority of American and most Continental botanists, in common with zoologists, adopt the earliest trivial name. On this point a compromise was effected as follows:—When a change of systematic position without change of rank occurs (such as the transference of a species from one genus to another), the earliest epithet is to be used; when the rank changes (as in the elevation of a variety to specific rank), the original epithet is not insisted on. The conference was also strongly opposed to any change in a name once given, though for various reasons it might be considered inappropriate or even misleading. A name is a name, and must stand. An account of the congress would be incomplete without some reference to the nightly meetings for social intercourse which were arranged by the organ- ising committee on typical Continental lines. Members will carry away very pleasant memories of the Rath- haus-Keller, the Prater, and the Brauerei garden out at Hutteldorf. For, after all, the great object of a 274 NALGORE {JuLY 20, 1905 congress is the meeting together and getting to know one’s fellow-workers; and an expression of thanks is due to the organising committee under the joint presidentship of Profs. Wiesner and von Wettstein, with Dr. Zahlbruckner as the energetic secretary, to Prof. Flahault, the firm and genial president of the con- ference on nomenclature, and finally to Dr. Briquet, whose name must always be associated with the latest attempt to solve the vexed question of plant- nomenclature. At the final meeting, in response to an invitation from the Belgian Government voiced by Prof. Errera, Brussels was selected as the place of meeting for the third congress, which will be held in 1910. A. B. RENDLE. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION TO THE INDIAN FOREST SERVICE. ON May 11 the Secretary of State for India issued the regulations for the forthcoming entrance examinations for the Indian Forest Service. Amongst the features of these regulations two are of con- siderable importance. The age limit is raised to twenty-one years on January 1 preceding the examination, so that the average B.A. who graduates usually between twenty- one and twenty-two may compete. The second point of interest is the schedule of the subjects in which he is to be examined. According to the regulations given in the East India (Forest Service) Blue-book, Cd. 2523, the sub- jects in which the candidates are to be tested are four—chemistry, physics, botany, and zoology—and the schedules imply that the knowledge which the candidate is expected to exhibit is of a very limited description. Speaking roughly, the examination will be harder than the preliminary scientific examination which every candidate for a medical degree is obliged to take, but not much harder. Medical students generally pass their preliminary scientific examination during their first year, though there are cases in which they pass it while still at school. The Indian forestry students may pass their entrance examination in their third or fourth year. The Blue-book stated that each candidate must qualify in all four subjects, but for some reason or another—and probably because the entry under the new regulations is small—the Secretary of State for India has now still further lightened a very elementary examination, and is now advertising in our columns that zoology is optional. Thus men, who may be graduates, will be admitted into a great public service on an examination which comprises but three out of the ordinary four subjects which candidates for medical degrees normally pass in their first year, and judging by the schedules the amount in each subject to be ‘‘ got up ”’ is little more than in the preliminary examination for an M.B. degree. When we remember that in the Indian Civil ‘Service examination the standard of the subjects is that of an honours examination, and that a candidate takes not three subjects, but eight, nine, ten, or more, it is obvious that the Secretary of State is trying to recruit the forest officers from men of a markedly inferior intellectual range, and the strictures which were passed by Sir George King on the Indian foresters at the .Dover meeting of the British Association will probably need repeating a few years hence. The schedules are well adapted for an elementary pass or plough examination, but are ill adapted for a competitive examination. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to select the best candidates competing in an examination carried on on these lines. NO. 1864, VOL. 72] NOTES. An important step in the direction of the adoption by this country of a decimal system of weights and measures has been taken by the Board of Trade. In reply to a resolution sent to the Board of Trade by the secretary of the Association of Chambers of Commerce, in which the Board was asked to authorise weights of 20 lb., ro Ib., and 5 Ib. as aliquot parts of the cental, Lord Salisbury ‘With reference to your letter of March 14 which that denominations of weights of 20 lb., 10 lb., and 5 lb. should be legalised for use in trade, the Board of Trade have given careful consideration to the representations which have been made, and they are prepared to assent to the application. be taken for the preparation of has written :— last, in you suggest new Steps will, therefore, standards of the same octagonal form as the present 50 lb. weight.’’ The chambers consider that this concession will save time, labour, and expense, as the 50 lb. weight has done already. Commanper Peary sailed on Sunday last to make a further attempt to reach the North Pole. Before leaving, various particulars respecting his ex- His plan is based upon the Smith Sound, or ‘‘ American ’’ route to the Pole, and his object is to force his ship to a base within 500 miles of the Pole itself, and then to sledge across the Polar pack. The Arctic ship Roosevelt, which has been specially built for this expedition, has been constructed so as to with- stand the heavy ice pressure, and is so shaped that the pressure of the ice pack will have the effect of raising the the water. The ship will carry a wireless telegraphic outfit, which, with one or two relay stations he communicated pedition to Reuter’s Agency. vessel out of in Greenland, will keep her in communication with the permanent telegraph station at Chateau Bay, Labrador, and thence by existing lines with New York. By the same means communication with the expedition will be possible, at least for a portion of the distance, when in February next the sledge party leaves the Roosevelt for the northern dash. The will carry two years’ supplies. With regard to the route to be followed, it is intended to establish a permanent sub-base at Cape Sabine, on the west coast of Smith’s Sound, and, after securing the services of the necessary Eskimos, to force the vessel through Kane Basin and Kennedy and Robeson Channels to the northern coast of Grant Land or of Greenland, if the conditions should compel it, and there winter within 500 miles of the Pole. From these winter quarters a start north over the Polar pack will be made in February. The explorers will have available a probable period of five months in which to traverse the distance between their vessel and the Pole. In the event of the failure of the Roosevelt to force Kennedy and Robeson Channels during the first summer the dash for the Pole will have to be postponed until February, 1907. ship Tue seventy-third annual meeting of the British Medical Association will take place at Leicester from July 24 to 28. Addresses in medicine and surgery will be delivered re- spectively by Dr. H. Maudsley and Mr. C. J. Bond, and, following the precedent of last year, a popular lecture will be given (on July 28) by Prof. Wm. Stirling, who will take as his subject the phenomena of fatigue and repose. Tue Geologists’ Association announces an excursion to Central Wales extending from July 24 to 29. The head- quarters are to be at Llandrindod Wells. Tue first International Congress of Physiotherapy will be held at Liége from August 12 to 15 next. The ques- tions proposed for discussion are, says the British Medical JuLy 20, 1905] NATURE 275 Journal :—(1) the specific indications of the several physio- therapeutic agents; (2) description of the apparatus and technique required in each case; (3) (a4) how university teaching on physiotherapy is given at the present time in the various countries where instruction is given on the subject; (b) how such instruction should be given in medical faculties; (4) the indication of suitable means for the vigorous repression of quackery and the abuses caused by ‘‘ healers’? who pretend to treat by physiotherapeutic procedures. Papers should be sent to Dr. Gunzburg, 7 Rue des Escrimeurs, Antwerp. Tue full programme of the International Congress on ‘Tuberculosis (meeting in Paris from October 2 to 7 next) has now been issued, and is summarised in the British Medical Journal. In the section of medical pathology, presided over by Prof. Bouchard, the following subjects are proposed for discussion :—(1) treatment of lupus by the new methods; (2) early diagnosis of tuberculosis “by ithe new methods. In the section of surgical pathology, presided over by Prof. Lannelongue, the following questions different tuberculosis ; will forms — of be considered :—(1) comparative study of tuberculosis; (2) ileo-cecal (3) surgical interventions in tuberculosis of the meninges | In the section of protection and assistance of childhood, presided over by Prof. Grancher, the questions to be discussed and encephalon; (4) tuberculosis and traumatism. are :—(1) family protection; (2) protection in the school ; (3) seaside sanatoriums; (4) school mutual aid societies and the part played by them in the prevention of tuberculosis. In the section of protection and assistance of adults, and social hygiene, attention will be directed to :—(1) etiological factors of tuberculosis, the etiology of tuberculosis ; (2) assurance and friendly societies in the prevention of tuberculosis; (3) the part of dis- pensaries and sanatoriums in the against tuberculosis; (4) sanitation and healthiness of the . dwell- economic conditions in social struggle ing; (5) hygiene of tuberculous persons in factories, work- shops, places of business, army and navy; (6) disinfection of the dwelling of the subject of tuberculosis (adminis- trative regulations and practical measures). In connection with the congress there will be an exposition arranged in the four following departments :—(1) scientific: a museum of microbiology, experimental, medical, surgical, and veterinary tuberculosis; (2) social: ravages caused by tuberculosis, prevention, assistance ; (3) historical: tubercu- losis in various ages, in art and in history; (4) industrial : prevention, alimentation, private dwellings, public dwell- ings (schools, barracks, &c.); travel (railway carriages, ships, hotels); assistance (hospitals, dispensaries, sana- toriums). Tur Museums Association held its annual meeting last week at Worcester; the proceedings opened on Tuesday, and on Thursday the president (Lord Windsor) delivered his address. A TABLET to the memory of Sir Humphry Davy was unveiled by Mr. Marconi at Clifton, Bristol, on Friday last. The tablet is to be placed on 3 Rodney Place, Clifton, in which house Sir Humphry Davy lived for a time. Pror. Guipo Cora has been elected a member of the Pontificia Accademia Romana dei Nuovi Lincei of Rome. WE regret to see the announcement of the death, on June 29, at Washington, of Mr. George H. Eldridge, one of the geologists on the staff of the United States Geo- logical Survey. He contributed many valuable papers to geological science, dealing with coal, petroleum, asphalt, and bituminous rock. deposits. NO. 1864, VOL. 72] Tur death occurred on July 10 of Sir Peter Nicol Russell, gift of founded the engineering of Sydney He was eighty-nine who, by his 100,000l., school of University. years of age. Tue death is announced of Mr. Charles Moore, director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens and of the Government Domain had attained the eighty-six years. and Plantations. He age of A MEETING of the central committee for physical educa- tion in Italy took place recently in Rome under the presi- dency of Mr. L. Among those present were the Under-Secretary of State for Instruction, and delegates of the Ministries of Instruction, War Marine; there were also representatives of the municipality Lucchini. Italian and of Rome, the gymnastic association, and the Alpine and touring clubs of the city. The main object of the com- mittee is to stimulate interest in the physical education of is contended, has hitherto the Italian people, which, it been much neglected. A Reuter telegram from Penang states that the Chinese Consul of that place has offered to build and equip a Pasteur institute for the Straits Settlements and the neigh- The action has been prompted by the of rabies in Penang, resulting up to the bouring regions. recent outbreaks present in four deaths. Botn Messrs. Siemens and Halske, of Berlin, and the Marconi Company are in communication with the Althing, the proposal being to establish communication by wireless telegraphy Iceland and the Continent and internally in the island. According to a Reuter telegram, the Berlin firm offers to provide the installation for about 36,6661., and to guarantee the efficient working of the between system. In connection with an exhibition to be held next year at Milan, there is to be a competition of appliances de- signed to safeguard against accidents, and the following prizes will be offered :—a gold medal and 320l. for a new device which will suppress the danger to life coming from a contact formed the primary circuits of an electric transformer; a gold medal and 4ol. for a crane or hoist provided with a simple and practical device preventing the rotation of the cranks on the descent of the load; a gold medal and 2ol. for a simple, strong and effective apparatus for automatically stopping cars which are moving upon an inclined plane in case the traction cable should break; a gold medal for a practical device for exhausting and collecting the dust formed during the sorting and cutting of rags by hand; a gold medal for an apparatus for localised exhaust and successive elimination of dust produced during the cardage of flax, tow, hemp, jute, &c.; and a gold medal for an effective device to prevent the diffusion of dust in places where the preparation of lime and cement is carried on. The com- petition is to be under the auspices of the Association of Italian Industries, and names of competitors must be sent between and secondary ‘to the secretary at Foro Bonaparte 61, Milan, before the end of the present month. A NumpeEr of prizes ranging in value from 10,000 marks to 750 marks are offered by the Internationales Arbeitsamt, Basel, Switzerland, for essays on means of combating lead poisoning. The essays must contain proposals for the elimination of the danger to which no objection can be made on technical, hygienic, or ecohomic grounds. In proposing new apparatus or alterations in process, par- ticulars must be given as to the cost and saving involved in such proposals. It is desired that proposals should be 276 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 made for the improvement of existing laws upon the subject in all countries, and attention directed to the alterations which would be necessary for putting the suggestions into effect. The papers, which may be in English, French, or German, must reach the Inter- nationales Arbeitsamt by the end of the present year. We learn from La Nature that the annual prize of the French Society of Civil Engineers has been awarded for 1905 to two men of science—to M. Alphonse Tellier for his researches on motor navigation, and more particularly for his memoir on ‘‘Les canots automobiles a grand vitesse,’’ and to M. J. Rey for his memoir on “ Les turbines a vapeur en général, et plus particuligrement sur les turbines du systeme Rateau et leurs applications.”’ The Alphonse Couvreux prize has been awarded to M, F. Arnodin for his work on trans-shipping bridges, The 1905 Giffard prize will be postponed until 1908. ‘ At the annual distribution of prizes at Guy’s Hospital Medical School last week the new Gordon Museum of Anatomy and Pathology was open to inspection. The museum is, it will be remembered, the gift of Mr. Robert Gordon, who at the distribution of prizes was presented by the governors and medical staff with a replica in silver of the statue of Thomas Guy in the hospital square, together with a bound memorial volume signed by the Prince of Wales and all the members of the governing body. The specimens in the museum now number upwards of 12,000, and their re-arrangement and classification will, it is hoped, be completed within the next few months. Pror. A. PENCK contributes an account of the progress © made in the organisation and execution of the map of the world on a scale of 1: 1,000,000 to the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde. It appears that up to March of this year the four chief organisations—French, German, British, and Indian—had completed 69 sheets out of 437 planned. A sketch map shows the sheets completed and in preparation. Tue Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries has recently published a valuable paper by Dr. W. Bell Dawson on the currents at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy and on the steamship routes in its approaches off southern Nova Scotia. The results are based on observations made by the tidal and current survey in 1904, and show that the movements of water are chiefly tidal in character, there being no marked general movement in any one direction. THE report on the census of the Philippine Islands, taken in March and April, 1902, has recently been issued. It consists of four volumes, comprising three thousand pages, and is freely illustrated with statistical maps and diagrams. An excellent summary of this report, which includes papers on the climate and resources of the islands besides other statistical information, appears in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society for May, from the pen of Mr. Henry Gannett. Atmost from time immemorial, in a zoological sense, the South American electric eel has been regarded as the type (and sole representative) of the genus Gymnotus, as G. electricus, and it is thus named in the “‘ Cambridge Natural History.’ In a paper on the Gymnotide published in the Proceedings of the Washington Academy (vol. vii., p- 159), Messrs. Eigenmann and Ward revive, however, an old proposal that the Gymnotus carapus of Linnzus should be taken as the type form, and the electric eel referred to a genus apart. They even go so far as to exclude the latter species from the Gymnotide altogether—a proceed- NO. 1864, VOL. 72] ing which forcibly recalls the well-known saying with regard to the play of Hamlet. This is, indeed, in our opinion, one of those cases in which, whatever may be original rights in the matter, everything is to be gained by adhering to established practice. In the text the authors define the different genera they include in the Gymnotide, describing some of these for the first time. IN another issue of the serial last quoted (Proc. Wash- ington Acad., vol. vii., pp. 27-157) Mr. W. F. Allen records observations on the blood-vascular system in the fishes of the group Loricati, that is to say, those constituting the families Scorpzenidz, Anoplopomatide, Hexagrammide, and Cottide. In view of the circumstance that it is at present impossible to determine whether certain features in the circulatory system of these fishes are primary or secondary, no inductions are drawn from the observations with regard to the classification of the group. Neverthe- less, it is suggested that the blood-vascular system may eventually prove to have a value in the classification of families and genera, although it would be useless in the case of species. WE have received a copy of a circular issued by the Concilium Bibliographicum of Zirich in regard to a proposed physiological bibliography. A card catalogue of literature of this description was commenced on July 1, in cooperation with the Zentralblatt fiir Physiologie, and the support of all interested in the matter is requested. To aid the scheme a committee was appointed at the sixth International Physiological Congress held at Brussels, the names of the members of which are given in the circular. THE annual report of the Selborne Society, published in the July number of Nature Notes, points to a flourishing condition of that body, although more members are re- quired if its work is to be still further developed. Mr. W. M. Webb has accepted the office of hon. treasurer, vice Mr. R. M. Wattson, retired. Special attention is directed in the report to the preservation and protection of places of antiquarian interest or natural beauty in the neighbour- hood of London. Among these, the proceedings of the London County Council in attempting to ‘* beautify ”’ Golder’s Hill are criticised. ‘‘ What is required is to leave the place more alone, and so to give nature a chance in it. Efforts to make things appear rustic almost in- variably end by making them look artificial, and this is especially the case at Golder’s Hill.” In our notice of Sir C. Elliot’s description of the nudi- branchs of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition the number of species should have been given as six in place of two. Four of these species are new, two, as stated in the original notice, forming the types of as many new genera. In a brief note published in the Atti det Lincei for June 3 Prof. Cuboni notifies the appearance in the island of Sardinia, in the district of Sassari, of a peculiar and little known disease of the olive. This disease, which is known in Italian as ‘‘ Brusca,’’ entirely despoils the plant of its leaves and fruit, and is associated with the fungus Stictis Panizsei. This fungus has an altogether remark- able history. It was first observed and studied by De Notaris near San Remo in 1842, and twenty years later it was found at Spezia. Between the years 1863 and 1899 no mention is to be found of its occurrence, but it suddenly reappeared in 1899 in the neighbourhood of Lecce, causing great damage to the olives of the district. The study of a fungus for which apparently very special conditions of growth are necessary seems likely to give results of par- ticular interest in vegetable pathology. JuLy 20, 1905] NAT ORE 277 In the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. xl., No. 23) Mr. Gilbert N. Lewis makes a study of the auto-catalytic decomposition of silver oxide under the influence of heat. It is shown that the velocity of decomposition of the oxide at a constant temperature increases as the action proceeds, and, after passing through a maximum, falls gradually to zero. The phenomenon is due to the catalytic action of the metallic silver produced, the action proceeding very regularly accord- ing to an equation representing the simplest case of auto- catalysis. During the decomposition, definite temperatures between 327° C. and 353° C. were maintained by means of a thermostat containing a fused mixture of sodium and potassium nitrates. The purity and method of preparation of the silver oxide have a very great influence on the velocity of decomposition. The theory is advanced that the influence of the silver is directed in modifying the velocity of the reversible change O,= 20. WE have received from the Medical Supply Association a pamphlet dealing with the Gaiffe auto-motor mercury-jet interrupter and its application in producing high-frequency currents. The interrupter is a simplified form of the mercury-jet turbine type, and is so arranged that the interrupter cuts off the current for both the motor and coil. The interrupter thus works automatically, and the use of an independent motor is dispensed with. The arrangement is simple, portable, and less expensive than any other form of turbine interrupter. Some singular results obtained during the investigation of the activity of radiotellurium (polonium) are recorded by Prof. B. Walter in a paper in the Annalen der Physik (vol. xvii. p. 367). It would appear that the @ rays of radiotellurium are capable of producing a_ species of fluorescence in the air through which they pass in such a manner that a radiation is set up having a pronounced photochemical action and similar properties to the ultra- violet portion of the spectrum lying between A 350 and A 290. The radiation is completely absorbed by aluminium foil o-oog1 mm. in thickness, but readily passes through a glass plate 0-15 mm. thick. In passing through a vacuum, however, the a rays of radiotellurium do not give rise to a radiation, whilst in gases other than air or nitrogen the effect is only very slight. The new radiation seems, indeed, to be produced only by nitrogen, the effect with this gas being thirty to fifty times as great as with hydrogen or oxygen. This fact is of unusual significance as tending to throw light on some of the peculiar properties of the nitrogen atom. Tue part played by the copper salt in Deacon’s process of preparing chlorine from hydrogen chloride is still un- certain, although many hypotheses have been put forward to explain it. That which has been most generally adopted assumes that cupric chloride is decomposed into cuprous chloride and chlorine, and that the cuprous chloride then undergoes re-conversion into the cupric salt under the in- fluence of oxygen and hydrogen chloride, copper oxychloride being formed as an intermediate product. In an experimental investigation of the process published by M. G. Levi and V. Bettoni in the Gazzetta (vol. xxxv. P- 320) it is shown, however, that neither cuprous chloride nor the oxychloride can be used with a successful result in Deacon’s process, and that the oxychloride is not con- vertible by hydrogen chloride into cupric chloride under the conditions in which chlorine is ordinarily formed. The hypothesis of an intermediate product is rejected and a purely catalytic action assumed, according to which the No. 1864, VOL. 72] 2 velocity of the change 2HCI + ee H,O+Cl, is greatly influenced by the presence of the copper salt. The catalyst is supposed to help the action by its tendency to combine with the water produced in the change. An interesting article by M. Albert de Romeu on the industry of the abrasive materials such as corundum, emery, and carborundum appears in the Revue générale des Sciences for June 15. No. 6 of vol. ii. of Le Radium contains a useful article by M. G. H. Niewenglowski on the development of photo- graphic plates which have been subjected to the action of radio-active substances, Unpver the title ‘‘ From the Borderland between Crystallography and Chemistry,’’ an address delivered before the Science Club of the University of Wisconsin by Prof. Victor Goldschmidt, of Heidelberg, is printed in the Bulletin of the university (No. 108). Attention is directed to the interesting results that have been obtained by studying the etch-figures and dissolution bodies of crystals and their significance in forming a mechanical theory of dissolution. Tue sugar and cacao industries in the West Indies formed the principal subjects of discussion at the agri- cultural conference held in Trinidad in January; the pro- ceedings in connection with these matters are reported in the first number of vol. vi. of the West Indian Bulletin. The condition of the sugar industry in Trinidad evoked considerable discussion, the subject at issue being the small amount of cane produced by the farmers per acre. Dr. F. Watts gave some account of the establishment of a well equipped central sugar factory in Antigua. The question of shade trees for cacao was debated, but evidence was not forthcoming to show why the shade that is con- sidered necessary in Trinidad proves to be injurious in Grenada. Mr. L. Lewton-Brain and Mr. H. A. Ballou presented papers on the fungoid diseases and insect pests of sugar canes and cacao trees. Tue route followed by Mr. B. Fedtschenko on_ his botanical journey through the Pamirs, as described in the Bulletin du Jardin impérial botanique de St. Petersbourg, vol. v., lay along the river Pianj where it runs parallel and a little to the north of the boundaries of Kashmir and Chitral; thence proceeding north the explorer returned to Osch, in Turkestan. Anaphalis seravschanica and Ferula gigantea were the most remarkable plants obtained on these stages of the journey. A malformation of the flowers of Tragopogon pratensii showing pedicelled florets and phyllody of the calyx is described by Mr. Dmitriew. Mr. P. H. Rotrs presented the first results of his in- vestigations into the diseases of citrous plants and fruits caused by the fungus Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in Bulletin No. 52 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S.A. It is there shown that wither-tip, leaf-spot, anthracnose, and fruit canker are all due to the same fungus. Wither- tip and leaf-spot can be controlled by pruning. followed by spraying with Bordeaux mixture, while spraying with ammoniacal solution of copper carbonate is efficacious against disease of the fruit. A later article in the Florida Agriculturist (March) deals with the appearance of these diseases on grape fruit. Tue Jamaica Bulletin of Agriculture (May) contains an article by Mr. Fawcett on Raiffeisen agricultural banks, prompted by conditions which suggest that such a system could be advantageously introduced into the island. The 278 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 hurricane in August, 1903, caused such widespread devastation that the Government of Jamaica deemed it advisable to make temporary loans, thus assuming liabili- ties which would have been unnecessary had a cooperative system of borrowing money been in existence. In the same volume diverse opinions are expressed on the question of rotation of crops in connection with cotton cultivation in Jamaica. Cotton every third or fifth year, with inter- mediate crops of cassava or yams, maize, and legumes, is suggested; these rotations preclude the possibility of securing a second crop of cotton. AN instructive discussion of the law of biogenesis that “ontogeny repeats phylogeny *’ will be found in the paper forming Publication No. 30 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in which Mr. G. H. Shull bases his argu- ments upon a study of the leaf variation in Sium cicutaefolium. In the seedlings the first leaf after the cotyledons is extremely variable, the second leaf is generally simpler, but subsequently a pinnate leaf is developed which passes into a much dissected type. Well marked but less regular variations occur at periods of rejuvenescence and on the inflorescence. Mr. Shull concludes that ontogenetic leaf-characters afford no satisfactory clue to phylogeny, but that differentiation is due to the changed structure of the protoplasm. “PERCEPTION #N PLants”’ is the title of an article in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (June), in which Prof. L. Kny discourses on tropisms and movements pro- duced by other Under heliotropism Prof. Kny mentions the views recently advanced by Haberlandt that the epidermal cells of a leaf are to be regarded as the perceptive region, and that their shape and contents enable them to act like a lens in collecting the rays of light. A photograph -representing a view of the leaf of Anthurium Maximiliani tends to support this hypothesis, and also the observation that such a leaf, when submerged in water, fails to react. causes. surface WE have received from Messrs. Flatters and Garnett, Ltd., 48 Deansgate, Manchester, slides exhibiting the structure of the root in the male fern and onion. They are remarkably good, and slides such as these will be of value to collections used for teaching purposes. The pre- paration of the material has been carefully attended to, and the details of cell and nuclear division are well shown. Vor. i. of the report of the Royal Commission on London Traffic (appointed in February, 1903, to inquire into and report upon the means of locomotion and transport in London) has just been issued. It will be followed by seven more volumes, dealing respectively with the following sub- jects :—vol, ii., minutes of evidence taken, with index and digest; vol. iii., appendices to the evidence taken, and index ; vol. iv., appendices to the report and index ; vol. v., maps and diagrams furnished to or prepared by the Royal Commission; vol. vi., maps and diagrams furnished to the Royal Commission; vol. vii., report of the advisory board of engineers, and index; vol. viii., appendix to same. Tue June issue of the Bulletin de la Société d’Encourage- ment pour I’Industrie nationale has been received. It contains a report, presented by M. A. Moreau on behalf of the Constructions and Fine Arts Committee, on “ Ruberoid ’’; an account of a scheme for the extension of the international system to screws with a diameter of less than 6 mm.; and a paper by M. Maurice Alfassa on the organisation of labour in the United States. The economic those on chemistry, and those on the mechanical sciences are as usual suggestive and interesting. NO. 1864, vou. 72] notes, Tue National Geographic Magazine for July contains many interesting communications, among which are an address delivered to the National Geographic Society by Prof. E. A. Grosvenor on the ‘‘ Evolution of Russian Government,’’ an article entitled ‘‘ The Purple Veil,’’ the “veil? being the product of the Lophius piscatorius, known popularly as the ‘‘ goose-fish,’’ the ‘‘ all-mouth,”’ and the ‘‘ angler,’’ and a short paper (superbly illus- trated) on ‘‘ The Victoria Falls.’’ The National Geo- graphic Society, of which the magazine is the organ, is now housed under a deed of trust in the Hubbard Memorial Hall at Washington, the building being ** in trust for the sole use and benefit of the said National Geographic Society so long, and for and during such period of time, as said Society shall continue its corporate exist- ence under its present charter, and shall cortinue to use and occupy the said land and premises and the improve- ments thereon for the objects and purposes set forth in its certificate of incorporation.’ Tue July number of the Popular Science Monthly con- tains an illustrated article on the University of Virginia, which, founded eighty years ago by Thomas Jefferson, has now as its first president Dr. E. A. Alderman. The illus- trations contained in the paper show that the university possesses many buildings devoted to the teaching of science. Another article deals with Prof. C. A. Young, who, after more than fifty years’ devotion to science, recently retired from the professorship of astronomy at Princeton University and the directorship of the Halstead Observ- atory. In view of the approaching meeting of the British Association in South Africa, a special number of Know- ledge and Illustrated Scientific News has been issued. It contains portraits of the president and of the presidents of sections, a programme of the proceedings, with a route map, and many articles dealing with South Africa and likely, therefore, to be of interest to those taking part in the association’s meeting. Mr. Murray announces ‘‘ Noteworthy Families (Science),’? by Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., and Mr. E. S. Galton. The work will form vol. i. of the publi- cations of the Eugenics Record Office of the University of London. Another book to be brought out by Mr. Murray is ‘‘ The Book of the Rothamsted Experiments,’’ by Mr. A. D. Hall, the director of the Rothamsted Experiment Station. Messrs. JOHN WHELDON AND Co., of Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, have sent us part i. of their new botanical catalogue dealing with Cryptogamia, and con- taining some 7oo titles of books and papers. Messrs. J. H. Dattmeyer, Ltp., have just issued their new list of photographic lenses, cameras, telescopes, pris- matic binoculars, &c. A SECOND Italian edition of ‘* Mattoni e Pietre di Sabbia e Calce,’’ by M. E. Stodffler and Prof. M. Glasenapp, has been published by the firm of Ulrico Hoepli, of Milan. This edition is provided with eighty figures in the text and three folded plates at the end of the volume. Tue second edition of ‘‘ The Central Alps of the Dauphiny,’’ by W. A. B. Coolidge, H. Duhamel, and F. Perrin has just been issued by Mr. Fisher Unwin. The work, which is one of the ‘‘ Conway and Coolidge’s Climbers’ Guides ’’ series, has been revised and brought down to the end of 1904, and the arrangement of the sections has to some extent been altered. JuLy 20, 1905] NATLOLRE OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Soar Activity.—The ‘“‘ maximum’ character of the present solar-activity epoch is being well maintained by the frequent appearance of large groups of Observations made on July 6 showed two medium spots coming round the eastern limb, and as'this group travelled across the visible dise it developea considerably. On July 13 it formed a large and somewhat scattered group of which the roughly estimated extent was about 100,000 miles, and which could be readily seen by the properly protected naked eye. On July to this group was followed by a much more striking, although somewhat less extensive, group, consisting of two exceedingly well spots. sized defined and large nuclei surrounded by well marked penumbre and smaller spots. On July 14 both groups were readily observable with the naked eye, this being the second occasion during the present year on which two naked-eye taneously. Single groups of this character have occurred four or five times since the first appearance of the large group in February. i groups have been on the solar disc simul- The accompanying reproduction shows the forms and positions of the spots at 11.45 a.m. on Thursday last, and has been taken from a photograph secured with the photospectroheliograph of the Solar Physics Observ- atory, South Kensington, the primary slit being adjusted on the continuous spectrum instead of on any special line. A Projection ON Mars.—A telegram from Prof. Picker- ing, published in No. 4030 of the Astronomische Nach- richten, announces that on July 2 Mr. Lowell discovered a projection on the terminator of Mars. The object was situated near to Propontis, its position angle being 19°. It may be remembered that in the first Bulletin issued from his observatory Mr. Lowell described a_ projection on the terminator of Mars, discovered by Mr. Slipher on May 25, 1903, its position angle varying from 204° to 200°. In that case the observations led to the suggestion was in reality a cloud of dust which was travelling over the planet's miles per hour (see Nature, No. 1763, 1903) that the projection 300 miles in extent surface at about 16 vol. Ixviii., p- some 353) OBSERVATIO oF Persetps.—Intending observers of the coming Perseid shower will probably find Mr. Robert Dole’s account of his 1904 observations, published in No. 6, vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy, of interest. During a total watch of 6h. 41m. on the nights of August 6, 9, 10 and 12, Mr. Dole, observing at Flagstaff, ) Arizona, saw 123 Perseids and too shooting stars, the horary rate of the Perseids being about 18-5. August 11 and 13 were completely cloudy, and consequently the observer was unable to determine the period of maximum NO. 1864, VOL. re, i= of the shower. Some thirty of the apparent paths of the Perseid meteors were plotted, and are shown on a chart accompanying the paper. the of Ecuips—E Exprepirions.—Thanks to French Government and the activity M. Loewy and his colleagues, French astronomy will be worthily represented amongst the expeditions which are going to Spain, Algeria, and Tunis to observe the coming total eclipse of the sun. Observers from the Paris and will establish themselves near to Cistierna, in Leon, MM. THe FRENCH liberality of the Besancon observatories Deslandres and Rayet are going to Burgos, whilst M. André (Lyons) will observe the eclipse at Tortosa. The munificence of M. Bischoffsheim will enable the observers from Nice to carry out their programme on the coast near to Alcala, a station selected by M. de la Baume Pluvin M. Trépied (A siers) intends joining MM. Stéphan and Borrelly (Marseilles) at Guelma, Algeria, where MM. Nordmann and Salet (Paris) and MM. Bourget and Montangeraud, of the Montpellier Observatory, will also be located. M. Bigourdan will go to Sfax, where he intends to make actinometric observations with a Violle actinometer. The director of the Paris Municipal Observatory, M. Jaubert, will also endeavour to make actinometric observ- ations from the balloon Centaure, which is to ascend from Constantine, and a second Violle actinometer will be set up at that place for taking readings on the ground. Thermometric observations will be made on the ground and from a balloon at the Eiffel Tower, whilst actinometric observations will also be carried out at the Pic du Midi Observatory. A REMARKABLE was observed by Dr. G. Metgeor.—An unusually splendid meteor Johnstone Stoney on July 13. The object was seen to traverse the eastern sky oh. 56m. a.m., and presented the appearance of intensely bright and pure white globe having a diameter equal to about one-sixth of that of the moon. The meteor travelled in a N.E. direction along a path which sloped downwards, and which was nearly parallel to a line join- ing a point midway and B Andromedz and B Persei at a distance from that line of about 12° measured along a great circle towards the south. Dr. Stoney not able the whole of the path followed by this brilliant object, but he saw it for some at an between a Was to see 30° or 35°, and estimates that his determination of the direction may be 2° or 3° in error, and of the distance of the apparent path from the reference stars, perhaps +2°. THE SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. “PHE annual general meeting of this society was held at University College on Monday of last week. The council reported a total membership of 4326, an increase of 192 compared with the same period last year. It re- ferred to the very successful meeting of the society in America last year, and to the pleasure felt at the visit to England of its American president, and a considerable contingent of American and colonial members. Statistics furnished to the number of original papers read before the various sections of the society, and reference made to the efforts of the society and its members during the year in connection with the use of duty-free alcohol for manufacturing and other trade purposes. The report of the hon. treasurer, Mr. S. Hall, indicated the continued prosperity of the society, though the cost of the journal had appreciably increased. Mr. Gordon Salamon, chairman of the London section, next offered a welcome to the members of the society, and especially to the American and colonial members, on their The president then delivered his were as assembling in London. address. Dr. W. H. Nichols, after expressing his obligations to Prof. Edward Divers, F.R.S., who had acted as deputy president during the greater portion of the year, alluded to the extension of the American membership of the society, which had been marked during his vear of office by the 280 NATURE [JuLy 20, 1905 establishment of a New England section at Boston. He spoke of the advantage which resulted from the holding of regular meetings within reach of members as being a con- siderable addition to that ensuing from the possession of the valuable journal of the society, which he described as in itself worth many times the cost of membership. Sir William Ramsay’s presidential address of the previous year dealt with the results of thirty years’ experience in the education of chemists, education being understood as the production of an attitude of mind rather than the imparting of definite knowledge, though the latter could not be neglected. Dr. Nichols considered the ‘‘ attitude of mind ’’ undoubtedly the pith of the matter. The young chemist fresh from college was only, after all, just pre- rived to learn how to apply the knowledge he had acquirea, and to build on it by his daily experiences. As to some extent taking up the question where Sir William Ramsay laid it down, he proposed to discuss the question of the management of a chemical industrial organisation. The plan he proposed to outline, though it might differ widely from the views held by others as the result of their ex- periences, was the outcome of many years of observation and work, and had stood the test of years in a company Operating more than a score of plants, widely separated and yet all working as a unit. Below the board of directors, with its officers and ex- ecutive committee, the following departments were neces- sary, viz. :—purchasing, sales, transportation, finance, con- struction, operating, research or investigation, and statis- tical. To harmonise these, two committees were re- quisite :—(r) a manufacturing committee, consisting of the managers of the operating, construction, purchasing, and investigation departments, the chairman being the chair- man of the executive committee ; and (2) a sales committee, composed of the managers of the sales, operating and purchasing departments, with a member of the executive committee. The operating department was one of great complexity and importance, and needed a manager and assistant manager. Of the chemists employed, evidence is required not merely that they have received a good education and have completed a technical course of instruction, but that they are of good judgment and capable of assuming re- sponsibility. It is desirable that they should have some knowledge of mechanical engineering and the general principles of construction, though in his experience so rare was a complete combination found that it was usually necessary to engage good chemists with but a moderate knowledge of engineering, or good engineers with only an elementary knowledge of chemistry. It was to be hoped, however, that as a result of the improved instruction in technical chemistry now being given, men would be turned out better prepared in this respect than had hitherto been the case. The great thing, however, was that the man should be practical, trustworthy, hard-working, and possessed of natural ability and the capacity for development and advancement, or, as Sir William Ramsay puts it, ‘‘ have the right attitude of mind.’’ The beginner should be kept long enough on one subject to make rapid and accurate analyses and at the same time be encouraged to make himself familiar with all the different methods of analysis bearing upon his particular work, and to be sure that he tho- roughly understands the basic principles and theory upon which the work rests. After a sufficient experience along these lines, he arrives at a position where he may be able to improve existing methods or even invent new ones; but of course all new methods must be tested by rigid experiment. In a works laboratory a variable degree of accuracy is required, depending upon the object for which the analysis is made. In some cases a tenth of 1 per cent. variation would not be serious. In other cases a ten-thousandth of I per cent., or even much less, is highly important, and as the object is to turn out analyses of the required ac- curacy in the least amount of time, it is of great advantage for the chemist to have such general knowledge of the use to be made of each analysis as will enable him to avoid waste of time in unnecessary accuracy. For routine work it is becoming more and more the custom to employ in works laboratories bright young men, graduates of high schools. Such young men are, of course, useful, but NO. 1864, VOL. 72] unless they pursue their scientific studies outside, as, for instance, at night schools, they are not likely to make great advances. In every laboratory there must be a chemist in control, who in turn shall be supervised by the chief chemist of the company. Unnecessary duplications being avoided, a force thus organised becomes capable of doing an enormous amount of work in a given time and with great accuracy. The beginner confines his duties for a number of months, and frequently for years, to a works laboratory, and in- cidental to his analytical work he gains a certain know- ledge of the general routine which obtains at that plant. After the laboratory service, if the chemist has displayed ability to advance, he is promoted to a position which will bring him into direct contact with the manufacturing pro- cesses, and his duties will gradually change from those of analyst to those of a manufacturing assistant, until he has become proficient enough to warrant promotion to the position of assistant superintendent, to which he is thereafter advanced at the earliest opportunity, either at the works at which he has received his tuition or at another works where such a position has become vacant. The assistant superintendent is under the direction of the superintendent, and from him should receive a regular training in all the various duties pertaining to the position of superintendent, and when such a position becomes vacant, the assistant who, in the judgment of the de- partment, is best qualified to fill the advanced position, is recommended for the promotion. The ability to administer chemical works can be obtained only by experience, and realising this fact the most efficient superintendents should act as teachers to the younger men in their development from one position to another. Chemists who are not attracted by outside or works positions, but who prefer research work, naturally gravitate in due time from the works laboratory to the research laboratory. Occasionally one is found whose ambitions lie in the direction of mercantile affairs, for which he thinks the experience of the chemical laboratory will best qualify him. As a rule, however, the educated chemist does not select advancement in the sales department, or other business parts of the organisation, nor does it often happen that he is qualified. The chemist, to succeed in technical work, must strive for material results. It has been my experience that the post-graduate course seems to incline him towards the search of learning rather than to its application. He must have a clear, logical mind, a singleness of purpose, and he must be able to separate the essential from the non- essential. This is true of all professions, but it is par- ticularly true in chemical work, where the essential must be selected from an unusually large assortment of non- essentials. The efficiency of a navy depends very largely on the man behind the gun.’’ So with chemists in a works or laboratory. The personal equation has much to do with the results. There is no ‘‘ royal road’’ to success here. The rewards are for those who are willing to pay the price, and that price includes constant and intelligent work. The habit of study is rarely acquired after college days, and if the undergraduate does not develop it he should seek a less exacting profession than that of chemistry, unless his ambitions will be satisfied with the daily grind of routine work. The investigation department is that part of the manu- facturing organisation which deals with all the new pro- positions of a technical nature. Its work, which is en- tirely distinct from current manufacturing, has to do with new, and the improvement of old processes. A new pro- position remains under the control of the investigation de- partment from the time of its inception until sufficient data have been obtained to enable the construction depart- ment to design the necessary plant, if one be authorised by the executive committee. It is turned over to the operat- ing department only after the process is working smoothly and the results considered satisfactory. F The organisation of the investigation department should be sufficiently broad to permit the consideration of a manu- facturing proposition from the points of view of the business man, the chemist, the engineer, and the patent attorney. It consists of the manager, a chemical council composed ce Juzy 20, 1905] NATURE 281 {in addition to the manager) of the chief chemical engineer, the chief chemist who is director of the research labora- tory, and such consulting chemists and engineers as the company employs. The appointments in this council are intended to cover the most varied field of theoretical and technical chemistry, and the manager is permitted to con- sult outside experts if the company has not the necessary ‘talent at hand. A corps of chemists on research laboratory work, an abstractor of current chemical literature, patent experts, and a small office force complete the department staff. In the research laboratory a body of chemists, under the supervision of the chief chemist, is employed on research work connected with investigations in hand. A limited number of men are permanently retained on pure research work. The research laboratory reports weekly the progress on all work in hand, and at the completion of each investiga- tion sends in a statement of the steps taken, accompanied by the chief’s recommendation as to further action. These reports are passed upon by the chemical council at its regular meetings. All the analyses required are made by the analytical laboratory, which is specially equipped for turning out ‘quick and accurate estimations. Each works has its own analytical laboratory, but there is a central laboratory for the work of the head office. This laboratory critically ex- amines and selects all analytical methods, which are adopted as standards and furnished to all works labora- tories. The work of the investigation department originates from ‘sources which may, in a general way, be divided into three classes :— (a) The probability of reducing manufacturing costs. (b) A decision to produce well established products not previously manufactured by the company. (c) New applications of science to industry. (cj) The largest field is perhaps that of improving the processes at present in use at the different works, and is one which usually yields very profitable results. Aside from the chronic aim of the operating department to secure uniformly low costs, a decision to investigate a process in use may result from a drop in the market price of a product on account of trade conditions, or because the process is technically unsatisfactory. There may be de- veloped, therefore, new methods or important modifications involving reconstruction or even new plants. (b) Consideration of the manufacture of products not previously produced by the company is usually given as a result of market conditions or special wants of customers. Where a large consumption of a product of interest is de- veloping, and the raw materials prove to be available, an investigation may be undertaken with a view to the selection of a process and the construction of a plant. (c) The third source of investigation originates in the distinctly new processes so frequently offered to the world. ‘Such processes, whether for a product manufactured by the company or of prospective interest, are always given the attention which their merits seem to warrant. No one who has a sensible process to offer is refused a hearing, and the treatment accorded the inventor soon becomes public opinion. As a rule, the inventor is retained to direct the development of his process under the management of the ‘department. As an investigation of a new manufacture includes a thorough examination of both the commercial and technical sides of the proposition, the commercial side, in which the assistance of the manager of the sales department and other commercial branches is invoked, calls for considera- tion of the following :— (1) Its relation to the interests of the company; (2) the market ; (3) manufacturing costs; (4) investment necessary ; (5) source of raw materials; (6) transportation. On the technical side a study must ke made of :-— (1) The process; (7) other processes; (3) raw materials ; (4) quality of product required. These topics indicate the method of working out or testing the practicability of the process. This phase of the proposition is entirely a chemical and engineering one, and calls for most of the work of the investigation staff. In the usual order of procedure, a proposal reaching NO. 1864, VOL. 72] | filtering, the investigation department is subjected to a preliminary consideration, and is entered for record if it is to be made a subject for investigation. It is then submitted to the chemical council, which decides on the method of investi- gation to be pursued. A résumé of the literature is generally made and a report obtained from foreign representatives on the latest European developments. We may soon have to add the Japanese. As the inquiry progresses, the chemical council, which meets weekly, is kept informed of the progress made. The thorough consideration given at this early stage frequently prevents useless laboratory expense and much loss of time. Where an investigation of a process in use is being made, a member of the investigation department is sent to each of the works using it, to study the methods and management and analyse its defects. His reports thereon are considered by the chemical council in the manner indicated above. If the final result of the investigation of a new process be favourable, an experimental plant may be recommended and an appropriation asked for. This may be advisable not only to assist in reaching a decision regarding the wisdom of adopting the process, but also for furnishing data for the designing of a manufacturing plant, if one be ultimately decided upon. In the case of the adoption of a process. and the designing of a plant, the work of the investigation and construction departments is very intimately connected. An investigation covers the inquiry regarding the proper design of the ap- paratus or plant, as well as the process per se Investigations in connection with construction naturally differ, to a certain extent, and include consideration of methods for handling the raw material, the solids, liquids and gases involved in the process; furnacing, dissolving, evaporating, crystallising, distilling, subliming, drying, &c., and the packing and handling of the finished product. The materials to be used in different parts of the con- struction are determined if an investigation into that im- portant side be necessary, whether wood, cast iron, steel, lead, tin, aluminium, alloy, earthenware, porcelain, rubber, cement, &c. Any special data requested by the construction department in carrying out its work are furnished by the investigation department, such as the selection of fuel for special work, boiler and engine tests, consumption of steam, &c., and all chemical work. The benefits resulting from organisation in the con- sideration of improvements and new processes are very evident. The results of experiments in one instance are applicable to others of distinctly different character. The full use of them demands a central bureau and clearing house of information. The conferences held so frequently are not permitted to drag. Records are kept of all decisions, and even the local heads of departments present are notified in writing. The routine work of the department consists in the collection and filing for easy access of technical and com- mercial data of all kinds connected with chemical manu- facturing, for immediate and prospective use. Circulars containing useful information applicable to the works, and copies of research reports that may help operations, are transmitted to superintendents. Records of failure are just as important as those of success. Every encouragement is given superintendents to confer freely on any modifica- tions, developments, or conceptions which may occur to them. The esprit de corps resulting naturally reaches the junior men and foremen, so that a keen sense of re- sponsibility and importance is felt throughout. The frequent visits of managers and superintendents to the head office, and the periodic meetings of superin- tendents which are called for conference, and discussion enable the responsible men to continue in perfect familiarity with the technical resources of the company. The research department would not be complete without a laboratory plant, large enough to work out processes on a small manufacturing scale. Such a plant should have all the standard appliances, and be so arranged that the results obtained in it are sufficient to form the basis for the engineering work resulting in the experimental plant to follow the successful investigation. 282 NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 After all the organisation has been perfected and the machinery lubricated and put in motion, it would be apt to run wild if some trustworthy and absolute method of control should not be at hand. This I have found com- pletely accomplished by a department which has to do with the compilation of facts and the deductions from them. It is absolutely essential, in a company operating a number of plants, that those in control should not only know what each one of its manufactured products costs; but what enters into making up that cost, so that if for any reason there is a drain going on it will be quickly known, located and stopped; or if, on the other hand, something ad- vantageous shall have been accomplished, that will also be noted and imitated at other points. This may seem like an exceedingly difficult undertaking in an industry of such infinite variety, but a brief consideration will show that it is not so. The statistical department, to which I allude, is not only able to advise the officers within a reasonable time after the end of each month of the cost of every product and step, but also of the profit or loss on each article and the total profit or loss of the company. These results have been. so exact that for several years the profits determined by public accountants at the end of the year have not varied 1 per cent. from those which had been worked up in this statistical department month by month. The importance of this information to those in control will be readily understood. For my own part, 1 do not see how it would be possible intelligently to run a large enterprise involving a number of plants without some such arrangement. The exact plan which I follows :— Each factory furnishes monthly the following reports :— raw materials received; raw materials used ; shipments of finished products; stocks of raw materials; stocks of finished products. Productions and statement of statistical charges (including manufacturing labour, labour on repairs, material taken from the storehouse for repairs, all material taken from the storehouse for manufacturing except fuel and raw materials), packages, dry barrels, &c., included in the selling price and not returnable, manufacturing cartage (1.e. teams used around the works), steam and water. The first shows the number of pounds of raw material received, together with cost of placing in the pile, and by adding the amount of bills, freight, &c., we get the actual cost per hundred pounds of each. These figures are used in obtaining the material cost of each hundred pounds of production, which, with sundries, labour, fuel, and repairs, makes up the total manufacturing cost, and in connection with that shows what each department has accomplished during the month. As each of the factory sheets is checked and every pound of raw material and finished product accounted for, nothing escapes which should be considered in costs. ‘ Ih addition to the manufacturing cost are shown the cost per roolb. of special factory charges (including such ac- counts as docks, dredging, fire equipment, laboratory, lighting, roads, maintenance of yards, watchmen, gate- men, &c.), and cost per 1oolb. of goods produced due to salaries of superintendents and chemists, based on pro- portion of labour of each department and the total manu- facturing labour. The factory shipment sheets are checked with the ac- counting department as well as repairs and net selling prices obtained, lighterage, cartage, allowances, estimated freights, &c., being deducted. By using the manufacturing costs and the net selling prices, we arrive each month at the gross manufacturing profits, and deducting taxes, insurance, office, and other general expenses, the net results are obtained. All organisation, whether in the chemical industry or any other, would fail to attain the best and most per- manent results if the personal equation be forgotten. We are not dealing with a collection of apparatus, but with an organisation of men, everyone an individual, with his own peculiarities and ambitions. The day has not come, if it ever will, when from purely altruistic motives a man will give his most efficient services. He must realise that while his best work must be done, it will not go unnoticed and unrewarded. He must be sure that he will receive just and proportionately liberal treatment. NO. 1864, VOL. 72] would recommend is as ambitions must not be smothered, they must be directed. From an experience of many years, I believe the plan outlined above provides fully for this most important fact, and I can point with the greatest pleasure to many men as proof of my statement, and every one more enthusiastic than at the beginning. The places of the leaders will some+ day be vacant. Who, then, shall fill them? Those whose lives have been spent in preparation for the work, and who will enter into it without shock or derangement of existing conditions, but as naturally as the stream flows into the river. Thus will the natural ambitiom of the young man reach its fulfilment in due time, and thus will our beloved industry progress to points of attainment which some of us may dream of, but will never see. A vote of thanks to the president for his address was then proposed by Prof. Divers and seconded by Sir Henry Roscoe, the first president of the society, in the course of which allusion was made both to the valuable character of the address to which the members had just listened, to the origin of the society some twenty-five years ago, and to the considerable growth in its membership which the council’s report indicated. In responding, Dr. Nichols spoke of the advantage which ensued to the society as a whole as a consequence of the visit last year to America, followed, as it happily had been, by the present visit to England of a considerable number of members from the other side of the Atlantic. He said how much he and his fellow-countrymen appreciated the hospitality that had been already shown them, and the efforts that had been made in connection with the interesting and lengthy programme that had been arranged largely for their benefit. He said that in New York they had been anxious to provide some souvenir of their visit that they might leave behind them, and, on informing the meeting of the report of the scrutineers, which declared that Prof. Divers, F.R.S., had been elected president for the ensuing year, he desired to place in his hands the little thing that they had ventured to have prepared. This was a presidential badge formed of a medallion of Sir Humphry Davy surrounded by an emblematical device representing the union of England and America in the pursuit of chemical science. He trusted that the council of the society would authorise the wearing of the badge by all his successors in the office of president, and hoped it would help still further to cement the good feeling and cordiality which existed between members of this great society on both sides of the Atlantic. He con- cluded by announcing the names of the vice-presidents and ordinary members of the council who had been found to be duly elected to office. é Prof. Divers expressed, on behalf of the society, appre- ciation of the kindness which had dictated the offer of this valuable presidential badge. On the motion of Dr. Bailey, seconded by Mr. Hiibner, who on behalf of Manchester promised a very hearty reception, it was resolved that the next annual general meeting should be held in that city. On the motion of Pref. Chandler, of Colombia Uni- versity, seconded by Sir Boverton Redwood, the hearty thanks of the society were accorded to the senate and council of University College for granting permission to the society to meet in that building. This was responded to by Sir William Ramsay, who incidentally referred to the fact that University College as a separate corporation had just ceased to exist, having become absorbed in and an essential part of the University of London. The meeting then adjourned. THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. S has already been noted in these columns, the new buildings of the University of Sheffield were on Wednesday of last week opened by the King and Queen, and by the act a new centre for research was created in this country. Nothing seems to have been lacking to make the ceremony a success; all taking part, from the King down- wards, entered into the proceedings with enthusiasm. In replying to the address of welcome presented by the city, the King said that he and the Queen were glad to be present to open the university buildings and to inaugurate His proper ' a work which he was assured would tend to promote the JULY 20, 1905] WALDO FE. 2S advancement of knowledge and the spread of culture among all classes in the city. He had no doubt that the establish- ment of the university would also afford facilities for the technical training which is now essential to success in every industrial enterprise, and concluded by saying that he should follow the progress of the university with warm interest. It may be mentioned here, as indicating His Majesty’s interest in the spread of university teaching, that he has since sent through Lord Londonderry a letter to the Lord Mayor of Sheffield stating that ‘‘ the opening of the new university buildings was felt by their Majesties to be an occasion of great importance. His Majesty has recognised with pleasure the desire felt in some of the great centres of industry and commerce that universities should take a prominent part in the promotion of scientific knowledge and research. His Majesty recognises that in these days of constantly increased application of science and of scientific method to every department of modern life, it is to the universities that the nation must largely look for maintaining that position in relation to great commercial and industrial problems which is essential to the social well-being of his Empire.”’ His Majesty has also sent the following reply to the that wider movement of which this university is but a sign and symbol. The early years of your Majesties’ reign must always be remarkable as having witnessed that more general awakening on the part of your Majesties’ subjects to the advantages of higher education in all branches of learning and that better understanding of its needs and requirements which is evidenced by the almost simultaneous creation of five independent universities, at Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield. The distinction conferred upon the inauguration of our university by the gracious presence of your Majesties here to-day is of the happiest omen for its future, and we can only hope and pray that the teaching given within these buildings, the learning acquired within these walls, and the influences that will follow from them, may prove not unworthy of the great honour you have done us, and may be a constant source of profit and of ever-increasing useful- ness to all your loyal and loving subjects within these districts.”’ The Duke of Norfollk then addressed the King, and in the course of his remarks, after paying tribute to the men to whom the university movement in Sheffield is mainly due, stated that it was now three years since it had f classes of Majesties’ been Photo. by Pawson and Brailsford, Sheffiek Fic. 1.—The University Buildings from Weston Park. address presented to him by the university authorities :—* I view with lively satisfaction the establishment of this and other universities in large industrial centres, and it gives me great pleasure to open the handsome and_ spacious buildings provided for the University of Sheffield. I have never ceased to watch with great interest the great develop- ment of the wide movement for the encouragement of a sound and liberal education among all classes of my people, and I am well assured that the expectations of those patriotic and enlightened men by whose efforts were estab- lished the institutions from which the University of Sheffield derives its origin will be justified by the achieve- ments of those who are educated within these walls.” The opening ceremony was preceded by the reading of the above-mentioned address from the University by the Chancellor—the Duke of Norfolk—from which we extract the fol pyiing sentences :—‘‘* We bear in proud and grateful memory the fact that on more than one previous occasion members of your Royal House have shown 1n interest in the instructions from which the Univers t, of Sheffield derives its origin, and we gladly recall. what has been already achieved in the course of your reign to advance NO. 1864, VOL. 72] thought necessary to gather into one home the various sources of educational work which the university ought to supply ; and the faculties of arts, of pure science, and of medicine have now been gathered together. Applied science is in another very adjacent building. He stated that every class in Sheffield has shown keen interest in the work, and that the sum of needed to meet the expense of erecting and endowing the university. Reference having been made to the granting in May last of the charter to the university, the Ning was handed a key and requested t. declare the university open. This he did, speaking as fcllows:—‘I have great pleasure in declaring these beautiful buildings and it is my fervent hope and desire for the long-continued prosperity of the University of Sheffield.”’ 20,0001. is open ; The following is a short description of the new build- ings. The illustration (which we are able to give by per- mission of Messrs. Pawson and Brailsford, of Sheffield) is a view of the university from Weston Park. The buildings are constructed of red brick and stone in the Tudor style of architecture, form three sides of a quad- 284 NATURE [JuLy 20, 1905 rangle, and are situated upon a site overlooking Weston Park. A tower has been erected at one corner of the quadrangle, octagonal turrets at two of the other corners, the site of the third turret together with the fourth side of the quadrangle being left vacant in order to provide for future extensions. The building on the south side, which faces Western Bank, contains the large hall of the Uni- versity ; this hall is to be known by the name of the Firth Hall, after the founder of Firth College. The Firth Hall is designed to accommodate an audience of about S00 persons. In the same building are the administrative offices, the council room, the common rooms and refectories. The building on the west side provides for the departments in the faculties of arts and pure science, that on the north for the departments in the medical faculty. The faculty of applied science is located on a separate site about four minutes away in St. George’s Square. The physical laboratories contain a superficial area of 10,000 square feet, and are self-contained on three floors connected by a spiral staircase and apparatus lift, the rooms on each floor being arranged on either side of a central corridor except those on the lower ground floor, which, owing to the slope of the ground, are confined to the quadrangle front. Accommodation is provided for all the various departments of physics, except electrical engin- eering, which is housed in the buildings for applied science in St. George’s Square. The chemical department occupies the northern half of the top floor in the western block, and has a floor area, including corridors, of 7400 square feet. Two lecture theatres are provided. The larger, 30 feet by 4o feet, is furnished with seating accommodation for 110 students. A preparation room for lecture experiments adjoins this. On the other side of the corridor is a smaller lecture theatre to accommodate 34 students; this will be utilised for tutorial work, and for work with small classes. There are laboratories for elementary and advanced students, and a small one for research work. The biological department, which includes the two subjects of zoology and botany, adjoins the chemical department, and occupies the southern half of the top floor of the west wing. A lecture room is also allotted to this department on the first floor, and the whole of the upper part of the tower. There are two lecture rooms, the larger having accommodation for about 80 students. The general laboratory, with a raised platform and table for the purpose of practical demonstrations, and _ the botanical laboratory afford accommodation for 30 students each; there is also a zoological laboratory for advanced students, besides zoological and botanical research labora- tories. The anatomical department includes a large lecture theatre, a museum, several research laboratories, and private rooms for the professor and demonstrators. Ac- commodation for microscopes and stereoscopes is provided, also a set of the most modern anthropological instruments, and requisites for students who may desire to do work in modern developments of anatomy. The physiological department has an area of about 5400 square feet. There are nine rooms in the department, and no corridors, the rooms opening into each other; the three largest of these are the general laboratory, 7o feet by 25 feet, the chemico-physiological laboratory, 50 feet by 25 feet, and the lecture theatre. Another large room in the department is the general research room, 25 feet by 30 feet. The rooms in this department, like all the other rooms on the north front, are lighted with specially large windows in order to facilitate microscopical work, and have several concealed sinks in the floor, which, when opened, reveal supplies of gas, water, and electricity, thus avoiding the necessity of fixed benches, their place being taken by movable tables. The pathological department occupies the whole of the upper floor of the medical block; the main feature is the large students’ laboratory facing north, 70 feet by 26 feet, divided by two partitions. There are adjoining this two laboratories, one large and one small, intended for the bacteriological work to be done in connection with the City Health Department. A special feature consists of an in- cubating room in the centre of the department, so arranged that it can be kept at a constant temperature; this room NO. 1864, VOL. 72] | embedded will replace the ordinary incubating ovens. There is a large lecture theatre in the department, a museum with a top and a south light, a special research laboratory, also private rooms, photographic and store rooms—the last two mentioned being in the roof and the turrets above the department. The new buildings allotted to the engineering depart- ment consist of four floors; the lowest floor or basement contains a large extension of the original laboratories. The main engineering laboratory contains a plant which can be used both by mechanical and electrical engineering students. here is also a very complete electrical equip- ment in the new building to demonstrate the applications of electricity to lighting, traction, and power transmission. The department of metallurgy has had special attention paid to it, seated as it is in a city where the chief national metallurgical industry is carried on. As a natural con- sequence of this, so far as iron and steel metallurgy is concerned, the metallurgical laboratories of the University of Sheffield are unique. These laboratories are divided into two sections, the scientific and the practical. In the first named there are nine, and in the second two labora- tories. GEOLOGICAL NOTES. [, MONG recent publications of the Geologische Reichs- anstalt of Vienna, Herr G. Geyer (Verhandlungen, 1904, p- 363) discusses the nature of the pre-Jurassic floor of Austria, from a study of blocks of crystalline rock in Liassic sandstone, and of the island-like ‘““ Klippe,’ formed of granite, which lies N.W. of Weyer, and which has been utilised for the memorial of von Buch. This mass of granite, by-the-by (Toula, tbid., 1905, p- 89), was correctly appreciated as a projecting mass of older land, and not as an erratic block, by von Hochstetter as far back as 1869. Herr Geyer refers to many instances of “exotic blocks ’’ north of the Alps, and points out the influence of the old gneissic and granitic foundation on the subsequent folding in the region of the Enns. Herr R. J. Schubert (ibid., 1904, p- 461) adds greatly to our knowledge of the Upper Eocene and Oligocene beds of Dalmatia, while Dr. Franz Kossmat (ibid., 1905, p- 71) shows how the Sava began to flow eastward on the uplifted floor of a Miocene gulf, and formed the plain near Laibach , by filling in a depression that developed during the latest movements of the Alps. In the department of paleontology, Dr. Katzer (ibid., 1905, p- 45) furnishes an interesting account of the microscopic structure of the Devonian Tentaculite-limestones of Bohemia, which may be regarded as a valuable supplement to Novdk’s work on Tenta- culites (Beitraége sur Pal. Oesterreich-Ungarns, ii. Bd., 1882). Herr Theodor Fuchs (Jahrbuch der k.k. Reichs- anstalt, 1904, p. 359) reviews in considerable detail a number of recent papers on fucoids, and concludes that these problematic organisms were not washed into the strata after the manner of floating seaweeds, but arose where they are now found. He insists that museum-speci- mens in such cases are likely to be misleading, and that a study of fucoids in the field shows that some, at any rate, run perpendicularly to the strata by which they are surrounded. Herr G. Stache (Verhandlungen, 1905, p. 100) again investigates the globular Cretaceous organism named by him Bradya, and gives it new interest by showing its resemblance, in structure and mode of occurrence, to Brady’s recent genus Keramosphera, described in 1882 from the deep sea south of Australia. Bradya has long been connected with Steinmann’s hydrozoan form Poro- sphera; but Stache is now able to revive it, and once more to refer it to the foraminifera. Students of our well known British form Parkeria will find much to interest them in this paper. Herren Hofmann and Zdarsky (Jahrbuch, 1904, p- 577) discuss and illustrate the dentition of Deinotherium, and the abundant remains of a species of antelope, from the Miocene beds of Leoben. The Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa for January to April contain several stratigraphical and structural papers by Dr. Molengraaff and others; but general interest will be raised by the illustrated description of the great Cullinan diamond, by Messrs. Hatch and Corstorphine, on p. 26. In the Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, vol. xvi. (1905), Mr. Rogers JuLy 20, 1905] NAL OTRE 285 (p. 1) confirms his discovery of a glacial conglomerate, the Pakhuis bed, in the Table Mountain series near Clan- william. A thousand feet of sandstones, probably fluviatile, overlies these glacial strata, and the Devonian Bokkeveld beds follow, so that the antiquity of the con- glomerate, as compared with the well known Dwyka beds, is put beyond a doubt. Mr. Schwarz (ibid., p. 9) makes a block of gneiss from the voleano of Tristan d’Acunha serve as the text for a dissertation on oceanic islands in general, which he expands further into a treatise on several points in theoretical geology. We confess to a feeling of nightmare, as the one innocent specimen leads us on into enormous fields of speculation, where a consider- able area is occupied by the slaying of the slain. When, after twenty-six pages, we reach the question, “‘ What, after all, are volcanoes? ’’ we are tempted to turn over the next eight, to where the description of ‘‘ the rocks of Tristan d’Acunha’”’ nestles humbly as an appendix. Mr. A. L. du Toit (p. 53) furnishes a serious paper on the forming of the Drakensberg, which summarises many recent observ- ations. Stress is laid on the numerous volcanic necks and lava-flows, which are later than the Cave Sandstone. In some cases, the vents contain no igneous matter, but merely masses of exploded sandstone and shale, in a ground of pulverised grit. Dr. R. Broom re-opens (ibid., p- 73) the whole question of the age and affinities of Tritylodon. Those who were present at the memorable meeting in London in 1884, when Owen laid upon the table what was believed to be the oldest known mammalian skull, will read with some surprise of the doubt which hangs over the locality and horizon of the fossil. Dr. Broom believes that it came, as then stated, from Basuto- land; if so, it is from the Stormberg beds, which he regards as of Lower Jurassic age. As was pointed out in Nature, vol. Ixxii. p. 36, the reference of the reptilian beds of South Africa to the Permian may carry back the Stormberg beds also, and this will make Dr. Broom’s defence of Tritylodon as a mammal, and not a reptile, of even greater interest as research goes on. Dr. A. E. Salter (Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, vol. xix. p. 1) produces a large amount of original evidence bearing on the sources of the superficial deposits found above the Jurassic and Cretaceous strata to the south, north-west, and west of London. The area studied is a wide one, and Dr. Salter traces fluviatile action in it to an epoch before the deposition of the “* Boulder-clay.’’ Among his interesting conclusions, we note that a large amount of “‘ drift ’’ material in the lower basin of the Thames is of southern origin, suggesting that ““the southern slope was formerly more extensive than at present,’’ the distribution of such material having been probably aided by earth-movements. In support of this latter contention, it is shown that Lower Greensand chert from the Wealden area occurs 650 feet above the sea at Goring Gap. The Lower Thames Valley is thus held to be of recent geological age (pp. 17, 25, &c.). Other evidence is adduced of the modification of the general direction of drainage by earth-movements since the higher gravels were deposited. Dr. O. Mann begins, in the Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Isis (1904, p. 61), what promises to be a de- tailed account of the tin-deposits of the Erzgebirge, in- cluding a microscopic examination of the veins of quartz, tourmaline, and cassiterite. Dr. J. W. Spencer further emphasises his views as to submerged river-channels and continental shelves in two notices of the work of Hull and Nansen (American Geologist, vol. xxxv. pp. 152 and 222). He provides us also with a useful bibliography of the subject in relation to America (American Journal of Science, vol. xix. p- 341). A preliminary note on the geology of the provinces of Tsang and U in Tibet, by H. H. Hayden (Records, Geol. Survey of India, vol. xxxii. p. 160), forms a pleasant out- come of the recent political expedition. Marine Cainozoic beds are found north of the Sikkim border, and there is evidence of a former considerable extension of glaciers northward from the Himalayas. The granite near Lhasa is intrusive in a wide area of Jurassic strata, which have suffered much from crushing and metamorphism. The country does not appear rich in minerals, and even the gems are imported. GPAs 0G: NO. 1864, VOL. 72] UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Campripce.—Amongst the list of donations to the uni- versity benefaction fund which was recently published by the Vice-Chancellor the following sums may be mentioned :— the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, s5oo0ol.; the Right Hon. Lord Iveagh (further donation), 1oool.; C. J. Heywood, Esq., 100l.; J. Lumb, Esq., rool. Besides these a number of smaller sums have been received, some of which are especially allocated to the Huddersfield lectureship in pathology. In addition to these sums the Cambridge University Association has collected more than 6o000l. towards the fund for the university library. The success of this is due almost entirely to the energy of the regis- trary. The Schuter scholarship in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital has been awarded to Mr. R. B. S. Sewell, late scholar of Christ’s College. Dr. T. G. Pincnues has been invited to join the staff of the institute of archeology of the University of Liver- pool as assyriologist. Tue resignation of Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell from his position on the Geological Survey of Egypt is announced. Mr. Beadnell has been connected with the survey since 1896, i.e. from the time it was established. From a long list of recent changes we extract the follow- ing appointments to professorships at technical colleges :— Prof. M. Disteli at Dresden, for descriptive geometry ; Mr. Camillo Kérner and Prof. K. Zsigmondy at Prague, for machine construction and mathematics respectively ; Dr. Leo Griinmach at Berlin; Dr. Gustay Rasch at Aachen; Dr. Clarence Feldmann at Delft, for electro- technics; Dr. A. Tobler at Zurich, for applied electricity ; Prof. F. Schilling at Charlottenburg, for geometry. W. Konig, of Greifswald, has been appointed professor of physics at the University of Giessen, and Dr. Karl Stéchl professor of mathematics and physics at Passau. THE proposal made by the Emperor of Germany for the temporary interchange of professors with America for a course of lectures is leading to a number of important results. Harvard University has invited Prof. Ostwald, of Leipzig, to give a half year’s course, Columbia University has secured lectures from Prof. V. F. Bjerknes, of Stock- holm, on ‘‘ Fields of Force,’’ and from Prof. H. A. Lorentz, of Leyden, on ‘‘ Extensions of Maxwell’s Electro- magnetic Theory.”’ Is Great Britain with its usual insularity going to keep aloof from the new movement? It is hardly likely that any proposal from our country would fail to obtain hearty support either in Germany or in America. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 9.—‘‘The Rate o Transmission or the Guatemala Earthquake of April 19, 1902.’’ By R. D. Oldham. This paper contains a complete study of an earthquake from the point of view of the rate of transmission. The time and place of origin are known with a sufficient degree of accuracy, and the shock was of sufficient power to give distinct records even at 160° from the origin. Three phases of wave motion are recognised, the third phase including all those which are distinguished in Japan by the symbols [Pe P,, as the author believes that it is doubtful whether there is any real difference in the character of the wave motion, or whether, in these so-called phases, we have not waves of essentially similar nature, but varying rates of propagation. The first and second phases are, however, of distinct character, being mass-waves, differing from each other not only in rate of propagation but in character of wave motion. Of these, the first phase shows a continuous increase in the apparent rate of propagation as the distance from the origin becomes greater, and seems to emerge almost simultaneously at all points more than 145° from the origin. The second phase shows an increase in the apparent rate of propagation up to 100°, and a decrease beyond this; the result is unexpected, but the author, while remarking that it must not be rejected on that 286 NA TORE [JuLy 20, 1905 account, also points out that the second phase is much less well marked in the distant records than in the nearer ones. From the figures given in the paper, it appears that the times taken by the three phases of wave motion to travel from their origin to its antipodes are respectively about 20, 50, and 100 minutes. Physical Society, June 30.—Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., past-president, in the chair.—The comparison of electric fields by means of an oscillating electric needle: D. Owen. This paper describes experiments which show how an ‘electric needle’? may be used to measure electric fields in a manner similar to that in which a magnetic field is measured by an oscillating magnetic needle. The needles used were cylindrical in form, of aluminium or of brass, and were suspended by quartz fibres three or four inches in length. The couple on the needle when disturbed from the direction of the field is proportional to the square of the field strength. For small displacements the needle vibrates isochronously, the frequency being proportional to the electric force. It may be used in alternating as well as in steady fields, and may be applied to illustrate many of the laws of electrostatics. The disturbing effect of the needle upon the field is considered; in particular its effect when placed in a uniform field. It is shown by experiments that the disturbing effect falls off rapidly with the distance from the needle, and is inappreciable (in the case of a needle 14 cm. long) at a distance of twice the length of the needle. With regard to the effect of the dimensions of the needle upon the frequency (for given field), while the restoring couple decreases rapidly with decrease of size, yet the moment of inertia decreases more rapidly, so that the smaller the needle the greater the frequency, and also the smaller the disturbing effect. The shielding effect of some dielectric materials was examined in the following way :—A needle was suspended centrally in the uniform field between a pair of parallel plates. A thin-walled cylinder of the dielectric was placed around the needle, and the shielding action dencted by a fall in frequency of the needle. Glass and mica were found to effect perfect shielding. Ordinary paper shields; but when thoroughly dried by heat the electric field is transmitted undiminished only to fall off to zero after a minute or two’s exposure to the air. Dry paper soaked in melted paraffin-wax transmits the field perfectly and for an in- definite time. The paper concludes by pointing out that an electric needle suspended between a pair of parallel plates forms a simple means of measuring high voltages, since the frequency of vibration is simply proportional to the voltage between the plates.—The magneto-optics of sodium vapour and the rotatory dispersion formula: Prof. R. W. Wood. It has been shown in a previous paper that the vapour of metallic sodium is an ideal substance for investigating the effect of a strong absorption band on the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarisation. The preliminary work was not very satisfactory, as the method employed did not admit of very accurate determinations of the wave-lengths. Improvements in the methods of observation and design of the apparatus have been accom- panied by an increase in accuracy, and accurate readings have been obtained for as many as nine different values of A between D, and D,. Rotations as great is 1440° (four complete revolutions) have actually been observed, and this with a 10 em. column of not very dense vapour in a field of 2000 C.G.S. units. In the present paper the magneto-optics of the vapour for light travelling along the lines of force are discussed. The sodium was heated in a tube of thin steel, the ends of which projected from the helices of the magnet. It was found that the field strength within the steel tube did not differ greatly from that obtained when glass tubes were used. A short piece of small brass tubing is brazed into one end of the steel tube, through which the steel tube is exhausted. A good vacuum is essential, all traces of rotation disappearing in hydrogen or nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. Light from an arc- lamp made parallel by a lens is passed through a Nicol’s prism, the steel tube, and a second Nicol, after which it is brought to a focus upon the slit of a spectroscope by means of a second lens. In the present case, a concave grating of 14 feet radius was used instead of a spectro- scope, the observations being made both visually and by NO! 1664, VOU oi) ‘means of photography. The paper then describes the phenomena which are presented when the sodium vapour is formed in the magnetic field. In the case of very dense vapours the rotation has been measured over a consider- able range of wave-lengths, namely, throughout the region comprised between A=5840 and A=5922. The rotation constant of D, was found to be about double that of D,. Drude, in his *‘ Lehrbuch der Optik,’’ has given two ‘formula for the magnetic rotatory dispersion, the first of which, developed from the hypothesis of molecular currents, calls for an anomalous effect on crossing the band, and does not apply to sodium vapour. The second, developed from the Hall-effect hypothesis, predicts rotations of similar sign and equal magnitude for wave-lengths symmetrically situated in the spectrum, with respect to the centre of the absorption-band. It seems likely that the molecular currents play some part, and that the formula built up on the hypothesis of the Hall-effect is incomplete. However, the latter formula represents the rotation out- side of the D-lines with great accuracy, while between the lines it gives in some cases a curve which is elevated somewhat above the experimental curve. The paper con- cludes with an account of the bright-line spectrum pro- duced by magnetic rotation which presents itself when the Nicol’s prisms of the apparatus are crossed. The spec- trum, which at first could only be seen with difficulty, was finally obtained of such brilliancy that it could be photo- graphed with a 14-feet concave grating. A good vacuum was found to be an essential condition, the presence of inert gases causing a faintness of the lines.—The fluor- escence of sodium vapour: Prof. R. W. Wood. The fluorescence of scdium vapour has been investigated by allowing light of various wave-lengths to illuminate the vapour, and then studying the light emitted with a spectro- scope. Approximately homogeneous light of any desired wave-length is obtained by means of a monochromatic illuminator. Some sodium is placed in a horizontal steel tube fitted with steel ends, in one of which is a circular aperture bored just above the centre. The tube is heated and the vapour rises until it reaches the hole. The light from the monochromatic illuminator passes through the hole and falls upon the vapour. The fluorescent light is then observed by means of a spectroscope either visually or by photography. It is essential that the incident light should not traverse an appreciable amount of the vapour, or the fluorescent effects are masked by those of absorp- tion. The bright lines of the fluorescent spectrum are by no means the exact complement of the absorption spectrum. Very remarkable effects have been observed when the vapour is illuminated with a very narrow band of approxi- mately homogeneous light, the lines in the fluorescent spectrum changing their position and appearing to dance about with the slightest change in the wave-length of the exciting light. The motion is of course only an illusion, lines disappearing and others re-appearing, like the sparks of a spinthariscope. Stokes’s law is violated in a most flagrant manner, bright lines coming out on both sides of the excited region. The behaviour of the spectrum indicates that we are dealing with a number of groups of electrons, each group containing a large number of vibrators. The excitation of one of these vibrators sets the whole group going, but does not start disturbances in the other groups. EDINBURGH. Royal Society, June 19.—Dr R. H. Traquair in the chair. —A comparative study of the dominant phanerogamic and higher cryptogamic flora of aquatic habit: George West. The paper referred to three loch areas of Scot- land, namely, Loch Ness, the district between Nairn and Forres, and the Island of Lismore. In the first district the waters were peaty, in the third they were heavily charged with lime and were free of peat, while in the second district the waters were neither limey nor peaty, but were turbid and unwholesome in appearance, due to the presence of marsh gas. These characteristics influenced in a marked degree the habit of the aquatic flora, the distribution and growth of which were also dependent on the direction of the prevailing winds. Interesting details were given.—Les concrétions phosphatées de l’Agulhas Bank (Cape of Good Hope): Dr. Léon W. Collet; avec JuLy 20, 1905] NALORLE 287 une description de la glauconie qu’elles renferment, par Gabriel W. Lee. The work was undertaken under the direction of Sir John Murray, whose large collection of phosphatic nodules had been greatly enriched by the con- cretions dredged off the Cape of Good Hope by the steamer of the Department of Agriculture, and presented by Dr. Gilchrist, the Government biologist. The concretions were found beyond the 1oo-fathom line down to depths of 800 fathoms. Their occurrence, as already pointed out by Sir John Murray, is closely connected with the oceano- graphical question of the variability of temperature in certain regions. The mingling of two currents of different temperature is necessarily attended by a great mortality among the creatures living in these waters, and_ their dead bodies falling to the bottom produce ammonia and phosphate of lime. There can be little doubt that the glauconite and phosphates found in geological strata have been formed under similar conditions. In the material from the Agulhas Bank two kinds of nodules were found :—(1) those with Foraminifera and other calcareous organisms; (2) those without carbonate of lime and with the glauconite grains cemented together by phosphatic matter. These implied different modes of formation. Mr. Lee recognised two kinds of glauconite in the phosphatic nodules, the occurrence in the one kind being in the form of grains with definite contours, in the other in the form of a diffused pigment.—Note on some of the magnetic properties of demagnetised and annealed iron: James Russell. The iron was demagnetised by one of three methods, namely, by decreasing reversals of magnetic force co-directional with the field to be afterwards applied in the study of the permeability, by decreasing re- versals of a transverse force, or by annealing. The permeabilities after these processes of demagnetisation were carried out were then compared, and various interest- ing conclusions arrived at. One very remarkable result was that, however much the values of the permeability differed under these varied conditions, the value of the coercive force (as defined by Hopkinson) was almost exactly the same in all cases.—Certain mathematical instruments for graphically indicating the direction of re- fracted and reflected light rays: J. R. Milne. These simple devices were not only useful in demonstrating the course of reflected and refracted rays, but could also be effectively used in graphically solving problems in geo- metrical optics the algebraic solution of which presented insurmountable difficulties in the way of carrying out the necessary eliminations.—On the hydrodynamical theory of seiches: Prof. Chrystal. This paper contained the mathe- matical solution of problems suggested by the phenomena of seiches in lakes, and showed how the periods of the various possible seiches and the positions of the nodes were affected by the contour of the lake bottom.—On a group of linear differential equations of the second order, including Chrystal’s seiche-equations as special cases: Dr. Halim. This formed an important sequel to the fore- going paper, giving a mode of arriving at a solution of a case in which the direct method led to a slowly con- verging series, ill-suited for numerical determinations.— A monograph on the generat morphology of the myxinoid fishes, based on a study of myzine, part. i., the anatomy of the skeleton: Frank J. Cole. By controlling the dis- sections by charts reconstructed from serial sections, the author obtained many results of importance in working out the micro-anatomy of the skeleton. Previous descrip- tions have thus been much extended, and the phylogenetic origin of the myxinoid skeleton may now be shown to be much simpler than has been hitherto supposed. July 3.—Prof. Geikie in the chair.—The remains in the Scottish peat mosses, part i.: J. Lewis. botanical plant Francis The paper contained a detailed account of the stratification of peat mosses in the Scottish southern uplands, the discussion being in every case based upon evidence derived from freshly cut holes or from borings. The geological horizons were determined in most cases by the fact that the mosses rested on moraines which were known to belong to one of the Glacial periods. The conclusions were in full accord with the views originally put forward by Prof. James Geikie, and demon- strated the existence of the third, fourth, and fifth periods of glaciation in Scotland, those, namely, which are dis- No. 1864, VoL. 72]| tinguished as (3) the district ice sheets, (4) the mountain valley glaciers, (5) the corrie glaciers.—Dissociation of the action of the auricles and ventricles: Dr. W. T. Ritchie. The paper contained an account of curious cases of heart block, a subject first studied scientifically by Gaslxell. The graphs of the various pulse rhythms were obtained side by side, enabling the eye at a glance to contrast them and so prove the absolute independence of the action of the auricles and ventricles.—Cape hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus) in the gardens of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland : Prof. D. J. Cumningham, The chief interest attached to these dogs was that they had been for the first time reared in captivity. The parents had been got from Holland, and during the four years 1896 to 1900 there had been four litters, but only three of the puppies had been brought to maturity. The peculiar colouring of the adult dog with its yellow and white patches was absent in the puppy stage, but gradually appeared as the animal grew older; also the dark band down the forehead became more marked with age. The animals were very in- tractable in captivity. An attempt to obtain a cross with a collie failed, the collie when introduced into the cage showing symptoms of excessive fear, while the male Lycaon paid not the least attention to her. The period of gestation in the case of the Cape hunting dog was found to be eighty days, somewhat longer than in the case of the domestic dog.—The Alcyonarians of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Prof. J. A. Thomson and James Ritchie. The collection contained six new species, and specimens of three forms previously obtained by the Challenger. These were found in various latitudes, the furthest south specimen having been obtained in S. lat. 74°, off Coats Land. Our knowledge of the geo- graphical distribution has been thus much extended. Of the beautiful Umbellula durissima the Challenger obtained one young specimen from the south of Yedo, while Mr. Bruce was fortunate in obtaining about a score of speci- mens, some of which are larger, older, and of more vigorous growth than that which Kdolliker described in the Challenger reports.—The theory of determinants in the historical order of development up to 1852: Dr. Thomas Muir.—On the action of radium bromide on the electromotive phenomena of the eyeball of the frog: Prof- McKendrick and Dr. W. Colquhoun. It has been known since 1871 that when the fresh excised eye of a frog is connected by unpolarisable electrodes with a sensitive galvanometer an electric current may be detected, and that definite variations take place in that current when the retina is exposed to the action of light. It is also well known that salts of radium are luminous in the dark, and that when a tube containing radium is pressed against the closed lid of the eyeball a luminous effect is produced. It was of interest to ascertain whether this luminosity was due to the radium causing fluorescence of any of the structures of the eyeball, or whether it was due to the direct action of the radium emanations on the retina itself. The radium employed was kindly lent by Dr. Hardy, of Cambridge. The conclusions were as follows:—(1) The light emanating from radiunt bromide affects the electromotive phenomena of the living retina of the frog in a manner similar to that of light, although to a considerably less degree; (2) its action is not due to fluorescence of any of the structures of the eyeball, but to direct action on the retina; (3) the retina of the frog will respond to emanations of radium passing through cardboard, blackened paper, thin glass, and aluminium foil, emanations which, when allowed to fall on the human eye in a perfectly dark chamber, do not give rise to a luminous sensation; (4) the frog’s eye is sensitive to the feeble light emitted from the surface of fluorescible minerals and fluids rendered fluorescent by radium; (5) the B rays are responsible for most of the effects observed, but after they have been largely excluded by thick glass a slight effect still persists, due presumably to the y rays; (6) monochromatic light em- ployed in a photographic chamber may still affect the electromotive phenomena of the living retina of the frog; (7) no satisfactory evidence could be obtained of the action of the ultra-violet rays of a lamp filtered through a Wood’s screen. The slight movement of the galvano- meter observed with light “‘ off’’ might possibly be ac- 288 NATURE [JuLY 20, 1905 counted for by mechanical disturbance of the apparatus. As already pointed out by Prof. Gotch, there is great advantage in ‘“‘adapting’’ the eye to darkness or to coloured light for three or four days. , Dustin. Royal Dublin Society, June 20.—Prof. W. Noel Hartley, F.R.S., in the chair.—On the supply of water to leaves on a dead branch: Prof. H. H. Dixon. The fading of leaves on a branch killed by the application of heat is shown experimentally to be due in many cases at least to the introduction into the transpiration current of substances which cause a loss of turgescence of the leaf cells; consequently this fading does not prove that the water supply in these cases is inadequate, but rather that it is contaminated. A diminution, however, of the water supply may be caused by the high temperature, if this latter determines the rupture of the water columns of the tensile transpiration current or brings about the exudation of clogging substances into the conducting tracts from the dying cells. The conclusion, based on the withering of leaves on a killed branch, that the interven- tion of living cells is necessary to the elevation of the sap is thus rendered superfluous.—On the diagnosis of the eye by means of pinhole-vision: Prof. W. F. Barrett, F.R.S. The self-examination of the eye by looking through a pinhole in an opaque screen was termed entoptic diagnosis by Listing, who submitted this method to careful examination more than fifty years ago. The author was independently led to a similar discovery by noticing fixed shadows on his own retina when a bright spot of light was looked at. These shadows proved to be due to cataract, and led the author to the construction of an instrument which he calls an entoptoscope, whereby the patient can easily draw the exact extent of the obscuration in either eye. By means of two closely adjacent pinholes in a revolving diaphragm in the eye-piece and a trans- parent scale, the actual magnitude and position of the opacity in the eyeball can be accurately determined.—On secondary radiation (part iii.): Prof. J. A. McClelland. A continuation of the author’s researches. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 10.—M. Troost in the chair. —On a calculation of the elastic resistance offered by a tube without longitudinal tension to inflation by a con- tained liquid column: J. Boussinesq.—On some experi- ments relating to the radio-activity induced by uranium: Henri Becquerel. This paper contains a study of the properties of the body formerly discovered by precipitation from the mixed barium and uranium chlorides by sulphuric acid, and since probably identified with Crookes’s uranium X. It shows a remarkable stability of activity at very high temperatures.—On the treatment of trypano- somatous disease (surra, mbori) by arsenious acid and trypan red: A. Laveran. Extending his investigations on this method of treatment, the author has definitely cured the disease in dogs, animals in which it has always previously proved fatal. No trace of infection could even be found in the blood of the cured dogs.—On the treat- ment of bone fractures by movement: J. Lucas- Championniére. This new method follows a law which surgery hitherto has ignored, that, in spite of their rigidity, bones, like other tissues, require movement to ensure the vitality necessary for recuperation. The practice which the author follows is a peculiar form of massage, and not only conduces to the formation of the hard tissue, but is also favourable to the quick reparation of other neighbouring organs, such as muscles and tendons, involved in the fracture.—On the use of rockets against hail: E. Vidal. This paper explains how they are effectual in those cases where the storm centre is at a low altitude.—Researches on algebraic integrals in the motion of a solid heavy body about a fixed point: Edouard Husson.—On a new preparation of rubidium and cesium: L. Hackspill. The author finds that these metals can be obtained by a method similar to that for obtaining potassium or sodium, viz. by reduction at a dull red heat of the alkaline chlorides with calcium. The resulting metal does not even attack glass.—A comparison of properties, tests, and classification of ternary steels: Léon Guillet.—On the molecular transformations of hydrated ferric sulphate: A. NO. 1864, VOL. 72 Recoura. If a concentrated solution of ferric sulphate be allowed to stand for some days a deposit forms, which rapidly grows until the liquid becomes practically solid. This occurs through the formation of a mixture of basic sulphate and free acid.—On dextro-dilactide: E. Jungfieisch and M. Godchot.—On the hydrogenation of the ketoximes. A synthesis of new amines: A. Mailhe. Among others, acetoxime by reduction with finely divided nickel gives a mixture of isopropylamine and di-isopropyl- amine.—On the synthesis of a new leucine: L. Bouveault and René Lecquin. This body is probably one of the four possible amino-butyl-acetic acids.—On sparteine, and the symmetric character of the molecule: Charles Moureu and Amand Vateur.—On a sulphate of chromium which resists the action of reagents: Albert Colson.—On the figures formed by pressure or percussion on plastic crystal- line metals: F. Osmond and G. Cartaud. These consist of groups of lines, curved on iron, straight on other plastic metals of the cubic system.—On some points in the morphology of the schizopods: H. Coutiére.—On the segmentary organs at the moment of sexual maturity among the MHésionians and the Lycoridians: Louis Fage.—On the retraction of the mouth in the Chetopods : C. Viguier.—On an estimation of the red corpuscles in human blood made at the summit of Mont Blanc: Raoul Bayeux. After giving a table of results, the author con- cludes that a rapid increase in the number of red cor- puscles takes place with increasing altitude. This number soon falls off with some rapidity, but remains abnormally high even some time after a return to the lowest point.— On intestinal poisons (their nature, and precautions to be taken against them): MM. Charrin and Le Play.—On the preparation and properties of protoplasmic extracts from blood corpuscles : Auguste Lumiére, L. Lumiére, and J. Chevrotier.—On the activity brought about in pure pancreatic juice by the combined influence of colloids and electrolytes: Larguier des Bancels. An inactive pan- creatic juice becomes under these conditions capable of digesting albumin.—On the decomposition of albuminoids by Actinomyces: E. Macé.—On the Tertiary beds of Ouennougha and Medjana (Algeria): E. Ficheur and J. Savornin. CONTENTS. PAGE Arctic Meteorological Observations . A 265 European and Asiatic Geese. By J. G. M. 266 The Electric Furnace. By R. S. Hutton é 267 Our Book Shelf :— Scales : ‘‘ Elementary Microscopy.”—J. E. B. . 268 “The Practical Photographer’s Annual, 1905” 268 “* Murray’s Handbook of Travel-Talk ” 269 Letters to the Editor :— The Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane.— T. H. Havelock .. . ‘ . 269 An Omitted Safeguard.—Richard Bentley » 269 The Hydrometer as a Seismometer.—Dr: C. V. Burton) 2" yt vie SA eC) Notes on Stonehenge. VIII.—On the Dartmoor Avenues (Continued.) (Zllustrated.) By Sir Norman Mockyer ko CABs ERS eee sae 270 The Botanical Congress at Vienna. By Dr. A. B. Rendle Polls eS. 6 ie ol oe a ine Entrance Examination to the Indian Forest Service 274 Notes meien cur ahukins gar. Gy ts 274 Our Astronomical Column :— The Solar Activity. (Z/dstrated.) 279 A Projection on Mars 279 Observations of Perseids . 3 5 5 279 The French Eclipse Expeditions 279 A Remarkable Meteor. . ae 279 The Society of Chemical Industry ‘ 279 The University of Sheffield. (///ustrated.) 282 Geological Notes. By G. A. J.C. . 284 University and Educational Intelligence 285 Societies and Academies 285 JuLy 20, 1905] NATURE CXVil (as suggested by, and made for, R. APPLEYARD, Esq.) This new instrument is a Gonio- meter, Spectrometer, and Refracto- meter combined; and is an accurate and efficient instrument in any of these capacities. As a Refractometer (Pulfrich type) it is a rapid and convenient instrument for measuring the refractive indices of transparent solids and liquids. SPECTROSOOPE - REFRACTOMETER Telegraphic Address: “‘SPHERICITY,” LONDON.”’ ILLUSTRATED LIST (“A”) OF SPECTROSCOPES AND ACCESSORIES GRATIS. ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. AWARDED GOLD MEDAL ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 1904. All other air pumps superseded. THE Lor RY kK” (Fleuss Patent) Vacuum Pump. Results hitherto only pos=- sible with mercury pumps are readily obtainable by the ‘‘ GeryK.’’ Used by all leading scientists. Far more rapid than any other vacuum pump. Price from Write for 84:5: 0. LIST F.45. Pulsometer Engineering Cort? Dine Eimstronworks, Reading. AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, including 9 at the great Paris Exposition of 1909. JAS. J. HICKS, WHOLESALE MANUFACTURER OF SCIENTIFIC AND CHEMICAL APPARATUS TO THE WAR OFFICE, INDIA OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE (LONDON), GOVERNMENT LABORATORY, MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, &c., &c. pp meuenenen rai: Designed by = W. H. DINES, Esq., \ | F.R.S. Combining a RECORDING BAROMETER, = with | HYCROMETER H and THERMOMETER. / ANY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MADE TO ORDER. Prompt Attention to all Orders and Inquiries. am- EXCEPTIONAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, INSTITUTIONS, &c. Quotations submitted for Laboratory Outfits or Single Instruments. THERMOMETERS FOR STUDENT WORK A SPECIALITY. Catalogues Post Free. (State which required.) 8 9, & 10 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON. Cxvill NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 MACMILLAN & C0.’S BOOKS FOR STUDENTS OF CHEMISTRY. THEORETICAL CH ENS TR Yotrom THE STANDPOINT OF AVOGADRO’S RULE AND | THERMODYNAMICS. By Prof. WALTER NERNST, Ph.D., of the University of Gottingen. cordance with the Fourth German Edition. top. 15s. net. AN IN’ [TRODUCTION to the STUDY | OF CHEMISTRY. By Prof. W. II. PERKIN, Jr., Ph.D., F.R.S., and BEVAN LEAN, D.Sc., B.A.(Lond.). Globe 8vo, 2s. 6d. 8vo. Gilt A PRIMER OF CHEMISTRY. By | Sir HENRY E. ROSCOE, F.R:S. Questions. Pott 8vo, Is. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY for BE- GINNERS. By Sir HENRY E. 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In case, 7/6- GOR ene) BRANCHES We NA AA IE AND ALL Those interested are invited to send for the above and a selection of other slides on approval, by the Preparers, SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. FLATTERS & GARN ETT, Ltd., N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- 48 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. = A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS. ALSO FOR ~ ——— SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing LANTERN SLIDES of NATURAL HISTORY SUBJECTS. | “Classes, &c. ; | Birds, Mammals, &e., Preserved and Mounted by First-class | Workmen true to Nature. PH N IX | All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied. ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. FIRE OFFICE. (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) pe New Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, post free. 19 LOMBARD ST., E.C., and 57 CHARING CROSS, S.W. —— SS ESTABLISHED 1782. ROCKS, MINERALS, FOSSILS. Moderate Rates. Absolute Security. 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RavenscrortT, Secretary, | | OSCOPICAL PETROGR J SULA Lies Leah leGibom WAS | Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to SECOND-HAND TOURIST TELESCOPES, «Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, w., SEVERAL SPECIAL BARGAINS. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF (1) Military Regulation Telescope, Power 20, £1 5s. (2) Military | Signalling Telescope, Power 25, 21/8 glass, £1 10s. (3) Military | MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, Fortification Telescope, Power 35, 23/8 glass, £2. (4) Admiralty | now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Cadet Telescope, £1 5s. (s) Admiralty Coastguard Telescope, Subseciniianiin naruneotolther: Monthy Ra auaaieely 24-3 £1 10s. (6) Several Target Telescopes suitable for Rifle Clubs, BatouithencholeSories of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections £4 4s from £2 10s. A large quantity of Stands for these Telescopes, | a e from 15s. to 25s. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR These Telescopes are by the leading London Makers. A. CLARHSON & CoO., TELESCOPE MAKERS, | THE MICROSCOPE. ‘28 BARTLETT’S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Amceba, Arcella, Actinospherium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix WHEAT STO NE BRI DG E B Ce) ARD., | pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. = - : THOMAS BOLTON, — =e a 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD. BIRMINGHAM ee MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION ; OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. Half-Metre, 7s. 6d.; Metre, 10s. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. EOL TAO RO The following animals can always be supplied, either living T. TAMBLYN-WATTS, SETTLE, YORKS. or preserved by the best methods :-— — 2 = a = Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia ; Pesinia, Tealin, Caryophyilis, Alcy- 77 ” onium; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana ; ineus, Amphiporus MIDNIGHT SUN. Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Terebella; Lepas, Balanus, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Fledone. Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asteriar, Echinus, <. ORWAY. — S.Y. 3,178 Lons. Two Berth Cabins. All Berths on same level. Finest yachting steamer afloat. Sailing July 22; August 5, 19. GEA Sal : 9 12 - oO . Ascidia, pa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &c. 1 i Apply ALBION S.s. N 0., LI D., For prices and more detailed lists apply toy J ewcastle-on-Tyne. Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. cure eS ED NOTICE.—Advertisements and business letters for NaTURE should be addressed to the Publishers; Editorial Communications to the Editor. The telegraphic address of Nature is “* Puusis,’’ LONDON. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘ NATURE.” CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. 4 s.d.|TOatt Places Aproap:i— §& Ss. da. 28 55 Kiss a Yearly . , Ec 7 er8io Yearly . s ’ - p10 6 *rhree Lines in Column . o 2 6] Quarter Page, or Half Half. 1 a! Halpvearl Per Lineafter . 4 a PEO) ORO aColumn . eer So, SUE IEE ENA 9G 5 Caen j eRe * : + 915 6) One Sixteenth Page,or Eighth Col. 10 o Halfa P Col Quarterly : : - 0 7 6| Quarterly ee Mo - o 8 o/| One EKighth Page, or Quarter Se eRe Or aco -umA’ 3) 59 Column A . ot8 6| Whole Page . 5 Gy 670 * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CO., Limited. OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.&. CXX NATURE [JULY 20, 1905 | ee ‘ ) THE GAIFFE AUTO-MOTOR i CAs 8 MERCURY JET INTERRUPTER (Patented in Britain). NO BRUSHES, NO BANDS, NO INDEPENDENT MOTOR. The interruption cuts the current both for motor and coil. In other words, motor and interrupter are electrically and mechanically linked together. Price, including box and packing, #4 : G: G in Britain. THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, 228 Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C. Descriptive Circular upon application. NEw WEICROSCOPIC SLIDES From the New Issue of W. WATSON & SONS’ No, 3 CATALOGUE, just published. Post Free on application. Sea Ss. a. Tsetse Flies (G. palpalis), whole insect : a 7 6 Perfume Glands on Leaf of Lavender ... =e a = =r say i Dissections of all Rares may be had mounted Separately. “Also in Bugula plumosa (Bird's Head coralline). Specialy fine mounts 2 6 set of 12 5 Br 100 Karyokinesis i in root of Water Lily... - & 4/- ‘Send for Special Descri iptive List. | Leg of Flea, showing muscular structure. 1 6 Blood-sucking Maggot (from the Congo) 7-6 | Set of 16 Slides illustrating the development of an Ascidian Fly hatched trom above, Auchmeromyia luteola ... US) (Aspersa). Incase ... se é . 25 O Section of Brazilian Quartz, showing cavities containing fluid. | Trypanosoma Brucei (Tsetse Fly afesse8) a 4 0 Very interesting 3 6 | Setof 5 Slides of the Garden epider, showing different stages 0 of Eggs of Emperor Moth, fertile and sterile, on rslide 1-6) || growth. In Case hi & SEND FOR THE ABOVE NEWLY PUBLISHED CATALOGUE OF MICRO. OBJECTS. WATSON’S CATALOGUE OF MICROSCOPES (158 pages) is of special interest to al! Microscopists, post free. | W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holborn, London, W.C. | Branches—16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH, and 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. CROSSLEY 'S GAS ENGINES RECENTLY — GREAT REDUCTION REMODELLED. IN CAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L | i types, giving 3°5 H.P. | Up to the end of 1904, | over 51,000 gas and and 5 H.P 4 eosllla, Z : respectively. > ee bens" oil engines had been 3 eee) delivered, represent- Immediate Delivery a A A ing about three- for Stock Sizes | quarters of a million of Engines. actual horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS., LETD., OPENSHAW. MANCHESTER DALLMEYER’S NEW TELEPHOTO LENS. Can be used in front of any THE ADON eGR Mounted in Aluminium. small lens without disturbing Measures 3} ins. long, 1} ins. plates or films which may be diameter, weighs 4# ounces. t So aa eT zs pe ion PRICE, including Solid Leather : Case, £3 10 O nett. ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET with An excellent lens for all : Specimens of Work artistic photography. PATENT. FREE. J. Ei. DALE eae L1D.,25 Newman St., London, W. MAKERS OF THE CELEBRATED DALLMEYER LENSES: Printed by RicHakb CLay anv Sons, Limrrep, at 7 & 8 bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MacmILLan anp Co., Lrmirev,at St. M artin’s Street, London, W.C., and THE MacmiLitan Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—THuRsDay, July 20, 1905. Can Be used alone for higher magnification or larger plates. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF ' SCIENCE “To the solid ground ee Nature trusts the mind which ’?_ WORDSWORTH. builds ee aye No. 18 “1865, Vou. 72] “THURSDAY, | Registered asa | Newspaper at the General Post Office. ] TOT ‘DEMONSTRATOR'S”’ PATTERN FOR OPTICAL LANTERN, ELECTRIC LIGHT. The anes Tanrern has a clear base Boma and is § fitted with 5-in. Condensers. NEWTON & CO., 3 FLEET ST., LONDON. GRIFFIN, LONDON Particulars Post Fvee LINEAR THERMOPILE, JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., MAKERS OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, RUBENS’ Sardinia Street, London, W.C. [Price SIXPENCE {All Rig ghts 2 are Reserved. IREYNOLDS & BRANSON, Lp. Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to H.M. Government (Indian, Home and Colonial). LABORATORY FURNISHERS AND MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. JULY 27, aie RADIUM ROD. This consists of a metal handle with Ebonite Top having a removable Aluminium Cap covering the RADIUM PREPARATION. With this all the Physical Properties of Radio-activity can readily be shown. Price &4 15s. 14 Conimeveia St., Leeds. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS. in Elegant Case. THE GLYCERINE BAROMETER. This Barometer has a tube containing both Mercury and Glycerine. The lighter specific gravity of the latter and the difference in the bore of the tube in which it rises and falls increases the scale to about § inches for each inch of the ordinary mercurial column. By means of this intere sting instrument the smallest variations in the atmospheric pressure are quite notice- able, differences of rooth of an inch being easily read without the aid of any vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers— NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 45 CORNHILL, and 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON, Branches: CXXll NATURE [Jury 27, 1905 ENGINEERING AND CHEMISTRY. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. SESSION 1905-1906. The COURSES of INSTRUCTION at the Institute's CENTRAL TecHNnicaL CouieGcE (Exhibition Road) are for Students not under 16 years of age; those at the Institute's TECHNICAL COLLEGE, FINSBURY, for Students not under 14 years of age. The Entrance Examinations to both Colleges are held in September. Particulars of the Entrance Examin- ations, Scholarships, Fees, and Courses of Study, may _be obtained from the respective Colleges, or from the Head Office of the Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. OITY AND GUILDS CENTRAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE. (Exuipition Roap, S.W.) A College for higher Technical Instruction for Day Students not under 16 preparing to become Civil, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineers, Chemical and other Manufacturers, and Teachers. The College is a “*School of the University of London” in the Faculty of Engineering. Fee for a full Associateship Course, £30 per Session. Professors :— Civil and Mechanical Engineering (eno Wheto fae E. Ayrton, F.R.S.. Past Pres. Inst. E.E., Dean for the Session. B.Sc., Electrical Engineering Chemistry c ss F.R.S. Mechanics and Mathematics O. Henricr, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. OITY AND GUILDS TECHNICAL COLLEGE, FINSBURY. (LEonarpD STREET, City Roap, E.C.) A College for Day Students not under 14, preparing to enter Engineering and Chemical Industries, and for Evening Students. Fees, 415 per Session for Day Students. Professors :— RS 5 S hee Bin S. P. THompson, PD.Sc., F.R.S., Physics and Electrical Engineering { Brincipalaminercoleses Mechanical Engineering ands Es) (G. Coker! | IMsASeDisc., Mathematics a 0 ee M.Inst.M.E. Chemistry et «. R. Mecpota, F.R.S., F.1-C. City and Guilds of London Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuartes A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C. EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICAL and ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. shee f CHarces A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F 1.C., and Chemists "| H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.LC. Physics ... R. S. Wittows, D.Sc., M.A. Metallurgy C. O. BANNISTER, Assoc. R.S.M. Mathematics G. M. K. LeccerrT, B.A. Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. ee FE. ArmstronG, Ph.D., LL.D., | NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, | HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, “ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- | versity under recognised teachers of the University. NEW SESSION begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2:5, The Institute is readily accessible and near to Fenchurch Street, Liver- pool Street, Broad Street and Metropolitan Railway Stations. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the Principat. W. H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body. TECHNICAL CLASSES. NOR THAME TON INSU iE: CLERKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COURSES IN MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND HOROLOGICAL ENGINEERING. FULL DAY COURSES in the THEORY and PRACTICE of the above subjects will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION on WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 and 28. The Courses for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering include periods spent in Commercial Workshops, and extend over four years. They also prepare for the degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees for either of these Courses, £15 or £t1 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each, giving free tuition for the full course in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September next. Conditions can be obtained from the PRiNcrIPAL. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on appli- cation to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. Special arrangements for students undertaking research during vacations. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard, REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. A | ] N (THEORY AND PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- COLOGY and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. SUNDERLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, MUSEUM, AND ART GALLERY. ASSISTANT CURATOR. Applications are invited for the position of ASSISTANT CURATOR to the above Institution. Applicants must be ‘experienced in Classification, and possess a good general knowledge of practical Museum Work. The gentleman appointed will be expected to give the whole of his time to the duties of the office, and not engage in any outside work. The salary will commence at £91 per annum. Applications, stating qualifications and experience, together with copies of three recent testimonials, which will not be returned, should be marked “Assistant Curator,” addressed to THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MusEuM AND Liprary ComMITTEE, and delivered at the Public Library not later than MONDAY, aist inst. | Canvassing Members of the Committee is a disqualification which will be strictly enforced, except in the case of the candidates who will be selected to meet the Committee prior to the appointment. INDIAN FOREST SERVICE. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL gives notice that, in view of the late date at which the Regulations for the Appointment of Probationers to the Indian Forest Service were published this year, he has decided to modify them— (a) by extending till Tuesday, August 1, the period within which appli- cations will be received ; (6) by admitting to the examination candidates who undertake to pass Responsions or its equivalent before October next, failing which their selection would be cancelled ; (c) by permitting candidates to offer Zoology at their discretion. Applications for admission to the examination must be made on a printed form to be obtained (with the revised Regulations) from the SECRETARY, Judicial and Public Department, India Office, Whitehall, London, S.W. The age limits are 18 to 21 years on January 1, 1905. Not less than 13 candidates will be selected, if fully qualified. India Office, A. GODLEY, July 5, 1905. Under Secretary of State. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Commencing salary, £175, to date from September 15 next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifications, teaching experi- ence, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the Principat not later than August 30. Bukbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. ‘ LATYMER UPPER SCHOOL, HAMMERSMITH, W. WANTED, September, ASSISTANT MASTER specially qualified in PHYSICS and GERMAN. Minimum salary first year, £170. Apply HEADMASTER. JuLy 27, 1905] COUNTY BOROUGH OF CROYDON. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee invite applications for the post of PRINCIPAL of the POLYTECHNICS, at a salary of £350 per annum. The gentleman appointed will be required to devote the who'e of his time to the duties of his office, and will be responsible for the development and organisation, discipline, and educational efficiency of the instruction given in the Polytechnics. The instruction at these Centres is, for the most part, given in the evening, and in addition to classes in Science, Art, Trade, Conmercial and Domestic Subjects, there are evening courses in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The Principal will also be required to superintend any other evening classes established or to be established by the Committee, and to advise and assist the Committee in the co-ordination of all classes of education. Candidates must not be over 45 years of age, and must hold University or other professional qualification. A prospectus of the classes held in the Polytechnics, together with copies of the form of application and statement of duties, may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications, accompanied by copies of testi- monials of recent date, must be sent not later than September rr, 1905. JAMES SMYTH, Clerk. Education Office, Katharine Street, Croydon, July 20, 1905. HANDSWORTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL SCHOOL. WANTED for September next, an ASSISTANT SCIENCE MASTER or the Technical School. The person appointed to devote the whole of his time to the duties connected with the appointment. Chief subjects, Physics and Mathematics. Classes every evening and part day. Salary. £140 per annum. For form of application and further particulars please send stamped addressed foolscap envelope to THOMAS H. MOON, Secretary. Education Offices, Handsworth (Staffs.), July 18, 1905. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. Complete Courses of Instruction are provided for students of both sexes proceeding to the University Degrees in Science or in Letters, and for the University Diploma in Theory and Practice of Teaching. Special facilities are offered for the study of Agriculture, Applied Chemistry, Mining, Metallurgy, and all branches of Engineering. Matriculation and Exhibition Examinations begin September 25. Lectures begin October 3, 1905. Prospectuses on application to F. H. Pruen, Secretary. MASTERSHIPS VACANT FOR SEP- TEMBER. — Physics, College in India, £320, and _ passage; Mathematical, Public College, England, £200; Several Science Graduates, Fublic College, London University Teaching Centre, £150 to £300; Ditto, Mathematical, £150 to £300; Knglish, must be in Honors. £150 to £175; English and French, £150 to £175; 200 Vacancies for Senior, Junior, and Foreign. ORELLANA & CO. Send List to all Candidates, 80 WIGMORE STREET, LONDON, W. MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOLS, LIMERICK. A PRINCIPAL is required for the above Schools who would also undertake to teach Electricity in the evenings. Salary, £200 to £250, according to qualifications and experience of organising work. Application to be sent before July 31 to THE SECRETARY, 69 George Street, Limerick. SWANSEA GRAMMAR SCHOOL. WANTED, next September, a MASTER to teach WOODWORK anc one or two elementary subjects, such as Arithmetic or Algebra, in the Grammar School. He will also be required to take Building Construction {in accordance with the svllabus of the Board of Education) in the Evening Classes of the Tecbnical College. Minimum salary. £150. Apply at once, stating qualifications and experience, to the HEADMASTER, Grammar School, Swansea. ROROUGH OF LOWESTOFT. HIGHER EDUCATION COMMITTEE. PRINCIPAL for Science and Art Schools and Pupil Teachers’ Centr-. Salary, £200 per annum, rising by annual increments of £10 to £250. Applications by August ro to R. Beattie Nicuotson, Town Clerk, Lowestoft. NATURE CXXill UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. The Council of the College invites applications for DEMONSTRATOR and ASSISTANT in ZOOLOGY. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications, with testimonials (which need not be printed), must be sent on or before Saturday, September g, 1905. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, B.A., Registrar. the Post of July 22, To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— Required (1) Theorl. and Practl. Science, Geography, and usual subjects for Secondary School. Commencing salary, £150. School near London. (2) Physics and Maths. for Navy Pupils. High-class Preparatory School. £100, resident. (3) Maths. and Science for Army pupils. 100, resident. (4) Maths., including modern Geometry. £120. non- res.—For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, POWELL AND Situ, Tutorial Agents, 34 Bedford Street, Strand. London. SCIENCE MISTRESS Wanted for London High School. B.Sc. or Inter. B.Sc. desired. Salary, £120, non- resident. Many other vacancies for Science a:d Mathl. Mistresses.— Address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, PowELL anv Smit, Schvol Agents, 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. 1905. Wanted, Manager for High-class Scientific Apparatus Business. Applicant must have had good experience and a thorough scientific training.—Apply, stating age, salary required, and full particulars, to ‘‘ ALPHA,” c/o Nature Office. EGGS of Cape Pigeon (Daption capensis) for Sale for Museums. Limited number only.—Apply W. S. Bruce, Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh. Norway: —S.Y. “MIDNIGHT SUN.” 3,178 Tons. Two Berth Cabins. All Berths 12 12/- on same level. Finest yachting steamer afloat. Sailing August 5, ro. Apply ALBION S.S. CO., LTD., Newcastle-on-Tyne. TYPE-WRITING UNDERTAKEN BY HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOME!) TO SCIEN- TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Local, thorough acquaintance with Modein Languages). Research, Revision, Translation. Scale of charges on application. The Cam- bridge Type-writing Ageacy, 10 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. SCIENTIFIC WORTHIES The following is a list of the Steel Portraits that have appeared in the above Series :— MICHAEL FARADAY. THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. CHARLES DARWIN. JOHN TYNDALL. SIR GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES. SIR CHARLES LYELL. SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. | JAMES JOSEPH SYLVESTER. SIR WYVILLE THOMSON. | DMITRI .[VANOWITSH MEN- ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN. | DELEEFF. LORD KELVIN. LOUIS PASTEUR. BARON ADOLF ERIK NOR- =o DENSKJOLD. SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. HERMANN L. F. HELMHOLTZ. | LORD LISTER. SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER STANISLAO CANNIZZARO. PROF. VON KOLLIKER. WILLIAM HARVEY. SIR GEORGE B. AIRY. PROF. SIMON NEWCOMB. J. LOUIS R. AGASSIZ. _ SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS. JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE LORD RAYLEIGH. PROF. SUESS. DUMAS. N.B.—The Portraits of Sir A. Geikie, Lord Lister, Prof. Cannizzaro, Prof. von Kolliker, Prof. S. Newcomb, Sir W. Huggins, Lord Rayleigh, and Prof. Suess belong to a New Series and are Photogravures. Proof impressions of these, printed on India paper, may be had from the Publishers, price 5s. each; or the Series of 35 Portraits ina Handsome Portfolio for £9, carriage paid. The Portfolio may be had separately, price 6s. SIR RICHARD OWEN. JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. JAMES PRESCOTT JOULE. WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE. ARTHUR CAYLEY. SIR C. W. SIEMENS, JOHN COUCH ADAMS. CHEQUES AND Mongy ORDERS PAYABLE TO MACMILLAN & Co., LTD. OFFICE OF ‘‘NATURE,” ST. MARTIN'S ST., LONDON, W.C. CXXI1V NATURE [JuLy 27, 1905 ‘MR. EDWARD ARNOLD'S NEW BOOKS, THE EVOLUTION THEORY. By AUGUST WEISMANN, Professor of Zoology in the University of Freiburg. TRANSLATED BY Professor J. ARTHUR THOMSON and MARGARET THOMSON. Two volumes, Royal 8vo. With many Illustrations. 32s, net. NATURE.—“A work which, in its English no less than in its German dress, will be read with extreme interest. SPECTATOR.—‘‘ These two massive volumes are in themselves a monument of research and speculation that will out-live much of the perennial brass of the nineteenth century, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY OF OPTICS. By ARTHUR SCHUSTER, Ph.D., Sc.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester. Demy 8vo. With numerous Diagrams. 15s. net. TIMES.—“ We have in Dr. Schuster’s book a notable addition to the literature of Optical Theory, and one which will prove of value to every student.” THE CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF VITAL PRODUCTS, And the Inter-Relations between Organic Compounds. By R. MELDOLA, F.R.S., Y.P.C.S., F.I.C., &c., Professor of Chemistry in the City and Guilds of London Technical College, Finsbury. Super _ Roy al8vo. 21s. net. THE BECQUEREL RAYS AND THE PROPERTIES OF RADIUM. By the Hon. R. J. STRUTT, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. With Diagrams. London: EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 Maddox St., W. By using .. THE SYTAM Bottles Specimen Partette IN YOUR LABORATORY, MUSEUM, STOREROOM, &c., you can save ;ths of your wall space and find what you want on the instant. IN THE SYTAM SYSTEM One hundred 4 oz. bottles oceupy less than one square foot of wall space; each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, and any size from }0z. to a Winchester can be aceommo- dated in the same sized Element. THE BROWN LIST SYTAM FITTINGS CoO., 18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, LEEDS. WRITE FOR (CARL ZEISS, JENA BRANCHES— LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W- Frankfort o/M. St. Petersburg. Berlin. Vienna. Palmos Cameras. Hamburg. WITH FOCAL PLANE SHUTTER. Fitted with S1zEs—6Xg and 9X12 cm., and 3} in. x Also 9X18 cm. for Stereo and Panorama. SUITABLE FOR PLATES, PACK FILMS, AND ROLL FILMS. Illustrated Catalogue, ‘‘ Pn,” Post Free on application. ure ee THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM OF E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instrue- tions and about 3000 illustrations. eat NATURE says:—'' The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) ZEISS LENSES. 4}-in. and 5-in. x 4-in. THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. NAT ORE 289 THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1905. THE AGENTS OF EARTH SCULPTURE, Geology—Processes and their Results. By Thomas C. Chamberlin and Rollin D. Salisbury. Pp. xix+ 654. (London: John Murray, 1905.) Price 21s. net. i is appropriate that this work is written by ex- perienced members of the United States Geo- logical Survey who are likewise heads respectively of the departments of geology and geography in the University of Chicago. The main portion of the volume treats of the earth’s physical features and their origin, and thus illustrates the forces and pro- cesses which belong to the borderland between past and present in which geologists and geographers are alike concerned. No aspect of geology appeals to a larger circle of interested students and general readers. The preface being dated from the University of Chicago, it may be inferred that the book is pub- lished simultaneously in the United States. It is printed in bold type on thick paper, and with such abundant illustrations that it is a veritable picture- book. There are 24 plates and 471 text illustrations; the latter are not listed, however, in the table of con- tents. In the eyes of a book-lover the appearance of the book is somewhat marred by its being cut down rather too closely; but as the student will pay more attention to the subject-matter he may at once be assured that it is a sound, vigorously written work, abounding in original information and suggestions, and abreast of the ever-expanding knowledge to which American geologists have so largely contributed. Nor is there wanting due acknowledgment of many facts and illustrations drawn from published sources. In their preliminary remarks the authors make a noteworthy use of statistics. Thus we read that “The total mass of the atmosphere is estimated at five quadrillion- tons,’’ that ‘‘ About 1300 quadrillion tons of water lie upon the surface of the solid earth,”’ and that the volume of the stony portion is about 260,000 million cubic miles. These estimates, in- comprehensible by themselves, are rendered useful by comparisons, and the relative mass and extent of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere are thereby brought clearly before the reader. It is pointed out that the oceanic depressions rather than the con- tinental masses are the master phenomena of the earth’s surface, and that if the surface were graded to a common level by cutting away the land and | dumping the matter in the abysmal basins, the average plane would lie somewhere near gooo feet below sea-level. In dealing with the atmosphere as a geological agent, dust and blown sand, wind-ripples and wind- erosion, the influence of the colour of rocks on their daily range of temperature, the creep of soils and sub- soils, and even the effects of lightning attention. Rain and river erosion are discussed from hypo- thetical, and more fully from actual, points of view. Various stages in the history of streams and valleys NO. 1865, VOL. 72] receive are illustrated, and their distinguishing features in youth, in mature and in old age are described. It is pointed out that the base-level of erosion and sea- level are by no means synonymous, as rivers often erode below sea-level. The development of rivers under different structural conditions is explained, and attention is directed even to the possible influence of the rotation of the earth on the erosive action of streams. The beheading of one stream by another is treated as ‘“‘piracy,’? and both ‘‘foreign’’ and ‘domestic piracy ’’ are explained, the latter phrase being applied to cutting off an ox-bow in a meander- ing stream. Other terms of a somewhat homely nature are used, such as ‘‘ scour and fill,’’ in illus- tration of the fact that a stream in flood degrades its channel and aggrades (builds up) its plain. There is a notable chapter on ground-water, a sub- ject of great scientific interest as well as practical importance. The movements of ground-water include the fluctuations in its upper surface or ‘* water table,”’ and those dependent on the outflow of water in springs or on its abstraction by pumping, influenced as the movements also are by geological structure. The work of snow and ice, of continental and alpine glaciers, is treated in an attractive and luminous style. The way of ‘ getting load,’’ the englacial and superglacial drift, the transfers of load from basal to higher portions of the ice, and the movements accompanied by shearing-planes and thrusts, are duly described. ‘“ Hanging valleys’’ receive attention, and it is remarked that those developed by stream-erosion are not common, except in cases of the recession of a waterfall past the mouth of a tributary. The features are characteristic of regions recently glaciated, where, ' as in the western mountains of North America and elsewhere, a main valley has been deepened by glacial _ action below the level of tributary streams. The work of the ocean is fully discussed and illus- trated. The cutting of cliffs in different materials. the formation of arches, stacks, and beaches, and rill- marks on sands that simulate sea-weeds, and other subjects large and small come under consideration. The later chapters are occupied by ‘‘ the origin and descent of rocks ’’; minerals and rocks are described, and some account is given of the new, and by no means popular, American petrological classification and nomenclature. Various structural features, cross- bedding, nodules, joints, folds, &c., as well as de- formations, volcanic action, and other topics, illustrated. The geological functions of life are then dealt with. The consumption and restoration of carbon dioxide and the consequent influence on climate are discussed. The agency of organisms in the disintegration of rocks, and the protection they afford against erosion are pointed out. Attention is also directed to the influence of land vegetation on the character of sedi- ments, due in the first place to the decomposition of different rocks and the formation of soils—materials which may be carried out to sea. On the other hand, ‘if the surface be bare of vegetation, the crystalline rocks are usually disaggregated before they are de- O are 290 NATURE [JuLY 27, 1905 composed.’’ The bearing of these facts on the ques- tion of vegetal coverings in the earlier periods is briefly discussed. Observations on organic rocks, and on the distribution and development of the fauna and flora, lead up to the subject of historical geology, which the authors propose to deal with in another volume. H. B. W. MACHINERY FOR HANDLING RAW MATERIAL. The Mechanical Handling of Material. By G. F. Zimmer. Pp. xii+521; illustrated. (London : Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905.) Price 25s. net. lie the preface Mr. Zimmer says that he has been for twenty years professionally engaged in this branch of engineering, and he was recently induced to put together in the form of a treatise—the first in English on the subject—the mass of notes he had gradually accumulated. The importance of the sub- ject is emphasised in the introduction by a few suggestive figures as to the amount of raw materials which has to be dealt with annually, and it may be noted that the wages of an ordinary labourer are equivalent to the interest on 1000/. of capital. The question of the continuous handling of material is treated in the first section of the book; special prominence is given to elevators for the conveyance of corn and flour, and to the important problem of the supply of coke. ore, &c., to the top of blast furnaces; illustrations are given of the latest American furnace hoists. The system of band conveying, due to the inventive skill of Mr. Lyster, engineer to the Liver- pool Docks, and the automatic throw-off carriage for such conveyors, also due to Mr. Lyster, are described in detail. Vibrating trough conveyors—the latest type of such machinery, and especially useful with any material which would deteriorate in rough treatment —are then dealt with. Tightening gears, power re- quired, and speed of travel in the different types of convevors are discussed in a special chapter, thus facilitating reference and comparison. The various types of pneumatic elevators, including the successful Duckham system for loading grain which has been extensively used, are next treated. This section of the book is concluded by a series of descriptions, in every case with illustrations, of conveyors which have been designed for special purposes, such as timber conveyors, hot coke conveyors for gas works, and casting machines for use with large blast furnaces. The intermittent handling of material, mainly by endless chains and ropes, including the many systems of aérial cable-ways, forms the second section of Mr. Zimmer’s book. One of the examples selected to illustrate the use of aérial ropeways is that used during the building of the new Beachy Head Light- house, and full credit is given to Messrs. Bullivant for the ingenious way in which the many practical difficulties were overcome. We may mention that it is to this system of aérial ropeway that the rapid completion of that remarkable bridge which will convey the Rhodesian railways over the great gorge of the Zambesi, almost within a stone’s throw of the No. 1865, Vou. 72] famous falls, is due; it not only facilitated the erection of the bridge, but it also enabled the permanent way and rolling stoclx for the northern continuation of the railway line to be transported to the north bank of the gorge long before the bridge itself was completed. The interesting question of the coaling of ships at sea, a subject of special interest in view of the recent voyage of the famous Baltic Fleet to the East, forms the conclusion to this section. 2 The third section of the book is devoted to unload- ing and loading appliances. The discharging of vessels in docks, and the discharging of railway trucks—work requiring so much labour—have been fertile subjects of invention, and a large number of systems of grab-elevators and self-emptying trucks are described. In view of the enormous weight of coal annually shipped at the various coal shipping centres, no branch of the mechanical handling of material has received more attention than that of coal tips for loading colliers, and the chapter which treats of coal tips is a most complete and valuable one. In the last section of the book a number of miscellaneous devices, which the author has found it impossible to group under any of the previous divisions, are described, such as the automatic weigh- ing of material, the coaling of railway engines, &c. Large flour and silo warehouses form an essential feature in the mechanical handling of raw materials such as grain and seed, and a couple of chapters, illustrated with the help of a number of plates, are given up to a detailed account of the main features of their design. The book will be indispensable to all engineering firms, consulting engineers, and architects who have to deal with this important question either in the way of designing machinery or of erecting warehouses, and it is, though highly technical, a bool which will appeal to the general reader anxious to obtain some slight knowledge of the latest advance in the mechanical handling and transport of the immense quantities of raw materials used daily in our industrial tite: T. Hea: THE BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Published under the authority of. the Secretary of State for India in Council. Edited by W. T. Blanford. Butterflies. Vol. i. By Lieut.- Colonel C. T. Bingham. Pp. xxii+511; Figs. 94; Plates 10. (London: Taylor and Francis, 1905.) Price 20s. N INETY years ago, when Kirby and Spence pub- lished the first volume of their ‘‘ Introduction to Entomology,”’ they considered it necessary to devote a whole letter, filling many pages, to refuting popular prejudices against the frivolity and uselessness of the study of entomology; and, no doubt, at that period butterfly-collecting was looked upon as a very silly, childish pursuit; while less than 200 years before, in the time of Charles IT., a serious attempt was made to set aside the will of a certain Lady Glanvil, on the ground of insanity, as shown by her fondness for col- lecting butterflies. JuLy 27, 1905] NATURE 291 Now, however, instead of butterfly-collecting being ridiculed, it has become almost necessary to discourage it in England in order to prevent the total extermina- tion of all our rare and local species, while abroad it is pursued with enthusiasm by travellers and colonials, some of them belonging to the highest social circles. Again, during the last fifty years, so much light has been thrown on various scientific problems by the study of butterflies that eminent professors are ready to de- vote a great portion of their livés to such investiga- tions. Of late years, many Indian officers and civilians have taken up the collection and study.of the butterflies of our Indian Empire, which are probably better known at the present time than those of any other part of the world outside Europe, except North America and South Africa. But there exists no complete work on the sub- ject suitable for the use of students. Mr. F. Moore’s great works on the butterflies of Ceylon and India are very bulky and costly, and the latter is still in pro- gress, while the regretted death of L. de Nicéville left the work commenced by himself and Col. Marshall, and subsequently carried on by de Nicéville only, complete only as regards the earlier families. Lieut.- Colonel Bingham, a retired Indian officer, who has collected insects assiduously in many parts of India, Burma, &c., and who has already published two volumes on Hymenoptera in the present series, ‘‘ The Fauna of British India,’’ has been wisely chosen to supply the existing want of a manual of Indian butter- flies, and with his previous practical experience behind him, and with sufficient leisure, and access to the col- lections and library of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington at his disposal, the work could not have been placed in better or more competent hands. It is expected that three volumes will be required to deal adequately with the subject. Six families are admitted by the author, of which the first two, Nymph- alidaz and Nemeobidze, are discussed in the first volume. The arrangement of the work is similar to that which has been used in previous volumes of this series dealing with insects, which are already well known to all entomologists. The introduction, neces- sarily brief, contains remarks on classification, meta- morphoses and structure, with text-illustrations of the larva and pupa of Vanessa, the head and body of Argynnis and Charaxes, and a very useful selection of figures of labial palpi, antennz, neuration of wings, and legs. It is worthy of special remark that the author expressly discards the term ‘‘ species’? as liable to mislead, and uses ‘‘ form’ instead, as less objectionable. Four hundred and seventy-nine species are described in vol. i., belonging to the Nymphalidz (with six sub- families, Danainze, Satyrine, Acraeinz, Libytheine, Morphine, and Nymphalinz), and Nemeobide (five genera only). The text illustrations are excellent, and among the more interesting ones we may note Figs. 13 and 14, on p. 40, showing the variations in shape and markings of the forewings of seven specimens of Euploea klugii, Moore, and Fig. 94, on p. 501, of Stiboges nymphidia, NO. 1865, VOL. 72] Butl., showing its remarkable resemblance to a species of the well-known tropical American genus Nymph- idium. Ten full-page plates (half-figures only) are added, drawn by Mr. Horace Knight and lithographed by the three-colour process by Messrs. Hentschel, and these alone are sufficient to give some idea to outsiders of the variety and beauty of the butterflies of India. If we take the butterflies of Great Britain at 70, those of Europe at 300, and those of British India, within the limits of the present work, at 1500, we shall have a fairly accurate idea of the proportions borne to each other by these three faunas. In outlying districts, no doubt, many species still remain to be added to the Indian butterfly fauna, but apart from this, nothing is yet known of the trans- formations, habits, &c., of a great proportion of the insects, which will be sufficient to occupy the atten- tion of numerous observers for many years. The metamorphoses of each butterfly, so far as yet known, are briefly noticed by Lieut.-Colonel Bingham, but it is only occasionally that he has been able to offer his readers any information of this description. THE STATE AND AGRICULTURE. The State and Agriculture in Hungary. By Dr. Ignatius Dardnyi, translated by A. Gyorgy. Pp. xxii+264. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 5s. net. “THERE are two fundamentally opposite theories of the duties of a public department dealing with a great industry such as the Board of Agriculture in this country—the one that its function is to foster the industry, the other that it is simply concerned in registering the progress and administering such legis- lative enactments as may be necessary from time to time, Our English public offices have all grown up on the latter model, and the Board of Agriculture, which is always being abused for not doing this or that. to improve the position of farmers, might legitimately answer that it was never designed to offer any such help to the agriculturist. Of course, the official apologists of the Board cannot put forward such a view nakedly; their plan is rather to divert the un- reasonable attack by a show of activity. To take a concrete case; the Board of Agriculture endeavours to eradicate swine fever—that it recognises as a proper function, true police work for agriculture —but supposing it should be urged to do something to improve the breed of pigs kept in England by in- troducing new breeds or by distributing boars of the right type in the backward districts, it would prob- ably meet the demand by issuing a leaflet on “ points to be aimed at in pig-breeding.”’ The English method is cheap; it is also supposed to be bracing ; and the English farmer, being subjected to the State- aided and bounty-fed competition of all other agri- cultural countries in the only open market, his own, is supposed to be in special need of a bracing régime. So when people ask why the Board of Agriculture ! does not educate like France, or investigate like 292 NATURE [JuLy 27, 1905 Germany, or introduce new crops and new industries like the United States, or organise its workers like Hungary, the Board has one sufficient and final answer in the fact that such has never been the English theory of the function of a public office. In the book before us we have an account of the policy of a man who took a different point of view, and created, perhaps, the most paternal ministry of agriculture in the world. Dr. Ignatius Dardnyi was Minister of Agriculture for seven years (18qg6—1903) in Hungary, and during his tenure of office he built up an extraordinary system of agricultural education, in- vestigation, and organisation in Hungary. It would be impossible in the limits at our disposal to discuss either the means adopted or the results that have accrued; roughly speaking, Dr. Daranyi’s method in any industry was to make a start with a State-owned farm or garden, forest or mill, as the case might be. Here proceeded the investigations necessary to estab- lish the conditions requisite for success, and from this centre issued the teachers who carried the new methods to the cultivators. The State then stepped in again, sometimes to lend the cultivator the money necessary for the fresh start, or to organise a co- Operative society to enable him to realise the full advantage of the newer methods. Thus, by leaps and bounds, the whole character and quality of Hungarian agriculture has been changed. The reader will find the process set out fully with a wealth of statistical detail in Dr. Dardnyi’s book, which takes the form of a kind of valedictory report on quitting office. It has been excellently translated by Mr. Gyorgy, who, knowing so well the conditions pre- vailing in England, adds a preface discussing the value and limits of State interference in such matters. It is a wonderful record; to the English reader, par- ticularly if he be a farmer, it seems difficult to believe that so much can be done for the industry, and also that the distance of a few hundred miles should render impossible in this country methods that have proved so practicable and so fruitful for the Hungarian agriculturist. OUR BOOK SHELF. The Treatment of Diseases of the Eye. Victor Hanke. By Dr. Translated by J. Herbert Parsons, F.R.C€.S., and George Coats, M.D., F.R.C:S. Pp. vit222. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) Price 3s. 6d. net. Dr. Victor Hanke, the writer of this little book, is principal assistant to Prof. Fuchs in Vienna, and the methods of this famous clinique are those which are here given to a wider public. It naturally follows that it is characterised throughout by a practical sanity which has been sadly lacking in some books on similar subjects which have recently been thought worthy of translation. The author has no special hobby-horse on which to ride to mental destruction. His treatment throughout is practical, scientific in the best sense of the word, what we may call for lack of a more fitting adjective, common- sensical. There is no rash advocacy of new and un- tried methods of treatment simply because of their novelty. Consequently, it is a book which can be thoroughly recommended to all practitioners of the art of medicine. Reliance on it will not lead to dis- NO. 1865, VOL. 72] appointment, for the methods advocated thoroughly modern and sound. A careful reading reveals practically no ground for adverse criticism, and many points for active com- mendation. The warning against the indiscriminate use of cocaine is one that should be unnecessary to any practising ophthalmic surgeon, and yet we have only recently seen prescriptions for lotions and drops given to patients for frequent use containing cocaine. ““The immoderate use of cocaine... is not only unnecessary but actually harmful to the corneal epithelium ’’; and again, ‘‘ Cocaine should in general not be used, for on the one hand its action is only transitory, while on the other it has an injurious in- fluence on the corneal epithelium; moreover the dilatation which follows the temporary contraction of the vessels is harmful.’’ It would be easy to point out many places in which good results can be obtained by methods of treatment other than those recommended, but as the book does not in any way pretend to be exhaustive, and as the methods given are thoroughly sound, it would be hypercritical to do so. We doubt, however, the advisability of the use of adrenalin in severe inflam- matory glaucoma, even if only given to facilitate the operation. Macallan, in a paper in the Ophthalmic Hospital reports some two or three years ago, pointed out the dangers of this drug in glaucoma, and its tendency to set up the hemorrhagic form. The chapter on the various forms of inflammation of the cornea and their treatment is quite the most valuable in the book, and generally the earlier chapters dealing with the external diseases of the eye are fuller than the later chapters. The reason of this is that the author does not pretend to give descrip- tions of operations where only “‘ considerable skill and experience can command success,’’ and in diseases of the deeper parts of the eye the advice of the ophthalmic surgeon is more likely to be called for, and this book is not intended for him. In conclusion, we can only reiterate what we have already stated, that students of medicine will find this a thoroughly safe guide in the treatment of diseases of the eye. Die Stellung Gassendis su Deskartes. By Dr. Her- mann Schneider. Pp. 67. (Leipzig: Durr’sche Buchhandlung, 1904.) Price 1.50 marks. GASSENDI AND DESCARTES were contemporaries and fellow-countrymen, but the relation between them is mainly one of contrast. Gassendi was of peasant origin, a writer encyclopzedic in his range, an Epicurus redivivus with all Epicurus’s distrust of mathematics and all his belief in a material soul, a sceptic who was yet content to remain in the ranks of the Catholic priesthood, his face ever turned to the past whether in philosophy or religion. On the other side there is Descartes, a noble by birth, a student principally of the human understanding, something of a Platonist, with the Platonist’s reverence for mathematics and numbers, a dualist who fixed a great gulf between mind and body and between man and the lower animals, an uncompromising doubter of everything but his own doubt and all that is implied by the capacity to doubt, the exponent of cogito, ergo sum— in a word, the representative of the distinctively modern tendencies, which mean in religion Protestantism, in science mathematical physics, in philosophy Kan- tianism new and old. Only in so far as modetn thought inclines to atomism and materialism—and how much that is the author points out in his closing paragraph—do we find that its sympathies lie with Gassendi rather than with Descartes. These contrasts, extended into a detailed discussion of some of the writers’ most important works and particularly of their views on psychology, physics, and are JuLy 27, 1905] NATURE 6 Ga ethics, are well brought out by this author. His book may be heartily recommended to students of the period described. A Text-book of Physics, Heat. By Prof. J. H. Poynting, Sc.D., F.R.S., and Prof. J. J. Thomson, M.A., F.R.S. Pp. xvi+354. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 15s. Tue third volume of this well known text-book more than sustains the standard set by its predecessors. The volumes on sound and properties of matter have already appeared. The volumes on light and on electricity and magnetism we hope may follow at a somewhat shorter interval than has intervened between the first three volumes of the series. It is hardly necessary to say that the work is well up to date, and extremely clear and exact throughout, and that it is as complete as it would be possible to make such a text-book within the limits which the autho1s have laid down for the scope of their work. Among the more original features which should be valuable to the student as filling gaps which are noticeable in similar text-books, we observe that a useful chapter is included on the subject of circulation and convec- tion, with illustrations from meteorology and ventil- ation. The treatment of the important subject of radiation, especially in relation to temperature and thermodynamics, is unusually complete and clear, and presents in a simple, connected form a number of most important results which the student would have difficulty in finding elsewhere. The experimental spirit is maintained throughout the work in such a manner that the student will feel that he is learning from a practical master of the subject, and will un- consciously imbibe something of the attitude of mind of the original investigator. lala 1k Gx The Oxford Atlas of the British Colonies. Part 1. British Africa. Seventeen maps. (Oxford Geo- graphical Institute: William Stanford and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 2s. 6d. net. Tue first thirteen plates consist of coloured maps, and the remaining four are outlines intended for use as ‘test’? maps or for other class purposes. The first map shows a hemisphere in which Cape Colony occupies the centre, and it is possible from it to see at once the relation of South Africa to the other continents. Map ii. is a political map of the world drawn in accordance with Mollweides’s equal area projection, and the student will notice at a glance the apparent distortion in shape, though the relative sizes of land areas in different parts of the map are correctly shown. In addition to meteorological charts, the atlas includes physical and political maps of Africa, and maps of Cape Colony, Natal and Zulu- land, the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, Rhodesia, and of West, East, and Central Africa. —~ High Temperature Measurements. By H. Le Chate- lier and O. Boudouard. Authorised translation and additions by Dr. G. K. Burgess. Second edition. Pp. xv+341. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price 12s. 6d. net. : IN preparing the present edition it was found neces- sary to make a large number of additions, and the book now gives a useful summary of what is known about pyrometry. The advances in optical pyrometry during the last few years are recognised by the authors, and a useful chapter on the laws of radiation has been inserted. A number of pyrometers are de- scribed, but the discussion of the principles involved is in general more adequate than the description of instruments. No mention is made of some of the best of these in use in this country. NO. 1865, VOL. 72] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions: expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected’ manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.| A Comparison between Two Theories of Radiation. On two occasions (NATURE, May 18 and July 13) Lord Rayleigh has asked for a critical comparison of two theories of radiation, the one developed by Prof. Planck (Drude’s Annalen, i. p. 69, and iv. p. 553) and the other by myself, following the dynamical principles laid down by Maxwell and Lord Rayleigh. It is with the greatest hesitation that I venture to express my disagreement with some points in the work of so distinguished a physicist as Prof. Planck, but Lord Rayleigh’s second demand for a comparison of the two methods leads me to offer the follow~ ing remarks, which would not otherwise have been pub- lished, on the theory of Prof. Planck. Early in his second paper, Planck introduces the con- ception of the ‘‘ entropy of a single resonator Esp Wee are supposed to be N resonators having a total entropy S.=NS, and Sx is supposed to be given by Sxy=& log W+constant, where W is the “ probability ” that the N resonatois shall be as they are. Without discussing the legitimacy of assigning entropy to a single resonator, we may at present suppose S defined by S=k/N log W+cons. The function W, as at present defined, seems to me to have no meaning. Planck (in common, I know, with many other physicists) speaks of the ‘* probability” of an eyent, without specifying the basis according to which the probability is measured. This conception of probability seems to me an inexact conception, and as such to have no place in mathematical analysis. For instance, a mathe- matician has no right, quad mathematician, to speak of the probability that a tree shall be between six and seven feet in height unless he at the same time specifies from what trees the tree in question is to be selected, and how. If this is not so, may I ask, ‘‘ What is the probability that a tree shall be between six and seven feet high?” When Prof. Planck calculates the probability function W, he in effect assumes that a priori equal small ranges of energy are equally probable. Thus he tacitly introduces as the basis of his probability calculations an ensemble of systems of resonators such that the number of systems in which the energy of any given resonator lies between E and E+dE is proportional simply to dE. This, of course, he has a right to do, only he must continue to measure probability according to this same basis. The systems of resonators are in motion, their motion being governed by the laws of dynamics. Will they, as the motion progresses, retain the statistical property which has been the cause of their introduction, namely, that the number of systems in which the energy of any given resonator lies between E and E+dE is proportional simply to dE? It is easily found, by the method explained in my ‘“ Dynamical Theory of Gases’’ (§ 211), that in general they will not; the probability function W is not simply a function of the coordinates of the system. Prof. Planck’s position is as though he had attempted to calculate the probability that a tree should be between six and seven feet high, taking as his basis of calculation an enclosure of growing trees, and assuming the probability to be a function only of the quantities six and seven feet. His ensemble of systems has not yet reached a. statistical f : steady state.’ Prof. Planck supposes his function S to possess the property of the entropy function, so that 1/T=dS/dU, where T is the temperature. Combining this with Planck’s calculation of S, we find 1/T=A/e log (1 +e€/U) Pa eee acc (Ey) Here € is a small quantity, a sort of indivisible atom of energy, introduced to simplify the calculations. We may legitimately remove this artificial quantity by passing to the limit in which e=o. In this way we obtain YR VINON ao. So “autor! calor (2) Thus the mean energy of each resonator, according to this equation, is the same multiple of the temperature, no 294 NATURE [Juty 27, 1905 matter how many degrees of freedom the resonator possesses, or what the form of its potential energy. Indeed, according to this argument, equation (2) is proved for any dynamical system, e.g. the molecules of a gas. It is, however, known that equation (2), with Planck’s meaning of k, is true if, and only if, the energy of each dynamical system is expressible as the sum of two squares. It can, indeed, be shown directly that this latter condition is exactly the condition that Prof. Planck’s assumed basis of probability calculations shall be a legitimate basis, 1.e. shall be independent of the time. Happily, this condition of the energy being a sum of two squares may be sup- posed to be satisfied by Planck’s resonators, so that we may regard equation (r) as true for such resonators. The equation has, however, no physical meaning, owing to the presence of the arbitrary small quantity «, and can acquire a physical meaning only by putting e=o. It then leads merely to equation (2), which can be obtained much more readily from the theorem of equipartition. Taking udy to be the law of radiation, where v is the reciprocal of the period of vibration, Planck introduces from his first paper the equation u=(87v7/c3)U . (3) which in combination with equation (2) would lead to the law of radiation, (8xz/A)Tr*de . 2. CC; (4) and this, on replacing vy by c/A, becomes SrkTA—4dd (5) which agrees with my own result. Planck arrives at equation (3) by the help of his assumption of “‘ naturliche Strahlung,’’ but I believe it will be found that this ““assumption’’ is capable of immediate proof by the methods of statistical mechanics. Except for this, and the other differences already stated, the way in which ex- pression (5) has been reached in the present letter is identical, as regards underlying physical conceptions, with the way in which it has been obtained by Lord Rayleigh and myself. Planck does not reach expression (5) at all, as he does not pass from equation (1) to equation (2). Instead of putting e=o, he puts e=hv, where h is a constant, and this leads at once to his well known law of radiation. It will now be clear why Planck’s formula reduces to my own when A=o. For taking A=x is the same thing as taking y=0, Or €=0. The relation e=hy is assumed by Planck in order that the law ultimately obtained may satisfy Wien’s ‘ displace- ment law,’’ t.e. may be of the form Pe ACD 5 mB a 8 (6) This law is obtained by Wien from thermodynamical considerations on the supposition that the energy of the ether is in statistical equilibrium with that of matter at a uniform temperature. The method of _ statistical mechanics, however, enables us to go further and deter- mine the form of the function f(T/v); it is found to be 87rk(T/v), so that Wien’s law (6) reduces to the law given by expression (4). In other words, Wien’s law directs us to take e=hv, but leaves h indeterminate, whereas statistical mechanics gives us the further information that the true value of h is h=o. Indeed, this is sufficiently obvious from general principles. The only way of elimin- ating the arbitrary quantity e is by taking e=o, and this is the same as h=o. Thus it comes about that in Planck’s final law Sach I ( “6° ST Axle 7) the value of h is left indeterminate; on putting h=o, the value assigned to it by statistical mechanics, we arrive at once at the law (5). The similarities and differences of Planck’s method and my own may perhaps be best summed up by saying that the methods of both are in effect the methods of statistical mechanics and of the theorem of equipartition of energy, but that I carry the method further than Planck, since Planck stops short of the step of putting h=o. I venture to express the opinion that it is not legitimate to stop short at this point, as the hypotheses upon which Planck has worked lead to the relation h=o as a _ necessary consequence. NO. 1865, VOL. 72] Of course, I am aware that Planck’s law is in good agreement with experiment if h is given a value different from zero, while my own law, obtained by putting h=o, cannot possibly agree with experiment. This does not alter my belief that the value h=o is the only value which it is possible to take, my view being that the supposition that the energy of the ether is in equilibrium with that of matter is utterly erroneous in the tase of ether vibra- tions of short wave-length under experimental conditions. J. H. JEans. On the Spontaneous Action of Radium on Gelatin Media. SINCE my communication to Nature on the subject of the experiments in which I have been for some time past engaged, my attention has been directed to the fact that M. B. Dubois, in a speech at Lyons last November, stated that he had obtained some microscopic bodies by the action of radium salts on gelatin bouillon which had been rendered ‘‘ aseptic,’’ but in what manner it is not stated. I write to direct attention to the fact, as also to add that M. Dubois’s experiments were quite unknown to me. Moreover, the theory that some elementary form of life, far simpler than any hitherto observed, might exist and perhaps be brought about artificially by ‘‘ molecular and atomic groupings and the groupings of electrons ’’— in virtue of some inherent property of the atoms of such substances as radium—was pointed out in my article on the “* Radio-activity of Matter’? in the Monthly Review, November, 1903, whilst the experiments which I have been carrying out to verify this view have been for a long time known in Cambridge. Although I did not make a speech on the subject, I demonstrated the growths to many people at the Cavendish and Pathological laboratories early in the Michaelmas Term last year. So momentous a result as it seemed required careful confirmation, and much delay was also caused in talking the opinions of various men of science before I ventured to write to you upon the subject. That M. Dubois’s experiments have been made quite independently I do not entertain the slightest doubt. Some critics have suggested that these forms I have observed may be identified with the curious bodies obtained by Quincke, Lehmann, Schenck, Leduc and others in recent times, and by Rainey and Crosse more than half a century ago; but I do not think, at least so far as I can at present judge, that there is sufficient reason for so classifying them together. They seem to me to have little in common except, perhaps, the scale of being to which as microscopic forms they happen to belong. Joun ButLer Burke. The Problem of the Random Walk. Can any of your readers refer me to a work wherein I should find a solution of the following problem, or fail- ing the knowledge of any existing solution provide me with an original one? I should be extremely grateful for aid in the matter. A man starts from a point O and walks 1 yards in a straight line; he then turns through any angle whatever and walks another / yards in a second straight line. He repeats this process n times. I require the probability that after these n stretches he is at a distance between r and r+6r from his starting point, O. The problem is one of considerable interest, but I have only succeeded in obtaining an integrated solution for two stretches. J think, however, that a solution ought to be found, if only in the form of a series in powers of r/n, when 1 is large. Kart PEARSON. The Gables, East Ilsley, Berks. British Archeology and Philistinism. Art the end of the second week in July two contracted skeletons were found in a nurseryman’s grounds near the famous British camp at Leagrave, Luton. Both were greatly contracted; one, on its right side, had both arms straight down, one under the body the other above; the other skeleton lay upon its left side, with the left hand JuLy 27, 1905] NATURE 205 under the face and the right arm straight down. Both were probably female, and upon the breast of one was a fine bronze pin seven inches long with three pendant ornaments, and three discs of bronze, one plated with gold. Other bronzes of great interest were found with the second skeleton. I do not write to describe the bones and ornaments, but to make public the conduct of the Luton authority. A most intelligent workman lives close to the site of the discovery—one Thomas Cumberland—a man who has studied the antiquities of the district for many years, and to whom antiquaries are indebted for great and freely given assistance. This man was on the spot at once, and clearly and correctly stated the age of the bones and ornaments as British or late Celtic. Notwithstanding this information, the local police insisted on an _ inquest, although the bones were broken to pieces and in the highest degree friable. I went to the nursery and con- firmed Mr. Cumberland’s determination, made drawings of the bronzes, and such an examination of the bones as circumstances would permit. The coroner refused to hold an inquest, and so had no authority to make any cc order, but he wrote and “ suggested’’ that the bones should be buried in the parish churchyard. Armed with this ‘‘ suggestion,’’ the relieving officer ordered an under- taker to carry off the bones, which he did, in spite of the protest of the nurseryman, who informed him that they had been given to me and were my property. ordered to put the bones in coffins and bury them in the churchyard of Biscot. The undertaker took the bones to his shop at Luton. I at once applied to the relieving officer for permission to examine and measure some of the bones. I clearly explained to him the nature and import- ance of the discovery, and the trifling nature of the favour asked. This official replied in a curt and rude manner, and simply said, “‘I have no authority; you must apply to the coroner.”’ I repeatedly wrote to the undertaker to delay the funeral for a few days. I twice wrote to the coroner in an urgent but most respectful manner, and pointed out the importance of the discovery, which, indeed, is quite unique in this district, but all to no purpose. said he had not given the ‘‘ order ’’ for burial, and he refused to interfere, but he wrote to the undertaker and said, “‘ I can give no consent or authority in any way, but must leave you to carry out the arrangement which has been come to with you.’’ I wrote letters for six days to the different persons concerned, but to no effect; they would have a funeral, and the police now actually de- manded the bronzes from the owner. The property is free- hold. , Well, on Wednesday last the two coffins were screwed up | at Luton and taken in a hearse to Biscot churchyard, where the vicar, in the presence of a policeman, officiated. Shining breastplates were screwed on to the coffins in- scribed, ‘‘ Bones found at Leagrave, July r905.’’ Amongst the bones in the coffins were several non-human examples, a rib bone of a sheep, a piece of a rib of beef, a bone of a rabbit, and another of roebuck. Dunstable. WorTHINGTON G. SMITH. Graphical Solution of Cubic and Quartic Equations. SoME years ago you published some interesting com- munications in regard to the graphical solution of cubic and quartic equations (vol. Ixi. p. 55, vol. Ixiii. pp. 515 and 609, vol. Ixiv. p. 5). The solutions then given give only the real roots of the equation. I therefore take the liberty of directing attention to the following method, which gives the roots of cubic and quartic equations whether the roots are real or complex, and may be applied to equations of higher degree, with more complicated results. A cubic equation with real coefficients may be reduced by a simple real transformation to the form — 2°+qs+I=o0, where q is real, and since the sum of the roots of this equation is zero, they may be written in the form eT OL. y+ Vx y—N/x. No. 1865, VOL. 72] He was | He | If, now, we form the symmetric functions, we have i atl 2(y'—xy)=1. Hence if we draw the fixed curve y°— xy —5=0, the coordinates of the points where it is cut by the movable parabola c 3y+x+q=0 give the roots of the equation 3°+qz+1=0, i.e. if x, and y, are the coordinates of any such point, —2y, and y,+ x, are the roots of the given equation. In like manner a quartic equation with real coefficients may be put into the form s'+q2°+2+5=0, | where q and s are real, and its roots may be put into the form ‘ vt Vw —Was Jw, and, forming the symmetric functions, we have 202g — 9 6 © 6 + we (1) 2U(wW,—Wy)=—-I. . « « « + (2) Di (Wy Wy\e-+WyWo—=s - = « » - « » (3) and if we put 4u°=y (w,—w,)° =x we find by simple elimination xy=1, (yt+q)—(x+45)=0. Hence the intersections of the fixed hyperbola with the movable parabola give values for x and y from which v, w,, and w, may be calculated. If we eliminate x from the two equations last written, we have y*-+2qy° + Gy —48y —1=0. Hence there is always at least one positive value for y, therefore a real value of v; also, since xy=1, a positive value for x, therefore a real value for w,—w,; and since from (1), w,+w, is real, real values for w, and w,. H. Ivan THOMSEN. 1928 Mt. Royal Terrace, Baltimore, Md., June 7. THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE CANCER PROBLEM. HE term “ cancer’? is in common parlance indis- criminately applied to all tumours the growth of which is unlimited and generally rapid, which tend to recur after removal by operation, and particularly which reproduce their like (the secondary or metastatic growths) in parts of the body remote from the original seat of disease. Pathologically there are various forms of ‘ cancer,’’ or malignant disease, but there is no need to deal with these here, and it may be stated that there is no sharp line of demarcation between the so-called benign and the malignant growths; there is a series of connecting links between the two. Malignant disease is an important cause of death. According to the last published report of the Registrar General (1903), the death-rate from this cause per tooo living was 0.87; for comparison that for pul- monary tuberculosis (consumption) may be quoted ; this was 1-2. Moreover, it is a common belief that cancer is on the increase; people remark how much more frequently it is heard of now than formerly, and apparently the statistics support this view, for the cancer death-rate, which was 0:56 in 1884, has steadily increased, and is now 0:87, as stated above. Competent statisticians, | however, doubt whether the increase is real or only apparent, and partly due to more accurate diagnosis | and to a greater tendency to seek medical advice. | During the last two or three decades surgery has made 296 INA TAO Fede, [JuLY 27, 1905 enormous strides, and it may be said that no region of the body is now beyond surgical interference. Many more obscure conditions, therefore, come under observation than formerly, and the vast majority of tumours removed by the surgeon are in the present day examined microscopically and their nature ascer- tained without doubt. In the Registrar General's Report for 1903 (p. 63), the various corrections which have to be made to obtain even an approximate corrected rate will be found. It is also to be noted that the deaths classed under ‘ ill-defined causes,” which doubtless included many cases of obscure malig- nant disease, have steadily faHen. Of 49,555 deaths from ill-defined causes in 1903, further inquiry showed that 439 were due to malignant disease. If these in- quiries had not been made, which was formerly the case, these 439 deaths would have been omitted, and the cancer death-rate would have been correspondingly diminished. The statement is definitely made in the report of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund just issued that it is not yet possible to determine statis- tically whether cancer has really increased. Cancer attacks rich and poor alike, and the manner in which it progresses to a fatal issue, unless early treated by radical operation, has caused it to be regarded with dread by all. It attacks all races of men, though the savage races seem less susceptible than the civilised, and it is met with throughout the vertebrate kingdom. There is no evidence that any form of diet or mode of life conduces to cancer-form- ation. The origin of cancer has for long exercised the minds of pathologists, and it is in particular the true cancers or epithelial tumours which have been the subject of most research. The alleged causes of the origin of cancer may be divided into entogenous or intrinsic, spontaneous and anomalous changes within the organism, and ecto- genous or extrinsic, derived from outside the body. ‘Of the entogenous theories the most important are those of Thiersch and of Cohnheim. Thiersch suggested that tumour formation consisted in a loss of balance between the epithelial cells and connective tissue, whereby the former take on abnormal and un- directed growth. Cohnheim referred the origin of cancer to embryonic cells which had for some un- known reason remained in an undeveloped state and become included in the tissues, and which subsequently proliferate and form the primary growth. Ectogenous theories ascribe the formation of malignant growths to the action of micro-parasites, and bacteria, yeast and other fungi, and protozoa have in turn been re- garded as the causative organisms. There are, it is true, some analogies between certain microbic con- ‘ditions and cancer formation, but the fact that it is a portion of the original growth conveyed by the blood and lymph to distant parts which causes the secondary growths, and that the tissues at the site of the secondary growth take no part in its formation, is quite different from what obtains in microbial affec- tions. Attempts have been made to prove that cancer is contagious, and it is known that the disease is more prevalent in certain districts than in others, which lends some support to the parasitic theory. Auto-infection undoubtedly occurs; a cancer of the breast may infect the neighbouring arm, or of a lip the other lip, and cancer of mice can readily be inoculated into other mice, but these instances of ap- parent inoculation are rather of the nature of a transplantation; in the mouse it is the tissue intro- duced which increases and forms the malignant growth, not the tissue of the inoculated animal. Ex- periments by the staff of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund prove that healthy mice kept in close contact swith cancerous mice never contract the disease. NO. 1865, VOL. 72] The cancer of one animal is inoculable only into another animal of the same species, and human cancer, therefore, cannot be transmitted to the lower animals. All attempts to isolate a micro-parasite have proved failures, in spite of the vast amount of work done in this direction. The alleged organisms of cancer, such, for example, as certain yeast fungi, have, it is true, been found to produce tumour-like growths, but these have, on critical examination, been proved to be of the nature of granulomatous growths, and not true cancer. A point of which a good deal has been made by the supporters of the parasitic theory is that the so-called ‘‘ cancer bodies,’’ the alleged parasites, are present only in malignant growths, and not in normal or pathological tissue nor in benign tumours. But the deduction from this fact, that these bodies are therefore parasitic, has little to support it when it is considered that cancer is a unique tissue, and might obviously contain structures not found elsewhere and not necessarily parasitic. On these and other grounds the parasitic theory has of late steadily been losing ground. The remarkable observations of Prof. Farmer and Messrs. Moore and Walker have recently thrown much light on the possible nature of the cancer process. As detailed in these columns (February 4, 1904, p- 319), it is found that in cancerous tissues many at least of the cells divide in a manner quite different from that of the somatic or body cells generally. This mode of cell-division observed in cancer is that which obtains in gametogenic or sexual reproductive tissue, and is character- ised by a difference in the mode of division (trans- verse instead of longitudinal) and in the number (six- teen instead of thirty-two for man) of the chromatin bands or chromosomes of the nucleus, and is known as “‘ heterotype mitosis.’’ The division succeeding the heterotype, known as the homotype, still retains the reduced number of chromosomes, and is, therefore, sometimes termed “ reduction division.’’ Cells with reduction division do not seem to be able to regain the somatic mitosis except by fertilisation. This gametogenic-like tissue of malignant growths has been termed ‘‘ gametoid.’’ Other irregularities in division of cancerous cells also occur. Another remarkable fact recently demonstrated by Messrs. Farmer, Moore, and Walker (Nature, June I5, p. 164) is that in the normal reproductive tissues structures occur which are strikingly similar to the bodies (‘‘ cancer bodies’’) described by Ruffer, Plimmer, and others in cancerous growths, and regarded by many as parasites. These structures in the reproductive tissues are the archoplastic vesicles, and that similar structures should occur in cancerous growths (and not, be it noted, in benign tumours) on the one hand lends additional support to the idea of the gametoid nature of the cancer cells, and on the other further disproves the supposed parasitic nature of the ‘‘ cancer bodies.”’ Is it possible from these observations to formulate a suggestion as to the nature of the cancer process ? Prof. Farmer himself has stated that he and his co- workers do not profess to explain the relation between the heterotype mitosis of the gamectoid cells of cancer and the life-history of cancer. It might be that the gametoid cells of the malignant growth undergo some process of fertilisation giving rise to an aberrant embryo, as it were, which by development forms the primary growth, which would thus be parasitic on the host, the secondary growths arising from a repeti- tion of the primary event. In some plants game- togenic tissue may normally possess parasitic char- acteristics. There is, however, so far little evidence of fertilisation or fusion of the gametoid cells in cancer, a JuLy 27, 1905 NATURE 297 except that, as recently stated by Mr. Moore (Brit. Med. Journ., July 8, p. 104), leucocytes or white blood cells are sometimes found within the body of the cancer cells, with which they appear to be undergoing con- jugation. Messrs, Farmer, Moore, and Walker suggest that it is possible that the malignant elements are the outcome of a phylogenetic reversion, but this would not necessarily explain the invasiveness of cancer. In spite of recent work, much remains to be done and to be explained before we shall be in a position clearly to understand the cancer process. With regard to the causes which lead to the pro- duction of the gametoid cells in cancer, it has been found that in plants various stimuli will rapidly bring about heterotype mitosis, and, given the proper stimulus, probably any somatic cell may become changed into this type. The connection between chronic irritation and cancer has long been recog- nised, but the manner in which this factor acts to produce cancer has not been understood; but in the light of the foregoing, it may be regarded as one of the stimuli which may bring about heterotype mitosis and reduction division. Does recent work hold out a prospect of the dis- covery of a curative agent for cancer? It cannot be said that our hopes in this direction have been materi- ally increased as yet. At present almost the only hope of cure lies in early and radical operation, and it is of the greatest moment that the public should realise the importance of early treatment, and that no time should be lost in seeking advice. In superficial cancers, the X-rays and radium emanations seem to effect a cure by causing a retrogression or a necrosis of the cancer elements. Possibly the gametoid tissue of the cancer is more vulnerable than the somatic cells, and hence the former may be caused to degenerate or be destroyed without materially injuring the latter, but probably the rays cause proliferation of the connective tissue elements of the growth and interfere with its nutrition. Is it possible that the stimulus of these rays may also act like fertilisation, and causes the game- toid once more to revert to somatic cells, which then being of the nature of a foreign body are partly re- moved and partly remain inert ? Clowes and Gaylord (Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, April, 1905) have observed that cancer in mice occasionally undergoes spontaneous retrogression and cure, and the same occurs, but, unfortunately, only too rarely, in human cancer. Clowes found that the blood serum of the mice in which this spontaneous cure had occurred exerted a marked curative action on other mice suffering from the disease. This suggests the possibility that work of a similar nature may eventually lead to the discovery of a means of treating human cancer, but the probability is small, for it is extremely unlikely that the serum of any animal would have the slightest effect on the human being. A spontaneously cured human being would almost certainly have to provide the serum! : T. HEWLETT. BRITISH FRUIT GROWING. Apes report to the Board of Agriculture of the departmental committee appointed to consider what measures can be taken for the promotion and encouragement of fruit culture in these islands has been issued. The commissioners recommend that a special department should be formed to deal with matters relating to the fruit industry, and that this department should be subdivided into (a) a bureau of information; (b) an experimental fruit farm. The desirability of encouraging the practice of gardening NO. 1865, VoL 72] in schools in the rural districts is also alluded to, and this recommendation will be generally concurred in. Legal questions connected with the tenancy and rating of land used in fruit culture are of cardinal importance, as also are those relating to the carriage of fruit by rail and to the alleged unfair treatment by the companies of the home-grower as compared with his foreign competitor. The necessity of further market accommodation is likewise insisted on. These are all matters of importance, but they do not cover the whole of the ground. We find no reference in the report before us of the influence of the weather on the fruit crops, and yet this is a factor the potency of which outweighs all others. In the case of hardy fruits, not grown under glass, the fruit grower is in the main powerless to contend against adverse conditions. The tabulated reports from every county in the British Islands, which have been published annually for the last forty or fifty years in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, bear ample testi- mony to this. Spring frosts when the trees are in blossom occur more or less every year, and when they happen to be severe, as they were this year, the results are disastrous. The reports from the cherry- growing districts of Kent this year show remarkable diversity of yield from farms in the same neighbour- hood, a diversity due presumably to differences of shelter and aspect. It is difficult to see how the grower can protect himself from these adverse con- ditions. Experimental farms such as are recom- mended by the commission, and of which one is in operation at Woburn under the auspices of the Duke of Bedford, are for the most part of local value only; the lessons they teach may not be applicable in the next parish where the conditions are different. Can nothing, therefore, be done? We should be sorry to assent to such a proposition. We_ believe that something could be done. But then arises the question whether, in the face of the vast importations first from the American continent, and when supplies from that quarter are exhausted, from Tasmania and Australia, any steps which the British grower could take would be of any use, commercially speaking? Again, no competition on the part of the home-grower is possible with the banana imports from the Canaries and the West Indian islands, which are assuming such vast proportions, or with the still larger import- ations of oranges. The case is different when what are termed soft fruits are concerned. We can hold our own with strawberries, raspberries, and currants, whilst gooseberries, especially when picked in a green condition, are among the most profitable crops that a farmer or even a cottager can grow. Spring frosts do them relatively little harm, so that a crop of some sort can generally be relied on. From a commercial standpoint, when we talk of our home fruit-crops we mean apples or plums, and reverting to the subject of spring frosts we may well inquire whether it is not possible for our experts to raise breeds which shall be immune from injury. Our American cousins hoped for great things by the introduction of Russian apples, and some were tried here also, but the results were not encouraging, as the quality of the fruit was so indifferent that the experiment was not continued. Another lesson from the same source seems more promising. When a few years ago a “big freeze’? occurred in Florida, the orange plantations suffered exceedingly. What did our friends do? Did they abuse the fickleness of their climate and take their misfortunes with the resig- nation of the fatalists? Not so. They set to work without loss of time to raise by means of cross-breed- ing a hardy variety, and they have at least made a good beginning. So, too, have our friends the 298 NATO LEE [Juny 27, 1905 French, who by the cross-fertilisation of the hardy Citrus triptera and an ordinary orange have succeeded in producing a hardy variety of that fruit. Matters are as yet only in the experimental stage, but the possibility of success has been demonstrated. There is no reason whatever why our own experimentalists should not succeed with apples and plums. Earlier varieties, later varieties, hardier varieties, are all well within the range of possibility, and would be certainly forthcoming if we abandoned our present methods of chance selection and haphazard cross-breeding in favour of careful experiment and rational procedure. Not only are experimental farms wanted for local purposes, but research stations wherein results might be obtained of universal application. The Royal Horticultural Society has in its new garden at Wisley, presented by Sir Thomas Hanbury, a splendid opportunity before it, and it is to be hoped that it will not be backward in turning it to account. The fruit farm at Woburn, to which allusion has already been made, sets an example which might be followed and extended with advantage. Already important results with reference to the employment of manures have been obtained there which, though of a negative character, are none the less valuable. NOTES. Tue annual meeting of the British Medical Association began at Leicester on Monday last. On Tuesday, Dr. G. Cooper Franklin, the president for the year, delivered his address, and the association’s gold medal of merit was presented to Sir Constantine Holman and Dr. Andrew Clark. The Stewart prize was presented to Mr. W. H. Power, C.B. Tue British Electro-Therapeutic Society is holding a three days’ meeting at Leicester this week. The following sub- jects are announced for consideration :—the present position of the treatment of carcinoma and sarcoma by electrical methods, neurasthenia, the X-rays in the diagnosis of pulmonary disease, and stereoscopic radiography, while a report will be given on the milliamperemeter as a measure of X-ray production. Tue forty-second annual meeting of the British Pharma- ceutical Conference was opened at Brighton on Tuesday last. The organisation, it will be remembered, is distinct from the Pharmaceutical Society, and is solely concerned with “‘ the encouragement of pharmaceutical research, and the promotion of friendly intercourse and union amongst pharmacists.” The president, Mr. W. A. H. Naylor, delivered his address, and the reading and consideration of papers took place. The meeting terminates to-day. SEVERAL earthquake disturbances are reported. Accord- ing to a Central News telegram from Vienna, the seismo- graph at the Pola Hydrographic Station registered between 3-55 a.m. and 4.17 a.m. on Sunday last the occurrence of a severe and protracted seismic disturbance at an estimated distance of some 3720 miles, and telegrams from St. Petersburg, through Reuter’s Agency, state that earth- quakes occurred in Siberia at the following places and times :—at Chita at 10.25 on Sunday morning last; at Martinsk, in the Government of Tomsk, at about 9 a.m. of the same day; and at Kiakhta at 10 o’clock on the morning of Tuesday last. An earthquake is stated also to have taken place at Menstrie and Blair-Logie, and to have been felt in other parts of Scotland, shortly after midnight of Sunday last. NO 1865, voL. 72] THE committee appointed in April last to consider the advisability or otherwise of confederating the principal London medical societies has now presented its report (one favourable to confederation), which, with certain minor alterations and additions, has been adopted. According to the British Medical Journal, it is suggested that the new society should be known as either the Royal Society of Medicine or the Royal Academy of Medicine, and that at first it should comprise the following sixteen sections :— (1) aneesthetic ; (2) clinical; (3) dermatological ; (4) diseases of children; (5) epidemiological; (6) laryngological, otological, and rhinological; (7) medical; (8) mental medicine (psychiatry) ; (9) neurological ; (10) obstetrical and gynecological; (11) odontological; (12) ophthalmological ; (13) pathological; (14) State medicine; (15) surgical ; (16) therapeutical, including general therapeutics, pharma- cology, electrotherapeutics, balneology, and climatology. The hope is expressed that in the early future an anatomical and physiological section may be formed. THE arrangements for the meeting in London of the International Statistical Institute, which is to take place from July 31 to August 4, are now practically complete. The proceedings will be opened at the Imperial Institute by the Prince of Wales, who will deliver an address. Addresses will also be given by the president of the insti- tute, Dr. von Inama-Sternegg, and by the president of the Royal Statistical Society, the Earl of Onslow, after which the following communications will be presented and dis- cussed :—superficie et population du monde; _ balance économique des nations; mortalité des grandes villes; statistique de la tuberculose; fécondité des mariages ; statistique des transports internationaux; accidents du international comparison of workmen’s wages; recensements industriels et statistique du chémage; l’enseignement supérieur; import and export statistics; répercussion des droits de douanes; international agri- cultural statistics; valeurs mobiliéres; some subjects con- nected with pauperism; and discours sur l’avenir de la statistique. travail ; Particutars have been issued as to the arrangements which have been made for the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute. The meeting will be held at Sheffield from September 26 to 29, and the following papers have been offered for reading :—On the metallurgical depart- ment of Sheffield University, by Prof. J. O. Arnold; on the thermal transformation of carbon steels, by Prof. J. O. Arnold and A. McWilliam; on the nature of troostite, by Dr. C. Benedicks; on the occurrence of copper, cobalt ~ and nickel in American pig irons, by Prof. E. D. Camp- bell; on pipe in steel ingots, by J. E. Fletcher; 6n steel for motor-car construction, by L. Guillet; on the presence of greenish-coloured markings in the fractured surface of test pieces, by Captain H. G. Howorth, R.A.; on over- heated steel, by A. W. Richards and J. E. Stead, F.R.S.; on segregation in steel ingots, by B. Talbot; on a manipulator for steel bars, by D. Upton; on machinery for breaking pig iron, by C. Walton; on the influence of carbon on nickel and iron, by G. B. Waterhouse. THE congress of the International Society of Surgery will this year be held in Brussels. The meetings will take place from Monday, September 18, to Saturday, September 23, and will be under the presidency of Prof. Theodor Kocher, of the University of Berne. Among the subjects to be discussed are :—the value of the examination of the blood in surgery; the treatment of prostatic hyper- trophy; surgical intervention in non-cancerous diseases of oe NATURE 299 the stomach; treatment of articular tuberculosis ; the treat- ment of peritonitis; and the diagnosis of surgical diseases of the kidney. The official languages of the congress are English, French, German, and_ Italian. The English delegate is Mr. R. Harrison, 6 Lower Berkeley Street, W. Science gives particulars of the sixth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, which is to take place in Rome in the spring of next year. The congress will be divided into eleven sections as follows :—Analytical chemistry, apparatus and instruments; inorganic chemistry and industries related thereto; metallurgy and mining, explosives ; organic chemistry and industries related there- to; technology and chemistry of sugar; fermentation and starch; agricultural chemistry; hygiene; photochemistry, photography; electrochemistry, physicochemistry; laws, political economy and legislation in relation to industrial chemistry. The languages to be used in the discussion are Italian, French, German, and English. The minutes of the proceedings of the session will be in Italian. The secretary of the congress is Prof. V. Villavecchia, Central Customs Laboratory, Rome. It is stated in La Nature that the seventh International Congress of Zoology is to be held at Boston, U.S.A., in August, 1907, under the presidency of Prof. Agassiz. The Emperor Nicolas II. prize will be awarded on this occasion for monographs on the subject ‘‘ Nouvelles recherches expérimentales sur la question des hybrides.’’ The essays, either in manuscript or printed, should be addressed before June 1, 1907, to Prof. R. Blanchard, boulevard Saint- Germain, 226, Paris. The essays should be in French, though those written in German, Italian, or English will be admitted to the competition if summary in French. accompanied by a Ir has been decided by the Government of New Zealand to hold during the summer of 1906-7 (i.e. from November, 1906, to April, 1907) at Christchurch an international ex- hibition in which all nations are invited to participate. The object of the exhibition is educational, and to demon- strate the resources of the colony in food production, yield of minerals, the supply of raw materials, &c. Intending exhibitors may obtain full particulars from the secretary of the exhibition at Christchurch, New Zealand. : Tue report of the special committee appointed by the Government of Bombay to consider the question of a public museum and library for Bombay has been issued. The estimated initial cost of the buildings alone is approxi- mately ten lakhs, four of which are for the building de- voted to art and archzology, and three for the science museum and public library respectively. Tue Paris correspondent of the Lancet states that a permanent committee to deal with the watering places and climatic stations in France has just been established by the Minister of the Interior. The committee, the honorary president of which is the Minister of the Interior, is to examine into the general needs of the places referred to, and to protect and develop them. The mayors and the medical men of the various watering places, the directors and the committees of sociétés thermales, are liable each in his turn to be summoned to serve on the committee for a period not exceeding three years. THE sum of 150,000 kroner has been given by Dr. F. G. Gade, of the University of Christiania, to the city of Bergen for the establishment of a laboratory of patho- logical anatomy. NO. 1865, VOL. 72 | Ir is intended to celebrate the jubilee of Prof. D. I. Mendeléeff on August 30, this eminent man of science having completed his fiftieth year of public professional service on June 13 last. M. J. Dysowskxt, inspector-general of agriculture in the French colonies, has been elected an officer of the Légion d’honneur, and Dr. Giraud, head of the scientific mission to Martinique, has been raised to the dignity of chevalier. A portrait medallion, in marble, of Sir William Geddes, the late principal of the University of Aberdeen, has been completed, and will be placed in the Geddes transept of the library at King’s College. Its unveiling will probably take place at the beginning of the winter session. 22, 2th. om. Saturn in opposition to the sun. >» 23. 2h. 5m. to 12h. ‘46m. Moon occults o? Tauri (Mag. 4°8). :, 30. Total eclipse of the sun, partly visible at Greenwich. Ith. 49m. a.m. Beginning of the eclipse. th, 3m. p.m. Middle of the eclipse. 2h. 15m. p.m. End of the eclipse. Magnitude of eclipse=0"786. Sun’s altitude at noon =48°. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MartIAN Canats.—Since the opposition of Mars in 1gor, persistent efforts have been made at the Lowell Observatory to secure photographs of the planet on which the canals could be seen definitely. After making a number of exposures with a camera in which the film was continuous, so that a large number of short exposures—as in the bioscope—could be made on the one film, Mr. Lampland succeeded in obtaining negatives which demonstrate indubitably the actual exist- ence of the ‘“‘canals’’ Nilosyrtis, Pyramus, Casius, Protonilus, Astaboras S., and Thoth. In addition to these, the ‘“‘regions’’ Syrtis Major, Mare Erythreum, Mare Icarium, Hellas and the north polar cap, and the “‘ oasis ’’ Lucus Ismenius are plainly discernible. A photographic print from a negative secured on May 11 at igh. 44m.— 48m. (G.M.T.) on which these features are visible is affixed in the Lowell Observatory Bulletin, No. 21, accom- panied by a drawing made by Mr. Lowell immediately before the exposure was made. Other photographs secured | | JuLy 27, 1905] NATURE 303 show other canals, and Mr. Lampland is to be con- gratulated, in company with Mr. Lowell, upon thus securing unquestionable evidence of the actual existence of these features. A point of special interest to planet observers is that whilst trying to obtain these photographs the observers found that the restriction of the aperture employed, by its elimination of the evil effects of atmospheric vibrations, more than counterbalanced the inconvenience caused by the diminution of light-gathering power and the consequent increase of the length of the exposures, a result which confirms the conclusion previously arrived at by Mr. Lowell from visual observations. Durcu OBSERVATIONS OF THE Corona.—Parts iii. and iv. of Prof. Julius’s report on the observations made by the Dutch expedition in Sumatra during the total solar eclipse of May 18, 1901, minutely describe the apparatus and the methods of procedure employed in examining the coronal radiations for polarisation effects and for the determination of the amount of heat radiated by the eclipsed sun. A double-image polarimeter of the Cornu pattern, slightly modified, was employed to examine the polarisation at different points of an image of the corona. The points examined were situated at different distances from the sun’s limb, and the position of each was carefully recorded. The results showed that the coronal rays were more strongly polarised at some distance from the limb than nearer to it, whilst at greater distances the polarisation again decreased. A discussion of some experiments, per- formed after the eclipse, on the depolarising effect of haze and clouds showed that this effect was practically negligible. The observations of the total heat radiated by the eclipsed sun were made with a thermopile pointed directly to the corona, but clouds robbed the observations of any definite result. So far as they go, the resulting figures show that the heat radiated at totality is not so great as that received from the full moon, and that a very striking increase occurred after the third contact. THe NortH PoLar SNoOw-caP ON Mars, 1904-5.— Observations of the north polar cap of Mars were made at the Lowell Observatory by Messrs. Lowell and Lamp- land during the period November, 1904, to May, 1905, and the observers’ notes for each night are given in full in No. 20 of the Lowell Observatory Bulletins. One remarkable feature observed was a white collar which surrounded the cap during the latter half of January. Mr. Lowell explains this phenomenon by the conjecture that it is a belt of spring haze which surrounds the cap during the hotter months of the melting, the cap proper being bordered by a blue belt of material (probably water) produced by the melting of the snow. Several subsidiary patches of snow were left behind by the receding polar cap, and became prominent features. Of these, one in longitude 206° was especially marked, and was recorded in exactly the same longitude by Schiaparelli in 1888, and independently at the Flagstaff Observatory in 1901 and 1903. VEGETATION AND THE Sun-Spot PER1op.—Since 1871 M. Camille Flammarion has each year recorded the dates on which the chestnut trees in the avenue of the Paris Observatory have burst into leaf and flowered. Plotting the results of his observations with the sun-spot curve on the same year-scale, he found that the variation of the dates of the different phases of the annual arboreal pheno- mena agreed very closely with the latter curve, the leaf- buds bursting and the flowers appearing earlier at those epochs when the sun-spot maxima occurred. The details of the observations and the method employed in reducing them are given in the July number of the Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France. VisipiLity OF THE Dark HEMISPHERE OF VENUS.—In a paper on the influence of the solar-activity variations on the planets, M. Hansky directs attention to the greater visibility of the dark hemisphere of Venus during epochs of maximum solar activity. According to the theory of Arrhenius, electrified ions emitted by the sun cause the phenomena of terrestrial magnetic storms and aurore. Applying the same theory in the case of Venus, M. Hansky suggests that during the periods of solar maxima the wo. 1865, VOL. 72] dense atmosphere of that planet is rendered more phos- phorescent, and, therefore, more easily visible, by the in- creased solar activity. He further suggests that, in order to test this theory, astronomers should observe the planet as often as possible during the present sun-spot maximum (Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France, July). DETERMINATIONS OF METEOR RaAvbiants.—Some interest- ing results of meteor observations are recorded in No. 4032 of the Astronomische Nachrichten by M. Eginitis, *of Athens, and by Prof. A. A. Nijland, of Utrecht. M. Eginitis observed the Perseid, Leonid, and Andro- medid showers of 1903 and the Perseid shower of 1904. He gives the time of observation, the number, colour, magnitude and relative velocity of the meteors recorded, and the position of the determined radiant on each date, directing special attention to any objects which were, for any reason, extraordinary. On August 11, 1904, several meteors were seen to proceed from a radiant near to a Persei, and these were, in general, whiter and brighter than those from 7 Persei, the latter being fainter and of a reddish-yellow colour, and generally falling in pairs. Prof. Nijland’s results deal with the Lyrid, Perseid, and Leonid showers of 1902, 1903, and 1904, and he gives the results for each night of observation and the positions deduced for the respective radiants. THE INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS. ~HE summer meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects was held last week in London, the usual sittings for the reading of papers taking place in the theatre of the Society of Arts. The following papers were on the programme for reading and discussion :—Tacties and strategy at the time of Trafalgar, by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge; the ships of the Royal Navy as they existed at the time of Trafalgar, by Sir Philip Watts, Director of Naval Construction; the classification of merchant shipping, illustrated by a short history of Lloyd’s Register, by H. J. Cornish, chief ship surveyor to Lloyd’s Register ; experiments with models of constant length and form of cross section, but with varying breadths and draughts, by Lieut.-Colonel B. Rota, Royal Italian Navy; experiments upon the effect of water on speed having special reference to destroyers recently built, by Harold Yarrow ; deductions from recent and former experiments on the influence of the depth of water on speed, by W. W. Marriner ; the failure of some large boiler plates, by J. YT. Milton, chief engineer surveyor to Lloyd’s Register; a comparison of the performances of turbines and recipro- cating engines in the Midland Railway Companys steamers, by William Gray. It was also arranged that visits the following works:—Siemens Bros. and Co.’s Tele- graph and Electrical Instrument Works, near Woolwich ; Vickers, Sons and Maxim Ordnance Works, Erith; J. and E. Hall’s Refrigerating Machinery Works, Dartford; should be paid to | Yarrow and Co.’s ship-building yard and marine engine works, Poplar; John I. Thornycroft and Co.’s ship-build- ing yard, marine engine works, and motor-car works, Chiswick. Visits were also paid to the P. and O. mail steamer India, lying in the Tilbury Docks, and H.M.S. Black Prince, built by the Thames Iron Works, and lying in the Victoria Docks. The last day of the meeting, Friday, July 21, was occupied by a visit to Portsmouth Dockyard. The first sitting during the meeting, when the three first papers ‘on the list were presented, was held on Wednes- day, July 19, the president of the institution, the Right Hon. the Earl of Glasgow, occupying the chair. These papers, as will be gathered by the titles, were chiefly of historical interest. In this centennial year of Trafalgar it was, no doubt, appropriate for the institution, which is so largely naval in its composition, to include in its programme papers of the nature of those contributed by Sir Cyprian Bridge and Sir Philip Watts; but how far they have any scientific bearing on nayal strategy or tactics of the present day is a question that is evidently open to discussion. It would appear that a large section of naval officers hold that the lessons of the past era of masts and sails should be applied with little modification 304 NATORE [JULY 27, 1905 to the present day. For example, Admiral Sir Edmund Fremantle said that the tactics and strategy at the time of Trafalgar taught lessons which would never die, and Admiral Custance remarked that all the lessons of the past in naval warfare have a bearing on the present day, it being quite immaterial whether vessels were moved by steam or sail. On. the other hand, there are some who hold that the disciples of what has been described as the “* teachings-of-history ’’ school carry their reverence for the past to an excessive degree, and that a too blind follow- ing of the tactics and strategy of the great admirals of the past may lead to disaster. Sir Philip Watts, in the course of his paper, pointed out that ‘‘ steam propulsion, in all its various forms, shell fire, iron and steel armour, steel hulls, breech-loading and rifled guns, torpedoes, mines, high explosives, electrical appliances, and sub- marines’’ have all been introduced since the day of Trafalgar; and though he did not press any moral from these changes, his predecessor at the Admiralty was a little more explicit, as it was possible for one no longer trammelled by the rules or etiquette of office to be. Sir William White said in the discussion that while he agreed with Sir Cyprian Bridge that the teachings of history were valuable, it was necessary to allow for changes brought about by time. He did not think such a course was followed on all occasions. Mr. Cornish’s paper, as a record of the past by a com- petent authority, is one which should prove of considerable value to the student and historian of ship-building. The author did not urge its reading as time was short, and it was accordingly taken as read. Colonel Rota’s paper was the first taken at the even- ing sitting of Wednesday, July 19. It formed but a part of a very big subject, and was in the nature of an addition to Mr. R. E. Froude’s paper on model experi- ments, read last year. The experiments briefly described by Colonel Rota were made with five models at the Royal Italian Dockyard, Spezia. It would be difficult to give the results of the inquiry without going into the whole question, but it may be stated that the author, without attempting to draw any general deduction, has practically concluded that in the unlimited series of forms which may be derived from a given form of hull by changing the vertical and horizontal cross sections scale—provided that the area of cross sections remains constant—there is a range of ratio of beam to draught, very close to that corresponding to the least wetted surface, within the limits of which there is not any sensible variation in the value of the resistance constant, that is, the corresponding E.H.P. There was no discussion on this paper, but Sir William White had written to Mr. Dana, the secretary, endorsing the author’s plea for the publication of results of a purely scientific nature. The two papers contributed respectively by Mr. Harold Yarrow and Mr. W. W. Marriner were no doubt the chief attraction during the meeting, and the little theatre of the Society of Arts was crowded to its full capacity by those anxious to benefit by the investigations carried out by Messrs. Yarrow and Co. Both papers referred to the same experiments, the authors having been engaged together on the work. Mr. Marriner, as is well known, is the chief of Messrs. Yarrow’s scientific staff, whilst Mr. Harold Yarrow is still a student of the institution, and it is worth noting that his paper is the first contri- bution to the Transactions by a student. The data given possesses the merit of being both of scientific and practical interest. It has for some time past been recognised that depth of water has a considerable influence on the speed of steam ships, and Government contractors have lost considerable sums of money through failure to attain speed on the official measured miles. The scientific interest of the subject is unlimited, the problem involving the study of the natural laws governing wave-making and fluid resistance. It is to be hoped that ship builders and ship owners—now they have had placed before them so striking an example of the value of scientific research upon the practical results at which they aim—will do something tangible to help forward an inquiry into the influence of physical laws upon the resistance of vessels progressing in water. It is not creditable to the ship owners and ship builders that they should be beholden to the generosity of NO. 1865, VoL. 72} a private firm of torpedo-boat builders for information on these points, especially as such information cannot be obtained without the expenditure of several hundreds of pounds. The exclusive knowledge of the facts set forth in the two papers would prove a valuable asset to Messrs. Yarrow and, Co. by giving them a distinct advantage over their competitors, and it is therefore more creditable to them that they have made the details public. It is, how- ever, the greatest reproach of all to us, as the leading maritime nation, that Mr. Yarrow should have been under obligation to a German ship-owning firm for the facilities needed to make the investigation complete. Had it not been for the hospitality of their experimental tank offered by the North German Lloyd Company, the valuable in- formation now at the command of ship designers would not have been forthcoming, for there is no tank of the same nature in this country which could have been used. The experiments upon which the two papers were founded arose through Messrs. Yarrow and Co. having failed to get the contract speed of 253 knots with destroyers built for the Royal Navy when they were tried on the Maplin mile off the mouth of the Thames. The builders, anticipating that the limitation in depth of water was accountable for the want of success, surveyed on their own account a mile near Dover, the section posts being placed on the cliffs. Here, in a greater depth of water —50 feet at low tide—the contract speed was reached, the vessels running a great part of the time in quite deep water outside the Goodwins. It should be explained that the trials last over four hours, and only six runs are made on the measured mile. On these six runs is found the number of revolutions needed to cover a mile, and then by counting the revolutions the distance steamed can be known. Although the contract was fulfilled, the results were not altogether satisfactory to the contractors,. and Mr. Yarrow determined to have tank experiments made, testing a model of the destroyer at depths corre- sponding to 20 feet, 30 feet, 45 feet, 60 feet, and go feet respectively. The results were shown by diagrams thrown on the screen by the lantern, there being curves for speeds and for effective horse-power at the above depths. The results were somewhat remarkable. Each curve showed a distinct hump, indicating that when a certain speed was. reached the power needed for an increased speed rose with enormous rapidity. This, of course, was in accord- ance with previous experience, and it was also to be expected, as shown by the diagram, that the hump would occur at lower speeds with shallower water; thus at 20 feet depth the top of the hump was at about 16 knots, at 45 feet it was about 20 to 21 knots, and at go feet the steepest part was from 20 to 24 knots. As the depth increased the curve became fairer. The interesting feature brought out, however, was the fact that at a certain speed, depending on the depth of water, for a time the power decreased as the speed advanced. Thus in a depth of 20 feet, at a speed of about 153 knots, 2000 horse-power was needed; when the speed had been increased by approximately another knot the power developed was about the same, whilst at 173 knots the demand for power had fallen off appreciably, and it was not until 18 knots was reached that the 2000 horse- power was again required, and after this the curve rose steadily. With a depth of 30 feet the descent of the curve was even more marked, about 2500 horse-power being needed for approximately 173 knots and for 20 knots also. Comparing the powers required for speeds at different depths, we find also some remarkable results. At 18 knots: 2500 horse-power was needed when the water was 30 feet deep, whilst when it was but 20 feet only 2000 horse- power had to be developed to reach the same speed, thus re- versing the popular idea that the deeper the water the easier the boat would run. Again, at 20 knots, and when the water was 20 feet (and also when the depth was about 30 feet—the two curves approximately coinciding here), 2500 horse-power was needed, but to get the same speed with a depth of 45 feet about 315 horse-power was needed. Passing at once to the higher speed of 26 knots, we find that the highest power is needed when the boat is steaming in deepest water. After crossing and re-cross- ing each other, the curves for four depths (20 feet, 30 feet, 45 feet, and 6o feet) come fairly well together, having got Juty 27, 1905] NATURE 305 over all the humps at about 25 knots, where there is a range of about 200 horse-power. The curve for go feet of water is, however, for 5000 horse-power at 26 feet, or about 500 horse-power above the next highest curve. It would therefore pay better, according to these model ex- periments, to run a 26-knot trial of a destroyer in a depth of 20 feet to 60 feet rather than at a depth of 90 feet; the saving in power for the given speed due to the use of shallower water would be about 600 to 7oo horse-power. We have been obliged to depart from the text of Mr. Harold Yarrow’s paper in order to give the facts con- tained in his diagram. Limits of space prevent detailed reference to other particulars brought forward by these suggestive trials, but enough has doubtless been said to show their interest and the wide field for further investi- gation that is afforded by the numerical data now at command. It will be remembered, as Mr. Harold Yarrow pointed out, that the tank experiments were made in the usual way without propellers, and this would doubtless have a considerable influence on the results; but possibly a way may be found, as suggested by Sir William White, to add the propeller, and so bring the tank conditions more nearly akin to actual practice. It will be remembered that the late Mr. Froude proposed to run a_ propeller, worked by independent mechanism, at a speed of revolu- tions corresponding to that of actual practice, the model, of course, being towed by the carriage. Mr. Marriner’s investigation of the model results showed that they should, as Mr. Harold Yarrow said, ‘‘ be accepted with caution.’’ In order to check these tank data progressive trials were made with an actual destroyer on a carefully selected course off the mouth of the Thames. Four tugs were anchored to mark the course, which extended from the East Girdler buoy across the Tongue Sand to a point east of the extreme north-east point of the Tongue Spit. This gave water of depths varying between about 14 to 16 feet over the sand, and 100 to 102 feet in the Queen’s Channel. The revolutions of the engines, the fore and aft inclination of the vessel, and the height of the stern wave were noted, indicator diagrams also being taken. The data thus obtained at varying mean speeds were given by means of diagrams thrown on the screen. We have not space to repeat all the records, but will take as an example the run made at a mean speed of about 22-2 knots, the steam pressure being 140 lb. In running from rather less than 50 feet depth into water of 20 feet, the revolutions increased from about 305 to more than 325; the inclination in a length of 20 feet decreased from approximately 53 inches to 4} or 42 inches; and the approximate height of the stern wave fell from 20 inches above the deck level to a little more than 10 inches below the deck level, or about 2 feet 6 inches. Naturally any increase or reduction of resist- ance to the vessel would be accompanied by increase or reduction in the rate of revolutions of the engine, the steam pressure being constant. Increased height of stern wave and greater inclination are also signs of increased resistance and a greater demand for horse-power. It would be difficult to deal adequately with Mr. Marriner’s paper within anything approaching the space we have at our disposal, and without the diagrams by which it was accompanied. We can only hope, therefore, to give an idea of its scope, and refer our readers to the original in the published Transactions of the institution. The contribution consisted of a discussion, on a scientific basis, of the results contained in the preceding paper, the size of waves made by a vessel in her passage being a measure of the power absorbed in their formation. As the height of the stern wave was seen to increase when the resistance of the ship increased abnormally, it was to be assumed that anything which tended to retard the formation of waves would reduce the loss from wave making. The author cited the work of W. Froude and his son, R. E. Froude, of Lord Kelvin, D. W. Taylor, of the United States Navy, and Prof. Horace Lamb. The formula for relation of length to speed of ordinary re- peating waves in deep water was set forth, and also the more complicated equation for shallow water. The equa- tion showing critical depth for speed and critical speed for depth was given, and the conclusion was drawn (sup- ported by Scott Russell’s equation for the solitary wave NO. 1865, VOL. 72] in canals) that ‘‘ the wave at the critical speed changes from the repeating to something approaching the solitary type.”” The author next considered the waves accompanying the vessel. Transverse waves should tend to become longer and longer for the same speed as the depth diminishes until, at the critical depth, these should be of the isolated type. In shallower water, past the critical depth, there would be no transverse wave corresponding to the critical depth. Actually as the waves became longer if they did not lengthen as rapidly as investigation would lead one to suppose they would be travelling faster than their natural speed, and must be dragged by the boat. The increased resistance on approaching humps in the curve supports this view. The isolated wave is non-repeating, and exists only under certain relations of depth to speed. After pass- ing the critical point the transverse wave disappears, being replaced by confused water. The paper was accompanied by diagrams illustrating these points, and it was considered a fair deduction that the waves formed by a ship closely follow the laws of waves in open water. The effect of the vertical sides of a canal in diminishing the loss of energy was pointed out by the author, and the manner in which the restricted width of a tank might have a similar effect was noted. The interference of the bow-wave system on the stern-wave system was discussed, it being shown that the union of the bow and stern waves (the crests coinciding) resulted in a large resultant wave which would carry away a great deal of energy. The velocity of diverging waves is much less than the speed of the vessel, speeds attained up to the present not being high enough for waves to approach the critical speeds for the depths in which vessels usually run. Diverging waves apparently constitute the principal wave-making resistance at speeds beyond the critical combinations of depths and speeds under consideration. The final conclusions of the author were as follows :—‘‘ (1) The critical combinations of depth and speed do not depend on the size of the vessel. (2) Of these critical combinations there is, for every vessel, one more serious than the others, and where this worst combination occurs depends largely on the length of the vessel. (3) The depth to be avoided is given by the equation d=V*/10, and the resistance diminishes in both greater and lesser depths. The further away from this bad depth the better, especially on the deep side.”’ In the course of the discussion which followed the read- ing of these papers, Mr. A. F. Yarrow, in conformity with a suggestion made by Sir William White, proposed, and Mr. S. W. Barnaby seconded, a resolution that the Admiralty be urged to erect a measured mile, where ample depth might be found, in proximity to Chatham and the Thames. This resolution was put to the meeting by Sir John Durston, who occupied the chair, and was carried unanimously. It was but the logical outcome of the facts brought forward. The measured mile in the Clyde at Skelmorlie has ample depth of water, and is, as Sir William White said, the only satisfactory mile for high- speed trials; a fact which, it is acknowledged, gives the ship-builders of that district a manifest advantage over those of other centres. Mr. Barnaby stated that when a destroyer built by his firm, John I. Thornycroft and Co., was tried on the Skelmorlie mile an increase of speed of 1 knot was obtained over that reached under the best conditions on the Maplin mile, whilst an increase of 3 knots was reached as compared to running on the Maplin when the state of the tide was most unfavourable. Sir William White, in a letter to the secretary, read at the meeting, heartily endorsed the suggestion of a deep- water measured mile off the Thames. He also pointed out, with great regret, that it was necessary for Messrs. Yarrow to go to Germany for their tank experiments, and trusted that the fact might furnish a fresh incentive towards the establishment of a research tank at the National Physical Laboratory. In the discussion on the technical details of the two papers, besides those mentioned, Mr. J. H. Narbeth, of the Admiralty, Mr. R. Saxton White, Captain Jackson, R.N., Controller of the Navy, Mr. W. H. Whiting, chief constructor, and Prof. Biles took part. Generally it may be said the views expressed by the authors were not dis- puted, although Sir William White did not quite agree 306 NATURE [JuLy 27, 1905 with Mr. Marriner as to the importance the latter attached to the comparative narrowness of the tank. On the Thursday’s sitting Mr. Milton’s paper on frac- tures in large steel boiler plates was read and briefly dis- cussed. It gave particulars of the failures, the reasons for which could not be explained, of certain plates, and there- fore were, naturally, attributed to ‘‘ heat treatment.”’ It is a term of exceeding comfort to the steel maker and the engineer alike, for the former is able to put the blame on the latter, and the latter to put the blame on the former, as no one can prove where the injudicious heat treatment occurred. The controversy is an old one, dating back, at any rate, to the days of the Livadia’s boilers. Mr. Milton’s paper is a suggestive contribution, and the facts he records may carry us some way towards a solu- tion of the problem in the more or less distant future. Mr. William Gray in his paper gave particulars of the performances of certain steamers fitted with Parsons’ steam turbines. These were set forth in a table, which, as the author said, “‘ treated the matter from a purely commercial standpoint.’’ The discussion was largely of the same character. The only remaining paper was not on the original programme, but was read at the conversazione which brought the proceedings to a conclusion on the Thurs- day evening. It was a contribution by Captain R. H. Bacon, R.N., entitled ‘‘ Notes on the Causes of Accidents to Submarine Boats, and_ their Salvage.”’ This paper, in harmony with the circumstances in which it was read, was of a popular nature, and was designed to show to the public at large that undue anxiety as to the safety of submarine boats is not warranted by the conditions under which they are employed. Dealing with the probability of water entering the hull through the hatch (the cause of four serious accidents through which these boats have foundered), the author pointed out that the fitting of another water-tight hatch at the base of the tower reduced the chance of accident in the future. The danger from grounding, he said, ““was not very great,’’ whilst the risk of the hull being crushed by the boat diving to too great depths argued the failure of the diving rudders, or too much water ballast. As to explosion through leakage of petrol, _In_ a properly designed system leaks should be prac- tically non-existent.”’ Another possible cause of ex- plosion is due to hydrogen given off when batteries are being charged, but as this operation is carried on only when the boat is opened up for ventilation, “ no danger exists.” Altogether Captain Bacon’s lecture was most re- assuring, and it is pleasant to learn that his optimistic views are fully shared by his colleagues in the Service, both officers and men. The risk of sinking—involuntary sink- ing—being so small, it is of less consequence that only over a limited area near shore is it possible to recover a submarine boat once she has gone to the bottom. For this reason Captain Bacon considers it inadvisable that the Royal Navy should have a salvage plant of its own. THE CONGRESS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH. THE congress of the Institute of Public Health, which this year was held in London under the presidency of the Marquis of Londonderry, attracted a large number of visitors, and much good work was done in the various sections which met at the Polytechnic and at King’s College. In a brief space it is impossible to deal adequately with the valuable discussions and papers read. ; Sir James Crichton Browne, F.R.S., in his presidential address to the section of preventive medicine, chose as his subject the prevention of senility. It was, he declared, on the reduction of the death-rate that the potency of preventive medicine, as hitherto applied, stood forth con- spicuously declared, and that the promise of its future sovereignty might be discerned. Fifty years ago the death- rate of England and Wales stood at 22-5 per 1000 persons ; in 1903 it had dropped to 15-4—a fall of 7-r per 1000, . . - y Tepresenting, on the estimated population of 1903, a saving NO. 1865, VOL. 72] of upwards of 223,000 lives per annum. As an exceptionally low rate of infant mortality had been maintained for two successive years, it might be hoped that the warnings uttered as regards infant hygiene, and more particularly infant feeding, were beginning to take effect. It was, however, during the first half of life that the great fall in the death-rate had taken place. It was a remarkable fact that in men, at all ages from forty-five to seventy-five, there had been a startling rise in the death-rate, and that in women, from fifty-five upwards, it had been practically stationary. At the ages when we should have welcomed a rise in the death-rate, and at which only, in a hygienic Utopia, death ought to occur— eighty-five and upwards—it had fallen. Some of the nerve centres went on evolving until middle life, e.g. the hand and arm centres. He had ascertained that among certain classes of operatives in Birmingham the hand and arm centres did not reach their full maturity until about the thirtieth year. Similarly with the weavers of Bradford and the potters of Staffordshire. At about forty-five the productiveness of the manufactory hand generally began to diminish, and after that it contracted in an increasing ratio as time went on. The hand-failure of our operatives after forty-five was premature, and due to excessive wear and tear of the mechanism regulating manual movements. But there were other centres in the brain which, reaching maturity later, retained their power longer. Orators secured their greatest triumphs between forty-five and fifty- five, and it was with musical expression as with oratory. The best antiseptic against senile decay was an active interest in human affairs, and those kept young longest who loved most. The natural evolution of our nerve centres was largely interfered with and too often arrested by unfavourable environment and deleterious habits of life or methods of work. It was a good working hypothesis that the natural life of man was one hundred, and that so far as it fell short of that it was “‘ curtailed of fair pro- portion.’? Every man, he thought, was entitled to his century, and every woman to a century and a little more. Dr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., in a paper on physical records, suggested that on February 29 in each leap year there should be school reunions at which there might be an opportunity for reviving early friendships, and at which, at the same time, the anthropometric and other records of the pupils might be added to. Each old boy would be represented by an envelope stored in the school library. This would contain his anthropo- metric record to date, and he would be given printed forms, containing a few well considered questions—health, profession, preferments, marriage, children, and general remarks—and would be asked to forward the filled-in forms to the school. Many papers were read on infantile mortality and on municipal milk depdéts. In the unavoidable absence of Sir William Broadbent, a discussion on sanatoria for consumptives was opened by Dr. T. N. Kelynack, physician to the Mount Vernon Hospital for Consumption. To illustrate the enormous economic waste to the community caused by pulmonary tuberculosis, Dr. Kelynack mentioned that in the metro- politan district alone 40,000 people died of the disease every year, and the monetary loss to London had been estimated at 4,000,000. The provision of adequate assistance for the consumptive poor demanded urgent attention. Sanatoria or hygienic hospitals undoubtedly secured the best conditions for the arrest and alleviation of the disease. At present we were just muddling along, with no satisfactory organisation of our resources and no rational cooperation. A resolution was unanimously adopted urging the Government to appoint a commission to deal with the subject of the sanatorium treatment of the poor. The presidential address in the section of chemistry and bacteriology was given by Prof. R. T. Hewlett. It was a plea for the recognition of the place of the specialist in the various departments of public health. Proper adminis- tration required a medical officer and his sanitary staff, a bacteriologist, a chemist, and an engineer, all working cordially together to a common end. For the smaller districts such a staff could be secured by grouping. Could they expect effective action if the medical officer was a Juty 27, 1905] NATURE 307 local practitioner who derived his livelihood by the good- will of the local landlord? Prof. Hewlett also denounced the way in which chemists were talking upon themselves the bacteriological examin- ation of pathological material, and emphatically asserted that disease problems should be dealt with only by medical men. He also advocated that a course of biology should be obligatory for candidates for the associateship of the Institute of Chemistry taking the subject of biological chemistry. An interesting discussion, opened by Dr. Newman, of Finsbury, was on the possibility of establishing a bacterio- logical standard of purity of milk. Dr. Newman suggested the following standards :—(a) not more than 24-25 degrees of total acidity at the time of sale, : degree being equi- valent to 1 c.c. of deci-normal NaOH solution; (b) not an excess of pus or blood; (c) no B. coli, B. enteritidis, or B. enteritidis sporogenes; (d) non-virulent to guinea-pigs. All the speakers, including Dr. Allan Macfadyen, Prof. Kenwood, Dr. Savage, Colonel Firth, Mr. Revis and others, agreed that there was little possibility at present of fixing a standard, and Dr. Newman’s suggestions did not obtain general acceptance. Another discussion, on the relative efficiency of chemical and bacteriological methods for the examination of sewage effluents, was opened by Mr. Dibden and by Dr. Savage. There was a general agreement that chemical methods gave a better indication of proper purification than bacterio- logical ones, though, of course, bacteriological methods alone were of service in detecting species of micro- organisms. Lieut. Nesfield, I.M.S., gave an interesting demonstra- tion of a method devised by him for the sterilisation of drinking water during a campaign. He had found that chlorine in the proportion of 2 grams per 100 gallons acting for five minutes effectually destroyed the organisms of cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. His method consisted in carrying iron bottles of liquid chlorine, from which, by means of a valve, the requisite amount was liberated into the water. After five minutes a powder of sodium sulphite (2-2 grams) was added to the water, from which a double decomposition ensued, and the water was rendered abso- lutely tasteless. For the soldier on the march another method was devised, so that he could sterilise for himself a gallon of water. This consisted in adding to the vessel of water a tablet containing iodide and iodate of sodium. This resulted in the liberation of free iodine in the water, which acted in five minutes as an efficient germicide, and was then “ killed ’’ so that the water was rendered pot- able, by the addition of another tablet of sodium sulphite. In beth processes the quantities of reagents employed are so small as to have no effect on the human economy ; the methods are rapid, and the reagents, Xc., portable. ECLIPSE SHADOW BANDS. ONE of the most peculiar appearances attending a total eclipse of the sun is that generally known as the ““shadow bands.’’? They are long dark bands, separated by white spaces, which are seen on the ground or sides of buildings just before and just after the total phase of an eclipse, moving rapidly. It is probable that they are not real bands, but are composed of dark patches which seem to the eye to make long bands. Their cause is not yet clearly known, as the observations in former eclipses are quite discordant. The undersigned is very desirous of obtaining observations of them at various stations along the line of totality, especially at places near the edge of the shadow, in order to compare with similar observations made by himself and others. special instruments, and can be made by any careful person. Information is desired upon the following points :—(1) the direction in which the bands lie; (2) the direction in which they move; (3) the velocity with which they move; (4) the width of the bands; and (5) their distance apart. All of these are likely to be different before and after the total phase, so that two sets of NO. 1865, VOL.'72] The observations require no - observations are needed. The following suggestions are compiled from various sources. Spread a white cloth or piece of canvas upon the ground in any convenient open space. It is well to spread two cloths or pieces of canvas, one to be used before, the other after, the total phase. Let each observer be furnished with several sticks, 4 feet to 6 feet long. About three minutes before the time of totality, let the observer stand near the cloth with his back to the sun and watch the cloth intently. If bands or dark patches are scen, place one stick down in the direction in which they lie; after this is done place a second stick in the direction in which they are moving. Both of these oper- ations should be done deliberately, not hurriedly, and the sticks left in position. During the total phase the observer is free to enjoy the scene or make other observations, but it may be well to note if any bands can be seen during totality, as some have asserted. At the close of totality the observer should be at the second cloth, or at another part of the single cloth (if he uses but one), and should repeat the observations made before totality, placing one stick down in the direction in which the bands lie, and another in the direction in which they move. It will be seen that four sticks are needed for these observations. If two persons make the records, one should confine his attention to the direction in which the bands lie, the other to the direction in which they move. The bands are likely to be somewhat faint and poorly defined, so that extreme accuracy may not be possible. The sticks should not be disturbed until after the eclipse, when their direction should be determined with as much care as possible, either by a compass or, still better, by a surveyor’s theodolite if one is available. If neither compass nor theodolite is at hand, an estimate of the directions should be made. The velocity with which the bands travel is more difficult to determine. The estimates vary from the speed of a man running to that of an express train. Several methods may be suggested :— (1) Let two persons work together, one having a watch with the seconds marked on the face. Let him mark time by calling out each second. The number of the second is not important, but a simple sound to mark the seconds is sufficient. Let the other observer watch the bands and see how many he can count per second. (2) With one observer marking time as before, let the second observer note how many seconds elapse while a band is passing between two objects the distance apart of which is known. (3) Let a person run a short distance with the bands and see if he can keep up with them. If not, let him estimate how much faster the bands are moving than he can run. (4) A mere guess at the speed is of some value. The width of the bands and their distance apart can best be determined upon the cloths mentioned above, and it will add to the accuracy of the estimates if the cloths are divided by seams or in some other way into strips of known width. A carpenter’s rule will aid the observer in making the estimates. The bands will probably be several inches wide and separated by spaces the width of which is the same or greater. If the observer notices any other point connected with the bands, such as their colour, whether they are straight or wavy, whether they are continuous bands or made up of dark patches, whether they flicker or not, the inform- ation will be valuable. Still more valuable would be photographs of the bands as they pass over the ground or the side of a building or wall. It is earnestly requested that anyone who will kindly attempt the above, either in whole or in part, will send his records to the undersigned. If for any reason the observation seems unsatisfactory, either because the bands were not as distinct as expected, or for any other reason, or if the record is only fragmentary, it will still be of value. The report should consist of a statement of the methods employed by the observer or observers in making the observations, and the results obtained, with any 308 NA EPORE [JuLy 27, 1905 remarks upon the subject or upon other phenomena noted at the time of the eclipse. A. LAawRENCE Rotcu. Blue Hill Observatory, Hyde Park, Mass., U.S.A. The observations may be summarised as follows :— OBSERVATIONS OF SHADOW Banps, AUGUST 30, 1905. PIA CEM ponacescorereetersereeissrere ne enancace cer scerens se ceeoee ep aicnees teeta (Situation and altitude) QODSELVeELS: serapccnncscescuscesacsecsceasevescesegcuseustsdeves seeumeeesseemeer Before totality After totality TMDIrectiOneOr Wands: |, ..ckdevncccscoresecsd.. \ cmereeameeeeer eae 2 ye DinectionwmofemOtlOomne ea-scarsececsecsseoeen Un eveeneenecteameaennes Be OVClOCIty SEINE | lens setvpdecatcns=su |) asscemeeenseesmectes 4: AWidthvofubandsy $0 lsc.cc.sscnseccceceeon, |) | cceamesretonencterees Sebistance apart. sweeseecccaskeseccsex! | Jsasveesegeereeeteaeee Remarks : Direction of the wind before totality..................00- , after HOLE HI YG agoccbecdcconsecace , and direction from which upper clouds (if any) came... THE LATENT IMAGE.2 MY inclination has led me, in spite of a lively dread = of incurring a charge of presumption, to address you principally on that profound and most subtle question, the nature and mode of formation of the photographic image. I am impelled to do so, not only because the subject is full of fascination and hopefulness, but because the wide topics of photographic methods or photographic applications would be quite unfittingly handled by the president you have chosen. I would first direct your attention to Sir James Dewar’s remarkable result that the photographic plate retains con- siderable power of forming the latent image at tempera- tures approaching the absolute zero—a result which, as I submit, compels us to regard the fundamental effects progressing in the film under the stimulus of light un- dulations as other than those of a purely chemical nature. But few, if any, instances of chemical combination or decomposition are known at so low a temperature. Purely chemical actions cease, indeed, at far higher temperatures, fluorine being among the few bodies which still show chemical activity at the comparatively elevated tempera- ture of —180° C. In short, this result of Sit James Dewar’s suggests that we must seek for the foundations of photo- graphic action in some physical or intra-atomic effect which, as in the case of radio-activity or fluorescence, is not restricted to intervals of temperature over which active molecular vis viva prevails. It compels us to regard with doubt the réle of oxidation or other chemical action as essential, but rather points to the view that such effects must be secondary or subsidiary. We feel, in a word, that we must turn for guidance to some purely photo-physical effect. Here, in the first place, we naturally recall the views of Mr. Bose. This physicist would refer the formation of the image to a strain of the bromide of silver molecule under the electric force in the light wave, converting it into what might be regarded as an allotropic modification of the normal bromide which subsequently responds speci- ally to the attack of the developer. The function of the sensitiser, according to this view, is to retard the recovery from strain. Bose obtained many suggestive parallels between the strain phenomena he was able to observe in silver and other substances under electromagnetic radia- tion and the behaviour of the photographic plate when subjected to long-continued exposure to light. This theory, whatever it may have to recommend it, can hardly be regarded as offering a fundamental explana- tion. In the first place, we are left in the dark as to what the strain may be. It may mean many and various things. We know nothing as to the inner mechanism of its effects 1 Address to the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom, 1905. By J. Joly, F.R.S. NO. 1865, VOL. 72] upon subsequent chemical actions—or at least we cannot correlate it with what is known of the physics of chemical activity. Finally, as will be seen later, it is hardly adequate to account for the varying degrees of stability which may apparently characterise the latent image. Still, there is much in Mr. Bose’s work deserving of careful considera- tion. He has by no means exhausted the line of investi- gation he has originated. Another theory has doubtless been in the minds of many. I have said we must seek guidance in some photo-physical phenomenon. ‘There is one such which preeminently con- nects light and chemical phenomena through the inter- mediary of the effects of the former upon a component part of the atom. I refer to the phenomena of photo-electricity. It was ascertained by Hertz and his immediate successors. that light has a remarkable power of discharging negative electrification from the surface of bodies—especially from certain substances. For long no explanation of the cause of this appeared. But the electron—the ubiquitous electron —is now known with considerable certainty to be re- sponsible. The effect of the electric force in the light wave is to direct or assist the electrons contained in the sub- stance to escape from the surface of the body. Each electron carries away a very small charge of negative electrification. If, then, a body is originally charged nega- tively, it will be gradually discharged by this convective process. If it is not charged to start with, the electrons will still be liberated at the surface of the body, and this will acquire a positive charge. If the body is positively charged at first, we cannot discharge it by illumination. It would be superfluous for me to speak here of the nature of electrons or of the various modes in which their presence may be detected. Suffice it to say, in further connection with the Hertz effect, that when projected among gaseous molecules the electron soon attaches itself to one of these. In other words, it ionises a molecule of the gas or confers its electric charge upon it. The gaseous molecule may even be itself disrupted by impact of the electron if this is moving fast enough and left bereft of an electron. We must note that such ionisation may be regarded as conferring potential chemical properties upon the mole- cules of the gas and upon the substance whence the electrons are derived. Similar ionisation under electric forces enters, as we now believe, into all the chemical effects progressing in the galvanic cell, and, indeed, gene- rally in ionised solutants. An experiment will best illustrate the principles I wish to remind you of. A clean aluminium plate, carefully insulated by a sulphur support, is faced by a sheet of copper-wire-gauze placed a couple of centimetres away from it. The gauze is maintained at a high positive potential by this dry pile. A sensitive gold-leaf electroscope is attached to the aluminium plate, and its image thrown upon the screen. I now turn the light from this are lamp upon the wire gauze, through which it in part passes and shines upon the aluminium plate. The electroscope at once charges up rapidly. There is a liberation of negative electrons at the surface of the aluminium; these, under the attraction of the positive body, are rapidly removed as ions, and the electroscope charges up positively. Again, if I simply electrify negatively this aluminium plate so that the leaves of the attached electroscope diverge widely, and now expose it to the rays from the arc lamp, the charge, as you see, is very rapidly dissipated. With positive electrification of the aluminium there is no effect attendant on the illumination. Thus from the work of Hertz and his successors we, know that light, and more generally what we call actinic light, is an effective means of freeing the electron from certain substances. In short, our photographic agent, light, has the power of evoking from certain substances the electron which is so potent a factor in most, if not in all, chemical effects. I have not time here to refer to the work of Elster and Geitel whereby they have shown that this action is to be traced to the electric force in the light wave, but must turn to the probable bearing of this phenomenon on the familiar facts of photography. I assume that the experiment I have shown you is the most fundamental photographic experiment which it is now in our power to make. JULY 27, 1905] NATURE 309 o We must first ask from what substances can light liberate the electron. There are many—metals as well as non-metals and liquids. It is a very general phenomenon, and must operate widely throughout nature. But what chiefly concerns the present consideration is the fact that the haloid salts of silver are vigorously photo-electric, and, it is suggested, possess, according to Schmidt, an activity in the descending order bromide, chloride, iodide. This is, in other words, their order of activity as ionisers (under the proper conditions) when exposed to ultra-violet light. Photographers will recognise that this is also the order of their photographic sensitiveness Another class of bodies also concerns our subject :—the special sensitisers used by the photographer to modify the spectral distribution of sensibility of the haloid salts, e.g. eosine, fuchsine, cyanine. These again are electron-pro- ducers under light stimulus. Now it has been shown by Stoletow, Hallwachs, and Elster and Geitel that there is an intimate connection between photo-electric activity and the absorption of light by the substance, and, indeed, that the particular wave-lengths absorbed by the substance are those which are effective in liberating the electrons. Thus we have strong reason for believing that the vigorous photo-electric activity displayed by the special sensitisers must be dependent upon their colour absorption. You will recognise that this is just the connection between their photographic effects and their behaviour towards light. There is yet another suggestive parallel. I referred to the observation of Sir James Dewar as to the continued sensitiveness of the photographic film at the lowest attained extremes of temperature, and drew the inference that the fundamental photographic action must be of intra-atomic nature, and not dependent upon the vis viva of the molecule or atom. In then seeking the origin of photographic action in photo-electric phenomena we naturally ask, Are these latter phenomena also traceable down to low tempera- tures? If they are, we are entitled to look upon this fact as a qualifying characteristic or as another link in the chain of evidence connecting photographic with photo- electric activity. I have quite recently, with the aid of liquid air supplied to me by Mr. Moss, and made in the laboratory of this society, tested the photo-sensibility of aluminium and also of silver bromide down to temperatures approach- ing that of the liquid air. The mode of observation is essentially that of Schmidt—what he terms his static method. The substance undergoing observation is, how- ever, contained at the bottom of a thin copper tube, 5 cm. in diameter, which is immersed to a depth of about 10 cm. in liquid air. The tube is clased above by a paraffin stopper which carries a thin quartz window as well as the sulphur tubes through which the connections pass. The air within is very carefully dried by phosphorus pentoxide before the experiment. The arc light was used as source of illumination. It was found that a vigorous photo-electric effect continued in the case of the clean aluminium. In the case of the silver bromide a distinct photo-electric effect was still observed. I have not had leisure to make, as yet, any trustworthy estimate of the percentage effect at this temperature in the case of either kindly substance. Nor have I determined the temperature accurately. The latter may be taken as roughly about —1s0° C. Sir James Dewar’s actual measurements afforded twenty per cent. of the normal photographic effect at —180° C. and ten per cent. at the temperature of —252°-5 C. With this much to go upon, and the important additional fact tha i X-ray tube or from radium—generates the. en image, I think we are fully entitled to suggest as a legitimate lead to experi- ment the hypothesis that the beginnings of photographic action involve an electronic discharge from the light sensitive molecule; in other words that the latent image is built up of ionised atoms or molecules the result of the photo-electric effect on the illuminated silver haloid, upon which ionised atoms the chemical effects of the developer are subsequently directed. It may be that the liberated electrons ionise molecules not directly affected, or it may be that in their liberation they disrupt complex molecules built up in the ripening of the emulsion. With the amount we have to go upon we cannot venture to particularise. It NO. 1865, VOL. 72] will be said that such an action must be in part of the nature of a chemical effect. This must be admitted, and, in so far as the re-arrangement of molecular fabrics is in- volved, the result will doubtless be controlled by tempera- ture conditions. The facts observed by Sir James Dewar support this. But there is involved a fundamental process— the liberation of the electron by the electric force in the light wave, which is a physical effect, and which, upon the hypothesis of its reality as a factor in forming the latent image, appears to explain completely the outstanding photographic sensitiveness of the film at temperatures far below those at which chemical actions in general cease. Again, we may assume that the electron- “producing power of the special sensitiser or dye for the particular ray it absorbs is responsible, or responsible in part, for the special sensitiveness it confers upon the film. Sir Wm. Abney has shown that these sensitisers are active even if laid on as a varnish on the sensitive surface and removed before development. It must be remembered, however, that at temperatures of about —50° these sensitisers lose much of their influence on the film. [See a paper by me read before the convention in 1894.] It appears to me that on these views the curious phenomenon of recurrent reversals does not present a problem hopeless of explanation. The process of photo- ionisation constituting the latent image, where the ion is probably not immediately neutralised by chemical com- bination, presents features akin to the charging of a capacity—say a leyden jar. There may be a rising potential between the groups of ions until ultimately a point is attained when there is a spontaneous neutralisation. I may observe that the phenomena of reversal appear to indicate that the change upon the silver bromide molecule, whatever be its nature, is one of gradually in- creasing intensity, and finally attains a maximum when a return to the original condition occurs. The maximum is the point of most intense developable image. It is probable that the sensitiser—in this case the gelatin in which the bromide of silver is immersed—plays a part in the con- ditions of stability which are involved. Of great interest in all our considerations and theories is the recent work of Prof. Wood on photographic reversal. The result of this work is—as I take it—to show that the stability of the latent image may be very various according to the mode of its formation. Thus it appears that the sort of latent effect which is produced by pressure or friction is the least stable of any. This may be reversed or wiped out by the application of any other known form of photographic stimulus. Thus an exposure to X-rays will obliterate it, or a very brief exposure to light. The latent image arising from X-rays is next in order of in- creasing stability. Light action will remove this. Third in order is a very brief light-shock or sudden flash. This cannot be reversed by any of the foregoing modes of stimu- lation, but a long-continued undulatory stimulus, as from lamp-light, will reverse it. Last and most stable of all is the gradually built-up configuration due to long-continued light exposure. This can only be reversed by overdoing it according to the known facts of recurrent reversal. Prof. Wood takes occasion to remark that these pheno- mena are in bad agreement with the strain theory of Mr. Bose. We have, in fact, but the one resource—the allotropic modification of the haloid—whereby to explain all these orders of stability. It appears to me that the elasticity of the electronic theory is greater. The state of the ionised system may be very various according as it arises from continued rhy thmic effects or from unorganised shocks. The ionisation due to X-rays or to friction will probably be quite unorganised, that due to light more or less stable according to the gradual and gentle nature of the forces at work. I think we are entitled to conclude that on the whole there is nothing in Prof. Wood’s beau- tiful experiments opposed to the photo-electric origin of photographic effects, but that they rather fall in with what might be anticipated. When we look for further support to the views I have laid before you we are confronted with many difficulties. I have not as yet detected any electronic discharge from the film under light stimulus. This may be due to my defective experiments, or to a fact noted by Elster and Geitel concerning the photo-electric properties of gelatin. 310 INATTOL LE [Jury 27, 1905 They obtained a vigorous effect from Balmain’s luminous paint, but when this was mixed in gelatin there was no external effect. Schmidt’s results to the continuance of photo-electric activity when bodies in general are dis- solved in each other lead us to believe that an actual conservative property of the medium and not an effect of this on the luminous paint is here involved. This con- servative effect of the gelatin may be concerned with its efficacy as a sensitiser. In the views I have laid before you I have endeavoured to show that the recent addition to our knowledge of the electron as an entity taking part in many physical and chemical effects may be availed of, and should be kept in sight, in seeking an explanation of the mode of origin of the latent image. as GLACIAL STUDIES IN CANADA. D®- WILLIAM H. SHERZER has published in the = Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (pp. 453— 496) a handsomely illustrated preliminary report entitled ““Glacial Studies in the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks.’’ The five glaciers selected are conveniently located in Alberta and_ British Columbia, and the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway passes near them. Observations have been made on the rate of motion of the Victoria Glacier, which is low as about 52 feet a year, and on~the lowering of its surface by ablation. The front \ of this glacier shows a_ shearing movement of one layer over another, as was tested by the pushing forward of iron spikes driven into an upper as and a lower stratum. The right lateral moraine receives a_ certain amount of ground-moraine or sub- glacial material from a _ hanging glacier on Mount Lefroy, which breaks away in avalanches on to the main Victoria flow. This incident, which is well illustrated, serves to warn us from assuming that all sub- glacial material at a glacier’s edge results from plucking action on the wall or floor in contact with the local ice. A brief but useful discussion of dirt-bands *’ follows, in which three types are distinguished. Layers of “ the glacier may vary in the per- centage of foreign matter contained in them, and these stratified dirt- bands may be too thick to represent mere temporary variations in snow- fall, and probably then correspond with short cycles of variation in the “activity of the glacier-making agencies.’’ A second type of dirt- band is that described by Forbes, conspicuous at a distance, and trans- verse to the length of the ice-stream; the author traces this appearance to the alternation of depressions and ridges, stones and mud becoming washed into the former, and producing the dark bands, which may be bent for- ward in the central region as the glacier flows. The explanation given is adopted from Tyndall. The greater rapidity of motion in summer produces a crevasse, or a Survey. close-set series of crevasses, where there is a marked increase in the drop of the valley-floor. The sun melts out a depression along the line of the crevasse or crevasses, which remains although the fracture heals. In winter, owing to the slower motion, the _ ice adapts itself better to its inclines, and the few crevasses that are formed are not emphasised at the top by melting. Hence each dirt-band represents a summer season, and the interval a winter one. The third type of dirt-band depends on the greater resistance to melting NO. 1865, VOL. 72] Fic. 1.—Formation of Forbes’s ‘‘ cirt-bands,” Deville Glacier, Selkirks. looking Eastward. offered by blue solid ice, as compared with the intervening layers of vesicular ice. The latter, therefore, form de- pressions on the melting of the mass, in which detritus gathers, as in the case of the far coarser dirt-bands of the second type. Dr. Sherzer proposes to call a band of the first type a ‘‘dirt-zone,’’ and of the third type a ‘‘dirt-stripe.’’ The well known blue bands are shown later to have no relation to stratification, and we are left in ignorance as to their origin. On the lower Lefroy Glacier ‘‘ ice-dykes’’ are noted, true mineral veins, as it were, with ice-crystals deposited on their walls and meeting from opposite sides along the central plane. These represent crevasses, which haye been healed by the freezing of the water that at one time filled them. The author’s examination of the surfaces of junction of glacier-grains shows that melting opens up a network of delicate tube-like capillaries, which are here photographed —we presume on a natural scale—both before and after injection with potassium permanganate. As_ melting proceeds, this network disappears, apparently by a general From Summit Mt. Fox, Canadian Topographic Photographed by Arthur O. Wheeler, ryoz. coarsening of the hollows grains. We shall hope to hear more of the author’s views on ““block-moraines,’’ since we cannot help thinking that such phenomena are far too common for the invocation of earthquake-actien cause. The double moraine below Lough Coumshingaun, in the county of Waterford, would seem to come into this category; and in that case the jointed nature of the rocks higher up the mountain accounts for the preponderance of huge and angular blocks. The discovery of ice-cores within the steep lateral embankments of the Asulkan Glacier raises the question of such embankments in general; and here again we hope for further details. The illustrations, one of which is here reproduced, are richly varied, and are of equal value to the geographer and the geologist. GRENVILLE A. J. COLE. developed between adjacent as a Jury 27, 1905] UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxrorp.—It has been announced that the chemical fellowship at Magdalen College, to which an election will be made next term, is open to all persons who have qualified for the degree of B.A. at Oxford, and are not in the receipt of an income of more than 3o00l. per annum. The examination will begin on October 3, and will be mainly in the subjects recognised in the honour school of chemistry. Any candidate may submit any dissertations or papers written by him or any evidence of research work done by him. Tue council of the University of Liverpool has, on the recommendation of the university senate, determined to institute a university lectureship in experimental psychology. Pror. W. H. Warktinson, at present professor of engineering in the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, has been appointed to the WHarrison chair of engineering in the University of Liverpool formerly filled by Prof. Hele-Shaw, F.R.S. Tue governors of the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, Bristol, have decided to award annually to the most suitable candidate who, being a member of the college, has graduated in science at the University of London or gained a similar distinction, a research scholar- ship of the value of 5ol., tenable at the college for one year. The research scholar will be required to undertake some research work either in the department of applied chemistry or in that of engineering. The governors will defray the cost of the apparatus and materials needed for the prosecution of such work. Tue detailed regulations and syllabus for the preliminary examination for the certificate, which will in 1g07 take the place of the King’s scholarship examination, which pupil teachers have been in the habit of taking at the end of their apprenticeship, have been issued as an appendix to the regulations for the instruction and training of pupil teachers, 1905. The distribution of subjects in the re-cast examination has received the careful consideration of the Board of Education. In order to be successful a candidate must pass a test in the important subjects, in- cluding composition and arithmetic, which form part i. of the examination, and also show a reasonable degree of proficiency in English, history, and geography. To quote the circular which has been distributed to local education authorities, training colleges, and pupil teacher centres :— “To these the Board would gladly have added elementary science. They have, however, refrained at present from doing so because, except in fully equipped secondary schools and pupil teacher centres, it is not always possible for candidates to obtain the necessary instruction in prac- tical scientific work, while they are convinced that instruc- tion in science which does not include practical work is of very little value.’’ It is satisfactory to record this frank admission by the Board of Education of the great import- ance of including elementary science in every scheme of education, whether elementary or secondary. It is to be hoped that every effort will be made by the Board to bring about increased facilities for instruction in elementary science in all schools under their jurisdiction, and not only in those from which pupil teachers proceed to the training college. It is not too much to say that no system of train- ing designed to provide efficient elementary school teachers will prove thoroughly satisfactory which does not subject the teacher in training to a course of practical work in science. Even if it is considered necessary at present to make science an optional subject in this preliminary ex- amination for the certificate, every effort should be made so to improve the equipment of the schools that elementary science may be made obligatory for all candidates at an early date. A Treasury Minute upon the recommendations of the university colleges committee has been issued as a Parlia- mentary paper. The consideration of the final report of Mr. Haldane’s committee on the allocation of the grant in aid to university colleges is resumed. The recommend- ation of the establishment of a permanent committee to advise the Board of Treasury as to the distribution of NC. 1865, voL. 72] NATURE Bi the grant in aid is accepted, and an endeavour will be made in the autumn to constitute such a body, which will perform the duties hitherto undertaken by the quinquennial committee of inspection. Some of the colleges have pointed out that the intervention of such a committee may inter- fere unduly with their internal administration, but the Minute lays it down that the main functions of the com- mittee will be to advise the Board of Treasury as to the kind of education which should be assisted out of the grant, and to satisfy themselves by inspection that the money is being properly applied. These objects can be obtained without any undue interference with the re- sponsibility of the college authorities. Ninety per cent. of the grant is in the future to be allocated on the same general principles as have been adopted hitherto, and such sums as may be given will be secured to the colleges for at least five years. The balance of the grant will be reserved partly for special grants towards the provision of books and apparatus and partly for the encouragement of post-graduate work. The colleges will be expected to make proposals to the advisory committee as regards post- graduate work, showing the nature of the work it is desired to undertake and the assistance the college itself intends to contribute to the work. Parliament is being asked to vote 100,000l. for university colleges, and if this is agreed to 89,o0ol. will be distributed and 11,o00/. reserved for allocation in March next. The amount allotted to each college for the year 1905-6 will be as follows :—Man- chester, 12,000l.; University College, London, 10,000l. ; Liverpool, 10,o00l.; Birmingham, goool.; Leeds, 8oool. ; King’s College, London, 78ool.; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 6ooo0l.; Nottingham, 580o0l.; Sheffield, 460o0l.; Bedford College, London, 4oool.; Bristol, 4oool.; Reading, 3400l. ; Southampton, 3400l.; Dundee, 1oool. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, March 9.—‘‘ Explosions of Mixtures of Coal-Gas and Air in a Closed Vessel.’’ By L. Bairstow and A. D. Alexander. Summary. Mixtures of coal-gas and air are not inflammable until the volume of coal-gas is greater than one-seventeenth ‘of the combined volumes. Only a very small fraction of the gas then burns, the amount burnt rapidly increasing with increased richness of the mixture until the coal-gas is one-twelfth of the total volume. The least inflammable of the constituents then burns, and combustion becomes and remains complete so long as air is in excess. In these latter cases it is still probable that the constituents burn successively and not simultaneously. The hypothesis of a _ specific heat increasing with temperature is not supported by direct experiment, and cannot be proved by any work on the pressures produced by explosion, the authors believing that a proof would require the measurement of temperature. Direct experiments by Deville at temperatures below 1400° C. have shown that both steam and carbon dioxide are partially decomposed, and this dissociation is therefore taken by us as the sole explanation of the difference between the pressures calculated for explosions in a closed vessel and those actually obtained. Parts. Academy of Sciences, July 17.—M. Troost in the chair. —On a new method of direct determination of refraction at all heights: M. Leewy. The author describes and ex- plains the theory of his new method by which atmospheric refraction can be measured by the use of a prism the refracting faces of which are at an angle of 45°.—On an apparatus for producing artificial eclipses of the sun: Ch. André. By the use of such apparatus many theoretical points can be determined in a way not otherwise possible. —On the infinitesimal properties of non-Eucildean space : C. Guichard.—On the distribution of sugary substances in blood between the plasma and the corpuscles: R. Lépine and M. Boulud. By eliminating certain errors due to glycolysis, the authors find for the corpuscles 22 per cent., and for the serum barely 4 per cent. of sugar.— On the evaluation of errors in the approximate integration 312 NATURE [JULY 27, 1905 of differential equations : Emile Cotton.—A contribution to the study of liquid dielectrics: P. Gourée de Villemonteée. The author’s experiments were made with reference to the influence of the duration of charge, and the electric state of the mass after discharge. The results show that the propagation of electric charges across petrol and paraffin is comparable with that observed in crystalline dielectrics. —Experimental researches on the effect of membranes in liquid chains: M. Chanoz. The electromotive force de- veloped by the chain of the general nature MR| H,O|MR depends for sign and intensity upon the nature of the membrane, the nature and concentration of the salt solu- tion MR, and the relative position of the membranes to the liquids——On fluorescence: C. Camichel. Further experiments on the coefficient of absorption in uranium glass when fluorescence is excited—On the velocity of crystallisation from supersaturated solutions: Charles Leenhardt.—On the preparation of binary compounds of metals by means of heating with aluminium: C. Matignon and R. Trannoy. The great reducing power of aluminium has been utilised to prepare a considerable number of metallic phosphides, arsenides, silicides, and borides.—On the reduction of thorium oxide by amorphous boron, and the preparation of two borides of thorium: Binet du Jassonneux.—On the action of chloroacetic esters on the halogen magnesium derivatives of ortho- toluidine : F. Bodroux.—On the action of ethylamine and isobutylamine on cesium: E. Rengade. When ethyl- amine is condensed on perfectly pure cesium a blue colour appears in the liquid which does not occur with sodium or calcium. In time the metal becomes a mercury-like substance which evolves gas readily, and is considered by the author to be casium-ethyl-ammonium.—Attempts at reduction in the dinitro-diphenyl-methane series of com- pounds: H. Duval.—On the condensation of chloral with aromatic hydrocarbons under the influence of aluminium chloride: Adolphe Dinesmann. By the action of chloral on benzene the author obtains in the given conditions excellent yields of trichloro-methyl-phenyl-carbinol, C,H CHOH— CCl. A similar condensation takes place with toluene, para- xylene, and anisol.—On 3 : 3-dimethyl-butyro-lactone: G. Blanc.—On the action of acetylene tetrabromide and aluminium chloride on toluene: James Lavaux.—On gentio-picrine: Georges Tanmret.—On coffees without caffeine: Gabriel Bertrand. Coffea Humblotiana is note- worthy as containing barely a trace of the alkaloid.—On the development of green plants in light, in the complete absence of carbon dioxide, and in an artificial soil con- taining amides: Jules Lefevre. The presence of the amides enabled plants to find the carbon necessary for the synthesis of both protoplasm and tissues.—On two cases of grafting (Ipomea purpurea with Quamoclit coccinea and Helianthus multiflorus with Helianthus annuus): Lucien Daniel.—On the disinfectant properties of smokes; attempts at disinfection with the vapour evolved from burning sugar: A. Trillat.—On the identification of the skin of the American admiral Paul Jones, 113 years after his death: MM. Capitan and Papillault.—On the multiple affinities of the Hoplophoride: H. Coutiere.— On a new exploration of the abyss of the Trou-de-Souci : E. A, Martel.—On the mineral constituents of the water supplying Paris: L. Cayeux.—The hailstorm of July 16: A. Berget. Hailstones were found to weigh as much as 70 grams. New Soutu WaALEs. Linnean Society, May 31.—Mr. T. Steel, president, in the chair.—Notes on the Eucalypts of the Blue Mountains, N.S.W.: J. H. Maiden and R. H. Cambage. The authors enumerate twenty-seven species and one variety collected by them. One of these, for which they propose the name of E. Mooret, is new; it has hitherto been looked upon as a narrow-leaved variety of E. stellulata, Sieb., but the juvenile foliage, for example, is very different. The past year was a specially favourable season for natural seedlings of the above genus, and a number of them are described for the first. time. Particular notice is devoted to the Blue Mountain form of E£. capitellata, Sm. Attention is directed to three plants which cannot, No. 1865, VOL. 72] in strictness, be referred to any existing species, and which are looked upon as possible hybrids. The Blue Mountains, with their ready accessibility to both plateaux and valleys, considerable range in elevation, and rich Eucalyptus flora, afford special facilities for a study of the genus.—Notes on the native flora of New South Wales, part iii.: R. H. Cambage. This paper refers to the flora of the country between Orange, Dubbo, and Gilgandra, and directs atten- tion to the great change that takes place from climatic causes which are regulated by the change in altitude, the fall in the country from Orange to Gilgandra amounting to about 2000 feet. Although much of the true interior flora is to be found at the latter place, it is noted that a number of plants which are typical of the coastal vegeta- tion are also growing there, and the reason may be traced to the fact that a large sandstone area, chiefly Triassic, extends from Sydney across the Blue Mountains, con- tinuing in broken remnants past Gulgong towards Dubbo and Gilgandra; and many of those plants which are able to withstand the cold of the higher levels cross the moun- tains and continue on the similar geological formation out towards the western plains. Reference is also made to an interesting species of Acacia, known locally as Motherum- bung, and having affinities with A. Gnidium, Benth., but which in the absence of full material has not yet been identified.—Descriptions of new species of Australian Coleoptera: H. J. Carter. Fourteen species are de- scribed as new. These are referable to three families and eight genera, namely :—fam. Tenebrionide, Pterohelzeus, Encara, Menephilus, Otrintus, Adelium (five species), and Coripera (two species); fam. CEdemeridz, Pseudolychus (two species); fam. Pedilida, Egestria. CONTENTS. PAGE The Agents of Earth Sculpture. By H.B. W. . 289 Machinery for Handling Raw Material. Ey Tee 290 The Butterflies of India. : : Remy hey 42%} The State and Agriculture = 2 wor Our Book Shelf :— Hanke: ‘‘ The Treatment of Diseases of the Eye” . 292 Schneider: ‘* Die Stellung Gassendis zu Deskartes” . 292 Poynting and Thomson: ‘* A Text-book of Physics, Heat.”—H. L. C. : . 293 “ The Oxford Atlas of the British Colonies. Part i.” 293 Le Chatelier and Boudouard: ‘*‘ High Temperature Measurements” . Pe ceria mati ey 6 BIR Letters to the Editor: — A Comparison between Two Theories of Radiation, — He jeans. 293 On the Spontaneous Action of Radium on Gelatin Media.—John Butler Burke .. . 204 The Problem of the Random Walk. —Prof, Karl Pearson, F.R.S. .. 204 British Archeology and Philistinism. — Worthing. ton G. Smith 294 Graphical Solution of Cubic and Quartic Equations = H. Ivah Thomsen 295 The Present Position of the Cancer Problem. By Prof. R. T. Hewlett . Peete Woe 0s 295 British Fruit Growing 207 Notes . . : 298 Our Astronomical Column :— Astronomical Occurrences in August 302 Photographs of the Martian Canals 302 Dutch Observations of the Corona 303 The North Polar Snow-cap on Mars, 1904- 5 303 Vegetation and the Sun-spot Period . . 303 Visibility of the Dark Hemisphere of Venus 303 Determinations of Meteor Radiants 303 The Institution of Naval Architects 303 The Congress of the ae Institute of Public Healthen . 306 Eclipse Shadow Bands. By A .Lawrence Rotch 307 The Latent Image. By Prof. J. Joly, F.R.S. . 308 Glacial Studies in Canada. (/d/ustrated ) By Prof. Grenville A.J. Cole ... : 310 University and Educational Intelligence 311 Societies and Academies 3II Joty 27, 1905] MARCONI'S WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY, Manufacturers of ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS | of all kinds for LABORATORY otis WORK, of the highest degree of efficiency at moderate prices. ILLUSTRATED PRICE LIST FREE ON APPLICATION. POST London Office: 18 FINCH LANE, E. Sha Works: CHELMSFORD. ALSO AT BRUSSELS, PARIS, ROME. NATURE VOGEL’S © SPECTROGRAPH. Two prisms of dense flint-glass enclosed in a strong brass case, to which the colli- mator and the camera are attached ; collimator of r4in. aperture and 18in. focal length, with adjustable slit with micrometer- screw and dividing-drum ; the camera is furnished with an achromatic double objective of 2in. aperture and 29in. focal length ; size of plate, 74in. by 5in. Can be seen at my Showrooms as below. DELIVERY FROM SETS PETER -HEELE, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Maker of Physical, Chemica}, and other Instruments, and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeters. GRAND PRIX, PARIS, 1900; ST. LOUIS, 1904. Telegrams: ‘‘ ARCTITUDE, LONDON.”’ po YOU WISH BEWARE/OE £8. TO BE IMITATIONS UP TO DATE in Scientific Demonstratin If so, send for our full descriptive pamp is te the Kershaw- Patent Lantern (Stroud and Rendall’s and Kershaw Patents), made of best seasoned mahogany, French polished, lined with asbestos and Russian iron. Fitted with two double achromatic objectives, 90° silvered _ prism, complete with B.T. or mixed jet, in A travelling case, measuring x 16” x 9”. ALL ACCESSORIES SUPPLIED. ARC LAMPS, RESISTANCES, STANDS, &c. A. KERSHAW, Dorrington St., Leeds. CONTRACTOR TO H.M.'s GOVERNMENT. LABORATORIES FURNISHED Chemical, Physical, Biological, and all Science Laboratories completely equipped with Benches, Fume Chambers, Cupboards, &c., and Scientific Apparatus of every description. SEND SPECIFICATION FOR OUR PRICES. We also supply Sinks, Gas and Water Fittings specially designed for Science Laboratories, and Pure Chemicals. A. GALLENKAMP & 6O0., L™: 19 & 21 Sun Street, Finsbury Square, LONDON, E.C. SOLE MAKER CXXVI INA TORE [JuLy 27, 1905 MACMILLAN & CO.’S NEW BOOKS. JUST PUBLISHED. THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICA. By F. H. HATCH, Ph.D., M.Inst.C.E., President of the Geological Society of South Africa ; and G. S. CORSTORPHINE, B.Se., Ph.D., Consulting Geolegist to the Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa, 8vo. 21s net. SOUTH AFRICA.—“ A very welcome volume, whose authors bear names to conjure with in the South African and the Indian world. . . . There are a large number of excellent illustrations. He SIXTH EDITION, REV ISED AND ENLARGED. THE ADVANCED PART OF A TREATISE ON THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM OF RIGID BODIES. Being Part II. of a Treatise on the Whole Subject. With numerous Examples. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, Se.D., ‘LL.D., F.R.S., &e. 8vo. 145. NEW AND REVISED EDITION, NOW RE/ ADY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I. —The Non-Metallic Elements. New Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Roscos, assisted by Dr. H. G. COLMAN and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations. 8vo. 21s. net. THIRD EDITION. Entirely Re-written and Enlarged. CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF OILS, FATS, AND WAXES. By Dr. J. LEWKOWITSCH, M.A., F.1.C., &c. Consulting and Analytical Chemist and Chemical Engineer ; Examiner in Soap Manufacture and in Fats and Oils, including Candle Manufacture, to the City and Guilds of London Institute. With 88 Illustrations and numerous Tables. In Two V olumes. Medium S8vo, gilt tops. 36s. net. NATURE.—“ The standard English book of reference on the subject.” THE. LABORATORY COMPANION TO FATS AND. OILS INDUSTRIES. By Dr. LEWKOWITSCH, F.1I.C. Svo. 6s. net. CHE! UIC. AL TRADE SOL TRNAL.—*‘ Bound to become a constant companion to the chemist who deals with oils and fats. 7 OUTLINES OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. By FRANK AUSTIN GOOCH, Professor of Chemistry in Yale University, and CLAUDE FREDERIC WALKER, Teacher of © shemistry in the High School of Commerce of New York City. Extra Crown 8vo, 7s. (6a. net. TWENTY-SIX GRADUATED EXERCISES IN GRAPHIC STATICS, some in Two Colours, and with Skeleton Data to practise upon, and including the Application to Roofs, Moving Locomotives, Retaining Walls, Levy’s Steel Arches, Girders (Original Constructions), Masonry Arches, Levy’s Weight Tables, with an Essay on Graphical Statics, in the form of a Running Commentary on the Exercises, each of which has full Instructions printed on its face, the whole forming a Supplement to the Authors’ Elementary Applied Mechanics. By TT. ALEXANDER, M.Inst.C.E.I., Professor of Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin; and A. WY. THOMSON, D.Sc., C.E., Professor of Engineering, College of Science, Poona. - FCAP. BROADSIDE. SEWED. 10s. ENGINEE R.—“ An exceptionally good and useful work on graphic statics, which deals fully with the subject.” MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY FOR STUDENTS. By H. E. HADLEY, B.Se. (Lond.), Associate of the Royal College of Science, London; Headmaster of the School of Science, Kidderminster. Globe 8vo. 6s. FOURTH EDITION. ‘MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS AND ESSAYS. By W. W. ROUSE BALL, Yellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo, 7s. net. WOOLWICH MATHEMATICAL PAPERS, for Admission into the Royal Military Academy for the years 1895-1904. Edited by E. J. BROOKSMITH, B.A., LL.M. Crown 8vo. 6s. EXAMPLES IN ALGEBRA. Eight Thousand Exercises and Problems care- fully graded from the easiest to the most difficult. By CHARLES M. CLAY, Head-Master of Roxbury High School, Boston, Mass. Crown 8vo. 4s. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. JULY 27, 1905] NATURE CXxvil MINERALS, ROCKS, FOSSILS. THE NEW COLLECTION OF ““corNIsH minerars 090 SPECIMENS AND SLIDES OF ROCKS, A SPECIALITY. Special display for Teachers and Students on Saturdays. Open till 7 p.m. according to H. ROSENBUSCH: ‘“ Elemente der RICHARDS’ SHOW ROOMS Gesteinslehre, 2d ed. 1901.” s 3 Beauchamp Place, Brompton Road, South Kensington, Accompanied by a text-book: ‘‘ Practical Petrography,” giving a short London, S.W. description of the polarizing microscope and its application, and also of the macroscopical and microscopical features of every specimen of this collec- tion, by Professor Dr. K. Busz of the University of Miinster. This collection is intended for the practical use of students, and contains typical . representatives of all important types of rocks; it is composed of 277 E : aes | massive rocks (94 deep-seated rocks, 50 dike rocks, 133 volcanic rocks), Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to | 28 sedimentary, and 31 crystalline schists. Out of it two smaller collections JAMES R. GREGORY & co., of 250 and 165 specimens have been selected. The prices are as follows :— 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., Collection I. 336 Specimens of Rocks ... 380 Marks. for a Prospectus of ” Ia. 336 Slides . ase ane GED ns THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF. 0 Il. 250 Specimens of Rocks ... 270 MiCROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, 5 Ila. 250 Slides .. rs EWI . 5 now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing cone Fine a Ill. 165 Specimens of Rocks ros WAG) 43 Half-Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. 7 IIIa. 165 Slides .. Ae 205 oo Subseription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-; | or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections, £4 4s. | COLLECTIONS OF MINERALS, FOSSILS, METEORITES, LIVING ECIM N FOR PURCHASED FOR CASH OR EXCHANCED. SP E S | The fifth edition of Catalogue No. 4, Petrography, has just TH E M ICROSCOPE. been published (210 pages), and will be sent free of charge on Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Amceba, Arcella, Actinospherium, application. ————— Z Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Mlbschltia; SrePHABGCELOss Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life rice 1s. per Tube, Post Free. Helix pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. Dr. F. KRANTZ, THOMAS BOLTON, RHENISH MINERAL OFFICE, BONN-ON-RHINE, GERMANY. 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. | ESTABLISHED 1833 MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION | WATKI N S & D 0 nT CA TE R OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 5 The f ae opce S aaay be supplied, eith li Naturalists and Manufacturers of e following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :— CABI N ETS AND APPARATUS Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia; Actinia, Tealia, Geeta: Alcy- FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS' EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL oueiin s Hormiphora (preserved) Te ee Pinens, Amphiporus, BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. ereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice erebella ; epas, Balanus, + Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus, | N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- Ascidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &e., &c. | ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. For prices and more detailed lists apply to = aa Pea 7 , Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS, SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing PHA:NIX Te Birds, Mammals, &c., Preserved and Mounted by First-class ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. | Workmen true to Nature. F I R E O F F I C E | All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied. 7 peel 19 LOMBARD ST., E.C., and 57 CHARING CROSS, S.W. | 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. EsTABLISHED 1782. | (Five Doors erie Charing Cross.) Moderate Rates. Absolute Security. Electric | aa New Catalogue (102 pp.) just isswed, post free. Lighting Rules BRppied: Eeray Loss Settlements. | rompt Payment of Claims. 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Le Neve Foster and Dr. Haldane, 1905, PZ. 116 ) The Apparatus is arranged ina portable Mahogany Cabinet, with a rod to screw into the base, so that it may be stood against the sides ofa gallery i in “the mine, and the analysis made on the spot. WOODHOUSE The external Dr. Haldane's Mine Gas Apparatus £3 17 6 dimensions of the ‘ Mercury, pure, for same, 2-lb. in | L N E D PLAN E cabinet a bottle o55 Oe = 0 8 6 a maT Caustic Potash Soluti n, I-pint in + d ih olution, 1-pin i inchs/and he Bottles ams 010 Price 255/= charged ready “The Investigation oi Mite Air," for use is about by Sir C. Le Neve Foster and five pounds. Dr. Haldane, 1905 <0; = 060 TOW N SO N & M E RC E R . Sole Makers: C. E. MULLER, ORME & CO., Ltd., asa 148 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. 34 CAMOMILE STREET, E.C. ELECTROLYTIC CONDENSERS 100 mf. CAPACITY occupy a space of only 12 « 12 = 14 in. high. THE NEW GRISSON VALVE (A RELIABLE ELECTROLYTIC RECTIFIER). m= Both the above are now to be seen working here, or Illustrated Descriptive Pamphlets may be had on application. ISENTHAL & CO., 85 Mortimer Street, London, W. Contractors to the Admiralty, War, India, and Colonial Offices, dc. THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY’S LATEST INTRODUCTION Che “Artist” Reflex Camera For Day-Light Loading Flat Films or Plates. The Ideal Camera for Photographing Figure Studies, Animals, Natural History Subjects, Architecture, Landscapes, &c. The picture can be viewed the full size and focussed right up to the moment of exposure. Write for Fully Illustrated Booklet (N) Free from 106 & 108 REGENT ST., W., or 54 CHEAPSIDE. Printed en RICHARD CLAY AND Sone. inne ED, at7&8 Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MACMILLAN AND Co., LIMITED, at St. Martin’s Street, London, W.C., and THE Macmi_tan Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—T'Hurspay, July 27, 1905- A WARIO ISIE JULIE AUS MINI D) JOURNAL OBESCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’-—WorpDsworti. __ THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1905. No. 1: Oo. 1866, VOL. 72] [Paice SIXPENCE lan Rights are Reserved. “IDEAL” LABORATORY CLAMP. Registered as a Nagase at the General Post Office.] NEWTON & CO’S | LONG-RANGE ELECTRIC LANTERN. THE Price Lists Write for Special Pamphlet. Single Long-range Lantern, brass front with . 44-in, condensers, and extra large front lenses.3 in. in diameter. Complete with the *‘New Universal” Hand-feed Arc Lamp in case, £22. This Lantern isas efficient as any we can make for showing slidesin large halls where electric current is available. 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. JUnhS) oe ASHE-FINLAYSON ~ COMPARASCOPE. For viewing two specimens side by side in . the field of view of one microscope for comparison purposes. Seen Particulars on application. R. & J. BECK, L7: 68 CORNHILL, LONDON, E.C. Ww. G. PYE & CO., SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS, GRANTA WORKS, CAMBRIDGE. NEGRETT! & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS. THE GLYCERINE BAROMETER. This Barometer has a tube containing both Mercury and Glycerine. The lighter specific gravity of the latter and the difference in the bore of the tube in which it rises and falls increases the scale to about 8 inches for each inch of the ordinary mercurial column. By means of this interesting instrument the smallest variations in the atmospheric pressure are quite notice- able, differences of rooth of an inch being easily read without the aid of eat vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and | Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers— NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 33 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. Branches: 45 CORNHILL, and 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON, CXXX NATORE [AUGUST 3. 1905 UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. Mathematics ........:00..se (eee Ris ibe TASS yet oh Dicies {Professor Poyntinc, Mr. SHAKESPEAR, Dr. VETTES Senec-oxpay-nercecrcatcec \ Bartow and Dr. DENNING a 2 7" + {Professor FRANKLAND, Dr. CKEnNzIE, Dr, Chemistry “| Finpcay, Mr. Moore and Mr. Tinker. Zoology ... . Professor BripGE and Mr. CoLiinGE. Botany .. Professor HiLLHOUSE and Dr. Ewart. Geology... +. Professor Lapwortu and Mr. Raw. Geography .. » Professor WaTTs. {Professor Bursract, Mr. Porter, Mr. Mechanical Engineering “\ Hazer, Mr. Grit and Mr. Sincrair. Civil Engineering ............ Professor Dixon and Mr. HumMet. Electrical Engineering ...... Professor Kaer, Dr. Morris and Mr. LisTEeR. Metallurgy .. ........ Eerie ie eee g LERNER, Mr. Hupson and Mr. Mining ...... ..... Professor REDMAYNE and Mr. RoperTon. Brewing .. Professor Brown, Mr. Pore and Mr. MILvar. Education... . Professor HuGHEs. FACULTY OF ARTS. Classi {Professor SONNENSCHEIN, Mr. CaspaRrI and ASSICS sseeseess coe eeeeesee esses] Me. CHAMBERS. English ... Professor CHuRTON CoLtins and Mr. Cow t. German .. Professor FiepLeR and Dr. SANDBACH. French .., .. Professor Brevenor and Monsieur DEMmEy. Philosophy .. Professor MutRHEAD and Miss WopEHOUSE. History ... .. Professor MasTERMAN and Miss S1pGwick. Education .. Professor HuGHES Music.... .. Professor Sik Epwarp ELcar. Hebrew... . Mr. Pooter. FACULTY OF COMMERCE. Commerce and Public) , . S: AS . tf DY. Rinance f _profe sor ASHLEY and Mr. KirKALDY Accounting ........ . Professor DIcKSEE. Commercial Law Spanish and Italian .. Mr. TIttyarp, . Senor DE ARTEAGA. DEPARTMENT FOR TRAINING OF TEACHERS. Professor HuGuHEs. Miss Taytor. Miss Joyce. Miss WaRMINGTON. Mr. Roscor. Miss SowERBUTTS. Mr. MILtican. Miss WALKER. Mr. GRIFFIN. Miss Cou.ie. Miss CLARKE. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. | Professor Ropinson, Dr. WriGHT, Mr. +») Hastam, Mr. Warson, Miss CoGuHILt, \ Mr. Bennet? and Dr. Evans, ves» Professor CARLIER and Mr. Ruopes. Anatomy ... Physiology oo... BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES. J. E. Mackenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc. Chemistry) t--luu “UH. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B.Sc. (ALBERT GRIFFITHS, D.Sc. Physics ... 34 Sea «| D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. \B. Ww. pre Be = E. H. Smart, M.A. Mathematics . { W. G. Birt, B.A., B.Sc. A. B. Renpie, M.A., D.Sc. Botany... 0 we {BE Fritscn, Ph.D., B.Sc. Zoology... -. H. W. UntHank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy . Geo, F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Gero. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, Duteh, & Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES also in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Land and Quantity Surveying, and Estimating. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. GEORGE HERIOT’S TRUST. HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. A. P. Laurig, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E. DAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THREE YEARS’ COURSE IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, AND FOUR YEARS’ COURSE IN TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY. WINTER SESSION opens October 3, 1905, and closes April 27, 1906 These Courses are recognised by the University of Edinburgh as qualify- ing for the degree of B.Sc., and also by the Institute of Chemistry. Composition Fee for Engineering Courses, £12 12s. per Session; Com- position Fee for Chemistry, First Session, 412 12s.; Second Session, Principal 412 125.; Third Session, £15 15s. ; Fourth Session, HIS 155. An Entrance Examination for students who wish to study for the College | Diploma in Engineering or Chemistry will begin on September 25, 1905, at 12 noon. Arrangements have been made with leading engineering firms in Edin- | burgh and elsewhere whereby students may combine their apprenticeship Professor Lerru, Dr. Mitter, Mr. LEEDHAM- Pathology and Bectencicey GREEN, Dr. STaniey, Dr. Barnes, Dr. HEWETSON, and Dr. Witson. + Professor SAuNDBy, Professor CARTER, and Medicine ........casesssosseseoed 2 ‘ u . “| Dr. Russe Lt. Surgery {Professor Bar.inG, Professor BENNETT May, “ “""""\ and Mr. HEaton. Hygiene and Public Health Professor Bostock Hitt and Mr. LysTer. Therapeutics . Professor FoxweEtt and Dr. Ports. Midwifery .. Professor Matins and Dr. Purstow. Gynecology - Professor TAyLor. Forensic Medicine Professor Morrison. Mental Diseases... Professor WHITCOMBE. Operative Surgery.. Ophthalmology ... Materia Medica... Professor JoRpAN Lioyp. Professor PRIESTLEY SMITH. - Mr. Coote KnEaLe and Dr. GrEENWooD. DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY. Mr. Hux ey. Dr. Stacey WILson. Mr. Humpureys. Mr. Marsh. Mr. Donacan. Mr. Manin. Mr. WuiITTLEs. The SESSION 1905-6 COMMENCES OCTOBER 2, 190s. All Courses and Degrees are open to both Men and Women Students. In the Medical School there is a separate Dissecting Room for Women with a qualified Woman Demonstrator. Graduates and persons who have passed degree examinations of other Universities may, after two years’ study or research, take a Master's Degree. Syllabuses containing full information’ as to University Regulations, Lecture and Laboratory Courses, Scholarships, &c., will be sent on appli- cation to the SECRETARY OF THE UNIVERSITY. rr HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. FERMENTATION and INDUSTRIAL BACTERIOLOGY. A Laboratory has been opened under the superintendence of Dr. Emit WESTERGAARD (formerly assistant to Professor Alfred Jorgensen, Copen- hagen) for instruction in the Bacteriology and Mycology of Agriculture, Dairying, Fermentation, Tanning, Preserving, Starch and Sugar Making. For details of Classes, Fees, &c., please apply to the Principal at the College. PETER MACNAUGHTON, S.S.C., Clerk. 20 York Place, Edinburgh. July 28, 1905. | with their studies at the College. A similar arrangement has been made for Brewers’ Apprentices, and special facilities are offered to Chemistry Students for the study of the Analysis of Fuels, Gases, and Coal Distillation Bye-Products in the Laboratories of the Corporation’s Gas Works. The Day College Calendar, which contains full particulars, may be had on application to the Principat, at the College. PETER MACNAUGHTON, S.S.C., Clerk. 20 York Place, Edinburgh, July 28, 1905. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. SESSION 1905-6. The Session will commence on Wednesday, October 4 next. The following prospectuses may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAR :— FACULTIES OF ARTS AND SCIENCE. FACULTY OF LAW. FACULTY OF MUSIC. FACULTY OF COMMERCE. FACULTY OF ‘THEOLOGY. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING, DENTAL DEPARTMENT. PHARMACEUTICAL DEPARTMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. Complete Courses of Instruction are provided for students of both sexes proceeding to the University Degrees in Science or in Letters, and for the University Diploma in ‘Theory and Practice of Teaching. Special facilities are offered for the study of Agriculture, Applied Chemistry, Mining, Metallurgy, and all branches of Engineering. Matriculation and Exhibition Examinations begin September 25. Lectures begin October 3, 1905. Prospectuses on application to F. H. PRuen, Secretary. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. CHEMISTRY COURSE, Full particulars of the Courses qualifying for the Degrees in Chemistry and for the Certificate in Applied Chemistry will be forwarded on applica- tion to the REGISTRAR. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages Cxxxi aid Cxxxii. AvcusT 3, 1905] NATURE BOROUGH OF LONGTON (STAFFBFS.) EDUCATION COMMITTEE. LONGTON HIGH SCHOOL (SECONDARY DAY SCHOOL) ann SUTHERLAND TECHNICAL INSTITUTE EVENING CLASSES. Headmaster—Dr. WaLTER Harris, M A. (Cantab.). WANTED, to commence duty on September 11 next, the following Assis'ant Teachers, viz. :— ASSISTANT MASTER for English Subjects and Latin. 4x00 to £120 per annum, according to qualifications. ASSISTANT MASTER for Modern | anguages (French and German). Salary, 4100 to £120 per annum, according to qualifications. University men preferred. Ability to take part in school games a qualification. Salary payable monthly. Ergagement to be terminated at three months’ notice. Applications to be sent in, on forms which can be obtained from the undersigned, not later than August 22, 1905. W. T. COPE, Secretary to the Education Committee. Court House, Longton, Staffs., July 27, 1905. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. The Council of the College invites applications’ or the Post of DEMONSTRATOR and ASSISTANT in ZOOLOGY. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, to whom applications, with testimonials (which need not be printed), must be sent on or before Saturday, September 9, 1905. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, B.A., Registrar. Salary rom July 22, 1905. MASTERSHIPS VACANT FOR SEP- TEMBER. — Physics, College in India, 320, and passage 3 Mathematical, Public College, England, £200; Several Science Graduates, Public College, London University Teaching Centre, £150 to £300; Ditto, Matbematical, 4150 to £300; English, must be in Honors, £150 to £175; English and French, £150 to £175; 200 Vacancies for Senior, Junior, and Foreign. ORELLANA & CO. Send List to all Candidates, 80 WIGMORE STREET, LONDON, W. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED (1) Theoretical and Practical Science with other sub- jects. 150, non-res. Secondary School near London. (2) Science and some Form Work. £130, non-res. (3) Science and Maths. for Army pupils. £100, resident. (4) Physics and Maths for Navy pupils. roo, resident.—Vor particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, POWELL AND Situ, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. Applications are invited for the following posts: — ASSISTANT LECTURER in ENGINEERING, whose duties will b: chiefly in connection with the subject of Surveying. Salary, 4200 per annum. ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in Engineering. Salary, £tco per annum. Applications to be sent to the Registrar (from whom further particulars may be obtained) not later than August 14. Duties to commence on October 2, 1905. P. HEBBLETHWAITE, Registrar. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee requires the services of an ASSISTANT MASTER for the COUNCIL CENTRAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, Suffulk Street. Salary, £100 to £160 per annum, according to qualifications and experience. Candidates must be qualified in Science and Mathematics. Form of application may be obtained from the undersigned. JNO. ARTHUR PALMER, Secretary. Education Department, Edmund Street, July 29, 1995. PERE Yas Gi Ouea CayeNi Ry Ur: UNIVERSITY OF WALES. In October next the University Court will proceed to the appointment of a REGISTRAR. Salary, £500 per annum. Applications should state the candidate's age, academic qualifications and secretarial or official ex- perience, and should be received not later than September 25 by the REGISTRAR (University Registry, Cathays Park, Cardiff), from whom particulars may be obtained. Cardiff, August 1, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council inyite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Commencing salary, £175, to date from September 15 next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifications, teaching experi- ence, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the Principat not later than August 30. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. ua Soloid? » Microscopic h Stains ¢ ¢ for the immediate preparation small quantities of fresh, active staining solutions. They save time and trouble, of and are free fromthe dis- advantages associated with stock solutions. Economical and_ efficient. In tithes of 6 Of ail Full list and further particulars on request chemists BurrouGcus WELLCOME AND Co. SYDNEY axp CAPE TOWN LONDON, {copyricHT] XX 32 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. ROGERS PRIZE, 1907. Under the Will of the late Dr. NatHaniet Rocers, the Senate offer a PRIZE of £100, open for competition to all members of the Medical Profession in the United Kingdom, for an Essay on :—‘‘ The Physiology and Pathology of the Pancreas.” Candidates are informed that the Examiners will attach importance to the results of original observation. Essays, by preference typewritten or printed, must be sent in not later than May 1, 1907, addressed to the undersigned. PERCY M. WALLACE, M.A. Secretary to the Senate. GUY’S HOSPITAL. ENTRANCE SCHOLARSHIPS, to be competed for in September, 1905. TWO OPEN SCHOLARSHIPS in ARTS, one of the value of £100, open to Candidates under 20 years of age, and one of £50, open to Candi- dates under 25 years of age. TWO OPEN SCHOLARSHIPS in SCIENCE, one of the value of 4150, and another of £60, open to Candidates under 25 years of age. ONE OPEN SCHOLARSHIP for University Students who have com- pleted their Study of Anatomy and Physiology, of the value of £50. Full particulars may be obtained on application to the Dean, Guy's Hospital, London Bridge, S.E. HIGHER MATHEMATICS FOR SCIENCE AND OTHER STUDENTS. nate by highly qualified graduates of Correspondence Tuition Oxford, Camere! London and Royal Universities, in Algebra, Trigonometry, Vheoretical Mechanics, Differ- ential and Integral Calculus, Pure Geometry, Geometrical Drawing, &c. Departments are at work preparing for London and Royal University Examinations, Science and Art, Civil Service Examinations, and all Prof. Preliminaries.—Apply to Mr. J. CHarteston, B.A., Burlington Corre- spondence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. The MEDICAL SESSION will be opened on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1905. A Syllabus containing full particulars as to the Course of Education and as to the Preliminary Examination required to be passed by Students before beginning Medical study, may be obtained by applying to Mr. W. InNes Appison, Assistant Clerk. Se July 26, 1905. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages Cxxx and CXxxXil, CXXXII NATURE [Aucust 3, 1905 Sil. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL, ALBERT EMBANKMENT, S.E. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) The WINTER SESSION will COMMENCE on OCTOBER 2. The Hospital occupies one of the finest sites in London, and contains 603 Beds. Entrance and other Scholarships and Prizes (26 in number), of the value of more than £500, are offered for competition each year. Upwards of 60 Resident and other Appointments are open to Students after qualification. A Students’ Club forms part of the Medical School Buildings, and the Athletic Ground, nine acres in extent, situated at Chiswick, can be reached in forty minutes from the Hospital. A Prospectus, containing full particulars, may be obtained from the Secretary, Mr. G. Q. Roberts. J. H. FISHER, B.S.Lond., Dean. PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION, UNIV. LOND. A Systematic Course of Instruction, including Practical Work, is given at St. Thomas's Ho-pital Medical School, Albert Embankment. Full particulars may be obtained from the Dean. A'tendance on this Course counts as part of the five years’ curriculum. SCHOOL OF PHARMACY OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN. The post of ASSISTANT LECTURER and SENIOR DEMON- STRATOR in the DEPARTMENT of CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS is now vacant. The duties include the delivery of short courses of lectures in Physics to those entering for the Minor and Major Examinations. Salary, £50. Applications are invited and should be sent, accompanied by te-timonials, not later than September 14, to Professor CROSSLEY, 17 Bloomsbury Square, L ndon, W.C. THE GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE. The Governors invite applications for the PROFESSORSHIP in the DEPARTMENT of ENGINEERING in this College, vacant by the appointment of Professor Warkinson to the Chair of Engineering in the University of Liverpool. Salary, 4500. Applications, with testimonials, must be sent not later than August 21 to the SeckeTary, Technical College, Glasg .w, from whom ‘urther information may be obtained. SWANSEA GRAMMAR SCHOOL. WANTED, next September, a MASTER to teach WOODWORK anc one or two elementary subjects, such as Arithmetic or Algebra, in the Grammar School. He will also be required to take Building Construction (in wccordance with the syllabus of th= Board of Education) in the Evening Classes of the Tecbnical College. Minimum salary, £150. Apply at once, stating qualifications and experience, to the HEADMASTER, Grammar School, Swansea. LISTER INS!/ITUTE of PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. An ASSISTANT BACTERIOLOGIS! is required in the Bacierio- logical Department of the Lister Institute at a salary of £150 per annum. Applications to be sent to the SEcrerary on or befcre September 15. Lister Institute, Chelsea Gardens, London, S.W. BOROUGH OF LOWESTOFT. HIGHER EDUCATION COMMITTEE. PRINCIPAL for Science and Art Schools and Pupil Teachers’ Centre. Salary, 4200 per annum, rising by annual increments of £10 to £250. Applications by August 1o to R. Beattie Nicnotson, Town Clerk, Lowestoft. MERCHANT VENTURERS’ TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRISTOL. ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in ENGINEER- ING required. Salary, £170, which may rise to £220, Particulars obtainable from the REGISTRAR by sending a stamped addressed foolscap envelope. Applications should be sent in not later than September 18, rgos. Laboratory Demonstrator and Assistant wanted at the Northampton and County Day and Technic.l School on September 11. Must be able to demonstrate and set up apparatus in both Chemistry and Physics. Salary, £100 perannum Apply with testimonials to the SECRETARY, The School, Abington Square, Northampton. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL. The COUNCIL invite further applica’ions for the post of ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Salary, 4120 per annum Full particulars may be obtained on application. JAMES RAFTER, Registrar. SCIENCE TEACHER Wanted in large Institution (Chemistry of Common Objects) for South Kensington Certificate. Would be required to give lessons of one hour theory and take two practical classes weekly.—Apply by letter to ‘‘ CHEMISTRY,’ c/o G. Street and Co., 8 Serle Street, W.C. BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (Five minutes from Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster Bridges), 103 BOROUGH ROAD, S.E. TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY AND ELECTROCHEMISTRY DAY COURSE. A complete Day Course extending over two years has been arranged in Technical Chemistry. With the object of providing as complete a course of training as possible, instruction will le given in MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, ENGINEERING DRAWING, PRACTICAL MECHAN- ICS. FRENCH, GERMAN, METAL and WOOD WORKING, and in GENERAL CHEMISTRY, and throughout the Course particular attention will be paid to ELECTROCHEMISTRY, for which a Special Laboratory has been fitted. FEE FOR THE COURSE, OCTOBER TO JULY, 410. Intendirg students must give evidence that they are capable of following the Course with advantage, or they may be required to attend a Pre- liminary Course. Full particulars can be obtained on application to C. T. MILLIS, Principal. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET ROAD, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS. The Governing Body invite applications for the appointment of CHIEF INSIERUCTOR in MATHEMATICS, day and evening, part time only. Salary, £150 per Session. Experience in teaching engineering students desirable. Further particulars and forms of application, which should be returned not later than Wednesday, August 30, 1g05, can be obtained on application by letter to : R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Se., Principal. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see Pages’ CXXX and CXxXXi. JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. Part 174. Price 5s. Edited by G. C. Lioyp, Secretary. “Standby Charges and Motor Load Development” (with discussion), by A. M. TayLor (Birmingbam Local Section); ‘f Telephone Traffic” (with discussion), by H. L. Wes ; “ Wireless ‘lelegraphy Measurements ” (with discussion), by W. DuppEttand J. K. Taycor; ** Low-Tension ‘thermal Cut Outs ” (with discussion), by A. ScHwartz and W. H. N. Jamas (Manchester Local Section) ; ‘‘ Notes on Heating and Sparking Limits in Variable Speed Motors” (with discussion), by A. H. Bate (Birmingham Local Section) ; ‘‘ Commutation in a Four Pole Motor "(with discussion), by J. K. Catrerson-Smiin (Birmingham Local Section). Messrs. E. & F. N. SPON, Ltd., 57 Haymarket, S.W. SCIENTIFIC WORTHIES The following is a list of the Steel Portraits that have appeared in the above Series :— MICHAEL FARADAY. THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. CHARLES DARWIN. JOHN TYNDALL, SIR. GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES. SIR CHARLES LYELL. SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. SIR WYVILLE THOMSON. ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN. LORD KELVIN. BARON ADOLF ERIK NOR- DENSKJOLD. HERMANN L. F. HELMHOLTZ. SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER WILLIAM HARVEY. SIR GEORGE B. AIRY. J. LOUIS R. AGASSIZ. _ JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE DUMAS. SIR RICHARD OWEN. JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. JAMES PRESCOTT JOULE. WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE. ARTHUR CAYLEY. SIR C. W. SIZMENS. JOHN COUCH ADAMS. JAMES JOSEPH SYLVESTER. DMITRI _IVANOWITSH MEN- DELEEFF. LOUIS PASTEUR. SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. LORD LISTER. STANISLAO CANNIZZARO. PROF. VON KOLLIKER. PROF. SIMON NEWCOMB. SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS. LORD RAYLEIGH. PROF. SUESS. N.B.—The Portraits of Sir A. Geikie, Lord Lister, Prof, Cannizzaro, Prof. von Kolliker, Prof. S. Newcomb, Sir W. Huggins, Lord Rayleigh, and Prof. Suess belong to a New Series and are Photogravures. Proof impressiuns of these, printed on India paper, may be had from the Publishers, price 5s. each ; or the Series of 35 Portraits ina Handsome Portfolio for £9, carriage paid. price 6s. The Portfolio may be had separately, CueQurs AND Mongy ORDERS PAYABLE TO MACMILLAN & Co., LTp. OFFICE OF “NATURE,” ST. MARTIN'S ST., LONDON, W.C, MUGUST 3, 1965 | NATORE CXXXill The New Manifolding Hammond Typewriter. A Hammond Typewriter will do anything any other typewriter does—and do it better. Beside, it has twenty exclusive features, not one of which is possessed by any other writing machine. WHY is the Hammond the Best Machine for Stenographers ? 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PETER HEELE, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Maker of Physical, Chemical, and other Instruments, and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeters. GRAND PRIX, PARIS, 1900; ST: LOUIS, 1904. Telegrams: ‘‘ARCTITUDE, LONDON.” | COX'S _ X-RAY, HIGH FREQUENCY, LIGHT BATHS, AND ALL OTHER ELECTRO-THERAPEUTIC APPARATUS Of the Highest-elass-London- Workmanship and’ ‘Maximum Efficiency’ at the Minimum Price. cox’sS INDUCTION COLILs. 10” Spark (as illustrated), £18 10s. HARRY W. cox, Ltd., 4a ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-241 LAYSTALL ST., LONDON, £.¢. Actual Manufacturers from the Raw Material. Contractors to the various Departments of H.M. Government and many of the principal Hospitals and Practitioners in the United Kingdom and Colonies. Full Illustrated Catalogue (with Instructions to Beginners) Post Free. CXXXIV NATURE [AUGUST 3, 1905 All other air pumps superseded. TH “GERY K” (Fleuss Patent) Vacuum Pump seo Results hitherto only pos- sible with mercury pumps are readily obtainable by the ‘‘ GeryK.’’ Used by all leading scientists. Far more rapid than any other vacuum pump. Price from W rite for $4:5:0. LIST F.45. Pulsometer Engineering Colt? Qine Elms lronworks. Reading. KAHLBAUM’S CHEMICALS) Sole Depot: JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, | , LIMITED, ': SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. Telegram and Cable Address: - *©GRAMME, LONDON.”’ SELF-RECISTERING AND SELF-RECORDING (ELECTRICAL) RAIN GAUGES. THE ‘ WILSON’ SELF-REGISTERING RAIN GAUGE, He Descriptive Circular Post Free. The ‘WILSON’ SELF-RECORDING ELECTRICAL RAIN GAUGE. Records auto- matically on a Weekly Chart. = = MAY BFE OBTAINED THROUGH ANY OPTICIAN. If any difficulty be found in securing any of our Instruments through your Dealer kindly communicate with the Manufacturers, PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, (Established 1750), LTD. Contractors to H.Al. Government, 46, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. Telephone No. 1981, Holborn. Telegrams—‘‘Rapkin, London.” ACTUAL (WHOLESALE) MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, s — THE 3 RYSTOS STAND DEVELOPING TANK. For Developing plates or eut films slowly in a very weak developer. Clean in use; gives excel- lent results with 4 minimum of trouble. MADE OF STOUT POLISHED COPPER. Tank to take 6 plates 15” x 12”, and with Adapters to suit any smaller plate; complete, ©1: 10:0 This arrangement is specially recommended to Radiographers and other Scientific Photographers. Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only . &/6 each. Tank to hold 1 doz. 5” x 4” plates only fe ta ers Tank to hold 1 doz. } plates only ee G/= > ,, Postage on any of above three sizes, 4d. extra. NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PRICE LIST, 25th EDITION, ON APPLICATION. [4 COMMERCIAL STREET LEEDS. IN OAT EO ad as 31 Oa THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1905. RECENT FRENCH MATHEMATICAL WORKS. La Philosophie naturelle intégrale et les Rudiments des Sciences exactes. By Dr. A. Rist. Part i. Pp. vi+132. (Paris: A. Hermann, 1904.) Price 3-50 francs. Etude sur le Développement des métriques. By Gaston Darboux. Pp. 34. Gauthier-Villars, 1904.) Price 1.50 francs. Sur le Développement de l’Analyse et ses Rapports avec diverses Sciences. By Emile Picard. Pp. 168. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1905.) Price 3.50 francs. Introduction a la Géométrie générale. By Georges Méthodes géo- (Paris : Lechalas. Pp. ix+65. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1904.) Price 1.50 francs. Introduction a la Théorie des Fonctions d’une Variable. By Jules Tannery. Vol. i. Second edition. Pp. ix+422. (Paris: A. Hermann, 1904.) Correspondance d’Hermite et de Stieltjes. Edited by B. Baillaud and H. Bourget. Vol. i. Pp. xxit+ 477. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1905.) Price 16 frances. HE part which France has played in the de- velopment of modern mathematical methods, especially in connection with geometry and analysis, is well known to every mathematician. Of recent years, however, the trend of mathematical thought has considerably changed in every country, and while France has produced a large school of writers on the philosophy of mathematics, it is in the opinion of the present reviewer doubtful whether this school can forge more than a very small link in the chain of mathematical development. The doubts which arose in the minds of mathematicians regarding Euclid’s eleventh axiom led to the new science of non-Euclidean geometry, but it was not so much the mere philo- sophical speculations concerning the axiom itself as the examination of the consequences of making alternative assumptions that led to substantial pro- gress being made. The discovery that we cannot be sure that two and two make four except as the result of experience is undoubtedly of importance, but it is in the development of the consequences of a more extended hypothesis, of which this one is or is not a particular case, that substantial progress be sought. Dr. Rist’s book may be taken as affording a good example of the kind of philosophical speculations which arise when we try to analyse the why and wherefore of the various processes and operations occurring in even so elementary a subject as arith- metic. It contains chapters on the prolegomena of both geometry and arithmetic, but it is in connec- tion with the latter subject that the discussion is most extended. The mere act of counting forms the subject of a number of paragraphs of which the general character may be fairly understood from an enunciation of the headings :—‘‘ The number con- sidered as the result of an act,’ ‘‘ What do we count?” ‘‘Why do we count?’’ “The different modes of counting.’’ From counting the author NO. 1866, VOL. 72] must proceeds to calculation, and in the following chapter gives a detailed discussion of the various processes and symbols involved in the two operations of addition and subtraction. One would naturally expect multi- plication and division to be treated in the same way, but instead, Dr. Rist sets out an alternative method of approaching this study, and this first volume closes with a chapter showing how numbers serve for evaluations. The book seems to appeal more particularly to elementary teachers who only possess a rudimentary training in algebra and geometry, for there is little or nothing in it which assumes more than an elemen- tary knowledge of these subjects. The highly trained mathematician would hardly benefit by reading such a book, as he would probably have already formed ideas of his own on the subject, and in all likelihood would consider the treatment to be unsatisfactory in a good many respects. Of the useful purpose that can be served by popular addresses containing the survey of wide regions of mathematical thought we have two excel- lent examples before us. America, with that spirit of internationalism the absence of which from our islands is so greatly to be regretted, loses no chance of picking the brains of the world’s greatest mathe- maticians, irrespective of nationality. Prof. Dar- boux’s pamphlet and the second part of Prof. Picard’s contain the substance of addresses delivered at St. Louis last year. The two addresses are to a great extent complementary. Prof. Darboux treats of the development of geometry during the nineteenth century, and Prof. Picard gives a historical account, similar in character, of the development of analysis, with especial reference to its relations with geometry, mechanics, and mathematical physics. Prof. Picard’s St. Louis address also forms a sequel to the series of three lectures delivered by him in 1899 at Clark University which form the first part of the same book. The first of these deals with the gradual extension of the meaning attached to the word ‘* func- tion ’’ during the last century, and the numerous new regions of mathematical thought opened up by this development. The second deals with the theory of differential equations, and the third with analytic and certain other functions. In concluding, M. Picard advises students not to specialise in mathematics at too early a stage, but to endeavour to form a general survey of different branches of the science first, and his lectures afford an excellent preliminary step towards the formation of such a survey in the case of analysis. An English translation of M. Darboux’s addresses has appeared in recent numbers of the Mathematical Gazette. M. Lechalas’s small volume in the series of “Actualités scientifiques ’’ deals with Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry. The subject is introduced by a chapter on Euclidean geometry of one, two, and three dimensions. The geometry of Riemann’s space is deduced from the Euclidean geometry of four dimensions. That the properties of a Riemann plane and a Euclidean sphere are identical so long as only P 314 NATURE [AUGUST 3, 1905 — ae the surface itself is concerned is admitted, but whether the Riemann space is identical with, or only analogous to, Spherical space in a hyperspace of four dimensions remains a subject of controversy between the author ofthe book and M. Mansion. At any rate, M. Lechalas does not discuss space of positive curvature independently of its connection with four-dimensional Euclidean space, and accordingly the book contains only one more chapter devoted to the geometry of Lobatchefsky and Bolyai. In this respect the treat- ment is analogous to that given in some books on conics where the properties of the ellipse are proved by three-dimensional methods (orthogonal projection) and those of the hyperbola by plane geometry. Whether this is the best plan is open to question ; many mathematicians seem to prefer it, and an author cannot please everybody. In his preface, which is printed in italics, M. Tannery fairly well defines the scope and object of his book. Although this is a second edition, it has been entirely re-written. It is primarily intended for readers who do not possess a very extended know- ledge of mathematics. It covers mainly those por- tions of analysis’ which are commonly found in English text-books on higher algebra, viz. properties of irrational’ numbers, continued fractions, aggre- gates, convergency and divergency of series and of infinite» products, the binomial theorem, the ex- ponential ‘and logarithmic series, and expansions of trigonometric functions treated without the aid of imaginaries. Finally, we have a chapter-on derived functions containing applications of the formula f(x) =hf!(x + eh), and .an illustration of functions which have no differential coefficient. The subject-matter may all be included under the heading ‘‘ functions of real vari- ables treated algebraically,’’ as M. Tannery has avoided the use of geometrical methods in the present volume. A second volume is promised dealing with functions of complex variables, in which geometrical methods are to be freely used. The treatment is clear and full, and the book gives the impression of being as good an exposition of the subject as could well be written on the lines laid down by the author. It does not profess to give historical: or ‘bibliographical information, for which the reader is referred to the ‘‘ Mathematical Encyclo- peedia,’’ of which the French edition is now coming out. An interesting ‘insight into the thoughts of two eminent mathematicians is afforded by the first volume of _ correspondence between Hermite and Stieltjes, covering ” e period 1882-1889. The _in- timacy seems -to- have ‘arisen in 1882, out of a letfer addressed by Stieltjes to Hermite dealing with, a f(x+h)— theorem of M. Tisserand relating to the expansion. of the disturbing ‘force when the mutual inclination of ‘two orbits’ is: considerable. ‘The subject-matter of this letter’ (which-is ‘missing from the collection) was published in the Comptes rendus for November 13, 1882. At this time Thomas Jean Stieltjes was “attached NO. 1866, Vor. 72] with ‘Legendre’s isome new result to the Observatory of Leyden, -and the influence of Hermite doubtless accounts in large measure for his activity in mathematical research during the years which followed, culminating in his migration to France in 1885, after his failure to obtain a mathe- matical chair in his own country. A noteworthy feature of, Stieltjes’s. work is his partiality for simple arithmetical tests of general theorems. The value of. his” examinations of numerical details must have been enormous to a man of Hermite’s calibre. It seems as if Hermite in many cases furnished the ideas which Stieltjes elaborated and extended. It was not with Stieltjes alone that Hermite carried on an extensive corre- spondence, for he was evidently fond of writing letters, and even many of his contributions to journals appeared in epistolary form. But among his various correspondents Stieltjes played a prominent part, and it was Hermite’s own wish that the letters of his colleague should be published after the premature death of the latter in 1894. One thing is unfortu- nately wanting. Hermite was to have written an introduction, but he did not-live to do so. Injits place we have a preface by M. Picard and a biographical notice by M. H. Bourget, who, in conjunction with M. Baillaud, were colleagues of Stieltjes in the Uni- versity of Toulouse from 1886 until his death, and who have jointly edited the present volume. It would be difficult,to give a general summary of the subject-matter of. this correspondence, which deals continued , fractions, hypergeometric — series, functions, .‘semi-convergent series, and, indeed, analysis generally. Portraits of Hermite and Stieltjes complete the volume. There is a certain brightness and freshness about the way one of the two mathematicians writes to the other announcing and the second takes up the clue and develops it, and one can imagine the delight that ‘the two-kindred spirits-must have had in working ‘together. _ While: the volumes before us are widely different in icharacter, it may be well to warn the busy reader, as has been done on previous occasions, that they all possess one objectionable feature in common. While ithe guillotine was originally invented in France, the ‘modern instrument of that name has not been applied ito its proper use on the pages of any one of the series, iconsequently readers, unless they are prepared to set up a private guillotine, are compelled to waste hours jin hacking and jagging the leaves with a paper knife, |producing a very untidy result. (Ga lal, 18}, THE MUTATION. THEORY OF THE ORIGIN athe OF SPECIES. Species he Karieties : + their. Origin by Mutation. By H Hugo. | de. .Miries,. -Edited, by. D. T. MacDougal. |) Pp. ,xvili i+-847... Londons vegan Paul and Co., \f Lote 1905-),... Ne A’ the. De time, aan naturalists are be- \ ginning; to turn, again .to.;the problem of the origin. of species, «¢his account of, Prof. de‘ Vries’s theories and experiments is sure:of.a’ welcome, partly | AUGUST 3, 1905] as the most recent exposition of that naturalist’s views and researches, and partly as the first account of them available in the English language. It has been maintained by those who attack bio- logical problems by methods by which they insist that they do not hope to account for anything, that it is idle to attempt to explain the phenomena of variation and heredity until they have been adequately described ; and although it is certain that the danger of a too premature attempt to account for things is greater among those who use methods by which they believe the fundamental nature of the things will ultimately be revealed than it is among statistical evolutionists, it does not follow’ that it is better to adopt the second course on account of these (really not very dangerous) pitfalls in the first. Of the possibility of adopting it without falling into them at all Prof. de Vries’s work is a rare example. The book before us consists of twenty-eight lectures de- livered at the California’ University by Prof. de Vries, and prepared for the press by Mr. D. T. MacDougal. It will be of immense value to the student whose lack of knowledge of German renders ‘‘ Die Mutations- theorie’’ a sealed took to him, as well as to the investigator; but two features of it, which result from the mode of its origin, render it a less valuable work than ‘‘ Die Mutationstheorie.’’ One of them, which affects the student and general reader, is the absence of illustrations; the other, which affects the investigator, is the absence of references, which is a real drawback in a book that puts into circulation the details of many unfamiliar and interesting breed- ing experiments. : Seeing that this book is likely, and intended, to appeal to the student, there is one feature of it which might have been different with advantage; and we believe the defect to be serious, because the general reader will notice it as little as he will deplore the absence of pictures much. The publication of a book in which there is set forth for the student a new and profoundly inaportant biological theory, and a collection of facts in support of it, seems to us to have been a most suitable oppor- tunity for discarding that scientific jargon which is still believed to have a meaning by those who. do not understand it, and still used by those who know that it means nothing. In the very first sentence it appears in its old vigour. AAS “Newton convinced his contemporaries that natural laws rule the whole universe. Lyell- showed; ‘by ‘ his hat ‘natural principle of slow and gradual. evolution; laws have reigned since the beginning ‘of: time.’ ae Ot course Prof. de Vries and* Mr: MacDougal/know that natural laws do not really rule the universe, and that they have not reigned since. the. beginning. of time, and that this latter expre sion, stretchess aven poetical licence. But the generali-redder dnd there must be laws existing; somewhere ruling ‘and reigning and being obeyed,, and. that itis the busi-: ness of the man of science to ‘discover.them. ‘? NO. 1866, VoL, 27] NATURE 315 A few examples from the body of the book will suffice. For instance, on p. 3,‘ If an origin by natural laws is conceded for the latter, it must, on this ground, be granted to the first also’; on p- 90, “*. . . wild species, which obey the laws discussed in a previous lecture ’’;/on p. 175, “. . . and liable to reversions by the ordinary laws of the splitting up of hybrids ’’; and on p. 547, ‘‘ The physiological laws, | however, which govern this process are only very imperfectly revealed by such a study.”’ We are perfectly aware that such expressions are continually to be found in the memoirs of men of science who in their other writings have exposed the meaninglessness of such phrases; but this only leads to the necessity of a stronger insistence on the desirableness of discarding them, in the conviction that the curious image of nature which such ex- pressions call up would be less erroneous and more eradicable than it is now if they were never used. The fact that entirely different things sometimes have the same name leads to the need for caution in the interpretation of another expression the mean- ings of which are about as numerous and as different as those of the term ‘‘law.’’ The word regression in Prof. de Vries’s book denotes a biological pheno- menon of singular interest; but it must not be for- gotten that it is also the name of a purely statistical conception. It is very necessary that these two significations should be kept absolutely distinct in the mind of ‘the reader. ~The book is, considering its bulk, very free from misprints; the few that occur do not lead to any difficulty, e.g. ‘““ begining’? on p. 118, ‘ hnudred ” on p.°475, ‘‘of ’’ for ‘fon’ in the last line of p. 560. There is one inconsistency of spelling; Macfarlane is spelt thus on pp. 21 and 268, and with a capital -F on p. 255. We have some doubt as to which is the more correct, “‘ morphologic’? or ‘* morphological,’’ though we have none as to which is the more euphonious; but surely one or the other should be used throughout; yet on p. 141 we find ‘ morpho- logical’ and on p. 144 ‘‘ morphologic,’’ and similarly on p. 144 ‘‘ physiologic’? and on p. 547 ‘ physio- logical,” ‘on p. 709 ‘‘empiric’? and on p. 733 ““empirical.”’ , We think that scant justice is done to the greatness of Mendel’s work and to the conceptions based upon \it which bid fair to put us on the track of accounting ‘for some of the phenomena of heredity ; and by con- |fining Mendel’s law to the description of the mutual |properties of varieties only, the meaning and tendency of: Mendelian ‘investigation that is now being carried |On seem ‘to‘be missed. “That Hurst can predict the, || difference. between the result of mating two pairs of _|| rabbits externally identical, by means of a knowledge of the difference between their gametic constitutions !acquired by previous breeding from them, constitutes, jit seems to us, the longest stride the study of heredity 4 _|| has made for some time past. can be pardoned for going away, with the “idea that: The zoologist who confines himself as strictly to’ |the study of animals as Prof. de Vries does to that of. plants. will be disappointed if, trusting to the com prehensiveness of the title of the book, he expects to 316 NALORE ([AuGcusT 3, 1905 find as much about the one half of living nature as about the other in it. The most fruitful source of progress is a new way of looking at things, and such new points of view result in the destruction of old classifications and the need for new ones; in biology, investigators will soon cease to be classified according to the group of animals or plants with which they deal, but accord- ing to the particular phase of the problem of the ““ fundamental nature of living things ’’ (which is the ultimate goal of biological inquiry) which interests them. In the study of heredity, for example, there is already a number of investigators who are as familiar with that phenomenon in the case of animals as in the case of plants.. Nor does it seem reasonable to doubt that, by thus broadening the basis of material used by the investigator, the conclusions arrived at by him are likely to be less wide of the truth than they are apt to be if they are based on the result of experiment with a single animal or plant. The moral of this is, not that Prof. de Vries ought to have said something about animals in his book, but that the disappointed zoological reader ought to know some- thing about plants for the sake of his work. To bestow praise on any work of Prof. de Vries would be impertinent; to cite points of particular interest in the book is unnecessary, for it has already begun to form part of the indispensable equipment of the student of evolution in the broadest sense of that term. iiss 1D)5 ASPHALT PAVEMENTS. The Modern Asphalt Pavement. By Clifford Richard- son. Pp. vii+580. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 12s. 6d. net. HIS is a book dealing with an important practical subject which up to the present time has not received much attention from writers of text-books. Asphalt pavements of various kinds are now so largely used that a text-book dealing with this subject has been a long-felt want. The book is divided into sections, and _ the author has appended to the end of each chapter a brief summary of the matter dealt with, enabling the reader to determine quickly whether or not the chapter contains the information he is seeking for. The first section deals with the construction of the road base upon which the surface carrying the traffic is supported, and it is evident that Mr. Richardson is of opinion that the ideal base is hydraulic concrete. Between this base and the surface proper is interposed a binder, or intermediate, course; where the traffic is heavy, the best material for this is a layer of com- pact asphaltic concrete. The next section is concerned with the materials employed in making the asphalt surface mixture, and a detailed account is given of the sands used for this purpose and of their origin and physical characteristics. After a brief explan- ation and classification of the various hydrocarbons of which native bitumen is composed, describes the native bitumens which have so far been used in paving work. NO. 1866, VOL. 72] In section iv. the technology of the paving industry is taken up; the preparation of the surface mixture is explained with the help of elaborate tables, and the theory which underlies the practical work is described ; the author points out that an asphalt surface in order to be successful must resist both weathering and impact. The mechanical appliances used for com- bining the various materials into the surface mixture are described with diagrams. Sections v. and vi. deal with the handling of the material in the street and with the hand-tools needed by the workmen, and in the latter section a descrip- tion of an ingenious machine for impact tests is given. In section vii. there is a complete specification for an asphalt pavement; this will be found of great value to engineers who have to draw up specifications for work of this nature. Mr. Richardson points out that the popular idea as to the limiting gradient for an asphalt pavement is erroneous, and that in the eastern part of the United States, for example, a gradient of 8 per cent. on an asphalt road is not excessive. There is no doubt that asphalt has great advantages when compared with most of the other pavement materials; it is free from mud if properly washed down at regular intervals; unlike wood, it is practically non-absorbent; when kept in a clean con- dition it gives a good foothold for horses; tractive effort is considerably reduced, and even under heavy traffic asphalt wears remarkably well. Although the initial cost is heavy, still the cost of upkeep is lower than that for most of the other paving materials. The last section of the book, one of the most valuable, deals with the testing of the various materials used in asphalt pavement work; it gives a complete account of this necessary branch of the work, and data are given of the equipment required in a municipal labor- atory where such testing work is carried out. The book is likely to prove of great value to municipal authorities who are faced with the problem of determining the most satisfactory road material to employ both where traffic is heavy and where it is moderate. TES: OUR BOOK SHELF. Die physikalischen Eigenschaften der Seen. By Dr. Otto Freiherr von und zu Aufsess. Pp, x +120. (Brunswick: Vieweg and Son, 1905.) Price 3 marks. THERE are many books and pamphlets dealing with one or several of the properties of lakes; | the aim, however, of the present work is to gather into a handbook the principal facts known, and to give a general view of the results arrived at, so as to incite the lover of nature to interesting obsery- ations as well as to provide a guide for the more specialised limnologist. In a short introduction the author deals with Prof. Forel’s work as having caused the important develop- ment of limnology which recent years have witnessed, and gives this authority’s definition of a lalke as being ‘“a mass of still water, closed up on all sides, situated in a depression of the ground, without direct com- the author | munication with the sea.’’ The lake surface being a part of the earth surface represents a section of a sphere, the curvature of the same being, with large AUGUST 3, 1905 | NATURE 317 lakes, important enough to prevent the observer from seeing low objects situated on the opposite shore. Some preliminary remarks deal with general con- siderations on pressure, density, and compressibility of the water. The mechanical part includes the study of the different movements to be observed in lakes, viz. progressive waves, such as are known to every- body, stationary waves or ‘‘seiches,’’ and currents. “‘ Seiches ’’ were first rationally studied by Prof. Forel in the Lake of Geneva, and have been found to exist in many other lakes; they are, for instance, now being investigated in the lochs of Scotland by the Lake Survey. Being waves as long as the lake, they cause periodical rising and falling of the water-level, though these tides are very often inconspicuous, and only to be recorded by limnimeters or registering apparatus; they vary from some millimetres up to 1.87m. (highest ‘“‘seiche ’’ in the Lake of Geneva), and much more in the great lakes of America. This special kind of wave, which affects the whole body of the lake, is probably due to several factors acting together or separately, such as sudden variation of atmospheric pressure, changes in the strength or direction of the wind, &c. Older explanations, as lunar attraction or earthquakes, have been shown to be untenable as general causes of “ seiches.”’ The acoustic properties of lakes are dealt with in a short chapter. The most attractive feature of any lake is its colour, its greater or less transparency, its reflection of the surroundings, and other optical phenomena, such as refraction in or above the water. The explanation, however, of all these facts, which anybody may observe and enjoy, is often difficult and intricate even to men of science. The author of the present work has the merit of dealing with this optical chapter in a very intelligible and attractive way, giving briefly the most accredited theories of the phenomena treated of. The last chapter deals with the thermic properties of lakes, such as distribution of temperature, seasonal changes, formation of ice, and storage of the summer’s heat by the water. A bibliographical list of the most recent and im- portant works on physical limnology concludes the book, and makes of it a very useful guide and an excellent résumé of the actual state of our knowledge of this subject. A Catalogue of North American Diptera or Two- winged Flies. By J. M. Aldrich. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, part of vol. xlvi.) Pp. 680. (City of Washington, 1905.) Tue second edition of Osten-Sacken’s ‘‘ Catalogue of North American Diptera ’’ was published in 1878, and an enormous amount of work in the order has natur- ally been accomplished since. Prof. Aldrich’s catalogue takes in the whole of North America, from Panama on the south to Greenland and the Aleutian Islands on the north; and also the whole of the West Indies, even down to Trinidad, adjoining Venezuela. ‘‘ There is no place to draw a line between the islands. The Bermudas and the Hawaiian Islands are not in- cluded.”’ According to our own knowledge of other orders, we cannot quite agree with Prof. Aldrich. The fauna of Trinidad appears to us to have no relation to that of the islands further north, and to be purely South American, while the Bermudas clearly belong to North America. On the other hand, that of the Hawaiian Islands (apart from introduced species) is one of the most insular in the world; and, in this respect, may be compared with that of New Zealand, though far less conspicuous or extensive. Prof. Aldrich has not numbered or mentioned the NO. 1866, voL. 72] number of species admitted in his catalogue (which is brought down to January 1, 1904); but we may say that the introduction occupies 4 pages, the system of classification 1, the bibliography (with ad- ditions) 77, the index of (59) families 1, and the index of genera 12. The catalogue itself occupies 582 broad pages, and the distribution and synonymy appear to be very fully given. To criticise such a work in detail would only be possible for a specialist in Diptera, and in any case would occupy much more space than we could give to it; and we have, there- fore, confined ourselves to observations on its scope and contents. Elementary Experimental Science. An Introduction to the Study of Scientific Method. By W. May- howe Heller, B.Sc., and Edwin G. Ingold. Pp. 220. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1905.) Price 2s. 6d. net. Tue course of work in elementary science presented by the authors of this little book is modelled upon the plan which, it is satisfactory to know, is adopted in all good modern secondary schools. The con- sequence is that there is little which is new in the volume, though the methods of presenting familiar experiments and of setting forth practical instructions for laboratory exercises supply abundant evidence of the experience and teaching ability of the authors. The book is quite suitable for the use of young pupils except for the paragraphs containing hints to teachers which are scattered up and down _ the chapters. It is unwise to lead children to suppose their teachers to be in need of instruction, and it may be asked, ‘‘ May it not be supposed that most teachers have acquainted themselves nowadays with the aims and methods of elementary science instruction? ’’ In any case, the teacher should not be addressed directly in the book intended for the use of his pupils. The book is interesting since it shows that in the opinion of some at least of the most enthusiastic advocates of “‘ heuristic ’’ methods of instruction there is a good purpose served by a well-arranged text-book in introducing children to the study of scientific method. Teachers looking for a book containing a sensible, practical course of worl in science should examine this one with care. Astronomischer Jahresbericht. By Walter F. Wisli- cenus. Vol. vi., containing the literature of the year 1904. Pp. xxxvii+612. (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1905.) Price 19 marks. Tuts is the sixth year of the issue of this very valuable publication, and it possesses all the vitality of the former volumes. It was thought by the re- viewer of the previous year-books that the publication of the branch E, astronomy, an annual issue of the International Catalogue of Scientific — Literature, would take the place of the present compilation, since they both for the most part cover the same ground. This, however, seems not to be the case, and perhaps the reason lies in the fact that the volume before us gives in many cases a brief réswmé of the contents of the book or publication to which reference is made. The present volume contains 2280 references, and as these with their brief summary of contents cover 595 pages, and an excellent ‘“‘name’”’ index which follows is responsible for another 17 pages, the matter contained therein is considerable. The high standard maintained throughout reflects the greatest credit on the compiler and his seven co-workers, and renders the volume a necessary and valuable addition to every astronomical library and observatory. Wer [gtSHea oe 318 NATURE [| AuGUST 3, 1905 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NatURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | The Problem of the Random Walk. Tuis problem, proposed by Prof. Karl Pearson in the current number of Nature, is the same as that of the composition of n iso-periodic vibrations of unit ampli- tude and of phases distributed at random, considered’ in Phil. Mag., x., p. 73, 1880; xlvii., p. 246, 1899; (“‘ Scien- tific Papers,’’ i., p. 491, iv-, p- 370). If n be very great, the probability sought is Probably methods similar to those employed in the papers referred to would avail for the development of an approxi- mate expression applicable when n is only moderately great. RAYLEIGH. Terling Place, July 29. The Causation of Variations. It is sometimes said that natural selection has ceased as regards civilised man; but very clearly this is an error. All civilised and most savage races are very stringently selected by various forms of zymotic disease. Thus in England practically everyone is brought into contact with the organisms which give rise to tuberculosis, measles, and whooping-cough; those individuals who are the most resistant to the organisms repel infection (i.e. do not fall ill), the less: resistant suffer illness but survive, the least resistant perish. Abroad, malaria, dysentery, and many other complaints play a similar réle. Probably no one is absolutely immune to any disease; but since illness only follows invasion of the tissues by a sufficient number of the microbes (the sufficiency of the number varying with the individual attacked), and since the microbes are more abundant in some localities than in others, the stringency of selection as. regards any disease is greater in some places. than elsewhere. For example, selection by tuber- culosis is more stringent in the slums of cities than in the country. It should’ be noted, also, that resisting power against any one disease does not imply resisting power against any Other; thus an individual innately strong against measles is not necessarily strong against tuber- culosis. The result of all this elimination by diseases demonstrates the action of natural selection very beauti- fully. Every race is resistant to every disease strictly in proportion to its past experience of it. Thus English- men who have suffered much from tuberculosis are more resistant to it than West African Negroes who have suffered less, and much more resistant thah Polynesians who have had ‘no previous experience of it; that is, as a rule, Englishmen, under’ given conditions, contract the disease less readily, or if infected recover more frequently, or if they perish do so after a more prolonged resistance than Negroes and Polynesians... Negroes, on the other hand, as South American plantation, experience proves, are more resistant to malaria than Asiatic coolies, who in turn are more_resistant than Englishmen and Polynesians. Against. some. diseases (e.g. tuberculosis) no immunity can~‘be “acquired, that is,. experience of. the disease confers ’no ‘increase of resisting _power,.. the disease pursuing a course of indefinite length. Against other diseases (e.g. measles) immunity may be acquired, that isy%expeérience of the disease, if’ not fatal, confers after a definite’ time a’ more or less*permanent immunity on the sufferer. In the former case the survivors .are mainly those who have an inborn power of resisting infection; in the latter they are thosé who» have an: inborn ’ power ‘of recovering from infection: Evolution’ has: proceeded ‘on these lines. Thus ‘Englishmen are less» readily infected with tuberculosis than Polynesians, but.nearly all English- men, like Polynesians, readily take measles, . though! a much greater. proportion of them survive and acquire NO. 1866, VOL. 72] immunity. Lastly, in~ relation to such very ‘‘ mild”? diseases as chicken-pox, which render: the, individual very ill- while they last, but cause hardly any elimination, no race appears to have undergone any change; for instance, ho race, apparently, is more resistant to chicken-pox than any other race. eye The pathogenetic organisms of all prevalent human diseases are more or less entirely parasitic on man. Most of them, therefore, flourish best in crowded populations, where they can pass readily from one susceptible individual to another. Thus tuberculosis is most prevalent in the slums .of great cities. An important exception is malaria, the parasites of. which require special conditions, and which, therefore, is more prevalent in the open’ country than’ in towns. The inhabitants of the eastern hemi- sphere have been ‘afflicted by a multitude of zymotic diseases for thousands of years. Of old, with the increase of population, the conditions slowly became, worse, the stringency of selection became greater, and ‘the human races underwent continual evolution. But before the voyage of Columbus zymotic disease, with the exception of malaria, appears to have been almost, if not quite, un- known in the New World. We _ have. fairly” definite accounts of the first introduction of most: Old World diseases to this and that aboriginal race, and of, the frightful destruction of life that followed, the - principal agent of elimination being tuberculosis. With — their diseases the European immigrants introduced. modern civilised conditions of life, especially churches, schools, and other enclosed spaces in which the natives, crowded together, conveyed infection to one anofher, and clothes, which acted as a deterrent to cleanliness, and which, besides, harboured the microbes of disease better than the naked skin. As a consequence, except when protected by malaria in extensive forests or when dwelling remote in unsettled regions, the natives rapidly perished. “It is a significant fact that, whereas in Asia and Africa every town inhabited by Europeans has. its native quarter, no European town in the temperate parts of the western hemisphere (i.e. where tuberculosis is most rife) has its mative quarter. Published health statistics demonstrate quite definitely that . the abnormally high mortality of the natives is caused by introduced diseases. Since civilisation implies a dense and settled population, it follows that’no’ race can now achieve civilisation that has not undergone’ ‘evolution ‘against tuberculosis and ‘kindred diseases.’ The case ‘ of the Negroes is, interesting.; In Africa they had undergone some evolution against. tuberculosis. In America, when they were first taken to it, the disease prevailed to 4'com- paratively slight extent, especially amongst the agricultural population; but the conditions slowly became worse, and the descendants of the-early slaves underwent concurrent evolution. To-day they are able to persist in the northern cities, though their death-rate there is still abnormally high. But though’a constant stream of Negro slaves and soldiers (e.g. in Ceylon) was poured for centuries into parts of Europe and Africa, they have left no trace on the population. All perished in a few generations, the elimin- ation being so stringent as to cause extinction, not evolu- tion. It is: tolerably certain that a fresh immigration of African Negroes to America would end as disastrously. These facts appear to establish conclusively two .truths, first that evolution is due solely to. natural selection, and second that variations, except, perhaps, in rare instances, are not due to the direct action of the environment, on the germ-plasm, but are ‘‘ spontaneous.’’? The Lamarckian doctrine is quite out of court. If ever acquirements, are transmitted, it should be in the case of the profound and lasting changes affecting the whole body which ’result from disease; ‘but in no instance is the effect produced by any disease on the race similar to that produced by ‘it on the individual... Thus tuberculosis injures the individual) but confers resisting power on the “race; measles confers immunity,on the individual, but none on thesrace. Were the Lamarckian doctrine true, man could not persist ‘on the earth. Presumably. this is. true of. all. other species, since probably all, organisms are, subjected to ,causes_ of slow deterioration ‘similar- to disease. If ever external agencies acting directly on the gérm-plasm alter its com- position and so cause variations (of any sort) in offspring, AuGUST 3, 1905] NATURE 2 19 o it should fe win | germ-cells are literally soaked for pro- longed ‘periods ‘in’ some virulent toxin such as that of malaria. Presumably’the effect should be a harmful one, and it should act-in- much the same way on the germ- cells of one individual as on those of another; the race should, therefore, by the accumulation of injury, steadily deteriorate until it becomes extinct; but in no case is this observable. A disease may exterminate a susceptible race, but thére is no evidence that it is ever a cause of racial degeneration. The same is true of races exposed to the complex. of. harmful agencies which surround urban life— filth, over-crowding, lack: of light and air, of suitable food and exercise, and so forth. None of the races which have been longest and most exposed to them have become de- generate—for example, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Egyptians, and the inhabitants of Europe. These races have merely become permanently resistant, preeminently capable of an urban existence. Red Indians and Poly- nesians perish en masse under such conditions. There is not an iota of evidence which demonstrates that the children of peasants if removed at birth’ to the city would on the average be better developed than the descendants of a line of slum dwellers. The legend that urban families tend to become extinct within four generations is founded on the fact that migration and inter-marriage betwixt town and country is so great that no fae purely urban for. four generations exist. . ees Bearing in mind the fact that races grow resistant to all diseases to which they are exposed, the only con- ceivable non-miraculous cause of evolution (i.e. adaptation) is natural selection. But natural selection cannot act when any agency (e.g. malaria) causes a drift in a particular direction, ite. when all variations are unfavourable, and offspring ‘tend. always to fali below the parental mean. Studerts-of evolution have generally thought of elimination in terms-of sudden-death as by the agency of carniyorous animals, when the individual who perishes dies in the ful- ness of his strength, and the individual who. survives is strengthened rather. than weakened by his efforts to evade destruction. - It is clear, however, when considering causes of slow deterioration, which affect practically the whole population during youth, that the doctrine of natural selec- tion is, incompatible with the doctrine that variations are caused by the direct action of the environment. It is clear also that natural selection ifself must always tend to establish a high degree of insusceptibility to direct action. A greater or lesser degree of susceptibility of the germ-plasm is itself a variation. The more susceptible type of germ-plasth tends continually to be eliminated, and a high degree of insusceptibility established. This is not the same - thing as saying that the germ-cells are inviolable and cannot be injured. It is only implied that their .‘‘ hereditary tendencies? are implanted -in them almost. as firmly as life. The behaviour of somatic cells confirms this view. A’ gland, for example, may be diseased for twenty years, yet on recovery we do not find a new type.of cells; on the contrary, the descendant cells are quite of the old type. No doubt many instances of the alleged direct action of the environment on the germ-plasm have been recorded. Thus medical men have published statistics to prove that the children of alcoholics and consumptives tend to be insane; but as a rule this evidence is inconclusive in that it fails to demonstrate that the proportion of insane is higher among them than among the offspring of normal parents. Numerous other factors of error, also, are not taken into account. In some cases published by. biologists acguirements do not seem to have been clearly differ- entiated from variations. Thus in the well known case of Weismann’s butterflies (*‘ Germ-Plasm,’’ p. 399) we are not told that the darkening of colour produced by a higher temperature was accentuated during subsequent generations by similar treatment, nor that the darkened individuals reproduced their like in ‘the absence of the high temperature. A priori there is no apparent reason why acquirements should rot be made in ‘the germ-cell stage of the individual as well as during subsequent stages of development. In other cases, as ‘when -plants ‘have been removed to’ a new’ environment, the effects of a different survival. of. the fit have not apparently been taken into account. -It must be remembered that natural selection not only adapts organisms to changing environments, but keeps ' NO. 1866, VOL. 72] them stable in stable environments, and so eliminates the variations which appear in the new. surroundings. : It is not necessary, of course, to believe that variations are never caused by the direct action of the environment. Presumably’ the inSusceptibility of the germ-plasm is due to evolution, and’ evolution’ is never perfect. ‘It is only necessary to believe that in circumstances normal to the species the insusceptibility is so high that the amount of variations produced by the direct action of the environment is sO minute as-to be negligible, t.e. not a cause of racial change. It is possible that when species are removed to very new environments (e.g. European dogs to India~ or horses to the Falkland Islands) the germ-plasm is sSome- times changed by conditions to which natural selection has not mendoned it highly insusceptible ; but the deterioration which is said to result in such cases is clear evidence of the necessity of this insusceptibility. If it be not estab- lished the species must perish. G. ArRcHDALL REID. The Empire and University Life. your powerful advocacy of a In your issue of July 6 in our great universities higher and broader education casts me back in memory to more than fifty years ago, when I first was transported with delight at F. von Schlegel’s great generalisation of the unity of the Indo- European family of languages. I was then astounded that Oxford and Cambridge, through so many centuries, had not seen this great truth. The theological and catastrophetic method had darkened the mental vision of both Oxford and Cambridge ; even the mighty Whewell, in 1846, wrote from Cam- bridge :—‘‘ Not only, then, is the doctrine of the trans- mutation of species in itself disproved by the best physio- logical reasonings, but the additional assumptions which are requisite to enable its advocates to apply it to the explanation of the Geological and other phenomena of the earth, are altogether gratuitous and fantastical.’ From Oxford, her powerful son, the G.O.M.,° could not rise to feel that the first chapter of Genesis was-a sublime poem; he could not rise to feel the truth of the most elementary facts of geology; so enchained was his mind that he could not feel the poetry and spirituality of the ‘‘ Sacred Books of the East’’; the Hindu philosophers and poets give their ideal demi-gods a vast age, even- to g00,000 years; but they know that it is poetry and ideal. But Oxford’s greatest son could not rise to such elemen- tary generalisation;-he saw the great -doctrine of “* con- tinuity ’’ no- wider than the concrete mythology of the Hebrews—he believed in the literal and personal Methuselah of 969 years! These modern examples of bad method are but glaring instances ’’ of the general bad method which permeates society, permeates the professions, above all, the pro- fessions of theology and medicine. The Method (see Coleridge) of Oxford and Cambridge 66 in its influence on its sons always reminds me of the words of Sismondi?; writing of the ‘‘ erudition ’’ of the Greeks of. the tenth century, Sismondi says :—*‘ Few (of their) books seem better constructed to show the vanity of erudition, and to place in strong contrast a vast extent of knowledge, with a total incapacity of deriving any useful results from it.’’ ‘‘ Were it necessary to choose between the whole experience which has been acquired and collected from the beginning of time, the whole rich store of human wisdom, and the mere unschooled activity of the human mind, the latter ought, without hesitation, to be preferred. This is the precious and living germ which we ought to watch over, to foster, to guard from every blight. This alone, if it remain uninjured, will repair all losses; while, on the contrary, mere literary wealth will not preserve one faculty, nor sustain one virtue.’ We do not want revolution, at Oxford and» Cambridge, based, the ‘‘ historic sense.”’ - ipinlehe May I .add my personal. experience, that I have. been able to converse in a more genial, enlightened spirit and but an active evolution, both as Coleridge said, on 1 “ History of the Inductive Sciences,” grd ed., 1857, vol: ili. p..48ty +» 2° Pall of the Roman Empire,” vol. ii., pp. 258, 261 (1834). 320 NATURE [AUGUST 3, 1905 method with Hindu Brahmans and gentlemen, and with cultured Moslems, in India, than I find it possible to do with clerics, the professional classes, and society magnates in Britain. It is to be hoped that ‘*‘ more light ’’ will evolve at Oxford and Cambridge, and a higher and truer method permeate their sons. GunGa-GUNGA. A Solar Outburst (?). REFERRING to the note on solar activity in your issue of July 20, I shall be glad to know whether any correspondent observed a luminous outburst in the tail end of the great spot on the evening of July 16. I had been observing in the afternoon with an 83-inch reflector, but remarked nothing of the sort. At 5.30, however (the sun having got beyond range of my reflector), I was observing him with a small refractor, power 12, and sun-cap, when I at once noted the luminous appearance in question. It was roundish and about the size of the small spot near following limb, and it was brighter than the bright bridge in the large group. I watched this bright spot until 7.30; next morning it had practically disappeared. Father Cortie courteously informs me that the Stonyhurst magnets were perfectly quiet on July 16, but that next morning, at 8.15, there was a ‘“‘ very small but sudden and sharp movement on both the declination and horizontal force eurves.”’ By that time the locality where the luminous appearance occurred would not be far from central meridian. I also noticed a rosy hue pass over the bright bridge of great spot, but this may have been a mistake. I am, however, certain of the luminosity. Cardiff, July 24. ARTHUR MEE. PROGRESS IN DESIGN. HE interesting paper read by the Director of Naval Construction at the summer meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects brings vividly home to us the progress made in the design of war- ships since Nelson fought, off Cave Trafalgar, our last great sea fight. In our account of the proceed- ings at the meeting, printed last week, we referred to Sir Philip Watts’s paper, but it is worthy of more attention than brief mention in a report of a society’s meeting. We reproduce from among the illustrations accom- panying the paper the sheer draught of Nelson’s last ship, the Victory (Fig. 1). The original drawing of this most famous of all vessels of the Royal Navy was shown at the meeting when the paper was read. We also reproduce the sheer draught of the 36-gun frigate Syrius (Fig. 2), as affording an interesting comparison with a modern cruiser. As is well known, the Victory was forty years old at the date of Trafal- gar, so that as she now floats in Portsmouth Harbour she numbers 140 years. She was, however, recon- structed in 1798, seven years before Trafalgar, and again in 1820. The effect of her first reconstruction is shown by the dotted lines of the engraving. The long time that the Victory remained on the active list is in- dicative of the slower progress of invention that char- acterised former times. If we go somewhat further back we have a still more striking example in the Royal William, a model of which too-gun_ line-of- battle ship was shown at the Naval Exhibition of Al CENDURY:S WARSHIP 1891. She was built at Chatham Yard in 1670, was rebuilt at Chatham in 1692 on the same lines as those on which she was originally designed by Phineas Pett, and was again rebuilt at Portsmouth in 1719. As she was not broken up until August, 1813, she was in existence when the battle of Tra- falgar was fought; but as Sir Philip Watts does not include her in his table of ships of the Royal Navy, October, 1805, we may conclude that before that date she had ceased to be considered efficient. NO. 1866, VOL. 72] The long life of the warships of past times was not due to their more durable construction as com- pared to modern vessels, but to the lack of that in- ventive enterprise now made possible, primarily, by James Watt’s labours. A steel vessel well built and properly kept up would be practically indestructible with fair treatment; but the same cannot be said of wooden ships. It is not because sound wood in it- self is less strong than iron or steel, weight for weight, so much as that it cannot be procured in suf- ficiently long and conveniently sized pieces, a large number of joints and overlappings thus being neces- sary; but the chief drawback to wood is that it is not so suitable a material for making joints; as Sir Philip Watts says, ‘‘ The fastenings cannot develop the strength of the main body of the material.’’ A seam of rivetting in a properly designed steel vessel will join plates to frames or beams, or plates to plates in a way that no buffeting of the winds and waves will affect. That is not the case with the fastenings of wooden ships; as a matter of fact, most of the old men-of-war became ‘‘ hogged’’ after some years of service. The frequent reconstruction of wooden vessels of which we read was the result of these conditions. The causes which thus led to the decay of wooden ships, as individual structures, contributed to the permanence of their respective types, especially in regard to ships of the line. As Sir Philip Watts points out, it was ‘‘ owing to the limitations imposed on shipbuilding, when wood was the only available material, that length could not be largely increased without reducing to a dangerous extent the longi- tudinal strength of ships, and the only practicable means of largely increasing the number of guns was to increase the number of decks for carrying them.”’ There were, however, limitations to the extension of vertical dimensions as well as to the increase of horizontal dimensions. A few four-deck ships were built, but the advantages of the extra gun positions thus secured were more than counterbalanced by the defects of a high, unwieldy structure above water. Even three-deckers were at a disadvantage owing to their high sides; they were ‘‘ worse sailors and less handy in manceuvring than two-deckers’’; and, in- deed, when one looks at the old Victory towering above water, riding to her moorings in Ports- mouth Harbour, one wonders how these ships were ever sailed in any direction excepting broad off the wind. The high positions of the guns also necessitated a greater amount of ballast to give stability. All these circumstances joined in confin- ing the naval architect to short ships; and once Phineas Pett had developed construction to the full extent allowed by the limitations of wood as a material, and wind as a source of motion, there was little more to be said. Charnock, speaking of the Prince Royal, designed by Pett at the beginning of the seventeenth century, has said, ‘‘ This vessel may be considered the parent of the identical class of shipping which, excepting the removal of such defects or trivial absurdities as long use and ex- perience has pointed out, continues in practice even to the present moment.’’ That sentence bridges over a period of more than 200 years of the history of naval design. When it was recognised that iron could be used for the construction of ships—that it was not, as some averred at the time, ‘‘contrary to the laws of Nature’’ —then the horizon of the naval architect widened as when fog lifts at sea. To design a ship of adequate strength became a science, for the stresses that hull structure of given scantling would stand could be calculated with precision; mathematics and a knowledge of physics took the place of bolts and _ AvcGusT 3, 1905 | NATURE Byit trenails. Before this era English models had fallen | sadly behind those of our chief rivals. It was by | hard fighting, not by superiority or even equality of design, that victories were gained for our arms. | Creuze, in his ‘‘ Treatise of Naval Architecture,” published in 1846, speaks of the inferiority of British ship design, quoting Charnock to the same effect. “When an English fleet was in chase of a French fleet it was ships which were British built that fell | into our possession; but almost on every occasion the French ships could evade ours. The losses sustained | in the French Navy by foundering at sea, or by wrecks were principally those ships which had been ment of the Institution of Naval Architects this im- provement is mainly due; and, since its foundation in 1860, the application of scientific principles to ship design has made progress rapid beyond all precedent. Annual meetings bring together the leading mem- bers of the profession for the interchange of ideas, and in the Transactions of the institution may be found memoirs by the best authorities on all subjects connected with the science of naval architecture. It is well to remember, however, that, whilst there is much room for congratulation, the need for effort towards progress still exists, and perhaps to a greater degree than ever. For long after the introduction Sone wer se vec erserpeecneses = Fic. 1.—Navy Office, June 6, 1759. taken from us. On the contrary, the favourite ships in our fleets were those which had been taken from the French, and the instances in which French ships in our service were ever recovered possession of by them were extremely rare; we as far exceeding them in all that related to the manceuvres and manage- ment of ships as they did us in designing them.” As is well known, the Foudroyant, a two-deck ship captured from the French in 1758, served as a model for a new class, or, again to quote Creuze, ‘‘ a very superior class of man-of-war which was adopted.’” It was not, however, with the abandonment of | wood that England ceased to follow the lead of | France in ship construction. We remember that the first iron-clad ocean-going war vessel, La Gloire, Sheer draught of roo-gun vessel Vzetory. ' others took their practice from us. _C Length on the gun decks, 186 ft. 5 151 ft. 38 in.; breadth extreme, 51 ft. 10 in.; breadth moulded, <0 ft. 6 in.; depth in hold, 21 ft. 6 in.; burthen in tons, No. 216243 ; shows the vessel as altered. Length of the keel for tonnage, the dotted outline of steam propulsion, Great Britain, as the leading shipbuilding nation, held a position not seriously chal- lenged. We gave examples to the rest of the world ; Of late, however, our supremacy has been attacked. There are ship- | yards and marine engine works, many of them splen- didly equipped, in all the most important countries, and we may depend every effort will be made to em- ploy them fully and develop them further. The naval Powers are determined to construct their navies within their own domains, and some foreign Govern- ment; are giving inducements to shipowners and shipbuilders of a substantial nature, and such as are was French; and Sir William White in 1887 said, ‘‘it must be frankly admitted that the lead taken by the French on both the steam and ironclad reconstructions was the primary cause of most sub- sequent activity in warship build- ing.” We dwell on this point because it illustrates the evil of neglecting the application of scientific prin- ciples to practical affairs. Happily, since the period to which we have referred Great Britain has done much to remove the reproach under which she formerly rested. The labours of Scott-Russell, Rankine, William Froude, and many others raised ship design in this country to a position of which we may well be proud. Some of the later workers, like the late William John, have passed away, but, happily, the majority—and we may cite the author of the paper as among the most distinguished—are still Fic. 2.—Navy Office, September 30, 1795. lower deck, 148 ft. 10 in.; length of the keel for tonnage, 124 ft. o3 with us. It is fair to add that it is to the establish- NO. 1866, VOL. 72] Length on the Sheer draught of 36-gun frigate Syriws. in.; breadth extreme, 39 ft. 7in.; breadth moulded, 38 ft. rr in.; depth in hold, 13 ft. 3 in.; burthen in tons, No. 1033$4- not offered in this country. It is well to remember that Germany for some time past has not only possessed, . but has constructed within her own domains, the mercantile vessels which hold the premier position in the world. In shipbuilding, as in nearly all other manufactur- ing industries, we must neglect no chances. To de- sign a complex structure such as a high-class modern steamship needs an amount of accurate knowledge intelligently applied—that is to say, an amount of science—which is only within the com- 329 NATURE [AuGusT 3, 1905 mand of. those having every advantage for its ac- quirement. We here say ‘‘ design,’’ not copy, for the man or the nation that copies must necessarily lag behind those who originate. It is not a good sign— it is distinctly a bad sign—that, in spite of the efforts of some public-spirited and thoughtful members of the. Institution of Naval Architects, shipowners and -shipbuilders at large have not subscribed the really modest sum needed for establishing the pro- posed. experimental tank at the National Physical Laboratory. It is by the aid of such a tank that the data needed for the scientific design of a vessel can be worked out in their completeness; and such accu- rate knowledge as we have about resistance of ships is due to researches made by the aid of models in tanks. It is many years since an Englishman, Froude, established the first tank at Torquay, and, by his in- comparable experimental work and scientific deduc- tions, put at our disposal the information needed to prosecute further inquiries in this direction; and now, after more than thirty years, although we claim to be the leading shipbuilding nation of the world—as we are in regard to bulk of tonnage con- structed—Mr. Yarrow has to depend on a German tank when he seeks information as to the resistance of vessels in varying depths of water. If our shipowners would devote a small part of the energy they expend, and an_ infinitely small part of the money they waste on freight wars to an attempt to improve the designs of their vessels, it might tend to the stability of the British shipbuilding industry and to more satis- factory balance-sheets; it certainly would to a more worthy record of the country’s progress in ship design. Sir Philip Watts, who, as Director of Naval Con- struction, has at his command the well equipped and admirably staffed Government tank at Haslar, does not feel the need of such an establishment, and naturally does not refer to it in his paper. He gives, however, a sketch of the plan followed in scarphing frames and planking together so as to reduce the working of the different pieces on each other. The science of the metallurgist has removed that necessity, by giving us a material which enables the side of a ship to be made practically a continuous structure. The outer planking of ships of the line at the time of Trafalgar was 8 inches to 42 inches thick above water, and planking on the inside of the frames was from 4 inches to 5 inches thick. The frames themselves composed almost a_ solid wall, so that a combined thickness of nearly 2 feet— the thickness of the iron armour on the Inflexible —was available for resisting shot. Great attention was paid to seasoning timber; but when it came to a case of metal construction our ancestors were often a little at fault. ‘The older ships of the Trafalgar period were iron fastened and sheathed with copper. Considerable trouble was, however, experienced by the corrosion of the iron fastenings, so much so that in some cases, after three or four years, the ship was rendered unfit for foreign service. The intervention of substances such as felt, tarred paper, &c., between the copper and the wood bottom failed to protect the iron entirely, and at one time the Board of Admiralty contemplated discontinuing the sheathing of ships lying- in ordinary and fitting it to them immediately before going to sea.’”’ Thus do we see how the want of a little knowledge of natural laws caused inefficiency and loss of money; but there was excuse for our predecessors which we, who have their accumulated experience, cannot plead. Sir Philip Watts gives some interesting figures as to the cost. of the older ships, and these may be compared with that of modern vessels. In 1719 the NO. 1866, VOL. 72] cost of the Royal William, of 1918 tons, was 30,8ool., or about 16], per ton. Whether or not this refers to Pett’s Royal William, reconstructed in 1719, is not certain, but probably it does. In that case a good deal of the original structure might have remained, thus lessening the cost. The Royal George, of 2046 tons, built in 1756, cost 54,700l., or 26.71. per ton. *‘ In 1800 ships of the line cost 211. per ton, whilst in 1805 the cost had risen to 35-4l. per ton.’’ These figures presumably refer to displacement tonnage, but whether guns are included we are not aware; we will conclude they are not, and see how former figures compare with those of the present day. The first class battleship King Edward VII., of 16,350 tons displacement, is to cost 1,410,go1l., excluding guns and ordnance stores; whilst the guns will come to 89,070l., bringing the total cost te within a few pounds of a million and a half. This would be some- what over 86.21. per ton, without guns, as compared to 35-4l. per ton at the date of Trafalgar. If, how- ever, we could measure cost in terms of fighting efficiency we should doubtless find that we now get more for our money than our fathers did in 1805, for the King Edward VII, could have engaged the whole of the British Fleet at Trafalgar with the allied fleet thrown in. In armament the advance has been no less. striking. The old cast-iron smooth bores, with their wooden truck carriages, were trained by handspikes, used as levers under the brackets, and by side tackles; and they were elevated by handspikes, being held in position by quoins. Sir Philip Watts says that ‘‘a 32- or 24- pounder, fought on the lower deck, had a range of only about 2000 to 2500 yards with 8° elevation, and of about 1500 yards with 4° elevation. The powder charge was generally one-third to one-quarter the weight of the shot. | At close quarters a 24- pounder was said to be able to penetrate nearly 5 feet of solid oak and an 18-pounder half this amount.’’ These were not the heaviest guns in the service at the beginning of the last century, there being 42- pounders also; but guns of this nature, designed to form the principal armament for the lower decks of the largest battleships, were found to be too heavy to be worked quickly by the rude appliances then in use. A still heavier piece was later introduced, namely, the g5cwt. 68-pounder. We have not information as to the- thickness of solid oak which the round shot fired from these heavier natures would penetrate, but we may com- pare the 5 feet that would be pierced by the’ 24- pounder with the power of the guns of the present day. The modern 12-inch wire-gun of the Royal Navy, weighing 50 tons (about twenty times. as much as the 32-pounder), is estimated to penetrate 42 inches of wrought-iron at muzzle velocity of 2580 foot-seconds and a muzzle energy of 39,280 foot- tons; at 1000 yards the penetration would be 38 inches of wrought-iron, at 2000 yards 34-6 inches, and at 3000 yards 32 inches. The penetration of Krupp steel armour at 3000 yards would be but: 14 inches. These results are with uncapped _ projectiles. The longer 12-inch guns of Armstrongs or of Vickers will penetrate more than 51 inches of wrought-iron and will fire two rounds per minute. It will be seen from the above facts how enormously the powers of both attack and defence have increased during the century. They would seem to have pro- gressed in about equal ratio, for Sir Philip Watts says ,that ‘* the capability of the wooden ship to take punishment from the guns of her time was, except in one important respect, much the same-as that of a modern ironclad.’’ The important. respect, of course, refers to ;the shooting away.of-spars and rigging. ~ ; AUGUST 3, 1905 | NATURE 323 A table ‘given by Sir Philip Watts comparing the weights apportioned to the different elements of de- sign in a battleship of 1805 and of a modern battle- ship respectively is interesting. The old ship is one of 74 guns, and 20 per cent. of the total displacement was awarded to general equipment as against 4 per cent. for the 1905 battleship. Armament in, 1805 was to per cent. of the displacement; in the present day it is 19 per cent. The propelling arrangements are somewhat in the nature of a surprise, masts, sails, and rigging absorbing 8.5 per cent., and steam machinery only 10.5 per cent. of the displacement. There is, however, to be added to the latter figure 5-5 per cent. for coal, but this is more than balanced by the 6.5 per cent. of the weight apportioned to ballast for giving the stability needed under sail. Armour is naturally the great point of difference, for it takes up 26 per cent. of the displacement of a modern battleship. As against this but 35 per cent. of the total displacement is needed for the construction of steel hulls, whilst the wooden hull absorbed 55 per cent. of the total tonnage. It must be remembered, however, that the construction of the ““wooden walls’’ was far more massive than was needed for ordinary purposes, and a good part of the 55 per cent. might be set down as wooden armour. The remarkable thing is that iron plates were not applied earlier, before the French constructors set us the example; or, rather, it would be remarkable were the very conservative nature of the old admirals not remembered. THE LIGHT-PERCEIVING ORGANS OF PLANTS.* | ee subject of this most suggestive book has already been dealt with by the author in a pre- liminary way.? In its present form it has gained greatly in force and interest, and whether or no we are finally converted to Prof. Haberlandt’s views there can be no doubt that they are worthy of serious attention. It is well known that the majority of leaves have the power of placing themselves at right angles to the direction of incident light, but the question of how the light stimulates the leaf to perform the curvatures and torsions which bring it into the ** light position ’’ is a problem which hitherto has hardly been attacked. ; _ The first question to be solved is what part of the leaf is sensitive to light. By covering the blade of the leaf with black paper, &c., Haberlandt shows that the principal and most delicate sensitiveness re- sides in the blade, although a coarser and secondary sensitiveness to the incident light is found in the stalk. It results from this part of the inquiry that the lamina of the leaf must contain the organs for light-perception, if such organs exist. Anything corresponding to a visual organ may be expected to be on the surface, although in such a translucent organ as a leaf this does not necessarily follow. It may, however, be said that Haberlandt is amply justified in looking for what he calls the ocelli of plants in the epidermis covering the upper surface of the leaf. We may therefore narrow the problem thus. Imagine a horizontal leaf illuminated by light striking it obliquely from above at 45°; such a leaf is not in the “light position,’’ and will execute a curvature through 45°, in. fact until it receives light at right 1 ‘Die Lichtsinnesorgane der Laubblatter.” By Dr. G. Haberlandt o, 6, Professor der Botanik a, d. Universitat Graz. Pp. viii +143 (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1905.) Price 6s. net. 2 Berichte d. deutsch. bot: Geselischaft, Rd. xxii., 1904 (February), and in an address given in 1904 before the Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aezte, and published by Barth, of Leipzig. NO. 1866, voL. 72] angles to its surface. Then curvature ceases and the leaf remains in a state of equilibrium—satisfied, as it were, with the ‘ light-position.’”’ The question is how the leaf differentiates between oblique and perpendicular illumination. Direct observation sug- gests an answer. If the epidermis of such a leaf as that of Begonia discolor be removed by a surface section, and mounted upside down and _ illuminated from below, then with a low power of the microscope it can plainly be seen that there is a bright spot of light on the basal (inner) walls of the epidermic cells. It can further be seen that the relation of the spot of light to the surrounding zone (which is more or less dark) changes when the specimen is obliquely illuminated. Thus in the case of the obliquely illuminated leaf we should have to imagine that the leaf is stimulated to curvature by the fact that the spots of light are not central in the cells, and that curvature ceases when the brightest illumination is once more central. Thus the plasmic membrane of the basal wall of each epidermic cell is supposed to have a quasi-retinal function by which the leaf is believed to orientate itself in regard to light. There is here, as Haberlandt points out, a certain resem- blance to the mechanism by which plants are by many botanists believed to react to gravitation, namely, by the pressure of solid bodies on different parts of the cell walls, just as the statoliths (otoliths) of certain animals, by pressure on different parts of the mem- brane of the statocyst, enable them to orientate them- selves in space. Haberlandt shows that the epidermic cell is well fitted to concentrate light. It is very commonly lens- like in form, its outer wall being convex, its’ inner wall either plane or curved. Haberlandt shows by geometrical construction that, taking the refractive index of the cell sap as equal to that of water, the focus is usually at a point either within the cell or below it in the other tissues. In either case a central illuminated region and a surrounding dark zone is produced on the basal cell wall. A further development of this type is the papillose epi- dermic cells which give the velvety appearance to certain tropical leaves. This does not differ essentially from the first described type, but it has, according to the author, certain advantages which will be re- ferred to later on. It must not be supposed that all leaves have lens-shaped epidermic cells; some leaves, known as aphotometric, are indifferent to the direc- tion of incident light, and even in photometric leaves Haberlandt shows that discrimination is possible without the epidermis playing the part of a lens. Where the outer wall of the epidermis is flat, it often occurs that the inner wall bulges into the subjacent tissues or projects into them in the form of a trun- cated pyramid. In this case, when the light strikes the leaf at right angles, the central part of the basal wall, being more or less parallel to the surface, is more strongly illuminated than its peripheral parts, which are oblique. Thus without any lens-effect we get stronger illumination in the central region of the basal walls of the epidermis; and this may con- ceivably serve as a means of orientation. The most conclusive proof of the author’s theory is given by the results of placing the experimental plants under water. If he is right in claiming,-a lens- function for the epidermic cells, it is clear that immersion in a fluid which has approximately the same refractive index as the cell sap must. interfere with the plant’s power of light-perception; and this is, in fact, the outcome of his experiments. His first experiments (p.. 89) were made with the hop (Humulus). Here, as in other’ cases, the stimulus of light is perceived by the leaf, and less perfectly by 324 NATURE [AuGUST 3, 1905 the leaf-stalk. Four leaves were immersed, two (D) having their leaf-stalks darkened with tin-foil, while the stalks of the other two (L) were exposed to oblique light. After three or four days the p leaves showed no signs of taking up the light-position, while the two L leaves showed well marked curvature towards that position. The experiment is of importance, since it shows that immersion in water does not prevent heliotropic curvature by interfering with respiration or by depressing the energy of the plant in any other way. The only explanation seems to be that of the author, viz. that in the leaves (p) with darkened stalks the lens-like epidermic cells of the leaf-blade are the only organs of light-perception, and they being thrown out of action by the presence of water, perception (and therefore curvature) is absent. Experiments of the same type were made with a like result on Ostrya vulgaris and Begonia discolor. It is to be regretted that the light-perceiving organs of such leaf stalks as were sensitive to light under water were not investigated. ; A striking result was obtained with Tropzolum (p. 92). The leaves of this plant are unwettable, and when immersed remain coated with a silvery mantle of air. The waxy layer, which gives this quality, may be removed by painting the surface with dilute alcohol without injury to the leaves. The result of immersion is that the normal leaves protected by a layer of air react normally to oblique illumination, whereas the wettable leaves have lost the power of so reacting. This interesting result suggests to the author a new function for the waxy ‘ bloom ’’ of leaves, i.e. that it saves them from being blinded by } a shower of rain. This theory he extends to velvety leaves, the strongly papillated epidermic cells of which stand up like islands when the surface of the leaf is wetted (p. 65). This is a striking fact in relation to the distribution of velvet-leaved plants, which are especially common in damp tropical regions. Another section of Haberlandt’s evidence depends on the existence of highly specialised lenses. One of the most curious is that of Filtonia Verschaffeltii (Acanthacez), shown in Fig. 1. Here we have a Fic. 1.—Ocellus of Fittonia Verschaffeltii. dwarfed, two-celled trichome, of which the apical cell has the form of a biconvex lens. In this case there is a division of labour, the light focused by the lens- cell being perceived by the large basal cell. Direct experiment shows that, as might be expected, paint- ing the leaf with water in no way interferes with the effect, since the lens is raised above the layer of wet. Similar ocelli occur in Impatiens mariannae, and here, as in Fittonia, it is interesting:to note that the ordinary epidermic cells, among which the ocelli occur, are markedly bad lenses. Quite a different type of lens occurs in Campanula NO. 1866, VOL. 72] persicifolia; here (Fig, 2) the formation of a spot of light does not depend on the form of the epidermic cell as a whole, but on the existence of a lens-shaped silicified region in the outer wall of the cell. These structures only occur in perfection in a shade-loving form of the species, where they were noted by Heinricher, who was unable to suggest a function for them. Direct observation proves that they are highly effective lenses. Similar organs are found in Petraea volubilis. We must pass over a number of other interesting specialised organs, but it is of importance to note that whenever ocelli occur they Fic, 2.—Ocellus of Campanula persicifolia. are to be found on the upper, and not on the lower, surfaces of leaves. It is also particularly interesting to find that ocelli tend to occur especially near the edges of leaves, i.e. just in those regions where the amount of movement, corresponding to curvature through a given angle, is greatest. The author has once more earned the gratitude of his fellows by his suggestive discoveries and specu- lations He must be allowed to have made out a strong case for his theory, but he would be among the first to grant that more work is needed before it can be considered as completely established. a RECENT PUBLICATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. Tey ie civilised State has recognised a_ special duty towards its farmers in the way of endeavouring to secure them against the purchase of adulterated manures, fraudulent feeding stuffs, and dead or impure seed, but different countries have taken very various means towards securing the de- sired end. The United Kingdom, probably because its representative farmers are men of substance, rather holds by the old caveat emptor maxim, and is content with providing the farmer with a machinery for getting an analysis below cost price, but a machinery sufficiently cumbrous to ensure that no one sets it in motion. Other nations, less intent, perhaps, upon a plausible case in Parliament, and more concerned in getting the thing itself done, have devised various systems of controlling the trade in such materials, so as to ensure that the smallest farmers shall be sup- plied with seed or manures reaching a certain standard of purity. The laws and methods adopted for securing such a control in the various States Prof. Giglioli passes in review,! giving an account of the testing stations, the regulations, the fees, and even notes on the working details employed in the labor- 1 ‘Concimi, Mangimi, Sementi, &c., Commercie, frodi, e repressione delle frodi, Specialmente in Italia.” By Italo Giglioli. Pp. xvi+759. (Rome: Annali d’Agricoltura, 1905.) AUGUST 3, 1905] NATURE 375) atories. To anyone interested either in the technique or in attempting to -ecure a more thoroughgoing system in this country, Prof. Giglioli’s book will provide a storehouse o: information. We have before had occasion to comment upon the gigantic undertaking of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, which has embarked on the preparation of a map of the soils of the whole country on a scale of cne inch to the mile, accompanied by analyses of each soil type with descriptions of its agricultural features and suitability to particular crops and methods of management. Criticism has not been wanting of the manner in which the work is being executed, but when something like 26,000 square miles are being surveyed and mapped in the course of a year at a cost of about 12s. per square mile little more than a first approximation can be expected. Objection has been taken to the system of adopting a local name, e.g. Norfolk sand, attaching it to a given soil type, and using it all over the con- tinent for soils of that category, whatever their situ- ation or origin. But the argument is after all a formal one, and the value or otherwise of the survey can only be judged by the farmer on the spot, who finds that it does or does not represent his own soil conditions and assist him to utilise them to the best advantage. To the foreign reader these volumes? are chiefly valuable as giving details of the nature of the soil, the climate, and other factors of the notable farming areas in the United States. Here one can compare the conditions under which the very different wheats of the north-west or of the Pacific slope are grown, or make out the climatic and soil requirements of such crops as cotton in Louisiana or tobacco in Connecti- cut. We miss in the present volume the photographs of the country which, to the outsider at least, were one of the most interesting features in the former issues. For many years Mr. T. Jamieson has been carry- ing on a series of agricultural experiments, or rather demonstrations, on a comparatively small scale, but in a very careful and neat fashion. Reports on the work done have been issued from time to time, and now the results, which extend over something like twenty-eight years, have been gathered together in the little volume before us.?, The experiments illus- trate the well known principles of plant nutrition, and the account of them affords a brightly written résumé of the elementary facts connected with manures and their application to various crops. When here and there we read that this or that fundamental fact has been discovered or proved by the Aberdeenshire Re- search Association, much as though Mr. Jamieson should tell us that he has discovered water is com- posed of eight parts of oxygen and one of hydrogen, we can only admire the innocence in which Mr. Jamieson has managed to preserve his mind. Not for him the knowledge of good or evil that comes of reading other men’s work, either past or contem- porary. We miss, indeed, in this volume some of Mr. Jamieson’s engaging speculations, as when, in his 1903 report, he told us that potash ‘‘ appears to be the element chosen in nature to neutralise acidity, and facilitate transmission within the plant, for which purpose it is specially fitted by its alkalinity, solubility and soft or slippery character. Soda, which closely resembles it, but is of a harder drier nature (as seen in the soft Potash Soap as compared with the hard 1 “Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903.” Fifth Report. EP 1310, and a case containing 78 maps. (Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, 1904.) 2 ‘Science and Practice of Agriculture—Farmer’s Handbook.’ By T. Jamieson, Director of the Aberdeenshire Agricultural Research paerion. Pp. 173- (Aberdeen : The Author, ro Belmont Street, 1905.) rice 2s. 6d. NO. 1866, VOL. 72] Soda Soap) is unable to take the place of Potash in plants, as has been found by former experiments.”’ But as a result the book forms a sufficiently sound and quite clearly written introduction to agricultural chemistry, which, like a visit to Mr. Jamieson’s orderly demonstration plots at Glasterberry, may well be useful to set farmers thinking about the way their crops grow. NOTES. Tue address on ‘‘ Imperial Defence ”’ Lord Roberts at a special meeting of the London Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday was a clear statement of the un- satisfactory condition of the armed forces of this country, delivered by in comparison with those of other great military Powers. Lord Roberts that not hope to be successful against an enemy of like equal strength, trained and organised as are the armies of lead- ing nations. It appears, that we un- prepared for war as Sir Norman Lockyer showed we are for the industrial competition of the future, in his presi- dential address to the British Association; and as to the way to remedy our deficiencies Lord Roberts’s address— mutatis mutandis—supports the views expressed on that occasion. Higher education and scientific study must be applied to the arts of war as well as to those of peace if our country is to occupy a position in the first rank of progressive nations. Less attention must be paid to such trivial matters as the shapes of headdresses or the cuts of could anything believes we therefore, are as jackets, and more must be given to education and scientific training from early youth. In the war in the Far East, the Japanese have been successful because of their superior intelligence and scientific spirit. Let our statesmen learn from this that intellectual efficiency is now a truer safe- guard of a nation than physical strength. Tur Government Eclipse Expedition organised by the Solar Physics Observatory will leave for Gibraltar on Friday. The expedition, in charge of Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., will tranship there to H.M.S. Venus, which will proceed to Palma, where, by permission of the Spanish Government, the instruments will be erected. Mr. Howard Payn, one of the volunteer observers, is already there super- intending the location of piers for the instruments. It was originally intended to observe at Philippeville, as Bona is occupied by two American parties, but the French Government would not give the necessary authcrisation. Tue official party of the British Association, consisting of the president-elect and general and sectional officers, as well as other leading science, left Southampton on Saturday last by the mail steamer Saxon to attend the meeting of the association in South Africa. representatives of Dr. A. C. Houston has been appointed director of water examinations under the Metropolitan Water Board. Tue death is announced, at the age of forty-six years, of Mr. H. Lamb, of Maidstone, author of “‘ The Flora of Maidstone.”’ A Reuter telegram from Halifax, Nova Scotia, states that the Arctic exploration steamer, the Roosevelt, sailed from Sydney, Nova Scotia, on July 26. Commander Peary said he hopes to succeed in reaching the Pole, if not early in 1906, then the next year. He proposes to start on his final dash for the Pole from the eighty-fourth parallel. AccorvINnG to the British Medical Journal, a new society has been started in Paris for the scientific study of tuber- 326 NATURE (AuGUST 3, 1905 culosis. The work of the society is to be purely scientific. The membership is restricted to thirty members, who are to be chosen irrespective of school or opinion, and there is to be no president. The members are in turn to preside at the meetings. Ar the opening meeting of the council of the Liverpool Institute of Tropical Research, held on “Monday, Sir Alfred Jones, the chairman, remarked that in many respects countries such as Germany, France, and Belgium are applying scientific methods to their commercial enter- prises, especially to those conducted in the tropics, with greater success than Great Britain; and that it is necessary for the British merchant to bestir himself and take advantage of every assistance that science can offer. He guaranteed the institute roool. a year for four years; and among other guarantees were :—Mr. W. H. Lever, 1000l. a year for four years; Mr. T. Sutton Timmis, 2501. a year. It is proposed to take steps to obtain a charter of in- corporation for the institute. Tue tenth session of the International Statistical Insti- tute was opened on Monday by the Prince of Wales, as honorary president of the institute, and of the Royal Statistical Society. In the course of his address, the Prince said :—‘* My revered grandfather, the late Prince Consort, who did so much for the progress of science, was instrumental in rendering special assistance to the first effort of statistical science to secure for itself an assured and prominent position in the ranks of the older and better recognised sciences. Quetelet, eminent in that science, was at one time the Prince Consort's mathematical teacher, and later on his close personal friend. It was on the occasion of our great exhibition of 1851 that a large and distinguished company of statisticians was assembled in London. It was chiefly at the instigation of Quetelet that the question of instituting periodical international congresses for the discussion of questions of common interest and international concern was proposed. In consequence of this proposal an inter- national organisation formed, and the first inter- national statistical congress was held in Brussels in 1853. Later on, in 1860, London welcomed the international congress, which met under the presidency of the Prince Consort, who, in his opening address, remarked :—‘ The importance of these international cannot be overrated. They not only awaken public attention to the value of these pursuits by bringing together men of all countries who devote their lives to this work, and who are thus enabled to exchange their thoughts and varied experiences. They also pave the way to an agreement among different Governments and nations to follow up these common inquiries in a common spirit, by a common method and for a common end.’ This watchword of the congress of 1860 I would endeavour to commend to the congress of 1905 as worthily embodying its aims and its objects. National and social tendencies are to-day capable of increasingly accurate measurement with the aid of the very numerous statistical tabulations which now exist. In the future all of social science must look for their advancement and increase of precision to the con- tinually improving character of the raw material furnished them by statisticians. For scientific progress, however, a primary essential is active and effective cooperation. among scientific workers in all countries in order that publicity can be given to their results and uniformity obtained in the collection and arrangement of data for the purpose of their common employment.” NO 1866, voL. 72] whose name stands _pre- was congresses branches Tue first number of a periodical for the publication of original investigations in economic biology will appear on September 29. The new magazine will be entitled the Journal of Economic Biology, and will be edited by Mr. W. E. Collinge, with the cooperation of Prof. A. H. R. Buller, Prof. G. H. Carpenter, Mr. R. Newstead, and Mr. A. E. Shipley, F-R.S. Nos. 1 and 2 of vol. xxvi. of Notes from the Leyden Museum are entirely occupied by a memoir by Dr. O. Finsch on the birds collected by Dr. A. W. Nieuwenhuis in Dutch Borneo, more especially in the districts of Mahakam and Kajan. No less than 209 species were re- presented in the collection. The paper is illustrated with a coloured plate of the new _ species Poliolophus nieuwenhuist, well as with a map of the districts traversed by the explorer. as THE most generally interesting item in the June number of the Victorian Naturalist is the description by Mr. J. A. Hill of fights between two species of ants. One of the two is the large soldier-ant (Formica purpurea), a species which forms huge nests, and is capable of overpowering such creatures as small snakes. Nevertheless, this species is vanquished and exterminated by a small black ant scarcely one-third its size, the battles between the two often lasting months, and the victors finally taking possession of the nests of the vanquished. Ar the annual meeting held in May last of the Boston Society of Natural History, the curator of the museum reported (Proceedings, vol. xxxii., No. 5) that the plan for re-arranging the collections referred to at the previous meeting had been in great measure carried out, and that the New England mammals and birds now occupy all the cases on the main floor of the building with the exception of one temporarily devoted to the paleontology of the district. This special attention to the proper display of the local fauna is a feature which should be copied by all provincial museums. Tue July number of the Zoologist contains a full report of a lecture on the migration of birds delivered at the recent International Ornithological Congress by Mr. Otto Herman, director of the Hungarian Central Office of Ornithology. The lecturer directed special attention to work which had been accomplished in Hungary in the matter of recording the dates of arrival and departure of migratory species by means of the services of a very large number of observers scattered all over the country. It has been ascertained, for example, that it takes one hundred and five days for swallows to complete their migration throughout Europe, that is to say, from Gibraltar in the south to Lulea in the north, the young being fully fledged in the former locality by the time the old birds ‘have reached the latter. Even in Hungary itself the period of arrival may last as long as seventy days, the time that the species spends in that country averaging one hundred and sixty-seven days. In- recording a collection of fishes obtained by Dr. B. Dean from Negros Island, Philippines, Messrs. Jordan and Seale (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 1407) take occasion to mention that a large percentage of the small. species, so often neglected by collectors, appear to be new. Taken generally, the Philippine fish fauna seems to be Very similar,to that of the Indo-Malayan archipelago, although a few species are identical with Indian forms. In the course of their list the authors give an example of one of those transpositions of generic names which are so hostile to the real progress of zoology. In this particular Peete tana © AUGUST 3, 1905] dnstance the name Amia, ‘so universally in use for the American bow-fin, is employed to designate the perch-like fishes commonly known as Apogon. WE have recently received five parts of the Proceed- ings of the U.S. National Museum. In the first of these (No. 1408) Mr. T. Gill contributes the results of investi- gations into the life-history of the sea-horses (Hippo- campus), a subject which has hitherto received but little attention. One of the illustrations shows a male dis- charging the young from its brood-pouch. In the second (No. 1409) Mr. B. A. Bean describes and figures an adult specimen of the’ extraordinary Japanese © goblin-shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). The third (No. 1411) contains. a list, by Mr. H. C. Oberholser, of birds collected by the well known traveller Dr. W. L. Abbott in the Kilimanjaro district, several of which are described A de- scriptive list of a collection of caterpillars and chrysalises of Japanese Lepidoptera, by Mr. H. G. Dyar, constitutes the fourth fasciculus (No. 1412); while in the fifth (No. 1413) Mr. W. H. Asmead records Hymenoptera new to the Philippine fauna, with descriptions of new species. as new. Pror. A. Grarp, of the Sorbonne, has favoured us with separate copies of three articles by himself from vol. xxxix. of the Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique. In the first of these, entitled ‘‘ Poecilogonie,’’ the author discusses whether in the case of organisms of which the adults are more or less similar to one another, while their embryogeny is different, more importance should be attached to the evolutionary dissimilarities or to the similarity of the adults. The title for the phenomenon is The second paper will delight the hearts of lovers ef the oyster, the author remarking at the conclusion of this communication, which is entitled ‘‘ (a Prétendue Nocivité des Huitres,’’ that he ‘‘ could. wish there existed in the world ro other cases of. typhoid save those induced by eating tainted oysters.’’ In the third communication Prof. Giard discusses the drift (tendance) of modern morphology and its relations to other sciences. new. ” A paPeR on the development of the ascus and on spore formation in the Ascomycetes, by Mr. J. H. Faull, pub- lished as vol. xxxii., No. 4, of the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, gives a detailed de- scription of the nuclear changes for Neotiella albocincta, Sordaria fimicola, and a species of Hydnobolites. The origin of the asci was in most cases traced to the pen- ultimate or terminal cells of ascogenous hyphae, and it was found that the uninucleate stage of the young ascus was always preceded by a fusion of two nuclei. From his observations of the method by which the spores are de- limited, the author favours the view that the ascus is homologous with a zoosporangium, and would derive the Ascomycetes from such a group as the Peronosporez or Saprolegniez. In a paper forming No. 1405 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, Mr. R. MacFarlane, the chief- factor of the Hudson Bay Company, contributes a series of highly interesting notes on mammals collected and observed in the northern Mackenzie River district, North- Western Territories of Canada. For two-and-forty years (1852-1894) Mr. MacFarlane was stationed as a post and district manager in these territories, and therefore had unrivalled opportunities for observing the fauna in its days of abundance. Unfortunately, as he himself con- fesses, except. when stationed at Fort Anderson the author did not take full advantage of these opportunities either in the matter of collecting or observing; nevertheless, such wo. 1866, VoL. 72] NATORE 327 observations as have been recorded are of the highest interest and value, and one cannot help regretting that they were not published in a British or colonial serial, and also that the author’s services were not long ago enlisted on behalf of the British Museum. The paper was, indeed, it appears, prepared to a great extent for publication at Cumberland House, the headquarters of Cumberland District, in the winter of 1890-1, but for various reasons it was not completed, and several sheets of the MS., together with various memoranda, were subsequently lost. The paper is a perfect mine of information with regard to the fur exports of the Hudson Bay Company in the old days. Two memoirs have lately been published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington which contain results of interest in reference to problems of heredity. The first of these, by W. E. Castle, the phenomena of coat characters in guinea-pigs and rabbits. Three alternative pairs of coat characters in guinea-pigs are shown to con- form generally to Mendel’s law. These are :—albinism v. pigmentation, smooth v. rough coat, and long v. short coat, the first named in each pair of characters being recessive with respect to the The author dis- tinguishes between characters which are recessive and those which latent; by the latter he means certain “dominant ’’ features which depart from Mendel’s law in being capable of renewed activity under certain con- ditions even in ” gametes. The facts given in the paper supply abundant illustrations of the variety of conditions under which blended inheritance, as in Mendel’s Hieracium experiments, may occur in place of the strict Mendelian segregation. In, the second paper, which is by D. T. Macdougal, assisted by A. M. Vail, G. H. Shull, and J. K. Small, a full. account is given of the various forms of Q¬hera which have constituted the chief material for De Vries’s ‘‘ mutation’’ theory, and of the relation between them. It is shown that O. lamarckiana is in all probability a true and independent species native to America; and the authors record the re-discovery of the habitat of O. grandiflora, the place of habitat of which in the American flora had become doubtful. Both memoirs are well illustrated by woodcuts and half-tone plates. discusses second. are “* recessive Dr. H. Micriorato announces in vol. ii., part ii., of Annali di Botanica that he is preparing an analytical dictionary of vegetable teratology as a subsidiary worls to Penzig’s ‘‘ Pflanzen Teratologie,’’ and requests that workers in this subject will cooperate by sending copies of their papers to him at &9b rue Panisperna, Rome. Pror. F. W. Ottver, in an article in the Biologisches Centralblatt (Jure 12) on the newly discovered seeds of the Carboniferous ferns, summarises the results of recent investigations in fcssil botany which have led to the form- ation of. a separat« group, the Pteridospermez, including the Lyginodendrew and Medullose. The paper is illus- trated with figures cf sections and a model of the seed in its cupule of Legenostoma Lomaxi. WE have received from Brazil the first number of the Revista da Sociedade Scientifica de Sao Paulo. It contains the first instalment of a report, written in French, of a voyage made in 1825 by Hercules Florence from the Tiete to the Amazon by the Brazilian provinces of St. Paul, Matto Grosso, and Gran Para. There is also a valuable memoir on the Brazilian Tabanidz, written in German, by Dr. A. Lutz, director of the bacteriological institute of the Statecof Sao Paulo. Lastly there is a paper, written in Portuguese, by Erasmo Braga, on the gold mines of Ophir- 328 NAT ORE [AuGusT 3, 1905 Tue seeding of pastures is a matter of primary import- ance to owners of grazing land, and it is certain that many farmers will obtain useful information from the experi- ments conducted under the direction of Mr. A. N. M’Alpine, which are described in Bulletin No. 31 of the West of Scotland Agricultural College. Fourteen different mixtures were tried, three containing rye-grass in excess, three without rye-grass, and four were special mixtures ; of the latter Timothy and cock’s-foot mixtures in suitable quantity were especially efficacious in checking Yorkshire fog and bent grass. With respect to rye-grass, it was demonstrated that both the perennial and the Italian varieties should be sparingly sown. Tue cultivation of oranges in Dominica is discussed by Mr. H. Hesketh Bell in No. 37 of the pamphlet series issued by the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies. Mr. Hesketh Bell has been growing oranges for some years on two experimental stations, and has shipped sample boxes at different times to England which have realised remunerative Covent Garden. Experience has proved that budded oranges are much superior to seedlings, and the varieties ‘‘ Parson Brown”? and “ Jaffa ’’ are recommended as being hardy and prolific, while the ‘* Washington Navel’’ also appears to thrive well. Emphasis is laid on the necessity for exercising the greatest care in handling and packing the fruit, so that Dominica brands may secure a good name on the market. prices at THE banana industry was unknown to Costa Rica twenty-five years ago, says a writer in the Journal of the Society ‘of Arts (July 28), but it has reached such propor- tions, especially within the last few years, that bananas now form the main export of the country. At the close of 1904, about 50,000 acres were devoted to banana grow- ing in Costa Rica. The trade was exclusively confined to the United States until 1902, when the fruit was exported to England, with gratifying results. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and other European countries do not as yet consume the banana, but as soon as a substantial increase in the acreage is reached, and with the present facilities for transportation and the use of ships equipped with cold storage, the market will be extended probably to those countries. The amount exported from Port Limon during the five years ended with June 30, 1904, was as follows, ‘a bunches :—1g900, 2,804,103: 1901, 3,192,104; 1902, 4,427,024; 1903, 5,261,600; and 1904, 5,760,000. The following figures show the probable cost and profit on a tract of 100 acres planted in bananas. Original outlay :— land (4l. per acre), 4ool.; reducing land and bringing it to a banana-bearing condition (rol. per acre), 1oool. ; total, 1400l. Gross returns, 180 stems per acre per annum, 11161. Expenses :—cutting and hauling the fruit, and keeping the plantation clean, 288/., manager (20/. per month), 24ol. ; total, 5287. Net return on investment, 588/. Under favourable conditions, a banana plant may give a stem of fruit in nine months, but it generally takes from fifteen to eighteen months for the average plantation to be in full bearing. The life of a plantation varies according to the fertility of its soil and topographical situation. Some soils may need a rest in six or seven years, while others may last practically for ever, as in cases where periodically enriched by alluvial deposits. It is understood that fine flour can be made from bananas, and that fibres from the leaves and stalks could be extracted and success- fully worked, but as yet nothing in this direction has been done in Costa Rica. NO 1865, VOL. 72] Tue Engineering and Mining Journal directs attention to the increasing tendency to use copper as the collecting agent instead of lead in smelting gold and silver ores. Smelting on the copper basis is decidedly cheaper than on the lead basis. We have received part i. of the annual report of the director of the Philippine Weather Bureau for the year 1903, containing hourly observations of atmospheric pheno- mena at the Manila Central Observatory. The assistant director contributes a useful climatological summary for the year, together with monthly and daily amounts of excessive rainfall that have occurred since 1865. Photo- graphic illustrations are given of the havoc wrought by one of the two destructive cyclones which traversed the archipelago. Unfortunately, there was no good anemo- meter at any of the towns that suffered most severely. Manila itself escaped these violent storms. Tue Hamburg Meteorological Institute has issued vol. xiii. of ‘* Deutsche iiberseeische meteorologische Beobacht- ungen,’’ 1905. As may be inferred from the title, the work contains observations made at places abroad, under German control. In the present case it refers entirely to some twenty-two stations in German East Africa, and the tables have been prepared and printed with the liberal assistance of the Colonial Department of the German Foreign Office. It contains more than 300 pages of valuable observations, and is a very important contribu- tion to the climatology of Africa, with explanatory details relating to each of the stations. For some of them hourly observations are given from self-recording instruments ; at others eye observations have been made several times daily. A paPER entitled ‘‘ Records of Differences of Temperature between McGill College Observatory and the Top of Mount Royal, Montreal,’’ by Prof. C. McLeod, was read at the meeting of the Royal Society on June 8. The chief object of the paper was to show the advantage of Prof. Callendar’s electrical recorders, in connection with the use of platinum thermometers, in obtaining trustworthy in- dications of the variations of temperature at a distance in a situation inaccessible for the greater part of the winter. The horizontal distance between the stations was 3300 feet, and the difference of altitude 620 feet. The first year’s working (July, 1903, to May, 1904) showed that range of variation was considerable, and often changed very rapidly ; on some occasions the temperature at the higher station was 6° F. or 7° F. above the lower, on others it was 25° below. A comparison of the records showed that any marked change of temperature at the lower station was almost invariably preceded by a similar change at the higher station at an interval of twelve to twenty-four hours. It is claimed, we think with fairness, that this system of recording meteorological data appears to overcome the difficulty and expense of maintaining a staff of observers at an inaccessible station. At the last annual meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, the president, Captain D. Wilson Barker, gave an interesting address, illustrated by a number of lantern slides, on the connection of meteorology with other sciences. He pointed out several of the most evident influences of meteorology to the geological observer, such as rain, ice, snow, &c., and the rock-splitting action of great changes of temperature. As regards zoology, the influence of meteorology on animal life is all-peryading. Among the most common results are mentioned the winter sleep of various animals, and the summer sleep of some fishes and AvucusT 3, 1905] NATURE $29 reptiles. Dr. Dickson, Dr. Mill and others are studying the effects of changes of climate on sea organisms generally. Agriculturists are more dependent on the weather than any other class of persons. Were it possible to issue fore- casts for a longer period in advance, farmers would be much benefited. Captain Barker considers that the effect of weather upon health has not received a fair amount of scientific notice. While medical officers write voluminous reports on the public health, many of them ignore the meteorological conditions of the districts under review. We think we are justified in claiming exception for the reports of the various registrars-general, which contain carefully prepared meteorological statistics. In the Rendiconti of the Lombardy Academy, xxxviii., 2, Prof. Ernesto Pascal gives a classification of various forms of twisted sextic formed by the intersection of a quadric and a cubic, with special reference to the number of their real tritangent planes. We have received the third edition of Dr. Richard | Dedekind’s pamphlet on “ Stetigkeit und _ irrationale Zahlen,’’ which may now fairly claim a place among the mathematical classics. It originated about the year 1858, when the author was charged with a course of lectures on the calculus, and found no satisfactory treatment of the continuity hypothesis in existence. On November 24, 1858, Dedekind discovered a definition of continuity which he imparted to Durége a few days later, and the present pamphlet was written in 1872 in commemoration of his father’s jubilee. In the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society for June, Dr. Edward Kasner directs attention to a significant dialogue in Galileo’s ‘‘ Discorsi e dimostrazioni mathemetiche’’ of 1638, in which modern concepts of infinity as laid down by Bolzano, Cantor, and Dedekind appear to have been foreseen by that philosopher. In this dialogue Salviati points out to Simplicio that since every number has a square there must be as many squares as there are numbers, but, on the other hand, since there are many numbers which are not squares there must be more numbers than squares. In answer to Simplicio’s question ‘‘ What is to be our conclusion? ’’ Salviati gives the following remarkable reply :—‘‘ I see no escape except to say: the totality of numbers is infinite, the totality of squares is infinite, the totality of roots is infinite; the multitude of squares is not less than the multitude of numbers, neither is the one greater than the other; and, finally, the attributes of equal, greater and less are not applicable to infinite but solely to finite quantities.”’ Mr. J. J. Hicks, of Hatton Garden, has submitted a two-foot rule designed by Mr. Scott which is worthy of notice. When opened out like an ordinary carpenter’s rule one face shows inches and sixteenths along one edge and millimetres along the other, while between them the divisions are repeated in juxtaposition for the purpose of more accurate comparison. It is the other face of the rule, however, where the greater novelty is ‘to be found. Here there are four double comparison scales of English and French measures of length, weight, capacity, and fluid measure. Taking the first as an example of the system, a length of about 10 inches shows comparison quantities from 1 inch to 60 miles juxtaposed, but the divisions are not equispaced, as in that case nothing much less than a mile would be visible. They are therefore spaced logarithmically, so that the first inch covers a space of nearly half an inch. This is divided into eighths, and each NO. 1866, VOL. 72] the | | of which is of these by estimation could be read to tenths. The next two inches occupy the same space, and so, of course, do the next four, and so on. In a distance of 13 inch or 38 millimetres, a reading is increased ten-fold. Of course such comparison scales have the advantage of the ordinary slide rule that at all parts of the scale readings are made with the same proportional accuracy. For instance, on the scale now referred to 1 inch is opposite 25 and a small half-millimetre, 113 yards is opposite 103 mettes, 5 miles is half the thickness of the line beyond 8 kilometres, and similarly 50 beyond 80. In short, the accuracy with which any of these comparison scales may be read is the same as that which would apply to a slide rule in which the A line from 1... 100 was 3 inches long. For quick and fairly accurate comparison of lengths, weights, cubic and fluid measures, this face of the rule is most convenient. WE have (not performances) of artificial flight the general character sufficiently shown by the following brief summaries :—Arnold Samuelson, in a lecture published at Hamburg (London: E. and F. N. Spon), asserts that all flying animals (insects and birds) have flat, not curved, wing surfaces, that the normal air-pressure on a_ thin supporting plane is independent of the angle of incidence at which the plane moves forward, that the pressure on a rectangular plane decreases uniformly from front to back, giving a centre of pressure at one-third the distance from the front to the back surface, and other conclusions equally at variance with many generally accepted theories. Dr. Federico Sacco, in a paper entitled ‘‘ L’Aerovoie ’’ (Turin: P. Gerboni), proposes a captive balloon attached to a small trolley running along a kind of elevated cable rail- way as a cheap and rapid means of locomotion which would be unaffected by such trifling terrestrial obstacles as rivers, mountains and windy weather a voyage on such an apparatus would doubtless be highly thrilling. For the argument of cheapness Dr. Sacco is responsible. M. René de Saussure, writing in the Revue scientifique for May 27, describes the ‘“‘ hélicoptere aéroplane’’ of MM. H. and A. Dufaux, which, roughly speaking, consists of a pair of double-surface gliders placed fore and aft, with two screw propellers arranged side by side between them rather nearer to the front than to the back gliders. Of this apparatus only small models have been tried, and a large sized machine 8 metres long and 3 metres broad which has been constructed has not yet been experimented on; the authors, however, give full details as to how to start the machine and to land ‘safely. The latter operation, as shown in the diagram accompany- ing the article, bears a rather ominous resemblance to the motion of a dynamically unstable glider previous to cap- sising. We cannot close the list without referring to a paper by Mr. F. W. H. Hutchinson, read at Cambridge and published in Knowledge and Scientific News for June, describing experiments on models with bird-like wings, which have already yielded some interesting results in the study of natural flight. The wings in this case were not assumed to be flat, but of the curved form, which the author describes as the ‘*‘ Hargreave curve.’’ received several papers dealing with projects lakes; in Messrs. WitTHERBY AND Co. have issued the prospectus of a book on ‘‘ The Birds of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ’’ which they have in preparation. The work is by the Rev. J. E. Kelsall and P. W. Munn, and is claimed to be the first complete history of the birds of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight published. The work will contain a large-scale coloured map, and be illustrated by reproduc- tions of drawings and photographs. ‘OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. OBSERVATIONS OF JuPITER’S GREAT ReED_ Spot.—In No. 4034 of the Astronomische: Nachrichten Mr. Stanley Williams gives the results of the observations of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter made by him during the period June 20, 1904—January 21, 1905. During this. opposition the phenomena proved of ex- ceptional interest on account of the vagaries in the relative motions of the Red Spot and its immediately surrounding features. : When the first observation was made, on June 20, it was seen that the immense mass of dark material, known as the. south tropical disturbance, had, after making. a complete circuit of the planet, again overtaken and enveloped the Red Spot. On July 26 nearly all this dark material had drifted past the Red Spot, which in August Was quite separate, but very faint. Mr. Williams’s observations also afforded further evidence of the variable rate of motion of the Great Red Spot. SuN-SPOT SpectrRA.—During the year ended March, 1905, Mr. W. M. Mitchell, of the Princeton Observatory (N-J.), made an exhaustive series of observations of that part of the sun-spot spectrum which is included between F and a. These observations took note of the two separate features of the spot spectrum :—(1) the nearly continuous absorp- tion known as the spot-band, and (2) the affected Fraun- hofer lines. A rapid-survey of the whole region was first made on each observing day, and was followed by an exhaustive examination of some smaller portion. In regard to the first of the above features, Mr. Mitchell arrived at the conclusion that the band-lines are lines which do not appear in the Fraunhoferic spectrum at all, and he submits facts in favour of this view. In observing the affected Fraunhoferic lines, the observer recorded nine different phenomena (e.g. widening, reversal, obliteration, &c.), and in his table of the 680 lines which he observed in the spot spectrum, he classifies each line according to the manner in which it was affected. The intensities of the widened lines, their intensities- in the normal solar spectrum, the number-of times each line was observed, and various other details concerning the affected lines are also recorded in the table. Each element involved is then considered separately, and a number of valuable conclusions are deduced. Whilst vanadium and titanium are the most important elements concerned in sun-spots, as previously shown by Young, Cortie, and Lockyer, Mr. Mitchell finds that manganese plays an important réle, 45 per cent. of its lines being affected. A. striking comparison is drawn between the behaviour of certain manganese lines in the successive observations of the great sun-spot of February last. On February 3 and 4 they were noted as being strongly re- versed, whereas on March 3 they were no longer reversed but were excessively widened and very hazy. ; The following general conclusions were arrived Mr. Mitchell, and agree, in general, with those recently published by Prof. Fowler in the Monthly Notices :— (1) Lines frequently seen in the chromosphere are, with two exceptions, but little affected in spots; (2) high-level chromospheric lines are not affected in spots; (3) lines greatly affected in spots are seen but rarely in the chromo- sphere. ; From his observations and conclusions Mr. Mitchell deduces that sun-spots are, at least, below the chromo- sphere, and are probably caused by the heated vapours from the lower levels oozing through and vaporising the ous on the photosphere (Astrophysical Journal, No. 1 vol. xxii.). at by An INTERESTING ASTEROID, OccLo [475 .—Owing to its large southerly declination, —62°, at the time of its dis- covery, the minor planet Occlo was looked upon as of special interest, and when the orbit was computed and found to have a greater eccentricity than that of any other known asteroid the interest in this object was in- creased. This great eccentricity suggested that Occlo might be looked. upon as the connecting link between the asteroids and the periodic comets. In order that the object should not be lost sight of, Prof. Kreutz had an ephemeris for 1905 computed, and this was communicated to Mr. NO. 1866, VoL. 72] NATURE (AUGUST 3, 1905 R. H. Frost at Arequipa, who successfully photographed, the planet’s trail, .with the 24-inch Bruce telescope, in April, 1904....The plates have now been measured by Mrs, Fleming, and the positions of both ends of the trail on April 4 and on April 7 determined. The results are given in Circular No. 1or of the Harvard College Observatory. OBSERVATIONS OF PHa@se.—Saturn’s ninth _ satellite, Phoebe, was photographed by Mr. R. H. Frost at Arequipa on four nights during May, and the following positions have been obtained from measurements of the plates :— Difference Position Date G.M.T Exp. — Dist. in decl. angle 1905 h. m m. 2 y SSN May 9 2s 112 10°6 +58 568. EO 20 40 120 ILO +674 54°74... ac UP oan He) 71) 120 11'6 +6°3 571 sjuclQy wes 2048 145 12'0 +6°6 56°6 The above quantities all refer to the position of the satellite in regard to Saturn’s centre. A comparison of these positions with those computed from Dr. Ross’s ephemeris shows that on the mean date, May 11, the com- puted distances should be diminished by 0/-3, and the position-angles should be increased by o°-9 (Harvard College Observatory Circular, No. 102). ; PERIODS OF THE VARIABLE STARS S SAGITTZE AND Y Opniucni.—From a discussion of the observations made by himself, combined with those of other observers, M. M. Luizet has deduced the following elements for the light- curve of the variable star S Sagittae (Ch. 7149) :— Maximum 2409863°33 (M.T. Paris) ) ! Fle(GderasCTA Minimum 24049860'37 a5 J + 838209. (E. — 389) The light-curve of this star presents a double oscillation, and, according to M. Luizet’s scale, the magnitude varies between 5-4 and 6-2. (an Ga es sae For Y Ophiuchi (Ch. 6404), that M. Hisgen’s elements, Maximum 2408694 °25 (G.M.T.) Minimum 2408688 °03 the same observer finds | + 1712074. E., as published in No. 3424 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, agree very well with his own recent observations. From a comparison of these observations with those made by Mr. Sawyer, it appears that during the last fifteen years the magnitude of Y Ophiuchi has slightly increased, but this apparent increase may be due to the difference of observer and of observing conditions (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4030). ” THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. THE seventy-third annual meeting of the British Medical Association was held at Leicester last week under the presidency of Mr. Cooper Franklin, surgeon to the Leicester Infirmary. The proceedings were conducted in twelve sections, and were well attended, nearly 1000 members registering their names. Mr. Cooper Franklin chose for his presidential address the subject of medical education, past, present, and future. He dealt with the various Acts of Parliament regulating medical education and practice, the condition of medical education in London forty years ago, and insisted on the necessity of a good general education if the medical student were to become a good practitioner, and advocated a study of Latin and Greek. He said:—‘‘I think the advantages of a good classical education early, to a man entering our, profession, cannot be over-rated. Nothing will, or can, make up for it; there would not be so many candidates deficient in ordinary spelling and composition if there had been a good classical education. To my mind there is nothing really superior to the old-fashioned Latin and Greek training, but it seems hopeless to insist nowa- days upon the retention of Greek. I think it is twenty- five or thirty years ago since, in the matriculation examin- ation of the! University of London, students were allowed to take up German instead of Greek. I venture to think that, so far as medical students are concerned, that was a retrograde step.. I do not envy the student sitting down’ to learn his anatomy who has not learnt even a little Latin MEDICAL d AucustT 3, 1905] NATURE 331 and Greek; his Gray’s ‘ Anatomy,’ perchance, in front of him, his. Latin dictionary on one side, and his Greek lexicon on the other. The student, too, must, not begin to {specialise too soon; he wants a liberal education, an éducation for its own sake. This goes when the technical education begins—that is, when he leaves school or college to learn to be a ‘ doctor.’ ” Dr. Henry Maudsley delivered an address on medicine, present) and prospective, in which he discussed preventive ‘medicine, heredity in disease, &c. He sounded a note of warning with regard to our present sanatorium treatment of, tuberculosis which may be quoted :—‘‘ But is phthisis so very curable in these special hospitals, nowise .endued with any special grace, I imagine, by reason of their being called sanatoriums? Adequate statistics are not yet ayail- able, but thus far the modest outcome of experience seems to be that many patients who are sent in the early stage of the disease, recover, if they are kept long enough; that most: of those in a more advanced stage improve while there, frequently relapsing afterwards; and that those who are badly diseased ought not to be sent at all. Is that, after all, to say much more than might be said of sensible treatment before the erection of sanatoriums? “Can we, again, eliminate the predisposing influence of heredity ? Actual tubercle may not be inherited, but the poor constitutional Hail inviting and suiting the bacillus still passes from parent to child ; of the essential fact by changing the name. Do we, indeed, in the end get such a valuable addition to the life- capital of the nation? It is easy enough, noting that some 60,000 consumptives die, annually in England and Wales— I do not vouch for the figures—fancifully to rate the value of each life at an arbitrary figure and then by multiplica- tion to make an appalling computation of the loss to the community ; but is the-loss so real? Might not the ulti- mate cost to the commonwealth be greater were these persons to go on living and breeding in it? An addition to, the nation’s life-capital is all very well, but the quality of’ the capital counts for a good deal, and it will not count for. much if it.is' not realisable. What does the realisation amount to in practice? The patient who comes out of the sanatorium recovered or improved must usually go back to his former work and surroundings; he cannot adapt the world to the weakness of his nature and its ideal needs, but, like other mortals, must adapt himself to the rude world and perforce do much as they do. That is what he quite naturally does; returns to his work and his old ways, perhaps gets married if he is not married, and begets children who can hardly have the confidence of a good descent. Meanwhile, when he relapses, he sows bacilli broadcast, thus multiplying such life-capital to fulfil its ordained function’ in the universe, that apparently being to. make away with weak mortality.’ The address in surgery by Mr. C. J. Bond, surgeon | to the Leicester Infirmary, dealt. with ascending currents in. mucous canals’ and ‘gland ducts. The number of experiments proved that by some means or other, and under certain conditions, particles of an in- soluble substance, such as indigo, inserted into’ the orifices of a mucous canal or duct are conveyed along the mucous channel in ‘a reverse direction to that taken by the con- tents of the tube, or by the Secretion or excretion of the glands along such ducts.. The cénditions which seem to favour this passage are—some_ interference with the normal’ flow of the contents .of the thucous tube or duct; some arrest or diversion of secretion, such as is produced by a fistulousS opening, though it is by no means necessary that this should be complete: In the section of medicine an interesting discussion on the treatment of sleeplessness was opened by Sir Lauder Bruntoh. Many ‘of the speakers dwelt’on the ‘importance Of ‘indigestion and of “high’ arterial tension in inducing sleeplessness, and Dr. Collier (Oxford) considered that much of ‘the’ present day insomnia’ might be referred to over-education, ‘especially in preparing fort scholarships, the successful competitors’ often’ Suffering’ after the age of nine- téen years’from neryous failure and insomnia. He thought that the occasional employment’ of narcotics was of value in, breaking a vicious circle before the habit of sleeplessness was ‘established.’ nt 02 ‘In the section “of State medicine an important discussion NO. 1866, VOL. 72] and we do not get rid | ‘results ofa | on hospital isolation was introduced by Dr. George Wilson (Warwick), who stated that the deductions he would: bring forward were the outcome of thirty-two years’ experience. With, regard. to . small-pox isolation, .he contended ‘for a special block .at the general infectious hospital, and, in his opinion, there was very little risk of the spread of infec- tion. With regard to scarlet fever, he stated that hospital isolation had failed in reducing, the incidence and mortality of the disease. He was also sure that it did not cause the presence of the milder form of the infection, and was strongly in favour of separate isolation rather than aggre- gation in large wards. Several speakers considered that hospital isolation for scarlet fever was a failure, and a resolution was adopted requesting an inquiry by the Local Government Board into the subject. In the section of industrial hygiene the subject of physical deterioration naturally. attracted a good deal of attention, and an: important discussion was matearitced by Dr.. Dawson Williams (London), who, by means of several tables illustrating a series of observations on the height and weight of boys in primary schools, showed that after the eighth year of age the weight of boys of the artisan classes was very much below “the average, this fact being more. noticeable in the lowest grade schools. The same remarks applied to the height of boys, though in a less degree. The first striking statement about physical degeneration was made some years ago by Mr. J. Cantlie, who challenged any person to produce a Londoner of the fourth. generation. This challenge had. never been answered. Dr. Dawson Williams attributed this physical deterioration to various causes, among which he mentioned —improper feeding in infancy; the fact that among the poorer classes mothers worked hard almost up to the time of their confinement; intemperance in fathers, which was said by French authorities to be more injurious to the children than maternal intemperance; and the practice of large numbers of children in London sitting out of doors until midnight, which involved a great expenditure of nervous energy. Mr. William Hall (Leeds), in a paper on the influence of environment on physical development, said that fifty years ago the slum mother was much more sober, cleanly, and domestic than she was to-day. She was_ better nourished herself, always suckled her children, and after weaning them gave them nutritious bone-making food, which she prepared at home. This had all been done away with by our elaborate education system, costing 20,000,000l. yearly. Children were now fed on cheap stale food, well seasoned with~ condiments, which educated them for the love of stimulants in later life and produced also.a tendency to scurvy, rickets,,and purpura. A little while ago he had examined more than 100 adult skeletons. in the crypt of Hythe Church, where they-had lain for several centuries. He was, struck. by the fact that the bones were small but noet-rickety,.the bony palates not much vaulted and the alveolar arches regular, and the teeth that remained were good. It had been said truly that there were hundreds and thousands of our countrymen now living whose skeletons, if preserved, would some day show highly vaulted bony palates, contracted alveolar arches, anterior protrusion of the upper jaws, the remains of unsound teeth, and abundant general signs of rickety bony frame- work, It was remarkable that Jewish children in the slums were superior to Christian children in physical development, which was due to the fact that the pregnant Jewess was better cared for, that 90 per cent. of the infants were fed on breast-milk, and that during. later childhood. they. were abundantly fed on bone-making material. Eggs and oil, fish, fresh vegetables, and fruit entered largely into their diet. Yet the Jews had not been taught to safeguard their pregnant wives and to ‘nourish their growing “children by the instructors in the modern and costly. State education which they were told at Oxford was to be at the root of everything. Prof. R. J. Anderson (Queen’s-. College, Galway)’ re- marked that he.thought it would be a most important thing to secure. a complete anthropometric survey. of the whole. of. the, British. Isles. He. doubted if improper food was the chief cause of physical, deterioration, because, in his opinion, food had of late years greatly improved ‘in quality. 332 Mr. W. D. Spanton (Leeds) considered that the most prominent causes of physical degeneration were—efforts to rear premature and diseased infants, absurd educational high pressure, cigarette smoking in the younger gener- ation, and late hours at night; in fact, the love of pleasure, and ergophobia in all classes of societv. He considered that there was too much cheap philanthropy, that life was made too easy for the young poor, and that by modern educational methods proper parental discipline was rendered almost impossible. Mrs. F. M. Dickinson Berry (London) said that in her opinion children in London schools were not underfed so much as improperly fed, and that they preferred to eat bread and pickles, dried fish, &c., and had to be forced to eat a proper dinner. She quite endorsed Mr. Hall’s remarks about Jewish children. In the section of pathology, a discussion on the relation- ship of heredity to disease was opened by the president, Dr. Mott (London), in an interesting and suggestive paper. He exhibited charts of hereditary haemophilia and ataxy with statistics of longevity, presenility, psychoses, and neuroses bearing on these and other diseases. Mr. Charles Bond contributed a paper on sex-corre- lation and disease, with special reference to deaf-mutism. While deaf-mutism occurs almost equally in males and females, in any given family the incidence is almost limited to the members of one sex, and when members of both sexes in one family suffered the births were either twin or contiguous. Mr. C. Hurst described experiments on the correlation of sex. When black and yellow cats were crossed, all male kittens were yellow, all female kittens tortoiseshell, but in the second generation the colours were uniformly distributed between the two sexes. In the section of tropical diseases, an important paper on human tick fever in the Congo Free State by Dr. Todd and the late Mr. Everett Dutton was read. The con- clusions arrived at were :—(1) that tick fever is clinically identical with relapsing fever, and has for a pathogenic agent a spirillum; (2) the spirillum is probably the Spiro- chaete Obermeieri; (3) a tick, the Ornithodorus monbata, can transmit the spirillum from animal to animal; (4) the transmission is probably not simply mechanical, but a developmental cycle is passed in the body of the tick. In the naval and military section, Fleet-Surgeon Bead- nell read an interesting paper on some dynamical and hydrodynamical effects of the modern small-bore bullet, in which he claimed that the so-called ‘‘ explosive ’’ effects of the modern bullet were due to sudden enlargement of the ‘‘ impact area’’ resulting from a modification either in the form or in the motion of the projectile. Many of the ‘‘ explosive *’ phenomena were due to eccentricities of flight such as the various ‘‘spinning-top”’ and “ Dirouetting ** motions of the bullet. An invitation to hold the annual meeting of the British Medical Association next year in Toronto was cordially accepted. SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL CHANGES. N a recent article we referred to the formation of an International Commission to deal with the important question of the possible action of solar changes on the earth’s atmosphere. We stated that a meeting is to be held at Innsbruck in September. We are now enabled to give some details of the meeting at Cambridge last year. The members assembled in the Old Library of Pem- broke College on Thursday, August 18, and letters were read from the following :—Prof. H. H. Hildebrandsson, Prof. H. Mohn, General M. Rykatcheff, Prof. G. Hell- mann, Dr. A. Paulsen, Hofrath J. M. Pernter, Prof. S. P. Langley, M. A. Angot, Prof. J. Violle, Prof. J. Hann, Mr. A. S. Steen, Prof. W. Képpen, Prof. A. Riccd, Prof. G. E. Hale, Prof. F. H. Bigelow, Mr. W. G. Davis, Prof. K. Angstrém, Mr. A. R. Hinks. The members present proceeded to the election of a president and secretary, and it was unanimously resolved that Sir Norman Lockyer, director of the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, be elected president, and NO. 1866, voL. 72] NATURE [AUGUST 3, 1905 Sir John Eliot, of Bon Porto, Cavalaire, formerly meteor- ological reporter to the Government of India, secretary. It was resolved to add the names of MM. Max Wolf, Scheiner, Julius, and Wolfer to the commission if they should be willing to serve. At the next meeting the name of Sir Arthur Ricker was added to the commission. . The following question was considered :— ““(1) The selection of (a) meteorological, and (b) mag- netic elements, which should be collated for the purpose of comparison with solar observations, and the form in which the observations might be presented with the greatest advantage for the purposes of comparison. The prepar- ation of a list of meteorological and magnetic observatories which should be asked to contribute observations for the purpose. ”” It was resolved (1) That, in the first instance, for the purpose of com- parison with solar phenomena, the meteorological obsery- ations to be considered should be monthly means of pressure, rainfall and temperature (including maximum temperature and minimum temperature). (2) That the members of the commission be requested to communicate to the secretary a short report on the data available in their respective countries, and the number of years over which they extend. (3) That the members of the commission be requested to make suggestions with regard to additional stations from which it is desirable that data should be obtained in view of the comparison of solar and terrestrial data. (4) That the secretary be requested to consult Dr. Chree as to the stations from which magnetic data are at present available, and to refer to a paper by Prof. von Bezold as to additional magnetic stations from which information is desirable, and to circulate the information among the members of the commission, it being understood that the data appropriate for the purposes of comparison are monthly means of the three magnetic elements for the quiet days and data as to magnetic storms. A letter from Prof. Hale was laid before the commission. At the third meeting the questions of the selection of meteorological stations and of the establishment of additional meteorological stations were again considered, and it was resolved that the members of the commission should hand in their list of selected stations to the secre- tary after the close of the British Association meeting, and that it would be desirable that observations should be obtained from two stations in the Pacific. The stations selected were Tahiti and Numea, to be established by the French Meteorological Bureau. The name of Mr. A. L. Rotch was added to the com- mission. The letter received from Prof. Hale suggesting cooper- ation of the commission with the committee on solar research of the National Academy of Sciences was read. It was resolved that the commission thank Prof. Hale for his letter, and express their desire to cooperate with the committee on solar research of the National Academy of Sciences on questions of common interest. Mr. Rotch was requested to communicate this resolution personally to Prof. Hale at the conference at St. Louis. The question of the selection of solar observations for the comparison of data was taken into consideration. A scheme prepared by Messrs. Riccd and W. J. S. Lockyer was read and provisionally approved. (1) Suggested observations of the sun for direction, intensity, and amplitude of ‘“ boiling of the limb.’’ Present observations :— Twenty years’ observations made in Palermo and Catania, and (?) many years’ observations in Madrid. (2) Number, area, and position of spots. Existing arrangements suffice. (3) For visual observations of prominences on limb, it is suggested that America or Japan be invited to contribute. (Places widely separated in longitude required.) _ Monthly values of the percentage frequency of promin- ences for every 5° of latitude north and south. (4) Sun-spot spectra. Available observations are taken at the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington; Poona in India; Stony- AvcusT 3, 1905] NATURE 333 hurst in England; and Kodaikanal in India; and are sufficient for the present. (5) Spectroheliograph. Kensington, (Cae ne a Pe Chicago, (ise Discs? sin Ke ish Med aicanalt Catania (later). @)e Emmb? in “1K light ditto. At the fourth meeting further consideration was given to the question of the solar observations which it is desirable should be collected for the purposes of com- parison. (t) It was resolved, that in connection with the observ- ations of solar radiation, observations of the transparency of the air should be made, more especially (a) on the visibility of distant and high mountains when possible ; (b) photometrical observations of Polaris. (2) It was resolved that a circular be addressed to the various meteorological organisations, asking them to send to the secretary for the purposes of the commission a copy of the publications of their offices embodying the data specified in resolution of August 19, and that the organisa- tions be also requested to obtain and forward copies of similar publications from the colonies and dependencies of their respective countries. (3) It was resolved that a circular should be sent in the following terms:—The commission desire to direct attention to the concluding paragraphs of Prof. Violle’s report to the International Meteorological Committee 1903, and would be greatly obliged if the commission could be informed of the arrangements for observing solar radi- ation adopted at the observatories of the various meteor- ological organisations and the methods employed to render the observations comparable with those of other observ- atories. (4) Mr. Shaw reported that an apparatus for recording solar radiation was in process of being established, and tested at the Cambridge Observatory, and that Mr. W. E. Wilson, of Daramona, who had presented the apparatus to the observatory, had promised a note upon the apparatus for the information of the commission. At the fifth meeting the question of the magnetic observ- ations for the purposes of comparison was taken into consideration. It was resolved in connection therewith :— That the establishment of magnetical observatories in about lat. 70° N. (e.g. Bosskop in Norway) and in very high latitudes of the southern hemisphere is of the highest importance for the advancement of science. Prof. Riccd informed the commission that it is intended to establish in Italy or Sicily a magnetic observatory with self-recording instruments belonging to the Italian Meteor- ological Office. The secretary was directed to ascertain from the members of the commission whether they consider it desirable that a meeting should be held at Innsbruck next year (1905). It was also resolved that the secretary should report to the International Meteorological Committee the proceed- ings of the meetings of the commission held here, and ask that the proper steps be taken to bring before the International Association of Academies their suggestions relating to Government action. Letters from Messrs. Bigelow and Davis were read. It was resolved that Prof. Pernter’s letter should be trans- lated and given in the proceedings. Prof. Ricco informed the meeting that he had been charged by Prof. Rizzo to say that he will willingly undertake to carry out any investigation the commission may be pleased to entrust to him, and it was resolved that Prof. Rizzo should be thanked for his offer, and that a written communication be addressed to him later. It was agreed that all communications for the com- mission should be received at a central address, viz. the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington. It was further resolved that The commission considers it is desirable that the data for the purposes of comparison should be sent to the presi- dent of the commission, South Kensington (Solar Physics No. 1866, VOU. 72] Observatory), for tabulation and comparison. The com- mission attaches the greatest importance to this work, more especially as it may lead to a practical system of long-period forecasting, and hopes that if it be necessary, an increase of staff at that observatory may be authorised to bring all old observations up to date. The commission, after a vote of thanks to the presi- dent, adjourned sine die. The commission has circulated in the appendix to its report much valuable correspondence, but we have not space to refer to it. With regard to the Innsbruck meeting, the following members of the commission are expected to be present :— M. A. Angot, Bureau Central Météorologique, Paris ; Prof. H. J. Angstrém, University, Upsala; Prof. F. H. Bige- low, Weather Bureau, Washington; Prof. Birkeland, University of Christiania; Rev. Pike w@inerasy Ssiiss, Observatorio del Ebro, Tortosa, Spain; Dr. W. G. Davis, Oficina Meteorologica Argentina, Cordoba, Argentine Republic; M. Deslandres, Observatoire d’Astronomie Physique, Meudon, Seine et Oise; Sir John Eliot (secre- tary), 54 Prince of Wales Mansions, Prince of Wales Road, Battersea, and Bon Porto, Cavalaire, Var, France ; Prof. G. E. Hale, 678 St. John Avenue, Pasadena, Cali- fornia, U.S.A.; Hofrat Prof. J. Hann, XIX Hohe Warte, Vienna; M. Janssen, Observatoire d’Astronomie Physique, Meudon, Seine et Oise; Prof. W. H. Julius, Rijks Universiteit, Utrecht, Holland; Prof. W. SKoppen, Deutche Seewarte, Holland; Prof. S. P. Langley, secre- tary of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Sir Norman Lockyer (President), Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington; Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer, Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington; Hofrat Prof. J. M. Pernter, Hohe Warte, Vienna, Austria; Prof. Ricco, University de Catania, Sicily, Italy; Prof. G. B. Rizzo, University of Messina, Sicily, Italy; Prof. L. A. Rotch, Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Cambridge, Mass. ; Sir Arthur Riicker, 19 Gledhow Gardens, S.W.; Prof. J. Scheiner, K6nigl. Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat, Berlin; Dr. W. N. Shaw, Meteorological Office, 63 Victoria Street, Westminster; Prof. A. Steen, Meteorological Insti- tute, Christiania; Prof. J. Violle, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris; Prof. C. H. Wind, University of Utrecht, Holland; Prof. A. Woeikoff, St. Petersburg, Russia; Herrn. Prof. Max Wolf, Grossherz Ruprecht- Karls Universitat, Heidelberg, Germany; Prof. A. Wolfer, Zurich Observatory, Switzerland. THE TEACHING OF PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.* R. FISCHER has set himself the almost limitless task of describing and comparing the various methods of science teaching adopted by the principal nations of the world, but he has succeeded in collecting a good deal of useful and accurate information, which he has given in a concise and interesting form. He deals with the present state of the teaching of physics and chemistry in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Russia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States of America. In each instance he not only describes the methods of instruc- tion now prevailing, but in a few words indicates the gradual way in which all branches of science are slowly but surely obtaining a recognised place in education. The chief point dealt with in connection with the teach- ing of physics and chemistry is the establishment of prac- tical classes for students in the secondary and other schools. In this Great Britain, Ireland, and America are far ahead of the other countries. In Germany, at the present time, comparatively few schools, especially in South Germany, have laboratories where the pupils themselves can carry out experiments in chemistry and physics. Where such practical work has been allowed, it has elicited much interest from the pupils, even when the classes have had 1 Abhandlungen zur Didaktik und Philosophie der Naturwissenschaft. Heft 3. ‘‘ Der naturwissenschaftliche Unterricht bei uns und im Auslande." By Dr. Karl T. Fischer. Pp. 72. Price 2 marks. Heft 4. “Wie sind die physikalischen Schiileriibungen praktisch zu gestalten?”. By Herr Oberlehrer Hahn. Pp. 67. Price 2 marks. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1905.) 334. to be held outside the proper school-hours. At the German universities, however, laboratory instruction began — re- latively’ early, and now ‘stands on a high’ level compared with other countries. In*Austria, science teaching has been considerably developed, but practical classes have not’ yet been introduced.. In’Italy, laboratories for the students at the secondary: schools are still unknown, but in France they have been building school laboratories for practical work throughout’ the country ever since the official régulations of 1902. In Sweden, the time devoted to natural science is now being increased; scholars can, in most cases, carry out experiments in chemistry, but practical work in physics is almost unknown in the secondary schools belonging to the State. In- Norway, there are no secondary school laboratories, although natural science is compulsory. Then again, in Holland; the secondary schools have no practical classes, but-the study of physics there is carried further than even in Germany. In Russia, science laboratories are being introduced with considerable success. Until two years ago, physics was the only scientific subject taught in the secondary schools, but since then botany and zoology have been added. The experience gained in Russia in con- nection with laboratory work has been favourable, in spite of many hampering circumstances. Several recently erected school-buildings have physical departments which have been built regardless of cost; the Physical Institute’ at St. Petersburg has cost about a million marks, and a still larger one is being built at Moscow. Dr. Fischer has already shown by his book, ‘‘ Der naturwissenschaftliche Unterricht in England,’’ that he has an intimate knowledge of English methods of education. His book was the outcome of a visit to this country. In treating of the teaching of science in the United States of America, reference is made to the alterations in the curriculum of a great number of schools, necessitated by the recent regulation that previous experience in prac- tical physics and chemistry is essential before being admitted to Harvard University .and the Lawrence Scientific School. : ; Finally, various details relating to the’ universities, technical, medical, and other schools. in’ the countries previously enumerated are given in tabular form; this clearly hina the rapid progress instruction in practical physics h as made during the last thirty years. The illus- trations include plans and views of laboratories in Munich, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Meppel, Alkmaar, “London, &c. Although space permits of only a very brief reference to some of the principal points dealt with, it is enough to indicate that this pamphlet can hardly -fail to interest and to be of use to those who are concerned in the teaching of chemistry and physics. The pamphlet by..Herr’ H.. Hahn, entitled ‘‘ Wie. sind die physikalischen Schilertibungen praktisch zu gestalten? ”’ like that by Dr. Fischer, is one of the separate parts issued, from time to time, by the well known Zeitschrift fiir den physikalischen u. chemischen Unterricht. Herr Hahn is undoubtedly one of the many teachers of science in Germany .who are convinced that the time has now come to introduce the practical teaching of physics into all schools throughout the German Empire. He is endeavouring to attract attention to this subject by de- scribing what has. been, and is being, done in other countries, more particularly in »England and America. This is probably the best way of refuting the objections of those who oppose this advance. The first portion is devoted to suggestions as to’ the best methods of conducting practical physics classes in schools and to the aim of such work. It is pointed out that formerly the object was merely to impart knowledge, ‘but that now it is to show the pupil the way he has to set about to acquire knowledge for himself, to confirm laws which are known to, him, and ‘also to. discover those of which he is as yet unaware. Much rational advice is given regarding the management... of . practical classes; special. stress is laid upon. the advisability of avoiding the use of unnecessarily elaborate and expensive apparatus, and of attempting, when possible, to go back to the simple and ingenious means by which a law was. first discovered by one‘ of the great men of science. The author advocates students working singly, and argues that, as all boys, as NC, 1866, vOL. 72} NATURE ‘which pharmacy [AuGUST 3, 1905 a rule, work at about the same speed, it is possible to put the whole class at the same experiment; usually one finds, however, it is only the most elementary apparatus that can be stocked on so extensive a scale. Various other questions are gone ‘into, such as the writing-up of note- books in the laboratory, the supplement- ing of laboratory work by demonstrations, the training of teachers, &c. From the numerous extracts and foot-notes, one observes that Prof. Hahn has made a most careful and thorough digest of all the existing English and American literature bearing on this branch of science teaching. : The second part deals with laboratories and their fittings, and is illustrated with a number of drawings of fittings, small but clearly executed. These,’ apparently, are all taken from other books; in fact, about half of them have been reproduced from an _ English work—Russell’'s “Planning of Chemical-and Physical Laboratories.’’ After some introductory remarks on the size and arrangement of suitable rooms, a°description is given of each of the fittings separately, beginning with the simple work-bench for physical laboratories in schools. The ideal .is considered. to be a bench made.to accommodate one worker only, or two in cases of necessity, but it is pointed ot that this is, too extravagant of floor- -space and money to be really practicable. Details of the arrangement, construction, and material, of the work-benches are briefly «discussed. All the other fittings usually provided are described, and. some useful information. is given concerning the actual room itself, schemes for heating and ventilating, the supply- pipes, &c. : Again, one notices that a diligent search has been made. for English, American, and German books and papers deal- ing with the fitting-up of laboratories; from these much information and data have been extracted and compared. The search, however, has as usual. been most unpro- ductive; one finds in the list of literature merely some five English books and magazine articles, together with two American and three German ones.- Although only a general survey has been attempted of the arrangement and equipment of school laboratories, it would probably’ be difficult to find a more complete abstract on this subject, and the pamphlet contains much information which will prove useful. to those who are fitting-up laboratories. STANDARDISATION IN PHARMACY} THE principle of standardisation and its embodiment in daily practice marks. the most . important advance has ‘witnessed within’ recent’ years. Standardisation as applied to a crude drug-or a prepar- ation is’ understood to imply that by a method of appro- priate treatment ascertained. by direct experiment it) has been made to conform to a predetermined standard. The required standard may have a physical, chemical, or physio- logical basis, and may have reference either to one or more definite principles or to a mixture of indefinable sub- stances. The object of ‘standardisation’ is to © secure uniformity of product, more especially in respect © of medicinal activity. It is not necessary to hark back more than a generation to see the ever-lengthening strides which’ pharmacy has taken in the direction of plant analysis and the isolation of definite principles. To this’ fact the text- books on materia medica and lectures of twenty-five years ago bear. indisputable testimony. Then the maximum of knowledge of the constituents of many of even» the» best- known and most potent drugs was- summed up in ‘the’ statement’ that they contained» a crystalline prirciple, generally an alkaloid, and a few remotely proximate and chemically unclassified substances. Before standardisation could be brought within the range of pharmaceutical possi- bility it was necessary to make amore thorough systematic and accurate investigation . of crude. drugs, with a view, of obtaining precise information as to the’ nature of their constituents. f rood : To this task the rovnee Bee Se of Workers in the! field of pharmaceutical research have mainly directed théir efforts., | Latterly’ they’ have’ occupied themselves «more 1 Abridged ftom the Presidential Addtéss delivered by Mr) W. A. H- mage before the British Pharmaceutical Conference at Brighton on uly 25. AvuGuST 3, 1905] especially in seeking to devise trustworthy processes for the assay. of crude:drugs and their preparations, and to the extent to; which they have succeeded they have contributed in their measure to- the benefits conferred on suffering humanity, by the healing art. A few pointed observations reflecting my personal opinion on certain aspects of the question of standardisation. may not, I trust, be considered inappropriate with, which to conclude my address. |In my estimation the aim should be to produce preparations that will represent the sum total of therapeutic activity of the drugs operated on except in cases where it is desired to obtain the medicinal effects of certain definite principles the physiological action of which is indisputable. As an illustration a preparation of opium. may be cited where the presence of narcotine may be considered objectionable. Further, in respect of a given preparation it must be required of the pharmacist to devise suitable processes not only for the estiniation of the chief medicinal constituent, but as far as possible the several medicinal constituents and the proportion in which they are present. I would go even further, and say that in the near future it may be necessary to determine certain principles hitherto disregarded, which modify the thera- peutic ‘activity of the drug. The pharmacologist may be depended on to point the way, and despite the heavy tax this call for fuller investigation will put upon the resources of the pharmacist, I am encouraged to believe he~ will prove equal to the demand. Without reflecting on modern methods of standardisation, which undoubtedly have met with general acceptance, I cannot suppress the conviction that their tendency is not free from a suspicion of narrow- ness. The besetting temptation consists in a disposition to restrict the medicinal properties of a drug to a potent principle, the therapeutics of which are universally recog- nised by clinicians, and acting on this assumption to proceed to produce a preparation and to standardise it on the basis of the particular principle and with little or no regard to other constituents that may directly or indirectly be of value. For instance, according to present-day know- ledge, the chief active principle of the three drugs bella- donna, scopola, and henbane is hyoscyamine. If a tincture of each be prepared so as to contain the same percentage of alkaloid or alkaloidal content, will it be seriously con- tended that therapeutically considered the three’ are inter- changeable, -and: therefore it is a matter of indifference which of them is selected for use? If the physician finds it a distinct advantage to ‘administer the belladonna tinc- ture in one case and the henbane tincture in another, surely it is because he is satisfied that the two preparations do not produce identical results: May this not be taken as prima facte evidence that there are in the tinctures con- stituents present, other than hyoscyamine or alkaloidal con- tent, which claim to be reckoned with? UNIVERSITY. AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Lonpon.—The senate has accepted the offer made by the Secretary of State for the Colonies of the sum of jool. a year for five years for the purpose of instituting a chair of protozoology. Of this sum, 200]. a year is a contribution from the Rhodes trustees, and s5ool. a year represents a moiety of a grant originally made from the tropical diseases research fund to the Royal Society for the promotion of research work, and by the Royal Society surrendered for the purpose. of -endowing the-chair. It was decided to devote the whole amount as salary of the professor, and to set aside a further sum of 200]. a year to defray the cost of assistants and laboratory expenses in connection with the chair. Mr. Edgar Schuster, the Francis Galton research Fellow in national eugenics, has presented a report containing a preliminary account of inquiries which have been made into the inheritance of disease, and especially of feeble- mindedness, deaf-mutism, and phthisis. s Of the five commissioners under thé Bill promoted by the university and University College for the determin- ation of the conditions under which the college will be incorporated in the university, which measure received the Royal assent on July 11, Lord Justice Cozens-Hardy and NO. 1866, VOL. 72] NATURE ,of bacteriology in the University of Durham. 335 Sir Edward Busk were nominated by the university, and , Sir John Rotton and Prof. J. Rose Bradford by the college. The remaining commissioner is to be appointed by His Majesty in Council, and will act as chairman. Sir Edward Fry, late Lord Justice of Appeal, has consented to allow his name to be submitted to His Majesty in Council for this post, and it is expected that the Order in Council announcing his appointment will shortly be published. Under the will of the late Dr. Nathaniel Rogers, a prize: of rool. is offered for an essay on ‘‘ The Physiology and Pathology of the Pancreas.’’ Essays, preferably type- written or printed, must be sent to the secretary of the senate by, at latest, May 1, 1907. . THE services rendered to science by the late Dr. T. M. Drown, president of Lehigh University, are to be fittingly recognised, subscriptions having been invited for the pur- pose of erecting at the university a building to be called Drown Memorial Hall in his honour. Pror. W. A. Titpen, F.R.S., has been appointed dean of the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, in succession to Prof., J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., who retired from the position on July 31. Mr. H. J. Hurcnens has been appointed demonstrator He will the Commission on continue’ his work for Tuberculosis. Royal Tue subject of the health essay (Durham University) ‘for 1908 is “‘ Injuries and Diseases of the Arteries, Veins and Capillaries, and their Treatment.’’ Essays must be typewritten or printed, and reach the professor of surgery not later than March 31 of the year for which it is to be awarded. A REPORT on the work of University College, London, for the session 1904+5, was read by Prof. Cormack, dean of the faculty of science, at the assembly of the faculties of arts and laws and of science on July 5. The report records that the Bill for the incorporation of -the college in the University of London has. passed the House of Lords, and has.also passed its first and second readings, as ‘well as the committee stage, in the House of Commons. It is therefore expected that the Bill will receive the Royal assent before the end of the present Parliamentary session. In that case the commissioners, appointed, under the Bill to carry out the incorporation of the college in»the uni- versity, will begin their meetings after the long vacation, and it ought to be possible to complete the actual incor- poration by September, 1906. Of the sum of» 200,000. required for this purpose, all but 17,0001. -has. been obtained. In the department of applied mathematics ‘the most important event of the session was the generous grant by the Worshipful. Company of Drapers of 4ool. yearly for five years to continue the biometric and research work of the department.. This grant has put on a more permanent footing the work already instituted by the same company two years ago. Six memoirs have been specially published as a Drapers’ Research Series, and a number of others are in preparation. The work for these has been rendered possible almost entirely by the financial aid provided by this gift. The number of research papers emanating from this department is eighteen, and among them may-be noted a paper on ‘‘ Some Disregarded Points in the Stability of Masonry Dams,’’ which directs atten- tion to.a number of complicated and highly important technical questions, and is a valuable contribution both to theory and practice. The research work done in the Pender. laboratory .during the session has included such practically important matters as :—additional improvements in.means for the photometric measurement of the value of incandescent electric lamps; a long research on the magnetic qualities of alloys, not containing iron, which promises. to be of great technical importance; and the invention of instruments called cymometers, which are, in effect, electrical, spectroscopes, and enable the frequency of the oscillations in any electric circuit to be measured with great accuracy. Several. important contributions to science have come from the department of chemistry; and the list of publications by investigators in this and other departments shows that the activity of the college in pro- ducing original work is being maintained. Ge Los) [on NATURE \ [AuGuUST 3, 1905 SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 24.—M. Troost in the chair. —On the total eclipse of August 30: M. _ Janssen. Observations will be taken at Alcocebre, near Valencia, in Spain.—On a simple case from which can be easily calculated the mutual action of consecutive rings consti- tuting a tube, and on the influence of this mutual action on the propagation of liquid waves in this tube: J. Boussinesq.—On the nature of the hydrocyanic glucoside of the black elder: L. Guignard and J. Houdas. The bruised leaves were macerated with water for twenty- four hours at a temperature of 25° C.; the liquid gave a distillate from which semicarbazide separated a crystal- line precipitate, identical with benzaldehyde semicarbazide. This result, together with the formation of hydrocyanic acid, shows that the elder leaf contains amygdalin.—The catalytic decomposition of monochlor-derivatives of methane hydrocarbons in contact with anhydrous metallic chlorides : Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe. The chlorides of nickel, cobalt, iron, cadmium, lead, and barium, at a temperature of about 300° C., readily decompose -the fatty alkyl chlorides, giving hydrochloric acid and the corresponding ethylene. The reaction does not take place with methyl chloride, but ethyl, propyl, isobutyl, and isoamyl chlorides readily decompose under these conditions, barium chloride being the most convenient catalytic agent.--The convergence of rational fractions: H. Padé.—Experi- mental researches on the effect of membranes in liquid chains: M. Chanoz. The effect of the membrane on the observed electromotive force may be provisionally explained by the formation at the expense of the electrolyte of a double electric layer in contact with the membrane.—The hysteresis of magnetisation of pyrrhotine: Pierre Weiss. —On a dihedral stereoscope of large field, with bisecting mirror: Léon Pigeon.—On fluorescence: C. Camichel. An experimental proof that the coefficient of absorption of a fluorescent body does not vary at the moment of fluor- escence, and that the intensity of the light emitted by the fluorescence is proportional to the intensity of the exciting light.—The influence of water vapour on the reduction of carbon dioxide by carbon: O. Boudouard. The reduction of carbon dioxide by carbon at temperatures between 650° C. and ro00° C. is practically unaffected by the presence of water vapour, the state of equilibrium being nearly identical whether the gases are dry or moist.—On an extension to oxide of zinc of a method of reproduction of silicates of potassium and other bases: A. Duboin.— On a sub-iodide of phosphorus and the part played by this body in the allotropic transformation of phosphorus: R. Boulouch. The sub-iodide is produced by the action of sunlight on a solution of iodine and phosphorus in carbon disulphide ; it is formed as a precipitate, being insoluble in carbon disulphide, and has the composition P,I. It is decomposed by dilute potash solution, losing its iodine and apparently forming P,OH.—On a potassium iridio- chloronitrite: L. Quennessen.—The action of sodium sulphite upon ethanal: MM. Seyewetz and Bardin. Under certain conditions, details of which are given, crotonic aldehyde is formed in (go per cent.) being sufficiently ¢g parative method.—On sparteine : this reaction, the yield good to make this a pre- the hydrates of methyl-, dimethyl-, and De ae Charles Moureu and Amand Valeur.—On gentiine : Georges Tanret. Gentiine is the glucoside accompanying gentiopicrin. Hydrolysed with dilute sulphuric acid, gentienine, glucose, and xylose are formed. It is noteworthy that this is the first known glucoside which gives xylose amongst its products of hydro- lysis. —The chemical equilibrium of the system: ammonia gas, isoamylamine chlorhydrate: Félix Bidet. Pressures are Siven both for the direct and inverse reaction at —23°, —9°, —5°, 0°, and 16°, the concordance between the two sets of observations being quite satisfactory.—On the regeneration of the bruised radicle: P. Ledoux. There is no regeneration of the parts cut, and in the case of the lateral roots there are other anatomical differences. —On the shrimps of the genus Caricyphus arising from the collections of the Prince of Monaco: H. Coutiére.— NO. 1866, VOL. 72] On the growth in weight of the chicken: Mlle. M. Stefanowska. Curves of growth are given for both sexes; there is a point of inflection in the curves for the male when it has attained 77 per cent. of its maximum value, and for the female at 21 per cent. The results of the observations are expressed empirically in two hyper- bolas.—Experiments on the mechanical washing of the blood: Ch. Répin.—Intra-organic combustions measured by the respiratory exchanges as affected by residence at an altitude of 4350 metres: G. Kuss. These observations were carried out on several subjects at the summit of Mt. Blanc. There were seven persons under experiment; they stayed at the observatory on the summit from four to ten days, their respiratory coefficients being determined several times daily. Both before and after their stay on Mt. Blane observations were made at Chamonix (1065 metres) and at Angicourt (100 metres). The conclusions drawn from the whole of the experiments are that the respiratory exchanges are not sensibly modified by a pro- longed stay at great altitudes, and a slight attack of mountain sickness is also without influence on the results. —On the presence of poison in the eggs of bees: C. Phisalix. The eggs of bees contain a small amount of poison of the same nature as that present in the adult bee. Each egg contains about o-oo1 mgr. of the venom, and as each egg weighs about 0-15 mgr. it follows that the toxic substances present amount to about 1/150th part of its weight.—On the production of mechanical work by the adductor muscles of the Acephala: F. Marceau.—On the structure of the muscles of the mantle of cephalopods with respect to their mode of contraction: F. Marceau.—The germination and growth of the artificial cell: Stéphane Leduc.—The study of the diaphragm by means _ of orthodiascopy : H. Guilleminet.—The general movements of the atmosphere in winter: Paul Garrigou-Lagrange. CONTENTS. PAGE Recent French Mathematical Works. By G.H.B. 313 The Mutation Theory of the Cnels of is By EMSS MS 5 Thee wale ee ano E Asphalt Pavements. By T. 5s: ee ap, a6 Our Book Shelf :— Otto: “Die physikalischen BEETS der Seen: . - 316 Aldrich: “A Catalogue of North ~Atnericaa Diptera or Two-winged Flies” 5 317 Heller and Ingold: “Elementary ’ Experimental Science. An Introduction to the Study of Scientific Method ” opts se (Shreya! Nh ay ey aE Wislicenus: ‘‘ Astronomischer Jahresbericht.””— GUST Ce ode ee MCE Ld. cig: ily/ Letters to the Editor :— The Problem of the Random Walk.—The Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S. . . 318 The Causation of Variations. —Dr. G. Archdall Reid 318 The Empire and University Life.—Gunga- Gunes 319 A Solar Outburst (?).—ArthurMee . . Ae 3-0 A Century’s Progress in Warship Design. * (Illus- trated.) . 320 The Light- Perceiving Organs of Plants. (us trated.) By EF. DD. «1. .. 323 Recent Publications in Agricultural Science . - 324 Notes). J. .: 5 ie S25 Our Astronomical Column :— Observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spa z 330 Sun-spot Spectra . . APO ISM En Seo An Interesting Astercid, Ocelo [475]. ted: AMS 330 Observations of Phoebe . . 330 Periods of the Variable Stars S " Sagittae ‘and Y Ophiuchi_. 330 The Meeting of the British Medical Association. 330 Solerand Terrestrial Changes. . . 332 The Teaching of Practical Chemistry and Physics | 333 Standardisation in Pharmacy, By W. A. H. nutans 334 University and Educational Intelligence . . - 335 Societies and Academies ......... . "336 AUGUST 3, 1905] NATURE CXXXV z : - err HIGH-CLASS POLARISCOPE. (weading to -OOS degree). Illustrated ist HL Sho Yearly . , Tio 6 |*Three Linesin Column - o 2 6] Quarter Page, or Half Per Lineafter . 0 0 9 aColumn . 05) 00) Half-yearly 01% 6 Half-yearly . ; o15 6 | One Sixteenth Page, or Kighth Col. 10 ©| papa P Col Quarterly . . +0 7 6 Quarterly o 8 o| One Eighth Page, or Quarter SNE OBS Che. UR DY 3 pA gio Column a} 28)/"6)|/ Wholev Page) si n/n 6) 6) 0 * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two fpace. Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CO., Limited. ORRICE Sie MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. CXXXViil NATURE [AuGUST 3, 1905 THE GAIFFE AUTO-MOTOR MERCURY JET INTERRUPTER (Patented in Britain). NO BRUSHES, NO BANDS, NO INDEPENDENT MOTOR. The interruption cuts the current both for motor and coil. In other words, motor and interrupter are electrically and mechanically linked together. 3m See Nature, July 20, 1905, page 277. Price, including box and packing, B4:6:6 THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, 228 Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C. Descriptive Circular upon application. CROSSLEY ’S GAS ENGINES RECENTLY GREAT REDUCTION | REMODELLED. IN GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L types, giving 3°5 H.P. Up to the end of 1904, TOW: and 5 H.P | e a Le ORE ST over 51,000 gas and respectively. “ Ewa) oil engines had been es Sarees! delivered, represent- Immediate Delivery for Stock Sizes of Engines. quarters of a million actual horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS., LTD., OPENSHAW. MANCHESTER NWEw WEICROSCOPIC SLIDES From the New Issue of W. WATSON & SONS’ No. 3 CATALOGUE, just published. Post Free on application. | | | ing about three- | | Se K ‘Same Tsetse Flies (G. palpalis), whole insect : at ek Perfume Glands on Leaf of Lavender .. eer, tc ao nse 1 6 Dissections of all pea may be had mounted ‘sepa arately. “Also in | Bugula plumosa (Bird's Head coralline). Specially fine mounts 2 6 set of 12 : as prec OO Kary okinesis in root of Water Lily... ef £ - 8/- & 4/- “Send for Special Desc riptive List. Leg of Flea, showing muscular structure... 16 Blood-sucking Maggot (from the Cong 2D) IS a6 Set of 16 Slides illustrating the development of” an Ascidian Fly hatched from above, Auchmero omnyia luteola at6 (Aspersa). Incase ... ms ae So we 25 0 Section of Brazilian Quartz, showing cavities containing fluid. Trypanosoma Brucei (Tsetse Fly disease) ci) 4 0 Very interesting E 3 6 Set of 5 Slides of the Garden Spiders Bowing different stages 0 of Eggs of Emperor Moth, fertile and sterile, ont slide AG growth. In Case 7 6 SEND FOR THE ABOVE NEWLY PUBLISHED CATALOGUE OF MICRO. OBJECTS. WATSON’S CATALOGUE OF MICROSCOPES (158 pages) is of special interest to all Microscopists, post free. W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holborn, London, W.C. Branches—16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH, and 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. THE CORRESPONDENTS’ CAMERA. cr‘trirop Originally made for the use of Newspaper Men in South Africa, and since used all over the World. HIS Camera has been designed for the use of correspondents, artists, and other travellers who, while requiring a Camera possessing the greatest stability, cannot spare the space for a regular field camera in addition toa hand camera. It is made of the best mahogany, carefully finished and covered with hard morocco leather, or polished in natural colour or ebonised at the same price. It is admirably adapted for Telephoto work. Owing to the use of wood instead of metal, wherever possible, this camera is lighter than many of less substantial make, EACH SIZE PERMITS OF THE USE OF THE SINGLE COMPONENTS OF A STIGMATIC OR OTHER CONVERTIBLE LENS. PRICE, including 3 Double Slides, but | 4; by 3:. 5 by 4. 61 by 4%. without Lens or Shutter. | SS 15s. 6d. £6 10s. Od. #&7 15s. Od. J. H. DALLMEYER, Ltd., 25 NEWMAN ST., OXFORD ST., LONDON, W. MAKERS OF THE “CELEBRATED. DALLMEYER LENSES. Printed by RicHarp Cray anp Sons, Limirep, at 7 & & bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and puplished by MAcMILLAN AND Co., LtmiTED, at St. Martin’s Street, London, W. C., and THe MACMILLAN Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—TuHurspay, August 3, 1905. A WEEKLY TMLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Gh Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’—WorpdswortTn. THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 BS “1905 __ [Price ‘SIXPENCE No. 1867, VOL. 72] E Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] (All Rights are are “Reserved || REYNOLDS 8m BRANSON, Ltd. Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty’ s NEWTON & CO.’S Government (Indian, Home, and Colonial). GARD E N LABORATORY FURNISHERS and MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. SUN=DIALS. Ser atta Terra-Cotta Pedestal, “aeannnn Mem fitted with a 10%” Porcelain A MA AN \\\ cae Dial, £4 8 Oo. Fluted Pedestal with 83” Dial complete, £2 17 6G. New Illustrated Catalogue, 32 pages, post free. NEWTON & Co., CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL BENCH, illustrated above, as supplied Opticians to His Majesty ANE King to National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, fitted for Gas, Water and H.R.H, The Prince and Electricity. of Wales, Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus, 350 pp. and 1200 Illustrations, free on application. 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. | Desicns or Bencnes anv FITTINGS TO SUIT ALL REQUIREMENTS. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS. THE GLYCERINE BAROMETER. This Barometer has a tube containing both Mercury and Glycerine. The lighter specific gravity of the latter and the difference in the bore of the tube in which it rises and falls increases the scale to about 8 inches for each inch of the ordinary mercurial column. By means of this interesting instrument the smallest variations in the atmospheric pressure are quite notice- able, differences of rooth of an inch being easily read without the aid of any vernier or magnifier. es GRIFFIN. LONDON Particulars Post ree. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers— NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 25 OCEGEN SIAOUCr nee. MAKERS OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, Eranches: 45 CORNHILL, and 122 REGENT Sardinia Street, Lomdon, Wv.C. STREET, LONDON, SSR) RUBENS’ LINEAR THERMOPILE. cxl NATURE [AuGuUST 10, 1905 UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. Mathematics jae Heatu, Mr. PREECE and Mr. Physi {Professor Poyntinc, Mr. SHAKESPEAR, Dr. YSICS are sereeresseeessvserses===) BaRLow and Dr. DENNING. nae : {Professor FRANKLAND. Dr. McKenzie, Dr. Chemistry “| Finocay, Mr. Moore and Mr. TINKLER. Zoology .. . Professor BRIDGE and Mr. COLLINGE. Botany .. . Professor HitLHousE and Dr. Ewart. Geology.. . Professor LApworTH and Mr. Raw. Geography . . Professor WaTTs. { Professor 3URSTALL, Mr. Porter, Mr. \ Hazer, Mr. Girt and Mr. Sincvair. Civil Engineering . Professor Dixon and Mr. Homme . Electrical Engineering ...... Professor Karr, Dr. Morris afd Mr. LisTErR. (Professor TuRNER, Mr. Hupson and Mr. Mechanical Engineering ... Metallurgy .... “| RICKETTS. Mining .. . Professor REDMAYNE and Mr. Roperton. Brewing .. . Professor Brown, Mr, Pore and Mr. Micrar. Education... . Professor HuGHEs. FACULTY OF ARTS. . (Professor SONNENSCHEIN, Mr. Caspari and Classics .. | Mr. CHAMBERS. English .. .. Professor Cuurton Coriins and Mr. Cowt. French . ... Professor BEveNotT and Monsieur Demey. German... . Professor FrepLER and Dr. SANDBACH. Philosophy . . Professor MuirHEAD and Miss WoDEHOUSE. History . . Professor MasTERMAN and Miss SipGwick. Education. . Professor HuGHES Mustc..... . Professor Stk Epwarp Excar. Hebrew... . Mr. Poorer. FACULTY OF COMMERCE. Conners gang eee Professor ASHLEY and Mr. KirkaLpy. Accounting .. . Professor DicKSEE. Commercial La Spanish and Italian . Mr. ‘Vittyaro. ... Senor DE ARTEAGA. DEPARTMENT FOR TRAINING OF TEACHERS, Professor HUGHEs. Miss TAVLOR. Miss Joyce. Miss WARMINGTON. Mr. Roscoe. Miss SowerBurts. Mr. MILLIGAN. Miss WALKER. Mr. GRIFFIN. Miss Co.ie. Miss CLARKE. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. {Professor Rosinson, Dr. WriGut, Mr. Anatomy ......:.-seceeeeess. «ey HaAstAM, Mr. Watson, Miss CoGHILt, \ Mr. BENNETT and Dr. Evans. Physiology ................-. Professor CARLIER and Mr. RHoDEs. Professor LeiruH, Dr. MILLER, Mr. LEEDHAM- Green, Dr. Stantey, Dr. Barnes, Dr. Pathology and Bactercleee) o ene EWETSON, an r. WILSON. oie {Professor SAUNDBY, Professor CARTER, and Medicine Sorsseecere) Dr RUSSELL. Sargeree een eee {Professor BARLING, Professor BENNETT May, “\ and Mr. HEaTon. Hygiene and Public Health Professor Bostock Hitt and Mr. LysTer. Therapeutics .. Professor Foxwett and Dr. Ports. Midwifery... .. Professor Matins and Dr. Purstow. Gynecology - Professor Taytor. Forensic Medicine.. .. Professor Morrison. Mental Diseases.. .. Professor WHITCOMBE. Operative Surgery .. Professor JoRDAN Lioyp. Ophthalmology .. .. Professor PRrESTLEY SMITH. Materia Medica..... - Mr. Coote KNEALE and Dr. GREENWooD. DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY. Mr. Hux ey. Dr. Stacey WILsoN. Mr. Humpureys, Mr. Marsu. Mr. Donacan. Mr. Manin. Mr. WHITTLEs. The SESSION 1905-6 COMMENCES OCTOBER 2, 1905. All Courses and Degrees are open to both Men and Women Students. In the Medical School there is a separate Dissecting Room for Women with a qualified Woman Demonstrator. Graduates and persons who have passed degree examinations of other Universities may, after two years’ study or research, take a Master's Degree. Syélabuses containing full information as to University Regulations, Lecture and Laboratory Courses, Scholarships, &c., will be sent on appli- cation to the SECRETARY OF THE UNIVERSITY. HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. FERMENTATION and INDUSTRIAL BACTERIOLOGY. A Laboratory has been opened under the superintendence of Dr. Emit WESTERGAARD (formerly assistant to Professor Alfred Jorgensen, Copen- hagen) for instruction in the Bacteriology and Mycology of Agriculture, Dairying, Fermentation, Tanning, Preserving, Starch and Sugar Making. For details of Classes, Fees, &c., please apply to the Principal at the College. PETER MACNAUGHTON, S.S.C., Clerk. 20 York Place, Edinburgh. July 28, 1905. NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Special arrangements for students undertaking research during vacations. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. ENGINEERING AND CHEMISTRY. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. SESSION 1905-1906. The COURSES of INSTRUCTION at the Institute's CENTRAL Tecunicact CocveGE (Exhibition Road) are for Students not under 16 years of age; those at the Institute's TECHNICAL COLLEGE, FINSBURY, for Students notunder 14 years of age. The Entrance Examinations to both Colleges are held in September. Particulars of the Entrance Examin- ations, Scholarships, Fees, and Courses of Study, may be obtained from the respective Colleges, or from the Head Office of the Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. OITY AND GUILDS CENTRAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE. (Exursition Roap, S.W.) A College for higher ‘echnical Instruction for Day Students not under 16 preparing to become Civil, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineers, Chemical and other Manufacturers, and Teachers. The College is a ‘School of the University of London” in the Faculty of Engineering. Fee for a full Associateship Course, £30 per Session. Professors :— Civil and Mechanical Engineering ay. E. Datev, M.A., B.Sc. M. Inst.C.E. A rs : W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., Past Pres. Electrical Engineering { Inst.E.E., Dean for the Session. Chemistry x a 2 = { ae SRS EONGS Ph.D., LL.D., Mechanics and Mathematics O. Hewrici, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. OITY AND GUILDS TECHNICAL COLLEGE, FINSBURY. (LEonarRD STREET, City Roap, E.C.) A College for Day Students not under 14, preparing to enter Engineering and Chemical Industries, and for Evening Students. Fees, £15 per Session for Day Students. Professors :— ao ES ne ate 5 < = y omMpPsoNn, D.Sc. -R.S. Physics and Electrical Engineering { Principal ofthe Collere. : Mechanical and{E. G. Coker, M.A., D.Sce., Mathematics . i M.Inst.M.E. Chemistry =o aso op we R. MeEcvvota, F.R.S., F.1-C. City and Guilds of London Institute, Gresham College, Basinghall Street, E.C. ENGINEERING. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, CLERKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COURSES IN MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND HOROLOGICAL ENGINEERING. FULL DAY COURSES in the THEORY and PRACTICE of the above subjects will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION on WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 and 28. The Courses for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering include periods spent in Commercial Workshops, and extend over four years. They also prepare for the degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees for either of these Courses, 415 or £11 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each, giving free tuition for the full course in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September next. Conditions can be obtained from the PRINCIPAL. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on appli- cation to , R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. Engineering For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages cxli and cxliv, also page ii of Supplement. AUGUST 10, 1905] THE DAVY-FARADAY RESEARCH LABORATORY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. Professor Sir JAMES DEWAR, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. DIRECTOR: SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LABORATORY : Dr. ALEXANDER SCOTT, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. This Laboratory was founded by Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., as a Memorial of Davy and Faraday, for the purpose of pro- moting, by original research, the development and extension of Chemical and Physical Science. Michaelmas Term.—Monday, October 2, tp Saturday, December 16. Lent Term.—Monday, January 8, to Saturday, April 7. Easter Term.—Monday, April 30, to Saturday, July 2. Full Information and Forms of Application can be had from the AssISTANT SECRETARY, Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, W. To prevent delay Candidates ought to send in their applications for admission during the course of the Term preceding that in which they wish to enter. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE. Complete Courses of Instruction are provided for students of both sexes proceeding to the University Degrees in Science or in Letters, and for the University Diploma in Theory and Practice of Teaching. Special facilities are offered for the study of Agriculture, Applied Chemistry, Mining, Metallurgy, and all branches of Engineering. Matriculation and Exhibition Examinations begin September 25. Lectures begin October 3, 1905. Prospectuses on application to F. H. Pruen, Secretary. (THEORY AND COACH | N PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEPICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- So it and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. GUY’S HOSPITAL. PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC (M.B. London). The next Course of LECTURES and PRACTICAL CLASSES for this Examination will begin on October 2. Full particulars may be obtained on application to the Dean, Guy’s Hospital, London Bridge, S.E. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. Applications are invited for the following posts: —ASSISTANT LECTURER in ENGINEERING, whose duties will bz chiefly in connection with the subject of Surveying. Salary, £200 per annum. ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in Engineering. Salary. £100 per annum. Applications to be sent to the Registrar (from whom further particulars may be obtained) not later than August 14. Duties to commence on October 2, 1905. P. HEBBLETHWAITE, Registrar. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. The Council invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER in MATHEMATICS. Commencing salary, £175, to date from September 15 next. Applications, stating age, degrees and qualifications, teaching experi- ence, and enclosing testimonials, must reach the Principat not later than August 30. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. Laboratory Demonstrator and Assistant wanted at the Northampton and County Day and Technical School on September 11. Must be able to demonstrate and set up apparatus in both Chemistry and-Physics. Salary, £100 per annum. Apply with testimonials to the SECRETARY, The School, Abington Square, Northampton. NATURE cnli LONDON HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) SPECIAL CLASSES. Special Classes for the Preliminary Scientific M.B. Examination (London) will commence on October 2. Fee for the whole Course (one year), to Guineas. Special Classes are also held for the Intermediate M.B. Lond., the Primary and Final F.R.C.S., and other Examinations. MUNRO SCOTT, Warden. BOROUGH OF SWINDON. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. SWINDON AND NORTH WILTS SECONDARY SCHOOL AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTION. Mr. G. H. BURKHARDT, M.Sc. The Committee require early in September the services of a FORM MISTRESS well qualified in Biological Subjects, and experienced in giving instruction both in Laboratory and Field. Commencing salary, 4110 a year. Form of application, which must be returned by August 25, may be had from W. SEATON, Secretary. Principal Education Office, Town Hall, Swindon. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED (rt) Mathematical and Science Master for Higher Grade School in Scotland. £150, non-res. (2) Theoretical and Practical Science with other Subjects. 4150, non-res., to commence. Secondary School near London. (3) Science and Form Work. £130, non-res. (4) Practical Physics and Maths. £1oo, resident.—For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, PoweL_t anp Smitu, Tutorial Agents, 34 Bedford Street, Strand. London. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages cx\ and cxliv, also page ii of Supplement. BROW NIiING’S PLATYSCOPIC LENS. WITH LARGER ANGLES, INCREASED FIELD, AND IMPROVED DEFINITION. Engraved Real Size. AN ACHROMATIC COMBINATION, COMBINING THE DEFINITION OF A MICROSCOPE WITH THE PORTABILITY OF A POCKET LENS. f “‘Tf you carry a small Platyscopic Pocket Lens (which every a observer of Nature ought to do).""—GRaNT ALLEN, in Knowledge. a | “IT have long carried one of these instruments and found it invaluable."—Joun T. CARRINGTON, Editor of Sczence Gossip. The Platyscopic Lens is invaluable to botanists, mineralogists, or entomologists, as it focuses about three times as far from the object as the Coddington Lens, and has a field unequalled for flatness, allowing opaque objects to be examined easily. It is made in four degrees of power, magnifying respectively 10, 15, 20, and 30 diams. ; the lowest power, having the largest field, is the best adapted for general use. Mounted tn Tortotseshell, magnifying 10,15, 20,0730 s. <¢ diameters, either power... oc ee ats 30 In Nickelised German Silver, either power ... foe Uf Combinations of any two powers, tn Tortotseshell Ditto Ditto tn Nickelised German Silver ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION SENT FREE. JOHN BROWNING, MANUFACTURING OPTICIAN, 78 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. ARWADO~ exli THE JUBIKEB SCA TALOGUE ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS' EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete survey of the apparatus used for instruction in Physies, as well as numerous practical instruc- tions and about 3000 illustrations. SOLON Oesnweneews NATURE says:—t The firm of Leybold Nachfvlger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and fittings sold by them, The book starts with a history of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be most useful to the teacher.” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. Wve THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, AUG, 30. A SPECIALTY IN TRIPO 05 for SUPPORTING CAMERAS or OTHER, F OCIENTIFIC ew WRITE FOR D \LLuSTRATED PAMPHLET AND PRESS COMMENTS. | o Wm BUTLER, | ~ R0.CRosBY ROAD. . SOUTHPORT. INSTRUMENTS. a THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL. PRICE 2s. CONTENTS.—AUGUST. Valuable Presentation to the Library and Map Department. Liberia. By Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. (With six Illus- trations and Map.) The Ruins of ‘‘ Huanuco Viejo,” or Old Huanuco, with Notes on an Expedition to the Upper Maranon. By Reginald Enock. (With 18 Illustrations and two Plates.) Moorcroft and Hearsey’s Visit to Lake Mansarowar in 1812. By Colonel Hugh Pearse, D.S.O. Notes ona Journey Through the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. By H. C. Thomson. (With Sketch-Map and six Illustrations.) Dimensions of the Nile and its Basin. By Captain H. G. Lyons. The Barotse Boundary Award. (With Sketch-Map.) Some Recent Improvements in Surveying Instruments. F.R.A.S. (With three Illustrations.) Reviews. The Monthly Record. Obituary :—William Thomas Blanford, C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S.; Colonel Sir John Farquharson, K.C.B. By Colonel Duncan A. ‘Johnston ; 5 Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, K.C.M.G.; Hermann von Wissmann. By E. G. R. Alexander Begg. Correspondence :—The Yun-nan Railway. By Major H. R. Davies. Meetings of the Royal Geographical Society, Session 1904-5. Geographical Literature of the Month. EDWARD STANFORD, 32, 13, 14 Long Acre, London, W.C. By E. A. Reeves, NATURE [AUGUST I0, 1905 PPR TT TT Up ZEISS FIELD-GLASSES WITH ENHANCED STEREOSCOPIC EFFECT. x6, £6 O O.) x8, £610 0.) FOR TOURISTS. SPECIAL TYPES FOR NATURALISTS, MARINE WORK, HUNTING, &c. Illustrated Catalogue, ‘‘Tn,’’ Post Free on Application. CARL ZEISS, Branches: R LONDON: 29 Margaret St., Regent Street, W. Berlin, Frankfort o/M, Hamburg, Vienna, St. Petersburg. VAPOUR PRESSURE APPARATUS. A convenient modification of Regnault’s classic form. The barometer tubes are of syphon form, and are completely enclosed in a brass water-bath with plate-glass inspec- tion windows. Price complete (with- out Mercury), HS :5: oO. WRITE DESCRIPTIVE PAMPHLET, The Cambridge Scientific Instrument C0., Ltd., CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. FOR NALORE jaf PHUORSDAYS VAUGUSE: to; xo05- SOCIOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS. A Modern Utopia. By H. G. Wells. Pp. xi+ 393. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 7s. 6d. T is instructive to watch the growth, both in power and in hopefulness, of Mr. Wells’s criticism of life. In the ‘‘ Time Machine ’’ his forecast of the future of humanity was frankly appalling; in ‘“‘ When the Sleeper Wakes,’’ more lurid (albeit far more probable) than the worst imaginings of *‘ reforming ”’ socialists. ‘* Anticipations ’’ was a most stimulating book, but so deliberately confined itself to exalting and exaggerating the prospects of a single aspect of life, exclusively devoted itself to glorifying mechanical and material progress, that those sensitive to our spiritual and esthetic possibilities might be pardoned for regarding the present order, with all its cruelty, waste, sordidness, and grotesqueness, as a golden age in comparison with Mr. Wells’s world. “Mankind in the Making ’’ contained much vigorous criticism and many sensible and practical suggestions. In the present book Mr. Wells has become still. more moderate and practicable and hopeful, without in the least derogating from his ingenuity and originality. We sincerely hope, therefore, he not, he threatens, stick henceforth to his ‘“‘ art or trade of imaginative writing,’’ but will continue from time to time to regale and stimulate us with sociological speculations. Stripping off the romantic form—in which Mr. Wells dreams himself and a companion, a botanist suffering from a chronic affair of the heart, into a distant planet which is an exact duplicate of our earth, save that it has realised all the good which is attainable with our present resources—his main argument may be condensed as follows. As the philosophic foundation of his whole enter- prise, Mr. Wells assumes what he calls the ‘‘ meta- physical heresy ’’ (though it is rapidly forcing itself upon the notice even of the most stagnantly “* orthodox philosophers) that all classifications, though convenient, are crude, and that whatever is real and valuable in the world is individual, a thesis he had expounded in the brilliant contribution to Mind entitled the “ Scepticism of the Instrument,”’ which he has now reprinted as an appendix to his book. From this philosophy he infers that progress depends on individual initiative and variation, lead- ing to successful experiment. Hence the infinite preciousmess of freedom, which the Utopian World- State must restrict only when and in so far as it would oppress the freedom of others. Hence, too, there will be extensive toleration of ‘ cranks,’? while even criminals would merely be segregated as failures and condemned to work out their ideas of a good life in a society of their likes, after a fashion charmingly described in the account of the arrival of involuntary immigrants at the ‘‘ Island of Incorrigible Cheats.’’ But though Utopia is strangely kind to the cranky, the criminal and the inefficient, because it regards NO. 1867, VOL. 72] so will as “cc ” their occurrence as the measure of the State’s failure, it does not allow them to reproduce their kind. Parentage privilege, and the production of superior offspring a service to the community for which a State will handsomely its women. But the efficiency and prosperity of the Utopian order ultimately depend on the ruling class, which Mr. Wells seems to have taken bodily out of the Platonic Republic, and, with a fine compliment to the unparalleled rise of Japan, entitled the ‘* Samurai.” The Samurai are conceived as a “ voluntary nobility ’ which (like the medizeval Church) all may enter who are able and willing to lead the strenuous and some- what ascetic life prescribed by the rules of the Order. Among these the obligations to buy and read every month at least one book published in the last five years, and every year to go out into the wilderness and to travel through it in silence and solitude for at least seven days, are perhaps the most noticeable, together with the prohibition of acting, singing and reciting, and the playing of games in public. It is remarkable how Platonic is the general spirit of these institutions in all save the high appreciation of individual freedom, to the value of which Plato showed such singular blindness. Nor is their general aim hard to discover. At several points, however, a critic will be disposed to doubt whether Mr. Wells’s means are adequate to his ends. He has indeed, what never seems to have occurred to Plato, that if wisdom is to control the State, elaborate pre- cautions must be taken to keep learning progressive, and to prevent it from fossilising into pedantry. The Platonic State, if it could ever have come into exist- ence, would systematically have suppressed origin- ality, and simply have stereotyped the condition of science and art prevailing at the date of its institu- tion. If it could be conceived as surviving to the present day, it would still be its heroic hoplites against quick-firing guns, and still be punish- ing a belief in evolution or metageometry as heresies worthy of death. Mr. Wells seeks to guard against the universal human tendency to fix in rigid forms whatever man admires. But though he insists on the importance of preserving the “‘ poietic,’’ i.e. origin- ative, types of man and endowing their researches, it may be doubted whether even under his laws they would not be overpowered by the “ kinetic,”’ 7.e. the efficient administrators, who everywhere conserve the established order. For these latter would control the Order of the Samurai. Again, Mr. Wells’s distrust of eugenics, justified iS na wise reward seen, sending as no doubt it is by the present state of our know- ledge, seems unduly to disparage the prospects of scientific discovery in the future. It does not follow that because too little to entrust the State with the function of controlling the reproduction of the race, this will continue to be unsafe, and it easy to imagine circumstances in which such control would become almost inevitable. For ex- ample, if one of the many attempts to discover what determines the sex of an embryo should chance to be now we know is crowned with success, the numerical equality of the Q 338 NATURE [AUGUST I0, 1905 sexes would in all probability be gravely imperilled, and the State would almost certainly have to inter- vene. Again, while Mr. Wells is doubtless within his rights in scoffing at the racial prejudices of the time, in his scorn of popular notions of ‘‘ superior ’’ races, ‘“including such types as the Sussex farm labourer, the Bowery tough, the London hooligan, and the Paris apache,’’ and in his contention that ‘‘ no race is so superior as to be trusted with human charges,” his anticipation of wholesale racial fusions seems to involve a serious underestimate of the zsthetic instincts. Lastly, although Mr. Wells has keenly perceived the spiritual value of a temporary retreat from society, it may be doubted whether he does not purchase its advantages at too high a cost. The solitary voyages of his Samurai would assuredly lead to a high death-rate among them, and though one type of mind was thereby strengthened, another would be unhinged. The rule, in short, seems too rigid for the variety, and too cramping for the freedom, of man, both of which Mr. Wells is elsewhere anxious to appreciate. But Mr. Wells, on the whole, shows a wisdom far superior to that of former Utopists in not seeking to construct out of the imperfect materials which alone the actual can furnish a static order which shall be, and if possible remain eternally, perfect. He aims rather at laying down the prin- ciples of an order which shall be capable of pro- gressively growing towards perfection; and so it may well be that in his ideal society men will be less reluctant than now to learn from experience. ECs Sans THERMODYNAMICS. Thermodynamik. By Dr. W. Voigt. Vol. ii. Pp. xii+370. (Sammulung Schubert, xlviii.) (Leipzig : G. J. Goschen, 1904.) Diagrammes et Surfaces thermodynamiques. By J. W. Gibbs. Translated by G. Ray, of Dijon, with an introduction by B. Brunhes, of Clermont. Pp. 86. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1903.) HE second volume of ‘‘ Thermodynamik ”’ deals essentially with applications. It is divided into two parts, devoted to thermochemical changes and thermoelectric changes respectively. Under the first heading are included changes of phase of a single substance, which occupy the first 168 pages. In this connection we have sections dealing with Van der Waals’s formula, steam and engines, the equilibrium of an atmosphere of water vapour, and the Hertzian adiabatics. The next chapter deals with phases formed of more than one component, the properties of binary mixtures occupying about 80 pages, and those of a system with more than two components being treated subsequently. The part dealing with thermoelectric changes contains a good bit of introductory matter on electrostatics. In the third chapter of this part the properties of black-body radiation are discussed at much length. The subject of thermodynamics can be defined in various ways. In its most restricted sense it deals exclusively with the first and second laws and direct NO. 1867, vol. 72] gas deductions from them, in just the same way that dynamics deals with direct deductions from the laws of motion. But the name thermodynamics is often used to include all phenomena directly or indirectly associated with heat, and it is in a fairly broad sense in this respect that Dr. Voigt deals with the subject. A good many of the formule are based more or less on experiment or reasoning not directly connected with the two laws of thermodynamics. Thus, for example, in the chapter on radiation the only piece of work which can be regarded as thermodynamical in the narrower interpretation is the prooi of the equation by which Stefan’s law is deduced from the formule for radiation pressure. But addition to this we have here a general discussion of radiation based electrodynamical considerations, Wien’s law, Planck’s law of mixture, and Kirchhoff’s theorem. The relation between the black radiation and wave-length is in no way deducible directly from the first and second laws. These examples may be taken as affording some indication of the extended scope of the book. Passing to matters of detail, the author is to be congratulated on the lucid way in which he clears up many points usually regarded as obscure. We may instance the detailed discussion of the thermodynamical potential of a gas-mixture (§ 69), a point which receives scanty attention in many books we have seen. The author’s task is made easier by the fact that most of the higher applications of thermodynamics deal with equilibrium. Now, whether we deduce the conditions of equilibrium from making the available energy a minimum, the entropy a maximum, or by any other equivalent hypo- thesis, the variation of the function selected must in general vanish to the first order, so that the conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium (apart from stability) are deducible from the equations of reversible thermo- dynamics. Very little is said in this book about irreversible phenomena, and this is perhaps fortunate owing to the great difficulty of dealing with these phenomena in a clear and logical way. The kind of impression which a beginner is likely to form in reading about irreversible thermodynamics may be exemplified by the following three apparently contradictory statements :—‘* The increase of entropy is dQ/T.”’ ‘“ The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.’’ ‘‘ For a cyclic irreversible cycle in on [aQ/T=3 Proposed Magnetic and Allied Observations during the Total Solar Eclipse on August 30 IN response to my appeal for and allied observations during the coming total solar eclipse, cooperative work will be conducted at stations distributed practically along the entire belt of totality and also at outside stations, nearly every civilised nation participating. i These observations will afford a splendid opportunity for further testing the results already obtained. All those NO. 1867, VOL. 72] simultaneous magnetic who are able to cooperate are invited to participate in this important work. ; The scheme of work proposed embraces the following :— (1) Simultaneous magnetic observations of any or all of the elements according to instruments at the observer's disposal, every minute from August 29, 22h., to August 30, 4h., Greenwich mean astronomical time. [To ensure the highest degree of accuracy attainable, the observer should begin work early enough to have everything in complete readiness in proper time. See precautions taken in previous eclipse work as explained in the journal Terrestrial Magnetism (vol. v., p. 146, and vol. vii., p. 16). It is essential, as shown by past experi- ence, that the same observer make the readings through- out the entire interval.] (2) At magnetic observatories, all necessary precautions should be taken so that the self-recording instruments will be in good operation, not only during the proposed interval, but also for some time before and after, and eye readings should be taken in addition wherever it be convenient. [It is recommended that, in general, the magnetographs be run on the usual speed throughout the interval, and that, if a change in the recording speed be made, every precaution possible be taken to guard against instrumental changes likely to affect the continuity of the base lines.] (3) Atmospheric electricity observations should be made to the extent possible by the observer's equipment and personnel at his disposal. (4) Meteorological observations in accordance with the observer’s equipment should be made at convenient periods (as short as possible) throughout the interval. It is suggested that, at least, temperatures be read every fifth minute (directly after the magnetic reading for that minute). (5) Observers in the belt’ of totality are requested to take the magnetic reading every fifteen seconds during the time of totality, and to read temperatures as frequently as possible. (6) At those stations where the normal diurnal variation cannot be obtained from self-recording instruments, it is desirable to make the necessary observations for this pur- pose on as many days as possible before and after the day of the eclipse, and to extend the interval of observations given above if conditions permit. In general, those who will have self-recording instruments have decided to run them for at least: eight days before and after the day of the eclipse. : It is hoped that observers will send full reports of their work to me as soon as possible for incorporation in the complete monograph on this subject to be published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. L.A Department Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., July 15. BavuEr. British Fruit Growing. IN your remarks on p. 297 (July 27) on the above sub- ject, you mention “‘ the diversity of yield from farms in the same neighbourhood ... due presumably to differ- ences of shelter and aspect.’’ It is a remarkable thing that, so far as I know, nothing has ever been done to find out and publish the most suitable localities, as regards soil and climate, for orchard planting. It is a question of very great complexity, and can only be dealt with properly by officials appointed for that purpose; but its importance in fruit culture is so ebvious that a consider- able expenditure would be well repaid. Few people have any idea of the great climatic differences in localities within even a few hundreds cf yards ! This house is on the scuth slope of the long range of Lower Greensand hills which runs parallel with the Chalk range the whole length of Kent from west to east. At this point the slope rises steeply from 200 feet above sea-level to 500 feet, my house being about 350 feet. TI have carefully observed the effects of frost, &e., for the last six years, and it appears to me that the variations in temperature in the vertical limits mentioned are much greater than would be expected. Up to the 4oo-feet con- tour line the climate is singularly equable, which is proved not only by daily thermometrical observations, but by the AucusT 10, 1905 | NATURE 343 fact that such tender plants as Cistus purpureus, Lam., Cheiranthus mutabilis, L’Hérit., and many others have survived the last six winters unprotected; while large bushes of Laurustinus, Euonymus japonicus, bay, Xc., were evidently little, if at all, injured by the terrible winter of 1895. Yet, even within the limits of my own grounds, with a rise of only 35 feet up to the 4oo-feet conteur line, there is a marked difference of climate. On November 27, 1904, in the upper part of the garden, dahlias planted within 4 feet of a high wall facing south were blackened by frost, while in the lower garden those in the open border were uninjured. The difference between the climate of this place and the Public Gardens at Maidstone is fairly shown by the follewing comparative statement, the temperatures from the latter having been taken when I chanced to pass the place where they are put up, and therefore not selected :— Max. in Min. in Min. on Range May 11, 1904 shade shade grass in shade Ulcombe.., 50°0 39°5 355 (corrected) 10°5 Maidstone 56'0 380 ROI} Weed | USO) May 28 to 30, 1905 Ulcombe, 28th 67°6 47°5 438 20'1 m0 29th 70°6 570 44°5 13°6 me 30th 76'0 52°0 48°0 24°0 Maidstone, 28th 76°0 430 39°0 37°0 “5 29th 810 50°'0 42°0 39'0 *) 30th +850 5O;Oh es e A230) 43/0 The maxima in both cases are those of the previous day. Maidstone is seven miles from here, and lies in the valley of the Medway. Yet, in spite of the fact that the thermometer, even on the grass, has not been below 32° since April 3,’ we are no better off for apples than our neighbours! The apples did not begin to flower until the end of April, so some other cause than frost must be found to account for the bad crop. This is an example of the difficulties of the question; other complications are the nature, mechanical and chemical, of the soil; period of blooming of different varieties of the same fruit; shelter from the generally prevailing cold winds in spring, &c. Still, some effort should be made to ascertain the conditions under which, on an average of years, the best crops can be obtained, and so avoid the waste of time, money, and land that has been incurred in hundreds of instances by plant- ing orchards in unsuitable localities, while hundreds of acres of suitable land are used for corn and other crops that would grow as well elsewhere. ALFRED O. WALKER. near Maidstone. Uleombe Place, Islands for Weather Forecasting Purposes. Ix Nature for June 1 is a very suggestive article by Dr. Lockyer under the above heading, in which specific reference is made to the meteorology of Western Australia. It is becoming increasingly evident that the Indian Ocean and its neighbouring continents form one of the most interesting fields in the world for the study of meteor- ology, and as the officer-in-charge of an important section of this region I am most anxious to assist in this study in any way possible. Our progress will be slow if we start with incorrect theories, and my present object is to point out the probable inaccuracy of a few of the funda- mental concepts, and to indicate briefly a few of the observed facts which seem to have a bearing upon the whole matter. 5 There is little or no rain in Perth of a monsoonal character. The wettest months are May, June, July, and August, during which time the prevailing winds are not from the S. or S.W. Rain is almost always associated with the passage of a ‘‘low’’ along the south coast setting in with the wind at N. or N.W., and finishing when the wind veers to S.W. and S. : There is a tendency throughout the year for the winds to alternate from the eastward during the forenoon to the S. or S.W. in the afternoon. This is most marked in the summer months, when the prevailing feature of the weather 1 Vet severe frost with great damage t> crops in the Dartford, Rocheste-, and Ho» districts; also at Maidstone and Sevenoaks on May 22-3, is reported in the Aext Messenger of May 27. ; NO. 1867, VOL. 72] map is a ‘‘high”’ stretching along the ocean south of our ccastline. How far south or west this extends I cannot say. The prevalence of southerly winds in the summer time is probably due to this anticyclonic area, and Fig. 2 on p. 111 is therefore somewhat misleading. As the sun moves north the high pressure follows it, and in June and July forms a belt across the centre of Australia. It is, however, constantly on the move from west to east. A ‘‘high’’ will generally during these months strike the west coast about, or to the north of, Perth, and gradually work across to the eastern States. As it passes our wind sets in strongly from the eastward, gradually veering more northerly. By the time the ““high ’’ reaches, say, Adelaide, our wind is N.N.E., the isobars are running nearly parallel to the west coast, and we are looking out for a ‘‘low’’ to approach from the ocean. As a general rule, the ‘‘ low "’ is first heralded from Cape Leeuwin, the extreme S.W. corner of Australia, but rain sets in with a N. and N.W. wind all along our west coast as far as the N.W. cape. It is heaviest in the extreme S.W. The ‘“‘low’”’ generally passes south of Cape Leeuwin and across the bight to Tasmania. So long as our wind, and especially that at the Leeuwin, has any northerly component, we are pretty certain to have more rain, but as soon as it reaches W.S.W., and especially S.W., we anticipate clearing weather. Whence these ‘‘ lows’? come before they reach us is therefore a question of great importance. I believe the usual theory upon this point is incorrect. That is, that these ‘‘lows’’ are northerly extensions of the Antarctic low-pressure belt, which sweep past the Cape of Good Hope, and after the lapse of a few days reach Cape Leeuwin, and so travel along the south coast of Australia. I think this is incorrect for several reasons. In the first place, I have endeavoured to trace notable storms either forward from the Cape to Australia, or backwards from Australia to the Cape, and have not been able to find any connection whatever. Secondly, from theoretical con- siderations, a rotating body of air in the latitude of the Cape would possess a sufficient southerly component to its motion of translation to carry it well south of Australia. Thirdly, the more direct evidence stated in the next paragraphs. During the summer months, January, February, and March, there is a class of storm which strikes our N.W. coast and then travels across the State in a S. or S.S.E. direction, emerging in the Great Australian Bight, and travelling thence in an E.S.E. or S.E. direction towards Tasmania. Before striking the N.W. coast it can some- times be traced from the extreme north of the State moving towards the S.W., down the coast, but keeping well out to sea, then gradually recurving, and striking the coast about lat. 20°. The existence of this class of storm and its approximate path is now beyond doubt, though until recently it was ignored in practical Australian meteor- ology. I think, however, it would now be safe to say that it dominates the weather of at least the western and southern portions of Australia during the summer months, though on account of the paucity of stations in its track our knowledge of the various conditions is at present elementary. It is important to bear in mind that the study of Western Australian meteorology is in its infancy. Not until the last few years was the importance of this class of disturbance recognised, and therefore any theories which had been formed require to be modified. During the last two years evidence seems to me to be accumulating that this particular class of storm persists throughout the year, and is, in fact, the dominating influence in Australian meteorology. If this be so, it can easily be seen how profoundly older theories are affected, and how necessary it becomes to make a fresh start. Even during the summer the disturbances do not all follow along the same track. Sometimes they strike the coast near or even south of the N.W. cape, and occasionally they just miss the coast, but can be traced, following it down, but keeping out to sea, and eventually rounding Cape Leeuwin and behaving like an ordinary winter storm. It is this latter path to which I wish to direct special attention. In the winter, as a general rule, the first intimation of an approaching “‘low’’ is obtained from Cape Leeuwin, 344 NAD OLE [AUGUST 10, 1905 and the storm centre invariably passes to the south of that spot. It was but natural, therefore, to suppose that the storm came from the W. or W.S.W. of the Leeuwin, and the winter and summer disturbances have been regarded as two distinct varieties. Within the last two years, how- ever, circumstances have been noted which seem to show that there is no real distinctian between the two. In July, 1904, I first directed public attention to the fact that certain of our winter storms could be distinctly traced down the west coast, affecting N.W. districts first, and then travelling in a S. or S.S.E. direction. I have gone somewhat fully into this matter in my ‘‘ notes’? on the climate of Western Australia for the month of July, r904, and when once the fact has been indicated it becomes easy to find numbers of cases when winter storms can be seen to have a considerable southerly component of motion. Only a few days ago, for instance, a disturbance struck the N.W. coast in about lat. 20°, and travelled in a S.E. direction across the State, giving rain just along the fringe of our most eastern settlements, probably much heavier in the interior desert, and causing a heavy downpour in South Australia from the centre to the south coast. Again on May 20 a disturbance approached the N.W. cape, causing rain there, next day being definitely located in the ocean a little to the S.W. of Perth, and certainly consider- ably north of Cape Leeuwin, then continued to travel down the coast, rounded the Leeuwin, and behaved thence- forward just like any other winter disturbance. There is, therefore, plenty of evidence that ‘* lows’ do travel down the Indian Ocean, even in the winter months, in a southerly or S.E. direction towards Cape Leeuwin, and probably all, or nearly all, of our storms come in this way. If this be so, the charts on p. 111 are misleading. Our rain certainly does not come mainly with a S.W. or S. wind, nor is there (probably) any stationary ‘‘ high ”’ as marked. Instead there is a series of ‘* highs ’’ moving towards our west coast, broken up by a series of ‘* lows,” which pass between and make for the extreme S.W. corner of Australia. The weather which we specially desire to predict comes with these ‘“* lows.’’ Several things follow from this. One is that the Amsterdam and St. Paul Islands are far too much to the southward to be of any use to us for practical forecasting purposes, though a few years’ records from there would be exceedingly valuable. Another is that Dr. Lockyer’s theory about the S.E. trades and S.W. monsoon requires some modification, though it is very probable that the Indian and Australian weathers are inter-dependent and require to be studied together. A third is that Sir John Eliot’s proposal for an Empire study of meteorology ought to be acted upon as soon as possible, and all our observations coordinated to some definite purpose. A fourth is that, failing this, Australian meteorologists ought to make every effort to bring about the establishment of a central Australian bureau for the study of scientific meteorology, as recom- mended at the recent conference held in Adelaide. W. ERNeEst COOKE. Perth Observatory, Western Australia, July 3. DUTY-FREE ALCOHOL. Hew far the trade in synthetic colours and fine chemicals has been lost to the country through the heavy customs restrictions placed upon the use of alcoho! is a question which has been agitating manu- facturers for many years past. On the one hand, we are told that the entire chemical trade has been diverted from our shores because of the high cost of alcohol; on the other, that the alcohol question has very little to do with the matter. After the agitation for the use of duty-free alcohol had been going on for some years, and ow ing to its increasing intensity and to the pertinacity of a few, the Government in the autumn of last year appointed a departmental committee to take evidence in order to find out whether the high -duty on alcohol really was the factor which caused the practical extinction of the aniline dye industry and accounted for our inability to found an industry in fine synthetical products. The NO. 1867, voL. 72] committee commenced to take evidence on November 8, 1904, and finished on February 17 of this year. More is heard about the loss of the synthetic colour trade to the country than about the loss of any other industry, or about the failure to establish new indus- tries which flourish on Centinental or American soil. The loss of the coal-tar colour industry is variously ascribed to incompetence on the part of our manu- facturers and their failure to realise the importance of employing—and paying for—highly trained scien- tific chemists, to our patent laws, to trade protection abroad, and to the excessive duty charged upon alcohol in this country. The report with ‘which we are at present dealing has to do with the last question —duty-free alcohol. A careful perusal of the ques- tions to and the answers of the witnesses before the commission, which included most of the well-known names in the coal-tar colour industry in this country, does not convince one that this special industry has been lost to the country owing to the high cost of alcohol. The amount of alcohol used at the present day for preparing the dyes is not very large. At one time many of the dyes were sold as alcoholic extracts, and alcohol was somewhat largely used in the preparation of the products. Since the introduction of the azo dyes, however, alcohol is not nearly so largely em- ployed as formerly. There are, indeed, certain dyes in which the methyl or ethyl radical is introduced during the process of manufacture, and these require the employ ment of methyl or ethyl alcohol in their preparation, and, of course, in this case the alcohol cannot be recovered; for example, the dyes in which dimethyl aniline is the starting product. British manufacturers who desire to male these colours import all the dimethyl or diethyl aniline from abroad. It came out, however, in the evidence that one large aniline dye company which desired to manufacture dimethyl aniline obtained Government sanction to employ methyl alcohol mixed with one- twentieth of 1 per cent. of mineral naphtha—* a con- dition which the company stated would suit their pur- poses.’’ Although from the evidence before the com- mission it appeared that there was ‘‘a_ substantial profit to be made upon the manufacture of dimethyl aniline,’’ for some reason or other it was never manufactured. Reviewing the evidence of the different persons con- nected with the coal-tar dye industry, one is brought to the conclusion that, although the high price of alcohol has militated against the success of the in- dustry, yet there are other even more potent factors which have prevented the industry being successful. Manufacturers, with a few isolated exceptions, have not even been successful in meeting Continental com- petition in dyes which do not require the use of alcohol. Prof. Green probably came very close to the truth when he said, in reply to a question as to what he considered the cause of the decline of the coal-tar colour industry :— ““They (the manufacturers) did not realise the great importance of research; the great importance of theory. They expected to see an immediate result from experiments, and if they did not get an imme- diate result they considered that they were wasting their money. They did not employ a sufficient num- ber of research chemists, and they did not pay those research chemists they had to encourage them to re- main. There may be other contributory causes, such as the patent laws and this question of the spirit.” There seems to be a strong consensus of opinion” that in the xylonite and gunpowder manufactory leave to use pure alcohol is much to be desired. Xylonite when made with methylated spirit is in- clined to darken, and there is thus a difficulty in AUGUST 10, 1905 | NATORE 345 making materials which should be white or ivory coloured, In the gunpowder manufactory, if pure alcohol were used to dehydrate the material the dangerous drying process by heat could be done away with, because the material moistened with alcohol can be directly placed in the mixers containing acetone, X&c., the moistness due to alcohol not interfering ‘with the process of manufacture, whereas that due to water is harmful. For making so-called ‘ con- densed *’ powders which are totally dissolved in the solvent the action of methylated spirit is objection- able; as one of the witnesses stated, ‘‘ you cannot control the surface of the grain with a methylated- ether mixture in the same way that you can with a pure alcohol-ether.’? Yo a large extent the lack of initiative on the part of British powder manufac- turers may be indirectly attributed to the high cost of alcohol. Some lacquer manufacturers and users of lacquers state that lacquers made from pure alcohol are very much superior to those made from methyl- ated spirit. Mr. Bagley, the witness trom Messrs. Samuel Heath and Sons, the largest brass-founders in the world, stated that, although they are easily able to compete with Continental manufacturers so far as their brass ware is concerned, their goods are often not acceptable because of the want of durability and finish of the lacquering. The lacquer costs some- thing about 4s. per gallon, but they can, by paying 325., , obtain a hequer made with absolute alcohol, and this is as good as the best foreign lacquer. The wit- ness said he was ashamedi to have to confess that they could not obtain the fine finish which the Germans produced, and, as regards the French importers, they absolutely refused to take lacquered articles, but bought them unlacquered and finished them themselves. This witness was of the opinion that the foreign lacquers were made with pure alcohol, but it was subsequently pointed out by the chairman that even abroad it was denatured. On the other hand, Mr. Gardiner, the manager of the firm of Messrs. A. Lambley and Sons, said that they net caly could make lacquers as good as Continental manufacturers, but that they had a large export trade and had no difficulty in meeting Continental compe- eens they very rarely used pure alcohol for making lacquers. From the extremely contradictory evidence of these two witnesses it would appear that it is more a matter of method or knack in the manufacture than of methylated or pure alcohol which determines the quality of the lacquers. There seems very little doubt but that the manu- facture of fine chemicals and synthetic perfumes is considerably interfered with owing to the British manufacturer not being able to use duty-free alcohol. When methylated alcohol is employed for crystallising the substances there is invariably a peculiar and dis- agreeable odour attending the finished product. But if the manufacturer, in order to get over this diffi- culty, employs duty-paid absolute alcohol, the in- creased cost of manufacture is prohibitive. It was stated in evidence, for example, that with regard to the manufacture of phenacetin ‘‘the duty on the spirit would come to r4ol. on tool. worth of the article as imported.”’ Chloral hydrate is another substance which cannot profitably be made in this country. In the manu- facture of ether from methylated spirit Mr. David Howard stated that “if we might have pure methyl alcohol and pure ethyl alcohol, it would be a beautiful thing to make ether of. But the result of the ketones and other bodies in it is that the sulphuric acid gets in a most horrible mess, and we get abominable com- pounds which I have never been able to excite the No 1867, VOL. 72] interest of any chemist in yet; but they are a very great disadvantage.”’ Those connected with the motor-car industry and the use of alcohol for motor engines in place of petrol seemed to consider that very much better results can be obtained with pure alcohol than with methylated spirit. A perusal of the evidence leads to the con- clusion that further experimenting in this direction would be advisable. One is certainly inclined to the opinion that the presence of bases would be harmful, as these would probably on combustion be converted into products which would corrode the metal work. Of course, if alcohol is to be employed for motor pur- poses it would of necessity require to be denatured, because it would then be sold in large and small quantities at every little oil-shop in the kingdom. If motor-engineers wish to build alcohol engines they will have to experiment with all sorts of denaturants, and, doubtless, the excise authorities would aid them in their endeavours. In reading through the report one is struck by the repeated reference which is made to the relative cost of pure duty-free alcohol in the United Kingdom and in Germany; British manufacturers do not seem able to compete in the manufacture of alcohol with their German rivals even when working under equal con- ditions. Further, it is a well-known fact amongst chemists that it is practically impossible to get really good absolute alcohol of British manufacture. It is a remarkable fact that traces of impurities which one can barely find by analysis interfere very much with the smooth working of reactions in which alcohol is employed. This fact came out again and again in the evidence of witnesses before the committee. Those on the committee who were there to look after the interests of the excise endeavoured with great skill to shake the evidence on this point, explaining that if the quantity of an impurity was only a fraction of a per cent., it surely could not possibly cause all the mischief attributed to it. The invariable reply was, the product when made with absolute alcohol has such and such properties, but it is either im- possible or a matter of extreme difficulty to obtain the same results with methylated spirit. On the other hand, in a good many cases it ap- peared that sufficient experimental work had not been tried. Methylated spirit had been condemned for manufacturing this or that article, but little or no attempt seemed to have been made to try spirit de- natured in other ways or to try the use of other sol- vents. By the Act of 1902 manufacturers were allowed to suggest other means of denaturing the alcohol, and in some cases at least the excise authorities had been very willing to aid them in their efforts. As a matter of fact, in manufacturing operations in Ger- many it is rare for absolute alcohol to be employed, the alcohol generally being denatured in a way which suits the particular manufacturer. Of course, where the use of pure alcohol is absolutely necessary the German has a much lower excise duty to compete with than the British manufacturer. That excise restrictions, the high duty on alcohol, and a consider- able amount of red tape have, in some cases, made the manufacture of certain products—so as to com- pete with the foreign manufacturer—almost an im- possibility there can be no doubt. But why that should hinder British manufacturers who manufac- ture products in which alcohol is not employed it is not easy to see. If instead of calling in an outside ‘“ expert’? (?) when an emergency arises the manufacturers were to employ a certain number of well-trained chemists, men who, after being on the staff for a short time, should be far and away superior to outside experts, there is but little doubt that fewer emergencies ~-ould 346 IAT OLE [AuGuST 10, 1905 [ arise and that a progressive and ever-improving con- cern would be the result. There was a great deal in what Dr. Nichols said in his presidential address to the Society of Chemical Industry—the quotation is from memory—t Never put up duplicate plant; no plant is so perfect that it cannot be improved; after a plant has been in use a short time certain points in which it may be improved are sure to be dis- covered.”’ So if we are to compete with foreign competition no process should be worked year after year by rule of thumb, otherwise manufacturers will find their pro- duct being pushed out of the market by a similar but improved product in which the brain has been the motive power for the thumb. It is very much to be hoped that now that the matter has been thoroughly threshed out the Govern- ment will step in and—while safeguarding its own interests and the sobriety of the worlers—it will aid manufacturers by all means in its enabling them to use a class of alcohol which will be suit- able to their special needs. F. Mottwo Perkin. power by | THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICA. OWARDS the end of last century it appeared as if England had lost her well earned supremacy in geologi- cal research in Africa. In Germany, elaborate treatises dealing sometimes with her own African colonies exclu- sively, and sometimes with that of neighbouring British territory, monthly and almost weekly appeared. French geologists, too, produced essay after essay on their African colonies and_posses- sions. Meanwhile, England Was apparently content to lag behind. It is fitting that the visit of the British Association to one of our most famous and most remote African colonies this year should witness the publi- cation of two geological works, of the highest scien- tific standing, written by our Own countrymen. Early this year, the comprehensive treatise by Mr. A. W. Rogers | on the geology of Cape Colony made its appearance. Now, a few months later, we have presented to us | the philosophic résumé of the geology of South Africa as a whole by Messrs. Hatch and Corstorphine. Both volumes supply a long-felt want. In their method and conciseness both are equally British. In a work treating with the richly metalliferous— regions of the Transvaal it might have been expected that questions of economic interest would occupy many pages. It is an agreeable surprise to find that this is not the case. On the contrary, the geology | of South Africa is here described in a thoroughly | scientific manner, clearly and concisely worded. All essential details are brought within a compass of 312 pages of text. In the opening chapter, on the history of research, 1 “he Geology of Scuth Africa.” By F. H. Hatch and G. S. Corstor- Prine Mp. xiv+336. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905) Price 21s. net. NC. 1867, VOL. 72] ample recognition is given to A. G, Bain, the father of South African geology, and also to Stow. More recent workers cannot complain that their investi- gations have been neglected. The book is divided into five parts. Part i. deals with the pre-IXarroo rocks, in which those of southern Cape Colony are described in section i., and those of northern Cape Colony, the Transvaal, &c., in section ii. This separation into sections becomes necessary owing to the want of similarity in the succession of the pre-Cape rocks in the two regions. The authors naturally give somewhat more space to the sequence in the Transvaal, more especially to a description of the upper division of the Witwaters- rand system, which includes the famous ‘‘ Banket.”’ It is interesting to find that the stratigraphical posi- tion and age of this well known deposit remain un- selved, except that the authors consider the age to be vastly newer than the Archaan rocks and greatly older than the Table Mountain Sandstone. The complicated nature of the stratigraphy of South Africa, other than that of the peninsula, will be gathered from the following tables :— North of Cape Colony Transvaal Dwyka Conglomerate Dwyka Conglomerate Unconformity Cnconformity Matsap Series Waterberg Series Onconformity Onconformity Griqua Town, | Pretona Series Campbell Rand and Keis | Dolomite ard Black Reef Series Series Onconfoi mity CUnconformity Volcanic Series Ventersdorp Series Onconforniity Onconformity Witwatersrand Scries Unconformity Namaqualand Series | Swaziland Series This table opens up a vista of infinite possibilities. The Karroo rocks are adequately dealt with in part ii., but in this and _ elsewhere Rhodesia, AUGUST 10, 1905] NEA TROT: 347 Bechuanaland, and Natal receive scant notice. The coastal system, including the Uitenhage and Umtavuna Cretaceous rocks, profusely illustrated with typical fossils, occupies part iil. The superficial deposits, somewhat summarily dis- missed, form a separate chapter. Many of the interesting problems connected with them are not even hinted at. A classification by chemical compo- sition is adopted The igneous and volcanic rocks, which take so large a share in South African stratigraphy, are de- scribed in connection with the systems with which they are more intimately associated. Part iv. briefly discusses the igneous rocks of doubtful position. Too much space has here been allotted to the diamond-bearing deposits. Part v. discusses the correlation of the South African strata. It contains much information guardedly ex- pressed. This portion possesses the almost unique virtue of stating the arguments in favour of the corre- lation adopted “by the authors. Few geologists will now dissent from the view that the Witwatersrand series is older than the Table Mountain Sandstone and newer than the complex of rocks termed Archaean. Latter-day geologists will miss a chapter on struc- tural and dynamical geology. The authors, and many will no doubt agree with them, have eschewed the problems entailing the use of modern physio- graphical and dynamical terminology. In dealing with rocks and fossils they have, however, occasionally been compelled to drop into technical language. Thus we met with Cardium bullen- newtom, Eriphyla rupert-jonesi among fossils; while among minerals and rocks several of those mentioned wordily lengthen out what, to the general reader, would otherwise be a welcome page. The authors have certainly succeeded in their self-imposed task ‘* to correlate and systematise the valuable results of both official and private work.’’ They are right in considering that what we know of South African geology lacks coherence. | The best efforts, such as ‘that of the authors, must for a long time be regarded as tentative and by no means final. The volume is profusely and admirably illustrated with photographs of scenery and rock sections. Two coloured geological maps accompany the text, one of South Africa between Bechuanaland and the east coast and the Transvaal and the south coast, and one of the Transvaal. It is to be hoped that the hali- mourning adopted for the Karroo system will not be perpetuated. Economically it is false; artistically it is ruinous. W. G. NOTES. THE meeting of the French Association for the Advance- ment of Science was opened on August 3 at Cherbourg under the presidency of Prof. Giard. WE regret to learn that Prof. L. botany in the University the Royal Academy Ucele. Errera, professor of of Brussels, and member of of Belgium, died on August 1 at We understand that the editorship of the ‘‘ Fauna of British India,’’ rendered vacant by the death of Dr. W. T. Blanford, has been offered by the Secretary of State for India to Lieut.-Colonel C. Bingham. A Reuter telegram from Rio de Janeiro says that the Latin American Scientific Congress was opened on August 7, delegates from all the South American Republics being present. NOmc 67, Vor. 72) Tue sixth International pology is to take place in Congress of Criminal Anthro- Turin on April 26 next under the presidency. of Signor Bianchi, Minister of Public Instruction. Pror. Ronatp Ross and Prof. Boyce, of the Liver- will sail for New Orleans with the epidemic of pool School of Tropical Medicine, on Saturday to yellow fever in that city. assist in dealing WE regret to see the announcement that Mr. Alexander Bell, father of Dr. Alexander Bell, werker in educational science, especially in relation to the of deaf-mutes, died at Washington on August 6. Graham and an active study Mr. CuristopHeR Hearn, surgery in University College, London, and a fermer presi- Emeritus professor of clinical dent of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, died suddenly on Tuesday, August 8. Mr. Heath was the author of several standard works on surgical subjects. Tne -Amherst College expedition for the cbservation of the eclipse of the sun on August 30 has departed for Tripoli, where the the edge of the desert. The members of the expedition are Prof. David Todd, Mrs. Tedd, and Mr. E. A. Thompson, and their attention will be chiefly devoted to the and of intra-Mercurial instruments will be mounted on and Miss the photography — of corona planet regions. Tue Treasury has renewed for a further period of five years the annual grant of sool. to the British School at Athens. The promoters of the movement hope that an influentially signed grant to British School at Rome may be also favourably considered. petition for a similar the Pror. Gurpo Cora informs us that the earthquake dis- at the Pola Hydrographic Station on July 23 (see p. 298) were also recorded at the Osservatorio Nimeniano of Florence at 3.50 the same date. Father Guido Alfani, from an examination of the grams, expressed the opinion that a severe and protracted turbances registered a.m. on seismo- earthquake must have taken place at an estimated distance cf abeut 6800 kilometres (4225 miles). WE Bichat, notice with regret the dean of the faculty death on July 26 of Prof. of sciences at the University of Nancy. Prof. Bichat was also director of the Electro- technical Institute of Nancy, and took a very active part in all efferts for the improvement of secondary and higher education. Tue research fellowship in chemistry offered by the Wershipful Company of Salters, and tenable in the re- search laboratory of the Pharmaceutical Society, has this year been awarded to Miss Nora Renouf, who has been engaged in research work for the past two years in the society's laboratories. The Salters’ fellowship is of the annual value of 1ool., and was founded with the view of encouraging the application of the newest methods of scientific to the elucidation of pharmacological problems. chemistry of Anatomy was opened in Three hundred re- Tue International Congress the morning of August 7 at Geneva presentatives of the principal universities of Europe and including office-bearers of the five great anatomical associations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. One hundred and fifteen papers on various scientific subjects were put down for reading. The congress will conclude te-day with a banquet given by the city of Geneva to the delegates. The congress has accepted an invitation to assemble at Boston in 1907. America were present, 348 THE Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for June contains two papers by Mr. J. E. Stead, F.R.S., one dealing with micro-metallography in general, and _ the other with the special processes for detecting phosphorised portions in iron and steel. Tue two articles in the July issue of the Irish Naturalist are devoted to local subjects, the Rev. Canon Norman com- pleting his list of Irish ostracod crustaceans, while Mr. R. Ll. Prager discusses the distribution of fumitories in Ireland. WE have to acknowledge the receipt of a complete copy, with the plates, of the first part of vel. lvii. of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy. Many of the papers contained in this part have been already noticed in our columns, as they appeared in the monthly issues. WE have received a fasciculus of ‘* Illustrations of the Zoology of the Investigator,’’ containing plates of crustaceans (part xi.) and fishes (part viii.). Special interest attaches to the plate of the crab Lithodes agassizi on account of the large size and peculiar form of this species, and also to the plates of deep-sea fishes, a few of which have only recently been described. Mr. J. E. Rosson continues his catalogue of the Lepi- doptera of Northumberland and Durham in vol. xvy., part i., of the Natural Transactions of the aforesaid counties, dealing in this instance with the groups Pyra- lidina and Tortricina. Both these sections of the Micro- lepidoptera are but little studied by collectors, and the author confesses to considerable difficulty in dealing with the second of the two. In No. Museum 1410 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Mr. E. Linton describes cysts of a cestode worm from a_ bottle-nosed porpoise, which are regarded as indicating a new species of Tania. No. 1404 of the same publication contains the first part of a de- scription, by Mr. C. B. Wilson, of the North American parasitic copepod crustaceans of the family Caligidz. An certain account of the Argulidz has already appeared in the same journal; the members of the present group are regarded by the author as of the greatest possible ecological interest, so that the study of their life-history cannot fail to yield important results. ARTICLE 7 of vol. xx. of the Journal of the College of Science of Tokyo University contains an account by Dr. I. IJjima of the larva of an apparently new cestode worm which recently found infesting a Japanese woman in extraordinarily large numbers. This larva has been provisionally described as a new generic and specific type under the name of Pterocercoides prolifer. It is believed to be a member of the Bothriocephalus group characterised by the absence of ‘‘ bothria,’’ a feature probably common to Ligula, with which the Japanese cestode may prove to be nearly related. Was In a paper published in the fourth volume of series iii. of the Anales of the National Museum of Buenos Aires, Dr. F. Ameghino records the presence of a perforation in the astragalus of the badger, the other living mammals in which this feature is known to occur being the dasyure, the giant armadillo, and the mole. The same volume centains a paper by Mr. F. Lahille on a new type of scombroid fish from Argentine waters, which has been named (in a preliminary notice published a couple of years NO. 1867, VOL. 72] NATORE [ AUGUST 10, 1905 ago) Chenogastey holmbergi. This fish, of which an excel- lent coloured plate accompanies the memoir, is a member of the same group as the New Zealand Lepidothynnus and Gasterochisma, which inhabit the same latitude as Chubat. From the New Zealand forms Chenogaster differs by the united dorsal fins, while it is distinguished from Gastero- chisma by the small ventral fins and from Lepidothynnus by the presence of vomerine teeth. The three genera indicate a circumpolar Antarctic group. On a previous occasion a special notice was given in this Journal of Dr. Waite’s account of the nesting habits of the fighting fish (Betta pugnax), as observed in an aquarium. In the Records of the (vol. vi., part i.) Dr. Waite publishes a preliminary note of these habits in the allied paradise, or rainbow, fish (Polyacanthus opercularis), of which specimens have like- wise been successfully kept in captivity. After mention- ing that at the commencement of the breeding season the male assumes a gorgeous nuptial coloration, the author goes on to say that the nest of this species is simpler and flatter than that of the fighting fish, a difference probably due to the habit of the former of nesting beneath shelter. The first eggs are often laid in a small mass of bubbles, others being added later; in consequence of this the eggs are raised quite out of the water, and thus hatched. It may be added that, according to older views of nomenclature, the name Polyacanthus renders void that of Polacanthus, applied many years later to a British dinosaur. Australian Museum THE migrations and growth of plaice form the subject of a communication by Mr. A. Meek to vol. i., part ii., of the new of the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham. After referring to previous experiments and observations, the author states that during last year 483 plaice (inclusive of a few other flat-fishes) were caught, marked, and re- turned to the sea on the Northumberland coast. Of these fish 52 were recovered; and among this number only 2 series made conspicuous migrations, and only 7 may be said to have left the bays where they were liberated. Appar- ently, the small plaice on the Northumberland coast gradually travel from the sandy pools to the adjacent deeper water, where they spend the remainder of their immature condition. When four or five years old they migrate into the still deeper extra-territorial waters, and apparently show a constant tendency to reach increasing depths with advancing age. A RESTORATION of one of the huge Miocene American perissodactyles of the family Titanotheriidze is attempted by Prof. R. S. Lull in the July number of the American Naturalist, the species in question being a member of the genus or group Megacerops. The creature stands about 7 feet 4 inches at the withers, and measures rather more than 12 feet in length. The general proportions are those of a rhinoceros, although the limbs, probably to support the enormous weight of the body, are less angu- lated, and primitive features are displayed by the short- ness of the back and in the structure of the fore-foot. Indeed, if we are to accept Prof. Lull’s description of the latter, the definition of the group Perissodactyla requires modification, for the fore-foot of this titanothere is stated to be four-toed and symmetrical, with the main axis lying between the third and fourth digits after the artiodactyle fashion. As regards the nasal horns, which are branched at the summit, the author is inclined to believe, from the absence of groovings on the bone, that AUGUST 10, 1905 | NATURE 349 the basal portion (which is all now remaining) was clothed with skin during life, and that upon this were growths comparable to the horns of modern rhinoceroses. Pror. Atsert M. Reese, of the Syracuse University, has gone to Florida, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, says the Scientific American, to collect eggs of the alligator with which to work out its embryology ; subsequently he will spend some time at the biological laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of the Dry Tortugas studying the material he collects. Twenty-five years ago alligators existed in great abundance in the region ranging frem North Carolina to the Ric Grande of Texas, but as alligator leather became fashionable about that time the demand thus created has reduced the supply by at least go8 per cent. It that a may travel now from Jacksonville to Miami, Fla., without seeing a single It is estimated that 2,500,000 alligators were 1880 to 1894. is said person alligator. killed in Florida from Tue list of new garden plants for the year 1904 has been published as appendix iii. to the Kew Bulletin. This list not only affords information respecting new plants, but also gives official authentification to the names, thereby providing an accurate guide for horticulturists. A REVISION of the genus Zexmenia, prepared by Mr. of vel. xli. of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The genus is one of the helianthoid Composite restricted W. W. Jones, has been issued as No. 7 to tropical and subtropical America. | f : NatureE-stupy, so far as it is founded the four faculties of observation, deduction, memory, and structive imagination, is closely allied to the methods of Sherlock Holmes; such is the gist of an article by Mr. Lamborn in the May number of the Nature-study Review, and teachers in search of a novelty in nature-study may on con- be referred to the example which is quoted. A short article on observation bee-hives for the schoolroom, by Miss Comstock, suggests another line of work. There is also much truth in the reasons which Mr. L. A. Hatch assigns for failure in teaching the subject, the first and foremost being a want of the observational instinct. Tue Indian Forester for June contains many interesting articles relating to forestry and kindred subjects. A new species of Diospyros (D. Kanjilali) is described and figured by J. F. Duthie. An article on the prohibition of grass burning and its effects on the game of the country will be read with interest by both forester and sportsman. Another valuable illustrated article, entitled *‘ Some Facts about Gutta Percha,’”’ by Mr. A. M. Burn Murdoch, contains a great amount of useful information, especially regarding the rubber trees of the Federated Malay States. The article gives a very clear idea concerning the species and their distribution, the adopted for their protection, together with harvesting, manufacture, and properties of the gutta percha. There are many other papers and together with matters of general interest, which will repay perusal by those interested in forestry and its sister subjects. measures reviews, Yur bread-minded view which the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes of its function for instituting inquiries is well exemplified in three bulletins which have been received from the Bureau of Plant Industry. In Bulletin No. 68 Mr. A. S. Hitchcock presents a carefully prepared classification of North American species of Agrostis. The author, in the preparation of this memoir, has consulted all the large herbaria in Europe; the number of species, NOs, TN67, VOL. 72) = including three new to science, is limited to twenty-seven, and these, together with the principal varieties, are fully described illustrated. A of exterminating Johnson grass by means of a root-digger is explained by Mr. W. J. Spillman in Bulletin No. 72, and the problem of range management in the State of Washington is dis- cussed by Mr. J. S. Cotton in Bulletin No. 75. The latter pamphlet deals with the protection and seeding of land which had been over-grazed by nomadic stockmen. Experiments on land situated at an altitude of 5000 feet demonstrated that Timothy, brome-grasses, and tall fescue and method would be found suitable for sowing on these mountain pastures. We have received a copy of the year-book of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute for 1904, containing hourly observations of air pressure and temperature for Christiania, in addition to observations made three times daily, and monthly and yearly summaries at a number of stations in Norway. There valuable appendix showing the departures of the monthly and yearly values from the normal at a number of stations for each year from 1874 to 1904. Since 1903 the station at Bergen has undertaken the duties of weather prediction and storm warnings for the western part of Norway. This arrange- ment Prof. Mohn, director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, to devote more attention to general climatology, and is conducive to more rapid dis- other is also a allows semination of forecasts of the depressions arriving from the Atlantic. Tur Annuaire météorologique of the Royal Observatory of Belgium for 1905, published under the superintendence of M. A. Lancaster, director of the Belgian Meteorological Service, contains a large amount of useful information relating to that country in particular and to meteor- ological science generally. For sixty-eight years the Annuaire referred to astronomy and meteorology com- bined, but since 1901 each of these sciences is separately dealt with. Some 240 pages of the work now in question contain valuable data relating to the variability of atmo- spheric pressure and rainfall for each month since 1833, and to the frequency of sunshine since 1886. The follow- ing contributions are worthy of special notice :—(t) A dis- cussion of the late spring and early autumn frosts by Dr. Vanderlinden, containing valuable particulars as to the conditions under which they generally occur, and the possibility of foretelling their occurrence. (2) A biblio- graphy of meteorological treatises by M. L. Vincent from the earliest The author gives most attention to general treatises, but anyone wishing to study special subjects, e.g. marine, agricultural, and medical meteor- ology, or weather prediction, will find it an invaluable guide. (3) A collection of meteorological and physical constants and conversion tables which will found exceedingly useful for general reference. times. be Captain H. G. Lyons contributes to the Geographical Journal for August summary of the dimensions of the Nile and its basin. The length of the Nile is given usually as 5400 kilometres (3355 stat. miles) to the centre of Lake Victoria, or 6000 kilometres (3728 stat. miles) for the continuous water-way from the source of the Kagera to the sea; the area of its basin is given about 2,900,000 square (1,119,737 Square miles). It is now possible to measure the length of the river with sufficient accuracy to furnish a value which later surveys probably will not materially alter. The length of the Nile from Ripon Falls to Rosetta mouth is 5589 kilometres, or 3473 miles. The area of the catch an instructive as kilometres Bo NATURE [AUGUST I0, 1905 — ment basin has been calculated from a map on the scale 1: 4,000,000 for the Sudan and Uganda, and from one of 1: 2,000,000 for Egypt. The area of catchment of the Nile basin is 2,867,600 square kilometres (1,107,227 square miles). The area of the basin will vary according to the distance to which its limits are considered to extend on the of the Nile northwards of Khartum. Captain Lyons has taken it as far as the cliff of the desert plateau, or the first marked rise of the desert where the cliff is absent, probably, the about 3 to 4 kilo- metres (2 to 24 miles) from the edge of the cultivation. The whole of the Nile basin below Khartum, and prac- all the White Nile west on average, tically basin, are ron-effective in increasing the river supply, since the occasional local cloud-bursts may be neglected. The Bahr el Ghazal, as has been shown by recent measurements of the volume discharged, is also practically non-effective. Mr. S. Tersu Tamura has contributed to the Monthly Weather Review (February. and April) two papers dealing with applications of the Fourier methods of analysis, one to ice formation and the other to the nocturnal cooling of the atmosphere. A VERY compact form of direct-reading cymometer for the measurement of wave-lengths and frequencies in con- nection with electric-wave telegraphy is described by Prof. Je As of the Proceedings of the Physical Society of London. In the described form the cymometer can be used to measure not only the length of the outgoing wave from a sending aérial, also the The instrument can further be used for measuring the capacity of a Leyden or the inductance of a for high-frequency Fleming in vol. xix. but length of the wave being received. jar circuit currents. In the Journal de Physique for May, M. Adrien Guéb- hard contributes a paper on photographic action, illustrated by curves showing the darkening due to development as a function of the time, and the superficial changes as a function of the sum of the causes producing them—as he calls it, the ‘‘ photographic function.”’ It is well known that the effect of greatly over-exposing a negative is to reverse the photographic action, sometimes producing a positive instead of negative impression. M. Guébhard discusses the theory that the photographic function, after reaching its maximum and descending to a minimum, attains a second maximum, followed by a second mini- mum, and he describes experiments in support of this view. Pror. O. Zanorrr Branco, of Turin, has published (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1905) a short discussion on Dante’s ‘‘ Quaestio de Aqua et Terra’’ considered in the light of modern geodesy. The question as proposed by Dante was essentially whether the water of the terrestrial globe is anywhere higher than the land which emerges it. This question resolves itself largely into what is the definition of height adopted. According to Dante’s belief that the earth was a sphere, points would be at the same height if they were equally distant from the centre, and the fact that the earth is not spherical, but from ellipsoidal, would thus afford, in effect, an answer to Dante’s question according to which the sea-level is considerably higher at the equator than at the poles. This particular interpretation appears to be the one favoured by Prof. Bianco. No. 29 of the monograph supplements of the Psycho- logical Review contains the first part of a new series of “* Yale Psychological Studies,’’ edited by Prof. Charles NO. 1867, VOL. 72] H. Judd, a large part of which is devoted to a series of studies of eye movements in connection with optical illusions. The contributors are Messrs. C. H. Judd, Cloyd N. Macalister, W. M. Steele, E. H. Cameron, and Henry C. Courten. Some idea of the researches on eye movements may be obtained from the following necessarily fragmentary summary. In order to trace the movements of the eye during the fixation of different points in the visual field, a tiny speck of Chinese white was attached to the cornea, and kinematographs were taken showing its movements as the subject followed the various details of a diagram. This was applied in the case of several well known cptical illusions in which the lines of figures appear distorted or equal lengths appear unequal. In another series of experiments the subject was made to record his impressions by a series of pin pricks. In the Bulletin de l’Académie Royale de Belgique, No. 5, p. 201, Prof. W. Spring describes experiments which he has made on the limit of visibility of fluorescence. A conical beam of light of great intensity was brought to a focus in solutions of fluorescein of gradually increasing dilution. Fluorescence was perceptible on an arca equal to one square millimetre at the apex of the conical beam, when the sclution contained 1x 10-'* gram of flucrescein, but imperceptible when the solution was ten times more dilute. On the assumption that in the limiting fluorescent condition at one molecule of present in each cubic centimetre of solution, the value 1x10-"* gram is calculated as the superior limit of the weight of a molecule of fluorescein, and 2-5x10-*! gram as that of least fluorescein is the weight of an atom of hydrogen. Some interesting observations on the decomposition of silver oxide at high temperatures are recorded by Mr. G. N. Lewis in the current number of the Zeitschrift fiir bhystkalische Chemie (vol. lii. p. 310). The velocity of decomposition of the oxide, when heated at 330° C. to 350° C., is at first so small that no appreciable evolution The rate of change increases rapidly, however, as decompesition pro- ceeds, passes through a maximum, and then gradually falls to Experiments carried out to elucidate the peculiar phenomenon indicate that the reaction is auto- catalytic, the silver produced by the decomposition being the catalytic agent. Other substances, such as platinum black and manganese dioxide, are found to exert a similar influence on the rate of decomposition of silver oxide. of oxygen is observed during several hours. zero. A CONTINUOUS series of articles on the radio-activity of the soil and of the atmosphere is being written for Le Radium by Prof. Geitel. These articles connect tcgether the several original papers published by Prof. Geitel in conjunction with J. Elster, many of which have already received notice in these columns. The number of Le Radium for July 15 contains in addition an article on the results obtained by the use of radium in the treatment of cutaneous cancer. It is illustrated by some striking photographs. In a brief note in the current number of the Atti dei Lincei Prof. A. Righi states that, using an experimental method essentially different from that employed by Prof. McClelland, he has obtained results which fully confirm the connection maintained by the latter to exist between the atomic weight of a substance and the amount of secondary radiation which it emits when subjected to the B and y rays of radium (compare Nature, vol. Ixxi., p. 543, and Ixxii., p. 158). The method used was to measure the change of potential of a disc of the material suspended itt AN A AuGusT 10, 1905] NATURE Boh! in a vacuum when subjected to the radiation of radium. The disc being under two influences, namely, an increase in the negative charge owing to the impact of the B electrons and a loss of negative charge owing to the emission of a radiation, the actual rate of accumulation of the negative potential measured inversely secondary the rate ef production of the secondary radiation. Tue Engineering Standards Committee has issued a report on the effect of temperature on insulating materials. A series of showing the influence of to 150° C. on the dis- ruptive voltage, the resistance and the mechanical proper- ties of the insulating materials used in made by Mr. E. H. the measurements temperatures ranging from 75° C. industry, were Rayner at National Physical Laboratory, by Messrs. Crompton and Co. at Chelmsford; | and by Messrs. Siemens Bros. and Co. at Woolwich. The electrical properties of the materials do not seem to be greatly influenced by exposure at the temperatures given, but the material itself perishes on long-continued heating. An interesting point established is the extraordinary in- crease in resistance of the insulating substances owing to the removal of water, To0o~ |G: which, accompanies drying at The price of the report is 5s. net. AN interesting Parliamentary return just issued gives some particulars of the first three months’ working of the Wireless Telegraph Act. Part of the return licences, applications for which have been received; the majority of these are for experimental pur- poses, but a fair relates to seventy-eight number are for commercial purposes. No less than four companies have applied for licences to establish stations to communicate with America; two of these have been granted, one is under consideration, and the fourth is offered with an alteration in locality. The paper also centains particulars of the the arrangement the Post Office the Marconi Co. that 111 have been received by the Post Office fer transmission to outward bound ships, of which 21 could not be delivered (in six cases at least through the senders’ fault in transmitting after the latest guaranteed time). The number of messages received from ships at sea is 1655, which, if it does not represent a very great volume of business, still serves to show that the system is beginning to develop in practical utility. working of between and Tt seems messages A Most interesting paper on a new carbon filament, read recently by Mr. Howell before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, is published in the Electrician for July 28. The author claims to have produced a new allotropic modification of carbon, so different are the physical and mechanical properties of his filament, which is prepared in the following way :—An ordinary carbon filament made from a solution of cellulose is baked to as high a temperature as possible in an electric resistance furnace; it is then “ flashed ’’ in the usual manner, and afterwards again electrically baked. Although the first electrical baking considerably affects the final result, it seems that the graphite coating deposited during flashing undergoes a very marked change during the subsequent baking, which is especially remarkable considering the high temperature at which the deposit is formed. The filament possesses a very much lower specific resistance than ordinary filaments, and this is a disadvantage from the point of view of practical lamp making; but, on the other hand, the resistance-temperature curve rises instead of falls, which is a distinct gain, and will undoubtedly confer on the lamp an indifference to fluctuations of line voltage, and so enable it to be run at a high efficiency. NO. 1867, VOL. 72] The inventor claims a useful life of 500 hours at a power consumption of 2-5 watts per candle, which is an extremely good result for a carbon lamp. Tue De La More Press will publish in the autumn ‘* A First German Course for Science Students,’’ by Prof. H. G. Fiedler and Dr. F. E. Sandbach. We have received a copy of the first volume of the ““ Collected Researches * The volume of the National Physical Labor- atory. contains five contributions, viz. :— -An analysis of the results of the Kew magnetographs on “quiet ’’ days during the eleven years 1890-1900, by Dr. Charles Chree, F.R.S.; the high-temperature standards cf the National Physical Laboratory, by Dr. J. A. Harker ; the construction of some mercury standards of resistance, with a determination of the temperature coefficient of resistance of mercury, by Mr. F. E. Smith; the range of solidification and the critical ranges of iren-carbon alloys, by Dr: H. ©. H. Carpenter and Mr. B. F. E. Keeling; and the resistance of plane surfaces in a uniform current of air, by Dr. T. E. Stanton. All the papers have been published previously, three of them of the Royal Society and two in journals of other scientific bodies. As Lord Rayleigh preface to the multitude of other problems of in the Transactions says in a volume :—‘ A scientific and technical importance press for solution. Some of these are already in hand, but the rate at which progress can be made will depend in great measure upon the amount of support which may be forthcoming from those more dustry. volume may serve as a stimulus, by showing the character of the work of which the Laboratory and the Staff are capable.” immediately concerned in the development of in- It is hoped that the publication of the present xxxvi. of the Society the N. ZARUDNOI vol. the PROF. Memoirs of publishes in Russian Geographical herpetological and ichthyological results of his journeys in eastern Persia. The Reptilia are represented by 72 17, species, the Amphibia by 6 species, and the fishes by species, many of which, especially among the first division, are mew species described by Prof. A. M. Nikolsky. Tue last volume of the Memoirs of the Russian Geo- graphical Society, for ethnography (vol. xxv., 1), contains a very valuable bibliography, by M. Baltramaitis, of every- thing that has been printed about Lithuania (8514 titles), its geography, history, law, statistics, and ethnography, including folklore. This volume, which covers 614 pages, is followed by an appendix, which contains a list of Lithuanian and old Prussian books printed from the year 1553 to 1903 (2665 titles). The whole is admirably indexed. Notice is given by the Clarendon Press of the first part of a new book on ‘‘ Elementary Chemistry,’’ by Mr. F. R. L. Wilson and Mr. G. W. Hedley. According to the preliminary announcement which has reached us, the ultimate object of the authors is ‘‘ the cultivation of a scientific habit of mind in the pupils, through the medium of chemistry, rather than the mere acquisition of the facts of science.” Mr. Joux Heywoop has published a fourth edition of Mr. R. L. Taylor’s ‘‘ Student’s Chemistry.’” The book has been enlarged and revised by Mr. J. H. Wolfenden, and an appendix on the radio-active elements and an introduction to the study of organic chemistry has been added. The volume contains more than six hundred 307 NATURE [AUGUST 10, 1905 questions and problems, and jis likely to continue to be a popular manual on the outlines of inorganic chemistry and chemical philosophy. Messrs. MacMILLan anp Co., Ltp., have issued a new and revised edition of stage vi. of Mr. Vincent T. Murché’s ‘t Object Lessons in Elementary Science,’’ the price of which is 2s. A rirtH edition of Mr. W. W. Fisher’s ‘“‘ Class Book of Elementary Chemistry’? has been issued by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. The text has been entirely re- vised, and numerous additions haye been made. Several chapters on organic chemistry, intended to serve as an introduction to this division of the subject, have been included in the new edition, which is now in line with the present state of knowledge of the subjects dealt with in the volume. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Jupiter’s SIXTH AND SEVENTH SATELLITES.—A telegram from Prof. Pickering to the Kiel Centralstelle announces that Dr. Albrecht has observed the recently discovered sixth satellite of Jupiter with the Crossley reflector of the Lick Observatory. The times of observation and the determined positions were as follows :-— G.M.T. Position angle Distance 1905 July 3 95 p52 251 ” 26°97 52°7 24°3 ? 27 193 50°7 23°6 (Circular No. 77, Kiel Centralstelle). In Bulletin No. 82 of the Lick Observatory Dr. Frank E. Ross publishes the following set of elements for the orbit of Jupiter’s seventh satellite, which he has computed from the observations made by Prof. Perrine on January 3, February 8, and March 6 :— Ecliptic Elements. Mean Jovicentric Longitude at Epoch 33355 \ Longitude of Perijove ame 336°65 25 Node 37°23 Inclination to Ecliptic aps 310 Jupiter’s Orbit ; 32°09 | 3905 Longitude of Node on Jupiter’s Orbit 2386 Jan. o°0 Elements referred to Earth’s Equator. _G.M.T Mean Jovicentric Right Ascension... 32818 Right Ascension of Perijove 331°28 ay Node 281°13 | Inclination to Equator c oe | Mean Daily Motion=1° 358° log a=8'9004 a=52''54 (for log A=0'71624) e€=0'C246 P=265'0 days Distance at maximum elongation=70’. Calculating from these elements the positions at the times of Prof. Perrine’s observations, it was found that the residuals were satisfactorily small, but for five inter- mediate dates, on which observations were secured, they proved to be larger than were expected. Dr. Ross accepts this result as evidence of the large periodic perturbations, chiefly solar, to which the satellite is subjected. The above elements indicate that this satellite revolves about Jupiter in a direct orbit, for although a retrograde orbit was computed and found to fit the three primary observ- ations, it did not agree with the positions obtained from the intermediate observations. An ephemeris, covering the period July 1 to November 13, from which the following positions are taken, accompanies Dr. Ross’s paper :— p: Ss. p. Se Aug. 10 2904 26 } Sept. 9 292 53 1» 20 293 36 | +» 19 291 58 sy gO .. 293 45 | +» 29 290 59 NO. 1867, VOL. 72] On October 4 the distance will still be 59’, but after that date it will slowly decrease, until on November 13 it will be only 18’. According to a note communicated by Prof. Perrine to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and selbees in No. 4035 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, Ross has also ponpated the orbit of Jupiter’s sixth ees This satellite, like the seventh, moves in a direct orbit, its period being 242 days. The eccentricity of the orbit is large, amounting to 0-16, and the inclination to the plane of Jupiter’s equator is about 30°. The mean distance of the satellite from Jupiter is about seven million miles. Thus the periods, and therefore the distances from Jupiter, of the sixth and seventh satellites are nearly alike, their orbits mutually interlocking. Otherwise the two orbits are dissimilar. Tue Formation OF THE NEW NortH Porar Cap ON Mars.—According to Mr. Lowell’s observations, as re- corded in No. 22 of the Lowell Observatory Bulletins, the first frost of this year in the Arctic regions of Mars occurred on May 19. The region wherein the phenomena were observed had been under daily scrutiny since coming into view on May 11, but no new feature had been dis- covered. However, on May 19 an enormous, unmistak- ably white patch was seen which extended from the western edge of the old cap to a point on the terminator about one and a half times the old cap’s diameter away, and reached down to latitude +63°. The deposit was so thin on its northern edge that the band girdling the old cap could be plainly seen showing through it, but on May 20 a bright nucleus formed on the southern edge of the frost-bound area. The date of the first observation corresponds to August 20 in our calendar, and is 126 days after the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of Mars. In 1903 the first frost effects were observed on Mars about 128 days after the summer solstice; thus the recent observation strongly confirms those made in 1903. LIQUID AIR—PRODUCTION APPLICATIONS-* IX the former of these papers the author details experi- ments showing the trustworthiness of a German silver platinum couple to measure temperatures in the neigh- bourhood of those of liquid air and liquid and_ solid hydrogen. The electric resistance of metals is an unsafe guide at very low temperatures, and the manipulation of gas thermometers involves much time and care. A thermo- electric junction would be much more convenient if trust- worthy. That it is trustworthy the experiments go to show, but only within limits. If the constants of the formula for interpreting the observations be determined at temperatures between go3° and 1233° abs., the formula will then give the temperature of solid hydrogen at low pressure as 15°-27 abs., whereas if the constants be de- duced from experiments at a lower temperature, 203° to 774°, the interpretation formula then makes the tempera- ture of solid hydrogen at low pressure 13° lower, i.e. 13°-5 abs., which the author considers more correct. Bearing in mind that at this very low temperature a difference of 12° is equivalent to a difference of 37° at the ordinary temperature, we see that the method has no confirmatory value, and can itself be trusted only over the range for which it has been verified by the careful use of gas thermometers. If, therefore, helium be pro- cured in sufficient quantity for liquefaction or solidification, AND its lower temperatures, possibly within 5° of the absolute zero, will have to be ascertained by the low-pressure helium thermometer. For ranges of temperature over which its indications can be verified, the thermoelectric junction thermometer will have a useful sphere of work in saving the inconvenience of employing gas thermometers. Among important cautions given by the author is a warn- ing that junctions made with soft solder are affected by the low temperature. The junctions should be made with hard silver solder, and the indications at the temperature 1 “On the Thermo-electric Junctio as a Means of Determining the Lowest Temperatures, and «n Liquid Hydrog-n and Air Calorimeters.” Papers by Sir James Dewar, read before tiie Royal Society, June 8, 1905. AUGUST 10, 1905] NATURE 353 of liquid oxygen compared before and after exposure to the temperature of liquid hydrogen, to see whether there has been any change produced. A German silver platinum junction was employed, but as the result of his experience the author recommends German silver gold. The paper on ‘* Liquid Hydrogen and Air Calorimeters ’ gives an account of experiments in which the specific heats of substances are determined by measuring the quantity of liquid air or hydrogen which they vaporise in falling threugh a given range of temperatures. From these ex- periments it appears that, at temperatures between those of these two liquids, ice has only one-third of its specific heat at ordinary temperature, graphite has only one-tenth, while diamond has as little as one-nineteenth of its ordinary specific heat. The second part of this paper deals with the latent heats of the volatile liquids, that of hydrogen being given as 121 or 122 calories, of oxygen 51-15 calories, and of nitrogen 50-4 calories. The latent heat of liquid ‘air is not yet definitely determined, but when there is a high percentage of oxygen it is about 54 calories. The specific heat of hydrogen is found to be substantially the same, whether the substance be liquid, occluded, or gaseous. The employment, just mentioned, of liquid air to deter- mine the specific heat of substances may be called a practical application, though, so far, its utility is limited to scientific research; and the present time, ten years after the introduction of the new and comparatively economical method of producing it, is suitable for a review of its applications generally, the further developments in the methods of producing it, and the extent to which it has been possible so far to realise the expectations founded on the appearance of the new method of production. It will be remembered that down to the year 1895 the method of liquefying air developed and employed by Olszewski and Dewar was what is called the cascade method, in which a gas condensed at high pressure is vaporised at a much lower pressure, so as to produce a much lower temperature, one low enough, perhaps, to condense a more volatile gas highly compressed. Thus nitrous oxide was made to produce liquid ethylene at a temperature below —90° C., and the ethylene, boiled at low pressure, similarly produced liquid oxygen, nitrogen, or air at —140° C. These liquids, boiling in the open, reduced their residual portions to their well known boiling points, and, boiled at low pressure, produced rmiuch lower temperatures, but in no case low enougk to act in the same way as a means of liquefying compressed hydrogen, which is so volatile that its critical temperature is below the lowest obtainable by boiling the atmospheric gases at low pressure. The nearest approach to the liquefaction of hydrogen was Olszewski’s imitation of Cailletet’s com- bination of the cascade system with sudden expansion. He obtained a similar result—the brief appearance of an evanescent mist, which just sufficed to show that hydrogen was, under proper conditions, liquefiable. An ingenious means for getting below the lowest temperatures obtain- able on the cascade system by boiling oxygen or nitrogen at low pressure was adopted by Olszewski and Dewar, who mixed hydrogen, the former with oxygen, the latter with nitrogen, in the hope of making a substitute for a natural gas of intermediate properties, which, boiling at low pressure, would give a temperature low enough for the liquefaction of compressed hydrogen on the cascade system. Both attempts were unsuccessful, though Dewar thought that the nitrogen jelly behaved as if it had some condensed hydrogen in solution. At this stage there appeared a new and more powerful method for cooling and liquefying gases, the self- intensive system, by which compressed gas, allowed to cool itself by expanding to low pressure at a free orifice, has its cooling accumulated by an interchanger, and so intensified continually. Thus oxygen, nitrogen, and air starting from ordinary temperatures, and hydrogen starting from a temperature below —200° C., can be made to cool themselves to the liquefaction point, and gradually liquefy themselves at ordinary pressure without the help of any less volatile liquid to assist the fall of temperature. With such apparatus available, great expectations were indulged in as to the future possibilities of liquid air. As with electricity, the enthusiast and the impostor were NO. 1867, VOL. 72] soon at work, making unlimited promises to attract the interest of the public, and company schemes to attract their money. Liquid air as a source of power was going to eclipse and replace steam and electricity. As an artificial refrigerant it was to banish ice, ammonia, sulphur dioxide, and carbonic acid. In surgery it was soon to be the only anesthetic, antiseptic, and caustic employed; in medicine it was to cure consumption and many other diseases. Our prominent scientific men cannot claim much credit for doing their duty to the public in this matter. In a few reported interviews some of them mildly recom- mended caution. In this country only one prominent worker with liquid air plainly warned the public at the beginning of this boom that such promises were either foolish or fraudulent, and declared that on the score of expense liquid air, as made by the new method, could never compete with steam as a source of power or with ice as a source of refrigeration. The last ten years have teo fully justified the warning; but in the meantime large sums of money were extracted from the public in America by fraudulent liquid air companies, one of which attempted to continue operations in this country; and many business men in England held over orders for new refrigerating plants for some years, for fear lest, as soon as they had put one down, they might find it superseded by a liquid- air contrivance. Apart from scientific research, the nearest approach to a commercial application of liquid air began last autumn, when experiments were given at music-halls under the name of the ‘‘ Magic Kettle.’’ The performance was anything but a popularising of scientific knowledge, of which the performers themselves in most cases had none; besides which they purposely deepened the mystery of the matter by adding a little juggling, and making misleading statements. Air liquefiers of the best make are now such perfect machines that they seem to offer no scope for improve- ment within the existing system. The chief attempt to improve the system consists in substituting an engine to do work for the free-expansion valve, in order to obtain mere cooling for a given amount of compression. This device, in the form of a turbine, was discussed as early as 1895, but rejected on the ground of compli- cation. In 1896 Lord Rayleigh suggested it in a letter to Nature, and others have proposed or attempted it since. Thermodynamically it would be a _ great gain; but in apparatus of this kind a thermodynamic gain often actually involves a greater practical loss, owing to the importance of simplicity. In Comptes rendus, vol. exxxiv. pp. 1568-1571, is an account of such an apparatus made by M. G. Claude, which is declared to have been entirely successful. As this is purely a question of economy and convenience, which are domin- ating factors commercially, the fact that this apparatus is not yet displacing others makes it likely that the com- plications involved are found to be a serious stumbling- block. They have hitherto prevented the adoption of a similar device in commercial refrigerating machines work- ing with ammonia and carbonic acid, which are now made on such a very large scale that in them, if anywhere, the thermodynamic gain would outweigh the complications. One of the most promising practical applications pro- posed for liquid air has been the manufacture of oxygen from air by liquefying it and letting the nitrogen boil away before the oxygen, separating them by distillation. Theoretically the power, that is, the cost, required should be small. The latent heat taken up by the two gases separately in volatilising should balance that given out by the air in condensing. One of the prominent names associated with attempts of this kind is that of Pictet, who was long believed to have liquefied oxygen and hydrogen at the time when Cailletet undoubtedly produced a mist of oxygen. In New York Pictet was associated with others in an attempt of this kind under a patent (U.S.A.) in which he commits the fallacy of expecting the gases to separate at a low temperature, but while both are still in the gaseous condition, the greater density of the oxygen taking it to the bottom of the container! The oxygen did not drop, but the scheme, the patent, the fallacy, and the imvestors’ money did. Pictet next appeared with a French patent, in which the U.S. patent fallacy was replaced by another. He arranged to make “a 354 NATURE [AUGUST I0, 1905 a gain of cooling by letting liquid air vaporise at a lower temperature than that at which it had condensed, taking up more latent heat at the lower temperature than it had given out at the higher; and he overlooked the fact that the difference would be balanced by the specific heat given out by the liquid while being cooled to the lower tempera- ture! Under a fresh patent in England Pictet has now for some years been associated with powerful supporters in installing a large and costly plant at Manchester with the same object. None of the former fallacies appear in the new patent. Whether practical success will attend the effort remains to be seen. The liquid oxygen, or air rich in oxygen, obtained by distillation from liquid air, if mixed with a good com- bustible, such as cotton wool, makes an explosive. The Austrian military authorities, and the engineers engaged in tunnelling under the Alps, both made long and careful trials of such explosives; but the inevitable arrangements were too cumbrous, and the results too uncertain. The nearest attempt to make what is called a practical use of liquid air is that of Dr. Allan Macfadyen (see NaTuRE, June 18, 1903, p. and October 22, 1903, p- 608). By freezing the bacilli of typhoid in liquid air he makes them brittle enough for trituration in a mortar. By centrifugalisation the intracellular poison can then be separated from more fibrous material, and then by the methods of Pasteur an anti-typhoid serum prepared which promises to be of real value. The most pronounced successes of liquid air have been in connection with scientific research. It was with liquid air made by the self-intensive process with a Hampson machine that Sir William Ramsay discovered krypton, xenon, and neon, that Prof. Rutherford and Mr. Soddy proved the emanaticns of radium and thorium to be con- densable and vaporisable, that Ramsay proved the evolu- tion of helium from radium emanations, and many other important investigations were carried out. Finally, it was by an extension of the same process that hydrogen was liquefied. 152, THE MEETING MEDICAL OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. A NUMBER ef valuable and instructive papers were contributed at the recent meeting of the British ‘Medical Association at Leicester, but the majority were technical and of a medical nature. The following, in addition to those described last week (p. 330), are, how- ever, of more general interest :— In the section of medicine, Dr. Nathan Raw (Liverpool) read a paper on human and bovine tuberculosis, with special reference to bovine infection in children. He said that while agreeing with the German view that there were decided differences between the bovine and human tubercle bacilli, he believed that bovine tuberculosis was a danger to humay beings. Bovine tuberculosis affected young people, was traceable to infected milk, and infected the tonsils, the alimentary tract, the glands, and, through the blood, the meninges, the bones, the joints, and other parts, while human tuberculosis was air-borne, and infected adults by way of the lungs as pulmonary phthisis. In evidence of this Dr. Raw indicated the rarity of pulmonary phthisis in infants and children, and, on the other hand, the comparative rarity of other than pulmonary lesions in adults, and suggested, further, that early tuberculous disease, presum- ably bovine, appeared to be protective against phthisis, as the development of pulmonary tubercle was relatively rare in those of a strumous diathesis who had suffered in infancy from bone and gland lesions. In conclusion, Dr. Raw alluded to the frequency of tuberculosis among cattle, and the importance of the in- spection of cattle and dairies. Dr. F. J. Poynton (London) gave the results of his experience of milk to which sodium citrate had been added in the feeding of infants. The addition of sodium citrate to milk results in the formation of calcium citrate, and milk so treated forms a much finer curd and is more digestible than untreated milk. The sodium citrate may No. 1867, VOL. 72] be added to the amount of 1 to 2 grains to the fluid ounce of milk. In the section of ophthalmology, Prof. Hess (Wurzburg) demonstrated by a series of beautiful drawings the influence of light in causing a migration of pigment in the retina of cephalopods. He had found in these eyes visual purple which had hitherto not been detected in any invertebrate. All cephalopods studied by him showed this pigmentary migration within the retina, but the rapidity of the migra- tion differed in various species, and it was different in different parts of the same retina, especially in the small horizontal stripe which contained very long and small rods, and corresponded evidently to an area of maximum vision. In the section of tropical medicine, Mr. R. Newstead, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, read a paper on ticks concerned in the dissemination af disease in man, and gave a description of the Ornithodorus moubata which conveys tick fever, a spirillar infection, in the Congo Free State. Mr. Newstead had found that in many respects the habits of the Ornithodorus moubata were not unlike those of Argas persicus, but the inert character of the larva of Ornithodorus moubata was unique among the Ixodinze, in that it passes the whole of its life within the egg. The female Ornithodorus moubata laid eggs which were hatched, not as larvae, but as nymphz, although on the ninth day the larva was fully formed and the egg shell split, but the young tick remained until the fifteenth day, when as a nymph it escaped simultaneously from its larva covering and egg shell. Dr. Graham (Sierra Leone) contributed a paper on guinea worm and its hosts. He had found that the in- cidence of the disease corresponded with the incidence of a cyclops, the presumed intermediate host, both seasonally and as regards its maximum manifestation. SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN FORECASTING.' A FIER referring to the circumstances in which he was called upon to deliver the evening discourse in the absence of the Dean of Westminster, the lecturer explained that he had chosen the subject, not because he regarded weather forecasting as the only, or, from the scientific point of view, the most important practical branch of meteorology, but because, in a general sense, the possibility of its application to forecasting—the deduc- tion of effects from given causes—was the touchstone of scientific knowledge. The process of medern forecasting was illustrated by the daily weather charts of the period from February 1, 1904, up to the evening of February 12, which exhibited the passage over the British Isles of a remarkable sequence of cyclonic depressions, reaching a climax in a very deep and stormy one on the evening of the lecture. It was thus pointed out that the barometric distribution and its changes were the key to the situation as regards the weather, and this was supported by exhibiting the sequence of weather accompanying recognised types of barometric changes, as shown in the self-recording instruments at the obsery- atories in connection with the Meteorological Office. Some cases of difficulty in the quantitative association of rainfall or temperature changes with barometric variations were then illustrated. The barometric distributions in the weather maps for April 8 and April 16, 1903, were shown to be almost identical, and yet the weather on the later date was 10° colder than on the earlier. The observatory records for June 22, 1900, showed that a barometric dis- turbance of about the fiftieth of an inch, too small to be noticed on the scale of the daily charts, passed across the country from Valencia to Kew, over Falmouth, in about twenty-four hours, and produced at each observatory characteristic changes of temperature and wind, and also in each case about a fifth of an inch of rainfall. Some examples of the irregularity of motion of the centres of depressions were also given, including one which travelled up the western coasts of the British Isles on October 14 and 15, and down the eastern coasts on 1 Abstract of a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain by Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S. WEATHER AUGUST 10, 1905] NATURE 6H) October 16 and 17, 1903, one which developed from scarcely visible indications into a gale on December 30, 1900, and one which disappeared, or “‘ filled up,’’ as it is technically called, on February 6, 1904. The conclusion was drawn that the suggested extension of the area of observation by means of wireless telegraphy from ships crossing the Atlantic would not immediately place fore- casting in the position of an exact science, but would add greatly to the facilities for studying the life-history of depressions. The irregularities and uncertainties illustrated by the examples given might be attributed in part to the com- plexities of pressure due to the irregular distribution of land and sea in the northern hemisphere. Charts of the mean isobars for the world for January and July showed greater simplicity of arrangement in the southern hemi- sphere, where the ocean was almost uninterrupted, than in the northern hemisphere, where there were alternately large areas of sea and land. The comparative simplicity of the south as compared with the north was also illus- trated by a chart representing an attempt at a synoptic barometric chart for the world for September 21, 1901. The simplification of the barometric distribution at successively higher layers of the atmosphere, as illustrated by Teisserenc de Bort’s chart of mean isobars at the 4ooo-metre level, was pointed out, and illustrations were also given of the method of computing the barometric dis- tribution at high levels from observations at the surface, using data obtained from observations at high-level obsery- atories, cr those made with balloons and kites. ‘Some indication of the connection between the com- plexity of the surface and the simplicity of the upper strata might be established by means of careful observations of the actual course of air upon the surface and_ the accompanying weather conditions. The actual course of air along the surface was often misunderstood. The cenventional S-shaped curves repre- senting the stream lines from anticyclonic to cyclonic regions were shown to be quite incorrect as a represent- ation of the actual paths of air along the surface. Switch Plant,” it is difficult to say. Occasionally we find the scientific name, and in this way we learn that a ‘““Wandering Jew ’’ is a Tradescantia. Most of the experiments are clearly described, but we have been puzzled over some of them. For instance (p. 191), the method of answering the question, ‘* Does the leaf decompose carbon dioxide? ”’ seems to us to involve passing a lighted candle under No. 1868, VOL. 72] ! water into a jar of air. Here and elsewhere in the book the author neglects simple and striking methods. It is important that the student should be convinced that oxygen is given off by green leaves in light. The above-mentioned experiment is not satisfactory, whereas Engelmann’s blood method is both simple and convincing. Again, the well-known plan of count- ing the bubbles given off by submerged plants in light, though not free from errors, gives useful com- parative data for the study of assimilation. In the same way we think that more fundamental experi- ments should have been given under the heading of ““Stomata.’’ Stahl’s cobalt method, which is merely mentioned in a note, can be used by the most elemen- tary of students to demonstrate important facts. In spite of some faults, the book will be found of value to anyone compelled to give a course of physiological botany under conditions which preclude the use of ordinary laboratory fittings. Conversations on Chemistry. Part i. General Chemistry. By W. Ostwald. Authorised trans- lation by Elizabeth Catherine Ramsay. Pp. v+250. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chap- man and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 6s. 6d. net. Tue German original of this book has already received sympathetic notice in Nature, and in connection with the translation now before us it is necessary to add little more than that Miss Ramsay has done her work with much skill, and has made the dialogue not less natural and vivacious than it is in the original. It is impossible to read the book without a feeling of refreshment and amusement, or without admiration of the ingenuity and resource of its philosophical author. It seems hardly fair to say that we have here a revival of Dr. Brewer or Mrs. Marcet. There are two striking differences between the old and the new dialogues. In the first place neither master nor pupil in Prof. Ostwald’s book is endowed with that austere and depressing piety of mind which, to the unregenerate, provided perhaps the most afflicting feature of the older works. In the second place Prof. Ostwald’s book shows a masterly treatment not only of the real difficulties of chemistry in itself, but a perfect appreciation of the pitfalls that beset the pupil in the early stages of learning. It is difficult to sup- pose that any teacher will fail to find something useful or to gain some valuable hints from reading the book, and on this ground it must be warmly recommended. It would, however, be a misfortune if a teacher constrained his teaching to the exact course of the dialogue, and, of course, it would be worse still if he set so many pages as a lesson to be learned by-the pupil. The real usefulness of the book will probably lie in the example it affords of the life that may be imparted to teaching when, on the one hand, the pupil is allowed a fair chance of thinking out things for himself and a full opportunity of frankly saying what he thinks, and when, on the other hand, the teacher takes the part of a guide, philosopher, and friend who has a soul above dictionaries and examin- ation papers. Tals oS Mathematical Recreations and Essays. By W. W. Rouse Ball. Fourth edition. Pp. xvi+402. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 7S net Tuts edition differs from the third by containing chapters on the history of the mathematical tripos at Cambridge, Mersenne’s numbers, and cryptography and ciphers, besides descriptions of some mathematical recreations previously omitted. The book has thus become more miscellaneous in character, but the additions fit in very well, and are all entertaining. Mr. Ball writes with enjoyment of his subject, and AUGUST 17, 1905 | NATURE 305 in a very agreeable style; moreover, he does not assume the reader to possess any knowledge of advanced mathematics. For those who wish to study any of the more important topics in detail he gives ample references; for those merely in search of diversion he provides a mine of amusement, in ex- ploring which many pleasant hours may be spent. And there are some unsolved problems mentioned which the amateur with a mathematical turn of mind may attack with nearly as much chance of success as the expert; for instance, to give a strict proof that only four different colours are necessary to colour a map distinctly. Altogether this is an excellent work of its kind, and ought to find a large number of readers; even those who have a former edition will be likely to buy this one, if only for the sake of the very interesting account of the vicissitudes of the mathematical tripos. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. |Uhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTuRE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The Rate of Formation of Radium. Tue production of radium from uranium has now been observed experimentally ; the rate of production is not, how- ever, in accordance with the quantitative theory. Mr. Soddy’s observations (Phil. Mag., June, 1905) gave a rate of production of only one-thousandth of the theoretical amount. An experiment which I made on a specimen of uranium salt, known to be at least thirty years old, has confirmed Mr. Soddy’s conclusion so far as to show that the mean rate of production of radium could not have exceeded a hundredth part of the theoretical amount. It may, of course, have been much less, since the amount of radium initially present is unknown. The explanation of this discrepancy, suggested by Mr. Soddy and others, is that there may be a transitional product. If this is the case, it is to be expected that the rate of production of radium from uranium initially purified will be found to accelerate as time goes on. In the meantime, I am trying an ex- periment which promises to give the required information more easily. The transitional product, if it exists, must be contained in pitchblende. If, therefore, we could remove all the radium, but as little else as possible, from a solution of pitchblende, the increased rate of production of radium might be apparent. Fifty grams of the best pitchblende were dissolved in nitric acid. The insoluble residue was fused with sodium carbonate and added to the solution. The whole was evaporated to small bulk to render silica insoluble ; more dilute acid was added, and the silica filtered off and re- jected. The metallic bases were thus got into solution. The solution was freed from radium so far as posible by adding barium nitrate solution in small portions, al- ternately with equivalent quantities of potassium sulphate. Four and a half grams of the barium salt were thus added. After this the amount of radium remaining was determined by its emanation; three determinations gave, on which has_ been an arbitrary scale, 69, 58-5, 61-5, mean 63-0. After an interval of three and a half months the amount was again determined. The values were 73-5, 74:5, 72-0, 75-0, mean 73:5. It appears probable that this increase is significant, since each of the second series of numbers is larger than any of the first series. Assuming that the difference is significant, the rate of production per gram of mineral per year would be, on the same scale, 0-723. The equilibrium quantity of radium, the amount, that is, in the untreated mineral, was found to be, per gram, 10,100. If radium decays to one-half its initial quantity in a thousand years, as theory indicates, then the production in one year from a gram of the NO. 1868, VOL. 72 | 72°5, mineral should be 10,100/1-45 X 1000=6-9, about ten times the observed amount. The increase is insufficient to inspire complete confidence. It seems most probable, however, that there is an increase much greater than in Mr. Soddy’s experiments with pure uranium salts. It would not have been difficult to remove all traces of radium, and then the increase (if real) would have been unmistakable. It was feared, however, that the barium precipitation might remove part of the hypo- thetical intermediate product. It seems likely that this is the case, since the rate of production is still less than theory requires. A little longer interval will, it is hoped, give a conclusive result. It is intended to try other methods of separating, the radium, in the hope of avoiding all loss of the inter- mediate product. R. Ji. STRUTT. The Effect of Radium on the Strength of Threads. IN a note which appeared in NATURE on February 4, 1904, Lord Blythswood announced his observation of the destructive action exerted on cambric by the radiation from radium. Having at our disposal recently twenty milligrams of radium bromide which had, for a time, nothing better to do, we investigated the progressive de- crease of strength of threads exposed to its influence. In order to have examples of both animal and vegetable fibres, we used unspun silk and ordinary bleached cotton thread. Ten pieces of thread were exposed at a time. The threads were folded round a strip of writing paper and held in place by being caught in notches cut in the edges of the strip. The paper was laid on the top of the capsule containing the radium, so that the ten threads were ex- posed to the bare radium at a distance of about half a centimetre. The whole was enclosed in a lead box. After a certain period of exposure the average breaking strength of the threads was taken and plotted against the time. The points obtained lay closely on a smoothly descending curve. : In the case of the silk fibres the loss of strength went on at a practically uniform rate from the beginning up to the longest duration of exposure given (seven days). The initial strength was 78 gms., and this decreased by about 4 gms. per day. The cotton threads, on the other hand, gave a curve which fell more rapidly in the early than in the later stages. The strength began at 370 gms., and decreased at first by about 60 gms. per day. After ten days the rate of weakening was about half this. The longest exposure given was seventeen days; at the end of this time the strength was reduced to 50 gms. The different behaviour of the two kinds of fibres may be due to the much greater thickness of the cotton threads. The effect seemed to be due entirely to the a rays. A piece of paper was interposed between the threads and the radium, and three days’ exposure was given. In the subsequent test none of the threads broke at the exposed part, and the strength was not decreased. We tried the effect of moistening the cotton threads, the two ends of each thread being left, during a three days’ exposure, dipping into a vessel of water. On open- ing the lead box, in which the whole arrangement was enclosed, it was found that the radium bromide, being hygroscopic, was wet and partially dissolved. The strength of the threads was found to be higher than when exposed in a dry condition for the same period. The difference was too great to be attributed to the increase of strength imparted to threads by moisture, and was plainly due to the decreased emission of rays accompanying the solu- tion, and the consequent removal of the emanation from the radium. We traced the course of the recovery of activity by the dried radium by making a series of three- day exposures of dry threads. The effectiveness of the radiation as measured by the weakening of the threads came back by regular steps in about a fortnight to a value slightly greater than its original one. This may have been due to a re-arrangement of the upper surface of the powder, which was not, at the beginning, very regularly spread over the bottom of the capsule. Hitpa P. Martin. W. B. Morton. Queen’s College, Belfast, August 8. 366 NATURE (AuGuUsST 17, 1905 AMERICAN RESEARCH IN ASIA.* ‘THIS handsome publication is divided into six sections, Prof. Pumpelly describing the “* archeo- logical? and physicogeographical reconnaissance in Turkestan, and Mr. R. W. Pumpelly the physio- graphic observations on the Pamir; Prof. W. M. | Davis describes ‘‘a journey across Turkestan,’’ and Mr. Ellsworth Huntington deals with Central Turkes- tan and with the basin of eastern Persia and Sistan. The expedition received the most friendly help from the Russian authorities, and received its only check in northern Afghanistan. The dominant factor in the wide region examined appears to be its progressive desiccation, whereby even the irrigation works of the ancient races failed long ago to bring in water from the streams. Every- where there are signs of old vitality, of great cities, and of peoples who accumulated wealth by trade and settled labour. Again and again, en- vious invaders from the south, or east, or west, have swept across the hollow lands between the mountains, and have destroyed a civilisation in order to enforce their own. The very sites of the chief towns have shifted, and the remains of the earlier settlements, deeply buried, may afford a clue to ‘the origin of Western and: Eastern civilisations.”’ Prof. W. M. Davis, experienced in grasping the significance of the sur- face-features of a country, discusses the former extension of the waters in the Aralo-Caspian area. Particular interest also attaches to his examina- tion of the loess. Whatever the actual origin of this finely divided material, there is no doubt as to its distribution and the moulding of its surface by wind in the eastern provinces of Semir- yetshensk and Fergana (p. 63)—we adopt the spelling of the text, and not of the map which forms plate iii. Mr. Huntington also observes loess in pro- cess of formation in the Kashgar plain, and refers it here to the spread- ing out of very fine silt by water in the flat floor of temporary and recur- rent lake There is in reality no. contradiction between these views, since most writers are agreed that the material gathers first of all in the plains by ordinary processes of denuda- tion, and then undergoes further sift- ing, the chief agent being the persis- tent action of the wind. Both these authors believe that the Tian Shan mountains were worn down to a fairly | uniform surface after their principal folding had occurred, and that they owe their present irregular surface more to subsequent differential uplifts than to denudation (pp. 73, 80, 168, &c.). ‘* Even in the lofty Pamir there are certain ranges where the snowy peaks are smoothly truncated, as though by the old pene- plain, in spite of the fact that they are from 15,000 to 20,000 feet high.’’ Prof. Davis seems not to insist on so recent a date for the ‘‘ peneplain’’ as does his Ss: 1 ‘‘ Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan.” Expedition of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1903, under the direction of Raphael Pumpelly. Pp. xii+324 ; with map plates, and figures in the text. (Washington: Carnegie Institution, 1905.) NO. 1868, VOL. 72] colleague, who brings forward conclusive evidence that the whole Tertiary series of the district was involved in the folding, and that the uniform degrada- tion must be assigned. to late. Tertiary times. The present development of the ‘* peneplain ’’ in Central Turkestan seems, according to. Mr. Huntington, due to the formation of ridges and basins, without con- spicuous faulting. Prof. Davis, on his part, lays more stress on faults and “ fault-blocks.’’ Lateral compression, he urges, has had little to do with the raising of the block-ranges, to which our attention is now for the first time directed in this area; and he proceeds, in consequence, to consider the bearing of the Tian Shan ranges on Suess’s views on _horsts. He justly remarks (p. 82) that ‘‘ forces of uplift are Fic. 1.—Youngest Gorge of the Khoja Ishken, cut in the bottom of the main Glacial Valley. From “Explorations in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan.’ still worthy of consideration ’’; and, being himself a profound student of processes of denudation, he points out that the surfaces of many horsts must have been near sea-level before they were separated by disloca- tion. After all, may we not be grateful to Suess when we find discussions such as these arising naturally in a work of travel, which might in some hands have been a record of detached geological observations ? ‘The glacial phenomena of the central ranges are described in connection with the successive areas studied, and the gravel terraces, which are well illus- trated by views and sections, are correlated with climatic changes. The authors hope that subsequent AUGUST 17, 1905 | NATURE 367 researches may indicate fluctuations in the Aralo- Caspian waters, in correspondence with those trace- able in the rivers that flowed down from the glaciated areas. Mr. R. W. Pumpelly tried, in the short time at his disposal, to correlate (p. 143) the glacial changes with the successive shorelines traceable in the basin of Kara Kul on the Pamir, and makes the interesting suggestion that this lake rose to a height of 320 feet or more above its present level during the first local | glacial epoch, and to a height of 150 feet during the second epoch, the times of greatest precipitation corresponding with the increase in the lacustrine waters. Both here and in the Alai Valley to the north, two well marked series of moraines exist. The older series in the Alai Valley is clearly indicated by being cut into by the narrower valley-troughs, with | If | which the second and fresher series is associated. we read Mr. Pumpelly aright—for his mode of bring- ing together his observations leaves something to be desired and explained—the older glacial epoch actually preceded some of the earth-movements which gave the ranges their present relations and elevations (pp. 145 and 155). Mr. Huntington goes so far as the presentation of five glacial epochs, on the evidence of the large and high-reaching valleys which still contain glaciers in them (p. 199); and, arguing from the very probable Fic. 2.—A Barkhan near Dakharcen, looking south. From ‘‘ Exploratiors | in Turkestan, with an Account of the Basin of Eastern Persia and Sistan.” correlation of his epochs of gravel-deposition and of glacial extension higher up the country, he is in- clined to ask for at least six advances and six con- siderable ‘‘ interglacial ’’ withdrawals of the ice. In his concluding paper on eastern Persia and Sistan, he describes what he styles ‘* one of the most desolate lands in the world,” ‘“‘a land of gravel and naked- ness, of huge desert basins and desolate, interminable slopes, of tantalizing mirages and bare mountains.”’ The average rainfall does not rise above to inches, and comes from the south-east; while the summer wind from the north, often as violent as a hurricane, fills the air for four arid months with continental dust. The country is dealt with by Mr. Huntington as by a scientific artist, and his picturesque touch is emphasised by an occasional aphorism, such as ‘‘ The desert makes men lose every sentiment except the desire to get safely to the other side.’’ Persia is to him a ‘‘ typical example of an arid country ’’; and he gives us a fine sketch of its life-history. He then describes in detail five series of recent river-terraces, and connects them, as we are led by this time to expect, with climatic changes, similar to those in Turkestan. The alternations in the lake-deposits of Sistan then come in for corresponding treatment, and the decay of the area in population and in political power in modern times is attributed to the final desiccation. NO. 1868, VOL. 72] We are glad that Mr. Huntington’s clearly writtem papers close the series; for must we not admit that American physical geographers, who are apt to classify old conceptions until they appear to develop into new ones, provide us at times with somewhat difficult reading? On p. 79 we have :—‘‘ the pene- planation of the region improved in the final 40 miles of the road on the sixth day. In the morning some of the broad ridges . . . were from 300 to 500 feet over the intervales.’’ Mr. Pumpelly can hardly be a | cyclist, or he would not speak of ‘‘ deflated bowlders ”’ on p. 131. If, again, we all understand what dating a letter means, how shall we appreciate the phrase (p. 135) ‘‘ the epochs predating the escarpments ’’? We make these remarks as much in the interest of the conscientious foreigner as of ourselves; for the directors of the publications of the Carnegie Institu- tion have no right and no desire to remain content with a purely American circulation. As examples of the numerous effective illustrations, we may mention the photograph of a characteristic crescent-shaped ‘“‘ barkhan ’’ of blown sand on p. 44, and that of the glacial valley and subsequent ravine of the Khoja Ishken on p. 188, both of which are here reproduced; but all throughout are to the purpose, even when merely showing modes of travel in @ region of absorbing interest. GRENVILLE A. J. CoLe. HABITS OF BIRDS.* R. EDMUND SELOUS, the author of this 4 elegant little volume, is one of the most patient and enthusiastic observers of bird-life in the British Islands, and has recorded details in con- nection with the habits of several species which have been overlooked by other field-naturalists. If the riddle of nature is ever to be solved by observations: on living animals, Mr. Selous is one of the men who ought to help to solve it, although we are bound to: confess that several of his theories, notably the one with regard to the origin of the nest-making instinct, do not appear to ourselves by any means convincing or sufficient. Nests, indeed, form a very favourite | theme of the author; so much so, in fact, that when discussing the building of supernumerary nests by various species on pp. 67 and 199, he practically repeats the same thing, namely, that this results, originally, from a simple love of labour and occupa- tion. The author is, perhaps, at his best when describing the movements and actions of birds as seen during his inimitably patient watchings, excellent examples of this being shown in his description of herons alight- ing on their nest, and of long-tailed titmice construct- ing the domed receptacle in which their eggs are deposited. The latter incident is represented in one of the illustrations, photographed, like the rest, from a sketch by the clever pencil of Mr. Lodge, this exquisite picture being reproduced as a sample of the illustra- tions generally. As an interesting suggestion, refer- ence may be made to the author’s theory that when a woodpecker’s nesting hole has been usurped by a starling, the rightful owner may occasionally lay am egg in the nest, and that in this manner the parasitic habit of the cuckoo may have been developed. The fact of starlings excavating large nesting chambers in sand-cliffs is entirely new to us. In regard to the “ get-up”’ of the book, we may suggest that it would have been an improvement if, instead of repeating the main title as the heading for alternate pages, the name of the species under dis- 1 ‘* Bird Life Glimpses.’ By E. Selous. illustrated. Pp. viii+335; (Londons: G. Allen, 1905.) Price 6s, net. 368 NALURE {[AuGuST 17, 1905 cussion had been given, for, in consequence of the vague headings on the opposite pages, it is often a matter of some little difficulty to discover to which | particular bird the author is referring. Throughout his volume Mr. Selous is fond of interpolating phrases or quotations in foreign languages, inclusive of French, German, Latin, and Greek. Whether such a practice is altogether desirable may be a matter of opinion, but there will be only one opinion as to the to be delivered at Johannesburg on Wednesday, August 30, will appear in Nature of the following day. From a Reuter message we learn that on the con- clusion of the address, the Governor, Sir Walter Hely- Hutchinson, in proposing a vote of thanks, bade the association heartily welcome on _ behalf of Cape Colony. The occasion was one, he said, of no ordinary importance, whether in the history of the desirability of quoting correctly, which is far from | development of scientific inquiry or in the history of Fic. t.—Long-tailed Tits and the Nest. being the case when a well-known line from the second book of the Afneid is introduced on p. 109. IRS IE, THE SOUTH AFRICAN MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. “T: HE seventy-fifth meeting of the British Associa- tion was inaugurated at Cape Town on Tuesday, when the president, Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., delivered the first portion of his address to a large gathering in the new City Hall. This part printed below, and the remainder of the address, NO. 1868, VOL, 72 | From E. Selous’s ‘‘ B'rd Life Glimpses.’ is re- | the relations of the United Kingdom with the British dominions beyond the seas. He hoped it would be found that a great and important step had been taken in drawing closer together the bonds of the brotherhood of science, and, it might be, through the brotherhood of science, in promoting and developing brotherly feeling be- tween His Majesty’s subjects in South Africa and the Motherland. Sir David Gill, K.C.B., chairman of the central organising committee at Cape Town, seconded the motion; and a brief reply by Prof. Darwin brought the proceedings to a close. The addresses of all the presidents of sections were to be delivered yester- day on the assembling of the sections at Cape Town. The sections are also to meet for the reading and discussion of reports and papers to-day and to- morrow, and they will reassemble on Tuesday, August 29, at Johannesburg, where the concluding meeting will be held on September 1, and the work of the sections will terminate. INauGURAL ADDRESS BY Pror. G. H. Darwin, M-A., LU.D., PHD. B.R-Si, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. Part I. Diaz, the discoverer cf the Cape of Storms, spent sixteen months on his voyage, and the little flotilla of Vasco da Gama, sailing from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, only reached the Cape in the middle of November. These bold men, sailing in their puny fishing smacks to unknown lands, met the perils of the sea and the attacks of savages with equal courage. How great was the danger of such a voyage may be gathered from the fact that less than half the men who sailed with da Gama lived to return to Lisbon. Four hundred and eight years have passed since that voyage, and a ship of 13,000 tons has just brought us here, in safety and luxury, in but little more than a fortnight. How striking are the contrasts presented by these events! On the one hand com- pare the courage, the endurance, and the persistence of the early navigators with the little that has been demanded of us; on the other hand consider how much man’s power over the forces of nature has been augmented during the past four centuries. The capacity for heroism is probably undiminished, but certainly the occasions are now rarer when it is demanded of us. If we are heroes, at least but few of us ever find it out, and, when we read stories BaRTHOLOMEU ' of ancient feats of courage, it is hard to prevent an uneasy thought that, notwithstanding our boasted mechanical in- ventions, we are perhaps degenerate descendants of cur great predecessors Yet the thought that to-day is less romantic and less . heroic than yesterday has its consolation, for it means AuGUST 17, 1905 | NATURE 369 that the lot of man is easier than it was. Mankind, indeed, may be justly proud that this improvement has been due to the successive efforts of each generation to add to the heritage of knowledge handed down to it by its predecessors, whereby we have been born to the accu- mulated endowment of centuries of genius and labour. I am told that in the United States the phrase ** I want to know’ has lost the simple meaning implied by the words, and has become a mere exclamation of surprise. Such a conventional expression could hardly have gained currency except amongst a people who aspire to know- ledge. The dominance of the Eurcpean race in America, Australasia, and South Africa has no doubt arisen from many causes, but amongst these perhaps the chief one is that not only do ‘‘ we want to know,’ but also that we are determined to find out. And now within the last quarter of a century we have welcomed into the ranks of those who ‘‘ want to know ”’ an oriental race, which has already proved itself strong in the peaceful arts of knowledge. I take it, then, that you have invited us because you want to know what is worth knowing; and we are here because we want to know you, to, learn what you have to tell us, and to see that South Africa of which we have heard so much. The hospitality which you are offering us is so lavish, and’ the journeys which you have organised are so extensive, that the cynical observer might be tempted to describe our meeting as the largest picnic on record. Although we intend to enjoy our picnic with all our hearts, yet I should like to tell the cynic, if he is here, that perhaps the most important object of these conferences is the opportunity they afford for personal intercourse between men of like minds who live at the remotest corners of the earth. We shall pass through your land with the speed and the voracity of a flight of locusts; but, unlike the locust, we shall, I hope, leave behind us permanent fertilisation in the form of stimulated scientific and educational activity. And this result will ensue whether or not we who have come from Europe are able worthily to sustain the lofty part of prophets of science. We shall try our best to play to your satisfaction on the great stage upon which you call on us to act, and if when we are gone you shall, amongst yourselves, pronounce the performance a poor one, yet the fact will remain, that this meeting has embodied in a material form the desire that the progress of this great continent shall not be merely material; and such an aspiration secures its own fulfilment. However small may be the tangible results of our meeting, we shall always be proud to have been associated with you in your efforts for the advancement of science. 2 ; We do not know whether the last hundred years will be regarded for ever as the saeculum mirabile of discovery, or whether it is but the prelude to yet more marvellous centuries. To us living men, who scarcely pass a year of our lives without witnessing some new marvel of dis- covery or invention, the rate at which the development of knowledge proceeds is truly astonishing; but from a wider point of view the scale of time is relatively un- important, for the universe is leisurely in its procedure. Whether the changes which we witness be fast or slow, they form a part of a long sequence of events which begin in some past of immeasurable remoteness and tend to some end which we cannot foresee. It must always be profoundly interesting to the mind of man to “trace successive cause and effect in the chain of events which make up the history of the earth and all that lives on it, and to speculate on the origin and future fate of animals, and of planets, suns, and stars. I shall try, then, to set forth in my address some of the attempts which have been made to formulate evolutionary speculation. of a subject has, moreover, been almost forced on me by the scope of my own scientific work, and it is, I think, justified by the name which I bear. It will be my fault and your misfortune if I fail to convey to you some part of the interest which is naturally inherent in such re- searches. The man who propounds a theory of evolution is attempting to reconstruct the history of the past by means of the circumstantial evidence afforded by the present. No. 1868, VOL. 72] This choice , The historian of man, on the other hand, has the advantage over the evolutionist in that he has the written records of the past on which to rely. The discrimination of the truth from amongst discordant records is frequently a work demanding the highest qualities of judgment; yet when this end is attained it remains for the historian to convert the arid skeleton of facts into a living whole by clothing it with the flesh of human motives and impulses. For this part of his task he needs much of that power of entering into the spirit of other men’s lives which goes: to the making of a poet. Thus the historian should! possess not only the patience of the man of science in the analysis of facts, but also the imagination of the poet to grasp what the facts have meant. Such a combination is rarely to. be found in equal perfection on both sides, and it would not be hard to analyse the works of great historians so as to see which quality was predominant in each of them. The evolutionist is spared the surpassing difficulty of the human element, yet he also needs imagination, although of a different character from that of the historian. In its lowest form his imagination is that of the detective who reconstructs the story of a crime; in its highest it demands the power of breaking loose from all the trammels of convention and education, and of imagining something which has never occurred to the mind of man_ before. In every case the evolutionist must form a theory for the facts: before him, and the great theorist is only to be distinguished from the fantastic fool by the sobriety of his judgment—a distinction, however, sufficient to make one rare and the other only too common. The test of a scientific theory lies in the number of facts which it groups into a connected whole ; it ought besides to be fruitful in pointing the way to the discovery and coordination of new and previously unsuspected facts. Thus a good theory is in effect a cyclopeedia of know- ledge, susceptible of indefinite extension by the addition of supplementary volumes. Hardly any theory is all true, and many are not all false. A theory may be essentially at fault and yet point the way to truth, and so justify its temporary existence. We should not, therefore, totally reject ome or other of two rival theories on the ground that they seem, with our present knowledge, mutually inconsistent, for it is likely that both may contain important elements of truth. The theories of which I shall have to speak hereafter may often appear discordant with one another according to our present lights. Yet we must not scruple to pursue the several divergent lines of thought to their logical con- clusions, relying on future discovery to eliminate the false and to reconcile together the truths which form part of each of them. In the mouths of the unscientific evolution is often spoken of as almost synonymous with the evolution of the various species of animals on the earth, and this again is sometimes thought to be practically the same thing as the theory of natural selection. Of course those who are conversant with the history of scientific ideas are aware that a belief in the gradual and orderly transformation of nature, both animate and inanimate, is of great antiquity. ¢ We may liken the facts on which theories of evolution are based to a confused heap of beads, from which a keen- sighted searcher after truth picks out and strings together a few which happen to catch his eye, as possessing certain resemblances. Until recently, theories of evolution in both realms of nature were partial and discontinuous, and the chains of facts were correspondingly short and discon- nected. At length the theory of natural selection, by formulating the cause of the divergence of forms in the organic world from the parental stock, furnished the naturalist with a clue by which he examined the disordered mass ef facts before him, and he was thus enabled to go far in deducing order where chaos had ruled before; but the problem of reducing the heap to perfect order will probably baffle the ingenuity of the investigator for ever. “So illuminating has been this new idea that, as the whole of nature has gradually been re-examined by its aid, thousands of new facts have been brought to light, and have been strung in due order on the necklace of know- ledge. Indeed, the transformation resulting from the new 379 NATORE [AUGUST 17, 1905 point of view has ‘been so far-reaching as almost to justify the misapprehension of the unscientific as to the date when the doctrines of evolution first originated in the mind of man. It is not my object, nor indeed am I competent, to examine the extent to which the theory of natural selection thas needed modification since it was first formulated by my father and Wallace. But I am surely justified in maintaining that the general principle holds its place firmly as a permanent acquisition to modes of thought. Evolutionary doctrines concerning inanimate nature, although of much older date than those which concern life, have been profoundly affected by the great impulse of which I have spoken. It has thus come about that the origin and history of the chemical elements and of stellar systems now occupy a far larger space in the scientific mind than was formerly the case. The subject which I shall discuss to-night is the extent to which ideas, parallel ‘to those which have done so much towards elucidating the problems of life, hold good also in the world of matter; and I believe that it will be possible to show that in this respect there exists a resemblance between the two realms of nature, which is not merely fanciful. It is proper to add that so long ago as 1873 Baron Karl du Prel ‘discussed the same subject from a similar point of view, in a book entitled “‘ The Struggle for Life in the Heavens.” 4 Although inanimate matter moves under the action of forces which are incomparably simpler than those govern- ing living ‘beings, yet the problems of the physicist and ‘the astronomer are scarcely less complex than those which present themselves to the biologist. The mystery of life remains as impenetrable as ever, and in his evolutionary speculations the biologist does not attempt to explain life ‘itself, but, adopting as his unit the animal as a whole, discusses its relationships to other animals and to the surrounding conditions. The physicist, on the other hand, is irresistibly impelled to form theories as to the intimate constitution of the ultimate parts of matter, and he desires further to piece together the past histories and the future fates of planets, stars, and nebule. If then the specula- ‘tions of the physicist seem in some respects less advanced than those of the biologist, it is chiefly because he is more ambitious in his aims. Physicists and astronomers have not yet found their Johannesburg or Kimberley; but ‘although we are still mere prospectors, I am proposing to show you some of the dust and diamonds which we have already extracted from our surface mines. _ The fundamental idea in the theory of natural selection is the persistence of those types of life which are adapted to their surrounding conditions, and the elimination by extermination of ill-adapted types. The struggle for life amongst forms possessing a greater or less degree of adaptation to slowly varying conditions is held to explain ‘the gradual transmutation of species. Although a different phraseology is used when we speak of the physical world, yet the idea is essentially the same. \ The point of view from which I wish you to consider the phenomena of the world of matter may be best ex- plained if, in the first instance, I refer to political institu- ‘tions, because we all understand, or fancy we understand, something of politics, whilst the problems of physics are commonly far less familiar to us. This illustration will have a further advantage in that it will not be a mere parable, but will involve the fundamental conception of the nature of evolution. The complex interactions of man with man in a com- munity are usually described by such comprehensive terms as the State, the Commonwealth, or the Government. Various States differ widely in their constitution and in the degree of the complexity of their organisation, and we classify them by various general terms, such as auto- cracy, aristocracy, or democracy, which express somewhat loosely their leading characteristics. But, for the purpose of showing the analogy with physics, we need terms of wider import than those habitually used in politics. All forms of the State imply inter-relationship in the actions of men, and action implies movement. Thus the State may be described as a configuration or arrangement of a community of men; or we may say that it implies a Dae Se um’s Dasein am Himmel.” (Berlin: NO. 1868, voL. 72] Zweite Auflage. definite mode of motion of man—that is to say, an organ- ised scheme of action of man on man. Political history gives an account of the gradual changes. in such con- figurations or modes of motion of men as have possessed the quality of persistence or of stability to resist the disintegrating influence of surrounding’ ‘circumstances. In the world of life the naturalist describes those forms which persist as species; similarly the physicist speaks of stable configurations or modes of motion of matter; and the politician speaks of States. The idea at the base of all these conceptions is that of stability, or the power of resisting disintegration. In other words, the degree of persistence or permanence of a species, of a configuration of matter, or of a State depends on the perfection of its adaptation to its surrounding conditions. If we trace the history of a State we find the degree of its stability gradually changing, slowly rising to a maximum, and then slowly declining. When it falls to nothing a revolution ensues, and a new form of govern- ment is established. The new mode of motion or govern- ment has at first but slight stability, but it gradually acquires strength and permanence, until in its turn the slow decay of stability leads on to a new revolution. Such crises in political history may give rise to a con- dition in which the State is incapable of perpetuation by transformation. This occurs when a savage tribe nearly exterminates another tribe and leads the few survivors into slavery; the previous form of government then becomes extinct. The physicist, like the biologist and the historian, watches the effect of slowly varying external conditions ; he sees the quality of persistence or stability gradually decaying until it vanishes, when there ensues what is called, in politics, a revolution. These considerations lead me to express a doubt whether biologists have been correct in looking for continuous trans- formation of species. Judging by analogy, we should rather expect to find slight continuous changes occurring during a long period of time, followed by a somewhat sudden transformation into a new species, or by rapid extinction. However this may be, when the stability of a mode of motion vanishes, the physicist either finds that it is replaced by a new persistent type of motion adapted to the changed conditions, or perhaps that no such trans- formation is possible, and that the mode of motion has become extinct. The evanescent type of animal life has often been preserved for us, fossilised in geological strata ; the evanescent form of government is preserved in written records or in the customs of savage tribes; but the physicist has to pursue his investigations without such useful hints as to the past. The time-scale in the transmutation of species of animals is furnished by the geological record, although it is not possible to translate that record into years. As we shall see hereafter, the time needed for a change of type in atoms or molecules may be measured by millionths of a second, while in the history of the stars continuous changes may occupy millions of years. Notwithstanding this gigantic contrast in speed, yet the process involved seems to be essentially the same. It is hardly too much to assert that, if the conditions which determine stability of motion could be accurately formulated throughout the universe, the past history of the cosmos and its future fate would be unfolded. How indefinitely far we stand removed from such a state of knowledge will become abundantly clear from the re- mainder of my address. The study of stability and instability then furnishes the problems which the physicist and biologist alike attempt to solve. The two classes of problems differ prin- cipally in the fact that the conditions of the world of life are so incomparably more intricate than those of the world of matter that the biologist is compelled to abandon the attempt to determine the absolute amount of the influence of the various causes which have affected the existence of species. His conclusions are merely quali- tative and general, and he is almost universally compelled to refrain from asserting even in general terms what are the reasons which have rendered one form of animal life stable and persistent, and another unstable and evanescent. On the other hand, the physicist, as a general rule, AUGUST 17, 1905| NATURE 371 does not rest satisfied unless he obtains a quantitative estimate of various causes and effects on the systems of matter which he discusses. Yet there are some problems of physical evolution in which the conditions are so com- plex that the physicist is driven, as is the biologist, to rest satisfied with qualitative rather than quantitative con- clusions. But he is not content with such crude con- clusions except in the last resort, and he generally prefers to proceed by a different method. The mathematician mentally constructs an _ ideal mechanical system or model, which is intended to repre- sent in its leading features the system he wants to ex- amine. It is often a task of the utmost difficulty to devise such a model, and the investigator may perchance unconsciously drop out as unimportant something which is really essential to represent actuality. He next examines the conditions of his ideal system, and determines, if he can, all the possible stable and unstable configurations, together with the circumstances which will cause transitions from one to the other. Even when the work- ing model has been successfully imagined, this latter task may often overtax the powers of the mathematician. Finally it remains for him to apply his results to actual matter, and to form a judgment of the extent to which it is justifiable to interpret nature by means of his results. The remainder of my address will be occupied by an account of various investigations which will illustrate the principles and methods which I have now explained in general terms. The fascinating idea that matter of all kinds has a common substratum is of 1emote antiquity. In the Middle Ages the alchemists, inspired by this idea, con- ceived the possibility of transforming the baser metals into gold. The sole difficulty seemed to them the discovery of an appropriate series of chemical operations. We now know that they were always indefinitely far from the goal of their search, yet we must accord to them the honour of having been the pioneers of modern chemistry. The object of alchemy, as stated in modern language, was to break up or dissociate the atoms of one chemical element into its component parts, and afterwards to re- unite them into atoms of gold. Although even the dis- sociative stage of the alchemistic problem still lies far beyond the power of the chemist, yet modern researches seem to furnish a sufficiently clear idea of the structure of atoms to enable us to see what would have to be done to effect a transformation of elements. Indeed, in the complex changes which are found to occur spontaneously in uranium, radium, and the allied metals we are prob- ably watching a spontaneous dissociation and transmuta- tion of elements. Natural selection may seem, at first sight, as remote as the poles asunder from the ideas of the alchemist, yet dissociation and transmutation depend on the instability and regained stability of the atom, and the survival of the stable atom depends on the principle of natural selection. Until some ten years ago the essential diversity of the chemical elements was accepted by the chemist as an ultimate fact, and indeed the very name of atom, or that which cannot be cut, was given to what was supposed to be the final indivisible portion of matter. The chemist thus proceeded in much the same way as the biologist who, in discussing evolution, accepts the species as his working unit. Accordingly, until recently the chemist discussed working models of matter of atomic structure, and the vast edifice of modern chemistry has been built with atomic bricks. But within the last few years the electrical researches of Lenard, R6ntgen, Becquerel, the Curies, of my colleagues Larmor and Thomson, and of a host of others, have shown that the atom is not indivisible, and a flood of light has been thrown thereby on the ultimate con- stitution of matter. Amongst all these fertile investigators it seems to me that Thomson stands preeminent, because it is principally through him that we are to-day in a better position for picturing the structure of an atom than was ever the case before. Even if I had the knowledge requisite for a complete exposition of these investigations, the limits of time would NO. 1868, VOL. 72] compel me to confine myself to those parts of the subject which bear on the constitution and origin of the elements. It has been shown, then, that the atom, previously sup- posed to be indivisible, really consists of a large number of component parts. By various convergent lines of ex- periment it has been proved that the simplest of all atoms, namely that of hydrogen, consists of about 800 separate parts ; while the number of parts in the atom of the denser metals must be counted by tens of thousands. These separate parts of the atom have been called corpuscles or electrons, and may be described as particles of negative electricity. It is paradoxical, yet true, that the physicist knows more about these ultra-atomic corpuscles and can more easily count them than is the case with the atoms of which they form the parts. The corpuscles, being negatively electrified, repel one another just as the hairs on a person’s head mutually repel one another when combed with a vulcanite comb- The mechanism is as yet obscure whereby the mutual re- pulsion of the negative corpuscles is restrained from break- ing up the atom, but a positive electrical charge, or some- thing equivalent thereto, must exist in the atom, so as to prevent disruption. The existence in the atom of this community of negative corpuscles is certain, and we know further that they are moving with speeds which may in some cases be comparable to the velocity of light, namely, 200,000 miles a second. But the mechanism whereby they are held together in a group is hypothetical. It is only just a year ago that Thomson suggested, as representing the atom, a mechanical or electrical model the properties of which could be accurately examined by mathematical methods. He would be the first to admit that his model is at most merely a crude representation of actuality, yet he has been able to show that such an atom must possess mechanical and electrical properties which simulate, with what Whetham describes as ‘“‘ almost Satanic exactness,’?’ some of the most obscure and yet most fundamental properties of the chemical elements. ““Se non é vero, é ben trovato,’’ and we are surely justified in believing that we have the clue which the alchemists sought in vain. Thomson’s atom consists of a globe charged with positive electricity, inside which there are some thousand or thousands of corpuscles of negative electricity, revolving in regular orbits with great velocities. Since two electrical charges repel one another if they are of the same kind, and attract one another if they are of opposite kinds, the corpuscles mutually repel one another, but all are attracted by the globe containing them. The forces called into play by these electrical interactions are clearly very complicated, and you will not be surprised to learn that Thomson found himself compelled to limit his detailed examination of the model atom to one containing about seventy corpuscles. It is indeed a triumph of mathematical power to have determined the mechanical conditions of such a miniature planetary system as I have described. It appears that in general there are definite arrange- ments of the orbits in which the corpuscles must revolve, if they are to be persistent or stable in their motions. But the number of corpuscles in such a community is not absolutely fixed. It is easy to see that we might add a minor planet, or indeed half a dozen minor planets, to the solar system without any material derangement of the whole; but it would not be possible to add a hundred planets with an aggregate mass equal to that of Jupiter without disorganisation of the solar system. So also we might add or subtract from an atom three or four cor- puscles from a system containing a thousand corpuscles moving in regular orbits without any profound derange- ment. As each arrangement of orbits corresponds to the atom of a distinct element, we may say that the addition or subtraction of a few corpuscles to the atom will not effect a transmutation of elements. An atom which has a deficiency of its full complement of corpuscles, which it will be remembered are negative, will be positively electrified, while one with an excess of corpuscles will be negatively electrified. I have referred to the possibility of a deficiency or excess of corpuscles because it is im- portant in Thomson’s theory; but, as it is not involved in the point of view which I wish to take, I will henceforth only refer to the normal or average number in any arrange 372 NATURE [AUGUST 17, 1905 ment of corpuscles. Accordingly we may state that de- finite numbers of corpuscles are capable of association in stable communities of definite types. An infinite number of communities are possible, possess- ing greater or lesser degrees of stability. Thus the cor- puscles in one such community might make thousands of | revolutions in their orbits before instability declared itself ; such an atom might perhaps last for a long time as esti- mated in millionths of seconds, but it must finally break up and the corpuscles must disperse or re-arrange them- selves after the ejection of some of their number. We are thus led to conjecture that the several chemical elements represent those different kinds of communities of corpuscles which have proved by their stability to be successful in the struggle for life. If this is so, it is almost impossible to believe that the successful species have existed for all time, and we must hold that they originated under con- ditions about which I must forbear to follow Sir Norman Lockyer in speculating.* But if the elements were not eternal in the past, we must ask whether there is reason to believe that they will be eternal in the future. Now, although the conception of the decay of an element and its spontaneous trans- mutation into another element would have seemed abso- lutely repugnant to the chemist until recently, yet analogy with other moving systems seems to: suggest that the elements are not eternal. At any rate it is of interest to pursue to its end the history of the model atom which has proved to be so successful in imitating the properties of matter. The laws which govern electricity in motion indicate that such an atom must be radiating or losing energy, and therefore a time must come when it will run down, as a clock does. When this time comes it will spontaneously transmute itself into an element which needs less energy than was required in the former state. Thomson conceives that an atom might be constructed after his model so that its decay should be very slow. It might, he thinks, be made to run for a million years, but it would not be eternal. Such a conclusion is an absolute contradiction to all that was known of the elements until recently, for no symptoms of decay are perceived, and the elements exist- ing in the solar system must already have lasted for millions of years. Nevertheless, there is good reason to believe that in radium, and in other elements possessing very complex atoms, we do actually observe that break-up and spontaneous re-arrangement which constitute a trans- mutation of elements. It is impossible as yet to say how science will solve this difficulty, but future discovery in this field must surely prove deeply interesting. It may well be that the train of thought which I have sketched will ultimately profoundly affect the material side of human life, however remote it may now seem from our experiences of daily life. I have not as yet made any attempt to represent the excessive minuteness of the corpuscles, of the existence of which we are now so confident; but, as an introduction to what I have to speak of next, it is necessary to do so. To obtain any adequate conception of their size we must betake ourselves to a scheme of threefold magnifi- cation. Lord Kelvin has shown that, if a drop of water were magnified to the size of the earth, the molecules of water would be of a size intermediate between that of a cricket-ball and of a marble. Now each molecule contains three atoms, two being of hydrogen and one of oxygen. The molecular system probably presents some sort of analogy with that of a triple star; the three atoms, re- placing the stars, revolving about one another in some sort of dance which cannot be exactly described. I doubt whether it is possible to say how large a part of the space occupied by the whole molecule is occupied by the atoms; but perhaps the atoms bear to the molecule some such relationship as the molecule to the drop of water referred to. Finally, the corpuscles may stand to the atom in a similar scale of magnitude. Accordingly a_ threefold magnification would be needed to bring these ultimate parts of the atom within the range of our ordinary scales of measurement. 5 : I have already considered what would be observed under *he triply powerful microscope, and must now return to 1 “*Tnorganic Evolution.”” (Macmillan, 1g00. NO. 1868, VOL. 72] ] | the intermediate stage of magnification, in which we con- sider those communities of atoms which form molecules. | This is the field of research of the chemist. Although prudence would tell me that it would be wiser not to speak | of a subject of which I know so little, yet I cannot refrain from saying a few words. The community of atoms in water has been compared with a triple star, but there are, others known to the chemist in which the atoms are to be counted by fifties and hundreds, so that they resemble constellations. I conceive that here again we meet with conditions similar to those which we have supposed to exist in the atom. Communities of atoms are called chemical com- binations, and we know that they possess every degree of stability. The existence of some is so precarious that the chemist in his laboratory can barely retain them for a moment; others are so stubborn that he can barely break them up. In this case dissociation, and re-union into new forms of communities are in incessant and spontaneous progress throughout the world. The more persistent or more stable combinations succeed in their struggle for life, and are found in vast quantities, as in the cases of common salt and of the combinations of silicon. But no one has ever found a mine of gun-cotton, because it has so slight a power of resistance. If, through some acci- dental collocation of elements, a single molecule of gun- cotton were formed, it would have but a short life. Stability is, further, a property of relationship to surrounding conditions; it denotes adaptation to environ- ment. Thus salt is adapted to the struggle for existence on the earth, but it cannot withstand the severer conditions which exist in the sun. SECTION A. MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. OpentnG Appress BY Pror. A. R. Forsytu, Sc.D., LL.D., Matu.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. - ACCORDING to an established and unchallenged custom, our proceedings are inaugurated by an address from the President. Let me begin it by discharging a duty which, unhappily, is of regular recurrence. If your President only mentions names when he records the personal losses suffered during the year by the sciences of the Section, the corporate sense of the Section will be able to appreciate the losses with a deeper reality than can be conveyed by mere words. In Mr. Ronald Hudson, who was one of our secretaries at the Cambridge meeting a year ago, we have lost a mathematician whose youthful promise had ripened into early performance. The original work which he had accomplished is sufficient, both in quality and in amount, to show that much has been given, and that much more could have been expected. His alert and bright personality suggested that many happy years lay before him. All these fair hopes were shattered in a moment by an accident upon a Welsh hillside; and his friends, who were many, deplore his too early death at the age of twenty-eight. The death of Mr. Frank McClean has robbed astronomy of one of its most patient workers and actively creative investigators. I wish that my own knowledge could enable me to give some not inadequate exposition of his services to the science which he loved so well. He was a man of great generosity which was wise, discriminating, and more than modest; to wide interests in science he united wide interests in the fine arts. Your Astronomer Royal, in the Royal Observatory at Cape Town, will not lightly forget his gift of a great telescope; and the University of Cam- bridge, the grateful recipient of his munificent endowment of the Isaac Newton Studentships fifteen years ago, and of his no less munificent bequest of manuscripts, early printed books, and objects of art, has done what she can towards perpetuating his memory for future generations by including his name in the list, that is annually recited in solemn service, of her benefactors who have departed this life. In the early days of our gatherings, when the set of cognate sciences with which we specially are concerned had not yet diverged so widely from one another alike in subject and in method, this inaugurating address was characterised by a brevity that a President can envy and AUGUST 17, 1905] NATORE SAS, by a freedom from formality that even the least tolerant audience could find admirable. The lapse of time, perhaps assisted by presidential ambitions which have been veiled under an almost periodic apology for personal short- comings, has deprived these addresses of their ancient brevity, and has invested them with an air of oracular gravity. The topics vary from year to year, but this variation is due to the predilection of the individual Presi- dents ; the types of address are but few in number. Some- times, indeed, we have had addresses that cannot be ranged under any comprehensive type. Thus one year we had an account of a particular school of long-sustained consecutive research ; another year the President made a constructive (and perhaps defiant) defence of the merits of a group of subjects that were of special interest to himself. But there is one type of address which recurs with iterated frequency ; it is constituted by a general account of recent progress in discovery, or by a survey of modern advances in some one or other of the branches of science to which the multiple activities of our Section are devoted. No medern President has attempted a general survey of recent progress in all the branches of our group of sciences; such an attempt will probably be deferred until the Council dis- covers a President who, endowed with the omniscience of a Whewell, and graced with the tongue of men and of angels, shall once again unify our discussions. On the basis of this practice, it would have been not unreasonable on my part to have selected some topic from the vast range of pure mathematics, and to have expounded some body of recent investigations. There certainly is no lack of topics; our own day is peculiarly active in many directions. Thus, even if we leave on one side the general progress that has been made in many of the large branches of mathematics during recent years, it is easy to hint at numerous subjects which could occupy the address of a mathematical President. He might, for instance, devote his attention to modern views of continuity, whether of quantity or of space; he might be heterodox or orthodox as to the so-called laws of motion; he might expound his notions as to the nature and properties of analytic functionality ; a discussion of the hypotheses upon which a consistent system of geometry can be framed could be made as monumental as his ambition might choose; he could revel in an account of the most recent philosophical analysis of the foundations of mathematics, even of logic itself, in which all axioms must either be proved or be compounded of notions that defy resolution by the human intellect at the present day. Such discussions are bound to be excessively technical unless they are expressed in unmathematical phraseology; when they are so expressed, and in so far as such expression is possible, they become very long and they can be very thin. Moreover, had I chosen any topic of this character, it would have been the merest natural justice to have given early utterance of the sibyllic warning to the uninitiated; I must also have bidden the initiated that, as they come, they should summon all the courage of their souls. So I abstain from making such an experiment upon an unwarned audience ; yet it is with reluctance that I have avoided subjects in the range which to me is of peculiar interest. On the other hand, I must ask your indulgence for not conforming to average practice and expectation. My desire is to mark the present occasion by an address of un- specialised type which, while it is bound to be mainly mathematical in tenor, and while it will contain no new information, may do little more than recall some facts that are known, and will comment briefly upon obvious tendencies. Let me beg you to believe that it is no strain- ing after novelty which has dictated my choice; such an ambition has a hateful facility of being fatal both to the performer and to the purpose. It is the strangeness of our circumstances, both in place and time, that has suggested my subject. With an adventurous audacity that quite ye the spirit of any of its past enterprises, the British Association for the Advancement of Science has travelled south of the Equator and, in accepting your hospitality, proposes to traverse much of South Africa. The prophet of old declared that ‘‘ many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased’’: if the second part of the prophecy is not fulfilled, it will not be for the want of our efforts to fulfil the first part. And if the place NO. 1868, VOL. 72] and the range of this peripatetic demonstration of our annual corporate activity are unusual, the occasion chosen for this enterprise recalls memories that are fundamental in relation to our subject. It is a modern fashion to observe centenaries. In this section we are in the unusual position of being able to observe three scientific centenaries in one and the same year. Accordingly I propose to refer to these in turn, and to indicate a few of the events filling the intervals between them; but my outline can be of only the most summary character, for the scientific history is a history of three hundred years, and, if searching enough, it could include the tale of nearly all mathematical and astronomical and physical science. It is exactly three hundred years since Bacon published ‘““The Advancement of Learning.’’ His discourse, alike in matter, in thought, in outlook, was in advance of its time, and it exercised no great influence for the years that immediately followed its appearance; yet that appearance is one of the chief events in the origins of modern natural science. Taking all knowledge to be his province, he surveys the whole of learning: he deals with the discredits that then could attach to it; he expounds both the dignity and the influence of its pursuit; and he analyses all learning, whether of things divine or of things human, into its ordered branches. He points out deficiencies and gaps; not a few of his recommendations of studies, at his day remaining untouched, have since become great branches of human thought and human inquiry. But what concerns us most here is his attitude towards natural philosophy, all the more remarkable because of the state of knowledge of that subject in his day, particularly in England. It is true that Gilbert had published his discovery of terrestrial magnetism some five years earlier, a discovery followed only too soon by his death; but that was the single con- siderable English achievement in modern science down to Bacon's day. In order to estimate the significance of Bacon’s range of thought let me recite a few facts, as an indication of the extreme tenuity of progressive science in that year (1605). They belong to subsequent years, and may serve to show how restricted were the attainments of the period, and how limited were the means of advance. The tele- scope and the microscope had not yet been invented. The simple laws of planetary motion were not formulated, for Kepler had them only in the making. Logarithms were yet to be discovered by Napier, and to be calculated by Briggs. Descartes was a boy of nine and Fermat a boy of only four, so that analytical geometry, the middle-life discovery of both of them, was not yet even a dream for either of them. The Italian mathematicians, of whom Cavalieri is the least forgotten, were developing Greek methods of quadrature by a transformed principle of in- divisibles; but the infinitesimal calculus was not really in sight, for Newton and Leibnitz were yet unborn. Years were to elapse before, by the ecclesiastical tyranny over thought, Galileo was forced to make a verbal disavowal of his adhesion to the Copernican system of astronomy, of which he was still to be the protagonist in propounding any reasoned proof. Some mathematics could be had, cumbrous arithmetic and algebra, some geometry lumber- ing after Euclid, and a little trigonometry ; but these were mainly the mathematics of the Renaissance, no very great advance upon the translated work of the Greeks and the transmitted work of the Arabs. Even our old friend the binomial theorem, which now is supposed to be the possession of nearly every able schoolboy, remained un- known to professional mathematicians for more than half a century yet to come. Nor is it merely on the negative side that the times seemed unpropitious for a new departure; the spirit of the age in the positive activities of thought and deed was not more sympathetic. Those were the days when the applications of astronomy had become astrology. Men sought for the elixir of life and pondered over the trans- mutation of baser metals into gold. Shakespeare not long before had produced his play As You Like It, where the strange natural history of the toad which, “Ugly and venomous, Bears yet a precious jewel in his head.” is made a metaphor to illustrate the sweetening uses of adversity. The stiffened Elizabethan laws against witch- NATURE [AUGUST 17, 1905 craft were to be sternly administered for many a year to come. It was an age that was pulsating with life and illuminated by fancy, but the life was the life of strong action and the fancy was the fancy of ideal imagination ; men did not lend themselves to sustained and abstract thought concerning the nature of the universe. When we contemplate the spirit that such a state of knowledge might foster towards scientific learning, and when we recall the world into which Bacon’s treatise was launched, we can well be surprised at his far-reaching views, and we can marvel at his isolated wisdom. Let me select a few specimens of his judgments, chosen solely in relation to our own subjects. When he says: “All true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale or ladder, ascendant and descendant, ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments; there- fore I judge it most requisite that these two parts be severally considered and handled ’’— he is merely expounding, in what now is rather archaic phrase, the principles of the most ambitious investigations in the natural philosophy of subsequent centuries. When he speaks of “the operation of the relative and adventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude, diversity, possibility, and the rest; with this distinction and provision, that they be handled as they have efficacy in nature, and not logically ’’— I seem to hear the voice of the applied mathematician warning the pure mathematician off the field. | When, after having divided natural philosophy into physic and metaphysic (using these words in particular meanings, and including mathematics in the second of the divisions), he declares “physic should contemplate that which is inherent in matter, and therefore transitory, and metaphysic that which is abstracted and fixed; . . physic describeth the causes of things, but the variable or respective causes; and metaphysic the fixed and constant causes ’’— there comes before my mind the army of physicists of the present day, who devote themselves unwearyingly to the properties of matter and willingly cast aside elaborate arguments and calculations. When he argues that “many parts of nature can neither be invented with sufficient subtilty, nor demonstrated with sufficient per- spicuity, nor accommodated unto use with sufficient dexterity, without the aid and intervening of the mathe- matics ’’— he might be describing the activity of subsequent gener- ations of philosophers, astronomers, and engineers. And in the last place (for my extracts must have some end), when he expresses the opinion “that men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of the pure mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many defects in the wit and faculties intellectual. For if the wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if too wander- ing, they fix it; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract it ; - - -, in the mathematics, that which is collateral and intervenient is no less worthy than that which is principal and intended ’’— I seem to hear an advocate for the inclusion of elementary mathematics in any scheme of general education. At the same time, I wonder what Bacon, who held such an exalted estimate of pure mathematics in its grey dawn, would have said by way of ampler praise of the subject in its fuller day. It was a splendid vision of inductive science as of other parts of learning; it contained a revelation of the course of progress through the centuries to come. Yet the facts of to-day are vaster than the vision of that long-ago yesterday, and human activity has far outstripped the dreams of Bacon’s opulent imagination. He was the harbinger (premature in many respects it must be con- fessed, but still the harbinger) of a new era. At a time when we are making a new departure in the fulfilment of the purpose of our charter, which requires us ‘to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate Science NO. 1868, VOL. 72] in different parts of the British Empire,’’ our Association for the Advancement of Science may pause for a moment to gaze upon the vision revealed three centuries ago in the “Advancement of Learning’’ by a philosopher whose influence upon the thought of the world is one of the glories of our nation. I have implied that Bacon’s discourse was in advance of its age, so far as England was concerned. Individuals could make their mark in isolated fashion. Thus Harvey, in his hospital work in London, discovered the circulation of the blood; Napier, away on his Scottish estates, invented logarithms ; and Horrocks, in the seclusion of a Lancashire curacy, was the first to observe a transit of Venus. But for more than half a century the growth of physical science was mainly due to workers on the continent of Europe. Galileo was making discoveries in the mechanics of solids and fluids, and, specially, he was building on a firm foundation the fabric of the system of astronomy, hazarded nearly a century before by Copernicus; he still was to furnish, by bitter experience, one of the most striking examples in the history of the world that truth is stronger than dogma. Kepler was gradually elucidating the laws of planetary motion, of which such significant use was made later by Newton; and Descartes, by his creation of analytical geometry, was yet to effect such a constructive revolution in mathematics that he might not unfairly be called. the founder of modern mathematics. In England the times were out of scientific joint; the political distrac- tions of the Stuart troubles, and the narrow theological bitterness of the Commonwealth, made a poor atmosphere for the progress of scientific learning, which was confined almost to a faithful few. The fidelity of those few, how- ever, had its reward; it was owing to their steady con- fidence and to their initiative that the Royal Society of London was founded in 1662 by Charles II. At that epoch, science (to quote the words of a picturesque historian) became the fashion of the day. Great Britain began to contribute at least her fitting share to the growing know- ledge of Nature; and her scientific activity in the closing part of the seventeenth century was a_ realisation, wonderful and practical, of a part of Bacon’s dream. Undoubtedly the most striking contribution made in that period is Newton’s theory of gravitation, as expounded in his “‘ Principia,’’ published in 1687. That century also saw the discovery of the fluxional calculus by Newton, and of the differential calculus by Leibnitz. These discoveries provided the material for one of the longest and most deadening controversies as to priority in all the long history of those tediously barren occupations ; unfortunately they are dear to minds which cannot understand that a discovery should be used, developed, amplified, but should not be a cause of envy, quarrel, or controversy. Let me say, incidentally, that the controversy had a malign influence upon the study of mathematics as pursued in England. Also, the undulatory theory of light found its first systematic, if incomplete, exposition in the work of Huygens before the century was out. But Newton had an emission theory of his own, and so the undulatory theory of Huygens found no favour in England until rather more than a hundred years later; the researches of Thomas Young established it on a firm foundation. Having thus noted some part of the stir in scientific life which marked the late years of the seventeenth century, let me pass to the second of our centenaries; it belongs to the name of Edmond Halley. Quite independently of his achievement connected with the year 1705 to which I am about to refer, there are special reasons for honour- ing Halley’s name in this section at our meeting in South Africa. When a young man of twenty-one he left England for St. Helena, and there, in the years 1676-1678, he laid the foundations of stellar astronomy for the Southern Hemisphere ; moreover, in the course of his work he there succeeded in securing the first complete observation of a transit of Mercury. After his return to England, the next few years of his life were spent in laying science under a special debt that can hardly be over-appreciated. He placed himself in personal relation with Newton, pro- pounded to him questions and offered information; and it is now a commonplace statement that Halley’s questions and suggestions caused Newton to write the “‘ Principia.’ AUGUST 17, 1905] NATURE 375 More than this, we know that Newton’s great treatise saw the light only through Halley’s persuasive insistence, through his unwearying diligence in saving Newton all cares and trouble and even pecuniary expense, and through his absolutely self-sacrificing devotion to what he made an unwavering duty at that epoch in his life. Again, he appears to have been the first organiser of a scientific expedition, as distinct from a journey of discovery, towards the Southern Seas; he sailed as far as the fifty-second degree of southern latitude, devised the principle of the sextant in the course of his voyaging, and, as a result of the voyage, he produced a General Chart of the Atlantic Ocean, with special reference to the deviation of the compass. Original, touched with genius, cheery of soul, strenuous in thought and generous by nature, he spent his life in a continuously productive devotion to astro- nomical science, from boyhood to a span of years far beyond that which satisfied the Psalmist’s broodings. I have selected a characteristic incident in his scientific activity, one of the most brilliant (though it cannot be claimed as the most important) of his astronomical achieve- ments; it strikes me as one of the most chivalrously bold acts of convinced science within my knowledge. It is only the story of a comet. I have just explained, very briefly, Halley’s share in the production of Newton’s ‘* Principia ’’; his close concern with it made him the Mahomet of the new dispensation of the astronomical universe, and he was prepared to view all its phenomena in the light of that dispensation. A comet had appeared in 1682—it was still the age when scientific men could think that, by a collision between the earth and a comet, ‘‘ this most beautiful order of things would be entirely destroyed and reduced to its ancient chaos ’’; but this fear was taken as a ‘‘ by-the-bye,’’ which happily interfered with neither observations nor calcula- tions. Observations had duly been made. The data were used to obtain the elements of the orbit, employing Newton's theory as a working hypothesis ; and he expresses an incidental regret as to the intrinsic errors of assumed numerical elements and of recorded observations. It then occurred to Halley to calculate similarly the elements of the comet which Kepler and others had seen in 1607, and of which records had been made; the Newtonian theory gave elements in close accord with those belonging to the comet calculated from the latest observations, though a new regret is expressed that the 1607 observations had not been made with more accuracy. On these results he com- mitted himself (being then a man of forty-nine years of age) to a prophecy (which could not be checked for fifty- three years to come) that the comet would return about the end of the year 1758 or the beginning of the next succeeding year; he was willing to leave his conclusion ““to be discussed by the care of posterity, after the truth is found out by the event.’’ But not completely content with this stage of his work, he obtained with difficulty a book by Apian, giving an account of a comet seen in 1531 and recording a number of observations. Halley, constant to his faith in the Newtonian hypothesis, used that hypothesis to calculate the elements of the orbit of the Apian comet; once more regretting the uncertainty of the data and discounting a very grievous error com- mitted by Apian himself, Halley concluded that the Apian comet of 1531, and the Kepler comet of 1607, and the observed comet of 1682 were one and the same. He con- firmed his prediction as to the date of its return, and he concludes his argument with a blend of confidence and patriotism :— ‘“ Wherefore if according to what we have already said it should return again about the year 1758, candid posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that this was first discovered by an Englishman.”’ . Such was Halley’s prediction published in the year 1705. The comet pursued its course, and it was next seen on Christmas Day, 1758. Candid posterity, so far from refusing to acknowledge that the discovery was made by an Englishman, has linked Halley’s name with the comet, possibly for all time. We all now could make announcements on the subject of Halley’s comet; their fulfilment could be awaited serenely. No vision or inspiration is needed; calculations No. 1868, VoL. 72] and corrections will suffice. The comet was seen in 1835, and it is expected again in 1910. No doubt our astro- nomers will be ready for it; and the added knowledge of electrical science, in connection particularly with the properties of matter, may enable them to review Bessel’s often-discussed conjecture as to an explanation of the emission of a sunward tail. But Halley’s announcement was made during what may be called the immaturity of the gravitation theory; the realisation of the prediction did much to strengthen the belief in the theory and to spread its general acceptance; the crown of conviction was attained with the work of Adams and Leverrier in the discovery, propounded by theory and verified by observ- ation, of the planet Neptune. I do not know an apter illustration of Bacon’s dictum that has already been quoted, ‘“‘ All true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale, ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments.’’ The double process, when it can be carried out, is one of the most effective agents for the increase of trustworthy knowledge. But until the event justified Halley’s prediction, the Cartesian vortex-theory of the universe was not completely replaced by the New- tonian theory; the Cartesian votaries were not at once prepared to obey Halley’s jubilant, if stern, injunction to “leave off trifling... with their vortices and their absolute plenum... and give themselves up to the study of truth.” The century that followed the publication of Halley’s prediction shows a world that is steadily engaged in the development of the inductive sciences and their appli- cations. Observational astronomy continued its activity quite steadily, reinforced towards the end of the century by the first of the Herschels. The science of mathematical (or theoretical) astronomy was created in a form that is | used to this day; but before this creation could be effected, there had to be a development of mathematics suitable for the purpose. The beginnings were made by the Bernoullis (a family that must be of supreme interest to Dr. Francis Galton in his latest statistical compilations, for it con- tained no fewer than seven mathematicians of mark, dis- tributed over three generations), but the main achievements are due to Euler, Lagrange, and Laplace. In particular, the infinitesimal calculus in its various branches (including, that is to say, what we call the differential’ calculus, the integral calculus, and differential equations) received the development that now is familiar to all who have occasion to work in the subject. When this calculus was developed, it was applied to a variety of subjects; the applications, indeed, not merely influenced, but immediately directed, the development of the mathematics. To this period is due the construction of analytical mechanics at the hands of Euler, d’Alembert, Lagrange, and Poisson; but the most significant achievement in this range of thought is the mathematical development of the Newtonian theory of gravitation applied to the whole universe. It was made, in the main, by Lagrange, as regards the wider theory, and by Laplace, as regards the amplitude of detailed application. But it was a century that also saw the obliteration of the ancient doctrines of caloric and phlogiston, through the discoveries of Rumford and Davy of the nature and relations of heat. The modern science of vibrations had its beginnings in the experiments of Chladni, and, as has already been stated, the undulatory theory of light was rehabilitated by the researches of Thomas Young. Strange views as to the physical con- stitution of the universe then were sent to the limbo of forgotten ignorance by the early discoveries of modern chemistry; and engineering assumed a systematic and scientific activity, the limits of which seem bounded only by the cumulative ingenuity of successive generations. But in thus attempting to summarise the progress of science in that period, I appear to be trespassing upon the domains of other Sections; my steps had better be retraced so as to let us return to our own upper air. If I mention one more fact (and it will be a small one), it is because of its special connection with the work of this Section. As you are aware, the elements of Euclid have long been the standard treatise of elementary geometry in Great Britain ; and the Greek methods, in Robert Simson’s edition, have been imposed upon candidates in examination after ex- 376 NATURE [AucusT 17, 1905 amination. But Euclid is on the verge of being dis- established ; my own University of Cambridge, which has had its full share in maintaining the restriction to Euclid’s methods, and which was not uninfluenced by the report of a Committee of this Association upon the subject, will, some six or seven weeks hence, hold its last examination in which those methods are prescriptively required. The disestablishment of Euclid from tyranny over the youthful student on the continent of Europe was effected before the end of the eighteenth century. But it is time for me to pass on to the third of the centenaries, with which the present year can be associated. Not so fundamental for the initiation of modern science as was the year in which the ‘‘ Advancement of Learning ”’ ‘was published, not so romantic in the progress of modern science as was the year in which Halley gave his pre- diction to the world, the year 1805 (turbulent as it was with the strife of European politics) is marked by the silent voices of a couple of scientific records. In that year Laplace published the last progressive instalment of his great treatise on Celestial Mechanics, the portion that still remained for the future being solely of an historical character; the great number of astronomical phenomena which he had been able to explain by his mathematical presentation of the consequences of the Newtonian theory would, by themselves, have been sufficient to give con- fidence in the validity of that theory. In that year also Monge published his treatise, classical and still to be read by all students of the subject, ‘‘ The Application of Algebra to Geometry ’’; it is the starting point of modern synthetic geometry, which has marched in ample development since his day. These are but landmarks in the history of mathematical science, one of them indicating the com- pleted attainment of a tremendous task, the other of them initiating a new departure; both of them have their signifi- cance in the progress of their respective sciences. When we contemplate the activity and the achievements of the century that has elapsed since the stages which have just been mentioned were attained in mathematical science, the amount, the variety, the progressive diligence, are little less than bewildering. It is not merely the vast development of all the sciences that calls for remark; no less striking is their detailed development. Each branch of science now has an enormous array of workers, a development rendered more easily possible by the growing increase in the number of professional posts; and through -the influence of these workers and their labours there is -an ever-increasing body of scientific facts. Yet an aggre- gate of facts is not an explanatory theory any more neces- sarily than a pile of carefully fashioned stones is a cathedral; and the genius of a Kepler and a Newton is just as absolutely needed to evolve the comprehending theory as the genius of great architects was needed for the Gothic cathedrals of France and of England. Not in- frequently it is difficult to make out what is the main line of progress in any one subject, let alone in a group of subjects; and though illumination comes from striking results that appeal, not merely to the professional workers, but also to unprofessional observers, this illumination is the exception rather than the rule. We can allow, and we should continue to allow, freedom of initiative in all direc- tions. That freedom sometimes means isolation, and its undue exercise can lead to narrowness of view. In spite of the complex ramification of the sciences which it has fostered, it is a safer and a wiser spirit than that of un- congenial compulsion, which can be as dogmatic in matters scientific as it can be in matters theological. Owing to the varieties of mind, whether in individuals or in races, the progress of thought and the growth of knowledge are not ultimately governed by the wishes of any individual or the prejudices of any section of individuals. Here, a school of growing thought may be ignored; there, it may be denounced as of no importance ; somewhere else, it may be politely persecuted out of possible existence. But the here, and the there, and the somewhere else do not make up the universe of human activity; and that school, like Galileo’s earth in defiance of all dogmatic authority, still will move. This complete freedom in the development of scientific thought, when the thought is applied to natural pheno- mena, is all the more necessary because of the ways of NO. 1868, VoL. 72] Nature. Physical nature cares nothing for theories, nothing for calculations, nothing for difficulties, whatever their source; she will only give facts in answer to our questions, without reasons and without explanations; we may explain as we please and evolve laws as we like, without her help or her hindrance. If from our explanations and our laws we proceed to prediction, and if the event justifies the prediction through agreement with recorded fact, well and good; so far we have a working hypothesis. The signifi- cance of working hypotheses, in respect of their validity and their relation to causes, is a well known battle-ground of dispute between different schools of philosophers; it need not detain us here and now. On the other hand, when we proceed from our explanations and our laws to a prediction, and the prediction in the end does not agree with the fact to be recorded, it is the prediction that has to give way. But the old facts remain and the new fact is added to them; and so facts grow until some working law can be extracted from them. This accumulation of facts is only one process in the solution of the universe; when the compelling genius is not at hand to transform_ knowledge into wisdom, useful work can still be done upon them by the construction of organised accounts which shall give a systematic exposition of the results, and shall place them as far as may be in relative significance. Let me pass from these generalities, which have been suggested to my mind by the consideration of some of the scientific changes that have taken place during the last hundred years, and let me refer briefly to some of the changes and advances which appear to me to be most characteristic of that period. It is not that I am _ con- cerned with a selection of the most important researches of the period. Estimates of relative importance are often little more than half-concealed expressions of individual preferences or personal enthusiasms; and though each enthusiastic worker, if quite frank in expressing his opinion, would declare his own subject to be of supreme importance, he would agree to a compromise that the divergence between the different subjects is now so wide as to have destroyed any common measure of comparison. My concern is rather with changes, and with tendencies where these can be discerned. The growth of astronomy has already occupied so large a share of my remarks that few more words can be spared here. Not less, but more, remarkable than the preceding centuries in the actual exploration of the heavens, which has been facilitated so much by the improvements in instruments and is reinforced to such effect by the co- operation of an ever-growing band of American astro- nomers, it has seen a new astronomy occupy regions undreamt of in the older days. New methods have supple- mented the old; spectroscopy has developed a science of physics within astronomy; and the unastronomical brain reels at the contents of the photographic chart of the heavens which is now being constructed by international cooperation and will, when completed, attempt to map ten million stars (more or less) for the human eye. Nor has the progress of physics, alike on the mathe- matical side and the experimental side, been less remark- able or more restricted than that of astronomy. The elaborate and occasionally fantastic theories of the eighteenth century, in such subjects as light, heat, even as to matter itself, were rejected in favour of simpler and more comprehensive theories. There was one stage when it seemed as if the mathematical physicists were gradually overtaking the experimental physicists; but the discoveries in electricity begun by Faraday left the mathematicians far behind. Much has been done towards the old duty, ever insistent, of explaining new phenomena; and the names of Maxwell, Weber, Neumann, and Hertz need only to be mentioned in order to suggest the progress that has been made in one subject alone. We need not hesitate to let our thoughts couple, with the great physicists of the century, the leaders of that brilliant band of workers upon the properties of matter who carry us on from wonder to wonder with the passage of each successive year. Further, it has been an age when technical applications have marched at a marvellous pace. So great has been their growth that we are apt to forget their comparative youth; yet it was only the middle of the century which AUGUST 17, 1905] NATURE 37 saw the awakening from what now might be regarded as the dark ages. Nor is the field of possible application nearing exhaustion; on the contrary, it seems to be in- creasing by reason of new discoveries in pure science that yet will find some beneficent outcome in practice. Invisible rays and wireless telegraphy may be cited as instances that are occupying present activities, not to speak of radium, the unfolding of the future of which is watched by eager minds. One gap, indeed, in this subject strikes me. There are great histories of mathematics and great histories of astronomy; I can find no history of physics on the grand scale. Some serviceable manuals there are, as well as monographs on particular topics; what seems to me to be lacking is some comprehensive and comparative survey of the whole range. The history of any of the natural sciences, like the history of human activity, is not merely an encyclopedic record of past facts; it reveals both the spirit and the wealth which the past has bequeathed to the present, and which, in due course, the present will influence before transmission to the future. Perhaps all our physicists are too busy to spare the labour needed for the production of a comprehensive history; yet I cannot help thinking that such a contribution to the subject would be of great value, not to physicists alone. But, as you hear me thus referring to astronomy and to physics, some of you may think of the old Roman proverb which bade the cobbler not to look above his last; so I take the opportunity of referring very briefly to my own subject. One of the features of the century has been the continued development of mathematics. As a means of calculation the subject was developed as widely during the earlier portion of the century as during the preceding century; it soon began to show signs of emergence as an independent science, and the later part of the century has witnessed the emancipation of pure mathematics. It was pointed out, in connection with the growth of theoretical astronomy, that mathematics developed in the direction of its application to that subject. When the wonderful school of French physicists, composed of Monge, Carnot, Fourier, Poisson, Poinsot, Ampére, and Fresnel (to mention only some names), together with Gauss, Kirchhoff, and von Helmholtz in Germany, and Ivory, Green, Stokes, Maxwell, and others in England, applied their mathematics to various branches of physics, for the most part its development was that of an ancillary subject. The result is the superb body of knowledge that may be summarised under the title of ‘‘ mathematical physics ’’; but the final interest is the interest of physics, though the construction has been the service of mathematics. Moreover, this tendency was deliberate, and was avowed in no uncertain tone. Thus Fourier could praise the utility of mathe- matics by declaring that ‘‘ there was no language more universal or simpler, more free from errors or obscurity, more worthy of expressing the unchanging relations of natural entities’’; in a burst of enthusiasm he declares that, from the point of view he had indicated, ‘* mathe- matical analysis is as wide as Nature herself,’’ and ‘ it increases and grows incessantly stronger amid all the changes and errors of the human mind.’’ Mathematicians might almost blush» with conscious pleasure at such a laudation of their subject from such a quarter, though it errs both by excess and defect; but the exultation of spirit need not last long. The same authority, when officially expounding to the French Academy the work of Jacobi and of Abel upon elliptic functions, expressed his chilling opinion (it had nothing to do with the case) that ““the questions of natural philosophy, which have the mathematical study of all important phenomena for their aim, are also a worthy and principal subject for the meditations of geometers. It is to be desired that those persons who are best fitted to improve the science of calculation should direct their labours to these important applications.’’ Abel was soon to pass beyond the range of admonition; but Jacobi, in a private letter to Legendre, protested that the scope of the science was not to be limited to the explanation of natural phenomena. I have not quoted these extracts by way of even hint of reproach against the author of such a wonderful creation as Fourier’s analytical theory of heat; his estimate could have been justified on a merely historical review of the * no. 1868, VOL. 72] circumstances of his own time and of past times; and I am not sure that his estimate has not its exponents at the present day. But all history shows that new dis- coveries and new methods can spread to issues wider than those of their origins, and that it is almost a duty of human intelligence to recognise this possibility in the domain of progressive studies. The fact is that mathe- matical physics and pure mathematics have given much to each other in the past and will give much to each other in the future; in doing so, they will take harmonised action in furthering the progress of knowledge. But neither science must pretend to absorb the activity of the other. It is almost an irony of circumstance that a theorem, initiated by Fourier in the treatise just men- tioned, has given rise to a vast amount of discussion and attention, which, while of supreme value in the develop- ment of one branch of pure mathematics, have hitherto offered little, if anything, by way of added explanation of natural phenomena. The century that has gone has witnessed a wonderful development of pure mathematics. The bead-roll of names in that science—Gauss; Abel, Jacobi; Cauchy, Riemann, Weierstrass, Hermite; Cayley, Sylvester; Lobatchewsky, Lie—will on only the merest recollection of the work with which their names are associated show that an age has been reached where the development of human thought is deemed as worthy a scientific occupation of the human mind as the most profound study of the phenomena of the material universe. The last feature of the century that will be mentioned has been the increase in the number of subjects, appar- ently dissimilar from one another, which are now being made to use mathematics to some extent. Perhaps the most surprising is the application of mathematics to the domain of pure thought; this was effected by George Boole in his treatise ‘‘ Laws of Thought,” published in 1854; and though the developments have passed consider- ably beyond Boole’s researches, his work is one of those classics that mark a new departure. Political economy, on the initiative of Cournot and Jevons, has begun to employ symbols and to develop the graphical methods ; but, there, the present use seems to be one of Suggestive record and expression, rather than of positive construction. Chemistry, in a modern spirit, is stretching out into mathematical theories; Willard Gibbs, in his memoir on the equilibrium of chemical systems, has led the way ; and, though his way is a path which chemists find strewn with the thorns of analysis, his work has rendered, in- cidentally, a real service in coordinating experimental results belonging to physics and to chemistry. A new and generalised theory of statistics is being constructed; and a school has grown up which is applying them to biological phenomena. Its activity, however, has not yet met with the sympathetic goodwill of all the pure biologists; and those who remember the quality of the discussion that took place last year at Cambridge between the biometricians and some of the biologists will agree that, if the new school should languish, it will not be for want of the tonic of criticism. If I have dealt with the past history of some of the sciences with which our Section is concerned, and have chosen particular epochs in that history with the aim of concentrating your attention upon them, you will hardly expect me to plunge into the future. Being neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, not being possessed of the knowledge which enabled Halley to don the prophet’s mantle with confidence, I shall venture upon no prophecy even so cautious as Bacon’s—‘ As for the mixed mathe- matics I may only make this prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them as Nature grows further disclosed ’’—a declaration that is sage enough, though a trifle lacking in precision. Prophecy, unless based upon confident knowledge, has passed out of vogue, except perhaps in controversial politics; even in that domain, it is helpless to secure its own fulfilment. Let me rather exercise the privilege of one who is not entirely unfamiliar with the practice of geometry, and let me draw the pro- verbial line before indulgence in prophetic estimates. The names that have flitted through my remarks, the dis- coveries and the places associated with those names, definitely indicate that, notwithstanding all appearance of 378 NATURE [AUGUST 17, 1905 divergence and in spite of scattered isolation, the sum of human knowledge, which is an inheritance common to us all, grows silently, sometimes slowly, yet (as we hope) safely and surely, through the ages. You who are in South Africa have made an honourable and an honoured contribution to that growing knowledge, conspicuously in your astronomy and through a_ brilliant succession of astronomers. Here, not as an individual but as a re- presentative officer of our brotherhood in the British Association, I can offer you no better wish than that you may produce some men of genius and a multitude of able workers who, by their researches in our sciences, may add to the fame of your country and will contribute to the intellectual progress of the world. SECTION B. CHEMISTRY. OpeninG Appress By G. T. BEILBY, PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. In scanning the list of the elements with which we are thoughtfully supplied every year by the International Com- mittee on Atomic Weights, the direction in which our thoughts are led will depend on the particular aspect of chemical study which happens to interest us at the time. Putting from our minds on the present occasion the attractive speculations on atomic constitution and dis- integration with which we have all become at least super- ficially familiar during the past few years, let us try to scan this list from the point of view of the “‘ plain man” rather than from that of the expert chemist. Even a rudimentary knowledge will be sufficient to enable our “‘plain man” to divide the elements broadly into two groups—the actually useful and the doubtfully useful or useless. Without going into detail we may take it that about two-thirds would be admitted into the first group, and one-third into the second. It must, I think, be re- garded as a very remarkable fact that of the eighty elements which have had the intrinsic stability to enable them to survive the prodigious forces which must have been concerned in the evolution of the physical universe, so large a proportion are endowed with characteristic proper- ties which could ill have been spared either from the laboratories of Nature or from those of the Arts and Sciences. Even if one-third of the elements are to be regarded as waste products or failures, there is here no counterpart to the reckless prodigality of Nature in the processes of organic evolution. If we exclude those elements which participate directly and indirectly in the structure and functions of the organic world, there are two elements which stand out con- spicuously because of the supreme influence they have exercised over the trend of human effort and ambition. I refer, of course, to the metals gold and iron. From the early beginnings of civilisation gold has been highly prized and eagerly sought after. Human life has been freely sacrificed in its acquirement from natural sources, as well as in its forcible seizure from those who already possessed it. The ‘‘ Age of Gold ’’ was not neces- sarily ‘‘ The Golden Age,’’ for the noble metal in its unique and barbaric splendour has symbolised much that has been unworthy in national and individual aims and ideals. We have accustomed ourselves to think of the present as the Age of Iron, as indeed it is, for we see in the dull, grey metal the plastic medium out of which the engineer has modelled the machines and structures which play so large a part in the active life of to-day. Had iron not been at once plentiful and cheap, had it not brought into the hands of the engineer and artificer its marvellous qualities of hardness and softness, of rigidity and tough- ness, and to the electrician its mysterious and unique magnetic qualities, it is not difficult to conceive that man’s control over the forces of Nature might have been delayed for centuries, or perhaps for ages. For iron has been man’s chief material instrument in the conquest of Nature; without it the energy alike of the waterfall and of the coalfield would have remained uncontrolled and unused. In this conquest of the resources of Nature for the service of man are we not entitled to say that the intellectual NO. 1868, vor. 72] and social gains have equalled, if they have not exceeded, in value the purely material gains; and may we not then regard iron as the symbol of a beneficent conquest of Nature ? With the advent of the Industrial Age gold was destined to take a new place in the world’s history as the great medium of exchange, the great promoter of industry and commerce. While individual gain still remained the pro- pelling power towards its discovery and acquisition, every fresh discovery led directly or indirectly to the freer inter- change of the products of industry, and thus reacted favour- ably on the industrial and social conditions of the time. So long as the chief supplies of gold were obtained from alluvial deposits by the simple process of washing, the winning of gold almost necessarily continued to be pursued by individuals, or by small groups of workers, who were mainly attracted by the highly speculative nature of the occupation. These workers endured the greatest hardships and ran the most serious personal risks, drawn on from day to day by the hope that some special stroke of good fortune would be theirs. This condition prevailed also in fields in which the reef gold occurred near the surface, where it was easily accessible without costly mining appliances, and where the precious metal was loosely associated with a weathered matrix. These free- milling ores could be readily handled by crushing and amalgamation with mercury, so that here also no elaborate organisation and no great expenditure of capital were necessary. A third stage was reached: when the more easily worked deposits above the water-line had been worked out. Not only were more costly appliances and more elaborately organised efforts required to bring the ore to the surface, but the ore when obtained contained less of its gold in the easily recovered, and more in the refractory or combined form. The problem of recovery had now to be attacked by improved mechanical and chemical methods. The sulphides or tellurides with which the gold was associated or combined had to be reduced to a state of minute subdivision by more perfect stamping or grinding, and elaborate precautions were necessary to ensure metallic contact between the particles of gold and the solvent mercury. In many cases the amalgamation process failed to extract more than a very moderate pro- portion of the gold, and the quartz sand or “ tailings ”’ which still contained the remainder found its way into creeks and rivers or remained in heaps on the ground around the batteries. In neighbourhoods where fuel was available a preliminary roasting of the ore was resorted to, to oxidise or volatilise the baser metals and set free the gold; or the sulphides, tellurides, &c., were concen- trated by washing, and the concentrates were taken to smelting or chlorinating works in some favourable situ- ation where the more elaborate metallurgical methods could be economically applied. Many efforts were also made to apply the solvent action of chlorine directly to the unconcentrated unroasted ores; but unfortunately chlorine is an excellent solvent for other substances besides gold, and in practice it was found that its solvent energy was mainly exercised on the base metals and metalloids, and on the materials of which the apparatus itself was constructed. This to the best of my knowledge is a correct, if rather sketchy, description of the state of matters in 1889 when the use of a dilute solution of cyanide of potassium was first seriously proposed for the extraction of gold from its ores. Those of us who can recall the time will re- member that the proposal was far from favourably re- garded from a chemical point of view. The cost of the reagent, its extremely poisonous nature, the instability of its solutions, its slow action—such were the difficulties that naturally presented themselves to our minds. And, even granting that these difficulties might be overcome, there still remained the serious problem of how to recover the gold in metallic form from the extremely dilute solu- tions of the cyanide of gold and potassium. How each and all of these difficulties have been swept asidey how within little more than a decade this method of gold extraction has spread over the gold-producing countries of the world, now absorbing and now replacing the older processes, but ever carrying all before it—all this is already a twice-told tale which I should feel hardly justified in AUGUST 17, 1905] alluding to were it not for the fact that we are to-day meeting on the Rand where the infant process made its début nearly fourteen years ago. The Rand to-day is the richest of the world’s goldfields, not only in its present capacity, but in its potentialities for the future; twenty years ago its wonderful possibilities were quite unsuspected even by experts. It is not for me to describe in detail how the change has been accomplished; this task will, we know, be far better accomplished by representative chemists who are now actively engaged in the work. But for the chemists of the British Association it is a fact of great significance that they are here in the presence of the most truly in- dustrial development of gold production which the world thas yet seen; a development moreover that is founded on a purely chemical process which for its continuance re- quires, not only skilled chemists to superintend its oper- ation, but equally skilled chemists to supply the reagent on which the industry depends. In 1889 the world’s consumption of cyanide of potassium did not exceed fifty tons per annum. This was produced by melting ferrocyanide with carbonate of potassium, the clear fused cyanide so obtained being decanted from the carbide of iron which had separated. The resulting salt was a mixture of cyanide, cyanate, and carbonate which was sometimes called cyanide of potassium for the hardly sufficient reason that it contained jo per cent. of that salt. When the demand for gold extraction arose, it was at first entirely met by this process, the requisite ferro- cyanide being obtained by the old fusion process from the nitrogen of horns, leather, &c. In 1891 the first successful process for the synthetic production of cyanide without the intervention of ferrocyanide was perfected, and the increasing demand from the gold mines was largely met by its use. At present the entire consumption of cyanide is not much short of 10,000 tons a year, of which the Transvaal goldfield consumes about one-third. Large cyanide works exist in Great Britain, Germany, France, and America, so that a steady and sure supply of the reagent has been amply provided. In 1894 the price of cyanide in the Transvaal was 2s. per pound; to-day it is one-third of that, or 8d. During the prevalence of the high prices of earlier years the manufacture was a highly speculative one, and new processes appeared and dis- appeared with surprising suddenness, the disappearance being generally marked by the simultaneous vanishing of large sums of money. To-day the manufacture is entirely carried out in large works scientifically organised and supervised, and, both industrially and commercially, the speculative element has been eliminated. Chemistry has so often been called on to play the part of the humble and unrecognised handmaiden to the in- dustrial arts that we may perhaps be pardoned if in this case we direct public attention to our Cinderella as she shines in her rightful position as the genius of industrial initiation and direction. To this essentially chemical development of metallurgy we owe it that in a community the age of which can only be counted by decades we find ourselves surrounded by chemists of high scientific skill and attainments who have already organised for their mutual aid and _ scientific enlightenment ‘‘ The Johannesburg Society of Chemistry, Metallurgy, and Mining,’* the published proceedings of which amply testify to the atmosphere of intellectual vigour in which the work of this great industry is carried on. It appears, then, that while gold still maintains * its position of influence in the affairs of men, the nature of that influence has undergone an important change. Not only has its widespread use as the chief medium of ex- change exercised far-reaching effects on the commerce of the world, but the vastly increased demand for this purpose has in its turn altered the methods of production. These methods have become more highly organised and scientific, and gold production is now fairly established as a pro- gressive industry in which scope is found for the best chemical and engineering skill and talent. The experience of more highly evolved industries in the older countries has shown that the truly scientific organ- isation of industry includes in its scope a full and just consideration for the social and intellectual needs of its wo. 1868, VOL. 72] NATURE Se It augurs well, therefore, and and and not workers from highest to lowest. for the future of the gold industry, from the humane social: points of view, that its control should be more more under the influence of men of scientific spirit intellectual culture who we may feel assured will forget the best traditions of their class. The application of science to industry requires.on the part of the pioneers and organisers keen and persistent concentration on certain well-defined aims. Any waver- ing in these aims or any relaxation of this concentration may lead to failure or to only a qualified success. This necessary but narrow concentration may be a danger to the intellectual development of the worker, who may thereby readily fall into a groove and so may become even less efficient in his own particular work. It certainly requires some mental strength to hold fast to the well-defined practical aim while allowing to the atten- tion occasional intervals of liberty to browse over the wide and pleasant fields of science. But I am _ certain that the acquirement of this double power is well worth an effort. The mental stimulus, as well as the new ex- periences garnered during the excursion, will sooner or later react favourably on the practical problems, while the earnest wrestling with these problems may develop powers and intuitions which will lend their own charm to the wider problems of science. Gold and Science. If we re-peruse the table of the elements, not now in our capacity as “‘ plain men’’ but as chemists, we shall certainly not select gold as of supreme interest chemically. Its position as chief among the noble metals, its patent of nobility, is based on its aloofness from common associ- ations or attachments. Unlike the element nitrogen, it is mainly for itself and little if at all for its compounds, that gold is interesting. In it we can at our leisure study the metal rather than the element. Its colour and trans- parence, its softness and its hardness, the density as well as the extreme tenuity of some of its forms—such were the qualities which recommended it to Faraday when he desired to study the action of material particles on light. I should like to repeat to you in his own words the reasons he gave for this choice: ‘‘ Because of its comparative opacity among bodies, and yet possession of a real trans- parency ; because of its development of colour both in the reflected and transmitted rays; because of the state of tenuity and division which it permitted with the preserv- ation of its integrity as a metallic body; because of its supposed simplicity of character; and because known phenomena appeared to indicate that a mere variation in the size of its particles gave rise to a variety of re- sultant colours. Besides the waves of light are so large compared to the dimensions of the particles of gold which in various conditions can be subjected to a ray, that it seemed probable that the particles might come into effective relations to the much smaller vibrations of the other particles.” , I may remind you that Faraday came to the conclusion that the variety in the colours presented by gold under various conditions is due to the size of its particles and their state of aggregation. Ruby glass or ruby solutions he proved are not true solutions, nor are they molecular diffusions of gold, but they contain the metal in aggregates sufficiently large to give a_ sensible reflection under an incident beam of light. Through the kindness of Sir Henry Roscoe I am able to exhibit to you some of the original ruby gold preparations obtained during this re- search, which were afterwards presented to him by Fara- day at the Royal Institution some years before his death. By means of refined and ingenious optical _ methods Zsigmondy and Siedentopf have succeeded in making these ultra-microscopic particles visible in the microscope as diffraction discs; they have, further, counted the number of particles per unit area, and have from the intensity of their reflection calculated their size. In ruby glass the size of the particles in different specimens was found to vary from 4 to 791 millionths of a millimetre. No re- lation was found to hold between the colour of the particles and their absolute size. This conclusion is in direct con- tradiction of Faraday’s belief already referred to. Mr. J. Maxwell Garnett has recently shown that the colour 380 NATURE [ AUGUST 17, 1905 of metallic glasses and films is determined, not only by the absolute size of the metal particles, but also by the proportion of the total volume they occupy in the medium in which they are diffused. The results of Mr. Garnett’s calculations are in close agreement with a number of the observations on the colour and microstructure of thin metal films which I had already recorded, and they appear to me to supply the explanation of much that had appeared puzzling before. My own observations lead me to think that the actual microscopic particles which are to be seen, and the larger of which can also be measured, in films and solutions or suspensions, do not in any way represent the ultimate units of structure which are required by Mr. Garnett’s theory, but that these particles are aggregates of smaller units built up in more or less open formation. That a relatively opaque substance like gold may be so attenuated that when disseminated in open formation it becomes transparent is contrary to all our associations with the same operation when performed on transparent substances like’ glass or crystalline salts. The familiar experiment of crushing a transparent crystal into a_per- fectly opaque powder would not prepare us for the effect of minute subdivision on the transparence of metals. At first it might be supposed that this difference is due to the very rough and incomplete subdivision of the crystal by crushing; but this is not the case, for the perfectly transparent oxide of magnesium may be obtained in a state of attenuation comparable with that of the gold, by allowing the smoke from burning magnesium to deposit ona glass plate. The film of oxide obtained in this way is found to be built up of particles quite as minute as those of which the gold films are composed, yet the opacity of the oxide film is relatively much greater. The minute particles of the dielectric, magnesium oxide, scatter and dissipate the light waves by repeated reflection and re- fraction, while the similar particles of the metallic con- ductor, gold, act as electrical resonators which pass on some of the light waves while reflecting others. Specimens of films of gold and silver and of magnesium oxide are exhibited on the table and on the lantern screen. When the metallic particles are in this state of open formation and relative transparence, it was found that the electrical conductivity of the films had completely disappeared. Films of this description were found to have a resistance of more than 1,000,000 megohms as compared with only six ohms in the metallic reflecting condition. Molecules in the Solid State. My examination of gold films and surfaces has revealed the fact that during polishing the disturbed surface film behaves exactly like a liquid under the influence of surface tension. At temperatures far below the melting point molecular movement takes place under mechanical dis- turbance, and the molecules tend to heap up in minute mounds or flattened droplets. These minute mounds are often so shallow that they can only be detected when the surface is illuminated by an intense, obliquely incident beam of light. I have estimated that these minute mounds or spicules can be seen in this way in films which are not more than five to ten micro-millimetres in thickness. A film of this attenuation may contain so few as ten to twenty molecules in its thickness. When moderately thin films of gold are supported on glass and heated at a temperature of 400°-500°, they be- come translucent, and the forms assumed under the in- fluence of surface tension can be readily seen by trans- mitted light. It was in this way that the beautiful but puzzling spicular appearance by obliquely reflected light was first explained as due to the granulation of the sur- face under the influence of surface tension. Photo- micrographs of these films are exhibited. Turning now to the mechanical properties of metals, we find that gold has proved itself of great value in the investigation of some of these. It has long been recog- nised as the most malleable and ductile of the metals, whilst its chemical indifference tends to preserve it in a state of metallic purity throughout any prolonged series of operations. The artificers in gold must very early have learned that its malleability and ductility are not qualities which in- definitely survive the operations of hammering and wire- drawing. A piece of soft gold beaten into a thin plate No. 1868, VOL. 72] dces not remain equally soft throughout the process, but spreads with increasing difficulty under the hammer. If carelessly beaten it may even develop cracks round its edges. We may assume that the artificers in gold very soon discovered that by heating, the hardened metal might be restored to its former condition of softness. In connection with the study of the micro-metallurgy of iron and steel during recent years it has been recognised that heat annealing is, as a rule, associated with the growth and development of crystalline grains, and Prof. Ewing and Mr. Rosenhain have shown that overstrain is often if not invariably associated with the deformation of these crystalline grains by slips occurring along one or more cleavage planes. This hypothesis, though well sup- ported up to a point by microscopic observations on a variety of metals, offers no explanation of the natural arrest of malleability or ductility which occurs when the overstrain has reached a point at which the crystalline grains are still, to all appearance, only slightly deformed. At this stage there is no obvious reason why the slipping of the crystalline lamella should net continue under the stresses which have initiated it. But far from this being the case, a relatively great increase of stress produces little or no further yielding until the breaking point is reached and rupture tales place. The study of the surface effects of polishing, already referred to, had shown that the thin surface film retained no trace of crystalline structure; while it also gave the clearest indications that the metal had passed through a liquid condition before settling into the forms prescribed by surface tension. From this it was argued that the conditions which prevail at the outer surface might equally prevail at all inner surfaces where movement had occurred, so that every slip of one crystalline lamella over another would cause a thin film of the metal to pass through the liquid phase to a new and non-crystalline condition. By observations on the effects of beating pure gold foil, it was found that the metal reached its hardest and least plastic condition only when all outward traces of crystal- line structure had disappeared. It was also ascertained that this complete destruction of the crystalline lamella and units could only be accomplished in the layers near the surface, for the hardened substance produced by the flowing under the hammer appears to encase and protect the crystalline units after they become broken down to a certain size. By carefully etching the surface in stages by means of chlorine water cr cold aqua regia, the successive layers below the surface were disclosed. The surface itself was vitreous; beneath this was a layer of minute granules, and lower still the distorted and broken- up remains of crystalline lamella and grains were em- bedded in a vitreous and granular matrix. The vitreous- looking surface layer represents the final stage in the passage from soft to hard, from crystalline to amorphous. By heating the beaten foil, its softness was restored; and on etching the annealed metal it was found that the crystalline structure also was fully restored. Photo- micrographs showing these appearances are exhibited. These microscopic observations were fully confirmed by finding well-marked thermo-electrical and electro-chemical distinctions between the two forms of metal, the hard and soft or the amorphous and the crystalline. The determin- ation of a definite transition temperature at which the amorphous metal passes into the crystalline metal further confirms the phase view of hardening by overstrain and softening by annealing. It was subsequently proved that the property of passing from crystalline to amorphous by mechanical flow, and from amorphous to crystalline by heat at a definite transi- tion temperature, is a general one which is possessed by all crystalline solids which do not decompose at or below their transition temperature. ‘The significance of this fact I venture to think entitles it to more than a passing reference. It appears to’ me to mean that the transition from amorphous to crystalline is entitled to take its place with the other great changes of state, solid to liquid, liquid to gas, for like these it marks a change in the molecular activity which occurs when a certain temperature is reached. It is entitled to take this place because there is every indication that the change is as general in its nature as the other changes of state. Compare it, for instance, with the allotropic changes with which chemists have been AUGUST 17, 1905 | NATURE 381 familiar. These are for the most part changes which are special to particular elements or compounds, and are usually classed with the chemical properties by which the substances may be distinguished from each other. Very different is the amorphous crystalline change, for although in particular cases it may have been observed and asso- ciated with allotropic changes, yet the causes of its occur- rence are more deeply founded in the relations between the molecules and the heat energy by which their manifold properties are successively unfolded as temperature is raised from the absolute zero. At this transition point we find ourselves face to face with the first stirrings of a specific directive force by which the blind cohesion of the mole- cules is ordered and directed to the building up of the most perfect geometric forms. It is hardly possible any longer to regard the stability of a crystal as static and inert, and independent of temperature; rather must its structure and symmetry be taken as the outward manifesta- tion of a dynamic equilibrium between the primitive co- hesion and the kinetic energy imparted. by heat. Even before the discovery of a definite temperature of transition from the amorphous to the crystalline phase we had in our hands the proofs that in certain cases the crystalline state can be a state of dynamic, rather than of static equilibrium. The transition of sulphur from the rhombic to the prismatic form supplies an example of crystalline stability which persists only between certain narrow limits of temperature. Within these limits the crystal is a ‘living crystal ’’ if one may borrow an analogy from the organic world. It can still grow, and it will under proper conditions repair any damage it may receive. The passage, of the same substance through several crys- talline phases, each only stable over a limited range of temperature, strongly supports the general conclusion drawn from the existence of a stability temperature between the amorphous and crystalline phases, namely, that the crystalline arrangement of the molecules requires for its active existence the particular kind or rate of vibration corresponding with a certain range of temperature. Below this point the crystal may become to all appearance a mere pseudomorph with no powers of active growth or repair. But these powers are not extinct—they are only in abeyance ready to be called forth under the energising influence of heat. This temporary abeyance of the more active properties of matter is strikingly illustrated by the early observations of Sir James Dewar at the boiling point of liquid air, and more recently at that of liquid hydrogen. At the latter temperature even chemical affinity becomes latent. In metals it was found that the changes in their physical properties brought about by these low temperatures are not permanent, but only persist so long as the low temperature is maintained. During the past year Mr. R. A. Hadfield has supplemented these earlier results by making a very complete series of observations on the effect of cooling on the mechanical properties of iron and its alloys. The tenacity and hardness of the pure metal and its alloys at the ordinary temperature and at —182° have been compared, and it has been found that these qualities are invariably enhanced at the lower temperature, but that they return exactly to their former value at the ordinary temperature. By the mere abstraction of heat between the temperatures of 18° and —182° the tensile strength of pure metals is raised 50 to 100 per cent. In pure iron the in- crease is from 23 tons per square inch at 18° C. to 52 tons at —182°; in gold from 15-1 tons to 22-4 tons; and in copper from 19-5 tons to 26-4. This increase is not, I think, due to the closer approximation of the molecules, for the coefficient of expansion of most metals below o° is extremely small. Neither is it due to permanent changes of molecular arrangement or aggregation, for Mr. Hadfield has obtained a perfectly smooth and regular cooling vurve for iron between 18° and —182°, and there appears to be no indication of the existence of any critical point between these temperatures. Further, the complete restoration of the original tenacity on the return to the higher temperature shows that no permanent or irreversible change has occurred during cooling. Everything therefore indicates that the increase of tenacity which occurs degree by degree as heat is removed is due to the reduction of the repulsive force of molecular vibration, so that the primary cohesive force NO. 1368, VOL. 72] can assert itself more and more completely as the absolute zero is approached. The metals experimented with by Mr. Hadfield were all in the annealed or crystalline condition, so that the molecules must have exerted their mutual attractions along the directed axes proper to this state. It is to be expected that similar experiments with the metals in the amorphous state may throw light on the -question whether and to what extent the crystailine state depends on a dynamic equilibrium between the forces of cohesion and repulsion, or whether a directed cohesion exists fully developed in the molecules at the absolute zero.’ The phenomena of the solid state throw an interesting light on the interplay of the two great forces, the primative or blind cohesion which holds undisputed sway at the absolute zero, and the repulsion due to the molecular vi- brations which is developed by heat. This interplay we know continues through the states which succeed each other as the temperature is raised, until a point is reached at which the molecular repulsions so far outweigh the cohesive force that the substance behaves like a perfect gas. The problems of molecular constitution are more likely to be elucidated by a study of the successive states between the absolute zero and the vaporising temperature than at the upper ranges where the gaseous state alone prevails. The simplicity of the laws which govern the physical behaviour of a perfect gas is very attractive, but we must not forget that this simplicity is only possible because repulsion has so nearly overcome cohesion that the latter may be practically ignored. The attractiveness of this simplicity should not blind us to the fact that it is in the middle region, where the opposing forces are more nearly equal, that the most interesting and illuminating phenomena are likely to abound. The application of the gas laws to the phenomena of solution and osmosis appears to be one of those cases in which an attractive appearance of sim- plicity in the apparent relations may prove very misleading. Before passing from the specially metallic qualities of gold I will only remind you of the important part it has played in the researches on the diffusion of metals by the late Sir William Roberts-Austen, and in those of Mr. Haycock and Mr. Neville on the freezing points of solu- tions of gold in tin, which led to the recognition of the monatomic nature of the molecules of metals. Molecules in Solution. It has occurred to me that the practice of the cyanide process of gold extraction presents us with several new and interesting aspects of the problems of solution. As you are aware, the gold is first obtained from the ore in the form of a very dilute solution of cyanide of gold and potassium from which the metal has to be separated, either by passing it through boxes filled with zinc shavings, or by electrolysis in large cells. The solution as it leaves the cyanide-vats may contain gold equal to roo grains or more per ton, and as it leaves the precipitating-boxes it may contain as little as 1 or 2 grains and as much as 20 grains. In the treatment of slimes much larger volumes of solution have to be dealt with, and in this case solutions containing 18 grains per ton have been regularly passed through the precipitating- boxes, their gold content being reduced to 13 grains per ton. In round numbers we may say that 1 gram of gold is recovered from 1 cubic metre of solution, while o-1 gram is left in the solution. Even from the point of view of the physical chemist we are here in presence of solutions of a very remarkable order of dilution. A solution containing I gram per cubic metre is in round numbers N/200,000, and the weaker solution. containing o-1 gram _ is N/2,000,000. It is convenient to remember that the latter contains a little more than 13 grains per ton. In experi- ments on the properties of dilute solutions the extreme point of dilution was reached by Kohlrausch, who employed solutions containing 1/100,000 of a gram-molecule of solute per litre for his conductivity experiments. These solutions were therefore twice as strong as the gold solution with I gram per cubic metre, and twenty times as strong as the 1 Since the above was written a series of observations has been made on the influence of low temperature on the tenacity of pure metals in the amorphous condition. These observations will form the subject of a separate communication to the Section. 382 NATURE more dilute solution. This fact must be my excuse for placing before you the results of a few simple calculations as to the molecular distribution in these solutions, which have certainly given me an entirely new view of what con- stitutes a really dilute solution from the molecular point of view. In estimating the number of molecules in a given volume of solution the method adopted is to divide the space into minute cubical cells, each of which can exactly contain a sphere of the diameter of the molecule. In this way a form of piling for the molecules is assumed which, though not the closest possible, may quite probably represent the piling of water molecules. Taking the molecular diameter as 0-2X10-° millimetres—a figure which is possibly too small for the water molecules and too large for the gold —it is found that a cubic millimetre of solution contains 125X10'® molecules, or 125 quadrillions. The head of an ordinary pin, if it were spherical, would have a volume of about 1 cubic millimetre. If these water molecules could be arranged in a single row, each molecule just touching its two nearest neighbours, the length of the row would be 25,000,000 kilometres. A thread of these fairy beads, which contained the molecules of one very small drop of a volume of 6 cubic millimetres, would reach from the earth to the sun, a distance of about 150,000,000 kilometres. In a solution containing 14 grains of gold per ton, or 1 decigram per cubic metre, the ratio of gold molecules to water molecules is as 1:193,000,000. Each cubic milli- metre of the solution, therefore, contains 6,500,000,000 gold molecules. If these are uniformly distributed throughout the solution each will be about 400 micro-millimetres, or 1/60,000 of an inch, from its nearest neighbours. This is not really very wide spacing, for the point of the finest sewing-needle would cover about 1,500 gold molecules. If a cubic metre of solution could be spread out in a sheet one molecule in thickness it would cover an area of 1,680 square miles, and nowhere in this area would it be possible to put down the point of the needle without touch- ing some hundreds of gold molecules simultaneously. According to Prof. Liversidge, sea-water contains on the average about 1 grain of gold per ton. If this is the case, then the above figures for the dilute cyanide solution apply with only a slight modification to sea-water. No drop, however small it may be, can be removed from the ocean which will not contain many millions of gold mole- cules, and no point of its surface can be touched which is not thickly strewn with these. From this molecular point of view we must realise that our ships literally float on a gilded ocean ! From time to time adventurers arise who attempt to launch upon this gilded ocean unseaworthy ships freighted with the savings of the trusting investor. In order that nothing which has been said here may tempt anyone to contribute to the freighting of these ships, let me hasten to point out that the weakest of the cyanide solutions here referred to is richer in gold than sea-water is reported to be. The practical conclusion from this comparison is sufficiently obvious. If the cyaniding expert, whose business it is to extract gold from dilute solutions, finds that it does not pay to carry this extraction beyond a concentra- tion of 2 or 3 grains per ton, even when the solution is already in his hand, and when, therefore, the costs of treatment are at their minimum, how can it possibly pay to begin the work of extraction on sea-water, a solution of one-half the richness, which would have to be impounded and treated by methods which could not fail to be more costly in labour and materials than the simple process of zinc-box precipitation? It is generally unsafe to prophesy, but in this case I am rash enough to risk the prediction that if ever the gold mines of the Transvaal are shut up it will not be owing to the com- petition of the gold resources of the ocean. In these calculations with reference to the dilute cyanide solutions it is assumed that the gold molecules are uni- formly distributed, that they are practically equidistant from each other. There appears to me to be considerable doubt whether we have any right to make this assumption. Leaving out of account for the moment the action of the water molecules, it would appear that as long as the gold molecules are so numerous that a uniform distribution NC. 1868, voL. 72] [AUGUST 17, 1905 would bring them within the range of each other’s at- traction, we can imagine that all submerged molecules would be in equilibrium so far as the attractions of their own kind are concerned, being subjected to a uniform pull in all directions. This condition would certainly make for uniform distribution. But when the distance between them exceeds the range of the molecular forces, it is evident that an entirely new condition is introduced, and it seems not improbable that the widely distributed mole- cules would tend to drift into clouds in which they are brought back within the range of these forces. The range of the cohesive forces in water and aqueous liquids is usually taken from 50 to 100 micro-millimetres, and I am disposed to think that ten times this amount would not be an excessive estimate of the range in the case of gold. If the range for gold be taken as 500 micro-millimetres, then the gold molecules of the dilute gold solution, which are spaced at 4oo micro-millimetres apart, are just within the range of each other’s attraction, and their distribution is, therefore, likely to be uniform. But by a further dilu- tion to half concentration, the equilibrium would be liable to be disturbed, and denser clouds of gold molecules would be formed, with less dense intervals between them. In preparing the zinc boxes through which the gold solu- tion is passed, very great care has to be exercised to ensure that the contact surface of the zinc is used to the best advantage. With this object the packing of the zinc shavings is so managed that the solution is spread over the zinc surface in as thin sheets as possible. The object, of course, is to bring as many of the gold molecules as possible into actual contact with the zinc. The gold mole- cules found in the solution leaving the boxes are those which have not been in contact with the zinc. Yet we have seen that these molecules are still so numerous that they are within 1/60,000 of an inch of each other. If these molecules are in a state analogous to the gaseous state, with diffusive energy of the same order as that of the gas molecule, it is difficult to imagine how they can escape without coming in contact with the zinc surface during their tortuous passage through the boxes and being deposited there. Yet they do escape, even when the velocity of the solution in passing over the zinc surfaces is so slow as 10 cm. per minute or 1-6 mm. per second. We may regard the condition of these isolated gold molecules, or the more complex auricyanide of potassium molecules, as typical of that of the solute molecules in a dilute solution of any non-volatile solid. They are solid molecules sparsely distributed among a multitude of in- tensely active solvent molecules, the temperature of the solution being many hundred degrees below that at which they could of themselves assume the greater freedom of the liquid or gaseous state. These solute molecules have to a great extent been set free from the constraining effect of their cohesive forces, but it is important to reniember that this freedom has not been attained by the increase of their own kinetic energy as in liquefaction by heat. Their freedom and the extra kinetic energy they have acquired have in some way been imparted to them by the more active solvent molecules; for, if the solvent could be suddenly removed, leaving the solute molecules still similarly distributed in a vacuous space, they would eventu- ally condense into a solid aggregate. This must be the case, for the non-volatile solute has no measurable vapour pressure at the temperature of the solution. The kinetic energy of the solute molecules is of itself quite insufficient to endow them with the properties of the gaseous or even of the liquid molecule, even when their cohesive forces have been weakened or overcome by separation. If the energy employed in this separation is not intrinsic to the solute molecule then it must in some way have been imparted by the solvent molecules. It therefore becomes important to compare the energy endowment of one set of molecules with that of the other. Compared with other solids, ice at its freezing point has very little hardness or tenacity: the cohesion of its molecules has been much relaxed by the great absorption of heat energy between the absolute zero and the freezing point. If an average specific heat of 0-5 over the whole range be assumed, the heat absorption of one gram amounts to 136-5 calories. In the transition to the liquid state at o° a further absorption of 79 calories takes place, so that AUGUST 17, 1905] NATURE 383 a gram of liquid water at the freezing point contains the heat energy of 215-5 calories. The fact that water has the high vapour pressure of 4-6 mm. of mercury at the freezing point is probably a result of this enormous store of energy. As a liquid, therefore, it is natural to expect that its molecules will exhibit effects proportionate to this great store of energy. This expectation appears to be realised when we consider not only its properties as the universal solvent, but its osmotic and diffusive energy in solutions in which it is the solvent. To complete the comparison it is only necessary to calculate the heat energy of gold at 0°. Taking its specific heat as 0-032, a gram of gold at 0° contains 8-7 caloriés. A gram-molecule, therefore, contains in round numbers 1700 calories as compared with 3880 calories in a gram- molecule of water. Taking into consideration not only this greater store of energy, but also the much smaller cohesive force of water as compared with the majority of solid solutes, there can be no doubt that the active réle in aqueous solutions of this type must be assigned to the solvent, not to the solute molecules. This leads to the important conclusion that the energy of solution, of diffusion, and of osmosis is due, not to the imaginary gaseous energy of the solute, but to the actual liquid energy of the solvent molecules. When this conclusion is reached a new physical explanation of these phenomena is in our hands, and we are relieved from the strain to the imagination involved in the application of the gas theory to solutions of non-volatile solids. This transference of the active réle to the solvent mole- cules does not in any way affect the well-established con- clusions based on the laws of thermodynamics as to the energy relations in these phenomena, for it has always been recognised that these conclusions have reference to the average conditions prevailing in large collections of relatively minute units. Wherever the gas analogy has appeared to hold it has not necessarily involved more than this, that the observed effects are in proportion to the number of these minute units in a given volume. In applying the gas theory to the physical explanation of osmotic pressure it has been the custom to regard this pressure as directly due to the bombardment of the semi- permeable membrance by the solute molecules. But this conception completely ignores the fact that the pressure developed is a hydrostatic, not a gaseous pressure, and that the hydrostatic pressure results directly from the penetration of the solvent molecules from the other side of the partition. It appears to me more natural to abandon the gas analogy altogether, to regard the molecules as in the solid and liquid condition proper to their temperature, and to apportion to them their respective parts in the active changes according to their obvious endowment of energy. Applying this view to the case of a solution and a solvent separated by a semi-permeable membrane, it is seen that the pressure rises on the solution side, because the pure solvent molecules on the other side have some advantage for the display of their energy over the similar molecules in the solution. This effect in its most general form may be attributed to the dilution of the solvent by the solute molecules. In cases where the osmotic pressure appears to obey Boyle’s law the effect is exactly measured by the number of solute molecules per unit volume. But the facts of this position are in no way changed if the effect is taken to be due to the activity of an equal number of solvent molecules, for we then see that each solute molecule by cancelling the activity of one solvent molecule on the solution side permits a solvent molecule from the other side to enter the solution. What the exact mechanism of this cancellation is there is at present no evidence to show, and the caution origin- ally given by Lord Kelvin with reference to the undue forcing of the gas analogy must also be applied to the suggestion now put forward. But as a means of making the suggestion a little more clear I give here a simple diagram on which a represents a single perforation in a semi-permeable membrane, P, on both sides of which there is only pure solvent. For the sake of clearness the mole- cules are shown only as a single row. Normally there will be no passage of solvent molecules from side to side, for N>. 1868, voL. 72] the average kinetic energy of the tmolecules on both sides is equal. This state of equilibrium is indicated on the diagram by marking with a cross the molecule which is exactly halfway through the partition. At B a single solute molecule, s, has been introduced at the right side. If this molecule exactly cancels the energy of one solute molecule at its own end of the row, the equilibrium point will move one molecule to the right, the solvent molecules will move in the same direction, and one of their number will enter on the solution side. So long as the row includes one, and only one, solute molecule, the equilibrium will remain unchanged and no more solute molecules will pass in. If another solute molecule arrives on the scene, the equilibrium will again be disturbed in the same way as before, and another solvent molecule will pass into the solution. This mechanism accomplishes to some extent the work of a ‘‘ Maxwell Demon,’’ in so far at least as it takes advantage of the movement of individual molecules to raise one part of a system at a uniform temperature to a higher level of energy. A Mechanical View of Dissociation in Dilute Solutions. The view that the phenomena of solution depend on the relative kinetic energy of the solvent and solute molecules appears to apply with special force to the phenomena of dissociation in dilute solutions. Under the gas theory there does not appear to be any reason why the solute molecules should dissociate into their ions. So obvious is this absence of any physical motive that Prof. Armstrong has happily referred to the dissociation as ‘‘ the suicide of the molecules.’’ Others have proposed to ascribe the phe- nomenon to what might be called “‘ the fickleness of the ions,’’ thus supposing that the ions have an inherent love of changing partners. These may be picturesque ways of labelling certain views of the situation, but the views themselves do not appear to supply any clue to the physical nature of the phenomena. With the acceptance of the view that the phenomena of solution are largely due to the kinetic energy of the solvent molecules, the phenomena of dissociation also appear to take their place as a natural result of this activity. For consider the situation of an isolated molecule of cyanide of gold and potassium closely surrounded by and at the mercy of some millions of water molecules all in a state of intense activity. The rude mechanical jostling to which the complex molecule is sub- jected will naturally tend to break it up into simpler portions which are mectanically more stable. The me- chanical analogy of a ball mill in which the balls are self- driven at an enormous velocity is probably rather crude, but it may at least help us to picture what, on the view now advanced, must be essentially a mechanical operation. In importing this mechanical view of the breaking down of complex into simpler molecules we are not without some solid basis of facts to go upon. My own observ- ations have shown that even in the solid state the crystalline molecule can be broken down by purely mechanical means 384 NATURE [AuGuST 17, 1905 into the simpler units of the amorphous state; and, further, that the water molecules of a crystal may by the same agency be broken away from their combination with the salt molecules. Since the publication of the earlier of these observations Prof. Spring has shown that the acid sulphates of the alkali metals may be mechanically decom- posed into two portions, one of which contains more acid, and the other more base than the original salt. It is important to recognise that in these three apparently short steps the transition has been made from the overcoming of the simple cohesion of similar molecules in contact with each other to the breaking asunder of the chemical union of dissimilar molecules. At each step the solid molecules appear, not as mere ethereal abstractions, but as sub- stantial portions of matter which can be touched and handled mechanically. The physical properties of a gas are primarily due to its being an assemblage of rapidly moving molecules. These simpler and more general properties can coexist with, and may be modified by, the more complex relations introduced by chemical affinity as it occurs in compound gases and mixtures. It appears to me quite legitimate similarly to regard the physical properties of a liquid as due to its being an as- semblage of rapidly moving molecules. The liquid system is highly condensed, and the motions of its molecules are controlled by the cohesive as well as by the repulsive forces. The closer approximation of the molecules may reduce their mean free path to an extremely small amount, or it may even cause their translatory motion to disappear, so that the whole kinetic energy of the liquid molecules may be in the form of rotation or vibration. As we can imagine a perfect gas, so also may we imagine a perfect liquid, the physical properties of which are as simply related to the laws of dynamics as are those of the gas. But the conditions of the liquid state being also those most favourable to the play of chemical affinity, the internal equilibrium of solutions or of mixed liquids must be a resultant of this affinity together with the primary forces of the ideal liquid state. An ideally perfect solution—that is, a solution the physical properties of which are determined solely by the number of molecules it contains in a given volume—must consist of a solvent and a solute which have no chemical affinity for each other, so that their molecules will neither associate nor dissociate in solution. Probably only com- paratively few solutions will be found which even ap- proximate to this ideal perfection. But it appears to me that the study of the problems of the liquid and the dis- solved states may be much simplified by the recognition (1) that the primary physical properties of liquids and solutions are due to the fact that they are assemblages of molecules endowed with the amount and the kind of kinetic energy which is proper to their temperature; and (2) that as these primary physical properties of the liquid and dis- solved states may be masked and interfered with by chemical affinity, they should be studied as far as possible in examples where the influence of this force is either absent or at a ‘minimum. NOTES. WE regret to learn of the death, at the age of seventy- eight, of Dr. T. R. Thalén, professor of physics at the University of Upsala, and one of the most eminent Swedish men of science. The Rumford medal was awarded to him by the Royal Society for researches on spectrum analysis, and a gold medal was awarded to him by the Swedish Association of Ironmasters in 1874 for his in- vestigations of magnetic iron ore deposits. his A Reuter telegram from Berlin states that the Inter- national. Conference for the Investigation of Earthquakes met on Tuesday at: the Ministry of the Interior, under the presidency of Privy Councillor Dr. Lewald. All the States which possess organised staffs for the investigation of earthquakes were invited by the German Government NO. 1868, VOL. 72] to take part in the conference. The conference is expected to last two days. Tue Government Eclipse Expedition in charge of Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., has arrived at Palma, Balearic Islands, where the instruments will be erected for observ- ations of the total solar eclipse on August 30. A Reuter telegram from Madrid reports that the telegraph authori- ties have decided to frank all telegrams dispatched by members of the various astronomical expeditions regarding observations of the eclipse. Tur London County Council has erected a memorial tablet on No. 14 Hertford Street, Park Lane, where Edward Jenner, the originator of vaccination, resided in 1803 ; and also on No. 34 Gloucester Square, Hyde Park, where Robert Stephenson, the engineer, resided at one time. Tue death is announced of the Rev. Dr. J. Keith. He was one of the leading educationists of the north of Scot- land, and took an active interest in scientific pursuits, especially botany. Tue Times correspondent at Wellington, N.Z., states that the Postmaster-General hopes, with the cooperation of Australia, to have wireless telegraphv established across the Tasman Sea within twelve months. The cost will be 28,o000l. THE meeting of the tenth International Navigation Congress will be held at Milan from September 24-30. Particulars can be obtained from the secretary, M. Dufourny, 38 Rue de Louvain, Brussels, or from M. Saujast Di Teulada, Villa Real, Milan. Mr. W. E. Lancpon, formerly telegraph superintendent and chief of the electrical department of the Midland Railway, died on Saturday last, August 12. He was for many years a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and was president for the session of 1901-2. Prors. Rupert Boyce anp Ronatp Ross, of the Liver- pool School of Tropical Medicine, left Liverpool on Satur- day by the Campania for New York. They are proceeding to New Orleans, their services having been offered to the authorities in connection with the outbreak of yellow fever at that port. A RevuTER message from Hong Kong, dated August 12, reports that for nine hours a continuous series of earth- quake shocks, two of them prolonged, have been felt at Macao. Slight shocks have been experienced in Hong Kong. An earthquake shock was felt at Chamonix on August 13, at 10.30 a.in. noise was heard. The usual subterranean rumbling Mr. GERALD DupGEoN has been appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to examine and report upon questions relating to the development of the agri- cultural resources (including cotton) of British West Africa. His title is Superintendent of Agriculture for the British West African Colonies and Protectorates. Tue weather report issued by the Meteorological Office for the week ending August 12 shows that in all the eleven districts into which the British Islands are divided the rainfall since the beginning of the year is below the average, except in the north of Scotland, where the excess is 5-2 inches. The deficiency amounts to 4-6 inches in the north-east of England, and to 3-0 inches in the Midland counties. While at the end of the week jn question nearly the whole ot England and Ireland were under the influence AUGUST 17, 1905 | of high barometric pressure, an area of low pressure lay over Italy and the Adriatic; these conditions caused an unusually heavy fall of rain over the whole of Switzer- land during the night of August 11-12, exceeding 2 inches in amount at several places, with early snowfall at the high-level stations. In a recent issue (August 5) the Academy directs atten- tion to a curious poetical tribute—composed by a French mathematician—to Archimedes, referring to the evaluation of m, which, set out in thirty places of decimals, is 3:141592653589793238462643383279. It will be observed that each of the thirty-one words in this quatrain contains the number of letters corresponding with the successive numbers in the numerical expression :-— Selina Ll. 5) 9 25%) 46 Bh ae Que j’aime a faire apprendre un nombre utile aux sages 8. 9 Immortel Archiméde, artiste ingénieur ! 3 eB 8 4 Ong2 6 Qui de ton jugement peut priser la valeur? Ae esrars 8 Oe EP 9 Pour moi ton probléme eut de pareils avantages. The Frankfurter Zeitung reproduces the French verse, and adds a similar effort emanating from a German poet and geometrician :— SHIM Aik le 2:5) 9 2 6 5 Dir, o Held, o alter Philosoph, Du Riesen-Genie ! 8 Wie viele Tausende Rate ace Geister, AB 8 himmlisch wie Du und gottlich !— 6 2 6 Noch reiner in Aeonen Geis Salles yoaemsts wird das uns strahlen, cae He wie im lichten Morgenrot ! The Academy asks for English parallels to these efforts. Tue fifth instalment of the *‘ Fauna of New England ”’ has just been issued in the seventh volume of Occasional Papers of the Boston (U.S.A.) Society of Natural History, and comprises a list of the crustacea, by Miss M. J. Rathbun. The number of species recorded is 390. WE have received a copy of the sixth annual report of the Plymouth Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, in which are recorded the additions made to the collections during the past year, which are numerous. As regards the biological and geological sections, the committee is apparently of opinion that a miscellaneous omnium gatherum is preferable to a representative local collection an opinion not shared by ourselves. In looking over the list of additions to the geological series, we were somewhat surprised to find the entry of a Archaeopteryx sinensis, which is, however, evidently a misprint for A. We also notice molybdinite in cast as siemenst. place of molybdenite. Tue latest issue (vol. xv., part ii.) of the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club contains two papers dealing with local subjects, namely, one by Mr. L. Richardson on the effects cf earth-pressure on the Keuper rocks in the neighbourhood of Eldersfield, and a second, by Mr. C. Upton, on some Cotteswold Oolitic brachiopeds. In the latter communication the author, after alluding to the extreme difficulty of determining the various forms of Rhynchonella, feels himself justified in describing two species of that genus as new, and likewise NO. 1868, VOL. 72 | NATURE 385 social spiders. two new terebratulas. Other papers deal with rock speci- mens from Cyprus, experiences in Korea, and certain early Indian stone monuments. Tue third part of vol. xxv. of Notes from the Leyden Museum, April 15, comprises short articles dealing with invertebrate groups, among which one on Trochidee by Mr. M. M. Schepman, and a second on the collection of chitons in the Leyden Museum by Dr. H. F. Nierstrasz, are illustrated. Among the other contents reference may be made to five by Mr. C. Ritsema on various groups of beetles, and a sixth by Mr. E. Jacobson (communicated by the Rey. E. Wasmann) on the Javan ant Polyrhachis dives. It is well known that the oriental ant Qcophylla smaragdina has the remarkable habit of employing its larva (which have special silk-glands for making their own cocoons) to glue together the edges of leaves for the benefit of the ants themselves, and the Javan species uses its larvae in the issued on eleven various same manner to spin nests. In the Records of the Australian Museum (vol. vi., part i.) Mr. R. Etheridge describes the fore-part of a huge fish from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland allied to the well known Portheus and Ichthyodectes of the same epoch. The specimen is provisionally assigned to the former genus, with the designation I. marathonensis, in reference to Marathon, its place of origin on the Flinders River. Later on in the same journal Mr. W. J. Rainbow makes an interesting addition to the subject of It appears that some time ago the museum two huge shawl-like webs taken from the Jenolan Caves, the larger of which measures 12 feet in length and about 4 feet in maximum width. Both webs are closely wrought, and are evidently the work of a large community of a spider referred to new species under the name of Amaurobius soctalis. received To the May issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy Mr. B. Smith contributes a suggestive paper on senility in gastropods, mainly based on the study of the Tertiary genus Volutilithes. In most extinct gastropods changes of ornamentation may be observed as the earlier are compared to the later whorls; a normal succession of such changes being noticeable, which varies but little in widely sundered groups, although most families display certain distinctive features in this respect. Infancy, youth, and maturity are represented by distinctive styles in the ontogeny of a species, but these stages cannot always, perhaps from the imperfection of the geological record, be correlated with ancestral types. Senile features, of which several usually occur together in the last whorl, do not all necessarily appear at exactly the same time in the ontogeny. Senile- species or genera never transmit de- scendants, being the terminal members of short branches. Evolution among gastropods seems, indeed, to work some- times rapidly and sometimes slowly, those forms in which it is rapid and bizarre constituting the aforesaid senile offshoots. REJUVENATION forms the subject of an interesting Mr. BE.) Schultz) ‘of St. Petersburg, to Biologisches Centralblatt of July 15. Start- ing with the fact that in the genital chamber of fasting planarians not only may the whole organ be undergo a retrograde development to its origina! embryo- logical condition, but the. differentiated epithelial cells of this organ may be observed to lose their mutual con- nection, to become rounded, and to resume their embryo- logical state; the author proceeds to argue that periods. (Verjungung) communication by seen to 386 NATURE [AuGusT 17, 1905 of fasting and torpor, together with the phenomenon of encysting, are of great importance in regard to the re- juvenation of tissue, and consequently to the duration of life of the animal. Primd facie, such periods of rest and rejuvenation would seem to imply longevity in the species in which they occur, and it is therefore suggested that such animals as dormice, badgers, bats, moles, bears, hamsters, and tortoises and many other reptiles are in all probability long-lived. Except in the case of tortoises, our information on this point is, however, very defective. On the other hand, some other explanation must be sought for the longevity which is known to occur in many kinds of birds. The paper concludes with speculations and theories connected with the subject. In the July number of the Psychological Bulletin (ii-., No. 7) Mr. Shepherd Franz describes anomalous time teactions in a case of manic-depressive depression. Tue Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for July (xvi., No. 172) contains an interesting contribution to the history of medicine in Maryland during the revolution (1775-1779) by Dr. Walter Steiner, various medical articles, proceedings of societies, &c. Tue Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for July (xix., part iv.) contains papers by Dr. Gaskell, F.R.S., on the origin of the vertebrates deduced from the study of the ammoceetes, by Dr. Wright on skulls from the round barrows of east Yorkshire, by Dr. Cameron on the de- velopment of the retina in Amphibia, and a report by Dr. Bertram Windle on recent teratological literature, together with several articles of anatomical interest. Tue Journal of Hygiene for July (v., No. 3) contains papers on canine piroplasmosis by Drs. Nuttall, Graham Smith, and Wright, and one on bovine piroplasmosis by Mr. Mettam. Dr. Boycott details an experimental case of skin infection with ankylostoma, and Mr. MacConkey contributes an important paper on _ lactose-fermenting bacteria in faces, Colonel Leishman, Captain Harrison, and Lieuts. Smallman and Tulloch describe very fully an investigation upon the blood changes following anti- typhoid inoculation; this and several other interesting papers complete the contents of an excellent number. In a report on the metropolitan water supply, Dr. Scott Tebb, the public analyst for Southwark, points out that five out of the seven committees of inquiry which have investigated the quality of the Thames water have condemned the river as a source of domestic supply to the metropolis, that the quality of the water as indicated by analysis has shown no substantial improvement during the last thirty years, that the river is extensively polluted, and that it is doubtful if this can ever be prevented. He therefore recommends that London should as soon as possible abandon the Thames as a source of domestic supply, a conclusion neither new nor novel. But when in the body of the report it is stated that “‘ we know nothing of the essential cause of either typhoid fever or cholera, and the medical profession is as much in the dark now as it was 40 years ago’’ (respecting these diseases), it becomes doubtful how much weight should be attached to Dr. Tebb’s conclusions. A large portion of the report is filled with abstracts from papers and books, mostly old, attempting to show that the cholera vibrio and typhoid bacillus have nothing to do with the respective diseases, the overwhelming evidence on the other side being completely suppressed. NO. 1868, VOL. 72] A NuMBER of new plants or new localities for previously recorded Indian plants are given in Nos. 4 and 5 of vol. Ixxiii., part ii., of the Journal of the Society of Bengal. Dr. Prain records several new species from Sikkim, including a Geum and a Potentilla, which are figured, five mew species from Burma, and two new orchids from Chota Nagpur. Also Dr. Prain and Mr. Burkill have a note on a new yam, not, however, fit for food, which was collected abundantly in Burma. In another note Mr. J. R. Drummond describes a new Scirpus from Baluchistan, with some allied species. It is characteristic of the Americans that when they took over the Philippines they accepted also the responsi- bilities thereby entailed. In 1837 Father Blanco published a ‘‘ Flora de Filipinas,’? enumerating more than a thousand species and varieties; the descriptions were im many cases imperfect, Blanco’s knowledge of the plants of neigh- bouring countries was slight, and unfortunately his herbarium has been lost, so that except where types have been preserved in European herbaria, identification has been most difficult. Mr. E. D. Merrill has prepared a review of the three editions and appendix, of the flora to summarise present knowledge and to provide a basis for further identification by collectors; the volume forms No. 27 of the Publications of the Bureau of Government Laboratories, Manila. In the Botanic Gardens at Brussels special facilities have been provided for students for many years in the matter of plant collections, notably of economic, also of officinal and poisonous plants. More recently, in 1902, it was decided to lay out four groups of plants which should be geographical, systematic, evolutionary (phylogenique), and physiological (éthologique), in addition to a group of xerophytes. Copies of the pamphlets explaining the arrangements and the nature of the collections, which are supplied to students, have been received. The evolutionary collection is designed to illustrate variability, heredity, and the origin of new varieties and species. The plants that constitute the ‘‘ collection éthologique’’ have been selected on account of their showing special developments, whether for nutrition, reproduction, or some other pur- pose. A house has been devoted to xerophytes ever since Demoulin’s collection was presented in 1882; this has been extended, and a novel feature of the present system is the arrangement of a number of species of cactus as a practical exhibition of an evolutionary series. Money-BoxEs in the form of mamma are made in Germany and Italy, and these form the subject of a paper by F. Rosen in Globus (Ixxxvii. p. 277). In olden times the mamma was the symbol of abundance, blessings and wealth, therefore this form is peculiarly appropriate for money-boxes; but money-boxes are not ancient. In prehistoric times vessels were frequently made in the form of mammez, and they are still so made by the folk. The author refers to the pomegranate as an ancient symbol of riches and good fortune; one half of it has some resem- blance to a_mamma, and the numerous seeds it contains suggest fertility. The mamma was certainly a luck-symbol, and Astarte, Aphrodite, and Isis were luck-goddesses. Astarte, Venus, and Isis were protective patronesses of sailors. He refers to the fact that one often finds money- boxes in the form of pigs; the ‘‘ lucky pig’’ is an ex- tremely common talisman in Germany. Pregnant sows were offered to Demeter or Ceres because of the great fertility of this animal. Leland (‘‘ Etruscan Roman Remains,’’ p. 255) says, ‘‘ Ceres was pre-eminently a AUGUST 17, 1905 | NATURE 387 goddess of fertility, therefore of good luck and all genial influences; hence little gold and silver pigs were offered to her, and also worn by Roman ladies, partly to ensure pregnancy, and partly for luck.” Tue recent issues of the Monthly Weather Review of the U.S. Weather Bureau contain, inter alia, some im- portant articles by Prof. Bigelow on the application of mathematics to meteorology, on the diurnal periods in the lower strata of the atmosphere, and on the observations with kites at the Blue Hill Observatory, from 1897-1902. In the first-named paper, the author points out that no branch of modern science has suffered more severely than meteorology by the misapplication of good mathematics to good observational data, and that the results of recent balloon and kite observations show that nearly the entire range of general theory of the circulation of the atmo- sphere must be pronounced a misfit. We think we are safe in saying that no other meteorological journal can compare with the Monthly Weather Review in its endeavour to popularise meteorological science, by the publication of original articles, reprints, and translations from foreign papers. The ordinary meteorological tables are based on data from about 3583 stations, some of which belong to countries outside the United States. Since December, 1904, the Weather Bureau has received a large number of reports giving simultaneous observations over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans made at Greenwich—noon. ‘These are charted, and, with corresponding land observations, will form the framework for daily weather charts of the globe. As a further instance of disseminating useful information, we may refer to an article on forecasting the weather and storms, by Prof. W. L. Moore, in the National Geo- graphic Magazine for June, illustrated by a number of weather charts. The author points out, with justice, that to anyone who will read the text, and carefully follow the charts which illustrate and make it clear, the daily weather chart will be an object of interest as well as of pleasure and profit. Every step taken, from the receipt of the observations to the publication of the weather chart and preparation of forecasts, is explained with clearness and precision. SEVERAL simple forms of instruments affording a rapid and accurate means of determining the paths of refracted and reflected rays through any optical system are described by Mr. J. R. Milne in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (vol. xxv., p. 806). Iv is well known that the minimum potential of a point discharge is increased by the discharge, a blunting or powdering of the point occurring. That the blunting is, however, not responsible for the rise in potential appears evident from a series of experiments made by Mr. F. R. Gorton and described in the Verhandl- ungen of the German Physical Society (vol. vii., p. 217), where it is shown that under the influence of either an ultra-violet radiation or the radiation of radium the blunted point recovers its original value for the minimum potential. The blunting of the point is thus a minor factor in the question, and the conditions are investigated in which constant, reproducible values can be obtained so that the subject may be more fully investigated. In the July number of the American Journal of Science Mr. D. Albert Kreider describes a special form of volta- meter in which the accuracy and sharpness of the volu- metric method of estimating iodine by means of sodium thiosulphate are utilised. A special form of potassium iodide cell is adopted in which iodine is liberated by the No. 1868, vou. 72] action of the current; its amount is then readily ascer- tained by direct titration. The results obtained agree very closely among themselves if a certain current be not ex- ceeded, the difference then not exceding 1 part in 10,000; but the results are uniformly higher by 0-06 per cent. to 0-09 per cent. than are shown by a silver voltameter placed in the circuit. The rapidity and simplicity of the method should adapt it for practical application. Pror. BaLpBtano, writing in the Atti dei Lincei, xiv., 12, gives an account (read June 18) of the work of Prof. Augusto Piccini, whose death occurred on April 16. While Piccini’s most important researches were connected with the periodic law of Mendeléeff, attention is directed to a little-known article on oxygenated water written by him two years ago for the ‘‘ Encyclopedia of Chemistry,’’ in which the theory was advanced that the atoms of oxygen which it contains are in the form of a combination inferior to that of water. AN interesting application of the mathematical theory of elasticity is given by Prof. Vito Volterra in the Attt dei Lincei, xiv., 12. The problem is that of an elastic ring or hollow cylinder of rectangular radial section from which a slice is removed and the separated parts joined together, and the two cases are considered where the fissure is radial and where the portion removed is of uniform thickness. From calculation, the author found expressions representing increase of internal length, de- crease of external length, and distortion of the lateral surface of the cylinder into a form concave outwards, and experiments conducted with actual cylinders of caoutchouc closely reproduced all the results of calculation. Dr. Roserto Bonora, of Pavia, discusses in the Lombardy Rendiconti, xxxviii., 11, the theorems of Padre Gerolamo Saccheri on the sum of the angles of a triangle, in connection with Dehn’s researches, Euclid’s axiom of parallels, and the postulate of Archimedes. Saccheri’s in- vestigations were published at Milan in 1793 under the title ‘‘ Euclides ab omni naevo vindicatus,’’ and were based on the consideration of “‘ bi-rectangular isosceles quadrilaterals,’’ this term being used to designate a quadri- lateral ABCD having AB=CD, and angle ABC=BCD= 90°. In ordinary space such a quadrilateral is a_ rectangle. Padre Saccheri gives a proof that if one bi-rectangular isosceles triangle has its remaining angles acute, right, or obtuse, the same property will be true of every other . such quadrilateral. From this he deduces that if one triangle has the sum of its angles greater to, equal to, or less than two right angles, the same will be true of every other triangle, i.e. the property commonly known as Legendre’s theorem on the angles of a triangle. Dr. Bonola refers to Dehn’s work in proving that Legendre’s theorem is independent of the postulate of Archimedes, and he gives corresponding proofs in connection with Saccheri’s work. A sixtu edition of Mr. A. B. Lee’s ‘ Microtomist’s Vade-mecum: a Handbook of the Methods of Microscopic Anatomy,’’ has been published by Messrs. J. and A. Churchill. The first edition of the work appeared in March, 1885, and was reviewed in our issue of June 18 of the same year (vol. xxxii. p. 147). Many of the sug- gestions made on that occasion have since been adopted. The text of the book has been even more condensed than in the last edition, and this plan has given room for much new matter. The chapter on staining with coal-tar colours 388 NEA aires, [AUGUST 17, 1905 has been removed, this subject being now dealt with in the general chapter on staining, which has been re-written. The chapters on connective tissues, on blood and glands, and on the nervous system have been thoroughly revised and considerably amplified. Explanations relating to the principles of technical processes have been included in general chapters, and do not in this edition occur under the special sections. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Praner Mars.—In No. 360 of the Observatory Mr. Wesley discusses the photographs of the planet Mars which Mr. Lowell recently published. Mr. Wesley has made a very careful study of the six prints, and has been ablé to distinguish easily, on one or another of them, the features named by Mr. Lowell. He is not, however, pre- pared to corroborate the opinion expressed by the latter that the photographs confirm the fact that the so-called ‘“canals’’ are continuous lines, for imperfect definition might render a row of dots as an unbroken line. As the Lowell photographs are too small to reproduce satisfac- torily, Mr. Wesley has made a composite drawing showing all the features seen on any of the prints, and this is given as a frontispiece. In the same journal Mr. Denning gives, among other planetary observations, an account of his recent areo- graphical researches with a 123-inch Calver reflector, using a power of 300. He is very certain of the actual existence of the features termed ‘‘ canals,’’ many of which he was able to identify quite easily. He regards “ canals,”’ how- ever, as an unfortunate designation for the irregular, fre- quently knotted streams of shading, which are by no means straight or narrow, but have a perfectly natural appear- ance, and says:—‘‘ The idea that they are clearly cut lines, suggestive of artificial origin, may be dismissed as a mere conjecture unsupported by reliable evidence.”’ Major Molesworth, of Trincomalee, Ceylon, has recently communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society a record of his observations of Mars during the opposition of 1903. These observations were made, under excellent conditions, with a 12%-inch Calver reflector, generally employing a power of about 450. An abstract of this paper, giving the principal tables and conclusions, appears in No. 8, vol. Ixv., of the Monthly Notices, accompanied by six beautiful drawings showing the chief characteristic features of the Martian surface during the opposition. As his results testify, Major Molesworth has made a long and laborious study of this planet with great zeal, and he has not the slightest doubt as to the reality of the “ so-called canals.’? These markings do not, however, appear to him as continuous definite lines, but rather like ‘* streaky ”’ lines such as would be drawn on very rough paper with a rounded crayon or stump. He records several instances of gemination, and offers a natural explanation of the phenomenon. On six occasions he observed projections either on the limb or the terminator. In conclusion, he proposes a new classification of Martian features, and dis- cusses the several ‘‘ contrast’? and “‘illusion’’ theories which have been opposed to the reality of the ‘‘ canals.”’ Likening these peculiar markings to those seen on Jupiter, he concludes that if the latter be accepted as real—as they undoubtedly are—then the similar ones on Mars cannot, on any logical’ basis, be ascribed to illusion. Tue Rincs’ or Saturn.—Observing at Aosta (Italy) during the later months of 1904, MM. Amann and Rozet noted a novel feature on Saturn’s rings. On October 20 M. Amann saw a sharp, accentuated marking, or shadow, on the rings some distance from the outer edge of the shadow cast by the planet itself, and having a curved form concave towards the planet. Between October 20 and November 15 this new feature was not seen, although numerous observations were made under favourable con- ditions. After November 15 the shadow was seen re- peatedly, and it was then noticed that that part of it which was projected on the inner ring was always broader and more accentuated than the other part. Between December 22 and 27 it was seen that this broader portion was bifurcated, so that the whole shadow had the form of a NO. 1868, VoL. 72 | capital Y; that the apparition was a shadow was shown by its fixed position relative to the planet, notwithstanding the rotation of the latter and its rings (Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France, August). Dectinations oF CERTAIN NortH Potar Stars.—In No. 3440 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. Auwers pointed out that in certain hours of right ascension, north of de- clination +82°, there were gaps containing no “ funda- mental ’’ stars, and asked that these gaps might be filled. In answer to this request Miss Harriet Bigelow, of the Smith College Observatory (University of Michigan), has determined the places of twenty-one stars situated between declinations +84° 34’ and +88° 55’, and now publishes them in vol. vii. of the Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences (pp. 189-249). The instrument employed was the Walker meridian circle, having a tele- scope of 6-3 inches aperture and a focal length of 8 feet. Tur Minor Pianet Octro (475)-—Another set of posi- tions of the interesting asteroid Ocllo, as determined by Mr. R. H. Frost at Arequipa, are given in Circular No. 103 of the Harvard College Observatory. The object was re-discovered on, and its position determined from, a plate taken on June 6, and was also shown on other plates secured on June 7 and 9. The determined positions show that Ocllo seems to be about 4° from its position as com- puted from the previously published elements. The data now given, together with the positions published in Circulars Nos. 63 and 1or, should enable the elements of Ocllo’s peculiar orbit to be determined with great accuracy, and to insure against the future loss of this planet. Tue Roya University OBSERVATORY OF VIENNA.—We have just received vols. xv. and xviii. of the Annalen der k.k. Universitats-Sternwarte in Wien, edited by the director, Prof. E. Weiss. Vol. xv. contains a catalogue of 2417 stars the places of which have been determined by Herr F. Bidschof with the meridian circle, and are given for the mean equinox of 1885-0. The instrumental equipment and the methods employed in the reduction are discussed at length. A series of observations of Jupiter made between February 20 and May 1, 1898, by Herr J. Rheden is also described in this volume, and the descrip- tion illustrated by fifty coloured drawings of the planet, which are given on the two accompanying plates. Vol. xviii., in the first part, is devoted to the results obtained from the observations of minor planets and comets, made by Dr. J. Palisa with the Grubb refractor of 67 cm. (about 27 inches) aperture during the years 1899-1901. The observations of seven comets and four nebulz are included, and the whole of the results are tabu- lated at the end in a handy form for reference. This volume is completed by the meteorological results obtained in 1901, 1902, and 1903, the pressure, temperature, &c., being given for 7 a.m., 2 p.m., and 9 p.m. on each day. THE STATE AND THE CLAYWORKER.* {? is the purpose of each of these works to supply the members of the clay industry, in the State to which it refers, with an account of the geological relationships, the mode and place of occurrence, and the chemical and physical properties of the raw clays both worked and un- worked. The manufacturing processes of various types of ware are also described as they are practised in the State, with numerous details of physical tests that have been applied to them. The subject has been treated upon very similar lines in both reports; the Iowa volume, however, contains more information upon the practical manufacturing side; it devotes a chapter to the selection and upkeep of power plants, and has a fuller account of different forms of kiln; there is even a section dealing with the composition of the fuels used in burning the clays. But this volume 1 ‘*Clays and Clay Industries of Iowa.” By S. W. Beyer, G. W. Bissell, I. A. Williams, J. B. Weems, and A. Marston. Jowa Geological Survey, vol. xiv. Pp. xi+664. (Des Moines: Iowa Geol. Survey, 1904.) “(The Clays and Clay Industry of New Jersey.’’”. By H. Ries and H. B. Kiimmel, assisted by G. N. Knapp. Geological Survey of New Jersey, vol. vi. Final Report. (Trenton, N.J.: Geological Survey of New Jersey, 1904.) AUGUST 17, 1905] NATULE 389 suffers somewhat in comparison with the New Jersey one through faulty editing; there are many more diagrams in the former than in the latter work, but they are sometimes too small for the matter they contain (p. 572); they are rather untidy in appearance, and are frequently inserted sideways in the text when they should be upright. The chemical portion is unnecessarily duplicated, and the im- portant table of analyses (p. 344) is rendered useless for ready reference by the complete omission of silica. Both books are provided with maps of the geological distribution of the clays, with abundant photographic illustrations of varying degrees of value, with a directory of the clayworkers in the State, and fairly numerous refer- ences to the literature of the subject. in each case the section dealing with pottery is weak. Prof. Ries still maintains that the most generally useful way of expressing the chemical nature of a clay is through the ultimate analysis, though he admits the value of tne so-called ‘rational ’’ analysis in the case of the higher grade clays; with this view we are entirely in accord. Messrs. Beyer and Williams appear to lean somewhat towards the “rational’’ analysis, and have given the results in this form along with the ultimate analysis—a useful custom. Their method of dividing the ultimate analysis into sand and clay,’’ ‘total fluxes,’’ and “moisture, CO, and SO,,”’ is convenient. The influence of titanium on the fusibility of clay is rightly emphasised by Ries; in this country it has been very generally neglected in analyses. the physical tests applied to clay products were :—com- pression tests, transverse tests, absorption tests, and freezing and thawing (lowa only); of these, the second is held in highest esteem; it is certainly far superior to the crushing test in most cases, but we are among those who do not agree with Prof. Marston that for paving brick it can take the place of the “‘ rattler ’’ test; the objections he urges against the latter may be applied with equal force to the former, while he admits that the action of the ‘rattler ’’ approximates more closely to the kind of wear to which paving bricks are subjected in actual use. From a multitude of councillors we expect wisdom; it is none the less true that if the councillors will not consult one another we are apt to get only confusion. Everyone who publishes some results of physical tests of clays and clay wares seems to think that these should become recognised standards at once. The two authorities here cited are no exception; each one stoutly believes that its own favoured methods should be adopted for general use. There is here a satisfactory unanimity as to the kind of test required, but when we come to details of application, we find considerable divergence of practice in precisely those points which together go to constitute a standard test. Thus in obtaining the modulus of rupture in the ‘‘ trans- verse ’’ test of bricks, New Jersey employs rounded knife- edge contacts alone, while lowa interposes steel bearing- plates between the brick and the knife-edges; in the crushing and absorption tests New Jersey uses half a brick, lowa grinds out from the brick a 2-inch cube; again, the former measures linear shrinkage and calculates the cubic shrinkage, the latter reverses the process, using a Seger volumeter for the purpose. For estimating texture “ec (fineness of grain) Iowa employs a modification of Whitney’s method, New Jersey uses a centrifugal apparatus. Further, there is an important difference between the methods of collecting materials ; Prof. Marston asks for a fairly large consignment to be sent by the manufacturer, and tests twenty or more bricks in the transverse way; on the other hand, members of the New Jersey Geological Survey staff pick out five to seven re- presentative bricks on the spot, and send them to be similarly tested by Prof. Ries. Useful though these tests may be for local reference, it is evident that a standard series of tests will never be arrived at by such isolated endeavours; indeed, we cannot help feeling that in these and similar publications there is much duplication and waste of energy through the lack of a little coordination. There will be diversity of opinion as to the expediency of the State taking upon itself the task of publishing tests of manufactured wares; it stands in the same relationship | NO. 1868, VOL. 72] to producers as to consumers, yet, while such publications may be supposed to benefit the latter class uniformly, a considerable injustice might conceivably be done to one of the former the ware of which took a lower place in the scale. This danger is exemplified to some extent in the Iowa report, which mentions the names of firms in con- junction with the results, and the effect is too much like an advertisement. New Jersey adopts the plan of publish- ing the laboratory number of the test; the manufacturer has the result communicated to him privately. For our part we doubt the wisdom of such publication, except upon lines similar to those on which watches and thermometers are tested in this country. But good maps of the distribution of the clays, the preparation and collection of comparable data of the physical and chemical properties of the raw materials, experiments on the results of blending hitherto unworked clays with one another and with known clays, and the coordination of the information and samples in a manner accessible to all, is the legitimate duty of a State depart- ment, and of the utmost value to all sections of the community. The Geological Surveys of Iowa and New Jersey have performed most of these duties in a manner which cannot fail to be appreciated. When we remember that in addition to this Geological Survey work there is in each State a well equipped ceramic laboratory for testing and for in- struction in the manufacture of all grades of wares—the department of ceramics in the State College of New Bruns- wick has an outfit in the brick-making section capable of turning out 20,000 bricks per day—we are constrained to turn our eyes to our own State, where we see the capital pioneer effort of an individual, George Maw, nearly fifty years ago—and what beside? ‘* Comparisons,’’ as Mrs. Malaprop says, are ‘‘ obvious.’’ WES RIFLE ONE 100) ORIENTATION AND LOCO- THE CEREBELLUM: SPATIAL MOTION.? AS the cerebellum is well represented in the lowest vertebrates and undergoes relatively little change in form with the higher development of the rest of the brain, it must be regarded as a fundamental structure of the vertebrate nervous system. This may be one of the reasons that much interest has centred in its study and in the attempt to define its functions in exact physiological terms. Though Willis (Oxford, 1660) noted the intimate connection between the cerebellum and pons Varolii, and recognised that the trapezial fibres of the latter are a cerebellar and not a cerebral system, and though Majendie laid the first foundations of our knowledge of its func- tions, it has only been of recent years that we have gained, chiefly from the work of Luciani and the workers who followed him, satisfactory insight into its anatomy and physiology. In the lecture, Sir Victor Horsley analysed the con- clusions on its functions which have been obtained by the destruction and stimulation methods of study, and in addition contributed from his clinical and laboratory ex- perience some facts which help to elucidate the rdle it plays in our nervous economy. In the first place all recent work confirms the con- clusion formulated years ago by Edinger, that the cere- bellum is essentially an organ for the reception of certain sensory impulses. Systems of fibres ascending from the spinal cord convey to it part of the sensory impulses which enter through the dorsal roots from the cutaneous and more deeply placed peripheral nerves. These tracts of fibres end in the cerebellum exclusively in its vermis or middle lobe. To the vermis also come direct root fibres of the vestibular nerves which collect from the semi-circular canals, the organs of the special sense of orientation in space, the sensations of change of position and of the position of the head in space. The lateral lobes of the cerebellum, on the other hand, are in connection through the pontine grey matter with the temporal lobes and with the kinzesthetic cortex of the forebrain. All these systems which conduct to the cerebellum end in its cortex, and 1 Abstract of Boyle Lecture delivered by Sir Victer Horsley, F.R.S., be ore the Junior Scientific Club of the University of Oxford, June 5. 390 from the latter—and this is a new fact of great signifi- cance—no true efferent fibres arise. The efferent or motor mechanism of the cerebellum is contained in its nuclei, the system of roof nuclei being in connection with the cortex of the vermis, the nucleus dentatus with that of the lateral lobe. The cortex of the cerebellum is thus the special organ for the reception of sensory impressions, while its nuclear system may be regarded as its motor or efferent mechanism. The functions of the cerebellum must be studied in relation to the sensory impressions it receives and to the activity of other centres. While it is the cortex of the forebrain which consciously appreciates and records our sensory impressions and initiates purposeful actions, it is the cerebellum which automatically serves our equil- ibrium, guides our locomotion, and assists to regulate our finer movements. Thus its functions are in part reflex or involuntary, dependent on the sensory impulses which reach it directly or through the forebrain, and in part to coordinate and regulate the muscular ‘contractions generated in the kinassthetic cortex, especially those which result in movement in space and those on which the maintenance of equilibrium depends. The accuracy of equilibration is necessarily dependent on our knowledge of our position in space. This is obtained chiefly by vision, but as our visual fields are small in relation to the space in which we exist, sight must be supplemented by the power to turn the head and eyes in the three planes of space. There is conclusive clinical and experi- mental evidence that the coordinated execution of these movements is largely represented in the ponto-cerebellar centres. The sense of touch is also a valuable aid in spatial orientation, for though by touch the body can be aware only of the surface with which it is actually in contact, we can explore, as blind men do, our neighbour- hood by the movements of our limbs. The memory of space so obtained is stored up in the kinzsthetic cortex, and disease of this region diminishes or destroys our knowledge of points on the surface of our body so far as their precise position in space is concerned, and con- sequently the effective movement of the limb. It has been long recognised that one of the most prominent signs of destructive lesions of the cerebellum is the inability to move a limb in a coordinate manner towards any point, but it appears probable from some not yet concluded observations of the lecturer that the faculty of localisation of points of the body in space is also defective with disease of the cerebellum. The touch sensations from the portions of our body resting on our base, the pressure sensations in our joints, and the sensations of tension in our muscles are also requisite for the automatic maintenance of equilibrium. These are some of’ the sense impressions which pass to the cortex of the vermis by the anatomical tracts referred to. , It would appear that the cortex of the vermis receives the sensory impressions necessary for movement in the anterolateral plane and for bending backwards and for- wards; with lesions of this part there is a tendency to fall forwards or backwards. The lateral lobes, on the other hand, receive through the middle peduncles, as Majendie demonstrated, the stimuli necessary for rotation on the longitudinal axis. From the cortex of the cerebellum, which is constantly receiving these waves of sensory impressions, the cere- bellar nuclei collect the properly associated impulses which regulate and reinforce the purposeful movements and the automatic actions of the individual. This latter position has been established by searches of Dr. Clarke and the lecturer during three years. Luciani’s discovery that the cerebellum is also a source of energy to the muscles, which become asthenic and hypotonic on its destruction, is also fully confirmed by the lecturer’s own work. In conclusion, this sketch of the ccoperation of the cerebellum and cerebrum was illustrated by a quotation from Boyle, who said :—‘‘I consider the body of a living man not as a rude heap of limbs and liquors but as an engine consisting of several parts so set together that there is a strange and conspiring communication between them.”’ ped ‘ the re- the past NO. 1868, VOL. IAAT [AuGuUST 17, 1905 UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Tur University of Melbourne has received a largely increased endowment from the Government of Victoria on condition of instituting a course for a degree in agriculture. The necessary arrangements for such a course have now been made, and the university is inviting applications in England and America for a professorship of botany and a lectureship in biochemistry in connection with the school of Agriculture. A new professor of anatomy is also to be appointed for the rapidly growing medical school. Tue Drapers’ Company has made a further grant of soool. for an extension of the premises of the East London Technical College. In addition, the company has largely developed its scholarship scheme. Next year nineteen scholarships will be awarded of the value of qgol. per annum, tenable at the college for three years. Certain of these scholarships are reserved for women, while others will be awarded in the subjects of the London arts degree. The governors of the college have extended the work by introducing a course in languages and literary subjects. Students taking this course will study under recognised teachers, and be internal students of the University of London. As a consequence of this development, the governors have decided that the college shall, in future, be known as the East London College. Propate has been granted of the will of Mr. John Innes, of Merton, Surrey, who died on August 8, 1904, leaving the sum of about 200,000l. for public and charitable pur- poses. Among other bequests he left his house, the Manor Farm, Merton, and two acres of ground, “to establish thereon a school of horticulture .or such, other technical or industrial institution as the law will allow, to give technical instruction in the principles of the science and art of horticulture and the necessary physical and mental training incidental thereto; to erect suitable build- ings and furnish them, and to provide workshops, tools, plant, scientific apparatus, libraries, reading-rooms, lecture and drill halls, a swimming bath, and gymnasium. If this may not be legally carried out, then to establish in these buildings a public museum for the exhibition of collections of paintings and similar works of art, objects of natural history, or of mechanical or philosophic inven- tions, and to lay out land for a park.” Mr. S. Hersertr Cox has been appointed to the pre- fessorship of mining at the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, vacant by the death of Sir Clement Le Neve Foster. In view of the changes in organisation that may be found desirable in the Royal College of Science and the Royal School of Mines after the completion of the investigations now in progress by the departmental com- mittee, the appointment has been made a temporary one. Mr. Cox is an Associate of the Royal School of Mines. After experience as assistant geologist and inspector of mines in New Zealand, he was appointed instructor in geology, mineralogy, and mines in Sydney Technical College ; concurrently with his tenure of this office he was employed to give technical lectures at various mining camps in New South Wales, and practised as a mining engineer. Since 1900 he has been entirely engaged in private practice, and has had experience of mining in England, France, Spain, Egypt, the United States, and Canada. Mr. Cox was president of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in 1899-1900. Tue London University Gazette (August 9) publishes the following announcement referring to the endowment of a chair of protozoology :—‘ The senate had before them a communication from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, offering the university the sum of 7ool. a year for five years for the purpose of instituting a chair of protozoology. Of this sum, 200/. a year was stated to be a contribution from the Rhodes trustees, and sool. a year to represent a moiety of a grant originally made from the tropical diseases research fund (established under the auspices of the Colonial Office) to the Royal Society for the promotion cf research work, and by the Royal Society surrendered for the purpose of endowing the chair. Having considered reports upon this offer from the academic council, and from the board of advanced medical studies and the boards of studies in botany and zoology, the AvucusT 17, 1905] IAL OTE 391 senate decided to accept the offer, to devote the whole of the 7ool. a year as salary to the professor, and to set aside a further sum of 200l. a year to defray the cost of assistants and laboratory expenses in connection with the chair.” A pay higher commercial department is to be opened at the end of September next in connection with the City of London College. The object of this department is to provide a higher education for those who have already had an ordinary secondary education. Hitherto there has been some basis for the charge that higher education has not generally induced students to regard business sympathetically, nor has it exhibited a commercial career attractively. Those engaged in higher education have seldom attempted to show that the study of science, language, and of other subjects is, or can be, related to the conduct of commerce, and that a commercial man will understand his business better if he starts with a ground- work of knowledge which has been deliberately exhibited to him in its relation to the conduct of ordinary business. Those responsible for the new scheme at the City of London College believe that, other things being equal, a youth who has been trained to see the principles which lie behind the facts of commerce, to know how far nature has been controlled by commerce, and commerce by nature; to know the commercial methods of his own and other nations and the reasons for their existence, will make a better busi- ness man than one who has had no such training. They believe that there is a mass of experience a judicious selec- tion from which, if assimilated, will save an English youth on his actual entry to commercial life from errors and waste of time. The experiment will be watched with great interest by all who are interested in the various sides of higher education. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. , Lonpon. Royal Society, June $.—‘‘ The Morphology of the Ungu- late Placenta, particularly the Development of that Organ in the Sheep, and Notes upon the Placenta of the Elephant and Hyrax.’’ By R. Assheton. Communicated by A. Sedgwick, F.R.S. : The formation of the placenta of the Ungulata vera is founded on a system of foldings of the subzonal mem- brane (or of the trophoblast only), which fit into corre- sponding grooves in the walls of the uterus, without thickening of the trophoblast layer of the blastocyst, and without destruction of maternal epithelium or other tissue (Sus). Certain parts of the crests of the ridges are pro- duced by local amplification into true villi, into which the splanchnopleure of the allantois subsequently extends (Equus, Bos, Xc.). For this type of placentation, which is caused funda- mentally by the folding of the trophoblast, the term plicate is used (placenta plicata), and to this type of placentation it is suggested that the Cetacea, Sirenia, and Proboscidea conform, as well as the Ungulata vera, and possibly the Edentata and Prosimia. The term placenta cumulata is used for the type of placentation in which the placenta is formed by the heap- ing up or thickening of the trophoblast layer, among the cells of which accumulation extravasated maternal blood circulates. Destruction of the maternal epithelium prob- ably always occurs. To this type belong the Rodentia, Insectivora, the Hyracoidea, Primates, and Chiroptera. The Carnivora are perhaps intermediate, but, according to Strahl’s account, they would be distinctly plicate, while, according to the account of other authors, they are slightly cumulate. The morphological position of the sheep's placenta, a full account of the development of which is given in the paper, is at that end of the series of plicate forms which closely approximates to the cumulate type. The placentation of the Ungulata shows that that order is more closely connected with the Proboscidea, and the Sirenia and Carnivora, than with other groups of mammals, whilst the placentation of the Hyracoidea suggests no connection at all with those groups, but is of the cumulate type, and resembles more closely the form found in certain of the Insectivora. NO. 1868, voL. 72 | EDINBURGH. Royal Society, July 10.—Dr. R. H. Traquair in the chair. —On the bathymetry, deposits, and temperature of the south-western Pacific: Sir John Murray, K.C.B. The region discussed lay to the and south-east of Australia. Seven of the soundings were in depths exceed- ing 4000 fathoms and three in depths exceeding 5000 fathoms. Interesting comparisons were made between the bathymetric charts and the temperature charts, and inform- ation was also derived from the study of more than 1000 samples of deposits. Globigerina ooze covered about 45 per cent., and red clay about 44 per cent. of the bottom, the remaining 8 per cent. being covered by other deposits. The percentage of carbonate of lime was low in very deep water and in shallow water near islands not bordered by east coral reefs. In moderately deep water and in shallow water where the deposit was coral mud, the percentage of carbonate of lime was high. The evidence seemed to point to a continent in the making rather than to a sunken continent.—The varying form of the stomach in man and the anthropoid ape: Prof. D. J. Cunningham. The paper was a detailed discussion of the anatomy of the stomach, its changes of form and position at various stages of digestion, the functions of the different parts, and the movements by which digestion was carried out.—The evaporation of musk and other substances: John Aitken. The question was as to the nature of the exhalation or emanation which produced the characteristic odour; was it solid or vapour? The test applied was the cloud-pro- ducing power in a region saturated with water vapour and suddenly cooled. Experiment showed that when the air was purified of dust particles, but full of musk eman- ations and w'er vapour, a sudden cooling produced no cloud. Therefore the emanation must itself be vapour and not solid. The same result was obtained with many other substances, such as spices, chemicals, herbs, and flowers, not one of them giving off solid particles. Evidence was adduced that the dusts of these substances affected the branch of the fifth nerve which serves the nostrils, while the olfactory nerve was sensitive to matter in the gaseous form. July 17.—Lord McLaren in the chair.—On some points in the geometry of reflecting telescopes with graphical solutions: Dr. James Hunter. The real problem in the construction of an efficient reflecting telescope is to find the best size of small mirror and the best position for: it, so that the maximum of light and of definition is gained. This the paper discussed in detail, and gave a simple graphical construction by which the required data could be obtained to an approximation sufficient for practical purposes.—Some general principles of absorption spectro- photometry, and a new instrument: James R. Milne. The necessary conditions for the photometric comparison of two patches of light, of which one is produced by a ray passing through an absorbing medium, were fulfilled as follows :—(1) By use of a small hole instead of a slit in the collimator a strictly parallel beam of light was secured.. (2) By use of a naked flat acetylene flame, the beam was obtained of equal intensity ac a normal section, a condition unrealisable by electric are or lime-light unless heavily screened. (3) By means of a double image prism replacing the ordinary eye-piece of the spectrophotometer telescope it was found possible (a) to bring the two patches of light presented to the eye accurately edge to edge, (b) to have these patches of some width, namely, that of the telescope objective, (c) to secure the coplanarity of the two ‘‘ faces’? of rays which proceed from each point of the edge common to the two patches. The instrument constructed on these lines could also be used as a spectro- meter or as a spectropolarimeter for measuring optical rotations.—Note on some generally accepted views regard- ing vision: Dr. W. Peddie. ‘The note referred to some observations on the effect of fatigue in the eye in relation to its power of judging of colour.—On the opacity of aluminium foil to the ions from a flame: George A. Carse. The experiments were made in the Cavendish Laboratory, and showed that the aluminium foil was quite opaque to the ions, a result not in agreement with results described by Leben.—On deep sea-water waves: Lord Kelvin. This was a continuation of a paper read last January. By use of Lord Rayleigh’s method of 292 392 ultimate intersections, a correct diagram was obtained of ship waves in deep and broad water, an approximate representation of which had been given in yp (Ge “Popular Lectures and Addresses,’’ vol. iii.). The numerical calculations and drawings were made by Mr. J. de Graaff Hurster.—On the periods and nodes of Lochs Earn and _ Trieg Prof. Chrystal and E. Maclagan Wedderburn. This was a detailed comparison of the observed periods and nodes with those calculated from the hydrodynamical theory as already given by Prof. Chrystal. The bottom contours were approximated to by piecing together appropriate parabolic functions of the depth; the results of theory and of observation were in good agreement, especially as regards the periods, which are less influenced by local conditions than the node- positions or the amplitudes.—A regular fortnightly explor- ation of the plankton of the two Icelandic lakes, Thing- vallavatn and Myvatn: C. N. Ostenfeld and Dr. ot Wesenberg-Lund.—Note on the boiling points of solu- tions: S. N. Johnson. It was found that the boiling- point elevation constant C, as calculated from the formula Cw\t+(2—-1)a}=mWe, where m is the molecular weight of salt used, W the weight of solvent, w the weight of salt added, a the ionisation constant, mn the number of free ions, and e the observed elevation. of temperature, had widely differing values. The discrepancies clearly arose from the difficulty of getting the boiling point of the solvent. When, however, C was calculated from the formula when for e and w are substituted the increments Ae and Aw, as one passes from solution of lower to solution of higher concentration, satisfactorily concordant results were obtained. The salts studied were the nitrate, chlorate, chloride, and bromide of potassium, and the nitrate and chloride of sodium.—The oxidation of manganese by per- sulphates: Dr. Hugh Marshall.—Influence of cross magnetisation on the relation between resistance and magnetisation in nickel: Dr. C. G. Knott. The decrease of resistance of a strip of nickel foil when magnetised transversely to its length was numerically increased when the foil was set in a steady magnetic field magnetising it longitudinally, while the increase of resistance accompany- ing the application of this longitudinal field was numerically decreased when the foil was set in a steady field magnetising it transversely. Paris. Academy of Sciences, Augu:t 7.—M. Bovquet de la Grye in the chair.—Observations of the planet Y.R. (Goertz) made with the large equatorial of the Observatory of Bordeaux: E. €Esciangon. Observations of this planet were made on July 29 and 30, and the results are given, together with the mean positions of the comparison stars, and the apparent positions of the planet.—On the sidereal day: A. Pamsiet.—On continued algebraic frac- tions: M. Auric.—On similitude in the motion of fluids : M. Jovguet.—On the state of matter in the ne ighbour- hood of the critical point: C. Raveau. A criticism on a recent paper on the same subject by MM. G. Bertrand and J. Lecarme. The author contests the views put forward by these authors, and notes that a consequence that they have deduced is a peculiarity of which a complete account is rendered by the ordinary kinetic theory of gases.—On magnetic double refraction. Some new active liquids: A. Cotton and H. Mouton. A solution of dialysed iron prepared by the method of Bravais undergoes a marked change when heated for some time at 100° C. The double refraction in a magnetic field became greater, four hours’ heating making the double refraction forty times its original value; the size of the particles was clearly in- creased by the heating. Colloidal solutions of iron were also prepared by the method indicated by Bredig for the precious metals. This solution was doubly refracting also, but the variation with the strength of the field followed a different law to the Bravais solution. A solution of iron prepared by the Bredig method in glycerine was also examined. Solutions were also found exhibiting magnetic double refraction which did not contain iron, but minute erystals of calcium carbonate. Reason is shown for sup- posing that for these effects to be observed the size of the separated particles must lie between certain limits.—On the chloroborates of calcium: L. Ouvrard.—Study of the 1868, VOL. 72] NALORE [AUGUST 17, 1905 constitution of unsymmetrical dipara-ditolylethane, of the dihydride of 2:7:9:10-tetramethylanthracene and_ of 7-dirmnethylanthracene : James Lavaux.—On the absorp- tion spectrum of manganous salts: P. Lambert. The manganese salts used in the research were purified with especial care from iron, since the spectrum of the latter element in the ultra-violet was found to interfere. A diagram is given of the manganese bands for wave-lengths between 557 and 3094.—The thermochemistry of the hydrazones: Ph. Landrieu. The reaction between some ketones and aldehydes has been determined directly in the calorimeter, and the values thus found compared with those deduced from the heats of combustion determined with the Berthelot bomb. The results of the two methods show a fair agreement.—IThe mechanical properties of iron in isolated crystals: F. Osmond and Ch. Frémont. The experiments were made upon crystals of a volume of several cubic centimetres, and included measurements of the extension, compression, hardness, and bending. It was found that the mechanical properties of iron in crystals are a function of the crystallographic orientation. The fragility, very great in the plane of cleavage, is, contrary to the views generally held, associated with great plasticity in the other directions.—The classification and nomen- clature of the arable earths according to their mineralogical constitution: H. Lagatu.—On the reddening of the vine leaf: L. Ravaz and L. Reos. A study has been made from the chemical standpoint of the non-parasitic redden- ing of the leaf of the vine. The results confirm the theories of Boehm and some other authors on the solution and migration of the carbohydrates in the leaf.—Sterigmato- cystis nigra and oxalic acid: P. G. Charpentier. Oxalic acid is a product of the growth of this mould when culti- vated in Raulin’s solution, and is still produced when the tartaric acid of this solution is replaced by sulphuric acid. But if the Raulin’s solution is deprived of sugar, and the tartaric acid is the only source of carbon, then oxalie acid is not formed.—On the mending of wounds in cartilage both from the experimental and histological points of view : V. Cornil and Paul Coudray.—On accommodation and convergence in binocular vision: Léon Pigeon.—The geological structure of the central Sahara: Emile Haug. ie “CONTENTS. PAGE The Mathematics of Naval Strategy and Tactics. By Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S. . . 361 The alae ay OS of Huygens. By J. LED} 362 Psychiatry .. Cathy 2) aie ‘ 6 peste) Our Book Shelf :— Osterhout : ‘‘ Experiments with Plants”. . 364 Ostwald : ‘‘ Conversations on Chemistry.’ >A. S. 364 Ball: ‘‘ Mathematical Recreaticns and Essays”. . 364 Letters to the Editor :— The Rate of Formation of Radium.—Hon. R. J. Strutt liens. ee 365 The Effect of Radium on the Strength of. Threads. = Hilda P. Martin and Prof, W. B. Morton 365 American Research in Asia. BCE ey By Prof. Grenville A.J. Cole... Seok c 366 Habits of Birds. (Zilustrated.) By R. ) A 367 The South African Meeting of the British Association 368 Inaugural Address by Prof. G. H. Darwin, M.A.. LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S., President of the ’Associa- tion. Part ey 368 Section A. —Mathematics “and Physics. — Opening Address by Prof. A. R. Forsyth, Sc.D., LL.D., Math.D., F.R.S., President of the Section 4 es 72. Section B. —Chemistry. —Opening Address by G. T. Beilby, President of the Section. (Z//ustrated.) 378 Notes LAA Re amen Ba Our Astronomical Column: a The Planet Mars... . 388 The Rings cf Saturn . . $ 388 Declinations of Certain North Polar Stars . 388 The Minor Planet Ocllo (475) b 388 The Royal University Observatory of Vienna . 388 The State and the Clayworker . . 388 The Cerebellum: its Relation to Spatial Orientation and Locomotion. « By Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S. 389 University and Educarional Intellipencemee an So0: Societiesjand:Aicademies) 1.) -)-0 cee On AUGUST 17, 1905] | IS ATO TLE clv _ SPECTROSCOPE - REFRACTOMETER Telegraphic _ Address: ““SPHERICITY, LONDON.”’ This new instrument is a Gonio- | meter, Spectrometer, and Refracto- | meter combined; and is an accurate and efficient instrument in any of these capacities. As a Refractometer (Pulfrich type) it is a rapid and convenient instrument for measuring the refractive indices of transparent solids and liquids. ILLUSTRATED LIST (“A”) OF SPECTROSCOPES AND ACCESSORIES GRATIS. ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. AWARDED GOLD MEDAL ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 1904. Is invaluable to AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, The Pathologist, including 9 at the Rreat Patis Exposition of 1909. mim i JAS. J. HICKS The Chemist, r a 5 The Botanist, WHOLESALE MANUFACTURER OF The Geologist, SCIENTIFIC AND CHEMICAL APPARATUS The Mineralogist, WAR OFFICE, INDIA OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, . ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE (LONDON), The Entomologist, GOVERNMENT LABORATORY, Brdall@awhomannventc MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, &c., &c. arrange large numbers of f bottles, jars, boxes, tubes, 1 \ and general apparatus. \ Meteorograph ae Designed by One hundred 4 oz. bottles occupy less than one square foot of } + wall space ; each bottle is instantly located, removed or replaced, Y |W. H. DINES, Esq., and any size trom 4 oz. to a Winchester can be accommodated F.R.S. in the same size Element. Combini q omobdining a : en eae | || RECORDING Capacity for capacity it is no more expensive than an | ordinary cupbeard of like quality. BAROMETER, It is infinitely more convenient. pe It automatically indexes and classifies. HYG OMETER It saves 8/10ths of the wall space. TR pee = And a vast amount of time in hunting up specimens. \ / THERMOMETER. Maat EES % AE ELE, BOLE BEOWNG LISZ TO ANY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MADE TO ORDER. Prompt Attention to all Orders and Inquiries. THE SYTAM FITTINGS C0 J EXCEPTIONAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, INSTITUTIONS, &c. a9 Quotations submitted for Laboratory Outfits or Single Instruments. 18 & 19 BASINGHALL BUILDINGS, THERMOMETERS FOR SUUDENT WORK A SPECIALITY. Catalogues Post Free. (State which required.) LEEDS. 8, 9, & 10 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON. Telegrams : Wort, Leeds. Telephones 1882 and 1942. 00 eeeeeeaeaeaaaaaaaaadahaaaahdohstattaannnne, C THE GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE, GLASGOW. SESSION begins TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 190s, in the new buildings recently erected for the College. The Diploma of the College is granted in the following Departments :— CIVIL ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ELEC- TRICAL ENGINEERING, MINING, NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, MATHEMATICS and PHYSICS. In conjunction with the Glasgow School of Art a Course for a Joint Diploma in Architecture has been arranged. The Courses of Study for the Diploma usually extend over three Sessions. The Average Fee per Session is £12 12s. Special Courses for individual Students are arranged as required. Holders of the Diploma are eligible for the Degree of B.Sc. in ENGINEERING of the UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW after attendance for at least one Session upon pre- scribed University Classes. New and well-equipped Laboratories in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Technical Chemistry, Metallurgy, Mechanics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering have been provided. The Preliminary Examination for Candidates for the Diploma begins on September 18. Names of intending candidates must be lodged not later than September 15, on forms which will be sent on application. CALENDAR (price, by post, 1s. 4@.) and PROSPECTUS (gratis) will be sent on application to the SECRETARY. WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, CAXTON STREET, S.W. A SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. The WINTER SESSION will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. Scholarships of the aggregate value of 4320 are offered to students entering in October. Examination on September 26 and 27. Fees r10 Gns. if paid in one sum on entrance. For University Students and those who have completed their anatomical and physiological studies 70 Gns. Special opportunities for Clinical work and for holding the various hospital appoint- ments. Dental students are specially provided for. Prospectus and further particulars may be obtained from the DEan. Telegrams: ‘‘ Clinic,” London. Telephone: Victoria 765. DEWSBURY TECHNICAL SCHOOL. WANTED at the end of September, an ASSISTANT MASTER to teach boys in Elementary Science and to help in the Evening Classes (Chemistry and Physics). Must be a good disciplinarian. Salary, £100. Apply, with testimonials, not later than Friday, August 25, 1905, to P. F. LEE, Secretary. Sale by Auction. COLLECTION OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. MR. J. C. STEVENS will Sell by Auction, at his Rooms, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., on TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, at half-past 12, Fine Birds set up in Glass (GE including rare and curious varieties; Heads and Horns of Animals from S. Africa and other countries; Fossils and Minerals ; Exotic Lepidoptera, Shells, and Birds’ Eggs. On view day prior and morning of sale. Catalogues on application. clvi NATURE { AUGUST 17, 1905 THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL. A SCHOOL OF LONDON UNIVERSITY. The WINTER SESSION, 1905-1905, will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2. Two Entrance Scholarships (value £100 and £60) will be competed for on September 25, 26, 27- One Entrance Scholarship (value £60), open to Students of the Univer- sities of Oxford and Cambridge, will be competed for on September 25 and 26. Notice in writing to be sent to the Dean on or before September rs. There are annually Nineteen Resident Hospital Appointments open to Students without extra fee. Composition Fee for General Students for whole Medical Curriculum, 135 guineas; for London University Students, 145 guineas; for Dental Students, 54 guineas. Special terms in favour of University Students who have commenced their medical studies, and of University of London Students who have passed Prelim. Sci. The Residential College adjoins the Hospital, and provides accommo- dation for thirty Students. Prospectuses and all particulars may be obtained from J. MURRAY, M.B., F.R.C.S., Dean. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) Principal—T. Grecory Foster, Ph.D. FACULTIES OF ARTS AND LAWS AND OF SCIENCE. The SESSION 1905-06 will begin on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3. The Principal and Deans will attend on Monday, October 2, and Tuesday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., for the admission of students. re Department of Fine Arts (Slade Schocl) will open on Monday, ctober 2. The Courses in the Department of Laws will begin on Monday, October g. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. The SESSION will begin on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2. " acacrary Lecture at 4 p.m. by Prof. H. R. Kenwood, M.B., D.P.H., W. W. SETON, M.A., Secretary. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED (1) Mathematical and Science Master for High Grade School in Scotland. £150, non-res. (2) Theoretical and Practical Science with other Subjects. £150, non-res., to commence. Secondary School near London. (3) Science and Form Work. £130, non-res. 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CORSTORPHINE, B.Se., Ph.D., Consulting Geologist to the Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa. 8vo. “21s. net. . . . The geology of South Africa is here described in a thoroughly scientific By S. P. BEEBE, Ph.D., Physiological Chemist to the Huntington Fund for Cancer Research; and. B. H. BUXTON, M.D., Professor of Experimental Pathology, Cornell Medical College. Crown S8vo. 6s. 6d. net. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. Ameusiay igo... | INGA INCL. [2 clvii KARYOKINESIS in root of Allimm, about 150 Serial Sections of an entire root-tip, In case, 10/6. APICAL CELL in Aspidium roctlet, about 100 Serial Sections, also shows stages in Cell division. In ease, 7/6. gm— See Nature, July 22, 1905, page 278. Those interested are invited to send for the above ard a of other slides ox approval, by the Preparers, FLATTERS & GARNETT, Ltd., 48 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. LANTERN SLIDES of NATURAL HISTORY SUBJECTS. SN PHCNIX | ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. 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These Telescopes are by the leading A. CLARESON & Co., TELESCOPE MAKERS, 28 BARTLETT’S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON. DRAWING INSTRUMENTS. Best Make and Finish. SET SQUARES, T SQUARES, DRAWING BOARDS. Obtained through any ‘Optician. ROBERT NICHOLL, 163 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. PHOTOMICROGRAPHY for Publishers, Lecturers, Manufacturers, and general scientific research. Good work, | moderate charges.—Saxby, 9t Penny Lane, Sefton Park, Liverpool. selection London Makers. af WATKINS & DONGASTER, Naturalists and Manufacturers of CABINETS AND APPARATUS FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS’ EGGS AND S FoR some time past the question of the existence of man in different countries during the Tertiary period, based upon flints bearing traces of intentional work, has occupied the lively attention of ‘‘ prehistorians’’ in numerous parts of the globe—in France, England, Germany, Russia, Egypt, India, &c. According to the eminent Belgian geologist, M. Rutot, who has placed himself at the head of this new move- ment, we must add to the Palzolithic and Neolithic periods a period more ancient still, which has received the name of Eolithic. This does not comprise any type of instru- ment chipped into an intentional form, but only natural forms utilised at once. These primitive and rough tools have received the name of eoliths. It is believed that they may be recognised by the presence of secondary work (retouches), that is to say, the removal of small flakes in apparently a systematic manner, in accordance with the needs of the case, or resulting from the wear of the flint by use. An enormous quantity of eoliths are found in the Quaternary gravels mixed with instruments of determinate and classic forms. In the gravels of the north of France and of Belgium, M. Rutot has described several industries of this kind, the Reutelian, the Mafflian, the Mesvinian, &c. But such objects are equally met with in beds of far greater antiquity; the chipped stones of the Oligocene of Thenay, of the Miocene of Otta and Aurillac, of the Pliocene of England, &c., are eoliths; and here the question becomes far more grave, inasmuch as the adepts in the new theories rely on these facts to admit the existence of man or his immediate precursor during the Tertiary period. For twenty years I have not ceased to combat these theories ; first, because it appeared to me to be imprudent to admit the existence of Tertiary man in the absence of all direct, that is to say, in the absence of osteological evidence, and secondly, because I have always been con- vinced that the eoliths are due to natural causes. I had, indeed, had occasion to meet with them in all the ancient alluvia of torrential character in which flints were present. In Auvergne, and in the Velay, in the course of my explor- ations in connection with the geological map, I had found them at numerous points in the midst of Oligocene or Miocene beds occupying thousands of square kilometres in extent. I asked myself how experiments could be undertaken to solve the problem of the eoliths, when M. Laville, of the Ecole des Mines, brought before M. Cartailhac, correspondent of the institute, Dr. Obermaier, and myself some experiments carried on daily, but un- intentionally, in an industrial establishment. There are in the Commune of Guerville, near Mantes, some works in which cement is made from a mixture of chalk and plastic clay. The chalk, as usual, contains blocks of flint which are rejected by the diggers. Trucks convey the chalk from the quarry to the neighbouring works, and deliver it with a certain quantity of clay into circular vats called délayeurs. These are about 5 metres in diameter and 1-40 metres in depth. The water which serves them arrives by pipes, and is discharged through lateral sieves, carrying with it the finest particles of the mixture of chalk and clay. The water is set in motion by a horizontal wheel, above the level of the water, but from its spokes are suspended harrows (herses) of cast- iron dipping into the water; the speed of rotation of the wheel is about 4 metres at its circumference. The water is thus driven into a tumultuous movement, which carries away not only the particles of chalk and clay, but also a certain number of flints which have escaped the attention of the workmen, and have been thrown into the vats together with the chalk. These flints are therefore subjected to blows one against the other which during a period of twenty-nine hours must be extremely numerous. When the machinery is stopped, the flints remain at the bottom of the vat, where they are covered by a coating of chalk. They are taken out of the vats to be washed and placed in heaps, as they are useful for making concrete. ; Now. these bits of flint that while in the vats have 1 Translation of a paper by M. Marcellin Boule in the Compt s rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences (June 26). AUGUST 31, 1905 | NATURE 439 undergone the dynamic action of an artificial whirlpool in all points comparable with the dynamic action of a torrential current of water, present all the characteristics of the ancient river-gravels; it is easy to find among them, after a few minutes’ search, all the most charac- teristic forms of eoliths, such as are given as typical. My colleagues and I have been able to make a collection of flints admirably retouchés, identical with the forms called by M. Rutot hammer-stones, planes, notched flints, &c. We have also collected flints showing the cone of percussion, which is generally regarded as an_ infallible mark of intentional fashioning. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. InauGURAL AppRESS BY Pror. G. H. Darwin, M.A., LL.D., Pu.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. Part II.? Tuus far we have been concerned with the almost in- conceivably minute, and I now propose to show that similar conditions prevail on a larger scale. Many geological problems might well be discussed from my present point of view, yet I shall pass them by, and shall proceed at once to Astronomy, beginning with the smallest cosmical scale of magnitude, and considering after- wards the larger celestial phenomena. The problems of cosmical evolution are so complicated that it is well to conduct the attack in various ways at the same time. Although the several theories may seem to some extent discordant with one another, yet, as I have already said, we ought not to scruple to carry each to its logical conclusion. We may be confident that in time the false will be eliminated from each theory, and when the true alone remains the reconciliation of apparent disagree- ments will have become obvious. The German astronomer Bode long ago propounded a simple empirical law concerning the distances at which the several planets move about the sun. It is true that the planet Neptune, discovered subsequently, was found to be considerably out of the place which would be assigned to it by Bode’s law, yet his formula embraces so large a number of cases with accuracy that we are compelled to believe that it arises in some manner from the primitive conditions of the planetary system. The explanation of the causes which have led to this simple law as to the planetary distances presents an interesting problem, and, although it is still unsolved, we may obtain some insight into its meaning by considering what I have called a working model of ideal simplicity. Imagine then a sun round which there moves in a circle a single large planet. I will call this planet Jove, because it may be taken as a representative of our largest planet, Jupiter. Suppose next that a meteoric stone or small planet is projected in any perfectly arbitrary manner in the same plane in which Jove is moving; then we ask how this third body will move. The conditions imposed may seem simple, yet the problem has so far overtaxed the powers of the mathematician that nothing approach- ing a general answer to our question has yet been given. We know, however, that under the combined attractions of the sun and Jove the meteoric stone will in general describe an orbit of extraordinary complexity, at one time moving slowly at a great distance from both the sun and Jove, at other times rushing close past one or other of them. As it grazes past Jove or the sun it may often but just escape a catastrophe, but a time will come at length when it runs its chances too fine and comes into actual collision. The individual career of the stone is then ended by absorption, and of course by far the greater chance is that it will find its Nirvana by absorption in the sun. Next let us suppose that instead of one wandering meteoric stone or minor planet there are hundreds of them, moving initially in all conceivable directions. Since they are all supposed to be very small, their mutual attractions will be insignificant, and they will each move almost as though they were influenced only by the sun and Jove. 1 Delivered at Johannesburg on August 30. The first part of the Address, delivered at Cape Town on August 15, appeared in NATURE of August 17. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] Most of these stones will be absorbed by the sun, and the minority will collide with Jove. When we inquire how long the career of a stone may be, we find that it depends on the direction and speed with which it is started, and that by proper adjustment the delay of the final catastrophe may be made as long as we please. Thus by making the delay indefinitely long we reach the cenception of a meteoric stone which moves so as never to come into collision with either body. There are, therefore, certain perpetual orbits in which a meteoric stone or minor planet may move for ever with- out collision. But when such an immortal career has been discovered for our minor planet, it still remains to discover whether the slightest possible departure from the pre- scribed orbit will become greater and greater and ulti- mately lead to a collision with the sun or Jove, or whether the body will travel so as to cross and re-cross the exact perpetual orbit, always remaining close to it; , Tf ‘the slightest departure inevitably increases as time goes on, the orbit is unstable; if, on the other hand, it only leads to a slight waviness in the path described, it is stable. We thus arrive at another distinction: there are per- petual orbits, but some, and indeed most, are unstable, and these do not offer an immortal career for a meteoric stone; and there are other perpetual orbits which are stable or persistent. The unstable ones are those which succumb in the struggle for life, and the stable ones are the species adapted to their environment. If, then, we are given a system of a sun and large planet, together with a swarm of small bodies moving in all sorts of ways, the sun and planet will grow by accretion, gradually sweeping up the dust and rubbish of the system, and there will survive a. number of small planets and satellites moving in certain definite paths. The final outcome will be an orderly planetary system in which the various orbits are arranged according to some definite law. But the problem presented even by a system of such ideal simplicity is still far from having received a complete solution. No general plan for determining perpetual orbits has yet been discovered, and the task of discriminating the stable from the unstable is arduous. But a beginning has been made in the determination of some of the zones surrounding the sun and Jove in which stable orbits are possible, and others in which they are impossible. — There is hardly room for doubt that if a complete solution for our solar system were attainable, we should find that the orbits of the existing planets and satellites are numbered amongst the stable perpetual orbits, and should thus obtain a rigorous mechanical explanation of Bode’s law concerning the planetary distances. eto It is impossible not to be struck by the general similarity between the problem presented by the corpuscles moving in orbits in the atom, and that of the planets and satellites moving in a planetary system. It may not, perhaps, be fanciful to imagine that some general mathematical method devised for solving a problem of cosmical. evolution may find another application to miniature atomic systems, and may thus lead onward to vast developments of industrial mechanics. Science, however diverse its aims, is a whole, and men of science do well to impress on the captains of industry that they should not look askance on those branches of investigation which may seem for the moment far beyond any possibility of practical utility. _ You will remember that I discussed the question as to whether the atomic communities of corpuscles could be regarded as absolutely eternal, and that I said that the analogy of other moving systems pointed to their ultimate mortality. Now the chief analogy which I had in my mind was that of a planetary system. The orbits of which I have spoken are only perpetual when the bodies are infinitesimal in mass, and meet with no resistance as they move. Now the infinitesimal body does not exist, and both Lord Kelvin and Poincaré concur in holding that disturbance will ultimately creep in to any system of bodies moving even in so-called stable orbits ; and this is so even apart from the resistance offered to the moving bodies by any residual gas there may be scattered through space. The stability is therefore only relative, and a planetary system contains the seeds of its own destruction. But this ultimate fate need not disturb 440 us either practically or theoretically, for the solar system contains in itself other seeds of decay which will probably bear fruit long before the occurrence of any serious dis- turbance of the kind of which I speak. Before passing on to a new topic I wish to pay a tribute to the men to whom we owe the recent great advances in theoretical dynamical astronomy. As treated by the master-hands of Lagrange and Laplace and _ their successors, this branch of science hardly seemed to afford scope for any great new departure. But that there is always room for discovery, even in the most frequented paths of knowledge, was illustrated when, nearly thirty years ago, Hill of Washington proposed a new method of treating the theory of the moon’s motion in a series of papers which have become classical. I have not time to speak of the enormous labour and great skill involved in the completion of Hill’s Lunar Theory, by Ernest Brown, whom I am glad to number amongst my pupils and friends; for I must confine myself to other aspects of Hill’s work. The title of Hill’s most fundamental paper, namely, ““On Part of the Motion of the Lunar Perigee,’’ is almost comic in its modesty, for who would suspect that it con- tains the essential points involved in the determination of perpetual orbits and their stability? Probably Hill him- self did not fully realise at the time the full importance of what he had done. Fortunately he was followed by Poincaré, who not only saw its full meaning but devoted his incomparable mathematical powers to the full theo- retical development of the point of view I have been laying before you. Other mathematicians have also made contributions to this line of investigation, amongst whom I may number my friend Mr. Hough, chief assistant at the Royal Observ- atory of Cape Town, and myself. But without the work of our two great forerunners we should still be in utter darkness, and it would have been impossible to give even this slight sketch of a great subject. The theory which I have now explained points to the origin of the sun and planets from gradual accretions of meteoric stones, and it makes no claim to carry the story back behind the time when there was already a central condensation or sun about which there circled another condensation or planet. But more than a century ago an attempt had already been made to re-construct the history back to a yet remoter. past, and, as we shall see, this attempt was based upon quite a different supposition as to the constitution of the primitive solar system. I myself believe that the theory I have just explained, as well as that to which I am coming, contains essential elements of truth, and that the apparent discordances will some day be reconciled. The theory of which I speak is the celebrated nebular hypothesis, first suggested by the German philosopher Kant, and later re-stated in- dependently and in better form by the French mathe- matician Laplace. Laplace traced the origin of the solar system to a nebula or cloud of rarefied gas congregated round a central con- densation which was ultimately to form the sun. The whole was slowly rotating about an axis through its centre, and, under the combined influences of rotation and of the mutual attraction of the gas, it assumed a globular form, slightly flattened at the poles. The justifi- ability of this supposition is confirmed by the observations of astronomers, for they find in the heavens many nebule, while the spectroscope proves that their light at any rate is derived from gas. The primeval globular nebula is un- doubtedly a stable or persistent figure, and thus Laplace’s hypothesis conforms to the general laws which I have attempted to lay down. The nebula must have gradually cooled by radiation into space, and as it did so the gas must necessarily have lost some of its spring or elasticity. This loss of power of resistance then permitted the gas to crowd more closely towards the central condensation, so that the nebula con- tracted. The contraction led to two results, both inevit- able according to the laws of mechanics: first, the central condensation became hotter; and, secondly, the speed of its rotation became faster. The accelerated rotation led to an increase in the amount of polar flattening, and the nebula at length assumed the form of a lens, or of a NO! 1870; VOL.) 72] NARORE (AUGUST 31, 1905 disc thicker in the middle than at the edges. Assuming the existence of the primitive nebula, the hypothesis may be accepted thus far as practically certain. From this point, however, doubt and difficulty enter into the argument. It is supposed that the nebula became so much flattened that it could not subsist as a continuous aggregation of gas, and a ring of matter detached itself from the equatorial regions. The central portions of the nebula, when relieved of the excrescence, resumed the more rounded shape formerly possessed by the whole. As the cooling continued the central portion in its turn became excessively flattened through the influence of its increased rotation; another equatorial ring then detached itself, and the whole process was repeated as before. In this way the whole nebula was fissured into a number of rings surround- ing the central condensation, the temperature of which must by then have reached incandescence. Each ring then aggregated itself round some nucleus which happened to exist in its circumference, and so formed a subordinate nebula. Passing through a series of trans- formations, like its parent, this nebula was finally replaced by a planet with attendant satellites. The whole process forms a majestic picture of the history of our system. But the mechanical conditions of a rotating nebula are too complex to admit, as yet, of complete mathematical treatment ; and thus, in discussing this theory, the physicist is compelled in great measure to adopt the qualitative methods of the biologist, rather than the quantitative ones which he would prefer. The telescope seems to confirm the general correctness of Laplace’s hypothesis. Thus, for example, the great nebula in Andromeda presents a grand illustration of what we may take to be a planetary system in course of form- ation. In it we see the central condensation surrounded by a more or less ring-like nebulosity, and in one of the rings there appears to be a subordinate condensation. Nevertheless it is hardly too much to say that every stage in the supposed process presents to us some difficulty or impossibility. Thus we ask whether a mass of gas of almost inconceivable tenuity can really rotate all in one piece, and whether it is not more probable that there would be a central whirlpool surrounded by more slowly-moving parts. Again, is there any sufficient reason to suppose that a series of intermittent efforts would lead to the detachment of distinct rings, and is not a continuous out- flow of gas from the equator more probable? The ring of Saturn seems to have suggested the theory to Laplace; but to take it as a model leads us straight to a quite fundamental difficulty. If a ring of matter ever concentrates under the influence of its mutual attraction, it can only do so round the centre of gravity of the whole ring. Therefore the matter forming an approximately uniform ring, if it concentrates at all, can only fall in on the parent planet and be re-absorbed. Some external force other than the mutual attraction of the matter forming the ring, and therefore not provided by the theory, seems necessary to effect the supposed concentration. The only way of avoiding this difficulty is to suppose the ring to be ill-balanced or lop-sided; in this case, provided the want of balance is pronounced enough, concentration will take place round a point inside the ring but outside the planet. Many writers assume that the present distances of the planets preserve the dimensions of the primitive rings; but the argument that a ring can only aggregate about its centre of gravity, which I do not recollect to have seen before, shows that such cannot be the case. The concentration of an ill-balanced or broken ring on an interior point would necessarily generate a planet with direct rotation—that is to say, rotating in the same direc- tion as the earth. But several writers, and notably Faye, endeavour to show—erroneously as I think—that a retro- grade rotation should be normal, and they are therefore driven to make various complicated suppositions to explain the observed facts. But I do not claim to have removed the difficulty, only to have shifted it; for the satellites of Neptune, and presumably the planet itself, have retrograde rotations; and, lastly, the astonishing discovery has just been made by William Pickering of a ninth retrograde satellite of Saturn, while the rotations of the eight other satellites, of the ring and of the planet itself, are direct. Finally, I express a doubt as to whether the telescope AUGUST 31, 1905] NATURE 441 does really exactly confirm the hypothesis of Laplace, for | I imagine that what we see indicates a spiral rather than a ring-like division of nebulz.* This is not the time to pursue these considerations further, but enough has been said to show that the nebular hypothesis cannot be considered as a connected intelligible whole, however much of truth it may contain. In the first theory which I sketched as to the origin of the sun and planets, we supposed them to grow by the accretions of meteoric wanderers in space, and this hypo- thesis is apparently in fundamental disagreement the conception of Laplace, who considered the transform- ations of a continuous gaseous nebula. Some years ago a method occurred to me by which these two discordant schemes of origin might perhaps be reconciled. A gas is not really continuous, but it consists of a vast number of molecules moving in all directions with great speed and frequently coming into collision with one another. Now I have ventured to suggest that a swarm of meteorites would, by frequent collisions, form a medium endowed with so much of the mechanical properties of a gas as would satisfy Laplace’s conditions. If this is so, a nebula may be regarded as a quasi-gas, the molecules of which are meteorites. The gaseous luminosity which undoubtedly is sent out by nebulae would then be due only to incan- descent gas generated by the clash of meteorites, while the dark bodies themselves would remain invisible. Sir Norman Lockyer finds spectroscopic evidence which led him long ago to some such view as this, and it is certainly of interest to find in his views a possible means of re- conciling two apparently totally discordant theories.* How- ever, I do not desire to lay much stress on my suggestion, for without doubt a swarm of meteors could only maintain the mechanical properties of a gas for a limited time, and, as pointed out by Prof. Chamberlin, it is difficult to under- stand how a swarm of meteorites moving indiscriminately in every direction could ever have come into existence. But my paper may have served to some extent to suggest to Chamberlin his recent modification of the nebular hypo- | thesis, in which he seeks to reconcile Laplace’s view with | 4 meteoritic origin of the planetary system.* We have seen that, in order to explain the genesis of planets according to Laplace’s theory, the rings must be ill-balanced or even broken. If the ring were so far from being complete as only to cover a small segment of the whole circumference, the true features of the occurrences in the births of planets and satellites might be better re- presented by conceiving the detached portion of matter to have been more or less globular from the first, rather than ring-shaped. Now this idea introduces us to a group of researches whereby mathematicians have sought to explain the birth of planets and satellites in a way which might appear, at first sight, to be fundamentally different from that of Laplace. The solution of the problem of evolution involves the search for those persistent or stable forms which biologists would call species. The species of which I am now going to speak may be grouped in a family, which comprises all those various forms which a mass of rotating liquid is capable of assuming under the conjoint influences of gravi- tation and rotation. If the earth were formed throughout of a liquid of the same density, it would be one of the species of this family; and indeed these researches date back to the time of Newton, who was the first to explain the figures of planets. The ideal liquid planets we are to consider must be re- garded as working models of actuality, and inasmuch as the liquid is supposed to be incompressible, the conditions depart somewhat widely from those of reality. Hence, when the problem has been solved, much uncertainty remains as to the extent to which our conclusions will be applicable to actual celestial bodies. We begin, then, with a rotating liquid planet like the earth, which is the first stable species of our family. We next impart in imagination more rotation to this planet, | 1 Prof. Chamberlin, of Chicago, has recently proposed a modified form of the nebular hypothesis, in which he contends that the spiral form is normal. See ‘‘ Year Book,” No. 3, for 1904, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, pp. 195-258. 2 Newcomb considers the objections to Lockyer’s theory insuperable. See p. 190 of ‘‘ The Stars.” (London: John Murray, 1904.) 3 See preceding reference to Chamberlin’'s paper. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] with | and find by mathematical calculation that its power of resistance to any sort of disturbance is less than it was. In other words, its stability declines with increased rota- tion, and at length we reach a stage at which the stability just vanishes. At this point the shape is a transitional one, for it is the beginning of a new species with different | characteristics from the first, and with a very feeble degree of stability or power of persistence. As a still further amount of rotation is imparted, the stability of the new species increases to a maximum and then declines until a new transitional shape is reached and a new species comes into existence. In this way we pass from species to species with an ever-increasing amount of rotation. The first or planetary species has a circular equator like the earth; the second species has an oval equator, so that it is something like an egg spinning on its side on a table; in the third species we find that one of the two ends of the egg begins to swell, and that the swelling gradually becomes a well-marked protrusion or filament. Finally the filamentous protrusion becomes bulbous at its end, and is only joined to the main mass of liquid by a gradually thinning neck. The neck at length breaks, and we are left with two separated masses which may be called planet and satellite. It is fair to state that the actual rupture into two bodies is to some extent speculative, since mathe- maticians have hitherto failed to follow the whole process to the end. In this ideal problem the successive transmutations of species are brought about by gradual additions to the amount of rotation with which the mass of liquid is endowed. It might seem as if this continuous addition to the amount of rotation were purely arbitrary and could have no counterpart in nature. But real bodies cool and contract in cooling, and, since the scale of magnitude on which our planet is built is immaterial, contraction will produce exactly the same effect on shape as augmented rotation. I must ask you, then, to believe that the effects of an apparently arbitrary increase of rotation may be produced by cooling. The figures which I succeeded in drawing, by means of rigorous calculation, of the later stages of this course of evolution, are so curious as to remind one of some such phenomenon as the protrusion of a filament of protoplasm from a mass of living matter, and I suggest that we may see in this almost life-like process the counterpart of at least one form of the birth of double stars, planets, and satellites. As I have already said, Newton determined the first of these figures; Jacobi found the second, and Poincaré in- dicated the existence of the third, in a paper which is universally regarded as one of the masterpieces of applied mathematics; finally I myself succeeded in determining the exact form of Poincaré’s figure, and in proving that it is a true stable shape. My Cambridge colleague Jeans has also made an interesting contribution to the subject by discussing a closely analogous problem, and he has besides attacked the far more difficult case where the rotating fluid is a com- pressible gas. In this case also he finds a family of types, but the conception of compressibility introduced a new set of considerations in the transitions from species to species. The problem is, however, of such difficulty that he had to rest content with results which were rather qualitative than strictly quantitative. This group of investigations brings before us the process of the birth of satellites in a more convincing form than was possible by means of the general considerations adduced by Laplace. It cannot be doubted that the sup- posed Laplacian sequence of events possesses a consider- able element of truth, yet these latter schemes of trans- formation can be followed in closer detail. It seems, then, probable that both processes furnish us with crude models of reality, and that in some cases the first and in others the second is the better representative. The moon’s mass is one-eightieth of that of the earth, whereas the mass of Titan, the largest satellite in the solar system, is 1/4600 of that of Saturn. On the ground of this great difference between the relative magnitudes of all other satellites and of the moon, it is not unreason- able to suppose that the mode of separation of the moon from the earth may also have been widely different. The 442 NATURE [AUGUST 31, 1905 theory of which I shall have next to speak claims to trace the gradual departure of the moon from an original position not far removed from the present surface of the earth. If this view is correct, we may suppose that the detachment of the moon from the earth occurred as a single portion of matter, and not as a concentration of a Laplacian ring. If a planet is covered with oceans of water and air, or if it is formed of plastic molten rock, tidal oscillations must be generated in its mobile parts by the attractions of its satellites and of the sun. Such movements must be subject to frictional resistance, and the planet’s rotation will be slowly retarded by tidal friction in much the same way that a fly-wheel is gradually stopped by any external cause of friction. Since action and reaction are equal and opposite, the action of the satellites on the planet, which causes the tidal friction of which I speak, must correspond to a reaction of the planet on the motion of the satellites. At any moment of time we may regard the system com- posed of. the rotating planet with its attendant satellite as a stable species of motion, but the friction of the tides introduces forces which produce a continuous, although slow, transformation in the configuration. It is, then, clearly of interest to trace backwards in time the changes produced by such a continuously acting cause, and to determine the initial condition from which the system of planet and satellite must have been slowly degrading. We may also look forward, and discover whither the trans- formation tends. Let us consider, then, the motion of the earth and moon revolving in company round the sun, on the supposition that the friction of the tides in the earth is the only effective cause of change. We are, in fact, to discuss a working model of the system, analogous to those of which I have so often spoken before. This is not the time to attempt a complete exposition of the manner in which tidal friction gives rise to the action and reaction between planet and satellite, nor shall I discuss in detail the effects of various kinds which are produced by this cause. It must suffice to set forth the results in their main outlines, and, as in connection with the topic of evolution retrospect is perhaps of greater interest than prophecy, I shall begin with the consider- ation of the past. At the present time the moon, moving at a distance of 240,000 miles from the earth, completes her circuit in twenty-seven days. Since a day is the time of one rota- tion of the earth on its axis, the angular motion of the earth is twenty-seven times as rapid as that of the moon. Tidal friction acts as a brake on the earth, and there- fore we look back in retrospect to times when the day was successively twenty-three, twenty-two, twenty-one of our present hours in length, and so on backward to still shorter days. But during all this time the reaction on the moon was at work, and it appears that its effect must have been such that the moon also revolved round the earth in a shorter period than it does now; thus the month also was shorter in absolute time than it now is. These conclusions are absolutely certain, although the effects on the motions of the earth and of the moon are so gradual that they can only doubtfully be detected by the most refined astronomical measurements. ; We take the “* day,”’ regarding it as a period of variable length, to mean the time occupied by a single rotation of the earth on its axis; and the ‘‘ month,’’ likewise variable in absolute length, to mean the time occupied by the moon in a single revolution round the earth. Then, although there are now twenty-seven days in a month, and although both day and month were shorter in the past, yet there is, so far, nothing to tell us whether there were more or fewer days in the month in the past. For if the day is now being prolonged more rapidly than the month, the number of days in the month was greater in the past than it now is; and if the converse were true, the number of days in the month was less. Now it appears from mathematical calculation that the day must now be suffering a greater degree of prolongation than the month, and accordingly in retrospect we look back to a time when there were more days in the month than at present. That number was once twenty-nine, in place of the present twenty-seven; but the epoch of twenty- NO. 1870, VOL. 72] nine days in the month is a sort of crisis in the history of moon and earth, for yet earlier the day was shortening less rapidly than the month. Hence, earlier than the time when there were twenty-nine days in the month, there was a time when there was a reversion to the present smaller number of days. We thus arrive at the curious conclusion that there is a certain number of days to the month, namely twenty- nine, which can never have been exceeded, and we find that this crisis was passed through by the earth and moon recently; but, of course, a recent event in such a long history may be one which happened some millions of years ago. “continuing our retrospect beyond this crisis, both day and month are found continuously shortening, and the number of days in the month continues to fall. No change in conditions which we need pause to consider now super- venes, and we may ask at once, what is the initial stage to which the gradual transformation points? I say, then, that’ on following the argument to its end the system may be traced back to a time when the day and month were identical in length, and were both only about four or five of our present hours. The identity of day and month means that the moon was always opposite to the same side of the earth; thus at the beginning the earth always presented the same face to the moon, just as the moon now always shows the same face to us. Moreover, when the month was only some four or five of our present hours in length the moon must have been only a few thousand miles from the earth’s surface—a great contrast with the present distance of 240,000 miles. It might well be argued from this conclusion alone that the moon separated from the earth more or less as a single portion of matter at a time immediately antecedent to the initial stage to which she has been traced. But there exists a yet more weighty argument favourable to this view, for it appears that the initial stage is one in which the stability of the species of motion is tottering, so that the system presents the characteristic of a transitional form, which we have seen to denote a change of type or species in a previous case. In discussing the transformations of a liquid planet we saw the tendency of the single mass to divide into two portions, although we failed to extend the rigorous argu- ment back to the actual moment of separation; and now we seem to reach a similar crisis from the opposite end, when in retrospect we trace back the system to two masses of unequal size in close proximity with one another. The argument almost carries conviction with it, but I have necessarily been compelled to pass over various doubtful points. Time is wanting to consider other subjects worthy of notice which arise out of this problem, yet I wish to point out that the earth’s axis must once have been less tilted over with reference’ to the sun than it is now, so that the obliquity of the ecliptic receives at least a partial explan- ation. Again, the inclination of the moon’s orbit may be in great measure explained; and, lastly, the moon must once have moved in a nearly circular path. The fact that tidal friction is competent to explain the eccentricity of an orbit has been applied in a manner to which I shall have occasion to return hereafter. In my paper on this subject I summed up the dis- cussion in the following words, which I still see no reason to retract :— ; ‘““The argument reposes on the imperfect rigidity of solids, and on the internal friction of semi-solids and fluids; these are verae causae.. Thus changes of the kind here discussed must be going on, and must have gone on in the past. And for this history of the earth and moon to be true throughout it is only necessary to postulate a sufficient lapse of time, and that there is not enough matter diffused through space materially to resist the motions of the moon and earth in perhaps several hundred million years. “Tt hardly seems too much to say that granting these two postulates and the existence of a primeval planet, such as that above described, then a system would neces-’ sarily be developed which would bear a strong resemblance to our own. “A theory, reposing on verae causae, which brings into AUGUST 31, 1905] WALTORE 443 quantitative correlation the lengths of the present day | and month, the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the inclin- | ation and eccentricity of the lunar orbit, must, I think, have strong claims to acceptance.’’* We have pursued the changes into the past, and I will refer but shortly to the future. The day and month are both now lengthening, but the day changes more quickly than the month. Thus the two periods tend again to become equal to one another, and it appears that when that goal is reached both day and month will be as long as fifty-five of our present days. The earth will then always show the same face to the moon, just as it did in the remotest past. But there is a great contrast between the ultimate and initial conditions, for the ulti- mate stage, with day and month both equal to fifty-five of our present days, is one of great stability in contra- distinction to the vanishing stability which we found in the initial stage. Since the relationship between the moon and earth is a mutual one, the earth may be regarded as a satellite of the moon, and if the moon rotated rapidly on her axis, as was probably once the case, the earth must at that time have produced tides in the moon. The mass of the moon is relatively small, and the tides produced by the earth would be large; accordingly the moon would pass through the several stages of her history much more rapidly than the earth. Hence it is that the moon has already advanced to that condition which we foresee as the future fate of the earth, and now always shows to us the same face. If the earth and moon were the only bodies in exist- ence, this ultimate stage when the day and month were again identical in length would be one of absolute stability, and therefore eternal; but the presence of the sun introduces a cause for yet further changes. I do not, however, propose to pursue the history to this yet remoter futurity, because our system must contain other seeds of decay which will probably bear fruit before these further transformations could take effect. If, as has been argued, tidal friction has played so important a part in the history of the earth and moon, it might be expected that the like should be true of the other planets and satellites, and of the planets themselves in their relationship to the sun. But numerical examin- ation of the several cases proves conclusively that this cannot have been the case. The relationship of the moon to the earth is in fact quite exceptional in the solar system, and we have still to rely on such theories as that of Laplace for the explanation of the main outlines of the solar system. I have as yet only barely mentioned the time occupied by the sequence of events sketched out in the various schemes of cosmogony, and the question of cosmical time is a thorny and controversial one. Our ideas are absolutely blank as to the time requisite for the evolution according to Laplace’s nebular hypothesis. And again, if we adopt the meteoritic theory, no estimate can be formed of the time required even for an ideal sun, with its attendant planet Jove, to sweep up the wanderers in space. We do know, indeed, that there is a continuous gradation from stable to unstable orbits, so that some meteoric stones may make thousands or millions of re- volutions before meeting their fate by collision. Accord- ingly, not only would a complete absorption of all the wanderers occupy an infinite time, but also the amount of the refuse of the solar system still remaining scattered in planetary space is unknown. And, indeed, it is certain that the process of clearance is still going on, for the earth is constantly meeting meteoric stones, which, pene- trating the atmosphere, become luminous through the effects of the frictional resistance with which they meet. All we can assert of such theories is that they demand enormous intervals of time as estimated in years. The theory of tidal friction stands alone amongst these evolutionary speculations in that we can establish an exact but merely relative time-scale for every stage of the process. It is true that the value in years of the unit of time remains unknown, and it may be conjectured that the unit has varied to some extent as the physical con- dition of the earth has gradually changed. 1 Phil. Trans, pt. ii., 1880, p. 883. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] It is, however, possible to determine a period in years which must be shorter than that in which the whole history is comprised. If at every moment since the birth of the moon tidal friction had always been at work in such a way as to produce the greatest possible effect, then we should find that sixty million years would be consumed in this portion of evolutionary history. The true period must be much greater, and it does not seem extravagant to suppose that 500 to rooo million years may have elapsed since the birth of the moon. Such an estimate would not seem extravagant to geologists who have, in various ways, made exceedingly rough determinations of geological periods. One such determination is derived from measures of the thickness of deposited strata, and the rate of the denudation of con- tinents by rain and rivers. I will not attempt to make any precise statement on this head, but I imagine that the sort of unit with which the geologist deals is 100 million years, and that he would not consider any estimate involving from one to twenty of such units as unreasonable. Mellard Reade has attempted to determine geological time by certain arguments as to the rate of denudation of limestone rocks, and arrives at the conclusion that geo- logical history is comprised in something less than 600 million years.! The uncertainty of this estimate is wide, and I imagine that geologists in general would not lay much stress on it. Joly has employed a somewhat similar, but probably less risky, method of determination.* When the earth was still hot, all the water of the globe must have existed in the form of steam, and when the surface cooled that steam must have condensed as fresh water. Rain then washed the continents and carried down detritus and soluble matter to the seas. Common salt is the most widely diffused of all such soluble matter, and its transit to the sea is an irreversible process, because the evaporation of the sea only carries back to the land fresh water in the form of rain. It seems certain, then, that the saltness of the sea is due to the washing of the land throughout geological time. Rough estimates may be formed of the amount of river water which reaches the sea in a year, and the measured saltness of rivers furnishes a knowledge of the amount of salt which is thus carried to the sea. A closer estimate may be formed of the total amount of salt in the sea. On dividing the total amount of salt by the annual transport Joly arrives at the quotient of about 100 millions, and thence concludes that geological history has occupied 100 million years. I will not pause to consider the several doubts and difficulties which arise in the working out of this theory. The uncertainties involved must clearly be considerable, yet it seems the best of all the purely geo- logical arguments whence we derive numerical estimates of geological time. On the whole I should say that pure geology points to some period intermediate between 50 and 1000 millions of years, but the upper limit is more doubtful than the lower. Thus far we do not find any- thing which renders the tidal theory of evolution untenable. But the physicists have formed estimates in other ways which, until recently, seemed to demand in the most imperative manner a far lower scale of time. According to all theories of cosmogony, the sun is a star which became heated in the process of its condensation from a condition of wide dispersion. When a meteoric stone falls into the sun the arrest of its previous motion gives rise to heat, just as the blow of a horse’s shoe on a stone makes a spark. The fall of countless meteoric stones, or the con- densation of a rarefied gas, was supposed to be the sole cause of the sun’s high temperature. Since the mass of the sun is known, the total amount of the heat generated in it, in whatever mode it was formed, can be estimated with a considerable amount of precision. The heat received at the earth from the sun can also be measured with some accuracy, and hence it is a mere matter of calculation to determine how much heat the sun sends out in a year. The total heat which can have been generated in the sun divided by the annual 1 “Chemical Denudation in Relation to Geological Time,” Bogue, London, 1879 ; or Roy. Soc., January 23. 1879. 4 = ‘An Estimate of the Geological Age of the Earth,” Trans. Roy. Dub. Soc., vol. vii. series iii., 1902, pp. 23-66. 444 output gives a quotient of about 20 millions. Hence it seemed to be imperatively necessary that the whole history of the solar system should be comprised within some 20 millions of years. This argument, which is due to Helmholtz, appeared to be absolutely crushing, and for the last forty years the physicists have been accustomed to tell the geologists that they must moderate their claims. But for myself I have always believed that the geologists were more nearly correct than the physicists, notwithstanding the fact that appearances were so strongly against them. And now, at length, relief has come to the strained relations between the two parties, for the recent marvellous discoveries in physics show that concentration of matter is not the only source from which the sun may draw its heat. Radium is a substance which is perhaps millions of times more powerful than dynamite. Thus it is estimated that an ounce of radium would contain enough power to raise 10,000 tons a mile above the earth’s surface. Another way of stating the same estimate is this: the energy needed to tow a ship of 12,000 tons a distance of six thousand sea miles at 15 knots is contained in 22 ounces of radium. The Saxon probably burns five or six thousand tons of coal on a voyage of approximately the same length. Again, M. and Mme. Curie have proved that radium actually gives out heat,’ and it has been calculated that a small proportion of radium in the sun would suffice to explain its present radiation. Other lines of argument tend in the same direction.* Now we know that the earth contains radio-active materials, and it is safe to assume that it forms in some degree a sample of the materials of the solar system. Hence it is almost certain that the sun is radio-active also ; and besides it is not improbable that an element with so heavy an atom as radium would gravitate more abundantly to the central condensation than to the outlying planets. In this case the sun should contain a larger proportion of radio-active material than the earth. This branch of science is as yet but in its infancy, but we already see how unsafe it is to dogmatise on the potentialities of matter. It appears, then, that the physical argument is not susceptible of a greater degree of certainty than that of the geologists, and the scale of geological time remains in great measure unknown. I have now ended my discussion of the solar system, and must pass on to the wider fields of the stellar universe. Only a few thousand stars are visible with the unaided eye, but photography has revealed an inconceivably vast multitude of stars and nebule, and every improvement in that art seems to disclose yet more and more. About twenty years ago the number of photographic objects in the heavens was roughly estimated at about 170 millions, and some ten years later it had increased to about 400 millions. Although Newcomb, in his recent book on ‘‘ The Stars,” refrains even from conjecturing any definite number, yet I suppose that the enormous number of 400 million must now be far below the mark, and photography still grows better year by year. It seems useless to con- sider whether the number of stars has any limit, for infinite number, space, and time transcend our powers of comprehension. We must then make a virtue of necessity, and confine our attention to such more limited views as seem within our powers. A celestial photograph looks at first like a dark sheet of paper splashed with whitewash, but further examination shows that there is some degree of method in the arrange- ment of the white spots. It may be observed that the stars in many places are arranged in lines and sweeping trains, and chains of stars, arranged in roughly parallel curves, seem to be drawn round some centre. A surface splashed at hazard might present apparent evidence of system in a few instances, but the frequency of the occur-. the hypothesis of mere | rence in the, heavens renders chance altogether incredible. 1 Lord Kelvin has estimated the age of the earth from the rate of increase of temperature underground. But the force of his argument seems to be entirely destroyed by this result. _® See W. E. Wilson, Nature, July 9, 1903 ; and G. H. Darwin, NATURE, September 24, 1903. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] NATURE [AUGUST 31, 1905 Thus there is order of some sort in the heavens, and, although no reason can be assigned for the observed arrangement in any particular case, yet it is possible to. obtain general ideas as to the succession of events in stellar evolution. Besides the stars there are numerous streaks, wisps, and agglomerations of nebulosity, the light of which we know to emanate from gas. Spots of intenser light are observed in less brilliant regions; clusters of stars are sometimes imbedded in nebulosity, while in other cases. each individual star of a cluster stands out clear by itself. These and other observations force on us the conviction that the wispy clouds represent the earliest stage of develop- ment, the more condensed nebulz a later stage, and the stars themselves the last stage. This view is in agree- ment with the nebular hypothesis of Laplace, and we may fairly conjecture that the chains and lines of stars repre- sent pre-existing streaks of nebulosity. As a star cools it must change, and the changes which it undergoes constitute its life-history, hence the history of a star presents an analogy with the life of an individual animal. Now, the object which I have had in view has been to trace types or species in the physical world through their transformations into other types. Accordingly it falls. somewhat outside the scope of this address to consider the constitution and history of an individual star, interest- ing although those questions are. I may, however, mention that the constitution of gaseous stars was first discussed from the theoretical side by Lane, and sub- sequently more completely by Ritter. On the observational side the spectroscope has proved to be a powerful instru- ment in analysing the constitutions of the stars, and in assigning to them their respective stages of development. If we are correct in believing that stars are conden- sations of matter originally more widely spread, a certain space surrounding each star must have been cleared of nebulosity in the course of its formation. Much thought has been devoted to the determination of the distribution of the stars in space, and although the results are lack- ing in precision, yet it has been found possible to arrive at a rough determination of the average distance from star to star. It has been concluded, from investigations into: which I cannot enter, that if we draw a sphere round the sun with a radius of twenty million millions of miles,’ it will contain no other star; if the radius were twice as great the sphere might perhaps contain one other star; a sphere with a radius of sixty million millions of miles will contain about four stars. This serves to give some idea of the extraordinary sparseness of the average stellar population; but there are probably in the heavens urban and rural districts, as on earth, where the stars may be either more or less crowded. The stars are moving relatively to one another with speeds which are enormous, as estimated by terrestrial standards, but the distances which separate us. from them are so immense that it needs refined obsery- ation to detect and measure the movements. Change is obviously in progress everywhere, as well in each individual nebula and star as in the positions of these bodies relatively to one another. But we are unable even to form conjectures as to the tendency of the evolution which is going on. This being so, we cannot expect, by considering the distribution of stars and nebule, to find many illustrations of the general laws of evolution which I have attempted to explain; accordingly I must confine myself to the few cases where we at least fancy ourselves able to form ideas as to the stages by which the present conditions have been reached. Up to a few years ago there was no evidence that the law of gravitation extended to the stars, and even now there is nothing to prove the transmission of gravity from star to star. But in the neighbourhood of many stars the existence of gravity is now as clearly demonstrated as within the solar system itself. The telescope has disclosed’ the double character of a large number of stars, and the relative motions of the pairs of companions have been observed with the same assiduity as that of the planets. When the relative orbit of a pair of binary or double stars is. examined, it is found that the motion conforms exactly to those laws of Kepler which prove that the planets circle 1 This is the distance at which the earth’s distance from the sun would appear to be 1”. AUGUST 31, 1905] NATURE 445 round the sun under the action of solar gravitation. The success of the hypothesis of stellar gravitation has been so complete that astronomers have not hesitated to explain the anomalous motion of a seemingly single star by the existence of a dark companion; and it is interesting to know that the more powerful telescopes of recent times have disclosed, in at least two cases, a faintly luminous companion in the position which had been assigned to it by theory. By an extension of the same argument, certain variations in the spectra of a considerable number of stars have been pronounced to prove them each to be really double, although in general the pair may be so distant that they will probably always remain single to our sight. Lastly, the variability in the light of other apparently single stars has proved them to be really double. A pair of stars may partially or wholly cover one another as they revolve in their orbit, and the light of the seemingly single star will then be eclipsed, just as a lighthouse winks when the light is periodically hidden by a revolving shutter. Exact measurements of the character of the variability in the light have rendered it possible not only to determine the nature of the orbit described, but even to discover the figures and densities of the two components which are fused together by the enormous distance of our point of view. This is a branch of astronomy to which much careful observation and skilful analysis has been devoted ; and I am glad to mention that Alexander Roberts, one of the most eminent of the astronomers who have considered the nature of variable stars, is a resident in South Africa. I must not, however, allow you to suppose that the theory of eclipses will serve to explain the variability of all stars, for there are undoubtedly others the periodicity of which must be explained by something in their internal constitution. The periods of double stars are extremely various, and naturally those of short period have been the first noted ; in times to come others with longer and longer periods will certainly be discovered. A leading characteristic of all these double stars is that the two companions do not differ enormously in mass from one another. In_ this respect these systems present a strongly marked contrast with that of the sun, attended as it is by relatively in- significant planets. In the earlier part of my address I showed how theory indicates that a rotating fluid body will as it cools separate into two detached masses. Mathematicians have not yet been able to carry their analysis far enough to determine the relative magnitudes of the two parts, but so far as we can see the results point to the birth of a satellite the mass of which is a considerable fraction of that of its parent. Accordingly See (who devotes his attention largely to the astronomy of double stars), Roberts, and others consider that what they have observed in the heavens is in agreement with the indications of theory. It thus appears that there is reason to hold that double stars have been generated by the division of primitive and more diffused single stars. But if this theory is correct we should expect the orbit of a double star to be approximately circular; yet this is so far from being the case that the eccentricity of the orbits of many double stars exceeds by far any of the eccentricities in the solar system. Now See has pointed out that when two bodies of not very unequal masses revolve round one another in close proximity the conditions are such as to make tidal friction as efficient as possible in transforming the orbit. Hence we seem to see in tidal friction a cause which may have sufficed not only to separate the two component stars from one another, but also to render the orbit eccentric. I have thought it best to deal very briefly with stellar astronomy, in spite of the importance of the subject, because the direction of the changes in progress is in general too vague to admit of the formation of profitable theories. We have seen that it is possible to trace the solar system back to a primitive nebula with some degree of confidence, and that there is reason to believe that the stars in general have originated in the same manner. But such primitive nebulz stand in as much need of explanation No. 1870, VOL. 72] as their stellar offspring. Thus, even if we grant the exact truth of these theories, the advance towards an explanation of the universe remains miserably slight. Man is but a microscopic being relatively to astronomical space, and he lives on a puny planet circling round a star of inferior rank. Does it not then seem as futile to imagine that he can discover the origin and tendency of the universe as to expect a housefly to instruct us as to the theory of the motions of the planets? And yet, so long as he shall last, he will pursue his search, and will no doubt discover many wonderful things which are still hidden. We may indeed be amazed at all that man has been able to find out, but the immeasurable magnitude of the undiscovered will throughout all time remain to humble his pride. Our children’s children will still be gazing and marvelling at the starry heavens, but the riddle will never be read. SECTION E. GEOGRAPHY. OPENING Appress BY Rear-ApMIRAL SiR W. J. L. Wuarton, K.C.B., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. It is sometimes denied to Geography that she has any right to consider herself as a science, the objection being apparently founded on the view that it is a subject that can be learnt by heart, but not studied on any systematic line or reduced to principles which enable advance to be made, as in the more exact sciences, by continual in- vestigation by means of laws discovered in the course of such investigation. This, it appears to me, is a misap- prehension due to an incomplete recognition of what Science is, and of what Geography is. Science is, in its simplest interpretation, ‘‘ knowledge,” such knowledge as comes from an intimate acquaintance with and study of any subject duly coordinated and ar- ranged. The subjects which the advancing education and civilisation of the world have caused to be minutely studied are very many, and as knowledge has increased specialisa- tion has become a necessity, until the list of sciences is very long. Science may be broadly divided into several categories. Pure or Exact Science, such as Mathematics ; Natural or Physical Science, which rests on observations of Nature; Moral Science, which treats of all mental phenomena. Some Sciences are of ancient foundation, some have arisen from new inquiries and needs of man, or from fissure in subjects too wide for convenient treatment as one. Many of them are capable of exact definition, and their boundaries and limits can be well marked. To others no very distinct limitations can be assigned. From their nature they overlap and are overlapped by other subjects, and it is impracticable to confine them by a strict line. Geography is one of the latter. Geography is one of the most ancient subjects studied with the view of coordinating facts. A desire for exact knowledge of, first, the bearings and distances of one place from another for the purposes of intercommunication must have arisen as soon as men became collected into groups whose growing civilisation and needs required travel to obtain what could not be obtained in the com- munity. This was the earliest form of Geography, and it is an aspect which still remains, and to some is, in the modern shape of maps, the principal, if not the sole, end of Geography. From the earliest times, however, geographical informa- tion included other than topographical data. It was soon found that for the traveller and statesman, whether in peace or war, more was wanted to enable Geography to supply requirements. The nature of a country, the supply of food and water, the characters of the rivers, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, their language and affinities, the climate, and other matters, were all of much moment, and Geo- graphy dealt with them all, being, as its name denotes, in the broadest sense a “‘ description of the earth.” After the first crude guesses of relative positions, 446 NATURE [AUGUST 31, 1905 founded on times occupied on journeys, other knowledge was enlisted in the cause. Astronomy was soon recognised as the only means by which to ascertain the distances of places far apart and separated by seas, but for many centuries this could only be applied to latitude. Still the scientific geographer had to study and use the astronomical and geodetic methods known. As knowledge increased, the subjects became too wide to be strictly considered as one study, and many have become the objects of special research under different titles. Geodesy deals with the precise form of the earth and its dimensions. Geology studies the nature of the materials forming the earth’s crust, and the changes in it in past ages. Ethnology and Anthropology treat of the different races of mankind. The study of Economics takes note of the conditions of communities and nations, their laws and systems of government. Botany and Zoology now concern themselves with the details of vegetable and animal life. Archeology investigates the remains of past civilisations which cover the earth. Meteorology strives to unravel and reduce to law the complicated conditions of the atmosphere, its continual movements, and the results which have such varying effect on our daily life. Oceanography, the study of the phenomena of the sea as distinct from the dry land, is still regarded as an integral part of Geography, but is rapidly becoming a subject by itself. Of all these subjects Geography may be considered to be the parent; and though the family be large and has gone off on many separate lines, it is necessary when taking a large and comprehensive view of the united results of knowledge thus gained, especially from the point of view of Distribution, to return to that parent and consider them on a general or geographical basis. I cannot pretend to define Geographical Science in a clearer or shorter form than that in which it has been already put by General Sir Richard Strachey, and I will quote his words :— “To investigate and delineate the various features of the earth, to study the distribution of land and sea, and their effects upon climate, the configuration and relief of the surface, positions on the globe, and so forth, facts which determine the existent conditions of various parts of the earth, or which indicate former conditions, and to ascertain the relations that exist between those features and all that is observed on the earth.’’ Strabo, in the opening’ words of his introduction to his great Geography, puts it thus :— ““Tf the scientific investigation of any subject be the proper avocation of the philosopher, Geography, the science of which we propose to treat, is certainly entitled to a high place. In addition to its vast importance in regard to social life and the art of government, Geography unfolds to us the celestial phenomena, acquaints us with the occu- pants of the land and ocean, and the vegetation, fruits, and peculiarities of the various quarters of the earth.”’ This was written when Geography included all natural science, and before it gave birth to so many separate subjects; but it sets forth so admirably the aims which the geographer still pursues that it is worthy of remem- brance. It is not advocated, nor is it in any way necessary, that all should study Geography in the extended sense thus indicated; but it cannot be too strongly pointed out that an educated man—and education is now essential to the successful conduct of affairs—must have a considerable knowledge of the elementary facts of Geography. These elementary facts are, it is true, of the nature of a lesson, and must be learnt, so to speak, by heart by the aid of maps and books; but this is nothing more than making use of the labours of others without which no advance is possible in any subject, and is common to all studies. We must, in fact, distinguish between the science of Geography, which consists in ascertaining and coordinating new facts, and putting them into a shape for the use of NO. 1870, VOL. 72] others, which is the work of comparatively few; and the practical Geography which consists of making use of that work, and, as in many other branches of science, is within the reach of all who choose to devote time to it. It is the object and business of the British Association to try to interest their fellow-countrymen in all branches of knowledge, to gain if possible more workers in science, but at any rate to induce all educated persons to take advantage of the solid work done by others towards the elucidation of the details of the glorious Nature which surrounds us on all sides, and in so many forms, and without which ignorance and superstition, those primary bars to the advancement of mankind, can never be banished. It is impossible to have a clear comprehension of history, whether past or current, without calling in the aid of Geography; but unfortunately much history has been written and taught without such aid. To read the daily paper requires either geographical knowledge or constant reference to maps; and if readers would only make a practice of such reference on every occasion when they are at fault, they would soon find themselves acquiring knowledge of the greatest use to them in the easiest and most interesting manner, and with the smallest expenditure of time. The mistakes made even by those responsible for the conduct of public affairs, by reason of the want of this essential but elementary knowledge, are innumerable, and to this day there are many who consider themselves highly educated and capable men who cannot even rightly under- stand a map. As I have before indicated, good maps are the founda- tion of all sound geographical knowledge, and these maps must be founded on good surveys. Now a good survey is a comparatively modern opera- tion, and the parts of the world that have been subjected to it are small indeed. It is true that we now have general maps of the larger parts of the world, which more or less convey a fair re- presentation of the configuration of land and sea when large areas are considered, but details are sadly lacking almost everywhere. It is not astonishing, for to make the necessary surveys requires an enormous expenditure of both time and money, and the latter is hard to get until the necessity for its expenditure is patent to the smallest intelligence. Thus many countries long settled and in a high state of civilisa- tion are still without any organised system of survey or maps, and even in the United Kingdom it is only from the year 1784 that a proper survey was established of the British Isles, though no maps were published from it until 1801; and it has proceeded so slowly that it has only _recently been in one sense completed, while its revision, badly wanted on account of changes, is still in active prosecution, and must be continued ad infinitum. Such indifference is, however, giving way to experience of the results of absence of proper maps, and all who wish well to the progress of South Africa must be pleased at finding that their provision has been taken in hand on such an admirably scientific basis as is provided by the Trigono- metrical Survey, now far advanced, and the successful progress of which is, I believe, greatly due to the in- exhaustible energy of my friend Sir David Gill, who seems to find time to promote and aid all branches of know- ledge, and that steps are now being taken to prosecute the detailed topographical survey and provide good maps. To many people one ‘map is as good as another. They do not pause to consider on what it is based, or what degree of accuracy it probably possesses, but so long as there is a map they are satisfied. A vast number of existing maps are compiled from the roughest materials: in partly occupied countries, from drawings of small areas placed together as can best be done, by means of places here and there the relative positions of which are fairly known by distances along roads, with perhaps in some cases angles and astronomical positions ; in less civilised parts by routes of travellers laid down by estimation of the distance traversed and direction of march, checked perhaps by a few astronomical observations of more or less value as the traveller possesses or does not possess the necessary skill. AUGUST 31, 1905] NATURE 447 The compilers of such a map have a difficult task. Dis- crepancies are, of course, multitudinous. Nothing agrees, and one has to accept, reject, and adjust as best he can on his own responsibility and with what knowledge he can procure of the respective trustworthiness of each author. Happy is he if he has even a few positions in his map which have been properly determined, as between them he is saved from the constantly increasing errors of adding one little area to another, which if carried on indefinitely culminates in great errors. Of course such maps are of no practical use, save as giving a very general idea of a country, and when required by the administrator or traveller lead to endless mistakes and annoyances. The feature of our globe which is now, broadly speak- ing, most accurately laid down is the coast-line. The safety of navigation has caused general marine surveys to be carried on all over the world during the nineteenth century, which have finally determined the position and shape of the boundaries of the sea. These surveys, executed for the most part by skilled naval officers with proper instrumental outfit, and supplied especially with trustworthy chronometers, and based upon frequent carefully determined astronomical positions, have resulted in this boundary line being delineated with an accuracy, so far as its absolute position is concerned, far in advance of any other main feature in maps. Here I may perhaps explain to those unversed in these matters why this is so. The position of any spot on the earth’s surface can be ascertained in two ways: either by careful measurement by means of an accurate system of triangles from another spot already fixed, or by independent observations of the heavenly bodies and calculations from them, which give the precise latitude and longitude of the place. The former is suitable for positions inland, but entails much time and labour, and is only adopted when a perfect map is to be made, for which it is the indispensable foundation. The latter can be carried on from a ship, and in most circumstances only from a ship, because of the limitations of the methods of determinating longitudes. Longitude can now be satisfactorily and rapidly ascer- tained in two ways: by the electric telegraph or by use of | chronometers. The places served by the electric telegraph are still few, and its use is therefore restricted; but the chronometer has been in working use for more than a hundred years. This instrument, which is merely a watch of especial construction, will only keep a steady rate when it is un- disturbed by irregular shocks or motions No means have yet been found for transporting a chrono- meter on land without upsetting its regularity, and there- fore rendering it useless; but on board a ship it can be so suspended and stowed as to prevent its being disturbed by any ordinary movements of or in the ship. The ac- curate time of any place departed from, ascertained by astronomical observations, can therefore be carried about on board ship for considerable periods, and by comparison with the local time, also determined by sextant observa- tions of the heavenly bodies, at any required spot on the coast, the difference of longitude is at once obtained with very small limits of error when a number of chronometers are employed. These two simple yet marvellous instru- ments, the sextant and the chronometer, have thus placed in the hands of sailors ready means of fixing with great exactitude and celerity the position of selected points on coasts all over the world; and it will be seen that, while the detail of the line of coast between such fixed positions will depend upon the degree of accuracy of the survey or sketch, the general line cannot get far out, as it is con- stantly checked at the selected points. It is not claiming too much to say that at the present time very few salient points on the coast-lines of the world are as much as two miles in doubt. It should be a source of great satisfaction to the Briton to know that both these instruments were devised by Englishmen, John Hadley producing the sextant in 1730, in the form still used, on the basis of ideas formulated by Newton fifty years before; and John Harrison the chronometer in 1736. The latter instrument has undergone modifications in detail, but the principle remains the same. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] | surveys are approaching their close. It It required seventy years before its value was fully recog- nised and it came into general use. It is a still further satisfaction to think that it is British naval officers who have made by far the greatest use of them in mapping the coasts of the whole world. Since the time of the great Captain Cook British surveying vessels have been constantly employed in this work, not only in British colonies, but in all parts, aiding and often paving the way for British commerce, and for the men-of- war that protect it. It is difficult to find coasts of any extent that have not been laid down by British marine surveyors. The whole of Africa has been their work. By far the greater part of America, all the south and east coasts of Asia, Australia, and most of the innumerable islands in all oceans have been fixed and laid down by them. Even in the Medi- terranean, until very lately, the charts were mostly founded on British surveys, and the improvements now being carried out by other nations on their own coasts in details required for modern navigation do not materially modify the main shapes and positions formerly determined by the British. It has been, and is, a great work, and I hope I may be pardoned for dwelling on it with pride as the result of the wise administration of the Admiralty for many years, and of the immediate labours of my predecessors as Hydro- grapher, and as a very great contribution to geographical knowledge, more especially as I do not think that it is generally realised that this great advance in geographic accuracy is due to marine surveyors. To give an idea of the comparative accuracy of the chronometer method, I may mention that on taking at hazard eleven places distributed all over the world at great distances from England, the longitudes of which have been recently determined by means of the electric telegraph and elaborate series of observations, I find that the average difference between the chronometer and the telegraph posi- tions is 700 yards. The shapes of the different continents and the positions of islands as at present on our maps and charts will never be altered except in insignificant degree, and the framework is ready for many years’ work of land mapping. It is not to be inferred from what I say that marine is far otherwise. The time given to these enormous extents of coasts and seas, and the necessarily small scales on which the surveys have been carried on, have caused them to be very im- perfect in all details. Hundreds of rocks and shoals, both stretching from the land and isolated in the sea, have been missed in the course of them, and loss of ships and life on these unknown dangers still continues. With the increase of shipping, increased number of ships of heavy draught, the closeness of navigation due to steam, and the desire to make quick passages, smaller inaccuracies of the charts become yearly of greater importance. As an illustration of the condition of affairs I may mention that in Hamoaze, the inner harbour of Plymouth, one of the headquarters of the British fleet for more than 300 years, a small but dangerous pinnacle of rock was only discovered five years ago; whilst numerous other dangers of a similar character have been yearly revealed in close surveys of other harbours in the United Kingdom, supposed to be well examined and charted in the last century. There never was a greater need for close marine surveys of places frequented by ships than now. It is interesting to look back and see the gradual progress of the delineation of the world and to mark how very recent any approach to accuracy is. The very earliest maps of any extent of country are un- fortunately lost to us. The first man who made a map of which any historical record exists is Anaximander of Miletus, about 600 B.c., but we know nothing of it. A map is mentioned by Herodotus as having been taken in 500 B.c. by Aristagoras of Miletus in the shape of an engraved bronze plate whereon the whole circuit of the earth was engraved, with all its seas and rivers, to influence Cleo- menes, King of Sparta, to aid the lonians against Persia. This was probably the work of Hecatzus, to whom early Geography owed much. His works are also only known to us by quotation; but they are especially interesting as containing an early idea of the limits of Africa, which he 448 NATURE [AUGUST 31, 1905 represents as entirely surrounded by the sea—a circumstance apparently either forgotten or disbelieved in later years. Erotosthenes, 250 B.c., and Hipparchus, 150 B.c., made great advances, and the former made the first attempt to measure the size of the earth by the difference of latitudes between Assouan and Alexandria in Egypt, an attempt which, considering the great imperfection of his means, was remarkably successful, as, assuming that we are right in the length of the stadium he used, he made the circum- ference of the globe 25,000 geographical miles, whereas it should be 21,600. He also devised the system of meridians and parallels as we now have them; but the terms “‘ latitude ’’ and ‘ longi- tude,’’ to denote positions on those circles, were introduced by Ptolemy. The maps of Ptolemy, the great Alexandrian astronomer and geographer of a.p. 150, are the earliest we possess. He drew, besides a general map of the whole known world from the southern part of the Baltic to the Gulf of Guinea, north and south, and from the Canary Islands to the China Sea, east and west, a series of twenty-six maps of the different parts. Ptolemy’s maps and his method of representing the spherical globe on a flat surface had a great influence on Geography for many years. After his time the Greek civilisation waned, and the general decline of the Roman Empire, followed by its disruption by the invasion of barbarians, closed the course of discovery in all branches of research for centuries. It is not too much to say that for 1300 years no advance was made, and until the com- mencement of exploration by sea, which accompanied the general revival of learning in the fifteenth century, Ptolemy’s maps represented the knowledge of the world. As might be expected, the further he got from the Medi- terranean, the greater were his errors; and his representa- tions of Eastern Asia and North-Western Europe are some- what grotesque, though quite recognisable in the main. Of Africa south of the Equator he knows nothing, and his map of it terminates with the border. This is somewhat remarkable, as I am one of those who firmly believe in the circumnavigation of Africa by the Pheenicians sent by Necho, King of Egypt, in 600 B.c. from the head of the Red Sea. As described by Herodotus, the voyage has all the impress of veracity. My personal faith in Herodotus was much strengthened by finding when I surveyed the Dardanelles in 1872 that his dimensions of that strait were nearer the truth than those of other and later authorities, even down to the time at which I was at work, as well as by other geographical tests I was able to apply. When, therefore, he records that the Phoenicians declared that in their voyage they had the sun on their right hand, and says he does not believe it, he registers an item of information which goes far to prove the story correct. Influenced by Hecatzus, who though surrounding Africa by the sea cut it far short of the Equator, Herodotus could not conceive that the travellers had passed to the south of the sun when it was in the southern tropic. No historical incident has been more discussed than this voyage, commentators varying much in their opinions of its truth. But we have to-day some new facts. No one who has followed the exploration of the ancient buildings in Rhodesia, and considered the information we possess on the early inhabitants of Southern Arabia, whether we call them Sabzans or Himyarites, can doubt that the former were mainly the work of men coming from Arabia at a very early date, while the period of time necessary to carry out gold-mining operations over the large areas now found to have been exploited must have been very great. It seems strange that no record of the constant voyages to this El Dorado should remain, but the very natural desire to keep lucrative information to themselves is not an un- known thing amongst traders of the present day, while the conditions of society and the absence of written records of South Arabia would make concealment easy. The Pheenicians, an allied race, and the great seafaring trading nation of the Mediterranean, succeeded in keeping the majority of their marts secret, and we have incidents recorded showing their determination not to allow others to follow their steps, while to this day we are very doubtful of the limits of their voyages. NC. 1870, VOL. 72] It may be considered certain that while we naturally quote Greek historians and geographers as the early au- thorities for the growth of geographical knowledge, and that the scientific basis for proper maps of large areas was really provided by them, the seafaring nations, Arabians, Phoenicians, and Chinese, knew a very great deal practically of the coasts of various parts of the Old World that were absolutely unknown to the Greeks. The favourable conditions afforded by those remarkable periodic winds, the monsoons, would in the China Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea naturally facilitate any attempts at extensive sea voyages, and would lead to such attempts under conditions that in the regions of variable winds would be considered too dangerous and uncertain. The fact that the monsoons in nearly every case blow prac- tically parallel to the coasts in opposite directions is a most important factor in considering early navigation. The direction of the wind itself in such cases roughly guides a vessel without a compass, and the periods of cyclones and unsettled weather between the monsoons would soon be noted and avoided, as they are to this day by the Arabs and Chinese, whose vessels, I have very little doubt, have remained practically the same for thousands of years. The unknown Greek author of that unique and most interesting document, the ‘‘ Periplus of the Erythraan Sea,’’ probably of the first century A.p., describes vessels built without nails, the planks of which were bound together by cords, in precisely the same way as many Arab dhows now navigating the Indian Ocean. His personal knowledge of Africa evidently ceased at Cape Guardafui, though he gives information gained from others on the East Coast as far as Zanzibar, which—or, rather, a part on the mainland near —he describes as the limit of trade to the south. We know that Arabs had penetrated further, but no doubt they kept their knowledge to themselves. These early navigators very probably had charts. When Vasco da Gama first passed along the eastern coast of Africa he found that the Arab dhows had charts. Un- fortunately none of them has come down to us, or it would have been interesting to compare them with those of the West Coast used by the Portuguese at the time, and which were of the crudest description. I claim for sailors of all ages that they would be the first to make practical maps of the shape of the coasts. Their safety and convenience demanded it, while it is a far easier task to compile such a picture of the earth from successive voyages along coasts over the sea, where average distances from known rates of sailing and courses from the sun and stars can be more accurately ascertained, than from long and generally tortuous land journeys in directions governed by natural features, towns, and so forth. A navigator must be a bit of an astronomer. A landsman to this day seldom knows one star from another. It was the sea-charts, or portolani, of the Middle Ages that on the revival of learning first gave respectable re- presentations of the shape of the coasts, at a time when the learned monks and others were drawing the most fantastic and absurd pictures which they called maps. At the same time it must be remembered that in all ages and down to the present day pilots, who within a hundred years were usually carried by all ships, even for sea voyages, jealously keep their knowledge largely in their heads, and look upon good charts as contrivances to destroy their profession, and that such charts or notes as they had they would keep religiously to their fraternity. The Egyptians were no sailors, but we know that they habitually employed Phoenicians for sea expeditions, while we have the historical record of the Old Testament for their employment by David and Solomon for a like purpose in the Red Sea, and probably far to the south. It is, therefore, almost impossible to doubt that the Phoenicians were also acquainted with the navigation of the Red Sea and east coast of Africa. Such a voyage as that recorded by Herodotus would in these circumstances be far from improbable. The varying monsoons which had led the Arabians cen- turies before to get so intimate a knowledge of the east coast as to enable them to find and work the goldfields would be well known to the Phcenicians, and the hardy seamen who braved the tempestuous regions lying between AUGUST 31, 1905 | NATURE 449 Cadiz and Great Britain would make little of the difficulties of the African seas. The limit of easy navigation from and to the Red Sea is Sofala. I do not think that it is too great a use of im- agination to suppose that it would be from information received in what is now North Rhodesia that it was learnt that to the westward lay the sea again, and that this led to the attempt to reach it by the south. Once started from the neighbourhood of Sofala, they would find themselves in. that great oceanic stream, the Agulhas Current, which would carry them rapidly to the southern extremity of Africa. I, as a sailor, can also even conceive that finding them- selves in that strong current they would be alarmed and attempt to turn back, and that after struggling in vain against it they would have accepted the inevitable and gone with it, and that without the Agulhas Current no such complete voyage of circumnavigation would have been made. As Major Rennell in the last century pointed out, once past the Cape of Good Hope, the periodic winds, and over a great part of their journey the currents, would help them up the West African coast; and the general con- ditions of navigation are favourable the whole way to the Straits of Gibraltar, the ships keeping, as they would do, near the land; but we can well understand that, as recorded, the voyage occupied nearly three years, and that they halted from time to time to sow and reap crops. I should say that it is highly probable that either Simon’s Bay or Table Bay was selected as one of these stopping- places. No reference to this voyage has been found amongst the hieroglyphic records, and, indeed, so far few such records of Necho, whose reign was not for long, are known; but that it was regarded at the time as historical is evident, for Xerxes, a hundred years later, sent an expedition to repeat it in the contrary direction. This, however, failed, and the unfortunate Sataspes, was impaled on his unsuccessful return. This attempt shows that the greater difficulty of the circumnavigation from west to east, as compared with that from east to west, was not realised, and points to the concealment of any details of the successful voyage. Of Hanno’s voyage from the Straits of Gibraltar to about Sierra Leone, the date of which is uncertain, but from 500 to 600 B.c., we should know little had not good fortune preserved the record deposited in a Carthaginian temple. But the well-known secrecy of the Phoenicians in all matters connected with their foreign trade and voyages would explain why so little was known of Necho’s voyage, and our present knowledge of the extensive ancient gold workings of Rhodesia shows how much went on in those times of which we are wholly ignorant. I have dwelt perhaps too long on this subject, but it has to me a great interest; and as it has not, so far as I know, been dealt with by a seaman who is personally well acquainted with the ways of seamen in sailing ships and with the navigation of the coasts in question, I hope I may be excused for putting my views on record. There are several references in Greek and Latin historians to other circumnavigations, but none of them can be trusted, and apart from Necho’s voyage we hear nothing of the east and south coasts of Africa until the arrival of the Portuguese at the end of the fifteenth century. But they found a thriving civilisation along the coast from Sofala northward, Shirazi, Arab, and Indian. Ruins exist in many places which have not yet been properly investigated, and we are quite unable to say from what date we are to place the earliest foreign settlements, nor how many breaks existed in the continuity of the gold- mining, which apparently was proceeding at or very shortly before the Portuguese visit. After the recommencement of exploration by sea in the fifteenth century, seamen slowly gathered enough informa- tion to draw the lines of the coasts they passed along, and in time—that is, by the middle of the eighteenth century— most lands were shown with approximately their right shapes. But of true accuracy there was none, for the reason I have before mentioned, that there was no exact method of obtaining longitude. No. 1870, VOL. 72] leader, If we look at a general world chart of a.p. 1755—and to get the best of that period we must consult a French chart—we shall find on this small scale that the shape of the continents is fairly representative of the truth. But when we examine details we soon see how crude it all is. I have compared with their true positions the positions of thirty-one of what may be taken as the fundamental points in the world as given in the larger scaled French charts of 1755, from which the general one is drawn, and I find that on an average they are forty-eight miles in error. The errors vary from 160 miles to two miles. If the delineation of the coast-lines between be considered the inaccuracies are very much greater. Very shortly after this date more accurate determinations began to be made. The method of lunar distances was perfected and facilitated by tables published in the various astronomical ‘‘ ephemerides,’’ and seamen and explorers commenced to make use of it. Still the observation re- quired constant practice, and the calculation, unless con- stantly made, was laborious, and it was used with com- plete success by the few. The great Captain Cook, who may be looked upon as the father of modern methods of surveying, did much to show the value of this method ; but the chronometer came into use shortly after, and the principal advance in exact mapping was made by its aid, as I have already stated. There is a vast amount yet to be done for Geography. Until we possess publications to which we can turn for full information on all geographical aspects of things on this globe of ours, there is work to be done. Seeing that our present, publications are only now beginning to be worthy of being considered trustworthy for the very small amount of knowledge that we already possess, geographical work in all its branches is practically never-ending. But of exploration pure and simple very little remains to be done. The charm of travelling through and describing an entirely new country which may be practically service- able to civilised man has been taken from us by our pre- decessors, though limited regions still remain in Central Asia and South America of which we know little in detail. I must except the Polar regions, which are in a some- what special category, as their opening-up affords few at- tractions to many people. But a knowledge of the past history of our globe—fit study for human thought—can only be gained by study of the portions still under glacial con- ditions. What is there round the South Pole—a continent or a group of large islands? What is going on there? What thickness does ice attain? Have these regions always been glaciated; and if not, why not? Can we get any nearer the mystery of magnetism and its constant changes by study at or near the magnetic poles? All these and many other scientific questions can only be solved by general geo- graphical research in these regions, and all interested in such questions have been delighted at the recent attempts to gain more knowledge. The object of these expeditions was frankly and purely scientific. All hope of remunerative whale or seal fisheries had been dispelled by the visit of the Norwegian whalers in 1892 to the region south of Cape Horn, and the known general condition of the land forbade any expectation of other profitable industries, unless indeed gold and other valuable minerals should be found, which is always possible. Beyond the fact that exploring expeditions of this character keep alive the spirit of enterprise and bring out the finest characteristics of a race—which is a point by no means to be despised—no immediate practical benefit was to be expected. Progress under the conditions must be slow, but I think that Great Britain may well be satisfied with the inform- ation collected in the Antarctic by Captain R. F. Scott and his gallant companions. The unfortunate detention of the Discovery by an unfavourable summer prevented the further coastal exploration which was part of the pro- gramme, but gave opportunity for further detailed ex- amination of the inland conditions, which was carried out in defiance of the severest atmospheric and topographical difficulties, and with the greatest zeal and intelligence ; and it may be doubted whether Science in the end has not 450 NATURE | AUGUST 31, 1905 gained more than she lost by the unexpected diversion of energy. The healthy conditions which prevailed through- out are a standing proof both of Captain Scott’s eminent capacity as a leader and of the cheery spirit which animated the whole expedition. The full results of the scientific observations are not yet worked out, and in many cases for a complete appreciation of their bearing they must be compared and correlated with those of the other Antarctic expeditions, but many highly suggestive points have already been revealed. For the first time Antarctic continental land has been travelled over for long distances, and though the actual area of new discovery looks small on a map of the world, the distances covered can only be described as extraor- dinary, and far exceeding the most sanguine anticipations. Few who considered the mountainous coast-line of Victoria Land and its complete glaciation, as reported by Sir James Ross from his distant view, thought that it would prove practicable not only to ascend those mountains, but to reach to heights much surpassing them behind. The reason that it proved feasible is that, while there are occasional heavy snowstorms, the annual snowfall is small, and the surface, therefore, is generally unencumbered with soft deep snow. And what did Captain Scott find after his memorable struggle up the glacier through the mountains? An enormous plateau at an elevation of about 9000 feet, nearly level, smooth, and featureless, over which he travelled directly inland for more than 200 miles, seeing no sign at his furthest point of any termination or alteration in character. So far as could be seen from other journeys, glacial discharge from this great ice-sheet is very small, and practically it appears to be dead. Its accretion by ‘fresh snowfall is insignificant, while on all sides along the flanks of the coastal mountains there are signs of diminution in the mass of ice. The great ice-barrier east of Ross Island tells the same tale. This magnificent feature presents to the sea a face of perpendicular ice-cliffs varying from 60 to 240 feet in height and 450 sea-miles long. Sir J. Ross mapped its position in 1841, and Captain Scott finds that it has re- treated on an average fifteen miles, varying much in different parts. Should this rate of retreat continue the whole of this ice mass, so far as Captain Scott saw it, will have vanished in 1000 years. As the motion of the ice mass is also about fifteen miles to the north in the same time, icebergs covering collectively an area of 450 miles by 30 have been discharged from it in sixty years. Captain Scott travelled over it nearly due south to a point 300 miles from its face, and then saw no sign of its end. It is bordered on its western side by a mountainous coast- line, rising in places to 15,000 feet He found the ice practically flat and wholly unfissured, except at the side, where its northerly motion, found to be about 130 feet in the month, caused shearing and vast crevasses. All that is known of its eastern edge is that it is bordered, where it meets the sea, by land from 2000 to 3000 feet high, suspected by Ross and verified by Captain Scott. This may be an island, or more probably the eastern side of the great fiord or bay now filled by the barrier. Captain Scott is of opinion that this great ice-sheet is afloat throughout, and I entirely agree with this conclusion. It is unexpected, but everything points to it. From soundings obtained along the face it undoubtedly has about 600 feet of water under it. It is difficult to believe that this enormous weight of ice, 450 miles by at least 360, and perhaps very much more, with no fall to help it along by gravity, can have behind it a sufficient force in true land glacier to overcome the stupendous friction and put it in motion if it be resting on the bottom. It is sufficiently astonishing that there is force enough even to overcome the cohesion at the side, which must be very great. The flat nature of the bottom of the Ross Sea and the analogies of many geographical details in other parts of the world make it most probable that the water under the whole barrier is deep. A point on which I have seen no comment is the differ- NO. 1870, VOL. 72] ence in the appearance of the slopes of Mount Terror. Captain Scott found the bare land showing over large areas, but during the two summers of Ross’s visit it was wholly snow-clad. Sir Joseph Hooker, the sole survivor of Ross’s expedition, when questioned had no doubt on the subject, and produced many sketches in support. This may be due to temporary causes, but all the in- formation collected by the expedition points without doubt to steadily diminishing glaciation in recent times. We have, therefore, this interesting fact, that both in Arctic and Antarctic regions, as indeed all over the world, ice con- ditions are simultaneously ameliorating, and theories of alternate northern and southern maximum glaciations seem so far disproved. But this does not mean that climatic conditions in the Antarctic are now less severe—probably the contrary. It has been pointed out by many that land glaciation may arise from varied primary causes, but one obvious necessity is that the snowfall should exceed melting and evaporation. It need not be heavy; but if it is, it may produce glaciation under somewhat unexpected conditions. This would entail a vapour-laden air more or less continuously impinging upon the land at a temperature which will enable it when cooled, either by passing over chilled land or when raised to higher regions by the interposition of mountains, to give up its moisture freely. This condition is not fulfilled when the air as it arrives from the sea is already at a very low temperature. It was my fortune to spend two long seasons in the Straits of Magellan, and I was daily more impressed by what I saw. There you have a mountainous ridge of no great height —very few peaks rising more than 4000 feet—opposed to the almost continuous westerly winds pouring in from the Pacific at a very moderate temperature and charged with much moisture. The result is that in the latitude of Yorkshire every mountain mass over 3000 feet high is covered with eternal snow, and sends glaciers down to the sea. I was convinced by what was going on under my eyes that it only required an upheaval of the land of 2000 feet or so to cover the whole of Patagonia with ice. But then the climate would still not be very severe. The temperature of the wind from the sea would be the same, and such part of it as blew along the channels and on the lower land would moderate the cold caused by the ice-covered slopes. The shores of the whole of Western Southern Patagonia, deeply indented with long and deep fiords, indicate, ac- cording to all received views of the origin of such form- ations, that the land was formerly higher, while signs of glaciation are everywhere present. The results of geographical research show us that in many parts of the world climate must have greatly changed in comparatively recent times. In the now arid regions of Northern Africa, Central North America, and in parts of Asia there is ample evidence that the climate was in times past more humid. In a remarkable paper on the causes of changes of climate, con- tributed by Mr. F. W. Harmer to the Geological Society in 1g01, and which has not obtained the notice it deserves, it is pointed out how changes in the distribution of the prevalent winds would vastly alter climatic conditions. Like everything else in Nature, and especially in the depart- ment of meteorology, these questions are exceedingly com- plex, and similar results may be brought about in different ways, but there can be no doubt that the climate of South Africa would be greatly modified, and more rainfall would occur, if only the cyclonic storms which now chase each other to the eastward in the ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope could be prevailed upon to pursue a slightly more northerly line, and many obstacles to the agricultural prospects of South Africa now existing would be removed. This is, however, beyond the powers of man to effect; but, as I have just said, there are other ways of attaining the object, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the attention now being paid to afforestation may result in vigorous efforts to bring about by this means the: improvement in humidity so much required in many parts of the country. AUGUST 31, 1905] NATURE 451 The other recent event in geographical exploration is the result of the expedition to Lhasa. It was an unexpected solution of this long-desired knowledge that it should come from political necessities and by means of a Government mission. The many ardent travellers who have dreamed of one day making their way in by stealth have thus been disappointed, but our knowledge is now fuller than could otherwise have been gathered. The most important fact is the revelation of the fertility of a large part of Southern Tibet. Much has been added to topographical knowledge, but the route maps of the secret Indian native surveyors already had given us a rough knowledge of the country on the road to Lhasa. It was not, however, realised how great was the difference between the aridity of the vast regions of the north, known to us from the travels of men of various nationalities, and the better-watered area in the south, though from the great height of the plateau—some 12,000 feet—the climate is very severe. The upper course of the Brahmaputra has been traced by Captain Ryder, but, unfortunately, a political veto was placed on the project to solve the interesting problem of how this great river finds its way to the Indian plains, and this still remains for the future to unravel. Of the ocean, which has been my own particular study for many years, and on which alone I feel any special qualification to speak, I have said but little, for the reason that when presiding over this Section on a former occasion I took it for my theme, but there are a few points re- garding it which I should like to bring to your notice. It is of the ocean, more than of any other physical feature of our globe, that our knowledge has increased of late years. Forty years ago we were profoundly ignorant even of its depth, with the exception of a few lines of soundings then recently taken for the first submarine tele- graph cables, and consequently we knew nothing of its real vast bulk. As to the life in it, and the laws which govern the distribution of such life, we were similarly ignorant, as of many other details. The Challenger expedition changed all this, and gave an impetus to oceanographic research which has in the hands of all nations borne much fruit. Soundings have been obtained over all parts of the seas, even in the two polar seas; and though much remains to be done, we can now form a very close approximation to the amount of water on our earth, whilst the term ‘‘ un- fathomable ocean ’’ has been shown to have been based on an entire misconception. Biological research has also re- vealed a whole world of living forms at all depths of the existence of which nothing was known before. In my former Address, eleven years ago, I gave many details about the sea, of which I will only repeat one— which is a fact that everyone should know—and that is, that the bulk of the ocean is about fourteen times as great as that of the dry land above water, and that if the whole of that land were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean it would only fill one-third of it. Eleven years ago the greatest depth known was 4700 fathoms, or 28,000 feet. We have since found several places in the Pacific where the depth is nearly 5170 fathoms, or 31,000 feet, or somewhat higher than Mount Everest, which has been lately definitely shown to be the culminating point of the Himalayas. These very deep parts of the ocean are invariably near land, and are apparently in the shape of troughs, and are probably due to the original crumpling of the earth’s surface under slow contraction. The enormous area of the sea has a great effect upon climate, but not so much in the direct way formerly believed. While a mass of warm or cold water off a coast must to some extent modify temperature, a greater direct cause is the winds, which, however, are in many parts the effect of the distribution of warm and cold water in the ocean perhaps thousands of miles away. Take the United Kingdom, notoriously warm and damp for its position in latitude. This is due mainly to the prevalence of westerly winds. These winds, again, are part of cyclonic systems principally engendered off the coasts of Eastern North America and Newfoundland, where hot and cold _ sea- currents, impinging on one another, give rise to great variations, of ,temperature and movements of the atmo- sphere which start cyclonic systems travelling eastwards. NO. 1870, VOL. 72] The centre of the majority of these systems passes north of Great Britain. Hence the warm and damp parts of them strike the country with westerly winds, which have also pushed the warm water left by the dying-out current of the Gulf Stream off Newfoundland across the Atlantic, and raises the temperature of the sea off Britain. When the cyclonic systems pass south of England, as they occasionally do, cold north-east and north winds are the result, chilling the country despite the warm water surrounding the islands. It only requires a rearrangement of the direction of the main Atlantic currents wholly to change the climate of Western Europe. Such an arrangement would be effected by the submergence of the Isthmus of Panama and adjacent country, allowing the Equatorial Current to pass into the Pacific. The gale factory of the Western Atlantic would then be greatly reduced. The area south of the Cape of Good Hope is another birthplace of great cyclonic systems, the warm Agulhas Current meeting colder water moving up from the Polar regions; but in the Southern Ocean the conditions of the distribution of land are different, and these systems sweep round and round the world, only catching and affecting the south part of Tasmania, New Zealand, and Patagonia. In 1894 I spoke of the movements of the lower strata of water in the sea as a subject on which we were only beginning to get a little light. Since that year we have learnt a little more. It is a common idea that at the bottom of the sea all is still; but this is a mistake, even for the deepest parts, for the tidal influence reaches to the bottom and keeps every particle in motion, though such motion is quiet and slow. Near the shore, however, though still in deep water, the movement may be considerably increased. Cases have occurred in late years where submarine cables have broken several hundred fathoms deep, and when picked up for repair it has been found that the iron wire covering has been literally rubbed away as by a file. This can only be the result of an undercurrent along the bottom moving the cable to and fro. Such a current might be caused by a submarine spring, for there is no doubt that much fresh water finds its way into the ocean in this fashion, but it is more probably generally an effect of acceleration of the tidal movement due to the rising slope of the continent. In connection with this, further facts have come to light in the course of recent marine surveys. Many isolated shoal spots in the great oceans have figured in our charts, the results of reports by passing sailors who have said they have seen breakers in fine weather. Such places are the terror of seamen, and it is part of the duty of surveying ships to verify or disprove them. Very much has been done in the last eighteen years, with the result that the majority of them have, as dangers, dis- appeared. In many cases, however, a bank has been found, deep in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but must less deep than the surrounding sea—solitary ridges, in fact, rising from the ocean floor. Frequently, in examining these banks in search of shoaler spots, breakers have been re- ported and recognised as such on board the surveying ship from a distance, but on approach they have proved to be small overcurls caused by tide ripplings, and the depth of water has proved to be several hundred fathoms. These ripplings are clearly caused by the small tidal motion in the deep water, generally in these cases of more than 2000 fathoms, meeting the slope of the submerged mountain range, being concentrated and ac- celerated until the water finally flows up the top of the slope as a definite current, and taking the line of least resistance, that to the surface, makes itself visible in the shape which we are accustomed to associate with com- paratively shallow water. These cases form remarkable instances of the manner in which extensive motion of water may arise from very small beginnings. An observation I was anxious to make in 1894 has been successfully carried out since. This was to ascertain whether there was any permanent undercurrent in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb due to more water being forced through the strait on the surface by the persistent S.E. wind of winter than could be evaporated in the closed Red Sea. 452 NATURE [AUGUST 31, 1905 Such return undercurrents have in somewhat similar circumstances been shown to exist in the Dardanelles, Strait of Gibraltar, and in the Suez Canal. The observation at Bab-el-Mandeb was difficult. The wind is strong and the disturbance of the sea is considerable, while the water is 120 fathoms or 7oo feet deep. But a surveying vessel maintained herself at anchor there during four days, and, by the aid of an ingenious apparatus sent from England for Ae purpose, clearly proved the existence of a current of 13 knot flowing steadily at depths below 70 fathoms out of the Red Sea, whilst in the upper strata there was a similar current flowing in. In such ways is interchange of water provided for. by Nature in places where tidal action does not suffice. In what I fear is a very discursive Address I have not mentioned the interior of Africa. In the first place, it is a subject of itself; and as we shall have, I hope, many papers on African subjects I have thought it better to deal mainly with generalities. Still I cannot refrain from a few words to express the astonishment I always feel when I hear people complain that Africa goes slow. When I look at what has been effected in my own lifetime, it appears to me that, on the contrary, it has been rushed. The maps I learnt ‘from as a boy showed the whole interior as a blank. There are now no parts that are not more or less known. The great lakes have all been revealed; the great rivers have all been traced; Europeans are now firmly fixed with decent govern- ments in parts formerly a prey to tribal wars and the atrocities of the inland slave traffic. Railways are running over regions unknown forty years ago, and one of the most astonishing things to me is that I should be able to hope now to visit in comfort and luxury the great Victoria Falls which my old friend Sir John Kirk—whom I left the other day hale and hearty—was, with the exception of Living- stone, the first white man to see, after a long and laborious journey in his company in 1860. I could not help being amused as well as interested at seeing a short time ago a proclamation by the Government of Northern Rhodesia, dated not far from Lake Bangweolo, calling on all concerned to observe neutrality during the present war between Russia and Japan. I think that if anyone had prophesied to Livingstone, as he lay in 1873 lonely and dying by the shores of that newly discovered lake, that such an edict would be issued in thirty years he would have expressed a doubt as to its fulfilment.- To Southern Africa Nature has denied two of the features that facilitate rapid progress—good harbours and sufficient rainfall—but the energy of man has done wonders to pro- vide the former where possible, and will doubtless do more ; whilst I believe that the lack of the latter will also be overcome in the same way. The coordinated—or, in other words, the scientific—observations made in many other countries have pointed out a possible solution. On the other hand, the height of the inland plateaux makes it possible for the white man to live and work in latitudes which would under other conditions be tropical. South Africa must have a great future before it; and while some present circumstances may delay development of its natural advantages, I am inclined to think that in the long run prosperity may be more solid and material for being reached in the face of difficulties, as has so often occurred in the history of the world. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 21.—M. Bouquet de la Grye in the chair.—On the laws of sliding friction: Paul Painleve. A discussion of a problem suggested by M. de Sparre in a recent paper, and of the conditions necessary for a solution without ambiguity.——The cause of the presence of abnormal quantities of starch in bruised apples: G. Warcollier. It is shown that tannin from galls prevents all action of amylase on starch, and it is supposed that the accumulation of starch in bruised apples is due to a similar action. " CatcuTta. Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 2.—Additions to the collection of Oriental snakes in the Indian Museum, part iii.: N. Anmmandale. Four new species and a new NO. 1870, VOL. 72| genus are described, two of the former coming from ‘the Malay Archipelago, one from N.E. India, and one from Gilgit. Notes on other species from different parts of the Oriental region are given. This paper completes the series for the present, the collection now being worked out and arranged.—Sal-ammoniac : a study in primitive chemistry : He 5. Stapleton. An attempt to carry back the history of sal-ammoniac through Mohammedan times, and to throw light on the primitive conceptions of nature which led to its introduction as an alchemical drug. Although little used by the Greek school of Alexandria, it was in high repute as one of the alchemical “stones” of the Arabs, and through their agency the substance passed into European alchemy. Authorities are given for the belief that the salt owed its reputation partly to its magical qualities, which were due to its connection with human hair and other animal substances, and partly to its strictly chemical qualities. A suggestion is finally made that the salt was originally introduced into Western Asia through Persia from China.—Alchemical equipment in the eleventh century, a.p.: H. E. Stapleton and R. F. Azo. This paper is an annotated analysis of an Arabic treatise on alchemy lately discovered in the library of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur. The treatise was written in Baghdad in the year 426 a.H. (1034 A.D.), and though now in a somewhat mutilated state, it affords a welcome addi- tion to our knowledge of alchemical methods and equip- ment in the eleventh century. Special attention is directed to (1) the great importance attached to weights in chemical Operations 700 years before the time of Black and Lavoisier; and (2) the drawings and description of the Vthal (Aludel), which furnish, for the first time from Arabic sources, a clear conception of this instrument. CONTENTS. PAGE British) Mosses:) (ByjE aber cen eon 425 Experimental Morphology. By G. C. C. 426 Atlas of Emission Spectra. By F. E. B. 426 Our Book Shelf :— Busquet: ‘‘Précis d’Hydraulique—La Hoouille blanche” 427 Trouessart : ‘‘ Catalogus Mammalium, tam viventium quam fossilium.””—R. 427 Peterson: ‘‘How to know Wild Fruits: a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by means of Fruit and Beate?! ' aye 2 io eeg28) Letters to the Editor :— The Kangra Earthquake of eras 4, 1905.—T. H. Holland, F.R.S. . 428 The Transverse Momentum of an Electron.—Oliver Heaviside, F.R.S. 429 A Parasite of the House- fly. —Prof, Sidney J Hickson; ERS) 2: 429 The Transplantation of Shellfish. " (Ullustrated.) - . 430 The Standardisation of Screws . . Ted Vad tse The Sterilisation of Water in the Field. By Prof. R. T. Hewlett MCI Sema Mos | Sh Prof.JulesiOppent) B ; : mechanically linked together. i) wel arr TiOm: gm See Nature, July 20, 1905, page 277. Price, including box and packing, B4:6:6 THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, 228 Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C. Descriptive Circular upon application. CROSSLEY '’S GAS ENGINES RECENTLY GREAT REDUCTION REMODELLED. IN GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L Up to the.end of 1904, types, giving 3°5 H.P. and 5 H.P > GRESLEV ST | over 51,000 gas and Se, Lh of engines had been respectively. “A Lien 4 Rae Sy delivered, represent- /mmediate Delivery 27 ing’ about three- for Stock Sizes quarters of a million of Engines. oe me | actual horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS., LTD., OPENSHAW: MANCHESTER New WEICROSCOPIC SLIDES From the New Issue of W. WATSON & SONS’ No. 3 CATALOGUE, just published. Post Free on application. Lae pe SN oy ANS st Aaah IN eae Ly See yt s. a. Sure. Tsetse Flies (G. palpalis), whole insect . 05 PS Perfume Glands on Leaf of Lavender ... 535 ees a =n 6 Dissections of all Batts may be had mounted ‘separately. “Also in Bugula plumosa (Bird’s Head coralline). Soren fine mounts 2G set of 12 ‘ a5: cot St ltt) (2) Karyokinesis i in root of Water Lily... .. B/- & 4/- ‘Send for Special Descriptive L List. Leg of Flea, showing muscular structure... iG Blood-sucking Maggot (from the Congo) 7 6 | Set of 16 Slides illus strating the development of an Ascidian Fly hatched from abov e, Auchmeromyia luteola 7 6 (Aspersa). Incase .., : a cep arth 8) Section of Brazilian Quartz, showing cavities containing fluid. Trypanosoma Brucei (Tsetse Fly disedise) = 4 0 Very interesting es st ee 36 Set of 5 Slides of the Garden Spidey showing different stages o of .Eggs of Emperor Moth, fe rttile and sterile, on 1 slide 1 6 growth. In Case 76 SEND FOR THE ABOVE NEWLY PUBLISHED CATALOGUE OF MICRO. OBJECTS. WATSON’S CATALOGUE OF MICROSCOPES (158 pages) is of special interest to al! Microscopists, post free W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holborn, London, W.C. Branches—16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH, and 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. DALLMEYER’S TELE-PHOTO. LENSES & ATTACHMENTS Enable you to take Photographs of Distant or Inaccessible Subjects of sufficient size to be of practical value. 3 Indispensable for use in all departments of Natural History Field Work (especially Ornithology), and also to Architects. Price from £3 15s. Prices and an ticulars on application. Estimates ani advice Sr ee. J. H. DALLMEYER, Ltd. 25 Newman Street, London, W., MAKERS OF (These Attachments can be fitted to any good Lens.) THE CELEBRATED DALLMEYER LENSES. Stigmatie Lens fitted with Tele-Photo. Attachment. Printed by Ricuarp Cay anv Sons, Limi rep, : at 7 & 8 Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Siecy in the City of London, and published by MacmILLan anv Co., Limirep, at St. Martin’s Street, London, Ww. C., and THe Macmi-can Company, 66 F ifth Avenue, New York,—T'Hurspay, August 31, 1905. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds ee aye. *’__ WORDSWORTH. 1871, THURSDAY, TRasgisil as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] VOL. 72] Newton's New Demonstrator’s “Transpaque” Lantern Has all the advantages of our well- known ** Demonstrator’s’ Lanterns, and in addition will show brilliantly on the sereen, opaque objects or book illustrations, if not larger than a large posteard. NEWTON & CO., 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. Apparatus for the determination of the relative conductivity of thin layers of materials. LEES’ & CHORLTON’S METHOD. Catalogue of Part II., SOUND, LIGHT & HEAT, free on application. JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA ST., LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. SEPTEMBER ie BRANCHES : __ [Price “SIXPENCE [All Rights are Reserved.) 1905. REYNOLDS && BRANSON, ‘Eta Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty’ s Government (Indian, Home, and Colonial). LABORATORY FURNISHERS and MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL BENC H, illustrated, above, as supplied to National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, fitted for Gas, Water and Electricity. Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus, Illustrations, Sree on application and 1200 350 ff. DESIGNS OF BENCHES AND Firrincs TO SUIT ALL REQUIREMENTS. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER. —In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual, and at the point on the vertical column where in ordinary Mercurial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of the scale—viz. : 29, 30, and 31— are extended over a tube 36 inches long. The mercury now moving diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest variation, even “or” to which the scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid of a vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. 45 CORNHILL, anp 122 REGENT STREET LONDON. clxxvill NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) T. GreGcory Foster, Ph.D. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. WINTER SESSION (1905-1906) begins Monday, October 2, 1995. Courses for the Degrees of the University :— I, PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC COURSE. PROFESSORS— Str W. RAMSAY, K.C.B.. F.R.S. Principal ‘Chemistry Physics ... F. T. TROUTON, M.A., F.R.S. Botany .. Fa F. W. OLIVER, D.Sc. Zoology ... 9 E. A. MINCHIN, M.A. Fee for the Course. 25 Guineas. Il. INTERMEDIATE COURSE. PROFESSORS— Anatomy G. D. THANE. Physiology E. H. STARLING, M.D., F.R.S. A. R. CUSHNY, M.A., M.D. Organic Chemistry xn J. NORMAN COLLIE, Ph.D. Fee for the Course, 55 Guineas in one sum, or 60 Guineas in two instal- ments of 30 Guineas each. Pharmacology... III. FINAL M.B. COURSE. PROFESSORS— Medicine Bn J. R. BRADFORD, M.D., F.R.S. Clinical Medicine 2S CALORIES oh Surgery « A, E. BARKER, F.R.C.S. is E. BARKER, F.R.C.S. Clinical Surgery a0 An bs Bee oe COREE, M.B., M.S., ls : VICTOR HORSLEY, F.R.S. Midwifery 56 ced are .. H.R. SPENCER, M.D., F.R.C.P. Pathology “0 acc ca ono SIDNEY MARTIN, M.D., F.R.S. Hygiene y. { Ee oon: AYiglse, IDEIERI ab Medical Jurisprudence J. RISLEN RUSSELL, M.D. Fee, including Hospital Practice, 80 Guineas if paid in one sum, or 82 Guineas in two instalments of 50 and 32 Guineas. Composition Fees for the Curriculum required for L.R.C.P. and M.R.C.S.: For the First Examination, Parts I., II., III. : 20 Guineas. For the First Examination, Part IV., and for the Second Examination : 50 Guineas in one sum, or 60 Guineas in two instalments of 30 Guineas each. For the Third Examination: 80 Guineas in one sum, or 82 Guineas in two instalments of so and 32 Guineas. The full Prospectus, containing information as to Prizes, Entrance and other Scholarships, of a total value of £800 a year, may be obtained from the Secrerary, University College, Gower Street, W.C. J. RISIEN RUSSELL, M.D., F.R.C.P., Dean. W. W. SETON, M.A., Secretary. EAST LONDON COLLEGE (Late East Lonpon TECHNICAL COLLEGE), MILE END ROAD, E. New SESSION commences SEPTEMBER 18. SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SIDE. . (*J. L. S. Harton, M.A., and Mathematics a aH 7 NATURAL HISTORY, Prof. RicHarp J. ANpDERSON, M.A., MINERALOGY, and M.D. M.R.C.S.E GROTOGY IIR iene earn ee ne: ENGINEERING... Prof. Epwarp TownseEnD, M.A., D Sc. ELECTRICAL (Mr. CuHartes C. Prumse, B.Sc. ENGINEERING ...\_ (London Faculty of Engineering). ANATOMY and Ree alr JoserH P. Pye, M.D., M.Ch., OLOGY ... cod so DSc WaR Wels PRACTICE of MEDI-j Prof. Jonn Isaac Lynuam, M.D., CINE oo acc) an M.Ch., M.A.O., F.R.U.I. SURGERY ... i ee ane Brereton, L.R.C.S.I., MATERIA MEDICA .. ea W. Corouan, M.D., Prof. RicharD J. KinKkEAp, B.A., GYNACOLOGY ... M._D., L.R.C.S.I. Prospectus of the Courses and Regulations for Scholarships, &c., can be bad on application to the REGISTRAR, Queen's College, Galway. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL. FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE. PrincitraL—Professor C. LLOYD MORGAN, LL.D., F.R.S. Professor—Morris W. Travers, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.R.S. | Assistant Professor—Francis E. Francis, D.Sc. (Vict.), Ph.D. aa {Professor—Frank R. Barrett, M.A. (Camb.), Mathematics seeeeeeeee BSG, (Lond,). Professor—ArtTHuR P. Cuattock, M.I1.E.E. {Professor—Rosert M. Ferrier, M.Sc. (Durh.), \ B.Sc. (Glas.), M.Inst.C. E. Geology and Zoology. Se reamed H. Reynovps, M.A. (Camb.). Psychology...... ...s+s:6. Professor—THe PRINCIPAL. Modern History ......... Professor—G. H. Leonarp, M.A. (Camb.). English Literature andfProfessor—R. P. Cowr, M.A. (Trinity Coll., Language .... S Dublin). lassicspeeesssren ... Professor—Francis Brooks, M.A. (Oxon.). Lecturers in Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Botany, Physiology, Logic and Economics, History and Literature, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Oriental Languages, and Music. Lady Tutor—Miss MarGaret J. Tuxe, M.A. Mistress of Method—Miss GeraLpINE Hopcson, B.A. Full courses in preparation for the Engineering, Medical, Scientific and Teaching Professions. For full information see Prospectus, which will be forwarded free on application. JAMES RAFTER, Registrar and Secretary. THE GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE, GLASGOW.: SESSION begins TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 190s, in the new buildings recently erected for the College. The Diploma of the College is granted in the following Departments :— CIVIL ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ELEC- TRICAL ENGINEERING, MINING, NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, MATHEMATICS and PHYSICS. In conjunction with the Glasgow School of Art a Course for a Joint Diploma in Architecture has been arranged. The Courses of Study for the Diploma usually extend over three Sessions. The Average Fee per Session is £12 12s. Special Courses for individual Students are arranged as required. Holders of the Diploma are eligible for the Degree of B.Sc. in ENGINEERING of the UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW after attendance for at least one Session upon pre- scribed University Classes. New and well-equipped Laboratories in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Technical Chemistry, Metallurgy, Mechanics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering have been provided. The Preliminary Examination for Candidates for the Diploma begins on September 18. Names of intending candidates must be lodged not later than September 15, on forms which will be sent on application. CALENDAR (price, by post, 1s. 4d.) and PROSPECTUS (gratis) will be sent on application to the SECRETARY. Ghemistrymerncatessctsesers Physics Engineering .... BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. The SESSION 1905-6 will open on THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5. Students are requested to enter their names on Wednesday, October £5 Lectures are given in all branches of General and Higher Education. Taken systematically, they form a connected and progressive Course ; but a single Course in any subject may be attended. Courses are held in preparation for all Examinations of the University of London in Arts and Science, for the Teachers’ Diploma (London) and for the Teachers’ Certificate (Cambridge), and also a special Course of Scientific Instruction in Hygiene. Six Laboratories are open to Students for Practical Work. Two Entrance Scholarships will be offered for competition in June, 1906. The Early English Text Society's Prize will be awarded in June, 1906. Students can reside in the College. TRAINING DEPARTMENT FOR SECONDARY TEACHERS. A Scholarship of the value of £20 for one year is offered for the Course of Secondary Training, beginning in October, 1905. The Scholarship will be awarded to the best candidate holding a degree or equivalent in Arts or Science. Applications should reach the Heap oF THE TRAINING DerpARTMENT not later than September 18. BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (Five minutes from Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster Bridges), 103 BOROUGH ROAD, S.E TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY AND ELECTROCHEMISTRY DAY COURSE. A complete Day Course extending over two years has been arranged in Technical Chemistry. With the object of providing as complete a course of training as possible, instruction will he given in MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, ENGINEERING DRAWING, PRACTICAL MECHAN- TCS. FRENCH, GERMAN, METAL and WOOD WORKING, and in GENERAL CHEMISTRY, and throughout the Course particular attention will be paid to ELECTROCHEMISTRY, for which a Special Laboratory has been fitted. FEE FOR THE COURSE, OCTOBER TO JULY, £1o. Intending students must give evidence that they are capable of following the Course with advantage, or they may be required to attend a Pre- liminary Course. Full particulars can be obtained on application to C. T. MILLIS, Principal. MERCHANT VENTURERS’ TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRISTOL. PRINCIPAL—Prof. J. Werrueimer, B.Se., B.A., F.1.C., F.C.S. ENGINEERING—Prof. J. Munro, A.R.C.S., M.I.Mech.E. ; Prof. D. Rosertson, B.Sc., A.1.E.E. CHEMISTRY—Prof. J. WerTHEIMER, BiSe., BAC serleG hess Lecturer: G. P. Darnevu-Smitru, B.Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. MATHEMATICS—E. S. Bourton, M.A.; J. W. Putsrorp, B.A. In addition to the above the College Staff includes seventy-nine Assistant Lecturers, Demonstrators, and Skilled Artisans. There are eleven Labora- tories, eight Workshops, a Dynamo Room, an Engine House, and an extensive Electric Light Installation. COURSES for CIVIL, MECHANICAL and ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, CHEMISTS, ARCHITECTS, and BUILDERS. UNIVERSITY of LONDON—COURSKHS for MATRICULATION and INT. and FINAL B.Sc. (including the Engineering Degree). FEE: TEN GUINEAS A YEAR. Calendar (6d¢.) or short Prospectus (free) on application to the REGISTRAR. WIGAN MINING & TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—Tuomas T. Rankin, C.E., B.Sc., M.Inst.M.M., M.I.M.E. SANDWICH SYSTEM OF MINING TRAINING. DAY MINING COURSES. Opening date, MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, at gam. Complete Diploma Course extends over a period of three or four years. Two Prizes of £10 ros. each awarded annually. Candidates for Colliery Managers’ Certificates of Competency holding the above Diploma will be exempt from two out of the five years’ practical experience required oy the Coal Mines Regulation Act. The Home Secretary has approved for the purposes of the Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amendment Act, 1903, the Diplomas of this College. Prospectus post free on application to the PRINCIPAL, or T. RATCLIFFE ELLIS, Hon. Sec. ———————— eee For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages clxxviii, clxxix, clxxxi, ad clxxxii. SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 | NATURE c]xxxi THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL. A SCHOOL OF LONDON UNIVERSITY. The WINTER SESSION, 1905-1905, will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2. Two Entrance Scholarships (value £100 and £60) will be competed for on September 25, 26, 27. ‘ One Entrance Scholarship (value £60), open to Students of the Univer- sities of Oxford and Cambridge, will be competed for on September 25 and 26. Notice in writing to be sent to the Dean on or before September 1s. There are annually Nineteen Resident Hospital Appointments open to Students without extra fee. Composition Fee for General Students for whole Medical Curriculum, 135 guineas; for London University Students, 145 guineas; for Dental Students, 54 guineas. Special terms in favour of University Students who have commenced their medical studies, and of University of London Students who have passed Prelim. Sci. The Residential College adjoins the Hospital, and provides accommo- dation for thirty Students. Prospectuses and all particulars may be obtained from J. MURRAY, M.B., F.R.C.S., Dean. WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, CAXTON STREET, S.W. A SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. The WINTER SESSION will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. Scholarships of the aggregate value of £320 are offered to students entering in October. Examination on September 26 and 27. Fees 110 Gns. if paid in one sum on entrance. For University Students and those who have completed their anatomical and physiological studies 70 Gns. Special opportunities for Clinical work and for holding the various hospital appoint- ments. Dental students are specially provided for. Prospectus and further particulars may be obtained from the DEAN. Telegrams: ‘‘ Clinic,” London. Telephone: Victoria 765. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF His Majgesty’s GOVERNMENT, THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. (IN CONNECTION WITH THE HOSPITALS OF THE SEAMEN’S HospPiTaL SOCIETY.) The next SESSION commences on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. For Prospectus, Syllabus, and other particulars, apply to the Secretary, P. MicuHett1, Esq., Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, S.E THE UNIVERSITY Of LEEDS. The next SESSION will begin on OCTOBER 2. University Degrees are conferred in Arts, Law, Science, and Medicine. The Classes also prepare for the following professions :—Chemistry, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Mining, Textile Industries, Dyeing, Leather Manufacture, Agriculture, School Teaching, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Surgery. Lyddon Hall has been licensed for the residenc2 of students. Prospectus of any of the above may he had post free from the REGISTRAR. TUITION BY CORRESPONDENCE by an especial unique method for all Examinations in BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE, MATERIA MEDICA, PSYCHOLOGY and ZOOLOGY. Work directed. Test Papers corrected Writing reduced to a minimum. and returned. Address Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, IMPERIAL COLLEGE, 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. PRIFYSGOL CYMRU. UNIVERSITY OF WALES. In October next the University Court will proceed to the appointment of a REGISTRAR. Academic qualifications necessary. Salary, £500 per annum. Applications should state the candidate’s age, academic qualifications and secretarial or official experience, and should be received not later than September 25 by the ReGisrrar (University Registry, Cathays Park, Cardiff), from whom particulars may be obtained. September 2, 1905. THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. The University of Melbourne proposes to make the following new appointments :— PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY. PROFESSOR OF BOTANY. LECTURER IN BIO-CHEMISTRY. Applications must be addressed not later than Saturday, October 7, to he AGENT-GENFRAL FOR VICTORIA, 142 Queen Victoria Street, London, -C., from whom all particulars may be obtained. COMUNE YO ELON DON: EDUCATION ACTS, 1870 TO 1903. The LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL invites APPLICATIONS for the appointment of a DISTRICT INSPECTOR, under the Chief In- spector (Education). He will be required to inspect public elementary day schools and evening schools, and, if necessary, any other educational institutions within the district allotted to him. The salary is £400 a year, rising by annual increments of £25 to a maximum salary of £600 a year. The person appointed will be under the control of the Chief Inspector, and will be required to give his whole time to the duties of the office, and will in other respects be subject to the usual conditions attaching to the Council's service, particulars of which are contained in the form of appli- cation. In connection with this appointment there is no restriction with regard to sex, Applications should be made on the official form to be obtained from the CLERK OF THE Lonpon County CounciL, at the County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W., or at the Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C. The applications must be sent in not later than ro a.m. on Saturday, September 23, 1905, addressed to the Education Offices as above, and accompanied by copies of not more than three recent testimonials. Canvassing, either directly or indirectly, will be held to be a disqualifi- cation for appointment. G. L. GOMME, Clerk of the London County Council. The County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W., August 16, 1905. THE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, SACKVILLE STREET, MANCHESTER. DAY DEPARTMENTS. The DAY DEPARTMENTS RE-OPEN on MONDAY, SEP- TEMBER 3&8, at 9.30 a.m. The School now forms the Faculty of Technology of the Victoria University of Manchester, and day students may prepare for the degree of B.Sc. Tech. The ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS for Day Departments in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, Municipal and Sanitary Engineering, The Chemical Industries (including Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, Papermaking, Brewing and Metallurgy), Architecture and Building Construction, The Textile Industries, Photography and the Printing Crafts, will be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, September 11, 12 and 13, atg 15 a.m. Prospectus and entrance forms on application. EVENING DEPARTMENTS. The Professors and Teachers will be in attendance during the usual class hours throughout the week beginning Monday, September 13, and ending Saturday, September 23, for the purpose of advising intending students as to the subjects they should take during the ensuing session. ‘Tickets of admission to the Evening Classes must be obtained during the week ending September 23. Complete Calendar, 6¢.; by post, rod. Abridged Calendar fiee on application at the School. ; J. H. REYNOLDS, Principal. COUNTY BOROUGH OF ST. HELENS. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. PUPIL TEACHERS’ CENTRE--THE GAMBLE INSTITUTE. The Committee require the services of an ASSISTANT MISTRESS for the above Centre. Subjects: English Language and Literature, History, Geography. Salary, £100 per annum. Applications must be sent on the proper form (a copy of which will be forwarded on receipt of a stamped addressed fvolscap envelope), and returned to the undersigned so as to be received not later than Wednesday, September 20. JEFF. J. BROOMHEAD, Director of Education. admission to the Education Office, St. Helens, September 4, 1¢05. SCHOOL OF PHARMACY OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN. The post of ASSISTANT LECTURER and SENIOR DEMON- STRATOR in the DEPARTMENT of CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS is now vacant. The duties include the delivery of short courses of lectures in Physics to those entering for the Minor and Major Examinations. Salary, £150. Applications are invited and should be sent, accompanied by testimonials, not later than September 14, to Professor CROSSLEY, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London, W.C. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages clxxviii, clxxix, : clxxx, avd clxxxii, elxxxii NATURE (SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 BOROUGH OF SWINDON. EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee REQUIRE the services of an ASSISTANT SCIENCE DEMONSTRATOR in the HIGHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Candidates must be accustomed both to Class Teaching and Laboratory Work. Commencing salary £120 a year, increasing by fsa a year to £160. Forms of application, which must be returned by September 15, may be had from W. SEATON, Secretary. Education Office, Town Hall, Swindon. August 29, 1905. MASTERSHIPS VACANT FOR SEP- TEMBER.—Geology, Botany, Zoology. Canada, 42c0. Passage, Board and 3 Rooms. Chemistry, Physics. Ireland, College, £250. Several Science Graduates, Public College, London University Teach- ing Centre, £150 to £300 ; Ditto, Mathematical, £150 to £300; Eng- lish, must be in Honors, £150 to £175; English and French, £150 to 41753; 200 Vacancies for Senior, Junior, and Foreign. ORELLANA & CO. Send List to all Candidates, 80 WIGMORE STREET, LONDON, W. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) The Council invite applications for the post of JUNIOR DEMON- STRATOR in ENGINEERING. Applications should be sent in by Friday, September 15, 1905. For conditions apply to WALTER SMITH, Secretary. KING’S COLLEGE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) DEMONSTRATOR in ZOOLOGY wanted for October, 1905. £150. For further particulars apply to the SECRETARY, Strand, W.C MERCHANT VENTURERS’ TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRISTOL. ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in ENGINEER- ING required. Salary, £170, which may rise to £220. Particulars obtainable from the REGISTRAR by sending a stamped addressed foolscap envelope. Applications should be sent in not later than September 18, 1905. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED immediately for Secondary School near London, Master to take Elementary Science and Geograp' y. £150 tocommence. Also Mathl. Master for School in W. London. Maths., including New Geometry. £120. Many other vacancies.—Addres GRIFFITHS, Smiru, Powe.tt & Situ, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Salary, King's College, Wanted for St. Augustine’s Seminary, Dun- garvan, Co, Waterford, a Teacher of Chemistry and Physics. Must be a B.Sc. with honours in Chemistry. Salary £rqo. Non-resident. To take up his duties befere October 15. Newbold Rectory,Stratford-on-Avon._Home School for a limired number of pupils. Science a speciality. Laboratory and Observatory. Fees moderate.—Apply G. A. S. ATKINSON, B.Sc. (Lond.). DUBLIN UNIVERSITY. SENIOR DEMONSTRATOR of PHYSIOLOGY wantel mencing salary, £175. Applications to ReGisrrar, Medical School. Com- lor other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages clxxviii, clxxix, clxxx, avd clxxxi. LABORATORY TO LET.—Large well- fiited Chemical Laboratory in neighbourhood of Hampstead, to ke let temporarily. Electric power. Use of telephone. Apply Box 1871, Office of NatTune, St. Martin's Street, W.C. SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS TRADE.— Advertiser, 26, experienced and well qualified, desires change.—Apply Rox 71, Nature Office. ToScience Masters, Curators of Museums, &c —Advertiser requires post as Assistant. Has knowledge of Genes x a Miners alozy.—Apply C. TayLor, 139 Dalling Koad, Ravenscourt ir JAMES SWIFT & SON’S NEW PAN-APLANATIC OBJECTIVES OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE OPTICAL EXCELLENCE. ge Nature says:—‘‘In the excellence of their 1/12-in. capacity which is a marvel of cheapness. z LISTS POST FREE ON. APPLICATION. UNIVERSITY OPTICAL WORKS, 81 Tottenham Court Road, London. GLEW’S SCINTILLOSCOPE (PATENT). Shows a magnificent display of scintillations, showers of sparks, direct from the mineral Pitch- blende, Radium, Polonium, Uranium, Thorium, or any radio-active substance, even a Welsbach mantle contains sufficient Thorium to excite the very sensi- tive screen of the Scintilloscope, which is far more sensitive than the Spinthariscope. The Scintil- loscope rivals the most delicate Electroscope as a \ detector of Alpha rays. The eye sees an inexhaustible shower of stars of white light, giving a very realistic idea of the cease- less activity of these marvellous substances which are producing the terrific bombardment causing this beautiful display. 3M See Nature, September 29, page 535. Glew’s Scintilloscope Superior Lens, with Extra-sensitive Pitchblende and Polonium Screens, giving brilliant effects, Complete, 7s. 6d., Post free, U.K. Foreign Postage extra, weight 2 ounces. Pieces of Pitchblende mineral, ground flat and polished, with Sensitive Screen attached, for use in Scintilloscope or with any strong pocket | magnifier, from 7s. 6d. each, according to size. Radio-active supplies of every description, on Sale or Hire. Radium Bromide 1,800,000 units on hire for lectures. | F. HARRISON GLEW, Radiographer (Silver Medallist, Paris, 1900), 156 Clapham Road, London, S.W. BUTLER’S _ SWINGGAM” STAND. Ba SPECIALITY IN IN TRIPODS. TESTIMONIAL from Mr. R. KEARTON, F.Z.S. Caterham Valley, Surrey, August 4th, 1905. Dear Mr. Butler, I have much pleasure in stating that I have put your new “‘Swingcam” Camera Stand through a series of severe tests in Natural History Photo- graphy, and found it an excellent contrivance for securing pictures under every conceivable difficulty of situation, great boon Wishing it and those who use it all good luck, I remain, Yours ever faithfully, WM. BUTLER, Esq R. KEARTON. WRITE FOR PAMPHLET AND PRESS COMMENTS. WM. BUTLER, 20 Crosby Road, Southport. p A p F CHEMICALS METALS MINERALS For Laboratory, Seientific, and all other purposes. RADIUM SALTS & RADIO-ACTIVE PREPARATIONS. CALCIUM METAL, 1/6 oz.; 20/- Ib. Price List ¢ on Application. HARRINGTON BROS., Chemical Manufacturers and Dealers, 4 OLIVER’S YARD, CITY ROAD, LONDON, E.C. Bird-photographers will find it a Apochromatics: 3” N.A., 1.30, oil immersion be mH af a SS) VS 10) iv rrpieace ke) 4 te ats ae “co oot MORTOMO) 1[12” a icc) ” es Rey 8: 810 Pan-Aplanatics. 3” oilimmersion, N.A., 1.30 , 4 00 1/10” a5 y3) X30 a ue ne = oe 400 1/12” oF SAO 3 mar 5 5 O Bry, Series Pan-Aplanatics. 1’ N.A., 0.30 . these columns, arrangements had been made by the Lick Observatory to photograph the corona in Labrador and in Egypt with exactly similar coronagraphs. Mrs. Maunder, accompanying the Canadian party at Hamilton Inlet (Labrador), was also to use a corona- graph identical in scale with that used by Prof. Turner at Assuan. A Reuter telegram from St. John’s, Newfoundland, announces, however, that the Lick observers experienced a total failure owing to clouds; a second message from a telegraph station on Hamilton Inlet stated that fine weather prevailed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the day of the eclipse, and that the phenomena were perfectly visible, and it was hoped that the Canadian party had been successful in making good observations. A later telegram, dated September 3, states, however, that the expedition was entirely unsuccessful, owing to the cloudy weather, and no photographs were secured. A communication from Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S., to the Times of September 5, contains some interesting notes of visual observations made during the period of totality at Torreblanca, a small village on the east coast of Spain. Having been present at the 1882 eclipse, when he assisted Sir Norman Lockyer at Sohag, on the Nile, and not having seen the whole of the phenomena, Mr. Buchanan only took with him an ordinary camera and a field-glass, so that he might devote all his attention to visual observations. His choice of Torreblanca, where, with the exception of the local railway employees, he seems to have been the sole observer, was justified, inasmuch as the eclipse took place in a blue sky. As the last vestige of sun disappeared behind the eastern limb of the moon a magnificent bunch of prominences, of a light violet hue, appeared at the same part of the limb; but these subsequently disappeared, and a careful search at mid-totality failed to reveal any prominences at all. A similar group, however, burst into view on the opposite limb just before the end of totality, thus indicating that the apparent diameter of the moon was sufficient to cover the whole of the prominence layer of the sun’s limb at mid-totality. The corona was clearly visible near to the western part of the moon’s limb eight seconds before the advent of totality, and throughout totality it was very clearly defined. On an average it extended to rather more than one lunar diameter from the limb, but a streamer on the lower western limb was judged 460 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 to extend to at least twice this distance. The whole corona had an appearance of movement, suggesting to Mr. Buchanan certain features which occur when a search-light illuminates the atmosphere. Observations of the partial eclipse are of no great interest as compared with those made during totality, but a number of thermometric readings were recorded at numerous stations. Mr. Spencer Russell, in a communication to the Standard for September 2, gives a table of fifteen-minute observations of a wet and dry bulb thermometer, made at Epsom _ between II.45 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the day of the eclipse. Whilst the wet bulb readings remained constant at 53° F., the dry bulb showed a minimum temperature of 54° F. between 12.45 and 1.30 p.m. Photographs of the partial eclipse were secured by Messrs. Spencer and Butler during a balloon journey from Wands- worth to Caen in Normandy. An interesting record of a series of ‘‘ pin-hole ”’ images of the crescent sun reaches us from Sir Joseph Fayrer, F.R.S. Whilst sailing in a ten-ton boat having a large mainsail, he observed the partial eclipse under favourable conditions in Falmouth Bay. About 1 p.m. a slight breeze caused the sail to incline from the perpendicular, and a number of well defined crescent images were projected on to the whitened deck of the boat, and occasionally on to the water. An investigation showed that these images were formed by a series of eyelet holes, used for the balance reef, high up in the sail. The phenomenon was so vivid and the images so sharply defined as to appear worthy of record. A correspondent to the Daily Graphic (September 2), the Rev. Frederick Ehlvers, rector of Shaftesbury, Dorset, records the remarkable phenomenon of an evening primrose unfolding itself during the eclipse as if evening had arrived. Observers at the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, were pre- vented by clouds from seeing the eclipse, except for one or two breaks of short duration. About one minute before last contact, however, the sky suddenly became clear for a short distance around the sun, and brilliant sunshine prevailed as the last trace of the moon left the solar disc. TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN NATAL. THE report of the commission appointed to inquire _ into technical education in Natal has just been received. It is signed by eleven out of twelve of the commissioners, and Mr. C. I. Mudie, superintendent of education, has forwarded a minority report. The commission, under the presidency of Sir David Hunter, K.C.M.G., held eleven meetings and ex- amined fifty witnesses; some of the members were also sent to Johannesburg to confer with the council and board of studies of the Transvaal Technical Institute. Delegates from the Orange River Colony also attended the conference. The commission finds that Natal, with its Euro- pean population of 97,109, has as yet but meagre provision for technical and higher education, and, indeed, states that boys who had received primary and secondary education in the colony were frequently found to be so deficient in general knowledge that they were not well qualified to enter upon technical education. The result of inquiries as to the probability of youths availing themselves of instruction should it be placed within their grasp was decidedly encouraging, and the commission concludes, from the evidence and 1 Colony of Natal. Report of the Technical Education May, 1905. (Maritzburg: P. Davis and Sons, 1905.) NO? 187.15 VOLn72)| Commission statistics, and from the fact that considerable sums are being expended by individuals in Natal on American correspondence classes and private tuition, that there is an urgent necessity for more adequate provision to equip the youth of the colony for the battle of life. The resolutions of the conference held at Johannes- burg point out that there is a present and immediate need for a full teaching university in South Africa, and that the colonies in which the university may not be situated should each have one or more colleges or institutes devoted to higher or technical education which should be recognised by the university council as integral parts of that teaching university, and that the university should grant diplomas in professional subjects, and degrees in arts and science, in the faculties of (1) education; (2) engineering, including mining; (3) agriculture; (4) law; and (5) medicine. The recommendations of the commission are based upon the resolutions of the conference, and suggest that immediate steps should be taken by the Govern- ment to provide for higher education; that a council be appointed by Government to organise and control technical education in Natal which shall be indepen- dent of the education department, although that de- partment should be represented on the council. It suggests that specialists be obtained as lecturers in (1) chemistry and metallurgy; (2) physics and electro- technics; (3) natural science (botany, zoology, geo- logy, physiology); (4) pure and applied mechanics; (5) modern history and literature; while other subjects would be taught by local part-time men. It is suggested that Pietermaritzburg has first claim for this college, but that Durban also has claims, and the commission thinks that the foregoing lecturers should be peripatetic, in the first place teach- ing at Pietermaritzburg and Durban only, but as occasion required going farther afield. While appearing to have somewhat wide views as to the subjects that should be taught—for .twenty-six branches are mentioned in the list of subjects in which the commission finds there is a need for classes —the estimates of cost are strictly moderate, for the annual expenditure is taken at 6500l., and the initial expenditure to provide the necessary equipment for engineering, chemical, physical, natural science, and other laboratories is estimated at about 20001. It is true that no provision is made in this estimate for rent or capital expenditure on buildings, but we should think even without these the estimate was likely to be exceeded. All institutions, however, must have a beginning, and those which start with the highest aspirations have a good chance of attaining some, if not all, of their objects. There can be no doubt that technical education should be conducted everywhere quite apart from the education department, and as much as possible under the guidance of men who are acquainted with some at least of the subjects that are being taught. Technical education, especially in the colonies, should be made accessible to everyone, and should more especially offer inducements to those who are working for their living to improve their knowledge of the sciences which underlie their handicrafts. If this be the first object in view, it will be evident that evening classes and evening labor- atory work must be undertaken before any attempt is made to form day classes. It appears to be chiefly on this subject that Mr. Mudie dissented from the report of the commission, for he thinks the college at Pietersburg, which, as he says, covers a preparatory, a high school, and a college proper, should form the nucleus of a university college in Natal. It would not seem to be a desirable thing to commence oper- ations in this way for many reasons, the principal of SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] which is that artisans, clerks and others, for whom technical education is primarily provided, while wish- ing to learn, have in many cases left school so recently that they do not wish to return, and those of maturer age are not always quite certain whether their dignity will allow them to go to school again. ISIS SD, THE WOBURN EXPERIMENTAL FRUIT FARM. ee fifth report on the Woburn Fruit Farm, by the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Spencer U. Pickering, F.R.S., contains a very useful summary of the results of ten years’ experiments and observ- ations on apple-trees. The conclusions arrived at are based on measurements of leaves, trees, and fruits, and also on weighings of the fruit. The average size of the leaf of the tree seems gradually to diminish with age, and there is a similar but less marked ten- dency in the fruit. The experiments indicate no ad- vantage from heavy thinning of the fruit, for the size was not increased; hard pruning proved unprofitable, unpruned trees were three times more productive than those heavily pruned; summer pruning was found not to be desirable, and even moderate root pruning was found to injure the trees. Apple-trees transplanted at 2-3 years old were found to grow better than either younger or older plants. A very curious result which for some time puzzled the experimenters was that carelessly planted trees, theugh weak at first, ultimately made more growth than those carefully planted. A satisfactory explana- tion has, however, been found. The roots of care- lessly planted trees are so much injured that they make scarcely any growth; the result of this is that numerous new roots grow from dormant buds higher up the stem, and these new roots, not having suf- fered from transplantation, ultimately surpass in size the original roots of carefully planted trees. The results obtained at the Woburn Fruit Farm are to some extent due to the particular soil—a moderately stiff clay—but it is probable that the con- clusions arrived at would be found to hold good in many English orchards. It is, however, a very difficult thing to judge how far conclusions of the foregoing kind, based on a particular set of con- ditions, apply under different conditions, and the practical value of the long series of experiments and observations made at Woburn would be very greatly increased if similar experiments were conducted on a soil, or soils, of different character. In any action which the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries may take upon the report of the ‘‘ Fruit ’? Committee, it is to be hoped that the important work of the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Pickering may be followed up and extended. T. H. Mippreron. NOTES. To commemorate the meeting of the British Association in South Africa, a scheme has been formulated to found a British Association medal for South African students. This announcement was made by Prof. Darwin at the close of his presidential address at Johannesburg. A visit was paid to the Johannesburg Observatory on August 30, and the opportunity was taken of pointing out to Lord Selborne the suitability of the site for a fully-equipped observatory and the necessity for more astronomical work in the southern hemisphere. Referring to this suggestion in the course of his speech introducing Prof. Darwin as president of the association, Lord Selborne is reported by the Times correspondent to have said that ‘‘he greatly regretted he had been obliged to refuse the only request NO. 1871, VOL. 72] 461 that the association had made to him—namely, to find funds for the establishment of a proper observatory in Johannesburg. He was obliged to say that all the revenue they at present possessed was required for the develop~ ment of their material resources and means of communi- cation; but where the Government was powerless, what a magnificent opportunity there was for a patriotic Trans- vaal. For a: site in the purest atmosphere, 2000 feet above the highest observatory now existing, only 10,000l. was required. There they might establish a telescope which would help observers in the southern hemisphere to compete with the astronomers of the northern hemi- sphere. The site was there, and it was already occupied by a perfectly equipped meteorological observatory.’’ All the papers on South African matters read during the meet- ing are to be published in a separate volume by the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. At the closing meeting, held on September 1, Prof. Ray Lankester was elected president of the association for 1906. Mr. J. W. DouGtas, one of the editors of the Entom- ologist’s Monthly Magazine, died at Harlesden on August 28 in his ninety-first year. THREE distinct earthquake shocks, the severest ever experienced in the district, were felt at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 30, beginning at 5.40 p.m. Reuter’s correspondent at Stockholm reports that Prof. Nathorst has received a letter in which Lieut. Bergendahl, who is a member of the Duc d’Orléans’s Greenland Expedi- tion, states that on July 27, as the expedition passed Cape Bismarck, unknown land was discovered. It appears that Cape Bismarck lies on a large island, and not on the mainland. The new land has been mapped as well as possible, and has received the name Terre de France. The | expedition was unable to penetrate further north than 78° 16’ N. lat. At the annual meeting of the Academy of the Lincei, which was held on June 4 in the presence of the King and Queen of Italy, the president, Prof, Blaserna, announced the result of the competition for the three Royal prizes founded by the late King Humbert. In the section of normal and pathological physiology, the prize is awarded to Prof. Aristide Stefani, of Padua, for his published work dealing with the physiology of the heart and circu- lation, the non-acoustic functions of the labyrinth of the ear, and the serotherapeutic treatment of pneumonia. In the sections of archeology and of economic and _ social science, the judges reported that the competitors were not of sufficient merit to justify the award of the prizes. This is the first occasion on which so small a proportion of the prizes have been conferred, and it is proposed thaf in future the section of archeology shall embrace not only classical, but also Christian and medizval archzology. Ministerial premiums intended to aid original work among teachers in secondary schools were awarded in the depart- ment of mathematical sciences to Prof. Ciani (5ol.), Prof. Pirondini (38/.), and Prof. Chini (2o0l.). Out of the funds available from the Carpi prize, a sum of 321. was awarded to Dr. P. Enriques for a thesis on the changes brought about in absorbed chlorophyll by the action of the liver, and the relation existing between the derivatives of chloro- phyll produced in the organism and the genesis of the hematic pigments. In his address the vice-president, F. d’Ovidio, discussed in general terms the question “Art for Art’s Sake,’’ dealing more particularly with the influence exerted on national life and character by art and literature. 462 Tue Popular Science Monthly (vol. Ivii., No. 4) contains a suggestive article by Prof. John M. Coulter on the methods available for arousing public interest in scientific research. The results of scientific work usually reach the public through the medium of reporters to the newspapers and writers for the magazines; the material dealing with original research is, generally speaking, scant in amount, sensational in form, and wide of the mark. It is urged that men of science should, so far as possible, be their own interpreters, so that the misleading statements of the ‘‘ middle man’’ may be avoided. Particularly, not only the facts of the investigation, but its general bear- ing should be made clear; it is this feature that the reporter always misses, and a “‘ strategic movement is re- presented to the public as a dress parade.’’ As a justifi- cation, it is contended that research will be shown to be practical, and a more ample endowment be secured for it. ““The question of adequate support for research is the most serious one that confronts American science to-day.”’ The appeal to American interest is utility, and it is necessary to show that practical results are reached most surely and most quickly from the vantage ground of pure science. Tue report of the commission appointed for the investi- gation of Mediterranean, or Malta, fever (part iii.), recently issued by the Royal Society, contains the important announcement that goats seem to be capable of transmitting the disease. The evidence supporting this conclusion is as follows :—On June 14 Dr. Zammit examined six goats, and found that the blood of five of them gave the agglutination reaction for Mediterranean fever. This was confirmed by Major Horrocks, R.A.M.C. Major Horrocks and Dr. Zammit then undertook the examination of eight different herds of goats, and in every herd examined an average of half the animals (from 7-6-75 per cent.) gave the agglutination reaction for Mediterranean fever. It was also found that one or more apparently healthy goats in every herd were excreting the specific organism of the disease—the M. melitensis—in their milk and urine, the number of the organism in the milk being very large. It would seem probable, therefore, that infected goat’s milk may be the source of infection of man, particularly as monkeys may be artificially infected by feeding with material containing the specific organism, as has been detailed in a previous report. It is of interest that in Gibraltar, where the disease is also very prevalent, goats are almost the only source of the milk-supply. THE report of the Government analyst of Trinidad for the year 1904-5 contains several points of general interest. Samples of water from the Carrera Convict Depét have been examined to ascertain if a connection could be traced between the water supply and the prevalence of diarrhcea and dysentery among the prisoners. Very small propor- tions of lead, copper, and zinc were found to be present, and, in view of the fact that all attempts made during several years past to trace the epidemic to other causes have been unsuccessful, it appears possible that the metallic impurities named are responsible for the trouble. Before the question can be definitely decided, further in- vestigation will be necessary. The aérated waters which are largely consumed in the colony were found to be usually contaminated with lead, owing to the use of an impure sulphuric acid in their manufacture, to an extent likely to prove dangerous. It is suggested that the use of liquefied carbon dioxide, such as is now imported into the colony in cylinders, would be a remedy for the difficulty. NO. 1871, VOL. 72 | NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 The adulteration of milk has very much decreased owing to the system adopted of suspending the licenses of sellers convicted of adulteration during the past year. Previously the Board of Health did not refuse the renewal of licenses, either temporarily or permanently, but only issued warnings. Tue fishes of Puget Sound form the subject of a paper by Messrs. Gilbert and Thompson in the Proceedings of the U.S. Nat. Museum (No. 1414). The paper is based on a collection made in 1903, which included two species regarded as new and six not previously recorded from the area in question. Tue opening article in the first part of the third volume of the quarterly issue of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Con- tributions is a translation of Dr. E. Mascha’s valuable paper on the minute structure of the flight-feathers of birds, originally published in the Zeitschrift fiir wissen- schaftliche Zoologie, and already noticed in our columns. Among the original communications, special reference may be made to one by Mr. F. W. True on the skull of an extinct sea-lion (Pontoleon) from the Miocene of Oregon, apparently the earliest known representative of this group of seals; to a second, by Mr. A. Mann, describing the extreme beauty of the surface sculpture in diatoms (‘‘ Diatoms, the Jewels of the Plant-World,’’ it is called) ; and to a third, by Mr. C. A. White, on the ancestry of the North American pond-mussels of the family Unionide, in which it is concluded that all the living forms in this particular area are descended from fossil local types. It may be added that if we accept the views on nomenclature expressed in yet another article, the well known name Dromeeus (for the emeu) has to give place to Dromiceius. Tue Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (xlix., No. 179), contains papers on the Filipino, on the Aborigines of Western Australia, on the osteology of sinopa, and on the marsupial fauna of the Santa Cruz beds. In an article on the oligodynamical action of copper foil on certain intestinal organisms, Mr. Kraemer concludes that intestinal bacteria such as the colon and typhoid bacilli are completely destroyed by placing clean copper foil in water containing them, and that certain of the lower animal and vegetable organisms possess a special sensitiveness to minute quantities of copper. The copper is probably in the form of a erystal- loid rather than that of a colloid. It will be remembered that Dr. Moore, of the United States Department of Agri- culture, has suggested the use of copper salts and of bright copper for the purification of water supplies. In another article Dr. Wiley discusses the effects of preservatives in food on metabolism, and expresses the opinion that boric acid and borates in any quantity upset digestion, and even in small doses, if given over a long period, have an unfavourable effect on health and digestion. A paPER by Dr. W. T. Calman, of the British Museum, on the Crustacea of the group Cumacea from the west coast of Ireland, published as No. 1, part iv., of Scientific Investigations, 1904, by the Irish Department of Agri- culture and Technical Instruction, illustrates the import- ance of collecting on a thoroughly practical and effective system. During the entire cruise of H.M.S. Challenger, for instance, the whole collection of Cumacea was repre- sented by no more than fifteen species, whereas Mr. E. Holt, the collector of the specimens submitted to Dr. Calman, obtained within a small area representatives of no less than forty-eight species, of which nine are regarded as new, one being so aberrant, as to be assigned by its SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE describer to a separate family group. Most of the speci- mens were collected by means of tow-nets attached to the back of a trawl in such a position as to capture any creatures disturbed by the ground-rope. In the report on the sea and inland fisheries of Ireland for 1902 and 1903, part iii., scientific investigations, Mr. E. W. L. Holt, the scientific adviser of the fisheries branch of the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion for Ireland, takes a broad view of the services which summit of Ben Nevis and at the base station at Fort William, for the for more complete details reference is made to an exhaustive discussion pub- years 1885-1903 ; | lished by Mr. A. Watt in the Journal of the Scottish | over the greater part of England. Meteorological Society. Another article deals with October rainfalls; this is generally the wettest month of the year In the present case, | special reference is made to the comparatively dry Octobers scientific investigations can render to practical fishery problems. Not only are such subjects as oyster culture, the artificial propagation of the Salmonide, and the | mackerel fisheries dealt with, but the various appendices to the report constitute a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the invertebrate marine fauna of Ireland, more especially of the very interesting and little-known fauna occurring in the deeper water off the west coast. The most important paper, from a scientific point of view, is that contributed by Mr. Holt himself, in collabor- ation with Mr. W. M. Tattersall, on the schizopodous crustacea of the north-east Atlantic slope, in which a great number of new or little known species are fully described and figured. Other papers deserving special notice are Mr. G. P. Farran’s account of the copepoda of the Atlantic slope, and the interesting contributions of the Misses Delap on the rearing of Cyanea lamarcki and on the plankton of Valencia Harbour from 1899 to r901._ The whole report, which treats of both sea- and fresh-water fisheries, is well illustrated with a large number of plates and diagrams excellently reproduced, and reflects great credit upon the department responsible for the scientific study of the Irish fisheries. . Tue Pioneer Mail of July 28 published an account’ of the phenomenal storm of wind and rain which devastated a large portion of the province of Gujarat between July 22 and 24, owing to which it was estimated that about 10,000 people were rendered homeless. The storm seems to have been most severe at Ahmedabad, 310 miles north of Bombay. The average annual rainfall of that place is only about 33 inches; during the storm in question it was stated that fully 37 inches were measured in two days. We find from the Official Indian Daily Weather Report that the fall was over-stated, but that nevertheless it was quite abnormal; 14 inches fell in twenty-four hours ending 8h. a.m. July 23, and 123 inches on the following day. The Government meteorological reporter states that the fall was due to a severe cyclonic storm passing over the head of the peninsula, and to the fact that when it entered Gujarat it was fed by strong winds from the Arabian Sea. WE have received “ British Rainfall, 1904,’’ being the forty-fourth annual volume of this very useful publication, containing the carefully prepared results of observations taken at nearly 4000 stations. Dr. Mill states that every return undergoes critical examination before the results are published, a task that must strain the energies of himself and his small available staff to the utmost. While every page of this now somewhat voluminous work con- tains information of the highest value in connection with the distribution of rain over the British Isles, it is difficult to fix upon any particular portion calling for especial re- mark. One new feature is the publication of complete daily records for ten selected stations, and, as last year, atten- tion has been given to a discussion of some of the wettest days, illustrated by special charts. There are also several interesting articles dealing with various branches of rain- fall work, e.g. an analysis of the observations on the | NO. 1871, VOL. 72] of 1879, 1888, 1897, and 1904; with one exception, October, 1904, was the driest on record since the found- ation of the British rainfall organisation. Another important article discusses the duration and average rate of rainfall in London since 1881. It shows inter alia that the rate of fall per hour is twice as great in July as in January. WE are glad to be able to reproduce from the Annuario of the Messina Observatory for the year 1904 an illus- tration of that important Sicilian station, which, under the able superintendence of Prof. Rizzo, undertakes, in addition to the usual meteorological observations, valuable Fic, 1.—The Messina Observatory. researches connected with solar and terrestrial physics. The institution has risen from modest beginnings in 1876, when, at the instigation of Prof. Manzi, it was attached to the Technical and Nautical Institute of that city. The importance of its work was soon recognised by the Central Meteorological Office at Rome, which supplied it with several instruments. The present edifice on the hill of Andria was completed in 1902, under the auspices of the Royal University of Studies at Messina, and occupies a position much better suited to its useful work; it is now removed from all disturbing influences, and we look forward with confidence to important results connected with the relation of magnetism to solar activity and to the movements of the ground, to which subjects Prof. Rizzo devotes special attention. Tue International Council for the Exploration of the Sea continues to issue its publications in rapid succession. Of the Bulletins, which embody the records of the work more especially entrusted to it, we have received those for the terminal expeditions in November, 1904, and February, 1905 (Conseil Permanent International pour Exploration de la Mer, Bulletin, 1904-5, Nos. 2 and 3). We note, as additions to the routine observations of the council, an 464 NATURE extension of the surface observations made by merchant steamers on various routes, and a series of observations in February, 1905, made and communicated by the fishery branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical In- struction for Ireland. It can serve no useful purpose to attempt the general discussion of the observations contained in these Bulletins as they appear; the general results can best be summarised at a later stage by the central authority, by whom the work will no doubt be undertaken. For the two dates concerned, a very marked feature of the observ- ations in the English area is worth pointing out—the high salinity of the water at the entrance to the channel and to the west of Ireland. The origin of this salt water demands close investigation; it would seem to have come almost directly from the south, and in that event it is to be hoped that means of ascertaining whether Mediterranean water Was present or not are available. TueE Psychological Review (article section) contains in its July number the following articles:—The synthetic factor in tactual space perception, T. H. Haines; consciousness and its object, F. Arnold; and a motor theory of rhythm and discrete succession (i.), R. H. Stetson. The first of these tabulates the results of certain preliminary experiments made by the writer in order to discover the exact relation between the two sorts of synthetic factor for local signs, viz. inner tactual sensa- tions and the visual image. The main positions of the second article are these :—(1) Neither by introspection nor by any hypothesis of a consciousness aware of its own stream can we have any mental state in which conscious- ness does not have an object, and that object in the present; (2) the same holds for feeling and emotion; (3) the relation of thing to consciousness cannot be re- presented by any simple formulation like aRx, but is in reality much more complex. Tue July number of Mind contains an excellent article by Mr. R. F. Alfred Hoernlé on Pragmatism v. Absolutism, which is mainly occupied with a discussion of Mr. Bradley’s views. The writer finds fault with Mr, Bradley’s use of the criterion of non-contradiction, his neglect of epistemology in favour of metaphysics, his doctrine of “degrees of truth and reality,’’ and his theory that “a self-consistent reality must include the appearances, and yet cannot be its appearances.’’ Dr. Norman Smith, in a second article on the naturalism of Hume, deals sympathetically with Hume’s treatment of ethics. He claims that ‘‘ Hume may, indeed, be regarded, even more truly than Kant, as the father of all those subsequent philosophies that are based on an opposition between thought and feeling, truth and validity, actuality and worth.’ Other articles deal with Empiricism and the Absolute, Plato’s view of the soul, and Symbolic Reasoning. THE Journal of the Anthropological Institute (July— December, 1904) contains the Huxley lecture for 1904, presented by Dr. Deniker, the subject being ‘‘ Les Six Races composant la Population actuelle de 1’Europe.”’ This is virtually a re-statement and a vindication of the racial division which was propounded by Dr. Deniker eight years ago in ‘‘ Les Races européennes ’’ (Bull. Soc. d’Anthr., Paris, iv., 3), which the researches of later years have served to illustrate and confirm. To the Nordic, Ibero-Insular, and Western or Cevenole races (correspond- ing to the Northern, Mediterranean, and Central or Alpine races of other authors) are added three main races :— Eastern, brachycephalic, short and fair; Littoral or Atlanto-Mediterranean, mesocephalic, tall and dark; and NO: 1871, VOEa72)| [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 Adriatic, brachycephalic, tall and dark. There are also four secondary races :—Sub-Nordic, brachycephalic, short and fair; Vistulan, brachycephalic, very short, fair or medium; North-Western, mesocephalic or brachycephalic, tall, medium or dark; and Sub-Adriatic, brachycephalic, and medium in stature and pigmentation. The maps of the average stature and pigmentation for Europe which accompany the paper are scarcely satisfactory. The cardinal principle laid down by Prof. Ripley, that the visual impression must, so far as possible, conform to the represented facts, has not been successfully followed, with: the result that in the bewildering mass of detail no general impression can be gained by the eye without the assist- ance of the convention in the legend. Tue Journal of the Franklin Institute for August (clx., No. 2) contains papers of more or less interest, and cover- ing most of the branches of science. Mr. Fuller discusses in a very complete manner the subject of sewage disposal and the pollution of shell-fish. A very full bibliography. is appended to his paper. WE have received from the Sytam Fittings Co., of Basinghall Buildings, Leeds, the catalogue of the company’s system of filing, classifying, and indexing bottles, boxes, specimens, tubes, apparatus, &c. The company has applied the characteristics of the well known elastic or expansion series of bookcases to the purposes named, the specimen cabinets being built up of a number of interchangeable elements. Tur Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin for August (xvi., No. 173) contains an interesting account, by Dr. MacCallum, of the life and work of Marcello Malpighi, with full-plate portrait of this distinguished Italian anatomist of the seventeenth century. The concluding sentence of this article may be quoted :—‘‘ After all is considered the most enduring things in Malpighi’s books are his perfect honesty, his extraordinary keenness and good sense in the interpretation of what he saw, and his ingenious objective methods of observation. What he saw could not have failed of being seen very soon by others, but we are filled with wonder that quite alone, with his * quiet, eager mind,’ he could have encompassed all, steadily searching out one thing after another throughout his forty years of restless activity.” WE have received the report of the second meeting of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. It forms a handsome cloth-bound volume of 598 pages with 44 plates, and contains the forty-four papers read before the association printed in full. Summaries of the papers were published in Nature (vol. Ixx. p. 41) shortly after the meeting, and also the greater part of Mr. E. B. Sargant’s address on the education of examiners (vol. Ixx. p. 63). The presidential address by Sir Charles Metcalfe, and the sectional addresses by Mr. J. R. Williams on the metallurgy of the Rand, by Dr. G. S. Corstorphine on the history of stratigraphical investigation in South Africa, and by Sir Percy Girouard on improvements in rolling stock, are of permanent value, and the subjects and names of the authors of the papers make the volume an important addition to scientific literature, and show what a large amount of valuable scientific work is being done in South Africa. The illus- trations are excellent. The coloured plates accompanying Dr. L. G. Irving’s paper on miners’ phthisis are admir- ably reproduced, as also are the photomicrographs of blue ground illustrating the paper by Mr. H. Kynaston and Mr. A. L. Hall on the geological features of the diamond NATURE 465 SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 | pipes of the Pretoria district. This paper is of special interest. In the Premier pipe a remarkable bar of purple quartzite, locally known as floating reef, occurs. It appears to be a mass of Waterberg sandstone that has dropped into the pipe. The blue ground is considered to be a serpentinised peridotite breccia with a specific gravity of 2-757. That of the Kimberley blue is 2-734. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Discovery OF A Nova.—A telegram from the Kiel Centralstelle, dated September 1, announces the discovery of a new star, by Mrs. Fleming at Harvard, on August 12. Its position, referred to the equinox of 1900, is given as follows :— .=284° 2’ =18h. 56-1m. and, although the magnitude is not mentioned, the Nova is said to be fading rapidly. The position given above is near to that of A Aquile, the Nova apparently forming the apex of an equilateral AQUILA °7 Fic. 1.—Chart of region about Nova discovered by Mrs. Fleming, August, 1905. triangle which is completed by A and 12 Aquila. The accompanying chart of the surrounding region shows the approximate position of the object. : ; A later telegram from Prof. Pickering gives the value R.A.=18h. 57m. 8s. as being more correct for the right ascension of this object. WatTeR Vapour IN THE MartiaN ATMOSPHERE.—In Bulletin No. 17 of the Lowell Observatory, Mr. Lowell describes a new spectroscopic method for testing the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere of Mars, and Mr. Slipher discusses the results obtained from an experi- mental trial of the method. The principles involved are as follows :—Cosmically considered, the earth’s atmosphere is at rest as regards a terrestrial observer, whilst the Arean atmosphere partakes of the planet’s motion relative to the earth. This relative motion should be reflected in the solar spectrum, as obtained on a spectrogram of Mars, by a displacement of the lines due to the selective absorption common to both atmospheres. But in the terrestrial atmo- sphere water vapour accounts for a great deal of this absorption; therefore, if water vapour also exists in the Martian atmosphere the lines due to it should show a displacement, or at least a broadening, of such lines as those in the a band of the solar spectrum, or, with small dispersion, an extension on one side or the other of the band itself. The spectrum of the sunlight reflected by the moon, the approach or recession of which is negligible, is taken as the comparison spectrum, in which the earth’s atmospheric absorption appears alone. Mr. Slipher obtained several spectrograms of Mars and of the moon, the exposures being made when the spective bodies were at the same altitude. An examination of the @ band and of the water vapour lines near D in NO. 1871, VOL. 72| re- indicate a slight shift, but the were uncertain and discordant, and could be arrived at. So far as concerned, the spectrum of Mars as that of the equally high moon. the planet Venus, using direct sun- both spectra seemed to measurements made no definite conclusion selective absorption is seems to be the same Similar experiments on light for the comparison spectrum, were equally in- conclusive. ReaL Patus or Lyrip Merteors.—The real paths of forty April meteors, recorded during the period 1889-1903 by different observers, are given by Mr. Denning in the Observatory (August). Many of the objects observed were Lyrids, and Mr. Denning emphasises the importance of this shower and its contemporaries, and, further, gives a daily ephemeris for the Lyrid radiant, based on his own observations of 703 meteors (186 Lyrids) during the years 1873-1904. This ephemeris covers the period April 15- April 25, but its author is doubtful of the radiant’s activity on April 15, 16, and 25. On April 15 the computed posi- tion is a=2633°, 5=33°, and the latter value is constant. The right ascension, however, increases at the uniform rate of one and a quarter degrees per day. OBSERVATIONS OF SATELLITES.—In No. 4035 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. C. W. Wirtz publishes the results of a series of observations of various satellites made with the 49 cm. (about 19-inch) refractor of the Strassburg Observatory during 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1905. The results are given in a tabulated form, showing the differences between the calculated and observed position angles and distances. Dealing with Neptune’s satellite, Dr. Wirtz found that it exhibits a marked variation of apparent brightness according to its position in its orbit. In longitude 40° (or position angle 60°) it is brightest, in longitude 240° (i.e. position angle 180°) it is least bright. Saturn’s satellites, iii—viii. inclusive, are also dealt with, the positions with regard to the planet and then to each other being given. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. SECTION G. ENGINEERING. OPENING ADDRESS BY COLONEL Sir C.. Scott MONCRIEFF, K.C.S.1I., K.C.M.G., R.E., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. SclENCE has been defined as the medium through which the knowledge of the few can be rendered available to the many; and among the first to avail himself of this know- ledge is the engineer. He has created a young science, the offspring, as it were, of the older sciences, for without them engineering could have no existence. The astronomer, gazing through long ages at the heavens and laying down the courses of the stars, has taught the engineer where to find his place on the earth’s surface. The geologist has taught him where he may find the stones and the minerals which he requires, where he may count on firm rock beneath the soil to build on, where he may be certain he will find none. The chemist has taught him of the subtle gases and fluids which fill all space, and has shown him how they may be transformed and transfused for his purposes. The botanist has taught him the properties of all trees and plants, ‘* from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” And all this knowledge would be as nothing to the en- gineer had he not reaped the fruits of that most severe of all pure and noble sciences—the science of numbers and dimensions, of lines and curves and spaces, of surfaces and solids—the science of mathematics. Were I to attempt in the course of a single address to touch on all the many branches of engineering, I could do no more than repeat a number of platitudes, which you know at least as well as I do. I think, then, that it will be better to select one branch, a branch on which com- paratively little has been written, which has, I understand, a special interest for South Africa, and which has occupied the best years of my life in India, Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Egypt—I mean the science of irrigation. My 466 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 subject is water—living, life-giving water. It can surely never be a dry subject; but we all know that with the best text to preach on the preacher may be as dry as dust. Irrigation: What it Means. Irrigation may be defined as the artificial application of water to land for the purposes of agriculture. It is, then, precisely the opposite of drainage, which is the artificial removal of water from lands which have become saturated, to the detriment of agriculture. A drain, like a river, goes on increasing as affluents join it. An irrigation channel goes on diminishing as water is drawn off it. Later on I shall show you how good irrigation should always be accompanied by drainage. In lands where there is abundant rainfall, and where it falls at the right season of the year for the crop which it is intended to raise, there is evidently no need of irrigation. But it often happens that the soil and the climate are adapted for the cultivation of a more valuable crop than that which is actually raised, because the rain does not fall just when it is wanted, and there we must take to artificial measures. In other lands there is so little rain that it is practically valueless for agriculture, and there are but two alternatives —irrigation or desert. It is in countries like these that irrigation has its highest triumph; nor are such lands always to be pitied or despised. The rainfall in Cairo is on an average 1-4 inches per annum, yet lands purely agri- cultural are sold in the neighbourhood as high as 150l. an acre. This denotes a fertility perhaps unequalled in the case of any cultivation depending on rain alone, and this in spite of the fact that the Egyptian cultivator is in many respects very backward. The explanation is not far to seek. All rivers in flood carry along much more than water. Some carry alluvial matter. Some carry fine sand. Generally the deposit is a mixture of the two. I have never heard of any river that approached the Nile in the fertilising nature of the matter borne on its annual floods; with the result that the plains of Egypt have gone on through all ages, with the very minimum of help from foreign manures, yielding magnificent crops and never losing their fertility. Other rivers bring down little but barren sand, and any means of keeping it off the fields should be employed. Primitive Means of Irrigation. The earliest and simplest form of irrigation is effected by raising water from a lake, river, or well, and pouring it over the land. The water may be raised by any me- chanical power, from the brawny arms of the peasant to the newest pattern of pump. The earliest Egyptian sculp- tures show water being raised by a bucket attached to one end of a long pole, turning on an axis with a heavy counter- poise at the other end. In Egypt this is termed a shadoof, and to this day, all along the Nile banks, from morning to night brown-skinned peasants may be seen watering their fields in precisely this way. Tier above tier they ply their work so as to raise water 15 or 16 feet on to their land. By this simple contrivance it is not possible to keep more than about 4 acres watered by one shadoof, so you may imagine what an army is required to irrigate a large surface. Another method, largely used by the natives of Northern India, is the shallow bucket suspended between two strings, held by men who thus bale up the water. A step higher is the water-wheel, with buckets or pots on an endless chain around it, worked by one or a pair of bullocks. This is a very ordinary method of raising the water throughout the East, where the water-wheel is of the rudest wooden construction and the pots are of rough earthenware. Yet another method of water-raising is very common in India from wells where the spring level may be as deep as 100 feet or more. A large leathern bag is let down the well by a rope passing over a pulley and raised by a pair of bullocks, which haul the bag up as they run down a slope the depth of the well. An industrious farmer with a good well and three pairs of good bullocks can keep as much as 12 acres irrigated in Northern India, although the average is much less there. The average cost of a masonry well in India varies from 2ol. to q4ol., accord- ing to the depth required. But it is obvious that in many places the geological features of the country are such that NO; 18715, VOE. 72) well-sinking is impracticable. The most favourable con- ditions are found in the broad alluvial plains of a deltaic river, the subsoil of which may be counted on as contain- ing a constant supply of water. Pumps and Windmills. All these are the primitive water-raising contrivances of the East. Egypt has of late been more in touch with Western civilisation, and since its cotton and sugar-cane crops yield from 6/. to 8. or even iol. per acre, the well- to-do farmer can easily afford a centrifugal pump worked by steam power. Of these there are now many hundreds, fixed or portable, working on the Nile banks of Egypt. Where wind can be counted on the windmill is a very useful and cheap means of raising water. But everything depends on the force and the trustworthiness of the wind. In the dry Western States of America wind power is largely used for pumping. It is found that this power is of little use if its velocity is not at least six miles per hour. (The mean force of the wind throughout the whole United States is eight miles per hour.) Every windmill, moreover, should discharge its water into a tank. It is evident that irrigation cannot go on without cessation day and night, and it may be that the mill is pumping its best just when irrigation is least wanted. The water should, therefore, be stored till required. In America it is found that pumping by wind power is about two-thirds of the cost of steam power. With a reservoir 5 to 15 acres may be kept irrigated by a windmill. Without a reservoir 3 acres is as much as should be counted on. Windmills attached to wells from 30 to 150 feet deep cost from 30l. to 7ol. Artesian Wells. Up to now the artesian well cannot be counted on as of great value for irrigation. In the State of California there are said to be 8097 artesian wells, of a mean depth of 210 feet, discharge 0-12 cubic feet per second, and original cost on an average sol. Thirteen acres per well is a large outturn. ‘ In Algeria the French have bored more than 800 artesian wells, with a mean depth of 142 feet, and they are said to irrigate 50,000 acres. But these are scattered over a large area. Otherwise, the gathering ground would prob- ably yield a much smaller supply to each well than it now does. In Queensland artesian wells are largely used for the water supply of cattle stations, but not for irrigation. Well Irrigation. It is evident that where water has to be raised on to the field there is an outlay of human or mechanical power which may be saved if it can be brought to flow over the fields by gravitation. But there is one practical advantage in irrigating with the water raised from one’s own well or from a river. It is in the farmer’s own hands. He can work his pump and flood his lands when he thinks best. He is independent of his neighbours, and can have no dis- putes with them as to when he may be able to get water and when it may be denied to him. In Eastern countries, where corruption is rife among the lower subordinates of government, the farmer who sticks to his well knows that he will not require to bribe anyone; and so it is that in India about 13 millions of acres, or 30 per cent. of the whole annual irrigation, is effected by wells. Government may see fit to make advances to enable the farmer to find his water and to purchase the machinery for raising it ; or joint-stock companies may be formed with the same object. Beyond this all is in the hands of the landowner himself. Canal Irrigation. Irrigation on a large scale is best effected by diverting water from a river or lake into an artificial channel, and thence on to the fields. If the water surface of a river has a slope of 2 feet per mile, and a canal be drawn from it with a surface slope of 1 foot per mile, it is evident that at the end of a mile the water in the canal will be 1 foot higher than that in the river; and if the water in the river is 10 feet below the plain, at the end of 10 miles the water in the canal will be flush with the plain, and hence- forth irrigation can be effected by simple gravitation. When there is no question of fertilising deposit, and only pure water is to be had, the most favourable condition of SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 | NATURE 467 irrigation is where the canal or the river has its source of supply in a great lake. For, be the rainfall ever so heavy, the water surface in the lake will not rise very much, nor will it greatly sink at the end of a long drought. Where there is no moderating lake, a river fed from a glacier has a precious source of supply. The hotter the weather, the more rapidly will the ice melt, and this is just when irrigation is most wanted. Elsewhere, if crops are to be raised and the rain cannot be counted on, nor well irrigation be practised, water storage becomes necessary, and it is with the help of water storage that in most countries irrigation is carried on. Water Storage. To one who has not given the subject attention, surprise is often expressed at the large volume of water that has to be stored to water an acre of land. In the case of rice irrigation in India, it is found that the storage of a million cubic feet does not suffice for more than from 6 to 8 acres. For the irrigation of wheat about one-third this quantity is enough. It would never pay to excavate on a level plain a hollow large enough to hold a million cubic feet of water. It is invariably done by throwing a dam across the bed of a river or a valley and ponding up the water behind it. Many points have here to be considered: the length of dam necessary, its height, the material of which it is to be constructed, the area and the value of the land that must be submerged, the area of the land that may be watered. ‘The limits of the height of a dam are from about 150 to 15 feet. If the slope of the valley is great it may be that the volume which can be ponded up with a dam of even 150 feet is inconsiderable, and the cost may be prohibitory. On the other hand, if the country is very flat, it may be that a dam of only 20 feet high may require to be of quite an inordinate length, and compensation for the area of land to be submerged may become a very large item in the estimate. I have known of districts so flat that in order to irrigate an acre more than an acre must be drowned. This looks ridiculous, but is not really so, for the yield of an irrigated acre may be eight or ten times that of an unirrigated one; and after the storage reservoir has been emptied it is often possible to raise a good crop on the saturated bed. The advantage of a deep reservoir is, however, very great, for the evaporation is in proportion to the area of the surface, and if two reservoirs contain the same volume of water, and the depth of one is double that of the other, the loss by evaporation from the shallow one will be double that of the deep one. In India, from time immemorial, it has been the practice to store water for irrigation, and there are many thousands of reservoirs, from the great artificial lakes holding as much as 5000 or 6000 millions of cubic feet, down to the humble village tank holding not a ‘million. There are few of which the dam exceeds 80 feet in height, and such are nearly always built of masonry or concrete. For these it is absolutely necessary to have sound rock foundations. If the dam is to be of earth, the quality of the soil must be carefully seen to, and there should be a central core of puddle resting on rock and rising to the maximum height of water surface. If the dam is of masonry, there may perhaps be no harm done should the water spill over the top. If it is of earth, this must never happen, and a waste weir must be provided, if possible cut out of rock or built of the best masonry, and large enough to discharge the greatest possible flood. More accidents occur to reservoirs through the want of sufficient waste weirs or their faulty construction than from any other cause. As important as the waste weir are the outlet sluices through which the water is conveyed for the irrigation of the fields. If possible they should be arranged to serve at the same time as scouring sluices to carry off the deposit that accumulates at the bottom of the reservoir. For, unless provided with very powerful scouring sluices, sooner or later the bed of the reservoir will become silted up, and the space available for water storage will keep diminishing. As this happens in India, it is usual to go on raising the embankment (for it does not pay to dig out the deposit), and so the life of a reservoir may be prolonged for many NC. 1871, VOL. 72] years. Ultimately it is abandoned, as it is cheaper to make a new reservoir altogether than to dig out the old one. Italian Irrigation. For the study of high-class irrigation there is probably no school so good as is to be found in the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. Every variety of condition is to be found here. .The engineering works are of a very high class, and from long generations of experience the farmer knows how best to use his water. The great river Po has its rise in the foothills to the west of Piedmont. It is not fed from glaciers, but by rain and snow. It carries with it a considerable fertilising matter. Its temperature is higher than that of glacial water—a point to which much importance is attached for the very valuable meadow irrigation of winter. From the left bank of the Po, a few miles below Turin, the great Cavour Canal takes its rise, cutting right across the whole drainage of the country. It has a full-supply discharge of 3800 cubic feet per second; but it is only from October to May that it carries anything like this volume. In summer the discharge does not exceed 2200 cubic feet per second, which would greatly cripple the value of the work were it not that the glaciers of the Alps are melting then, and the great torrents of the Dora Baltea and Sesia can be counted on for a volume exceeding 6000 cubic feet per second. Lombardy is in no respects worse off than Piedmont for the means of irrigation; and its canals have the advantage of being drawn from the lakes Maggiore and Como, exer- cising a moderating influence on the Ticino and Adda rivers, which is sadly wanted on the Dora Baltea. The Naviglio Grande of Lombardy is drawn from the left bank of the Ticino, and is used largely for navigation, as well as irriga- tion. It discharges between 3000 and 4000 cubic feet per second, and nowhere is irrigation probably carried on with less expense. From between Lake Maggiore and the head of the Naviglio Grande a great new canal, the Villoresi, has been constructed during the last few years with head sluices capable of admitting 6700 cubic feet per second, of which, however, 4200 cubic feet have to be passed on to the Naviglio Grande. Like the Cavour Canal, the Villoresi crosses all the drainage coming down from the foothills to the north. This must have entailed the construction of very costly works. Irrigation in Northern India. It is in India that irrigation on the largest scale is to be found. The great plains of Northern India are peculiarly well adapted for irrigation, which is a matter of life and death to a teeming population all too well accustomed to a failure of the rain supply. The Ganges, the Jumna, and the great rivers of the Punjab have all been largely utilised for feeding irrigation canals. The greatest of these, derived from the river Chenab, and discharging from 10,500 to 3000 cubic feet per second, was begun in 1889, with the view of carrying water into a tract entirely desert and unpopulated. It was opened on a small scale in 1892, was then enlarged, and ten years after it irrigated in one year 1,829,000 acres, supporting a population of 800,000 inhabitants, colonists from more con- gested parts of India. The Ganges Canal, opened in 1854, at a time when there was not a mile of railway, and hardly a steam engine within a thousand miles, has a length of about 9900 miles, including distributing channels. It was supplemented in 1878 by a lower canal, drawn from the same river 13u miles further down, and these two canals now irrigate between them 1,700,000 acres annually. On all these canals are engineering works of a very high class. The origina’ Ganges Canal, with a width of bed of 200 feet, a depth of ro feet, and a maximum discharge of 10,000 cubic feec per second, had to cross four great torrents before it could attain to the watershed of the country, after which it could begin to irrigate. Two of these torrents are passed over the canal by broad super-passages. Over one of them the canal is carried in a majestic aqueduct of fifteen arches, each of 50 feet span; and the fourth torrent, the most difficult of all to deal with, crosses the canal at the same level, a row of forty-seven floodgates, each 10 feet wide, allowing the torrent to pass through and out of the canal. 468 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 Elsewhere there are rivers in India, rising in districts subject to certain heavy periodical rainfall, and carrying their waters on to distant plains of very uncertain rain- fall. At a small expense channels can sometimes be con- structed drawing off from the flooded river water sufficient thoroughly to saturate the soil, and render it fit to be ploughed up and sown with wheat or barley, which do not require frequent watering. The canal soon dries up, and the sown crop must take its chance; but a timely shower of rain may come in to help it, or well irrigation may mature the crop. These, which are known in India as inundation canals, are of high value. Southern India. In Southern India there are three great rivers, drawing their supply from the line of hills called the Ghats, running parallel to and near the western coast, and after a long course discharging into the Bay of Bengal on the east coast. Against the Ghats beats the whole fury of the tropical S.W. monsoon, and these rivers for a few months are in high flood. As they approach the sea they spread out in the usual deltaic form. Dams have been built across the apex of these deltas, from which canals have been drawn, and the flood waters are easily diverted over the fields, raising a rice crop of untold value in a land where drought and famine are too common. But for the other months of the year these rivers contain very little water, and there is now a proposition for supplementing them with very large reservoirs. A very bold and successful piece of irrigation engineering was carried out a few years ago in South India, which deserves notice. A river named the Periyar took its rise in the Ghats, and descended to the sea on the west coast, where there was no means of utilising the water, and a good deal of money had periodically to be spent in con- trolling its furious floods. A dam has now been built across its course, and a tunnel has been made through the mountains, enabling the reservoir to be discharged into a system of canals to the east, where there is a vast plain much in need of water. In the native State of Mysore, in Southern India, there are on the register about 40,000 irrigation reservoirs (or tanks, as they are called), or about three to every four square miles, and the nature of the country is such that hundreds may be found in the basin of one river—small tanks in the upper branches and larger ones in the lower, as the valley widens out—and these require constant watch- ful attention. From time to time tropical rainstorms sweep over the country. If then even a small tank has been neglected, and rats and porcupines have been allowed to burrow in the dam, the flood may burst through it, and sweep on and over the dam of the next village, lower down. One dam may then burst after another, like a pack of cards, and terrible loss occurs. In this State of Mysore a very remarkable irrigation reservoir is now under construction at a place called Mari Kanave. Nature seems here to have formed an ideal site for a reservoir, so that it is almost irresistible for the engineer to do his part, even although irrigation is not so badly wanted here as elsewhere. The comparatively narrow neck of a valley containing 2075 square miles is being closed by a masonry dam 142 feet high. The reservoir thus formed will contain 30,000 million cubic feet of water, but it is not considered that it will fill more than once in thirty years. Nor is there irrigable land requiring so great a volume of water. Much less would be sufficient, so such a high dam is not needed; but the construction of a waste weir to prevent the submergence of a lower dam would require such heavy excavation through one of the limiting hills that it is cheaper to raise the dam and utilise a natural hollow in the hillside for a waste weir. Irrigation in Egypt. No lecture on irrigation would be complete without describing what has been done in Egypt. You are gene- rally familiar with the shape of that famous little country. Egypt proper extends northwards from a point in the Nile about 780 miles above Cairo—a long valley, never eight miles wide, sometimes not half a mile. East and west of this lies a country broken into hills and valleys, wild NO. 1871, VOL. 72] | crags, level stretches, but everywhere absolutely sterile, dry sand and rock, at such a level that the Nile flood has never reached it to cover its nakedness with fertile deposit. A few miles north of Cairo the river bifurcates, and its two branches flow each for about 130 miles to the sea. As you are probably aware, with rivers in a deltaic state the tendency is for the slope of the country to be away from the river, and not towards it. In the Nile Valley the river banks are higher than the more distant lands. From an early period embankments were formed along each side of the river, high enough not to be topped by the highest flood. At right angles to these river embankments others were constructed, dividing the whole valley into a series of oblongs, surrounded on three sides by embankments, on the fourth by the desert heights. These oblong areas vary from about 50,000 to 3000 acres. I have said the slope of the valley is away from the river. It is easy, then, when the Nile is low, to cut short deep canals in the river banks, which fill as the river rises and carry the precious mud- charged water into these great flats. There the water remains for a month or more, some three or four feet deep, depositing its mud, and then at the end of the flood it may either be run off direct into the receding river, or cuts may be made in the cross embankments and the water passed off one flat after another, and finally rejoin the river. This takes place in November, when the river is rapidly falling. Whenever the flats are firm enough to allow a man to walk over them with a pair of bullocks, the mud is roughly turned over with a wooden plough, or even the branch of a tree, and wheat or barley is imme- diately sown. So soaked is the soil after the flood that the seed germinates, sprouts, and ripens in April without a drop of rain or any more irrigation, except what, perhaps, the owner may give from a shallow well dug in the field. In this manner was Egypt irrigated up to about a century ago. The high river banks which the flood could not cover were irrigated directly from the river, the water being raised as I have already described. The Barrage. With the last century, however, appeared a very striking figure in Egyptian history, Muhammed Ali Pasha, who came from Turkey a plain captain of infantry, and before many years had made himself master of the country, yield- ing only a very nominal respect to his suzerain lord, the Sultan at Constantinople. Muhammed Ali soon system of irrigation only year, while with such a recognised that with this flood one cereal crop was raised in the climate and such a soil, with a teeming population and with the markets of Europe so near, something far more valuable might be raised. Cotton and sugar-cane would fetch far higher prices; but they could only be grown at a season when the Nile is low, and they must be watered at all seasons. The water-surface at low Nile is about 25 feet below the flood-surface, or more than 20 feet below the level of the country. A canal, then, running 12 feet deep in the flood would have its bed 13 feet above the low-water surface. Muhammed Ali ordered the canals in Lower Egypt to be deepened; but this was an enormous labour, and as they were badly laid out and graded they became full of mud during the flood and required to be dug out afresh. Muhammed Ali was then advised to raise the water-surface by erecting a dam (or, as the French called it, a barrage) across the apex of the delta, twelve miles north of Cairo, and the result was a very costly and imposing work, which it took long years and untold wealth to construct, and which was no sooner finished than it was condemned as useless, Egyptian Irrigation since the English Occupation. With the English occupation in 1883 came some English engineers from India, who, supported by the strong arm of Lord Cromer, soon changed the situation. The first object of their attention was the barrage at the head of the delta, which was made thoroughly sound in six years and capable of holding up 15 feet of water. Three great canals were taken from above it, from which a network of branches are taken, irrigating the province to the left of the western, or Rosetta branch of the river, the two provinces between the branches, and the two to the right of the eastern, or Damietta branch. SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE 469 In Upper Egypt, with one very important exception (the Ibrahimieh Canal, which is a perennial one), the early flood system of irrigation, yielding one crop a year, pre- vailed until very recently, but it was immensely improved after the British occupation by the addition of a great number of masonry head sluices, aqueducts, escape weirs, &c., on which some 800,000]. was spent. With the com- pletion of these works, and of a complete system of drain- age, to be alluded to further on, it may be considered that the irrigation system of Egypt was put on a very satisfactory basis. There was not much more left to do, unless the volume of water at disposal could be increased. Probably no large river in the world is so regular as the Nile in its periods of low supply and of flood. It rises steadily in June, July, and August. Then it begins to go down, at first rapidly, then slowly, till the following June. Tt is never a month before its time, never a month behind. It is subject to no exceptional floods from June to June. Where it enters Egypt the difference between maximum and minimum Nile is about 25 feet. If it rises 3} feet higher the country is in danger of serious flooding. If in former days its rise was 6 feet short of the average there existed a great risk that the floods would not cover the extensive flats of Upper Egypt, and thus the ground would remain as hard as stone, and sowing in November would be im- possible. Fortunately the good work of the last twenty years very much diminishes this danger. The Assuan Dam and Reservoir. In average years the volume of water flowing past Cairo in September is from thirty-five to forty times the volume in June. By far the greater part of this flood flows out to the sea useless. How to catch and store this supply for use the following May and June was a problem early pressed on the English engineers in Egypt. During the time of the highest flood the Nile carries along with it an immense amount of alluvial matter, and when it was first proposed to store the flood-water the danger seemed to be that the reservoir would in a few years be filled with deposit, as those I have described in India. Fortunately it was found that after November the water was fairly clear, and that if a commencement were made even as late as that there would still be water enough capable of being stored to do enormous benefit to the irrigation. A site for a great dam was discovered at Assuan, 600 miles south of Cairo, where a dyke of granite rock crosses the valley of the river, occasioning what is known as the First Cataract. On this ridge of granite a stupendous work has now been created. A great wall of granite 6400 feet long has been thrown across the valley, 23 feet thick at the crest, 82 feet at the base. Its height above the rock-bed of the river is 130 feet. This great wall or dam holds up a depth of 66 feet of water, which forms a lake of more than 100 miles in length up the Nile Valley, con- taining 38,000 million cubic feet of water. The dam is pierced with 180 sluices, or openings, through which the whole Nile flood, about 360,000 cubic feet per second, is discharged. A flight of four locks, each 26030 feet, allows of free navigation past the dam. The foundation-stone of this great work was laid in February 1899, and it was completed in less than four years. At the same time a very important dam of the pattern of the barrage north of Cairo was built across the Nile at Assiut, just below the head of the Ibrahimieh Canal, not with the object of storing water, but to enable a requisite supply at all times to be sent down that canal. The chief use of the great Assuan reservoir is to enable perennial irrigation, such as exists in Lower Egypt, to be substituted in Upper Egypt for the basin system of water- ing the land only through the Nile flood; that is, to enable two crops to be grown instead of one every year, and to enable cotton and sugar-cane to take the place of wheat and barley. But a great deal more had to be done in order to obtain the full beneficial result of the work. About 450,000 acres of basin irrigation are now being adapted for perennial irrigation. Many new canals thave had to be dug, others to be deepened. Many new masonry works have had to be built. It is probable the NO. 1871, VOL. 72] works will be finished in 1rg08. There will then have been spent on the great dam at Assuan, the minor one at Assiut, and the new canals of distribution in Upper Egypt about six and a half millions sterling. For this sum the increase of land rental will be about 2,637,000l., and its sale value will be increased by about 26,570,000l. Drainage. In the great irrigation systems which I have been describing, for a long time little or no attention was paid to drainage. It was taken for granted that the water would be absorbed or evaporated, and get away some- how without doing any harm. This may hold good for high-lying lands, but alongside of these are low-lying lands into which the irrigation water from above will percolate and produce waterlogging and marsh. Along with the irrigation channel should be constructed the drainage channel, and Sir W. Willcocks, than whom there is no better authority on this subject, recommends that the capacity of the drain should be one-third that of the canal. The two should be kept carefully apart—the canal following the ridges, the drain following the hollows of the country, and one in no case obstructing the other. This subject of drainage early occupied the attention of the English engineers in Egypt. In the last twenty years many hundred miles of drains have been excavated, some as large as 50 feet width of bed and 1o feet deep. Irrigation in America. If it is to Italy that we should look for highly finished irrigation works and careful water distribution, and to India and Egypt for widespreading tracts of watered land, it is to America that we naturally look for rapid progress and bold engineering. In the Western States of America there is a rainfall of less than 20 inches per annum, the consequence of which is a very rapid development of irrigation works. In 1889 the irrigation of these Western States amounted to 3,564,416 acres. In 1900 it amounted to 7,539,545 acres. Now it is at least 10,000,000 acres. The land in these States sells from ros. to 1/. per acre if unirrigated. With irrigation the same land fetches 8/. tos. per acre. The works are often rude and of a temporary nature, the extensive use of timber striking a foreigner from the Old World. Some of the American canals are on a large scale. The Idaho Company’s canal discharges 2585 cubic feet, the Turlook Canal in California 1500 cubic feet, and the North Colorado Canal 2400 cubic feet per second. These canals have all been constructed by corporations or societies, in no case by Government. On an average it has cost about 32s. per acre to bring the water on to the land, and a water-rate is charged of from 21. 8s. to 4l. per acre, the farmer paying in addition a rate of from 2s. to ros. per acre annually for mainten- ance. Distributary channels of less than 5 feet wide cost less than t1ool., up to 10 feet wide about rsol. per mile. The Introduction of Irrigation into a Country. It is evident that there are many serious considerations to be taken into account before entering on any large project for irrigation. Statistics must be carefully collected of rainfall, of the sources of water supply available, and of the amount of that rainfall which it is possible to store and utilise. The water should be analysed if there is any danger of its being brackish. Its temperature should be ascertained. It should be considered what will be the effect of pouring water on the soil, for it is not always an unmixed benefit. A dry climate may be changed into a moist, and fever and ague may follow. In India there are large tracts of heavy black soil, which with the ordinary rainfall produce excellent crops nine years out of ten, and where irrigation would rather do harm than good. But in the tenth year the rains fail, and without artificial irrigation the soil will yield nothing. So terrible may be the misery caused by that tenth year of drought that even then it might pay a Government to enter on a scheme of irrigation. But it is evident that it might not pay a joint-stock company. In all cases it is of the first importance to establish by law the principle that all rivers or streams above a certain size are national property, to be utilised for the good of 470 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 the nation. Even where there is no immediate intention of constructing irrigation works it is well to establish this principle. Otherwise vested rights may be allowed to spring up, which it may be necessary 1n after years to buy out at a heavy cost. Modes of Distributing and Assessing Water. Where the river is too inconsiderable to be proclaimed as national property, and where there is no question of spreading the water broadcast over the land, but of bestowing it with minute accuracy over small areas to rear valuable plants, such as fruit-trees, it may be very well left to local societies or to syndicates of farmers to manage their own affairs. Where irrigation is on a larger scale, and its administration is a matter of national importance, the control of the water requires the closest consideration, especially if, as is usually the case, the area which may be irrigated exceeds the volume of water available to irrigate it, and where the water is delivered to the fields by gravitation without the labour of raising it. It must be decided on what principle the farmer’s right to the water is to be determined. Is he to obtain water in proportion to the area of his land which is irrigable? If part of the irrigable land is not yet cultivated, is some of the supply to be reserved for such land? Is he to pay in proportion to the area actually watered each crop, or to the area which he might water if he chose? Where the slope of the land is sufficient to allow the water to flow freely out of a sluice into the field channel, it is not difficult to measure the water discharged. Modules have been invented for this purpose, and the owner of the field may be required to pay for so many cubic feet of water delivered. The Government or the association own- ing the canal will then have nothing to do with the way in which the water is employed, and self-interest will force the farmer to exercise economy in flooding his land. But even then precautions must be taken to prevent him from keeping his sluice open when it should be shut. In Italy and in America water is generally charged by the module; but in many cases, where the country is very flat, the water cannot fall with a free drop out of the sluice, and, as far as I know, no satisfactory module has yet been invented for delivering a constant discharge through a sluice when the head of water in the channel of supply is subject to variation. These are the conditions prevailing in the plains of Northern India, where there is a yearly area of canal irrigation of about six millions of acres. The cultivator pays not in proportion to the volume of water he uses, but on the area he waters every crop, the rate being higher or lower according as the nature of the crop demands more or less water. The procedure of charging for water is, then, as follows : When the crop is nearly ripe the canal watchman, with the village accountant and the farmers interested, go over the fields with a Government official. The watchman points out a field which he says has been watered. The accountant, who has a map and field-book of the village, states the number and the area of the field and its culti- vator. These are recorded along with the nature of the crop watered. If the cultivator denies that he has received water, evidence is heard and the case is settled. A bill is then made out for each cultivator, and the amount is recovered with the taxes. This system is perfectly understood, and works fairly well in practice. But it is not a satisfactory one. It holds out no inducement to the cultivator to economise water, and it leaves the door open to a great deal of corruption among the canal watchmen and the subordinate revenue officials. Government. Control of Water Supply. Where the subject agricultural population is unfitted for representative government it is best that the Government should construct and manage the irrigation, on rules care- fully considered and rigorously enforced, through the agency of officers absolutely above suspicion of corruption or unfair dealing. Such is the condition in Egypt and in the British possessions in India. Objections to it are evident enough. Officials are apt to be formal and in- NO. 1871, VOL. 72] elastic, and they are often far removed from any close touch with the cultivating classes. But they are impartial and just, and I know of no other system that has not still greater defects. 7 ; Even if the agricultural classes in India were much better educated than they are, it would still be best that the control of the irrigation should rest with the Govern- ment. By common consent it is the Government alone that rules the army. Now the irrigation works form a great army, of which the first duty is to fight the grim demon of famine. Their control ought, therefore, to rest with the Government; but the conditions are very different when the agricultural classes are well educated and well fitted to manage their own affairs. ‘ Irrigation is too new and experimental in America for us to look there for a well-devised scheme of water control. The laws and rules on the subject vary in different States, and are often contradictory. It is better to look at the system evolved after long years in North Italy. The Italian System. I have already alluded to the great Cavour Canal in Piedmont. This fine work was constructed by a syndicate of English and French capitalists, to whom the Govern- ment gave a concession in 1862. Circumstances to which I need not allude ruined this company, and the Govern- ment, who already had acquired possession of many other irrigation works in Piedmont, took over the whole Cavour Canal in 1874, a property valued at above four millions sterling, and ever since the Government has adminis- tered it. The chief interest of this administration centres on the Irrigation Association West of the Sesia,* an association that owes its existence to the great Count Cavour. It takes over from the Government the control of all the irrigation effected by the Cavour and other minor canals within a great triangle lying between the left bank of the Po and the right bank of the Sesia. The association purchases from the Government from 1250 to 1300 cubic feet per second. In addition to this it has the control of all the water belonging to private canals and private rights, which it purchases at a fixed rate. Altogether it distributes about 2275 cubic feet per second, and irrigates therewith about 141,000 acres, of which rice is the most important crop. The association has 14,000 members, and controls 9600 miles of distributary channels. In each parish is a council, or, as it is called, a consorzio, com- posed of all landowners who take water. Each consorzio elects one or two deputies, who form a sort of water- parliament. The deputies are elected for three years, and receive no salary. The assembly of deputies elects three committees—the direction-general, the committee of surveillance, and the council of arbitration. The first of these committees has to direct the whole distribution of the waters, to see to the conduct of the employés, &c. The committee of surveillance has to see that the direc- tion-general does its duty. The council of arbitration, which consists of three members, has most important duties. To it may be referred every question connected with water-rates, all disputes between members of the association or between the association and,its servants, all cases of breaches of rule or of discipline. It may punish by fines any member of the association found at fault, and the sentences it imposes are recognised as obligatory, and the offender’s property may be sold up to carry them into effect. An appeal may be made within fifteen days from the decisions of this council of arbitra- tion to the ordinary law courts, but so popular is the council that, as a matter of fact, such appeals are never made. To effect the distribution of the water the area irrigated is divided into districts, in each of which there is an overseer in charge and a staff of guards to see to the opening and closing of the modules which deliver the water into the minor watercourses. In the November of each year each, parish sends in to the direction-general an indent of the number of acres of each description of 1 See Mr. Elwood Mead’s “‘ Report on Irrigation in Northern Traly,"* rrinted for the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1904. SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE crop proposed to be watered in the following year. If the water is available the direction-general allots to each parish the number of modules necessary for this irriga- tion; but it may quite well happen that the parish may demand more than can be supplied, and may have to substitute a crop like wheat, requiring little water, for ice, which requires a great deal. ; The Government executes and pays for all repairs on the main canals. It further executes, at the cost of the Irrigation Association, all repairs on the minor canals. The association, then, has no engineers in its employ, but a large staff of irrigators. The irrigation module employed in Piedmont is supposed to deliver 2-047 cubic feet per second. The Association West of the Sesia buys from the Government what water it requires at a rate fixed at 800 liras per module, or 15]. 12s. 7d. per cubic foot per second per annum. The association distributes the water by module to each district, and the district by module to each parish. Inside the parish each farmer pays, according to the area he waters, a sum to cover all the cost of the maintenance of the irrigation system, and his share of the sum which the association has to pay to the Government. This sum varies from year to year according as the working expenses of the year increase or diminish. I have already mentioned the recently constructed Villoresi Canal in Lombardy. This canal belongs to a company, to whom the Government has given large ‘concessions. This company sells its water wholesale to four districts, each having its own secondary canal, the cubic metre per second, or 35-31 cubic feet per second, being the unit employed. These districts, again, retail ‘the water to groups of farmers termed comizios, whose lands are watered by the same distributary channels, their unit being the litre, or 0-035 cubic foot, per second. Within ‘the comizio the farmer pays according to the number of hours per week that he has had the full discharge of the module. I have thought it worth while to describe at some ength the systems employed on these Italian canals, for the Italian farmers set a very high example, in the loyal way in which they submit to regulations which there must at times be a great temptation to break. A sluice ‘surreptitiously opened during a dark night, and allowed to run for six hours, may quite possibly double the value of the crop which it waters. It is not an easy matter to distribute water fairly and justly between a number of farms at different levels, dependent on different water- courses, cultivating different crops. But in Piedmont this is done with such success that an appeal from the council of arbitration to the ordinary law courts is unheard of. It is thought apparently as discreditable to appropriate an unfair supply of water as to steal a neighbour's horse, as discreditable to tamper with the lock of the water module as with the lock of a neighbour’s barn. Mr. Schuyler’s Views as to Government Control. Where such a high spirit of honour prevails I do not see why syndicates of farmers should not construct and maintain a good system of irrigation. Nevertheless, I ‘believe it is better that Government should take the initiative in laying out and constructing the canals and secondary channels at least. A recent American author, Mr. James Dix Schuyler, has put on record: ‘* That storage reservoirs are a necessary and_ indispensable adjunct to irrigation development, as well as to the utilisation of power, requires no argument to prove. That they will become more and more necessary to our Western civilisation is equally sure and certain; but the signs of the times seem to point to the inevitable necessity of Governmental control in their construction, ownership, and administration.” This opinion should not be disregarded. Sir W. Will- cocks has truly remarked: ‘‘ If private enterprise cannot succeed in irrigation works of magnitude in America, it will surely not succeed in any other country in this world.” What its chances may be in South Africa I leave to my “hearers to say. It is not a subject on which a stranger «can form an opinion. NO 1871, VOL. 72] SECTION H. ANTHROPOLOGY. Opreninc ApprEss By A. C. Happon, Sc.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. THERE are various ways in which man can study him- self, and it is clearly impossible for me to attempt to give an exposition of all the aims and methods of the anthro- pological sciences; I propose, therefore, to limit myself to a general view of South African ethnology, incidentally referring to a few of the problems that strike a European observer as needing further elucidation. It seems some- what presumptuous in one who is now for the first time visiting this continent to venture to address a South African audience on local ethnology, but I share this disability with practically all students of anthropology at home, and my excuse lies in the desire that I may be able to point out to you some of the directions in which the information of anthropologists is deficient, with the hope that this may be remedied in the immediate future. Men are naturally apt to take an exclusive interest in their immediate concerns, and even anthropologists are liable to fall into the danger of studying men’s thoughts and deeds by themselves, without taking sufficient account of the outside influences that affect mankind. In the sister science of zoology, it is possible to study animals as machines which are either at rest or in motion: when they are thus studied individually, the subjects are termed anatomy and physiology; when they are studied comparatively, they are known as comparative anatomy or morphology and comparative physiology. The study of the genesis of the machine is embryology, and palzonto- logists, as it were, turn over the scrap-heap. All these sciences can deal with animals irrespective of their environ- ment, and perhaps for intensive study such a limitation is temporarily desirable, but during the period of greatest specialisation there have always been some who have followed in the footsteps of the field naturalist, and to-day we are witnessing a combination of the two lines of study. Biology has ceased to be a mixture of necrology and physiology; it seeks to obtain a survey of all the con- ditions of existence, and to trace the effects of the environ- ment on the organism, of the organism on the environ- ment, and of organism upon organism. Much detailed work will always be necessary, and we shall never be able to do without isolated laboratory work; but the day is past when the amassing of detailed information will satisfy the demands of science. The leaders, at all events, will view the subject as a whole, and so direct individual labour that the hewers of wood and drawers of water, as it were, shall not mechanically amass material of which no immediate use can be made, but they will be so directed that all their energies can be exercised in solving definite problems or in filling up gaps in our information, with knowledge which is of real importance. This tendency, which I have indicated as affecting the science of zoology, is merely one phase of an attitude of mind that is influencing many departments of thought. There are psychologists and theologians who deem it worth while to find out what other people think and _ believe. Arm-chair philosophers are awakening to the fact that their studies have hitherto been confined almost exclusively to the most highly specialised conditions, and that in order to comprehend these fully it is necessary to study the less and the yet less specialised conditions; for it is only possible to gain the true history of mind or belief by a combination of the observational with the comparative method. A considerable amount of information has already been acquired, but in most departments of human thought and belief vastly more information is needed, and hitherto the trustworthiness of a great deal that has been published is not above suspicion. The comparative or evolutionary historian also needs trustworthy facts concerning the social condition of varied peoples in all stages of culture. The documentary records of history are too imperfect to enable the whole story to be unravelled, so recourse must be had to a study of analogous conditions elsewhere for side-lights which will cast illuminating beams into the dark corners of ancient history. When the historian seriously turns his attention 472 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 to the mass of data accumulated in books of travel, in records of expeditions, or the assorted material in the memoirs of students, he will doubtless be surprised to find how much there is that will be of service to him. Sociologists have not neglected this field, but they need more information and more exhaustive and precise analyses of existing conditions. The available material is of such importance and interest, that the pleasure of the reader is apt to dull his critical faculty; as a matter of fact, the social conditions of extremely few peoples are accurately known, and sooner or later—generally sooner—the student finds his authorities failing him from lack of thoroughness. I have alluded to the subjects of psychology, theology, history, and sociology, because they all overlap that area over which the anthropologist prowls. Indeed it is our work to collect, sift, and arrange the facts which may be utilised by our colleagues in these other branches of inquiry, and to this extent the ethnologist is also a psychologist, a theologian, a historian, and a sociologist. Similarly the anthropographer provides material for the biologist on the one hand, and for the geographer on the other. As a general rule those who have investigated any given people in the field have alluded to the general features of the country they inhabit, so that usually it is possible to gain some conception of them in their natural surround- ings. Thus, to a certain extent, materials are available for tracing that interaction between life and environment and between organisms themselves, to which the term GEcology is now frequently applied, but we still need to have this interdependence more recognised in such branches of inquiry as descriptive sociology or religion. Just as the arts and crafts of a people are influenced by their environment, so is their social life similarly affected, and their religion reflects the stage of social culture to which they have attained; for it must never be overlooked that the religious conceptions of a people cannot be thoroughly understood apart from their social, cultural, and physical conditions. This may appear a trite remark, but I would like to emphasise the fact that very careful and detailed studies of definite or limited areas are urgently needed, rather than a general description of a number of peoples which does not exhaust any one of them—in a word, what we now need is thoroughness. Three main groups of indigenous peoples inhabit South Africa—the Bushmen, the Hottentots, and various Bantu tribes; in more northerly parts of the continent there are the Negrilloes, commonly spoken of as Pygmies, the Negroes proper, and Hamitic peoples, not to speak of Arab and Semitic elements. Kattea. Before proceeding further I must here make allusion to an obscure race who may possibly be the true aborigines of Africa south of the Zambesi. These are the Kattea— or Vaalpens, as they are nicknamed by the Boers, on account of the dusty colour their abdomen acquires from the habit of creeping into their holes in the ground—who live in the steppe region of the North Transvaal, as far as the Limpopo. As their complexion is almost a pitch- black, and their stature only about 1-220 m. (4 ft.), they are quite distinct from their tall Bantu neighbours and from the yellowish Bushmen. The ‘‘ Dogs,” or ‘‘ Vul- tures,’’ as the Zulus call them, are the ‘‘ lowest of the low,’’ being undoubtedly cannibals and often making a meal of their own aged and infirm, which the Bushmen never do. Their habitations are holes in the ground, rock shelters, and lately a few hovels. They have no arts or industries, nor even any weapons except those obtained in exchange for ostrich feathers, skins, or ivory. Whether they have any religious ideas it is impossible to say, all intercourse being restricted to barter carried on in a gesture language, for nobody has ever yet mastered their tongue, all that is known of their language being that it is absolutely distinct from that of both the Bushman and the Bantu. There are no tribes, merely little family groups of from thirty to fifty individuals, each of which is presided over by a headman, whose functions are acquired, not by heredity, but by personal qualities. I NO. 1871, VOL. 72] have compiled this account of this most interesting people from Prof. A. H. Keane’s book, ‘‘ The Boer States,’’ in the hope that a serious effort will be made to investigate what appears to be the most primitive race of all man- kind. So little information is available concerning the Kattea that it is impossible to say anything about their racial affinities. Perhaps these are the people referred to by Stow (p. 40), and possibly allied to these are the dwarfs on the Nosop River mentioned by Anderson; these were 1-125 m. (4 ft. 4 in.) or less in height, of a reddish-brown colour, with no forehead and a projecting mouth; Anderson’s Masara Bushmen repudiated any suggestion of relationship with them, saying they were ‘‘ monkeys, not men.” Bushmen, The San, or Bushmen (Bosjesman of colonial annals), may, with the possible exception of the Kattea, be re- garded as the most primitive of the present inhabitants of South Africa; according to most authors, there is no decisive evidence that there was an earlier aboriginal population, although M. G. Bertin informs us that Bush- man tales always speak of previous inhabitants. The main physical characteristics of the Bushmen are a yellow skin, and very short, black, woolly hair, which becomes rolled up into little knots; although of quite short stature, with an average height of 1-529 m. (5 ft. ot in.), or, according to Schinz, 1-570 m. (5 ft. 12 in.), they are above the pygmy limit of 1-450 m. (4 ft. 9 in.). The very small skull is not particularly narrow, being what is termed sub-dolichocephalic, with an index of about 75, and it is markedly low in the crown; the face is straight, with prominent cheekbones and a bulging forehead; the nose is extremely broad— indeed, the Bushmen are the most platyrrhine of all man- kind; the ear has an unusual form, and is without the lobe. Their hands and feet are remarkably small. Being nomadic hunters the Bushmen could only attain to the rudiments of material culture. The dwellings were portable, mat-covered, dome-shaped huts, but they often lived in caves; the Zulus say ‘‘ their village is where they kill game; they consume the whole of it and go away.’” Clothing consisted solely of a small skin; for weapons they had small bows and poisoned arrows. Their only imple- ment was a perforated rounded stone into which a stick was inserted; this was used for digging up roots. A very little coarse pottery was occasionally made. Although with a great dearth of personal ornaments, they had a fair amount of pictorial skill, and were fond of decorating their rock shelters with spirited coloured representations of men and animals. They frequently cut off the terminal joint of a little finger. They never were cannibals. Cairns of stones were erected over graves. Although they are generally credited with being vindictive, passionate, and cruel, they were as a matter of fact always friendly and hospitable to strangers until dispossessed of their hunt- ing grounds. They did not fight one another, but were an unselfish, merry, cheerful race with an intense love of freedom. A great mass of unworked material exists for the elucid- ation of the religious ideas, legends, customs, and so forth, of the Bushmen, in the voluminous native texts, filling eighty-four volumes, to the collection of which the late Dr. Bleek devoted his laborious life. This wonderful collection of the folklore of one of the most interesting of peoples still remains inaccessible to students in the Grey Library in Cape Town. A more enlightened policy in the past would have enabled Dr. Bleek to publish his own material; now the task is complicated by the great difficulty of finding competent translators and of securing the services of trustworthy natives who know their own folklore. The time during which this labour can be ade- quately accomplished is fleeting rapidly, and once more the Government must be urged to complete and publish the life-work of this devoted scholar. The Mananja natives, who live south of Lake Shirwa, assert that formerly there lived on the upper plateau of the mountain mass of Mlanje a people they call Arungu, or ‘ gods,”’ who from their description must have been Bushmen. Relics of Bushman occupation have been found in the neighbourhood of Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika. SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE 473 West of the Arangi plateau in German East Africa, between the steppes occupied by the Wanyamwezi and the Masai, live the Wasandawi, a settled hunting people who, according to Baumann, are very different from the sur- rounding Bantu peoples, and who are allied to the more primitive, wandering, hunting Wanege, or Watindiga, of the steppes near Usukuma. They use the bow and poisoned arrow. Their language, radically distinct from Bantu, is full of those strange click sounds which are characteristic of Bushman speech; but Sir Harry Johnston says that he does not know if any actual relationship has been pointed out in the vocabulary, and he distinctly states that the Sandawi are not particularly like the Bushmen in their physique, but more resemble the Nandi; and Virchow declares there is no relationship between the Wasandawi and the Hottentot in skull-form. Until further evidence is collected, one can only say that there may have been a Bushman people here who have become greatly modified by intermixture with other races. Sir Harry Johnston thinks that possibly traces of these people still exist among the flat-faced, dwarfish Doko, who live to the north of Lake Stephanie, and he is inclined to think that traces of them occur also among the Andorobo and Elgunono. If the foregoing evidence should prove to be trust- worthy, it would seem that at a very early time the Bushmen occupied the hunting grounds of tropical East Africa, perhaps even to the confines of Abyssinia. They gradually passed southwards, keeping along the more open grass lands of the eastern mountainous zone, where they could still preserve their hunting method of life, until, at the dawn of history, they roamed over all the territory south of the Zambesi, with the exception of the eastern seaboard. Negrilloes. Material does not at present exist for an exhaustive discussion of the exact relationship between the Bushmen and the Negrilloes of the Equatorial forests. On the whole I am inclined to agree with Sir Harry Johnston, who says: “‘I can see no physical features other than dwarfishness which are obviously peculiar to both Bush- men and Congo Pygmies. On the contrary, in the large and often protuberant eyes, the broad flat nose with its exaggerated alz, the long upper lip and but slight degree of eversion of the inner mucous surface of the lips, the abundant hair on head and body, relative absence of wrinkles, of steatopygy, and of high protruding cheek- bones, the Congo dwarf differs markedly from the Hottentot-Bushman type.’’ Shrubsall had previously stated: ‘‘ For the present I can only say that the data seem to me too insufficient to enable the affinities of the various pygmy races to be clearly demonstrated, or to allow of much significance being attached to any apparent resemblance.’’ Deniker also directs attention to the physical characters that distinguish those two types, and he concludes that ‘‘ nothing justifies their unification.” Hottentots. The skin of the Hottentots, or Khoikhoi, as they style themselves, is of a brownish-yellow, with a tinge of grey, sometimes of red; the hair is very similar to that of the Bushmen; the average stature is 1-604 m. (5 ft. 3 in.); the head is small and distinctly dolichocephalic (74), the jaws prognathic, cheekbones prominent, and chin small. Shrubsall, who has investigated the osteological evidence, says no hard-and-fast line can be drawn from craniological evidence between Hottentots and Bushmen on the one hand and Negroid races on the other, various transitional forms being found; but Bushman characteristics undoubtedly predominate in the true Hottentots. The Hottentots were grouped in clans, each with its hereditary chief, whose authority, however, was very limited. Several clans were loosely united to form tribes. Their principal property consisted of horned cattle and sheep; the former were very skilfully trained. The dwell- ings were portable, mat-covered, dome-shaped huts. For weapons they had a feeble bow with poisoned arrows, but they also had assegais and knobkerries or clubbed sticks used as missiles; coarse pottery was made. They were often described as mild and amiable. The Hottentot migration from the eastern mountainous NO. 1871, VOL. 72] zone took place very much later than that of the Bushmen, and it seems to have been due mainly to the pressure from behind of the waxing Bantu peoples. These pastoral nomads took a south-westerly course across the savanna country, and if the tsetse fly had the same distribution then as now they probably, more or less, followed the right bank of the Zambesi, then struck across to the Kunene north of the desert land, and worked their way down the west coast and along the southern shore of the continent. What is now Cape Colony was inhabited solely by Bushmen and Hottentots at the time of the arrival of the Europeans. As the latter expanded they drove the aborigines before them, but in the meantime mongrel peoples had arisen, mainly of Boer-Hottentot parentage, who also were forced to migrate. Those of the Cape Hottentots who were not exterminated or enslaved drifted north and found in Bushman Land an asylum from their pursuers. The north-east division of the Hottentots com- prises the Koranna, or Goraqua; they were an important people, despite the fact that they had no permanent home. They migrated along the Orange River—one section went up the right bank of the Harts and the other went up the Vaal until they were deflected by the Bechuana. When the Boers in 1858 were engaged with the Basuto, the Koranna devastated the Orange Free State, but were themselves ultimately destroyed. The original home of the Griqua was in the neighbourhood of the Olifant River ; in the middle of the eighteenth century the colonists settled in the land, and as a result the Griqua-Bastards retreated to the east under the leadership of the talented Adam and Cornelius Kok. They adopted the name Griqua in place of the earlier one of Bastard; one split founded Griqua Town in Griqualand West, but the other went further east and eventually settled east of the Drakensberg, between Natal and Basutoland, and occupied the country devastated by Chaka’s wars. Here rose the chief town, Kokstadt, in Griqualand East, where a few Griqua still live. The interesting little nation of the Bastards, de- scendants of unions between Europeans, mostly Boers, and Hottentot women, now mixes very little with other peoples. They were forced in 1868 to leave their home in Great Bushmanland owing to the ravages of Bushmen and Koranna, and finally, after various wanderings and vicissi- tudes, they settled as four communities in Great Namaqua- land, in German territory. Namaqualand is too in- fertile to attract colonists, and thus it forms an asylum for expatriated Hottentots as well as for the Namaqua division of the Hottentots, the original inhabitants of the country. True Negroes. One of the most primitive populations of Africa is that of the true, or West Africa, Negroes. At present this element is mainly confined to the Sudan and the Guinea Coast. The main physical characteristics of the true Negro are: ‘black ’? skin, woolly hair, tall stature, averaging about 1-730 m. (5 ft. 8 in.), moderate dolichocephaly, with an average cephalic index of 74-75. Flat, broad nose, thick and often everted lips, frequent prognathism. West African culture contains some _ characteristic features. The natives build gable-roofed huts; their weapons include spears with socketed heads, bows taper- ing at each end with bowstrings of vegetable products, swords and plaited shields, but no clubs or slings. Among the musical instruments are wooden drums and a peculiar form of guitar, in which each string has its own support. Clothing is of bark-cloth and palm-fibre, and there is a notable preponderance of vegetable ornaments. Circum- cision is common and the knocking out of the upper incisors. With regard to religion, there is a great develop- ment of fetishism and incipient polytheistic systems. Colonel Ellis has proved in a masterly manner the gradual evolution of religion from west to east along the Guinea Coast, and this is associated with an analogous progress in the laws of descent and succession to property, and in the rise of government. He further suggests that differ- ences in the physical character of each country in question have played a great part in this progressive evolution. Here also are to be found secret societies, masks and re- presentations of human figures. The ordeal by poison is employed, chiefly for the discovery of witchcraft; anthro- 474 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 pophagy occurs. The domestic animals are the dog, goat, pig, and hen. Cattle are absent owing to the tsetse fly. The plants originally cultivated were beans, gourds, bananas, and perhaps earth-nuts. Coiled basketry and head-rests are absent. That branch of the true Negro stock which spake the mother-tongue of the Bantu languages some 3000 years ago (according to Sir Harry Johnston’s estimate) spread over the area of what is now Uganda and British East Africa. In the Nile valley these people probably mixed with Negrilloes, and possibly with the most northerly representatives of the Bushmen in the high lands to the east. Here also they came into contact with Hamitic peoples coming down from the north, and their amalgam- ation constituted a new breed of Negro—the Bantu. We have already seen what are some of the more important physical characteristics of the Negro, Negrillo, and Bush- man stocks; it only remains to note in what particulars they were modified by the new blood. Hamites. The Hamites are to be regarded as the true indigenous element in North Africa, from Morocco to Somaliland. Two main divisions of this stock are generally recognised : (1) the Northern or Western Hamites (or Mediterranean race of some authors), of which the purest examples are perhaps to be found among the Berbers; and (2) the Eastern Hamites or Ethiopians. These two groups shade into each other, and everywhere a Negro admixture has taken place to a variable extent since very early times. The Hamites are characterised by a skin-colour that varies considerably, being white in the west and various shades of coffee-brown, red-brown, or chocolate in the east; the hair is naturally straight or curly, but usually frizzly in the east. The stature is medium or tall, averaging about 1-670 m. (5 ft. 5% in.) to about 1-708'm. (5 ft. 74 in.); the head is sub-dolichocephalic (75-78); the face is elongated and the profile not prognathous; the nose prominent, thin, straight or aquiline, with narrow nostrils; lips thin or slightly tumid, never everted. Bantu. Roughly speaking, the whole of Africa south of the equator, with the exception of the dwindling Bushman and Hottentot elements, is inhabited by Bantu-speaking peoples, who are extremely heterogeneous, but who exhibit sufficient similarities in physical and cultural characteristics to warrant their being grouped together: the true Negro may be regarded as a race; the Bantu are mixed peoples. It will be noticed that as a rule the Bantu approach the Hamites in those physical characters in which they differ from the true Negroes, and owing to the fact that the physical characters of Semites in the main resemble those of Hamites, any Semitic mixture that may have taken place will tend in the same direction as that of the Hamitic. The diversity in the physical characters of the Bantu is due to the different proportions of mixture of all the races of Africa. What we now require is a thorough investigation of these several elements in as pure a state as possible, and then by studying the various main groups of Bantu peoples their relative amount of racial mixture can be determined. The physical characteristics of the Bantu vary very considerably. The skin colour is said to range from yellowish-brown to dull slatey-brown, a dark chocolate colour being the prevalent hue. The character of the hair calls for no special remark, as it is so uniformly of the ordinary Negro type. The stature ranges from an average of about 1-640 m. (5 ft. 4% in.) to about 1-715 m. (5 ft. 73 in.). Uniformity rather than diversity of head- form would seem to be the great characteristic of the African black races, but a broad-headed element makes itself felt in the population of the forest zone and of some of the upper waters of the Nile Valley. It appears that the broadening of the head is due to mixture with the brachycephalic Negrillo stock, for, whereas the dolicho- cephals are mainly of tall stature, some of the brachy- cephals, especially the Aduma of the Ogowe, with a cephalic index of 808, are quite short, 1-594 m. (5 ft. 2¢ in.). The character of the nose is often very useful in discriminating between races in a mixed popula- tion, but it has not yet been sufficiently studied in Africa, NO. 1871, VOL. 72] where it will probably prove of considerable value, especially in the determination of the amount of Hamitic or Semitic blood. The results already obtained in Uganda are most promising. Steatopygy is not notable among men; fatty deposits are well developed among women, but nothing approaching the extent characteristic of the Hottentots and Bushmen. . It appears that the Bantu peoples may be roughly divided according to culture into two groups: a western zone, which skirts the West African region and extends through Angola and German West Africa into Cape Colony; and an eastern zone. (1) The western Bantu zone is characterised by beehive huts, the absence of circumcision, and the presence of wooden shields (plain or covered with cane-work) in its northern portion, though skin shields occur to the south. (2) In the eastern Bantu zone the huts are cylindrical, with a separate conical roof. Certain characteristics are typical of the Bantu culture. The natives live in rounded huts with pointed roofs; their weapons comprise spears, in which the head is fastened into the shaft by a spike, bows of equal thickness along their length, with bowstrings of animal products, clubs and skin shields, but slings are usually absent; the cloth- ing is of skin and leather, and there is a predominance of animal ornaments; knocking out the lower incisors is general, circumcision is common, though among the Kafir tribes it seems to be dying out; ancestor-worship is the prevalent form of religion, fetishism and polytheism are undeveloped; masks and representations of human figures are rare, and there are no secret societies; anthropophagy is sporadic and usually temporary; the domestic animals include the dog, goat, and sheep, and cattle are found wherever possible; coiled basketry is made, and head-rests are a characteristic feature. M. A. de Préville has drawn a broad line of distinction between the religion of the pastoral Bantu tribes and that of the hunters of the forest belt. The cattle-raisers of the small pastures recognise that the rain and necessary moisture depend on an invisible and supreme power whom they invoke in his location in the sky. His intermediaries are the rain-makers, he has no human form, neither are there idols in the pantheon. In Central Africa there is more than sufficient rain, but rain is of little importance to the hunter. What he requires is to find game, to be able to capture it and to avoid danger; the ‘ medicine- men’? are not rain-makers, but makers of talismans, amulets, philtres, and charms to attract the game and to ensure its capture. The mysterious depths of the forest, in the impenetrable thickets of which death may lurk at each step, and the isolation which results in social dis- organisation, incline the hunter to superstitious terrors. Pasturage is governed by natural impersonal forces, but hunting is individual and personal. Further, associated with the mobile pastoral life of the Bantu is the patriarchal system of family life, respect and veneration for old age, and the autocracy of the chief; no wonder, then, that ancestor-worship has developed, or that it is the chief factor in the religious life of these people. As I have previously indicated, there is evidence of the former extension to the north of the Hottentots and the Bushmen, they having gradually been pressed first south- wards and then into the steppes and deserts of South Africa by the southerly drifting of the Bantu. The mixture of Hamite with Negro, which gave rise to the primitive Bantu stock, may have originated some- where to the east or north-east of the Victoria Nyanza. A factor of great importance in the evolution of the Bantu is to be found in the great diversity of climate and soil in Equatorial East Africa. It is a country of small plateaux separated by gorges, or low-lying lands. The small plateaux are suitable for pasturage, but their extent is limited; thus they fell to the lot of the more vigorous people, while the conquered had to content themselves with low country, and were obliged to hunt or cultivate the land. In these healthy highlands the people multiplied, and migration became necessary; the stronger and better- organised groups retained their flocks and migrated in a southerly direction, keeping to the savannas and open country, the line of least resistance being indicated by the relative social feebleness of the peoples to the south. In the small plateaux a nomadic life is impossible for the SEPTEMBER -, 1905 | NATURE 475 herders: there being at most a seasonal change of pasturage, this prevents the possession of large herds and necessitates a certain amount of tillage; further, it would seem that this mode of life tends to develop military organisation and a tribal system. No materials at present exist for any attempt at a history of this stage of the Bantu expansion, but from what we know of the great folk-wanderings in South Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century, we can form some estimate of what may have happened earlier in Equatorial Africa. Lichtenstein lived among the Bechuanas in 1805, and from that date begins our knowledge of the Bantu peoples. Dr. G. M. Theal, the learned historian of South Africa, Dr. K. Barthel and Mr. G. W. Stow, whose valuable book has just appeared, have made most careful studies of folk- wanderings in South Africa, based upon the records of the explorers of the past hundred years; we scarcely have trustworthy accounts of the movements of the various tribes for a longer period, and oral traditions of the natives, though in the main correct, require careful handling. The nature of the country is such that it affords more than ordinary facilities for migrations, and the absence of great geographical barriers prevents ethnical differentiation. The Bantu peoples of Southern Africa may conveniently be classified in three main groups :— (1) The eastern tribes, composed of the Zulu-Xosa. (2) The interior tribes, consisting of the Bechuana, Basuto, Mashona, &c. (3) The western tribes, such as the Ovampo and Ovaherero. (1) The Zulu-Xosa are respectively the northern and southern branches of a migration down the east coast, that, according to some authorities, took place about the fifteenth century. The Amaxosa (Kosa, or Kafirs) never overstepped the Drakensberg range, but there have been northerly and, more especially, southerly movements: the Amaxosa, for example, extended, about 1800, as far as Kaaimans River, Mossel Bay, but in 1835 they were pressed back by the colonists to the Great Fish River. The Amazulu have occupied the east coast, north of the Tugela, for a long period, and allied tribes extend as far as the Zambesi; indeed, it may be_said that a complete chain of Zulu peoples stretches up to the neighbourhood of the equator, the more open country in which they live giving greater opportunities for expansion. The wonderful rise to power of Chaka (1783-1828) caused great move- ments of peoples to take place. The Amangwane (who drove the Amahlubi before them) and other groups fled southward to escape from the tyranny of this great warrior. The conquerors applied to these scattered remnants of tribes the contemptuous term ‘“‘ Fingu,’’ or homeless fugitives, and turned them into slaves and cattle tenders. The Matabele, to the number of some 60,000 individuals, separated from the parent stock about 1817, under the leadership of the terrible Moselekatze (Umsilikatzi), whose fame as an exterminator of men ranks second only to that of Chaka; they crossed the Drakensberg and went north-west through the Transvaal, scattering the settled Bechuana peoples. They were attacked by the Boers, who defeated them with terrible slaughter, from which only forty warriors escaped. They withdrew to the Zambesi, but were driven south by the tsetse fly. They encountered the Makalaka and destroyed their villages, drove out the Mashona to the north-east, and settled in Mashonaland. (2) The great central region of the South African plateau, roughly known as Bechuanaland, was very early occupied by Bantu peoples coming from the north, who displaced or reduced to servitude the indigenous Bushmen. As Prof. Keane points out, the Bechuana must have crossed the Zambesi from the north at a very early date, because of all the south Bantu groups they alone have preserved the totemic system. Among the first to arrive, according to him, appear to have been the industrious Mashona and Makalaka. For three hundred years, according to native tradition, the Makalaka owned the land between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, and then came the Barotse, who are allied to the Congo Bantu, and conquered them. NO. 1871, VOL. 72] A section of the latter founded a powerful so-called Barotse (Marotse) empire on the Middle Zambesi above the Victoria Falls. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a Bahurutse dynasty ruled over the Bechuana; as these people expanded they broke off into clans, and extended between the Orange River and the Zambesi, and from the Kathlamba, or Drakensberg chain, to the Kalahari Desert. The densely populated country west of the Drakensberg now known as Basutoland was subjected to great devast- ation as a result of Chaka’s tyranny. In 1822 a tribe fleeing from the Zulus set up the first of these disturb- ances, and the attacked became the attackers in their turn. One horde, the Mantati, achieved great notoriety, and are credited with having wiped out twenty-eight tribes ; they were eventually defeated by the Bangwaketsi and scattered by the Griqua. The Makololo, a small group of the Mantati (who lived on the upper waters of the Orange River), led by Sebituane, in 1823 aimed at reach- ing the district of the Chobe and Zambesi, where he had heard that it was always spring. After conquering the Bakwena, Bahurutse, and other kindred tribes and in- creasing their forces from the conquered peoples, they crossed the Zambesi and the uplands stretching to the Kafukwe, and settled in those fertile pasture lands about 1835. Disturbed by the Matabele, Sebituane passed through the Barotse Valley, followed by the Matabele and the Batoka, a tribe of the Barotse. He put the former to flight and subjugated the latter. Thus Sebituane led his people a journey of more than 2000 miles to reach their Promised Land. Under Sekeletu, Sebituane’s suc- cessor, the State began to fall to pieces, and after his death the Barotse revolted, and practically exterminated the Makololo. The rehabilitated Barotse empire com- prises an area of some 250,000 square miles between the Chobe and Kafukwe affluents of the Zambesi. Prof. Keane directs attention to the instructive fact that though the Makololo have perished from among the number of South African tribes, their short rule (1835-1870) was long enough to impose their language upon the Barotse, and to this day, about the Middle Zambesi, where the Makololo have disappeared, their speech remains the common medium of intercourse throughout the Barotse empire. The con- solidation of the Basuto under the astute Moshesh is an instructive episode in the history of the South African races. The Bamangwato are the most important branch of the independent Bechuana peoples, who have made con- siderable progress under the wise guidance of the enlightened Khama; they are an industrious people, and have exceptional skill in working iron. According to Mr. G. W. Stow there were three main migrations of the interior, or middle, Bantu, or Bachoana as he terms them: (i.) The pioneer tribes of the southward migration into the ancient Bushman hunting grounds were the Leghoya, Bakalahari, and those who intermarried with the Bushmen to form the Balala and Bachoana Bush- men; (ii.) the tribes of the second period of the Bachoana migration were the Batlapin and Barolong; (iii.) the great Bakuena or Bakone tribes were the most civilised of the Bantu peoples: they consisted of the Bahurutse, Batlaru, Bamangwato, Batauana, Bangwaketse, and the Bakuena, who were the wealthiest and most advanced of all until they were reduced by the Mantati and destroyed by the Matabele. (3) Turning for a moment to German South-West Africa we find the Bastards to the south, and north of them the Haukoin or Mountain Damara, who are now practically a pariah people, subject to the MHottentots, Bastards, Ovaherero, and the white man. It is possible that these are of Negro rather than of Bantu origin; in mode of life, save for their talent for agriculture, they are Bushmen; in their speech they are Hottentots, but their colour is darker than that of their neighbours. Somewhere from Eastern South Africa, about a hundred years ago, came the Ovaherero, or the Merry People, who, like the rest of the Bantu, are warlike cattle-breeders, with wandering proclivities, but they are not agriculturists. When they arrived in the Kaoko district they drove the Haukoin to the south, together with the Toppnaers (Aunin) and Bush- men. To the north of the Ovaherero are the agricultural Ovampo. 47 NATORE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 Speaking generally, the direction of ethnic migration in South Africa has been southerly in the south-east: the sea blocked an eastern expansion and the Drakensberg a western; only the Matabele went westward of this range to the north. In the central district the Bahurutse or Bechuana parent stock dispersed in various directions ; most of the movements were towards the north, but the Mantati and Basuto went south-east. In the west the Cape Hottentots always retreated from the colonists towards the north; the Bastards and other tribes followed the same direction, the causes, as Barthel points out, being obvious : to the east is the Kalahari, on the west is the sea, from the south came the pressure of the Boers. Finally, right across South Africa we have, from west to east, the Koranna, Griqua, and Boer wanderings in the south; and in the north, from east to west, the wanderings of the Hottentots, Ovaherero, and of the Boer emigrants from the Transvaal. South Africa has thus been a whirlpool of moving humanity. In this brief summary I have been able to indicate only the main streams of movement: there have been innumerable cross-currents which add complexity to this bewildering history, and much patient work is necessary before all these complications can be unravelled and their meaning explained. When one takes a bird’s-eye view of the ethnology of South Africa, certain main sociological facts loom out amongst all the wealth of varied detail. The earliest inhabitants of whom we have any definite information were the dwarf Bushmen, who undoubtedly re- present a primitive variety of mankind. In a land abound- ing with game they devoted themselves entirely to the chase, supplementing their diet with fruit and roots. This mode of life necessitates nomadic habits, the absence of property entails the impossibility of gaining wealth, and thereby relieving part of the population from the daily need of procuring food; this absence of leisure precludes the elaboration of the arts of life. A common effect of the nomadic hunting life is the breaking-up of the com- munity into small groups; the boys can soon catch their own game, hence individualism triumphs and _ parental authority is apt to be limited. Social control is likely to be feeble unless the religious sentiment is developed, and certainly social organisation will be very weak. In an open country abounding with game the case is some- what different, and there is reason to believe that in early days the Bushmen were divided into a number of large tribes, occupying tolerably well-defined tracts of country, each being under the jurisdiction of a paramount chief. The tribes were subdivided into groups under captains. They showed great attachment and loyalty to their chiefs, and exhibited a passionate love for their country. For hundreds of years these poor people have been harried and their hunting grounds taken away from them, and hence we must not judge the race by the mixsrable anarchic remnant that still persists in waste place. Nomad hunters do not progress far in civilisation by their own efforts, nor are they readily amenable to etforced processes of civilisation. Invariably they are pushed on one side or exterminated by peoples higher in the social scale. When the written history of South Africa begins we find the Bushmen already being encroached upon by tbe Hotten- tots, who themselves sprang from a very early cross of Bantu with Bushmen. Culturally, as well as physically, they may be regarded as a blend of these two stocks. They combined the cattle-rearing habits of the Bantu with the aversion from tillage of the soil characteristic of the hunter; they became nomadic herders, who were stronger than the Bushmen, but who themselves could not with- stand the Bantu when they came in contact with them, and they too were driven to less favourable lands and became enslaved by the invaders. All gradations of mix- ture took place until lusty uncontaminated Bantu folk forced their way into the most desirable districts. Still less could the Hottentots prevail against the colonists; their improvidence was increased by alcohol, and their indifference to the possession of land, due to their inherent love of wandering, completed their ruin. The Bantu were cattle-rearers who practised agriculture. NO. 1871, VOL. 72] The former industry probably was transmitted from their Hamitic forefathers, who were herdsmen on the grassy uplands of north-eastern Africa, while the latter aptitude was prebably due in part to their Negro ancestry. This duality of occupation led to variability in mode of life. In some places the land invited the population towards husbandry, in others the physical conditions were more suited to a pastoral life, and thus we find the settled Baronga on the one hand and the wandering Ovaherero’ on the other. The Bantu peoples easily adopt changes of custom; under the leadership of a warlike chief they become warlike and cruel, a common characteristic of pastoral peoples, while it is recorded that many of the Matabele, taken prisoners by the Barotse, settled down peacefully to agriculture. The history of the prolific Bantu peoples on the whole indicates that they were as loosely attached to the soil as were the Ancient Germans, and like the latter, at the slightest provocation, they would abandon their country and seek another home. This readiness to migrate is the direct effect of a pastoral life, and along with this legacy of unrest their Hamitic ancestors transmitted a social organisation which lent itself to discipline. These were the materials, so to speak, ready to hand when organisers should appear. Nor have such been lacking, for such names as Dingiswayo, Chaka, Dingan, Moselekatze, Lobengula, Moshesh, Sebituane, Cetewayo, and others are writ large in the annals of South Africa; and the statesman Khama is an example of what civilisation can do to direct this executive ability iato proper channels. Archaeology. The archeology of South Africa is now attracting con- siderable local interest, and we may confidently expect that new discoveries will soon enable us to gain some insight into the dense obscurity of the past. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the methods of the archzologist should be primarily those of the geologist. Accurate mapping of deposits or localisation of finds is absolutely necessary. The workmanship of an implement is of little evidential value: the material of which it is made may be refractory, the skill of the maker may be imperfect, or he may be satisfied with producing an implement just sufficient for his immediate need; and there is always a chance that any implement may be simply a reject. The early generalisation of implements in England into two groups, Paleolithic and Neolithic, expressed a fact of prime importance, but now the classification has extended. It is obvious that the shapely palzoliths of the older gravels could not have been the first attempts at imple- ment-making by our forefathers, and the presumed hiatus between the two epochs has been bridged over by evidence from sites on the European mainland. Our knowledge is increasing apace and an orderly sequence is emerging, but there are many interesting variations, and even apparent setbacks, in the evolution of industrial or artistic skill. In a word, sequence and technique must not be confounded, and our first business should be to establish the former on a firm basis; but, as I have just remarked, this can be accomplished only by adhering rigidly to the stratigraphical methods of the geologist. It would prob- ably be to the interest of South African archzeology if the terms ‘‘ Eolithic,’’ ‘‘ Palzolithic,’’ and ‘‘ Neolithic ’’ were dropped, at all events for the present, and it might prove advantageous if provisional terms were employed, which could later on be either ratified or abandoned, as the consensus of local archeological opinion should decide. In certain lands of the Old World, north of the Equator, there was a progressive evolution from the Stone Ages, through a copper and a bronze age, to that of iron; but the stone-workers of South Africa appear to have been introduced to iron-smelting without having passed through the earlier metal phases, since the occurrence of copper implements is too limited to warrant the belief that it represents a definite phase of culture. The similarity of the processes employed in working iron by the different tribes of Africa, south of the equator, indicates that the culture was introduced from without, a conclusion which is supported by the universal use of the double bellows— a similar instrument is in use in India and in the East Indian Archipelago. Some ethnologists hold that Africa SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 | NATURE 477 owes to India its iron industry and other elements of culture, as well as the introduction of the ox, pig, and fowl. At all events, we shall probably not be far wrong if we assign a fair degree of antiquity to the knowledge of iron in tropical and southern Africa. The characteristic metal of South Africa is gold, and its abundance has had a profound effect on the country, although, strange to say, it was not employed by any of the native races on their own initiative. We cannot tell when it was first discovered or by whom, but the hundreds of ruins scattered over a large extent of country, and the very extensive ancient workings, testify to the importance and the long continuance of this industry; for there can be no doubt that the builders of these wonderful remains came to this country mainly for the sake of its goldfields, though there must also have been an important trade in ivory, and incidentally in other local produce. Positive demonstration is as yet lacking concerning the nationality of the first gold-workers. This much is certain: they must have come to South Africa originally for some other product, since the aborigines did not work the metal, and it is most probable their quest was for ivory, and it was these hunters and traders who discovered the surface gold. Further, the discoverers must have come from a country where quarrying and metal-smelting were practised, and this implies the organisation of labour, for in early times, as history abundantly proves, mining was always under- taken by means of forced labour. The gold-workers, who probably came from Southern Arabia, belonged to a much higher social order than any of the peoples with whom they came in contact, and with their discipline in war and their industrial training they were able to subdue the Bantu inhabitants over immense tracts between the Zambesi and the Limpopo, to reduce them to slavery, to organise the working of the gold mines, and to establish a chain of forts and a system of communication with the coast. This occupation of the country by foreigners was purely for purposes of exploitation, and when, for reasons at present unknown to us, their hold weakened on the land, the whole enterprise fell to pieces, and the foreigners departed, they left indelible marks of their former presence on the face of the country, but in native industries and customs there is virtually no trace remaining of the rule of the more civilised Semitic overlord. The natives seem, as it were, to have awakened from a nightmare and straightway to have forgotten the hideous dream. Possibly this history may have been repeated more than once. It is greatly to be deplored that in the past irresponsible prospectors have been permitted to rifle the ancient ruins for gold, with the result that not only have very numerous specimens of archzological interest been cast into the melting-pot, but at the same time collateral evidence has been destroyed, and thus valuable data lost to science. Even now the situation is not without its dangers, for the recently awakened interest in the ruins, and appreciation of their historical value, may lead to unconsidered zeal in excavation. After all, there is no especial hurry; what is perishable has long ago decayed, and so long as the ruins are sealed up by the rubbish that preserves them, no great harm can accrue, but in a few hours, by careless excavation, may be destroyed more archeological evidence than in centuries of neglect. Therefore it would be advisable for those in authority to consider carefully whether it is wise to lay bare new sites, unless proper examination and preservation can be ensured. The number of the ruins in Rhodesia is so great, and the area within which they occur so enormous, that it would be a very large undertaking for the Government systematically to investigate and permanently to conserve them all. Perhaps it would be possible to entrust some of this work to properly con- stituted local authorities, assisting them by grants and special facilities, but care would have to be taken to ensure the thorough carrying out of the work. Records of work done should be published, and the specimens preserved in authorised museums only. It is desirable also that every ruin should be scheduled under an Ancient Monuments Protection Act, and that an Inspector or Curator of Ancient Monuments should be appointed, who would be responsible for the excavation and preservation of all the monuments. To a less extent these remarks apply also NO. 1871, VOL. 72] to other parts of South Africa. All relics of the past, such, for example, as the pictographs in the rock-shelters of the Bushmen, should be jealously preserved and guarded from intentional or unwitting injury. I trust my South African colleagues will forgive me if I have appeared too much in the character of a mentor. I have endeavoured to present a general view of the anthropological situation in South Africa, without burden- ing my remarks with details, and at the same time I have made bold to publish some of the conclusions which this survey has suggested; but there are other points on which I feel constrained to touch. Recently Sir Richard Temple delivered an Address on “The Practical Value of Anthropology,’’ in the course of which he said: ‘‘ We often talk in Greater Britain of a ‘good’ magistrate or a ‘sympathetic’ judge, meaning thereby that these officials determine the matters before them with insight; that is, with a working anthropological knowledge of those with whom they have to deal... . It is, indeed, everything to him to acquire the habit of useful anthropological study before he commences, and to be able to avail himself practically and intelligently of the facts gleaned, and the inferences drawn therefrom, by those who have gone before him. . . . Take the universally delicate questions of revenue and taxation, and consider how very much the successful administration of either depends on a minute acquaintance with the means, habits, customs, manners, institutions, traditions, prejudices, and character of the population. In the making of laws too close a knowledge of the persons to be subjected to them cannot be possessed, and, however wise the laws so made may be, their object can be only too easily frustrated if the rules they authorise are not themselves framed with an equally great knowledge, and they in their turn can be made to be of no avail unless an intimate acquaintance with the population is brought to bear on their adminis- tration. For the administrator an extensive knowledge of those in his charge is an attainment, not only essential to his own success, but beneficial in the highest degree to the country he dwells in, provided it is used with discernment. And discernment is best acquired by the “anthropological habit.” .... The habit of intelligently examining the peoples among whom his business is cast cannot be overrated by the merchant wishing continuously to widen it to profit; but the man who has been obliged to acquire this kind of knowledge without any previous training in observation is heavily handicapped in com- parison with him who has acquired the habit of right observation, and, what is of much more importance, has been put in the way of rightly interpreting his observations in his youth.” In referring to civil-servants, missionaries, merchants, or soldiers, Sir Richard Temple went on to say: ‘‘ Sym- pathy is one of the chief factors in successful dealings of any kind with human beings, and sympathy can only come with knowledge. And not only does sympathy come of knowledge, but it is knowledge that begets sympathy. In a long experience of alien races, and of those who have had to govern and deal with them, all whom I have known to dislike the aliens about them, or to be unsympathetic, have been those that have been ignorant of them; and I have never yet come across a man who really knew an alien race that had not, unless actuated by race-jealousy, a strong bond of sympathy with them. Familiarity breeds contempt, but it is knowledge that breeds respect, and it is all the same whether the race be black, white, yellow, or red, or whether it be cultured or ignorant, civilised or semi-civilised, or downright savage.’’ I have quoted at length from Sir Richard Temple, as the words of an administrator of his success and experi- ence must carry far greater weight than anything I could say. I can, however, add my personal testimony to the truth of these remarks, as I have seen Britons administer- ing native races on these lines in British New Guinea and in Sarawak, and I doubt not that I shall now have the opportunity of a similar experience in South Africa. In this connection I ought to refer to what has been already done in South Africa by the Government. In the year 1880 the Government of Cape Colony, confronted by 478 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 the problem of dealing with the natives, appointed a Commission to inquire into the native laws and customs which obtained in the territories annexed to the Colony, especially those relating to marriage and land-tenure, and to suggest legislation, as well as to report on the advisability of introducing some system of local self- government in the native territories annexed to the Colony. The example was shortly afterwards followed by the Government of Natal, which had native problems of its cwn. These two Commissions collected and published a considerable amount of evidence, valuable not only for the immediate purpose in view, but also for the purposes of science. Before the late war came to a close the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and the Folklore Society addressed to Mr. Chamberlain, then Colonial Secretary, a memorial praying that on the conclusion of peace a similar Commission should be issued to inquire into the customs and institutions of the native tribes in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, and, with a view to the accomplishment of more directly scientific ends, praying that at least one anthropologist of eminence unconnected with South Africa should be in- cluded in the Commission. The prayer of the memorialists was bluntly refused. When, however, in the course of re- organisation of the administration, a conference was held at Bloemfontein in 1902 of the Ministers of the various colonies, protectorates, and territories, to discuss native affairs, they found themselves, in the words of Sir Godfrey Lagden, ‘‘ much confused because the laws and the con- ditions of all the colonies were different.” This was exactly what the memorialists had told Mr. Chamberlain. So the conference determined on the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry, which was issued in due course by Lord Milner in September, 1903, and reported on January 30 last. The evidence taken by this Commission, as well as that taken by the previous Commissions, is of a very valuable character. But, like those Commissions, its object was exclusively administrative. Consequently the evidence is only incidentally of ethnological interest, and it by no means covers the whole ground. The social life and marriage laws are to a great extent laid before the reader, but there is no attempt to distinguish accurately between one tribe and another; the native institutions are discussed only so far as they have a practical bearing on administrative questions. There is no attempt to penetrate to the underlying ideas and beliefs, and the vast domain of religion lies for the most part outside the ken of the Commissioners. Admirable, therefore, as is the work done by these Commissions, it is but a small part of what must be undertaken if an accurate account of the natives of South Africa is to be obtained and preserved for scientific use, and as an historical record. What is wanted is that the Government should undertake this enterprise in the same way as the Governments of the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and other coun- tries investigate their native races, or, failing this obvious duty of a Government, that adequate assistance should be given to societies or individuals who may be prepared to take the matter in hand. Unfortunately it is not unnecessary to insist on the need there is for us to consider seriously what at any particular time is most worth investigating, and not to let ourselves drift into any casual piece of work. Let us apply that simple test to South Africa, and ask ourselves, What most needs doing in anthropological research in South Africa? So long as actual wanton destruction is not taking place, local archzological investigation can wait. I do not mean to suggest that those who have the opportunity should not devote themselves to this important subject; many can do good work in archzology who have neither opportunity nor inclination for other branches of anthropology, and the British South Africa Company has shown and probably will continue to show a real interest in this work. But our first and immediate duty is to save for science the data that are vanishing; this should be the watchword of the present day. Observations in South African anthropography are lament- ably deficient. Although scattered up and down in books of travel and in missionary records there are descriptions of individuals, and in some cases a few salient features NO. 1871, VOL. 72] of a tribe are noted, yet we have few precise descriptions of communities that are of value for comparative purposes. Anthropometrical data are everywhere wanting; very few natives have been measured, and the measurements that have been made are insufficient both as regards those actually taken and the number of individuals measured. The interesting subject of comparative physiology is un- worked. We have no observations in experimental psychology, and very few trustworthy data in observational psychology. Here, then, is a large field of inquiry. I am not competent to speak concerning linguistics, but from what I have read I gather that a very great deal yet remains to be done, at all events in phonetics, grammar, and comparative philology. In general ethnology a considerable amount of scattered work has been done, but no one tribe has been investigated with scientific thoroughness; the best piece of work hitherto accomplished in this direction is the admirable memoir on the Baronga by the missionary H. A. Junod, which leaves little to be desired. It would be well worth while for students to make exhaustive studies of limited groups of people, tracing all the ramifications of their genealogies in the comprehensive method adopted by Dr. Rivers for the Torres Straits Islanders and for the Todas; this method is indispensable if it is desired to obtain a true conception of the social structure of a people, their social and religious duties, the kinship relationships, and other information of statistical and sociological value. Other fruitful lines of inquiry are the significance of the form and ornamentation of objects and the symbolism (if there is any) of the decorative art, a subject which, as far as I am aware, is absolutely untouched. Even the toys and games are worth investigation. Hardest but most important of all, there is that intricate complexus of action and belief which is comprised under the term “‘ religion.”’ This needs the most delicate and sympathetic treatment, although too often it has been ruthlessly examined by those who were more prone to seek the ape and the tiger and vain imaginings in the so-called ‘‘ superstitious ”’ practices of these poor folk. They are laggards along the road which our more favoured ancestors have trod, but they all have their faces set in the same direction as our own, towards that goal to which we ourselves are striving. To induce natives to unbosom themselves of all that they hold secret and sacred and to confess their ideals and inspirations requires more than an ordinary endowment of patience, tact, and brotherly kindness; without these qualities very little can be gathered, and the finer side of native thought and feeling will for ever remain a sealed book to the European. In referring to this subject it should not be overlooked that the best account we have of the religion of the Zulu-Xosa peoples is due to the labours of Bishop Callaway. The number of native texts, including folk-tales, published by him are especially valuable, as they throw light from all sides upon the native mind, and it is greatly. to be regretted that he lacked the pecuniary and other encouragement that was necessary for the completion of his labours. The most urgent of all the foregoing lines of inquiry are the most elusive; these are the ideas, beliefs, and institutions of the people, which are far less stable than are their physical characteristics. These are some of the lines of research that await the investigator. The field is large, but the opportunities are fleeting. The Kattea, Bushmen, and Hottentots are doomed, and new social conditions are modifying the Bantu peoples. Here again we must apply the test question, Which of these peoples most needs investigation? The answer again is obvious. Those that will disappear first. All over South Africa this work is pressing. For some tribes it is too late. It would be a memorable result of the meeting of the British Association in South Africa if it should lead to an exhaustive study of those most interesting people, the Kattea, the Bushmen, and the Hottentots. They represent very primitive varieties of mankind, but their numbers are rapidly diminishing, and, as races, they have no chance of perpetuity. What judg- ment will posterity pass upon us if, while we have the opportunity, we do not do our best to save the memory of these primitive folk from oblivion? ; SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 | NATURE 479 A Short Bibliography of Books on the Ethnology of South Africa. Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in *Afrika. Zei?- schrift fiir Ethnologie, vol. xxxviii. Berlin, 1905. Narrative of an Exploratory Tour to the North-east of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. (Trans- lated by J. C. Brown.) Cape Town, 1846; London, 1852. Vilkerbewegungen auf der Siidhiilfte des Afrikani- schen Kontinents. ‘‘ Mitt. Vereins fiir Erdkunde zu Leipzig” (1893), 1894. Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales. London, 1864. ‘A Report concerning Bushman Researches. Printed by order of the House of Assembly. Cape Town, 1873 a Second Report. A brief account of Bushman Folk- lore and other Texts. Cape Town, 1875. Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus London, 1868 The Religious System of the Amazulu. London, 1870. The Basutos. London, 186r. Die Eingeborenen Siid-Afrika s(with Atlas). Breslau, 1872 Tsuni-Goam, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi. London, 1381. British Central Africa. London, 1897. The Uganda Protectorate. London, 1902. Les Chants et les Contes des Ba-Ronga. 1897. Tes Ba Ronga. Neuchatel, 1898. Man: Past and Present. Cambridge, 1899. The Boer States. London, 1g00. The Essential Kafir (with an interesting but incom- plete Bibliography). London, 1904. The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope. don, 1731. Among the Zulus and Amatongas. Edinburgh and London, 1875. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. London, 1857. A Short Account of Bushman Material. Third Report presented to both Houses of Parliament; Cape Town. London, 1899. A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs. Town, 1866. Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa. London, 1842. Le Continent Africain. v., vi. Paris, 1888. The Native Races of South Africa. Kaffir Folk-Lore. London, 1882. Ankermann, B. Arbousset, T., and Daumas, F. Barthel, K. . Bleek, W. H. I. Callaway, H. Casalis, F. : Fritsch, G. . Hahn, T. Johnston, H. ” Junod, H. A Lausanne, Keane, A. 18s Kidd, D.. Kolben, P. . Lon- Leslie, D. Second edition Livingstone, D. Lloyd, L. C. Maclean, J.. Cape Moffatt, R. . Préville, A. de. **La Science Sociale,” tomes Stow, G. W. ‘Theal, G. M. London, 1905. os eonhe History of South Africa. (5 vols.) London, 1888-1900. St The Beginning of South African History. London, 1902. Wood, J. G. Wangermann The Natural History of Man. London, 1868. Ein Reise-Jahr in Stid-Afrika. Berlin, 1868. Basutoland Records. In three vols., 1833-7852 ; 1853-1861 ; 1862-1868. Folk-lore Journal. Vol. i. 1879 ; Vol. ii. 1880. Cape Town. Report and Proceedings, with Appendices, of the Government Commission on Native Laws and Customs (1581-82). Cape Town, 1883. The Natives of South Africa: their Economic and Social Condition. Edited by the South African Native Races Committee. London, 1gor. Report and Proceedings of the South African Intercolonial Commission on Native Affairs, 1903-05. Cape Town, 1905. (Report, r vol. Minutes of Evidence, 5 vols. The foregoing list of books is manifestly very incomplete. A considerable amount of information concerning the natives will be found in numerous books by missionaries, travellers, and sportsmen. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Mr. E. G. Bawpen has entrusted Mr. Edgar Speyer with a sum in cash and securities of about 100,000l. to be applied to purposes of charity and benevolence, and for the advancement of knowledge, especially in aid of human suffering.’’ After careful consideration, this sum has been apportioned for various good purposes in the form of capital to be vested in trustees, and to be known in each case as the ‘“‘ Bawden Fund.’’ The largest allotment is in aid of advanced university education and research, and for this purpose a gift of 16,000l. is made to complete the sum of 200,000!. required to bring about the incorpor- ation of University College in the University of London. Tnoucn the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has taken action in connection with the pro- posed alliance of the Institute with Harvard University, the faculty and alumni have expressed their disapproval of the scheme. Before the proposed agreement can be consummated there will be necessary at least three decisions by the Supreme Judicial Court upon the grave No, 1871, VOL. 72| ce legal questions involved, action by the Harvard authorities, and possibly further consideration by the corporation of the institute and an appeal for legislative sanction, A league has therefore been organised ‘‘ to oppose the plan of alliance under consideration, or any other plan which may impair the self-government of the institute, and to secure for the past students a proper share in its adminis- tration,” Pror, W. Hattock, professor of physics in Columbia University, New York City, writes to say that the pro- posal of the Emperor of Germany for the temporary interchange of professors with America, referred to in Nature of July 20 (p. 285), had nothing to do with the courses arranged at that university, as they were planned three years ago, when Prof. Hallock took charge of the department of physics. The lecturers are not exchanged ; they are appointed as ‘‘ non-resident lecturers’’ for the year, and receive an honorarium for their courses. The visiting lecturers at Columbia University for the year 1906-7 are Prof. Lummer, of Breslau, and Dr. J. Larmor, BeReS: A copy of the prospectus of the Redruth School of Mines for 1905-6 has been received. Situated in the centre of the Cornish mining district, the school is devoted wholly to instruction in mining and allied subjects essential to the training of mining engineers, assayers, and mine- surveyors. Practical work in mining is carried on at the Fic. 1.—The Hunt Museum, Redruth School of Mines. Basset mines and at other mines in the vicinity under the supervision of the school instructor. Success in examin- ations in particular subjects held at the school by the Board of Education, the City and Guilds of London Institute, and the County Council of Cornwall forms part of the requirements for a school certificate. One wing of the school building is occupied by a large mineral gallery erected in memory of the late Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., keeper of the mining records. This museum, which contains a very valuable collection, offers great facilities for mineralogical study. CORRESPONDENCE between the Bengal Government, the Government of India, and the Secretary of State for India upon the subject of the establishment of a school of mines in India, extending over the period from May 21, 1904, to August 3, 1905, has been published. On the advice of a strong committee, the proposal adopted is to provide a curriculum of mining instruction at the Sibpur Engineering College, Calcutta, with practical instruction in the mining districts. A professor of mining engineering is to be appointed in England at a salary of 750 rupees to 1000 rupees a month. The scheme also contemplates the temporary appointment for five years of a_ peripatetic mining instructor and a native assistant, who will be called upon to give free instruction in the mining districts. The whole scheme involves an initial expenditure of 8500 rupees on the equipment of Sibpur College, and an annual recurring expenditure of 16,000 rupees in connec- tion with that college, and of 15,0co rupees fur peripatetic instruction in the mining districts. For a scheme so promising in economic benefit to India, the outlay appears extremely moderate, 480 NATURE pas a Tee SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, June 8.—‘‘ The Elastic Properties of Steel at High Temperatures.’’ By Prof. B. Hopkinson and F. Rogers. Communicated by Prof. Ewing, F.R.S. In the experiments described in this paper, the elastic properties of steel and iron have been investigated at higher temperatures, ranging up to 800° C., and for stresses greatly below that required to rupture the material. The authors have found that as the temperature rises the stress-strain relations undergo a remarkable change, which may best be expressed by saying that what is variously called the ‘‘ time-effect,’’ or “elastische nachwirkung, ”’ or ‘* creeping,” increases greatly with the temperature. Steel, at high temperatures, behaves like indiarubber or glass; if it is stressed for a time, and the stress removed, it does not at once recover, but after the immediate elastic recovery there is a slow contraction perceptible for many minutes. Such ** creeping ’’ can be detected at the ordinary temperature, but at a red heat it attains a different order of magnitude, becoming (in its total amount) a substantial fraction of the whole deformation. This phenomenon is analogous to residual charge in glass and other dielectrics; the stress corresponding to the electric force, and the strain to the electric displacement. Whether the law of linear superposition of the effects of stresses—closely followed in the electrical analogy—is true for hot steel or iron, is an interesting question which the apparatus used was hardly sufficiently delicate to answer. The magnitude of this effect in steel may best be gauged by comparing it with other cases of the same kind, e.g. with the slow recovery of a glass fibre after twisting; if such a fibre be twisted through a considerable angle for several hours, it will recover all but one-fiftieth of the twist within two or three seconds of the removal of the stress. The remaining slow ‘‘ creep,’’ amounting to one- fiftieth of the whole deformation, corresponds to the slow return of the steel. In indiarubber, in certain circum- stances, 10 per cent. of the strain disappears in time after the removal of the stress. But in steel, at 600° C., the proportion is about 15 per cent. Another effect of ‘‘ creeping,’’ such as the authors have observed, is to make the determination of Young's modulus a matter of some uncertainty. Thus the extension of the bar at 600° C. produced by a given load varies 15 per cent. or more, according to the time of application of the load. When, however, the load is applied for a very short time, say of the order of one or two seconds, the strain produced seems to approach to a definite limiting value which is the instantaneous extension or contraction of the bar observed in the experiments when the load is applied or removed. It seems reasonable to define Young’s modulus for a metal in this state, as the stress divided by this limiting instantaneous strain. It is then independent of the manner of loading, and is a definite physical constant ; otherwise not. ““On the Refractive Index of Gaseous Fluorine. C. Cuthbertson and E. B. R. Prideaux. by Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. The authors have determined the refractive gascous fluorine for sodium light by means of Jamin’s refractometer. Five experiments gave values for the refractivity (u—1) 10° of 195, 177, 192, 194, and 198}. The discrepancy exhibited by the second experiment can be accounted for, and it is believed that the mean of the other four experiments, 195, is within 2 or 3 per cent. of the true value. In a recent paper (Phil. Trans., A, vol. cciv. p. 323), one of the authors has attempted to show that the refractivities of the different members of the same chemical group are related in the ratios of small integers; and it was observed that, if this coincidence were not due to chance, the re- fractivity of fluorine should bear to that of chlorine the ratio of 1 to 4, which those of neon, oxygen, and nitrogen bear to argon, sulphur, and phosphorus respectively. This prediction ‘has been verified. The refractivity of chlorine for sodium light is 768, or 192x4; and that now found for ‘fluorine is 195, a discrepancy of 14 per cent., which is well within the limits of error of the experiment. NO. 1871, VOL. 72] »” By Communicated index of Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 28.—M. Troost in the chair,—The ultra-violet spectra of the reversing layer during the total eclipse of May 28, 1900: H. Deslandres. An account of the apparatus employed, and a short list of the principal lines of titanium, vanadium, and chromium observed.—On a differential equation of the fourth order: Gaston Darboux.—On transcendental numbers: Ed. Maillet.—Researches on __ irradiation: Adrien Guébhard.—On a method suitable for the study of a luminous phenomenon varying in intensity with the time. Application to the determination of the instan- taneous velocity of a rotating mirror and to the study of the Hertzian spark: A. Turpain. The arrangement is a modification of the Foucault experiment for ‘the deter- mination of the velocity of light. The receiving eye-piece is replaced by a photographic plate, and the spark is placed between the rotating and fixed mirrors. ‘The measurement of the distance on the negative between the two images, the one caused by the light travelling directly and the other by reflection from the fixed mirror, and of the distances apart of the portions of the apparatus, gives an accurate determination of the velocity of the mirror, the velocity of light being taken as known. The method has been also applied to the study of the spark given by a Hertzian excitor and resonator, but the description of this part of the work is reserved for a later communication. A new group of protophytic parasites, Eccrinides: L. Léger and ©. Duboseq.—A contribution to the cyto- logical study of the Cyanophycee: A. Guilliermond.— Sterigmatocystis nigra and oxalic acid: P. G. Charpentier. This mould, when cultivated in Raulin’s fluid, never secretes oxalic acid before spore formation takes place, but sporulation acts only indirectly in causing the secretion, this being caused by the exhaustion of the medium. CONTENTS. PAGE Marine Engineering . . Aon 6 453 The Birds of lceland. By iy ke 454 Our Book Shelf :— Fritsch and Bayer: ‘‘ Neue Fische und Reptilien aus der bohmischen Kreideformation.”—A. S. W. - 454 Wehner: ‘‘ Die Bedeutung des Experimentes fiir den Unterricht in der Chemie.”—A. S. 455 Kieffer: “ Monographie des Cynipides Europe et d’Algérie.”"—W. F. K. .. . : Sea SS Richards : ‘The Gum-Bichromate Process” . . 455 Letters to the Editor: — Recent Changes in Vesuvius. [Vist eae At Gunther) ..0. Peper mcs ik tore 55 The Millport Marine Station. 2s ‘Pace. . : 450 The Total Solar Eclipse, August 30. (Jdlustrated.) (1) The Solar Physics Observatory Eepedient By Dr. William J. S. Lockyer .... Satie etl, (2) Reports of Observations ..... +... 5+ 458 Technical Education in Natal . . 460 The Woburn Eper nos Fruit Farm. ‘By Prof. T. H. Middleton ... 5 an sehen . 461 Notes. (///ustrated.) 3 370 461 Our Astronomical Column :— Discovery of a Nova. (Jl/ustrated.) . 5 465 Water Vapour in the Martian Atmosphere 465 Real Paths of yrid! Meteors’ = .. eu eet O5 Observations of Satellites ........-... « 405 The British Association :— Section G.—Engineering.—Opening Address by Colonel Sir C. Scott Moncrieff, K.C.S.1., K.C.M.G., R.E., LL.D., President of the Section 465 Section I1.—Anthropology.—Opening Address by A. C. Haddon, Sc.D., F.R.S., President of the Section’s cay. gai, ele: sees Ops. ce eens Ceara Ie TE University and Educational Intelligence (Ldlustrated) . . ME io oo he cy, etre) Societies and Academies Ae ceo, 3 480 SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE clxxxv assimilation of these substances. 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George, Ltd., Successors), 159| London. and nGa Great Charles Street. 2 BD & TATEOCK endow PHILIP HARRIS &) Co: Ltd.,| ene aoe treet, atton DEEN SES: |F. E. BECKER & Co. (W. and J. George, Ltd., Successors), 33 to 37 Hatton Wall, HattonGarden, E.C Leeis A. A le bd co Ltd., REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd.,| oH > GRIFFIN & SONS, 14 Commercial Street. | Ltd., 20-26 Sardinia Street, Manchester. | Lincoln’s Inn Fields, W.C. JACKSON & Co., TOWNSON & ‘MERCER, Camomile Street, E.C. Dublin. PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd., 179 Great Brunswick Street. FREDK. 14 Cross Street. | LIQUID AIR ano LIQUID HYDROGEN. Dr. HAMPSON’S AIR-LIQUEFIER is now made to a standard pat- tern, and numbers are in use in University Laboratories and elsewhere in various countries. The whole apparatus is neat and compact and its parts very easily moved ; the Liquefier, without stand, being a cylinder 17 Inches high and 8 inches in diameter. It begins to liquefy air in from 6 to 10 minutes after the admission of air at from 150 to 200 atmospheres pressure, making over a litre of liquid per hour. It requires no auxiliary refrigerant and produces a perfectly clear liquid which requires no filtering. The operator has only one gauge to watch and one valve to control. HYDROGEN LIQUEFIER to the designs of Dr. MORRIS W. TRAVERS for use in conjunction with Air-Liquefier. 34 For Prices and Particulars apply to the Sole Makers :— BRIN’S OXYGEN COMPANY, LIMITEDs ELVERTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. For Photography, Unsurpassed for fine definition. CooKr Send a card merely quoting Z26x. JAYLOR, JAYLOR& HOBSON. .L° EIOUGHTON STREET WORKS, LEICESTER, 1h, BeRNenS BYREET, LONDON, W135 BAQADWAY, MAM YORK clxxxvl NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 MACMILLAN & CO’S LIST. THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICA. By F. H. HATCH, Ph.D., M.Inst.C.E., President of the Geological Society of South Africa; and G. S. CORSTORPHINE, B.Se., Ph.D., Consulting Geologist to the Consolidated Coalfields of South Africa. 8vo. 21s. net. 7IMES.—‘‘ The book contains much matter of remarkable interest to geologists other than those specially concerned w.th our South African possessions.” NATURE.—* Supplies a long-felt want. . . . The geology of South Africa is here described in a thoroughly scientific manner, clearly and concisely worded. . . . The volume is profusely and admirably illustrated.” NEW AND REVISED EDITION, NOW READY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I.—The Non-Metallic Elements. New Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Roscos, assisted by Dr. H. G. COLMAN and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations. S8vo. 21s. net. A PRIMER or EXPLOSIVES. For the Use of LOCAL INSPECTORS and DEALERS. By MAJOR A. COOPER-KEY, H.M. Inspector of Explosives. Edited by Captain J. H. Tuomson, H.M. Chief Inspector of Explosives. Fceap. 8vo. 15. THIRD EDITION. Entirely Re-written and Enlarged. — CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF OILS, FATS, AND WAXES. By Dr. J. LEWKOWITSCH, M.A., F.1.C., &¢. Consulting and Analytical Chemist and Chemical Engineer ; Examiner in Soap Manufacture and in Fats and Oils, including Candle Manufacture, to the City and Guilds of London Institute. With 88 Illustrations and numerous Tables. In Two Volumes. Medium 8vo, gilt tops. 36s, net. NATURE.—* The standard English book of reference on the subject.” THE LABORATORY COMPANION TO FATS AND OILS INDUSTRIES. By Dr. LEWKOWITSCH, F.I.C. Svo. 6s. net. CHEMICAL TRADE JOURNAL.-—“ Bound to become a constant companion to the chemist who deals with oils and fats.” OUTLINES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By S. P. BEEBE, Ph.D., Physiological Chemist to the Huntington Fund for Cancer Research; and B. H. BUXTON, M.D., Professor of Experimental Pathology, Cornell Medical College. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. net. MACHINE CONSTRUCTION ano DRAWING By FRANK CASTLE, M.I.M.E., Mechanical Laboratory, Royal College of Science, South Kensington, Lecturer in Machine Drawing, Building Construction, and Mathematics at the Morley College, London. Globe 4to, limp cloth, 45. 62. SIMPLE LESSONS ON HEALTH FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG. By SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, K.C.B., M.P., &c. Fecap. 8vo. Is. DAILY MAIL.—“ The book is written with a simplicity, directness, and temperance which are altogether admirable.” MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY FOR STUDENTS. By H. E. HADLEY, B.Se. (Lond.), Associate of the Royal College of Science, London; Headmaster of the School of Science, Kidderminster. Globe 8vo. 6s. SCHOOL WORLD.—<‘ We know of no text-book at a similar price which contains such an amount of valuable information. . There can be little doubt that this book will be used by all students who wish to obtain a comprehensive and exact knowledge of the subject.” FOURTH EDITION. MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS AND ESSAYS. By W. W. ROUSE BALL, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo, 7s. net. NATURE.— This is an excellent work of its kind, and ought to find a large nuniber of readers.” MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 7, 1905] NATURE clxxxvil ES APPARATU (PRODUCING BOTH GAS AND SOLUTION), Which will last for many months in constant use without renewals or cleaning. N.B.—This apparatus effects such a great saving in mate- rial that, where in frequent use, this represents quite Al a year. DeEscRIPTIVE PAMPHLET post free. Sole Makers— 6 CROSS STREET, FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON. BREWSTER, SMITH &60., PHCNIX ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED. PLRE, OF FIGE. 19 LOMBARD ST., E.C., and 57 CHARING CROSS, S.W. ESTABLISHED 1782. Moderate Rates. Absolute Security. Electric Lighting Rules Supplied. Liberal Loss Settlements. Prompt Payment of Claims. LOSSES PAID OVER £28,000,09O. BIRKBECK BANK ESTABLISHED 18sx. Current Accounts. 2% Interest allowed on minimum monthly balances when not drawn below £100. Deposits. 24% Interest allowed on Deposit Accounts. Advances made. Stocks and Shares bought and sold Apply C. F. RAVENSCROFT, Secretary, Southampton Buildings, High Holborn, W.C. MIGROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY. Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., for a Prospectus of THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Half- Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. Subscription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-; or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections, £4 4s. A RELIABLE IMPROVED FORM (AS FIGURED) OF WATKINS & DONCASTER, aturalists and Manufacturers of CABIN ETS AND APPARATUS FOR AN ee BIRDS' EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL NCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. Seat, SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS, SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing Classes, &c. j Birds, Mammals, &c., Preserved and Mounted by First-class Workmen true to Nature. All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied. 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, post free. MINERALS, ROCKS, FOSSILS. A large stock of BRITISH AND FOREIGN MINERALS always on view. CORNISH MINERALS A SPECIALITY. Special display for Teachers and Students on Saturdays. Open till 7 p.m. RICHARDS’ SHOW ROOMS, 3 Beauchamp Place, POEL Road, South Kensington, | ondon, S. ROCKS, MINERALS, FOSSILS. For Collectors, Students, Technical Schools, Colleges, &e. COLLECTIONS IN POLISHED DEAL BOXES. Specimens, 5/63 50 do., 10/6; 100 do., 21/-; 200 do., 42/- zo Coal Measure Rocks and Fossils, 12/6; do., larger, 15/-. Adapted for the Board of Edueation Examinations in Geology, Physiography, and Mineralogy. A large stock of Minerals, Rocks, Fossils and Microscopic Objects for selection. Specimens sent on approval. Cabinets, Geologists’ Hammers, Chisels, Card Trays, Glass-capped | Boxes, Models of Crystals, &c., &c. ie New 25 | NEW CATALOGUE POST FREE. | THOMAS D. RUSSELL, 78 Newgate St., London, E.C. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Ameeba, Arcella, Actinospherium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. | MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :— Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia ; Actinia, Tealia, Caryopbyllia, Alcy- onium; Hormiphora (preserved) ; Leptoplana; Lineus, Amphiporus, Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, ‘erebella; Lepa as, Balanus, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone, Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus, Ascidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &c. For prices and more detailed lists apply to Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. NOTICE.—Advertisements and _ business Communications to the Editor. See ae ea TO ‘‘NATURE.” letters for s. ad. | Toatt Praces ABroap:i— & s. d.| Yearly . ‘ é Bn EP Yearly r10 6 Half-yearly om 6 Half-yearly om 6 Quarterly 4 o 777) 6 Quarterly 5 . ont) The telegraphic CEEESS ed Nature is ‘‘ Puusis,’ 8 0 Nature should be CE SSIS to the Publishevs; Editorial ? LonpDon. CHARGES sores ADVERTISEMENTS. *Three Lines in Column eons e Quarter Page, or Half Per Eine after. cee e o g} aColumn . 115 0 One Sixteenth Page, or ig thCol. 10 o One Eighth Page, or Quarter BEING ES) OPE Columa 35 0 Column S o 18 6| Whole Page . = 6" 6 ‘p * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Cheques and Money Orders payable OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S to MACMILLAN & CO., Limited. STREET, LONDON, W.C. clxxxviil NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1905 LATEST IMPROVED °2" vr DOUBLE-SURFACE UATALOGUE oF CONDENSER: PHySiGAL APPARATUS. great extent their usefulness and gen- eral adoption in laboratories. NINTH EDITION. Over SOO pages, profusely illustrated, of alt the latest and most modern apparatus for | teaching . . 4 | Heat, Light, Sound, A Frictional and Voltaic Electricity, | Pneumatics, Hydrostatics, Mechanies, | Mensuration, Hygiene, &c. Patent applied for. Answers equally well for distillations with direct steam, ordinary distillations, or under reduced pressure. Easily cleansed by removing inner con- densing tube. In case of breakage (chances of which are re- duced to a minimum), any part may be readily renewed at very small cost, or, in fact, replaced from the stores of any ordinary laboratory. May be used in any position, with or without vacuum. Takes less than one-third the bench room of an ordinary Liebig type condenser. EVERY INSTRUMENT CHEAPLY, EFFICIENTLY, AND ACCURATELY MADE. CATALOGUES SENT FREE, on application, to Schools, Colleges, and Institutions. Condenser, 5/G; Fractionating End, LO/G; =o ] Complete Apparatus (as shown), 2O/=. SOLE MAKERS— | : C.E. MULLER, ORME & Co.,Lta., | OWNSON & MERCER, 34 CAMOMILE ST., E.C. 148 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. —_ga__ UNIVERSAL QF ATTA PTT TTT PORT LT UCT #0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 930 ty oi -== DEMONSTRATION Bo, Ghoti, 2 > A ef | INSTRUMENTer 1 ‘omprising { AMPEREMETER, VOLTMETER, CALVANOMETER, WHEAT- Comprising | “STONE BRIDGE, and COMPENSATION BRIDGE, For Catalogue apply— ISENTHAL & CO., 85 MORTIMER STREET, LONDON, W. Contractors to the Admiralty, War, India, and Colonial Offices, &c. THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY'S LATEST INTRODUCTION Che “Artist” Reflex Camera For Day-Light Loading Flat Films or Plates. The Ideal Camera for Photographing Figure Studies, Animals, Natural History Subjects, Architecture, Landscapes, &c. The picture can be viewed the full size and focussed right up to the moment of exposure. For distillations under reduced pressure, where fractions have to be separated, the fractionating end (as shown in Fig.) will be found extremely useful and convenient. Write for Fully Illustrated Booklet (N) Free from 106 & 108 REGENT ST., W., or 54 CHEAPSIDE. Printed by RicHarv Cray anb Sons, Limitep, at 7 & 8 Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MacmMILLan anv Co., Lrmivep, at St. Martin's Street, London, W.C., and THE MacmsLian Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—THurspay, September 7, 1905. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE ‘“ To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’’—WoRDSWORTH. 2] Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] No. 1872, VOL. 7 MAKERS: SOLE NEWTON & CO., A ‘MOST INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. 3 FLEET ST., LONDON. \N SYMPATHETIC PENDULUMS. One being set vibrating starts the other and itself is stopped, but restarting stops the other inturn. They continue fora long time starting and stopping each other alternately. PRICE 21/- TEE NEV VW “LONDON” MICROSCOPE, With Eye-piece % inch, } inch Object - glasses, in Mahogany Case, £5 12s. 6d. Double Nose-piece, 9/- extra. < Focussing Substage, 14/6 extra. Rats R. & J. BECK, Ltd., 68 CORNHILL, LONDON. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1905. [PRICE SIXPENCE {All Rights are Reserved. | REYNOLDS & BRANSON, td. Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty's Government (Indian, Home, and Colonial). LABORATORY FURNISHERS and MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL BENCH, illustrated above, as supplied to National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, fitted for Gas, Water and Electricity. Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus, 350 pp. and 1200 Illustrations, free on application. — DESIGNS OF BENCHES AND FITTINGS TO SUIT ALI. REQUIREMENTS. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER. — In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual. and at the point on the vertical column where in ordinary Mercurial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of the scale—viz. : 29, 30, and 3r— are extended over a tube 36 inches long. The mercury now moving diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest variation, even ‘or” to which the: scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid of a vernier or magnifier. NEGRETT! & ZAMBRA. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. BRANCHES; 45 CORNHILL, anpb 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON. CXC UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) Principal—T. GREGORY FOSTER, Pu.D. The following Prospectuses are now ready, and may be had on application to the SECRETARY :— Faculty of Arts and Laws (including Economics). Faculty of Science. Faculty of Medicine. The Indian School. The Department of Fine Arts. The Department of Engineering. The School of Architecture. The Department of Public Health. Scholarships, Prizes, &c. Post-graduate Courses and Arrangements for Research. Courses of Instruction are provided for Students desiring to graduate at the University of London in any of the following Faculties :— ARTS, LAWS, MEDICINE, SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, and ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE. Students who graduate in any one of the following Faculties, Arts, Laws, Science, Engineering, and Economics, are eligible under the new regulations for Commissions in the Army. FEEs. Composition Fee, 3 years’ Course in the Faculty of Arts ... School of Engineering or School of Architecture ... 115 ,, AD Preliminary Scientific Course 25 45 on Complete M.B. Course 5 So a ees Shiva Fees in the Faculty of Science vary according to the Course taken from about 35 guineas to 4o guineas a year. Students are admitted to Courses of Instruction in any one subject, pro- vided there be room. Special provision is made for Post-graduate and Research work in the various subjects taught at the College. W. W. SETON, M.A., Secretary. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. SESSION 1905-6 COMMENCES OCTOBER 2. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR. CuAIRMAN—PRoFEssorR CAREY, Dean—J. WEMYSS ANDERSON. PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS. =, {Harrison Professor—W. H. Watkinson, ENGINEERING 7 7s)) = -\eeMinst.C:E., Mil.Mech\Es (MuI.Bam: 63 gns. ” ” ” David Jardine Professor—E. W. Mar- ELECTROTECHNICS of CHANT, D.Sc. MATHEMATICS .. Professor F. S. Carry, M.A. , {Lyon Jones Professor—L. R. WILPER- PHYSIE€S =, “Force, M.A. CHEMISTRY {Grant Professor—J. CAMPBELL Brown, SAUD ScrgheG.Ss al. Ce RAILWAY ENGINEERING/4ssociate Professor—J. A. F. Aspinact, NATURE (| M.Inst.C.E. MUNICIPAL fAssociate _ Professor—J. A. Bropie, ENGINEERING .. « | M.Inst.C.E. MUNICIPAL ELECTRICAL/{Associate Professor — A. BROMLEY | ENGINEERING... ...|. Hotmes, M.Inst.C.E., M.I.E.E. | ENGINEERING DESIGN/{Lecturer— J. Wemyss ANpgERSON, AND DRAWING... +. (Assoc. M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Mech.E. APPLIED MECHANICS ... Lecturer—J. H. Grinpiey, D.Sc. The courses of study in the Faculty leading to the ordinary degree of Bachelor of Engineering or the certificate in Engineering are so arranged as to afford a general scientific training for those intending to become engineers or to enter any allied profession. The Honours course enables students to specialise in some branch of the profession, and opportunities are afforded for post-graduate work and research. The special prospectus of the Faculty may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAR. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. The SESSION 1905-6 will open on THURSDAY, OCTOBER s. Students are requestec to enter their names on Wednesday, October 4. Lectures are given in all branches of General and Higher Education. Taken systematically, they form a connected and progressive Course ; but a single Course in any subject may be attended. Courses are held in preparation for all Examinations of the University of London in Arts and Science, for the Teachers’ Diploma (London) and for the Teachers’ Certificate (Cambridge), and also a special Course of Scientific Instruction in Hygiene. Six Laboratories are open to Students for Practical Work. Two Entrance Scholarships will be offered for competition in June, 1906. The Early English Text Society's Prize will be awarded in June, 1906. Students can reside in the College. TRAINING DEPARTMENT FOR SECONDARY TEACHERS, A Scholarship of the value of £20 for one year is offered for the Course of Secondary Training, beginning in October, 1905. The Scholarship will be awarded to the best candidate holding a degree or equivalent in Arts or Science, Applications should reach the Heap oF THE TrAIninG DEPARTMENT not later than September 18, [SEPTEMBER I4, 1905 3m New Session begins Monday, October 2, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES, under recognised Teachers of the University of London. f J. HE. Mackenzie, Ph.D., D.Sc. Chemistry “| H. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B.Sc. f ALBERT GriFFitus, D.Sc. Physics... ..4 D. Owen, B:.A., B.Sc. \ B. W. Crack, B,Sc. Mathematics ce Sb .. E. H. Smart, M.A. A. B. RenpLeE, M.A., D.Sc. Boranvas wm ow {BE Bertscu, Ph.D. BeSe. Zoology ... ~ H. W. Unruank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy Geo, F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Geo. Parcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE. ACTING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. WHITE ST., and ROPEMAKER ST., MOORFIELDS, E.C. (Near Moorgate and Liverpool Street Stations.) PRINCIPAL: SIDNEY HUMPHRIES, B.A., LL.B. (Cantab.) Michaelmas Term begins Monday, October 2nd. EVENING CLASSES in ALL BRANCHES of SCIENCE. Well-equipped LABORATORIES for Practical Work in CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY, and all branches of PHYSICS. Special Courses for London University Matric., Inter., and Final B.A., B.Sc., Conjoint Board, Pharmaceutical and other examinations. Classes are also held in all Commercial Subjects, in Languages, Literature and Art. All Classes are open to both sexes. SATURDAY COURSES for Matric., Inter., and Final B.A., B.Sc. DAY COMMERCIAL and HIGHER COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS. Prospectuses, and all other information, gratis on application. DAVID SAVAGE, Secretary. ENGINEERING. NORTHAMPTON INS ail tiG wes CLERKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COURSES IN MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND HOROLOGICAL ENGINEERING. FULL DAY COURSES in the THEORY and PRACTICE of the above subjects will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION on WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, | SEPTEMBER 27 and 28. The Courses for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering include periods spent in Commercial Workshops, and extend over four years. _They also prepare for the degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees for either of these Courses, £15 or 411 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each, giving free tuition for the full course in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September next. Conditions can be obtained from the PrincrPaL. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on appli- cation to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. WIGAN MINING & TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—THomas T. RANKIN, C.E., B.Sc., M.Inst.M.M., M.I.M.E. SANDWICH SYSTEM OF MINING TRAINING. DAY MINING COURSES. Opening date, MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, at 9 a.m. Complete Diploma Course extends over a period of three or four years. Two Prizes of £10 10s. each awarded annually. Candidates for Colliery Managers’ Certificates of Competency holding the above Diploma will be exempt from two out of the five years’ practical experience required by the Coal Mines Regulation Act. The Home Secretary has approved for the purposes of the Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amendment Act, 1903, the Diplomas of this College. Prospectus post free on application to the PRINCIPAL, or T. RATCLIFFE ELLIS, Hon. Sec. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages CXxCi, Cxcil, and cxciil. | } SEPTEMBER 14, 1905 | NATURE excl THE DAVY-FARADAY RESEARCH LABORATORY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. Professor Sir JAMES DEWAR, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. DIRECTOR: SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LABORATORY : Dr. ALEXANDER SCOTT, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. This Laboratory was founded by Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., as a Memorial of Davy and Faraday, for the purpose of pro- moting, by original research, the development and extension of Chemical and Physical Science. Michaelmas Term.—Monday, October 2, to Saturday, December 16. Lent Term.—Monday, January 8, to Saturday, April 7. Easter Term.—Monday, April 30, to Saturday, July 2r. Full Information and Forms of Application can be had from the ASSISTANT SECRETARY, Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, W. To prevent delay Candidates ought to send in their applications for admission during the course of the Term preceding that in which they wish to enter. EAST LONDON COLLEGE (Late East LoNnpON TECHNICAL COLLEGE), MILE END ROAD, E. New SESSION commences SEPTEMBER 18. SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SIDE. (*J. L. S. Hatton, M.A., and Mathematics 9. s,s») “ew. IF, S, CHURCHILL, M.A. . *R. A. LeuFrecpt, B.A., D.Sc., and Physics 4, 9 ss WH. Waite, B.A., B.Sc. és . (*J. T. Hewitt, M.A., D.Sc., Ph.D. Chemistry ... 5 6, 5h) “Agel ley Sate DESe. ? Botany . *V. H. Brackman, M.A. *D. A. Low, M.I.M.E., and “| *J. A. Davenport, M.Sc. ... *J. T. Morris, M_I.E.E. ARTS SIDE. cfs j*J. L. S. Harton, M.A., and Mathematics 9 ss] kW. FS. CuurcHILe, M.A. Latin and Greek ... io .. *F. R. Earp, M.A. English Language and Literature *KaTeE M. WarREN. Engineering Electrical Engineering History ... *T. SEccomsBE, M.A. French . *W. G. Harrtoe, B.A. German Constance B. Low, M.A. *Recognised Teacher of the University of London. Fee for the full Day Course, 10 Guineas per Session. Numerous Scholarships of the value of £40 per annum, and tenable at the College for three years, are awarded by the Drapers’ Company, Evening Courses for the Science and Engineering degrees are also held, the fees for which are from Two Guineas to Five Guineas per Session. CaLENDaR, post free 44d., on application. JOHN L. S. HATTON, M.A., Director of Studies. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuarves A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C. EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICAL and ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. f Cuartes A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C., and Chenustxy “"\ H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.LC. Physics ... R. S. Wittows, D.Sc., M.A. Metallurgy C. O. BannisTER, Assoc. R.S.M. Mathematics G. M. K. Leccert, B.A. Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- versity under recognised teachers of the University. Courses of Instruction in Glass Blowing will be given during the Session by Mr. A. C. Cossor. NEW SESSION begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PrinciPaL. W. H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body. ue For other Scholastic Advertisements, sée pages Cxc, Cxcii, and cxciil. TL gb lotd sn Metol-Quinol Developer. Equally good for plates, films, bromide papers, gas- light papers and lantern slides. Economical and compact : portable and keeps. Sold by all dealers and chemists. WRITE FOR BOOKLET GRATIS. BURROUGHS WELLCOME AND CO., LONDON, SYDNEY AND CAPE TOWN. Chief Offices—Snow Hill Buildings, London. PHO. 70 COPYRIGHT] BRADY & MARTIN, Ltb., NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. Makers of SODEAU’S GAS ANALYSIS APPARATUS. (See Journal of Society of Chemical Industry, February 28, 1903, p. 187.) GENERAL CHEMICAL APPARATUS FOR COLLEGES, SCHOOLS AND WORKS LABORATORIES. PHYSICAL APPARATUS, Dr. Henry Stroud’s Pattern. Apparatus for General Demonstration and Experiments in Physics. METEOROLOGICAL APPARATUS. PURE CHEMICALS AND REAGENTS, STANDARD SOLUTIONS. Stains for Bacteriological Microscopic Work. and cxcll UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH | SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, WALES (BANGOR). SESSION 1905-6 will open on OCTOBER 3. DEPARTMENTS of MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, and BIOLOGY. Tu { Prof. G. H. Bryan, Sc.D., F.R-S. MATHEMATICS Assistant Lecturer, H. Hitron, M.A. Prof. E. Taytor Jones, D.Sc. PHYSICS ......... 4 Assistant Lecturers and Demonstrators, D. FARRAR, M.Sc., and A. H. FerGcuson, B.Sc. Prof. K. J. P. Orron, M.A., Ph.D. CHEMISTRY ... { Assistant Lecturers and Demonstrators, Miss A. E. Smitru, B.Sc, and BE. Towyn Jones, B.Sc. Botany—Prof, R. W. Puitims, M.A., D.Se. a Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator, J. Lioyp WILtiams. Zoology and Physiology—Prof. Puitiie J. Wire, M.B., F.R.S.E. The Classes and Laboratory Courses of this College are arranged to suit the requirements of Students of Practical Science, as well as of Students preparing for University and other Examinations, The Lectures in Chem- istry, Physics, Botany, and Zoology are recognised for the first year of medical study. ‘The extensive Laboratories (Physical, Chemical, and Biological) are fully equipped for Study and Research. Inclusive Tuition Fee, 411 1s. Laboratory Fees (per Term) on the scale of £1 1s. for six hours a week, in each Department. A considerable number of Scholarships and Exhibitions are open for com- petition at the beginning of each Session, and several are awarded at the close of each Session on the result of the year's work. For full information as to Courses, apply for Prospectus to the Secretary and Registrar, hae BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (Five minutes from Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster Bridges), 103 BOROUGH ROAD, S.E. TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY AND ELECTROCHEMISTRY DAY COURSE. A complete Day Course extending over two years has been arranged in Technical Chemistry. With the object of providing as complete a course of training as possible, instruction will be given in MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, ENGINEERING DRAWING, PRACTICAL MECHAN- ICS, FRENCH, GERMAN, METAL and WOOD WORKING, and in GENERAL CHEMISTRY, and throughout the Course particular attention will be paid to ELECTROCHEMISTRY, for which a Special Laboratory has been fitted. FEE FOR THE COURSE, OCTOBER TO JULY, 410. Intending students must give evidence that they are capable of following the Course with advantage, or they may be required to attend a Pre- liminary Course. 4 Full particulars can be obtained on application to C. T. MILLIS, Principal. ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL, ALBERT EMBANKMENT, S.E. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) The WINTER SESSION will COMMENCE on OCTOBER 2. ; oe Hospital occupies one of the finest sites in London; and contains 603 Jeds. Entrance and other Scholarships and Prizes (26 in number), of the value of more than £500, are offered for competition each year. Upwards of 60 Resident and other Appointments are open to Students after qualification. . A Students’ Club forms part of the Medical School Buildings, and the Athletic Ground, nine acres in extent, situated at Chiswick, can be reached in forty minutes from the Hospital. A Prospectus, containing full particulars, may be obtained from the Secretary, Mr. G. Q. Roberts. J. H. FISHER, B.S.Lond., Dean. PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION, UNIV. LOND. A Systematic Course of Instruction, including Practical Work, is given at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, Albert Embankment. Full particulars may be obtained from the Dean. Attendance on this Course counts as part of the five years’ curriculum. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) Full Courses for Matriculated Students in Arts, Laws, Science, Ingineering, Medicine, and Theology at Composition Fees; or Students may attend the separate Classes. Preparation for all Examinations of the London University. MICHAELMAS TERM commences OCTOBER 3. For Prospectuses and all information apply to the Secrerary, King’s College, Strand, W.C. WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT, KENSINGTON. MICHAELMAS TERM commences OCTOBER 9. Apply to the Vice-Princirat, 13 Kensington Square. BIOLOGY we | LLOYD, M.A. NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1905 MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. EVENING CLASSES commence SEPTEMBER 2s. DAY COLLEGE COURSES commence OCTOBER 2. The Day College Courses consist of 30 hours per week, and are in_pre- paration for London University degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Elec- trical Engineering, in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science. The composition fee for the Session of 3 terms is £15. The Evening Classes consist of similar courses at much reduced rates. The Technical Day Courses ave arranged to extend over 3 years and pre- pare for Engineering, Electrical, Chemical and Metallurgical professions. Mathematics aN at { * Miacosssar ey iota *S. Skinner, M.A, *W. H. Eccues, D.Sc. *L. Lownps, B.Sc., Ph.D. *J. B. Coreman, A.R.C\S. *J. C. Crocker, M.A. Physics Chemistry . H. Lower, B.Sc. C. W. HAE. W. E. Oakpen. *H. B. Lacey. T. G. Hirt, A.R.C.S. A. J. Masten, F.L.S. ™W. W. _F. Pucven, A\M.I.C.E., | M.I.M.E., Wh.Sc. > } *A. MackLow SMITH. H. AuGurie. if A. J. Maxower,, B.A, Electrical Engineering .. «+4 U. A. Oscuwatp, B.A. \ B. H. Morrny, B.Sc. " Recognised Teacher of the University of London, The Laboratories and Workshops are open for Research under the direction of the Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on pen to the SECRETARY, who will send a fall prospectus, post free, 4@. Prospectuses may, be obtained at the office, price rd. SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL. The WINTER SESSION 1005-6 will be opened on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, at 4 p.m., by the Annual Prize Distribution and an Address to the Students by Sit James CrichTon-Brownge, M.D., LL.D., F.R. Charing Cross Hospital is within three minutes’ walk of the Royal Dental Hospital of London, and the hours of Lectures are arranged to suit the convenience of both General and Dental Students. The Hospital and School are situated within two minutes of both Charing Cross stations, and the athletic ground at Eltham can be reached within half an hour from Charing Cross. AppoINTMENTS.—The opportunities for obtaining Resident’ Hospital and other appointments after qualification—of which there are upwards of 30—are specially favourable. The SCHOOL PROSPECTUS, containing full information concerning the Livingstone Scholarship (roo guineas), the Huxléy Scholarship (55 guineas), and Six other Entrance Scholarships (total value £550), awarded annually, and all other arrangements connected with the Medical School, will be sent on application to the Dean, 62-65 Chandos Street, Strand, WC: HERBERT F, WATERHOUSH, Dean. Botany Geology \ J | a Engineering WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, CAXTON STREET, S.W. A SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. The WINTER SESSION will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. Scholarships of the aggregate value of £320 are offered to students entering in October. Exaimination on September 26 and a7. Fees 110 Gns. if paid in one sum on entrance. For University Students and those who have completed their anatomical and physiological studies 70 Gns. Special opportunities for Clinical work and for holding the various hospital appoint- ments. Dental students are specially provided for. Prospectus and further particulars may be obtained from the DEAN. Telegrams: ‘‘ Clinic," London. Telephone: Victoria 765. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF His Majgsty’s GOVERNMENT, THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. (IN CONNECTION WITH THE HOSPITALS OF THE SEAMEN’S HosritaL Sociery.) The next SESSION commences on MONDAY, OCTOBER a2, 1905. For Prospectus, Syllabus, and other particulars, apply to the Secretary, P. Micue ut, Esq., Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, $.E For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages CXC, CXCi, and cxciil, SEPTEMBER 14, 1905] NAT ORL CxClil THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. The next SESSION will begin on OCTOBER 2. baie University Degrees are conferred in Arts, Law, Science, and Medicine. The Classes also prepare for the following professions :—Chemistry, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Mining, Textile Industries, Dyeing, Leather Manufacture, Agriculture, School Teaching, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Surgery. Lyddon Hall has been licensed for the residence of students. Prospectus of any of the above may be had post free from the REGISTRAR HIGHER MATHEMATICS FOR SCIENCE AND OTHER STUDENTS. Correspondence Tuition Oxford, Cambridge, London » Royal Universities, in Algebra, Trigonometry, Theoretical Mechanics, Differ- ential and Integral Calculus, Pure Geometry, Geometrical Drawing. &c Departments are at work preparing for London and Royal University Examinations, Science and Art, Civil Service Examinations, and all Prof. Preliminaries —Apply to Mr. J. Cuarveston, B.A., Burlington Corre- spondence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. KING’S COLLEGE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) DEMONSTRATOR in ZOOLOGY wanted for October, rg905. Salary, 4150. For further particulars apply to the SecreTary, King’s College, Strand, W.C. LEEDS INSTITUTE. ASSISTANT SCIENCE MASTER required at once, chiefly for Physics, in the Girls’ Modern School Some experience of Girls’ School work desirable Salary, £120 per annum. Applications, with copies of testimonials, to reach the undersigned on or before the 2rst inst. ARTHUR TAIT, Secretary. OUNDLE SCHOOL, NORTHANTS. A DEMONSTRATOR in the ENGINEERING LABORATORY, and TEACHER of MECHANICAL and MACHINE DRAWING wanted, Experience in Workshop and Drawing Office. Commencing salary, £150 to £200 a year. Applications, with copies of testimonials and eferences, to be sent to the HEADMASTER. COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. mence duties at once. Salary at the rate of £150 per annum. Further particulars may be obtained upon application to THOS. THORP, Secretary WANTED.—Well-educated young man (about 21) as Assistant to Editor of Weekly Journal. Good English style. Scientific and Commercial knowledge desired. Qualifications, examples of work and salary expected, to Box 1872, c/o NATURE, St. Martin's Street, W.C. Wanted for St. Augustine’s Seminary, Dun- garvan, Co. Waterford, a Teacher of Chemistry and Physics. Must be a B.Sc. with honours in Chemistry. Salary 4140. Non-resident. To take up his duties befere October 15. Newbold Rectory,Stratford-on-Avon._Home School for a limited number of pupils. Science a speciality. Laboratory and Observatory. Fees moderate.—Apply G. A. S. ATKINSON, B.Sc. (Lond.). TO MUSEUMS, &c.—Young Gentleman, well up in Biology, seeks post, two years' experience in Museums.— Apply “R. E.,” 20 Willow Terrace Road, Leeds. Inter. B.Sc.(Lond.) wants salaried post in London. Good Chemistry.—‘t E. M.,"" x Blenheim ‘lerrace, Ramsgate. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see bayes CXC, CXCi, and cxcii. LABORATORY TO LET.—Large well- fitted Chemical Laboratory in neighbourhood of Hampstead, to be let temporarily. Electric power. Use of telephone. Apply Box 1871, Office of Nature, St. Martin's Street, W.C. TYPE-WRITING UNDERTAKEN. BY HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOMED TO SCIEN- TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Local, thorough acquaintance with Modern Languages). Research, Revision, Translation. Scale of charges on application. The Cam- oridge Type-writing Ageacy, 10 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. by highly qualified graduates of | i BAUSCH & LOMB MICROTOMES SPECIAL STUDENT PATTERN. For individual and laboratory use where a reliable mechanical microtome at small cost is required. It is extremely simple, yet very accurate in construction, Price, complete, with Knife and Holder, 5:0. Full 24-page Illustrated List of Microtomes and | Accessories post free on application to the Sole Repre- sentatives for U.K. and Colonies. A. E. STALEY & CO., 9 THAVIES INN, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON, E.C. Write for Illustrated Microscopical Catalogue (34 pages), 3 Stamps cover postage. Also Lists of Centrifuges, Photographic Lenses, Shutters and Chemicals of all descriptions, post / ‘COX'S NEW PORTABLE COIL LECTURER in BIOLOGY required for the ensuing Session, to com- | Fitted with NEW FORM OF PLATINUM INTERRUPTER. HARRY W.cCOX be | The efficiency of this Break far exceeds that of any other on the market. The portability of this apparatus enables the Practitioner to take it to the patient with ease. Cost of X-Ray Outfit: Including above Coil (giving full 10-in. spark), Accumulator (12 volts, 30 ampére hours), Tube Holder (double ball and socket claws), “ Record" Tube. and Screen (107 ins.), £5 ot deem Oe EOS SEPTEMBER 14, 1905 ] NA TORE CXCV HIGH-CLASS POLARIMETER (weading to -005 degree). Illustrated List (A) of Telegraphic Address :— “ Sphericity, London.”’ ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. AWARDED GOLD MEDAL ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, Spectroscopes and Spectroscopic Accessories Gratis on Application. 1904. KAHLBAUM’S CHEMICALS. SOLE DEPOT, JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, ERDs SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, including 9 at the great Paris Exposition of 1goo. JAS. J. HICKS, WHOLESALE MANUFACTURER OF SCIENTIFIC AND CHEMICAL APPARATUS TO THE WAR OFFICE, INDIA OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE (LONDON), GOVERNMENT LABORATORY, MANCHESTER SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY, &c., &c. == {\ Meteorograph Designed by h\ W. H. DINES, Esq., F.R.S. Combining a RECORDING BAROMETER, with HYCROMETER and THERMOMETER. ANY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MADE TO ORDER. Prompt Attention to all Orders and Inquiries. B= EXCEPTIONAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, INSTITUTIONS, &c. Quotations submitted for Laboratory Outfits or Single Instruments. THERMOMETERS FOR STUDBN1 WORK A SPECIALITY. Catalogues Pust Free. (State which required.) , 9, & 10, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON. ppp ppp ppp ppp ppp ppp ppp pa ppp pbabbbb bbb abi bp a’ CXCvi NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1905 DENTS CLOCKS, WATCHES, AND CHRONOMETERS FOR SCIENTIFIC USE. Sidereal or Mean Time Cloeks for Observatories, £21 and upwards. E. DENT & CO., Litd., WATCH, CLOCK & CHRONOMETER MAKERS By Special Appointment to H.M. the King. Dear Mr. Butler, = = fe rier , . - I have much pleasure in stating that Ihave put your new ‘‘Swingcam ” Makers or THE Great WESTMINSTER CLock, Camera Stand through a series of severe tests in Natural History Photo- BUTLER’S “SWINGCAM” STAND. A SPECIALITY IN IN TRIPODS. TESTIMONIAL from Mr. R. KEARTON, F.Z.S. Caterham Valley, Surrey, August 4th, 1905. Bic Ben. & DALLMEYER'S w —— IMPROVED = PRISMATIC BINOCULARS. “THE SERVICE.” Will not get out of Adjustment. Easy to Clean. Easy to Handle. Lightest Glass Made. Powers 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. Ela Illustrated Paniphlet Post Free. J. H. DALLMEYER, LTD., 25 NEWMAN ST., LONDON, W. Makers of the Celebrated Dallmeyer Lenses. Jvinted by RicHarb Clay aNb Sons, Limirep, at 7 & 8 Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, and published by MacmulLan AND Cos: Limirep, at St. Martin’s Street, London, W.C., and THE MACMILLAN Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—THurspay, September 14 1995. A W No. 1873, VOL. 72] THURSDAY, EEKLY To the Of Nature trusts the mind Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] NEWTON & CO.’S PATENT “DEMONSTRATORS” LANTERN. FOR LIMELIGHT OR ELECTRIC. With Prism for Erecting, and for Vertical Projection. Price £10 10s. 3 FLEET ST., LONDON. The most simple and efficient Single Lantern yet constructed for general 4 scientific work. THIS SEASON'S CATALOGUE OF SLIDES, &c., POST FREE. Apparatus for the determination of the relative conductivity of thin layers of materials. LEES’ & CHORLTON’S METHOD. Catalogue of Part II., SOUND, LIGHT & HEAT, free on application. JOHN i GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA ST., LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. solid ground which builds for aye.” SEPTEMBER 21, HILAL AO} ST RA i ED jour: NAL OF \S@CIENGIE -WoORDSWORTH. | Paice SIXPENCE 1905. {All Rights are Reserved. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty’ s Government (Indian, Home, and Colonial). LABORATORY FURNISHERS and MANUFACTURING CHEMISTS. CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL BENCH, illustrated above, as supplied to National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, fitted for Gas, Water and Electricity. Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus, 350 fp. and 1200 DeEsIGNsS OF RENCHES AND Illustrations, free on application. FITTINGS TO SUIT ALT. REQUIREMENTS. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. -NEGRETTI-& 2AMB RA BRANCHES: NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER. —In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual, and at the point on the vertical column where in ording ary Merc urial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of the scale—viz. : 29, 30. and 31r— are extended over a tube 36 inches long. The mercury now moving diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest variation, even ‘or’ to which the scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid of a vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other lone range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. 45 CORNHILL, anp 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON, cc NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Princirac—S. W. RICHARDSON, D.Sc. (Lond.), B.A-, Trinity College, Cambridge. SESSION 1905-6. Next SESSION commences on OCTOBER 2, 1905. Courses of Instruction are arranged to meet the requirements of Students preparing for the DEGREES of the LONDON UNIVERSITY, for the UNIVERSITIES of OXFORD and CAMBRIDGE, for the MEDICAL, ENGINEERING, and TEACHING PROFESSIONS, and for the CIVIL SERVICE. Professors. Prof. W. F. Masom, M.A. (Camb. and Lond,), Fellow of University College, London, late Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge. Prof. F. J. C. HEarnsuaw, M.A., LL.M. (Camb.), B.A. (Lond.), late Historical Scholar of Peter- . house, Cambridge. eee > fProf. L. J. Luuisster, M.A. (Camb. French and German 200 Oni, crnheerGhy EucSib, EA Sasa: { Prof. E. L. Watkin, M.A. (Camb.), Subjects. Classics and English Literature... History s40 As) =a0 ccc | Mathematics ae late Scholar of St. John’s College, ae aim \ Cambridge. ysics and Electrical Engineer- ae ing a: = a a THE PRINCIPAL. Prof. D. R. Boyp, D.Sc. (Glasgow), hennictee Ph.D., F.1.C., late Examiner in y Chemistry for Glasgow Univer- | sity. fProf. F. Cavers, D.Sc. (Lond.), =) ARCS! BLS: Civil and Mechanical Engineer- (Prof. J. Eustice, B.Sc. (Lond.), i cin <0 . |_A.R.S.M., AvM.1.C.E. Biology and Geology ING > . 4 F. FLetcuer, B.A., late Classical Bedi nyeroleseor and Master|"“phibitioner, Balliol College, Oxford. Particulars of the Scholarships and Exhibitions open for competition, and Prospectuses of all Departments, may be obtained on application at the College. D. KIDDLE, Registrar. August 21, 1905. , ENGINEERING. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, CLERKENWELL, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COURSES IN MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, AND HOROLOGICAL ENGINEERING. FULL DAY COURSES in the THEORY and PRACTICE of the above subjects will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION on WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 and 28. The Courses for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, include periods spent in Commercial Workshops, and extend over four years. They also prepare for the degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees for either of these Courses, £15 or 411 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each, giving free tuition-for the full course in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September next. Conditions can be obtained from the PrincrPAL. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on appli- cation to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Se., Principal. EEE MERCHANT VENTURERS’ TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRISTOL. PRINCIPAL—Prof. J. WERTHEIMER, B.Sc., B.A., Bal:C. Ges: ENGINEERING—Prof. J. Munro, A.R.C.S., M.I.Mech.E. ; Prof. D. Rosvertson, B.Sc., A.I.E.E. CHEMISTRY—Prof, J. Wertueimer, B.Sc., B.A., F.1.C., F.C.S. Lecturer: G. P. DARNELL-SmitH, B.Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. MATHEMATICS—FE. S. Boutton, M.A.; J. W. Putsrorp, B.A. In addition to the above the College Staff includes seventy-nine Assistant Lecturers, Demonstrators, and Skilled Artisans. There are eleven Labora- tories, eight Workshops, Experimental Engines and Electric Light and Power Station. COURSES for CIVIL, MECHANICAL, MINING and ELECTRI- CAL ENGINEERS, CHEMISTS, ARCHITECTS, and BUILDERS. UNIVERSITY of LONDON—COURSES for MATRICULATION and INT. and FINAL B.Sc. (including the Engineering Degree). FEE: TEN GUINEAS A YEAR. Calendar (6d.) REGISTRAR. or short Prospectus (free) on application to the ———Ee INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) | LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING i DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students, exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Special arrangements for students undertaking research during vacations. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, LONDON, W. The SESSION 1ig05-6 will open on THURSDAY, OCTOBER s5. Students are requestec to enter their names on Wednesday, October 4. Lectures are given in all branches of General and Higher Education. Taken systematically, they form a connected and progressive Course ; but a single Course in any subject may be attended. Courses are held in preparation for all Examinations of the University of London in Arts and Science, for the Teachers’ Diploma (London) and for the Teachers’ Certificate (Cambridge), and also a special Course of Scientific Instruction in Hygiene. Six Laboratories are open to Students for Practical Work. Two Entrance Scholarships will be offered for competition in June, 1906. The Early English Text Society’s Prize will be awarded in June, 1906. Students can reside in the College. TRAINING DEPARTMENT FOR SECONDARY TEACHERS. | A Scholarship of the value of £20 for one year is offered for the Course of Secondary Training, beginning in October, 1905. The Scholarship will be awarded to the best candidate holding a degree or equivalent in Arts or Science. Applications should reach the HEAD oF THE TRAINING DEPARTMENT not later than September 18. BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (Five minutes from Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminstey 103 BOROUGH ROAD, S.E. TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY AND ELECTROCHES DAY COURSE. or, A complete Day Course extending over two years has been arran: tin ~ { i | | NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC | Technical Chemistry. With the object of providing as complete a ’ of training as possible, instruction will be given in MATHEMAT ay PHYSICS, ENGINEERING DRAWING, PRACTICAL MEC - ICS, FRENCH, GERMAN, METAL and WOOD WORKING, and in GENERAL CHEMISTRY, and throughout the Course particular attention will be paid to ELECTROCHEMISTRY, for which a Special Laboratory has been fitted. FEE FOR THE COURSE, OCTOBER TO JULY, £10. Intending students must give evidence that they are capable of following the Course with advantage, or they may be required to attend a Pre- liminary Course. , ms Full particulars can be obtained on application to Cc. T. MILLIS, Principal? WIGAN MINING & TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—THomas T. Ranktn, C.E., B.Sc., M.Inst.M.M., M.I.M.E. SANDWICH SYSTEM OF MINING TRAINING. DAY MINING COURSES. Opening date, MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, at 9 a.m. Complete Diploma Course extends over a period of three or four years, Two Prizes of £10 ros. each awarded annually. “ Candidates for Colliery Managers’ Certificates of Competency holding the above Diploma will be exempt from two out of the five years’ practical experience required by the Coal Mines Regulation Act. The Home Secretary has approved for the purposes of the Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amendment Act, 1903, the Diplomas of this College, Prospectus post free on application to the PRINCIPAL, or T. RATCLIFFE ELLIS, Hon. Sec. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages cci and ccii, SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] =@- New Session begins Monday, October 2, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES, under recognised Teachers of the University of London. ~ J. E. Mackenzie, Ph.D., D.Sc. SSNSISEr Yi i= a ““H. Wren, Ph.D., B.A.) B.Sc. { ALBERT GrirFitus, D.Sc. Physics... ne an ee «4 D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. \ B. W. Crack, B.Sc. Mathematics op Wr Bot on Ne A. B. RENDLE, M.A. Pcs SIE? can tat, ARE Fritscu, Ph.D., B.Sc. Zoology ... H. W. Untuank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy Geo. F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Geo. Parcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction, Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. SESSION 1905-6 COMMENCES OCTOBER 2. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR. CuaiRMAN—ProrEssor CAREY. Dean—J. WEMYSS ANDERSON. PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS. amon Professor—W. H. WATKINSON, $ M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Mech.E., M.I.E.E. ENGINEERING {David Jardine Professor—E. W. Mar- ELECTROTECHNICS ““\" cHANT, D.Sc. MATHEMATICS oth : as F. S. Carey, ae aT el {Lyon Jones Professor—L. R. WILPER- PHYSICS ... ceo Setaain Wee CHEMISTRY {Grant Professor—J. CAMPBELL Brown, CAE BES Tea acters, oer ra {Associate Professor—J. A. F. AspinaLe RAILWAY ENGINEERING, M.Inst.C. E. , MUNICIPAL {Associate _ Professor—J. A. Bropie, ENGINEERING .. «| M-Inst.C.E. MUNICIPAL ELECTRICAL {Associate Professor — A. BROMLEY ENGINEERING... ...|. Hotes, M.Inst.C.E., M.I.E.E. ENGINEERING DESIGN{Lecturer— J. Wemyss ANDERSON, AND DRAWING... «(| Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., M.1.Mech. E. APPLIED MECHANICS ... Lecturer—J. H. Grinp.ey, D.Sc. The courses of study in the Faculty leading to the ordinary degree of Bachelor of Engineering or the certificate in Engineering are so arranged as to afford a general scientific training for those intending to become engineers or to enter any allied profession. The Honours course enables students to specialise in some branch of the profession, and opportunities are afforded for post-graduate work and research. The special prospectus of the Faculty may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAR. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. Principal—SipNgEy H. WELLS, Wh.Sc., A.M,1I.C.E., A.M.I.M.E. TERM begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2s. Day and Evening Courses in preparation for London University - Science and Engineering Degrees under recognised Teachers. Matricu- lated Students attending these Courses are registered as Internal Students of the University. The Principat and J. W. Butron, Mechanical Engineering A.R.C.S., AM.LM.E Electrical Engineering and f W. THomson, M.A., B.Sc. Physics ach ... \((One Vacancy.) F . W Sieve: palin Chemistry. s (Tine pis tT Mathematics G. E. St. L. Carson, B.A., B.Sc. The Laboratories are also open for Research Work. Technical Day College Courses in Mechanical, Electrical. and Motor Engineering, in Architectural and Constructional Work, and in Chemistry. Abridged Prospectus gratis on application. Detailed Prospectus 1¢., post free 3¢., on application to the SECRETARY. MATRIC., INTER., FINAL B.A. & B.SC. AND OTHER ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED EXAMS. Preparation by Correspondence and in Small Oral Classes. Able staff of high qualifications. Single subjects may be taken—Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, &c. French and German for all exams. Moderate Terms—Individual Assistance—Full Notes, Address—Mr. H. J. SMITH, B.Sc. (Lond.), Rosebery House, Breanis Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, E.C. NATURE ccl EAST LONDON COLLEGE (Late Easr Lonpon TECHNICAL COLLEGE), MILE END ROAD, E. New SESSION commences SEPTEMBER 18. SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SIDE. (*J. L. S. Harton, M.A., and “| *W. F. S. CuyurcuHiti, M.A. - (*R. A. Leurecpt, B.A., D.Sc., and lanete re + ees “| *W. H. Waite, B.A., B.Sc. (*J. T. Hewitt, M.A., D.Sc., Ph.D., “\ and *C. Smitn, D.Sc. . *V. H. Blackman, M.A. *D. A. Low, M.I.M.E., and “| *J. A. Davenrort, M.Sc. «. *J. T. Morris, M.1.E.E. ARTS SIDE. j*J. L. S. Harton, M.A., and "| *W. F. S. CuurcHitt, M.A. F. R. Earp, M.A. “Kate M. WARREN. Mathematics Chemistry Botany Engineering Electrical Engineering Mathematics Latin and Greek a cs English Language and Literature History T. Seccomse, M.A. French W. G. Harroe, B.A. German Constance B. Low, M.A. Recognised Teacher of the University of London. Fee for the full Day Course, to Guineas per Session. Numerous Scholarships of the value of £40 per annum, and tenable at the College for three years, are awarded by the Drapers’ Company. Evening Courses for the Science and Engineering degrees are also held, the fees for which are from Two Guineas to Five Guineas per Session. CaLENDaR, post free 44d., on application. JOHN L. S. HATTON, M.A., Director of Studies. WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL MEDICAL SCHOOL, CAXTON STREET, S.W. A SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. The WINTER SESSION will commence on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. Scholarships of the aggregate value of £320 are offered to students entering in October. Examination on September 26 and 27. Fees 110 Gns. if paid in one sum on entrance. For University Students and those who have completed their anatomical and physiological studies 70 Gns. Special opportunities for Clinical work and for holding the various hospital appoint- ments. Dental students are specially provided for. Prospectus and further particulars may be obtained from the DEAN. Telegrams: ‘‘ Clinic,” London. Telephone: Victoria 765. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF His MajEesty’s GOVERNMENT, THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. (IN CONNECTION WITH THE HOSPITALS OF THE SEAMEN’S HospPITAL SOCIETY.) The next SESSION commences on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. For Prospectus, Syllabus, and other particulars, apply to the Secretary, P. MicHExu1, Esq., Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, S.E. THE UNEVERSITY OF LEEDS. The next SESSION will begin on OCTOBER 2. we University Degrees are conferred in Arts, Law, Science, and Medicine. The Classes also prepare for the following professions :—Chemistry, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Mining, Textile Industries, Dyeing, Leather Manufacture, Agriculture, School Teaching, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Surgery. Lyddon Hall has been licensed for the residence of students. Prospectus of any of the above may be had post free from the REGISTRAR. THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. SESSION 1905-6. The SESSION OPENS as follows :— FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE September 11 FACULTY OF ARTS ... re : October 4 FACULTY OF PURE SCIENCE Octcber 4 FACULTY OF MEDICINE ... October 4 Prospectuses may be had free on application. W. M. GIBBONS, Registrar. WANDSWORTH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. ASSISTANT MASTER (Science Graduate) required, Physics and Chemistry. Commencing salary, £150. Application Forms and statement of duties to be obtained from the REGISTRAR. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages cc and ccili. cCcli NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 SOUTH-WESTERN pt ie MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. EVENING CLASSES commence SEPTEMB Re 25. DAY COLLEGE COURSES commence OCTOBER 2. The Day College Courses consist of 30 hours per week, and are in pre- paration for London University degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Elec trical Engineering, i in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science. The composition fee for the Session of 3 terms is £15. The Evening Classes consist of similar ¢ courses at much reduced rates The Technical Day Courses are arranged to extend over 3 years and pre- pare for Engineering, Electrical, Chemical and Metallurgical professions. % Ay (*W. H. Eccies, D.Sc. Mathematics \*J. Lisrer, A.R.C.S. fe S. Skinner, M.A. Physics W. _H. Eccues, D.Sc. “Shen. Lowxps, B.Sc, Ph-D J. B. Coteman, A.R.C.S, | J. C. Crocker, M.A. Chemistry é F. H. Lows, B.Sc. | C. W. Hate. W. E. OAKkDEN. B ‘ j*H. B. Lacey. orany 177. G. His, A.R.CS Geology A. J. Masten, F.L. = *W. W. F. Puvten, A.M.I.C.E., Engi Eases M.I.M.E., Wh.Sc ngineering GSurimee H. AuGHTIE. * A. J. Maxower, B.A. ce U. A. Oscuwatp, B.£ \ B. H. Morpuy, B.Sc * Recognised Teacher of the University of London, The Laboratories and Workshops are open for Research under direction of the Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on application to the SEcrETARY, who will send a full prospectus, post free, ga. Prospectuses may be obtained at the office, price 1d. SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., (THEORY AND COACHIN PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- HS * A. MackLow | Electrical Engineering ... the Principal. COLOGY and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, S.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. HARRIS INSTITUTE, PRESTON. ASSISTANT MASTER required for School of Art. Specially qualified to teach Perspective and Geometry, and to assist in giving instruction to the students attending the Pupil Teacher Centre. The duties amount to about twenty hours a week, and opportunities will be afforded for private study. Salary, £70. Applications, stating age, qualifications and previous experience, with three testimonials, to be forwarded to the undersigned before October 4. R. JOLLY, Secretary and Registrar. NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE, LONDON, E.C. The Governing Body invite applications for the appointment of INSTRUCTOR in MATHEMATICS in the Engineering Day Courses. Attendance required for 2 hours on four mornings p-r week. Salary, 4120 per session (October to July). Forms of application (which should be returned at once) and further particulars can be obtained from R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA. The Governing Body invite applications for the post of DEMON- STRATOR in PHYSICS. The work of the Demonstrator will consist partly in conducting Phy-ics Classes of the Secondary Day School and partly in assisting in the adult Physics Classes in the Institute. A graduate in Physics would receive preference. Commnencine salary, £120 per annum. For form of | application, to be returned by September 28 SECRETARY. CRAWFORD MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, CORK. WANTED immediately, an ASSISTANT HEAD MASTER Salary, £200. One holding the Hlectrical Engineering Diploma of a Technical College with experience in Works and Teaching preferred. Applications to E, A. O'KEEFFE, B.E., M.I.E.E., &c., Head Science Master and Organising Secretary. , apply to the THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuarces A. Kerang, M.Sc., Pb.D., F.1.C. EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, | PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of | those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICALand ELECTRICAL | INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. f Cuarves A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph. De WG I.C., and CHESS) ‘| H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., R. S. Wittows, D.Sc., M. A. Metallurgy ( (oy. BANNISTER, Assoc. R.S.M. | Mathematics G. M. K. Leccert, B.A. | Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped | laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- versity under recognised teachers of the University. | | Courses of Instruction in Glass Blowing will be given during whe Session by Mr. A. C. Cossor. NEW SESSION begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2s. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PrincIPAL. W. H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— REQUIRED immediately, (1) Science Master for important Endowed School and Technical Institute. Chemistry and Physics. Only 274 hours’ work weekly. Salary, £200, non-resident. (2) Mathematical Master for School in W. London. University man preferred. £150, non-resident.—For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address Grirrirus, SMITH, PoweELt AND SmitH, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Physics .. OUNDLE SCHOOL, NORTHANTS. A DEMONSTRATOR in the ENGINEERING LABORATORY, and TEACHER of MECHANICAL and MACHINE DRAWING wanted. Experience in Workshop and Drawing Office. Commencing salary, £150 to £200 a year. Applications, with copies of testimonials and references, to be sent to the HEADMASTER. WELLINGBOROUGH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. Wanted immediately, TEACHER OF ART for Day and Evening Classes, and also for the Pupil Teachers’ Centre. Time occupied about 20 hours per week. Annual salary, tro. Applications must be received by September 28. A. S. CAMPBELL, Secretary. 1o Vivian Road, Wellingborough. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages cc and Cci. Chemist and Assistant Works Manager | required for a responsible position in a works near London where secret and patented processes are in operation. Commencing salary, £200. Investment of £2000 necessary.—Address Box 1873, NATURE Office. CHEMICAL BALANCE for Sale; short beam; by Bunge, Hamburg. In perfect condition ; very little used. Accept £11. Can be seen by arrangement with H. S. _JEvons, 1g Chesterford Gardens, Hampstead, N.W. TABLE or RARE ELEMENTS. By E. L. N. ARMBRECHT,. Symbols, Atomic Weight, Dees Isolater, Specific Gravity, Principal Source, Melting Point, Properties s, Salts of, Price, &c. ARMBRECHT, NELSON & CO., 71 & 73 Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, N.B.—Sent Free on application. w. SEND FOR DETAILS OF OUR MICRO-SLIDE LENDING DEPARTMENT. Covering every Branch of Natural Science. SUBSCRIPTION #£1:1:0 FOR 240 SLIDES, Over 583,000 Slides have already been circulated. gm@- The Boxes are accompanied by descriptions of their contents, concisely written by well-known authorities in the different departments. C. BAKER, 244 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE CCill Physical and Chemical Laboratories completely fitted up. Illustrated Price Lists Free, HEELE’S FAMOUS SPECTROMETER. Including dense flint glass prism, with micrometer movement, reading to I minute. Price £10 10 O Universally acknowledged to be the most efficient instrument on the market. Also, smaller size, Price 46 nett, including two prisms, one being a hollow prism. As supplied to the Royal College of Science, Dublin, University College, Gower St., London County Council, St. Munchin’s College, Limerick, and many other leading Institutes. DELIVERY FROM STOCK. PETER HEELE, 115 High Holborn, W.C. MAKER OF PHYSICAL, ASTRONOMICAL, AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS. IMPORTANT REDUCTION _IN_PRICE. SPINTHARISCOPE. AS DEVISED BY SIR WILLIAM CROOKES. Showing the Scintillations of Radium. Price with powerful Lens, and contained in neat Leather case, AS/= Post free anywhere, The scintillations seen in this instrument are from Pure Radium Bromide of the highest known activity, and are brighter and more plentiful than those produced from Pitch blende or other bodies of low Radio Activity. 3S See letter from Pror. Gorcn on ‘‘ The Spinthariscope and Retinal Excitability” (Nature, June 22, 1905, page 174), setting forth a valuable scientific application of the instrument. A. C. COSSOR, 54 FARRINGDON ROAD, LONDON, E.C. Telephone, 10547 Central. Gold Medal St. Louis Exhibition, 1904. CHEMICALS RARE | METALS MINERALS For Laboratory, Scientific, and all other purposes. RADIUM SALTS & RADIO-ACTIVE PREPARATIONS. CALCIUM METAL, 1/6 0z.; 20/- lb. Price List on Application. HARRINGTON BROS., Chemical Manufacturers and Dealers, 4 OLIVER’S YARD, CITY ROAD, LONDON, E.C. HOPKIN & WILLIAMS, Ltd. 16 CROSS STREET, HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C, Works—ILFORD, E. PURE CHEMICALS For TEACHING, RESEARCH, and TECHNOLOGY. RevisEp Price List. NEW DOUBLE SURFACE CONDENSER. 1 THE “IDEAL.” This is the best and cheapest Condenser on the market; all delicate parts are protected by outer jacket, and the water cannot over- flow into the distillate. Made in two sizes, 6” and 8”, 4/6 and 5/6 each. Zm- Nature says :—‘‘ This is one ofthe most com- pact and efficient condensers which has come before our notice. We have tested it for condensing such volatile substances as ether, carbon disulphide, and acetone, and have found that even with rapid distillation the condensation is very complete. Generally speaking, in order to condense these substances satisfactorily, it is necessary to employ a very long condenser ; of course, this means using a great amount of bench space. As the new condensers are used in a perpendicular posi- tion, the saving in space is very great.” , SOLE MAKERS— BREWSTER, SMITH & CO., | 6 CROSS STREET, FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON, E.C. All kinds of Apparatus for Science Teaching. cciv NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 2 CLA aT THE JUBILEE CATALOGUE '7FIg¢ FIFLD-GLASSES ISSUED TO MARK THE FIFTY YEARS’ EXISTENCE OF THE FIRM E. LEYBOLD’S NACHFOLGER, COLOGNE, Contains on its more than 900 pages a complete ; f survey of the apparatus used for instruction in SS Physies, as well as numerous practical instruc- WITH ENHANCED STEREOSCOPIC EFFECT. tions and about 3000 illustrations. x6, £6 O O. | <8, £610 0.| FOR TOURISTS. PADD NATURE says:—‘‘ The firm of Leybold Nachfolger in Cologne has recently issued a very complete and SPECIAL TYPES FOR NATURALISTS, interesting catalogue of physical apparatus and MARINE WORK, HUNTING, &c. fittings sold by them. The book starts with a history I/lustrated Catalogue, ‘‘Tn," Post Free on Application. of the instruments made in Cologne during the last century. In its second section we find an account C A R in 2 E i S S, of the construction and fittings of various chemical and physical institutions. After this follows the cata- WJ ENA logue proper, filling some 800 large pages, profusely t illustrated and admirably arranged. The book will be = most useful to the teacher.” (No. 1846, Vol. 71.) Branches: LONDON: 29 Margaret St., Regent Street, W. Berlin, Frankfort o/M, Hamburg, Vienna, St. Petersburg. THE CATALOGUE WILL BE FORWARDED TO SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES ON APPLICATION. LS LIQUID AIR ano LIQUID HYDROGEN. £8, Oy tose. msm , TO BE IMITATIONS Dr. HAMPSON’S AIR-LIQUEFIER is now made to a standard pat- i UP TO DATE tern, and numbers are in use in University Laboratories and elsewhere in in Scientific Demonstrating 9 various countries. The whole apparatus is neat and compact and its parts It af fulld a very easily moved ; the Liquefier, without stand, being a cylinder 17 inches See ls aa aK ESE pamphlet of high and 8 inches in diameter. : (St i ay set en It begins to liquefy air in from 6 to 10 minutes after the admission of air eae 20 enda or and at from 150 to 200 atmospheres pressure, making over a litre of liquid ger ete pute ee hour. ie ' It requires no auxiliary refrigerant and produces a perfectly clear liquid Hench polisheaaiaee nak which requires no filtering ; The operator has only one gauge to watch and one valve to control. Hited with eee double HYDROGEN LIQUEFIER to the designs of Dr. MORRIS W. ir Sap ic objectives, Ter TRAVERS for use in conjunction with Air-Liauefier. Ss T Poe iced ek 28 ‘ 3 J @ travelling case, measuring For Prices and Particulars apply to the Sole Makers :— lnitathannianinaMaNiMnaMile” 23” X 167 X gl. ALL ACCESSORIES SUPPLIED. ARC LAMPS, RESISTANCES, BRIN’S OXYGEN COMPANY, LIMITED, | an STANDS, &c. ELVERTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, s.w. | “#2 A. KERSHAW, Dorrington St., Leeds. LAW OF 1 € oe HELICAL SPRINGS The apparatus figured is substantially as described in Pros. Perry’s ‘‘ Applied Mechanics,” and demonstrates the approximate truth of the following proposition:—If a given force be applied to deform a given length of wire, the point of application of the force suffers the same linear displace- ment, whether the wire is straight and the force applied to produce torsion in it from one end, or whether the wire is coiled into a clo e helix and the force applied axially to produce extension from one end; provided that the arm of the effective moment in the first case is equal to the mean radius f of the helix in the second case. Price S42 O O ie IMMEDIATE DELIVERY. hs THE GAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT COMPANY, Lro, CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. NATURE 595 EHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1905. THE EVOLUTION OF MATTER. L’Evolution de La Matiére. By Dr. Gustave Le Bon. Pp. 389. (Paris: Flammarion, 1905.) Price 3.50 francs. ‘Bis GUSTAVE LE BON has written many books. Some twenty volumes, besides papers in current | scientific periodical literature, have issued from his pen. History, travels, tobacco-smoke, anthropology, horsemanship, and psychology have in turn attracted his sympathetic interest. The work before us sets forth Dr. Le Bon’s theories of matter and energy, and contains, in a small-print appendix, an abstract of the experimental evidence on which he is content to rest those theories. According to the author, matter itself is merely a form of energy—probably vortex energy in the luminiferous ther. Matter disintegrates—spon- taneously in radio-active substances, but also under | the influence of certain agencies such as heat or chemical action, which are compared with the spark that fires a barrel of gunpowder. After giving rise to ‘‘les produits de la dématérialisation de la matiére : ions, électrons, rayons cathodiques, &c.,”’ all things finally pass into ‘‘1’élément immatériel de l’univers : l’Ether.’’ By the dissociation of matter, energy is transformed, and ‘‘c’est de l’énergie intra-atomique libérée par la dématérialisation de la matiére que dérivent la plupart des forces de l’univers.”’ The chief experimental evidence on which Dr. Le Bon relies may be grouped under two heads :— (1) the emission of negatively electrified particles by metals when incandescent and when subjected to the action of ultra-violet light; (2) the slight radio-activity which may be detected in ordinary materials. The emission of negative corpuscles from metals under the influence of heat and light undoubtedly occurs, though it is not to the author’s speculative opinions that we owe the experimental demonstration of the fact. As a speculative hypothesis, the idea that the corpuscles are emitted during the disintegration of the atoms of the metal is perhaps worth bearing in mind. But, on a review of the evidence known at present, it seems unlikely that the removal of these slow-moving negative corpuscles results in the in- stability of the atom from which they are derived. There is no evidence that an electric discharge through a gas produces new elements, while the ions of liquids and gases, which result from the removal of the corpuscle, again yield the original atom when neutralised. Such processes are to be distinguished sharply from the irreversible changes which occur in true radio-activity, when bodies of atomic mass (a rays) or fast-moving corpuscles (8 rays) are pro- jected. In this case, new chemical substances always appear, and the process seems to be unaffected by heat, light, or any other physical or chemical agency. This essential distinction is not noticed by Dr. Le Bon, who assumes that the production of a cor- puscle is itself a proof of atomic disintegration. The author claims that he was the first to show NO. 1873, VOL. 72] that radio-activity is a universal phenomenon, not confined to a few substances :— ‘Mon premier mémoire sur la radio-activité de tous les corps sous l’action de la lumiére a paru dans la Revue Scientifique de mai 1897. Celui sur la radio-activité par les actions chimiques a été publié en avril 1g00. Celui montrant la _ radio-activité spontanée des corps ordinaires a paru—toujours dans la méme revue—en novembre 1902. Les premiéres expériences par lesquelles les physiciens aient cherché a prouver que la radio-activité pouvait s’observer avec des corps autres que l’uranium, le thorium et le radium n’ont été publiées par Strutt, McLennan, Burton, &c., que de juin a aout 1903.” We may first notice that Dr. Le Bon classes the effects of light under the head of radio-activity. This, it may be argued, is a matter of definition, and the author is at liberty to give a meaning to the word radio-activity different from that adopted by all other physicists. But it is well to point out that many experiments on the electric effects of the incidence of light on metals had been made before the year 1897, notably by Elster and Geitel between 1889 and 1895. Dr. Le Bon may have been the first to suggest that the effects were due to the emission of particles, but no conclusive evidence was obtained until the experi- ments of J. J. Thomson and Lenard, in 1899, had determined the ratio of the charge to the mass, and identified the particles with those found in kathode rays. Secondly, doubt has been thrown on the emission of rays by substances undergoing chemical action by the recent experiments of Mr. N. R. Campbell, who has traced some, at all events, of the effects to secondary causes connected with the heat of reaction. Here Dr. Le Bon does not seem always to separate clearly the ionisation which may be produced in a gas by contact with substances undergoing chemical change, and the emission of radiations, more or less penetrating, characteristic of true radio-activity. Thirdly, in examining the spontaneous radio-activity of ordinary materials, the author seems to under- estimate the effect of the minute traces of radium which are now known to be distributed widely. He claims Prof. J. J. Thomson’s experiments on the emanations emitted by various natural substances and underground waters as a confirmation of his view that all matter is radio-active. Now, Thomson found that the rate of decay and the phenomena of excited activity in those emanations which he examined closely were about the same as those of the radium emanation, and his experiments should be regarded as an indication of the prevalence of radium rather than of the radio-activity of ordinary materials. It is true that further experiments by Thomson, Cooke, Campbell, Wood, and others have now made it prob- able that ordinary metals, at all events, are slightly radio-active. But, to eliminate the effects of strongly radio-active impurities, it is necessary to take the utmost precautions, both in the experiments them- selves and still more in the interpretation of the results. There seems little evidence that, in either respect, Dr. Le Bon recognised the necessity of such precautions. . Y 506 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 It will be gathered that the author takes a point of view which is not that of the majority of physicists who have investigated these subjects. Revolutionary opinions may prove a valuable tonic to the orthodox in physics as in other matters. It is not because he is heterodox that we are not satisfied by Dr. Le Bon’s book. It is because he seems to us to fail in grasp of the subject, to confuse phenomena which are essentially different, and to be blind to evidence which does not support his hypotheses. A belief in the evolution of matter is fast becoming not only possible but inevitable. Dr. Le Bon has written readable speculations about that evolution, and here and there has thrown out an interesting idea; but the evidence on which that belief must be founded is not that put forward by him. His book calls to mind the advice offered by a famous Lord Chief Justice to a brother judge, that it was sometimes safer to give one’s conclusions without the reasons which had led to them. W. C. D. W. THE FASROES AND ICELAND. The Faerdes and Iceland; Studies in Island Life. By N. Annandale. With an appendix on the Celtic Pony by F, H. Marshall. Pp. vi+238; illustrated. (Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1905.) Price 4s. 6d. net. HE name of Mr. Nelson Annandale has been of late years so intimately associated with the Malay Peninsula and its zoology and ethnology that it comes somewhat as a surprise to find it on the title- page of a work dealing with such totally different surroundings as those of the Fzerées and Iceland. It appears, however, that between the years 1896 and 1903 the author spent several summer holidays in these remote islands, and contributed a series of articles on his experiences to Blackwood’s Magazine and the Scotsman, and that. it is these delightful articles, in a more expanded and elaborated form, with the omission of certain purely technical details, which form the basis of the work before us. As Mr. Annandale suggests in his opening chapter, most persons probably regard the Feerédes as little more than mere Arctic rocks, teeming with sea-birds, in the ocean; and they will accordingly be surprised to learn that, as a matter of fact, although lying nearly a couple of hundred miles to the north-west of Shetland, they enjoy a climate warmer than that of many parts of Scotland, while their vegetation, if rarely more than a few inches high, is as luxuriant as the shallowness of the soil and the winter storms will allow. The buttercups, too, seem larger, and the bushes of a brighter green, than on the main- land. These islands have also to be regarded as desirable spots, for it appears that although a few years ago they possessed a couple of dozen police- men, the moral of the population has been so excel- lent that the services of these guardians of the peace were found no longer necessary, and the force has consequently been disbanded. A truly remarkable record ! NO. 1873, VOL. 72] The first two chapters deal with the people of the Fzerdes and their mode of life, and will be found to contain a number of interesting observations on their ethnography and the implements of the islanders. The invasion of Iceland by the Moors in the seven- teenth century forms the subject of a third chapter, but perhaps the most interesting part of the whole book is that dealing with the wonderful bird-cliffs of the Westman Islands, and the clever manner in which the natives capture puffins and other birds in nets. The fulmar appears, indeed, to be very valuable to the Westmaners, supplying them with both food and light. Other chapters deal with Iceland and its pro- ducts, and the insects and domesticated animals of both that island and the FeerGes. Mr. Annandale deserves, indeed, our most hearty congratulations, and has succeeded in producing a most admirable little work which may be perused with interest alike by the general reader and by those who have enjoyed, or expect to enjoy, the oppor- tunity of visiting the islands he so happily describes. Whether similar congratulations should be extended to Dr. Marshall for his share of the work we are not fully assured. That gentleman seems, indeed, to be under the impression that no one save Profs. Ewart and Ridgeway has written in this country on the origin of the horse. Otherwise he would have scarcely credited the former with being the first to regard Przewalsky’s horse as a variety of Equus caballus. Neither would he have omitted to notice that an earlier name than przewalskyi has been suggested as referable to this animal, and also that Prof. Ewart’s E. celticus is probably inseparable from the earlier E, hibernicus. Moreover, he might have pointed out that it is difficult to understand how Prof. Ridgeway’s new name of E. c. libicus can stand for the barb, when the Arab horse has long since received a technical name of its own. Rawls OUR BOOK SHELF. Le Systeme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des Isvaélites d’aprés la Bible. By B. P. Moors. Pp. 62+1 plate of figures and 6 tables. (Paris: A. Hermann, 1904.) Tue first part of this work consists of an inquiry respecting the numerical value adopted by the Israelites at the time of Solomon for the constant 7, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. M. Moors obtains the greater part of his material for this investigation from the dimensions of the ‘‘ molten sea’’ in Solomon’s temple, as stated in I. Kings, vii., 23-26, and II. Chronicles, iv., 2-5. These dimensions have led some writers—notably Spinoza and Hoefer—to the opinion that the Israelites knew of no nearer approximation to 7 than the whole number 3. ‘The specification of the molten sea is not, however, sufficiently complete to determine its shape with any degree of certainty. Some commentators have considered it as cylindrical, others have followed Josephus in ascribing to it a hemispherical form, whilst Zuckermann suggests a combination of cylinder and parallelepiped. The author of this work, who is firmly of opinion that the Israelites accepted a value for 7 very close to 3.142, has found it necessary in support of his argument to assume that the molten SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE 507 sea had the form of a lipped cylinder. Adopting the description given in I. Kings, which differs some- what from that of II. Chronicles, M. Moors has de- duced for the cubic contents of the bath, a measure of capacity frequently met with in the Old Testament, the relation 1 bath=2 (Mosaic cubif)*. The remainder of the work deals with the system of weights, measures, and coinage in use among the Israelites. Carefully disclaiming any bias in ques- tions theological, he adopts the Bible as the chief authority on the subject of which he treats. The weights and measures mentioned in the Bible are not, however, always very clearly defined, and in attempt- ing to combine them in a homogeneous system we are confronted with apparently hopeless incon- sistencies. Owing to this difficulty M. Moors finds it necessary to have recourse to materials of some- what incongruous character. From a strange medley of midwives, manna and mummies, he evolves, with much ingenuity, a series of metric equivalents for the weights and measures of the Israelites. He claims that his equivalents are confirmed by all those passages in the Bible which contain references to weights and measures. It is interesting to note that his value for the length of the cubit, viz. 443-61 milli- metres, agrees very closely with the value obtained recently by Sir Charles Warren (17-64 inches, = 448.05 mm.). It is hardly possible to accept the view of M. Moors that the Bible was intended inter alia as a text-book on mensuration. In spite of his laudable effort to throw light on the old Hebrew weights and measures they still remain dim to us. In the region of metrology the Israelites would indeed appear to have baffled the commentator, and to have buried their authoritative standards ‘‘deeper than did ever plummet sound ”’ out of the excavator’s reach. So far as we have checked the numerical calcula- tions made by M. Moors, we have found them in- variably accurate. There is, however, an obvious misprint in the last line of his letterpress; ‘‘ 43.5” should read ‘‘ 43,500.”” A Primer on Explosives. By Major A. Cooper-Key, Edited by Captain J. H. Thompson. Pp. xii+94. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 1s. Tus little book should prove of great value to those for whose benefit it has been mainly written, viz. the local inspectors under the Explosives Act, and those dealers whose trading necessitates the handling and storage of explosives. No one can better realise the want of some little handbook on the subject than H.M. Inspectors, and it is to meet this want that Major Cooper-Key has written this useful book, which, it is pointed out, is “not a treatise on explosives.’”? The author gives a short description of the manufacture of the chief explosives, but its great value will be found in the sections devoted to special risks with each class, the methods of packing and storing, and a particularly useful chapter on the general construction and Baerga of a store, the destruction of explosives, G It is certain that a careful study of the book by local inspectors will lead to a better understanding of the whole question of explosives and the Act generally, and hence to a more intelligent perform- ance of their responsible duties. For those traders and users who have the handling of these goods after they have left the manufactory the book should be equally valuable, and it should do much to lessen the | NO; 1873, -VOL..72)| risk of those untoward accidents which occur from time to time, generally from ignorance of the proper- ties of the bodies dealt with. Peseros 5: A Note-book of Experimental Mathematics. By C. Godfrey and G. M. Bell. Pp. 64. (London: Edward Arnold, 1905.) Price 2s. Tuts book gives concise instructions for carrying out a number of simple quantitative experiments in mechanics. It is specially suited for students who intend to sit for Army Entrance Examinations, but the excellence of the course outlined renders the book very serviceable for general use in schools; the students get accustomed to fundamental methods of measurement, obtain concrete conceptions of elemen- tary science, and secure much data well adapted to serve as examples and illustrations in a course of practical mathematics. The experiments include measurements of lengths, areas, volumes, weights, specific gravities, fluid pressures, forces, moments, velocities, accelerations, and many other physical quantities. A full and careful list is given of the requisite apparatus and fittings, and the book will be of very great assistance to teachers in the arrange- ment of a thoroughly sound elementary course 2f experimental science. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Cause and Prevention of Dust from Automobiles. Tue article on the above subject in the issue of NATURE for September 14 (p. 485) is an important contribution to a subject of great interest and importance to the com- munity, but it contains a statement with reference to tar-macadam which in the interests of engineers should, I think, be verified. Speaking of ‘‘ Tarmac ”’ the writer says, ‘‘ the slag is thoroughly impregnated, so that if the pieces are broken further a tarred surface is still found.” I have examined many specimens of tar-macadam, in- cluding ‘‘ Tarmac.’”’ I have never found any sign of penetration of tar. I am aware that some believe in this alleged penetration, but it seems to be obvious that any material sufficiently porous to enable tar to saturate it would be totally unfit for road-making. That tar-macadam, and, of course, ‘* Tarmac,’’ have virtues for motor road-making may be admitted; but this penetration theory is not the reason, and it is a pity that the myth should still exist, as it tends to prevent the trial of other substances far more suitable for roads than furnace slag. The reason why tarred granites and similar hard stones have not hitherto been found so effective is entirely a matter of surface adhesion. Given a suitable tar mixture, there is no reason why hard, non-porous stone should not be as efficient as slag. Penetration has nothing to do with it. J. Vincent ELSDEN. 38 St. Stephen’s Gardens, Twickenham. In reply to Mr. Elsden, I agree that it is of no use to hold mythical views. I think, however, that he is really mistaken in his views that the slag in *‘ Tarmac”’ is not penetrated by the tar. Possibly it may not be penetrated by the most viscous constituents, but upon examining a broken piece of ‘* Tarmac ’’ I have found that the surface is distinctly darker than that of slag which has not been treated. The difference is very noticeable under the microscope, and if a bit of slag from the interior of a treated portion is heated the tar is readily seen, which fact appears to be conclusive evidence that penetra- tion by the tar takes place. I do not, however, suppose that the penetration is very uniform, as slag is not a very uniform material, and therefore in some parts the effect might not be so evident. W. R. Cooper. 82 Victoria Street, S.W. [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 The 508 NATURE ™ c >) rcTre py , It was not long, however, before many of us THE SOLAR Ee era Te or reached our camp. Rain had fallen about 4 a.m., ORES 2 AGES ay and at about 6 a.m. another shower helped still Innsbruck, September 12. further to lay the dust, which had proved such a INCE my last letter, which was dated August 26, | menace to the smooth working of the clocks. I have had so little time for writing that I take the first opportunity to record the events that followed the last communication. Passing over August 28 and 29, which were spent in giving the final touches to the various instruments, putting in the eclipse mirrors, and in rehearsing, we come to the eclipse day itself. Turning out at 5 a.m. and scanning the sky, a glance showed that clear weather conditions for eclipse time were very doubtful. Heavy black clouds 6-inch prismatic camera. Fic, 2.—Visitors being shown round the camp on the day before the eclipse. were sailing majestically across the zenith, and still blacker ones were slowly moving nearer the horizon. There were, however, small breaks here and there where blue patches were exposed for brief intervals, but it seemed that the chances for a clear eclipse were very small. NO. 1873, VOL. 72] previous evening all dark slides had been carefully filled and noted with their particular make of plates, and these now were dis- tributed to the different workers. Fortunately we were working in an area en- closed by a wall, so that only these who had re- ceived special permission could enter. Needless to say, invitations were numerous, and included the majority of those who had helped us in various directions during our preparations. At the time of first contact, clouds near the region of the sun were very few, and - we observed this under ex- cellent conditions. As time progressed, a great bank of clouds was seen gradually working its way along from the west, and it became a race between the clouds and the moment of second contact, i.e. the beginning of totality. The diminishing cres- cent became smaller and smaller at about the same rate as the clouds over the sun became thicker and thicker. The clouds won! The moment of second contact could not be observed! We went, however, through our programmes, knowing that we were photographing nothing. Venus became a brilliant object in the west seen through a break. ry SES 16-feet coronagraph tent. The tent of Lieut. Horne (Commandant of Camp) and myself. Looking west. Fortunately there were two currents of air at worl: in the upper regions, one coming from the south and the other from the west. This intermingling of currents was possibly the cause of the thinning of the clouds over the sun, and gave us a view of the corona for brief intervals through, as it were, a thin SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | NATURE 509 veil; the clearest intervals were towards the end of totality. The burst of sunlight from the north-west limb of the sun heralded the end of totality, and thus ended the work of the instruments and the greater | majority of the different parties. We were all, however, bitterly disappointed. So much trouble had been taken to make everything work with the maximum of efficiency, but, alas! with so Mr. F. McClean. Fic. 3-—Taken after the beginning of first contact. The tents over the instruments have all been removed. the poles. At the north pole there was a region dis- playing the beautiful rifts seen at best during eclipses at a minimum stage, but at the southern pole no such distinctive structure was seen. Unfortunately the eastern and western limb of the sun were shrouded in thicker haze than the north and south region at the time that I had my longest glance. It was there- fore about the solar poles that the longest streamers Grating Mr. Howard spectrograph. Payn. The 16-feet coronagraph, with De la Rue coronagraph behind the men. Mr. F. McClean and his naval staff. small a result. Prismatic cameras of high dispersive power and prismatic reflectors of long focal length, to say nothing of long-focus lenses for three-colour negatives, are not conducive to good results in a cloudy sky! During the few moments that were available between the exposures of the different plates in my instrument I saw enough of the corona to know what were seen by me, and two in the south-east quadrant extended for at least two solar diameters. The eclipse being over there was then nothing more to do than to collect all the photographic plates. exposed and commence with the packing up of the instruments. It is one thing to set up the instru- ments and another to take them down. By the even- ing of the same day about 50 per cent. of the packing a magnificent sight it would have been had it been | up had been completed. Tube of 6-inch prismatic camera. Siderostat. Three-colour camera in distance. Cusp telescope. Packing cases supporting small cameras with gratings. Fic. 4.—The 6-inch prismatic camera, showing staff and positions for the small grating cameras and the cusp telescope. seen in a cloudless sky. The enormously brilliant red prominence in the north-east quadrant was an un- doubted feature of this eclipse, and nothing like it was seen by me in either the 1898 or 1900 eclipses. From several accounts the landscape was illuminated by this red radiating object, and sunset effects were recorded by other observers. The corona itself was of the maximum type, streamers radiating in all directions even very near NO. 1873, VOL. 72] In the cool (?) of the evening the development of the plates was commenced. Those which promised to have some kind of record on them were taken first. To sum up the results, now that the whole set has been developed, it may be said that we have been far more fortunate than was at first anticipated. The | prismatic reflector worked by Mr. Butler succeeded in securing an excellent picture of the lower corona, the solar diameter being about 84 inches. The 16-feet 510 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 coronagraph operated by Mr. F, McClean obtained a fine photograph of the corona with excessively sharp detail and good extension. The De la Rue coronagraph in charge of Lieut. Trench, R.N., was fortunate enough to secure three negatives, all of which will be very serviceable, as the focus was so well adjusted. Unfortunately the long exposures re- quired for the three-colour camera operated by Lady Lockyer could not be secured in consequence of clouds. The 33-inch Newton, mounted equatorially and worked by Staff-Surgeon Clift, obtained two successful exposures, ‘The instrument in my charge secured four negatives that will prove useful, one of which dis- plays the green coronal ring clearer than those which were secured in the 1898 or 1900 eclipses, and several other distinct coronal rings in addition. The spec- trum of the lower chromosphere at the beginning or end of totality was not obtained. The objective grating spectroscope worked by Mr. Howard Payn produced one out of two exposures made, and shows the spectrum of the larger prominences and the green coronal ring. The observers of the shadow bands gained a great | Lieut. Horne’s Officers tent and my tent. Group packing 6-inch Committee. Perhaps by the time that the next eclipse occurs we may know a little more about ““weather ’’ to enable observers to go to regions where they will not be totally or even partially clouded out ! ; Witiiam J. S. Lockyer. INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL CONFERENCE AT INNSBRUCK. HIS International Meteorological Conference was opened at Innsbruck on September 9, when Dr. Hildebrandsson, the secretary of the International Meteorological Committee, read the report of the operations of that body on the part of M. Mascart (president) and himself, and explained that at the Southport meeting in September, 1903, Dr. Pernter’s proposal that a conference of the directors of meteor- ological services should be held at Innsbruck this year, similar in character to those at Munich in 1891 and Paris in 1896, was favourably regarded and sub- sequently adopted. The vacancies which have occurred on the com- mittee from various causes have been filled by the 72 feet prismatic prismatic camera. Dark room, reflector. Pillars of 16-feet coronagraph, 34-inch Newton telescope base. Base on which the three-colour camera was located. Fic. 5.—The camp four hours after the eclipse, showing how quickly the instruments were removed. amount of information as regards their size, rate of motion, and direction. The coronal sketchers obtained very concordant results, and the other parties gleaned much useful information, which will be published later, as the observations have not yet been brought together. By the evening of Sunday, September 3, the whole of the instruments, tents, dark room, and smaller huts were comfortably on board, and we steamed away to Palermo, leaving our camp as bare as we found it. Two copies of each negative had been made and separately packed to ensure loss against accident. With the exception of Mr. Butler, who proceeded to Malta in H.M.S. Venus, and of Mr. Payn, who remained at Palma, our party bade farewell to the officers and men of H.M.S. Venus who had worked so hard, and whom Dame Nature had treated so badly. Crossing to Naples, where we left Mr. F. McClean, we tool the train the same morning to Rome, and after a short rest and a little sight-seeing journeyed to Innsbruck, travelling through the beautiful Brenner Pass, to attend the meeting of the Solar Commission of the International Meteorological NO. 1673, MOL.17 2) appointment of Dr. Palazzo and Dr. Shaw in succession to Prof. Tacchini and Dr. Scott. Dr. Hildebrandsson was elected secretary on the retire- ment of Dr. Scott, who, since the creation of the committee, had performed this function with a zeal and devotion which would be most gratefully remembered. The following changes have also been made :—M. Chaves, director of the Meteorological Service of the Azores, was appointed in place of Admiral de Brito-Capello, Dr. Hellmann in succession to Prof. von Bezold, and M. Lancaster in succession to M. Snellen. Sir John Eliot, having ceased to be director of the Indian Meteorological Service, tendered his resig- nation as a member of the committee, but, with the approval of the India Office, communicated through Dr. Shaw, the committee invited him to retain his seat, as representing in Europe the Meteorological Service of India. Thus the committee has the great advantage of counting among its members residing in Europe a man of experience and possessing a thorough knowledge of the meteorology of the tropics. According to the report presented by M. Wild and Dr. Scott to the conference at Munich, and adopted SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | by it, the principal object of these private conferences of the directors of meteorological services was “ the discussion of concrete questions, the arrangements of procedure as to methods of observation and calcu- lation, and the organisation of common _ investi- gations.’’ Since that period several investigations have been organised by the subcommittees nominated by the international committee. The Munich conference nominated a committee for cloud observations, under the presidency of Dr. Hildebrandsson, whose duty it was to publish an international cloud atlas, and to organise and direct observations and measurements of clouds in different countries during a year. The cloud atlas was pub- lished in 1896 by MM. Hildebrandsson, Riggenbach, and Teisserenc de Bort. International cloud observ- ations and measurements were made at a great number of stations from May 1, 1896, to the end of 1897, on a plan fixed by the committee at the meeting at Upsala in 1894. The publications, in accordance with instructions laid down by the sub- committee, have appeared, and the principal results have been published by Dr. Hildebrandsson in a re- port of which the first part was presented to the international committee at the Southport meeting, and the second part is now presented to the con- ference. The subcommittee has now completed its work. At the Paris meeting, in 1896, other subcommittees of a similar character were nominated, e.g. an aéronautical committee, with Dr. Hergesell as presi- dent, for the purpose of organising international scientific aéronautical experiments, especially simul- taneous balloon ascents at different stations. A committee was formed under the presidency of Sir Arthur Riicker for the purpose of international re- searches on terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric electricity. These subcommittees have had several meetings, and have organised some important investigations. A third subcommittee was constituted at Paris in 1896 for the study of solar radiation. There have been no special meetings, but M. Violle has presented to each sitting of the international com- mittee a report of the principal researches undertaken in different countries. At the St. Petersburg meet- ing, in 1899, the international committee appointed a telegraphic subcommittee, under the presidency of Dr. Pernter, with the view of suggesting possible improvements in telegrams for weather prediction. Lastly, at the request of Sir Norman Lockyer and Dr. Shaw, the committee appointed a subcommittee for the study of questions relating to simultaneous solar and terrestrial changes, under the presidency of Sir Norman Lockyer. The reports of these subcommittees show that their labours have been of the greatest utility for the development of meteorological science. By this means it has been possible to organise and carry out successfully investigations which would have been otherwise impracticable. It is very desirable that all persons occupied with the same or analogous problems should meet periodically, in order to fix ideas and coordinate individual efforts, without in any way restricting personal initiative. It may be asserted with satisfaction, added Dr. Hildebrandsson, that the meteorological conferences organised more than thirty years ago have materially contributed to the develop- ment of the science, to uniformity of views, and to agreement between the services of different countries. The constitution of the international committee con- tributes effectively to the maintenance of good re- lations, and promotes continuity in the labours of the conferences. Dr. J. Hann was elected honorary president, and NO. 1873, VOL. 72] NATURE 511 Dr. J. M. Pernter president, of the conference. In the course of an address Dr. Hann said :— As I am not the official president, I shall take advantage of my privilege of passing over in silence most of the questions which form the programme of the present con- ference, and I shall devote my attention to certain problems of modern meteorology in which I have a special interest, and the solution of which your discussions will assist. The use of balloons and kites has brought the explor- ation of the upper regions of the atmosphere to a degree of development of which we had no idea at the time of the first international congresses at Leipzig and Vienna. Even in 1879 the condition of the question had not changed, with when at the congress at Rome I was charged elaborating plans for observations in balloons and on mountains. We had not then the apparatus for raising kites, and had no idea of the important part they were to play in meteorological science. It was reserved for Messrs. Rotch and Clayton, of Blue Hill, to obtain the excellent results with which we are all acquainted. Further, unmanned balloons were not invented, which since, thanks to M. Teisserenc de Bort, have furnished such surprising data relating to the temperature of the upper regions of the atmosphere. The exploration of the air by means of manned balloons was carried on without any regular plan, and the observations obtained, as we found out later on, were unsuitable for scientific investi- gations. It was only more recently, after the older ex- periments by Welsh had been overlooked and forgotten, that Dr. Assmann produced his aspiration-thermometer, which is capable of giving accurate temperature observ- ations during balloon ascents. Thus I was only able to recommend observations in captive balloons. I directed attention to the superiority of such observations over those made on mountain summits, which were subject to the disturbing influence of the ground, and gave a daily range of temperature quite different from that observed in free air. But as observations in captive balloons were limited in several respects, I also recommended that observations should be made on mountains. Mountain observations, although subject to local influences, are of great use; they give us information that observations made in balloons or by means of kites cannot do, viz. the continuous registration of meteorological elements (especially baro- metric pressure) at a definite altitude, and are indispensable in determining the conditions of the weather in the higher regions of the atmosphere. I now come to another domain of research, which at the present time has attained increased importance, viz. the problem of weather periods and their connection and dependance on the activity of the sun. This is one of the grandest and most beautiful problems of modern meteorology, for the solution of which astronomers, physicists, and meteorologists must give mutual assistance. One of the services which meteorologists can render in furthering this important object is to obtain suitable observations, by means of which the cyclical variations in the atmosphere and their relations to solar activity may be unequivocally determined. These observations must fulfil two principal conditions ; they must be distributed as uniformly as possible over the globe in order to give sufficient data relating to the con- ditions of the atmosphere at fixed moments, and must be suitable for closely following the variations in time of these conditions during short as well as in very long periods. The meteorological observations at fixed points must giye continuous and homogeneous series of mean and extreme values. Unfortunately, the older observations do not always satisfy these conditions. It often happened that the principal meteorological observatories, while constantly endeavouring to obtain more exact data, omitted at the same time to take steps for obtaining comparisons between the old and the new series of observations. This remark applies above all to certain barometrical observations. Thermometrical observations subject to local influences, as well as barometrical observations affected by large or unknown instrumental errors, may afford valuable means for determining the variations of meteorological elements, provided that the local influences and the corrections are 512 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 constant. These are even more valuable than absolutely accurate observations that are not homogeneous, because the constant errors do not affect the variations. Accord- ingly I have for many years urged in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift that we should endeavour to continue the homogeneous series of means and extremes of the meteor- ological elements for as many years as possible, and should collect and critically discuss the older series of observations. Considered from this point of view, the continuation of meteorological observations on mountains is of special value and most urgently to be recommended, They give us information about the condition of the atmosphere in the higher regions which are less exposed to local influences. Among the results of recent researches, no other has made so great an impression on me as the observations of the British Antarctic Expedition on the retrograde motion of the glaciers now going on in those regions. The re- nowned great ice-barrier of James Ross has receded thirty miles; the glaciers of Victoria Land are in full retreat, and no longer reach the sea; while, on the other hand, the Arctic glaciers are receding, and travellers report the same thing about the glaciers of the snow-covered mountains of Ecuador and East Africa. Comparing these facts with reports and observations of the progressive desiccation of Africa and Central Asia, we are confronted with one of the greatest problems of terres- trial physics. This appears the more difficult of solution since we have similar phenomena on a smaller scale which we can closely observe, both as regards geographical and time distribution, but are unable to explain from a meteorological point of view. I refer to the continual retrograde motion of the glaciers of the Alps, which you have the opportunity of seeing in the vicinity of the place of our present meeting. Although this phenomenon is proceeding in a district where one may suppose sufficient meteorological observations, both as to time and geo- graphical distribution, are available, we are still unable to determine with certainty a direct connection between the variations or periods of the meteorological elements and the movements of the glaciers. Great results are not attained suddenly, but only after long and carefully prepared efforts. You have met here, gentlemen, to deliberate upon the means by which we may solve, step by step, the most important meteorological problems of the present day. Dr. Pernter proposed that a certain number of questions should be referred to special subcommittees which would present reports, with the view of simplifying discussions at the general meetings. Sub- committees were nominated for the consideration of (1) an international code and comparison of the standard barometers of different countries; (2) new edition of the cloud atlas, and the classification of clouds; (3) reduction of the barometer to sea-level, and questions relating to weather-telegraphy ; (4) international study of squalls. 5 A vote of thanks was accorded to Dr. Hilde- brandsson for his services as secretary to the Inter- national Meteorological Committee, and a telegram was dispatched to M. Mascart, president of the com- mittee, expressing regret at his absence owing to ill-health. An account of the subsequent meetings of the com- mittee will appear in another issue of Natur. SCIENCE TEACHING. IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. HE issue by the Board of Education of the Blue- book* that lies before us is a promising sign. Intended as a supplement to the necessarily somewhat rigid and mechanical ‘ Code,” it indicates the pro- gress which rational ideas upon elementary educa- tion have made in the national councils since the 1 “Suggestions for the Consideration of Tea ¥ 1gg Y achers and ot in the Work of Public Elementary Schools.” Pp. Se ane See NO. 1873, VOL. 72] days when Robert Lowe’s scheme of ‘* payment by results ’’ could claim rank as a piece of wise states- manship. The opening words of the ‘* Prefatory Memorandum ”’ show the cautious and reasonable spirit in which these suggestions are made :— ““TIn issuing this volume the Board of Education desire at the outset strongly to emphasise its tentative character, and to invite well-considered criticism designed to make it more useful for its special purpose.” The Blue-book contains an introduction on the objects of elementary schools, organisation, the curriculum, and the methods applicable to children of different ages, followed by chapters on the teach- ing of particular subjects, viz. English, arithmetic, observation-lessons and nature-study, geography, history, drawing, singing, physical training, needle- work and housecraft, handicraft and gardening, and hygiene. Specimen schemes for most of these sub- jects are given as a series of appendices. The suggestions made for arithmetic are of a wise and practical kind, as a few extracts will show :— ‘““The instruction in arithmetic should be made as realistic as possible. . . . The use of sets of objects will make it possible from the very beginning to teach the children to add, rather than count by units. . . . Multipli- cation tables should not be learnt before they have been constructed and understood. . . . Every school should be provided with (a) foot-rulers graduated. . . (b) cords with feet, yards and metres marked upon them, . . . (d) a pair of common scales with the smaller weights . . . (e) measures of capacity . . . (f) squared paper or tracing cloth... . The commercial applications of arithmetic commonly found in text-books could be advantageously replaced by algebra, practical geometry and the mensura- tion of the simpler solids and surfaces.” The chapter on observation-lessons and nature- study emphasises the importance of training in accurate observation and accurate description. The distinction made between the two terms is that observation-lessons are for children under ten, while nature-study is for older ones. This seems an arti- ficial distinction, apparently involving the thesis that by the tenth year there is nothing left for observation by the pupils in elementary schools except the out- door world. The movement of late years for nature- study has, in fact, involved a confusion of thought between subject-matter and method; and it has come to pass that on the one hand didactic teaching of elementary botany, provided it is accompanied by practical verification, and on the other almost any sort of heuristic teaching, are equally covered by that vague and comprehensive term. We see some trace of this confusion of thought in the following remarks :— “The main factor which marks oft nature-study from other school subjects should be that in it the instruction proceeds solely from the actual object, and never from description or reading. In practically every other subject, no matter how successfully the teacher makes the scholar look for the information he requires, the child has to take things for granted, and must depend on the good faith of the teacher or of the printed book; in nature-study comes the opportunity of proceeding by another method and teaching from the thing itself. The teacher should then be very jealous not to waste this unique opportunity "’ (pp. 48-49). If this be interpreted as an attempt to use nature- study as an heuristic wedge to be driven into densely didactic school traditions, we may approve of its practical purpose; but with the more idealistic tone of the whole book it is inconsistent. The whole of the chapter on arithmetic is saturated with the notion of “teaching from the thing itself.” So far from SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | NATURE 513 nature-study affording an unique opportunity for | a division by methods which will by no means heuristic teaching, the very complexity of the | coincide with groups of the present subjects. Even problems which its subject-matter presents puts it at a disadvantage as compared with the simpler problems of elementary physics and chemistry. Again, how can we reconcile the foregoing quota- tion with the following, which precedes it by a few pages? ‘““When a dog has been used as the subject of an observation lesson, the children may read, or be told, about the wolf or the fox. This will lead them to compare and contrast, and will aid in stimulating imagination ’’ (p. 46). Must we say that the dog is part of ‘‘ nature” while the wolf and fox are not? or that methods bad for children over ten are allowable below that age? or must we simply explain the difference as due to composite authorship, permissible in a book of suggestions (not instructions), coupled with some con- fusion of mind on the part of one author between method and subject-matter ? The true idea of the relative positions which heuristic and didactic methods should occupy, which to our mind is well illustrated by the above simple case of the dog and the wolf, is clearly expressed in the chapter on geography :— ““In order that the study of geography may be of real educational value it must not be regarded as a process by which certain facts about the earth . . . are committed to memory. It must be rather regarded as the subject, which above all others brings the youngest child as well as the most advanced student into contact with the outside world. ... It is true that as we advance in the study of geography we have to rely, to a great extent, upon the investigations of others, but in order that they may under- stand these investigations we must from the very first teach children to work for themselves and to take nothing for granted.’’ f Nevertheless, it is not suggested that early geo- graphical teaching shall be purely heuristic. On the contrary, the value of stories of strange and distant countries is strongly urged. At first these are searcely differentiated from fairy-tales, but with each succeeding year they become more exact, until they at length pass into definite geographical teaching for which an observational basis has meanwhile been prepared. Here we see a development of the idea of the relation between didactic and heuristic teach- ing. It is useless and unnecessary to think, even as a remote ideal, of the exclusion of the former; all that is necessary is to prevent it from being more precise in character than is justified by the stage attained in the latter. History, in spite of authoritative opinion to the contrary, we must regard as a science, but one in which heuristic teaching is out of the question. Like the one side of geographical teaching, it grows out of fairy-tales, and there need be no scruple in telling young children traditional stories that have not survived modern critical research. But we are glad to see that visits to local places of historical interest are recommended, and that in one at least of the schemes suggested in the appendix the syllabus for the highest class includes ‘‘ first notions on the materials of history and the use of evidence.’? Un- fortunately, very few teachers will have had any opportunity of acquiring the necessary knowledge on this subject. A book treating in a simple manner of the materials of history—and by no means confined | to the documentary portion—is much to be desired. To sum up the ideas we have so far gathered, we | venture to think that in some future edition of these “suggestions ’’ the division into subjects will perhaps be largely abandoned, and in its place we shall have NO. 1873, VOL. 72]| | | light. the official time-tables may come to recognise this. On the one hand we shall have heuristic teaching,’ aiming primarily at training the mind in scientific habits of thought, and incidentally imparting know- ledge; on the other hand, didactic teaching to impart knowledge which is wanted but cannot be obtained at first-hand—its scope being carefully adapted to the stage reached in heuristic training. But, along- side of these two methods, there still remain a number of other subjects, which do not fall under either of these heads, since they consist in training or drilling of some description, e.g. the use of the mother tongue, singing, handiwork, and _health-training. This last, we agree with the writers of the Blue- book, it is not advisable to teach to young children on a physiological basis. Hygienic habits must be learnt before the age at which physiological laws can really be understood, since some knowledge of physics and chemistry is essential to their real understand- ing; and to attempt to teach them without such a basis is only to give false knowledge, which is only too likely to prevent the acquisition of true knowledge in later years. A. M. D. NEW ULTRA-VIOLET MERCURY LAMP. NDER the name of ‘‘ The Uviol Lamp,’’ Dr. O. Schott, of Jena, is introducing a modification ot the Cooper Hewitt mercury vapour lamp, which appears likely to prove useful. The illuminating power of these lamps is very high, and the arc is very rich in ultra-violet rays, but the glass envelope hitherto prevented the passage of many of these actinic radiations. Dr. Zchimmer has recently pro- duced at Jena glasses which are pervious to the ultra- violet rays, and Dr. Schott has made the envelope of the new lamp of this material. The Uviol lamps consist of tubes of this special glass of 8 to 30 millimetres diameter and 20 to 130 centimetres length. Platinum wires are. fused into the extremities, terminating in carbon heads. In the glass tube there is a charge of mercury of 50 to 150 grs., according to the size. The lamps of various sizes, with their resistance and choking coils, can be connected with electric mains of 220 or rro volts. To start the arc, the lamp is tilted to a sufficient degree to allow of the mercury in the tube passing from one pole to the other. At the moment of con- tact between the pole and the mercury, part of the latter is disintegrated simultaneously with the forma- tion of a column of light. The carbon and heads to the poles permit the passage of the current in either direction without fusing the platinum poles. To get the best results from a current of 220 volts the lamp tube must be 130 centimetres long, but two or three suitable shorter lamps may be arranged side by side or one behind or over the other. The spectrum of the Uviol lamp is exceedingly rich in lines. The lamp is particularly suitable for taking photographs and for copying processes by artificial ' Experiments have also been made in_ testing by its means if certain colours used in dyeing and printing have sufficient power to resist the fading effects of the sun. It will thus prove of value in rapidly settling the question of the fastness of colours, which will in future require days instead of months. The Uviol lamp is also a germicide, and it appears likely that it will prove of value in the treatment of certain diseases of the skin. It is an irritant, and easily sets up inflammations, particularly of the eyes, so that the greatest care must be taken by operators A 514 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 by means of suitable spectacles. With — tactful handling it is said that the Uviol lamp can be used for 1000 working hours without loss of efficiency. The cost of a 4o0- td& 800-candle lamp is 1d, to 2d. per hour. It thus appears to be a very economical method of converting electrical energy into efficient adiating energy of short wave-length. NOTES. Tur opening of the bridge over the Victoria Falls on September 12, and the visit of the British Association, were celebrated by a banquet, at which Mr. Newton, representing the British South Africa Company, in pro- posing the health of Prof. Darwin, welcomed the association on the anniversary of the first occupation of Mashonaland by pioneers fifteen years ago, fifty years after Dr. Livingstone first saw the falls. Prof. Darwin proposed the toast of Sir Charles Metcalfe, representing the great enterprise which to-day marks an important step in advance. Reuter’s Agency reports that Sir Charles Metealfe, in the course of his reply, read congratulatory telegrams from Lord Grey and the directors of the British South Africa Company, and a telegram from Mr. Reunert, president of the South African Association of Sciences, conveying his congratulations that more links had been formed in the chain of civilisation. On September 15 the association received a hearty welcome at Salisbury (Rhodesia). The town was decorated, and the trains were met at the station by the local authorities, headed by the Mayor, the Acting Administrator, and the Resident Com- missioner. At a subsequent luncheon the Mayor, in welcoming the members of the association to the most northern part of their tour in South Africa, directed attention to the progress made since the occupation of Rhodesia fifteen years ago. When the many diseases which affect the cattle of the country have been conquered, it is hoped that stock-raising will develop very rapidly. In the course of his reply, Prof. Darwin remarked that when the papers and _ lectures ing with the special features of South African scientific deal- work: are published, it will be seen that serious efforts have been made to grapple with these problems. Sir Thomas Seanlen welcomed the behalf of the Chartered Company; and Lord Rosse and Sir William spoke. On September 16, at Umtali, a deputation headed by Senhor de Sousa, secretary of the Governor of Mozambique, met the section of the British Association proceeding to Beira. Senhor de Sousa welcomed the members of the association to Portuguese territory in the name of the Governor, the Mozambique Company, and the inhabitants of Beira. On September 17, at Beira, the visitors attended a reception given by the Governor, and were entertained at luncheon. At 4 p.m. on the same day the party left for home on the steamer Durham Castle. We regret to learn that Sir William Wharton, a member of the British Association party which is returning home vid Cape Town, is lying ill at the observatory there, having contracted a serious chill. association on Crookes also For the past two years cholera has steadily been pro- ceeding westward, and during 1904 had manifested itself in Asiatic Turkey, Persia, and Russia. Since then cases have been recognised in Germany and Austria, and already 179 cases, with 65 deaths, have been recorded in Prussia. A considerable responsibility, therefore, rests on our frontier guards, the port sanitary authorities throughout the kingdom, particularly in view of the number of aliens NO. 1873, VOL. 72] who reach our shores from the region of the infected districts. If cholera unhappily should reach us, it is not likely to cause any serious epidemic. The last epidemics of note in this country were in 1828, 1848, and 1859. Ir is announced in the Bulletin de la Société d’Encourage- ment that next month a museum of industrial hygiene will be opened in Paris by the President of the Republic. The creation of the museum was authorised by a decree of December 24, 1904. Accommodation for the museum has been found at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, and the sum of 41,000 franes considered necessary for the installation has been collected, as well as subscriptions to cover the annual cost of upkeep. The exhibition will be a permanent one, and, being a loan collection, will be constantly renewed. Tue sixth congress of criminal anthropology will meet at Turin on April 28, 1906, under the presidency of Prof. Lombroso. An exhibition of criminal anthropology will be held in connection with the congress. Dr. Oscar May died at Frankfort-on-the-Main on August 25 at the age of fifty. Dr. May (says the Electrician) was one of the founders of the Elektro- technische Lehr- und Untersuchungs-Anstalt of Frankfort, and was until 1895 instructor in electric lighting at that institution. At the Frankfort Exhibition in 1891 he was a member of the presiding committee and one of the secretaries of the scientific commission. We learn from the Victorian Naturalist that the estimates recently presented to the council of the University of Melbourne contain, among other proposals of a scientific nature, provision for the erection of a botanical laboratory and the appointment of a professor of botany, who, it is proposed, shall also act as Government botanist. This arrangement, remarks our contemporary, should ensure the best use being made of the valuable collection of Australian plants in the National Herbarium. A LerrTer from Prof. David Todd, dated September 8, informs us that the print of the solar corona of August 30 which was reproduced in last week’s Nature (p. 484) was from an early developed negative done during the heat of the Sahara gibleh, and was inferior to others developed after the weather turned cool again. He sends us one of these original negatives, which shows a large amount of detail that did not appear in the print reproduced in Nature. The automatic machine with which these ex- posures made took about seventy-five negatives during totality, of which sixty-three proved to be useful for executing drawings of the corona. were DurinG the past few days earthquake shocks have been felt in various parts of Italy. The following is a summary of Reuter messages published in the daily papers :— September 13, Innsbruck.—Severe shock felt in the Arlberg district at 1.30 a.m. Duration, from six to ten seconds, and direction from south to north. September 14.— Shock felt at 10.10 a.m. at Racidena, Messina, Reggio di Calabria, and Mineo; recorded on the seismic instru- ments at all the observatories in Italy. Another shock felt at Reggio (Calabria) at 12.33. September 15.— Mount Vesuvius is becoming increasingly active. During the day frequent undulatory shocks were felt in the region around the voleano. The activity of Stromboli is also very remarkable. September 16, Innsbruck.—Severe shocks felt in the Arlberg district at 4.3 a.m. and 437 a.m. First shock lasted five seconds and the other four. The shocks were accompanied by loud rumblings. September 17, Monteleone.—Shock felt at 1.40 p.m. SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE a5 September 18.—Sharp earthquake shocks were felt at 3 am. and 11.15 a.m. at Reggio (Calabria). Further damage was done in the provinces of Catanzaro and Cosenza. A severe shock was felt at Monteleone. Tne deaths of two well known explorers were announced in the Times of Saturday last. M. de Brazza died at Dakar on September 14 in his fifty-third year, and Captain J. Wiggins at Harrogate on September 13 in his seventy-fourth year. De Brazza was sent in 1875, accom- panied by Dr. Ballay and M. March, naturalist, to explore the Ogowe, the great river in Gabun in Equatorial West Africa. During the succeeding eight years he laid the foundations of the French Congo Protectorate. A second visit to West Africa, which lasted for three years, was made in 1879, and during this time de Brazza persuaded King Makoko to place himself under the protection of the French flag. Successive journeys were made to the same regions in 1883 and 1887. After an expedition in 1891-2 from Brazzaville to the Upper Sungha with the view of opening up a route to the Shari and Lake Chad, de Brazza settled down in France. Last April he was sent out as commissioner to inquire into the charges of maladministration in French Congo territory, but the hard- ships incident to travel in the malarial tropics of Africa this time proved fatal. To Captain Joseph Wiggins belongs the credit of having discovered, or at least re- discovered, thirty years ago a new ocean highway within the Arctic circle by which the trade of European Russia obtained for the first time direct maritime access to the navigable rivers of Siberia. Captain Wiggins was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Tue thirteenth annual exhibition of the Photographic Salon is now open at the Gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, Pall Mall East. It contains many very fine examples of photography which will interest the scientific student in showing what can be done by means of modern methods. The aim of the promoters of the exhibition is purely pictorial, and although presumably all the works shown are produced by photographic means, it is obvious that there is some, and in a few cases prob- ably a great deal of hand-work in addition. This de- tracts to a certain extent from the value of the repre- sentations of the various phases of nature, of which there are several interesting examples. The methods employed are quite outside the consideration of the society re- sponsible for the show; we can therefore only surmise that the majority of the multi-coloured pictures, and there are about a dozen of them, are made by the gum- bichromate process, applying from two to five coatings of different colours as desired. But the portrait of Frederick Hollyer by Mr. F. T. Hollyer is probably printed on platinum paper, the colours being obtained by modifications in the method of development or by subsequent treatment of the print. A picture so made is obviously not a platinum print, and its permanency and other characteristics must depend entirely upon the nature of the pigmentary materials present. We do not notice any example of ‘ photography in natural colours” as this phrase is commonly under- stood. Tue greater part of the Naturwissenschaflliche Wochen- schrift for August 27 is devoted to a review, by Dr. Thesing, of the pathogenic protozoa, dealing particularly with the subject of syphilis. Tue Popular Science Monthly for September contains many interesting articles. Messrs. Foullk and Earhart NO. 1873, VOL. 72] discuss State university salaries, and deplore the meagre remuneration of university teachers. If this be the case in America, how much more so is it in this country? Wir reference to the article on ‘‘ The Sterilisation of Water in the Field’? (August 31, p. 431), the Lawrence Patent Water Softener and Steriliser Company writes to say that a mistake was made in the records of the official trials of water sterilisers, and that the Lawrence steriliser never consumes more than 1} pints of kerosine per hour, not 2 pints as stated. Tur Psychological Bulletin for August (ii., No. 8) con- tains an important review by Dr. Meyer of Prof. Wernicke’s monograph on aphasia, together with an obituary notice of Prof. Wernicke, who was killed on June 15 in a bicycle accident. We would suggest that the Bulletin be issued with cut pages in future. Tur Revue de I’Ecole d’Anthropologie de Paris for August contains an article by MM. Capitan and Papillault on the identification of the body of Paul Jones 113 years after death. This was based partly on general characters, colour of the hair, &c., partly on measurements compared with those of certain contemporary busts, between which there was an extraordinary agreement, and partly on pathological details. There were clear indications of broncho-pneumonia, of tuberculosis, and of renal disease, and from contemporary records it is known that Paul Jones suffered from all of these. Curistoruers, I.M.S., records a discovery of interest, viz. the presence of a _ parasite belonging to the hazmogregarines in blood of the Indian field rat (Gerbillus indicus). Witherto it has been believed that these parasites are confined to cold-blooded verte- brates. The parasite occurs as a motionless vermicule in the red blood cells, and as an actively motile vermicule in the plasma. Infection of the rat was proved to take place through its parasitic louse, a new species of Hamato- pinus, in which a developmental cycle is passed (Sc. Mem. of the Gov. of India, No, 18). Ligut. considerable We have received from the director of the Government Zoological Gardens at Giza, near Cairo, a list of a collec- tion of animals obtained by the members of the staff during a collecting trip to the Sudan, which lasted from May 10 until August) 10. The list comprises 129 animals referable to 46 species, among which a pair of Senegal storks are perhaps the most notable. It should be added that several of the specimens are the gifts of officials in the Sudan, and that a giraffe was confided to the care of the director by the Khedive. To the first part of vol. ix. of the Biological Bulletin Dr. J. E. Duerden contributes a sixth instalment of his account of the morphology of the Madreporaria, dealing in this instance with the ‘‘ fossula’’ of the extinct rugose corals. The fossula (of which there may be several), we may remind our readers, is a very characteristic feature of the Rugosa, and consists of a pit in the ealice due to the smaller size of the vertical septa in that particular area. In this communication the author endeavours to explain the structure of this pit from the changes which take place in the corallite during development. In the August number of Naturen Mr. H. Schetelig deseribes, with illustrations, certain very interesting re- mains of buildings of Neolithic age which have recently been opened up in Scandinavia. The building takes the form of a portion of a curved wall situated in a stratum below the peat, which is itself overlain by a considerable 516 NATURE (SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 thickness of more recent deposits. Alongside the wall were found a number of stone implements, most of which are of the well known Neolithic adze type, although others are chiefly finished by chipping, and appear in some degree transitional between Palzeo- and Neo-lithic types. In the first article of the August issue of the American Naturalist Prof. D. P. Penhallow discusses the ancestry of the poplars and willows (Salicacez) as deduced from the woody structure of the fully mature stem. The family appears to be of Old World origin, and while most of its Cretaceous representatives appear to have been suited to a warm climate, the tendency of the later forms appears to have been to adapt themselves to boreal conditions. The other articles include the seventh part of Dr. B. M. Davis’s studies on the plant-cell, and a dissertation by Mr. J. A. Cushman on the developmental history of the shelled foraminifera of the group Lagenide. For the initial chamber of these lagenoids the author proposes the name “* proloculum,’’ on the analogy of ‘* protoconch ’’ in the case of the gastropod shell. “cc TuE trustees of the British Museum have caused to be issued (at the price of 3d.) a special guide to an exhibition of old natural history books now placed in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. The object of the series is to illustrate the origin and progress of the study of natural history previous to Linnean times. Apart from reproductions of certain prehistoric sketches, which scarcely, it seems to us, come under the designation of “‘ old natural history books,’’ the series commences with Aristotle’s natural history, followed by other works collec- tively assigned to the classical period. Arab philosophers, such as Serapion of the eight or ninth century, come next, and following these, after a brief reference to a few medizval writers, we are introduced to the works of Leonardo da Vinci and the early ‘‘ herbalists.’ With the ‘close of the fifteenth century the legendary period of natural history gave place to an era of first-hand investi- gation, and special reference is made in the guide to Wotton (1492-1555), the first English physician to make 4 scientific study of the subject, and to whom belongs the credit of restoring zoology to the rank of a science. For the history of later writers and their works we must refer our readers to the exhibition itself, which, if studied by the aid of the excellent little guide before us, cannot fail to prove both interesting and instructive. Unper the conditions which prevail, it is too much to expect any great expansion of forest areas in the British Isles, but there is some consolation in the statement made by Mr. G. Pinchot, the energetic chief of the Bureau of Forestry in the United States, that the Canadian and Cape Colonies have established an efficient forest service, and that Australia and New Zealand are making progress in the same direction. Mr. Pinchot reviews the conditions of forestry in Germany, France, and Switzerland, also in British India and the United States, in the August number of the National Geographic Magazine. Among the illus- trations are some depicting the employment of elephants in the teak trade of Burma. AN account of the Erysiphaceze of Japan in the Annales Mycologici, vol. iii., No. 3, by Mr. E. S. Salmon, affords some instances of distribution which are not readily ex- plained. Four species were previously only known from America, one each from Australia and China, and five are endemic. One species, Uncimula geniculata, was gathered near Tokio on an endemic plant, Styrax Obassia: as NO. 1S737;V0L. 72] recorded from America, the only host-plant is Morus rubra: Mr. Salmon suggests that possibly Morus rubra will be found to exist im Japan, or that the area of distribution of the two host-plants may have overlapped, or that the fungus, having been introduced to Japan, has spread to a new host-plant. Tue sixteenth annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden contains three papers on fungal diseases observed on cauliflowers by Dr. H. von Schrenck and Mr. G. G: Hedgcock. Following upon the treatment of the cauli- flower leaves with different fungicides, it was noticed that swellings were raised in certain cases; further experiments proved that these were caused by the application of a solution of copper ammonium carbonate which induced extravagant enlargement of the mesophyll cells. Prof: Sorauer, who has treated the subject of intumescences very fully, has referred their formation to the action of an abnormal elevation of temperature, combined with excessive water supply. In the experiments here detailed these con- ditions did not obtain, and Dr. Schrenck shows definitely that the swellings are the result of chemical stimulation brought about by the copper ammonium salt when applied in a dilute solution, and he compares it with the well known action of poisonous salts, which in weak solutions induce acceleration of growth. Tue August number of the Fortnightly Review contains an article by Mr. W. H. Mallock on the two attacks on science. The two attacks are the clerical. and the philo- sophic, and the writer contends that the former of these has failed entirely, because man and the universe, when studied as modern science studies them, neither can have, nor require to have, any other explanation than that which science offers us, the principle, namely, that all pheno- mena result from a single system of interconnected: causes. There are no longer gaps in which the divine interference can be ‘seen, for even the gap between the organic and the mental has been bridged over by the discovery that consciousness and mind are by no means co-extensive and identical, i.e. that consciousnesS is not essential to the existence and operations of mind. As for the philosophic attack, the main problem is that of the origin of ideas, and Mr. Mallock accepts the sciéntific view that the mind is a highly complex organism, having a long pedigree, and evolved from simpler élements; that the ‘‘ connection of things ’’ gradually reproduces itself in the ‘‘ connection of ideas ’’; that the individual is at no point to be regarded as separated from the cosmic whole, but that even conation, which has sometimes been supposed to differentiate mental from other processes, depends on the universal conation of nature. On these lines science extends indefinitely the borders of what we call self, and breaks down the dividing line between ourselves and the universe; and thus intro- spective philosophy ‘‘ instead of disintegrating science as a system of childish materialism, merely hardens and sublimates it into a system of universal mentalism.’’ We have received an effective relief map of the Dominion of Canada, on a scale of 100 miles to an inch, published by the Department of the Interior. A RECENT Bulletin (No. 15) of the Geological Coenen of Finland contains a series of chemical analyses of ninety- one igneous rocks from Finland and the Kola peninsula. The analyses are’ set out and the rocks classified accord- ing to the elaborate new method of the. American petro- graphers (Whitman Cross, Iddings, Pirsson, and Washing- ton), in whose work many of these analyses have already appeared. Thirty-eight, however, are new, being mostly the work of Miss N. Sahlbom. : SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | NATURE SEZ Tue Geological Survey continues its work of unravelling the complex structure of the Highlands, and has lately published a memoir on the region of the Upper Tay and Tummel valleys (Sheet 55, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, and Aberfeldy), a region where the newest and the oldest of geological formations alone are found. Most of the memoir is occupied with the field relations and petro- graphy of the crystalline schists and igneous intrusions, but glacial and alluvial deposits are also described. Chief among the illustrations are seven very fine photographic plates. One of the most interesting is a view of the rocky bed of the Garry, with the curious ‘‘ water-pipe ’’ struc- ture, due to unsymmetrical folds in the Moine gneiss. An example of the practical utility of the survey is given in the fact that the basalt quarries near Aberfeldy, which supply the best road-metal in the district, were started at the suggestion of a survey officer. Tue Geological Survey of Ireland has recently been transferred from the charge of the Board of Education to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion, and in connection with the transference an interesting article describing the survey's history and work has been contributed by Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole to the depart- ment’s journal. In this article mention is made of the fact that so long ago as 1837 a laboratory for the examination of soils was established in Belfast, and a soil survey was projected. Unfortunately, however, the authorities were unsympathetic, and Ireland has not the credit of the first soil survey. ‘‘It was left,’’ writes Prof. Cole, ‘‘ for Germany, the United States, Japan and other countries to develop agricultural geology as a branch of organised research.’’ Under the care of Sir Horace Plunket’s vigorous department, it is safe to predict that the survey will now make amends to Irish agriculture for the neglect of 1837. WE have received the report of the United States Geo- logical Survey on the results of primary triangulation and primary traverse for the fiscal year 1903-4, by Mr. S. S. Gannett. Prefixed to this is a valuable chart showing the “condition of astronomic location and primary control ”’ in the United States up to April 30, 1904. THE new number (vol. xviii., part i.) of the Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten contains a paper of interest to surveyors on a method of measuring a base- line, in sections of about 4o metres, by means of a 4-metre subtense rod and theodolite, by Herr H. Bohler. The reduction of the observations is dealt with in detail, and Captain Kurtz contributes a separate note on a special method. The general result points to an error of about +7-4 mm. per kilometre. WE have received No. 8 of the ‘‘ Current Papers ’’ pre- sented to the Royal Society of New South Wales. Nearly two years have elapsed since the last of these papers was communicated by Mr. H. C. Russell, F.R.S., and on account of his illness the present number has been drawn up by Mr. H. A. Lenehan, the acting Government astro- nomer for the State. The Federal postal regulations having done away with the system of ‘ franks’’ for Government documents, the number of observation records received diminished by about 60 per cent. in’ 1904 as compared with the average for the period 1899 to 1903. Several records are, however, of great interest, notably that of a float cast adrift off the coast of California, and picked up on the island of Boillon in the Java Sea, after a journey of 11,350 miles. NO. 1873, VOL. 72] STANDARD sections for rolled iron were used first in Germany in 1879 and in the United States in 1897. In Great Britain the Engineering Standards Committee was appointed in April, 1901, by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, and the Institution of Naval Architects to inquire into the advisability of standardising rolled iron and steel sections for structural purposes; and although the time has not yet been sufficient for the standard sections to be adopted as widely as they are in Germany, the committee has done admirable work, and with the support of the Institution of Electrical Engineers important developments are being made in other fields. The latest reports received, namely, No. 16, “ British Standard Specifications and Tables for Telegraph Material ” (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905, price 10s. 6d. net), and No. 23, ‘‘ British Standards for Trolley Groove and Wire’’ (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1905, price 1s. net.), are striking examples of the wisdom dis- played by the committee in not going too far in the direction of standardisation. In the case of telegraph material it is not considered necessary to issue a specifi- cation for copper wire. No attempt has been made to standardise submarine or underground tables, nor tele- graphic or telephonic apparatus; and in the case of trolley wire it has not been deemed advisable to go further in the direction of standardisation than the recommendation of certain figures for the minimum tensile breaking strength for the gauges of wire in general use. No attempt is made to standardise any particular design of trolley wheel, the committee having confined itself to recommending a groove of a certain section. In short, these standard specifications are so reasonable that they cannot fail to meet with general adoption, as economy in production is ensured without any revolutionary change or any restraint on originality of design. Ar the last meeting of the Faraday Society (held on July 3) a paper was presented by Prof. E. Wilson upon ‘* Alternate Current Electrolysis.’’ The author has carried out a long series of experiments with alternating currents, using various metals as electrodes, and various metal salt solutions as electrolytes. The loss or gain in weight of the electrodes during the experiments was recorded, and accurate measurements of the potential difference and of the current intensity were also made. The exact potential difference between the electrodes was obtained by use of an exploring electrode placed between the plates and a quadrant electrometer. The following metals were experi- mented with :—lead, zinc, iron, copper, tin, and aluminium. The frequency of the alternating period, the density and character of the electrolyte, and the current intensity were varied during the experiments with each metal. The results obtained are gathered together in tabular form in the original paper, and these show that the loss of weight was greatest in the case of lead in a dilute sulphuric acid solution, and least in the case of copper. The discussion on this paper has’ been adjourned until the meetings of the society are resumed in November next. Tue Cambridge University Press has just published an index to the volume containing Lord Kelvin’s ‘* Baltimore Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light,’’ reviewed in Nature of May 5, 1904. A FOURTEENTH edition of ‘‘ Mineralogy,’’ by the late Mr. Frank Rutley, has been published by Messrs. Thomas Murby and Co. The book has been revised and corrected, and a brief notice of the radio-active elements, contributed by Mr. Ernest H. Adye, has been added. 518 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 Copies of two booklets, which have been published privately by Mr. F. W. Armstrong, of the Blue School, Wells, Somerset, have been received. They deal re- spectively with elementary inductive chemistry and in- ductive physics. A NEW catalogue of physical and electrical instruments, balances, &c., has been issued by Messrs. W. G. Pye and Co., of the ‘‘ Granta’’ Works, Cambridge. The excellent illustrations, drawn to a larger scale than is usual in similar publications, should greatly assist customers order- ing instruments from a distance, since with the accompany- ing concise explanations little room is left for misappre- hension. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. THE VARIABLE ASTEROID 1905 Q.Y.—From a telegram from Dr. Palisa to the Kiel Centralstelle, it appears that the asteroid which, on the supposition that it was a newly discovered one, was designated 1905 Q.Y., is identical with that known previously as (167) Urda. The identity is confirmed by Prof. Berberich, who writes that on August 28 the magnitude of Urda was from o.5m. to 1-om. brighter than shown by the value given in the Jahrbuch (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4046). Nova Aguir# No. 2.—From a note in No. 4046 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, we learn that the position first given for Nova Aquila was 1m. wrong in R.A. It should have read R.A.=284° 17/ (=18h. 57m. 8s.) instead of 284° 2’ as given, the mistake occurring in the first telegram received at Kiel. Observing this object on September 5, Prof. Hartwig determined the position, referred to the equinox of 1905-0, as R.A.=284° 16’ 16” (=18h. 57m. 5-06s.), dec.=— 4° 34’ 50”, and found the magnitude to be 10. FRENCH OBSERVATIONS OF THE ToTaL SoLar EcLipsE.— No. 10 (September 4) of the Comptes rendus contains the brief reports received from various French eclipse expedi- tions by the Académie des Sciences. Prof. Janssen, M. Bigourdan, and MM. Stephan and Trépied, observing at Alcosebre, Sfax, and Guelma re- spectively, report satisfactory meteorological conditions and successful observations. At the last named place M. Bourget obtained fourteen negatives of the corona, using coloured screens. The parties at Cistierna, Burgos, and Tortosa were less fortunate, clouds interfering with, or totally preventing, observations. The measures of the ionisation of the electric field were, however, carried out throughout the eclipse by the observers at Tortosa. Similar observations were carried out, entirely according to programme and under perfect conditions, at Philippe- ville, and M. Nordmann, from a preliminary examination of the curves obtained, expects that some very interesting results will accrue when these are finally compared with those obtained on previous occasions. M. Salet, from the same station, reports that the polarisation of the corona was well observed, the deviation of the plane of feeble polarisation being 3°. Ten coronal radiations were photo- graphed with a ‘** Nicol’’ in front of the slit, and fifteen ultra-violet coronal radiations were photographed with the spectroscope. From the eclipse station at Alcald de Chisbert (Spain) M. M. Moye writes that the eclipse was observed under good conditions, and that the corona was very brilliant, the longest streamers occurring in the south and the north- east. The green line was very apparent. Shadow bands were well observed both before and after, but were in- visible during, totality. Observations of the partial phase were made in Paris, where the times of the contacts and of the occultations of spots were recorded by several observers. Unfavour- able meteorological conditions prevented the actinometric observations, which it was proposed to carry out at Trappes, Bordeaux, and the Pic du Midi, from being made, but a series of good observations was obtained at Bagnéres. NO. 1873, VOL. 72] EYE-ESTIMATES OF THE TRANSITS OF JUPITER’S SPOTS.— In order to determine whether his own eye-estimates of the transits of Jupiter’s spots were subject to any error similar to that suspected by Schmidt, the Rev. T. E. R. Phillips has analysed his observations, which number about 140, and cover the period of seven apparitions. As a result he has arrived at the conclusion that at the beginning of each apparition, when the planet’s hour- angle is east, he observes the transit a little too early. Similarly, at the end of each apparition, when the hour- angle is west, the transits are recorded a little too late. The explanation of this error is that it is due to the vary- ing slant of the belts as the planet is removed from the meridian, and the consequent failure of the eye to deter- mine correctly the position of the line which bisects the disc and is normal to the planet’s equator. If this explan- ation is correct, the error should be of the opposite sense in the two hemispheres, but the evanescent character of the spots in the northern hemisphere has prevented Mr. Phillips from making this test. Again, if the cause suggested is the true one, this error should disappear if care be taken to keep the line joining the eyes parallel to the belts. In No. 361 of the Observatory Mr. Phillips gives the details of his observations during each opposition since 1898, and a diagram which shows the effect of the error referred to above on the observed drift in longitude of the Great Red Spot “ Hollow.’’ The hope is expressed that this may lead other observers to elucidate the matter further from their own experiences. Tue Soxar Activity, JaNuaRY—JUNE.—No. 7, vol. xxxiv., of the Memorie della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani contains Prof. Mascari’s usual summary of the solar observations made at the Catania Observatory during the first six months of the current year. A comparison of the “‘ frequencies ’’ observed with those recorded for the latter semestre of 1904 shows that the solar activity was much greater during the later period, but the increase was much more marked during the first quarter of this year than during the second. The daily frequencies of spots, faculz, and prominences during the six months under discussion were 7-18, 7-12, and 3-29 respectively. Two plates which accompany this publication show, diagrammatically, the sizes and positions of the promin- ences observed on the sun’s limb at the observatories of Catania, Kalocsa, Odessa, Rome, and Zurich during the last quarter of 1902 and the first two months of 1903. INSTITUTION OF MINING ENGINEERS. HE sixteenth annual general meeting of the Institution of Mining Engineers was held at Manchester on September 13, 14, 15, and 16 under the presidency of Sir Lees Knowles, M.P. The report of the council contained an expression of deep regret at the loss sustained by the death of the president, Sir Lowthian Bell. The Institu- tion of Mining Engineers is a federation of seven local mining societies—the Manchester Geological and Mining Society; the Midland Counties Institution of Engineers ; the Midland Institute of Mining, Civil and Mechanical Engineers; the Mining Institute of Scotland; the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers ; the North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers; and the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire Institute of Mining Engineers. Since the formation of the institution in 1889, the membership has increased from 1239 to 2901 in 1905. The first paper read was on the leading features of the Lancashire coalfield by Mr. Joseph Dickinson, formerly H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines. This paper gave a concise summary of the recent developments of the geo- logical investigation of the coalfield. Electric power dis- tribution was dealt with in a paper by Mr. R. L. Gamlen, in which he showed the advantages possessed by the power companies as providers of power. Mr. B. H. Thwaite submitted a paper on colliery explosions in which he suggested, as a method of dealing with explosions, the installation of a series of pipes conveying a supply of oxygen and a pneumatic method of coal-dust removal. The former proposal met with much adverse criticism in SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE 519 the discussion. Mr. Sydney F. Walker read a paper on earth in collieries, in which he pointed out some of the difficulties in carrying out the special rules drawn up by the departmental committee for the installation and use of electricity in mines. If earth was to be admitted into the system, the only method of carrying out the wishes of the committee was to use an uninsulated return com- pletely enclosing the live conductor. The last paper read was by Mr. John T. Stobbs on the value of fossil Mollusca in Coal-measure stratigraphy. He expressed the opinion that Mollusca afforded the best means of correlating Coal- measures, and considered that their neglect was due to inadequate collections in public museums, and to the fact that teachers failed to impress upon students the utility of the Mollusca as zonal indices. The Coal-measures were, he thought, comparatively neglected by the geologist, the knowledge of the Ordovician, Silurian, and Chalk systems being much more exact than that of the 3000 feet of Coal- measures. The remaining days of the meeting were devoted to excursions to Chanters Colliery, to New Moss Colliery, to the Manchester Museum, to the works of the British Westinghouse Company and the Manchester Ship Canal, to Pendleton Colliery, and to other places of interest. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. SECTION K. BOTANY. OPENING ADDRESS? By HaroLp Wacer, F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. Eevee, On SOME PROBLEMS OF CELL STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY. Introduction. Wuen Robert Hooke, in the early part of the seven- teenth century, discovered, with the aid of his improved compound microscope, the cell structure of plants, he little thought that our ultimate knowledge of the physical and chemical processes in the living organism, of its growth and reproduction, of the problems of heredity and of the factors underlying the origin of life itself, would be in the main dependent upon a clear understanding of the structure and physiology of the cell. Hooke’s researches did not, in fact, carry him very far, and we must turn to the nearly contemporaneous works of Malpighi and Grew on the anatomy of plants for the first clear indication of the important part which cells take in the constitution of the various tissues of plants. The account they give of them is extremely interesting in the light of our present knowledge. Grew, for example, in speaking of the structure of the root, compares the parenchyma to a sponge, ‘‘ being a body porous, dilative, and pliable . . . a most exquisitely fine wrought sponge.”’ The pores are spherical and consist of “‘ an infinite mass of little cells or bladders. The sides of none of these are visibly pervious from one into another ; but each is bounded within itself. ... They are the receptacles of liquor, which is ever lucid, and... always more thin or watery.’? There is no indication either in Grew’s or Malpighi’s works that they understood the significance of this cell structure, and it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century, after a lapse of some 150 years, that any insight into the real nature of the cell and its functions was obtained. But then began a period of activity—associated with the names of Turpin, Meyen, Robert Brown, Purkinje, J. Miller, Henle, Valentin, and Dutrochet—which culminated in the cell theory of Schleiden and Schwann that the common basis of all animal and plant tissues is the cell, and that it is upon this elementary vital unit that all growth and development depends. The nucleus was discovered in 1831 by Robert Brown in various tissues of the Orchidez and in some other families of the monocotyledons, as well as in some dicotyledons. He described it as a ‘“‘single circular areola, generally somewhat more opaque than the mem- brane of the cell,’? and more or less granular. It is very distinct and regular in form, and its granular matter is held together by a coagulated pulp not visibly granular, 1 Slightly abridged. NO. 1873, VOL. 72| or, which may be considered equally probable, by an enveloping membrane. Although Robert Brown was the first to recognise the importance of the nucleus, and to give it a mame, it had been seen by previous observers, and he himself mentions that he had met with indications of its presence in the works of Meyen and Purkinje, chiefly in some figures of the epidermis; in a memoir by Brogniart on the structure of leaves, and that Mr. Bauer had particularly noticed it in the cells of the stigma of Bletia tankervilliae, but had associated it with the im- pregnation by pollen. There are some figures by Leeuwenhoek, published in 1719, to which Prof. L. C. Miall has directed my attention, of blood-corpuscles of a fish, human epidermal cells, and the connective tissue of a lamb, in which nuclei are shown, and they had been seen by Fontana (1781) in epithelial cells, and by Cavolini (1787) in some fishes’ eggs. To Schleiden and Schwann the cell was essentially a membranous vesicle enclosing a fluid sap and a_ solid nucleus. They thought that it arose in contact with the nucleus as a delicate transparent vesicle which gradually increased in size and became filled with the watery sap. As soon as it was completely formed, the nucleus, having done its work, was either absorbed or cast off as a “ use- less member,’’ or in some cases was “‘ found enclosed in the cell-wall, in which situation it passes through the entire vital process of the cell which it has formed.’’ So far from being the most important organ of the cell, as we now consider it to be, they saw in the nucleus merely a centre of cell formation which is no longer required when the cell is formed. It was left for Hugo von Mohl to show that the mucus-like contents of the cell which he called protoplasm (1846) is the real living matter in which reside those activities which call into play the phenomena of life, and that the origin of nuclei by division from a nucleus already existing in the parent cell would possibly be found to occur very widely. Von Mohl, Nageli, and Hofmeister all appear to have had some idea of the importance of the nucleus in cell division. Von Mohl says that the ‘‘ process is preceded in almost all cases by a formation of as many nuclei as there are to be compartments in the mother-cell.’’ Hofmeister’s description of it is interesting: ‘“ The membrane of the nucleus dissolves, but its substance remains in the midst of the cell; a mass of granular mucilage accumulates around it: this parts, without being invested by a mem- brane, into two masses, and these afterwards become clothed with membranes and appear as two daughter- nuclei.’’ It is, however, mainly to the researches of the last thirty years that we owe our knowledge of the many complex cell-activities at work in living organisms, and we are still only just on the fringe of the great problems which cytology has to solve. Some of the most important of these are the origin and evolution of the nucleus, the meaning of the complex mode in which the nucleus divides, the origin and nature of the spindle figure and centro- somes, the part played by the chromosomes in the trans- mission of hereditary characteristics, the meaning of the phenomena accompanying fertilisation, the significance of the longitudinal division of the chromosomes and of their reduction in number in the sexual cells, and the evolution of the living substance. The satisfactory solution of these problems depends upon a clear understanding of the struc- ture of protoplasm and its various differentiations. How far we have succeeded in obtaining this I will endeavour to show. The Differentiation of Structure in the Cell. The essential constituent of a cell is the protoplasm. This is differentiated into two constituents, the cytoplasm and the nucleus. It is usually held that this differentiation is an essential one, and that these two constituents are present in all cells; but, as we shall see later, there is some evidence that not only are there cells with very rudimentary nuclei, but cells in which no trace of a nuclear structure can be found at all. ; In addition to this primary differentiation of the cell, secondary differentiations occur, resulting in the produc- tion of organs such as chloroplasts, chromoplasts, leuco- plasts, pyrenoids, and pigment spots, which have special 520 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 functions to perform. All these are permanent organs of the cell, produced in the first instance as a result of the cell activity, but now capable of an independent existence in the cell, in that they reproduce themselves by division, and are in this way carried on from cell to cell. In many cells there are formed at certain stages other organs which appear to be transitory, and are only pro- duced when they are required. Such are the spindle figure, the centrosome, the blepharoplast, and the coenocentrum. So far as we know, the cell is the smallest vital unit that can have a separate existence. But it is only among the unicellular organisms and under certain conditions in the earlier stages of development of the more highly organised multicellular organisms that cells have a per- fectly independent life. _Schwann’s hypothesis that the multicellular body is a colony of independent vital activities governing the nutrition, growth, and reproduction of the whole is not tenable. The cell cannot be regarded as an independent unity working merely in association with other cells. Its life and existence depend upon these. It is an integral part of an individual organisation, and cannot exist apart from it. But this absolute dependence of individual cells upon the organisation as a whole is only realised in the more highly developed forms. In the lower types of plants (and animals) it is possible, during the early stages of development, to separate a single cell from the whole, which will still continue to live and grow. Each cell is no doubt dependent upon the others to some extent, even at this early stage, but it still retains the power to develop independently if placed under suitable conditions. As cell division continues each cell becomes more and more dependent upon its fellows, until the stage is reached when it no longer has the power to exist by itself. The various functions performed by a cell reside within it as an individual unit, but the exercise of these functions is governed by the organism as a whole. Just as the organism seeks for a state of equilibrium in relation to various external stimuli, so a cell in an organism has to adapt itself to and come into a state of equilibrium with the various cells around it. The Nucleus. The nucleus is the centre of activity, and governs the vital functions of the cell. All investigations show that in its absence the cell soon ceases to perform its vital functions and dies. In all cells, from the alge and fungi upwards, the nucleus is more or less clearly delimited from the cyto- plasm by a membrane or limiting layer. The important substance which is thus separated off from the rest of the cell is the chromatin, probably the most complex and most highly differentiated chemical compound or collection of compounds in the cell. It exists in the form of a more or less granular network, and is characterised chemically by the presence of phosphorus, which is in organic con- nection with it. We may look upon the chromatin as the highest point in the development of living substance, upon which the activities of the cell in great measure depend, and as the seat of origin of all those complicated changes which have for their ultimate aim the division of the cell. The division of the nucleus begins by a series of trans- formations in the chromatin network which lead to the differentiation in it of chromosomes. We know very little of what actually takes place during these changes, and practically nothing of the forces at work to bring them about. But the visible result is that the chromatin granules gradually fuse together, or become restricted to certain areas by the increased vacuolation of the ground substance of the nucleus to form a thick, more or less regular thread, in which can be observed at certain stages a differentiation into alternate regions of stainable and unstainable substance—chromatin and achromatin—which finally breaks up into equal or unequal lengths to form the chromosomes. In some cases the chromatin granules or network become aggregated into a definite number of irregular masses which form the chromosomes directly without the production of a distinct chromatin thread. This nuclear differentiation is usually accompanied by changes in the cyfoplasm which lead to the appearance NO. 1873, VOL. 72] of a fibrillar structure in the form of a more or less’ regular spindle, the threads of which come into contact’ with the chromosomes through the breaking down of the nuclear wall. The chromosomes then, by the action of a force or forces of which we as yet know very little, arrange themselves in regular order in the equatorial plane of the spindle figure, and some of the spindle fibres become attached to them. The chromosomes become divided longi- tudinally into two apparently exactly equal halves; and then, probably by the exertion of some sort of contractile force or pull on the part of the spindle fibres, the separate halves are caused to move to opposite poles of the spindle. Here a series of transformations take place, which lead to the constitution of two new nuclei. Such are the essential features in this complex process of nuclear division, and it is a striking fact that they occur with more or less regularity in all nuclei from the alge and fungi up to the highest plants. The Structure of Cytoplasm. In the elucidation of cell structure we owe much to the beautiful methods of staining and fixing which are due especially to Flemming and Heidenhain, to the improved micro-chemical methods which we owe especially to Zacharias and Macallum, and to the investigations of such observers as Fischer and Mann, who have shown us the effects of various reagents upon the living substance, and have thus taught us to be very cautious in our interpretations of the structures seen in dead fixed cells. The investigations of oil-foams and colloids by Butschli, Hardy, and others have given us a clue to possible ex- planations of the various appearances seen both in the living and dead fixed and stained cells, and the intro- duction of the ribbon section cutting microtome into the domain of vegetable histology has enabled us to make the | best use of the beautiful apochromatic object-glasses which we owe to the researches of the late Prof. Abbe. It is unfortunate that, so far, very little progress has been made in the examination of the structure of the living cell. We may hope that, with the improved methods of illumination now available, combined with experimental investigation, it will be possible to make some progress in this direction. It is of the greatest importance that we should be able to satisfy ourselves to what extent the various appearances seen in the fixed and stained cell are due to the action of the reagents employed. In this respect a recent discovery by Kohler, which indicates the possibility of making use of the ultra-violet rays in such investigations, is of interest. Kohler (Phys. Zeit., 1904) finds that if the ultra-violet rays from the electric spark between cadmium or magnesium terminals are separated out by means of quartz prisms, objects illuminated by them, when examined by means of lenses made of quartz, show differentiations of structure which otherwise require staining to make them visible. The chromatin of the nucleus and such substances as cuticle and cork are almost opaque to the ultra-violet rays, and can be made visible on a fluorescent screen or can be photographed. The re- solving power of the microscope is doubled, and Lummer considers that the principle employed is the only one by which further progress in resolving power can be made. If the method is found by cytologists to be a workable one, it may open up an entirely new field of microscopic investigation by which the protoplasmic differentiation in living cells may be more clearly revealed. Many attempts have been made to show that the cyto- plasm possesses a definite morphological structure of its own, which is related to the various functions it performs, and that it is not a formless semi-viscid fluid in which various physical and chemical forces are at work, and upon which the various structures observed depend; in other words, that it possesses a morphological constitution as opposed to a merely chemical one. ; Fromman and Heitzmann in 1875 described the struc- ture of cytoplasm as consisting of fine threads or fibres in the form of a net with fluid between and forming a sponge-like structure. Flemming in 1882 described it as composed of two substances, one in the form of fibrils (filar substance) embedded in the other, a more or less homogeneous interfilar substance. In 1890 Altmans pro- pounded his interesting hypothesis that all living sub- SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | NATURE Oe stance is made up of minute granules or bioblasts, which are the real vital units or elementary organism, embedded in a homogeneous substance, the non-living matter. Cells are formed by a combination of these units of a lower order, and are therefore individuals or units of the second order. At about the same time Butschli brought forward his celebrated hypothesis of the froth or alveolar structure of cytoplasm. ‘This was based upon an extensive series of observations upon both living and dead cells as well as upon froths or foams made by mixing salts of various kinds with oil and then placing small particles of the oily mixtures so obtained in water. Butschli compares the structure of cytoplasm to that of a fine froth, and considers that much of the granular, and network or fibrillar structure can be referred to the optical appearances presented by such a froth. That such structures are visible cannot be doubted by anyone who has examined these froths attentively with the microscope. But that all the fibrillar structures described by Fromman and Flemming, whose observations have often been con- firmed since by competent cytologists, can be referred to a froth structure, cannot, I think, be accepted by anyone who has carefully examined plant cells. From the fact that cytoplasm appears homogeneous under certain conditions, and that the foam structure can be so readily produced in it by various means, and further that, as Hardy has shown, the action of certain reagents upon colloids results in the separation of solid particles which become linked together to form a comparatively coarse, solid framework in the form of an open net which holds fluid in its meshes, it is probable that we shall find the foam-structure theory of protoplasm is not tenable. It seems far more in accordance with what we know that we should regard protoplasm as fundamentally a semi-fluid, homogeneous mass, in which, by its own activity, granules, vacuoles, fibrils, &c., can be produced as secondary structures; and that any special morpho- logical structure which it may possess is beyond the limits of the present resolying powers of the microscope. The Structure of the Nucleus. From the recent observations of Gregoire and Wygaerts, Berghs, Allen, Mano, and others, it is difficult to arrive at any definite conclusions as to the structure of the nucleus, or as to the changes which take place in it lead- ing to the production of the chromosomes. The resting nucleus seems to possess a very simple organisation. In the living condition it appears to consist merely of a homogeneous ground substance in which is contained a mass of chromatin granules which do not appear to have any particular shape, and one larger granule of a spherical shape, the nucleolus. Sometimes a network or foam structure is visible, but not always; but here, as in the cytoplasm, it is difficult to be certain of this. It may be that the chromatin is always in the form of an irregular network embedded in the colourless ground substance, and that the granular appearance is due to an optical effect similar to that observed in finely meshed _ oil-foams. According to Strasburger, Miss Sargant, Farmer and Moore, Mottier, and others, the nucleus contains an achro- matic network—the linin—in which the chromatin granules are embedded. Mano, Moll, and Sypkens deny the exist- ence of these two substances, and state that the network consists of chromatin only; while Gregoire and Wygaerts, Allen and Berghs, are inclined to the view that there is a fundamental basis of linin which is impregnated by chromatin ordinarily diffused through its whole substance, but capable of being collected into certain definite regions under certain conditions by which the granular appear- ance is produced. The evidence brought forward in many of the more recent investigations certainly goes to show that the chromatin is not in the form of such definite granules as was at one time supposed; that they are not so regular in size or outline; and that it is not easy to differentiate between the chromatin and achromatin con- tents of the nucleus. Staining reactions do not afford a sound clue to their differentiation, for, as Fischer and, more recently, Allen have shown, the differences in stain- ing reactions of the different parts of the nucleus vary according to the strength of the stain, the time it is No. 1873, VOL. 72] allowed to act, and the size or thickness of the granules or threads stained. Strasburger has suggested that the chromosomes are formed by the fusion of gamosomes (chromatin granules) around gamo-centres into zygosomes (chromosomes), but the changes which take place are probably not so clearly defined as this. What seems clear from the facts we know is that the substance forming the homogeneous chromosomes—the chromatin or nuclein—becomes broken up in the reconstitution of the daughter-nuclei, by vacuo- lation or otherwise, into an irregular network which presents a granular appearance. In this all trace of the original individual chromosomes is in most cases _ lost, and at the same time one or more deeply staining bodies of a spherical, or nearly spherical shape—the nucleoli— appear in contact with it. The Nucleolus and its Function. The evidence is steadily accumulating that the nucleolus is intimately concerned in the formation of the chromo- somes, although probably not exclusively concerned in this function. In most cases it appears to form a part of the chromatin network, being connected to it by threads, and generally gives similar reactions to the chromosomes, In some few cases it is described as completely separated from the network by a clear area which is visible both in the living and in the stained condition. The evidence that the nucleolus is concerned in chromosome formation may be summed up as follows: the nucleoli are closely connected or associated with the nuclear network; as the nuclear network becomes more deeply stained the nucleoli become smaller or lose their capacity for stains; at the time the chromosomes are being differentiated they are connected to the nucleoli by delicate threads; the chromo- somes resemble nucleoli in their behaviour towards re- agents and stains; during the period of sinapsis the nucleoli come into very close relations with the nuclear thread, and as the nucleus gradually passes out of the sinaptic stage the thread stains more deeply; in the re- constitution of the daughter-nuclei the chromosomes can be seen to fuse together into a more or less irregular mass, out of which the delicate nuclear network and the prominent nucleolus are evolved; in certain cases all the chromatin appears to be stored up in the nucleolus. It has been suggested that the nucleolar substance is a product of excretion of the nucleolus, but there is very little evidence for this view. On the other hand it is very likely, as suggested by Mottier, that the nucleolus contains a store of nutritive material which can be used up for various purposes, both in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. In some cells a portion of the nucleolar sub- stance is thrown out into the cytoplasm during the division stages, and it is very probable that this may have some important connection with the metabolic activity of the cell at this period. Division of the Nucleus in the Spore Mother-cells. The divisions of the nucleus which lead immediately to the formation of the spores possess some features which are not found in ordinary vegetative mitosis, and which have an important bearing upon the facts of heredity. The first of these is known as the heterotype, the second as the homotype division. The essential features of the heterotypical division are as follows :—The chromatin net becomes gradually resolved into a more or less continuous spireme. This thread (or threads) contracts into an irregular mass around the nucleolus, a phenomenon which was first discovered by Moore, and to which he gave the name of ‘‘sinapsis.’”? Some observers regard this con- traction as caused by reagents; but since it has been observed in the living condition by Miss Sargant and others, it is probably a definite and normal stage in the division. It is concerned with some very pronounced changes which take place at this time in the nucleus. The nuclear thread becomes more prominent, stains more deeply and exhibits a double row of granules which gives it the appearance of a double thread. This has been variously interpreted by different investigators: Miss Sargant, Farmer and Moore, and many others consider that it is due to a longitudinal splitting of the thread; Dixon, Gregoire, Berghs, and Allen consider it as in- dicating a close approximation of separate loops of the 522 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 thread. Whichever of these explanations is the correct one, the doubling gradually disappears and the thread becomes distributed through the nuclear cavity and again appears single; it becomes shorter and thicker and once more becomes aggregated around the nucleolus. — Lhis may be, as Miss Sargant suggests, a second sinapsis. At this stage the chromosomes appear, but reduced to half the number of those which appeared in the previous divisions, so that they may be regarded as bivalent or double chromosomes. They become shorter and thicker, and gradually become grouped in the equatorial plane of the nucleus, where they become attached to the spindle fibres. Each chromosome now divides into two halves, which pass to the respective poles of the spindle, to form, without the intervention of a complete resting stage, the division figures of the daughter-nuclei. The exact mode in which the division of the chromo- somes into two halves takes place is the subject of much controversy. The studies of Weissman on the pheno- mena of heredity led him to the conclusion that the chromosomes consist of more than one complete ancestral germ-plasm, and that consequently these must be reduced in number in the sexual cells to escape the extraordinary complexity which would arise if the ancestral germ-plasms were doubled at each sexual fusion. As the longitudinal division of the chromosomes divides them into two equal halves it is obvious that this will not reduce the number of ancestral germ-plasms, and therefore Weissman _pre- dicted that a transverse division of the chromosomes would be found to take place by which the reduction would be brought about. This was soon discovered to be the case for many animal cells, the reducing division taking place during the formation of the sexual cells, but in plants this was not so easily determined. Belajeff, Dixon, Atkinson, and others maintained that a true reduction division took place in the cases examined by them; but the majority of observers, Miss Ethel Sargant, Strasburger, Farmer, Mottier, and many others, maintained that there was no transverse division, but that all the divisions were longitudinal. Recently, however, Farmer and Moore have re-investigated the whole sequence of events in both animals and plants, with the result that a true reduction division is found to occur in the heterotype stage. In many investigations which have recently appeared this transverse division is confirmed, but the exact details of the process are not yet agreed upon. Farmer and Moore state that the spireme thread first becomes longitudinally split, the two longitudinal halves then fuse again, and subsequently bivalent chromosome loops are formed which divide transversely in the middle, and so produce two monovalent chromosomes which pass to opposite poles of the spindle, as already described. Gregoire, on the other hand, states that the threads at the first sinapsis become approximated together and then fuse; the double thread thus produced breaks up into chromosomes, which are thus bivalent in a different sense from those of Farmer and Moore, the monovalent chromosomes being produced by a longitudinal splitting of the thread, which divides it into the two original halves which fused together. Which of these two methods will ultimately be found to be the correct one remains to be seen, but Allen has recently published an account of the process as it. occurs in Lilium canadense, in which he agrees substantially with Gregoire, and states definitely that the first appear- ance of the double nature of the thread is not due to a longitudinal splitting of a single thread, but to an approximation of two threads, which ultimately fuse together to form a single continuous thread in the nuclear cavity. This thread at a later stage undergoes a longi- tudinal splitting, possibly into those which formerly united ; but this is not certain. The double thread then divides up into segments, the chromosomes, and in the subsequent series of events the longitudinal halves of these chromo- somes become distributed to the opposite poles of the spindle. Each chromosome is thus seen to be bivalent; but whether each half of the chromosome is to be re- garded as a monovalent chromosome is doubtful, as the fusion of the original threads was complete, and there is no means of deciding as to how far. the subsequent longi- tudinal division of the completely fused thread separated it into its two original parts. NG. 1873, VOL. 72] Sinapsis. The term “sinapsis’? was first given by Moore to that stage in the prophases of the nuclear division of the sexual cells in which the contraction of the nuclear thread around the nucleolus at one side of the cavity of the nucleus takes place. If this phenomenon is not a result of the action of the fixing reagents, then it indicates some striking change in the metabolic activity of the nucleus. This activity is seen in the increased staining capacity of the chromatin thread and in the changes which take place in the nucleolus, by which it becomes very irregular in shape and closely connected by threads to the chromatin network. In many cases the nucleolar substance appears as if being drawn out into the threadwork, and the nucleolus appears as if some active change were taking place in it. d It is very difficult to escape the conclusion that we are here dealing with a series of changes in the chromatin thread which are intimately bound up with the activity of the nucleolus, and it is probable that the increased stainability of the chromatin is due to an actual trans- ference of a portion of the nucleolar substance into the thread. Experimental Observations on the Activities of the Nucleus. So far as I know no experimental investigations into the causes which bring about the changes in the prophases of nuclear division have been made, but it is not difficult to imitate artificially some of the phenomena observed. Olive oil is shaken up in a mixture of methylated spirit and water of such a strength as will allow the oil globules to float. A shallow Petrie dish, three or four inches in diameter, is then taken; the mixture of oil and dilute methylated spirit is well shaken until the oil is broken up into very fine globules, and the mixture is at once poured gently into it. The appearance of the mixture is that of a homogeneous mass of small oil globules dis- tributed through the solution, and can be compared to the granular appearance of a nucleus in a resting stage. The spirit at once begins to evaporate, and currents are at once set up in the solution in such a way that the globules of oil gradually become restricted to certain areas only, and a coarse granular network is formed somewhat like the early stages in the aggregation of the chromatin granules into a spireme in the nucleus. The network gradually becomes more and more clearly defined, and then, just as is the case in the nuclear network, it begins to show a double row of granules, which finally becomes very clear and distinct. The threads become shorter and thicker and break up into irregular lengths, which gradually mass themselves together into an irregular heap or heaps of fusing-oil globules either in the middle or at the periphery of the petrie dish. We have, in fact, a good imitation of the earlier stages in the prophases of division of the nucleus, and it seems not unlikely that the aggre- gation of oil globules in our petrie dish may afford some clue as to the possible means by which the aggregation is brought about in the nucleus. I do not suggest that the complex phenomena which take place in nuclear division are to be explained as due simply to such phenomena as diffusion, surface tension, and the like, or any other physico-chemical processes. We must be very careful not to attempt to force merely physico-chemical explanations upon such phenomena as these. Without admitting the necessity of anything akin to a special vital force, we are compelled to admit that vital phenomena do not at present admit of a merely mechanical explanation. But it does seem to me possible that the metabolic activity of the nuclear material at this stage may be accompanied by phenomena referable in part to these agencies. If, for example, active metabolic activities are set up between the nucleus and cytoplasm through the nuclear membrane, as seems probable, it is quite conceivable that this would bring about diffusion currents which might be taken advantage of in producing the aggregation of the more solid parts of the nuclear substance into a more or less definite thread-like structure and its aggregation into chromosomes. In any case such possibilities must be taken into account in considering SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 | NATURE 523 the significance of such nuclear re-arrangements, and if any of them can be definitely explained in this way the final solution of the problem may be much simplified. Validity of Cell Structure as seen in Fixed and Stained Preparations. Our knowledge of the minute details of cell structure and nuclear differentiation depends upon the appearances presented by cells which have been fixed in various re- agents and subsequently stained, and it is not an easy matter to determine in how far these are artificial and in how far they are actual structures existing in the living cell. The researches of Fischer, Hardy, Mann, and others have shown that on the precipitation of proteids by re- agents structures are produced which were certainly not present originally, and which resemble those often observed in fixed cells. From a consideration of such facts it has been suggested that many of the details revealed in fixed cells, such as centrosomes and centrospheres, with their fibrillar radiations, are produced artificially and have no real existence. It is unfortunate that so little attention has been paid to the examination of living cells, for the structures which can be seen in them are, so far as they can be revealed by the microscope, always like those seen in fixed preparations. Differentiation of Structure Visible in the Living Cell. The amount of differentiation visible in the living cell in favourable objects is very considerable. Not only can chloroplasts, starch-grains, nucleus, leucoplasts, pyrenoids, &c., be clearly seen, but also a very considerable amount of detailed structure. Chromosomes have been seen in the living cell by many observers—Treub, Strasburger, Behrens, Zacharias, and others. The series of figures published by Strasburger of nuclear division in the staminal hairs of Tradescantia show the whole process of chromo- some formation and separation into two daughter-groups, except the longitudinal division. In the same object Demoor and de Wildeman have also been able to detect the spindle fibres and connecting fibres. These were not seen by Strasburger; and Zacharias, who has more recently made observations on staminal hairs, was also not able to detect them. Nevertheless Stras- burger mentions that in some cases connecting threads were visible at a late stage in the division between the daughter-nuclei, and Treub also describes a similar pheno- menon in some cases during the nuclear division in the ovules of an orchid. In Spirogyra, Strasburger has given a full account of nuclear division in the living cell. Large species of this alga are very favourable objects for this work, and he has shown that in such species the spindle figure as well as the connecting fibres can be seen in the living cell. Wildeman has also seen and figured them; but Behrens states that spindle fibres and connecting threads are not visible in Spirogyra during life. My own observations upon a large species of Spirogyra which I have had an opportunity of investigating entirely support the view that these structures are visible in the living condition. The Structure of the Chloroplast. In view of its extreme importance in the function of assimilation a knowledge of the structure of the chloro- plast is important. Owing to its small size a satisfactory demonstration of its finer structure is very difficult.. That it consists of a colourless ground substance, in which the chlorophyll is embedded, is clear; but how these two substances are united and the relations between them structurally are not known. Pringsheim concluded that the ground substance of the chloroplast is a sponge-like network with the oil-like solution of chlorophyll in its meshes. Schmitz thought that the fine granular appearance of the chloroplast was due to a fine net-like structure in which the chlorophyll was diffused. Fromman also describes it as a green granular network. Schwartz, on the other hand, describes it as composed of a ground substance containing a number of green fibrilla side by side, which are coloured green throughout, but show also an accumu- NO. 1873, VOL. 72] lation of the green colouring matter in the form of granules along these threads. Meyer thought it was composed of a homogeneous ground substance with various-sized granules of the green substance embedded in it. To these granules he gave the name of ‘‘ grana.’’ Schimper stated that it was com- posed of a colourless stroma containing numerous vacuoles filled with the green semi-fluid chlorophyll, identical with the ‘‘ grana’’ of Meyer. Some observers consider that the chloroplast is sur- rounded by a distinct membrane; whilst others consider that the substance of the chloroplast is directly connected by colourless strands to the cytoplasm. According to some observations which I have made recently, the chloroplast, when examined under high powers in the living condition, appears to be filled with a mass of green granules with a colourless substance between them. But in certain cases a distinct fibrillar arrange- ment of the chlorophyll is observed. This is very easily seen in the chloroplasts of Euglena, both in the living condition, and, more easily, when the cells are burst and the chlorophyll grains are extruded into the water. But it may be seen also in the chloroplasts of the higher plants when these are large enough to be examined easily. In these cases the green colouring matter appears granular when the chloroplast is in the epistrophe or shade position, fibrillar when it is in the apostrophe or intense light position. This difference in the appearance of the chloro- phyll accompanies a difference in the shape of the chloro- plast. As is well known, the chloroplast in the epistrophe position presents an oval or more or less circular form; in the apostrophe position a flattened and lenticular form. The fibrillar structure appears to be that of fine fibrils lying more or less parallel, but a closer examination shows that they are connected together here and there so as to give the impression of an elongate network. In the epis- trophe condition the chlorophyll corpuscle appears greener than in the apostrophe condition. The granules are in fact so arranged and so numerous as to present a practically continuous surface of chlorophyll to the action of the light rays. The fibrillar arrangement, on the contrary, has numerous light spaces between the fibrils, so that less surface of chlorophyll is exposed to the rays of light. The difference in the amount of chlorophyll surface exposed to the light appears therefore to be bound up with the difference in the intensity of light which causes the different positions of epistrophe and apostrophe to be assumed by the chloroplast. Just as in diffuse light the chloroplasts themselves are more fully exposed to the light than in intense light, so in the individual chloroplast we appear to have such an arrangement of the chlorophyll that ‘in diffuse light a larger surface of it is exposed to the light rays than in a more intense light. The interesting con- clusion is therefore arrived at, that the chloroplast is able, not only by its position but also by its structure, to guard itself against the effects of a too intense light. A careful examination of the chloroplast in the epis- trophe position renders it probable that the granular appearance is not due to the existence of separate granules of chlorophyll. It resembles more nearly an optical effect, due to the superposition of alveoli upon one another, such as appears in fine oil-foams. By focusing carefully above and below the granules we get a distinct appearance as of a green alveolar network. If the chlorophyll corpuscle is extruded into water it begins to swell up and becomes vacuolar; the granules disappear and the chlorophyll then appears to be distinctly diffused through the ground sub- stance of the chloroplast. I am therefore inclined to the view that the chlorophyll corpuscle consists of a ground substance in the form of a delicate alveolate structure, in which the chlorophyll is more or less uniformly diffused. The diameter of the threads of this network is greater in the epistrophe than in the apostrophe position, and this affords a means by which the chloroplast can accommodate itself to varying intensities of light. The chloroplast must be regarded as performing at least two functions. It brings about the dissociation of CO, and it is a starch-forming organ. In the alge and some other plants these two functions appear to be differentiated, and starch is formed directly by the pyrenoid. How far these two functions are independent in the ordinary chloro- 524 plast is not known; but that starch can be formed, in- dependently of chlorophyll, in the leucoplasts and in the ordinary chloroplasts directly from sugar and other organic solutions in the dark seems to indicate that the two are not necessarily connected. ; The colourless stroma of the chloroplast gives a distinct and pronounced reaction for phosphorus when treated according to Macallum’s method. It resembles, therefore, in this respect the nuclein constituent of the nucleus. What the exact significance of the presence of phosphorus in the chloroplast may be I do not know, but it is ex- tremely interesting to find that in an organ in which a high degree of metabolic activity is always found a sub- stance should be present which is akin to the highly organised nuclear constituents. It suggests an interesting comparison with those plants in which a special starch- forming organ, the pyrenoid, is differentiated. The Centrosomes and Centrospheres. A vast literature has grown up in connection with the structure and function of these bodies because of the special importance which has been attached to them as the originators of the process of nuclear division and of the formation of the spindle, and because of the important part which it is assumed they play in the phenomena of fertilisation. Their very general occurrence in animal cells and their prominence in the reproductive processes led plant cyto- logists to predict that they would be found to occur also in plant cells. But their prediction has not been fulfilled. They are frequently found among the Thallophytes and Bryophytes, but in the higher plants the evidence is steadily accumulating against them, and such structures as have been described by Guignard and others are held to be based upon a misinterpretation of the facts observed. Where the centrosome exists it consists of a deeply stained granule or group of granules surrounded by radi- ating fibres. In some cases, as in the Basidiomycetes, the centrosomes only become definitely visible as minute dots at the poles of the spindle, and are not visible until this is completely or nearly completely formed. In other cases, as in Dictyota (Mottier), Ascomycetes (Harper), the centrosomes with their radiations are clearly visible at two opposite sides of the nucleus in the resting stage, and are in close contact with the nuclear membrane. In the Ascus, Harper has shown that the centrosome is in close contact, not only with the nuclear membrane, but also with the chromatin net, and it seems probable that there may be a connection between them. The spindle fibres are formed both in Dictyota and in the Ascus in the nuclear cavity before the nuclear wall breaks down. In the division of the daughter-nuclei the centrosome which is carried over with each daughter-nucleus appears to divide—but this is not certain—to give two new centro- somes for the formation of the new spindle figure. Experiments on the Production of Artificial Asters. There are two main views as to the nature of the spindle and astral fibres: (1) that they represent a definite morphological differentiation of the cytoplasm which possesses in itself the power of forming these fibres; (2) that they are formed out of the cytoplasm by some modification of its structure or arrangement of its parts, or by the precipitation or condensation of some of its constituents. The aggregation of granules into radiating fibrils can be imitated artificially by allowing a drop of alcohol or turpentine to fall upon smoked glass. If the drop is allowed to fall from a good height, we get the artificial centrosomes with radiations first described by Henking ; these are due mainly to the splash of the drop and its breaking-up into small particles which radiate outwards, carrying portions of the smoke film with them. If the drop is allowed to fall more gently, so that it does not splash, its first effect is to produce a clearly circumscribed circular ring, and then, by slowly spreading outwards, to produce an aggregation of the smoke particles into fibrils which more nearly represent the appearances pro- duced in cytoplasm than do Henking’s splashes. By careful manipulation we can get in this way re- presentations of the centrosome or centrosphere, or even NO. 1873, VOL. 72| NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 the radiations around the nucleus. If the edge of the alcohol or turpentine be carefully examined under the microscope as it is slowly spreading outwards, a violent motion of the smoke particles will be observed as soon as the liquid comes into contact with them, and as the liquid passes on these particles settle down into definite continuous fibrils, which go on growing as the liquid continues to spread. Fischer has described the formation of artificial asters by two methods: (1) If pith is injected with proteid and then fixed, asters are found around small particles of foreign matter in the proteid. (2) If a small granule of corrosive sublimate or a drop of osmic acid be brought into a proteid solution radiating strie are formed in it by precipitation. He suggests that the centrosome is formed by the precipitation of albuminous substances in living cells by the excretion of nucleic acid from the nucleus, and that, as in (1), artificial radiations are formed around it by the action of the fixing reagents; or possibly by the fixative action of the nucleic acid itself. Or the centrosome itself may produce them, as in (2), by acting as the precipitating agent, just as corrosive sublimate or osmic acid. Mr. Jenkinson has recently described some interesting experiments on the artificial production of asters, and comes to the conclusion that osmotic pressure and surface tension are probably concerned in the form- ation of these structures in the living cell. The centro- some may be a body capable of withdrawing water from the cytoplasm, of swelling up and dissolving in the water so absorbed, and then giving off radial outgrowths which precipitate the proteids of the cell, and so form astral rays; or the centrosome may undergo decomposition, or may secrete a ferment which would have the same effect upon the cytoplasm. The Blepharoplast. The blepharoplast is a special organ associated with the formation of the cilia in motile spermatozoids and zoospores. It consists of a centrosome-like granule, often surrounded by radiations. It appears inside the cell in close relation to the nucleus, or sometimes at the periphery of the cell. In Polytoma the two cilia thus arise from a granule (blepharoplast) at the extremity of the cell. In /Edogonium the blepharoplast arises, according to Stras— burger, in the plasma membrane. Strasburger considers them as kinoplasmic in nature, and thus brings them into relation with his other kinoplasmic structures, the centro- some and spindle. Some authors consider that the blepharoplast is a true centrosome, or homologous with a centrosome. It has not, however, been conclusively shown that it at any period in its history performs the function of a centro- some, or that it is derived from one. Further, in many of these plants, if not all, there are no centrosomes at any stage in their life-history. On the whole the evidence is distinctly against the view that the blepharoplast is genetically connected with the centrosome. It is more in accordance with the present state of our knowledge to consider the blepharoplasts as special structures which arise de novo in the cell for the special function of cilia formation. The Coenocentrum and its Function. In the odgonia of some fungi there appears at an early stage in the development of the odsphere a dense granular, deeply stainable substance, the function of which is un- known. It appears in the centre of the cell, and was first discovered in the odsphere of Cystopus (Albugo) candida. It is probably formed by an accumulation of stainable granules or microsomes. It disappears soon after fertil- isation takes place, and is therefore not a permanent organ of the cell. Shortly after its appearance one of the nuclei out of the large number irregularly scattered through the odgonium comes into contact with it, and gradually becomes more or less embedded in it. All the other nuclei pass to the periplasm, leaving this single nucleus as the nucleus of the ovum. The fertilising tube which contains the male nucleus also grows towards it, and comes close to it to discharge the male nucleus upon it. This indicates that it may exert in some way or other an attraction, first upon the female nucleus, and secondly SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE 25) upon the fertilising tube, thus helping to bring the sexual nuclei together. Stevens suggests that it may be of the nature of a dynamic centre, and he gave it the name coenocentrum. It may be nutritive in function, and may exert a chemotactic stimulus upon the sexual nuclei. It does not appear to be actually concerned in the fusion of the .sexual nuclei. In Peronospora parasitica, for example, it completely disappears before the fusion of the nuclei takes place. So far all the views as to its function are purely hypothetical. It may be a _ mere coincidence that it should become associated with the sexual nuclei at the time they come together in the odsphere. Its function may be totally unconnected with these. From the fact that it stains so deeply in nuclear stains, the substance of which it is composed may be of the nature of nuclein, and it is possible that it may be due to a substance secreted by the nuclei of the odgonium for some special purpose connected with the maturation of the odspore. It is possible that it may have something to do with the formation of oil, which appears in such abundance in the ripe odspores. It begins to dis- appear just at the time the oil begins to form. It seems more likely that the function of the coeno- centrum is connected with those metabolic activities of the zygote, which must at this stage in its development be very considerable, than with the exertion of an attractive influence upon the sexual nuclei. It is difficult to see how such a selective chemotactic stimulus could be exerted as to act upon one nucleus only out of the large number in the odgonium. But the evidence before us does not admit of any definite solution of the problem at present. The subject demands further investigation of such a kind that a comparative study of the formation and disappear- ance of the ccenocentrum, the formation of the oil reserves, and the changes in the nuclei, should be carried on side by side. The Nuclei of the Lower Plants. The presence of nuclei in the algze and fungi had already been recorded by Nageli and many other observers shortly after the discovery of the nucleus by Robert Brown, but it is doubtful whether all the structures described as nuclei by these early observers were really so. It is only in comparatively recent times that it has been possible to determine with any degree of certainty that the minute deeply stainable bodies described more especially by Schmitz (1879) could be regarded as nuclei. This deter- mination was easily made for many of the alge, especially by the researches of Strasburger, who described both the structure and mode of division. But among the fungi the structure and mode of division of the nuclei were prac- tically unknown twenty years ago, and we have the opinion expressed by De Bary in 1887 that the satisfactory discrimination of true nuclei from other small bodies con- tained in the protoplasm can only be obtained after renewed investigation. Previous to 1887 cases of karyokinetic division in fungi had been described by Sadebeck (1883), Strasburger (1884), Fisch (1885), and Eidam (1887). Hartog (1889) described a process akin to karyokinesis in the Saprolegniez, and at the end of that year a true process of karyokinesis was shown to occur in Peronospora. Since that time our knowledge of the process of nuclear division in the fungi has been largely extended, and the phenomenon has now been found to be of general occurrence in the group, and many of the forms are unusually favourable objects for the study of the process. The only groups of plants in which true nuclei have not been found are, so far as I know, the bacteria, Cyano- phyceze, and the yeast fungi. In the yeast plant there is a large homogeneous spherical body which gives the reactions of chromatin similar to the. chromatin of true nuclei. With this is associated a prominent vacuole which contains a more or less. amorphous substance of a chromatin nature. The two appear to be very closely related and undergo division simultaneously. The Cell Structure of the Cyanophyceae. It is easy to demonstrate in the living cell of the _-Cyanophycee that the contents are differentiated into two distinct regions: (1) an outer layer containing the colouring matter; and (2) a central colourless portion NO. 1873, VOL. 72] which is known as the central body. The central body is considered by many investigators to be a true nucleus. It contains a deeply staining granular substance which to some extent resists the action of digestive fluids, and is therefore similar to the chromatin in the nuclei of the higher plants. In 1887 Scott was able to demonstrate a reticulate structure in this body, and also saw some indications during its division of a process akin to karyokinesis. Zacharias also in the same year, largely on micro-chemical grounds, concluded that it was a nucleus. The problem has been the subject of investigation by numerous observers since that date with very varying results. These results may be shortly summarised as follows :—The central body is not a nucleus (Macallum, Fischer, Massart, Chodat). It is a nucleus of a simple or rudimentary type (Hieronymus, Nadson, Butschli). It is a true nucleus similar to that found in the higher plants, and forms both chromosomes and spindle (Hegler, Kohl, Olive, Phillips). The facts of the structure of this body, so far as I have been able to ascertain them by the examination of the cell both in the living and fixed conditions, are that it possesses a vacuolate structure, associated with granules which stain deeply in nuclear stains, resist the action of digestive fluids, give a strong reaction for phosphorus and masked iron, and, further, according to the recent researches of Macallum, do not contain potassium. These qualities are characteristic of nuclein, and there can be, I think, no reasonable doubt that these granules are comparable to the chromatin of a true nucleus. From a consideration of the facts we at present know concerning the central body we cannot, I think, escape the conclusion that it is of the nature of a nucleus, but one of a simple or rudimentary type. It is not sharply delimited from the surrounding cytoplasm, although it sometimes appears as a vacuolar cavity in the centre of the cell, with a vacuolar membrane around it. It seems to me that we might very well regard it simply as a specialised region of the cytoplasm which possesses a pro- nounced vacuolation associated with granules of chromatin or with a chromatin network. The Function of the Nucleus of the Cyanophyceae. The nucleus of the Cyanophycez is very large, much larger proportionally than the nuclei of the higher alge. It gives also a proportionally stronger reaction for phos- phorus. Some observers have considered the large size and prominence of the central body as an argument against its nuclear nature. In the algz the nuclei are much smaller in proportion to the cell, and in many forms are very difficult to make out. On the other hand the pyrenoids which are present in the cells of Alge stain more deeply in the nuclear stains, and give a much stronger reaction for phosphorus than the nuclei. In Prassiola parietina the pyrenoid is in the centre of the cell, and both in the living condition and in stained preparations is much more prominent than the slightly stained nucleus on one side of it. So, also, in Zygnema there are two star-shaped chromatophores, each with a large pyrenoid in the middle, and between them a small very incon- spicuous nucleus. My view is that the large size. of the central body in the Cyanophycez may be connected with the development of the chlorophyll assimilation; that it may be held to function both as a pyrenoid as well as a nucleus, and that this receives support from what is observed in the coloured bacteria, in which the cytoplasm contains a more abundant supply of chromatin granules than do the colourless bacteria. Structure of the Bacterial Cell. Owing to the small size of the bacterial cells it is very difficult to arrive at a correct interpretation of the struc- tures observed. The examination of the larger forms, such as the various species of Beggiatoa, Chromatium, Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus subtilis, &c., has, however, revealed a certain differentiation, which enables us to come to some conclusions as to their actual structure. Ernst has shown that the contents of these cells are not homo- geneous, as was formerly thought to be the case, but show a differentiation into a less stainable substance, and embedded in it one or more deeply stained granules. 526 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 Butschli has shown that the central portion of the con- tents of the cell exhibit a foam structure in which granules of a chromatin nature are embedded: this is surrounded by a thin laver of a less deeply stained substance, which sometimes accumulates more prominently at the ends of the cell. The central, more deeply stained, froth-like structure with its granules is the nucleus; the delicate peripheral layer is the cytoplasm. From a recent examin- ation which I have made of Beggiatoa alba, Beggiatoa yoseo-persicina, Bacillus subtilis, and other smaller species, I cannot agree with Butschli that there is a differentiation into a central body or nucleus, and peripheral cytoplasm. In the various species of Beggiatoa and Spirilla which I have examined the cell contents exhibit a reticulate or foam structure of the cytoplasm in which one or more deeply stained granules may be embedded. As _ these granules stain deeply in nuclear stains, and also give a reaction for phosphorus, they are probably similar to chromatin. They are distributed throughout the whole cell, and are not specially confined to one place. We must conclude that the bacteria do not contain anything which can be individualised as a nucleus, but that the nuclein constituent of the cell when present is contained in granules distributed throughout the cyto- plasm. The Evolution of the Nucleus. All plant nuclei, from the alge and fungi upwards, present a striking similarity both in structure and mode of division. The same appears to be true of the animal kingdom, from the protozoa upwards. But among the protozoa on the animal side, and the yeast fungi, bacteria, and Cyanophycez on the plant side, there is a kind of border kingdom in which occur structures which appear to represent the nuclei of the higher organisms, but are so different from them in many respects that it is very difficult to say whether they should be regarded as nuclei or not. As we have already seen, the central body of the Cyanophycez and the chromatin granules of the yeast plant and bacteria may represent simple or rudimentary forms of nuclei. It is, therefore, possible that we may obtain from them a clue or indication of some kind as to the origin of the nucleus and the process of its evolution. It is among the protozoa that we find the greatest variation both in form and structure of these rudimentary nuclei. ‘All the various parts of the nuclei of the higher animals can be recognised in them, but, as Calkins points out, are rarely present in one and the same nucleus. From a consideration of the various types Calkins considers that the most primitive nucleus is probably a single mass of chromatin without membrane or reticulum. By the division of this into granules, their association into lines forming primitive chromosomes, the development of a linin network, and the formation of a definite nuclear membrane was gradually brought about the development of the typical nucleus. In the three groups of plants the Cyanophycez, bacteria, and yeast fungi it is not possible to recognise all the various parts of typical nuclei as in the protozoa. In none of them do we find a nuclear membrane, nucleolus, chromo- somes, or spindle figure, or centrosome. We have nothing very tangible, therefore, to compare with the typical nucleus of the higher plants, and it is no doubt very largely due to this that we have so many contradictory accounts of the nuclear structures in these forms. At the same time the nuclei of the higher plants pass through stages in their division which more nearly approach in their structure the simple forms with which we are now concerned. Thus the nuclear membrane and nucleolus disappear, and the chromatin network becomes condensed into a number of homogeneous rods or granules, the chromosomes, which lie free in the cytoplasm. There seems to be no reason why we should not consider the simpler chromatin structures in the lower plants in the light of these ontogenetic changes, as we may term them, of typical nuclei, in order to obtain some indication of the origin and phylogenetic development of the nucleus. We may take the colourless Beggiatoa as a starting- point; not that this form is the lowest, but because its structure is, on account of its size, more easily examined, and because it is connected possibly with the Cyanophycez on the one hand and with the ordinary bacteria on the NO. 1873, VOL. 72| other. From a careful examination and comparison of its structure with that of other low forms we obtain the following diagram, showing their possible relationships as indicated by their cytological structure :— ? Beggiatoa alba. (Chromatin granules may or may not be present.) \ Larger Spirilla with colourless cytoplasm. (Few small chromatin granules). Beggiatoa roseo-persicina, Chromatium okentt, &c. Many chromatin granules often condensed in the centre of the cell. | Cytoplasm coloured. Forms like Cholera I wos Y Cyaan Die vibrio, B. lineola, B. Central body with chro- qythracis, Typhus bacillus, matin granules surrounded gc, Colourless. (One or by a _ peripheral coloured otoplasm two chromatin granules.) pr sm. | ? | Alge. Yeast Fungi. With one or two chro- matin granules associated with a nutritive vacuole. | Fungi. In the simplest case the cell of Beggiatoa contains only cytoplasm without, so far as I can see by careful examin- ation with the highest powers available, any differentiation of chromatin grains or structures of a like nature. Neither do I think that we can regard the protoplast as represent- ing a nucleus. As Fischer points out, the idea that the protoplast of the bacteria stains like a nucleus is not correct, and, as I have been able to show, it certainly does not give a phosphorus reaction like a nucleus. It is, in fact, a simple undifferentiated mass of cytoplasm, either homogeneous or at times exhibiting a foam struc- ture. In this cytoplasm a few granules of chromatin may become differentiated, and this is the first indication of the separation of nuclear substance. Whether there are any species of Beggiatoa or other bacteria which are permanently without nuclear granules I do not know, and it will be very difficult to prove it: but the fact that under certain conditions these cells exist without them seems to point to the conclusion that this may be the primary cell structure, as has been surmised by Haeckel and others. At an early stage in the evolutionary history of the protoplasm, before a typical nucleus was evolved, we appear to have had the development of colouring matter for the function of assimilation, and a bifurcation into the two distinct lines of descent of the fungi and the alge. This appears to have been accompanied by two distinct lines of nuclear evolution leading respectively to the development of the central body of the Cyanophyceze and the nuclear apparatus of the yeast plant. The possible lines of development of the nucleus up to the yeast fungi on the one side and to the Cyanophycez on the other are clearly indicated in the diagram; but between the yeast fungi and the true fungi, and between the Cyanophycee and the Algz, there are gaps which we cannot bridge at present. It is possible that the evolution of the typicat nucleus may have been brought about in the fungi by the more definite association of the nuclear vacuole with the homogeneous nuclear body, possibly accompanied by a vacuolation of the latter, or that the nuclear body itself SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] may have become the nucleus direct by a process of vacuo- lation and differentiation within itself. In the case of the Cyanophycee I have already shown that the central body is a vacuolar structure associated with granules of chromatin, and that sometimes this vacuolation becomes so pronounced in resting cells that we get an appearance as of a limiting membrane between it and the cytoplasm. The granules run together and be- come associated in such a way as to simulate the spireme thread of an ordinary nucleus. Further, we have in some Cyanophycez a differentiation of a nuclein-like substance in the form of the red granules of Butschli at the peri- phery of the central body, which may be an early stage in the separation of a portion of its substance to perform the special functions of the pyrenoid. The complete separ- ation of this into a definite pyrenoid and the formation around the remainder of a nuclear membrane would give us a differentiation comparable to some extent to what we find in Euglena viridis, where we have a reticulate nucleus which divides by a rudimentary process of karyokinesis, in which, so far as we know, there is no definite formation of chromosomes and no longitudinal splitting. As to when or how the higher differentiation of the nucleus, with its chromosomes, longitudinal division, and spindle figure, arose we do not know. Possibly a careful investigation of the lower forms of the fungi and alge and such organisms as Euglena, and especially the pro- tozoa, may throw light upon this difficult problem. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Str Donatp Currie has promised to give 20,0001. to the equipment fund of Queen’s College, Belfast, provided an equal sum is raised from other sources. It is understood that a considerable portion of this amount has already been promised. Mr. E. Towyn Jones, demonstrator in chemistry at University College, Bangor, has been appointed assistant lecturer and senior demonstrator in the department of chemistry and physics of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Ir is announced that Mr. Bazil McCrea has given 6oool. to found a chair of experimental physics in Magee College, Londonderry, and to provide two scholarships in connection therewith. The gift is conditional upon funds being provided by subscription within six weeks for the erection of a suitable physical laboratory. WE have received the year-book of the Michigan School of Mines for 1904-5, and an album of views showing the facilities for instruction afforded by the immediate surroundings of the college. Established in 1885, the college is situated at Houghton, in the heart of the great copper mining region of Lake Superior, with the deepest shafts in the world and the most powerful machinery ever employed in mining. The students also have access to the docks, railways, dressing plants, and smelting works. The special facilities for practical training largely account for the success which the institution has attained. There are at the present time 223 students, their average age being 224 years. Tue metropolitan medical schools will re-open for the winter session on October 2 and October 3, and in many of them inaugural addresses will be delivered. At Uni- versity College the address will be given on October 2, at 4 p-m., by Prof. Kenwood on ‘‘ Preventive Medicine: Past and Present’; at King’s College on October 3, at 3 p.m., by Prof. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., on ‘* Medical Education in London,’’ and an opening lecture on October 4, at 4 p-m., by Prof. Dendy on ‘‘ The Study of Zoology ’’; at Charing Cross Hospital on October 2, at 4 p.m., by Sir James .Crichton-Browne, F.R.S.; at St. George’s Hospital on October 2, at 3 p.m., by Mr. Brudenell Carter; at the Middlesex Hospital on October 2, at 3 p.m., by Dr. R. A. Young; at St. Mary’s Hospital on October 2, at 3:30 p-m., by Dr. Wilfred Harris; at the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women on October 2, at 4 p.m., by Mrs. Bryant, D.Sc.; at the London School of Tropical Medicine on October 10, at 4 p-m., by Dr. Nuttall; at the School of Pharmacy, NO. 1873, VOL. 72] NATURE 527 Pharmaceutical Society, on October 2, at 3 p.m., by Sir Boverton Redwood; and at the Royal Veterinary College on October 2, at 4 p.m., by Mr. W. Hunter. At Guy’s, the London, St. Thomas’s, and Westminster hospitals there will be no inaugural addresses, but at the first named Prof. Osler, F.R.S., will open the session of the Pupils’ Physical Society with an address on ‘* Some Reminiscences of Sir Thomas Browne ’”’ on October 12, at 8 p.m. THE second volume of the report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1903 has now been received from Washington. The bulky volume of some 1300 pages is largely concerned with statistics, full data being provided concerning every grade of educational institution. Deal- ing with the income of colleges and universities, the report shows that in the United States the State and municipal aid to higher education during 1903 amounted to 1,591,000l., of which 1,034,000l. was granted for current expenses and 557,000l. for buildings and other special purposes. The total value of all gifts and bequests re- ported during the year to the commissioner by universities and colleges amounted to 2,950,0001. The three institu- tions receiving the largest sums for the year under con- sideration were :—University of Chicago, 487,500l. ; Harvard University, 351,300/.; and Barnard College, 225,6001. The universities and colleges in the States of the North Atlantic and North Central divisions continue to receive the greater portion of benefactions, more than go per cent. of the total amount being reported by them in 1903. Dr. John Eaton, who was formerly United States Commissioner of Education, contributes biographical sketches of American educational benefactors and _ of American citizens whose lives were devoted to educational work, and this brightly written section of the volume affords another indication of the way in which the men of wealth in the United States are encouraged by those in authority to interest themselves in educational progress. Tue polytechnics and technical institutes of London will open shortly for the winter session, and the issue of new calendars and syllabuses has begun already. The session of Birkbeck College will commence, we learn from its new year-book, on October 2, when Sir Edward Fry will déliver the inaugural address. Afterwards the class-rooms and laboratories will be opened for inspection, and an exhibition of work will be held in the school of art. The work of Birkbeck College is conducted in close relation with the University of London, courses of study for examinations of the university being provided under recognised teachers of the university. In addition to evening classes in almost every department of learning, there are day courses of work which give instruction in practical and theoretical science, in classics, in modern languages, in commercial subjects, and in English litera- ture. The moderate fees will enable students of limited means to take advantage of the lectures and laboratory work which have been arranged at this central institution. The syllabus of classes at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute has also been received, and supplies gratifying evidence of the excellent provision of scientific and technical instruction which is available in Aldgate. It is satis- factory to find that in addition to systematic courses of lectures, special attention is given to laboratory work with a view to bring home to students the general and fundamental principles of science in association with the work and products with which they are more immediately concerned in their daily life. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, July 20.—‘‘ A New Formation of Diamond,” By Sir William Croekes, F.R.S. Assuming the following data for carbon—boiling point 3870° ab., melting point 4400°, critical temperature 5800°, critical pressure 2320 ats.—the Rankine or Van der Waals formula calculated from the boiling point and critical data gives for a temperature of 4400° ab. a pressure of 16.6 ats. as the melting-point pressure. Making similar estimates for other temperatures, it appears that above a temperature of 5800° ab. no amount of pressure will cause carbon vapour to assume liquid form, whilst at 4400° ab. a pressure of above 17 atmo- 528 NATURE | SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 spheres would suffice to liquefy some of it. Between these extremes the curve of vapour pressure is assumed to be logarithmic. In their researches on the gases from fired gunpowder and cordite, Sir Frederick Abel and Sir Andrew Noble obtained in closed steel cylinders pressures as great as 95 tons to the square inch, and temperatures as high as 4o00° C. According to a paper recently communicated to the Royal Society, Sir Andrew Noble, exploding cordite in closed vessels, has obtained a pressure of Sooo atmo- spheres, or 50 tons per. square inch, with a temperature reaching in all probability 5400° ab. By the kindness of Sir Andrew Noble, the author has been enabled to work upon some of the residues obtained in closed vessels after explosions, and he has submitted them to the same treatment that Moissan’s granulated iron had gone through. After several weeks he removed the amorphous carbon, the graphite, the silica, and other constituents of the ash of cordite, and obtained a residue among which, under the microscope, crystalline particles could be distinguished. Some of these particles, from their crystalline appearance and double refraction, were ‘silicon carbide; others were probably diamonds. The whole residue was dried and fused at a good red heat in an excess of potassium bifluoride, to which was added during fusion 5 per cent. of nitre. The residue, after thorough washing and then heating in fuming sulphuric acid, was washed, dried, and the largest crystalline particles picked out and mounted. From the treatment these crystals have undergone, chemists will agree that diamonds only could stand such an ordeal; on submitting them to skilled crystallographic authorities the author’s opinion is confirmed. Paris. Aacdemy of Sciences, September 11.—M. Troost in the ehair—Remarks on the present condition of solar re- searches and on the means of improving them: H. Deslandres. The author proposed in 1893 that auto- matic apparatus should be established at suitable spots capable of registering the surface of the sun and the successive layers of its atmosphere. As this has so far not been realisable, on account of the expense, suggestions are now put forward for the correlation of the work of the observers actually engaged in solar research, and these suggestions will be submitted to the International Union at the meeting to be held at Oxford.—On a differential equation of the fourth order: Gaston Darboux.—On some properties of the a rays of radium: Henri Becquerel. The author showed, two years ago, that the bundle of a rays behaves as homogeneous in the magnetic field, and also that the trajectory of the particles in a plane normal to the field, instead of being a circle, is a curve the radius of curvature of which goes on increasing with the length of the trajectory. The recent work of Bragg and Kleeman and of Rutherford is discussed, especially the hypothesis of the slowing down of the particles used by the latter to explain the experi- mental results obtained when a series of aluminium screens is interposed in the path of the rays. The author has repeated his original experiments with the addition of aluminium screens, and the results confirm his views. On this account M. Becquerel thinks that the hypothesis of Rutherford regarding the loss of velocity of the particles must be rejected.—On the total eclipse of the sun of August 30: G. Rayet. An account of the results obtained by the expedition from the Observatory of Bordeaux at Burgos, Spain. The weather was bad, and interfered with the work of several of the observers. In spite of this, however, two good images of the corona were obtained by M. Courty with the photographic equatorial. M. Esclangon was able to follow the variations in the polar- isation during the eclipse.—On the method of using captive and pilot balloons at sea: Prince of Monaco. Details are given of the mode of launching the balloons and of maintaining them at heights fixed on beforehand. The observations were carried out in the Mediterranean and in the trade winds region of the Atlantic, the maximum height attained being 14,000 metres.—On the eclipse of August 30, and on the polarisation of the solar corona: NO. 1872, VOLM72]) Georges Meslin. The proportion of polarised light is sensibly the same in the polar and equatorial regions—it is about 50 per cent. Elliptical polarisation could not be detected.—On two particular cyclic systems : A. Demoulin. —On the generalisation of algebraical continued fractions : M. Auric.—On Monge’s problem: M. Zervos.—On the physical units of albuminoid material and on the part played by lime in its coagulation: G. Malfitano. By repeated coagulation it was found to be impossible to free the albumin entirely from inorganic substances, and the author regards the precipitate as aggregates of molecules, associated with electrolytes. It is probable that the mechanism of peptonisation consists essentially in a change in the nature of the salts which are associated with these aggregates.—The influence of the eclipse of August 30 on some plants: Ed. Bureau. Acacia dealbata proved to be the most sensitive to light, and during the eclipse executed the nocturnal movements, whilst other species of ‘‘sleeping’’ plants were unaffected.—On the evolution of the liver: Camille Spiess.—The vibration of the eyelids in renal affections: G. UitImann. This has proved a valuable sign in affections of the kidney, and is present at the earliest stages.—The direct solution of the silicates from arable earth and the experiments of Daubrée: L. Cayeux. The author controverts the views of Delage and Lagatu on this subject, and holds that the experiments of Daubrée have been wrongly interpreted by these authors.—The waterspout of August 28 at Saint- Maur and at Champigny (Seine): Th. Moureaux.—On the meteorological observations made at Constantine during the eclipse of August 30: Henry de la Vaulx and Joseph Jaubert.—On the phenomenon of moving shadows: Lucien Libert.—An earthquake shock registered at Grenoble, September 8: MM. Kilian and Paulin. New Soutu WaAtxEs. Linnean Society, June 28.—Mr. T. Steel, president, in the chair.—Description of a new species of Actinotus from eastern Australia: R. T. Baker.—Revision of the Australian Curculionide belonging to the subfamily Cryptorhynchides, part vii.: A. M. Lea.—Descriptions of five new species of Cicindela from tropical Australia : T. G. Sloane. CONTENTS. PAGE The Evolution of Matter. By W.C.D.W.... . 505 The Feroes andIceland. By R.L. ....... 506 Our Book Shelf :— Moors : ** Le Systéme des Poids, Mesures et Monnaies des Israélites d’aprés la Bible” os Me ar Cooper-Key : ‘CA Primer on Explosives.”—J. S.S.B. 507 Godfrey and Bell: ‘* A Note-book of Experimental Mathematics ” + 507 Letters to the Editor :— Cause and Prevention of Dust from Automobiles.— J. Vincent Elsden; W. R.Cooper .... 507, The Solar Physics Observatory Eclipse Expedition. (Zilustrated.) By Dr, William J.S. Lockyer. . . . 508 International Meteorological Conference’ at Innsbruck Meares Sh os Ge Science Teaching in Elementary Schools. By AS MD! Soles a) as ee A New Ultra-Violet Mercury Lamp . Dro omobors Lyi} 1S 6) CMAN Gh 5 gu SA Our Astronomical Column :— The Variable Asteroid 1905 Q.Y. Hoo ole. Burs Nova Aguila No. 2... 2"... s/n! Gane French Observations of the Total Solar Eclipse. . . 518 Eye-estimates of the Transits of Jupiter’s Spots . . . 518 The Solar Activity, January-June . oop esa LS Institution of Mining Engineers ......... 518 The British Association :— Section K.—Botany.—Opening Address by Harold Wager, F.R.S., H.M.I., President of the Section 519 University and Educational Intelligence .... . 527 Societiesyand Academies, .|), :-)-)sen eee 527 SEPTEMBER 21, 1905] NATURE CCV SPECIAL NoTICE LABORATORIES AND HOSPITALS. For convenience in Stocktaking we are prepared to offer 8 LARGE INDUCTION COILS (of 18-inch continuous spark) at a VERY CONSIDERABLE REDUCTION off regular prices. HESE Coils will all give a very heavy spark of over the length indicated, are most completely fitted, including Variable Primary and Variable Condenser, Platinum Interrupter, Commutator, and Discharging Pillars, and may be seen and tested at any time in our Showrooms. . own highest class workmanship throughout, They are of our and similar to those supplied to the leading Universities and Hospitals, and giving the greatest satisfaction under heavy daily work. FURTHER PARTICU Wes HARRY W. COX, Ltd., ACTUAL MAKERS of X- Eas &e., War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c., ON APPLICA TION. Apparatus to the Admiralty, da ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL ST., LONDON, E.C. 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HARRISON GLEW, RADIOGRAPHER, 156 CLAPHAM ROAD, LONDON, S.W. ccvi NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1905 MACMILLAN & CO’S BOOKS FOR STUDENTS. OF PHY Stee AnINTRODUCTION to PRACTICAL EN YerCs; ata in Schools. By D. RINTOUL, M.A. Al ERIN ROR ELEY SIGS: | By 2B. STEWART. Illustrated. With Questions. Pott 8vo. Is. LESSONS Ee EMEN TARY PHYSICS. By B. STEWART, LL.D., F.R.S. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. QuESTIONS. By T. H. Core. Pott AN EXERCISE BOOK OF ELE- MENTARY PRACTICAL PHYSICS. By Prof. R. A. GREGORY, F.R.A.S. 4to. 25. 6d. AND ELEMENTARY ° PHYSICS CHEMISTRY. By Prof. R. A. GREGORY and A. T. SIMMONS, B.Sc. In three stages. Globe 8vo. 15. 6d. each. EXERCISES IN RVC ATE PHYSICS. By Prof. R. A. GREGORY and A. T. SIMMONS, B.Sc. Gl. 8vo. Parts I. and II. 2s. each. Ba eve Na AVR Y 6G ENE RAL SCIENCE. By A. T. SIMMONS, BSC, and LIONEL M. JONES, B.Sc. Gl. 8vo. 3s. Ae UAC AE Ol ELEMENTARY SCIENCE. By Prof. R. A. GREGORY and A. T. SIMMONS, B.Sc. Gl. 8vo. 35. 6d. 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GREGORY & CO., 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., for a Prospectus of THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine | alf-Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections Subseription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-, | or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections, £4 4s. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Ameeba, Arcella, Actinospherium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix | pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD. BIRMINGHAM MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION | OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :— THE NEW COLLECTION OF 300 SPECIMENS AND SLIDES OF ROCKS, according to H. ROSENBUSCH: “Elemente der Gesteinslehre, 2d ed. 1901.” Accompanied by a text-book: ‘‘ Practical Petrography,” giving a short description of the polarizing microscope and its application, and also of the macroscopical and microscopical features of every specimen of this collec- tion, by Professor Dr. K. Busz of the University of Miinster. This collection is intended for the practical use of students, and contains typical representatives of all important types of rocks; it is composed of 277 massive rocks (a4 deep-seated rocks, 50 dike rocks, 133 volcanic rocks), 28 sedimentary, and 31 crystalline schists. Outof it two smaller collections of 250 and 165 specimens have been selected. The prices are as follows :— Collection I. 336 Specimens of Rocks 380 Marks. 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THURSDAY, SEPTE MBER 28, NAER OK SSClENCE ——WORDSWORTH. 1905 | Price SIXPENCE {All Rights are Reserved. | OUR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE PHYSICAL APPARATUS Is NOW READY. See Norges, ‘Nature,’ p. 518, Sept. 21, 1905. POST FREE TO PRINCIPALS & SCIENCE MASTERS. ALL ORDERS RECEIVE PROMPT AND PERSONAL ATTENTION. Ww. G. PYE & CO., SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKERS, GRANTA WORKS, CAMBRIDGE. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER. —In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual, and at the point on the vertical column w here i in ordinary Mercurial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of the scale—viz. : > 29, 30, and 31— are extended over a tube 36 inches !ong. The mercury now moying diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest >ariation, even ‘or” to which the scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid ofa vernier or magnifier. NEGRETTI-& 2 AMBR Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufac lurers. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. 45 CORNHILL, anp 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON. BRANCHES: CCX NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. SESSION 1905-6 COMMENCES OCTOBER 2. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR. CHaAIRMAN—ProreEssor CAREY. Dean—J. WEMYSS ANDERSON. PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS. {Harrison Professor—W. H. WATKINSON, 1OENMEHINIDA TOON, “\ M.Inst C.E., M.I.Mech.E., M.I.E.E. =~ = {David Jardine Professor—E. W. Mar- ELECTROTECHNICS 2 Gave DS MATHEMATICS .. Professor F. S. Cargy, M.A. , {Lyon Jones Professor—L. R. WILEER- PHYSICS... *\ Force, M.A. CHEMISTRY {Grant Professor—J. CAMPBELL Brown, Se DsSc. ih Gra.) BaleGs as) ~ . {Associate Professor—J. A. F. AspinaLy. RAILWAY ENGINEERING, M.Inst.C E. ’ MUNICIPAL {Associate Professor—J. A. Bropie, ENGINEERING .. - (| M Inst.C.E. MUNICIPAL ELECTRICAL /Associate Professor — A. BROMLEY ENGINEERING... ...|- Homes, M.Inst.C.E., M.1.E.E. ENGINEERING DESIGN {Lecturer — J. Wemyss ANDERSON, AND DRAWING... «(| Assoc.M.Inst.C.E., M.I.Mech.E. APPLIED MECHANICS ... Lecturer—J. H. Grinpvey, D.Sc. The courses of study in the Faculty leading to the ordinary degree of Bachelor of Engineering or the certificate in Engineering are so arranged as to afford a general scientific training for those intending to become engineers or to enter any allied profession. The Honours course enables students to specialise in some branch of the profession, and opportunities are afforded for post-graduate work and research. The special prospectus of the Faculty may be obtained on application to the REGISTRAR. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. EVENING CLASSES commence SEPTEMBER 25. DAY COLLEGE COURSES commence OCTOBER 2. The Day College Courses consist of 30 hours per week, and are in pre- paration for London University degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Elec trical Engineering, in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science. The composition fee for the Session of 3 terms is £15. The Evening Classes consist of similar cours2s at much reduced rates. The Technical Day Courses are arranged to extend over 3 years and pre- pare for Engineering, Electrical, Chemical and Metallurgical professions. ee *W. H. Eccres, D.Sc. Mathematics ves sd fay Lister, A.R.C.S. (*s. SKINNER, M.A Physics *“W. H. Eccies, D.Sc. \*L. Lowxps, B/Sc., Ph.D *J. B. Coteman, A R.C.S. +: C. Crocker. M.A. Chemistry ,*F. H. Lowe, B.Sc. | C. W. Hate. WG 12. OakDEN. y*H. B. Lacey. EES) \*T. G. Hit, A.R.CS. Geology A. J. Masten, F.L.S. *W. W. F. Putten, A.M.I.C.E., Engi ae M.1I.M.E.. Wh.Sc DF CSILE, *A. Macktow Smita. H. AuGurTie. Electrical Engineering ... U. A. Oscuwatcp, B.A. 3. H. Moreny. * Recognised Teacher of the University of London, The Laboratories and Workshops are open for Research under the direction of the Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on application to the SECRETARY, who will send a full prospectus, post free, 4¢. Prospectuses may be obtained at the office, price 1. | | | *A. J. Maxower, B.A. \ SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. BACTERIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL PATHOLOGY AND BACTERIOLOGY. Professor: R. T. Hewett, M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.H. Lecturer: H. S. Wittson, B.A., M.D., D.P.H. A Post-Graduate Class in Bacteriology for Medical Practitioners, Veterinary Surgeons, Analysts and others, and for the Diploma in Public Health, will commence on October 2, but stud2nts may enter at any later time, Instruction is also given in the Bacterivlogy of Fermentation, in Chemical Bacteriology, and in Clinical Patholozy. A Course of Lectures on Pathology for cindidates for the M.B. and other examinations will be given by Professor Hewlett on Tuesdays and Thursdays at c a.m., commencing October 5. Fee, £2 2s. For full particulars of these and other classes and of the facilities for private study and original research, apply to the Pri fessor. Prospectus may be obtained froin the SECRETARY. g- New Session begins Monday, October 2, 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES, under recognised Teachers of the University of London. ). K. Mackenzig, Ph.D., D.Sc. - | H. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., B.Sc. j ALBERT GriFFitus, D.Sc. Chemistry “00 co Physics... 25 oe .. 4 D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. \ B. W. Crack, B.Sc. Mathematics .. E. H. Smart, M.A. { 4. B. Renpte, M.A., D.Sc. Botany .., ~ (FE. Fritscu, Ph.D., B.Sc. Zoology ... «= H. W. Unruank, B.A., B.Sc. Geology & Mineralogy Gro. F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. Geo. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. RESEARCH in Chemistry and Physics in well-equipped laboratories. French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian Classes. EVENING CLASSES in Biology, Physiology, Practical Geometry, Building and Machine Construction; Steam, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Calendar 6d. (post free 8d.), on application to the SECRETARY. CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE. ACTING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. WHITE ST., and ROPEMAKER ST., MOORFIELDS, E.C. (Near Moorgate and Liverpool Street Stations.) PRINCIPAL: SIDNEY HUMPHRIES, B.A., LL.B. (Cantab.) Michaelmas Term begins Monday, October 2nd. EVENING CLASSES in ALL BRANCHES of SCIENCE. Well-equipped LABORATORIES for Practical Work in | CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY, and | all branches of PHYSICS. Special Courses for London University Matric., Inter., and Final B.A., B.Se., Conjoint Board, Pharmaceutical and other examinations. Classes are also held in all Commercial Subjects, in Languages, Literature and Art. All Classes are open to both sexes. SATURDAY COURSES for Matric., Inter., and Final B.A., B.Sc. DAY COMMERCIAL and HIGHER COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS. Prospectuses, and all other information, gratis on application. | DAVID SAVAGE, Secretary. BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE (Five minutes from Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster Bridges), 103 BOROUGH ROAD, S.E. TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY AND ELECTROCHEMISTRY DAY COURSE. | A complete Day Course extending over two years has been arranged in Technical Chemistry. With the object of providing as complete a course of training as possible, instruction will be given in MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, ENGINEERING DRAWING, PRACTICAL MECHAN- ICS, FRENCH, GERMAN, METAL and WOOD WORKING, and in GENERAL CHEMISTRY, and throughout the Course particular attention will be paid to ELECTROCHEMISTRY, for which a Special Laboratory has been fitted. FEE FOR THE COURSE, OCTOBER TO JULY, &ro. Intending students must give evidence that they are capable of following the Course with advantage, or they may be required to attend a Pre- liminary Course. Full particulars can be obtained on application to Cc. T. MILLIS, Principal. WIGAN | MINING & TECHNICAL COLLEGE. — Principal—Tuomas T. RANKIN, C.E., B.Sc., | M.Inst.M.M., M.I.M.E. | SANDWICH SYSTEM OF MINING TRAINING. DAY MINING COURSES. Opening date, MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, at 9 a.m. Complete Diploma Course extends over a period of three or four years. | Two Prizes of £10 ros. each awarded annually. | Candidates for Colliery Managers’ Certificates of Competency holding the above Diploma will be exempt from two out of the five years’ practical experience required by the Coal Mines Regulation Act. The Home Secretary has approved for the purposes of the Coal Mines Regulation Act (1887) Amendment Act, 1903, the Diplomas of this College. Prospectus post free on application to the PRINCIPAL, or T. RATCLIFFE ELLIS, Hon. Sec. — For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages ccxi and ccxii. SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE ccxi EAST LONDON COLLEGE (LATE East LonpoN TECHNICAL COLLEGE), MILE END ROAD, E. New SESSION commences SEPTEMBER SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SIDE. {(*J. L. S. Harron, M.A., and “\ *W. F. S. Cuurcuiti, M.A. 18. Mathematics . {*R. A. Lenrecpt, B.A., D.Sc., and SoS “\ *W.H. Warre, B.A., B.Sc. Setar (*J. T. Hewitt, M.A., D.Sc., Ph.D., Chemistry “\ and *C. Smitru, D.Sc. Botany 209 . *V. H. Blackman, M.A. . . *D. A. Low, M.I.M.E., and Engineering ae eas a *J. A. Davenrort, M.Sc. Electrical Engineering «. *J. T. Morris, M I.E.E. ARTS SIDE. * j*J. L. S. Hatton, M.A., and sei homesites es a “"\ *W. F. S. Cuurcuity, M.A. Latin and Greek is . *F. R. Earp, M.A. English Language and Literature “KATE M. WARREN. History +. *T. Seccomeg, M.A. French . *W. G. Hartoe, B.A. German Constance B. Low, M.A. “Recognised Teacher of the University of London. Fee for the full Day Course, ro Guineas per Session. Numerous Scholarships of the value of £40 per annum, and tenable at the College for three years, are awarded by the Drapers’ Company. _ _ Evening Courses for the Science and Engineering degrees are also held, he fees for which are from Two Guineas to Five Guineas per Session. CALENDAR, post free 4}¢., on application. JOHN L. S. HATTON, M.A., Director of Studies. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. Principal—Stpnry H. WELLS, Wh.Sc., A.M.I.C.E., A.M.I.M.E. TERM begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25s. Day and Evening Courses in preparation for London University Science and Engineering Degrees under recognised Teachers. Matricu- lated Students attending these Courses are registered as Internal Students of the University. The Principat and J. W. Button, Mechanical Engineering A.R.C.S.. A.M.LM.E Electrical Engineering and fW. THomson, M.A., B.Sc. Physics we ... \((One Vacancy.) = J. Witson, M.Sc., and J. L. Chemistry e { Werte, D.Sc. Mathematics G. E. St. L. Carson, B.A., B.Sc. The Laboratories are also open for Research Work. Technical Day College Courses in Mechanical, Electrical. and Motor Engineering, in Architectural and Constructional Work, and in Chemisty. Abridged Prospectus gratis on application. Detailed Prospectus 1¢., post free 3¢., on application to the SECRETARY. ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL, ALBERT EMBANKMENT, S.E. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) The WINTER SESSION will COMMENCE on OCTOBER 2. ne Hospital occupies one of the finest sites in London, and contains 603 eds. Entrance and other Scholarships and Prizes (26 in number), of the value of more than £500, are offered for competition each year. Upwards of 60 Resident and other Appointments are open to Students after qualification. A Students’ Club forms part of the Medical School Buildings, and the Athletic Ground, nine acres in extent, situated at Chiswick, can be reached in forty minutes from the Hospital. A Prospectus. containing full particulars, may be obtained from the Secretary, Mr. G. Q. Roberts. J. H. FISHER, B.S.Lond., Dean. UNDER THE AUSPICES OF His Majesty’s GOVERNMENT, THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. (IN CONNECTION WITH THE HOSPITALS OF THE SEAMEN’S HosPITAL SOcIgEry.) The next SESSION commences on MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1905. For Prospectus, Syllabus, and other particulars, apply to the Secretary, P. MicuHetu1, Esq., Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, S.E. SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ECONOMICS, 63,64 DENISON HOUSE, VAUXHALL BRIDGE RD, S.W.— The next Session begins on October 4. For all particulars as to Lec- tures, Classes, and Courses of Training in Practical Work, apply to the Hon. SECRETARY at the above address. re ABLOI Daas PAOTOGRAPAIC CAEMICALS NO WEIGHING NO MEASURING NO WASTE { ALWAYS READY ALWAYS ACCURATE ALWAYS RELIABLE HANDY INANY DARK ROOM ADSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE TO TOURISTS ad Serw His Bowniscs. Seld by all Chemists and Deslers. BURROUGHS WELLCOME & Co. SNOW HILL BUILDINGS, LONDON. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuartes A. Kerang, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C. EVENING CLASSES _in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICALand ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. f Cuarves A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C., and | H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.I C. R. S. Wittows, D.Sc., M.A. Metallurgy C. O. BannisTER, Assoc. R.S.M. Mathematics G. M. K. Leccert, B.A. Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- versity under recognised teachers of the University. Cour-es of Instruction in Glass Blowing will be given during the Session by Mr A. C. Cossor. NEW SESSION begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2s. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PrinciPac. W. H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body. Chemistry Physics ... KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) Full Courses for Matriculated Students in Arts, Laws. Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Theology at Composition Fees; or Students may attend the separate Classes. A Preparation for all Examinations of the London University. MICHAELMAS TERM commences OCTOBER 3. : For Prospectuses and all information apply to the SECRETARY, King’s College, Strand, W.C. WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT, KENSINGTON. MICHAELMAS TERM commences OCTOBER 9. Apply to the Vice-PRINCIPAL, 13 Kensington Square. ——$—_———_ WANTED, Caretaker and Assistant in Chemical Laboratory. Must have some knowledge of Physics and Chemistry. Wages, £70 per annum. Apply Dr. Porter, Eton, Bucks. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages ccx and ccxii. ccexil NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. The next SESSION will begin on OCTOBER 2. University Degrees are conferred in Arts, Law, Science, and Medicine. he Classes also prepare for the following professions :—Chemistry, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering, Mining, Textile Indusiries, Dyeing, Leather Manufacture, Agriculture, School Teaching, Commerce, Law, Medicine and Surgery Lyddon Hall has been licensed for the residence of students. Prospectus of any of the above may be had post free from the REGISTRAR. TUITION BY CORRESPONDENCE. For MATRICULATION, B.A., SCHOLARSHIPS, and PRO FESSIONAL PRELIMINARIES. Tuition in Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, Mathematics, Mechanics, Physies, Chemis- try, Psychology, Logic, Political Economy, Book-keeping. The Staff includes Graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Royal Universities. —Address Mr. J. CHarvesvon, B.A., Burlington Correspond- ence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. COUNTY BOROUGH of SUNDERLAND. EDUCATION AUTHORITY. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. ASSISTANT L&CTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in MATHE- MATICS and MECHANICS required at once. Knowledge of Experi- mental Mechanics desirable. Salary, 4130 per annum, increasing by annual increments of £10 to £150 per annum. Applications, with copies of testimonials, to reach the undersigned not later than ‘Tuesday, October 10. T. W. BRYERS, Secretary. Educati n Offices, 15 John Street, Sunderland. September 22, 1905. GEORGE HERIOT’S TRUST. HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT. Applications are invited for the Post of ASSISTANT PROFESSOR of CHEMISTRY, Salary, £225 per annum. The successful candidate will require to take up his duties after the Christmas vacation. _For details of duties, apply to the Principat, with whom applications, giving full particulars, and accompanied by recent testimonials, must be jodged not later than October 16. Edinburgh, September 22, 1905. PORTSMOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE. (HIGHER EDUCATION.) MUNICIPAL TECIINICAL INSTITUTE. The Committee invite applicitions for the position of ASSISTANT LECTURER for CIVIL ENGINEERING. Salary, £125 per annum rising by £5 increments to £150. ; Application Forms and particulars to be obtained from the Principat at the Technical Institute, to whoin Forms should be returred not Jater than ‘Tuesday, October 10. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR. (A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES.) _ Applications are invited for the Post of JUNIOR DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY now vacant. Applications and Testimonials should be received not Jater than Satur- day, October 14, by the undersigned, irom whom fur.her particulars may be obtained. JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A., Secretary and Revwistrar. BIRKBECK © Oar iG Ey HEAD OF CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT. This post is vacant, owing to the appointment of Dr. Mackenzie as Principal of the Technical Institute, Bombay. The Council invites applications. Cominencing Salary, £300. Candi- dates should send in applications as soon as possible, stating age, acadenic distinctions, experience, and enclosing testimonials. - >. THE PRINCIPAL. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, F.C. HARRIS INSTITUTE, PRESTON. ASSISTANT MASTER required for School of Art. Specially qualified to teach Perspective and Geometry, and to assist in giving instruction to the students a:tending the Pupil Teacher Centre. The duties amount to about twenty hours a week, and opportunities will be afforded for private study. Salary, £70. Applications, Stating age, qualifications and previous experience, wich three testimonials, to be forwarded to the undersigned before Ocrober 4. September at, 1905 T. R. JOLLY, Secretary and Registrar. THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. The Registration of Students for the Session 1905-6 will take place on Monday, October 2, and subsequent days, from 10 a.m, to 1 p m. Cl1ViIL AND MECFIANICAL ENGINEERING, Courses of instructions are given, including Lectures, Laboratory Work and Drawing, qualifying for the degree in B.Sc. (ordinary and Honours) and for the Engineering Certificate. Professor Dunkerley will see intend- ing students on Monday and Tuesday, October 2 and 3, from 10 to 12 p.m. Theoretical and Practical Training is offered to students in ELEC- TRICAL ENGINEERING, and a certificate is granted on the successful completion of the course. PURE AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY. Lecture and Laboratory Courses in Inorganic and Organic Chemistry are given preparing for the degrees in Chemistry and for the Certificate in Applied Chemistry. FUEL AND METALLURGY. Special instruction is provided to meet the requirements of Chemists and Engineers desirous of studying the ;rinciples underlying the modern appli- cations of Gaseous Fuels for Heating and Power purposes, the manufacture of Iron, Steel, Copper, Lead, &c., and the Microstructure of Steel and other industrial alloys. MINING. Courses of instruction leading to a degree or to a certificate are offered, with facilities for concurrent practical training in Mines, suited for the requirements of students contemplating a mining career at home and abroad as Mining Engineers, Managers of Coal and of Metil Mines, &c. Prospectuses of any of the above Cours:s will be forwarded on appli- cation to the REGISTRAR. JOINT TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE FOR COUNTY CORK. WANTED—INSTRUCTOR IN ENGINEERING SUBJECTS. The above Committee invite applications from qualified persons fur the Post of INSTRUCTOR in ENGINEERING SUBJECTS in the Queenstown Day Preparatory and Evening Schools. Applicants should hold the Engineering Diploma of a recognised Tech- nical College, or an equivalent qualification. One who has had experience in Engineering Works would be preferred. Salary will commence at £120 to £150, according to experience of teach- ing, and will rise by annual increments of £5 to £150, if the work is satisfactory u Applications, stating age, qualifications, and full particulars as to train- ing and experience of teaching, accompanied by three recent testimonials, one of which should be from: a clergyman, should be forwarded to the undersigned not later than OCTOBER 14, 1905, from whom particulars as to duties, &c., may be obtained. By order of Commitee, Court House, Cork. J. M. BUCKLEY, Secretary. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS.— Immediate Vacancies — (1) Science Master for important Endowed School and ‘echnical Institute. Chemistry and Physics. Only 274 hours’ work weekly. Salary, £200, non-resident. (2) Ma'hematical Master for School in W. London. University man preferred. £150, non-resident. (3) Graduate in Science Honou's for Public College. Chemistry and Physics. £200, non-resident. (4) Mathematical Master for County School. Graduate. £140, non-resident.—For particulars of the above and many other vaca cies, address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, PoweLt AND Smiru, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. WANDSWORTH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. ASSISTANT MASTER (Science Graduate) required, Physi s and Chem‘stry. Commencing salary, £tso. Application Forms and siate nent of duties to be obtained from the REGISTRak. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages ccx and ccxi. DENTS CLOCKS, WATCHES, AND CHRONOMETERS FOR SCIENTIFIC USE. Sidereal or Mean Time Clocks for Observatories, £21 and upwards. E. DENT & CO., Ltd., WATCH, CLOCK & CHRONOMETER MAKERS By Special Appointment to H.M. the King. Makers or THE GREAT WESTMINSTER CLOCK, Bic BeN. Makers oF THE STANDARD CLOCK OF THE RoyaLt OssERVATORY, GREENWICH, AND THE PRIN IPAL OBSERVATORIES THROUGHOUT THE Wor Lp, | Ise I Only Addresses— 61 STRAND, and 4 ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON. SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE ccxiil IMPROVED APPARATUS | | PURE CHEMICALS WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. LABORATORIES AT CLOSEST PRICES. Write for List, and Special PRICE, complete with ‘ i HARRY Wc Oscillator, f= = OX EEO, Quotation for Quantities. SOLE MAKER OF STRUTT’S RADIUM “CLOCKS.” (1) For Lecture Table. (2) As Lantern Slide. Full particulars and prices on application. Full instructions with diagram of connections sent with Apparatus. pn ESE SS | W. MARTINDALE, HARRY WY. COX, Ltd., ; ’ : ACTUAL MAKERS of X-Ray, &c., Apparatus to the Admiralty, Manufacturing and Analytical Chemist, War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c., 1a ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL ST., LONDON, E.C. 10 NEW CAVENDISH ST., LONDON, W. ILcustratep CaTALoGuE (including Instructions to Beginners) Post Free. BBB LPBPOB LPO LP LL LDP LOLOL OL Physical , Illustrated and Chemical Price Laboratories Lists completely = Free, fitted up. => : i : = : HEELE’S FAMOUS SPECTROMETER. Price £10 10 O Including dense flint glass prism, with micrometer movement, reading to 1 minute. Universally acknowledged to be the most efficient instrument on the market. Also, smaller size, Price 436 nett, including two prisms, one being a hollow prism. As supplied to the Royal College of Science, Dublin, University College, Gower St., London County Council, St. Munchin’s College, Limerick, and many other leading Institutes. DELIVERY FROM STOCK. PETER HEELE, 115 High Holborn, W.C. MAKER OF PHYSICAL, ASTRONOMICAL, AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS. ccxiv NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 MACMILLAN’S LATEST LIST. PART I NOW READY. POPULAR EDITION. UNABRIDGED. IN 15 MONTHLY PARTS. S8vo. 6d. net each. THE LIFE OF WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. By JOHN MORLEY. With Portrait. In its complete form this Edition will consist of Two Volumes, price Ios. net. CHEAPER RE-ISSUE OF LORD ROBERTS’S FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA. With Illustrations and Plans. Extra crown 8vo. 6s. NEW AND REVISED EDITION, NOW READY. A TREATISE ON CHEMISTRY. By SIR H. E. ROSCOE, F.R.S., and C. SCHORLEMMER, F.R.S. Vol. I.—The Non-Metallic Elements. New Edition, completely revised by Sir H. E. Roscok, assisted by Dr. H. G. COLMAN and Dr. A. HARDEN. With 217 Illustrations. 8vo. 21s. net. ATHEN 4 UM.—‘ It is almost superfluous to say that the work maintains its original high standard, and is pre-eminent among works of its class in all languages.” THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICA. By F. H. HATCH, Ph.D., M.Inst.C.E., President of the Geological Society of South Africa ; and G. S. CORSTORPHINE, B.Se., Ph.D., Consulting Geologist to the Consolidated Coalfields of South Africa. 8vo. 215. net. SATURDAY REVIEIW.—“ The recent rapid advance of geological investigation in these two countries is a good sign for the future, and towards the continuance of that progress no better aid can be asked than the admirable summary provided by these two most Beomperent geologists.” A PRIMER or EXPLOSIVES. For the Use of LOCAL INSPECTORS and DEALERS. By MAJOR A. COOPER-KEY, H.M. Inspector of Explosives. Edited by Carrain J. H. THomson, H.M. Chief Inspector of Explosives. Feap. 8vo. 1s. NATURE.—‘‘ This little book should prove of great value to those for whose benefit it has been mainly written, viz. 2 the local inspectors under the E poe Act, and those dealers whose ee necessitates the Hee and Secs of explosives FOURTH EDITION, REV ISED AND ‘ENLARGED. NOW READY, Globe Say 45. ELEMENTARY TRIGONOMETRY. By H. S. HALL, M.A., and S. R. KNIGHT, B.A. This edition is adapted to all the modern requirements. In particular, it contains Graphs of the Trigonometrical Functions, and Examples of their use. A special feature is the large number of Examples in illustration of Four-Figure Tables. Tables of Logarithms, Anti-logarithms, Natural and Logarithmic Functions (specially compiled) are given at the end of the book. *.* The old edition is still on sale. SIMPLE LESSONS ON HEALTH FOR THE USE OF THE YOUNG. By SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, K.C.B., M.P., &¢. Feap. 8vo. 15, LANCET.—* The chapter on food and drink is conceived and expressed in a rational and common-sense manner, is in a high degree adapted to a child’s comprehension, and calculated to convey a proper impression concerning the subject. The other chapters of the book deal with fresh air, light and cleanliness, and are excellently clear expositions of their subjects. Sir Mich: 1el Foster, in our cpten, has done good . service by publishing this little volume.” MACHINE CONSTRUCTION ano DRAWING By FRANK CASTLE, M.1I.M.E., Mechanical Laboratory, Royal College of Szience, South Kensington, Lecturer in Machine Drawing, Building Constructiin, and Mathematics at the Morley College, London. Globe 4to, limp cloth. 45. 62. GUARDIAN.—* An exceedingly clear and practical work. . . . Illustrations are abundant and good.” MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 | NATURE CCXV | BAUSCH & LOMB’ S 1905 mopbeEL STANDARD SIZE PORTABLE MICROSCOPE, embodying several new features, Is Now’ READY. THE IDEAL DOCTOR’S & STUDENT'S INSTRUMENT @@ See Nature, April 13, page 568. Full particulars ten on application to the Sole Representatives r U.K. and Colonies, | A.E. STALEY & CO., 19 THAVIES INN, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON, E.C. | Write for Illustrated Microscopical Catalogue (84 pages), 3 Stamps to cover postage. Also Lists of Microtomes, Centrifuges, Photo- graphic Lenses, Shutters & Chemicals of all descriptions post free. G. BOWRON, 57 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON, W. has always on hand a large and varied stock of ELECTRICAL > AND! PHYSICAL BY STANDARD MAKERS, IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER, AT EXTREMELY MODERATE PRICES. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory ; Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Nottingham and Glasgow Universities ; Bedford, Bradford, Clifton, Heriot Watt and Yorkshire Colleges ; and twenty other Scientific Institutions, Polytechnics, &c. re Nature says: ‘‘ Teachers requiring efficient apparatus at a low cost for lecture or laboratory purposes, might consult the list with advantage.” List on application by mentioning NATURE. SECOND-HAND TOURIST TELESCOPES. SEVERAL SPECIAL BARGAINS. (1) Military Regulation Telescope, Power 20, £1 5s. (2) Military Signalling Telescope, Power 25, 21/8 glass, £1 10s. (3) Military Fortification Telescope, Power 35, 2 3/8 glass, £2. (4) Admiralty Cadet Telescope, £1 5s. (5) Admiralty Coastguard Telescope, £1 10s. (6) several Target Telescopes suitable for Rifle Clubs, from £2 10s. A large quantity of Stands for these Telescopes, from 15s. to 25s. These Telescopes are by the leading London Makers. A. CLARESON & Co., TELESCOPE MAKERS, 28 BARTLETT’S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN CIRCUS, LONDON. Accurate and Inexpensive. ~ X m ) 3 Ee | 21/- Pp. oO i og . oy ee We $98 e wag a THE NEW PATENT PIESMIC BAROMETER. Descriptive To be obtained of all Opticians, or AMUOLG BONY HIVE Pamphlet ¥ the SOLE MAKERS, Post Free. E. DARTON &CO., CLERKENWELL OPTICAL WORKS, 142 ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C am See illustrated article, ““Invar and its lA ‘‘ Nature,’ " December 8, 1904. IN WA FR The Alloy of Nickel Steel which has an extremely small Coefficient of Expansion. BASE-LINE MEASURING APPARATUS, PENDULUMS, FOR WATCHES AND CHRONOMETERS. J. H. AGAR BAUGH, 92 Hatton Garden, London, £.0. ‘“ VoIDER, No. 4722 Holborn BALANCES Telegrams: Lonpon.” Telephone: HARVEY & PHrMAK (BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.) WAVE MOTION. Makers of the new Apparatus illustrating Wave Motion, designed and used by Dr. J. A. FLEMING in the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. READING MICROSCOPES, RESISTANCE COILS, &c. 56 CHARING ‘CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. ga@e- SPECIAL TERMS TO COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, INSTITUTES, &c. —aay CCxv1 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 THE NEW ‘‘STUDENT’S” STANDARD BAROMETER. (Rd. No. 420,297-) This Instrument has been designed to meet the re- quirements of Students and others who find the need of a Barometer which will give exact readings, and cost but a moderate sum. It appeals especially to Colleges ahd Schools fcr Demonstration purposes. The construction is on that of the well-known ‘‘ Fortin” principle. The level of the cistern mercury is reducible to zero, in exactly the same manner as in the more expensive forms. The diameter of the mercurial column is *25 inch, and affords a bold, well-defined reading. The scales, by means of the double vernier, are capable of being read to ‘or inch and ‘x millimetre. It is mounted on a well- polished, solid mahogany board, with plates for attach- ment to wall, opal glass reflectors for reading off, and screws for vertical adjustment. The metal portions are al] well bronzed and lacquered and the scales are silvered brass. We confidently recommend this Instrument for use as a‘‘Standard” in Colleges and Schools, private Observa- tories. and by Gas and other Engineers. Price, complete, mounted as illustrated, £3 7 6 each, or may be had with one scale (either inches or milli- metres), and with thermometer on other scale, at same price. ¥ gm Nature says:—‘‘ Provides an accurate instru- ment at amoderate cost.” FULL SIZE STANDARD BAROMETER of same design, bore o’5” diameter, inches and millimeter scales, verniers reading to o’oo2 inch and o*r m/m, on polished mahogany board with brackets and opal glass reflectors, £7 10 O- “ Sole Manufacturers and Proprietors of the Regd, Design: PASTORELLI & RAPKIN, Ltd., 46 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, E.C. WHOLESALE MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS. Contractors to H.M. Government. Estd. 150 years. t/roth scale. Telegrams: Rapkin, London.” Nat. Tel. : 1981 Holborn. N.B.—If any difficulty be found in securing any of our instru- ments through your Dealer, kindly communicate wiih us, All other air pumps superseded. THE “GERY K” (Fleuss Patent) Vacuum Pump. Results hitherto only pos= sible with mercury pumps are readily obtainable by the ‘‘ GeryK.’’ Used by all leading scientists. Far more rapid than any other vacuum pump. Price from Write for £4:5:0. LIST F.45. Pulsometer Engineering C1 Dine Elms lronworks, [teading, INDISPENSABLE APPARATUS FOR SCIENCE LECTURERS. THE STROUD & RENDALL SCIENCE LANTERN. The Universal Science Lantern (Fig. 1) (Stroud and = Rendall’s Patent) has been devised for the projection of apparatus and Jantern slides. In the short box in front of the lantern is a hinged mirror placed at an angle of 45 3 from this the beam of light is reflected through a horizontal convergent lens, on which a slide or piece of apparatus can be placed. Above this is the objective mounted on a brass pillar, and above > the objective a prism silvered on the outside. The image is reflected from the latter to the screen, where it occupies a A — space coincident with that occupied by Ss the image from the lower SREctiae (which can be supplied with an erect- ing prism) obtained when the mirror is *“up” to allow horizontal projection. It will thus be seen that apparatus and slides can be made to alternate the one : with the other by a movement of the ——— —$=— mirror. The top stage is also useful for Fic. 1. the projection of drawings and diagrams Fic. 2 made while the lecture is proceeding. The Lantern has body of mahogany lined with fireproof insulator, two doors on one side, superior compound achromatic objective 6 in, focus, for horizontal projection, achromatic objective 8 or 10 in. focus, for vertical projection, superior prism with silvered face, best quality lime-light burner, complete in case as Fig. 2 ...&7 15 O Can be fitted with Arc Light or 1,000 c.p. Nernst Lamp. BARR & STROUD LANTERN SLIDE APPARATUS. (Made in accordance with Prof. Stroud's mest recent suggestions.) This ingenious apparatus (Fig. 3) is fitted with graduated scales which enable an operator without calculation or focussing on screen to quickly obtain a negative of lantern size (34 by 34 inches). Price without Lens ... sia .. £5 10 O », with Superior Rectilinear Lens 7 5 O For further Particulars see Descriptive Circular. May be obtained from any Dealer, or from the only authorised makers— REYNOLDS &S BRANSON, LTrpv., LEEDS. IATRTLEL a) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1905. A TREATISE ON PLAGUE. « Treatise on Plague. By Dr. W. J. Simpson. Pp. xxiv+466. (Cambridge: University Press, 1905.) Price 16s. net. HIS volume deals with the historical, epidemio- logical, clinical, therapeutic, and preventive aspects of plague, and it marks a distinct and important addition to what has hitherto been written about the subject. It gives a careful and well arranged summary of many writings, ancient and modern, which deal with oriental plague. Many of the ancient writers, some interesting and basing their statements on carefully observed facts, others less interesting and largely fanciful, are here succinctly placed side by side, and the advances or the reverse evolved out of them for subsequent generations are described in chronological order. What the reader of this volume will at once perceive as a marked difference from other worlss on plague ‘is the recog- nition of the important bearing of the discovery of the Bacillus pestis as the real cause of the disease, and its influence on our knowledge of the manner of spread of the disease and its prevention. In these respects Dr. Simpson, as an epidemiologist of recog- nised standing, and by his practical knowledge of the bacteriological aspect, is in a distinctly more favourable position than previous writers on plague. The subject-matter is dealt with in four parts in twenty-one chapters. Part 1. gives an account of the history and distribution of plague from the earliest recorded times down to the end of the nineteenth century—chapter i.—and comprises accounts of plague in Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia, Egypt, Lybia, Constantinople, and the west of Europe, including Germany, Italy, and England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The references to the various writers are everywhere care- fully given, and include writers like Procopias of Cesarea, Evagrius of Antioch, Gregory Bishop of Tours, Paulus Diaconus, A. v. Kremer, Nicophorus Gregoras, Guy de Chauliac, Ed. Maunde Thompson, Patrick Russell, and Dr.. C. Creighton’s ‘ History of Epidemics in Britain.’? This chapter i. contains in thirty-nine pages a review of a vast amount of interesting literature not readily accessible to the ordinary student. Chapter ii, deals separately with plague in India, which at the present time is of special interest to English readers. Before the seventeenth century, since when more or less accurate records are avail- able, ‘tthe history of plague in India is veiled in obscurity. That plague did prevail in India in or before the eleventh or twelfth century is certain, for in some of the Puranas which are at least 800 years old there are references to the disease and instruc- tions to the Hindus as to the precautions to be taken in the event of its appearance. One of these is that whenever a mortality among the rats of a house is observed the inhabitants are to leave’ (p. 40). There is evidence of extensive pestilences in India in the NO. 1874, VOL. 72] fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. At the beginning of the seventeenth century plague broke out in the Punjab and spread over different parts of India, the outbreaks in Surat, Bombay, and Bijapur towards the last part of the seventeenth century having been of a_ particularly virulent character. ‘“Nothing more is heard of the disease’ (p. 46) on the western side of India until 1836, when the Pali plague broke out in Marwar in Rajputana and lasted until 1838 (Dr. Forbes),’’ and according to the same authority this epidemic was brought from Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. Next comes the consider- ation of Garwhal and Kumaon (both at the southern slopes of the Himalayas), which are held by all authorities to be an endemic centre; ‘* fortunately this centre is comparatively an inactive one as re- gards its powers of diffusion.’? Simpson, therefore, does not countenance (see also later) the somewhat sensational suggestion by Hankin that the epidemic in Bombay in 1896 and since was due to importation by fakeers from Garwhal. Chapter iii. deals in an exhaustive manner with the present pandemic, which is traced from Yunnan by the trade routes into different parts of China, and finally, in 1894, into Canton and Hong Kong. The outbrealk and course of the epidemic into these two places are described from personal inquiries, as also the manner and extent to which these localities became centres of distribution of the plague to Bombay in 1896. The course and nature of the epidemic in Bombay Presi- dency, its extension into other presidencies and other countries, are illustrated by carefully executed maps. Part ii. deals with the epidemiology of plague. Having briefly discussed the discovery of the Bacillus pestis by Yersin and Kitasato as the real cause of the disease, the author gives an account of the morphological and cultural characters of the microbe, of its vitality under various adverse conditions (heat, cold, drying on various substances) as asserted by various observers, and finally of its general effect and its pathogenicity after inoculation into rodents (chapter iv.). In chapter v. the relationship of epizootics to plague is fully described. That rats and mice are susceptible to natural infection has been observed and mentioned by many writers, ancient and modern (Book of Samuel, vi., Bhajawata Purana, Nicophorus Gregoras, Lodge, Forbes, and many others). Dr. Hunter, of Hong Kong, and the author himself have published charts (reproduced) which give a compre- hensive account of the parallelism of the human plague and rat mortality. While it is universally admitted as proved that in some epidemics the mortality of rats from plague coincides with the appearance of plague in the human being—either pre- ceding it, synchronous with it, or following it—there is, on the other hand, good evidence (collected by the Indian Plague Commission, and discussed by Dr. Bruce Low in his Reports and Papers on bubonic plague, 1902) to show that epidemic outbreaks of plague in the human subject are not necessarily con- nected with plague in the rat. This is a point which ought not to be lightly passed over; it is unfortunate Z 53° that in recent years it has been assumed by some epidemiologists that the essential factor in the appear- ance and spread of plague is the rat, whereas there exists good evidence that plague was introduced into, and broke out in, a locality in which neither ante- cedently nor concurrently any such epizootic was noticed—to mention, amongst others, the outbreak of plague in Oporto, and in Glasgow, 1900. No one questions the fact that plague has occurred on board ships in which plague rats had been found, nor that such rats on landing may carry and spread the disease amongst rats on shore, which themselves become a focus for plague amongst human beings; but it would be a serious omission on the part of sanitary officers were they to assume that this is the only, or even the chief, mode of importing the disease oversea or from one locality to another. Chapter vi. deals with the different views regard- ing the etiology of pandemics and epidemics of plague, views which, with few exceptions, fall within periods antecedent to the discovery of the Bacillus pestis, and attributed a primary causality to in- fluences which we now know to be accessory, though important, circumstances in the dissemination and spread of the disease, as, for instance, famine, scarcity, insanitary disposal of the dead, and others. The known variations in diffusive powers of epidemics and the effect of seasonal influences are considered in chapter vii., and are illustrated by charts and diagrams, without, however, bringing us nearer to an explanation of the fact that seasonal influences play an important part, unless we accept as seriously meant the statement by Gottschlich, according to whom the seasonal periodicity of plague in Egypt is to be explained by the seasonal breeding period of the rat (p. 158). The variation in virulence of plague epidemics is dealt with in chapter viii., and is illustrated by an account of various epidemics which have occurred in Astrakhan and Vetlianka, 1877-8; Avignon, 1348; Kathiawar, 1820; Pali, 1836; Marseilles, 1720; Egypt, 1834, and others. From these the author concludes that not only do epidemics amongst themselves show great variations in virulence, but that an at first mild epidemic is succeeded by one of great virulence in the same or subsequent years, and further that the various types may be running concurrently in the same locality and at the same time, e.g. at Kathiawar, Pali, Marseilles, Russia, and other places. The often observed fact that glandular swellings without fever may precede or follow plague preva- lence is dwelt upon, without offering for it a satis- factory explanation, beyond the suggestion that variation of virulence may be due to change in viru- lence of the Bacillus pestis with change in the surrounding physical conditions, or to differences in susceptibility of those attacked, such as are brought about by scarcity and famine, poverty, insanitary dwellings, &c. The conditions which foster endemicity and epi- demicity are considered in chapter ix. The in- fluence of the various at present existing endemic centres on dissemination of plague to exotic coun- tries, the different conditions (paverty, NO. 1874, VOL. 72] NATURE misery, | [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 deficient food, overcrowding, insanitary dwellings) under which the various peoples have lived and still live, as, for instance, in the Himalayas, in Bombay, Canton, Hong Kong, Cape Town, and others, play an important part in predisposing to plague, ‘* and it is in a population living under these social and local conditions that plague usually commits its greatest ravages ”’ (p. 193). The modes of dissemination from one locality into another and within an infected locality are described in chapters x. and xi. respectively. As to the first, illustrations are given that plague travels by the most frequented trade routes, that persons sick with or incubating plague carry infection, so also infected clothes and personal effects; that infection conveyed to a new centre (infected cargoes and infected rats) may affect rats before human beings; that owing to panic caused by plague breaking out in a given locality, open and secret flight of inhabitants are instrumental in the dissemination of the disease. In the dissemination of plague within an _ infected locality, importance is attached in the first place to the high infectivity of the pneumonic form of plague, as contrasted with simple bubonic plague, which is not directly infectious. Next stands the infectivity of the septiceemic form, in which the excretions contain the Bacillus pestis, wherefore clothes and rats play an important véle. In the conveyance of plague from the rat to man, the part that insects—fleas, lice, bugs, ants—play is brought into prominence. In support of this theory, no valid experimental evidence is brought forward; what there is mentioned is more of the nature of strong belief. It is to be regretted that such prominence is given to this mode of dissemination, seeing that beyond the theoretical possibility, namely, that a blood-sucking insect of a plague-infected animal the blood of which, pre- sumably, contains the Bacillus pestis might be the means of causing by its bite cutaneous inoculation of a new individual, including the human, there is not sufficient evidence that such has actually been observed either naturally or experimentally. All the direct evidence at present available is of a negative character. The numerous modes of conveyance of plague from man to man, from rat to rat, from rat to man and vice versd, which have actually been observed both under natural as also under laboratory conditions (chapter xiii.) are quite sufficient to account for all the facts without ascribing to the flea any other than a very restricted and accidental réle, if any. Part iii. deals with plague in the individual. The morbid anatomy and pathology, including histology and distribution of the B. pestis in the different tissues, are described in chapter xii., as also the details of several autopsies of typical plague cases; whereas chapter xiii. gives an extensive description of the various channels by which an individual may receive the infection—the skin, and hence directly into the lymphatics; the skin, and hence directly into the bloodvessels; the mucous membranes, par- ticularly of the fauces; the respiratory tract. The author accepts the three-fold grouping of plague in- fection made by the Indian Plague Commission SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE 531 according to the duration of the incubation period in well ascertained cases. The clinical symptoms, temperature charts, and some excellent photograms of the various forms of buboes in the living, the clinical history, treatment, and post mortem appearances of several specially selected cases are treated in a very readable manner in chapter xiv. While chapter xv. deals with the diagnosis and prognosis both from a clinical and bacteriological point, chapter xvi. is specially devoted to treatment, dealing with the methods used in the past, before the intimate nature of plague had been recognised, and in the present day, when Yersin’s serum is extensively employed, giving statistical tables of the results of the use of this serum in Bombay, Karad, Karachi, Oporto, Natal, Hong Kong, and Brisbane, as also of Lustig’s serum (p. 325), of that of Bondi and Terni, and of Kitasato. This chapter concludes with a general account of prophylactic measures to be employed in an infected house, and of the injection of Haffkine’s prophylactic into persons who have been exposed or are likely to be exposed to infection. Of the value of this prophy- lactic Dr. Simpson has no doubt, and recommends its immediate application. Part iv. deals with measures for prevention and suppression of plague, those that were employed before the discovery of the Bacillus pestis (chapter xvii.), as also those at present in use (chapter xviii.). Amongst the former the measures used by the Venetians in 1348—in advance of all other countries and nations—deserve special notice, inasmuch as those measures were the first of a rational and organised nature, and practically are fundamental for all subsequent improvement and enlargements— lazaretto system of isolation, quarantine of men, merchandise, articles, and objects of various kinds. Amongst the existing measures are those agreed upon by the different Governments at the Venice Conven- tion of 1897, and at the Paris Convention of 1903. Amongst the latter the importance of the destruc- tion of rats is receiving a prominent place. While the use of fumigation of ships by means of the Clayton process, described in detail (pp. 359-365), un- questionably deserves the first place, undue promin- ence is given by the author to the Danysz bacillus (capable of causing acute fatal disease in rodents) as a means of rat destruction in localities other than ships. Owing to this prominence, the use of this microbe seems liable to lead to considerable dis- appointment; while the results of distributing with the food either cultures of this microbe or animals infected with it in the laboratory has been fairly satisfactory in some localities in destroying rats, in other localities it has been unsatisfactory. In some of the warehouses in the London Docks we dis- tributed several dozens of cultures prepared by, and bought directly of, Dr. Danysz, as also a number of subcultures mixed with various foodstuffs, and a number of rodents (guinea-pigs, mice, and rats) dead after injection with virulent culture of the microbe; but while all these materials had been taken away by the rats of the warehouse, there was not a single NG. 1874, VOL. 72| dead rat found in consequence, nor was there after- wards any diminution of their number noticeable. Such unsatisfactory results have been observed also in other localities; it appears that the result depends not only on the virulence of the cultures (difficult to control), but also, and in a marked degree, on the species of rat. Moreover, recent observations show that even rats of the same species, but derived from different localities, are not susceptible to the Danysz virus in the same manner and to the same extent. The use, therefore, of the Danysz bacillus in one form or another can at best be con- sidered only as a half-measure. It is precisely against half-measures, so frequently and so readily resorted to by indolent corporations and powers that be, that the author justly raises his voice in no un- certain manner (chapters xviii. and xix.), and we cannot help regretting that such prominence should have been given to a method falling far short of the drastic measures required to ensure the safe destruc- tion of this dangerous vermin. Chapter xx. is entirely devoted to a description of the nature, use, and results of preventive inoculation with Hafflxine’s plague prophylactic. The volume finishes with a reprint of the results of the Inter- national Sanitary Convention of Paris of 1903 re plague and cholera. From the foregoing summary it will be seen that Dr. Simpson’s ‘‘ Treatise on Plague,”’ dealing as it does with the disease from every aspect, is worthy to take a place in the foremost rank of the literature of the subject, and we have no doubt that it is destined to become an important and valuable aid to the student, the medical officer of health, to the epidemiologist, the sanitarian, and last, but not least, to the administrator. E. Kern. ASTRONOMICAL STEREOGRAMS. Our Stellar Universe. A Road-Book to the Stars. By Thomas Edward Heath. Pp. 75. (London: King, Sell and Olding, Ltd., 1905.) Price 5s. net. Our Stellar Universe. (Six Stereograms of Sun and Stars.) By Thomas E. Heath. (London: King, Sell and Olding, Ltd., n.d.) Price 3s. net. N the first of these two volumes Mr. Heath has collected and amplified several articles which pre- viously appeared in Knowledge, and in which he made a satisfactory attempt to bring home to the understand- ing of ‘* the man in the street ’? the knowledge so far available as the result of the determinations of stellar parallaxes. It is, truly, as the subtitle indicates, a ““road-book ” in which the contours, or perhaps one should say the depths, as well as the directions, are plainly shown. The text is really a simple, detailed description of the eight figures contained in the volume, all of which have been especially prepared by the author himself. Fig. 1 shows the sun and his attendant planets drawn to scale. In Fig. 2 the relative dis- tances of all stars known to be within sixty light- years of our system are shown by placing the objects on a background formed by a map of the home counties, taking Greenwich as the point of departure, Soe NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 the ‘‘ sun-powers ’’ of the various stars being repre- sented by a system of symbols. Fig. 3 similarly treats all those stars within 480 light-years, a map of N.W. Europe constituting the background. The scale employed for the stellar distances is an interest- ing one, which takes as its unit the distance of a star situated at one light-year from the solar system. Mr. Heath fortuitously discovered that by calling this unit one mile the sun’s distance is almost exactly represented by one inch. Figs. 4 and 5, of which detachable duplicates are given in the book, present really beautiful pictures when used with a stereoscope, the star images stand- ing out in numerous planes, some quite near to the eye, others apparently infinitely remote. The concep- tion of the three-dimension character of space is most vividly impressed by these charts, the first of which represents the stars as viewed from a plane situated 500 light-years from the sun by eyes 107 light-years apart, the second a similar view at a distance of 100 light-years as seen by eyes 26 light-years apart. The sun-powers of various stars are more especially dealt with in Figs. 6 and 7 and the accompanying text, whilst Fig. 8 represents a view of the known universe as it would appear to an external observer looking in the direction of R.A. 6h. All the data (e.g. parallaxes, spectral types, sun- powers) used in constructing the various diagrams and discussed in the text, are given in tables which form an interesting and useful appendix to the volume. Avowedly written in a popular form, the book contains much that will not appeal to the astronomer, e.g. the reference to the Dogger Bank incident on p. 17, but should prove of interest and assistance to the amateur tourist in space by visual- ising the real interpretation of stellar parallaxes. In the second of these two volumes Mr. Heath gives us a series of six stereoscopic charts of the sun and stars of which the parallax has been determined, similar to those mentioned above. The scale of the charts here given is one-fifth of that he employed for his large stereoscope, and in all of them the spec- tator’s eyes are supposed to be 26 light-years apart, each drawing being made at any angular distance of go degrees from the four adjacent to it. Each view is accompanied by a table similar to those mentioned above. The idea of representing stars in this stereographic manner is very ingenious, and this book, too, will certainly interest many astronomical readers. PHYSICAL CHANGES IN IRON AND STEEL. The Crystallisation of Iron and Steel. An Introduc- tton to the Study of Metallography. By Dr. J. W. Mellor. Pp. x+144. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1905.) Price 5s. net. HAT the students of the problems of metal- lography, particularly in the present unsettled state of affairs, should have for guides only those who have done some considerable amount of active work in the science will be readily acknowledged. A certain amount of familiarity with the metals themselves, their history and NO. 1874, VOL. 72] behaviour, is also necessary before the subject can be made to live. Reading through the present work convinces one that it is written by an onlooker, and the illustrations entirely support this view of the text. The presentation is without bias, and each theory and method is described and examined as clearly and fairly as the author’s evident lack of practical acquaintance with the subject as a whole will permit. For anyone wishing to get an idea of what has been done and desiring a general survey of the scope of metallography, its theoretical aspect, and the problems it endeavours to solve, the book will serve fairly well. For the worker actually in the field, striving to progress in the science, to apply it to his own practical work with metals, and perhaps to endeavour by its aid to solve some of the difficul- ties that are ever confronting the metallurgist, it can- not honestly be recommended, as to such it will give but little light. A few examples of the kind of thing encountered may be given. On p. 12, the recalescence curve of steel is shown as rising from 680° C. to about S1o° C., whereas the real rise is only a few degrees; p. 14, ““Ac2 is higher than Ar2”’; p. 49, ‘‘ excess of ferrite renders the steel ductile and tenacious,’’ whereas pure iron has a tenacity of about 20 tons and pure pearlite of over 50 tons per square inch; p. 50, ‘‘2 per cent. carbon alloys are called cast iron”’ is quite wrong, for tons of steel are made with more than 2 per cent. carbon. Malleability is the essential point here. P. 52, discussing the influences which affect the physical properties, the author omits mechanical treatment—hot or cold work. ‘‘ Heat white cast iron it forms grey cast iron ’’ is quite misleading. P. 74, il., is erroneous, and p. 76 is not in accord with the facts, as the writer has many times proved even in ordinary works practice, so there is only left the ingenuity of the explanation and the fact that it leads the reader astray. P. 81, ‘tenacity is lowered by silicon.’’ Are the researches of Hadfield, Arnold, and Baker not sufficient to the contrary? Their results are not disputed. On p. 88, cleavage fragments are laboriously dealt with as crystallites. The reader is told they are perfect replicas of the larger crystal, and calcite is the example chosen! Sorby’s samples are said to be 1 square cm. by 2 mm. thick. The originals are in front of the writer, and their surface area is more than 1 square inch. It may be of little importance, but the statement should either be near the truth or be omitted. P. 106, ‘the cheapest microscope, 161. or upwards,’’ and ‘it is necessary to have a brilliant light are lamp, &c.,’’ must dis- courage many isolated students, whereas much excel- lent work has been done and is being done with a batswing or a similar burner and a Beck’s Star set at about 71. P. 107, “ microphotography.”’ A glossary gives the ‘nomenclature of metallo- graphy,” and the present reviewer would like to study the faces of his colleagues of the Iron and Steel Institute’s Committee on “The Nomenclature of Metallography ’’ when they find that it is not based on the final report, but on the crude original put out expressly for discussion and amendment. The arduous session’s work that followed was evidently SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 | NATURE 533 in vain so far as the author and his readers are con- cerned. The illustrations are taken from well-known workers, but at least the approximate magnifications should be given. Other points, owing to their import- ance, would require to be traversed in detail, but enough has been said to help those interested to judge whether the book would suit their purpose or not. A. McWILLIAM. OUR BOOK SHELF. Latins et Anglo-Saxons, Races supérieures et Races inférieures. By Prof. N. Colajanni. Translation by Julien Dubois. Pp. xx+432. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1905.) Price 9 francs. SIGNOR CoLajANNI, a Socialist deputy and professor of statistics, is a convinced opponent of the doctrine of Anglo-Saxon superiority. The questions which he proposes to himself are, in brief :—(a) the meaning of the terms race and nation; (b) the existence of dis- tinctive racial qualities; (c) the transmission of acquired qualities; (d) the equivalence of decadence in the nation and senescence in the individual. He concludes (a) that we have no data by which to deter- mine the specific racial attributes of Sergi’s European types; (b) that the terms superior and inferior, save as an expression of their relative positions at a given moment, have no meaning when applied to nations; (c) that acquired qualities are transmitted, especially when segregation favours fixation of the type; and (d) that decadence is relative, by comparison with the progress of other nations; nations may, phcenix-like, rise from their ashes and attain a second time to greatness. Although Signor Colajanni’s main arguments are derived from the English and Romance-speaking peoples of the present day, he does not hesitate to invoke the facts of ancient history and the non- European races, and his task is, in fact, one which demands the amplest equipment of historical, socio- logical, and economic knowledge, combined with an impeccable method and an unerring judgment. Let us illustrate his fitness for his task. A large part of the first half of this work is taken up with the proof of the first and second conclusions cited above; but his method consists largely in putting side by side two or more quotations, primd facie contradictory, and drawing from them the conclusion that both or all are erroneous. He overlooks the fact that criteria are apt to differ; one author may assert the superiority of a race, another its inferiority; unless the standard is the same, the views are not even shown to be contradictory. Even were it otherwise, it is evident that of two contradictory assertions both are not necessarily wrong. The statistical methods of the worl are not above criticism; on p. 354 we have 110/3=22; on the follow- ing page there is a comparison of the material pro- gress of France and England since 1840; for France the savings banks are included; the deposits show an increase of 2200 per cent. Signor Colajanni has no hesitation in taking this as an index number, but he does not add to the English table any corresponding figure for our savings banks; even, therefore, were it legitimate to take the mean of ten index numbers, regardless of their relative importance, as a fair state- ment of the changes. his method is ludicrously fallacious. Signor Colajanni’s knowledge of England is prob- ably limited; we learn (p. 279) that our distinguishing traits are rudeness, lack of sociability, and pitiless- ness, and that these are due to fagging at school. No. 1874, VOL. 72] Our lack of generosity and sweetness (douceur) are due (p. 124) to our games and violent exercise—foot- ball, of course, and perhaps lawn tennis, or, at an earlier age, battledore and shuttlecock. Of Signor Colajanni’s logic we may judge when we read (p. 174 et seq.) of Anglo-Saxon decadence as visible in U.S.A., and later (p. 302) that only one-fourth of its citizens are Anglo-Saxons. Signor Colajanni’s book, though inaccurate, is not without its good points, but it leaves little permanent impression. The translator has little knowledge of English and German to judge by the strange words that often meet the eye. N. W. T- Machine Construction and Drawing. By Frank Castle, M.I.M.E. Pp: viiit+275. (London: Mac- millan and Co., Ltd.) In the study of machine construction and drawing the assistance to be derived from books can never be more than of secondary importance. The acquire- ment of a thorough knowledge of the subject depends principally upon the opportunities which a student may have of coming into daily contact in the work- shop with varied examples of good engineering practice, and the use which he makes of these oppor- tunities. Assuming that a youth is fortunately circumstanced, he will be busy at suitable moments compiling a book of miscellaneous notes, containing, amongst other things, many fully-dimensioned sketches taken from machine details lying around him. Along with this work, and very appropriately in the drawing class, he will make working drawings to scale of some of the things sketched in his note- book, and additional examples for sketching and drawing will be provided in the class. The student will also consult text-books for further information, and the book under review will be found very suitable indeed for the purpose. The author first describes the necessary drawing instruments, and explains their use. He then sets out in detail, with proportional dimensions, various forms of common fastenings, such as rivets, bolts, keys, &c. Then come chapters containing examples of mill work, followed by others dealing with steam-engine details. The final chapter gives a short account of the physical properties of materials used in construction. Sets of useful exercises occur at intervals, and a few calcu- lations of strengths are given; but the latter are wisely kept in strict subordination. The drawings which abound throughout the work represent good practice, are fully dimensioned, very clearly printed, and will be appreciated by teachers and students alilxe. While not free from minor defects, the book can be cordially recommended for use in drawing classes, and to young engineers who are seeking after know- ledge on which to base subsequent work in machine design. Price 4s. 6d. By W. Jamieson, A.M.1.E.E. Graphs for Beginners. . Price Pp. 64. (London: Blackie and Son, 1905.) Is. 6d. In order to teach and illustrate the subject, the author in this small volume makes use of a number of interesting graphs relating mainly to technical and commercial subjects, many of them discontinuous, algebraical curves being given only a_ secondary place, though the logarithmic or compound interest law is dealt with. The significance of the slope at any point of a graph is enforced by simple and effective examples. The treatment is suggestive and interesting, and the author is justified in hoping that the book will tend to cultivate the observation and stimulate the reasoning powers of the young readers. NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.) The Preservation of Native Plants and Animals. From London papers recently to hand, I see that at the ornithological congress, on the motion of the Hon. W. Rothschild, a resolution was forwarded to the Premier of New Zealand in regard to the importance of taking steps to preserve and protect the birds on the Auckland and Campbell Islands. It may be of interest to ornithologists in Great Britain to hear that our local scientific societies had already, in May, memorialised the Government to the same effect; indeed, we asked that protection should be afforded, not only to the birds, but also to the flora. We have likewise forwarded a similar resolution to the State Government of Tasmania in respect of the penguins on the Macquarie Islands. The resolution, therefore, of the ornithological congress should strengthen the hands of our local institutes, which bodies are keenly alive to the importance of preserving, as far as possible, the fauna and flora of New Zealand. The Government, too, has hitherto met our requests in a prompt and generous manner. A couple of years ago, for example, the Otago Institute pointed out to the Minister for Lands that sheep were destroying the alpine flora of the Southern Alps, especially in the region around Mount Cook; the Government at once proclaimed the area as a “‘ reserve,’’ and the sheep were banished. In fact, the Government is remarkably ready to afford any protection that is possible; and the recent proclamation of the whole of the $.W. portion of the South Island— including the Great Lakes, a vast mountainous, forest- clad area, and the famous fjords—as a ‘‘ national park,”’ and the prohibition of the use of guns and dogs herein, has already had its effect in the increase in number of some of our rare birds. You will see, therefore, that we out here, equally with naturalists at home, have at heart the interests of our native plants and animals. W. B. Benuam. Otago University Museum, Dunedin, N.Z., August 21. The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects. I VENTURE to ask the attention of *‘ whom it may con- cern ’’ to the practice in vogue in Great Britain of publish- ing presidential addresses of scientific societies and of sections of the British Association without any mention of the titles of those addresses. Take, for example, a case quite at random, but just at hand. Nature of August 17, beginning on p. 368, contains the inaugural address of the president of the British Association with the heading ‘‘ Part I."’ On p. 372 of the same number is another presidential address without a title. On p. 378 a third address has no general head, but it has the distinct advantage of four subheads that enable the reader to select at a glance what he wants, and to pass over other matters if he so chooses. Unfortunately these are not exceptional cases. I have in my library scores of these addresses in the form of separates without a word on the title-page to indicate how they are to be classified in a library. The presidential addresses published in the reports of the British Associ- ation are conspicuous examples of this kind of publication. I have taken the trouble to look through these reports from the beginning of the association in 1831 down to 1892, and out of all the addresses of the presidents of the association published in these sixty-one years there are only five that have titles or subtitles. These are the addresses given in 1831, 1839, 1854, 1880, and 1885. It is easy to see how this absence of title came about originally, but, as seen from this respectful distance, the history of it is nothing to the point.” What this busy world wants is help to get at what we are interested in with the least possible waste of time. This hot haste may seem unbecoming to men of science, NO. 1874, VOL. 72] or perhaps it may appear that we Americans are in too big a hurry—that we are too much impressed with the motto ‘‘ time is dollars.’’ But we are not spending all our time chasing the dollar; there are many other nimble things that we are trying to keep up with, and one of them is the progress of science in Europe, along the lines in which we are especially interested. If a member of so young and giddy a nation might venture to make a suggestion to older and wiser people, it would be in favour of requesting or requiring the presi- dents of the various scientific organisations and sections of the British Association to provide headings for their addresses so that those of us who have not the time to read all these good things may be able at a glance to pick out what we want especially to see. As matters now stand we are compelled, as a rule, to do one of two things—either to let them all go unread—to our great regret and loss—or to wade through pages upon pages of matter which, however valuable it may be, is out of our line and of no especial interest to us. Such titles, head- ings or subheads as are here suggested would avoid these difficulties. It would not cost much; it would not take much time, and it would save much of ours and some of your own. We appeal to you for sympathy and help. Joun C. BRANNER. Stanford University, California, September 7. Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds. Tue habit shown by many helpless nestlings, of gaping widely when the nest is approached, is usually explained by supposing that the birds are appealing for food. This explanation has always seemed to me inadequate, for nestlings that gape usually have the inside of the mouth brightly coloured, and in some cases marked with con- spicuous spots. Moreover, newly hatched nestlings among the Passeres gape if the fingers are snapped just above them, or if the branch bearing the nest is shaken. It seems a fair inference, therefore, that the act of gaping is often, if not usually, an expression of alarm. In order to test the effect of the widely opened and brightly coloured mouth, I have several times asked young children to touch the edge of the nest or place a finger in the mouth of one of the birds, and from their hesitation or even refusal to obey I am convinced that the con- spicuous coloration, by centering attention upon the gaping mouth, tends to protect the nestling from molest- ation. Mr. W. P. Pycraft thinks that the bright colours and spots are ‘* guide-marks’’ to facilitate the proper placing of the food in the mouth by the parents. But persons who rear nestlings find no difficulty in feeding them so long as they gape freely, without troubling them- selves about placing the food in any particular region of the mouth. W. Ruskin BUTTERFIELD. 4 Stanhope Place, St. Leonard’s-on-Sea. Helmert’s Formula for Gravity. On p. 79 of Everett’s valuable ‘‘ Illustrations of the C.G.S. System of Units with Tables of Physical Con- stants ’’ (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902) the following lines occur :— ““In a Report now printing, which will contain a very full list of results, Helmert adopts, as the most accurate general formula for g reduced to sea level, £=980.617 (1—0-002644 cos 26+0-000007 cos* 2¢). . ... This may be accepted as the best general formula yet put forward.” The formula alluded to was given first by Helmert in his paper ‘‘ Der normale Theil der Schwerkraft in Meeresniveau ’’ (Sitzungsberichte der k. Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1901, Xiv., pp- 332-336), but with a different coefficient, namely, £=980-632 (1—0-002644 cos 2¢ +.0.000007 cos” 2¢), and it is not reproduced in the report mentioned in the above quotation from Everett, but in a subsequent one (Comptes rendus des Séances de l’Association Géodésique Internationale, Copenhagen, 1903, ii., p. 42, Berlin, 1905). Ortavio ZANOTTI BIANCO. Turin, Via della Rocca 28, September 8. SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATORE 535 THE FAYUM.* ay paleontological treasures yielded by the Fayum have made that Egyptian province no less famous among geologists and zoologists than are | the ‘‘ bad lands ’’ cf the United States territories, the Sevalilx Hills, or Pikermi. The discoveries by Messrs. Beadnell and Andrews of extinct mammals, the study of which serves to clear up the whole question of the ancestry of that strangely specialised group the Proboscidea, are not of less significance than those which enabled Marsh and Huxley to demonstrate how the equally aberrant type of Equidz originated. We are glad to learn from the introduction to the | present volume that the whole mass of palzeontological material which has been obtained by the Egyptian Government has now been handed over to the authori- ties of the British Museum for the purposes of study and description. While the type-specimens will, we understand, be eventually deposited in the museum at Cairo, a good representative series of duplicates will be retained in this country. Preliminary notices by Dr. Andrews Beadnell himself concerning the osteology of some of these curious extinct forms of mammalian life have already appeared, but for the full details we must await the promised publications to be issued by the trustees of the British Museum. In the meanwhile, we welcome the volume before us, which gives a very clear and suggestive account of the general features of the district in which these splendid discoveries have been made. The Fayum is a circular de- pression in the Libyan Desert, having an area of more than 3000 square miles, and is situated to the west of the Nile, some distance south of the latitude of Cairo. The lowest part of the district is occupied by the lake known as the Birket el Qurun, which has an area of between 80 and go square miles; but this area appears to be continually diminishing owing to and Mr. evaporation. On the south-east side of the lake lies a tract of cultivated land, covered with alluvium similar to that of the Fic. 1.—North side of the Birket el Qurun, looking West. Nile Valley, and having an area of about 700 square | miles. The cultivated area is directly connected with the Nile Valley by a depression through which runs a natural canal—the Bahr Yusef—which conveys water to the Fayum and irrigates the whole of the district. The remaining area of the Fayum is practically desert, the most interesting part of this desert area being two deep dry depressions in the south-west known as the Wadi Rayan and the Wadi Muéla. These depressions have attracted a considerable amount of attention from engineers in recent years, as being possibly capable of conversion into reservoirs for the purposes of irrigation. Until the year 1898, when the examination was commenced by the Geological Survey of Egypt, little | was known concerning the geology of this district. It was crossed in 1879 by Dr. Schweinfurth, who dis- 1 “The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt.’’ By H. J. L. Beadnell, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. Quarto. Pp. ror. Plates 24. (Cairo : National Printing Department, 1905.) NO. 1874, VOL. 72] | some covered bones of the extinct cetacean Zeuglodon, and this seems to have been the first indication of the existence of yertebrate fossils in the district. Soon after the commencement of the survey by Mr. Beadnell, under the direction of Captain Lyons, the remains of fish and crocodiles were found to occur in the beds of the Middle Eocene, which had yielded the fossils found by Schweinfurth. A few fragments of bone were also found in the Upper Eocene strata, but it was not until 1901, when Dr. Andrews, of the British Museum, had joined Mr. Beadnell for the purpose of collecting recent North African mammals, that the outcrop of strata was crossed upon which a considerable number of mammalian and_ reptilian remains lay exposed, many in an excellent state of preservation. Energetic efforts on the part of the authorities of the British Museum and the Egyptian Government have resulted in the rich harvest of paleontological treasures now awaiting description, of which are familiar to all visitors. of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The study of these extinct types of mammals and reptiles, in addition to affording much new light on the evolu- From ‘The Topozraphy and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt,” by H. J. L. Beadnell. tion of living forms, cannot fail to increase greatly our knowledge of the successive stages by which the present distribution of these forms of life has been reached. The series of strata which have yielded the interesting vertebrate faunas 1s clearly described by Mr. Beadnell in the work before us. The beds are admirably exhibited in a number of fine escarpments. At the base are found Middle Eocene (Parisian) strata with an aggregate thickness of about 1300 feet. Nummulites and mollusca abound in these _ beds, which in their lower part contain Zeuglodon and fish remains, and in their higher portion the older of the two vertebrate faunas. The Upper Eocene (Bartonian) which overlie these have a thickness of 830 feet, and, with some remains of mollusca, yield the abundant remains of the second vertebrate fauna. No Miocene strata have been found in the Fayum, but about 100 feet of fluvio-marine beds, intercalated with contemporaneous (interbedded) sheets of basalt, | and containing silicified trees, are referred to the 536 NARORE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 Oligocene (Tongrian). The youngest beds in the area are gravel terraces, lacustrine clays, deposited on the bed of the ever-diminishing lake, sands blown from the desert, and alluvial deposits. Mr. Beadnell adduces evidence in favour of the view that the bodies of the animals the skeletons of which are found entombed in the strata of the Fayum were brought down from the African interior by a great stream which flowed in a north-westerly direction, passing through the ancient lake occupying the site of the Baharia Oasis. At that period the shore-line would be near the Fayum, and the Nile would flow into the sea near the same point. In historical times, as is well known, a large part of the Fayum was occupied by the ancient Lake Moeris. By successive reclamations of the alluvial lands, this lake has probably been reduced to less than one-eighth of its original area, and now con- stitutes the comparatively insignificant Birket el Qurun. The work before us appears in the same excellent | form as the other memoirs of the Geological Survey | of Egypt, issued under the direction P I | Fic. 2.—Bahr Yusuf at Lahun before entering the Fayum. From “ The Topography and Geology of the Fayum Province of Egypt,”’ by H. J. L. Beadnell. Lyons. There are photographs, which give a good idea of the scenery of this wonderful district. ) two of the plates. In addition to these, there are two geological maps and six sheets of longitudinal sections. There are also woodcuts in the letterpress. The printing of the text of the work and the execu- tion of the illustrations are highly creditable to the Survey Department at Cairo. Ibe \We de THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY’S EXHIBITION. HE fiftieth annual exhibition of the Royal Photo- ; graphic Society is now open. tinct and regrettable falling off in the number of exhibits in the section devoted to scientific and technical photography, but this is in a measure com- pensated for by the presence of the loan collection of British photographs of a similar kind that was sent to the St. Louis Exhibition last year, though NO. 1874, VOL. 72] of Captain | We give reductions of | There is a dis- | sixteen plates reproduced from | metals and alloys by Mr. among the latter there are many examples that have been shown in the society’s previous exhibitions. Of the new work, the natural history section is by far the best represented. Miss Turner’s set of photo- graphs of the “‘ great crested grebe,’’ and a series of twenty-two lantern slides of butterflies by Dr. D. H. Hutchinson, have been awarded medals. The lantern slides are by the Sanger-Shepherd three-colour process, and illustrate the usefulness of this method for recording rare varieties. In some of the slides the colours are notably excellent, perhaps as perfect as any mechanical colour process will ever produce. Some of the photographs of ‘* nesting swans ”’ by Mr. Douglas English must have been taken at consider- able risk, for in two or three of them the bird is shown flying at the photographer in anger. Another example (No. 237) will be found in the west room among the pictorial photographs, and close by (No. 216) is a very fine photograph of sea-gulls, the fore- most of which are in the act of alighting on the water. Of other photographs that record slower movements, the chief are a series of seven by Mr. W. Farren of the ‘‘ skin moult of the caterpillar of the privet hawk-moth,’’ a series of eight photomicrographs (x 30) by Mrs. Kate J. Pigg showing the germination of a grass seed, and two photographs of the same oak, the one taken more than fifty years before the other, by Mr. J. B. Hilditch. The earlier photo- graph of the oak was exhibited at the first exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society (then the Photographic Society of London), and is at least as good a piece of work as the later, the main differ- ence from a technical point of view being that the exposure necessary for the first was three thousand times as long as that given for the second. There are many other photographs of living things, but the bee photographs of Mr. Oliver G. Pike deserve special notice. The difficulty was to get light enough without causing the bees to stop their work, and Mr. Pike has suc- ceeded. Of other work in the technical section there are photomicrographs showing the structure of various , E. F. Law, some interest- ing wave photographs by Dr. Vaughan Cornish, and a number of radiographs by Dr. Thurstan Holland which well illustrate the possibilities of modern methods. The only ‘natural colour’? photograph that we discovered, other than the transparencies by the Sanger-Shepherd method, is a three-carbon print by Mr. Brewerton. We think he has sent as good examples in previous years, but whether or not, what we want to show the capabilities of three-colour work are the finished print, produced without handwork, by the side of the object or painting that it represents. Some commercial work is excellent, but its measure of perfection is due to retouching. The loan collection from the St. Louis Exhibition will doubtless prove more interesting to many than the new work, because of its greater variety. Some of these exhibits are of historic interest, such as Sir William Abney’s photograph of the spectrum in the infra-red, and General Waterhouse’s examples of photomechanical work. There are a very great many SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE 937 photomicrographs of etched metals and alloys, some astronomical and spectrum photographs, and Mr. Edgar Senior’s photomicrographs of sections of photo- graphic films, including those of colour photographs by Lippmann’s process which demonstrate that the silver deposit is in layers. In the trade section there are many interesting exhibits. Doubtless the greatest novelty is the demon- stration of the three-colour process called ‘* pinatype,”’ which is claimed to be the amateur’s method of colour printing on paper. Three prints in chromated gelatin are made from the ordinary three transparencies, and these are each caused to absorb its proper colour by soaking it in the proper dye solution. The prepared paper that is to bear the print is squeegeed on to each of these coloured ‘‘ print plates’? in turn, and duly absorbs the colour. Thus the three colours are absorbed into a single film. The examples we saw were of various degrees of merit. PROF. LEO ERRERA. EO ERRERA, professor of botany in the Uni- versity of Brussels and member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, whose death on August 1 has already been announced, was born in 1858. He merited preeminently the title of professor, for not only was he gifted as few men are gifted with the faculty of giving a clear and precise explanation of complicated problems, and of impressing upon the minds of his hearers his conclusions, which were well reasoned and supported by facts and conceptions, but he was also one of those teachers who recognised that it is not possible to improvise a lecture, however simple or commonplace, without bestowing upon it lengthy and conscientious preparation. In addition to the critical judgment which characterised his teaching, he always kept it abreast of scientific know- ledge; each year, even in the case of his elementary courses, his lectures were looked through, revised, and brought up to date so as to include the latest results in the subject. Prof. Errera was one of the first teachers in Belgium who had the courage to declare that practical work should take precedence of theoretical studies, which alone had formed the ordinary courses up to that time. He was convinced that a student should only accept as true what he had verified for himself, and that it is not sufficient to know scientific results without becoming acquainted with the methods employed. With this object he established in 1884, when he was appointed professor in the university, the laboratory for vegetable anatomy and physiology which became later the Botanical Institute. “hi He was wonderfully assisted by the remarkable facility with which he assimilated all current litera- ture. He read Danish and Swedish without any difficulty, and at the congresses in which he took part, whether English, German or Dutch, he in- variably excited admiration by his correct and ex- pressive rendering of foreign languages. It was not surprising that at the International Botanical Con- gress held at Vienna last June he was nominated president for the next congress, to be held at Brussels in IgIo. The worries of teaching did not cause Errera to forget that it is the duty of every scientific man to contribute to the increase of that knowledge which has been handed down to him. His energy was especially productive along four lines of research. When Darwin had attracted attention to the import- ance of cross-fertilisation among plants and to the part played by insects in the transfer of pollen, Errera as early as 1878, recognising the full import of this NO. 1874, VOL. 72] discovery immediately set to work to study with his keen experimental insight the genera Penstemon and Primula, and Geranium phaeum. Later, while he was working in De Bary’s labor- atory at Strasbourg, he discovered in certain fungal cells a substance then unknown which gave all the reactions of glycogen. This is a body allied to starch that was conclusively shown by the great Claude Bernard to be of great importance in animal physiology. By degrees Errera recognised glycogen in all the groups of fungi, and was able to assign to it the same function, i.e. that of reserve carbohydrate, as it has in animals. His first researches on_ this subject were published in 1884, and constituted his thesis for admission into the University of Brussels. Prof. Errera initiated a series of papers on the rdle of alkaloids in plants. The origin and réle of these poisons in plant economy formed, and still forms, the subject of discussion. The papers of Errera and his pupils tend to prove that alkaloids are decomposition products of nutrition, but that they may be utilised by plants as a defence against herbivorous animals. He was one of those who realised the importance which attaches to molecular forces in the structure of living beings and in all the obscure phenomena of nutrition. Basing his investigations primarily on the important works of the physician Joseph Plateau, the illustrious professor of the University of Ghent, Errera showed that cellular membranes behave in the same way as if they obeyed the laws which regulate the reaction of liquid films such as are produced in blowing soap-bubbles. His first communication on this subject dates from 1886. But not content to lead the way in the domains of science which we have outlined and to direct the work of his students therein, he also pursued many investigations in very diverse subjects. He did much to improve the methods of microscopical technique ; he simplified greatly the microchemical examination of certain substances; he published ingenious theories on the mechanism of sleep, and contributed lectures on widely different subjects varying from pedagogy to natural philosophy; and all his publications were marked by a clearness and purity of style that are not surpassed in the writings of any other man of science. Jean Massart. NOTES. Mr. G. B. Bucxron, F.R.S., author of several mono- graphs on entomological and other died on September 26, at eighty-eight years of age. subjects, WE regret to see the report that Sir William Wharton, who was prevented by illness from leaving Cape Town with other members of the British Association last week, is suffering from enteric fever complicated by pneumonia. His condition on Monday showed a slight improvement. An earthquake shock was felt in Stirling, Dollar, and Alloa shortly before midnight on Thursday, September 2r. The shock travelled direction to that of July 23, namely, to the south-east, but it was of slightly longer duration and more violent in character. In Stirling pictures and crockery were shaken and articles of furniture moved, and a sound like thunder was heard. At Corton railway signal-cabin all the bells were set ringing. At Bridge of Allan the shock was felt very decidedly. In Bannockburn and in the neighbouring villages the im- Comrie was only in a_ similar pression was of a serious explosion. slightly affected: a low tumbling sound was heard, but no damage was done. 538 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 Aw electrical exhibition on a large scale was opened at Olympia, Kensington, on September 25 by the Lord Mayor of Londen. The exhibition is under the auspices of the National Electrical Manufacturers’ Association (Incor- porated), and is intended to demonstrate the powers and uses of electricity in domestic, manufacturing, and com- mercial directions. Among the special exhibitors are the General Post Office and the Marconi Company. The Institution of Electrical Engineers is taking an interest in the exhibition on the educational side; and a series of popular scientific lectures and demonstrations has been arranged upon wireless telegraphy, electric motor develop- ments, domestic lighting, telegraphy, subjects. telephones, and other In Nature of July 13 (p. 244) there appeared a letter by Mr. Rotch, director of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, U.S.A., describing the Franco-American expedition for the exploration of the atmosphere in the tropics which was sailing on M. Teisserenc de Bort’s steam yacht Otaria. During a two months’ cruise, the scientific members of the expedition, Messrs. Maurice, of Trappes Observatory, and Clayton, of Blue Hill, executed thirty-two soundings with balloons and kites, and made observations on two tropical peaks, all between latitudes 9° and 37° N. and longitudes 16° and Bic AE A southerly or south-westerly return trade was found at a height of about two miles in the tropics and an easterly wind in the equatorial regions, confirming the generally accepted theory of atmospheric circulation. While the detailed observations are to be published in a_ special volume by Messrs. Teisserenc de Bort and Rotch, the general results of the investigation will, it is hoped, be embodied in an article which will appear in the columns of Nature. Tue first congress of the International Surgical Socicty was held from September 18-22 at the Palais des Académies in Brussels under the patronage of King Leopold. A correspondent of the Times says that more than two hundred delegates attended, representing the following countries :—Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the United States, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Rumania, Servia, and Egypt. The subjects discussed were of a purely technical order, and papers were read on the latest develop- ment of surgical science. An interesting feature of the congress was an exhibition of the latest surgical appliances, The delegates received a cordial welcome from the Govern- ment and municipal authorities and from their local colleagues. The last meeting of the congress was held on Saturday, September 23. During the session a congratu- latory telegram was sent in the name of the society to Lord Lister on the great progress of surgery directly resulting from his antiseptic discoveries. It was resolved that the second congress should also be -held in Brusscls in. 1908. Prof. V. Czerny, of surgery in the University of Heidelberg, was appointed president, and the various national committees were also nominated. professor Tue Victorian Naturalist announces the death of Mr. H. T. Tisdall, formerly president of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria, and an active botanical teacher and investigator. In September, 1883, he contributed his first Paper to the club, the title being ‘‘ A Botanical Excursion in North Gippsland.” Having to a great extent exhausted the phanerogams of the district, he was induced by Baron von Mueller to turn his attention to the cryptogams, with NO. 1874, VOL. 72] the result that he became an authority on fungi, and at the meeting of the club in February, 1885, contributed a paper entitled ‘‘ The Fungi of Mt. Baw Baw,”’ in’ which he described some twelve species of the genus Agaricus. In November of the he contributed a further paper on the fungi of North Gippsland, in which he made some important remarks regarding the fungus then known as Mylitta australis, ‘‘ Native Bread.’’ During the interval of nearly twenty-one years between his first and last papers, he contributed numerous papers to the meetings of the club, all relating more or less to botany, either as bear- ing on a particular branch or descriptive of trips or excursions in search of specimens, In addition to his knowledge of Victorian phanerogamic and cryptogamic plants, Mr. Tisdall the time of his death, an authority on marine alge. He contributed an article on the flora of Walhalla to the mining department’s report on that goldfield (1902), as also some useful papers to the Australasian Association for the Advance- which included a list of the marine alge same year was, at meetings of the ment of Science, of Victoria. In l’Anthropologie (xvi., No. 3) M. Boule gives a more detailed account of the machine-made eoliths referred to in his paper in the Comptes rendus, translated in Nature of August 31 (p. 438). From the descriptions and illus- trations, it that among the specimens collected appears Fic. x. Fic. 2. by M. Bovle in a few minutes from the great pile of refuse flints are all the forms regarded as characteristic of eoliths. In particular, we find the bulb of percussion present in more than one example; one of these, shown in Fig. 1, is remarkable for what would, in an artificial Fic. 3. flint, be called ‘‘ beauty of work” on one of the edges (Fig. 2); others, of which Fig. 3 is a good example, show the notch, which, like the bulb of percussion, is commonly regarded as a criterion of human workmanship. From the researches of M. Boule, it seems that the eolith should SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE 539 no longer be cited in proof of human antiquity greater than can be assumed on other grounds. Eolithic forms may be due to human agency, but independent proof of the contemporary existence of man in the area in question is henceforth indispensable. Tue latest issue (vol. viii., part i.) of the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society contains a number of interesting papers, mostly dealing with the natural history and antiquities of the county. The papers on local biology include one on the water-beetles of the “Broads”? by Mr. F. B. Browne, another on the hydrachnids of the same district by Mr. C. D. Soar, notes on the Yarmouth herring-fishery of last year by -Mr. T. J. Wigg, lists of Norfolk lichens and liverworts by the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, and an account of the rotifers of the county by the Rev. R. Freeman. WE have received from Dr. E. M. Goeldi, director of the museum at Para, a budget of separate copies of papers by himself, published, with the exception of one, in the Comptes rendus of the sixth zoological congress held at Berne last summer. The one exception is from the [bis for April, and deals with the habits of a Brazilian tyrant- bird (Myiopatis semifusca); this species, in place of being insectivorous, feeding on the fruits of a parasitic plant and disseminating the seeds, thus causing harm to arbori- culture. The other papers relate to rare animals from Amazonia, the yellow-fever mosquito (Stegomyia fasciata), and the habits of ants of the genus Atta. WE have received two new parts of the reports of the scientific results of the voyage of the Belgica, 1897-0, issued at Antwerp, in one of which Prof. H. Leboucq discusses the development of the flippers of Antarctic seals from the point of view of the evolution of the pinnipeds in general, while in the second Mesdames Bommer and Rousseau describe the funguses collected during the cruise, all of which, with the exception of a single Antarctic specimen, were obtained from Tierra del Fuego. Judging from the collection, the fungus-fauna of the latter area appears to be a rich one of which but little is at present known. Prof. Leboucq’s article is the first of a series on the “organogenie’’ of the seals. In the case of both memoirs we may direct attention to the difficulty they present to recorders of biological literature, or, for that matter, to anyone who desires to quote from them. They are respectively headed ‘‘ Zoologie’’ and ‘* Botanique,”’ but, despite the fact that they are not the first issues of those two series, each is separately paged, and neither bears any volume number. Consequently the whole title has to be quoted for reference purposes. ACCORDING to the report for the year ending in May last, the Rhodesia Scientific Association, now in the seventh year of its existence, continues to make satis- factory progress, both as regards the length of its roll of members and in the work accomplished. With the report we have received a copy of the fourth volume (1903-4) of the association’s Proceedings, which contains a number of papers dealing with the biology and antiquities of the country, together with one on its soils. The latter do not appear to be so promising as might have been hoped, most of them possessing only a moderate degree of fertility, and none exhibiting that redundant growing capacity we are accustomed to associate with virgin lands. Perhaps the most generally interesting paper is one on a new gladiolus which grows in the spray of the Victoria Falls, and has therefore been called the “Maid of the Mist.’’ Four bulbs. were sent to England, NO. 1874, VOL. 72] where by aid of constant syringing they were induced to bloom in a hothouse, when it was found that the petals are so arranged as to form a kind of penthouse for the protection of the central organs from the constant shower- bath existing in the ‘‘ rain-forest.’’ AN important issue of the Palacontologia Indica (Mem. Geol. Survey of India) is devoted to the description of some recently discovered vegetable and vertebrate remains from the permo-Carboniferous strata of the Vihi Valley, fifteen miles to the south-east of the city of Srinagar, Kashmir. The remains in question were discovered by Noetling in beds apparently underlying the marine Kuling series (Permian) of the Kashmir Valley; and as they include a member of the “ glossopteris flora ’’ of the Lower Gondwana system of peninsular India, their discovery serves to confirm the reference of these deposits to the Upper Paleozoic. The plant remains, which are described by Mr. A. C. Seward, include only one generically deter- minable type, namely, Gangamopteris, from the base of the lower Gondwanas of the peninsula. The vertebrates, for the identification of which Dr. A. S. Woodward is responsible, include a couple of species of the palzoniscid ganoid genus Amblypterus, nearly allied to Lower Permian from Rhenish Prussia, and fragments of a labyrinthodont amphibian apparently referable to Archegosaurus, a genus known elsewhere only from the last mentioned and equivalent formations. No reference is made to the labyrinthodont from the Lower Gondwanas-of the peninsula described as Gondwanosaurus, but originally referred to Archegosaurus. i ’ In the third part of his contribution to the study of the mischievous insects commonly known as leaf-hoppers and their enemies, published at Honolulu as part ili. of the first Bulletin of the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar-Planters’ Association, Mr. R. C. L. Perkins furnishes some very interesting information with regard to the life- history of the parasitic Stylopidae (Strepsiptera). It appears that although the majority of those degraded beetles infest bees and wasps, a certain number of species are parasitic on leaf-hoppers and other Homoptera, and it is the latter that form the subject of the communication before us. Although death usually follows time after being stylopised,’” many leaf-hoppers are able to procreate their kind after being badly affected by the parasites, especially if by females. The male stylopids, on account of the larger size of the puparia, are, however, much more speedily fatal to the leaf-hoppers, the hole left in the bodies of the latter by the escaping insect being relatively large. Moreover, a fungus immediately makes its appearance, with fatal effect, in the tube; and in artificially infecting leaf- hoppers with stylopids it is considered of the highest importance that the fungus should also be introduced. some “cc Tue report on economic zoology contributed by Prof. Theobald, of Wye Agricultural College, to the college journal for the year 1904-5 deals chiefly with the insect pests of field and garden crops, and on this important subject gives a great deal of useful information. During the year Prof. Theobald dealt with about 1200 communications, and his report contains descriptions of the most troublesome pests brought to his notice. Among the pests of fruit trees, the apple aphides Aphis pom, A. sorbi, and A. fitchii were much the most destructive. Prof. Theobald points out that these forms have been wrongly described as a single species, A. mali, by previous English writers. The aphides do great damage to young shoots, leaves, and blossoms, but it is apparently hopeless to attempt to get rid of them by spraying in the usual 540 NA LORE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 way in spring. The only practical remedy, especially where the first two species are concerned, is to spray in autumn, and a heavy paraffin emulsion is recommended, as injury to the leaves is not a serious matter at this season. The work is troublesome but effectual. In many cases it may be possible to collect and burn affected leaves in autumn, and this is recommended. Prunings should also be burnt before March. In the same report Prof. Theobald mentions a case in which honey-comb was de- stroyed by the maggots of the window fly (Rhyphus fenestralis). The window fly is a very common insect, but has never before been reported as an enemy of the bee, and the case is mentioned as showing how a harmless insect may suddenly change its habits and become a pest. Two recent botanical parts, Nos. 9 and 11, of vol. xii. of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences deal with systematic work. In the one number Mr. B. L. Robertson collates some American Eupatoriez, and Mr. J. M. Greenman presents a list of new flowering plants from Mexico and the south-western United States. In addition to the new species, Mr. Greenman proposes two new genera, Lozanella, near to Trema, of the order Ulmacez, and Mimophytum, a borraginaceous genus allied to Omphalodes and Cynoglossum. The other part contains the sixth and last of the preliminary diagnoses by Prof. R. Thaxter on new species of Laboulbeniacez, a specialised group of minute ascomycetous fungi which live para- sitically on insects. SEVERAL points of interest are noted in a _phyto- geographical sketch by Dr. L. Cockayne of the vegeta- tion of the two Open Bay islands, which lie close to the shore of South Westland, a county in the southern island of New Zealand. Characteristic liane formations occur on both islands; on the larger northerly island the dominant liane is a screw-pine, Freycinetia Banksii, and in some parts, Muehlenbeckia adpressa, of the order Polyonacez, is associated with it or takes its place; on the smaller island the Freycinetia is absent, and the Muehlenbeckia forms pure scrub or grows with a large-leaved variety of Veronica elliptica. The account appears in the Trans- actions of the New Zealand Institute (vol. xxxvii.), as also a list of newly-recorded habitats for New Zealand plants by the same writer. The identification of a Carex from Chatham Island, as a variety otherwise only recorded from Patagonia, adds another to the list of plants which con- nects the floras of New Zealand and South America. Ar the age of four score years, Dr. v. Neumayer has the satisfaction of issuing the third edition of his ‘ Anleitung zu wissenschaftlichen Beobachtungen auf Reisen.’’ It is appearing in parts (Jaennecke, Hanover) at a price of 36 marks, and will comprise two volumes, the first deal- ing with geography and inanimate nature, the second with plants, animals, and man. More than thirty experts are collaborating under Dr. vy. Neumayer’s editorship, so that each subject will be treated by an expert. The first two parts have already appeared, and contain articles on geographical observations, directions for somatological observations, an anthropological questionnaire, which seems to be identical with that issued by the Berlin Museum for Africa, and, finally, the commencement of an excellent article by Dr. vy. Luschan on field work in archeology. No provision seems to be made for an article on a traveller’s outfit or general hints; but it would not materially increase the size of the book to do so, and probably its general usefulness would be much increased by the addition. The last edition appeared in 1888, and NO. 1874, VOL. 72] in many branches of knowledge the advance since that date has been immense. It is therefore a matter for con- gratulation that Dr. v. Neumayer has been able to supervise the re-issue and gather around him so many able coadjutors. A comMIssiON has been appointed by the Lieutenant- Governor of the Transvaal to consider the question of the safety of persons travelling in shafts. It will inquire into the structure, material, preservation, and examination of winding ropes and the adaptability of safety catches, Messrs. PercivaLt, Marswatt anp Co. have published a useful little guide to standard screw threads and twist drills by Mr. George Gentry. Tables are given of the Whitworth standard thread, the British Association standard, bicycle screw threads, the V standard thread, the United States standard thread, the international metric standard thread, watch and clock screws, and twist drills. The guide, which is published at 6d. net, is specially designed to meet the needs of the model engineer, and shows in a striking manner the necessity for the general adoption of standard threads as advocated in an article recently published in Nature (August 31). Tue current issue of the Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement contains an important memoir by a Swedish engineer, Mr. Hjalmar Braune, on the influence of nitrogen on iron and steel. That metalloid exerts an influence more harmful even than that of phosphorus, and appears to be the chief cause of the fragility of mild steel. Its presence in iron is not due to the direct combination of the metal with the nitrogen of the air; the intervention Metal made by the Thomas and Gilchrist process contains more nitrogen than steel made by the acid process, and this explains the inferiority generally ascribed to the former material. of basic slag is necessary. Tue annual report on the mineral resources of the United States for 1903 has been issued under the able editorship of Dr. David T. Day. It forms a bulky volume of 1204 pages, and contains, in addition to statistics of production, a large amount of descriptive and technical matter. In 1903, for the fourth time, the total value of the United States mineral production exceeded 200,000,000l., iron and coal being the most important of the mineral products. The United States in 1903 were the greatest producers of iron, coal, copper, lead, petroleum, and salt in the world. Tin, it is interesting to note, has been found in commercial quantities in South Carolina, and the mines were actively worked in 1903. The manufacture of arsenious acid, a new industry in the United States, is carried on at Everett, Washington. The production of gypsum continues to show a remarkable increase, owing, doubtless, to the use of plaster of Paris in large modern buildings. There was, too, a notable increase in the pro- duction of the ores of nickel, cobalt, chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, titanium, and uranium owing to their use for steel-hardening purposes. A great advance in the lapidary industry is also reported. The fact that larger establishments have been formed, which are able to purchase the rough diamonds in greater quantities, has placed the American diamond-cutters in a position equal to that held by those of Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Paris. The cutting of American gems has also assumed large proportions, notably in the cases of the beryls and amethysts of North Carolina and Connecticut, and of the turquoises, sapphires, tourmalines, chrysoprases, and garnets of other States. 28 <= Oy SEPTEMBER 1905 | NATURE 541 Tue Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion for Ireland is publishing a series of Bulletins upon experimental science, and No. 4 of this series, relating to “* Voltaic Electricity,’ has just been issued. It has been prepared by Mr. James Comerton, and is a useful little pamphlet of thirty pages with numerous illustrations. The author states in the introduction that the experiments de- scribed are merely intended to introduce the student to the more systematic study of electrical measurements. When the student has worked through the forty-three experiments described in this pamphlet, it is hoped that he will have a fair general working knowledge of voltaic electricity—its generation, measurements, and the purposes to which it can be applied. Primary cells, resistances, galvanometers, and voltameters are illustrated, and their use is described in these pages. The handbook should prove a useful addition to the literature of elementary electrical measurements. THE principal centres of the calcium carbide industry in France are in the Alps and Pyrenees. At present, accord- ing to a writer in the Journal of the Society of Arts, there are eleven manufactories capable of producing 40,000 tons of calcium carbide annually. The total output sold during 1904 may be estimated at 18,000 tons. The average yield of gas per unit of weight of carbide is about 4o gallons per pound. The cost price per ton of calcium carbide in Europe was estimated by Prof. Lefevre, of the Ecole des Sciences, Nantes, in 1897, at from 81. to 1ol. M.. Pictet, however, in the same year, thought that the product might be made at the cost of a little more than 3/., by the use of a new furnace. ‘Theoretically, said Prof. Lefevre, one pound of calcium carbide ought to produce, by its action upon water, about seven ounces of acetylene. It has been stated by one of the most important of the French firms, speaking of the production of 1904, that this was disposed of at $l. per ton, the standard accepted and declared being about 4o gallons of gas per pound. The product at the . factory realises 8/.. per ton, and the rate for the retail dealer is 14l. These figures demonstrate the advances made in manufacturing since the publication of Prof. Lefevre’s treatise in 1897. Pror. D’ARSONVAL describes in the Bulletin of the French Physical Society a new and simple form of apparatus manufactured by the Société Francaise de 1’Acétyléne dissous, which serves for the generation and automatic compression of oxygen. The gas is generated by the com- bustion within the compression cylinder of a combustible substance mixed with potassium chlorate, the heat pro- duced being sufficient to liberate the whole of the oxygen from the chlorate. The largest form of apparatus, the industrial type, gives a production of about €0 cubic feet of oxygen per hour. A new form of oxyacetylene burner is also described by means of which a very intense light is produced by allowing the jet to impinge upon a suitable mixture of the rare earths; lime and magnesia are uscless for the purpose, as they are rapidly fused and channelled by the intense heat of the oxyacetylene flame. DurinG the past few years doubts have been expressed by several investigators, notably by Fitzgerald, Kahlen- berg, Quincke, and Traube, of the correctness of Van ’t Hoff’s hypothesis that the osmotic pressure of solutions is purely a kinetic phenomenon due to the impact of the molecules of the solute against a membrane impermeable to them. This hypothesis has been so fertile of results and is so intimately associated with the progress of modern chemistry that any arguments of a subversive tendency No. 1874, VOL. 72] have, generally speaking, received little attention. In a recent number of the Atti dei Lincei (vol. xiv., ii., p- 5) Prof. A. Battelli and A. Stefanini have brought forward, however, a number of facts which, if subsequently verified, are likely to prove insuperable objections to its validity. A necessary consequence of Van ’t Hoff’s hypothesis is that isosmotic solutions should, under similar ‘conditions, be equimolecular; but it is stated that several cases have been observed in which solutions possessing very different molecular concentrations are in osmotic equilibrium. The characteristic of these solutions is that they have equal surface tensions, and it is contended that osmotic pressure is essentially a capillary phenomenon. Osmosis would then be a tendency to equalise the surface tensions of the liquids on the two sides of the membrane. The further developments of the authors’ experiments will be watched with interest. Aw interesting lecture device for illustrating the super- position of simple harmonic motions of different periods has been submitted to us by Mr. W. C. Baker, of the School of Mining, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. A horizontal bar (about 4 cm. deep and 15 cm. long) carries a pointer about 50 cm. long rigidly attached to it. This system, which must be as light as possible, is suspended by two hinges which permit it to oscillate freely about a horizontal axis. To the underside of the bar are attached two pendulums (100 em. and 75 cm. long) the bobs of which are of equal mass, say 250 grams each. If the pendulums be displaced together through an arc of, say, 15° and then released, the pointer will be set vibrating through an are which will vary from a maxi- mum when the pendulums are in phase with one another to very approximately zero when they are in opposition, thus illustrating the formation of beats. There is, of course, no obvious relation between the amplitude of the motion of the pointer and that of the pendulums; the oscillations of the latter give rise to periodic forces upon the horizontal bar, and the pointer indicates the resulting motion. We may point out that a somewhat analogous device was shown by Lord Rayleigh during a recent course of lectures at the Royal Institution. Le Radium for August contains various articles and reviews on all the branches of radio-activity, together with a summary of current researches in this subject. Tue Revue Scientifique (September 9) interesting summary on trypanosomes and trypanosomiasis by Dr. Brumpt. In addition to the ordinary pathogenic forms, the trypanosomes of birds, reptiles, and fishes receive notice. contains an AccorpinG to La Nature (September 16), the ravages of the phylloxera in northern Spain are very serious, many of the older vineyards being almost destroyed; and it is becoming a question whether it will not be necessary to substitute cereals and fruit for the vine in the affected districts. Tue Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for September (xvi., No. 174) contains an interesting historical article on Cotton Mather’s rules of health by Prof. William Thayer, together with papers of medical interest. Cotton Mather was a divine who was born in Boston in 1663, a learned man with a remarkable literary style, and his rules are often very quaint. In the August number ‘of the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, Mr. Conrady writes on the appli- cation of the undulatory theory to optical problems, and 542 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 notes are contributed by Mr. Nelson on the presence of a flagellum at each end of the tubercle bacillus, by Lord Rayleigh on an optical paradox, and by Dr. Lazarus Barlow on a new form of hot stage. The usual summary of current researches concludes this excellent quarterly. Messrs. Cuarvtes GRIFFIN AND Co., Ltp., have published a sixth edition of Mr. Andrew Jamieson’s “‘ Elementary Manual of Magnetism and Electricity.”’ Several additions have been made in this new edition. A key to the exercises in the second part of Mr. Pendle- bury’s ‘‘ New School Arithmetic ’’ has been prepared by the author and published by Messrs. George Bell and Sons. The price of the ‘‘ Key ”’ is 8s. 6d. net. Messrs. SmitH, ELDER anD Co. have published a sixth edition of Marshall and MHurst’s “‘ Junior Course of Practical Zoology.’’ The new edition has been revised throughout by Dr. F. W. Gamble, who has also added short accounts of Monocystis, Coccidium, and Obelia. THE at the following popular science lectures will be given Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, S.E., during next month :—October 3, ‘“‘ A Journey of Surprises : through Yunnan to Tonquin,’’ Mrs. Archibald Little; October 10, “‘ Smokeless Explosives,’’ Mr. J. S. S. Brame ; October 17, “‘ The Plants of Other Days: what their Fruits and Seeds were Like,”” Mr. H. E. H. Smedley; October 24, ‘‘ My Cruise Around Spain and Portugal,”’ Mr. F. W. Gill. Messrs. Pup Harris anp Co., Ltp., Birmingham, have just issued the third edition of their valuable cata- logue of scientific instruments required in all departments of instruction or research in physics. The volume con- tains five hundred pages and is lavishly illustrated, a large number of the pictures representing new instruments or new methods of illustrating the principles of physical science. Many manuals and text-books of physics used in schools have been consulted, and novel forms of apparatus described in them are now made by Messrs. Harris, and appear in the present catalogue. The volume is well bound, and should be very useful for reference by teachers of physics in schools and colleges. No doubt it will find a permanent place on the bookshelves of many laboratories and lecture-rooms. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN OCTOBER :— Oct. 1. Sh. 52m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). af | Gin Zoe ” ” 9 », 8. 9h. Marsin conjunction with Uranus (Mars 1° 48’S.). 3) odie Sa. Major axis of ring =42”'28, Minor axis = "46. 5, 14. 15h. Mars in conjunction with A Sagittarii (mag. 2°9), Mars o° 7’ N. »» 15. Venus. Illuminated portion of disc =0°868, of Mars =o 861. », 19-22. Epoch of October meteoric shower (Radiant g2°+15)). » 20. 6h. 51m. to 8h. 12m. Transit of Jupiter’s Sat. III. (Ganymede). »» 2I. 10h. 35m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). », 23. 18h. 24m, to 19h. 30m. Moon occults p Leonis (mag. 3°8). », 24. 7h. 23m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). >» 27. oh. 15m. to 1th. 35m. Transit of Jupiter’s Sat. III. (Ganymede). ,» 31. Uranus in conjunction with « Sagittarii (mag. 5°3). Nova Aguit#.—Further news concerning Nova Aquilz No. 2 is published in No. 4047 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. NO. 1874, VOL. 72] existence of the Nova whilst examining the Draper memorial photographs on August 31. SO) een: The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects.—Prof. John C. Branner... .. 534 Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in Nestling Birds.—W. Ruskin Butterfield . - 534 Helmert’s Formula for Gravity.—Ottavio Zanotti Bianco's soe. she ee ALY 5 534 The Fayum. (J//ustrated.): By J. W. A Sertcy tc 535 The Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition 536 Prof. Leo Errera. By Prof. Jean Massart . - 537 Notes. (Z//ustrated.) . MPP tet 3 « 53% Our Astronomical Column :— Astronomical Occurrences in October 542 INovavAtquilie vitesse ea 542 Ephemeris of the Variable Asteroid (167) Urda 542 The Ultra-violet Chromospheric Spectrum Peery: The Formation of Ice and the Grained Structure of Glaciers. By Prof. G. Quincke, For.Mem.R.S. 543 The British Association :— Seciion L.—Educational Science.—Opening Address by Sir Richard C. Jebb, Litt.D.. D.C.L., M.P., President of the Section . .. . . Bee sth ft pt ol ny University and Educational Intelligence Sat HG! Societies and Academies Sp nee Sou SEPTEMBER 28, 1905] NATURE CCxvil NEW MODEL SPEGTROPHOTOMETER For accurate quantitative measurements of light absorption. Can be used for— ADVANTAGES— Very great accuracy | Measurements of ; : : | is readily obtainable. Photographic Yensilies = Densities. The Wave-length —_—_—— of the portion of the Absorption of Spectrum under observation can be Liquids, &c., for read off direct. light of any desired The Telescope is fixed. wave-length. Intensity of : The Instrument is Illumination of ~ : i ah a —— penne rigid, and all the Light Sources Law il i ti lr i hreasurements ar : ll = mounted on one ‘ strong base. Can be seen by appointment at the following address — ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. | AWARDED GOLD MEDAL ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 1904. Telegraphic Address :—* Sphericity, London,’*? ILLUSTRATED LIST (“A”) OF SPECTROSCOPES AND SPECTROSCOPIC ACCESSORIES _ GRATIS ON APPLICATION. ———————_ | | throughout the Spectrum. AWARDED MEDALS WHEREVER EXHIBITED, including 9 at the great Paris Exposition of 1900. JAS. J. HICKS, 8, 9 & 10 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MAKER WAR OFFICE, INDIA OFFICE, ADMIRALTY, &c. {7 WHOLESALE =MANUFACTURER Meteorological and Scientific Instruments OF KVERY DESCRIPTION, INCLUDING STANDARD MERCURIAL BAROMETERS, STANDARD ANEROID BAROMETERS, STANDARD THERMOMETERS of every KIND, PUMPS BOTH FOR VACUUM & PRESSURE, Air Meters, Anemometers, Boiling Point Apparatus, Burettes, CATHETOMETERS, Clinometers, Drawing instruments, Eudiometers, Gas, Steam and Water Gauges, Hydrometers, MICROSCOPES, Plane Tables, POLARIMETERS, Pyrometers, RANGE FINDERS, SEXTANTS, Spectroscopes, Sphygmo- meters, Sunshine Recorders, THEODOLITES, Wind Vanes, &c., &c., &c. Catalogues Post Free. (State which required.) —— ANY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT MADE TO ORDER. Prompt Attention to all Orders and Inquires. ga@- Exceptional Terms to Colleges, Institutions, &c. Quotations submitted for Laboratory Outfits or Single Instruments THERMOMETERS FOR STUDENT WORK A SPECIALITY een tk nth th tated dacictastnthtictntictetictictnietictntictelieltlerltltlad KAHLBAUM’S CHEMICALS. SOLE DEPOT JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, SARDINIA STREET, LONDON, W.C. CCXVili NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 MACMILLAN & GO.'S BOOKS FOR STUDENTS OF ZOOLOGY. THE CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY. EDITED BY S. F. HARMER, Sc.D., F.R.S., anD A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., F.R.S. To BE COMPLETED IN TEN VOLUMES. WoRMS, LEECHES, &&c- VOLUME Il. Flatworms. By F. W. GAMBLE, M.Sc. Nemertines. By Miss L. SHELDON. Threadworms, &c. By A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., F.R.S. Rotifers. By Marcus Harrtoc, M.A. Polychaet Worms. By W. BLAXLAND BENHAM, D.Sc. Earthworms and Leeches, By F. E. Bep- DARD, M.A., F.R.S. Gephyrea, &c. By A. E. Survey, M.A., F.R.S. Polyzoa. By S. F. HARMER, Se. D:, F.R.S. SHELLS. VOLUME III. Molluscs and Brachiopods, By the Rev. A. H. Cooke, A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., F.R.S., and F. R. C. REED, M.A. INSECTS & CENTIPEDES. VOLUME V. Peripatus. By Apam Sepcwick, M.A. F.R.S. Myria- pods. By F. G. Srncrarr, M.A. Insects. Part I. By Davip SHArpP, M.A., F.R.S. 8vo. PRICE 17s. NET EACH. | INSECTS. PART II. VOLUME VI. Hymenoptera continued (Tubulifera and Aculeata), Coleop- tera, Strepsiptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Aphanip- tera, Thysanoptera, Hemiptera, Anoplura. By Davip SHarP, M.A., F.R.S. FISHES, &ec- VOLUME VII. Fishes (exclusive of the Systematic Account of Teleostei). By T. W. Bripce, Sc.D., F.R.S. Fishes (Systematic Account of Teleostei). By G. A. BOULENGER, F-.R.S. Hemichordata. By S. F. Harmer, Sc.D., F.R.S. Ascidians and Amphioxus. By W. A. HEeRDMAN, DkScs, he kes: AMPHIBIA & REPTILES. VOLUME VIII. By Hans Gapow, M.A., F.R.S. BIRDS. VOLUME IX. By A. H. Evans, M.A. With numerous Illustrations by G, E. LODGE. MAMMALIA. VOLUME X. | By FRANK Evers BEDDARD, M.A. Oxon., F.R.S., Vice- Secretaryand Prosector of the Zoological Society of London, *.* Volume I., dealing with PROTOZOA (including Sea Anemones, Jelly Fish, Star Fish, &c.), will be ready shortly, and Wallnane IV., dealing with SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, and CRUSTACEA, is in the Press. ELEMENTARY PRACTICAL) ZOOLOGY. _ By Professor T. J. PARKER, D.Sc., RAS. and Professor W. NEWTON PARKER, Ph.D. With 156 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Ios. 6d. KX MANUAEVOERRZOOLOGY: “By. Prof AcE RD iSers iH. Roos) andl Prof. W. A. HASWELL, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. With 300 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Ios. 6d. A TEX BOOK VOR ZOOLOGY” By. Professor T. J. PARKER, D.Sc., F.R.S., and Profes sor W. A. HASWELL, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. In Two Vols. With Illustrations. Medium 8vo, 36s. net. THE FOUNDATIONS. OF ZOO- LOGY. By W. BROOKS, Ph.D., LL.D. 8vo. INTRODUCTION ROR ZOOLOGY. 3y C. B. and G. C. DAVENPORT. Crown 8vo. 6s. LESSONS UN BIOLOGY. By Prof. T. J. PARKER, D.Sc., F.R.S. Illustrated. 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Collections and Single Specimens of British and Foreign MINERALS, ROCKS, FOSSILS. 25 Specimens, 5/6 3 50 do., 10/63 '100 do., 21/-; 200 do, 42/-. | 20 Coal Measure Rocks and Fossils, 12/6; do, larger, 15/-. In Polished Deal Boxes. Wieck: © Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, and Inspection tnuited of a large of | Microscopic Obje:ts. Spectniens sent on approval. Cabinets, Geologists’ Hammers, Card Trays, Glass-Capped Boxes, Models of Crystals, and other Apparatus for Geologists, &c. NEW CATALOGUES POST FREE. | THOMAS D. RUSSELL, 78 Newgate St., London, E.C. MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY. © Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to | JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., | 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., | for a Prospectus of | THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF) MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Half- Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. Subseription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-, or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Sections, £4 4s. FREDK. JACKSON & Co. (Late MOTTERSHEAD & CO.), | 14 CROSS STREET, MANCHESTER. © Goods Entrance: 10 Half-Moon Street. LABORATORY FURNISHERS, | Importers, Manufacturers, and Dealers in CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL APPARATUS | Of every Description. FINE CHEMICALS, VOLUMETRIC SOLUTIONS, PLAIN AND STOPPERED BOTTLES, AND EVERY LABORATORY REQUIREMENT. | Illustrated Catalogue of Apparatus, with Priee List of Chemieals, free on application. | Telegraphic Address—‘t APPARATUS, MANCHESTER.” Telephone Number—2238. | | others including Objectives, | other specimens of Pond’ Life. WATKINS & DONCASTER, Naturalists and Manufacturers of CABINETS AND APPARATUS FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS, SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing Classes, &c. Birds, Mammals, &c., Preserved and Mounted by First-class Workmen true to Nature. All Books and Publications on Natural History supplied. 36 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. (Five Doors from Charing Cross.) BS New Catalogue (102 pp.) just issued, of Scientific Subjects, LANTERN SLIDES from 6/- per dozen. Also Hand Painted from 1/3 to 5/- each. Slides from Prints, Drawings, Photographs, &c., a Speciality. PHOTOMICROGRAPHS. Storage Cabinets for Lantern Slides to hold yo, 10/6; 600, 14/6; 1200, 25/6. See List. MICROSCOPICAL SLIDE Botanical, Zoological, » &c., from 6s. per dozen. FLATTERS & GARNETT, Ltd., 48, DEANSGATE, And at CHurcH Roap, LoncsighHt, MANCHESTER. A a MICROSCOPIC SLIDES, MARINE ORGANISMS, Hydroz»a, Crustacea, Annelida, &c.. polyps extended, without pressure, dark ground or opaque, very deautiful. List. Exhibition Groups of Diatoms, Petrological, &c Dispersal of Mr. HORNELL’S collection of Slides, Botanical, from sd. each. MICROSCOPES, SECOND-HAND, post free. Marine and ac. large and ever-changing stock. Van Heurck, new, Condensers, Polariscopes, &c., by Watson, Ross, Powell and Lealand, Beck, Pillischer, Reichert, Leitz, &c. Prismatic Binoculars, Lantern Slides, Mounting Materials. Lists. Mr. HERBERT CLARKE, 104 LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON. Tel. :—1316 CENTRAL. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Amceba, Arcella, Actinospherium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living or preserved by the best methods :-— Sycon ; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia; Actinia, Tealia, Caryophyllia, Alcy- onium; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana; Lineus, Ampbhiporus, Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Yerebella; Lepas, Balanus, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone, Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus, Ascidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &e. For prices and more detailed lists apply to Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. NOTICE.—Advertisements and business letters for to the Editor. The telegraphic address SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘ NATURE.” | Communications 4 s.d.|Toacyt Places Aproap:i— £ s. d. Yearly 5 oO 5 AWE Gl Yearly 110 6 Half-yearly o14 6 Half-yearly o1s5 6 Quarterly o 7 6 Quarterly o 8 One Sixteenth Page,o or Eighth Col. 10 0 o | One Eighth Page, or Quarter Nature should be addressed to the Publishers; Editorial of Nature is “* Puusis,’’? LONpon. CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. & s. d. 1G Sg *Three Lines in Column o 2 6] Quarter Page,or Half | Per Line after o o g| aColumn , 115 Halfa Page, ora Colne ssa Whcle Page . 6 6 6 Column 018 6 * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two ines! Cheques and Money Orders payable to OFBRICE:: Si: MARTIN’S STREET, MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON, Limited. W.C. CCXX NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 __ GAIFFE IMPROVED WIMSHURST MAGHINE. A Standard Instrument for Laboratory and Research Work. Gives absolutely uniform con- tinuous current for X-Rays, High Frequency, Wave Current, &c. No enclosure (works in open air), no spindle, no sectors. Plates are readily detachable. Descriptive Pamphlet gratis on | apalioation from the Sole Agents for Great Britain and its Colonies— THE MEDICAL SUPPLY ASSOCIATION, 228 GRAY’S INN ROAD, LONDON, W.C., J where the apparatus may be seen working. CROSSLEYS GAS ENGINES briana GREAT REDUCTION REMODELLED. IN GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L types, giving 3°5 H.P. Up to the end of 1904, over 51,000 gas and and 5 H.P respectively. oil engines had been delivered, represent- ing about three- quarters of a million actual horse-power. CROSSLEY BROS., LTD., OPENSHAW, MANCHESTER JUST PYUBLISHED. Watson’s New Price Last of Electro- Therapestico and Diagnostic Apparatus. Immediate Delivery for Stock Sizes | | | | of Engines. We a The new edition is greatly enlarged, containing 108 Ne \ pages fully describing and illustrating all standard and f / eee — ae many new instruments at reduced prices, with notes to bam ih 4, —— assist in the selection of apparatus. fea) 7 eae’ a CORRESPONDENCE INVITED. Qw Post free and gratis on application. W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holborn, London, W.C. Established 1837. Branches: 16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH; 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. THE NEW NATURALISTS’ CAMERA. Reflex Focussing for Ordinary or (PATENT. Telephoto. Lenses. ILLUSTRATED PROSPECTUS FREE. DALLMEVER tre J. H. DALLMEYER, Ltd., 25 Newman St., LONDON, W. _ MAKERS OF THE CELEBRATED DALLMEYER LENSES. Printed ain CHAT D CLAY AND Sons, LimtTeED, at 7 & 8 Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of London, cal published by MACMILLAN anpb Co., Lim1rep, at St. Martin’s Street, London, W.C., and THE MacMiLLAN Company, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—THurspay, September 28, 1905 A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground 2h) Nature trusts the mind which builds ues aye.’’ —WoORDSWORTH. No. 1875, VoL. 72] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1905 [| Price SIXPENCE Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.) JUST ISSUED. NEW ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE (400 pages) of LANTERNS & SLIDES, Covering our Latest Improvements in Apparatus, and many Series of New Slides, including some of a Scientific and Educational Character. Sent post free anywhere for Sixpence. Also New Illustrated Catalogue of Sun-Dials, 32 pages, post free. NEWTON & CO., Opticians to H.M. The King, H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, and the Government, 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C. Apparatus for the determination of the relative conductivity of materials. LEES’ & CHORLTON’S METHOD. Catalogue of Part II., SOUND, LIGHT & HEAT, SRIF FIN,LONDON > \s 2 Jae A . free on application. JOHN J.GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA ST., LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W,C, of thin layers | NEGRETTI & zAMBRA i {All Rights are Reserved. VERLAG VON GUSTAV FISCHER IN JENA. Soeben erschienen : H H Von Dr. phil. et med. FRIEDRICH Biochemie der Pflanzen. GZAPEK’ a. 3 Prot der Beton Prag. Erster’ Teil. 1905. Preis: 14 Mark, geb. 15 Mark. Zweiter Teil. 1905. Preis: 25 Mark, geb. 26 Mark 50 Pf. 4 Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee- Expedition ° auf dem Dampfer *‘ Valdivia”? 1898-1899. Im Auftrage des Reichsamtes des Innern hrsg. yon CARL RL CHUN, Prof. der Zoologie in Leipzig, Leiter der Expe- dition Bd. X., Liefg. I. u. II. Petrographie. I. Untersuch- F. Zirkel und R. Reinisch, ay a ee ea eer gedredschten Gesteinmateriales. Mit 1 Tafel und 6 Abbild- ungen im Text. Einzelpreis: 3 Mark, Vorzugspreis : 2.25 Mark. i Das Wiederauffinden der Bouvet- LEIDEN W. Sachse, Insel durch die deutsche Tiefsee-Expe- dition. Mit 9 Tafeln und x Textabbildung. Einzelpreis: 18 Mark, Vorzugspreis : 16 Mark. | Zur Erkenntnis der Kolloide, Ueber irreversible Hydrosole a LCN UITKANIKKOSIKOplcssm vox RICHARD ZSIGMONDY, Mit 6 Textfiguren und 4 Tafeln. Preis: 4 Mark. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER.—In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual, and at the point on the vertical column where in ordinary Mercurial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of ‘the scale—viz. : 29, 30, and 31— are extended over a tube 36 inches long. The mercury now moving diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest variation, even ‘or” to. which. the scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid of a vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long vange Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. | BRANCHES; 45 CORNHILL, anp 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON. CCXX11 SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC, MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. EVENING CLASSES commence SEPTEMBER 25. DAY COLLEGE COURSES commence OCTOBER 2. The Day College Courses consist of 30 hours per week, and are in pre- paration for London University degrees of B.Sc. in Mechanical and Elec- trical Engineering, in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science. The composition fee for the Session of 3 terms is £rs. The Evening Classes consist of similar courses at much reduced rates. The Technical Day Courses are arranged to extend over 3 years and pre- pare for Engineering, Electrical, Chemical and Metallurgical professions. M ce i = *W.H. Eccres, D.Sc. eANOIELES é we {« J., Lister, A.R.C.S. *S. SKINNER, M.A. Physics *W. H. Eccues, D.Sc. *L. Lownps, B.Sc., Ph.D. (*J. B. Coreman, A R.C.S. : [=s. C. Crocker, M.A. Chemistry 4 * 8. H. Lowe, B.Sc. C. W. Hate. | W. E. OakbEN. 2 > j*H. B. Lacey. ote “\*T, G. Hint, A.R.C.S. Geology A. J. Masten, F.L.S. (ie W. F. Putten, A.M.I.C.E., J M.I.M.E., Wh.Sc *)* A. Macktow Smiru. | H. AUGHTIE. (vA. J. Maxower, B.A. a U. A. Oscuwa.p, B.A. \ B. H. Morpny. * Recognised Teacher of the University of London, Engineering Electrical Engineering ... The Laboratories and Workshops are open for Research under the direction of the Principal and the Heads of Departments. Further particulars may be obtained on application to the SECRETARY, who will send a full prospectus, post free, gz. Prospectuses may be obtained at the office, price rd. SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) YORK PLACE, BAKER STREET, W. The SESSION 1905-6 will open on. THURSDAY, OCTOBER «5. Lectures are given in all branches of General and Higher Education. Taken systematically, they form a connected and progressive Course ; but a single Course in any subject may be attended. Courses are held in preparation for all Examinations of the University of London in Arts and Science, for the Teachers’ Diploma (London) and for the Teachers’ Certificate (Cambridge), and also a special Course of Scientific Instruction in Hygiene. Six Laboratories are open to Students for Practical Work. Two Entrance Scholarships will be offered for competition in June, 1906. The Early English Text Society’s Prize will be awarded in June, 1906. Students can reside in the College. DEPARTMENT FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN TEACHING. HEAD OF THE DEpARTMENT—Miss M. Morton, M.A. Students are admitted to the Training Course in October and in January. The Course includes full preparation for the examinations for the Teaching Diplomas granted by the Universities of London and Cambridge held annually in December. A Course of Lectures for Teachers on School Hygiene is held on Saturday mornings. Full particulars on application to the PRINCIPAL. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuarves A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C, EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICAL and ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. f Cuarves A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C., and Chemistry “1H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.I C. Physics ... .. R.S. Wittows, D.Sc., M.A. Metallurgy C. O. BannisTER, Assoc. R.S.M. Mathematics G. M. K. Leccett, B.A. Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- versity under recognised teachers of the University. Courses of Instruction in Glass Blowing will be given during the Session by Mr. A. C. Cossor. NEW SESSION begins MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2s. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PrincipaL. W, H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body, NATURE [OcTOBER 5, 1905 NORTHERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Special arrangements for students undertaking research during vacations, Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. BACTERIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL PATHOLOGY AND BACTERIOLOGY. Professor: R. T. Hewtert, M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.H. Lecturer: H. S. Wittson, B.A., M,D., D.P.H. A Post-Graduate Class in Bacteriology for Medical Practitioners, Veterinary Surgeons, Analysts and others, and for the Diploma in Public Health, will commence on October 2, but students may enter at any later time. Instruction is also given in the Bacteriology of Fermentation, in Chemical Bacteriology, and in Clinical Pathology. A Course of Lectures on Pathology for candidates for the M.B. and other examinations will be given by Professor Hewlett on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m., commencing October 5. Fee, 42 25. For full particulars of these and other classes and of the facilities for private study and original research, apply to the Professor. Prospectus may be obtained from the SECRETARY. MERCHANT VENTURERS’ TECHNICAL COLLEGE, BRISTOL. PRINCIPAL—Prof. J. WerTHEIMER, B.Sc., B.A., F.I.C., F.C.S. ENGINEERING—Prof. J. Munro, A.R.C.S., M.I.Mech.E. ; Prof. D. Rosertson, B.Sc., A.I.E.E. CHEMISTRY—Prof. J. WerTHEIMeR, B.Sc., B.A., F.I.C., F.C.S. Lecturer: G. P. DarNecu-Smiru, B.Sc., F.I.C., F.C.S. MATHEMATICS—E. S. Bourton, M.A.; J. W. Putsrorp, B.A. In addition to the above the College Staff includes seventy-nine Assistant Lecturers, Demonstrators, and Skilled Artisans. There are eleven Labora- tories, eight Workshops, Experimental Engines and Electric Light and Power Station. COURSES for CIVIL, MECHANICAL, MINING and ELECTRI- CAL ENGINEERS, CHEMISIS, ARCHITECIS, and BUILDERS. UNIVERSITY of LONDON—COURSKES for MATRICULATION and INT. and FINAL B.Sc. (including the Engineering Degree). FEE: TEN GUINEAS A YEAR. Calendar (6d@.) or REGISTRAR. TUITION BY CORRESPONDENCE by an especial unique method for all Examinations in BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE, MATERIA MEDICA, PSYCHOLOGY and ZOOLOGY. Writing reduced toa minimum. Work directed. and returned. short Prospectus (free) on application to the Test Papers corrected Address Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, IMPERIAL COLLEGE, 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. MATRIC., INTER., FINAL B.A. & B.Sc. AND OTHER ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED EXAMS. Preparation by Correspondence and in Small Oral Classes, Able staff of high qualifications. Sing'e subjects may be taken—Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, &c. French and German for all exams. Moderate Terms—Individual Assistance—Full Notes. Address—Mr. H. J. SMITH, B.Se. (Lond.), a Rosebery House, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, E£.C. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages ccxxili aud Ccxxiv, OCTOBER 5, 1905] NATURE CCxxill EAST LONDON COLLEGE (Late East Lonpon TrEcuHNICAL COLLEGE), MILE END ROAD, E. New SESSION commences SEPTEMBER 18. SCIENCE AND TECHNICAL SIDE. Soe (*J. L. S. Harton, M.A., and Mathematics cri] ie EES: CuHuRCHILL, M.A. man (*R. A. Lenrecpt, B.A., D.Sc., and EBysics "| *W. H. Waite, B.A., B.Sc. as f*J. T. Hewitt, M.A., D.Sc., Ph.D., Chemisty 2 “and =*@; Smit, D.Sc. Botany ae .. *V. H. Brackman, M.A. Engineering *D. A. Low, M.I.M.E., and “| *J. A. Davenport, M.Sc. «. *J. T. Morris, M.I.E.E. ARTS SIDE. f{*J. L. S. Harron, M.A., and “| *W. F. S. Cuurcuiti, M.A. *F. R. Earp, M.A. *“KaTE M. WarREN. Electrical Engineering Mathematics Latin and Greek 5 Sy English Language and Literature History a cco .. *T. Seccomse, M.A. French ae . *W. G. Hartoe, B.A. German 5 oor 0 «+ CONSTANCE B. Low, M.A. “Recognised Teacher of the University of London. Fee for the full Day Course, 10 Guineas per Session. Numerous Scholarships of the value of £40 per annum, and tenable at the College for three years, are awarded by the Drapers' Company. Evening Courses for the Science and Engineering degrees are also held, the fees for which are from Two Guineas to Five Guineas per Session. Cacenpak, post free 44d., on application. JOHN L. S. HATTON, M.A., Director of Studies. COUNTY BOROUGH of SUNDERLAND EDUCATION AUTHORITY. THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE, SUNDERLAND. ASSISTANT LECTURESHIPS IN ENGINEERING. Salaries, £175 and £150. Owing to the appointment of the present holders to Lectureships at the Manchester School of Technology. the Governors invite applications for the posts of SENIOR and JUNIOR ASSISTANT. The standard is that of a University College, and applicants for either post should be able to give instruction of that character. A special knowledge of laboratory work is desirable for the senior post, and of drawing office practice for the *unior. Applications to be sent in not later than October 16. For further particulars apply to T. W. BRYERS, Secretary. Education Department, 15 John Street, Sunderland, October 3, 190s. COUNTY BOROUGH of SUNDERLAND. EDUCATION AUTHORITY. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in MATHE- MATICS and MECHANICS required at once. Knowledge of Experi- mental Mechanics desirable. Salary, 4130 per annum, increasing by annual increments of £1c to 4150 per annum. Applications, with copies of testimonials, to reach the undersigned not later than Tuesday, October ro. T. W. BRYERS, Secretary. Education Offices, 15 John Street, Sunderland. September 22; 1905. BIRKBECK COLLEGE. HEAD OF CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT. This post is vacant, owing to the appointment of Dr. Mackenzie as Principal of the Technical Institute, Bombay. The Council invites applications. Commencing Salary, £300. Candi- dates should send in applications by Monday, October g, stating age, academic distinctions, experience, and enclosing testimonials. THE PRINCIPAL. Birkbeck College, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. GEORGE HERIOT’S TRUST. HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT. Applications are invited for the Post of ASSISTANT PROFESSOR of CHEMISTRY. Salary, £225 per annum. : The successful candidate will require to take up his duties after the Christmas vacation. d anti For details of duties, apply to the Principat, with whom applications, giving full particulars, and accompanied by recent testimonials, must be lodged not later than October 16. Edinburgh, September 22, 1905. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see Pages Cexxii and ccxxiv. BROWNING’S MIGRO-CAMERAS. (© MICROKAM ”-Recp.) A simple yet perfect Instru’ ment for Photographing Objects under the Micro- scope. No. 1.—Mahogany - 5s. No. 2.—Do., with Focussing Screen and Double Dark Slide 16s. 6d. Do. do. (3; square) 31s. 6d. Adapting either to fit Micro- Scope l..-- le Brass Adapter. 5 do. Science Gossip says :—‘‘ From a personal experience we can vouch for the fact that it is capable of doing fairly critical work, and it is therefore specially suitable for students in the photographing of botanical, entomological and histological specimens.” | Knowledge (Microscopical Editor) says:—“1 have seen this class of camera used by ardent photographers who have wished to secure a photograph of a unique or interesting specimen.” JOHN BROWNING, Manufacturing Optician, 78 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. RADIUM |1.800,000 ACTIVITY. We have just received a limited consignment of the above, and are open to supply same in 5 mg. tubes at a REASONABLE PRICE. W. MARTINDALE, Manufacturing Chemist, 10 NEW CAVENDISH STREET, LONDON, W. Telephone: 1797 Paddington. Telegrams: Martindale, Chemist, London. CCXXIV NATURE [OcTOBER 5, 1905 LONDON HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) DEMONSTRATOR OF BIOLOGY. There is a vacancy for a DEMONSTRATOR of BIOLOGY at this College. The Demonstrator will be required to attend three days a week, to assist the Lecturer in Zoology and Botany. : Gentlemen desirous of applying for this post are requested to send in their names to the WaRDEN not later than October 25. Salary, £90 per annum MUNRO SCOTT, Warden. Turner Street, Mile End, E. PORTSMOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE. (HIGHER EDUCATION.) MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. The Committee invite applications for the position of ASSISTANT LECTURER for CIVIL ENGINEERING. Salary, £125 per annum, rising by £5 increments to £150. Application Forms and particulars to be obtained from the PrinciraL at the Technical Institute, to whom Forms should be returned not later than ‘uesday, October ro. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF. (A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES.) The Council invites applications for the post of LECTURER in PURE MATHEMATICS at a salary of £180. The appointment will be for one year. Applications, with testimonials or references, should be sent on or before Saturday, October 14, 1905, to the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained. J. AUSTIN JENKINS, University College, Cardiff, September 27, 1905. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR. (A CONSTITUENT COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES.) B.A., Registrar. Applications are invited for the Post of JUNIOR DEMONSTRATOR j in CHEMISTRY now vacant. Applications and Testimonials should be received not later than Satur- day, October 14, by the undersigned, from whom further particulars may be obtained. JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A,, Secretary and Registrar. To SCIENCE and MATHL. MASTERS. Immediate Vacancies — (x1) Mathematical Master for School in W. London. University man preferred. £150, non-resident. (2) Graduate in Science Honours for Public College. Chemistry and Physics. £200, non-resident. (3) Mathematical Master for County School. Graduate. 4140, non-resident.—For particulars of the above and many other vacancies, address GRIFFITHS, SMITH, PowWELL AND _ SMITH, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. DARLINGTON EDUCATION AUTHORITY. WANTED immediately, an ASSISTANT in the TECHNICAL COLLEGE to take charge of the:\Chemical Department and to teach some other Elementary Science in the Day Classes. Salary, £150 per annum. Applications, stating full particulars, to be sent as soon as possible to Education Office, Darlington. THE SECRETARY. September 21, 1905. For other Scholastic Advertisements, see pages CCXxii and ccxxiil. Sales by Auction. SALE OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, ar 12.50. MR. J. C. STEVENS will Offer at his Rooms, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., Several Collections of Lepidoptera, British and Exotic ; Minerals and Fossils ; Heads and Horns of Big Game; Fine Skins, and many interesting specimens of all kinds. On view day prior two to five, and morning of sale application. THE CONTENTS OF THE OBSERVATORY AT “ STARFIELD,” CROWBOROUGH. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, at 12.30. MR. J. C. STEVENS has received instruc- tions from the Executors of the late Dr. Isaac Roberts to Sell by Auction, on the premises as above, the contents of the Observatory, comprising a 20-inch Photo Reflecting Telescope with two mirrors ; Two Astro. Stellar Cameras ; a 7-inch Object Glass, Cooke Refractor; the Equatorial Stand, with Driving Clock, by Grubb; Transit Instru- ment; Sidereal Clock, by Palmer; Micrometers; Two-day Ship Chronometer, by Farquhar; Spectroscopes; Lathe and Tools, and other important effects. May be viewed week prior from ten to four, and morning of sale. Catalogues and all particulars on application to Mr. J. C. Stevens, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. ‘ Catalogues on Chemist and Assistant Works Manager required for a responsible position in a Works near London where secret and patented processes are in operation. Commencing salary, 4200. Investment of £2000 necessary. —Address ‘'Box 1875,” c/o NATURE. Youth, four years’ experience, wants post in Chemical Lab.,School or Works.—Apply ‘‘Lasoratory,” c/o NATURE. FOR SALE.—Proceedings of Physical SOCIETY from commencement to present time, 18 volumes; also about 14 volumes of Abstracts, Memoirs, &c. All bound in publisher's case. Price £8—Apply HEApMASTER, King’s College School, Wimbledon Common. JENA LABORATORY GLASSWARE. BOILING FLASKS, BEAKERS, RETORTS, TEST TUBES, TUBING FOR EXPLOSION FURNACES, COMPOUND TUBING (D.R.P.) Resisting in a high degree sudden changes of temperature and the action of corrosive chemicals. Combustion Tubing for Elemen- tary Analysis. Price-list sent free) on application. SCHOTT & GEN. Glassworks, Jena (GERMANY). The Jena Glasses are, in the U.K., on sale with the following firms : Aberdeen. Manchester. A. & J. SMITH, 23 and 25 St.|JAMES WOOLLEY, SONS & Nicholas Street. | Co.. Ltd., Visine BrgEe ee Neweastle-upon-Tyne. F. E. BECKER & CO. (W.and| BRADY & MARTIN, Ltd, J. George, Ltd., Successors), 159 London. and 160 Great Charles Street. Lhe & eee es Conte PHILIP HARRIS & Co., Ltd.,| Gardiunicien nee aan cs (FE, BECKER & Co. (W. and J. 5 orge, Ltd., Successors), 33 tO 37 PES ee oa Coss Ltd.,| Hatton WallsHattos Garden Gs 179 Great reehe treet. /A. GALLENK AMP & Co., Ltd.» REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., JOHN J. GRIFFIN. & SONS, 14 Commercial Street. | Ltd., 20-26 Sardinia Street, Manchester. | Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. FREDK. JACKSON & Co.,,TOWNSON & MERCER, 34 14 Cross Street. | Camomile Street, E.C. TRADE MARK, MARBLE REDUCED TO QUICKLIME IN 10 MINUTES with our NEW BLAST BUNSEN BURNER AND MIDGET FURNACE. We make these in two sizes at present, 3” and §”, and the prices are—Burners only, 1/6 and 2/65 complete with Furnace, 4/6 and 6/-. The consumption of gas is the same as with an ordinary Bunsen, but the heat derived is three times as great, and a number of interesting experiments can be performed with them, which have only been possible before with very expensive furnaces. We are the SOLE MAKERS, gaS— NaTuRrE says :—‘‘ The combination of furnace and burner is very convenient. These little furnaces are not only useful for reducing calcium carbonate to lime, but also work very well in fusion experiments.’ 5 BREWSTER, SMITH & CO., 6 CROSS ST., FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON. Makers and !mporters of every description of Scientific Apparatus and Chemicals. LABORATORIES FITTED & FURNISHED THROUGHOUT, Our NEW CHEMICAL APPARATUS LIST post free, 1/= Gratis to Colleges and Laboratories. WARNING. Observe that the Regulator of Burner, Body of Furnace, and Hood are aéd dis- tinctly stamped in the metal ‘* BREWSTER, SmitH & Co., Lonpon.” Beware of imita- tions that do not contain the essen- tial feature of this burner’s success. OcTOoBER 5, 1905] NATURE CCXXV W. WILSON, Maker of SPECTROSCOPES, SPECTROMETERS, GONIOMETERS, OPTICAL BENCHES, OPTICAL AND OTHER | MEASURING INSTRUMENTS. BEST WORK. MODERATE PRICES. Price List Free. { Belmont Street, Chalk Farm, London, N.W. GLEW’S SCINTILLOSCOPE (PATENT). showers of sparks, direct from the mineral Pitch- blende, Radium, Polonium, Uranium, Thorium, or any radio-active substance, even a Welsbach mantle contains sufficient Thorium to excite the very sensi- tive screen of the Scintilloscope, which is far more sensitive than the Spinthariscope. The Scintil- loscope rivals the most delicate Electroscope as a detector of Alpha rays. The eye sees an inexhaustible shower of stars of white light, giving a very realistic idea of the cease- less activity of these marvellous substances which are producing the terrific bombardment causing this beautiful display. im See Nature, September 29, page 535. Glew’'s Scintilloscope Superior Lens, with Extra-sensitive Pitchblende and Polonium Screens, giving brilliant effects, Complete, 7s. 6¢., Post free, U.K. Foreign Postage extra, weight 2 ounces, Pieces of Pitchblende mineral, ground flat and polished, with Sensitive Screen attached, for use in Scintilloscope or with any strong pocket magnifier, from 7s. 6d. each, according to size. Radio-active supplies of every description, on Sale or Hire. Bromide 1,800,000 units on hire for lectures. F. HARRISON GLEW, Radiographer (Silver Me catlies Paris, 1900), 156 Clapham Road, London, S.W Radium Shows a magnificent display of scintillations, | NEW X-RAY PLATE. THE SANGER-SHEPHERD X-RAY PLATE is undoubtedly the best plate at present on the market. Its advantages are :— (1) Great sensitiveness exposure. (2) As the result of shortened exposure enormously in- creased detail of structure shown in the developed plate. (3) The emulsion is in a single thin film, which does not frill and reduces by half the time usually taken to develop and fix. to X-Rays, thereby lessening Already in use at the principal London Hospitals. Prices of standard sizes, 10x8 12X10 15x12 12/6 aie 30/- per doz. Pamphlet, jnoludine Developers, &c., free on application to the AGENTS FOR THE SALE OF THIS PLATE— HARRY W. COX, Ltd., ACTUAL MAKERS of X-Ray, &c., Apparatus to the Admiralty, War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c., fa ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL ST., LONDON, E.C. VOGEL’S SPECTROGRAPH. Two prisms of dense flint-glass enclosed in a strong brass case, to which the colli- mator and the camera are attached; collimator of 13in. aperture and 18in. focal length, with adjustable slit with micrometer- screw and dividing-drum ; the camera is furnished with an achromatic double objective of 2in. aperture and 2gin. focal } length ; size of plate, 7}in. by 5in. Can he seen at my Showrooms as below. DELIVERY ‘FROM psneek. PETER HEELE, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Maker of Physical, Chemical, and other Instruments, and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeters. GRAND PRIX, PARIS, 1900; ST. LOUIS, 1904. Telegrams: ‘‘ARCTITUDE, LONDON.”’ cCXxv1 NALORE [OCTOBER 5, 1905 REYNOLDS & BRANSON, el | (CARL ZEISS, | Chemical and Scientific | J EN A. Instrument Makers, Laboratory Furnishers & Manufacturing | Sat fess Chemists. | LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W. Nw Set “A,” Yen “i112, MICROSCOPES | | Berlin. Frankfort o/M. Vienna. Hamburg. St. Petersburg. Special Apparatus for Consterdine and Andrews’ SCO A ‘ Practical oe Suitable for Every Arithmetic.” 70 MODELS, Class of Scientific 20/- and Technical Research. PHOTO- MIGROGRAPHIC AND PROJECTION | APPARATUS. § DESCRIPTIVE LIST POST FREE. Write for Illustrated Catalogue ‘‘Mn’’ post 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. bree cae ea g | eee BROGA GALVAN A suspended-needie instrument which is almost perfectly astatic. Of far higher sensibility than gaivano- meters of the suspended coil type. Almost uninfluenced by stray magnetic fields. Sensibility adjustable through a wide range by raising or lowering the tiny controlling magnet. The coils exchanged in a few moments for others of different resistance. Price of Broeca Galvanometer, complete, as illustrated, with one pair of Coils (Resistanee about 50 ohms, unless otherwise ordered), &7 10 O Extra pairs of Coils (Resistance about 4 ohms or 1600 ohms), per pair 15s. METER. PROMPT DELIVERY. THE CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT GOMPANY, Lro, CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. This is henceforward our only address. NAT ORE SE) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 190s. MODERN GEOLOGISTS AND THE MASTERS.” Ice or Water. Another Appeal to Induction from the Scholastic Methods of Modern Geology. By Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.C-1.E., D.C.L., F.R.S., VER SAC, G?S) “Volt "Bp: -xlvi-25365 Viol ii: Pp. viiit+t498. (London: Longmans and Co., 1905.) Price 32s. net. SOLD. HE two volumes before us must be regarded as parts of a complete work in which the author has set himself the task of disproving the usually accepted glacial theory. As he himself says in his preface, ‘‘ the two volumes now published contain a large part of, though not all, my supplementary arguments against the glacial theory; a _ portion being still reserved for a succeeding volume which will also contain an enlarged presentation and justifi- cation of the theory I substituted for it in my ‘Glacial Nightmare,’ namely, the diluvial theory.”’ In the volumes under review the subject-matter may be considered under three heads:—(1) the theories which have been proposed to account for Glacial periods; (2) the efficiency of water as an agent of erosion; (3) the capacity of ice to produce the effects which have been assigned to it by modern geologists. (1) Theories of an Ice Age.—The four opening chapters of the first volume are devoted to a criticism of the various theories, astronomical and _ geo- graphical, which have been put forward in attempts to solve the problem of the Great Ice Age and of former periods of glaciation. Sir Henry is ever skilful in detecting the weak points in his opponents’ armour, and here, as in his book on the ‘‘ Glacial Nightmare,’’ he has an imposing array of objections raised by others and himself to the various explan- ations which have been offered. Our present inability to offer any adequate explan- ation of the Glacial period seems to be largely recog- nised; as Prof. Chamberlin has said, ‘‘ The riddle remains to be read.’’ This grieves the author greatly, perhaps unduly. ““Tt is not encouraging,’’ he says, “to read of a succession of failures by men of parts and ingenuity in futile efforts to solve what is apparently an in- soluble problem; to measure the waste of thought and time and oil involved in these efforts of the geological Sisyphus to roll the glacial snowball on to some stable foothold, and to see it roll down the hill in every case into the abyss where so many scientific hopes and efforts lie buried.” ; But is the waste so complete as the author seems to imply? Though the riddle is not yet read, the number of facts which have been garnered during the process of testing the inadequate explanations remain for use when seeking the correct solution, and many a minor point has already been settled. The occurrence of Glacial periods is not the only climatic problem to which the geologist is without clue. We have not yet explained the existence of beds containing rich floras in Greenland. To the NO. 1875, VOI. 72] ordinary geologist the evidence for a Glacial period is as strong as that for the former occurrence of warmer conditions in Greenland, and he is hardly likely to reject the evidence in the former case any more than in the latter, simply because he has not yet arrived at an adequate explanation of the phenomena. (2) The Efficiency of Water as an Agent of Erosion. —The author devotes several chapters to a discussion of the potency of the various agents of subaérial and marine erosion under existing conditions, and refuses to recognise the efficiency of these agents to do the work claimed for them by the great number of living geologists. He supports his arguments by a large number of quotations from various writers, ancient and modern, great and small. But we look in vain for any recognition of the principles of erosion which were laid down by G. K. Gilbert in his ‘‘ Geology of the Henry Mountains,’’ and form the basis of modern writings on erosion. He quotes Mr. Harker’s paper on the subaérial denudation of Skye (Geol. Mag., 1899, p. 485) to show that in that district ‘‘ the agents of atmospheric degradation, erosion and transport- ation, are at the present timé almost wholly in- operative,’’? but ignores that writer’s statement con- cerning the great erosion of the district in Tertiary times. Sir Henry, in fact, does not seem to have recognised the importance of the ‘base-line of erosion’? as one of the controlling factors in the sculpture of a district, and this vitiates many of the arguments advanced in this section of the bool. But there is much in this section that is sug- gestive, especially the portions dealing with the effects of earth-movement and fracture in the production of valleys. In the ‘‘ heroic age” of geology too much influence was undoubtedly assigned to these effects in accounting for valley-formation, and one cannot but feel that with the swing of the pendulum, and owing to the importance which geologists now attach, and rightly attach, to agents of erosion, the influence of movement accompanied by fracture, at any rate as an indirect factor, has been unduly minimised. (3) The Capacity of Ice to Produce the Effects Assigned to it.—In the two concluding chapters of vol. i. and in the greater part of vol. ii., Sir Henry is directly at issue with the modern geologists, for in the majority of the phenomena which have been appealed to in support of the operations of ice he refuses to see any signs of ice-work. Notwithstand- ing the ingenuity with which he argues, we cannot see that he makes out a case. The Glacial period has been established as the result of cumulative evidence, and although there are many differences of opinion on minor points, geologists are agreed as to the occurrence of such a period in late Tertiary times in consequence of what most of them consider to be overwhelming evidence. Here we must insert a author’s ‘* old masters.’’ In vol. i., p- 213, he takes his stand ‘‘ with the old masters, Hopkins and Whewell, Conybeare, Sedgwick and Murchison. These men knew something more than geology; they were mathematicians and physicists as well.” Again, on p. 460 he says :—‘‘ I do not hesitate myself to confess, and to be proud of the confession, that I AA word concerning the S04 NATURE [OcTOBER 5, 1905 believe in the old men rather than in the new.”’ It is true that in these cases he is referring to special points, but again and again one cannot but feel in reading the book that the writer pays undue regard for authority, without considering that his ‘‘ old masters’? were not acquainted with all the facts which we now possess, and that they themselves changed their views. Sedgwick, for instance, came to believe in an Ice age. Moreover, if these were old masters, so were Hutton and Playfair, Lyell and Buckland, whose views are not always so palatable to the author. It may be remarked, also, that a knowledge of mathematics and physics was not con- fined to the geologists of those days. One of the most ardent of the existing advocates of ice-erosion, concerning whose paper on ice action in Skye (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xl., 1901) Sir Henry is silent in these two volumes, was a high wrangler, and took a first class in physics at Cambridge. The theory of an Ice age was largely put forward owing to the existence of rounded and striated rock- surfaces and scratched and polished boulders. These resemble similar productions of modern ice to such a degree that the geologist has no more hesitation in referring them to ice-action than he has to assign the formation of the pebbles of a river to stream- action. The inference drawn from the existence of these phenomena has been supported by a host of other observations, biological as well as physical, and if Sir Henry should succeed in disproving the exist- ence of an Ice age he will also break down the essential principle of geology, ‘that like effects imply like causes.” It would be impossible in a brief article to discuss all the questions raised in this part of the work. We must content ourselves with a few observations. Though reference is made now and again to the Greenland ice and to the ice masses of Spitsbergen, it is the glaciers of the alpine type to which most frequent appeal is made. To this we shall recur, but in the meanwhile would invite the author’s atten- tion to yet another treatise concerning which he is silent, where another type of ice work is described, namely, I. C. Russell’s volume on the Malaspina Glacier (thirteenth annual report of the U.S. Geo- logical Survey). When describing the Till or Boulder-clay, the author quotes a description of it by Prof. James Geikie, and goes on to observe, ‘‘ this being with- out question the most typical of so-called glacial de- posit, it is a remarkable fact that no such deposit is now being made, so far as we know, by land-ice anywhere.’? He must have overlooked a passage in a paper to which he elsewhere refers, by Messrs. Garwood and Gregory, on the glacial geology of Spitsbergen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. liv.). They say :— “On the broad plain at the foot of Booming Glacier we found some square miles of a tough mud con- taining boulders and pebbles; it only needed to be dried and hardened to form an ideal Boulder Clay. Clearly this deposit had been laid down by land- ity 12 NO. 1875, VOL. 72] The author objects to the sharp line which is drawn by many geologists to show the margin of the ice at its period of maximum extension, and denies the existence of any evidence for this, arguing that the Boulder-clay, the masses of gravel and loam, and the loess are genetically connected. Of this we shall doubtless hear more when the third volume appears. Much is naturally made of the conflict of opinion among geologists concerning the occurrence of inter- Glacial periods, and the relative importance of land- ice and floating-ice in producing the phenomena generally taken to indicate the occurrence of a Glacial period. These questions are certainly not settled to everyone’s satisfaction, but they in no way invalidate the conclusions which have been drawn as to the existence of an Ice age. Though we do not agree with the author in his main conclusions put forward in this section of the work, we must admit that much that he writes is worthy of consideration, even though his views seem exaggerated. For instance, he argues that much of the material forming the drifts was broken up prior to the so-called Ice age, and this we believe to be true, even though the breakage did not occur in the manner advocated elsewhere by the author; but if true, it invalidates the appeal to modern Alpine glaciers to prove the inadequacy of ice as an erosive agent. The loose materials ready to hand at the beginning of Glacial times would supply the ice with the tools for rasping and grinding. As that material became comminuted, unless new material was sup- plied in abundance, the ice would become less effective as an eroder. Also ice, like water, has a base line of erosion beneath which it cannot work. This line may have been reached in the case of Alpine glaciers, and the supply of material to the sole have been also largely diminished, in which case one can no more argue from what Alpine glaciers are now doing as to the effects of land ice in the Glacial period than one can explain the canons of the Colorado by reference to a little stream which has established its base level. Throughout the work much has been made of the conflicting views of geologists as to the details of ice action. Sir Henry is obviously greatly impressed with the fact that in the long and arduous attempt to unravel the Gordian knot the skein sometimes seems to have become hopelessly twisted; but he who carefully studies the process of disentanglement sees that, notwithstanding the many kinks, the tangle is becoming less. The author, impatient of the slow process, has elsewhere attempted to cut the knot, and will evidently give reasons for this act in the third volume. We fear that the attempt will not be re- garded as successful, either by the ‘‘ ultra-glacialists ”” or by geologists in general. We cannot recommend the book to geological babes and sucklings, but it will well repay perusal by the advanced reader. He will forgive the ‘energetic adjectives and adverbs,”’ which are hardly necessary to a calm and dispassionate discussion, on reading the author’s frank apology in the preface. The store of facts collected in the book is of the utmost value OcToBER 5, 1905 | NATURE SISIS) to the student of glacial geology, though we wish that references to the original memoirs had been in all cases added. There are, as we have tried to show, many valuable criticisms and suggestions con- tained in the work. Lastly, it will prove a useful intellectual exercise to weigh the author’s arguments in the balance. For these reasons we believe that readers who have an extensive acquaintance with the facts and principles of geology will read the book with profit—and with pleasure. Ie 1B Wile PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. Theoretical Chemistry. By Prof. Walther Nernst. Revised in accordance with the fourth German edition. Pp. xxiv+771. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) net. HE fact that three further editions of the German text of Nernst’s well known treatise on theoretical chemistry have been called for since the appearance of the original in 1893, affords ample tes- timony to its intrinsic merits. An English translation of the first edition by Prof. C. S. Palmer appeared in 1895, and this, until now, has been the only English version. During the last ten years much valuable work has been carried out in the province of physical chemistry, and the publishers have recognised the necessity of bringing the English edition up to date. With that object Dr. R. A. Lehfeldt has translated the whole of the new matter contained in the fourth German edition and has revised certain parts of the original translation, It has been the reviewer’s experience to hear the original translation adversely commented upon, and it is perhaps to be regretted that the bulk of the old text remains as it was in the first edition. After careful perusal of the work, it is indeed difficult to suppress the feeling that a better result would have been attained by an entirely new translation of the fourth German edition. Two new chapters in the work under review deal with ‘‘ The Atomistic Theory of Electricity’? and ““The Metallic State.’’ In the first of these an ac- count is given of the electron theory and of the phenomena of ionisation and electric conduction in gases. In the second the nature of the metallic con- dition is discussed on the basis of results which have been obtained by the study of the freezing point curves and of the electrical conductivity of mixtures of metals. These chapters form very interesting reading, although, of course, it has not been possible within the compass of seventeen pages to give more than the briefest outline. The space given to electro-chemistry has been ex- tended from 26 to 46 pages, and the exposition of the subject-matter greatly improved. The application of thermodynamics and of the osmotic theory to electro- chemical systems is now treated in separate chapters, and many new observations bearing on the theory of electrolysis have been incorporated. It is not possible to mention more than a few of the alterations and additions which have been made NO. 1875, VOL. 72] 15S. in the text generally. One notes with pleasure that the somewhat: abstruse exposition of energy relation- ships in the introductory chapter has been made more lucid. The discovery of the inert gases of the argon series has led to much discussion of late years in reference to the periodic classification of the elements, and these recent views are summarised in the chapter on the atomic theory. Other important new sections deal with Werner’s theory of molecular compounds, catalysis, the mechanism of autoxidation processes, tautomerism, and the kinetics of heterogeneous systems. The view that tautomerism is due to the co-existence in dynamic equilibrium of mutually transformable isomeric sub- stances seems to be very probable in the light of re- cent work. In this connection the interesting ob- servations of Hantzsch on the transformation of the tautomeric forms of nitrophenylmethane and similar bodies are recorded, but one looks in vain for any reference to Lowry’s investigations on dynamic isomerism. In reference to the kinetics of hetero- geneous systems and the mechanism of chemical change, it is now recognised that many gaseous re- actions, usually regarded as taking place in a single phase, are possibly examples of changes essentially conditioned by phenomena at a boundary surface. The rate at which arsine or phosphine decomposes is in accord with the formula for a unimolecular change, but this agreement really affords no conclusive argu- ment with reference to the mechanism of the change. The measured rate of change has possibly nothing whatever to do with the chemical change involved, but merely with a physical change at the surface of the containing vessel. In a third edition reference should be made to this in the section dealing with the mechanism of reactions on pp. 562-564. Of necessity, much new work has had to be left unmentioned in the new edition, but the author is to be congratulated on the large amount of new matter which he has been able to introduce without appre- ciable alteration in the size of the volume. With the issue of this second edition one may confidently anticipate that Nernst’s book will still maintain its position as one of the classics of theoretical chemistry. daily) Wile: 1D). STOKES’S MATHEMATICAL PAPERS. Mathematical and Physical Papers by the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart. Vol. v. Pp. xxv +370. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1905.) Price 15s. AND PHYSIGAL HE speedy completion of the reprint of Stokes’s papers is matter of congratulation to the dis- tinguished editor, to the Cambridge Press, and to all students of mathematical physics. The general char- acter of the contents of this concluding instalment is sufficiently described in the following extract from Prof. Larmor’s preface :— “It will be observed that the present volume repre- sents the period in which Sir George Stoles’ scien- tific activities were mainly expended in the work of | the Royal Society and of public Scientific Committees, 556 and in giving assistance to the investigations of others. The volume thus consists largely of addi- tions and notes originally appended to memoirs by other authors.”’ Hence, although we meet abundant evidence of Stokes’s constant occupation with scientific subjects, and of the characteristic generosity with which he placed his powers at the service of others, we miss something of the more spontaneous activity which characterised his earlier period. We find various proofs, however, that the subjects which had first fascinated him were never long absent from his thoughts; and occasionally they receive a flash of un- expected illumination. We may cite the various notes on water-waves, the brilliant little paper on semi-con- vergent series, and the admirable interpretation of Prof. Hele-Shaw’s experiments on the flow of a viscous liquid between parallel plates. We have also a record of the keen interest which in the last few years of his life he took in the subject of Réntgen rays. The lecture (p. 256) which he gave to the Man- chester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1896 was written out (with the help of reporters’ notes) after delivery; bright and genial as it is, it gives no adequate idea of the buoyant freshness and vivacity which characterised the oral exposition. The volume includes, by a happy determination, a collection of the papers set by Stokes in the mathe- matical tripos, and in the old Smith’s Prize examin- ation. It is well known that through this unusual channel several important scientific results were first made known to the world; for example, the notion of group-velocity, and the famous ‘‘ Stokes’s Theorem,”’ respecting which we have an interesting historical note by Prof. Larmor. We suspect that a mathe- matical antiquarian might make further interesting “‘finds.”? If we are not mistaken, we detect prior publications of a remarkable theorem relating to the infinite product for sin x, and of a definite integral property of Bessel’s functions, which are usually attributed to Weierstrass and to H. Weber re- spectively. Of course, no one, least of all Stokes himself, would attach much importance to the ques- tion of priority under these conditions; but such instances are of interest as showing, in unexpected directions, the singular vigour and independence of Stokes’s mind. The Royal Society obituary notice, with its authori- tative appreciation of Stolkes’s scientific researches by one of his keenest admirers and disciples, forms a fitting accompaniment to this monumental publica- tion. The volume is further adorned by an excellent photograph by Mrs. Myers, of date 1892. The scientific world will await with great interest the publication of the ‘‘ volume of biographical char- acter, to be occupied in part by a selection from Sir George Stokes’s voluminous scientific correspondence, including some unpublished manuscript material,’ which is promised in the preface. The great energy with which Prof. Larmor has discharged his present honourable task justifies the hope that we shall not have to wait too long for the proposed supplement. NO. 1875, VOL. 72] NATURE [OcTOBER 5, 1905 OUR BOOK SHELF. Notes on the Drawings for Sowerby’s “ English Botany.”’ By F. N. A. Garry. Reprinted from the Journal of Botany, 1904-5. Pp. 276. (London: West, Newman and Co., 1905.) Price 6s. Tue series of volumes known as ‘‘ English Botany ”’ was begun in 1790 by James Sowerby, the botanic artist, who engaged Dr. James Edward Smith, the possessor of the Linnean collections and founder of the Linnean Society, to describe the plants depicted by him. At first the name of the draughtsman only appeared on the title-page, but in 1795 a preface to the fourth volume by Smith acknowledged his authorship, and he was much annoyed in after years by ‘‘ the flip- pancy with which everybody quotes ‘* Sowerby,” whom they know merely as the delineator of these plates, without adverting to the information of the work, or the name of the author.’’ The artist and those who followed him preserved the original draw- ings of the phanerogams and vascular cryptogams, which ultimately came into the possession of the trustees of the British Museum, and are now in the department of botany. Here are to be found the drawings, with impressions from the original plates, and also from the third recast edition, laid down side by side on the same sheets. The drawings (which had been submitted to Smith for his criticism and his text which accompanied them) bear many notes and directions to the engraver, which are of great interest as showing not only the state of botany at the time, but mentioning the numerous contributors of plants to the work and its supplement. Mr. Garry has done excellent service in the laborious task of transcribing and editing these notes, which can now be read by those who have not seen the originals themselves. Turning over these pages, the writer is reminded of the days when, more than thirty years ago, he first made acquaintance with the drawings in the old rooms of the department at Bloomsbury, recalling the charm they possess for all who care for the history of the native plants of Great Britain. Without going into detail it would be impossible to set out many most interesting items which are to be found in the pages of this modest reprint from the two years’ supplements to the journal in which they made their first appearance. We have here glimpses of a big book in the making, which extended in the first instance to thirty-six volumes and closed in 1814 with a general index. Further discoveries and greater discrimination of critical forms induced the beginning of a supplement in 1831, which died out in 1866 in its fifth volume; the text in these later volumes was by many hands, amongst them the most active and critical of the botanists of the day. These last plates are now in the Fielding herbarium at Oxford, whence they were borrowed by the author so as to complete his worl. Be Ds fe A Text-book of Chemical Avithmetic. By Horace L. Wells. Pp. vii+166. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 190s.) Price 5s. 6d. net. In the preface it is stated that this book ‘Sis de- signed especially for the use of students of quan- titative analysis, many of whom, even after having taken extensive courses in higher mathematics, show little ability to solve simple chemical problems. Cer- tain portions of the worl are suitable also for the use of those who are studying elementary chemistry.” It appears, therefore, that an American professor is no better off than his English cousin in this matter of student arithmetic The difficulty is two-fold. In OcTOBER 5, 1905 | NATURE 55 N the first place, the student has never been taught arithmetic in relation to actual measurements, but has been exercised in fictitious transactions with oranges and nuts, rods, poles or perches, and vats into which liquor flows at the rate of so many gallons a minute and out of which it flows (notwithstanding the dwindling pressure) at another exact and steady rate. The result is that the student has no idea of the relation of magnitude to measurement, and no opinion whatever on the subject of significant figures ; he cannot use logarithms or a slide-rule, and is un- practised in contracted methods of computation. In the second place, it is very likely that he has no sound idea of proportion. Given a student in this condition and it is still the common case—the teaching of what is called chemical arithmetic becomes a serious part of the duties of a teacher of chemistry. The fundamental numbers of chemistry—the atomic weights—are proportional numbers, and it may be said without exaggeration that the failure to realise this and the inability to see how proportional numbers may be used for the calculation of absolute weights, locate the real pons asinorum of elementary chemistry. In these circumstances any well considered attempt to expound the elements of chemical arithmetic is to be welcomed, and Prof. Wells has certainly suc- ceeded in writing something on the subject which is likely to be very useful. He does not quite descend to the meanest capacity, but he deals in a very clear way with the meaning of figures and the limits of accuracy in measurement and computation. He also gives a good survey of the chief types of chemical problems, including all kinds of analyses and the cor- rections of gas volumes. Great pains are taken to impress the student with the importance of using common sense and judgment whilst performing arith- metical operations, and to this end set rules and stereotyped formule are avoided. An appendix to the book contains tables, including a well printed set of five-figure logarithms. Altogether the work is one that may be warmly recommended to the notice of English teachers. AS. The Physics and Chemistry of Mining. By T. H. Byrom. Pp. xii+ 160. wood and Son, 1905.) (London: Crosby Lock- Price 3s. 6d, net. Tuts elementary class-book supplies information re- quired for such examinations as the Board of Educa- tion principles of mining, stage i. The idea is a good one, as the principles of pure science upon which mining practice is based are apt to receive scant attention in mining classes. The author, who is chemist to an important colliery company, has, as lecturer at the Wigan Technical College, become acquainted with the needs of students, and he gives in concise form much useful information regarding the atmosphere, the laws relating to the behaviour of gases, the diffusion of gases, the composition of the atmosphere, water, carbon, fire-damp, combustion, coal dust, explosives, the composition of coals, the analysis of coal, the strata adjoining the Coal- measures, magnetism and electricity. The language is simple, and chemical symbols are sparingly used. There is, however, a want of uniformity in nomen- clature that-might confuse the beginner. The terms “carbonate of magnesium ”’ (p. 96) and ‘‘ magnesia carbonate ’’ (p. 125), ‘‘ iron oxide and aluminia ’”’ (p. 46) and ‘‘iron peroxide and alumina ’”’ (p. 125) are examples. The author, too, should not have included Cumberland hzmatite among the ironstones, nor granite among the strata adjoining the Coal- measures. NO. 1875, VOL. 72] JOTI ICID IRE AKO) ARIST, UBIDI ANON cee [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.| On the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra- violet Region. In the Transactions of the Chemical Society for August Messrs. Baly and Collie, referring to the previous work of Baly and Desch (Trans. Chem. Soc., 1904, Ixxxv., 1029, and 1905, Ixxxvii., 706) on the absorption spectrum of acetyl- acetone and its derivatives and the conclusions arrived at, namely, that the absorption band is caused by dynamic isomerism, or rather isodynamic changes, are led to infer from the occurrence of bands in the spectrum of benzene that these also are caused by the making and breaking of the carbon bonds in the molecule of the substance. I have given a similar, but not identical, explanation of the cause of the bands in the spectra of uric acid, murexide, and the ureides, and have pointed out that there is but little difficulty in accepting a like explanation in order to account for the bands in aromatic hydrocarbons, seeing that this would harmonise with Kekulé’s view of the constitution of benzene. The particulars are contained in two papers communicated to the Chemical Society on May 17, but as they are still unpublished I cannot refer to them in detail. Messrs. Baly and Collie consider all the possible phases in change of linking between the six carbon atoms in benzene, and assign a band to each phase. In doing this they feel justified in assuming that an even number of carbon atoms is concerned in each individual process, and in accordance with chemical evidence it could scarcely be imagined otherwise. They argue that there are only seven different makings and breakings of bonds possible, to which seven different absorption bands should belong, and on investigating ‘the spectrum of benzene they find only seven bands. Seven bands were photographed (Phil. Trans., 1879), as they remark, by Hartley and Huntington, but no measurements are given. The wave-lengths of lines in the ultra-violet had not been determined at that time (1878), with the exception of the principal lines of cadmium measured by Mascart, hence the reason for the absence of measurements. In a subsequent observation (Hartley and Dobbie, ““Notes on the Absorption Spectrum of Benzene,’ Trans. Chem. Soc., 1898, 1xxiii., 695) seven bands were photo- graphed and measured, but one of these appeared to differ from the others in constitution, and it was indicated as doubtful; it is also a feeble band. The general character possessed by the first six bands was most distinctly marked in the four strongest; each was stronger and generally sharper towards the side where the rays of shorter wave- lengths lie, and was weakened in the opposite direction, as if the bands were composed of groups of lines occurring closer together and being stronger towards the more refrangible edge. Baly and Collie appear to have overlooked some points of importance in this communication, since they state that Hartley and Dobbie found only six bands, and that the measurements of the actual heads of the bands are not given. They give a series of numbers derived from Hartley and Dobbie’s measurements which for comparison with their own are printed in a parallel column. The gist of the paper by Hartley and Dobbie was to show the structure of the benzene absorption spectrum partly by measurements and partly by the aid of a photograph. The bands which distinctly showed -the structure were numbered, but unfortunately the manner in which the photograph was reproduced failed to render delicate details which were visible on the original plate. The statements contained in the paper appear, however, to have been clearly and fully understood by W. Friederichs, who photo- graphed the vapour of benzene with a Rowland grating. He found fifty-six bands of absorption in its spectrum in the ultra-violet, which are arranged in eight groups, and he compared the principal lines of each group with the 558 NATURE [OCTOBER 5, 1905 points of maximum absorption, or most persistent edges in each of the bands measured by Hartley and Dobbie. This is shown in the following statement quoted from his paper (Wilhelm Friederichs, Zeit. fir wissenschaftliche Photographie, B. iii., 154-164, 1905). I have added in italics the wave-length numbers corre- sponding to Baly and Collie’s oscillation frequencies for comparison :— Vapour. Solution in alcohol. : P Friederichs. Hartley and Dobbie. Difference. Baly god Collie. r N (1) 2670 bes 2681 ss II 2683 (2) 2633 ec _— ace ~- 2656 (3) 2588 2x 2599 ee II 2610 (4) 2526 2541 a0 15 2554 (5) 2458 2485. 27 2484 (6) 2404 2429 us 25 2437 (7) 2356 2376 oes 20 ok 2350 (8) 2305 2330 na: 25 a — He points out that the bands of the substance in solu- tion which without doubt correspond with those of the vapour are all shifted towards the red, as might be expected, but that the shift appears to be greater the smaller the wave-lengths of the absorbed rays. The com- parison of Baly and Collie’s numbers with those of Hartley and Dobbie is very interesting in this connection, inasmuch as they show a close general agreement in their divergence from the measurements of Friederichs. Furthermore, the following points may be noted :— First, the omission of the second band in Hartley and Dobbie’s spectrum ; second, the omission of the eighth band by Baly and Collie; third, there is a close agreement between Hartley and Dobbie’s and Baly and Collie’s numbers in the first, fifth, sixth, and seventh bands, but the two sets of measurements for the third and fourth bands differ more widely than the others. It may be mentioned that the second very narrow band is visible on the photographs taken by Hartley and Dobbie, though it can scarcely be considered as measurable; no doubt a longer exposure would have rendered it more plainly. Those who have measured similar series of bands in the visible region, for example, those in the spectrum of potassium permanganate, which are also eight in number, will appreciate the close approximation of the above figures. W. N. Hart.ey. Royal College of Science, Dublin, September 19. Rhymes on the Value of z. Tue following rhyme is in imitation of the French and German verses given in Nature (August 17) in which the number of letters in each word correspond to a numeral in the value of 7. The three concluding lines are some- what obscure; it seems to have occurred to the author that the method is a misuse of language, and he expresses the hope that Nature will take a more lenient view than Dr. Johnson might be imagined to express. To the Editor of NaTuRE. Sir,—I send a rhyme excelling 3. A eS 2) In sacred truth and rigid spelling. 2.) [OOS eh won Numerical sprites elucidate 9 7 9 For me the lexicon’s dull weight. BZN 8 4 If ‘* Nature’ gain, 2 6 4 Not you complain, ahd 3} 8 Tho’ Dr. Johnson fulminate. 3 2 7 9 F.R.S. NO. 1875, VOI. 72] The Celtic Pony. In a review, signed ‘“‘R. L.,”’ of “ The Feroées and Iceland,’’ in Nature of September 21 (p. 506), I was surprised to read that I had credited Prof. Ewart “ with being the first to regard Przewalsky’s horse as a variety of Equus caballus.*’ I have just re-read the paragraph relating to the wild horse in my ‘‘ Appendix on the Celtic Pony,’’ and I can find no passage which, it seems to me, could by any possibility be made to bear this strange construction. Sanson’s subspecies E. c. hibernicus appears to include all the various ponies of the British Isles, the Breton in France, as well as the horses of Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It has been recognised for some time past that the Icelandic horses are of two different types, while the Swedish horses are admittedly very mixed. Moreover, as a result of a recent tour in Norway, it has become evident to me that there are in that country at least two distinct kinds of native horses (represented by the pure fjord horse and the Gudbrandsdal horse). In view of these consider- ations, the statement that the Celtic pony is ‘ probably inseparable ’’ from the somewhat heterogeneous assemblage (as it now appears to be) included under E. c. hibernicus becomes a little obscure. But, as ‘‘R. L.”’ points out, I did not make this statement. I grant, however, that it might have been better had I made some allusion to this matter. But why I should have been expected in an ‘‘ Appendix on the Celtic Pony ’’ to have entered into a discussion as to the proper technical name to apply to E. przewalskyi or to have recorded an irrelevant criticism of Prof. Ridge- way’s new name of £. c. libycus, I am at a loss to under- stand. Francis H. A. Marsuatt, The University, Edinburgh, September 24. GREEK ARCHASOLOGY.’ HE archeologist justly ranks himself as a con- tributor to the world’s knowledge on the same level as those who discover previously unknown forces in nature or new facts in the life-history of animals, extinct or living. Archeology, which is a branch of the great science of anthropology, discovers and cor- relates new facts in the early history of civilisation. Greek archeological discovery must always be of most especial interest, since it tells us of the origins of that early civilisation of the Mediterranean basin from which our present-day culture is derived. One of the most welcome yearly publications dealing with the subject is the ‘‘ Annual of the British School at Athens,’’ the tenth volume of which lies before us. It deals with the British work of 1903-4, besides con- taining independent articles on matters of arche- ological interest. Dr. Arthur Evans’s work at Knossos does not occupy so much space in the ‘‘Annual’’ as usual. The discoveries of the year, while most interesting, were not so new and epoch-making as those of former years, and the chief find, the tombs of ‘‘ Ja‘far’s Papoura ’’ (rod Téapep 7 Tamotpa) and Isdépata, are described by Dr. Evans in a separate communication to Archaeologia. The first-named tombs, on a hill north of the Knossian palace, were of various types; (1) chamber-tombs approached by a dromos; “in many cases these contained clay coffins, in which the dead had been deposited in cists, their knees drawn towards the chin’’; (2) shaft-graves; (3) pit-caves, “or pits giving access to a walled cavity in the side below.’’ In 2 and 3 the skeletons were extended at full length. On the hill of Isépata, about two miles north of Ja‘far’s Papoura, avery fine tomb, no doubt that of a king, was found, with a smaller one by its side. The larger consisted of a square chamber of limestone blocks, eight metres by six, ‘‘ with the 1 “The Annual of the British School at Athens,’ No. x. Session 1903-4. (Loneon : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) OcTOBER 5, 1905 | NATURE Oe) side walls arching in ‘ Cyclopean’ fashion towards a high gable,’’ which had long ago been quarried away. The lofty entrance-hall was approached by an imposing rock-cut dromos. ‘‘ In the floor of the main chamber was a pit-grave covered with slabs. Its contents had been sifted for metal objects in antiquity, but a gold hairpin, parts of two silver vases, and a large bronze mirror remained to attest the former wealth of such. A large number of other relics were found scattered about, including repeated clay im- pressions of what may have been a royal seal. Specially remarkable among the stone vessels is a porphyry bowl of Minoan workmanship, but recaliing in material and execution those of the Early Egyptian Dynasties. Many imported Egyptian alabastra were also found, showing the survival of Middle Empire forms besides others of Early Eighteenth Dynasty type. Beads of lapis lazuli also occurred, and pendants of the same material, closely imitating Egyptian models. Four large painted jars with three handles illustrate the fine ‘architectonic’ style of the Later Palace of Knossos, in connexion with which the great sepulchral monument must itself be brought.’’ The form of this square-chambered mausoleum is unique, and may be compared as a contrast with the tholos or beehive tombs of the Greek mainland. Dr. Evans says that he was | the stratum In the palace itself interesting finds were made. A section cut in the western court enabled more accu- rate notes of the stratification of the ancient remains to be made, resulting in a further subdivision of the Minoan period and a more accurate placing of the polychrome (‘‘ Kamares’’) pottery as belonging to ‘“ Middle Minoan II.’’ The Kamares pottery is known by Egyptian evidence to be contem- porary with the twelfth dynasty. The palace as it stands is late Minoan, which corresponds with the Egyptian evidence, which dates the Keftians who brought vases of the grand Knossian style to Egypt as contemporary with the eighteenth dynasty. Be- neath the Minoan strata was ‘found a deep Neolithic stratum going down to the virgin rock. From the modern surface of the ground to the base of ‘‘ Early Minoan 1.” (the sub-Neolithic period) measures 5 m. 33 em. in depth; the Neolithic stratum is 6m. 43 cm. The date B.c. of the eighteenth dynasty and the late Minoan palace is roughly 1500; that of the twelfth dynasty and Middle Minoan II. about 2200. ‘* Middie Minoan II.’ is 2 m. 50 cm. below the surface; the virgin rock is 7 m. 75 cm. From this the great age of human settlement at Knossos will be seen at a gl: ince. A peculiarity of the Knossian site is that the late Minoan remains are found almost tempted to recognise in it [7 the traditional tomb of | Idomeneus, but that the | other tomb near by, which is cut in the rock, : is hardly considerable | enough to be taken for that of Meriones, which { tradition placed beside | the other. Nevertheless, Dr. Evans’s identification I may be correct; the \ important tomb on _ the slope of the hill looking towards Knossos and } Herakleion would natu- | rally be identified by the later Greeks as the rest- ing-place of one of the greatest heroes of the “Sisnc. and any other tomb close by, whether it were as large as the first or not, would then be dubbed the grave “of his legendary companion. Another interesting discovery was made outside the limits of the palace in the shape of a Minoan paved way leading due west from the ‘‘ Stepped Theatral Area ”” discovered in 1903 towards the modern road to Candia. By the side of this were found magazines with interesting deposits of inscribed tablets parently referring to the contents of the ancient royal stables and armouries; chariots, wheels, and yokes are pictured on them, and large numbers of arrows Close by were found bundles of the very arrows men- tioned on the tablets. A later Roman causeway over- lay part of this road, but this was evidently merely a coincidence, for that the know ledge of the old road was lost after the close of the Minoan period is shown by the fact that during the early Hellenic (‘‘ Geometrical ’’) age a well was sunk over the old Minoan way and driven right through it. This is a very interesting proof of the entire break in culture between the Mycenzean and ‘‘ Geometrical ’’ peoples in Crete, and is a strong argument in the armoury of those who believe that the Minoans or Mycenzeans were not Greeks in our sense of the word at all, but a totally different race probably of non-Indo- European speech. NO. 1875, VOL. 72] ap- | | pottery Fic. 1.—Two polychrome vessels of the Middle Minoan Period. From the Palace at Knossos. immediately beneath the modern surface of the ground. This points to the place having been kept clear of later buildings, the tradition of its sanctity and heroic associations having always persisted. An earlier western facade of the central court was also discovered, and further cists belonging to the first period of the later palace, in the magazines. The discovery of fragments of reliefs in these cists (one of them, representing the head of a charging bull, was identified by one of the workmen as a por- trait of the devil) led Dr. Evans to suppose the existence of upper halls, to which the reliefs had be- longed, above the magazines. These halls seem un- | doubtedly to have existed, and a ré imp led up to them | from the ‘“ Stepped Theatral Area.’ These are all very interesting results, and show how much there is still to be discovered at Knossos. The excavations of the British School at Athens at Palaikastro are described by Messrs. Dawkins and Currelly. The remains of a shrine of the Cretan snake-goddess (analogous to those at Knossos and | Gourniz A) were found, besides some interesting larnax- Mr. Dawkins gives a careful analysis of the found in the town ruins, and a very useful comparative table of the strata of the Minoan period, with illustrative examples from Cretan and_ non- Cretan sites (p. 195). Mr. H. R. Hall publishes a burials. 560 NATURE [OCTOBER 5, 1905 photograph of an important Egyptian tomb-painting depicting Minoan ambassadors bringing rare vases of Cretan workmanship to the court of Queen Hatasu or Hatshepsu at Thebes. In connection with the point raised anent the Minoan way, already described, at Knossos, that there was a great gap in history between the last (presumably non-Aryan) Minoans and the first (Aryan) Hellenes, we may note that Mr. R. S. Conway returns to the charge in defence of the “ Aryanism ” of the Minoans in another article on the Eteocretan inscriptions of classical times, which he considers to represent the speech of the Minoan Cretans. ‘There is no proof of this whatever, and even if Mr. Conway were to succeed in proving the Indo-European character of this late ‘‘ Eteocretan ’’ language up to the hilt, this would not in the least shake our convic- tion that the old Minoans spoke a non-Indo-European tongue. The craniological and archeological evidence must be taken into consideration as well as the philo- logical, which can apparently be twisted into meaning anything that the investigator wishes. The crani- ologist assigns the Minoans to the ‘‘ Mediterranean ”’ race, to which the ancient Egyptians also belonged; and the archzologist brings the Minoan and Egyptian cultures back almost to a common origin. Further, Mr. Conway’s idea goes counter to those of many of the philologists themselves, especially Kretschmer, whose view that the pra-Hellenic speech of Greece was non-Aryan agrees with the results of craniological and archeological research, and is generally accepted now. This completes the list of articles dealing directly or indirectly with the Minoan or Mycenzan antiqui- ties, the relics of the prehistoric culture of Greece. Mr. Dawkins contributes an interesting philological article, entitled ‘‘ Notes from Karpathos,’’ describing the linguistic phenomena of that little known island, which he visited two years ago. The dialect seems to be more divergent from that of Crete than might have been expected. It presents all the peculiar dialectical phenomena of the Southern AZgean. Such pronunciations as ‘‘ hyaloshorzho”’ (yya\oSopzo) for Kaoxwpiov, which strike one so forcibly in Crete, are well represented. | Aberrant grammatical forms are not uncommon. The old third plural in -ou(v) sur- vives. Here we have a considerable difference from Cretan practice, which prefers third plural in- ve: “they went,’ in Cretan édvyaves is in Karpathian epvyaci(v), and “ they are walking,’’ Cretan sarovve, is in Karpathian marovo(v), which sounds quite “Attic.’? This is an interesting survival. Articles of this kind are of great use and value. Mr. M. N. Tod and Mr. E. S. Forster add contri- butions to epigraphic scholarship, and the latter also describes Laconian topography and archzological sites. Mr. A. J. B. Wace has an article on Greek grotesque figures as charms against the evil eye. The modern Hellenes wear charms in the shape of little silver or coral figures of hunchbacks (gobbi or gobbetti) for the same purpose. Dr. Schafer’s German article on ‘“ Altagyptische Pfliige, Joche,” is apparently published in the “Annual”? on account of the ancient Egyptian basket figured on p. 140, which is of the same type as the Greek liknon, discussed by Miss Jane Harrison in her note on the ““Mystica Vannus Iacchi,’’ which follows. Otherwise one would have thought that its proper place would have been found in an Egyptological pub- lication, The Berlin Museum has a large collection of ancient Egyptian agricultural implements, which are, however, of course all, with the exception of a fine plough and the basket aforesaid, of well known types equally well represented in other museums. H. R. Hatt. NO. 1875, VOL. 72] SOUTH AFRICAN MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. ETTERS from local correspondents in South Africa have just brought us some notes upon the recent meeting of the British Association. During the progress of the meeting several cablegrams which appeared in the Times were summarised in these columns, so that many of the matters mentioned by our correspondents have already been recorded. Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist has sent us an account of the part of the proceedings of the association at Cape Town, and the following particulars in so far as they are con- nected with Cape Town are from his communication. As, following our usual custom, we have arranged with officers of the sections for reports of the proceed- ings at sectional meetings, it is unnecessary now to give any account of these meetings. ' Dr. Gilchrist states that as early as August 6 some of the British Association visitors began to arrive in Cape Town by the Tintagel Castle; eighteen more arrived on August 8 by the Kildonan Castle, and forty- three by the Durham Castle on August 12. The main body, however (eighty-six), including most of the official party, arrived by the Saxon on Tuesday, August 15. The voyage of the main party was favoured by excellent conditions of weather, and the usual routine of life and entertainments on board was diversified by lectures by members on appropriate subjects of interest, and in one or two cases by scientific work, such as the collecting of plankton and temperature observations of sea and air. A few advance copies of ‘“‘ Science in South Africa,’ a handbook prepared on the occasion of the visit, were on board, and afforded some insight into the scientific work and problems engaging the attention of South Africans. On arrival at Cape Town Docks the passengers were transferred to the train waiting alongside, and about 10 a.m. on August 15 arrived at the main station, where they were met by the mayor, the hospitality committee, and others. The council of the association met at 12 noon and the general meeting at 2 p.m., and the formal business was quickly got through. The details of the somewhat extensive programme were in an advanced state of preparation, the general plan and coordination of the whole having been under- taken by a central organising committee for South Africa, the local details by the several reception com- mittees at the seven local centres to be visited. These local committees were subdivided into entertainment, hospitality, excursions, and finance subcommittees. Great assistance was rendered by Mr. Silva White, assistant secretary of the British Association, who arrived some weeks before the first meeting and took over the general direction of, and responsibility for, the arrangements. He arranged for the services of four assistant secretaries, who were instructed as to the details to be carried out on certain sections of the programme allotted to them, an arrangement which was fully justified by the subsequent results. The formal business of the association commenced with the presidential address, which was delivered on the evening of August 15 in the City Hall, which had just been completed in time for the meeting. The work of the various sections began the following day, and occupied the mornings from Wednesday, August 16, to Friday, August 18, half the sectional work being transacted at Cape Town and half at Johannesburg. In the afternoon of August 16 there was a large attendance at the Governor’s garden party, and in the evening the Mayor met the visitors at a reception in the City Hall. OcTOBER 5, 1905] WAT OIE 561 A large number of papers were read on the morn- ings of the two following days. As a special feature of the papers and presidential addresses was their bearing on South African questions, exceptional interest was taken in the sectional proceedings. The following excursions were made on August 17:—(1) botanical excursion to the Kloof Nek; (2) visit to Groote Schuur for lady members of the British Association by invitation of the Loyal Women’s Guild of South Africa; (3) visit to the Central Electric Station of the Cape Town Corpor- ation. In the evening a lecture was given in the City Hall before a crowded audience on ‘‘W. J. Burchell’s Discoveries in South Africa,’ by Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S. f The afternoon of August 18 was devoted to excursions; and a reception was held by Sir David and Lady Gill at the Royal Observatory. In the evening a lecture was given in the City Hall on ‘Some Surface Actions of Fluids’? by Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S. j Saturday, August 19, was devoted entirely to the following excursions :—(1) geological excursion; (2) Wellington; (3) De Beers Explosive Works; (4) Houts Bay; (5) Groot Constantia and Tokai; (6) Robben Island; (7) Stellenbosch; (8) Admiralty Works at Simons Town and Marine Station at St. James; (9) Table Mountain wid Saddle Face; (10) Table Mountain vid Wynberg; (11) Table Mountain vid Kasteel Poort. Dr. W. Flint (librarian to the Houses of Parlia- ment), who accompanied the association throughout its entire journey, has undertaken to send Nature some account of the Natal, Johannesburg, and Rhodesian proceedings. The following notes are from a letter just received, with the promise of a further instalment by the next mail. On the termination of the meeting in Cape Town the main body of the members of the association pro- ceeded to Durban in the Union Castle steamers Saxon and Durham Castle. The former steamer left the docks on Friday evening, August 18, and _ its passengers were debarred from taking part in the numerous Cape Town excursions which had been arranged for the Saturday. The Saxon passengers had, however, the advantage of brief visits to Port Elizabeth and East London, at each of which ports of call a few hours were spent, and hospitality was tendered by the mayor and citizens. The Durham Castle proceeded direct to Durban, and, making a record passage, arrived a little in advance of the mail steamer. A party of some thirty persons elected to proceed to Durban overland in one of the trains pro- vided by the Cape Government, which was_pro- ceeding to Durban to meet the steamers. HE inaugural meeting of the British Science Guild will be held at the Mansion House on Monday, October 30; and the Lord Mayor, who has consented to preside, will talke the chair at 4.15 p.m. The guild appeals to the people of Britain within and beyond the seas, and its chief object is to bring home to all classes the necessity of making the scientific spirit a national characteristic which shall inspire progress and determine the policy in affairs of all kinds. The organisation is associated with no political party, and its membership is open to all British subjects, whether men or women. At the inaugural meeting of the guild, on October 30, the following officers will be proposed :— President : the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane, K.C., M.P.; vice-presidents: the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, R.A., O.M., the Right Hon. Lord Balcarres, M.P., the Right Hon. the Earl of Berkeley, Sir William Broadbent, Bart., K.C.V.O., F.R.S:, Sir Walter Buller, K.C.M.G., F-R:S., Sir J. Burdon-Sanderson, Bart., F.R.S., Major-General Sir Owen Tudor Burne, G.C.I.E., K.C.S.1., Sir William Church, Bart., Sir George Sydenham Clarke, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., Sir John Colomb, K.C.M.G., M.P., the Right Hon. the Earl of Donoughmore, the Right Hon. Earl Egerton of Tatton, Sir John Eliot, K.C.I.E., F.R.S., Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., O.M., M.P., F.R.S., the Right Hon. Sir Edward Fry, F.R.S., Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., Mr. F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S., the Right Hon. Sir John Gorst, K.C., M.P., F.R.S., the Right Hon. Lord Haliburton, G.C.B., Sir Joseph Hooker, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., the Right Hon. Viscount Knutsford, G.C.M.G., Prof. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., Dr. J. Larmor, F.R.S., the Right Hon. Lord Lister, F.R.S., Sir Charles McLaren, Bart., K.C., M.P., the Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett, *K.C.V.O., F.R.S., Mr. E. Robertson, K.C., M.P., the Right Hon. Lord Tennyson, P.C., G.C.M.G., His Grace the Duke of Wellington, K.G., G.C.V.O.; chairman of committees : Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S.; vice-chairmen: Sir William Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir Lauder Brunton, F.R.S., the Hon. Sir John Cockburn, K.C.M.G., Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P.; trustees: the Right Hon. Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., Sir Henry Roscoe, F.R.S.; hon. treasurer: the Right Hon. Lord Avebury, F.R.S.; hon. assist. treasurer: Lady Lockyer, 16 Penywern Road, S.W.; hon secretary: Mr. C. Cuthbertson. A large general committee, which will include the names of the present organising committee, will also be proposed for election. Since the first meeting, held at the rooms of the Royal Society in April, 1904, the labours of the organising committee have been directed to securing the help of representatives of all sides of the nation’s activities to secure the objects of the guild, which are (1) To bring together as members of the guild all those throughout the Empire interested in science and scientific method, in order, by joint action, to convince the people, by means of publications and meetings, of the necessity of applying the methods of science to all branches of human endeavour, and thus to further the progress and increase the welfare of the Empire. (2) To bring before the Government the scientific aspects of all matters affecting the national welfare. (3) To promote and extend the application of scientific principles to industrial and general purposes. 586 (4) To promote scientific education by encouraging the support of universities and other institutions where the bounds of science are extended, or where new applications of science are devised. During the first stage of the existence of the guild, the public activity of the committee was limited, by reasons of policy, because at the moment of the in- ception of the movement the attention of the country, and especially of Parliament, was so deeply engrossed in the fiscal problem that no other question, however important, was likely to receive due attention. The Royal Society and British Association were founded for the promotion of natural knowledge; the Society of Arts for the encouragement of arts, manu- factures, and commerce. The Science Guild, though in sympathy with these objects, is not identical in aim with any existing society. The promotion of natural knowledge is outside its sphere. Its purpose is to stimulate, not so much the acquisition of scien- tific knowledge, as the appreciation of its value, and the advantage of employing the methods of scientific inquiry, the study of cause and effect, in affairs of every kind. Such methods are not less applicable to the problems which confront the statesman, the official, the merchant, the manufacturer, the soldier, and the schoolmaster, than to those of the chemist or the biologist; and the value of a scientific educa- tion lies in the cultivation which it gives of the power to grasp and apply the principles of investigation employed in the laboratory to the problems which modern life presents in peace or war. Communications may be addressed to the honorary secretary of the British Science Guild, 16 Penywern Road, London, S.W. SIR WILLIAM WHARTON, K.C.B., F.R.S. Yee JAMES LLOYD WHARTON, second son of the late Mr. Robert Wharton, County Court Judge of York, was born in London on March 2, 1843. Educated at Burney’s Academy, Gosport, he entered the Royal Navy in August, 1857, on board? H.M.S. Illustrious, then recently com- missioned as a training ship for naval cadets, stationed at Portsmouth. Passing with great credit out of the Illustrious, he was appointed in April, 1858, midshipman of H.M.S. Euryalus, on board which ship H.R.H. Prince Alfred (afterwards Duke of Edinburgh) was also serving. In November, 1860, being appointed to H.M.S. Jason, commissioned for service on the North American and West Indian stations, he was lent to H.M.S. St. George, employed on fishery duties in Newfoundland during the summer of 1861. On completing his time as midshipman he passed his examination in seamanship for the rank of lieutenant on January 13, 1863. Whilst still serving in the Jason he was made acting lieutenant of that ship on October 26, 1864, and at the close of the year, on the Jason returning to England to pay off, he at last had the opportunity to pass the examin- ations in gunnery and navigation necessary to qualify him for the rank of lieutenant. In these he acquitted himself brilliantly, being confirmed in his rank March 15, 1865. In December of that year he was awarded the Beaufort testimonial for passing the best examin- ation of the year in mathematics, nautical astronomy, and navigation. In the meantime, in July, 1865, he had been appointed to H.M.S. Gannet, a sloop commissioned partly for the general duties of the fleet, and partly for surveying service on the North American and West Indian stations, but acting entirely under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief. In that ship he acquired his first experience in the work to which his life was afterwards devoted, receiving the commendation of the Board of Admiralty for the zeal displayed by him NO, 1876, VOL. 72] NATURE [OCTOBER 12, 1905 on the work performed in the Bay of Fundy. The Gannet paid off in November, 1868. The interest of the Commander-in-Chief, Vice- Admiral Sir James Hope, having been aroused by the ability and industry shown by Lieut. Wharton whilst serving in the Gannet, as well as by the distinction which he had gained in passing his examinations, when the admiral hoisted his flag at Portsmouth he offered to Wharton the appoint- ment of flag lieutenant. The hydrographer had meanwhile promised to submit his name as second lieutenant of H.M.S. surveying vessel Newport; Wharton consequently considered that his services were pledged to the Surveying Service, although by adhering to it he was fully aware that he would sacrifice the prospect of certain promotion at the end of three years, but this he was prepared to do. Sir James Hope, however, took another view, and speedily arranging matters with the hydro- grapher, Wharton was appointed as his flag lieu- tenant on March 1, 1869. Whilst so employed he wrote ‘‘ The History of H.M.S. Victory,”’ which still commands a steady sale to the public, the proceeds being devoted to the R.N. Seamen’s and Marines’ Orphans’ Home, Portsmouth. In November, 1870, H.M.S. Urgent being fitted out to conyey astronomers to the neighbourhood of Gibraltar to observe the forthcoming total eclipse of the sun, Sir James Hope gratified his flag lieutenant by permitting him to accompany the expedition as first lieutenant of the ship. He was promoted to commander March 2, 1872, on Sir J. Hope striking his flag, and the following month saw him appointed to the command of H.M. surveying vessel Shearwater, first on the Mediterranean station and afterwards on the east coast of Africa. In the Mediterranean his work was chiefly distinguished by a valuable contribution to science in the form of an investigation of the surface and undercurrents in the Bosphorus, setting at rest the many controversies respecting the exhaustless flow of water from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmora by proving that an undercurrent existed as strong as that on the surface, but which invariably flowed in exactly an opposite direction. His report, which was officially published, may be considered as prescribing the method for similar inguiries. Whilst at Rodriquez, in the South Indian Ocean, he took part in observing the transit of Venus in 1574. The Shearwater was paid off in July, 1875, and in June the following year he commissioned the Fawn for surveying service in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and east coast of Africa. Starting with a staff of officers most of whom were wholly in- experienced, Commander Wharton set himself to train them after his own ideals, and succeeded in imbuing his assistants with something of his untiring energy and love of the work. Whilst exacting the utmost that each individual was capable of giving to the service, he exercised unremitting patience and for- bearance, and throughout a prolonged commission of four and a half years endeared himself to all who had the happiness to serve under him. He was sympathetic and considerate towards both officers and men, and entered heartily into all schemes for their recreation when opportunity offered. This com- mission of the Fawn was perhaps one of the most successful, as it certainly was one of the happiest, ever spent by a surveying vessel in modern times. The last two years were occupied with the survey of the Sea of Marmora, an excellent piece of work for which he and his officers received an expression of their Lordships’ approbation. On January 29, 1880, Wharton was promoted to captain, and the Fawn paid off at Malta at the end of the year. OcTOBER 12, 1905 | NATURE 587 An interval of leisure then followed, during which Captain Wharton published ‘* Hydrographical Survey- ing.’ He expresses himself with characteristic modesty in the preface, but it was at once universally recognised as the standard work on the subject, and has continued to be so considered to the present time, being used both in our own and in foreign navies. In March, 1882, he commissioned H.M.S. Sylvia for surveying service in the River Plate and Straits of Magellan. It was already an open secret that he was destined to succeed Captain Sir Fred. Evans as Hydrographer to the Admiralty when that officer should retire. In December, 1882, he successfully observed the transit of Venus for the second time. The anxieties of two seasons in the inhospitable climate and dangerous waters of the western part of the Straits of Magellan told upon Wharton con- siderably, and at this time he aged much in appear- ance. But, full of energy as ever, the work was pushed on rapidly in spite of the hardships and difficulties that had to be encountered, with the result that the survey was completed within the allotted time, and on returning to Montevideo in March, 1884, he left the ship and proceeded to England by mail steamer to assume the duties of hydrographer, being appointed as such on August 1, 1884, at an age younger than that of any officer who had held that responsible position. This closed his career afloat. Wharton’s administration of the hydrographic de- partment of the Admiralty continued uninterruptedly for twenty years with constantly increasing credit, and to the great advantage of our own Navy as well as to the whole maritime world. This period covered the enormous expansion that took place both in the personnel and materiel of the fleet, causing corre- sponding accessions to the labour of departmental work; during the same period the number of chart plates was largely increased, and the number of charts printed annually for the fleet and for sale to the public multiplied three-fold. Gifted with an extraordinary capacity for work, he never spared himself; the sound judgment, breadth of view, and wide scientific attainments constantly brought to bear upon the infinite variety of subjects with which he was daily called upon to deal secured for him the respect and confidence of successive Boards of Admiralty. An especial characteristic was the readiness with which the mass of information he had acquired on all sorts of subjects was available on the spur of the moment. As ex-officio member of the Meteorological Council, he attended its meetings assiduously and rendered valuable service to the advancement of ocean meteorology. His personal interest in the surveying service was unceasingly manifested in the voluminous semi-official correspondence he maintained with the officers in command of surveys. Scientific subjects of whatever nature bearing on hydrography always claimed his attention, and in 1886 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, serving on its council from 1888 to 1889, again from 1895 to 1897, and being again elected in 1904 was a member until his death. As Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, as well as of the Royal Geographical Society, as vice- president of the latter and member of numerous com- mittees, he did work only less important than his official work at the Admiralty. His first contribution to the literature of the Royal Society was the investigation of the great waves pro- duced by the eruptions of Kralsatoa in 1882, which had been begun by the late Sir Frederick Evans and left unfinished at his death. In 1893 he edited the journal of Captain Cook during his first voyage | | ing a public school by an accident in boyhood which meeting of the British 1894 he presided over round the world; at the Association at Oxford in No. 1876, VOL. 72] Section E. Various contributions to Nature appeared from time to time from his pen, the investigation of the origin and formation of coral reefs being a sub- ject of especial interest to him. He advanced a theory, based upon the results of surveys of large numbers of these reefs, that the effect of wave action was mainly accountable for the striking uniformity of depth so frequently met with over the interior of coral banks in the open ocean, showing that wave action in open oceans extended to greater depths than was hitherto considered possible. As a member of the coral reef committee of the Royal Society, he was largely responsible for the selection of Funafuti as the atoll to be investigated by sounding and boring operations, and he was instrumental in securing the cooperation of the Admiralty in the work, which has produced such valuable results. He was keenly interested in the project for Antarctic exploration, but more particularly in its bearing upon terrestrial magnetism, and he took a very active part as a member of the joint committee of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies appointed to organise it. He was placed on the retired list in 1891, in accord- ance with the regulation respecting non-service at sea. Promoted to Rear-Admiral on January 1, 1895, on the Queen’s birthday that year he was nominated as C.B. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 he was created K.C.B. ; On July 31, 1904, Sir William Wharton resigned the office of hydrographer. For some years previously he had suffered much inconvenience and pain owing to an injury to his right wrist received whilst serving in the Shearwater; for this and other causes he deter- mined to relinquish the appointment. In July last, after a visit to Aix-les-Bains, he accepted with some hesitation the reiterated invitation to go out to South Africa with a party of members of the British Association, and he presided over Section E at Cape Town. Unfortunately he fell ill on the return journey from the Victoria Falls, and could not return to England as he intended, with his friends, in the Armadale Castle. His illness, which was at first thought to be a chill, proved to be enteric fever com- plicated with pneumonia, and although no effort was spared to effect his recovery he died at the observ- atory at Cape Town on September 29, where he was the guest of his old and valued friends Sir David and Lady Gill. He was buried at the Naval Cemetery at Simon’s Town on October 1 with full naval honours, H.M. the King being represented by the Commander-in-Chief of the station. He was married, in 1880, to Lucy Georgina, daughter of Mr. Edward Holland, of Dumbledon, in Gloucestershire, and by her, who survives him, he had two daughters and three sons, two of whom are now serving in H.M. Navy. A. M. F. GEORGE BOWDLER BUCKTON, F.R.S. NE of the most energetic and laborious, as well as one of the oldest of our British entomologists, Mr. George Bowdler Buckton, died on September 25 in his eighty-eighth year. Although he was always interested in natural history, it is somewhat remark- able that, while many men take up the study of entomology in early life and abandon it later, all his important entomological work was executed late in life, and was carried on until a very short period before his death. Mr. Buckton was born at Hornsey on May 24, 1818. He was privately educated, being debarred from enter- crippled him for life. 588 NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1905 Mr. Buckton dedicated his first book, ‘‘ British Aphides,’’? to Thomas Bell, ‘‘a friend of more than forty years’ standing’’ (in 1876), whose sympathy and encouragement had given him a taste for natural history. During the earlier part of his life Mr. Buckton resided in or near London, when his atten- tion was given more to physical than to natural science; and he served as assistant to Prof, A. W. Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry. From 1845 to 1865 he published several important papers on chemical subjects (a list of which will be found in the Royal Society’s Catalogue of Papers) in the Journal of the Chemical Society, the Proceedings of the Royal Society, and elsewhere; and his earliest published paper on any entomological subject appears to have been ‘‘ On the Application of Cyanide of Potassium to killing Insects for the Cabinet,’? published in the Zoologist for 1854, cyanide compounds having been one of his favourite studies during his chemical re- searches. In the following year (1855) he published a short paper on bats in the second volume of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society (1845), the Chemical Society (1852), the Royal Society (1857), and the Entomological Society (1883), and was also a member of the Entomological Society of France, a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, &c. He took great interest in these societies, attending their meetings as far as he was able, and occasionally serving on their councils; he also travelled in Italy, France, and other Continental countries, as well as in the British Islands. In 1865 Mr. Buckton published one of the last of his chemical papers, in conjunction with Prof. W. Odling, whose daughter, Mary Ann, he married in the same year. He then settled at Haslemere, Surrey, for the remainder of his life, where he had purchased the estate at Weycombe, and built himself a house after his own design, with an observatory. From the time of his residence at Haslemere, Mr. Buckton devoted much of his time to entomology. He formed a collection of Lepidoptera, but paid more attention to the British Homoptera, being much assisted by his children, whom he brought up in the same tastes as his own. He wrote comparatively little in the entomological journals, but published a series of very important entomological monographs from 1876 to 1905, chiefly relating to the somewhat neglected order Homoptera, which will not soon be superseded. They may here be enumerated :—1876— 1883, ‘‘ Monograph of British Aphides’’? (Ray Society), 4 vols., comprising upwards of 750 pages of letterpress, 9 plain and 134 coloured plates; 1890- 1891, ‘‘ Monograph of British Cicadz or Tettigide ”’ (Macmillan), 2 vols., comprising 426 pages of letter- press, 7 plain and 75 coloured plates; 1895, ‘‘ The Natural History of Hristalis Tenax, or the Drone- Fly ’’ (Macmillan), 1 vol., pp. vii+88, with 1 coloured and 8 plain plates. This work is illustrative of the story of Samson and the Bees. 1901-1903, ‘“‘A Monograph of the Membracidz’’ (Lovell Reeve), 6 parts, comprising upwards of 300 pages of letter- press, and 1 plain and 60 coloured plates. Mr. Buckton’s last publication was a supplementary paper to this work, comprising 10 pages of letterpress and 2 coloured plates, forming vol. xi., part ix., of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, second series, zoology, and dated July, 1905. The illustrations to Mr. Buckton’s works were all drawn, and the pattern plates coloured, by himself. Some of his plates were even lithographed by himself, and most, if not all, of those which were hand- coloured were coloured by himself or his daughters. NO. 1876, VoL. 72] The original drawings for the work on Membracidze have been presented to the Hope Museum at Oxford. Mr. Buckton kept his genial force and vitality to the end; ‘‘ his eye was not dimmed, nor his natural force abated.’’ His last illness was of brief duration, and the end was very calm and peaceful. His ashes, after cremation, were deposited in a grave lined with ivy leaves in Haslemere Churchyard on Saturday, September 30. W. F. Kirpy. NOTES. We regret to see the announcement that Ferdinand Baron von Richthofen, professor of geography in the University of Berlin, died on October 7 in his seventy- third year. Tue sixth annual Huxley memorial lecture of the Anthropological Institute will be delivered on Tuesday, October 31, in the rooms of the Society of Arts, by Dr. John Beddoe, F.R.S., the subject being ‘‘ Colour and Race.” A joInT meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society will be held in the rooms of the Royal Society on Thursday next, October 19, at 4.30 o’clock, to receive preliminary reports on the observations of the recent solar eclipse. It is expected that reports will be presented by the Astronomer Royal, Prof. H. L. Callendar, Mr. J. Evershed, Mr. H. F. Newall, Prof. H. H. Turner, and others. Tue annual ‘‘ fungus foray’ of the Essex Field Club will be held at High Beach, Epping Forest, on Saturday next, October 14; referee, Mr. George Massee, of Kew Museum. Any botanists wishing to attend should com-’ municate with the hon. secretaries of the club, Buclhurst Hill, Essex. Tue death is announced of the Rev. S. J. Johnson at his residence, Melplash Vicarage, near Bridport, on October 9. Mr. Johnson was well known in astronomical circles for his writings upon eclipses and other astro- nomical matters. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society for more than thirty-three years. Str Epwarp H. Carsutt, the eminent mechanical engineer, died suddenly at his residence near Guildford on October 8 at the age of sixty-eight years. He was a past-president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute. He was an active member of the board of the National Physical Laboratory, and represented the Iron and Steel Institute on the departmental committee on the Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines. He also represented the Iron and Steel Institute on the Institution of Civil Engineers’ committee to formulate a scheme of education for engineers. Tue Municipal Museum at Hull recently acquired a valuable addition to its collection of local Roman and other remains. The specimens are principally of Roman date, and include more than 2000 coins, nearly 100 fibule of a great variety of patterns, several dozen buckles, pins, dress fasteners, ornaments, strap ends, bosses, spindle whorls, armlets, spoons, beads, and other objects. Among the fibule are two of exceptional interest, as they bear the maker’s name upon them (Avcissa). There is also an extensive collection of pottery, including many vases, strainers, dishes, &c., in grey ware, as well as many fine pieces of Samian ware, several of which contain the potters’ marks. OcToBER 12, 1905 | NATURE 589 Ar the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers on Tuesday, November 7, an inaugural address will be delivered by the president, Sir Alexander R. Binnie, and the council’s awards will be presented. In addition to the medals and prizes given for communications discussed at the meetings of the institution in the last session, the council of the institution has made the following awards in respect of other papers dealt with in 1g04~5 :—a George Stephenson medal to Captain H. R. Sankey, R.E., a Watt medal to Dr. C. Chree, F.R.S.; Telford premiums to Messrs. W. E. W. Millington, C. E. Stromeyer, C. W. Hill, F. C. Lea, W. B. Cole, W. C. Popplewell, E. H. Rigby, and W. O. Leitch, jun. For students’ papers the awards are :—Miller prizes to Messrs. A. B. Potts, W. M. Hayman, R. E. Bury, T. Lees, jun., T. L. Matthews, P. J. Risdon, and F. E. Tudor. THE organisation and methods of the Japanese Naval Medical Service recently formed the subject of a communi- cation by Surgeon-General Suzuki to the Association of Military Surgeons at Detroit. Much of the success achieved in the treatment of wounds was ascribed to a regulation requiring every member of the crew of a war- ship before battle to bathe and dress in perfectly clean underclothing. During engagements a 1 per cent. solution of boric acid was provided to wash the eyes free from powder, smoke, and dust, and cotton-wool plugs for the ears were issued to every man. It was impracticable during action to attempt anything but the most necessary first dressing of wounds, and after action, wherever possible, the wounded were hurried to the base hospital, and only the absolutely essential operations performed on the spot. RECENT issues of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy include two papers on polychetous annelids from the North Pacific by Mr. J. P. Moore, and notes on Hawaiian land shells of the families Achatinellidae and Endodontide by Messrs. Pilsbry and Vanatta. An addition to the useful little guides to the contents of the Horniman Museum at Forest Hill has been issued by the London County Council in the form of ‘*‘ Hand- book to the Marine Aquaria,’’ and offered for sale, like all its fellows, for one penny. The handbook commences with an account of the manner in which such receptacles may be made and stocked, followed by notes on some of the common animals which may be kept therein. WE have received part ii. of the ninth volume of the Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, containing the report of the council for the past year. Several lectures, of some of which brief abstracts are published, were delivered during the period under review, and the council reports not only an increased attendance at these lectures on the part of the public, but likewise a successful session as a whole. A SMALL case has been placed on one of the walls in the central hall of the Natural History Museum for the purpose of showing that the habit of depositing its eggs in the nests of other birds is not confined to the common cuckoo, and that some kinds of cuckoos hatch their own eggs. Among the series is an egg of a cow-bird among a clutch of eggs of a tyrant-bird. In this case the dis- similiarity between the eggs of the two species is very marked, but in a clutch of magpies’ eggs among which is an egg of the great south European cuckoo the re- semblance is marvellously close. No. 1876, VOL. 72] To the October issue of Bird Notes and News Dr. E. A. Wilson, late naturalist on the Discovery, contributes an interesting note on penguins, especially with regard to the wholesale destruction of these birds in certain districts for the sake of their oil. As regards the Antarctic species, which are at present unmolested, the author is of opinion that the emperor penguin is secure from attack during the breeding-season, although at other times of the year its destruction could be encompassed, as could that of the Adélie penguin at all seasons. Articles on the protected breeding resorts of gulls and terns in Lancashire and included in this number. Lincolnshire are Tue early history of that exterminated race the .Morioris of the Chatham Islands forms the subject of two papers in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1904. The author of one of these is of opinion that there was an immigration of Polynesians into New Zealand antecedent to the arrival of the Maories, and it is suggested that the Morioris came among these earlier voyagers. Among a number of zoological papers in the same volume reference may be made to three by Prof. Benham on the earthworms of New Zealand and the Kermadecs, in the course of one of which the author requests that observers will forward specimens from all parts of that area. Atten- tion is directed by Archdeacon Walsh to the alleged exist- ence in Zealand of an undescribed lizard or salamander. To the geological section Captain Hutton communicates three papers, one on the formation of the Canterbury plains, a second on certain new Tertiary shells, and a third on the Tertiary brachiopods. New “THe CAMBRIAN FAUNA OF CuINA”’ forms the title of a paper by Mr. C. D. Walcott constituting No. 1415 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum (vol. xxix., pp. 1-106). The existence of Cambrian fossils in China Was announced in 1883 by Baron von Richthofen, while other specimens were described in 1899. Two years ago the Carnegie Institution of Washington dispatched an expedition for the purpose of obtaining a representative collection of these fossils, and the paper before us is a preliminary account of the collection then made. The fossils of this epoch in China have proved to be extra- ordinarily abundant, as is indicated by the circumstance that imperfect specimens are scarcely taken into account in this preliminary notice. Brachiopods and _ trilobites appear to be the dominant forms, and it is confidently expected by the author that important results will follow thorough and systematic exploration and collecting. Two out of the three articles in the September issue of the Naturalist are of a somewhat technical nature, and interesting to the specialist rather than the general naturalist. In the first Mr. H. Crawley discusses the complex question of the interrelations of the parasitic protozoans of the group Sporozoa, as typified by the gregarines; while in the second Mr. F. C. Baker describes the reproductive organs of the pond-snails of the genus Limnzea. In the third and more popular article Miss Worthington supplies a large amount of information with regard to the life-history of hag-fishes, or myxinoids. These fishes abound in Monterey Bay, where they are taken on the rock-cod beds at a depth of about 300 feet. They live curled around and between the rocks, and when in health always assume a coiled position. Although they American will stand much rough treatment, a decided rise of temperature proves fatal. They do much damage by stripping the flesh off fish hooked on the lines. In feed- ing, the tooth-plate is thrust out of the mouth, with its 59° NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1905 two halves divergent, and the flat surface pressed against the fish and the two halves brought together, thereby tear- ing off a piece of flesh, which is withdrawn into the mouth. In part i. of the fifth volume of the Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association are contained three papers by the president, Mr. Franklin White. Two of these are descriptions of ruins; the more important paper deals with Zimbabwe on the same lines as the more detailed account in the next issue of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute ; the illustrations are different. Mr. White’s very careful survey shows that many of the data on which have been based theories as to the age and use of the ruins are untrustworthy, and it is unfortunate for him that the negative results of his really sound work have now been overshadowed by the more positive contributions of Mr. Maclver’s excavations. The third paper deals with bush- man cave paintings near Matopos, and is of interest as showing their occurrence in an area outside that allotted to the “ painters’’ in Stow’s recent work; the paintings are reproduced in four coloured plates. Other illustrations in this part show the Lumene and Umnukwane ruins. Few local societies do more useful work than does the Rhodesian Scientific Association, and its Proceedings do it great credit. In the Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift for August 13 will be found a résumé of our knowledge of carpospore formation in the red seaweeds, which formed the subject of an address by Dr. F. Tobler to the Gesellschaft natur- forschender Freunde of Berlin. The article, which deals with the work of Oltmanns and his predecessors, is illus- trated with a selection of their figures. In 1879 Prof. F. C. Schubeler, of Christiania, published some conclusions which he had formed regarding the greater productiveness and quicker ripening qualities of grain sown in northerly districts or on highlands as com- pared with that sown further south or on lowlands. These conclusions were not without value, as they directed atten- tion to the matter, but Prof. N. Wille questions their accuracy in the Biologisches Centralblatt (September 1). Data compiled by Mr. L. P. Nilssen for different Norwegian districts tend rather to show that crops take longer to ripen near the sea than further inland. Tue pages of the Indian Forester contain a number of useful short notes and letters contributed by officers of the Indian Forest Department, in which they record their experiences and exchange opinions. In the July number Mr. W. Mayes describes a disastrous outbreak of Trametes pini in the forests of Pinus excelsa in the Simla division ; he proposes to replace the diseased poles with deodar, which is believed to be immune to this fungus. A simple but effective method of holding shifting sands by planting thorn hedges is described by Mr. L. Das. The subject of fire protection in teak forests has elicited various ex- pressions of opinion. Tue report of the industrial section of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1904-5 has been received from the acting superintendent, Mr. Hooper. Among the recent additions to the economic section, the fragrant resin or balsam furnished by Altingia excelsa, the dammar-resin secreted by the Melipona or mosquito bee—both products of Burma—and a white resin from Assam, yielded by Dipterocarpus pilosus, are of special interest, and have been examined in the laboratory. NO. 1876, VOL. 72] From Burma specimens have also been sent to the art ware and ethnological sections, but the latter has been augmented principally by collections from Nepal and Tibet of musical instruments, articles of warfare, and personal ornaments. ALTHOUGH at first glance the disposition of the Lower Palaeozoic strata of the Island of Montreal, dipping at a very gentle angle away from the Laurentian plateau, might appear to promise a constant source of artesian water, the mineral character of the rocks forbids this. They are chiefly massive limestones, and the underground water travels along fissures and not in any special water- bearing beds, so that the success or failure of a boring cannot be foretold. Such is the conclusion reached by Prof. Adams and Mr. Leroy from a study of eighty-nine wells (Geological Survey of Canada, annual report, 1904, part O). Their report includes a general account of the geology of the Montreal district, illustrated by an excellent map on the scale of four miles to the inch, so that the pamphlet will be of interest to many who have no concern with well-sinking. We have received from Dr. P. Bergholz a copy of the observations taken at the Bremen Meteorological Observ- atory during 1904. The work forms one portion of the excellent series of the ‘‘ German Meteorological Year- books,”’ contains hourly values and means of the principal elements, together with the daily ranges and other useful tables. It may be remembered that Dr. Bergholz translated into German Father Vines’s very valuable work on the circulation and translation of the cyclones of the West Indies, published in 1895, some two years after the lamented death of the author. and Mr. A. Linton, Director of Agriculture for British East Africa, has published the meteorological records of that protectorate for the year 1904. It is admitted that the observations are not so satisfactory as might be, owing to want of sufficient instruments and of uniformity of exposure, but steps are being taken to remedy both these defects in the near future. The report, how- ever, contains valuable records (mostly of rainfall) at twenty-eight stations, taken at gh. a.m., during the year 1904, together with monthly and yearly means for as long a period as available, in some cases exceeding ten years. The amount of rainfall varies considerably, according to geographical position; in some provinces the crops suffer from lack of sufficient quantity and in others from excess. The yearly average seems to vary from about 14-7 inches at Kismayu to 73-4 inches at Mumias; both stations are practically in the latitude of the equator, the former station being at 43° E. long., near the sea-level, and the latter at 34° E. long., at an altitude of about 4000 feet. Tue large part which her system of secondary and higher education has taken in Germany’s extraordinary industrial success forms the subject of an article by Mr. J. L. Bashford in the current number of the Fortnightly Review. The arguments which have been urged on many occasions in these columns, and advocates forcibly the need for the provision of a generous supply of higher education of the right kind, if Britain is to regain her position in the world of commerce. It is satisfactory to find a growing disposition on the part of the general Press to explain the shortcomings of our national education and to demand the provision of more funds for higher education. The same number of the review contains two other articles of interest to men of science. Dr. C. W. Saleeby, under the title of ‘ The essay summarises OCTOBER 12, 1905 | Problems of Heredity,’’ reviews at length Mr. Archdall Reid’s recent book on the subject, and Miss Harriet Munroe gives a picturesque account of a visit to Walpi to study the snake dance. From a study of the spectra of alloys of different metals, photographed under varying conditions of electrical excitation, atmosphere, and the proportions of the com- ponents, Mr. P. G. Nutting, of the Washington Bureau of Standards, has arrived at some interesting conclusions which confirm and supplement the results obtained by Lockyer and Roberts in 1873. Mr. Nutting’s researches are described in No. 2, vol. xxii., of the Astrophysical Journal, and the results may be summarised as follows :— The spectra ef the component metals are independent of one another when the alloy is volatilised by either the arc the spark. The relative intensities of the component spectra are unaffected by variations of the electrical con- or ditions or by substituting hydrogen, oxygen, mercury vapour, &c., for air as the surrounding atmosphere. Ceteris paribus, the spectrum of the component which has the greater atomic weight will be the brighter, when in- dductance is used, either with the are or with the spark. Under certain conditions—which the author enumerates— spectroscopic analysis of alloys to within an error of about 5 per cent. should be practicable. Mr. Nutting further states that, in practice, the presence of impurities in the electrodes is of little consequence, and that when alloys are used as electrodes it is useless to attempt to intensify the spectrum of either component by varying the con- ditions under which the are or spark is produced. Tue American Academy of Arts and Sciences has pub- lished a pamphlet giving a brief historical account of the origin of the Rumford fund. This fund had its origin in the gift by Count Rumford—who was born at Woburn, Massachusetts—to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of the sum of 5000 dollars, which was simul- taneous with the gift of a like sum, roool., to the Royal Society. The purpose of the fund was the same in each case, the award of a suitable premium for discoveries or improvements in heat and light. The gift was accepted by the academy, but for many years no award of the premium was made, as no claimant appeared whose merit was such in its opinion as to justify this. Meanwhile, the fund had accumulated to the amount of 4oool., and in view of the fact that there was no possibility of expend- ing the income in the precise manner contemplated by Count Rumford, application was made in 1831 to the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for relief, if such should be possible. The court issued a decree which modified the possible disposition of the income of the fund in such a manner as to its usefulness while keeping entirely within the spirit of the original gift. At the close of the last fiscal year of the academy (1904-5) the Rumford fund amounted to 11,744l., the income for that year having been 51o0/. A standing committee of the academy known as the Rumford com- mittee is charged with the supervision of the trust, and increase considers all applications for the Rumford premium and all applications made for grants in aid of research. The Rumford committee was first constituted a standing com- mittee 1833. Its members were nominated annually by the president of the academy until 1863, since which time they have been chosen in the same manner as the other officers. The Rumford fund of the Royal Society has been devoted solely to the award of the premium according to the original provisions of the trust. No. 1876, VoL. 72] in NATURE i 59! OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. FurtHer Eciipse Resutts By FReNcH Osservers.—In No. 13 (September 25) of the Comptes rendus M. Salet publishes the preliminary results obtained by his expedition at Robertville (Algeria) during the recent total solar eclipse. M. Salet was in charge of the mission sent to this station by the Bureau des Longitudes, the chief purpose being to make researches regarding the polarisation of the coronal light. The first point investigated was the existence of a magnetic field in the neighbourhood of the sun, the presence of such a field being evidenced by the deviation of the plane of polarisation of the coronal light. The result indicated that there is a very slight deviation, amounting to about 2°.5, which seems to show that in spite of its great mass the sun has only a small magnetic field. A photographic study of the distribution of the polarised light of the corona showed the bands of polarisation de- creasing regularly in intensity to about one and a half diameters from the solar limb. The maximum of intensity occurs at about 5’ or 6’ from the limb, and from this distance the bands extend into the inner corona, diminish- ing in intensity as they approach the edge of the moon. A prominence extending across two bands shows no differ- ence of intensity, thus proving the non-polarisation of these features of the solar atmosphere. In order to test the atmospheric polarisation, two Savart polariscopes were pointed go° from the sun, the one towards the pole, the other towards the equator. At this distance the quantity of polarised light during totality was insufficient to observe, although at 30° or 40° from the sun the bands remained visible throughout the period of totality. To determine the coronal, chromospheric, or atmospheric nature of the corona spectrum lines, a ‘‘ nicol’’ was placed so that it covered half the slit of a spectroscope and entirely extinguished the radially polarised light which is reflected by the corona. The resulting negative showed that the continuous spectrum of the corona differed in intensity on its two edges because of the suppression of the reflected sunlight, but the light from a prominence showed no diminution in intensity after passing through the ‘* nicol.”’ The coronium line, which extends to about 4’ from the sun, is seen on both edges, as are the two calcium lines, but the latter are stronger on the edge containing the prominence. The ultra-violet region of the spectrum, between A 338 and A 305, was also photographed, and shows about fifteen lines of which the nature and wave-lengths have yet to be determined. 1 CosmicaL EvoLution.—Some_ interesting results con- cerning the processes of cosmical evolution are given in a mathematical discussion, by Mr. J. H. Jeans, of Cam- bridge University, which appears in No. 2, vol. xxii., of the Astrophysical Journal. The author first directs attention to the extremely small densities usually obtained for such binary systems as that of Algol, and points out that these densities are incom- patible with the assumption that such systems are com- posed of incompressible homogeneous fluids; but the discussions concerning the mechanics of such systems are primarily based on this assumption, and are, therefore, in Mr. Jeans’s opinion, deprived of any foundation of fact. Mr. Jeans then discusses the probable mode of evolution of stellar and planetary systems, and arrives at the con- clusion that ‘‘ gravitational instability ’’ plays the principal part in the segregation of systems from the original nebula. He contends that Laplace’s ‘‘rotation’’ theory of cosmical evolution only takes into account a secondary factor in the process, and, in support of the “‘ gravitational instability ’’ theory, he shows that before rotation alone could effect the birth of a satellite a nebulous mass of, say, 10"""* grams would have to contract until its linear dimension was about 10-*** cm., i.e. until its density was about 10'%’. If the material of the original nebula could be con- sidered as consisting of solid particles such as are assumed INCA TA Ose ot [OCTOBER 12, 1905 in the meteoritic hypothesis, each meteorite forming a molecule of a quasi-gas, the rotational theory would become more tenable. Visipitity OF Faint Stars AT THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY. —In No. 7, vol. xiii., of Popular Astronomy, Mr. Lowell publishes a chart and some figures which testify eloquently to the ‘‘seeing’’ and the instrumental efficiency at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. In going over a chart of faint stars published by Prof. Tucker for magnitude comparisons, Mr. Lampland found that the faintest stars on the Lick chart were perfectly visible at Flagstaff, although the aperture employed there is only 24 inches, whereas at Lick an aperture of 36 inches is available. In the region follow- ing 6 Ophiuchi, one of Prof. Tucker’s richest fields, 161 stars were shown on the Lick chart. Plotting the same field, independently, Mr. Lampland obtained 173 stars, the greatest increase occurring among the fainter objects. As 15 stars marked on the Lick charts were not found, it follows that 27 were actually seen at Flagstaff which were not recorded by Prof. Tucker. Mr. Lowell remarks that this result is not definitive of what may be charted at his observatory, as moonlight and the rainy season both acted as drawbacks in the present test. Tue Orsir oF ¢ Taurt.—The spectroscopic binary ¢ Tauri was included in a list of such objects published by Profs. Frost and Adams in vol. xvii. of the Astro- physical Journal, and attention was then directed to the peculiar spectrum of this star. Because of this peculiarity, and also on account of its long period, this object has since been observed regularly at the Yerkes Observatory, and Prof. Adams has determined the orbit, the determin- ation being based on the measurements of the line Hy on twenty-five plates. Owing to the great breadth of this line duplicate measures were made throughout, and, with the exception of one plate, which was rejected in the dis- cussion, they agreed reasonably well. The following elements were obtained as a result of the research :— 2%,=100° 13’ @ sin 2=27,900,000 km. = Op as Period U=138 days e =0'180 | s=2° 609 T =1902 Jan. 19°9 | The largest residual is —3.1 km., which, considering that the determination is based upon the measurements of only one line, is regarded as satisfactory. No trace of the spectrum of the second component has been found on any of the plates yet secured (Astrophysical Journal, September). THE Constant oF ABERRATION.—As the result of a laborious discussion of more than 15,000 observations, Prof. Doolittle has arrived at the value 20"-54 for the constant of aberration. In publishing this result Prof. Doolittle states that no reasonable weighting of the values will alter it more than o”.o1. The above value agrees very well with the statement made in 1903 by Prof. Chandler, after a very complete investigation, that the real value would be found to be 20".52, or slightly higher (the Observatory, No. 361). 1) ; THe Natat GoverNMENT OpseRVATORY.—Mr. Nevill’s report of the work done in the Natal Government Observ- atory during 1904 contains but few references to purely astronomical observations, the chief function of the obsery- atory being distinctly meteorological. THE OPENING OF THE MEDICAL SESSION IN LONDON. AS is customary, the opening of the medical session has been made the occasion at several of the schools for the distribution of prizes and the delivery of interesting addresses. ; At University College, Prof. Kenwood gave an address on ‘* Preventive Medicine, Past and Present,” in the course of which he directed attention to the important position occupied by medical practitioners as guardians of the public health, and emphasised the necessity for the adequate teaching of hygiene and public health in the medical NO. 1876, VOL. 72] schools. He then dealt with the condition of things which should obtain in a hygienic Utopia, and pointed out that while typhus fever had been practically banished and the mortality from scarlatina reduced 80 per cent. during the past thirty years, that from measles had increased. As regards the statement that the practice of hygiene and preventive medicine tends to the preservation of the physically unfit, there is doubtless both a credit and a debit side to the account, and there can be little doubt that the credit side presents a splendid balance. At King’s College the session was opened by Prof. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., with an address on ‘“* Medical Education.’’ Prof. Allbutt said that in medical education London had its own problems and difficulties, but these could only be solved on principles common to education everywhere and always. Education must always consist of two parts—the earlier a drawing forth and refining of all the faculties and such a formation of them as habits that a right reason and virtue became easy and pleasant to us; the later the adaptation of these faculties to particular callings. The methods of specific or technical educations were pretty clearly seen; their difficulty was only the difficulty of persuading the British parent of the value of any education whatever, and of the importance of providing for it money, equipment, and time. The university should be responsible only for a certain universal character of the mind and imagination, a train- ing which could be given in any one of many “‘ faculties.” The five years’ professional course, all too brief as it was, was now much too heavily loaded. The preliminary sciences occupied so far the larger half of it that little more than a year and a half had to suffice for the study of medicine in all its divisions and subdivisions; and yet upon that formidable burden of subjects some enthusiasts were yearning to pile more and more. The reform which was needed was to teach fewer subjects and to teach them broadly and accurately. In the five years’ technical course we ought to begin with the two subiects anatomy and physiology, and teach them on university methods. No subjects made a finer training for hand and mind. At St. George’s Hospital the introductory address was delivered by Mr. Brudenell Carter, who also dealt with medical education and the importance of research. He expressed the opinion that a real and thorough training in physics should form, and eventually must form, the essential groundwork of medical education. Next in im- portance to physics, as a preliminary subject, he would place such a study of language, it may be of one language alone, as would enable the learner to form clear ideas himself and to express those ideas in a manner clearly intelligible to others. At Charing Cross Hospital, Sir James Crichton-Browne delivered one of his characteristic addresses. He declared that we have hordes of undergrown, underfed, blemished, diseased, debilitated men, women, and children, who are industrially and socially inefficient ; that many of our public institutions are as incompetent as the valves of a damaged -heart, and that our educational machinery, our economic system, Our municipal administration, and our Army are all inefficient. If they were to be efficient medical men they must improve their personal efficiency, and see to it that they were physically efficient, intellectually efficient, and morally efficient. For facilitating the attainment of these desirable ends Sir James formulated a series of precepts or principles by which they should be guided. He dwelt on the necessity for proper exercise and recreation, for proper meals, and for a sufficiency of sleep, declaring that the medical student should have regularly nine hours’ sleep in the twenty-four. At the Middlesex Hospital, Dr. R. A. Young took for his theme ‘* Method in Medicine,’? and dealt with the need for method in teaching and in study, in research and in practice. At St. Mary’s Hospital an address on ‘‘ The Publie and Medical Education’? was given by Dr. Wilfred Harris, in which he stated his conviction that concentration of teach- ing in the preliminary and intermediate subjects at one or a few centres would make for efficiency, and that one State-controlled examination should take the place of the present multitude of degree and diploma-giving bodies. OcTOBER 12, 1905] NATURE 3o3 Mrs. Bryant, in the course of an address on of Study ’’ at the London School of Medicine for Women, said that an ideal of study was most usefully conceived, not | as a scheme of learning to be achieved, but rather in its psychological. essence as growing out of the primitive intellectual interests of human beings. Interest in know- ledge for its own sake—the theoretic interest—was to be found more or less in every healthy normal person. According to brain type, habit, association, and other circumstances, its bent towards one or another branch of knowledge varied in individuals. It was suggested that more should be done in elementary and secondary education (1) to develop the practical interest in relation to all the every-day problems arising naturally in the environment; and (2) to train it to a high ideal of the science and skill involved in their solution. The neglect of the practical interest in the practically minded was not only loss of good material for practical efficiency; it was also the loss of opportunity for the cultivation of the scien- tific interest. To inquire how a thing was made led to inquiry as to its causation, and at that point the youth or child becomes athirst for science. At the London School of Tropical Medicine, Dr. George Nuttall, F.R.S., delivered an address on ‘‘ Scientific Re- search in Medicine,’’ in the course of which he pointed out the great benefits to mankind which have followed such discoveries as those of the causes and prevention of yellow fever and malaria, and that the majority of such discoveries have been made by those engaged in research and in the realms of pure science, and rarely by those guided by principles of direct and immediate utility. He urged the necessity for the endowment of research, par- ticularly in experimental medicine, and finally proceeded to review recent work in protozoology and parasitology. At the School of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Sir Boverton Redwood delivered the address on “General Study and Specialism,’ and at the Royal Veterinary College Mr. Hunting discussed the career of members of the veterinary profession. DIAMONDS.* ROM the earliest times the diamond has fascinated mankind. It has been a perennial puzzle—one of the “‘ riddles of the painful earth.’’ It is recorded in ‘‘ Sprat’s History of the Royal Society ’’ (1667) that among the questions sent by order of the society to Sir Philiberto Vernatti, resident in Batavia, was one _ inquiring ““ Whether Diamonds grow again after three or four years in the same places where they have been digged out?’’ The answer sent back was ‘‘ Never, Or at least as the memory of man can attain to.”’ Of late years the subject has fascinated many men of science. The development of electricity, with the introduc- tion of the electric furnace, has facilitated research, and I am justified in saying that if the diamond problem is not actually solved, there is every probability it shortly will be ‘solved. South Africa, as I will show in detail, is the favourite haunt of diamonds on this planet: it ranks with Australia and California as one of the three great gold-yielding regions. But the wealth of South Africa is not limited to gold and diamonds. It is also the illimitable home of coal—‘‘ the black diamond’’ of the universe. The province of Natal alone contains more coal than Britain ever owned before a single bucket had been raised; and the coal beds extend into the Orange River Colony. Valuable iron ores exist also in large quantities. p The Pipes at Kimberley. The five diamond mines are all contained in a precious circle 33 miles in diameter. They are irregular shaped round or oval pipes, extending vertically downwards to unknown depths, retaining about the same diameter throughout. They are considered to be volcanic necks, filled from below with a heterogeneous mixture of frag- ments of surrounding rocks, and of older rocks such as granite, mingled and cemented with a bluish coloured hard ’ 1 Abridged from a lecture delivered before the Rritish Association at Kimberley on September 5 by Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. NO. 1876, VOL. 72] Ideals | + magnetite, | clayey mass, in which famous blue clay the imbedded | diamonds are hidden. How the great pipes were originally formed is hard to say. They were certainly not burst through in the ordinary manner of volcanic eruption, since the surrounding and enclosing walls show no signs of igneous action, and are not shattered or broken up even when touching the ** blue ground.’’ It is pretty certain these pipes were filled from below after they were pierced, and the diamonds were formed at some previous time and mixed with a mud volcano, together with all kinds of débris eroded from the rocks through which it erupted, forming a geological ‘plum pudding.”? The direction of flow is seen in the upturned edges of some of the strata of shale in the walls, although I was unable to see any upturning in most parts of the walls of the De Beers mine at great depths. The breccia filling the mines, usually called “ blue ground,’’ is a collection of fragments of shale, and of various eruptive rocks, boulders, and crystals of many kinds of minerals. Indeed, a more wildly heterogeneous mixture can hardly be found anywhere else on this globe. The Kimberley mines for the first 70 feet or 80 feet are filled with so-called ‘‘ yellow ground,’’ and below that with ‘‘blue ground.’? This superposed yellow on_ blue is common to all the mines. The blue is the aboriginal ground, and owes its colour chiefly to the presence of lower oxides of iron. When atmospheric influences have access to the iron it becomes peroxidised, and the ground assumes a yellow colour. The thickness of yellow earth in the mines is therefore a measure of the depth of penetration of air and moisture. The colour does not affect the yield of diamonds. The ground mass is soapy to the touch, and friable, especially after exposure to weather. Besides diamonds, more than eighty species of minerals have been recognised in the blue ground, the most common being ilmenite, garnet, bright green ferriferous (bronzite), a hornblendic mineral closely re- smaragdite, calc-spar, vermiculite, diallage, mica, kyanite, augite, peridot, iron pyrites, wollastonite, vaalite, zircon, chrome iron, rutile, corun- dum, apatite, olivine, sahlite, chromite, pseudobrookite, perofskite, biotite, and quartz. The blue ground does not show any signs of igneous action; the fragments in the breccia are not fused at the enstatite sembling jeffreysite, edges. The eruptive force was probably steam or water- gas, acting under great pressure but at no high temperature. There are many such pipes in the immediate neighbour- hood of Kimberley. It may be that each volcanic pipe is the vent for its own special laboratory—a laboratory buried at vastly greater depths than we have yet reached —where the temperature is comparable with that of the electric furnace, where the pressure is fiercer than in our puny laboratories and the melting point higher, where no oxygen is present, and where masses of liquid carbon have taken centuries, perhaps thousands of years, to cool to the solidifying point. The chemist arduously manu- factures infinitesimal diamonds, valueless as ornamental gems; but nature, with unlimited temperature, incon- ceivable pressure, and gigantic material, to say nothing of measureless time and appalling energy, produces without stint the dazzling, radiant, beautiful, coveted crystals I am enabled to show you to-night. This hypothesis of the origin of diamonds is in many ways corroborated. The ash left after burning a diamond invariably con- tains iron as its chief constituent; and the most common colours of diamonds, when not perfectly pellucid, show various shades of brown and yellow, from the palest “ off colour’ to almost black. They are also green, blue, pink, yellow, and orange. These variations give support to the theory advanced by Moissan that the diamond has separated from molten iron—a theory of which I shall say more presently—and also explain how it happens that stones from different mines, and even from different parts of the same mine, differ from each other. Further confirmation is given by the fact that the country round Kimberley is remarkable for its ferruginous character, and _ iron- saturated soil is popularly regarded as one of the indi- cations of the near presence of diamonds. Along with carbon, molten iron dissolves other bodies which possess 594 NATURE | OCTOBER 12, 1905 tinctorial powers. One batch of iron might contain an impurity colouring the stones blue, another lot would tend towards the formation of pink stones, another of green, and so on. Cobalt, nickel, chromium, and manganese, all metals present in the blue ground, would produce these colours. seus An hypothesis, however, is of little value if it only elucidates half a problem. Let us see how far we can follow out the ferric hypothesis to explain the volcanic pipes. In the first place we must remember these so-called voleanic vents are admittedly not filled with the eruptive rocks, scoriaceous fragments, X&c., constituting the ordinary contents of volcanic ducts. Selections of thin sections of some of these rocks and minerals, mounted as microscopic objects and viewed by polarised light, are not only of interest to the geologist, but are objects of great beauty. The appearance of shale and fragments of other rocks testifies that the mélange has suffered no great heat in its present condition, and that it has been erupted from great depths by the agency of water vapour or some similar gas. How is this to be explained? ; You will recollect I start with the reasonable supposi- tion that at a sufficient depth’ there were masses of molten iron at great pressure and high temperature, hold- ing carbon in solution, ready to crystallise out on cooling. Far back in time the cooling from above caused cracks in superjacent strata through which water* found its way. On reaching the incandescent iron, the water would be converted into gas, and this gas would rapidly disintegrate and erode the channels through which it passed, grooving a passage more and more vertical in the necessity to find the quickest vent to the surface. But steam in the presence of molten or even red-hot iron liberates large volumes of hydrogen gas, together with less quantities of hydrocarbons* of all kinds—liquid, gaseous, and_ solid. Erosion commenced by steam would be continued by the other gases; it would be easy for pipes, large as any found in South Africa, to be scored out in this manner. Sir Andrew Noble has shown that when the screw stopper of his steel cylinders in which gunpowder explodes under pressure is not absolutely perfect, gas escapes with a rush so overpowering as to score a wide channel in the metal. Some of these stoppers and vents are on the table. To illustrate my argument Sir Andrew Noble has been kind enough to try a special experiment. Through a cylinder of granite is drilled a hole 0-2 inch diameter, the size of a small vent. This is made the stopper of an explosion chamber, in which a quantity of cordite is fired, the gases escaping through the granite vent. The pressure is about 1500 atmospheres, and the whole time of escape is less than half a second. Notice the erosion produced by the escaping gases and by the heat of friction; these forces have scored out a channel more than half an inch diameter and melted the granite along their course. If steel and granite are thus vulnerable at comparatively moderate gaseous pressure, it is easy to imagine the destructive upburst of hydrogen and water-gas grooving for itself a channel in the diabase and quartzite, tearing fragments from resist- ing rocks, covering the country with débris, and finally, at the subsidence of the great rush, filling the self-made pipe with a water-borne magma in which rocks, minerals, iron oxide, shale, petroleum, and diamonds are violently churned in a veritable witch’s cauldron! As the heat abated the water vapour would gradually give place to hot water, which forced through the magma would change some of the mineral fragments into the existing forms of to-day. Each outbreak would form a dome-shaped hill; the eroding agency of water and ice would plane these emin- ences until all traces of the original pipes were lost. Actions such as I have described need not have taken place simultaneously. As there must have been many 1 A pressure of fifteen tons on the square inch would exist not many miles beneath the surface of the earth. ® There are abundant signs that a considerable portion of this part of Africa was once under water, and a fresh-water shell has been found in apparently undisturbed blue ground at Kimberley. % ‘Tbe water sunk in we ls close to the Kimberley mine is sometimes im- pregnated with paraffin, and Sir H. Roscoe extracted a solid hydrocarbon from the ‘‘ blue ground.” NO. 1876, VOL. 72] molten masses of iron with variable contents of carbon, different kinds of colouring matter, solidifying with vary- ing degrees of rapidity, and coming in contact with water at intervals throughout long periods of geological time— so must there have been many outbursts and upheavals, diamonds. And _ these giving rise to pipes containing > 5 = - . . pate . diamonds, by sparseness of distribution, crystalline character, difference of tint, purity of colour, varying hardness, brittleness, and state of tension, have the story of their origin impressed upon them, engraved by natural forces—a storv which future generations of scientific men may be able to interpret with greater precision than is possible to-day. : Genesis of the Diamond. Speculations as to the probable origin of the diamond have been greatly forwarded by patient research, and particularly by improved means of obtaining high tempera- tures, an advance we owe principally to the researches of Prof. Moissan. Until recent years carbon was considered absolutely non- volatile and infusible; but the enormous temperatures at the disposal of experimentalists—-by the introduction of electricity—show that, instead of breaking rules, carbon obeys the same laws that govern other bodies. It volatilises at the ordinary pressure at a temperature of about 3600° C., and passes from the solid to the gaseous state without liquefying. It has been found that other bodies, such as arsenic, which volatilise without liquefying at the ordinary pressure, will easily liquefy if pressure is added to temperature. It naturally follows that if along with the requisite temperature sufficient pressure is applied, liquefaction of carbon will take place, when on cooling it will ecrystallise. But carbon at high temperatures is a most energetic chemical agent, and if it can get hold of oxygen from the atmosphere or any compound containing it, it will oxidise and fly off in the form of carbonic acid. Heat and pressure, therefore, are of no avail unless the carbon can be kept inert. It has long been known that iron when melted dissolves carbon, and on cooling liberates it in the form of graphite. Moissan discovered that several other metals, especially silver, have similar properties; but iron is the best solvent for carbon. The quantity of carbon entering into solution increases with the temperature. For the manufacture of—I am afraid I must say an infinitesimal—diamond, the first necessity is to select pure iron—free from sulphur, silicon, phosphorus, &c.—and to pack it in a carbon crucible with pure charcoal from sugar- The crucible is then put into the body of the electric furnace, and a powerful arc formed close above it between carbon poles, utilising a current of 700 amperes at 40 volts pressure. The iron rapidly melts and saturates itself with carbon. After a few minutes’ heating to a temperature above 4000° C.—a temperature at which the iron melts like wax and volatilises in clouds—the current is stopped, and the dazzling fiery crucible is plunged beneath the surface of cold water, where it is held until it sinks below a red heat. As is well known, iron increases in volume at the moment of passing from the liquid to the solid state. The sudden cooling solidifies the outer layer of iron and holds the inner molten mass in a tight grip. The ex- pansion of the inner liquid on solidifying produces an enormous pressure, and under the stress of this pressure the dissolved carbon separates out in transparent forms— minutely microscopic, it is true—all the same veritable diamonds, with crystalline form and appearance, colour, hardness, and action on light the same as the natural gem. Now commences the tedious part of the process. The metallic ingot is attacked with hot nitro-hydrochloric acid until no more iron is dissolved. The bulky residue con- sists chiefly of graphite, together with translucent chestnut- coloured flakes of carbon, black opaque carbon of a density of from 3-0 to 3-5, and hard as diamonds—black diamonds or carbonado, in fact—and a small portion of transparent colourless diamonds showing crystalline structure. Besides these, there may be carbide of silicon and corundum, arising from impurities in the materials employed. The residue is first heated for some hours with strong sulphuric acid at: the boiling point, with the cautious addition of powdered nitre. It is then well washed, and for two days allowed to soak in strong hydrofluoric acid OcTOBER 12, 1905 | NATURE 595 in cold, then in boiling acid. After this treatment the soft graphite disappears, and most, if not all, the silicon com- pounds have been destroyed. Hot sulphuric acid is again applied to destroy the fluorides, and the residue, well washed, is attacked with a mixture of the strongest nitric acid and powdered potassium chlorate, kept warm—but not above 60° C., to ayoid explosions. ‘This treatment must be repeated six or eight times, when all the hard graphite will gradually be dissolved, and little else left but graphitic oxide, diamond, and the harder carbonado and boart. The residue is fused for an hour in fluor- hydrate of fluoride of potassium, then boiled out in water, and again heated in sulphuric’ acid. The well washed grains which resist this energetic treatment are dried, carefully deposited on a slide, and examined under the microscope. Along with numerous pieces of black diamond are seen transparent colourless pieces, some amorphous, others with a crystalline appearance. Although many fragments of crystals occur, it is remarkable I have never seen a complete crystal. All appear shattered, as if on being. liberated from the intense pressure under which they were formed they burst asunder. I have singular evidence of this phenomenon. A fine piece of artificial diamond, carefully mounted by me on a microscopic slide, exploded during the night and covered the slide with fragments. Moissan’s crystals of artificial diamond sometimes broke a few weeks after their preparation, and some of the diamonds which cracked weeks or even months after their preparation showed fissures covered with minute cubes. This bursting paroxysm is not unknown at the Kimberley mines. On the screen I will project photographs of artificial diamonds manufactured in the manner described. So far, these specimens are all microscopic. The largest artificial diamond is less than one millimetre across. These laboratory diamonds burn in the air before the blowpipe to carbonic acid. In lustre, crystalline form, optical properties, density, and hardness, they are identical with the natural stone. In several cases Moissan separated ten to fifteen micro- scopic diamonds from a single ingot. The larger of these are about 0-75 mm. long, the octahedra being 0-2 mm. Boiling and Melting Point of Carbon. the critical point of a substance is 15 times its absolute boiling point. Therefore the critical point of carbon should be about 5800° Ab. But the absolute critical temperature divided by the critical pressure is for all the elements so far examined never less than 2-5, this being about the value Sir James Dewar finds for hydrogen. So that, accepting this, we get the maximum critical pressure as follows, viz. 2320 atmospheres :— 5800° Ab./CrP=2-5, or CrP=5800° Ab./2-5, or 2320 atmospheres. On the average, Carbon and arsenic are the only two elements that have a melting point above the boiling point; and among com- pounds carbonic acid and fluoride of silicium are the only other bodies with similar properties. Now the melting point of arsenic is about 1-2 times its absolute boiling point. With carbonic acid and fluoride of silicium the melting points are about 1-1 times their boiling points. Applying these ratios to carbon, we find that its melting point would be about 4400°. Therefore, assuming the following data Boiling point 3870° Ab. Melting point ... 4400" Critical temperature 5800° Critical pressure 2320 Ats. the Rankine or Van der Waals formula calculated from the boiling point and critical data would be as follows :— log. P=10-11—39120/T, and this gives for a temperature of 4400° Ab. a pressure of 16-6 Ats. as the melting-point pressure. Similar rough estimates obtained by means of this formula suggest that above a temperature of 5800° Ab. no amount of pressure will cause carbon vapour to assume liquid form, whilst at 4400° Ab. a pressure of above 17 atmospheres would suffice to liquefy some of it. Between these extremes the curve NOW 15 70,.vOLe 721) of vapour pressure is assumed to be logarithmic, as re- presented in the accompanying diagram. The constant 39120 which occurs in the logarithmic formula enables us to calculate the latent heat of evaporation. If we assume the vapour density to be normal, or the molecule in vapour as C,, then the heat of volatilisation of 12 grms. of carbon would be 90,000 calories; or, if the vapour is a condensed molecule like C,, then the 12 grms. would need 30,000 calories. In the latter case the evaporation of 1 grm. of carbon would require 2500 calories, whereas a substance like zine needs only about 400 calories. A New Formation of Diamond. I have long speculated as to the possibility of obtaining artificially such pressures and temperatures as would fulfil the above conditions. In their researches on the gases from fired gunpowder and cordite, Sir Frederick Abel and Sir Andrew Noble obtained in closed steel cylinders pressures as great as 95 tons to the square inch, and temperatures as high as 4ooo° C. According to a paper recently communicated to the Royal Society, Sir Andrew Noble, exploding cordite in closed vessels, has obtained a pressure of 8000 atmospheres, or 50 tons per square inch, with a temperature reaching in all probability 5400° Ab. Here, then, we have conditions favourable for the lique- faction of carbon, and were the time of explosion sufficient to allow the reactions to take place, we should certainly expect to get the liquid carbon to solidify in the crystalline state.’ By the kindness of Sir Andrew Noble, I have been enabled to work upon some of the residues obtained in closed vessels after explosions, and I have submitted them to the same treatment that the granulated iron had gone through. After weeks of patient toil I removed the amorphous carbon, the graphite, the silica,*> and other constituents of the ash of cordite, and obtained a residue among which, under the microscope, crystalline particles could be distinguished. Some of these particles, from their crystalline appearance and double refraction, were silicon carbide; others were probably diamonds. The whole residue was dried and fused at a good red heat in an excess of potassium bifluoride, to which was added during fusion 5 per cent. of nitre. (Previous experiments had shown me that this mixture readily attacked and dissolved silicon carbide; unfortunately it also attacks diamond to a slight degree.) The residue, after thorough washing and then heating in fuming sulphuric acid, was washed, dried, and the largest crystalline particles picked out and mounted. All the operations of washing and acid treatment were performed in a large platinum crucible by decantation (except the preliminary attack with nitric acid and potassium chlorate, when a hard glass vessel was used); the final result was washed into a shallow watch- glass, and the selection made under the microscope. I project on the screen a few photographs of these crystals. From the treatment they have undergone, chemists will agree with me that diamonds only could stand such an ordeal; on submitting them to skilled crystallographic authorities my opinion is confirmed. Speaking of the one before you (303), Prof. Bonney calls it ‘“a diamond showing octahedral planes with dark boundaries due to high refracting index.’? After careful examination, Prof. Miers writes of the same crystal diamond :—* I think one may safely say that the position and angles of its faces, and of its cleavages, the absence of birefringence, and the high refractive index, are all compatible with the properties of the diamond crystallising in the form of an octahedron. Others of the remaining crystals, which show a similar high refractive index, appeared to me to present the same features.”’ 1 Sir James Dewar, in a Friday evening discourse at the Royal Ins'i- tution, 1880, showed an experiment proving that the temperature of the interior of acarbon tube heated by an outside electric arc was higher than that of the oxy-hydrogen flame. He placed afew small crystals of diamond in the carbon tube, and, maintaining a current of hydrogen to prevent oxi- dation, raised the temperature of the tube in an electric furnace to that of the arc. In a few minutes the diamond was transformed into graphite. At first sight this would seem to show that diamond cannot be formed at tem- peratures above that of the arc. It is probable, however, for reasons given above, that at exceedingly high pressures the result would be different * The silica was in the form of spheres, perfectly shaped and transparent, mostly colourless, but among them several of a ruby colour. When 5 per cent. of silica was added to cordite, the residue.of the closed vessel explosion contained a much larger quantity of these spheres. 596 NATURE [OCTOBER 12, 1905 It would have been more conclusive had I been able to get further evidence as to the density and hardness of the crystals; but I am still working at the subject, and hope to add these confirmatory tests. From what I have already said, I think there is no doubt that in these closed vessel explosions we have another method of producing the diamond artificially. ’ Sensational as is the story of the diamond industry in South Africa, quite another aspect fixes the attention of the chemist. The diamonds come out of the mines, but how did they get in? How were they formed? What is their origin? Gardner Williams, who knows more about diamonds than any man living, is little inclined to indulge in specu- lation. In his fascinating book? he frankly says :— ““T have been frequently asked, ‘ What is your theory of the original crystallisation of the diamond?’ and the answer has always been, ‘I have none; for after seventeen years of thoughtful study, coupled with practical research, { find that it is easier to ‘‘ drive a coach and four” through most theories that have been propounded than to suggest one which would be based on any non-assailable data.’ All that can be said is that in some unknown manner carbon, which existed deep down in the internal regions of the earth, was changed from its black and uninviting appearance to the most beautiful gem which ever saw the light of day.” Meteoric Diamonds. Ancther diamond theory appeals to the fancy. It is said the diamond is a gift from Heaven, conveyed to earth in meteoric showers. The suggestion, I believe, was first broached by A. Meydenbauer,? who says :—‘‘ The diamond can only be of cosmic origin, having fallen as a meteorite at later periods of the earth’s formation. The available localities of the diamond contain the residues of not very compact meteoric masses which may, perhaps, have fallen in prehistoric ages, and which have penetrated more or less deeply, according to the more or less resistant character of the surface where they fell. Their remains are crumbling away On exposure to the air and sun, and the rain has long ago washed away all prominent masses. The enclosed diamonds have remained scattered in the river beds, while the fine light matrix has been swept away.” According to this hypothesis, the so-called volcanic pipes are simply holes bored in the solid earth by the impact of monstrous meteors—the larger masses boring the holes, while the smaller masses, disintegrating in their fall, distributed diamonds broadcast. Bizarre as such a theory appears, I am bound to say there are many circumstances | SET | diamond of the chemist and the diamond of the mine are raining | which show that the notion of diamonds is not impossible. The most striking confirmation of the meteoric theory comes from Arizona. Here, on a broad open plain, over an area about five miles in diameter, have been scattered one or two thousand masses of metallic iron, the frag- ments varying in weight from half a ton to a fraction of an ounce. There is little doubt these masses formed part of a meteoric shower, although no record exists as to when the fall took place. Curiously enough, near the centre, where most of the meteorites have been found, is a crater with raised edges three-quarters of a mile in diameter and about 600 feet deep, bearing exactly the appearance which would be produced had a mighty mass of iron struck the ground and buried itself deep under the surface. Altogether ten tons of this iron have been collected, and specimens of the Canyon Diablo meteorite are in most collectors’ cabinets. An ardent mineralogist—the late Dr. Foote—cutting a section of this meteorite, found the tools were injured by something vastly harder than metallic iron. He examined the specimen chemically, and soon after announced to the scientific world that the Canyon Diablo meteorite contained black and transparent diamonds. This startling discovery was afterwards verified by Profs. Moissan and Friedel, and Moissan, working on 183 kilograms of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, has recently found smooth _ black diamonds and transparent diamonds in the form of octa- hedra with rounded edges, together with green hexagonal * “The Diamond Mines of South Africa,” P. 510. * Chemical News, vol. Ixi., p. 209, 18go. NO. 1876, VOL. 72] the heavens (Macmillans, 1902.) crystals of carbon silicide. The presence of carbon silicide in the meteorite shows that it must, at some time, have experienced the temperature of the electric furnace. Since this revelation, the search for diamonds in meteorites has occupied the attention of chemists all over the world. I am enabled to show you photographs of true diamonds I myself have extracted from the Canyon Diablo meteorite. A fine slab of the meteorite, weighing about seven pounds, is on the table before you. Here, then, we have incontestable proof of the truth of the meteoric theory. Under atmospheric influences’ the iron would rapidly oxidise and rust away, colouring the adjacent soil with red oxide of iron. The meteoric diamonds would be unaffected, and left on the surface of the soil, to be found haphazard when oxidation had re- moved the last proof of their celestial origin. That there are still lumps of iron left at Arizona is merely due to the extreme dryness of the climate and the comparatively short time that the iron has been on our planet. We are here witnesses to the course of an event which may have happened in geologic times anywhere on the earth’s surface. Although in Arizona diamonds have fallen from the skies, confounding our senses, this descent of precious stones is what may be called a freak of nature rather than a normal occurrence. To the modern student of science there is no great difference between the composition of our earth and that of extra-terrestrial masses. The mineral peridot is a constant extra-terrestrial visitor, present in most meteorites; and yet no one doubts that peridot is also a true constituent of rocks formed on this earth. The spectroscope reveals that the elementary composition of the stars and the earth is pretty much the same; and the spectroscope also shows that meteorites have as much of earth as of heaven in their composition. Indeed, not only are the self-same elements present in meteorites, but they are combined in the same way to form the same minerals as in the crust of the earth. It is certain from observations I have made, corroborated by experience gained in the laboratory, that iron at a high | temperature and under great pressure—conditions existent at great depths below the surface of the earth—acts as the long-sought solvent for carbon, and will allow it to crystallise out in the form of diamond. But it is also certain, from the evidence afforded by the Arizona and other meteorites, that similar conditions have existed among bodies in space, and that on more than one occasion a meteorite freighted with jewels has fallen as a star from the sky. Many circumstances point to the conclusion that the strangely akin as to origin. It is evident that the diamond has not been formed in situ in the blue ground. The genesis must have taken place at vast depths under enormous pressure. The explosion of large diamonds on coming to the surface shows extreme tension. More diamonds are found in fragments and splinters than in perfect crystals; and it is noteworthy that although these splinters and fragments must be derived from the breaking up of a large crystal, yet in only one instance have pieces been found which could be fitted together, and these occurred at different levels. Does not this fact point to the conclusion that the blue ground is not their true matrix? Nature does not make fragments of crystals. As the edges of the crystals are still sharp and unabraded, the locus cf formation cannot have been very distant from the present sites. There were probably many sites of crystallisation differing in place and time, or we should not see such distinctive characters in the gems from different mines, nor, indeed, in the diamonds from different parts of the same mine. It is not difficult to imagine that masses of iron saturated with carbon existed formerly at a sufficient depth below the present mines, where temperature and pressure would produce the reactions which laboratory experiments show to be probable. Many crystals of diamonds have their surfaces beautifully marked with equilateral triangles, interlaced and of vary- ing sizes. Under the microscope these markings appear as shallow depressions sharply cut out of the surrounding surface; these depressions were supposed by Gustav Rose to indicate the probability that the diamonds at sore OcTOBER 12, 1905] NATURE 597 previous time had been exposed to incipient combustion. Rose also noted that striations appeared on the surfaces of diamonds burnt before the blowpipe. I have tried many times to imitate these markings by partial combustion of clear crystals of diamond, but have not succeeded in reproducing triangles of such beauty as you see formed by nature. According to the crystalline face exposed to incipient combustion the etchings are triangular or cubical, and sometimes intermediate between the two. I throw on the screen magnified photographs of these etchings, and you will observe that while the triangular or box-like tendency is very apparent, there is an absence of regularity and sharpness. The artificial marixings are closer massed, looking as if the diamond during combustion had been dissected into triangular and rectangular flakes, while the markings natural to crystals appear as if produced by the crystal- lising force as they were being built up. Certain artificial diamonds present the appearance of an elongated drop. I have seen diamonds which have exactly the appearance of drops of liquid separated in a pasty con- dition and crystallised on cooling. Diamonds are some- times found with little appearance of crystallisation, but with rounded forms similar to those which a liquid migkt assume if kept in the midst of another liquid with which it would not mix. Other drops of liquid carbon retained for sufficient time above their melting point would coalesce with adjacent drops, and on slow cooling would separate in the form of large perfect crystals. Two drops, joining after incipient crystallisation, might assume the not un- common form of interpenetrating twin crystals. Illus- trations of all these caprices are here to-night. Again, diamond crystals are generally perfect on all sides. They show no irregular side or face by which they were attached to a support, as do artificial crystals of chemical salts; another proof that the diamond must have crystallised from a dense liquid. Having no double refraction, the diamond should not act on polarised light. But, as is well known, if a trans- parent body which does not so act is submitted to strain of an irregular character it becomes doubly refracting, and in the polariscope reveals the existence of the strain by brilliant colours arranged in a more or less defined pattern according to the state of tension in which the crystal exists. I have:examined many hundred diamond crystals under polarised light, and with few exceptions all show the presence of internal tension. [I will project some diamonds on the screen by means of the polarising micro- scope, and you will see by the colours how great is the strain to which some of them are exposed. On rotating the polariser, the black cross most frequently seen revolves round a particular point in the inside of the crystal; on examining this point with a high power, we sometimes see a slight flaw, more rarely a minute cavity. The cavity is filled with gas at enormous pressure, and the strain is set up in the stone by the effort of the gas to escape. I have already told you that the great Cullinan diamond by this means reveals a state of internal stress and strain. It is not uncommon for a diamond to explode soon after it reaches the surface; some have been known to burst in the pockets of the miners or when held in the warm hand, and the loss is the greater because large stones are more liable to explode or fly in pieces than small ones. Valuable stones have been destroyed in this way, and it is whispered that cunning dealers are not averse to allow- ing responsible clients to handle or carry in their warm pockets large crystals fresh from the mine. By way of safeguard against explosion, some dealers imbed large diamonds in raw potato to ensure safe transit to England. The anomalous action which many diamonds exert on polarised light is not such as can be induced by heat, but it can easily be conferred on diamonds by pressure, show- ing that the strain has not been produced by sudden cool- ing, but by sudden lowering of pressure. The illustration of this peculiarity is not only difficult, but sometimes exceedingly costly—difficult because it is necessary to arrange for projecting on the screen the image of a diamond crystal between the jaws of a hydraulic press, the illuminating light having to pass through delicate optical polarising apparatus—and costly because only perfect, clear crystals can be used, and crystals of this NO. 1876, VOL. 72] character sometimes fly to pieces as the pressure rises. No colour as yet is seen on the screen, the crystal not being birefringent. A movement of the handle of the press, however, gives the crystal a pinch, instantly re- sponded to by the colours on the screen, showing the pro- duction of double refraction. Another movement of the handle brightens the colours; a third may strain the crystal beyond its power of resistance, so I refrain. Hardness. Diamonds vary considerably in hardness, and even different parts of the same crystal differ in their resistance to cutting and grinding. Beautifully white diamonds have been found at Inverel, New South Wales, and from the rich yield of the mine and the white colour of the stones, great things were expected. In the first parcel which came to England the stones were found to be so much harder than South African diamonds that it was at first feared they would be useless except for rock-boring purposes. The difficulty of cutting them disappeared with improved appliances, and they now are highly prized. The famous Koh-i-noor, when cut into its present form, showed a notable variation in hardness. In cutting one of the facets near a yellow flaw, the crystal became harder and harder the further it was cut, and after working the mill for six hours at the usual speed of 2400 revolutions a minute, little impression was made. The speed was _ in- creased to more than 3000, when the work slowly pro- ceeded. Other portions of the stone were found to be comparatively soft, and hardened as the outside was cut away. I can illustrate the intense hardness of the diamond by experiment. On the flattened apex of a conical block of steel I place a diamond, and upon it I bring down a second cone of steel. With the lamp I project an image of the diamond and steel faces on the screen, and force them together by hydraulic power. I can squeeze the stone into the steel blocks without injuring it in the slightest degree. The pressure gauge shows 60 atmospheres, and the piston being 3-2 inches diameter, the absolute pressure is 3:16 tons, equivalent on a diamond of 12 square mm. surface to 170 tons per square inch of diamond. Although not directly bearing on the subject, I will introduce the only serious rival of the diamond as regards hardness. It is the metal tantalum, a fine specimen of which I owe to Messrs. Siemens Brothers. A hole had to be bored through a plate of this metal, and a diamond drill was used revolving at the rate of 5000 revolutions per minute. This whirling force was continued ceaselessly for three days and nights, when it was found that only a small depression ;} mm. deep had been drilled, and it was a moot point which had suffered most damage, the diamond or the tantalum.‘ In another respect tantalum is likely to rival graphitic carbon, as it has rivalled adamantine carbon. Its thin wire is extensively used for filaments of incandescent electric lamps; it shows a much higher efficiency than does the old carbon filament. The melting point of tantalum is about 2300° C., a temperature seldom or never reached in an ordinary lamp. Refractivity. But it is not the hardness of the diamond so much as its optical qualities that make it so highly prized. It is one of the most refracting substances in nature, and it also has the highest reflecting properties. In the cutting of diamonds advantage is taken of these qualities. When cut as a brilliant the facets on the lower side are inclined so that light falls on them at an angle of 24° 13’, at which angle all the incident light is totally reflected. A well cut brilliant should appear opaque by transmitted light except at a small spot in the middle where the table and culet are opposite. All the light falling on the front of the stone is reflected from the facets, and the light pass- ing into the diamond is reflected from the interior surfaces and refracted into colours when it passes out into the air, giving rise to the lightnings, the effulgence, and coruscations for which the diamond is supreme above all other gems. In vain I have searched for a liquid of the same refrac- 1 W. von Bolton Zestschr. Elektrochem , ii., 45-51, January 20, 1905 598 tion as diamond. Such a liquid would be invaluable to the merchant, as on immersing a stone the clear body would absolutely disappear, leaving in all their ugliness the flaws and black specks so frequently seen even in the best stones. Arguing from theoretical considerations connected with the specific refractive energy of diamond, and employing Lorentz’s expression for refraction— p?—1/P (Gaeta) in which pw=refractive index, s—1=refractive energy, d=density, and P=molecular weight, Brihl has shown that diamond is perfectly normal in its optical properties, and has an atomic refraction =5. He has put forward the speculation that the diamond may be the last member of the paraffin series of which marsh-gas is the first. “Now we can imagine,’’ says Brihl,t ‘‘ why the diamond, i.e. pure crystallised carbon, is optically normal. We obtain an idea of the mineral’s chemical constitution, and of the way in which the atoms of carbon are perhaps combined in the sparkling gem. The diamond cannot possibly contain any double bonds. Imagine, however, at each of the six corners of a regular octahedron, a single molecule of marsh-gas, CH,, i.e. altogether C,H,,, and then imagine all the 24 hydrogen atoms successively removed, so that each carbon atom is connected with each of its neighbours only by a single bond, and thus all six atoms of carbon are united together in a single whole. Then you obtain, as the most simple representation of the molecule of the diamond, a regular octahedron, with one atom of carbon at each of its six corners, whilst the edges represent the mutual bonds :— Cc Cc Several simple molecules of this kind may be combined into one crystallised particle of the spectrochemically normal diamond.”’ Absorption Spectrum of Diamond. On passing a ray of light through a diamond and ex- amining it in a spectroscope, B. Walter has found in all colourless brilliants of more than one carat in weight an absorption band at wave-length 4155 (violet). He ascribes this band to an impurity, and suggests it may possibly be due to samarium. Three other fainter lines were detected in the ultra-violet by means of photography. Phosphorescence of Diamond. After exposure for some time to the sun many diamonds glow in a dark room. Some diamonds are fluorescent, appearing milky in sunlight. In a vacuum, exposed to a high-tension current of electricity, diamonds phosphoresce of different colours, most South African diamonds shining with a bluish light. Diamonds from other localities emit bright blue, apricot, pale blue, red, yellowish green, orange, and pale green light. The most phosphorescent diamonds are those which are fluorescent in the sun. One beautiful green diamond in my collection, when phosphorescing in a good vacuum, gives almost as much light as a candle, and you can easily read by its rays. But the time has hardly come when diamonds can be used as domestic illuminants ! The emitted light is pale green, tending to white, and in its spectrum, when strong, can be seen bright lines, one at about A 5370 in the green, one at A 5130 in the greenish blue, and one at A 5030 in the blue. After many years’ bombardment in a vacuum tube this diamond grew very dark, almost black, on the surface. Heating in a mixture of nitric acid and potassium chlorate scarcely changed the colour. The action of heat was then tried, and on slowly heating to about 500° C. the dark 1 Proceedings of the Royal Institution, May 26, 1g05. NO. 1876, VOL. 72 | NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1905 colour entirely disappeared, and the original milky green appearance was restored. Although I watched narrowly I could see no trace of phosphorescence during the heating. Diamonds which phosphoresce red generally show the yellow sodium line superposing on a continuous spectrum. In one Brazilian diamond phosphorescing a reddish yellow colour, I detected the citron line characteristic of yttrium. By permission of Mrs. Kunz, wife of the well known New York mineralogist, I will show you perhaps the most remarkable of all phosphorescing diamonds. This prodigy diamond will phosphoresce in the dark for some minutes after being exposed to a small pocket electric light, and if rubbed on a piece of cloth a long streak of phosphorescence appears. Tribo-luminescence. A few minerals give out light when rubbed, and Mrs. Kunz’s diamond is equally striking in this respect. In the year 1663, the Hon. Robert Boyle read a paper before the Royal Society, in which he described several experiments made with a diamond which markedly showed tribo- luminescence. As specimens of tribo-luminescent bodies, I show you sphalerite (sulphide of zinc) and an artificial sphalerite, which is even more responsive to friction than the native sulphide.’ Combustion of the Diamond. When heated in air or oxygen to a temperature vary- ing from 760° C. to 875° C., according to its hardness, the diamond burns with production of carbonic acid. It leaves an extremely light ash, sometimes retaining the shape of the crystal, consisting of iron, lime, magnesia, silica, and titanium. In boart and carbonado the amount of ash sometimes rises to 4 per cent., but in clear crystallised diamonds it is seldom higher than 0-05 per cent. By far the largest constituent of the ash is iron. Action of Radium on Diamond. The 6 rays from radium having like properties to the stream of negative electrons in a radiant matter tube, it was of interest to ascertain if they would exert a like difference on diamond. The diamond glows under the in- fluence of the 8 radiations, and crushed diamond cemented to a piece of card or metal makes an excellent screen in a spinthariscope—almost as good as zinc sulphide. Some fine colourless crystals of diamond were embedded in radium bromide and kept undisturbed for more than twelve months. At the end of that time they were examined. The radium had caused them to assume a beautiful blue colour, and their value as ‘‘ fancy stones’’ had been materially increased. Here are a couple of diamonds originally of the same purity of water. One has been coloured by radium, the other is in its natural state. The colour of the radium-tinted stone is very pronounced. The lantern slide shows the darkening thus produced. A and B are diamonds after twelve months’ burial in radium bromide ; diamond C is of the original colour. This blue colour is persistent, and penetrates below the surface. It is unaffected by long-continued heating in strong nitric acid and potassium chlorate, and is not dis- charged by heating to redness. To find out if this prolonged contact with radium had communicated to the diamond any radio-active properties, six diamonds were put on a photographic plate, and kept in the dark for a few hours. I will project the image of the result after development. The three on the upper row are the diamonds which have had a prolonged sojourn with radium, the three below are similar diamonds picked out for comparison, which have not been near radium. See how strangely the three upper ones have acted. Notice also that by mere contiguity to the others the lower diamonds also shine with an induced, factitious radio- activity. I throw on the screen a magnified image of one of the blue crystals, and you see in how regular and geometrical a pattern the radio-active emanations radiate from the crystal. This observation has only been made ) Artificial tribo-luminescent sphalerite :— Zinc carbonate ae S00 Too parts Flower of sulphur ao Si Soa) he) Manganese sulphate , v7 4 per cent. Mix with distilled water and dry at a gentle heat. Put in luted crucible and keep at a bright red heat for from two to three hours. OcTOBER 12, 1905] a short time, and is still under investigation. Like the blue tint, the radio-activity persists after drastic treatment. To me this proves that radio-activity does not merely consist in the adhesion of electrons or emanations given off by radium, to the surface of an adjacent body, but the property is one involving layers below the surface, and like the alteration of tint is probably closely connected with the intense molecular excitement the stone had experienced during its twelve months’ burial in radium bromide. A diamond that had been coloured blue by radium, and had acquired strong radio-active properties, was slowly heated to dull redness in a dark room. Just before visibility a faint phosphorescence spread over the stone. On cooling and examining the diamond, it was found that neither the colour nor the radio-activity had suffered appreciably. The diamond is remarkable in another respect. It is extremely transparent to the Rontgen rays, whereas highly refracting glass, used in imitation diamonds, is almost perfectly opaque to the rays. I exposed for a few seconds over a photographic plate to the X-rays the large Delhi diamond of a rose-pink colour weighing 313 carats, a black diamond weighing 23 carats, and a glass imitation of the pink diamond. On development, the impression where the diamond obscured the rays was found to be strong, showing that most rays passed through, while the glass was practically opaque. By this means imitation diamonds can readily be distinguished from true gems. I have already signified that there are various degrees of refractoriness to chemical reagents among the different forms of graphite. Some dissolve in strong nitric acid ; other forms of graphite require a mixture of highly con- centrated nitric acid and potassium chlorate to attack them, and even with this intensely powerful agent some graphites resist longer than others. M. Moissan has shown that the power of resistance to nitric acid and potassium chlorate is in proportion to the temperature at which the graphite was formed, and with tolerable certainty we can estimate this temperature by the resistance of the specimen of graphite to this reagent. The superficial dark coating on a diamond after exposure to molecular bombardment I have proved to be graphite.’ M. Moissan* has shown that this graphite, on account of its great resistance to oxidising reagents, cannot have been formed at a lower temperature than 3600° C. It is thus manifest that the bombarding electrons endowed with an electric charge, and striking the diamond with enormous velocity, raise the superficial layer to the temperature of the electric arc, and turn it into graphite, whilst the mass of diamond and its conductivity to heat are sufficient to keep down the general temperature to such a point that the tube appears scarcely more than warm to the touch. A similar action occurs with silver, the superficial layers of which can be raised to a red heat without the whole mass becoming more than warm.* I will now direct your attention to a strange property of the diamond, which at first sight might seem to discount the great permanence and unalterability of this stone. It has been ascertained that the cause of phosphorescence is in some way connected with the hammering of the electrons, violently driven from the negative pole, on to the surface of the body under examination, and so great is the energy of the bombardment that impinging on a piece of platinum or even iridium the metal will actually melt. When the diamond is thus bombarded in a radiant matter tube the result is startling. It not only phos- phoresces, but assumes a brown colour, and when the action is long-continued becomes almost black. I will project a diamond on the screen and bombard it with radiant matter before your eyes. I do not like to anticipate a failure, but I am at the mercy of my diamond. I cannot rehearse this experiment, and it may happen that the diamond I have selected will show caprice and not blacken in reasonable time. Some diamonds visibly darken in a few minutes, while others, more leisurely in their ways, require an hour. This blackening is only superficial, but no ordinary means of cleaning will remove the discoloration. Ordinary 1 Chemical News, vol. \xxiy., p. 39, July, 1896. 2 Comptes rendus, cxxiv., p. 653. 8 Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. |., p. 99, June, 1891. No. 1876, VOL. 72] NATURE 599 oxidising reagents have little or no effect in restoring the colour. The black stain on the diamond is due to a form of graphite which is resistant to oxidation. Conversion of Diamond into Graphite. Although we cannot convert graphite into diamond, we can change the diamond into graphite. I take a clear crystal of diamond and place it between two carbon poles, and throw the image on the screen by means of a powerful arc lamp behind. I now bring the poles with intervening diamond together and form an are between. The tempera- ture of the diamond rapidly rises, and when it approaches 3600° C., the vaporising point of carbon, it breaks down, swells, and changes into black and valueless graphite. I show this experiment because it is striking and suggestive. I may add that it is costly—because the stone, if not of fine quality, might easily burst. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Str CLements R. Markuam, K.C.B., F.R.S., will deliver an address at Cambridge on Thursday, October 19, intro- ductory to the courses of instruction in geography. Science announces the death of General Isaac J. Wistar, of Philadelphia, founder of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology of the University of Pennsylvania, formerly president of the American Philosophical Society. By his will the Wistar Institute will receive the residue of his estate, thought to amount to about 80,000l. In the course of an address to the students of Cornell University in 1903, President Schurman emphasised the necessity of a systematic distribution of the daily time of college students. He recommended the following general apportionment of hours:—for work, eleven; for sleep, eight; for amusement, one; for meals and athletics, two hours each. Work is made to include not only time spent in the laboratory and lecture-room and in private study, but also time given to societies and to self-support. This advice led Dr. Guy M. Whipple, of Cornell University, to try to ascertain how the students in his university actually do distribute their daily time. The results of his inquiries are described in an article in the current number of the Popular Science Monthly. In the summary to the detailed tables given in his article Dr. Whipple states that, taking the university as a whole, the average Cornell student devotes just nine hours daily to college work, sleeps 7-9 hours, devotes 2-23 hours to amusement, 1-72 hours to physical exercise, 1-4 hours to meals, 0-39 hour to self- support, and 1-36 hours to unclassified activities. The average length of time given to work is greatest in the college of medicine, and progressively less in those of engineering, law, agriculture, and arts. Both in the university at large and within the College of Arts and Sciences, men give more time to college work than women. Pror. J. W. Jupp, F.R.S., distributed on October 5 the medals and prizes gained during the past session by the students of the Royal College of Science, London, in the lecture theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. The Dean, Prof. Tilden, F.R.S., in opening the proceedings, referred with regret to several losses which the college and school had sustained during the year, alluding particularly to the death of Prof. Howes. The geological division had lost its chief by the retire- ment of Prof. Judd. The college is now, the Dean con- tinued, in an attitude of expectancy in regard to the future, and it is possible that next year they will be able to hold the prize distribution in the new buildings. He said that in ten years seventy-six of the students of the college have taken the degree of B.Sc., and, in addition, thirty have taken first-class honours, besides which there are nine doctors of science. Prof. Judd, having distributed the awards, addressed the students. He acknowledged the uniform courtesy and consideration which he had received from colleagues and students alike during his forty-five years’ experience in connection with the school. Nearly two-thirds of that period had been spent in the position of one of the teachers. He congratulated them on the ex- pansion and development which is now promised, and + expressed the hope that the change would lead to even 600 NATURE ([OcTOBER 12, 1905 Sreater successes in the future than have been attained in the past. Mr. R. L. Morant, permanent secretary of the Board of Education, in moving a vote of thanks to Prof. Judd, said the college stood for the essential necessity of practical work as a proper means of the study of science. and Physical Training Tue new College of Hygiene instituted by the Carnegie Dunfermline trustees, which was described in our issue for September 28 (p. 550), was opened formally on October 4 by Lord Tinhitneows Secre- tary for Scotland and vice-president of ae “Council of Education in Scotland. The chairman, John Ross, delivered the opening address. He said Re work of the college is to be two-fold. Following the method established for fhe training of the teachers in elementary schools, there is provided first what may be called a great prac- tising school with 4500 pupils, consisting of all the school children, and next there is the college proper, consisting of young women prepared to adopt the teaching of physical culture as a profession, or to acquire for. their own personal benefit a knowledge of themselves and the most rational rules of life. As yet only young women are to be received, but it is anticipated that it will be possible in the near future to receive young men. Lord Linlithgow, during the course of an interesting speech, said there is no doubt that the country is waking up to the necessity of some sort of physical training for young people, and to the necessity of a better understanding of the laws of hygiene. It is well that the public should understand what physical training means. Lord Linlithgow defined it as the careful development of the general health to tne advantage of the whole body, and indirectly to the advantage of the mind. The Carnegie trustees are, he continued, doing a great and valuable service to Scotland in taking’ up this subject. They are doing a work which no school board can do, for it is doubtful whether public opinion has as yet ripened sufficiently to allow the Educa- tion Department to apply any considerable portion of the national funds to a purpose of this kind. It will come in time, for the public is taking an increasing interest in all that concerns the feeding, the management, the cleanli- ness, and physical welfare of the young generation. It is being recognised more and more that the amount of in- formation, or book-learning, which a child acquires at school is a matter of comparatively little importance. What is wanted is the healthy training of the boy or girl both physically and mentally. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, July 14.—‘‘The Phagocytosis of Red Blood-cells.”? By J. O. Wakelin Barratt. Com- municated by Sir Victor Horsley, F.R.S. The author has investigated the conditions under which phagocytosis of red blood-cells, by means of leucocytes, is brought about. Metchnikoff, who studied this process, attached great importance to the part played by the leucocytes, but Sawtchenko discovered that the chief factor in the production of this form of phagocytosis is sensi- bilisation of the red blood-cells, which can be brought ‘about by the serum of animals which have been previously injected with the variety of red blood-cells employed for phagocytosis, and he attributed the action of the serum to the presence of amboceptor (immunisine, fixateur). That this is not so, however, is shown by the circumstance that, in the absence of amboceptor, strongly marked phago- cytosis may be brought about by serum, and further experiments showed that the effective constituent is an opsonin. In addition, it was found that erythrocytic opsonins are sometimes present, usually in relatively small quantities, in normal sera, and in suitably chosen con- ditions of experiment may be used to prepare red blood- cells for ingestion by leucocytes. Paris. Academy of Sciences, October 2.—M. Troost in the chair.—Summary of the observations of the solar eclipse of August 29-30 made at Sfax, Tunis: G. Bigourdan. Light clouds were present during the eclipse, but were not NO. 1876, VOL. 72] sufficiently numerous to interfere seriously with the obsery- ations. Particulars are given of the determination of time, the observations of the contacts, the photography of the inner corona, the monochromatic photography of the corona, the work done with the spectrographs, ocular and photographic photometry, the influence of the passage of the shadow on the magnetic state of the earth, meteorology and actinometry, drawings made with the naked eye, observation of the moving shadows, the darkness during the eclipse, and the visibility of the stars.—On the laws of sliding friction: Paul Paintevé. An extension of the results obtained in a previous paper and a reply to some objections.—Observation of the eclipse of the sun of August 30 at the Observatory of Marseilles: M. Stéphan. The atmospheric conditions were quite satisfactory. The times of first and second contact are given, and the changes of temperature were automatically registered.— On some differential equations of the second order : Richard Fuchs.—On minimum surfaces: S. Bernstein.—Experi- mental verifications of the undulatory form of the photo- graphic function: Adrien Guébhard.—On isostrychnine : A. Bacovesco. Isostrychnine is obtained hy heating strychnine with water in sealed tubes at 160° C. to 180° C. The colour reactions of the isomer resemble those of the original alkaloid, but there are points of difference. The poisonous properties of the isomer are less marked than in strychnine, and, indeed, rather approximate to those of curare. That the two alkaloids are structurally different is shown by the action of sodium ethylate, which converts isostrychnine integrally into the isostrychnic acid of Tafel. —On the mode of propagation of some aquatic plants: Louis Frangois.—On the geology of the Sahara: R. Chudeau.—On the direction of the permanent mag- netisation of a metamorphic clay from Pontfarlin (Cantal) : Bernard Brunhes, CONTENTS. PAGE Two Recent Volumes on Arachnida. By R. I. Pocock . Vea =) ate SS 74) The Citizen and the State , es Hondo BS Practical Organic Chemistry. By A. 'N. M. BAe a GAs) Our Book Shelf :— Frolich: ‘‘Die Entwickelung der electrischen Messungen ” mai chess erie syAe) SE EOREDICS Tahresberce fiir 1904. PR, ide ; 579 Tuckey : ‘‘ Examples in Arithmetic ” ; ‘‘ The Primary Avithmeticys eartspieyan cl anise e anenennnnne 580 Letters to the Editor :— A Magnetic Survey of Japan.—Prof, A. Tanakadate 580 A Polarisation Pattern. —T. Terada . 581 A Focusing Screen for Use in EhotopmepEiae! Ultra- violet Spectra.—Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S. 581 The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific Subjects.—A. P. Trotter. . einernd 581 The International Congress on Tuberculosis be) Gail The British Association in South Africa Shetek The British Science Guild . . 585 Sir William Wharton, K.C.B., F. R. s. “By A. M. F. 586 George Bowdler Bachan! BoRES) By mn vvienelic Kirby . tas 587 Notes a a6 588 Our Astronomical Column : — Further Eclipse Results by French Observers . 501 Cosmical Evolution 591 Visibility of Faint Stars at the ewan Obsaeatern 592 The Orbit of ¢ Tauri . . j fo Gee The Constant of Aberration ....... 592 The Natal Government Observatory. . 592 The Opening of the Medical Session in Londons 592 Diamonds, By Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. 593 University and Educational Intelligence 599 Societies and Academies 600 OcroBER 12, 1905| NATURE CCXXXVII THE DIFFRACTION GRATING MICHELSON ECHELON AND SPEGTROSCOPE. at Telegraphic THIS INSTRUMENT OBTAINED A GOLD MEDAL AT THE ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 1904. We have supplied these instruments to many of the most renowned physicists in the world. for use in the United Kingdom, they have been sent to the following countries—America, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Italy. ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. 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Io 0 One Eighth Page, or Quarter The telegraphic address of NatuRE is ‘‘ Puusis,’’ LONDON. CHARGES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. Genera 4s. ad. | *Three Lines in Column o 2 6] Quarter Page,or Half Per Lineafter . . GG) 9) a Column 115 0 Halfa Page, oraColuma 3 5 o Whole Page 6 6 0 Column o 18 6 * The first line being in heavy type is charged for as Two Lines. Cheques and Money Orders payable to MACMILLAN & CO., Limited. OFFICE: ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. ccexl NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1905 3 THE GAIFFE AUTO-MOTOR MERCURY JET INTERRUPTER | (Patented in Britain). NO BRUSHES, NO BANDS, NO INDEPENDENT MOTOR. The interruption cuts the current both for motor and coil. In other words, motor and interrupter are electrically and mechanically linked together. 3m See Nature, July 20, 1905, page 277. Price, including box and packing, B4 :6: 6 THE MEDICAL SUPPLY | ASSOCIATION, 4 228 Gray’s Inn Road, London, W.C. i Descriptive Circular upon application. JUST PUBLISHED. Watson’s New Price Last of Electro- Therapeutical and Diagnostic Apparatus. The new edition is greatly enlarged, containing 108 pages fully describing and illustrating all standard and many new instruments at reduced prices, with notes to assist in the selection of apparatus. CORRESPONDENCE INVITED. Post free and gratis on application. —_ W. WATSON & SONS, 313 High Holborn, London, W.C. Established 1837. Branches: 16 FORREST ROAD, EDINBURGH; 2 EASY ROW, BIRMINGHAM. CROSSLEWY’S GAS ENGINES RECENTLY : GREAT REDUCTION REMODELLED. IN GAS CONSUMED. Represents K and L | 2 types, giving 3°5 H.P. Up to the end of 1904,. and 5 H.P over 51,000 gas and respectively. oil engines had been delivered, represent- ing about three- quarters of a million actual horse-power. Immediate Delivery for Stock Sizes of Engines. CROSSLEY BROS., LTD., OPENSHAW., MANCHESTER. CROSSLEY BROS., ETtD., CPENSHAW: MANCHESTER. DALLMEYER’S NEW Leis LENS. Can be used in front of any Mounted in Aluminium. A ; 1j Measures 3}ins. long, 1 ins. diameter, weighs 4} ounces. eeuGe: including Solid Leather Case, £3 10 co} nett. ILLUSTRATED BOoKLeT with An excellent lens for all Specimens of Work artistic photography. PATENT. FREE. J. HH. DAL.ILMEWY ER, |1).,25 Newman St., London, W. _MAKERS OF THE G SELEBRATED DALLMEYER LENSES. small lens without disturbing plates or films which may be in position. Can be ‘used alone for higher magnification or larger plates. Printec by Ricuarp Cray anp Sons, Limitep, at 7 & & Bread Street Hill, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of L ondon, and published by MACMILLAN | anp Co., Lim1Tep, at St. Martin’s s Street, London, W.C., and Tue MAcMILLAN ComPAany, 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.—TuHursDay, October r2, 1905. No. Re LOZ7e VOL: 17.2)| gistered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] NEWTON & CO.’S LONG-RANGE ELECTRIC LANTERN. Single Long-range Lantern, brass front. win 44-in. | condensers, and - extra large front lenses 3 in. in diameter. Complete with the *‘New Universal’’ Hand-feed Arc Lamp in case, £22. This Lantern isas efficient as any we can make for showing slidesinlarge halls where electric current is available. 3 FLEET STREET, LONDON. Apparatus for the determination of the relative conductivity of thin layers of materials. LEES’ & CHORLTON’S METHOD. Catalogue of Part II., SOUND, LIGHT & HEAT, free on application. JOHN J.GRIFFIN & SONS, Ltd., 20-26 SARDINIA ST., LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye. THURSDAY, OCTOBER ” —WORDSWORTH. 19, 190 | PRICE SIXPENCE Oy 1905 {All Rights are e Reserved. | : | VERLAG VON GUSTAV FISCHER IN JENA. | Soeben erschienen : Studien uber Hautelektrizitat und Hautmagnetismus a des Menschen. Von Dr. ERICH Chemie z. Nach eigenen Versuchen und Beobachtungen. HARNACK, Prof. d. Pharmakologie und_ physiol. Halle. Mit 8 Figuren im Text. Preis: 1 Mark 60 Pf. Leitfaden fur das Zoologische Praktikum. Von Dr. WILLY KUKENTHAL, o Universitat Breslau. 3. umgearbeitete geb. 7 Mark. Prof. d. Zoologie a. d. Auflage. Preis: 6 Mark, Atmungsapparat. Von Dr. med. ALBERT OPPEL, prakt. Mit 364 Textabbildungen n. 4 lithogr. Tafeln. d. vergl. mikrosk. Anatomie, Teil VI.) Preis: Arzt u. a. o- Professor. (Oppel, Lehrbuch 24 Mark. Die Vererbungslehre in der Biologie. a Von. Prof Dr. SALISH! ENS ZIEGLER. und 2 Tafeln. Mit 9 Figuren Preis: 2 Mz NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S LONG RANGE BAROMETERS THE DIAGONAL BAROMETER.—In this instrument the tube is much longer than usual, and at the point on the vertical column where in ordinary Mercurial Barometers the 28 inches would be marked, the tube is bent at an angle and the remaining 3 inches of the scale—viz. : 29, 30, and 31— are extended over a tube 36 inches long. The mercury now moving diagonally instead of vertically, travels over 12 inches of the tube to every inch on the ver- tical scale. The slightest variation, even ‘o1” to which the scale is divided, is at once noticeable and can be easily read without the aid of a vernier or magnifier. Tf ZF AMB RA ans Further Particulars and Prices of this and other cone range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers, NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT. 45 CORNHILL, anp 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON. BRANCHES: cexlii NATURE OCTOBER 19, 1905 THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal Cuartes A. Keane, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C. EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, METALLURGY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in CHEMICAL, METALLURGICAL and ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trades associated therewith. Cuarces A. Keang, M.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C., and Chewsiay “"\ H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.LC. Physics ... .. R.S. Wittows, D.Sc., M.A. Metallurgy C. O. BannisTER, Assoc. R.S.M. Mathematics G. M. K. Leccert, B.A. Every facility for special and advanced practical work in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London Uni- versity under recognised teachers of the University. Courses of Instruction in Glass Blowing will be given during the Session by Mr. A. C. Cossor. NEW SESSION began MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PRINCIPAL. W. H. DAVISON, M.A., Clerk to the Governing Body. SWINEY LECTURES ON GEOLOGY. 1905. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRUSTEES or THE BRITISH MUSEUM. A COURSE of TWELVE LECTURES on “Tue GerotocicaL History or Great Britain” will be delivered by Joun S. FLEeTT, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., in the Lecture Theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington (by permission of the Board of Education), on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 5 p.m., beginning Monday, November 6, and ending Friday, December 1. Each Lecture will be illustrated by means of Lantern Slides and Lime Light. Course Free. Entrance from Exhibition Road. By order of the Trustees, E. RAY LANKESTER, Director. British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W. TRANSVAAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JOHANNESBURG. It is proposed to appoint three professors as follows :-— (1) NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND PHYSICS. (2) CLASSICS. (3) ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The stipend of each professor will be £800 per annum. In case of the Chair of English Language and Literature, and the Chair of Classics, preference will be given to candidates who are able to teach either History or Mental and Moral Philosophy. The work of next Session commences March 1, 1906. Applications, together with testimonials, should be sent before November 1, 1905, to Mr. A. R. GoLpRING, 202, 203 and 206 Salisbury House, Fins- bury Circus, E.C. BRITISH MUSEUM. (NATURAL HISTORY.) APPOINTMENT, SWINEY LECTURESHIP ON GEOLOGY. The Trustees of the British Museum will shortly appoint a LECTURER on this Foundation. The Lectureship is open to Graduates in any Faculty in the University of Edinburgh who have obtained their degrees after examination. The appointment will be for such period as the Trustees may determine. The stipend is £140 a year for an Annual Course of Twelve Lectures. Applications, accompanied by not more than three testimonials, should be sent to the Director, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W., not later than December 30, 1905. E. RAY LANKESTER, Director. BRISTOL EDUCATION COMMITTEE. FAIRFIELD SECONDARY SCHOOL. WANTED, experienced FIRST LADY ASSISTANT, who must be graduate or hold equivalent diploma, qualified in Mathematics, Hygiene, and ordinary form subjects. Among other duties, she will be required to supervise, under the Principal, all the girls, to organise school games, &c. Salary, £120, rising by annual increments of £5 to £140 per annum. Application forms, which may be obtained of the SECRETARY, must be received not later than October 25. Education Offices, Guildhall, Bristol, October 16, 1905. ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, CIRENCESTER. CHAIR OF MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. IN-COLLEGE RESIDENT PROFESSORSHIP. The Governing Body invite applications for the above, vacant at Christmas next. Emoluments: Fixed Stipend of £150 per annum; Capitation Fees of about £35 per annum; board and rooms in the College during Session. Applications, with statement of qualifications, age, degree, testimonials, &c., to he addressed to the PRINCIPAL. Admission to the NORTHERN POLYTECHNIG INSTITUTE, HOLLOWAY, LONDON, N. (Close to Holloway Stn., G.N.R., and Highbury Stn., N.L.R.) LONDON UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DEGREES. Day and Evening Courses in the above under recognised teachers in— MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING. Separate Laboratories for Elementary, Advanced and Honours students exceptionally large and well equipped. RESEARCH. Special arrangements for students undertaking research during vacations. Full particulars at the Institute or sent on receipt of postcard. REG. S. CLAY, D.Sc., Principal. LEITH NAUTICAL COLLEGE. The Day Classes for all Nautical subjects, and for the Board of Trade Examinations, are open daily throughout the year. There are Day and Evening Courses in Ship Surgery, Medicine, and Hygiene, with Hospital visits, from November to June. The following Evening Courses (seven months), commencing October 19, are given: (rt) Naval Architecture; (2) Design of Marine Motors; (5) Electricity on Board Ship. _ \ Three public lectures will be delivered by Dr. Bolam on ‘‘ The Chemistry of Dangerous Cargoes,” in January, 1906. There are Fishermen's Classes on Saturdays in December and January. (THEORY AND J. BOLAM, Head Master. COACH | N PRACTICE) In BIOLOGY, BOTANY, CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY for MEDICAL EXAMS. Especial Course of Instruction in THERAPEUTICS, PHARMA- COLOGY and MICROSCOPY for INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY EXAM. Mr. FREDERICK DAVIS, The Laboratories, (Registered in Column B (Advanced Education), Teachers Registration Council, Board of Education, §.W.), 49 and 51 IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C. MATRIC., INTER., FINAL B.A. & B.Sc. AND OTHER ELEMENTARY AND ADVANCED EXAMS. Preparation by Correspondence and in Small Oral Classes. Able staff of high qualifications. Single subjects may be taken—Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, &c. French and German for all exams. Moderate Terms—Individual Assistance—Full Notes, Address—Mr. H. J. SMITH, B.Se. (Lond.), Rosebery House, Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, E.C. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. (IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM.) The Council will shortly appoint a LECTURER in APPLIED MATHEMATICS. Salary to commence at £200 per annum. The Lecturer will be required to assist in the general teaching work of the Mathematical Department. Candidates should send three copies of their application and testimonials to the undersigned, on or before November 1, 1905. F. H. Pruen, Secretary. Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. CITY OF BIRMINGHAM EDUCATION COMMITTEE. The Committee requires the services of an ASSISTANT MASTER for the COUNCIL CENTRAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, Suffolk Street. Salary, £100 to £160 per annum, according to qualifications and experi- ence. Candidates must be qualified in Science and Mathematics. Form of application may be obtained from the undersigned. JNO. ARTHUR PALMER, Secretary. Education Department, Edmund Street, October 9, 1905- Wanted, a good Instrument Maker for Elec- trical, Optical, and general Physical Apparatus. A man is looked for who is capable of taking charge of workshop when required. Good prospects for a suitable man. Apply at once, stating particulars of age, salary and experience, No. 1877. c/o NATURE. OcTOBER 19, 1905 | NATURE ecxliii UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR OF CHEMISTRY. Owing to the appointment of Dr. Alexander McKenzie to the Lectureship in Chemistry at the Birkbeck College, London, applications are invited for the above vacancy. Salary, £175 per annum. Applications, with state- ment of qualifications, age, degree, testimonials, &c., should be immediately addressed to the SEcRETARY, University of Birmingham. Competent Lecturer required to undertake a short Course of Six Weekly Lessons in Elementary Science Topics suitable for railway employees. Remuneration, £1 ts. per lesson. Applicants shoald detail their qualifications and experience, and give some idea of the scope of instruction they would propose to impart, and also the method they would propose to pursue. Apply at once to the SECRETARY, Willesden Polytechnic, Priory Park Road, Kilburn, N.W. TO SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL MASTERS.—January (1)06) Vacancies.—Graduates and other well qualified Masters seeking posts in Public and other Schools for next term should apply at once, giving full details as to qualifications, &c., to Messrs. GrifrviITHs, SmitH, Powe, & Smiru, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Immediate notice of all the best vacancies for Science and Mathl. Masters will be sent. FOR SALE.—18-inch Spark Induction Coil, Newton-Apps, in perfect condition ; also several 1o-inch Spark Coils, Newton-Apps, and others, jet breaks and accessories.—G. Bowron, 57 Edgware Road, London, W. TO SECRETARIES OF LECTURE SOCIETIES AND OTHERS. A Set of LANTERN SLIDES illustrating the beautiful and historic resort of Hastings and St. Leonards and neighbourhood, together with a typed lecture, are now ready and can be had on loan gratis by application to CHARLES A. THARLE, Honorary Secretary, Hastings and St. Leonards Borough Association. APPLY EARLY FOR VACANT DATES. TYPE-WRITiING UNDERTAKEN BY HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN ACCUSTOMED TO SCIEN- TIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Intermediate Arts, Cambridge Higher Local, thorough acquaintance with Modern Languages). Research, Revision, Translation, Scale of charges on application. The Cam- bridge Type-writing Ageucy, 10 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. NEW BOOKS AT SECOND-HAND PRICES. Free on Application.—H. J. GLAISHER’S COMPLETE CATALOGUE of Publisher's Remainders, comprising works in ail Branches of Literature (ineluding the various Departments of Science). Orders by post receive every attention. a So eee H. J. GLAISHER, *°S7"Wiemore street, London W. SECOND-HAND BOOKS. JUST PUBLISHED. ZOOLOGICAL CATALOGUE. Part 3. ENTOMOLOGY. Post free on application, JOHN WHELDON AND CoO., 388 GREAT QUEEN ST., LONDON, W.C. SCIENTIFIC ano EDUGATIONAL BOOKS NEW & SECOND HAND. ue- LARGEST STOCK in LONDON of SECOND- HAND School, Classical, Mechanical, ELEMEN- TARY and ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC BOOKS at about HALF PUBLISHED PRICE, Mathematical, Theological, and Foreign Books. KEYS AND TRANSLATIONS. J. POOLE & CoO. (ESTABLISHED 1854), 104 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. (Formerly of 39 HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND). Bee Enquiries by letter receive immediate attention. THE DECIMAL ASSOCIATION. Office for all Publications :-— 605 SALISBURY HousE, Lonpon Watt, E.C. An explanatory chart of the metric system can now be obtained on application to the Secretary at the above address, price 1/-. Or it can be supplied, mounted on linen, fitted with rollers and varnished, for 5/-. Postage is included in both cases. The chart measures 112 centimetres = 61 centimetres (44 ins. x 24 ins.) The chart was compiled by Mr. J. G. Pilter, of Paris (a member of the Executive Committee), and bears the written approval of Lords Kelvin, Belhaven and Stenton, Avebury, Spencer, and Tweedmouth, Right Hon. H. O. Arnold-Forster, Sir J. T. Brunner, Sir Wm. Huggins, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Wm. Mather, Sir G. L. Molesworth, Sir W. H. Preece, Sir. Wm. Ramsay, Sir Henry Roscoe, Mr. Alex. Siemens, Dr. Selwyn, Dr. Gray, Sir Samuel Montagu and Mr. Dowson; of the Chairman and some of the Members of the Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1895; and of the President and Ex- President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce for the year 1897. in fac-simile, which adds greatly to the interest of the chart. RADIO MM. (BROOM. PUR.) 200 Milligrams of in Stock in : —- 1,800,090 1,2:5,5& 10 mg. tubes units strength. CALCIUM METAL 22% 9%2.2%, or 4 0z. G/- OR SILICIUM CARBORUNDU CARBIDE. Beautiful show crystals, in lumps of 2 0z. upwards, 2/- per oz. Pitchblende, from 2/- to 30/- per piece ; in Powder, 2/6 per oz. Kunzite, selected, 2/- per gramme. Carnotite, 2/- per oz. Aeschynit, 2/- per oz Emanium, 30/- per dewigramme, Sparteite (see Nature, March 31, 1904, page 523), 2/= per piece. Chlorophane, 2/- per piece. Samarskite, 2/- per oz. All the signatures are reproduced Zinc Sulphide, green and yellow, 5/- per tube. 2/6 half tube. Rad. Residue, 2/- pertube. Polonium, 21/- per gram ; 11/-}-gram. Flexible Sandstone, 5/- to 50/-. (see NArure, June 23, 1904, page 185.) Radio-active Mud, 1/6 per bottle. Monazit, 3/- per oz. Monazit Sand, 1/- per oz. — Diamond chips and powder, 10/- per carat (best quality). Eukias, Hiddenit, Wagnerit, Phosgenit, &c., &c. Bar. Plat. Cyan., for Screens, 3/- gramme, 6O/- 07. Crystals, 4/- graume. Screens, 9d. per square inch. Radio-active screens, 6d. per square inch Willemite screens, 6d. per square inch. Electroscope (special), 21/- Spinthariscopes (special), 15/-, 10/6 and 7/6. Selection of Minerals in boxes, 2/6, 5/6, 10/6 and 21/-. ” New Zealand Vegetable Caterpillar, with a stem showing tructification growing out of its head, 10/6 to 21/- each. (See NATURE, May 12, 1904, page 44.) All Post Free within U.K Goods may be returned if not approved of, when money will be refunded. Professional Men, Universities, Schools, &c., allowed special terms. -ARMBRECHT, NELSON & CO., 71 & 73 DUKE ST., GROSVENOR SQ., LONDON, W. ecexliv NA TORE [OCTOBER 19, 1905 SPECIAL NOTICE TO LABORATORIES AND HOSPITALS. For convenience in Stocktaking we are prepared to offer 3 LARGE INDUCTION COILS (of 18 to 24-inch continuous spark) ata VERY CONSIDERABLE REDUCTION off regular prices. 4 priests Coils will all give a very heavy spark of over the length indicated, are most completely fitted, including Variable Primary and Variable Condenser, Platinum Interrupter, Commutator, and Discharging Pillars, and may be seen and tested at any time in our Showrooms, They are of our own highest class workmanship throughout, and similar to those supplied to the leading Universities and Hospitals, and giving the greatest satisfaction under heavy daily work. FURTHER PARTICULARS ON APPLICATION. HARRY W. Cox. it ACTUAL MAKERS of X-Ray, &c., Apparatus to the Admiralty, a b ay War Office, Colonial Office, Indian Government, &c. ja ROSEBERY AVENUE, & 15-21 LAYSTALL STREET, LONDON, E.C. NEON, KRYPTON, XENON, also ARGON, HELIUM. We have now jn stock a number of Vacuum Tubes of the above Gases, GUARANTEED PURE. ADAM HILGER, Ltd., 75a Camden Road, London, N.W. AWARDED GOLD MEDAL, ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION, 10904. ILLUSTRATED PRICE LIST OF SPECTROSCOPES, &c., POST FREE ON APPLICATION. | CHEMICALS | HARE rons For Laboratory, Scientific, and all other purposes. RADIUM SALTS & RADIO-ACTIVE PREPARATIONS. CALCIUM METAL, 1/6 0z.; 20/- lb. Price List on Application. HARRINGTON BROS., Chemical Manujacturers and Dealers, 4 OLIVER’S YARD, CITY ROAD, LONDON, E.C. JAMES SWIFT & SON’S NEW PAN-APLANATIC OBJECTIVES OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE OPTICAL EXCELLENCE. Apochromatics. 4” N.A., 1.30, oil immersion ae Ses ae nee Si 4S 0 We A eee ss 535 ane see “ne anion dO OO alr2o~ 5) 9ns40 3 ste ane ten te sae 8,801 0: Pan-Aplanatics. $” oilimmersion, N.A., 1.30 # sa ay 4 00 Hyp TOES) 4 00 Cae wvate on an Pe oa 5 5 0 Dry Series Pan-Aplanatics. Fae ba) }” N.A.. 0.80 ... 116 0 . 2) 10/50 es PR 5h oe ely eee) as 1 40 hice J ide COGZane sepa 1ON 70) a Narure says:—‘‘In the excellence of their 1/12-in. homogeneous | oil immersion, they have produced an English-made lens of first-rate capacity which is a maryelof cheapness.” LISTS POST FREE ON APPLICATION. UNIVERSITY OPTICAL WORKS, 81 Tottenham Court Road, London. This tube was awarded a Gold Medal at St. Louis Exhibition, 1904. NEW PATENT TUBE FOR SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. Specially adapted for the New Gases << We can now also supply these tubes filled with Neon, Argon, Helium, &c., either singly or in Eeyptons and combination. Shows the Spectrum of enon. any Gas to a degree ever before attainable. J@ See eulogistic report after test, Nature, March 9, page 448. A. GALLENKAMP & GCO., LTD., 19 & 21 SUN STREET, FINSBURY SQUARE, LONDON. E.C. Se SS Se yy SPECTRUM TUBES. | | { a ce Te | il | err ) We are actual makers of Spectrum | { Tubes They are made in the | ‘| “Plucker” form and in “H” form be ZW (as illustrated). Argon or Helium tube s 15/- each. Cadmium tubes ae iat eee AO fete Tubes containing Hydrogen, Oxygen, Water Vapour, Nitroge Carbon Dioxide, Mercury, and Hydrogen and Mercury. 8 s OM (oy ane 6/6 each. “ Plucker” form ... Sealed tubes, containing too c.c. Argon or Helium 25/- ,, A. C. COSSOR, 54 Farringdon Road, London, E.C. Goid Medal Awarded, St. Louis Exhibition, 1904. Telephone, 10547 Central. MICROSCOPIC SLIDES. MARINE ORGANISMS, Hydrozoa, Crustacea, Annelida, &c., polyps extended, without pressure, dark ground or opaque, very beautiful. List. Exhibition Groups of Diatoms, Petrological, &c. Dispersal of Mr. HORNELL'S collection of Slides, Marine and Botanical, from 5d. each. MICROSCOPES, &c. SECOND-HAND. large and ever-changing. stock. ; ( Edinburgh H. with Binocular and Monocular bodies, others including Objectives, Con- densers, Polariscopes, &c., by Watson, Ross, Powell and Lealand, Beck, Pillischer, Reichert, Leitz, &c. Prismatic Binoculars, Lantern Slides, Mounting Materials. Lists. Mr. HERBERT CLARKE, 104 LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON Tel. :—1316 CENTRAL. HOPKIN & WILLIAMS, Ltd. 16 GROSS STREET, HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C, ___ Works—ILFORD, E. PURE CHEMICALS For TEACHING, RESEARCH, and TECHNOLOGY. REVISED Price List. OcTOBEK 19, 1905] Nel LORE VOGEL’S SPECTROGRAPH. Two prisms of dense flint-glass enclosed in a strong brass case, to which the colli- mator and the camera are attached ; collimator of r$in. aperture and 18in. focal length, with adjustable slit with micrometer- screw and dividing-drum ; the camera is furnished with. an achromatic double objective of 2in. aperture and 29in. focal » length ; size of plate, 7}in. by 5in. Can be seen at my Showrooms as below. DELIVERY FROM STOCK. PETER: .HEELE, 115 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C. Maker of Physical, Chemical, and other Instruments, and every kind of Spectroscope and Polarimeters. GRAND PRIX, PARIS, 1900; ST. ‘““ARCTITUDE, LOUIS, 109004. Telegrams: LONDON.” W. WILSON. STUDENT’S SPECTROMETER. . Telescope and prisi Yiable reading to 1 min.; clamp and fine adjustment to both. Rack-motion to tele- scope ; prism table adjustable vertically and horizontally. Ad- justable slit to colli- mator. Protected In case. = == circle. Price £6 Oo oO A very large number of these instruments have been sold, and have given exceptional satisfaction. 1 BELMONT STREET, LONDON, N.W. BBPOBP OP LP LP LP LPP LLL LOLOL I THe PHOTO AUTOGOPYIST (a simplified form of Collotype without elaborate plant) for repro- ducing from negatives splendid permanent prints, in any colour, equal to Silver, Platinotype, or Bromide prints. From 55/- im Nature says:—‘“As a means of quickly obtaining per- manent prints from photographic negatives it should prove extremely useful.” THE BLACK “ BOX,” a light, compact, folding, portable, cloth dark-room, on the umbrella principle. Indispensable to Amateur Photographers, &c., for changing plates in daylight 3mB- Nature says:—'* Useful to every photographer, Amateur or Prrfessional, whilst travelling.” whether LT Write for Specimens, &c., or call and see these useful Inventions. AUTOCOPYIST CO. (Dept. 1), 64 Queen Victoria St., London. SELF-LUMINOUS RADIUM SCREENS (GLEW’S PATENT), 5s. each. Always visible in the dark at a distance of many yards. Radium Sereens are charming objects in the microscope, giving a magnificent display of Seintillations. F. HARRISON GLEW, RADIOGRAPHER, 156 CLAPHAM ROAD, LONDON, S.W. LIQUID AIR ano LIQUID HYDROGEN. Dr. HAMPSON’S AIR-LIQUEFIER is now made to a standard pat- tern, and numbers are in use in University Laboratories and elsewhere in various countries. The whole apparatus is neat and compact and its paris very easily moved ; the Liquefier, without stand, being a cylinder 17 inche: high and 8 inches in diameter. It begins to liquefy air in from 6 to ro minutes after the admission of air at from 150 to 200 atmospheres pressure, making over a litre of liquid per hour. It requires no auxiliary refrigerant and producesa perfectly clear liquid which requires no filtering The onerator has only one gauge to watch and one valve to control. HYDROGEN I.1QUEFIER to the designs of Dr. MORRIS W. TRAVERS for use in conjunction with Air-Liquefier. For Prices and Particulars apply to the Sole Makers :— BRIN’S OXYGEN COMPANY, LIMITED, ELVERTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. ccxlvi NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 CST 8 AT LT, REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Lv.] [CARL ZEISS, ae crak eatG J E Ni A. Furnishers & Manufacturing : BRANCHES Chemists. LONDON—29 Margaret Street, Regent Street, W. Berlin. Frankfort o/M. Hamburg. Vienna. St. Petersburg. Special Apparatus Set “A,” P 1 Cc for 130 MODELS, aimos ameras. Consterdine and 30/- t Andrews’ Set “B.” (ea ‘* Practical 2 : Arithmetic.” 70 MODELS, WITH i FOCAL PLANE SHUTTER. Fitted with ZEISS LENSES. SIzEs :—69 and 9X12 cm., and 3}-in. X4-in. and 5-in. Xq4-in. Also 918 cm. for Stereo and Panorama. SUITABLE FOR PLATES, PACK FILMS AND DESCRIPTIVE LIST POST FREE. ROLL FILMS. 14. COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. | aes Catalogue, ‘‘ Pn,” Post Free on application. | GALVANOMETER LAMP & SCALE. SS] The lamp-tubes are fitted with Nernst Lamps. A _ brilliant spot is obtained enabling the | observer to work in subdued | daylight. The lamp and scale may be placed horizontally or vertically. Price, with Stand, Lamp and Seale, 52 7: 5 =: @ | Price, without Scale, HI > 12: S IMMEDIATE DELIVERY. THE GAMBRIDCE SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT CO., Lro, CARLYLE ROAD, CAMBRIDGE. | NATURE 601 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1905. MECHANICS FOR STUDENTS. a, School Course. By W. D. Eggar, (London: Edward Arnold, 1905.) Mechanics, Pp. viii+288. Price: 3s. 6d. Elements of Mechanics. By Prof. Mansfield Merri- man. Pp. 172. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 1 dollar net. An Intermediate Course Porters Pp. viii+422. Price 5s. R. EGGAR is doing good work in the move- ment which aims at the extension of quanti- tative measurements in the courses of mathematical studies for youths, and a school book of mechanics from the author of the well known experimental introduction to geometry is sure to be received with favour and interest by teacher and pupil alike. We may say at once that readers are not likely to be disappointed, for the experimental work on which the fundamental principles are based is_ simple, suggestive, and thorough, and the essence of the subject is not obscured by an undue amount of mathe- matical dressing. The first five chapters are concerned with the verifi- ‘cation and elucidation of Newton’s laws of motion, and some very efficient apparatus is introduced and described in this admittedly difficult portion of the subject; we agree with the author that “ velocities, accelerations, moments, work, and momentum can be made clear to a student if he has to them.’’ Experiments of Galileo by means of which the laws of falling bodies were discovered are intro- duced with suitable modifications; a clever method of measuring time by the use of a vibrating spring carrying a paint brush (due to Mr. Fletcher) is employed, and altogether this section, treating Ixinetics experimentally, is most interesting and very satis- factory. The next five chapters relate to statics and the equilibrium of forces, and the remaining portion of the book deals with work, friction, simple machines, projectiles, circular and simple harmonic motions, stress and strain, and fluids. There is little in the book to which exception can be taken. When the author seems to imply that the unit of force in the ‘‘ engineer’s ’’ system is a variable quantity, he appears to misapprehend the system. The experiments on change of motion are confined to straight-line motion. The student would have been led to a more comprehensive view of the subject if there could have been introduced an experiment illus- trating vector change in plane motion, accompanied by the plotting of a hodograph. Then, instead of resorting to an antiquated and non-instructive proof for the acceleration in uniform circular motion, the hodograph could have been used to illuminate the principle that force is the time rate of change of momentum. The test is arranged NO. 1877, VOL. 72] of Mechanics. By A. W. (London: John Murray.) measure so that statics can be taken before kinetics if this procedure is thought desirable, but the sequence adopted by Mr. Eggar seems to us the right one. In addition to the experimental work, numbers of good and suggestive exercises are pro- vided at appropriate intervals. The author has succeeded in producing a most admirable text-book, and one which we should like to see largely used throughout the schools of the country. The aim of Prof. Merriman in his volume introduce mechanics to young engineering students in a manner whereby the principles are established by constant appeals to experience, and are not lost sight of by the introduction of a mass of algebraical matter. The intention is good, but the experience should be that gained first-hand by the student him- self from experimental work in a laboratory. The method employed by the author is to base the science on axioms which the reader has to take largely on trust. After the first four pages, six of these are suddenly introduced. Thus :—‘‘ Axiom 1. Where only one force acts on a body, it moves in a straight line in the direction of that force.”’ is to As a professor of civil engineering, the author naturally gives more attention to statics than to dynamics. In fact, the latter branch is very feebly presented, and the subject does not gain by the sub- stitution of the axioms for Newton’s laws. For example, the fundamental principle that impulse is equal to change of momentum is nowhere found. For the acquirement of a knowledge of the subject reliance is largely placed on the working of the four hundred problems, mostly numerical, which are spread over the book. In Prof. Porter’s elementary text-book of theoretical mechanics the subject is presented so as to appeal to physicists rather than to engineers. Students read- ing for the intermediate pass examination of London University will find the book very helpful. A few experiments in verification of the laws of mechanics are described, but the treatment is almost wholly deductive. The author begins by discussing the kinematics and kinetics of the rectilinear motion of a rigid body, and is very happy in his explanations of the fundamental conceptions of space, time, mass, momentum, &c., particular attention being paid to the units of measurement and to the change from one units to In defining the. several systems, however, the author seems to be mistaken in his view that the unit of force adopted by engineers is a variable one depending upon latitude. The consideration of the mechanics of a particle is preceded by a chapter on the addition of vectors, in which some elementary trigonometry is intro- duced. The author might here have improved his definitions of the trigonometrical ratios for angles of any magnitude by making use of the projections of a rotation vector. The action of couples and the dynamics of rigid bodies having plane motion are next considered, and very logically, but here a additional experiments personally carried out would have materially added to the student’s grip of this somewhat difficult part of the subject. There is a chapter dealing mathematically Ge set of another. few 602 NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 | with some simple mechanical contrivances such as the wedge, screw, lever, and pulley; another on simple harmonic motion, in which the pendulum is rather fully dealt with; and then follows a chapter devoted to the mechanics of fluids, and comprising an examination of the stability of floating bodies. The book concludes with a chapter on units and dimensions. Sets of examples are given, the numerical answers being collected at the end of the volume. Specimens of recent intermediate science examination papers of University College in connection with the University of London are appended. Some will regret that the author doés not assume a slight acquaintance with the Calculus such as must be possessed by most readers of the book. But taken altogether the subject is dealt with very thoroughly, and developed naturally and logically, and the book deserves a wide circula- tion. MUSIC OF SINGING-BIRDS. Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music. By F. Schuyler Mathews. | Pp. xxxv+262. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s 2 dollars, HIS is a very pretty little book, with many charm- ing illustrations of American singing-birds, and numerous attempts to represent their songs in our musical notation. It would seem as if the songs of American birds lent themselves more readily than those of our European species to such notation, for this is by no means the first attempt of this kind which has recently been made on the other side of the water. The present reviewer is under the dis- advantage of not having heard these birds in their native land, and is quite ready to believe that Mr. Mathews’s musical notations may give an American some vague idea of what his birds sing; at the same time, as one whose knowledge of music is even older than his knowledge of birds, he must emphatically express a hope that British ornithologists will not imitate their American brethren in trying to render our familiar songs on this system. Our music is a highly artificial product, subject to strict limitations which have gradually been placed upon it as the art has developed in the course of many centuries; and to attempt to catch and (so to speak) to tame the songs of wild birds, bringing them forcibly under conditions which entirely deprive them of their natural freedom in regard to pitch, scale, time, and rhythm, is in almost all cases to do them cruel violence. A very few of our birds—the cuckoo, for example, and the song-thrush—have vocal utterances which can be expressed on our musical scale; but by far the greater number can only be represented in the amusing way in which Mr. Mathews has noted the song of the bobolink on pp. 50 and 51—by a cloudy jumble of notes and lines above the stave, which suggests a flute-player gone mad. The sentence which he has prefixed to this curious bit of notation really explains his object and method, and forbids us to take him too scientifically. He says, “If one prefers not to interpret bird-music, but to take it from Nature exactly as it comes, this NO. 1877, VOL. 72] Sons, 1904.) Price bit that follows may prove acceptable.’’ What he has really been trying to do, it seems, is to interpret bird-music, by which he means that he has listened to it with a musical mind, and has gained from it certain musical impressions, which he again interprets to us in the language of our musical art, not only in the form of melody confined in the fetters of our musical scale, but in many cases enriched with ingenious accompanying harmonies. The reader will find a good illustration of this method in the treat- ment of the song of the American song-sparrow, pp- 110 foll. It is the method pursued by all who seriously attempt to transfer the notes of birds to music-paper, though it may be doubted whether they would all acknowledge this as frankly as Mr. Mathews. It follows that our knowledge of bird- music is not really increased by these efforts, charm- ing and interesting as they often are to the musician; for what is put upon paper is not the song of the bird, but an interpretation of it by an artistic mind. Taken in this light, this little book may give much pleasure, and may add a_good deal to our knowledge of some delightful American songsters. Ws W.UE: OUR BOOK SHELF. Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnet- ismus des Menschen. By Dr. Erik Harnack. Pp. 65. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905.) Price 1.60 marks. Tue author tales a pocket-compass, about the size of a lady’s watch, with metal case and watch-glass top, and having placed it on a level surface lightly rubs the glass with the tip of his finger. The needle is imme- diately deflected from the magnetic meridian, remain- ing so for a minute or more, and then returning to its original position. That magnetism has nothing to do with it is shown by the fact that the same phenomenon occurs when for the magnet there is substituted a needle cf nickel, platinum, zinc, bis- muth, or ivory, although the absence in such cases of a directive force makes it more difficult to observe. Static charges, apparently much stronger, are with- out effect. Some people can influence the needle much more than others, and the author’s power is not always equally strong. Quantitative experiments were undertaken by the author to measure the E.M.F. induced by rubbing a glass plate of the same size and shape in the same manner. Using a Braun electrometer graduated up to 1500 volts, the maximum value obtained by him was 1300 volts. It seems evident that a strong electric charge is developed on a part of the glass sur- face by the friction of the finger upon it, and that the needle being free to move, and, moreover, in metallic connection with the case, is attracted by the charged surface. This is not disputed by the author, his contention being that the magnitude of the effect is out of alf proportion to the force expended, and that, there- fore, it is not due to physical but to physiological causes set in action by the slight friction of the finger- tips. In the present writer’s opinion this contention is certainly not substantiated. The total energy of the charge of a condenser composed of a compass-needle and a square centimetre or so of glass with a P.D. of a thousand or, for that matter, of ten thousand volts is trifling, and since the worl: actually done consists in the mere turning of the needle through go°, one is driven to ask whether if a cocoon fibre were attached to the end of the needle and to the OcTOBER 19, 1905] NATURE 603 operator’s finger he would be able to feel the pull of the earth’s magnetic force upon it. The work done by a few light touches of the finger must be amply sufficient to furnish all the energy required to deflect the needle. But to a modern electrician it certainly seems a remarkably efficient transformation. GEORGE J. Burcu. An Introduction to the Study of Colour Phenomena. By Joseph W. Lovibond. Pp. 48; 10 coloured plates. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd.; New York: Spon and Chamberlain, 1905.) Price 5s. net. Tne author states that his object has been to supply the long-felt want of a power of recovering a given colour sensation and of a colour nomenclature by which that sensation may be quantitatively described. To this end ‘‘ scales of red, yellow and blue were constructed of glass slips, the slips of each scale being all of one colour with a regular variation in intensity from o.or to 20 units, equal units of the three scales being in colour equivalence with each other. . . . The test of equivalence is that a white light viewed through equal units of the three scales should give no evidence of colour. . . . The fogs on Salisbury Plain furnished the light actually used.” It was found that red, yellow, and blue were the only colours suitable for systematic work, and that any colour could be produced by their combination. The dimensions of the unit are, it is said, necessarily arbitrary, but the scale-divisions are equal, while the unit itself is recoverable. The colour to be tested is matched by that of the light transmitted by one of the glasses, or by several superposed, equality of luminosity being secured, when necessary, by the interposition of a neutral- tinted combination between the eye and the coloured object. A specification of the glasses employed is registered, according to certain rules, as a formula which defines in terms of the author’s constants the colour ‘* developed,’’ and supplies data for its future reproduction. To those who are accustomed to regard the spec- trum as the natural basis of colour experiment the author’s method cannot but appear crude and un- scientific; but, given a sufficient supply of carefully selected glasses, it is probable that much useful work might be done in a rough and ready way by its means. An example occurs in the quantitative study of the colour of the human blood in health and in disease, which is illustrated in plate vi. The book concludes with an exposition of Mr. Lovibond’s new theory of colour. Index Phytochemicus. By Drs. J. C. Ritsema and J. Sack. With introduction by Dr. M. Greshoff. Pp. 86. (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy.) Dr. GRESHOFF explains in the introduction to this volume that it originated in a card index to the literature of plant chemistry compiled for use in the laboratory of the Colonial Museum at Haarlem, where the work carried on consists principally of the investi- gation of the proximate constituents of plants. The index enumerates the names of more than two thousand plant constituents, and gives in each case the percentage composition, formula, melting or boil- ing point, and at least one reference to the literature —usually Beilstein’s ‘‘ Handbuch,’’ though in a few cases the references are to original papers. The volume also contains a short but useful bibliography of plant chemistry. The information given in the tables, so far as can be judged from trials in a few cases, appears to be accurate, and the index should prove useful to chemists engaged in the investigation of plant products. No. 1877, VOL. 72] LETEERS LO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | Eclipse Predictions. Ir is always interesting to compare the results of observ- ation with those predicted by calculation. In the ease of the recent total eclipse of the sun this is rendered. difficult by the want of agreement in the predictions of the two most used authorities, the Nautical Almanac and_ the Connaissance des Temps. The discrepancies in the pre- dicted duration of totality and of the breadth of the band traced on the earth’s surface by the total phase are made apparent in the following table. It is compiled from the table in the Nautical Almanac headed ‘‘ Limits of total phase of the Solar Eclipse,’’ and the corresponding table in the Connaissance des Temps entitled ‘‘ Limites de VEclipse totale et Durée de la Phase totale sur la Ligne centrale.’’ Entries for as nearly as possible the same time in each table have been taken and are placed together :— Column A contains the authority, Nautical Almanac (N.A.) or Connaissance des Temps (C.T.). Column B contains the time (G.M.T.) for which each prediction is made. Column C contains the calculated distance (in nautical miles) and the bearing of the northern limit of totality from the corresponding southern limit. Column D contains the durations of totality on the central line as predicted by the one authority: and (in brackets) as interpolated from the prediction of the other. Column E contains the differences of these pairs of | values. A B @ D E 1905 Aug. 30 Distance Bearing N.A. ‘Cu G.M.T. h. m. A a secs. secs. secs. Gyo TUR a5posteiN ae Glew. “(1 S04)) e200 cet N.A. 0 24 IOI*5 Br ee 200°6 ... (208) ...7°6 CaO 532... £095, Pee e788 w(2DL)) eee ZLOn eyo) N.A. 0 36 102 pe IE. wes HUI (BNC) oas 5/77 Cilworsor3 114 Bete gae (22032) Pe. 2 2 One ES: N.A. 0 48 104 pO Naot (sey 2 Olas (22704) hee Cale na7E0 116°5 WNC an coe (HE) cas ARH fe N.A. 1 8'0 104 poesia S228) here (2g 12) eerie INDAC HIS 2h ee TOSES TRO (asians e220 +7 tensa (22010) EG CYR ei 2450). ulors Set bong. sean (2202) ras 2 27 em Cee TeASialy ertli lily coe Ras 5 (Bei) 3 ih bop sys) N.A. 1 44 1c6 Bsa Aas 20854) 2.2 (254)! e570: It will be seen that, for stations in Spain and the adjacent Mediterranean, the duration of totality on the central line was predicted by the French authority to be from seven to eight seconds longer than by the British authority. In the same region, the width of the band of totality is from ten to eleven nautical miles greater by the French than by the British prediction. The orientation of the line connect- ing the two limits of totality also differs considerably in the two tables. It is reported that at Sousse and Gabes, two towns in Tunisia, the eclipse was partial, while a total eclipse had been predicted for them. The prediction for these places would surely rest on French authority: we are therefore entitled to conclude that the mistake has been made by the French calculators. An excessive estimate of the width of the band of totality would almost certainly be accom- panied by an excessive estimate of the duration of totality, and the table shows that both estimates are considerably greater in the Connaissance des Temps than in the Nautical Almanac. J. Y. Bucuanan. October 13. Absence of Vibration in a Turbine Steamship. RETURNING homeward to Paris the middle of September from the Tripoli eclipse, and finding passage to America difficult to obtain, I chanced to learn that the triple-screw turbine steamer R.M.S. Virginian was sailing from Liver- pool for Montreal on September 30, so I was very glad to have the opportunity of a voyage in a ship full powered With this novel type of propulsion. After a week on board I have no hesitation in saying that for freedom from 604 the nerve-annoying tremors incident to the usual recipro- cating engines, the Virginian has proved far and away the quietest steamship I have ever voyaged on. Excellent evidence ‘of ‘this, I think, lies in the exceptionally large number of passengers who dined comfortably in the saloon at the roughest period of our entire passage. There was a fairly’ heavy sea on, and the ship was by no means free from wave-origined motion. So.I am quite of the opinion that sea-sickness and all its train of discomforts must be greatly aggravated by the eéngine-borne tremors of the ordinary steamship, and that many people who are delicate sailors under ordinary conditions might take ocean journeys with comparative comfort in a turbined ship. So unostentatious are the ‘rotary engines of the Virginian, let alone their occupying but one- -fourth the space of the usual expansion engines, that the quietness of their powerful and effective working, in every part of the ship, was continually deceiving one into thinking that the vessel had lost headway, or might have come to anchor . altogether. Especially was this true in the dining saloon, that most critical of all spots, where one could rarely detect so much as a ripple on water in a glass, although going ahead at full speed of 15 knots. To my mind the Virginian seemed to behave all the voyage quite-as if her motive power were entirely without her; in fact, she could scarcely have ridden more smoothly, or with less of that exasperating vibration (the unceasing action of which, I am convinced, is a prominent factor in inducing mal de mer), if she had been towed at the identical speed by a huge hawser. Davip Topp. R.M.S. Virginian, Straits of Belle Isle, October 4. A Parasite of the House-fly. REVERTING to the recent correspondence under this head- ing between Mr. Davenport Hill and Prof. Hickson (NaTurE, August. 24 and 31), I recall that a few years back many house-flies with Chelifers attached were sent to me at the Natural History Museum for determination of the species and explanation of the phenomenon. The first task was as easy as the second was difficult. The Cheélifer was in most, nay in all, cases, so far as my memory serves, Chernes nodosus. But those who suggest that the explanation is to ‘be sought and found in the value of the habit as a means of securing dispersal hardly realise, I think, the ‘difficulties in the way of its acceptance. Chelifers ‘are’ minute,’ active, and, for arthro- pods, not exceptionally prolific. Hence the sufficiency of “elbow-room ”’ for the survivors of a family of, say, forty, on the site chosen by the female for her progeny does not coincide with the view that they have special need of transportation. Moreover, when we remember that a Chelifer attached to a fly is exposed to the danger of being killed by the enemies of that insect, and also to the great chance of being landed in a wholly unsuitable environ- ment, it can hardly be maintained that the advantage derived from this method of dispersal has been a sufficiently important factor in survival to preserve and foster an initial instinct to grab and hang on‘to the legs of flies. That the aérial porterage thus secured, whether fortuitously ”* must be a means of dispersal is too but I do not think more than that since it is as likely to end in failure or ** intentionally, obvious to dispute ; can be claimed for it, as in success. , : Chelifers may be found not uncommonly beneath the wing-cases of large beetles. Presumably this habitat has been adopted for the sake of the food supplied by the parasitic mites infesting-the. beetles. This fact, I think, suggests a line of investigation which may lead to a more satisfactory explanation of the association between Chelifers and flies than that put forward in Prof. Hickson’s letter. Zoological Gardens, October 14. Re, ieROcoGk. Incandescence of Meteors, Ir is with great diffidence that I approach this difficult subject, but the theory that the incandescence of meteors is due to the heat generated by the friction between these bodies and the molecules of gas composing our atmosphere NO. 1877, VOL. 72 | NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 I have ‘always found difficult to believe. The following theory is one which has occurred to me, and seems quite a- plausible one. Meteors are usually of a metalliferous nature, and consequently will have a comparatively low electrical resistance. When they approach the earth they will enter a magnetic field, and they will cut the lines of force of this field at a high velocity. A high electrical potential will be generated, and consequently electric currents which: will be inversely proportional to the resist- The electrical energy thus produced will be dissi- ance. pated in heat, and if of sufficient intensity will raise the meteor to incandescence. The truth or otherwise of this theory could, I believe, be calculated, as the data necessary for doing so will be at the disposal of readers of NaTURE who make this branch of astronomy their study. This theory may have already been advanced, as I am not in touch with the latest developments of the science. Coatbridge, September 5. Georce A. Brown. Tue electric currents which the author of the above letter regards as possibly constituting an efficient source of the luminosity of meteors must no doubt arise, and play a certain part in the heat and light development.’ But the measure in which they can be “supposed to contribute to it must clearly be extremely small; or rather, it must be incomparably subordinate to the intense ignition of the air produced, not at all by friction,’ but by the air’s adiabatic compression against the front surface of the meteorite , which is certainly quite competent, by itself alone, to dev elop what may be said to approach pretty nearly to fabulous degrees of temperature. If the kinetic energy of translation, in foot-pounds (v?/2g), of 1 lb. of the air propelled (at, say, 30 miles per second) with the meteor’s speed (v' feet/sec.) on its front ‘face, be divided by 330; the: number thus obtained (1,180,620° C., in the case.supposed) will be the number of centigrade ‘degrees ‘through which it will be heated by the pure process of compression, supposing that the air can continye to subsist at all ‘with ,its ordinary mechanical deportment and thermodynamical, properties un- affected at that enormously high ‘temperature, In the further forward, gradually advancing | layers} and in the laterally escaping currents of the air, on which®the high forward speed of the’ meteor is énly,' partially impressed, and which move more slowly on their various courses, the compressions are ‘correspondingly ‘less,sand the lower but still exceedingly high temperatures can beysimilarly caleu- lated" from any fair estimatés»of the ‘air’s. collective or absolute vélocity of translation in those different positions. It is in the different: rates of transport of these heated air-streams, all of them, as well as the highly attenuated motionless atmosphere around, affording very easy passage- ways to electricity, across the earth’s ,magnetic field or system of lines of magnetic force, that fitting circuits can certainly be found (either passing through, or else: entirely omitting the meteorite itself), in which, in ‘the way suggested in the above etter, electric currents may be quite certainly concluded to be smagneto- electrically induced. For while one part of a closed air-circuit resting against the meteorite’s front surface, and another part of it situated in-the still atmosphere in front’ of or behind it,’ would be journeying towards or from each other’ with fulf meteor- speed, the circuits so composed would be most ‘Suitably conditioned for developing induced currents round them by 1 Although a very general belief, it is as yet an entirely mistaken supposition that the high speed of impact of a meteorite into the rarer regions of the atmosphere reduces the air, by giving it no time to dissipate itself in front of the meteorite, to a state of granulation, or to a wedged throng of- molecules producing heat by friction ze se and against the surface of the meteorite. Just the reverse of this condition. is, however, really true, that the air remains a perfectly and frictionlessly elastic fluid, however much it is com- pressed and intensely heated by the impact. The speeds of sound-waves in the heated air which perform the office of transmitting and maintaining the orderly array of pressures in the streaming flows, at length differ in defect, in fact, from the air’s speeds themselves in proportions which, as those mount up to meteor-speeds of mz any miles per second, only decline asymp- totically to about the ratio 1:5, or nearly’ 1:2}. Sifce, then, these sound-waves, whick convey the strokes and shocks of the collision to and fro -between ‘the meteor-centre and the surrounding air, arise and travel in the moving field of the compressed air as if it were at rest, it is easy to perceive that by their extremely rapid actions a most exceptionally perfect elastic-fluid relation, or steady disposition of the lines, ‘or lanes of air-flow and blast-pressyre, must really be established and maintained in evenly persistent shapes and contour, in the swirl of incandescent air which forms the meteor’s head. OcTOBER 19, 1905 | NATURE 605 their quickly altering enclosures of a constantly changing number of the earth’s lines of magnetic force, while thus rapidly opening out or closing up. But the very short extent, not probably much exceeding some few feet or yards, which the swiftest moving part of such a circuit, in meteor- nuclei of various sizes, would embrace, and again the oft- proved weakness of the earth's magnetic field for exciting such induced~electric currents, scarcely allow us to expect that any very high voltages would be attained in even the most select cases and the most favourable choices: of con- ditions of such meteoritically produced air-circuits. The hottest, and therefore also probably the best conducting portion of each current’s path, compressed against the meteorite’s front surface, would also not, presumably, be that in which the heat and light producing action of the current would be strongest, since this would rather be used up in producing brush and glow discharges through the more resisting portion of the circuit in thé’ outer air. The intericr parts ‘themselves of’ stony meteorites, when: they have fallen, have not been found, by either sight or touch, to furnish any proofs of having been much heated,’ but~ irtense effects of heat and fusion on the outer surfaces of fallen meteorites are always very obvious. While nothing seems to point to any very easily dis- cernible actions of electric currents immediately around a meteor’s head, unless we may ascribe to electric agency the occasional production of an ‘* aura’’ of sparks, or of a misty envelope of light enshrouding it, the stream of heated dust and vapours which travel in a meteor’s wake, extending to considerable widths and lengths, as may be often noted, is perhaps a more visibly displayed, and a more evidently and distinctly active scene of luminous dis- charges of induced electric currents: for the accumulated flow behind the meteor-head resembles in some degree a columnar, vaporous follower of the metecrite itself, left to pursue its course along the meteor-track when the nucleus has disappeared. Being thus virtually a shooting-star of a long-extended shape, but of too dwarfed velocity to raise itself by heat to incandescence, the same induced electric currents as were above inferred tu be developed in the meteor’s head would here continue to evince themselves along the column by glow discharges in the vapours and the outer air, so long as sufficiently swift flow of the vapours can be persistently maintained through the retard- ing resistances of the opposing atmosphere. Thus a fairly intelligible rarson d’étre by electric current interventions may not impossibly have been incidentally divulged, by means of the recourse proposed by Mr. Brown to magneto- electric actions, of the long-enduring light-streaks left along the paths of all the swifter class of shooting-stars and larger meteors; the real modus operandi of those streaks having always presented to meteor observers a mysterious question for discussion, never admitting hitherto of satis- factory solution by known experimental illustrations, or of any quite’ surely scund elucidation by less trustworthy con- jectures. : 5 AC SG He A R re Game Bird. I THINK it is worth recording that on Thursday, October 5, Sub-Lieut. H. R. Sawbridge, R.N., shot a quail, Perdix coturnix, on Lopham Fen, close to the rising of the waters, the common source of the Waveney and the Ouse, near Diss, Norfolk. S The bird, either a hen or a ycung male, was very fat— a beautiful little specimen. : The last quail known (by me) to have been shot in this neighbourhood was in the "fifties of the last century, by Mr. Henry Button, of this parish. — es I understand that this bird was much more frequently found in the middle of last century in the’ neighbourhood of Great Yarmouth, and that, as a rule, it was found singly, as this was, in the autumn. It is being preserved by Mr. Cole, of Norwich. What was a little foreign bird like this doing singly and alone on our éastern counties’ heaths and fens? Is it a case of-lost or strayed, or what is it? It would be interesting to know whether other specimens of the quail have been heard of inland in the eastern counties of late years. Joun S. SawsripGeE. Thelnetham Rectory, Diss, Norfolk, October 16. NO. 1877, VOL. 72] = ' PHYSICAL LABORATORIES IN GERMANY. ‘T-HE Director-General of Education in India has just published a valuable work in a report by Prof. Kichler, of the. Presidency College, Calcutta, on physical: laboratories in Germany. + It forms one of a number to be included in a volume of the series of occasional reports. . : pal Prof. Ktichler. ‘‘ was placed on special duty. to in- quire into (1) the methods adopted at the universities and. polytechnics .of+ Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and other prominent universities and technical- institu- tions in Germany with regard both ‘to’ the. ordinary study of physical science and to the character of the {mvestigations and the system pursued in the case of students who are entering upon a course. of inde- péndent research: (2) The construction and equip- mént .of modern! German - laboratories,...the; special merits of scientific instruments of German manufac- ture, and the facilities for standardising these, instru- ments which are offered at central institutions in Germany.”’ In the course of his tour, lasting more than six weeks, the principal universities and technical schools were visited, and the report sums up the information in a useful manner. It is naturally divided into two sections corresponding to the’ two parts ,of the reference; the first deals with the methods of study, the second treats of the conStruction, methods of equipment, &c., of the laboratories. The training of the university undergraduate ' of necessity) differs from that of the pupil of the high school, and both methods are described at some length. Attention is directed to the importance of the set lecture! in the scheme of education; the number of lectures given during the session in a university such as Berlin is very considerable, and each lecturer has the’ use of a properly equipped lecture-room and apparatus. The importance of the organised teaching of prac- tical physics, for medical students, chemists, and engineers, in addition to the professed physicist, is now realised in Germany, and in an appendix, which, however, is not printed in the report, details of the practical instruction at some of the universities and technical colleges are given. In view of the large number of students in some of the German] univer- sities, the numbers attending practical classes, as given on p. 7, seem small. At Berlin there are 140 students in two divisions, each under three assistants. The average number:of students in the charge of a single assistant comes to twenty-two or twenty-three, which is probably about the same as in one of our well organised English courses. Students who propose to take a degree in physics work usually for two years at a dissertation. Prof. Kiichler specially directs attention to the fact “ that students are discouraged from commencing the final stages of their labours. before they have. been thoroughly trained in practical manipulation and have carefully gone through a complete course of laboratory worl such as represented, say, by Kohlrausch’s very elaborate handbook.’’ This fact is sometimes conveniently forgotten by those who urge the adoption of the introduction of research worl at an earlier stage in our English training; the average number of these research students is said to be five or six, though, of course, at Berlin, as indeed at Cambridge, the number is much larger. To illustrate the construction and equipment of the laboratories, Prof. Kiichler has given in full the plans of a number of representative institutions, and these plans form a most valuable part of the report. They will enable a professor building or organising a ' 1A Report to the Director-General of Education in India by Pref. G W- Kiichler. is 606 NATURE [OCTOBER 19, 1905 laboratory in India to see readily the arrangements which have commended themselves in Germany, and the report directs attention to the modifications which will be needed to adapt them to Indian conditions. Perhaps the details which strike an English student most are the number and size of the lecture- rooms, the accommodation provided for the museum, and the absence of rooms specially designed for elementary classes of large numbers. The Director-General deserves the gratitude of all interested in the organisation of the teaching of physics for having initiated this work, and Prof. Kuchler is to be congratulated on the manner he has carried out his task. Still, a companion volume is needed. British physical many admirable to-day have that described laboratories of points. A book TAME ESSEX PEED Gr thbe ie order to mark the completion of a quarter of a century’s scientific worl in the county of Essex, the above society has published the first issue of a ““Vearbook and Calendar’? which will be found of interest to all who follow the worl of our local scientific societies. This extremely active association was founded in 1880 by Mr. William Cole, the first president being Prof. Meldola. The work of the club has been noticed from time to time in our columns, and the present ‘* Yearbook ’’ contains, as an appro- priate opening chapter, a history of the society by Mr. Miller Christy, who is now president. That the club has carried out the objects for which it was founded, and that it has more’ than justified its exist- ence, is made perfectly clear in this introductory ti ER ror ie Fic. 1.—The Essex Museum of Natural History, Romford Road, Stratford, Essex. the new laboratories at Liverpool, Manchester, the Royal College of Science, and the McGill Uni- versity at Montreal, to say nothing of the historic laboratories in our two ancient universities, would contain much to interest those inhabitants of India to whom Prof. Kuchler’s report appeals, while in many respects, specially, perhaps, in the organisation of the practical worl for large classes, the arrange- ments in the English laboratories seem to have the advantage. In dealing with the last part of his subject, the construction and standardisation of instruments, Prof. Kichler again rightly directs attention to the important services rendered to German industry by the Reichsanstalt and the disadvantages under which English manufacturers find themselves from the incomplete equipment of the National Physical Laboratory. 7 No. 1877, vou. 72] chapter. As the author says, “‘ there is in Essex no other organised scientific body having the same or similar aims.”’ The actual scientific achievements of the club were fully set forth in an address delivered by Prof. Meldola at the annual meeting in 1901.2 As regards publi- cations, the output has been not only large in quantity, but, what is more to the point, excellent in quality and strictly appropriate to the functions of a local society. Five volumes of Tyansactions and Proceedings were published down to 1887, after which the official publication was named the Essex Naturalist. The fourteenth volume of the latter is — | ‘Yearbook and Calendar for 1905-6." Edited by William Cole. (The ee s Headquarters, and Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., Ltd.) rice 18 2 “The Coming of Age of the Essex Field Club’? (recor), Copies can be obtained on application to the Hon. Librarian, Mr. T. W. Reader, Essex Museum, Remford Road, Stratford, Essex. OcTOBER 19, 1905] NATURE €07 now in course of publication. In addition to the | above periodicals, three ‘*t special memoirs ”’ have also | been issued, and it is hoped that others will be added from time to time. In 1885 appeared Prof. Meldola’s and Mr. White’s ‘**‘ Report on the East Anglian Earth- quake of 1884,’’ in 1890 Mr. Miller Christy’s ‘‘ Birds of Essex,’ and in 1898 Mr. Henry Laver’s “Mammals, Reptiles and Fishes of Essex.’’? All these works were noticed in our pages at the time of | must also | publication. Four ‘t museum handbooks ’ be credited to the club. Not the least important part of the results achieved since 1880 is the establishment and maintenance of two museums, one of a strictly local character for the Epping Forest district at Queen Elizabeth’s Lodge, Chingford, and the other of a county and educational character at West Ham in connection with, and attached to, the Municipal Technical Institute (see illustration). The first of is carried on under an agreement with the Cor- poration of London, as conservators of Epping Forest. The other (county) museum was founded for the club by Mr. Passmore Edwards, and is tained by the Borough Council of West Ham the Essex Field Club, the library and headquarters of which are now in this same building. The personnel of the club as narrated by Mr. Christy is also of interest. The presidency has been held in succession by Prof. Meldola, Prof. Boulger, Mr. T. V. Holmes, Mr. E. A. Fitch, Mr: H. Laver, Mr. F. Chancellor, Mr. David Howard, Prof. Meldola, Mr. W. Rudler, and Mr. Miller Christy. All these are still living and active supporters of the club, while Mr. William Cole has acted as hon. these | main- | and | secretary, editor | of the publications, and curator of the museums during the whole twenty-five years of the society’s existence. There are few, if any, local societies in this country which can show such a good record. The Essex Field Club has earned the gratitude, not only of its own county, but of the world of field naturalists | generally for the splendid example which it has set in showing how such organisations can keep alive the spirit of scientific research in the rural districts. In congratulating the club on its past achievements, we feel sure that the carried on with equal success will be cordially endorsed by all readers of Nature. THE MOSQUITOES OF PARA. ie 1859, when H. W. Bates returned from Para, the town, though rapidly improving even then, was still a little-known Brazilian port, and Bates embarked on a North American trading vessel, ‘‘ the United States route being the quickest as well as the pleasantest way of reaching England.’’ At present, however, Parad is a very important place, and well up to date in scientific matters—if we may judge by the handsome publication before us, on one of the more recent branches of scientific inquiry—the trans- mission of yellow fever and other diseases by means of mosquitoes. Four essays are included in the present volume, the first dealing with the mosquitoes of Para _ re- garded as a public calamity. This section is devoted to an historical sketch of the subject, the biology of mosquitoes, the views of various writers on the sanitary importance of the subject, and on the urgent need of practical efforts to abate the evil. 1 ** Memorias do Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) de Historia Natural e Fthnographia.”” 1V. Os Mosquitos no Para. Reuniao de quatro trabalhos sobre os Mosquitos indigeras, principalmente as especies que molestam « homem. By Prof. Dr. Emilio Augusto Goeldi. With roo figures in text and 5 chromo-lithographic plates. Pp. 154. (Para, Brazil: C. Wiegandt, 1905 ) QO 7 NO; LO 77 VOL. 72) wish that its future worl may be | The second essay contains an abstract of the results of experiments undertaken in 1903, with special reference to Stegomyia fasciata and Culex fatigans, regarded from a sanitary point of view. The third essay devoted to biological details chiefly relating to the development of the principal is indigenous species. The fourth essay consists of a report on Stegomyia Fic. 1.—Larva of Stegomzyia fasciata. fasciata and its connection with the transmission of yellow fever. This was presented to the International Zoological Congress at Berne in August, 1904. The book appears to be an extremely careful and valuable piece of work, and the paper, printing, and illustrations leave little or nothing to be desired. It must not be overlooked by any worker who is interested in mosquitoes either from a scientific or Fic. 2.—Stegoniuia fusciata 9 at rest. from a medical point of view. Several new forms are described; and on p. 73 even the musical note of Stegomyia fasciata is discussed—a slight but signifi- cant illustration of the intimate connection and inter- dependence of all branches of human knowledge. The figures which we have selected for re produc- tion represent the larva and imago of Stegomyia fasciata. Wie, Eels NOTES. In with the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, a museum of hygiene will be opened this month at Paris by the President of the Republic. connection industrial Prince SERGE TROUBETZKOI, Rector of the University of Moscow, and professor of philosophy in that university, died at St. Petersburg on October 12. Tue death is announced of Mr. A. C. Pass, one of the enthusiastic members of the Bristol and for many years president of the early and most Naturalists’ geological Society, section of the society. 608 NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 A VIOLENT shock of earthquake occurred at Monteleone at 3.40 p.m. on. October 14. The shock was felt at Messina at 3.42 p.m.; and a shock is reported to have occurred at Reggio di Calabria at 2.45 p.m. We learn fram -the Times that. the Royal Prussian Aéronautic Observatory, recently completed, was opened on Monday; October, 16, at Lindenberg, in the province of Brandenburg, in the presence of the Emperor William and the Prince of Monaco. The Emperer, in a speech, eulogised the many, services rendered by the Prince of Monaco to science, and conferred upon him the large golden medal for science. » THE post-graduate college, West London Hospital, was opened on October 12 with an introductory address by Mr. Tweedy, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, who emphasised the need for post-graduate training in medicine, and suggested that a post-graduate course should be made compulsory after a certain period in a man’s career. Mr. WynpuamM, M.P., was present at the annual con- versazione of the Chester Society of National Science and Literature on October and delivered an address. He accompanied Lady Grosvenor, who made a _ presentation to Mr. Robert Newstead, formerly of the Grosvenor Museum and now attached to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The gift consisted of a life- size carbon portrait of himself and a purse of more than two hundred guineas. Lady Grosvenor also presented the Kingsley medal to Dr. C. Theodore Green. 12, curator AN interesting account is given in the Times (October 10) of the cancer department and cancer research at the Middlesex Hospital. Since 1792 the hospital has main- tained a separate cancer department by an endowment which first came through John Howard from Samuel Whitbread. The cancer wards, which now contain forty- nine beds, combine the functions of an almshouse or asylum with those of a hospital, for, in accordance with the purpose of the original foundation, the stay of patients is not limited. Howard also contemplated new discoveries from the investigation of a large number of patients and from the accumulated records of these. Tue programme of the London Institution for the session 1905-6 includes the following lectures among others:—The origin of the elephant, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.; submarines, Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S.; geographical botany interpreted by direct response to the conditions of life, Rev. George Henslow; the Upper Nile, Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G.; variation in man and woman, Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S.; our atmosphere and its wonders, Prof. Vivian B. Lewes. Tue Sociological Society has now issued its programme of meetings arranged for the winter session, along with a list of papers to be delivered before its affiliated societies in the universities of Oxford and Manchester. It is notice- able that a new departure has been made by the Socio- | logical Society in the holding of research mectings (at which papers of interest to specialists only will be read and discussed) in addition to its ordinary monthly meet- ings for the reading and discussion of papers of general The following papers have been arranged for the ordinary monthly meetings :—The biological foundations of Archdall Reid; the origin and function of religion, Mr. A. E. Crawley; and the Institut de Sociologie, its equipment and work, M. Waxweiler. The papers to be NO. 1877, VOL..7.2)| interest. sociology, Dr. delivered at the research meetings are :—Vhe study of the individual, Dr. T. L. Tayler; and biological methods in application to social problems, M. Waxweiler. An address of considerabie impertance from the stand- point of the connection between scientific training and industrial development was recently delivered by Mr. W. Burton on the occasion of the prize distribution to students of the county pottery classes at Tunstall, Staffordshire. At the outset Mr. Burton emphasised the fact that manu- facturers in Stafferdshire are beginning to realise the value of technical schools as a means of training students to be of real service to them. But, looking backwards, few industries in this country have during the past thirty years drawn so little aid from the resources of science as the pottery industry. The metheds employed in pottery at the present day do not differ very greatly from those in use at the time of Josiah Wedgwocd. But in science there has been an almost phenomenal advance since the early discoveries cf Priestley, the contemporary and friend of Wedgwood. In taking up the study of pottery to-day, the student has to commence for himself almost entirely from the beginning; there no accumulated store of knowledge and experience, such as exists in all branches of science, from which he may draw. The supreme gift of scientific training in method, Mr. Burton continues, is the power to see. ‘‘ How many problems are there that present themselves to us every day in our businesses that really disappear—are no longer problems—if we once see them clearly?’’ The commercial organiser of a busi- ness has two problems always facing him, first the economic production of his goods, and secondly the dis- posal of these goods in the market. A scientific training, in so far as it gives knowledge tending to the solution of these problems, is of direct value to the commercial side of business; many problems can be solved only by scientific methods. But, Mr. Burton urges in conclusien, manu- facturers should not look for too immediate results from the employment of a scientifically trained man. “ Re- member, he must have time to apply his science to your industry. He must have time for experiment, and must be given both leisure and the fullest opportunity to follow out those lines of prolonged and systematic investigation on which alone scientific knowledge has been built.” is Tur September issue of the Proceedings oj the Phila- delphia Academy contains the first portion of a long paper by Mr. C. S. Sargent on the species of thorns of the genus Crataegus found in eastern Pennsylvania, mainly based on collections and notes made by several local botanists. | Tue Irish Naturalist for October opens with an _ illus- trated by that enthusiastic ornithologist Mr. E. Williams on the recent occurrence in Ireland of a number cf specimens of the Greenland and Iceland falcons, more especially the former. Previous records of the occurrence in Ireland of the Greenlard falcon included nineteen instances, now raised to twenty-eight by the occurrence of no less than nine examples during the present year. On the other hand, only two previous’ records of the occurrence of the Iceland falcon were known, this number being raised to three by the capture of an immature female in Galway in March. The author speculates why the Iceland falcon paper should be so much more rare in Ireland than the far more distant Greenland species. Tne Halifax Courier of September 30 contains a full report of a long paper, read at the first meeting for the present session of the Halifax Scientific Society, on the educational value of the Bankfield Museum, by Mr. L. OcTOBER 19, 1905] NATURE 609 Roth, the hon. curator. This institution, which is under the control of the Halifax municipality, is devoted to art, local history, numismatics, and ethnology, and it has been the object of the present curator during his whole term of office to make these collections thoroughly representative and of real educational value. Consequently he has rigorously excluded from the exhibition cases all speci- mens coming merely under the designation of ‘‘ curios,”’ and devoid of special local or educational interest—an example which might, by the way, be followed by the authorities of at least one rate-supported local museum we could name. Whether this rigid censorship has aroused ill-feeling we cannot say, but at the conclusion of his address Mr. Roth referred in somewhat bitter terms to the apathy displayed by the municipal authorities towards his efforts. Certainly thirty-six guineas a year is not a lavish sum for the needs of such a museum, and the committee appear to have funds at their disposal which they refuse to spend. No. 13 B. of the Publications de Circonstance, recently issued in Copenhagen by the International Council for the Study of the Sea, contains an account of the present con- dition of the German fisheries in the Baltic, and is a continuation of the publication already issued (No. 13 A) on the Danish and Swedish fisheries in that-sea. The present work has been prepared for the German Sea- Fisheries Association by Dr. E. Fischer in cooperation with Prof. H. Henking. It gives in a concise form in- formation as to the different kinds of fishing practised in the area, as well as an account of the boats, nets, and other fishing gear employed, and of the quantities and values of the fish landed. The fluctuations of the various fisheries from year to year for the last ten years are shown in a series of tables and curves, and a number of litho- graphed charts illustrate the relative local abundance of different species of fish along the German coasts of the Baltic. Tue second part of the first volume of. the useful little flora of the upper Gangetic plain, by Mr. J. F. Duthie, has been published recently ; it includes the orders Caprifoliaceze to Campanulacez, and the index to the volume. Tue late Prof.’ L. Errera showed a marked preference for physiological’ problems, and one of his last papers, which is published in vol. xlii. of the Bulletin de la Société royale de botanique de Belge, takes up the difficult subject of the ultimate cause behind reaction in plants. The paper deals with dominance and inhibitory action, as exemplified in the correlation existing between the direc- tions assumed by the.main vertical shoot of a tree and its branches under the influence of geotropic stimulus. Nutri- tion or polarity has generally been invoked to furnish an explanation, but Prof. Errera argues in favour of inhibit- ing actien, possibly due to internal! secretions. Rerorts for 1904-5 on the botanic stations at Antigua and St. Kitts have been received. Owing to the want of uniformity in the amount of fuss on the cotton seed imported from the Sea Islands into Antigua, some doubt was expressed as to its purity. To test the matter some of the seed was graded, and each grade was sown on a separate plot ; however, on reaping the cotton, the lint from the different plots did not present any marked difference, and the seed was no more uniform than before. The con- clusion is drawn that the character of the lint is fixed, and does not alter with variations in the character of the seed. In St. Kitts and Nevis interest attaches to the cacao and rubber plantations which have been recently NOSIS 775 VOL. 721 started; the rubber plants consist of, Castilloa , and Funtumia. The work at the, agricultural school in St. Kitts is worthy of mention; the practical \course includes the cultivation of vegetables, the application’ of manures to pine and cotton crops, and’ the ‘propagation of plants by budding and cuttings. WE have received from the Minister of the Interior the twenty-fourth Bulletin issued by the Peruvian Corps of Mining Engineers. It contains the mineral statistics of Peru for 1904. The production ,in that. year included 59,920 tons of coal, 38,683 tons of petroleum, 2209 tons of lead, 9503 tons of copper, 2675 tons of borates, 18,544 tons of rock salt, 21 tons of sulphur, 145,165 kilograms of silver, and 601 kilograms of gold. Compared with the production in the previous year, noteworthy increases are shown. : Tue, interesting paper on some phenomena of permanent deformation in metals read by,Mr.,G. H. Gulliver, | of Edinburgh University, before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in February has now been published in pamphlet form. In making a tension test of a metal bar as soon as the yield-point is reached, the deformation becomes visible to the naked eye as the well known Liider’s lines. Hitherto the’ lines occurring at the yield- -point have beer confused with the two straight depressions known as the “contractile cross.’’ The ‘author shows that ‘the two phenomena are quite distinct. In .his: experiments flat steel bars were used 4 inch in thickness and of various widths from 3 inch to 4 inches.’ Tue second part of’ the mines and quarries general report for 1904 has been issued by’ the Home Office. It contains statistics of: the persons éniployed and of the accidents that occurred. ‘The ‘total’ number of persons employed’ at mines and quarries,in the United Kingdom and_in the Isle of Man in 1904 was 974,634, of whom 877,057 were employed at mines. The, death rate from accidents. was 1-243 per ‘1000 persons employed at. mines and 1-15 per 1000 at quarries. . By the Act of 1903, the value of scientific training in,mining is now shown to be appreciated by the Goyernment, , ‘the holders of diplomas at institutions approved by the Secretary, of State for the Home Department being eligible for managers’ certificates after three years’ practical experience instead of five as was formerly the case. The list of institutions that have been approved is ‘giveh” in the report, and comprises the Royal School of Mines, the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Oxford, Sheffield and Wales, ..the University College, Bristol, the Glasgow Technical College, and the Wigan Mining College. In the American Jouirnal of Sctence (vol. xx., No. r18) Mr. Bertram B. Boltwood quotes a number of analyses of minerals eontaining uranium and ‘thorium, and interprets them by assuming that the ultimate disintegration pro- ducts of the radio-active elements may include lead, barium, bismuth, the rare earths, argon, and hydrogen. The question is raised whether the quantities of these elements actually existing in nature have not been produced wholly by some such process of disintegration. In the Atti dei Lincet (vol. xiv. p. 188) B. Gosio de- scribes how the decomposition of exceedingly dilute solutions of alkaline selenites, or, better, of alkaline tellurites, may be utilised as a delicate test for living bacterial contamination. Most living bacteria are capable of decomposing potassium tellurite with the production of a blackish precipitate, becoming themselves, when viewed under the microscope, tinged blackish grey. Dead bac- 610 NATURE [OCTOBER 19, 1905 teria or spores not undergoing actual development are | Nature cf November 20, 1902 (vol. Ixvii. p. 53), and it is totally without action on a solution of the tellurite. The | only necessary to mention that more examples have been test seems to be especially useful for ensuring sterility in the case of liquids or therapeutic sera destined for hypo- dermic injection. Tue many thermoelectric methods which have been devised during the past few years for the measurement of very high and of very low temperatures have proved them- selves of a wide and general utility. But hitherto no instrument of a similar type has been made available for the accurate measurement of temperatures between or Cy and 200° C. In the Physical Review (vol. xxi. p. 65) Mr. A. de Forest Palmer describes a thermojunction consisting of a soft iron wire in conjunction with an ‘‘ advance ”’ wire containing copper, nickel, and iron, by means of which temperatures within the extremes named may be determined with an error not exceeding 0-04 per cent. Such an instrument is easily calibrated, and in certain circumstances can profitably replace a mercury thermo- meter of a corresponding degree of accuracy. Le Radium for September (2® année, No. 9) contains articles on the influence of the connections on the action of vacuum tubes, by M. Charbonneau, on the treatment of cancer with radium, by M. Darier, and a summary of current work connected with radio-activity. Tue Journal of the Royal Sanitary Institute for October (xxvi., No. 9) contains articles on the administration of the Food and Drugs Act, by Mr. Wellesley Harris, on the waste of infant life, by Dr. Nash, on hygiene in education, by Mr. White Wallis, and notes on common parasites found in bodies of animals used for food, by Mr. King. “Contributions from the Research Massa- We have received Laboratory and Sewage Experimental Station,”’ chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, vol. i., 1905. It contains several valuable papers, e.g. the mode of action of the contact filter in sewage purification, by Messrs. Phelps and Farrell, determination of organic nitrogen in sewage by the Kjeldahl process, by Mr. Phelps, a study of the methods in current use for the determination of free and albumenoid ammonia in sewage, by Mr. Phelps, and determination of the number of bacteria in sewage, &c., by Mr. Winslow. Messrs. F. VIEWEG AND Son, Brunswick, have published a fourth edition of ‘‘ Hauptsatze der Differential- und Integral-rechnung,”’’ by Prof. R. Fricke. Mr. W. B. Ciive has published a third edition of Dr. G. H. Bailey’s ‘“‘Second Stage Inorganic Chemistry (Theoretical).’’ This edition has been re-written and enlarged. Tue third, revised edition of ‘‘ Leitfaden ftir das zoo- logische Praktikum,’’ by Prof. W. Kiukenthal, has been published by Mr. Gustav Fischer, Jena. The second edition of this work was reviewed in Nature of April 24, 1902 (vol. Ixv. p. 581). Tue first part of a work on “ Die atherischen Ole,’’ by Dr. F. W. Semmler, has just been received from the pub- lishers, Messrs. Veit and Co., Leipzig. It is proposed to issue the work in twelve parts which will make up three volumes, to be completed during next year. The work will be noticed when the whole of the parts have been received. A THIRD Electrical edition of Mr. Tyson Sewell’s ‘ Elements of Engineering "’ has been published by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son. The book was reviewed in NO. 1877, VOL. 72] added to the appendix, and that particulars of the “Wright ’’ and other electrolytic meters have been inserted. A second edition of Mr. J. W. Russell’s ‘* Elementary Treatise on Pure Geometry ’’ has been published by the Clarendon Press. The first edition of the book was noticed in our issue of June 1, 1893 (vol. xlviii. p. 101). Besides numerous small improvements throughout, other changes have been made in the revised edition, and among these may be mentioned the re-arrangement of the examples and the omission of redundant ones. Each chapter has been made independent of following chapters; more use has been made of projection in proofs of theorems, and corre- lative theorems have been proved by reciprocation. An index has been added. Messrs. FLATTERS AND GARNETT, Ltp., Deansgate, Man- chester, have sent us a specimen of new storage cabinets made by them for lantern slides. Each drawer of the cabinet will hold too slides in five divisions, and is fitted with brass handle and space for movable card label. Single drawers are supplied, and cabinets are made with four, six, twelve, and twenty-four drawers. There are no grooves in the drawers, but the top edges are cut down a little, so that the slides rise above the edges and can readily be lifted out. The cabinets provide a convenient and neat means of storing lantern slides. A despatch box also submitted by Messrs. Flatters and Garnett is fitted at each end with a strip of brass which clasps the cover when the slides are in transit, and can be swung off immediately the slides are required. This box has the usual rubber packing to prevent shock and breakage. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ANOTHER LARGE SuN-spoT.—Another large group of sun- spots, the fourth or fifth this year to be visible to the pro- tected naked-eye, is now to be seen on the solar disc not very far from the centre. The group, which consists of a large number of separate small nuclei, is, roughly, 100,000 miles across its longest diameter, and was first seen coming round the limb on Saturday, October 14. M. Bicourpan’s EcitpsE Resutts.—M. Bigourdan, who was placed in charge of the Bureau des Longitudes ex- pedition to Sfax (Tunis) to observe the recent total eclipse of the sun, communicated the preliminary results of his observations to a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences held on October 2. The greater part of his communication consisted of descriptions of the instruments employed and the conditions they were employed under. A coronagraph, designed to take numerous large-scale photographs, in order to show the relation between the details of the inner corona and those on the corresponding regions of the solar disc, became deranged after the second plate was exposed, but the two plates obtained show numerous details of the inner corona. In a second corona- graph, of 0-95 m. focal length and o-15 m. aperture, a green glass screen, transmitting only those wave-lengths near to A 530, was placed in front of the plate, and the exposure made to last throughout totality. The negative obtained shows the corona extending for about 30’ from the moon’s limb. Two spectroscopes having slits much longer than the diameter of the solar image were employed, the slits being so arranged that the spectrum of the coronal radiations at points situated at the ends of the sun’s axis and equator respectively might be photographed. Photometric observ- ations of the corona, both visual and photographic, were also made. Observations of the terrestrial magnetic elements showed that the variations caused by the interposition of the moon were but small. Ihe shadow bands formed a very striking OcTOBER 19, 1905] NATURE 611 feature of this eclipse, and were recorded by many observers at Sfax as being sinuous, undulating, and nearly parallel. They traveiled at a rate equal to the average walking pace of a man (Comptes rendus, No. 14). ATMOSPHERIC ORIGIN OF ‘‘ SHADOW Banps.’’—In No. 4049 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Signor TY. Zona, of Palerme, suggests that the shadow bands observed during a total eclipse of the sun are of a purely atmo- spheric origin. He has observed that the rays of light projected from a man-of-war’s searchlight on to a wall several kilometres from the ship exhibit just the same kind of light and dark bands that he observed at Sfax during the recent solar eclipse. Similarly, he noticed that the light from Venus projected through a small window on to the opposite wall of the room in which he was seated exhibited the same appear- ance. Signor Zona suggests that the atmospheric vibrations which cause the agitation seen at the sun’s limb, when the latter is observed directly, are the cause of the oscillating bands seen during total eclipses. A SPECTROGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF THE SOLAR Parattax.—In Nos. 4048-9 of the Astronomische Nach- richten Herr F. Kustner describes in detail a method which he has employed to determine the sun’s parallax spectro- graphically, from measurements of sixteen lines on each of eighteen spectrograms of Arcturus, obtained during the period June 24, 1904—January 15, 1905, with the Bonn spectrograph. From these measurements he found the radial velocity of Arcturus relative to the sun to be —453+0-27 km. for the epoch 1904-8, and the value for the mean velocity of the earth to be 29-617+0-057 km., the accepted value for the velocity of light in vacuo being 299865 +26 km. per second. As the solar parallax previously accepted, viz. 8’-S00, is ‘based on the assumption that the earth’s velocity is 29-705 km., and as these two quantities vary proportionally, it follows that with a more correct value for the latter a more refined value for the former may be determined. Having made the determination, Herr Kiistner arrives at the quantity 8"-844+0".017 as his final result for the value of the solar parallax. Nova Aguitaz: No. 2.—The results of several recent observations of the Fleming Nova are published in No. 4049 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. Prof. Wolf, observing on September 17 at 8h. 4-3m. (Konigstuhl M.T.), found the Nova’s magnitude to be 9-6, showing a decrease of not quite o-3 mag. since September 4. Dr. Guthnick, observing at Bothkamp, obtained the photometric resuits shown in the following table :— 1995 M.T. Berlin Mag. | 1905 M.T. Berlin Mag. Sepegmreemmor duet) KO-32 10 Sepia Tl Ssh: ie) 10747 eon we Ons teeeeOr30)) |) os, KO) 2.519 2Ds 48 T0755 et peemLORUD ees OrA Ol Wis, 22)52..0 O's Nac... LO1OO Eee OO eseeTOI52)\|| au 230)... Orth: v2. 10163 The magnitudes are based on those given for the com- parison stars in the Harvard photometric revision of the B.D. catalogue. LIGHT-VARIATION OF SaTURN’S SATELLITES.—From observ- ations made on twelve evenings, Dr. P. Guthnick, of Bothkamp Observatory, has determined the phases of the magnitude changes of Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Titan. He found that the first named is brightest when at easterly elongation (g0°) and faintest at about 330°. Dione reaches its maximum brightness at go° and its minimum at about 40°. Rhea apparently has two maxima, one at 40°-120° and a fainter one at 240°, the corresponding minima occurring at 180° and 330° respectively. The maximum brightness of Titan occurs at 240°, its minimum brightness at 20°. In regard to Japetus, Dr. Guthnick’s observations confirm the results obtained by Prof. Picker- ing, viz. that the maximum brightness of that satellite occurs at the western, and the minimum at the eastern, elongation. The range of light-variation for each of the satellites Tethys, Dione, and Titan is about 0-75 mag., for Rhea about 1-0 mag., and for Japetus about 1-75 mag. (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4049). No. 1877, VOL. 72] INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON RADIOLOGY AND IONISATION. HE first international congress for the study of radiology and ionisation, organised under the auspices of the Belgian Government, was held at Liége on September 12-14. The work of the congress was divided into two sections, devoted respectively to physical and biological science. The first section dealt with the follow- ing questions :—(1) physics of electrons, comprising also radiations of all kinds; (2) radio-activity and the accom- panying transformations; (3) meteorological and astro- nomical phenomena attributable to ionisation, radio-activity, and to radiations of different kinds. The second section had for its scope the study of the physiological properties of the radiations and their application in medicine. The opening session of the congress was held in the physics theatre of the University of Liége on September 12 under the presidency of Prof. Kuborn, member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medicine. Among the members present may be named Profs. Becquerel, Bouchard, and Bergonié, re- presenting the French Republic, Senor J. Munoz del Castillo, officially representing Spain, Drs. E. F. Nichols and W. Dieffenbach (United States), Prof. Hurmuzescu (Roumania), Prof. Gillon (Italy), Dr. Yankorits (Servia), Lion Sy Thang (China), Dr. Arrago (Guatemala), Dr. Ortiz (Argentine). Prof. Lassar represented the R6ntgen Association of Berlin, Prof. Onnen the Royal Society of Batavia, and Mr. Wilton the University of Adelaide, South Australia. The follow- ing were also present:—Messrs. Birkeland, Himstedt (Freiburg in B.), Gariel (Paris), and Legge (London). Sir William Ramsay had intended to present an address on radio-thorium, but in his unavoidable absence it was read on his behalf. M. Becquerel gave a lecture on the analysis of the radiations of radio-active substances. The address will be published in the Conrptes rendus of the congress, shortly to be issued by the organising committee (general offices, No. 1 Rue de la Prévété, Brussels). On September 13 a general meeting was held. Prof. Wind, of Utrecht, presented a communication on the diffraction and wave-length of the n-rays, and demonstrated the character of the apparatus designed by his colleague M. Haga and himself for the study of this much contro- verted question. Prof. Lassar, of Berlin, gave an account of the practical application of the new radiations. M. Tommasina, of Geneva, described a study of the radio- activity produced by atmospheric air (Elster and Gcitel’s phenomenon), and papers relating to the therapeutic action of the X-rays and of radium were read by Drs. Bergonié (Bordeaux), Dieffenbach (New York), and Kassabian (Philadelphia). The latter’s hands, owing to their frequent exposure to the radiations used for therapeutic treatment, have during the past few years undergone characteristic changes. The following papers of noteworthy interest were pre- sented at later meetings :—Remarks relative to the termin- ology of ionisation, Prof. de Hemptinne (Louvain); dis- ruptive discharge in gases at high pressures, Prof. Guye (Geneva); the spectroscopic study of radium light, Prof. Himstedt (Freiburg in B.); the kinetic theory of the electron serving as a basis for the electronic theory of radiation, Dr. Tommasina (Geneva); on the radio-active constituents of sediments from Echaillon and Salins- Moutiers, Dr. Blanc (Rome); a new apparatus for deter- mining the radio-activity of spring-waters, Dr. H. Sieve- king (Karlsruhe); Moser’s radiations, Prof. Piltschikoff (Kharkoff); discharge phenomena caused by X-rays and radium radiations, and the transformation of these rays, Prof. Hurmuzescu; critical observations on the theories of atomic disintegration and chemicophysical dissociation, Prof. Munoz del Castillo; the method of transmission of excited activity to the kathode, Mr. Makower (Manchester) ; radio-activity of the lava from Vesuvius (eruption of 1904), Dr. Tommasina; on the change of properties of the chemical elements, Prof. Fabinyi (Kolozsvar, Hungary) ; (1) the experimental methods of studying the transform- ations of the X-rays and the secondary rays resulting there- from, (2) classification and mechanism of the different electric phenomena caused by the X-rays, Prof. Sagnac (Paris); absorption phenomena of radium and polonium 612 NATURE [OCTOBER 19, 1905 rays, Prof. Riecke (Géttingen), paper presented by Dr. Emil Bose. : oF Limitations of space prevent the enumeration of papers not read at the congress but accepted for insertion in the Comptes rvendus, aswell as of the communications read before the biological section. The final meeting of the congress was held on September 14. After several interest- ing communications had been read, including one from Sir William Huggins, presented by Prof. Becquerel, the following motion was put before the meeting by the executive of the congress, acting at the wish of Prof. Jose Munoz del Castillo :— The International Congress for the Study of Radiology and lonisation assembled in plenary session at Liége on September 14, 1905, considers that, although State regula- tion and protection may sometimes impede free research among men of science, it is, however, necessary that Governments should, without creating monopolies, be brought to apply to radio-active substances the same legis- lative measures that prevent the monopolisation of other useful substances, and should guarantee by the play of economic laws free scientific research and. the application of these substances to. the treatment of the sick; and con- siders also that it is desirable to be able to advise or remind the Governments of the importance of these measures. and that a permanent commission invested with powers. by the actual congress, an assembly of men of science devoted to the study of these questions and belonging to different countries, would carry weight .in discussing with public authorities matters appertaining to the needs of science or the requirements of the sick. It has therefore decided (1) That an international commission for examining all questions of general interest -relative to radio-active sub- stances shall be instituted. ‘ (2) That the commission shall meet regularly each year, and may be convened on any exceptional occasion by the president, acting with the majority of the executive. (3) That it shall organise periodically international congresses, to meet every five vears, and shall also be empowered to convene the congress in extraordinary session. f (4) That the members of this commission shall be subject to re-election at each meeting of the International Congress. ; ie ‘ THE COALFIELDS. OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. HE memoir described below * contains detailed accounts of the coalfields of “North Staffordshire, especially those of the Pottery and Cheadle Coalfields. -The re-survey on the 6-inch scale was commenced in 1898 and -completed in 1901. ~The present volfme,. which: contains detailed de- scriptions furnished by each geologist of the area surveyed by himself, has been largely written and edited by Mr. Gibson, who personally carried out the greater- part of the field-work. Jt was pointed ‘out by Beete Jukés long ago that, so far as the higher‘portions of the Coal-measures were concerned, North Staffordshire provided the type de- velopment of the Midlands.. Mr. ,Gibson has now estab- lished in that region a definite stratigraphical sequence in the comparatively barren strata- which conformably overlie the productive Coal-measures, and he has also proved that the same sequence may be recognised in the other coal- fields of the Midland area. a ; The chief points of interest are contained in chapter iv., which describes fully the determination of the’ Newcastle- under-Lyme group, the Etruria Marl group, and the Black Band group, and more particularly the removal, of Hull’s ““Salopian Permian ’’ into’ :the Carboniferous. A full account of the paleontological and stratigraphical evidence on which this change is based is given at pp. 53 to 55. The evidence shows that the Salopian Permian of Stafford- shire, Denbighshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and in all probability Lancashire, occurs as the highest group of a definite sequence everywhere overlying the higher beds of the true Coal-measures, but never discordant to them, _} “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. The North Staffordshire Coalfields." By W. Gibson. With Contributions by G. Barrow, C. B. Wedd, ‘and J. Ward. Pp. vii-+494; with 1 Coloured Ma and 6 Plates. (London: Edward Stanford, race Price 6s. . s NO. 1877, VOL. 72] and that the Salopian Permian on either side of the Pennine Chain conforms to the Coal-measures, but is un- conformably overlain on the eastern side by the Magnesia Limestone series. It has been found advisable to adopt purely descriptive terms for various subdivisions, and for similar reasons the expressions Upper, Middle, and Lower Coal-measures have not been adopted, since the positions of the palzontological boundary lines which give a definite significance to the terms have not been determined with accuracy. Since the memoir was written, Mr. R. Kidston has contributed a paper to the Geological Society on the divisions and corre lation of the upper portions of the Coal-measures, in which he proposes the name ‘‘ Staffordian ’’ for the series included between the Black Band group and the Neweastle-. under-Lyme group, while the Keele group and similar beds: in the Midland coalfields, hitherto referred to the Permian. system, are classed with the Radstock group, previously called Upper Coal-measures. The distribution of the plants certainly favours such a classification, but there is: evidence which seems to show a gradual passage of one: group into another, and Dr. Hind, who has devoted con- siderable attention to the study of the lamellibranchs, is not in favour of the proposed subdivision. _ One of the most pleasing features is the accurate and complete description of the palazontology, which is treated in detail by Mr. John Ward, and is accompanied by full lists, with six plates, of the common fossils of the Coal- measures. The Pottery Coalfield has long been recognised as an unrivalled field for the study of Carboniferous fishes, the study of which has to some extent overshadowed the examination of a numerous and varied series of molluscan remains and the equally abundant flora it has yielded. In this section Dr. W. Hind has given Mr. Ward a great deal of assistance. The fossil fishes have been named by Dr. Traquair and Dr. Smith Woodward, while the plants: have been dealt with by Mr. Kidston. A complete geo- logical bibliography of the North Staffordshire coalfields, covering fifteen pages, forms a valuable appendix. The Triassic and Glacial deposits are described in separate chapters, and the economic products of the Pottery. Coalfields are treated in chapter .xii. The latter account includes the consideration of the future coal supply of the district: from. the concealed coalfield, to which consider- able attention is paid. In addition descriptions are added’ of the loeal building stones, clays, and marls, supplemented’ by an enumeration of the chief source of water. H. W. HucGues. THE ' DISTRIBUTION OF POWER.* WENTY-SIX years ago, at the meeting of the British Association at Sheffield, August, 1879, a lecture, on “Electricity as a Motive Power,’ was delivered to some thousands of working men, and, for the first’ time, they realised that forks and spoons could not only be plated with the electric current, but could also be polished with a brush made to, spin with the same agency. The, sea of upturned faces beamed with delight when Jack, their popular comrade, stepped on to the platform, took the newly plated spoon in his hands, and burnished it a pair of thin wires tied to a church steeple being the only connecting link between the dyndmo machine in a neighbouring works—ordinarily used there for electro- plating—and the electro-motor driving the polishing brush in the Albert Hall, Sheffield. But an electro-motor is only a toy, thought my audience ; nobody could construct an electro-motor that we could not stop with our hands; and at the end of my lecture they actually tried, and—wondered. As far as. I, am aware, it was at that lecture that the following composite suggestion was first put forward—to obtain economy in electric transmission of power the current must be kept.small, while to transmit much power the electric pressure between the conducting wires must be made large; and, lastly, to secure safety and convenience 1 Lecture delivered on Tuesday, August 29. at a meeting of the British Association in Johannesburg, by Prof. W. F. Ayrton, F.R.S., and illus- trated with many experiments «n moving machinery, diagrams and lantern slides, two lanterns being used, in the American fashion, for enabling pictures to be contrasted on the screen. O€ToBER 19, 1905] NATURE 613 in working, this high. pressire.must be transformed down into a low one at the distant end of the transmission system, » , ' But what did high pressure—produced with a dynamo— mean twenty-six years ago? Why, three or four hundred volts—what, in fact, is called low pressure to-day—a pressure less than is now often used for lifts in buildings, pumps in mines, and tramears in streets. And how was it proposed to transform this so-called high pressure into a low one? Why, I suggested mechanically coupling a 4o0o-volt direct- ctirrent motor to a 5o0-volt direct-current dynamo—the device that has since been called a ‘‘ motor generator ’’— and such a combination was shown in operation at that lecture. ; But it was in Paris, at the Palais de 1’Industrie, the home of that electrical exhibition of 1881 which has now become classical, that modern electrical engineering was born, and shortly afterwards Punch exhibited the young infant thriving, and imbibing liquid nourishment from a storage cell. “What will he grow to?’ says the picture. What has he grown to? ‘Aladdin’s ring, Aladdin’s lamp—whose slaves brought a fortune to him, and a fainting fit to his mother—were but poor magic makers compared with the ring evolved by Gramme and that boy, Paccinotti—com- pared with the lamp constructed by those veterans Edison and Swan. In the ‘‘ Arabian Nights’ it is stated that Aladdin’s would-be uncle, the noted and learned African magician, knew that the wonderful lamp was not fed with oil, and he anticipated by many centuries the plan for reconciling the inhabitants of Johannesburg to having the electric pressure in their houses raised from rio to 230 volts— for did not he, like the municipal African magician, offer “new lamps for old?’ It is also described how the lamp enabled Aladdin to carry off the Princess Badreulboudour, and the wicked uncle to transport the palace. But electric traction has carried off whole neighbourhaods out of cities into suburbs, and, by transporting hundreds of thousands. daily, has helped’ to solve the problem of housing the working class ; while electric distribution of power has discovered, not caves of buried jewels, but waterfalls of ever-flowing wealth. At the mines near Silver City, Idaho, for example, coal had reached seventy shillings a ton, wood thirty-six shillings a cord.” For years the distribution of power was by donkeys, or by long teams of horses. slowly hauling heavy loads of wood up the mountain road; and then the magician of this, the electric age, came to Idaho, and what these mines need—power, clean, dustless, weightless power, now courses up the mountain side from Swan Falls on Snake River in the valley below. What fairy of old, who could change dead leaves into jewels, ever. worked such beneficent wonder? See how proudly those posts look down upon their conquest of the past. For have they, not brought an end, not merely to wasteful extravagance in lifting fuel up to those mines, but also to needless: toil for tired cattle ? i In 1886, when the boy Electricity was five, the babe Johannesburg was born, and the two youngsters have raced along neck and neck. To-night I will tell you something of their lives. Rifas Nine years after that first lecture, the British Association honoured me by asking for another. In 1888, however, it was beginning to be realised that a :pressure of 2000 volts between electric mains might not make too great a call on the “funds of life insurancé companies. Alternate current transformers had come into. use; Ferranti was employing them practically, for distributing electric current from the Grosvenor Gallery, Bond Street. A “‘ transform- ation scene’’ Lord Kelvin called the apparatus at that lecture. The male white population of Johannesburg was now—2000. ‘ i But, although current, at 100 volts pressure, was beginning -to be distributed for electric lighting, the dis- tribution of power for working electro-motors was still but a dream of the future. In exactly a decade after the Paris Electrical Exhibition of 1881 came the Frankfort Exhibition of 1891. More than ten times 2000 volts was there used to transmit more NO. 1877, VOL. 72] than 100 horse-power, more than 1oo miles, with more than 75 per cent. efficiency. A death’s-head and cross-bones. were painted on every post along that 109 miles of railway line, Lauffen to Frankfort, for he who should touch these bare wires, with a pressure Of 25,000 volts between them, secured electrocu- tion; and a similar suggestion of mortality greets the way- farer—in his own language, be he. English or Dutch—on the posts of the Rand Central Electric Works. 1882 1883 1886 189 | Hirschau Vizille to| Creil to Lauffen to to Munich Grenoble| Paris Frankfcrt fe: La |—-—- — Pressure at transmitting | end in volts ; 700 3000 | 60co 25,0c0 Horse-power delivered | by electro-motor ... 58 7 '52 |114°2tolamps. Distance in miles... 35 8°75 35 | 108°7 Percentage commercial efficiency of trans- MiSSIOD*| been) oe eee 36 62) 45 75°3 Diameter of line wire 3 | | in inches... o18 o7079 | 0'2 | 3 wires each |” of 0-158 Material of wire... ... — Silicium Copper) Copper bronze The table shows that the use of higher and _ higher pressures has enabled larger and larger amounts of power to be transmitted longer and longer distances, with greater and greater efficiency, that is, with less and less waste. Now, why is this? The electric. current, as you know, is used for lighting buildings, driving machinery, propelling cars and trains. But throw away the notion, if any of you still have it, that electricity is a kind of gas, or oil, or fuel that is used up in these operations. The common expressions, buying electricity, consuming electric current, are most mislead- ing, for just as much electricity flows away per minute— through the return conductor—from your electrically lighted house as flows to it through the coming conductor. Hf, therefore, it were electricity that you had undertaken to pay for, you must have made a very bad bargain, because you do not retain the smallest portion of what you would have agreed to purchase. ; The electric current is like a butcher’s cart carrying round meat—you no more consume current than you con- sume cart. It is not the vehicle, but what it leaves behind that the consumers buy—meat in the case of the butcher’s cart, and energy in the case of the electric current. Exactly the same considerations apply to the distribu- tion of power, with air at 7o lb. pressure per square inch, to the thousands of rock ‘drills on the Rand, to the distribution of power with water at 425 lb. pressure per square inch down. the shaft of the Rietfontein Mine, and at 750 Ib. pressure in the workshops of the Central South African Railways at Pretoria. © The energy conveyed with air, with electricity, or with water is made up of three factors—(r) the current, (2) the time during «which it flows, and (3) the pressure under which it flows; while power depends on the current and: the pressure only. Few words are used more vaguely than this one ‘““power.’’ Before starting for South Africa some of us Save someone a. power of attorney; we came on a ship of 12,000 horse-power ; the voyage did us a power of good; at the concert on board we sang of the power of love. In engineering, however, power has one very definite meaning—the rate of doing work—and a stream of air, of electricity, or of water exerts much power, that is, works rapidly, when it quickly loses pressure, or head. Quickly losing one’s head, however, is not characteristic of large brain-power, and the power exercised by those who sit in high places is often much in excess of their rate of doing any kind of work. When water has but a few feet of head, the quantity flowing over a water-wheel must be large if much work has to be done. But since the water usually comes to a 614 low pressure whcel along an open stream, and flows away again also along an open stream, no expense has to be incurred in laying down large pipes. If, however, it were necessary to distribute much power over considerable distances through a pipe conveying such low-pressure water, the pipe would not only have to be long, but of large cross-section, and, therefore, very bulky and costly. For example, this model is a full-size representation of the transmission of only one horse-power with low pressure. On the other hand, if the water possesses considerable head, the transmission pipe may be of small diameter. this second model the three-cylinder pump produces a pressure of 425 lb. per square inch, exactly the pressure used in the hydraulic transmission of power down the shaft of the Rietfontein Mine, and with that pressure less than four gallons of water flowing per minute through this three-quarter inch pipe gives as much power to this turbine as would be delivered by 825 gallons pouring per minute over this water-wheel four feet in diameter. The water pressures in these two illustrations bear about the same proportion to one another as the electric pressure in the Lauffen-to-Frankfort transmission bears to the electric pressure usually maintained between the terminals of a lamp in Johannesburg. The value of using pressure water is grasped when you realise that at the Rietfontein Mine, by circulating about 85 gallons of water per minute, at 425 lb. pressure per square inch, through a pipe 16 square inches in cross- section, not only is the circulating water all returned to the top of the mine, but in addition 144 gallons are pumped up per minute from a depth of 546 feet through a pipe 383 square inches in cross-section. The water supplied by the London Hydraulic Power Company at 1700 feet head, although not filtered, costs nearly four times as much per gallon as the filtered water furnished by the Metropolitan Water Board. In England dirty pressure water is a relatively costly commodity, sparkling drinking water a relatively cheap liquid. In Johannesburg, on the other hand, until quite recently, the charge for drinking water was ten shillings a thousand gallons, plus two-and-six a month for meter rent, or about twenty times the London rate—the temptation to drink other things in Johannesburg must have been very great. Now,. since the establishment of the Rand Water Board, it is six shillings a thousand gallons, which, without meter rent, is still ten times the London price, so that liquid with a head in London is still cheaper than plain drinking water here. In the distribution of power, current and pressure are equally important. It is not merely because, even this month, August, after a phenomenally dry season, about 5,000,000 gallons of water are rushing pet minute over the Victoria Falls, but it is because this water also thunders down about 380 feet that these falls are a potential source of power. The Howick Falls, near Pietermaritzburg, have nearly as much head as the Victoria Falls, and twice as much as Niagara, while a syphon of soda water, when the gas is first pumped in, holds its head higher than any of the three. But, although in Johannesburg you probably pay a shilling for a syphon of soda water as an energy-pro- ducer in man, it is not worth 1/10,o0oth part of a penny as an energy-producer in a turbine, there is so little of it —only a pint and a half. Probably, like myself, you have heard yague comparisons made between the power of the Victoria and the Niagara Falls. Now, what is the true comparison? The flow at Niagara varies at different times of the year from about 62 to 104 million gallons per minute. At the Victoria Falls the flow can be as little as one-twelfth of the smaller number—for it is so now; and some authorities, well acquainted with the spot, say that at the end of another three months the flow will only be half of even that. The mean available drop at Niagara is about 160 feet; at the Victoria Falls about 380 feet. Hence, while the minimum Niagara flow represents about 3 million horse-power, the present Victoria flow represents about 580,000 horse-power; or only about one-fifth of the Niagara flow. Further, if those who predict the flow of the Zambesi sinking to some- thing like 25 million gallons per minute in November are true prophets, the Victoria Falls will then only give out NO. 16775 VOL, 72)] In | NATURE [| OcTOBER 19, 1905 about 300,000 horse-power, or one-tenth of the minimum that Niagara produces. In all that precedes, I have taken the full power of the direct drop in each case; that is, I have assumed in each case the intake to be close to the main drop, and I have deducted nothing for inefficiency of machinery. Now, how exactly docs the efficiency in the electric transmission of power depend on (1) the pressure, (2) the power transmitted, (3) the length of the transmission line, and (4) the resistance of the conductors composing it? The very simple approximate formula connects these quantities :— say, , Percentage} / Resistance loss of | Horse-power transmitted | per mile of all = —_——_—_ x miles x <4 auetars power on 3 (thousands of volts)> the conductors the road. in parallel. This formula tells us that as long as the electric pressure is limited to some 10,000 Or 11,000 volts—a pressure boldly used as early as 1897 by the Rand Central Electric Works, and at the Moodie Mines, near Barberton, but the one that is still the maximum sanctioned in Great Britain—it will not be possible, even with a pair of conductors of good copper, each as thick as the one I hold in my hand, viz. three-quarters of an inch in diameter, to transmit more than about 6000 horse-power, or to transmit that power more than about 10 miles, without the loss on the road exceeding 10 per cent. The actual efficiency will, of course, be less than 90 per cent., since there will be losses also in the machinery at each end of the transmission system. If, however, the electric pressure be doubled, that is, raised to 20,000 volts, then through this pair of con- ductors (kindly put up by the Transvaal Technical Institute, to bring power from their dynamo room to this hall), which are not much more than one-fifth of the cross-section of the former, and therefore not much more than one-fifth of the cost, as regards copper, we can transmit 2700 horse-power 23 miles, and still only lose Io per cent. on the road. Now Brakpan, where is the generating station of the Rand Central Electric Works, is almost exactly 23 miles from Johannesburg. Six wires come thence to Johannes- burg, three of which may be likened to the going con- ductor, and three to the return in a two-wire system like this, also any three of those wires have a joint cross- section rather larger than three times the cross-section of this. Hence, with 20,000 volts, about 8000 horse-power could be sent to Johannesburg from Brakpan through the existing wires with only 10 per cent. loss on the road, or about 3400 horse-power (which is rather more than the entire maximum output of that generating station on any occasion last year) could be sent with only 4 per cent. loss. I should have liked to show you this experimentally, but Mr. Reunert, Principal Hele Shaw, and Prof. Dobson, who, since my arrival, have so kindly put themselves to so much trouble to give expression to my wishes, might have thought me a little exacting had I asked for a lecture hall big enough to include a transmission line from Brakpan; and so, instead of this pair of conductors con- necting two places 23 miles apart, I am going to employ a pair of extremely fine wires, each less than 1/1ooth of the diameter, that is, less than 1/10,o00th of the cross- section—so fine, in fact, that you cannot see them. Switch on the current, more than 100 lamps glow. Now think of a wall of lamps ten times as high, then ten times as wide, and then six times as big as all that, and you will have 2700 horse-power ; and that is the power which, put into this pair of wires 23 miles away, say at Brakpan, with this pressure of 20,000 volts, will cause about 2400 horse- power to come out at Johannesburg. This experiment of transmitting five horse-power across the hall is the nearest approach to wireless transmission of power that I have ever seen. But there are wires, although invisible, for if I make them touch at one point with this long stick a flash occurs above your heads, and the glow lamps on the platform go out. I directed your attention to the fact that in 1888 the male population of Johannesburg was 2000. By 1896, according to the census taken that year, it had grown to 32,387. Now, curiously enough, in 1897 two transmissions OcToBER 19, 1905] NATURE 615 were arranged for at 33,000 volts—the one at Crofton, Califernia, and the other at Redlands, California; and no pressure higher than that used on the Lauffen-Frank- fort transmission seems to have preceded this 33,000 volts anywhere in the world. Indeed, it would almost appear as if electrical engineers were waiting to use a higher pressure than 25,000 voits until the publication of the census of Johannesburg. In 1898 the highest working pressure in the world was 40,000 volts for a 34-mile transmission at Provo, in Utah, and the male white population in Johannesburg was also about 40,000. Then came the war, and volts beat white man, for, according to the census of last year, while the white male population was 52,106, there were several examples of transmissions at 60,000 volts, as seen from the following table. | Trans. | Horse- 2V tran Year From | To Country Pee ee | mission | in miles| mitted end in | | volts erro a % | 1$97|Crofton | _— California | — — 33,000 », [Redlands | = ” — it hr _— ‘Bangalore India 92 4,300 35,000 1898] Provo | — Utah 32 40,000 — |Gromo Nembro Lombardy 22 35300n 5, — |Logan SaltLakeCity] Utah | 150 2,600 ,, — |Canyon Ferry Butte Missouri 70 | 5,700 50,000 — |Shawingan Montreal Canada 99 |15,000 ,, — |Moutiers ‘Lyons France | 112 — |57,600 — |Spokane Washington | — | 100 | 3,00060,000 — — |Guanaguato |Mexico 104 | 4,000, ,, — |Electra 'SanFrancisco|California| 147 |10,000 ,, — |Colezate ‘Stockton a | 208: "|| 5y000) 5; But with the influx of the white members of the British Association doubtless the tide will turn, white man will make a spurt and catch up electric pressure, and in this respect, at any rate, the Witwatersrand will become a white man’s country. Indeed, not only have various successful 60,000-volt transmission schemes been carried out, but the Kern River Power Company in California is constructing one for transmitting 4020 horse-power over 110 miles at 67,500 volts. Transmission at 67,500 volts over 110 miles. Why, when the new railway—Brakpan to Witbank—is completed, 110 miles will be 20 more than will separate the Rand from the coalfields at Witbank—fields that produce such good coal that the Central South African Railways have con- tracted to purchase 84,000 tons during this year, at six shillings per ton at the pit’s mouth. Now, at a pressure of 67,500 volts, these two small wires could, without becoming too warm, bring about 9000 horse-power from Witbank and deliver 7600 of it to the Rand. Or if six wires were used like those now employed by the Rand Central Electric Works, then, at 67,500 volts, gooo horse-power might be put in at Witbank and only 5 per cent. lost on the road, that is, about 8550 horse- power delivered on the Rand. But the insulators would have to be placed much farther apart than on the existing Rand posts to prevent the start- ing of a brush discharge between the wires—a subject to which I will return. You will now grasp why in 1895, ten years ago, it was a bold and pioneering policy to equip the Rand Central Works for 10,000 volts, and to use 13,000 volts during times of full load, and why in 1905 the recommendation of some advisers to distribute power at only 10,000 volts to the proposed substations of the contemplated 57 miles of electrified railways—Springs to Randfontein—is most retrograde of those advisers to the railway. In 1879, a firm of electrical contractors, well known then, and equally well known now, told me that they had been asked to tender for the construction of an electric transmission system to convey a comparatively small amount of power ro miles. But since they considered that they could not possibly hope to deliver more than half, NO. 1877, VOL. 72] while, in practice, they feared that they would only succeed in delivering much less, the proposal had to be ranked with the exploits of Gulliver and Baron Munchausen, and so even that firm declined to tender. To-day, twenty-six years later, electric power is, from an engineering and from a business point of view, being successfully trans- mitted 232 miles—nearly as far as some of you took fifteen hours the night before last in being transmitted from Ladysmith. Now, how are these electric pressures of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60,000 volts produced? Why, by means of the alternate current transformer, which does for electric power exactly what the lever does for mechanical power. Exert a small force through a long distance at the long end of this lever, and you have a large force exerted through a_ short distance at the short end. Apply a small electric pressure with a large current at one side of this transformer, and you have a large pressure with a small current at the other. But there are no moving parts, therefore the arrangement is called a ‘‘ static transformer.’’ It requires no adjustment from day to day, therefore it may be kept entirely immersed in oil to improve its insulation. Such statical transformers I used to step up the pressure from 100 to 20,000 volts at the transmitting end, and to step down the pressure from 20,000 to roo volts at the lamp end in the last experiment. Everything looked quite harmless until I intentionally brought the transmission wires into contact. So does the transformer, immersed in a huge cylinder of oil, now projected on the screen, although it regularly produces 60,000 volts, and can supply 1100 horse-power at that pressure. So does this water- cooled transformer (the interior of which is seen in an X-ray picture to the right, and the exterior to the left), although it can supply 2000 kilowatts, that is, 2700 horse- power. Its size can be realised by comparing it with the tiny transformer by its side—the size of the one which I have on this table. 60,000 volts, well, what of it? some of you may say. It cannot start a discharge between even sharp needle points separated by a greater distance than about six inches, and some of you have produced such a spark with an electrical machine—I am producing such a one now. But each time that a spark passes between the terminals of the electrical machine the pressure is relieved, so no are is maintained. Bring the terminals of that transformer within six inches of one another, however, and a roar- ing arc of 2700 horse-power will be kept up, dealing de- struction around. Let me show you a spark started with a 70,000-volt transformer when supplied with only one horse-power. What a banging is produced. Now picture to yourselves what would be the result if the power were not of one, but of 2700 horses, such as that transformer can furnish. The photographs show the sort of discharge that may occur over the surface of an insulator 1 foot high—such as is used on a high voltage transmission line—when the testing voltage is 80,000 in this case and 105,000 in that, and when there is plenty of power to maintain the arc. It is veritable lightning, not a mere flash, but a continued flame; and the sort of insulator that is used in practice for a 70,000-volt transmission is realised by looking at the specimens, which are only intended for 10,000 volts. There is nothing new in high voltage by itself—it existed in the period of the frictional electrical machine more than 100 years ago, but it was associated with only a very small current ; next, dating from the development of the dynamo, came the low voltage large current period; and now we have entered on a third era, the high pressure moderate current period, that is, the period of high pressure com- bined with horse-power. Next I come to a very important question, and one that merits far more consideration than it has yet received. There are two kinds of electric current—direct current and alternating current. Direct current is like a con- tinuously flowing stream of water, such as, for example, the one that flowed through this pipe and drove this turbine. Alternating current, on the contrary, is like this band, which, although swinging backwards and forwards, also turns a wheel in one direction at the other end. Now, which kind of electric current should be used for the dis- 616 NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 tribution of power over long distances? Practically, every electrical engineer will at once reply, alternating, of course. Well, I am going to preach heresy. I say direct current! The alternating current has undoubtedly the great advantage that a motor can be constructed with no rubbing electric contacts, every wire may be permanently soldered in position, a condition of considerable importance in dusty places like mines. Here is such a motor—the first poly- phase motor ever sent from America to Europe, the first ever seen in Great Britain, constructed seventeen years ago by Tesla with his own hands, when he was too poor to employ a workman. : Another advantage possessed by an alternating current is that an alternating current dynamo can be constructed to produce a large horse-power at a high voltage, and further, as we have already seen, this alternating voltage can be transformed into a still higher one without the use of moving machinery. This is one of the five largest dynamos in the world. Its size you can better estimate by looking at the ring stand- ing on end, now projected to the left. The latter is the stationary portion of a 5000 horse-power horizontal shaft dynamo, while the photograph to the right is that of a vertical shaft machine of double that power, viz, a dynamo that can develop 10,000 horse-power at a pressure of 11,000 volts. Fifteen years ago, Ferranti—the Brunel of electricity—spent a mint of money constructing some of the parts of a 10,000 horse-power, 10,000 volt alternator, which were, however, never put together. This dynamo projected on the screen stands complete, with its four sisters, in the Canadian Niagara Power House, and the tests already made show. that its efficiency reaches the extremely high value of 98-2 per cent., that is, 1-8 per cent. of the power developed is sufficient to cover all losses. Ferranti’s dream is more than realised, and the old story is repeated. We break up the pioneer leviathan, the Great Eastern steamship, as a great unwieldy giant very weak .in its knees, a little later we build the Baltic, a third as large again, and with twice the engine power. Without any transformation at all, these dynamos will economically drive machines some miles away, and, with the pressure transformed up from 11,000 to 60,000 volts, power will be distributed in Toronto, 85 miles away from the falls. Contrasted with this, no single large direct current machine has ever been constructed to generate more than about 3500 volts, and no means is known for efficiently converting a direct current voltage into a higher, or a lower one, without the use of moving machinery. So far, then, my case seems weak! The advantages of using great electric pressures we have seen. Are there any disadvantages? This is a disadvantage, the risk of piercing the insulation! See how thick the insulating material has to be on cables, how far apart the conductors have to be placed, even when the cable is intended for only 10,000 volts. But does this consideration supply any argument for or against the use of one kind of current rather than the other? Small current and high pressure must be used for the economical transmission of power over long distances, whether the current be alternating or direct, I agree; but, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit that, while from the point of view of economic transmission, 60,000 volts alternating means exactly the same as 60,000 volts direct, from the point of breakdown of the insulation, 60,000 volts alternating is as bad as 85,000 volts direct, indeed may be worse than 100,000 volts direct. For an alternating current consists of waves like the waves of the sea. In a storm, the waves may be running mountains high, and yet the average depth of the sea remains the same as in a calm. But what does it benefit the poor passengers, when tossed helplessly back- wards and forwards in their berths, and feebly calling “steward,’’ to be assured that, although the waves be peaked, and the maximum elevation large, the square root of the mean square of the amplitude of oscillation is quite consistent with perfect internal tranquility? And so feels the poor insulating material—the mean electric pressure may not be very large, and yet the crests of the waves may be so high, and the troughs so low, that its strength eannot stand the electric tossing. Each of those waves of electric pressure on the diagram NO. 1877, VOL. 72] gives the same reading on a voltmeter, but the peaked one has far more destructive action than the flat topped one. But there are other disadvantages in the use of alternating current. This coil of wire represents one of the conductors which, when unwound, might join two places, the one where incandescent lamps (for example) have to be made to glow, and the other where is the water- power which drives the dynamo that generates the current. If a direct pressure of 100 volts be applied at one end of the system, the lamps at the other end glow brightly, as you see, whereas if now I apply an alternating pressure, although of exactly the same value, the lamps are quite dull. The explanation of this striking difference is that in such a case only a fraction of the alternating pressure is used in making the lamps glow, the remainder being employed in maintaining a rapidly reversing magnetic field. ona ath a 2 aaa This. magnetic effect—this self-inductive effect as it is called—is small if the going and return conductors be straight, short, and near together. But if the distance over which the power is to be transmitted be long, the wires obviously cannot be short, and if to obtain economy high electric pressure be used, the wires cannot be put very near together, since that would lead to a brush dis- charge through the air from one conductor to the other, producing leakage. : Indeed, the minimum distance that must separate the con- ductors has to be increased very rapidly with the pressure unless their diameter is greatly increased at the same time. The table gives this minimum distance for conductors 1/toth, 2/10ths, and 4/1oths of an inch diameter re- spectively, and it will be seen that increasing the thick- ness of the wire greatly diminishes this minimum. For instance, at 80,000 volts, doubling the thickness of the wire from 1/5th to 2/5ths of an inch diminishes the mini- mum distance from 63 feét to 133 inches. JOHANNESBURG. Elevation, 5689 feet, January, 1905. 24.3 inches. Minimum distance that must separate two parallel wires to prevent the starting of a Brush Discharge. Barometer, Temperature, gi°- Be 5 Root mean Diameter of wires in inches square electric | __ . a pressure in volts | between wires 1/10 2/10 4/10” ? 40,000 8°8 in. — — 50,000 32°2 in. — _ 60,0c0 9°9 ft. 14°7 in. _ 70,000 35°7 ft. © 33°8 in. _ 80,000 — 6'5 ft 13°6 in. 90,000 = — ‘23. in. 100,000 — — 38) tin: It must, of course, be remembered that these are mini= mum distances, and that the distances apart at which the wires have actually to be fixed in practice are much greater. ; But that is not the whole indictment against the use of alternating current for long distance transmission: Leakage from wire to wire can be rendered small, but still, if the current be alternating, it always flows along the wires, even if all the apparatus at the distant end be entirely disconnected from them. Let me show you this. I apply a direct pressure of 100 volts, and no current enters the transmission line, for it is well insulated along its length and at its ends. I apply instead an alternating pressure of the same value, without making any other change, and you observe a very perceptible current. ‘The very first thing that struck Ferranti when he commenced transmitting power with alternating current at 10,000 volts pressure, from Deptford to London, was that the current flowing into the system at Deptford was as large during the daytime, when practically no lamps were turned on in London, as during the evening, when many were glow- OcToBER 19, 1905] NATURE 617 ing. Again, in the case of the 150 miles transmission, at 50,000 volts, by the Bay Counties Power Company, in California, it was found that to charge even the aérial lines as a condenser required 4o amperes, so that the current flowing into the system remained practically un- changed when the useful load was decreased from several thousand horse-power down to nought. Now this is the very opposite of the effect we previously noticed, for in that case it was the alternating pressure that left the lamps dull by failing to send enough current into the transmission system. Surely, then, the one effect is a_correction of the other. That is so, and I will give you a practical illustration. Il have here two transmission lines, the one with its going and return conductors placed far apart so as to exaggerate the first effect, the other with its going and return conductors near together to exaggerate the second effect; indeed, as I am employing for this experiment only a pressure of 100 volts, there is no risk of brush dis- charge, and so I have put the wires extremely near together on the second transmission line. produced by the dynamo divides itself between the two transmission lines, and the two branch currents are about equal. But, as you may see by means of the oscillograph—an instrument developed in my laboratories by Mr. Duddell, one of my students, for giving us a picture of the current and pressure waves in each of the two circuits—there is a great difference between the waves in the two circuits. In the transmission line with the wires far apart, the reversals of the alternating current occur after the reversals of applied pressure, the crests of the current wave lag behind the crests of the pressure wave, whereas in the case of the transmission line, with the wires very near together, the exact opposite occurs, viz. the crests of the current wave are in advance of the crests of the pressure wave. Now, in the circuit coming from the dynamo, both current waves exist together, and as the crests of the one wave coexist with the troughs of the other there is inter- ference. and the result is practically no current at all. So here we have the rather surprising result of practically no current in a main circuit, and yet a considerable current in each of the branch circuits into which the main circuit divides. This may perhaps be regarded as a bereficial result, and should be added to the score of alternating current. But just as a very small alternating current in the main circuit can be split up into two large currents in the branch circuits, a small alternating pressure can be split up into two large alternating pressures, and in that case the result must be scored against the use of alternating current. In this experiment I use also two circuits, one with the conductors very far apart, and the other with them very near together ; but instead of employing these circuits as two branch transmission lines I put them end on, so that they constitute successive portions of the same trans- mission line. An alternating pressure of only roo volts is provided by the dynamo and applied to the whole arrange- ment, and yet you observe that, between the going and return conductors in that part of the circuit in which they are far apart, as well as in that part in which they are pear together, a pressure exists of 2400 volts, which is twenty-four times as great as the entire pressure supplied by the dynamo to the mains. This result with alternating electric pressures is not unlike that obtained with mechanical forces when a small force is resolved into two very large ones, with each of which it makes nearly a right angle. Much:damage has been done to electric cables, used for the distribution of power, by these unexpected high pressures - produced by resonance in alternate current circuits. A cable may have been tested at twice or thrice the working pressure and passed as satisfactory. But if there is a liability of a pressure being applied, which; as you see, may in somewhat extreme cases be twenty or thirty times the working pressure, what avails it that there is a facter of safety of 2 or 3?—disaster must follow. Now with direct current for long distance transmission there is no question about the electric pressure at the top | and bottom of a wave being much greater than the mean pressure, no question about self-induction reducing the NOL TS77,, VOL: 5 2'| The alternating current | | this lecture standing on a coal waggon to current—no objection, therefore, to putting the conductors* as far apart as the risk of brush discharge may necessitate —no question about capacity current, no resonance troubles, &c. { wonder whether any of you are thinking—Well, perhaps there may be something in this heresy after all. No? Oh! then you are thinking, if the arguments were sound, the direct current system would have been already employed for long distance transmission. Well, but it has! Power up to 3000 horse has been transmitted with direct current, at 14,000 volts, from Combe Garot to Le Locle and La Chaud de Fonds, round a circuit 32 miles long; 4600 horse-power has been transmitted with direct current, at 23,000 volts, 35 miles from St. Maurice to Lausanne; and a transmission system for 6000 horse-power, at 60,000. volts, over 114 miles from Moutiers to Lyons, is in course of construction. Another advantage that is possessed by all these examples of direct current transmission carried out by M. Thury is that it is the current that is kept constant and the electric pressure that is automatically raised when the demand for power is increased, whereas with the ordinary alternate current system it is the pressure at the lamp end that they aim at keeping constant, and the current that varies automatically with the demand for power Now it is far more easy to maintain the constancy of the current flowing round a long circuit than to prevent the bobbing up and down of the electric pressure at the distant end of a long transmission line, and that irritating dancing of the lights, with which Johannesburg is so familiar, would be particularly difficult to avoid if the trans- mission line were long and the electric pressures at its two ends differed by some thousands of volts. Constant current has also its well known disadvantages, but these would not come into play if the constant current were not taken into houses, mines, &c., but used to drive motor generators in substations, the dynamo portion of the motor generator being of any type desired. The pioneering development that enterprise, initiative, American boldness, and originality have brought about in the electric distribution of power, combined with the extraordinary commercial success that it has won on both sides of the Atlantic, have made people ask, “‘ Is such an industrial revolution in store for South Africa? ”’ At first sight one is inclined to answer ‘“‘ No!’ This | country is dotted with coalfields—coalfields blacken the map, and the produce of some of them is reported to be nearly equal to the best Welsh coal in quality. by W. T. Clough, illustrated; ‘‘ A New Junior Arithmetic, as by H. -B. Smith; ‘* A New Trigono- metry for Beginners, ”” by R. F. 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Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., announce :— “ Physiological *Psychology,’’ by Prof. W. Wundt, a trans- lation of the fifth and wholly re-written German edition by Prof. E. B. Titchener, in 3 vols., vol. ii., illustrated ; “The History of Philosophy,’’ by Dr. J. E. Erdmann, an English abridgment translated and edited by W. S. Hough ; ““Theughts and Things: a Genetic Study of Logical Process,’’ by Prof. M. Baldwin, vol. i., ‘‘ Theory of Know- ledge, Functional Logic,”’ vol-. i1., “< Theory Real Logic ’’; ‘‘ The Needs of Man: a Book of Sugges- tions,’” by Dr. W. W. Hall; ‘‘ The Student’s Text-book of Zoology,’ by A. Sedgwick, F.R.S., vol. iii., illustrated ; ‘The Student’s Hygiene, with Special Reference to the Syllabus of the Board of Education, 1905,”’ by _E. Evans, illustrated: ‘‘ The Chemistry of - Common Life, Special Reference to the Syllabus of the Board of Educa- tion, 1905,"’ by J. B. Coppock, illustrated; ‘* School Gardening for Little Children,”’ by L. R. Latter ; and a new edition of ‘‘ Introduction to the Study of Organic Chemistry,”’ by J. Wade, illustrated. Among the announcements of the University Tutorial Press, Ltd., are:—‘‘ The Primary Arithmetic,’’ part ii., (Weights and Measures, Vulgar Fractions, Practice, &c.), part iii.; ‘‘ Geometry, Theoretical and Practical,’’ by W. P. Workman and A. G. Cracknell, part i.; ‘ Scholar- ship Geometry,’” by W. P. Workman and A. G. Cracknell ; ‘‘Logarithms, and How to Use Them’’; ‘‘ First Stage Chemistry, Theoretical Organic,’ by Dr. R. A. Lyster; ‘““Tunior Chemistry,’’ by R. H. Adie; “Technical Elec- tricity,’ by Prof. H. T. Davidge and R. W.. Hutchinson ; “School Magnetism and Electricity,’’ by Dr. R. H. Jude; “ First Stage Physiology,’’ by Dr. G. N. Meachen,; “ Prac- tical Physics,’’ by W. R. Bower and J. Satterly ; “* Proper- ties of Matter,” by C. J. L. Wagstaff; ‘* Elementary Science of Common Life (Chemistry),’’ subject xxvi. of the Board of Education Science Examinations, by W. T. Boone; ‘‘ Section One, Biology ”’ (subject xv. of the Board of Education Science Examinations), by W. S. Furneaux; “Section One, Physiography’’ (subject xxiii. of the Board of Education Science Examinations); ‘‘ Scholarship Elementary Science—Biology,’’ for section ii. ; ‘* Principles and Methods of Education,’ by Dr. S. S. F. Fletcher and Prof. J. Welton; and new editions of ** Chemical Analysis,” by Drs. W. Briggs and R. W. Stewart: and “* Inorganic Chemistry, Second Stage (Theoretical),’’ by Dr. Gar. Bailey. Mr. T. Fisher Unwin gives notice of :—‘‘ Sport and Travel in Abyssinia,’? by Lord Hindlip, illustrated ; “Siberia, a Record of Travel, Climbing, and Exploration,” by S. Turner, illustrated; ‘‘ Rambles on the Riviera,’’ by Prof. E. Strasburger, illustrated; ‘‘ Round About My Peking Garden,” by Mrs. A. Little, illustrated; ‘‘ In Search of El Dorado, a Wanderer’s Experiences,’’ by A. Macdonald, illustrated; ‘‘ Recreations of a Naturalist,’’ by J. E. Harting, illustrated; ** The Nature and Origin of Living Matter,”’ by Dr. H. C. Bastian, F.R.S., illustrated ; ““The Mental Traits of Sex,’’ by H. B. Thompson; “Fishes I Have Known,” by A. H. Beavan, illustrated ; ““The Evolution of the World and of Man,” by G. E. Boxall; and ‘‘ Our School QOut-of-Doors,’’ by the Hon. M. C. Leigh, illustrated. ; _Messrs. Whittaker and Co. promise :—* Steam Turbine Engineering,’’ by H. M. Hobart and T. Stevens ; “¢ Wire- less Telegraphy and Telephony,’’ by D. Mazzotto, trans- lated by S. R. Bottone; ‘‘ A Pocket Book of Aéronautics,”’ by H. W. L. Moedebeck, translated by Dr. W. M. Varley; *““ Armature Construction,”’ by H. M. Hobart; “‘ Electric Welding,’’ by F. J. Wallis-Jones; ‘‘ Electricity in Mines,” by P. R. Allen; ‘* Single-phase Commutator Motors,’’ by F. Punga and R. F. Looser; ‘* Household Applications of Electricity, ’ by S. R. Bottone; ‘‘ A Text-book of Botany,”’ by M. Yates, part i., “‘ The Anatomy of Flowering Plants ’’; NG. 1877, VOL. 72] of Reality, | with | and new editions of ‘‘ Electricity in its Applications to Telegraphy,’’ by T. E. Herbert ; ““ The Alternating Current Circuit and Motor,”” by W. P. Maycock; “* Whittaker’s Electrical Engineers’ Pocket Book,” edited by K. Edg- cumbe; ‘‘ Central Station Electricity Supply,’’ by A. Gay and C. H. Yeaman; ‘‘ The Management of Accumulators,”’ by Sir D. Salomons, Bart.; “‘ The Practical Telephone Handbook,’’ by J. Poole; ‘‘ Radiography and the X-Rays,”’ by S. R. Bottone; and “ Dissections Illustrated,’”? by C. Brodie. Messrs. Williams and Norgate announce :—‘ The Evolu- tion of Religion, an Anthropological Study,” by Dr. L. R. Farnell; ‘‘ Life and Matter, a Criticism of Prof. Haeckel’s © Riddle of the Universe,’’’ by Sir Oliver Lodge, F-R.S. ; and ‘*‘ The Inflammation Idea in General Pathology,’’ by Dr. W. H. Ransom,. F.R.S. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. : Oxrorp.—The Indian forestry probationers elected last August have come into residence, and the India. Office has issued a notice that thirteen more probationers will be selected at the end of October. Candidates, must have passed Responsions at Oxford or the previous examination at Cambridge, or some equivalent examination, and will be expected to have some knowledge of chemistry, physics and mechanics, and to be between the age of eighteen and twenty-one years, but the selection board will have the power to relax the superior age limit in the case of candi- dates who have taken a university degree. Names of in- tending candidates must be sent to the Under-Secretary of State for India not later than October 26; forms of appli- | cation can be obtained from Dr. Schlich, 29 Banbury Road, Oxford. CampripGe.—The syndicate appointed to consider the desirability of establishing in the university a diploma in forestry is of opinion (1) that a diploma in forestry should be established; (2) that forestry should form the principal subject of the final examination for the diploma; (3) that the diploma should be granted only to graduates of the university ; (4) that candidates for the diploma should show evidence of having resided for the equivalent of one year in some recognised centre of instruction in practical forestry. If these recommendations be approved by the senate, the syndicate proposes to draw up and submit to that body detailed regulations for the scope and conduct of the proposed examinations and for the courses of lectures | and practical instruction to be required of candidates for the diploma. At Emmanuel College a studentship of the value of 15ol. is offered for the encouragement of research in any branch of study recognised by the university. The studentship is open to graduate members of the university whose age does not exceed twenty-eight on January 1, 1906. It is tenable in the first instance for one year from January 1, 1906, but the student may be re-elected | for a second period of one year. The latest date for re- ceiving applications is November 20. Further information may be obtained from the master. The student elected is not required to become a member of Emmanuel College. Mr. J. L. Tuckett, of Trinity College, has been appointed senior demonstrator of physiology until September 29, 1908, and Mr. S. W. Cole, of the same college, will succeed Mr. Tuckett as additional demonstrator in the same sub- ject. Dr. H. B. Roderick, of Emmanuel College, has been re-appointed demonstrator of surgery. been elected to represent the board of physics and chemistry on the general board of studies. Mr. J. J. Lister has been re-elected demonstrator of comparative anatomy. Prof. Hopkinson has — Mr. James Mittikan, who has given 180,oool. for the establishment of a university at Decatur, Ill., which shall — bear his name, has offered, we learn from Science, to give a further 200,000l. to the institution. A COMMITTEE has been appointed to inquire into the expenditure on public education in England and Wales from Exchequer grants, local rates, and other sources, with the view of ascertaining the various causes fer the Ce bee ne E9058) amount of rate levied for educa- | tion by local authorities, and the varying relation which this amount bears to the total local rates in each area. All the members of the committee are officially connected with the Civil Service. existing diversity in the Tue London County Council School of Marine Engineer- | Poplar, ing in High Street, has been established to enable Fic. 1.—Navigation Room of the London County Council School of Marine Engineering, Poplar. persons in the engineering and shipping industries of the Poplar and neighbouring districts to acquire an intimate knowledge of the principles which underlie the work on which they are engaged, instruction being given in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, as well as in the more prac- tical subjects dealt with in the drawing offices, chart room, and engineering labor- atories and workshops. The nautical day school is equipped with modern nau- tical instruments and _ sea- manship models, and a_ por- tion of the roof of the building is arranged so as to form an observing terrace for meteorological and astro- nomical observations. Pro- vision is also made for the thorough teaching of the principles of electrical engineering, and in the chemical laboratories students have opportunities of making investigations in connection with the calorific value of fuels, methods of purifying feed waters, and other sub- jects. The accompanying ; illustration shows the navi- gation room of the school. Pror. R. Metpotra, F.R.S distributed, on October 11, the prizes and certificates gained during the session 1904-5 by the students of Herold’s Institute, the London School of Leather Meee The report of the director of the school, J. Gordon Parker, was read at the meet- ing, and ee that during the year a large amount of maaeewielh work has been done, and ‘the staff ae the institute has contributed in no small degree to the important investigation connected with the deterioration of book- Na. 1877, VOL. 72] NATURE Fic. 1.—Diagrams of nuclear divisions. binding leather carried out by the Society of Arts c6ém- mittee on bookbinding leather. Prof. Meldola, replying to a vote of thanks, reminded those present that in other countries there is a direct relaticnship between technical institutions and the industries. In this country, un- fortunately, there is too often indifference or open hostility. Manufacturers have suffered through their unwillingness to modify old procedure and to face new sets of conditions. but it is gratifying to know that hostility to technical instruction is being overcome. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES LONDON. Royal Society, May 11.—‘‘On the Cytology of Apogamy and Apospory- =a) Preliminary Note on Apospory.’ By Miss ee es Communicated by Prof. J. Farmer, F.R.S. Roe is the direct vegetative process which leads from the sporo- phyte to the gametophyte without the intervention of spores. The fronds of Nephrodium pseudo- mas, Rich., var. cristata apospora, Druery, were layered in pans of earth, and soon showed aposporal growth. This arises from the surface and edge of the pinnule, and assumes _pro- thalloid characters. These prothalli have no cushion; the embryo is a vegetative outgrowth. The nuclear divisions of prothallus and embryo have been studied, and the calculated number of chromosomes is forty-three and forty-one respectively (see Fig.). This approximation un- doubtedly proves that there is no reduction during the transition from the sporophyte to the gametophyte. A similar result has been obtained in Athyrium Filix-faemina, var. clarvissima, Jones. The apogamous prothalli of Nephrodium pseudo-mas — —— | | | | | j py C ,e x * 6 , c abcinprothallus. @ 6’ c’ in embryo. cristata apospora show no nuclear migration, whereas about 73 per cent. of those of Nephrodium pseudo-mas, Rich., var. polydactyla, Wills,‘ exhibit this phenomenon. This is easily explained. Whereas in the former the nuclei of the aposporously developed prothalli have already the full complement of somatic chromosomes, in the latter \ J. B. Farmer, J. E. S. Moore, and L. Digby, “ Preliminary Note on Apogamy,” Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. 1xxi,, 1903, pp. 453 to 457. 624 NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1905 they have only half the number, as the prothalli germinate from spores, the origin of which undoubtedly involves a reduction. Hence the sporophytic number in that case is regained by migration and subsequent fusion of two pro- thallial nuclei. MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, October 3.—Sir William H. Bailey, president, in the chair.—Note on the buccal pits of peripatus: C. G. Hewitt. A general cutline of the characters of peripatus was_ given. Recently, tracheal structures had been described in Ooperipatus oviparus, in connec- tion with the buccal pits. These pits are formed by the hollowing out of the long, chitinous levers which are attached to the inner pair of jaws; they are continuous with the cavity of the mouth. The paper embodied the results of an investigation into the nature of these buccal pits in Oopertpatus oviparus and two other species. It was found that trachee do not occur in this region of the body, and that the striated muscle fibres which work the jaw- levers had been mistaken for trachez- PARIS. Academy of Sciences, October 9.—M. Troost in the chair.—The president announced the death of Prof. Baron de Richthofen, correspondant in the section of mineralogy. —Observation of the total eclipse of the sun of August 30 at Alcosebre (Spain): J. Jamssen. Just before totality the sky was not absolutely clear, a few light clouds inter- fering somewhat with the photography of the phases, but some minutes before totality the clouds disappeared, and the whole period of totality was studied under the best conditions. Three good photographs of the corona were obtained by M. Pasteur, M. Millochau was able to obtain photographs of the spectrum of the reversing layer and of the corona, and M. Stefanik made ocular observations on the green ray of the corona and of the extreme red. Numerous photographs of the phases were obtained.—On the creation of an international association for solar studies: J. Jamssen. A yéswmeé of the principal resolu- tions passed at the recent meeting at Oxford.—On the first volume of the *‘ Catalogue photographique du Ciel,’’ pub- lished by the Observatory of Bordeaux: M. Leewy. This catalogue contains the rectilinear coordinates of 49,772 stars relating to a zone comprised between + 16° and + 18° declination. Details of the methods adopted are given, and a special study of the errors has been made.—On_ the earthquake felt at Stromboli on September 8, and on the present state of the volcano: A. Lacroix. The earthquake of September 8, which caused such disasters in Calabria, was also severely felt at Stromboli, as, although no fatalities resulted in the island, there was hardly a build- ing which remained undamaged. Numerous crevasses appeared, some a metre wide and 20 metres long. Some observations were made on the volcano in eruption at a distance of 150 metres from the crater, special attention being given to the times elapsing between the explosions. It would appear that the more violent explosions are not separated from those preceding by an interval of time specially long.—Observation of the total eclipse of the sun, August 30, made at Guelma, Algeria: E. Stephan. The work attempted was limited to direct visual observations, which were carried out under excellent atmospheric con- ditions.—Spectroscopic researches made during the eclipse an Australian species, of the sun, August 30, at Alcosebre (Spain): Milan Stefanik. Details of visual observations are given—On the observation of the total eclipse of August 30, made at \lcosebre (Spain): G. Millochau. The “scheme of work proposed included the photographic study of the spectra of the reversing layer and the chromosphere in the luminous region, especially in the red, yellow, and green; the spec- trum of the corona in the same region ; similar researches in the ultra-violet ; photographs during totality with plates sensible to the red rays, utilising a red screen to cut off ‘ther radiations. Details of the instruments are given, the full discussion of the results being reserved for a later paper.—On the polarised light of the solar corona: J. J. Landerer.—Mathematical groups containing several oper- ations of the second order: G. A. Miller—On some lerivatives of cyclohexane: P. Freundler and E. Damond. The starting ‘point of this work was cyclohexanol, pre- pared by Sabatier and Senderens’ NO. 1877, VOL. 72] method. This was con- verted into the monobromo- and monoiodo-derivatives by the action of phosphorus bromide and iodide, and rectify- ing under reduced pressure. These compounds do not, as a “rule, give good yields in condensation with sodium derivatives, an “exception being in the reaction with sodio- malonic ester, the yield in this case being 27 per cent.— On the decomposition of meta- and para-nitrobenzylic alcohols under the influence of aqueous and alcoholic soda : P. Carré.—On some phenolic ethers with the pseudo- allyl chain ArC(CH,)=CH,: MM. Béhal and Tiffeneau. —On sambunigrin, a new hydrocyanic glucoside extracted from the leaves of the black elder : Em. Bourquelot and Em. Danjou. The existence of this glucoside has been indicated in a previous note, and in the present communi- cation details are given of the method by which the sambunigrin has been obtained in a pure state. The new glucoside. appears to be isomeric with the amygdonitrile glucoside of Fischer, from which it differs in its rotatory power.—Statistical researches on the evolution of the size of plants: Mlle. Stefanowska. The results are expressed in the form of curves.—Study of the blood in the case of a ““bleeder’?: P. Emile Weil. Numerous experiments have been made on the coagulation of the blood from this case. The most important result obtained was the observation that the anomalous coagulation in these cases is not due to the presence of any anti- coagulating substances in the blood, but arises from the absence or altersticn of certain normal substances, probably the coagulating {=:ment. It is sufficient to add traces of normal serum to cause a normal coagulation.—On the direct proofs of the existence of counter trade winds: Lawrence Reteh and Léon Teisserenc de Bort. CONTENTS. PAGE Mechanics for(Students' 5/2) {youu eee 601 Music of Singing-Birds. By W. W.F.. 602 Our Book Shelf :— Harnack: ‘Studien ueber Hautelektricitat und Hautmagnetismus des Menschen.” —Dr. George J. Burch, F:R.S. | : 602 Lovibond : ‘© An Introduction. to the Study of Colour Phenomena” . 5: oe NOOR Ritsema and Sack : “ Index Phytochemicus zee 603 Letters to the Editor :— Eclipse Predictions.—J. Y. Buchanan, F.R.S. 603 Absence of Vibration in a Turbine eee Prof. David Todd ... 603 A Parasite of the House-fly. _R. I. Pocock 604 Incandescence of Meteors. mt A. Brown; ARS okies z 604 A Rare Game Bird. —John ‘Si Sawbridge 605 Physical Laboratories in Germany ....... . 605 The Essex Field Club. (Z//ustrated.). ..... . 606 The Mosquitoes of Para. ee cer By W. F. K, 607 Wotes) a. cele elgee, SP aon yg] Our Astronomical Column :— Another Large Sun-spot . "| . .) 2) ene OS M. Bigourdan’s Eclipse Results... 610 Atmospheric Origin of ‘* Shadow Bands” . 611 A Spectrographic Determinabon of the Solar Parallax 611 Nova Aquile No. 2. . ot Oe 611 Light-variation of Satna s Satellites . 5 611 International Congress on Radiology and Ionisation 611 The Coalfields of North Staffordshire. By H. W. Hughes .. Sogn mre ool aetna ee Le: The Distribution of Power, By - Prof. 9W23E: Ayrton, F.R.S. . . PEPE rey acne seh eile Forthcoming Books of Science 5 619 University and Educational Intelligence, (Ulustrated.) 622 Societies and Academies (///ustvated.) 623 SUPPLEMENT A Tibetan Dictionary. By Lieut.-Col. L, A. Waddell iii Hinger-Print Identification,’ By F. (Gr Sayan Education and Physique. By FP. (Goss v Geometry of Position. By G. B. M. . vi Organic Preparations and the Coal- Tar Colour : Industry. By Walter M.Gardner...... vii Science and Mysticism. By J. A.T...... viii The Plant Kingdom .. ix An Italian Text-book of ' Physiology. By} Dr. ao A. MaltGy. meee...) z x SIAAVEIT IMME IN AL ANO) SINUATW VIR se A, TIBETAN DICTIONARY. A Tibetan-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Synonyms. By Sarat Chandra Das. Revised and edited by G. Sandberg, B.A., and A. W. Heyde. Pp. xxxiv+1353. (Calcutta: Bengal~ Secretariat Press, 1902.) HE chief attraction which the Tibetan language possesses for the western reader is that it is the Latin of Central Asia, and preserves in its bulky literature the old-world lore and vestiges of early culture which the priestly schoolmen of Tibet believed to he all that was worth knowing, not only about their own country, but of the outside world, and more especially ancient India, regarding which so little is known to us. For Tibet, upon receiving its Buddhism from India in the seventh century a.D., adopted at the same time the Indian characters for the purpose of reducing its hitherto unwritten Mon- eolian language into writing, and forthwith translated into its new vernacular the Indian Buddhist scriptures and other works, the originals of which were after- wards destroyed by the fanatical Mohammedan invaders on the expulsion of Buddhism from India in the twelfth century a.p. From these scripts, thus preserved in their Tibetan translations, much invalu- able information has already been gleaned by Euro- pean scholars; but owing to a habit of the learned monks to translate most of the proper names, of persons, places, and things, root by root etymo- logically into the Tibetan, it so happens that without a copious Tibeto-Sanskrit lexicon to re-convert these translated names into their recognisable Indian equivalents, a great deal of the mass of information locked up in the Tibetan volumes, now accumulating in our national libraries, remains to some extent sealed. This is what the present dictionary claims to facilitate to a greater extent than has been done by the lexicons of the pioneer Csoma, the Hungarian, the scientifically equipped Moravian missionary, Jaschke, and Pere Desgodins. It has been compiled by Babu Sarat Das from vernacular dictionaries brought by him from Tibet, when he visited that country some years ago. His revisers complain that they found “the material had been put together in somewhat heterogeneous fashion hardly systematic enough for a dictionary,’’ so that they had to take ‘‘ the greatest freedom in correcting or rejecting the matter set forth in the work.’’ This task of correction has obviously not been carried far enough, for in its pub- lished form this ponderous volume still retains serious shortcomings in the elementary requirements of a dictionary. The definitions offered are too often want- ing in accuracy to be trusted, or too wanting in necessary details and useful references to be very helpful. The Sanskrit synonyms are not so numerous as they might have been, and their definitions are usually made up of indiscriminate extracts from the Sanskrit-English dictionaries of English lexico- NO. 1877, VOL. 72] Supplement to “ Nature,’ October 19, 1905 ill graphers, reproduced often without acknowledgment and with strange confusion and errors. For instance, to refer to of the botanical matters in the first few pages, under ‘ Kalxola,’’ an aromatic spice, the author has talken the latter part of his definition from Wilson’s dictionary without acknowledgment, and included with it part of the definition of the next following word; he also states that cardamom is ‘“‘ the fruit of Cocculus indicus,” and mistakes Erandi or cubeb pepper for Erand, or the castor-oil plant. Again, ‘‘ Kapi’’ is given in trustworthy Tibetan lexicons as the Sanskrit equi- valent of ‘‘ Kapittha,’”’ not ‘‘ Kabittha ’’ as stated by the Babu, and secondarily ‘‘ Pithanaja,’’ which is omitted by him. The primary meaning, therefore, is the wood-apple tree (Feronia elephantum) and not “resin of the juniper plant’? as given by him. As secondary meanings he inserts five lines taken without acknowledgment from Wilson, and in so doing mis- spells each of the three botanical names, and alters waved-leaf fig tree ’’ into the nonsensical ‘‘ mane- fig tree.’ In the next word, also, both the Sanskrit and botanical terms, unacknowledged from Wilson, are misspelt. Again, ‘‘ Chu-sing kar-po,’’ or “‘ the white water- tree,’’ is absurdly stated by him to be Aconitum ferox, which, however, is black rather than white, and never called a ‘tree’? by the Tibetans, to whom it is familiar. The vernacular lexicon, however, gives for ‘““water-tree ’? the Sanskrit ‘‘ Kadali,’? or ‘“‘ water- wood,’’ which is the appropriate name of the watery plantain tree, and it gives the further synonym ‘* Mochaka,’’ or the ‘* horse-radish-tree,’’ which the Babu omits. Of this tree, the ‘*‘ Sajina’’ of Indian cooks, there are two varieties, namely, a red and a white kind, the latter of which is the one that has been wrongly identified with the deadly aconite by our compiler. Still another synonym for this word, “Nalam,’’ a reed or ‘stalked water-plant,’’ is in- correctly given as ‘‘ the ratan ’’ (sic); and the author frequently confuses can® with bamboo. Not infrequently the precise shade of meaning is missed; thus Rig-dsin, which literally and invariably means ‘a holder of knowledge ’’ or sage, is defined by him as ‘‘ comprehension of a science (sic) with ease’; and seldom is any hint given of the useful literal meaning of such names as the common word for small-pox, which is euphemistically called ‘f God’s granules’ in deference to the malignant disease spirit. As instances of common words altogether omitted are La-lis, the respectful form of ‘‘ yes,’’ which after the mystic ‘* Om” formula is. perhaps the word most frequently uttered in Tibet; Choma, the common Potentilla, the root of which is eaten as a food; pin- kyur-ma, the kestrel, being onomatopeetic for its call; the word for ‘ bribe,’ which is ethically interesting as meaning literally ‘* a secret push.” His orthography disregards some of the accepted rules of scientific philologists, so as to give “Daipung’’ for the great monastery of Dapung, although no 7 occurs either in the vernacular spelling or pronunciation. We miss, too, in a dictionary of this size, which owing largely to clumsier type is some “ vc talken Supplement to ‘ Nature, oy October 19, 1905 thrice the weight of Jéaschke’s, any illustrations of the interesting: process of organic change whereby so many of the bristling consonants of the written speech have dropped out of hearing in the spoken dialects of the temperate central province, probably for physiological and climatic reasons. Nevertheless, despite its many defects, it embodies a good deal of new material from the vernacular Tibetan lexicons which must prove suggestive to those engaged in Tibetan researches who are sufficiently advanced not to be misled by its serious mistakes. L. A. Wappe Lt. FINGER-PRINT IDENTIFICATION. Guide to Finger-print Identification. By Henry Faulds, L.F.P.S., late Surgeon, Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. Pp. ° viii+8o. (Hanley: Wood, Mitchell and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 5s. net. R. FAULDS was for some years a medical officer in Japan, and a zealous and original investi- gator of finger-prints. He wrote an interesting letter about them in Narure, October 28, 1880, dwelling upon the legal purposes to which they might be applied, and he appears to be the first person who published anything, in print, on this subject. How- ever, his suggestions of introducing the use of finger- prints fell flat. The reason that they did not attract attention was presumably that he supported them by no convincing proofs of three elementary propositions on which the suitability of finger-prints for legal pur- poses depends. It was necessary to adduce strong evidence of the, long since vaguely alleged, perman- ence of those ridges on the bulbs of the fingers that print their distinctive lineations. It was necessary to adduce better evidence than opinions based on mere inspection, of the vast variety in the minute details of those markings, and finally, for purposes of criminal investigation, it was necessary to prove that a large collection could be classified with sufficient precision to enable the officials in charge of it to find out speedily whether a duplicate of any set of prints that might be submitted to them did or did not exist in the collection. Dr. Faulds had no part in establish- ing any one of these most important preliminaries. But though his letter of 1880 was, as above men- tioned, apparently the first printed communication on the subject, it appeared years after the first public and official use of finger-prints had been made by Sir William Herschel in India, to whom the credit of originality that Dr. Faulds desires to monopolise is far more justly due. Those who care to learn the facts at first hand should turn to Nature, vol. xxii. p- 605, for Dr. Faulds’s first letter, to vol. 1., p: 518, for a second letter from him in reference to the Parlia- mentary Blue-book on the ‘Identification | of Criminals,’* then just issued, and lastly to Sir Wm. Herschel’s reply in vol. li., pp. 77-8, where the ques- tion of priority of dates is placed beyond doubt, by the reprint of the office copy of Sir William’s ‘ demi- | official” letter of August 1s, spector of Prisons in Bengal. NO. 1877, VOL. 72] 1877 44d) to the then In- This letter covers all frequent occurrence, | that is important in Dr. Faulds’s subsequent com- munication in 1880, and goes considerably further. The method introduced by Sir Wm. Herschel, ten- tatively at first as a safeguard against personation, had gradually been developed and tested, both in the jail and in the registering office, during a period of from ten to fifteen years before 1877, as stated in the above quoted letter to the Inspector of Prisons. The failure of Sir \Wm. Herschel’s successor, and of others at that time in authority in Bengal, to continue the development of the system so happily begun, is greatly to be deplored, but it can be ex- plained on the same grounds as those mentioned above in connection with Dr. Faulds. The writer of these remarks can testify to the occasional incredulity in the early ‘nineties concerning the permanence of the ridges, for it happened to himself while staying at the house of a once distinguished physiologist who was the writer when young of an article on the skin in a first-class encyclopedia, to hear strong objections made to that opinion. His theoretical grounds were that the glands, the ducts of which pierce the ridges, would multiply with the growth of the hand, and it was not until the hands of the physiologist’s own children had been examined by him through a lens, that he could be convinced that the lineations on a child’s hand might be the same as when he grew up, but on a smaller scale. ‘ The literature concerning finger-prints is becoming large. An exéellent index to it will be found in a memoir by Otto Schlaginhaufen, just published (Morphol. Jahrbuch,. Bd. xxsiii., H. 4, and Bd. xxxiv., H. 1., Leipzig). ' But even this is incomplete, for it takes no notice of Mr. Tabor’s efforts in San Francisco to obtain the official registration of the finger-prints of the Chinese immigrants, whom it was found difficult to identify otherwise. This seems to have occurred at some time in the ’eighties, possibly before them, but dates are now wanting. Dr. Faulds in his present volume recapitulates his old grievance with po less bitterness than formerly. He overstates the value of his own work, belittles that of others, and carps at evidence recently given in criminal cases. His book is not only biased and imperfect, but unfortunately it contains nothing new that is of value, so far as the writer of these remarks can judge, and much of what Dr. Faulds seems to consider new has long since been forestalled. It a pity that he did not avail himself of the opportunity of writing a book up to date, for he can write well,, and the photographic illustrations which his publisher has supplied are excellent. The experiences. of other countries ought soon to be collated with those of England, in order to develop further .the art of classifying large collec- tions of finger-prints. In Argentina, for example, their use has wholly superseded Bertillonage, and one would like to know with what success. A bureau that can deal effettively with very many thousands of cases would require a staff of particularly intelli- gent officials, and the tradition of dealing in the same way with certain transitional forms that are of The more highly the art of is Subplement to ‘‘ Nature,” October 19, 1905 ‘Vv classifving, or as it might be phrased of, ‘* lexicon- ising,’’ finger-prints is developed, the more wide will their use become. They ought to be especially valu- able in checking desertions from the Army and Navy. But there may be moral objections to the use of finger- prints in these cases for, according’ to the present system of recruiting, many take refuge in the Army who are ‘‘ wanted ’’ by the police, and would strongly object to being finger-printed, A few words should be added concerning the ancient usage of finger-prints in China, Japan, and India for legal purposes. Good evidence as to this has at length been supplied by Minakata Kumagusu in two letters to Nature, vol. li., pp. 199 and 274. It is clear that it was used to some extent, but there is nothing as yet to show that the impressions were made and scrutinised with anything like the precautions now considered to be essential to the good working of the system. Blurred finger-prints cannot be correctly deciphered except by a trained expert, using lenses and photographic magnification. Negative evidence is often of conspicuous value, such as should leave no reasonable doubt in the mind of the most stupid jury- man; but expert analysis and severe cross-examination are required when the prints to be compared are generically alike and when one of them is imperfect or blurred. ie Gx EDUCATION AND PHYSIQUE: Mécanisme et Education des Mouvements. ' By Prof. Georges Demeny. Pp. ii + 523; 565~ figures. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1904.) Price 9 francs. HERE are few more important or more oppor- tune considerations in connection with practical hygiene than those which are furnished by the subject- matter of the two books written by M. Demeny. The first of these books, a second -edition of which appeared in 1903, is entitled ‘‘ Les Bases scientifiques de 1’Education physique ’’; this is now supplemented and given a direct practical bearing by the present work, which sets forth in some detail the technical aspects of the subject. As regards its general character the method of treatment remains distinctly scientific; but since the avowed aim of the author to set forth the real advantages to be derived from bodily exercises conducted along proper ‘lines, the scope of. this later boolx is eminently educational, and thus it appeals to all those who take a broad view of education and its requirements. This appeal accentuated by the mode of presentation, ‘which Such as to render the extensive subject-matter intelli- gible to those who make no pretensions to special physiological knowledge. It is true that the opening chapter deals of necessity with such physiological questions as the structure and functions of muscle, the mechanism of joints, and the capacity for movement which are allowed by the skeletal articulations; but these and other funda- mental points of like nature are treated in a manner which, whilst in strict accord with the present state of scientific knowledge, is of such a character as to | render these various topics easy of comprehension. NOs1O7 75) VOL Gee is is is This introduction leads up to a most interesting analysis of the part played by the muscles in pro- ducing various well known body movements. In this stress is laid upon the comparatively modern discovery that any movement, for instance the flexion of a limb, is produced not only by the pulling force of those muscles which move it in the desired sense, the flexors, but also by the relaxation of those which oppose this movement, the extensors. It is this two- fold muscular mechanism which permits of the move- ment being graduated so finely as regards both its extent and its force. Some illustrations of a striking character are given in support of this aspect of a volitional or secondary automatic movement. For the majority of readers, the great interest of the book will probably lie in the interesting account which it gives of various familiar movements. These are all accompanied by numerous illustrations which are excellent for their purpose, and greatly enhance the attractiveness of the text. Many of these are spirited diagrammatic representations of the skeleton, the form of which in all manner of bodily postures is drawn with that piquaney and verve which con- stitute to English eyes the special charm of French draughtsmanship; humour cannot be expected in a letterpress which deals with subject-matter so technical and Serious, but it is supplied by the illustrations, which give a humorous fillip to the work without detracting in the least from their undoubted service in helping the reader to follow the exposition. The section which deals with the various forms of locomotion, walking,, running, jumping, &c., is perhaps the most elaborate. The author is here on ground which he has studied minutely for many years. As chief of the laboratory at the physiological station in the Collége de France, he is able to set forth with authority the results of the elaborate and prolonged investigations initiated by Prof. Marey and carried on under his inspiring influence., It is prob- a that the summary of these investigations given y M. Demeny is the most valuable short exposition a this really difficult subject which has been published up to the present time. The lucidity of the author’s style and tréatment is conspicuous in this portion of the book, for the matter dealt with is not easily set forth in a way which admits of being readily under- stood, since it mathematical considerations which are apt to prove a stumbling block to physio- logical students. But, as stated before, the description of the factors concerned in the production of familiar postures of the body and the side-issues which these raise, will for most readers probably prove the most attractive portion of the work. From standing, sitting, and lying down, the author proceeds to carrying loads, involves vaulting, kicking, throwing, swimming, rowing, cycling, horse-riding, dancing, singing, fencing, boxing, wrestling, and all the various bodily move- ments which are concerned in the various forms of athletic or industrial exercise. It would be impossible to give any detailed account of his treatment of these subjects, but it may be confidently stated that this treatment, whilst scientifically sound, rendered is vi entertaining by the copious illustrations and interest- ing through the many novel points which are touched upon. As an example of the latter, the question is raised as to the physiological limits of the rapidity of effective response in fencing and boxing, and experi- ments are cited bearing on this point. A more serious, and at the present moment more important, aspect of the subject-matter is that which deals with body movements in relation to the improve- ment of general bodily physique. These are dealt with in the same comprehensive manner as those just referred to, for the author includes most of the gymnastic exercises used in France, Swedish drill, the use of clubs and of apparatus of different kinds. The malformation of the body is also referred to, whether due to the under-development or to the over- development of special muscular groups; as an ex- ample of the first, the malformation of the chest through the weakness of the trunk muscles, abdominal muscles, &c., is conspicuously shown; as an example of over-development, the malformation of the thigh in fencing masters. The closing chapters are devoted to the conditions which may be presumed to determine how muscular force can be most economically directed towards the production of body movements. The author realises that it would be undesirable in a treatise of a semi- popular character to present this extremely important subject in detail; nor, indeed, can it be set forth in a very convincing manner, since several questions of a fundamental type are still from the scientific point of view in an unsettled state. Thus it is still a matter of doubt how closely the heat-producing properties of muscle are associated with those of mechanical tension or change of form. M. Demeny is well aware of this, and warns his readers that it is impossible to deduce the energy relationships of the animal mechanism from those of artificially constructed machines. In this as in other departments of physiology the hope of arriving at a more precise in- tellectual standpoint is that expressed by one of Bacon’s aphorisms; it will “ only be well founded when numerous experiments shall be received and collected into natural history which, though of no use in themselves, assist materially in the discovery of causes and axioms.”’ : In this spirit the various experiments detailed in the concluding chapter of the book must be approached. Most of these are concerned with the influence of walking with definite loads for definite distances ; the points noted were the number of steps per minute, the length of the stride, and the posture of the body. It appears that when, as in walking, muscular move- ments are repeated many times, then there is an optimum rhythm which, by permitting appropriate reparation, allows the maximum of effect with least expenditure of muscular power. The author considers this to be the case in almost all body movements, although experiments are not given in support of this generalisation. The book as a whole is likely to prove of very con- siderable value in connection with the subject of physical degeneration, which has been for some time NO. 1877, VOL. 72] Supplement to “ Nature,’ October 19, 1905 agitating the mind of the public. Methods of educa- tion it now realised should, from the hygienic point of view, concern themselves with the posture of the body. In the code for 1905 issued by the Educa- tion Department stress is laid upon the importance of ‘‘the careful cultivation of a correct posture at writing and other lessons.”? This tardy awakening of the authorities to the importance of cultivating the bodily physique of the children who are taught in the national schools renders it probable that teachers will desire to instruct themselves in the fundamental scientific aspects of the various methods for improving the bodily structure and functions. In this respect a work such as that now under review is likely to prove of very real service; it trustworthy, it approaches the whole question of body posture from a point of view at once scientific and utilitarian, it attacks the fundamental question (that, namely, of the effective action of the muscles), and finally, it is written in a style which makes the subject-matter intelligible without presupposing special technical knowledge on the part of the reader. The only draw- back to its utility is one which is susceptible of removal by its translation into English. is is Ge GEOMETRY OF POSITION. On the Traversing of Geometrical Figures. By J. Cook Wilson. Pp. x+154. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) Price 6s. net. UPPOSE that an outline figure of any kind is drawn upon a blackboard. In its construction the chalk describes a certain number of closed or open paths, a path being defined as the mark made by the challk during the whole time of any one of its contacts with the board. But the number of paths thus actually described is not necessarily the smallest by which the figure can be produced, and it is an interesting problem to analyse a given figure into its minimum number of paths, each traversed once. As a simple example, let two oval paths be drawn intersecting in four points; the resulting figure can be traversed as one closed path. If two of the inter- sections are joined, the new figure can be traversed as one open path; if the remaining intersections are joined, the figure cannot be reduced to less than two paths. The first two parts of Mr. Wilson’s book deal with the problem above stated and various associated questions. The most interesting result is one of greater generality than might have been expected. Let a point in the figure be called odd or even accord- ing as an odd or even number of lines radiate from it; then a figure with 27 odd points can be analysed into n paths, but no fewer. (To include the case when n=o a slightly modified statement is necessary, which will be found in the book.) In part iii. the author enters upon new ground by applying the principle of duality; this is the most novel part of the book, and a few comments on it may not be superfluous. The results of the first two parts may, of course, be directly reciprocated without introducing any metrical considerations; but this is Supplement to ‘ Nature,” October 19, 1905 Vil not what Mr. Wilson does, and the consequences of his procedure are very instructive, especially from the point of view of absolute geometry. He practically confines himself to rectilineal figures, and reciprocates segments into angles, thus introducing metrical elements, and becoming necessarily faced by the complications which they involve. It is now familiar to pure mathematicians that, with an ‘‘ absolute ”’ conic to define our metrical system, there is a con- sistent and reciprocal definition of angle and segment (or distance of two points) by which each of these is the product of a constant and the logarithm of a cross-ratio. But to identify these with the expressions for angle and segment obtained by elementary methods with rectangular coordinates it is. necessary to suppose the absolute conic to degenerate into one which, considered as a_ point- locus, is the line at infinity counted twice, and con- sidered as an envelope is the pair of circular points at infinity. This complicated character of the absolute is at the base of all the puzzling difficulties which beset such attempts as this of Mr. Wilson’s—difficul- ties, it is true, which he often surmounts in an ingenious manner. For example, in the appendix he introduces a system of angular coordinates, both for lines and points, and obtains point and line equations for the ellipse. Now the unmistakable drift of his thought is that if point and line can be defined by coordinates which measure segments, then ‘“‘ reciprocally ’’ line and point can be determined by coordinates which measure angles. But his angular coordinates are not really reciprocal to the segmental coordinates, as is clear from the fact that his equation of the ellipse is trigonometrical and not algebraical. It might be interesting to decide whether any simple functions of Mr. Wilson’s angular coordinates are the direct reciprocals of the ordinary Cartesian segmental coordinates. A remark should also be made on the note (pp. 120-6) on the most general form of the construction of reciprocal figures, as it may prevent possible mis- understanding. In the ordinary process of recipro- cation with an auxiliary conic, F and F’ being the corresponding figures, we may say that F’ is derived from F by a process, or rule, of polarising, and that F is derived from F’ by the same rule. Mr. Wilson gives an example in which F! is derived from F by one process, and F from EF’ by another—F and Ff’ being reciprocal in the general sense of projective geometry. He adds that this is ‘‘ wider than the usual method,’’ which, of course, it is, if ‘‘ the usual method ’? means employing an auxiliary conic. But the figures obtained by his method can be constructed each from the other by the general method of making four points (or lines) in F correspond at pleasure to four lines (or points) in F/, and then to every linear way of constructing F’ from F there is a dualistically corresponding way of deriving F from FY’. So that it must not be supposed that Mr. Wilson has dis- covered any essentially new way of constructing reciprocal figures, though his remark might be mis- understood in that sense. NO. 1877, VOL. 72] To return to the more popular aspect of this interest- ing book. The figures are, strictly, strips of black on a white ground. For the author they represent geometrical lines, and are reasoned upon as _ such. But the reader may give them different interpret- ations, and make up problems for himself accordingly. For example, let the lines in a diagram represent cuts made in a single piece of wood by a fret-saw; how many pieces are produced? What is the simplest wire model that will give a shadow like a given diagram? and so on. Stencilling, again, is full of problems analogous to those which Mr. Wilson dis- cusses; knitting and netting give any number of examples of single-path figures. The proverb that ‘extremes meet’’ is curiously illustrated by these purely topographical questions, which suggest puzzles for children, problems for designers, and tools for logicians; while they appear with startling un- expectedness in the most abstruse mathematical theories—Abelian functions, group-theory, hydro- dynamics, and electricity. G. B. M. ORGANIC PREPARATIONS AND THE COAL- AR GOL OUT END SHi reve. The Synthetic Dyestuffs and the Intermediate Pro- ducts from which they are derived. By J. C. Cain and J. F. Thorpe. Pp. xiv+4o5. (London: Chas. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 16s. net. HE publication of this work is not without significance in its bearing on the oft-repeated statement that the great industry represented by the manufacture of coal-tar dyes is decaying almost to vanishing point in this country. The fact of publi- cation presumes a demand which, in this case, must be mainly confined to those connected with, or train- ing for, the manufacture referred to. It is unlikely that any great number of students in the colleges of this country are preparing for positions in colour works abroad, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that those concerned with the production of the book have satisfied themselves that the industry is not in such a parlous state as pessimists would have us believe. In any event, the book will powerfully influence one factor in the case—the proper instruc- tion of students who are training for the industry. Whether this touches the root of the matter is, however, doubtful. The gradual decline in import- ance of the manufacture of coal-tar products in this country has been variously ascribed to the deficient given in the colleges, the bad patent laws, and the cost of alcohol, relatively to the conditions existing in Germany with regard to these matters. Concerning the work of the colleges, it is now generally conceded that the best of our schools of organic chemistry need fear no comparison with those abroad. The effect of our patent laws, both past and present, in handicapping the industry, has doubtless been ‘very great; but possibly the inquiry of a Royal Commission, such as recently reported into the ques- tion of industrial alcohol, would show that, as has been conclusively proved with regard to the cost of alcohol, the effect of the patent laws on the non- training Vill Supplement to “ Nature,” October 19, 1905 development of the English coal-tar colour industry has really been much less than has been supposed. A cause fundamental to those enumerated above, and lying at the basis of many other of our industrial lapses, may be defined as the lack of an appreciation of the importance of science on the part of the public generally. This has rendered the development of many industries quite impossible. It is reputably stated that the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik spent upwards of one million pounds sterling during a period extending over twenty years in solving the industrial problem of the synthesis of indigo. What English board of directors, even if themselves satisfied to do so, would venture to spend any such sum on apparently unproductive scientific experiments ? Public opinion in this country, as reflected in the share- holders, would not allow it, any more than a six or seven years’ college science course is considered a paying investment. Nor will satisfactory reform of the patent laws and the excise laws come about until the-Government is made to realise, by the pressure of public opinion, that the future of the national industries largely depends upon the proper utilisation of scientific fact and method. The work under review consists of three parts and an appendix. Part i. comprises a description of the various synthetic dyestuffs and the intermediate pro- ducts from which. they are derived. Part ii. gives methods for preparing typical products on a labor- atory scale, but as far as practicable by works pro- cesses; and part iii. deals with the analysis and identification of dyes and with the detection of dye- stufis on the fibre. The appendix contains tables giving the specific gravities of various solutions. The first chapter of the book gives a very short account of coal-tar and the separation and purification of benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, and phenol. A little more space might usefully have been devoted to this section. Subsequent chapters deal with the nitration and sulphonation products of the hydrocarbons, and the production and properties of amido, hydroxyl, and carboxyl derivatives. The second section of part i. gives in seventeen chapters, occupying about one- third of the book, a systematic description of the various groups of dyes, the classification being, of course, based on the chemical constitution, and not upon the mode of application, of the dyes. The treat- ment of this section is excellent, the descriptions being very lucid and sufficiently exhaustive without too much detail. Part ii., which deals with the preparation of colour- ing matters and intermediate products, is at once the most novel and the most useful feature of the book. It is evidently the outcome of much personal experi- ence on the part of the authors, and the limitations of ordinary college laboratories have very sensibly been kept in view, though at the same time only such materials are employed as would be used in the technical preparation of the several products in the works. Perhaps the least satisfactory portion of the book is the chapter dealing with the application of the NO. 1877, VOL. 72] colouring matters. It is very doubtful whether any useful purpose is served by such a short treatment of the science of dyeing as can be compressed into thirteen pages. Condensation to this extent inevit- ably results in misleading generalisation, and the authors would probably have been’ well advised to have referred their readers to some of the well known treatises on dyeing for this part of the subject. The chapters on the valuation and analysis of dyes are to some extent open to the same criticism. As an example of their deficiencies, the method given for the analysis of indigo may be referred to. The method described would be entirely .untrustworthy if applied to the estimation of natural indigos, and such is evidently the intention. In its main and essential sections, however, the book is a noteworthy addition to the literature of specialised organic chemistry, and both authors and publishers are to be congratulated on its production. Watter M. GarpDNER. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM. Prinzipienfragen in der Naturwissenschaft. By Max Verworn. Pp. 28. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1905.) Price 80 pfg. ROF. VERWORN detects mystical murmurs in the scientific camp, and is full of apprehension of coming dangers, for ‘‘ mysticism is the negation of scientific thinking.’’ Naturalists have been working out a monistic interpretation of the world, but there have been symptoms of faint-heartedness lately, especially before two questions, which the author states in the following terms :—Do vital processes depend on the same principles as the processes in inanimate nature? Are psychical processes referable to the same principles as those on which bodily pro- cesses depend? Verworn assures us that both these questions may be confidently answered in the affirm- ative, for the world is one, with the same principles, or rather with one principle throughout. What that ““principle ’’ is we have not been able to discover from the lecture, but we are assured that it is not a ‘“ mystical principle.”’ : In regard to the first question, Prof. Verworn says that when we sufficiently analyse the eriteria of life we find none requiring other principles than those which we require in interpreting the inorganic world. The only feature distinctive of life is the combination of potencies which are seen separately apart from life. Chemical ferments illustrate metabolism without growth; the condensations and polymerisations of chemical compounds illustrate growth without meta- bolism; the organism combines both. How it does so we are not told, but it is not by any peculiar vital principle. There is no need to assume a_ secret ‘organisation ’? transcending physical and chemical principles; there is no warrant for postulating a persistent protoplasmic architecture, either microscopic or molecular, as the physical basis of life; the form and structure of a cell is just like that of a fountain or a flame; life is a flux; ‘‘ Mdyta‘pet’’ is true through- out nature. To suppose, as Driesch, for instance, does, that an Aristotelian .‘‘ entelechy ”? resides in 1X living matter and accounts for its purposive behaviour and development is to resurrect the buried concept of a nisus formativus. To do this is quite gratuitous, since Verworn supplies us with a guaranteed modern concept of a “‘ self-steering ’’ metabolism—the ‘‘ self- steering ’’ quality depending, of course, on the laws which physical chemistry has been revealing during recent years. He also assures us that there are no facts of organic being or becoming which warrant us in losing faith in the sufficiency of the monistic interpretation in terms of chemistry and physics. It is true that the illustrious physiologist has not found time in this lecture to give us any illustration of how any vital phenomenon may be formulated in terms of ‘‘the principles of the inorganic world,’’? but he seems to have no doubt that it can be done. As to the second question, before which so many have fallen away from monism—the question of psychical life as distinct from bodily life—-Verworn finds satisfaction in boldly denying that any dualism exists. The dualistic. idea was born out of ignorance fathered by desire, and it has been nurtured and re- fined by philosophy. “The material ghost that escaped in articulo morlis has become a spiritual soul, but both are fallacious abstractions. It is pathetic to think of all the wrestlings with the problem of dualism since Descartes’s day, for dualism is but one of man’s many inventions with which he makes him- self miserable. Just as the organism is a mere bundle of metabolisms, so the ‘‘ego’’ is but a changeful bundle of sensations, and perceptions, thoughts, and feelings derived from these—a complex the com- ponents of which are not continuously or simul- taneously held in combination, though certain com- ponents, e.g. sensations of our body, occur so frequently and uniformly that the illusion of a persistent personality is produced. The material for the up-building of the ‘“‘ego”’ is the external world or corporeal world—the world of sensations; the ‘make-up’ of the ‘‘ego”’ is the same the ““make-up ’’ of the world; the antithesis of soul and body is ‘a fossil idea.’’ ‘‘ Either everything is body in the world or everything is soul: however I like to put it, the main fact is that there is only one kind of thing.’’ How a flux of sensations can give origin to that unified outlook and inlook which is called monism remains somewhat mysterious, but to think of any mystical principle being involved is ‘‘ a nega- tion of scientific thinking.’’ But which is mysticism as ” and which scientific thinking ? We Fay atic THE PLANT KINGDOM. Das Pflanzenreich. Regni vegetabilis conspectus, Edited by Prof. A. Engler. (Leipzig: W. mann; London: Williams and Norgate.) Engel- Na account of the inception of this work was given in Nature, October 30, 1902 (p. 657), with a list of the earliest parts. Twenty-one volumes have now been published, of which ten are devoted to monocotyledonous orders. The late Dr. K. Schu- mann has contributed, in addition to the Musacee, two memoirs on the Marantaceaze and the Zingi- beraceze respectively. In both, these orders there is NO. 1877, VOL. 72] Supplement to “Nature,” October 19, 1905 numbers and a_ considerable amount of change as compared with the account given by Pedersen in the ‘* Pflanzenfamilien.’’ This is explained by the fact that an enormous number of new species have been made out of copious material received from Indo-Malaya and tropical Africa. The new species of Zingiberaceze described for Malaya alone exceed a hundred. Dr. Schumann formulates very definite arguments in favour of the changes which he proposes in reviewing the history of the orders, and also presents a comprehensive discussion on the flower and on the relationships of the four orders which compose the series Scitaminez. Many of the orders are obviously too large to admit of their being treated in a single volume. The Orchidacez, as in the case of the ‘‘ Pflanzenfamilien,”’ have been entrusted to Prof. Pfitzer, and the first instalment contains the section Pleonandra—formerly called Diandras—which consists mainly of the Cypri- pediums as generally understood. A special feature of this volume is the list of hybrids, both natural and artificial. Similarly, the Araceze require several parts, and Dr. Engler, who undertakes this order, begins with the tribe Pothoidee. Dr. Engler gives a full description of the branching, and distinguishes nearly 500 species of Anthurium. A short volume includes the orders Scheuchzeriaceaze, Alismatacez, and Butomacew, which are all worked out by Prof. Fr. Buchenau. Dr. W. Ruhland is responsible for the Eriocaulacez, and gives a detailed account of the geographical distribution, taking up the evolution, and dispersal of the order. Owing to a large influx of new specimens. from Brazil, the number of species of Eriocaulon now exceeds two hundred, and the genus Pzpalanthus,. after being shorn of many species that form three new genera, still shows a slight increase. ’ The first volume dealing with a group of the gymnosperms, that on the Taxacee, has been written by Dr. -R. Pilger. The Taxacee are profoundly interesting on account of the primitive forms which characterise some of the genera, buf, as is usually the case with such genera, the number of species is small, and no great increase may be expected, although some new species may be looked for from the unexplored areas of China and eastern Asia. a large increase in origin, Of dicotyledonous orders, the Tropzolaceze, by Prof. Fr. Buchenau, appeared in 1902, and the Cistacez, by Dr. W. Grosser, and the Theo- phrastaceee, by Prof. C. Mez, were issued in 1903. Since that time a larger volume on the Lythracez has been contributed by Dr. E. Koehne, who has gone very fully—in fact, more fully than seems necessary—into the varieties and forms of the more variable species. The genus Cuphea is amplified to 200 species, and the genus Rotala is extended to some species previously assigned to Ammannia. A list ‘of plant collectors and their con- tributions is added. One of the most complete and interesting memoirs is that by Prof. H. Winkler on "the Betulacez. The general sketch contains sections on the géographical distribution and the history of the order. The fossil forms, which numerous, are enumerated without comment, but with references, include are x Supplement to ‘‘ Nature,’ October 19, 1905 and—a feature that one would have expected in every volume—maps are provided to indicate generic dis- tribution. The main purpose of the ‘‘ Pflanzenreich,’’ as con- trasted with the ‘‘ Pflanzenfamilien,’’ is to provide an authentic description of species, and criticism of this work has largely to deal with considerations that are best known to the learned authors who have undertaken to write on the different orders. One of the main difficulties consists in reconciling the diverse views held by different writers who have made a special study of the same orders and groups. The discussion of certain forms under Betula papyrifera furnishes an instance in which Dr. Winkler holds different views from Prof. C. S. Sargent; without attempting to judge between the two opinions, it would seem that Prof. Sargent has had better oppor- tunities of studying these forms, but it should be added that in this case the writer has fully stated both views: the ideal solution in such a case would be a collaboration of both authorities, if such a collaboration were practicable. It is from this point of view that one could have wished to see the names of other besides German botanists associated with this great undertaking; so far, Dr. Rendle, who wrote the volume on the Naiadacew, is the only exception. The commendable spirit of camaraderie which exists between botanists has been amply demon- strated in the various international meetings, of which the latest was recently held in Vienna, and it would not appear to be a matter beyond practical realisation to give a more international character to this magnum opus. AN ITALIAN TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. Physiologie des Menschen. By Dr. Luigi Luciani. Ins Deutsche ubertragen und bearbeitet von Dr. S. Baglioni und Dr. H. Winterstein. Dritte Lief., PP. 323+502+Vviii. WVierte Lief., pp. 160. (Jena: G. Fischer, 1905.) HE general features and aims of Dr. Luciani’s text-book of human physiology have already been alluded to in the review of the first two parts, and need not be recapitulated here. The first few pages of the third part complete the account of the physicochemical phenomena of respiration. The following chapter gives an excellent account of the mechanics of respiration, including the influence of the respiratory movements on arterial and venous blood pressures. The succeeding chapter, on the nervous mechanism of respiration, is specially good, and one cannot fail to admire the mastery of the literature of the subject shown by the author, every page giving evidence of knowledge of the original sources. The subject of the localisation of the bulbar, spinal, and cerebral respiratory centres is fully dealt with, the results obtained by the earlier observers—Legallois, Flourens, Schiff and others—being well epitomised. A good résumé is also given of the important later results obtained by Gad and Marinescu on the localisation of the bulbar respiratory centres. Reference is also made to the interesting results yielded by Aducco’s NO. 1877, VOL. 72] research on the action of cocaine upon the respiratory centres. The author next gives an account of the influence upon the respiratory centres exerted by stimuli trans- mitted by aflerent nerves. A considerable amount of space is devoted to the important work of’ Hering, Breuer, and others on the self-regulatory mechanism subserved by the vagi. The later experiments of Head have been omitted. The subjects of apnoea and periodic respiration are discussed with great fulness, much of the author’s own work being given. The next chapter deals with lymph—its sources, physical, chemical, and morphological characters, its circulation, and the theories of its formation. An excellent critical account is given of the secretion theory of Heidenhain, as compared with physico- chemical theories of the majority of later workers in this field. In the concluding pages of this chapter the structure and functions of the lymph glands and lymphoid organs—bone marrow, thymus, and spleen —are fully described. The first chapter of the second volume is devoted to the subject of the internal secretions of the ductless glands. After a brief introductory account of the historical development of our knowledge of glandular secretion, the author passes to a detailed desctiption of the structure and functions of the thyroid and parathyroids. The treatment of the physiology of the thyroid and parathyroids is so complete and full of interest that only a brief reference to the most salient points is possible. The various theories which have been held with regard to the results of removal are critically reviewed. Very full treatment is accorded to the experimental foundations for the theory of an auto-intoxication. In this connection, the results obtained by Colzi and others by means of the method of crossed transfusion are of great interest and importance. Gley’s ingenious experi- ments on the relative toxicity of the blood serum of normal dogs as compared with that of dogs from which the thyroids had been previously removed are also fully described. An important section of this chapter is devoted to the theories of independent speci- fic functions of the thyroid and parathyroids, and to the experimental basis on which these theories are founded. The structure and still obscure physiology of the pituitary gland are briefly epitomised. A satisfactory account is next given of the structure and functions of the suprarenal glands, although in this case the results obtained by English workers have not been sufficiently recognised by the author. The following chapter deals with the external digestive secretions of the salivary glands, pancreas, gastric and intestinal mucosz, and liver. The final chapter is devoted to the mechanical and chemical phenomena of buccal and gastric digestion. The account has been kept well abreast of the most recent advances, many important additions being made by the translators. A perusal of the third and fourth parts strengthens the impression that the complete work will prove itself to be a most trustworthy and illuminative guide to modern physiology. Jj. A. Mirroy. OcTOBER 19, 1905] ANNALS OF BOTANY. Edited by ISAAC BAYLEY BALFOUR, M.A., M.D., of the University of Edinburgh; D. H. SCOTT, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., of the Royal Gardens, Kew; W. G. FARLOW, M.D., of Harvard University, U.S.A., assisted by other Botanists. The Subscription Price of ecch volume is £1 10s. payab/e in advance. Intending subscribers should send their names, ith subscription, to Mr. Henry Frowde. XIX. No. LXXVI. Royal 8vo, CONTENTS :— Morrier, D. M.—The Embryology of some Anomalous Dicotyledons. (With Plates NXNVI and XXVIL.) Srevens, W. C.—Spore Formation in Botrychium virgini- anum, (With Plates XXVIII-XXX.) TANSLEY. A. G., and LuLHam, Miss kh. B. J. the Vascular System of Matonia pectinata. Plates XNXI-NNXIII and five Figures in the Text.) ANDREWS, F. M. —The Effect of Gases on Nuclear Division. (With a Figure in the Text.) WitiiaMs, J. Ltoyp.—Studies in the Dictyotaceae. III. The Periodicity of the Sexual Cells in Dictyota dicho- toma (Huds.), Lamour. (With six Diagrams in the Text.) Vol. Price 14s. paper covers, —A Study of (With Stopes, Miss Marin C —On the Double Nature of the Cycadean Integument. NOTES. BLACKMAN, V. H., and FRASER, H. C. I.— Fertilization in Sphaerotheca. Prertz, D. F. M.—The Position of Maximum Geotropic Stimulation. London: HENRY FROWDE, Oxford University Press Warehouse, Amen Corner. MARCONIS WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 60. Lta., MANUFACTURERS OF High-Class Apparatus for Rontgen Ray and High Frequency Work. 10’, 12" & 14° INDUCTION COILS. PORTABLE HOSPITAL SETS, SWITCHBOARDS, &c., &c. Write for Illustrated Price List H to 148 Finch Lane, London, E.C. NATURE eexlvii NOW hate SGIOBER: THE JOURNAL OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. CONDUCTED BY F.R.S PrincipaL SIR WILLIAM TURNER AnpD ProFessors D. J. CUNNINGHAM, G. S. HUNTINGTON, A. MACALISTER, and J. G. M‘KENDRICK. Vol. XL. Third Series—Vol. 1. Part I.—October, 1905. ConTENTS. QO. C. Bradley, D.Sc. Development of the Hind-Brain of the Pig (Plates I.-XI.). E. Wace Carlier, M.D. Elastic Tissuein the Eye of Birds. Wm. St. C. Symmers, M.B. Pigmentation of the Pia Mater of Modern Eeyptians. John McCra*, MB. Congenital Atresia of Pulmonary Artery, with Transposition «f Viscera. Gordon Taylor, M.B., and Victor Bonney, M.D. logy of the Popliteus Muscle Tait M‘Kenzie, M.D. The Breathlessness, and Fatigue. 1). Douglas-Crawford, M B. Absence of the Corpus Callosum. Professor E Fawcett and Ir. J. V. Blachf rd. ‘The Circle of Willis. Reginald J. Gladstone, M.D. Acardiac Foetus. Onéra A. Merritt Hawkes, M.Sc. Vestigial Sixth Branchial Arch in the Heterodontidzx. Homology and Morpho- R. Facial Expression of Violent Effort Now Ready. Price 6s. With Plates and Illustrations in the Text. Published Quarterly at 6s. October, January, April, July. Annual Subscription, CHARLES GRIFFIN AND COMPANY, EXETER STREET, STRAND. 21s. post free. LONDON: LTD.; JUST PUBLISHED. SECOND EDITION ENLARGED. With 189 Diagtams. 15s. HIGHER MATHEMATICS FOR STUDENTS OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 10 PRACTICAL WORK. By J. W. MELLOR, D.Sc. In this edition, the subject-matter has been rewritten, and many parts have been extended in order to meet the growing tendency on the part of physical chemists to describe their ideas in the unequivocal Janguage of mathematics. LONCMANS, CREEN, & CO., 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. NEW YORK AND BOMBAY. ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. Vol. XI. N.S. No. 5. With Plate. Sewed. Sixpence. A NEW FORM OF RIGHT-ASCENSION SLOW MOTION FOR EQUATORIAL TELESCOPES ILLUSTRATED BY THE DRIVING- GEAR OF THE CAPE TOWN EQUATORIAL. By SIR HOWARD GRUBB, F. RSs. Vice-President Royal Dublin Society. Svo, net. WILLIAMS & NORG SATE, 14 HENRIETTA STREET, Lonpon, W.C. DO YOU WISH == MAZE °F £8. TO BE IMITATIONS UP TO DATE in Scientific Demonstrating ? If so, send for our full descriptive pamphlet of the Kershaw- Patent Lantern (Stroud and Rendall’s and Kershaw Patents), made of best seasoned mahogany, French polished, lined with, asbestos and Russian iron Fitted with two double achromatic objectives, go” silvered prism, complete with B.T. or mixed jet, in Za travelling case, measuring Mh 23” X 16" x 9”. ALL ACCESSORIES ed eri ARC LAMPS, RESISTANCES, STANDS, &c. A. KERSHAW, Dorrington St., Leeds. CONTRACTOR TO H.M.'s GOVERNMENT. ‘ae SOLE MAKER cexlvill NATURE [OCTOBER 19, 1905 OPTICAL SILVERING By a New Process. QUICK, CERTAIN, and CHEAP. For Mirrors, Prisms, and Reflectors, Brilliant Polish. 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Edited by Carrain J. H. Taomson, H.M. Chief Inspector of Explosives. Feap. 8vo. 1s. NATURE. —‘ This little book should prove of great value to those for whose benefit it has been mainly written, viz. » the local inspectors under the Ex xplosives | Act, and those dealers whose trading necessitates the handling and storage of explosives.” SEV ENTH EDITION. REVISED AND ENLARGED. The Elementary Part of A TREATISE ON THE DYNAMICS OF A SYSTEM OF RICID BODIES. Being Part I. of a Treatise on the whole Subject. By EDWARD JOHN ROUTH, Se.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. With numerous Examples. Svo. 14s. NEW BOOK BY “SIR OLIVER LODGE. EASY MATHEMATICS: Chiefly Arithmetic. Being a Collection of Hints to Teachers, Parents, self-taught Students, and Adults, and containing a Summary or Indication of most things in Elementary Mathematics useful to be known. By SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S., D.Se., Principal of the University of Birmingham. Crown 8vo. qs. 6d. [Zwesday. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, LONDON. OcTOBER 19, 1905 | NATURE ccxlix Sale by Huction. COLLECTION OF BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA FORMED BY GEORGE O. DAY, Esoa., F.E.S. MR. J. C. STEVENS will Offer, at his Rooms, 38 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., on TUES- DAY, October 24, at half-past 12 o'clock, the COLLECTION of BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA formed by GEORGE O. DAY, Esq., P.E.S., of Knutsford, comprising long Series in fine fresh condition, the majority of the Insects being modern and labelled, together with the four Cabinets in which they are contained. On view day prior 10 to 4, and morning of sale application. MINERALS, ROCKS, FOSSILS. A large stock of BRITISH AND FOREIGN MINERALS always on view. CORNISH MINERALS A SPECIALITY. Special display for Teachers and Students on Saturdays. Open till 7 p.m. RICHARDS’ SHOW ROOMS, 3 Beauchamp Place, Brompton Road, South Kensington, London, S.W. MICGROSCOPIGAL PETROGRAPHY. Gentlemen interested in the above study are invited to send to JAMES R. GREGORY & CO., 1 Kelso Place, Kensington Court, London, W., for a Prospectus of Catalogues on THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ATLAS OF. MICROSCOPICAL PETROGRAPHY, now being issued in Twelve Monthly Parts, each Part containing Four Fine Half-Tone Plates, and also Four actual Rock Sections. Subseription in advance, either Monthly, 7/-; Quarterly, 21/-, | or for the whole Series of 12 Monthly Parts & 48 Seetions, £4 4s. LIVING SPECIMENS FOR THE MICROSCOPE. Volvox, Spirogyra, Desmids, Diatoms, Amceba, Arcella, Actinosphzrium, Vorticella, Stentor, Hydra, Floscularia, Stephanoceros, Melicerta, and many other specimens of Pond Life. Price rs. per Tube, Post Free. Helix pomatia, Astacus, Amphioxus, Rana, Anodon, &c., for Dissection purposes. THOMAS BOLTON, 25 BALSALL HEATH ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE LABORATORY, PLYMOUTH. The following animals can always be supplied, either living | or preserved by the best methods :— Sycon; Clava, Obelia, Sertularia ; Actinia, Tealia, Caryophyllia, Alcy- onium; Hormiphora (preserved); Leptoplana; Lineus, Amphiporus, Nereis, Aphrodite, Arenicola, Lanice, Terebella; Lepas, Gammarus, Ligia Mysis, Nebalia, Carcinus; Patella, Buccinum, Eledone, Pectens Bugula, Crisia, Pedicellina, Holothuria, Asterias, Echinus, Ascidia, Salpa (preserved), Scyllium, Raia, &c., &c. For prices and more detailed lists apply to Biological Laboratory, Plymouth. THE DIRECTOR. BIRKBECK BANK ESTABLISHED 18sr. Current Accounts. 2% Interest allowed on minimum monthly balances when not drawn below £100. Deposits. 24% Interest allowed on Deposit Accounts. Advances made. Stocks and Shares bought and sold Apply C. F. Ravenscrort, Secretary, Southampton Buildings, High Holborn, W.C. NOTICE.—Advertisements and business Communications to the Editor. letters for SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ‘‘NATURE." Balanus, | THE NEW COLLECTION OF 306 SPECIMENS AND SLIDES OF ROCKS, according to H. ROSENBUSCH: “ Elemente der Gesteinslehre, 2d ed. 1901.” Accompanied by a text-book: ‘‘ Practical Petrography,”’ giving a short description of the polarizing microscope and its application, and also of the macroscopical and microscopical features of every specimen of this collec- tion, by Professor Dr. K. Busz of the University of Miinster. This collection is intended for the practical use of students, and contains typical representatives of all important types of rocks; it is composed of 277 massive rocks (94 deep-seated rocks, 50 dike rocks, 133 volcanic rocks), 28 sedimentary, and 31 crystalline schists. Out of it two smaller collections of 250 and 165 specimens have been selected. The prices are as follows :— Collection I. 336 Specimens of Rocks 380 Marks. 9 la. 336 Slides .. re 420 “a II. 250 Specimens of Rocks 270 AH 3 Ila. 250 Slides .. é Eni) 5 4 III. 165 Specimens of Rocks 170 =r) ve Illa. 165 Slides ... 205 ” COLLECTIONS OF MINERALS, FOSSILS, METEORITES, PURCHASED FOR GASH OR EXCHANCED. The fifth edition of Catalogue No. 4, Petrography, has just been published (210 pages), and will be sent free of charge on application. Dr. F. KRANTZ, RHENISH MINERAL OFFICE, BONN-ON-RHINE, GERMANY. ESTABLISHED 1833. WATKINS & DONCASTER, | | | | | | Naturalists and Manufacturers of | CABINETS AND APPARATUS FOR ENTOMOLOGY, BIRDS' EGGS AND SKINS, AND ALL BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. SPECIAL SHOW-ROOM FOR CABINETS. N.B.—For Excellence and Superiority of Cabinets and Apparatus, refer- | ences are permitted to distinguished patrons, Museums, Colleges, &c. | A LARGE STOCK OF INSECTS, BIRDS’ EGGS AND SKINS. SPECIALITY.—Objects for Nature Study, Drawing Classes, &c. 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DIFFRACTION GRATINGS, FOR LANTERN USE, 5000 Cuts to the inch - - 4126 The external Dr. Haldane's Mine Gas Apparatus £317 6 oo PROG NGIEG W Mercury, pure, for same, 2-lb. in eS bottle. "08s 6 Catalogue sent free to Schools and 13% 7% X 3% ck d tk Caustic Potash Salincion, I- “ast in MUeieeghend Bolte sa) 0 1 0 Colleges. charged ready “The Investigation aE nite Air,” for use is about by Sir C. ‘Le Neve Foster and five pounds. Dr. Haldane, 1905 3 on 0’ 6 0 : EVERY KIND OF SCIENTIFIC AND CHEMICAL Sol :C. E. MULLER, ORME & CO., Ltd., FO Nee a RLCHEG TN CCONDONSW C: APPARATUS SUPPLIED FROM STOCK. (3 __ UNIVERSAL 10-10. 20.30.40. 40. ¢ AUSRTORAPRANAPRRAUCUAE ALAA GLOBE | UECE * cramed==} DEMONSTRATION 2 at t 1 2 | } ai. INSTRUMENT Comprising AMPEREMETER, VOLTMETER, GALVANOMETER, WHEAT- ; STONE BRIDCE, and COMPENSATION BRIDGE. For Ny apply— ISENTHAL & CO., 85 MORTIMER STREET, LONDON, W. Contractors to the Admiralty, War, India, and Colonial Offices, &c. 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The lighter specific gravity of the latter and the difference in the bore of the tube in which it rises and falls increases the scale to about 8 inches for each inch of the ordinary mercurial column. By means of this interesting instrument the smallest variations in the atmospheric pressure. are quite notice- able, differences of rooth of an inch being easily read withode the aid of any vernier or magnifier. Further Particulars and Prices of this and other long range Barometers sent on application to the Manufacturers— NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.c. 45 CORNHILL, and 122 REGENT STREET, LONDON, Branches: eclil NATURE [OCTOBER 26, 1905 BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. MEETING OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE. Members are reminded that the GENERAL COMMITTEE assemble in the Rooms of the Linnean Society, Burlington House, London, on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, at 3 p.m. A. SILVA WHITE, Assistant Secretary. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. 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A Course on Biological Chemistry will be held by Dr. R. H. ApERs PuimMer in the Physiological Department during the Second and Third Terms, beginning in January. The Class will meet on Mondays, Wed- nesdays and Fridays from 10 tos. Fee, 10 guineas. A Course in the Methods employed for the Study of Bacteria, Yeasts and Moulds will be held during the Second and Third Terms. Full particulars on application to WALTER W. SETON, M.A., Secretary. Chemistry Physics ... |BIRKBECK COLLEGE will | : J. &. MaACKENZIK, Ph.D,, DLS: Chemistry ~ (LH. Wren, Ph.D., B.A., BS i { AvBeKt GRIFFITHS, D.Sc. | Physics .. . \ D. Owen, B.A., B.Sc. (Bo Ww. Clack, B.Sc, Mathematics Roc etas aan M.A, A. B. Renoiw, M.A., D.Sc. Botany .. i { F. E. Frirscu, Ph.D., B.Se, Zoology .. - HW. W. Untuank, b.A., B.Sc. BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. DAY AND EVENING COURSES, under recognised Teachers ¢ the University of London. Geology & Mineralogy Gro. F. Harris, F.G.S. Assaying, Metallurgy & Mining. 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Applications must be sent in to the undersigned (from whom all furt particulars may b+ obtained), together with not more tham three rece testimonials, not later than November 7. Ny Dir ws County Education Departy , 37 Foregate Street, WO er, f October 24, 1905. [K 45) S * Y UNIVER OF é Sen, cA IN GE The University Court of the Univer to appoint an ADDITIONAL KEXA in Arts and Science. y The appointment will be for a perio 1906, at an anuual fee of Lat, with es Candidates should lodge twenty copi monials with the undersig leo on or belore. got West Regent Street, Glasgow. ARMS? 20 NEWCAS?TL (IN THE UNIVERSE The Council will shortly appoin MATHEMATICS. Salary to commence at £200 per anul The Lecturer will be required to assist in the Mathematical Department. 3 Candidates should send toree copies of tlre? to the undersigned, on or before Noveraees I; Er uot re’ , OF GS 2 os aN ES Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. _ CITY OF BIRMINGHAM ED COMMITTEE. The Committee requires the services of an ASSISTANT MAS the COUNCIL CENTRAL SECONDARY SCHOOL, Suffvll Salary, £100 to £160 per annum, according to qualifications ane ence. Candidates must be pelted i pevence co iat f licati be obtained from the undersigned. csanmbagiace JNO. ARTHUR PALMKER, Secretary. — Education Department, Edmund Street, October 9, 1905- UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR OF CHEMISTRY. Owing to the appointment of Dr. Alexander McKenzie to the Lecture in Chemistry at the Birkbeck College, London, applications are invited the above vacancy., Salary, £175 per annum. Applications, with s| ment of qualifications, age, degree, testimonials, &c., should be immedi addressed to the SECRETARY, University of Birmingham, OcTOBER 26, 1905] NATURE cclili HIGHER MATHEMATICS FOR SCIENCE AND OTHER STUDENTS. er by highly qualified graduates of Correspondence Tuition Oxford, Cambridge, London and Royal Univeisities, in Algebra. Trigonometry, Theoretical Mechanics, Differ- ential and Integral Calculus, Pure Geometry, Geometrical Drawing, &c. Departments are at work preparing for London and Royal University .xaminations, Science and Art, Civil Service Examinations, and all Prof. Preliminaries —Apply to Mr. J. CHarRLEsTON, B.A., Burlington Corre- spondence College, Clapham Common, London, S.W. HARTLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON. Principal—S. W. RicHarpson, D.Sc. (Lond.), Applications are invited for the Appointment of ASSISTANT LEC- TURER and DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY. Applications, giving particulars of age, training, qualifications and ex- perience, with copies of three recent testimonials, must be sent to the PRINCIPAL on or before November 4. Further particulars may be obtaine1 on application to the REGISTRAR. TO SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL MASTERS.—Required in January. (1) Science and Maths. Must take charge of games. Salary, 4150, non-res. Grammar School. (2) Graduate for Science, Maths. and Drawing. £120, non-res. (3) Maths. and French. £120, non-res. (4) Chemistry and Physics. #120, non-res.—For particulars of the above, address GriFFiTHs, SmitruH, Powett & Situ, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Immediate notice of all the best vacancies for Science and Mathl..Masters will be sent. THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. The Council of the University invite applications for the appointment of ASSISTANT LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in ELEC LRICAL FNGINEERING to be made upto November 18. Salary, 4175 a year. Further particulars may be obtained from the REGISTRAR. Laboratory Assistant and Attendant, com- petent to carry out simple Physical Determinations under direction, wanted at the Lowestoft Laboratory of tle Marine Biological Associa- tion of the United Kingdom. full particulars on application to the NarurAtist 1N CHARGE, Marine Laboratory, Lowestoft. FOR SALE.—52 milligrams of fairly pure Radium Bromide. Offers wanted to wind up an estate.—Apply WiLpD AND COLLINS, 3t Lawrence Lane, Cheapside, London, NEW BOOKS AT SECOND-HAND PRICES. Free on Application.—H. J. GLAISHER’S COMPLETE CATALOGUE of Publisher’s Remainders, comprising works in all Branches of Literature (including the various Departments of Science). Orders by post receive every attention, H. J. GLAISHER, "Wien aut becay, Baska TO SECRETARIES OF LECTURE SOCIETIES AND OTHERS. A Set of LANTERN SLIDES illustrating the beautiful and historic resort of Hastings and St. Leonards and neighbourhood, together with a typed lecture, are now ready and can be had on | loan gratis by application to CHARLES A. THARLE, Honorary Secretary, Hastings and St. Leonards Borough Association. APPLY EARLY FOR VACANT DATES. SECOND-HAND TELESCOPES. 4k-in. Cooke Equatorial, with extra Altazimuth Mount, £60. Wray, Slow Motions complete, £30. 8}-in. Browning Reflector, £15, 64-in. 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CALCIUM METAL 22%2,!2:2%. or 4 0z. 6/- OR SILICIUM CARBORUNDU CARBIDE. Beautiful show erystals, in lumps of 2 0z. upwards, 2/- per oz. Pitchblende, from 2/- to 30/- per piece ; in Powder, 2/6 per oz. Kunzite, selected, 2/- per gramme. Carnotite, 2/- per oz. Aeschynit, 2/- per oz. Emanium, 30/- per decigramme, Sparteite (see Nature, March 31. rgo4, page 523), 2/= per piece. Chlorophane, 2/- per piece. Samarskite, 2/- per oz. Zinc Sulphide, vreen and yellow, 5/- per tube. 2/6 half tube Rad. Residue, 2/- per tube. Polonium, 21/- per gram ; 11/-4-gram. Flexible Sandstone, 5/- to 50/-. (See Nature, June 23, 1904, page 185.) Radio-active Mud, 1/6 per bottle. Monazit, 3/- per oz. Monazit Sand, 1/- per oz. Diamond chips and powder, 10/- per carat (best quality). Euktas, Hiddenit, Wagnerit, Phosgenit, &c., &c. Bar. Plat. Cyan., for Screens, 3/- gramme, 60/- oz. Crystals, 4/- gramme. Screens, 9d. per square inch. Radio-active screens, Gd. per square Willemite screens, Gd. per square inch. Electroscope (special), 21/- Spinthariscopes (special), 15/-, 10/6 and 7/6. Selection of Minerals in boxes, 2/6, 5/6, 10/6 and 21/-. inch. | New Zealand Vegetable Caterpillar, with a stem showing fructification growing out of its head, 10/6 to 21/- each. (See Nature, May 12, 1904, page 44.) All Post Free within U.K. Goods may be returned if not approved of, when money will be refunded. Professional Men, Universities, Schools, &c., allowed special terms. ARMBRECHT, NELSON & CO., 7] & 73 DUKE ST., GROSVENOR SQ., LONDON, W. ccliv NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1905 All other air Pumps superseded. TH “GERY K” (Fleuss Patent) Vacuum Pump. Results hitherto only pos=- sible with mercury pumps are readily obtainable by the ‘* GeryK.’’ Used by all leading scientists. Far more rapid than any other | vacuum pump. Price from Write for 24:5:0. LIST F.45. Pulsometer Engineering C312 Qins Elms lronworks, Reading, REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Lo. 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All the Salts are absolutely guaranteed; they are prepared according to the methods used “by Mi. Curie, and are standardised with his instruments by his assistant, M. Danne. VARIOUS RADIO-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES. Polonium. Actinium. | Pure Salts of Uranium and Thorium. Radio-active Emanations. Radio-active Liquids and Substances tested. PHOSPHORESCENT SUBSTANCES. Sulphide of Zine. Tungstate of Caleium. | APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL APPLICA- TION OF SALTS OF RADIUM. Catalogues and Notices free on application, ARMET DE LISLE { ctices! $s que vicnox, Panis. NATURE 625 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1905. THE STUDY OF FISHES. A Guide to the Study of Fishes. By David Starr Jordan. Vol. i., pp. xxvi+623; vol. ii., pp. xxii+ 599; With coloured frontispieces and 427 illustra- tions. (New York: H. Holt and Co., 1905.) Price 40s. HIS beautiful work naturally invites comparison with the recently published seventh volume of the ‘‘ Cambridge Natural History.”’ Both actually cover the same ground, since both contain also an account of those invertebrates which, like Balano- glossus, Tunicates, and Amphioxus, claim the ambitious honour of a more or less direct ancestral position to the fishes. It has been objected that the anatomical treatment, although good, exact, and up to date, takes too much space of the Cambridge volume, to the detriment of those more cecological questions which are of more general interest, and are, after all, as important as the structural detail, because they make up the life of the fish. The systematic account of the Teleostei, containing Boulenger’s new classification, forms the main feature, rather stern, only here and there re- lieved by some interesting and little known inform- ation about habits, showing that want of space, not disinclination, has guided the author. The author, who is president of the young and vigorous University at Palo Alto, in beautiful and exhilarating California, proceeds nominally upon the same plan, but its execution is totally different. With him the fish is alive, even the fossil. Having travelled much, he has fished with the Japanese, trawled in the vast Pacific, and the huge continent of North America is his special domain. He has collected much, and has observed more “ in the good company of the woods and brooks.”’ “The man who kills all the trout he can, to boast of his skill or fortune, is technically known as a trout-hog. Ethically it is better to lie about your great catches of fine fishes than to make them. For most anglers, also, it is more easy.”’ The first volume begins with a popular account of the life of the long-eared sunfish. What is a fish? What is it like, and so unlike, to everything else? How does it breathe, see, move, adapt its coloration, and how does it breed? After we have caught it, and observed it in an aquarium, it is dissected, and the student is introduced to the morphology from a general point of view. The account which follows is neither stiff nor anything like exhaustive, but in about too pages enough is said to help the intending ichthyologist to an appreciation of the taxonomic importance of ichthyotomy and its salient problems. Many of our fundamental questions of vertebrate morphology find their solution in the fishes. The author devotes a whole and long chapter to the morphology of the fins, with a clear exposition of the vexed controversy whether the pectoral limb has arisen from a problematic lateral skin fold or from an organ like a gillarch, which already did exist, and NO. 1878, VOL. 72] required but a slight change of shape and function. The organs of respiration lead to a summary of the present state of our knowledge concerning air-bladder and lungs; the other organic systems follow suit. What the author has to tell us are all points which, although they can be studied elsewhere, could not well be omitted from such a work. Not so chapters x. to xx. Postembryonic develop- ment, with the often most peculiar larval forms; instincts, habits and adaptations afford a rich field of observation, graphically described, with admirable illustrations. Witness the photograph of the tens of thousands of fishes which, having run up-stream to spawn after a rain, are left stranded by the falling water. Protection by the spines, by the poisonous nature of the flesh, electric batteries, luminous organs, quaint nursing habits, are, of course, the stock in trade of any book on fishes. The angling apparatus of Lophius is such a feature, but it is not often that it is treated as follows :— ““Tn the large group of angler-fishes the first spine of the dorsal fin is modified into a sort of bait to attract smaller fishes into the spacious mouth below. This structure is typical in Lophius, where the fleshy tip of this spine hangs over the great mouth, the huge fish lying at the bottom apparently inanimate as a stone. In other related fishes this spine has different forms, being often reduced to a vestige, of little value as a lure, but retained in accordance with the law of heredity. In a deep-sea angler the bait is enlarged, provided with fleshy streamers and a luminous body which serves to attract small fishes in the depths. The forms and uses of this spine in this group constitute a very suggestive chapter in the study of specialisation and ultimate degradation, when the typical function is not needed or becomes ineffective.”’ This is truly observation and reflection combined, and the rendering of it is that of a thorough evolutionist who is in sympathy with his favourite class of creatures. The colour of fishes is another fertile field, with sexual, nuptial, and protective changes. Perhaps in order to curb the ardour of those who see some special good or purpose in every pattern or colour, we are told that the brilliantly coloured fishes of the tropical coral reefs have no need of protective coloration. The chapters on geographical distribution might well form an essay by themselves, since in them are interwoven lessons of natural selection, the effects of temperature, agencies of oceanic currents, the effects of the direction of coast-lines, and last, not least, the separation of faunas by isthmus barriers, notably those of Suez and Panama. Their far-reaching results are explained by an analysis of the Japanese fish- fauna in comparison with that of the Mediterranean and Central American waters. But whilst the methods of marine distribution and their final results are relatively simple, the fresh-water fishes provide stiffer problems, and some forty pages are therefore devoted to the ways and means, successes and failures, as exemplified in detail by the fauna of the North American continent. This makes fine and admirable reading, but it also shows the value, scien- DD 626 NATURE [OcTOBER 26, 1905 tific and practical, of well directed boards and com- missions of agriculture and fisheries. A long chapter on the history of ichthyology, enlivened by the photographic reproductions of several dozen of the more prominent workers in this field, and a chapter on the evolution of fishes since Ordovician times, bring us to the systematic part, which comprises the last quarter of the first and the whole of the second volume. Here we have to find fault. There is no thorough classification or system. The table of contents of the chapters makes matters only worse. A single page with an outline of the arrangement would be a boon. The author is well aware of the uncertainty of the position of many of the groups, or of their claim to being natural assemblies at all. He never fails to point out how they may be supposed to be connected with each other, or that they are side branches of the ideal tree, but he too often assigns to his groups values or rank without reference to the next higher category of which they are meant to form part. The result of this treatment is bewildering to the reader unless he studies the whole work and abstracts from the many hints given a system of his own; and in this respect the book is truly a ‘‘ Guide to the Study of Fishes,’? and not a categorical text-book. The terms subclass, series, order, subdivision, are often used promiscuously, sometimes as a heading which differs in its meaning from that assigned to it further on. This being a case of fault-finding, a matter of regret with a work which is otherwise so well done, so full of information, and opening out so many new vistas, let the reader try whether he can abstract from it a co- and sub-ordinated systematic arrangement. However, perhaps the author did not intend to give a rounded-off classification. In many respects his views differ from Boulenger’s system, and _ it may well be asked whether there is a single class of animals about the grouping of which there is general consensus. Leaving, therefore, this point, we cannot but admire the masterly manner in which the enormous class of fishes, recent and extinct, has been marshalled. Group after group is diagnosed, reviewed, discussed, figured, and endowed with never flagging interest. ““And with these dainty freaks of the sea, the result of centuries of centuries of specialisation, de- generation and adaptation, we close the long roll- call of the fishes.” ES iG: THE FAR EAST. The Far East. By Archibald Little. Pp. viii+ 334. (London: Frowde, 1905.) Price 7s. 6d. F late years the Far East is only far in actual distance; it is very near to our thoughts, while the ignorance regarding these lands is being very rapidly dispelled. At the present moment it is Japan that is attracting our attention; five years ago it was China, and probably in a few more years, now that the Russo-Japanese contest is concluded, China will again be the centre of interest. In his most interest- ing book, ‘‘The Far East,’ Mr. Archibald Little No. 1878, VoL. 72} devotes more space to China than to Japan, having ~ been himself for very many years a resident of the former country, and possessing a knowledge of the Chinese surpassed by no one. China stands now at the parting of the ways; for many years resolute in keeping out foreign inventions so distasteful to the old-fashioned mandarin, circumstances have proved too strong, and railways, the precursors of western life, are now being built or projected throughout the land. No one can foresee what changes twenty years will bring about in this vast country, a vastness which Mr. Little brings home to us by his diagrams and comparative tables. To a lover of things historical, nothing can be more fascinating than to wander back through the long centuries to some thousands of years before the Christian era; and this it is necessary to do if one would study Chinese history. To compress this into a volume of reasonable size and yet to give a com- prehensive account of each province is a difficult task, but Mr. Little’s apology in his preface is unnecessary. China naturally lends itself to the division, which is carried out in this book, into the northern, middle, and southern basins, with the four dependencies of Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet. Of these four dependencies, it is in Mongolia and | Turkestan only that Chinese rule may be considered as firmly established; in Tibet the amount of power in the hands of the Chinese depends on the personal characteristics of the Tibetan Dalai Lama and Regent and the Chinese Amban; undoubtedly one | result of Younghusband’s mission to Lhasa has been to emphasise Chinese authority in the eyes of the Tibetans. Of Manchuria at the present moment it is unsafe to hazard an opinion, but everything points to its becoming once more a Chinese possession under possibly Japanese moral tutelage. A consideration of the two chapters on ‘‘ Whilom Dependencies ”’ leads naturally to a thought of how of late years the more outlying dependencies have been gradually lopped off, how the once mighty Chinese Empire has de- generated. Cochin China, Annam, Corea, as well as Burma (which does not enter into the scope of this book), all once paid tribute to China. Siam, for many years in danger of being squeezed out of existence between two European Powers, has taken a new lease of life, and is now in a more prosperous condition than it has been for many years. Japan might have many chapters written about it, but we have been lately so inundated with things Japanese that it is almost with a feeling of relief that we turn once more to the chapters on China itself. We would, in truth, most warmly recommend this book to anyone about to travel in the Far East, as well as to the stay-at-home reader, more par- ticularly as regards China. Take the northern basin. What more interesting to read about than Peking itself; Shansi, the province of coal and iron; Shantung, where the Germans at great cost are slowly developing their trade through Kiao Chau? What great river in the world has OcTOBER 26, 1905] NATURE 627 changed its course as the Yellow River has? What other country in the world has built a Great Wall? We are accustomed to hear much of the peculation of the officials, but Mr. Little does not emphasise this; in many districts the officials are revered and beloved by the people. Consider the Yangtse Valley, again, where ocean steamers can reach Hankow, where steamers with Mr. Little himself as their pioneer have reached to Chung KXKing, and lately still further. This magnificent river will undoubtedly remain the great high road for com- merce into Central China; but railways are and will be built to act as feeders to the main line, much to the profit of the shareholders and of the inhabitants, for Chinese are born traders, and already make use of the pioneer of Chinese railways—the Tientsin to Pelkking—in large numbers. Finally, we have a vivid description of the southern basin, Canton, Hong and the line from Kong, provinces bordering on French territory. Yunnan, which adjoins our Burma, has a particular interest to Englishmen; but here, owing to our supineness in days gone by, we have allowed the French to get ahead of us with their railway, which will un- doubtedly draw to itself all that is valuable of the trade of the province. There was a time when many people thought that China would be divided among the Great Powers— that notion is exploded; then came that of spheres of influence—but we have seen this idea also put aside ; the policy of the ‘‘ open door ”’ is all that remains. We congratulate Mr. Little on having given us a most readable volume, full of information, and yet with that local colouring which is an essential for a book to command the attention of the general reading public. ABSORPTION SPECTRA. Handbuch der Spectroscopie. By Prof. H. Kayser. Vol. iii. Pp. vili+604. (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1905.) J HEN Prof. Kayser published the first volume of his ** Handbuch der Spectroscopie,’’ he said that the third volume would be devoted to absorption spectra and cognate phenomena. He has, however, found it necessary to treat the subject in two volumes, the first of which contains the methods of investi- gation of absorption spectra, the variability of absorp- tion, the connection between absorption and chemical constitution, and, finally, a list of all the measure- ments of the absorption spectra of inorganic and artificial organic substances. In the next volume the absorption of the natural colouring matters in the animal and vegetable kingdom will be described, together with the relation of dispersion and fluores- cence to absorption and, lastly, phosphorescence. The present volume is peculiarly interesting, as it deals to a great extent with the application of spectro- scopy to chemical and physicochemical problems. In the first chapter Prof. Kayser deals with the apparatus and methods of investigation of absorption, and includes a discussion upon the nature and laws of absorption. It is well known that considerable No. 1878, VOL. 72] confusion exists with regard to the terms used by various experimenters, as, for example, absorption- coefficient, &c. Not the least important section of this chapter is that in which the author discusses these and proposes a uniform set of definitions upon a proper physical basis. In the discussion of the nature of absorption, Prof. Kayser is perhaps a little obscure. He very properly divides absorption into two kinds, namely, the ordinary kind for which Kirchhoff’s law holds, and the so-called metallic reflection for which the law does not hold. On p. 9 Prof. Kayser says, in referring to those bodies which show surface colour, i.e. metallic reflection, that these bodies show well marked absorption bands, and that the particular rays are wanting in the transmitted light, not so much because they are strongly absorbed, but because they are strongly reflected. This statement is rather mis- leading. The phenomenon of metallic reflection is shown by two classes of bodies, firstly, the metals which are perfect conductors, and, secondly, those substances which show surface colour and are not conductors, as, for example, the aniline dyes. Prof. Kayser’s remarks, strictly speaking, only apply to the first group, i.e. the metals, because as these bodies are conductors the light cannot penetrate below the surface. In the case of the substances belonging to the second group the mechanism must be some- what different. When a moderately dilute solution of an aniline dye, such as rosaniline, is examined by transmitted light, a very strong absorption band is developed in the green. No surface colour is visible, and undoubtedly the disappearance of the green rays is due to the absorption of these rays by the molecules of the dye. On the theory of resonance, the dye molecules vibrate in sympathy with the green rays and scatter the incident energy. If now the solution is concentrated, the absorption on the surface becomes greater, that is to say, the number of resonating molecules in the surface is increased, until eventually the scattering of the light becomes visible, and we have the surface colour of the same wave-length as the absorption band. It is mot accurate to say that the light is reflected rather than absorbed, because in dilute solutions the rays penetrate to a considerable distance before being absorbed. In the second chapter Prof. Kayser deals with the variation in the absorption spectra of substances with variation in the external conditions. Here he points out that the extraordinary changes undergone by absorbing substances with changes in the solvent, dilution, &c., show clearly what a mass of useless work on absorption spectra has been published owing to the observations having been made under very limited conditions. The most interesting section of this chapter is that in which the variations of the absorption spectra of coloured metallic salts with dilution change are discussed. A great many observ- ations have been made by Ostwald and others upon the absorption of coloured salts and the results pub- lished in support of the ionic theory. Unfortunately, more recent experiments have shown that the absorp- tion by the different salts of the same metal and that by the different salts of the same acid show small 628 but perfectly regular differences. The position of the absorption bands varies with the mass of the colour- less ion, and certain other facts have been observed of the same character. Prof. Kayser reviews most carefully the whole of the evidence of absorption spectra that has been brought forward both for and against the ionic hypothesis; he finally concludes that Ostwald’s theory, namely, that the behaviour of dilute aqueous solutions of coloured metallic salts is due to the colour of the ions, is untenable. Such an authori- tative statement, based on experimental evidence, is very striking and worthy of careful consideration by physical chemists. The third chapter has been written by Prof. Hartley, and deals with the relation between absorption and chemical constitution. It contains an_ excellent vésumé of all the work which has been carried out, chiefly by Prof. Hartley himself, on the bearing of ultra-violet absorption to molecular structure. The value of this work is too well known to need emphasising here, and it is not too much to say that this is one of the most important branches of spectro- scopy, and one that is certain to lead to results of far- reaching importance in organic chemistry. The two last chapters deal in detail with absorption spectra ; in the fourth chapter are described the spectra of many substances, selected either because they are of some practical use, or because they possess some special point of interest, while the fifth and last chapter contains an alphabetical list of all substances the absorption of which has been measured. Of the great value of this book it is impossible to speak too highly; it is sufficient to say that it will rank as the standard work upon absorption. All who read it will appreciate to the full the great care Prof. Kayser has bestowed upon it and the immense labour involved in dealing with the mass of literature upon the subject. Bae CB: OUR BOOK SHELF. Identification por las Impresiones digito-palmares (La_ Dactiloscopia). By Dr. Alberto Yvert. Pp. 111. (La Plata: A. Gasperini, 1905.) Tuts work is the thesis presented by the author to the University of Lyons in order to obtain a doctor’s degree in medicine. It deals, firstly, with the uses to which identification by means of finger-prints can be put by the detective, and shows how the fingers of the murderer leave their impression printed in the blood of his victim; while those of the burglar may be brought to light on the window through which he has passed, by the simple expedient of breathing on it, and may be indelibly recorded by means of hydrofluoric acid; and, lastly, the finger-marks of the forger may be revealed on the cheque which he has forged, by means of Mr. Forgeot’s method. This last record is produced, first, by the sweat of the fingers that rest on the paper, which, when it evaporates, leaves an invisible print behind it in the salts which were contained in it. This may be made to appear by the application of an 8 per cent. solution of nitrate of platinum, which is affected by these salts in such a way that it blackens when exposed to light. _ The author proceeds subsequently to the most important part of his work—a summary of the NO. 1878, VOL. 72] NATURE ([OcTOBER 26, 1905 principal methods of classification of finger-prints. He commences with a somewhat inadequate descrip- tion of the original system, which, as is well known, is that of Francis Galton; he then goes on to treat with much fuller detail some of the various systems which are based on it. Among these are included that of M. E. K. Henry, which has been adopted by M. Windt, chief of the Identification Service of the Police in Vienna; that of M. Pottecher, chief of the Immigration and Identification Service in Saigon; and of Senor Vucetich, director of the Identification Service in La Plata. It is the last system which is preferred by the author. It consists in dividing all finger-prints into four types, which he names as follows :—(1) Arco=arch; (2) Presilla interna= internal loop; (3) Presilla externa=external loop; (4) Verticilo or Torbellino=spiral. These terms are descriptive of the figures formed by the lines situated near the centre of the palmar surface of the distal phalanx of each digit. As all ten fingers are taken into account in the classification, and as each may be of any of the above four types, there are 4*° (=1,048,576) classes defined in this way. The minute details of the arrangement enable one to distinguish between different members of the same class. The pamphlet concludes with a useful bibliography. | Dae leat [g oS Science in South Africa: a Handbook and Review. Prepared under the auspices of the South African Governments and the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Edited by the Rev. W. Flint and J. D. F. Gilchrist. Pp. x+489. (Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bulawayo: T. Maskew Miller, 1905.) THOSE members of the British Association who were fortunate enough to visit South Africa this year cannot fail to have benefited by this useful and handsome volume. To those who were unable to accompany the association, but who take an interest in scientific work in South Africa, this ‘‘ index book ”’ will be a great boon. Of late years, South African scientific literature has increased at a great rate, but the material frequently lies scattered in numerous _ publications often difficult of access, while so many divergent opinions on the same subject have been expressed that the student is apt to be bewildered. From the present volume the status quo of scientific — research in South Africa can be ascertained. A long- felt want is thus supplied, and if the scientific litera- ture is to increase at the same rate in the future as it has in the immediate past, a year-book on similar lines would be of inestimable value. The cost of publication of the present volume has been defrayed by the various South African Govern- ments. In doing this they betray an enlightened policy, for there can be no question that it will direct attention to the vital importance of scientific know- ledge in a country so vicariously treated by nature as South Africa, where the natural products are dis- tributed in such a way that they can only be utilised by the application of the discoveries of modern science. To those so trained, South Africa becomes a land of fertile promise. The present volume is arranged in eight sections, dealing with physical, anthropological, zoological, botanical, geological, mineralogical, economic, educa- tional, and historical problems. The sections and subsections are the voluntary contributions of actual workers, to whom the editors have allowed con- siderable latitude as to the method of treatment. In some cases the subjects are dealt with historically, in others from the practical point of view. The volume contains numerous illustrations, among which ’ OcTOBER 26, 1905] NATURE 629 the handsome coloured plates of blue ground and diamonds of various shapes and colours, presented by Mr. Gardner Williams, stand out conspicuously. While it is evident that much has been achieved, it is equally certain that in some branches only a start has been made. In fact, the dominant feeling pro- duced by reading the several interesting articles is one that should inspire the greatest hope and enthusiasm among scientific students in this country and throughout South Africa. Here lie new worlds of unknown possibilities. As yet we stand only on the threshold. Far off glimpses of a wonderful country have been obtained, but it is the sight of a Kilimanjaro enshrouded in mist, not of the unclouded mighty mountain-mass. W.G. Stone Gardens. By Rose Haig Thomas. Pp. xii and plates. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamil- ton, Kent and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Aw old wall sheltering such plants as are accommo- dating enough to grow in such a situation is often a delight; but to undertake the formation of a “ stone- garden ’”’ in the way suggested by the author is to run counter to all our notions of the amenity and purpose of a garden. Various ‘‘ designs ’’ are offered for adoption, such as a lyre-shaped outline made of paving stones with flower-beds representing the strings, and separated by narrow strips of stone. Another design shows three snakes intertwined, each snake made of flat stones of a different tint from its neighbour. The spaces between the serpentine convolutions are filled in with flower-beds. Other designs are more appropriate to a formal or archi- tectural garden. Of course, there is no disputing upon points of taste, and each garden-lover must exercise his or her fancies according to circumstances and in obedience to individual proclivity. But if the designer intends to furnish a model for other people to adopt, then we expect there will be comparatively few garden-lovers who will share the author’s taste or feel inclined to adopt her suggestions. Be this as it may, the author gives very clear direc- tions as to how her designs should be carried out, and very judicious instructions as to the plants to be selected and the method of planting them. Provided these be properly carried out, kindly nature will do her best to conceal the flags and stones, and if the author’s designs are somewhat interfered with in the process, that will not be a matter for regret on the part of most garden-lovers. The work is in quarto, with fourteen designs in colour. Oblique and Isometric Projection. Pp. iv+s59. (London: Price 3s. 6d. In defining the forms and dimensions of solids by means of scale drawings, a very useful method in certain cases is that of metric projection whereby three systems of parallel edges of the solid are re- presented on paper by lines parallel to three axes drawn in arbitrarily selected directions, and to any three scales also independently chosen. The author deals only with isometric projection, and considers two cases, first, when the projection is orthogonal, secondly, when the projectors are oblique with the plane of projection talen parallel to a face of the solid, so that figures parallel to this face appear without distortion. The best part of the book is probably the chapter giving examples, mostly of joints in woodwork, used by the author in conducting classes in manual training; but it is doubtful whether it was worth while to publish a book of such limited scope. No. 1878, VOL. 72 | By John Watson. Edward Arnold, n.d.) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | Eclipse Phenomena. No opportunity for discussion was given at the Royal Society meeting last Thursday, but the following brief, notes may be suggestive and possibly useful. The particles in the corona which reflect solar light to us are presumably moving very fast away from the sun, and accordingly are illuminated by light of apparently extra-long wave-length. This light, thus lowered in re- frangibility, they will emit; and inasmuch as they are probably moving at all sorts of speeds, we might expect that Fraunhofer lines would be encroached upon and blotted out from the resulting emission, especially as some particles would have a component of velocity towards us and others away from us. If any of the particles are emitted with anything like the speed of some of those from radium, the maximum change of frequency to be expected would be great. Particles illuminated by rays normal to our line of sight will send us a plane polarised beam, but when the illumin- ating rays are oblique to the line of sight, as may be the case from some of the longer streamers, then the polar- isation would be only partial. How far single electrons may be able to resist the forced vibrations of light-waves, and thus become themselves polarised sources, is a matter on which I hope to try some experiments. The illumination in which they are immersed near the sun is very intense. The circular or ring appearance seen in the midst of the corona in some photographs, with geometric centre at a distance from the apparent centre of explosion, looked to me like a gigantic vortex ring. I see no reason why a sun-spot should not eject such rings occasionally. Otrver Lopce. Geometry of Position. IN connection with the review of Mr. Wilson’s recent book, on p. vi. of your supplement last week, may I direct the friendly attention of the reviewer and your readers to an old paper of mine in the Philosophical Magazine for November, 1875, where some of the theorems referred to are given. I myself have found a slight modification of the rapid system of writing chemical formule there advocated, extremely useful, and should like to advocate its use by elementary students of organic chemistry—but that is another matter. OLiveR LopcE. October 20. Eclipse Predictions. Tue discrepancies referred to by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan (p. 603) as existing between the French and British pre- dictions for the recent total eclipse of the sun are due simply to the fact that a different value of the moon’s diameter is adopted in the Connaissance des Temps from that in the Nautical Almanac, the former being about 2"-7 greater than the latter. Hence the breadth of the zone of totality and the duration of totality on the central line are greater in the French than they are in the British ephemeris. But there is no occasion to impute mistake to the French calculators. They merely assume a vaiue of the moon’s diameter that is, in my opinion, too large for eclipse purposes. A, M. W. Downinc. October 20. Chelifers and House-flies. Ir may be that the view suggested in my letter to Nature of August 31, that the association of the Chelifer with the house-fly is to the advantage of the former in providing it with a wider geographical distribution, is not sound. I believe it is, but at the same time admit that there is not sufficient evidence at present to prove that the association is of material advantage to the species. The important point to determine, however, is whether 630 NATURE [OcTOBER 26, 1905 the Chelifer is or is not a parasite on the house-fly. It is fully recognised now that house-flies play an important part in the distribution of the germs of certain diseases that affect mankind. Any animal, therefore, that injures or destroys the flies may assist in checking the spread of disease. But if, as Mr. Pocock suggests, the object of the Chelifer is to feed upon the acarine parasites of its host, it serves rather as a friend than a foe to the fly, and should certainly not be called a parasite. There is no anatomical reason for believing that the Chelifers that have been found on flying insects are specially adapted to a parasitic mode of life, nor is there any evidence that the house-flies they are attached to are infested with mites or any other skin parasites. If the Chelifers are not parasitic on the flies, and there are no mites for them to attack, how can the association of the two forms be accounted for otherwise than by the transport- ation hypothesis ? Since I wrote my last letter to you I have found that this matter has been most fully discussed by Mr. Kew in his article on Lincolnshire Pseudoscorpions in the Naturalist for July, 1901, and I would refer readers of NatuRE who are interested in the subject to that paper for fuller par- ticulars. SypNey J. Hickson. University of Manchester, October 21. The Rudimentary Hind Limbs of the Boine Snakes. Ir is a well known fact that the pythons and boas and some allied forms among snakes possess rudiments of hind limbs, these vestiges—to quote Boulenger’s ‘‘ Catalogue of Snakes in the British Museum ’’—‘ usually terminating in a claw-like spur visible on each side of the vent.” These structures are always mentioned in general works upon Ophidia, such as Hoffmann’s account of the serpents in vol. vi. of Bronn’s ‘* Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs,’’ and Gadow’s ‘‘ Reptiles and Amphibians ”’ in the ‘‘ Cambridge Natural History.’’ But in none of the three treatises to which I refer is there any further account of the “‘ claws ”’ or “‘ spurs.’’ It is merely stated that they are present. It is not mentioned in these works, nor in some others which I have consulted, that the claws in question offer valuable sexual characters by the aid of which individuals can be referred to their proper sex, at least in certain Boida. The fact that these characters have been so largely overlooked is perhaps due to the slight stress laid upon them by Duméril and Bibron (Erpétologie Générale, vol. vi., 1844), who, however, did direct attention to the occurrence of differences in these organs between the two sexes in a number of Boide. But they speak of the claws merely as being ‘‘ d’une trés petite dimension chez des femelles,’’ and as ‘plus développés chez les males que chez les femelles.’? The first of these quotations refers to Eunectes, the second to Boa. The differences, however, in Eunectes notaeus are greater. In this southern anaconda, of which several specimens were lately deposited in these gardens by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, there is in the male a sharp curved claw turned downwards and ridged along its lower surface. In the female, on the other hand, the representative of this claw is not a claw at all strictly speaking—if, that is to say, we mean by a claw a nail-like structure which is curved and compressed and ends in a sharp point. In the female there is a straight, blunt, horny process distinctly unlike the sharp claw of the male. In two young examples of this anaconda, which are females, the same type of horny structure is found as in the adult female. In the allied genus Eryx there are still greater differences between the two sexes. FRANK E. Bepparp. Zoological Society’s Gardens, October 18. A Rare Game Bird. Mr. SAwsripce (p. 605) has raised one of the most per- plexing points connected with bird-migration. I cannot answer for the eastern counties of England, but here, in the south-west of Scotland, we are still further from the headquarters of the quail than he is. Fiftv years aso quails bred regularly in western Galloway; as a boy I recollect that two or three brace were quite a common complement to a September bag. Indeed, when a NO. 1878, VOL. 72] “cheeper ’? or undersized partridge was shot, ‘*‘ Put it down as a quail! ’’ was the usual comment. These birds gradually disappeared; the last that I myself shot was about the year 1868; but an odd one has been obtained here and there in the district ever since. One, I know, was shot last month in the neighbourhood of Newton Stewart, and was reckoned such a curiosity that it was sent to the bird-stuffer. I am sorry that I do not know whether it was a young or an old bird. Besides this, other instances, if I mistake not, have been recorded in the Field from different parts of the country. As to the cause of the general disappearance of quails from this district, there have been many speculations, the commonest notion being that the supply is so heavily taxed in the Mediterranean region that few birds escape to the north. Truly, when one considers the enormous consign- ments of quails to London, Paris, &c., there is no reason for surprise that the migrants should dwindle in number. I have a vague recollection of being told in boyhood that about the year 1838 there was a large influx of quails into Galloway, and that they had bred there ever since, but in numbers annually decreasing. It is conceivable that a storm-driven flock may have been carried out of their bearings, and, finding food abundant and climate endurable, if not altogether congenial, remained as colonists, but that our wet summers have proved adverse to their young being reared. The fluctuation in the stock of partridges caused by the character of different seasons is very remark- able, and evidently neither the numbers nor the constitution of our quails have enabled them to survive adverse con- ditions of temperature and rainfall. This makes the sporadic occurrence of individuals at long intervals all the more remarkable and perplexing. HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith, Wigtownshire, October 22. On a New Species of Guenon from the Cameroons. A CHARMINGLY docile species of guenon, obtained by Cross, of Liverpool, from the Cameroons, in West Africa, and recently submitted to me for identification proves to be undescribed. I propose for it the name Cercopithecus crosst, in compliment to the courteous proprietor of that large and well known importing house of wild animals, and for popular use the same of Cross’s guenon. The animal is a male, apparently nearly full grown, but not entirely adult, as the condition of its teeth indicate. It is very similar to C. moloneyi of Sclater, in general appearance, in having the broad rufous lower back, but differs in having a large and bushy pure white beard, white throat, and bushy whiskers of black hairs ringed with white; the band across the forehead deep black instead of fulvous; sides of head speckled black and white; underside of body sooty-black speckled with white ; the tail not deep black except at tip, but speckled black and white like the upper part of the back; the black on the forearm externally does not extend to the shoulder, and not much beyond the elbow; the outer aspect of thighs is black slightly peppered with white; the inside of arms below the elbow black, higher up sooty-grey ; inside of hind limbs sooty-black. The top of the head is black, the hairs sparsely ringed with white; the face, cheeks, and ears quite nude and purplish black in colour; long superciliary hairs are present; the callosities are small and purplish sooty-grey in colour. _From C. albigularis (Sykes’s guenon) the present species differs in wanting the yellowish wash on shoulders, fore and hind limbs, and in having a brindled and not a black tail. Henry O. Forses. The Museums, Liverpool, October 12. The Absorption Spectrum of Benzene in the Ultra-violet Region. We were glad to see in Nature of October 5 a letter from Prof. Hartley in which he points out the near agree- ment between our measurements of the bands in the absorption spectrum of benzene and those made by Prof. Dobbie and himself. He also directs attention to the work of Friederichs, who, in the case of benzene vapour, OcTOBER 26, 1905 | finds the position of these bands to be consistently nearer to the red end of the spectrum. The difference in the position of the bands in the spectrum of benzene vapour and of benzene in solution only proves, of course, the applicability of Kundt’s rule. We are also pleased that Prof. Hartley has been able to see the second band on our list (A=2656), which, coupled with the fact that Friederichs has also measured it, we feel is a most important confirm- ation of our observations. As regards the eighth band (A=2330) which has been measured in the absorption spectrum of benzene vapour by Friederichs (whose work we were, of course, unaware of when we wrote our paper), we have made a most careful search for it. We have re-examined our original plates and have taken several more photographs, but have been unable to find any trace of it. We must therefore conclude that it is absent from the spectrum of benzene in alcoholic solution. ° There is one other point in Prof. Hartley’s letter; he says we have overlooked some points of importance in his paper with Prof. Dobbie when we state that they only found six bands. It is quite true that in their paper Hartley and Dobbie refer in their table of measurements to another band of very short persistence which they mark as doubtful at 5 mm. thickness of N/1o solution, and very doubtful at 4 mm. thickness. In the letterpress, however, they speak of only six bands, and in all later publications benzene is stated to show six absorption bands. In the British Association report, and even in Prof. Hartley’s paper to the Chemical Society on May 17 of this year, he speaks of six bands (Chem. Soc. Proc., xxi., 167). We therefore assumed that Prof. Hartley, on further consider- ation, had concluded that this doubtful band was not a true benzene absorption band. As we ourselves had seen no trace of this band, we in our paper before the Chemical Society (Trans. Chem. Soc., 1xxxvii., 1332) stated that Hartley and Dobbie had found only six bands. Prof. Hartley’s ideas and work upon the absorption spectra of organic compounds in the ultra-violet are of the greatest importance; he was the first to show how the constitution of certain compounds could be established by this means. Prof. Hartley’s method of ‘‘testing’’ a molecule by means of its absorption spectrum, we are sure, will prove of the greatest possible value in the hands of chemists. E. C. C. Bary. J. NorMan COttie. University College, October 12. Action of Radium Salts on Gelatin. HAVING occasion to give a demonstration of the proper- ties of radium some little time ago, I determined to attempt the preparation of some of the organisms as described by Mr. J. Butler Burke. The method employed was to sprinkle a few specks of the radium salt upon the surface of some sterilised gelatin contained in a test-tube, and then to await development. That did not take long. Almost at once a faint cloudiness appeared to start under the speck of salt which extended downwards into the gelatin, in some cases after twenty- four hours reaching the depth of one centimetre. No heat- ing was required to bring about this ‘‘ growth,’’ which resembled to the unaided eye an ordinary mould. The experiment was made with radium preparation of varying degrees of activity, but it was soon observed that the degree of activity in the salt had little influence on the growth, a salt of radium barium bromide containing 1/1000 of its weight of active salt being nearly as efficacious as one containing 1/100. (The more pure speci- mens which I possess were too precious to experiment with.) As the specimens used were composed chiefly of barium salt, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to try the effect of the pure barium salts on the gelatin. This was done, with the surprising result that the ‘‘ growths ”’ were just as easily obtained as with the radium prepar- ation—or even more so. I have tested all the barium salts at my disposal, and find the following produce the effect :— Barium, oxide, dioxide, chloride, bromide, iodide, nitrate, acetate, tartrate, and sulphovinate, while the phosphate, No. 1878, VOL. 72] NATURE 631 carbonate, sulphate, and borate do not act. Thus the soluble salts are active, and the insoluble ones inactive. The method adopted for the experiments was as follows :—Some clear gelatin was poured on to a glass slip and allowed to set. A tiny speck of the salt was placed on the gelatin and covered with a thin glass. This slip was then placed on the stage of a microscope and ex- amined with a }-inch power. At once the ‘* growth ”’ was seen to shoot out from the speck, and it appeared to consist of bubbles, some large, but most of them very small. Half an hour afterwards the speck had dissolved, leaving in its place a nebulous patch many times the size of the speck. The action of barium iodide is particularly rapid, while that of the hydrate is rather slow. I have tried uranium and thorium salts, both of which affect the gelatin rapidly, but do not produce the ‘‘ growths.’’ The action of these salts upon gelatin seems to point out an interesting field of inquiry, which I propose to follow. W. A. DouGias RUDGE. Woodbridge School, Suffolls- The Problem of ‘‘ Shadow-bands.” SUBSEQUENTLY to the Algiers eclipse of 1900, it occurred to me that the ‘‘ shadow-bands ”’ visible at times of total solar eclipse might be merely another aspect of the “ boil- ing ’’ distortions of the sun’s limb inseparable from daily observations. The last few years have therefore been employed by me in studying the characteristics of “‘ boil- ing ’’ with the view of making a direct comparison of evidences at the first opportunity. This opportunity presented itself in the recent total solar eclipse observed by me at Cas Catald, in Mallorca, on August 30 last. Employing ‘‘ Carrington’s method ’’ of projecting the sun’s image with a small telescope, the first observation made at about 10 a.m. recorded the existence of two dis- tinct layers of cloud, the lower one travelling N.E. by S.W., and the upper one W.S.W. by E.S.E., giving con- fused and erratic ‘‘ boiling.’’ Further observations revealed an increased prevalence of the N.E. cloud system, but the drift from W.S.W. was still in evidence. At 11.35, how- ever, it transpired that the W.S.W. system alone pre- vailed, and all trace of the drift from N.E. had abated. Continuing the observation without any relaxation through- out the phase of partial eclipse until within a few minutes of totality, I was able to ascertain that the “‘ boiling ’” movements along the advancing limb of the moon were throughout absolutely in agreement in every particular with the movements of distortion affecting the still un- covered limb of the sun. Observations by projection were abandoned at th. 18-om. for the purpose of securing a naked-eye view of ‘‘ shadow-bands.’’ A very successful view of these was secured. Their direction of flight deter- mined on the spot, and afterwards corrected by Dr. Hunter, of Edinburgh, by the compass, proved to be W.S.W. by E.S.E. It is noteworthy that at Palma, where the eclipse conditions were marred throughout by the cloud bank that had threatened to overwhelm us at Cds Catala (only four miles S.W. of Palma), the ‘* shadow-bands ’’ were observed to take a direction N. 30° E. by S. 45° W. CaTHARINE O. STEVENS. Bradfield, Berks, October 20. Rhymes on the Value of rz. Now I know a spell unfailing, Siar dine Fly ee. ©) oe An artful charm, for tasks availing, ea a) 5 3 5 8 Intricate results entailing.— 7 9 Not in too exacting mood, Chee 8} 8 4 (Poetry is pretty good), 6 eG 4 Try the talisman.—Let be 3 See Oph eee? Adverse ingenuity ! 7 9 632 NATURE [OCTOBER 26, 1905 EXPERIMENTS ON DOPTERA BY VARIATIONS OF LEPI- ENVIRONMENT. A important addition to the numerous papers of recent years recording experiments as to the influence upon the forms of living beings of their environment has lately been published.* In this paper the inquiry is concerned only or chiefly with varieties in the pigmentation of Lepidoptera. The author enumerates as among the agents to which change in this pigmentation is to be ascribed ‘ in- tensity of light, temperature, nutrition, humidity, dryness, electricity, and other meteorological pheno- | mena.’’ His references literature on these subjects are very useful. The suggestion that mechanical movement, jarring, of pup, might cause effects analo- gous to those of temperature is mentioned, but this has long since been abandoned. M. Pictet divides the variation of pigmentation into two opposite types, the one “albinism,’? by which red can pass into yellow and even into white, the other ‘‘ melanism,” by which red passes into brown and, as an extreme, into black; and this classification is kept in view all through the description of his experiments and their results. So is a theory which he puts for- ward, though with diffidence, that caterpillars in general were originally adapted to live only on certain special plants or trees, and afterwards, owing to finding them- selves, as the result of migration or otherwise, where these were not to be had, adapted themselves to many other kinds, so as to be- come more or less polyphagous, still, however, in nature attaching themselves by preference to special food plants, called in this paper their normal or ancestral ones. M. Pictet’s treatment of this subject can be best illustrated by an extract :—“ Lasiocampa quercus, known from the time of Linnezus as feeding almost ex- clusively on the oak, as indeed its name indicates, and the leaves of some trees and hedge shrubs, is now found ‘frequently on ivy, poplar, sallow, birch, heath and arbutus.’? He does not always say what the normal food plant is, as in the case of Phalera buce- phala, of which he states that it absolutely refuses to eat any but its normal food. In England it is found on lime, elm, willow, and many other forest trees at least as freely as on oak, and there is a record of a company found on laurel. Oak is given as the normal food of Biston hirtarius (found in England on a great variety of forest trees), gooseberry and spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus) as those of Abraxas gvossu- lariata. In England this species is found in abun- dance also on blackthorn, &c., and it has of late years addicted itself to the Euonymus japonicus, an 1 “Influence de l’'Alimentation et de I’Humidité sur la Variation des Papillons.” By Arnold Pictet. (Mémoires de la Société de Physique et @'Histoire naturelle de Genéve, vol. xxxv., fascicule t, June, 1905, Pp- 46-127.) No. 1878, VOL. 72 | to the evergreen which became widely distributed in Europe during the last century. Though, as stated, it is left uncertain in some cases what M. Pictet considers the normal food plants to be, that creates little or no difficulty in appreciating most of his experiments, as the kinds of food plants which in these experiments were substituted for the foods well known to be usual were so different that they may certainly be dis- tinguished as abnormal; for example, when walnut or laurel, or low plants such as sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa), dandelion, lettuce, or salad burnet (Poterium sanguisorba) are substituted for any of the ordinary forest trees. Fics. 1 and 5.—Ocneria dispar, typical form 2 and ¢ ; 2-4, 6-13, 17, 15, fed on walnut ; 14 and 16, fed on mespilus ; 15, fed on dandelion plants ; 20 and 21, fed on onobrychis ; 22, fed on poterium plants. Among the principal conclusions arrived at by M. Pictet are the following :—(1) Change of ancestral food plant is often a factor of variability. (2) In general, a food difficult to absorb and digest prevents the larva from developing within its usual period, and this longer larval period is associated with the shortening of the pupal period, and consequently with insufficient pigmentation. (3) Normal food plant in insufficient quantity has the same effects. (4) A food easy to take in (ingérer) and rich in nutritious elements accelerates the larval development, and thus reacts on the duration of the pupal period, which, being thus lengthened, a more intense pigmentation OcTOBER 26, 1905] NATURE 633 ensues. . . . (8) The variations produced by food in- crease in intensity with each generation, and even arrive at such a point as to persist to a degree, by heredity, in the next generation brought up on normal food; when, in successive generations, the food plant is different, each kind of food plant impresses its characteristic effects on the imago.. (9g) After some generations on the abnormal food the insect becomes accustomed to it, and this brings about a return to the primitive type—sometimes, indeed, passes beyond it in the opposite direction. The experiments which led to these conclusions extended over five years, from 1900 to 1904, and were tried on 21 different species and about 4695 in- dividuals. The paper is illustrated by five plates con- taining eighty-one photographic figures, which are excellent, but uncoloured, so that they have not the advantage of showing the distinctive colour effects which enter into the verbal description of the results obtained. The course of experiment can only be briefly indicated here, having due regard to the exigencies of space, but I may select for reference some of M. Pictet’s chief experiments on what was their principal subject, Ocneria dispar; on this species there were twenty-nine experiments upon 1568 individuals. In many of those tried on this and other species the differences from the normal, so far as they are shown by the plates, are not very distinguishable from those deficiencies in intensity and definiteness of marking and the dwarfing of size that one is accustomed to find when larvee are bred on food that is insufficient or unsuitable, to put it in a popular form, are ‘‘ half starved.’’ It is right, however, to say that M. Pictet considers, as afterwards mentioned, that in those examples which he has selected for illustration as exhibiting the effects of abnormal food plants, walnut, onobrychis, &c., they are distinguishable from each other to such an extent that where larve have been fed for three successive generations on walnut, onobrychis, and oak respectively, the special influences of all three food plants can be seen. In six experiments with O. dispar, walnut was given for one or more generations; in all these cases the wing expansion was considerably smaller than normal, in some cases not more than three-quarters or two-thirds of it. Where O. sativa, dandelion or P. sanguisorba was given the imagines were considerably larger than normal, but when in one or more of the _ succeeding generations walnut was substituted the size was immediately reduced, much as in the other six experi- ments. Mespilus germanicus, horse chestnut, white poplar, and sallow had effects very similar to those of walnut. In experiment (4), where oak in the second generation succeeded walnut in the first, there was a slight return towards the type, but when in the third generation walnut was again given, the failure in intensity of markings reached its minimum, there being scarcely a trace of colour; when, how- ever, in the fourth generation oak was again given, there was a nearer return towards the type than the second generation showed. In other cases the ‘* albinistic’’ influence of the walnut persisted in a very marked degree after two later generations fed on oak or on O. sativa. In such cases, also, where other food plants of the three different classes (‘‘ albinising,’’ “‘normal,’”’? and “ melanising ’’) had been given in succession, M. Pictet considers that the special pigmentation effects of each of the three kinds of food plant are shown by the imagines of the latest generation. These are for walnut, ¢, pale yellow colour, two central lines partly obliterated, other markings less intense; 9, wings slightly transparent, few markings on upper wings, more on lower; second No. 1878, VoL. 72] generation, ¢, wings whitish, marginal band on all partly obliterated, transverse lines little visible ; °, wings transparent, the V mark and the marginal dots alone appearing; for O. sativa, d, wings brown, zigzag, lines little noticeable, marginal band very dark, abdominal hairs greyish; 9, on upper wings white zigzag lines strongly marked; for dandelion, 3, very similar, only the lower wings of uniform dark colour. M. Pictet arrives at the general conclusion that the “‘albinising ’”’ variations are caused by the larvae having been fed on leaves presenting obstacles to nutrition, such as hard cuticle or felted ‘underside, as in white poplar, and that, on the other hand, the ‘““melanising ’’ variations are caused by food present- ing no such obstacles; thus the young leaves of laurel are not ‘‘ melanising ’’ as the old leaves are. So far as I am aware, M. Pictet’s conclusion that a differ- ence of food plant in one generation can cause a difference of facies in the imago, and one that persists for several generations, is not in accordance with views hitherto prevailing; its bearing on the question whether a quality thus acquired can originate a new permanent variety or species is, however, at least materially affected by M. Pictet’s other position, that where several generations have been brought up on the abnormal food so as to become accustomed to it, they revert towards the original form, so that there would appear to be only a temporary disturbance in the colouring of the species. All M. Pictet’s figures of O. dispar are reproduced as illustrative of this notice; those numbered 13 (walnut, oak, onobrychis), 14, and 16 (onobrychis, mespilus) are relied on by him as showing indications of each of the different food plants supplied to them and their ancestors, that numbered 10 (walnut, oak, walnut, walnut) as showing reversion towards the original normal form when the larva have for several generations been confined to abnormal food. With respect to M. Pictet’s position that an inverse rate of development in the pupa is caused by lengthen- ing or shortening the duration of the larval * dia- pause ’’ or period of repose, his experiments favour that view; but it will hardly be accepted as of general application without further experiments. There is a section on the influence of food on the colour of the larve in which M. Pictet states that such an influence is exerted, with observ- ations tending to show that in some cases there is a relation between the colour thus induced in the larva and the colouring of the imago. There are also experiments from which he draws the conclusion that the kind of food influences the secondary sexual characters of the larvee which are so marked in O. antiqua, &c.; this does not, of course, mean that it changes the sex as has been asserted; on that he makes the just observation that it is not sufficient to count the respective numbers of males and females among the perfect insects obtained, but account ought also to be taken of those that die, usually in large numbers, and the male sex may be much more capable than the female of supporting the ‘tribulations of life,’?’ among which, one may add, must certainly be included scientific experiments on their food. The second part of M. Pictet’s paper is devoted to the influence of humidity. Excessive moisture applied to young larve is largely fatal, but seems to have no effect on the perfect insects which survive, beyond slightly reducing their size. Older larvze, i.e. (usually) for the period of eight or ten days before pupation, resist it perfectly, but give ‘‘ aberrations,’’ some of which are figured, such as are met with here and there in nature. 634 NATURE | OcTOBER 26, 1905 The paper is a valuable contribution of facts to the | solution of questions of much interest, and M. Pictet’s | conclusions as to the causes of the results he describes | are well worthy of the consideration that they will doubtless receive. It is to be presumed that he took all proper means to isolate the influences he applied from other influences, but his arguments would perhaps have gained in force if he had stated in detail what steps he had taken to ensure this isolation. For example, in his experiments on the colouring assumed by lJarve, though he is acquainted with the experi- ments of Prof. Poulton and others, showing the un- doubted effect of a few coloured surroundings on the colouring of the larvae of many species, it does not appear what precautions were taken to exclude the operation of such surroundings; nor in the experi- ments on the duration of the pupal stage when the larval ‘* diapause ’’? was shortened, or in the humidity experiments, does it appear that the temperatures during all the time of the pupal stage were noted; it is known that a very moderate difference in temperature will make a difference of many days in the duration of this period. One may venture to suggest, also, that in the continuation which it is hoped M. Pictet will make of his valuable experi- ments he will give as far as possible the whole number of the insects in the broods at their commence- ments and the whole number of perfect insects reared | —in the great majority of cases only percentages are given; also that he will state whether the whole or nearly the whole of those reared were similar in appearance to those figured, and whether there was any considerable proportion substantially different. There appears to be one error to which, as it has not the character of a mere slip, and therefore has a bearing on the arguments used, it is necessary to direct attention. The larve of the first generation of the year of V. urticae are at p. 94 mentioned as | coming from butterflies which ‘‘ have probably passed | the winter in the chrysalis stage,’’ and at p. 81 “certain Vanessas ’’ are spoken of as being able to | pass the winter in the egg, chrysalis, or winter stage. | Surely V. urticae hibernates only as an imago, wherever there is a real winter, as is the habit of the Vanessas generally. Again, fifteen to twenty days is stated as the usual period of the larval life of Argynnis paphia; in England this hibernates as a very young larva, and feeds up, very quickly it is true, during April, May, and June, appearing as an imago in July or early August, and this is its usual habit on the continent of Europe. F. MErrIFIELD. CHEMISTRY IN THE SERVICE OF THE STATE.! N the year 1840, the Legislature made an interest- ing fiscal experiment. It repealed all previous enactments against the adulteration of tobacco, and permitted any ingredients, ‘‘except the leaves of trees, herbs, and plants,’’ to be added to that article in the course of its preparation. The result was that tobacco speedily became grossly adulterated; in two years the consumption had decreased by more than a million pounds; and, since tobacco is a heavily taxed commodity, the Exchequer suffered severely. So serious a loss had to be promptly stopped; hence in 1842 the prohibition of adulteration was re-enacted. lo help in making the prohibition effective, the Com- missioners of Inland Revenue fitted up a small labor- atory, the staff of which, consisting for some time 1 “Report of the Principal Chemist upon the Work of the Government rion ae the Year ending March 31, 1905"" Official Publication, - 2501. TICe 3c. NOs 1878. VOLS 72) | just assessments of Customs dues. | themselves dutiable. of one person only, was occupied solely in detecting fraudulent additions to tobacco. Such was the modest origin of the chief branch of the institution which now undertales nearly all | the analytical and consultative chemical worl: required by the various Government departments. , Another branch, the Customs Laboratory, may be said to owe its inception chiefly to the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875, which laid upon the Board of Customs the duty of supervising the quality of imported tea. The two branches were affiliated in 1894 under one head. How considerable the business of the laboratory has now become may be gathered from the recently issued report of the principal chemist, describing the work of the department during the last financial year. From this it appears that the number of samples analysed in that period was no less than 138,508. Of these, 49,751 were examined in the Customs branch, and the remainder, 88,757, in the main laboratory at Clement’s Inn Passage. What, however, more particularly strikes one is the wide range of interests, both of the State and of the individual, which are touched at one point or another by the chemical activities of the department. We extract from the report a few notes which may serve to illustrate this, and to indicate the nature of the questions dealt with. Dealing first with the Customs, the ultimate aim of the various analyses is, of course, to facilitate the This, however, involves the testing of many articles which are not For instance, genuine cider is free of duty. A temptation is thus offered to an un- scrupulous wine importer, since by labelling his wine as ‘‘cider’’? he may, if undetected, get it passed into the country without payment. As a matter of fact, out of 154 samples examined during the past year, Io represented importations of so-called ‘cider ”’ which was found to be chargeable as wine, and another had to pay duty as a spirit preparation. Again, crude methyl alcohol is admitted free, but if purified so as to be potable must pay the spirit duty. In 31 cases out of 256 the substance was, in fact, so pure that the full alcohol rate was levied. As compared with the previous year, there has been a notable decrease in the number of certain beer, wine, and liqueur samples; this is attributed to diminished consumption of alcoholic beverages. On the other hand, samples of tea show a considerable increase—from 2345 to 3260—in spite of an augmented tea-duty. For various reasons, 316 of these speci- mens of tea were objected to, and 7 were condemned as unfit for human food. Among other items of interest, we note that facili- ties are given by the Customs authorities for the utilising of waste tobacco in the preparation of sheep dips and similar articles. It appears that nicotine is supplanting arsenic as the active principle in such products. The very high duty on saccharin—2os. per pound— involves, the principal chemist remarks, a careful outlook for this substance in the most unlikely places. 617 samples of articles which might have been vehicles for its fraudulent introduction were tested, and 55 of the number were charged the duty as being either saccharin or substances of like nature and use. In the laboratory at Clement’s Inn Passage, the business is classed as (1) Revenue work; (2) work for other Government departments; and (3) the analysis of samples referred by magistrates to the Government chemists in disputed cases under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. The examinations of excisable articles are devised to secure the revenue accruing from beer, OcTOBER 26, 1905 | NATURE 635 spirits, and tobacco. For instance, beer-duty is charged according to the specific gravity of the brewer’s wort betore fermentation, and this gravity is *‘ declared’’ by the brewer himself. To test the accuracy of such declarations, 6370 samples of wort in various stages of fermentation were analysed, with the result that the amount of duty was increased in more than ro per cent. of the cases. Again, on beer which is exported, ‘‘ drawback ’’ corresponding to the original duty can be claimed: to check the claims, samples of the beer are analysed; and during the year 2789 barrels were found to be not entitled to the drawback claimed. 813 samples of beer out of 6589 taken from publicans were shown by analysis to have been illegally diluted with water. Of so- called ** temperance’? drinks, about one-third of the whole number examined, tori, contained alcohol in excess of the legal limit, the highest quantity being about as much as in ordinary light beer. Forty-four specimens of beer and brewing materials were found to contain arsenic in objectionable amount. As regards spirits, it is noted that the exportation of medicinal tinctures, flavouring essences, and per- fumes is increasing. So, too, is the use of denatured alcohol for industrial purposes, and of pure duty-free spirit issued to medical and other science schools. Tobacco is examined chiefly to prevent an excessive admixture of water or oil; penalties were imposed in $7 cases of this kind during the past year, and also in other instances where glycerin and liquorice were unlawfully present. Legal proceedings are necessarily a feature of the chemical control over dutiable articles. Penalties aggregating 50721. were imposed during the year in respect of offences proof of which depended upon the analytical evidence. Much work, of very varied scope, is carried out for the Admiralty, the Boards of Trade and Agriculture, India Office, Post Office, War Office, and other State departments. Imported dairy produce, for instance, is analysed for the Board of Agriculture in order to check the importation of adulterated foodstuffs; 2468 such -articles were examined in the year, of which 2110 were butter and 305 millk and cream. Boron preservatives and artificial colouring-matter are found to be common additions to the butter. The use of the preservative is increasing; but, as the principal chemist points out, there is a difficulty in restricting the admixture so long as a legal limit has not been fixed. In two other respects it would seem that the law might well be amended. Butter, about the purity of which there were grave doubts, and cheese con- taining merely nominal amounts of fat, had, ‘‘in the absence of legal limits,’’ to be admitted into the country without objection; this seems hardly fair, either to the home farmer or to the consumer. In connection with the testing of filters, a useful note of warning is siven to the makers of these articles. The actual filtering material may be quite satisfactory, but as regards giving a sterile filtrate the whole apparatus is sometimes rendered useless by leakage of unfiltered water through faulty fittings. For the Home Office an interesting series of lead- glaze samples was examined during the year. It may be remembered that cases of lead poisoning in the pottery industry had a few vears ago become so numerous as almost to constitute a public scandal. Profs. Thorpe and Oliver, who were commissioned by the Home Secretary to investigate the matter, re- commended, among other remedial measures, the substitution of lead silicates for the white lead then in general use as a glazing substance, on the ground that the silicate, properly compounded, would be almost insoluble in the acids of the gastric iuice, and therefore far less poisonous than the easily soluble No. 1878, vou. 72] white lead. Based on this recommendation, a regu- lation was framed by the Home Office; it was, how- ever, thought by the potters to be too stringent, and eventually the point was submitted to arbitration, Lord James of Hereford being umpire. His award was in the nature of a compromise giving the manu- facturers greater freedom than under the original proposal. The conditions are set forth in the report, together with the results of the analyses of samples of glaze showing how nearly the manufacturers, in the first year’s working of the new rules, have been able to keep their glazes within the specified limits. On the whole, the results are fairly satisfactory. Thus thirty samples were represented as ‘‘ leadless,”’ and all but four did, in fact, conform to the regulation. The India Office requires the analysis of a great variety of articles, which are examined in order to ensure that goods supplied by contractors are actually what they purport to be. Metals and alloys, cements, chemicals, disinfectants, drugs, food preparations, oils, paints, and surgical dressings were among the supplies sent for analysis during the year; but how far they proved to be satisfactory is not stated. In cases which arise under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts there may be a conflict of testimony, and the magistrate may wish to have before him inde- pendent evidence upon the chemical aspects of the question. In such matters the Government Labor- atory acts as amicus curiae, and examines a sample of the article in dispute which has been specially reserved for that purpose. Further, whether the magistrate wants it or not, either of the litigants can claim to have this reserved sample forwarded for analysis. This is an excellent provision, securing as it does a careful examination of the disputed points by chemists unconnected with either prosecution or defence, and detached from any local influences which might, however wrongly, have been alleged or sus- pected by an accused person to have been used against him. During the past year this provision has been taken advantage of in 109 instances. The net result of the references was to support the allegation brought against the article in the great majority of cases, viz. in 95 out of 105. The report bristles with matters of interest similar to the foregoing. It is the record of a useful year’s work. ON THE ORIGIN’ OF BOLITHS. pete more detailed paper by M. Marcellin Boule on the subject of the origin of eoliths (see Nature, August 31, p. 438) has now appeared in l'Anthropologie (Tome xvi., p. 257), and was briefly noticed in Nature of September 28 (p. 538). The paper is too long for us, with the existing pressure upon our space, to give a full translation of it, but the following are the principal new features in the extended essay. The velocity of the circumference of the wheels in the délayeurs, or vats, is stated to be about 13 feet per second, the same as the speed of the Rhone in times of flood. It will therefore be seen that these mixing vats are of an entirely different character from ordinary pug-mills, and that the motion of the water in them may be properly de- scribed as torrential. The author attaches no import- ance to the fact that some of the blows to the flints are given by the iron teeth of the suspended harrows, and states that most of the flints are reduced to the condition of rolled pebbles, identical with those to be found in all flint gravels, but that there are numerous examples of réetouches, or secondary working. In illustration of this he gives photographic figures of eleven different specimens by which he contends that 636 NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1905 the analogy of these flints from the cement manu- factory near Mantes with the so-called eoliths from Tertiary beds is substantiated, and he regards it as undeniable that these Mantes eoliths have been pro- duced, and are being continually produced, apart from the intention of any human being. In conclusion, he directs attention to the importance of migration both in history and in the development of all fossil groups. Nothing, he says, proves that the evolution of the human species or genus took place in one particular spot. It is very possible that man appeared suddenly in this part of the world at the beginning of the Quaternary period, at the same time as the mammalian fauna of which he forms part, and which is very different from the last fauna of Pliocene times. As a _ palzontologist, he believes firmly in the existence of Tertiary man, traces of whom, he doubts not, will eventually be found in some part of the world; but for these to be indis- putable, they must possess a very different value from that of the eoliths. In addition to M. Boule’s memoir, an important article has appeared in the Archiv fiir Anthropologie (Neue Folge, vol. iv., p. 75), ‘‘ Zur Eolithenfrage.”’ It is from the pen of Dr. Hugo Obermaier, of Paris, who has also visited the cement works near Mantes, and entertains views upon the subject almost identical with those of M. Boule. He begins with a historical sketch of the discoveries of eoliths in beds from the Oligocene downwards to the Quaternary, and then proceeds to describe and discuss the modern products of the délayeurs, of one of which he gives a section. The paper is illustrated by eight plates, six of which are photographic. The first ‘gives eight specimens of reputed eoliths from Miocene beds at Duan, near Brou (Eure et Loire). The other five are devoted to examples from Mantes, not a few of which present the ‘‘hollow-scraper’’ notches so often seen on eoliths. The remaining two plates contain reproduc- tions of wood-cut figures of eoliths from various locali- ties, so as to afford means of comparison between the old and the new. He directs attention to an admission of M. Rutot that the eolithic industry is confined to localities where two conditions exist, the one that there was an abundance of the raw material flint, and the other that there was a stream of water in the neighbour- hood, conditions which, in a modified form, exist at Mantes. Want of space precludes a longer notice of this interesting article. We may, however, quote Dr. Obermaier’s words in a letter to the editor of the Archiv fiir Anthropologie (Neue Folge Corr. Blatt., July, 1905, p. 50) :—‘‘ We have now an experimental proof that eoliths can be formed in a_ purely mechanical manner.”’ NOTES. As already announced, the inaugural meeting of the British Science Guild will be held on Monday next, October 30, at the Mansion House, at 4.15 p.m. The Lord Mayor will preside, and will be supported, among others, by the Lord Bishop of Ripon, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane, K.C., M.P., Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, -G.C.B., General Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.B., Sir John Wolfe-Barry, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S., Mr. C. W. Macara, and Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S. A MEETING of the general committee of the British Association will be held in the rooms of the Society, Burlington House, on Tuesday next, No. 1878, VoL. 72] Linnean at 3 p.m., for the purpose of appointing officers for the meeting of the association to be held at York next year, and of deciding upon the place of meeting in 1907. Tue Paris correspondent of the Times states that M. Gérault-Richard proposes to ask the French Parliament to vote a credit of 100,000 francs (4o0ol.) for the investigation of the best means of combating tuberculosis. The Minister of Education, M. Bienvenu-Martin, has promised the sup- port of the Government. Tue death is announced of Prof. DeWitt Bristol Brace, head of the department of physics in the University of Nebraska, and one of the leading physicists of the United States. He was in his forty-seventh year, and had just entered upon his nineteenth year of teaching in the Uni- versity of Nebraska. AN international exhibition in connection with ceramic industries, and with the manufacture of glass and crystal, will be held in 1906 from June to October at the Champs- Elysées and the Cours-la-Reine. Full information can be obtained from the director-general of the exhibition, 19 rue Saint-Roch, Paris. We learn from the Pharmaceutical Journal that the Heriot trust governors have decided to establish a labor- atory at the Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh, for the study of bacteriology in its relation to various industries. The laboratory has been fitted with the best appliances, and the services of Dr. Westergaard have been retained to supervise it. The laboratory was formally opened by a lecture by Prof. Hansen on October 18. A sTRONG earthquake shock was felt in Constantinople on October 22 at 5.55 a.m. The disturbances, which lasted several seconds, appeared to travel from the north-east towards the south-west, and were accompanied by a rumbling noise. Earthquake shocks were felt at 2 p.m. on the same day at Batum, and between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. at Kutais. An undulating tremor lasting forty seconds was also experienced at Sukhum-Kaleh. A CONFERENCE of delegates from the corresponding societies affiliated to the British Association will be held in the rooms of the Linnean Society on Monday and Tuesday, October 30 and 31, under the presidency of Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S. Among the subjects to be discussed are ‘‘ The Preservation of Native Plants,’’ to be introduced by Prof. G. S. Boulger, and ‘‘ The Law of Treasure Trove,’’ which will be introduced by Dr. W. Martin. The delegates will visit the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and will dine on Monday evening as guests of the Royal Societies Club. A REUTER message states that the Berlin Meteorological Observatory, which the Emperor recently opened in the presence of the Prince of Monaco, is fitted with all the latest appliances for meteorological research. The Emperor attaches great importance to the use of balloons in meteor- ology, so that an extensive balloon hall has been included in the building plan of the new observatory at Lindenberg, near Berlin. On the highest point of the plateau on which the observatory stands is a shed which can be turned to any point of the compass, and contains a cable drum driven by a small electric motor for hauling in kites, which are to be extensively used for meteorological purposes. Electric search-lights have also been installed for night observation. Another interesting feature of the new institute is the kite factory, where large kites, fitted with self-registering instru- October 31, | ments, are made. The institute has its own establishment ~ Hilbert. OcTOBER 26, 1905 | NATURE 637 where balloons can be filled, and it is the present intention of the directors to make observations with balloons every first Thursday in the month. Dr. BAtHorit ENpDRE, writing from Kirdlyfalva, Hungary, informs us that the Bélyai international prize will be pre- sented next December, for the first time, by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The prize is ten thousand crowns, and will be awarded every five years, in memory of John Bolyai, the celebrated Hungarian mathematician, to the writer of the best mathematical work in the same period of years. The committee concerned with the award of the prize met on October 11 in Budapest. The members of the committee are:—Prof. G. Darboux, Paris; Prof. F. Klein, Gottingen; Prof. G. Konig, Budapest; and Prof. G. Rados, Budapest. The names of two mathematicians were considered, viz. Prof. H. Poincaré and Prof. D. The committee awarded the prize to Poincaré, and at the same time expressed its acknowledgment and admiration of Prof. Hilbert’s works. Profs. Darboux and Klein gave lectures in Budapest on the teaching of mathe- matics. Tue inaugural address of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society was delivered, on October 17, by Sir William H. Bailey, the president of the society. The address took the form of an interesting historical account of the society since its foundation in 1781, and included appreciative references to the work of many distinguished members whose names are to be found in early volumes of memoirs. The founders were the chief scientific men of Manchester. Among the honorary members were Erasmus Darwin, Dr. Franklin, Lavoisier, Dr. Priestley, William Roscoe, of Liverpool, the poet and grandfather of Sir Henry Roscoe, Dorning Ramsbottom, Josiah Wedgwood, and others. The chief tools of the workshops of the world, not only those where steam engines, loco- motives, and steamships are built, but also of the textile factories of the world, were invented in Manchester or within thirty miles of it. The records of the society con- tain the names of many of these inventors who were members, for the men of Lancashire were the first to use steam power for spinning and weaving, and for punching, cutting, and shaping metal. Prominent among the inventors was that genius Richard Roberts, who was always in the front rank in advocating technical education. His chief inventions were the slide lathe, planing machine, and self- acting mule for spinning cotton. Then there was Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam-hammer, Sir William Fairbairn and Sir Joseph Whitworth. Finally, Sir William Bailey referred to the great work of the illustrious members Dr. Dalton and Dr. Joule, whose effigies in marble are in the entrance to the Manchester Town Hall. Prans have been formulated by Mr. Einar Mikkelsen, a young Dane, for an expedition to the Arctic regions, the objective being that part of the Polar Ocean which lies immediately to the west of the Parry Archipelago, north of Canada. Interviewed by a representative of the Morn- ing Post, Mr. Mikkelsen gave an outline of his programme. He will be joined by Mr. Leffingwell, a young American geologist, and Mr. Ditlevsen, a naturalist, who, like Mr. Mikkelsen, accompanied Lieut. Amdrup to the east Green- land coast in 1900. It is proposed to start from Canada in the spring of 1906. Early in May the party hopes to reach the upper waters of the Athabasca River, by way of Edmonton, and to follow that stream, and the Slave and Mackenzie Rivers, down to the northern coast of the Dominion. It will be some time in July before the mouth No. 1878, VOL. 72| of the Mackenzie River is reached. At the end of August a whaler, which will have been brought north especially for the use of the expedition, will be joined by the party. Geological and zoological investigations and study of the native Eskimo will occupy the time of waiting. At Cape Kellet it is hoped that winter quarters will be estab- lished. The winter is to be occupied with scientific investi- gations. The plan is that about the end of February the party, three white men, two Eskimo, and the dogs, shall start out from Prince Albert Cape in a N.N.W. direction, that is, more or less parallel to the mainland. Ten days, it is calculated, should see an end of the bad ice, and then Mr. Ditlevsen is to return, leaving Messrs. Mikkelsen and Leffingwell to continue the journey alone. They hope to keep on in the same direction as far as latitude 76° N., in about 147° west longitude, before turn ing south to reach the coast. Tne Tottenham Urban District Council has issued a public appeal for subscriptions for the purpose of furnish- ing a museum and for the donation of objects of interest. An opportunity occurred during the present year for securing a collection of minerals and other geological speci- mens for a nominal sum, and at the same time an offer was received from Mr. H. E. H. Smedley to lend his museum collection to Tottenham and to give his services as honorary curator. The council has accepted the offers. The cost of furnishing the museum is estimated at 250l. Any contributions in money, or suitable objects for exhibi- tion, may be sent: to the librarian at the Central Public Library, High Road, Tottenham. THE increased sale of synthetic indigo promises, a writer in the Journal of the Society of Arts states, to destroy the old and important Anglo-Indian industry of indigo planting. Since 1895-6 the value of the exports has fallen from 3,569,7001. to 556,400l., and this is largely due to synthetic indigo. Of the indigo imports of Japan last year fully three-fourths was the artificial product, vegetable indigo being increasingly unsalable. In the United States the synthetic dye came on the market in 1898, and was held at 44 cents per pound, about the value of vegetable indigo on the indigotin basis. Now the price is down to 18 cents, and at this figure it is claimed to be much cheaper than the lowest obtainable values in any vegetable indigo. The artificial dye has already secured nearly 85 per cent. of the world’s consumption, and the price of indigo has dropped about one-half. To-day Germany imports only small quantities of natural indigo, while her exports of synthetic indigo have increased enormously, and represented last year a value of 25,000,000 marks. Tue study of the zoology of the Philippines is being energetically carried on by the Americans, one of the latest contributions being the description of new Hymenoptera, by Mr. W. H. Ashmead, published in the Proceedings of the U.S. Nat. Museum (No. 1416). Tue Agricultural Society of Sapporo, Japan, is devoting its energies to the study of the insects of the country and the mischief they inflict on agriculture, forestry, &c. In the first and second parts of the second volume (the first volume being at present apparently unpublished) of the society’s journal, of which we have been favoured with copies, all the papers except one are, for instance, devoted to insects and their life-history. The groups dis- cussed include the Cercopide, or lantern-flies, the fresh- water Hemiptera, and the bark-boring beetles of the family Scolytide. In the article referred to above, Mr. S. Hashimoto takes into consideration the composition of certain abnormal samples of milk. 638 NATORE [OcTOBER 26, 1905 THE the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie (vol. 1xxx., part i.) include one by Mr. V. Wida- kowich on the structure and function of the so-called nidamental organs (that is to say, the glands which secrete the white and shell of the eggs) of the shark Scyllium canicula. In a second Mr. A. Reichensperger describes the anatomy of the living West Indian crinoid Pentacrinus decorus. A third, by Mr. O. C. Glaser, is devoted to certain features in the physiology of the American gastro- pod Fasciolavia tulipa, while in a fourth Messrs. Marshall and Dernehl commence a dissertation on the embryology and anatomy of the hymenopterous insect Polistes pallipes. To the first part of the eightieth volume of the Zeit- schrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie Dr. O. Grosser com- municates an interesting paper on the evidence that certain dermal structures or markings among vertebrates have a segmental origin. Among the features referred to are the transverse arrangement of the scaling on the under surface and sides of the body in lizards, and the transverse colour- bands on the bodies of the banded mongoose (Crossarchus fasciatus), the tiger, and the zebras. In regard to the scaling of reptiles, the author admits that the transverse arrangement is very probably a secondary feature due to adaptation to the movements of the body, while he adds that the evidence for the segmental origin of the trans- verse stripes in mammals is purely of a negative nature, and requires something much more definite in its favour before it can be accepted. It be added that if this segmental origin of colour stripes be accepted, it at once cuts away the ground from those who regard it as a special protective adaptation. papers in may We have received the first part of a work, to be com- pleted in six parts, price sixpence each, entitled ‘‘I go a-walking through the Country Lanes.’’ No author’s name appears on the title-page, but the text is stated to be compiled from the Rev. C. Johns’s ‘‘ British Birds and their Haunts.’’ Each part is to contain reproductions from photographs taken by Mr. Reid, of Wishaw, the incomparable excellence of which needs no commendation on.our part. The aim of the book is ‘‘ to outline a walk in the country, and to describe and picture the habits of the birds and the animals that are to be seen.’’ The photographs in some instances might have been made. to convey more information. On p. 13 we have, for instance, a charming picture of a flock of sheep coming out of a field, to which the legend ‘‘ changing pastures ’ scribed. is sub- It would surely have been just as easy to mention that these sheep, as shown by their white faces and long wool, are Leicesters, or some nearly kindred breed. Tue Selborne Society has issued an illustrated circular in which attention is directed to the objects coming within the purview of that body, and the privileges enjoyed by members. ‘‘ Birds in the Field and Garden’? js the title of an article in the October issue of Nature Notes, the official organ of the society, in which the nameless author, while admitting that a certain amount of damage is in- flicted on fruit and other produce, maintains that, on the whole, the visits of birds are advantageous alike to the gardener, the fruit-grower, and the farmer. with this subject, it may be mentioned that we are acquainted with certain gardens where, owing to the damage done to the buds by bullfinches and other members of the finch tribe, the whole of the gooseberry and currant bushes have been enclosed in wire netting with a mesh small enough to prevent the entrance of birds. The ex- periment has been carried on for two seasons with the NO. 1878, VOL. 72] In connection most satisfactory results, and there has been no necessity to take any special steps to free the bushes from insects. Here, then, is a problem for those who urge that birds are essential to the gardener. In Biologisches Centralblatt for October 1 Mr. W. M. Wheeler, of the American Museum of Natural History, and Father E. Wasmann discuss the discovery of “‘ tem- porary social parasitism ’’ among ants, and the inductions to be drawn therefrom as to the origin of “‘ slavery ”’ among certain members of the group. Mr. Wheeler claims to have been the first to describe this temporary parasitism Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum issued in October, 1904; but the corollaries from this discovery and inferences in regard to the general origin of slavery among ants were not published by him until the middle of February of this year. In conclusion, the writer urges that none of the observations published by Father Wasmann during all the years he has been engaged in the study of ants ** are sufficient to accredit him with the independent discovery of temporary social parasitism as a general and regular phenomenon among certain Formicidae.’ In a reply to this article, Father Wasmann very candidly admits that Mr. Wheeler is fully entitled to the credit of this discovery, although he apparently does not accept certain other claims made by the American naturalist ' “Can fish hear?’ is a question discussed by Dr. O. KGrner in a special issue of the Beitrage zur Ohrenheil- kunde, published to commemorate the seventieth birthday of Prof. A. Lucae. The question is provisionally answered in the negative, and for the following reasons. It seems that many fishes are able to perceive rapid, consecutive vibrations communicated to water, but that such vibrations are taken cognisance of by means of the so-called auditory organs is highly improbable. This is supported by the fact that single loud explosions in water were totally dis- regarded by fishes belonging to no less than five and twenty distinct species of fishes. Moreover, the circumstance that the presence of the senses of sight and touch is easily demonstrable in fishes renders it probable that the same would be the case with hearing if it existed. Finally, the fact that fishes, and apparently also such isolated forms in other groups as are deaf, alone among vertebrates possess no organs comparable to the Cortischian nerve- terminations renders it probable that these organs are in a alone capable of transmitting auditory vibrations, the hypothesis that such vibrations may be received by the vestibular apparatus not being at present substantiated. We have received part ii. of an illustrated catalogue of the ethnographical collection of the Sarawalk Museum (Journal April, Straits Branch, Royal Asiatic Society), by R. Shelford. This section deals only with worn for decorative purposes by the The question of the relationship between magic and personal ornamentation has not been lost sight of, but many inquiries have elicited little in- formation of importance. Kalabit youths when visiting new wear a necklace of decorative seeds as a charm against evil spirits, and Land-Dyak men wear a necklet of beads and canines of leopard and bear for a similar purpose; the beads are frequently regarded as charms against specific diseases. The leglets of finely plaited fibre so commonly worn were at one time employed as currency; the Kayans say they feel quite naked if they do not wear these leglets. The catalogue is very well done, and is illustrated by adequate plates. If the whole museum is treated in this way the catalogue will prove to be a very valuable record of the ethnography of Sarawak. No:__43; Mr. the objects natives of Borneo. districts OcTOBER 26, 1905] Peters- a description of new Tue Bulletin du Jardin impérial botanique de St. bourg, vol. v., contains part iii., lichens from Central Russia and Siberia, by Mr. A. Elenkin, and an account of the vegetation on the chalk cliffs in the basin of the river Choper, by Mr. W. Dubjansky. IN his report for 1904-5, the curator of the botanic station in Dominica states that spineless lime plants are that he is adequate supply, as the fruits contain very few seeds ; also, great demand, but unable to furnish an in owing to the labour involved, the supply of budded orange stock is limited. —both Castilloa Judging from the manurial experiments with cacao, extend- ing over Other plants in request are cacao, rubber and Funtumia—and_ ordinary limes. three years, the application of phosphate and potash with dried blood may be expected to give substantial increases in yield, while mulching with grass has produced even better results. Tue Department of Agriculture for British East Africa has issued a leaflet on the cultivation and commercial products of the cocoanut. The industry is one that requires some capital, as the plants only come into bearing in the sixth year, and meantime the cultivator is dependent upon ground-nuts, or that he may grow between the The most lucrative product in East Africa is tembo, a liquor obtained from the cut end of the very The Forestry in the same colony has also inaugurated a series of leaflets, the first of cluding a juniper, a Podocarpus, Pygeum africanum, and the maize, any other crop trees. Department of young flowering spike. which deals with timber trees, in- Ulophylus abyssinicus. We have received a pamphlet entitled “ The Growth of Oak in High Forest,’’ by Prof. W. R. Fisher, president of the Royal English Arboricultural Society, in which the author points out the desirability of having a model cal high forest as an adjunct to the forestry school at Oxford. In spite of the fact that oak forests and oak timber have played such an important part in the history of England, we have not at the present day a typical example of oak where all stages from the high wood, that is, an area seedling to the mature tree are represented. In the above working section this pamphlet Prof. Fisher proposes to have a of the Windsor Park set purpose. 1200 acres, could surely be spared for this important purpose, and the author clearly shows how the present crop could with time be replaced oak wood in aside for The area required, by a series of age classes representing all stages in the srowth of the tree and the forest from the beginning to the end of the The would be vastly increased thereby, more than counterbalancing ard rotation. financial returns justifying any small initial sacrifice. The scheme deserves every encouragement, and we trust will be looked upon with favour by those in authority. Onr of the best concise accounts of the Liége Inter- national Exhibition yet published is contributed by Mr. L. Ramakers to the October Engineering Some excellent illustrations are given of the Several large engines for operation with blast-furnace waste gas issue of the Magazine. mechanical, mining, and metallurgical features. were shown, notably a 1200 horse-power four-cycle double- acting horizontal tandem engine for the direct driving of a rolling mill at the Cockerill works. Another gas engine shown by the same firm is a 500 horse-power four-cycle double-acting twin cylinder for operation with coke-oven exhibited gas. A gas-preducer of novel type was Deutz Works, the No. 1878, VOL. 72] waste by the Gas Engine fuel for which NATURE 639 consists of brown-coal briquettes. The same firm showed an eight horse-power locomotive with a benzene motor. From the Rationalist Press Association there come cheap reprints of “‘ The Fundamental Principles of the Positive Haeckel’s *‘ The Wonders of Life.’’ translation of the intro- that is, the account of Comte’s main theses, of the law of the Philosophy ’’ and of The former book contains a two ductory chapters of Comte’s ‘‘ Philosophie Positive,’ three states of knowledge and the nature of positive philo- sophy, together with the fulminations against introspective psychology which are now completely out of date. Haeckel’s work is a supplement to the ‘‘ Riddle of the Universe,”’ other things. and discusses life, death, morality, and many OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Recent LarGe Sun-srot.—The accompanying repro- duction shows the form and extent of the large sun-spot group referred to in these columns last week. This photo- graph was taken at 12 o’clock noon on Thursday last, October 19, when the group was plainly visible to the naked eye. A rough measurement shows that the group was then more than 100,000 miles long and about 55,000 Fic. 1. —Photograph of the Sun showing the large group of sun-spots October 19, 12 o'clock noon. atest breadth. The smaller spot, seen of particular beauty, showing surrounded by a symmetrical miles across its gr in the N.W. quadrant, was a very dark circular umbra penumbra. A second ‘‘ naked-eye’’ spot having a large black nucleus was seen near to the eastern limb of the sun on Monday last. This is the second occasion during the present year that the sun has preSented the unusual pheno- menon of two naked-eye spots visible on the dise at the same time. FURTHER RESULTS OF THE FRENCH ECLIPSE EXPEDITIONS. —Yet another batch of the preliminary results obtained by French expeditions during the recent total eclipse of the sun is published in No. 15 of the Comptes rendus. Prof. Janssen, who was in charge of the expedition stationed at Alcosebre (Spain), describes the observations which were made and the instruments which were employed at that station, and separate reports are pre- 640 NATURE [OcTOBER 26, 1905 sented by M.M. M. Stefanik, G. Millochau, and J. J. Landerer, who were in charge of the several instruments. The results, which are of only a preliminary nature, are too numerous to give in detail here, but all the observ- ations, both visual and photographic, appear to have been successful. M. E. Stephan, of the Marseilles Observatory, was placed in charge of one of the expeditions organised by the Bureau des Longitudes, and, accompanied by M. Borrelly, occupied the same station as Mr. Newall, at Guelma (Algeria). The equipment of this expedition consisted of a telescope of 40 cm. aperture and an equatorial of 9-5 cm. aperture and 190 em. focal length. A number of visual observations of the corena, the prominences, &c., were successfully made. Nova Aguit# No. 2.—Circular No. 106 of the Harvard College Observatory describes the discovery and subsequent observations of Nova Aquila No. 2. The Nova was dis- covered on a plate taken with the 11-inch Draper telescope on August 18 for the Henry Draper memorial series. The spectrum, although faint, showed the lines Hd, Hy, 4272, 4646, and Hf very broad and bright, Hy and H§ having accompanying dark lines on their more refrangible edges. The helium line 4646 is slightly stronger than 4272, and the whole spectrum closely resembles that of Nova Persei No. 2, as photographed on March 30, 1gor. Some two or three hundred plates of this region are included in the Harvard series, and twenty-nine of them, taken before August 18, have been examincd, but no trace of the Nova before that date has been disccvered. Two photographs showing the region half a degree square around the Nova, taken on August 15, 1903, and August 31, 1905, respectively, are reproduced in the Circular, and on comparing them it is at once seen that the Nova does not appear on the former, although it is quite a conspicuous object on the latter plate; stars of magnitude 15.7 are shown on the earlier plate. Prof. Pickering’s tabulated statement of the observed magnitudes of the Nova from August 31 to September 22 shows that this object gradually decreased in brightness from magnitude 10-41 on the first named date to magni- tude 11-23 on the second. When first photographed the Nova’s magnitude was about 7-0. It follows from the Harvard observations that the Nova first appeared between August 10 and August 18, but it is hoped that, when the plates taken at Arequipa during that period arrive at Cambridge (Mass.), this interval may be greatly reduced. Stak witH A Larce Proper Movzon.—The method employed at Harvard College Observatory for the detection of variable stars, viz. the superposition of a photographic plate upon a glass positive of the same region, photo- graphed on an earlier date, has led to the discovery that the star A.G.C. 6886 has a large proper motion. Whilst thus examining two plates of the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken on April 11, 1898, and December 5, 1904, respectively, Miss Leavitt found that this star had moved appreciably during the interval, and a comparison of the positions given in several of the older catalogues compiled since “1825 confirmed the fact. fhe discussion of the data obtained from the comparison showed that the annual proper motion in R.A. is —o.o66s. in declination +1"-14, and along a great circle 1/28. ‘ The total number of stars shown on_ the original negatives is about 300,000, and it is probable that none of these, except A.G.C. 6886, has an annual proper motion exceeding three-quarters of a second (Harvard College Observatory Circular, No. 105). i OBSERVATIONS OF PERSEIDS, AuGusT.—The detailed results of the Perseid observations, made at the meteor- ological observatory at Pavia on August 8, 9, 10, and 11 are given in No. 8, vol. xxxiv., of the Memorie della Societé degli Spettroscopisti Italiani. On the night of August 8-9 seven observers recorded 153 meteors, and determined the trajectories of 23 of them. The maximum horary rate occurred between oh. and th. (Aug t 9), during which time 53 meteors were seen. On the succeeding night the watch lasted from 22h. to 3h. >m., NO. 1878, vol. 72] and the same number of observers saw 252 meteors, of which they recorded the paths of 28. The maximum rate occurred during the last hour, when 93 meteors were seen. The third night produced 264 meteors, and of these the seven observers recorded the trajectories of 18 during their watch of gh. 56m. The maximum horary rate of the whole shower, as observed at Pavia, was recorded during this watch, when roo meteors were seen between 2h. and 3h. on the morning of August 11. : Of the 669 meteors seen during the three nights, 27 were recorded as being brighter than, and 139 as being equal to, the first magnitude, whilst “ swift’ and “ white > were the descriptive terms applied to the majority of them. MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. “THE great number of astronomers present during the South African meeting caused astronomy to play a larger part in the proceedings of the section than it has done in recent years, and many of the most important communications and discussions were on astronomical sub- jects. The number of papers on pure mathematics and on physics was relatively small. Of the mathematical papers, one by Prof. Harzer on ancient Japanese mathematics was of special interest. Prof. Harzer finds on examining ancient Japanese records and works that several of the theorems discovered in Europe during the seventeenth century were known at least as early to Japanese mathematicians. As an example, the expansion 2p +2 . ee he 27 AO. ee as . axe siny) CW se eae OSES ly taaes (735511) due to Kowa Seki (1642-1708) may be quoted. Mr. M. Cashmore showed how chess magic squares, i.e. squares of numbers which add up to the same amount along every path across the square in the direction of a rook’s, a bishop’s, or a knight’s move, can be constructed by superposing on each other two types of subsidiary squares, which can be formed by simple rules. Prof. Perry gave an account of the approximate method he had used to determine the stresses which occur in a winding rope carrying a cage when the upper end of the rope is suddenly stopped. Mr. H. G. Fourcade described his instrument for stereo- scopic surveying. It consists of a photographic camera which may be fixed in turn at the two ends of a base line with its axis perpendicular to that line. In front of, and close to, the sensitive plate a réseau scale on a glass plate is placed, and is reproduced on the two photographs taken. The two are examined together in a measuring machine similar to that used in stellar photography, and by means of micrometer screws any portion of the picture may be made to appear in relief and coincident with an index. The distance of that portion from the base line may then be determined from the micrometer readings. Each deter- mination takes about two minutes, and with a base of 300 metres the probable error does not exceed 1 part in 1000 for a distance of 10,000 metres, and is less for shorter distances. Prof. Perry raised the question of the teaching of elementary mechanics, and pointed out that the average boy who enters a technical college is so badly educated that his first year has to be ‘‘ wasted in the study of school subjects.” Then three years are found to be in- sufficient to teach him “ everything an engineer is likely to want in his profession,’’ which many colleges foolishly attempt to do, and a fourth or even a fifth year is added. He urged that in teaching science to boys from nine to thirteen the methods of Mr. Barlow, of ‘‘ Sandford and Merton ”’ fame, should be followed, until they know some- thing of levers, weighing and measuring, specific gravities, barometers and thermometers, and of electricity and magnetism. At the age of fourteen a boy should know elementary algebra and trigonometry, should be able to differentiate and integrate, and apply the calculus. The principles that if forces are in equilibrium their vector sum is zero, and the sum of their moments about any axis is OcTOBER 26, 1905 | NATURE 641 zero, should be presented to him from many points of view. Force should be taken as the rate of change of momentum. All these facts should be brought out and illustrated by experiment, and it should be the object of the teacher to turn out a pupil with a thorough grasp of mechanical principles, and not one crammed with formula which he soon forgets. With the report of the Mathematical Association com- mittee on the teaching of mechanics Prof. Perry is sub- stantially in accord, although he differs from it in wishing to retain the term ‘‘ centrifugal force’ and to abolish the ** poundal.”’ Lord Kelvin communicated a paper on the kinetic and statistical equilibrium of ether in ponderable matter at any temperature. If two small spheres, one covered with black, the other with white cloth, were placed in space at the earth’s distance from the sun, the temperature of the black sphere would be greater than that of the white. If the spheres were at a distance from the sun 1000 times as great, and ggg other suns were scattered through space, all at about that distance from the spheres, the difference of temperature would be one-thousandth of the former difference.. Dr. Chree has found, using thermo- meters, that in bright sunlight the difference of tempera- ture is 1° C. to 3° C. On a starlight night we might therefore expect a difference of 0-o01° C. or 0-003° C. Dr. J. T. Bottomley described his experiments on the cooling of a lamp-blacked or silvered copper sphere in an evacuated spherical copper enclosure kept first at the temperature of liquid air, then, when the sphere has cooled, raised to the temperature of boiling water. Temperatures were observed thermoelectrically. The present results agree with those found previously by Dr. Bottomley, and do not support Stefan’s law. The writer reviewed the recent experimental work on the thermal conductivities of substances, and pointed out that the balance of evidence is in favour of many sub- stances decreasing in thermal conductivity as their temperature is raised. Mr. A. Word gave a résumé of the work done during the past year in the Cavendish Laboratory and elsewhere which justifies the conclusion that all substances are more or less radio-active. Prof. Beattie described his observations on atmospheric electricity in South Africa, and his attempt to connect the observed conductivity of the air with other meteorological phenomena, an attempt which he considered had proved unsuccessful. Communications on the meteorology of South Africa by Dr. Mill and by Mr. R. F. Rendall were read, and Prof. Beattie gave an account of the present state of the magnetic survey of the country, and exhibited charts embodying the results for the declination. Necessarily the work has had to be confined to positions near the rail- ways, and it will be necessary to provide some means of extending the field of operations, especially along the western coast of South Africa. The association made a grant of rool. towards the expense of this extension. Great interest was shown in Sir David Gill’s account of the geodetic survey in South Africa and the African arc of meridian. After the completion of the survey of Cape Colony and Natal in 1892, it became necessary to determine with greater accuracy the position of the twentieth parallel of longitude north of the colony at points where it formed the boundary of British and German territory. The work was placed in Sir David Gill’s hands by the two Governments, and completed in 1903. At the same time, under the auspices of the Rhodesian Govern- ment, surveys of northern and southern Rhodesia were being carried out, partly in connection with the Anglo- Portuguese boundary. Since the war, surveys of the Trans- vaal and Orange River Colony have made steady progress, and the results so far obtained were embodied in the chart of South Africa exhibited by Sir David Gill. Throughout the work the bases taken were measured with the help of wires which were compared with a standard base 400 feet long before and after use. The discordance in the measurements of the Gwibi base of about 70,000 feet amounted in the aggregate to 1 part in 1-5 millions, and this was the base measured with least accuracy. As a result, it appears that along the meridian of 19 NG, 1878, voL. 72] ° east longitude the curvature of the earth agrees with that given by Clarke’s elements, but along meridian 26° east, and more markedly along meridian 30°, this appears not to be the case. A definite settlement of the question will only be possible after the connection of the Rhodesian triangulation with that of the rest of South Africa, a con- nection which will entail a cost of about 1600/1. When this has been achieved, Sir David Gill will have made one step more towards the carrying out of his scheme for a great African are of meridian extending from the Cape to Cairo, and by combination with the Russian-Scandinavian arc, a great arc from the Cape of Good Hope to the North Cape. The scheme has the hearty approval of Section A. It is somewhat remarkable that at Cape Town the section should hear an account of a geodetic survey of a country within the Arctic circle, but the details of the geodetic survey of Spitsbergen given by its director, Dr. O. Backlund, proved of great interest. It was undertaken by the Swedish and Russian Governments, was carried out on the same lines as that in South Africa, and has given results of a high order of accuracy considering the difficulties of work in such a country. The values of g found at some of the stations in the mountainous parts of the country come out in defect by two or three figures in the fourth place. One of the most important communications to the section was that of Prof. Kapteyn on star streaming. Prof. Kapteyn finds that the stars, the proper motions of which relative to the solar system have been determined, fall into two groups, one in which the motions take place in the main parallel to a line joining the sun to a point 7° south of a Orionis, the other with its motions parallel to the line joining the sun to a point 2° south of 7 Sagittarii- If the motions of these two streams be referred to the centre of gravity of the whole of the stars considered, their directions must be diametrically opposite. One of the vertices of these motions in opposite directions Kapteyn finds is close to € Orionis, and both lie in the central line of the Milky Way. Prof. Kapteyn does not hold that all motions must be in this line, but that there is a great preponderance of such motions, and that motions oblique to it get fewer the greater the obliquity. At this stage of the investigation he wishes to stand until further know- ledge of the motions of stars in the line of sight has been obtained spectroscopically. Dr. A. W. Roberts gave an account of the observations he has made during the past five years on the light fluctu- ations of certain southern binary stars, especially V. Puppis. He has succeeded in reaching a high degree of accuracy, and has determined the orbital elements of six stars by means of his observations, using the relations given by Rambaut. He finds the masses of two of the six systems to be 60 to 300 times, and the densities 0-cvo02 to 0-36 time, those of the sun. The large masses are somewhat exceptional, and Mr. Jeans suggested that the light curves of stars of pear shape would be found to agree with the observations made by Roberts. In support of this, Mr. Jeans gave an account of his investigation of the con- densation of a gas occupying initially the whole of space about centres at distances apart approximately equal to that from the solar system to the nearer stars, and with the mass at each centre of the same order as that of the sun. Any one of these nuclei might take a spheroidal, ellipsoidal, or a pear shape, or separate into two parts, according to its velocity of revolution. Mr. R. T. A. Innes gave an account of the state of double star astronomy in the southern hemisphere, and pointed out the importance of bringing up the observations in the southern to the same state as those in the northern hemisphere. He considers the position and climate of Johannesburg offer exceptional opportunities for the work, and suggested the provision of a telescope by the Transvaal Government. Sir David Gill supported this suggestion. Of shorter communications it is only necessary to mention a few, e.g. Prof. E. W. Brown’s on the present state of lunar theory and the necessity of a new set of lunar tables, and Dr. Rambaut’s on a new instrument for measuring stellar photographs, to show that in interest and importance the sectional work in South Africa in no way falls behind that of the meetings at home. ¢ 3H) Eres: 642 NATURE [OcTOBER 26, 1905 CHEMISTRY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. “THE papers contributed to Section B at the meetings in South Africa- were naturally more limited in number and in range of subject than is usual at ordinary meetings of the association, the majority of the communi- cations having reference either to the chemical aspects of agriculture or to subjects connected with the gold extract- ing industry. On the other hand, a very active part in the work of the section was taken by the South African chemists, and, almost without exception, the reading of a paper was followed by an animated and _ interesting discussion. At Cape Town, the first day of meeting was set aside for the discussion of agricultural and biochemical ques- tions. As it had been arranged that the presidential address should be delivered at Johannesburg, its place was taken by Mr. A. D. Hall’s report on recent developments in agricultural science, in which many subjects of special interest in South Africa were discussed. Dealing with the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen through the agency of bacteria, the author pointed out that a sharp distinction must be drawn between the use of pure cultures on old cultivated lands and in new countries, where leguminous crops are often being grown for the first time, and that the behaviour of the lucerne plant under bacterial infection in South African soils is worthy of careful investigation in view of its economic importance in all semi-arid countries. He directed attention to the need of a systematic series of soil analyses, with the ultimate object of making soil maps that shall be of service to the agriculturist, and indicated how much still remains unknown regarding the nutrition of plants and how great is the importance of research in the particular functions of the various con- stituents of the crop, as it is only through such knowledge that the quality of crops may possibly be influenced in desired directions. A brief discussion of the subjects of acclimatisation and cross-breeding brought to a close an address which aroused very great interest. Dr. Horace T. Brown then gave an account of his researches on the assimilatory processes of plants, in the course of which he described his method by which the assimilative power of leaves was measured for the first time under natural conditions. The quantity of carbon dioxide abstracted from the air by leaves of measured area was estimated in a special absorption apparatus devised for the purpose, and thus it was possible to deduce the amount of carbohydrate formed. The total solar radiation falling on the leaf was measured, and the proportion of the radiant energy of sun- light absorbed and transmitted by the leaf was also arrived at. The author’s investigations showed that the rate of growth is not entirely dependent upon the amount of sunshine, but also on secondary causes. The business was brought to a close by a short paper by Dr. E. F. Armstrong on the réle of enzymes in plant economy, in which the author directed attention to the fundamental similarity between the action of acids and that of enzymes, the dis- tinction between them arising from the fact that enzymes act selectively in consequence of their power of associating themselves with the hydrolyte. The condition of the carbo- hydrate in solution is of primary importance, but this condition may to some extent be determined by the enzyme. At the second day’s meeting, Prof. H. B. Dixon gave a historical sketch of researches made on the propagation of explosions in gases, and discussed Berthelot’s theory and his own “‘ sound wave ’’ theory on the mode of pro- pagation. With the aid of the lantern he showed how he had followed photographically the flame from its initiation until the setting up of the detonation, and demonstrated the influence of the position of the spark and of the length of the column of exploding gases. He also described experiments now in progress on the specific heats of gases at high temperatures, and explained how the velocity of sound in a heated gas may be determined. In a second paper Prof. Dixon described the method he has devised for determining the atomic weight of chlorine by the direct burning of a known weight of hydrogen in a known weight of chlorine, the hydrogen, prepared by the electrolysis of barium hydroxide, being occluded in palladium, and the chlorine, prepared by the electrolysis of fused silver | chloride, being weighed in the liquid state. The atomic | NO. 1878, VOL. 72] in close weight obtained is higher than that of Stas, but agreement with the recent results of Richards. Messrs. G. T. and H. W. Beilby gave an account of their experi- ments on the influence of phase changes on the tenacity of ductile metals at the ordinary temperature and at the boiling point of liquid air, They showed that when a wire of ductile metal is stretched to four or five times its original length by drawing it through the holes of a wire plate all the ordinary traces of crystalline structure dis- appear, but the wire still consists of minute granules of the crystalline phase embedded in a matrix of the amor- phous phase. By lowering the temperature of drawing, the mixture appioaches more nearly to the homogeneous amorphous state. Observations were made at 15° and at —180° on wires of copper, silver, and gold, which had been as completely as possible converted into the amorphous phase by wire drawing at the ordinary temperature, and in every case the tenacity observed was higher than any recorded by previous investigators for equally pure metals. The wires broken at the ordinary temperature showed no general stretching, but at the boiling point of liquid air all the wires stretched about 12 per cent. Dr. A. Midlay recorded his determinations of the viscosities of liquid mixtures at the temperature of their boiling points, which were made in the expectation that viscosity curves would be obtained similar in form to the boiling-point curves. In the case of benzene and methyl alcohol, the viscosities of which at the respective boiling points are nearly the same, the expectation appears to be realised, but where the viscosities of the pure liquids at their boiling points are not the same certain complications are met with. The third day of meeting at Cape Town was set apart for communications from local chemists. Prof. P. D. Hahn gave an account of the remarkable thermal chalybeate spring at Caledon, in Cape Colony. With the aid of a tabular statement of the purity ratio of the most famous chalybeate springs, he showed that the Caledon water holds with the water of Spa the first place, but he pointed out that while the waters of most chalybeate springs are very low in temperature, the Caledon spring is unique in so far that the temperature of the water at the eye of the spring is 49° C. Mr. C. F. Juritz stated that for various reasons very scanty attention has hitherto been paid to purely scientific chemical research in Cape Colony, and gave an.interesting account of several investigations made in the Government laboratory under his direction.