pit es Nature, , } March 15, 1917 Nature ~ A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE VOLUME XCVIII SEPTEMBER, 1916, to FEBRUARY, 1917. “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”—WoRDSWORTH #ondon MAIGCMLLEULAN AN D GO} ckimitrEen NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Nature, March 15, 1917 NAME bbe (Prof. Cleveland) [death], 174; [obituary article], 332 bbot (Dr. C. G.), awarded the Rumford Medals, 313 bbott (G.), Forms of Weathering in Magnesian Lime- stone, 447 bbott (W. J. L.), Distribution of Marine and Fresh-water Deposits of Pliocene Age, 356 dams (Prof. W. S.), awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 393, 475 ander (P. F.), The Earliest Voyages Round the World, 388 — orcinol, 323 lan 4 . A.), Geology of Field Map-area, B.C. and Alberta, 3 ibute (Sir Clifford), Science in the School, 241, 462 n (Dr. E. J.), Preserving Sprats in Oil, 137 llen (Dr. H. S.), and H. Moore, A Text-Book of Practical _ Physics, 106 mar (J.), The Technique of the Sense Education of Men without Limbs or Sight, 163; Sense Education and Prothesis Apparatus, 204 mos (A.), Clover Sickness, 263; Ensilage, 301 mundsen (Capt.), Plans for New Expedition to the North Pole, 452 nderson (J.), The Nicolson Observatory Beehive and how _ to Use it, 235 nderson (Dr. J.) [obituary], 113 nderson (J.), and Dr. J. Rennie, _ Wight Disease, 439 nderson (J. Wemyss), given the title of Associate Professor by the University of Liverpool, 503 ndrews (E. C.), The Copper Lodes of the Canbelego District, 399 ews (E. S.), Elementary Strength of Materials, 365 1 (A.) [obituary], 413 ngell (John) [obituary article], 56 ngot (Dr. C. A.), elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, 355 Anandale (Dr. N.), Zoological Results of a Tour in the Far East, 44, 403 , chbold (J. D.), Bequest to Syracuse University, 482 ctowski (H.), Fluctuations of the Solar Constant, 324 iés (E.), The Temperature Function in the Clausius _ Equation of State, 423 es (M.), elected a Correspondant of the Paris Academy Sciences, 242 rmellini (G.), A Criticism of Fessenkoff’s Theory of the Zodiacal Light, 416 rmsby, Fries, and Braman, Energy Values of Red Clover Hay and Maize Meal for Cattle, 376 rmstrong (Dr. E. F.), The Booky Man of Science, 217 mstrong (Prof. H. E.), and the Work of the Chemical Department of the City and Guilds Engineering _ College, 195 nstrong-Jones (Dr. R.), presentation to, 63 noux (A.), Mechanical Protection and Preservation of BS, 34 Artis (B.), ond H. L. Maxwell, Barium in the Leaves of _ Tobaccos and Trees, 21 Nosema apis and Isle of INDEX. INDEX. Asayama (C.), Feeding Experiments with Rats, 300 Ascroft (Sir W.) [obituary], 96 Ashworth (Dr. J. H.), Zoology at the British Association, 157 Assheton (Dr. R.), Growth in Length: Embryological Essays, 307 Atkins (Dr. W. R. G.), Some Recent Researches in Plant Physiology, 485 Attwood (W. W.), Glacial Boulder-clay in South-Western Colorado, 117 Aurousseau (M.), West Australian Gneissic and Granitic Rocks, 24 Baber (Z.), The Slaughter of Whales, 114 Backlund (Dr. J. O.) [obituary article], 192 Bacon’s War Maps. Europe, embracing all the Countries Involved, 108 Bacot (A.), Hatching and Development of the Larva of the Yellow-fever Mosquito, 383 Baden-Powell (Sir R.), Drawing for Jun‘or ‘Boy Scouts, 402 Bailey (Prof. S. I.), Cluster Variables, 455 Baker (H. A.), The Palzozoic Platform beneath the London Basin, etc., 442 Baker (J. L.), and others, Meldola Memorial, 429 Baker (M. A.), Decennial Index of the Analyst, vols. xxxi.—xl., 468 Baker (R. H.), and E. E. Cummings, The Eclipsing Binary RX Herculis, 216; Extra-focal Photometry, 379 Baldwins, Ltd., Gift to the Swansea Technical College, 240 Ball (Dr. J.), The Geography and Geology of West-Central Sinai, 35 Ball (L. C.), Oil Shales in the Port Curtis District, 399 de Ballore (de Montessus), Scales of Seismic Intensity, 478 Banta (A. M.), Sex Intergrades in a Species of Crustacea, 2 Barber (Dr. C. A.), Work of the Coimbatore Cane-breed- ing Station, 135 . Barber (Prof. F. D.), M. L. Fuller, Prof. J. L. Pricer, and Prof. H. W. Adams, First Course in General Science, 348 Bariola (R.), Neolithic Implements found near Cagliari, 453 Barker (Dr. S. G.), Application of the Kerr Effect, 222 Barling (Lt.-Col. G.), appointed Consulting Surgeon to the British Forces in France, 202 Barlow (Sir T.), to deliver the Harveian Oration, 112; the Harveian Lecture, 174 Barnard (Prof.), A Faint Star with Large Proper Motion, 22; awarded the Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 393; and Mr. Adams, Barnard’s High Proper-Motion Star, 196 Barnes (A. A.), Hydraulic Flow Reviewed, 87 Barratt (Capt. J. O. Wakelin), A Lunar Rainbow at Etaples, 174 Barrell (J.), Dominantly Fluviatile Origin under Seasonal Rainfall of the Old Red Sandstone, 83; Influence of Silurian-Devonian Climates on the Rise of Air-breathing Vertebrates, 83 iv Index Bartrum (C. O.), A Clock of Precision, 483 Barus (C.), Interferometer Methods based on the Cleavage of a Diffracted Ray, 83; Non-reversed Spectra of Restricted Coincidence, 402; Path Differences within which Spectrum Interferences are Observable, 402 Barzizza (G. B.), Gnomonica, 326 Bather (Dr. F. A.), on Drawing, 402; The Value of Draw- ing to the Scientific Worker, 422 Batho (C.), Riveted Joints, 276 Bathurst (Capt. C.), appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food, 313, 355 Bauer (Dr.), and Mr. Fisk, The Effects of Eclipses on Solar Terrestrial Magnetism, 77 Baur (Prof. E.), Director of the Genetics Institute at Potsdam, 452 Bayliss (Prof. W. M.), Accessory Factors, or “ Vitamines,” in Diet, 372; Methods of Raising a Low Arterial Pressure, 241; Properties required in Solutions for Intravenous Injection, 179 Bean (Dr. T. H.) {obituary], 393 Beatty (R. T.), The Spectrum of Hydrogen, 169 ae (J.), Influence of Osmotic Pressure on Bacteria, 393 Beddard (Dr. F. E.), Two New Species of Cestodes, 242 Beekly (A. L.), Lenticular Masses of Coal in North Park, Colorado, 117 Beilby (Sir G.), appointed Director of the Board of Fuel Research, 495 Bell (Sir Hugh), Sir Wm. Ramsay, 197 Bell (Dr. W. B.), The Sex Complex, 266 Belogolovy (G. A.), The Development of the Frog Pelobates, 54 Bemmelin (Dr. W. van), Registering Balloon Ascents at Batavia, 21 Benbow (Sir H.) [obituary], 174 : Benedicks (C.), A New Effect relative to Thermo-Electricity, etc., 363 Bennett (A. A.), Newton’s Method in General Analysis, 243 Benson (A. C.), Literature and Science in Education, 433 Berberich (Dr.), Comet 1916b (Wolf), 437 Bevan (Rev. J. O.), The Towns of Roman Britain, 468 Bierry (H.), Detection of Tubercle Bacilli in Expectora- tions, etc., 303 Biffen (R. H.), Suppression of Characters on Crossing, 119 Bigourdan (G.), An Old Observation of an Eclipse of the Sun, 263; Le Climat de la France: Température, Pres- sion, Vents, 127; Astronomical Observations at the Paris Observatory, 223; Petit Atlas Céleste, 208; Posi- tion and Co-ordinates of the Old Observatory in the rue Vincenne, 242; Position and Co-ordinates of the Astronomical Station of the Island of Notre-Dame, 323 ; The Declaration of Louis XIII. relating to the First Meridian, 163; The Propagation of the Sound of the Cannonade at the Front to Great Distances, 163 Bijl (P. A. van der), Polysaceum crassipes, 44 Billings Family, Gift to Chicago University, 482 Birkeland (Prof.), Ultra-Violet Radiation from the Sun, 177 Birkett (G. A.), appointed Lecturer in Russian at Sheffield University, 261 Birks (Rev. S. G.), Megalichthys, 155 Bishop (C. W.), Report on his Expedition to the Far East, 334 Blackwelder (E.), The Geologic Réle of Phosphorus, 83 Blanchard (Prof. A. H.), Elements of Highway Engineering, 4 Bland-Sutton (Sir J.), to deliver the Bradshaw Lecture, 503 Blum (W.), The Determination of Aluminium as Oxide, 76 Blyth (Lord), The Close Co-ordination of Science with Practice in Agriculture, 413 Boccardi (Prof. G.), Lezioni di Cosmografia, 326 Bogue (V. G.) [obituary], 193 Bohle (H.), Theory of Automatic Regulators, 244 Bohren (Dr. A.), Biirgi’s Logarithmic Tables, 98 Bolduan (Dr. C. F.), The Death-rate in the United States, 391 Boll (M.), and L. Mallet, Determination of the Practical Constants of the Coolidge Tube, 144 Bolton (H.), The Mark Stirrup Collection of Fossil Insects, 343° Bolton (S.), An Oil Drive for Equatorial Telescopes, 28 Bone (Prof. W. A.), appointed Consultant to the Board of Fuel Research, 495 Nature, March 15, 1917 ‘Bonney (Prof. T. G.), Changes in the Rhone Glacier, 430 Survey Work in the Sinai Peninsula, 352 . Booth (Rt. Hon. C.) [obituary]) 253 Bordier (H.), The Action of Light on Dilute Aqueous Solu tions, 24; Action of the X-rays upon Iodine, etc., 104 and G. Roy, Colloidal Iodine, 263 ; Borelly (A.), The Search for a Transneptunian Planet, 2 Borradaile (L. A.), Functions of the Mouth-parts of th Common Prawn, 242 Bosanquet (Dr. B.), The Function of the State in Promo ing the Unity of Mankind, 303 , Boswell (P. G. H.), Constitution of the North Sea Drift 76; The Geological Characters of Sands used in Glass Manufacture, 13 Bosworth (G. F.), Ships, Shipping, and Fishing, 68 Bouchet (L.), Variations of Thickness of a Caoutchoue Sheet, 223 Bougault (J.), The Preparation of Acylsemicarbazides, 64 Boulger (Prof. G. S.), Early Chapters in Plant Distribu- tion, 222 ; Boulton (Prof. W. S.), Presidential Address to the Geology Section of the British Association, 100; Problems pre- sented by an Esker near Kingswinford, 55 Boussac (Dr. J.) [obituary], 133 Boutaric (A.), Nocturnal Radiation, 324 Boutroux (E.), translated by F. Rothwell, The Contingency of the Laws of Nature, 426 Bower (Prof. F. O.), Morphology of the Sorus of Ferns, 442 Boys (Prof. C. V.), Annealing Glass, 150 Bradley (B.), Plotting the Inflections of the Voice, 335 Bragg (Prof. W. H.), awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 278 Brame (Prof. J. S. S.), Coal and its Economic Utilisation, 500 ’ Brearley (H.), The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel, Second Edition, 308 Breuil (l’Abbé H.), Dr. H. Obermaier, and Col. W. Verner, La Pileta 4 Benaojan (Malaga) (Espagne), 51 Brierley, Suggestion for the Formation of an Imperial Bureau of Mycology, 237 Briggs (L. J.), and J. F. Breazeale, Experiments with Orthoclase and Pegmatite, 478 Brill (H. C.), Edible Beans containing a Substance giving a Reaction with Ferric Chloride, 378; The “False Chaulmoogra Oil, 378 Broad (C. D.), Hume's Theory of the Miracles, 422 . Brockington -(W. A.), Elements of Military Education, 289 Brodetsky (Dr. S.), pe eee Initial Motion and Forced Oscillations of a Disturbed Aeroplane, 417; Mathe- matical Work on Aeroplanes, 97; The Two-dimensional Motion of a Plane Lamina in a Resisting Medium, 483 Brodie (Prof. T. G.) {obituary article], 9 , de Broglie (M.), A System of Absorption Bands, 183 Bromwich (Prof. T. J. I’a.), Scattering of Plane Electric Waves by Spheres, 282 Brooks (A. H.), Mineral Resources of Alaska, 118 Brooks (C. E. P.), A Meteorologist in China, 242 Brooks (S. C.), New Determinations of Permeability, 243 Broom (Dr. R.), Structure and Affinities of the Mesozoic Multituberculate Mammals, 257 Brotherus (Dr. V. H.), New Species of Australian Mosses, 28 Brown (Prof. A. J.), and F. Tinker, Select Permeability, 242 Brown (B.), Corythosaurus casuarius, 356 _ Brown (Dr. H.), Scientific Method in Brewing Practice, 31 Brown (Dr. H. T.), to lecture on “The Principles of Diffusion,” 134; to lecture to the Chemical Society, 495 Brown (J. C.), Meteorites in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Credibility of 395 f ; Brown (R.), Magnetic Properties of Iron and Nickel, 455 Brown (Prof. W.), Fatigue of Nickel and Iron Wires, 343 Brown (W. A.), The Portland Cement Industry, 368 Browne (Miss E. A.), The Tropical Countries of the Empire, 82, 402 Browne (F.), The Training of an Analyst, 478 Brownlee (Dr. J.), The Periodicity of Measles Epidemics in | London, 483 : Brunton (Sir Lauder) (death), 52; [obituary articles], 72, 73 Brush (C. F.), and Sir R. Hadfield, Spontaneous Genera- tion of Heat in recently Hardened Steel, 503 (Prof. G. H.), Aeronautical Theories, 465 ; A Nomen- ture for “Resistance Derivatives,” 189; Prof. Pierre , 131; and Sir Napier Shaw, Meteorology and Shortage, 369 W. A.), Natural History of Hawaii, 46 , Brockington’s Elements of Military Educa- The Work of the Association of Public- (E. R.), Forest Service Investigations, 450 ess (Dr. J.) {obituary], 133 fess and Waltenberg, Rate of Vaporisation of Platinum A. H.), Survivals of Folk Memory in Stafford- 214; J. T. Slobbs, and H. V. Thompson, The th Staffordshire Field Club. Jubilee Volume, §-1915, 488 > hs (3, The Breath of Life, 125 (Dr. C. V.) [obituary], 475 C.) [obituary], 295 (R. F.), Scarcity of Wasps, 149 vorth (C. F.), Scarcity of Wasps, 174 B.), Chemical Water Purification, 105 F., The Decimal System and Summer Time in France, lick (Miss H.), Gift to Birmingham University, 441 » (Prof. W.), Earth Pressure, Retaining Walls, and ns, ine (Rev. Czesar), Cleator and Cleator Moor: Past and Present, 205; and Your Reviewer, The Name “Line- _ thwaite,” 290 Zalthrop (Guy), appointed Controller of Coal Mines, 495 bell (Prof. E. D.), Equiatomic Solutions in Iron, 383 bell (Col. J. C. L.), War Organisation, 228 npbell (J. M.) [obituary], 213 Campbell (Dr. W. W.), Increase of the Average Length of Life, 391; Life Assurance Tables, 48; and J. H. Moore, Relative Motions in the Planetary Nebulz, 243 annon (Miss), Peculiar Stellar Spectra, 417 apps (S. R.), The Volcanic Ash Layer of the Yukon sin, 118 ‘ inall (A. W.), Stone Implements from Ashanti, 435 hael (Prof. R. D.), Diophantine Analysis, 126 mter (Prof. G. H.), The Scarcity of Wasps, 413 arpenter (Prof. H. C. H.), The Future of French Metal- lurgy, 493; The Future of the Zinc-Smelting Industry ‘in Great Britain, 129; The Influence of Phosphorus and Sulphur on the Mechanical Properties of Steel, 410 - (F. H.), Future of the Synthetic Chemical Industry Great Britain, 280 (Dr. H. W.), The Problem of Recognition, 222 (Dr. R. B.), Science and Education, 220 Wilson (C.), A Pyritic Cement, 436; Scarcity of Wasps, 149 asino (Dr. A.), The After-shocks of the Italian Earth- ‘quake, January 13, 1915, 76 e (Capt. C. J. P.), Winter Thunderstorms, 328 erszwer (M.), Cours de Manipulations de Chimie Physique et d’Electrochimie, 407 iberlain (Prof. J. S.), Organic Agricultural Chemistry (The Chemistry of Plants and Animals), 366 nberlin (Prof. T. C.), The Origin of the Earth, 387 da (Ramaprasad), Alpine Strain in the Bengali __. People, 491; The Indo-Aryan Races, part i., 227 hant (Prof. C. A.), The New Canadian Observatory at _.. Victoria, B.C., 472 Chapman (A.), Work of the late Capt. F. C. Selous, 496 _ Chap (A. C.), to lecture on “Some Main Lines of _ Advance in the Domain of Modern Analytical Chem- istry, 134; to lecture to the Chemical Society, 495 _ Chapman (F.), Probable Environment of the Palzeozoic 4 us Hercynella in Victoria, 363 yhapman (Dr. F. M.), Return from a Visit to South _ America, 375 pman (W. G.), and W. H. Jarvis, awarded the Rose- bery Prize of the London School of Economics, 482 pe (Prof.), Distances and Distribution of the B Stars, a1 Index Vi Charpy (G.), and M. Godchot, The Oxidation of Coal, 363 le Chatelier (H. L.), Davy Medallist, 212, 278 Chauveau (Prof. J. B. A.) [death], 375; [obituary], 414 Cherrie (G. K.), Habits of the Hoatzin, 453 Child (Prof. C. M.), Individuality in Organisms, Senescence and Rejuvenescence, 85 Chisholm (G. G.), An International Alphabet, 436; Generali- sations in Geography, 454 Christy (M.), and W. Mafriott, Sound of Gun-firing in the South-Eastern Counties, 297 Chubb (E. C.), General Guide to the Durban Museum, 176 Churchill (A. Shepard), Bequests to Harrow School, 361 Churchill (Dr.), A Lamp for Signalling Purposes, 21 Clack (B. W.), Diffusion in Liquids, 262 Clark (Prof. J. B.), The Economic Dynamics of War, 397 85; Clark (W. B.), and M. W. Twitchell, The Mesozoic and . Cenozoic Echinodermata of the United States, 118 Clarke (F. W.), Constitution of the Natural Silicates, 118; , and W. C, Wheeler, Composition of Crinoid Skeletons, 118 Claxton (T. F.), Meteorological and Magnetical Work at Hong Kong, 40; The Climate of Hong Kong, 297 Clay (Dr. R. S.), Determining the Refractive Index of a Block of Glass, 343 Clayton (Alderman F. C.), to act as Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham University, 202 Clerk (Dr. Dugald), Some Conditions of the Stability of the British Empire, 255 Clodd (E.), Memories, 267 Clough (Dr. C. T.) [obituary], 37 Coble (A. A.), Point Sets and Cremona Groups, part iii., 243 Cockburn (Sir J.), Drawing and Modelling, etc., 402 Cockerell (Prof. T. D. A.), The Third Fossil Tsetse-Fly, 70 Coffey (G.) [obituary], 37 Cohen (Prof. J. B.), University Doctorates, 327 Coker (Prof. E. G.), to lecture on “Stresses in Transparent . Materials as revealed by Polarised Light,” 95 , Cole (B. G.) [obituary], 414 Cole (Prof. G. A. J.), Martin’s Physical Geography of Wisconsin, 488 ' Collie (Prof. J. N.), to deliver the Memorial Lecture on | “The Scientific Work of Sir William Ramsay,” 132 _ Collings (C. H.), The Designation of Hours, 70 | Collingwood (W. G.), Early Christian Monuments Northumbria, 198 Collins (G. N.), Correlated Characters in Maize, 119 Collins (S. H.), Forest Economy, 302 Colville (A.) [obituary], 313 Condon (J. P.), Stone Monuments of Cork County, 96 | de Coninck 2. in Schools, 221; Greek as a Specialised Study, 228 Cook (Prof. A. J.) [obituary], 174 Club, 154 | Cooley (Dr. Le Roy C.) [obituary], 112 ‘ | Cooper (Sir Astley), Prize at Guy’s Hospital, 202 Cooper (Lieut. C. H. B.) [obituary], 254 Cornish (Dr. Vaughan), Land-Slides on the Panama Canal, 22 Cortie (Rev. A. L.), The Aurora, Magnetic Storm, and Sun-spot of January 4, 446 _ Mite da Costa (B. F. Bruto), J. F. Sant’ Anna, A. C. dos Santos, and M. G. de Araujo Alvares. Translated by Lt.-Col. J. A. Wyllie. Sleeping Sickness, 311 Coste (J. H.), “Frost Thistles,” 470 Courvisier (L.), The System of Polaris, 22 Coward (T. A.), Undescribed Habit of the Field Vole, 462 Coxe, Jr. (E. B.), Bequest to the University of Pennsyl- vania and the Museum, 241 Crawford (M. D. C.), Value of Design and Colour in Ancient Fabrics, 355 Crawford (R. T.), Ephemeris of Comet 1916b (Wolf), 257 Crawford and Balcarres (Earl of), The Rothamsted Experi- ment Station, 214 Crawley (Dr. H.), The Sexual Evolution of Sarcocystis muris, 439 Crewe (Marquess of), appointed a Member of the Privy Council Committee on the Organisation and Develop- ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, 475 (E.), and M. Gérard, Atomic Weight of Lead, 43 iE , Conway (Prof. R. S.), Greek in Preparatory and Public | Cooke (C.), History and Present Position of the Gilbert | vi Crick (G. C.), Recent Researches on the Belemnite Animal, Denning (W. F.), Aurora Borealis, 397; A Large Meteor 22 Crile (Prof. G. W.), Man—an Adaptive Mechanism, 288 Cromer (Lord) [obituary article], 433 Crookes (Sir W.), elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, 355; The Photographic Spectra of Meteorites, 221 Cross (W.), The Larvas of Hawaii and their Relations, 118 Crowther (Prof. C.), and others, Experimental Work with Palm-Kernel Cake, 394 Cullis (Prof. C. G.), The Mineral Resources of the British Empire, 361 Cumming (C. L.), The Artesian Wells of Montreal, 398 Cummings (B. F.), The Anoplura and Mallophaga, part ii., 283 } Cunningham (E.), Prof. A. S. Eddington, Dr. P. E. Shaw, and Prof. R. A. Sampson, Gravitation, 120 Cushny (Prof. A. R.), Presidential Address to the Phy- siology Section of the British Association, 200; Secre- tion of Urea and Sugar by the Kidney, 178 Cutler (W. E.), Skull of Monoclonius, 133 Czaplicka (Miss), A Summer and Winter among the Natives of Arctic Siberia; The Physical Type of the Northern Tungus, 199 : Czerny (Prof. V.) [obituary], 133 Czn (Dr. C. R.), Retirement from the Leyden Museum, 174 Dale (T. N.), Marble and Dolomite of Eastern Vermont, 117 Dalziel (Dr. J. M.), A Hausa Botanical Vocabulary, 345 Daniel (L.), Effects of Continual Capillary Watering, 243; Experimental Cultures at the Seashore, 223 Danysz (J.), Causes of the Disturbances Observed after the Injection of Products of the Arsenobenzene Group, 64; The Causes of Anaphylaxy, 424 Darboux (J. G.), awarded the Sylvester Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 279 Daressy (G.), “L’Egypte Céleste,” 7 Darling (C. R.), and A. W. Grace, The Thermoelectric Properties of Fused Metals, 322 Darnell-Smith (G. P.), The Gametophyte of Psilotum, 463 Darwin (Major L.), Inquiries Needed after the War in Connection with Eugenics, 100 Das (Chandra) [obituary], 476 Davey (Miss A. J.), and Miss M. Gibson, Distribution of Moneecious Plants, 343 David (Major T. Edgeworth), Recovery of, 192 Davidson (Sir J. Mackenzie), Localisation by X-rays and Stereoscopy, 207 Davies (A. T.), elected Chairman of the British Prisoners of-War Book Scheme, 82 Davis (H. V.), Scarcity of Wasps, 109 Davis (J. J.), Life-history and Habits of Aphidoletes meridionalis, 296 Davis (W. G.), History and Organisation of the Argentine Meteorological Service, 337 Davis (Prof. W. M.), Extinguished and Resurgent Coral Reefs ; Origin of certain Fiji Atolls, 83 ; Proposal for the Exploration of the North Pacific Ocean, 377 Davison (Dr. C.), Sound-Areas of Great Explosions, 438; The Abnormal Propagation of Sound by the Atmo- sphere, 71 ; The Sakura-jima Eruption of January, 1914, 57 Dawe (M. T.), The Fibre of Furcraea gigantea, 55 Dawson (Sir A. T.), Education after the War, with special reference to Engineering Instruction, 157 Dawson (Father C. B.), Habits of the Hoatzin, 453 Dean (Dr. H. R.), to deliver the Horace Dobell Lecture, 174 Dearborn (Prof. G. V. N.), The Influence of Joy, go Deeley (R. M.), Variable Stars, 109 Delage (Prof. Y.), awarded the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 279 Dellinger (J. H.), International System of Electric and Magnetic Units, 337 De Lury (R. E.), Effect of Measures, De Marchi (Dr. L.), The Waters of the Carso, 436 Dendy (Prof. A.), Relation of Mutation to the Evolution Theory, 99 Dennett (R. E.), My Yoruba Alphabet, 108 Haze on Solar Rotation Lndex Nature, March 15, 1917 on January 4, 379; Fireball of October 3, 136; Fireball — of October 20, 176; Scarcity of Wasps, 149; The Leonids of 1916, 236; The Zodiacal Light, 277 Densmore (Miss F.), Sioux Songs, 496 Devaar Necessity for Curtailment of the Nation's — Food Consumption, 451 Dewar (Sir J.), awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 278 } Dewar (Dr. J. M.), Habit-formation in a Queen Wasp, 20 Dick (Rev. C. H.), Highways and Byways in Galloway and Carrick, 205 F Dicks (A. J.), Trade and Commerce, 68 ? Distant (W. L.), The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota: vol. vi. Homoptera: Appendix, 107 Dixon (Prof. H. H.), presented with the Boyle Medal of the Royal Dublin Society, 451 Doidge (Dr. E. M.), Bacter.wm campestre in South Africa, 500 Don (Second-Lieut. A. W. R.), 133 Donington (G. C.), A Class-book of Chemistry. Part iv., | Metals, 67 ; Donnan (Prof. F. G.), A System of Physical Chemistry, 25 Donner (Prof. A, S.), Gift to Helsingfors University, 152 Dorman (Rev. S. S.), Origin of the Zimbabwe and other Ruins in Rhodesia, 96 Dougall (Dr. J.), Solution of Mathieu’s Differential Equa- tions, 256 Douie (Sir J.), The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir, 148 Douvillé (Prof. H.), Marine Invertebrate Fossils from Tibet, — 481 ‘ Dowling (R. N.), appointed Director of the Government Farm for Ex-Service Men, 213 Doxford (Sir W. T.) [obituary], 112 Doyen (Dr. E. L.) [obituary], 274 Doyne (R. W.) [obituary], 18, 37 Drake (Sir Francis), Memorial to, 377 Drinkwater (Dr. H.), Inheritance of Artistic und Musical Ability, 100 Drysdale (C. W.), Rossland, Columbia, 398 Ducke (A.), New Amazonian Plants, 454 Duhem (Prof. P.) [death], 52; [obituary article], 131 Dunk (J. L.), Hyperacoustics. Division I., Simultaneous Tonality, 306 Dunstan (Dr. A. E.), and Dr. F. B. Thole, A Senior Experimental Chemistry, 67 Duthie (Miss A. V.), African Myxomycetes, 403; Hybrid Forms in the Genus Satyrium, 403 Dymes (T. A.), The Seed of Iris pseudacorus, 303 ‘ Dyson (Sir F.), elected an Honorary Member of the Optical Society, 213; Mean Parallaxes of Stars of Different Magnitudes, 120 ; W. D. E., Public Schools: an Answer, 151 Ealand (C. A.), Insect Enemies, 427 Eaton (Dr. G. F.), Human Skeletons from Indian Graves at Machu Picchu, 54 Echegaray (Dr. J.) [obituary], 295 q Eddington (Prof. A. S.), Gravitation and the Principle of Relativity, 328 Edgeworth (Dr. F. H.), Muscles of Mammals, 39 van Eecke (R.), appointed Keeper of the Entomological Collection at the Leyden Museum, 174 Ehrlich (Prof. P.), Bequest by, to the Gottingen, 261 Eichel (Dr. O. R.), A Manual of Fire Prevention and Fire Protection for Hospitals, 368 : Ellis (W.) [death], 295; [obituary article], 312 Eredia (Prof.), The Meteorology of Italy, 4o1 Erwin (M.), The Universe and the Atom, 246 von Esmarck (Prof.), Bequest by, to the University of Gottingen, 261 3 Etchells (E. F.), Forthcoming Lectures to the Junior Insti- tution of Engineers, 142 Etheridge (R.), Origin of the Warrigal, 20 Etheridge, Jr. (R.) Reptilian Notes, 364 University of — e, : 1OI7) Index Vil Evans (Sir A.), New Archzological Lights on the Origins ___ of Civilisation in Europe: its Magdalenian Forerunners in the South-West and A®gean Cradle, 12 B. Pole),. Mycology in South Africa, 41, 453 ir. J. W.), A Method of Representing Geological ; ations, etc., on Maps, 138; A Modification of the _ Kohlrausch Method of Determining Refraction Indices, 222; The Combination of Twin Operations, 222 ans (M. S.), Relations of the European and Bantu Races in Natal, 41 e (Sir F. S.) [obituary], 355 _ Everest (Dr. A. E.), Report on the Coal-tar Colour wa _ Chemistry Department of the Huddersfield Technical College, 215 ershed (J.), Radial Motion in Sun-spots, 196; and Dr. _ Royds, Anomalous Dispersion in the Sun, 136 vershed (K.), Scarcity of Wasps, 174 de (Dr. Sam.), Fund for the Advancement of Chemical and Physical Research, 254 S., F.B.A., Science in Education, 69, 108 ’ abry (L.), and H. Blondel, Elements of the Planet Dis- _ covered by M. Sy, 324 Falk (K. G.), Alkali and Lipolytically Active Protein, 243 ‘Fantham (Dr. H. B.), appointed Professor of Zoology in the _ South African School of Mines and Technology, 422; Cultural Amcebze from the Intestine of Man, 390; Prof. J. W. W. Stephens, and Prof. F. V. Theobald, The Animal Parasites of Man, 305 er (Prof. J. B.), Risks of Tropical Agriculture, 299 ar (F. A.), Factories and Great Industries, 68 ‘ington (Dr. O. C.), Catalogue of Meteorites in the Field Museum, Chicago, ao8: Meteorites: their Struc- ture, Composition, and Terrestrial Relations, 145 ulds (H.), The Permanence of Finger-print Patterns, 388 ‘aweett (Lt.-Col. J. M.), A Collection of Heterocera, 283 _ Fearnsides (Prof. W. G.), to deliver Howard Lectures at _ the Royal Society of Arts, 482; and Dr. P. G. H. 4 Boswell, Occurrence of Refractory Sands and Asso- ____ ciated Materials in Hollows, 139 _ Fenn (W. O.), Salt Antagonism in Gelatine, 162: Similarity __ in the Behaviour of Protoplasm and Gelatine, 163 Fenner (C.), appointed Superintendent of Technical Educa- ____ tion in South Australia, 240 Fenton (Dr. H. H.), Physical Chemistry for Schools, 67 ‘Ferguson (Dr. E. W.), Revision of the Amycterides : (Coleoptera), part v., 243 ‘guson (Prof. J.) [obituary], 192 rguson (Miss M.), Family Budgets and Dietaries of _ Labouring-class Families in Glasgow, 463 erris (Dr. H. B.), The Indians of Cuzco and the Apurimac, 477 y (C.), and E. Fournier, Chemical Changes in the Ordinary Storage Cell, 55 kes (Dr. J. W.), The Sun Temple at Mesa Verde _. National Park, 376 j *ield (H. H.), The Concilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich, Par. 209 "Field (I.), The Common Mussel, 297 Fine (H. B.), Newton’s Method of Approximation, 163 _ Finlayson (Mrs. A. W.). and Prof. C. B. Davenport, _ Study of a Family Showing a Hereditary Lack of ____Emotional Control, 09 _ Finlayson (J.) [death], 476 ; scher (Prof. F.) [obituary], 18 Fisher (C. B.), Application of Steam and other Mechanical Tractors in the Cultivation of the Soil, 301 ‘Fisher (Dr. H. A. L.), and Dr. W. E. S. Turner, Forma- _ __ tion of a Society of Glass Technology at Sheffield, 234 _ Fleming (Prof. J. A.), Alternating Electric Currents, 265; __ The Empire at the Cross Roads, 185 _ Flett (Dr. J. S.), to deliver the Swiney Lectures on ‘‘ The : Mineral Resources of Europe,’ 133; Introductory _ Lecture on the Mineral Resources of Europe, 213 Fleure (Prof.), Regions in 'uman Geography, 380 | Flexner (Dr. S.), elected a Foreign Associate of the Paris _ __ Academy of Medicine, 414 Folin (Prof. O.), Preservatives and other Chemicals in Foods, 27 Forbes (D. M.), Bequests to the University of Edinburgh, §03 Forster (Dr. M. O.), The Need of Well-educated Young Men in the Chemical World, 143 Foster (Prof. G. Carey), elected an Honorary Member of the Institution of Electrical ‘Engineers, 193 de Foucauld (Vicomte C.) [obituary], 393 Fowler (Prof. A.), Prof. Lowell’s Contributions Astronomical Spectroscopy, 231 Fowler (G. H.), Currents of the United States Atlantic Coast, 484; Physical Conditions in the Kattegat, 203 Fox (Capt.), Relative Values of various Cholera Vaccines, to 415 ‘ Foxall (W. H.), The Coal-beds, etc., of the South Stafford- shire Coalfield, 55 Foye (W. G.), Nephelite Syenites of Haliburton County, Ontario, 399 ; Frankland (F. W.) [obituary], 38 Franklin (Sir G.), Contingent Bequests to Sheffield Univer- sity, 482 Frazer (Sir J. G.), to deliver the Huxley Memorial Lecture on ‘‘ Ancient Stories of a Great Flood,’ 132 Freire-Marreco (Miss), Personal Experience as an Element in Folk-tales, 199 French (J. W.), Grinding and Polishing of Optical Surfaces, 223 Fry (D. B.), A New Batrachian Genus from New Guinea, 463 Fujiwhara (S.), The Abnormal Propagation of Sound-Waves in the Atmosphere, 71 Fuller (Sir B.), appointed in charge of the new Timber Department, 495 Gadd (C. J.), The Application of Powdered Coal to the Heating of Furnaces, 135 Galaine (C.), and C. Houlbert, A New Arrangement for the Rapid Filtration of Potable Waters, 443 Gale (H. S.), The Salines of Borax or Searles Lake, 118 Gallardo (A.), The Dolichoderinz, 258 Garnett (Principal Maxwell), The Vocational Outlook, 379 Gartner (Prof. A.), elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, 355 Garwood (Prof.), The Faunal Succession of the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Westmorland and North Lancashire, 76 Gaskell (Dr. W. H.), The Involuntary Nervous System, 248 Gi: (L.), War Economies in Lighting, 314 ; Gdubert (P.), Crystalline Liquids obtained by Evaporation of a Solution, 203 ; Indices of Refraction of the Rhombo- hedral Carbonates, 443 Gaunt (J.), Bequest to the American Museum of Natural History, 355 Geddes (Lieut. A. E. M.), The Storm of November 11-13, 1915, 242 Geikie (Sir A.), The Birds of Shakespeare, 147 Gemmill (Dr. J. F.), Development of some Star-fishes, 242 Gentil (L.), The ‘‘ Trouée de Taza,”’ 344 i Gilbert (Dr. C. G.), Sources of Nitrogen Compounds in the United States, 431 , Gilbert (C. H.), and C. L. Hubbs, Japanese Macrourid Fishes, 415 2 Gilchrist (Prof. D. A.), Economy in Meat Production, 302 Gilchrist (J.) [obituary], 476 my ; Gile (P. L.), and J. O. Carrero, Mobility of Iron in Plants, 298 Giles (Lt.-Col. G. M. J.) [obituary], 74 Giltay (J. W.), De Strijkinstrumenten, 257 Giron (E.), translated by F. Rothwell, A Modern Job, 426 Glazebrook (Dr. R. T.), appointed’Sir Robert Rede Reader, 202; Limit Gauges, 158; Science and Industry, with Special Reference to the Work of the National Physical Laboratory, 339 Glenn (Prof. O. E.), A Treatise on the Theory of In- variants, 187 Glynn (Prof. E.), Microbes and the War, 375 Goddard (E. J.), Ozobranchus branchiatus, 84; Pelodrilus africanus, 44 viil Godman (Dr. F. Du Cane), Presentation of Portions of Eoan- thropus dawsoni to the British Museum (Natural His- tory), 454 ‘ : Goff (the late E. S.), revised by J. G. Moore and L. R. Jones, The Principles of Plant Culture. Eighth edition, 245 Gogel (Prof.), awarded the Schaefli Prize, 198 Goldsmith (E. T.), The Mechanical Star-bearing Finder, 348 Gomes (Dr. F. J. S.), and A. R. Machado, Elementos de | Fisica Descritiva. Fifth Machado, 147. Gonnessiat (F.), A Star with a Large Proper Motion, 323 Goodey (Dr. T.), E. gingivalis, 158; Protozoa and Soil Bacteria, 302 Goodrich (E. P.), Growth of New York City, 195 Goodson (H. E.), Star-bearings for Night-marching, 67 Gordon (S.), Hill Birds of Scotland, 30 Gordon (Lt.-Col.), and Capt. Flack, Effect of Sprays for Freeing Carriers from the Meningococcus, 296 Gourlay (Capt. W. B.), A Phosphorescent Centipede, 233 Gower (H. D.), L. S. Jast, and W. W. Topley, The Camera as Historian, 445 de Gramont (A.), The Grouping of the Lines of the Iron Spectrum, 363 Granger (A.), Our Weights and Measures, 437 Gray (A.), American Electrical Engineering Firms and Teachers, 361; Hakluyt’s Tercentenary, 274 Gray (Dr.), Reform in Methods of Education, 217 Gray (Dr. F. W.), Centnerszwer’s Cours de Manipulations de Chimie Physique,et d’Electrochimie, 407 Gray (Dr. H. B.), and S. Turner, Eclipse or Empire? 185 Gray (H. St. G.), A Remarkable Flint Implement found in British Honduras, 154; Scarcity of Wasps, 209 Green (Prof. J. A.), A Larger Place and a New Use for Books, 217 Greenaway (R.), Natural Selection and the Evolution of the Protozoa, 20 Greenish (Prof. H. E.), Mr. Holmes, Sir S. Olivier, Dr. E. N. Thomas, Collection and Cultivation of Medicinal Plants, 237-38 Gregory (Prof. J. W.), The World’s Supply of Phosphates, 300; Australia, 446 Gregory (Prof. R. A.), Science for the Rank and File, 400 Grialou (Prof. J.), Cours d’Hydraulique, 267 Grierson (Sir G.), Gramophone Records of Languages of ’ the Munda Group, 173; Ormuri or Bargista Language, 283 Griffith (Sir J. P.), to deliver the ‘‘ James Forrest ’? Lecture on ‘* The Development of Appliances for Handling Raw Materials, etc.,”? 132 Griffiths (E. and E. A.), A Carbon Tube Furnace, 383 Griggs (R. F.), The Katmai Volcano, 38 Groom (Prof. P.), Technical Science and the Timber Trade, edition, revised by A. R. 450 Grubb (J. E.), The Aurora Borealis Display of August 27, 57 Guest (J. J.), appointed University Reader in Graphics, etc., at London University, 441; and F. C. Lea, Torsional Hysteresis of Mild Steel, 322 Guest (L. H.), The Nation of the Future, 407 Guillaume (C. E.), Homogeneity and Expansion of Invar, 423; Modifications of the Expansibility of Invar, 324 Guillaume (J.), Changes in Steels used as Length Stan- dards, 437; Observations of the Sun made at the Lyons Observatory, 83, 223, 443 Guillery (R.), A New System of Transmission by a Ball Joint, 263 4 Guillet (Dr. L.), French Metallurgy. 493 Guitteau (L.), Action of Sulphur on Baryta, 203 Gunther (R. T.), A Frost Thistle: a Beautiful Effect of Freezing, 370 Guppy (R. J. L.) [obituary], 73 Haas (A. R.), Excretion of Acids by Roots, 243 Haberman (J. V.), The Value and Limitations of Intelli- gence Tests, 7x i) lndex R Vature, | atarcn 15, (917 % | Haddon (Dr. A. C.), A German Psychologist on the Evolu- tion of Culture, 346; Kava Drinking in New Guinea, 154; Sir E. B, Tylor, F.R.S., 373 ; Vignettes of Friends, Ps ; 267 CAtal Hadfield (Sir R.), elected President of the Society of British — Gas Industries, 495; elected to the Athenzum Club, - 474; and Dr. E. Newbery, Corrosion and Electrical Properties of Steels, 282 : Hadley (H. E.), A Manual of Practical Physics, 127 Hadow (Dr. W. H.), appointed a Member of the Com- mittee on Examinations for the Home Civil Service, 382; Science and the Universities, 217 | Hahn (Prof. F.) [obituary], 495 Haig (Sir Douglas), elected Rector of St. Andrews Univer- sity, 182; elected to the Atheneum Club, 474; Work of Chemists, Physiologists, and Physicists in the War, 354 y Haldane (Lord), Education after the War, with Special Reference to Technical Instruction, 156; on Training, 143 a Haldane (Dr. J. S.), awarded a Royal Medal of the Royal » Society, 212, 278 Hale (Prof. G. E.), The U.S. National Research Council, 77 Hall (A. D.), A General Course of Science for the Secondary School, 433; appointed a Member of the Government Committee on the Teaching of Science, 132; appointed a Scientific Technical Expert to the Board of Agricul- ture, 495 Hall (M. C.), Nematode Parasites of the Rodentia and Hyracoidea, 439 7 | Hall (Rev. W.), Visible Astronomical Compass, 98 Halle (Dr. T. G.), to Travel in China for a Year, 173 Halliburton (Prof. W. D.), The Action of Pituitary Extract on the Secretion of Cerebro-spinal Fluid, 178 Hallmann (E. F.), Revision of the Genera in the Family Axinellide, part ii., 283; Revison of the Genera with Microscleres, 244, 363 Hamilton (G. H.), Photographs of Mars, 77 Hamlyn-Harris (Dr.), and F. Smith, Fish Poisoning and Poisons employed among the Aborigines of Queensland, © 155 Hammond (Capt. J.), The Mammary Glands in the Rabbit, 3 Handyside (Lieut. J.) [obituary], 194 Hansen (Dr. H. J.), Crustacea Malacostraca, 299 Hansen-Ostenfeld (Dr. C.), Protozoa found in Plankton in Danish Seas, 194 Hanson (S. G.), Commercial Egg-Farming, 5 Harbord (F. W.), Brearley’s ‘‘ The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel.’’? Second edition, 308 | Hardcastle (J. A.), appointed Astronomer to the Armagh Observatory, 295 Hardy (G. H.), and J. E. Littlewood, Some Problems of Diophantine Approximation, 243 + Hargreaves (W. A.), Prospects of Establishing a Paper- making Industry in South Australia, 396 Harkins (W. D.), R. E. Hall, and W. A. Roberts, The Cobaltammines, 243; The Osmotic Pressure and Lowering of the Freezing Point of Mixtures of Salts, etc., 403 Harmer (Dr. S. F.), The Group Vermidea, 28 , Harper (L. F.), and J. C. H. Minguye, The Coke Industry of New South Wales, 276 Harries (H.), Origin of the Word “ Blizzard,” 169 | Harris (Prof. D. Fraser), The Date of the Introduction of the Term ‘‘ Metabolic,’’ 389 ; The Germans and Scientific _ Discovery, 168 Harris (F. S.), and J. S. Robinson, Factors which deter- mine the Rate of Evaporation of Water from the Earth’s Surface, 396; and G. Stewart, The Principles of Agronomy, 245 Harrison (Dr. C. A.) [obituary], 193 Harrison (J. W. H.), A Further Probable Case of Sex- limited Transmission in the Lepidoptera, 248 Hart (H.) [death], 123 Hart (I. B.), A Student’s Heat, 147 : Hart (Lance-Corpl. J. W.) fobituary], 193 1 Hartmann (L.), Systematic Variation of the Value of Kinetic Energy, 443; The Determination of the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat by Hirn’s Method, 44 et. Dinosaurs in Rhodesia, 481 . T. H.), Propagation of a Signal in a Dis- ‘sive Medium, 120 nd (Miss M.), Temminck’s Stint, 356 | (C.), Hitting the Dark Trail, Starshine through Years of Night, 2 .), The Building-up of the N. Atlantic Tertiary > Plateau, 416; The Tertiary Acid Volcanic cks of Iceland, 138 r. A.), An Introductory Course of Continuous-current ngineering. Second edition, 108 (0. ) The Pleistocene Mammals of Iowa, 118 -), appointed a Member of the Committee on osition of Natural Science in the Educational , 213 Curtis, and Scofield, Tolerance of Crop Plants __ for Sodium Salts, 114 feath (Dr. H. F.), Work of the Society of Glass Tech- ot CS SY, 334 ley (C.), Australian Mollusca, part xiii., 363 (E.), Glossines ou Tsétsés, 157 (G. W.), The Water Supply of Manila, 97 lech (G. A.), The Grouping of the Lines of the Iron ectrum, 363 ley (Dr. W. B.), The Flora of all Africa, 26 lerson (Prof. G. G.), Presidential Address to the __ Chemistry Section of the British Association, 34 enderson (L. J.), On Volume in Biology, 403; and E. J. Cohn, The Equilibrium between Acids and Bases in Sea-water, 402 aw (J. W.), Wild Flowers of the North American ; untains, 2 lerdman (Prof. W. A.), Inshore Fisheries, 136; Report of _ the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee, 497; The Exploitation of Inshore Fisheries, 317; (and Mrs.), En- _ dowment of an Institute at Port Erin in Memory of Lieut. G. A. Herdman, 393; Gift to Liverpool Univer- sity, 281 rkless (Rev. J.); Knighthood conferred upon, 333 rms (W. B.), Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 386 eron-Allen, and Earland, Foraminifera collected by the Runa off the West of Scotland, 155 ing (Prof.), Experiments of Feeding White Rats with __ Fresh Thyroid, 178 Herschel (Sir W. J.), The Origin of Finger-printing, 268; The Permanence of Finger-print Patterns, 389 Herty (Prof. C. H.), appointed Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 174 lett (Prof. R. T.), Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology, 308; Serum Reactions and Bacterial erapy, 88 (Col. C. T.), to lecture on “‘ Alloys of Copper and ‘Tin, Aluminium and Gold,” 134 (W. B.), Apparent Disappearance of Potassium, 117; poration of Brine from Searles Lake, California, 7 n Ct. S. J.), Certain Sessile Forms of Foramini- ra, 353 ll (G. A.) [obituary], 38 | ill (G. F.), The Bionomics of Lyperosia exigua, 363 (Prof. H.), Use of the Orthographic Projection in Crystallography, 423 (Capt. E.), elected to the Charles Kingsley Lecture- ip at Cambridge, 202 (Miss L. H.), The Bionomics of the Tiger-beetle, 296 heock (F. L.), Simultaneous Formulation of Two Linear Vector Functions, 463 (Sub.-Lieut. O. J.) [death], 313 on (A. J.), nominated a Pro-Chancellor of Sheffield University, 261 | (G. A.) [obituary], 452 el (A.), Ice Conditions around Spitsbergen, 454 en (Sir E.), The Metric System, 453 Idich (Sir T. H.), The Survey Link connecting the _ Triangulations of India and Russia, 92 ister (N.), The Prairie-dogs, 315 mes (A.), The Tertiary Volcanic Rocks of Mozambique, 163; and Dr. H. F. Harwood, The Basalts of the ___ Brito-Arctic Province, 222; and Dr. H. F. Harwood, The ___ Basalts of Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Jan Mayen, 423 Index ix Holroyde (Rev. J.), Luminous Larve, 114 Honda and Okubo, Expression for the Force on One of the Elementary Magnets, ete., 115 Hoover (T. J.), Concentrating Ores by Flotation. Third edition, 246 ) Hotchkiss (J. S.), Bequest to Yale University, 241 Houssay (F.), The Sound of Distant Cannonades, 183 Howard (A.), Soil Aeration and Crop Production, 315 ; and Mrs., Report on the Improvement of Indigo, 335 Howarth (Dr. W. J.), to deliver the Milroy Lectures, 503 Howden (Prof. R.), The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 277 4 Howe (Prof. G. W. O.), Calculation of the Capacity of Aerials, 158 Howell (J. T.), Effect of an Electric Field on the Lines of Lithium and Calcium, 163 Howison (Prof. G. H. and Mrs.), Gift to the University of California, 241 Howlett (F. M.), Insects Troublesome during the Campaign in France and Flanders, 157; The Senses of Insects, 157 Hrdlicka (A.), Crania of Tenape Indians in American Museums, 19 Hubble (E. P.), The Variable Nebula N.G.C. 2261, 298 Hudson (H. P.), Ruler and Compasses, 347 Hudson (Sir R.), on Two Donations to the British Red Cross Society, 113 Hudson (W. H.), elected a Corresponding Member of the Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, 152 Hunsaker (J. C.), and others, Dynamical Stability of Aero- planes, 465 Huntington (E.), The Water Barriers of New York City, 195 Hutchins (D. E.), on the Appointment of Mr. Lane Poole as Chief Forest Officer in Western Australia, 39 Hutchinson (C. M.), Photographic Illustration, 256 Iddings (J. P.), and E. W. Morley, The Petrography of Japan, 83; The Petrography of the Philippine Islands, 16 Imms Ir. A. D.), ‘‘ Plants in Health and Disease,’’ 428; Structure and Biology of Archotermopsis, 322 Iniguez (Prof.), Spectroscopic Classification of Stars, 438 Innes (R. T. A.), Proper Motions by the Blink-microscope, 56; The Masses of Visual Binary Stars, 99 Irvine (A. M.), The Dreams of Orlow, 426 Ives (Dr. H. E.), The Minimum Radiation Visually Per- ceptible, 216 Jack (R. L.), The Musgrave Ranges, South Australia, 399 Jackson (C. 5S.) [obituary], 173 : Jackson (Sir H.), appointed President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 273 : Jackson (J. W.), Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-cowrie in America, 48, 309 f : Jackson (W.), Bequest to Aberdeen University, 43 Jaggar, Jr. (T. A.), The Lava-lake of Halemaumau, 436 Jago (W.), Flour Standards, 390; Government Control over Flour, 250 ; James (W. H. N.), Alternating Currents in Theory and Practice, 265 : Janet (Prof. P.), University and Higher Technical Instruc- tion in France, 151 Jamrach (A. E.) [obituary], 414 Janssen (L.), The Solar Apex determined by means of Binary Stars, 236 Jaques (Capt. W. H.) [obituary], 254 Jarvie (J. N.), Gift to Columbia University, 241 Jeans (Prof. J. H.), The Dynamical Theory of Gases. Second edition, 3 Jee (Dr. E. C.), Fluctuations of the Herring, Mackerel, and Pilchard Fisheries off the South-west Coasts, 137 Jessop (Prof. C. M.), Quartic Surfaces with Singular Points, 367 Jevons (Dr.), Magic and Religion, 199 se Index Jha (Dr. M. Ganga Nath), Sanskrit Laws on Sanitation, 75 Joad (C. E. M.), Monism in the Light of Recent Develop- ments in Philosophy, 442 Johnson (Prof. B. H.), and L. G. Huntley, Principles of Oil and Gas Production, 487 Johnson (B. L.), The Barry Glacier, 256 Johnson (E. R.), T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, and D. S. Hanchett, History of Domestic and Foreign Com- merce of the United States, 42 Johnston (Sir H. H.), Capt. F. C. Selous, 374; Dalziel’s ““A Hausa Botanical Vocabulary,’’ 345; The Peoples and Languages of Sierra Leone, 1 Johnston (W. A.), Late Pleistocene Oscillations of Sea-level in the Ottawa Valley, 499 Johnstone (Dr. J.), Further Development of the Shell- fisheries, 136 Joly (Prof. J.), Synchronous Signalling in Navigation, 8 Jona (Dr. J. L.), awarded the Rogers Prize of the Univer- sity of London, 240 Jones (C. S.), Gift to Liverpool University, 182, 281 Jones (F.), Action of Hydrogen on Sulphuric Acid, 462 Jones (Prof. F. Wood), Arboreal Man, 426 Jones (H.) [death], 112 © Jones (H. E.), to deliver the Thomas Hawksley Lecture, 112 Jones (T. A.), Replacement of Calcite by Iron Pyrites, 395 Jones (W. H. S.), Scientific Method in Schools, 103 Jones (W. N.), appointed Lecturer and Head of the Depart- ment in Botany of Bedford College for Women, 63 Jorgensen (I.), Effect of Overhead Electrical Discharges on Crops, 235; The Preservation of Natural Colour in Plants, 229 Joukowski (Prof. N.), Bases Théoriques de 1’Aéronautique. Aérodynamique, 465 Joyce (T. A.), Central American and West Indian Archez- ology, 70 Judge (A. W.), The Design of Aeroplanes, 45 Jutson (J. T.), The pach ab. can ns Geology of Western Australia, 399 Kalmus (Dr. H. T.), and K. B. Blake, Properties of Pure Cobalt, etc., 176 Kampen (Dr. P. N. van), appointed Professor of Zoology, etc., in the University of Leyden, 422 Kapp (Prof. G.), The Principles of Electrical Engineering and their Application. Vol. i., 265 Kastle (Dr. J. H.) [obituary], 153 Keegan (Dr. P. Q.) [obituary], 296 Keith (Prof.), Is the British Facial Form Changing? 198 Kellas (Dr. A. M.), The Possibility of Ascending the Loftier Himalaya, 415 Kelynack (Dr. T. N.), The Drink Problem of To-day in its Medico-Sociological Aspects, 247 Kempner (A.), Roots of an Algebraic Equation, 396 Kennelly (Prof.), Achard and Dana, Increase of the Re- sistance of Standard Forms of Track and Contact Rails, 40 Kensit (E. G.) [obituary], 74 Kent (Prof. A. F. Stanley), Second Interim Report on an Investigation of Industrial Fatigue, 353 Kenwood (Lt.-Col. H. R.), to lecture on ‘‘ Hygiene : Lessons of the War,’’ 202 Keogh (Sir A.), Health of the British Army, 495; promoted to G.C.B., 434; Science and Classics, 379 Kewley (W.), appointed Secretary-Superintendent of the Middlesex Hospital, 313 Keyes (F. G.), and R. B. Brownlee, The Thermodynamic Properties of Ammonia, 69 Kidd (B.) [obituary], 95 Kidston (Dr. R.), and Prof. W. H. Lang, Rhynia gwynne- tend 238 King (Dr. S.), Anomalous Dispersion in the Sun, 136; Mutual pact of Neighbouring Linés ‘n Electric- Furnace Spectra, 83 ; The Structure of the Red Lithium Line, 299 King (Dr. L. V.), The Linear Hot-Wire Anemometer, 155 Kingon (Rev. J. R. L.), Native Education, 42 Kingsbury (J. E.), The Telephone and Telephone Ex- changes: their Invention and Development, 188 The Magnetic Some ey Nature, March 15, 1917 at Kirkaldy (Prof. A. W.), Presidential Address to the Economic Science and Statistics Section of the British Association, 139 Klotz (Dr. O.), Early Use of the*Word “Blizzard,” 129 Knapp (A. W.), The Pink Colour on the Surface of Mar- garine Fat, 21 Knipe (H. R.), Tunbridge Wells and Neighbourhood, 48 Knopf (A.), Gold-Platinum-Palladium Lode in Souther rn Nevada, 118 , Knott (Dr. J.), Robert Recorde, 268 Kojima (Dr.), Changes in the Pancreas induced by Thyroid- feeding, 179 Kolle (Prof. W.), appointed Director of the Frankfort In stitute for Experimental Therapy, 375 . Korner (G.), and Dr. A, Contardi, Properties of the Six th Form of Trinitrotoluene, 416 Krogh (Dr. A.), The Respiratory Exchange of Animals and ‘ Man, 326 7 Krypton,” Impending Developments in Chemical Enter- prises, 489 Kuchakov (Dr.), Establishment of a Wireless Station on Dickson Island, 95 A Kunz (Dr. G. F.), Production of Precious Stones for he Year 1915, 271; Shakespeare and Precious Stones, 405 a J. L., Extrusion of Columnar Ice-crystals from Moist Earth, 290 4 Lacroix (A.), Constitution of the Volcanic Rocks of the Archipelago of the Comores, 43; Constitution of the . Volcanic Rocks of North Madagascar, etc., 83 Lamb (Prof. H.), Deflection of the Vertical by Tida’ Loading of the Earth’s Surface, 503; Waves in an Elastic Plate, 221 ; Lamborn (Dr. W..A.), Habits of the Tsetse-flies in Nyasa- land, 157 Laming (H.), Gift for Four Scholarships at Queen’s College . Oxford, 202 Lamond (H.), The Sea-trout, 445 Lanchester (F. W.), Aérodonétique, translated by Com mandant C. Benoit, 465; to deliver an Address on In- dustrial Engineering : Present Position and Post-Wai Outlook, 273 Lane- elareee (Dr. J. E.), Milk and its Hygienic Relations, pane Prot. W. H.), Rhynia gwynne-vaughani, 183 Langley (Prof. J. N.), Capt. Keith Lucas, 109 Langmuir (I.), A New Form of Exhaust Pump, 417 Lankester (Sir Ray), ‘‘ Science from an Easy Chair.’” Cheap edition, 115 F. Lapworth (Dr. C.), Balston Expedition to Peru, 442 9 Lardennois (A.), P. Pech, and J. Baumel, Study of the Gangrenous Infections of Wounds by means of Radio- graphy, 363 Larkman (A. E.), Columnar Ice-crystals, 269 _ a Larmor (Sir J.), forthcoming Address to the London Mathematical Society, 153; The London Mathematical Society, 319 a Lashley (KX. S.), Human Salivary Reflex, 314 % Latter (O. H.), Parents and Scientific Investigation in Schools, 400 Lavender (J. H.), Hardening of Screw Gauges, 378 Lawrence (W. W.), Bequest to Princeton University, 241 Lea (A. M.); New Species of Australian Coleoptera, part xii., 363 Leaf (Dr. W.), Compulsory Greek in the Oxford and Cam- bridge Entrance Examinations, 371; The Future of Hellenic Studies, 221 a Léauté (M.) tobihiany 254 Le Chatelier (Prof. H. L.), awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society, 212; Cristobalite, 423; and F. Hogi, Determination of the Density ‘of Solid Bodies, 223 ‘ Ledoux-Lebard (R.), and A. Dauvillier, The Bases of Radiological Estimations, 324; The K Series of Tung- sten and the Production of the X-rays, 363 aq Lee (Sir A.), appointed Director-General of Food Pro- duction, 495 Lee (Prof. F. S.), and others, Muscle Physiology, 39 (0. J), Parallaxes of Two Stars with Common Motion, I WwW. T.), Relation of the Cretaceous Formations to the _ Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico, 117 endre (J.), Destruction of Mosquitoes by Fish, 183 egge (J. C.), Handwork, 217 (Dr. T. M.), appointed Milroy Lecturer for 1918, a gros (L. A.), Science in Education, 144; Science in the _ Education of our Governing Classes, 182 eldt (Prof. R. A.), Economics in the Light of War, 208 » (Dr. D. B.), Problems in the Calculus, with Formulas and Suggestions, 88 iper (Dr. R. T.), Results obtained by the Bilharzia Com- _ mission in Egypt, 157 5 ay (E.-M.), Le Principe de Relativité, 368 Roy (G. A.), A Reagent for Free Chlorine in Drinking Water, 44 (P.), Trials of the Seeds of Lepidium sativum under Varying Conditions, 223 slie (W. F.), The Norfolk Oil-shales, 494 Souef (W. H. D.), Aboriginals’ Culinary Methods and Kitchen Middens, 53 er (J. H.), Organisation of Industrial Education, Re- search, and Co-operation Agencies, 143 s (Prof. E. A.), The Chemistry of Foul Mud Deposits, er (F. W.) [obituary], 333 rett (F.), and F. B. Taylor, Pleistocene of Indiana and ‘Michigan, etc., 117 fis (G. N.), Steric Hindrance and the Existence of Odd _ Molecules, 243; and T. B. Hine, Electrical Conduction in Dilute Amalgams, 403 sewis (Prof. W. C. McC.), A System of Physical Chemistry, 2 vols., 25; Effect of Pressure on the ____ Equilibrium Constant of a Reaction in a Dilute Solu- tion, 383 coln (Dr. D. F.) [death], 193 ndemann (A. F. and F. A.), Daylight Photography of _ Stars, 499 indemann (Dr. F. A.), and Dr. C. V. Burton, The Tem- perature Coefficient of Gravity, 7+9 idgren (W.), The Gold Ores in Northern Nevada, 118 ingen (J. S. v. d.), Radial Lines in Réntgen Interference Patterns, 84 r (Dr. F. S.), Study of Pneumonia in South African Mining Communities, 393 _ Liston (Major W. G.), Report of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory, 1914, 52 le (Prof. J.) [death], 355 _ Livens (G. H.), The Mechanical Relations of the Energy _ of Magnetisation, 221 (L.), Glossina morsitans in Northern Rhodesia, 157 ge (Miss O. C.), Habits of Flies in Relation to Means employed for their Destruction, 157 dge (Sir Oliver J.), Raymond: or Life and Death, 289 eb (J.), The Mechanism of Diffusion of Electrolytes through Animal Membranes, 163; and J. H. Northrop, oe Temperature Coefficient for the Duration of e? 33 Prof. L.), The Cancer Problem, 96 (E. L.), A. E. Dunstan, and F. B. Thole, The _ Pyrogenesis of Hydrocarbons, 358 Louis (Prof. H.), An Imperial Department of Mineral Pro- luction, 91 w (Seth) [obituary], 52 -owell (Prof. }.) [death], 212; [obituary articles], 231; _ Bequest to the Lowell Observatory. 313 | ucas (A. H. S.), Notes from the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, » 243 ucas (Capt. Keith) [obituary article], 109 ot uckiesh (M.), Color and its Applications, 366 OL dendorff (Dr.), The Cepheid Variables, 297 Luiggi (Prof.), The Utilising of Volcanic Heat, 233 ll (R. S.), The Mammals, etc., of the Lance Formation _ of Niobrara County, Wyoming, 118 _ Lumholtz (Dr. C.), Journey in Borneo, 132 Lumiére (A.), Comparative Action of Antiseptics on Pus and on Pure Cultures, 144; and E. Astier, Tetanus and Frostbite 344 Index XI Lundborg (H. B.), awarded the Jubilee Prize of the Swedish Medical Association, 475 Lusk (Prof. G.), Food Economies, 173 Lyall (Sir J. B.) [obituary], 296 Lyde (Prof. L. W.), River Frontiers in Europe, 395 Lydekker (R.), Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Natural History), vol. v., 107 Lyle (Prof. W. T.), Parks and Park Engineering, 486 Lyon (W. S.) [obituary], 38 Lyons (Major H. G.), The Winds of North Africa, 462 Maanen (A. van), Internal Motion in Spiral Nebule, 156 MacAulay (A. L.), appointed Demonstrator in Physics in the University of Melbourne, 82 MacBride (Prof. E. W.), Presidential Address to the Zoology Section of the British Association, 120 Macdonald (Prof. H. M.), awarded a Royal Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 278 Macdonald (Miss I.), and Miss K. Atherton, A Scheme for Maternity and Child Welfare Work, 415 Mackenzie (Sir T.), and others, New Zealand Potash ~ Deposits, 252 Mackinder (H. J.), The Teaching of Geography, 380 MacMahon (Major P. A.), elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society, 474 MacNair (P.), The Hurlet Sequence in the East of Scotland, 46 Macie (Rev. W. D.) [obituary], 295 Magnan (Dr.), Bequest to the Paris Academy of Medicine, 273 Magnan (Dr. V. J. J.) [obituary], 132 le Maistre, Standardisation and its Influence on the En- gineering Industries, 158 Makins (Sir G. H.), to deliver the Hunterian Oration, 434; The Hunterian Oration, 496 Manganaro (A.), Cleistogamic Flowers, 478 Mann (G.) [obituary], 74 Mann (I. J.) [obituary], 476 Mann (R. F.) [obituary], 254 Marett (Dr. R. R.), Presidential Address to the Anthro- pology Section of the British Association, 179 Marlborough (Duke of), appointed Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, 495 Maron (Dr. D.) [obituary], 153 Marr (Dr. J. E.), The Geology of the Lake District and the Scenery as Influenced by Geological Structure, 345 Marriott (W.) [obituary], 354 Marris (Capt. H. F.), A New Test for Typhoid and Para- typhoid Fevers, 274 : Marsh (H. D.), Individual and Sex Differences Resulting from Fasting, 334 Marsh (H. W.), Interpolated Six-Place Tables of the Logarithms of Numbers and the Natural and Logar- ithmic Trigonometric Functions, 208 Marshall (F. H. A.), and E. T. Halnan, Post-cestrous Changes in the Non-pregnant Dog, 483; and K. J. J. Mackenzie, Extra Mammary Glands and the Re-absorp- tion of Milk Sugar, 263 Martin (G. C.), B. L. Johnson, and U. S. Grant, The Kenai Peninsula, 118 Martin (Dr. L.), The Physical Geography of Wisconsin, 488 Martin, Jr. (Prof. L. A.), Text-book of Mechanics, vol. vi., Thermodynamics, 127 Martin (L. C.), Refractometry and Identification of Glass Specimens, 343; The Refractometry of Lenses, 28 Masse (R.), and H. Leroux, Estimation of Phenol in Crude Tar Phenols, 183 Massee (G.) [death], 495 Masterman (Dr. A. T.), Mussels and the Sterilisation of Water, 137; The Scales in the Haddock, 137 Mather (Prof. T.), The Growth of Telephony, 188 Matheson (P. E.), Education To-day and To-morrow, 143 Mathews (Prof. A. P.), Physiological Chemistry, 167 Matson (G. C.). The Phosphate Deposits of Florida, 118 Matthew (Dr. W. D.), A Marsupial from the Belly River Cretaceous, 175; Discovery of the Skull of an Insecti- vore, 258 Matthews (Miss A.), Development of Alcyonium digitatum, 394 Xi Maulik (S.), Cryptosome Beetles in the Cambridge Univer- sity Museum, 221 : ! Maunder (E. W.), The Stars as Guides for Night-marching, etc., 67 Maupas (E. F.) [obituary], 274 Maurer (Dr.), Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere in July and August, 1916, 90; The Deterioration of the Atmosphere in the Swiss Alps, 328 Mawley (E.) [obituary], 154 Maxim (Sir Hiram S.) [obituary], 253 Maxwell (Sir H.), Farmers and Wheat, 228; Scarcity of Wasps, 148; Stability in Flight, 490 McAlpine (Prof. D.), Bitter Pit Investigation, 137 McArdle (D.), Musci and Hepaticee of the Glen of the Downs, 463 McCall (Prof. A. G.), Field and Laboratory Studies of » 245 McCarrison (Major), Experimental Production of Congenital Goitre in Goats, 75 McClatchie (Miss I.), The Root-system of Impatiens roylei, 342 McConnell (R. G.), Toxada Island, 398 McGegan (J. E.), Star Identifier and Diagrams for the Graphical Solution of Problems in Nautical Astronomy, 406 McIndoo (Dr. N. E.), Sense-organs on the Mouth-parts of the Bee, 258 McLachlan, Experiments on a Poulsen Arc, 158 McLennan (Prof. J. C.), Ionisation Potential, 120 MeNeill (B.) [obituary article], 94 Meek (Prof. A.), Inshore Fisheries of Northumberland, 136 ; Method of Estimating the Age of Fishes, 75; A Plea for a Scientific Quadruple Entente, 469; Scales of Fishes, 137 Meinecke (E. P.), Forest Pathology in Forest Regulation, 176 : Meldola (Raphael), Reminiscences of his Worth and Work by Those Who Knew Him, etc., edited by J. Marchant, 125 Melhado (F. C.), a Memorial to, 273 Mellor (Dr. J. W.), to read a Paper on “ Refractories,” 95 ; and others, The Texture of Firebricks, 281 Mercier (Dr. C.), Definition of a Disease, 215 Meredith (C. M.), The Bearings of Modern Psychology on Educational Theory and Practice, 27 Merivale (J. H.) [death], 233 Merrill (F. J. H.) [death], 333 Merrill (Dr, G. P.), A Catalogue of Meteorites, 196; The Chemical and Mineralogical Composition of Meteorites, 395; The Cookeville Meteorite, 358; The Lake Oke- chobee Meteorite, 455 Merriman (M.), American Civil Engineers’ Pocket-Book. Third edition, 486; Mathematical Tables for Class- room Use, 88 Metcalf (Rev. J.), A New Comet, 277 Meunier (J.), The Detection .of Small Selenium, 163 Meyer (Mrs. K.), Rémer’s Discovery of the Velocity of Light, Quantities of 317 Meyrick (E.), Some Fossil Insects, 75 Mieli (Dr. A.), Le Scuole Ionica, Pythagorica ed Eleata (I Prearistotelici, i.), 165 Miers (Sir H.), Address to the Conference of Educational Associations, 359; The Place of Science in Education, 143 Migeod (F. W. H.), Earliest Man, 189 Mill (Dr. H. R.), The Rainfall of 1916, 435; and C. Salter, British Rainfall, 1915, 168 re (C. D.), The Absorption Co-efficients of Soft X-rays, 3 Miller (Dr. C. H.), to deliver the Goulstonian Lectures, 503 Miller (Prof. G, A.), Historical Introduction to Mathe- matical Literature, 387; Profs. H. F. Blichfeldt, and L. E. Dickson, Theory and Applications of Finite Groups, 225 Miller (J. M.), The Operation of Egg-laying by Megastig- mus, 258 7 Miller (Dr. N. H. J.) [obituary article], 392 Milne (W. E.), Certain Asymptotic Expressions in the Theory of Linear Differential Equations, 163 Milner (Lord), Science in the School Curriculum, 262 Index | Mjéberg (Dr. E.), granted Leave of Absence for an Expedi- Nature, } March 15, TORY, ‘ Mitchell (C. A.), Vinegar: its Mahufacture and Examina- tion, 186 ey Mitchell (J.), Pests and Diseases of Rubber, 299 Mitchell (Major R.), What can be done to Train Disable Sailors and Soldiers in Technical Institutions? 157 Mitchell (Dr. S. A.), Parallaxes of Procyon and Altair, 479 Mitra (S. C.), Secrecy and Silence in North Indian Agricu tural Ceremonies, 403; Some Indian Ceremonies fo Disease Transference, 284 ; tion to New Guinea, 27 ; Mohn (Prof. H.) [death], 38; [obituary article], 211 : Moir (J. Reid), Pre-Boulder Clay Man, 109; Pre-Palao- lithic Implements Discovered at Darmsden Hall, 314 _ Molliard (M.), Catalytic Action of Potassium Nitrate, 263 Monk (G. S.), Spectra and Absolute Magnitudes of Stars, 41 Moodie (Dr. R. L.), The Coal Measures Amphibia of North — America, 356 Moor (C. G.), and W. Partridge, Aids to Bacteriology. — Third edition, 89 . Moore (Dr. E.) [obituary], 37 Morgan (Prof. G. T.), Synthetic Chemistry and thi Renascence of British Chemical Industry, 316 Morgan (P. G.), Unconformities Post-dating the Amuri — Limestones, 395; and J. A. Bartrum, The Buller- Mokihinui Sub-division, New Zealand, 399 Morgan (Prof. T. H.), and Dr. C. B. Bridges, Sex-linked Inheritance in Drosophila, 480 : “Moriturus,” Artillery and Rainfall, 229 J Morrison (Dr. C. E.), and O. L. Brodie, Masonry Dam ~ Design, including High Masonry Dams. Second © edition, 486 : Moseley (M. H.), Exhibition of Trout-flies in the British Museum (Natural History), 19 . Moss (Dr. C. E.), appointed Professor of Botany in the — South African School of Mines and Technology, 442; — The Pollination of Toadflax, 209 Mossman (R. C.), Meteorological Observations in the South — Orkneys in 1915, 335; Physical Conditions of the Weddell Sea, 416 Moulton (Lord), Science and Industry, 203; The Future of the Gilbert Club, 154 Muller (Prof. O. V.) [obituary], 193 : Munro (J. W.), Insects Attacking the Common Pine in Scotland, 39 us Miinsterberg (Prof. H.) [death], 313 ; [obituary], 333 , Murdoch (W. H. F.), Plastic Flowing of Metals, 190 wy Murray (Prof. Gilbert), appointed to Temporary Work at — the Board of Education, 442; elected to the Atheneum — Club, 474 Murray (Miss M.), The Organisations of Witches in Great Britain, 199 Murray (V. E.), Scarcity of Wasps, 174 Muspratt (Dr. E. K.), My Life and Work, 325 Nagaoka (Prof. H.), Distribution of the Satellites of Spectrum Lines, 262 G Nagel (H. G.), appointed a Member of the Government — Committee on the Teaching of Science, 132 Nash (W. J.), The Snipe’s Method of Carrying its Young, 255 ; Needham (Prof. J. G.), and J. T. Lloyd, The Life of Inland — Waters, 2 Neisser (Prof. A.) [obituary], 194 Nelson (E. W.), The Larger American Mammals, 394 Nettleton (H. R.), Measurement of the Thomson Effect in — Wires, 322 Newbigin (H. T.), The Michell Type of Bearing, 158 Newbigin (Dr. M. I.), The late Prof. James Geikie, 5 Newth (H. G.), Early Development of the Echinoderm Cu- cumaria, 221 y Nichols (Capt. R. W.) [obituary], 213 ' Nicholson (Prof. J. W.), and Prof. E. Wilson, Magnetic — Induction, etc., 483 4 Nicolardot (P.), Action of Reagents upon Glassware, 183 Nilsson (Dr. E.), awarded the Alvarenga Prize of the Swedish Medical Association, 475 . Nilsson-Ehle (Dr. N. H.), A Personal Professorship in the Theory of Heredity being founded for, by the University of Lund, 161 lndex xiii (A The Atmospheric Disturbances of October and mber, 1916, 443 olk (Duke of) [death], 475 is ee. Richard) [obituary], 296 rris (Dr. Rowland), The Preparation of Anti-anthrax and _ other Serums, 296 unn (Prof.), elected President of the Mathematical Asso- ciation, 380; Formality in Handwork, 217; Map Pro- _ jections, 380; The School Course in Geometry, 380; yee 4 omen’s Work in Boys’ Schools, 379 aS Jf » onoghue (Dr. C. H.), Ovarian Tissues of the Mar- ialia, 20 ; s Catalogue of Balances and Weights, 40 ‘d (J.), Egyptian Astronomy and the Zodiac, 7 lhrvall (Prof. H.), Retirement of, 333 liver (Prof. Daniel) [obituary article], 331 liver (Prof.), Mr. Martineau, Dr. W.. E. Smith, Prof. Bottomley, Utilisation of Waste Land, 237 mori (Prof.), The Eruption of Sakura-jima, January 12, : on. H.), The Nature of Growths in Colloidal Silica Solutions, 489 an Oort (Dr. E. D.), Report on the State Museum of ‘Natural History, Leyden, 174 (E.), Densities of Visual Binary Stars, 479 (T. H.), The Rain-Children: a Fairy-tale in » 327 13. Engineering Science in South Africa, 41 Second edition, 4s ; Close of Jurassic and Opening of Cretaceous Time in North America, 119; Origin and Evolution of Life upon the Earth, 275; Skeleton of Struthiomimus from Alberta, 497 wald (Dr. W.), A Handbook of Colloid-Chemistry, _ translated by Prof. M. H. Fischer, 47 Owen (D.), Influence of the Time Element on the Resist- ance of a Solid Rectifying Contact, 222 Owen (J. H.), Breeding Habits of the Red-backed Shrike, 394; Breeding Habits of the Sparrow-hawk, 39, 255 Oyen rir. P. A.), The Geological Work of Prof. A. Hel- land, 436 S. P., The Pollination of Toadflax, 209 d (C. M.), Hymenopterous Parasites of the Hessian Fly, 258 dock (G. F.), Wolf-Rayet Bands in the Nuclei of Nebulz, 106 lage (F. Handley), The Case for the Large Aeroplane, 476 nlevé (Prof. P.), elected an Honorary Member of the _ Royal Institution, 273 iva (C. A.), Zoological Results of a Tour in the Far __ East, 403 Palazzo (Prof. L.), History of Ethiopian Earthquakes, 76 Palmer (G. T.), L. V. Coleman, and H. C. Ward, Deter- ining the Amount of Dust in Air, 336 mer (W. G.), elected to a Fellowship at St. John’s College, Cambridge, 202 ker (G. H.), Behaviour of Sea-anemones, 83; Locomo- ___ tion of Sea-anemones, 83 Parker and Dalladay, The Direct Joining of Glass at a __ Moderate Temperatures, 317 Parrish (Mrs. D.), Gift of Roman Mosaics to the Phil- ___ adelphia Museum, 74 a s (Hon. Sir C.), nominated President of the British _ Association, 1917, 18 . Parsons (Dr. E. C.), Method for the Detection of Crime Bar P+ the Zunis, 255 Passano (L. M.), Being and Becoming, 234 _ Paton (Dr.), The General Public Health Administration of fis New South Wales, 175 Patrick (Prof. G. T.), The Psychology of Relaxation, 128 ‘Pavlow (Madame M.), Mammalian Remains found in a, Russia, 54 _ Payne-Gallwey (Sir R.) [obituary], 274 _ Peake (A. E.), Grime’s Graves, 356 Pearl (Dr. R.), Effect of Alcohol on the Domestic Fowl, SS ee eee é 194; Selection-breeding, 480; and M. R. Curtis, Dwarf Eggs, 296; and F. M. Surface, Growth and Variation in Maize, 119 Pearson (Prof. H. H. W.) [death], 192; [obituary article], 211; and M. R. H. Thomson, Some Stages in the Life- history of Gnetum, 244 Pease (F. G.), Rotation and Radial Velocity of the Spiral Nebula N.G.C. 4594, 163, 358 Pease (Rt. Hon. J. A.), Sir Wm. Ramsay, 197; and others, A Memorial to Sir W. Ramsay, 17 Pease (M. S.), The Prospectus of Work at the Ruhleben Camp School, 182 Peddie (Prof. W.), Magnetic Test of Molecular Arrange- ment in Crystals, 463 Pellet (H.), The Total Destruction of Pentoses in the Course of Alcoholic Fermentation, 83 Pendlebury (C.), Revision Papers in Arithmetic, 347 Pennell (J.), Pictures of the Wonder of Work; Pictures of War Work in England, 385 de Pennington (Miss H.), appointed Research Assistant at Leeds University, 261 Pereira-Forjaz (A.), Spectrographic Studies of Portuguese Minerals of Uranium and Zirconium, 443 Pérez (J. A. S.), Compendio de Algebra de Abenbéder, 406 Péringuey (Dr. L.), South African Orthoptera, 415 Perkin (Prof. A. G.), The Future of the Coal-tar Industry, 143 Perkins (R. C.), A New Species of Digging-Wasp, 453 Perot (A.), Influence of the Wind on the Conditions of the Audibility of Sound, 83 Perrine (Prof. C. D.), The Total Solar Eclipse of 1916, February 3, 418 Perry (Prof. J.), Measurement of Time, 120 Perry (W. J.), The Geographical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines, 134 Petch, Experimental Tapping of Hevea Trees, 357 Petit (Prof. G.), and M. Leudet, Les Allemands et la Science, 66 : Petrie (Prof. Flinders), Funereal Figures in Egypt, 414 Petrie (Dr. J. M.), Chemical Investigation of some Poisonous Plants in the N.O. Solanacez, part iii., 463 Petronievics (Dr. B.), and Dr. A. Smith Woodward, New Parts of the Pectoral and Pelvic Arches in London Specimen of Archzopteryx, 283 Petrovitch (M.), Limit of Extensibility of an Arc of certain Curves, 443 Phillips (Prof. H. B.), Analytic Geometry, 88 Phillips (Rev. T. E. R.), Long-Period Variable Stars, 336 Pickering (Prof. E. C.), Eclipses of Jupiter’s Satellites, 417 Pickering (Prof. W. H.), Clouds on Mars, 397 Pictet (A.), L. Ramseyer, and O. Kaiser, Some Hydro- carbons contained in Coal, 183 Pidduck (F. B.), A Treatise on Electricity, 6 Piédallu (A.), Acclimatisation in France of Canaigre, 264 Pilgrim (G. E.), and G. de P. Cotter, Eocene Mammals from Burma, 481 Piper (C. W.), An Explosion Effect, Pirsson (Prof. L. V.), and Prof. C. book of Geology, 2 parts, 206 Pixell-Goodrich (Dr. H.), Entamoeba histolytica, 158; and M. Moseley, Certain Parasites of the Mouth in Cases of Pyorrhoea, 163; Index to the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 376 Platania (Prof. G.), A Peculiar Thunderclap, 209 Playfair (G. I.), Australian Fresh-water Phytoplankton, 463 Plommer (J. A.), Presentation of a Portion of a Hippurite to the British Museum, 112 Plummer (Prof. H. C.), elected an Honorary Member of the Optical Society, 213 Pocock, Report of the Hyderabad Observatory, 379 Ponting (H. G.), Exhibition of Kinematograph Films of Capt. Scott’s Expedition, 153 Poppius (Dr. B. R.), [death], 355 Portchinsky (Prof. J. A.) [obituary], 18 Porter (Dr. A.), The Flagellate Protozoa associated with Dysentery, 158 Porter (Prof. A. W.), Osmotic Pressure, 120 Porter (W. T.), Low Arterial Pressures and their Treat- ment, 223 Potter (Prof.), Plant Disease, 237 409 Schuchert, A Text- XIV Priest (S.), Phosphorescent Centipedes, 315; Scarcity of Wasps, 149 Probert (F. H.), The Treasure Chest of Mercurial Mexico, 19 Prosser (Dr. C. S.) [obituary], 112 Prothero (R.), Increasing the Production of Food, 333 Proudman (J.), A. T. Doodson, and G. Kennedy, Numerical Results of the Theory of the Diffraction of a Plane Electromagnetic Wave, 283 Puiseux (P.), The Physical Libration of the Moon, 183 Punnett (Prof.), and Capt. P. G. Bailey, Inheritance of Henny Plumage in Cocks, 262 Purdie (Prof. T.) [death], 313 ; [obituary article], 391 Purser (Dr. J. M.), appointed Regius Professor of Physic in the University of Dublin, 503 Quanjer, Leaf-roll Disease, 500 Rachel (S.), De Jure Nature et Gentium Dissertationes, 455 Rambaut (Dr. A. A.), Aurora Borealis, 397 Ramsay (Sir W.), the late, Proposed Memorial to, 132; Memorial to, 197; Proposed Glasgow Memorial to, 2 Ras aban: Condition of British Phytopathology, 237 Ranjard (M.), Cases of Deafness Treated by Marage’s Method, 64 Ransom, Endowment of a Research Fellowship in Phar- macology, 295 Rasmussen (Dr. A.), The Hibernation of Animals, 215 Rastall (R. H.), Agricultural Geology, 167 f Rayleigh (Lord), Talbot’s Observations on Fused Nitre, 428 ; Sir Wm. Ramsay, 197; The Dynamics of Revolving Fluids, 503 Read (Sir H.), Bronze Castings of Siberian or Scythian Work, etc., 477 Reaney (M. J.), Psychology of the Organised Group Game, 15 Recor is (R.), Plea for a Statute of, 172 \ Redwood (Sir Boverton), appointed Director of Munitions Petroleum Research, 475 : Reed (W. G.), and H. R. Tolley, Weather as a Business Risk in Farming, 20; Computing the Risk of Crops from Frost, 194 Reeves (E. A.), Presidential Address to the Geography Section of the British Association, 58 ? Regan (C. T.), Schmidt’s Second Report on Eel Investiga- tions, 203 Rehn (J. A. G.), and M. Hebard, The Dermaptera and Orthoptera of the Coastal Plain, etc., of the South- Eastern United States, 314 Reid (C.), and J. Groves, Characee from the Lower Headon Beds, 283; Characez in the Purbeck Lime- stones, 481 Reid (Clement) [death], 295; [obituary article], 312 Reiman (C. K.), Absolute Density of Hydrobromic Acid, 443 Rendle (Dr. A. B.), Preservation of Natural Colour in Plants, 191; Presidential Address to the Botany Section of the British Association, 217 Rennie (E. J. C.), appointed Acting Lecturer in Electrical Engineering in the University of Melbourne, 461 Renouard (A.), Use of Natural Dyestuffs in Consequence of the War, 235 Repelin (J.), New Species of Rhinocerotidz of the Oligocene of France, 424; Geology of the Islands of Pomégnes and Ratonneau, 324 Rew (Sir R. H.), Report on Prices and Supplies of Corn, etc., in England and Wales in 1915, 376 Reynolds (Dr. E. S.), appointed Bradshaw Lecturer for 1917, 451 wa : F ; Reynolds (J. H.), The Variable Nebula in Corona Australis, 6 5 Riach (M. A. S.), Air Screws: an Introduction to the Aerofoil Theory of Screw Propulsion, 465 Riboni (Dr. P.), Method of Separating Minerals, 436 Ribot (Prof. T. A.) [obituary], 452 Riccd (Prof. A.), Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere and Volcanic Eruptions, 190 Rice (Dr. H.), Proposed Expedition to Tropical South America, 133 Index Nature, March 15, 1937 Richards (E. H.), Economy of the Manure-heap, 301 - Richards (T. W.), and C. Wadsworth, Density of Radio- lead from Pure Norwegian Cleveite, 83 % Richardson (H.), The After-effects of War on Population, — 158 _ Richardson (Prof. O. W.), The Emission of Electricity from Hot Bodies, 146; and Dr. C, B. Bazzoni, Ob- servations on the Excitation of Helium Spectra, 5 : Richet (C.), The Alternating Use of Antiseptics, 303; and H. Cardot, Influence of Small Rises of Temperature on the Course of Fermentation, 423 ; Richter (A. A.), and E. M. Kollegorsky, Experiments on the Mechanism of Photosynthesis, 39 Rickard (T. A.), The Flotation Process, 246 . Riddle (Dr. O.), Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pigeons, 480 Ridgeway (Prof.), The Origin of the Actor, 198 Rignano (Prof. E.), A Plea for a Scientific Entente, 408; “Intentional” Reasoning, 175 Rindl (M.), Daphnin in the Arthrosolen, 404 , kare Preparation of Chemicals for Laboratory Use, Quadruple } 280 Ripper (Prof. W.), An Appreciation of Work, 385 ; Howard Lectures of the Royal Society of Arts, 482 Ritchie (Dr. W.), Some Forest Insects in Aberdeenshire, — 376; The Nematus erichsonii in Aberdeenshire, 376 Rivers (Dr. W. H. R.), The Cultivation of Taro, 199; to” deliver the FitzPatrick Lectures, 174 p 4 Roberts (Countess), Field-glasses for Army Use, 310 Roberts (Mrs. 1.), The Nebula Hu. 78 Leonis, 77 Roberts (Sergt. F. M.), Luminous Centipedes, 269 Robertson (Dr. D.), The Field of Scientific Knowledge, 316 Robertson (J. W.), A Shilling Arithmetic, 347 Robertson (Prof. T. B.), Isolating from an Extract of the Pituitary Gland, 435 | Robinson (W.), awarded the George Robert White Medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 355 4 Rockefeller (Mr.), Gift for a Medical Department in the © University of Chicago, 321 : Rogers (A. W.), Dinosaurs in Bushmanland, 481 Rolfs (P. H.), Subtropical Vegetable-Gardening, 189 Roosevelt (T.), Productive Scientific Scholarship, 462 Roscoe (Sir Henry), 225 Rosenberg (F.), Preliminary Geometry, 347 Ross (Sir R.), Reform of Public-School Education from the Point of View of Parents, 220; and Miss H. P. — - Hudson, An Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Study of a priori Pathometry, 483 ! Roth (Dr. W. E.), Animism and Folklore of the Guiana — Indians, 356 : Rotigliano (Prof. S.), Costruzioni di Strade e Gallerie, 365 — Roue (Dr. W. B.), Bequest for a Scholarship at the Bristol — General Hospital, 63 , Rouiller (C. A.), Synthesis of the Base C,H,ON,, 83 Roule (L.), Migration for Spawning in Salmo fario lacustris, — 243 Routledge (S.), Easter Island, 462; and Mrs. S., Results of the Expedition to Easter Island, 199 q Rowley (F. R.), Objects Preserved in Arsenious Acid Glycerine Jelly, 134 de Roy (F.), Maxima of Mira Ceti, 1915, 21 Royce (Prof. J.) [death], 153 Ruben (Mrs. A.), Gift to the University of Stockholm, 422 Russell (Dr. A.), A Treatise on the Theory of Alternating Currents, vol. ii. Second edition, 265; to deliver the Kelvin Lecture to the Institution of Electrical En- gineers, 152; Lord Kelvin’s Life and Work, 214 a Russell (Dr. E. J.), Agriculture and the Wheat Supply, 269 ; Presidential Address to the Agriculture Section of — the British Association, 259; Dr. N. H. J. Miller, 392; The Rothamsted Experiment Station, 214 y Russell (E. S.), Form and Function: a Contribution to the — History of Animal Morphology, 306 Russell (J.), Induction Changes in Demagnetised Iron and Nickel, 463 Ruston (A. G.), Rural Arithmetic, 88 Rutherford (Sir E.), X-ray Spectra of the Elements, 120 Ryan (H.), and P. Ryan, The Condensation of Aldehydes — with Ketones, iii., 323; and W. M. O’Riordan, The Tinctorial Constituents of some Lichens used as Dyes in Ireland, 323 Textile Institute, 143; The Work of Leeds University, (Prof. P. Y.), The Nestorian Monument in China, 6 e mith (E. C.), The Stanthorpe District of S. Queens- nd, ojloff (J. V.), Palzophysiology, 423 yn (Prof. R. A.), elected an Honorary Member of ptical Society, 213 ers iss G. J.), appointed Principal of the Swanley orticultural College, 162 nt (F.), The Great Red Spot on Jupiter, 257 ly (Dr. J.), The Aurora Borealis Display of August 7,57 undby (Prof. R.), appointed Harveian Orator for 1917, I es (Miss E. R.), and Prof. Bateson, Breeding Experi- ments, 238 wunders (J. T.), The Growth of Daphne pulex, 242 wuvage (Dr. H. E.) [obituary], 414 haller (W. T.), Mineralogic Notes, 416 hiff (J. H.), Gift to New York University, 482 ch om er. J.), Early Larval Stages of the Fresh-water 1 €tc., 394 jofield (S. J.), The Cranbrook Map-area, 398 Schreinemakers (Prof.), awarded the Bakhuis Roozeboom e _ Medal, 174 , Schwers (Dr. F.), Water Vapour in the Atmosphere and _ the Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves, 483 . ott oe A.), The Arran Pitchstones, 138 Scott (G. Shaw), The Journal of the Institute of Metals, i = Vol, XV., 69 Scripture (Dr. E. W.), Registration of Speech Sounds, 275 Seares (F. H.), A Simple Method for Determining the Colours of the Stars, 163; The Colour of Nebulz, 243 (A. N.), Bequest to Lafayette College, 23 gman (Prof.), A Primitive Form of Reaping Knife used in Kordofan, 53 ous (Capt. F. C.) [obituary article], 374; The Work of, 4 emple (Miss E. C.), The Pirate Coasts of the Medi- _ terranean, 55 ard (Prof. A. C.), Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, F.R.S., 211 ackleton (Sir E.), elected a Corresponding Member of the Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, 152; Rescue of Antarctic Expedition, 18 ind (Prof. S. J.), The Making of a_ University, 262 ‘Birds, 135 hapley (Dr. H.), Investigations of Star Clusters, 438; Studies of Magnitudes in Star Clusters, iii., 163; The Colours of Stars in Globular Clusters, 257; The Spectra of Cepheid Variables, 498 pley (M. B.), The Period of U Cephei, 56 rples, Collar-rot of Rubber Trees, 500 Shaw (K.), The Variable Nebula in Corona Australis, 56 Shaw (Sir Napier), Prof. Cleveland Abbe, 332; Meteor- ology and Wheat Shortage, 369; Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere in July and August, 1916, 90; Prof. Henrik Mohn, 211; The Deterioration of the Atmo- sphere in the Swiss Alps, 328; The Weather Map: an ____ Introduction to Modern Meteorology, 286 4 haw (Dr. P. E.), The Temperature Coefficient of Gravity, ee. 349 _ Shearer (C.), and H. W. Crowe, The Réle of the Phagocyte _ in Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, 242 Shearer (Sergeant), New Means of Delineating Internal _ Organs Iheehy (E. mb 344 ‘Shelley (Prof.), Address to the Teachers’ Guild, 379 Shepherd (R. J.), awarded the Elgar Scholarship of the Institution of Naval Architects, 23 94 a), Abnormality in Arterial Arches in a Rabbit, Index non (H. J.), Insect Migrations as Related to Those of . XV dler (Dr. M. E.), Address to the Annual Congress of the | Sheppard (E. J.), Migration of Nuclear Material into an Adjacent Cell, 383 Sheppard (T.), Medals in Connection with the Abolition of Slavery, 19 Sherman (Dr.), Dr. Carrel’s Method of Sterilising Wounds, 193 Sherry (R. H.), Gra’n-growth in Deformed and Annealed Low-Carbon Steel, 383 } Sherwood (G. H.), Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, 335 Shuttleworth (Dr. G, E.), and Dr. W. A. Potts, Mentally Deficient Children: their Treatment and Training. Fourth edition, 227 Sieff (M.), Manual of Russian Commercial Correspondence, go Silsbee (F. B.), Effect of Increase of the Testing Current on the Critical Temperature, 256 Silvestri (Dr. F.), and T. B. Fletcher, The Parasites of Dacus oleae, 497 Sim (T. R.), awarded sol. and the South Africa Medal by the South African Association, 42 Simanton (F. L.), The “Terrapin” Scale, 114 Simons (L.), Ionisation of Gases and the Absorption of Réntgen Rays, 403 Simpson (E. S.), Tapiolite in the Pilbara Goldfield, Western Australia, 423 Simpson (Lieut. J. C.) [death], 313 Sinnott (Prof. E. W.), Comparative Rapidity of Evolution in Various Plant Types, 76 Sivewright (Sir J.) [death], 37; Bequests to Milne’s Institu- tion, Fochabers, and Aberdeen University, 63 Skinner (H. D.), Maori Weapons, 275 Slipher (Dr. V. M.), Spectrum of the Nebula about Rho Ophiuchi, 236 Sloane (T. G.), New Species of (Coleoptera), 283 Small (J.), The Floral Anatomy of some Composite, 303 ; Wind-dispersal Apparatus, 303 Smith (A. L.), Educational Reform, 359 Smith (C.) [death], 213; [obituary], 233 Smith (Prof. Clayton), Comparative Resistance of Prunus to Crown Gall, 477 Smith (E. F.), Crown Gall and Cancer, 83 Smith (Capt. E. J.) [obituary], 132 Smith (Prof. G. Elliot), Arboreal Habits and the Evolution of Man, 426; Recently Discovered Fossil Human Skulls, 258; Ships as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, 394; The Common Objections to the Reality of the Migrations of Early Culture, 342; The Pheenicians and Megalithic Culture, 134 Smith (Dr. S.), Aulina rotiformis, etc., 242 Smith (Dr. W. H.), Recommendation for a Gift to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital for the Treatment of Cancerous and other Ailments, 82 Smith (Capt. W. R.), and Mrs. Smith, Gift to the National Museum of Wales, 172 Smithells (Prof. A.), Technical Bias in Schools, 400 Smythe (Dr. J. A.), Modified Chlorination Process, 280 Snyder (Prof. V.), A Mathematical Course of an Italian Technical School, 396 Soddy (Prof. F.), French Translation of “The Chemistry of the Radio-elements,” 115; Science in Education, 90; The Atomic Weight of “Thorium” Lead, 469; The Future of Science and What Bars the Way, 371 Somerville (Prof.), Increased Agricultural Product.on, 400; Past and Future of British Forestry, 302 Soparkar (Dr.), Cultivating the Tubercle Bacillus from Sputum, 75 Southwell (T.), appointed Director of Fisheries, Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, 37; Report of the Department of Fisheries, Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, 496 Sparrow (C. M.), Spectroscopic Revolving Power, 216 Splendore (Prof.), A Plague of Voles in Italy and ‘ts Control, 338 Spooner (Dr. D. B.), Origin of Indian Temples, 113 Squier (Lt.-Col. G. O.), Scientific Research for National Defence, 439 St. John (Dr.), Anomalous Dispersion in the Sun, 136; The Suggested Mutual Repulsion of Fraunhofer Lines, Australian Carabidz 83; and Miss Ware, Measurement of Close Solar Lines, 40 XVi Stanton (Dr. T. E.), The Principle of Similitude in En- gineering Design, 158 Stead (Dr. J. E.), Oxidation of Nickel Steel, etc., 280 Stebbing (E. P.), British Forestry: Its Present Position and Outlook after the War, 105 de Stefani (Dr. C.), Exploration of the Tecchia d’Equi, 453 Stefansson Canadian Arctic Expedition, Work of the, 297 Stein (Sir Aurel), Third Journey in Central Asia, 110 Stein (M. F.), Water-Purification Plants and their Opera- tion, 105 Steinmetz (Dr. C. P.), Scientific Research in Relation to Industries, 420 Stevenson (E.), Need of Organisation in the Rubber Trade, 209 Stevenson (M. C.), The Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians, 401 Stewart (Capt. F. H.), The Life-history of Ascaris lum- bricoides, 479 Stiles (Dr. C. W.), Notice of Possible Suspension of the Rules of Nomenclature in the Cases of Holothuria, 1758, vs. Physalia, 1801, and Bohadschia, 1833, vs. Holothuria, 1791, 49 7 Still (C. J.), Resignation from the Belfast Municipal Tech- nical Institute, 482 : Stirling (J.) [obituary], 435 Stirling-Maxwell (Sir J. S.), Afforestation after the War, 238 Stockdale (F. A.), appointed Director of Agriculture, Ceylon, 375 Stoney (G.), Presidential Address to the Engineering Section of the British Association, 159 Stopes (Dr. Marie C.), Recent Researches on Mesozoic “Cycads,” 383; Prof. Seward, and Prof. Weiss, The Botanical Aspects of Coal, 237 Stott (H. G.) [obituary], 452 Strémgren (Prof.), Encke’s Comet, 77 Strong (Very Rev. T. B.), Address to the University of Oxford, 123 Strutt (Hon. E. G.), appointed an Agricultural Adviser to the Board of Agriculture, 495 Strutt (Hon. R. J.), Spectroscopic Observations on the Active Modification of Nitrogen, 482 Stuart-Menteath (P. W.), Tertiary Igneous Rocks of the Pyrenees, 448 Surface (F. M.), Inheritance of certain Glume Characters in the Cross Avena fatua x A. sativa, var. Kherson, 83 Sutherland (Dr. G. A.), to deliver the Lumleian Lectures, 593 Swinburne (J.), Science and Industry, 202 ~ Swinton (A. A. C.), and E. Beale, The Bursting of Bubbles, 469 Symonds (Col. C. J.), to deliver the Bradshaw Lecture, 233 Tait (Dr. J.), Experiments and Observations on Crustacea, parts i., ii., iil., 323 Talbot (J. S.), Science in School Education, 217 Talbot (Mrs. P. Amaury) [death], 476 Tammes (Dr. T.), The Mutual Effect of Genotypic Factors, 119 Taylor (Rev. C. S.), Scarcity of Wasps, 248 Taylor (F. H.), Australian Culicidze (Diptera), No. iii., 283; Australian Tabanidz, part ii., 363 Taylor (Dr. Griffith), Glacial Nomenclature and Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, 149; Investigations of the Meteorology of the Upper Air at Melbourne, 20 Tebbutt (J.) [death], 434; [obituary], 451 Telfer (E. V.), awarded the Scholarship of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders, 182 Tempany (Dr. H. A.), appointed Director of Agriculture, Mauritius, 375 Temple (Rev. W.), Presidential Address to the Educational Science Section of the British Association, 238 Theiler (Sir A.), and W. Robertson, The Life-history of Trichostrongylus douglasi, 439 Thoday (D.), Botany: a Text-book for Senior Students, 485 Thomas (Prof. B. A.), and Dr. R. H. Ivy, Applied Immunology, 88 Thomas (Dr. E. N.), Botany at the British Association, 237 \Vegard (L.), and O. Krogness, Observations of the Aurora [ Nature, . March 15, 1937 Thomas (N. W.), Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone, 3 parts, 1; Specimens of Languages from Sierra Leone, 1 Thomas (Miss R. Haig), Colour and Pattern Transference in Pheasant-Crosses, 480 ete Coe Thompson (A. Beeby), Oil-Field Development and Petro- leum Mining, 425 ‘ Thompson (Prof. D’Arcy W.), Stability in Flight, 409, 490; The School of Pythagoras, 165 g Thompson (the late Prof. S. P.), Exhibition and Sale of © Water-colours by, 233; The Scientific Library of the late, 313 Thomson (Prof. E.), awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, 212, 279 ; Thomson (Sir J. J.), The Scientific Work of the Medallists of the Royal Society, 277; and others, Research Work, 272 3 Thomson (Dr. J. S.), The Gorganacea of the Cape of Good — Hope, 283 7 Thonner (F.), The Flowering Plants of Africa, 26 Thorburn (A.), British Birds, vols. ii. and iii., 30 Thornton (Prof. W. M.), Influence of Pressure on the Elec- — trical Ignition of Methane, 158; Stepped Ignition in~ Gases, 280 Thorpe (Sir E.), Sources of Nitrogen Compounds in the — United States, 431; The Life-work of Dr. E. K. Muspratt, 325; The Right Hon. Sir Henry Enfield — Roscoe, 22 Tilden (Sir W. A.), to lecture on Chemistry and its Relation to National Affairs, 282 Tillyard (R. J.), Australian Neuroptera, 24, 224; Elasticity and Entomology, 128; Emergence of Dragonfly Larve from the Egg, 243; The Radial and Zygopterid Sectors — in the Wings of Odonata, 464 ‘4 Titchener (Prof. E. B.), The Tests for Determining Colour Vision, etc., of the Torres Straits Expedition, 214 du Toit (P. J.), Relation of Production to Consumption, 42 Torp (Prof. A.) [death], 174 Totani (G.), Feeding Experiments with Rats, 300 Trelease (W.), The Oaks of America, 403 Tribe (M.), The Development of the Pancreas, 322 Trouton (Dr. F. T.), The Title of Emeritus Professor of Physics Conferred upon, 321 ‘ Troxell (E. L.), Birds’ Eggs of Oligocene Age in Nebraska, 481; Pliohippus lullianus, 395 Y Tsurumi (Dr.), Heterologous Tumour Immunity, 39 Tuckey (C. O.), and W. A. Nayler, Statics: a First Course, 347 Turner (Dr. A. J.), Australian Microlepidoptera, 224; The Lepidopterous Fauna of Ebor Scrub, N.S.W., 24 Turner (Prof. H. H.), Address to the Association of Public- School Science Masters, 400; Discontinuities in Meteor- ological Phenomena, 343; Measurement of Time, 120 Turner (R. E.), Wasps of the Genus Pison, 222 Turner (Dr. W. E. S.), appointed Lecturer Technology at Sheffield University, 261 Turrettini (Col. T.) [obituary], 174 Tutton (Dr. A. E. H.), Monoclinic Double Selenates of the Nickel Group, 282; X-ray Analysis, etc., 282 Tylor (Sir E. B.) [obituary article], 373 Tyndall (A. M.), and G. W. White, on the “* Wolf-note ’’ of the Violin and ’Cello, 29 Tyrrell (J. B.), Arrival and Departure of Ships at and from Moose Factory, 155 in Glass Umney (C.) [obituary], 254 Underwood (Prof. A. S.) [obituary], 295 Vattel (E.), Le Droit des Gens, 455 Vaughan (Mrs. Gwynne), Gift to the Botanical Depart- ment of Glasgow University, 142 Borealis at the Haldde Observatory, 223. Veglia (Dr. F.), Anatomy and Life-history of Haemonchus contortus, 439 Vernon (Dr. H. M.), Output of Munition Workers in Rela- tion to Hours of Work, 315 Voegtlin (Prof. C.), The Chemical Nature of Vitamines, 373 al ; omte M.) [obituary], 254 f. V.), elected an Honorary Member of the institution, 273 aa Y.), The Bai or ‘‘ Sand-Mist,’’ 256 (Sir C.), Scholarships in Connection with the ord Kitchener Memorial Fund, 82 (Dr. C. D.), Cambrian Trilobites, 454, 481; and , Field Work on the Continental Divide, 194 (Prof. W. von), Raised to Hereditary Nobility, O.), Scarcity of Wasps, 148 -), The Granite of the Schapenberg, 84 B.), Flora of the Ipswich and Walloon Series, Vall . A.), A Plea for a System of Internal Examina- on in the New Zealand University, 362 r (Prof. A. D.), Apparatus for the Administration of own Percentages of Chloroform, 177; Food Stan- dards and Man Power, 179 Ilis (B. C.), Macmillan’s Graphic Geographies. British Isles, 488 Imsley (Dr. R. M.), Depletion of the Universities and _ Technical Colleges of Engineering and Chemical _ Students, 53 Wardlaw (Dr. H. S. H.), Change of Composition of _ Alveolar Air, 463 die (H. N.), Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-cowrie in America, 308 rren (Sir H.), Shakespeare’s England, 491 ington (H. S.), Apparent Correspondence between the _ Chemistry of Igneous Magmas and of Organic Meta- — bolism, 403 Waterhouse (C. O.) [death], 451; [obituary], 476 _ Waters (A. W.), The Littoral Marine Fauna of the Cape _ - Verde Islands, 283 _ Waterston (Rev. J.), Fleas as a Menace to Man and ____ Domestic Animals, 75 Watkins-Pitchford (Dr. W.), and Dr. J. Moir, Nature of _ Mineral Matter in the Lung Tissue in Miner’s Phthisis, «416 Vatkinson (Prof. W. H.), Tests with Diesel Engines, 158 Watson (D. M. S.), and H. Day, Some Palzozoic Fishes, The ‘ pest -135:- 4 atson (Prof. G. N.), The Theory of Asymptotic Series, a 120 Watson (J.), British and Foreign Marbles and other Orna- mental Stones, 327 (H. J.), The Typical Form of the Cochlea and its Variations, 322 ugh (F. W.), Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation, 402 ynforth (Prof. H. M.) [death], 193; [obituary], 214 er (Dr. J. H.), Pappus of Alexandria, 396 bster (A. D.), Tree Wounds and Diseases, 427 berg (M.), and P. Séguin, The Etiology of Gaseous angrene, 223 ss (Prof. F. E.), Manufacture of Manure from Peat, _ 283; Dr. A. D. Imms, and W. Robinson, Plants in _____ Health and Disease, 330 Welch (C.), Administration of the Bequest of, 461 Veld (Prof. L. D. H.), The Marketing of Farm Products, 245 Veld *tProf. Le Roy D.), Theory of Errors and Least Squares, 385 . lis (R. C.), Extraction of Potash from Wyomingite, 276 s (S. H.), Order of the Nile Conferred upon, 375 ntworth (Prof. E. N.), Sex-limited Colour in Ayrshire Cattle, 480 rtheimer (Dr.), A Modified ‘‘ Sandwich’’ System of _ | Training, 182 West (G.), The Practical Principles of Plain Photo-micro- graphy, 47 Westerdijk (Dr. J.), appointed Extraordinary Professor of Phytopathology in the University of Utrecht, 422 : -Westropp (T. J.), The Progress of Irish Archzology, 113 _ Weyland (E. J.), Teeth of a Horse found at Wellawatta, 477 ve rry (T.), Soil Conditions favoured by Camptosorus __-rhizophyllus, 415 f Beith» ‘ Lndex XVil Whitaker (Prof. M. H.), Resignation of the Editorship of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 174 White a, J. D.), Steering by the Stars for Night-flying, etc., 67 Whitehead (Prof. A. N.), Presidential Address to the Mathe- matical and Physical Science Section of the British Association, 80; Technical Education, 380; The Organisation of Thought, 362 Whitelegge (T.), The Gametophyte of Psilotum triquetrum, 203 Whitfield (Dr. J. E.), The Chemical and Mineralogical Composition of Meteorites, 395 Whitmell (C. T.), Searchlights, 269 F Whittaker (C. M.), British Coal-tar Colour Industry in Peace and in War, 280; The British Coal-tar Industry and its Difficulties in Time of War, 357 P Whittaker (Prof. E. T.), The Adelphic Dynamics, 323 ; Whyte (A. G.), The World’s Wonder Stories for Boys and Girls, 208 Wibberley (T.), Climate and Crop: Production, 301 Wilberforce (W.), Medals in Connection with the Work of, Integral in 19 Wildermuth (V. L.), Life-history of Chrysopa californica, 75 Wilhelm (R. M.), Determination of the Freezing Point of Mercury, 276 Wilkins (Lieut. F. T.), Trials of a Small Diesel Engine, 176 Wilkinson (Prof. J. A.), Need of the Organisation of Chemical Industry and Research, 41; The Industries and Resources of South Africa and the Necessity of Research, 437 Williams (W. A.), and others, Physical and Chemical Re- searches on Rubber, 299 Williston (Prof. S. W.), American Permo-Carboniferous Tetrapoda, 356; Sphenacodon, Marsh, 403 Wills (L. J.), Structure of the Lower Jaw of Triassic Labyrinthodonts, 55 Wilmore (Dr. A.), The Northern Pennines, 138 Wilson (Prof. E. B.), Equations of Motion of an Aeroplane, 115 Wilson (Prof. J.), A Manual of Mendelism, 3 Wilson (Canon J. M.), A Thirteenth-Century MS. of Euclid’s Elements, Book I., 298; and the Writer of the Article, Science in Education, 470; Science in Public Schools, 489 Winfrey (Sir R.), appointed Organiser of the Land Settle- ment Scheme for ex-Service Men, 355 Winterbottom (D. C.), Supplies and Cost of Raising ‘* Marine Fibre,’’ 397 Wolf (Dr. Max), Encke’s Comet, 156; Spectrum of the Nebula H rv. 39 Argiis, 77 Wood (McKinnon), Savings Resulting from the Closing of the National Museums and Picture Galleries, 132 Wood (Prof.), The Surface Law of Heat Loss in Animals, 262 Wood (T. B.), and K. J. J. Mackenzie, Economy in Meat Production, 302 Woodhouse (G. F.), An Intermediate Text-book of Mag- netism and Electricity, 127 Woods (E. A.), awarded a Burney Yeo Scholarship at King’s College Hospital Medical School, 63 Woodward (Dr. A. Smith), and J. Pringle, A New Species of Edestus, 162 Woodward (H. P.), Geological Reconnaissance of a Portion of the Murchison Goldfield, 399 Woolacott (Dr. D.), The Permian Formation of Newcastle, 138 Woolaaush (F.), The Evolution of Provincial Museums, 376 Worsdell (W. C.), The Principles of Plant Teratology, vol. i., 485 Worthington (Prof. A. M.) [obituary article], 293 Wright (C. W.), Copper Mountain and Kasaan Peninsula, II Wright (F.), Mammalian Fauna of North Cardiganshire, 114 Wright (Dr. W.), The Art of the Cave, 51 Wright (W. B.), Theory of Isostasy as applied to the Quaternary Oscillations of Sea-level, 499 XViil Wrightson (Prof. J.) [death], 273; [obituary article], 294 Wundt (Prof. W.), translated by Prof. E. L. Schaub, Elements of Folk Psychology, 346 Wynne-Edwards (Rev. J. R.), Science Teaching in Schools, 380 Yates (J.), appointed Head of the Chemistry Department of the Derby Technical College, 402 Yerkes (R. M.), A New Method of Studying Ideational and Allied Forms of Behaviour in Man and other Animals, 403 ; Ideational Behaviour of Monkeys and Apes, 403 Yersin (Dr. A.), awarded the Lasserre Prize, 313 Young (G. C.), The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences, 197 Young (R. K.), The Spectroscopic Binary x Aurigz, 116 Young (Prof. W. H.), Multiple Integrals, 221 Yule (Miss A. F.), Bequest of the House and Grounds of Tarradale, 382 Index Nature, iy March 15, 1917 ?: 5 ae Yule (Udny), appointed Head of the Information and Statistical Bureau of the Ministry of Food, 393 ef Zeeman (Prof. P.), Direct Measurement of the Axial Velocity of Water in Fizeau’s Experiment, 64; Fizeau’s Experiment, 298 "a Zeleny (C.), Comparison of the Rates of Regeneration from Old and from New Tissue, 83; The Effect of Succes- sive Removal upon the Rate of Regeneration, 83. Zenghelis (C.), and S. Horsch, Chemical Action of Sodium Peroxide upon Hydrogen Sulphide, 223; Chemical Action of Sodium Peroxide upon the Oxides of Carbon, 203 Zimmer (G. F.), The Use of Meteoritic Iron by Primitive — Man, 350 a. Zon (R.), The Timber Resources of South America, 255 Zoretti (Prof. L.), Exercices Numériques et Graphiques de — Mathématiques, 347 EIT LE O)! en University, Bequest to: by W. Jackson, ; y Si i Bivowreiit, %3 ‘ wyth, University College of Wales, Gift to, 321 igios s’ Culinary. Methods and Kitchen Middens, . D. Le Souef, 53 ands, A System of, de Broglie, 183 and Bases in Sea-water, Equilibrium between, L. J. on and E. J. Cohn, 403 d Beyond, 306 e Origin of the, Prof. Ridgeway, 198 : rbazides, The.Preparation of, J. Bougault, 64 ; Integral in Dynamics, The, Prof. E. T. Whittaker, ‘oe 4 , Calculation of the Capacity of, Prof. G. W. O. Howe, 158 1’Aéronautique, mautical Theories, Prof. G. H. Bryan, 465 ane: Equations of Motion of an, Prof. E. B. Wilson, 115; Longitudinal Initial Motion, etc., of a Disturbed, _ Dr. S. Brodetsky, 417; The Case for the Large, F. H. _ Page, 476 lanes: Dynamical Stability of, J. Hunsaker and others, 465; Mathematical Work on, S. Brodetsky, 97 ; The Design of, A. W. Judge, 45 \fi estation after the War, Sir J. S. Stirling-Maxwell, 238 Africa: The Flora of all, Dr. W. B. Hemsley, 26; The _ Flowering Plants of, F. Thonner, 26 can Myxamycetes, Miss A. V. Duthie, 403 ltural: Chemistry, Organic (The Chemistry of Plants and Animals), Prof. J. S. Chamberlain, 366; Produc- tion, Increased, Prof. W. Somerville, 400 friculture: American Books on, 245; and the Wheat Supply, Dr. E. J. Russell, 269; at the British Associa- tion, jor; Need of Co-ordination of Science with _ Practice in, Lord Blyth, 413; Tropical, Risks of, Prof. B. Farmer, 299 omy, The Principles of, Prof. F. S. Harris and G. ‘Stewart, 245 No. 1, 316 r: Alveolar Change of Composition of, Dr. H. S. H. Wardlaw, 463; Board, Re-organisation of the, 374; Composition of the, 451; Breathing Vertebrates, In- fil ence of Silurian—Devonian Climates on the Rise of, J. Barrell, 83; Screws: an Introduction to the -Aerofoil Theory of Screw Propulsion, M. A. S. Riach, D5 aft Politics in War Time, 498 S Mineral Resources of, A. H. Brooks, 118; The ai Peninsula, G. C. Martin, B. L. Johnson, and S. Grant, 118 l, Effect of Administration of, to the Domestic Fowl, -. R. Pearl, 194 nium digitatum, Development of, Miss A. Matthews, 4 4 aes seith Ketones, Condensation of, iii., H. Ryan and P. Ryan, 323 ra: An Arabic, 406; de Abenbéder, Compendio de, A. S. Pérez, 406 aic Equations, Roots of, A. Kempner, 396 Action of, in the Production of Lipolytically Active rotein, K. G. Falk, 243 mands, Les, et la Science, Prof. G. Petit and M. “Leudet, 66 Index XIX INDEX. Alpine Strain in the Bengali People, Ramaprasad Chanda, 491 Alternating : Currents, A Treatise on the Theory of, Dr. A. Russell, vol. ii., Second edition, 265; in Theory and Practice, W. H. N. James, 265; Electric Currents, Prof. J. A. Fleming, 265 Alto Adige, Handbook and Index to the Names on the Staff Map of the, 176 Aluminium, Determination of, as Oxide, W. Blum, 76 Alvarenga Prize, The, of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 355 Amazonian Plants, New, A. Drucke, 454 America: North, Close of Jurassic and Opening of Cre- taceous Time in, H. F. Osborn, 119; South, The Timber Resources of, R. Zon, 255; South, Tropical, Proposed Expedition to, Dr. H. Rice, 133; The Oaks of, W. Trelease, 403 American : Association for the Advancement of Science, The, 448; Books on Agriculture, 245; Civil Engineers’ Pocket-Book, Edited by M. Merriman, Third edition, 486; Electrical Engineering Firms and Teachers, A. Gray, 361; Geographical Society of New York, Memorial Volume of the Transcontinental Excursion of 1912 of the, 226; Indian, Museum of the, 436; Mammals, The Larger, E. W. Nelson, 394; Museum of Natural History, Attendance at the, 153; Museum of Natural History, Bequest to the, by J. Gaunt, 3<5; Museum of Natural History, Papers on Fossil Verte- brata, 257; Nature-Study, 2; Tetrapoda, Prof. S. W. Williston, 356 Ammonia: Sulphate of, Application of, to the Wheat Crop, 97; The Thermodynamic Properties of, F. G. Keyes and R. B. Brownlee, 69 Ameebz, Cultural, from the Intestine of Man, Dr. H. B. Fantham; The Reviewer, 390 Amsterdam Colonial Institute, The, 22 Amyeterides, Revision of the, part v., Dr. E. W. Fer- guson, 243 . Analyst, Decennial Index of the, vols. xxxi.—xl., M. A. Baker, 468 Analyst, The Training of an, F. Browne, 478 Anaphylaxy, The Causes of, J. Danysz, 424 Anatomy, Journal of, Change of Editor and Management of the 313 Ancient: Earthworks and Fortified Enclosures, Report of Committee on, 496; Fabrics, Value of Design and Colour in, M. D. C. Crawford, 355 Anemometer, The Linear Hot-Wire, Dr. L. V. King, 155 Anima Animans, 125 Animal Parasites of Man, The, Dr. H. B. Fantham, Prof. J. W. W. Stephens, and Prof. F. V. Theobald, 305 Annealing Glass, Prof. C. V. Boys, 150 Anoplura and Mallophaga, Studies on the, B. F. Cum- mings, 283 Anthropology at the British Association, 198 Anti-anthrax and other Serums, Dr. R. Norris, 296 Antiseptics: The Alternating Use of, C. Richet, 303; The Comparative Action of, on Pus and on Pure Cultures, A. Lumiére, 144 Aphidoletes meridionalis, Life-history and Habits of, J. J. Davis, 296 Arboreal : Habits and the Evolution of Man, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 426; Man, Prof, F. Wood Jones, 426 Arboricultural Pathology, 427 Are of Certain Curves, Limit of Extensibility of an, M. Petrovitch, 443 Archeological Lights, New, on the Origins of. Civilisation in Europe, Sir A. Evans, 12 Permo-Carboniferous - XxX Index Archeology of the Middle Americas, 70 Archzopteryx, London Specimen of, Pectoral and Pelvic Arches in the, Dr. B. Petronievics and Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 283 Archives médicales belges, a Forthcoming Periodical, 273 Archotermopsis, Structure and Biology of, Dr. A. D. Imms, 322 Argentina, Sociedad, de Ciencias Naturales, Sir E. Shackleton and W. H. Hudson elected Corresponding Members of the, 152 Argentine Meteorology, W. G. Davis, 337 Arithmetic: A Shilling, J. W. Robertson, 347; Revision Papers in, C. Pendlebury, 347; Rural, A. G. Ruston, 88 Armagh Observatory, J. A. Hardcastle appointed Astronomer to the, 295 Army, The Health of the British, Sir A. Keogh, 495 Arran Pitchstones, The, Dr. A. Scott, 138 Arsenious Acid Glycerine Jelly, Objects Preserved in, F. A. Rowley, 134 Art of the Cave, Dr. W. Wright, 51 Arterial : Arches in a Rabbit, Abnormality in, E. J. Sheehy, 344; Pressure, Low, Methods of Raising a, Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 241; Pressures, Low, and their Treat- » ment, W. T. Porter, 223 Artificial Limbs, Forthcoming Exhibition of, 273 Artillery and Rainfall, “Moriturus,” 229 Arts and Crafts, Forthcoming Exhibition of, 27 Ascaris Infection in Hong Kong, Experiments on, 479 Ascaris lumbricoides, Life-history of, Capt. F. H. Stewart, 479 Ashanti, Stone Implements from, A. W. Cardinall, 435 Association of Technical Institutions, Forthcoming Meeting of the, 123, 156 Astronomical: Compass, Visible, Rev. Wm. Hall’s, 98; Society of the Pacific, Award of the Bruce Gold Medal to Prof. E. E. Barnard, 393; Station of the Island of Notre-Dame, Position and Co-ordinates of the, G. Bigourdan, 323 ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. Comets : Encke’s Comet, Prof. Strémgren, 77; Encke’s Comet, Dr. Max Wolf, 156; Ephemeris of Coit 1916b (Wolf), R. T. Crawford, 257; A New Comet, Rev. J. Metcalf, 277; Mellish Comet, 1915a, 358; Comet 1916b (Wolf), Dr. Berberich, 437 Instruments : Proper Motions by the Blink-Microscope, R. T. A. Innes, 56; Rev. Wm. Hall’s Visible Astronomical Compass, 98 Meteors : Fireball of October 3, 116, 136; Two Large Fireballs, 156; Fireball of October 20, W. F. Denning, 176; The Orionid Shower of 1916, 177; The Leonids of 1916, W. F. Denning, 236; The Meteoric Shower from Biela’s Comet, 257; Large Meteor on January 4, W. F. Denning, 379 Observatories : The Van Vleck Observatory, 22; Hyderabad Observa- tory, 379; Almanac of the Madrid Obsorvatory, 438; United States Naval Observatory, 455; Report of the Cape Observatory for 1915, 499 Planets : 5 Observations of Minor Planets in France, 41; Photo- graphs of Mars, G. H. Hamilton, 77; Mercury Visible before Sunrise, 116; The Great Red Spot on Jupiter, F. Sargent, 257; The Search for a Transneptunian Planet, A. Borelly, 277; Total Eclipse of the Moon, 336; Mercury an Evening Star, 336; Long-Period Variable Stars, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 336; Clouds on Mars, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 397; Eclipses of Jupiter’s Satellites, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 417 Stars: Maxima of Mira Ceti, 1915, F. de Roy, 21; A Faint Star with Large Proper Motion, Prof. Barnard, 22; The System of Polaris, L. Courvisier, 22; Spectra and Absolute Magnitudes of Stars, G. S. Monk, 41; The Variable Nebula in Corona Australis, J. H. Reynolds and K, Shaw, 56; The Period of U Cephei, M. B. Shapley, 56; The Nebula Hn. 78 Leonis, Mrs. I. Sun: Measurement of Close Solar Lines, Dr. C. E. St. John — Miscellaneous : , A New Astronomical Journal (La Revue Verte), 116; A Astronomy, Egyptian, and the Zodiac, J. Offord, 7 Asymptotic Series, The Theory of, Prof. G. N. Watson, 120 _ Athenzum Club, Sir R.. Hadfield, Sir Douglas Haig, and Atlas Céleste, Petit, G. Bigourdan, 208 At Last! 285 Atmosphere: Optical Deterioration of the, in July and Atmospheric Disturbances of October and November, 1916, Aulina rotiformis, etc., Dr. S. Smith, 242 x Auriga, The Spectroscopic Binary, R. K. Young, 116 Aurora: and Magnetic Disturbances of August 27, 1916, Aurora Borealis: Display of, on August 26-27, Dr. J. Australasia, Canada and, Geological Work in, 398 Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Scientific Reports of the, [ Nature, A March 15, 1917 Roberts, 77; Spectrum of the Nebula Hiv. 39 Argus, Dr. Max Wolf, 77; The Masses of Visual Binary Stars, R. T. A. Innes, 99; The Distribution of B Stars, Prof. Charlier, 116; The Spectroscopic Binary x Auriga, R. K. Young, 116; The Variable Star SZ Cygni, F. C. Leonard, 136; Internal Motion in Spiral Nebule, A. van Maanen, 156; The Radial Velocity of 8 Urse Majoris, 196; Wolf-Rayet Bands in the Nuclei of Nebulez, G. F. Paddock, 196; Barnard’s High Proper- Motion Star, Prof. Barnard and Mr. Adams, 196; The Eclipsing Binary RX Herculis, R. H. Baker and E. E. Cummings, 216; The Solar Apex Determined by Means of Binary Stars, L. Janssen, 236; Spectrum of the Nebula about Rho Ophiuchi, Dr. V. M. Slipher, 236; The Colours of Stars in Globular Clusters, Dr. Se ley, 257; The Variable Nebula N.G.C. 2261, E. P. Hubble, 298; Parallaxes of Two Stars with Common Motion, O. J. Lee, 317; Rotation and Radial Velocity of N.G.C. 4594, F. G. Pease, 358; The hy a Variables, Dr. Ludendorff, 397; Peculiar Stellar Spec- tra, Miss Cannon, 417; Investigations of Star Clusters, Dr. H. Shapley, 438; Cluster Variables, Prof. S. I. _ Bailey, 455; Parallaxes of Procyon and Altair, Dr. S. A. Mitchell, 479; Densities of Visual Binary Stars, I, Opik, 479; The Spectra of Cepheid Variables, Dr. Shapley, 498; Daylight Photography of Stars, A. F. and F. A. Lindemann, 499 and Miss Ware, 40; The Psychology of Differential Measurements, H. H. Plaskett, 41; Effect of Haze on Solar Rotation Measures, R. E. De Lury, 99; Anoma- lous Dispersion in the Sun, J. Evershed and Dr. Royds; — Dr, St. John; Dr. A. S. King, 136; Ultra-Violet Radia-_ tion from the Sun, Prof. Birkeland, 177; Radial Motion in Sun-spots, J. Evershed, 196; Solar Promin- ences in 1916, 277: The Total Solar Eclipse of 1916, February 3, Prof. C. D. Perrine, 418; A Great Sun- spot, 478 b Catalogue of Meteorites, Dr. G, P. Merrill, 196; Spec- troscopic Resolving Power, C. M. Sparrow, 216; The Minimum Radiation Visually Perceptible, Dr. H. E. — Ives, 216; The Zodiacal Light, W. F. Denning, 277; The Longitude of Washington, 298; The Structure of the Red Lithium Line, Dr. A. S. King, 299; Rémer’s Discovery of the Velocity of Light, Mrs. K. Meyer, 317; The Cookeville Meteorite, G. P. Merrill, 358; Extra-focal Photometry, R. H. Baker and E. E, Cum- mings, 379; Aurora Borealis, W. F. Denning; A. A. Rambaut, 397; The Lake Okechobee Meteorite, G. P. Merrill, 455 Prof. Gilbert Murray elected Members of the, 474 August, 1916, Sir N. Shaw and Dr. Maurer, 90; and Volcanic Eruptions, Prof. A. Riccd, 190; e De- terioration of the, in the Swiss Alps, Dr. Maurer, Sir N. Shaw, 328 The, A. Nodon, 443 J. E. Grubb, 57; Display on August 26, A. T. Hopwood, 40; The, Magnetic Storm, and Sun-spot of January 4, Rev. A. L. Cortie, 446 Satterly, 57; Results of Observations of, at Haldde Observatory, L.. Vegarde and O. Krogness, 223; W. F. Denning; Dr. A. A. Rambaut, 397 233; Association, Abandonment of the Hobart Meeting of the, 132 rabidze, New Species of, T. G. Sloane, 283; a, New Species of, A. M. Lea, part xii., 363; er Phytoplankton, G. I. Playfair, 463; pidoptera, Studies in, Dr. A. J: Turner, 224; Studies. of, C. Hedley, part iii., 363 ; Mosses, Species of, Dr. V. H. Brotherus, 283: Neuroptera. rm Tillyard, 24, 224; Tabanide, F.. H. Taylor, » 363 ' niversities, Students in the, 282 fatua x A. sativa, var. Kherson, Inheritance of cer- Glume Characters in, F. M. Surface, 83 ition and Aeronautical Engineering, 76 (Porifera), Revision of the b iced E. F. Hall- part ii., 283 — ttle, Sex-Limited Colour in, Prof. om: N. Went- 480 “War Maps. () ogical Research in Bombay, 52 acteriology, Aids to, C. G. Moor and W. Partridge. Third edition, 89 erium campestre in South Africa, Dr. E. M. Doidge, Europe, Embracing all the Countries 500 or “‘ Sand-mist,’’ The, Prof. Y. Wada, 256 ; Kkhuis: Roozeboom Medal awarded to Prof. Schreine- on makers, 174 int, A New System of Transmission by a, R. illery, 263 Expedition to Peru, The, Dr. C. Lapworth, 442 in the Leaves of Tobaccos, and Trees, Amounts of, Artis.and H. L. Maxwell, 21 s High Proper-Motion Star, Prof. Barnard and . Adams, 196 ; Glacier, Retreat of the, B. L. Johnson, 256 ersea Polytechnic: Courses of Instruction at the, 43; Forthcoming Lecture on ‘‘ The Saving of the Future,’’ oe C. W. Saleeby, 261; Hygiene Department of "Baibte, containing a Substance giving a Reaction h Ferric Chloride, H. C. Brill, 378 |, The Coalfield on, 95 College for Women, W. N. Jones appointed Lec- er and Head of the Department i in Botany at, 63 a in. Siberia, The, 21 our, ational, of Monkeys and Apes, R. M. Yerkes, _ 403; in Man and other Animals, Ideational and Allied _ Forms of, R. M. Yerkes, 403 and Becoming, L. M. Passano, 234 emorial Fellowships: for Medical Research, Next ction to, 82; for Scientific Research, Forthcoming tion to, 382 nnite Animal, Recent Researches on the, G. C. Crick, Municipal Technical Institute, Prospectus of the, 63 River Cretaceous, A Marsupial from the, Dr. W. D. tthew, 175 Bihar, and Orissa: Director of Fisheries, Appoint- nt of Mr. T. Southwell, 37; Report of the Depart- t of Fisheries of, 496 a Commission in Egypt, Work of the, Dr. R. T. iper, 157; Specimens illustrating, in the Natural History Museum, 20 , Volume in, oy J. Henderson, 403 : and the Poet, 147; in Museums, Exhibition of, 235 ; 1 Studio and on the Hillside, 30; Misratory, U.S. with Great Britain for the Protection of, 38; of eo, akespeare, The, Sir A. Geikie, 147; Wild, Protection Bir , in America, 275 beck College Calendar, 63 ningham : and Midland “inctitarte; Scientific Society of the, Entertainment for Soldiers, 314; University, Gift — by Miss H. Caddick, 441; University, Lt.-Col. G. arling appointed Consulting Surgeon to the British forces in France; Alderman F. C. Clayton to act as Index oe es 202 er Pit Investigation, Prof. D. McAlpine, 137 Xxi Bland-Sutton Institute of Pathology, Endowment of the, as a Memorial to F. C. Melhardo, 273 Blister Rust and White Pine Forests, A Conference on the, 355 “Blizzard”: Early Use of the Word, Dr. O. Klotz, 129; Origin of the Word, H. Harries, 169 Board of Trade, Combination of the Commercial Intelligence and the Exhibitions Branches of the, under the name of the Commercial Intelligence Department, 112 Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory, Report of the, 1914, Major W. G. Liston, 52 Books, A Larger’ Place and a New Use for, Prof. J. A. Green, 217 Borax or Searles Lake, The Salines of, H. S. Gale, 118 Borneo, Journey in, Dr. C. Lumholtz, 133 Botany : A Text-book for Senior Students, D. Thoday, 485; at the British Association, 237 Bradford Technical College: Courses in Chemistry and Dyeing in the, 162; Prospectus of the, 82 Bradshaw Lecture, The: to be delivered by Col. C. J. Symonds, 233; Sir J. Bland-Sutton to deliver the, 503 Brazil Wood, 454 Bread, Standard, 230 Breeding Experiments, Prof. Bateson, 238 Brewing Practice, Scientific Method in, Dr. H. Brown, 31 Brine, Evaporation of, from Searles Lake, California, W. B. Hicks, 276 Bristol : General Hospital, Bequest to, by Dr. W. B. Roue, 63; Museuni and Art Gallery, Report of the, 414 British Association: Agriculture at the, 301; Botany at the, 237; Committee on Science Teaching in Secondary Schools, Resolution of the, 182; The, at Newcastle, 12, 33; Presidential Address, Sir A. Evans, 12; Presidential Address to the Agriculture Section, Dr. E. J. Russell, 259; Anthropology at the, 198; Presidential Address to. the Anthropology Section, Dr. R. R. Marett, 179; Presidential Address to the Botany Section, Dr. A. B. Rendle, 217; Presidential Address to the Chemistry Section, Prof. G. G. Henderson, 34; Chemistry at the, 280; Presidential Ad- dress to the Economic Science and _ Statistics Section, Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy, 139; Presidential Address to the Educational Science Section, Rev. W. Temple, 238; Education at the, 217; Engineering at the, 158; Presidential Address to the Engineering Section, G. Stoney, 159; Presidential Address to the Geography Section, E. A. Reeves, 58; Geology at the, 138; Presidential Address to the Mathematical and Physical Science Section, Prof. A. N. Whitehead, 80; Presidential Address to the Geology Section, Prof W. S. Boulton, 100; Presidential Address to the Physiology Section, Prof. A. R. Cushny, 200; Physi- ology at the, 178; Zoology at the, 157: Presidential Address to the Zoology Section, Prof. E. W. MacBride, 120; Formation of a Committee to Consider the Needs of Geodetic Research, 120; Mathematics and Physics at the, 120; 1917, The Hon. Sir C. Parsons nominated as President, 18 British : Birds, A. Thorburn, vols. ii. and iii., 30; Columbia and Alberta, Geology of Field Map-area, J. A. Allan, 398; Dyestuff Manufacture, Position and Promise of, 190; Empire, Mineral Resources of the, Prof. C. G. Cullis, 361; Some Conditions of the Stability of the, Dr. Dugald Clerk, 255; Facial Form Changing? Is the, Prof. Keith, 198; Forestry, 105; Gas Industries, Society of, Sir R. Hadfield elected President of the, 495: Honduras, A Chipped Flint Implement found in, St. G. Gray, 154; Industries, Federation of, Formation of Ss 74; Federation of, Recommendations of the, 375; Industry and the War, 236; Museum, Annual Report of the, 114; A Portion of a Hippurite Presented to the, by J. A. Plommer, 112; (Natural History), Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the, vol. v., R. Lydekker, 107; Economic Pamphlets, 40; Oil-shale Resources, The Development of, 494; Phytopathology, Rams- bottom, 237; Prisoners of War Book Scheme, The, 82, 241, 362; Rainfall, 1915, Dr. H. R. Mill and C. Salter, 168; Red Cross Society, Sir R. Hudson on Gifts to the, 113; Science Guild, Journal of the, November, 342; Trade Bank, Suggested Establishment of a, 74 Scientific, Miss E. R. Saunders, XxXil Brito-Arctic Province, The Basalts of the, A. Holmes and Dr. H. F. Harwood, 222 Bubbles, The Bursting of, A. A. C. Swinton and E. Beale, 469 Budgets, Family, and Dietaries of Labouring-class Families in Glasgow, Miss M. Ferguson, 463 Buenos Aires, The Sociedad Argentina Naturales, Forthcoming Congress of, 52 Buller—Mokihinui Sub-division, The, New Zealand, O. G. Morgan and J. A. Bartrum, 399 Biirgi’s Logarithmic Tables, Dr. A. Bohren, 98 Burma, Eocene Mammals in, G. E. Pilgrim and G. de P. Cotter, 481 Bushmanland, Dinosaurs in, A. W. Rogers, 481 B Stars, Distances and Distribution of the, Prof. Charlier, 116 B Urs Majoris, Radial Velocity of, 196 de Ciencias Cagliari, Neolithic Implements found near, R. Bariola, 453 Calculus, Problems in the, with Formulas and Suggestions, Dr. D. B. Leib, 88 Calcutta Public Health Officer’s Proposals for the Future, : 234 Cambrian Trilobites, Dr. C. D. Walcott, 454, 481 Cambridge University: Dr. R. T. Glazebrook appointed Reader on the Sir R. Rede Foundation; W. G. Palmer elected to a Fellowship at St. John’s College; Capt. E. Hindle elected to the Charles Kingsley Lectureship, 202; New Research Degrees, 481; Approval of Proposal to Found an Institute of Agricultural Mechanism, 481; Sanction of the Admission of Women to the M.B. Examinations ; Report of the Appointments Board, 240; The George Henry Lewes Studentship, 161; and Col- leges of, The Students’ Handbook to, Fifteenth edition, 148 Camera, The, as Historian, H. D. Gower, L. S. Jast, and W. W. Topley, 445 Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Soil Conditions favoured by the, T. Wherry, 415 Canada: and Australasia, Geological Work in, 398 ; Monthly Record of Meteorological Observations, March, 55 Canadian: Fisheries, Report on, 297; Government, The, Appointment of an Honorary Advisory Council on Scientific and Industrial Research, 354; Observatory, The New, at Victoria, B.C., Prof. C. A. Chant, 472 Canaigre, Acclimatisation in France of the, A. Piédallu, 264 Cancer : Problem, Present Position of the, Prof. L. Loeb, 96; Crown Gall and, E. F. Smith, 83- Research Fund, Imperial, Annual Report of the, 30 , Cannonades, Distant, The Sound of, F. Houssay, 183 Caoutchouec Sheet, Variations of Thickness of a, under the Influence of an Electrostatic Field, L. Bouchet, 223 Cape Observatory, Report of the, 499 Capillary Watering, Effects of Continual, L. Daniel, 243 Carbon Tube Furnace, A, E. and E. A. Griffiths, 383 Carbonates, Rhombohedral, Indices of Refraction of the, P. Gaubert, 443 ‘ Cardiff: A Singular Phenomenon at, 153; Society, Forthcoming Jubilee of the, 153 Carso, The Waters of the, Dr. L. De Marchi, 436 Cartwright Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, The, 213 Cass, Sir John, Technical Institute, Syllabus of Classes of the, 43 Cement, A Pyritic, C. Carus-Wilson, 436 Central American and West Indian Archeology, T. A. Joyce, 70 Cepheid Variables: The, Dr. Ludendorff, 397; The Spectra of, Dr. Shapley, 498 Ceramic Engineering Building, University of Illinois, Dedi- cation of the, 402 Cereals, The World’s Supply of, 377 Cestodes, Two New Species of, Dr. F. E. Beddard, 242 Ceylon, Director of Agriculture, Appointment of F. Stockdale, 375 Chadwick Public Lectures, Sixth War Course of, 174 Characez from the Lower Headon Beds, C. Reid and J. Groves, 283 Chaulmoogra Oil, ‘‘ False,’? H. C. Brill, 378 Naturalists’ A. Index Nature, March 15, 1917 Chemical: Enterprises, Impending Developments in “ Krypton,’’ 489; Industry and Research, The Need o' Organisation of, Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, 41; Societ: Forthcoming Lectures by Col. C. T. Heycock, Dr. H. T. Brown, and A. C, Chapman, 134; Forthcoming Lectures to the, 495; Proposed New Officers of the, 495; Water Purification, D. B. Byles, 105; World, Need of Well-educated Young Men in the, Dr. M. O. Forster, 143 7 ae for Laboratory Use, Preparation of, Rintou 280 ‘ Chemistry: A Class-book of, G. C. Donington, part iv. Metals, 67; and its Relation to National Affairs, Sir W. A. Tilden, 282; at the British Association, 280; Colloid-, A Handbook of, Dr. W. Ostwald. Translated by Prof. M. H. Fischer, 47; Experimental, A Senior, Drs. A. E. Dunstan and F. B. Thole, 67; General, 67; Institute of, Proposed New Regulations of the, 342; of Foul Mud Deposits, Prof. E. A. Letts, 344; oO} Igneous Magmas and of Organic Metabolism, Apparent Correspondence between the, H. S. Wash-— ington, 403; of the Radio-elements, Prof. F. Soddy, French Translation of, 115; Organic, for Agricultural Students, 366; Physical, A System of, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, Prof. F. G. Donnan, 25; Physical, for Schools, Dr. H. H. Fenton, 67; Physiological, 167; Synthetic, and the Renascence of British Chemical Industry, Prof. G. T. Morgan, 316 Cheshire Technological McGill University, 43 Chicago, University of, Gift for a Medical Department, by Mr. Rockefeller, 321 Child Hygiene, An Irish Syllabus of Instruction in, 241 Chimie Physique et d’Electrochimie, Cours de Manipula-— tions de, M. Centnerszwer, 407 China, Geological Work in, Dr. T. G. Halle and others, Scholarships, Winners of, and 17 Chlorination Process, Modified, Dr. J. A. Smythe, 280 Chlorine, Free, A Reagent for, in Drinking Water, G. A. Le Roy, 44 Chloroform, Apparatus for the Administration of, Prof. Waller, 178 : Cholera Vaccines, Relative Values of Various Kinds of, Capt. Fox, 415 Christianity in partibus, 26 J Chrysopa californica, Life-history of, V L. Wildermuth, 75 Cinchona. Plantations in Bengal, The Government, 79 ; Circle of Scientific, Technical, and Trade Journalists, Visit of the, to Liverpool and Manchester, 302 Citric Solubility and the Fertilising Value of Basic Slag, 96 City and Guilds (Engineering) »College, Work of the Chemical Department of the, 195 City and Guilds of London Institute, Department of Tech- nology of, Report of the, 362 ‘ Civil Engineering : Constructional Work, 365; Works on, Civil Engineers, Institution of, Awards of the, 153 ; Civil Service: Home, Committee on Examinations for the, Dr. W. H. Hadow appointed a Member of the, 382; — Science and the, 251 Claybury County Asylum, Presentation by the Staff to — Dr. R. Armstrong-Jones, 63 Cleator and Cleator Moor: Past and Present, Rev. Czesar Caine, 205 4 Cleistogamic Flowers, A. Manganaro, 478 Climate and Crop Production, T. Wibberley, 301 Clock of Precision, A, C. O. Bartrum, 483 Clover Sickness, A. Amos, 263 . Coal : and Fuel Economy, 341; and its Economic Utilisation, Prof. J. S. S. Brame, 500; Botanical Aspects of, Dr. — Marie Stopes; Prof. A.-C. Seward; Prof. Weiss, 237; Measures Amphibia of North America, The, Dr, R. L. Moodie, 356; Mines, G. Calthrop appointed Controller of, 495; Powdered, and the Heating of Furnaces, 135; — Tar Colour Industry, British, in Peace and in War, — C. M. Whittaker, 280; Tar Colour Industry, The British, and its Difficulties in Time of War, C. M. Whittaker, 357; Tar Industry, The Future of the, Prof. — A. G. Perkin, 143; The Oxidation of, G. Charpy and M. Godchot, 363 Cobalt, Pure, etc., The Magnetic Properties of, Dr. H. T. | Kalmus and K. B. Blake, 176 : ines, The, W. D. Harkins, R. E. Hall, and . Roberts, 243 and its Variations, The Typical Form of the, Watt, 322 e Cane-breeding Station, Work of the, Dr. C. A. rber, 135 idustry of New South Wales, The, L. F. Harper nd J. C. H. Minguye, 276 Garner Congo Expedition, The, 314 ion at Sea, The Protection of, 8 d-Chemistry, 47 its Applications, M. Luckiesh, 366 North Park, Lenticular Masses of Coal in, . Beekly, 117; Rocky Mountains in, and New ico, Relation of the Cretaceous Formations to the, -T. Lee, 117; South-Western, Glacial Boulder Clay Eocene Age in, W. W. Attwood, 117 366 ; Vision and Tactile Discrimination Tests of the orres Straits Expedition, The, Prof. E. B. Titchener, ae A New, Rev. J. Metcalf, 277; 1916b (Wolf), __ Ephemeris of, R. T. Crawford, 257 Commercial Intelligence Department of the Board of Trade id the Imperial Institute, The Work and Co-operation the, 213 positz, Floral Anatomy of Some, J. Small, 303 cilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich, The, H. H. Field, 209 e Ship, A, 53 ental Divide, Field Work on the, Dr. C. D. and Mrs. alcott, 194 juous-current Engineering, An Introductory Course of, _ Dr. A. Hay, Second edition, 108 okeville Meteorite, The, G. P. Merrill, 358 . olidge Tube, Determination of the Practical Constants of the, M. Boll and L. Mallet, 144 -, Astley, Prize, at Guy’s Hospital, 202 : Lodes of the Canbelego District, E. C. Andrews, 9; Mountain and Kasaan Peninsula, C. W. Wright, 18 _ Reefs, Extinguished and Resurgent; The Origin of ‘certain Fiji Atolls, W. M. Davis, 83 Jorn, Live Stock, etc., Prices and Supplies of, Sir R. H. _ Rew, 376 CORRESPONDENCE. e Strain in the Bengali People, R. Chanda, 491 we, Cultural, from the Intestine of Man, Dr. H. B. ntham ; The Reviewer, 390 y and Rainfall, “ Moriturus,” 229 ere, Optical Deterioration of the: in July and igust, 1916, Sir N. Shaw, 90; and Volcanic Eruptions, . A. Riccd, 190; in the Swiss Alps, Sir N. Shaw; Maurer, 328 The, Magnetic Storm, and Sun-spot of January 4, A. L. Cortie, 446 ard” : Early Use of the Word, Dr. O. Klotz, 129; of the Word, H. Harries, 169 » The Bursting of, A. A. C. Swinton and E. Beale, Enterprises, Impending Developments in, “Kryp- m Bibliographicum of Ziirich, The, H. H. Field, mal System, The, and Summer Time in France, C. F., ‘ity and Entomology, R. J. Tillyard, 128 plosion Effect, An, C. W. Piper, 409 mers and Wheat, Sir H. Maxwell, 228 id-Glasses for Army Use, Countess Roberts, 310 er-Print Patterns, The Permanence of : H. Faulds, 388; -W. J. Herschel, 389 it, Stability in, Prof. D’Arcy W. Thompson, 409, 490; _Sir H. Maxwell, 490 1 Tsetse-Fly, The Third, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, 70 Thistle, A, a Beautiful Effect of Freezing, R. T. nther, 370; Thistles,” J. H. Coste, 470 Prof. James, The late, Dr. M. I. Newbigin, 5 a ?) Lndex XXill Germans, The, and Scientific Discovery, Prof. D. Fraser Harris, 168 2 Glacial Nomenclature and Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, Dr. G. Taylor, 149; The Reviewer, 150 . Gravity, The Temperature Coefficient of, Drs. F. A. Linde- mann and C,. V. Burton, 349; Dr. P. E. Shaw, 350 Greek as a Specialised Study, Prof. R. S. Conway, 228 Growths in Colloidal Silica Solutions, The Nature of, Hon. H. Onslow, 489 Helium Spectra, Excitation of, Observations on Prof. O. W. Richardson and Dr. C. B. Bazzoni, 5 Hours, The Designation of, C. H. Collings, 70 Hydrogen, The Spectrum of, R. T. Beatty, 169 Ice-Crystals, Columnar: A. E. Larkman, 269; from Moist Earth, Extrusion of, J. L., 290 Lead, “Thorium,” The Atomic Weight of, Prof. F. Soddy, the, 469 Lenses, The Refractometry of, L. C. Martin, 28 Life Assurance Tables, Prof. W. W. Campbell, 48 “Linethwaite,” The Name, Rev. Czsar Caine; Your Re- viewer, 290 ; Luminous Centipedes, Sergt. F. M. Roberts, 269 Meldola Memorial, J. L. Baker and others, 429 “Metabolic,” The Date of the Introduction of the Term, ' Prof. D, Fraser Harris, 389 Metals, Plastic Flowing of, W. H. F. Murdoch, 190 Meteorology and Wheat Shortage, Prof. G. H. Bryan; Sir N. Shaw, 369 Money-Cowrie in America, Pre-Columbian Use of the, J. W. Jackson, 48, 309; H. N. Wardle, 308 Natural Colour in Plants, The Preservation of, I. Jorgensen, 229 Nomenclature, Rules of, Notice of Possible Suspension of the, in the Cases of Holothuria, 1758, vs. Physalia, 1801, and Bohadschia, 1833, vs. Holothuria, 1791, Dr. C. W. Stiles, 49 Oil Drive for Equatorial Telescopes, An, S. Bolton, 28 “Plants in Health and Disease,” Dr. A. D. Imms, 428 Pre-Boulder Clay Man, J. Reid Moir, 109 | Recorde, Robert, Dr. J. Knott, 268 “Resistance Derivatives,” A Nomenclature for, Prof. G. H. Bryan, 189 Science: in Education, F.R.S., F.B.A., 69, 108; Prof. F. Soddy, 90; Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson; The Writer of the Article, 470; in Public Schools, Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson, 489 Scientific Quadruple Entente, A Plea for a, Rignano, 408; Prof. A. Meek, 469 Prof. E. | Searchlights, C. T. Whitmell, 269 Sex-Limited Transmission in the Lepidoptera, A Further Probable Case of, J. W. H. Harrison, 248 Talbot’s Observations on Fused Nitre, Lord Rayleigh, 428 Tertiary Igneous Rocks of the Pyrenees, P. W. Stuart- Menteath, 448 Thunderclap, A Peculiar, Prof. G. Platania, 209 Thunderstorms, Winter, Capt. C. J. P. Cave, 328 Toadflax, The Pollination of, S. P.; Dr. C, E. Moss, 209 University Doctorates, Prof. J. B. Cohen, 327 Variable Stars, R. M. Deeley, 109 Vermidea, The Group, Dr. S. F. Harmer, 28 War Organisation, Col. J. C. L. Campbell, 228 Wasps, Scarcity of, H. V. Davis, 109; Sir H. Maxwell; A. O. Walker, 148; W. F. Denning; S. Priest; C. Carus- Wilson, 149; H. St. G. Gray, 209; Rev. C. S. Taylor, 248 Weathering in Magnesian Limestone, Forms of, G. Abbott, whist Shortage, Meteorology and, Prof. G. H. Bryan; Sir N. Shaw, 369 “Wolf-note,” On the, of the Violin. and ’Cello, A. M. Tyndall and G. W. White, 29 Corythosaurus casuarius, B. Brown, 356 Cosmografia, Lezioni di, Prof. G. Boccardi, 326 Cranbrook Map-area, The, S. J. Schofield, 398 Crinoid Skeletons, Composition of, F. W. Clarke and W. C. Wheeler, 118 Cristobalite, H. Le Chatelier, 423 Critical Temperature, Effect of the Increase of the Testing Current on the, F. B. Silsbee, 256 Crops, Calculating the Risk to, by Frost, W. G. Reed and H. R. Tolley, 194 XXIV Crossing, Suppression of Characters on, R. H. Biffen, r1g | Hill (G. .A.), 38 Crustacea: Experiments and Observations on, parts i. ii., and iii., Dr. J. Tait, 323; Malacostraca, Dr. H. J. Hansen, 299 Cryptostome Beetles in the Cambridge University Museum, S. Maulik, 221 Crystalline Liquids Obtained by Evaporation, P. Gaubert, 203 Crystallography, Use of the Orthographic Projection in, Prof. H. Hilton, 423 : Crystals, Molecular Arrangement in, Magnetic Test of, Prof. W. Peddie, 463 Cucumaria, Early Development of the Echinoderm, H. G. Newth,. 221 Culture, The Evolution of, A German Psychologist on, Dr. A. C, Haddon, 346 Cultures at the Seashore, Experimental, L. Daniel, 223 “Cycads,” Mesozoic, Recent Researches on, Dr. Marie C. Stopes, 383 Dacus oleae, Parasites of,. Dr. F. Silvestri and T. B. Fletcher, 497 Daphne pulex, Growth of, J. T. Saunders, 242 Daphnin in the Arthrosolen, Occurrence of, M. Rindl, 404 Dark Trail, Hitting the, Starshine through Thirty Years of Night, C. Hawkes, 2 Deafness, Treatment of, by Marage’s Method, M. Ranjard, 64 DEATHS. Abbe (Prof. Cleveland), 174, 332 Anderson (Dr. J.), 113 Angel (A.), 413 Angell (J.), 56 Ascroft (Sir W.), 96 Backlund (Dr. J. O.), 192 Bean (Dr. T. H.), 393 Benbow (Sir H.), 174 Bogue (V. G.), 193 Booth (Rt. Hon. C.), 253 Boussac (Dr. J.), 133 Brodie (Prof. T. G.), 9 Brunton (Sir Lauder), 52, 72, 73 Burgess (Dr. J.), 133 Burton (Dr. C. V.), 475 Burton (R. C.), 295 Campbell (J. M.), 213 Chauveau (Prof. J. B. A.), 375, 414 Clough (Dr. C. T.), 37 Coffey (G.), 37 Cole (B. G.), 414 Colville (A.), 313 Cook (Prof. A. J.), 174 Cooley (Dr. Le Roy C.), 112 Cooper (Lieut. C. H. B.), 254 Cromer (Lord), 433 Czerny (Prof. V.), 133 Das (Chandra), 476 Don (Second-Lieut. A. W. R.), 133 Doxford (Sir W. T.), 112 Doyen (Dr. E. L.), 274 Doyne (R. W.), 18, 37 Duhem (Prof. P.), 52. 131 Echegaray (Dr. J.), 295 Ellis (W.), 295, 312 Eve (Sir F. S.), 355 Ferguson (Prof. J.), 192 Finlayson (J.), 476 Fischer (Prof. F.), 18 de Foucauld (Vicomte C.), 393 Frankland (F. W.), 38 Gilchrist (J.), 476 Giles (Lt.-Col. G. M. J.), 74 Guppy (R. J. L.), 73 Hahn (Prof. F.), 495 Handyside (Lieut. J.), 194 Harrison (Dr. C. hy 193 Hart (H.), 123 Hart (Lance-Corpl. J. W.), 193 Lndex 3 Hobbs (Sub-Lieut. O. J.), 313 ®% | “a Hobson (G. A.), 452 t* Jackson (C. S.), 173 .) Jamrach (A. E.), 414 j Jaques (Capt. W. H.), 254 ts Jones (H.), 112 ‘ Kastle (Dr. J. H.), 153 Keegan (Dr. P. Q.), 296 Kensit (E. G.), 74 Kidd (B.), 95 Léauté (M.), 254 Levander (F. W.), 333 a Lincoln (Dr. D. F.), 193 iM Little (Prof. J.), 355 Low (Seth), 52 Lowell (Prof. P.), 212, 31 Lucas (Capt. Keith), 1og Lyall (Sir J. B.), 296 Lyon (W. S.), 38 Macray (Rev. W. D.), 295 Magnan (Dr. V. J. J.), 132 Mann (G.), 74 Mann (I. J.), 476 Mann (R. F.), 254 Maron (Dr. D.), 153 Marriott (W.), 354 Massee (G.), 495 Maupas (E. F.), 274 Mawley (E.), 154 Maxim (Sir Hiram S.), 253 McNeill (B.), 94 Merivale (J. H.), 233 Merrill (F. J. Miller (Dr. N. Mohn (Prof. H.), 38, 211 Moore (Dr. E.), 37 Muller (Prof. O. V.), 193 Miinsterberg (Prof. H.), 313, 333 Neisser (Prof. A.), 194 Nichols (Capt. R. W.), 213 Norfolk (Duke of), 475 Norris (Dr. R.), 296 Oliver (Prof. D.), 331 Payne-Gallwey (Sir R.), 274 Pearson (Prof. H. H. W.), 192, 211 Poppius (Dr. B. R.), 355 Portchinsky (Prof. J. A.), 18 Prosser (Dr. C. S.), 112 Purdie (Prof. T.), 313, 391 Reid (Clement), 295, 312 Ribot (Prof. T. A.), 452 Royce (Prof. J.), 153 Sauvage (Dr. H. E.), 414 Selous (Capt. F. C.), 374 Simpson (Lieut. J. C.), 313 Sivewright (Sir J.), 37 Smith (C.), 213, 233 Smith (Capt. E. J.), 132 Stirling (J.), 435 Stott (H. G.), 452 Talbot (Mrs. P. Amaury), 476 Tebbutt (J-), 434, 45% Torp (Prof. A.), 152, 174 Turrettini (Col. T.), 174 Tylor (Sir E. B.), 373 Umney (C.), 254 Underwood (Prof. A. S.), 295 de Vogiié (Vicomte M.), 254 Waterhouse (C. O.), 451, 476 Waynforth (Prof. H. M.), 193, 214 Wrightson (Prof. J.), 273 Decimal System, The, and Summer Time in France, C. 4 2: on Deflection of the Vertical by Tidal Loading of the Earth’s — Surface, Prof. H. Lamb, 503 . P Delineating Internal Organs, A New Means of, Sergeant J. Shearer, 94 : Density of Solid Bodies, Determination of the, H. Le Chatelier and F. Bogitch, 223 Technical College, J. Yates appointed Head of the _ Chemistry Department of the, 402 - naptera and Orthoptera of the Coastal Plains, etc., of the South-Eastern United States, J. A. G. Rehn and Hebard, 314 el: Engine, Trials of a Small, Lieut. E. T. Wilkins, B78; Engines, Tests with, Prof. W. H. Watkinson, 156 t, Accessory Factors, or “Vitamines,” in, Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 372 fraction of a Plane Electromagnetic Wave, J. Proudman, A. T. Doodson, and G. Kennedy, 283 on in Liquids, B. W. Clack, 262 1 Analysis, Prof. R. D. Carmichael, 126; \pproximation, Some Problems of, G, H. Hardy and E. Littlewood, 243 bled Sailors and Soldiers, What Can be Done to Train, __ in Technical Institutions? Major R. Mitchell, 157 Disease : Definition of a, Dr. C. Mercier, 215; Trans- ference, Some Indian Ceremonies for, S. C. Mitra, 284 , Horace, Lecture to be Delivered by Dr. H. R. Dean, 174 ichoderinw, The, A. Gallardo, 258 rset Field Club, The “Cecil” Medal and Prize of the, 295 onfly Larvee, Emergence of, from the Egg, R. J. illyard, 243 e, Sir Francis, Memorial to, 377 ing: Dr. F. A. Bather, 402; and Modelling, Sir J. - Cockburn, 402; for Junior Boy Scouts, Sir R. Baden- Powell, 402; The Value of, to the Scientific Worker, Dr. F. A. Bather, 422 ams of Orlow, The, A. M. Irvine, 426 nk Problem of To-day, The, in its Medico-Sociological Aspects, Edited by Dr. T. N- Kelynack, 247 Drosophila, Sex-Linked Inheritance in, Prof. T. H. _ Morgan and Dr. C. B. Bridges, 480 Dublin University, Dr. J. M. Purser appointed Regius _ Professor of Physic in, 503 ‘Durban Museum, General Guide to the, E. C. Chubb, 176 Dust in Air, Determining the Amount of, G. T. Palmer, _ LL, V. Coleman and H. C. Ward, 336 Dyestuff Manufacture, British, Position and Promise of, 190 Dyestuffs, Natural, Use of, Occasioned by the War, A. Renouard, 235 ssentery, The Flagellate Protozoa Associated with, Dr. A. Porter, 158 : Pressure, Retaining Walls, and Bins, Prof. W. Cain, _ 486; The Origin of the, Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, 387 Earthquake, Italian, of January 13, 1915, After-shocks of the, Dr. A. Cavasino, 76 quakes: Ethiopian, History of, Prof. L. Palazzo, 76; Felt in the Philippine Islands in 1915, Catalogue of, nats er Island: S. Routledge, 462; Results of the Expedi- tion to, Mr. and Mrs. S. Routledge, 199 Eclipse or Empire? Dr. H. B. Gray and S. Turner, 185 Eclipses, Effects of, on Solar Terrestrial Magnetism, Dr. Bauer and Mr. Fisk, 77 nomic History of the United States, 42 lomics in the Light of War, Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt, 208 , A New Species of, Dr. A. Smith Woodward and Pringle, 162 uurgh: and East of Scotland College of Agriculture, _ Calendar of the, 23; Royal Society of, Election of Officers and Council of, 153; University, Bequests to, __ by D. M. Forbes, 503 Education: after the War, with Special Reference to En- _ gineering Instruction, Sir A. T. Dawson, 157; after the War, with Special Reference to Technical Instruc- tion, Lord Haldane, 156; at the British Association, 217; Industrial, Research, and Co-operative Agencies, _ Organisation of, J. H. Lester, 143; Juvenile, in rela- _ tion to Employment after the War, Interim Report on, _ 203; Literature and Science in, 432; A. C. Benson, 433; of Workmen, Report on the, 422; Reform in, _ Dr. Gray, 217; Science in, Prof. F. Soddy, 90; Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson, The Writer of the Article, 470; __---—«-‘To-day and To-morrow, P. E. Matheson, 143 te . Index XXV Educational: Associations, Conference of, Arrangements for the, 261; Associations, Conference of, Addresses to, Sir H. Miers; A. L. Smith, 359; Conferences, 359; Questions, A Reviewing Committee on, 123; Position and Outlook, 379; Reform, 300 Eel: Fresh-water, Early Larval Stages of the, Dr. J. Schmidt, 394; Investigations, Schmidt’s Second Report — on, C. T. Regan, 203 Egg-farming, Commercial, S. G. Hanson, 5 Eggs: Dwarf, Dr. R. Pearl and M. R. Curtis, 296; The Mechanical Protection and Preservation of, A. Arnoux, 344 E. gingivalis, Dr. T. Goodey, 158 i Egyptian Astronomy and the Zodiac, J. Offord, 7 Elasticity and Entomology, R. J. Tillyard, 128 Electoral Reform, University Representation in, 442 ; Electric: and Magnetic Units, International System of, J. H. Dellinger, 337; Furnace Spectra, Mutual Influence of the Neighbouring Lines in, Showing Anomalous Dis- persion, A. S. King, 83; Supply in America, Safety and Efficiency of, 195 : Electrical : Conduction in Dilute Amalgams, G. N. Lewis and T. B. Hine, 403; Discharges on Crops, Effect of Overhead, I. Jorgensen, 235; Engineers, Institution of, Prof. G. Carey Foster elected an Honorary Member of the, 193; Engineering, The Principles of, and their Application, Prof. G. Kapp, vol. i., 265; Engineers, Institution of, Kelvin Lecture of the, Dr. A. Russell to Deliver the, 152; Ignition of Methane, Influence of Pressure on the, Prof. W. M. Thornton, 158 Electrician, 2000th Number of the, 53 Electricity: A Treatise on, F. B. Pidduck, 6; The Emis- ney of, from Hot Bodies, Prof. O. W. Richardson, 14 Electrolytes, Mechanism of Diffusion of, through Animal Membranes, J. Loeb, 163 Electrons, Escape of, from Hot Bodies, 146 Elgar Scholarship, The, of the Institution of Naval Archi- tects awarded to R. J. Shepherd, 23 ears The, at the Cross-Roads, Prof. J. A. Fleming, 165 Empire’s Resources, A Committee on the, 435 Encke’s Comet, Prof. Strémgren, 77; Dr. 156 Energy Values for Cattle of Red Clover Hay and Maize Meal, Armsby, Fries, and Braman, 376 Engineer, The Status of the, 193 Engineering: at the British Association, 158; Design, The Principle of Similitude in, Dr. T. E. Stanton, 158; Highway, 4; in 1916, Progress of, 437; Science and, L. A. Legros, 144 Engineers: Junior Institution of, Forthcoming Lectures by E. F. Etchells, 142; Society of, Awards of the, 475 Ensilage, A. Amos, 301 Entamoeba histolytica and E. gingivalis, Dr. H. Pixell Goodrich, 158 Entomology, Medical and Veterinary, W. B. Herms, 386 Eoanthropus dawsoni, Fragments of, presented to the British Museum (Natural History), Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, 454 “‘ Epidemic Jaundice ”’ on the Western Front, 393 Equiatomic Solutions in Iron, Prof. E. D. Campbell, 383 Errors, Theory of, and Least Squares, Prof. Le Roy D. Weld, 385 Esker, An, near Kingswinford, Prof. W. S. Boulton, 55 Ether, Matter and the Structure of the, 246 Ethnobotany of American Indians, 4or Euclid’s Elements, Book i., A Thirteenth-century MS. of, Canon J. M. Wilson, 298 Eugenics: Inquiries after the War, Major L. Darwin, 100 ; Some Problems in, 99 Evaporation of Water, Rate of, from the Earth’s Surface, F. S. Harris and J. S. Robinson, 396 Evolution: in Various Plant Types, Comparative Rapidity of, Prof. E. W. Sinnott, 76; Mutation and, 99 Excretion of Acids by Roots, A. R. Haas, 243 Explosion Effect, An, C. W. Piper, 409 Explosions, Sound-areas of Great, Dr. C. Davison, 438 Eyde, Dr. Sam., Endowment for a Fund for the Advance- ment of Chemical and Physical Research, 254 Max Wolf, XXvi Factories and Great Industries, F. A. Farrar, 68 Fairfield Scholarship and Prizes, Examination for Suspended, 241 Faraday Society: Forthcoming Discussion on “The Train- ing and Work of the Chemical Engineer,” 452; Officers and Council of the, 376 Far East, C. W. Bishop’s Expedition to the, 334 Farm Products, The Marketing of, Prof. L. D. H. Weld, 245 Farmers: and Science, Salmon and Eyre, 237; and Wheat, Sir H. Maxwell, 228 Fasting, Individual and Sex Differences Resulting from, H. D. Marsh, 334 Fatigue: Industrial, Second Interim Report on an In- vestigation of, Prof. A. F, S. Kent, 353; The Physi- ology of, 353 Fauna: Littoral Marine, of the Cape Verde Islands, A. W. Waters, 283; of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Rhynchota: vol. vi., Homoptera; Appendix, W. L. Distant, 107 Faunal Succession of the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Westmorland and North Lancashire, Prof. Garwood, 76 Fermentation, Influence of Small Rises of Temperature on, C. Richet and H. Cardot, 423 Ferns, The Sorus of, Morphology of, Prof. F. O. Bower, 442 Fertilisers : and Agricultural Production, 400; and Chemical Products, Effects of the War on, 232; in the United Kingdom, Appointment of a Committee on the Increase of, 393; Potassic, Possible, 252; the late Prof. E. B. Voorhees, Revised edition by Prof. J. H. Voorhees, 446 Field Glasses for Army Use, Countess Roberts, 310 ' ' Finger-: Print Patterns, The Permanence of, H. Faulds, 388 ; Sir W. J. Herschel, 389; Printing, The Origin of, Sir W. J. Herschel, 268 Finsbury Technical College, ‘he Chemical Courses of the, the, 103 Fireball: of October 3, 116; W. F. Denning, 136; of October 20, The, W. F. Denning, 176 Fireballs, Two Large, 156 Firebricks, The Texture of, Dr. J. W. Mellor, 281 Fire Prevention, A Manual of, and Fire Protection for Hospitals, Dr. O. R. Eichel, 368 Fisheries: Inshore, Prof. W. A. Herdman, 136; Inshore, The Exploitation of, Prof. W. A. Herdman, 317; In- shore, of Northumberland, Prof. A. Meek 136; In- vestigations and Development, 136 Fishes: Age of, Method of Estimating the, Prof. A. Meek, 75; Palzozoic, Some, D. M. S. Watson and H. Day, 135; The Scales of, Prof. A. Meek, 137 Fisica Descritiva, Elementos de, Dr. F. J. S. Gomes and A. R. Machado, Fifth edition, Revised by A. R. Machado, 147 FitzPatrick Lectures, The, to be Delivered by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, 174 Fizeau’s Experiment, Prof. Zeeman, 298 Fleas as a Menace to Man and Domestic Animals, Rev. J. Waterston, 75 Flies, Destruction of, Means Employed for the, Miss O. C. Lodge, 157 Flight, Stability in: Prof. D’Arey W. Thompson, 409, 490; Sir H. Maxwell, 490, Florida, The Phosphate Deposits of, G. C. Matson, 118 Flotation: of Ores, 246; Process, The, Compiled and Edited by T. A, Rickard, 246 Flour : Government Control over, W. Jago, 250; Milling of, Regulations as to the, 232; Standards, W. Jago, 390 Flowering Plants of Africa, The, F. Thonner, 26 Flowers, Wild, of the North American Mountains, J. W. Henshaw, 2 Fluviatile Origin, Dominantly, under Seasonal Rainfall of the Old Red Sandstone, J. Barrell, 83 Flying Machines, Calculations for, 45 Folk: Memory in Staffordshire, Survivals of, S. A. H. Burne, 214; Psychology, Elements of, Prof. W. Wundt, Translated by Prof. E. L. Schaub, 346 Folk-tales, Personal Experience as an Element in, Miss Freire-Marreco, 199 Food: and Work, 290; Consumption, Need of Curtailment of, Lord Devonport, 451; Economics, Prof. G. Lusk, 173; Increased Production of, Appointment of a Com- mittee on, 435; Increasing the Production of, 333; Lndex Nature, March 15, 1917 Ministry of, Information and Statistical Bureau of the, U. Yule appointed Head of the, 393; Production, Sir A. Lee appointed Director-General of, 495; Standar and Man Power, Prof. A. D. Waller, 179; Supplies, Government Control of, 229; Supply of the Unit Kingdom, Report on the, 451; The Nation’s, 471 Foods, Growth Factors of, 300 “sa Foraminifera: Collected off the West of Scotland, Heron- Allen and Earland, 155; Sessile Forms of, Prof. S. J. Hickson, 383 ° Forest: Economy, S. H. Collins, 302; Insects, Some, in Aberdeenshire, W. Ritchie, 376; Pathology in For Regulation, E. P. Meinecke, 176; Service Investiga- tions, E. R. Burdon, 450 Forestry, British: Its Present Position and Outlook after the War, E. P. Stebbing, 105; Past and Future of, Prof. Somerville, 302 % Form and Function: a Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology, E. S. Russell, 306 i. Forrest,” “ James, Lecture, The, to be Delivered by Sir J. P. Griffith, 132 4 Forthcoming Books of Science, 60, 115, 155, 156, 196, 298, 316, 378, 397, 417, 456, 478 __ Fossil: Human Skulls, Recently Discovered, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 258; Insects, Some, E. Meyrick, 75; The Mark Stirrup Collection of, H. Bolton, 343; Tsetse-fly, The Third, Prof. T. D, A. Cockerell, 70; Vertebrate Animals, 257 France : Collége de, Chair of Social Providence and Assist- ance at the, 503; Plea for a National Physical Labora- tory for, 294; University and Higher Technical Instruc- tion in, Prof. P. Janet, 151; Le Climat de la, Tem- pérature, Pression, Vents, G. Bigourdan, 127 " Frankfurt Institute for Experimental Therapy, Prof. W. Kolle appointed Director of the, 375 Fraunhofer Lines, Suggested Mutual Repulsion of, C. E. St. John, 83 French: Battle-Front, Large-Scale Map of the, 388; Metal- — lurgy, The Future of, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter; Dr. — L. Guillet, 493 ; War Chemistry, 498 Frost: Thistle, A, a Beautiful Effect of Freezing, R. T. Gunther, 370; Thistles,” J. H. Coste, 470 Fuel: Coal and, Economy, 341; Research, A Board — of, Appointed, 495 n Funereal Figures in Egypt, Prof. F, Petrie, 414 Furcraea gigantea, The Fibre of, M. T. Dawe, 55 Galloway and Carrick, Highways and Byways in, Rev. C. H. Dick, 205 “Galvanoset,” The, 215 Gaseous’ Gangrene, Etiology of, M. Weinberg and P. Séguin, — 223 Gases: Stepped Ignition in, Prof. W. M. Thornton, 280; — The Dynamical Theory of, Prof. J. H. Jeans, 3 Gauges, Limit, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 158 Gearing, High-Speed, Distribution of the Load on the Teeth in, 115 Geikie, Prof. James, The late, Dr. M. I. Newbigin, 5 Genera with Microscleres, Revision of the, E. F. Hallmann, — 6 Gare Science, First Course in, Prof. F. D. Barber, M. L. © Fuller, Prof. J. L. Pricer, and Prof. H. W. Adams, 348 Genetic Studies in Plants, 119 5 Genetics, New Institute of, at Potsdam, Prof. E. Baur, Director, 452 Genotypic Factors, The Mutual Effect of, Dr. T. Tammes, Il ‘ Geographical: Association, Annual Meetings of the, 342; — Excursion, An International, 226 : Geography: Human, Regions in, Prof. Fleure, 380; Gen- — eralisations in, G. G. Chisholm, 454; The Teaching of, H. J. Mackinder, 380 ; Geological : Formations and Structures, A Method of Repre- senting, Dr. J. W. Evans, 138; Society, Awards of the, 93; Work in Canada and Australasia, 398; Work in the United States, 117 Geologists in the War, Work of, 193 Geology : A Composite American Text-book of, 206; A Text- book of, Profs. L. V. Pirsson and C. Schuchert, 2 parts, cultural, R. H. Rastall, 167; and Scenery of ke District, 345; at the British Association, 138 nalytic, Prof. H. B. Phillips, 88; Preliminary, a G ose nberg, 347; The School Course in, Prof. Nunn, met: niversities, Women Students in the, 182 he, and Scientific Discovery, Prof. D. Fraser oh 168 : Germany, The Declining Birth-rate in, 496 hent, the Flemish University of, Staff of, 422 ert Club: Meeting to Dissolve the, 113; The Future of ey 154 Retendature and Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, Dr. . Taylor, The Reviewer, 149 sgow: Royal Technical College, Calendar of the, 63; oyal Technical College, Offer of Prizes for Essays, _ 321; University, Gift to the Botanical Department by & rs. Gwynne Vaughan, 142 and Optical Instruments, A Standing Committee on, Annealing, Prof. C. V. Boys, 150; Block of, Deter- _ mining the Refractive Index of a, Dr. R. S. Clay, 343; Specimens, Refractometry and Identification of, L. C. _ Martin, 343; Technology, a Society of, Formation of, Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, Dr. W. E. S. Turner, 234; Tech- nology, Society of, Second Meeting of the, 334; Test- ing, Method of, A. Hilger, Ltd., 150; The Direct Joining of, at Moderate Temperatures, Parker and Dalladay, 317 are: Scientific, 210; The Action of Reagents upon, Nicolardot, 183 ssina morsitans in Northern Rhodesia, L. Lloyd, 157 sines ou Tsétsés, Notice sur les, E. Hegh, 157 tum, Some Stages in the Life-history of, Prof. H. H. W. Pearson and M. R. H. Thomson, 244 ats, Experimental Production of Congenital Goitre in, “Major McCarrison, 75 rgonacea of the Cape of Good Hope, The, Dr. J. S. _ Thomson, 283 tingen University, Bequests by Prof. von Esmarck and we Prof. P. Ehrlich, 261 Government: Control of Food Supplies, 229; Control over Flour, W. Jago, 250; Farm Colony for ex-Service Men, A. . N. Dowling appointed Director of the, 213 ; Labora- tory, Work of the, 411 mophone Records of Four Languages of the Munda roup, Presentation of, by Sir G. Grierson, 173 e of the Schapenberg, The, R. E. Walker, 84 ( itation: and the Principle of Relativity, Prof. A. S. Eddington, 328; E. Cunningham; Prof. A. S. Edding- ‘ton; Dr. P. E. Shaw, and Prof. R. A. Sampson, 120 wity, The Temperature Coefficient of, Dr. F. A. Linde- mann and Dr. C. V. Burton, 349; Dr. P. E, Shaw, me. 350 reat Britain, Organisations of Witches in, Miss M. Murray, 199 a as a Specialised Study, Prof. R. S. Conway, 228; Compulsory, in the Entrance Examinations at Oxford id Cambridge, Dr. W. Leaf, 371 ’s Graves, A. E. Peake, 356 momonica, G. B. Barzizza, 326 mmonics and Celestial Movements, 326 round-nut Cake, 376 p Theory, 225 s, Finite, Theory and ‘Applications of, Profs. G. A. iller, H. F. Blichfeldt, and L. E. Dickson, 225 wth in Length: Embryological Essays, Dr. R. Assheton, 07 vths in Colloidal Silica Solutions, The Nature of, Hon. H. Onslow, 489 quil, The New Water Supply of, 235 a Indians, Animism and Folklore of the, Dr. W. E. th, 356 un-firing, Sound of, in the South-Eastern Counties, M. _ Christy and W. Marriott, 297 Habit-formation in a Queen Wasp, Dr. J. M. Dewar, 20 - Haddock, Seales in the, Dr. A. T. Masterman, 137 439 Hakluyt’s Death, Tercentenary of, 274 lemaumau, The Lava-lake of, T. A. Jaggar, Jr., 436 Index XXVil Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, The, 74 Handwork: J. C. Legge, 217; Formality in, Prof. T. P. Nunn, 217 Hardness Tests Research Committee, A Report of the, 316 Harrow School, Bequests to, by A. S$. Churchill, 361 Harveian Oration, The: to be delivered by Sir T. Barlow, 112; Sir T. Barlow, 174 Hausa Botanical Vocabulary, A, Dr. J. M. Dalziel; Sir H. H. Johnston, 345 Hawaii: Natural History of, Prof. W. A. Bryan, 46; The Lavas of, and their Relations, W. Cross, 118 Hawksley, Thomas, Lecture to be delivered by H. E. Jones, 112 Haze, Effect of, on Solar Rotation Measures, R. E. De Lury, 99 Headmasters’ Conference, Resolutions of the, 360 Heat: A Student’s, I. B. Hart, 147; Determination of the Mechanical Equivalent of, L. Hartmann, 44; Loss in Animals, Surface Law of, Prof. Wood, 262; Spon- taneous Generation of, in Recently Hardened Steel, C. F. Brush and Sir R. Hadfield, 503 Helicoprion clerci, Description of, 54 Helium Spectra, Excitation of, Observations on the, Prof. O. W. Richardson and Dr. C. B. Bazzoni, 5 Helland, Prof. A., The Geological Work of, Hr. P. A. Oyen, 436 Hellenic Studies, Conway, 221 Helsingfors University, Gift to, by Prof. A. S. Donner, 152 Hercynella, Probable Environment of, in Victoria, F. Chap- man, 363 Hereditary Lack of Emotional Control, A Family showing, ~ Mrs. A. W. Finlayson and Prof. C. B. Davenport, 99 Heredity, Sex-limited Factors in, 479 Herring, Mackerel, and Pilchard Fisheries off the South- West Coasts, Fluctuations of the, Dr. E. C. Jee, 137 Hessian Fly, Hymenopterous Parasites of the, C. M. Packard, 258 Heterocera, A Collection of, Lieut.-Col. J. M: Fawcett, 28. Tiperedtioa of Animals, The, Dr. A. Rasmussen, 215 Highway Engineering, Elements of, Prof. A. H. Blanchard, 4 Hill Birds of Scotland, S. Gordon, 30 Himalaya, the Loftier, The Possibility of Ascending the, Dr. A. M. Kellas, 415 Hippurite from the Chalk near Faversham placed in the Natural History Museum, 132 Hoatzin, Habits of the, Father C. B. Dawson; G. K. Cherrie, 453 Honey-bee, Sense-organs on the Mouth-parts of the, Dr. N. E. McIndoo, 258 Hong Kong : Meteorological and Magnetical Work at, T. F. Claxton, 40; The Climate of, T. F. Claxton, 297 Horse, ‘Teeth of an Ancient, found in Ceylon, E. J. Wey- land, 477 Hours, The Designation of, C. H. Collings, 7 Huddersfield Technical College, Department of Coal-tar Colour Chemistry, Report of the, Dr. A. E. Everest, 215 Humanistic: and Scientific Studies, Resolutions respecting, 23; Studies, Resolutions respecting, 162 Human Skeletons from Indian Graves at Machu Picchu, Dr. G. F. Eaton, 54 Hume’s Theory of the Credibility of Miracles, C. D. Broad, 22 Hunterian Oration: Sir G. H. Makins to deliver the, 434; Sir G. H. Makins, 496 Hurlet Sequence in the East of Scotland, P. McNair, 463 Huxley Memorial Lecture on “‘ Ancient Stories of a Great Flood,’’ Sir J. G. Frazer, 132 Hyderabad Observatory, Report of the, Pocock, 379 Hydraulic : Flow Reviewed, A. A. Barnes, 87; Formula Reconstruction, 87 ° Hydraulique, Cours d’, Prof. J. Grialou, 267 Hydrobromic Acid, Absolute Density of, C. K. Reiman, 443 Hydrocarbons : found in Coal, Some, A. Pictet, L. Ramseyer, and O. Kaiser, 183; The Pyrogenesis of, E. L. Lomax, ‘A. E. Dunstan, and F. B. Thole, 358 Hydrogen: The Action of, on Sulphuric Acid, F. Jones, 462; The Spectrum of, R. T. Beatty, 169 The Future of, Dr. W. Leaf; Prof. XXVili Hymenoptera, Studies of, 258 Hyperacoustics, Division i., Simultaneous Tonality, J. L. Dunk, 306 Ice Recorded near the Island of Colonsay, 97 ; Ice-crystals Columnar: A. E,. Larkman, 269; Extrusion of, from Moist Earth, J. L., 290 Iceland : Lignite from, 416; ‘ete., The Basalts of, A. Holmes and Dr. H. F. Harwood, 423; The Tertiary Acid Volcanic Rocks of, L. Hawkes, 138 Immunology, Applied, Prof. B. A. Thomas and Dr. R. H. Ivy, 88 Tropitone roylei, The Root-System of, Miss I. McClatchie, 2 fener Institute: Discussion in the House of Lords on the, 332; Lectures by Miss E. A. Browne, 82, 402 India : Records of the Survey of, vol. vi., 92; The Mineral Production of, in 1915, 396; The ’ Zoological Survey . of, 11 Indian : Ooeit, Oceanographical and Meteorological Ob- servations in the, 335; Raw Materials, Utilisation of, Inquiry into the, 134; Science Congress, Fourth Annual Meeting of the, 18; Temples, The Origin of, Dr. D. B. Spooner, 113 Indiana and Michigan: Pleistocene of, and the History of the Great Lakes, F. Leverett and F. B. Taylor, 117 Indians of Cuzco and the Apurimac, The, Dr. H. B. Ferris, faiian Improvement of, Third Report on the, A. and Mrs. Howard, 335 _ Individuality in Organisms, Prof. C. M. Child, 85 Indo-Aryan Races, The, R. Chanda, part i., 227 Indo-Russian Triangulation Connection, The, 256 Industrial: Associations, 65; Engineering: Present Posi- tion and Post-War Outlook, F. W. Lanchester, 273 ; Laboratories, Research in, 458; Research, Scientific and, 49 Industries, Scientific Research in relation to, Dr. C. P. Steinmetz, 420 Industry and Commerce, 68 Inheritance of Artistic and Musical Ability, Dr. H. Drink- water, 100 Injection of Products of the Arsenobenzene Group, Causes of the Disturbances observed after the, J. Danysz, 64 Insect : Enemies, C. A. Ealand, 427; Migrations as Related to Those of Birds, H. J. Shannon, 135 Insectivore, Discovery of the Skull of an, Dr. W. D. Matthew, 258 Insects: Attacking the Common Pine in Scotland, J. W. Munro, 39; Noxious, 386; The Senses of, F. M. Howlett, 1573 which have been Troublesome during the Cam- paign in France and Flanders, F. M. Howlett, 157 Integrals, Multiple, Prof. W. H. Young, 221 Intelligence Tests, J. V. Haberman, 175 “Tntentional ” Reasoning, Prof. E. Rignano, 175 Interferometer Methods based on the Cleavage of a Dif- fracted Ray, C. Barus, 83 Internal Secretions, The Influence of, on Sex Characteris- tics, 266 International Alphabet, Proposal for an, G. G. Chisholm, 436 Intravenous Injection, The Properties required in Solutions - for, Prof. Bayliss, 179 ‘Invar: and Related Nickel Steels, Properties of, 98; Ex- pansibility of, by Mechanical or Thermal Actions, C. E. Guillaume, 324; The Homogeneity and Expansion of, C. E. Guillaume, 423 Invariant Theory, 187 Invariants, A Treatise on the Theory of, Glenn, 187 Involuntary Nervous System, The, Dr. W. H. Gaskell, 248 Iodine, Colloidal, H. Bordier and G. Roy, 263 Ionica, Le Scuole, Pythagorica ed Eleata (I Prearistotelici, I.), Dr. A. Mieli, 165 Ionisation : of Gases and the Absorption of R6ntgen Rays, L. Simons, 403; Potential, Prof. J. ©. McLennan, 120 lowa, The Pleistocene Mammals of, O. P. Hay, 118 Ipswich and Walloon Series, Flora of the, A. B. Walkom, 481 Prof. ‘QO. E. ' Nature, [starch 15, 1917 . Ireland, Department of Agriculture and Technical Ins fa for, Summer Courses of Instruction for Teachers, Iris somaiieorms, The Seed of, T. A. Dymes, 303 Irish Archeology, The Progress of, I. J. Westropp, 113 “! Iron: and Nickel, Demagnetised, Induction Changes in, J. Russell, 463 5 and Nickel, Magnetic Properties of, 1 Brown, 455; in Plants, Mobility of, P. L. Gile a J. O. Carrero, 298; Pyrites as the Cementing Material of a Sandstone, T. A. Jones, 395; Spectrum, Group- ing of the Lines of the, G. A. Hemsalech; La le Gramont, 363 Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation, F. W. Waugh, i i Isle of Wight Disease, Nosema apis and, J. Anderson and Dr. J. Rennie, 439 ; Isostasy, The Theory of, as applied to the Quaterna Oscillations of Sea-level, W. B. Wright, 499 Italian Meteorology, Prof. Eredia, gor a Italy, A Plague of Voles in, and its Control, Prof. Sple dore, 338 ; Japan, The Ries | of, J. P. Iddings and E. W. G Morley, 83 } sea Macrourid Fishes, C. H. Gilbert and C. L. be Rear Trade, The, in War-time, 271 Z Job, A Modern, E. Giron, Translated by F. Rothwell, 426 Joint Matriculation Board, Accession of Universities in the | Scheme of the, 142 Joints, Riveted, re Batho, 276 Journal : of Anatomy and Physiology, The, 277; of Induttedi ne Engineering Chemistry, Change of Editorship of the, 174 Joy, The Influence of, Prof. G. V. N. Dearborn, 90 Jupiter, The Great Red Spot on, F. Sargent, 257 : Jupiter’s Satellites, Eclipses of, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 47 Katmai Volcano, The, R, F. Griggs, 38 Kattegat, Physical Conditions of the, G. H. Fowler, 203 Kelvin Lecture, The, of the Institution of Electrical En-— gineers, Dr. A. Russell, 214 : Kerr Effect, Application of the, Dr. S. G. Barker, 222 PF) a pia Derived from Diaceto-orcinol, J. — gar, Kew, Royal ‘Botanié Gardens, Seeds Available for Exchange from the, 435 if Kinetic : Energy, Systematic Variation of the Value of, L. Hartmann, 443; Theory Revived, The, 3 4 King’s College : Strand, Evening Classes at, 282; A Hospital — 2 Medical School, E. A. Woods awarded a Burney Yeo Scholarship at, 63 Kitchener Memorial Fund Scholarships, 82 s Kitchener’s, Lord, Collection of Eastern Weapons and Armour, Exhibition of, 475 Kohlrausch Method of Determining Refractive ngeeaed Modification of the, Dr. J. W. Evans, 222 . Korea, Belief in Malignant Spirits in, 496 Labyrinthodonts, Triassic, Structure of the Lower Jaw of L. J. Wills, 55 i Lafayette College. Bequest to, by A. N. Seip, 23 ‘Liga, Smaland, Electric Power Works at, 176 NS Lake District, The Geology of the, and the Scenery a as Influenced by Geological Structure of Dr. Toman 345 Lalang as a Possible Paper-making Material, 394 Land-settlement Colony for ex-Service Men, A; 152 Land-slides on the Panama Canal, Dr. Vaughan Cornish, 22 Land, Waste, Utilisation of, Prof. Oliver; Martineau ; Dr. W. E. Smith; Prof. Bottomley, 2 23 ¢ La Pileta a Benaojan (Malaga) (Espagne), V’Abbé H. ae ad Dr. H. Obermaier, and Col. W. Verner, 51 La Revue Verte, Part i. of, 116 Lasserre Prize, Dr. A. Yersin awarded the, 313 Latin as an Optional Subject in the ‘Medical Higher Pre- liminary Examination, 282 = Thorium,” The Atomic Weight of, Prof. F sease, Cause of, Quanjer, 500 niversity: Annual Report of the Department of ‘oal, Gas, and Fuel Industries, 103; Evening Courses in Technology in the, 82; Miss H. de Pennington ted Research Assistant to Prof. J. B. Cohen at, Reorganisation of the Department of Colour hemistry and Dyeing, 63; Twelfth Annual Report, Visit of Journalists to, 124; Work on Colour sitisers, 382 te Céleste, G. Daressy, 7 The Refractometry of, L. C. Martin, 28 of 1916, The, W. F. Denning, 236 m sativum, Seeds of, Trials of the, P. Lesage, 223 dopterous Fauna of Ebor Scrub, N.S.W., Dr. A. J. rner, 24 State Museum of Natural History at, Report on , Dr. E. D. van Oort, 174; Changes at the, 174; niversity, Dr. P. N. van Kampen appointed Professor ' Zoology, etc., in, 422 mme Machine,” 288 Scholarships in Germany, 482 : and Work, My, Dr. E. K. Muspratt, 325; Assurance _ Tables, Prof. W. W. Campbell, 48; upon the Earth, _ Origin and Evolution of, Prof. H. F. Osborn, 275; The Breath of, J. Burroughs, 125 t, The Action of, on Dilute Aqueous Solutions of Todine, etc., 24 ting, War Economies in, L. Gaster, 314 Linear Differential Equations, Certain Asymptotic Expres- _ sions in the Theory of, W. E. Milne, 163 ‘Linethwaite,” The Name, Rev. Cesar Caine; Your Re- __-viewer, 290 Literature and Science in Education, 432; A. C. Benson, 433 Lithium and Calcium, Effect of an Electric Field on the __ Lines of, J. T. Howell, 163 Liverpool: Marine Biology Committee, Report of the, 497; * _ Observatory, Report of, 1915, 55; University, Gift by _ C.S. Jones for the Endowment of the Chair of Classical _ Archeology, 182; Gifts to, by Prof. and Mrs. Herdman, and C. W. Jones, 281; J. Wemyss Anderson given the Title of Associate Professor by, 503 don: Mathematical Society, Forthcoming Presidential _ Address by Sir J. Larmor, 153; The, Sir J. Larmor, 319; School of Medicine for Women, Date for the ___- Opening of the Extension of the, 43 ; (Royal Free Hos- oe . i School of Medicine for Women, Opening of _ Extension of the Science Laboratories of the, 104; School of Economics and Political Science, Abridged Calendar of the, 43; University, Award of the Rogers Prize to Dr. J. L. Jona, 240; Deans of Faculties for ___ 1916-18, 182; Doctorates Conferred by, 161; Lt.-Col. H.R. Kenwood to deliver a Lecture on Hygiene : Some Lessons of the War, 202; J. J. Guest appointed Reader in Graphics and Structural Engineering, 441; Confer- ment of Doctorates, 441; Lectures at King’s College and University College, 123; The Dixon Fund, the Gilchrist Studentship, the Lindley Studentship, the Rosebery Prize of the London School of Economics warded to W. G. Chapman and W. H. Jarvis, 482; The Title of Emeritus Professor of Physics conferred on 3! Dr. F. T. Trouton, Conferment of Doctorates, 321; College, Lectures by Prof. J. A. Fleming and Prof. . . N. Collie, 82; Public Lectures at, 402 Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps, G. H. Sherwood, 335 treuil Fund, The, Grants for Scientific Work, 439 _ Lowell Observatory, Bequest to, by P. Lowell, 313 Lower General Examinations in Science and Technology __* Suspended, 241 ; Luminous: Centipedes, Sergt. F. M. Roberts, 269; Larva, _ Observation of, near Brighton, Rev. J. Holroyde, 114 ‘Lunar Rainbow, A Fine, at Etaples, Capt. J. O. W. _. Barratt, 174 Lund University: A Seismograph obtained for the Astro- -_-nomical Institute of, 333; Foundation of a Professor- _____ ship for Dr. N. H. Nilsson-Ehle, 161 4 a ij - > ss as Index XxixX 2 International : and Natural, 455; The Classics of, | Lyons Observatory, Observations of the Sun at the, J. Guillaume, 443 Pe Atomic Weight of, G2. de Coninck and M. Gérard, | Lyperosia exigua, Bionomics of, G. F. Hill, 363 Maemillan’s Graphic Geographies: The British Isles, B. C. Wallis, 488 Madrid Observatory, The Almanac of the, 438 Magic and Religion, Dr. Jevons, 199 Magnetic: Compass, Measurements of the Deviation of the, 315; Induction and its Reversal in Spherical Iron Shells, Prof. J. W. Nicholson and Prof. E. Wilson, 483; Units, Electric and, International System of, J. H. Dellinger, 337 Magnetisation, Mechanical Relations of the Energy of, G. H. Livens, 221 Magnetism and Electricity, An Intermediate Text-book of, G. F. Woodhouse, 127 Magnets, Elementary, of a Group arranged in a Space- lattice, Expression for the Force on One of the, Honda and Okubo, 115 Maize: Correlated Characters in, G. N. Collins, 119; Growth and Variation in, Drs. R. Pearl and F. M. Surface; 119 Malta : Bird Protection in, 376, 496; University, Doctorates Conferred by the, 382 Mammalian: Fauna of North Cardiganshire, F. Wright, 114; Remains in Russia, Madame M. Pavlow, 54 Mammals, Muscles of, Dr. F. H. Edgeworth, 39 Mammary Glands: Extra, and the Re-absorption of Milk- sugar, Dr. Marshall and K. J. J. Mackenzie, 263; in the Rabbit, Developmental Progress of the, Capt. J. Hammond, 483 Man: An Adaptive Mechanism, Prof. G. W. Crile, 288; Arboreal, Prof. F. Wood Jones, 426; Earliest, F. W. H. Migeod, 189 ~ Manchester Municipal School of Technology, Record of Investigations, 178 Manila, The Water Supply of, G. W. Heise, 97 Manure-heap, Economy of the, E. H. Richards, 301 Maori Weapons, H. D. Skinner, 275 Map Projections, Prof. Nunn, 380 Marbles, British and Foreign, and other Ornamental Stones, J. Watson, 327 Margarine Fat, The Pink Colour on the Surface of, A. W. Knapp, 21 Marine: and Fresh-water Deposits of Pliocene Age, Dis- tribution of, in South-East England, W. J. L. Abbott, 356; Fibre,’’ Supplies and Cost of Raising, D. C. Winterbottom, 397; Isopoda from the North Atlantic, 2 Mares Clouds on, Prof. W. H. Pickering, 397 ; Photographs of, G. H. Hamilton, 77 Marsupialia, Ovarian Tissues Dr.’ |G O’Donoghue, 20 Masonry Dam Design, including High Masonry Dams, Dr. C. E. Morrison and O. L. Brodie, Second edition, 86 Mi ascartinsetts Horticultural Society, The George Robert White Medal of the, awarded to W. Robinson, 355 Materials, Strength of, Elementary, E. S. Andrews, 365 Maternity and Child Welfare Work, A Scheme for, Misses I. Macdonald and K. Atherton, 415 Mathematical: Association, Annual Meeting of the, 302; Prof. Nunn elected President of the, 380; and the Re- organisation of the Educational System, 220; and Geographical Associations, Joint Meeting of the, 302; Course of an Italian Technical School, Prof. V. Snyder, 396; Literature, Historical Introduction to, Prof. G. A. Miller, 387; Portraits and Pages, Prof. D. E. Smith, 97; Tables for Class-room Use, M. Merriman, 88; Text-books, 347 Mathematics: and Physics at the British Association, 120; History of, 387; School, 88 Mathématiques, Exercices Numériques et Graphiques de, Prof. L. Zoretti, 347 Mathieu’s Differential Equation, Solution of, Dr. J. Dougall, 256 Mauritius, Director of Agriculture, Appointment of Dr. H. A. Tempany, 375 of the, XXX Measles Epidemics in London, The Periodicity of, Dr. J. Brownlee, 483 Meat Production: Prof. D. A. Gilchrist, 302; Economy in, T. B. Wood and K. J. J. Mackenzie, 302 Mechanics, Text-book of, Prof. L. A. Martin, Jr., 127 Medical : Officer of the Local Government Board, Report of the, 477; Research Committee, Annual Report of the, 253; lreatment for Disabled Soldiers, 293 Medicinal Plants, Collection and Cultivation of, Prof. H. E. Greenish ; Holmes; Sir S. Olivier; Dr. E. N. Thomas, 237-8 ; 497 Mediterranean, Semple, 55 Megalichthys, Rev. S. G. Birks, 155 Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines, Geographical Distribution of, W. J. Perry, 134 Megastigmus, Egg-laying of, J. M. Miller, 258 Melbourne University: A. L. MacAulay appointed Demon- strator in Physics at, 82; E. J. C. Rennie appointed Acting Lecturer in Electrical Engineering in, 461 Meldola : Memorial, J. L. Baker and others, 429; Raphael, Reminiscences of his Worth and Work, Edited by J. Marchant, 125 Mellish Comet r1915a, 358 Memories, E. Clodd, 267 Men of the Old Stone Age, Prof. H F. Osborn, Second edition, 45 Mendelism: A Manual of, Prof. J. Wilson, 3; Farm, 3 Meningococcus, Effect of Sprays for Freeing Carriers from the, Lt.-Col. Gordon and Capt. Flack, 296 Mentally Deficient Children: Their Treatment and Train- ing, Drs. G. E. Shuttleworth and W. A. Potts, Fourth edition, 227 Mercury: an Evening Star, 336; Determination of the Freezing Point of, R. M. Wilhelm, 276; Visible before Sunrise, 116 Meridian, The First, Declaration of Louis XIII. Relating to the, G. Bigourdan, 163 Mesozoic Multituberculate Mammals, Structure and Affini- ties of the, Dr. R. Broom, 257 *“ Metabolic,’’ The Date of the Introduction of the Term, Prof. D. Fraser Harris, 389 Metallurgy, French, The Future of, Prof. H. C. H. Car- penter; Dr. L. Guillet, 493 Metals: Fused, Thermo-electric Properties of, C. R. Dar- ling and A. W. Grace, 322; Institute of, Autumn Meeting of the, 18; Corrosion Ccmmittee of the, De- velopments of the Work of the, 19; Journal of the, The Pirate Coasts of the, Miss E. C. on the vol. xv., 69; Plastic Flowing of, W. H. F. Murdoch, . 190 Meteor: A Brilliant, Seen in Montgomeryshire, 355; A Large, on. January 4, W. F. Denning, 379 Meteoric Shower from Biela’s Comet, The, 257 Meteorite: Reported Fall of a, near Cardiff, 95; The Lake Okechobee, G. P. Merrill, 455 ; Meteorites: Catalogue of, Dr. G. P. Merrill, 196; Cata- logue of, in the Field Museum, Chicago, Dr. O. C. Farrington, 498; Chemical and Mineralogical Com- position of, Dr. G. P. Merrill and Dr. J. E. Whitfield, 395; in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, J. C. Brown, 395; The Photographic Spectra of, Sir W. Crookes, 221; their Structure, Composition, and Terrestrial Relations, Dr. O. C. Farrington, 145 Meteoritic Iron, The Use of, by Primitive Man, G. Zimmer, 350 ““ Meteoritics,’’ 145 Meteorological: Observations in the Five Years IQII-I5, The, also of Underground Temperatures in the Twelve Years 1898-1910, made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, vol. li., 247; Phenomena, Discontinuities in, Prof. H. H. Turner, 343 Meteorolog’st in China, A, C. E, P. Brooks, 242 Meteorology: Argentine, W. G. Davis, 337; and Wheat Shortage, Prof. G. H. Bryan; Sir N. Shaw, 369; for General Readers, 286; in War, 216; Italian, Prof. Eredia, 401; of the Upper Air, G. Taylor, 20 Metric Syste: Increased Use of the, in America, 52; Sir E. Holden, 453; The Prime Minister on the, 192 BP: Index Nature, March 15, 1917 Ps Mexico, Mercurial, The Treasure ‘Chest of, F. H. Prober 19 Michell Type of Bearing, The, H. T. Newbigin, 158 Microbes and War, Prof. E. Glynn, 375 Microbiology, General, Laboratory Manual in, 308 Micro-organisms, Filterability of, Wolbach, 39 4 Microscleres, Revision of the Genera with, E. F. Hallmann, ~ 2 Mair oscevren Science, Quarterly Journal of, Index to thi 6 * aiaiene Hospital, W. Kewley appointed Secretary-Super- intendent of the, 313 : Migrations of Early Culture: Objections to the Reality of the, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 342; Ships as Evidence — of the, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 394 a Military : Education, Elements of, W. A. Brockington, 289; — Map, The, 4 : Milk: and its Hygienic Relations, Dr. J. E. Lane-Claypon, — 467; and the Public Health, 467; Supply, Recom- — mendations for the Improvement of the, 75 Millibar, The, and Atmospheric Pressure, 332 Milne’s Institution, Fochabers, Bequest to, by Sir J. Sive- — wright, 63 a Mineral: Field in Telemark, Norway, Discovery of &, 95; Oil, Geology and Supply of, 487; Production, An Im-— perial Department of, Prof. H. Louis, 91; Resources of the British Empire, The, Prof. C. G. Cullis, 361 Mineralogic Notes, W. T. Schaller, 416 Mineralogical Society, Election of Officers and the, 213 Minerals: and Metals, An Imperial Department of, 199; Separating, A Method for, Dr. P. Riboni, 436 $ Minefs’ Phthisis, Nature of Mineral Matter in Lung Tissue in, Drs. W. Watkins-Pitchford and J. Moir, 416 a Minimum Radiation Visually Perceptible, The, Dr. H. E. © Ives, 216 Mining: Geology and, in Rhodesia, Primitive, at Alderley Edge, 38 Mira Ceti, 1915, Maxima of, F. de Roy, 21 ~ Mitchell, Maria, Memorial Astronomical Fellowship, The, 213 Money-Cowrie in America, Pre-Columbian Use of the, J. W. Jackson, 48, 309; H. N. Wardle, 308 Monism in the Light of Recent Developments in Philosophy, C. E. M. Joad, 442 Monoclonius, Skull of, Added to ‘the Collection Natural History Museum, 133 Moneecious Plants, Distribution of, Miss A. J. Davey and Miss M. Gibson, 343 Montana, The Glacier National Park, 117 Montreal, The Artesian Wells of, C. L. Cumming, 398 Moon: The Physical Libration of the, P. Puiseux, 183; Total Eclipse of the, 336 Moose Factory, Ships to and from, J. B. Tyrrell, 155 Morphology, Old and New, 306 Mortality Tables and Expectation of Life, Prof. W. W. Campbell and others, 391 Moscow, Report of the Agronomical Laboratory at, for 1914, 114 7 Mosquitoes, The Destruction of, by Fish, J. Legendre, 183 Mothercraft, A School of, 334 Mozambique, The Tertiary Volcanic Rocks of, A. Holmes, 163 Munition Workers: Health of, Memorandum of the Com- mittee, 134; Output of, in Relation to Hours of Work, Dr. H. M. Vernon, 315 Murchison: Goldfield, Geological Reconnaissance of a Portion of the, H. P. Woodward, 390; of Taradale Memorial, Bequest of the, by Miss A. F. Yule, 382 | Musci and Hepaticz of the Glen of the Downs, D. McArdle, 63 swnels Physiology, Prof. F. S. Lee and others, 39 Museums, Provincial, Evolution of, F. Woolnough, 376 Musgrave Ranges, The, R. L. Jack, 399 Muspratt, Dr. E. K., The Life-Work of, Sir T. E. Thorpe, Council of 294; Implements, 4 in the 2 Mussel The Common, I. Field, 297 Mussels, Sterilised Water and, Dr. A. T. Masterman, 137 Mutation: and Evolution, 99; The Relation of, to the Evolution Theory, Prof. A. Dendy, 99 [mperial Bureau of, Suggestion fér the Forma- , Brierley, 237 _Colour-printed Geological Map of, 436; Uni- f, First Meeting of the Senate of the, 321 - ‘ Relations of the European and Bantu Races. in, . Evans, 41 : of the Future, L. H. Guest, 407 mal: Geographic Magazine, August, 97; Museums and Galleries, Saving Effected by the Closing of cKinnon Wood, 132; Physical Laboratory, The of the, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 339; Reconstruc- , 191; Science in the Educational System, Com- on, Dr. H. Head appointed a Member of the, faa Selection and the Evolution of the Protozoa, R. a) Gr naway, 20; Colour in Plants, The Preservation of, I, Jorgensen, 229 ure, the Laws of, The Contingency of, E. Boutroux, Translated by F. Rothwell, 426 val Architects, Institution of; Annual Meetings of the, 193 j The Martell Scholarship of the, 262 yraska, Fossil Birds’ Eggs in, E. L. Troxell, 481 bula: about Rho Ophiuchi, Spectrum of the, Dr. V. M. lipher, 236; Hut. 78 Leonis, The, Mrs. I. Roberts, 77; Iv. 39 Argitis, Spectrum of the, Dr. Max Wolf, 77 bulz : Colour of, F. H. Seares, 243; Planetary, Relative Motions in the, W. W. Campbell and J. H. Moore, 243 matode Parasites of the Rodentia and Hyracoidea, _M. C. Hall, 439 matus erichsonit, Caterpillars of the, in Aberdeenshire, _W. Ritchie, 376 Nephelite Syenites of Haliburton County, Ontario, W. G. _ Foye, 399 f Nestorian Monument in China, The, Prof. P. Y. Saeki, 26 Nevada: Northern, Rich Gold Ores of the Mining District in, W. Lindgren, 118; Southern, Gold-Platinum-Palla- ___ dium Lode in, A. Knopf, 118 ‘ epee, The Permian Formation of, Dr. D. Woolacott, ar 13) ; New Guinea: A New Batrachian Genus from, D. B. Fry, 463; Kava Drinking in, Dr. A. C. Haddon, 154 Ber South Wales, General Public Health Administration fe of, Dr. Paton, 175 Newton’s Method : in General Analysis, A. A. Bennett, 243; _ of Approximation, H. B. Fine, 163 ‘New Year Honours, 354, 474 New York City: ‘Problems Incident to the Growth of, ___ E. P. Goodrich, 195 ; Water Barriers of, E. Huntington, Bee, 195 i lew Zealand: Potash Deposits, Sir T. Mackenzie and others, 252; Survey, Report of the, 1915-16, 155; Uni- ___versity, A Plea for a System of Internal Examination in the, Prof. A. Wall, 362 N.G.C.: 2261, The Variable Nebula, E. P. Hubble, 208; 4504, pe cation and Radial Velocity of, F. G. Pease, 163, 35: ckel: and Iron Wires, Fatigue of, Prof. W. Brown, 343 ; Steel, Oxidation of, Dr. J. E. Stead, 280 colson Observatory Bee-Hive, The, and How to Use it, . Anderson, 235 tingale in Wales, The, 95 ‘ Fused, Talbot’s Observations on, Lord Rayleigh, 428 \ en: Active Modification of, Spectroscopic Observa- tions on the, Hon. R. J. Strutt, 482; Compounds in the ah - United States, Sources of, Dr. C. G. Gilbert; Sir E. _ Thorpe, 431 omenclature, Rules of, Notice of Possible Suspension of the, in the Cases of Holothuria, 1758, vs. Physalia, 1801, and Bohadschia, 1833, vs. Holothuria, 1791, Dr. _ C. W. Stiles, 49 7 Non-ferrous Meta! Trades, Board of Trade Committee on the Position after the War of the, 153 North: Africa, The Winds of, Major H. G. Lyons, 462 ; Atlantic Tertiary Volcanic Plateau, Building-up of the, aS Hawkes, 416; -East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders’ Scholarship awarded to E. V. Telfer, Index XXx1 182; Indian Agricultural Ceremonies, Secrecy and Silence in, S. C. Mitra, 403; Pacific Ocean, Proposed Exploration of the, Prof. W. M. Davis, 377; Pole, Capt. Amundsen’s Expedition to the, 452; Sea Drift, Constitution of, P. G. H. Boswell, 76; Staffordshire Field Club, The, Jubilee Volume, 1865-1915, Edited by as H. Burne, J. I. Slobbs, and H. V. Thompson, 4 Morieerpion Polytechnic Institute, Courses and Classes at the, 82 Northern Counties Lore, 205 Northumbria, Early Christian Monuments Collingwood, 198 Nuclear Material, Migration of, into an Adjacent Cell, E. J. Sheppard, 383 ity) Suet Ge Observations, Adjustment of, 385 Odonata, Wings of, Radial and Zygopterid Sectors in the, R, J. Tillyard, 464 Oertling’s Catalogue of Balances and Weights, 40 Oil: and Gas Production, Principles of, Prof. B. H. Johnson and L. G. Huntley, 487; Drive, An, for Equatorial Telescopes, S. Bolton, 28; -Field Development and Petroleum Mining, A. Beeby Thompson, 425; Tech- nology, 425; -Shale Resources, British, The Develop- ment of, 494; -Shales in the Port Curtis District, L. C. Ball, 399; The Norfolk, W. F. Leslie, 494 Optical : Society, Sir F. Dyson, Prof. R. A. Sampson, and Prof. H. C. Plummer elected Honorary Members of the, 213; Officers of the, 475; Surfaces, The Grinding and Polishing of, J. W. French, 223; Testing, Workshop Methods of, 419 Ores, Concentrating, by Flotation, T. J. Hoover, Third edition, 246 Organised Group Game, Psychology of the, M. J. Reaney, 154 Organism, The, as Phoenix, 85 Organisms, Individuality in, Prof. C. M. Child, 85 Oriental Studies, School of: Appeal on Behalf of the En- dowment Fund of the, 162, 382 Orionid Shower of 1916, The, 177 Ormuri or Bargista Language, Sir G. Grierson, 283. Orthoclase and Pegmatite, Experiments with, L. J. Briggs and J. F. Breazeale, 478 : Osmotic Pressure: Prof. A. W. Porter, 120; and Lowering of the Freezing Point of Mixtures of Salts, etc., W- D Harkins, R. E. Hall, and W. A. Roberts, 403; on Bacteria, The Influence of, J. Beauverie, 363 Oxford University : Address by the Very Rey. T. B. Strong, 123; Opening of the New Term, 142; Proposal of a New Status for Advanced Students, 421; Reports of the Botanic Garden and the Department of Botany, 161; The Bequest of C. Welch; Report of the Committee for Anthropology, 461; The Rhodes Estate Bill, 182, 202; Gift by H. Laming to Queen’s College, 202 ; The Status of “Advanced Student,” 441, 503 Oyster-Beds, Purification of, 315 Ozobranchus branchiatus, E. J. Goddard, 84 Paleolithic Man, 45 } Palzontology, Recent Work in, 481 Palwophysiology, J. V- Samojloff, 423 ; Paleozoic Platform Beneath the London Basin, etc., H. A. Baker, 442 Palm-Kernel Cake, Prof. C. Crowther and others, 394 Panama Canal, Land-Slides on the, Dr. Vaughan Cornish, Pancreas, Development of Panjab, The, North-West Sir J. Douie, 148 Pappus of Alexandria, Dr. J. H. Weaver, 396 Parallaxes of Procyon and Altair, Dr. S. A. Mitchell, 479 Parasites, Recent Papers on, 439 Parasitology, Human, A Text-Book of, 305 Paris Academy: M. Aries elected a Correspondant of the, 242; Prize Awards of the, 1916, 380; Programme of Prizes for 1918, 418; of Medicine, Bequest to, by Dr. Magnan, 273; Dr. S. Flexner elected a Foreign Asso- The, the, M. Tribe, 322 : Frontier Province, and Kashmir, XXxXil ciate of ‘the, 414; Observatory, Astronomical Observa- tions at the, G. Bigourdan, 223 Parks and Park Engineering, Prof. W. T. Lyle, 486 Pathometry, a priori, An Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Study of, Sir R. Ross and Miss H. P. Hudson, 483 Peat, Manufacture of Manure from, Prof. F. E. Weiss, 283 Pelobates, Development of the Frog, G. A. Belogolovy, 54 Pelodrilus africanus, E. J. Goddard, 44 Pennines, Northern, The, Dr. A. Wilmore, 138 Pennsylvania Hospital, University of, Recommendation of a Grant to, for the Treatment of Cancerous and other Ailments, 82 Pentoses, Total Destruction of, in the Course of Alcoholic Fermentation, H. Pellet, 83 Peripheral Nerve-lesions, Profs. Sala and Verga, 275 Permeability : New Determinations of, S. C. Brooks, 243; Selective, Prof. A. J. Brown and F. Tinker, 242 Petrograd, Higher Institute of Medicine for Women at, Gift for Scholarships at the, 402 Petroleum: Research, Munitions, Sir B. Redwood appointed Director of, 475; Supplies Branch of the Ministry of Munitions, Establishment of a, 475 Phagocyte, The Réle of the, in Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, C. Shearer and H. W. Crowe, 242 Pharmaceutical Research Fellowship, Endowment of a, by Mr. Ransom, 295 Pheasant-Crosses, Colour and Pattern Transference in, Miss R. Haig Thomas, 480 Phenol in Crude Tar Phenols, Estimation of, R. Masse and H. Leroux, 183 f Philadelphia Museum, Gift of Roman Mosaics to, by Mrs. D. Parrish, 74 Philippine Islands, The Petrography of the, I. P. Iddings and E. W. Morley, 163 Philosophy, 426 Pheenicians and Megalithic Culture, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 134 Phosphates, The World’s Supply of, Prof. J. W. Gregory, 301 Phosphorescent : Centipede, A, Capt. W. B. Gourlay, 233; Centipedes, S. Priest, 319 Phosphorus : The Geologic Réle of, E. Blackwelder, 83 ; and Sulphur, The Influence of, on the Mechanical Properties of Steel, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 410 Photographic : Illustration, C. M. Hutchinson, 256; Record- ing, 445 “Photography of Coloured Objects,” New edition, 77 Photometry, Extra-focal, R. H. Baker and E. E. Cummings, 379 Photo-micrography, Plain, The Practical Principles of, G. West, 47 Photosynthesis, The Mechanism of, A. A. Richter and E. M. Kollegorsky, 39 Physics: 147; Practical, A Manual of, H. E. Hadley, 127; A Text-Book of, Dr. H. S. Allen and H. Moore, 106; Three Text-Books of, 127 Physiological Chemistry, Prof. A. P. Mathews, 167 Physiology at the British Association, 178 Pigeons, Sex Control and Known Correlations in, Dr. O. Riddle, 480 Pine Blister Disease, 454 Pituitary : Extract, Action of, on the Secretion of Cerebro- spinal Fluid, Prof. Halliburton, 178; Gland, Isolation from an Extract of the, Prof. T. B, Robertson, 435 Plane Electric Waves, Scattering of, by Spheres, Dr. T. J. I’a. Bromwich, 282 Planets, Minor, Observations of, in France, 41 Plant: Culture, The Principles of, the late E. S. Goff, Revised by J. G. Moore and L. R. Jones, Eighth edition, 245; Disease, Prof. Potter, 237; Diseases, 500; Distribution, Early Chapters in, Prof. G. S. Boulger, 222; Physiology and Teratology, 485; Some Recent Researches in, Dr. W. R._G. Adkins, 485; Teratology, The Principles of, W. C. Worsdell, vol. i., 485 Plants: in Health and Disease, Prof. F. E. Weiss, Dr. A. D. Imms, and W. Robinson, 330; in Health and Disease,” Dr. A. D. Imms, 428; Natural Colour in, Preservation of, Dr. A. B. Rendle, 191 Pees Vessels, Vaporisation of, Burgess and Waltenberg, 9 Index Nature, — 5 March 15, 19t7 Pliohippus lullianus, E, L. Troxell, 395 ia Plumage, Henny, Inheritance of, in Cocks, Prof. Punnett and Capt. P. G. Bailey, 262 Pneumonia among the South African Dr. F. S. Lister, 393 Point Sets and Cremona Groups, part iii., A. A. Coble, 243 Polaris, The System of, L. Courvisier, 22 4a Polysaccum crassipes, P. A. van der Bij), 44 ‘. Pomégnes and Ratonneau, Geology of, J. Repelin, 324 Poplars of the United States Threatened by the European Poplar-canker, 375 Port Erin, Endowment of an Institute at, by Prof. and Herdman, 393 Portland Cement Industry, The, W. A. Brown, 368 Portuguese Minerals of Uranium and Zirconium, Spectro- graphic Studies of, A. Pereira-Forjaz, 443 . Position and Co-ordinates of the Old Observatory in the Vincenne, G. Bigourdan, 242 Post-cestrous Changes in the Non-Pregnant Dog, F. H. Marshall and E. T. Halnan, 483 S Potable Waters, A New Arrangement for the Rapid Filtra- tion of, C. Galaine and C. Houlbert, 443 Potash: from Kelp, Extraction of, in California, 75; from Kelp, Production of, 336; from Wyomingite, Extraction of, R. C. Wells, 276 Potassic Fertilisers, Possible, 252 a Potassium: Apparent Disappearance of, from Brines and Saline Deposits, W. B. Hicks, 117; Nitrate, Catalytic Action of, M. Molliard, 263 a Potatoes, Wart Disease of, 435; Order Respecting, 497 Poulsen Arc, Experiments on a, McLachlan, 158 Prairie-Dogs, The, N. Hollister, 315 Prawn, Common, Functions of the L. A. Borradaile, 242 Fe Pre-Boulder Clay Man, J. Reid Moir, 109 ' Precious Stones, Production of, for the Year 1915, Dr. G. F. Kunz, 271 " Pre-Palzolithic Implements, Discovery of, J. Reid Moir, 314 “Preparedness”: The American Way, 169 Mining Communit s, Preservatives and other Chemicals in Foods, Prof. O. Folin, 7 ~ / Pressure on the Equilibrium Constant of a Reaction in a Dilute Solution, Effect of, Prof. W. C. McC. Lewis, 383 Prize Awards of the Paris Academy for 1916, 380 Proper Motions by the Blink-Microscope, R. T. A. Innes, 56 Protoplasm and Gelatine, Similarity in the Behaviour of, — W. O. Fenn, 163 ; Protozoa: and Soil Bacteria, Dr. T. Goodey, 302; Found in Plankton Taken in Danish Seas, Dr. C. Ostenfeld, 194 Prunus, Resistance of, to Crown Gall, Prof. Clayton Smith, Fitton; triquetrum, The Gametophyte of, T. Whitelegge, 283; The Gametophyte of, G. P. Darnell-Smith, 463 Psychology, Modern, The Bearing of, on Educational Theory and Practice, C. M. Meredith, 27 Public-School : Education, The Reform of, Sir R. Ross, 220; — Science Masters, Association of, Forthcoming Annual — Meeting of the, 220; Address to, Prof. H. H. Turner, 400; Work of the, C. L. Bryant, 400 Public Schools: An Answer, W. D. E., 151; and others, 151; Science in, 400 Pump, Exhaust, A New Form of, I, Langmuir, 417 Purbeck Limestones, Characez in the, C. Groves, 481 Pyorrhoea, Certain Parasites of the Mouth in Cases of, Dr. H. Pixell-Goodrich and M. Moseley, 163 Pythagoras, The School of, Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, 165 — Quartic Surfaces with Singular Points, Prof. C. M. Jessop, 367 Quebec Bridge, The Accident to the, 135 Queensland, Fish Poisoning and Poisons Employed among the Aborigines of, Dr. Hamlyn-Harris and F. Smith, 155 Radiation, Nocturnal, A. Boutaric, 324 Radiographic Methods, 207 Radio-lead, Density of, from Pure Norwegian Cleveite, T. W. Richards and C. Wadsworth, 83 Mouth-parts of the, Hansen- | Reid and J. — Del = ological Estimations, The Bases of, R. Ledoux-Lebard and A. Dauvillier, 324 -Children, The, T. H. Orpen, 327 fall: and Gunfire, 55; Duration, Measurement of, Salter, 343; Observation in Scotland, 355; of 1916, The, Dr. H. R. Mill, 435; of India, 1914, 76 say, Sir William, A Memorial to, 132; J. A. Pease and others, 173; Lord Rayleigh and others, 197; pe sed Memorial to, in Glasgow, 254; The Scientific Work of, Prof. J. N. Collie, 132 Feeding Experiments with, G. Totani; C. Asayama, 00 nond: or Life and Death, Sir Oliver J. Lodge, 289 saping Knife, A Primitive Form of, in Kordofan, Prof. Seligman, 53 cognition, The Problem of, Dr. H. W. Carr, 222 construction: Committee, The, and its Sub-Committees, 249; The Elements of, 372 “ tecorde, Robert: Plea for a Statue to, 172; Dr. J. Knott, 2 ; d Cross Museum, Proposal for a, 234 d Lithium Line, Structure of the, Dr. A. S. King, 299 F ractories, Forthcoming Discussion on, at the Faraday ___ Society, 95 Refractory Materials: Dr. J. W. Mellor and others, 281 ; Formation of a Society of Makers and Users of, 334; Section of the Ceramic Society, Forthcoming Meeting _ of the, 495 ‘Regeneration: from Old and from New Tissue, Compari- son of the Rates of, C. Zeleny, 83; The Effect of Successive Removal upon the Rate of, C. Zeleny, 83 gistering Balloon Ascents at Batavia, Results of, Dr. W. van Bemmelen, 21 i Sulators, Automatic, The Theory of, H. Bohle, 244 ativité, Le Principe de, E.-M. Lémeray, 368 ativity, the Principle of, Gravitation and, Prof. A. S. Eddington, 328 Relaxation, The Psychology of, Prof. G. T. Patrick, 128 eptilian Notes, R. Etheridge, Jr., 364 rch in Industrial Laboratories, 458 istance; Derivatives,’’ A Nomenclature for, Prof. G. H. Bryan, 189; of a Solid Rectifying Contact, Influence of the Time Element on the, D. Owen, 222 piratory Exchange: of Animals and Man, The, Dr. A. Krogh, 326; Studies of, 326 _* REVIEWS AND OUR BOOKSHELF. Agriculture : _ Goff (the late E. S.), Revised by J. G. Moore and L. R. _ Jones, The Principles of Plant Culture, Eighth edition, ) 345 _ Hanson (S. G.), Commercial Egg-Farming, 5 _ Harris (Prof. F. S.) and G. Stewart, The Principles of __ Agronomy, 245 McCall (Prof. A. G.), Field and Laboratory Studies of __ Soils, 245 Voorhees (the late Prof. E. B.), Revised by Prof. J. H. __ Voorhees, Fertilizers, 446 Weta (Prof. L. D. H.), The Marketing of Farm Products, 245 __ Wilson (Prof. J.), A Manual of Mendelism, 3 4 Anthropology and Archzology: _ Bevan (Rev. J. 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A.), Decennial Index of the Analyst, vols. xxxi.-xl., 468 ‘ 1 Byles (D. B.), Chemical Water Purification, 105 Chamberlain (Prof. J. S.), Organic Agricultural Chemistry (The Chemistry of Plants and Animals), 366 4 Donington (G. C.), A Class-book of Chemistry, part iv., Metals, 67 ‘ ; Donnan (Prof. F. G.), A System of Physical Chemistry, Difcten (Dr. A. E.), and Dr. F. B. Thole, A Senior Experimental Chemistry, 67 Fenton (Dr. H. H.), Physical Chemistry for Schools, 67 Folin (Prof. O.), Preservatives and-other Chemicals in Foods, 27 : Keyes (F. G.), and R. B. Brownlee, The Thermodynamic Properties of Ammonia, 69 J Lewis (Prof. W. C. McC.), A System of Physical Chemistry, 2 vols., 25 Luckiesh (M.), Color and its Applications, 366 Mathews (Prof. A. P.), Physiological Chemistry, 167 Mitchell (C. A.), Vinegar: its Manufacture and Examina tion, 186 Ostwald (Dr. W.), A Handbook of Colloid Chemistry, Translated by Prof. M. H. Fischer, 47 Stein (M. F.), Water-Purification Plants and Operation, 105 Thorpe (Sir E.), The Right Hon. Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, 225 their Engineering: Andrews (E, S.), Elementary Strength of Materials, 365 Barnes (A. A.), Hydraulic Flow Reviewed, 87 Blanchard (Prof. A. H.), Elements of Highway Engineer- ing, 4 : Cain (Prof. W.), Earth Pressure, Retaining Walls, and Bins, 486 : Fleming (Prof. J. A.), Alternating Electric Currents, 265 Grialou (Prof. J.), Cours d’Hydraulique, 267 Hay (Dr. A.), An Introductory Course of Continuous- current Engineering, Second edition, 108 James (W. H. N.), Alternating Currents in Theory and Practice, 265 Judge (A. W.), The Design of Aeroplanes, 45 Kapp (Prof. G.), The Principles of Electrical Engineering and their Application, vol. i., 265 Kingsbury (J. E.), The Telephone and Telephone Ex- changes: their Invention and Development, 188 Lyle (Prof. W. T.), Parks and Park Engineering, 486 Mather (Prof. T.), The Growth of Telephony, 188 Merriman (M.), American Civil Engineers’ Pocket-Book, Third edition, 486 Morrison (Dr, C. E.), and O. L. Brodie, Masonry Dam taps including High Masonry Dams, Second edition, 4 Rotigliano (Prof. S.), Costruzioni di Strade e Gallerie, 365 Russell (Dr. A.), A Treatise on the Theory of Alternating Currents, vol. ii., Second edition, 265 Geography and Travel: Alexander (P. F.), The Earliest Voyages Round the World, 1519-1617, 388 American Geographical Society of New York, Memorial Volume of the Transcontinental Excursion of 1912 of the, 226 Bacon’s Large-Scale Map of the French Battle-Front, 388 ; Salonika Battle-Front, 428; War Maps, Europe, Em- bracing all the Countries Involved, 108 Caine (Rev. Czsar), Cleator and Cleator Moor: Past and Present, 205 ; Dick (Rev. C. H.), Highways and Byways in Galloway and Carrick, 205 Douie (Sir J.), The Panjab, North-West Province, and Kashmir, 148 Gregory (Prof. J. W.), Australia, 446 ‘ Knipe (H. R.), Tunbridge Wells and Neighbourhood, 48 Marga (Dr. L.), The Physical Geography of Wisconsin, 4 Moreland (A. M.), Through South Westland, Second edition, 48 Wallis (B. C.), Macmillan’s Graphic Geographies, The British Isles, 488 Frontier Geology and Mineralogy : Ball (Dr. J.), The Geography and Geology of West- Central Sinai, 352 Bonney (Prof. T. G.), Ball’s The Geography and Geology of West-Central Sinai, 352 Hoover (T. J.), Concentrating Ores by Flotation, Third edition, 246 Johnson (Prof. B. H.), and L. G, Huntley, Principles of Oil and Gas Production, 487 Kunz (Dr. G. F.), Shakespeare and Precious Stones, 405 Marr (Dr. J. E.), The Geology of the Lake District and the Scenery as Influenced by Geological Structure, 345 Pirsson (Prof. L. V.), and Prof. C. Schuchert, A Text- book of Geology, 2 parts, 206 Rastall (R. H.), Agricultural Geology, 167 Rhonegletscher, Vermessungen am, 1874-1915, 430 Rickard (T. A.), The Flotation Process, 246 Watson (J.), British and Foreign Marbles and other Ornamental Stones, 327 Mathematical and Physical Science : [ Nature, — March 15, 1917 tical Physics, 106 Bartizza (G. B.), Gnomonica, 326 Boccardi (Prof. G.), Lezioni di Cosmografia, 326 Carmichael (Prof. R. D.), Diophantine Analysis, 126 Centnerszwer (M.), Cours de Manipulations de Chi Physique et d’Electrochimie, 407 Chamberlin (Prof. T. C.), The Origin of the Ea é Bunk (J. L.), Hyperacoustics, division i., Simultaneou Tonality, 306 | Erwin (M.), The Universe and the Atom, 246 Glenn (Prof. O. E.), A Treatise on the Theory of In. variants, 187 } a Goldsmith (E. T.), The Mechanical Star-bearing Finder, 8 ; Allen (Dr. H. S.), and H. Moore, A Text-book of Prac pecs (Dr. F. J. S.), and A. R. Machado, Elementos di Fisica Descritiva, Fifth edition, Revised by A. R. Machado, 147 : Gray (Dr. F. W.), Centnerszwer’s Cours de Manipula- tions de Chimie Physique et d’Electrochimie, 407 Hadley (H. E.), A Manual of Practical Physics, 127 Hart (I. B.), A Student’s Heat, 147 Hudson (H. P.), Ruler and Compasses, 347 Hunsaker (J. C.), and others, Dynamical Stability Aeroplanes, 465 Jeans (Prof. J. H.), The Dynamical Theory of Gases, Second edition, 3 Jessop (Prof. C. M.), Quartic Surfaces with Singular Points, 367 Joly (Prof. J.), Synchronous Signalling in Navigation, 8 Joukowski (Prof. N.), Bases Théoriques de |’Aéronau- tique. Aérodynamique, 465 Lanchester (F. W.), Aérodonétique, Translated by Com- mandant C. Benoit, 465 { Leib (Dr. D. B.), Problems Formulas and Suggestions, 88 Lémeray (E.-M.), Le Principe de Relativité, 368 7 Marsh (H. W.), Interpolated Six-Place Tables of the Logarithms of Numbers and the Natural ad Logar- ithmic Trigonometric Functions, 208 ~ Martin, Jr. (Prof. L. A.), Text-book ot Mechanics, vol. vi., Thermodynamics, 127 Maunder (E. W.), The Stars as Guides for Night-march- ing in North Latitude 50°, 67 McGegan (J. E.), Star Identifier and Diagrams for the Graphical Solution of Problems in Nautical Astronomy, in the Calculus, with 406 Merriman (M.), Mathematical Tables for Class-room Use, 88 : Meteorological Observations in the Five Years 1911-1915, Results of, also of Underground Temperatures in the Twelve Years 1898-1910, made at the Radcliffe Ob- servatory, Oxford, vol. li., 247 Military Map, The, Elements of Modern Topography (French School of War), 4 Miller (Prof. G. A.), Historical Introduction to Mathe- matical Literature, 387; Profs. H. F. Blichfeldt and L. E. Dickson, Theory and Applications of Finite Groups, 225 Orpen (T. H.), The Rain-children: a Fairy-tale in Physics, 327 ‘ Pendlebury (C.), Revision Papers in Arithmetic, 347 : Pérez (J. A.), Texto drabe, Compendio de Algebra de Abenbéder, 406 Phillips (Prof. H. B.), Analytic Geometry, 88 Pidduck (F. B.), A Treatise on Electricity, 6 : Riach (M. A. S.), Air Screws: an Introduction to the Aerofoil Theory of Screw Propulsion, 465 ; Richardson (Prof. O. W.), The Emission of Electricity from Hot Bodies, 146 Robertson (J. W.), A Shilling Arithmetic, 347 Rosenberg (F.), Preliminary Geometry, 347 Ruston (A. G.), Rural Arithmetic, 88 Stars at a Glance, 407 Tuckey (C. O.), and W. A. Nayler, Statics: a First Course, ; a 347 . 4 Weld (Prof. Le Roy D.), Theory of Errors and Least Squares, 385 White (Dr. J. D.), Steering by the Stars for Night-flying, —— & Natwie “March 15, 1917 _ Night-marching, and Night Boat-work between Lati- tude 40° N. and 60° N., 67 Woodhouse (G. F.), An Intermediate Text-book of Mag- ‘ism and Electricity, 127 ti (Prof. L.), Exercices Numériques et Graphiques de _ Mathématiques, 347 ical Science : ell (Dr. W. B.), The Sex Complex, 266 da Costa (B. F. Bruto), and others, Sleeping Sickness ; A Record of Four Years’ War against it in the Island Pe of. cipe, Translated by Lt.-Col. J. A. Wyllie, 311 _ Davidson (Sir J. Mackenzie), Localization by X-rays and __ Stereoscopy, 207 a (Dr. W. H.), The Involuntary Nervous System, 248 Guest (L. H.), The Nation of the Future, 407 Herms (W. B.), Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 386 Hewlett (Prof. R. T.), Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology, 308; Serum Reactions and Bacterial Therapy, 88 es (Prof. F. Wood), Arboreal Man, 426 Kelynack (Dr. T. N.), The Drink Problem of To-day in its Medico-Sociological Aspects, 247 _ Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology, 308 ne-Claypon (Dr. J. E.), Milk and its Hygienic Rela- j ¥, ions, 467 Moor (C. G.), and W. Partridge, Aids to Bacteriology, __ Third edition, 89 Shuttleworth (Dr. G. E.), and Dr. W. A. Potts, Mentally Deficient Children: their Treatment and Training, _ Fourth edition, 227 ith (Prof. G. Elliot), Arboreal Habits and the Evolu- tion of Man, 426 _ Thomas (Prof. B. A.), and Dr. R. H. Ivy, Applied _ Immunology, 88 Metallurgy : _ Brearley (H.), The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel, Second _ edition, 308 ‘Harbord (F. W.), Brearley’s The Heat Treatment of ‘rool Steel, Second edition, 308 “Scott (G. Shaw), The Journal of the Institute of Metals, vol. xv., 69 cellaneous : ber (Prof. F. D.), M. L. Fuller, Prof. J. L. Pricer, and Prof. H. W. Adams, First Course in General Science, 348 ‘gourdan (G.), Le Climat de la France: Température, Wression, Vents, 127; Petit Atlas Céleste, 208 sworth (G. F.), Ships, Shipping, and Fishing, 68 ockington (W. A.), Elements of Military Education, 289 own (W. A.), The Portland Cement Industry, 368 ant (C. L.), Brockington’s Elements of Military iducation, 289 y rne (S. A. H.), J. T. Slobbs, and H. V. Thompson, ws _ The North Staffordshire Field Club, Jubilee Volume, 1865-1915, 488 ‘i imbridge, The Students’ Handbook to the University and Colleges of, Fifteenth edition, 148 t oe of Scientific Papers, Fourth series (1884-1900), ; fol. xv., 2 — Clodd ae Memories, 267 Dicks (A. J.), Trade and Commerce, 68 _ Eichel (Dr. O. R.), A Manual of Fire Prevention and Fire a __Protect'on for Hospitals, 368 _ Farrar (F. A.), Factories and Great Industries, 68 5 Farrington (Dr. O. C.), Meteorites: their Structure, A Composition, and Terrestrial Relations, 145 Bening (Prof. J. A.), The Empire at the Cross-Roads, 185 - Gower (H. D.), L. S. Jast, and W. W. Topley, The Camera as Historian, 445 Gray (Dr. H. B.), and S. Turner, Eclipse or Empire? 185 _ Haddon (Dr. A. C.), Vignettes of Friends, 267 _ Herschel (Sir W. J.), The Origin of Finger-Printing, 268 Holdich (Sir T. H.), The Survey Link Connecting the __ Triangulations of India and Russia, 92 “ Johnson (E. R.), T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, and ‘- aoe Lhdex XXXV D. S. Hanchett, History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States, 2 vols., 42 Jones (W. H. S.), Scientific Method in Schools, 103 naa (Prof. R. A.), Economics in the Light of War, 20) Lodge (Sir Oliver J.), Raymond: or Life and Death, 289 Meldola: Raphael, Reminiscences of his Worth and Work by Those Who Knew Him, etc., Edited by J. Marchant, 125 er H. R.), and C, Salter, British Rainfall, 1915, I Muspratt (Dr. E. K.), My Life and Work, 325 Pennell (J.), Pictures of War Work in England, 3853 Pictures of the Wonder of Work, 385 Petit (Prof. G.), and M. Leudet, Les Allemands et la Science, 66 Reconstruction, The Elements of, 372 Ripper (Prof. W.), An Appreciation of Work, 385 Shakespeare’s England, 2 vols., 491 Shaw (Sir Napier), The Weather Map: an Introduction to Modern Meteorology, 286 Sieff (M.), Manual of Russian spondence, 90 Thorpe (Sir E.), Muspratt’s My Life and Work, 325 West (G.), The Practical Principles of Plain Photo- micrography, 47 Whyte (A. G.), The World’s Wonder Stories for Boys and Girls, 208 Commercial Corre- Philosophy and Psychology: Boutroux (E.), The Contingency of the Laws of Nature, Translated by F. Rothwell, 426 Dearborn (Prof. G. V. N.), The Influence of Joy, 90 Giron (E.), A Modern Job, Translated by F. Rothwell, 26 vies (A. M.), The Dreams of Orlow, 426 Meredith (C. M.), The Bearings of Modern Psychology on Educational Theory and Practice, 27 Mieli (Dr. A.), Le Scuole Ionica, Pythagorica ed Eleata, 16 Patrick (Prof. G. T.), The Psychology of Relaxation, 128 Saeki (Prof. P. Y.), The Nestorian Monument in China, 26 Thompson (Prof. D’Arcy W.), The School of Pythagoras, 165 Technology : Thompson (A. Beeby), leum Mining, 425 Oil-Field Development and Petro- Revolving Fluids, Dynamics of, Lord Rayleigh, 503 ! Rhinocerotide of the Oligocene of France, New Species of, J. Repelin, 424 Rhodesia, Dinosaurs in, S. H. Rhododendrons and Lime, 17! Rhone Glacier, Changes in the, Prof. T. G. Bonney, 430 Rhonegletscher, Vermessungen am, 1874-1915, 430 Rhynia gwynne-vaughant : Dr. R. Kidston and Prof. W. H. Lang, 138; Prof. W. H. Lang, 183 Rifle-sight, The U.S. Telescopic, 377. River Frontiers in Europe, Prof. L. W. Lyde, 395 Rivers, Report on the Investigation of, 20 Rock-carvings at Leonardsberg, Discovery of, 95 Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Wolbach, 39 Roman Britain, The Towns of, Rev. J. O. Bevan, 468 Rémer’s Discovery of the Velocity of Light, Mrs. K. Meyer, Haughton, 481 ey roa Raniven Interference Patterns, Radial Lines in, J. S. v. d. Lingen, 84 Roscoe, The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Enfield, Sir E. Thorpe, 22 Rossland, British Columbia, C. W. Drysdale, 398 Rothamsted: Experiment Station, History and Work of the, The Earl of Crawford and Balearres and Dr. E. J. Russell, 214; Experiments, Society for Extend- ing the, Annual Meeting of the, 214 Royal: Anthropological Institute, Presentation of Photo- graphs of Welsh Baptist Ministers to the, 334; Astrono- mical Society, Major P. A. MacMahon elected Presi- dent of the, 474; Award of the Gold Medal to XXXVI Prof. W. S. Adams, 393, 475; College of Physicians of London, Appointment of Harveian Orator, Bradshaw Lecturer, and Milroy Lecturer, 451; Forthcoming Lec- tures at the, 503; Drawing Society, A Memorial from the, 321; Dublin Society, The Boyle Medal of the, presented to Prof. H. H. Dixon, 451; Institution Lec- ture Arrangements, 274; Profs. P. Painlevé and V. Volterra elected Honorary Members of the, 273 ; Micro- scopical Society, Election of Officers of the, 452; Naval College, Greenwich, Sir H. Jackson appointed Presi- dent of the, 273 Royal Society: Anniversary Meeting of the, 277; Awards, 212; Medallists of the, 278-79; Nominations for the Council of the, 212; Catalogue of Scientific Papers, The, 287; of Arts, Howard Lectures of the, 482 Rubber: Pests and Diseases of, J. Mitchell, 299; Planta- tion, 299; Research Work, 357; Standardisation Methods of Preparation of, W. A. Williams and others, 299; Trade, Need of Organisation in the, E. Steven- son, 299; Trees, Collar-rot of, Sharples, 500 Ruhleben Camp School, Prospectus of Work at the, 182 Ruler and Compasses, H. P. Hudson, 347 Rumford Medals, Dr. C. G. Abbot awarded the, 313 Russia, Future Trade with, 453 Russian: Commercial Correspondence, Manual of, M. Sieff, 90; Gift for the Study of, Capt. H. Samman, 302; Journals of Science, New, 54; Polar Expeditions, Two, Prizes Offered for Information Concerning, 97 RX Herculis, The Eclipsing Binary, R. H. Baker and E. E. Cummings, 216 Sakura-jima Eruption of January, Der CG. Davison, 57 Salivary Reflex, Human, K. S. Lashley, 314 Salmo fario lacustris, Migration for Spawning in, L. Roule, 243 Salonika: Battle Front, Large-scale Map of the, 428; The Climate of, 377 Salt Antagonism in Gelatine, W. O. Fenn, 163 { Sands: Refractory, and Associated Materials in Hollows, Prof. W. G. Fearnsides and Dr. P. G. H. Boswell, 139; Used in Glass Manufacture, Geological Characters of, Dr. P. G. H. Boswell, 139 “Sandwich ’’ System of Training, Wertheimer, 183 Sanitation, Sanskrit Laws on, Dr. M. Ganga Nath Jha, 1914, The, A Modified, Dr. 75 Sarcocystis muris, The Sexual Evolution of; Drs Ei Crawley, 439 Satellites of Spectrum Lines, Distribution of the, Prof. H. Nagaoka, 262 Satyrium, Hybrid Forms in the Genus, Miss A. V. Duthie, 403 Schaefli Prize, The, awarded to Prof. Gogel, 198 Scholarship, Productive Scientific, T. Roosevelt, 362 Science: A General Course of, for the Secondary Sckool, A. D. Hall, 433; and Classics, Sir A. Keogh, 379; and Education, Dr. R. B. Carter, 220; and Industry, J. Swinburne; Lord Moulton, 202; in Australia, 310; with Special Reference to the Work of the National Physical Laboratory, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 339; and Manufactures, Dr. M. E. Sadler, 143; and the Civil Service, 251; and the Savant, 66; and the Universi- ties, Dr. Hadow, 217; for the Rank and File, Prof. R. A. Gregory, 400; from an Easy Chair, Sir Ray Lankester, Cheap edition, 115; in Education, F.R.S., F.B.A., 69, 108; Prof. F. Soddy, 90; J. S. Talbot, 217; Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson; The Writer of the Article, 470; The Place of, Sif H. A. Miers, 143; in Public Schools, goo; Rev. Canon J. M. Wilson, 489 ; in Secondary Schools, Teaching of, Prof. Nunn, 379; in the School, Sir Clifford Allbutt, 241, 462; Cur- riculum, Lord Milner, 262; Literature and, in Educa- tion, 432; A. C. Benson, 433; Scholarships Com- mittee of the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibi- tion, Report of the, 203; Teachers, Association of, Resolutions of the, 442; Teaching in Schools, Rev. J. R. Wynne-Edwards, 380; The Booky Man of, Dr. Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, 475; Rescue of the, 18; — E, F. Armstrong, 217; The Kuture of, and What E the Way, Prof. F. Soddy, 371; The Part of, in t Education of our Governing Classes, L. A. Legros. Scientia, 397 ; Scientific: and Industrial Research, 10, 49; Committee the Privy Council for, Members of the, 37; Marq of Crewe appointed a Member of the, 475; Investi tion in School, Parents and, O. H. Latter, 400; Kn ledge, The Field of, Dr. D. Robertson, 316; Method in Schools, W. H. S. Jones, 103; Papers, Catalogue of, Fourth Series (1884-1900), vol. xv., 287; Quadruple Entente, A Plea for a, Prof. E. Rignano, 408; Prof. A. Meek, 469; Research for National Defence, Lt.-Col. G. O. Squier, 440; in Relation to Industries, Dr. C. P. Steinmetz, 420; State Aid for, Sir J. J. Thomson and — others, 272 ; Scottish Meteorological Society, Officers and Council of the, 355 2 : , Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, Exhibition of Kinematograph Films of, 153 Screw Gauges, Hardening of, J. H. Lavender, 378 1% Sea-anemones, Behaviour of the, G. H. Parker, 83; Loco- motion of, G. H. Parker, 83; Level in the Ottawa Valley, Late Pleistocene Oscillations of, W. A. John-— ston, 499; Trout, 445 Searchlights, C. T. Whitmell, 269 3 Seismic Intensity, Scales of, de Montessus de Ballore, 478 Selection-Breeding, Dr. R. Pearl, 480 4 Selenates, Monoclinic Double, of the Nickel Group, Dr. — A. E. H. Tutton, 282 Selenium, Detection of Small Quantities of, J. Meunier, 165 Selous, Capt. F. C., The Work of, A. Chapman, 496 Senescence and Rejuvenescence, Prof. C. M. Child, 85 Sense Education: and Prothesis Apparatus, J. Amar, 204; of Men without Limbs or Sight, J. Amar, 163 “a Serum Reactions and Bacterial Therapy, Prof. R. T. Hewlett, 88 , Sex: Complex, The, Dr. W. B. Bell, 266; Intergrades in — a Species of Crustacea, A. M. Banta, 243; -limited Fattors in Heredity, 479; Transmission in the Lepidop- tera, A Further Probable Case of, J. W. H. Harrison, — 248 Return of Eleven Members of the, 212 Shakespeare: and Precious Stones, Dr. G. F. Kunz, 405; The Birds of, Sir A. Geikie, 147 Shakespeare’s England, Sir H. Warren, 491 _ Sheffield University : Bequests to, by Sir G. Franklin, 482; Calendar, 362; Dr. W. E. S. Turner appointed Lec- turer on Glass Technology, G. A. Birkett appointed Lecturer in Russian, A. J. Hobson nominated a Pro- — Chancellor, 261; Visit of Journalists to, 124 Shell-fisheries, Further Development of the, Dr. J. John- — stone, 136 : Ships, Shipping, and Fishing, G. F. Bosworth, 68 Shrike, Red-backed, Breeding Habits of the, J. H. Owen, 394 - Siberia, Arctic, A Summer and Winter among the Natives © of, Miss Czaplicka, 199 Siberian and Scythian Work, Bronze Castings of, Sir H. Read, 477 Sierra Leone: Anthropological Report on, N. W. Thomas, 3 parts, 1; Specimens of Languages from, N. W. Thomas, 1; The Peoples and Languages of, Sir H. H. Johnston, 1 Signal, Propagation of a, in a Dispersive Medium, Prof. T. H. Havelock, 120 Signalling without Semaphores, 21 Silicates, Natural, The Constitution of the, F. W. Clarke, 118 , Sinai: Peninsula, Survey Work in the, Prof. T. G. Bonney, 352; West-Central, The Geography and Geology of, — Dr. J. Ball, 352 Sioux Songs, Miss F. Densmore, 496 Slavery, Abolition of, Medals in Connection with the, T. Sheppard, 19 Sleeping Sickness: B. F, Bruto da Costa, J. F. Sant’ Anna, A. C. dos Santos, and M. G, de Araujo Alvares, Trans- lated by Lt.-Col. J. A. Wyllie, 311; The Eradication of, from Principe, 311 Snipe, Carrying of Young by the, W. J. Nash, 255 Lndex XXXVIi pty é Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, Centenary lume of the, 53 f ‘Peroxide, Chemical Action of, upon the Oxides of on, C. Zenghelis and S. Horsch, 203 ; Peroxide, The Chemical Action of, upon Hydrogen Sulphide,. C. Zenghelis and S. Horsch, 223; Salts, Limits of Toler- Crop Plants for, Headley, Curtis, and Scofield, ation and Crop 5 eran A. Howard, 315; ation of the, Steam and other Mechanical Tractors C. B.\Fisher, 301 ; Survey of Wisconsin, The, 177 and Laboratory Studies of, Prof. A. G. McCall, chemical Investigation of some Poisonous Plants N.O., Dr. J. M. Petrie, 463 Determined by Means of Binary Stars, The, wski, 324; Eclipse, The Total, of 1916, February Prof. C. D. Perrine, 418; Lines, Measurement of Dr. C. E. St. John and Miss Ware, 40; Promin- i 1916, 277 ers, Disabled, Medical Treatment for, 293 -Areas of Great Explosions, Dr, C. Davison, 438; Audibility of, Influence of Wind on, A. Perot, 83; The normal Propagation of, by the Atmosphere, Dr. C. vison, 71; The Propagation of the, of the Cannonade at the Front, G. Bigourdan, 163; -Waves, The Ab- ‘normal Propagation of, in the Atmosphere, S. Fuji- hara, 71 h Africa: Engineering Science in, Prof. J. Orr, 41; Development of the Industries and Resources of, and the Necessity of Research, Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, 437 ; Farming Industries of, P. J. du Toit, 42; Medal Pre- sented to T. R. Sim, 42; Mycology in, 1. B. Pole _ Evans, 41, 453; Native Ediication in, Rev. J. R. L. ingon, Biften: Association, The Maritzburg Meeting of the, 1; Orthoptera, Dr. L. Péringuey, 415 ; School of Mines and Technology, Dr. H. B. Fantham appointed Pro- _ fessor of Zoology in the, 422; Dr. C. E. Moss appointed Professor of Botany in the, 442 America, Return of Dr. F. M. Chapman from, 375 th Australia: C. Fenner appointed Superintendent of Technical Education in, 240; Prospects of Establishing a Paper-making Industry in, W. A. Hargreaves, 396 Orkneys, Meteorological Observations in the, in 1915, -R. C. Mossman, 335 jouth Queensland, The Stanthorpe District of, E. C. Saint- _ Smith, 399 outh Staflordshire Coalfield, Geology of the _ Boundary Fault of the, W. H. Foxall, 55 South Westland, Through, A. M. Moreland, Second edition, = Eastern hawk, Breeding Habits of the, J. H. Owen, 39, 255 and Absolute Magnitudes of Stars, G. S. Monck, of Restricted Coincidence, Non-reversed, C. Barus, etroscopic Resolving Power, C. M. Sparrow, 216 im Interferences, Path Differences within which, are Observable, C. Barus, 402 h Sounds, Registration of, Dr. E. W. Scripture, 275 iacodon, Marsh, S. W. Williston, 403 Nebulz, Internal Motion in, A. van Maanen, 156 en : Ice Conditions Around, A. Hoel, 454; Work of i wedish Expedition to, 132 its, Preservation of, in Oil, Dr. E. J. Allen, 137 2 Vincent, Agricultural Department of, Report of, 497 Faint, with Large Proper Motion, Prof. Barnard, Nautical Astronomy, J. E. McGegan, 406; with a Large Proper Motion, A, F. Gonnessiat, 323 e ssen, 236; Constant, Fluctuations of the, H. 92) Bearing Finder, The Mechanical, E. T. Goldsmith, | Stars: at a Glance, 407; Binary, The Masses of Visual, R. T.A. Innes, 99; Colours of, in Globular Clusters, The, Dr. Shapley, 257 ; Colours of the, A Simple Method for Determining the, F. H. Seares, 163; Daylight Photography of, A. F. and F, A. Lindemann, 499; Identification of, 406; Mean Parallaxes of, of Different Magnitudes, Sir F. W. Dyson, 120; Spectroscopic Classification of, Prof. Iniguez, 438; The, as Guides for Night-marching, E. W. Maunder, 67; Two, with Common Motion, Parallaxes of, O. J. Lee, 317; Variable, R. M. Deeley, 109; Long-period, Rev. T. E. R. Phillips, 336 | Statics: a First Course, C. O. Tuckey and W. A. Nayler, 347 Steel: Low-Carbon, Grain-growth in Deformed and An- nealed, R. H. Sherry, 383; Mechanical Properties of, The Influence of Phosphorus and Sulphur on, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 410; Mechanical Properties of, The Influence of Some Elements on the, Dr. Stead, 410; Mild, Torsional Hysteresis of, J. J. Guest and F. C. Lea, 322; Tool, The Heat Treatment of, H. Brearley, Second edition, 308 Steels : Corrosion and Electrical Properties of, Sir R. Had- field and Dr. E. Newbery, 282; Used as Length Standards, Changes in, M. Guillaume, 437 Steering by the Stars for Night-flying, etc., Dr. J. D. White, 67 Stefansson Arctic Expedition, The, 38; Work of the, 297 Stein’s, Sir Aurel, Third Journey in Central Asia, 110 Stellar Spectra, Peculiar, Miss Cannon, 417 Steric Hindrance and the Existence of Odd Molecules, G. N. Lewis, 243 Stockholm University, Gift to, by Mrs. A. Ruben, 422 Stone Monuments in Cork County, The, J. P. Condon, 96 Storage Cell, The Chemical Changes in the Ordinary, C. Féry and E. Fournier, 55 Storm: of November 11-13, 1915, The, Lieut. A. E. M. Geddes, 242; Warnings, The Value of, 357 | Strade e Gallerie, Costruzioni di, Prof. S. Rotigliano, 365 | Stresses in Transparent Materials as Revealed by Polarised Light, Prof. E. G. Coker, 95 | Strijkinstrumenten, De, J. W. Giltay, 257 Struthiomimus, A Skeleton of, from Alberta, Prof. H. F. Osborn, 497 Subtropical Vegetable-Gardening, P. H. Rolfs, 189 Sukura-jima Eruptions and Earthquakes, The, Bulletin ii., Prof. Omori, 57 Sulphate of Ammonia, Committee of Manufacturers of, 474 Sulphur: Action of, on Baryta, L. Guitteau, 203; Phos- phorus and, The Influence of, on the Mechanical Properties of Steel, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 410 Summer Time: Proposal to Reintroduce, Rejected by the Committee of the Prussian Diet, 414; to be Re- introduced in Germany and Austria-Hungary, 435 Sun: An Old Observation of an Eclipse of the, G. Bigour- dan, 263; Anomalous Dispersion in the, J. Evershed and Dr. Royds; Dr. St. John; Dr. A. S. King, 136; Observations of the, Made at Lyons Observatory, J. Guillaume, 83, 223; -spot, A Great, 478; -spots, Radial Motion in, J. Evershed, 196; Temple at Mesa Verde National Park, The, Dr. J. W. Fewkes, 376 Survey Link, The, Connecting the Triangulations of India and Russia, Sir T. H. Holdich, 92 Swanley Horticultural College, Miss G. J. Sanders appointed ' Principal of the, 162 Swansea Technical College, Gift by Baldwins, Ltd., 240 Sweden, A Yearly Meeting of Biologists in, 333 | Swedish: Academy of Science, The Ethnographical Collec- tions of the, 333; Medical Association, The Alvarenga Prize awarded to Dr. E. Nilsson, the Jubilee Prize awarded to H. B. Lundborg, 475; Royal, Academy of Science, Election as Foreign Members of Sir W. Crookes, Dr. C. A. Angot, and Prof. A. Gartner, 355; State Natural History Museum, Opening of the New Building of the, 255 Swiney Lectures, the, on “‘ The Mineral Resources of Europe,” to be delivered by Dr. J. S. Flett, 133; Dr. J. S. Flett, 213 Swiss Society of Natural Sciences, Yearly Meeting of the, G. C. Young, 197 | Sy Comet, Elements of the, L. Fabry and H. Blondel, 324 XXXVili Sydney Botanic Gardens, Notes from the, A. H. S. Lucas, 2 rience Signalling in Navigation, Prof. J. Joly, 8 Synthesis of the Base C,H,ON, Derived from Methyl- aminomethyl-3, etc., C. A. Rouiller, 83 Synthetic Chemical Industry in Great Britain, Future of the, F. H. Carr, 280 SZ Cygni, The Variable Star, F. C. Leonard, 136 Tables of the Logarithms of Numbers, Interpolated Six- Place, and the Natural and Logarithmic Trigonometric Functions, Edited by H. W. Marsh, 208 Talbot’s Observations on Fused Nitre, Lord Rayleigh, 428 Tapiolite in the Pilbara Goldfield, E. S. Simpson, 423 Taro, The Cultivation of, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, 199 Teachers’ Guild, Address to, Prof. Shelley, 379 Tecchia d’Equi, Prehistoric Remains in the, Dr. C. de Stefani, 453 Technical: Bias in Schools, Prof. A. Smithells, 400 ; Educa- tion, Prof. Whitehead, 380; Institutions, The Associa- tion of, 156 Technology, School of, The Scientific Work of a, 178 Telephone, The, and Telephone Exchanges: their Inven- tion and Development, J. E. Kingsbury, 188 Telephony, The Growth of, Prof. T. Mather, 188 Temminck’s Stint, Miss M. Haviland, 356 Temperature Coefficient for the Duration of Life? Is there a, J. Loeb and J. H. Northrop, 83 Tenape Indians, Crania of the, in American Museums, A. Hrdliéka, 19 Terrapin Scale, The, F. L. Simanton, 114 Tertiary Igneous Rocks of the Pyrenees, P. W. Stuart- Menteath, 448 Tetanus and Frost-bite, A. Lumiére and E. Astier, 344 Textile Institute, Annual Congress of the, 143 Theory and Experiment, 106 Thermo-electricity, etc., A New Effect Relative to, C. Benedicks, 363 Thompson, Elizabeth, Science Fund, The, 314 Thomson Effect in Wires, Measurement of the, H. R. Nettleton, 322 Thorium Minerals, The Occurrence and Distribution of, 335 Thought, Organisation of, A. N. Whitehead, 362 Thunderclap, A Peculiar, Prof. G. Platania, 209 Thunderstorms, Winter, Capt. C. J. P. Cave, 328 Thyroid: Experiments with White Rats Fed on, Prof. Herring, 178; -feeding, Changes in the Pancreas In- duced by, Dr. Kojima, 179 ae Marine Invertebrate Fossils from, Prof. H. Douvillé, I Tiger-Beetle, The Bionomics of the, Miss L. H. Hine, 296 Timber: Control, Sir B. Fuller appointed in Charge of, 495; Research in, 450; Restrictions of the Sale of, 474; Trade, Technical Science and the, Prof. P. Groom, 450 Time: Greenwich, Resumption of, 95; Measurement of, Prof. H. H. Turner; Prof. J. Perry, 120 Tinctorial Constituents of Some Lichens Used as Dyes in Ireland, H. Ryan and W. M. O’Riordan, 323 Toadflax, The Pollination of, S. P., Dr. C. E. Moss, 209 Toxada Island, R. G. McConnell, 398 Track and Contact Rails, Increase of the Resistance of Standard Forms of, Prof. Kennelly, and Achard and Dana, 40 Trade and Commerce, A. J. Dicks, 68 Training, Lord Haldane on, 143 Transneptunian Planet, The Search for a, A. Borelly, 277 Tree Wounds and Diseases, A. D. Webster, 427 Trichloroethylene, The Use of, in the Extraction of Oil from Soya Beans, 235 Trichostrongylus douglasi, Life-history of, Sir A. Theiler and W. Robertson, 439 Trinitrotoluene, Properties of the Sixth Form of, G. Korner and Dr. A. Contardi, 416 “ Trouée de Taza,’’ The, L. Gentil, 344 Trout: -flies, Exhibit of, in the Natural History Museum, 19; Sea-, The, H. Lamond, 445 ci Tsetse-flies: Habits of, in Nyasaland, Dr. W. A. Lam- born, 157; Recent Work on, 157 Tubercle: Bacilli in Expectorations, etc., Detection of, Index [atarch 16s Se ps H. Bierry, 303; Bacillus, Sputum, Dr. Soparkar, 75 Tucson. Arizona, Work in 1913%and 1914 of the Observa tory near, 115 Tumour Immunity, Heterologous, Dr. Tsurumi, 39 Tunbridge Wells and Neighbourhood, Edited by H. Knipe, 48 ‘ Tungsten: Ores, etc., from the Federated Malay Stat 395; Powder, Metallic, and High-speed Steel, 35 The K Series of, and the Production of the X-ra R. Ledoux-Lebard and A. Dauvillier, 363 Tungus, Northern, The Physical Type of the, Miss Czap- Cultivating the, licka, 199 —. Twin Operations, The Combination of, Dr. J. W. Evan 222 Y Two-dimensional Motion of a Plane Lamina in a Resisting Medium, The, S. Brodetsky, 483 Typhoid: and Paratyphoid Fevers, A New Test for, Ca H. F. Marris, 274; Inoculation of the British Troo in France, 153 U Cephei, The Period of, M. B. Shapley, 56 : Udi-Okwogu Coal-field of Southern Nigeria, The, 357 Uganda, Condition of Coffee in, 497 Ultra-Violet Radiation from the Sun, Prof. Birkeland, 177 Unconformities Post-dating the Amuri Limestones, P. Morgan, 395 ‘ United States: Agricultural and Industrial Education i the, Appropriation for, 23; Atlantic Coast, Currents of — the, G. H. Fowler, 484; Bequests and Gifts for Higher Education in the, 241; Geological Work in the, 11 Gifts for Education in the, 482; History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the, 2 vols., E. R. John- son, T. W. van Metre, G. G. Huebner, and D. S. Hanchett, 42; Naval Research Council, The, 77, 360, 440; Naval Observatory, Report of the, 455; Sources of Nitrogen Compounds in the, Dr. C. G. Gilbert ; Sir E. Thorpe, 431; The Mesozoic and Cenozoic — Echinodermata of the, W. B. Clark and M. W. Twitchell, 118 Unity of Mankind, Function of the State in Promoting the, — Dr. B. Bosanquet, 303 “% Universe, The, and the Atom, M. Erwin, 246 he University : and Higher Technical Instruction in France, — Prof. P. Janet, 151; College of North Wales, Bangor, New Science Buildings of the, 503; Doctorates, Prof. J. B. Cohen, 327; The Making of a, Prof. S. J. Shand, 262 Urea and Sugar, Cushny, 178 Utrecht University, Dr. J. Westerdijk appointed Extra- — ordinary Professor of Phytopathology in, 422 Secretion of, by the Kidney, Prof. Van Vleck Observatory, The, 22 wa Variable Nebula, The, in Corona Australis, J. H. Reynolds — and K. Shaw, 56 Variables, Cluster, Prof. S. I. Bailey, 455 rt Vector Functions, Linear, Simultaneous Formulation of Two, F. L. Hitchcock, 463 " Vermidea, The Group, Dr. S. F. Harmer, 28 "a Vermont, Eastern, Marble and Dolomite of, T. N. Dale, 117 Vertebrata, Development of, Experimental Investigations — into the, 307 Vienna University, Suspension of Lectures at the, 482 Vignettes of Friends, Dr. A. C. Haddon, 267 Vinegar : its Manufacture and Examination, C. A. Mitchell, 186 Visual Binary Stars, Densities of, E. Opik, 479 ‘*Vitamines ’’: Chemical Nature of, Prof. C. Voegtlin, 373; in Diet, Accessory Factors, or, Prof. W. M. Bayliss, 372 ; Vocational Outlook, The, Principal Maxwell Garnett, 379 Voice, Inflections of the, Plotting the, B. Bradley, 335 Volcanic: Heat, Utilising, for Power-production, 233; Rocks, Constitution of the, of the Archipelago of the Comores, A. Lacroix, 43; of the Extreme North of Madagascar, etc., The Constitution of the, A. Lacroix, 83 Index XXXIX d, An Undescribed Habit of the, T. A. Coward, in Italy, A Plague of, and its Control, Prof. plendore, 338 s un e World, e Earliest, 1519-1617, ite es Round the World, The Earliest, 1519-1617, Edited National Museum of, Gift to, by Capt. W. R. s. Smith, 172; Gift to the, 355; Progress of, 334; sity College of, Aberystwyth, Large Contribution Bncastey and the, 236; British Prisoners of, tion of Food Parcels to, 152; Meteorology in, rganisation, Col. J. C. L. Campbell, 228; The ects of, on Population, H. Richardson, 158; . Economic Dynamics of, Prof. J. B. Clark, 397; ork of Chemists, Physiologists, and Physicists in ir D. Haig, 354 , Origin of the, R. Etheridge, 20 n: The Longitude of, 298; University, Pro- School of Fisheries in, 482 igging-, New Species of, R. C. Perkins, 453 +: of thé Genus Pison, R. E. Turner, 222; Scarcity , H. V. Davis, 109; Sir H. Maxwell, 148; A. O. falker; W. F. Denning; R. F. Burton; S. Priest, Carus-Wilson, 149; C. F. Butterworth; K. Ever- V. E. Murray, 174; H. St. G. Gray, 209; Rev. Taylor, 248; Prof. G. H. Carpenter, 413 er: Dam in New Mexico, Completion of a, 40; Direct leasurement of the Axial Velocity of, in Fizeau’s Experiment, P. Zeeman, 64; Purification Plants and _ their Operation, M. F. Stein, 105; Vapour in the _ Atmosphere, Effect of, on the Propagation of Electro- magnetic Waves, Dr. F. Schwers, 483 aters, Inland, The Life of, Prof. J. G. Needham and Sent. Lloyd, 2 f aves in an Elastic Plate, Prof. H. Lamb, 221 ither : as a Business Risk in Farming, W. G. Reed and H.R. Tolley, 20; -Map, The, Sir Napier Shaw, 286; The, 452, 477 feathering in Magnesian Limestone, Forms of, G. Abbott, ‘7 =e Sea, Physical Conditions of the, R. C. Mossman, ig ts and Measures and Coinage, Proposed Reforms in stems of, 453; Our, A. Granger, 437 ome Photographic Exposure Record and Diary, The, Australian Gneissic and Granite Rocks, M. Aurousseau, mr Australia: Mr. ‘orest Officer in, 39; Jj. T. Jutson, 399 ‘Indies, The, and the Wheat Supply, 276 Fishing near Fiskebackskil, Veto on, by the Swedish : ment, 213 Slaughter of, Z. Baber, 114 and Flour in the United Kingdom, Appointment of Royal Commission on the Supply, etc., of, 112; age, Meteorology and, Prof. G. H. Bryan; Sir N. W, 369 zi Supply, Agriculture and the, Dr. E. J. Lane Poole appointed Chief The Physiographical Geology 2 ispersal Apparatus, J. Small, 303 tation on Dickson Island, Establishment of a, 95 Wisconsin : Geological Work on the North-Western Area of, 119; The Physical Geography of, Dr. L. Martin, 488; The Soil Survey of, 177 Wolf Comet 1916b, Dr. Berberich, 437 ** Wolf-note ’’ of the Violin and ’Cello, On the, A. M. Tyndall and G. W. White, 29 ila hoa gy Bands in the Nuclei of Nebulez, G. F. Paddock, 19 Women, Need of, for Agricultural Work, 255 Women’s National Land Service Corps, Interim Report of the, 212 Wonder Stories for Boys and Girls, The World’s, A. G. Whyte, 208 Work: An Appreciation of, Prof..W. Ripper, 385; Food and, 290; Pictures of the Wonder of, J. Pennell, 385; War, in England, Joseph Pennell’s Pictures of, 385 Workshop Methods of Optical Testing, 419 Wounds: Dr. Carrel’s Method of Sterilising, Dr. Sherman, 193 ;_ Study of the Gangrenous Infections of, by Means of Radiography, A. Lardennois, P. Pech, and J. Baumel, 363 “Wratten Light Filters,’’ New Edition of, 77 Wright Aeronautical Patents, Gift of the, to the British Nation, 134 Wyoming, Mammals and Horned Dinosaurs of the Lance Formation of Niobrara County, R. S. Lull, 118 X-ray: Analysis and Topic Axes of the Alkali Sulphates, Dr. A. E. H. Tutton, 282; Spectra of the Elements, Sir E. Rutherford, 120 X-rays: and Stereoscopy, Localisation by, Sir J. Mackenzie Davidson, 207; Soft, Absorption Coefficients of, C. D. Miller, 83; The Action of the, upon Iodine and Iodide of Starch in Aqueous Solution, H. Bordier, 104 Yellow-fever Mosquito, Hatching and Development of the, A. Bacot, 383 Y.M.C.A.: Microscopic Exhibitions in Military and Naval Camps, 96; Microscopical Demonstration and Con- versazione at the, 233 Yorkshire, West Riding of, Handbook of the Education Committee of the, 322 Yoruba Alphabet, My, R. E. Dennett, 108 Yukon Basin, The Volcanic Ash Layer of the, S. R. Capps, 118 Zeppelins, Super-, Particulars of the, 175 Zimbabwe and other Ruins in Rhodesia, The, Rev. S. S. Dorman, 96 Zinc-Smelting Industry in Great Britain, The Future of the, Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, 129 Zodiacal Light: Fessenkoff’s Theory of the, G. Armellini, 416; The, W. F. Denning, 277 Zoological: Results of a Tour in the Far East, Dr. N. Annandale, 44; N. Annandale; C. A. Paiva, 403; Survey of India, The, 119 Zoologist, The, Incorporated in British Birds, 394 Zoology: at the British Association, Dr. J. H. Ashworth, 157; Systematic, 107 Zunis, Method of Detection of Crime among the, Dr. E. C. Parsons, 255; Ethnobotany of the, M. C. Stevenson, 401 pani, Bu Pe. BRITAIN BY RICHARD AY AND Sons, LimrrED, STAMFORD eran 7 , SUFFOLK. Tian INstiey “ 61916 ~ No. 2445. VoL. 98] THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] BALANCES & WEIGHTS BUY DIRECT FROM F E.BECKER &CO,#ATT0N WALL QW. &J.GEORGE. LTD., SUCC#= LONDON, E .C. i Jou J. GRIFFIN & sox: MAKERS OF HIGH-CLASS PHYSICAL APPARATUS Wem: POCKET D.V. SPECTROSCOPE With plain slit, 26/6; with adjustable slit, 33/- | RAINBAND SPECTROSCOPE, 54/- Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C. BEAKERS, BOATS, CAPSULES, CONDENSERS, specialise in the manu- facture of apparatus to cus- tomers’ own designs. New prices and sample free on application to THE SILICA SYNDICATE, Ltd., 82 HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C. Telephone: Holliorn 6380. A New Barograph—THE “* JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at. a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. ii NATURE ‘(SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 | THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal—Cuaries A. Kwanz, D.Se., Ph.D., F.LC. CHEMISTRY— CuHaRLEs A. KEANE, D.Se., Ph.D., F.LC. H. J. S. Sanp, D.Se., Ph.D. G. F. Morrexu, B.Se. Ph.D., F.1.C. PHYSICS—-. R. 8. Wittows, M.A., D.Sc. F. J. Hartow, B.Se., A.R.C.S. F. W. Hitt, B.Sc. MATHEMATICS— E. C. Snow, M.A., D.Sc. H. G. Drxon, M.A. EVENING CLASSES IN CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in Chemical and Electrical Industries and in trades associated therewith. The Institute contains well-equipped laboratories in which every facility is provided for Advanced Practical Work and Research hoth in the afternoon and evening. A full curriculum for the B.Sc. examination of London University in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics is provided under recognised teachers of the University. New Session begins Monday, September 25th. For details of the courses apply at the Office of the Institute or by letter to the Princrpa.. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. EVENING CLASSES IN METALLURGY. C. O. Bannister, A R.S.M., M.I.M.M., F.LC. Lecturer on Metallurgy .. G. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. Head of Department Lecturer on Metal Testing .. EM. Boorr: Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Metallurgy form- ing a graded four years’ curriculum. Special Courses on Assaying, Metallography (including Pyrometry), the Metal- lurgy of Gold and Silver, the Metallurgy of Iron and Steel, Heat Treatment of Metals and Alloys, Mechanical Testing of Metals and Alloys. The courses are suited to the requirements of those en- | gaged in Metallurgical Industries. 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Ihe Courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering include specialisationin Auto- mobile and Aeronautical Kngineering, and those in Electrical Engineering include specialisation in Radio-Telegraphy. Entrance Examination on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 26 and 27, 1916. ‘These courses include periods spent in commercial workshops, and extend over four years. ‘hey also prepare for the Degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees £15 or £11 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each will be oftered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September, 1916. TECHNICAL OPTICS. Fulland Part ‘lime Courses in all branches of this important department of Applied Science will be given in specially equipped laboratories and lecture rooms. Ax Aitchison Scholarship (value £30) will be offered in this department at the Entrance Examination, Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on application to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. = = A WEEKLY. ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SC “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’-—Worpswortn. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 10916. THE PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES OF SIERRA LEONE. Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone. By Northcote W. Thomas. Part i., Law and Custom of the Timne and other Tribes. Pp. 196. Part ii., Timne-English Dictionary. Pp. vili+139. Part iii, Timne Grammar and Stories. Pp. xxx +86. Specimens of Languages from Sierra Leone. By Northcote W. Thomas. Pp. 62. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1916.) R. NORTHCOTE THOMAS, employed for a number of years as Government Ethnolo- gist in Southern Nigeria, was transferred recently to the Sierra Leone colony and protectorate to serve there in a like capacity. The first results of his work have now been published by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and will not dis- ‘appoint those whose expectations have been already raised over the remarkable research work conducted by Mr. Thomas amongst the tribes of Southern Nigeria—in which direction, be it ob- served, he revealed much that was new and in- teresting regarding the Semi-Bantu languages of the Upper Cross River basin. Sierra Leone is a British possession of some 30,000 square miles in area, but, like the adjoining regions of Liberia and French and Portuguese Guinea, its interest is not measured by the square mile. All this portion of (originally densely forested) West Africa has been the refuge of oppressed tribes driven out of the interior pasture- lands, and also the goal of negroid, cattle-keeping tribes of the mountainous regions of Senegambia, who have been drawn coastwards by the attrac- tion of the sea and its salt, and the commerce brought by European ships, perhaps from the days of the Carthaginians onwards. One feature amongst many others makes this region of Guinea singularly interesting to those who are exploring African ethnology, and that is the presence there of Semi-Bantu languages. We are already much NO. 2445, VOL. 98] has placed at our disposal regarding the Semi- | Bantu speech forms of the Upper Cross River. The writer of this review, moreover, has. received of late invaluable information regarding the Semi- Bantu languages of Eastern Nigeria, first revealed, like so much else in African linguistics, by Koelle’s vocabularies. (Mr. Thomas, it should be remarked, both in the works under review and in those alluded to on Southern Nigeria, has always done full justice to Sigismund Koelle, an Anglican missionary of the middle of the nine- teenth century, whose “ Polyglotta Africana” has only of late received the full appreciation it de- serves from students of African languages.) The Semi-Bantu languages are represented at the present day by small and scattered groups in the Bauchi hills and in the Middle Benue basin (Eastern Nigeria), in the Kaduna region of Central | Nigeria, in a small portion of Togoland, in Sierra Leone and in Portuguese Guinea, and near the Upper Gambia, and, so far as we are aware, nowhere else. The affinities between each of these groups is indubitable when a comparative study is made, as also their inherent affinity with Bantu speech both in syntax and word-roots. Two groups of these Semi-Bantu languages _ are confined in their area (more or less) to the | extensions Sierra Leone colony and protectorate: Bulom, originally the dominant speech of the Sierra Leone coast line, and Temne (Timne). . The Temne people and language are distributed over the western part of Sierra Leone, with (speaking different dialects) _ into French Guinea. At the present day the Bulom language is said to be nearly extinct, having been swamped by the steady progress towards the coast of the Mende tribes (which belong linguisti- cally to the Mandingo group). All that we knew of Bulom prior to Mr. Thomas’s conscientious work was derived from the records of Koelle and of Nylander, an Anglican missionary who com- piled an imperfect grammar and vocabulary of Bulom a hundred years ago. Temne, on the other hand, had been illustrated not only by Koelle (who alone has dealt with its exceedingly interesting B 2 NATURE western dialects), but in a thorough-going fashion by another Anglican missionary with a German name, Schlenker. Mr. Thomas’s work, however, in Temne, as in Bulom, is quite original, and is most useful in enabling us to understand the struc- ture and phonology of these two forms of Semi- Bantu speech, and moreover represents them as they are spoken to-day. Mr. Thomas will prob- ably quarrel with me for the frequent announce- ment that Temne and Bulom are “ Semi-Bantu.” He does not take up such a decided line himself, any more than he has done about some of the Semi-Bantu languages he was the first to illus- trate in the Cross River basin. But I claim the right to be more dogmatic, since I have had of late opportunities of dealing somewhat thoroughly with the Semi-Bantu languages and their affinities with the Bantu, and have come to the conclusion (foreshadowed many years ago by the great philologist, Bleek) that Temne and Bulom, like the languages of Portuguese Guinea, Togoland, and Eastern Nigeria, must be classed as Semi- Bantu. Vol. i. of Mr. Thomas’s work deals with the laws and customs of the Mendi, Gola, Kisi, Koné, Timne, Loké, Limba, Yalunka, Koranko, Vai, and Susu peoples. (I quote his spelling, not always mine.) This volume contains excellent photographs of ethnic types. Another volume deals generally with the languages of Sierra Leone (besides Temne and Bulom): the Krim, Kisi, Limba dialects, Susu, Koranko, Yalunka, Koné, Vai, Mende, Loké, and Fula. This will be par- ticularly valuable for its treatment of the little- known and unclassified Limba (the speech of an interesting cattle-keeping tribe) and Loké. Loké, I fancy, has not been written down before. I might state, in conclusion, that Mr. Thomas’s work requires careful study and digestion before one can theorise from it. H. H. Jounston. AMERICAN NATURE-STUDY. (1) The Life of Inland Waters. An elementary text-book of freshwater biology for American students. By Prof. James G. Needham and J. T. Lloyd. Pp. 438. (New York: The Com- stock Publishing Co., 1916.) Price 3 dollars. (2) Wild Flowers of the North American Moun- tains. By Julia W. Henshaw. Pp. 383. (Lon- don and New York: McBride, Nast and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. (3) Hitting the Dark Trail, Starshine Thirty Years of Night. Pp. 191. (London: George G. Harrap and Co., 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. (1) qoROF: J. G. NEEDHAM, of Cornell Univer- sity, and his colleague, Mr. J. T. Lloyd, have prepared an introduction to the study of freshwater organisms—their adaptations, asso- ciations, and economic possibilities. The subject is an interesting one, the authors are enthusiasts and experts; the book should certainly give.a stimulus to limnology. After dealing with the physical and chemical conditions of the freshwater environ- NO. 2445, VOL. 98] through By Clarence Hawkes. [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 ment, and its relation to the land-surface, the authors discuss the various types of lakes and ponds, of streams, of marshes, swamps, bogs, and the. difference between high and low water in each case. Then comes a vivid, well- illustrated survey of the freshwater plants and animals. The subject of adaptations is also very successfully handled. Flotation is helped by the outgrowth of slender prolongations and by the production of oils, gases, and jelly. Movement is facilitated by the “stream-line form” familiar in fishes. Animals living near the shore have adap- tations for avoiding silt, for burrowing, for making shelters, for withstanding the rush of water. Seasonal vicissitudes are circumvented by adaptations for lying low, such as _ statoblasts, ephippia, and hibernacula. The secondary adapta- tion of originally terrestrial types to aquatic life is also discussed. Inter-organismal adaptations find fine illustrations in the bladderwort and in the dependence of the larve of freshwater mussels on fish hosts. This leads on to associations or societies, whether in the open-water (limnetic) or by the shores (littoral), the latter being again divided into still-water (lenitic) and rapid-water (lotic) societies. The studies end up with a sugges- tive chapter on water-culture, which is not too dismally utilitarian. As an elementary introduc- tion to a fascinating study the book is admirable —clear, interesting, educative, and of moderate size. It is abundantly illustrated, and many of the figures have had brains put into their construc- tion. (2) Mrs. Henshaw has done good service in compiling a convenient flora of the North Ameri- can mountains by means of which travellers can get to know a little about the characteristic alpine flowers. A terse diagnosis is given of each species, and then follow less formal descriptive notes in which there is occasionally a breeze of enthusiasm rather unusual in “Floras.” The arrangement is popular—mainly according to colour—but there is a scientific classification as well. There are sixty-four fine photographs and seventeen beautiful coloured plates. (3) The author of ‘‘ Hitting the Dark Trail” was accidentally blinded by bird-shot when a boy of fourteen, and the book tells with delightful frank- ness and simplicity how he has made a success of his life in the true sense. The “menace of the years,” as Henley called it, found him unafraid, and in spite of grim difficulties and discourage- ments he has remained “master of his fate and captain of his soul.” Not only so; he has been able to trade with the visual gains of his early years, when he got a good grounding in wood- — craft, and to get for himself and to give to many others a great deal of pleasure out of thirty years of Nature-study without eyes. Mr. Hawkes has written a number of popular “animal bio- graphies”; he has now essayed the more difficult task of writing his.own. He succeeds consider- ably by being perfectly natural. The auto- biography reveals a fine quality of pluck, to reward which ought not to tax the resources of American civilisation. and » J be said to have been abandoned. a SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] THE KINETIC THEORY REVIVED. The Dynamical Theory of Gases. By J. H. Jeans. Second edition. Pp. vii+436. (Cambridge: _ At the University Press, 1916.) Price 16s. net. VP ORE than eleven years have elapsed since q the first edition of this work was reviewed in Nature (April 27, 1905). Most of the pioneers of the attempted rigorous mathematical theory have passed away, and the attempt to reconcile -Boltzmann’s minimum theorem with the properties of an aggregate of perfectly reversible units may On the other hand, the recently developed quantum hypothesis has, to some extent, had the opposite effect of leading us to believe that something more than _ the equations of reversible dynamics is needed to account for the phenomena of Nature. Equi- partition may be characteristic of molecular systems, but the celestial universe shows no ten- dency towards Maxwell’s law, and would probably refuse to obey it even if started according to this distribution. __ The plan which Prof. Jeans now adopts in his book is probably the best one in the circumstances. The kinetic theory cannot be proved mathematic- ally, neither can the data determined from a calcu- lable mathematical theory be made to serve as more than approximations to the results of experiments. Thus arises a school of slipshod students of physics, who, when they cannot prove a result mathematically, state that it “has been shown experimentally,” and if they cannot get their ex- periments to verify they state that it “may be proved” (from theory). This danger is largely obviated by the division of the earlier chapters into four sections, entitled “Mathematical Theory of a Gas in a Steady State,” “ Physical Properties of a Gas in a Steady State,” ‘Mathematical Theory of a Gas not in a Steady State,” “ Physical Phenomena of a Gas not in a Steady State.” Among the miscellaneous applications it is interesting to note Prof. Jeans’s remarks on the rate of escape of gases from planetary atmo- spheres. It will be remembered that the late Dr. Johnstone Stoney attempted to account for the loss of gases by the motion of the molecules which describe hyperbolic orbits under the attraction of the primary; and by assuming the absence of a particular gas from a particular member of the system he deduced the absence of other gases from other systems. It was, however, subsequently shown that, under the assumptions made by Dr. Stoney, the gases in question would not escape, and Dr. Stoney advanced the opinion that the methods of the kinetic theory on which his own investigations were based were inapplicable to the problem to which he had applied them. Accord- ine to Prof. Jeans’s views, hydrogen does not at present escape, but it did so when the earth was at a far higher temperature than at present. On the other hand, the brief discussion on our exist- ing knowledge regarding the upper and lower tegions of the atmosphere will help to reconcile theory with experiment. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] NATURE ere Rs A Oa ea ce eee 3 The book thus contains as much information as an ordinary physics honours student can profit-. ably study. But, of course, this is nothing like the whole of the kinetic theory, whether studied mathematically or experimentaily. MENDELISM ON THE FARM. A Manual of Mendelism. Pp. 152. (London: A. 1916.) Price 2s. 6d. net pane WILSON has prepared an exposition of Mendelism which will be of special interest to stock-breeders and serious students of agricul- ture. It is a model of clearness and directness, and bears the marks of the teacher as well as of the investigator. After explaining Mendel’s ex- periments, his rule and his theory, the author passes to a discussion of various disturbing causes which account for abnormal distributions of characters. Thus there are cases in which the effects of the individual factors cannot be iden- tified separately; cases of the suppression of the effect of one factor by that of another; cases of incomplete or absent dominance; cases where a factor is believed to combine indifferently with more than one other; cases where two or more factors seem to be linked together so that they are handed on from generation to generation as one; and cases in which two different factors produce a similar effect. These are some of the reasons for results which are not typically Mendelian, and they might have been added to. Thus it has been convincingly shown by Morgan and others that environmental and developmental influences may have a profound effect on the outcome of Mendelian factor-differ- ences. Prof. Wilson goes on to illustrate the im- provements which have rewarded careful experi- mentation, e.g. as regards yield of wheat and of milk. That Mendelian formule can be used towards an increased production of material wealth has been proved by the results of workers like Nilsson-Ehle and Pearl, and these are but indications of what might be achieved. The aver- age yield of wheat in Britain is about 32 bushels to the acre; it might be raised to go or even 50 bushels. ‘For every day by which the life of a variety of wheat is shortened between seed-time and harvest, the wheat-growing area in Canada reaches fifty or sixty miles farther northwards.” The work done in Denmark shows how the wealth of Britain, so far as it proceeds from dairy cattle, might be very nearly doubled. Those who wish to know how such exceedingly desirable results can be attained will be well advised if they study a book like Prof. Wilson’s. It will show them how they may act with circumspection and foresight. The book would have been the better for pictures and its terse style is perhaps a trifle severe, but it is a book for the times, competently and carefully executed, which those whom it espe- cially concerns should.run to read. By Prof. James Wilson. and. C. Black, Ltd., 4 NATURE HIGHWAY ENGINEERING. Elements of Highway Engineering. By Prof. A. H. Blanchard. Pp. xii+514. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 12s. 6d. net. Bhs rapid development of mechanically pro- pelled road vehicles during the past twenty years has brought about a complete revolution both in the construction and maintenance of roads, and the question of the development of the public road system has again, after years of neglect, become a problem of natio1al importance. Motor vehicles are no longer mainly used for pleasure purposes; they are now an indispensable adjunct to almost every business, and for the economical working of motor lorries good road surfaces, and roads correctly laid out in regard to grade, are indispensable. Mr. Blanchard’s book, which has been written as a text-book for engineering students as well as a reference book for engineers, is a welcome addition to the literature of this branch of engineering practice. The first three chapters are devoted to an his- torical review of the subject, to a brief account of the systems of road administration in Europe and the United States, and to the preliminary investigations which must be made before an engineer can design satisfactory and economical highways. The fourth chapter treats of the neces- sary survey work in laying out urban and country roads, and of the preparation of the plans. The next chapter is devoted to the problems of grading, drainage, and, most important of all, to the question of the foundations upon which the roadway is to be carried. Earth roads, gravel roads, and broken-stone roads are then dealt with in order; the methods to be adopted in the construction of each class are described, and the question of maintenance is fully discussed. In the chapter on broken-stone roads the author explains in detail the modern methods of testing the suitability of various classes of rocks for road metal; more attention might with advantage be given in this country to the systematic testing of road materials. The ninth chapter is devoted to a detailed account of the sources, characteristics, and physi- cal and chemical properties of bituminous ma- terials; the highway engineer will find informa- tion in this chapter of great value to him when considering the question of the utilisation of bitu- minous materials in any proposed road reconstruc- tion work. The next three chapters explain fully how these bituminous materials are best employed for dust-preventive purposes on ordinary roads and in the construction of bituminous macadam pave- ments and bituminous concrete pavements; the mechanical plant required for these operations is described in detail. In the next five chapters the author treats of asphalt, wood-block, brick, and stone-block city roadways, describing the latest methods of con- structing each type of roadway and of the machin- ery and other appliances required for their econo- mical and speedy construction. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 The remainder of the book is devoted to a brief but valuable discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of various types of roadway, and to an account'of the methods of constructing the side-walks, curbs, gutters, culverts, bridges, and other details of road construction. . The book is well illustrated’ and thoroughly up- to-date, and should prove a welcome addition to the reference library of every engineer engaged on roadway design, construction, and maintenance. T. Hie OUR BOOKSHELF. The Military Map: Elements of Modern Topo- graphy (French School of War). Pp. vii+130. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 2s. 6d. net. In this book the authors set out to discuss the topographical map which has been produced especially for military purposes, and to treat par- ticularly of the French General Staff map on the scale of 1: 80,000. An introduction deals with the general principles on which a survey is carried sentation of detail and relief, and to some informa- tion relating to the French 1 : 80,000 map. It cannot be said that the result is satisfactory as an introduction to military topographical maps or as a description of the French map.. The authors do not seem to have that practical acquaintance with topographical surveying which would have enabled them to avoid several ‘mis- takes which occur, and render the book mislead- ing for a beginner. The statement in the intro- duction that in triangulation the actual angles of the plane triangle formed by three stations are measured could not have been made by anyone who had used a theodolite, and is quite misleading as describing an operation in which horizontal angles are determined. Map projections are not merits and demerits of those which are instanced might have been given, The retention of French terms is stated in the preface to be intentional, but it would have made the book much easier to read if after once quoting the French term the glossary of the French terms added as an appen- dix; as it is, many existing English terms do not appear, and some new ones are coined for which there is no need. The relief of the ground is attributed to certain portions of the soil having sunk while others have been lifted, but no suggestion of the modelling of the surface by erosion appears. In treating of relief, the theoretical principles of contours and hachures are given, but in practice these are not strictly followed, and the reasons for the modifi- cations should be given; the use of colour is not alluded to. Orientation in the field is the subject of the last chapter, but in advocating the use of the watch for this purpose, the error which may be introduced at different times and places should | have been carefully explained. H. Goa out, while five chapters are devoted to the repre-— satisfactorily treated, and at least the respective - English equivalent had been employed, and a “Commercial Egg-Farming: From Practical Ex- ‘equal income so easily in any other way.” _says the author on p. tro. secure for the work the serious consideration of _all poultry-keepers. -much information and no padding. SEPTEMBER 7, I916| NATURE — 5 periences gatmed over a Period of Years. By S. G. Hanson. Pp. 62. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd.) Price 1s. net. “TI am not a poultry-farmer because I like hens, but simply because | do not know how to earn an So This fact alone should It is a good book containing We should, however, have liked more detail on several points, and are far from convinced as to the economic side of the large brooder-nouse. We note there is no balance-sheet. The cost of rearing pullets, even Leghorns, appears almost too modest at 2s. 6d. per head; and colony houses at about 2]. each (p. 39) also seems _ scarcely sufficient. : We like the author’s capital charge of 11. per bird, and this agrees with our own estimates and experience. No figures are given covering labour, rent, rates, and depreciation, considerable items on large plants. The book is well worth reading, being full of hints, and the figures on the income. side do not appear to be exaggerated; but it must be remem- bered that there are many drones in a large flock, and it is on the elimination of these that ultimate success depends. Although we are far from con- vinced as to the desirability of dry-mash feeding, there is much to be said in its favour on the score of economy of labour. 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.] Observations on the Excitation of Helium Spectra. In the course of an examination of the properties of the electron discharge in an atmosphere of helium we have made some observations of the conditions affecting the excitation of the lines of the helium spectra which seem to be of considerable interest. The - source of electrons was an incandescent tungsten fila- _ wire about 8 mm. distant. ' 2 mm. pressure. _ 20 volts. 100 microamperes at 23 volts, when the arc spectrum ment, and the discharge passed to a parallel nickel The electrodes were mounted in a quartz tube filled with helium at about The helium was free from all con- taminants except a small amount of mercury vapour, the partial pressure of which was about o-oor mm. in the observations immediately following. In a particular experiment the current across the gap increased slowly from zero to 10 mitroamperes as the potential difference between the anode and the negative end of the filament was raised from o to The current then increased more rapidly to of mercury flashed out and the current jumped to 220 microamperes, the potential necessary to maintain the discharge dropping at the same time to 21 volts. On raising the potential further. the current. increased rapidly to 690 microamperes at 23-5 volts, when the NO. 2445, VOL. 98] helium spectrum flashed out. With higher potentials most of the lines in the helium spectrum increased in intensity and the current increased, but at a gradually diminisning rate, to 1450 microamperes at 4o volts. In other experiments the helium spectrum has been found to be excited by 22-5 volts potential difference. If allowance is made for the initial kinetic energy of the electrons and for the drop of potential down the filament due to the heating current, this quantity is not increased by so much as one volt, and there are indications that it tends to approach a lower limit close to the ionisation potential value for helium found by Franck and Hertz and by Pawlow. In any event, the observations made would seem to destroy the special significance of the value (approximately 30 volts) of the minimum potential difference necessary: to excite the line spectra of helium given by Rau, ‘There is no doubt that these spectra can be excited by the impact of electrons having energies much less than the value of the ionisation energy of helium calculated by Bohr. We are unable to reconcile these results with Bohr’s theory except on the hypothesis that the impact ionisa- tion of helium is a more complex phenomenon than has been supposed. Possibilities which suggest them- selves are that the ionisation is the result of successive impacts or results from impacts on atoms in an abnormal condition caused by the absorption of radia- tion generated in other atoms in consequence of elec- tron impact. Experiments to test these possibilities are in preparation, In contrast to the lines of the mercury arc spectrum the different helium lines behave differently inter se when the exciting voltage is changed. Thus the blue line 4472 requires about half a volt, and the blue line 4713 about a quarter volt more potential difference for excitation than the yellow line. The green line 4922 of the first subsidiary series of parhelium seems to appear and disappear along with the blue line 4472 of the first subsidiary series of helium. The order of excitation with voltage for the different lines is not simply a question of frequency, but depends partly on the series to which the lines belong. Most of the lines increase steadily in intensity with increasing voltage and current density, but the line 4713 of the second subsidiary series of helium increases rapidly in in- tensity to a maximum soon after excitation, then be- comes very faint as the potential difference is increased to about 4o volts, reappears with higher voltages, and then increases steadily in intensity with rising poten- tial difference. Several of these effects have been noted by Rau at higher voltages. We have examined the radiation from the helium spectrum in the extreme ultra-violet when excited by 40 to 7o volts potential difference, using a photo- electric method, and have obtained definite indications of the presence of radiations having wave-lengths close to 600 and to 400 Angstrom units respectively. O. W. RicHaRDSON. C. B. Bazzont. Wheatstone Laboratory, King’s College, London. The late Prof. dames Geikie. A pioGrapny of the late Prof. James Geikie is now in course of preparation, and the work would be greatly facilitated if those who have letters or com- munications of general interest from him would kindly forward these to me at the Royal Scottish Geograph- ical Society’s Rooms, Synod Hall, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh. They will be carefully preserved and re- turned after being copied. Marion I, NEWBIGIN. Edinburgh, September 4. 6 1 TREATISE ON ELECTRICITY.} ie the treatise on electricity referred to below the author aims at the production of “an advanced text covering both the theoretical and practical sides of the subject, so far as this can conveniently be done in a single volume.” A somewhat obscure statement in the preface in- Photographed by Prof.4J. Zenneck. ou Llecwichy Fic. 1.—Damped Oscillatory Discharge, forms us that “though complete in itself, the book is not intended for beginners, who may be sup- posed to have read one of the excellent elementary treatises available, such as Whetham’s ‘ Theory of Experimental Electricity.””’ As matter of fact, the first half of the book contains curious combination of advanced mathematics and elementary physics. In the present state of our public-school education, in which it is possible for a boy to a a complete his school course with practically no knowledge. of ele- mentary science, such a combination This part of the treatise might’ therefore be recom- mended to a mathematical honours student taking up for the first time the study of electricity. In the chapter, which is a mathematical introduction, the author discusses the transformation of Gauss, the theorems of Green and may be necessary. first of Stokes, the equation of wave- motion, and the Bessel functions. In the second ch ipter he gives an peRes— eto elementary -description of the be- haviour-of magnets and the plotting of lines of force with iron filings. This and the seven chapters -followi: have been kept fairly simple and ‘are intended to contain all the principles necessary for a right appreciation of the subject. rhe author is to be congratulated on the freshness («c eT ar th Clee 6) Pac eae Berk NG. 2445, VOL. 98 | NATURE [ From SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 of his presentation even of familiar topics. Recent forms of apparatus are well described and illustrated, and some novel experiments are intro- duced. The method of exhibiting lines of electric force by scattering small crystals of oxalic acid on a cardboard sheet is interesting, and the result is well shown in Fig. 38. We notice that the term “electromotive force” (p. 110) is used as equivalent to “dif- ference of potential.” In our opinion this is a mistake; it is better to con- sider the E.M.F. as that which gives rise to a P.D. Thus in a cell on open Circuit the E.M.F. due to the chemical action of the constituents sets up a P.D, between the terminals which, inside the cell, is opposed to the E.M.F. When the terminals are joined by a conductor the P.D. between the terminals falls, but the E.M.F. of the cell (neglecting polar- isation) remains the same. In other cases an E.M.F. may arise from thermal effects or electromagnetic induction, One difficulty which always per- plexes a student of electricity is the significance of “magnetic induc- tion,” B. It was with a certain i atinuped se Treatise amount of pleasurable anticipation that we referred to Mr. Pidduck’s | treatment of this subject, only to be confronted 1e Oscillatory Discharge of the Secondary of a Coupled Circuit. photograph by Prof. J, Zenneck. by the bald statement: “The vector B is called the magnetic induction, and the last equation may be written B=H-+ 471, where addition signifies addi- tion of rectangular components.” It is true that the reader is assured that he will appreciate the full importance of the vector B after reading the E ‘ ¢ From a From ‘ A Treatise un Electricity.” next chapter, dealing with the induction of cur- rents, but an appreciation of its importance is not the same as a‘clear realisation of its meaning. It is a remarkable fact that the term “ permeability ” is not mentioned in the index, nor does it appear to be once referred to in the text, The latter half of the book, containing chapters which form introductory accounts of special SEPTEMBER 7, I916] NATURE - subjects, is sure to prove of great service to ad- vanced students. A valuable chapter on applied electricity is introduced, in which is a welcome section on the harmonic analysis of curves. The chapter on electric oscillations is.one of the best in the volume. Prof. J. Zenneck’s. photographs of oscillatory discharges, two of which are here reproduced by the courtesy of the publishers, are excellent, as are the descriptions of the laboratory experiments that may be carried out in illustra- tion of various branches of the subject. In a footnote to p. 444 is found a reference to the fact that the ratio of the electromagnetic to the elec- trostatic unit of charge has the dimensions of a velocity, followed by the startling statement: “The theory of electrical dimensions is otherwise of little interest.’’ In view of the practical ad- vantage to be gained by testing the dimen- sions of the terms of an equation and the stress laid recently on the principle of similitude or dynamical similarity, such an attitude cannot be justified. In the chapter on the conduction of elec- tricity through gases the author is scarcely fair to research carried out in this country. The corpuscular view of the kathode rays seems to have been advanced first by Varley in 1871, and the investigations of Sir W. Crookes surely deserve further description. In the account of the measure- ment.of the ratio of the charge to the mass for the kathode particles Mr. Pidduck is less than just to the work of Schuster described in his second Bakerian lecture (1890) and to the experiments of Sir J. J. Thomson shown in a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution (Electrician, May 21, 1897). Kaufmann’s paper was communicated to the Annalen on the same date. | Wiechert’s earlier experiments, “which did not go beyond the previous work of other observers” (‘The Progress of Physics,” Schuster, p. 68, 1911), were described in a _ lecture delivered on January 7, 1897. The experiments of Richardson and Compton in America on the photo-electric effect were carried out almost at the same time as those of Hughes .at. Cambridge. - Millikan. has just shown that it is possible to get very accurate values for Planck’s constant, h, by the use of this method. A useful summary of fundamental physical quantities is given on p. 513. The name “Boltzmann’s constant ” is assigned by the author to the constant of molecular energy, a. It is usual to give this name to the entropy constant, k, which has a value 3 a. The concluding chapters deal with radioactivity, as exhibited by radium and its derivatives, and the mathematical theory of electrons. The illus- trations include a number of C. T. R. Wilson’s remarkable cloud photographs showing the tracks of ionising particles in gases. ic Us Ho = NO. 2445, VOL. 98] EGYPTIAN ASTRONOMY AND THE ZODIAC, [ibe a recent number of the Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d’Archéologie Orientale (exii.) of Cairo, M. Georges Daressy, one of the foremost among French Egyptologists, treats of the know- ledge of the constellations in ancient Egypt. His article is entitled “L’Egypte Céleste,” by which words he means the duplication of the geography of the Nile valley into the sky, for the priests mentally projected another Egypt into the northern heavens. By a kind of symbolic celestial geo- graphy the daily solar journey was considered as a descent or voyage of the sun upon a’ river, the duplicate of the Nile, but situate in the firmament. This conception having been evolved, to render Double zodiac of the French Archzological Institute at Cairo, the allegory geographically complete, it became necessary to have a series of “momes,” or counties, alongside the celestial river upon the banks, the district deities of which should corre- spond with those of similar sites through which the terrestrial Nile wended its way. For this purpose they selected the path of the ecliptic and identified that with the Nile’s course. Precisely as each Nilotic ““nome” possessed its own deity with his, or her, special totem symbol, so the Egyptian “wise men” provided parallel deity figures for their celestial river upon which the sun voyaged. With this object they adopted the zodiacal signs—the decans, the planets, and various constellations—because they required stellar associations, not only for the forty-two 8 NATURE “nomes,” but also for more than one temple, or important shrine, and its attendant city in many of the “‘nomes.” The event which induces M. Daressy to publish the fruits of his erudition upon this subject is the publication by him of a bronze zodiac with a series of two rows of twelve figures, the outer zone being the familiar zodiacal signs, and the inner, twelve animal symbols, attributable, Egyptologists think, to the twelve forms or phases assigned to the sun during his twelve hours’ journey. These, in the earthly Egyptian gazetteer, are assigned to twelve of the twenty districts of Lower Egypt. This newly found double zodiac is very valuable for the explanation it affords of the symbols of the constellations upon the Denderah zodiac, because all these figures are intermingled in the large central circular disc, mixed up with deity figures representing the planets and certain prominent high-magnitude stars and the decans. It should be stated that the zodiacs designed, and hitherto found, in Egypt are not of great antiquity, The arrangement of their symbols and of figurative objects for some constellations has certainly been produced under Greek influence. They appear to emanate from the Egyptian priests uniting their old stellar figure mythologies to the astronomical astrology of the Alexandrian school. Both parties, however, must at the date of the composition of these zodiacs havesbeen acquainted with the Chaldean science of the heavens, deriva- tions from which appear in the Old Testament and early Greek classics and art. The deity symbols upon the Babylonian boundary stones are almost always astral and frequently zodiacal. Since the large increase in number of these monuments found at Susa, we have a much more complete series of the symbols. Thus upon the stele of Melishipak we have the figure of an archer with the upper part human and the lower part that of a double-headed horse and two tails; those of a horse and a scorpion; also wings. This representation agrees almost completely with the Sagittarius of the Denderah zodiac, and with this Sagittarius the scorpion is associated in both cases. This assimilation of Mesopotamian astronomy is identical with the adoption by the Egyptians of several Babylonian legends of the gods _ into Egyptian mythology. These exploits were foisted upon the deeds of Egyptian deities. For ex- ample, the Izdubar (Hercules) legends were in some Cases introduced into the conflicts of Horus. The parallels between terrestrial Egyptian geo- graphy and the places of the stars must, however, » have been very old in Egypt, though not anterior to the era of Menes. M. Daressy ingeniously explains the principles upon which these were arranged, and henceforth Egyptologists will trace in the primitive texts allusions to them and decide approximately when they were invented. The favourite constellations other than the zodiac were the circumpolar stars, because they never set and so were symbolic of eternity. ; NO? 2445, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 In addition to the famous. zodiac from Denderah, | now in the Louvre, we have, among others, the new one at Cairo, the planisphere and tableaux carved on the hypostyle hall at Denderah, copies of others once at Esneh and Erment, and the coffin. of Hern-netch-tep in the BritiSh Museum. JOSEPH OFFORD. THE PREVENTION OF COLLISION AT SEA? pect . JOLY proposes, in the work before us, that sound, which travels at different rates through different fluids, should be utilised for navigational purposes as well as for the preven- tion of collision. The rate of travel of sound through air—viz. 1090 ft. per sec. at a tempera- ture of 32° F. (zero C.), or 1100 ft. per sec. at a temperature of 52° F. (1171 C.)—has been utilised in H.M. naval surveying ser- vice for measuring bases in _ places it is not possible to land, owing coast being covered to the has a plug driven in its muzzle and to note the time which elapses between the flash of the dis- charge and the report of the mortar. For this purpose a chronometer watch which beats five — times for every two seconds of time is used, and it will be evident that each beat of the watch represents 440 ft., so that if the observer makes a mistake in counting the beats a corresponding error will be the result in the length of the base. This method of ascertaining distance has also been used to ascertain the distance off a cliffy coast when sailing along it. In H.M.S. Actg@on, when sailing along the coast of Russian Tartary, which has very few distinctive marks, a gun was fired at intervals and the beats of the watch counted until the echo was heard. Half the time elapsed gave the distance off. In the case of sound travelling through water the rate is much more rapid, and that rate depends on temperature as well as on the density. In river water the rate is 4714 ft. per sec. at a tem- perature of 55° F. (13° C.), and of s5o13 ft. per sec. at a temperature of 86° F. (30° C.), whilst in sea-water, at a temperature of 68° F. (20° C.), its rate is 4761 ft. per sec., but where the specific gravity of the water is increased, as in the Medi- terranean or Red Sea, the time will be different. In thick weather, therefore, when the flash of a gun cannot be seen, the distance off can be ascer- tained by noting the number of beats between the receipt of a sound travelling through water and one through the air, provided they are emitted simultaneously. This’ difference is 4°25 secs. for each nautical mile the observer is distant from the point where the sound is emitted, or 10°63 beats of the watch per mile. In a vessel fitted to send or receive radio- telegraphic messages, if a signal be sent simul- taneously with the sound signals it is equal to seeing the flash of the gun. If the number of 1 “Synchronous Signalling in Navigation.” By Prof. J. Joly. Pp. 64. (tenders T. Fisher Unwin Lid., 1916.) Price 3s. 6¢. net. long where > with mangrove growth. The system in use is to fire a small mortar which SEPTEMBER 7, I916] NATURE | Sg beats be counted between the receipt of the radio- telegraphic message and the subsequent reports through the water and the air, the distance can be ascertained and checked, observing that an error of the beat means 440 ft. in air, but in water an error of one beat means an error of 1900 ft, If sound signals could be implicitly relied on they would be a still greater aid to the seaman than they now are, for they are used at present both in air and water to warn vessels—in air by bells, guns, and sirens, and in water by sub- marine bells—but, unfottunately, they are not absolutely to be relied on, for experiment has shown that areas of silence occur sometimes in the vicinity of the localities where sound signals are emitted through the air, and that signals emitted through water may be deflected or reflected by obstruction. But further experiments are re- quired before a definite opinion can be pronounced on their accuracy, and especially experiments on the rate of travel of sound through ocean water of different densities and temperatures. Experi- ments seem also to be needed in crowded thorough- fares as to whether sound-signals are or are not masked by more than one vessel emitting them. In addition, experiments are desirable with refer- ence to the conveyance of sound through the water from shore stations: (1) What means should be taken to send the signal? (2) Will waves beat- ing on the shore, especially on a rocky coast, interfere with the signal ? It is a great advantage to seamen that men of science should direct their attention to investi- gating problems of this nature, and it is to be hoped that Prof. Joly’s work may cause the subject to be taken up and some further experi- ments made on the points which are still uncer- tain; but the book as it is is well worthy to be studied by all navigators. It only remains to point out that it is a simple matter to draw a curve which will tell at a glance the distance from a station emitting simultaneous | signals. If the beats of the watch be used as ordinates and tenths of miles as abscissz, three ‘curves can be drawn, one showing the distance off by the time elapsed between the flash of a gun, or the receipt of a radiotelegraphic signal, and the sound conveyed through the air; another, of the distance off by the time elapsed between the flash of a gun, or the receipt of a radio- telegraphic signal, and the sound conveyed through the water; and a third by the time elapsed between the two sounds, one conveyed by air, and the other by the water. Poor tf. G. BRODIE, FURS: pyrer regret is felt by many men of science at the death of Prof. Brodie, which occurred suddenly (from heart failure) at the early age of fifty on August 20. He was not only pre-eminent in the scientific world, but had.endeared himself in a quite exceptional way to his numerous pupils, colleagues, and friends. The world is indeed being cut off in his prime adds an unusual pathos to the event. Prof. Brodie was born at Northampton, and was the second son of the Rev. A. Brodie, Vicar of Grandborough. He was educated at King’s College School and St. John’s College, Cambridge. He received his medical education at King’s College, London, and after a brilliant academic career there and taking his degree of M.D. at the London University, he became demonstrator of physiology at his alma mater, and devoted his life thenceforth to this branch of science. He then became in turn senior demonstrator of physiology at the London Hospital and lecturer in the same subject at St. Thomas’s Hospital. While still a student he commenced research’ work, and his earliest paper on Muscular Elasticity still remains authori- tative. So closely was his name connected with original research, and so numerous were his papers on both the chemical and physical side of physiology, that when Prof, Sims Woodhead relinquished his directorship of the laboratories of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians, London, for his chair at Cambridge, Brodie was immediately chosen as his successor, and he held the post with distinction and success until the -Royal Colleges, as a measure of economy, decided to maintain their laboratories no longer. So fruitful had been the work carried out and inspired by Brodie in this position that in 1904 he received his F.R.S. Then came an interval in which Brodie filled simultaneously three posts—namely, the lectureship on physiology at the London School of Medicine for Women, the professorship of physiology at the Royal Veterinary College, and the professor superintendentship of the Brown Animal Sanatory Institute. This triple part meant overwhelmingly hard work, but it did not stop Brodie’s researches, and it was only because each post was so poorly paid that it was necessary. England often treats her scientific sons thus, and it is much to be regretted that a man of such distinction should have been obliged to seek a position and salary worthy of his gifts in a colonial university. It was in 1908 that Brodie accepted the chair of physiology at Toronto, and London’s loss was Canada’s gain. Prof. Brodie used to revisit London every long vacation, and during these so-called holidays he was always hard at work at research. It was during this time that his famous work on the kidney was carried out, and his Croonian lecture at the Royal Society dealt with one aspect of his investigations on this subject. Soon after the out- break of war he became a captain in the Canadian medical service, and in this position undertook valuable research work on questions arising out of the war: such as respiratory effects, and the means of re-educating maimed men to become useful members of society. As a teacher he was most successful; as a writer he was a little slow, but always sure and lucid; his unpublished manuscripts will be brought to light later; as a personal friend he was loyal, ‘poorer by his loss, and the tragic suddenness in , straightforward, and true. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] 10 NATURE His widow and three fine sons survive to mourn his loss; his funeral at Hampstead on August 23 was a military one, and was largely attended not only by his relations and personal friends, but by representatives, military and medical, of both British and Canadian institutions. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. Ts important Report before us embodies the first annual statement of the work of the Advisory Council. Its contents deserve the closest consideration by all who have been interest- ing themselves in the dominating questions of the organisation of scientific and industrial research. We hope to deal more in detail with the proposals and suggestions in the Report in a later issue. Meanwhile, it will be sufficient to point out that it is divided into sections which are occupied respectively with :— (i) The statement of the problems at issue and the steps taken by the Advisory Council to inform itself as to the present condition of scientific research in the United Kingdom and the bodies or persons conducting it. (ii) The standing committees appointed on special subjects and the co-operative action under- taken by trade associations and professional and learned societies. (iii) The nature of the difficulties surrounding the organisation of scientific and industrial research. (iv) The sphere of action of the universities and technical colleges and the probable necessity for special research institutions. (v) The necessity for conjoint action by all por- tions of the Empire and a general statement of the conditions of successful, work. The general tone of the Report may be de- scribed as tentative; the Council evidently desir- ing to feel its way cautiously and yet desiring to utilise so far as possible at present the existing machinery of research. Taken as a whole, the Report is a very able statement of the complexity of the questions awaiting solution, and its recommendations should receive the most careful thought from all who are concerned with scientific work, whether pure or applied. The report occupies fifty-six pages, of which forty are devoted to the report: of the Advisory Council, signed by the administrative chairman, Sir William McCormick. In an introductory note Lord Crewe refers to the establishment in July, 1915, of the Com- mittee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Indus- trial Research, and to grants made on the advice of the Advisory Council. Twenty scientific investiga- tions of industrial importance, particulars of which are given in an appendix, have been aided; and, in addition, grants amounting at the close of the academic year 1916-17 to about 60001. have been made to individual research workers. The amount placed by Parliament at the disposal of the Committee for 2 Report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for the Year 1915-1916. [Cd. 8336]. (London: Wyman and Sons, Ltd.) Price gd. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 the establishment of the scheme was 25,o00l, for the financial year 1915-16, and of this 12,241/, was ex- pended, including a grant of 4250l. to the Koyal society. For the current financial year the vote by Parliament is 40,000, : A memorandum embodying @ertain suggestions for promoting co-operation between different parts of the Empire in the organisation of scientific and industrial research is printed as an appendix. Approval is ex- pressed of the principle of Imperial co-operation ; and it is suggested that each Overseas Government which is willing to enter into such an arrangement should constitute some body or, agency having functions analogous to those of the Advisory Council which acts for the United Kingdom. The Committee of Council is prepared to co-operate with the Secretary of State in establishing and conducting any central organisation which it may be found desirable to set up in London for the purpose of facilitating and carry- ing on the business of an Imperial Scheme of Re- search. The report of the Advisory Council opens with an historical statement in which reference is made to the establishment of the National Physical Laboratory, the Engineering Standards Committee, the Imperial Institute, the Imperial College of Science and Tech- nology, and other national institutions. At the outset the Council decided to give science in its applications to industry precedence over pure science, though under no misapprehension as to the relations between pure and applied science. Conferences were held with a number of professional bodies, and standing com- mittees were appointed on engineering, metallurgy, and mining, while others are contemplated. A regis- ter of researches is being prepared, and encouragement is being given to co-operative research to benefit an industry as a whole. The most promising sign of progress is the increased interest in scientific research now manifested by men of business, manufacturers, and trade associations, but much yet remains to be done on a larger scale than has hitherto been attempted. The small scale on which most British industrial firms have been planned is one of the prin- cipal impediments in the way of the organisation of research, with a view to the conduct of these long and complicated investigations which are necessary for the solution of the fundamental problems lying at the basis of our staple industries. It is intended to issue, under the title of ‘‘ Science and Industry,” a new series of pamphlets showing among other matters what is being done in industrial research laboratories in the United States and else- where. One of these will include material collected by Mr. A. P. M. Fleming, and another the paper by Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees, printed in Nature of July 13 and 20. Some of the conditions to be secured if the object for which the Committee of Council was established is to be attained are summarised as fol- lows :— If we were asked to state these conditions in the shortest possible terms we should reply: First, a largely increased supply of competent researchers; secondly, a hearty spirit of co-operation among all concerned, men of science, men of business, working men, professional and scientific societies, universities and technical colleges, local authorities and Govern- ment departments. And neither condition will be effective without the other. The first condition of success cannot be secured rapidly at any time, and for the moment is out of the question. It is often said that when the industries call for the research workers, they will be forth- coming. The demand will create a supply, No doubt it will in time, especially if the discoverer or inventor . ee re te a — SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] is adequately rewarded. But it is also true that a supply will create a demand, and since the Committee of Council was established in order to encourage a demand for research, we are anxious to see a sufficient supply of trained workers forthcoming to enable a reasonable start to be made on the new road when peace is restored. Before the war the output of the ‘universities was altogether insufficient to meet even a moderate expansion in the demand for research. The annual number of students graduating with first and second class honours in science and technology (in- cluding mathematics) in the universities of England and Wales before the war was only about 530, and of these but a small proportion will have received any serious training in research. We have frequently found on inquiry that the number of workers of any scientific standing on a given subject of industrial importance is very limited. It is in our view certain that the number of trained research workers who will be available at the end of the war will not suffice for the demand that we hope will then exist. We are too apt to forget in this country that with industry as with war a brilliant group of field officers, and even a _ well-organised general staff, need armies of well-trained men in order to produce satisfactory results. Our people have no reason to fear or envy the scientific pioneers of other races. They have had, and will probably continue to have, their full share of the outstanding minds to which each century gives birth, but as time goes on the sphere of the solitary worker tends to become relatively, if not absolutely, smaller. Effective re- search, particularly in its industrial applications, calls increasingly for the support and impetus that come from the systematised delving of a corps of sappers working intelligently, but under orders. We have not yet learned how to make the most of mediocre ability—particularly in things of the mind—yet with- out the scientific rank and file it will be as impossible to staff the industrial research laboratories which are coming, as to fight a European war with seven divi- sions. There is as much place and need for plodding labour in scientific research as in other kinds of work. The responsibility for dealing with the grave situa- tion which we anticipate, rests with the education de- partments of the United Kingdom. We shall be able to do something to encourage a longer period of train- ing by the offer of research studentships and the like; but that will not suffice. It is useless to offer scholar- ships if competent candidates are not forthcoming, and they cannot be forthcoming in sufficient numbers until a larger number of well-educated students enter the universities. That is the problem which the education departments have to solve, and on the solu- tion of which the success of the present movement in our opinion largely depends. As regards the second condition of success, pro- gress in co-operative effort is undoubtedly being made in many directions, and we have mentioned some in- stances of it. But we wish to point out that there are specially strong reasons for more co-operation between the various British firms in each industry and between the industries and the State in the furtherance of re- search. The particular difficulties encountered in the day-to-day routine of manufacture, the possibility of improving a process, of diminishing cost of working, enlarging output or enhancing the quality of a pro- duct, are matters which we may expect the individual firm to attack directly it begins to believe at all in the application of science to its own trade. But this is not enough. We are looking to the growth of a demand for fundamental research, and fundamental research, as we have seen, requires a very large ex- penditure on brains and equinment. It also requires NO. 2445, VOL. 98] NATURE II continuous effort. The firm that starts out upon this quest must either be very powerful or it must find the necessary strength in association with others. If the general level of manufacture can be rapidly raised by co-operative effort in the exchange of information be- tween firms, and in the support of national trade institutes for research, as well as in the improvement of the conditions and efficiency of labour, this country will have gone far towards establishing its industrial prosperity on a firm basis. There is already a certain number of large firms in this country who, realising the unity of interest be- tween employers and employed, have systematically striven to raise the standard of living among their workers and to give them a direct interest in the firm’s success. Some of these efforts have not been philanthropic; and where they have been so in inten- tion, they have been proved by experience not to require any such spur. But the small firm finds it as difficult to provide pensions or clubs as to pay for research laboratories or original workers. We believe that some form of combination for both purposes may be found to be essential if the smaller undertakings of this country are to compete effectively with the great trusts and combines of Germany and America. The economic problem lies outside our province, but it is an important aspect of the great issue with which we are concerned, and we do not believe that issue can be met effectively unless a co-ordinated advance is made simultaneously on the whole front. We think it possible that the voluntary efforts of manufacturers in friendly union which enabled the problem of muni- tions to be rapidly solved may lead to a new kind of reciprocity between firms which will avoid the evils both of monopoly and of individualism. We think that as people have learnt to combine against the risks of fire or shipwreck without losing either initia- tive or freedom, so firms may come to look upon expenditure for research as a necessary kind of insur- ance. It is certain that the costs to be met will, on any adequate estimate, have to be counted, not by tens of thousands nor even by hundreds of thousands. Quite apart from this general and fundamental point of view, team-work is needed, because when we come to deal with the great industries which have an out- put worth many millions sterling a year and employ labour in proportionate amount, the problems to be solved are too manifold, and too complicated, to be dealt with by individual firms, or even, we may add, by a Government department. The coal-winning in- dustry, the textile industries, the steel industry, the great engineering and shipbuilding industries, the rubber industry, need research on a scale which calls for the financial and intellectual assistance of all par- ties concerned. When co-operation has done all that is possible in the common interest, there will still remain a mass of research work to be done by indi- vidual firms in their own interests, which will amply repay the cost and effort. We have repeatedly spoken in the pages of this report about the initiation of particular researches, and the solution of particular problems. It has been the inevitable concomitant of the line of procedure we have advisedly selected. But if it is supposed that modern industry can be developed or even maintained by a process of detailed investigations, a series of par- ticular inquiries, however careful, the time, trouble, and expense involved will be largely wasted. Such a supposition is based on fallacious conceptions of the manner in which scientific research proceeds, and of the way in which the great scientific industries have been built up. It is impossible for the most acute investigator to be sure that a particular line of research will lead to a positive result; on the other hand it 12 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 will often suggest a diverging inquiry that, if followed up, may produce results even more valuable than the original question. Such loose ends litter the labora- tories of firms which confine themselves to questions of the moment. They lead straight to the basic theory of a subject, to the roots that strike down into pure science. They are infinite in number and intermin- able, as the man of pure science knows well; but they also often yield results that revolutionise those indus- tries which are empirical in. their methods—as what industry is not?—and give that control over nature which it is the object of all science, whether pure or applied, to secure. The discovery of the structure of the indigo molecule led not merely to the synthetic manufacture of this blue dye, but has enabled the chemist to produce a number of mew substances of analogous structure and different shades of colour. Research of this order does not cease when a problem—even if it be as complicated as synthetic indigo—has been solved. It must be continuous in its operation, and its ramifications will spread as know- ledge grows. It will’ inevitably tend to bring industries into intimate relation, which are at present independent of each other, to transform what have hitherto been crafts into scientific industries, and to require co- operation not only between different firms in the same industry, but between groups of industries in a con- tinuously widening series of inter-related trades. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. PPARENTLY, the handbook published in con- nection with the meeting of the British Asso- ciation, which is being held this week in Newcastle- * upon-Tyne, has been well received by the members. Unlike the handbooks for previous Newcastle meetings, the present one describes not only the industries of the district but also includes articles embracing the remarkable and interesting arche- ology and history of Northumbria. If there is any fault to be found with its contents it is that no more than a passing reference is made in its pages to two widely known scientific societies— viz., the North-East Coast Institution of Engi- neers and Shipbuilders and the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, which have their headquarters in Newcastle and have for nearly half a century done exceptionally useful work, whereas a whole article is devoted to the history of the Literary and Philosophical Society, which is little more than a lending library. The anomaly is more remarkable when one remembers that the handbook has been issued for the information of the members of an association founded for the advancement of science. How- ever, the editors are to be congratulated.on pro- ducing a useful handbook. Those members of the Association who visit the Roman wall near Choller- ford and the ancient buildings in Newcastle should find many of the articles of great interest. Members of the Association who attended the previous meetings in Newcastle and are there this week will have a further opportunity of studying the characteristics of the North-country people. In the present instance the Monday and Tuesday. of the meeting were observed as a general holiday— the deferred August Bank Holiday coinciding with the last’two days of the holiday granted to ‘the NO. 2445, VOL. 98] 'workers in the Tyne munition factories. When the general holiday was announced, the local com-: mittee feared that the further depletion in the number of cabs and other conveyances resulting” from the holiday would mean that the bulk of the number of visitors would be put to considerable inconvenience on their arrival. By the action of the North-Eastern Railway Company, however, who placed special vehicles for luggage at the disposal of the members, and assisted in other ways, no such inconvenience was experienced. It is expected, too, that the other preparations for the meeting are being appreciated by the members. .On Monday and Tuesday last the reception room presented that animated appear- ance which is associated with the opening days of a British Association Meeting. The posters and signs in the streets erected for the guidance of visitors incidentally exhibit the coping-stone of the successful work done by the Sectional Arrange- ments Committee. For some time previous to the opening days of the meeting a good deal of interest was shown locally in the forecasts of the activities of the sections, and in the announcements with regard to the President’s address and the evening dis- courses. It was not surprising, therefore, on Tuesday evening last to see that in a larger audience than was expected the local residents were well represented. In additicn to the exhibitions forming part of the programme, to which attention has been” directed in previous numbers of Nature, an attrac- tive and useful exhibition of chemicals and appara- tus is being held in the College of Medicine. The main object of the exhibition is to demonstrate the progress made by British firms in manufacturing articles formerly produced in Germany only. In the Hancock Museum, also, an exhibition of geo- logical and botanical interest is being held. INAUGURAL ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY SIR ARTHUR Evans, D.Litt., LL.D., P.S.A., F.R.S., EXTRAORDINARY PROFESSOR OF PREHISTORIC ARCHA:OLOGY, Ox- FORD, CORRESPONDANT DE L’INSTITUT DE FRANCE, ETC., PRESIDENT. New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of Civilisa- tion in Europe: its Magdalenian forerunners in the South-West and Aigean Cradle. Tue science of antiquity depends on evidence and rests on principles indistinguishable from those of the sister science of geology. Its methods are stratigraphic. As in that case the successive deposits and their char- acteristic contents—often of the most fragmentary kind —enable the geologist to reconstruct the fauna and flora, the climate and physical conditions, of the past ages of the world, and to follow out their gradual transitions or dislocations, so it is with the archzo- logist in dealing with unwritten history. In recent years—not to speak of the revelations of Late Quaternary culture on which I shall presently have occasion to dwell—in Egypt, in Babylonia, in Ancient Persia, in the Central Asian deserts, or, coming nearer home, in the A®gean lands, the patient exploration of early sites, in many cases of huge stratified mounds, the unearthing of buried buildings, the opening of tombs, and the research of minor relics, has reconstituted the successive stages of whole fabrics a y SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] of former civilisation, the very existence of which was formerly unsuspected. Even in later periods arche- ology, as a dispassionate witness, has been continually checking, supplementing, and illustrating written his- tory. lt has called back to our upper air, as with a magician’s wand, shapes and conditions that seemed to have been irrevocably lost in the night of Time. ‘The investigations ot a brilliant band of prehistoric archzologists, with the aid of representatives of the sister sciences of geology and palwontology, have brought together such a mass of striking materials as to place the evolution of human art and appliances in the last Quaternary period on a far higher level than had even been suspected previously. Following in the footsteps of Lartet, and after him Riviére and Piette, Profs. Cartailhac, Capitan, and Boule, the Abbé Breuil, Dr. Obermeier, and their fellow-investigators have revolutionised our knowledge of a phase of human culture which goes so far back beyond the limits of any continuous story, that it may well be said to belong to an older world. To the engraved and sculptured works of man in the ‘“‘ Reindeer period"’ we have now to add not only such new specialities as are exemplified by the moulded clay figures of life-size bisons in the Tuc d’Audoubert Cave, or the similar high reliefs of a procession of six horses cut on the overhanging limestone brow of Cap Blanc, but whole galleries of painted designs on the walls of caverns and rock shelters. So astonishing was this last discovery, made first by the Spanish investigator, Sefior de Sautuola—or rather his little daughter—so long ago as 1878, that it was not until after it had been corroborated by repeated finds on the French side of the Pyrenees—not, indeed, until the beginning of the present century—that the Palzolithic age of these rock-paintings was generally recognised. In their most developed stage, as illus- trated by the bull of the figures in the Cave of Alta- mira itself, and in those of Marsoulas in the Haute Garonne, and of Font de Gaume in the Dordogne, these primeval frescoes display not only a consummate mastery of natural design, but an extraordinary tech- nical resource. Apart from the charcoal used in cer- tain outlines, the chief colouring matter was red and yellow ochre, mortars and palettes for the preparation of which have come to light. In single animals the tints are varied from black to dark and ruddy brown or brilliant orange, and so, by fine gradations, to paler nuances, obtained by scraping and washing. Outlines and details are brought out by white incised lines, and the artists availed themselves with great skill of the reliefs afforded by convexities of the rock surface. But the greatest marvel of all is that such polychrome masterpieces as the bisons, standing and couchant, or with limbs huddled together, of the Altamira Cave, were executed on the ceilings of inner vaults and galleries where the light of day has never penetrated. Nowhere is there any trace of smoke, and it is clear that great progress in the art of artificial illumination had already been made. We now know that stone lamps, decorated in one case with the engraved head of an ibex, were already in existence. Such was the level of artistic attainment in South- Western Europe, at a modest estimate some ten thousand years earlier than the most ancient monu- ments of Egypt or Chaldzea! Nor is this an isolated phenomenon. One by one, characteristics, both spiritual and material, that had been formerly thought to be the special marks of later ages of mankind have been shown to go back to that earlier world. The evidences of more or less continuous civilised development reaching its apogee about the close of the Magdalenian period have been constantly emerging from recent discoveries. The recurring ‘‘tectiform” NO. 2445, VOL. 98] NATURE r3 sign had already clearly pointed to the existence of huts or wigwams; the “scutiform” and other types record appliances yet to be elucidated, and anotner sign well illustrated on a bone pendant from the Cave - ot St. Marcel has an unmistakable resemblance to a sledge.‘ But the most astonishing revelation of the cultural level already reached by primeval man has been supplied by the more recently discovered rock- paintings of Spain. The area of discovery has now been extended there from the Province of Santander, where Altamira itself is situated, to the Valley of the Ebro, the Central Sierras, and to the extreme south- eastern region, including the Provinces of Albacete, Murcia, and Almeria, and even to within the borders of Granada, One after another, features that had been reckoned as the exclusive property of Neolithic or later ages are thus seen to have been shared by Palzolithic man in the final stage of his evolution. For the first time, moreover, we find the productions of his art rich in human subjects. At Cogul the sacral dance is per- formed by women clad from the- waist downwards in well-cut gowns, while in a rock-shelter of Alpera,? where we meet with the same skirted ladies, their dress is supplemented by flying sashes. On the rock- painting of the Cueva de la Vieja, near the same place, women are seen with still longer gowns rising to their bosoms. We are already a long way from Eve! It is this great Alpera fresco which, among all those discovered, has afforded most new elements. Here are depicted whole scenes of the chase, in which bowmen —up to the time of these last discoveries unknown among Paleolithic representations—take a leading part, though they had not as yet the use of quivers. Some are dancing in the attitude of the Australian Corroborees. Several wear plumed head-dresses, and the attitudes at times are extraordinarily animated. What is specially remarkable is that some of the groups of these Spanish rock-paintings show dogs or jackals accompanying the hunters, so that the process of domesticating animals had already begun. Hafted axes are depicted as well as cunningly-shaped throwing sticks. In one case at least we see two opposed bands of archers—marking at any rate a stage in social development in which organised warfare was possible —the beginnings, it is to be feared, of ‘‘kultur,’”’ as well as of culture! Nor can there be any question as to the age of these scenes and figures, by themselves so suggestive of a much later phase of human history.. They are insepar- able from other elements of the same group, the animal and symbolic representations of which’ are shared by the contemporary school of rock-painting north of the Pyrenees. Some are overlaid by palimp- sests, themselves of Palzolithic character. Among the animals actually depicted, moreover, the elk and bison distinctly belong to the Late Quaternary fauna of both regions, and are unknown there to the Neolithic deposits. In its broader aspects this field of human culture, to which, on the European side, the name of Reindeer age may still on the whole be applied, is now seen to have been very widespread. In Europe itself it per- meates a large area—defined by the boundaries of glaciation—from Poland, and even a large Russian tract, to Bohemia, the upper course of the Danube and of the Rhine, to south-western Britain and south- eastern Spain.’ Beyond the Mediterranean, moreover, it fits on under varying conditions to a parallel: form 1 This interpretation suggested by me after inspecting the object in 1902 has been approved by the Abbé Bréuil (Anthropologie, xiii., p. 152) and by Prof. Sollas, ‘* Ancient Hunters,” ror5, p. 2 That of Carasoles del Bosque ; Breuil, S€qGQ. 480. Anthropologie, xxvi., 1915, P- 329 14 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 of culture, the remains of which are by no means confined to the Cis-Saharan zone, where incised figures occur of animals like the long-horned buffalo (Bubalus antiquus) and others long extinct in that region. This southern branch may eventually be found to have a large extension. The nearest parallels to the finer class of rock-carvings as seen in the Dordogne are, in fact, to be found among the more ancient specimens of similar work in South Africa, while the rock-paint- ings of Spain find their best analogies among the Bushmen. That there was a considerable amount of circulation, indeed—if not of primitive commerce—among the peoples of the Reindeer age is shown by the diffusion of shell or fossil ornaments derived from the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, or from inland geological strata. Art itself is less the property of one or another race than has sometimes been imagined—indeed, if we com- pare those products of the modern carver’s art that have most analogy with the horn and bone carvings of the Cave men, and rise at times to great excellence —as we see them, for instance, in Switzerland or Nor- way—they are often the work of races of very different physical types. The negroid contributions, at least in the southern zone of this Late Quaternary field, must not be under-estimated. The early steatopygous images—such as some of those of the Balzi Rossi caves—may safely be regarded as due to this ethnic type, which is also pictorially represented in some of the Spanish rock-paintings. The nascent flame of primeval culture was thus already kindled in that older world, and, so far as our present knowledge goes, it was in the south-western part of our continent, on either side of the Pyrenees, that it shone its brightest. After the great strides in human progress already made at that remote epoch, it is hard, indeed, to understand what it was that still delayed the rise of European civilisation in its higher shape. Yet it had to wait for its fulfilment through many millennia. The gathering shadows thickened and the darkness of a long night fell, not on that favoured region alone, but throughout the wide area where Reindeer man had ranged. Still the question rises—as yet imperfectly answered—were there no relay runners to pass on elsewheré the lighted torch? Something, indeed, has been recently done towards bridging over the ‘“thiatus’’ that formerly separated the Neolithic from the Palzolithic age—the yawning gulf between two worlds of human existence. The Azilian—a later decadent outgrowth of the preceding culture—which is now seen partially to fill the lacuna, seems to be in some respects an impoverished survival of the Aurignacian.* The existence of this phase was first established by the long and patient investigations of Piette in the stratified deposits of the Cave of Mas d’Azil in the Ariége, from which it derives its name, and it has been proved by recent discoveries to have had a wide extension. It affords evidence of a milder and moister climate—well illustrated by the abundance of the little wood snail (Helix nemoralis), and the in- creasing tendency of the reindeer to die out in the southern parts of the area, so that in the fabric of the characteristic harpoons deer-horns are used as substi- tutes. Artistic designs now fail us, but the polychrome technique of the preceding age still survives in certain schematic and geometric figures, and in curious coloured signs on pebbles. These last first came to light in the Cave of Mas d’Azil, but they have now been found to recur much further afield in a similar association in grottoes from the neighbourhood of Basel to that of Salamanca. of these signs that the lively imagination of Piette saw in them the actual characters of a primeval alphabet! “3 Breuil, ‘Congr. Préhist.” Geneva, 1912, p. 216. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] So like letters are some . The little flakes with a worked edge often known as “pygmy flints,’’ which were most of them designed for insertion into bone or horn harpoons, like some Neolithic examples, are very characteristic of this stratum, which is widely diffused in France and else- where under the misleading name of ‘‘ Tardenoisian.”’ At Ofnet, in Bavaria, it is associated with a ceremonial skull burial showing the co-existence at that spot of brachycephalic and dolichocephalic types, both of a new character. In Britain, as we know, this Azilian, or a closely allied phase, is traceable as far north as the Oban Caves. What, however, is of special interest is the exist- ence of a northern parallel to this cultural phase, first ascertained by the Danish investigator, Dr. Sarauw, in the lake station of Maglemose, near the west coast of Zealand. Here bone harpoons of the Azilian. type occur, with bone and horn implements showing geo- metrical and rude animal engravings of a character divergent from the Magdalenian tradition. The settle-_ ment took place when what is now the Baltic was still the great ‘‘ Ancylus Lake,”’ and the waters of the North Sea had not yet burst into it. It belongs to the period of the Danish pine and birch woods, and is shown to be anterior to the earliest shell mounds of the Kitchen-midden people, when the pine and the birch had given place to the oak. Similar deposits extend to Sweden and Norway, and to the Baltic Provinces as far as the Gulf of Finland. The parallel relation- ship of this culture is clear, and its remains are often accompanied with the characteristic ‘‘pygmy’’ flints. Breuil, however,* while admitting the late Falzolithic character of this northern branch, would bring it into relation with a vast Siberian and Altaic province, dis- tinguished by the widespread existence of rock-carv- ings of animals. It is interesting to note that a rock- engraving of a reindeer, very well stylised, from the Trondhjem Fjord, which has been referred to the Maglemosian phase, preserves the simple profile ren- dering—two legs only being visible—of Early Aurig- nacian tradition. It is a commonplace of archeology that the culture of the Neolithic peoples throughout a large part of Central, Northern, and Western Europe—like the newly domesticated species possessed by them—is Eurasiatic in type. So, too, in southern Greece and the Aigean world we meet with a form of Neolithic’ culture which must be essentially regarded as a pro- longation of that of Asia Minor. It is clear that it is on chis Neolithic foundation that our later civilisation immediately stands. But in the constant chain of actions and reactions by which the history of mankind is bound together—short of the extinction of all concerned, a hypothesis in this case excluded—it is equally certain that no great human achievement is without its continuous effect. The more we realise the substantial amount of progress of the men of the Late Quaternary age in arts and crafts and ideas, the more difficult it is to avoid the conclu- sion that somewhere ‘‘at the back of behind "—it may be by more than one route and on more than one con- tinent, in Asia as well as Africa—actual links of con- nection may eventually come to light. Of the origins of our complex European culture this much at least, can be confidently stated: the earliest extraneous sources on which it drew lay respectively in two directions—in the Valley of the Nile on one side and in that of the Euphrates on the other. Until within recent years it seemed almost a point of honour for classical scholars to regard Hellenic civilisation as a wonder-child, sprung, like Athena her- 4 “Les subdivisions du paléolithique supérieur et leur signification.” Congrés intern. d' Anthrop. et d Archéol. préhist., X1V™ Sess., |Généve, 1912, pp. 16s, 238. SEPTEMBER 7, I916| NATURE 15 self, fully panoplied from the head of Zeus. The indebtedness to Oriental sources was either regarded as comparatively late or confined to such definite borrow- ings as the alphabet or certain weights and measures. Egypt, on the other hand, at least until Alexandrine times, was looked on as something apart, and it must be said that Egyptologists on their side were only too anxious to preserve their sanctum from profane con- tact. A truer perspective has now been opened out. It has been made abundantly clear that the rise of Hel- lenic civilisation was itself part of a wider economy and can be no longer regarded as an isolated pheno- menon. Indirectly, its relation to the greater world and to the ancient centres to the south and east has now been established by its affiliation to the civilisa- tion of prehistoric Crete and by the revelation of the extraordinarily high degree of proficiency that was there attained in almost all departments of human art and industry. That Crete itself—the ‘t Mid-Sea land,” a kind of half-way house between three continents— should have been the cradle of our European civilisa- tion was, in fact, a logical consequence of its geo- graphical position. An outlier of mainland Greece, almost opposite the mouths of the Nile, primitive intercourse between Crete and the further shores of the * Libyan Sea was still further facilitated by favourable winds and currents. In the eastern direction, on the other hand, island stepping-stones brought it into easy communication with the coast of Asia Minor, with which it was actually connected in late geological times. But the extraneous influences that were here opera- tive from a remote period encountered on the island itself a primitive indigenous culture that had grown up there from immemorial time. In view of some recent geological calculations, such as those of Baron De Geer, who by counting the number of layers of mud in Lake Ragunda has reduced the ice-free period in Sweden to 7ooo years, it will not be superfluous to emphasise the extreme antiquity that seems to be indicated for even the later Neolithic in Crete. The Hill of Knossos, upon which the remains of the bril- liant Minoan civilisation have found their most strik- ing revelation, itself resembles in a large part of its composition a great mound or Tell—like those of Meso- potamia or Egypt—formed of layer after layer of human deposits. But the remains of the whole of the later ages represented down to the earliest Minoan period (which itself goes back to a time contemporary with the early dynasties of Egypt—at a moderate esti- mate to 3400 B.c.) occupy considerably less than a half —1g ft., that is, out of a total of more than 45. Such calculations can have only a relative value, but, even if we assume a more rapid accumulation of débris for the Neolithic strata and deduct a third from our calcula- tion, they would still occupy a space of more than 3400 years, giving a total antiquity of some qooo years from the present time.* No Neolithic section in Europe can compare in extent with that of Knossos, which itself can be divided by the character of its contents into an Early, Middle, and Late phase. But its earliest stratum already shows the culture in an advanced stage, with carefully ground and polished axes and finely burnished pottery. The beginnings of Cretan Neolithic must go back to a still more remote antiquity. The continuous history of the Neolithic age is car- ried back at Knossos to an earlier epoch than is repre- sented in the deposits of its geographically related areas on the Greek and Anatolian side. But sufficient materials for comparison exist to show that the Cretan 5 For a fuller statement I must refer to my forthcoming work ‘The Nine Minoan Periods " (Macmillan), vol. i. : Neolithic Section. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] branch belongs to a vast province of primitive culture that extended from southern Greece and the A®gean islands throughout a wide region of Asia Minor and probably still further afield. y An interesting characteristic is the appearance in the Knossian deposits of clay images of squatting female figures of a pronouncedly steatopygous conformation and with hands on the breasts. These in turn fit on to a large family of similar images which recur throughout the above area, though elsewhere they are generally known in their somewhat developed stage, showing a tendency to be translated into stone, and finally—perhaps under extraneous influences both from the north and east—taking a more extended attitude. These clearly stand in a parallel relationship to a whole family of figures with the organs of maternity strongly developed that characterise the Semitic lands, and which seem to have spread from there to Sumeria and to the seats of the Anau culture. At the same time this steatopygous family, which in other parts of the Mediterranean basin ranges from prehistoric Egypt and Malta to the north of mainland Greece, calls up suggestive reminiscences of the simi- lar images of Aurignacian man. It is especially in- teresting to note that in Crete, as in the Anatolian region where these primitive images occur, the wor- ship of a mother goddess predominated in later times,, generally associated with a divine Child—a worship which later survived in a classical guise and influenced all later religion. Another interesting evidence of the underlying religious community between Crete and Asia Minor is the diffusion in both areas of the cult of the Double Axe. This divine symbol, indeed, or ‘Labrys,’”’ became the special emblem of the palace sanctuary of Knossos itself, which owes to it its tradi- tional name of Labyrinth. I have already directed attention to the fact that the absorptive and dis- seminating power of the Roman Empire brought the cult of a male form of the divinity of the Double Axe to the Roman Wall and to the actual site on which Newcastle stands. The fact should never be left out of sight that the gifted indigenous stock which in Crete eventually took to itself on one hand and the other so many elements of exotic culture was still deep-rooted in its own. It had, moreover, the advantages of an insular people in taking what it wanted and no more. Thus it was stimulated by foreign influences but never dominated by them, and there is nothing here of the servility of Phoenician art. Much as it assimilated, it never iost its independent tradition. It is interesting to note that the first quickening impulse came to Crete from the Egyptian and not, from the Oriental side—the Eastern fac- tor, indeed, is of comparatively late appear- ance. My own researches have led me to the definite conclusion that cultural influences were already reaching Crete from beyond the Libyan Sea before the beginning of the Egyptian dynasties. These primitive influences are attested, amongst other evidences, by the forms of stone vessels, by the same zsthetic tradi- tion in the selection of materials distinguished by their polychromy, by the appearance of certain symbolic signs, and the subjects of shapes and seals which go back to prototypes in use among the ‘‘old race” of the Nile Valley. The impression of a very active agency indeed is so strong that the possibility of some actual immigration into the island of the older Egyptian element, due to the conquests of the first Pharaohs, cannot be excluded. The continuous influence of dynastic Egypt from its earliest period onwards is attested both bv objects of import and their indigenous imitations, and an actual 10 NATURE monument of a. Middle Empire Egyptian was found in the palace court at Knossos. More surprising still are the cumulative proofs of the reaction of this early Cretan civilisation on Egypt itself, as seen not only in the introduction there of such beautiful Minoan fabrics as the elegant polychrome vases, but in the actual impress observable on Egyptian art even on its religious side. The Egyptian griffin is fitted with Minoan wings. So, too, on the other side, we see the symbols of Egyptian religion impressed into the ser- vice of the Cretan nature goddess, who in certain respects was partly assimilated with WHathor, the Egyptian cow-goddess of the underworld. My own most recent investigations have more and more brought home to me the all-pervading community between Minoan Crete and the land of the Pharaohs. When we realise the great indebtedness of the suc- ceeding classical culture of Greece to its Minoan pre- decessor the full significance of this conclusion will be understood. Ancient, Egypt itself can no longer be regarded as something apart from general human his- tory. Its influences are seen to lie about the very cradle of our own civilisation. The high early culture, the equal rival of that of Egypt and Babylonia, which thus began to take its rise in Crete in the fourth millennium before our era, flourished for some two thousand years, eventually dominating the AZgean and a large part of the Mediter- ranean basin. To the civilisation as a whole I ven- tured, from the name of the legendary King and law- giver of Crete, to apply the name of ‘‘ Minoan,"’ which has received general acceptance; and it has been pos- sible now to divide its course into three ages—Early, Middle, and Late, answering roughly to the successive Egyptian kingdoms, and each in turn with a triple subdivision. It is difficult indeed in a few words to do adequate justice to this earliest of European civilisations. Its achievements are too manifold. The many-storeyed palaces of the Minoan priest-kings in their great days, by their ingenious planning, their successful combina- tion of the useful with the beautiful and stately, and, last but not least, by their scientific sanitary arrange- ments, far outdid the similar works, on however vast a scale, of Egyptian or Babylonian builders. What is more, the same skilful and commodious construction recurs in a whole series of private mansions and smaller dwellings throughout the island. Outside ‘‘broad Knossos”’ itself, flourishing towns sprang up far and wide on the country-sides. New and refined crafts were developed, some of them, like that of the inlaid metal-work, unsurpassed in any age or country. Artistic skill, of course, reached its acme in the great palaces themselves, the corridors, landings, and por- ticoes of which were decked with wall-paintings and high reliefs, showing in the treatment of animal life not only an extraordinary grasp of nature, but a grandiose power of composition such as the world had never seen before. Such were the great bull-grappling reliefs of the Sea Gate at Knossos and the agonistic scenes of the great palace hall. The modernness of much of the life here revealed to us is astonishing. The elaboration of the domestic arrangements, the staircases storey above storey, the front places given to the ladies at shows, their fashion- able flounced robes and jackets, the gloves sometimes seen on their hands or hanging from their folding chairs, their very mannerisms as seen on the frescoes, pointing their conversation with animated gestures— how strangely out of place would it all appear in.a classical design! Nowhere, not even at Pompeii, have more living pictures of ancient life been called up for us than in the Minoan palace of Knossos. The NO. 2445, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 touches supplied by its closing scene are singularly dramatic—the little bath-room opening out of the Queen’s parlour, with its painted clay bath, the royal. draught-board flung down in the court, the vessels for | anointing and the oil-jar for their- filling ready to ~ hand by the throne of the priest-kin$, with the benches of his consistory round and the sacral griffins on either side. Religion, indeed, entered in at every turn, The palaces were also temples, the tomb a shrine ~ of the Great Mother. It was perhaps owing to the religious control of art that among all the Minoan representations—now to be numbered by thousands—no single example of indecency has come to light. - A remarkable cannot be passed over. I remember that at the Liver- pool meeting of this association in 1896—just before the first results of the new discoveries in Crete were known—a distinguished archzologist took as the sub- ject of an evening lecture, ‘‘Man before Writing,” and, as a striking example of a high culture attained by ‘“Analfabeti,” singled out that of Mycenz—a late offshoot, as we know now, from Minoan Crete. To ; such a conclusion, based on negative evidence, I con- fess I could never subscribe—for had not even the people of the Reindeer age attained to a considerable proficiency in expression by means of symbolic signs? To-day we are able to trace the gradual evolution on Cretan soil of a complete system of writing from its earliest pictographic shape, through a conventionalised hieroglyphic to a linear stage of great perfection. In addition to inscribed sealings and other records some two thousand clay tablets have now come to light, mostly inventories or contracts; for though the script itself is still undeciphered, the pictorial figures that often ap- pear on these documents supply a valuable clue to their contents. figures representing sums up to 10,000. The inscribed sealings, signed, counter-marked, and counter-signed by controlling officials, give a high idea of the elaborate machinery of government and administration under the Minoan rulers. The minutely organised legal conditions to which this points confirm the later traditions of Minos, the great law-giver of prehistoric Crete, who, like Ham- murabi and Moses, was said to have received the law from the God of the Sacred Mountain. The clay tab- lets themselves were certainly due to Oriental influ- ences, which make themselves perceptible. in Crete at the beginning of the Late Minoan age, and may have been partly resultant from the reflex action of Minoan colonisation in Cyprus. From this time onwards Eastern elements are more and more traceable in Cretan culture, and are evidenced by such phenomena as the introduction of chariots—themselves perhaps more remotely of Aryan-Iranian derivation—and by the occasional use of cylinder seals. ; Simultaneously with its Eastern expansion, which affected the coast of Phoenicia and Palestine as well as Cyprus, Minoan civilisation now took firm hold of mainland Greece, while traces of its direct influence are found in the West Mediterranean basin—in Sicily, the Balearic Islands, and Spain. At the time of the actual Conquest and during the immediately succeed- ing period the civilisation that appears at Mycenze and Tiryns, at Thebes and Orchomenos, and at other centres of mainland Greece, though it seems ‘to have brought with it some already assimilated Anatolian elements, is still in the broadest sense Minoan. It is only at a later stage that a more provincial offshoot came into being to which the name Mycenzan can be properly applied. But it is clear that some vanguard at least of the Arvan Greek immigrants came into con- feature of this Minoan civilisation: The numeration also is clear, with | int Rita to aes SEPTEMBER 7, I916| tact with this high Minoan culture at a time when it was still in its most flourishing condition. The evi- dence of Homer itself is conclusive. Arms and armour described in the poems are those of the Minoan prime, the fabled shield of Achilles, like that of Herakles described by Hesiod, with its elaborate scenes and variegated metal-work, reflects the masterpieces of Minoan craftsmen in the full vigour of their art; the very episodes of epic combat receive their best illustra- tion on the signets of the great days of Mycene. Even the lyre to which the minstrel sang was a Minoan invention. Or, if we turn to the side of reli- gion, the Greek temple seems to have sprung from a Minoan hall, its earliest pediment schemes are adapta- tions from the Minoan tympanum—such as we see in the Lions’ Gate—the most archaic figures of the Hel- lenic goddesses, like the Spartan Orthia, have the attributes and attendant animals of the great Minoan Mother. Some elements of the old culture were taken over on the soil of Hellas. Others which had been crushed out in their old centres survived in the more Eastern shores and islands formerly dominated by Minoan civilisation, and were carried back by Phoenician or Ionian intermediaries to their old homes. In spite of the overthrow which about the twelfth century before our era fell on the old Minoan dominion and the on- rush of the new conquerors from the North, much of the old tradition still survived to form the base for the fabric of the later civilisation of Greece. Once more, through the darkness, the lighted torch was carried on, the first glimmering flame of which had been painfully kindled by the old cave-dwellers in that earlier Palzolithic world. The Roman Empire, which in turn appropriated the heritage that Greece had received from Minoan Crete, placed civilisation on a broader basis by welding to- gether heterogeneous ingredients and promoting a cos- mopolitan ideal. If even the primeval culture of the Reindeer age embraced more than one race and ab- sorbed extraneous elements from many sides, how much more is that the case with our own, which grew out of the Greco-Roman! Civilisation in its higher form to-day, though highly complex, forms essentially a unitary mass. It has no longer to be sought out in separate luminous centres, shining like planets through the surrounding night. Still less is it the property of one privileged country or people. Many as are the tongues of mortal men, its votaries, like the Immor- tals, speak a single language. Throughout the whole vast area illumined by its quickening rays, its workers are interdependent, and pledged to a common cause. We, indeed, who are met here to-day to promote in a special way the cause of truth and knowledge, have never had a more austere duty set before us. I know that our ranks are thinned. How many of those who would otherwise be engaged in progressive research have been called away for their country’s service! Wow many who could least be spared were called to return no more! Scientific intercourse is broken, and its cosmopolitan character is obscured by the death struggle in which whole continents are locked. The concentration, moreover, of the nation and of its Government on immediate ends has distracted it from the urgent reforms called for by the very evils that are the root cause of many of the greatest difficulties it has had to overcome. It is a lamentable fact that beyond any nation of the West the bulk of our people remains sunk, not in comparative ignorance only— for that is less difficult to overcome—but in intellectual apathy. The dull incuria of the parents is reflected in the children, and the desire for the acquirement of NO. 2445, VoL. 98] NATURE 17 iknowledge in our schools and colleges is appreciably less than elsewhere. So, too, with the scientific side of education, it is not so much the actual amount of science taught that is in question—insufficient as that is—as the instillation of the scientific spirit itself—the perception of method, the sacred thirst for investiga- tion, But can we yet despair of the educational future of a people that has risen to the full height of the great emergency with which they were confronted? Can we doubt that, out of the crucible of fiery trial, a New England is already in the moulding? . We must all bow before the hard necessity of the moment. Of much we cannot judge. Great patience is demanded. But let us, who still have the oppor- tunity of doing so, at least prepare for the even more serious struggle that must ensue against the enemy in our midst, that gnaws our vitals. We have to deal with ignorance, apathy, the non-scientific mental atti- tude, the absorption of popular interest in sports and amusements. And what, meanwhile, is the attitude of those in power—of our Government, still more of our per- manent officials? A cheap epigram is worn thread- bare in order to justify the ingrained distrust of expert, in other words of scientific, advice on the part of our public offices. We hear, indeed, of ‘‘Commissions ”’ and ‘Inquiries,’ but the inveterate attitude of our rulers towards the higher interests that we are here to promote is too clearly shown by a single episode. It is those higher interests that are the first to be thrown to the wolves. All are agreed that special treasures should be stored in positions of safety, but at a time when it might have been thought desirable to keep open every avenue of popular instruction and of intelligent diversion, the galleries of our National Museum at Bloomsbury were entirely closed for the sake of the paltriest saving—three minutes, it was cal- culated, of the cost of the war to the British Treasury! That some, indeed, were left open elsewhere was not so much due to the enlightened sympathy of our poli- ticians, as to their alarmed interests in view of the volume of intelligent protest. Our friends and neigh- bours across the Channel, under incomparably greater stress, have acted in a very different spirit. It will be a hard struggle for the friends of science and education, and the air is thick with mephitic vapours. Perhaps the worst economy to which we | are to-day reduced by our former lack of preparedness is the economy of truth. Heaven knows!—it may be a necessary penalty. But its results are evil. Vital facts that concern our national well-being, others that even affect the cause of a lasting peace, are constantly suppressed by official action. The negative character of the process at work which conceals its operation from the masses makes it the more insidious. We live in a murky atmosphere amidst the suggestion of the false, and there seems to be a real danger that the recognition of truth as itself a tower of strength may suffer an eclipse. It is at such a time and under these adverse conditions that we, whose object it is to promote the advancement of science, are called upon to act. It is for us to see to it that the lighted torch handed down to us from the ages shall be passed on with a still brighter flame. Let us champion the cause of educa- tion, in the best sense of the word, as having regard to its spiritual as well as its scientific side. Let us go forward with our own tasks, unflinchingly seeking for the truth, confident that, in the eternal dispensation, each successive generation of seekers may approach nearer to the goal. MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PRZEVALEBIT. 18 NATURE NOTES. Tue Hon. Sir Charles Parsons,’ K.C.B., F-R.S., has been nominated as president of the British Asso- ciation, the meeting of which is to be held at Bourne- mouth in September next. Tue annual autumn meeting. of the Institute of Metals will be held on Wednesday, September 20, in the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, London. Sir George T. Beilby will preside, and a number of important metallurgical papers will be presented and discussed. Tue fourth annual meeting of the Indian Science Congress will be held at Bangalore on January 10-13. H.H. the Maharajah of Mysore has consented to be patron of the meeting, whilst Sir Alfred Bourne, K.C.1.E., F.R.S., will be the president. The follow- ing sectional presidents have been appointed :—Mr. J. MacKenna (Pusa), Agriculture and Applied Chemistry ; the Rev. D. Mackichan (Bombay), Physics; Dr. Zia Ud-din Ahmad (Aligarh), Mathematics; Dr. J. L. Simonsen (Madras), Chemistry; Mr. K. Ramunni Menon (Madras), Zoology; Mr. C. S. Middlemiss (Calcutta), Geology. All communications relating to the congress should be addressed to Dr. Simonsen, the Presidency College, Madras. Great satisfaction is felt by everyone in the news published in the Daily Chronicle on September 5 that Sir Ernest Shackleton had succeeded in rescuing the twenty-two members of his Antarctic expedition marooned on Elephant Island since April 15. Three previous attempts to reach the island were unsucceéss- ful, but with characteristic persistence Sir Ernest con- tinued his efforts to relieve the men, and sailed from Punta Arenas on August 26 in the Yelcho, a small Chilian steamer. On August 30, after steering in a fog through numerous stranded bergs, he reached Wild’s camp at 1 p.m., and at 2 p.m. the vessel was homeward bound. On September 3 Punta Arenas was reached, and the message ‘All saved. All well,” was dispatched to the Daily Chronicle, from which the fol- lowing summary of Mr. Frank Wild’s report is taken :—‘‘On April 25, the day after the departure of the boat, the island was beset by dense pack-ice. The party was confined to a narrow spit of land, 250 yards long and 4o yards wide, surrounded by inaccessible cliffs and ice-laden seas. We were forced to abandon our ice-hole, which was made untenable by the snow. We made a dwelling of our two boats, supported by rocks, and set up as far as practicable from the sea. The weather continued appalling. In May a heavy blizzard swept much valuable gear into the sea. For- tunately, owing to the low temperature, an icefoot formed on the seashore, and this protection was the means of saving us from total destruction. From June onwards the weather was better as regards wind, but we were under a constant pall of fog and snow. At the beginning of August we were able to collect seaweed and limpets, which formed a valuable change in our diet, but the deep water, heavy seas, and ice prevented us from fishing. On August 28 the gale drove the ice-pack from the island, and on August 30, through the lifting fog, we caught sight of the Velcho steering through a maze of stranded bergs. An hour later we were homeward bound.” Sir Ernest Shackle- ton has announced the safe return of the party in a telegram to the King, who has_ replied :—‘‘ Most heartily rejoice that you have rescued your twenty-two comrades all well. Congratulate you on the result of your determined efforts to save them, and that suc- cess crowned your third attempt. TI greatly admire the conduct of their leader, Frank Wild, which was NO. 2445, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 so instrumental in maintaining their courage and hope. I trust you will soon bring them all safely home.—GeorceE R.I.” Mr. R. W. Doyne, who died at Oxford on August — 30, was well known as an ophthalmologist. Born on May 15, 1857, educated at Marlborough and Keble College, Oxtord, he became a naval surgeon, but early relinquished this work to specialise in ophthal- mic practice. He returned to Oxford, and devoted his boundless energy and enthusiasm to the prosecu- tion of his favourite study in that town and Univer- sity. There he succeeded in founding the now flourish- ~ ing Eye Hospital, and thanks to the munificence of - the late Mrs. Ogilvie, obtained recognition of ophthal- mology in the University, being himself appointed first Margaret Ogilvie reader in ophthalmology. The > clinical material at Oxford is not large, but from the ‘point of view of research the paucity of cases is not without its advantages, and was utilised by Doyne to the fullest extent. The inhabitants of the surrounding country districts are wedded to the soil, so that cases can be kept under observation for many years, and hereditary disorders can be traced through several generations. Doyne was thus enabled to study forms of hereditary cataract, etc., under the most favourable conditions, and thereby to contribute many valuable | papers to the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society. He was enthusiastic in ophthalmoscopic work, and ungrudging in spending money on having coloured drawings made of interesting fundus cases. His collection is extremely fine, and formed one of the attractions at the annual gathering of ophthalmologists which has for several years met at Oxford at his invitation, and is known as the Oxford Ophthalmo- logical Congress. Doyne was very keen on sports, and his papers on ‘‘The Eye in Sport,” dealing with such topics as the influence of visual acuity, binocular vision, and so on, in shooting, fencing, and other sports, are important, not only for the brilliant appli- cation of physiological facts to practical conditions, but also for the light they throw on visual phenomena themselves. News has just reached us of the death, on May 21, of Prof. J. A. Portchinsky, the distinguished Russian entomologist, at sixty-eight years of age. Prof. Portchinsky graduated in 1871 at the Natural History Faculty of the Petrograd University. He was con- servator and librarian to the Russian Entomological Society, and between 1874 and 1894 occupied the post of its scientific secretary. In 1894 he was appointed member of the scientific committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, chief of the Entomological Bureau of this committee, and chief editor of its Memoirs, in which capacity he remained until his death. The number of these Memoirs of which he was himself the author amounts. to twenty-four, besides a great number of articles and scientific papers published in many journals and periodicals. He travelled extensively over Russia, Caucasia, and Turkestan, and collected a mass of observations and materials on. the biology of insects. He was also the reviewer of ‘“‘Applied Entomology in Russia.” Pror. FERDINAND Fiscuer, professor of chemical technology in the University of Géttingen, whose death, at the age of seventy-four, was announced, was born at Rodermiihle a. Harz in 1842 and graduated at Jena in 1869, after previously study- ing both in Gé6ttingen and in Berlin. In 1897 he was appointed to the chair at Géttingen, a position he occupied with conspicuous success for close upon twenty years, during which period he made valuable contributions to chemital technology, both by his recently _ i ee SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] writings and by his experimental work. His investi- gations have been concerned chiefly with problems connected with solid and gaseous fuel, with the examination of water supplies, and with the analytical control of the Le Blane soda and other industrial processes. In association with these inquiries he designed the many forms of apparatus which bear his name, of which that for accurate gas analysis, his ‘modification of the Orsat apparatus, and his calori- meters for gaseous and for liquid fuel are the best ‘known. Although these are, to a considerable extent, superseded to-day, they each mark. an important advance in the construction of the apparatus used for ‘these purposes, and successfully fulfilled the special objects for which they were designed. It is, how- ever, principally as an author and as an editor that Fischer rendered his greatest service to the advance- ment of chemical technology. He revised and edited ‘several editions of R. v. Wagner’s standard text- book on chemical technology, which has been trans- lated into many languages, including English, and from 1887 to 1910 he acted as editor, in succession ‘to Wagner, of the invaluable ‘‘Jahresberichte der chemischen Technologie.’’ Fischer’s well-known treatise, ‘‘Die chemische Technologie der Brenn- stoffe,’’ which was first published in 1880, and has passed through many editions since then, has always stood as an authoritative work on this branch of chemical technology, and his ‘‘Taschenbuch fir Feuerungstechniker,’’ which has also passed through many editions, has served as a most useful guide to technologists. Other publications have dealt with a variety of fuel problems and allied subjects, with the technology of water supplies, and with the study of chemical technology. Fischer also acted as editor of Dingler’s polytechnisches Journal and of the Zeit- schrift fiir angewandte Chemie for a number of years, and in 1887 he founded and edited the Zeit- schrift fiir die chemische Industrie. Apart from these contributions to chemical literature, Fischer took a leading part in the establishment of the German Society for Applied Chemistry, which has_ since developed into the important Association of German Chemists. Important developments have taken place recently in connection with the work of the Corrosion Committee _of the Institute of Metals, which for the last six years has been investigating the causes of corrosion of marine condenser tubes. In the first place the committee has been recognised by the Privy Council Committee for Scientific and Industrial Research, and has been enlarged so as to include representatives of several Government departments, including the Ad- miralty, Lloyd’s Register, and the Board of Trade, and some of the leading engineering societies. As from October 1 next it will receive a grant of gool. in aid of its work for the forthcoming year. Hitherto the experimental work has been under the charge of Dr: Bengough at the University of Liverpool. In future the experimental condenser plant will be in- stalled and worked at the Southwick Electricity Generat- ing Station of the Brighton Corporation, an arrange- ment which is due to the initiative and good offices of Mr, J. Christie, their municipal electrical engineer, and will enable the plant to be worked under conditions much more nearly approximating to “ prac- tical’” than has been possible hitherto. Laboratory research work in connection with the same problem will be carried out by Drs. Bengough and Hudson in the metallurgical laboratories of the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, which have been gratui- tously placed at the disposal of the committee by the authorities. NO. 2445, VOL. 98| NATURE 1g Ix 1902 Mr. A. Hrdliéka published an account of all the crania of the Tenape or Delaware Indians which at that time were preserved in American museums. Since then fifty-seven skeletons have been discovered in the Upper Delaware River valley, and the same writer publishes in Bulletin No. 62 of the Bureau of American Ethnology an elaborate mono- graph describing this fresh material. To this he has added a general sketch of Eastern Indian crania in general. The most interesting result of the survey is that, while the Iroquois are regarded as a linguistic stock distinct from the Algonquian, the measurements of skulls of representatives ot the two stocks show no such distinction. It is also evident that the eastern Algonquian and Iroquois Indians, while essentially of one type, approached purity of type much more in the north-eastern Atlantic States and in south-eastern Canada than further south. The Iroquois group was a complex of tribes, some of which are still poorly represented in American collec- tions, and it is possible that more abundant material will exhibit some differences between these tribes owing to their varied earlier associations, and per- haps to other agencies, among which we may suspect that varieties of environment played an important part. Wituram Wiiperrorce, who played such an impor- tant part in the abolition of slavery, was born in the fine old Elizabethan mansion in High Street, Hull, now known as Wilberforce House, which has been con- verted into a public museum and memorial of Wilberforce. Mr. T. Sheppard, the energetic curator, has succeeded in collecting a fine series of the numerous medals issued in connection with the aboli- tion of slavery, and he describes them in No. tog of the useful series of Hull Museum Publications. The first exhibit in the collection was issued in 1807, immediately on the abolition of the slave trade in the British Dominions, this being the precursor of the abolition of slavery itself in England some years later. The series closes with the medal issued by the Hull Corporation in 1906, when the museum was opened. The portrait of Wilberforce, a very pleasing one, was taken from a miniature in the possession of the Rev. J. B. Harford, son of the author of the Life of the statesman. Tue July issue of the National Geographic Magazine is entirely devoted to a description of Mexico, as usual illustrated by a fine series of photo- graphs. The most interesting contribution is that by Mr. F. H. Probert, ‘‘The Treasure Chest of Mer- curial Mexico,” a description of the mining centre at Guanajuato, where silver was discovered by a peon at La Luz in 1554. Rayas, a few years later,’ dis- covered the mine which still bears his name, and in 1557 the Rayas and Mellado workings led to the recognition of the Veta Madre, the mother lode of Guanajuato, which has yielded untold riches. Cecil Rhodes prophesied of Mexico that “from her hidden vaults, her subterranean treasure-houses, will come the gold, silver, copper, and precious stones that will build the empires of to-morrow and make future cities of this world veritable New Jerusalems."” The Veta Madre has already produced gold and silver to the value of more than a billion dollars, and, given the possibility of decent government, the prediction of Rhodes is sure to be fulfilled. The worst feature of the situation is the poverty and social degradation of the mining population. An interesting addition to the exhibits in the Insect Gallery of the Natural History Museum, South Ken- sington, has been made in the shape of a collection of 20 NAIURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 “ trout-flies,’ presented by Mr. Martin H. Mosely. The collection consists of a series of the natural in- sects that serve as food for trout and grayling (pre- served in formalin placed in shallow glass dishes), and along with them a series of the artificial insects which are made in imitation of the natural ones and used as bait by anglers. Tuere has been placed on exhibition in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, South Kensing- ton, a small series of specimens illustrating the natural history of the worm, Bilharzia (Schistosomum), that causes the disease of the bladder and rectum, known as bilharziosis, common in Africa, the West Indies, and Japan. Actual specimens are shown of the worms as they occur in the veins of the intestine, and examples are shown of pond-snails which are known to harbour the alternate generation of the worms. The life- history of the worm is explained by means of drawings of the egg and the sporocyst and cercaria stages, and photographs of bilharzia-infected: canals in Egypt, from Lieut.-Col. R. T. Leiper’s report of 1915, are exhibited to illustrate how the disease may be com- municated to human beings by bathing or standing in the infected water. In the Zoologist for August Dr. J. M. Dewar records a series of experiments on habit-formation in a queen wasp which had its nest at the end of a long tunnel opening into a disused rabbit burrow. The approach to the nest at the time of its dis- covery was made, not by the burrow, but through the tunnel. How she would behave when this tunnel was plugged was the task he set himself to discover. His observations lead him to the conclusion that “the learning of the wasp did not transcend the sensori- motor level, and that images or ideas were not elements essential to an explanation of the observed reactions.’’ He attaches, apparently, no importance to the fact that when the wasp first found the entrance plugged she gained access to the nest by the burrow, about 50 cm. below the tunnel,” and endeavoured to break away the plug from behind. Mr. R. Greenaway, in the Zoologist for August, comments at length on the inability of natural selec- tion to explain certain various phases in the evolu- tion of the protozoa. The protective coverings of ‘Difflugia and Arcella among the Thecolobosa, or the addition of flagelle in the Flagellata, he argues, can- ‘not be explained by natural selection, since this would demand similar armature and locomotory organs in ~all the species of their respective types which-are now living side by side in the same environment. He concludes, therefore, that these differences are to be explained, at least in part, by ‘‘some form of the orthogenesis theory.” Ow1nc to the difficulty of obtaining material, the ovarian tissues of the Marsupialia have been very little studied. Thus the memoir’ which appears in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical’ Science (No. 244, N.S., July), by Dr. C. H. O’Donoghue, will be extremely welcome. He describes at length the corporea lutea and the interstitial tissue of the ovary, more especially in regard to Phascolarctos, Tricho- surus, and Didelphys, thus supplementing his earlier observations on Perameles, Macropus, and Phasco- lomys. Perhaps the most important item in the pre- sent communication concerns the corpus luteum of *Phascolarctos, which remains as a hollow cavity throughout the period of pregnancy, and which during the time that the embryo is in the uterus is quite unlike the corpus in any other known marsupial, or. indeed, that of any other mammal. As a result of NO. 2445, VOL. 98] his investigations, the author is able to show that the corpus luteum of the marsupial and the eutherian are indistinguishable, thus directly contradicting the statements made on this subject by Fraenkel and Cohn, and repeated without criticism by Van der Stricht. . In Memoirs of the Geological Survey of New South Wales, Ethnological Series, No. 2, Mr. R. Etheridge, curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney, discusses the origin of the warrigal (Canis dingo), the name “dingo” being a contemptuous term applied by the aborigines to the white man’s cur. He reviews the evidence collected by. Sir F. McCoy and Mr. G. Krefft, who found its remains associated with a fauna now extinct. Mr. Etheridge adds to this that he thinks he has identified teeth of a dog somewhat larger than the warrigal among a quantity of jaw bones and loose teeth found in the Wellington Cave. He leaves the question of the origin and date of intro- duction in doubt, but the evidence here collected does not seem to conflict with the view that it was like the Indian pariah dog, and was brought by emigrants from the Malay region. THE report on the investigation of rivers undertaken by the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies has been published by the latter society. The investiga- tion, which was begun in 1906, had in view the exam- ination of certain rivers in England and Wales for the purpose of ascertaining the volume of discharge, the suspended and dissolved matter in wet and dry periods and the total for the year, the erosion of the surface of the basin, the rainfall in each basin, and the extent occupied by calcareous and non-calcareous, and by pervious and impervious formations. The rivers selected for examination were the Exe, the Medway, and the Severn. These were selected as river basins representative of different geological conditions. Cir- cumstances prevented the inclusion of the Salisbury Avon as a typical chalk river. The report is the work of various authors, including Dr. Aubrey Strahan, Mr. N. F.. Mackenzie, Dr. H. Ro@Mily and Dr: \joss Owens. Attention was directed to the desirability of such investigations by the recent report of the Royal Commission on Canals and Inland Navigation, but the work requires to be carried on systematically throughout the country. The present report serves to indicate the value of such a survey of our water re- sources, and the lines on which it should be conducted. In the Geographical Review for July (vol. ii., No. 1) there is a paper by Messrs. W. G. Reed and H. R. Tolley, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on “Weather as a Business Risk in Farming.” Climatic data expressed in averages afford a basis for deter- mining the general character of a region, but the farmer requires to know the frequency or magnitude of departures from the average. Late spring and early autumn frosts do great harm to crops. The statement of the extreme dates of these frosts is of doubtful value in the determination of the risk of damage, as it is based on single occurrences. The authors have calculated the standard deviation from the aver- age date of the last and first killins frosts, in spring and autumn respectively, and from this the frost risk may be computed. In two maps of the United States the standard deviations of dates of the last and first frosts are given as accurately as available data permit. INVESTIGATIONS of the meteorology of the upper air were begun in 191% at Melbourne. Rubber balloons were used, each with a meteorograph attached to a bamboo ‘‘spider."’ The work had not progressed far when the war interfered with its continuation. Mr. — — ————— bi SEPTEMBER 7, 1916] Griffith Taylor has, however, given some account of the initial experiments (Bulletin No. 13, Common- wealth Bureau of Meteorology). He points out that Melbourne is not suited for these experiments, since the prevailing northerly winds cause a large proportion of the balloons to be carried out to sea and lost, while those carried by the easterly upper-air movement to the Victorian mountains are seldom recovered. No con- clusive results can be deduced from the meagre data at present available, but after the war experiments are to be conducted under more favourable conditions at the meteorological observatory at Mount Stromlo, in Federal territory. ' Dr. W. van BEMMELEN has published in English a very interesting account of the ** Results of Registering Balloon Ascents at Batavia’ (Batavia Javasche Bock- handel en Drukkerij, 1916). Batavia lies a few de- grees south of the equator, and these observations are valuable on account of the obvious care that has been taken to ensure accuracy and also on account of the equatorial situation. The ascents were 103 in all, spread over the six years 1910-15, and sixty-six avail- able records were obtained. Dr. van Bemmelen gives tables showing the temperature and humidity, and also discusses the annual and daily variations. The most striking result is the low temperature that is found at yreat heights in these equatorial regions. Eighteen ascents reached the stratosphere, the mean height of which is shown as just under 17 km. At sea-level the mean temperature is 26° C., the freezing point is reached at 4-7 km.; at 10 km. the temperature is —34° C., compared with —51° C. in England, but at 17 km. over Batavia the low value of —84° C. is found, against —54° C. over England. On one occasion a temperature of —go-2° C. (183° A. or —130° F.) was reached at 16-7 km. If any doubt remained about the existence of these low temperatures over the equator it has been removed by the publication of these results. The value given at 17 km., viz. —84° C., is based on twenty observations, and the standard deviation is small, so that there is no room for serious error in this value. Tue Journal of the Society of Siberian Engineers (Tomsk, January, 1916) devotes an article, illustrated by climatological charts, to the possibility of extending and developing the beet-sugar industry in Siberia. The desirability of establishing this industry in Siberia Was pointed out by the Russian Government thirty years ago, and substantial fiscal relief was offered to pioneers, with the result that the first factory was set up in 1889 in the Minusinsk district of the Govern- ment of Yenisei. The seat of the beet-sugar industry, the western provinces of Russia, being now in enemy occupation, there is among the refugees from those regions a large amount of highly skilled labour avail- able for employment elsewhere. The present moment is therefore opportune for directing attention to the subject and taking practical steps to foster a growing industry the develonment of which is of the greatest importance for the future of Siberia. Messrs. B. Artis and H. L. Maxwell have esti- mated the amounts of barium present in the leaves of certain tobaccos and trees, and publish the results in the Chemical News for August 11. The barium seems to be present in the ash of the leaf, partly as sulphate and partly in a form soluble in hydrochloric acid. The tobaccos examined were grown in Cuba, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Sumatra, Wisconsin, and Mexico. The amount of barium (calculated as sulphate) found varied from 0-0132 per cent. to 0-0980 per cent. in the leaf, the lowest amount being found in the tobacco from Mexico and the highest in that NO. 2445, VOL. 981 NATURE 21 from Pennsylvania. The stems invariably contained a larger amount., In the leaves of the trees examined the amount of barium sulphate found varied from 0-0071 per cent. (Sumac) to o-0g41 per cent. (wild grape) in immature leaves. In the mature leaves the amount is generally greater than in the immature where com- parison is possible. AccorDING to a note by Mr. A. W. Knapp in the Chemical News for August 18, the pink colour fre- quently noticed by analysts to develop on the surface of margarine fat which has been exposed in the laboratory is not due to bacterial growth or to the action of light or oxygen. It is caused by the action of the vapour of mineral acids on a dye (probably dimethylamidoazobenzene) frequently present in mar- garine. A method of detecting the dye is described. A NEw system of signalling which dispenses with semaphores has been in use on a section of the Penn- sylvania Railroad for nearly eighteen months, and is described in the Engineer for September 1. Daylight lamp signals having a range of visibility of about 2500 ft. in broad daylight had been obtained, using a lamp of not less than 20 watts and a lens 8 in. to 10 in. diameter. In 1914 Dr. Churchill, of the Corn- ing Glass Company, discovered the possibility of secur- ing very long range from a small lamp arranged in the exact focal centre of a small wide-angle lens. Each fight unit consists of a box painted dull black on the inside, and containing a 12-volt 6-watt lamp with tungsten horizontal helical filament. The lamp is placed in the focus of a lens 5-5 in. diameter, having a focal length of 225 in. In front of the lens is a convex glass cover of the same diameter, and is so constructed as to avoid the difficulty of sun glare, which was at first experienced when a flatter cover- glass was used. A 4-in. spherical mirror is placed over the lamp, and is so arranged as to give the signal indication at extremely close range. A hood 11 in. long is placed over the cover-glass in order to concentrate the lamp rays and to exclude the sun’s rays. The article contains clear illustrations of the arrangement. We are informed that Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., have become the sole agents for the sale at home and abroad of the publications of Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston, Ltd., of Edinburgh. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. MaxtMa oF Mirra CETI, 1915-—From observations made between November 21, 1914, and March 8, 1916, Mr. Felix de Roy has concluded that the dates of maxima of Mira Ceti were January 25, 1915 (mag. 3-8), and Decem- ber 20, 1915 (mag. 3-0), while the intervening minimum (mag. 8-7) occurred on August 22 (Mem. della Soc. degli Spett. Ital., vol. v., series 2, July). The first maximum of 1915 was the feeblest observed since 1896, and its abnormal character has already been discussed by A. Bemporad (NaturE, vol. xcv., Pp. 405). The brightness at the minimum was also exceptional, having been equalled or exceeded only at_six of the forty-three minima which have been sufficiently re- corded. The second maximum of 1915 showed a normal amplitude of variation, and a normal interval from minimum to maximum, and a return of the star to normal conditions is suggested. A general dis- cussion of the ‘‘perturbations” indicates the prob- ability that the diminution and re-establishment of the brightness at maximum, of the amplitude, and of the interval from maximum ‘to minimum, are progressive, and pass through a minimum when the maximum is abnormal. The disturbances usually extend through 22 NATURE x [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 three or four periods, but the three elements are not always simultaneously affected, and no periodicity for the abnormal maxima can yet be established. A Faint Star witH LarcGE Proper Mortion.—The greatest proper motion yet known for any star has been discovered by Prof. Barnard from a comparison of photographs taken with the 1o-in. Bruce telescope, with the aid of .the Zeiss blink-microscope. The star in question is one of the 11th magnitude, situated in R.A. 17h. 53m. 44s., declination +4° 27-4’ (1916-0), and the annual proper motion, in a northerly direc- tion, amounts to about 10”. The star follows B.D.+4° 3560 by g:5s., and is 0-4! north. The motion is confirmed by numerous plates taken at Harvard, dating from 1888 (Harvard Bulletin, 613). The greatest proper motion previously known was that of Cordoba zones, sh. 243, magnitude 8-3, R.A. 5h. 8m., declination —45°, amounting to 8-7" per annum. The well-known star, 1830 Groombridge, of magnitude 65, comes next with a proper motion of 7” per annum, ; Tue Van ViEcK OsseRvaTory.—The Van Vleck Observatory of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, was dedicated on June 16. The observa- tory is the gift of the late Joseph Van Vleck, in com- memoration of the services rendered to the University by his late brother, John Monroe Van Vleck, who had been professor of mathematics and astronomy for many years. The chief instrument is an equatorial refracting telescope of 18}-in. aperture and, 26 ft. focal length, but the completion of the objective has been delayed by the war, and a 12-in. lens is temporarily in use. The observatory is designed for purposes of in- struction and research, and, in addition to the large telescope, is provided with two small transits and _ Numerous portable instruments. The director is Prof. F. Slocum, who is well known for his successful work at the Yerkes Observatory. It is intended to apply the large telescope chiefly to the photographic deter- mination of stellar parallaxes (Popular Astronomy, vol. xxiv., No. 7). THE SysTEM OF Potaris.—Spectroscopic observations have revealed the existence of two close companions to Polaris, one having a period of about four days, and the other of about twelve years. From a discussion of all the available data, L. Courvisier, of the Berlin- Babelsberg Observatory, has concluded that the visible gth magnitude companion to Polaris is also a member of the system, its period of revolution being at least 20,000 years (Astronomische Nachrichten, 4854). The mass of Polaris itself is probably not greater than one-fourth that of the sun, and its density not more than 0-003 of the sun’s density. The deduced parallax of Polaris is 0-053". The maximum separation of the companion having a period of twelve years is given as 0-20", and this may be reached about the beginning of next year. THE AMSTERDAM COLONIAL INSTITUTE. For some years past a movement has been in pro- gress in Holland having for its object the founda- tion of a colonial institute in Amsterdam commensurate with Dutch colonial interests, and adequately repre- sentative of the important part which Holland has taken in the prosecution of research in tropical agri- culture and forestry. There has existed at Haarlem for many years a small, but important, colonial museum, "and the promoters of the new institute have fortunately been able to secure the transfer of the economic collections, publications, and staff of the Haarlem museum to the Amsterdam institute. The latter is at present housed in temporary quarters, but the authori- NO. 2445, VOL. 98] ties have in hand a capital sum of about 1,600,000 florins, which is apparently all available for the con- struction of buildings and the installation of the new institute. The latter will apparently be supported mainly by subsidies from the Government, the province’ of North Holland, and the city of Amsterdam, and by subscriptions from private individifals and firms. In 1g1q the ordinary annual expenditure was 91,600 florins, but for 1915 the estimate is 78,000 florins, certain of the subsidies having been cut down owing to war economies. ? Me. As at- present organised, the institute comprises” three sections: Economic (which: is practically the Haarlem museum transferred to mew quarters), Anthropological, and Tropical Hygiene. It corre~ sponds, therefore, on a small scale to the Imperial Institute of the’ United Kingdom as regards technical and economic work on colonial products, and to the British Schools of Tropical Medicine as regards tropical hygiene. There is, of course, nothing in this country as yet corresponding to the anthropological section of the Amsterdam institute. A site for the new buildings has been secured on the Oosterbegraaf- plaats, where a building to house the administrative offices and the economic and anthropological sections will be erected with a front of about 170 yds. on the Maurits Kade and about 75 yds. on Linnaeus Straat. A special building for the section of tropical hygiene will be erected as part of the buildings of the Hygienic Institute of the University of Amsterdam, with which this section will work in close co-operation. The institute has already issued a number of publi- cations, perhaps the most interesting being a concise history by Dr. Sirks of research in natural science in the Dutch East Indies (Koloniaal Instituut te Amster-. dam, Mededeeling, No. vi. museum, No. 2). COMMITTEE of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences spent the last fortnight of the year 1915 On the Canal zone studying the great land- slides of the Culebra Cut. These are three in num- ber, and are all comprised within a mile or a little more of the Canal bank. The moving ground con- sists almost entirely of the stratified rocks known as the Cucuracha or Culebra beds. The East Culebra slide and the Cucuracha slide lie north and south of the core of basalt and hard tuff which forms the high central mass of Gold Hill, the flanks of which are composed of the aforesaid stratified rocks. On the west side of the Canal there are three summits of massive rock, tuff or basalt, viz. Contractor’s Hill, nearly opposite to Gold Hill; Zion Hill, north of Con- tractor’s Hill; and Culebra Hill, north of Zion Hill. The third great slide, the only one on the west bank of the Canal, known as the West Culebra slide, lies between Zion and Culebra Hills. The committee finds that no great extension of the slides in the soft Cucuracha or Culebra beds is prob- able, because the rock itself is limited in extent, and because the broken ground already extends in many places beyond the crest of the slope. It also reports upon the important question of the stabilitv of Gold Hill. Contractor’s Hill, Zion Hill, and Culebra Hill, which rise considerably above the level of the sliding ground. The confident expectation that these eminences will “slide”? makes the average visitor to the Canal works pessimistic of the future of the undertaking. Viewed casually, or from a dis- 1 Preliminary Report upon the Possibility of Controlling the Land Slides Adjacent to the Panama Canal. By the Committee of the National Academy of Sciences aprointed at the reauest of the President of the United States: (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. ii., No. 5, April 15, 1916.) Afdeeling Handels- SEPTEMBER 7, I1916| NATURE ad tance, no reason is apparent why these hills should not presently share in the movement of the material which lies upon their flanks. The apprehension is all ' the more natural because great chunks of the massive rock have broken from the parent masses adjacent to the sliding ground. When, however, we examine the materials closely we find a great difference in character between the central, and highest, part of these hills and the lower slopes which slide. The committee reports that the hills consist of intrusive bodies of basalt or of masses of hard Obispo tuff, and that, so far as the exposures show, they do not rest upon the soft beds, but extend far down below Canal bottom. The committee is therefore of opinion that although rock may break off from them, they will not collapse. In this connection it is important to note the observation in the report that there has been no up- heaval of the Canal bottom between Gold Hill on the east, and Contractor’s Hill, nearly opposite to it, on the west,side of the Canal, which is the deepest part of the cut. This shows that the hills are not pressing on the bottom. Thus the findings of the committee, and the evidence in their report, favour the opinion that the establish- ment of a permanent waterway free from interrup- tion is only a question of time; of time to be reckoned, not in months, indeed, on one hand, but certainly not in centuries on the other. It thinks that ‘‘some sliding ground will continue to enter the Canal for | several years to come,’’ and it recommends that certain steps be taken to lessen its amount. These recommendations have to do with the control of the rain-water, which in this region of great precipitation adds so much to the weight of porous, stratified rocks, and so greatly diminishes their cohesion. The com- mittee proposes, therefore, that the growth of vegeta- tion should be promoted, that cracks should be filled up as soon as formed, that surface and tile drainage should be undertaken in threatened areas, and that drains should be established on the moving ground of the three great slides. VauGHAN CORNISH. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Ir is announced in the issue of Science for August 18 that Lafayette College is the residuary legatee of the late Mr. A. N. Seip, of Washington, D.C. It is said that the college will ultimately receive not less than 50,0001. Tue Elgar Scholarship of the Institution of Naval Architects, of the annual value of 1ool., and, subject to certain regulations, tenable for three years, has been awarded to Mr. R. J. Shepherd, of his Majesty’s Dockyard, Devonport. Ir is stated in a recent issue of Science that the vocational-educational Bill, providing for Federal co- operation with the various States in promoting agri- cultural and industrial education in the United States, makes an annual appropriation beginning at 100,000l. and increasing each year by 50,000l. until 600,000l. is reached, to be apportioned to the States in propor- tion to their rural population. Tue calendar for 1916-17 of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture is now avail- able. The college was founded to provide for agri- cultural education and research in the central and south-eastern counties of Scotland. It receives annual grants from the Government through the Board of Agriculture for Scotland. Its classes are arranged in conjunction with the science faculty of Edinburgh University, and the courses for the diploma of the college and the B.Sc. degree of the University are NO. 2445, VOL. 98| concurrent. The calendar contains full details of the courses of instruction available in the departments of agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. The aim of the college is to supply such training in agriculture and the sciences underlying it as is nowadays indis- pensable to all who intend to gain their living from the land as owners, or tenants, or agents. Copies of the calendar may be obtained from the secretary of the college, 13 George Square, Edinburgh. A CONFERENCE representative of the Classical, Eng- lish, Geographical, Historical, and Modern Language Associations has drawn up the following resolutions, which have received the approval of the councils of the five associations named :—That in the opinion of _ the conference: (1) It is essential that any reorganisa- tion of our educational system should make adequate | provision for both humanistic and scientific studies. (2) Premature specialisation on any one particular group of studies, whether humanistic or scientific, to the exclusion of all others, is a serious danger, not | only to education generally, but to the studies con- | cerned. ' study of language and literature, geography and his- | tory, which in each case should, at the appropriate (3) Humanistic education implies the adequate stages of education, go beyond the pupils’ own language and country. (4) The representatives of humanistic studies would welcome from the repre- sentatives of the mathematical and natural sciences a statement with regard to those studies similar to that contained in (3). (5) In all reform of education it must never be forgotten that the first object is the training of human beings in mind and character, as citizens of a free country, and that any technical preparation of boys and girls for a particular profession, occupa- tion, or work must be consistent with this principle. (6) Subject to the above principles the associations concerned would welcome a comprehensive revision of national education from the point of view of present needs. It is stated that ‘tthe resolutions are published in the hope that in any coming reconstructions of our educational system this attempt to restate the ‘ human- istic’ position will mitigate the dangers incident to a violent breach of tradition and an excessive reaction against the past predominance of certain types of study. But it will be obvious that they are drawn up in no spirit of hostility or indifference to either scien- tific or technical studies, and their framers are anxious to co-operate in securing for these, as well as for the studies with which they are themselves more particu- larly interested, their due place in a national system of education.”’ Co-operation and suggestions are in- vited; any communication may be addressed to the chairman of the Conference of the Five Associations, Prof. T. F. Tout, Oak Drive, Fallowfield, Manchester. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 21.—M. Paul Appell in the chair.—A. Lacroix: Some volcanic rocks of the French possessions in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.—Paul Appell: The developments of the square root of a polynomial in continued fractions.—W. H. Young: The convergence of Fourier’s series.—M. Petrovitch : Theorem of the mean relating to the in- tegrals of an important partial differential equation.— G. Giraud: Quadratic forms and hyperabelian func- tions.—A. Liljestrém : A geometrical theorem useful for the study of the direct inversion of Abelian integrals. —R. Garnier: A new method for resolving Riemann’s problem.—R. Birkeland: Developments of the move- ment of a fluid parallel to a fixed plane.—V. Kostitzin : The periodicity of the solar activity and the influence 24 of the planets.—H. Bordier: The action of light on dilute aqueous solutions of iodine and iodide of starch. Dilute solutions of these two substances, stable in the dark, are bleached by the action of light. The hypo- thesis put forward to explain this fact is based on the supposition that both iodine and iodide of starch do not form true solutions but colloidal solutions.—A. Blanchetiére : The relations between the chemical con- stitution of certain derivatives of amino-acids and the mode of attack of these substances by bacteria.—Ch. Dhéré and G. Vegezzi: The influence exercised by the degree of reduction of the hamochromogens on their spectra. New SourH WaALEs. Linnean Society, June 28.--Mr. C. Hedley, vice-presi- dent, in the chair.—R. J. Tillyard : Studies in Australian Neuroptera. No. iii., The wing-venation of the Chryso- pide. The paper shows the method adopted in extract- ing the pupa of Chrysopa from its cocoon, and preparing the wing-sheaths for photomicrography. The result of a study of the pupal wing tracheation demonstrates that the Chrysopide are the most highly specialised of all Neuroptera. In the hindwing the point usually taken as the origin of Rs is shown to be a false origin, the true basal portion being fused with M. In both wings the veins usually named the media and cubitus are shown to be highly complex formations developed from consecutive, short portions of the true media, true cubitus, and the more proximal branches of the radial sector. These latter are termed the Banksian sectors, since their part in the above formations is similar to that of the branches forming the Banksian line in Myrmeleontide. The two composite veins themselves are named the pseudomedia (L’) and pseudocubitus (Cu’) respectively. No corresponding veins are known anywhere else in the class Insecta. The true media is shown to be branched in both wings, Banks’s ‘“‘divisory veinlet’’ in the forewing being formed by divergence and distal re-fusion between M, and M,. The paper concludes with a phylogenetic discussion in which the venation of the Apochrysidz is compared with that of the Chrysopidz, and the descent of these families from an original Osmylid-like stock, vid forms like the Jurassic Mesochrysopa, is indicated.— Dr. A. J. Turner: A third contribution to a knowledge of the Lepidopterous fauna of Ebor Scrub, N.S.W. Four additional visits to the Scrub, in January, 1916, resulted in 128 captures, representing forty species, twenty-two of which have been previously recorded. Six of the remaining eighteen are known to occur elsewhere, and twelve are now described as new, as well as an interesting geometrid obtained in 1914, but overlooked. The number of recognised species amounts to sixty-nine, of which only twenty-four are known from other localities —M. Aurousseau: Petrological notes. No. ii., The relations between some West Aus- tralian gneissic and granitic rocks. The observations recorded are grouped under two heads—* The Geology of the Roelands District, and ‘“‘ The Crystalline Rocks of Albany.” ; BOOKS RECEIVED. Masonry Dam Design. By Dr. C. E. Morrison and O. L. Brodie. Second edition. Pp. ix+276. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 10s. 6d. net. Principles of Oil and Gas Production. -By Prof. R. H. Johnson: and S. G. Huntley. Pp. xv+#371. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London : Chap- man and Hall, Ltd.) 16s. net. A Method for the Identification of Pure Organic Compounds, etc. By Dr. S. P. Mulliken. Vol. ii. NO. 2445, VOL. 98] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 Pp. ix+327. (New. York: Ve Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 21s. net. Through South Westland. By A. M. Moreland. Second edition. Pp. xviiit+219. (London : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.) : Growth in Length: Embryological Essays. By R Assheton. Pp. xi+104. (Cambridge: At the Univer- sity Press.) 2s. 6d. net. : Agricultural Geology. By R. H. Rastall. Pp. ix+ 331. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) tos. 6d. net. The Algebraic Theory of Modular Systems. F. S. Macaulay. Pp. xiv+112. University Press.) 4s. 6d. net. Analytical Chemistry. Vol. i., Qualitative Analysis. By Prof. F. P. Treadwell. Translated by W. T. Hall. Pp. xiii+538. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Ine. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 12s. 6d. net. Love and Cruelty. By W. H. Cock. Pp. v+148. (London: R. Scott.) 2s. net. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. 1., part iii. Session 1914-15. (Edinburgh: R- Grant and Son.) 27s. : The Source of Life and Thought. By J. C. Scholey. By (Cambridge: At the Pp. vi+26. (London: Kegan Paul and Co.,: Ltd.) Is. net. CONTENTS. PAGE The Peoples and Languages of Sierra Leone. By Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B... . . . sage American. Nature-study <2 agesee i. +. se oe 2 The Kinetic Theory Revived. By G.H.B..... 3 Mendelism on the Farm .73)5). 0... .. .9« Soe Highway Engineering. ByT.H.B........ 4 Our Bookshelf, <). = = Gi-peee 4 Letters to- the Editor:— : Observations on the Excitation of Helium Spectra.— Prof. O. W. Richardson, F.R.S.; Dr. C. B. Bazzoni 5 eis c+ uae SEL ca», © + ieee The late Prof. James Geikie—Dr. Marion I. Newbigin . ; Bee acer 7 5 A Treatise on Electricity. (J//lustrated.) By H.S.A. 6 Egyptian Astronomy and the Zodiac. (///ustrated.) By Joseph Offord A MEME 6/8 ae : aan The Prevention of Collision at Sea. ....... 8 Prof. T. G. ‘Brodie, F(R. S:)sgggmiee eos ie. ae Pare 29 Scientific and Industrial Research > > oa The British Association at Newcastle :— 4 Inaugural Address (Abridged) by Sir Arthur Evans, D.Litt., LL.D., P.S.A., F.R.S., Extraordinary Professor of Prehistoric Archeology, Oxford, ~ Correspondant de l'Institut de France, etc., Presidentitwi. > .e Seanad ie) ‘ . 2 Notes Maree ciieaemer) CN ss 6s 0, ol 18 Our Astronomical Column :— Maxima of Mira Ceti, 1915 “ets ss se ee 21 A Faint Star with Large Proper Motion .. .. . 22 The Van Vleck Observatory. .....-.-. 22 The’ System! of Polaris: - J0ewaauane > = * sce 22 The Amsterdam Colonial Institute ._ . : 22 Land-slides on the Panama Canal. By Dr. Vaughan Cornish... . aa. k,n University and Educational Intelligence .. 23 Societies and Academies seapee s+ 23 Books Received . See 24 Editorial and Publishing Offices: 2 MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications to the Editor. an Telegraphic Address: Puusts, LONDON. Telephone Number: Gerrarp 8830. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL- OF “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”—Worpswort No. 2446, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 [| PRICE SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] PRISMATIC COMPASSES (War Office Pattern) Tested and approved: by Wool- wich Arsenal and offered for sale under licence from the Ministry of Munitions. Made throughout in our own Factory. . NEWTON & CO. Scientific Instrument Makers to H.M. the King, 72 WIGMORE ST., LONDON, W. ESTABLISHED OVER 200 YEARS. DUROGLASS L”®: 14 CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. Beakers. Flasks, Etc. Soft Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. ’ Special Glass Apparatus Made to Order. DUROCLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. a7 j SOLE SELLING AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. 14 CROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. [All Rights Reserved. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to ‘His Majesty’s Government (Home and Overseas Dominions), Laboratory Furnishers and Manufacturing Chemists. THE “RYSTOS” BALANCE CASE. 2' bo’ x 15” * 18” high; glazed ends, tops and fronts, doors to turn up, and slide under top, carried on brackets fixed to wall, or cupboards can be fitted under same. As specially designed for and supplied to The Schools, Shrewsbury. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, and ‘TECHNICAL LABORATORIES Fully Equipped with BENCHES, FUME CHAMBERS, &¢. Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus and Chemicals. Designs of Benches and Fittings to suit all requirements. (Catalogue post free.) 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. — SE ee a A New Barograph—THE “‘ JORDAN.” : (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, } ; 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. x NATURE ‘ [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. .. The following Special Courses of Instruction will be given during the Autumn Term, 1916 :— THE THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS. By E. C. SNOW, M.A., D.Sc. A course of 10 lectures on the modern mathematical methods of dealing with statistical data in social, educational, economic and medical problems, suitable to teachers and students of economics. Opportunity will be given to students to take up problems on their own account, and assistance and direction will be given for such work. Wednesdays, from 5.30 to 6.30 p.m. The first lecture of the course will be given on Wednesday, October 4, 1916. THE METHODS OF DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROBLEMS. By R. S. WILLOWS, M.A., D.Sc. A course of 10 lectures for those engaged in Chemical and Electrical Industries and students of Physical Chemistry, in which the subject will be treated more as a means of Chemical and Physical investigation, rather than from the mathema- tician’s standpoint. The standard of mathematics required on joining the class will not go beyond an elementary knowledge of Algebra. Friday evenings, 7 to 8 p.m. The first lecture of the course will be given on Friday, October 6, 1916. Detailed syllabus of the courses may be had upon applica- tion at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PRrNcIPAL. THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal—Cuartes A. Kranr, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.L.C. CHEMISTRY— Cuarues A. Keane, D.Se., Ph.D., F.LC. H. J. S. Sanp, D.Sc., Ph.D. G. F. Morrett, B.Sc. Ph.D., F.C. PHYSICS— R. 8. Wittows, M.A., D.Sc. F. J. Hartow, B.Sc., A.R.C.S. F. W. Hixu, B.Sc. MATHEMATICS— E. C. Snow, M.A., D.Sc. H. G. Dixon, M.A. EVENING CLASSES IN CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS and MATHEMATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged in Chemical and Electrical Industries and in trades associated therewith. The Institute contains well-equipped laboratories in which every facility is provided for Advanced Practical Work and Researeh both in the afternoon and evening. A full curriculum for the B.Sc. examination of London University in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics is provided under recognised teachers of the University. New Session begins Monday, September 25th. For details of the courses apply at the Office of the Institute or by letter to the Principat. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. . KING’S COLLEGE, AND KING’S COLLEGE FOR WOMEN. FACULTY OF SCIENCE. In this Faculty a Course of Study in Science is provided suitable for general education or for the Examinations of the London and other Universities. Students are admitted either as Regular or Occasional Students. Several valuable Scholarships and Prizes are offered. The Laboratories of the College are open to post-Graduates and Research Students. The following are the Departments under the charge of the various Professors, assisted by the Junior Staff :— Math fic eee S.A. F. Wurre, M.A. athematics vs" \. Prof, Js Was Niesonson, M.A., D.Sc) Physics i Prof. O. W. RicHarnson, D.Sc., F.R.S. Chemistry {Eee H. Jackson, F.1.C., F.C.S. cue “+ =". Prof. A. W. Crosstey, D.Sc., F-R.S. Botany Z Prof. W. B. Borromtey, Ph.D., F.L.S. Zoology ... Prof. AeTHUR Denby, D.Sc., F.R.S. Geology and Mineralogy Dr. W. T. Gorvon, F.R.S.E. { Prof. We D. Hatursurton, M.D., LL.D., “1 ERS Psychology Dr. W. Brown, M.A, M.B. The next TERM begins WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1 16. : For particulars as to this and other Faculties of the College—Engineering, Medicine, Arts, Laws, and Theology—apply to the Secretary, King’s College, Strand, W.C. THE MANCHESTER MUNICIPAL SCHOOL -OF TEHE@HNOLOG® (UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER). PrincipaL: J. C. M. Garnett, M.A. (late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge). Physiology The Prospectus, forwarded free on application, gives particulars of the courses leading to the Manchester University degrees in the Faculty of Technology, in the following departments :— . MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, SANITARY ENGINEERING (including Munic‘pal Engineering), THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES (including General Chemical Technology, Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, Papermaking, Brewing, _ and Metallurgy), - THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES, . ; PRINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY, MINING, ARCHITECTURE. During the Session 1916-1917, First Year Courses will be specially — adapted to the requirements of students who may wish to take Commissions in H.M. Forces. ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL OPTICS. _ NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, EC. ENGINEERING DAY COLLEGE. r Full Day Courses in the Theory and Practice of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering will commence on Monday, October 2, 1916. The Courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering include specialisation in Auto- mobjle and Aeronautical Engineering, and those in Electrical Engineering include specialisation in Radio-‘Telegraphy. Entrance Examination on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 26 and 27, 1916. These courses 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 £15 or Aur per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September, 1916. TECHNICAL OPTICS. Full and Part Time Courses in all branches of this important department of Applied Science will be given in specially equipped laboratories and lecture rooms. Ax Aitchison Scholarship (value £30) will be offered in this department at the Entrance Examination. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on application to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. EDINBURGH & EAST OF SCOTLAND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE. : SESSION 1916-17. The WINTER SESSION begins on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10. ‘The DAY CLASSES, in conjunction with certain University Classes, provide full courses of instruction in Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry. Full particulars of Courses and Classes, and also of Bursaries tenable at the College, are given in the Calendar, copies of which may be obtained on application. :: All the College Courses are open to Women Students. ALEXANDER M’CALLUM, M.A., LL.B., Director and Secretary. 13 George Square, Edinburgh. wenn i, : me ATURE $e THURSDAY 51 A SYSTEM OF A System of Physical Chemi McC. Lewis. Two. -vols. *523. Vol. ii.,. pp. vii+552. (London: mans, Green and Co., 1916.) gs. net each vol. HYSICAL chemistry in the present-day sense of the term may be said to date from 1887, the year in which Ramsay came to London, Ostwald was appointed to the chair in Leipzig, and the Zeitschrift fiir phystkalische Chemie was _ founded by Ostwald and van’t Hoff. Although ‘many pioneers, amongst whom may be mentioned Deville, Debray, Guldberg and Waage, Gibbs, Horstmann, Berthelot, Thomson, Harcourt and Esson, Gladstone, Le Chatelier, and Lemoine had prepared the way for the new development in chemical science, it was the combined influence of van’t Hoff, Arrhenius, Ostwald, and Ramsay that gave direction and strength to the new current of thought and research. It is a remarkable fact that during this period of nearly thirty years the English-speaking peoples of the world have had to depend chiefly on works written in German, or their translations into English, for the accepted standard treatises on the subject. The ‘“ Lehrbuch” of Ostwald, the “Theoretische Chemie ”’ of Nernst, and the “ Vorle- sungen ” of yan’t Hoff were for many years with- out a serious competitor. A change in this state of affairs was brought about by the appearance of the excellent series of ‘‘Text-books of Physical Chemistry ” edited by Sir William Ramsay. But as these were mostly in the nature of special treatises on different branches of the subject, the student desirous of obtaining a compact and rounded, and at the same time fairly comprehen- sive, View of physical chemistry as a whole had still to have recourse to the works previously men- tioned. Yet none of these was entirely satisfac- tory. Ostwald’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch,” though unexcelled in its historical treatment of the subject, was too -cumbrous, was marred by its author’s unfortunate attempt to “energeticise”’ thermodynamics, and has not been kept up to date. Nernst’s otherwise excellent treatise repelled the student by its open- ing chapters, which presented the subject of thermodynamics in a NHelmholtzian form un- familiar to English students, but so generalised, so condensed, and so careless in reasoning that few students could separate the gold from the dross. Finally, the lectures of van’t Hoff, though the work of a master-hand, scarcely covered the required field of study in a sufficiently comprehen- sive manner. _ The present work, which appears as the latest volume of Sir William Ramsay’s series of text- books, differs radically from its predecessors inasmuch as it essays to present the reader with a fairly comprehensive ‘‘ System of Physical Chemis- try.” In this respect it is worthy of especial con- sideration and attention. It may be said at once NO. 2446, VOL. 98] iy Prof. W. C. Vol.i.; pp. xiv+ Long- | that in its arrangement of matter, lucidity of style, and comprehensive unity of design it is' destined” to become the standard general treatise on the: subject of physical chemistry for English-speaking students. The frontispiece consists of a table indicating a “philosophical” classification of the subject. This is very interesting, and will be of great’ service in giving the student a reasoned survey of the field to be traversed. The main division is into systems in equilibrium and systems not in’ equilibrium. The subdivision of these. is. based partly on the nature of the subject-matter and partly on the method of treating it. This want of uniformity in the system of classification is, how- ever, no defect, as it corresponds to the natural development of science. The author is to be con- gratulated on this emphasising of the philosophi- cal aspect of his subject, an aspect which is all too frequently ignored by the authors of scientific treatises. For practical purposes the work is divided into two volumes. Vol. i. deals with the subject from the classical kinetic-molecular point of view. Vol. ii. is divided into two parts, part i. being entitled ‘‘Considerations based upon Thermodynamics,” and part ii. “ Considerations based upon Thermodynamics and __ Statistical Mechanics.” This method of division has a philosophical and historical as well as a practical didactic basis. As Perrin has pointed out in the beautiful preface to “Les Atomes,” there are two methods by means of which the human mind advances in its under- standing of the external world. In one case ‘“‘on généralise des résultats d’expérience, mais les raisonnements ou les énoncés ne font intervenir que des objets qui peuvent étre observés ou des expériences qui peuvent étre faites.” This is essentially the method of the “classical” thermo- dynamics, on which so much of the science of physical chemistry is based. But there is also another method—“deviner l’existence ou les proprictés d’objets qui sont encore au dela de notre connaissance, expliquer du visible com- pliqué par de Vinvisible simple, voila la forme d’intelligence intuitive A laquelle, grace 4 des hommes tels que Dalton’ ou Boltzmann, nous devons 1|’Atomistique.”’ It is to this that we owe not only the beginnings of chemical science, but also the latest advances. The trend of modern physical chemistry is largely in the direction of “ Atomistique.” The author’s presentation of the subject has also an important didactic advantage. ® Students in- variably find chemical thermodynamics difficult, but read with comparative ease an exposition based on a simple kinetic-molecular method of treatment. In vol. i. they will find the latter, enlivened and brought up to date by an account _ of the work of Einstein, Perrin, and Svedberg on “molecular reality,” and a discussion of the elec- tron theory of matter, the structure of the atom, and the transmutation of the elements. Part i. of vol. ii. contains a good account of the thermo- dynamical treatment of chemical problems, includ- Cc 26 NATURE ing the application of thermodynamics to electro- chemistry, and the “Nernst Theorem.” In part ii. the author discusses photo-chemistry, the theory of radiation, and the application of the theory of Quanta to the problems of photo- chemistry, radiation, and the kinetic theory of matter. These highly important aspects of what one might term the “newer physical chemistry” are dealt with in a very simple and clear fashion, and this part of the book will be exceedingly valu- able to students of chemistry. During the last decade the scope and import- ance of physical chemistry have become enor- mously increased. To write within moderate compass a good text-book on the subject has become a task of rapidly increasing difficulty. Nevertheless Prof. Lewis has achieved this task with an admirable success. One might say of him, “Jeunesse savait, jeunesse pouvait.” F. G. Donnan. THE FLORA OF ALL AFRICA. The Flowering Plants of Africa: An Analytical Key to the Genera of African Phanerogams. By F. Thonner. Pp. xvi+647. (London: Dulau and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 15s. net. HE work under notice is a translation of the author’s “Die Blitenpflanzen Afrikas,” which appeared in 1908. The preface is dated Vienna, Austria, 1913, and the work was issued by the Burleigh Press, Bristol, in 1915. Dr. A. B. Rendle revised the translation, which includes “diagnostic characters of the genera, the approx- imate number of African species described up to the end of the year 1910; their geographical dis- tribution, their uses, and their more important synonyms.” So far as tested, it is up to the date named; but six years’ additions are very con- siderable, Kew alone having published at least 300 new species, leaving new genera out of the question. But comprehensive compilations neces- sitate supplements if they are brought as nearly as possible up to date of publication; and Thonner gives six pages of corrections and additional genera, chiefly from the years 1911 and 1912. The descriptive part of the work occupies about 550 pages, and the general distribution of the genera enumerated is set forth in a_ statistical table. It should be understood that only families and genera are described, and the classification is Englerian. The area embraced includes all the African islands, from the Azores to Tristan da Cunha, and Secotra, the Mascarenes, and Mada- gascar to Kerguelen. And the geographical divisions of the mainland are physical rather than political. Thonner’s enumeration and estimates afford a record of 226 families of flowering plants indigenous in the African region, and represented therein by 3551 genera and 39,800 species, or say 40,000.. His estimate for the world is 10,055 genera, with a total of 144,500 species, and his figures are certainly not too high. The table also shows the numbers for North, Central, and South Africa, and the Malagasy Islands. NO. 2446, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 Other features of the book are: a condensed! bibliography, a glossary, indexes to the popular and botanical names, and a list of -the plates. and the abbreviations of authors’ names. The plates are excellent, and represent members of 150: families, and the letterpress is clear and idiomatic. — Wherever possible the author has chosen as dis- tinctive characters such as are visible to the naked eye in a plant in flower. First comes a key to the families, followed by descriptions of the same, and’ under each a key to its genera, including a con-- siderable number of introduced plants. The plan and scope of the work have been somewhat fully explained, because that seemed a more useful course than a technical criticism. Its full value can only be determined by actual use; but an ele-- mentary knowledge of external morphology and descriptive terminology would be necessary and sufficient to enable the student to understand the treatment of the subject. As a book of reference: only it answers many interesting questions. W. Bortinc Hemstey. CHRISTIANITY IN PARTIBUS. Monument in China. By Prof. P. Y. Saeki. Pp. x+342. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. The Nestorian HIS volume deals with one of the most inter- esting romances of literature ever known. The story has often been told before; but it will bear repetition, on the chance of reaching some whose reading may have lain in other directions. The Christian religion, under the guise of what is now known as the Nestorian heresy, was. carried to China early in the seventh century A.D. by a mission dispatched under the auspices of adherents who had been for some time seeking in the Far East the development which was denied: to them in the West. Nestorius had been ap- pointed Patriarch of Constantinople in a.p. 428, but in an evil moment for himself he conceived the idea that all difficulties as to Christ’s birth would vanish if it were understood that He had distinct human and divine persons. was deposed in 431, and a few years later he disappeared. ; Nestorianism survived its founder for many centuries. Reaching China in the year 631, its. advance was so rapid that by 635 Nestorian mis- sionaries were allowed to settle at the capital, where for a couple of centuries they enjoyed Imperial protection and even patronage. In 781 the Nestorian Church of the day set up a huge stone tablet, more than g ft. in height, more than 3 ft. in breadth, and about a foot thick. On this tablet an inscription was carved, in Chinese and Syriac, explaining and glorifying the Christian religion, and celebrating the praises of the great and good Emperors who had permitted this teach- ing to take root and flourish. For flourish it un- mistakably did, and so it was found in the thirteenth century by Marco Polo. Then, during the fourteenth century, it faded away, leaving no: For this he - SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] NATURE 27 ‘trace of any kind that it had ever existed. There is no mention of Nestorianism in the Chinese dynastic histories; no mention of it in any of the ‘contemporary or later Chinese authors whose writings have covered every department of litera- ture. Nor should we now know anything of the early advent of Christianity in China but for an vextraordinary accident. In 1625 it came to the notice of Catholic missionaries that the tablet above described, and of which all knowledge had long been lost, had been unearthed somewhere near the old capital, at which we now know from ‘the tablet that Christianity had flourished as above stated. The tablet was denounced as a Jesuit forgery by Voltaire and others, but for a long ‘time there has not been the slightest doubt of its genuineness, and this point is somewhat laboured by Prof. Saeki, who thinks that it “has been pre- ‘served by the Divine Providence to reveal to us the true condition of the spiritual side” of China between a.p. 618 and go7. Prof. Saeki’s work is divided into three parts. The first part gives a general history of Nes- torianism, especially in relation to the Far East, and the full story of the tablet, not omitting the attempt of Mr. Frits Holm in 1907 to carry it away to America. This enterprising traveller had ‘to be content with a replica, now in the Metro- politan Museum, New York. Prof. Saeki men- tions a second replica, ‘which stands to-day at the top of Mt. Koyd, the Holy Land of Japan,” where, we are told, “it was dedicated, with full Buddhist ceremonial, on Sunday, October 3, Igit. ; The second part of the book—the translation of the inscription—is the least satisfactory, though it is just there that improvement would be most welcome. A single example must suffice. In the description of the Messiah we read (p. 164): “Hanging up the bright Sun, He swept away the abodes of darkness.” This, of course, is unin- telligible. The Chinese text means, “He was hung up, a bright sun, in order to prevail against the gates of hell ”—a light to “lighten our dark- ness,” alluding to the Crucifixion. The notes on the text which form the third part are interesting and in many cases valuable. OUR BOOKSHELF, Preservatives and Other. Chemicals in Foods: Their Use and Abuse. By Prof. Otto Folin. Pp. 60. (Cambridge: Mass. Harvard Univer- sity Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1914.) Price 2s. 6d. net. Pror. Fouin’s lecture is a judicious and temper- ately expressed statement of the arguments for and against the use of preservatives in foods, but it adds little or nothing to our knowledge, and will scarcely tend towards forming a sound public pinion. He who seeks for an ex cathedra state- tment whether the addition of “chemicals” should be permitted to food at all, and if so, what alone ‘should be tolerated, will find nothing in the way ‘of definite pronouncement and not much in the way of light or leading. The author apparently NO. 2446, VOL. 98] halts between two opinions. He is constrained to admit that modern conditions of food supply would seem to require the use of such substances. They have been forced upon the community as a com- mercial necessity, and the consumer is powerless to resist. The uncertain attitude of the author, however disappointing it may be to his readers, is at least intelligible. The fact is, no one is in a position to dogmatise on the subject, for as regards certain of the chemical products which are capable of retarding or preventing the decomposition of: ali- mentary substances we have no positive know- ledge concerning their action on the economy. Nor is it easy to obtain this knowledge. The usual argument that if they retard or prevent the action of the enzymes or bacteria which are con- cerned in the decomposition or decay of food they will equally inhibit the action of those agencies in effecting its digestion, begs the question and is unsound. Age, idiosyncrasy, condition of health, and a number of other circumstances affect the matter : what is toxic to one person is harmless to another. This is true of food itself, even in the absence of all preservatives. The aphorism of caveat emptor affords little comfort to the con- sumer, but in the present condition of matters it is all that can be offered him; yet it is at least due to him to know whether the food he buys is “ pre- served,” and if so, what preservative and how much of it has been employed. But this is pre- cisely the kind of information that purveyors of food decline to supply except under pressure of legal pains and _ penalties. The Bearings of Modern Psychology on Educa- tional Theory and Practice. By Christabel M. Meredith. Pp. 140. (Constable and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 1s. 6d. net. Tue author’s aim has ‘been “to give a- brief account of some portions of recent psychological work which have had and are likely to have a special influence on education.” Part i. of the little book is devoted mainly to genetic psycho- logy, part ii. to certain special observational and experimental studies. Within her limits Mrs. Meredith has done distinctly useful work, choosing her topics with discretion and treating them in a competent and serviceable way. Her sketch of the child’s mental development is based largely upon the psychological work of McDougall and Shand, whose ideas she has used skilfully in inter- preting the outstanding phenomena of the nursery, the playground, and the class-room, with all of which she shows a sound first-hand familiarity. In a well-written chapter on ‘Experiment in Education”’ she brings out, by apt illustrations, the complexity of the problems which the labora- tory method has to face, showing why its results must always. be used with Caution and at the same time that they are indispensable to progress. The final chapter on adolescence contains wisdom for parents as well as for teachers.. The omission, in so slight a treatise, of a short list of books for further reading is a defect which should be remedied in a second edition. 28 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 Group Vermidea. A RECENT number of Nature (August 24, 1916, p- 525) contains a notice of a work on Nematoda, which are described as *‘a group of Vermidea which presents great difficulties from a systematic point of view, and has therefore been less investigated than other groups of Vermidea.”” It may perhaps be asked what is the justification for this use of the term “ Vermidea.” In vol. v. (1897) of Delage and Hérouard’s well- known *Traité de Zoologie Concréte” it is pointed out (p. 1) that Schulgin and Pruvot had independently suggested the replacement of the denomination ““Molluscoides"’ [=Brachiopoda+Polyzoa] by ‘ Ver- ‘moides,”’ on the ground that the affinities of this group are with the worms rather than with the Mollusca. This idea appeared a happy one to Delage and Hérouard, who proposed to add to the group thus constituted certain small groups which they believed to have a real though distant affinity to the Polyzoa or to the Brachiopoda. The ‘groups thus added are the Gephyrea (Priapulida, Sipunculida, and Echiurida), the Axobranchia (Vermiformiz [=Phoronidea] and Pterobranchiz), and the Trochelmia (Rotiferia, Gas- trotrichiz, Kinorhynchia, and Chetognathia). These, with the Bryozoaria [=Polyzoa] and the Brachiopodia, constitute the enlarged embranchement, which now appears as the ‘‘ Vermidea.’’ On p. 327 it is stated that the Vermidea ‘sont liés entre eux par des affinités réelles’’; and the Platyhelminthes, the Nema- toda, and the Annelida are definitely excluded from this association. : Up to and including vol. xlii., for 1905, the Zoological Record included most of the groups of ‘* Worms” under the designation ‘‘Vermes.”’ In vol. xliii., the first which was issued as a volume of the International , Catalogue of Scientific Literature, ‘‘ Vermidea’’ re- places ‘‘Vermes,’’ and includes (1) Platyhelminthes, Nemertinea, Mesozoa; (2) Nemathelminthes; (3) Cheetognatha, Rotifera, Gastrotricha; (4) Archian- nelida, Polychaeta, Oligocheta, Gephyrea, Phoro- nis, and Hirudinea; and to these may be added Ptero- branchiata, which appears in the Contents, p. xii., though not in the formal list given at the beginning of the detailed account of the literature of these forms. I am not aware what was the authority for this use of *“ Vermidea”’; but it may be noted that it omits the Polyzoa and the Brachiopoda, the two central groups of Delage and Hérouard’s phylum; and that it includes the Platyhelminthes, Nemathelminthes, and Annelida, three groups which were expressly excluded by those authors. The group.“ Vermidea” of the Zoological Record is thus absolutely different from that of the “Traité de Zoologie Concréte.” Not only does the propriety of so revolutionary a change seem question- able, but one may well ask in what way was the new departure an improvement on the old group ‘‘ Vermes,” which was admittedly an assemblage of forms which have no demonstrable affinity to one another. It is not possible to say much more for the grouping than that the majority of forms thus associated are inverte- brates having a shape suggested by the term ‘ worm,” or, in other words, that they are longer than they are broad. 1 NO. .2446, VoL. 98] NATURE ‘another. [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 I do not desire to discuss the validity of Delage and Hérouard’s phylum, although I am by no means con- vinced that the groups included in it are allied to one But in the sense in which it was defined in 1897 it indicated an attempt to advance the classifica- tion of animals. The procedure adopted by the Zoological Record appears to me to have nothing to recommend it. There is no doubt some convenience, from the point of view of the recorder, in dividing the animal kingdom into a small number of com- prehensive groups. If the forms under consideration were described as ‘‘ worms" it would be an admission that the name of the group was adopted merely for motives of convenience. The term “‘ Vermes”’ was no doubt rightly rejected, since most zoologists would — agree that it has no more claim to a permanent place in literature than has *‘ Radiata,” another assemblage which included animals possessing a type of symmetry which in itself is not now regarded as necessarily indicating affinity to other animals similarly provided. The use of “‘ Vermidea” in the sense of the Zoological Record can only be described as pseudo-scientific. It is not only no improvement on “ Vermes,”’ but its sub- stitution for that term is misleading, as suggesting that it is a more natural group than the one which it replaced, Srpney F. Harmer. ~ British Museum (Natural History) August 27. : ‘ The Refractometry of Lenses. Ir may be of value to opticians and others to know of a method by which the refractive indices of irregular or unpolished pieces of glass, lenses, or prisms, can be found fairly accurately—i.e. to 1 in the fourth decimal place. ave The specimen is immersed in a mixture of carbon disulphide and alcohol contained in a prism cell having refracting sides of. optically plane glass; this cell is — used on the table of a spectrometer. : By altering the proportions of the two liquids, the refractive index of the mixture can be made equal to that of most specimens. This is easily done by ob- serving the image of the slit refracted through the system. The finest adjustment of proportion takes — place automatically through unequal evaporation. —_ The important ‘prevision is that the liquid must be mechanically stirred;. this can be done by a small ‘““propellor’’ blade driven by a motor, which must be quite separate from the spectrometer to obviate vibra- tion. : * At the proper moment the angle of minimum devia- tion is taken, and the refractive index calculated out in the usual way. ; The method has given excellent results for refractive index and dispersion on a number of varying speci- mens. It should prove of use for copying optical systems. The method is at present being developed, and full details will be published shortly. __L. C. Martin? Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington, London, S.W., August 23. An Oil Drive for Equatorial Telescopes. Tue drive, or oil, regulator under consideration is the invention of Mr. G. H. Denison, of Hunslet Foundry, Leeds, past president of the Leeds Astrono- mical Society. The device has been attached to the pedestal which carries the 26-in. reflector, and is fitted on the south side opposite the driving clock. With the help of the accompanying photograph, the working of the device may be briefly described as follows :— ; —— a SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] NATURE 29 The binding screw (A) being free (or loose), the driving disc (B) is disengaged from the polar axis. On turning the winding-up wheel (C) the plunger (D) is drawn out of its cylinder (E), sucking oil into the cylinder from the reservoir (F) through a valve. The winding-up has also turned the driving disc (B) and lifted the driving weight (G). When the winding-up is finished, the cylinder (E) is full of oil, which is imprisoned by the automatic closing of the valve from the reservoir (F). The oil is now under pressure, caused by the driving weight (G), and it can only get out of the cylinder (E) back to the reservoir, through a hole, the size of which is controlled by the regu- lating screw (H). If the binding screw (A) is now screwed fast, the telescope will turn on its polar axis at the rate allowed by the regulating screw (H). An oil possessing a high flash point is suitable for this purpose, since the change in viscosity under different temperatures is then not much felt. A change in the viscosity causes the oil to pass through the valve at a correspondingly different rate. Hence it is necessary to adjust the valve to the local tempera- ture, which is done by setting the regulating screw according to the positions representing degrees of tem- perature, which are marked round the top of the oil reservoir. The regulator runs for three hours before re-winding, the oil, of course, being used over and over again, In a mechanism of this nature it is evident that the question of friction is of the first importance, and great care has been taken, first, to reduce the working friction to a minimum, and, secondly, to make the un- avoidable friction as constant as possible. The polar axis is therefore fitted with three sets of ball bearings (two axial and one thrust); the guide pulleys are also fitted with ball bearings, and the plunger is ground truly parallel and very smooth. The regulator is intended more especially for eclipse and visual work in general. -There are slight errors of NO. 2446, VOL. 98] | a note within a few semitones of the wolf-note. motion which have yet to be overcome, and they render it difficult to keep a star on the wire; but by an additional contrivance which has yet to be adapted the errors in question might be reduced sufficiently to render the device suitable for stellar photography, ' ScCRIVEN Bo.ton. The Observatory, Bramley, Yorkshire, August 23. On the ‘‘ Wolf-note’’ of the Violin and ’Cello. In a letter to NaTurE (June 29) on the wolf-note of the violin and ’cello which has recently come to our notice, Mr. Raman referred to a paper by one of us (G. W. W.) on the subject. We had anticipated being associated in a joint paper dealing more fully with the results when the war put an end to the work. At the time when the preliminary results were pub- lished the cyclical variation in intensity of the wolf-note was provisionally attributed to the beating of the oscillations of the two tuned resonators, belly and string, “coupled” together by the bridge, and not to transitory beats, as perhaps justly inferred by Mr. | Raman from the wording of the paper, it being assumed that the strong reaction of the belly on the string interfered with even bowing. But the later results we obtained could not be reconciled with such a view, and we were seeking an explanation on the | lines of that now given by Mr. Raman. Thus further records of the wolf-note showed very clearly indeed the prominence of the octave at the minima in the belly records. Also simultaneous records of belly and string vibrations led, in the case of one ‘cello, to curves practically identical with those given by Mr. Raman, in which the maxima and minima of belly amplitude lag behind those of the string by a quarter of a cycle. With another ‘cello of brilliant quality no appreciable lag appeared to exist, though perhaps better photographs would have shown some. Finally, the frequency in variation of intensity seemed | to depend on the speed of the bow and not on the form of the bridge, which would affect the degree of coupling. We take this opportunity of recording two other results obtained by us, which furnish still more evidence for the belief that the wolf-note is a pheno- menon accompanying maximum resonance. They are worthy of record, because this interpretation of the effect is not that which is held generally by musicians and instrument-makers. The first was obtained in some experiments on “ the mute.”” With the two ’cellos with which observations were made, the effect of loading the bridge with the mute was a reduction in pitch of the wolf, by an amount depending on the form of the mute. Thus, with one heavy mute the pitch was lowered from G to D, and with a lighter mute from G to E. By blowing a cornet in front of the belly, it was found that the natural frequency of the belly was correspond- ingly lowered. The second was obtained when vibrations of the belly were set up by plucking a string. The transitory beats present in the early stages of a forced oscillation were very clearly shown. The G string was plucked to give After six.or seven beats the belly took up the sinusoidal vibra- | tion of the string, which persisted until the sound was | that given by the cornet. no longer audible. Calculations of the natural period of the belly from the frequency of the beats led in each case to a period the same as that of the wolf-note and A. M. TynDALt. G. W. Wuite. University of Bristol, September 1. 30 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 BIRDS IN STUDIO AND ON THE HILLSIDE.1 (1) ft E second volume of Mr. Thorburn’s beau- tiful book includes the rest of the crows, the larks, the picarian birds, the diurnal birds of prey, the owls, cormorants, and some of the herons. Many of these are large birds, and it has not been possible to figure so many of them on one plate. Two species—the golden eagle and the eagle owl—have plates to themselves, and these are most beautiful pictures. Mr, Thorburn is very successful with owls, which must be most difficult birds to paint, and he is famous for his pictures of eagles. The golden eagle is drawn flying along a steep hillside and carrying a mountain hare. The author writes that when an eagle is fly- ing “the curious notched pinion feathers may be clearly seen, separated like the fingers of a hand.” This is well shown in the plate. The introduction of cer- tain striking plants which grow in the haunts of various birds is continued with most pleasing effect. Thus the Egyptian night- jar lies on the sand beside that thick, fleshy-leaved plant with large pink, yellow-centred flowers familiar to visitors to North Africa. The common nightjar is figured flying and thus displaying the curious white spots on the underside of the wing. As this volume includes the _ eagles, hawks, and falcons—favourite studies of the artist—the plates are, if anything, more pleasing than those in the first volume. The third volume includes the rest of the herons and the allied species, and the swans, geese, ducks, pigeons, game - birds, rails, and the great bustard. The grouping of the different species on the plates is very suc- cessful; thus the swans occupy one plate, the four “grey” geese another, and the pigeons a third, thus affording the best oppor- tunity of comparing the small differences in the colouring of . Bic. allied species. The frontispiece, which shows the striking attitudes assumed by the male great bustards in spring when courting, is a fine picture. The author’s acquaintance with the Scotch Highlands and their birds has served 1 (1) “ British Birds.” Written and Illustrated by A. Thorburn. Vol. ii., pp. vi+72+plates 21-40. Vol. iii., pp. vit+87+plates 41-60. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1915.) Price 1/, 11s. 6¢. net each volume. (z) “ Hill Birds of Scotland.” By Seton'Gordon, Pp. xii+ 300. Edward Arnold, 1915.) Price 12s. 6d. net. . NO. 2446, VOL. 98] 1.—Nest of the oyster-catcher. (London : him well when treating of the black grouse and the ptarmigan, the latter forming the subject of a fine plate, while the letterpress contains some interesting observations on this bird of the moun- tain and the mist. (2) Under the title ‘“ Hill Birds of Scotland” we have a charming and most interesting account of twenty-four species of birds, and are rather at a From ‘‘ Hill Birds of Scotland.” loss to know why some of them should be so designated in particular. The author’s personal experiences and field notes are most interesting. But there is also introduced into the text a large amount of matter derived from other sources, and apparently sometimes from hearsay. Some of this cannot be considered as trustworthy. There are statements (for which no authority is given) SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] NATURE 31 which are hard to accept and must surely have been founded on hearsay evidence, and perhaps too readily believed. We are told that when the blaeberries have ripened, the woodcocks betake themselves to the hillsides and consume great quantities of the fruit! With regard to the statement that “deer, calves, and lambs’”’ are taken by eagles, we wonder whether this may be .a slip for “deer-calves and lambs,” which sounds much more likely to be true. The book might have been smaller with advantage had it been confined to the relation of the author’s most valu- able observations. But a considerable amount of space is occupied with descriptions of the plumage of the birds treated of, and accounts of their dis- tribution within and outside the British islands. Both these subjects seem to us to be beyond the province of the book. The descriptions seem to be unnecessary, and in some cases inadequate, while of the accounts of distribution it must be said that they are open to criticism. For instance, we are told that “there is no bird which has so ’ Fic. 2.—Dotterel going to the nest. wide a range as the golden eagle—in fact, it is met with almost throughout the world.” One of the pleasantest chapters in the book is that on the snow bunting. A curious incident is related showing the undoubted love of coolness which drives this arctic bird to the high Scotch mountains. One very hot day a bird which usually frequented a scree was found on a dwindling snowfield seeking relief from the heat. At times he would seek to cool himself by running -over the snow with his head half-buried beneath the surface, and throwing up a furrow as from a ‘diminutive snow-plough. The oyster-catcher (a name which we read at first with surprise among hill-birds) appears to be only a winter visitor to the eastern seaboard of Scotland—or such parts of it as the author is familiar with—and to retire to the hills to breed. Early in March oyster-catchers leave the river estuaries and make their way in pairs up the rivers —the Don and Spey, forinstance. Near the source of the Spey the bird reaches, and is numerous on, a flat 1500 ft. above sea-level. We regret to read that the white-tailed eagle has decreased enormously during the last thirty years, and that NO. 2446, VOL. 98] well be altered in a second edition. From ‘‘ Hill Birds of Scotland.” there are now only two pairs of them breeding in Britain. The extermination seems to have been effected mainly by sheep farmers and shepherds, their hatred of the bird sometimes prompting them to acts of unnecessary and cold-blooded cruelty. There are some things in the book which might The author thinks that in our language there is no distinctive name for the peculiar evening flight of the wood- cock, and treats ‘‘ Réding ” as only a Scandinavian one. But “road” is surely English, and the well- known tracks through covers pursued by wood- cocks have long been called ’cock-roads. It is searcely correct to say that prior to the nineteenth century no case of the woodcock nesting in Britain was recorded. Willughby (1678) mentions that they bred sometimes in England. White (1789) records nests, and Pennant (1776), Walcot (1789), and Lewin (1797) all record woodcocks breeding with us. There is in the opinion of west-country orni- thologists no ground for believ- ing that the dotterel ever bred on the Mendip Hills. And the ob- servation that this bird “is the only representative of the widely distributed and extensive group [of waders] to restrict her clutch always to three hostages to for- tune’? shows a want of know- ledge of these birds. For, not to mention some others, the normal clutch laid by the Kentish plover consists of three eggs only. There are between thirty and forty illustrations, the most pleas- ing of which show the wild scenery affected by. the birds treated of. Others show the nests or young of birds, and we notice occasionally the want of consideration for the feelings and interests of both sitting and young birds, which is sometimes regrettable, on the part of enthusiastic bird-photographers. The publishers allow us to reproduce a beau- tiful. picture of the haunts of those oyster-catchers which go far inland and high up to breed—the hills in the background with a fresh coat of snow, and the bulky collectibn of dead heather stems brought together by this erratic bird when (as it does sometimes) it constructs a nest in the true sense of the term; also a photograph of a dotterel going to her nest. SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN BREWING PRACTICE. es his address to the Institute of Brewing, of which an abstract was published in NATURE of July 6, Dr. Horace Brown has given a very fascinating account of the gradual introduction of scientific method into the brewery, and his reminiscences, which extend over rather more than half a century, enable us to appreciate very 3? thoroughly the progress that has been made in this respect. So familiar has the idea of the existence of bacteria become to the mind that some effort is required to realise the state of things fifty years ago, when brewing was carried on in total ignor- ance of the very existence of these ubiquitous organisms. At that comparatively recent date even the facts that yeast was a living organism and that fermentation was correlated with its growth and activity had only just been finally and definitely proved by Pasteur and were by no means universally accepted. The recognition of these facts has placed in the hands of the brewer the means of instituting a rigorous system of control, which must be regarded as one of the most important applications of scientific method to the art of brewing. It is now recognised that infection by “disease” organisms is the cause of many of the troubles which beset the brewer, and, further, that these infecting organisms may either be bacteria or “wild” yeasts. As in medicine, so in brewing, prevention is better than cure, and the brewer’s first line of defence is the avoidance of infection from external agencies, such as dust, unsterilised casks, bottles, etc. This application of the elementary principles of bacteriology, simple as it may appear, has worked nothing less than a revolu- tion in brewing practice, for we read that in 1865 the breweries in Burton were habitually shut down during the summer months owing to difficulties which we now know were due _ to infection. Another weapon in the hands of the scientific brewer is the system of “forcing ’’—incubating a sample of the beer for several days—whereby early information is obtained as to the stability of the beer and the presence or absence of dangerous infection. Even if infection has occurred and the dreaded Saccharobacillus pastorianus, which sours the beer by producing lactic acid from sugar, has increased to a dangerous extent, the yeast can be freed from it by subculture in the solution containing o'r per cent. of tartaric acid, which was originally proposed by Pasteur for this purpose. This purified yeast can then be used with perfect safety for pitching purposes. The statement made by Hansen that this treatment encouraged the growth of wild yeasts to a danger- ous extent has not been realised in British practice. The hops used in the production of beer pro- vide a natural prote ction against bacteria, but not against “wild” yeasts, and it is to the undesired intrusion of these widely spread organisms that many faults of flavour and clarification are due. These wild yeasts grow chiefly on fruits, passing the winter and spring, as shown by Hansen: in the soil, and are therefore very abundant in dust during the late summer and autumn. They pass into the wort or beer in precisely the same manner as bacteria, but there find a friendly instead of an antagonistic medium, and they withstand the acid treatment which is fatal to bacteria. In the presence of a healthy culture yeast the wild yeasts only develop very slowly, but in their absence— NO. 2446, VOL. 98] NATURE | a stock yeast, [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 as, for example, when the beer becomes infected after racking—they may increase rapidly and cause serious trouble. The explanation of this inhibitive action of the culture yeast on the growth of the wild yeast is due to Dr. Horace Brown, who found that the growth of,all yeasts is con- ditioned by the amount of oxygen which is taken up by the cells before fermentation commences. This is shared between the large amount of culture yeast and the small infection, and, since the quantity of yeast present only increases some five- ' fold during a large-scale fermentation, no great increase in the infecting organism is possible. If, however, infection occurs after racking, when only a small proportion of primary yeast is left, and if, at the same time, air, as is usually the case, obtains access to the beer, all the conditions for a well-developed yeast trouble are at hand. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and, the con- | ditions which conduce to contamination having | been ascertained, the brewer is in a position to avoid these as completely as possible. A further refinement, chiefly valuable wig applied in addition to the most scrupulous “ bac- teriological ” cleanliness throughout the brewery, is the use of air which has been freed from organisms by filtration. The wort, after having been boiled, is cooled and aerated. During these processes, before the addition of the yeast, there is a manifest danger of infection by air organisms, which is largely avoided by the use at this stage of filtered air. As already pointed out, however, the main source of danger in actual practice i$ the infection of the beer after the primary fer- mentation has been completed. : One of the chief triumphs claimed for the appli- cation of scientific method to brewing is the pro- duction and use of pure yeast cultures, by which, it is maintained, greater constancy of result is obtainable. Following the principles laid down by Hansen, such cultures are derived from a single cell which is isolated under the microscope, and serves as the origin of the whole of the yeast employed. This system is largely used abroad, but has not been adopted to any great extent in this country, partly owing, no doubt, to the national inertia, but partly to the different con- ditions prevailing in the top-yeast breweries. This system undoubtedly keeps the pitching yeast free from contamination, but is, of course, in itself no protection against the subsequent in- fection by wild yeasts or bacteria, which, as we have seen, is the most frequent cause of trouble. It is, moreover, doubtful, as pointed out by Dr. Brown, whether a single-cell culture can be ex- pected invariably to reproduce all the qualities of which represent the statistical average of the properties of an immense number of cells, all differing slightly from each other. From quite a different side the investigations of the past half-century on the action of diastase on starch, both in the barley grain and in the mash- tun—investigations in which Dr. Brown himself has taken a leading part—have also largely con- tributed to the scientific control of the brewery. The mechanism of the processes of malting and SEPTEMBER 14, 1916| NATURE 33 mashing has been to some extent revealed, and | it is now possible, when necessary, intelligently _ to adapt the procedure to the special requirements of any particular case. _ Throughout the address Dr. Brown pursues the thesis that modern surgery and preventive medicine are the children of the fermentation in- dustries, the great development of these in recent years being primarily due to the ideas gained by Pasteur from his study of wine and beer. The argument is ably supported by an_ historical account of Pasteur’s researches and of the gradual development of those conceptions which, partly owing to his own work and partly to that of others, led to our present views. The science of bacteriology is, however, not alone in having bene- fited so largely from researches on fermentation. Many other branches of science have indirectly been furthered by the study of phenomena first observed in the investigation of brewing problems. So widely, indeed, has the inspiration derived from the scientific study of brewing been diffused that the author, with pardonable enthusiasm, sums the Situation in the aphorism, ‘Omnis Scientia ex Cerevisia.”” THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION NEWCASTLE. A ae holiday which was suddenly granted throughout the north-eastern district had a greater adverse effect than was anticipated on the attendance at the Newcastle-on-Tyne meeting of the British Association. Many who in normal times would most certainly have enrolled were far away from Newcastle enjoying a well-earned rest from their labours in connection with the manufacture of the munitions of war. The actual total attendance was 826, so that the meeting was even a smaller one than was expected. But the only person connected with the Association who has shown any sign of disappointment is the general treasurer. He, naturally, is primarily concerned with financial matters of the Association, and a small meeting means a correspondingly small and inadequate amount available as grants. towards the expenses of research committees. The rest, from the President to the members who joined recently, speak in terms of appreciation and satisfaction of both the arrangements made for them by the local committee and the work done by the sections. Locally it is generally admitted that the results obtained justified the Council of the British Asso- ciation in holding a meeting this year, and the members are of the opinion that, taking into account the circumstances in which the nation stands at present, the meeting was very success- ful. One fact which is both interesting and significant is that, while the total number of members present was far below that of normal years, the attendance at the meetings of the Sections in Newcastle was quite up to the average. In other words, nearly everyone who attended the Newcastle meeting was a real worker and NO. 2446, VOL. 98| AT interested in the chief object for which the British Association was founded, viz., the advancement of science. One of the outstanding features of the meeting, from the local point of view especially, was the election of the Hon. Sir Charles A. Parsons to the Presidency of the Association for the meet- ing next year. His name is a household word on the north-east coast, and any honour done him is genuinely appreciated by the residents, more especially the engineers and shipbuilders. Nor can we help mentioning an incident that hap- pened on the last day of the meeting. It was small in itself, but it was kindly and gracious, and it helped to sow the seed from which will spring a still heartier welcome to the British Association than it has previously received in Newcastle, if that were possible. Owing to the scarcity of adult labour a troop of Boy Scouts was employed to act as messengers between the recep- tion room and the Section rooms. These lads did their work admirably; they carried out their instructions to the letter, and earned the praise of the local committee as well as of the general officers. On the closing morning of the meeting those who happened to be in the vicinity of the reception room fairly early were glad to hear Prof. H. H. Turner thank the boys for their ser- vices and explain the objects and work of the British Association in a manner that helped them not only to go away feeling that they had rendered good service, but also with an ambition to become members in time to come. The proceeding's of all the sections were well up to the usual standard, both as regards interest and value. Among the subjects of important dis- cussions were the investigation of the chemical and geological characters of different varieties of coal, with a view to their most effective utilisation as fuel, and to the extraction of by-products; science in education and industry; the effects of the war upon credit, currency, and finance; national aspects of fuel economy ; the development of fisheries; political frontiers; and afforestation. Some of the main points brought out in these discussions will be described in later issues. The General Committee adopted a recommenda- tion of the Council that research committees should have power to report through organising committees of Sections to the Council at any time when the Association is not in annual session. Hitherto research committees have had to await the annual meeting before presenting their reports, even when their conclusions call for early action. Under the new rules this will no longer be necessary if the organising committee to which a research committee presents its report considers it desirable to report direct to the Council. Another alteration of the rules of the Association makes it possible for the Council to include upon research committees persons who are not members of the Association, but “whose assistance may be regarded as of special importance to the research undertaken.” 34 NATURE ¥ [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 The general treasurer has reported to the Council that Mr., M. Deshumbert proposed to leave a legacy of about 5000]. to the Association, subject to the condition that his wife and her sister should receive the interest during their life- time. The new members of Council elected by the General Committee are Mr. R. A. Gregory, Dr. S. F. Harmer, Dr. E. J. Russell, Dr. A. Strahan, and Prof. W. R. Scott. An invitation to meet in Cardiff. in 1918 was unanimously and gratefully accepted by the Committee. The total grants of money appropriated by the General Committee for purposes of research com- mittees proposed by the various sections amounted to 6021. The subjects and grants are as follows :— Section A,—Seismological observations, 10o0l. ; annual tables of constants, 4ol.; mathematical tables, 2ol.; gravity at sea, fol. Section B.—Dynamic isomerism, 15!.; Eucalypts, 3ol.; absorption spectra, etc., of organic compounds, rol. Section C.—Red Sandstone rocks of Kiltorcan, 4l.; Palzozoic rocks, 2ol. Section D.—Biology of the Abrolhos Islands, 6l.; inheritance in silkworms, 2ol. Section F.—Fatigue from an economic point of view, 4ol.; replacement of men by women in industry, 2ol. ; effects of war on credit, etc., tol. Section G.—Stress distributions, 4ol. Section H.—Artificial islands in the, lochs of the Highlands of Scotland, 5l.; physical characters of ancient Egyptians, 2]. 12s. (unexpended balance); Palzolithic site in Jersey, 30l.; excavations in Malta, 2ol.; distribution of Bronze age implements, 11. 14s. {unexpended balance). Section I.—Ductless glands, 15].; psychological war research, tol. Section K.—Physiology of heredity, 45].; ecology of fungi, 81. Section L.—School books and eyesight, s5l.; work of museums in education and research, 15].; effects of ‘‘free-place’’ system upon education, 15].; science teaching in secondary schools, tol.; mental and physical factors involved in education, rol. Corresponding Societies’ Committee.—For prepara- tion of report, 25]. SECTION B. CHEMISTRY. OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY Pror. G. G. HENDER- son, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. THE period which has elapsed since the. last meet- ing of the section in Newcastle has witnessed truly remarkable progress in every branch of pure and applied chemistry. For fully fifty years previous to that meeting the attention of the great majority of chemists had been devoted to organic chemistry, but since 1885, or thereabouts, whilst the study of the compounds of carbon has been pursued with un- flagging energy and success, it has no longer so largely monopolised the activities of investigators. Interest in the other elements, which had been to some extent neglected on account of the fascinations of carbon, »has been revived with the happiest results, for not only has our knowledge of these elements been greatly extended, but their number also has been notably in- creased by the discovery of two groups of simple sub- NO. 2446, VOL. 98] stances possessed of new and remarkable properties— the inert gases of the argon family and the radio-active elements. In addition, the bonds between mathe- matics and physics on one hand and chemistry on the other have been drawn closer, with the effect that the department of our science known as physical chem- istry has now assumed a position of first-rate import- ance. With the additional light provided by the de- velopment and application of physico-chemical theory and methods, we are beginning to gain some insight into such intricate problems as the relation between physical properties and chemical constitution, the structure of molecules and even of atoms, and the mechanics of chemical change; our outlook is being widened, and our conceptions rendered more precise. Striking advances have also been made in other direc- tions. The extremely difficult problems which con- front the biochemist are being gradually overcome, thanks to the indefatigable labours of a band of highly skilled observers, and the department of biological chemistry has been established on a firm footing through the encouraging results obtained within the period under review. Further, within the last few years many of our ideas have been subjected to a revolutionary change through the study of the radio- active elements. The more purely scientific side of our science can claim no monopoly in progress, for applied chemistry, in every department, has likewise advanced with giant strides, mainly, of course, through the application of the results of scientific research to industrial purposes. Many of the more striking results in the field of modern chemical industry have been obtained by taking advantage of the powers we now possess to carry out operations economically both at very high and at very low temperatures, and by the employment’ on the manufacturing scale of electrolytic and catalytic methods of production. Thanks largely to the inven- tion of the dynamo, the technologist is now able to utilise electrical energy both for the production of high temperatures in the different types of electric furnace and for electrolytic processes of the most varied de- scription. Among the operations carried out with the help of the electric furnace may be mentioned the manufacture of graphite, silicon, and phosphorus; of chromium and other metals; of carbides, silicides, and nitrides; and the smelting and refining of iron and steel. Calcium carbide claims a prominent place in the list, in the first place because of the ease with which it yields acetylene, which is not only used as an illuminant, and, in the oxy-acetylene burner, as a means of producing a temperature so high that the cutting and welding of steel is now a comparatively simple matter, but also promises to serve as the start- ing-point for the industrial synthesis of acetaldehyde and many other valuable organic compounds. More- over, calcium carbide is readily converted in the elec- tric furnace into calcium cyanamide, which is employed as an efficient fertiliser in place of sodium nitrate or ammonium sulphate, and as a source of ammonia and of alkali cyanides. Among the silicides carborundum is increasingly used as an abrasive and a refractory material, and calcium silicide, which is now a com- mercial product, forms a constituent of some blasting explosives. The Serpek process for the preparation of alumina and ammonia, by the formation of aluminium nitride from bauxite in the electric furnace, and its subsequent decomposition by caustic soda, should also be mentioned. Further, the electric furnace has made possible the manufacture of silica apparatus of all kinds, both for the laboratory and the works, and of alundum ware, also used for operations at high tem- perature. Finally, the first step in the manufacture of nitric acid and of nitrites from air, now in operation on a. SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] NATURE 35 a very large scale, is the combustion of nitrogen in the electric arc. In other industrial operations the high temperature which is necessary is obtained by the help of the oxy-hydrogen or the oxy-acetylene flame, the former being used, amongst other — pur- poses, in a small but, I believe, profitable industry, the manufacture of synthetic rubies, sapphires, and spinels. Also, with a comparatively recent period, advantage has been taken of the characteristic proper- ties of aluminium, now obtainable at a moderate price, in the various operations classed under the heading alumino-thermy, the most important being the reduc- tion of refractory metallic oxides, although, of course, thermite is useful for the production of high tempera- tures locally. The modern methods of liquefying gases, which have been developed within the period under review, have rendered possible research work of absorbing interest on the effect of very low temperatures on the properties and chemical activity of many substances, and have been applied, for instance, in separating from one another the members of the argon family, and in obtaining ozone in a state of practical purity. More- over, industrial applications of these methods are not lacking, amongst which I may mention the separation of nitrogen and oxygen from air, and of hydrogen from water-gas—processes which have helped to make these elements available for economic use on the large scale. Electrolytic methods are now extensively employed in the manufacture of both inorganic and organic sub- stances, and older processes are being displaced by these modern rivals in steadily, increasing number. It is sufficient to refer to the preparation of sodium, magnesium, calcium, and aluminium, by electrolysis of fused compounds of these metals; the refining of iron, copper, silver, and gold; the extraction of gold and nickel from solution; the recovery of tin from waste tin-plate; the preparation of caustic alkalis (and simultaneously of chlorine), of hypochlorites, chlorates, and perchlorates, of hydrosulphites, of permanganates and ferricyanides, of persulphates and percarbonates ; the regeneration of chromic acid from chromium salts ; the preparation of hydrogen and oxygen. As regards organic compounds, we find chiefly in use electrolytic methods of reduction, which are specially effective in the case of many nitro-compounds, and of oxidation, as, for instance, the conversion of anthracene into anthraquinone. At the same time a number of other compounds, for example, iodoform, are also prepared electrolytically. Within recent years there have been great advances in the application of catalytic methods to industrial purposes. Some processes of this class have, of course, been in use for a considerable time, for example, the Deacon chlorine process and the contact method for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, whilst the prepara- tion of phthalic anhydride (largely used in the syn- thesis of indigo and other dyestuffs), by the oxidation of naphthalene with sulphuric acid with the assistance of mercuric sulphate as catalyst, is no novelty. More recent are the contact methods of obtaining ammonia by the direct combination of nitrogen and hydrogen, and of oxidising ammonia to nitric acid—both of which are said to be in operation on a very large scale in Germany. The catalytic action of metals, particularly nickel and copper, is utilised in processes of hydro- genation—for example, the hardening of fats, and of dehydrogenation, as in the preparation of acetaldehyde from alcohol, and such metallic oxides as alumina and thoria can be used for processes of dehydration—e.g. the preparation of ethylene or of ether from alcohol. Other catalysts employed in industrial processes are titanous chloride in electrolytic reductions and cerous NO. 2446, vot. 98] sulphate in electrolytic oxidations of carbon com- pounds, gelatine -in the preparation of hydrazine from ammonia, sodium in the synthesis of rubber, etc. Other advances in manufacturing chemistry include the preparation of a number of the rarer elements and their compounds, which were scarcely known thirty years ago, but which now find commercial applications. Included in this category are titanium, vanadium, tungsten, and tantalum, now used in metallurgy or for electric lamp filaments ;.thoria and ceria in the form of mantles for incandescent lamps; pyrophoric alloys of cerium and other metals; zirconia, which appears to be a most valuable refractory material; and com- pounds of radium and of mesothorium, for medical use as well as for research. Hydrogen, together with oxygen and nitrogen, are in demand for synthetic pur- poses, and the first also for lighter-than-air craft. Ozone is considerab!~ used for sterilising water and as an oxidising agent; for example, in the preparation of vanillin from isoeugenol, and hydrogen peroxide, now obtainable very pure in concentrated solution, and the peroxides of a number of the metals are alse utilised in many different ways. The per-acids—perboric, per- carbonic, and persulphuric—or their salts are employed for oxidising and bleaching purposes, and sodium hydrosulphite is much in demand as a reducing agent —e.g. in dyeing with indigo. Hydroxylamine and hydrazine are used in considerable quantity, and the manufacture of cyanides by one or other of the modern methods has become quite an important industry, mainly owing to the use of the alkali salts in the cyanide process of gold extraction. Those remarkable compounds, the metallic carbonyls, have been investi- ° gated, and nickel carbonyl is employed on the com- mercial scale in the extraction of the metal. Fine chemicals for analysis and research are now supplied, as a matter of course, in a state of purity rarely attained a quarter of a century ago. In the organic chemical industry similar continued progress is to be noted. Accessions are constantly being made to the already enormous list of synthetic dyes, not only by the addition of new members to existing groups, but also by the discovery of entirely new classes of tinctorial compounds; natural indigo seems doomed to share the fate of alizarine from madder, and to be ousted by synthetic indigo, of which, moreover, a number of useful derivatives are also made. Synthetic drugs of all kinds—anti- pyrine and phenacetin, sulphonal and veronal, nova- cain and f-eucaine, salol and aspirin, piperazine and adrenaline, atoxyl and salvarsan—are produced in large quantities, as also are many synthetic perfumes and flavouring materials, such as ionone, heliotropine, and vanillin. Cellulose in the form of artificial sillx is much used as a new textile material, synthetic cam- phor is on the market, synthetic rubber is said to be produced in considerable quantity; and the manu- facture of materials for photographic work and of organic compounds for research purposes is no small part of the industry. British chemists are entitled to regard with satis- faction:the part which they have taken in the develop- ment of scientific chemistry during the last three decades, as in the past, but with respect to the progress of industrial chemistry it must be regretfully admitted that, except in isolated cases, we have failed to keep pace with our competitors. A number of different causes have contributed to bring about this state of affairs, and the responsibility for it is assigned by some to the Government, by others to the chemical manufacturers, and by still others to the professors of chemistry. I think, however, it will be generally admitted that the root of the matter is to be found in the general ignorance of and indifference to, the 36 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 methods acterise the people of this country. The Government has taken a most significant step in advance by appointing an Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and providing it with funds; incidentally, in so doing, it has recognised the past failure of the State to afford adequate support to scientific worl. It is safe to prophesy that the money expended by the Advisory Council will sooner or later yield a goodly return, and this justifies the hope that the Government will not rest satisfied with their achievement, but will take further steps in the same direction. This desire for continued action finds strong support in the recom- mendations made by a Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee to the Board of Trade on Commercial In- telligence, which was appointed to report with respect to measures for securing the position, after the war, of certain branches of British industry. Of these recommendations I quote the following :— “ Scientific Industrial Research and Training. (a) Larger funds should be placed at the disposal of the new Committee of the Privy Council, and also of the Board of Education, for the promotion of scientific and industrial training. (b) The universities should be encouraged to maintain and extend research work devoted to the main industry or industries located in their respective districts, and manufacturers engaged in these industries should be encouraged to co-operate with the universities in such work, either through their existing trade associations or through associa- tions specially formed for the purpose. Such associa- tions should bring to the knowledge of the universities the difficulties and needs of the industries, and give financial and other assistance in addition to that afforded by the State. In the case of non-localised industries trade associations should be advised to seek, in respect of centres for research, the guidance of the Advisory Committee of the Privy Council. (c) An authoritative record of consultant men of science, chemists, and engineers, and of persons engaged in industrial research. should be established and main- tained by some suitable Government Department for the use of manufacturers only.” The admirable scheme of the Australian Govern- ment is more comprehensive and more generous than that of our Government, but it could be rivalled with- out much difficulty. We already possess an important asset in the National Physical Laboratory, and there now exists the Advisory Council with its extensive powers and duties. What is lacking in our scheme, so far as chemistry is concerned, could be made good, first, by providing the Advisory Council with much larger funds, and secondly, by the establishment of a National Chemical Laboratory—an institute for re- search in pure and applied chemistry—or by assisting the development of research departments in our uni- versities and technical colleges (as is now being done in America), or, better still, by moving in both direc- tions. With respect to the second alternative, I do not mean to suggest that research work is neglected in the chemistry departments of any of our higher institutions; what I plead for is the provision of greater facilities for the prosecution of investigation not only in pure but also in applied chemistry. As things are at present, the professors and lecturers are for the most part so much occupied in teaching and in ad- ministration as to be unable to devote time unin- terruptedly to research work, which demands above all things continuity of effort. The ideal remedy would be the institution of research professorships, but, fail- ing this, the burden of teachings and administrative work should be lishtened by appointing larger staffs. , Unless the conditions and methods which have ruled in. the past are greatly altered it is scarcely possible NO. .2446, VoL. 98] and results of scientific work which char- | to hope that the future prospects of our chemical industry will be bright; it is essential that the repre- sentatives of the industry should organise themselves in their own interest and co-operate in fighting the common enemy. More than ever is this the case when, as we are informed, three different groups ¢ German producers of dyes, drugs, and fine chemicals, who own seven large factories,"have formed a com- bination with a capital of more than 11,000,000l., and. with other assets of very great value in the shape of scientific, technical, and financial efficiency. Hence it, is eminently satisfactory to be able to record the active progress of a movement, originated by the Chemical Society, which has culminated in the formation of an Association of British Chemical Manufacturers. Needless to say, the progress of this important move- ment will be assisted by everyone who is interested, either directly or indirectly, in the welfare of our chemical industry, and, moreover, the support of the scientific societies will not be lacking. : In an address given to the Society of Chemical Industry last year, I indicated another way in which chemical manufacturers can help themselves and at. the same time promote the interests of chemistry in this country. In the United States of America indi- vidual manufacturers, or associations of manufacturers, have shown themselves ready to take up the scheme originated by the late Prof, Duncan for the institution of industrial research scholarships tenable at the uni- versities or technical colleges, and the results obtained after ten years’ experience of the working of this practical method of promoting co-operation betweer science and industry have more than justified the anticipations of its originator. The scheme is worthy of adoption on many grounds, of which the chief are that it provides definite subjects for technical research to young chemists qualified for such work, that it usually leads to positions in factories for chemists who have proved their capacity through the work done while holding scholarships, and that it reacts for good on the profession generally, by bringing about that more intimate intercourse between teachers and manu- facturers which is so much to be desired. 4 It cannot be too often reiterated that no branch of chemical industry can afford to stand still, for there is no finality in manufacturing processes; all are capable of improvement, and for this, as well as for the discovery and the application of new processes, the services of the trained chemist are essential. Hence the training of chemists for industrial work is a matter of supreme importance. We may therefore congratu- late ourselves that the opportunities for chemical in- struction in this country are immensely greater than they were thirty years ago. The claims of chemistry to a leading position have been recognised by all our universities, even the most ancient, by the provision of teaching staffs, laboratories, and equipment on a fairly adequate if not a lavish scale, and in this respect — many of the technical colleges fall not far behind. The evening classes conducted in a large number of tech- nical institutions are scarcely fitted to produce fully trained chemists, if only because lack of the necessary time prevents the student from obtaining that pro- longed practice in the laboratory which cannot be dis- pensed. with, unless indeed he is prepared to go through a course of study extending over many years. At the same time these evening’ classes play a most im- portant part, first, in: disseminating a knowledge’ of chemistry throughout the country, and, secondly, in affording instruction of a high order in special branches of applied chemistry. Finally, in a large and increas- ing number of schools a more or less satisfactory introduction to the science is given by well-qualified teachers. With our national habit of self-depreciation we are apt to overlook the steady progress which has _ degree but without any experience in investigation. The training of the chemist, so far as that training | experience gained when he has to leave the beaten _chemistry. for which the curriculum includes, chemical SEPTEMBER 14, I9I6] been made, but at the same time | do not suggest that | there is no room for improvement of our system of | training chemists. Progress in every department of | industrial chemistry is ultimately dependent upon re- | search, and therefore a sufficient supply of chemists with practical knowledge and experience of the methods of research is vital. This being so, it is an unfortunate thing that so many students are allowed to leave the universities in possession of a science can be given in a teaching institution, must be re- garded as incomplete unless it includes some research work, not, of course, because every student has the mental gifts which characterise the born investigator, but rather because of the inestimable value of the track and to place more dependence upon his own initiative and resource. Perhaps it is too much to expect that practice in research will be made an in- dispensable qualification for the ordinary degree; fail- ing this, and indeed in every case, promising students should be encouraged, by the award of research scholarships, to continue their studies for a period of at least two years after taking the B.Sc. degree, and to devote that time to research work which would qualify for a higher degree. On more than one occasion I have expressed the opinion that every chemist who looks forward to an industrial post should receive in the course of his train- ing a certain amount of instruction in chemical engineering, by means of lectures and also of practical work in laboratories fitted out for the purpose. The practicability of this has been proved in more than one teaching institution, and experience has convinced me that chemists who have had such a course are generally more valuable in a works—whether their ultimate destination is the industrial research labora- tory or the control of manufacturing operations—than those who have not had their studies directed beyond the traditional boundaries of pure chemistry. A course in chemical engineering, preferably preceded by ‘a short course in general engineering and drawing, must, however, be introduced as a supplement to, and not as a substitute for, any part of the necessary work in pure chemistry, and consequently the period of undergraduate study will be lengthened if such a course is included; this is no disadvantage, but quite the contrary. I am glad to say ‘that the University of Glasgow has recently instituted a degree in applied engineering in addition to the usual. courses in chem- istrv, and I hope that a place will be found for this subject by other universities. NOTES. Tue King in Council has appointed Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., a member of the Committee of the Privy Council for the organisation and development of scientific and industrial research. The other non- official members of the Committee are Lord Haldane, the Right Hon. A. H. D. Acland, and the Right Hon. J. A. Pease, M.P. Mr. Henderson was the President of the Board of Education when the Government’s research scheme was published in July of last vear. As such he was a member of the Committee, which includes also, as official members, the Lord President of the Privy Council, the Chancellor of. the Exchequer, the Secretary for Scotland, the President of the Board of Trade, and the Chief Secretary for Ireland. By permission of the president and council of the Royal Academy an Exhibition of Arts and Crafts is to NO. 2446, vor. 98] NATURE 37 be held in the galleries of the Royal Academy from October 2 until the end of November next. The exhi- bition is being arranged by the Arts and Crafts Ex- hibition Society. We are informed that the Secretary of State for India has sanctioned the creation of a post of Director of Fisheries, Bengal,, Bihar, and Orissa, and has further sanctioned the permanent appointment of the present Deputy Director of Fisheries (Mr. T. South- well) to the post. A new Deputy Director will be appointed after the war. Tue death is announced, at sixty-eight years of age,. of Sir James Sivewright, K.C.M.G., general manager of the South African Telegraphs, 1877-85, and Com- missioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, Cape Colony, 1890-92, when he promoted considerable de- velopments of the railway and telegraphic systems. OxrorD has lately become poorer by the loss of two of her best-known sons, each in his own way distin- guished as well outside the University as within it. During a long residence in Oxford Mr. R. W. Doyne, formerly Margaret Ogilvie reader in ophthalmology, whose career and work were referred to last week (p. 18), had won the respect and affection of colleagues and pupils alike. Dr. Edward Moore, as a young man, had one of the most distinguished academic careers on record. The chief efforts of his mature life were directed towards the welfare and independ- ence of St. Edmund Hall, one of the most interesting of the ancient institutions of Oxford. Consistently conservative in his attitude towards academic ques- tions, there was yet no trace of bigotry or bitterness in his opposition to changes which he thought ill- considered or dangerous. His death at the age of eighty-one removes one whose personal qualities en- deared him to an unusually wide circle. By the death, on August 28, of Mr. George Coffey, Ireland has lost her foremost student of prehistoric archeology. The Neolithic and Bronze periods are represented in Ireland by a very fine series of monu- ment, weapons, and other remains, and Mr. Coffey made these his special study, applying to them, almost for the first time, the knowledge gained by his French and Scandinavian colleagues from the important series of remains which have been brought to light during recent years in western Europe. He devoted special attention to the history. of primitive art in Ireland, and by tracing the development of ornament and apply- ing it to the monuments and other early remains of that country, he did much to establish the sequence of Irish prehistoric history. More recent periods also claimed his attention, and in his ‘‘Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian Period’’ preserved in the Royal Irish Academy collection in the Dublin National Museum (where for many years he was keeper of the Irish antiquities), he gave a scholarly account of the beautiful work of early historic times in Ireland. Tue death of Dr. C. T. Clough, of H.M. Geological Survey, by an accident on the railway near Bo’ness, has brought to a close a career of remarkable devotion to geological work. On Wednesday, August 23, Dr. Clough was examining rock exposures in the Bo’ness coalfield, and had occasion to cross the railway. He failed to clear an approaching train and was run over. Receiving immediate attention from the railway staff, he was sent by special train to Edinburgh, where an operation was performed. For a time he seemed to recover strength, but early on Sunday, August 27, he died in Edinburgh Infirmary.. Dr. Clough was educated at Rugby and St. John’s College, Cambridge, ' 38 and joined the Geological Survey about forty years ago. His first work was done in the north of England; he was afterwards transferred to Scotland, and at the time of his death was senior District Geologist on the Scottish branch of the Geological Survey. Field work in difficult country had an especial attraction for him, and the minuteness and accuracy of his mapping on the six-inch scale were really astonishing. For many years most of his time was spent in the Highlands, in Cowal, the Loch Maree district, western Sutherland- shire, Glenelg, Strathcarron, and Glen Etive. He also surveyed Soay and part of Skye, and for the last ten years he had been in charge of the survey’s work in Mull. Since 1901 Dr. Clough spent part of each year in the revision of the maps of the Scottish coalfields, and at first in the Lothian coalfield, later in the Wishaw, Holytown, and Bo’ness coalfields, he produced maps of unrivalled detail and completeness. Of late years he was in charge of the revision of the North Ayrshire field, and himself mapped the Kilmarnock district. A man of singular gentleness, patience, and modesty, Dr. Clough was beloved by all with whom he came in contact. Most of his contributions to geology have been published in survey memoirs. The Geological Society in 1906 awarded him the Murchison medal. In July of the present year the University of St. Andrews conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. He was a past-president of the Edinburgh Geological Society. Many readers of Nature will have read with regret of the death, at the age of 62, of Mr. F. W. Frankland on July 23, at New York. Mr. Frankland was the eldest son of the late Sir Edward Frankland, K.C.B., F.R.S.; his brilliant career as a student at University College, London, was cut short by a break- down in health in consequence of which he was recom- mended to proceed to New Zealand in 1875. On re- covery he turned his great mathematical talents to account by entering the newly created Government Insurance Department of that colony, ultimately be- coming Government Insurance Commissioner and Government Actuary and Statist and Registrar of Friendly Societies of New Zealand. He represented New Zealand as statistical delegate at the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography held in London in 1891. At University College, Frankland was one of the late Prof. W. K. Clifford’s most distinguished students, and enjoyed a close intellectual intimacy both with him and with Herbert Spencer, and although the academic career for which he was so eminently fitted had been rendered impossible by his ill-health, he con- tinued throughout life zealously to pursue his mathe- matical and philosophical studies and speculations. Already as a student in 1870 he had, independently of Clifford, arrived at that theory, or doctrine, of existence known as ‘“‘mind-stuff,” a paper on which he communicated to the Wellington (N.Z.) Philo- sophical Society in 1879; another paper, entitled ‘On the Metaphysic of Space,” was communicated tb the now defunct Philosophical Society of London, of which he became a member in 1885. He later evolved a theory of time in which he contended that time, like all else, has existence only in minds, and that the time-process is the dialectical concatenation of a series of ‘atomic nows"’ in the universe of awareness. In his mathematical speculations he was more especially drawn into the transcendental geometry of Lobatchew- sky and Riemann, and in this domain he contributed papers ‘‘On the Simplest Continuous Manifoldness of Two Dimensions and of Finite Extent”’ to the London Mathematical Society (vol. viii., No. 107), and on the “Theory of Discrete Manifolds’’ to the American Mathematical Society in 1897. Always alive to the possibility of the scientific expansion and improvement NO. 2446, VoL. 98] NATUR [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 in life insurance methods, Frankland originated and introduced in New Zealand the regulation that in the registration of the deaths of males the particulars of the family left should also be recorded, and the data so obtained have been found of great value by actuaries at home and elsewhere. His original views on a great variety of subjectseare briefly outlined in “Thoughts on Ultimate Problems,” published by David Nutt. WE notice with regret the report from’ the Chris- tiania correspondent of the Morning Post that Prof. H. Mohn, the well-known meteorologist, died on Sep- tember 12, at eighty years of age. Tue death is announced, in his seventy-fourth year, of Mr. G. A. Hill, who was a tutor in chemistry at Harvard from 1865 to 1871, and assistant-professor of physics from 1871 to 1876. From 1898 to 1914 he was director of the Nolan laboratory for college preparation in physics and chemistry. He was the author, and joint author, of several text-books in mathematics and physics. Mr. Lansinc, the American Secretary of State, has formally announced the signature of a Treaty with Great Britain for the protection of migratory birds. It will apply mainly to the migration of game and insect-eating birds from the United States to Canada. This is the first Treaty of the kind into which the American Government has entered. News has been received in America of the deatk of Mr. W. S. Lyon, the leading authority on botany and horticulture in the Philippine Islands, where he had been living since 1902. He had previously served as head of the California State Board of Forestry, and while holding this position had made, at the request of Prof. Asa Gray, a complete and valuable collection of the flora of the Catalina Islands. Mr. R. F. Griccs, who has béen making an ex- pedition to the Katmai volcano in the interests of the American Geographic Society, has returned to Kodiak, Alaska, and reports that its main crater is one of the largest in the world. It is miles across, and extends down thousands of feet to a blue-green lake, shimmer- ing and sputtering at the bottom. The most wonder- ful of all sights at the crater was a place where a glacier, blown in two by the great eruption in June, 1912, still formed part of the crater wall, the intense heat being insufficient to melt this palisade of ice. Part of the crater wall is composed of igneous rock of brilliant colour. Six members of the Stefansson Arctic Expedition, under the leadership of Dr. Rudolph Anderson, have arrived at Nome, all of them in good physical condi- tion. They reported that Stefansson himself is re- maining in the Arctic to continue his exploration of the land he has discovered north of Prince Patrick Land, and that he is not likely to return during the present season. He left Dr. Anderson’s party to the south of these lands that they might explore more thoroughly the Canadian continental line. They have mapped the coast-line from the Cape Parry Peninsula for a considerable distance east, and have made topograph- ical and geological surveys of a huge region which lies half-way between northern Alaska and the outlet of Hudson Bay. Sir John Franklin’s charts have been corrected, large copper fields have been discovered, and ethnological and other scientific information has been obtained. , Asout forty years ago a series of primitive mining implements was discovered in the old copper mines at Alderley Edge, Cheshire, which excited great a ae SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] Institute, who divided them into three classes :— (1) Hammers with a simple groove round the middle like disease occurring for the retention of the withy which formed the NATURE handle; (2) tools which, besides this groove, had one | of their ends also grooved for the reception of a second withy, and thus were prevented from slipping when a blow was struck; (3) two implements which seemed to be wedges. Prof. Boyd Dawkins was inclined to believe that they were of pre-Roman age. Further examples of the same type were dis- covered a few years ago by Mr. F. S. Graves, who has contributed three specimens to the Hull Museum. They are made of glacier-borne erratics of igneous rock, carefully trimmed into shape. These interest- ing survivals of early mining are illustrated and described in No. 1o8 of the Hull Museum Publica- tions. Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a typhus-fever- in limited areas in North America. So far no micro-organism has been definitely found associated with it. Wolbach now describes a bacterium having certain peculiar characters, which may be found in large numbers in the lesions char- acteristic of spotted fever in experimental animals. It is well stained with Giemsa’s stain, which is not usual with bacteria, possesses low specific gravity, as it is not thrown down by centrifuging, and cannot be cultivated (Journ. Med. Research, xxxiv., 1916, p. 121). Tue subject of the filterability of micro-organisms through a porcelain filter is one of considerable interest and importance. The pores of such a filter are so fine that particles passing through them are usually beyond the limit of microscopic vision, and the viruses of several diseases are known to be of this nature. The possibility of easily visible micro-organisms having a sub-microscopic filterable stage has also to be con- sidered. Wolbach shows that certain spiral organisms larger than many bacteria, viz. Spirochaeta duttoni of African tick fever, Sp. elusa, and Sp. biflexa, will pass through the pores of Berkefeld V, N, and W filters (Amer. Journ. Tropical Diseases and Prevent. Med., ii., February, 1915, p. 494). On the other hand, try- panosomes from cultures and from animal tissues are not filterable through bacteria-proof filters (Wolbach, Chapman, and Stevens, Journ. Med. Research, xxxiii., 1915, Pp. 107). Tue fourteenth annual report of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund recently issued gives evidence of the effects of war-time conditions on the investigations. In spite of the depleted staff the essential organisation is being maintained, and a number of papers were published by the director and assistants. The studies of Dr. Tsurumi on heterologous tumour immunity constitute an attempt at biochemical analysis of new growths by testing the reactions to blood and tissue extracts of the sera of rabbits immunised against mouse and rat tumours. The hemolytic and agglu- tinating properties were found to correspond to the specific protein reactions of mouse and rat tissues. Complement fixation gave indications of common pro- perties in tumours of like histological types. A pre- liminary account was published of an interesting, guinea-pig tumour, a lipo-sarcoma. The relation of the mitochondria to the development of fat in the cells of this growth showed that this process is to be re- garded as a differentiation, and not as a fatty degenera- tion such as is common in the majority of rapidly growing neoplasms. Brief reference is made to un- published work by the director on the relation of the anti-ferment power of the blood, to the phenomena of NO. 2446, VoL. 98] 39 the Abderhalden reaction, and to an investigation by Dr. Cramer of the relation of the water content of transplantable carcinomata to rate of growth and other biological characters. Dr, F. H. Epcewortu publishes in the July issue of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science results ot his studies on the development and morpho- logy of the pharyngeal, laryngeal, and hypobranchial muscles of mammals. The paper is a continuation of one published in that journal during 1914. The author is to be congratulated on the completion of his task, which must have entailed an enormous amount of labour. Tue Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arbori- cultural Society for July, 1916, contain an article by James W. Munro on the insects attacking the common pine in Scotland, Their life-history, which he has studied for some years, is traced in connection with the mode of felling of the timber, which leaves the felled area covered with branches and stumps. Mr. D. E. Hutchins records as a sign of progress the recent appointment of Mr. Lane Poole, a competent forester trained at Nancy, as chief forest officer in Western Australia, This post had been left vacant for twelve years, though the forests of. this State are of great value, consisting mainly of karri and jarrah, two of the finest species of Eucalyptus. In British Birds for August Mr. J. H. Owen con- tinues his notes on the breeding habits of the sparrow- hawk. He describes now the behaviour of the male, which, it would seem, takes no part in the incubation of the eggs, though he feeds the female during both the laying and incubating periods. The food he brings her is never eaten at the nest, but on some tree at a little distance therefrom, to which she flies when called by her mate. Sometimes the transference of food takes place in mid-air, but as a rule it is brought to the tree. As the date of hatching approaches she shows less and less inclination to leave the nest, so that the last days of incubation are passed Tasting. The male never feeds the young, so that if the female is killed these must starve. He will bring food and leave it at the nest, but lacks the instinct to break up and distribute it among his offspring. The young, it would seem, are quite unable to feed themselves until they are three weeks old. AN interesting series of papers on muscle physiology appeared in the May number of the American Journal of Physiology by Prof. Frederic S. Lee and his col- leagues at Columbia University, New York. In the first place, it is shown that the diaphragm takes the leading position among the skeletal muscles, as regards its power of work, and its efficiency is correlated with its richness in glycogen. The effects of temperature and humidity were also examined in cats’ muscles. The cats were arranged in three series: (a) after exposure for six hours to 21° C. and 52 per cent. humidity ; (b) 24° C. and 70 per cent. humidity; and (c) 33° C. and go per cent. humidity. The muscles were excised, stimulated to exhaustion, and the total work measured. The following percentages express the duration of the working period: (a) 100, (b) 97, and (c) 89; and the total work was (a) 110, (b) 85, (c) 76. The total blood per kilogram of body-weight was decreased in the cats exposed to the higher tem- peratures and humidity, and their blood-sugar was reduced in quantity. We have here an objective illustration of the enfeebling effects of hot, moist climates, which are familiar as subjective experiences. Tue Bul. Imp. Acad. Sci. (Petrograd, March. 1915) contains an article by A. A. Richter and E. M 40 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, I916 I <<< Kollegorsky describing a series of experiments on the mechanism of photosynthesis by means of a Jumin. escent bacterium (Photobacterium italicum). Taking as the subject of their experiments two plants of strongly contrasted habits, Aspidistra elatior and Bambusa verticillata, they give the following summary of the results of their researches :—(1) The working out of a new method of the quantitative study of photosynthesis by the aid of luminescent bacteria. (2) It is established that the luminous intensity indis- pensable for the decomposition of carbonic acid 1s the same for plants which vary ecologically. (3) It is shown that the luminous intensity effecting the libera- tion of oxygen in photosynthesis may be in the case of plants possessing special light-collecting apparatus much lower than for those not so provided. Mucu valuable meteorological and magnetical work is being done at Hongkong, and the report of the director, Mr. T. F. Claxton, has just reached this country. Continuous photographic records are being maintained showing the variations of barometric pressure and temperature, and there are daily auto- matic records of the direction and velocity of the wind, the amount of rain, duration of sunshine, and the relative humidity of the air. Eye observations of many of the elements are also made each hour. Attention is directed to the defect of wind velocity which has been noticed for several years past, and this has hitherto been attributed to instrumental rather than climatic causes. The decrease has occurred more or less steadily from 1884 to 1915. A similar defect in the wind velocity has been noticed at the Royal Alfred Observatory, Mauritius. The director of the Mauritius Observatory, in a recent re- port, remarks: ‘‘There is now reason to believe that the low velocities during the years 1901-11 are almost entirely climatic, and due probably to a_ periodic oscillation in this element.” At Hongkong the decrease in the mean velocity of the wind is said to be far greater than the secular variations in any other element, and must, in the opinion of the director, at least in part, be attributed to instrumental causes. Tue Journal of the Franklin Institute for August contains a paper by Prof. Kennelly and Messrs. Achard and Dana, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dealing with the increase of the resist- ance of standard forms of track and contact rails when the current through them is an alternating instead of a direct one. The currents used were sinusoidal of frequencies from 25 to 60 per second, and varied in root mean square values from 10 to 800 amperes. Both the alternating potentiometer method of comparing voltages down the rail and a manganin strip in series, and the dynamometer method of measuring the current and the active and reactive components of the voltage down the rail, were found satisfactory. The ratio of the resistances with alter- nating and direct currents increased with the magni- tude of the currents to a maximum, at which it re- mained in most cases, but in a few cases it diminished again. The ratio, when a maximum, had values about 7 for track and 12 for contact rails at a frequency 25, and varied nearly as the square foot of the frequency. The best form of rail is discussed, and it is shown that theory reproduces the observations with a fair degree of accuracy. WE have received from Mr. Oertling a copy of his recently issued catalogue of balances and weights. This firm claims that all its balances, -ete., are, and always have been, manufactured in London. On com- parison of the present list with that issued in 1909, we seven years ago. appear in the new catalogue; the _ prices, however, have increased in a proportion vary- ing from 19g to 26 per cent., presumably owing to the general increase in cost of commodities — and labour due to the war. Several balances designed especially for the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, the Air- craft Factory, the Admiralty, 4nd for explosives fac tories now appear for the first time. One of these is specially adapted for rapidity of weighing. Except in’ one item the weights are listed precisely as in the 1909 catalogue. The exception is that a cheap set has: been introduced for school use. The increase in price of the sets of weights is not so large, varying from- 11 to 20 per cent., except in one instance. ' We learn from the Engineer of September 1 that the Reclamation Service of the United States has recently finished at Elephant Butte, about twelve miles west of Engle, the dam which forms the keystone of its great water storage project in New Mexico. The work, which has been under construction since 1911, is designed with the object of providing water for irrigational purposes, by means of the storage of the flood waters of the Rio Grande, which are to be distributed at various points downstream, so that a total area of 185,000 acres will be brought under treat. ment. The district has a general elevation of 3700 ft. above sea-level; the climate is mild, and the tempera- ture fairly equable throughout the year; the annual rainfall is about 10 in. It is thus a suitable location _ for husbandry, if the soil be adequately watered. The lake, or reservoir, which has been formed by dam- ming the cafion of the Rio Grande at Elephant Butte, has, when full, a storage capacity of 862,200 million gallons, a surface area of 42,000 acres, a maximum length of 45 miles, a maximum depth of 193 ft. (the average is one-third of this), and a shore line of some- thing above 200 miles. The dam contains 610,000 cubic yards of masonry, estimated to weigh about a million tons. It is not quite so imposing a structure as the two earlier dams built by the same service, but it is nevertheless a notable engineering achievement, and the outlay of about 1,000,000l. on the scheme will probably be considered but a moderate price to pay for the benefits which are expected to be derived from the undertaking. Mr. A. T. Hopwoop writes to say that the display of aurora described by Mr. Denning in Nature of August 3, was visible in Manchester about 11 p.m. (Summer Time) on the night of August 26. Economic pamphlets on ‘‘The House-Fly as a Danger to Health,” ‘‘The Louse and its Relation to Disease,” and ‘Fleas as a Menace to Man and Domestic Animals,’’ have already been published by the British Museum (Natural History), South Ken- sington. Three further pamphlets on, respectively, “Mosquitoes in Relation to Disease,’ ‘‘ The Bed-Bug and its Relation to Disease,’’ and ‘Ticks, ete., In- jurious to Man,”’ are in preparation. ; OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. MEASUREMENT OF CLOSE SOLAR LinEs.—As a pre- liminary to the determination of the wave-lengths of solar lines in international units, and in connection with the search for mutual influence between neighbouring lines, Dr. C. E. St. John and Miss Ware have made a careful study of the difficulties attending the precise measurement of closely adjacent lines (Astrophysical Journal, xliv.,°p. 15). Micrometric measurements were made by at least two observers upon a series notice that with few exceptions all the balances listed | of spectrograms representing the first five orders of NO.. 2446, VoL. 98] SEPTEMBER 14, 1916| NATURE 41 the 30-ft., and the first order of the 75-ft. spectro- graph, and in the case of the closest pairs curves were also obtained with the registering photomicrometer ; the separations derived by the latter process appeared to be least affected by accidental or systematic errors. three methods were systematically smaller than those indicated by Rowland’s tables, the difference varying inversely as the separation. For six pairs, mean separation 0-274, the difference was +0-003; for eight pairs, mean separation 0-145, it was + 0-008; and for eight other pairs, mean separation 0-075, it was +0:013. These differences are regarded as being prob- ably due to errors in the Rowland values. The filar- micrometer values were found to vary with the width of the slit and the density of the spectrograms; what- ever decreased the intensity of the space between the two components, as compared with the continuous spec- trum outside, led to over-estimation of the interval. These results have evidently an important bearing upon recent attempts to detect effects due to anomalous dispersion. . The curious personal errors in the measurement of | close lines have also been discussed from another point of view by H. H. Plaskett, in a paper entitled ‘‘ The Psychology of Differential Measurements”’ (Journal R.A.S. Canada, June, 1916; Nature, vol. xcvii., Pp. 451.) » SPECTRA AND ABSOLUTE MaGNITUDES OF StTARS.—It has previously been shown by Adams that stars of small proper motion are relatively weaker in the more refrangible parts of the spectrum than stars of large proper motion, and that for stars of classes F to K this difference increases with advancing type. While the first result suggests a scattering of light in space, the second indicates that the absorption in the violet depends, in part at least, on the physical state of the star. This investigation has recently been extended at Mount Wilson by G. S. Monk, who has examined about 1200 plates of stellar spectra (Astrophysical Journal, vol. xliv., p. 45). The results are in general agreement with those of Adams, but show the effects to a less extent. All the density measures which could be so used were further discussed in relation to the absolute magnitudes of the stars, as determined by Adams on the basis of intensities of certain special lines. A relationship was thus indicated as existing between absolute masnitude and the relative weakness in the violet part of the spectra of stars having small] proper motions, and it is concluded that the greater part of this effect is not due to absorption of light in space. It is thought probable that, with the aid of photographs specially taken for the purpose, the rela- tive intensity of the violet part of the spectrum, to- gether with spectral type, might be successfully em- ployed to provide fairly accurate values of absolute magnitudes. An additional spectroscopic method of determining stellar distances is thus suggested. OBSERVATIONS OF MINOR PLANETS IN FRANCE.—It is gratifying to find that in spite of difficulties caused by the war, the French observatories have been able to secure a large number of observations of minor planets. A useful summary of these observations, made during the year 1915, is given in the Journal des Observateurs, vol. i., No. ro. Although no new discoveries were made by French astronomers, an abundance of precise observations of about 120 known minor planets were obtained. About two-thirds of the observations were made at Algiers, on plates taken with the instrument employed for the photographic chart of the heavens. In addition, numerous ephemerides, in many cases constructed from corrected orbital elements, were issued by the Marseilles Observatory. NO. 2446, VoL. 98] MARITZBURG MEETING OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION. -1>HE fourteenth annual session of the South African Association for, the Advancement of Science was THE The mean separations determined at Mount Wilson by | held in Maritzburg, the capital of the Province of Natal, on July 3-8, under the presidency of Dr. Lawrence Crawford, professor of mathematics in. the South African College, Capetown. The meetings of the sections took place in what used to be the Natal Houses of Parliament, the buildings of which are now the abode of the Natal Provincial Council. On the afternoon of the opening day of the session the presi- dent and members of the association were officially welcomed by the Mayor and Corporation of Maritz- burg, and in the evening his worship gave a recep- tion in the Town Hall, after which the president took the chair and delivered his address. About eighty-five papers were read in the four sec- tions into which the association is usually divided, and summaries of a few of these are given below. Prof. John Orr, who will preside over the 1917 session of the association, which is to be held at Stellen- bosch, Cape Province, was president of Section A at Maritzburg, and his presidential address, which was profusely illustrated by means of lantern slides, was largely a review of the progress of engineering science in South Africa of late years, particularly in connec- tion with mining operations on the Rand. The presidential address in Section B was given by Prof. J. A. Wilkinson, professor of chemistry in the South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannesburg. He laid stress on the fact that South | Africa continues to exist on its rich stock of raw materials—its exports, in addition to the raw pro- ducts of agriculture, being chiefly metals, crude and unrefined, and uncut diamonds. He devoted his ad- dress to urging the need of organising the develop- ment of chemical industry and research in the widest sense of those terms. He deplored the existence of the popular impression that the duties of the chemist and the pharmacist are identical, and to this cause he ascribed the fact that South African products were not up to the standard of imported goods. In con- clusion, he submitted details of a scheme for organis- ing chemical research in South Africa upon sound lines, and urged that this organisation should be undertaken without delay. Mr. I. B. Pole Evans, chief of the division of botany in the Union Department of Agriculture, was presi- | dent of Section C. His presidential address took the form of a sketch of the rise and development of myco- logy in South Africa. Persoon, the father of the science of mycology, he pointed out, was a South African, having been born at the Cape in 1755, and some of the earliest references to Cape fungi are in his ‘‘Synopsis methodica fungorum,” published in 1801.- During. the: course of his address Mr. Pole Evans: incidentally referred to his own appointment as mycologist to the Transvaal Government in 1905. He could not be expected to know that some years previously the Cape Government, too, had put a sum of money: on the: Estimates for the salary of a myco- logist, but so much sport was made of the item in the Cape Parliament that it was hurriedly withdrawn. “The ignorance of the subject and the vague notions that people have about fungi are,’’ said Mr. Pole Evans, ‘‘due chiefly to the fact that most of them are microscopic, and consequently cannot easily be con- ceived by those unfamiliar with the life of the unseen world.”’ : Section D- was: presided over by Mr. M. S. Evans, who took-as the subject of his address a-survey of the past and present relations of the European and Bantu 42 races in Natal and the surrounding districts. He re- called the conditions of native life as they were when he first landed in South Africa about forty years ago. The influence of the white man had been in favour of the Bantu people, for whom it was then an idyllic time. In 1886 came the great discovery which altered the whole social and economic position, not entirely to the native’s advantage. Since then two waves of cattle disease—first rinderpest and then East Coast fever—swept across the territories, and an economi- cally free people with considerable assets has been transformed into a community of debtors. Now educa- tion has come, and along with it unrest, the old life no longer satisfying, and so capacity has brought about a hunger to take a higher position. The ques- tion is now one which calls for scientific treatment, for investigation, for careful generalisation, and for application to the welfare of mankind. Of the papers read at the various sectional meet- ings little can be said here. In Section A there were mathematical papers by Sir Thomas Muir and Prof. Roseveare, and papers on industrial development by Prof. Orr and Mr. Kenneth Austin; but those which attracted most popular notice were two short ones on daylight saving and the metric system respectively by Mr. R. T. A. Innes, of the Union Observatory. The principles advocated in both these papers were unani- mously affirmed by Sections A and D meeting jointly, and resolutions were passed urging the Union Govern- ment to adopt those principles. In Section B a highly important compilation of analytical figures from various sources was submitted by Prof. M. Rindl, of Grey University College, Bloem- fontein, in a paper on the medicinal springs of South Africa. Dr. C. F. Juritz read two papers: one on the wheat soils of the Alexandria district, a tract of country where wheat once flourished, but in which there has been great deterioration during recent years; another on experiments with sugar beet in South Africa, bringing up to date the record of in- vestigations which had already formed the subject of two previous papers by the author. Dr. A. L. du Toit contributed a paper on the occurrence of molybdenum in Natal, where the metal is present in the unusual condition of an impregnation in coarse sandstone of Upper Triassic age. In a paper on Fischer’s syn- thesis of tanning materials the president of the section hinted at the possibility of synthesised depsides proving a formidable rival to the Natal wattle industry. Section C had a very large number of papers, and only very few of these can be so much as mentioned here. Mr. J. L. Henkel, Conservator of Forests for the Natal Province, contributed three papers on dif- ferent phases of forestry in Natal, and there were other papers on the subject by Mr. T. R. Sim, who also read a paper on wattle growing, another paper on the entomological aspect of the latter subject being read by Mr. C. B. Hardenberg. Four papers, having as their respective subjects the mealy bug, the Argen- tine ant, the house fly, and the cultivation of strains of beneficial insects, were submitted by Mr. C. W. Mally. Dr. Ethel Doidge contributed three important papers on bacterial diseases in citrus and pear blossom and. on citrus canker. Mr.. F. Vaughan Kirby read a paper on. game protection in Zululand, while Mr. D. T.° Mitchell discussed the association of game in Zululand with tsetse-fly disease. Mr, W. R. Tucker gave an account of the progress of the Natal sugar industry, and Mr. W. H. Scherffius discussed the cotton-growing industry. ( Section D, too, was fully supplied with papers, so much so, indeed, that next vear will see it divided into two sections, the council having decided to estab- lish a new section, E, specially for native affairs, a NO. 2446, VOL. 98] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 | subject which has engrossed much attention in Section D during the last three sessions. Two papers in this section by the Rev. Noel Roberts, illustrated with lantern views, on ‘‘Rock Paintings in the Northern Transvaal’? and on ‘‘ Bantu Methods of Divination,” were both highly appreciated. The Rev. W. A. Norton read an informative paper on Bantu move- ments in Africa, illustrated by African. place-names. — Another paper of similar character was read by the Rev. John R. L. Kingon on the place-names of the Tsolo District. One of the most important papers read in Section D was delivered by the Rev. B. P. J. Marchand, and gave an account of the history and operations of the labour colony at Kakamas, on the banks of the Orange River. A valuable paper en- titled ‘‘The Relation of Production to Consumption,” by Mr. P. J. du Toit, Under Secretary for Agriculture, indicated the growth of South African farming indus- tries, and advocated, as channels for constant progress, the increase of the European population, the develop- ment of fresh markets, and the educational and social advancement of the natives. Dr..Loram read a paper comparing the mentality of natives and Europeans in view of the theory of arrested development of the former. The Rev. A. T. Bryant gave two papers on the religion of the Zulu, and the concluding paper of the session was read by the Rey. J. R. L. Kingon on native education. Mr. Kingon said that this sub- ject was one of supreme concern to the South African nation. Originally, the deliberate policy of the Im- perial Government had been to provide native educa- tion as an insurance against Kaffir wars, but to-day the problem is chiefly economic and moral, and on both grounds he urged that the argument against native education is erroneous and unsound. During the session two evening discourses were delivered, one at Maritzburg by Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, chief entomologist of the Union, on ‘‘Scale Insects and their Travels,’ and the other at Durban by Mr. R. T. A. Innes, Union astronomer, on ‘‘ Astronomy.’”” On the first evening of the session, after the presi- dential address, the president presented to Mr. T. R. Sim, in recognition of his botanical researches, an award of s5ol. and the South Africa medal for achievement and promise in scientific research, the fund for the annual presentation of which was raised by the British Association during its visit to South Africa in 1905. C. Bp ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES# £N 1904 work was commented upon an extended study of the economic history of the United States, under the auspices of the Department of Economics and Sociology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The subject-matter of this study was divided into twelve departments, and the two volumes before us represent the contribution to learning of the Department of Domestic and Foreign Commerce. They include six parts, deafing respectively with “American Commerce to 1789,” ‘‘The International Commerce of the United States,” ‘“‘The Coastwise Trade,” ‘‘The Foreign Trade of the United States since 1789,"’ ‘“‘ American Fisheries,’ and ‘“‘ Government Aid and Commercial Policy,’ which are based, in part, upon monographs, some of which have. not been published. Vol. ii. contains a classified biblio- graphy which runs to 24 pp., and vol. i. gives 10 pp. to notes and a bibliography concerning American 1 ‘History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States.” Vol. i. By K. R. Johnson, T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, and D. S; Hanchett. Pp. xv+363. Vol. ii. Pp. ix+308. (Washington: Carnegie Institution, rors.) . Mae 3 SEPTEMBER 14, 1916] Colonial commerce; there are three important rail- way and three usetul fishery maps. On the whole, the work achieves an object of notable importance—a comprehensive summary of one department of American history. There has been a development in time, but the more important changes have been spatial, so that the underlying unity of the work is geographical rather than historical; spread over an extensive area, the people have always tended towards sectional interests, and the chronological sequence of events necessarily depends upon a con- tinuous adjustment to new topographical conditions. In the earlier periods the exchanges were triangular in character; at first, from the north-eastern coast- lands ships carried produce to the West Indies; the goods were, practically, exchanged for sugar, which went to Great Britain, and were there exchanged for British manufactured products to be sent to Boston; later, when the Middle West became populous, farm produce from the Ohio districts went down the Mississippi, was exchanged for cotton, which was sent coastwise to New York, and was there exchanged for ‘manufactured goods, which went west to the Ohio. The gradual substitution of direct trading based upon increased facilities of ship, canal, and railway, upon increased divergence of fundamental interest as the several areas confined attention to one or other definite form of production, and upon the increased quantity of coin and coin equivalent in the country, is resolved into a commentary upon the steady develop- ment of the natural resources »f the United States. Tobacco and cotton exports from the plantation States, direct trade with the West Indies (which was always of paramount importance), and direct trade, at a later date, with the Far East, gradually gave the United States the largest mercantile fleet in the world, and despite piracy and privateering, this predominance was maintained until the substitution of iron for timber in the construction of the hulls of ships. The story of the limitation of the fisheries, and of the decline of the whale fishery, helps to explain the smallness of the United States marine, both commercial and naval, at the present day. The facts for the years 1860, 1880, and 1900 show that the production of maize, wheat, oats, and butter was at least trebled; coal production advanced from 13 to 241 million tons annually, petroleum from a half to 64 million barrels; the numbers of wage-earners engaged in manufacturing increased from 1} to 5% millions, and the manufactured products increased from 377 to 2600 million pounds sterling. ‘UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Tue extension of the I.ondon (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women at Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, W.C., will be opened by H.M. the Queen on Monday, October 2, at 3 p.m. By the death, on September 1, of Mrs. William Jackson, widow of Mr. William Jackson, of Thorn- grove, Aberdeen, a large sum becomes available for the founding of a chair of engineering in the Univer- sity of Aberdeen. ARRANGEMENTS have been made by the Cheshire County Council Education Committee with the authori- ties of McGill University, Montreal, which will permit of engineering students winning technological scholar- ships in Cheshire to have a portion of their three years’ training at McGill University. Ir was announced in our issue of August 31 (vol. xevii., p- 555) that the Weardale Lead Company is establishing two mining scholarships, each of the value NO. 2446, VOL. 98] NATURE 43 of 6o0l., in connection respectively with the Royal School of Mines and Armstrong College, Newcastle- upon-Tyne. The former scholarship will be known as the ‘‘ Richardson,” and the latter, a correspondent in- forms us, as the ‘“‘Cameron-Swan,” and not the ‘““Cameron,"’ as stated in our note. Tue syllabuses of classes which begin at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, Aldgate, on September 25 has now been issued. The courses of instruction are specially concerned with the technical training of persons engaged in chemical, metallurgical, and elec- trical industries. In addition, facilities are offered for special investigation and research. We notice that the curriculum in connection with the fermentation indus- tries includes courses in brewing and malting and the microbiology of the fermentation industries. In the metallurgy department advanced courses are provided on gold, silver, and allied metals, on metallography and pyrometry, and other important technical subjects. Aw abridged calendar for the forthcoming session of the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) has been issued. One of the objects of the school is to supply liberal courses of educatien specially adapted to the needs of persons taking up any kind of administration, such as the service of any Government or local authority, or the higher branches of Commerce and industry. Courses of study are arranged also for students desiring to graduate at the University of London in the faculty of economics. The school is provided with a research department in which the methods of utilising great libraries and collections of material are explained and hints are given in the prosecution of research. The time-tables of lectures and classes printed in the calen- dar are comprehensive and exhaustive, and the list of lecturers includes the names of many distinguished authorities. TuE new session of the Battersea Polytechnic begins on September 19. In the day technical college, courses have been arranged in civil, electrical, motor, and chemical engineering, and full preparation for degrees in science at the University of London. The depart- ment of hygiene and physiology provides training for women sanitary inspectors and health visitors. Full evening courses will be held in a great variety of sub- jects in science, technology, and commerce. Special classes for the training of men and women munition workers are held, and the manufacture of munitions for the Admiralty is undertaken. At the request of the War Office, a full-time course in engineering for men of the Royal Flying Corps has been arranged. Red Cross classes for women in the subjects of first aid, home nursing, cookery, and laundry work are also held. In addition, the members of the chemistry de- partment have been engaged on the preparation of chemical substances for the War Office, and the staff of the physics department has assisted in the testing of optical instruments for the Ministry of Munitions. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 28.—M. Paul Appell in the chair.—A. Lacroix; The constitution of the vol- canic rocks of the archipelago of the Comores. This archipelago is entirely volcanic, and geological re- searches are carried out with difficulty; basaltic tufa predominates, and the porous rocks have undergone profound alteration. The tropical vegetation is very intense and effectually hides the subsoil. A chart of the geological formation of the Grand Comore is given, together with six complete chemical analyses of typical 44 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 14, 1916: rocks.—-M.- Friedmann; The vortices in’ a ‘liquid’ at variable temperature.—L, Hartmann; The determina- tion of the mechanical equivalent of heat by~ the method of Hirn. It is shown that‘ the «hypothesis which forms the basis of the determination of Hirn is not confirmed by experiment.—C, Camichel; The amplitude of the odd- harmonies in the strokes of a hydraulic ram.—G. A. Le Roy; A reagent for free chlorine in drinking water. The amount of free chlorine in drinking water which has been purified by means of hypochlorites is at present controlled by the well-known iodide of starch reaction, The new re- agent suggested, which has a higher sensibility than the iodide of starch, is the chlorohydrate of hexa- methylparaminotriphenylmethane. The violet colour is formed immediately, and its intensity is proportional to the amount of free chlorine present. Water con- taining only three hundred millionths of chlorine gives a visible reaction with the new reagent; about three times this quantitv is necessary to show the iodide of starch reaction. Details for the preparation and use of the reagent are given. Care Town. Royal Society of South Africa, July 19.—Dr. L. Péringuey, president, in the chair.—E. J. Goddard ; Pelodrilus africanus, a new Haplotaxid from South Africa. The species here described constitutes the first representative of the family Haplotaxidz recorded from South Africa. Of the two genera included within this family, one—Haplotaxis—is represented by fresh-water species in Europe, North America, and New Zealand, while the remaining genus—Pelodrilus—is represented in New Zealand by a species inhabiting damp earth. The African species is to be included in the latter genus. The specimens were obtained in mud on Sneeuw Kop, near Wellington, Cape Province, at an elevation of 5000 ft. above sea-level. ‘The length varies from 20 to 40 mm.—Paul A. van der Bijl: Note on Polysaccum crassipes, a common fungus in Eucaly ptus plantations around Pretoria. Polysaccum crassipes is so common in Eucalyptus plantations around Pretoria that it appeared interesting to determine in what rela- tion it stood to the Eucalypti. The investigation was begun at the Botanical Laboratories, Pretoria, and afterwards concluded at the Natal Herbarium, Durban. The morphology of the fungus is briefly dealt with and followed by suggestions which indicate that the relation between the fungus and host is one of sym- biosis. CaLcuTTa, Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 2.—Dr. N. Annandale : Zoological results of a tour in the Far East. I., The Mollusca of Lake Biwa, Japan. Lake Biwa, as might be expected from its geographical position and from what is known of the fauna of Japan genérally, seems to be, so far as the Mollusca are concerned, the meet- ing- ple ice of two lines of migration, one coming from the north, the other from the south. BOOKS RECEIVED. Index of Genera and Species referred to, and an Index to the Plates, in the Ibis (seventh, eighth, and ninth series), 1895-1912. Pp. 513. (London: British Ornithologists’ Union; W. Wesley and _ Son.) tl. 12s. 6d. Cradles or Coffins? By J. Marchant. Pop. 96. (London: C, A. Pearson, Ltd.) 1s. net: First Course in General Science. By Prof.. D. Barber and others. Pp. vii+607. (New York: H. Holt and. Co.) Cleator and Cleator Moor, NO. 2446, VoL. 98] Past and Present. By Rev.' Cesar'.€aine: | Pp. xviii +475- (Kendal: Ty Wilson.) 21s. net: ./* Earliest’ Man. ‘By F, W. H, Migeod. Pp.- xii+ 132, (London :' Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.) 3s: 6d. net. ~ The Principles of Electrical Engineering and their- “pete By. Prof. G. Kapp. : Vol. i., Principles.” Pp. xii+356. “(London: E. Arnold.) 15S. net. teas The Bleiee of Non-Euclidéan Plane Geometry: ‘and Trigonometry. By Prof. H. S. Carslaw. Pp. ‘=e (London: Longmans and Co.) 5s. net. Royal Society of Arts. Cantor Lectures on Optical Glass. By Dr. -W. Rosenhain. (London: Royal’ Society of Arts.) Is. Raphael Meldola: Reminiscences of his Worth and Work. Edited by J. Marchant. Pp. xv +225. (Lon- don: Williams and Norgate.) 5s. net. Tree Wounds and Diseases: their Prevention and Treatment, with a special chapter on Fruit Trees. A. D. Webster. Pp. xx+209. (London : Williams and Norgate.) 7s. 6d. net. Mathematical Papers for Admission into the Royal Military Academy and the Royal Military College. February-June, 1916. By R. M. Milne. Pp. 30. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 1s. net. Manual of Russian Commercial Correspondence. By ; i 4 M. Sieff. Pp. xx+232. (London: Kegan Paul- and — Go.; Ltd.) 35.' 6d. nets | Sia a 4 CONTENTS. PAGE A System of Physical Chemistry. By Prof. F. G._ Donnan, F.R.S. > 25 The Flora of All Africa. “By Dr. W. Botting Hemsley, Hons .; sate Be oe Christianity in Partibus ae % ee por Bookshelf... -: a): | Letters to the Editor:— The Group Vermidea.—Dr. Sidney F. Harmer, , F.R.S. + aes The Refractometry of Lenses, ty Cc. “Martin . «ete aa An Oil Drive for Equatorial Telescopes. (Z//ustrated.) 4 —Scrfiven Bolton. ieee... . . On the ‘‘Wolf-note” of the Violin and ’Cello.— — A. M. Tyndall; G. W. White ....... 29 Birds in Studio and on the Hillside. (Jilustrated.) . 30 Scientific Method in Brewing Practice ...... 31 The British Association at Newcastle. . . 33 Section B. — Chemistry ee Address (Abridged) by Prof. G. G. Henderson, D.Sc., LL.D., — F.R.S., President of the Section . - ete Notes. . Soo Se! Our Astronomical Column :— } Measurement of Close Solar Lines .... . » an. ae Spectra and Absolute Magnitudes of Stars... .. 41 Observations of Minor Planetsin France .. . 41 The Maritzburg ee eg of the South African Asso- ciation, ByC. F + a Economic History of the United States . - oe University and Educational Intelligence . ove ae Societies and Academies ......,.. - opeenee Books Received.\; ==. «>: eee; . 44 Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., : ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. = Editorial Communications to the Editor, S Telegraphic Address: Telephone Number: PuusIs, Lonvon. GerrarD 8830. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL or PScORKES | 16 “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye. "—WorpsWennfl, INDE SS NUMEER. No. 2447, VOL. 98] _ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 » [PRI Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] ————— . ————S=== [All Rights Reserved. ( EE.BECKER & CO,HATTON WALL, QW.&0.GEORGE. LTD.,SUCC#=) Jom J, GRIFFIN & MAKERS OF | HIGH-CLASS PHYSICAL a POCKET D.V. SPECTROSCOPE “With plain slit, 26/6; with adjustable slit, 33/- RAINBAND SPECTROSCOPE, 54/- Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, ‘Su LONDON, W.C., ONS, LTD. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. GRAND PRIX AWARD, TURIN. SOLE AUTHORISED MAKERS OF Stroup & RENDELL SCIENCE LANTERNS. The ‘‘ University” Lan- tern, with Russian iron body, sliding baseboard, two superior objectives, plane silvered mirror ‘‘A,” which is moved by a knob causing the rays to be reflected upwards for the projection of objects in a horizontal plane, condensers 4} in. diam., prism with silvered back which can be used at “‘C,” or as an erecting prism in mount “! D,” lime-light _burner, and slide carrier. Complete in travelling case, without reversible adjust- able stage “‘B,” £11 oF -12 18 Ditto, ditto, with “Phoenix” arc lamp... Reversible adjustable stage “‘B” for supporting apparatus, extra The ‘*College” Lantern, without adjustable stage or metal holder “ D,” with’ lime-light burner, in travelling Case. ... Ditto, ditto, with “‘ Pheenix" arc lamp... Adjustable metal holder **D" for erecting prism, “extra. Slit and prism for spectrum with support, for either lantern .. Polariser and analyser ... ber, an a Ne Bo a as POPROO SOoCoo BRANT Catalogues. ost free. Optical Lanterns and Accessory Apparatus. Chemical and Physical Apparatus and Chemicals. Apparatus for teaching Building and Machine Construction and Mechanics. 142 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. A New Barograph—THE “ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; i 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. XViil NATURE aD [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. EVENING CLASSES IN METALLURGY. Leek: C. O. Bannisirer, A.R.S.M., M.I.M.M., F.I.C. ... G. Parcutn, A.R.S.M. Lecturer on Metal Testing... E. M. Boorr. Head of Department Lecturer on Metallurgy Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Metallurgy form- ing a graded four years’ curriculum. Special Courses on Assaying, Metallography (including Pyrometry), the Metal- lurgy of Gold and Silver, the Metallurgy of Iron and Steel, Heat Treatment of Metals and Alloys, Mechanical Testing of Metals and Alloys. The courses are suited to the requirements of those en- ‘gaged in Metallurgical Industries. Assay Laboratories, and to those intending to take up Metallurgical work in the Colonies. The Laboratories are open for Advanced Practical Work and Research both in the afternoon and evening. New Session begins Monday, September 25. For details of the classes apply at the office of the Institute ‘or by letter to the Principat, THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. The following Special Courses of Instruction will be given during the Autumn Term, 1916 :— THE THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS. By E. C. SNOW, M.A., D.Se. A course of 10 lectures on the modern mathematical methods of dealing with statistical data in social, educational, economic and medical problems, suitable to teachers and students of economics. Opportunity will be given to students to take up problems on their own account, and assistance and direction will be given for such work. Wednesdays, irom 5.30 to 6.30 p.m. The first lecture of the course will be given on Wednesday, October 4, 1916. THE METHODS OF DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROBLEMS. By R. S. WILLOWS, M.A., D.Se. A course of 10 lectures for those engaged in Chemical and Electrical Industries and students of Physical Chemistry, in which the subject will be treated more as a means of Chemical and Physical investigation, rather than from the mathema- tician’s standpoint. ‘The standard of mathematics re ynired on joining the class will not go beyond an elementary knowledge of Algebra. Friday evenings, 7 to 8 p.m. The first lecture of the course will be given on Friday. October 6, 1916. 2 y _ Detailed Syllabus of the courses may be had upon applica- tion at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PRINCIPAL. NEW SESSION OPENS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the a FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED ‘TEACHERS of the University. ; SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physies, Mathematics (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ‘ ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logic, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws. POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK, — ae > { Day: Science, £17 10s.; Arts, £10 10s, SESSIONAL FEES { Evening: Science, Arts, ec Economics, £5 5s. Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post sd.), from the Secretary. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. ‘ Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and — Engineering. Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Cours: s. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44). SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone: Western 899. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL. EVENING CLASSES in Science and Mathematics are held at the undermentioned institutions maintained by the — London County Council :— BEAUFOY INSTITUTE, Princes Road, Vauxhall Street, S.E. (Mathematics and klementary Science.) HACKNEY INSTITUTE, Dalston Lane, Chemistry, Physics.) NORWOOD TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, Knight's Hill, West Norwood, S.E. (Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Botany.) PADDINGTON TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, Saltram Crescent, W. (Mathematics, Physics, Chemisiry, Botany.) N.E. (Mathematics, Full Prospectuses may be obtained on application to the Secretaries of the respective institutions. JAMES BIRD, Clerk of the London County Council. London County Council Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, W.C., Septeaiber, 1016. ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL OPTICS, NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COLLEGE. Full Day Courses in the ‘vheory and Practice of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering will commence on Monday, October 2, 1916. T' Courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering include specialisation in Auto- mobile and Aeronautical kngineering, and those in Electrical Engineering include specialisation in Radio-Velegraphy. Entrance Examination on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 26 and 27, 1916. ‘hese courses include periods spent in commercial workshops, and extend over four years. ‘I'hey also prepare for the Degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees £15 or £11 per annum. Three Entrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September, 1916. TECHNICAL OPTICS. Full and Part Time Courses in all branches of this important department of Applied Science will be given in specially equipped laboratories and lecture rooms. Amy Aitchison Scholarship~ (value £30) will be offered in this department at the Entrance Examination. Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on application to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. APPLICATIONS are invited for the tem- porary post of ASSISTANT in BOTANY in University College, Reading, rendered vacant by the absence on war service of Mr. R. C. McLean, Lecturer in Botany. Further particulars may be obtained from the REGIsTRAR. ae THURSDAY, SEPS CALCULATIONS FOR FLYING MACHINES. The Design of Aeroplanes. By Arthur W. Judge. Pp. viiit+212. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1916.) Price gs. net. apes stability is not the only subject in which progress has been‘ retarded in the early stages of aviation. It is not so very long ago that Prof. Herbert Chatley read a paper on the calculation of the stresses in aeroplanes, and at the conclusion up jumped “Mr. I Don’t Agree With You” and said he “didn’t think” results would be of any value. The consequence of this system is that a person who is really an inventive genius has to spend the whole of his time in fighting against the opposition and pre- judice of people who “don’t think,” and he can produce original work only when he can get a post-graduate student or assistant to do the whole working of the necessary details. As a result of this retardaticn the literature dealing with the strength of the materials used in aeroplane construction and the stresses in their component parts is quite inadequate for the effi- cient development of aerial locomotion. So far as this book deals with details of experi- mental statistics, it fills a distinct want, and it is sure to receive favourable reviews in our engineer- ing journals. But a great deal of the subject- matter is nothing more or less than boiled-down mathematics, and the process of boiling down has in some instances been conducted in rather an amateurish way; moreover, the book contains statements that are certainly misleading, if not worse, for they cannot be correct if read as they stand. In the first place a large amount of space is taken up in the appendices with tables for the conversion of units and things of that kind, but no tables are given for use in logarithmic calcu- lations. Now it will be seen that almost all the formule quoted in the book, whether empirical or theoretical, involve products and powers rather than sums and differences, and for the efficient use of these formule a working knowledge of the use of logarithms is indispensable. The author may tell us that the class of mechanic for whom this book is written does not know how to use logarithms; if that be the case, the sooner he learns the better. He would then be spared an immense amount of time in turning over pages and pages of tables and possibly not finding what he wants at the end. The practice of mixing up tables of mere results of arithmetical operations with tables of experimental data cannot be too strongly deprecated. The treatment of such matters as moments of inertia is on the whole fairly satisfactory, but it ‘would be better if the author had stated the theorem of parallel axes in words, besides giving the formula on p. 113. Experience in teaching elementary students shows that it is very difficult NO. 2447, VOL. 98] the | | to get them to interpret even the ee formula: | in a verbal Statement. The graphic method for constructing a curve the area of which represents the first or second moment of a given plane curve about a given axis is: very suitable for teaching purposes, though for actual working an alternative representation could be obtained more easily by the use of a cubical: parabola. In connection with the relative merits and de- merits of monoplanes and biplanes, statements are made on p. 31 which are on the face of them at variance with elementary considerations of common sense. We are told that a monoplane possesses a lower head resistance, due to the absence of separ- ate struts, ties, etc., and that it possesses relatively smaller moments of inertia about the axes of sym- metry. But it is surely obvious that the use of superposed planes renders it possible to reduce both the framework and the span with the same lifting area. If Mr. Judge’s statements are true of actual machines, it must be as the result of circumstances other than the difference between the one-decker and the two-decker type of wings, and this should be explained; otherwise the state- ments are calculated to mislead. There must, however, be something much more seriously in error in the statement of the “Bird Flight Data” quoted from Dr. Magnan’s con- clusions on p. 33. In the seventh line we are told that the total length of a bird in centimetres is equal to the cube root of the total weight in grams; in other words, that the relation between length and weight is the same as in a cube of water. Further, the area of the body is equal to the square of its length. In the next formula but one we are told that the weight of the wings in grams is 197 times the total loaded machine weight in grams. After this follow statements that the chord of the wing at the centre is 2°36 times, the length of the tail 2°6 times, and the real length of the body 5°9 times the cube root of the weight, which has already been stated as equalling the total length of the bird! While, therefore, the present book is to be welcomed as a step in the right direction, it will be seen that the subject still requires further revi- sion. Had it not been for the discouragement which Prof. Chatley’s early efforts received as the result of “discussions” consisting in expressions of premature opinions based upon _ insufficient data, we.do not doubt that by now Mr. Judge would have been handling the subject on more strictly scientific lines. 3 Ea; BE PALHOLITHIC MAN. Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life, and Art. By Prof. H. F. Osborn. Second edition. _ Pp. xxvi+545. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1916.) Price 21s. net: ROGRESS in the study of prehistoric man has been so remarkable during the last few years that the demand for a rapid succession of more D 46 or less popular treatises on the subject is not sur- prising. Most of the original memoirs are in tech- nical language in serials that are not generally accessible, and it is natural that critical summaries by those who have taken part in such research should be widely welcomed. The curiosity of the intelligent public, however, is so eager for satis- faction in many matters which are still beyond the pale of scientific knowledge that there is ever a temptation to make a book successful by pander- ing to this taste. which have been judiciously considered in scien- tific memoirs, and rightly used as tentative hypo- | theses, run the risk of being quoted as established facts; while unique, isolated discoveries tend to be treated as if they were sufficient for the absolute determination of their mutual relationships and could be used for definite conclusions. We venture to think that Prof. H. F. Osborn has sadly failed to resist this temptation in his new handsome volume on the ‘Men of the Old Stone Age,” which has reached a second edition in America within six months of its original pub- lication. In every respect it is in strange con- trast with such works as Huxley’s well-known “Man’s Place in Nature,’ which Prof. Osborn curiously omits both from his historical sketch and from his valuable bibliography of the subject. We are definitely told that modern geology “has firmly established eight subdivisions or stages of Pleistocene time—namely, four Glacial, three inter-Glacial, and one post-Glacial,” which can be recognised in America as well as in Europe. We learn with equal certainty that Piltdown man is “four times as ancient as the final type of Nean- derthal man,” while Heidelberg man is nearly twice as ancient as the Piltdown man, “according to our estimates.” The gravels in which Galley Hill man was found “are by no means of the geo- logic antiquity of 200,000 years assigned to them by Keith,” but “lie within the estimates of post- Glacial tim from 20,000 to 40,000 years.”’ In fact, the dates of the successive stages in prehistoric man’s. progress are so exactly given and so often repeated that they cannot fail to deceive the unwary reader, who must feel especi- ally impressed by their precision when he notes Prof. Osborn’s warning that the odd 1900 years of the Christian era must be added to each state- ment when he desires to reckon time from the present day. Prof. Osborn has, indeed, attempted with great labour to present a connected story which is dis- tinctly premature, and will give the ordinary reader an exaggerated idea of the value of the | conclusions already reached in prehistoric. re- search. With the aid of several industrious com- pilers, whose services he acknowledges, he has produced a most useful and up-to-date compen- dium of the facts, with references to the original papers on which his statements are based. Each section is also most profusely and beautifully illus- trated, often with original photographs which were made on a tour through France and Spain. We feel, however, that the collected materials NO. 2447, VOL. 98] NATURE Probabilities and possibilities | wy _ ‘ ™ » a * [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 | have not been used with sufficient scientific dis- cretion and adequate literary skill to produce a satisfying result. We would only add that for those to whom much of the text may prove diffi- cult reading, the illustrations with their legends will still be a source of instruction and delight, | while the excellent chapters on later Paleolithic art will be Ae pi aae A. Save THE NATURAL HISTORY OF : HAWAIL. Natural History of Hawaii: Being an Account of the Hawaiian People, the Geology and Geography of the Islands, and the Natwe and Introduced Plants and Animals of the Group. By Prof. W. A. Bryan. Pp. 596. (Honolulu: The Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd.; London: G. E. Stechert and Co., 1915.) ie: suspicion that is awakened by the some- what typical ‘““American” puff that Prof. A. Bryan allows himself in the preface to the “Natieal History of Hawaii” is dissipated when the book itself is read, and the author is to be congratulated on having produced a book that is at the same time readable, useful, and trust- worthy. It gives the reader a very good general idea of the geology, geography, flora, fauna, and ethnology of the group, and it will be of — especial value to residents who take an interest in the local natural history. There is a very large number of photographs, some of which are on too small a scale to be of any real use, while the- details in others are lost on account of ordinary photographic, instead of orthochromatic (or similar), plates having been used. The volu- minous indices are of great practical use. The section on the people is disappointing in ~ . some respects; for example, it is futile in a popu- lar book to say that “North, South, and Middle America, as well as Papua, Malay, China, Japan, and India, have each in turn been declared the cradle”” of the Polynesian race, as the unin- formed will be led to suppose that any of these alternatives is possible. We know more on this subject than the author admits to be probable. In view of the recent investigations into the problems of Polynesian ethnology, Prof. Bryan might have alluded to Dr. H. Allen’s “Study of Hawaiian Skulls” (Trans. of Wagner Free Inst. of Sci., Phil., v., 1898, p. 1), where a dual element in the population is demonstrated, thodene the conclusions thereon are possibly erroneous, In dealing with the flora and fauna the author never loses sight of the problems of distribution ; thus not only are the characteristics of the sea- shore, lowlands, and mountains described, but the variation that occurs from island to island and the significance of this are duly noted. In the case of the land snails, for example, great varia- tion may occur, not only in different valleys, but in parts of the same valley, so that the Hawaiian group is a famous field for the student of varia- tions. Another good feature of the book is the caren manner in which native species are i SEPTEMBER 21, 1916| from introduced species... Those who read the early reports by Dr. Perkins, of the British Asso- ciation Committee, will remember how rapidly the endemic insects were being replaced by foreigners which had been introduced accident- ally; this book deals with a further phase of that sad drama.’ We all know how successful the Americans of the United States have been in deal- ing with the problems of economic entomology, and in Hawaii this experience has proved most beneficial, for not only have the enemies of pests ‘been acclimatised, but in the importation of insects to combat the spread of the injurious Lantana we have, we are told, “the first example in the world of the introduction of insects to pre- _ vent the spread of a plant.” If one more grumble may be permitted, we would like to express sur- prise that any scientific man should adopt the popular but erroneous spelling for coconut; but _ to avoid an unpleasant concluding sentence it may be pointed out that all through the book there are occasional references to the ethnological aspect _ of certain plants and animals which are of interest to the ethnologist. ‘ COLLOID-CHEMISTRY. A Handbook of Colloid-Chemistry. The Recog- nition of Colloids, and their General Physico- chemical Properties. By Dr. Wolfgang Ostwald. Translated by Prof. M. H. Fischer. Pp. xii+278. (London: J. and A. Churchill.) Price 12s. 6d. net. _ is stated in the preface that this book -has passed through three large editions in Ger- many. Weare inclined to think that such success - was due more to the fact that it was first in the field as a general treatise upon a subject which was attracting widespread interest than to in- trinsic merit. The ideas especially of the general theoretical portion are superficial, and the writ- ing loose, words being mistaken for ideas. It is stated more than once, for instance, that the colloid state is independent of chemical composi- tion. Taken literally, the statement is merely foolish. How foolish two examples will suffice to show. Azomethane, one of the most remark- able of colloid substances, loses its colloidal properties if a single hydrogen atom of its com- plex molecule is replaced by a halogen. Gold, silver, and platinum readily form colloidal solutions in solvents which contain a replaceable hydrogen atom, while the hase metals form such solu- tions in hydroxyl-containing solvents. The author, however, does not really mean what he says. His many pages on the subject show that the thesis he is actually defending is the quite harmless one that for every substance some other substance can probably be found with which it will form a colloidal mixture. d The colloidal state is, to use Bredig’s happy phrase, a microheterogeneous state of matter. It is the great merit of. Picton and Linder that they made this clear. Dr. Ostwald characterises the different parts as “phases,” NO. 2447, VOL. 98] “ and speaks of colloids | NATURE AZ. as Rone systems. This is an unfortunate use of the word “phase,” which Gibbs defined as a portion of matter ‘‘uniform throughout, not only in chemical composition, but also in its physical state.” Probably the last thing we can. claim for portions of matter of microscopic, and especially ultramicroscopic, dimensions is that they are physically homogeneous throughout. The misuse of the word “component” on p. 36, where it is confused with “‘phase,’’ is probably an error of translation. The least satisfactory part of the book is the section on surface energy. Here the author, by a series of unsound analogies, introduces _unneces- sary confusion in a region which Gibbs, Rayleigh, and van der Waals had reduced to order. The part dealing with special properties of colloidal solutions, such as molecular weight, viscosity, osmotic pressure, etc., gives, on the whole, a clear account of the work which has been done. OUR BOOKSHELF, The Practical Principles of Plain Photo-micro- graphy. By George West. Pp. xii+145 +plates villi. (Dundee: University College, George West, 1916.) Price 4s. 6d. net. Ix this book plain and practical directions are given for the preparation of photo-micrographs with the use of powers up to a }-inch objective. The author very rightly insists that the beginner should commence with low powers, and as he gains experience proceed step by step to the use of the higher powers. A feature of the book is its “common sense’’: the tyro is not bewildered by a mass of details and scores of chemicals and solutions, but just a few are chosen and fully described which the author has used and found suitable, and throughout directions are given for the adaptation of simple apparatus to the end in view. After a few pages of general introduction the subjects of microscope and powers, illuminants, colour screens and camera are dealt: with; then follow sections on photo-micrography with a land- scape camera, without a camera, and with a ver- tical camera. Next the details of the making of a photo-micrograph from beginning to end are given in dialogue form in the Sandford and Merton style, a method of instruction which per- sonally we do not care for, but which enables the author to give many “tips.” The book is illustrated with two plates showing arrangement of apparatys and six other plates, each with two figures, reproductions of photo- micrographs of various objects. These are described in the text, and a very full table is given of all the details respecting them—nature of the object and its staining, lens, illuminant, screen, plate, exposure, developer, etc. These should be very useful, giving the beginner just the informa- tion he wants. Finally, lists of necessaries, photo- graphic formule, books on photo-micrography (which might have been priced with advantage), and an index complete the book. 48 NATURE Sia Gaal 21, 1916 The book is well printed and the reproduction of the plates excellent, the price is exceedingly moderate, and we can recommend the work as an excellent one for the beginner. Tunbridge Wells and Neighbourhood. Edited by H. R. ‘Knipe. Pp. 207. (Tunbridge Wells: Pelton, 1916.) Tus volume is a welcome addition to the series of local surveys which owe their origin to the annual congress of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies. The series was begun by the “Survey and. Record of Woolwich and West Kent,”’ which was published in commemoration of the twelfth congress of the Union, held at Woolwich in 1907; and later surveys have been issued in connection with the congresses held at St. Albans, Hampstead, and Bournemouth. The present volume makes a notable addition to the series, despite the fact that, owing to the war, it has been brought out under special difficulties. The South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies is heartily to be congratulated.on these surveys. They are all of them confessedly provisional; but if they are made the basis of patient and con- tinued work, and if they open out beyond the biological and archeological fields to the civic and sociological fields as well, they will mark a great step forward in the much-needed development of regional survey. Two lines of development readily suggest themselves: that each year all the affiliated societies in the area in which the annual congress of the Union is to meet should map out in good time the contributions already available for a local survey and the ground which still requires to be surveyed; and that, after the -annual congress has met, further work should be organised and the results printed at intervals uniformly with the congress volume, and so be readily incorporated. There is always an abundant demand for guide- books of the popular and familiar kinds, but we see no reason why many towns and districts should not gradually provide themselves and their visitors with regional surveys, progressively developing in scope, exhaustiveness, and accuracy, and forming guide-books of a higher and a more intelligent order.. Mr. Knipe and his collaborators are to be heartily congratulated on having pro- vided the first draft of such a guide-book for Tun- bridge Wells and neighbourhood. Cone: Through South Westland. A Journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring, New Zealand. By A. Maud Moreland. Second Edition. Pp. xviii +222. (London and Melbourne, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., n.d.) Price 6s. net. Tuis entertaining description of a five weeks’ riding tour in South Island, New Zealand, gives an excellent impression of the character ‘of. the country traversed and much information as to the kindly disposition of the inhabitants. Both the text and the beautiful photographs with which the volume is provided will interest students of the geography and natural history of New Zealand. NO. 2447, VOL. 98] ———— ae 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 shis or any other part of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Life Assurance Tables. ee Your article in Nature for July 6, pp. 383-4, quotes ‘ me correctly “that life assurance business has been based upon mortality tables which represented the ex- pectation of life under the relatively unhealthy condi- tions which existed a half-century ago"’; and then, a few sentences later, the article makes the above quota- tion credit me with saying that the mortality tables were published ‘a half-century ago’’—which I did not say. Your article explains that the mortality table pub- lished in 1rg01, now in use by the assurance companies (of Great Britain ?), is based upon mortalities observed by sixty assurance companies under the relatively un- healthy conditions which existed during the thirty years 1863 to 1893—that is, from more than “a half- century ago" (fifty-three years) to twenty-three years ago, an average of thirty-eight years ago. It is within the last thirty-eight years that the great advances in preventive and curative medicine (excepting vaccina- tion) have been made. The American Experience Table was compiled by Homans in the year 1868, and was based chiefly ‘upon the mortality data of the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany of New York. These data therefore represent the relatively unhealthy conditions which existed in a period of time averaging considerably more than “a half-century ago.’’ As the writers of the article on life insurance in the last edition of the ‘‘ Encyclopzedia Britannica” (p. 666, second column) say, the American Experience Table ‘‘is now in wider use than any other for computing the premiums of American companies.” It therefore seems that my sentence, quoted in the first paragraph, thoroughly respected the value of under- statement. W. W. CAMPBELL. * Lick Observatorv, August 7. Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-Cowrie in America. In Nature of August 10 (p. 488) there was a notice of an article by Mr. C. B, Moore (published in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Science of Phila- delphia, 2nd Ser., part il., vol. xvi.) on the explorations of aboriginal sites in the Tennessee River valley, which raises the interesting question of the provenance of certain cowries found there. These are pronounced by Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, the well-known American con- chologist, to be examples of the money-cowrie, Cypraea moneta, of Eastern Seas, and they have never been recorded before from an aboriginal mound in the United States. Nor has the species ever been re- corded living on any of the shores of the Americas. To account for their presence in the Tennessee mound, Dr. W. H. Dall, another of America’s leading con- chologists, has suggested that the cowries ‘‘may have come off one of Columbus’s own ships’’! In the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., is the dress of a Cree woman, collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-5, on which are four dozen cowries of the dwarf variety atava of C. moneta (see American Anthropologist, 1905, for picture). Willoughby believes these cowries were sold to the Indians by the Hudson Bay Company in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Montgomery (Transactions of the Canadian lastitnte; i 2 ete Pe eure SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] 1910, ix. (1), No. 20, p. 7, pl..4, f. 6) records and figures a cowrie found in the Serpent Mound, Ontario. It is a regular C, moneta, ana it is suggested that ‘this is probably one from the Hudson Bay Company’s stock.”’ - eae ; But these suggestions entirely ignore the uses made of the cowrie in America. If Columbus and the Hud- _ son Bay Company really introduced C. moneta, as these speculations demand, are we to assume that they also instructed the Indians in certain remarkable cere- monials practised with this shell in Africa, India, and China? Is there any reason for believing that Colum- bus was even aware of such uses, and if he were, that he should have had the foresight to take C. - moneta with him, and have devoted the limited time he spent in America in teaching the natives some of the lesser-known elements of Indian and Chinese beliefs ? The money-cowrie is, and has been for centuries, a sacred object among the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians, and is made use of in initiation ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Society (see Hoffman, Bureau of Ethnology, 7th Annual Report, 1885-86 (1891), and r4th Annual Report, 1892-93 (1896); also Nature, January 27, 1916, for abstract of paper by the writer). The tradition among the Indians is that the original sacred shell came through a particular hero-god, who acted as intermediary between the Great Unknown and the Indians, and founded their Medicine Society. The initiation ceremonies consist of much dancing and the shooting forward by the medicine men of their medicine bags containing the sacred cowries. Mystic powers are attributed to the shells, and it is firmly believed that if they be swallowed by the medicine man, all he is obliged to do tu transfer his power to the medicine bag is to breathe on it, the mysterious power and influence being then transmitted by merely thrusting the bag towards the desired object or person. At initiation ceremonies the magic influence is shot at the candidate’s breast, and the cowrie—the symbol of life—is supposed to enter his heart; he becomes unconscious and falls forward on his face. The chief medicine man then raises the candidate’s head slightly from the ground, and a sacred cowrie drops from the candidate’s mouth. The same shells are used apparently at baptismal ceremonies of the Ojibwa (see Greenwood, *‘ Curiosities of Savage Life”), There is the same dancing and shooting forward of the medicine bags, and after much facial contortion each medicine man spits out two shells. The essential part of these ceremonies is the sup- posed death and survival of the candidate, and it is remarkable how closely the prevailing idea of the cowries being connected in some strange manner with resurrection and resuscitation agrees with the ancient Chinese belief as evidenced in the ceremonial use of money-cowries in obsequies of the dead. In_pre- Christian and later times cowries were used in China, in association with rice, for stuffing the mouth of the dead. Wild rice, it might be added, also enters into the ritual of Ojibwa and Menomini ceremonies. Manchester Museum. J. Witrrip Jackson. Notice of Possible Suspension of the Rules of Nomen- clature in the Gases of Holothuria, 1758, vs. Physalia, 1801, and Bohadschia, 1833, vs. Holo- thuria, 1791. In accordance with the requirements prescribed by the International Congress of Zoology, notice to the zoological profession is hereby given that on or about October 1, 1917, the undersigned proposes to recom- NO. 2447, VoL. 98] NATURE 49 i | mend to the International Commission’ on Zoological Nomenclature that the rules be suspended in the follow- ing cases :— Holothuria, Linn., 1758 (type physalis), vs. Physalia, Lamarck, 1801 (type pelagica). The effect of suspen- sion will be to retain Physalia as generic name for the Portuguese man-of-war. Bohadschia, Jaeger, 1833, vs. Holothuria, Bruguiére, 1791. The effect of suspension will be to retain Holo- thuria for the sea cucumbers. The motion for suspension includes the following points :— (1) Suspend the rules in the case of the generic names in question. (2) Permanently reject Holothuria, 1758, type physalis. (3) Validate Physalia, 1801, type pelagica (syn. physalis, 1758). (4) Accept Holothuria as dating from Bruguiére, 1791, despite the existence of Holothuria, 1758 (if rejected). - (5) Said suspension is not to be construed as in- validating any specific name. The grounds for suspension will be :—(a) A strict application of the rules in these cases will result in greater confusion than uniformity, because (b) the cases, involve a transfer of generic names, almost universally accepted in the sense given above since 1791 (for Holothuria) and since 1801 (for Physalia), to genera in other groups in connection with which they have been used by only a very few authors during more than 100 years. The undersigned cordially invites zoologists to com- municate, not later than September 1, 1917, to him or to any other member of the Commission, eithe- their approval or disapproval of the proposed action. C. W. Stizzs, Secretary to Commission. Office of Secretary to International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Smithsonian Institu- tion, Washington, D.C. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. eS first report of the Advisory Council of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was published in full abstract in the issue of Nature for September 7, and has probably already been read by all who are interested in this important matter. It will therefore be unnecessary to refer in detail to the contents of the report, but it is essential to con- ‘sider it in its broad aspects and thoughtfully to estimate its bearing as a contribution to the sub- ject of much discussion and contention in the past two years. One feature of the report is the degree to which it repeats much that has been said and written by | British scientific men, engineers, and practical ; manufacturers in the public discussions which have | taken place on this subject during the past twenty- five months or more, but without carrying the matter forward by the prescription of practicable remedies for recognised defects. The arguments for and against various actions are weighed with an_air of detachment which gives to it rather the’ character of an interesting essay than the authori- tative decisions of a committee possessing execu- tive power. The public has, without doubt, looked 5° forward to this first report of a committee of eminent scientific men for a masterly, comprehen- sive, and effectual treatment of the whole subject which would at least outline the strategy of the campaign. The report gives us, however, a more or less tentative discussion’ of the problem, and sums it up with the rather vague statement that its solution depends upon the largely increased supply of competent researchers, and, secondly, upon a hearty spirit of co-operation among all concerned. As regards actual achievement, the Council has found that the conditions imposed by the war made it difficult to deal with the problem of assist- ing pure scientific research effectually, and there- fore decided to give science in its applications to industry precedence. Here again, however, ob- stacles were encountered, and the Council has therefore limited its action to affording financial assistance to about twenty researches which were suggested or begun by engineering or profes- sional societies. It has also expended about 6oool. in securing the assistance in certain researches of about forty persons not taken up with other war- work. In addition to this, there have been established certain Standing Committees on mining, metal- lurgy, and engineering. A section of the report is occupied with the discussion of the attitude of industry to scientific research, but we think most experienced manufacturers would say that the analysis of the subject does not go deeply enough into the difficulties on the commercial side. The causes which have been at work in retarding or preventing the manufacturer from availing him- self more completely of scientific research are very complex, and not by any means due to sheer lethargy or want of foresight. The problem of fostering and encouraging scientific industry is, in fact, a very much less simple one than that of promoting scientific research, although the two act and react on each other in several ways. There would be no difficulty, apart from the present abnormal war-time conditions, in finding men of ability to take up scientific research as a life-work provided only the inducements to it are made sufficiently great, any more than exists in the case of other professions. So long, however, as the pursuit of original scientific investigations remains a blind-alley occupation, or is only capable of being followed in the leisure moments of other work, such as teaching, or by men of independent means, so long will it fail to attract a large number of young mea of ambition and ability to its pursuit. What is required is the formulation of a scheme by which men who have decided or proved talents for pure scientific research can be enabled to devote themselves to it as a life-work with just as much opportunity for reasonable or exceptional emoluments as in other professions. It is said that if scientific abilities were properly utilised in industry such positions would be forthcoming, but having regard to present conditions we are in a NO. -2447, VOL. 98| NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 vicious circle. If. pure scientific research is of. national importance, then it behoves the nation to- make its pursuit possible as a profession apart from any connection with industry. It is, there- fore, much to be regretted that the Council has” not been able to formulate éven in outline some. more definite proposals with this end in view. _ The establishment of scholarships or temporary. engagements at 1501. a year or so does not meet the case. There must be the prospect of such permanent and well-paid work as shall induce men of high abilities to take up research work as the business of their lives. ; With regard to the relations of industry and — ’ science, the report does not furnish recommenda-_ tions of any very definite character. It is realised by the Council that manufacturers and men of business have not any reluctance to avail them- selves. of scientific assistance: or advice provided — they can be shown that expenditure on it is an investment and not a mere speculation. Hesita- tion to embark on it is not always to be regarded as an indication of disbelief in its utility, but is determined very much by the scale of the business. ” A small concern, or one of moderate capitalisation, © simply cannot afford to wait long for a return on an investment of capital. It must be certain cf it within a limited time if it is to continue to exist at all. Moreover, of late years manufacturers have lived in an atmosphere darkened by the clouds of incessant contests with labour, and with the uncertainties arising from legislation directed rather by the interests of parties and politicians than by any serious attempts to support the staple industries of the country. Hence they have been compelled to take short views, and not launch out into enterprises which might bring them no appreciable return. Until these deep-seated diffi- culties are cleared away, it is therefore futile to reproach the individual manufacturer or manager | with his backwardness in availing himself of scientific research. The report supplies, however, a large amount of interesting information which shows that, under the pressure of circumstances, many trade asso- ciations, originally formed merely to fix prices, regulate production, or battle with labour, are now. turning their attention to co-operative scientific inquiry as a means of relieving them- . selves of difficulties created by foreign monopolies of manufacture. In this effort it is probable also that the Advisory Council and its Standing Com- mittees will perform the very useful function of ~ being a clearing-house for ideas, suggestions, and _ inquiries, and act as guide, philosopher, and friend to these associations who are thus endeavouring to work out their own salvation. There is only one way in which the British manufacturer can meet the threatened post-war competition, and that is by standing shoulder to shoulder with his fellows against the common foe. Isolated they will be destroyed in detail, but as a phalanx they will prevail. The Advisory Council will, no doubt, fulfil a very important function in being a centre ¢ “ la ‘ \ i SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] NATURE 51 to which confidential information and inquiries . ment-appointed Committee recording the results may be directed in the first efforts to establish and conduct that conjoint scientific work which such co-operation of kindred trades will require. Turning, then, to that section of the report which deals with the sphere of the universities and technical colleges in relation to scientific research, we find the same absence of positive constructive suggestions for reform as in other portions of the report. The defects or deficiencies of our present conditions are pointed out, but the remedies for them only indicated in the most nebulous manner. It is stated with great truth that “the universities can and must be the main sources of research in pure science, the discoveries in which lie at the root of all practical and technical applications.” But no definite recommendations are made as to how this output is to be increased. It should be clearly recognised that effective research work of a high class demands a con- tinuity of effort and time which it is in many cases almost impossible to obtain for university teachers. A man who has to drop his observations or experi- ments at a critical moment to go off and give a lecture or attend a committee or superintend a_ laboratory of more than a year’s consideration of this vital subject. Time presses, and our national position now demands vigorous and well-determined action rather than leisurely and academic discussion of our needs. Jo ACB. THE ART OF THE CAVES |e “La Pileta” a further considerable contribu- tion is made to our knowledge of the Jurassic caves of South-west Europe by Abbé Breuil, in collaboration with Dr. Obermaier and Col. Willoughby Verner. The cave, which takes its name from the hill in which it is found, is, with its various corridors, recesses, and “galeries,” more than usually complicated, and in fact at cer- tain periods it provides accommodation for a stream and a lake. Wherever the cave opens out to form a chamber, wall paintings are to be seen, and it is these paintings which constitute the chief interest of the cave. The paintings comprise examples of four separate pictorial phases. The earliest are yellow in colour, and consist largely j, Shai class is not placed under con- es ST » ditions in which the best work “ZB i= can be done. On the other hand, there are many men who are admirable and capable as teachers and as college ad- ministrators who have not the gifts of originality which make them shine as investigators. The only way out of this diffi- culty is to separate the func- tions more clearly. Every uni- versity should have research professorships and chairs, the occupants of which should have as their principal work to enlarge the bounds of knowledge in their particular subject. The report does not furnish us with any definite proposals for the establishment of such research scholarships, fellowships, or professorships, but confines itself to the enunciation of broad and general aspirations in this respect. The universi- ties will have suffered greatly by the close of the war in the loss of many of their most promising and talented students and teachers whose valuable lives have been given in the service of their country. We have to make provision for the careful cultivation of originality and research power in those who remain or return, and it would therefore have been much to the point if we could have found in this report a carefully-considered programme with this object in view. We think that many who study the report will feel dis- appointed that it does not contain more definite pronouncements of constructive policy in place of generalities. Much of it has the tone of an able article written for a leading monthly magazine rather than the enunciation of the matured con- clusions and decisions on the part of a Govern- NO. 2447, VOL. 98] Panneau No. 49, dit du grand Poisson. From “‘ La Pileta.” of serpentine forms with an occasional realistic figure of a goat, ox, or horse. The second series in chronological order is red in colour, and here, in addition to animal forms, are to be found various signs or symbols—recurrent dots, lines, spirals, ovoid figures, “claviformes” and “tecti- formes.” These are followed by a series drawn with charcoal, in which forms of animals naturalis- tically treated largely predominate, among them, be it noted, in considerable numbers the figures of fish—a new feature in parietal art, as the authors point out. With these are interspersed serpentine forms and schematic figures of animals. It is among these last figures that the authors believe they can recognise figures intended for human beings, and that an attempt has even been made to indicate the sex. The fourth and last series is purely schematic, and comprises geometrical figures with little or no zoomorphic or anthropo- morphic suggestion. The vast majority of the figures are pectiniform, the number of teeth and the orientation of the backs of the combs exhibit- 1 “La Pileta & Benaojan (Malaga) (Espagne). Par |'Abbé H. Breuil, Dr. H. Obermaier, et Col. Willoughby Verner. Pp. 65-+plates i-xxi- (Monaco: A, Chéne, r915.) 2 NATURE ing a wide variation. In several cases the combs are combined to form composite figures. In the opinion of the authors the four phases represented extended over a long period, from Aurignacian to Neolithic times. The pictures are, although inferior in execution, closely related to those of Altamira, Niaux, and Font de Gaume, while the signs and symbols follow closely the rock engrav- ings of Portuguese South-east Africa. The most outstanding feature is the appearance of fish among the animal forms. The fish repre- sented are of the Plaice or Brill family, and form the only instance so far known of fish painted on the walls of a cave, although engravings of fish have been reported from Pindal, Niaux, and “La Gorge d’Enfer.” The book is admirably illus- trated, and maintains in every way the high level which we have come to associate with the publica- tions of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine de Monaco. Witiiam WRIGHT. BACTERIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN BOMBAY. HE report of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory for the year 1914, by Major W. Glen Liston, reached this country recently. The report is divided into two parts: (1) that dealing with plague work, and (2) that dealing with general preventive medicine. Statistics are furnished which tend to show that the uninocu- lated are attacked three times more frequently than the inoculated (against plague). One draw- back to the use of plague vaccines is the severe reaction which follows, deterring others from undergoing the operation. It is now suggested, as results of experiments on rats and observations on man, that a small initial dose of 1-2 c.c. should be given, to be followed in a week by a second dose of 2-4 c.c. It appears that there are two other species of fleas of the genus Xenopsylla— viz., X. brasiliensis and X. astia—besides the originally known species X. cheopis, which, how- ever, forms 80 per cent. of the three species con- cerned. Whether they all transmit plague is a question which must arise. The results of the examination of rats in the laboratory show that both in the case of M. rattus and M. decumanus there is a rise above the mean in the rate of infection in the latter half of January, whereas the rise above the mean in human plague mortality occurs in the first half of March. The fall below the mean occurs at the same time for both species of rats and for man—viz., in the first ‘half of June. The summit of the infection for M. rattus precedes that of M. decuwmanus by a fortnight, while the infection of the latter and the mortality in man reach their maximum at the same time— viz., in the latter half of April. It is disheartening to see in connection with the prevalence of guinea worm in the town of Ranebennur that years have passed in a fruitless discussion of various plans to improve the water supply of this town. The guinea worm infection is 1°45 per cent. In the village of Desai it jis NO. 2447, VOL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 calculated that the extermination of guinea worm would result in a net gain of 219 rupees per annum. Here, as elsewhere, sanitation always means a net cash gain in the end. The nature of rat-bite fever. is unknown, but the fact that salvarsan rapidly cures it suggests a spirochete origin. A “number of cases” came under observation; but why not state the actual number? ‘The report, though short, contains much of interest and evi- dence of good, sound work. Jj. W. Wa NOTES. We record with deep regret the death on September 16, in his seventy-third year, of Sir Lauder Brunton, Bt., F.R.S., consulting physician to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and of high distinction by his work and teaching in physiological medicine. WE regret to see in the Morning Post the announce- ment of the death of Prof. Pierre Duhem, professor of theoretical physics in the University of Bordeaux, and the author of several works of wide interest on the history of natural philosophy and physical subjects. One of the incidental effects of the European war upon America is the stimulus it has given to the adop- tion of the metric system. Very many American fac- tories now turning out munitions for the Allies are working almost entirely in metric dimensions. Even locomotives are being manufactured in metres and millimetres. ‘‘ The same thing, in all likelihood,” says the New York Evening Post, “is taking place in Eng- land, which is furnishing munitions for Russia and other of her Allies.” A New York telegram announces the death on Sep- tember 18, at sixty-six years of age, of Mr. Seth Low, president of Columbia College from 1889 to 1golI, during which period the college became Columbia University. Referring to his work for the university, the Times says: ‘‘He did much by his businesslike administration, his liberality (he personally contributed 200,000l. to the fund which enabled it to be removed to its magnificent site on Morningside Heights, New York City), and his especial interest in the department of political science.” Tue Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, of Buenos Aires, which issues the journal Physis, has arranged to hold meetings similar to those of the British Association, every two years, in one of the towns of the Argentine. No scientific asseribly of this kind has hitherto been held in South America. The first meeting will be held at Tucuman in the last week of November next, in commemoration of the first centenary of the declaration of the independence of the Argentine Republic in 1816. Tucuman is the busiest and most populous town in the north of the republic. It possesses a university, a Museum of Natural History, of which Prof. M. Lillo is director, two agricultural experiment stations, and other institutions of scientific interest. The Governor of the State, Don Ernesto Padilla, is honorary president of the local committee for the meeting. The president of the whole assembly will be Prof. A. Gallardo, director of the Buenos Aires Museum; and the Minister of Public Instruction will be the honorary president. There will be nine sections, which, with their presidents, will be as follows :—I., Geology, Geography, and Geophysics, M. Enrique Hermitte; II., Palaeontology, M. ‘Carlos Ameghino; ITI., Botany, Prof. C. M. Hicken; IV., SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] Anatomy, and Physiology, .vrof. J. Nielsen; V1., Anthropology, M. J. B. Ambrosetti; VII., Physical and Chemical Sciences, Prof. E. H. Ducloux; VIII1., Applied Natural Sciences, M. T. Amadeo; IX., Educa- tion in the Natural Sciences, Prof. V. Mercante. The general secretary of the Congress is Prof. M. Doello- Jurado, to whom communications should be addressed at rue Peri No. 222, Buenos Aires. THE Morning Post of September 13 gives a brief account of a ship constructed of concrete with steel ribs, ordered by M. Brostrém, the Swedish Minister of Marine. The ship appears to be about one thousand tons in displacement, and resembles a large barge It is said that it is proposed to construct concrete ships of from 15,000 to 20,000 tons displacement, and a vessel of 3000 tons is now under construction. Our contem- porary is not correct in describing this ship as the first stone vessel ever floated. Thus Engineering of June 14, 1912, gives a description and drawings of the first reinforced-concrete pontoon built in this country and used for sludge pumping on the Manchester Ship Canal. This vessel was constructed on the Hennebique system, designed by L.G. Mouchel and Partners, of West- minster, and was too ft. long by 28 ft. wide by 8-5 ft. deep; there were four transverse and two longitudinal bulkheads, and a complete installation of steam-pump- ing machinery. The first reinforeed-cement boat appears to have been built by M. Lambot-Miravel in 1849, and was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. An early example of ferro-concrete barge- building is the vessel completed in 1906 for M. Grancher, of Aveyron, in France, and employed regu- larly for sand dredging. Numerous other barges and pontoons of this type of construction have been built for use on the Tiber, Panama Canal, and elsewhere. There are, no doubt, possibilities in the development of ferro-concrete vessels, but we do not expect to hear is the near future of Transatlantic liners built on this plan. In the autumn of 1815, the year of Napoleon’s final downfall, the Société helvétique des Sciences naturelles was founded at Geneva. It may, however, be called the offspring of two earlier societies, one representing the physical, the other the biological side of science, the older of which dated from 1791, and had thus survived the troubles inflicted by the French revolution. Small at first, it grew rapidly, and among the foreigners who attended its jubilee were Frankland and Tyndall. From the first it was a publishing society, and has now issued a fiftieth volume, in commmoration of its centenary, which was celebrated last year. This con- sists of reports from leading members of the society, which cover every branch of its work in the past and at the present time, together with short biographical notices of the workers themselves, many of them never to be forgotten by any scientific lovers of the Alps. The result is a very interesting volume, which will also have a permanent value in facilitating reference to the more important papers—and these are not few— which have been published by the Society. It has dealt with almost every branch of natural knowledge, for a mountain chain like the Alps propounds to the physical geologist not a few difficult problems, and as its climatic zones range from temperate to polar regions, it affords successive illustrations of their flora and fauna. The volume, in short, summarises the work of at least three generations of enthusiastic naturalists, workers at geology, physical geography, and meteorology, botany and zoology, past and present, and archzology (among whom we must not forget the earliest investigators of pile dwellings). One of the NO. 2447, VOL. 98] Zoology, Dr. E. L. Holmberg; V., General biology, NATURE 53 society’s committees has also greatly aided in the, systematic study of glaciers. It is interesting to learn that the idea of these having once extended far beyond their present limit occurred independently, in the year of the society’s birth, to an engineer, Ignace Venetz, and to a chamois hunter of the Val de Bagnes named Perraudin. Tue Electrician was started as a weekly journal in 1861, when telegraphy was almost the only electrical industry. It came to an end in 1864, but was revived in 1878, at a time when the applications of electricity were becoming more numerous, and since then has always occupied a leading place amongst the electro- technical journals. In commemoration of the appear- ance of the 2000th number, which was issued on Sep- tember 15, special articles are included in the number dealing with the development of the various branches of the electrical industry, and written by experts. As they touch on the principal events only, they are not too long for the general reader, and should prove of great value to the worker in one branch who wishes to know something of the history of those parts of the industry with which he is not immediately brought into contact. In addition to these historical articles there are others dealing with the present position of affairs in the industry and in the country which deserve careful consideration. Dr. Walmsley, as a teacher, urges the authorities to stop depleting the universities and technical colleges of the engineering and chemical students whose services will be so much needed by the country when the war is over. While on one hand the report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research expresses the pious hope that ‘‘voluntary efforts of manufacturers in friendly union ’’ will succeed in raising the general level of manufacture in this country, on the other we find Mr. Swinburne putting forward the view that the manufacturer should be left to worl: out his problems in his own way. In the September issue of Man Prof. Seligman illus- trates and describes a primitive form of reaping knife used by the sedentary Arab tribes of northern Kordo- fan. It can scarcely be called a sickle, consisting of an iron blade, more or less razor-shaped, and having at right angles at each end a small tang, which is thrust into a wooden handle. The blades are said to be made by the Arabised descendants of the pre-Arab: iron-working Nuba, who still dwell on the hills which dot the plains of northern Kordofan. In reaping the dura the heads are cut off, with only a few inches of stalk, the stems being left in the ground until thor- oughly dry, when they are pulled up and used for thatching, fencing, and other purposes. He remarks that this example may possibly indicate the purpose of a form of stone knife found in Europe in Neolithic times, as in the pile dwellings of Locras, whence comes the specimen now in the Sturge collection. Mr. W. H. D. Le Souer has reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Geographical’ Society of Aus- tralasia an interesting paper on “ Aboriginals’ Culinary Methods and Kitchen Middens."’ He remarks that, as regards food, little came amiss to them that was not absolutely poisonous. They did not eat any animal or bird they found dead unless they knew how it had been killed, and not even then unless it was fairly fresh, as they objected to meat that was much fly-blown. Slightly tainted meat did not trouble them much; they only cooked it a little more. Some of the mounds at which they used to cook their food are of large extent, as much as too ft. in diameter. Un- fortunately many of these have been occupied by rabbits, and have thus suffered much injury. As 54 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 many of the kitchen middens along the coast are be- coming eroded, the author suggests that a photo- graphic record of them should be prepared before it is too late. In the Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. v., 1916, pp. 1-96, plates i—xxxix.) Dr. G. F. Eaton publishes an exhaustive report on the human skeletons from Indian graves at Machu Picchu, Peru, obtained by the Yale University Expedition of 1912. Most of the burials were in caves, and the mummies seem to have been placed sitting in the contracted position. A large proportion of the skele- tons were imperfect, and Dr, Eaton suggests that many deficiencies were caused by accident when the mummies were temporarily removed from their burial places during festivals, in accordance with a_well- known custom under the rule of the Incas. Of 164 skeletons collected, no fewer than 109 were certainly of females, while most of the male skeletons repre- sented individuals of inferior physical development. Bronze and bone implements, objects of green chloritic schist, earthenware spindle-whors, and fabrics both of Ilama’s wool and of vegetable fibre, besides a large collection of well-preserved pottery, are also described and figured. The rare articles of post-Columbian or European origin are to be regarded as having been introduced after the original burials. Since the classic work of Gaudry on the late Mio- cene or early Pliocene mammals occurring in bone- beds at Pikermi, near Athens, discoveries of deposits containing similar mammalian remains have multi- plied in eastern Europe. During recent years many have been made, especially in southern Russia, and various preliminary notices of them have appeared. Madame Marie Pavlow has now thoroughly investi- gated these discoveries, and published the results in a handsome memoir which forms the third and fourth livraisons of vol. xvii. of the Nouveaux Mémoires of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow. A description of the geological formations whence the fossils were obtained is appended by Prof. Alexis P. Pavlow. So far as known, the Russian fauna, with the usual preponderance of Hipparion, is remarkably like that of Pikermi, the only striking difference being the absence of the true Rhinoceros. After describing remains of giraffes, Madame Pavlow discusses a well- preserved skull of Palzotragus, which she maintains is an antelope, not a giraffe, as supposed by Forsyth Major. There are also remains of other well-known antelopes and gazelles, a few fragments of deer, and a fine skull of the large pig, Sus erymanthius. Several skulls of a hornless rhinoceros, Aceratherium, closely related to a species found at Maragha, in Persia, are important as making known several growth-stages. The numerous skulls and jaws of Hipparion gracile are also valuable for the same reason. Teeth of Mas- todon, Dinotherium, and Orycteropus occur, and there are some fragments of Carnivora, including the skull of a large cat related to the American Miocene Pogo- nodon. Madame Pavlow has already made many wel- come contributions to our knowledge of the newer Tertiary mammals of Russia, and she is to be con- gratulated on the manner in which she has presented the latest results of her researches. Brrore the war Russian men of science, and espe- cially biologists, had to send a very considerable. pro- portion of their writings abroad for publication, and the German journals thus became the common medium for much of the best Russian work. Soon after the outbreak of war efforts were made to remedy this state of affairs; of the new journals, Profs. Skimke- NO. 2447, VOL. 98] witch and Dogiel are editing the Russian Journal of Zoology, Profs. Sewertzoff and Elpatiewsky the Revue Zoologique Russe, and Prof. Dogiel. the Archives Russes d’Anatomie, d’Histologie et d’Embryologie. The first number of the latter has just appeared; it contains an article in English by A. Mamimoy on ‘‘ The Cultivation of Connective Tissue*of Adult Mammals in vitro,’ and two memoirs in French, one by the editor on the structure of sensory nerve-endings in the beak and tongue of birds, and another by A. N. Sewertzoff on the morphology of the skull and head muscles of Cyclostomes. The excellence of these researches, no less than of the typography and illustrations, is a happy augury of the success of this new journal, on which Prof. Dogiel of Petrograd is to be heartily con- gratulated. It is of particular interest to note that, in spite of the enormous drain on the Imperial finances, the Minister of Public Instruction, Count Ignatiev, made the publication of this journal possible by a Government subsidy. In the Nouveaux Mémoires de la Société Im- périale des Naturalistes de Moscou, M. G. A, Belo- golovy records some very remarkable experiments on the development of the frog Pelobates, The experi- ments were undertaken with the view of throwing some light upon the factors that are concerned in bring- ing about the phenomena of recapitulation in ontogeny. — Their significance from this point of view may be re- garded as somewhat obscure, but at any rate they have yielded some very curious results, and perhaps it is not too much to say that they have opened up a new field in the domain of experimental embry- ology and pathology. The author’s intention was to rear the embryos as parasites upon adults of the same species, instead of as free- living individuals in their normal aquatic environment. He introduced the eggs into the body-cavity of the adult through an incision in the body-wall, and found that they attached themselves to the surface of the various viscera, etc., and in the course of a few weeks developed into highly abnormal structures, sometimes permeated by blood capillaries apparently derived from the tissues of the adult, through which they derived their nutriment. These results will probably. be of interest to pathologists rather than to embryologists, especially from the point of view of those engaged in cancer research. The necessary operation appears to be a very simple one, but the animals treated as hosts to the parasitic embryos remained alive but for a few months, and then only when kept in water. The memoir is well illustrated, the histological features of the parasites being represented in two very beautiful and elaborate coloured plates. Tue Bull. Imp. Acad, Sci. (Petrograd, May, 1916) contains the description of a new species, differing in many essentials from other species, of Helicoprion, Helicoprion clerci, so named in honour of Onisime Jegorovié Klerk (O. Clerc), president of the Ural. Naturalists’ Society. Accompanying the description are drawings in natural size of the five fragments found at Krasnoufimsk. So far only two species have been discovered in Russia—Helicoprion bezsonovi and another, hitherto undescribed, found by A. P. Ivanov in the Government of Moscow. The well-known American naturalist, C. R. Eastman, directed atten- tion in 1905 to the instructiveness and unexpeetedness of certain paleontological discoveries of recent years, pointing out specially Pareiasaurus among the Rep- tilia, Helicoprion among the Pisces, and Dazmonohelix among the problematical forms. The nature of this last fossil has now been finally settled. Eastman, SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] as an ichthyologist, focussed his attention on Heli- ‘coprion and allied forms, Edestus and others. Since then the interest in them has not waned, and the literature of the subject grows apace. ' THREE valuable essays appear in the Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society, vol. xiv., part 1. The first of these is by Mr. Leonard J. Wills, on ‘‘The Structure of the Lower Jaw of Triassic Labyrinthodonts.’’ The author’s investigations were based upon fragments of Labyrinthodont mandibles found in the Lower Keuper Sandstone of Bromsgrove, Worcester- shire. The author comes to the conclusion that the Stegocephalian mandible helps to bridge over one of the gaps between the fishes and the reptiles. The jaw of the latter can be derived from the Stegocephalian mandible by a fusion or suppression of some of the elements, such as was probably taking place, even in Permian and Triassic times, in the case of the coronoid bones. The second concerns the geology of the eastern boundary fault of the South Staffordshire coalfield. ‘The author, Mr. W. H. Foxall, describes the coal-beds, the Red beds, the Bunter Pebble beds, and the Glacial drift. The third, illustrated by numerous photographs and diagrams, is contributed by Prof. W. S. Boulton, who deals at length with the problems presented by an Esker near Kingswinford, South Staffordshire. The events recorded, the author believes, happened towards the close of “the Ice age, when the ice had ceased to advance; when, indeed, it was melting faster than it could be replenished from the northern Highlands, and the ice-front, in consequence, was slowly retreating northward.” SomE authoritative statement is required to dis- courage the popular belief that the heavy rains experi- enced this summer are connected with the bombard- ment in France and Flanders. In the Meteorological Office Circular, No. 3 (August 21) there is a note on the subject. Experiments to test this hypothesis have been made in Europe, America, Alaska, and Aus- tralia, but without result, and there is no evidence of any such influence. Furthermore, the energy of the heavy bombardment now proceeding, even if applied entirely to the removal of the heat required to produce rain, which it is not, would be inadequate ‘for the purpose. Nor must the spells of brilliantly fine weather be forgotten. These occurred while the bom- bardment was proceeding. In an article in the Geographical Review for August, 1916 (vol. ii., No. 2), on the pirate coasts of the Mediterranean, Miss E. C. Semple points to the parallel between the hunting grounds of the German and Austrian submarines and those of the ancient and medizval corsairs. Mediterranean piracy has re- erudesced whenever maritime political control is re- laxed, and certain localities determined by geographical conditions are the natural hunting-ground of the sea- robbers. The configuration of the basin has always compressed traffic into certain narrow routes. From these routes traffic is unable to deviate, as it can in the open ocean. The nodal points on the routes—that is, where land restricts traffic to a more or less narrow strait—have been especially “favourable to pirates. Not only are they more sure of much prey at these points, but they stand a better chance of escape to their lurking places along the indented coasts. The paper is an excellent survey of the physical conditions ’ of the Mediterranean that on one hand favoured legiti- mate seamanship, and on the other that debased form which manifests itself as piracy. NO. 2447, VOL. 98] NATURE 39 THE report for 1915 of the director of the Liverpool Observatory, Bidston, shows that the ordinary work of the observatory has been carried out during the past year, while progress has been made in at least One direction. Besides the Milne seismograph, a new instrument, designed by Mr. J. J. Shaw, has been erected to record the tilt produced by the oscillations of the tidal load in the neighbourhood, and is working with good results. The number of earthquakes regis- tered during the year is 195. A small record was obtained of the Carlisle earthquake of October 2, the oscillations of which lasted for a quarter of an hour. ATTENTION may be directed to the Monthly Record of Meteorological Observations, published by the Meteorological Service of Canada, of which we have received the number for March. It contains in a con- venient form the complete meteorological data of some thirty stations in Canada, and also from Newfound- land and Bermuda. The publication contains two maps, one illustrating the total precipitation for the month, and the other the departure from the average temperature for the month. In addition to the stations providing detailed records, there are a large number for which only the monthly means and. the extremes are given. There is, of course, a lack of data from the north of Canada. The monthly record contains no discussion of the data. Tue value of fique, the fibre of Furcraea gigantea, in Colombia is emphasised in a short article in Kew Bulletin No. 7 by Mr. M. T. Dawe, ‘Director: of Agriculture in Colombia. It is used for the soles of the native shoes or alpargatas, sacks, girths, ropes, matting, and even for roofing the houses. For the latter purpose the green leaves are used, and the article is illustrated by a photograph showing a cot- tage thatched with the leaves of fique. Hand-prepared fibre is sold in the Bogota market at 6d. per lb., but by using modern machinery a profit of 19l. per ton might be expected if the fibre sold at its present whole- sale price of 160 dollars per ton. On export with a selling price of 251.-30l. per ton a profit of 5].—-r1ol. per ton’ should be realised. WirH a view to the ultimate production of a port- able dry storage cell, M. Charles Féry has, with the help of his pupil, M. E. Fournier, examined quantita- tively the chemical changes which take place in the ordinary storage cell. His results will be found in the January number of the Journal de Physique. He finds that neither the simple theory of sulphation of both positive and negative plates first put forward by Gladstone and Tribe, nor the later theories involving the production of an unstable higher sulphate at the positive plate are in agreement with the measure- ments. In the first place, the amount of sulphuric acid which disappears during the discharge of the cell is half that required by the double sulphation theory. In the second place, the change of weight of the posi- tive plate is much less than it should be according to that theory, and takes place in the opposite direc- tion. His final conclusion is that the reactions which take place during discharge of the cell may be repre- sented by the equation Pb+H,SO,+ Pb,O,=PbSO,+H,O+ 3PbO,, or possibly by Pb+H.SO,+ Pb.O,=PbSO,+H,O + 2PbO,, The former involves the production of 15 grams of peroxide per ampere hour, the latter 10-4. In actual i practice 12 to 14 grams are produced. 50 OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. THe VARIABLE NEBULA IN CORONA AUSTRALIS.—A somewhat extended investigation of this remarkable object—N.G.C. 6729—has been made at Helwan with the Reynolds 30 in. reflector, and a brief account of the observations, with illustrations, has been given by J. H. Reynolds (Monthly Notices, R.A.S., vol. Ixxvi., p- 645). The thirty-seven photographs talken during 1914 and 1915 clearly demonstrate that the nebula is variable in form as well as in brightness, and it seems NATURE probable that its variability is closely related to that of | the variable star R Coronz Australis, to which it appears to be attached. The appearance is such as might be expected if the nebulous matter was dis- charged from the star when at its maximum bright- ness and illuminated by it. Further particulars are given by Mr. Knox Shaw, who took the photographs. The forms of the nebula can be classified into seven types, ranging from the first, in which the nebula is very bright and attached to the star, to the seventh, where the nebula is very faint and entirely detached. There is, however, no simple relation between the form of the nebula and the magnitude of the star; the nebula is brightest when the star is brightest, but is not always of the same form for a given magnitude of the star. It seems quite possible that the apparently imperfect correspondence between the variations of the nebula and those of the star may be caused by the presence of absorbing matter lying between them and the earth. If this absorbing matter were of varying thickness and in motion, it would naturally complicate the pheno- mena, but it is not suggested that this is the main cause of the variability. Proper Motions By THE BLINK-MICROSCOPE.—A further report on the use of the blink-microscope (see Nature, vol. xcvi., pp. 237 and 438) in the detection and measurement of proper motions has been issued by Mr. Innes (Union Observatory Circular, No. 35). The greater part of the report refers to the comparison of eight astrographic plates taken at Greenwich, at intervals approximating to twenty years, and forty-three proper motions of stars ranging in magnitude from 7-1 to 13:5 are tabulated. As an indication of the rapidity of work by this method, Mr. Innes states that the investigation of the eight regions, including the identifications and reductions, occupied only twenty- four hours, although there was no attempt to make a record. Every pair of plates confirmed the impression that the vast majority of stars, bright and faint, are relatively fixed, and the measures were made on this assumption, the numerical work then being very slight. If plates are taken with a view to their ultimate examination by the blink-microscope, Mr. Innes con- siders that long exposures should be given, as crowded regions are a great advantage. Triple images are un- necessary, and double images are also superfluous if a third plate be available. Tue Preriop or U Cepnet.—aA discussion of Wen- dell’s observations of this well-known eclipsing vari- able has been undertaken by Martha B. Shapley (Astrophysical Journal, vol. xliv., p. 51). The observa- tions were made at Harvard during the years 1895- 1912 with a polarising photometer, the total number of comparisons being 17,296; they have a special value because the instrument, method of observing, and comparison star were the same throughout this long period. As the light at minimum is constant for about two hours, Wendell observed mainly the steepest part of the ascending or descending branch, and in most cases the time at which the star was at a specified magnitude—say, 8.40—can be determined from the observations with an uncertainty of less than a minute. Variations in the mean phases of both steep branches NO. 2447, VOL. 98] fst [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 are apparent, and there is evidence that the variation is not in the duration of minimum, nor due to vari- ability of the comparison star, but a definite change in the light period. When all the observations since ' the time of discovery in 1880 are considered, it is | evident that they are not satisfied either by Chandler’s elements (1903) or by those of Wendell (1909). The latter serve best as a working formula at the present time, but would probably predict the minima too early. The variations are apparently very complex, and no attempt has yet been made to obtain an analytical expression for them. Wendell’s formula is Min. =J.D. 2407890-3007 + 2-4928840d. E with zero phase at the midpoint of minimum light. The mean magnitude at minimum is 9-14, and at maximum 6°81. MR. JOHN ANGELL. cy September g there passed away in the person of Mr. John Angell a figure notable in the educa- tional world of Manchester. He was born in London in 1824, and in his early educational career was chemical assistant to Prof. Thos. Graham, F.R.S., professor of chemistry in University College, London, and was hon. secretary to the Birkbeck _ School Committee, whose school was the first estab- lished in Great Britain with the object of. demonstrat- ing both the desirability and the possibility of teach- ing soundly and rationally the elements of science as leading everyday subjects in the ordinary day school. In 1852 he accepted an appointment at ‘the Salford Mechanics’ Institute as head of the Boys’ School established therein, and five years later | became the organiser of the day and evening classes of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution, then established in a new and commodious building in that city, where he remained for twelve years, resigning his position in 1869 to accept the senior science master- ‘ship in the Manchester Grammar School, then under the vigorous direction of Mr. F. W. Walker, after- wards master of St. Paul’s School, London. Mr. Angell remained at. this post for eighteen years, during which period he greatly raised the reputa- tion of the school by his energetic and intelligent teaching of science, especially in the subject of physics. He was an enthusiastic disciple of George Combe, whose teaching, as exhibited in his es “The Constitution of Man,” as he said, ‘‘ completely revolutionised the course of my life.” He was an ardent and enlightened exponent of the ‘‘Socratic’” method of instruction, which he applied with much success in the courses he gave in chemistry, physics, and physiology to day and evening pupils during his career at the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution. In 1868 the Institution was visited by a French Imperial Commission appointed to visit and report upon secondary education in England and Scotland. In its report it has nothing but praise for the methods of teaching in use. “If he selects a re- agent, it is because some pupil suggested it; if he obtains a gas in his analysis, he has already caused his students to predict its nature. . . . ‘ My object,” as this excellent teacher told us, ‘is to train the intellect through the study of science.’ His work as a teacher received the approval of such men as Drs. Joule and Angus Smith, and Profs. Clifton, Williamson, and Roscoe. He ceased his duties as a teacher in 1887, but continued his keen interest in scientific subjects in association with many of the literary and scientific societies of Manchester of which he was an active member almost to the day of his death’ at the ripe age of ninety-two. He was the author of many once widely used science text- hooks. : — ee I a om AURORA AND MAGNETIC DISTURBANCES OF AUGUST 27, 1916: - Wy TEE, miference to the aurora reported by Mr. : W. FE. Denning at. Bristol on August 27, be- tween 2 and 4 a.m. G.M.T. (Nature, August 31, _ p- 551), the Director of the Meteorological Office notes a report received from Mr. J. Ernest Grubb, observer at Seskin, near Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Waterford, Ire- land, that aurora was visible there on the night of August 26 between 10.5 and 10.40 p.m. G.M.T. The greatest display noted by Mr. Grubb occurred about 10.25 p.m., when streamers from N.W. to N.N.E. stretched to within 20° or 30° of the zenith. The light was sufficiently brilliant to illuminate the in- terior of a room facing W.N.W. At Eskdalemuir, Dumfriesshire, in spite of a cloudy sky, auroral glow in the N.W. was reported by the observer at 9 p.m. on August 26 and 1 a.m. on August 27. The magnets at Eskdalemuir and Rich- mond (Kew Observatory) were considerably dis- turbed, especially at the former station. The full amplitude of the disturbance there in the north and vertical components cannot be assigned, owing to the limit of registration being passed, but the range in each element considerably exceeded 400 y (1 y=1x 10-* C.G.S.), and in the west component it was fully gooy. At Kew the ranges of the horizontal force and vertical force were approximately 250 y and 200 y respectively. Declination at Kew had a range of 27', the most rapid movements occurring early on August 27; the extreme easterly position was reached at about 2.5 a.m., and the extreme westerly at about 2.35 a.m. A notable feature, especially at Eskdalemuir, was the “‘sudden commencement,” introducing the storm at about 7.45 p.m. on August 26. Its oscillatory character was particularly well shown in the north component, a very rapid fall of 11 y preceding a rapid rise of 1007. After this commencement the horizon- tal component at Eskdalemuir and Richmond (Kew Observatory) ‘remained above its normal value until about 10 p.m., when it fell below normal and remained so, while oscillating considerably, during the rest of the disturbance. The depression in the horizontal component at Kew Observatory at 6 a.m. on August 27, when the storm was nearly over, exceeded 100 y. An interesting feature in the vertical force curves at Eskdalemuir towards the end of the storm after 6 a.m. on August 27 is.a series of oscillations of short period, averaging about 4:6 minutes, which recall a similar phenomenon observed there in the storm of Novem- ber 5-6, 1915. Tue display of Aurora Borealis on August 26-27 was observed by Dr. John Satterly in Canada, Writing from Jackson’s Point, Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Dr. Satterly says that on August 26 the whole northern sky from horizon to zenith was illuminated for several hours. On the horizon there was a strong yellowish glow with streamers radiating upwards. Arcs of light encircled the zenith, and flickering bands and patches of colour were seen in middle altitudes. The smallest newspaper headlines could be read at tr p.m. On August 28 the northern lights were feeble, but at 10.30 p-m. (Eastern time) an immense riband of light, practically a complete semicircle, spread across the sky. It extended from the east and rose a few degrees south of Jupiter, threaded Pegasus diagonally, cut Cygnus, passed through Lyra to the north of Vega, - and dipped down through Hercules to the west. Stars in their apparent rotation passed across it, so that the NATURE band was fixed relatively to the earth. The arc inter- | NO. 2447, VOL. 98] 57 sected the Milky Way at about 60° or 70°, very nearly at the zenith; it was much brighter and narrower and more definite than the Milky Way. No portion of the are appeared in the northern sky. At 11.15 p.m. the western half faded away gradually, and at 11.30 p.m. the eastern half vanished. LHE SAKURA-JIMA ERUPTION OF JANUARY, 1914. ROF,. OMORI has recently published a second valuable memoir on the eruption of Sakura-jima, which occurred on January 12, 1914.' The volcano lies in Kagoshima Bay, in South Japan, a few miles to the east of the city of Kagoshima. Until the last eruption Sakura-jima was an island. It is now con- nected by a lava-stream with the east side of the bay- The part of the bay lying to the north of Sakura-jima ranges in depth from 70 to 107 fathoms, and is apparently of the same origin as the deep lakes which are found behind the sea-coast volcanoes of Usu-san and Tarumai-san. Displacements of the Ground.—Soon after the erup- tion it was noticed that the sea-level had undergone an elevation relatively to the adjoining coast. At high tides the low districts at the ‘south end of Kagoshima were flooded. Along the north-west and north coasts of Kagoshima Bay the rise of the water was still greater, embankments and stone walls being damaged and _ extensive rice-fields devastated. The amount of the sea-level elevation was nearly a metre at Kagoshima and two: metres or more in Sakura-jima. The apparent sea- level elevation was greatest at the end of rg14, after which it began to decrease. Prof. Omori attributes this change to the depression of the ground in the neighbourhood of Sakura-jima in consequence of the great eruption. This depression was revealed with greater precision by a renewal of the Military Survey levelling of the district and of the levelling along the railway lines near Kagoshima Bay. Prof. Omori has represented the results on a map on which are drawn the curves of 50, 100, 300, and 500 mm. depression. The curves of 300 and 500 mm. run close to the coast of the northern portion of Kagoshima Bay. The axes of these curves, which are directed north and west respectively, intersect in a point lying off the north coast of Sakura-jima, and Prof. Omori regards this point as indicating the centre of the area of greatest depression of the ground. The total depression-volume within the 1too-mm. curve ‘Is 1:35 c. km. The aggregate volume of lava flows and pumice and ash ejection during the recent explosion is about 2:2 c. km. It is important to notice that the point of maximum depression, which probably coincides with the prin- cipal centre of the lava reservoir, lies, not under Sakura-jima, but in the region between it and the active volcano of Kirishima. The triangulation surveys of 1898 and 1914 also reveal considerable displacements, both horizontal and vertical, in Sakura-jima, while the coast of the island is everywhere depressed. Three points in the interior have been raised 0-14 and about 9-7 and 10-4 metres. The horizontal displacements in the north-west of ‘fhe island vary from 2-04 to 3-62 metres towards the south, and in the west and north by amounts from 1-08 to 4-52 metres towards the north and north-east. The north and south portions of Sakura-jima have thus been displaced outwards in contrary directions. 1 “The Sakura-jima Eruptions and Earthquakes." II. Bull. Imp Earthq. Inv. Com., vol. viii., 1916, pp. 35-179. The first memoir was noticed in Nature, vol. xciv., p. 289; see also vol, xcii., pp. 716-17. 58 NATURE Moreover, displacements of 0:53 to o-95 metre along the west coast of Kagoshima Bay converge with those in the west and north of Sakura-jima towards an elliptical area which agrees roughly with the area of greatest depression. Propagation of Sound-Waves.—Prof. Omori divides the sounds which accompanied the eruption into three groups : (1) the early sounds heard from about 10 a.m. to the afternoon of January 12; (2) the strong detona- tions from 6.30 p.m. on January 12 to 6 a.m. on January 13; and (3) the much weaker sounds of the after-explosions for about ten days following the great eruption. All these sounds were heard within two entirely detached areas, and it is remarkable how similar these areas are in form and to some extent in magnitude. The area which includes the volcano extends in each case in an easterly direction, the mean radius of the boundary being 111, 114, and 102 km. for the above three classes of sounds. The second area lies to the north of the other, and is elongated from west to east, the mean radial distance. of its central line from the volcano being 195, 177, and 196 km. The width of the silent zone was 40-50 km. for the strong detonations and about 108 km. for the after-explosions, the axis of the silent zone, in both cases, being at a distance of about 120 km. from Sakura-jima. The greatest distance to which the detonations were heard is about 500 km. (or 310 miles) towards the north-east, but the air-vibrations were strong enough to shake houses and doors’ for about 85 km. farther in the same direction. C.. Davison. . THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION E. GEOGRAPHY. OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) By EDwarD A. REEVEs, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. THE surveying equipment of the pioneer explorer of early days, say, of from twenty to sixty years ago, usually consisted of a sextant and artificial horizon, a chronometer or watch, prismatic compass, boiling- point thermometers, and aneroid. With the sextant and artificial horizon the astronomical observation for latitude and longitude were taken, as well as those for finding the error of the compass. The route was plotted from the compass bearings and adjusted to the astronomically determined positions. The latitudes were usually from meridian altitudes of the sun or stars, and longitudes from the local mean time derived from altitudes east or west of the meridian, compared with the times shown by the chronometer, which was supposed to give Greenwich Mean Time. The sextant, in the hands of a practical observer, is capable of giving results in latitude to within ro” or 20", provided it is in adjustment, but the difficulty is that the observer has no proper means of testing for centring and graduation errors. The great drawback to the sextant for survey work is that it is impossible to take accurate rounds of horizontal angles with it, since, unless the points are all on the same level, the angles must be too large. It is essentially a navigator’s instrument, and nowadays has been almost entirely superseded by the theodolite for land-surveying. ; As regards the longitude, the difficulty was always to obtain a steady rate for the chronometer, owing principally to the unavoidable oscillations and con- cussions met with in transit. Formerly it was cus- tomary to observe lunar distances for getting the Green- wich Mean -Time instead of trusting to the chrono- NO. 2447, VOL. 98] ~ : [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 meters, but these, even with the utmost care, are very unsatisfactory. : In more recent years the occultation of a star method of finding the Greenwich Mean ‘Time superseded almost entirely the lunar distance, but all these so- called ‘‘ absolute ’’ methods of finding longitude are fast becoming out of date since the miére general introduce tion of triangulation and wireless telegraphy. Heights of land were usually obtained by the boiling- point thermometer or aneroid, This, then, was the usual equipment of the pioneer. With such an outfit the greater part of the first map- ping of Africa and other regions of the world was carried out, with results that were more or less trust- worthy according to the skill of the explorer and the time and opportunities at his disposal. : In recent years considerable improvement has been made in the instruments and methods of the geo- graphical surveyor; the introduction of the invar tape for the measuring of the base lines, the more general application of triangulation, the substitution of the theodolite for the sextant, the use of the plane-table for filling in the topographical details of the survey, the application of wireless telegraphy to the determination of longitudes, these and other improvements have all tended to greater accuracy and efficiency in geograph- ical and topographical mapping, so that in many re- spects the rough approximate methods of the earlier explorers are fast being superseded by instruments and methods more in keeping with modern requirements in map-making. Still, the principle underlying all surveying is the same, and the whole subject really amounts to the best and most accurate methods of measurement with ~ a view of representing on a plane, on a greatly reduced scale, the leading features of a certain area of the earth’s surface in their relatively correct positions; and so it resolves itself into geometrical problems of similar angles and proportional distances. This being the case, it is clear that it becomes in the main a question of correct angular and linear measurements, and all the improvements in survey methods have had for their object the increased accuracy of accomplishing this, together with greater facility for computing the results, What we do now is exactly what was attempted by the early Greek geometricians and others in ancient times, only we have far more accurate instruments. If, for instance, we compare our modern micrometer theodolite with the old scaph of the Greeks the con- trast is striking, although both had the same object in view as regards taking altitudes of heavenly bodies. Many of the old instruments, in spite of their great size, were extremely rough, and the angles could only be read with approximation or toa great extent by estima- tion, while the theodolite, which is now generally used on geographical surveys, although it has circles of only five inches in diameter, can, by means of the micro- meters, be read tq 2” of arc, or even to 1” by careful estimation. This, when one comes to think of it, is a triumph of refinement, since it really means that we can measure to within about 1/80,000 part of an inch, which is something like the space occupied by 1” on the arc of a circle of 5-in. diameter. At least this is the theoretical accuracy, but in practice there are, of course, errors-in sighting, setting the micrometer wires, and those arising from other sources which have to be taken into consideration. The continued striving after greater accuracy of measurement applies not only to angular measuring instruments, but to linear distance measurement as well; and the improvements in apparatus for this purpose, could we follow them in detail, ~-ould be most interesting. From the rough methods that would suggest themselves naturally to early intelligent men, a | a le SEPTEMBER 21, I1916| NATURE a2 to the modern base-line apparatus, and accurately computed sides of a geodetic triangulation, is a far cry, and the advance in this matter is certainly remarkable. So far what I have said has had chiefly to do with some of the earlier attempts at surveying and map- making, and the instruments and methods by which these have been carried out; and I will now try to give you an outline of what has been done in com- paratively recent times, and state briefly the present position of various parts of the world as regards the condition of their mapping and the survey basis upon which their maps depend. Little by little civilised man, by his daring, his love of adventure, and the necessities of events and circum- stances, has penetrated into the unexplored parts of the earth and pushed back the clouds and mists that so long shrouded them from his knowledge, until at the present time the regions that are entirely un- mapped are very few indeed, and do not amount to more than about one-seventh of the whole land-surface of the globe, including the unexplored areas of the polar regions, which may be either land or water. Not content with a mere vague acquaintance, he has striven for greater accuracy, and has turned to various branches of science and called them to his aid, in order that he may obtain more correct knowledge and a better comprehension of the earth’s features. To enable him to fix with definiteness the position of places upon its surface, map out the various land- forms, and obtain their accurate measurements, he has consulted the astronomer and mathematician. Commencing with the rudest instruments and measur- ing apparatus, these, as greater accuracy was required, have gradually been improved, until the present-day appliances and equipment of a surveyor are wonders of refinement and delicacy. I have attempted to form an estimate of the condi- tion of the world’s surveys for 1860 and 1916; and, taking the total area of the land-surface of the earth together with the unknown parts of the Arctic and Antarctic regions which mav be either land or water, to be 60,000,000 square miles, I have obtained the following results :— 1860 if 1916 Sq. stat. Proportion Sq. stat. Proportion miles to whole miles to whole x. Mapped from accurate shea) graphical surveys based on | 1,957,755=0°0326 triangulation or Rigorous} or roughly +5 traverses 2. Mapped from less trustworthy ee surveys, chiefly heal pets mee graphical | gnly s 3. Mapped from route traverses | 25,024,360=0"4170 and sketches {or roughly 7 4- Entirely unsurveyed and) 30,997,054=0°5166 unmapped for just over 4 8,897,238 =0'1482 or roughly 4 5,178,008 =0'0866 or just over y's £7;550,552—=076258 or little less than $ 8,250,794 =0°1391 or little less than 1 These proportions can perhaps be more clearly seen from the following diagram (Fig. 1), on which num- bers and tintings have the same significance as on the maps and table. From the figures here given it is plain that with the same rate of progress as that of the past sixty years or so it would take more than four hundred years more to complete the accurate trigonometricai survey- ing and topographical mapping of the earth’s land- surface, including the parts of the polar regions that mav possibly be land—that is, the 60,000,c00 square miles which we have taken for this total area; but this will certainly not be the case, since the rate at which such surveys have been carried out has been greatly accelerated during recent years, owing to the rapidly increasing demands for accurate topographical maps, improvements in methods. and other causes. so that it will possibly not be half this time before all the parts of the earth’s surface that are likely to be of any use to man as settlements, or capable of his NO. 2447, VOL. 98] development, are properly surveyed and mapped. There are, of course, regions, such as those near the poles and in the arid deserts, that are never likely to be accurately triangulated and mapped to any extent, and it would be mere waste of time and money to attempt anything of the kind. From its very foundation the Royal Geographical Society has had a remarkable influence on the survey- ing and mapping of the earth’s surface, and especially those parts of it which have been previously but very imperfectly known or entirely unexplored. I think it must be admitted that this influence has increased as years have gone by, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has done more in this respect than any other body. It is therefore perhaps fitting that I should give some account of what has been accom- plished, as it has a direct bearing on route-surveying and mapping by travellers and explorers. Itis not only by the awarding of annual medals to explorers whose journeys have resulted in an increase to our geograph- ical knowledge, and the more accurate surveying and mapping of little-known parts, that the society has stimulated and encouraged geographical research, but it has also assisted financially numerous expeditions, and the money thus granted has enabled many a man to carry out his explorations to a successful issue, ° 1860 1916 | Fic. 1.—Relative condition of world surveys in 186. and 1916. which he otherwise could not have done for want of funds. Still more frequently has it been the case that travellers going into little-known parts of the world have been granted loans 6f surveying instru- ments which they could not otherwise have taken, and encouraged to do what mapping they found possible. Altogether 331 expeditions have been lent instruments, and about 38,500!. have been devoted to grants of money by the society to further geographical explora- tion and surveying. There is still another way, by no means the least important, in which the Royal Geographical Society has done much to promote geographical surveying, and that is by providing suitable instruction in the work of surveying for travellers. It is all very well to grant money and lend instruments, but the impor- tant thing is to know how to make good use of the money and the instruments so as to take proper advan- tage of opportunities afforded and to produce the best surveys and maps of the regions visited. In the early days of the society a man had to pick up the requisite knowledge as best he could, but in 1879 a scheme of proper instruction was started at the suggestion of the late Sir Clements Markham, who was then one of our honorary secretaries. This had small beginnings, but in recent years has made rapid strides, until at present 60 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 21, 1916 © it forms one of the most important parts of the society’s work. This course of instruction in ged- graphical surveying, which has now been in existence for about thirty-eight years, was first conducted by my predecessor, the late Mr, John Coles, and, since he resigned in 1900, has been-under my charge. Alto- gether 725 surveyors and explorers have received in- struction, without reckoning special large classes. of forty or fifty men which during the past few years, until the outbreak of war, were sent to us by the Colonial Office to learn the more elementary parts of compass-traversing and mapping. Now as regards the future. The demand for pro- perly trained geographical surveyors has been steadily increasing in past years, and is likely to be still greater as time goes on. After the termination of the war there will be much work to be done, especially as regards the surveying of new boundaries, and freshly acquired districts in Africa and elsewhere; and it would be wise to make preparations for this well ahead. The future surveyor will be in a much better posi- tion than his predecessors, not only on account of the improvements in instruments and apparatus for his work, but because, in many parts, a good beginning has been made with the triangulation to which the new surveys can be adjusted. In Asia a considerable amount of new work of this kind has been done over the frontier of India in recent years by the Survey of India, among the more important of which are the connecting of the Indian triangulation with that of Russia by way of the Pamirs, the surveys of Sir Aurel Stein, Dr. de Philippi, and _ others. The many boundary surveys that have — been carried out in Africa, the triangulations of Egypt, the Sudan, East and South Africa, and other parts of the continent are well advanced, and will be of the utmost value to the future surveyor. One of the most important lines is the great triangulation which, it is hoped, will some day run across the continent from south to north, from the Cape to Egypt. Owing to the energies of the late Sir David Gill, this important chain of triangles has already got so far as the southern end of Lake Tan- ganyika; the part to the west of Uganda, near Ruwen- zori, has also been finished, and it now remains to carry the chain through German East Africa and down | the Nile Valley. The latter, it is hoped, will by degrees be accomplished by the Sudan and Egyptian Survey Departments, although it may be delayed for some years yet; and the former, which was to have been undertaken by, the Germans, it is to be hoped will, after the war, be accomplished by British sur- veyors, through—not German East Africa—but newly acquired British territory. Running right through parts of Africa that are but imperfectly mapped in many districts, the stations of this triangulation will be invaluable for the adjustment of any network of triangulation for future surveys in the interior, and, indeed, has already been utilised for the purpose. The carefully carried out boundary surveys between various countries of South America will be of the greatest assistance in future exploration and survey in the interior of that continent, wherever they are available, while the Survey Departments of Canada and the United States are doing excellent work and extending their surveys far into the imperfectly mapped regions of North America. So, altogether, the sur- _veyor of the future will soon have a good foundation of trustworthy points to work from. It is important to remember that running a chain of triangles across a country, though important as a framework, does not constitute a map of the country; and what is wanted is a series of good topographical maps, based upon triangulation, showing the leading features with NO. 2447, VOL. 98] sufficient accuracy for the purposes of ordinary map- ping, so that on scales of 1 : 250,000, or even I : 125,000, there is no appreciable error. — - va As regards instruments, the astrolabe a prisme is being increasingly used for taking equal altitude ob-° servations with most excellent regults, but at the pre~ sent time the 5-in. transit micrometer theodolite, already referred to, is perhaps’ all that is required for general work. It has now been thoroughly tested and found most satisfactory. As regards smaller instru-- ments, there is the 4-in. tangent-micrometer theodolite, and for rapid exploratory survey, where weight is a great consideration, a little 3-in. theodolite has been found useful, ’ For base-line measurement the invar tape should be~ taken on all serious work, and for filling in the topo- graphical features a good plane-table is doubtless the” instrument to use. In mountainous regions and in some other special conditions photographic surveying doubtless has a future before it, and in military opera- tions when the photographs are taken from aircraft it has proved itself invaluable; but in ordinary survey- ing it is, I think, not likely to take the place of well- established methods. The introduction of wireless tele-- graphy for the determination of longitude is likely to increase in usefulness. Good examples of the work done with it have lately been given in the Geographical Journal and elsewhere. : FORTHCOMING BOOKS OF SCIENCE. AGRICULTURE. Macmillan and Co., Ltd.—The Potato, Prof. A. W. Gilbert and others, illustrated; The Strawberry in North America, S. W. Fletcher, illustrated; A Manual of Fruit Diseases, .Prof. L. R. Hesler, illustrated; A Manual of Dairy Products, Prof. W. A. Stocking, ' illustrated; The Pruning Manual, Prof. L. H. Bailey, new edition, illustrated. Oxford University Pressi— Agriculture in Oxfordshire, the first of a series of monographs on the English Counties, prepared by the Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics” in the University of Oxford, illustrated. ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAZOLOGY, 33 F. Alcan (Paris).—Les Races et les Nationalistes en Autriche-Hongrie, Prof. Auerbach. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.—Modern _Man and His Forerunners: a Short Study of the Human Species, Living and Extinct, Dr. H. G. F. Spurrell, illustrated; Savage Survivals,. J. H. Moore, illustrated. Cambridge University Press. —Jataka Tales, H. T. Francis and E. J. Thomas, illustrated; The Ancient Cross' Shafts at Beweastle and Ruthwell, enlarged from the Rede Lecture delivered before the University of Cambridge on May 20, 1916, by the Right Rev. Dr. G. F. Browne, illustrated. Longmans and Co.—The Folk- Element in Hindu Culture: a Contribution to Socio- Religious Studies in Hindu-Folk Institutions, Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, assisted by Hemendra K. Rakshit. John Murray.—The Ages of Man, C. Sayle; The Lost Cities of Ceylon, G. E..Mitton, illustrated. Oxford University Press.—The Drama of Savage Peoples, L. Havemeyer. Seeley, Service and Co., Ltd.—Prehistoric Man and His Story, Prof. G. F. Scott Elliot, illustrated. Bro.oecy. F: Alcan (Paris).—L’Evolution des Plantes, Prof. N. Bernard; Théorie de la Contre-évolution, Dr. Larger. D. Appleton and Co.—The Book of Forestty, F. F. Moon! E. Arnold.—Arboreal Man, Prof. F.. Wood’ Jones, illustrated; the Migrations of Fish. Prof. oe 4° SEPTEMBER 21, 1916] NATURE ol A. Meek, illustrated. Cambridge Unversity Press. — ‘The Anthocyanin ‘Pigments of Plants, M. Wheldale; | Algae, vol. i., Myxophycez, Peridiniez, Bacillariez, Chlorophycez, together with a brief summary or tnc occurrence and distribution of Freshwater Alge, Dr. G. S. West (Cambridge Botanical Handbooks). Cas- sell and Co., Ltd.—An Introduction to a Biology, the late A. D. Darbishire. Hodder and Stoughton.—Wild Animal Ways, E. Thompson-Seton, illustrated; The Hunting Wasp, J. H. Fabre. T. C. and E. C. Jack, Ltd.—Wild Flowers of Britain through the Camera, a series of 100 plates, selected and described by M. Skene; Wild Birds of Britain through the Camera, a series of 100 plates, selected and described by F. B. Kirkman, Longmans and Co.—British Birds, written and illustrated by A. Thorburn, vol. iv. Macmillan and Co., Ltd.—Nature in Australasia, for Boys and Girls, Jane Ada Fletcher, illustrated; Around the Year in the Garden, F. F, Rockwell, illustrated. Methuen and Co., Ltd.—Secrets of Earth and Sea, Sir Ray Lankester, illustrated. John Murray.—What is In- stinct? Some Thoughts on Telepathy and Sub- consciousness in Animals, C. B. Newland; Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity, and Evolution, Dr. R. H. Lock, new edition. revised by Dr. L. Doncaster, with a Biographical Note by Mrs. R. H. Lock; Form and function: a Con- tribution to the History of Animal Morphology, E. S. Russell, illustrated; Vegetable Fibres, Dr. E. Goulding (Imperial Institute Handbooks); The Study of Animal Life, Prof. J. A. Thomson, new edition, illustrated. Oxford University Press.—Three Lec- tures on Experimental Embryology, Capt. J. W. Jen- kinson, illustrated, with a short biographical notice of the author by Dr. R. R. Marett. Bernard Quaritch. —The Birds of British Guiana, based on the Collec- tion of F. V. McConnell, C. Chubb, with a preface by Mrs. F. V. McConnell, vol. ii. Grant Richards, Ltd.—Insect Enemies, C. A. Ealand, illustrated. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., and Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd—The Fisherman’s Entomology, M. E. Mosely, a Supplement to F. M. Halford’s The Dry- Fly Man’s Handbook, illustrated. Whittaker and Co. —Some Researches in Plant Physiology, Atkins. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (New York).—Handbook for Rangers and Woodsmen, J. L. B. Taylor; Modern Pro- pagation of Tree Fruits, Prof. B. S. Brown; A Prac- tical Entomology for Schools, E. D. Sanderson and Prof. L. M. Peairs; Farm Forestry, Prof. J. A. Fer- guson. Williams and Norgate.—Plant Seeds and Cur- rents in the West Indies and Azores, H. B. Guppy. CueEMISTRY. _ Cambridge University Press.—Chemistry and Tech- nology of Oils and Fats, F. E. Weston and P. J. Fryer; Chemistry of Dyeing, Dr. L. L. Lloyd and M. Fort (Cambridge Technical Series). Chapman and Hall, Ltd——A Method for Identification of Pure Organie Compounds, Dr. S.. P. Mulliken, vol. ii. ; Manual for the Essence Industry, E. Walter. Gauthier- Villars and Co. (Paris)—Conférences de Chimie minérale faites 4 Ja Sorbonne, M. Guichard, new edition. Crosby Lockwood and Son.—Manuals of Chemical Technology, edited by Dr. G. Martin, vol. viii., The Minor Elements : their Oceurrence and Indus- trial Uses, S. J. Johnstone. Longmans and Co.—The Right Hon. Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S.: a Biographical Sketch, Sir Edward Thorpe ; Chemistry, Second Stage, F. P. Armitage, with assistance from L. S. Dawe. Macmillan and Co., Ltd.—A Text-Book of Thermo-Chemistry and Thermo- Dynamics, Prof. O. Sackur, translated from the _ German by Dr. G. E. Gibson. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., and Kegan Paul and Co.. Ltd.—Chemical Discoveries and Inventions cf the Twentieth Century, NO. 2447, VOL. 98] Sir W, A. Tilden, illustrated. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (New York).—A Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Medical Students, Dr. M: Steel; Labora- tory Manual of Bituminous Materials, P. Hubbard. ENGINEERING. : _D. Appleton and Co.—Field Book for Railway Engineers, J. B. Henck; City Planning, edited by. J- Noten. £, Arnold.—Yhe Principles ot #lectrical En- gineering and. their Application, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, two vols., illustrated. Cambridge University Press.— Naval Architecture, J. E. Steele. Chapman and Hall, Ltd.—Bridge Engineering, J. A. Waddell, two vols. ; Graphics of Machine Design, E.,S. Andrews; Power Transmission by Leather belting, R. T. Kent; Prin- ciples of Oil and Gas Production, Prof. R. H. Johnson and L, G. Huntley; Elements of Refrigeration, Prof- A. Greene; The Planning of the Modern City, N. P. Lewis. Constable and Co., Ltd.—The Flying Machine from an Engineering Standpoint, F. W. Lanchester (a reprint of the James Forrest Lecture, 1914, including a discussion concerning the theory of sustentation and the expenditure of power in flight); Some Modern Methods of Ventilation, with Special Reference to Public Buildings, R. Grierson, illustrated; Mining and Mine Ventilation, J. J. Walsh, illustrated, Elec- trician Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd.— The Theory of the Submarine Cable, Dr. H. W. Malcolm; Electric Measuring _ Instruments: _ their Design, Construction, and Application, Dr. C. V. Drysdale and A. C. Jolley; and new editions of Wire- less Telegraphy and Telephony, Handbook of Formule, Data, and Information, Dr. W. H. Eccles; Primary Batteries : their Construction and Use, W. R. Cooper; Electric Mains and Distributing Systems, J. R. Dick and F, Fernie; Submarine Cable Laying and Repair- ing, H. D. Wilkinson; Manual of the Telephone, W. Aitken. Crosby Lockwood and Son.—Oil-field Develop- ment : a Guide to the Exploration of Petroleum Lands, and a Study of the Engineering Problems connected with the Winning of Petroleum, including Statistical Data of Important Oil-fields, Notes on the Origin and Distribution of Petroleum, and a Description of the Methods of Utilising Oil and Gas Fuel, A. B. Thomp- son, illustrated. Longmans and Co.—Strength of Ships, A. J. Murray, with diagrams; Practical Shipbuilding : a Treatise on the Structural Design and Building of Modern Steam Vessels, A. C. Holms, two vols., new edition. Methuen and Co., Ltd.—The Elements of En- gineering Drawing, E. Rowarth, illustrated. Scott, Greenwood and Son.—Calculations for Steel Frame Structure, W. C. Cocking; Elementary Mathematics for Engineers, E. H. Sprague (Broadway Series of Engineering Handbooks). Whittaker and Co,—Oil, Gas, and Petrol Engines, Garrard; High-Speed In- ternal Combustion Engines, Judge; Electric Traction, Dover; Telegraphy, Herbert, new edition; Modern Milling, Pull; Continuous Current Motors and Con- trol Apparatus, Maycock; Construction of Aeroplanes, Indge. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (New York).— Municipal Engineering, A. P. Folwell; Elements of Refrigeration, Prof. A. M. Greene; Mechanical Equin- ment of Buildings, L. A. Harding and A. C. Willard; Modern Underpinning, L. White and E, A. Prentis, jun.; Applied Mechanics, vol. ii., Strength of Materials, Prof. C. E. Fuller and W. A. Johnston ; The Mining Engineers’ Handbook, edited by Prof. R. Peele; Valuation, Depreciation, and the Rate Base, Cc. E. Grunsky, assisted by C. E. Grunsky, jun. GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Cambridge University Press.—The Earliest Voyages Round the World, 1510-1617, edited by P. F. Alex- ander, illustrated (Cambridge Travel Books); Ben- gal, Bihar, and Orissa, Sikkim, L. S. S. O’Malley, 62 NATURE ) [SEPTEMBER 21, I916_ Mac- North-East Siberia, illustrated (Provincial Geographies of India). millan and Co,., Ltd.—In Far I. W. Shklovsky (Dioneo), translated by L. Ed- wards and Z. Shklovsky, illustrated. John Mur- ray.—\ Holiday in Umbria, with an Account of Urbino and the Cortegiano of Castiglione, Sir T. G. Jackson, Bart., illustrated; Hunting Pygmies, Dr. W. E. Geil, illustrated. Oxford University Press.— Historical Geography of the British Depend- encies, cdited by Sir C. P. Lucas, vol. vii., India, part i., History down to 1861, P. E. Roberts. T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.—Two Summers in the Ice-Wilds of Eastern Karakoram, F. B. Workman and W. H. Workman, illustrated; A Naturalist in Borneo, the late R. W.C. Shelford, edited by Prof. E. B. Poulton, illustrated; Summer Holidays in the Alps, the Rev. Prebendary Durham, illustrated. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. Chapman and Hall, Ltd.—Microsconic Determina- tion of the Opaque Minerals: An Aid to the Study of Ores, Dr. J. Murdoch. Oxford University Press.— The Origin and Meaning of some Fundamental Earth Structures, C. F. Berkey. MATHEMATICAL AND PuHysICAL SCIENCES. D. Appleton and Co.—The Book of Electricity, A. F. Collins. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.-—Arithmetic, F. W. Dobbs and H. K. Marsden, part ii. ; Commer- cial. Arithmetic and Accounts, A. BR. Palmer and J. Stephenson, part iii., also the com- plete book; Dynamics: a companion _ text-book to Fawdry’s Statics; Analytical Geometry of the Straight Line and Circle, ). Milne; Arithmetic for Preparatory Schools, T. Dennis; Differential Calculus for Colleges and Secondary Schools, Dr, C. Davison. Cambridge University Press.—Collected: Scientific Papers, the late Prof. J. H. Poynting; Model Drawing, Geometrical and Perspective, with Architectural Ex- amples, C. O. Wright and W. A. Rudd, illustrated; Physics for Engineers, J. P. Yorke. Chapman and Hall, Ltd.—Mathematics for Engineers, W. N. Rose; Ten British Mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century, A. Macfarlane; Engineering Applications of Higher Mathematics, Prof. V. Karanetoff, five vols., part ii., Problems on Hydraulics, part iii., Problems on Thermo- dynamics, part iv., Problems on Mechanics of Mate- rials, part v., Problems on Electrical Engineering. Constable and Co., Ltd.—Atoms, J. Perrin, translated by D. LI. Hammick, illustrated. Gauthier- Villars and Co. (Paris).—QEuvres d’Halphen publiées par les soins de C. Jordan, H. Poincaré, E. Picard, avec la collaboration de E, Vessiot, tomes ii., iii., et iv.; Bases théoriques de 1’Aéronautique: Aérodynamique, Prof. N. Joukowski, translated by S. Drzewiecki; Cours d’Hydrauligue, Prof. J. Grialou. Hodder and Stoughton.—Our Own and other Worlds, J. Hamil- ton. Longmans and Co.—Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy and Telephony, Prof. J. A. Flem- ing, new edition, illustrated; Differential Equations, Dr. H. Bateman; Housecraft Arithmetic. T. Mellor and H. H. Pearson. John Murray.—David Gill: Man and Astronomer, Prof. G. Forbes. Oxford Uni- versity Press.—The Casting Counter, and the Count- ing-Board: a Chapter in the History of Numismatics and Early Arithmetic, F. P. Barnard, illustrated. S.P.C.K.—The Rain Children: a Fairy Tale in Physics, T. H. Orpen, illustrated. ’ University Tutorial Press, Ltd.—Advanced Text-Book of "Magnetism and Electricity, R. W. Hutchinson. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (New York).—Field Astro- nomy, Prof. A. H. Holt; Histology of Medicinal Plants, W. Mansfield; Lessons in. Pharmaceutical Latin and Prescription Writing and. Interpretation. Prof. H. C. Muldoon. NO. 2447, VOL. 98] MeEpIcaL SCIENCE. F. Alcan (Paris).—Méthode de’ traitement des frac- tures, Prof. P. Delbet; La fiévre paratyphoide, Prof. A. Rathery; Précis résumé de chirurgie de guerre, Drs. P. et J. Fiolle. W. Heinemann.—Psychoneuroses in War, M. D. Eder; The Practitiofier’s Pocket Pharma- cology and Formulary, Dr. L. Freyberger; and new editions of The Treatment of Infantile Paralysis, Dr. R. W. Lovett, illustrated; Treatment of Tabetic-Ataxia by the Aid of Gymnastic Exercise, Dr. H. S. Frenkel, revised and enlarged by Dr. L. Freyberger, illustrated ; A Manual of Practical X-Ray Work, Dr. D. Arthur and J. Muir, illustrated. Masson et Cie. (Paris).— Collection Horizon: Petits Précis de Médecine et de Chirurgie de Guerre:—La Fiévre typhoide et les Fiévres paratyphoides (Symptomatologie, Etiologie, Prophylaxie), H. Vincent and_L. Muratet; Traitement des Fractures, Prof. R. Leriche, two vols., tome i., Fractures Articulaires, illustrated; Les Formes anor- males du Tétanos, Courtois-Suffit and Giroux. Methuen and Co., Ltd.—Crowley’s Hygiene of School Life, Dr. C. W. Hutt, new edition, illustrated. - TECHNOLOGY. Cambridge University Press.—The Development of English Building Construction, C.: F. Innocent, illus- trated; Architectural Building Construction: a Text- book for the Architectural and Building Student, W. R. Jaggard and F. E. Drury, vol. i., illustrated (Cambridge Technical Series). Chapman and Hall, Ltd.—The Canning of Fruits J. P. Zavalla. Hodder and Stoughton,—Automobile Repairing Made Easy, V. W. Pagé, illustrated; Modern Starting, Lighting, V. W. Pagé; The Model *T" Ford Car: Its Con- struction, Operation, and Repair, V. W. Pagé, illus- trated. George Routledge aud Sons, Ltd., and Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.—Flour Milling: a Theoretical and Practical Handbook of Flour Manufacture for Millers, Millwrights, Flour-milling Engineers, and others en- gaged in the Flour-Milling Industry, P. A. Kosmin, translated by M. Falkner and T. Fjelstrup, and revised by E. Bradfield, illustrated; Photography in Colours: a Book for Amateurs and Students of Physics, Dr. G. Lindsay Johnson, new edition, illustrated. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (New York).—Plain and Orna- mental Forging, E. Schwarzkopf; Drawing — for Builders, R. B. Dale. ; MISCELLANEOUS. F. Alcan (Paris).—Traité de Psychologie, Prof. G. Dumas. D. Appleton and Co.—Vocational Psycho- logy, H. L. Hollingworth; Scientifie Management and Labour, R. F. Hoxie. Cambridge University Press. —Catalogue of Scientific Papers, fourth series (1884- 1900), compiled by the Royal Society of London, vol. xv., Fitting-Hyslop; Comptes Rendus of Observa- tion and Reasoning, J. Y. Buchanan; The Psychology of the Organized Group Game, with Special Refer- ence to its Place in the Play System and its Educa- tional Value, M. J. Reaney (The British Journal of Psychology Monograph Supplements). Cassell and Co., Ltd.—All About Inventions and Discoveries, F. A. Talbot, illustrated. Chabman and Hall, Ltd.— Scientific Spiritualism, Rev. J. Marchant; Handbook to the History of Philosoohy, Rey. I. O. Bevan. Constable and Co., Ltd.—Practical Surveying, E. McCullough, illustrated. The Open Court Com- pany.—The Works of William Oughdred, Prof. F. Cajori; George Boole’s Collected Logical Works, vol. i.. Ernst Mach’s Civilization and Mechanics, Principles of the Theory of Heat, and Knowledge and Error. Oxford University Press.—The Idea of God in the Tisht of Recent Philosonhy ; The Gifford Lectures in the University of Aberdeen, 1911 to 1913, Prof. and Vegetables, . and Ignition Systems, | SEPTEMBER 21, 1916! Service and Co., Ltd.—Aircraft of To-Day, Lieut. C. C. Turner, illustrated; Marvels of Scientific’ Inven- tion, T. W. Corbin, illustrated; Marvels of Aviation, Lieut. C. C. Turner, illustrated; War Inventions, and How they were Invented, C. R. Gibson, illustrated ; The Wonders of the Submarine, T. W. Corbin, illus- trated. T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.—Essays: Scientific and Literary, Dr. A. E. Shipley, illustrated; Hausa Botanical Vocabulary, J. M. Dalziel. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Lreeps.—The urgency in the demand for the training of colour chemists and dyers has led to a reorganisa- tion of this department of the university. The newly appointed head of the department is Mr. A. G. Perkin, F.R.S., who is assisted in the theoretical and practical teaching of colour chemistry by Dr. J. B. Oesch, formerly colour chemist in one of the chief Continental factories, whilst that of dyeing is under the special supervision of Mr. G. H. Frank, Mr. P. King, former chemist to Messrs. Courtaulds, Ltd., and Mr. A. E. Woodhead. In addition to systematic instruction in the above branches of technology, opportunities will be afforded to students of hearing special courses of lec- tures on ‘Cellulose’? by Mr. C. F. Cross, on ‘‘ The Distillation of Coal Tar’’ by Mr. H. P. Hird, and on ‘Colour in its Relation to Constitution” by Prof. E. R. Watson, of Dacca University. At the request of British Dyes, Ltd., a laboratory has been set apart for the accommodation of a staff of chemists working on behalf of this firm, and will be exclusively in charge of a member of the university staff. The denartment is controlled by the Textile Industries and Dyeing Committee of the university, consisting of well-known representatives of both in- dustries. The aim of the newly organised department is therefore to render service to the colour-making and dyeing industries by offering special training in these branches, whilst giving assistance to the enterprise promoted by Government money. Mr. E. A. Woops, of New College, Oxford, has been awarded a Burney Yeo scholarship for 1916 at King’s College Hospital Medical School. Mr. W. Neitson Jones, late assistant-lecturer in botany at Bedford College for Women, N.W., has been appointed lecturer and head of the department in botany of the college. THE sum of 300!. has been left to the Bristol General Hospital by Dr. W. Barrett Roue to found a scholar- ship for medical students of the hospital. The scholar- ship will be known as the ** Barrett Roue Scholarship.” By the will of Sir James Sivewright, whose death was announced last week, legacies are bequeathed of 50001. to Milne’s Institution, Fochabers, and of 10,000l. to the University of Aberdeen, for the purpose of pro- viding bursaries for students coming from the county of Morayshire. THE resignation of Dr. R. Armstrong-Jones of the medical superintendency of the Claybury County Asylum was announced in our issue of August Io. To mark the esteem in which Dr: Armstrong-Jones is held by the staff of the asylum a silver tea and coffee service was presented to him by the staff on September 7. Dr. Armstrong-Jones will continue to lecture on mental diseases at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. NO. 2447, VOL. 98] NATURE 63 a P. Pattison; Sadoleto on Education, Tue calendar for the current session of Birkbeck a translation of the De pueris recte — institu- | College, London, provides full particulars of the endis, with motes and introduction, by Prof. | numerous day and evening classes in the subjects E. T. Campagnac and K. Forbes. Seeley, | included in university faculties of arts, science, laws, and economics. The character of the work accom- plished at this institution is well summarised in the final report of the Royal Commission on University Education in London (1913). The commissioners write: “We think that the original purpose of the founder of Birkbeck College and the excellent work that institution has done for the education of evening students who desire a university training mark it out as the natural seat of the constituent college in the faculties of arts and science for evening and other part-time students.”’ THE prospectus and time-table of the Belfast Muni- cipal Technical Institute for the current session show convincingly the care and thoroughness with which the Technical Instruction Committee of the city has pro- vided instruction in the principles of the arts and sciences which bear directly or indirectly upon the trades and industries of Belfast. The prospectus describing the work of the various departments runs to 384 closely printed pages, and every subject likely to be of service to the men and women engaged in the city’s industries seems to be included in the time-table. The day tech- nical college provides instruction in the science and technology of mechanical wai cee | electrical engineering, the textile industries, and pure and applied chemistry. The Queen’s University of Belfast and the Corporation of Belfast have entered into an agreement whereby the institute is recognised as a college in which students of the University may pursue a course of study qualifying for a degree of the University. Tuoucu the governors of the Royal Technical Col- lege, Glasgow, in view of the war, reserve full power to modify the arrangements announced in the recently published calendar for the session 1916-17, they again offer suitable educational facilities for those who wish to qualify themselves to enter upon one of the indus- trial professions, or to follow one of a number of selected trades. Complete courses of instruction are provided in mathematics, physics, chemistry, the prin- ciples of engineering, and other subjects, and in their application to industries and arts. The college is affiliated to the University of Glasgow, and candi- dates for the degree of B.Sc. in applied science may attend the necessary qualifying courses either in the University or in the college. The University of Edin- burgh, too, has recognised the day classes of the college as qualifying for its degree in science. Numerous important firms have expressed their willing- ness to allow a selected number of their apprentices facilities for carrying out a scheme of college study conjoined with practical work, and some are willing to recognise the time spent in college as part of the apprenticeship period. Notuine perhaps could be more opportune to the cause of educational reconstruction than the recent publication by the Board of Education of the pamphlet entitled ‘The Admiralty Method of Training Dockyard Apprentices.” By its system of training the Admiralty has succeeded in providing on one hand a body of leading technical experts in shipbuilding and engineering, and on the other a body of skilled workmen among whom the labour troubles that have so sorely affected employers elsewhere are prac- tically unknown. Moreover, not only have the Ad- miraltv and a considerable proportion of the larger shipbuilding and engineering firms throughout the country thus obtained their managers, designers, and other lower-grade officials, but the foundation of the 64 NATURE. Navy of Japan was likewise laid by the products of this remarkable scheme. . It is only natural, therefore, to inquire what are the fundamental characteristics of a system that has achieved such a unique success. The details are described in the pamphlet already mentioned; but it may be stated that the underlying principles consist in the adoption of a military. form of organisation dependent almost exclusively upon in- dividual merit, and a method of admission to its ranks as broad as democracy itself. Apprentices enter the Royal Dockyards as the result of a competitive exam- ination, and they are compelled to continue their edu- , cation by attending the Dockyard schools for twelve hours a week (two afternoons and three evenings), of which seven and a half hours are given by the Admir- alty. Apprentices pay no fees for attending the schools, are provided with text-books and stationery free of cost, and are paid their usual wages for the afternoons on which they are at school. Perhaps the most astonishing feature of the whole system lies in the fact that this remarkably democratic scheme was quietly inaugurated in the least expected of our national institutions, and in a time when practically every other form of high professional training in the country was a class privilege. In a crisis like the present, therefore, when the whole of the virtues of a nation are powerless without outstanding leadership and genius, the moral is plain. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, September 4.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—G,. Bigourdan; The conference of longi- tudes of 1634. A historical account of Morin’s pro- posals.—P. Zeeman; Direct measurement of the axial velocity of water in Fizeau’s experiment. The axial velocity was formerly determined by measuring the whole of the water passing through the tube, giving the mean velocity, and using the coefficient 0-34 to determine the axial velocity. As this coefficient is liable to uncertainty, a new alternative method is described, based on the introduction of very small air bubbles into the flow, and observing their trajectory by means of a rotating mirror. This has led to an unexpected result: the axial velocity varies in a complicated manner along the tube, so that there is no one axial velocity. The extreme variation is more than 1o per cent. Finally, a standardised Pitot tube was used to measure the velocities at a large number of points, with satisfactory results.—J. Bougault: The prepara- tion of acylsemicarbazides, starting from the semicarb- azones of a-lketonic acids. The oxidation of semicarb- azones by iodine and sodium carbonate, by a quite unexpected reaction, gave a semicarbazide according to the equation, R.C(CO,H):N.NH.CO.NH,+0O = CO,+R.CO.NH.NH.CO.NH,. The reaction is com- pleted at the ordinary temperature, and its generality is shown by the exz imples given, in which R is (C.H;.CH:), (C,H;.CH,.CH,). (C,H;), and ((CH,);.C). Of the four semicarbazides. thus prepared, three are new.—M. Luizet: Shooting star with a_ persistent luminous track. This meteor left a line of light which, after taking a wavy form, broke up into several frag- ments. Some of these combined together, taking the shape of an elongated bulb. This disappeared four minutes after the first disr uption of the meteor.—J]. L. Dantan: Observations on the larva of Ostrea edulis. — , M. Ranjard.: The first hundred cases of. deafness treated by Marage’s method at the Centre de rééducation auditive of the 8th district. The treatment of deafness by the method of Marage has been nroved. to be useful from the military, financial, and social points of view. Only 16 per cent. of the cases gave negative results NO. 2447, VOL. 98] ~ ‘(fy = a 3 i [SEPTEMBER 21, a | under the treatment.—]. Danysz: The causes of the. disturbances observed after the injection of products af the arsenobenzene group, and anaphylactic crises. | A study of the conditions producing a precipitate in the veins after injection of arsenobenzene derivatives. —L. Camus: The preparation, properties, and be tages of a heey vaccine. ; BOOKS RECEIVED. The Punjab, North-west Frontier Province, and Kashmir. By Sir J. Douie. Pp. xiv+373. (Cam- bridge : At the University Press.) 6s. net. Le Principe de Relativité. By E. M. Lémeray. Pp. 150. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie.) 3.75 franes. Cours d’Hydraulique. By Prof. J. Grialou. Pp. vi +536. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie.) 20 francs. The Influence of Joy. By G. Van Ness Dearborn. Pp. xviiit223. (London: W. Heinemann.) 5s. net.. Wratten Light Filters. Third edition. Pp. 72. (London; Kodak, Ltd.) 1s. The Photography. of Coloured Objects. Second edition. Pp. 118. (London: Kodak, Ltd.) 1s. The Birds of Shakespeare. By Sir A. Geikie. Pp. x+121. (Glasgow: J. Maclehose and Sons.) 3s. 6d. net Rev. William Hall’s Visible Rep onomical Compass. (London: J. D. Potter.) 1s. net. CONTENTS. PAGE InDEX NUMBER. Calculations for Flying Machines. ry taht Hi Be Paleolithic Man. By A.S.W. . og The Natural History of Hawaii. ........, @ Colloid-Chemistry .... |S Our Bookshelf ; | ee Letters to the Editor :— Life Assurance Tables —Prof. W. W. Campbell . 48 Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-Cowrie in America, ._ —J. Wilfrid Jackson , 48 Notice of Possible Suspension of the Rules of Nomen- : clature in the Cases of Holothurta, 1758, vs. Physalia, 1801, and Aohkadsrhia, 1833, vs. Holothuri2z, 1791. —Dr. Cc. W. Sules 4 - 49 Scientific and Industrial Resear By J. A. F. 2 4g The Art of the Cave. (///ustrated.) By Dr. William Wright . 5r gctenislogicall Reucaseh in ‘Bombay. ByJ.s w. Ww. 's. 52 Notes. Se SRO Our Astronomical Column :— The Variable Nebula in Corona Australis . 7 ees Proper Motions by the Blink- i +e >) ae The Period of U'Cephei . G0RRayen - . . = > aman Mr, John Angell Bre 56 Aurora and Magnetic Disturbances of August 27, i 1916. » 57 The Sakura-jima Eruption of January, 1914, By Dr. , C. Davison Dae The British Association at Newcastle :— Section E.—Geography. ~~ een he (Abn by Edward A. Reeves, F. F.R. GiGi President of the Section. yun. Diagram Me Et. Forthcoming Books of Science . . , . 60° University and Educational Intelligence... . . 63 Societies and Academies ..... eis. o/s Books Received . ot Ress . «eee Editorial and Publishing Offices : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.Gl Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. ai Editorial Communications to the Editor, Telegraphic Aadress: Puusis, LONDON. Telephone Number: Grrrarpv 8830. + RET Ty —— A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SQECE. s “To the solid ground tonal Muse Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye."—Worbdswortn. ae. ; - No. 2448, VOL. 98] | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 [Price SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.) [All Rights Reserved. : , REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., 2 Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty’s™* Government (Home & Overseas Dominions). Laboratory Furnishers (War Office Pattern) and Manufacturing Chemists. Tested and approved by Wool- wich Arsenal and offered for sale under licence from the Ministry of Munitions. Made throughout in our own Factory. NEWTON& CO. Scientific Instrument Makers to H.M. the King, 72 WIGMORE ST., LONDON, W. ‘ESTABLISHED OVER 200 YEARS. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, and TECHNICAL LABORATORIES | Fully Furnished with BENCHES, FUME CHAMBERS, &c. + INSTITUTIONS EQUIPPED INCLUDE :— The National Shell Filling Factory, Leeds, and various Munition Works ; Uhe National Physical Laboratory, Teddington ; Laboratories at’ Messrs. 3runner, Mond & Co., Ltd., Northwich; Messrs. Meadowcroft & Son, Ltd., Blackburn; ‘The Shelton Iron, Steel and Caal Co. ; Science Laboratories at the Grammar School, Dunstable; Imperial Service College, Windsor ; Batley Grammar School; Transvaal Dept. of Agriculture (txperimental Farm), Potchefstroom ; ‘he Technical Schools, Morley and Yeadon ; The Girls’ High Schools act Barnsley, Beverley, Doncaster, Leeds. Nuneaton, Sherbourne, and York ; Radley College,‘ xford ; The Schools, Shrewsbury ; St. Mary's College. Winchester ; and many others. Catalogve of Chemical and Physical Apparatus:and Chemicals post free. Designs of Benches and Fittings to suit all requirements. 14a COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. Hoenn eee ee ee eee ee cc nee SeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEtel (Regd. Design 62871.) TD. DUROGLASS L* 14 CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. A Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. Beakers. Flasks, Etc. Soft Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. Special Glass Apparatus Made to Order. DUROGLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. SOLE SELLING AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. _ 14 CROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. XXV1 THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. The following Special Courses of Instruction on the FERMENTATION INDUSTRIES will be given during the Session 1916-17 :— BREWING AND MALTING. By ARTHUR R. LING, F.I.C. Part I. Malting.—A Course of 10 Lectures, with associated laboratory work, commencing Tuesday, October 3, 1916, at 7 p.m. Part II. Brewing.—A Course of 20 Lectures, with asso- ciated laboratory work, commencing Tuesday, January 16, 1917, at 7 p.m. THE MICRO-BIOLOGY OF THE FERMENTATION INDUSTRIES. By ARTHUR HARDEN, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.S. _ A Course of 20 Lectures, with associated laboratory work, commencing Friday, October 6, at 7 p.m. Detailed syllabus of the Courses may be had upon application at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the Principat. THE MANCHESTER MUNICIPAL SCHOOL, OF. TECHNOLOGY. (UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER). Principat: J. C. M. Garner, M.A. (late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge). The Prospectus, forwarded free on application, gives particulars of the courses leading to the Manchester University degrees in the Faculty of Technology, in the following departments :— MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, SANITARY ENGINEERING (including Municipal Engineering), THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES (including General Chemical Technology, Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, Papermaking, Brewing, and Metallurgy), THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES, PRINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY, MINING, AKCHITECTURE. During the Session 1916-1917, First Year Courses will be specially adaptee to the requirements of students who may wish to take Commissions in H.M. Forces. BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. Principal—F. H. Newman, M.A., Ph.D. Technical Day College for students wishing to enter the Engineering, Architectural, Chemical, or similar professions. University Courses, day and evening, under recognised teachers, for London University degrees in Science, Nngin- eering, and Music. Training Department of Domestic Science for Teachers of Domestic Subjects. Physical Training College for Teachers of Swedish, Educational, and Remedial Gymnastics. i ae of Hygiene and Physiology, Commerce, and AU USIC, School of Art and Crafts. Hostels for Women Students. For particulars apply to the Skcrerary, Buttersea Poly- technic, 8. W. * SS FOR SALE.—Abouta thousand Right-Angle Prisms 36 X 16 X 18 m/m., in which are ceefects such as dead inetal, bubbles, &c., renderi:g them unsuitable for Prism Binoculars. Useful ‘ for demonstration purposes. Gla-stalone cost about 2s. Price gd. each. —Warson & Sons, 313 High Holborn, W.C NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL OPTICS. NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, ST. JOHN STREET, LONDON, E.C. ENGINEERING DAY COLLEGE. “aa Full Day Courses in the ‘'heory and Bractice of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering will commence on Monday, October 2, 1916. The Courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering include specialisation in Auto- mobile and Aeronautical k.ngineering, and those in Electrical Engineering include specialisation in Radio-Velegraphy. Entrance Examination on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 26 and 27, 1916. ‘Lhese courses include periods spent in commercial workshops, and extend over four years. ‘hey also prepare for the Degree of B.Sc. in Engineering at the University of London. Fees £15 or £1 1 per annum. Three Futrance Scholarships of the value of £52 each will be offered for competition at the Entrance Examination in September, 1916. TECHNICAL OPTICS. Full and Part Time Courses in all branches of this important department of Applied Science will be given in specially equipped laboratories and lecture rooms. An Aitchison Scholarship (value £30) will be offered in this department at the Entrance Examination, Full particulars as to fees, dates, &c., and all information respecting the work of the Institute, can be obtained at the Institute or on application to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. a eel BOROUGH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, BOROUGH ROAD, S.E. CHEMISTRY “DEPARTMENT. Unber THE Direction oF C. Dorés, M.A., D.Sc. The Classes in Elementary and Advanced Inorganic and Organic Chemistry commence September 25, 1916. 3 The following Special Evening Courses in Applied Chemis- try will be arranged :— : The Chemistry and Technology of the Essential Oils. The Analysis of Laundry Trade Materials. Attention is also directed to the facilities available for special work in Electrochemistry, Foodstuff Chemistry and Manufacture, and the Chemical Technology of Cellulose. For full particulars apply C. T. MILLIS, Principal. BACTERIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES, 62 CHANDOS STREET, CHARING CROSS, W.C. Bacteriology and Path»logy—Professor HewLert, Dr. F. E. Tayior, and Dr. Harr. Microscopy—Mr. J. E. BawNArD, F.R.M.S. Parasitology—Dr. Georce C. Low. The Laboratory is open daily for Instruction and Research. For particulars apply to the SECRETARY or to Professor HEWLETT, at 62 Chandos Strect. t THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE (UNDER THE AUsPICes of His MasEsty’s GOVERNMENT), CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. In connection with the Hospitals of the Seameu’s Hospital Society. SESSIONS COMMENCE OCTOBER 1, JANUARY 15, and MAY x. ' For prospectus, syllabus, and other particulars apply to the Dean, Sir Havetock CHarLes, G.C.V.O, Indva Office, S.W. EDINBURGH & EAST OF SCOTLAND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE. SESSION 1916-17. The WINTER SESSION begins on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10. The DAY C,.ASSE%, in conjunction with certain Univer-ity Classes, provide full courses of instruction in Agriculture. Horticulture, and Forestry. Full particulars of Courses and Classes, and also of Bursaries tenable at the College, are given in the Calendar, copies of which may be obtained on application All the College Courses are open to Women Students. ALLXANDER M’'CALLUM, M.A.,, LI.B., t Director and Secretary. 13 George Square, Edinburgh. 65 THURSDAY, INDUSTRIAL , WIN the last few days we have been given further evidence by manufacturers and commercial men of their intention to organise themselves for the protection and development of British trade and industry, and to provide sub- stantial funds for the promotion of these objects. A circular has been issued by the Executive Coun- cil of the Federation of British Industries, which includes many leading representatives of manu- facturing and producing industries, inviting firms to join the federation, and to pay an annual sub- scription of rool. until at least the year 1919. The main objects of the federation are the organisation and development of industry now and after the war, in co-operation with labour and in conjunc- tion with the Government and Government depart- ments. In furtherance of like interests, the Com- mittee of Financial Facilities for Trade has just recommeénded to the President of the Board of | Trade that a British Trade Bank should be estab- lished with a capital of 10,000,000l., with the ob- jects, among others, of establishing an informa- tion bureau, co-operating with merchants and manufacturers, and affording financial support to promising enterprises. It is suggested that any financial assistance given by the Government to | undertakings in connection with what are known as “key” industries should be granted through the medium of the commercial information bureau. A couple of months ago we described the forma- tion of the Association of British Chemical Manu- facturers, with a subscription based pro rata on the size of the subscribing undertakings; and the steps taken to organise the British engineering in- dustry into an association were outlined in our issue of August 24. At a meeting held at the Mansion House on September 20 to promote the organisation of British electrical and allied manu- factures it was pointed out that the approximate aggregate capitalisation of our engineering works is NOW 400,000,000l., so that an annual subscrip- tion of one-tenth of 1 per cent. of the capital would provide an income of 400,o000l. These and other signs show that our leading business men are prepared to do their part towards strengthening British industry and com- merce for the competitive struggles of the future. In the case of most of the recent organisations reference is made to the necessity of providing facilities for scientific research; and this point was ‘particularly mentioned by Sir Oliver Lodge at the Mansion House meeting. The inter-connection between science and every branch of engineering No. 2448, VoL. 98] | practical co-operation. is already largely recognised, but we still await the production of a scheme which will show exactly what should be done to promote their We have had a number of committees and advisory councils appointed, but most of them have devoted themselves chiefly to the collection and collation of opinions, and have originated little in the way of constructive plans of procedure. It is perhaps not so necessary now as it was to convince men of business that scien- tific research is the basis of progressive industry ; what is now required of scientific men and their committees is the preparation of practical plans of campaign which can be placed before associa- tions of manufacturers. We believe that when these schemes are available there will be little difficulty in securing the funds to put them into practice. One such plan, national in scope and bold in conception, was sketched by Dr. Kenneth Mees in | an address printed in Nature of July 13 and 20. It asked for the establishment of a national indus- trial research laboratory with a staff of two thous- and men, half of whom would be scientifically trained, while the other half would be assistants and workmen. The annual upkeep was estimated to cost about 800,o0ol., but after a few years the laboratory would probably be self-supporting, and might, indeed, make an annual profit on the ori- ginal investment. Several years ago Sir Oliver Lodge showed how the University of Birmingham alone could make profitable use of five millions, one million of which would be for a real attempt at scientific research in all departments. He pointed out that hitherto the ideas of this country in education and scientific research have been con- ceived on a wholly inadequate scale, and without proper appreciation of the vast extent of territory awaiting exploration. The most useful thing that could be done at the present time would be to concentrate attention upon the construction and details of schemes of this kind instead of lament- ing the assumed indifference of manufacturers to the help which science can give them. The vari- ous committees now in existence would then be in the position of boards of directors having before them for consideration definite plans for the development of their businesses, instead of mere letters of complaint at want of enterprise. There must, of course, be a joining up of those who are attacking the industrial reorganisation of the Empire with those who are working for educa- tional reconstruction; and we look to the Science Committee recently appointed by the Government to assist in this end. The Right Hon. F. Huth Jackson, who was one of the members of the com- mittee recommending the formation.of the British E 66 Trade Bank already mentioned, acknowledged in his speech at the meeting on the neglect of science held last May at the Linnean Society that, as a banker, he had found it a serious drawback to be ignorant of even the most elementary knowledge of the natural sciences. “Perhaps,” he added, “if my education had not been neglected on those lines, I should in some cases have been able to avoid supporting some processes of manufacture which were in themselves wrong, or futile, while in other cases I might have been tempted to depart from the very rigid banker’s attitude of refusing to give support to any new idea.” It is to be hoped that the day is near when no educational course will be considered to be complete unless it includes instruction in the broad facts and prin- ciples of natural science, so that men in all walks of life may be able to appreciate possible directions of advance. Scientific thoroughness in detail, and sound factory management, are no doubt two of the conditions of industrial success, but banking facilities are another, and whether they are rightly or wrongly offered often depends, as Mr. Huth Jackson said, upon the possession of sufficient scientific knowledge either to discriminate between undertakings, or to know when to call for expert advice. _ It is neither desirable nor necessary that every pupil in school or student at college should be com- pelled to take up science courses of a specialised kind, but it is essential that they should under- stand something of the place of science in modern life. Business cannot be learnt in a university or in a technical college, but breadth of view can be gained there, and all can learn that the attitude of mind induced by scientific education is just what is required for the successful development of industry. The changes which have taken place in the con- dition and needs of business life in recent years render it absolutely necessary to employ men of scientifically trained minds, not only among the captains of industry, but also among what may be termed the non-commissioned officers, and even in the rank and file. Our manufacturers are com- bining in their own interests, and are prepared to co-operate with education and science in national reconstruction. The time has come for the pro- duction of schemes of scientific instruction and re- search, practical enough to appeal to manufac- turers and commercial men, and intended to pro- mote the advance of the organised community. We look to the various committees, boards, and advisory councils lately established to see that the opportunity is not wasted in the further statement of axioms and postulates which are now taken for granted by all intelligent people. NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 SCIENCE AND THE SAVANT. Les Allemands et la Science. By Prof. Gabriel Petit d’Alfort et Maurice Leudet du Figaro. Préface de M. Paul Deschagel. Pp. xx +374. (Paris: Librairie Félix Alean, 1916.) Price 3.50 francs. ; HE articles collected in this volume were written by twenty-eight prominent represen- tatives of science and art in France to amplify and enforce for the general public the protest made by the against the German manifesto of October 30 of that year, wherein ninety-three ‘German intellec- tuals”” claimed for their Kultur the hegemony of the world of science. , The book reminds one of an “air with varia- tions.’’ The theme is an oft-quoted remark of Pasteur’s: ‘La science n’a point de patrie; mais l’homme de science en a une.” The aria is the admirable preface by M. Paul Deschanel, Presi- dent of the Chamber of Deputies. In the twenty- eight variations, along with a good deal of repeti- tion about scientific ideas as distinguished from scientific material, there are very marked differ- ences of treatment according as the writer en- visages la science or l’homme de science. The tone ranges from extreme bitterness in an article on “La Thérapeutique Commerciale des Alle- mands,” by Gaucher, and mordant irony in Delage’s ‘“‘ Histoire Naturelle du Doctus Bochen- sis,’ to an amiable letter by Grasset, who insists that science has no country and will not follow the German savants in their excursion outside the region of science into that in which political or national animus .is possible. In the cireum- stances it is difficult to regard so cosmopolitan an attitude as quite fitting the case. There is more ring of sympathetic resonance in Prof. A. Dastre’s views about German mysticism and materialism in relation to science and its progress. Emile Picard raises the practical questicn of international co-operation in science after the war, and thereby reminds us that science is not inde- pendent of the savant. but the progress of science can only find expression through organisations which have national characteristics. In the long run, truth is the only consideration; but the truths of science are not recognisable at all while they are still in embryo in the researcher’s brain, and are not always recognised when they have reached the stage of manuscript or print. The spectacles of prejudice may bring some aspects of truth into brilliant focus, but may distort others beyond recognition; and prejudice may be characteristic of nations as of men. It never helps the progress of science; but unfortunately it may affect the development of the truths of science in other ways. The life of true genius may be too short for the struggle against prejudice, for genius is not always sufficiently self-conscious and self- assertive to make headway in a_ prejudiced environment. Academy of Sciences in November, 1914, — Science has no country, SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] NATURE 67 Even genius must begin its scientific career with education; and facilities for education, which include the beginnings of research, afford an opportunity for discouraging genius that is not in line with national prejudice. Science cannot dis- regard the prejudices of men of science, and. these essays show to what disastrous conditions the neglect of that fact has led. While we in this country were priding ourselves upon our institutions for higher education untram- melled by any consideration except money, and the petty rivalries of corporate bodies, without any formal co-ordination or collective responsibility for meeting the country’s requirements, the Ger- man State provided ample facilities for education which necessarily attracted students from all countries not so well provided—our own, France, the United States, Japan, and everywhere else. Like the French, we regarded these facilities as an admirable example of magnanimous self- interest and public spirit. We have made a mis- take; and our national educational authority, when we get one, would do well to take note of the contribution to the history of science which these nine-and-twenty brief essays provide. STAR-BEARINGS FOR NIGHT-MARCHING. (1) Steering by the Stars for Night-flying, Night- marching, and Night Boat-work between Lati- _ tude 40° N. and 60° N. With Sketch-maps and Directions for finding the Selected Stars. By Gewie D. White. Pp. 32.. (London: J..D. Potter, n.d.) Price 1s. (2) The Stars as Guides for Night-marching in North Latitude 50°. By E. Walter Maunder. Pp. 72. (London: Charles H. Kelly, 1916.) Price 2s. net. Meeet persons who spend any considerable time out in the open during the night not only may at times admire the splendour of the vault of heaven on a clear night, but also learn to recognise the principal features of stellar distribu- tion, and even gain familiarity with the effects of the diurnal and annual apparent motions. Such first-hand knowledge may perhaps be somewhat vague, but a little tuition can render it precise and useful. The necessities of the present time have emphasised one practical application. The heavens encircle the sky-line as with a vast com- pass-card that with a little skill he who runs may read. We have before us two little books, both written with the identical intention of facilitating the employment of this compass. The only difh- culty arises in middle latitudes from the rotation of what is termed in old books the oblique sphere. This difficulty is surmounted in both in the same way, namely, that recently ‘advocated by Lieut.- Col. Tilney, which requires that the progressive true bearings of a few selected conspicuous stars shall be provided. The two books present the data very differently. (1) In “Steering by the Stars” the true bear- ings are tabulated for twenty guide stars for five NO. 2448, VOL. 98] different latitudes, and for each hour of sidereal time linked to G.M.T. by.an auxiliary table. The bearings are given in whole degrees clockwise from N=o° to 360°. By some curious accident the bearing of Spica at setting is twice given incorrectly (pp. 17 and 23). The sketch-maps showing the selected stars are too small to be useful, but probably those whom this very practical book may assist already know the stars. (2) In “The Stars as Guides” the data, pre-. pared solely for latitude 50° N. and referred to local time, are introduced in descriptive text, gathered in tables, and, again, shown in map, form, always subdivided in a way to help assimi- lation. Separate tables for the eight chief com- pass bearings give the day of the month for each hour of the night at which the guide stars come on the bearing. The twenty-four maps are the chief feature of the book. The stars are boldly shown in white on a black ground, plotted on bearings (both compass-card and angular). The year is divided into six bi-monthly periods on six series of maps. Each series contains four maps showing the stars in the N., E., S., and W. The apparent paths of sixteen guide stars are repre- sented, with hourly positions marked. The use of the maps is straightforward and is explained . on one page of the book. We have noticed only a single slip. Aldebaran is not at the point of the Hyades. The theory is simple; accidents of topography are complications even on the best starlit nights. There is no doubt that a continent might be crossed with the aid of the stars, but a night- march from, let us say, Balham to Fulham might be fraught with unpleasant surprises if sole re- liance were placed on stellar guidance. H. E. Goopson. GENERAL CHEMISTRY. (1) A Senior Experimental Chemistry. A. E. Dunstan and Dr. F. B. Thole. By Dr. Pp. xiii+ 522. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s. : (2) A Class-book of Chemistry. By G. C. Don- ington. Part iv., Metals. Pp. vii+4or to’534. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 2s. (3) Physical Chemistry for Schools. By Dr., Henry Hortsman Fenton. Pp. viii+215. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. (1) Gare another text-book of inorganic chemis- try! This one is intended for “boys in the upper forms of secondary schools and students in technical institutes.” It will be found’ useful by many others also. It is difficult nowadays to present a systematic course of inorganic and general chemistry with any novelty, nor is the ground covered by the present book very different from that covered by others. What is charac- teristic is the experimental nature of the treat- 08 ment. Although the course is systematic the endeavour has been made, and made with con- siderable success, to bridge the gap which too often, unfortunately, separates the lecture from the laboratory. The book is written on the sound principle of uniting the lecture and the laboratory, and for that reason it will probably earn a place for itself among chemical manuals. (2) This is the fourth and concluding part of the late Mr. Donington’s well-known ‘‘Class-book of Chemistry.” It contains a more extensive and de- tailed treatment of metals than that already given in an earlier part. The descriptions are lucid, and numerous illustrativé experiments have been in- serted. The concept of ions in solution, and of reversible reactions, are early introduced, and good accounts are given of electro-chemical processes of extraction and refining. The earlier parts have rendered useful service to the teaching of elementary chemistry, and the present volume is up to the level of those previously issued. (3) Dr. Fenton’s book is significant in being the first serious attempt to deal with a problem of importance—namely, that of introducing a cer- tain amount of instruction in physical chemistry into the school curriculum. Hitherto physical chemistry has suffered not a little from the general impression that it is only for those who possess a more or less advanced knowledge of mathematics. The present work ought to do much to remove this erroneous impression. Of course, one has to bear in mind the immaturity of the pupil, and there are aspects of the subject which should not. be attempted. There is no reason, however, why the elements of the kinetic theory and its simpler applications should not be taught. Thermo- dynamical relations, in the reviewer’s opinion, are much too abstract’ to be dealt with adequately at this stage. This is exemplified in one or two places in the present work, where an attempt is made to deal with them. Thus. on p. 25 the logarithmic expression for work done in the ex- pansion of a gas is given, but it is not pointed out that this is the maximum work, and that as a matter of fact the work might be anything from zero up to this limit. This would necessitate an account of what is meant by maximum work, and this in turn a statement of what is meant by thermodynamic reversibility. No mention of these points is made, although on p. 169 the term “‘maximum work” is used in connection with the calculation of the p.d. of an electrode. The greater part of the book is of course devoted to kinetic molecular conceptions, and the treatment is highly successful. The concluding chapter on technical applications is of special importance, as it will serve to do away to a certain extent with another very erroneous idea about physical chemistry, that it has nothing to do with practical problems. As a matter of fact it has everything to do with such problems, and the attempt to inculcate this upon the youthful mind is as praise- worthy as it is necessary. Wy Ga MeGriis NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE ] [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. (1) Factories and Great Industries, with some Account of .Trade Unions, Old-Age Pensions, . State Insurance, the Relief ofe Distress, Hospi- tals. By F. A. Farrar. Pp. 90. (2) Trade and Commerce, with some Account of our Coinage, Weights and Measures, Banks and Exchanges. By A. J. Dicks. Pp. 94. (3) Ships, Shipping, and Fishing, with some Account of our Seaports and their Industries. By G. F. Bosworth. Pp. 86. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 1s. 6d. each. HESE three books are the first of a series which is designed to give children informa-— tion on the industrial and commercial condition of their own country. They deal, generally on his- torical lines, with the nature of the principal in- dustries, with the machinery of commerce, and with the development of shipping; while forth- coming volumes are announced on agriculture and mining. ; The first volume under notice contains brief accounts of the Industrial Revolution; the textile industries; leather, paper, and printing; some great manufacturing towns; trade unionism; fac- tory legislation ;,and provision for unemployment, sickness, and poverty. The second describes weights, measures, and the coinage; the Post Office ; food supply ; imports and exports; banking | and exchange; trade marks, patents, limited liability, underwriting, the customs and excise. The third volume traces the growth of the ship from early times; the mercantile marine and the great ocean highways; the Royal Navy and its dockyards; the fishing industry; Lloyd’s and its work; Trinity House and the lighting of the coast; the Port of London and other great ports. The writing is simple without being very inspir- ing; the books are well printed on good paper; and each volume contains some twenty illustra- tions, comprising half-tones, line drawings, and | maps. The series is suitable for boys of fourteen years of age or thereabouts, and the books may be used as supplementary readers in the upper classes of elementary schools and in the lower classes of evening schools. It is to be welcomed as supply- ing just that information which is necessary to create a sane outlook upon the problems of indus- try and commerce which, as citizens, boys will be called upon to exercise judgment. It is no use treating citizenship as a collection of ethical prin- ciples tacked on to a description of representative government and the administration of justice. The deeper problems of politics are even now, and to a still greater extent in the future will be, technical problems, requiring for their comprehension an adequate knowledge of the way in which this industrial system of ours has come into being, and a general sense of the direction in which it is tending. Our only fear is that the price of the books will lead to their being used singly, and the pupils will obtain only a partial view. The whole series will be equivalent to a single volume of. about 120,000 words, but will compare unfavourably | with such a volume in unity and coherence. It is NATURE | unfortunate that there is so much freedom of | choice and so narrow a range of price in books for elementary schools; for unless we can have a | more definite practical aim in this and other types | of education we must expect variety of training | and outlook to give us a babel of tongues instead of a clear, resonant voice upon matters of national welfare. OUR BOOKSHELF, The Thermodynamic Properties of Ammonia. Computed for the use of Engineers from new experimental data derived from investigations made at the Massachusetts Institute of Techno- logy. By F. G. Keyes and R. B. Brownlee. Pp. v+73- (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Ine.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 4s. 6d. net. Tus book contains the results of an experimental investigation carried out during the course of several years in the Research Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology. The object of the re- search has been to determine the vapour- pressure curve and the specific heat-capacity of liquid ammonia and the isotherms of the substance, so that the already existing data might be critically examined and supplemented and the results obtained used as a basis for the computation of a new table of the thermodynamic properties of ammonia which would prove useful in controlling the performance of refrigerating machines. The first part of the book deals with the funda- mental thermodynamic relations and a discussion of the data and the computations. The various formule involving the relations between the entropy, Gibbs’s heat-function, the latent heat, the specific heats along the saturation line, the ordinary specific heats, etc., are obtained and tabulated for convenience. There are discussions on the methods employed to calculate the heat of vaporisation, the specific heat of liquid am- monia, and the entropy and specific heat of am- monia vapour. The second part of the book gives some forty pages of tables, in which the thermodynamic properties of the saturated and superheated vapour are given with the temperature as_ in- dependent variable in one set and the pressure in another. A Mollier diagram, in which heat- content is plotted against entropy, is added at the end of the volume. The book should prove of the greatest service in engineering practice, especially for those who have to deal with refrigerating machines. The tables are given in a very convenient form, and the explanatory matter at the beginning is -adequate and lucid. , Jade NO. 2448, vot. 98] 69 The Journal of the Institute of Metals. Vol. xv. Edited by G. Shaw Scott. Pp. . viii+392. (London :. Published by the Institute of Metals, 1916.) Price 21s. net.- Tuts volume contains the papers presented at the annual meeting of the institute, with the discus- sion and correspondence to which they gave rise, together with abstracts of papers relating to the non-ferrous metals and the industries connected therewith. Among the papers is the Third Report to the Corrosion Committee, of which an account | was given in Nature on April 6. The paper by Mr. Withey on the analysis of aluminium and its alloys is a very good piece of work which will probably constitute the standard of reference for some years. The aluminium of to-day is liable to contain copper, iron, zinc, silicon, silica, nitrogen, and sodium. It contains notably more copper than the metal produced ten years ago, but in other respects is a purer metal. Prof. Stansfield’s paper on electric furnaces as applied to non-ferrous metallurgy contains much interesting and valuable information. Furnaces are classified under two main headings: (a) those in which metals are reduced from, their ores; (b) those in which metals are heated, melted, refined, and distilled. The former are electrolytic fur- naces, and are used for the production of metals by the electrolysis of their fused salts. Alumin- ium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, barium and strontium are produced largely, if not exclusively, in this manner; and other metals, such as zinc, are occasionally so obtained. The latter are electrothermic smelting furnaces, and are used for the production of metals from their ores with the aid of electrically generated heat. Occasionally the metal is present in the ore in the native state, but usually it is found as an oxide or other chemical compound, from which it must be liberated by a chemical reaction involving the use of carbon or some other reagent in addition to the necessary electrical heat. 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.] Science in Education. WE hear much of the place of science in education, but it seems sometimes as if its advocates would say : ‘“When I mention science I mean experimental science, and not only experimental science, but industrial science, and not only industrial science, but paying science ’'"—to paraphrase Thwackum. Let us look at the French conception of science, as summarised in two fat volumes describing its progress in France, for the San Francisco Exhibition. In one volume are philosophy, sociology, education, mathe- matics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, palzontology, biology, medicine, and geo- graphy. In an equal volume are Egyptology, classical 70 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 archeology, history, art, linguistics, Indices, Sinics, Hellenics, philology (Latin and Celtic), French lan- guage and literature, Italian, Spanish, English, Ger- man, law, and economics. Now, this is what science means to France. How shall we give it honour here? The study of man holds as large a es as the study of Nature. And in this study of man language is the servant, and not the exclusive master, as it has been made in England. One of the first steps required seems to be to put the study of man in its place as part of the essential education for all, quite independent of the minority who specialise in dead languages. We need to te: ich in every school the course of civilisation, its successes and its failures, the grandeur of the characters and thoughts which have stimulated action, to show man as the most potent and ruling influence upon Nature, At present, to even the small minority who master dead languages for effective use, most of the literature is Betenowr , and the physical facts of civilisation are ignored. The time spent in general education upon dead languages—mostly ineffective—would suffice for a fair acquaintance with both man and Nature, if practically used, [te STS ral gal Bs The Third Fossil Tsetse-Fly. AmonG some fossil insects collected in the Miocene shales of Florissant, Colorado, by Mr. Geo. Wilson, and transmitted to me by Mr. F. H. Ward, 1 find a beautifully preserved tsetse-fly. The insect is inter- mediate in size between the two fossil species pre- viously found (both of which may be seen in the British Museum), and is evidently distinct. It may be called Glossina veterna, n.sp., and will be best distinguished by the following measurements in milli- metres: length 12-5, length ‘of wing 10-9, length of proboscis 4:1, length and “width of abdomen each 5°60. The body and legs are brown or black, the abdomen without dark bands; the wings are hyaline, faintly brownish. The scutellum has long marginal and apical bristles, exactly as in the living species. The post-alar and first dorso-central bristles are also well preserved and normal. The anterior basal cell of the wing is about 0-6 mm. broad at end, its truncate apical end is short, and the lower margin does not bulge much near the end. The abdomen is hairy, as in living species. This excellent specimen affords additional evidence for the existence of two tsetse-flies in the American Miocene, astonishing as the fact is. The new species is nearest to G. osborni, but is too large to be the female of that form. T. D. A. CockERELL. University of Colorado, Boulder, August 31. The Designation of Hours. A propos the alteration of official time, now immi- nent: would it not be a good plan to suggest a modi- fication of time nomenclature? As follows : Midday is 12 noon; well and good. Half an hour later is 12. 30 p-m., and we have the confusing spectacle of 11.30 p-m. arriving eleven hours afterwards! I suggest, as long as the 24-hour system is followed, that ez ich 12-hour cycle be definitely marked off. Thus half-past 12 (day-time) would be 0.30 p.m., to be followed, quite logics ully, by 1 p.m., 1.30 p.m., etc., up to 12 p.m. Half-past 12 at night would be 0.30 a.m. Comparison could then be made with the 24-hour system, unless indeed the powers that be are foolish enough to label the first half-hour of each new day 24.30 a.m.—to be followed by 1 a.m. C. H. CoiiinGs. g Tollington Place, Tollington Park, N., September 18. NO. 2448, VOL. 98] ARCHASOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE AMERICAS.1 HE work before us is the third volume of a series devoted to the archeology of the Latin Americas, in which the author contrives to give a general account of this enormous field, mainly based upon a widely scattered and not always easily ‘accessible literature, from the earliest Spanish chronists to the present plethora of Americanists. There are few readable works which take a wider and more scientific view of the main questions, whilst the flood of the more professional publications deals with smaller areas and often intensely with abstruse detail of one or other of — the numerous — pro- blems. In this quarter of the globe, from Mexico and the Antilles, and extending far down in western South America, a peculiar and unique kind of civilisation de- veloped, and cul- minated in two widely separated centres, not in the steamy-hot tropical lands, but literally above them, in the uplands where a more in- vigorating —cli- mate still repaid agricultural toil. Having dealt first with the Mexican - Maya civilisation, which has spread its influence in ever - weakening waves down to Panama, the author devoted his second volume to South America, the civilisa- tion of which centred in the Peruvian highlands. Having first treated these north and south centres, with their radiating influence into the Middle Americas, he has shorn these by anticipa- tion. From a broad point of view the present volume could therefore deal only with what was left over, and this residue is of minor importance, since it applies to peoples with a civilisation not exactly degenerafe, but approaching the original stratum, which had not risen to anything great of its own. Fic. 1.— Greater Antilles: Wooden idol. (Scale, one-sixth.) From ‘‘ Central American and West Indian Archaology.” 1 “Central Americin and West Indian Archzology: Be'ng an Introduc- tion to the Arc heology of the States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and the West Indies." By T. A Joyce. Pp. xvi+270. (Lendon : Philip Lee Warner, 1916.) Price 12s. 6d. net. —_= tae SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] The first and larger portion of the book deals with the archeology, ethnology, linguistic divi- sions, habits, and beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of the present States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. The people belong to the same stock, with modifications, which stretched from the Sonoran region through the whole of Central America far into the western—let us say Andine— portion of the southern continent, leaving the bulk of the latter to what may be called the typical neo-tropical races, notably Guarani, Tupi, Arawak, and Caribs. In conformity with the configuration of the isthmus, the influence from the Inca centre was insignificant in comparison with that from the Maya-Mexican. It is the reverse with the fauna and flora, which naturally date from much earlier epochs with broader contact. The last hundred pages are devoted to the West Indies. These fairest and most fertile islands being subject to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes, it is, according to our author, not surprising that their inhabitants developed a reli- gious system which consisted in the main of a pro- pitiation of the powers of Nature. Nevertheless, according to the testimony of C. and F. Columbus, Be ee Fic. 2.—Porto Rico : Stone seat. (Scale, one-third.) From ‘‘Central American and West Indian Archzology.” father and son, they seem to have been a kindly, honest, and generous folk, to whom contact with the Spaniards meant speedy extermination. The original stock of the whole archipelago were Arawaks from the’ southern continent, and were in turn followed by the more bellicose Caribs, who at the time of their discovery were in posses- sion of the Lesser Antilles and fast extending into some of the greater islands. They had a patriar- chal system, with caciques or small chiefs. A tie of friendship was the mutual exchange of their names. They practised the couvade. The Arawaks were armed with sword-clubs and javelins, hurled by means of ornamented spear- throwers. The chief weapon of the Caribs was the bow. The male’ prisoners were eaten. There is no evidence that stone weapons were used, the blades of stone found being tools. Charms were made of wood and stone, images of man and ‘animals. Interesting are the stone collars which are said to be the translation into stone of originally a wooden hoop, a tree-fork bent and fixed by bandages into this shape. The enclosing of a spirit in such a circle is connected NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE 71 with tree-worship. Beautiful stone collars are found also in the Maya-Mexican countries. But there is very little known about such and similar curiosities beyond the often gratuitous accounts of the old chronists, and the same applies to the beliefs and habits of these vanished people. Some are no doubt of genuine indigenous origin; others point to the western or to the southern mainland, just as one would expect. Since these islanders used dug-outs, large enough for even long voyages, it is not surprising that their kind of civilisation—as shown by their weapons, orna- ments, stone masks, figurines, pottery, etc.—was - more or less alike all over the archipelago. THE ABNORMAL PROPAGATION OF SOUND BY THE ATMOSPHERE. M® S. FUJIWHARA has recently published a second valuable memoir on the abnormal propagation of sound-waves in the atmosphere (Bull. Centr. Meteor. Observatory of Japan, vol. il., 1916, pp. 1-82). As in his previous paper (Nature, vol. xcii., 1914, p. 592), he ascribes the peculiarities investigated to variations of the air- temperature and of the velocity and direction of the wind, and he concludes that the structure of the upper atmosphere may be inferred from the form of the region of audibility. The present memoir consists of two chapters. The first is theoretical, and deals with the modes of propagation of sound-waves through the atmosphere, the structure of which may be one of the five types observed by Capt. C. J. P. Cave at Ditcham Park, ,Petersfield, Hants. He shows that the region of audibility, in- cluding the sound-source (or proximate region), may in many cases be of trian- gular, or rather fish-tail, form, the axial direction of which may be not only in the direction of the wind then prevailing, but also in any other direction, at right angles or even oppo- site to that of the wind; for it depends chiefly on the direction of the wind in the lower stratum of the atmosphere with respect to that at the earth’s surface. In other cases the proximate region may assume a spiral form, with the vertex at the source of sound and extending in the sense of the veering of the wind in the upper atmosphere. The regions of audibility due to winds at different heights may overlap one another. Detached regions of audi- bility may appear in a zone subtending an angle of less than two right angles at the sound-source, and they may be of any form. If the wind remains steady in direction and velocity in the upper layers, or if there is a decrease in velocity in the upper atmosphere, detached regions should not occur.. With an increase of velocity in the upper atmosphere, detached regions may occur in the same direction as the proximate region. But if there should be a reversal or great change of direction in the upper layers, or if the upper wind should blow from a distant low-pres- sure centre with frequent reversal in the lower 72 NATURE layers, detached regions should be more often present than absent. In the second chapter Mr. Fujiwhara compares his theoretical investigations with the results of sixty-five explosions during the years 1912 and 1913, for the most part those of the Asama-yama, in Central Japan. These show that the axis of the region of audibility may or may not agree with the direction of the wind at a moderate height; that in some cases the regions of audibility are triangular or spiral in form; that detached regions may occur on the same side of the source, while some- times a very large detached region may be found in company with a very small one at the source; and, lastly, that detached regions of audibility and a silent region may appear in any direction and at any distance according to the prevailing con- dition of the weather. In Japan the monsoon exercises a powerful influence on the propagation of sound-waves in the atmosphere, and_ this accounts for the observed differences in summer and winter. In summer the formation of the detached region of audibility is rather common, and takes place towards the west or south-west of the source, while in winter the phenomenon occurs more rarely and is then caused by an approaching cyclone. C. Davison. SIR LAUDER BRUNTON, BT., F.R.S. Cy the 16th of the month this distin- guished physician passed away after a long illness, borne with rare fortitude. Although retired from private practice, Brunton was far indeed from retirement in respect of those public causes to which, with the pious tenacity of his race, he devoted much of his life, and a fervour almost religious in its depth and con- stancy. Some weeks before his death the pre- sent writer had visited Lauder Brunton, and witnessed both the . distress under which he laboured and the ingenious methods he had de- vised for keeping the evil at bay; not in the desire of a mere prolongation of life, though this indeed were no unworthy intention, but in order to cherish the fire of its last embers for those humane ends which he had so ardently at heart. It was therefore with admiration that, about three weeks before his decease, the writer received from his friend now silent a long and important letter covering certain documents and proposals on the subject of physical education, a movement to which, in his later years, Brunton had given no little energy and guidance, especially for the sake of children and young people, and which he was pressing forward almost with his latest breath. Fortunately, he has worked with comrades and assistants who will not fail to keep his lamp alight, nor let any of his last counsels be forgotten. _At St. Bartholomew’s Brunton proved to be not only a distinguished man of science, but also of much accomplishment and success in the practice of his art. Like James Goodhart of Guy’s, who died but a short while before him, he won the faith and attachment of a large clientéle by merit NO. 2448, VoL. 98] [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 pure of all self-seeking. Although these great teachers were not quite alike in the ways of their medical observation, yet to the particular skill of each were added kindliness of heart and an ~ earnest sympathy which won the confidence of the sufferers who sought their aid. If Brunton had not the imposing personal presence of cer- tain eminent physicians of the past, no one could speak with him without being affected by his gentle, persuasive enthusiasm, and that faith in his art and in mankind which engendered alike faith and hope in those who only too often sorely needed these blessings. Lauder Brunton was one of. the first ef the scientific practising physicians who used no empirical remedies without seek- ing to discover their mode of action, and by pharmacological and other research en- deavoured to add to their number. Bence Jones, Golding Bird, Pavy, were of the generation before him, it is true; but few physicians whose in- terests before all else were, and still remained, clinical, had likewise followed scientific investiga- tion so systematically and in so disinterested a spirit. Moreover, in his particular departments of science Brunton was a pioneer, especially in pharmacology and in the physics of the circula- tion. With a mind strengthened by the serious- ness and philosophical temper of his great uni- versity of Edinburgh, Brunton, after graduation, spent two or three years in foreign study, for the most part in Germany; and no British physi- cian had a better knowledve than he of German teachers, German industry, and of that necessary condition—the German tongue. Thus for him the war was full of sadness. In this brief tribute no attempt can be made even to indicate the character and extent of Brunton’s scientific work, pharmacological, clini- cal, and hygienic. His contributions are only partially presented, indeed, in the two or three portly octavos in which many of them were re- cently reprinted. But if to the chief or to the more familiar of his works some allusion may be made, it would be to his researches with Fayrer into venoms—a successful attempt to clarify a very ancient and chequered story, as the historian of medicine well knows; to his part as one of the Commission which reported on Pas- teur’s treatment of hydrophobia; to his services on the Hyderabad Commission on the effects of chloroform, by which, if its results were doubted in some quarters and in others enlarged, never- theless the whole problem was raised to the plane of its infinite importance; to his work on tuber- culosis, which was informed by the spirit of a social prophet; and to his researches on the dynamics of the circulation. | Herein he made the beneficent discovery of the nitrites as palliative, or better than palliative, in that awful malady angina pectoris, a discovery deserving to rank with that of Peruvian bark in the cure of ague. If, as the present writer has remarked elsewhere,! the discovery arose accidentally from 1 ‘* Diseases of the Arteries,” rors. —— — TO 5 SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] the use of a graphic curve which betrayed the inadequacy of the sphygmograph to follow the finer movements of the artery, yet how many brilliant discoveries have arisen from accidents of manipulation or interpretation! To have dis- covered the means of controlling one of the most cruel ills to which man is subject is perhaps the laurel wreath amid the many memorials of one who, in his humanity, would have prized this above all rewards. By academic and official decorations Lauder Brunton was richly distinguished; but perhaps, - in his loyal and patriotic heart, the honour of none of these was to be compared with the glory of his younger son, a promising Cambridge medi- cal graduate, who last year gave his life on the field of battle for his country—a glory, but also a sorrow which, falling but a brief five years after Lady Brunton’s death, deepened the shadows of his latter days. Happily his elder son, also on military service, and his devoted daughters were. still spared to him. iA. The death of Sir Lauder Brunton on Sep- tember 16, in his seventy-third year, has deprived the world of a great physician, and brought sorrow to a wide circle of friends. Largely by his vivifying studies and teaching, pharmacology has become a definite branch of science. Prac- tical medicine depends on physiology, pharmaco- logy, and pathology, and all three tend more and more to become subdivisions of the all-embracing science of chemistry. In no departments of the healing art is the influence of laboratory methods more apparent than in those directed to the study of disorders of digestion and diseases. of the cir- culation; and in both these directions Sir Lauder Brunton was a pioneer worker. He had the clearest conceptions of clinical facts, and pos- sessed to an unusual degree the practical quality of being able to apply extensive knowledge of physiological medicine to the work of the hour. His stimulating personality will be widely missed by his professional brethren as well as by many who have benefited by his work and advice. Thomas Lauder Brunton was born at Hiltons Hill, Roxburgh, in 1844, and received his medical training at the University of Edinburgh, where he had a distinguished academic career, and gradu- ated M.B., C.M. with honours in 1866, receiving also the gold medal for his thesis. In the follow- ing year he became B.Sc., in 1868. he obtained the M.D., and two years later the D.Sc., in the meanwhile having also studied at Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Leipzig. Settling in London, he became lecturer on materia medica at the Middle- sex Hospital in 1870 and assistant physician at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1875, to which - school he remained attached as lecturer, physi- cian, and consulting physician. Early in his career Brunton’s inclinations leaned towards the scientific side of medicine, and at the early age of thirty he was elected F.R.S. in recognition of his admirable work on the physio- logy of digestion and secretion, on the chemical NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE 73 composition of the blood, and on the actions of the two drugs, digitalis and mercury. Brunton’s post at St. Bartholomew’s carried with it the lectureship on materia medica and therapeutics, and he turned his attention to the effects of medicines and instituted many experi- mental investigations on the actions of drugs upon himself and upon animals. In 1885 he pub- lished his well-known book on “Pharmacology, Materia Medica, and Therapeutics,” which passed through many editions in this country and abroad. This appeared at an opportune moment, and largely owing to his work and writings pharma- cology became separated from materia medica and established as a branch of physiology. In 1886 he was appointed a member of the Commission to report upon Pasteur’s system of inoculation for hydrophobia, and in 1889 a member of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Chloroform Com- mission. For the latter a considerable amount of experimental work was carried out and a valuable report issued, though no very definite conclusions as to the action of chloroform were arrived at. In the meantime, Brunton had become one of the best-known consulting physi- cians in the country, and in the art of treatment he was most resourceful. He introduced a new class of remedies, the vaso-dilators, into medi- cine, and by the use of amyl nitrite for angina pectoris was the first to employ a remedy because its physiological action was opposed to the pathological condition existing in this disease, viz. rise of blood-pressure. In 1900 he was knighted, and nine years later was given a baronetcy, and he was the recipient of many honours from universities and societies at home and abroad. He was also Gulstonian and Croonian lecturer and Harveian orator of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Several works emanated from his pen, notably the “In- troduction to Modern Therapeutics,” illustrating the connection between the chemical structure and physiological action of drugs, “Disorders of Assimilation,” and ‘‘Therapeutics of the Circu- lation.” Sir Lauder Brunton, outside his professional work, was keenly interested in all schemes in favour of national health, of school hygiene, of physical culture and military training, in the furtherance of which he gave bountifully of his time and energies. NOTES. Geo.ocists will regret to hear of the death of Mr. R. J. L. Guppy at his home in the island of Trinidad on August 5, and within a few days of celebrating his eightieth birthday, Mr. Guppy having been born in London on August 15, 1836. In early life he qualified as a civil engineer, and afterwards travelled through Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. On joining his family in Trinidad in 1859, he took part in the construction of the Cipero Rail- way, but later becoming interested in the educational work of the colony, he was appointed Chief Inspector of Schools. Mr. Guppy, however, will be better re- “4 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 | membered for his researches on the geology of Trinidad 1 this subject he contributed upwards of fifty papers, several of which were published by the Geological Society of London, He accumulated a great know- ledge of the Tertiary faunas of that region, and did much towards rendering a correlation of the various horizons represented. His earlier memoirs dealt with the San Fernando deposits of Trinidad containing Orbitoidal and other fossils, which at first he regarded as of older Miocene age, but which afterwards he more correctly assigned to the younger Eocene or Lower Oligocene. He was always an _ ardent student of natural history, being particularly interested in the recent and fossil mollusca, and was also an authority on the rich deposits of petroleum which have made Trinidad so famous. Some years ago he was instrumental in acquiring for the British Museum the second largest known Pleurotomaria, pos- sessing a height of 150 millimetres, which was discovered off the island of Tobago. Mr. Guppy was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London, and of the New York and Philadelphia Academies of Science. He had served as president of the Scientific Association of Trinidad, and was the first presiding officer of the Reyal Victoria Institute Board. Much work yet remains to be accomplished among the Tertiary rocks of Trinidad, as many of the geological horizons are still in confusion and imperfectly understood; but whatever is attempted in the future, there is no doubt that Mr. Guppy’s valuable memoirs will always furnish us with an important basis for later investigations on so interesting a subject. Mr. E. G. Kensit, who fell in action at Delville Wood on July 17, was a great-nephew of the late Dr. Harry Bolus, and became a.member of the staff of the Bolus Herbarium in the Botanical. Department of the South African College in 1912. In August, 1915, he enlisted in the South African contingent for service overseas. After a period of training at Potchefstroom, he was sent to Egypt, and served through the Senussi campaign. .The circumstances of the death are de- scribed in: the following extract from’ the Cape Times of August 30 :—‘ On the colonel of his regiment calling for a volunteer for the purpose of reconnoitring the enemy’s line and securing certain information, Kensit was among those who stepped forward, and his offer was accepted.” 'He was seen to be hit as he crawled. away, but he continued with his task, and after an interval crept slowly back, hampered by his wound. On reaching the parapet he was assisted to surmount it.. He was able to give the officer all the information that was wanted, but he had no sooner done ‘so than he rolled over—dead.” . : WE regret to learn that Mr. Gustav Mann died at Munich on June 22, in his eighty-first year. To him we owe our knowledge of the botany of the Cameroon Mountain, for he was: the pioneer of botanical ex- ploration in this region when he was attached to Dr. Baikie’s Niger Expedition in 1859 as botanical collec- tor for Kew. He ascended Clarence Peak, in Fer- nando Po, and made extensive collections of plants from the mountains of western tropical Africa, which have been described in papers presented to the Linnean Society. He then went out to India, and after serving for a year as assistant in the Government cinchona plantations was transferred in 1864 to the Bengal Forestry Department. From 1868 he served in Assam, and in 1882 was appointed Conservator of Forests, which position he held with distinction until his retire- ment ‘in 1891. NO. 2448, VOL. 98] and the other West Indian islands. On a EEE WE learn from the British Medical Journal that. Lieut.-Col. G, M. J. Giles, Bengal Medical Service (retired), died at Plymouth on August 24, aged sixty- two. In his early service he spent some years as surgeon naturalist in the Indian survey ship, the — Royal Indian Marine steamer In¥estigator, and in 1886-87 accompanied the late General Sir William Lockhart on an exploring expedition in the Pamirs. He was the author of works on kala-azar and beri-beri, mosquitoes, climate and health in hot countries, and tropical climatology. A FEpDERATION of British Industries has been formed to provide a body capable of representing the interests of the British manufacturing and producing industries," The objects of the federation may be summed up briefly as the organisation and development of industry now and after the war, in co-operation with labour and in conjunction with the Government and Government departments. The federation will at once concern itself with the reconstruction of British trade after the war; the development of sources of supply of raw materials; and questions arising out of the transition: from war to peace, such as measures to mitigate pos- sible unemployment during that period. Every effort is to be made to ensure that in future no important action affecting British industry shall be taken by the Government without due weight being given to the views of manufacturers. A condition of membership is an annual subscription of tool. a year, with an obligation to continue such subscription until June 30, 1919. Mr. F. Dudley Docker, C.B., is the president. of the federation. ; Tue recently issued report (Cd, 8346) of the Com- mittee on Financial Facuities tor Trade to the Presi- dent of the Board of 1rade recommends the establish- ment of a British Trade Bank, constituted under Royal Charter, to fill the gap between the home banks and the Colonial and British-foreign banking houses, and to develop facilities not provided by the present sys- tem. It is proposed that the bank should have a capital of 10,000,000l., and should, among other activi- ties, inaugurate an intormation bureau, co-operate with merchant and manufacturer, and become a centre for syndicate operations. ‘The bureau, it is suggested, should be independent of the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade, and would not neces- sarily deal only with schemes in which the bank pro- posed to take financial interests, but might be made a centre for the investigation of other projects. The report urges that if financial assistance is given by the Government to undertakings in connection with what are known as ‘‘key"’ industries, the business should be done through the new bank. The committee thinks that such a bank would, with efficient manage- ment, not only be a great boon to British trade, bu also should prove a commercial success. f, An important addition to the art collections of the Philadelphia Museum is reported in the Museum Journal for last March. Mrs. Dillwyn Parrish, of Lon- don, has presented five Roman mosaics in memory of her late husband. Of these, the two most interest- ing specimens from the point of view of size come from Carthage; the other three, smaller, but charm- ing, examples, are “said to have been obtained in Rome. The Carthage mosaics are examples of opus vernriculatum—cubes of marble or other material dis- posed so as to attain to a pictorial effect. One of the Italian pieces, representing a duck, has much in common with some of the mosaics found in the House of the Faun in Pompeii. Another, consider- ably later in date, represents two griffins facing an urn, and is an example of the stiff, conventional, unimaginative work of the second century a.p. On — _ SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] the other hand, the lack of imagination is in some degree made up by the great technical skill shown: in’ the treatment of the griffins, the colour being obtained by the use of cubes of opaque glass applied to the wings and tongues of the beasts. Tue deficiencies of modern India in the matters of house building and sanitation are a cause almost of despair to the authorities. No problem is so difficult as that of sanitation, because the official runs the constant risk of offending some religious or social prejudice. But it is not because their own writers have neglected the subject that the present condition of things has arisen. In the June issue of the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society Dr. Maha- mahopadhyaya Ganga Nath Jha has collected the ancient Sanskrit laws on the subject. They deal with the sanitation of houses, and provide minute direc- tions on the right uses of food and drink. Much of this is, no doubt, academic, and the rules on these subjects are the speculations of philosophers which in many cases could not have been brought into actual practice. But many of them are judicious, and may help the officer of health in preaching the value of Sanitation. The pandit ends by saying :—'' From the above it will be seen that the old people of this country knew and practised many laws of health and sanitation which have been forgotten, with results that all deplore.” Tue Indian Journal of Medical Research for July (vol, iv., No. 1) contains several important papers. Dr. Soparkar describes a method for cultivating the tubercle bacillus from sputum after destruction of adventitious micro-organisms by treatment with caustic soda. Dr. Agnes Scott writes on osteomalachia, and Major McCarrison, I.M.S., de- scribes the successful experimental production of congenital goitre in goats by feeding them with cultures of micro-organisms grown from the feces of goitrous individuals (goats). He concludes, therefore, that congenital goitre is due to the action on the feetal thyroid of toxic substances derived from the maternal intestine. — On July 29, 1915, the Government passed the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915, which consoli- dated in one Act the 1914 Bill and previous Acts of Parliament. The Act, however, does not come into force until such date as the Local Government Board may by Order appoint. As the Bill was passed by mutual consent of all sections of both Houses, it cannot be expected to include far-reaching improvements in the milk supply. It does, however, provide that the Local Government Board may issue ‘‘ Orders,’’ upon which the success of the Act-will almost entirely de- pend. With the view of defining what may be considered the requirements necessary to improve the milk supply, representatives of the National Clean Milk Society, the Society of Medical Officers ot Health, and the Sanitary Inspectors’ Association have formulated a series of recommendations which have been forwarded to the President of the Local Govern- ment Board, and a copy of which we have received. These recommendations have been conceived in a moderate spirit, and their adoption would do much to improve the general milk supply. They do not, however, include a clause prohibiting the addition of skimmed milk to milk, a matter of some importance. Berore the war the United States imported annually from Germany as much as 300,000 tons of potash. The failure of this source of supply has in- duced the Department of Agriculture to make the experiment of. extracting potash from kelp. It is believed that the vast beds of this weed off the coast NO. 2448, VoL. 98] inspection of NATURE 75 of California will suffice to furnish all the future needs of the country, and large quantities are already being placed’ on the market from this source. But, according to California Fish and Game for July, fears have been expressed that the cutting of the kelp will have an injurious effect upon the fisheries of the State, and this because of. the protection afforded by the weed to the beaches, and the danger of exterminating the clams and. spiny lobsters which live more or less within the protection of the kelp. They also fear that the young fish, especially bar- racuda, which are in the habit of seeking refuge here, will be driven away, and further that such fish as spawn here will similarly be destroyed. These several objections have now, however, been carefully examined, and it is pointed out that the kelp-cutters, or reapers, do not cut below 6 ft., thus leaving ample shelter. It may be, indeed, that the cutting will prove actually. beneficial, since it will. be less easily torn up by storms. The species of kelp which is thus being harvested is Macrocystis pyrifera, a plant which ranges in length from roo to 300 ft. In the Journ. Agric. Research (vi., No. 14) Mr. V. L. Wildermuth describes the life-history of a lacewing fly (Chrysopa californica). The larve of Chrysopa are well known as beneficial insects on account of their habit of feeding on. ‘“‘greenfly’’ (aphids). CC. cali- fornica lives as a larva for about sixteen days, during’ which it undergoes two moults, and eats from 74 to 160 full-grown aphids, besides a still larger number of young ones, An excellent twenty-page pamphlet by the Rev. Jas. Waterston on ‘‘ Fleas as a Menace to Man and Domes- tic Animals "’ forms No. 3: of the British Museum's Economic Series. The: structure and life-history of the insects are described in sufficient detail, and readers are warned of the great danger to be feared from those species which act as carriers of the plague- bacillus between rats and human beings. There are many instructive and illuminating statements, such as an observation quoted from Prof. Osborn, who once collected a teaspoonful of fleas’ eggs from the dress of a lady who had been fondling a kitten! In the Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine for August Mr, E. Meyrick publishes a ‘‘Note on Some Fossil Insects,"’ dealing particularly with a hindwing, of Upper Triassic age, from Queensland, which has been named Dunstania pulchra and referred to the Lepi- doptera by Mr. R. J. Tillyard. Mr. Meyrick points out that the nervuration of this hindwing would indi- cate a highly specialised Lepidopteran type, if the in- sect to which it belongs were really a moth. As the wing further possesses a corneous margin “ altogether abnormal, no other Lepidoptera showing a trace of it,” he is inclined, though with some hesitation, to sug- gest that it must be referred to a Homopterous insect. Incidentally he supports the Lepidopteran nature of Butler’s Palaeontina oolitica, emphasising its affinity to the family of the ‘‘ swift-moths” (Hepialidz), THE annual report of the Dove Marine Laboratory for 1916 contains an important paper by Prof. A, Meek on the method of estimating the age of fishes by the annual growth-rings on_ the scales. This method was extended by Lea, Dahl, and Hjort some years ago in this way: Assum- ing that the growth-rates of the scale and body of the fish (the herring) are strictly proportional, it ought to be possible to determine the age of the same individual in successive years by measuring the distances between the focal point of the scale and the margins of each of the rings. But application of this method led to some apparently anomalous results, and Lea’s conclusions 76 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916. were criticised by Miss Rosa Lee, of the English Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. It appeared as if there was a contraction of growth of scale relative to the growth of the body, and the Norwegian inves- tigators sought to explain this by postulating elimina- tion of the fish exhibiting the more rapidly growin scales. In the publication now noticed Prof. Meck shows that there is not exact correlation between growth of body and of scale; the latter grows at first less rapidly than, then at the same rate as, and finally more rapidly than does the body. Curves of growth are probably exponentials and show this imperfect pro- portionality. Selection does indeed take place; there is a tendency (in the case of the herring) for fish of the same phase of sexual maturity to shoal together, so that those which are (sexually) younger tend to join with shoals of their own phase, and vice versa. In the same publication Mr. B. Storrow applies the prin- ciple to the growth-rate of other fishes. Pror. E. W. Sinnott contributes to the American Naturalist (1., No. 596) an essay on the ‘‘ Comparative Rapidity of Evolution in Various Plant Types.’’ He concludes that the most recently evolved members of the North Temperate flora are herbaceous in habit, that herbs tend to be grouped in fewer and larger genera and families than shrubs and trees, and that herbs, with their rapid multiplication of generations, must be ‘‘in most cases undergoing evolutionary develop- ment much more rapidly than are trees and shrubs.” The most ancient Angiosperms were probably woody, and ‘herbaceous vegetation has made its appearance in comparatively recent geological time." In his history of Ethiopian earthquakes (Boll, Soc. Sismol. Ital., vol. xix., pp. 293-350) Prof. L. Palazzo has added to our knowledge of the seismic regions of Africa. His catalogue, which closes with the year Ig12, contains 142 entries, all but seven since the beginning of the nineteenth century. He shows that the seismicity of Erythraa is higher than was sup- posed, and that the earthquakes sometimes attain a de- structive intensity, while those which occur near the coast are occasionally accompanied by sea-waves. As to their origin, some are purely volcanic, but the majority he classes under Mercalli’s heading of peri- metric or intervolcanic. Dr. A. Cavasino has recently published a valuable memoir on the after-shocks of the Italian earthquake of January 13, 1915 (Boll. Soc. Sismol. Ital., vol. xix., 1915, pp. 219-91). These were recorded at the geodynamic observatory of Rocca di Papa, which is about forty miles from the epicentral area. The earth. quake occurred at 7.53 a.m., and, owing to the strength of the shock, all the seismographs in the observatory were suddenly thrown out of action. Within three-quarters of an hour the more sensitive instruments were repaired, including the Agamennone microseismometrograph, the records of which are here considered. The loss of the earlier records of after-shocks is of little consequence, for, at Rome, the seismogram of the principal earthquake obliterated those of the after-shocks, and, moreover, the ground during the first hour was in such a state of continual agitation that individual shocks could not be distinguished. The number of after-shocks registered during the first twenty hours was 302, and during the first six months 1280. Dr. Cavasino considers that the distribution in time of these after-shocks does not follow Omori’s well-known law deduced from the after-shocks of the great Japanese earthquakes. Tue Geologists’ Association (Proc., vol. xxvii., 1916, p. 1) publishes a beautifully illustrated paper. by Prof. Garwood on ‘‘The Faunal Succession of the NO. 2448, VoL. 98] - tents. | Lower Carboniferous Rocks of Westmorland and North: Lancashire,’ which serves, with its maps, as a guide to a very attractive district, including the high moors of Shap and the picturesque fault-blocks of the Arn- side shore. In the same volume,(p. 79) Mr. P. G. H. Boswell describes the constitution of the North Sea drift as found across eastern England. His mechanical analyses usefully distinguish this drift from the later Glacial- brick-earths; but why does he use such expressions as $ and 1/100 of a _ milli- metre? The remarkable variety and beauty of the mineral fragments in this mixed material are pointed” out by one who clearly loves his subject. Tue ‘Rainfall of India” for 1914, which is the twenty-fourth year of issue, is collected from the re- turns published by the various Provincial Governments, and is issued in one volume by the Meteorological Department of the Government of India under the superintendence of Dr. G. C. Simpson, officiating Director-General of Observatories. The volume gives the monthly and annual rainfall, as well as the average rainfall for about 3000 stations in India, from the records taken daily at 8 a.m. The number of rainy days is given, and although the rainfall is measured to hundredths of an inch, a ‘“‘rainy day”’ is taken as that on which a tenth of an inch or upwards has fallen, and the normal number of rainy days given in some cases is also calculated on the same assumption. The value of a ‘rainy day” being ten times as great in India as in England is regrettable, and some adjustment may be found possible when a change is made to meet the registration by the new units of measurement now generally adopted in this country and elsewhere. The normals used for the comparison are those revised to 1910 for the whole of India, and are mostly for at least thirty or forty years. Tue Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce of Washington issues a Scientific Paper, No. 286, on ‘*The Determination of Aluminium as Oxide.”” The author, Mr. William Blum, finds that, to avoid loss of alumina, a hot 2 per cent. ‘solution of ammonium chloride should be used for washing the precipitate, as this facilitates coagulation. Methyl red is used as an indicator of the optimum condition of alkalinity, since it shows a sharp colour change at the desired point. The quantitative reasons for its selec- tion are interestingly stated. The elimination of other substances from the precipitate is considered. A copy of the paper will be sent free on application to the Bureau of Standards. THe new American journal, Aviation and Aero- nautical Engineering, contains much of interest, and should prove a successful enterprise, both in the States and elsewhere. The second number is specially worthy of note on account of the scientific nature of the con- There is an excellent article on ‘‘ Aviation and Aerography,’”’ in which the importance of meteoro- logical research as a help to aviation is strongly emphasised. A short note entitled ‘‘An English Photograph of Great Interest’’ shows a very keen appreciation of the merits of the Royal Aircraft Fac- tory machines, and of their inherent stability. An article on ‘‘Steel Construction of Aeroplanes” con- tains an account of a method of construction which must eventually supersede wood for the larger machines. Perhaps the most interesting item from a scientific point of view is the second part of ‘‘ A Course in Aerodynamics and Aeroplane Design,” written from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The © authors treat of the elements of aerodynamical theory, and. if future articles of the series are as clearly ; written as that in the present number, they should _ prove of considerable value to those who need an intro } SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] duction to the subject. From the ‘reports of the behaviour of the recording instruments at a number of magnetic observatories in different parts of the world during the solar eclipse of August 21, 1914, Dr. Bauer and Mr. Fisk, of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Washington, have drawn some preliminary conclusions as to the _ effects of eclipses on solar terrestrial magnetism, which will be found in the June number of Terrestrial Mag- netism and Atmospheric Electricity. At stations. from which the eclipse was visible it appears to have changed slightly the daily march of the declination needle. At four British and Danish stations for which curves of the daily change of declination are given the normal motion of the needle to the west was arrested, and in some cases reversed, a short time before totality of the eclipse. Outside the region of visibility of the eclipse na magnetic effects were observed. These results appear to justifv more ex- tensive preparations for observing the effects of the solar eclipse due June 8, 1918. Messrs. Kopak, Limirep, have issued a new and much improved edition of their ‘Wratten Light Filters"’ (1s.), in which they describe some ninety colour screens. Of those previously catalogued eleven are omitted and twenty-nine new filters are introduced, the latter including a series of nine made to equalise the tints of various artificial lights for facilitating photometric work. The transmissions of nearly all the filters are given in very clearly expressed curves, a vast improvement on the reproductions of spectro- graphs taken with a graduating wedge in front of the slit, as given in the previous editions. For those who need more exact data the actual readings ob- tained by the use of the spectrophotometer are given in copious tables, and will prove of great value. “The Photography of Coloured Objects,’’ another of Messrs. Kodak’s publications, has been revised, and now includes “ Orthochromatice Filters,’ which was until now published separately. For the benefit of any who do not know this volume, we may say that it gives a clear and accurate account of the principles involved, and points out objects of many kinds that are really “coloured,” though they do not appear to be. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Encke’s Comet.—Prof. Strémgren_ reports that Encke’s comet was observed by Dr. Max Wolf on September 22. At gh. 41-5m., K6nigstuhl mean time, its position was R.A. 22h. 28m. 39s., declination 7° 8 5"S. The magnitude of the comet was 16:5. Tue Nesura Hu. 78 Leonis.—It is interesting to note that Mrs. Isaac Roberts is continuing her detailed studies of nebulz photographed at Crow- borough by the late Dr. Isaac Roberts. The subject of a recent paper (Monthly Notices R.A.S., vol. Ixxvi., p. 647) is the nebula Hu. 78 Leonis (N.G.C. 3367), photographed in 1902. The nebula extends for about 2/ from north to south, and 2:5’ in the direction at right angles, and is described as a left-hand spiral with a bright stellar nucleus. The nucleus is encircled twice by the spiral arm, which shows numerous con- densations. With the aid of the Roberts ‘ panto- graver,’’ measures were made of many of the bright nebulous knots, and of nineteen stars which appear in the neighbourhood of the nebula. All the measured objects are clearly indicated in a key chart, and the tabulated data will doubtless be of considerable value in subsequent investigations of relative motions within the nebula. } NO. 2448, VoL. 98] NATURE 77 PnHoroGraPus or Mars.—In the September number of the Observatory an account of a minute examina- tion of photographs of Mars taken at Flagstaff by Dr. Lowell and his co-workers is given by G. H. Hamilton? The photographs were studied without reference to maps of the planet, and details common to three or more of the images, of which there were sometimes as many as four dozen on a single plate, were inserted in sketches. Subsequent comparisons in all cases showed a very close agreement with the accepted maps in the observatory. One of the sketches, from photo- graphs taken on March 15 of the present year, is reproduced, and shows an abundance of detail, includ- ing numerous canals. Mr. Hamilton is of opinion that the linear character of the canals, as represented by Dr. Lowell, is completely confirmed by the photo- graphs. By the use of a finely divided transparent scale, it was found possible to obtain satisfactory measurements of the positions of the principal mark- ings, due allowance being made for halation. SPECTRUM OF THE NesBuLA H rv. 39 ARGUs.—An account of the spectrum of Hiv. 39 Argds (N.G.C. 2438) has been given by Dr. Max Wolf (Sits. Heidelberg Akad. d. Wiss., March, 1916). The spectrum was photographed at the Konigstuhl Observatory, Heidelberg, on Febru- ary 20, with an exposure of five hours. The nebula is very faint, and direct photographs show it to be of annular form with an eccentrically situated stellar nucleus; the eastern side of the ring is the brighter, and the nucleus lies nearer the western edge. The spectrum is almost identical with that of the ring nebula in Lyra, but much fainter. In order of bright- ness the lines are A 373,387,434 (Hy), 469, 501, and 397; there is possibly also a faint line at 352. As in the Lyra nebula, a distribution of the different gases in layers is indicated by the varying distances to which the lines extend. The line 373 reaches furthest out- wards, but has a marked minimum in the interior of the ring. The lines 387 and 434 reach further towards the centre; and, in striking contrast with the other lines, 469 (i.e. 4686, of ‘‘proto-helium”’) is brightest within the ring, and extends only a small distance from the nucleus. THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. Vo account of the inauguration and organisation of the National Research Council of the United States was published in our issue of August 3 last (vol. xcvii., p- 465), and the article pointed out that from the cordial interest shown by all who had learnt of the work in its early stages, it was evident that so soon as a widespread request for co-operation could be extended it would meet with general acceptance. A preliminary report of the Organising Committee to the president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, published in the August issue of its Proceed- ings, shows that this expectation has been justified, and some of the first instances of co-operation are given. Prof. G. E. Hale, chairman of the committee, has also sent to the New York Times an account of what is being done in the United States to mobilise science for industrial progress and military efficiency, and we reprint his letter below. It will be seen that the president of the Throop College ‘of Tech- nology in Pasadena, California, an institution which gives special attention to research, hearing of the plans of the Research Council, offered the assistance and co-operation of the recently endowed research labora- tory of chemistry, and secured at once an additional endowment of 20,0001. for scientific research. In somewhat similar circumstances a gift of t100,000!. 78 has been made to the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, with the expectation that much of the income will be used for research. A resolution of the New York Engineering Foundation expresses approval of the co-ordination and federation of the research agencies of the United States undertaken by the National Academy, and also willingness to assist. The foundation has offered its entire income for the coming year—including a special gift of 1o000l.—to- wards the expenses of organisation and to provide a New York office for the council. Resolutions of a similar kind are to be proposed to other scientific societies in the States. At its annual meeting in April the National Academy of Sciences volunteered to organise the scientific re- sources of educational and research institutions in the interest of national preparedness. This offer, -which was immediately accepted by President Wilson, has led to the establishment of the National Research Council. Public welfare and national security depend upon industrial progress and military efficiency; and these, in turn, result from practical applications of scientific knowledge. A superstructure, no matter how perfect, must have firm foundations, and thus the develop- ment of our industries must go hand in hand with the advancement of knowledge through research. It is equally true that the mobilisation of industry, so successfully undertaken by the national engineering societies in co-operation with the Naval Consulting Board, must be accompanied by the mobilisation of science. This necessity has been recognised in Eng- land by the establishment of an Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and in Australia by the organisation of a National Institute of Science and Industry. Thus it is expected ultimately to over- come the telling advantages, both in war and in peace, which Germany has long enjoyed because of the organisation and development of her scientific re- sources. Paul Deschanel has remarked of French men of science: ‘“‘Ils pensent que défendre la vérité est le meilleur moyen de servir la patrie.” Thus the duties of a National Research Council should not be confined to the necessities of war or the development of American industries. We should recognise, with Carty, the engineer, that when adapted to practical uses the “results of the pure men of science become of incalculable value to the industries as a whole.” And we should not fail to perceive that every form of scientific research contributes to human progress. Euclid, working out problems in pure mathematics in Alexandria, prepared the way for the calculations of the engineer. Galileo, discovering the satellites of Jupiter, convinced the world of the truth of the Coper- nican theory, broke down absurd medieval conceptions which prevented scientific progress, and stimulated exploration and advance in every field. Pasteur, study- ing the optical properties of certain crystals with no thought of practical result, was led to his investiga- tions of bacteria and his epoch-making discoveries for the benefit of mankind. Thus scientific research in any field, whether for the advancement of knowledge or for direct industrial or military application, is a most fundamental form of national service, which should be encouraged by every possible means. The work of the Research Council will thus relate to public welfare in times of peace even more truly than to national security in the event of war, During our Civil War the need of scientific advice was ofter felt by our Government. Accordingly, the National Academy of Sciences was chartered in 1863 NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 by Act of Congress, which stipulated that ‘the academy shall, whenever called upon by any depart- ment of the Government, investigate, examine, experi- ment, and report upon any subject of science or art. ... ' During the war, and frequently in later years, the academy has been consulted by Congress, by the President, and by various members of his. Cabingt. — It is thus the agency naturally chosen for the organisa- tion of the National Research Council. The purpose of the council is to bring into co-opera- tion existing governmental, educational, industrial, and other research organisations, with the object of en- couraging the investigation of natural phenomena, the increased use of scientific research in the development of American industries, the employ- ment of scientific methods in strengthening the national defence, and such other applications of science as will promote the national security and welfare. The council will be composed of leading American investigators and engineers, representing the Army, Navy, Smithsonian Institution, and various scientific — bureaus of the Government; educational institutions and research foundations, and the research laboratories of industrial and manufacturing establishments. Research committees of two classes will. be ap- pointed :— Central committees, dealing with various depart- ments of science, comprised of leading authorities in. each field, selected in consultation with the president of the corresponding national society. Local committees in universities, colleges, and other co-operating institutions engaged in scientific research. The organising committees will recommend to the National Research Council the following plan of pro- cedure, approved by the council of the National Academy, but open to such modification as the Re- search Council may deem desirable :— (1) The preparation of a national census of equip- ment for research, of the men engaged in it, and of the lines of investigation pursued in co-operating Government bureaus, educational institutions, research foundations, and industrial research laboratories; this. census to be prepared in harmony with any general plan adopted by the proposed Government Council of National Defence. (2) The preparation of reports by special committees, suggesting important research problems and favourable opportunities for research in various departments of science. (3) The promotion of co-operation in research, with the object of securing increased efficiency; but with careful avoidance of any hampering control or inter- ference with individual freedom and initiative. (4) Co-operation with educational institutions, by sup- porting their efforts to secure larger funds and more favourable conditions for the pursuit of research and the training of students in the methods and spirit of investigation. (5) Co-operation with research foundations and other agencies desiring to secure a more effective use of funds available for investigation. (6) The encouragement in co-operating laboratories of researches designed to strengthen the national de- fence and to render the United States independent of foreign sources’ of supply liable to be affected by war. To meet immediate needs, the following committees have already been completely or partially organised and are at work :— ’ , Nitric Acid Supply, appointed in co-operation with the American Chemical Society, to investigate pro- cesses for the fixation of nitrogen, in order to select the best means of preparing the nitric acid required in the manufacture of powder and high explosives. Preventive Medicine, appointed in co-operation with the Committee of Physicians and Surgeons, to develop 4 SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] nd-utilise new methods of preventive medicine for _ the protection of troops in the field, ; __ Organic. Chemicals, appointed in co-operation with he American Chemical Society, to secure co-operation mong chemists in researches required for the manu- facture of dyestuffs, synthetic medicinals, and other chemicals made scarce by the war. aes { Communications, appointed in co-operation with the “American Physical Society and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, to develop and apply the most effective devices for military communications, the de- tection of submarines, and other similar purposes. Committees for the promotion of research in applied mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and various other branches of science will also be organised by the council, The most cordial spirit of co-operation has been shown by every individual and institution hitherto invited to take part in the work. Universities, re- search foundations, and industrial laboratories, in the event of war, would place every facility at the dis- osal of the Government. In times of peace they will co-operate with the council in the advancement of research. The Engineering Foundation, under the .auspices of the United Engineering Societies, has passed resolutions commending the purposes of the council, and offering it a~ New York office in the _ Engineers’ Building and the services of an executive secretary. Substantial contributions to a general ex- pense fund have already been received. It is evident that so soon as a general request for co-operation can be issued it will meet with the widest acceptance. Throop College of Technology, in Pasadena, Cal., has recently afforded a striking illustration of one way in which the Research Council can secure co-operation and advance scientific investigation. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, could be of great service in any broad scheme of co-operation. | President Scherer, hearing of the formation of the council, immediately offered to take part in its work, and with this object he secured within three days an additional research endowment of 100,000 dollars. The spirit of national service and the increased appreciation of the value of science, which have resulted from the European war, should lead to many similar gifts elsewhere. The following letter from the President shows his approval of the council’s plans and his active assistance in completing its organisation :— “Dr. William H. Welch, President of the National Academy of Sciences, 807 St. Paul Street, Balti- more, Md, :— “My Dear Dr. Welch,—I want to tell you with what gratification I have received the preliminary report of the National Research Council, which was formed at my request under the National Academy of Sciences. The outline of work there set forth and the evidences of remarkable progress toward the accomplishment of the object of the council are indeed gratifying. May I not take this occasion to say that the departments of the Government are ready to co- operate in every way that may be required. and that the heads of the departraents most immediately con- cerned are now, at my request, actively engaged in considering the best methods of co-overation? Repre- sentatives of Government bureats will be appointed as members of the Research Council as the council desires. “Cordially and sincerely yours, * (Signed) Wooprow Witson.” Arrangements will be made to hold a meeting of the council soon after the appointment of the representa- tives of Government bureaus. Grorce Ertery Hate. NO. 2448, VoL. 98] NATURE 73 THE GOVERNMENT CINCHONA PLANTA- TIONS IN BENGAL, ‘es fifty-fourth annual report of the Government Cinchona Plantations and Factory in Bengal for the year 1915~16 is as interesting and valuable a document as that for 1914-15 noticed in these columns last year. In. the previous report the scientific sidé of the work for the past ten years was re- viewed, while in that now under notice a_ re- view of the financial side of the operations for thc past sixteen years is given. Since April, 1900, to March, 1916,. the total expenditure amounted to 42,65,600 rupees and total receipts to 39,30,000 rupees. The deficit of 3,35,600 rupees is, however, not a sign of financial mismanagement, but is an indication of remarkable and highly successful administrative ability. The deficit was incurred within the period 1905-14, during which time the department was being greatly improved. The explanation, which is simple, is given in the words of the report, as the excellent work which is being done by Major Gage and his staff is deserving of wider recognition: “About the beginning of the 1905-15 period it was seen that the demand for quinine—since 1892 in excess of the yield from plantation bark—was exceeding the factory output capacity, and that as more than go per cent. of the world’s supply of bark and quinine was in the hands respectively of Java planters and about a dozen manufacturers, the risk of the formation of a ‘Trust’ and the abolition of an open market was not to be taken lightly. It was foreseen that, if while there was still an open market large quantities of bark and quinine were purchased at the lowest rates ever touched, it would allow the formation of a reserve of quinine large enough to meet the increase in demand and to serve as a stand-by in case of a severe malarial epidemic, what time the plantations were being extended on a_ scale large enough to render the department independent of external supplies and prices. “So during 1908-14 large sums were expended on purchase of bark and quinine at very low rates and on extra extensive plantations. Subsequent develop- ments have thoroughly justified the then heavy ex- penditure. For instance, if the annual quinine vield from the plantations had remained at its 1905 figure of gooo Ib., Government would have had to pay during 1913-15 at least 7,74,000 rupees in purchase of enough bark or quinine to make up the quantity (74,000 Ib.) distributed during these years, whereas it cost Government to make the quantity required above the 1905 output level less than 3,08,000 rupees. In those two years alone Government saved at least 4,66,000 rupees, which exceeds the deficit for a period of sixteen years. The deficit will speedily be replaced by a surplus yearly increasing, and meanwhile it is covered many times over by readily realisable assets.”’ These assets include (1) additions to factory and machinery that have quintupled its 1900 output capacity; (2) 2418 acres afforested with timber and fuel trees; (3) 2295 acres planted with cinchona 7,69,085 rupees in value; (4) a reserve of 165,000 Ib. of quinine valued at 18,97,500 rupees, and other manu- factured products, bark, etc., valued at 2,05,055 rupees —a total of 29,18,000 rupees. The total return for the 42,65,600 rupees expenditure is therefore in cash and assets 68,48,000 rupees. Nothing is claimed for value of factory, etc., in the estimate. From this explanation, with conditions of present- ment as stringent as few companies would think of adopting, the financial side of the department’s work is seen to be as satisfactory as the scientific. 80 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION A. MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. OpeninG AppRESS (ABRIDGED) BY Pror. A. N. WHITE- HEAD, Sc.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. The Organisation of Thought. Tue subject of this address is the organisation of thought, a topic evidently capable of many diverse modes of treatment. I intend more particularly to give some account of that department of logical science with which some of my own studies have been con- nected. But 1 am anxious, if I can succeed in so doing, to handle this account so as to exhibit the relation with certain considerations which underlie general scientific activities. It is no accident that an age of science has developed into an age of organisation. Organised thought is the basis of organised action. Organisation is the ad- justment of diverse elements so that their mutual relations may exhibit some predetermined quality, An epic poem is a triumph of organisation—that is to say, it is a triumph in the unlikely event of it being a good epic poem. It is the successful organisation of multi- tudinous sounds of words, associations of words, pic- torial memories of diverse events and feelings ordinarily occurring in life, combined with a special narrative of great events: the whole so disposed as to excite emo- tions which, as defined by Milton, are simple, sen- suous, and passionate. The number of successful epic poems is commensurate, or, rather, is inversely com- mensurate, with the obvious difficulty of the task of organisation. Science is the organisation of thought. But the example of the epic poem warns us that science is not any organisation of thought. It is an organisation of a certain definite type which we will endeavour to determine. Science is a river with two sources, the practical source and the theoretical source. The practical source is the desire to direct our actions to achieve pre- determined ends. For example, the British nation, fighting for justice, turns to science, which teaches it the importance of compounds of nitrogen. The theo- retical source is ‘the desire to understand. Now I am going to emphasise the importance of theory in science. But to avoid misconception I most emphatically state that I do not consider one source as in any sense nobler than the other, or intrinsically more interesting. The importance, even in practice, of the theoretical side of science arises from the fact that action must be immediate, and takes place in circumstances which are excessively complicated. If we wait for the neces- sities of action before we commence to arrange our ideas, in peace we shall have lost our trade, and in war we shall have lost the battle. Success in practice depends on theorists who, led by other motives of exploration, have been there before, and by some good chance have hit upon the relevant ideas. By a theorist 1 do not mean a man who is up in the clouds, but a man whose motive for thought is the desire to formulate correctly the rules according to which events occur. A successful theorist should be excessively interested in immediate events, otherwise he is not at all likely to formulate correctly anything about them. Of course, bofh sources of science exist in all men. j Now, what is this thought organisation which we call science? The first aspect of modern science which struck thoughtful observers was its inductive character. The nature of induction, its importance, and the rules of inductive logic have been considered by a long series NO. 2448, VoL. 98] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 of thinkers, especially English thinkers, Bacon, Her- schel, J. S. Mill, Venn, Jevons, and others. I am not going to plunge into an analysis of the process of induction. Induction is the machinery and not the product, and it is the product which I want to consider, When we understand the product we shall be in a stronger position to improve the machinery. ‘ First, there is one point which it is necessary to emphasise. There is a tendency in analysing scientific processes to assume a given assemblage of concepts applying to nature, and to imagine that the discovery of laws of nature consists in selecting by means of inductive logic some one out of a definite set of pos- sible alternative relations which may hold between the things in nature answering to these obvious concepts. In a sense this assumption is fairly correct, especially in regard to the earlier stages of science. Mankind found itself in possession of certain concepts respecting nature—for example, the concept of fairly permanent material bodies—and proceeded to determine laws which related the corresponding precepts in nature, But the formulation of laws changed the concepts, sometimes gently by an added precision, sometimes violently. At first this process was not much noticed, a ee or at least was felt to be a process curbed within narrow bounds, not touching fundamental ideas. At the stage where we now are, the formulation of the concepts can be seen to be as important as the formu- lation of the empirical laws connecting the events in the universe as thus conceived by us—for example, the concepts of life, of heredity, of a material body, of a molecule, of an atom, of an electron, of energy, — of space, of time, of quantity, and of number. But, for the purposes of science, what is the actual world? Has science to wait for the termination of the metaphysical debate till it can determine its own subject-matter ? more homely starting-ground, Its task is the dis- covery of the relations which exist within that flux of perceptions, sensations, and emotions which forms our experience of life. The panorama yielded by sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and by more inchoate sen- sible feelings, is the sole field of its activity. It is in this way that science is the thought organisation of experience. The most obvious aspect of this field of actual experience is its disorderly character. It is for each person a continuum, fragmentary, and with elements not clearly differentiated. The comparison of the sensible experiences of diverse people brings its own difficulties. I insist on the radically untidy, ill- adjusted character of the fields of actual experience from which science starts. To grasp this fun ental truth is the first step in wisdom, when constructing a philosophy of science. , This fact is concealed by the influence of language, moulded by science, which foists on us exact concepts as though they represented the immediate deliverances of experience. The result is that we imagine that we have immediate experience of a world of perfectly defined objects implicated in perfectly defined events which, as known to us by the direct deliverance of our senses, happen at exact in- stants of time, in a space formed by exact points, without parts and without magnitude: the neat, trim, tidy, exact world which is the goal of scientific thought. . My contention is that this world is a world of ideas, and that its internal relations are relations between abstract concepts, and that the elucidation of the pre- cise connection between this world and the feelings of actual experience is the fundamental question of scientific philosophy. The question which I am in- viting you to consider is this: How does exact thought apply to the fragmentary, vague continua of experi- ence? I am not saying that it does not apply; quite the contrary. But I want to know how it applies. I suggest that science has a much— SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] NATURE 81 he solution I am asking for is not a phrase however rilliant, but a solid branch of science, constructed ith slow patience, showing in detail how the corre- ondence is effected. The first great steps in the organisation of thought ere due exclusively to the practical source of scientific activity, without any admixture of theoretical impulse. ‘Their slow accomplishment was the cause and also the effect of the gradual evolution of moderately rational beings. I mean the formation of the concepts of definite material objects, of the determinate lapse of time, of simultaneity, of recurrence, of definite relative position, and of analogous fundamental ideas, according to which the flux of our experiences is men- tally arranged for handy reference : in fact, the whole apparatus of common-sense thought. Consider in your “mind some definite chair. The concept of that chair is simply the concept of all the interrelated experiences connected with that chair—namely, of the experiences of the folk who made it, of the follk who sold it, of the folk who have seen it or used it, of the man who is now experiencing a comfortable sense of support, _ combined with our expectations of an analogous future, _ terminated finally by a different set of experiences when the chair collapses and becomes fire-wood. The forma- tion of that type of concept was a tremendous job, and zoologists and geologists tell us that it took many tens of millions of years. I can well believe it. I now emphasise two points. In the first place, science is rooted in what I have just called the whole apparatus of common-sense thought. datum from which it starts, and to which it must recur. We may speculate, if it amuses us, of other beings in other planets who have arranged analogous experiences according to an entirely different conceptual code—namely, who have directed their chief attention to different relations between their various experiences. But the task is too complex, too gigantic, to be revised in its main outlines. You may polish.up common sense, you may contradict it in detail, you may surprise it. But ultimately your whole task is to satisfy it. In the second place, neither common sense nor science can proceed with its task of thought organisa- tion without departing in some respect from the strict consideration of what is actual in-experience. Think again of the chair. Among the experiences upon which its concept is based I included our expectations of its future history. I should have gone further and included our imagination of all the possible experiences which in ordinary language we should call percep- tions of the chair which might have occurred. This is a difficult question, and I do not see my way through it. But at present in the construction of a theory of space and of time there seem insuperable difficulties if we refuse to admit ideal experiences. This imaginative perception of experiences, which, if they occurred,. would be coherent with our actual experiences, seems fundamental in our lives. It is neither wholly arbitrary nor yet fully determined. It is a vague background which is only made in part definite by isolated activities of thought. Consider, for example, our thoughts of the unseen flora of Brazil. Ideal experiences are closely connected with our imaginative reproduction of the actual experiences of other peovle, and also with our almost inevitable con- ception of ourselves as receiving our impressions from an external complex reality bevond ourselves. It may be that an adequate analysis of every source and every type of experience yields demonstrative proof of such a realitv and of its nature. Indeed, it is scarcely to be doubted that this is the case. The precise elucidation of this question is the problem of metaphysics. One of the points which I am urging in this address is that the basis of ‘science does not depend on the assumption of any of the conclusions of metaphysics; NO. 2448, Vor. 98] That is the but that both science and metaphysics start from the same given groundwork of immediate experience, and in the main proceed in opposite directions on their diverse tasks. For example, metaphysics inquires how our percep- tions of the chair relate us to some. true reality. Science gathers up these perceptions into a determinate class, aads to them ideal perceptions of an analogous sort, which in assignable circumstances would be ob- tained, and this single concept of that set of percep- tions is all that science needs; unless indeed you prefer that thought find its origin in some legend of those great twin brethren, the Cock and Bull. My immediate problem is to inquire into the nature of the texture of science. Science is essentially logical. The nexus between its concepts is a logical nexus, and the grounds for its detailed assertions are logical grounds. King James said, ‘‘No bishops, no king.”’ With greater confidence we can say, ‘*No logic, no science.’’ The reason for the instinctive dislike which most men of science feel towards the recognition of this truth is, I think, the barren failure of logical theory during the past three or four centuries. We may trace this failure back to the worship of authority which in some respects increased in the learned world at the time of the Renaissance. Mankind then changed its authority, and this fact temporally acted as an emancipation. But the main fact, and we can find complaints' of it at the very commencement of the modern movement, was the establishment of a rever- ential attitude’ towards any statement made by a classical author. Scholars became commentators on truths too fragile to bear translation. A science which hesitates to forget its founders is lost. To this hesi- tation I ascribe the barrenness of logic. It will be necessary to sketch in broad outline some relevant features of modern logic. . . . I will now break off the exposition of the function of logic in connection with the science of natural phenomena. I have endeavoured to exhibit it as the organising principle, analysing the derivation of the concepts from the immediate phenomena, examining the structure of the general propositions which are the assumed laws of nature, establishing their relations to each other in respect to reciprocal implications, deduc- ing the phenomena we may expect in given circum- stances. Logic, properly used, does not shackle thought. It gives freedom and, above all, boldness. Illogical thought hesitates to draw conclusions, because it never knows either what it means, or what it assumes, or how far it trusts its own assumptions, or what will be the effect of any modification of assumptions. Also the mind untrained in that part of constructive logic which is relevant to the subject in hand will be ignorant of the sort of conclusions which follow from various sorts of assumptions, and will be correspondingly dull in divining the inductive laws. The fundamental training in this relevant logic is, undoubtedly, to ponder with an active mind over the known facts of the case, directly observed. But where elaborate de- ductions are possible, this mental activity requires for its full exercise the direct studv of the abstract logical relations. . This is applied mathematics. Neither logic without observation, nor observation without logic, can move one step in the formation of science. We may conceive humanity as engaged in an internecine conflict between youth and age. Youth is not defined by years, but by the creative impulse to make something. The aged are those who, before all things, desire-not to make a mistake.. Logic is the olive branch from the old to the young, the wand which in the hands of youth has the magic property of creating science. 1 £.g. in 155“ by Ita ian sckoolmen. 82 ‘NATURE UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL ‘INTELLIGENCE. Lonpon.—At University College a public lecture—the first of a series of six—will be delivered by. Prof. J. A. Fleming on ‘Long-distance Telegraphy and Tele- phony,”’ on Wednesday, October 18, at 5.30 p.m. Prof. J. Norman Collie, director of the chemical laboratories, will give a lecture on Tuesday, October 31, at 5.30 p-m., on ‘The Scientific Work of Sir William Ram- Mr. A. L. MacAutray, a son of Prof. A. MacAulay, has been appointed demonstrator in physics in the University of Melbourne. THE next election to Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical Research (of which there will not be more than ten awards) will take place on or before January 1, 1917. Applications must reach the hon. secretary, Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical Research, 35 Clarges Street, W., on or before October 15. A series of popular lectures on ‘‘ The Tropical Coun- tries of the Empire,” illustrated by the collections of the Imperial Institute, will be delivered by Miss Edith A. Browne on Wednesdays in October, November, and December, at the Imperial Institute, at 3 o’clock, commencing on Wednesday, October 4. Admission to the series of lectures will be free by ticket, for which application should be made to the director of the Imperial Institute, South Kensington. Ir is announced in the issue of Science for Septem- ber 8 that a recommendation that a fund of more than 600,000l. for the treatment of cancerous, nervous, and disabling ailments be given to the University of Penn- sylvania Hospital has ‘been’ made by Dr. W. H. Smith, superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Balti- more, who was selecte| by the trustees of the fund to visit Philadelphia and make a survey of its hos- pitals and medical work and give his opinion as to where the fortune would work the greatest benefit. The fund is the estate and its increment willed for the purpose by the late Anna J. Jeanes, a noted Friend philanthropist, who died in 1908. Tue governing body of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Clerkenwell, E.C., is not this year publish- ing the usual annual issue of its ‘“‘ Announcements,” but will start and carry through during the current session as many of the courses and classes announced for last year as may be justified by the applications for enrolment received at the commencement of the session. It is hoped that day and evening courses will be held in civil, mechanical, and electrical en- gineering, in technical optics, and in horology. The engineering courses include subsections in automobile work, aeronautics, and radio-telegraphy. In addition there are to be evening courses in electrochemistry, metallurgy, and domestic economy. THE instruction given in the evening courses in technology in the University of Leeds, a prospectus of which for the current session has been received, are. co-ordinated with the city scheme for evening instruction, and Leeds students under twenty-two years of age are required to produce certificates of satisfac- tory attendance at preparatory classes, or give evidence of adequate preparation. Advanced _ technological courses are held at the University in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, coal-mining, textile indus- tries, tinctorial chemistry and dyeing, leather indus- tries, and geology. The University of Leeds, .too, works in co-operation with the Bradford Technical Col- lege, from. which we have also received a prospectus No. 2448, vor. 98] [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 and time-table.. Senior day students of the chemistry and dyeing department of the Bradford College may attend without. payment of fee certain lecture courses at the University. University students may similarly attend for work in the college practical dye-house and finishing shed. Third-year stifdents of engineering in the college may attend the University engineering laboratory for work on the refrigerator plant, air- compressor, and hydraulic installation without pay- ment; and University students may similarly attend for work in the college power-house. a A MEETING of the Committee for the Management of the British Prisoners of War Book Scheme was held on Friday last “at Whitehall, when the following officers were elected :—Chairman, Mr. A. T. Davies — (Board of Education); treasurer, Rear-Admiral J. F. Parry, C.B., hydrographer to the Navy. ment of a secretary was held over. A_ gratifying, report was read from the principal examiner to the Board of Trade (Marine Department) on the result of the recent examinations held at the camp at Gron-. ingen, in Holland. Evidence is also coming to hand from camps as far distant as Asia Minor of consider- able development in the organisation of educational. work among the men. interned there. From these camps a continuous stream of applications for books for serious study was reported to the committee, who expressed the hope that the public will continue, by offers of suitable books (new or second-hand), to sup- port a war charity the need for which was daily becoming more and more evident and the machinery of which was being increasingly taken advantage of by the friends and relatives of prisoners in all parts of the British Empire. Further particulars respecting this war charity and its work can be obtained on application:to Mr. A. T. Davies, at the Board of Education, Whitehall. London, S.W. All communica- tions should have the words “Prisoners of War” written in the left-hand corner of the envelope. Sir CHARLES WAKEFIELD, Lord Mayor of London, announces that the council of the Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund has resolved to found a number of scholarships which will enable young Britons destined for a commercial career to travel, study, and gain’ business experience in the countries of the Allied nations—viz. France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Rumania, Portugal, and Serbia. The scholarships will be continued from year to year for all time, and will be of the annual value of about 1501. each. They will be for the sons of deceased and disabled officers and men of the Navy and Army, and young men from eighteen to twenty-five years of age who have served with the Forces. The intention is that those elected to hold scholarships should begin their studies almost immediately, that they should receive instruction (a) in Russian, French, Italian, and other languages; (b) in economics; (c) in business principles and busi- ness methods (in offices or factories as circumstances may determine), and that immediately at the close of the war they should be sent for a year to travel in one or other of the Allied countries and to continue their studies in that country with the view of gaining (1) a close familiarity with its language, and (2) an intimate knowledge of its commercial methods, needs, and opportunities. In developing this scheme the council is being advised by business men and educa- tional experts, so that in the end it may be carried through with the highest degree of efficiency. Con- tributions towards the fund necessary to establish the scheme on a sound footing without delay ‘should be sent to the Lord Kitchener National Memorial — Fund, Mansion House, London. Envelopes should be marked “Kitchener Scholarshios.”’ ; ; The appoint- : SEPTEMBER 28, 1916] SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, September 11.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—A. Lacroix; The constitution of the volcanic rocks of the extreme north of Madagascar and of Nosy bé; the ankaratrites of Madagascar in general. Five complete analyses are given of rocks from the north of Madagascar, four of rocks from ? the island of Nosy bé, and six of ankaratrites.— E. Lebon: A new table of divisors of numbers.—L. Godeaux ; The involutions belonging to algebraic sur- faces.—J. Guillaume : Observations of the sun, made at the Lyons Observatory during the first quarter of 1916. The results of observations made on sixty-one days are summarised in three tables, showing the num- ber of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the faculze in latitude.—D. Eydoux ; The modifications of the phenomena of hammering in pipes of variable thickness and diameter.—P. Zeeman: The drift of light waves and solar phenomena.—A., Perot: The influence of the wind on the conditions of audibility of sound. Gunfire has been heard at a great distance from the battlefield, with an intermediate zone of silence. It is shown that this phenomenon can _ be explained by assuming that at a certain altitude either there is no wind, or that it is contrary in direction to the wind near the ground-level.__H. Pellet: The total destruction of pentoses in the course of alcoholic fer- mentation. In an attempt to estimate pentoses in the presence of saccharose, by fermenting the latter with yeast, it was found that some pentoses were fermented. _ Alternative conditions are given under which this fer- mentation of pentoses can be rendered either total or reduced to negligible proportions. Wasuincton, D.C. National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings No. 8, vol. ii., August 15).—C. D. Miller; The absorption ‘o- etticients of sott X-rays. The numerical constants in the relation between the absorption coefficients, the density, and the wave-lengths have been accurately determined. The results also indicate that the relationship holds for very much softer X-rays than those of ordinary penetrating power.—E. F. Smith: Further evidence as to the relation between crown gall and cancer. There are discussed: fundamental concepts, human and animal tumours for which no cause has been dis- covered, earlier discoveries in plants, further dis- coveries, other resemblances of crown gall to cancer in man and animals, possibility of the existence of carcinomas and of mixed tumours in plants, produc- tion of embryonal teratomata, and bearing of these discoveries on the cancer problem.—G. H. Parker: Locomotion of sea-anemones. The pedal portion of a sea-anemone, like its tentacles, must contain a neuro- muscular mechanism sufficient for the activity of that part of its body.—G. H. Parker : The behaviour of sea- anemones. Sea-anemones are animals the momentary conditions of which are dependent upon the combined stimuli of their immediate surroundings rather than forms that are greatly influenced by their past history, and their unity is not of a pronounced type; they are more in the nature of a sum of parts than they are organic units of the type of most of the higher animals.—J. P. Iddings and E. W. Morley: A contribu- tion to the petrography of Japan. Seventeen detailed chemical analyses are given of Japanese lavas.—J. Loeb and J. H. Northrop: Is there a temperature coefficient for the duration of life? In three series of experiments on the fruit-fly Drosophila it is found that the duration of life in the cases examined has a tem- perature-coefficient of the order of magnitude which is characteristic for life phenomena and chemical reactions in general.—C. E. St. John: The suggested mutual re- pulsion of Fraurhofer lines. The author is unable to NO. 2448, VoL. 98] NATURE 83 find evidence of the mutual repulsion suggested, and in so far as mutual influence is a necessary corollary of anomalous dispersion in the sun, evidence of this ~ also is lacking.—A. S$. King: An attempt to detect the mutual influence of neighbouring lines in electric fur- nace spectra showing anomalous dispersion. Although the material in the investigation is limited by tne scarcity of suitable pairs of lines, the lines actually tested have shown no tendency towards a repulsion.— C. A. Rouiller ; Synthesis of the base C,H,ON, derived from methylaminomethyl-3 : 4-dihydroxyphenylcarbinol. A continuation of some work by Abel, with a sugges- tion as to a relation to work by Curtius.—W. M. Davis ; (1) Extinguished and resurgent coral reefs. (2) The origin of certain Fiji atolls. The two papers offer a discussion of observations made during the author’s Shaler Memorial voyage across the Pacific.— C. Barus: Interferometer methods based on _ the cleavage of a diffracted ray. The prismatic. method of cleaving the incident beam of white light is avail- able for the superposition of non-reversed spectra, under conditions where the paths of the component rays may have any length whatever. It is thus an essential extension of the same method as used for reserved spectra heretofore, and also of the methods in which the paths are essentially small.—F. M. Surface: The inheritance of certain glume characters in the cross Avena fatua x A sativa, var. Kherson. A study of inheritance of certain characters, particu- larly directed towards revealing phenomena of linkage. C. Zeleny ; A comparison of the rates of regeneration from old and from new tissue. The data as a whole show clearly that there is no essential difference be- tween the rate of regeneration from new cells and from old cells. The rate,of regeneration seems, therefore, to be under central control.—C. Zeleny: The effect of successive removal upon the rate of regeneration. Apart from the slowing due to age, there is no indica- tion of the amount of new material that may be pro- duced by regeneration. The actual limitation comes, not from the using up of regenerative energy, but from changes in the non-regenerating part associated with age.—E. Blackwelder : The geologic réle of phosphorus. Phosphorus appears in Nature in many forms and in many situations.” Its numerous transformations, how- ever, follow an orderly sequence—in a broad way form a evcle which is here discussed in some detail.—J. Barrell: Dominantly fluviatile origin under seasonal rainfall of the Old Red Sandstone.- Geologists have differed so widely in their conclusions in regard to the nature of the habitat of the early vertebrate faunas the remains of which are found in the formations of the Old Red Sandstone, that the author is led to examine critically the criteria for the interpretation of the facts. He comes to the conclusion that the deposits which make up the Old Red Sandstone, although they undoubtedly contain lacustrine beds and other beds laid down in shifting, shallow, and variable bodies of water, are dominantly fluviatile in origin. The Great Valley in California may therefore in the present epoch, both-in physiography and in climate, be cited as a striking illustration of the nature of the Old Red Sandstone basins.—J. Barrell: The influence of Silurian-Devonian climates on the rise of air-breathing vertebrates. The evidence for the hypo- thesis of the continental origin of fishes has heen examined, and seems to vrevail over that for their marine origin. The author also believes that natural selection, although discredited as a cause determining specific variations, appears nevertheless to be a major factor in evolution.—T. W. Richards and C. Wads- worth 3d; Density of radio-lead from pure Norwegian cleveite. The density of this lead is found to be 11-273, distinctly less than the densitv (11-289) of Australian radio-lead, and still less than that (11-337) for ordinary 84 lead, the decrease being almost exactly. proportional to the decrease in atomic weight in these samples, so that ' the atomic volume (18-281). is constant.—National.Re- search Council; A preliminary report to the president of the Academy of the Organising Committee (Messrs. E. G. Conklin, S. Flexner, R. A. Millikan, A. A. Noyes, and G. F. Hale, chairman) of the National Research Council, established by the Academy after conference with the President of the United States for the purpose of co-ordinating the research elements of the country in the interest of national security and welfare. Care Town. Royal Society of South Africa, August 16.—Dr. L. Péringuey, president, in the chair.—R. E. Walker: The granite of the Schapenberg, Somerset West. The granite of the Schapenberg is essentially a grey, biotite- granito-porphyry intrusive in fine-grained, argillaceous grits of the Malmesbury series. It is essentially an apophysis of one or other of the two large granite masses—the Kuils River granite and the Sir Lowry’s Pass granite—which oceur the one to the west and the other to the east of the Schapenberg; most prob- ably of the latter. Both fine- and medium-grained varieties occur. At certain points along the contact the granite, owing to absorption of material from the invaded formation, is andalusite-bearing. The granite, particularly near ‘its margin, has been subjected to pneumatolytic action, which has caused the formation of a series of altered granites ranging from school granite on one hand to greissen on the other. The greissen is a quartz-mica-tourmaline rock resembling, in most respects, that of Grainsgill, described by Mr. Alfred Harker in the Q.1.C.S.—J. S. v. d. Lingen: The radial lines in R6ntgen interference patterns. The author briefly discussed the theory of radial lines, and pointed out that on Friedrich’s assumption these lines ought to be present in all interference patterns. Experiments were then described, which support the view put forward by von Laue and the author, viz. radial lines are caused by weakening of the lattice of a rigid crystal. The pattern of Mg(OH),, where the water molecules were driven off, and resublimated iodine, were exhibited, as well as the pattern of sylvine obtained by Friedrich. The pattern of this iodine shows the transition stage from a three-dimensional grating to a two-dimensional grating. MgO from Mg(OH), shows the two-dimensional grating only. “Baurite from biotite’? shows the two-dimensional grating by treating biotite with acids.—E. J. Goddard : Some observations on Ozobranchus branchiatus. This paper contains an account of the leech (Ozo- branchus branchiatus). Some historical interest attaches to the form, inasmuch as it was probably the first Annulate noted from the. Australasian region. The specimens were obtained as parasites on the green turtle. The somite is represented in a very primitive condition, and it is of interest to note that the limitation of the genus to Chelonia as_ parasites is possibly, as in that of Branchellion to Pisces, indi- cative of an old association, and bearing out the morphological evidence that these forms are archaic and primitive, and ancestral to the Gnathobdellida and Herpobdellida. The paver, deals with the constitution of the somite in the various, regions of the body, and the conclusions to be derived from the same. BOOKS RECEIVED. The Flotation ‘Process. Compiled and edited by -T. A. Rickard: Pp. 364.° (San Francisco : - Mining ‘and Scientific Press.) “8s. 6d. net. ~A Glossary of Botanic Terms-with their - Desivatien and Accent. By B. D. Jackson. (Third edition. - Pp. “xi+427. (London: Duckworth and Co.) 7s. 6d.-net. NO. 2448, VOL. 98] NATURE t [SEPTEMBER 28, 1916 British and Foreign Marbles and other Ornamental Stones. By J. Watson. Pp.x+485. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 5s. net. Alternating Currents in Theory and Practice. By W. H. N. James. Pp. vi+353. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 10s. 6d, net. The Royal Horticultural Society’s True Work. By A Life Fellow of ‘the Society. Pp. 2 (London : Simpkin and Co., Ltd.) 6d, net. A Bibliography of British Ornithology from the Earliest Times to the End of 1912. By W. H. Mullens and H. Kirke Swann, Part iii, (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. Organic to Human : Psychological and Sociolo, ogical. By Dr. H. Maudsley. Pp. viiit+386. (London: millan and Co., Ltd.) 12s, net. Bacon’s War Maps. Europe, embracing all the Countries Involved. (London: G. W. Bacon and Co., Ltd.) 6d. net. The Student’s Handbook to the University and Col- leges of Cambridge. Fifteenth edition, revised to June 30, 1916. Pp. 14+704. (Cambridge: At the Univer- sity Press.) 3s. net. Memories. By E. Clodd. Pp. xi+288. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) tos. 6d. net. CONTENTS. PAGE Industrial Associations “es .)<.)/ - . . ae Science and the Savant........ », oe Star-bearings for Night-marching. By H. E, Goodsonis- ae , . General Chemistry. By W. C. McC. L. ogy, OR Industry and Conimerce gee ses Se Our Bookshelf ...... BCE Gis sc ae eee Letters to the Editor:— , Science in Education.—F.R.S.; F.B.A. ..... 69 The Third Fossil Tsetse-fly.—Prof. T. D. A. — Cockerell ... peek 4] The Designation of Hours.—C. H. Collings . os Sage Archeology of the Middle Americas. (///ustrated.). 70 The Abnormal Propagation of Sound bythe Atmo- sphere. By Dr. C. Davison’; ... . + 6's a Sir Lauder Brunton, Bt., F.R.S. ByC. A. .... 72 INOtes) re ee . o Gee hep eels os 5 Our Astronomical Coluniaiae » Encke’s ‘Comet: .. .. me ie sx bs ° > Sheena The Nebula Hii. 78 Leonisiiiee. => = «) lle a Photographs of Mars roe hf Spectrum of the Nebula H iv. 39 Argis” ae 77 The United States National Research Council, By Prof. G. E. Hale Speen The Government Cinchona Plantations i in Bengal. 79 The British Association at Newcastle :— ; Section A.—Mathematical and Physical Science.— Opening Address (Abridged) by Prof. A. N. White- head, Sc.D., F.R.S., President of the Section 80 University and Educshionsl Intelligence... . i) die 82 Societies and Academies .......'. . ++ « s980 Books Received . . «Seabee <>. Editorial and Publishing Offices : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications to the Editor, Telegraphic Aadress: Puusis, LONDON. Telephone Number: Gerrarp 8830. == a mw OCT 241916 A WEEKEY IELUSGRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground ty LY Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.°-—WorDSWoRTH. : “Clonal Muse No. 2449 VOL. 98] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1916 [Price SIXPE ~~ Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] {All Rights Reserved. specialise in the manu- facture, of apparatus to cus- tomers’ own designs. New prices and sample free on application to THE SILICA SYNDICATE, Ltd., 82 HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C. BUY DIRECT FROM HATTON WALL, F.E.BECKER & CO, LONDON, E.C. Telephone: Holborn 6380. A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” Joun J. GRl FFI H § ay (Regd. Design 62871.) MAKERS OF HIGH-CLASS PHYSICAL APPARATUS ; et LE} | POCKET D.V. SPECTROSCOPE Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during With plain slit, 26/6; with adjustable slit, S3/- | | the preceding days. 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(2) General Industrial and Analytical Chemistry. (3) Metallurgicul Chemistry and Assaying. (4) Chemical and Gas Engineering. (5) Research in Textile: Chemistry. Visits to Works and the solution ef Works difficulties are made special features. : DAY SESSION, 1916-17, has now commenced. A pamphlet—“ Industrial Chemistry and Dyeing as a Career for Men and Women "—post free on application. Education Office, Bradford, October, 1916. BY ORDER. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER for the UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA invites applications for the CHAIR OF LOGIC AND PSYCHOLOGY at VICTORIA COLLEGE, STELLENBOSCH. Commencing salary £500; passage money; three years’ agreement in first instance. Duties to commence middle February, 1917. Applications, ‘ontaining information as to age, character, qualifications, experience, health, and religious denomination, must be received not later than November 4, 1916, by the Secretary, Office of High Commissioner, Union of South Africa, 32 Victoria Street, S.W., from whom further particulars may be obtaiued. _ NATURE (Ochobed 5, 1916 BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logic, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws. , POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. =a Day: Science, £17 10s,; Arts, £10 10s SESSIONAL FEES (Pesinc! Science, Arts, or Economics, £5 5s. 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September 28, 1416. FOR SALE.—About a thousand Right-Angle Prisms 36 X 16 X 18 m/m., in which are cefects such as dead metal, bubbles, &c., rendering them unsuitable for Prism Binoculars. Useful for demonstration purposes. Glass alone cost about 2s. Price od. each. —Wartson & Sons, 313 High Holborn, W.C. READY SHORTLY. NATURE, Vol. 97. Price 15s. net. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C.) MICROSCOPES, TELESCOPES, SECOND-HAND SURVEYING AND DRAWING INSTRUMENTS, AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND ACCESSORIES BY ALL THE BEST MAKERS. $38 HICH HOLBORN, CLARKSON’S (Opposite Gray's Inn Road.) nm LONDON, W.C. 4 c 5 a a ee - ee 7 URE 85 THURSDAY, O€TQBER 5, 1916. | Tippy. hf 20 As M6 — ie THE ORGANISM AS PHG:NIX. (1) Senescence and Rejuvenescence. By C. M. Child. Pp. xi+481. (Chicago: University of . Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1915.) Price 16s. net. (2) Individuality in Organisms. By C. M. Child. Pp. x+213. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1915.) Price 5s. net. (1) Ts this able study of senescence and re- juvenescence Prof. Child gives us the fruits of fifteen years of research on the age- changes of the lower animals. Much of the book is a record of observations and experiments which have not been previously published; the rest is a thoughtful working-out of a new conception of the organism, which must be taken account of by all biologists. The most prominent new feature is the author’s attempt to show that “in the organic world in general rejuvenescence is just as fundamental and important a process as senes- cence.” In the higher forms the possibilities of rejuvenescence seem to be very narrowly limited, and may be scarcely recognisable save in con- nection with sexual reproduction; but in the simpler organisms, such as the Planarian worms on which the author has published many re- searches, it is a characteristic feature of life. In seeking to determine the degree of ageing in an organism we are accustomed to look out for certain structural changes familiar in man and mammals, or we measure the decreasing rate of metabolism per unit of substance. For lower animals, however, other tests must be used; thus advantage has been taken of the general relation between metabolic condition and susceptibility or resistance to cyanides or other narcotics. With differences in susceptibility there also correspond differences in carbon. dioxide production as estimated by Tashiro’s beautifully delicate “bio- meter.” In other cases the susceptibility or resist- ance of the organism to: the depressing agent may be determined indirectly by the creature’s ability to become acclimated to a given concen- tration. Numerous experiments on Planarians show that the rate of metabolism, measured by the suscepti- bility method, decreases with advancing age, and it is concluded that.a decrease in rate of meta- bolism is at least very generally associated with growth and differentiation. An isolated fragment of a Planarian begins by developing a new head and tail, and then undergoes an extensive re- organisation into a new individual of small size. Some parts atrophy and disappear; new parts arise and differentiate; the development in reconstitu- tion is not essentially different from embryonic development. All this and much more is familiar, but the novel point is that the reconstituting Planarians are physiologically vounger than those from which the pieces came. As measured by the NO. 2449, VOL. 98] susceptibility method they exhibit rejuvenescence, and “the degree of rejuvenescence is in general proportional to the degree of reorganisation in the process of reconstitution of the piece into a whole ’’ (p. 118). The next step in the experimental argument is very interesting: it is the demonstration (by the susceptibility method) that pieces spontaneously isolated in Ptanarians and Hydroids are physio- logically younger than the individuals ffom which they separate. In other words, rejuvenescence is associated with asexual or agamic reproduction. Furthermore, a Planarian starved for months lives on its own resources and becomes reduced in size. Some cells disappear and others become small. This is well known, but the new fact is that the starving animals undergo rejuvenescence, the degree varying with the degree of reduction. If the susceptibility method is trustworthy. they be- come physiologically younger, and this conclusion was corroborated by estimating the production of carbon dioxide. There is here a strong biological argument for asceticism. The starveling is brought back from an advanced age to the begin- ning of post-embryonic life; it is almost reborn. “The metabolic current is forced to erode its channel instead of depositing material along its course” (p. 179). Moreover, with certain foods a progressive senescence from generation to generation occurs, while with other foods senes- cence and rejuvenescence seem to balance in each cycle. In plants and simple animals, such as polyps, asexual reproduction is frequent, and this brings with it some measure of rejuvenescence. ‘Often the decrease in metabolic rate with advancing senescence is the primary factor in bringing about physiological isolation of parts, reproduction, and rejuvenescence ” (p. 260), and thus senescence may be automatically compensated for. Of great interest, also, are various processes of cellular de- differentiation which occur in both plants and lower animals, and this also will act as a retarda- tion of senescence. In the higher animals the later atrophic stages of senescence are con- spicuous, while in the lower forms they either do not appear or else occur in only a few cells at any given time. ‘The apparent continuity and irregressibility of senescence in man and the higher forms is responsible for the very general belief that the process is irregressible everywhere, but the plants and lower animals. show us clearly enough that this is not the case” (p. 289). In the higher reaches senescence is less frequently inter- rupted, but it is essentially the same throughout, and occurs “wherever the progressive changes are not balanced or overbalanced, by regression.” With senescence in man and domesticated mam- mals everyone is familiar, but what of the alleged rejuvenescence? The author answers that some degree of rejuvenescence occurs in certain tissues, but that on the whole it is grievously limited by the greater stability of the substratum. ‘For his high degree of individuation man pays the penalty of individual death, and the conditions and pro- F 80 NATURE ¥ [OcroseR 5, 1916 cesses which lead to death in the end are the conditions and processes which make man what he is” (p. 310). It might seem that the author’s thesis was here petering out, but the next step is important. Prof. Child does not believe much in.the “segregation of the germ-plasm ” ; he thinks that the germ-cells, like the somatic cells, exhibit progressive differ- entiation and senescence, that ‘‘the fully developed gametes are physiologically old, highly differ- entiated cells, which are rapidly approaching death and in most cases actually do die soon after maturity unless fertilisation occurs” (p. 357). They are of advanced physiological age and low metabolic rate. They must undergo de-differentia- tion and rejuvenescence before they can enter upon a new period of development. The parthenogenetic egg has not lost its capacity of reacting to isola- tion, but ordinary gametes can undergo de-differ- entiation and reconstitution only after fertilisation. In this ingenious way, which cannot be justly represented in brief statement, the author inter- prets gamete formation as a means of securing rejuvenescence. Reproduction is always the re- constitution of a new organism from a part of one previously existing, but the author stands for the new idea that rejuvenescence occurs during early development, and the zoological evidence that he adduces is very interesting. “The organism, when it begins its active independent life at the end of the embryonic period, is certainly very much younger in every respect than the gametes before fertilisation” (p. 403). It has become younger as it has grown older. This seems a little over-ingenious, but the general idea that the early development means very literally making a fresh start becomes concrete and vivid in the author’s exposition. Let us attempt a more compact statement of the author’s interpretation of age-changes. The numerous theories of senescence fall into two groups—those which regard it as an incidental imperfection (due to wear and tear, incomplete elimination of waste products, and so on), and those which regard it as an inevitable feature of development. Prof. Child’s experiments point to the second view. After the earliest stages of de- velopment there is a progressive change in the direction of greater physiological stability in con- sequence of changes in the substratum and addi- tions to it in the course of growth and differentia- tion. As the proportion of relatively stable con- stituents in the substratum increases, there is a decrease in the metabolic activity of each unit of weight or volume of the organism. Thus cells may become loaded with non-protoplasmic enclo- sures, and skeletal or supporting tissues arise. It is also probable that the increasing density and aggregation of the colloid substratum may lead to an actual decrease in the rate of chemical re- actions, and that the increase in density and thick- ness and the decrease in the permeability of mem- branes may retard the exchange through them. Thus and thus does ageing begin while the life is still young. ‘‘The decrease in rate of metabolism is a part of development itself, and not an acciden- NO. 2449, VOL. 98] tal or incidental feature of life. The decrease in metabolic rate during development is in fact a necessary and inevitable consequence of the asso- ciation of the chemical reactions which constitute — metabolism with a colloid substratum produced by the reactions ” (p. 184). But there is another side to all this, which has been for the most part over- looked because it is inconspicuous in higher forms. There are processes of reduction as contrasted with growth, of retrogressive as contrasted with sub- | progressive development. Accumulated stances and structures may be broken down, and the self-fettered metabolism increases in rate. There is a retrogression towards the embryonic condition, as is familiarly seen in the pupa of a fly. “Dynamically rejuvenescence consists in increase in rate of metabolism, and morphologi- cally in the changes in the substratum which per- mit increase in rate.” And this rejuvenescence is as essential a feature of life as senescence. Age- ing has been too much regarded as “a rather mysterious process, quite different from anything else in the life cycle,” but it is simply a conspicu- ous expression of what occurs in minor rhythms continually. Thus the period of “loading” of a gland-cell is a period of decreasing metabolic activity (of ‘“‘senescence”), and the period of dis- charge one of increasing activity (of “rejuvenes- cence”), which makes possible a repetition of the cycle. So there are alternations of fatigue and recovery, of quiescence and activity, and ‘“‘ whether we call one cycle an age-cycle and another some- thing else is of little importance, except as regards convenience.” It is further suggested that there may be secular senescence and rejuvenescence in racial evolution. ‘‘The age-changes in the organ- ism are merely one aspect of Werden und Ver- gehen, the becoming and passing away, which make up the history of the universe.” It is out of the question to express in a few lines more than an appreciation of a carefully executed piece of work of this magnitude. It is rich in sug- gestiveness and original ideas, and gives us a new view of the organism and its vital tides. Much depends on the soundness of the susceptibility method of determining the rate of metabolism, for a great deal of the evidence relies on this. We confess to a feeling that the superstructure of interpretation is too broad for the Planarian basis on which it mainly rests. Time is required for a consideration of the evidence given of rejuvenes- cence in the early stages of development in higher animals, and for weighing the author’s reasons for rejecting Weismann’s conception of the apart- ness of the germ-plasm. But it is a great satis- faction to meet with such a fine instance of reso- lute biological thinking, and we offer Prof. Child our congratulations. (2) The author’s main contribution to the. prob- lem of organic individuation is the demonstration of a distinct gradient in the rate of metabolic reac- tions along the chief axis of various axiate types. The apical or head region is primarily the region of highest rate of metabolism, and, in general, regions nearer to it have a higher rate than regions farther away. Moreover, in experimental ~_— os a : October + 1916] a ” ~ reproduction, “the apical or head region develops independently of other parts, but controls or domi- nates their development, and in general any level of the body dominates more posterior or lower levels and is dominated by more anterior or apical levels.” The dominance depends primarily upon the rate of metabolism, and seems to operate by impulses, excitations, or changes transmitted in various ways from the dominant region to other parts of the body. What Prof. Child seeks is a dynamic conception of the organism, and he maintains that “the indi- vidual is primarily a metabolic gradient in a speci- fic protoplasm; the only primary difference be- tween the dominant and other levels of the gradient is a difference of metabolic rate. At this time the products of metabolism at different levels of the gradient are not specifically different, but differ in quantity.” But the differences in rate at different levels bring about, sooner or later, differ- ences in constitution and character of the proto- plasmic substratum. Here one stable substance and there another remains as a constituent of the colloid substratum. Thus “each level of the gradient develops a characteristic protoplasm, and the character of the protoplasm in turn modifies and alters the character of the reactions, and so specific, or what we call qualitative, differences arise, and different specific substances may be produced at different levels of the gradient.” Then for the first time chemical or transportative corre- lation in the commonly accepted sense becomes possible. The individual is there before the orderly specificities of chemical correlation are present or possible. ‘“‘The starting point in dif- ferentiation is in differences in metabolic rate.” The organism is a dynamic reaction system—‘“a protoplasm of specific constitution with a cor- responding metabolic specificity.” Individuation is a relation of dominance and subordination of parts. Development is a realisation of the capa- cities or possibilities which are given in the physico-chemical constitution of the fundamental reaction system. We have said enough to indi- cate the trend of the author’s exceedingly interest- ing theory, which is doubtless a good one to work with, though it seems to our prejudiced vision to leave half of the Prince of Denmark out of the play. For, colloid substratum and metabolic gradient notwithstanding, we must regard even Prof. Child’s Planarians as_ psycho-physical beings, mind-bodies or body-minds as you will, but organisms as well as mechanisms through and through. HYDRAULIC FORMULA RECON- me" SERUCRION. Hyvdraulic Flow Reviewed. By A. A. Barnes. Pp. xi+1s58. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd., 1916.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 7) Hieoot is in two parts, the first of which deals with the flow of water in pipes and channels. The author had occasion to investigate certain conditions of flow in the Thirlmere aque- duct, which supplies water to Manchester, and, NO. 2449, VOL. 98]. ‘ NATURE 87 finding the variation in the coefficients of accepted formule unsatisfactory, he was led to review the whole subject of the laws of flow, with the result that he has devised a series of formule in which the coefficient is independent of variations in the size or gradient of the conduit. Taking the equa- tions of five well-known experimentalists, which he styles ‘the more salient formule” on the subject, he shows that they are of the form =Km's'. He then points out that the square root indices of m (the hydraulic mean depth) and of i (sine of slope) are incompatible with a con- stant value for the coefficient k, for a particular class of pipe or channel. In accordance with the precedent set by Hagen and followed by Thrupp and others, he recommends the adoption of the more general expression v=Kym,'*°, and from the analysis of a considerable number of published data he is enabled to assign a series of values to K, a, and B which give consistent and satis- factory results when applied to a wide range of cases. The formule thus obtained are sixteen in number, of which we only quote the first as typical of the rest. For new asphalted cast-iron pipes the value is v=174"1m 7529, The results are plotted in diagrammatic form for reference, and the advantages of using a system of logarithmic co-ordinates (which give straight-line diagrams) for this purpose are pointed out. In the second part of the book, dealing with the measurement of water by means of triangular notches, rectangular weirs, and circular orifices, the author discards the basic expression in com- mon use, and advocates the application of the general formula adovted in nart i., which he casts in the form v=Km*H’. For a right-angled V notch this becomes :— v= 2°462m —*00703 F] 48703 whence Q=2°48H?'*. It is interesting to note that this latter expres- sion corresponds very closely with the results ob- tained quite recently by Messrs. Gourley and Crimp in researches made on the river Alwen. Their formula reads :— Q=2°48nH?47 (n is the tangent of half the included angle of the notch, and, therefore, is unity for a notch of go°). For weirs with end contractions Mr. Barnes has determined :— v=3°324m HS, and for weirs without end contractions :— V=3°324m- "2H ob while for circular orifices :— v=4:652m-015F{ 5. There are a large number of authenticated results incorporated in the volume, tabulated in support of these equations, as well as plates giving the results graphically. The author claims that his formule are proved correct by experiment for quantities as small as 0'0034 cubic foot per second, by means of orifices, and as large as 320 cubic feet per second, by means of weirs. 88 NATURE [OcToBER 5, 1916 As a concise and comprehensive résumé of the results obtained from a wide range of experi- mental work, combined with a striking revision of their mathematical expression, the volume is a welcome and valuable addition to the literature on the subject. B. C. SERUM REACTIONS AND BACTERIAL THERAPY. Applied Immunology: The Practical Application of Sera and Bacterins Prophylactically, Diag- nostically, and Therapeutically. By Prof. B. A. Thomas and Dr. R. H. Ivy. Pp. xv+359. (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., __1915:) ‘Price 16s. net. HIS book gives an account of those “reac- tions ” employed in the diagnosis of Pts which are based upon alterations in the body- fluids resulting from the action of micro-organisms or from the introduction of foreign proteins, and of the treatment of morbid conditions with serums, bacterial vaccines, etc. These reactions and treatment may be classed under the term “immun- ology,” since they are based upon processes which commonly result in the living body in a state of immunity or resistance to the material— micro-organism or protein—which produces them. This material is named the antigen, and the sub- stances which are the outcome of its action are known as anti-bodies. The opening chapter of the book deals with the subject of immunity, its kinds and mode of pro- duction, and with the history and development of immunology; the second and third chapters give an account of antigens and anti-bodies and of Ehrlich’s side-chain theory. These subjects are treated simply and briefly, but fully enough for the object of the book, which the authors state has been “to crystallise and detail the practical phases of serum and bacterin applications in medicine, thereby enabling the student and general prac- titioner, with even a slight laboratory experience, to appreciate the significance of, and more com- petently apply the principles underlying, immun- ology.”' In chap. iv. anaphylaxis or hyper- susceptibility is described, but we miss any refer- ence to Bordet’s theory of its mode of production. The preparation and properties of the various anti- toxins and anti-sera are then described, together with certain miscellaneous sera and extracts, and their use in treatment. While usually full enough, some sections appear to be too brief; thus, anti- tuberculosis sera are dismissed in four lines, and no mention is made of Spengler’s I.K. serum. The subject of agglutination and its usé in diagnosis are next considered. Dilution of the serum by means of a Wright’s pipette is de- scribed, but no mention is made of the “throttled ” pipette which is so convenient for this kind of work, nor is the subject of “zones of no reac- tion” alluded to—an omission of some moment. In chaps. x. and xi. the precipitin reaction and its application for the recognition of blood-stains, etc., and lysis or solvent action are described. NO. 2449, VOL. 98] The important subject of complement fixation © is next dealt with, and the employment of this reaction for the diagnosis’ of syphilis (the Wasser- mann reaction) naturally occupies the premier place. Full details are given of the method of carrying out this reaction, but we should have liked fuller information on the meaning of the phenomenon of fixation in the absence of antigen and on the reaction with cerebro-spinal fluid. Miscellaneous biochemical reactions, including the Abderhalden reaction, have a few pages devoted to them; and the important subjects of the tuberculin and similar reactions and tuberculin therapy are’ next considered at some length, following on conventional lines. The subjects of phagocytosis and recovery from bacterial infections are then dealt with, leading up naturally to a consideration of bacterial inocu- lations, the opsonic index, and vaccine therapy. This section is somewhat slipshod, for the authors have not clearly distinguished between preventive and therapeutic inoculations. Thus it is stated that ‘‘treatment” of bubonic plague with bacterial suspensions has been extensively practised, and that “therapeutic” inoculation greatly reduces — the severity of attacks; in both cases preventive treatment or inoculation is really meant. In an appendix the serum treatment of hamor- rhage, organotherapy, and chemotherapy- with salvarsan, etc., are briefly but sufficiently con- sidered. The book is illustrated with a number of figures, charts, and plates, some of the last-named being coloured. We. notice an error occurring through- out the chart illustrating the Wassermann reac- tion, the incubation temperature being stated to be 56° C. instead of 37° C. The book, while capable of improvement in many directions, may be recommended as giving a useful survey, free from too much detail and technicalities, of the subject of immunology. R, T. HEWLettT. SCHOOL MATHEMATICS. ¥ (1) Analytic Geometry. By Prof. H. B. Phillips. Pp. vii+197. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London; Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 6s. 6d. net. (2) Problems in the Calculus, with Formulas and Suggestions. By Dr. D. B. Leib. Pp. xit+ 224. (Boston, Mass., and London: Ginn and | Co., 1915.) Price 4s. 6d. (3) Mathematical Tables for Class-room Use. By M. Merriman. Pp. 67. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 2s. 6d. net. (4) Rural Arithmetic. By A. G. Ruston. Pp. xi +431. (London: University Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. ROF. H. B. PHILLIPS believes that the (1) differential calculus should be given to” the student in college at the earliest possible moment, and that to accomplish this a short course in analytic geometry is essential. He - had Pcs this text to supply a course that will equip the student for work in calculus and engineering, without burdening him with a mass of detail useful only to the student of mathe- matics for its own sake. The result is a very attractive little book. The author has picked out the easy and fruitful bits of his subject without concerning himself greatly whether the topics chosen are conventionally elementary or advanced. He gives us a book very different from the stock “analytical conics,” for the conic falls into its place among other curves, and is not studied under a microscope. For example, we have nothing about the equation of the tangent to a conic; presumably the author would take tangents after dy/dx. On the other hand, we have sections on periodic functions, empirical equations, parametric representation, co-ordinates in space, surfaces. The book is one that might very well be used with a class of intelligent non-specialists in their last two years at an English public school, at a stage when the function of mathematics is to broaden their outlook. It would serve equally well as an introductory course for a specialist. ' The book is full of pleasing practical touches— e.g. “But on other problems, notably in work with alternating currents, an interpretation can be given to the process of extracting the square root of a negative number, and then such results are entirely real.” (2) Most English text-books on the calculus are fairly well provided with exercises, but anyone who wants more will find a good collection here. The sets on maxima and minima are especially practical. Students of foreign fashions in nota- tion will note the absence of sin-1; arc sin is used instead. The hyperbolic functions have not found admission, which seems a pity. The sets of exer- cises are prefaced by brief directions and plain warnings; the directions however are, from an educational point of view, too much in the way of rules—e.g. “To find d?y/dx® (when x and y are given as functions of t) use the somewhat cumbersome formula Bs. (22 dy dy ef) (ey. dx? \dt° dt? * dt? }/\ dt]? etc.” (p. 29). On p. 81 the precise meaning of “in general” is not clear in the sentence: “ Ex- pansion into series is, in general, useful in calcu- lations only when the series is convergent.” (3) This book contains many more tables than are commonly used in British class-rooms—e.¢. cubes and cube roots, tables of x}, n®, xt, 3, 7, areas and circumferences of circles, volumes of spheres, circular segments, chords, etc., together with five pages of weights and measures (from which it appears that the American yard differs from the British yard, being defined as 3600/3937 metres). On the other hand, there is no full table of secs and cosecs. Sine and cosine share a table, as do tan and cot. The “arguments ” are given to three significant figures, or for every ten minutes in the trigonometrical tables. There are no difference columns, and to obtain a fourth NO. 2449, VOL. 98] NATURE 89 significant figure, or the intermediate degrees, it is necessary to interpolate. Some of the functions are given to four significant figures, some to five; the principle underlying the choice of four or five is not mentioned. The author has broken with the curious tradition (the origin of which we should like to know) that ten should be added to the log of a circular function. For British schools this book will probably be considered to contain too much in one way and too little in another (e.g. difference columns). The type is too small for young eyes. (4) This book contains chapters on household accounts, commercial arithmetic, business letters, soils, manures, crops, live-stock, foodstuffs, dairy- ing, mensuration, levelling, brickwork and build- ing construction, water supply, work and power, measurement in the field. The explanations of arithmetical processes are undistinguished and sometimes old-fashioned (e.g. inverting the multi- plier in contracted multiplication). But we imagine that this is not the part of the book in which the author is most interested. The descrip- tion of all practical matters concerning farms and farmers is well written, and the numerous examples have a most realistic and practical appearance. How much more interesting it must be to find the volume of a “mangel pie” than of a mere prism ! C.\G: OUR BOOKSHELF. Aids to Bacteriology. By C. G. Moor and William Partridge. Third edition. Pp. viii+278. (London: Bailli¢re, Tindall and Cox, 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. Tuts well-known little book, now in its third edi- tion, contains an extraordinary amount of informa- tion within a small compass, though necessarily in a condensed form; in fact, the whole range of subjects included under the term ‘‘ Bacteriology ”’ is covered by it. Migula’s classification of the Bac- teria now replaces that of Heuppe, and as regards bacterial mutability, the authors remark that this is largely of academic interest, and that in practice species tend to crop up fairly true to type. , Anti- bodies, apparatus, culture media and methods of examination are surveyed, and all the principal pathogenic bacteria and protozoa are described, In addition, the moulds, yeasts, fermentation, and enzymes are dealt with as well as the bacterio- logy of water, milk and other foods, air, soil and sewage, and disinfection and disinfectants; little seems to have been missed and few errors occur. It is a pity that B. perfringens as a synonym for B. Welchii is not mentioned, for it is so commonly used now. Agricultural bacteriology has two or three pages devoted to it, including nitrogen fixa- tion, nitrification and sterilisation of soil. The filterable viruses are dealt with, and some recent ~ work on the meningococcus and other topics is referred to in a brief appendix. Altogether we may congratulate the authors upon having com- piled an exceedingly comprehensive and useful little book. go NATURE ‘se [Ocroser 5, 1916 Mind and Health Series. The Influence of Joy. | By George Van Ness Dearborn. Pp. xviii+ 223. (London: William Heinemann, 1916.) Price 5s. net. Pror. Paviov of Petrograd has shown in famous experiments that digestion is affected favourably or unfavourably by emotional conditions, and his work has been followed by Cannon, Carlson, Crile, and others. The author of this volume has studied the influence of joy on blood pressure, and has devoted some attention to the psycho-biology of the emotions. His thesis is that joy is an important factor in the health of the body, and his illustrations refer to the influence of joy (1) in stimulating secretion, the movements of the food | canal, and the process of absorption; (2) on the circulation; and (3) on the general integrative function of the nervous system. The evidence given as to the influence of joy on secretion and blood pressure is more con- vincing than that under the third head. Much attention is given to the influence of emotion on the secretion of adrenalin and all that follows even a slight increase in the amount of that powerful substance. ; The author writes with enthusiasm and occasionally with exuberance, but it is with good science that he confirms the good sense of the cheerful-minded in all ages, who have realised that “‘a merry heart is the life of the flesh.” There is much salutary counsel in what Prof. Dearborn has to say regarding the cultivation of the will to be glad, and he has made a very useful contribution to psycho-biology. Manua! of Russian Commercial Correspondence. By Mark Sieff. Pp. xx+232. (London: Kegan Paul,, Trench and Co:, Ltd:, 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. Tus is a welcome addition to the student’s library. Admirably qualified for the task, the author has compiled a veritable multum in parvo, and the student who masters its contents will have little to apprehend when called upon to deal with Russian correspondence. A valuable feature is the section, modelled on the plan adopted by N. A. Blatov in his “Manual of Russian Com- mercial Correspondence,” setting forth with ad- mirable clearness the general plan on which letters on various subjects should be constructed. It constitutes a lesson in orderly arrangement and concise statement which might be profitably studied by correspondents in any language. Where so much is excellent it seems almost hyper- critical to point out that the English phraseology is in places somewhat cumbersome and might with advantage be simplified, and also that here and there the English idiom is not quite correct. But these are minor blemishes which in no way detract from the utility of the work. As it is one thing to read print and a very different matter to decipher handwriting, we would suggest that it might be of assistance to students if a future edition contained a few facsimile specimens of actual Russian letters. NO. 2449, VOL. 98] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does nut 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.] Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere in July and . August, 1916. Dr. Maurer, director of the Swiss Federal Meteoro- logical Institute, has forwarded to me a note on the optical deterioration of the atmosphere noticed in the Alps in the summer which has just passed. At his request I enclose a translation of his note, as the sub- ject is likely to interest your readers. - Napier SHAW. Meteorological Office, South Kensington, London, S.W., September 21. - Remarkable optical deterioration of the atmosphere became apparent 1n the Swiss Alps during tne last ten days of Jury by the persistentiy abnormal magnitude and unusual intensity of the bright patch round the sun, to which the name aureole is sometimes assigned. Observations in previous years have established a well- — defined minimum during the summer months, both in the diameter and the intensity of the solar aureole, but during the present year, trom July 23 until the middle of August, the diameter generally attained 120° to 130°, and on August 25 even 140°, with relatively great intensity. Abnormal extension of the aureole was also observed after July 21 at high levels on the Alps, above 3000 metres, and a true brown Bishop’s- ring was seen on August 3-4 on the high peaks of the Upper Engadine. On August 6 twilight phenomena were very ab- normal. ‘The ‘purple light’’ was entirely absent; the westerly earth-shadow was very indefinite, and the eastern. twilight-arch of the zodiacal light was similarly affected. The western sky, at first of a homogeneous pale yellow colour, showed a peculiar cirrus-like structure for some time after sunset. At first the stratification was strictly horizontal, but later. on it appeared undulating, or in flaky form. It did not disappear until darkness set in. Similar pheno- mena were observed in 1883-4, 19c2-3, and 1912, in connection with the much-discussed optical deteriora- tion of the atmosphere in these years. After the end of July this remarkable cirrus-like layer could be seen best in the higher Alpine regions, but a bright “purple — light’? was not seen there either in July or August. The cause of the deterioration is for the time being still in doubt. Up to the present no reports of volcanic erup- tions have come to hand from any part of the globe. Zurich, September. Science in Education. : In reply to “ F.R.S.; F.B.A.” (Nature, September 28, p. 69), may I express the hope that, whatever may be the custom in France, those who discuss the place of science in education, when they say science will mean science, and not ‘‘ Egyptology, classical archao- logy, history, art, linguistics, Indics, Sinics, Hellenics, philology (Latin and Celtic), French language and literature, Italian, Spanish, English, German, law, and economics’? No one wants to deny that the study of man holds as large a place as the study of Nature. Man has never yet tired of studying himself, and needs little encouragement to continue doing so. But the progress of the modern world is due to the fact that an increasing number of minds have escaped the vicious circle of these introspective examinations and begun. to study the realities of external Nature. \ nL ot iP *& Se ae >”? Ko Be rs PT ee ae , ot » : > . ‘s OcToBER 5, 1916] NATURE gr . Mr. Carnegie in 1901 gave a million pounds to pro- vide funds ‘“for improving and extending the oppor- banigieagipeneentific study and research in the Univer- sities of Scotland, my native land,”’ to quote from his trust deed. In the University of Aberdeen, of which I have the honour to be a member, out of 132,000l. allocated from this benefaction in the period of 15% years, a bare one-quarter has gone to science; 52,1151. has gone to endow one professorship in history and five lectureships in French, political economy, German, education, and constitutional law and history; 24,750l. has-been assigned to provide new buildings for teach- ing arts subjects, a new ‘examination hall, and an extension of the library; 26,7501. has gone, 15,750l. to maintenance of the library and r1,o00l. for pro- visional assistance in teaching, science being repre- sented in this to an indefinite extent. The remaining 28,3521. has gone to science, 15,750l. for the equipment of laboratories, and 12,6321. as an endowment for a lectureship in geology. With reference to the latter, the Geological Department, taking the figures for the year before the war, was entirely supported by the fees paid by the students, and geology got the interest of the 12,6321. in the same sense as the Postmaster- General gets the sovereign when you purchase a 20s. postal order. Personally I think calling science what is not science needs to be watched and checkmated. FREDERICK SODDy. University of Aberdeen, September 30. _AN IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL PRODUCTION. Ts presidents of the technical institutes most closely connected with the production and utilisation of our mineral resources have addressed to the Advisory Council for Scientific Research a memorandum advocating the establishment of a central Government Department, the duty of which should be to foster the development of the mineral resources of the British Empire. What- ever form such a department may take, the need for its creation is very obvious. In Great Britain no such department exists. The Geological Survey, under the Board of Education, records the existence of mineral deposits, but always from the point of view of the geologist, whose main interest lies in their mode of occurrence and not in their exploitation. The Inspectorate of Mines under the Home Office is concerned only with the due policing of mines from the point of view of safety; its ideal would be a state of affairs in which mining accidents were reduced to zero; and even though this were brought about by the cessa- tion of all mining, the Inspectorate of Mines would have fulfilled the object for which it exists. The Board of Trade, the Imperial Institute, and many other departments of the Government take a more or less desultory interest in mineral production, but there is no one department the special duty of which it is to watch over the development and proper utilisation of our mineral resources. What is needed is a Ministry of Production, or something equivalent thereto, which should have for its particular object the care of develop- ing all the natural resources of the Empire. All natural. products may be divided into three groups: they are produced by the cultivator, by the hunter or fisherman, or by the miner. Of NO. 2449, VOL. 98] all these the last-named needs the most careful attention, because minerals alone constitute a wast- ing asset; unlike the other products, they are not renewed, and, once exhausted, are gone for ever. The cultivation of a field on wrong prin- ciples will entail losses for a year or two, but these are quite remediable, and the application of proper methods will restore it to fruitfulness; but a mine worked on wrong principles is ruined for ever, and mineral not properly wrought is in the vast majority of cases lost irrecoverably. ‘ It is this consideration that renders the need for a Ministry or Department devoted to the adminis- tration of our mineral resources so very urgent. In most Continental countries the minerals have remained the property of the State, and the State has therefore a direct pecuniary interest in seeing to their development as an integral part of the national revenue. In this country and in America the State has found it advantageous to relinquish the State ownership of minerals, it being held that the development of the national mineral resources is thus facilitated, and that such free development is of more benefit to the nation than the revenue which might be derived from its mineral conces- sions. As regards purely fiscal reasons, these two nations are accordingly not directly concerned in the development of their mineral wealth, but it by no means follows that they should treat the subject with indifference. In the United States there is a Department of Mines that takes a very active interest in encouraging the mineral output. In Canada there is a Department of Mines upon somewhat similar lines, which is doing excellent work, and under the fostering care of which the mineral output of Canada is making rapid advances. There was a time when Great Britain stood at the head of all nations as a mineral producer, at any rate as regards a considerable number of important minerals and metals; that we have fallen far behind to-day is due no doubt in great measure to natural causes, but their effect has been and is being accelerated by the fact that it has been nobody’s business to see to it that our mineral resources were worked to best advantage ; whenever legislation has touched mining, it has been to hinder, not to help, mining operations, mainly because there was no great Department of State to look after our mineral interests. Wastefulness in the production and utilisation of our mineral resources has gone on and is going on unheeded and unchecked, mainly again for the same reason. The need for a State Department administered on sound economic lines, as free from political bias as our national methods admit of, is perhaps more urgent for the British Isles in the first instance, but together with this and above this, there should be an organisation for protecting the mineral industries of our whole world-wide Empire, for consolidating the resources of the Empire, and for rendering it impossible that in the future the control of any portion of the Empire’s mineral production should ever pass into alien hands. Henry Louis. NATURE [OcToBER 5, 1916 THE SURVEY LINK CONNECTING THE TRIANGULATIONS OF INDIA AND RUSSIA.+ T the meeting of the International Geodetic + Association held in London in 1909 the way was cleared for the completion of a connect- ing Jink between Indian and Russian triangula- tions which would carry scientific measurement from Cape Comorin to Petrograd. This necessi- tated the extension of a geodetic series across some of the highest and most unapproachable of the snow-capped ranges in the northern Himalayan system. Between Gilgit and Salisbury Peak on the Nicolas (Russian spelling) range of the Pamirs there intervene about roo miles of inconceivably wild and rugged mountain country distinguished Fic, 1.—On the Russian East Station of Sarblock, 17,284 ft. “ Records of the Survey of India." From by groups of peaks running to altitudes of more than 20,000 ft. and seamed with a most amazing series of waterways containing the biggest glaciers in the world. Salisbury Peak, near the western end of the Pamir boundary between Russia and Afghanistan, looks southwards across the valley of the river Ab-i-Panja (flowing westward to the Oxus and skirting the southern foot of the Nicolas range) on to the great ridge of the Hindu Kush. From the Hindu Kush southward to the Gilgit river flow three great mountain streams, which afford the only possible approaches northward, i.e. the Yasin, the Ashkuman, and the Hunza. 1 “ Records of R of Indi Vol. vi., “Completion of the Link connecting the Tri ons of India and Russia, 1913.” Prepared under the direction of Sir S. G. Burrard Del Dun, 1914.) Price 4 rupees or 6s ; NO. 2449, VOL. -98| Setting aside, for the present at any rate, any consideration of making this geodetic connection through Afghanistan or Persia (which, for political reasons chiefly, is out of the question), the choice of an approach to the Russian boundary in the Pamirs lay between these three most difficult routes. The line of the Hunza was eventually selected as leading more directly to a point on the Russian border close to the Chinese frontier, and involving no question of crossing the valley of the Ab-i-Panja, which, lying low between the Nicolas range and the Hindu Kush, is a‘narrow strip of Afghan ‘territory. Between 1909 and 1911 a series of principal triangulation had been carried Fic, 2.—A log bridge over the Chapursan. Survey of India.” From ‘‘ Records of the from Rawal Pindi to Gilgit, thus furnishing a first- | class base from which to take off for this northern extension. At the other end of the line two trigonometrical stations had been fixed by the Russian surveyors at the eastern end of the Little Pamir, not far from the Beyik Pass, which offered the necessary points for final connection. The report under review deals with the efforts | of the Indian Survey officers to bridge this gap and reach commanding observation points in the barren and rugged entourage of the Hunza Valley, by means of which a geodetic series could be carried successfully to the Hindu Kush. Prob- ably no scientific surveyors in the world have ever —_ : Rt ai OctToBER 5, 1916] NATURE 93 been faced with quite such a problem. The difficul- ties were not merely those of mountaineering and excessive altitude or of narrow valleys flanked by gigantic mountain walls. These regions are sub- ject, inter alia, to storms of great violence and suddenness, and it was during one such storm that the camp of a native assistant was struck and his whole party practically put out of action. The roads, or mountain tracks, which lead tothe passes of the Hindu Kush have often been described by travellers, and there is no indication in this report that they have improved of late years. Certainly no very great trouble was caused by the nature of the transport requisitioned. All sorts and condi- tions of men were impressed into service. The regu- lar native staff of the Survey Department and the trained Gurkha assistants drawn from the frontier * P56 Pk.19 Pre Sf Pu 4aP 4aL 42L 18300 22.891 aos 25,540 Fic. 3.—The distant Karakoram Range from Tomtek, h.s. 18,608 ft regiments were all trustworthy under any -condi- tions of stress and difficulty, whilst the coolie carriers, who were chiefly recruited from the Baltis, were quite satisfactory. “Lieut. Mason’s appreciation of their services is pleasant reading, and speaks well for his tact and consideration in dealing with natives. It was, on-the whole, the technical difficulty of selecting sites for stations of observation, and the incessant demand for ‘strenuous exertion in climb- ing mountains which possess absolutely no attrac- tion beyond that of the grandest and most savage | scenery in the world, which hindered the progress | of the party; and it was the successful facing of these difficulties which rendered the completion of this series such a brilliant achievement among the great records of Indian triangulation. NO. 2449, VOL. 98] The work in the Pamir highlands was laid out by Lieut. Bell, R.E., whose sudden death ere the work was completed was deeply felt by the whole party. The linking up of two magnificent systems of triangulation, such as those of India and Russia, which would give a continuous and un- broken geodetic system of earth measurement through sixty degrees of latitude, has ever been a most fascinating objective to the scientific geo- desist in India, Russia, and England; but whether a narrow series such as this, with uneven sides and angles as factors in the successive figures, will fully satisfy the requirements of geodesy may be questionable. Some of the sides of the figures are very short, restricted by narrowness of the Hunza Valley, and the angles are far from ful- filling ‘the condition of equality in arc. It is, From “ Records of the Survey of India.” therefore, not claimed for it by the Surveyor- General of India that it represents anything more than a “secondary ” series, and it still remains for geodesists to say how far it has succeeded in ful- filling the high scientific requirements that were anticipated from its completion. Incidentally, however, it has been of the greatest practical use, for it has confirmed the values determined by the measurements of the Pamir Boundary Commission in 1895, and proved that the process then adopted of interpolation from distant and definite peaks (which were already fixed by the Indian triangula- tion on the Gilgit frontier), supported by a constant repetition of observed azimuths, was accurate to a degree which seems to have been unexpected by the present Survey Staff in India, although the coincidence in final values causes no 94 NATURE 7 ' [Ocrozer 5, Tpteae: me surprise to those who were concerned in that Com- mission work. Roughly, it may be said that the Commission values obtained in the course of a month or two by the method referred to are in excess of those now fixed by about two seconds of arc both in latitude and in longitude, a‘displace- ment which has no effect whatever on the validity of that international boundary which was then demarcated. This is not unimportant, for it need be no longer a political secret that the adoption of the crest of the Nicolas range.as the boundary in question depended on the fact that no part of it was north of the latitude of Lake Victoria. The Russians, by astronomical deduction, maintained that it did in fact bulge over that parallel, but the results of the Pamir triangulation, based on those mighty peaks which were visible from certain high alti- tudes overlooking the Hindu Kush, combined with astronomical determinations for latitude of the British surveyors, afforded too strong an argu- ment to be refuted, and the range was adopted. It is therefore satisfactory to find (not that the matter was ever really in doubt) that the range is, so to speak, in its right place. These results do also suggest that more use might be made of the system of interpolation. The British officers who have been triangulating across the backbone of the Andine Cordillera in Peru have indeed made use of it, and that must have been just about the same time that Lieut. Mason’s party was pushing its way through the Hunza defiles. T. H. Hovpicu. MR. BEDFORD MCNEILL. T is with regret that we announce the death on September 18, due to cerebral hemorrhage, of Mr. Bedford McNeill, the well-known mining engineer, at fifty-five years of age. Apart from his high reputation as a mining engineer, Mr. MeNeill’s name was almost a household word in connection with the telegraphic code compiled by him, which was issued originally in 1893, and in an enlarged and revised form in 1908. This code is employed almost without exception by mining companies and engineers, to whose use it was specially dedicated, and other business men have found it extremely practical for cable com- munications. As a mining engineer Mr. McNeill sraduated at the Royal School of Mines in 1880, when the school was still in Jermyn Street; and his pro- fessional career as consulting engineer, which began in the office of the late Mr. John Darlington, took him into many parts of the world. He was a member of many learned societies, including the Institute of Chemistry, the Geological Society, of which he was also a Member of Council and Treasurer for some years, and the Iron and Steel Institute. In 1895 Mr. McNeill was elected a member of the Institution of Mining and Metal- ‘Jurgy, of which he soon afterwards became vice- president, and he occupied the presidential chair in .1913-14. ‘His inaugural ‘address, in _.that capacity dealt with the present and future problems NO. 2449, VOL. 98] ‘Chemistry, the Iron and Steel Institute, etc. confronting the mining profession, particularly Sts regards the speculative nature of mining and its close association with capital. He pointed out that mining was likely to become more speculative in its character in the future, since, though there were _ still large areas’ not yet properly prospected, the engineer may ultimately be driven to working that class of mineral occurrence which presents no visible evidence whatever at surface, and the Jeca- tion and working of which will inevitably demand higher technical skill and involve greater risk of loss of capital than those deposits at present dealt with. During Mr. MeNeill’s term of office the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy acquired its freehold house at No. 1 Finsbury. Circus, which was formally opened on January-13, 1914, by the Lord Mayor of London, and during his presidency also the first steps were taken for securing the Royal Charter which has since been granted to the institution. His connection with the Royal School of Mines was maintained throughout his career. Mr. McNeill was buried at Hollington, West St. Leonards, on September 21. The following societies were officially represented at the funeral:—The Institution of Mining and Metal- lurgy, the Royal School of Mines Advisory Board, the Mining Committee of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Geological Society, the Royal School of Mines, the R.S.M. Old Students’ Association, and the Mining and Metallurgical Club, of which he was vice-president, while floral tributes were sent by the nse is Ge MeNeill’s death creates a gap in the mining and kindred professions that will be difficult to fill. NOTES. Aw account of a new means of delineating internal organs in vivo, and the localisation of injuries to them, by an electrical method devised by James Shearer, M.D. (Washington, D.C.), at present a sergeant in the R.A.M.C., is given in the British Medical Journal for September 30. It is difficult to realise from the de- scription the exact nature of the electrical installation used, but the principle is said to be to impose upon two alternating electric fields of equal strength at right angles: the effect of a third field having its origin in the organ under examination. The patient lies on an insulated table, and near him. are placed two screens of perforated zine plate, one horizontal and the other vertical, connected to two separate batteries. A sheet of waxed paper is then put upon a cylinder which is set in rapid rotation, and a’needle scribes upon this paper a tracing of the organ under examination, showing at the same | time any lesions in it. Prints can afterwards be taken from the record by contact printing with photographie paper. Five illustrations are given in the British Medical Journal showing respectively pictures of the brain, kidney, cacum and appendix, intestine, and liver of injured patients submitted to the process. The brain picture is as clear a delineation of the blood- vessels as is given in text-books of anatomy, but how it could possibly have been produced by a tapping needle upon a rapidly revolving cylinder cannot readily be conceived. .Without further details to enable -electro- physiologists to repeat Sergeant Shearer’s work it is OcToBER 5, 1916 |* "aa impossible to say more than that the results, if con- firmed, resent a very remarkable- discovery,’ which may be of ‘immense advantage in delineating the soft internal structures of the body. So many inventions at first received with incredulity have turned out to be truly useful that we hesitate to speak of this’ present | one as incredible. But with the-imperfect details and explanation which are as yet forthcoming, we may be excused if we adopt the attitude of scientific expect- ancy. e trust it will not be long before the new method is examined by proper experts, and its ‘scien- tific soundness properly investigated. ° 4 ee - Ar 3 a.m. (Summer Time) on Sunday last, October 1, Greenwich lime again became the standard time ot Great Britain. By .an. order, issued. by the Home Office, “the hour 2-3 a.m. Summer Time” was fol- lowed by “the hour 2-3 a.m. Greenwich Time.” All railway clocks and clocks in post offices and Govern- ment establishments were put back one hour, and the Government requested the public to put back the time of all clocks and watches by one hour during the night of Saturday-Sunday, September 30-October 1. From October 1 onwards Greenwich Time will be used for all purposes instead of being limited to the needs of Navigation, astronomy, and meteorology, as it has been since May 21. It is announced that the Home Secretary, while satisfied with the results of the Summer Time Act, has appointed a committee to consider the question in all its aspects. A Daylight ghey Bill will probably be reintroduced next year, but Mr. Samuel thinks that certain objections, coming chiefly from northern manufacturing districts, and a number of suggestions and recommendations should be inquired into first. The late experience has shown that the State need not hesitate to introduce any changes which are believed to be for the good of the community. In Nature of September 28 a correspon- dent suggested certain modifications of the customary use of a.m, and p.m., so as to avoid the designation of half an hour after midday by 12.30 p.m., while 11.30 p-m. occurs eleven hours later. Mr. C. T. Whit- mell writes to say that he made the same suggestion in the Yorkshire Post of August 4, and remarks that “some definite agreement as to the way of represent- ing the times between noon and 1 p.m. and between midnight and 1 a.m. is certainly desirable.” The Home Secretary’s committee might consider this matter, and also the question of designating hours from o to 24, so as to avoid the use of a.m. and p.m. altogether. Mr. Benjamin Kipp, the author of important books and articles in which a system of social philosophy is developed from an original point of view, died on October 2, at fifty-eight years of age. His first work, * Social Evolution,” is the best known, and when it was published in 1894 its originality and force were recognised immediately. The keynote of the work was the declaration that religion is not the enemy of science and enlightenment, but, on the contrary, through the ethical principles of its teaching, has been one of the most important agencies in social develop- ment, and is closely bound up with that portion of our nature to which all modern social advance is due, and by which the course of future progress will be decided. Mr. Kidd thus found the causes of the evolution of society and of modern civilisation, not in the growth of intellect and of science, but in the continuous action of religious beliefs. In 1898 was published his book, ‘‘The Control of the Tropics,” which directed attention to the importance of the tropics in the development of civilisation; and in 1002 appeared his ‘Principles of Western Civilisation,” which made “efficiency in the future”’ the determining quality of social development. This ~“ projected NO. 2449, VOL. 98] NATURE 95 efficiency,”” when ** society, with‘all its interests ‘in’ the present, is subordinated to its own future,” was re- garded as the secret of success and of progress, and its absence was the cause of stagnation. Mr. Kidd was also the author of other notable works. To the tenth edition of the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica” he | contributed a prefatory- article on “The ‘Application of the Doctrine of Evolution to Sociological Theory,” and for the eleventh edition he wrote the article on socio- logy. In 1908 he delivered the Herbert Spencer lecture at Oxford upon the subject of ‘Individualism and After:,” A SKIEN newspaper announces the discovery in Tele- mark, Norway, of a rich mineral field covering several kilometres. Bismuth and silver have been found there, and it is said that there are traces of gold. Tue Faraday Society will hold a general discussion on “Refractories” at its first autumn meeting, the date of which is provisionally fixed for Wednesday, November 8. The discussion will be presided over by Sir Robert Hadfield, president of the society, and the opening paper will be read by Dr.. J. W. Mellor. A LECTURE on“‘Stresses in Transparent Materials as Revealed by Polarised Light” will be delivered by Prof. E. G. Coker before the Optical Society on Thursday next, October 12, at the rooms of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W. A€coRDING to the Times a ‘* meteorite (commonly known as a ‘ thunderbolt ’).” fell at Dinas Powis, near Cardiff, on the night of September 26-27, and did some damage. The cause of the damage was, however, ‘not a meteorite, but a lightning-flash. There had been thunderstorms on or about the same day of ‘the month in the previous May, June, and July, whilst it was on March 27 that the famous storm occurred. Mr. Lioyp Georce’s allusion to the absence of the nightingale from Wales has caused a long and sharp discussion in the local Press. It is authoritatively stated that during the last thirty years the nightingale has been steadily moving westward in the Principality. In East Glamorgan it 1s a regular visitor, but has also been reported from Carmarthen, and was heard as far west as Aberystwyth in 1911. A WIRELESS station has been established on Dickson Island, at the mouth of the Yenisei, by an expedition under the leadership of Dr. Kuchakoy, for the purpose of sending meteorological telegrams to the physical observatory in Petrograd. The -value of these tele- grams will be felt chiefly in Siberia. DurinG. the past summer a. party of forty men, in- cluding. five. engineers, has. been .working the large coalfield. on ;Bear Island, between Spitsbergen and Norway. The field has. proved of greater extent than was anticipated, and ;the coal seams ‘crop: out on the north side of the. island... A cargo has. already been dispatched, and it is: possible. to-continue the export throughout. the year. - The. Norwegian Government proposes to establish wireless and meteorological sta- tions there. At Leonardsberg, four kilometres from Norrképing, Sweden, there have recently been discovered and cleaned from the surrounding earth a number of rock- carvings, both large’and small. One’ of them shows a row of human figures, among others women with children, men’ bearing shields, horses, and two other quadrupeds with curious head ornaments. Another interesting rock-carving -has been discovered in Bis- kopskulla parish*in Upland. Six previous carvings g6 NATURE were known from this district, but the present one is the representation of a ship of a type hitherto un- known there, since it is not merely outlined but carved on the rock in low relief. About one metre long, it represents one of the so-called dragon ships, and belongs to the oldest group of such monuments of the Bronze age, a conclusion confirmed py its height of 32:5 metres above sea-level. Tue Y.M.C.A. is organising a series of micro- scopic exhibitions in the military and naval camps for the interest of the men in their leisure hours. An organising committee consisting of fellows and mem- bers of the, Royal Microscopical Society, Quekett Microscopical Club, and the Photomicrographic Society has been formed, and already many fixtures have been made for exhibitions to be held in the Y.M.C.A. huts in various centres throughout the metropolitan area and the home counties. The exhibitions gener- ally take place in the late afternoons or the evenings, and ladies and gentlemen who can spare the time to give service with their microscopes are invited to com- Municate with the hon. sec., Microscopical Depart- ment, Y.M.C.A., Tottenham Court Road, W. Sirk Witu1am Ascrort, a pioneer advocate of tech- nical education, died on September 29, in his eighty- fifth year. He was president of the council of the Harris Institute, Preston, for more than thirty years (resigning in 1912), one of the original members of the council; and one of the trustees. The Preston Guar- dian remarks :—‘ Sir Wm. Ascroft’s zeal for education, and particularly technical education, made the Harris Institute not only an incalculable benefit to Preston, but also one of the most. influential pioneers of tech- nical education in this country, setting an example which has been followed in many other centres. It was in recognition of his great services in this connec- tion that his name was included in the list of Royal birthday honours in 1908.” In the South African Journal of Science for June the Rev. S. S. Dorman deals with the question of the ruins at Zimbabwe and other sites in Rhodesia from the point of view of native tradition. He rejects the views advanced by Bent, Peters, and Hall that these buildings were erected by Semites, or under Semitic influence, from 2000 B.c. to A.D. goo. He has recorded the evidence of two intelligent natives, who allege that the buildings are of comparatively recent age, and that they were probably abandoned under pressure from marauding tribes. The so-called ‘‘temple’’ is now said to be only the residence of the chief, and the writer states that the buildings at Zimbabwe have not an appearance of antiquity, and that from the amount of weathering they do not appear to be more than 500 years old. He also produces evidence to show that gold mining was carried on by the natives at sites where these ruins do’ not exist, and he sums up by saying :—‘‘As a large part of the Semitic theory of the origin of Zimbabwe and its associated ruins rests upon the ignorance of the natives of rock mining and the excessive antiquity of the mines, the bottom is absolutely knocked out of it by these and similar facts.” In spite of the elaborate survey of Irish stone monuments by Mr. W. C. Borlase in his ‘“*Dolmens of Ireland,”” much remains to be done in that island, where dolmens, stone circles, alignments, and pillar- stones (inscribed, uninscribed, holed, and marked) are singularly abundant. In the June issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Mr. J. P. Condon publishes the first portion of a survey of the rude stone monuments of the northern portion of Cork County, in which he records many examples NO. 2449, VOL. 98] hitherto undescribed, and not even marked on the — maps of the Ordnance Survey. At Greenhill a new ogham stone, with a fragmentary inscription, has been recently discovered; the Island group of monuments in the parish of Rahan forms a remarkable collection, — a and the.stone ‘circle at Lissard, in the parish of Grenagh, is fairly complete. Of the whole, in this the Scientific Monthly will be generally accepted. In several matters of detail, however, it is doubtful if his formulation of the problems will be useful. The attempt to separate the internal and external factors, as, for example, heredity and chronic irritation, dis- regards the fundamental truth that the influence of chronic irritation in the causation of cancer can only be conceived as acting through modification of the intracellular mechanism. It is a pity that the article does not distinguish between hypothetical views and generally accepted truths. An example of this is the statement that cancer of the mamma in mice cannot ‘ develop in the absence of a rhythmical repeated stimu- — lus from the ovaries, although Loeb himself claims to have proved that the diminution of spontaneous mam- mary cancer in mice by castration can only be obtained if it is performed before sexual maturity. The con- trast between spontaneous and transplanted caneer and the nature of immunity to the latter are well brought out. The paper ends with an attempt to combine the parasitic hypothesis of cancer etiology with the purely biological conceptions of its nature, mainly on the assumption that the explanation of the proliferation of cancer is to be found in analogies with the plant tumours caused by the Bact. tumefaciens and the bird tumours discovered by Peyton Rous to be due to a filtrable virus. : Tue September issue of the Journal of the Board of Agriculture contains a useful summary of the results of co-operative experiments carried out in the years 1911-13, under the auspices of the Union of German Experiment Stations, with the view of obtaining further evidence as to the validity of the so-called “citric solubility’ as a measure of the fertilising value of basic slag, The question is one which has aroused much controversy in recent years in Germany and also in this country, and has acquired considerable practical importance through the official recognition of — the conventional Wagner method of determination of — “citric solubility’’ in the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Acts and regulations made thereunder. With one exception the reports from the five experiment Stations co-operating in the tests are unanimous in upholding the validity of the Wagner test and justify the unanimous resolution of the Union of German — Experiment Stations that there are no grounds for departing from the customary methods of evaluation of basic slag. It may be added that similar, though less comprehensive, tests carried out during the past — three years at various centres in this country, under the auspices of the Agricultural Education Association, have also given results which in the main bear out this conclusion. Tue revised edition of Special Leaflet No, 46, re- cently issued by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, bears testimony to the vigorous criticism sustained from practical agriculturists since the first f the advocacy in ‘the leaflet of the Iphate of ammonia to the wheat crop mn months. In view of this criticism ght desirable to embody in the new justification of the recommendation. at on the average of years, if a exceeding, say, # cwt. sulphate of to be used, spring dressing may be ex- _ pected to: pay better than autumn dressing. It is : argued, however, that with wheat high in price much _ heavier dressings can be profitably applied, that these _ must in any ¢ase*be given in two or more instalments, and that the best result may be expected from them if a _ portion be applied in the autumn and the balance in the spring. It is further urged that the common fear _ of loss of soluble salts by leaching throughout the winter is lixgely groundless in the case of sulphate ~ of ammonia, since the ammonia is firmly retained by ; the soil and is only readily removed by water after application during the it has beer ae conversion to the form of nitrate. Such nitrification being the outcome of bacterial activity, little _ change of ammonia is likely to take place at the low _ temperatures obtaining in the soil during the winter months. ; THE at! of teachers of geography should be _ directed to the fine illustrations which are a feature of the National Geographic Magazine, published in _ Washington. The magazine is ostensibly a popular _ publication, and fulfils its object of increasing and diffusing geographical knowledge. The issue for August, Bo Nga xxx., No. 2), contains, amon others, articles on Sardinia, Argentine and Chile, an San Domingo and Hayti. The chief feature of each article is the illustrations, many of which have con- siderable geographical value, and all of which are admirably rep: sows It is not easy to get illustra- tions of the negro republic of Hayti, and those in this magazine give a vivid impression of the island and its chief towns. The people of the countries concerned are well illustrated in all the articles. iy! Ox the Monthly Meteorological Chart of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean for October there appears the usual inset map of “phenomenal drifts and-heights ” of North Atlantic ice. We notice in this map a record, which has appeared in many previous issues, of rea: ap an iceberg, recorded near the island of Colonsay, off the Firth of Lorne, in the west of Scotland. It was sighted by fishermen in July, 1902. It is a little difficult to credit this remarkable occur- rence, and if the fishermen were not mistaken the iceberg would surely have been seen by other observers, but the chart makes no mention of this. There are conditions of sea and weather in which ice can easily be imagined, and this suggests one of those cases. Unless the record is established beyond all doubt, it would be well to query this occurrence or to remove its indication from the chart. We learn from the Geographical Journal for Sep- tember that the Arkhangel Society for the study of the Russian North is taking steps to obtain information as to the fate of the two Russian polar expeditions, of which there has been no news for several years. Rusanoff's expedition in the Hercules visited Spits- bergen in the summer of 1912, and was last heard of . the same year in Novaya Zemlya, on its way through the Matochin Shar to the Kara Sea. Ice conditions were exceptionally severe in Arctic seas in 1912. The other expedition, in the St. Anna, passed through Yugor Strait in September, 1912, with the intention of making the north-east passage. It was afterwards Jearnt that the St. Anna was abandoned in April, 1914, in 83° N., 63° E. Several Russian search expe- ditions have failed to reveal any further news. The % NO. 2449, VOL. 98] NATURE 97 Arkhangel Society is raising a fund of 2500l. to be spent during the next three years in prizes for in- formation throwing any light on the fate of the ex- plorers. It is almost impossible that there can now be any survivors. Tue Philippine Journal of Science for January con- tains an interesting paper by G. W. Heise on the water supply of the city of Manila. The water is derived from the upper reaches of the Mariquina River, and the only physical purification it receives is storage in a reservoir for about three and a half days, which reduces the bacteriological count by about go per cent. The water is then treated with chloride of lime in doses varying from o-5 to 0-75 part of available chlorine per million parts of water. This treatment appears to be still in a more or less experimental. stage, and while, on the face of it, the sterilisation does not quite come up to expectations, some interest- ing results were obtained. Perhaps the most note- worthy of these is that the benefit derived from in- creasing the dose from o-5 part of available chlorine: per million to 0-625 part is very much greater than that derived by a further increase from the latter figure to 0-75 part. These results are chiefly judged by bacteriological counts made on the water before- treatment and three-quarters of an hour after treatment. Possibly, if the results were judged on tests for B. coli done on various volumes of water (say 100 €.c., 10 C.C., I C:C., OI c.c., etc.) instead of only on 2 ¢.c., and after longer contact (say three or four hours) of the water with the germicide, they would then wear a more favourable aspect, and at ‘the same time give a truer estimate of the effect of the treatment. Unpber the title ** Mathematical Portraits and Pages” Messrs. Ginn and Co. have issued an attractive illus- trated pamphlet of about twenty pages, drawn up by Prof. David Eugene Smith. The contents include reproductions of portraits of Newton, Isaac Barrow, John Wallis, Nicholas Saunderson, and Brook Taylor (of Taylor’s theorem), also facsimiles of pages of. “The Craft of Nombryng,” Tonstall’s ‘‘De Arte svppvtandi,"’ Recorde’s **Grovnd of Artes" and his ‘“Whetstone of Witte,” and the title-page of Digges. and Son’s ‘Stratioticos.”’ : WHILE the late Captain Ferber was probably the first to consider lateral stability in applying the equa-- tions of rigid dynamics to the motions of aeroplanes, he unfortunately assumed that an aeroplane could be replaced by a system of three mutually orthogonal plane surface-elements, and it is greatly to be feared that the accident in which he lost his life may have arisen through the consequent misunderstanding of the problem. In the Téhoku Mathematical Journal, ix., 4, Mr. Selig Brodetsky has now taken up the question as to how far it is possible, even on the’ simple ‘‘ sine-law”’ hypothesis, to replace an aeroplane by three or more equivalent surfaces in three planes at right angles. The investigation leads to some ex- ceedingly heavy algebra, which Mr. Brodetsky may claim to have worked out to the bitter end, with, briefly speaking, the following results :—(1) Except in the case of small divergences from a. state of steady motion no such representation is possible; (2) in the case of small oscillations three planes are insufficient, but it is possible to represent the system by six sur- face-elements, namely, two in each of the three ‘co- ordinate planes. Wuite the claims of Napier as the discoverer of logarithms have received ample recognition in connection with the tercentenary celebration in 1914, it is interesting to notice that a system &- 98 of logarithmic tables was’ invented and drawn up almost contemporaneously with Napier’s work by Jost Burgi, a Swiss. A brief note deal- ing with Burgi’s work is contributed to the Mitteilungen der naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Bern | for 1914 (p. 318) by Dr. A. Bohren. Burgi was born at Lichtenstein, in Toggenburg, about the year 1552, but of his early life little is known. He was originally a clockmaker by trade, but developed .a talent for astronomical work, and, under the patronage at first of the Landgraf Wilhelm of Hesse, and _ later of Rudolf II. of Bohemia, he not only invented new astronomical instruments, but greatly assisted Kepler with his observations. His treatise on logarithmic methods described under the title ‘‘Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression-Tables"’ first saw the light in 1620, but it'is certain that the tables were calculated and used by him long before that date, and their publication had been ‘delayed by the war in Bohemia. Probably for the same reason the instruc- tions which were to accompany the tables were never published, and in consequence they failed to come into general use. Both Biirgi and Napier built up their tables by forming successive positive integral powers of anumber differing from unity by a very small decimal, but Biirgi’s tables are based on the relations x=10n, and y=108 (1-0001)", while Napier calculated his logarithms from the successive powers of 1—10~’. It would thus appear probable that Biirgi was the first to use a base greater than unity, and so to obtain a scale more suitable for use with integral numbers. Whether Napier was acquainted with Biirgi’s work is considered doubtful. Possibly Napier may have got the idea from Biirgi, and his choice of a system the base of which is less than unity may have been in- tended as an improvement to facilitate the use of the tables in trigonometry. CrrcuLar No. 58 of the Bureau of Standards con- tains much valuable information as to the properties of invar and related nickel steels. Invar is a nickel steel containing about 36 per cent. of nickel, together with small amounts of carbon and manganese, and metallurgically negligible amounts of sulphur, phosphorus, and other elements. It melts sharply at about 1425° C. Above 200° C. to its melting point it may be considered to consist of a homogeneous solid solution of the above elements. Below 200° C., and at a temperature dependent on its history and exact composition, it undergoes a reversible transformation of such a nature that for any sample the transforma- tion may be incomplete. This condition of thermo- chemical instability gives rise to both slowly and quickly changing values of its physical properties— changes which are particularly manifested in the ex- pansion. It can be rolled, forged, turned, filed, and drawn into wires, and it takes a beautiful polish, giving an excellent surface on which fine lines may be ruled. It will withstand without spotting the corrosive action of water, even when immersed for several days. Its electrical resistivity is about eight times that of pure iron, and its temperature-coefficient of electrical resist- ance about o-o012 per degree Centigrade. It is ferro- magnetic, but becomes paramagnetic in the neigh- bourhood of 165° C. The mean ,coefficient of linear expansion between 0° and 4o° C. is for ordinary invar of the order of one millionth, and samples have been prepared with even small negative coefficients; the amounts of carbon and manganese appear to exercise considerable influence on the expansion. Above 200° C, its expansion is nearly the same as that of ordinary Bessemer steel. It is subject to changes in length due to “‘after effects”? following cooling from a high temperature, and even following slight altera- tions in temperature. A mathematical formula, NO. 2449, VOL. 98] - NATURE [Ocroser 5, 1916 Ah/h=—0-00325 . 107 "t*, holds for. temperatures . be- tween 0° and 100° C, ! ; Tue results of the measurements of the rate of vaporisation of platinum yessels raised to high tem- peratures which have been made at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by Messrs. Burgéss and’ Waltenberg are given in Scientific Paper No. 280, recently issued by the bureau. At temperatures below goo° C. there is_ no appreciable vaporisation, whatever be the composi- made. At 1000° C., however, the loss from 100 sq. cm. of a vessel of pure platinum is 0-08, and at 1200° C. 0-81 milligram per hour. For an alloy con- taining 1 per cent. iridium the corresponding rates are at 1000° C. 0:30, and at 1200° C, 1-2 milligrams per hour. For a 2-5 per cent. iridium alloy they are at tooo? C. 0:57, and, at 1200° C. 2-5 milligrams per hour. Rhodium alloys, on the contrary, vaporise at lower rates. For an 8 per cent. rhodium alloy the rates of loss are at 1000° C. 0-07, and at 1200° C. 0:54 milligram per hour. Sivce the appearance three years ago of the last edition of Prof. G. Lunge’s ‘The Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali,” vol. i., many additions to the subjects treated of have been made. To deal with the new developments, Prof. Lunge has prepared a supplementary volume, which Messrs. Gurney and Jackson announce for publication this autumn. Mr. F. Epwarps, of High Street, Marylebone, announces for early publication ‘‘The Fauna and Ethnology of New Guinea,” being the official records of the collections formed by the British Ornithologists’ Union Expedition, 1909-11, and the Wollaston Expedi- tion, 1912-13, in Dutch New Guinea. The work will be in two volumes, and the edition limited to 150 copies. : OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue AstronomicaL Compass.—The utilisation of the heavenly bodies as a means of determining direction has attracted considerable attention since the outbreak of war, and various attempts to simplify the problem for general use have been made. Simplified azimuth tables, in conjunction with maps of the stars, have mostly been employed, but it is evident that such tables may be replaced by graphical projections of the circles of the celestial sphere. Under the title of the ** Rev. William Hall’s Visible Astronomical Compass,” an arrangement for the direct solution of the chief problems depending upon the diurnal motion of the heavens has been published by Mr. J. D. Potter, 145 Minories, E.C. (price 1s. net, post free). A circle 6 in, in diameter, on a card ro in. x8 in., contains a stereo- graphic projection on the plane of the horizon, for latitude 50° N., showing the circles of each even degree of declination, and ’hour circles at intervals of ten minutes. Circles of azimuth and altitude are not drawn, but the outer edge of the horizon circle is graduated for true bearings, and altitudes may be read off on a scale provided, after measurement with dividers along a travelling thread fixed at the zenith point. Given the time, or an approximate measurement of altitude, the bearing of any object is, of course, readily determined, and the ‘‘compass’’ can then be adjusted so as to show true directions. No new principle is involved, but the arrangement provides a stereographic projection in a convenient form, and the necessary instructions for its use are given. It should be under- stood, however, that a star map and an almanac are also requisite, and that some means of measuring altitudes would greatly extend the usefulness of the | projection. i tion of the platinum alloy of which the vessel is -Erreer oF Haze oN Soar Rotation _MEasuRES.— _ The extensive determinations of the sun’s rotation which have been made by the spectroscopic method have shown remarkable variations, even among results obtained at the same observatory at different times. Thus the values for the equatorial velocity range from 1-86 to 211 km. per sec., and observers have not agreed as to the inequality of the values obtained -from ’ different lines at the same time. Again, while some observers have found values of the rate of rotation progressively increasing with the wave-length, many other observations have not shown this effect. A valu- able contribution towards tracing the source of such discordances has been made by R. E. De Lury, of the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, in a careful investiga- tion of the effects of haze on the spectroscopic measure- ments (Journ. R.A.S. Canada, vol. x., p. 345). The efiect of terrestrial atmospheric haze is obviously to superpose a weakened solar spectrum, coming mainly from the centre of the sun’s disc and showing no dis- placements at all, upon the limb spectra. The measured displacements of the blended lines at the limb would then be too small, and would vary from line to line, according to the character of the line at the limb as compared with the centre. Correction for the haze effect can be made by correlating accurate determinations of the relative strengths of haze and limb spectrum with displacements of groups of lines of different intensities. may be necessary, but Mr. De Lury appears to be already convinced that variations hitherto ascribed to the sun are mainly due to variations in haze. Tue Masses or Visuat Binary Stars.—Mr. R.T. A. Innes has been led to some remarkable conclusions by a discussion of data relating to binary stars (South African Journ, Sci., vol. xii.,,p. 453). All close pairs of stars, with few exceptions, are apparently to be regarded as binaries, whether they show relative motion or not. On the assumption that a binary has the same brightness as the sun, Mr. Innes calculates its distance from the apparent magnitude, and thence the mass, if the period be known. When no orbit has been computed, he proceeds in a similar manner, and calculates the annual angular motion at the distance of the companion which would be produced if the primary had the same mass as the sun. The calcu- lated motion is mostly much in excess of that observed, and Mr. Innes concludes that very few double stars have a mass, or ‘'gravitative power,” as he prefers to call it, equal to that of the sun. He has been led to suppose that gravitative power is small in stars of types B and A, moderate in F, and large in G and K stars; in types Oe and M it appears to be absent alto- gether. The A type is considered to be poorly repre- sented among binaries, because stars of this class have but little effective gravitative power, notwithstanding their great brilliancy. There appears to be a limiting distance below which double stars cannot exist, and for solar-type stars this is apparently about five times the earth’s distance from the sun. It is suggested that light-pressure may partly or wholly neutralise gravi- tative power in stars of small density and great luminosity. MUTATION AND EVOLUTION. %OF. ARTHUR DENDY’S presidential address, delivered in February last, before the members of the Quekett Microscopical Club appears in the journal of the club for April, and will probably be much dis- cussed, inasmuch as it is devoted to an analysis of the relation of mutation to the evolution theory, the arguments being based on data drawn from the sponges. The phenomena of mutation, it is con- NO. 2449, VOL. 98] Further investigations. NATURE 99 tended, is more a chemico-physical than a bio‘ogical phenomenon. Mutations, such as are observable in. sponge spicules, in his opinion, strongly suggest the existence of definite factors in the germ plasm. The factorial hypothesis, he considers, is further supported by evidence which is accumulating as to the general course of evolution followed by the Tetraxonida. On the whole this evolution seems to have been progressive,. accompanied by increasing complexity ot , structure, manifested especially in the skeleton, Along certain lines of descent, however, it appears that the cul- minating point has been passed, and regressive evolu- tion is taking place, resulting in simplification of structure, by the dropping out of certain types of spicule. This loss cannot be regarded as an adaptive modification, nor can it be explained as due to mechanical necessities. Prof. Dendy concludes, there- fore, that it is due to some change in the germ-plasm, affecting the power of the sponge to produce the par- ticular spicules in question, How can we reconcile these facts, it is asked, with the belief that evolution has taken place, in the main, by slow, successive modifications, rather than by sudden mutations? The conception of factors is inti- mately bound up with that of mutations, and the existence of the one wou'd seem to imply the occur- rence of the other. As to which set of characters is to be regarded as the more important from the point of view of the student of progressive evolution Prof. Dendy holds there can be little doubt, but how far the division into adaptive and non-adaptive corresponds to the distinction between fluctuating variation and mutation is a different question. Certainly the chances are greatly against a mutation, when it first appears, having any adaptive significance. The evidence seems to him to show that the slow, successive variations of the Darwinian theory have had far more to do with the evolution of sponges than the process of mutation, and are mainly responsible, under the guidance of natural selection, for adaptive modifications. It is not easy to follow Prof. Dendy in his attempt to discriminate between, and apportion the value of, adaptive and non-adaptive characters. It would seem, however, that he would regard the former as directly affecting viability, in proportion to their responsive- ness to the demands of natural selection. They are characters which are of necessity immediately and continuously functional. The latter seem to be re- garded as accretions or fortuitous variations, tolerated until they acquire survival value—that is to say, until they come under the sway of natural selection. If this is so, then all non-adaptive characters are poten- tially adaptive. They afford the basis for further evolutionary phases, or, in other words, the material which will determine the trend of future development and the fate of the organism for good or ill. W.. .Pic Be SOME PROBLEMS IN EUGENICS. TUDENTS of human heredity from the sociological point of view are indebted to the American Eugenics Record Office (Long Island, N.Y.). Its last- issued Bulletin (No. 15) contains the study of a family indicated by the pseudonym of ‘Dack,” showing markedly a “hereditary lack of emotional control.” The author of the bulletin is Mrs. A. W. Finlay- son, and Prof. C. B. Davenport contributes a preface in which he emphasises the importance of such “eugenics field-work.’’ Mrs. Finlayson has collected data with regard to 150 descendants of the pair of “Dacks ” who emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania 100 NATURE th [OcroBER 5, 1916 © in 1815, three generations being passed under review. Forty individuals are not recorded to have shown anti- social traits, but the remainder all failed in self-control, many being dishonest, and tending to alcoholism, or to profligacy, forty-one of these being ‘‘ obviously a burden to society.’’ These objectionable features were most pronounced in the case of offspring of a marriage of first cousins; Prof. Davenport’s conclusion that violence of temper is a ‘‘dominant” character is con- firmed, as in this family it was not found to ‘‘skip a generation." Most thoughtful readers of the bulletin will agree with the suggestion at the end of the pre- face that ‘tunless society steps in and trains the train- able and segregates the uncontrollable, things will go from bad to worse.” Human endowments of a more pleasing kind are discussed by Dr. H. Drinkwater in a paper entitled “Inheritance of Artistic and Musical Ability,’’? pub- lished in the last number of the Journal of Genetics (v., No. 4). He gives pedigrees—extending in some cases over four generations—of several families of artists and musicians, which indicate that where both parents are talented all the children inherit the talent, while a non-artistic or non-musical pair never have talented offspring. Hence he infers that artistic. or musical ability is a recessive Mendelian character. When only one parent is musical, the number of children showing the recessive character may be more than the 50 per cent. required by the theory, but the records are too few for this to be regarded as a fatal difficulty to Dr. Drinkwater’s interpretation. It will, however, be surprising if further research confirms the view that the complex nervous specialisation which must be supposed to accompany marked artistic or musical ability is determined by a simple genetic factor comparable with that which settles the colour of the eyes. "To the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (vol. Ixxix., part 2) Major Leonard Darwin contributes a paper on the inquiries needed after the war in connec- tion with eugenics. He dwells on the selection of the best men generally for the fighting-line, shows that a higher death-rate may be expected to affect the more daring and self-sacrificing, and points out the mean- ing for the nation’s future of the abnormally heavy losses among officers. His plea for a full investigation of the problem and of possible remedial measures may meet with a disappointing response, but nobody can read his paper and the report of the subsequent dis- cussion—especially after studying the American bulletin summarised above—without realising the ‘reversed selective action” of the present world-conflict, and perceiving how absolutely opposed to the biological principles enunciated by Major Darwin’s great father are those modern ‘‘ people that delight in war.” G. H. C. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION C. GEOLOGY. OpENING AppRESS (ABRIDGED) BY Pror. W. S. Bout- TON, D.Sc., F.G.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. Ir we attempt to compare the growth of applied geology in Britain with that, say, in the United States of America, or even in our great oe Dominions, or to appraise the knowledge of, an respect for, the facts and principles of geology as directly applicable to industry’ in these countries and in our own, or to compare the respective literatures on the subject, I think we shall have to confess that we have lagged far behind the position we ought by right NO. 2449, VOL. 98] of tradition and opportunities now to occupy. The vast natural resources of the countries 1 have named have doubtless stimulated a corresponding effort in their profitable development. But making due allow- — ance tor the fact that Britain is industrially mature as_ compared with these youthful communities, we cannot doubt that in this special branch of geology, however splendid our advances in others, we have been out-— stripped by our kinsmen abroad, To attempt an explanation of this comparative failure to apply etfectively the resources of geology to prac- tical affairs would demand a critical analysis of the whole position of science in relation to industry and education which is being so vigorously debated by public men to-day. It is unquestionably due, in no | small measure, to our ignorance and neglect of, and consequent indifference to, science in general, more especially on the part of our governing classes. This war, with all its material waste and mental anguish, may bring at least some compensation if it finally — rouses us from complacence and teaches us to utilise more fully the highly trained and specialised intelli- gence of the nation. Here I digress for a moment to lay stress upon a great and needless loss of valuable and detailed know- ledge of our Coal Measure geology. It is well known that the Home Office Regulations demand that plans of workings in the different seams at a colliery shall be made and maintained by the colliery officials; and that on the abandonment of the mine copies of such plans shall be kept at the Mines Department of the Home Office for future reference. For ten years, however, they are regarded as confidential. Such information is recorded primarily with a view to the prevention of accidents due to inrushes of water and accumulations of gas. : Unfortunately, as mining men can testify, the plans are often woefully incomplete, inaccurate, and posi- tively misleading as regards such features as faults, rolls, wash-outs, and so forth, and this is notoriously so along the margin of the plans where workings have been abandoned. Cases have been brought to my notice where plans of old workings have been consulted when adjacent ground was about to be explored, and afterwards the plans have proved to be grossly in- accurate, with the consequent risk of serious economic — waste. I believe this unfortunate state of things is partly the effect of the complete official severance of the Geological Survey and the Mines Department of the Home Office. When the Geological Survey was first established, and for many years afterwards, a Mining Record Office for the collection and registration of all plans relating to mining operations was attached to it; but afterwards the Mining Record Office was transferred to the Home Office. I would suggest that it ought to be made possible for all mining plans to be periodically inspected by Government officials with geological knowledge, not merely after the plans are deposited in a Government office, but during the working of the mine; so that, if desirable or necessary, the geological facts indicated by the mine-surveyor on the plan: can be tested and verified. If accurate and properly attested plans of old workings were always available, the opening up of new ground would be greatly facilitated and much waste of time and money would be avoided. Need for Systematic Survey by Deep Borings. When we turn our attention to the possible extension of the Coal Measures under the newer strata of South- Central England, the geological data at our disposal are lamentably and surprisingly few. Notwithstanding our eagerness to unravel the difficulties, and so to open up new fields for mining activity, very little positive nye? a a sagen’ as . OctToBER 5, 1916] progress has been made in the last twenty years. Of late a few deep borings have been sunk; one near High Wycombe, after piercing the Mesozoic cover, ended in Ludlow rocks; another at Batsford, in Gloucestershire, . fifteen miles north of the well-known Burford boring, struck what are regarded as Upper Coal Measures, also resting on Silurian rocks. At the present time it seems specially fitting to direct attention once again to our haphazard method of grappling with this great economic question. Are we to go on indefinitely pursuing what is almost “ wild- cat" boring, to use the petroleum miner’s expressive slang? Or shall we boldly face the fact that systematic exploration is demanded; and that this pioneer work is a national obligation, the expense of which should be a national charge? At a meeting of the Organising Committee of Sec- tion C a recommendation was forwarded to thé council in the following terms :— “The council of the British Association for the Ad- vancement of Science recommends that the site, depth, and diameter of every borehole in the British Isles exceeding 500 ft. in depth be compulsorily notified and registered in a Government office. That all such boreholes be open to Government inspection during their progress. That copies of the journals and other information relating to the strata penetrated by the boring be filed in a Government office under the same restrictions as those relating to plans of abandoned mines.” ; I would go further and urge that the Government should undertake the sinking of deep borings at selected points. This is no new idea. In his presi- dential address to the Geological Society of London in 1912 Prof. Watts pleaded most forcibly the vital importance of a State-aided underground survey of the area to which I have referred. The work is too vast for individual effort, or even for a private company to undertake. It is not suggested that deep borings should be sunk with the express purpose of finding coal. What is wanted is a systematic survey by bor- ings at such spots as are likely to throw light upon the structural framework of the Palzozoic floor and the thickness of its cover. Of course, there are difficulties in the way of such a scheme. There is the expense. But in view of the enormous economic possibilities of the work, and re- membering that it is now possible to sink a boring to a depth of, say, 1200 ft., and to bring up 18-in. cores at a cost less than 2oool., it cannot be reasonably argued that the expense is beyond the nation’s power to bear. A levy of a farthing a ton on the coal output of the United Kingdom for a single year would yield some- thing like 300,000l., a capital sum that would provide in perpetuity an additional yearly grant to the Geo- logical Survey of 15,000l., which would suffice not only to carry on this work, but would enable the Survey to extend its functions in the other directions I have indicated. As to legal obstacles and vested mineral rights, I wish to say nothing excent that if the country could be convinced that this work is urgently needed on national grounds, all scruples and doubts, so agitating to the official mind, would speedily vanish. For many years’ I lived near our gréat exporting centres of the finest steam coal in the world, and as I watched the steady and incessant streams of. coal- Waggons, year in, year out,.coming down from the hills, I was constantly reminded that we are rapidly draining the country of its industrial life-blood. Is it an extravagant demand to ask that an infinitesimal fraction of this irreplaceable Nature-made wealth should be set aside to provide the means for the discovery and development in our islands of new mineral fields? NO. 2449, VOL. 98] ’ NATURE Io! Chemical and Microscopical Investigation of Coal Seams. ; : The recovery of by-products in the coking of coal, which up to the beginning of the war was almost exclusively undertaken by the Germans, is likely in the future to become an important British industry. This will ultimately demand a thorough knowledge of the microscopic and chemical structure of all the important coking seams in our coalfields. : Remembering how varied both in microscopical structure and chemical composition the individual laminz of many of the thick coal-seams are, it will readily appear how important such a detailed investiga- tion may become, having regard to the great variety of these by-products and their industrial - application. Moreover, thin seams, hitherto discarded, may pay to be worked, as may also an enormous amount of small coal, estimated at from 10 to 20 per cent. of the total output, which up to the present has been wasted. Geology of Petroleum. It has been frequently remarked that in order to account for the vast accumulation of coal in the Car- boniferous strata, it is necéssary to postulate a special coincidence over great areas of the northern hemi- sphere of favourable conditions of plant growth, climate, sedimentation, and crustal subsidence, condi- tions which, although they obtained at other geological periods over relatively small areas, were never re- peated on so vast a scale. Having regard to the esti- mates of coal deposits in Cretaceous and Tertiary strata, published in our first international Coal Census, the ‘“‘Report on the.Coal Resources of the World,’ it would appear that we might reasonably link the Cretaceo-Tertiary period with the Carboniferous in respect of these peculiar and widely prevalent coal- making conditions. For I find that of the actual and probable reserves of coal in the world, according to our present state of knowledge, about 43 million million tons of bituminous and anthracite coal exist, the vast bulk of which is of Carboniferous age; while there are about 3 million million tons of lignites and sub- bituminous coals, mostly of Cretaceous and Tertiary. age. “When we look to the geological distribution of petroleum, we note that it is to be found in rocks of practically every age in more or less quantity, but that it occurs par excellence, and on a great commercial scale, in rocks of two geological periods (to a smaller extent in a third); and it is significant that these two periods are the great coal-making periods in geological history—the Carboniferous and the Cretaceo- Tertiary. It would take me beyond my present pur- pose to explore the avenues of thought and speculation opened up by this parallel. I will only remark that it seems to afford some support for the view that coal and petroleum are genetically as well as chemically related. While the terrestrial vegetation of the two periods was accumulating under specially favourable physiographical conditions, ultimately to be mineralised into seams of coal, the stores of petroleum believed to be indigenous to strata of the same periods were probably derived from the natural distillation of the plankton which must have flourished, too, on _an enor- mous scale in the shallow, muddy waters adjacent to this luxuriant land growth. The phytoplankton, in- cluding such families as the Diatomacee and Peri- diniza, may well have played the ‘chief réle in this petroleum formation, while affording unlimited sus- tenance to the small and lowly animal organisms, like Entomostraca, the fatty distillates of which doubtless contributed to the stores of oil. It is possible, then, 1 Report on “ The Coal Resources of the World” ‘for the Twelfth Intern Geol. Congress, 1913. 102 that a prodigious development of a new and vigorous flora during both perioas—the spore-bearing fiora, in the main, of the Carboniferous, and the seed-bearing tlora of the Cretaceo-Tertiary period—was the chier contributory factor in the making of the world’s vast store of solid and liquid fuel. 1t contributed directly by supplying the vegetable matter for the coal, and indirectly by stimulating the development of a prolific plankton, from which the oil has been aistilled. The world’s production of petroleum has trebled itself within the iast fifteen years. In 1914 the United States of America produced 66-36 per cent., and North and South America together nearly three-fourths of the world’s total yield; while the British Empire (includ- ing Egypt) produced only a little more than 2 per cent. In the near future Canada is likely to take its place as a great oil- and gas-producing country, for large areas in the Middle-West show promising indications of a greatly increased yield. But Mexico is undoubtedly the country of greatest potential output. Its Creta- ceous and Tertiary strata along the Gulf Coastal Plain are so rich that it has been stated recently on high authority that ‘‘a dozen wells in Mexico, if opened to their full capacity, could almost double the daily output of the world.”’? As is well known, natural supplies of petroleum are not found in the British Isles on a commercial scale; but for many years oil and other valuable products have been obtained from the destructive distillation of the Oil Shales of the Lothians. If Mr. Cunning- ham Craig is right in his views recently expressed,° these shales, or, rather, their associated freestones, have been nearer to being true petroliferous rocks than we thought; for he believes that the small yellow bodies, the so-called ‘‘spores’’ in the kerogen shales, are really small masses of inspissated petroleum, adsorbed from the porous and once petroliferous sandstones with which the shales are interstratified. If recent experiments on peat fulfil the promise they undoubtedly show, we shall have to take careful stock ’ of the peat-bogs in these islands. It is well known that peat fuel has been manufactured in Europe for many years. But my attention has been called to a process for the extraction of fuel-oil from peat which has been tried experimentally in London, and is now about to be launched.on a commercial scale, utilisin our own peat deposits, like those of Lanarkshire an Yorkshire. The peat is submitted to low-temperature distillation at ordinary pressure, or at a slight negative pressure, the highest temperature reached: being about 600° C. From a ton of Lanarkshire peat, after the moisture is reduced to 25 per cent., 40 gallons of crude oil, 18 to 20 lb, of ammonium sulphate, about the same quantity of paraffin wax, 30 to 33 per cent. of coke, and sooo to 6000 cubic ft. of combustible gas are ob- tained. The coke is said to be of very good quality. By the same process it is honed to get satisfactory results from the lignites of Bovey Tracey. Considering the rapid development of oil as fuel, and its supreme industrial importance in many other ways, it is remarkable that British geologists should have given such little attention to the origin and occurrence of petroleum. Among American. geologists a lively interest in this subiect has been aroused’ and a volu- minous technical literature is already published.’ And vet the fact remains that we are still in a cloud of uncertainty as to this vital question, upon the solution of which denends whether the prasnector of the future igs to work by hazard or on scientific and reasoned lines. Mr. Murray Stuart, now of the Indian ,Geological ‘9 Ralph Arnold, “Conservat'on of the Oil and Gas Resources of the Americas,” Econ Geo/,. vo'. xi., No. 2, 1016, p 222. 3 In titutioh of Petrolerm Technologicts, Apr'l, 1916. NO. 2440, vot. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 5, 1916 Survey, offered in'1910* a simple explanation ot the occurrence of petroleum, basea upon iis own observa- tions in Burma, a research whicn seems to have at- tracted far more attention in America than in this country. He snowed that the oil ot the streams and swamps in Burma 1s carried down to the bottom of the water in small globules by adhering tiny particles of mud. Thus there is formed a deposit ot mud con- taining globules of oil and saturated with water. If afterwards this deposit is covered by a bed of sand, the oil and part of the water, as the pressure of over- lying sediment increases, are squeezed into the sand, so that by a repetition of the process a petroliferqus series of clays and sands may be accumulated. In examining lately a large quantity of the well-known “landscape marble” from the Rhetic of Bristol, I obtained from it small but appreciable amounts of petroleum; and towards the end of my investigation I was pleased to discover that I was in thorough agree- ment as to the origin of this curious landscape struc- ture with Mr. Beeby Thompson, whose research was published more than twenty years ago.* In these thin deposits of hydrocarbons among laminated silts, with their striking tree-like growths and hummocky surfaces, may we not have, in miniature, an illustration of the deposition and partial migration of netroleum which ~ occurs on so vast a scale in the oilfields of the world? It is not suggested that all petroleum deposits have had such an origin.. I am convinced, however, that in all geological ages such sedimentary accumulations have occurred; and that, excent where the conditions of cover have been favourable for its imprisonment, the oil is, and has been throughout geological time, in- cessantly escaping at the surface. Thus we may con- ceive the earth as continuously sweating out these stores of oil, either in the liquid or gaseous form, especially where rocks are being folded and rapidly denuded. It is sometimes asked whether the adoption of mineral oil as a power-producer is likely to supplant coal, and thereby seriously reduce the output of that mineral. The world’s yield of petroleum will doubt- less go on increasing at a very great rate; but from the experience gained in some of the fields in the United States and eastern Canada, it seems unlikely that this increase can continue for a very long period. Prac- tically complete exhaustion of the world’s supply is to be looked for within 100 years, says one authority.°® Even if the output rose to ten times the present vield, it would represent only about half the present world output of coal, and it is practically certain that so high a yield of oil could not be maintained for many years. Owing to the almost certain rapid increase in the output of coal, estimates made by the same authority indicate that the total production of petroleum could never reduce the world’s output of coal by more than about 6% per cent.” For us, and probably for those of the next genera- tion, the geology of petroleum will continue to be of immense practical importance; but coal will doubtless remain our great ultimate source of power. An obligation rests unon_us to see that the oil re- sources of the British Empire and of territories within our influence are explored. if possible by British reologists, with all the enecial knowledse that can be hrought to bear; and I am glad’ to think that the University of Rirminsham and the Imoerial College of Science and Technology, London, with this end in view, are doins pioneer work in giving a svstematic and snecialised training to our young petroleum technologists. 4 “Rec, Geol. Surv. India,” mentary Denos‘t‘on of Oil.” _ 5 O.J.G.S., 1894 DD. 203-410. 6 AS, Jevons, “British Coal Trade,” rers, p. 710. 7 Thid., p. 716. vol. xl., 1910, pp. 320-33: “The Sedi- rae Aas ~< OcTozer 5, 1916]. Organisation of Expert Knowledge. We are reminded by the report of a Royal ‘Commission—that on Coast Erosion in 1911—that. systematic observations and the collation and organisa- tion of geological and engineering knowledge are urgently needed in connection with the protection of our coasts and the reclamation of new lands. For it - will be remembered that the Commission found that during the last thirty-five years the gain of land, as _ shown by Ordnance Survey maps, has been more than seven times the loss by erosion. Here, again, the British Association may reflect with pride that it paved the way for this national inquiry. For many years its Committee on Coast Erosion gathered and collated evidence on erosion, and induced the Admiralty to instruct the coastguard to observe and report upon changes that take place from time to time. After recommending ‘“‘that the Board of Trade should be constituted the Central Sea-Defence Author- ity for the United Kingdom for the purpose of the administration of the coast-line in the interest of sea defence,’ the Commissioners go on to urge that ‘‘ that Department should have the assistance of scientific experts to collate information and to secure systematic observations with regard to questions such as the changes taking place below the level of low water, the travel of materials in deep water, the movements of _ outlying sandbanks, etc., which are continually happen- ing on the coasts of the kingdom, and with regard to which the information at present is scanty and vague.'’® : In economic geology, as in the case of other applied sciences, we must rely in the future less upon chance individual effort and initiative. We must concentrate, centralise, and organise; and at every stage we shall need expert control and advice as regards those larger scientific issues of national importance which have a direct practical bearing. aaa UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL ; INTELLIGENCE. Leeps.—The annual report of the Department of Coal, Gas, and Fuel Industries, of which Prof. J. W. Cobb occupies the chair as Livesey professor, has just been issued by the University. It begins with a refer- ence to the number of students who have entered the Army or are connected with the war work of the department, and also to the election of candidates to the recently founded Corbet-Woodall scholarship and Arthur Walker exhibition. Courses of lectures, which have been given in the past by specialists connected with the gas and fuel industries, have had to be re- stricted owing to the demands made by the war upon the lecturers. The research work of the department during the year includes two important publications. The Ventilation Research Committee, representing the Institution of Gas Engineers, has issued its third report. The work has been carried out, as before, by Mr. W. Harrison, who has made a careful and in- teresting study of causes of down-draughts, the effect of ventilating burners, etc. The second research, by Prof. Cobb and Mr. H. Hollings, on ‘Thermal Phenomena in Carbonisation,’’ was read before the _ Institution of Gas Engineers in June last. The other work of the department has been mainly on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions and the Royal Society War Committee. : : Tue chemical courses of the Finsbury Technical Col- lege, which commenced on Tuesday, October 3, are 8 Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, ete., rgrr. Third (and Final) Report, pp. 160-6r.. NO. 2449, VOL. 98] NATURE 103 undergoing modification and extension in order to cope with the increased demand for chemists trained to take up industrial posts. Commencing at first with a two- year curriculum, the courses have in recent years been extended over a period of three years, and in many instances students have, with profit to themselves, con- tinued their advanced studies into a fourth year and even longer. If the renascence of British chemical industry is to be fruitful, there will not only be a demand for more chemists, but it will be essential that these newcomers should be better trained than their predecessors. The Executive Committee of the City and Guilds of London Institute has placed at the disposal of the chemical department of the Finsbury college a new suite of rooms, to be fitted as advanced labora- tories of applied chemistry. The work of adaptation is in full progress, and the laboratories will be suffi- ” ciently ready for advanced students early in the new year. The installation of technical appliances is being extended, partly by purchase and partly by construc- tion in the chemical department. Factory methods of conducting filtration, evaporation, distillation, desic- cation, heating under pressure, and other generalised processes will be studied, and the possession of this plant and apparatus will render possible the execution of industrial researches in many branches of inorganic and organic chemistry, as, for example, the extraction of metals, preparation of alloys, cements, glazés, porce- lains, glass, enamels, pigments, synthetic dyes, artificial perfumes, and pharmaceutical products. One gratify- ing feature of this development is the fact that the effort to develop along industrial lines is so far appre- ciated by certain firms that they have assisted by gifts of plant and chemicals. In a pamphlet of thirty-six pages, entitled ‘t Scien- tific Method in Schools”’ (Cambridge University Press, price 1s.) Mr. W. H. S. Jones, senior classical master at the Perse School, has put forward some well-timed suggestions upon a subject now universally admitted to be of first-rate importance. Starting from the assumptions (1) that all subjects, in different ways and to different degrees, can be made to give a training in scientific method, and (2) that the scientific training even of the future researcher in physics or chemistry will be more effective if it is not confined to his special subject, but rests on a broad foundation, he puts for- ward the thesis that ‘‘ whatever subjects are included in the curriculum, each one should contribute its quota to a comprehensive scheme of scientific method.” He does not demand a strict ‘‘heuristic’’ treatment of every subject, but maintains that in lessons occurring regularly ‘‘once a week or once a fortnisht in each subject,” the pupil should be confronted with problems to be attacked bv strict application of the methods of deduction and induction—particularly the latter—and should be taught to be constantly conscious of the necessity of working according to fixed laws. Mr. Jones introduces his proposals by quotations from Cicero and Charles Lamb, but does not show whether he is aware how entirely they are congruent with the results of the best relevant psychological researches of the present day. Re that as it mav. the practical teacher will be more directly interésted in the eleven detailed examples, drawn from courses in languages, historv, geography. biolosv. ard mechanics, which the author gives in illustration of his thes‘s. Of these, some represent the joint work of master and class, some the unaided work of schoolboys or under- graduates. It would be unreasonable to expect them to be proof against criticism (indeed, Mr. Jones dis- claims any intention of offering them as models), but all will be found interesting and instructive as ex- emplifving a method of procedure of the general sound- ness and importance of which there can be no doubt. 104 Ox Monday, October 2, her Majesty the Queen opened the extension_of the science, laboratories of. the London. Royal. Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women. The ceremony took place in the anatomical department, where more than 600 guests were accom- modated. The Queen was addressed by the dean of the school, Miss Aldrich Blake, M.D., who gave a brief account of the school, comparing its position in 1874, when it was founded by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, with a total of fourteen students, and its present condi- tion, with splendidly equipped laboratories and more than 400 students; by Dr. Winifred Cullis. (lecturer in physiology), who thanked the Queen for the interest she had shown in. the work and education of medical women, and all those who by their help had made it possible to carry out this much-needed extension; and “by the chairman of the council, who, having handed to the Queen a key presented by the architects, asked her to open the extension. After the Queen had de- clared it open, her Majesty made a tour of the new laboratories. The extension which has now been car- ried out was planned and arranged for before the war, owing to the steadily increasing annual entry of students. When war broke out it was for a time uncer- tain whether the extension should be proceeded with, but the number of students entering the school in Ig14 Was so great that there.was no alternative. Con- sequently an appeal for 30,0001, was issued, the appeal was generously responded to, and within seventeen months the whole sum was obtained. On the top floor the whole extension is given to the anatomical department, which now has one of the finest dissecting rooms in the country (an. excellently lighted room, 140 ft. in length), private rooms, demonstration room, preparation rooms, and mortuary. The next floor is given to the physiological department, and the exten- sion provides an advanced laboratory, demonstration theatre, dark-room, storeroom, and private and re- search rooms. In the floor below is an extension of the chemical department, adding to it an organic labo- ratory, balance room, and private and research rooms; on this floor is found also a students’ union room. Below this is the extension of the physics laboratory, including lecture room, dark-rooms, and research room, and also some laboratories for pathological research. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, September 18.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—A. Lacroix: The riebeckite syenites of Alter Pedroso (Portugal), their mesocrate forms (lusitanites), and their transformation into leptynites and into gneiss.—E. Picard: Certain sub- groups of the hyperfuchsian groups, corresponding with certain ternary quadratic forms.—E. Esclangon : Doppler’s principle and the whistling of projectiles.— H. Bordier ; The action of the X-rays upon iodine and iodide of starch in aqueous solution. The solutions are decolorised, a few minutes’ exposure to the X-rays giving the same effect as several hours’ exposure to ultra-violet light.—M. Mauger: The minettes of Jersey. _—Ph, Flajolet: The perturbations of the magnetic declination at Lyons (Saint-Genis-Laval) during the first quarter of 1916. BOOKS RECEIVED. Science. from an.Easvy Chair. By Sir Ray Lan- kester.. Pp. xii+292. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd.) 1s..net. Doctors at War. By J. W. Barlow. Pn. 144. (London: D. Nutt.) 2s. 6d. net. ; ' Evolution by Means of Hybridization. de 50 NO. 2449, VOL. 98] WACUEE [Ocronex a 1916 Lotsy. Pp. vii +166. (The Fewaee M. Nijhoff.) 6s. net. History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607—1860. By V..S. Clark, Pp. xii+675. (V gel ington: Carnegie Institution.) The Classics of, International Law :— Le Droit, des Gens, By E. de Vattel. 3. voles, (1) Photographic Reproduction of Books I, and Il. of the First Edition (1758), with Introduction by Albert de Lapradelle. Pp, 600. (2) Photographic Reproduction of. Books III. and 1V. of the First Edition (1758). Pp. 375- (3) Translation of Edition of 1758 (by Charles G ' Renwick), with translation, (by G. D. Gregory) of Introduction by A. de Lapra- delle. Pp. 486, (Washington: Carnegie Institu- tion.) 8 dollars. De Jure Natura et Gentium Dissertationes, By S.- Rachel. 2 vols. (1) Reproduction of Edition sient Introduction by L. ven Bar, and List of Errata. 361. (2) Translation of the Text, by J. P. Bate, with Index of Authors Cited. Pp. 255. (Washington: Carnegie Institution.) 4 dollars. British Rainfall, 1915. By H. R. Mill and. ic Salter. Pp. 288. (London: E. Stanford, ve) 10S. Illustrations of the British Flora. By W. H. Fitch and W.G. Smith. Fourth, revised, edition, Pp. xvit+ 338. (London: L. Reeve and Co., Ltd.) gs. net. Results of Meteorological Observations in the Five _ Years 1911-15; also of Underground Temperatures in the Twelve Years 1898-1910, made at the Radeliffe Observatory, Oxford. Vol. li. Pp. xv+215. btu ford: H. Milford.) CONTENTS. PAGE The Organism as Phcenix * > oleae ee Hydraulic Formula Reconstruction. By B. Cy ne eee Serum Reactions and Bacterial Therapy. By FA Prof. R. 'T. Hewlett co 7gitr ayia) +s, alls 0 oe School Mathematics. By/@)Gi . .). / 9 > Dyan Our. Bookshelf... .. {meets ca i aes oe ee® Letters to the Editor:— Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere in July and August, 1916.—Sir Napier Shaw, F.R.S go Science in Education.—Prof. Fredevick ‘Soddy, Ga 90 An Imperial Department ‘of Mineral Production, By Prof. Henry Louis. . . gI The Survey Link Connecting the Triangulations, of India and Russia. (J///ustrated.) By Sir T. Holdich, K.C.M.G.,K.C.I.E....... + fae Mr. Bedford McNeill. .............. 94 Notes 2)... sl). |. ee NEM eS Our Astronomical Column :— The Astronomical Compass ....... «(bea ge Effect of Haze on Solar Rotation Measures. . . .. 99 The Masses of Visual Binary Stars . . . 2... 99 Mutation and Evolution. By W. P. P. oh re ae Some Problems in Eugenics. By G. H. c. <}s kon The British Association at Newcastle :— We Section C.—Geology.—Opening A tines (Abridged) by Prof. W. S. Boulton, D.Sc., F.G.S., Presi- dentof the Section . ° 66 ya ee University and Educational Intelligence + ekg Societies and Academies .... . cole | 0) ote aaron Books Received i — -, ae ee Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ; ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. ; Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. : 4 Editorial. Communications to the Editor, Telegraphic Aadress: Puusis, Lonpon. Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. “A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL oF schindt! 30%: i : "Stites “To the solid. ground wy Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye."—WorpsworTH.' ORS AS £0 oy) h on wy ——————Sa———————————— No. 2450, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1916 [PRrice-S1XPENGE: - Registered as’a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] {All Rights Reserved. X-RAY TUBES ’ Of all descriptions Made, Repaired, & Re-exhausted on the Premises. s Coolidge Tubes kept in stock. NEWTON & WRIGHT, Ltd. 72 WIGMORE STREET, W. Sole Agents for Macalaster Wiggin X-Ray Tubes, Undoubtedly the Finest Tubes in the World for all purposes, DUROGLASS L”™: 14 GROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. Beakers. Flasks, Ete. Soft Soda. Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. “Special Glass Apparatus: Made-to. Order. DUROCGLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. ; SOLE SELLING AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. 14 CROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.c. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., Chemical and Scientific Instrument. Makers to His Maijesty’s Government (Home and Overseas Dominions), Laboratory Furnishers and Manufacturing Chemists. ‘*Rystos” Bench, showing bottles with enamelled labels on eachside. One: set of bottles re- quired for each four Students as supplied to the Modern School, Bedford, &c. CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, and TECHNICAL LABORATORIES Fully Equipped with BENCHES, FUME CHAMBERS, &c. INSTITUTIONS EQUIPPED :— The Girls’ High Schools at Barnsley, Beverley, Doncaster, Leeds, Nuneaton, Sherborne, and York; Radley College, Oxford ; The Schools, Shrewsbury ; Wellington College, Berks; St. Mary's College, Winchester ;-the! Stience Laboratories at the Grammar School, Dunstable ; Laboratories at Brunner, Mond & Co,, Ltds ; Shelton Iron, Steel, and Coal Co., Ltd. ; Meadowcroft & Sons, Ltd. ; R. Graesser ; the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington ; Transvaal Dept. of Agriculture (Experimental Farm), South Africa; The Technical Schools, Morley and Yeadon ; Imperial Service College, Windsor ; Grammar Schools, Batley and Stamford ; The Ladies’ College, Harrogate, and*many others. Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus and Chemicals, post free on application. Designs of Benches and Fittings to suit all requirements. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design €2871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.;.. 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. xiii BATTERSEA POLYTECHNIC, S.W. Principal—F. H. Newman, M.A., Ph.D. Technical Day College for students wishing to enter the Engineering, Architectural, Chemical, or similar professions, University Courses, day and evening, under recognised teachers, for London University degrees in Science, Wngin- eering, and Music. Training Department of Domestic Science for Teachers of Domestic Subjects. Physical Training College for Teachers of Swedish, Educational, and Remedial Gymnastics. Departments of Hygiene and Physiology, Commerce, and Music. School of Art and Crafts. Hostels for Women Students. For particulars apply to the SrcreTary, Battersea Poly- technic, 8. W. i BRADFORD EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—Prof. W. M. Garpyer, M Sc., F.1.C. SPECIAL DAY DIPLOMA COURSES (3 or 4 years) in (1) Dyeing and Textile Chemistry. (2) General Industrial and Analytical Chemistry. (3) Metallurgical Chemistry and Assaying. (4) Chemical and Gas Engineering. (5) Research in Textile Chemistry. Visits to Works and the solution of Works difficulties are made special features. DAY SESSION, 1916-17, has now commenced. A pamphlet—‘‘Industrial Chemistry and Dyeing as a Career for Men and Women "-—post free on application, Education Office, Bradford, October, 1916. BY ORDER. BRADFORD EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. WOMAN ASSISTANT LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR IN CHEMISTRY. Apmlicniess are invited for this appointment. beo Further particulars may tained from the Principat of the College. BY ORDER. Education Office, Bradford. CASTLEFORD SECONDARY SCHOOL (DUAL). REQUIRED in January a SENIOR MISTRESS. Salary £180 to £200. Applications to be sent to the undersigned on or before October 23, Mr. C. T. LIGHTLEY, Clerk to the Governors, 77 Carlton Street, Castleford. WANTED. ATTENDANT with Chemical Laboratory Experience.—Box 190, c/o Nature Office. SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES, Swift ‘‘ Dick” Petrological,2-in., 1-in., and }-in. objectives, eyepiece, quartz wedge, mica and selinite plates, detach- able mechanical s'age ; as new ... Bape e t ; | é OcrosER 12, 1916] i _ . Pre-Boulder Clay Man. It will no doubt be remembered that at the time of the discovery in 1911 of a human skeleton in a sand pit in the occupation of Messrs. A. Bolton and Co., Ltd. (late Bolton and Laughlin), of Henley Road, Ips- wich, it was held by some geologists and by myself that the remains occurred beneath an undisturbed stratum of weathered chalky boulder clay. Since this discovery I have been enabled to investigate extensively the small valley adjoining the sand pit in which the human skeleton was found, and to conduct excavations in the immediate vicinity of the spot where the bones occurred. These investigations have shown that at about the level at which the skeleton rested the scanty remains of a “floor” are present, and that the few associated flint ‘implements appear to be the same as others found on an old occupation-level in the adjacent valley. This occupation-level is in-all probability re- ferable to the early Aurignac period, and it appears that the person whose remains were discovered was buried in this old land surface. The material which has since covered the ancient “ floor" may be re- garded as a sludge, formed largely of re-made boulder clay, and its deposition was probably associated with a period of low temperature occurring in post-chalky boulder clay times. It appears, then, that the human skeleton found is referable to a late Palzolithic epoch, and cannot claim a pre-chalky boulder clay antiquity. I wish to take this opportunity to state that those who op- posed my contention as to the great age of these remains were in the right, while the views held by me regarding them have been shown to be erroneous. J. Rem Mor. 12 St. Edmund’s Road, Ipswich. Variable Stars. THERE are good reasons for believing that when a molten sun has sufficiently cooled down to allow of the formation ofa solid surface, the solid surface rapidly cools. We may, therefore, regard a cooling sun as passing through three stages: (1) a stage in which the light emitted is very intense and regular ; (2) a stage in which the surface from time to time solidifies and breaks up again; in this condition the emission of light would be very variable; (3) a stage in which the crust had become so firm as to be practically permanent, little, if any, light being emitted. The conditions obtaining during the second stage are supposed to be of comparatively short duration. May not some of the irregularly variable stars be in stage 2? If such were the case we should only expect a small proportion of the stars to show this variability; for there would be only a small propor- tion of them in stage 2. R. M. Destey. Abbeyfield, Salisbury Avenue, Harpenden, October 2. [This question is dealt with in the Hill Observa- tory Bulletin, vol. i., No. 2, Pp. 4.—Editor, Nature.] Scarcity of Wasps. Ir would be interesting to know whether the scarcity of wasps which is so marked in this district is general. I have seen only one wasp here this season. I am informed that sixty-seven queens were destroyed in one week this spring on the Earl of Crewe’s estate, but this cannot fully account for the absence NO. 2450, VOL. 98] NATURE 109 a ee ee of wasps. Also, while at Bordon (Hants.) for three weeks in August I saw only one wasp. Are there general causes to account for the Scarcity, such as the cold spring, or disease, or is there a cycle of fecundity and scarcity? Possibly some readers of Nature have observed and remarked the absence of wasps this season in other parts of the country, and may be able to forecast the probable effect on insect pests next summer. H. V.. Davis, ‘“Noddfa,” Wistaston, Crewe, October Ze CAPT. KEITH LUCAS, F-.R.S. ebay Thursday last, October 5, Capt. Keith Lucas lost his life in a flying accident. In his short span of life—he was but thirty-seven— he had become the leading authority on the phenomena of excitation in nerve and muscle. He had gone through several phases. Coming up from Rugby, he obtained a minor scholar- ship in classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered the college in 1897. He passed. to natural science studies, and took a first class in the Natural Sciences Tripos. Soon after this he made a bathymetrical survey of a New Zealand lake. He then began research in physiology, was elected a fellow of Trinity in 1904, and a little later was appointed lecturer of the college and demonstrator of physiology in the University. The line of research he had chosen led to the development of his inherited faculty of mechanical design, and each additional step of his work was marked by the invention of a new instrument or by some striking improvement in instrumental methods necessary for the successful investiga- tion of the problem. His exceptional mechanical ability found further scope when he became one of the scientific directors of the Cambridge Instru- ment Company. On the outbreak of war he gave up work at Cambridge and undertook research at the Royal Aircraft Factory. His success in modifying the magnetic compass for use in the peculiar condi- tions of aircraft flight has been specially noted in ‘the recently published report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The committee pointed out how greatly flyers are indebted to Dr. Lucas. His subsequent investigations afford an instance of his thoroughness and devotion to the work in hand. He acquired, as an accessory matter, a personal knowledge of the conditions of flight, and obtained a pilot’s certificate. It was while engaged in this investigation that the acci- dent happened which cost him his life. Much as Keith Lucas had achieved in physio- logy, it is certain that, had he lived, he would have done much more. He conceived early the whole scheme of investigation necessary to settle his particular problem, and he followed it up step by step with unsurpassed logical method. So far as it can be said in science that the determina- tion of a special problem depends on one man, it can be said of Keith Lucas. His friends loved the quiet and unassuming manner which carried so much strength of character. J: N. Lanctey. 110 NATURE [OcToBER 12, 1916 SIR AUREL STEIN’S THIRD JOURNEY IN CENTRAL ASIA. ~IR AUREL STEIN publishes, in the August “72 and September issues of the Geographical Journal, an account of his third journey in Central Asia. Starting from Srinagar, in Kashmir, in July, 1913, the first point of interest reached was the Darel Valley, where, at his new capital, Gumare- kot, Raja Pakhtun-wali, son of Mir Wali, the murderer of Hayward the explorer, has succeeded in building up a new kingdom, the last, perhaps, which India has seen founded on the old adven- Fic. 1.—Lowes: portion of Chillinji Glacier, seen from west across Ashkuman River. From the Geographical Journal. turous lines. The fine glacier scenery of this region is ‘illustrated by the view of the Chillinji Glacier (Fig. 1).° Inthis valley of Darel the explorer succeeded: in identifying, at. Poguch, the site of an ancient Buddhist monastery which the Chinese pilgrims specially mention cn account of its miracle-working colossal image of ° Maitreya Buddha in wood. As an _ illustration of ‘the continuity of Oriental cults, the site is now occu- pied and the healing business taken over by the tomb of Shaha-Khel Baba, a Mohammedan saint, who has inherited the miraculous powers of his Buddhist predecessors. Thence over very difficult NO. 2450, VOL. 98] ground the traveller pushed on through the Yasin Valley to the Darkof Pass, the scene of the remarkable exploit by which a Chinese force, dispatched in a.p. 747 from Kashgar against the Tibetans, succeeded in effecting an entry into Yasin and Gilgit. By the beginning of September the party reached the main head of the Hunza Valley, and marched thence to Tashkurghan and Kashgar, where, as usual, Sir G. Macartney, the British Consul-General, supplied liberal aid to the expedi- tion. Since Sir Aurel Stein’s last visit, owing to the Chinese revolution of 1911, the political situa- tion had changed for the worse. Mandarins had been assassinated, and local revolts had resulted in a general weakening of Chinese authority. From Kash- gar the goal was the region round the dried-up Lop-nor, in the extreme east of the Tarim Basin. Beyond Mural-Bashi,. Stein reached the. most forbidding region he had hitherto encountered in Taklamakan, and after meeting great difficulties he re- turned to’ his old station, Khotan. In this region many interesting dis- coveries were made. He succeeded in fixing the site of Hsuan-tsang’s Pi-mo, the Pein of Marco Polo, at a Buddhist shrine near Domoku, and a large number of tablets inscribed in the Kharoshthi character, and dating from the first century of our era, was found. Passing Charchan on New Year’s Eve, 1914, he found that a band of so-called ‘‘gamblers,” or vagrant outlaws, had overthrown Chinese authority. At Miran paintings of great interest, almost Hellenistic im style, were unearthed. Later on the ancient Chinese road into the Tarim Basin. was identified, and further finds of decorated silk fabrics will contrtbute to the solution of the prob- lem of origin in the designs dis- covered in an earlier journey near Tun-huang, usually attributed to Persian art of the Sassanian period. Equally. interesting were the desic- cated corpses of the old chief and his family, with their well-preserved arms and dresses. The illustration (Fig. 2) of an ancient fort near Lou-Lan gives a good idea of the sites which came under investigation. The first portion of'the narrative leaves the ex- plorer on the western portion of the fortified Chinese line which was first examined in 1907. The fact that he could, after seven years’ absence, identify his own footsteps and the footprints of his dog shows the permanence of records of travel in these desert wastes. The second chapter of the story finds the traveller starting early in 1915 to examine the deserts which fringe on the south and east the Se eee OcTOBER 12, 1916] NATURE 111 great barren hill region usually designated the | tunity of crossing the Pamirs to study the his- Pei-shan Gobi. The site known as that of “The | torical geography of that region. Here one of the most remarkable j RR eae. ee i Tae. features of the land- aye rae oer: , + scape was the splen- Ig oS : | did glacier peaks of By, t Rivet Yh | Muz-tagh, seen from oi ee . ; the watershed, about tr? tos nae ae T1,000 ft. high, on ae f. 4 ie the Tars-agar Pass ei Yi ie j (Fig. 3). It is satis- ; Cre ce : factory to record oes ; Stas Sgt that Sir Aurel Stein 35 speaks in high terms of the results of the Russian Topographi- cal Survey of the Pamirs, which had been in progress for some years before the outbreak of the war. At last his de- sire to visit Lake Victoria or Zor-Kol was satisfied, and thence he _ passed through Wakhan to Samarkand, and thence into Seistan, : ; Ent ; k where, at Koh-i- Fic. 2.—Interior of Ancient Fort with wind-breached portion o. Rampart, south-west of Lou-Lan site. yr . From the Geographical Journal. Khwaja, he was lucky enough to dis- Thousand Buddhas,” from which a large mass of | cover the remains of a Buddhist sanctuary, the material was collected in an earlier tour, in spite | first ever traced on Iranian soil. Finally, passing of an_ ill-considered seizure of manuscripts bwecuen Chinese Government, was found capable of pro- viding large additional hoards; while the sur- vey of the ruins of Khara-Khoto — estab- lished the identity of the site with Marco Polo’s “city of Et- zina.”” At the north foot of the T’ien-shan range he traced the original route through which all the his- torical migrations westward — Indo- Scythians, Huns, and Turks — must have passed. In May, 1915, the traveller re- turned to Kashgar, and it might have been supposed that the wayworn party pauls Rave been F GI ks of ‘*M k bi Muk fi hed (ab fi 1 1G. 3.—Glacier peaks of ‘* Muz-tagh"’ above Muk-su, seen from watershed (about 11,000 ft.) on Tars-agar Pass. satisfied to return and x From the Geographical Journal, convey the important collections of new material to India. But the | through Baluchistan, he reached the Indian rail- indefatigable leader determined to take the oppor- | way system at Nushki, by which he arrived at NO. 2450, VOL. 98] I1l2 Delhi to report the result of his journey to Lord Hardinge. We cannot discuss the many interesting results of this remarkable journey. In _ the Pei-shan Sir Aurel Stein remarks that in- | scribed slips of wood, thrown out of ancient office-rooms, were often found in refuse-heaps, covered only by a few inches of gravel or débris, their preservation in such condition pre- supposing a remarkable dryness of climate during the last two thousand years. On the other hand, he points out that the final abandonment of the K\hara-Khoto settlement was brought about by difficulties of irrigation, and “it was not possible to determine by conclusive evidence whether this failure of irrigation had been the result of desicca- tion in the Etsin-gol delta, or had been caused by some change in the river-course at canal-head, unable to cope. But there seemed to me good reason to believe that the water-supply now reach- ing: the delta during a few summer months would no longer suffice to assure adequate irrigation for the once cultivated area.’’ Obviously the problem of the changes of climate during the historical period will need much further investigation before it can be finally solved, and in the present frag- mentary state of our information the question should not be treated in a spirit of confident dogmatism. It has been arranged that the Indian Govern- ment, which liberally contributed to the expenses of the journey, shall receive a considerable portion of the finds, which will be deposited in the new Museum of Indian Art and Ethnography which has been planned at Delhi. We are now so accus- tomed to the periodical reports of Sir Aurel Stein’s explorations that we may fail to appreciate the remarkable courage, tenacity, and executive ability which he has shown in opening up a new region and in reconstructing a hitherto unknown chapter in the history of man. NOTES. | Mr. Runciman announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday that he had decided to combine the exist- ing Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade and the Exhibitions Branch into a new and enlarged Commercial Intelligence Department. The reorganisation of the department is now proceeding. A RoyaLt Commission has been appointed ‘“‘to in- quire into the supply of wheat and flour in the United Kingdom; to purchase, sell, and control the delivery of wheat and flour on behalf of his Majesty’s Govern- ment; and generally to take such steps as may seem desirable for maintaining the supply.”’ The names of the members of the Commission are :—The Earl of Crawford (chairman), Alan Garratt Anderson (vice- chairman), Sir Henry Rew, K.C.B., Sir George Salt- marsh, H. W. Patrick, Hugh Rathbone, Oswald Robinson, J. F. Beale, and T. B. Royden. Com- ‘munications intended for the Commission -should be addressed to the secretary at Trafalgar House, W.C. Tue Harveian oration of the Royal College of Physicians of London will be delivered on Wednesday. October 18, by Sir Thomas Barlow. NO. 2450, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 12, 1916 Tue Thomas Hawksley lecture of the Institutiom of Mechanical Engineers will be delivered by Mr- H. E. Jones on Friday, November 3, upon the subject of ‘‘The Gas Engineer of the Last Century.” WE learn from the Times that Prof. W. von Wal- deyer, professor of anatomy in the University of Berlin, has been raised to hereditary nobility on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Tue death is announced, at seventy-seven years of age, of Mr. Herbert Jones, known by his work in archeology, particularly with reference to the Roman occupation of Britain, and investigations relating ‘to it at Silchester, Carlisle, Roxeter, and Greenwich. Dr. Le Roy C. Coorey has died at his home at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., at the age of eighty-three. He was professor of physical science at the N.Y. State Normal College from 1860:to 1874. In the latter year , : | he became professor of physics and chemistry at Vassar with which the settlement for some reason was | y hin y College. He held that post until 1894, when he was. | appointed to the chair of physics in the same institu- tion. He retired in 1907. He was the author of several text-books of physics and chemistry. In 1899. he was elected president of the N.Y. State Science Teachers’ Association. Tue death is announced, in his fifty-seventh year, of Dr. C. S. Prosser, head of the department of geo- logy in the Ohio State University, with which he had been connected since 1899. | He had previously occupied the chair of natural history at Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, and of geology at Union College, N.Y. He was an assistant-geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey, and of the State Geological Surveys of Kansas, New York, Ohio, and Maryland. In addition to many official reports, he had published works on the stratigraphic geology and palzontology of Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas, Nebraska, Mary— land, and Ohio, the Devonian of New York, Penn- sylvania, and Maryland, and the Permian of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. . WE regret to note in Engineering for’ October 6 the death, on October 1, in his seventy-sixth year, of Sir W. Theodore Doxford, at his residence, Grindon Hall, Sunderland. As a shipbuilder Sir Theodore greatly assisted in the development and improvement of cargo-carrying steamers. In 1895 the output of the works on the Wear with which his name is associated exceeded that of any other shipbuilding establishment in the country. Sir Theodore became a member of the council of the Institution of Naval Architects in 1896, and was president of the NorthEast Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in 1886-87. He’ toolr an active part in the public life of the district in which his works were located, and was a Deputy-Lieutenant of the county of Durham, Mr. J. AckwortH PLomMER has presented to the Geological Department of the British Museum an un- usually fine portion of a Hippurite from the Chalk of Boughton-under-Blean, near Faversham, Kent. The specimen is part of the conical valve of the shell, which must have measured from 2 to 3 ft. in length, with a maximum diameter of about 8 in. The shell- substance is more than 2 in. in thickness, and of the usual open texture. The fossil seems to belong to a species, Radiolites mortoni, which is already known by fragments from the English Chalk, and by finer specimens from the Cambridge Greensand. The rarity of Hippurites in the Chalk is curious considering their immense abundance in the limestones of corresponding age in central and southern Europe, and in certain OcroBER 12, 1916] NATURE 113 regions of Asia, where they form the main part of | some mountains. ik aes Wuen the Gilbert Club was inaugurated in 1889, it had nearly one hundred members. ‘The president was Lord Kelvin, and the secretaries were Mr. Conrad W. Cooke, Prof. R. Meldola, and Prof. S,.P. Thompson, all of whom, except Mr. Cooke, have since died. The first object of the club was to produce and issue an English translation of Gilbert’s ‘De Magnete"’ in the manner of the folio of 1600. This was done, but no general meeting has been held since the club was inaugurated, and as the principal founder, Prof. Thompson, has passed away, it is proposed to wind up the affairs of the club. A general meeting will be held, therefore, in the rooms of the Royal Society of Arts on Wednesday, October 18, at 3.30 o’clock p.m., the Right Hon. Lord Moulton in the chair, for this’ pur- pose. Proposals will be made as to the disposal of the property of the club, consisting of the remaining copies of the book, as well as of such funds as. are in the hands of the hon. treasurer, and matters will be brought forward of considerable interest to all who wish to perpetuate the memory of William Gilbert of Colchester. Tue death of Dr. Joseph Anderson, of Edinburgh, at the ripe age of eighty-four, removes a notable per- sonality from the ranks of scientific workers. Born in 1832, he originally intended to devote himself to a scholastic “career. After several years of teaching, three of which (1856-59) were spent in Constantinople, he turned to journalism instead, becoming editor of an important provincial newspaper in the extreme north of Scotland. It was during his nine years of residence at Wick that he found his true vocation. Caithness is singularly rich in prehistoric monuments, and Anderson’s acute intelligence was at once attracted by the difficult problems which these present. He realised from the outset that the only hope of a solu- tion lay in the rigid application of the. methods of science. He therefore set himself to ascertain the precise ‘facts, resolutely refusing to theorise unless and until a sufficient basis for induction had been securely established. His earliest results were so full of promise and were set forth in so lucid and incisive a style that, on a vacancy occurring in 1869, he received a unanimous invitation to accept the keeper- ship of the National Museum of Antiquities in Edin- burgh, and with it ‘the assistant-secretaryship of the Society. of Antiquaries of Scotland. These posts he held until 1913, when he retired with a Civil List pension. It is not too much to say that in the interval he _ revolutionised the whole study of Scottish archzology, his chief publications being his five series of Rhind lectures, which stamp him indubitably as a master of the science of research and of the art of clear exposition. Sir Rosert Hupson, chairman of the Joint Finance Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John (83 Pall Mall), publishes in the Times of October 10 the following letter received by him from ‘‘A Past President of the Chemical Society ”’ and ‘‘A Past President of the Society of Chemical Industry " :—‘‘ An industrial body jin: the United States of America recently requested our scientific advice. We felt bound to reply that all extraneous work not desired by the State could only be undertaken on behalf of the British Red Cross Society, to-which any honorarium .must. be directly transmitted. The cor- poration having responded most, handsomely to our terms, we gladly hand. over cheques each for 1000 guineas, forwarded under the condition above specified. The bounds of the scientific profession are very exten- NO. 2450, VOL. 98] sive, and many individuals are receiving large pecu- niary benefits accruing, directly or indirectly, out of applied science. We earnestly hope that many col- leagues will come forward and help on the beneficent work of the British Red Cross Society.’’ Sir Robert Hudson expresses the hope that the fine example thus set by his two correspondents will commend itself to others; and we are sure that no objects make a stronger appeal to the scientific world than those with which he is associated. Very few men of science, however, are receiving such handsome fees as those which have just been forwarded to him, and most of them are engaged in national work of one kind or another without receiving any payment for their ser- vices. The appeal should be, therefore, not so much to scientific workers as to manufacturers and others who are benefiting by expert knowledge, often given gratuitously. In the June issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland the address delivered by the president, Mr. T. J. Westropp, on ‘The | Progress of Irish Archeology "’ is published. The society was founded in Kilkenny in. 1849, and since then has held a high record for a long series of valuable papers published in its Proceedings. lt was said when the society migrated from Kilkenny to Dublin that archeology in Ireland sprang from the novels of Sir Walter Scott or from Macpherson’s “‘ Ossian.” There is some truth in this statement. The presi- dent’s account of the early Irish antiquaries, among whom portraits of W. Mollineaux, C. O’Connor, C. Vallancey, and G.. Petrie accompany his address, ‘is lively and interesting. He speaks ‘hopefully of the study of Irish antiquities, which, among its ablest students, exhibits a dislike for sweeping theories. But he remarks :—‘‘In. our country a bad theory—no matter how often refuted—never dies. Scientific anti- quaries have too much todo to refute for the tenth or twelfth time these absurdities. We shall never be in a satisfactory position till in archeology, as in natural science, the man» who attempts to. revive. an exploded error only slays his reputation and deceives no one but himself.” Tue problem of the origin of what the called the Indo-Aryan type of Indian temples was never com- pletely solved by James. Fergusson, and later inquirers have done little to produce a solution. In the June issue of the Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society Dr. D. B. Spooner, well known for his, ex- cavations at the site of Pataliputra, has in a great measure solved the difficulty. Beginning with the most primitive form of shrine, little more than a square box, he shows that the desire of the Indian architect was: to produce a play of light and: shade by advancing the central portion a little way, and then to repeat the process, so as to produce: a lower structure decorated with three miniatures. At some stage of the local architectural history this threefold division seems to have come prominently into notice, and the architect conceived the idea of balancing: this triplicity rhythmically by a corresponding threefold division of: his tower in horizontal stories. This idea of the architectural rhythm is very ingeniously de- veloped by Dr. Spooner, and his paper deserves the attention of architects. He closes by saying :—‘The people of Tirhut are to be warmly congratulated on the possession of so complete a-series of temples as they now) possess, a series sufficient to illustrate. the whole development of this important style, and a series including many shrines of special interest and beauty. Let us hope’ that they will do their best to safeguard their inheritance, and: to maintain the temples we have seen in good condition:” 114 Tue ‘“Terrapin”’ scale (Eulecanium nigrofasciatum) is the subject of Bulletin No. 351 of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, written by Mr. F. L. Simanton. This is a. North American ‘insect, closely: allied to® our: European E, persicae, destructive to peach and plum, and feeding also on thirty other trees and shrubs. The females hibernate on the twigs, where, instead of laying eggs, they give birth to active young, which migrate to the leaves. Much damage is caused by the insects’ honeydew secretion, which disfigures the fruit. The bulletin is well illustrated, and contains directions for remedial treatment, early spraying with a linseed oil and gasolene emulsion being especially recommended. Notes of much interest appear in the Zoologist for September on the mammalian fauna of North Car- diganshire. The author, Mr. Frank Wright, records the occurrence, during the last ten or twelve years, of a number of polecats of a very light colour, some individuals, furthermore, exceeding in size the more normally coloured animal. Both light- and dark- coloured individuals Kave been taken from the same pest. The pine-marten, he remarks, is now exceedingly rare, but a few apparently survive on the high plateau east of Tregaron. The foxes of the uplands also seem to differ from the type in the matter of coloration, being much greyer. But a specimen taken near the summit of Plinlimmon was quite black instead of white on the under parts. Mr. Zonia Baber, in the Scientific Monthly for Sep- tember, raises a timely protest against the wholesale slaughter of whales which is at present taking place throughout the seas of the world, and this without the slightest attempt at preventive legislation. The author, in his essay, ‘The Oceans: Our Future Pas- tures,” holds that the time will come when men will have to depend upon the larger Cetacea for their meat supply, since the grazing of cattle will be impossible owing to the density of the population, which will cover the whole habitable globe. While we by no means agree with this view, we are at one with him that, for other and scarcely less cogent reasons, the present ruthless and wasteful exploitation of our whale fisheries constitutes a deplorable lack of foresight on the part of those engaged therein. The matter de- manded international legislation long ago, and even now it is not too late, though, unless it come speedily, the Greenland and humped-back whales and the grey whale (Rhachi anectes) will have taken their places with Steller’s sea-cow and the great auk—victims to man’s greed, Ir is clear from the annual report of the British Museum (1915) that the Natural History Departments have been able to render useful aid to the military authorities in matters directly bearing on the war. In one case a leech, removed from the nose of a soldier invalided home from the Dardanelles, was sent to the museum from the military hospital in order that it might be identified and its habits described. A report on the matter was prepared by the keeper of the Zoological Department embodying useful advice and instructions, and this report was sent to the medical officers serving in the Mediter- ranean in order that .the necessary precautions to avoid further infection might be taken. The Botanical Department was enabled to furnish the authorities of the Naval Air Service with valuable » information in regard to wood suitable for airship con- struction. Further assistance was also given in regard to a fungus which was attacking the fabric of airships. Valuable work has also been done in regard to the supposed hibernation of the house-fly, and to the whal- ing industry in the Antarctic seas, which is carried on NO. 2450, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1916 | in the neighbourhood of South Georgia so thoroughly that some species are threatened with extinction. Tue best-known instances .of luminosity in. insects are to be found among the beetles; the various species” of glow-worm and firefly belong to this order. But the same, or an analogous, phenomenon is occasionally’ observable in other insect groups, as, for example, in the ‘fungus gnats” and crickets. There are at least two well-authenticated records of luminosity in the larve of moths, and quite recently the Rev. J. Hol- royde, vicar of Patcham, has reported to us an observa- tion of luminous larve near Brighton. The species of these larvae was not determined, but they appear to” have been the caterpillars of a moth, probably a Noc- tuid. Boisduval, whose record is one of those above alluded to, believed that the luminescence in his larvae. was due to disease, and it has been suggested that decomposition due to bacterial infection is the cause of a similar appearance that has been described in other insects not usually luminous, as Chironomus (a kind of gnat) and the so-called “lantern flies” of South America. It is evident that the exceptional’ production of light in the cases just mentioned is very different in nature from the entirely normal illumina=- tion of the glow-worms and fireflies, though it may equally be due to the oxidation of some organic material. 7 Tue excellent work in agricultural science which is being carried on at Moscow under the guidance of Prof. D. N. Prianichnikow is amply illustrated in the recently issued report (vol. x.) of the Agronomical Laboratory for the year 1914. As in past years, much © attention has been devoted to the investigation of the merits as fertilisers of various natural phos- phates and potash-bearing minerals, fully one-half of the papers included in the report having reference to these products. The assimilation and utilisation of ammonia by the plant have also received considerable attention. The experiments with phosphates have demonstrated the relatively high value of certain of the Russian phosphorite deposits, increases of crop as high as 60 to 7o per cent. of the highest obtained with superphosphate having been recorded in tests with cereal crops. This is in marked contrast to the results of earlier experiments recorded in previous reports, which indicated that, in general, phosphorites are almost valueless for cereal crops, though of appre- ciable value for leguminous crops, UseFut data as to the limits of tolerance of crop plants for sodium salts present in the soil are given by Messrs. Headley, Curtis, and Scofield in the latest issue of the Journal of Agricultural Research (vol. vi., p. 857). Experiments in Nevada have shown that the limit of tolerance is extremely variable, being in- fluenced not only’ by such factors as kind of soil, salt, or crop, but the same crop plant shows marked differences in tolerance at different periods of its growth. So far as the amount of salt is concerned the limit of tolerance is dependent not so much upon the total quantity of the salt that may be present in the soil as upon the quantity that exists in the soil solution, and is recoverable from the soil by means of extraction with water. In pot experiments with soil from a tract of salt land in Nevada it was found that the proportion of recoverable salt which would reduce by one-half the growth of wheat seedlings was for sodium carbonate or bicarbonate 0:04 per cent. of the dry weight of the soil, for sodium chloride 0-16 per cent., and for sodium sulphate 0-35 per cent. The proportion of recoverable salt which prevented germination of wheat was for the carbonates 0-13 per cent., for the chloride o52 per cent., and for the sulphate 0-56 per cent. OcTOBER 12, 1916] _ THE investigation of the equations of motion of an aeroplane under the action of atmospheric disturbances such as gusts of wind is a problem to which attention was directed by Prof. Bryan in 1911 (‘Stability in Aviation,’” pp. 178-79, problems 4, 13). An attempt to solve this problem has now been made by Prof. Edwin Bidwell Wilson (S. Doc., 268, Sixty-fourth Cong., 1st sess.). The method adopted in this case consists in treating the disturbed motion as a forced oscillation, the disturbance being expressed in the form of an exponential function of the time. Unfor- tunately, however, it is not possible to obtain a simple solution of the problem in a symbolic form, and what Prof. Wilson has been able to do is to obtain numerical results for a particular aeroplane of which the values of the stability-coefficients have been determined experimentally. It will thus be necessary to repeat the calculations every time a new aeroplane is built. Prof. Wilson has for no adequate reason departed from the standard notation in his choice of axes. The problem with which he is dealing is only the two-dimensional case of longitudinal dis- turbances, and it is the universal custom in treatises both on pure and applied mathematics to choose x and y as co-ordinates in all two-dimensional problems. The same practice was followed in the earliest stability investigations both in England and abroad, and the difference of notation is bound to cause confusion. In a paper which appears in the August number of the Science Reports of the University of Seddai Messrs. Honda and Okubo arrive at an expression for the force on one of the elementary magnets of a group arranged in a space-lattice due to the presence of the other magnets of the group. From this, on calculat- ing the effect of an external field, they are able to obtain the magnetisation curve, and find it is identical with the well-known experimental curve. On varying the external field in the usual cyclic manner, the hysteresis loop is reproduced. It is then shown that the whole of the magnetic properties of magnetite can be reproduced on the theory that the elementary mag- nets constitute a cubic space-lattice, while those of pyrrhotine require a hexagonal lattice, as would be expected from its crystalline form. This molecular configuration for magnetite does not agree with that deduced by Bragg from the behaviour of the crystal towards X-rays. Finally, the authors show that the properties of ferromagnetic materials can be more completely and satisfactorily explained on the basis of the mutual action of elementary magnets than by the molecular field theory of Weiss. A RECENT publication of the U.S. Coast and Geo- detic Survey (Serial No. 23, Washington, 1916) gives the results obtained during 1913 and 1914 at the observatory near Tucson, Arizona. This observatory, which commenced operations in 1910, has a set of Eschenhagen magnetographs. The annual variation of temperature in the magnetograph chamber is about 13° C., but the diurnal range is only about 0-19. Not- withstanding the favourable temperature conditions, the horizontal and vertical force magnetographs have given considerable trouble, large variations taking place in the scale values. The declination magneto- graph has worked more satisfactorily, and as three absolute declination observations are taken weekly, the results for that element should be especially trust- worthy. The Coast and Geodetic Survey has decided to .refer all observations of horizontal force to the so-called ‘international standard” of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This entails the application of a correction of —23y(1y=1X10-*° C.G.S. unit) to previously published values of horizontal force at Tucson, and of a corre- NO. 2450, VOL. 98] NATURE 115 sponding correction to vertical force. Thus the mean annual values for earlier years printed in the present volume differ from those previously published. Opinions may differ as to whether this departure is not a little premature. Diurnal inequalities are given for the ten quietest days of each month and also for the five inter- national quiet days. Mean monthly values are given for both these sets of days, as well as for all days. The all-day mean in horizontal force, on the average of the twenty-four months of the two years, is about 2-6 y below the other two means. Seven folding plates reproduce the magnetograms showing the chief dis- turbances of the two years. The largest disturbance in both years occurred in April, but no disturbances were of outstanding magnitude. The observatory also possesses a Bosch-Omori seismograph recording N.-S. and E.-W, components of seismic motion. The earth-’ quakes recorded are enumerated, and particulars are given of their principal features, but there is no information as to their epicentres. Much the largest disturbance recorded was that of March 30, 1914. Many engineers contend that the pressure over the teeth in modern high-speed gearing must be far from uniformly distributed, An interesting and new method for preventing any excessive concentration of the load on any part of the teeth is described in Engineering for October 6. The gearing was constructed by the General Electric Company of Schenectady, and used for coupling a high-speed steam turbine to a low-speed continuous-current generator. The wheels have double helical teeth, and the large wheel is built up of several comparatively thin discs, each separated from its neighbour by a small interval. The discs are bolted solidly together at their inner peripheries, but stand free from each other at their outer circumferences. Each disc has thus considerable axial flexibility, and if the load tends to be concentrated on any one of the discs, that disc bends axially, since the teeth are of the helical type. In this way the disc is relieved of the excess pressure, and a fairly uniform distribution of the load is secured. To enable the teeth to be cut on the rims of the discs, the discs are so made in the first instance as to be in contact also at the outer peri- pheries. The teeth can thus be milled without the discs springing, and after this operation is finished a narrow cut is made between the discs so as to obtain the required axial flexibility. A SHILLING edition of Sir Ray Lankester’s well- known and deservedly popular ‘‘ Science from an Easy Chair "’ has been published by Messrs. Methuen and Co., Ltd. This is the ninth edition of the book, which was first published in April, 1910, and reviewed in our issue of July 14 of that year (vol. Ixxxiv., p. 37) A FRENCH translation of Prof. F. Soddy’s monograph on the chemistry of the radio-elements, published in 1912, has been made by M. E. Philippi, and is issued by MM. Gauthier-Villars and Co., in Paris, under the title ‘‘La Chimie des Eléments Radioactifs."” The price of the volume is 5 francs. Tue Wireless Press, Ltd., will shortly publish ‘‘ The Measurement of Capacity and Inductance,” by W. H. Nottage, illustrated, and a new and enlarged edition of ‘‘Elementary Principles of Wireless Telegraphy,” by R. D. Bangay. THE recently issued announcement list of the J. B. Lippincott Company includes the following new books and new editions :—‘t Shakespeare and Precious Stones,”’ Dr. G. F. Kunz, illustrated: the work will treat of all the known references to precious stones in Shake- speare’s works, with comments as to the origin of his material, the knowledge of the poet concerning 116 precious stones, and references as to where the pre- cious stones of his time came from; ‘ Rings,” Dr. G. F. Kunz, illustrated; ‘‘The Art of Anzesthesia,”’ Dr. P. J. Flagg, illustrated; and (in ‘* Lippincott’s Farm Manuals’) ‘* Productive Sheep Husbandry,” Prof. W. C. Coffey, illustrated; “* Productive Marketing of Farm Products,’’ A. E. Cance, illustrated; ‘‘ Produc- tive Feeding of Farm Animals,” Prof. F. W. Woll, new edition, illustrated; ‘‘ Productive Soil Mainten- ance,” C. E. Thorne, illustrated; ‘“‘Animal Hus- bandry,’’ Prof. C. W. Gay, illustrated; ‘‘ Productive Grape Growing,” Prof. B. S. Pickett, illustrated. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. FIREBALL OF OctToBeR 3.—Probably what was the most brilliant meteor that has appeared in the present year was seen on Tuesday, October 3, at 8.5 p.m. It passed over Devonshire, and, though the night was cloudy, it gave a very vivid illumination of the sky and landscape, and its apparition was witnessed by great numbers of persons in the S.W. counties of England. The observations are, however, not very accurate or consistent one with another in consequence of there: being very few, if any, stars visible at the time from. which its path might be taken. The flight was: ver- tical as observed at Bristol, and was similarly de- scribed at various stations in Devon and Cornwall, so that a radiant at or near the zenith is inferred. At Launé¢eston, however, the course is stated to have been from E. to W., and the fireball’ burst when near the zenith.» Mr. W. F. Denning has determined the real path from the data at hand, and places the probable radiant'in the head of Cepheus. The height of the meteor was about 67 to 30 miles above a’ point’ of the earth’s surface some 15 miles E.N-E. of Exeter. A few further observations from ‘Dorset or Devon would be very valuable as affording a test of the accuracy of this result; any such observations should be sent to Mr.. Denning, 44 Egerton Road, Bristol. Mercury Vistste BerorE Sunrise.—Mercury will be a morning star during the latter half of this month, and at its greatest western elongation at midnight following October 20. The planet will rise from a point a little S. of due E, at the following times :— Mercury Mercury rises Sun rises precedes Sun a.m. a.m. h, m. Oct. 15 4 51 6 26 135 17 4 48 6 29 I 41 19 4 46 6 32 1 46 21 4 46 6 36 150 23 450° .... +639 149 25 4.§8)) Vo. t6lga 144 247 Si ite GLAG, 1 38 29 A as dh 7 hea SX 2 NS Rp Bec 31 ‘ 5 27 GyGget en 5 20 The waning crescent of the moon will be in the same region of Mercury on the morning of October 25. Tue DisrriuTion or B Srars.—An important memoir on the distances and distribution of the B (helium) stars has been published by Prof. Charlier (Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Sci., Upsala, series iv., vol. iv., No. 7). \It contains all the details which led to the general conclusions previously announced (NATURE, vol. xevii., p. 369). In a group of stars having the same luminosity, the distance (r) of each individual star can be deduced from the apparent magnitude (m) by the relation r=R.10%* m, where the parameter R is the distance for apparent magnitude o-o. A first deter- mination of R was based upon the proper motions and tadial’ velocities of 156° stars brighter than 5th mag- nitude. for which the requisite data were available; its value is 4-76 siriometers (1 siriometer=a million NO. 2450, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1916 times earth’s distance from sun). The corresponding absolute magnitude, or apparent magnitude at a dis- tance of one siriometer, is given by M=—s log R, and is equal to —3:39. It was next discovered that the fainter stars gave a somewhat, smaller value of R; and the brighter stars a higher value. . This anomaly was found to be due to the varying luminosities of the — different sub-classes. Separate investigation of these; showed, in the main, that types B1 and B2 have the greatest luminosity, R being 7:4 sir., whereas types Bo, B3, Bs have a value of K=3-3 sir. For each sub- class the value of R appears to be independent of apparent magnitude. Having the value of R for each sub-class, the position in space of each star at once follows, and it results that the B stars form a well- defined cluster, gradually thinning out from the centre to a distance of 200 siriometers. ‘The centre of the cluster, which Prof. Charlier supposes to be coincident with the centre of the stellar universe, is in R.A. 7-7h., declination —55-6°; it lies in a rich region in Carina, at — a distance of 18-2 sir. from the sun. The cluster has: an extension nearly three times as great in the plane of the Milky Way. as in the direction at right angles, and the sun lies eccentrically with respect to it, at a distance of 4 sir. above the fundamental plane of the Milky Way. The mean density amounts to 0-0026 stars per cubic siriometer. A catalogue of the 804 known B stars is given, showing all the data relating to type, magnitude, distance, galactic co-ordinates, and so on. The distribution of the stars is further shown diagram- matically, and stereoscopic charts are in course of pre- paration. It is of interest to note further that the nearest B star is a Eridani, with a distance of only 4 sir. (r=0-0516"), while the three stars in the belt of Orion come next, with a distance of 8:sir. So far’as they go, direct determinations of parallaxes support the values of R used in the investigation. : Tue Specrroscopic Binary “x AURIGZ.—An orbit for the spectroscopic binary x Aurigz (type Br) has*been calculated by R. K. Young from eighty-eight single- prism spectrograms taken at Ottawa in the years 1913-16 (Journ. RsA:S. Canada, vol. x., p. 358). ‘The period has the exceptional value, for an early. star, of' 655-164 5-26 days; the eccentricity is or71, and the orbital velocity 20:53 km./sec. The residuals from the simple elliptic orbit were examined for indications of the presence of a third body, but no secondary period was found; further investigation of this point, with high dispersion, is considered desirable. The calcium lines (H and K) have an amplitude of about half that shown by other lines of the spectrum. A useful»sum= mary is given of the different cases of anomalous be- haviour of the calcium lines at present known, and — Mr. Young considers that the phenomena are best ex- plained on the supposition that there is a calcium cloud surrounding the binary, the absorption of this sub- stance taking place at a much higher level than that of the other elements. A New AstronomicaL JourNaL.—We have pleasure in directing attention to the publication in France of a new monthly periodical devoted to astronomy and meteorology. It bears the title La Revue Verte, and is edited by the Abbé Th. Moreux. The journal is in- tended especially for amateurs, and will include articles iving practical instruction in methods of observa- tion, in addition to general astronomical news, and notes on celestial phenomena during each month, In the first number there is an article on sun-spots and meteorology by the editor, and the firSt of a series of articles on variable stars by Prof. Moye. There is also a brief biography, with portrait, of M. Baillaud, direc- tor of the Paris Observatory. All communications are to be addressed to M. |’Abbé Th. Moreux, Observatoire de Bourges (Cher), France. The annual subscription is 6 francs in France, and 7 francs for other countries. — OcToBER 12, 1916] GEOLOGICAL WORK IN THE UNITED STATES. {pHs United States Geological Survey, under the directorship of G. Otis Smith, continues to dis- cuss theoretical and practical problems from the most liberal point of view. T. Nelson Dale’s account (Bulletin 589) of ‘Marble and Dolomite of Eastern Vermont”’ directs attention to a rose-coloured man- ganiferous calcite marble, “alternating in very small beds with equally small beds of fine-textured white dolomite." The author refers to his previous dis- cussion of dolomite (Bull. 521), and suggests that the dolomite layers were precipitated inorganically, while NATURE 117 that all the Cretaceous coal-seams of the region, from Dakota times onward, were deposited on the mar- gins and sometimes towards the centre of a single gradually subsiding shallow basin, which (p. 57) reached from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean and from Utah to the Mississippi. The orogenic | movement of Eocene times resuscitated the Rocky | Mountain mass, the pink calcite layers received their manganese from ; organisms. Both the hard and soft parts of molluscs may contain appreciable ‘percentages of manganese ; but why should rose-coloured marbles be comparatively rare? The examples from Vermont lose their colour if used for external decoration. In Monograph Ixiii. F, Leverett and F. B. Taylor provide a detailed description of the ‘Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan and the History of the Great Lakes." They conclude that the changes and de- formations of shore-lines in this region may be due to crust-creep, as well as to alterations in the ice- burden, but tp: 333) that the land is at present stable. The long eskers, formed during glacier-retreat in channels bounded by the ice, are excellently illustrated | in the maps (see, for example, plate viii.), and the elaborate nature of the survey may be judged from the folded sheet, plate vii., where the moraines of the peninsula between Lake Michigan and Lake Hudson, with the lacustrine clays deposited behind them, are shown over a region measuring 300 by 200 miles. The Michigan Geological Survey has furnished im- portant data for this memoir. Bulletin 600 is a popular guide to the geology and scenery of ‘The Glacier National Park,’ Montana. The Continental Divide runs through’ the park, among peaks carved out of stratified rocks, which are from gooo to 10,000 ft. in height, and some 6000 ft. above the valley-floors. A few residual glaciers ‘still linger in the cirques. The region was originally purchased from the reservation of the Blackfeet Indians, in order to encourage copper-mining. The mines having proved unprofitable, the beauty of the country was represented to Congress in 1910 (Fig. 1). A good map accompanies this bulletin; but those who become interested in the folding and overthrusting and subse- quent dissection of the strata of the park may like to learn more about their geological age than that they “are very, very old.” In North Park, Colorado (Bull. 596), lenticular masses of coal of extraordinary thickness occur in Upper Cretaceous or early Cainozoic strata. ‘These coals may be 20, 35, or even 53 ft. thick, and are referred by A. L. Beekly (p. 94) to local marsh-areas, unconnected with one another, which encouraged rapid accumulation of vegetable or other organic matter. North Park is unfortunately bounded by a ring of mountains, away from trade-routes, and the remarkable cleanness of the coal is likely to prove its chief recommendation. W. W. Attwood (Prof. Paper 95B) records and illus- trates a’rather widely spredd glacial boulder-clay of Eocene age in south-western Colorado. ‘In a review of recorded ‘“‘ice-ages,”’ which excludes the evidences of mere valley-glaciers,| the author finds no parallel with the Colorado instance, unless in the Eocene of North Italy. W. T. Lee (ibid., 95C) provides a possible source of the Eocene ice-flow in a review of the ‘Relation of the Cretaceous Formations to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico.” He urges NO. 2450, VOL. 98] which had been worn down and buried beneath these Cretaceous strata. Hence the beds which contain conglomerates derived from the newly raised mountains must all be regarded as of Cainozoic age. The folding experienced by the coal- bearing strata during the uplift is well-seen in the illustrations from Utah in Bulletin s581E. From Nevada (Prof. Paper 95A) W. B. Hicks Fic. 1.—St. Mary Lake and Red Eagle Mountain, GlacierNational Park, Montana, draws interesting conclusions as to the apparent dis- appearance of potassium from the brines and saline deposits of the desert-basin regions. High percentages of potassium are obtained by boiling the muds of Columbus Marsh with water, and the author believes (p. 9) that these muds have withdrawn potash from percolating solutions, holding it in virtue of their colloids or in a weak chemical combination. Only a small proportion of the potash can be referred to extraction from the mud-forming minerals, and (p. 8) “the potash content of the muds is roughly constant without regard to the character of the material,” i.e. whether this is sand or clay. The retention of potash | by soil-particles has, of course, been discussed by 118 agricultural investigators, and it here receives a wide geological application. Hoyt S, Gale, in describing (Bull. 580L) the salines of Borax or Searles Lake, San Bernardino Co., California, touches on-the same point, and regards the preservation of potassium chloride in the brine of this lake-area as quite excep- tional. The analysis quoted on p. 294 of his paper, on which so much depends (see p. 311), seems to have gone far astray. Should we read 12-30 for the per- centage of potassium chloride, in place of 1-50? The author’s well-illustrated account of the salts crystal- lised in this desiccating region forms a convenient synopsis for students of mineralogy. Bull. 603 is of interest from the evidence given that the mineral oils north of Coalinga, California, originated in the decay of diatoms of Upper Cretaceous age. In discussing a ‘“ Gold-Platinum-Palladium Lode in Southern Nevada” (Bull. 620A), Adolph Knopf re- views the known occurrences of platinum, and points out that this metal may be reasonably looked for in copper ores, having, as Kemp suggested, migrated with them in solution. At the Boss Mine, in Nevada, the gold and platinum occur alloyed in almost equal quantities by weight. W. Lindgren describes (Bull. 601) the rich gold ores of the national mining district in northern Nevada, where the exceptional attractions of quartz ‘“‘averaging about $30,000 a ton in gold of a value of $10.60 an ounce” led, as recently as 1912, to armed alarums and excursions of the good old western type. A defensive searchlight has been kept playing on the entrance of the National Mine. Outside the National lode, the veins contain silver and antimony ores; but all the minerals are probably connected in depth, as products of ephemeral hot springs at a late stage in the eruption of Cainozoic (Miocene?) rhyolites. G. C. Matson’s description (Bull. 604) of ‘‘The Phosphate Deposits of Florida’’ is accompanied by a large coloured geological map of the State, on the scale of 1:1,000,000. The most interesting feature of this is the famous Florida East Coast Railroad, which steps from isle to isle of coral, and ends on the Pleistocene oolite of Key West. The marine con- cretionary phosphates are believed (p. 64) to have originated from the remains of plants and animals, while the fluviatile Bone Valley Gravel, in which teeth of Mastodon and other vertebrate remains occur, is held to have received its calcium phosphate from the detritus of the underlying marine bedrock. Among several publications that indicate the rapid progress of surveying in the difficult regions of Alaska, we note Bulletin 587, by G. C. Martin, B. L. Johnson, and U. S. Grant, on the Kenai Peninsula. Cainozoic coal-seams occur near the sea; but they seem unlikely to compete with the coals of higher grade available on the Pacific coast. It is of interest to find (p. 52) a series of “green scoriaceous and ellipsoidal lavas” of Triassic age overlain by radio- larian cherts. Once more we see that a particular marine condition has brought about the formation of these two dissimilar rock-types, though the clear evidence of succession in this case prevents our ascribing the abundance of radiolarians to the emana- tion of silica from the lavas. The detailed work by C. W. Wright on Copper Mountain and Kasaan Peninsula (Prof. Paper 87) includes well-illustrated observations on contact-metamorphism. Some of the aplite veins (p. 81) contain as much as g per cent. of primary calcite, a mineral that has already taken its place as an original constituent of igneous rocks. S. R. Capps (ibid., 95D) traces the volcanic ash layer of the Yukon basin to a “centre of dispersion,"’ by no means central, north of Mount Logan. At this point the deposit is 300 ft. thick, fading away to a NO. 2450, VOL. 98] “NATURE [OcToBER 12, 1916 foot in about 150 miles to eastward. The layer is traceable over 140,000 square miles, and, from the thickness of peat above it on the White River, is ascribed to an eruption that took place on the north of the Mount St. Elias region about 1400 years ago. The report by A. H. Brooksy who superintends the surveying work in Alaska, on the mineral resources of the region in 1914 (Bulletin 622) includes an un- favourable judgment on some of the coals from the point of view of the Navy Department; the coal of the Matanuska field, however, is regarded as of excellent steaming quality, and the progress of gold- mining, the great industry of Alaska, may possibly open up this field. W. B. Clark and M. W. Twitchell have written a monograph on ‘‘The Mesozoic and Cenozoic Echino- dermata of the United States’’ (Monograph liv.), illustrated with 108 plates of drawings and direct photographs. While the genera are for the most part of world-wide occurrence, few of the familiar European species are found in American deposits. F. W. Clarke and W. C. Wheeler (Prof. Paper goL) follow up their work on the composition of crinoid skeletons by an examination of the hard parts of other recent echinoderms. Magnesium carbonate is found in these also; the quantity is large in tropical forms as compared with those from cold waters, and may reach 14 per cent. The authors conclude that a rock formed from any kind of echinoderm ‘will have the composition of a moderately magnesian lime- stone.’’ As previous workers have pointed out, the calcium carbonate of echinoderms is always in the calcite form. Mineralogists and chemists will alike appreciate F. W. Clarke’s essay on “‘The Constitution of the Natural Silicates’’ (Bull. 588), in which consideration is given to their alteration-products, as suggesting the structure of the molecule of the original mineral. The treatment of spodumene (p. 98) serves as an interest- ing example, and leads on to new interpretations of the pyroxenes and the amphiboles, which are worked out as mixtures of orthosilicates and trisilicates, while wollastonite and pectolite, which are easily decom- posed by dilute acids, remain isolated as metasilicates. Whitman Cross (Prof. Paper 88) enlarges our im- perfect knowledge of ‘‘The Lavas of Hawaii and their Relations,” covering the Hawaian Islands as a whole. The mountain-chain of which these are the unsubmerged peaks extends for 1800 miles in a north- north-westerly direction. The rock-types offer no sup- port to the suggestion of a distinctively Pacific group of igneous rocks, or a group produced under Pacific conditions, and the alkalic and calcic rocks of Rosen- busch occur in the islands (p. 86) as derivatives from a common source. The author doubts (p. 90) Daly’s view that limestone has had an influence in promot- ing the occurrence of the types rich in alkalis. His visit to the islands in 1902 enables him to review his specimens as parts of some of the most striking vol- canic landscapes in the world. The twenty-third volume of the Iowa Geological Survey (1914) consists of O. P. Hay’s monograph on “The Pleistocene Mammals of Iowa,” the remains being found in interglacial beds. The Aftonian stage, following the. first Glacial or Nebraskan stage, is especially the horizon of Mylodon, in North America, and of the last North American Camelidz. The memoir is fully illustrated. R. S. Lull reviews (American Journal of Science, vol. xl., 1915, Pp. 319) “The Mammals and Horned Dinosaurs of the Lance Formation of Niobrara County, Wyoming,” and shows that mammalian remains, including through- out the older multituberculate types, are found in almost all the beds that contain Ceratopsia. The tri- ) - ee ee ae ee OcToBER 12, 1916] = _ tuberculate mammals occur, however, on the upper horizons, and may still have existing representatives. H. F. Osborn discusses the ‘‘Close of Jurassic and Opening of Cretaceous Time in North America ” (Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. xxvi., 1915, p. 295), as an introduction to a symposium on the Morrison forma- tion. This discussion has a special application in England to the Purbeck-Wealden question. The Wisconsin, Geological and Natural History Survey has reported on the north-western area of the State (Bulletin No. 45, Madison, 1915), where very little geological work had been done prior to the official entry of Mr. W. O. Hotchkiss and his assistants in 1913. Since the area lies in the Lake Superior iron district, great stress has been laid upon a con- tinuous magnetic survey, the principles of which are set out in chapter iv. This illustrated essay of sixty ages will be of service to mining students in general. he ores are the well-known sedimentary masses of Huronian age, and the extent of the Huronian beds beneath the glacial drift has been largely determined by magnetic readings. Bush-covered ground and rivers, as indicated in the sympathetic pictures of geologists at work, have often hindered observation, and only the most careful organisation could have carried out the survey in so comparatively short a time. G. A, J. C. NATURE 119 In notifying this auspicious change the Government expresses the hope that the establishment of a zoo- logical survey will be of value to India; and when it is remembered—apart from all the economic reflections of the matter—that in territories like India more than 75 per cent. of the annual mortality is due either directly or proximately to noxious animals and animal- cules, so that rural sanitation in such countries must rest in the first instance upon accurate and compre- hensive zoological foundations, there seems every assurance that this hope will be justified, Apart from these internal changes, which bring field-work from a precarious position in the rear into the very front rank of the duties of the staff, and transform the trustees from responsible guardians into. ~ authorised visitors of the collections, the zoological section of the museum as a going concern will not be altered in any way. Nor is_any extra expenditure anticipated for the immediate future, since the avail- able museum grant is ample for the intended purpose, and the collaboration of the Marine Survey Depart- ment and the close co-operation of the Forest and Agricultural Departments are assured. Under the new régime the national zoological museum of India promises to be, like some other Indian official organisations, an institution of an exemplary kind. THE ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. Wie the sanction of the Secretary of State the Government of India has recently converted the professional staff and entire working machinery of the zoological section of the Indian Museum into an autonomous Government department, under the name and style of the Zoological Survey of India. This conversion, if it were—as to superficial view it might appear—merely a change of name, could pass without comment in a momentous time like the pre- sent; but inasmuch as it effects a long-desired and fundamental improvement in the prospects and official status of zoology in India—a country where, private enterprise in the domain of natural science being un- developed, no branch of science that lacks independent and avowed recognition in the highest official quarters can hope to expand to its full extent—it deserves some notice. In times not very long past the zoological section of the Indian Museum was administered by trustees, on the model of the British Museum, an arrangement ill- suited to a polity where, outside official circles, trustees with the necessary academic experience are not easy to find. One of the most unsatisfactory results of this system was that, although all ate of one salt and owned the Government as their father and mother, the zoo- logical officers—irrespective of professional seniority or length of service—had always to be the official subordinates of their confréres in kindred scientific departments, who were constantly associated with the museum as trustees. f This anomaly was rectified by making the senior zoological officer eligible for the office of trustee, a resort to legal fiction which, although it placed zoology in proper official perspective, was calculated to offend tender consciences. All such fictions are now obviated by bringing the whole zoological staff and its appurtenance into line with other scientific departments of the Government of India, and placing the senior representative of zoology on the same footing as the directors of the kindred scientific surveys—a position in which his opportunities of advocating and initiating research are much aug- mented and his responsibilities as an independent oe adviser to Government are distinct and irect. NO. 2450, VOL. 98] GENETIC STUDIES IN PLANTS. ‘ihe a paper on ‘Growth and Variation in Maize" (Zeitschr. f. indukt. Abstammungs- und Vererb- ungslehre, xiv., 1915, Nos. 3-4), Drs. Raymond Pearl and F. M. Surface combine the statistical and indi- vidual methods of inquiry. ‘‘We have tried,’’ they write, ‘‘by studying the growth of the individual to analyse the adult variation curve into its component elements.’’ Height is the character chosen for inves- tigation; the relative variability as observed through- out the season “shows a marked progressive diminu- tion,’ and the authors believe that the maize plant grows ‘‘in a series of cycles.’’ In a second part of the paper they discuss the relation of variation to growth, and from the distribution of small, medium, and large plants conclude that the manner of growth is de- pendent on Mendelian factors. Maize is also the subject of a paper in the Journ. Agric. Research (vi., No. 12) by G. N. Collins, who deals with ‘“‘correlated characters’? in the species. Eleven characters were selected for study, and of fifty- five possible combinations twenty were found to show significant correlations; but in all but five these appear to be physiological rather than genetic, and in no instance is the coefficient higher than 0-5. The author fears, therefore, that the method of isolating types is. inapplicable tu maize, though desirable characters de- rived from different parents may be easily combined. The “Suppression of Characters on Crossing,” illus- trated by experiments on species of wheat, is discussed in a paper by R. H. Biffen (Journ. of Genetics, v., No. 4). He finds that dominant features, such as grey- ness of chaff or redness of grain, may be suppressed, so that ‘‘recessives make their appearance in F, genera- tions from crosses of parents showing dominant char- acters only." This may perhaps be due to the existence of more than one factor giving rise to apparently the same dominant character, and the consequent possi- bility that two factors determining the recessive may meet in some of the zygotes that give rise to the F, generation. Dr. T. Tammes contributes a paper to the Pro- ceedings (xviii., No. 7) of the Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. Amsterdam ‘‘On the Mutual Effect of Genotypic Factors.’’ She has experimented by crossing varieties of flax differing in colour (blue or white) and breadth 120 NATURE _ [OcTOBER 12, 1916) of the petals. The results are complicated, and not readily summarised, but they confirm a generalisation already established by work in hybridisation among both plants and animals; that ‘views on the presence and action of factors obtained by an investigation of one single crossing are liable to modification when one of the forms investigated is crossed with a third form. Hence it is necessary to cross the same form with more than one partner in order to arrive, step by step, at the truth.” MATHEMATICS AND. PHYSICS AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. “THE first of the two organised discussions arranged for this section was on ‘Gravitation."’ ‘1he discussion followed immediately after Prof. White- head’s presidential address, and it happened that the arrangement was appropriate, for the president’s ex- position of the logical texture of geometry had carried us far from the ordinary conceptions of space, and paved the way for the revolutionary ideas associated with the space-time world of Einstein and Minkowski. Mr. E. Cunningham, who opened the discussion, and Prof. A. S. Eddington, who followed, dealt with Hinstein’s recent work, which brings gravitation within the scope of the principle. of relativity. If an observer is in a closed lift, it is well understood that an acceleration of the lift upwards is exactly equiva- lent to an increase of the force of gravity, so far as mechanical phenomena inside the lift are concerned. There would, however, be minute differences in the optical phenomena according to the ordinary theory ; relatively to the accelerated lift the path of a ray of light would seem to be curved, whereas for the stationary lift it would be straight if the increased. gravitational field makes no difference. Accordingly, the first suggestion towards a relativity theory which shall include gravitation is that the path of a ray of light must be bent by the gravitational field, just as it is apparently bent by an acceleration of the frame- work of reference. The curvature to be expected is extremely small—amounting to a change of direction of 1-7” in the case of a star seen close to the sun’s limb—and it has not been possible to prove or disprove the hypothesis directly. Meanwhile the theory has been elaborated and generalised by Einstein, who has at length been able to throw the laws of motion, of electrodynamics, and of gravitation into a form which makes the sequence of phenomena entirely independent of any particular framework of reference. The result has been to yield a very striking confirmation of the theory, for it is found to predict a motion of the perihelion of Mercury amounting to 43” per century— just the amount of the hitherto unexplained discord- ance. The new theory removes what is probably the most celebrated of the few cases of failure of gravita- tional astronomy. The discussion afterwards turned to the experimental side. Dr. P. E. Shaw gave an account of his experiments which appear to indicate a change in the constant of gravitation with tem- perature, and Prof. R. A. Sampson urged that astro- nomical evidence is not capable of denying this possi- bility. Dr. W. G. Duffield read a report of the Com- mittee on the Determination of Gravity at Sea, con- sidering especially the difficulties attending the use of the aneroid method, and the possibility of improve- ments in future attempts. : A paper by Sir Ernest Rutherford on the ‘X-Ray Spectra of the Elements” was of special interest. He referred particularly to the researches of Siegbahn and Friman, who have extended the work. of Moseley to the elements of high atomic weight from gold to uranium by examining the L spectra. It appears NO. 2450, VOL. 98] that there are ninety-two elements up to uranium,. By finding the atomic number of lead it has now been possible to assign the whole series of radio-active products to their places. in the scheme. Sir E, Ruther- ford further described the work done in America with’ the Coolidge tube, which provides a steady high voltage. It is found that the maximum frequency of the rays which can be obtained follows closely the quantum relation Ve=hv, the accuracy between 20,000 and 100,000 volts being one per cent. To excite the characteristic radiation of a substance a rather higher voltage is needed than that given by the quantum relation, as though it were necessary to. expend some energy in disturbing an oscillator. Prof. H. H. Turner read'a paper on the ‘* Measure- ment of Time,” dealing with daylight saving and justifying the innovation from a scientific point of view. ‘The paper elicited an interesting speech from Prof. J. Perry, who admitted that he had formerly rather thoughtlessly opposed the scheme, and urged the warning against being led by authority in science. Other members, however, professed themselves still unconverted, Prof. T, H. Havelock gave a review of recent work on the ‘‘ Propagation of a Signal in a Dispersive Medium.’’ He described the approximate methods of calculation which have been used, showing the rela- tion between the recent methods of contour integration and the older work of Hamilton and Kelvin. The precise nature of the “ forerunner,’’ or minute disturb- ance which travels through the medium in advance of the main signal, is a matter of special difficulty, and an exact solution for any particular cases that may prove tractable would be a great help towards progress. The absence of several speakers who had been ex- pected to take part rather detracted from a discussion on ‘Osmotic Pressure,’ opened by Prof. A. W. Porter. There were many other interesting papers, most of which we must pass unnoticed for want of space, but special mention may be made of Prof. J. C. McLen- nan’s paper on ‘‘Tonisation Potential,” continuing and extending the results communicated last year; also of Sir F. W. Dyson’s ‘‘Mean Parallaxes of Stars of Different Magnitudes,”’ which in the main confirm the well-known formulz given by Kapteyn in 1901. At a separate meeting of the department of mathematics Prof. G. N. Watson gave a general survey of the recent developments of the theory of asymptotic series. A: new departure, which it is hoped may lead to important results, was the formation of a committee representing Sections A and E to consider the needs of geodetic research. This arose from the presenta- tion of a report by Col. Close, Sir F. W. Dyson, and Col. Hills, prepared at the request of the Organising Committee of Section A. The report brought out clearly the lack of organisation and general neglect of higher geodesy in this country, and there was a unani- mous feeling that steps should be taken towards the constitution of some committee or association respon- sible for stimulating this branch of science. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION D. ZOOLOGY, ABSTRACT OF THE OPENING ADDRESS By Pror. E. W. MacBripe, M.A., D.Se., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. Tue decision of the Organising Committee to devote the sittings of the section chiefly to the economic and medical applications of zoology must not divert us from the task of research into fundamental laws: The laws of heredity had been intensively studied for the OcrToBER 12, 1916] NALURE 12! last twenty years by selective mating, but the study of the laws governing the development of the germ into the adult organism—in a word, of, experimental em- bryology—might eventually throw a great deal of light on the laws of heredity. After alluding to the work of His, who sketched. out the programme of the new science, Prof. MacBride described the work of the first experimenters—Roux, Hertwig, and Driesch—in some detail. He pointed out that the results obtained by these zoologists led them to conclusions about the nature of development which were fundamentally opposed to one another ; for Roux, having produced half-embryos by destroying one blastomere of the two-cell stage of the frog’s egg, supported the principle of “‘ specific organ-form- ing regions of the germ,” whilst Driesch, having reared a perfect Echinoderm larva of diminished size from one of the first four blastomeres of an Echinus egg, asserted that ‘‘the fate of a cell was a function of its position in the embryo,” and in this conclusion he was supported by Hertwig, who attempted to in- terpret Roux’s results in a different manner. Even Roux admitted that although half-embryos were formed at first, if they survived they regenerated the missing parts; Roux accounted for his results by supposing that each region of the germ had its peculiar organ-forming substance, or ‘‘idioplasson,”’ which conferred on it the power to develop into a definite organ; the regeneration of lost parts he attributed to a special substance, which he called ‘reserve-idioplasson,’’ which came into play only when mutilation had occurred. Driesch assumed, on the other hand, the existence of a purposeful “ ente- lechy,”’ or *‘ psychoid,’’ inhabiting the living material, and even when, as in his experiments with Ctenophore eggs, he found that isolated blastomeres gave rise to partial larvae, he did not conclude that detinite organ- forming substances were localised in each of the first eight ‘blastomeres; but rather that in these eggs the cytoplasm was so specialised or ‘‘stiffened’’ that the indwelling entelechy could not mould it to its will. The definite proof of the existence of organ-forming substances—a proof which was regarded as one of the great advances made by experimental embryology— was brought by Crampton and by Wilson in their studies of the developing eggs of Mollusca. In the developing egg of Dentalium and of some other Mol- lusea the first cleavage appeared to divide the egg into three cells, but one of these cells was a mere pro- trusion devoid of a nucleus, termed the first polar lobe, which was reabsorbed before the next cleavage. At the next cleavage five cells were apparently produced, but again one of these was a transitory second polar lobe, which melted into one of the four blastomeres before the cleavage to form eight cells began. If the first polar lobe were cut off, the egg developed into ‘a coum larva, which was devoid of the apical j4ute and apical tuft of cilia and also of mesoderm, ‘and of the whole post-trochal region. If the second polar lobe were cut off, a trochophore larva was formed, provided with apical plate and apical tuft, but devoid, as before, of mesoderm and of post-trochal region. The conclusion was inevitable that the specific material for the apical plate and posttrochal region was con- tained in the first polar lobe, but that the second polar lobe only contained the necessary material for the post- trochal region. Driesch’s objections to this conclusion were founded on thé difficultv of conceiving what an. organ-forming substance could be like, it being very difficult to pic- ture a substance the molecules of which had the power of ‘‘crystallising"’ into organs, such as, ‘for instance, arms and legs. But if we fell back on our ultimate conception of what we meant by ‘ explanation,” we found that it alwavs consisted in comparing a less fami- NO. 2450, VOL. 98] liar phenomenon with one about which we thought we knew more. Driesch’s enteiechy was really an attempt to compare the forces which organise development with the purpose of an intelligent being who wanted to build a house, and, in principle, no fault could be found with it. ‘he great dithculty about it was that this comparison does not help us to understand in the least a large number of phenomena which could be tar better ~“explained’’ by the theory of organ-form- ing substances, even although we could not tell what these substances were like. 1n the development of the Ascidian, Cynthia partita, as described by Conklin, the cytoplasm was rendered slaty-blue by inclusions of yolk, and in its outermost zone were numerous par- ucles of bright yellow pigment. Before fertilisation the large germinal vesicle burst, and its contents formed a cap of clear fluidat one pole of the egg. ‘Lhe spermato- zoon entered at the opposite pole, and then the clear sub- stance and the yellow pigment were drawn down to meet it, and eventually tormed two concentric crescents round the lower pole of the egg. Subsequent develop- ment made it plain that the clear substance gave rise to the ectoderm, the slaty-blue cytoplasm to the endo- derm, and the yellow material to the mesoderm of the Ascidian tadpole. If one of the first four cells of the segmenting egg were killed, the other three continued their development, and an imperfect embryo was pro- duced; if this cell happened to be one of the two containing yellow substance, a tadpole was produced which had muscles only on one side of its tail. Clearly in this case the organ-forming substances were visible to the naked eye, since they were distinguish- able in colour, and their segregation in different regions of the embryo was the real cause of the differentiation of the germ-layers. In this process the individual cell was not a unit of any importance; both notochord and nerve-cord arose from the same group of cells, termed by Conklin chorda-neural cells; but the cytoplasm of these cells consisted of clear and blue portions, and in the subsequent divisions the clear portions were added to the ectodermic neural plate, whilst the blue portions became the endodermic notochord. Driesch explained phenomena like these by asserting that these substances were the conditions, not the causes, of the development of organs; but another experiment, due to Morgan, which had been repeated in the laboratory of the Imperial College of Science, appeared to dispose completely of the idea of there being an intelligent entelechy presiding over develop- ment. This experiment consisted in fastening frogs’ eggs to a slide, with the black pole uppermost, and fertilising them in this position. When the eggs had divided into two another slide was laid on the top of them and clamped in this position; the whole prepara- tion was then inverted and allowed to develop for five or six days in this position. At the conclusion of this period a double-headed, or double-tailed tadpole. was produced. In this case nothing was added to the egg, but the dark substance, which was specifically lighter than the white substance which constituted the rest of the egg, had TYreadjusted itself im each cell under the influence of gravity, in a similar manner to what it would have done in the whole egg if this had been inverted before division into two had taken place. Hence the condition of the formation of a frog embryo must be the proper spatial relationship between two organ-forming substances. ; If we adopted the view that organ-forming substances were the all-important agents in development, it be- came of the utmost importance to learn more about them. Observation of the developing egg of Ascaris showed that the relative proportion of such a substance in one cell as compared with its quantity in a neigh- bouring cell could determine the fate of the cell. This egg divided into two cells at its first cleavage, one of ba NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1916 which produced the ectoderm and the other the in- ternal organs. Boveri showed that if these eggs were fixed to a slide which was inserted in a centrifugal machine and a rapid rate of rotation maintained whilst the egg developed, some of them the axes of which happened to lie exactly in the radius of rotation divided into two equal cells, both of which formed internal organs, and neither of which behaved like the cell in the normal embryo, which produced ectoderm. The slightest obliquity ot the egg axis to this radius caused the egg to undergo normal development. ‘This experi- ment, which had been repeated by us in the Imperial College of Science, showed that some substance was present in greater quantity on the outer part of the egg, so that the upper of the first two cells received more of it than the other, and was thus determined to form ectoderm, but that when under stress of the centri- fugal force the division plane separating the first two hlastomeres took up an exactly radial position, so that this substance was equally distributed to both cells, neither developed into ectoderm. The question where these substances were formed was of great importance. A priori considerations suggested that they must emanate from the chromatin. of , the nucleus, since the father was as potent in heredity as the mother, and his contribution to the zygote consisted merely of a mass of chromatin. This conclusion was confirmed both by observation and experiment. In the unripe egg of Cynthia, Schaxel had shown that ‘streams of chromatin poured from the nucleus into the cytoplasm, and if the unripe egg of Ascaris was sub- jected to the most violent centrifugal force, so that it lost large portions of its substance, and was afterwards fertilised, it gave rise to a normal embryo of diminished size, showing that its cytoplasm was not yet organised as was that of the ripe egg, the different development of which under the stress of centrifugal force we have just described. The pressure experiments of Driesch and Hertwig, in which, by allowing eggs to develop in cramped positions, they disarranged the normal order of the nuclei, showed that the nuclei of the segmenting egg were alike, each possessing all the potentialities of the species, for these distorted eggs when relieved from pressure developed into normal embryos, although the nuclei had assumed abnormal positions, and it was the relative position of the substances produced by these nuclei, not of the nuclei themselves, which determined differentiation. periment of allowing Echinus eggs to develop in sea- water to which salts of lithium had been added, it was possible to inhibit the formation of one of these substances and produce an embryo consisting entirely, or almost entirely, of endoderm. The formation of these substances appeared to last for only a short period; after that, the nuclei appeared to be without formative influence on the cytoplasm, but in animals like Polyzoa and Ascidians which bud, this budding could be best explained as due to a renewed production of organ- forming substances by the nuclei. These substances were often not distributed to the formative tissues of the bud in the same manner as in the embryo, and hence the development of the bud often followed a different course from that initiated by the embryo. The **nost-generation ” of the missing half, observed by Roux in his half-tadpoles, and by Chun and Morten- sen in their half-Ctenophore larve, could be explained in a_ similar way by postulating a renewed activity of the nuclei at the cut surface. Considerations of this kind were fatal to the conception of Weismann of the definite segregation of germ-cells from body-cells at the beginning of de- velopment, dependent on a_ differential division of nuclei, or, as he termed it, the formation of definite germ tracks. Indeed, Gatenby had lately shown that in the frog the supposed germ-cells which were segre- NO. 2450, VOL. 98] ‘ Sometimes, as in Herbst’s famous ex-- gated at an early period of development would scarcely supply the needs of the first spawning season, and that the eggs needed for subsequent seasons were formed by the metamorphosis of ordinary peritoneal cells. Next to the discovery of organ-forming substances perhaps the greatest discovery in experimental embry- ology was the influence which the primary organs exerted on each other’s further development/ The first discovery of this influence was due to Herbst, who showed that if the ocular peduncle of a shrimp were amputated, the animal was able to regenerate a new one, as was the case also if the other limbs were cut off; but that if the optic gang- lion was also removed then an antenna-like organ was regenerated in place of an eye. From this experiment the conclusion was forced on us that in the normal development of the shrimp the ectoderm was caused to mould itself into the retinulz and crystalline cones of the eve by some influence emanating from the optic ganglion. This influence must be some chemical sub- stance emitted into the blood and comparable to the hormones, which we know to be emitted by organs like the thyroid gland, which so powerfully influence growth in man. Another’instance of the same thing was afforded by the experiments of Lewis; this observer cut off the optic vesicle from the brain of a young tadpole, and pushed the amputated organ backwards under the skin to .a new position; the wound healed up; no lens developed in the normal position, but a lens was developed from the skin situated over the optic vesicle. This experiment proved that no part of the skin was predestined to form the lens of the eye, but that any part could form the lens if acted on by the emanations from the optic vesicle beneath. A third instance was discovered from experiments in the Impe- rial College of Science in the rearing of the larvae of the sea-urchin, Echinus miliaris. In normal develop- ment the rudiment of the water-vascular system or ‘“‘hydroccele’? was formed from the coelomic vesicle on the left side of the larva. Above it the ectoderm be- came invaginated so as to form the amniotic pit, from the floor of which were developed pointed spines and tube-feet, whilst beneath the hydroccele a series of pockets grew out from the left posterior ccelomic vesicle which developed into Aristotle’s lantern. On the right side of the larva two calcareous plates were developed bearing square-topped spines and pedicellarie. Under the influence of certain stimuli the larva could be made to develop a second hydroccele on its right side, and when this took place, from the octoderm of the right side and from the right posterior ecelomic vesicle respec- tively a right amniotic pit with spines and tube-feet and a right Aristotle’s lantern were developed. In other circumstances the formation of a hydroccele could be inhibited altogether, and then.calcareous plates bear- ing spines were formed on both sides of the larva. If the second or right hydroccele was small, it failed to inhibit the formation of plates bearing spines and pedicellarize proper to the right side, so that both hydro- coele and pedicellariz could be present together on the same side. The only possible explanation of these facts was the view that any part of the ectoderm could form an amniotic pit, and either left or right coelomic vesicles could form an Aristotle’s lantern, if acted on by influences emanating from the hydroccele, and that both sides ofthe larva were really alike in their constitution, and that in the total absence of a hydro- coele each produced calcareous plates with spines. The discovery of the profound influence exercised by the growing tissues of the embryo on one another lent some support to Dr. J. T. Cunningham’s theory of the inheritance of acquired qualities based on the facts known as to the influence of hormones on the growth of the human body. Jf it should turn out, as seems, from the results of these experiments, to be OcTOBER 12, 1916] NATURE 123 the case, that the production of hormones was not at all confined to certain ductless glands, but was a much more widespread phenomenon, we could under- stand that if, through an alteration in external condi- tions, a change was induced in some tissue, its chem- ical emanations would be altered. If, further, these altered substances, circulating in the body fluids, were ultimately stored up in the germ-cells, then eventually as the germ developed the corresponding alteration would be produced in the tissues of the young animal, even before it was exposed to the changed environ- ment. Of course, the proof that such an influence of a changed environment on subsequent generations was possible must ultimately be found by experiment, and the inherent difficulty of such experiments was very great, but some suggestive work by Kammerer on the inheritance of colour in Salamanders seemed really to supply positive evidence in favour of the inheritance of environmental influence. In conclusion, let us bear in mind that the hormone theory of the inheritance of acquired characters which a study of experimental embryology inclines us to regard with favour was in principle identical with the theory of “‘pangenesis ’’ propounded by the founder of modern biology, Charles Darwin. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Lonpon.—A series of public lectures, under the general title of ‘‘ The University and the Nation,” will be delivered on Wednesdays, at 5.15 p.m., at King’s College. The lectures will be as follows :—October 25, The Root Fault in the English Attitude to Educa- tion, Dr. Burrows, Principal of King’s College; November 1, Science and Industry, Mr. oe Swin- burne; November 8, Science and the Training of the Citizen, Principal Griffiths; November 15, The Spiritual Appeal of the Humanities, Mr. A, C. Clutton- Brock; November 22, The Intellectual Groundwork of Politics, Dr: H. A. L. Fisher; November 29, Educa- tion—the Curse of Convention, Mr. Graham Wallas. Dr. Marie Stopes will begin a course of six lectures and demonstrations on ‘‘ The Bennettitales ” on Octo- ber 17, at 5 p.m., at University College. The course will be illustrated by lantern-slides and specimens, including microscopic sections of new species. Fur- ther particulars can be obtained from the secretary of University College. Prof. J. A. Fleming will deliver a public lecture on “Long-Distance Telegraphy and Telephony,” at Uni- versity College, on Wednesday, October 18, at 5.30 p-m. This lecture is open to the public without fee or ticket. OxrorpD.—On October 7 the Vice-Chancellor (the Very Rev. T. B. Strong, dean of Christ Church), on entering upon his fourth year of office, delivered the customary address. After mentioning that about 10,500 members of the University were serving in the Army and Navy, and about 500 were in other Govern- ment employment, he spoke of the distinctions gained by them in the present war, including 9 V.C.’s, 120 D.S.O.’s, and 700 mentions in despatches. Passing on to speak of the educational deficiencies which had been disclosed by the war, he said that the University must find some way to remedy the neglect of the claims of natural science. Average people were not likely to become advanced students of science, but they wanted everybody, including the average people, to be aware of, or in some degree to understand, the scien- tific point of view. The country would have to give up its prevalent attitude of distrust’ towards expert knowledge. The new statute relating to the Honour NO. 2450, VOL. 98] School of Chemistry was an attempt by the University to put the study of that science on a more satisfactory footing. But it should not be forgotten that the majority of Oxford men would be engaged in the work of administration, for which the knowledge of men was essential. The University has received with much regret the news of the death of Mr. Horace Hart, who for more than thirty years conducted, as controller, the business of the University Press with marked ability and suc- cess. A MEETING of the Association of Technical Institu- tions will be held in London on Friday and Saturday, October 20-21. For some time it has been felt that the members of the association should meet together to consider educational questions having special bearing on the work of technical schools and colleges. The governors of the Imperial College of Science and Tech- nology, South Kensington, have placed rooms in the college at the disposal of the association for the pur- poses of the conference. Sir Alfred Keogh, K.C.B., president of the association, will preside over the meet- ing. The Right Hon. A. H. Dyke Acland, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Governors of the Imperial College, will welcome the calogatra to the college at their first session. On the Friday morning Lord Haldane will deliver an address on ‘‘ Education after the War, with Special Reference to Technical Instruction.’’ This will be followed by a paper by Sir Trevor Dawson (of Vickers, Sons and Maxim) on ‘Education after the War, with Special Reference to Engineering Instruction.”” The afternoon of Friday will be devoted to a discussion of the address and paper. On Saturday, October 21, Major Mitchell, director of the Regent Street Polytechnic, London, will read a paper on “*What Can be Done to Train Disabled Sailors and Soldiers in. Technical Institu- tions,”’ to be followed by a discussion, In presenting the Education Estimates to the House of Commons on July 18, the President of the Board of Education said that in addition to three committees of experts to investigate different educational ques- tions, a fourth committee was to be appointed which would be a Reviewing Committee. The three expert commgtees are dealing respectively with the education and care of young persons after the war, and the position of science and modern languages in our educa- tional system. Mr. Bonar Law stated, in the House of Commons on October 10, that the Reviewing Committee, which will be a sub-committee of the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Committee, has for its terms of reference :—‘*To consider the system of education as a whole; to review and formulate from ‘that point of view proposals for developing it, particu- larly in directions indicated as desirable or necessary by experience gained during the war, and with special reference to:—(a) Proposals prepared before the war for the development of the national system of educa- tion; (b) the memoranda already submitted by the Education Departments for the consideration of the Reconstruction Committee; (c) any proposals sub- mitted hereafter from the departments, or from special committees, or from other responsible organisations ; and to recommend from time to time such action, whether by way of legislation or otherwise, as may be practicable.’’ It is understood that this Reviewing Committee will consist of Cabinet and ex-Cabinet Ministers, and possibly of some other persons to be called in for advisory purposes, but no announcement has yet been made as to the actual membership. Ar the invitation of the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield a party representative of the Institute of Journalists, the Circle of Scientific, Technical, and 124 NATURE [OcTOBER 12, 1916 Trade Journalists, and the British Association of Trade and Technical Journalists paid a visit to these cities on October 8-10. At Leeds University the visi- tors were received by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr.._M. E. Sadler, who gave an inspiring address descriptive of the University’ s work and its close associations: with local industries. The departments visited included those dealing with organic and tinctorial chemistry, leather manufacture, textile work, gas and fuel. The members of the party were then the guests of the Leeds Luncheon Club, after which the Leeds Army Clothing Depét, the works of Messrs. Albrecht and Albrecht (khaki garment manufacturers), and the Car- digan Boot Factory were inspected, these industries being selected in view of their close connection with the work of the University. Finally, the visitors were the guests of the Lord Mayor for tea. At Sheffield the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, also ad- dressed the visitors, who were conducted over the chemical and medical departments, while Prof. Ripper gave an account of the many special interesting re- searches undertaken on metallurgy and the testing of steel, The factories visited included the armament works of Messrs. John Brown and Co., where the party was invited to lunch by the Master Cutler, and the shell factory of Messrs. Thos. Firth and Sons. A. feature in the arrangements at both cities was the co-operation of journalists representing the local papers, and the visits furnish an interesting illustration of the grow- ing desire for closer relations between the universities and the Press. The visitors were much struck by the pride taken by Leeds and Sheffield in their universi- ties, and the general recognition among local manu- facturers of the value of the work that is being done there. BOOKS RECEIVED. The Loose Leaf Laboratory Manual. Electrical Measurements and Testing Direct and Alternating Current. By C. L. Dawes. (New ‘York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.) 3s. net. Lectures on Ten British Mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century. By A. Macfarlane. Pp, 148. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : nap: man and Hall, Ltd.) 5s. 6d. net. Engineering’ Applications of Higher Mathematics. By V. Karapetoff. Part ii-, pp. v+103. Part iii., pp. v+113. Part iv., pp. v+81. Part v., pp. viit+65. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chap- man and Hall, Ltd.) 3s. net each. The Psy chology of the Organized Group Game, with Special Reference to its Place in the Play System and its Educational Value. By M. J. Reaney. Pp. 76. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 5s. net. A History of British Mammals. By G. E. H. Bar- rett-Hamilton and M. A. C. Hinton. Part xix. (Lon- don; Gurney and Jackson.) 2s, 6d. net. : A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus. By J. H.. Maiden. Vol.. iii-; part 7. (Sydney: .W. A: Gullick.) 2s. 6d. The Essentials of Chemical Physiology. By Prof. W. D. Halliburton. Ninth edition. Po. xi+324. (London: Longmans and Co.) 6s. net. The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe. a Bio- graphical Sketch. By Sir E. Thorpe. Pp. viii+208. (London: Longmans and Co.) -7s. 6d. net. La Chimie des Eléments Radioactifs. By Prof. F. Soddy. Translated by E. Philippi. Pp. 173. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie. ) Aérodynamique.. By N 5 francs, Joukowski. Translated by S. Drzewiecki. Pp. xviii + 227. (Paris: Gauthier- Villars et Cie.) 11. francs. Notions Générales sur les Appareils 4 Réaction. By NO. 2450, vor. 98] , Lunge. P. Popovatz. Pp: 35. Cie.) Report of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales, for the Year ended December 31, 1914. Pp. .v+206. (Sydney: W. A. Gullick.) 7s. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Year Book for 1916. Pp. xvii+204. (Washington, D.C.) The Geology of Ben -Nevis and Glen Coe, and the Surrounding Country. By E. B. Bailey and others. Pp. x+247. (Edinburgh: H.M.S.O.; London: E. Stanford, Ltd., and others.) 7s. 6d. The Technical Chemists’ Handbook. By Prof. G., Second edition. Pp. xvit+264. (London: Gurney and Jackson.) tos. 6d. net: (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, Ocroner 12. ’ Cuitp Srupy Sociery, at 6.—The French Child at School: reais Brereton. TUESDAY, Ocroser 17. InsTiTUTION of PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS, at 8.—The Norfolk Oil shales: W. Forbes-Leslie. WEDNESDAY, Octoper 18. Roya. Microscorica Sociery, at 8.—Certain Parasites of the Mouth in Cases of Pyorrhoea: Dr H. Pixell Goodrich and M. Moseley. ENTOMOLOGICAL SocreTy, at 8.— Parthenogenesis in fae ipsa H. Ling, Roth.—Diptera from the Falkland Islands: C. G. La a. FRIDAY, October 20. : InstiItuTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINFERS, at 6.—Trials on a Diesel Engine, and Application of Energy Diagram to obtain Heat Balance : The late Lieut. ‘Trevor Wilkins ; presented py-Prof. Burstall. CONTENTS. PAGE British Forestry . . 105) Chemical Water Purification, ‘Ry Denison B. Byles ‘105 Theory and Experiment. ByG.A.S. .. ... 106 Systematic Zoology. Our Bookshelf Letters to the Editor:— Science in Education, —F.R.S.; F.B.A. .... . Pre-Boulder Clay Man.—J. Reid Moir . Variable Stars. —R. M. Deeley .......... Searcity of Wasps.—H. V. Davis . . 109 Capt. Keith Lucas, F.R.S. By Prof, J. N. Langley, By F. F.. i Perens, of fot EoR.S; ...- 109 Sir Aurel Stein’s Third Journey in Central Asia. (7Rastirated.) . (ns ue ences Ae take | Notes (y' Sae ees Oe | eh > ee Our Astronomical Column :— Fireball of October. 3 1). Beis 20.) 2. bs Mercury Visible Before Sunris®é. . . ...... 116 The Distribution of B Stars. +... 1...» 116 The Spectroscopic Binary x Auriga... +... . . 116 A New Astronomical Journal... . . 116 Geological Work in the United States. ( Mustrate.) By Gi An.J. C.-L Sen eed 5 117 The Zoological Survey OF Tndiay yt: 5%. .) '6, tone ee Genetic Studies in Plants . 119 Mathematics and Physics at the ‘British ‘Associa- tion . «ar CeO The British Association at ‘Newcastle: — i Section D—Zoology—Abstract of the Opening Address by Prof. E. W. MacBride, M.A., Dae F.R.S., President of the Section... .. 120 University and Educational Intelligence .. . 123 Books Received ...... Pe aah Ee +l he Diary of Societies Les a. = Editorial and Publishing Offices : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.c. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications ‘to, the’ Editor. : Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. Telephone Number: Grrrarp’ 8830. st | le ha A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF :SCIENCE. *To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.-—Worpsworth. ~ No. 2451, VOL. 98] Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1916 [PRICE SIXPENCE. [All Rights Reserved. BUY DIRECT FROM EE BECKER & CO.MATTON WALL, (W.&J.GEORGE.LTD.,SUCC#=) LONDON, E .C. Joun J. GRIFFIN g MAKERS OF HIGH-CLASS PHYSICAL APPARATUS ONS, LTD. POCKET D.V. SPECTROSCOPE With plain slit, 26/6; with adjustable slit, 33/- RAINBAND SPECTROSCOPE, 54/- ‘Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C. OZ ttttdtd FOE TI 4 “LN Contractors to the War Office, Admiralty = and Egyptian Governments, &c. | sg DMS Manufacturers and Exporters of Chemicals, Chemical Glassware and Chemical and Physical Apparatus. OPTICAL & PILOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS. PURE CHEMICALS AND REAGENTS. LABORATORY FITTINGS & FURNITURE. OPTICAL LANTERNS AND SLIDES. Special designs of BLOWN GLASS executed by our own staff. Quotations and Price Lists on application. XMM Ws sss ddl dip a I4¢ COMMERCIAL ST_ WZH@ZEZZzZ A New Barograph—THE ‘* JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) VO Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. l NATURE BRADFORD EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—Prof. W. M. Garpner, M Se., F.I1.C. SPECIAL DAY DIPLOMA COURSES (3 or 4 years) in (1) Dyeing and Textile Chemistry. (2) General Industrial and Aralytical Chemistry. (3) Metallurgical Chemistry and Assaying. (4) Chemical and Gas Engineering. (5) Research in Textile Chemistry. Visits to Works and the solution of Works difficuities are made special features. DAY SESSION, 1916-17, has now commenced. A pamphlet—“ Industrial Chemistry and Dyeing as a Career for Men and Women "—post free on application. Education Office, Bradford, October, 1916. COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERSFIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—J. F. Hupsox, M.A., B.Sc. CLOTH MANUFACTURE. CHEMISTRY anp DYEING, MECHANICAL anp ELECTRICAI ENGINEERING. ECONOMICS ann COMMERCE. BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS. The new department of COAL TAR COLOUR CHEMISTRY is open for teaching and research under the direction of Dr. A. E. EVEREST. Full particulars on application to the Secrerary, Technical College, Huddersfield. BY ORDER. T. THORP, Secretary. SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL OF MINES & TECHNOLOGY, JOHANNESBURG (Under the University of South Africa Act, 1916, a Constituent College of the University of South Africa). _ The Council of the South African School of Mines and ‘lechnology invites applications for the following appointments, viz. :— Department of English, Logic and Philosophy : _PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT. Department of History; PROFESSOR. Department of Modern Languages: (i) Dutch—PKOFESSOR. (ii) French—PROFESSOR. Department of Classics: PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT. Department of Education and Psychology : ASSISTANT. Department of Economics : Commercial Geography—ASSISTANT. Department of Physics; PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT, Department of Botany: PROFESSOR. Department of Zoology: PROFESSOR. A Three years’ contract will be granted in each case. Salaries: (a) Professors. £800 per annum, rising by annual increments of £50 to £900, and by similar increments to £1000 in the succeeding two years, where the appointment is confirmed and the member placed on the permanent staff; (b) Assistants, £350 per annum, rising by annual increments of £50 to the maximum of £450. 75, will be allowed to Professors for travelling expenses to South Africa, and £50 to Assistants ; half-salary will, in each case, be paid from date of sailing till arrival in Johannesburg. The next session begins early in March, and the successful applicants will be expected to reach Johannesburg by February rsth, 1917. The members of the staff have to supervise, and take partin, Evening work. Applications in triplicate, stating age, professional qualifications and experience, as well as information regarding candidates’ publications or researches, should, with copies of three recent testimonials, be sent not later than November 16th, 1916, to the undersigned, who, on application, will send a memorandum containing full information of the above appointments, ard of the scheme for the expansion of University education on the Witwatersrand in the immediate future Before appointment, the selected applicants will be required to pass a medical examination. CHALMERS, GUTHRIE & CO., Lrp., 9 IDOL LANE, LONDON, E.C. ees DEMONSTRATOR IN PHYSICS. DEMONSTRATOR in PHYSICS required in January at the LON- DON (ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL) SCHUOL OF MEDICINE FOR WOMEN, 8 Hunter Street, W.C. Applications, with testimonia!s, to te sent to undersigned by Friday, October 27, from whom further particulars may be obtained. lL. M. BROOKS, Secretary and Warden. [OcTOBER 19, 1916 BIRKBECK COLLEGE, | BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematies (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logie, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. ices Day: Science, £17 10s,; Arts, £10 10s, SESSIONAL FEES geet Science, Arts, or Economics, £5 5s. Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post 5d.), from the Secretary. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Courses. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44). SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone: Western 899. MATHEMATICAL TUTOR required in January, able to prepare boys for Woolwich and Sandhurst. Stipend £180, with board and residence. Also CHEMI> TRY TEACHER fir County School. £160, non-res.—Address, GrirriTHs, PoweLtt & Situ, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER for the UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA invites applications for the CHAIR OF LOGIC AND PSYCHOLOGY at VICTORIA COLLEGE, STELLENBOSCH. Commencing salary £500; passage wmioney; three years’ agreenient in first instance. Duties to commence middle February, 1917. é N Applications, containing information as to age, character, qualifications, experience, health, and religious denomination, must be received not later than November 4, 1916, by the Secretary, Office of High Commissioner, Union of South Africa, 32 Victoria Street, S.W., from whom further particulars may be obtained. CRAWFORD MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE; CORK. Principal—J, H. Grixpuey, D Sc. The Cork Co. Borough Technical Instruction Committee require the services of a LECTURER in CHa MISTRY, Salary 4200 to £250 per annum. Full particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, at his office, Sharman Crawford Street, Cork, by whom applications will be received not later than Saturday, October 28. F. B. GILTINAN, Secretary, October rx, 1916. LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL. LOUGHBOROUGH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. WANTED IMMEDIATELY, LECTURER in ENGINEERING (preferably ELECTRICAL). Salary £150 to £175, according to experieuce and qualifications. The appointment is for the period of the War, but wi'l probably be made permanent in the case of satisfactory service. — Applications, with not more than three copies of recent testimonials, should be sent to —Tn PrinciPac, Tne Lechnical Institute, Loughborough, not later than November 1. W. A. BROCKINGTON, Director of Education. WANTED ATTENDANT with Chemical Laboratory Experience.—J3ox 190, c/o Naiure Office. FOR SALE.—‘ Nature,’’ Sept. 27, 1906, to Jan, 21, 1909.--Apply ‘‘ Encinger,” Technical School, Barnsley. ' ' - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, ‘1916. — REMINISCENCES OF RAPHAEL MELDOLA. Raphael Meldola: Reminiscences of his iVorth and Work by Those Who Knew Him, together with a Chronological List of his Publications, MDCCCLXIX-MDCCCCXV. Edited by James Marchant. Pp. xv+225. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1916.) Price 5s. net. LTHOUGH the late Prof. Meldola’s oft-re- peated warnings to the nation on the decline of our chemical industries would fully entitle him to a place among the prophets, yet it could not truly be said of him, as was stated of the earlier seers, that he was “not without honour, save in his own country,” for in spite of the distractions and anxieties of the present troublous times, more than twenty of his friends and colleagues, men eminent in their respective professions, have already in a few months contributed in his memory their tributes of appreciation and respect. These reminiscences of Meldola’s worth and work have now been collected in a convenient volume which includes a chronological list of his original papers and other publications. The biographical memoir by Sir William Tilden serves to emphasise the many-sided character of Meldola’s scientific activities. Not only was he a brilliant chemist of wide experience, with special knowledge of synthetic dyes, but he was also a practical astronomer and a first-rate biologist. A glimpse of Meldola’s early days is furnished by Miss Neumegen, whose father taught him from the age of seven to fourteen years. His first chemical lecture was delivered at the ave of fifteen to an audience of schoolfellows, of whom Sir Isidore Spielmann was one. Reminiscences €x- tending over a period of forty years are contri- buted by Sir Edward Thorpe. Some of the inci- dents recorded have their humorous side, and testify to Meldola’s sense of fun and love of the whimsical. His surpassing merits as professor of chemistry are cordially depicted by his former pupils, Dr. M. O. Forster and Prof. W. J. Pope, and by his colleagues of the Finsbury Technical College, where he presided over the chemical de- partment for thirty years. Prof. Green deals sympathetically with the classification of his technical and scientific re- searches. The technical investigations were often of a pioneer character. They opened up new ground, but in many cases the harvest was reaped in other countries. The first oxazine dye, ‘“Mel- dola’s blue,” was not introduced into commerce in England, but was manufactured in Germany, where it became the forerunner of the still more important gallocyanine blues. His study of beta- naphthylated rosaniline led to a sulphonic acid which has since acquired importance in cotton dyeing. The researches on azo-dyes, although ignored in England, were utilised profitably by the astute colour-makers of Germany. His scientific NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE 125 chemical work can be classified under eight headings, of which the most important are the studies on azo- and diazoamino-compounds, and on substitution in the naphthalene series. In recent years Meldola and his assistants were engaged in studying imidazole and quinone ammonium bases, these researches being still in progress when death overtook him last November. Prof. Poulton, who edits the bibliography of published works, contributes also an essay on Meldola as a naturalist. This appreciation con- tains many interesting reminiscences, some of which are published for the first time. Although Meldola received numerous scientific and academic honours from British sources, it is significant that during his lifetime he was even more appreciated in France. Twice he was offered a decoration of the Legion of Honour, and one learns with amaze- ment that on each occasion the Foreign Office forbade him to accept this distinction ! Where so many distinguished contributors have united in a labour of love to place on record their happy recollections of this great teacher’s work and personality, it would be superfluous to add more than that all these praises are worthily be- stowed as a last fitting tribute to a life of high ideals and great accomplishment. It may, how- ever, be mentioned that in addition to his pub- lished works and the grateful remembrances of his pupils, Meldola leaves behind another memorial in the form of a unique collection of research chemicals. The writer and two other former students of Prof. Meldola have spent a portion of the summer recess in arranging and cataloguing this collection, of which the specimens represent every phase in his career as chemical investigator. The preservation and study of these historical substances will constitute another method of keep- ing his memory green in the school- of chemistry which he inspired and adorned for many years. GaEeM: ANIMA ANIMANS. The Breath of Life. By John Burroughs. Pp. xi+ 295. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 55. net. WO ideas struggle for mastery in the mature reflections of this lover of nature and poetry : the one the super-mechanical and super-chemical character of living creatures, the other the con- tinuity of natural processes and the universality of natural law. Living organisms transcend machi- nery; they are so persistent, insurgent, construc- tive, and inventive; but they are not possessed by any extraneous entelechy. They are solidary with the inanimate, though the creative energy or ‘“procreant urge” finds freer expression in them than it does in crystal or star. It is a modernised hylozoism to which the essays composing this volume give beautiful expression: “The psychic arises out of the organic, and the organic arises out of the inorganic, and the inorganic arises out of—what? The relation of each to the other is as H 126 NATURE . [OcTOBER 19, 1916 intimate as that of the soul to the body; we can- not get between them even in thought, but the difference is one of kind and not of degree.” There is much in the volume about the wonders of the inorganic domain, especially under the eyes of modern chemists and physicists, but the refrain is always what Tyndall called “the mystery and the miracle of vitality.” Thus, to mention half of the fascinating studies, we have discussions of “The Breath of Life,” “The Living Wave,” “The Baffling Problem,” “Scientific Vitalism,” and “The Vital Order.” It is not easy to describe the life of the feaihive without the postulate of psychical organisation, what Maeterlinck called the Spirit of the Hive; so to Burroughs it appears necessary to recognise a more than physico-chemical unity of the organ- ism, in which the cells are the bees, and thus he speaks of the Spirit of the Body. But this vitality is potential in all matter, though it finds oppor- tunity to manifest itself with emphasis in proto- plasm. Vitality begins in the inmost sanctuary of the molecules, “but whether as the result of their peculiar and very complex compounding or as the cause of the compounding—how are we ever to know?” The striking essay entitled ‘A Bird of Passage” develops the idea that life plays a very small part in the total scheme of things, “the great cosmic machine would go on just as well without it.” Yet it is only in the highest expres- sions of life that the total scheme of things acquires any meaning at all. And the author ends with the thought, which he knows to be beyond science, that there is a kind of universal mind pervading not only living matter, but the stuff of which the whole world has been spun. As the reader is warned in the preface, there is consider- able reiteration in the course of the essays, but with a writer like Burroughs the impression left is that of music with a recurrent theme. [2 AL DIOPHANTINE ANALYSIS. Mathematical Monographs. No. 16, Diophantine Analysis. By R. D. Carmichael. Pp. vi+118. (New York: Jj. W iley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 5s. 6d. net. HE remarkable thing about Diophantine ana- lysis is that, although it is quite respectably old, it is still in that stage where the amateur is on an equal footing with the professional. If it be true, as we are inclined to think, that Fermat’s last theorem admits of a Diophantine proof, this is as likely to be discovered by a schoolboy as by a professor steeped in all the lore of modern analysis. Prof. Carmichael’s book is welcome because it gives, either in the text or in the examples, a great deal of the actual results hitherto obtained ; and the author has done something towards sorting out these results and adumbrating a real theory. In NO. 2451, VOL. 98] this respect chap ii. (on multiplicative domains) is. the most valuable. Chap. v. gives a brief but up-to-date account of what is known about Fermat’s last theorem. Important sections are - those which treat of Fermat’s methods of “descent” and of “double equations”; these, at any rate, are definite processes capable of exten- sion to various cases. The weak point of the book, in our opinion, is. that the author never looks at a problem from a geometrical point of view. Of course, in the last resort, geometry is irrelevant; but in research it is very valuable. For instance, let F(x, y, s) be a homogeneous cubic; then from the theory of curves we can conclude that if F=o has an in- tegral solution (xj, y,, 3;), it has a sequence (Xn) Vn) Sn) Of integral solutions, which in most cases corresponds to a compact set of points on the curve F=o. The proof of this is most easily obtained from elliptic functions; there ought to be a purely Diophantine proof, but the difficulty is. that we have to estimate the “nearness ” of a solu- tion (x’, y’, 3’) to a solution (x, y, s), and (x2, Yo, 2) in the sequence is not generally “near” to (x,, 3, 3,) in the geometrical sense. Again, if we have a unicursal surface, such as. that given by the parametric equations, ; = eam NER? _aAp+1) ) pa Au—1) At+p A+p whence x*/a?+y?/b®—2?/c?=1, this suggests cor- responding Diophantine theorems. Then, too, we have to consider solutions which, though not in- tegral in the ordinary sense, are integral in certain algebraic fields; for instance, if 2p=—1+1/3, then (25—6p, 1—9p, 8+30p) is a solution of x°+7y — z8=o0, which is integral. in the field (p), although it is not so in the field (1). In the latter field we have the solution (1, 1, 2); the reader is left to discover whether there are any other ordi- nary integral solutions, and if so, how many. There are numerous exercises in the book which ought to stimulate the reader; some of them are practically suggestions for research. As a rule, it is unfair to expect a mathematical writer to give exact references to the sources of his examples; but in this case we wish Prof. Carmichael had been a little more definite, because in this subject even a short note on a very special problem may possibly contain the germ of an important dis- covery. As an instance of what we mean, Eisen- stein’s proof of the irreducibility of (1—x?)/(r1—x), © when Pp is prime, is based on a theorem of his which must surely admit of some generalisation. To find whether any given polynomial is irre- ducible or not-is practically such a laborious task (though theoretically possible) that special theo- rems like Eisenstein’s are always welcome. We hope that this book will have a wide circula- tion among mathematicians of all ages and capaci- ties; it is rather a disgrace to the moderns that in this field they have added so little to the work of that great triumvirate, Diophantus, Fermat, and Euler. G) Bain OcTOBER 19, 1916] NATURE 127 THREE TEXT-BOOKS OF PHYSICS. (1) A Manual of Practical Physics. By H. E. Hadley. Pp. viiit+262. (London: Macmillan and. Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 3s. (2) Text-book of Mechanics. By Prof. Louis A. Martin, jun. Pp. xviii + 313. Vol. vi: Thermodynamics. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (3) An Intermediate Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity. By G. F. Woodhouse. Pp. x+ 264. (Sedbergh: Jackson and Son, 1916.) 6s. net. [#4 is always of interest to study text-books written by those engaged in teaching, and to note the special points which their experience as teachers leads them to emphasise. (1) Mr. Hadley, who is principal of the School of Science at Kidderminster, is the author of a number of excellent works on physics, and the present small volume gives further proof of his ability as a clear exponent of physical principles. The book is suitable for the upper classes at schools where practical physics forms, as it should do, part of the science course. It is scarcely correct to say that it covers the work necessary for a present-day intermediate course, as many of the experiments described are qualitative rather than quantitative, and some are more suitable for the teacher to demonstrate in front of his class than for the students themselves to carry out. A noteworthy feature is the simple apparatus required for most of the work—the determination of the centre of gravity of a wickerwork basket suggests a new use for the editorial wastepaper basket ! It is open to question whether it is desirable to retain the definition of specific heat as a ratio (p. 116). In actual practice what is required most frequently is the ‘thermal capacity of unit mass,” which is expressed in calories per gram per degree. Unless this is used the “dimensions ” of an ordinary heat equation are incorrect. We may note in passing that for the same reason the value of a latent heat should be expressed, not in calories (p. 122), but in calories per gram. It has been pointed out in Nature (vol. xcv., p. 427) that the British use of “specific” is hopelessly inconsistent, and it is only necessary to compare the definition of specific resistance on p. 225 with that of specific heat to appreciate the absurdity of our present nomenclature. A new term to denote the thermal capacity of unit mass of a substance is much to be desired. A series of observations with an ammeter and a tangent galvanometer is followed by the remark : “This demonstrates that the current is propor- tional to the tangent of the angle of deflection.” As the tangent galvanometer is an absolute instru- ment, it is obvious that no such ‘result can be proved by its use. (2) Prof. Martin has produced a useful text- book on thermodynamics for engineering students. It forms the sixth volume of a series by:the same author. Without going into excessive detail the writer has succeeded in giving a remarkably clear |} being unsatisfactory. NO. 2451, VOL. 98] outline of the essentials of the subject. Although the treatment is elementary, differential equations are used throughout, their meaning being ex- plained in such a way as to lead the student forward step by step. A large number of numeri- cal exercises are provided throughout the work and at the end of the book. British thermal units are alone employed. The diagrams are very good, and the typography is such as to give every assist- ance to the student in his study of the subject. (3) The “Intermediate Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity,’ by Mr. Woodhouse, senior science master at Sedbergh School, combines practical instruction with theoretical discussion. A large number of simple experiments described in the text may be carried out by the student with no great outlay in apparatus. The author is prob- ably right in saying that the electrolytic definition of the unit of current is more readily grasped by the average student than the electro-magnetic, but we are of opinion that greater emphasis should be laid on the distinction between the prac- tical definitions of electrical units (the so-called international units) and the absolute definitions. The book would be much improved by a careful revision: the style is frequently curt and some- times inelegant. Many students have been penalised in examinations for giving as the second law of electrolysis: ‘“‘The weight of an element deposited is proportional to the electro-chemical equivalent.” The strength of a magnetic field is not measured in dynes (p. 53), but in dynes per unit pole or gausses. We strongly endorse the opinion of the author that all students of physics should learn the calculus. A portion of Appendix I. is devoted to explaining, briefly, the principles and method of differentiating and integrating simple quantities. Several well-known text-books of physics are marred by attempts to eyade the use of the cal- culus. It is far better to adopt the author’s plan and devote a little space and time to introducing the elements of the calculus than to employ tedious and unnecessary investigations which are only differentiation or integration in disguise. Appendix II. contains a description by Mr. J. W. Shepherd of a wireless set which, in more favourable days than the present, may be set up by the student who has obtained permission from the Postmaster-General. 1 (ats pe fs OUR BOOKSHELF. Le Climat de la France: Température, Pression, Vents. By G. Bigourdan. Pp. 135. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie.) - Price 4-fr. Tuis publication, dealing particularly with tem-’ perature, - pressure, and winds, is rather a com- pilation than otherwise, free use being made of the original scientific discussions by M. Angot. Temperature observations made in France go back to the middle of the seventeenth century, but, as in other countries, the early observations were made with imperfect instruments, and the exposure was often bad, the results in consequence There are only fourteen ‘ 128 stations in France at which the observations cover a period of fifty years, from 1851-1900, but fairly long periods are given for fifty-eight stations which constitute the principal values dealt with. Mean temperature charts are given for each month, and there are also seasonal charts for winter, summer, and for the year. Diurnal range _of temperature is also dealt with. Barometric pressure is treated in a very similar manner to the temperature, and mean pressure charts are given for all months and for the year. A chapter is devoted to the disturbances of the atmosphere, and a detailed description is given of the general movement of cyclonic and anticyclonic systems. Maps are given showing the prevailing winds and the resultants for the four seasons of the year. M. Bigourdan provides a good résumé of the climate of France in about 130 pages, and the information is expressed in a popular manner, although its scientific accuracy is all that could be wished. The numerous charts enable the reader to obtain the several meteorological factors for any part of France. The Psychology of Relaxation. By Prof. G. T. Patrick. Pp. viii+280. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1916.) “Price 55: net. On the further side of the Atlantic one of the world’s great peoples has been swept away by a passion for wild and crazy amusement; on this side the others are locked in the bloodiest war the world has seen: these are the pheno- mena, at first sight antithetically diverse, which Prof. Patrick brings together in his study of “relaxation.’’ With them he sets the craving for alcohol, constantly rising in spite of pro- hibitive legislation, and—longo intervallo—the habits, widespread if not omnipresent, of laughter and profane language. In the author’s view all these forms of human behaviour are, at bottom, illustrative of a single principle. The activities and relations of civilised life imply the upbuilding and functioning of extremely complex mental mechanisms, full of tensions, restraints, and inhibi- tions. To maintain these always in operation is an impossible task. From time.to time, therefore, the complexes break up, and man falls back with relief into conduct expressive of simpler mental structures organised and consolidated in the far distant days of the race’s childhood: he plays, he laughs, he swears, he fights. Alternatively, he seeks the same end—the temporary dissociation of his too complex mental mechanisms—by means of the narcotic power of alcohol. Prof. Patrick finds much to say in defence of his thesis—even for his rather startling view of war as a gigantic “rest-cure’’—and says it very well. The cautious reader will, however, feel that he has pressed a sound principle of interpretation much too far—that he has brought into clear relief one factor in the phenomena he analyses, but at the expense of neglecting others of equal signifi- cance. Still, his factor is undoubtedly one of great importance, and his exposition of its réle is both informative and pleasant to read. : Ty Pate NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE f [OcTOBER 19, 1916. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opimons 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.] ‘ Elasticity and Entomology. In Nature for June 22 (vol. xcvii., p. 340) there appeared an interesting letter under the above head- ing from the pen of Frof. Bryan. Perhaps | may be permitted to contribute some further remarks on the same subject, although my distance from the centre of Empire must necessarily entail a long delay before publication. Unfortunately, the method of setting insects upon “Continental” pins does not appear to be “old- fashioned,” for a large number of specimens received by me from all countries (excluding England, where, on the other hand, the insects are often set too low) are set in this obnoxious manner. In dealing with the same I always handle them by placing the forceps upon them under the insect, at a point only slightly above the level to which they are to be driven into” the cork. Even so, the danger of vibrations, causin, loss of antennz, etc., cannot wholly be obviated. After many years’ experience I have come to the conclusion that the shorter pins of English make, be they ‘‘ silvered,’’ ** gold,” or black, are in every way pre- ferable to the long German pins. The insect should, however, be set at least half-way up the pin, and not so low down as is necessitated by the construction of many of the peculiar “curved” setting-boards still in’ use in England. Using the numbers of the well-known ‘Kirby and Beard”? make of pins, out of the following numbers which I have in use every day, viz. I, 3, 5, 8, I5s 173 and 19, Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 8 may be classed as stout, and can be relied upon never to bend when inserted into cork or “‘lino,’’ unless handled extremely roughly. Nor, so far as I can see, is there any deterioration in the elastic quality of such pins over a period of at least twenty years. On the other hand, Nos. 15, 17, and 19 must be classed as slender pins, and can never be relied upon, for certain, not to buckle under the pressure necessary to place the insect firmly in the cabinet. As all the smaller kinds of insects must be set upon one or other of these pins, or upon the even smaller silver-wire pins known as ‘‘caps,” I have come to the conclusion that the only safe plan in all these cases is to use the Polyporus strips first sug- gested by Lord Walsingham—who, I believe, found this fungus growing in Merton Park, and ingeniously turned it to entomological use. As these strips are now sold by at least one tirm in Australia, no doubt they are easily obtainable in England. ) i} x : a a — a 2 ee SS. ee. ee OcTOBER 19, 1916] time with the pre-war expenditure. In such a com- parison the salaries of all employees now on war service would, of course, be deducted. Dr. J. S. Frerr, F.R.S., will deliver the Swiney lectures this year. The subject selected by the trustees of the British Museum, ‘‘The Mineral Resources of Europe,” is very appropriate to the circumstances of the time. The lectures, twelve in number, will be delivered in the hall of the Royal Society of Arts, commencing on November 14. Dr. Flett will deal with the coal resources, petroleum, iron ores, copper, tin, lead, and the precious metals of all the European countries, and one lecture will be devoted to the salt deposits of Germany, France, and Great Britain, and to a general review of the mineral resources of the countries of Europe, and their importance in the world’s trade and industry. A REMARKABLY fine skull of the Cretaceous horned dinosaur, Monoclonius, has just been added to the remains of fossil reptiles exhibited in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History). The specimen, which measures nearly 5 ft. in length, was discovered by Mr. W. E. Cutler in the Belly River formation of Alberta, Canada, and is interesting for comparison with the still larger skull of Triceratops from Wyoming, U.S.A., already in the museum. Monoclonius is peculiar in having the largest horn on the nose, only diminutive horns above the eyes, while its extensive bony frill over the neck is pierced by two vacuities and provided behind with a pair of remark- able forwardly directed prominences. The brain-case of the fossil is especially well preserved, and a plaster cast of the cavity shows the usual diminutive size of the brain. WE regret to learn from the Revue Scientifique that Dr. Jean Boussac has died from wounds received in action in France. Dr. Boussac, who was born on March 19, 1885, was one of the most active and bril- liant geologists of the younger French school, and had done much important work for the Geological Survey of France. He was especially interested in the Eocene Nummulitic formations, and had travelled extensively in Europe and Egypt while attempting to correlate these deposits. His stratigraphical researches led to interesting results in understanding and restoring the oceanography of Eocene times. He also undertook a revision of the species of Nummulites to facilitate their use in geological work, and made many valuable ob- servations on the evolution of the shells of the Ceri- thiida. All Dr. Boussac’s researches were character- ised by marked originality, and his death causes a serious loss to geological science. Tue Norwegian explorer, Dr. Carl Lumholtz, has recently returned from a prolonged journey in the heart of Borneo. From the Daily Chronicle we learn some details of his work. After spending two months among the Murang Dyaks, he started on his journey to central Borneo in December, 1915. The route was from Banjermassin up the Barito and the Busang to the Miiller mountains, thence by the Mahakkan river back to the coast. Dr. Lumholtz’s work includes a new map of the watershed region of central Borneo and anthropological and photo- graphic records of the Dyaks of the Upper Mahakkan. He has also brought back large ethnographical and zoological collections. The expedition reached Sama- rinda on August 22 this year. A NEW expedition to tropical South America is announced by Dr. Hamilton Rice. In the Geograph- ical Journal for October (vol. xlviii., No. 4) Dr. Rice NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE 133 says that he proposes to leave New York this month for Brazil, and to ascend the Amazon and Rio Negro to Santa Isabel, pushing on thence by steam launch to the Guainia. He hopes to reach the sources of the Guainia, which lies between the Papunaua branch of the Inirida and the Isana. Further, he proposes to survey and map the Casiquiari, which links the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon, and to solve some of the hydrographical problems of this region. Dr. Rice hopes to determine some longitudes with the help of wireless telegraphy, and to effect barometric deter- minations of altitude which will form the basis for a more accurate knowledge of the hypsometry of this part of South America than exists at present. Pror. VinzENz CzERNY, news of whose death, at seventy-four years of age, was received last week, was professor of surgery at Heidelberg University, and director of the Institute for Cancer Research in the same town. At the commencement of his career he showed for the first time that normal life was possible after extirpation of the stomach by operations on two dogs, one of which was alive and well five years later. Apart from his eminence as a surgeon, he will chiefly be remembered by his exertions in founding the Insti- tute for Cancer Research at Heidelberg, of which he was the first director, a task to which he brought all the energies of an enthusiastic and generous per- sonality. He was president of the International Con- ference on Cancer Research held in Paris in 1910, under the patronage of the President of the French Republic. By the death, in Edinburgh, of Dr. James Burgess, at the age of eighty-four, India has lost a veteran archeologist. Arriving in India before the Mutiny days, he was engaged in educational work at Calcutta and Bombay. But his bent for archeology led him to found the Indian Antiquary, which, since 1872, has taken a leading part in antiquarian and linguistic research. In 1874 he was placed in charge of the Archeological Survey of Western India, and at the close of his official career he had held for three years the post of director of the Archzological Survey of India- His original work was chiefly confined to his careful survey of the antiquities of Gujarat, and he published useful monographs on Elephanta, Somanath, Juna- gadh, and Girnar. He was closely associated with the great architect and antiquary, James Fergusson, and collaborated with him in the work on the ‘‘Cave Temples of India." It was near the close of his literary career that he undertook a new edition of Fergusson’s standard “‘ History of Indian and Eastern Architecture,’’ with somewhat disappointing results. It is on his work as a careful and energetic field- worker in the survey of Indian antiquities that his reputation mainly depends. Tue death on September 11, at the age of twenty-five, of Second-Lieut. Archibald W. R. Don, while on active service abroad, deprives the scientific world of one who showed exceptional promise. He was the fourth son of Mr. and Mrs, R. B. Don, of Tealing House, Forfar- shire, and The Lodge, Broughty Ferry. Educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge, he won a major scholarship at the latter, and graduated first class in the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1912. He was much loved and respected in a wide circle of under- graduates and senior members of the University, where his great influence was ever exerted for good. He devoted his attention to geology early in life, but determined to follow the profession of medicine, and after leaving Cambridge entered at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He intended, however, to pursue the study of his favourite science during his leisure hours, and 134 had already written, with Dr. G. Hickling, a paper on the problematical Parka decipiens, which was read before the Geological Society, but is not yet published. He obtained a commission in the Black Watch in December, 1914, and while on service at home and abroad collected geological specimens for the Sedgwick Museum. Tue council of the Chemical Society has arranged for three lectures to be delivered at the ordinary scien- tific meetings during the session 1916-17. The first of these lectures, entitled ‘‘ Alloys of Copper and Tin, Aluminium and Gold,” will be delivered on January 18 by Col. C. T. Heycock, F.R.S. On March 15 Dr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S., will lecture on ‘‘ The Prin- ciples of Diffusion : their Analogies and Applications”? ; , and the third lecture, entitled ‘Some Main Lines of Advance in the Domain of Modern Analytical Chem- istry,’ will be given on May 17 by Mr. A. Chaston Chapman. The ordinary scientific meetings com- mence at 8 p.m. In order to afford facilities to fellows for meeting each other informally, the council has again arranged to hold three informal meetings during the session, on October 19, 1916, and on January 11 and May 10, 1917. The council will gladly welcome any offers of assistance from fellows willing to show ex- periments and apparatus at these meetings, and such offers should be made to the assistant secretary not later than the Monday previous to the meeting. Tue gift of the Wright aeronautical patents to the British nation has caused some comment in the Press. Without in any way underestimating the magnificent pioneer work of the brothers Wright, it must be ad- mitted that the majority of the ideas covered by their patents are now out of date. One of the main patents is connected with the warping of the wings, and the interconnection of the warp and rudder controls. At the present time warping has been almost entirely superseded by the use of wing flaps, which are more effective aerodynamically, besides being much easier to design from a mechanical point of view. Patents connected with automatic stabilisers are also useless, for machines can now be built which are inherently stable, both longitudinally and laterally, so that the necessity of an automatic stabiliser is removed. The Wrights themselves seemed to think that such a stabiliser was unnecessary. The action of the Wright Company in accepting 15,op0l. compensation instead of proceeding with their action against the War Office for infringement was highly laudable at a time when the co-operation of all aeronautical firms was so much needed. It seems doubtful, however, whether the gift of their patents to the nation will produce any great benefit at the present stage of the development of aeronautics : Tue thirteenth memorandum of the Health of Muni- tion Workers Committee, which has just been issued, deals ‘vith juvenile employment. It is pointed out that the hours of work are extremely long—sixty hours a week—and that in many cases this limit has been exceeded, and the weekly hours have been extended to sixty-seven hours, or even longer. The long hours of work react unfavourably on the health of the workers, not only owing to the physical strain involved in the work, but also because the limited opportunities for recreation often lead to deterioration of character. These harmful effects are clearly more liable to occur in the young, whose development is still incomplete and whose character is not yet formed and stable. The committee recommends the abolition of Sunday work, and, except in special circumstances, of night work. It does not feel justified, however, under the NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 19, 1916 present conditions, in suggesting the limitation of the hours of work to less than sixty hours weekly for those under sixteen, and sixty-five hours for those above sixteen years of age. A further excellent suggestion is the appointment of visitors, whose work is directed to improving the physical and moral welfare of the boys in factories by organising facilities for recreation, by personal supervision, and by direct association with the boys; this plan has already been adopted in at least one factory. . Tue Secretary of State for India has authorised the Indian Committee of the Imperial Institute to inquire into andreport on the possibilities of extending further the industrial and commercial utilisation of Indian raw materials in this country and elsewhere in the Empire. The committee has already commenced its work and has appointed a number of sub-committees to deal with the more important groups of materials, to con- sider the results of investigations and inquiries already conducted by the Imperial Institute, and to obtain the views of leading merchants, manufacturers, and other users of the raw products of India. One of the im- portant aspects of the committee’s work will be to suggest openings for the employment of those Indian materials which before the war went to enemy coun- tries. The Indian Committee of the Imperial Insti- tute includes Lord Islington (Under-Secretary of State for India), Sir Marshall Reid (member of the India Council), Prof. Wyndham Dunstan (director of the Imperial Institute), Mr. L. J. Kershaw (secretary, Revenue and Statistical Department, India Office), Sir John Hewett (formerly Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces), Mr. G. B. Allen (of Messrs. Allen Bros. and Co. and Messrs. Cooper Allen, Cawnpore), Mr. Yusuf Ali (late Indian Civil Service), Sir R. W. Carlyle (lately member of the Viceroy’s Council), and Sir J. Dunlop Smith. Mr. C. C. McLeod, chairman of the London Jute Association, is chairman of the committee, and the secretary is Mr. A. J. Hedgeland, of the Imperial Institute. Mr. F. R. Row _ey, the curator of the Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, has contributed some valuable notes to the Museums Journal for October on objects pre- served in arsenious acid glycerine jelly. His method is an adaptation of, and an _ improve- ment on, that devised by Prof. Delépine. The advantage of this method of preservation is purely one of convenience, since it affords a means of avoiding the introduction of spirit, or other fluid preservative, among dry preparations. The successful preservation of colour varies according to circum- stances, but experiments with seaweeds have given extremely satisfactory results. So far, however, this medium has failed in regard to flowers. : Tue relationship between the geographical distribu- tion of megalithic monuments and ancient mines is discussed at length in an able essay by Mr. W. J. Perry in the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Man- chester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1915-16. The author contends that the weaving of linen, the use of pearls, precious stones and metals, and of conch- shell trumpets, are all accompaniments of the mega- lithic culture, which had its origin in Egypt. Thence it spread through Europe to Britain, on one hand, and eastward through India and the East Indian Archi- pelago, and thence out across the Pacific by way of the Carolines, Solomons, New Hebrides, Fiji, and Easter Island to America. The agents in this distri- bution were the Phcenicians, and the part they played in this is discussed at length by Prof. G. Elliot Smith in an appendix to Mr. Perry’s paper. Herein evi- —_— se... OcToBER 19, 1916] NATURE 135 dence, which seems to be beyond dispute, is produced to show that the Phoenicians played the part of dis- tributing agents of this culture, and not that of mis- sionaries. The search for wealth was the underlying factor in this distribution, and provided the motive for the widespread travellings of these people. To assist in this search they employed expert gold-miners from the Black Sea and from Colchis, hence the megalithic monuments in the mining camps. That these two contributions will give rise to much discussion in the immediate future need scarcely be said, for the theme is one of first-rate importance; but there can be little doubt that the views they have so skilfully expressed will meet with general acceptance. Sporapic migrations of butterflies, moths, and dragonflies have long been Iknown, and have generally been regarded as comparable to the similar migrations of locusts. But Mr. Howard J. Shannon, in the Scien- tific Monthly for September, under the title ‘* Insect’ Migrations as Related to Those of Birds,’’ has mar- ‘shalled a host of facts which apparently show that certain North American species of butterflies, diptera, and dragonflies annually migrate southwards in the autumn, following well-defined routes corresponding to those taken by the birds of the same regions. ‘Lhe author does no more than hint at a return migration in the spring, expressing curiosity as to whether such migrants are of the same individuals which passed southwards in the autumn, or whether they represent a new generation, bred in the southern winter quar- ters. Some idea of the magnitude of these migrations may be gathered from the author’s statements in regard to the monarch butterflies (Danais archippus), which, “in mingled myriads, move forwards . . . in swarms... forming veritable crimson clouds... miles in width and streaming backwards for equal distances . . . casting below them as they go per- ceptible shadows.” Unper the modest title, ‘‘ Notes on Some Palzeozoic Fishes,'’ Messrs. D. M. S. Watson and Henry Day have enriched the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society with a contribution of first-rate importance. They have de- scribed and figured in detail the skulls of Holoptychius, Glyptopomus, and Osteolepis, and the whole fish of Rhizodopsis. | These studies have shown that the Rhipidistian skull is considerably more complicated than has previously been supposed, and that the short type of paired fin found in Eusthenopteron is older than, and has given rise to, the biserial ‘‘ archiptery- gial”” fin of Holoptychius. In Rhizodopsis and Glyptopomus they have given an account of the palate which considerably extends our knowledge of the structure of this region, and has a very important bearing on the problem of Amphibian ancestry. Fur- ther, they show that Ceratodus is derived by a process of specialisation and reduction from Dipterus, while Uronemus and Ctenodus are shown to belong to different lines of descent, and the conclusion is reached that Dipterus valencennes is the most primitive, as it is the oldest, known Dipnoan. Dr. C. A. Barper, sugar-cane expert to the Govern- ment of India, describes, in a recent number of the Memoirs of the Agricultural Department of India (Botanical Series, vol. viii., No. 3), some results of the work done at the Coimbatore Cane-Breeding Sta- tion since 1912, when, for the first time in India, seedling canes were raised successfully. The object of the work is to produce canes for cultivation in northern India under field conditions possible to the Indian peasant. The work is therefore limited in its NO. 2451, VOL. 98] “objective, and is also handicapped by unsuitability of soil, insufhcient chemical assistance, etc.; but in spite of these difficulties substantial progress has been made and certain provisional conclusions of general interest have been reached. Special attention may especially be directed’ to the various devices adopted to save labour and simplify the laborious business of selection. Arising out of this aspect of the subject, the possible correlation of morphological characters with richness of juice has been specially studied, and already Dr. Barber is able to say that “from this study it would appear that the seedlings in any general collection, with higher sucrose content, would be marked out’ by rather narrow, short leaves, but with a relatively high leaf module, with canes that might be thick or thin, but with a leaning towards the thin side, rather long, but not very, and with a~ moderately high cane module,”’. To this rule there are, however, many and notable exceptions, particularly in the case of definite crosses. It is clear from Dr. Barber’s memoir that the initial difficulties experienced at Coimbatore have been successfully overcome to a considerable extent, and the results obtained in the next few years should be of great value to the Indian sugar-cane industry, which has a great deal of leeway to make un before it reaches the level attained in other tropical sugar-pro- ducing countries, both on the scientific and the manu- facturing sides. In a paper read before the Franklin Institute in April Mr. C. J. Gadd, chief engineer of the American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, directed attention to the progress which has been made recently in the application of powdered coal to the heating of furnaces for metallurgical and other purposes. If slack coal is dried, pulverised until 83 per cent. of it will pass through a sieve with 200 meshes to the inch, and delivered to the furnace in this finely divided state, its combustion is completed while it is still in suspension, and as high a temperature is attained as with producer gas. From the experience gained with the apparatus used by the American company Mr. Gadd concludes that on further development powdered coal will entirely displace oil, tar, and producer gas in the fields in which they are now supreme. The paper is reproduced in the September number of the Journal of the- Franklin Institute. SomE definite evidence regarding the cause of the accident at the new Quebec Bridge on September 11 has now reached this country, and is dealt with at considerable length by Engineering and the Engineer for October 13. The accident occurred while the cen- tral span was being raised into position, and the whole of this heavy portion of the structure fell into the river. Facilities were given to the representatives of the Engineering News to inspect the parts which failed, and from their report it appears that one of the four rocker bearings which supported the’ central span whilst in course of construction gave way when the span had been raised about 30 ft. Engineering hesi- tates to criticise, since the St. Lawrence Company had sought the advice of many able engineers, but at the same time considers that the design of the rocker bearings was very unsatisfactory. in view of the immense load of 1300 tons to be imposed on each. So soon as the span was lifted there was no longer any need for rocker bearings, as each corner of the great girder was suspended from the corresponding corner of one of the cantilevers. quite freely. It was only during transit on the barge that the rocker bearings could serve any purpose. Once the lifting was com- menced they were superfluous, and, as the event showed, an imminent source of danger. 136 OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. FirEBALL OF OcToBER 3.—A large number of addi- tional observations have come to hand, and Mr. Den- ning writes us that the brilliant object was well observed as far north as Huddersfield and as far east as Hertford. Even at Huddersfield, where the observer was about 210 miles distant from the object, it exhibited a Venus-like lustre, and was followed until it disappeared in the mist very near the S.S.W. horizon. The new observations confirm, in general, the deductions already stated as regards the position and height of the fireball, but the exact place of the radiant point remains a little doubtful. With reference to the elevation at disappearance, this may have been less than thirty miles, for there are several observations indicating it at about twenty-four miles. The cloudy or misty condition of the sky at many places, however, hindered efforts at exact observation. Everywhere the spectators speak of the astonishing brilliancy of the object and admit that its’ startling aspect at first aroused fears of a calamitous sequel. Erratum.—By a clerical error Launceston was men- tioned instead of Seaton, East Devon, in Nature, October 12, p. 116. Anomatous DisPERSION IN THE SUN.—The search for evidence of anomalous dispersion in the sun continues to attract considerable attention. Dr. Albrecht recently concluded that Rowland’s measurements gave distinct indications of a mutual repulsion in close pairs of lines, such as is required by the anomalous dispersion theory. Mr. Evershed and Dr. Royds, however, have ques- tioned the validity of this result, since it is not sup- ported by data obtained at Kodaikanal by more direct methods (the Observatory, October, 1916). In agree- ment with Dr, St. John, Mr. Evershed finds that Rowland’s separations were almost invariably over- estimated ; for eighteen pairs having a mean separation of o-1920 according to Rowland, the Kodaikanal mean value was o0-1836. The tendency of Rowland was therefore to displace the violet components to the violet, and the red components to the red, thus simulat- ing the effects of anomalous dispersion. Mr. Ever- shed considers that his results are decidedly against the view that anomalous dispersion is an effective agent in displacing solar lines. Dr. St. John has also made an exhaustive examina- tion of the cases included in Albrecht’s list, and is strongly of opinion that the deviations are merely due ° to systematic errors in Rowland’s measures of close lines (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. ii., p. 458). He finds that the separations of pairs in the solar spectrum are identical with those obtained from ‘terrestrial sources. “Within the limits of error, evidence of mutual influ- ence is absent from the solar spectrum, and in so far as mutual influence is a necessary corollary of anomalous dispersion in the sun, evidence for it also is absent.” Experimental work bearing upon this question has been carried out at the Pasadena laboratory by Dr. A. S. King (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. ii., p. 461). Anomalous dispersion effects in metallic vapours were obtained by the use of the electric furnace, in which a strong density gradient was produced by water- cooling the upper part of the tube. Tests for the mutual influence of lines were made on the mixed vapours of titanium, calcium, and chromium, in which certain lines of the two former elements fall well * within the curved spectra given by the anomalous dis- persion of chromium lines. When compared with the corresponding emission snectra of the mixture, and of the elements separately, the measures gave no evidence whatever of a mutual repulsion between close lines when anomalous dispersion is active. NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcTOBER 19, 1916 Tue VartABLE Star SZ CyGni.—Extensive observa-_ tions of SZ Cygni, covering the period from Novem- ber, 1912, to August, 1916, have been made by F. C. Leonard (Mon. Reg. Soc. Prac. Astr., vol. viii., No. 5). The star is of the 8 Cephei class, having a mean magnitude of 8-96 at maximum and 9-74 at minimum. The mean period is 15-10 days, with an interval of 66 days from minimum to maximum. Both range and period appear to be subject to slight variations. — The star is stated to be of a reddish tinge, and to deepen in colour as the brightness diminishes. FISHERIES INVESTIGATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT. 5) aaa importance of utilising more fully the fisheries around Our coasts was emphasised at the recent Newcastle meeting of the Britisn Association, one day being devoted to papers and discussions on this and kindred subjects. Prof. Herdman urged that with the view of making a rapid recovery from the elects of war, food-produc- ing industries should be encouraged, and, among otners, the inshore fisheries should be exploited. Shell- fish cultivation, shrimping and prawning, whitebait and sprat fishing, and herring fishing and curing, if extended and exploited judiciously, would add to em- ployment, increase the national food supply, and might lead to the establishment of permanent industries ol a profitable nature.. He illustrated by several instances how the transplantation.of stunted mussels from an overcrowded area to suitable neighbouring areas re- sulted in the rapid production of mussels of good quality which were sold for eight to ten times the sum expended on their transplantation. As examples of local fisheries started recently, Prof. Herdman men- tioned the winter sprat fishery in Morecambe Bay and the summer herring fishery in the Irish Sea. Prof. Meek gave an account of the inshore fisheries of Northumberland, and pointed out what had been done to preserve them by legislation and to encourage them by such an attempt as that now being made to establish a mussel-bed large enough to supply the wants of the district. The importance to the nation of the fishermen of the smaller fishing stations has been emphasised during the present war. With the problem of the preservation and extension of the coastal fisheries is involved the economic consideration of better buying and selling, and also the social ques- tion of making life in the fishing village more attrac- tive. In his paper on the further development of the — shell-fisheries Dr. James Johnstone dealt especially with the coasts of Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales, where such fisheries are of considerable actual value and of very great potential value. Here mussels and cockles exist in incredible abundance, though in certain areas a considerable proportion are always smaller than the specified legal size. Mussels are ~ found to prefer shallow estuarine water of low salinity containing the drainage from cultivated land or from human communities. Dr. Johnstone dealt with the rationale of successful transplantation, and calculated that the yield in assimilable food substance of high nutritive value of a cultivated mussel-bed was probably greater than that of a similar area of land bearing a food crop. He pointed out that although mussels feed on contaminated material they can be cleansed, and regarded as pure, by placing them in an area where water coming in from the sea washes over them during the last hour of flood-tide for two to four days. Although it is practicable to develop the yield of the shell-fisheries to an enormous extent, it is difficult to see how this can be brought about without some ¥ h OcToBER 19, 1916] measure of State organisation for redepositing and cleaning the shell-tsh. Dr. Johnstone considered briefly some of the administrative problems involved. Dr, A. T. Masterman stated that in running sterile water mussels. will, in three hours, cleanse themselves of sewage organisms which have been introduced into their mantle cavity and. alimentary canal with food. Mussels may be relied upon to feed at night and at a suitably !ow temperature. It was found that chlorine in any form was not available as a direct sterilising agent, for its presence in the water in any appreciable quantity (0-5 per million) interfered with the normal functions of the mussel, and retarded the self-cleansing processes. Efficient sterilisation of sea- water can, however, be produced by the use of chlorine, and the following process of mussel purification has been devised at Conway by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Into an upper tank river-water (80,000 gallons) is pumped and allowed to settle, and the clean water is run into a lower tank, together with sufficient hypochlorite solution to produce an initial strength of three parts per million. effected overnight. In other still lower, shallow tanks mussels, which have been thoroughly washed, scoured, and picked over, are placed two deep on grids. The sterile water is then passed into the mussel tanks, its surplus of hypochlorite being removed during its passage by addition of sodium thiosulphate. The mussels remain in the sterile water for at least one night, and are then washed and hosed. They are left in sterile water for another night, and are then ready for packing. Dr. E. J. Allen referred to the account given by Prof. Herdman of the establishment of a fishery for sprats on the Lancashire coast, and expressed the hope that attempts would be made to establish in this country an ‘industry for preserving these fish in oil, as had been done on a large scale in Norway. He thought that a great deal more might te done in the way of preserving fish if the matter were properly organised. There were often gluts, when large quan- tities of fish were wasted which might well be saved and made available as food. In his account of the scales of fishes and their value as an aid to investigation Prof. Meek pointed out that it had been established by a wealth of observations that the physiological processes in fishes suffer a re- lapse in winter, and that the seasonal diminution in the rate of growth is recorded on the scales, as in other skeletal structures. This discovery has enabled investigators to state the rate of growth, the age-com- Sterilisation of the water is, position of samples, and other important correlated | facts. The method was illustrated by photographs of the scales of the herring, bass, and several Gadoids and Pleuronectids. Dr. Masterman stated that although the great majority of scales in a Gadoid fish, e.g. the haddock, show the same number of annual rings, it was possible to find a certain percentage with a smaller or greater number. In large samples’ of haddock from the Dogger Bank and other parts of the North Sea the scales showed evidence of active growth for two separate periods of the year, the explanation of which is obscure. In the salmon the determination of age is complicated by cessation of growth at certain periods, and also by destruction of the edge of the scale at spawning. As a general rule, the zones on the scales of fishes are an expression of variations in growth dependent upon seasonal changes, but the inter- pretation of individual cases is full of pitfalls. Dr. C. Jee reviewed the fluctuations of the herring, mackerel, and pilchard fisheries off the south- west coasts in the light of seasonal variations of hydro- graphical factors. The landings of herring, mainly at NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE 137 Plymouth in- December, appear to be heavier in those years in which the sea-temperature is below the normal, but are also dependent in some way upon the preceding summer maximum, During the years 1904-11 (inclusive) the landings of mackerel, which are caught chiefly in May, seem to be correlated with the sea-temperature of that month. For the years 1905-10 (inclusive) the yields of the pilchard fishery fluctuated in the same manner as the magnitude of the seasonal salinity ranges. These are probable measures of the strength of the Atlantic current, which was therefore stronger in those seasons which were followed by a2 more successful pilchard fishery. Fp IE BITTER PIT. HE disease of apples (and pears) known as bitter pit manifests itself externally by depressions of the surface of the fruit and internally by patches of discoloured and dead tissue. It is a disease which may make its appearance whilst the fruit still hangs on the tree, or it may declare itself in the fruit-room and even in cold storage. This disease has been, and still is, great loss to growers. Thus it has happened not infrequently that whole consignments of apples shipped from Australia to England have developed the disease so severely as to have become unsaleable. Hence it is not surprising that so progressive a com- munity as the Commonwealth of Australia should have instituted, with the co-operation of the State Governments, a special research into the nature of the disease, its remedy and prevention. This re- search, endowed for a period of four years, was entrusted to Prof. D. McAlpine, and the fourth and final report now issued testifies to the assiduity and thoroughness with which both Prof. McAlpine and his colleagues have prosecuted their inquiries. As is pointed out in the introduction to the report, when the investigations which it summarises were begun bitter pit was regarded as a mysterious disease. It is associated with the presence of no parasite, nor is it a consequence of puncture by insects of the skin of the fruit. wert had, it is true, advanced evidence in support of the view that bitter pit is a result of the local toxic action of copper-containing spray fluids. That hypothesis has not, however, met with general acceptance. Our knowledge of the ztiology of this disease being sO vague, we turn with interest and curiosity to learn the results of Prof. McAlpine’s inquiries; but it must be confessed that although we discover much valu- able and interesting information in this large and admirably illustrated volume, we fail to find the revelation of the mystery. The symptoms of the disease are described in detail; evidence is brought forward that severely pruned trees yield more pitted fruit than is produced by lightly pruned trees; that nitrogenous manures appear, albeit often to no con- siderable degree, to increase the pitting of fruit; that certain varieties are more resistant and certain others more susceptible to the disease—in fine, we learn much that is useful and suggestive, but of the cause or causes of bitter pit we are no wiser after than before the perusal of this monograph. We insist on this point with some emphasis because we think that it should have been made clear at the outset of the report, instead of which we find it there claimed that the research has been brought to a successful issue. 1 “Ritter Pit Investigation. The Experimental Results in Relation to Bitter Pit, and a General Summary of the Investigation.” By D. McAlpine, appoi ted by the Commonwealth and State Governments of Australia. Fourth Report, rg9r4-15. Pp. 178+70 figures and coloured frontispiece. (Melbourne : The Government Printer.) the cause of 138 That Prof. McAlpine has made a definite and valu- able contribution to our knowledge of this patho- logical problem will appear presently, but this is only an added reason why he would have done well to make it perfectly clear that the main problem still remains to be resolved. To conclude that the “immediate cause ’’ of the disease is ‘the concentra- tion of the cell sap’’ (p. 75) is not to discover a cause, but to use words the meaning of which is at least as obscure as the nature of bitter pit. _More- over, if quick-acting nitrogenous manures, which lead to sappy growth, encourage bitter pit, how may that disease be attributed to concentration of sap? Perhaps the most valuable part of Prof. McAlpine’s studies is that which demonstrates the possibility of preventing the outbreak of bitter pit in cold-stored apples. As the result of experiment, he shows that if apples be stored at a temperature of about 30° or 32° F., and if fluctuations beyond these limits be prevented, no bitter pit manifests itself during a period sufficiently prolonged to transport the fruit from Australia to Europe. ‘This is a great gain, and the practical results accruing from it should not only pay for the cost of this elaborate investigation, but encourage the Commonwealth to promote further investigations into the origin of the disease. A point of some interest on the scientific side of the problem is the fact that starch persists in the broken-down tissue of the pitted region of the apple pulp, whence it is concluded that the incipient but invisible stage of the disease occurs in the pre-ripen- ing phase, or at all events during the phase in which starch gives place to sugar. This is plausible, but the opposite view is not precluded that the starch of the bitter pit arises as a result of a reconversion of sugar. In favour, however, of the view that bitter pit develops, although it is mot apparent, at an early stage is the evidence obtained by subjecting suspected apples to X-rays, as a result of which it is claimed, and the claim is supported by photographs, that pro- spective pit areas appear on the radiographs. Prof. McAlpine is hopeful that the loss due to bitter pit may be ultimately prevented by breeding pit-resistant varieties. It is a work worth under- ‘taking, but nevertheless is not to be undertaken lightly, for it may prove a long business. ae GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. Vie president, Prof. W. S. Boulton, delivered his address on Wednesday, September 6, to a good audience, and was followed by Prof. G. A. Lebour. who described: the general geology of the rocks round Newcastle, The Permian formation, which forms such a large part of the surface geology in the neighbourhood, received special treatment at the hands of Dr. D. Woolacott, who has made it a detailed study, and brought order out of the complicated bedding. He shows that the Middle Permian Beds consist of a fossiliferous, unbedded rcef formation, which ran parallel to the coast of the Permian sea, and on each side of which are well-stratified, unfossiliferous limestones, which were formed in waters permeated with calcium sulphate, which afterwards formed gypsum beds. The concretionary formations found in the various beds were lucidly dealt with. During the meeting Dr. Woolacott took the geo- ‘logists to see several typical sections of the Permian beds, and exhibited interesting evidence in proof cf his contentions. The important questions of the underground mapping -of prominent coal seams were dealt with by Mr. Wick- NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 19, 1916 ham King in his plexographic model of the South Staffordshire thick seam, by Dr. G. Hickling in diagrams of the Black Mine coal of Lancashire, and by Prof. W. G. Fearnsides in maps of the Barnsley bed. In the afternoon a_ special goint meeting with Section K was held to receive the report of the Re- search Committee appointed to investigate the Old Red Sandstone of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, and to hear a paper by Dr, R. Kidston and Prof. W. H. Lang describing the very interesting fossil remains found in that deposit. The present paper dealt only with one of these, Rhynia gwynne-vaughani, which is the oldest known peat. The plants, which were rootless and leaf- less, and grew crowded together, consisted entirely of a system of cylindrical stems, attaining a height of 8 in. or more, and ranging in diameter from 1 to 6 mm. The stems bore small hemispherical projections, from some of which lateral branches were developed. The aerial stems had a_ thick-walled epidermis with stomata, a cortex, and a simple central cylinder. Large cylindrical sporangia, containing mumerous spores, were found in the peat. They were evidently borne terminally on some of the leafless aerial stems. On Thursday there was an important joint discus- sion with the members of Section B, which dealt with the investigation of the constitution and classification of coal. A combined geological and chemical study was recognised by all speakers as an essential to success. .There was also general agreement as to the need for more systematic and careful selection of samples, for the separate investigation of the various constituent elements of seams, and for the microscopic examination of the specimens analysed. The great national importance of the work was also emphasised. The discussion was onened by Prof. G. A. Lebour, followed by Prof. W. A. Bone, Prof. P. F. Kendall, Prof. P. P. Bedson, Dr. J. T. Dunn, Mr. D. Trevor Jones, Dr. Marie C. Stopes, Dr. G. Hickling, Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, and Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins. At the close of the discussion Dr. J. W. Evans gave a suggestive description of a method of repre- senting geological formations and structures in black and white on maps. Mr. Leonard Hawkes described the Tertiary acid volcanic rocks of Iceland. In places this acid series is at least 2000 ft. in thickness, and consists of tuffs, sphzero-like liparites, and obsidians, The eruptions were similar to those of post-Glacial times. The uneroded character of the liparite lavas shows how rapidly the successive basalts which sub- merged them were poured out. Since the close of the Tertiary volcanic period enormous denudation has ob- tained, and the varying resistance offered to erosive agents by acid and basic rocks has produced remark- able topographical effects. Dr. Alexander Scott gave the results of an exten- sive examination of the Arran pitchstones, describing four groups varying from non-porphyritic glasses with abundant microlites of hornblende, to a more basic type with scarce phenocrysts, but with abundance of pyroxene microlites. An attempt had been made to determine the cooling histories from an-examination of the field relations and the microscopic structures of the various types, and also to indicate the conditions which were responsible for such a large development of slassy intrusive rocks. On Friday a joint meeting ws held with Section E, to hear a paper by Dr. Albert Wilmore on_ the Northern Pennines. The structure of the range and! its gaps with the intervening rock-blocks were de- scribed. _ The effects of the fault and fold svstems on the scenery were dealt with, and many interesting problems which still leave scope for careful investiga- tion were pointed out. OcroBerR 19, 191 6] NATURE 139 A paper was contributed by Prof. W. G. Fearnsides and Dr. P. G. H. Boswell on the occurrence of refrac- tory sands and - associated materials in hollows in the surface of the Mountain Limestone district of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Then Dr. P. G. H. Boswell dealt with the geological characters of sands used in glass manufacture, which gave in- teresting and important glimpses of the new efforts being put forward to supply our present economic necessities. The report of the committee appointed to investigate the flora of the Lower Carboniferous Beds of Gullane described the finding of a petrified flora in 1914, the most important form of which was Pilys. Many examples of this fossil plant were found, some with bark, and one, a branch tip, still clothed with needle-like leaves. These enabled the connection between leaf and stem to be determined, and much light had been thrown on the stem-structure of the genus. The whole assemblage of plant types ex- hibited a close similarity with the flora of the Pettycur Limestone in Fife. Wak. Cc: THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION F. ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY Pror. A. W. Kirk- atpy, M.A., B.Lirt., M.Com., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. The Need for National Organisation. As the war developed there has been a growing tendency to demand organisation in every sphere of national life. The striking successes scored by Ger- many have been universally, and probably rightly, ascribed to thoroughness of organisation and complete preparedness before provoking the conflict. As a con- sequence, a comparison has been made between Eng- lish and German military policy, greatly to the detri- ment of the former. And, not content with this, further comparisons have been made, with the result that, if one believed all that was printed in the news- papers or accepted what passes in private conversation, we should be led to believe that rule of thumb has been the leading British characteristic.. It has been forgotten that Germany has for many decades prided herself on her Army, even as England has relied on her Navy. One has been a great military Power; the other equally great at sea. The test of war has proved that Germany was a very difficult country to oppose by land, but that in naval matters England is supreme. The economist, however, has to go further and investigate into those matters which are connected with his science—namely, the production, the distribution, and the consumption of wealth. Can it be said that the want of organisation and other faults of our military system are typical of what has been going on in the industrial and commercial sphere? 1 for one cannot bring myself to accent the truth of this. Had our economic interests been carried on under so- called War Office principles we could not have built up the great position we occupy as world traders. What, then, are the facts? To answer this question one should remember the leading facts connected with our industrial development. This brings out some points which the superficial observer inevitably misses. For upwards of a century our industries have been gradually developing, and the progress has on the whole been along healthy lines—each decade has seen some advance more or less great. more recent: She was able to benefit by our experi- ence, nor was she slow in doing so. ‘1he agitation for ‘Yarirt Reform and Colonial references is a proot that several years before the war broke out some Eng- lishmen were awake to the fact that a new condition had come into existence, and that, if we were to preserve our advantageous position, we must take care- ful stock of newly arisen tactors in world-trade. . For Germany was not the only one, nor perhaps the most serious, of these factors. The: United States of America, from the time of the Civil War, had bent her energies to the work of internal development. Having concentrated on this for nearly forty years, she began to expand a world-policy, both political and commercial. Japan, too, emerged with unexpected suddenness into the arena. Thus, as the nineteenth century drew to a close, the economic interests of’ England required careful and earnest attention. The fiscal controversy undoubtedly had the great and im- portant effect of waking English traders out of the lotus-eating condition into which they were in danger of sinking. All our principal, and many of our less important, industries were carefully reviewed, with results that can be realised by a study of the annual statistics published by the Board of Trade. There was, however, a very subtle policy being pursued, which required very minute knowledge and wide ex- perience to. grasp. It was our proud boast that we left trade free and untrammelled, that we believed in the health-giving effects of open competition. It needed the stern lesson of the war to make known how this generous policy could be utilised to our detriment by a rival commercial nation. The facts as to the exploiting of the mineral resources of the Empire, as to how the dye and colour industry and various by-product industries have been developed so that certain vital trades almost passed under foreign control, came to light only just in time. It became plain, as these facts leaked out, that we needed a better system of industrial and commercial intelligence. There was also a lack of unity of work- ing among our principal industries incompatible with the growing interdependence which has been a marked feature of modern economic life. Hitherto, apparently, it has been no one’s business to survey comprehensively the resources whence our raw materials are drawn. Even those resources within the Empire have been nervelessly left to be exploited by the first-comer, and the mask of an Eng- lish name has enabled foreign capital and energy to divert some of our valuable minerals to foreign coun- tries, whence we have been compelled to purchase them at unnaturally enhanced prices. Sufficient of the facts have been made public to warrant the demand for reconstruction and improved organisation of. those departments responsible for the national trade. It would be most unwise as well as ungenerous to attempt to blame our Board of Trade. That de- partment has, on the whole, worked hard and well for British interests. But it is both wise and necessary to criticise the policy that has overweighted this one Government department. And althotgh there should be very careful consideration before either recommend- ing or making a drastic change, attention ought to be given to the frequently expressed opinions of both chambers of commerce and individual traders in favour of the creation of a Ministry of Commerce. To this Ministry there might be transferred some of the functions of the Board of Trade, whilst at the same time the new Ministry might be responsible for main- taining that general survey over trade and commerce without which any organisation we may attempt German attention to industry and commerce is much j would be incomplete. NO. 2451, VOL. 98] 140 NATURE [OcrosEr 19, 1916 a ee ee Industrial Organisation, The organisation that has grown up with the de- velopment of our industries includes two very impor. tant but unequally developed sets of organisation. The industrial army of labour force of this country includes all those who either organise industry or take any part, however important or however humble, in its working. From the captain of industry, or entre- preneur, as our brave Allies call him, down to the humblest weekly wage-earner, we have a labour force which ought to be looked upon as one and indivisible. In connection with this force we now have two sets of organisations the interests of which some people con- sider to be antagonistic. I would emphasise the fact that these two are really one force, their main in- terests are identical, and they can best serve these interests by striving to minimise differences and by doing all that is possible to work in harmony. Though theoretically one, the labour force has internally developed two sets of organisations. Manual labour has its trade unions; the organisers of industry have their associations; British trade unions have a fairly long history behind them, and may be said to be in advance of any similar unions the world over. But the fact that of recent years there has been a tendency for small unofficial sections of given unions to kick over the traces and disregard the policy and agreements of their leaders shows that perfection of organisation has by no means been attained. Employers’ associations are of more recent forma- tion, nor have they so far attained to anything like the same completeness. Both organisations, especially the employers’, are in need of further development. It is scarcely for the economist to show how this can be effected. He can point to imperfections and make suggestions—only those conversant with practical working facts can formulate a practical policy. The most patent defects of these associations are due to the very virtues of their members. The individual British business man is unexcelled by the business man of any other country. In times of rapid transi- tion and crisis he has again and again shown his leadership. He knows his business thoroughly, and as a working unit he has taken a very high place. But one of the most marked developments of modern trade is a growing interdependence of industries. Hand in hand with this we have become familiar with another phenomenon, the amalgamation of businesses of various dimensions into one great company or cor- poration. This phenomenon is common to both com- mercial and manufacturing interests. It is as marked among banks as among steel and iron companies. The comparatively small manufacturer or business inan is siving place to bigger and inclusive organisa- tions. These two and somewhat parallel developments are making a new demand on the individual. He and his predecessors exemplified individualism; the new stage upon which we have entered demands a modifi- cation of the old policy. Business, lile everything else, is subject to evolution, and evolution on healthy lines can only be obtained by grasping fundamental facts and applying experience im accordance with economic laws. There need be nothings revolutionary about the required changes in our business organisa- tion. We merely have to: note what has already occurred, mark healthy tendencies, and clear away or prevent obstructions to natural growth. Our past history amply justifies us in pursuing this policy with- out uncertainty as to the result. Our entire indus- trial history is one of the best examples of steady. and on the whole well-ordered, evolution. We have shown our ability to.adant ourselves to the needs of the NO. 2451, VOL. 98] moment. As a race we are healthily conservative without being reactionary. ‘hat is to say, we know how to preserve what is good in the old and amal- gamate it with the new. 4n other words, our organ- isation enjoys that useful quality of elasticity wnich enables us to keep abreast of the fimes. Bearing this in mind, where are the defects ot our business man, and to what does he need to give attention in order to come into line with the most recent requirements ? ; As I have just said, our business man’s qualities emphasise his defects. For generations our business men have worked as units, and individualism has become almost second nature. The call now is that the individual shall sink a part of his personality and become, so far as one side of his activities is con- cerned, a member of an association. We have had employers’ alliances, federations, and associations. Some have failed, some have managed to keep afloat, others have had a certain amount of success. None have hitherto quite attained to what is required. To the onlooker it would appear that when our employers meet as an association there is a lack of sympathy among the members, and if this should persist it would be fatal. Each individual knows his own busi- ness; he does not know, and perhaps it would be true to say he does not care to know, his neighbour’s concerns. At any rate, as a result there is a lack of cohesion, there is a lack, too, of that co-operation which is required if the association is to be really successful and accomplish the objects for which it has been formed. This working in co-operation, the large organisations of capital, and the working together in associations, are comparatively new things to our business community. Time and experience will put things right; at present we have not accustomed our- selves to a newly developing condition of affairs. Our business men, then, need to focus their attention on these early ailments of the movement and get them removed as soon as possible. A second group of defects arises indirectly but almost inevitably from that which has just been con- sidered. failed and come to an end. And in certain cases the cause has been unmistakable, for there has been a lamentable want of loyalty, and even in some cases it must be said honesty, to the agreements entered into by the association. Only to mention one group as an instance of this —the New Trades Combination Movement, which caused quite a considerable stir during the late ’nine- ties of last century, especially in the Midlands, among the metal trades. Articles appeared in the journals, and a book* was written explaining the movement and great hopes were entertained that a new era had opened out before both Capital and Labour. But all ended in a failure. There was for a time a kind of Syndicalism—a syndicated industry enabling employers to increase their profits, and the workpeople to earn abnormally high wages. So long as competition could be kept out of the market, things went swimmingly and a specious prosperity developed. But the con- sumer was being exploited—the increased prices charged for such goods as metal bedsteads gave would-be. competitors and unscrupulous members of the alliance their chance. The cheap wooden bed- stead, however, made its appearance on one hand. and on the other there were such things as secret discounts and commissions, and this svecial alliance ended in failure. The history of that short. but indus- trially instructive, movement has yet to be written. 1 “The New Trades Combination Movement.” E. J. Smith (Rivingtons, 1899). Some alliances, rings, and associations have OcToBER 19, 1916] Its cardinal facts should be known to those who now have an opportunity for shaping the industrial future of this country. : Three lessons stand out from this experience :— (1) We must learn to work together in association. (2) All members. of an association must be abso- lutely loyal and honest to their engagements, either written or implied. (3) Such associations must be regulated or the com- munity will be exploited. Nor is it impossible to suggest a method by means of which this may result. When employers’ associa- tions have justified themselves it should be possible to obtain State recognition for them, and it would be practical politics, when both employers’ associations and trade unions have developed to the point at which both merit State recognition, to enforce under penalty agreements made between them on all those, either employers or workpeople, who wished to work at the industry within the area under the recognised organisations. Thus it would not be necessary to make membership compulsory; self-interest would be the extent of the pressure, Turning to workpeople’s unions, we also find defects which require removing. The policy of union has been practised among the workers for upwards of a century, and for at least half that time with well- marked success in certain directions. In the first instance it was the aristocracy of labour that realised the advantage of collective action, but, notably since the late ’eighties of last century, efforts have been made to extend the policy to all grades of labour. Hence the ailments which have to be noted are rather more mature than those affecting employers’ associa- tions. Success in certain directions has perhaps led some of the more ardent spirits to expect more from their unions than working conditions allow. The experience of old and tried leaders has led them to adopt a more cautious policy than the young bloods are inclined to accept. Hence there has been a want of loyalty, different, it is true, from that met with among employers, but equally disastrous if persisted in to the object in view. All the men in a given industry should be members of the union, provided that the union is well organised and ably administered. This should, however, be the result of self-interest and a regard for the good of fellow-workers, rather than of compulsion; how that may be attained has been suggested. Perfection of organisation will come when workpeople not only realise the real possibilities of collective action, but are prepared to follow lovally leaders who have been constitutionally elected. The leaders are in a better position to know the facts of the case immediately under review, but if their leadership has been found faulty there should be adequate machinery for replac- ing them with men who command the confidence of the majority of the members. When agreements have been entered into, the terms should be implicitly observed, even though they may turn out to be less advantageous than was expected. Periodical revision would make it possible to rectify mistakes or mis- apprehensions. But it cannot be too strongly empha- sised that for both sets of organisation the great factor making for smooth and satisfactory working is abso- lute loyalty to the pledged word. A large employer of skilled labour writing to me on this point said :— “In my opinion no industrial harmony can exist be- tween employers and employees until trade unions through their executives can compel their members to adhere to and honourably carry out all agreements entered into with the employers. . . . In fact, until a more honest code of morals exists on both sides no improvement can be looked for.” NO. ‘2451, VOL. 98] NATURE 141 Further, there is a need for a more complete and authoritative central authority, both for individual in- dustries and for federated trades. The machinery for this exists, it merely requires development. When the local and central machinery has been perfected, the right to strike, which, in common with the right to lock out as a final resource, should be jealously, maintained, would be carefully regulated, and would only be resorted to as the considered judgment of the most experienced men on either side. It should be impossible for either an individual association or a section of it to order a strike or a lock-out on its own responsibility. What, then, do I consider should be the main out- line of industrial organisation? Employers should be organised ‘into :— (a) Associations of one trade in a given district. (b) National associations of one trade. (c) Local federations of trades. (d) National federations of trades. Of these, (b) and (d) should be organised under a system of representation. Workpeople should have unions and federations corresponding to those of the employers, and in both cases the national federations should be carefully organised councils, who would enjoy a large measure of authority, tempered by the necessity to win and preserve the confidence of their electors. From these two representative bodies there could be elected an industrial council as a court of appeal, representative of the whole industrial activity of the country, and so far as these various bodies were approved by the State they would enjoy far-reaching powers. Approval by the State should depend on the observ- ance of moderation and working in conformity with carefully devised regulations. For the State in this matter would be the representative of the consumer and of the national interest. Without this you get something not very far removed from Syndicalism, but under careful regulation abuses might be avoided. At the head of the organisation there would be a real industrial council representing the industry of the country. The industrial council established in the vear 1911 has never had a fair chance to show its mettle. It was established at a critical time; perhaps the Government did not feel justified in throwing a great responsibility on an untried body. Nevertheless, it exemplified a very wise policy, and one regrets that it has not been tested, for even now both employers and workpeople feel that some such council is prefer- able to State interference, and there is a clearly articu- lated distrust on both sides of official arbitration. We do not need at the present juncture to attempt a new experiment. Our old system, whatever its failings, has been tried and proved sound. Its elas- ticity has been its salvation, and it is capable of still further evolution without calling for drastic changes. The improved organisation that is now suggested would contain nothing that is new or untried. It would consist of natural developments of what already. exists. Employers and workpeople have organised themselves into associations and unions, some of these have developed federations of similar or even of un- connected interests; and both parties have their national congresses, or at any rate the germ of them. The demand now is that the organisations already in existence be perfected, and that those perfected organ- isations shall in all their agreements be loyally and honestly supported by their members. Success de- pends on absolute loyalty to the pledged word. Here we have a practical policy’ suited to the needs of this critical stage in our history. The ideal organ- isation has yet to be formulated, but’ what is here proposed would form a definite step in advance, and 142 NATURE [OcToBER 19, 1916 . the very elasticity ur the system would be a goou augury for the future. 4 A committee of this association has been investigat- ing for the past two years into the extent to which women have recently replaced men in industry. A certain amount of exaggeration exists as to the num- ber of women who nave entered our factories or undertaken services left vacant by men who have joined the Forces. figures, about 600,000, as against five million men who have joined either the Navy or the Army as a consequence of the war. The entry of large numbers of women into industry has been viewed with a certain amount of alarm by the men; and trade unions have naturally stipulated, where possible, that these women shall receive the same rates of pay for the same work as the men, and that when the men return the women shall give place to them. That there was little ground for alarm as to the influx of women can be realised by a consideration of a few facts and figures. The majority of men who enlisted were workpeople of one sort or another; of these, unhappily, some have been killed in battle or have been rendered incapable for work. Even so, the majority will come home requiring occupation. What opportunities will they find? To answer this question at all satisfactorily it is necessary to consider some determining factors. Thousands of men have left indoor occupations and their accustomed town life and have been trained, drilled, and disciplined under open-air conditions. They have lived, worked, and fought in the open country in some cases for many months. The new experience has had potent effects. Physique has im- proved, the outlook on life has changed, in many cases new hopes for the future have been formed. Inquiry shows that there is a division of opinion as to the extent to which disbanded members of the Forces will decide on making a radical change in their mode of life. Yet the experience of what occurred after the South African War warrants us in assuming that considerable numbers will only return to indoor occupations and town life if there be no alternative. It is too soon yet to form an opinion as to what opportunities there will be for land settlement. But it is known that offers will be made, both at home and in various parts of the Empire. A moderate esti- mate of those accepting these offers, and of our losses of killed and permanently disabled, would be at least one million. Then we shall undoubtedly require, at any rate for some years, a much larger standing Army. Even on a peace footings this at a moderate computation may be put at a million men. These two figures, and neither of them errs on the side of exaggeration, will absorb two million men who will be permanently lost to the old occupations. Moreover, there is good ground for anticipating that if the war concludes before our resources are unduly strained, and there is everv prospect that it will, there will be a period of good trade. We have to restore our own depleted stocks of goods, our mer- cantile marine demands a large amount of new ton- nage, railways and other transnort services will re- auire much new equipment. Turning to the Con- tinent, parts of France, Belgium, and other of the Entente countries will need reconstruction works of considerable proportions, and in this work we shall play a great part. World markets, too, have been kent short of many manufactured goods. We shall be in a position both to finance and carry on a greatly extended svstem of industry and commerce. for not’ only is our banking svstem vrepared to face this, NO. 2451, VOL. 98] The total number is, in round , but our man force has been greatly improved, and our industrial equipment to a great extent remodelled. Reverting to the somewhat thorny question of the women who have been engaged on what were men’s occupations, I see no cause for alarm. Many women came forward from motives of patriotism, and will gladly resume their former state. The question, I believe, will rather be how can we obtain the labour necessary to cope with the post-war demand. The new equipment of our factories will place us in a position to increase very greatly our ouput, and this should enable us not only to face a possible labour shortage, but if the recommendations made by this section of the association meet with a favourable re- sponse, our labour force should enter upon a new period of prosperity consequent on a remodelling which has been rendered possible by a reorganisation of our industrial machinery. This new epoch for labour would include higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions. To effect these salu- tarv advances both employers and employed need to exercise sanity of judgment, frankness in mutual discussions, »nd a recognition of the fact that the prosperity and material well-being of each is bound up in a common effort to maintain and develop our indus- trial and commercial position. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Oxrorp.—The term has opened with a greatly re- duced number of undergraduates. Exact figures are not yet forthcoming, but they will certainly be small. The current issue of the University Gazette contains the names of 312 members of the University who have lost their lives on active service during the last three months, all but a very few having been killed in action. The usual lists of lectures, demonstrations, and laboratory work have been issued by the heads of the various science departments. The programme pub- lished by the School of Geography includes lectures by the acting director on geographical method and on the distribution and economic geography of primitive societies; by the demonstrator, on regional geography of the British Isles; and by Messrs. Spicer and Ken- drew, on land forms and climate. Practical classes will also be held. The Committee for Anthropology has arranged for lectures on physical anthropology, ethnology, theories of totemism, and primitive archzo- logy. These will be given by Prof. A. Thomson, Miss Czaplicka, Mr. H. Balfour, and Dr. Marett. Demon- strations and informal instruction on a large variety of subjects connected with anthronology are also announced, Tit widow of Prof. Gwynne Vaughan has presented to the Botanical Department of the University of Glasgow the collection of more than 2000 slides, in mahogany cabinet. belonging to her late husband, and the originals of all his published memoirs, A SPECIAL course of short lectures is to be given by Mr. E. F. Etchells to the Junior Institution of Engineers on alternate Friday evenings, beginning on October 20. The subjects are :—'‘A Common- sense Notation for Engineers,’”’ ‘‘ The Practical Use of Units in the Evaluation of Formule,” ‘‘How to Memorise Formule,’ ‘‘ Logic of the Differential and Trtegral Calculus.” and ‘‘ Practical and Illustrative Examples of the Application of the Newer Concepts.” Tue Joint’ Matriculation Board of the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield con- ducts a matriculation examination which ensures one OcTOBER 19, 1916] common standard for entrance to the separate univer- sities. The various universities are represented on the board, and about five practical teachers are. co- opted, so that the schools and universities are kept in touch with one another. According to the Morning Post of October 13, Birmingham University is to be included in the operations of the board, and thus another step is taken in the direction of securing a uniform standard for entrance to a university. We also learn from our contemporary that the Vice-Chan- cellor of Liverpool University, who is the chairman of the Joint Board, stated at a special meeting of the Liverpool University Court on October 12 that the University authorities at Bristol proposed recently that the Bristol University should be included in the scheme, but a final decision had been postponed until after the war. Aw address by Sir Henry A. Miers on ‘‘ The Place of Science in Education” is printed in Education for September 15. In outline the views expressed may be summarised as follows:—In elementary schools science can be little more than common-sense think- ing about, and intelligent interest in, the ordinary events of everyday life, the main aim being to en- courage a feeling of the necessity for personal trial and effort in understanding what is seen and done. In secondary schools there should be a systematic course of experiments, especially in the physics and chemistry of ordinary life, in order to encourage a habit of reasoning from what has been observed. This systematic course should be preceded by an introduc- tory course dealing with ‘scientific facts and ideas. All the work here outlined should precede the division of the school into ‘moderns ”’ and ‘‘classics."’ On the modern side real scientific training is obtained from the labora- tory work which becomes essential, but on the elassical side science might well deal with general principles through the history of science and discovery, the whole subject being taught in language of a literary char- acter freed from technical phraseology. Such a scheme involves the teaching of general elementary science in the preparatory schools. In the Fortnightly Review for October the subject of science and the réle to be assigned to it in the curriculum of the higher schools and universities is considered in a suggestive article entitled ‘‘ Education To-day and To-morrow,” by Mr. P. E. Matheson. Reference is made to the manifesto issued a few months-ago pleading for a larger infusion of scientific knowledge into the public service, and it is suggested that whilst the critics have made good their complaints of serious defects in our war administration some of the criticisms are to be met by other means than educational reform, as, for example, the conversion of men of business to the belief that scientific research pays. Mr. Matheson admits that unless we have mor science in the schools we shall perish. But it is de- clared that we are up against faults of character and a disbelief in the value of disciplined intelligence. Yet we cannot hope for a cure for these defects either in respect of employers or of persons in the higher ser- vice of the State unless it be through the schools and as a result of systematised training, not only in languages, history, literature, and mathematics, but also in the facts and potentialities of scientific know- ledge, together with the due training of hand and eye, and accompanied by those formative agencies which promote self-reliance and sterling character. The article is a welcome indication of a more liberal atti- tude towards the claims of science in the schools and universities. THE annual congress of the Textile Institute, which met at Leeds on October 13, was in the main con- NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE 143°. cerned with the question of scientific research in the application to the needs of the textile industry. Much has been done of late years in the encouragement of research in the great textile schools of Manchester. for cotton goods, and in those of Leeds and Bradford for woollen and other animal fibres, but there is still to lament the indifference of manufacturers to the fruit of such research and ito the importance and value of skilled, scientific labour. Dr. Sadler, in welcoming the delegates, pleaded for better appreciation on the part of manufacturers, and for a higher scale of remunera- tion for those engaged in research in our universities and in the technical colleges attached thereto. When shall we have an English example such as that of the firm of Zeiss, in Jena, which in the course of years has contributed considerably more than 100,000. to the University of Jena as a mark of its appreciation of the value of the seientific assistance it has received there- from? It is not merely in the adoption of ingenious mechanical contrivances to displace hand labour and so to increase production, the invention of which is shared by the textile-producing nations, but the ques- tion goes far deeper than this, in the closer investiga- tion of the fibres with a view to their more successful treatment; in the discovery and scientific manipulation of new fibres, even to the production of artificial fibres ; and in the skilful adaptation of material, hitherto re- garded as waste, to the production of saleable goods. In the latter aspect of the question the superior chem- ical training and skill of our foreign competitors on the Continent have enabled them to compete most seri- ously with important branches of our textile trade, especially in respect of the dyeing and finishing of textile goods. The future of the coal-tar industry was the subject of an address by Prof. A. G. Perkin, wir maintained that the production of synthetic dyes, in which Germany had outdistanced this country so com- pletely, wds due to the neglect of the manufacturer, the chemist, and of the technical schools. We needed, said Mr. J. H. Lester, of Manchester, a better organisa- tion of industrial education, research and co-operative agencies of all concerned on scientific lines, in order to ensure the maintenance and progress of our indus- tries. There was not, said another speaker, Dr. M. O. Forster, a sufficient supply here of well-educated, clear- brained, intelligent young men of sound character and real perseverance in the chemical world. Tue attention which is being directed to educational topics in the public utterances of men distinguished in various forms of national activity is, it may be hoped, an indication that the importance of a sound and well-balanced system of national education in this country is beginning to be understood. On October 11 Lord Haldane delivered the first of a series of lectures on after-war problems, arranged by a joint committee of Birmingham University and the Workers’ Educational Association. He said it was his wish to devote his remaining days to being a mis- sionary on the great question of education. We re- member, however, that though, when president of the British Science Guild, he was an advocate of increased attention to education and science by the State, he did little, when he possessed political power, to see that the nation was given the fullest scientific and educa- tional equipment. In his address on October 11 he maintained that what we want is training, and it is the mental training of the future generation that is going to count. When peace comes, he con- tinued, we shall hear no more in Germany about 16-in. guns, but a great .deal about continuation schools. The Germans are training up a generation of skilled workmen with whom we cannot compete. We must take care to train the children of our work- ing classes in at least as good a way as the Germans 144 have been able to train theirs. Mr. L: A. Legros also referred to education in his presidential address to the Institution of Automobile Engineers on October 11, Never, he said, in the history ot engineering has the ignorance of science by the politicians, the military, and other authorities been so openly displayed as in the early stages of the war, and never has it proved so costly in time, in life, and in material. How, many lives and how many millions of pounds, he asked, would the country have been saved if as much study in time and thought had been expended on science as on classics by our law-makers and Iaw-givers? He pleaded that science should be given its proper place in education, and that due care should be exercised in providing suitable training for those women who, as mothers and teachers, would have charge of the earliest training of our future men. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris, Academy of Sciences, September 25.—M. Camille Jor- dan in the chair.—E, Belot: The origin of the rota- tions and revolutions in the forward or backward sense, as well as the origin of cometary orbits.—J. Guillaume ; Occultations of the Pleiades, observed on September 16, 1916, with the 16-cm. Briinner equato- rial of Lyons Observatory.—M. Boll and L. Mallet ; Determination of the practical constants of the Coolidge tube. The Coolidge tube is very stable, and the X-radiation can be maintained for a long time constant, both as regards emissive power and degree of penetration. It is easy to change from hard to soft rays and the reverse. The practical yield is of the same order as other focus tubes for soft rays. The radiation from a Coolidge tube is not appreciably more homogeneous than that of other tubes.—J. Bougault : The acidylsemicarbazides. A general account of their physical and chemical properties as a group. —P. Paris: Sphaeromicola topsenti, a new genus and species of Ostracod.—A, Lumiére: The comparative action of antiseptics on pus and on pure cultures. The experiments were carried out with three disinfectants of different types—phenol, sodium mercury-phenol- disulphonate, and sodium hypochlorite. These were allowed to act under similar conditions upon the con- centrated pus, culture of the pus, and a pure culture of the predominating staphylococcus from the pus, and also upon 1 per cent. dilutions of these. The albu- minoid substances present in the pus attentuate slightly the bactericidal effect of phenol; this action is a ‘Tittle more marked with the mercury compound, and _ be- comes very important with the hypochlorite.—R. Wurtz and E. Huon: The variolisation of heifers immunised against the vaccine.—Em. Bourquelot and A, Aubry: The biochemical synthesis of a-propyl-d- galactoside with the aid of a ferment contained in air- dried low veast. BOOKS RECEIVED. A Census of New South Wales Plants. By J. H. Maiden ‘and the late E. Betche. Pp. xx+216. (Syd- ney: W. A. Gullick.) oe $ Vorschlage zur geobotanischen °“ Kartographie. By Dr. E. Riibel. Pp. 14. . (Leipzig: Rz yscher, and Co.) 1.50 francs. Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Fourth Series. 1884-1900. C ompiled by the Royal Society of London. Vol. xv. Pp. vi+ro12. (Cambridge: At the Univer- sitv Press.) 2l. 1os. net. Joseph Pennell’s Pictures of the Wonder of Work: with Impressions and Notes by the Artist. Pp. lii. (London: W. Heinemann.) 7s. 6d. net. NO. 2451, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 19,1916 Transactions of the Royal Society of Ruingurghs) Vol. 1, part iv. Session 1913-14. (Edinburgh: R. Grant and Son.) nese: Checklist of the Recent Bivalve Mollusks (Pelecy- poda) of the Northwest Coast ®f America from the Polar Sea to San Diego, California. By Dr. W. H. Dall. Pp. 44. (California: Southwest Museum.) Arboreal Man. By Prof. F, Wood Jones. Pp. x+ 230. (London: E. Arnold.) 8s. 6d. net. The Migrations of Fish. By Prof. A. Meek. Pp. (London: E. Arnold.) 16s. net. DIARY OF : SOCIETIES. FRIDAY, Ocroser 20. INstTitUTION OF MeEcHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Trials on a Diesel Engine, and Application _ of Energy Diagram to obtain Heat Balance: The late Lieut. ‘Trevor Wilkins ; presented by Prof. Burstall. TUESDAY, Ocroser 24. fede ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30 —Notes on the ae Chek) of the Starfishes Asterias glacialis O. F. M., Cribrella oculata “DD fou nate endeca (Retzius) Forbes, Stichaster roseus (O. F. ard Ee FP. Gemmill.—Studies on the Anoplura and Mallophaga, peas a El Se eo a Collection, from the Mammals and. Birds in the Society's Gardens, — Part II.: F, Cummings —‘l'wo New Species of Cestodes belongin, ity} to the Genera Linstowia and Cotugnia: Dr. F. E. Beddard. —Notes on a Collection of es made by British East Africa, 1911-13: Lt.-Col M. Fawcett.—The Structure and Function of the Mouth-parts of” the Salamonid Prawns : L. A. Bor- radaile.—Heude's. Collection of Pigs, Sika, Serows, and Gorals in the Sikawei Museum, Shanghai: A. de C. Sowerby. InsTiTUTION OF CiviL ENGINEERS, at 5.30,—James Forrest Lecture: The Development of + Varae Cent for Handling Raw Materials and Merchandise at Ports and other Large Centres of Traffic: Sir John Purser Griffith. XVili+ 427. CONTENTS. _ PAGE Reminiscences of nary Meldola. By G. T. /M. 125 Anima Animans. ByJ.A ont fat 125 Diophantine Analysis. By G. B. M. isk «ie, EG Three Text-books of Physics. By H, s. A; oa 127 Our Bookshelf «0 0:09, Sree eee eae) P : tae ae Letters to the Editor:— Elasticity and Phempleey (/ilustrated.)—R. J. Tillyard 4 128 Early Use of the Word ‘ Blizzard.”—Dr, Otto % Klotz .. 129 The Future of the Zinc- smelting. Industry i in Great Britain. By Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter . 129 Prof. Pierre Duhem,. By Prof. G. H. Bryan, F, RS. 131 Notes. SET RC se Siew ie P 132 Our Astronémical “Column :— Fireball of October 3. . oe ne Anomalous Dispersion in the Sun . Sema St Pe fo).;.):. The Variable Star SZ Cygni. . 2 Se aes Fisheries Investigations and Development. By ED. wae ORY Seed be . « goatee Bitter Pit. ‘By F. K. ai a Ss 7 Geology at the British Association. By w. L, Cc. 138 The British Association at Newcastle :— ; Section F—Economic Science and Statistics—Open- ing Address (Abridged) by Prof. A. W. Kirkaldy, M.A., B.Litt., M.Com., President of the Section + «See University and Educational Intelligence @ © 1ae Societies and Academies... 7) es)... eee 144 Books Received’ .....'. . das ‘ ae am 144 Diary of Socitties*:"< >) agers =: ts Acie 144 Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S. STREET, LONDON, W.c. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications to the Editor. ’ Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. Teléphone Number: -Gerrarv 8830. Mr, W. Feather in b Sa “ ian i WStity nt A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, ; ; “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye."—WorDsWoRTH. _ No. 2452, VoL. 98] THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1916 [PRICE SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post. Office.] {All Rights Reserved. X-RAY TUBES Of all descriptions Made, Repaired, & Re-exhausted. on the Premises. Coolidge Tubes kept in stock. NEWTON & WRIGHT, Ltd. 72 WIGMORE STREET, W. - Sole Agents for Macalaster Wiggin X-Ray Tubes, Undoubtedly the Finest Tubes in the World for all purposes, TD. DUROGLASS L 14 GROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of ; Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. Beakers. Flasks, Ete. Soft Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. Special Glass A. pparatus Made to Order. DUROCLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. SOLE SELLING AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. _ 14 GROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. THE “RYSTOS” LANTERN. A Lantern of superior workmanship, fitted with three telescopic draw tubes and interchangeable jacket mount, with rack and pinion, for objectives of various foci. Will be found to be a most suitable Lantern for use in large lecture halls, &c. Complete with supérior objective, either 6, 8, 9, or 12 inches focus, 2f-inch diameter, condenser 4]-inch diameter, and “high-power hmelight burner, in travelling case, £900 WAR IN THE BALKANS. . A set of lantern slides from negatives taken by members of the Red Cross Missions to Serbia and Montenegro for Sale or Hire. LIST AND PRICE ON APPLICATION, 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. c Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. viii NATURE THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL | ENGINEERS. THOMAS HAWKSLEY LECTURE, 1916. Mr. Harry E. Jones, Meweber, will deliver the above Lecture on “©THe Gas ENGINEER OF THE LAstT Cantury,” in the Hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, Westminster, Friday, November 3, 1916, at 6 p.m. Visitors invited. GEORGE HENRY LEWES STUDENTSHIP IN PHYSIOLOGY. The Studentship is of the value of £200 a year and is tenable for three years. Its object is to enable promising Students to give their whole time to Physiological Research. It is in the power of the Trustees to elect a second Student. Candidates are requested to send a short statement of their qualifications to Prof. LANGLEY, Physiology School, Cambridge, by November 18. SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL OF MINES & TECHNOLOGY, JOHANNESBURG (Under the University of South Africa Act, 1916, a Constituent College of the University of South Africa). The Council of the South African School of Mines and Technology invites applications for the following appointments, viz. :— Department of English, Logic and Philosophy : PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT. Department of History: PROFESSOR, Department of Modern Languages : (i) Dutch—PROFESSOR. (ii) French—PROFESSOR. Department of Classics: PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT, Department of Education and Psychology: ASSISTANT. Department of Economics : Commercial Geography—ASSISTANT, Department of Physics: PROFESSOR and ASSISTANT. Department of Botany: PROFESSOR. Department of Zoology: PROFESSOR, A Three years’ contract will be granted in each case. Salaries: (a) Professors, £800 per annum, rising by annual increments of £50 to £900, and by similar increments to £1000 in the succeeding two years, where the appointment is confirmed and the member placed on the permanent staff; (b) Assistants, £350 per annum, rising by annual increments of £50 to the maximum of £450. 475 will be allowed to Professors for travelling expenses to South Africa, and £50 to Assistants; half-salary will, in each case, be paid from date of sailing till arrival in Johannesburg. The next session begins early in March, and the successful applicants will be expected to reach Johannesburg by February 15th, 1917. The members of the staff have to supervise, and take part in, Evening work. Applications in triplicate, stating age, professional qualifications and experience, as well as information regarding candidates’ publications or researches, should, with copies of three recent testimonials, be sent not later than November x6th, 1916, to the undersigned, who, on application, will send a memorandum containing full information of the above appointments, and of the scheme for the expansion of University education on the Witwatersrand in the immediate future. Before appointment, the selected applicants will be required to pass a medical examination. CHALMERS, GUTHRIE & CO., Lrp., 9 IDOL LANE, LONDON, E.C. DERBY EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. The Governors invite applications from qualified candidates for the post of LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY. Salary 4300 per annum. Forms of application may be obtained from the Prinetrat, Technical College, Derby, to whom they should be returned not later than Monday, Noveniber 13, 1916 ah by WILLIAM COOPER, Secretary. October 916. LIVERPOOL EDUCATION COMMITTEE. LIVERPOOL COLLEGIATE SCHOOL. REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY, a LABORATORY ASSISTANT (man or woman) at the ab 1amed school. Salary at the rate of £65 per annum. Applications to | dged with the Direcror of EDUCATION, 14 Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool, not later than Monday, November 6, 1916. EDWARD R. PICKMERE, Clerk to the I:ducation Committee. [OcToBER 26, 1916 COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERSFIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal- J. F. Hupsox, M.A., B.Se. CLOTH MANUFACTURE. CHEMISTRY anv DYEING, MECHANICAL ann ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. ECONOMICS ann COMMERCE. BIOLOGY, PHYSICS,- MATHEMATICS, The new department of COAL TAR COLOUR CHEMISTRY is open for teaching aud research under the direction of Dr. A. E. Everest. Full particulars’ on application to the Secrerary, Technical College, Huddersfield. * T. THORP, Secretary. LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL. LOUGHBOROUGH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, WANTED IMMEDIATELY, LECTURER in ENGINEERING (preferably ELECTRICAL). Salary £150 to £175, according to experience and qualifications. The appointment is for the period of the War, but will probably be made permanent in the case of satisfactory service. Applications, with not more than three copies of recent testimonials, should be sent to —Tuu PrincrPat, The Technical Institute, Loughborough, not later than November 1. W. A. BROCKINGTON, Director of Education. DEMONSTRATOR IN PHYSICS. DEMONSTRATOR in PHYSICS required in January at the LON- DON (ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL) SCHOOL OF MEDICINE FOR WOMEN, 8 Hunter Street, W.C. : Applications, with testimonials, to be sent to undersigned by Friday, October 27, from whom further particulars may be obtained. { L. M. BROOKS, Secretary and Warden, LS WANTED at once, a SCIENCE MASTER, Christ's Hospital, Horsham, ineligible for military service ; elementary chemistry and physics, with some knowledge of practical agriculture for an experimental farm. Salary £50 per term, board and residence,— Apply SENiok SciENCE Master. os READER, Scientific and Technical, required by old-established Publishers. Whole time in London office.—A pply, stating qualifications and salary required, Box 194, c/o NATURE Of ice. Edueational, Medieal, all other BOO KS ! subjects, and for all Exams. SECOND-HAND AT HALF PRICES: New Books at Discount Prices. CATALOGUES FREE. State Wants. Books sent on approva’. BOOKS BOUGHT: Best Prices Given. W. & G, FOYLE, 121-123 Charing Cross Road, London TO LIBRARIANS AND _OTHERS. JOHN WHELDON & CO. beg to draw attention to the fact that they hold probably the largest stock in the country of JOURNALS & TRANSACTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, Including Transactions and Proceedings, &c., of the Royal Society, Linnean Society and Zoological Society of London, Journals of the Chemical, Geological, Royal Geographical, Royal Microscopical, Royal Agricultural, Royal Horticultural, Royal — Astronomical, Physical, and other Societies, Proceedings, Journals and Reports of very numerous local Natural Hist Societies, also Nature, Knowledge, Ibis, Zoologist, Curtis’s Bo p cal Magazine, Journal of Botany, Technical and Engineering Journals, and numerous other Periodicals, British and Foreign. Special Catalogue of above (No. 76) just ready, gvatis on application. Sets, runs, odd yols., and numbers of Journals quoted for on application. Subscriptions taken for all Scientific and other Journals, which will be posted regularly on issue. ’ New books supplied to order. Out-of-print books sought for. __ Accounts opened with Foreign Institutions, Libraries, or private gentlemen on receipt of a deposit or London references. 7 The stock of Second hand Natural History and Scientific Works is one of the largest in the world. Subject catalogues on application. on Books on Seientifle, Technical, London: JOHN WHELDON & CO., 38 GT. QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.Cc. Telephone: Gerrard 1412. , NATURE 145 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1916. “METEORITICS.” Meteorites: their Structure, Composition, and Terrestrial Relations. By Dr. O. C, Farrington. Pp. x+233. (Chicago: Published by the Author, 1915.) Price 8s. 6d. , | ‘HE treatise on meteorites written by the well- known curator of geology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, will meet a difficulty that has long faced the student who, while desirous of studying this subject, has hitherto looked round in vain for a comprehensive text- book. Sir L. Fletcher’s handbook and guide to the meteorite collection at South Kensington, which is now in its eleventh edition, is admirable so far as it goes; but its scope is naturally limited, since it is intended for the ordinary visitor to the museum. Meunier’s ‘‘ Météorites,” which formed part of an “Encyclopédie Chimique,” was pub- lished so far back as 1884, and is therefore out of date, and probably not now readily accessible. Cohen’s “Meteoritenkunde” was excellently planned, but was unfortunately cut short at the end of the third of the five parts in which it was intended to be by the author’s death in 1905; indeed, he did not live to see the third part appear. At the outset Dr. Farrington attempts to solve the problem of finding a name for the subject, and suggests “Meteoritics,” a word that seems to serve the purpose very satisfactorily, since “Meteoritology ” is ruled out because of the in- evitable confusion with that branch of science which is concerned with the weather. Previously “Astrolithology ” had been proposed by Shepard, and “Aerolities ” by Story-Maskelyne, but neither word is suitable or suggestive. The book. consists of two parts, though it is not so divided, dealing the one with the mode in which meteorites have reached the earth’s surface and their possible origin, and the other with their physical and chemical characters. But for the protection afforded by the atmosphere the fall of a meteorite would not be the comparatively rare phenomenon it is at present. Most of the erratic bodies which meet or overtake the earth are burnt up long before they reach the ground, and the velocity of those that do survive the passage through the air is so reduced by the friction that the rate of fall is only what would be due to gravity had they fallen from heights which have been variously estimated from 4 to 46 kilometres. The disruptive force generated by the heat re- sulting from the friction causes meteorites to burst into pieces which are often quite small. Nevertheless, some of the masses which must have fallen, though there is no recorded evidence jof the fact, have been of considerable size and | weight. xht. The largest as yet known is the Ahnighito—one of those located at Cape York, | West Greenland, by Admiral (then Lieut.) Peary in 1895, and now in the New York Museum; it weighs 364 tons. The next in size is that of NO. 2452, VoL. 98] Bacubirito, Mexico, which, on account of its in- accessibility and the difficulty of transport, still remains where it originally fell; its estimated weight is 27 tons. Pathetic interest attaches to the photograph which is reproduced as a frontis- piece. It represents the late Prof. H. A. Ward standing beside the Bacubirito meteorite. An in- defatigable collector of meteorites, he was ready to start at a moment’s notice to any part of the globe in search of one. He returned in safety from all his expeditions, only to be run over and killed in the street at Rochester, N.Y., where he had his home. y d Meteorites are distinguished from terrestrial rocks both by their structure and by their mineral composition. All the elements present in the former are known terrestrially, but some of the common elements, such as barium, strontium, lead, and bismuth, have not been detected in meteorites, at least not in quantity or with cer- ‘tainty. Many of the minerals present in meteorites are peculiar to them, and have not been found terrestrially—for instance, oldhamite (calcium sulphide), schreibersite (iron-nickel-cobalt phos- phide), lawrencite (iron-nickel chloride). Their presence is very significant, since they could not have been produced had solidification taken place in the presence of free oxygen. It is the last- named mineral that is largely responsible for the sweating and rusting which occur in certain irons. The metallic portion of a meteorite con- sists largely of an iron-nickel alloy, and is arranged in a definite manner, as is shown by the markings developed on etching a polished section. Dr. Farrington himself has established that the nature of the arrangement depends on the ratio of the iron to the nickel in the alloy; irons with about 6 per cent. of nickel have one type, which is characterised by the fine Neumann lines, those with from 7 to 15 per cent. have a second type, showing the broad Widmanstatten bands, and those still richer in nickel have a granular struc- ture. Meteoritic stones are not unlike terrestrial rocks as regards their mineral constitution, but differ from them in their peculiar chondritic or granular structure. One of the problems in the subject that call for solution is a satisfactory classification of meteorites. That at present in use, which is de- scribed in detail by Dr. Farrington, was devised by Gustav Rose, and amplified or modified by Tschermak and Brezina. It is cumbersome, con- sisting as it does of no fewer than seventy-six groups, and has no real scientific basis. The author refers the reader to a scheme on the lines of the American quantitative classification of rocks which he has himself put forward. This classifi- cation has, however, been by no means generally accepted in the case’ of rocks by petrologists. A promising scheme, which emphasises the relation- ship subsisting between meteorites, however apparently different their characters may be, was recently communicated to the Mineralogical Society by Dr. Prior. It consists of six groups, of which five may be considered as derived from the first I - 146 NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 by chemical interaction between ‘certain of the constituent minerals. At the close the author appends a useful table for discriminating the metallic minerals occurring in meteorites, and has added two indices, one general, and the other giving the falls mentioned in the book. ESCAPE OF ELECTRONS FROM HOT BODIES. The Emission of Electricity from Hot Bodies. By Prof. O. H. Richardson. Pp. vii+304. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916:) Price gs. net. HIS work, which is one of the series of mono- graphs in~ physics published under the editorship of Sir J. J.. Thomson and_ Prof. Horton, deals with the emission of positive and negative electricity from hot bodies. The closely related subject of the conductivity of flames is not included. It will be remembered that a volume dealing with this part of the subject was published a few years ago by Prof. H. A. Wilson. While it had long been known that hot bodies discharge both positive and negative electricity, the detailed investigation of this important sub- ject was an immediate consequence of the develop- ment of the ionisation theory of gases. The author was one of the first workers in this new field of work begun at Cambridge, and with the help of numerous students he vigorously con- tinued his investigations at Princeton University, and more recently at King’s College, London. A large part of our knowledge of this subject is due to his investigations, As a consequence, we have a first-hand account of this interesting subject, written by one who has a full appreciation of the experimental diffi- culties and the adequacy of the theories proposed. A large part of the volume is devoted to the study of the emission of negative electrons from heated filaments at low gas-pressures, its variation with temperature, the effect of residual gases, and the treatment of the metal surfaces. Although the electronic current is usually large and easily measured, there are in many cases wide dis- crepancies in the magnitude of the current ob- tained under similar conditions by different observers. This lack of definiteness in the data seems to result mainly from the part played in the electronic emission by the condition of the surface, and the presence of gaseous or other impurities. A general theory is advanced on the supposition that a metal contains free electrons which obey the gas laws. At high temperature some of the electrons acquire sufficient energy to escape from the metal surface. The theory of the escape of electrons from a hot metal is thus analogous to that of the evaporation of a liquid. This theory seems to explain satisfactorily the rapid variation of the electronic current with the temperature. The author has shown experiment- ally that energy is expended in the escape of elec- NO. 2452, VOL. 98] trons from the metal surface, and that heat is given up to the metal surface when electrons pass into it. The connection of these effects with the contact difference of potential has been carefully examined. As is well known, there has been considerable. difference of opinion in the past as to the origin of the large electronic emission from incandescent bodies. Its susceptibility to conditions, and especially to the presence of impurities, has led some to suppose that part, if not all, of the elec- tronic emission is the result of chemical action between the heated metal and the gaseous or other impurities. The author evidently considers that there is a true electronic emission depending only on the metal, and his contention is certainly strongly supported by the observed fact that a tungsten filament in the highest possible vacuum continues its emission of electrons unchanged with time. On the other hand, the electron current from most metals is very markedly influenced by the previous history of the wire, and is extra-* ordinarily susceptible to the presence of a minute amount of impurity. For example, Langmuir in a recent paper directs attention to the striking fact that the heating of a filament containing thorium in the neighbourhood of the tungsten wire increases. the thermionic current of the latter by a million times. While great progress has been made in the last decade in extending our knowledge of this subject, there is no doubt that much work still remains to be done to clear up many outsisaaae difficulties. In the last chapter the author discusses the experimental evidence of the emission of positive electricity from heated metals and salts, and describes the ingenious method developed by him to determine the mass of the carriers. The sur- prising fact is brought out that in the great majority of cases the carriers of positive elec- tricity are atoms of potassium. The reason why potassium, which, even when present only in minute quantities, is an impurity, should be the. active element in this emission explanation. In the preface the author mentions that he has not thought it desirable to include an account of { 4 is difficult of — the practical applications of thermionic emission, — but mentions some of the more important papers in which this side has been discussed. It is to be hoped, however, that when a second edition is called for, the author will devote a chapter to the very interesting application of the thermionic emission to the rectification of alternating currents, and to the magnification of small cur- rents in radio-telephony and _ radio-telegraphy. 1 It is of great value that students should appre- — ciate the striking way in which the pure science researches in this subject have proved of great technical value. This book can be strongly recommended to all those who are interested in modern physics as a clear and up-to-date account of our knowledge of an . important department of modern scientific research. OcTOBER 26, 1916] NATURE 147 PHYSICS. (1) A Student’s Heat. By I. B. Hart. Pp. vii+ 376. (London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1916.) Price 4s. 6d. {2) Elementos de Fisica Descritiva para a 4° ¢ 5° Classes dos Liceus. Por. Dr. F. J. Sousa Gomes e Alvaro R. Machado. 5° edicdo, revista por Alvaro R. Machado. © Pp. 528. (Braga: Livraria Escolar de Cruz y Ca., 1915.) HART?’S text-book of heat is intended’ (1) M R: for use in the higher forms of secondary schools, for advanced students in technical col- leges, and for those taking a pass degree exam- ination at the university. The author has included in his book descriptions of many modern methods of determining thermal constants and results of recent experimental investigations. Although the calculus is introduced in the section on thermo- dynamics, a knowledge of elementary algebra and geometry will suffice for the perusal of the greater part of the book. The text is furnished with a large number of clearly drawn diagrams, but the exposition in some parts is open to con- siderable criticism. In the paragraphs dealing with electrical methods of measuring temperature the author assumes his reader to have no knowledge of elec- _ tricity, and explains the chief points of the simple electric circuit with the aid of a diagram showing cell, ammeter, resistance, and voltmeter all con- nected in series. In connection with the platinum resistance thermometer, the compensating leads are not made of copper, nor is it usual to stan- dardise the instrument in the way described by the author. The variation of resistance with tem- perature is represented by R;=R, (1+ at+ i’). According to the author, B is neglected for approx- imate measurements, and a@=0'00366; while for more accurate work the constants a and B are determined by measuring the resistance at 0° (ey roo° C., amd —273° C. At the last-mentioned temperature the resistance of a pure metal is known to be zero. Again, when describing the thermo- couple method of measuring temperature, on p24; we have “the difference in temperature at the junc- tions induces an electromotive force, and the gal- _vanometer registers a kick.”” The formula derived for the expansion of a liquid by the weight ther- mometer method, on p. 49, is wrong. On p. 86, dealing with molecular velocity and temperature of a perfect gas, it should be made clear that it is the Square root of the mean square velocity of the molecules which is proportional to the absolute temperature and not their mean velocity. It is difficult to see how Charles’s law for unsaturated vapours is verified by the experiment described on P. 131, since the vapour will be subjected to vary- ing pressures. On p. 182 we have the statement that Newton’s law of cooling is an approximation to Stefan’s law. This is wholly erroneous, since | the law of Stefan refers to loss of heat by radia- tion alone. Each chapter is furnished with a large number of questions selected from the papers of various examining bodies. NO. 2452, VOL. 98] (2) As its title implies, this text-book is purely descriptive in character. The subjects dealt with are mechanics of solids and fluids, light, heat, sound, electricity and magnetism. The ground covered is only elementary, and upwards of 200 pages are devoted to introductory mechanics and properties of matter. No mathematical proofs of the formule employed are given, the idea being that the statements are to be regarded as laws to be verified experimentally. While there is nothing novel in the treatment of the subject, the text is accurate, concise, and amply illustrated. BIRDS AND THE POET. The Birds of Shakespeare. By Sir Archibald Geikie-> Pp. x+121. (Glasgow: James Macle- hose and Sons, 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. “THIS volume—one of the company of books which owe their existence to the tercen- ‘tenary of Shakespeare—consists of an address delivered by the distinguished author to a country natural history society, and as such it must have served its purpose admirably. Beyond this it makes no pretensions, but it is all:that it claims to be, and will fill a vacant place on the shelves of those who do not possess Mr. J. E. Harting’s standard work. In his opening pages the author lays stress on the development of man’s feeling towards Nature from Chaucer to Shakespeare, from the simple, unreflective delight in the sights and sounds of the open air to the dawning of a sense of “the mystery of things ” and its influence on the human mind; and again, at the close of the lecture, he passes to the further development of reflectivity manifest in the poems of Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley, where the birds are not merely talked about, however poetically, but actually talked to, as being, like ourselves, “travellers between life and death.”” The main body of the volume is taken up with the passages in the plays and poems relating te the several birds, linked together by pertinent observations. Some half-dozen pages are deservedly devoted to that “pleasure for high- mounting spirits”—the sport of hawking, to which the birds of prey owed such consideration as they enjoyed ; for, apart from this, Shakespeare shares the depreciatory attitude towards them current in his day and long after, including even the “mousing owl”; but then, as Waterton long ago remarked, from the time of Ovid downwards this useful bird has always been in ill odour with the poets. Passing on to the game birds, we get a too brief account of the various methods of taking them, and the sportsman to whom the “Diary of Master William Silence” is still an undiscovered treasure might have welcomed a footnote sending him to. that invaluable work. Here are one or two points which might receive attention when the book is reprinted. ‘The Passionate Pilgrim” and “The Phoenix and the Turtle” are drawn upon without any hint that these réchauffés are by no means wholly the work of Shakespeare. Loon, “a diver,” and loon, “a 148 NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 rogue,” are words of distinct origin. With the very doubtful exception of the passage in “ King Lear,” Shakespeare’s “chough” (as the present writer maintained many years ago in the Zoo- logist) is not the Corn‘sh chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), but the jackdaw (Corvus monedula), and, to be strictly accurate, Tereus was not the brother, but the brother-in-law, of Philomela. The numerous illustrations require no recom- mendation. They are our old familiar friends from Yarrell and Howard Saunders. OUR BOOKSHELF. The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir. By Sir James Douie. Pp. xiv +373. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 6s. net. Tue editor of the Cambridge series of Provincial Geographies of India made a happy selection when he entrusted the Panjab to Sir James Douie, who. during thirty-five years’ work as a member of the Indian Civil Service has held the posts of Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, and Officiating Lieutenant-Governor ; what he does not know of the Province in which he served is not worth knowing. In a series of chapters packed with information he discusses the physiography, ethnology, sociology, history, archeology, and administration of an area of one quarter of a million square miles, compar- able in extent, as well as in other respects, with Austria-Hungary. To summarise this amount of information within a limited space naturally pre- vents the elaboration of detail. is an epitome of the information contained in the Imperial and Provincial Gazetteers, and in num- berless other official publications. An excellent feature of the work is the large series of photographs, maps, and diagrams. In the illustrations it is pleasant to notice that the personal element is well represented in John Lawrence, Charles Aitchison, Denzil Ibbetson, and Michael O’Dwyer—some of the able adminis- trators for which the Province has been noted— and in those of native celebrities. In a new edition we may suggest the inclusion of some great soldiers—Pollock, Nott, Gough, Nicholson, Edwardes, Roberts, and Donald Stewart. It would also be a help to students to provide a short list of the more useful books dealing with various aspects of history, social life, travel and sport. The mistake (p. 24) of fixing Lord Roberts’s march to Kabul in 1898 should be corrected. Every young officer, military and civil, posted to India should possess a copy of this useful book, and it might with advantage be introduced into the geo- graphy course in British and Indian schools. The Student’s Handbook to the University and Colleges of Cambridge. Fifteenth edition, re- vised to June 30, 1916. Pp. 16+ 704. bridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 35. net. TuHouGH the statements contained in this handbook are not, official, the information provided has been compiled from authentic sources and may be re- NO. 2452, VOL. 98] The book, in fact, ° (Cam- ° garded as accurate, Parents sending sons to Cambridge will find the guide invaluable, especially the sections dealing with expenses and scholar- ships. In view of the recent comparative inactivity of the University there are no additions to this issue of the handbook. Some temporary. emergency regulations, occasioned by the war, affecting undergraduates are summarised conveniently, and altogether the general usefulness of the volume has been well maintained. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible Yak 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.] Scarcity of Wasps. Tue scarcity of wasps in Cheshire during the passing autumn, noted in Nature of October 12 by Mr. H. V- Davis, has been equally remarkable in this district (Wigtownshire). | Observation extending over very many seasons has convinced me that the abundance of queen wasps in spring is no indication of the num- ber of swarms in late summer and autumn. That appears to be regulated by the character of the weather in June and July, which this year was unusually cold and wet. In the autumn of 1915 there was an extra- ordinary number of the nests of social wasps, both of the species that build underground and those that found arboreal colonies. In consequence I do not remember ever to have seen so many queen waspS — about as there were in May of this year. Presumably each of these started building cells and laying eggs, but even if these hatched out, the cold was fatal to the larvee (for wasps are essentially lovers of sunshine) ; no workers were reared to assist in forming the colony, — which consequently came to naught. Last year I would have undertaken to find fifty wasps’ nests within a radius of half a mile of this house; this year I did not know of one. HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith. Tue past summer has been so remarkable as regards these insects that a few'notes from an old observer. may be acceptable. The principal fact to be noticed is the extraordinary disproportion between the immense number of queens in spring (I cannot re- member so many in upwards of fifty years’ observa- tions) and the scarcity of workers in the summer. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that there were more queens to be seen in the spring than workers when these were most numerous, in September. To go back to the beginning, an entry in my diary on October 18, 1915, states that on digging out a nest poisoned with cyanide two days previously, in which all the active workers had been killed, ‘“‘a lot of quite lively ones, mostly queens," was found. . There can be little doubt that the cause of the scarcity of nests and workers was the cold and wet weather of mid-April. This supposition is supported by the fact that of the only four nests found and taken near this house, two were in fresh (and therefore warm) manure-heaps, one in the roof of the gardeners’ bothy, and one in a sheltered hedge bottom. I have no recollection of having ever seen a nest in a dunghill before. The discrepancy between the number of queens in ’ PA a OcTOBER 26, 1916] spring and of nests and workers in summer is so common that I am tempted to think that the more conspicuous, and therefore more often caught, queens are infertile, and the rewards for their destruction wasted. Perhaps some member of the Association of Economic Biologists will take the matter up? ALFRED O. WALKER. Ulcombe, Kent. In reference to the letter of Mr. H. V. Davis (Nature, October 12, p. 109), 1 may. say that in this district ordinary wasps have been decidedly scarce this year. Reports from several other localities are of the same character. Queens, however, were abudant in the spring (May and June), but I think that only a few survived the wet and cloudy weather. I make a point of cultivating these insects, as they are extremely interesting to watch, and destroy myriads of flies every summer. There were six embryo nests in my garden in May last, but only one (Vespa vul- garis) managed to withstand the vicissitudes of the inclement weather. This nest was a weak one, for when I dug it out on September 20 it consisted of four layers of cells, the top one alone being for small working wasps (1000 cells), while the others were exclusively for queens and drones (1450 cells). This proportion is quite exceptional according to my own observation, for I have commonly found the smaller cells greatly in excess of the others. In a much stronger nest (Vespa germanica) which I took here on October 6, 1915, there were 12,900 cells, forming ten tiers, and less than a quarter of the former had been devoted to the rearing of queens and drones. Very few persons will be inclined to attract wasps to reside in their own immediate neighbourhood, but anyone caring to study these insects should make a few little cavities in dry situations early in April. The eens begin selecting eligible positions in that month iene date, April 17). It is certain that wasps are not so aggressive and violent as commonly supposed. They display remarkable industry and activity, for at midsummer they may be observed streaming to and from their homes during a long working day of eighteen hours! In view of the justified agitation against the house-fly in recent years, it is questionable whether the usual spring campaigns against queen wasps should be encouraged. On a bright summer day in 1913 I carefully watched the entrance of a wasps’ nest in my garden, and concluded that the insects brought home at least 2000 flies. W. F. DeEnninc. 44 Egerton Road, Bristol, October 14. REFERRING to Mr. H. V. Davis’s letter in Nature of October 12 on the scarcity of wasps, I have taken nests for some years over an area a little less than tooo acres as follows :—1906, 95 nests; 1907, 61; 1908, 31; 1909, 113; I910, one (Vespa rufa, Linn.); I9II, 85; 1912, 56; 1913, 189; 1914, 21; 1915, 56. 1916: I knew of three Vespa vulgaris, Linn., nests, and took one as it hindered ploughing, and in the early part of the season I hived three Vespa sylvestris, Scop., . nests as there were a very large number of V. sylvestris queens about. My hived ones died out before hatch- ing queens (this wasp is always earlier here, and gone before the fruit, and I have never caught it in my house), as did some unhandled nest I heard of.* In 1910 the V. rufa nest had been scratched up before I ot it, and I saw a few V. vulgaris workers about the ern, indicating at least one nest, but actually saw no other nests that year. Ricuarp F. Burton. - Longner Hall, Salop, October 17. NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE 149 Tue Dartford Naturalists’ Field Club this season also experienced a scarcity of wasps; local papers reported the same about Gravesend on the east, and Bexley on the west. Their nests were very plentiful last year, and so queens were exceedingly plentiful in spring—abnorm- ally so. But later a cold spell nipped those about at the time. Observers here speak confidently of the persistent hunting of flies by these early queen wasps, out too soon for nectar from flowers, and say the early wasps put down the flies for this summer. Flies were far more numerous last year, and, other things being equal, a beekeeper predicts. many flies next summer, because of this season’s scarcity of wasps. He re- members such an experience at Green St. Green (Dartford). On May 27 I saw a note about more wasps than usual at Dudley, a district fairly free compared with the south and west. It was during May when so many early queens were observed here. S. Priest (Hon. sec., Dartford Naturalists’ Field Club). REFERRING to Mr. Davis’s letter, it would be interest- ing to know if the same dearth of wasps has been noted in the cider counties. I have caught only two here this season (in jars of beer and sugar placed ‘outside), while last year I trapped hundreds. C, Carus-WIzson, Strawberry Hill, Middlesex, October 13. Glacial Nomenclature and Scott’s Antarctic Expedition. In the review of my book, “‘ With Scott—The Silver Lining,”’ in Nature of June 1, the reviewer, among many kindly remarks, takes exception to my use of the word ‘‘riegel.” He prefers the English word “bar.’’ I have briefly explained my point of view in the Geographical Journal (p. 571, December, 1914), but may be allowed to elaborate it a little. Webster gives fourteen paragraphs dealing with different meanings of the word “bar.’’ One at least of these—the bar of a river—is a geographic term. Why should the reviewer use the Scotch word “ corrie”’ or the French “cirque” (as I use the Welsh ‘‘cwm”) if not because—as in my case—there is no English word which is not ambiguous? I believe that there wasa movement in Oxford to standardise geographic nomen- clature. I sent in a memorandum in 1913, but have heard nothing of it lately. May I refer briefly to further Antarctic questions raised in the review? The “catenary curves" illus- trated in my book are not “ordinary denudation curves’? in my opinion. They are common in the Alps (e.g. above Hospenthal, on the St. Gothard Road), but not in regions of normal erosion. An ordinary water-cut valley only a few hundred yards across would certainly not exhibit the smooth catenary curve of the small empty Antarctic valleys. The small scale of the photograph of the Discovery Hut (p. 189) has, I feel sure, led the reviewer into a’ natural error. My colleague, Debenham, is emerging vid the window, since the door alongside was then blocked by ice. J am certain that Prof. J W. Gregory’s hut could not have been satisfactorily erected so that the “ support” shown in the figure could have been sunk in the ice. Under the latter condition the door sill would have been 3 ft. below ground-level. The problem of the ‘‘origin of the glacier valleys” 150 through the Royal Society Range is to a large degree answered by what I call the ‘ palimpsest theory” (v., pi" st7m): In effect the outlet glaciers flow down notches cut by earlier headward (or cwm) erosion. I hope to publish shortly a mass of evidence and illus- tration in support of this sequence in glacial erosion. GRIFFITH TAYLOR. Meteorological Bureau, Melbourne, July 26. Muret Sanders’s ‘‘Encyclopaidisches Wérterbuch”" gives “riegel,"’ in addition to the various ordinary meanings of the word ‘“‘bar,” including a bar of soap, eleven other meanings. What advantage is there in the use of a German term over an English term when both have equally varied meanings? The term “riegel’’ is especially overloaded, as in geography, according to Grimm’s ‘Deutsches Worterbuch,” it is used in South Germany for a ‘kleine Anhohe, steiler Absatz eines Berges,” and he also quotes its use for a watershed. Ordinary water erosion would certainly produce a slope with catenary curves if it is operating on suitable rock and under suitable conditions. The conclusion that the Discovery Hut was not erected as designed was not based only on Dr. Taylor’s photograph, and there could have been no difficulty in managing the supports on any surface of ice which had not so steep a slope as to be otherwise unsuitable. The more detailed information regarding the origin of the glacier valleys which Dr. Taylor obviously col- lected may, as was remarked in the review, explain their origin. Dr. Taylor’s further publication will be awaited with interest. Tue REVIEWER. ANNEALING GLASS. VERYONE who makes chemical apparatus ~ by blowing glass practises annealing in a rude way by allowing the glass to cool slowly by g‘adual removal from the flame, or by the use of a smoky flame. In glass works more systematic annealing is effected by slow passage through a long chamber wherein the temperature falls from the incoming to the outgoing end. In the manu- facture of optical glass of many different qualities the question of annealing is one of the first importance, as they differ so much in fusibility. Messrs. Hilger have after a careful investigation found the means of arriving at the maximum temperature necessary, and also the necessary rate of cooling, which may progressively become more rapid. Optical glasses may differ as much as 200° C. in the maximum necessary tempera- ture, which temperature may be a long way below any visible softening point. It is desirable not to exceed the necessary temperature, as the very slow cooling at the higher temperature leads to great loss of time. The method adopted by Messrs. Hilger for test- ing different specimens of glass is interesting as an example of a physical investigation made with a view to practically useful results. The principle of the method can be described very shortly. Fig. 1 shows a bar of glass supported as a canti- lever, and carrying a load. Its edges are ground and polished in the form of two parallel planes. This is set up in an electrically heated muffle, with means for observing the temperature electrically. Polarised light broken up into interference bands NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 | by passage through a Babinet’s compensator is passed through the glass, and when this is loaded the bands become inclined as shown in the figure, illustrating how perfectly the stress, whether of compression or extension, is proportional to the distance from the neutral axis. If the load is allowed to rest on a support in consequence of the slight yielding of the glass, the rate at which the bands change from the inclined to the straight position can be observed for any known tempera- Fic. 1. ture. Fig. 2 shows two specimens undergoing a change of temperature which sets up strains from the difference in temperature between the interior and the exterior. That the two specimens are very different is only too apparent. By watching the bands in specimens of glass Messrs. Hilger are able to ascertain when the glass is hot enough to allow the internal strains to be relieved in a convenient time, and whether as the glass cools internal strains are avoided by Fic. 2. sufficiently slow cooling. After a point is reached at which the glass has lost all viscosity the cool- - ing may be accelerated, and though the bands then become curved they straighten out again when ‘ultimately the temperature is equalised. There is no hard-and-fast point at which the glass ceases to be viscous, and so there is a progressive per- missible increase in the rate of cooling. Messrs. Hilger have thus shown how annealing may be effected perfectly in the minimum of time. Though “~~ we OcrToBER 26, 1916] the research was carried out with the object of finding how best to anneal blocks of optical glass, the apparatus is available for testing any glass, chemical or otherwise, and Messrs. Hilger, having _the apparatus set up in their laboratory, are pre- pared to test specimens of glass for the trade, and thus provide the valuable information which they are able so easily to obtain. , Cc. V. Boys. UNIVERSITY AND HIGHER TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION IN- FRANCE. ‘Bae of the principal articles in the Revue générale des Sciences for June 30 is that by Prof. Paul Janet, of the Sorbonne, director of the Higher School of Electricity, concerning the v6le of the universities in higher technical instruc- tion, especially in relation to the Bill before the French Senate, at the instance of M. le Goy, to sanction the establishment of faculties of applied science in the universities. The proposed measure is exciting considerable interest, not only amongst the learned bodies in France, but also amongst those engaged in scientific industries. The ques- tion has assumed a deeper interest in view of the problems raised by the war and of the position and means of development at its close of the national industries, especially those closely de- pendent upon chemical and electrical science. Incidentally the question raised by M. le Goy in his project embraces other deep considerations relating to economic problems, including the right direction and utilisation of capital, the question of tariffs and raw materials, a closer union of capital and labour, and especially the creation of a better educated industrial personnel in the scien- | tific control and administration of industry, to- gether with measures for the amelioration of in- dustrial conditions. It is urged with considerable force that there is need of. a much closer undeér- | standing between men devoted to pure science and those engaged in the higher technical industries. The former are often ignorant of the difficulties which beset the engineer and manufacturer, de- spite the systematic methods he employs in the actual production of commodities; whilst the latter, resenting the accusation that they lack all scientific spirit, do not hesitate to apply derisively the epithet “Sorbonnique” to the science which is incontinently thrust upon them. Only when this antagonism is entirely removed by a closer sympathy, understanding, and appre- ciation, on the one hand, of the potentialities of pure science, and on the other of the difficulties which beset its translation into terms of produc- tion, can there come that union of effort upon which the successful development of industry depends. In the case of the electrical industry it is freely ad- mitted by all concerned that it finds its solid base in | electrical science; nor is it now possible to pre- tend that any man can hope to become a com- petent engineer whose technical skill is not founded upon a sound training in science. NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE {51 The article goes on to consider the existing resources for the training of the expert engineer, - and passes in rapid review the faculties of science existing in the universities of France and their competence to train the future technologist; the technical institutes, such as the Chemical Institute at Nancy, founded in 1890, and the Electro- Technical Institute at Grenoble, founded in 1892; the Ecole Polytechnique and the Central School of Arts and Manufactures at Paris, and other special schools in France. An unfavourable view is taken, however, as to the competence of the facul- ties of science, which have never shown any ap- preciation of the needs of industry, adequately to train the men, who in fact do not really seek them, destined for industrial pursuits. A firm distinction is drawn between the ideals and aims of the university and the functions of the schools of practical science. The former need for their realisation absolute freedom and long: leisure, since their purpose is the exploration and dis- covery of natural laws, the attainment of exact knowledge as the grand end of their existence, and the moral rather than the material progress of humanity. Research is with them the end, and teaching only the means. The latter, to achieve their purpose, require direct contact with indus- trial problems, and the due and serious employ- ment of the time of their students, with strict discipline and method and supervised work. In order to bring the universities into closer touch with industry, it is suggested that they should, with the collaboration of practical men, establish scientific institutes preparatory to in- dustry. It is further proposed to found a very | few higher technical schools for more advanced '-industrial training and research, established and controlled directly by men eminent in industry, yet aided by the State and directly linked with the Ministry of Public Instruction. PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND OTHERS. PUNCH ” of September 27, under the title of “Public Schools,” prints a poem of which the last two verses are as follows :— Spite of the anti-classicists’ arraigning, Spite of the ink so petulantly spilt, Not by exact laboratory training, Not by the test-tube character is built. Only in fields of emulous endeavour, Fired by the teaching of the famous dead, Public-school boys, who play the game for ever, Grow into leaders and inspire the led. Puspiic ScHoots: AN ANSWER. Dear Punch, your poet praises public schools, Not well, nor wisely, nor by half enough. Their modern Army Classes, “mostly fools,’ Have shed his “grand old fortifying ’”’ stuff. Their “labs,” which he accentuates so oddly, | Seem just as formative, and just as godly. 152 Again, those test-tubes, which his words abhor, And cheap thermometers with paper zeroes, All made in Germany before the war, Were not unknown to many of their heroes. [Just now sweet girls in improvised pavilions Are turning English test-tubes out by millions. ] Boys from our “public schools” (including those Provided, non-provided, and the rest of it), When once the opportunity arose, Quitted themselves like men, and made the best of. it. The highest praise for such a band of brothers, Would be: “Each did his duty like the others.” Then, as to leadership, I knew a lad, By nature quite unqualified to grapple With Greek and Latin verses. This was bad. Worse still, a Jew, he never went to chapel. And yet he learnt, in spite of missing sermons, His duty to-his men, and to the Germans. Perhaps the Duke was right in his remark, That old, apocryphal, and hackneyed saying ; And Eton Playing-fields, and Regent’s Park, And all fair fields where British boys are playing, : Have proved of higher value to the nation ‘Than classical, or modern, education. W. DWE. NOTES. THERE have been much overlapping and unevenness of distribution in connection with the food parcels sent to British prisoners of war; and little scientific guid- ance has been sought or given as to the food-values of the things included in the parcels. The first of these defects will be remedied by a scheme which is to be brought into effect on December 1. It is announced that the Central Prisoners of War Committee, recently established by the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, has, with the authority of the Government, now made the necessary arrangements for co-ordinating and controlling the work of the various associations and individuals at present sending parcels to British prisoners of war in Germany and other enemy and neutral countries. These arrange- ments have been made with the view of securing :— (1) That every prisoner shall receive an adequate supply of the comforts in the form of food, etc.; (2) that the excellent work being done at present by asso- ciations and individuals shall be disturbed as little as possible; (3) that overlapping and consequent waste shall be reduced toa minimum. In order to attain these objects the following arrangements have been made :— (1) All parcels must be sent through the Central Com- mittee or an association authorised by it; (2) individual senders are requested not to send food parcels, but to arrange for this to be done by a recognised asso- ciation. It is hoped that individuals and organisations now collecting funds for prisoners of war will continue their efforts, and will send the money collected either to the Central Committee or to such recognised asso- ciation as they prefer. Subscriptions and donations should be sent to the Right Hon. Sir Starr Jameson, Bt., C.B., 4 Thurloe Place, London, S.W. All other communications should be addressed to the Secretary, Central Prisoners of War Committee, 4 Thurloe Place, NO. 2452, VOL. 98| NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 London, S.W. We suggest to the committee that guidance is needed as to the most suitable things to send from the point of view of food-values. A prisoner of war doing moderate work requires a daily ration which has an energy value of 2500 calories, and may be made up of proteins, 100) grams; carbohydrates, 400 grams; and fats, 50 grams. bination of several things in a parcel. The British | Science Guild has appointed a committee to make sug- gestions relating to food parcels, and the Central Prisoners of War Committee should enlist its aid or that of other food experts in order to advise associa- tions as to the most suitable constituents of the parcels, ‘ Tne Board of Agriculture announces that an estate of 2363 acres near Patrington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, about fifteen miles distant from Hull, has been acquired under the provisions of the Small Hold- ing Colonies Act, 1916, for the purpose of a land- settlement colony of ‘ex-service men. The soil is a rich alluvium capable of producing very heavy crops. This colony, when fully developed, will consist of a central farm of about 200 acres and sixty small hold- ings of ‘‘mixed farming” type, averaging about 35 acres in extent. The equipment of each of the latter will include a comfortable cottage and the neces- sary farm buildings for carrying on the holding. The central farm will be under the management of a direc- tor, and will be equipped with machinery, implements, horses, etc., which will be let out on hire to settlers requiring them. Selected applicants will, if necessary, receive preliminary training by working on the central — farm under the supervision of the director, and be paid wages until such time as they are considered capable of working a holding independently. They will then — be allotted, at a reasonable rental, land near their cottages which, if of less extent than the avera sized holding above indicated, may be afterwards in- — Coe 3 creased by taking land from the central farm. operative methods will be adopted for the purchase of requirements and the consignment and disposal of pro- duce. This is, we believe, the first experiment of its kind in this country, and its development will be watched with great interest. For some years there has been a great controversy as to the merits of schemes of this kind, and now arises the opportunity for the large-scale test. The experience gained is likely to be of great value, deciding whether or not such colonies can be run on an economic basis. cor Pror. A. S. Donner, director of the observatory at Helsingfors, has presented to the University, of which he was formerly rector, the sum of 8000l., to ensure the continuance, and indeed the completion, of the “Catalogue photographique du Ciel, Zone de Helsing- fors,” begun under his direction in 1890. Hitherto the work has been paid for, partly by the University, partly by Prof. Donner out of his private means. The sum now allotted by him is intended to cover all ex- penses for twelve years, when, at its present rate of progress, the task should be finished. Tue Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, has elected as corresponding members Sir Ernest Shackleton and Mr. W. H. Hudson, author of “Argentine Ornithology” and other works. Mr. Hudson is an Argentine by birth. Tue opening meeting of the Institution of Electrical Engineers for the session 1916-17 will be held on Thursday, November 9, when the eighth Kelvin lec- ture will be delivered by Dr. Alexander Russell, who Ba ¢ It is possible to com-— | bine all these constituents in a single foodstuff, or - to see that the ratios are roughly supplied by the com- ~ Pe ee ee ee —_ od rd OcToBER 26, 1916] will take as his subject. ‘Some Aspects of Lord Kelvin’s Life and Work.” Tue address of the retiring president, Sir Joseph Larmor, at the anniversary meeting of the London Mathematical Society, to be held on Thursday, Novem- ber 2, at 5.30, at Burlington House, will deal mainly with ‘‘The Fourier Harmonic Analysis: its Practical Scope and its Limitations.” Tue Cardiff Naturalists’ Society, the most influ- ential body of its kind in Wales, attains its jubilee next year. It is hoped to signalise the event in a useful way by producing a complete fauna of Glamorgan. A SINGULAR phenomenon excited extraordinary atten- tion at and round Cardiff on the evening of October 16. About 6.25 a narrow bar of light appeared in the north-north-west, about 6° long and 1° broad, some 40° above the horizon, the sky being mostly overcast at the time. By 6.35 it had shifted to the north, and ten minutes later to its former situation, whilst a similar appearance was seen in the north- east, a good deal fainter than the other. The beam just mentioned was of an angry ruddy colour, and fitfully illuminated the surrounding haze. Along the northern horizon all this time there was a glow, prob- ably of auroral origin, and the Rev. John Griffith informs the writer that the shaft of light was, in his opinion, possibly auroral also, he having witnessed a similar phenomenon some years ago. We notice with regret the announcement of the death on September 14, in his sixty-first year, of Prof. Josiah Royce, distinguished for his contributions to philosophy, logic, ethics, and psychology, and pro- fessor of the history of philosophy at Harvard Univer- sity from 1892 until his recent retirement. Tue death is announced, in his fifty-third year, of Dr. J. H.-Kastle, research professor of chemistry since igit at the agricultural experiment station in connec- -tion with the State University of Kentucky. He had previously been chief of the division of chemistry in the hygienic laboratory of the U.S. Health and Marine Service from 1905 to 1909, and professor of chemistry at the University of Virginia from 1909 to IoIt. was the author of treatises on the chemistry of metals and the chemistry of mill, as well as of articles in the - American Chemical Journal. Ar a hearing before a New York official budget com- mittee it was recently stated that the attendance at the American Museum of Natural History for the year ending June 30, 1916, was 870,000, as against 664,215 for the previous year. The increase was attributed to the larger number of visits to the museum by classes from the schools. During the same period the attendances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Zoological Garden, and the Aquarium have considerably decreased. Tue death is announced of Dr. David Maron, a research chemist, whose work is referred to as follows in the Times of October 20:—‘Dr. Maron was a Russian, aged fifty-two, who had been resident in England for many years. He claimed to have in- vented a new process by which the output of high- explosive shells could be accelerated, and he carried on his operations at a factory near London. On Sep- tember 14 there was a serious explosion at the works. The Press Bureau announced that ‘an explosion has occurred to-day at a factory where the manufacture of explosives on a small scale for the Government had recently been commenced. The casualties are not NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE He. 153 numerous, present reports recording five killed and fifteen injured.’ . Dr. Maron was seriously injured, and he died on September 17.” In addition to the awards announced in April for papers read at the meetings, the council of the Insti- tution of Civil Engineers has made the following awards for papers published in the Proceedings with- out discussion during the session 1915-16 :—Telford premiums to Messrs. Hubert Mawson (Liverpool), T. W. Keele (Sydney), R. W. Holmes (Wellington, N.Z.), W. Fairley (London), J. M. Greathead (Johan- nesburg), T. C. Hood (Manmad, India), and J. B. Ball (London); the Manby premium to Mr. W. C. Cushing (Pittsburg, U.S.A.); and the Crampton prize to Major C. E. P. Sankey (London). The Indian premium for 1916 has been awarded to Sir John Benton (Eastbourne). j Tue President of the Board of Trade has appointed a committee to consider the position after the war, especially in relation to international competition, of the lead, copper, tin, and such other of the non-ferrous metal trades as may be referred to the committee, and to report what measures, if any, are necessary or desir- able in order to safeguard that position. The members of the committee are :—Sir Gerard Albert Muntz, Bt. (chairman), Mr. C. L. Budd, Mr..C. Cookson, Mr. C. W. Fielding, Lieut.-Col. A. J. Foster, Mr. A. W. Tait, and Mr. A. H. Wiggin. The secretary is Mr. J. F. Ronca, to whom all communications relating to the committee should be addressed at 7 Whitehall Gar- dens, S.W. Ar the statutory meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, held on October 23, the following office- bearers and council were elected :—President, Dr. J. Horne; Vice-Presidents, Dr. B. N. Peach, Sir E, A. Schafer, the Right Hon. Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, Prof, R. A. Sampson, Prof. D’Arcy Thompson, Prof. J. Walker; General Secretary, Dr. C. G. Knott; Secretaries to Ordinary Meetings, Prof. A. Robinson, Prof. E. T. Whittaker; Treasurer, Mr. J. Currie; Curator of Library and Museum, Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell; Councillors, Dr. W. B. Blaikie, Principal O. C. Bradley, Dr. R. S. MacDougall, Dr. W. A- Tait, Dr. J. H. Ashworth, Prof. C. G. Barkla, Prof. C. R. Marshall, Dr. J. S. Black, Sir G. A. Berry, Dr. J. S. Flett, Prof. M. Maclean, and Prof. D,. Water- ston. TypHoID inoculation was the subject of a question by Mr. Chancellor, the member for Haggerston, in the House of Commons on October 18. Mr. Forster, replying, said that up to August 25, 1916, of the total cases finally diagnosed as typhoid fever amongst the British troops in France, 903 were amongst inoculated men and 508 amongst uninoculated men. There were 166 deaths, 47 of which were amongst the inoculated and 119 amongst uninoculated. To the same date there were 2118 cases of paratyphoid fever, 1968 amongst inoculated men, and 150 amongst men who had not been inoculated. There were 29 deaths, 22 of which were amongst the inoculated and 7 amongst the uninoculated. From these figures it will be seen that the case-mortality per cent. for tvphoid fever is, among the inoculated 5-0, and among the uninoculated 23-4; for paratyphoid, among the inoculated 1-12, and among the uninoculated 4-66—a striking testimony in favour of inoculation. Tue exhibition of kinematograph films of Capt. R. F. Scott’s Antarctic expedition has been revived after an interval of nearly two years, and is being shown twice daily at the Philharmonic Hall by Mr. H. G. Ponting. Mr. Ponting, during the year he 154 opportunity of making kinematograph records of the life and work in the Antarctic, and has a remarkable series of pictures to show. The pictures of Weddell seals and Adelie penguins are excellent records of Antarctic animal Kfe, but cannot compare in the skill and patience required with the film of penguin chicks breaking out of their eggs or of skua gulls swooping down on a penguin rookery and stealing unguarded eggs. The film showing the bows of the Terra Nova breaking into the pack gives a good idea of how a polar ship forces her way among ice. The: films of sledging and camping show Capt. Scott and his four companions in the first few days of their southward march. These have an interest that can never fade in any field of heroism. Mr. Ponting was happily in- spired in reopening his exhibition at the present time, not only for. the high educational value of the pictures themselves, but in recalling the devotion and self-sacrifice that men may show in peaceful endeavour. We learn from Symons’s Meteorological Magazine that Mr. Edward Mawley died on September 15, at seventy-four years of age. The following particulars of his work in meteorology are from an obituary notice in our contemporary :—Mr. Mawley was elected a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1876, and served continuously on the council from 1881 to 1g08.. He was president in 1896-98, when he gave two addresses of great value. - The first was on ‘*Shade Temperature,’ giving the results of a lengthy series of experiments with different patterns of ther- mometer screen, which resulted in the adoption of the Royal Meteorological Society’s modification of the Stevenson screen. The second was on “ Weather Influence on Farm and Garden Crops,’’? and may be said’ to have intertwined the two main branches of his life-work. After retiring from the presidency he acted as secretary at the meetings of the society from 1898 to 1901, and throughout the whole time his influ- ence was always exercised in extending the usefulness of the society and increasing its dignity. Mr. Mawley commenced his meteorological observations at Rich- mond, Surrey, in 1870, and in 1873 he went to Addis- combe, near Croydon, where his meteorological ob- servations were greatly extended. In 1883 he moved to Berkhamsted, where he soon created one of the finest private meteorological stations in the country, ; THE meeting of the Gilbert Club, to which’ we referred in our issue of October 12, was held in the rooms of the Royal Society of Arts on Wednesday of. last week. The Right Hon. Lord Moulton occupied the chair. Mr. Conrad Cooke, the hon. secretary, read his report recording the past history and present position of the club, and in it he paid a warm tribute to the memory of Prof. Silvanus Thompson, . expressing the irreparable loss to the club, of which he was the life and soul, by his lamented death. Mr. Charles Benham, of Colchester, as representing the hon, treasurer, read the hon, treasurer’s report. Both these reports were adopted. .The members then devoted themselves to a discussion as to the disposal. of the property of the club, including thirty-four copies of the translation of. Gilbert’s ‘‘ De Magnete,” issued by- the Gilbert Club, and letters were read from Lord Rayleigh, Sir Joseph Larmor, Dr. Singer, of Oxford, Mr. W. M. Mordey, Mr. James Pax- man, and others, in which various suggestions swere made, and a general discussion followed. The general consensus of opinion, however, appeared to be that the proceeds. should be devoted to forming the nucleus of a fund to establish a Gilbert scholarship for. physical science in the Royal Grammar School at Colchester, in which in all probability. William : Gil-- NO. 2452, VOL. 98] \ NCTE spent with the expedition, availed himself, of every. [OcToBER 26, 1916 bert was himself. ascholar,. Lord Moulton, in» sum~ ming up the discussion, pointed out the legal aspect of the question, giving it as his opinion that the meeting was not competent to dispose of the property. of the club outside its original constitution without giving notice to the members beforehand of the sug- — gestion to be proposed. He considered it advisable that the meeting should be adjourned for three months in order that this should be done. Lord Moulton’s’ recommendation was unanimously adopted, In the October issue of Man Mr. St. George Gray describes a remarkable chipped flint implement found in British Honduras. It is 193 in.-in length, chipped throughout, with a straight, chopper-like edge on one side, and on the other two tapering projections. In general character it resembles other large and occa- sionally serrated implements found in Honduras and now in European museums. No suggestion is made. about the possible use of such an implement; but the © theory may be hazarded that it bears some ritualistic significance, and. that it may have been used in sacri-_ fice or for some similar religious purpose. 5 f Dr. A. C. Happon contributes to the October issue of Man a useful article on “Kava Drinking in New Guinea,”’ based partly on published materials and’ partly on information collected for the first time from” friends who have visited the island. The question is. important, because Kava drinking has been regarded as a criterion of a certain definite migration, or series’ of migrations, into Oceania. The root of the pepper’ plant (Piper methysticum) is chewed, not only. by grown-up men, who take part in the feast, but also, by boys, to whom the drink is still forbidden, and who, together with the women, are not allowed access; to the feasting assembly. It is then filtered through grass in a coconut shell, and a traveller who drank, it found that it possessed powerful intoxicating pro- perties. It was apparently used to produce mental excitement during some form of tribal ritual. In: British New Guinea the custom prevails among three cultures : those of the-Kabiri, Mawata, and Maringara,, Dr. Haddon supposes that it might readily spread. from the Kabiri to the bush peoples behind the Fly, delta, but we are in the dark as to the date of this. possible drift. There seems to be no reason to believe. that it was imported into the Fly estuary area on the. south coast of Netherlands New Guinea - by a migra-. tion or cultural drift by sea. it has come overland, possibly from Astrolabe Bay. This must, however, remain doubtful until we know more of the races. in the interior of New Guinea. Tue psychology of the organised group game is the. subject of the fourth Monograph Supplement to the: British Journal of Psychology. The author, M. J., Reaney, in her introduction, considers the problem, of play in general, and summarises the various. theories, both physiological and, biological, which have been put forward to account for the phenomena of, play. She then reviews the types of play leading up to the organised group game, which. occupies such a prominent position in the life of modern England. The relation between the type of game played and the’ degree of racial development is brought out, showing) that the organised group game appears only in races! which have reached a stage of development in which: co-operation is combined with division of labour and, loyalty to a leader. She suggests, too, that this form. of play gives an outlet to instinctive tendencies for’ which civilised life affords little scope. In an inves-* tigation worked on the principle of correlation she~ found a direct correspondence between general ability. and. success at games. ©The paper-will be of particular . His own opinion is that . 4 q > ) an" 2s ee ie Bt GD eee ae OcTOBER 26, 1916] | interest at the present time, when the place of games in education is so much discussed, and when the Eng- lish habit. of “‘ playing the game”’ is showing its value, Apart from the scientific value, antiquarians and his- torians will find much that is interesting. Dr. Hamiyn-Harris and Mr. Frank Smith contri- bute some valuable notes to the Memoirs of the pneeoeaas Museum, vol. y., on ‘‘ Fish Poisoning and oisons Employed among the Aborigines of Queens- land.” Considering the widespread practice of fish poisoning, the authors hold that it is not unjustifiable to assume an independent origin among the Australian aborigines, and the evolution of an empirical know- ledge of efficient piscicides. Having regard to the very considerable number of plants used for this purpose, the varied properties of the poisons obtained from them, and the skill and knowledge displayed in their preparation, the intelligence and: reasoning powers of the preparers would seem to be of a higher standard than that generally attributed to them. Tue Rey. S. Graham Birks contributes a lengthy paper on Megalichthys to the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, vol. iv., part 2. The fossils described belong in part to the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in part to the Manchester Museum, some of which have not been previously de- _ scribed. The result of this investigation, it is con- tended, seems to show that the position of Megalich- thys in the family Osteolepidz is by no means secure. There are, indeed, indications that the classification of the Rhipidistia is in an unsatisfactory state. Ac- cording to the author, although Megalichthys is not itself the ancestral type of the Stegocephalian Am- phibia, there can be little doubt that the study of this genus leads inévitably towards the conclusion that its affinities: are with the ancestral type, and that - the Stegocephalia were evolved from a similar fish, and probably from ‘a nearly related form. A number of very) beautiful photographs add much to the value of this work. Foal : Messrs. HERON-ALLEN AND EarLanpD have issued a report (Trans, Linn. Soc., London, Zool.,. vol. xi., part 13, 1916), illustrated with five excellent plates, on the Foraminifera collected during the cruise of Prof. Herdman’s steam-yacht Runa off the west of Scotland in1913. The material examined consisted of shore-sand and dredgings from comparatively shallow waters— sixty fathoms being the greatest depth. A list is given of the twenty-five stations at which the material. was obtained, the more noteworthy species from each being indicated, and following this is a systematic. account of the 324 species and varieties identified in the gather- ings. A new species, Halophrdgmium runianum, and a new variety of Lagena pulchella are described; twenty-seven species are recorded for the first time from British waters, and a considerable number make their appearance for the second time only in a British list. The richest material was a lump of mud of about 33 lb. weight, dredged from twelve fathoms in Loch Sunart, which yielded 203 species and varieties of Foraminifera. The memoir forms an important contribution to our knowledge of the Foraminifera of the British area. THE report on the survey operations in New Zealand for the year 1915-16, has been received. Despite the difficulties it had to contend with in shortage of sur- veyors and of funds, the department records that the acreage of the settlement survey is considerably in excess of the previous year, while the cost per acre has been decreased. On the other hand, little triangu- lation was done, and shortage of paper seems to have NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE | 155 delayed the publication of several maps. A feature of the report is the inclusion of a map of Anzac and the Suvla Bay area on a scale of one inch to a mile, with the heights and trenches shown. Some notes on the operations accompany the map. It is fitting that the Survey Department should make this record of the gallant endeavours of the New Zealanders and Austra- lians in Gallipoli. In connection with the navigability of Hudson Bay and its’ value as an outlet for Canadian grain, a useful list of arrivals and departures of ships at and from Moose Factory has been compiled by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell (Papers and Records of the Ontario Historical Society, vol. xiv.). The record shows that from 1751 to 1880 not a single year passed without at least one ship arriving at Moose Factory, generally in August or September, but occasionally in July or October. The ships left again in August or September. Furthermore, Mr. Tyrrell points out that for eighty years previous to 1751, and for thirty-five years after 1880, ships sailed from Britain to Moose Factory bringing sup- plies, and returned with furs. When it is remembered that these ships were generally old sailing vessels, and that as a rule no attempt was made to send more than the one ship a year, the record is evidence that Hudson Strait and Bay could easily be navigated by steamers for some three months at least every summer. Two papers by Dr. L. V, King on the ‘* Linear Hot Wire Anemometer "’ have been reprinted from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, January, 1916. In these papers the mathematical theory of the instru- ment .and.the uses to which it may be put are dis- cussed by the author. The instrument consists essen- tially of a fine platinum wire carrying an electric current. The temperature of the wire depends on its resistance and the strength of the current, and also on the rate at which it is cooling, since the wire, being very fine, has little capacity for heat, and the energy supplied by the current must just balance the loss by radiation and.convection. The loss by con- vection is naturally dependent on the velocity of the air current in which the wire is placed, and it is claimed that by suitable measurements of the current and the resistance the velocity of the air to which the wire is exposed can be measured with an accuracy of less than 1 per cent. There are obviously many cases where such-an instrument can be usefully employed, notably in mapping out the stream lines in two-dimen- sional motion, where the wire can be placed perpen- dicularly to the plane of motion. Wires of about 1/400 in. diameter are used, so that very little inter- ference with the flow of air is caused. Mr. Murray’s new. list of announcements includes the following forthcoming books of science in addition to those to which attention has been directed already in our columns :—‘‘ The War and the Nation: a Study in Constructive Politics,’ by W. C. D. Whetham—the book will deal with such topics as land, coal and rail- ways, science and industry, and with those funda- mental racial problems made acute by the great loss of life caused by the present war; “ Volcanic Studies in Many Lands,” by the late Dr. Tempest Anderson, second series—the volume is intended as a memorial to the author by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and will contain the results of further visits to the Lipari Islands, Vesuvius (after the outburst in 1906), and to Etna, together with photographs taken after the great eruptions of the Soufriére and Mont Pelée; “Horses,” by R. Pocock, with a preface by Prof. J. Cossar Ewart; and “British Agriculture: . The Nation’s Opportunity, being the Minority Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of 156 NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 Sailors and Soldiers on the Land, together with some Considerations’ by a Free Trader in Favour of the Policy therein Advocated.”’ Tue following volumes are in preparatioa for ap- pearance in the ‘“ University of Michigan Studies” (New York: The Macmillan Company) :—Contribu- tions to the History of Science, part ii., *‘The Pro- dromus of Nicholas Steno’s Latin Dissertation on a Solid Body Enclosed by Natural Process within a Solid,” translated into English by Prof. J. G. Winter, with a foreword by Prof. W. H. Hobbs, illustrated ; part iii., ‘‘ Vesuvius in Antiquity,” passages of ancient authors, with a translation and elucidations, by F. W. Kelsey, illustrated; Scientific Series, vol. ii., ** Studies on Divergent Series and Summability,” by Prof. W. B. Ford. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Two Larce Firesatts.—On October 20 at 8h. 14m. and toh, 34m. p.m. large fireballs were observed. The first was seen by Mr. J. E. Clark, of Purley, Surrey, and it was estimated as twice as bright as Venus. The path was 82°+62° to 79°+35°, and its duration four to five seconds. The second was seen by Mrs, Fiam- metta Wilson at Totteridge, Herts, and. by Mr. Den- ning at Bristol. It appeared as a ball of fire stream- ing slowly along in a level course about 8° above the northern horizon. This fireball was at a great distance from the observers, and probably over the southern region of Scotland. It probably emanated, like Mr. Clark’s fireball, seen earlier on the same night, from a radiant near Zeta Herculis low in the N.W. sky. Encxe’s Comet.—Further particulars of Dr. Max Wolf’s recent observation of Encke’s comet are given in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4861. The search for the comet was undertaken at the instigation of Dr. Kritzinger, and eight plates were taken at different times during August and September, with exposures amounting altogether to about thirteen hours. The last two exposures were made on September 22, in a very clear sky, and though the plates were on the point of being regarded as failures, the use of lower magnifying power easily revealed the comet, at a point about 20’ from the position given by the ephemeris. The comet appeared on both plates as a faint nebulous patch, with an extremely small condensation, and the displacement of the images in the interval between the exposures corresponded precisely with the ephemeris. The photographs were taken with the 71-cm. reflector, which was guided to follow the probable motion of the comet. The observation is of special interest from the fact that the comet was not far from the aphelion point of its orbit. INTERNAL Motion 1N Spina. NepuLa:.—An investi- gation of internal motions in the spiral nebula Messier tor has been undertaken by A. van Maanen (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol ii., p. 386). In the first instance measures weré made with the stereocom- parator on two photographs taken by Ritchey in 1910 and 1915, and strong evidence of motion, even in this short interval, was obtained. Other plates, taken - with the Crossley reflector of the Lick Observatory in 1899, 1908, and 1914, were afterwards included in the discussion. The resulting data depend upon measures of eighty-seven nebulous points and thirty- two comparison stars. Relatively to the mean of the comparison stars, the annual motion of translation of the nebula was found to be +0005” in R.A. and —o0:013” in declination. The mean rotational motion is 0-022” left-handed, and the mean radial motion 0-007” outward. The measures further indicate a small, but scarcely trustworthy, decrease of rotational NO. 2452, VOL. 98] motion with increasing distance from the centre. At the mean distance of 5’ from the centre, the rota- tional motion of 0-022" corresponds to a period of about 85,000 years. If the parallax were known, and if it could be assumed that the movements were in elliptical orbits, the central mass could be calculated. — A comparison with the average translation of spiral nebulz determined by Curtis suggests a parallax of 0-005", while a comparison. of the cross-motions with the known radial velocities of some of the spiral nebulz leads to 0-0003".. The corresponding central masses are 30,000 and 140,000,000 times that of the sun, and the corresponding orbital’ motions 21 and 345 km./sec. Evidence of rotation has also been found in Messier 81. ’ THE ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. : LARGELY attended general meeting of the members of the Association of Technical Institu- tions was held on October 20-21 at the Imperial College of Technology and Science, under the presi- dency of Sir Alfred Keogh, K.C.B., the president of the association, with the view of discussing educa- tional questions bearing upon the work of technical schools and colleges. The Right Hon. A. H. Dyke- Acland, the chairman of the executive of the governors of the Imperial College, extended a welcome to the members and referred to the splendid service which Sir Alfred Keogh, the rector of the college, in his capacity of director of the Army Medical Service, was rendering to the nation. : The conference was addressed in the first instance by Lord Haldane, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, who took for his subject ‘‘Education after the War, with special reference to Technical Instruc- tion.’’ technical education was based upon large ideas and was penetrated by sound knowledge it must surely fail. He deprecated most strongly the current con- troversies which sought to place the teaching of the humanities. and natural science in unfriendly relation. Knowledge was one and _ indivisible. The study of fine literature and of the thought it embodies was just as needful to the complete train- ing of the human being as the study of mathematics or of the phenomena of Nature, since the object of all true education was a wider, a more penetrating and stimulating vision. The teaching of the higher mathematics could, if taught in the right way, be made as stimulating as the classics. There was a great awakening in the nation, induced by the events of the war, to the paramount necessity for know- ledge. Education and, business were not really in two compartments. Rightly considered, the success- ful pursuit of manufacture and commerce depended for its permanence and value upon sound methods of education and the acquisition of accurate knowledge. Many apt and clear illustrations in support of this contention were adduced from the sphere of chemical, physical, and electrical science and practice. In the domain of applied science attention was directed to the . fact that London was the great centre of the world’s trade in furs, but that in order to make the furs market- able to the consumer we exported them to foreign coun- tries, notably to Saxony, where alone they could be dyed and treated with suitable effect. The aloofness between the man of business and the man of science must cease, and all classes from the workers upwards, amongst whom there was splendid raw material, must receive the benefits of scientific training. We must have a higher standard of knowledge not only for managers, but for workmen also, if the position of He made clear in his address that unless — "i; OcToBER 26, 1916] the nation industrially and commercially is to be maintained in face of the fierce competition of the advanced nations of the world. The nation is really entering upon the most critical period of its history. The old spirit was splendid, but it will not avail against modern science any more than we could make progress on the Somme without modern science in furnishing us with the great artillery and high ex- plosives required for battering down the trenches before us. Undue specialisation in secondary schools was undesirable in the best interests of education. Lord Haldane’s address was followed bya valuable paper by Sir A. Trevor Dawson, of Vickers, Ltd., on “Education after the War, with special reference to Engineering Instruction,’’ in which he strongly urged the desirability of apprenticeship be- ginning at an earlier age than at present, and that the most capable boys should devote a portion of each day to the workshop and the rest to the school, and that every encouragement should be given to capable and talented boys, with a view to their being sent on to the technical college or university to complete their theoretical training, serving their vacations in the works so that they may have the advantage of special courses of advanced work on experimental re- search. The council of the association was instructed to prepare a public statement dealing with the immediate necessity for the further development of the means of scientific and technical education, and a resolution was passed calling upon Parliament to abolish all forms of exemption from school attendance below the age of fourteen, and to requiye compulsory facilities for continued education up to seventeen years of age, ex- tending to at least six hours per week within working hours, for all persons employed who have left school. A further resolution was passed to invite the govern- ing bodies of the various agricultural schools and colleges to join the association. On Saturday, October 21, a valuable and suggestive paper was read by Major Robert Mitchell, director of the Regent Street Polytechnic on ‘‘What Can Be Done to Train Disabled Sailors and Soldiers in Technical Institu- tions?”’ The facilities existing in London for the training of such disabled men in various occupations, and the success which had followed the work, together with the necessity for its further extension through- out the country, were fully set forth. RECENT WORK ON TSETSE-FLIES. wf hn tsetse-flies (Glossina) continue to occupy the attention of entomologists working in tropical Africa. Dr. W. A. Lamborn has now published (Bull. Entom, Research, vii., part 1) a third report of his investigations into the habits of these flies in Nyasa- land (see Nature, vol. xcvii., p. 90). He believes that an abundance of the flies usually indicates the presence of “big game” in the neighbourhood; yet he doubts whether the destruction of game would be effective in reducing the numbers of the fly, because ‘‘the game, if severely harassed, will retire [to surrounding areas] during the dry season, when only it is possible to hunt, returning in the wet and probably bringing more flies with it.” In the same number of the bulletin there is also a paper by LI. Lloyd on Glossina morsi- tans in northern Rhodesia. His observations show that in districts where game is scarce tsetses are often more numerous and troublesome than where game is plentiful; he suggests that this is because the flies, in the absence or scarcity of other mammalian prey, must attack man in larger numbers and with a more violent hunger. Mr. Lloyd, like Dr. Lamborn, finds males much more abundant than females in ordinary collections of Glossina, but Dr. Lamborn points out NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE 157 that the proportion of females is largely increased when flies are caught beneath an’ umbrella or resting on trees, approaching the equality with the males which is seen in flies reared from puparia. Both writers have interesting notes on species of Mutilla (described by R. E. Turner in the same number of the bulletin), the larvz of which are parasitic in the pupe of the tsetses, while. Dr. Lamborn has shown that a small chalcid (Syntomosphyrum glossinae), believed also to be a parasite of the, Glossina, is really a hyperparasite on the Mutilla. A convenient and useful summary of our knowledge of the tsetse-flies (‘‘ Notice sur les Glossines ou Tsé- tsés”) by E. Hegh has been published in London under the auspices of the Belgian Colonial Ministry. It serves aS an introduction to the structure, life- history, and classification of the insects in tropical Africa generally, but with special reference to the Belgian Congo. M. Hegh begins his historical intro- duction with the work of Bruce in 1895-6, and seems to ascribe to that distinguished surgeon the discovery that tsetse-flies carry disease. The deadly action of Glossina on European domestic beasts was well known to Livingstone during his early African journeys, and in his ‘‘ Missionary Travels and Researches” (1857) he described the effect of the tsetse’s bite on cattle and horses. With a seeming prevision of modern dis- coveries, he wrote of the ‘‘ germ” of a poison ‘‘ which enters when the proboscis is inserted to draw blood,’” and which ‘“‘seems capable, although very minute in quantity, of reproducing itself.” Bruce’s contribution to the subject was the demonstration of this ‘‘germ”’ as a flagellate blood-parasite or Trypanosoma. % Ge Ga ZOOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. G My papers read in Section D were devoted chiefly to the consideration of problems arising out of the war. An account has already appeared in NATURE for October 19 of the papers on fisheries. Flies. Mr. F. M. Howlett gave a lecture dealing with the occurrence, habits, life-history, and means of preven- tion and destruction of the principal insects which have been troublesome during the campaign in France and Flanders. In another communication he surveyed briefly the known facts regarding the senses of insects, and gave an account of his observations, made in India, on the extraordinary attractiveness for the males of certain species of flies of isovaleric aldehyde, isoeugenol,.and methyleugenol. Miss O. C. Lodge gave an account of studies on the habits of flies in relation to means employed for their destruction. The best bait for blow-flies was found to be liver, brain, and fish which had been already attacked by maggots, and thus rendered more attractive. Baits were found to be much more attrac- tive in the sun than in the shade. The best bait for house-flies is a mixture of casein, banana, any sweet substance, and water. Formalin in water (about 1:13) is apparently the best poison (excluding scheduled poisons) to use against house-flies. Bilharzia Disease in Egypt. Dr. R. T. Leiper gave an account of the later results obtained by the War Office Bilharzia Commission in Egypt. After sketching the conditions in a village where g1 per cent. of the schoolboys were found to be infected with Bilharzia, Dr. Leiper stated that the Commission had proved the occurrence of two species of Bilharzia, the chief characters of which he pointed out with the help of lantern illustrations. The egg of 1538 Bilharzia haematobium is terminal-spined, and the cercariz are found in the fresh-water molluscs, Bul- linus contortus and B, dybowskt, The egg of Bil- harzia mansoni is lateral-spined, and the cercariz occur in Planorbis boissyi, From these molluscs the cercariz escape, and were proved to enter experi- mental animals through the skin as well as through the mucous membrane of the mouth, Protozoa and Disease, Dr, Helen Pixell-Goodrich gave an account of the amoebe parasitic in man, namely, Entamoeba his- tolytica, the specific cause of amoebic dysentery, from the large intestine; E. gingivalis, from the mouth; and E. coli, a harmless species, feeding on the contents of its host’s intestine. Dr. Pixeil-Goodrich devoted special attention to FE. gingivalis in relation to pyorrhcea, but although this amoeba occurs so com- monly in these lesions, it was not considered to be the cause of the disease. The morphological similarity of the trophozoites of E. gingivalis and E. histolytica was pointed out, and the large characteristic inclusions of the former were held to be the nuclei of lympho- cytes. Dr. T. Goodey’s paper dealt with the results of ob- servations by Mr. Wellings and himself on E, gingi- valis, which they found in the mouths of both young and old persons wherever there was accumulation of food débris. They concluded that there is nothing to show that the organism is in any way causally con- nected with pyorrhcea, the food bodies being nuclear fragments of decomposed salivary corpuscles. 5 Dr. Annie Porter gave an account of observations by’ Dr. H. B. Fantham and herself on the flagellate protozoa associated with dysentery, with special refer- ence to cases from Gallipoli. Trichomonas hominis has been found in cases of severe diarrhoea at Salo- nica; prophylaxis is directed to the prevention of con- tamination of food or water by infected material and by possible insect carriers and rodents (similar Tricho- monads occur in rats, mice, and rabbits), and to the isolation of human ‘‘carriers.’”’ Cases of Tetramitus diarrhoea have been found among patients from Egypt, Gallipoli, and Salonica. Giardia (Lamblia) intes- tinalis was found to be the commonest flagellate in the stools (3800) of the soldiers examined, and in some cases occurred in enormous numbers; one stool was estimated to contain 14,400,000,000. Giardia derived from man is pathogenic to kittens and mice, producing erosion of the intestinal cells. Rats, mice, and cats can act as “reservoirs,” and by contaminating the food and ‘drink of man may spread the organism. War and Eugenics. Mr, Hugh Richardson stated the case ‘for the insti- tution of an inquiry into the after-effects of war on population. He pointed out the nature of the evidence available or to be sought, the statistical methods to be employed, and, after referring to the various and dubious theories held in the past, indicated some of the problems which seemed capable of solution. Sub- sequent speakers—Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, Dr. Don- caster, Dr. Tocher, and Prof. MacBride—were em- phatic in supporting the case for an impartial inquiry and for the collection and preservation of statistical information by the Registrar-General, the Army re- cruiting staff, school medical services, and other sagencies. Dr. F, A, Dixey exhibited and commented upon a series of insects collected on the way to and from and in Australia in 1914. Mr. Heron-Allen exhibited lantern-slides illustrating the mussel fishery and the life of Alcide d’Orbigny at Esnandes. , NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcTOBER 26, 1916 The Friday afternoon was devoted to a visit to the Dove Marine Laboratory at Cullercoats, the members being taken over the laboratory and aquarium by the director, Prof, Meek. J. H. AsHwortn, ENGINEERING AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. M®: GERALD STONEY devoted his presidential address to a review of some of the errors com- mitted in the past by masters and men in the engineer- ing industry.. An abridgment of the address appears elsewhere in this issue of NaTuRE, After the address a paper on ** Limit Gauges ’ was read by Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, director of the National Physical Laboratory. its importance in the manufacture of munitions. The greatly increased scale of manufacture necessitated the production of an enormous number of gauges, both for workshop use and for testing. The National Physical Laboratory has acted as the checking autho- rity for the correctness of the gauges employed by the Government inspectors. Dr. Glazebrook first described the principles of limit gauging and then the various methods and apparatus evolved for dealing with the problem at the National Physical Laboratory. A paper on “ The Principle of Similitude in Engineer- ing Design’’ was read by Dr. T. E, Stanton, who discussed the possibilities and difficulties of obtaining accurate information for the design of structures, ships, aeroplanes, propellers, etc., from tests made on small models, The late Mr, Leslie Robertson, who was lost on the Hampshire, had promised to read a paper on the work — of the International Standards Committee. Mr. le Maistre, who has succeeded him as secretary of the committee, took over the task, and read an interesting paper on “Standardisation and its Influence on the Engineering Industries.” Mr. H. T. Newbigin described the raison d’étre of the Michell type of bearing. Already in common use for thrust bearings, it is now being experimentally applied to journal bearings. : Prof. W. M, Thornton discussed ‘‘The Influence of Pressure on the Electrical Ignition of Methane,” and described experiments showing that, as the pressure is gradually increased, the energy in the spark neces- sary to cause ignition increases in a stepped, discon- tinuous manner. Prof, W. H, Watkinson described some tests show- ing that Diesel engines could be worked satisfactorily with compression pressures considerably lower than — those usually employed. Prof. G. W. O. Howe read a paper on ‘‘ The Cal- culation of the Capacity of Aerials, including the Effects of Masts and Buildings.’’ Papers on this sub- ject were read by the author at the Sydney and Man- chester meetings; in the present paper the subject is carried further, and a number of numerical examples and experimental results are given which fully confirm the method of calculation, : Mr. McLachlan described the results of some experi- ments on a Poulsen arc, to determine the best mag- netic field strength to employ for maximum output and for maximum efficiency. The only research committee that reported at length was that on ‘‘Complex Stress Distribution,’ in con- nection with which Dr. Stanton exhibited a model of anew machine in use at the National Physical Labora- tory for subjecting a specimen to a rapidly reversing combination of bending and twisting. ; The last day of the meeting was devoted to a joint discussion with the Chemical Section of the report of the Committee on Fuel Economy. This subject has been forced upon the attention of the whole engineering world by "i OcroBER 26, 1916] NATURE 159 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION G, ENGINEERING, OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) By GERALD STONEY, B.A.I. (Dus.), F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION, Ar times such as these the mind naturally turns to problems to be considered both at the present time and after the war, and in considering such problems a review of some of the errors committed in the past is most necessary. Such a review enables methods which should be adopted both now and in the future to be considered. As this is an address to the Engineering Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, only such problems will be considered as affect engineering and its allied industries. One thing which has handicapped our industries is the reluctance of firms to utilise highly educated labour or to adopt scientific methods. In looking round the industries of the district one is struck by the small number of men who have undergone a thorough scien- tific training at one of the universities or at one of the leading technical colleges, and who occupy a prominent place in the firms in this district. The general complaint is that university and college men are too theoretical and not practical. It is the usual thing for a bad workman to blame his tools, and is it not because employers do not know how to make use of such labour that they utilise it to such a small and imperfect extent? _ Things are very different in some other countries with which we have competed in the past, and with which there will be in all probability still fiercer competition in the future. There we find the fullest use made of highly ‘educated scientific labour. How many engineering firms in this district have a skilled chemist on their staff, and what percentage of these pay him a decent salary? And how many heads of firms have sufficient chemical knowledge to appreciate the worl and utilise the services of such a man? because unless there is appreciation of the work done by such a man his services are useless and he becomes discouraged, generally finding himself up against the blank stone wall of there being no appre- ciation of his services, and yet chemical problems are continually cropping up in engineering work. There is the question of the supply of materials; as a rule the manufacturer trusts to the name of the contractor and assumes that he gets materials of the composition and purity he ordered. Every now and then something goes wrong and the question arises, Why? Without a chemist to analyse the material it is often most diffi- cult to say. Apart from this question of the analysis of raw or partly manufactured materials received, there is the chronic question as to the mixtures of the metals in both the metal and brass foundry, and large economies can be effected by systematic analyses. Another direction in which scientific labour is in- valuable is in seeing that instruments are in proper order, and that tests are accurately carried out. Tests carried out with inaccurate instruments and without proper scientific precautions to see that they are accu- rate and trustworthy are worse than useless, and, in fact, most misleading and dangerous, as entirely un- trustworthy inferences may be drawn from them and | far-reaching troubles caused in the future. Under scientific supervision arrangements are made to avoid such troubles and get trustworthy results which can be depended on for future designs. What is the case with pressure gauges and the measurement of pressure applies, of course, to all other NO. 2452, VOL. 98] instruments and measurements,. In most works it may be said with sorrow that the only moderately accurate measurements that can be made are those of dimensions and weight. It is only by accurate testing of existing plant tnat trustworthy deductions can be drawn enabung safe progress to be made in future designs, One of the great things which helped forward the steam turbine in the early days was accurate and full testing of each plant as soon as it was completed and before it left the works, The late Mr, Willans | Was probably the first, or one of the first, to recognise the importance of accurate testing of steam plant, and the success his_ well-known engine had was largely due to this, From the earliest days .of the steam turbine Sir Charles Parsons recognised the necessity of such testing, and the test-house has always been a prominent feature of Heaton Works. And then in the higher ranks of an engineering works it requires a scientific mind to draw safe conclusions from tests carried out and to see in what directions progress can safely be made. Such methods have enabled the steam turbine during the writer’s acquaintance with it, now extending over some twenty-eight years, to grow from 50 horse-power to some 45,000 or more in each unit, and the steam consumption to be reduced from 4o Ib. per h.p.-hour to about 74 lb., or less than one-fifth, And closely allied to such work in engineering works is the general question of scientific research, and here a trained scientific mind is of the utmost importance to see that trustworthy results are obtained and to make true logical deductions from those results, With- out suitable training a man is liable to be unable to grasp all the conditions of an experiment and to make deductions from the data obtained which are totally unjustified and often lead to most disastrous results in the future. Such research is generally carried out in four places —engineering works, private laboratories, engineering colleges, and national laboratories. The first has already been dealt with. The second is of compara- tively small importance in practice. As regards the third, a great deal of good work has been done in engineering colleges, often under great difficulties for want of plant and money, and it is greatly to the credit of our professors and others that they have succeeded in doing so much with the very inadequate appliances at their disposal, and handi- capped for want of funds. How inadequate their income is can be understood when it is remembered that Leipzig University alone has an annual income from the German Government of 100,000l., as against a total Government grant to all the universities here _of about 45,o00l., or less than half. Of national laboratories we have only one, the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington, and here again the support given to it is totally inadequate. The total income from all sources last year was only 40,000l., and of this 23,0001. was charges for work done, such_as testing meters and other instruments and similar commercial work; the Government grant is only 7oool. a year, and besides this 75001. was received for experiments in connection with aeronautics, which is really war work. The balance was made up of subscriptions, grants from technical societies, and mis- cellaneous receipts. Compare this with the German equivalent, the Reichsanstalt of Berlin, which has an income of 70,o0ol. a year from the Government, or ten times that given to our N.P.L. The Bureau of Standards, the similar institution in the U.S.A., has a Government grant of 140,000l., or twenty times ours. In the Civil Service Estimates there is an ‘allowance of 40,0001. for research, an increase of 15,0001. over that allotted last year. The total estimates are more 160 than 20,000,000l., so that less than one-fifth per cent. is allotted to research. ' It is difficult to realise what benefits might be gained by investigations which could be carried on by the N.P.L. if only sufficient funds were available, and of what importance they might be to industry at large. One example may suffice. Some time ago the Reichs- anstalt carried out a most complete set of tests on a certain class of machine, an investigation which must have cost several thousands of pounds sterling, apart from the time it occupied. The results of this investigation are available to German manufacturers of this machine, and just before the war preparations were being. made to take advantage of this, and from figures stated a large extra economy was expected. This, of course, would enable them, provided the cost of manufacture was not too high, to have an enormous advantage over such machines manufactured without this special knowledge. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers saw the importance of this problem and appointed a Research Committee to deal with the matter, but the first question met with is that of finance. Should this be the case in a wealthy country such as this that depends on its manufactures for its very existence? And that such an investigation is required is obvious from the fact that the designs of no two independent manufacturers of this machine in this country agree among themselves. Of course, each claims his is the best, but this cannot be so. - Investigations in engineering shops do not meet such a case. The question of finance has to be care- fully watched, and as soon as results sufficiently good are obtained they are generally accepted, and in any case the problem is rarely thrashed out to the bottom, an almost universal defect in commercial research work. Without the help of the National Physical Laboratory the position of the aeroplane in this country would be very different from what it is, and what has been done for the aeroplane requires to be done in many other directions. But what firm here would do what has been done in the commercial synthesis of indigo, on which it is said that seventeen years’ work and more than 1,000,000l. have been spent by one firm alone abroad? Here in. chemical investigations and manufactures the Government refuses even to give the help of allowing cheap alcohol to be obtainable, and much of such work is impossible in this country on that account, as in many cases methylated and denatured alcohol are not suitable. Recently under pressure the restrictions have been somewhat relaxed by the Government, but many manufacturers have found that the privileges granted are so tied up with red tape that the conces- sions are practically useless. I am sorry to say the employer does not look after the welfare of his workmen as he might. In a:small factory the head of the firm, as a rule, knows all the leading men among the workmen, many of them having been with him for years. As the place grows he loses touch with his men, and as an actual fact knows fewer of those under him when he has 1000 or more employees than he did when he had 4oo or under. This state of things gets worse when the place is turned into a limited liability company, as nearly all large places are at present. The result is that a most deplorable state of things has come to pass. The workman says, “Put not your trust in employers”’; the master says, ‘Put not your trust in workmen”’; and the official who is between the master and the workman says, “‘Put not your’ trust in either.” It is difficult to say what is to be done to remedy this state of things, but one cannot help feeling much might have been done in the past to have prevented such a regrettable state of affairs as there is at pre- sent. Much of this trouble might have been avoided NO. 2452, VOL. 98] NATURE [OcrToBER 26, 1916 ! if employers had shown more consideration for the welfare of their workmen. With the growth in strength of the Trades Unions, which at first were for the legitimate object of seein that the workman got fair play, and providing out-of- work and old-age benefits, etc.) has grown up a system of Trades Union officials who live by agitation, and whose jobs would be gone if there were no sup- posed grievances to agitate about. These men keep the labour world in a constant state of agitation, and make the employers’ and officials’ existence a burden to them by constant demands of all sorts, many of them utterly impracticable and unfair. When cannot agitate against the employer they agitate against another Trades Union, and thus endless dis- putes. spring up on the demarcation of work. Some of the worst strikes in the past have been due to disputes between two Trades Unions. Unless something can be done to bring master and man together and make both work for the common good, English trade must inevitably go down, and the supremacy that England has in the engineering of the world will come to an end. Nothing ever was a truer statement than that re- cently made by Lord Joicey that this country, unless it produces as cheap as, or cheaper than, other countries, cannot in the long run keep her trade, and this is true in spite of any tariff walls which may be set up. And if the present state of affairs is maintained of unscientific management and obsolete machinery, combined with limitation of output and high wages, or, in other words, high cost of production, we must, sooner or later, go to the wall. What is really wanted is common honesty and common sense on ‘both sides, for one side is as bad as the other at present. . ‘ Apart from the considerations set out above, com- binations among the firms employed in any one trade are most essential for the well-being of that trade. It is by such combination that much of the progress made of late years by our competitors has been effected. Some of these combinations have been inter- national, and at least two such in the engineering trade were so before the war. These now, of course, are, and it is expected will be after the war, confined to the Allied and possibly to neutral countries, but such combinations, whether among all the engineer- ing firms in one district or among firms employed in one particular trade, to be successful must be worked fairly to all members, and the larger firms must not override the smaller, as, it is regrettable to say, has been done in combinations of employers in some dis- tricts. firm very much larger than any of the others, it is not unknown for it to act the bully and insist on everything being done as would suit its requirements, regardless of the rights of others. And, further, such combinations are, unless directed by men with broad minds and able to take a wide view of things, liable, especially in case of emergency, to do much harm, If the armament ring in this country had taken such a view when it was found what an enormous supply of munitions was required, it is doubtful if there would have been such a shortage as there has been. Hundreds of firms were willing and anxious to help in the production of munitions, but when they offered their services they were met in many cases with a blank refusal, and in all cases with little encouragement. And when, under pressure from the Government, the ring accepted outside help, in many cases the conditions imposed on the sub-contractors were unfair in the extreme, apparently the whole idea of the ring being to make all the profit they could out of the troubles of the Empire. It has been just as difficult to persuade the armament ring to give up ] | For example, in a-district where there is one. rt OcroBeR 26, 1916] NATURE ; 161 what they thought was their monopoly and to bring in outside works to help in the production of munitions as it has been to persuade the Trades Unions to forgo trade customs and to enable outside sources of labour to be employed, such as women and other unskilled labour. But both have had to do it. In other words, “dilution of works’ has been as difficult to effect as “dilution of labour,’’ and the position both of the armament ring and of the workman would have been very different if they had consented freely to it when it became obviously necessary for the safety of the Empire. The necessities of research work have already been dealt with, and by the pooling of such research work enormous advantages in any one trade could be ob tained. Such pooling of information has been effected with most beneficial results, especially in the chemical trade abroad. Any workable scheme which would enable this to be done and get over the jealousies between one firm and another would be of enormous benefit to the trade in general. Another thing that must not be lost sight of is the urgent need of improving our educational system. It is little short of a disgrace that the older universities are closed to those without a knowledge of Latin and Greek. } Languages are of the greatest importance to an engineer—not dead languages, but living ones. And these should be properly taught, so that the student should be able not only to read and write them, but also to speak and understand them when spoken. Itis quite a different knowledge of a language to be able to read, write, speak, or understand it. Many people can read a language without being able to write, speak, or understand it when spoken, and conversely it is not un- common to meet people who can speak and understand a language without being able to any large extent to read or write it. And it is only in living languages that a man is trained to speak and understand a language. Why is it that we are so wedded to the dead languages? There is, of course, the tradition that such are necessary. for a liberal education, and there is the argument that modern languages are not so good a training for the mind. Granted that they are not quite so good from the point of view of learning to read and write them, does not the fact that they can also be taught as a living language to be spoken and understood make them on the whole. the best educationally fora man? This is entirely apart from the fact that modern languages are useful and ancient useless to the man in commercial work. There is, of course, bitter opposition from that most con- servative man, the schoolmaster, and one great reason is that it is much easier and cheaper to get a man to teach Latin and Greek than modern languages which have to be taught orally. The teaching of Latin and Greek as they are usually taught has been standardised to the last degree, and as a result they can be taught by the ‘“semi-skilled’’ man, and a ‘skilled’? man is not necessary, to use engineers’ phraseology. In fact. the teaching of Latin and Greek is a pure “repetition job.” At the same time, no education is complete unless science is combined with languages, and also literature, and here lies one great danger of modern technical education. After the boy has left school and enters the shops more facilities should be given to enable him not only to keep up but to continue his education. In the shops and drawing office too often the boy is left to pick up a knowledge of his trade as best he can. The apprentice who asks questions is often looked on as a nuisance, and requests for information are gener- ally met by a blank refusal or worse. Often the fore- man or chief draughtsman is afraid to answer ques- tions for fear of being charged with giving away NO. 2452, VOL. 98] so-called ‘trade secrets,’ but an immense deal of information can be given to an apprentice without doing so, Evening classes are all very well in their way, but more facilities should be given for the diligent appren- tice to attend day classes, and this can be arranged in various ways if the employer has a will to do it. A thing that at present often prevents boys desirous of educating themselves getting on is the fact that overtime is allowed as soon as a boy is eighteen, and often he is compelled to work overtime regardless of classes that he ought to be attending. It is important to remember that the boy of to-day is the man of to-morrow. One complaint is that after a lot of trouble is taken about a boy he leaves after a few years and goes to another employer. The good of the trade in general must be considered. and a man who has had experi- ence of various classes of work is generally a much more valuable man than one whose knowledge is confined to one class only. In any case, the other employer gets the benefit of what has been done by the first, and thus the trade in general benefits. It is realised that this is a very imperfect review of things as they are at present, but if this address in- duces all classes engaged in engineering to consider how things can be bettered the author feels that a part, at all events, of his object has been attained. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CAMBRIDGE.—Notice is given of the forthcoming appointment to the George Henry Lewes studentship in physiology. The object of the studentship, the annual value of which is 2ool, and is tenable for three years, is to enable promising students to devote their whole time to physiological research. Candidates are requested to send a short statement of their qualifica- tions to Prof. J. N. Langley, the Physiology School, Cambridge, by November 18. Lonpon.—At a meeting of the Senate held on Octo- ber 18, the Vice-Chancellor (Sir Alfred Pearce Gould) being in the chair, the following doctorates were con- ferred :—D.Sc, (Engineering), Mr. E. H. Salmon, an internal student, of the East London College, for a thesis entitled “Columns.” D.Sc. (Economics), Mr. P. Bandyopadhyay, an internal student, of the London School of Economics, for a thesis entitled “ Public Administration in Ancient India.”” D.Sc. (Physiology), Miss D. J. Lloyd, an external student, for a thesis entitled (a) ‘The Osmotic Balance of Skeletal Muscle,” (b) “The Relation of Excised Muscle to Acids, Salts, and Bases.” OxrorD.—The reports for the year 1915 of the curators of the Botanic Garden and of the Department of Botany have just been published. They contain long lists of contributors, both public and private, of specimens and other material for study to both insti- tutions. To most of those who have sent donations to the garden.a return has been made in kind. Many interesting plants have flowered in the garden during the past year. In the Department of Botany lectures have been given .by the Sherardian professor and Messrs. A. H. Church and W. E. Hiley. Practical work in physiology has been conducted by Mr. Kempin. Considerable progress has been made with work on the herbarium. The accounts show that great economy has been practised in the matter of expenditure. Tue University of Lund is founding a personal pro- fessorship in the theory of heredity for Dr. N. H. Nilsson-Ehle. 102 NATURE [OcroBer 26, 1916 Miss G. J. Sanpers, formerly principal of the Low- thorpe (Massachusetts) School of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture for Women, has been ap- pointed principal of the Swanley Horticultural College. A PAMPHLET issued by the Bradford Education Com- mittee describing the courses in chemistry and dyeing held at the Technical College in that town is symptom- atic of the altered outlook towards the various branches of the chemical profession brought abdut by the world- war. These college courses are, in the first place, arranged to meet the growing requirements of the local dyeing industry. Together with the study of colouring matters, practical instruction is given in the art of dyeing in a dye-house with full-sized machinery combined with a finishing plant for completing the commercial treatment of cloth. As in many other technical colleges, there is an entrance examination, in which English and mathematics are compulsory. Special stress is laid on the fact that a sound secondary education up to the age of sixteen or seventeen is a preliminary asset of the greatest importance. combined course in chemistry, dyeing, and the allied subjects extends over a period of four years. A similar course has been devised for those taking up chemical. work in other industries, such as in oil and soap works, or in metallurgy or gas engineering. Both these courses include a certain proportion of mechanics and engineer- ing bearing specially on chemical industries. Students passing satisfactorily through either of these courses receive the college diploma, but the associateship of the college is reserved for those who have had one year’s practical experience subsequent to the award of the diploma, and who have submitted a thesis on some previously approved subject. The ultimate object of the curricula of this college is to turn out practical chemists, dyers, and pharmacists, and that these quali- fications are appreciated by manufacturers is seen from the encouraging list of appointments secured by the alumni. AN appeal on behalf of the Endowment Fund of the School of Oriental Studies at the London Institution has been issued by an influential committee of which -Lord Curzon is chairman. The objects of this new institution are three in number :—(1) To provide a place where the Englishmen who will presently be engaged in governing or garrisoning the Oriental and African parts of the Empire may learn the languages and study the literature, the religions, and the cus- toms of the peoples with whom they will be brought into contact; (2) to offer a training to those who are about to proceed to the same countries to take part in commercial enterprise or avocations; (3) to furnish in the capital of the Empire a meeting-ground and focus. for the scholars of the East of all nationalities on_their visits to this country. Evidence has been accumulating in recent years that the training of our Civil Servants and officers in the languages and modes of thought of Oriental peoples falls short of the ideal which we ought to have in view. In the new rela- tions that will develop when the war is over there must be a higher standard of efficiency in these re- spects if our rule is to continue to commend itself to those with whom we are brought into relations. Information has been received that important steps are already being taken in Germany to-give a -higher education ‘to Germans: about to proceed to the East. Provision will be made in the new London school for all the more important languages of the Near, Middle, and Far East, and of Africa. The committee desires to raise an endowment fund of 150,000l., towards which they have now asa result of a preliminary appeal about 10,000]. Donations and subscriptions NO. 2452, VOL. 98] The- | may be paid to the head office or to any branch of the London County and Westminster Bank, or to the secre- ‘tary of the executive of the appeal committee at the School of Oriental Studies, Finsbury Circus, E.C. The governing body of the school has appointed Dr, E.. Denison Ross, C.I.E., to be its @irector, and he will take up his work almost immediately. Dr Ross has travelled extensively in the East. Among his numerous works is the ‘‘ Tarikh-i-Rashidi,”’ a history of the Moguls of Central Asia. A series of resolutions referring to the claims of humanistic studies to scientific attention was adopted a couple of months ago by a conference representing the Classical, English, Geographical, Historical, and Modern Language Associations (see NATURE, September 7, p.23)- The committee of the Association of Public School Science Masters has just expressed agreement with the principles of education stated in the resolutions; and in answer to an invitation to make a statement with regard to education in the natural sciences, it has sent the following to the chairman of the conference :— “‘ Natural science in education should not displace the ‘humanistic’ studies, but should be complementary to them. »needs in particular :—(1) Search for Truth: imagina- tive power indicates new fields in which further know- ledge of truth may be revealed; its subsequent estab- lishment depends on accurate observation, with con- stant recourse to nature for confirmation. The one | aim of natural science is, in fact, the search for truth based on evidence rather than on authority. the study of the subject implies accurate observation and description and fosters a love of truth. The special value of Natural Science in the training of Mind and Character lies in the fact that the history of the subject is a plain record of the search for Truth for its own sake. (2) Utility: There are certain facts and ideas in the world of natural science with which it is essential that every educated man should be familiar. A knowledge of these facts assists men (a) to understand how the forces of nature may be em- ployed for the benefit of mankind; (b) to appreciate the sequence of cause and effect in governing their own lives; and (c) to see things as they really are, and not to distort them into what they may wish them to be. It is the business of Natural Science in education to bring this knowledge within the range ‘of all.” The statement is signed by Prof. H. H. Turner, president of the Association of Public School Science Masters, and by Mr: A. Vassall. chairman of committee. Probably arising out of the conference referred to above, a Council of Humanistic Studies _has been constituted, comprising representatives of the British Academy, in addition to the five associations mentioned above. Its object is to watch educational developments in the interests of the studies represented by these bodies and to co-operate, if possible, with the representatives of natural science. The president is Lord Bryce, and the chairman Sir Frederic Kenyon, ,to whom communications may be sent at the British Museum. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. | Geological Society, June 28.—Dr. Alfred Harker, president, in the chair.—Dr. A, Smith Woodward; A | new species of Edestus from the Upper Carboniferous , of Yorkshire; with a geological appendix by J. Pringle. | The fossil confirms the interpretation of Edestus as a | row ‘of symohysial teeth of an Elasmobranch fish. | The row of eight bilaterally svmmetrical-teeth, fused ; a ‘ In this capacity natural science meets two Hence © eS OcToBER 26, 1916] NATURE 163 together, occurs at the tapering end of a pair of calci- fied cartilages, which evidently represent a jaw. An imperfect detached tooth probably belongs to an oppos- ing row. The teeth are large compared with their base, and the serrated edges have been worn during life. Small Orodont teeth of the form named Campo- dus are scattered in the shale near the jaw. Mark- ings on the Edestus teeth themselves suggest that they have been derived from the Campodus type of tooth. The specimen was obtained from shale below the Rough Rock, in the upper part of the Millstone Grit, at Brockholes, near Huddersfield.—A, Holmes : The Tertiary volcanic rocks of Mozambique. With the exception of a coastal belt of Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments, flanked on the west by later Ter- tiary volcanic rocks, the territory consists of a com- plex of gneisses. and other foliated rocks, intruded upon by granites belonging to at least two different periods. From Fernao Vellosa Harbour to Mokambo Bay the junction of the sedimentary formations with the crystalline complex is faulted, and the volcanic rocks are distributed on each side of the fault. The lavas are of post-Oligocene age, and are the result of fissure-eruptions, the feeding channels being exposed as small dykes that penetrate the underlying rocks. The prevailing lavas are amygdaloidal basalts. An andesite dyke of later date occurs near the Monapo River. In the north, near the Sanhuti River, picrite- basalt, basalt, phonolite, and sdlvsbergite have been found, and related lavas occurring elsewhere in the area are tephritic pumice and egirine-trachyte. The “allali’’ series can be closely matched by the lavas of Abyssinia, British East Africa, Réunion, and Tene- riffe. The amygdaloidal basalts of the “ calc-alkali”’ series are similar to those of the Deccan, Arabia,,and East Africa, and also to.those (of late Karroo age) occurring in South Africa and: Central Africa. Each of the series was probably evolved by a process of differentiation acting on a parent magma. From’ the composition of the amygdale minerals it is deduced that the parent magma of the ‘“‘alkali’’ series was rich in carbon dioxide and under-saturated in silica; whereas that of the ‘“‘calc-alkali’’ series was rich in water and over-saturated in silica. The radio-activity of the lavas indicates that the depth from which the parent magma came was probably between thirty-three and forty-four miles. from the earth’s surface. Royal Microscopical Society, October 18.—Mr. E. Heron-Allen, president, in the chair.—Dr. Helen Pixell Goodrich and M. Moseley: Certain parasites of the mouth in cases of pyorrhcea. After a general de- scription of the pathological changes in gum tissues resulting from pyorrhoea, illustrated’ by sections of normal and infected jaws, a detailed account of Enta- moeba gingivalis, Gros, was given, followed by notes on Trichomonas and the interesting complex Lepto- thrix colonies, which give rise to the tartar. Of these parasitic organisms only the Leptothrix colonies were considered by the authors as likely to be the cause of the disease. Paris. Academy of Sciences, October 2.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—E. Picard: Functions of two complex variables remaining invariable by substitutions of a discontinuous group.—G. Bigourdan: The declaration of Louis XIII. relating to the first meridian. The text of.the declaration, dated July 1, 1634, is given in full. The position chosen had no scientific basis.—G. Bigourdan: The propagation of the sound of the cannonade at the front to great distances. There is evi- dence that the sounds heard are not propagated through the air, but through the soil.—H.: Douvillé : The Creta- NO. 2452, VOL. 98] ceous and the Tertiary in the neighbourhood of Thones (Haute Savoie).—J. Meunier; The detection of small quantities of selenium; distinction from arsenic. Selenium may cause error in the Marsh test for arsenic when present in minute traces only. A scheme for examining the deposit is given, by means of which selenium can be detected in the presence of arsenic.— P. Garrigou-Lagrange : Luni-solar action and tempera- ture.—J. Amar: The technique of the sense education’ of men without limbs or sight. Details of the methods and apparatus used in the education of the sensibility of mutilated limbs, and of the sénse of touch in the blind.—L, Camus: Vaccinal immunity resulting from intravascular injections of vaccine, WasHINGcTon, D.C, ° National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings No. 9, vol. ii., September 15).—J. Loeb: The mechanism of diffusion of electrolytes through animal membranes. For the diffusion of certain electrolytes through animal, membranes there is required, besides the osmotic pres- sure, a second effect, called the.‘‘ salt effect,’’ upon the membrane. This consists probably in an ionisation of the protein molecules of the membrane.—F. G, Pease : The rotation and radial velocity of the spiral nebula N.G.C. 4594. The radial velocity is +1180 km., in good agreement with the values found by Slipher. The linear velocity of rotation at a point two’ minutes of arc from the nucleus is more than 330 km.—F. H. Seares: A simple method for determining the colours of the stars. The method suggested consists in deter- mining the ratio of exposure-times which is necessary to produce photographic and: photovisual, or, more briefly, blue and yellow, images of the same size.—H. Shapley ; Studies of magnitudes in star clusters. III. The colours of the brighter stars in four globular systems. It is concluded that in all the clusters examined, and probably in all globular clusters, the volumes of the bright red stars are very great in comparison with the stars that are fainter and rela- tively blue.-—Janet T. Howell: The effect of an electric field on the lines of lithium and calcium. Lithium and calcium were examined, both for longitudinal and transverse effects.—A. B. Coble: A proof of White's porism.—J. P. Iddings and E. W. Morley: A contribu- tion to the petrography of-the Philippine Islands. Six detailed analyses are given of rocks from Luzon, P.I. —W..-O. Fenn: Salt antagonism in gelatine. The experiments on gelatine support the hypothesis. that anions antagonise kations in their effects upon organ- isms. The hypothesis here developed resembles that of Clowes except that it requires that NaCl should antag- onise any electrolyte. which has either-a strong-anion or a strong kation. The point-of maximum antagonism is an isoelectric point at which the amount of alcohol needed for precipitation is at a minimum, and the aggregation or amount of precipitation is at.a maxi- mum.—W. O. Fenn: Similarity in the behaviour of protoplasm and gelatine. .A close analogy to -Oster- hout’s: experiments on the electrical resistance of Laminaria is found in gelatine (plus NaOH), if we assume that the ‘effect of time in the Laminaria. ex- periments is to increase the concentrations of the salts in the cells of the tissue.—W. E. Milne: Certain asymptotic expressions in the theory of linear differential equations. Formulas more precise than those previously obtained by Birkhoff are given.— H. B. Fine: Newton’s method of approximation. A condition is given under which Newton’s method of approximation for computing a real root of an equa- tion, and the extension of this method used in com- puting a root of a system of equations, will with certainty lead to such a root or solution. 164 NATURE [OcToBER 26, 1916 BOOKS RECEIVED. Studies of Inheritance in: Guinea-Pigs and Rats. y W. E, Castle and S. Wright. Pp. iv+192+plates (Washington : Carnegie Institution.) Plant Succession. By Prof. F. E. Clements. Pp. xiii+512. (Washington: Carnegie Institution.) The Jukes in 1915. ‘By A, H. Easabrook. Pp. vii+ 85. (Washington: Carnegie Institution.) American Fossil Cycads. By G,.R. Wieland. Vol. ii., Taxonomy. Pp. vii+277. (Washington: Carnegie Institution.) The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances. Edited from Manuscripts in the British Museum. By H. O. Sommer. Index of Names and Places to vols. i—vii. Pp. 85. (Washington: Carnegie Insti- tution.) Fecundity versus Civilization. By A. More. Pp. 52. (London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd.) 6d. net. Air-Screws.. By M. A. S, Riach. Pp. ‘viii+128. (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son.) tos. 6d. net. Eclipse or Empire? By H. B. Gray and S. Turner, B 7. Pp. x+316. (London: Nisbet and Co., Ltd.) + 2s. net. ; Economics in the Light of War. By Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt. Pp. 56. (Johannesburg: South African School of Mines and Technology; London: W. Wes- ley and Son.) 1s. , _ Annals of the South African Museum. part iv. (London: Adlard and Son.) 25s. Form and Function: a Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology. By E. S. Russell. Pp. ix+ 383. (London: J. Mercays) Ios. 6d. net. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year ending June 30, 1915. Pp. xii+544. (Washington: Government Printing Office.) The Indo-Aryan Races: a Study of the Origin of Indo-Aryan People and Institutions. By Ramaprasad Chanda. Part i. Pp. xiii+274. The ‘Varendra Research Society.) The Cambridge Pocket Diary, 1916-17. Pp. xv+ 265. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 1s. net. Robert of Chester’s Latin Translation of the Algebra of Al-Khowarizma. With an Introduction, Critical Notes, and an English Version, by L. C. Karpinski. Pp. vii+164. (New York: The Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 2 dollars. Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. viii., No. 2. Monographs on the Natural History of New England:—The Whalebone Whales of New England. By G. M. Allen. Pp. 107-322. (Boston; Mass: The Society.) The Origin of Finger-Printing. By Sir W. J. Herschel. Pp. 41. (Oxford: At the University Press, H. Milford.) Paper covers, 1s. net. A Portfolio of Reproductions of Finger Prints. pesiadels At the University Press, H. Milford.) Not sold, . William Oughtred: a Great Seventeenth-century Teacher of Mathematics. By Prof. F. Cajori. Pp. vit+1oo. (Chicago and London: Open Court Com- pany.) 4s. net. Vol. v., DIARY OF SOCIETIES. FRIDAY, OctoBer 27. Prvsicar Sociery, at 5.—The Determination of the Saturation Values for Magnetism of Ferromagnetic Metals, Componnds, and Alloys by means of the Kerr Effect : Dr. S. G. Rarker.—The Influence of the Time Element on the Resistance ofa Solid Rectifying Contact : D. Owen.—Diffusion in Liquids.: B. W. Clack. TUESDAY, Ocroesr 31. Rovat Antruroro.ocicaL INnstiruTr, at.5.—The Gurkhas and their Country : Aubyn" ears geen Pas - te ee er ae 4): Public Schools and Others. By W.D.E. ..,. 151 Notes ... arene LOS hapten tans PAOUPR TE Gecko) Our Astronomical Column :— Two Large-Fireballs = i. 5 100) os se) ety ole) oe Encke'sqComen suns eens destin Sale ul Sean nanan Internal Motion in Spiral Nebule. . ....... 456 The Association of Technical Institutions. . . . 156 Recent Work on Tsetse-flies. By G, H.C. . . 157 Zoology at the British Association. By Dr. J. H. is. sls been The British Association at Newcastle :— Section G—Engineering —Opening Address (Abridged) by Gerald Stoney, B.A.I. (Dub.), F.R.S., ° M,Inst.C.E., President of the Section. . . . 159 _ University and Educational Intelligence . .... 161 Societies and Academies. ............ 162 Mooks: Received © 3% .. ee eee Fe a eo Om Diary of Societies ........ 0 atten St eee 164 Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Lrtp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the ‘ Publishers. Editorial Communications to the Editor. Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. Telephone Number: Gerrarp 8830. ———————— ee lh ll |Graphite-Selenium Cells ———— ‘A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. Ade) ee PS “To the solid ground ~"“Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye..—Worpswortu. No. 2453, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1916 [PRICE SIXPENCE. ————— Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] ————————— \ BALANCES & WEIGHTS BUY DIRECT FROM FE,BECKER & CO, #ATTON WALL, (W.&J.GEORGE. LTD.,SUCC#?) LONDON, E CG. FOURNIER D’ALBE’S PATTERN. Great Stability and High Efficiency. With a sensitive Se surface of 5 sq. cm, and a voltage 20 the additional current obtainable at various illuminations (in metre-candles) is :— At Pai.c. ia . t+ milliamp. E> GD agen sins ee | “= At 500 2 For particulars and prices apply to the SOLE AGENTS : John J. Griffin & Sons, Makers of Physical and Electrical Apparatus, Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C. (All Rights Reserved. BASINS, BEAKERS, © BOATS, CAPSULES, CONDENSERS, specialise in the manu- facture of apparatus to. cus- tomers’ own designs. New prices and sample free on application to THE SILICA SYNDICATE, Ltd., 82 HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C. Telephone: Holborn 6380. A New Barograph—THE ‘“‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNHILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. Ixvi ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY. SESSION 1916-1917. MEETINGS at 22 ALBEMARLE STREET, W., at 8 p.m. 1916. November 6. President's Inaugural Address: ‘‘The Problem of Recog- nition.” Dr. H. Witoon Carr. : “The Function of the State in promoting the Unity of December 4. Mankind.” Dr. Bernarp Bosanqurr. », 18 The Organisation of Thought.” Professor A. N. WHITE- HEAD. 1917. u January 8. ‘* Hume's Theory of the Credibility of Miracles.” Mr. C. D. Broap. ” 22. ‘*Monism in the light of recent developments in Philo- sophy.” “Valuation and Existence.” “The Nature of Knowledge as conceived by Malebranche.” Mr. C. E. M. Joan. February 5. Mr. F. C. Barrier. «XQ ; Mr. Morris GINSBERG. March s. ‘Fact and Truth,” Professor C. L1oyp MorGan. April 2. ‘‘Is there any justification for the conception of Ultimate Value?” Mr. W. A. Pickarp-CAMBRIDGE. ” 23. Symposium: ‘‘ Ethical Principles of Social Reconstruction.” Principal L. P. Jacks, Mr. G. Bernarp Suaw, Mr. C. Devistk Burns, and Miss H. D. OakKELry. . May 7: pone Basis of Critical Realism.” Professor G. Dawes ICKS. sr 2t. ‘Some Aspects of the Philosophy of Plotinus.” Dean W. R. INGE. June g. (At Cambridge.) ‘‘ The Conception of a Cosmos.” Professor J. S. MackENziE. . 4, to. (At Cambridge.) Symposium: ‘‘ Are the Materials of Sense Affections of the Mind?" Dr. G. E. Moore, Mr. W. E. Jounson, Professor G. Dawes Hicks, Pro- 3 fessor J. A. Situ, and Professor James Warp. July 2. “Relation and Coherence.” Miss L. S, STEBBING. G. DAWES HICKS, Hon. Sec. SWINEY LECTURES on GEOLOGY, 19016. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BritisH Museum. A Course of Twelve Lectures on ‘‘ The Mineral Resources of Europe” will be delivered by Dr. Joun S Frerr. F.R.S., at the ROVAL SOCIETY OF ARTS, 18 and 19 JOHN STREET, ADELPHI, W.C. (by permission of the Council of the Society). The Lectures, which will be illustrated by Lantern Slides, will be given on Tuesdays, ‘Thu sdays, and Fridays, at 5 p.m., beginning Tuesday, November 14, and ending Friday, December 8. Apbmission FREE. Briti-h Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, Lofdon, S.W. COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERSFIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. CLOTH MANUFACTURE. CHEMISTRY anp DYEING. MECHANICAL ann ELECTRICAL ECONOMICS ann COMMERCE. BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS. The new department of COAL TAR COLOUR CHEMISTRY is open for teaching and research under the direction of Dr. A. E. EVEREST. Full particulars on application to the Secrerary, Technical College, Huddersfield. ENGINEERING. T. THORP, Secretary. NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, LONDON, E.C. Applications are invited for the following full-time vacan i i the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Dereon i— oe: i aan (1) DEMONSTRATOK and ASSISTANT LECTURER. (2) I Borat ORY 2) LABORAT! Y MECHANIC and UNIOR DEMON- STRATOR, with good practical rack fk of the working of , Heat Engines, Salary £120 per annum. Particulars and forms of application for either of the above can be obtained on application to. -R, MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. Salary NATURE [NovEMBER 2, 1916 BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, Freneh, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logie, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws. POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. + Rae Day: Science, £17 10s,; Arts, £10 10s, SESSIONAL FEES { Evening: Science, Arts, or Economies, £5 5s. Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post 5d.), from the Secretary. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Courses. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44), SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone: Western 899. LURGAN URBAN DISTRICT. WANTED, PRINCIPAL AND SECRETARY FOR TECHNICAL SCHOOL. The Lurgan Technical Instruction Committee require the services of a PRINCIPAL and SECRETARY (to devote his whole time to the work of the School), possessing qualifications in Technology recognised by the Department of Agriculture and ‘lechnical Instruction, and having had experience of the working of Technical Schools. Salary £200 per annum. Applications, stating age, &c., will be received by the undersigned not later than 12 o'clock noon on Friday, November 24, 1916. . Canvassing by or on behalf of candidates will be deemed a disqualifi- cation. 5 J. W. POLLOCK, Technical School, Lurgan, Acting Secretary. October 24, 1916, DERBY EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TECHNICAL COLLEGE. The Governors invite applications from qualified candidates for the post of LECTURER and DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY. Salary #300 per annum. : Forms of application may be obtained from the Principat, Technical College, Derby, to whom they should be returned not later than Monday, November 13, 1916. WILLIAM COOPER, Secretary. October 23, 1916. OLD PLATINUM, GOLD Dental Alloy, Scrap, &c., ~ Purchased for Cash or Valued. SPINK & SON, Ltd., 17 & 18 PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. EST. 1772. Fine Jewels or Plate also purchased or valued. SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES, TELESCOPES, SURVEYING AND DRAWING INSTRUMENTS, AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND ACCESSORIES BY ALL THE BEST MAKERS. 338 HicH HOLBORN, CLARKSON’S LONDON, W.C. (Opposite Gray’s Inn Road.) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1016. THE SCHOOL OF PYTHAGORAS. aristotelici, I.) By Dr. Aldo Mieli. Pp. xvi+ 503. (Firenze: Libreria della Voce, 1916.) Price lire 12. nie the study of history maketh a man wise was the saying of a great Elizabethan, but it was one of the great Victorians who preferred a copy of the Times to ‘all the writings of Thucy- dides”; the great days’ of Elizabeth would not seem so spacious had one or two such sayings as the last come down to us from them! An historic sense was somewhat far to seek in the Victorian age. The ninetéenth century had all but forgotten its own past. Lyell and Darwin, Schwann and Virchow, Lister, Faraday and Joule had a way of making their immediate predecessors look old- fashioned, as the post-chaise looked when the rail- way came. In short, so great a revolution had taken place in things mental as well as in things practical that it seemed (so Judge Stallo said) as though Bacon’s demand had at last been thor- oughly complied with, ut opus mentis universum de integro resumatur. I never heard a lesson in my _ school- or college-days on the historical aspect of any science, though some few of our teachers were by no means unacquainted with history. One was on intimate terms with Ray and Willughby, and all the older English naturalists; another got no small part of his large wisdom from Boerhaave and Haller, and even Ambroise Paré. There was yet another who led his pupils (his better pupils) to Newton, while his neighbours were per- fectly satisfied with Frost. When one thinks how deep was the reading, how wide the learning, of men like Sharpey and Rolleston, Alfred Newton and Michael Foster, it is all the more striking that even by them the historical method was very seldom employed and the love of history very little instilled. The fact is, we were all dazzled and obsessed, young and old, by “the great press of novelty at hand.” Linnzus and Cuvier, even Johannes Miller himself, had read their Aristotle to learn of him, just as they read their Swammer- dam and their Réaumur. But we had come to think of the old books as so much bric-a-brac, as material for a hobby but of no more use in the world. The tide has turned since those days, one scarce knows how or why; and a world that is as busy as ever finds more time for the study of history than it did. The long series of Ostwald’s “Wissenschaftliche Klassiker” is proof of a wide- spread desire to consult the sources of knowledge ; and Mach’s “Science of Mechanics” is perhaps the best but not the only example of the historic method, rigorously and critically applied to the teaching of a science. : Dr. Aldo Mieli, the writer of the book before us, is already known by a number of historical articles in Scientia, that admirable journal of our NO. 2453, VOL. 98] ~ NATURE 165 Italian allies; we may welcome him accordingly as a member of the little company of historical students, of which Prof. Gino Loria is the distin- guished head. He all but takes our-breath away, Le Scuole Ionica, Pythagorica ed Eleata (I Pre- in his very preface, by the vastness of his aT tions and his projects, while he relates with ingenuous sincerity the recent history of his own mental development. He had a thirst for univer- sal knowledge in his schooldays, and essayed to comprehend, “con l’aiuto di poche premisse, tutti | i fenomeni fisici e sociali, artistici e filosofici.” He presently sought in mathematics, but sought in vain, for the inner meaning, “la spiegazione,” of things. When he failed there, he betook him- self in haste to chemistry; “a corpo perduto mi gettai allora (1902) nello studio della chimica!” He was baffled again; he had striven as the old alchemists strove, and his longings, like theirs, were unfulfilled. At last, under the influence of Mach and Ostwald, he turned to history and to philosophy; renouncing the search after a “rational and experimental explanation of the world,” he resolved to study the creations of the spirit, and to trace in particular the development of scientific thought. While charmed by these naive confessions of the young Italian scholar, the reader is startled to dis- cover that the present bulky book is but the first part of a universal history, on a scale vaster than Gibbon’s or Hallam’s, of the whole circle of the sciences. It is to be divided into some seven portions, dealing with the great ancient pre- Hellenic empires, next with Hellenic, Arabic, and Far-Eastern science; again, with the Middle Ages and with thé Renaissance to Galileo’s day; and lastly, with the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies. The story of Hellenic learning will be divided into four parts, of which one must end where Aristotle’s work begins; and this pre- Aristotelian treatise will be in three volumes, of which one is the book before us, and the other two will deal in due time with the Atomists and with Plato and the Sophists. The reader may be a trifle prejudiced, he might be dismayed or even dumfounded, by so vast an ambition. But the fact is that the book is mar- vellously well done—so far as the present writer is capable of judging. Big as it is, it is compact and full; it leads us smoothly and easily, with but brief and impartial discussion, through the sub- jects on which we expect and desire to be informed. We hear the legendary history of Pythagoras and his confraternity; we are intro- duced to the philosophy, the science, and the mystical mathematics of the school. We learn in successive chapters, for instance, of the mystical theory of number; of figurate and other .curious numbers, and of the proportio divina; of the great Pythagorean theorem, and of the gnomon; of the concepts of application and of excess and defect; of the principles of acoustics and of the musical scale, and of the astronomic and other theories of Archytas and Philolaus and the rest. The sub- jects are those with which any book or encyclo- pedia article on Pythagoras is bound to deal, and K 166 there is little here but what we can get from others. But here it is, well and clearly ordered and expressed, and abundantly furnished with all sorts of guide-posts for those in quest of still more information or discussion. The bibliographical lists are astonishingly good, without pretending to ‘“‘completeness.” The one, for instance, which is appended to the first section of our volume is of a general kind, and covers some seventy pages; it pilots the student to the texts of Diels, Mullach, and others; to works on the history of philosophy, Greek and other, from the days of Ritter and Preller to Zeller and Burnet and Diels; and ends with a capital account of the historians of mathematical, astronomical, and physical science, from Bailly, Montucla, and Delambre, to Allman and Zeuthen, and Moritz Cantor and Paul Tannery and Sir Thomas Heath. There may be mistakes, for aught I know, in this learned and compendious book, but I have neither found them nor sought for them. It was one of Pythagoras’s sayings (or Dr. Johnson tells us so) that a friend should not be chidden for little faults. Pythagoras is one of the great figures of the world, and many and many a scholar has had a predilection for him. Sir Thomas Browne loved him; Plato was steeped in his doctrine; and whole books of Euclid are ascribed to his teaching. Those who knew least of him could always quote him, as Shakespeare did, and Dr. Johnson, and as Goldsmith quoted Ocellus Lucanus. But the more we read about Pythagoras the less we know of him for sure and certain; and it is just herein that his peculiar fascination lies. For he is one of those shadowy figures who stand on the border- land between history and fable, between fairyland and reality: like King Arthur and Thomas of Ercildoune and King Solomon and Caliph Haroun al Raschid. We know that one of his legs was of gold, that Apollo was his father, that heavenly messengers flew down to him on golden arrows, and that his face shone like the faces of the Shining Ones. In more sober statement he seems to represent the continuity, unbroken but dwindled to a thread (a thin but indispensable thread), between one civilisation and another, between the beginning of Greek thought and the decline of learning in a remote but erudite antiquity. To the student trying to prefigure so strange and so elusive a personality there is a choice of ways. If he keep to sober and critical consideration of the meagre facts at hand, he will probably arrive at the conclusion that there is ho evidence for Pythagoras having learned anything worth speak- ing of upon his travels or having inherited any load of learning from pre-Hellenic science and philosophy. So it is commonly held by many men of the soundest classical learning that no foreign influence can be traced in the school of Pytha- goras, and that his “philosophy and institutions contain nothing but what might easily have been developed by a Greek mind exposed. to the ordi- nary influences of the age.” Dr. Allman held, with all due caution, that we must be “struck with the Egyptian character of the geometrical work attributed to Pythagoras”; but Prof. Burnet NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE” [NOVEMBER 2, 1916 asserts that all the mathematics of the Egyptians consisted of a few rules of thumb by which to measure the area of a field or the height of a pyramid, and denies that Egypt had anything to teach Pythagoras that was worth the learning or the borrowing. : i On the other hand, there is ample room for others, of a more imaginative disposition, to grope among the ruins and the misty darkness of pre- Hellenic civilisation, to put two and two together wheresoever they can, and to apply themselves. (for a while at least) to the ingenious art of fanci- ful reconstruction. Dr. Naber’s curious book, “Das Theorem des Pythagoras,” is of the latter kind. The ground on which he leads us is some- times dangerous, as when he depends on Piazzi Smyth for his facts as well as his theories of the pyramid; but for all that he weaves a fascinating and instructive story. He brings together a pro- digious mass of curious lore about the triangle and the pentagon, and the Sacred Letter, and the Symbol of Health, and Abracadabra, and the sacred lotus and mallow-flower; he touches on a hundred things which the: early students of the triangle must (in all likelihood) have observed and discovered by the way; and he suggests with no. less ingenuity the lines of tradition along which such knowledge ran, from far-away antiquity even. to the artists and cathedral-builders of the Middle Ages. If we be inclined to see in Pythagorean mathe- matics not the discoveries of a single lifetime but. fragments of the learning of a preceding age, so also in his philosophy may we be inclined to recog- nise parts of a great edifice the scattered stones of which confront us in unexpected places, built into the fabric of old but less ancient walls. We have often heard that there is a curious link or bond between the Cabbalists and the Pythagoreans; and now again, in a recent Hibbert Journal, an article by the Chief Rabbi on ‘Jewish Mysti- cism” suggests, though it does not assert, this view. The “opinion of Pythagoras” regarding metempsychosis, wholly absent from Bible and from Talmud, is fundamental to the teaching of the Cabbala. In Cabbalistic as in Pythagorean philosophy the ten numerals, or Sefiroth, contain - the possibilities of all things, and, with the help of language, represent the Spirit of God; the mys- tical number Ten is the material universe, God’s kingdom made visible; wisdom and understand- ing, mercy and justice and harmony are among the concepts which other numbers represent or embody; and the mystical One is the mystery of mysteries, which in the beginning filled all space and was all space. Then “En Sof contracted Him- self in order to leave an empty space for creatures”; just as, according to Pythagoras, érecdyerOar 8 ex Tov dmeipov Xpovoy Te Kal TVvOnV Kal TO xevov. The Pythagorean, or Platonic, or Jewish concept of Number is a hard saying to the un- poetic, non-mystical modern and Western world; and many a way is found to show that Plato and Pythagoras meant something prosy and common- place after all. But to some it is still as plain as ever that Number is the clue to the greatest of NOVEMBER 2, 1916] earthly mysteries, and that what we call beauty, whether of sound or form, is but its resultant and expression. It was in the very spirit of Pytha- gorean mysticism and wisdom that that great naturalist, Henri Fabre, wrote his great ode to number; as in a kindred spirit the old carpenter in Verhaeren’s poem : “Fait des cercles et des carrés, Tenacement pour démontrer Comment 1|’4me doit concevoir Les lois indubitables et fécondes Qui sont la régle et la clarté du monde.” We must never forget that the secrets of the mystic, whether Gnostic, Cabbalist or Pytha- gorean, lie very deep indeed, and that a twin alternative between esoteric and exoteric state- ment, or between literal and allegoric interpreta- tion, by no means exhausts the various meanings which the mystical philosopher can wrap up in his words. In the end, as we come slowly to a better, though still a clouded, understanding of what lies within and behind the Golden Verses and all the rest of the husk of Pythagorean tradition, we feel the truth and force of William James’s saying {aptly quoted in the article to which I have just referred), that the ‘‘ mystical classics have neither birthday nor native land; their speech. antedates language, and they do not grow old.’”’ D’Arcy W. Tuompson. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. Physiological Chemistry: A Text-book and Manual for Students. By Prof. A. P. Mathews. Pp. vii+1040. (London: Bailli¢re, Tindall and Cox, 1916.) Price 21s. net. ROF. MATHEWS is well known as a worker in the field of physiological chemistry, more especially on its physical side. His present volume is one of an ambitious character, and has the merit of being distinctly original. The chap- ters on the chemistry of the fats, carbohydrates, and proteins are fuller than is usual in such hooks, and the subject-matter is not only clearly ex- plained, but is fully up to date. Much of it is pure chemistry, but it will not be less valuable for that reason to the biologist. The section on physical chemistry is also treated at considerable length, as might have been anticipated by those who know the author’s bent. The whole subject is confessedly treated unequally, for, as the preface puts it: “Of so large a subject one can. be per- sonally familiar with but a small part.” The por- tions that strike one as susceptible of more expan- sion are those dealing with muscle and the duct- less glands; for the latter group of organs Prof. Mathews coins yet another name: he dubs them the Cryptorhetic Organs—i.e. organs with a hidden flow. One small feature of the book—viz. the explanation and derivation of technical terms —might well be imitated in more elementary manuals than the present. While on the question of words, one may add that the nomenclature -adopted for the fats and fat-like substances is one not likely to commend itself to all physiologists. NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE 167 Each chapter is followed by a short selected list of papers bearing on the subject dealt with in that chapter. There is no attempt at a complete bibliography, but the selections appear to have been judiciously made, though in the present state of the political atmosphere German writers figure rather too largely for English taste. The papers mentioned for reading and study are mostly recent ones, because they approach the subject from the modern point of view, and in them the older litera- ture is cited. The choice does not imply that the author does not value the work of the early pioneers; indeed, he presents evidence that he takes the opposite point of view, and the full con- sideration which he gives to their work forms one of the most interesting features of his book. He, for instance, gives a very extensive account of the researches of Lavoisier, whom he perhaps rightly regards as the founder of bio-chemistry, of Beau- mont, of Claude Bernard, and many others. Prof. Mathews, who is here the exponent of a vast but nevertheless comparatively young branch of science which every day is becoming more and more exact, is not devoid of a sense of imagina- tion, the most valuable asset of both a teacher and a researcher. His excursions into the regions of speculation will be read with keen interest, even although, like so many hypotheses in the past, they may ultimately be forgotten. Such theories as those which he advances in his comparison of the animal body toa magnet, or in his conception of the ‘‘conservation of psychism,” or in his attempts to explain memory on a chemical basis, will cer- tainly stimulate thought and future investigation. To quote once more from the preface: “It is hoped that this book will raise in the mind. of those who read it more questions than it answers.” The last 160 pages of the book are devoted to a description of the laboratory work in physiologi- cal chemistry as carried out in the University of Chicago, and practical teachers will obtain many useful wrinkles by studying these. W. D. H. OUR BOOKSHELF. Cambridge Geological _ Series. Agricultural Geology. By R. H. Rastall. Pp. ix+ 331. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 10s. 6d. net. Mr.. RastTaty’s. well-written and _ excellently printed book is a treatise on geology for agri- cultural students rather than on agricultural geology. To say this is no disparagement, since it is obviously intended for the stage in an agri- cultural curriculum when natural history subjects are predominant, and not for the later years when preliminary scientific conceptions are applied to the study of the soil. A knowledge of chemistry and elementary mineralogy is presupposed, but unnecessary technical terms are carefully ex- cluded. The final chapter, on “The Geological History of the Domestic Animals,” will appeal especially to those whose work is on the farm. The history of life on the globe is, indeed, far more appreciated by agricultural scholars than 168 our text-books would commonly lead us to sup- pose. The details of British strata, such as the Ashgill Shale and the inevitable Oldhaven Beds, are still reverenced by examining boards, but are far less important than a philosophic outlook on the great romance leading up to man, the tiller of the soil. Mr. Rastall, however, makes good use of his opportunity, and gives us attractive descriptions of the types of country met with on various strata throughout England. The chapter on soils, occupying twenty-eight pages, is a good example of the author’s method. It contains a large amount of information with- out any appearance of compression; the details given fit into a continuous and pleasing essay. We unfortunately get no conception of thé variations in the “fine earth” of soils, on which their fundamental characters depend, such matters being left (p. 144) to more purely agricultural teaching. Phosphatic deposits (p. 100), however, come within the geologist’s province, and here we think that more analyses might have been inserted and a description given of materials, such as the beds of Florida and Gafsa, which are being worked commercially at the present day. Gs Aline: By Dr. H. R. Mill and Carle Salter. The fifty-fifth annual volume. Pp. 288. (London: Edward Stanford, Ltd., 1916.) Price 1os. Dr. Mitt has been able, with the assistance of Mr. Carle Salter and Mr. R. C. Mossman, to prepare his annual account of British rainfall with almost the usual pre-war promptitude. The special feature of the volume lies in an account of the method of construction of a rainfall map, which is illustrated by a map of the Forth Valley above Queensferry, including an area of almost 1000 square miles. The fundamental rainfall facts are closely related to the elevation of the land and to the prevailing winds, and this rela- tionship makes it possible to draw isohyets across districts where rain gauges are infrequent, with the result that as the years go by these rainfall lines approximate more and more closely to the final form which they will eventually take. In May-June, 1915, practically the whole of Great Britain experienced absolute drought for twenty days. This was an unusual occurrence for Scotland. On the other hand, the west coast of Ireland and the north-west corner of Scotland had a rain spell which lasted from sixty to more than roo “rain-days” consecutively. Remarkable rain splashes occurred at Abergavenny on July 4, when 2°2 in. fell in thirty minutes, and at Mildenhall, Suffolk, on June 30, when 2°63 in. fell in fifty minutes. The heavy thunderstorm of May 6 over the centre of London is specially mapped. On the whole, 1915 was a year of mean rainfall, since the areas of both heavy and light rains are smaller than usual; this circum- stance is related to the fact that the dry east was wetter, ahd the wet west was drier, than on the average. NO. British Rainfall, 1915. NATURE i[ opinions expressed by his cogrespondents. Neither | | [NovEMBER 2, 1916 © LETTERS ‘TO THE EDITOR. The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 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.]| ory The Germans and Scientific Discovery. A coop deai. is being written on the terms of peace and on our attitude towards the Germans after the war in the spheres of pure science, applied science, and industry generally. While these and similar topics are in the melting-pot of controversy, this might be the suitable time to bring up the subject of the attitude of Germans towards the’history of science in general, and towards the part played in scientific dis- coveries by English-speaking people in particular, Those familiar with German utterances during the last twenty years or so know well that German. men of science, in giving the historical résumé of a subject, scarcely ever mention the names of British workers in that field. There is virtually a conspiracy of silence, especially as regards recent and contemporary workers. One would think, to read some German accounts of a subject, that it had been begun, continued, and ended in Germany. ‘ To make our enemies realise to what an extent they are indebted to British thinkers would be one most excellent result of this dreadful war. Of course they know it; but they systematically conceal it; it should be a valuable part of their chastisement to be made now to confess it. They have concealed the successful part played in scientific discovery by English- speaking people as systematically as they have con- cealed the successes of the Allies in the present inter- national conflict. They should be cast down from their self-assumed pride of place in the matter of scientific discovery, and made to confess who were the real pioneers in the painful fields of scientific work. It is well known that many truly epoch-making discoveries, things of the very first magnitude, were made by Britons, and that afterwards the Germans came in and adopted and utilised these discoveries in the interests, for the most part, of the expansion of their trade. As one of the conditions of their being granted peace by those who shall conquer them on their own selected arena of brute force backed by perverted machinery and prostituted chemistry, they should be made publicly to acknowledge the enormous benefits to science made initially, not by themselves, but by those whom they forced to become their enemies, the Italians, the British, and the French. Ri It would be a salutary humbling of their scientific pride to be made to confess that it was the English- man, Newton, who discovered the law of universal gravitation; the Englishman, William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood; the English- man, Priestley, who first isolated oxygen; the Scots- man, Joseph Black, who discovered the chemical rela- tions of carbon dioxide; and the Scotsman, Ruther- ford, who discovered nitrogen gas. made to know that the Englishman, Stephen Hales, was the first to perceive the necessity of a mechanical system of ventilation, to estimate the magnitude of the blood pressure in vivo by an instrument which he had devised for estimating the pressure of sap in plants, and that he was the first to invent an apparatus for artificial respiration. | Chemistry as a science was created by the Englishman, Dalton. They should be made to confess that the steam-engine was a British invention, as was also the steamboat; that the electric telegraph, the teleohone, and the phonograph were all They must be- NOVEMBER 2, 1916] NATURE 169 inventions of English-speaking people. The bicycle and the aeroplane were devised on the soil of Britain. It was Faraday, they should be made to confess, who laid the basis of electromagnetics, and therefore the foundations of that amazing industrial application of electricity as a mode of motion. It was Davy who showed the elemental character of the alkaline metals —a discovery of the greatest moment. They must be made to realise that Boyle, Cavendish, Watt, Stephen- son, Leslie, Hutton, and Lyell, as well as John Hunter, Jenner, Simpson, and Lister, were Britons who made discoveries of the first importance. They must be forced to confess the supreme character of the work of Napier, the Herschels, Adams, Clerk-Maxwell, and Kelvin. We, on our part, always acknowledge the indebtedness of science to such Germans as Mayer, Helmholtz, and Ehrlich; whereas our enemies sys- tematically conceal their immense indebtedness for the enunciation of first principles to men of the English- speaking race. In regard to the splendid contributions to science of every kind made by the Italians and the French, the representatives of those nations must draw up their own lists, and they will not be short ones. The names they must contain suggest cardinal discoveries in every field of natural knowledge. It would be tedious to revert to the Italian Renaissance, because the names of the men of that epoch have become well known to anyone who knows anything at all of the story of the progress of science. Eustachius, Malpighius, Borelli, Spallanzani, Gal- vani, Volta, and Avogadro in Italy; Lavoisier, Laplace, Lagrange, Montgolfier, Cuvier, Lamarck, Claude Bernard, Chevreul, and Pasteur in France, are names writ large in letters of gold across the azure of the firmament of European science. Not one of the follow- ing is German: Vesalius, Van’t Hoff, Arrhenius, Hel- mont, Boerhaave, Mendeléeff, the Curies, Metchnikoff, and Pavlov. Are the Germans grateful to us for what we have done in science? Do they realise, when they use rail- roads and steamers, dynamos and telephones, that they are all of British origination? They realise nothing of the kind. Not only are they not grateful for the benefits conferred on them by British science, but they have entered into a conspiracy of silence with regard to them. Let us never forget that it was a German professor of physics who deliberately declared that German air- craft must destroy the tombs of Newton and of Fara- day. He also included the tomb of Shakespeare, which was highly inconsistent with the widespread academic delusion that our and the world’s greatest poet was a German. D. Fraser Harris. Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 3o. The Spectrum of Hydrogen. THE writer has examined the four-line spectrum of hydrogen as produced in Geissler tubes with a 1 mm. capillary by alternating current of 15 milliamperes without inductance or capacity. The light was analysed by a glass prism monochromator, and the intensities measured by a photo-electric cell of quartz containing rubidium in an atmosphere of helium. The cell was calibrated in absolute units by a carbon filament lamp the energy distribution of which in different wave- lengths is that of a grey body in the visible spectrum. The energy ratios of Ha, Ha, Hy, Hs were found to remain constant when the pressure exceeded three or four millimetres of mercury.. At lower pressures the relative intensities of the lines of shorter wave-lengths increased. The effect is visually obvious in water- vapour which suppresses the. many-line spectrum; this | NO. 2453, VOL. 98] er masks the effect when pure dry hydrogen is used. The results lead to the conclusions that the four- line spectrum is due to the recombination of a +H ion with an electron; that the method of ionisation of the H atom has no effect on the distribution of intensi- ties, but that the mean free path of the luminous atom and the nature of the atoms with which it collides give a sufficient explanation of the intensity changes observed. According to Bohr’s theory, the mean free path of a luminous hydrogen atom should be shorter as the emitted wave-length decreases. The distance travelled by the atom while luminous may be called the length of the luminous streak, and at high pressures this exceeds the mean free path of the luminous atom for all wave-lengths, so that a change in pressure affects all lines in the same proportion. As the pressure is lowered, however, the mean free path will eventually exceed the length of the luminous streak for Ha while remaining less for Hg, and so the ratio Hs+Ha may be expected to increase, as is actually observed. At still lower pressures the intensity ratios should approach a constant value when all the mean free paths are greater than the corresponding luminous streaks. Observation of ‘such ratios will give the relative energies in different wave-lengths emitted by the hydrogen atom when undisturbed by collisions, and ex- periments of this kind are in progress. A full account of this work will be published shortly. ; R. T. Beatty. Queen’s University, Belfast, October 18. Origin of the Word “‘ Blizzard.’’ THERE have been a number of communications on the earliest use of the word ‘blizzard,’ but thus far there has been no suggestion as to its origin. At first sight perhaps it might seem unlikely that the name of some objectionable person was adopted to describe the extremely disagreeable features of the north-westerly snowstorm of the States. We have, however, ‘“‘boycott’? and other words added to our vocabulary with just as much justification as the old settlers in the West would have had for introducing “ blizzard.”’ In Amersham churchyard there is a tomb (now collapsing into the grave) of the Blizard family (Otto Bajer), and to this day, at the neighbouring village of Chalfont St, Giles, there resides a Blizard family. We are here in the heart of the Penn country, the Home of America. It seems highly probable that one or more members of the Blizard family of Bucking- hamshire emigrated with the earliest settlers, and it needs no great stretch of the imagination to realise how the name could have been adopted in the slightly altered form ‘“‘blizzard.” I offer the suggestion to the world-wide readers of Nature. Hy. Harries. Meteorological Office, South Kensington, October 24. “PREPAREDNESS”: THE AMERICAN WAY. ch problem of organising a nation for war has had to be faced and partially solved by this country during the act of war. The war has led the Americans to tackle the same problem, with the advantage that they are at peace and at leisure to study it scientifically, with all our mistakes and their own difficulties in the supply ic 170 of munitions before their eyes. It should be in- structive to see what conclusions have been reached by a people with a genius for reducing everything to machinery, from.the production of motor-cars to education. The first step, in a democracy, was to bring home to every citizen the importance of the problem. Some of us may have smiled at the picture of the President of the United States, clad in a straw hat, a navy-blue jacket, and cream- coloured duck trousers, marching at the head of a great “Preparedness” procession, and waving a flag with the best of them. But Mr. Wilson knew what he was about. The Americans are incom- parable advertisers. No other device could have so instantly focussed the attention of the whole mass of heterogeneous populations between the two coasts. This having been effected, the plan evolved by the Naval Consulting Board’s Com- mittee on ‘‘ Preparedness ” was set out in a series of articles written by leading Government officials and business experts, and introduced by an open letter from. the President himself. Which of the great political journals was entrusted: with this weighty national ‘publication? The shocking truth cannot be concealed that it was not to the editor of anything analogous to our Times that the President wrote his letter with full confidence that it would reach the people. It was to the Scientific American—as it might be our own Engineering—and there the articles appeared during the late spring of the present year. They start with what seems to them an axiom, though it is still so difficult for many of our fire-eaters to realise it; ““The one great lesson of the European conflict is that defence is not ob- tained to-day by fighting men alone, but by fight- _ing industries. Behind every man in the firing line in Europe, from three to five persons are employed to supply him with food, ammunition, and other needs.” Their experience of the first year of the war convinced them that the people will never reach the right point of view till they realise ““what a mess we have made of our attempts to supply munitions to the Allies.” So an article is devoted to the initial difficulties, A large firm in the West is instanced, which cheer- fully took on a contract for 250,000 3-in. high- explosive shells. It seemed a simple and profitable job. But the firm soon realised that by turning their plant—a first-class machine shop—on to it they might hope to accomplish it in eight months, and then it would only be one day’s supply for one of the Allies. But so many diffi- culties intervened that after eighteen months they had only 130,000 shells accepted, which still had to be fitted with fuses and loaded and put through other processes. None had yet reached the battlefield. Before production can be started am enormous number of measuring tools and gauges must be provided. The three famous firms engaged in this manufacture—the Brown and Sharp, the Pratt and Whitney, and the Greenfield concerns— found, on-comparing estimates, that to produce 200,000 shells a day, the amount under contract NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE [Novemper 2, 1916 for the Allies, would require in gauges and measuring tools alone an investment of from seventeen to twenty million dollars. Many of the best-known firms in the U.S» had been at work a year on the provision of this preliminary outfit without turning out sufficient finished product to be worth inspection. They have ‘made up their minds that if they are ever to be called on for the service of the nation they have to learn a great deal more about this business of making muni- tions, or in the event of war they would prove to be liabilities to the nation and not assets.” The plan worked out by the Naval Consulting — Board is then expounded. It involves three steps :-— The first step consists in the taking of a com- plete census of the producing resources of the country, to be tabulated on a card index. This is to include an inventory of industrial manufactur- ing establishments which, it is thought, will cover eighty thousand firms. The index will show the ground area, floor space, number of stories, housing accommodation, and pos- sibility of increase in emergency ; sources of heat, light, water, power; tool equipment idle in slack season; limits of precision in machine work, principal mate- rials used and where purchased, and principal pro- ducts manufactured; number of men, skilled and un- skilled, number of toolmakers, of women, and of men who could be replaced by women; percentage of em- ployees who are not American citizens; means of transport, trucking distance, and quality of street ser- vice to shipping point, trucks owned and hired, and shipping facilities by water. The census is to cover the resources of the country in minerals and materials, with special | stress on petroleum supplies and the utilisation of water-powers. To prepare it President Wilson invoked the aid of the five great engineering societies—civil, mechanical, mining, electrical, and chemical. In every State a member of each of the five societies has given his services gratuitously to form a board of five directors for the State, and under the supervision of these boards the 30,000 members of the societies have been at work. The Chambers of Commerce have given their aid, private firms have provided offices and furniture free of cost, and the newspapers have given advertisements and articles to boom the movement. It was expected that the bulk of the work would be completed by the end of May, 1916. The second stage of the plan will consist in — placing small educational orders for munitions with large numbers of selected firms annually in time of peace. It is felt that’ while the Government must have its own factories distributed throughout the country to act as educational centres and clearing-houses, they would in any important war have to rely on privately owned plants. Everything connected with these orders will be done exactly as it would be were the order a war order of one hundred times the magnitude, The work will be educational. The purchasing department of the company will learn where to buy materials; the manufacturing department how to handle them and make the necessary jigs and tools; the inspection de- NOVEMBER 2, 1916] NATURE 171 partment will become familiar with Governmental in- spection ; the engineering department with Government blue-prints and specifications; the firm with Govern- mental methods of business; and the shipping depart- ment will know how to crate and ship the finished article. The terms on which these contracts are to be made are significant. They are to be on a basis of cost plus a reasonable profit, or at a fixed dividend. There are to be no excess profits for anybody arising out of the national need, but the stockholders are to have a living wage, ‘‘since it is economically undesirable that the stockholders cease to have any dividend from their investment” ! In this way will be prevented any suggestion of a profit-interest in war, of a munition lobby, of a section of the community having an interest in forcing the nation into war. If there is a war every person in the nation must accept his share of the national sacrifice and turn in and work in whatever place his ability can be best applied. The third and final step in the programme is the enrolment of skilled labour in an “Industrial Reserve” in time of peace. Skilled mechanics in all lines of production must be kept from enrol- ment in the Army. Rather must bankers, clerks, shopkeepers, and professional men be sent. The skilled workers must be badged, and the only restriction imposed on them by the badge will be prevention of enlistment. Enrolment in the In- dustrial Reserve will be considered to carry with it honours equal to enrolment in the fighting forces. It is claimed that this plan is a most demo- cratic and American way of doing the job. It is cheap; it lays the ghost ot a munitions trust, with its dangerous interest in provoking war; it safe- guards labour from exploitation for excess profits ; it educates the manufacturers; and it is not only an insurance against war, but it has great advan- tages in peace. ‘ Direct organisation for peaceful competition is dealt with in another series of articles. The survey of national resources and their conservation includes significantly ‘our 22,000,000 children.” These must be trained, not only in the schools, but in the vital years between fourteen and eighteen, the waste of which has recently been pointed out by Mr. Galsworthy in the Press and Lord Haldane -in the House of Lords. The methods of intensive industrial efficiency which were coming into notice before the war must be continued and developed. Other articles deal with the disposal of the finished products—the careful preparation of the ground in foreign markets by personal inquiries ; by correspondence with consular agencies, chambers of commerce, and universities; by im- proved methods of packing and dispatch; and by cultivating the “human side of salesmanship.” Some of the devices described under this last | head would not commend themselves to British ideas; and are not perhaps very seriously urged. There is a thoroughgoing materialism in some of the utterances quoted which we could not accept. “‘Real immorality,” says Prof. Carver, of the NO. 2453, VOL. 98] | Economics Department of Harvard University, in a paper on the Conservation of Human Energy, “is nothing in the world except waste or dissipa- tion of human energy. Real morality is nothing in the world except the economy and utilisation of human energy. The reason why it is better to tell the truth than to lie is because a com- munity in which truth prevails will waste less energy than a community where lying prevails. . . . Honesty is one of the greatest labour-saving inventions ever devised. This may be said of any other form of morality which is genuine and not merely conventional.” There are things in our British life which we should not sell for all the markets in the world. But the treasuring of these ideals is not incon- sistent with sane preparation to meet the tremendous competition we shall have _ to encounter in the material sphere at the conclusion of the war. What this preparation should be, in the opinion of President Wilson, is indicated in the letter addressed by him to the editor of the Scientific American, directing attention to the articles which have since appeared in that journal. We think it worth quoting in full :— It will be a signal service to our country to arouse it to a knowledge of the great possibilities that are open to it in the markets of the world. The door of oppor- tunity swings wide before us. Through it we may, if we will, enter into rich fields of endeavour and suc- cess. In order to do this we must show an -effective- ness in industrial practice which measures up to our best standards. We must avail ourselves of all that science can tell us in aid of industry, and must use all that education can contribute to train the artisan in the principles and practice of his work. Our indus- tries must be self-reliant and courageous, because based upon certain knowledge of their task, and be- cause supported by the efforts of citizens in the mills. If scientific research and the educated worker go hand in hand with broad vision in finance and with that keen self-criticism which is the manufacturer’s first duty to himself, the fields will be few indeed in which American commerce may not hold, if it chooses, a primary place. The significant thing about this letter is that there is in it no allusion to Protection. The President is for open operations by an industry relying on its own efficiency, not for trench war- fare behind tariffs. Science, education, broad vision in finance, self-criticism—that is the pro- gramme. A nation which has imagination, courage, and honesty enough to depend on these can look forward without fear to whatever the future may have in store for it. J. ©. RHODODENDRONS AND LIME. ae a note in Nature of February 17, 1916 (vol. xcevi., p. 684), reference was made to Mr. Forrest’s discovery of rhododendrons growing on limestone rocks in N.W. Yunnan. In this connec- tion Lady Wheeler-Cuffe, writing from Maymyo, Upper Burma, informs the Editor that she found “a beautiful blush-white rhododendron growing actually wedged into a bare limestone crag on the very summit of Sindaung (6022 ft.), in the southern Shan States, a few years ago.” Mr. 172 Forrest also states definitely that he found rhodo- dendrons with their roots actually spreading in the crevices of the limestone rock. From the evidence of Mr. Forrest and Lady Wheeler-Cuffe it would appear that these par- ticular rhododendrons must come in contact with a large quantity of lime, but, unfortunately, we have no definite information as to the particular character of the limestone rocks on which they have been found. ' In the European Alps the two endemic species of rhododendron, R. ferruginewm and R. hirsutum, are recognised as being chalk-avoiding and challx- loving respectively. R. ferrugineum is found in damp, deep-layered soil rich in humus, and it will only grow in a limestone region when there is an overlying layer of humus. R. hirsutum, on the other hand, is a limestone rock plant, found in dry, open situations, and when the two species are found in the same locality, R. hirsutum grows only on the rocks, while R. ferrugineum occurs in the pockets of humus. The hybrids which have been raised in gardens with R. hirsutum as one of the parents are also lime-loving, like that species. Several of the new Chinese rhododendrons which were collected on limestone are now being experimentally cultivated in this country on various lime-containing soils. Some of the species (see Grove in Gardeners’ Chronicle, January 209, 1916, p. 65) appear to thrive under these condi- tions very well, while to others the lime has proved fatal, but the experiments have not been in progress for a sufficiently long time for a definite verdict as to the behaviour of these lime- stone rhododendrons under cultivation to be given. The abhorrence of lime by the humus-loving rhododendrons appears to be intimately connected with the mycorrhiza, the symbiotic fungus which lives in association with the roots of the rhodo- dendron and heath family (Ericacez), and performs the functions of the root-hairs in absorbing water from the soil; and it may be that the mycorrhizal fungi associated with the humus-loving forms of rhododendron are physiologically, if not specifi- cally, distinct from those of the lime-loving species. It has recently been shown by Rayner, Jones, and Tayleur (New Phytologist, vol. x., 1911, pp- 227-240) that the common ling, Calluna vul- garis, though it is sometimes found on chalk downs, is really growing in pockets of loamy soil rich in mineral constituents but poor in lime. It is also worthy of note that in the “limestone pavement”’ district of Westmorland ling grows vigorously in the very thin layers of earth which lie directly on the limestone rock. An analysis of the surface soil, however, reveals an almost complete absence of lime, and so lime-free is this " layer that it is actually necessary to add lime thereto in the course of ordinary agricultural operations. Cultures made by C. A, Weber and Graebner (see Graebner, “Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Pflanzenphysiographie,”’ 1910, p. 236) have shown that the lime-avoiding Ericacee and other plants NO. 2453, VOL. 98| NATURE [NovEMBER 2, 1916 they examined suffer from lime only when this is associated with a large amount of soluble salts, and that root-formation fails when nutritive salts are in abundance in the presenee of lime. Rhodo- dendrons, however, do not appear to have been among the plants examined. f In connection with their behaviour towards lime-containing soils, plants may be roughly divided into two groups: of those which avoid lime, the heath family affords one of the most striking examples, but, contrary to expectation, certain members of the family, as, for instance, R. hirsutum, are characteristic plants of lime- stone districts. It seems probable from the evidence now before us that some of Forrest’s newly discovered Chinese rhododendrons, as also the one found by Lady Wheeler-Cuffe, must be reckoned as lime-loving species, but in all these cases the interesting question as to the quantity of lime absorbed by the plants growing on limestone rock still awaits an answer. Under natural conditions these lime- loving rhododendrons are flourishing on what we should consider a very sterile medium, and it may be that the poor growth which such plants exhibit when grown in lime-containing soil in our gardens is due to the superabundance of soluble nutritive salts, which may cause the lime to react unfavour- ably on the mycorrhiza of the roots, and that, © under certain chemical conditions, the lime may have a definitely toxic influence. A. W. H. NOTES. Ar a meeting of the council of the National Museum of Wales held at Cardiff on October 28, it was announced that’ a sum of 10,0001. had been received in War Loan Scrip from Capt. W. R. Smith, senior partner of the firm of W. R. Smith and Son, Cardiff, and Mrs. Smith towards the building fund of the new museum. The generous donors had made this gift in the belief that the National Museum would be one of the first educational influences in the Principality. There were other donors, who wished to remain anonymous for the present, and it is expected that when the present contract has been paid there will be a balance of about 16,0001. towards the 50,0001. which is needed to complete the furnishing and equip- ment of the portion of the building at present in course of erection. DEALING with the fine collection of statues of eminent Welshmen at Cardiff unveiled by Mr, Lloyd George, a correspondent, writing in the Western Mail, points out with regret that no man of science figures in the series. He says that Robert Record, of Tenby, who flourished in the first half of the sixteenth century, might well have been included. Record was a man of cyclopeedic knowledge, and was most eminent in his time, though little known to modern Welshmen. The use of the sign = to denote equality was introduced by him in 1557. He was “the first mathematician who wrote on arithmetic in English; the first who wrote on geometry in English; the first who introduced algebra into England; the first who wrote on astro- nomy and the doctrine of the sphere in English; and, finally, the first Briton (in all probability) who adopted the system of Copernicus." As a statue or two are still to be added, perhaps science may yet be repre- sented in the Welsh Valhalla. 4 NovEMBER 2, 1916] Lorp RayLeicH presided at a meeting held at Uni- versity College, London, on Tuesday, October 31, to take steps to establish a memorial to the late Sir William Ramsay. Mr. J. A. Pease, M.P., Postmaster- General, in moving that a memorial fund should be raised, to be utilised in promoting chemical teaching and research, under a scheme. to be approved here- after, said he was glad on behalf of the Government to pay a tribute to the memory of Sir William Ramsay and to take part in the great object of the meeting. The memorial should be not merely national, but inter- national. Sir J. J. Thomson seconded the motion, which was supported by the Belgian Minister, who wished to convey the respectful homage of Brussels University, and by Mr. W. H. Buckler, who testified to the interest of the American Ambassador and his countrymen in the movement. The resolution was carried. It was also agreed that the meeting should resolve itself into a general committee, with Lord Rayleigh as chairman, to raise the necessary fund, and an executive committee was appointed to circulate an appeal. A NEW departure in the study of Indian phonetics and linguistics is marked by the presentation before the Royal Asiatic Society, by Sir G, Grierson, head of the Linguistic Survey of India, of a series of gramo- phone records of four languages of the Munda group, prepared under the orders of the Government of Behar and Orissa. These comprise the Kharia, Mundari, Ho,’ and Santali, and one of the Dravidian group, Kurukk. In each case a version of the tale of ‘‘ The Prodigal Son” has been reproduced, with some mar- riage songs and items of folklore. The work is im- portant because the Munda tongues are a widespread oup, extending ‘through India proper to Assam, urma, thence to Indo-China and the Malay Penin- sula, and eastward to Easter Island. A copy of these records will be deposited at the India Office Library, a second in the British Museum, and a third in the rooms of the Asiatic Society. It is significant that this new record of phonetics is produced just as the first director of the School of Oriental Studies has been appointed. It may be hoped that similar records for other Indian languages may be prepared, and the scheme might be extended to other Ianguages taught in our schools. Tue Chinese Government is becoming alive to the need for a proper geological investigation of the mineral resources of the country, and the lead in this task has_ been’ entrusted to Swedes. As the head of the survey, Dr. J. G. Andersson, formerly chief of the Swedish Geological Survey, has been appointed, and with him already are Dr. Tegengren and Prof. U. Nystrom. We now learn that Dr, T. G. Halle, assistant in the palzobotanical department of the Riksmuseum at Stockholm, is to travel in China for one year, mainly in the interests of his own department, for which he will collect Palzo- zoic plants, but partly for the Chinese Government, to which he will report on the age and character of the coal-seams inspected, and for which « duplicate series of fossils will be provided after their determination. A young Chinese geologist will accompany Dr. Halle, and will be trained by him as a palzobotanist. The spring and summer will be devoted to the northern provinces, especially Shansi, with its enormous de- posits of anthracite and ordinary coal. The coal-field of greatest scientific interest lies round and south of the Yangtse river, but how far this can be visited must depend on political conditions, now considerably dis- turbed. The expenses are borne by friends of the Swedish museum, but naturally every assistance will be given by the Central Government at Pekin. NO. 2453, VOL. 98] - NATURE 173 A PAPER on food economics, by Prof. G, Lusk, in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences for June 19, is worthy of study by everyone, and especially by those sending parcels of foodstuffs to prisoners in Germany. Prof. Lusk describes briefly how Germany tackled the all-important question of foodstuffs at the outbreak of the war. In order to maintain the protein portion of the nation’s food the committee of investiga- tion recommended that considerable increase should be made in the bean crop in Germany. Modifications were put forward in connection with the production of cereals, cheese, and skim milk, and it was finally con- cluded that the German people, through the co-opera- tion of millions of inhabitants, would be able to obtain a ration of 3000 calories per adult per day, and so escape suffering from lack of food. A prisoner of war, doing moderate work, could get along on a ration of 2500 calories, composed a& follows :—Pro- teins, 100 grams; carbohydrates, 4oo grams; fats, 50 grams. On the assumption that a gram (roughly 153 grains) of protein yields 4-1 calories, and that the corresponding values for carbohydrates and fats are 41 and 9-3 respectively, it is obvious that the total caloric value of this ration is about 2500. Prof. Lusk points out that true food reform demands the sale of food by calories and not by pounds, and he gives an instructive table of various articles of food, showing the weight and price of each necessary to produce 2500 calories. The following are some of the food- stuffs mentioned, and their costs in New York :—Oat- meal, 1 Ib. 53 oz., 22d.; wheat flour, 1 Ib. 8 oz., 3d.; sugar, 1 Ib. 53 0z., 33d.; rice, 1 lb. 83 oz., 33d. ; bread, 2 Ib. 1 oz., 4d.; lard, 93 oz., 44d. ; potatoes, 8 Ib. 1 0z., 8d.; raisins, 1 lb. 12 0z., to}d.; cheese, 1 lb. 3 02z., 113d.; butter, 11 0z., 12d.; cocoa, 1 Ib. 1 0z., 1434.3 lentils (dried), 1 Ib. 8 oz., 15d.; salt cod, 6 lb., 45d. Orricers of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers, besides a large circle of friends in the teaching profession, will learn with deep regret of the sudden death, on October 18, of Mr. C. S. Jack- son, Instructor of Mathematics and Mechanics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Before entering as-a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, Mr. Jack- son was head of Bedford School. He was eighth Wrangler in 1889, in the following year took the premier place in Part II. of the Law Tripos, and was called ‘to the Bar shortly afterwards. In 1891 he joined the staff of the R.M. Academy, and for the past twenty- five years worked there with rare distinction and single-hearted devotion. He was a member of the council of the Mathematical Association, and took a prominent part on the various committees of that body, the reports of which have done so much to improve the mathematical teaching of our schools. He was also the first president of the London branch of this association. His great knowledge of the educational requirements of the country was recognised by the Board of Education when, in connection with the International Congress of Mathematicians, which met at Cambridge in 1912, it was determined to issue a series of reports dealing with the teaching of mathe- matics in secondary schools. The organisation of the work in connection with these reports was put into the hands of Mr. Jackson, and they form a lasting tribute to his far-sighted outlook on mathematical education. His work at Woolwich brought him into contact with the applications of mathematics to the problems of gunnery and military engineering. Work- ing on these lines, he became a pioneer in breaking down the barrier that so long existed between so-called rational mechanics, as taught in our schools, and mechanics as applied to the problems of civil and military engineering. 174 Tue Nieuwe Courant reports the death, at sixty- three years of age, of Prof. A, Torp, of the University of Christiania, the most famous of Norwegian philo- logists, ; ACCORDING to the Chemisch Weekblad, the Bakhuis Roozeboom medal has been awarded to Prof, Schreine- makers, professor of inorganic and physical chemistry in the University of Leyden, WE notice with much regret, in the Times of Octo- ber 30, the announcement of the death, at seventy- seven years of age, of Prof. Cleveland Abbe, the well- known meteorologist of the U.S, Weather Bureau, Washington, D.C Tue Horace Dobell lecture of the Royal College of Physicians of London will be delivered by Dr. H. R. Dean on November 7, The subject will be ‘The Mechanism of the Serum Reactions.’’ On November 14 and 16 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers will give the Fitz- Patrick lectures on *‘ Medicine, Magic, and Religion” (part 2). Dr. E. D. Van Oort’s report on the activities of the State Museum of Natural History at Leyden for the year ended September 1, 1916, records the trans- ference of the collections to the new building in the Van der Werf Park, but laments that even now the collections are totally inaccessible to the public at large, owing to the lack of any exhibition galleries. The retirement, after forty-five years’ service, of Dr. C. Ritsema Czn, keeper of the entomological collec- tions, is a great loss to the museum. He is succeeded by R. van Eecke. Ow1ne to the pressure of his duties at Columbia Uni- versity, Prof. M. H. Whitaker has resigned the editor- ship of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, one of the official organs of the American Chemical Society. He will be succeeded in that post by the president of the society, Prof. C. H, Herty, who will relinquish at the end of the year his duties as head of the department of chemistry at the Univer- sity of North Carolina in order to devote his whole time to editorial work. Tue death is announced, in his seventy-fifth year, of Dr. Albert J. Cook, professor of zoology and ento-. mofogy at the Michigan Agricultural College from 1866 to 1893, and afterwards professor of biology at Pomona College, California. From 1894 to 1905 he superintended, the university extension work in agri- culture in connection with the University of Cali- fornia. Prof. Cook is said to have been the first to make kerosene emulsion (in 1877), and to demonstrate and advocate the use of the arsenites as a specific against the codling moth (in 1880). He was the author of a manual of the apiary, and also of publica- tions on ‘Injurious Insects of Michigan,” ‘Silo and Silage,” ‘Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush,” and “Birds of Michigan.” Cart. J. O. WakeLIn Barratt, who is serving with the British Expeditionary Force in France, writes :— “On October 17, at 9 p.m., an exceptionally fine lunar rainbow was visible in the west at Etaples (the moon had risen in the east). The width of the rainbow was fully equal to that of a solar rainbow, but no colour was recognisable, the rainbow being of a uniform light grey appearance.’’ Full moon was on October 11— six days earlier—so that the atmospheric conditions must have been very favourable for a lunar. rainbow to be distinctly visible. Such rainbows are usually faint, and their colours are not easily distinguished on this account. They generally have the appearance of a whitish or yellowish arch, except when the moon NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE [NovEMBER 2, 1916 is full and other conditions are good, in which case colours may be seen, as in a solar rainbow. Tue sixth war course of Chadwick public lectures began on October 27 with a decture on the physio- logical basis of fatigue by Prof. W. Stirling at the ~ Royal Society of Arts. Prof. Stirling will give two other lectures on the effects of fatigue on industry and efficiency on November 3 and 10 at the same place at 5-15 p-m. Dr, C, Porter will deliver three lectures at Norwich Museum during November on the health of the future citizen. Dr, J. T. C. Nash will lecture at the Hampstead Central Library on November 20 on baby-saving for the nation; and Mr, P, Waterhouse will give three weekly lectures at the Surveyors’ Insti- tution, London, on architecture in relation to health and welfare, beginning on November 30. The lectures are free, and particulars concerning them can be obtained from the offices of the Chadwick Trust, 4o (6th) Queen Anne’s Chambers, Westminster. 4 WE regret to note that Engineering for October 27 records the death, on October 7, of Col, T, Turrettini. Col. Turrettini was born in 1845, and his experience in hydraulic and electric machinery led to his election as one of the experts for the harnessing of the Niagara Falls in 1891. Exhibition held in Geneva in 1896. In the same number of Engineering is also recorded the death of Sir Henry Benbow, a prominent naval engineer officer of the past generation. In the Nile expedition of 1885 Sir Henry “Benbow’s name appears in the. official despatch for his brilliant feat of repairing the boilers of the rescuing steamer under heavy fire, thus saving Sir Charles Wilson and his shipwrecked comrades, He was promoted to chief inspector of machinery in 1888, and was placed on the retired list at his own request in 1893. ‘ , SEVERAL further letters have reached us upon the subject of the scarcity of wasps during the past sum- mer. correspondents last week seems to have been noticed in many districts. Mr. C. F, Butterworth, writing from Poynton, Cheshire, seven miles from Stockport, says :— “The queen wasps were much more numerous this year than I have known them during quite ten well- observed years, when I have kept honey bees and regarded these things with interest.” Mr, K. Ever- shed, Kenley, Surrey, noticed a number of queen wasps in the spring, but adds, as to wasps in general :— “TI do not recollect so marked a scarcity during the ~ last thirty-five years in this county.” Mr. V. E. Murray says that in the Reading district also their numbers have been considerably below the average. He adds :—In July I observed early wasps on the flowers of Scrophularia (which they fertilise), and during the autumn, while engaged on a study of ivy, particularly as regards its fertilisation (in which they also take part), 1 have noticed a sprinkling of these insects obtaining honey from the discs of the flowers, this being the only occasion on which I have seen even a moderate number assembled. It was interesting to observe these wasps now and again preying on the numerous flies also attracted by the honey, bearing their victims to the ground and killing them after a short, fierce struggle. In one case when a wasp had finished feeding on a fly the head of the latter was found to have been severed from the trunk, and in another instance, when I disturbed a wasp ba a fair-sized fly, it flew off, carrying its prize bodily away!” . Tue Harveian oration was delivered by Sir Thomas Barlow, atthe Royal College of Physicians, on Octo- ber 18. The story of Harvey’s life and of his great He was president of the Swiss National — The abundance of queen wasps referred to by” —_——— t —e NOVEMBER 2, 1916] NATURE 175 ee of the circulation of the blood have often been told, and Sir Thomas Barlow. dwelt on certain minor, but none the less important, details of Harvey’s life before proceeding to consider Harvey as physician and as Court physician to Charles I., his Oxford life, his reat discovery and worl: on generation, and his rela- tions with the College of Physicians. Harvey was.a pupil at King’s School, Canterbury, and gained there a scholarship which enabled him to proceed to Caius College, Cambridge. The regulations for this scholar- ship, founded in 1571 by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, are probably unique for the period, and enjoined that the scholar should be educated first in subjects that pertain, or are serviceable, to medicine, and then in subjects which actually constitute medicine itself. In 1600 Harvey entered the University of Padua, and studied anatomy under the learned Fabricius, returning home in 1602, became a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1607 and attached to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, with which he was connected for thirty-six years. Sir Thomas Barlow’s estimate of this side of Harvey’s life is that, besides being a great anatomist and naturalist, he was an experienced pathologist, a learned physician, and had the qualifica- tions of a good, all-round practitioner. The, College of Physicians wa’s the chief interest of his old age, and he enriched it with many benefactions. The last ex- hortation of the great master was “‘ever to search out and study the secrets of Nature by way of experiment, and for the honour of our profession to continue in mutual love and affection among ourselves.” SomME weeks ago there was considerable speculation as to the truth of the reports concerning Germany’s new super-Zeppelins, and the matter was referred to in these columns. Since that date two Zeppelins of the very latest type have been brought down in Eng- land, and one in such a state of preservation that detailed information has been readily obtained from it. Excellent descriptions of this airship have appeared in the daily papers, and a particularly correct account in the Times for October 19. All the main particulars of the early reports are justified. The capacity of the -L33 has been estimated at 2,000,000 cub. ft., its length at 680 ft., and the total horse-power at about 1500, which entirely confirms the figures previously given in these columns. More information is now available concerning the minor details of the new design. A point worthy of particular notice is the centralisation of the controls, the whole airship being under the control of the men in the forward gondola. Bombs and petrol tanks are carried in a passage-way along the keel of the ship, which also serves for com- munication between the various gondolas. The extent of the development of small details is illustrated by the fact that provision has even been made for drop- ping the petrol tanks in case of emergency, to save all possible lifting power. ments are exceedingly neat and trustworthy, and an armament of nine machine-guns has been provided: The construction of the main framework is very in- of metal used. In view of the great improvements in the design of these latest Zeppelins, it is comforting to think that our defensive measures have proved so | successful against them, and that the raiders no longer enjoy the comparative immunitv from loss which char- acterised the earlier raids. WE have received the report of the Director-General of Public Health, New South Wales, for the year ended December 31, 1914. It contains a summary by the Director-General, Dr. Paton, of the general public health administration, reports of the work of the various departments’ and of the State hospitals, and NO. 2453, VOL. 98] y | and can lead to permanent results. The bomb-releasing arrange- , the report of investigation and research work of the microbiological laboratory. The routine examination of rats and mice for plague infections forms a part of the work of this laboratory, and it is of interest that no plague infection has been found since 1910 among these rodents, although some 60,000 animals have been examined during the years 1911-14 inclusive. Puysicians and psychologists will find a critical dis- cussion of the value and limitations of the intelligence tests in diagnosing the mind of a child, in the Psycho- logical Review (vol. xxiii., No. 5). The writer, Mr. J. V. Haberman, finds the Binet method entirely in- | adequate to furnish an accurate or truthful equation of the general intellectual ability of an individual, and, further, insists that even if general ability were so tested it would be of no diagnostic value to the psycho- pathologist, since in mental pathology the processes involved are not always of the nature of general ability, but of mental functioning. He suggests a method of testing which shall serve in diagnosis, prognosis, | and prophylaxis, and that shall give a clue to therapy and remediable pedagogic processes. He also points out that this testing should not be in the hands of the | psychologist only, but of a physician with a psycho- logical training. The increasing importance now being attached to tests renders the criticism of an expert pertinent and valuable. In the numbers of Scientia for September and Octo- | ber, 1916, Prof. Eugenio Rignano writes the two parts _ of an elaborate and interesting psychological study of _what he calls ‘‘intentional”’ reasoning, ' during last year he published several articles concerned In Scientia with the psychological analysis of reasoning, and the present contributions complete this analysis. In the reasoning previously considered, the reasoner, at least at the moment when he begins his reasoning, has no intention to support certain theses at the expense of certain others, but only that of discovering the truth, On the other hand, the ‘‘intentional’’ reasoner sets _ about reasoning for the purpose of proving the correct- ness of definite assertions which he has at heart. Prof. Rignano’s work is divided into two main parts, which deal with the two chief varieties of ‘intentional’ reasoning: dialectical reasoning and metaphysical reasoning. The latter part is subdivided into sections on metaphysical theology; metaphysics properly speak- ing; finalism, animism, and vitalism; the function of language in metaphysical reasoning; and positivism and metaphysics. These researches are particularly interesting at the present time, when the attention of many philosophers and men of science is fixed on scien- tific method in philosophy, and some philosophers are gradually coming to recognise in their work that in philosophy, just as in. what is usually called science, only an unbiassed search for truth is really legitimate Of course, this seems a truism when stated thus as a maxim of | method, but it is none the less a fact that philosophers have not, as a rule,, hitherto worked in accordance ~ 2 f | with it, genious, the strength being enormous for the weight | Dr. W. D. MatrHew, in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (vol. xxxv.), de- scribes. in great detail “‘A Marsupial from the Belly River Cretaceous.” - The remains forming the subject | of this communication comprise no more than the left ramus of the mandible, the symphysis of the right mandible, and fragments of the cranium, but they constitute the most complete remains of fossil mam- mals yet discovered in the Cretaceous. » These remains are assigned the rank of a new genus and species— Eodelphis Browni—of the family Cimolestidz, which is not clearly separable from the Didelphidz, The specimen was discovered during the work of under- > oe a hg ae 176 NATURE . [NovEMBER 2, 1916 " mining a Ceratopsian skull, beneath which it lay. Being thus accidentally found during work with a heavy pick, it was badly shattered, but it is believed that all the fragments originally preserved have been recovered. Mr. E. C. Cuuss, the curator of the Durban Museum, is to be congratulated on the admirable ‘““General Guide’’ which he has prepared for the aid of visitors, a copy of which has just reached us. Mr. Chubb has evidently made the most of the collections under his charge, though it would seem that great gaps have to be filled, even in so far as African mam- mals are concerned. If we may judge from this guide, neither the elephant nor the giraffe is yet represented here. When a new edition of this guide is issued we would suggest that the statement that the ‘* lamp- shells,’ or Brachiopods, are possibly related to the starfishes should be corrected, while in regard to the information concerning flexible sandstone the fact might be added that it is found in India and Brazil. At the present time the Durban Museum occupies no more than the first floor of the south block of an imposing pile of buildings serving also as an art lery and public library, and apparently yet other unctions. In the course of time it is to be hoped the Natural History Department will either oust its rivals or find new and more commodious quarters elsewhere ; as matters stand, the space allotted to it is inadequate. Mr. E. P. Metnecke, in U.S. Dept. Agric. Bulletin, No. 275, entitled ‘* Forest Pathology in Forest Regula- tion,’ gives the results of an investigation, as regards the incidence of wounds and disease, of 160 felled trees of Abies concolor, varying in age from 60 to 258 years, These trees were representative of the ordinary condi- tion of the species under natural forest conditions in Oregon. Only one-fourth of the trees were found to be free from wounds. The rest had all been injured at one time or another by lightning, fire, frost-crack, etc., or by a combination of these, and as the wounds permitted infection by fungi, decay had set in. After the trees had reached eighty or ninety years of age, 70 per cent. were more or less badly wounded; and at 106 years, 80 per cent. ; but serious decay of the timber rarely set in until about the age of. 130 years. Fire, usually caused by lightning, is the greatest enemy. The management of the forest should be modified by the pathological conditions, as it is evident that much may be done to avert decay and destruction of valu- able timber by timely removal of wounded and badly suppressed trees, and by fixing the felling rotation at 130 to 150 years. Tue richness of Sweden in water-power, and Den- mark’s natural poverty in any sources of power, has led to Sweden exporting electric power across the Sound. The works are established in the small river Liga, in Smialand,-and the current is carried by over- head wires to Helsingborg, and thence by three sub- marine cables under the waters of the Sound to Marienlyet, north of Elsinore, on the island of See- land. According to La Géographie (vol. xxxi., No. 2), the Swedish power station sends 500 h.p. to Denmark, but the company undertakes to increase this to 5000 h.p. Precautions have been taken so far as possible to prevent the cables being fouled by the anchors of ships. Tue Royal Italian Geographical Society has issued as one of. its special memoirs a handbook and index to the names which appear on the Austrian’ Staff map (1: 75,000) of the Alto Adige, the new province of Italy lying north of the Trentino (‘‘Prontuario dei nomi locali dell’ alto Adige”), The index itself, apart from the introduction, runs to more than one hundred pages, NO. 2453, VOL. 98] and contains all the names on the fourteen | sheets of the map, with their Italian equivalents. Pending the preparation of a new map, this index should be of great value, as many of the places are difficult to identify from the German versions of their names, which often bear no relation to the Italian. The work has been done under the direction of Signor E. Tolomei. ; WirH the view of increasing the commercial utility of cobalt, Dr. H. T. Kalmus, of Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, has carried out a number of in- vestigations of the physical properties of the metal and its alloys for the Mines Branch of the Departiment of Mines. of Canada. The fifth of these investigations deals with the magnetic properties of pure cobalt and of the alloy Fe,Co, and has been conducted by Dr. Kalmus and Mr. K. B. Blake. The B, H curves of both materials have been obtained by the Burrows method in use at the American Bureau of Standards. For pure cobalt the value of B for H=10co is only about 5000, while older observations had given 8000. ~ At H=150 B has risen to 6300, and shows no sign of the material being magnetically saturated. The Fe,Co alloy, when cast, is very liable to fine cracks, but after forging is more than twice as strong as pure iron. At low fields its magnetic permeability is less than that of pure iron, but at fields exceeding 8 it is greater, and for fields of the order 50 to 200 is approximately 25 per cent. greater. The hysteresis loss is consider- ably less than that of transformer steel, and its elec- trical resistance about the same as that of pure iron. A paPER by the late Lieut. F. Trevor Wilkins (North- umberland Fusiliers), read at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on October 20, gives an account of some trials of a small Diesel engine at the Univer- sity of Birmingham. The manner of conducting these trials and reducing the results enabled figures to be presented additional to those usually given in such investigations. The indicator diagrams have been re- drawn upon a heat-energy chart, and by this means any differences between the theoretical and practical cycles are clearly exhibited. The amounts of heat passing to the cylinder walls and to the exhaust were determined accurately. The heat flow during the com- pression and expansion strokes was estimated separ- ately, and the period during which this heat flow takes place was indicated definitely. At full load the ther- mal efficiency, heat to jackets, and heat to exhaust are respectively 42:1, 296, and 28:3 per cent., these being the results of the test. The corresponding figures from the energy diagrams are 42-5, 25:3, and 32:2 per cent. ; OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue FiresaLt or. OcToBeR 20.—Mr. Denning writes that forty-six observations of this brilliant object have reached him. It was seen from widely distant sta- tions, the most northerly being Rothes (Elgin), and the most southerly Totteridge (Herts) and Bristol. The fireball was a splendid one, and it traversed a long flight of about 252 miles, from over a_ place 60 miles N.W. of Edinburgh to 50 miles E. of Whitby, Yorks. Its elevation decreased from 68 to 25 miles, and its velocity was about 17 miles per second. The radiant point was near ¢ Haass, situated low in the N.W. by W. sky at the time of the apparition. There is no well-known meteor shower from this region in the autumn, but bright meteors have some- times been observed from the same astronomical point at various times of the year, and this point near ¢ Herculis forms the chief focus of a well-defined meteoric shower visible during the last half of May. NOVEMBER 2, I916| ‘Tue Orionip SHOWER OF 1916.—These October meteors were fairly well seen this year between Octo- ber 20 and 25 at Bristol. There were two showers, one at g2°+15°, the true Orionids, and a richer one at g8°+14°, near y Geminorum. These results ap- _ pear to substantiate observations made in 1900 and 1903 at Bristol, when the Geminids exhibited greater activity than the Orionids. The two showers, lying so near together, are very liable to be confused; in fact, in some cases it is impossible to say to which _ radiant the meteors are conformable, Of the other showers belonging to this usually prolific meteoric epoch, only a few of well-pronounced character were visible this year. There were, however, some slow meteors from a sharply defined radiant at 72°+66°, and some very swift, streaking meteors from a point at 121°+43>. Several of the true Orionids, observed on October 20, were recorded at two stations, and their real paths have been com- puted. ULTRA-VIOLET RapDIATION FROM THE Sun.—Prof. Birkeland has recently given an account of some observations of the zodiacal light, and of the registra- tion of the ultra-violet radiation of the sun (Cairo Sci. Journ., vol. viii., p. 287). The most effective rays of the zodiacal light appear to have a wave-length of about 3200 A.U. and under, so that, in attempts to obtain photographs, lenses of quartz, or mirrors of Mach’s metal (67 Al+33 Mg) or of nickel, should be employed. Regarding the zodiacal light as a mani- festation of the general electrical activity of the sun, Prof. Birkeland was led to investigate the ultra-violet radiation of the sun itself by the use of a filter con- sisting of a silver film which was opaque to visible light. Sunbeams transmitted through such a -film were received by a photo-cell and registered in the usual manner. Variations of intensity were observed, and there was some slight evidence of a relation to changes in horizontal magnetic intensity.. While allowing that some of the observed variations of the ultra-violet intensity were probably due to atmospheric differences, Prof. Birkeland finds reason to believe that Variations also arise through real changes in the elec- trical state of the sun. The possibility of extending such observations to stars and planets by the use of large concave mirrors, say 4 metres in diameter, is Suggested. A new analysis of celestial bodies. giving information as to their general electrical states, might thus be founded. THE SOIL SURVEY OF WISCONSIN.} FOLLOWING the lead set by the American Bureau of Soils, the State of Wisconsin has arranged for a soil survey, and is publishing the results in a series of attractive booklets, well provided with maps, dia- grams, and illustrations. First of all, there was issued in 1911 the so-called ‘‘ Reconnaissance Soil Survey of Part of North-West Wisconsin,” in which a general account was given of the geology, climate, soil, and agriculture of the area. This has now been followed by more detailed accounts of the various counties. It is proposed to complete the work by issuing a series of bulletins dealing with the management of the different types of soil, and on the 1-in. maps issued with these reports the various soil types are so clearly defined that the farmer would have no difficulty in locating his land, and so discerning which particular bulletin would give him advice as to cropping and management. The region lies wholly within the great Mississippi valley, and its main topographical feature is the rela- 1 Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey: Bulletins 28-32 Soil Series, Nos. 2-6), and Bulletins 37-40 (Soil Series, Nos. 7-10). NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE 177 tively level or gently sloping surface of the land. Like other parts of the valley, it is an undulating plain into which lesser valleys have been cut by the rivers and streams. The underlying rocks belong to the Cambrian or pre-Cambrian systems, and include crystalline rocks, sandstone, and limestone (mainly magnesian lime- stone). But on the whole the soils are not derived from the rocks immediately below them. Upon the broad uplands are extensive deposits of Glacial drift which in many cases retain the general forms left by the great ice-sheets that invaded this region. The lakes are here intimately related in origin to the Glacial deposits. There are also extensive wind deposits of loess over large portions of the uplands. In many of the valleys are thick deposits of loose sand and gravel, which assume the form of terraces. The climate is not influenced by the Great Lakes, but it is by the storms that move eastward along the Canadian border and those that drift up the Missis- sippi valley from the south-west. As in other parts of the northern Mississippi valley, extremes of tem- perature prevail, the summer being warm, with abun- dant rainfall, and the winter cool and relatively dry. The mean temperature of the summer months is about 65°-70° F.; in January and February about 10° F.; the extremes range from about 105° F. in the summer to —48° F. in winter. Originally the land was covered with hardwood and pine, the latter being especially abundant on the sandy lands along the rivers. Much of this still remains, and there is considerable land available for agricultural settlement. Only in the west of the area do the thinly wooded and prairie lands occur. The first settlers after the explorers and fur-traders were lumbermen, and their way into the country was by boat on the Chippewa River. But fifty or sixty years ago the agricultural settlement began, and now all the ordinary crops are raised in quantity, oats being the most important cereal, followed by maize, barley, and wheat. Among the special crops culti- vated in certain districts are potatoes, sugar-beets, tobacco, peas, and maize for canning. Dairying is a particularly important industry; and it has further given rise to the well-known researches of Woll om feeding problems, and of Babcock and Russell on the composition of milk and the estimation of fat. Typical analyses are given of the various soil types; .as usual in the States, they are almost wholly mechan- ical analyses, only very few chemical data being given. In studying the results it must be remembered that the terms have very different meanings from those assigned to them in this country. The substances indicated by the analysis owe their properties to their sizes, and therefore the names given to them are intended simply to define the diameters of the par- ticles, but unfortunately no international agreement has yet been reached, and hence the same name is used in different countries for wholly different-sized particles. Thus the terms have the following mean- ings in American and British surveys respectively :— Mean diameter of particles, mm. United States Great Britain Fine gravel ... 2 -I . Above r Coarsesand ... I -O'5 cm TP 0 Medium sand ... 05 -0'25 Not used Fine sand... ... 0°25-O10 O'2 -0'4 Very fine sand... 0°10-07'05 Not used Silt... sis, «0. (O'O5-O1005 4... O'04=0'01 Fine silt ... Not used 0’0I-0'002 Clay.cas Below o'005 ... Below o'002 Direct comparison with British soils is therefore impossible, a circumstance much to be regretted, as in 178 NATURE [NovEMBER 2, 1916 many cases the comparison would undoubtedly prove interesting. But fortunately the descriptions are so good that the student loses less than might be ex- pected, and the results are very valuable, not only to the farmers for whom they were intended, but also to the student of soil problems all over the world. 1a THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF A SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY. : Jee eighth volume of the Record of Investigations undertaken by members of the Manchester Muni- cipal School of Technology, covering technological re- searches carried out during the year 1914, has just been issued. It is a highly interesting record of work accomplished, and is comprised in 258 quarto pages replete with explanatory diagrams and photographs illustrative of the text. This attempt to put upon permanent record the investigations conducted by members of the staff and by advanced students was begun in 1905, and has now extended to 2346 pages, and in its eight volumes covers researches carried out since the year 1900 in all departments of the school, including pure and applied mathematics, mechanical engineering, physics and electrical engineering, pure and applied chemistry and metallurgy, the science and practice of sanitation and building, textile manufac- ture, and the photographic and printing industries. For investigations in all these important departments of industrial enterprise the school is exceptionally well equipped, and it has, moreover, had the assistance of many enlightened manufacturers, and in this connec- tion many considerable extensions are in contempla- tion, only awaiting the conclusion of the war to give them full effect. Meanwhile new laboratories for ad- vanced training and research in the subject of coal-tar chemistry in its bearing upon the dye-stuff industry have been opened under the charge of Prof. A. G. Green, of the University of Leeds, with the help and advice of Dr. E. Knecht, the professor of chemical technology, thus giving full opportunity, not only for the efficient training of chemists for the growing de- mands of the organic chemical industries, but for the establishment of a school of research for the chemistry of dyes and allied substances employed in industrial chemistry. Many of the articles and researches published in these journals have also appeared in the scientific and ~ technical Press. Lists are also given of important papers read in connection with the various technical societies connected with the school, including the Engineering Society, the Day Students’ Chemical Society, the Textile Society, which itself publishes an important journal, the Printing Crafts Guild, and the Bakery and Brewing Students’ Societies, together with the titles of fifty-four theses prepared by graduate students in technology for the degree of M.Sc.Tech. in the University of Manchester. Lists also appear of the titles of nearly fifty volumes of technical works issued by- members of the staff since rgoo. The eighth volume of the journal under review con- tains, among other articles of value, interesting papers concerned with the applications of chemical science, such as those on vulcanising, industrial gas-burning, the action of strong nitric acid upon cotton cellulose and of sulphuretted hydrogen upon sodium hydrosulphite, together with papers on the dilution limit of inflammability of gaseous mixtures and on the ignition of gaseous mix- tures by the electric discharge. Not the least valuable paper. is one entitled ‘‘A Contribution to the History of Dyeing in Scotland,” being a sequel to one in vol. vii, NO. 2453, VOL. 98] of the journal on the history of dyeing suggested: by a remark of the late Prof. Meldola in his presidential address of 1910 to the Society of Dyers and Colourists on “The Antiquity of Tinctorial Art’’: “I have in mind the desirability of techfiical societies such as. ours including in their work the antiquarian side of their subject. This is, as a rule, neglected. Neverthe- less, it is desirable to secure records of the past with respect to ancient industries, and the experts in any particular subject are assuredly the right people to undertake such work.’’ Other important articles in the current number deal with researches on the ulti- mate endurance of steel and of the results of experi- ments with lathe-finishing tools, a continuation of valuable experiments and investigations begun in the school so far back as 1903 on high-speed tool steels and cutting tools, which are even now under investiga- tion; on modern boiler-room practice and the preven- tion or abatement of smoke; on the effect of structure on the strength and wearing qualities of cloth, © copiously illustrated; on a null method of testing vibration galvanometers; and on’the commutation of large continuous-current generators and rotary con- verters under heavy-load conditions. The school is thus ‘“‘an excellent example of the kind of work which the engineering colleges and the higher technical schools in this country ought to undertake, and must be prepared to perform, if they are to occupy the place of similar institutions abroad in the very important matter of practical research, not merely as teaching young men the elements of tech- nical science, but also as establishments where indus- trial experiments can be carried out on a practical scale.” It only remains to say, as exhibiting the great resources of this school, that the journal has been admirably printed and its illustrations prepared at the school press. . e seks PHYSIOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. HE attendance of physiologists at the Newcastle meeting was comparatively small, but there was a good programme, and several of the papers elicited considerable discussion. Prof. Cushny, the president of the section, took a pharmacological subject for his address. Reports of research committees were then presented, and Prof. Waller exhibited a simple appa- ratus for the administration of known percentages of chloroform. The recent modifications suggested by — the extensive use of the instrument were described. A series of lantern-slides illustrating the action of pituitary extract on the secretion of cerebro-spinal fluid was shown by Prof. Halliburton. The increased secre- tion is claimed by him to be an indirect result of the extract, the immediate cause being ascribed to stimu- lation of the cells of the choroid plexus by an increased quantity of CO, in the blood. Prof. W. H. Thompson detailed the results of fur- ther investigations into the formation of arginine and creatine. An interesting paper by Prof. Cushny on the secretion of urea and sugar by the kidney was the outcome of a repetition of Heidenhain’s experiments, with this difference, that urea in some experiments, and sugar in others, were injected instead of a dye into the blood of an animal after transection of its spinal cord. Analysis of the kidneys after a suitable interval showed no increase of urea or sugar in them above the normal, and there was therefore no accumu- lation of these substances in the cells of the convoluted tubules. ’ Prof. Herring gave the results of several series of experiments in which white rats had been fed on small directed attention NovEMBER 2, 1916] NATURE 179 doses of fresh thyroid for various periods of time. The administration of 0-2 gram of fresh ox thyroid in the food daily for one month led to a 75 per cent. increase in the weight of the suprarenals, and a 50 per cent. increase in their adrenalin content, Further, there Was great hypertrophy of the heart, especially of the ventricles, the weight of the heart being double, and in some nearly treble, the weight of the heart of control animals. The kidneys were also enlarged, though not to the same extent. Prof. Herring to the similarity in the con- dition produced in white rats by small amounts of thyroid to the condition sometimes found in “soldier’s, or trench, heart’’ in man, and suggested that cardiac hypertrophy, associated with excessive pro- duction of adrenalin and changes in other organs, might sometimes be caused in man by over-action of the thyroid glands. A paper by Dr. Kojima followed, in which changes in the pancreas induced by thyroid- feeding were illustrated by lantern-slides. The pan- creas of thyroid-fed animals showed numerous karyo- kinetic figures, and alterations in the amount of secre- tory granules in the cells. In the discussion which followed these two papers Sir William Osler, Sir Edward Schafer, Prof. Drum- mond, and Prof. Moore took part. y On Friday morning, September 8, Dr, Itagaki de- scribed the action of ovarian extracts, more especially of luteal tissue, on preparations of uterine and intes- tinal muscle. A paper by Prof. Bayliss on ‘‘The Properties Re- quired in Solutions for Intravenous Injection was read, in which the author recommended the use of a 7 per cent. solution of gum acacia, Such a trans- fusion fluid has a viscosity, and exerts an osmotic force, more nearly resembling blood plasma _ than normal saline, and when used in cases of hemorrhage gives better results. Prof. Moore and Mr. Barnard gave a paper on the nutrition of living organisms by simple organic com- pounds. : The meeting closed with a discussion upon ‘ Food Standards and Man Power,” introduced by Prof. Waller. The obiect of the discussion was to prepare the way for the formation of a committee to formulate definite figures for the value of work done by man, woman, and child. ‘THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. : SECTION H. ANTHROPOLOGY. OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY R. R. Marett, M.A., ' D.Sc., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION, THE question to which I beg to direct attention on the present occasion is: What function ought anthro- pology to fulfil among the higher studies of a modern university? The subject may be commonplace, but it is certainly not untimely. At the present moment those of us who are university teachers in any of the warring countries are feeling like fish out of water. Our occupation is to a large extent suspended; and already it seems a lifetime since we were assisting, each after his own fashion, in the normal development of science. “Usus abit vite: bellis consumpsimus zvum.” Can the hiatus be bridged, the broken highway mended? Never, if memories are to prevail with us; but if hopes, then it goes equally without saying that NO. 2453, VOL. 98] ' | we shall somehow manage to carry on more actively and successfully than ever, So the only problem for brave and hopeful men is, How? Ignoring our pre- sent troubles, we are all thinking about the future of university education, and ‘reform is in the air, Of course, every university has difficulties of its own to meet; and my own University of Oxford, with eight centuries of growth to look back on, is likely to be more deeply affected by the sundering of traditions due to the war than such of its sister-institutions as are of more recent stamp. Now, when I discuss university matters, the case of Oxford is bound to weigh with me predominantly ; and, indeed, no man of science could wish me to neglect what, after all, is bound to be my nearest and richest source of experi- ence. But various kind friends and colleagues hailing from other universities in Great Britain, France, and the United States have furnished me with copious information concerning their home conditions, so that I shall not altogether lack authority if I venture to frame conclusions of a general nature. Besides, it is not on behalf of any university, but rather as repre- senting the interests of the science of anthropology, that I am entitled to speak in my present capacity. I do indeed firmly hold that anthropological teaching and research can be admitted to the most ample status in the curriculum of any modern university without injury to established industries and activities. But, even if this were not so—even if it needed a sort of surgical operation to engraft the new in the old—we anthropologists must, I think, insist on the fullest recognition of our science among university studies, realising, as we are especially able to do, its immense educational value as a humanising discipline. Let me not, however, rouse prejudice at the outset by seeming to adopt an aggressive tone. ‘Live and let live’ is the safest motto for the university reformer; and I have no doubt that the peaceful penetration whereby anthropology has of late been almost imperceptibly coming to its own in the leading universities of the world will continue to accomplish itself if we, who make anthropology our chief concern, continue to put forth good work in abundance. For, like any other science, the science of man must be justified of its children. Now, it is customary to contrast what are known as technical studies with university studies proper; and such a distinction may prove helpful in the present context, if it be not unduly pressed, Thus, in par- ticular, it will afford me an excuse for not attempting to travel afresh over the ground covered by Sir Richard Temple in his admirable presidential address of three years ago. What he then demanded was, as he termed it, a school of applied anthropology, in which men of affairs could learn how to regulate their prac- tical relations with so-called “‘ natives’’ for the benefit of all concerned. Let me say at once that I am in complete agreement with him as to the need for the | establishment or further development of not one school only, but many such schools in this country, if the British Empire is to make good a moral claim to exist. Indeed, I have for a number of years at Oxford taken a hand in the anthropological instruction of pro- bationers and officers belonging to the public services, and can bear witness to the great interest which students of this class took at the time, and after leav- ing Oxford have continued to take, in studies bearing so directly on their ‘life-work. What I have to say to-day, however, must be re- garded as complementary rather than as immediately subsidiary to Sir Richard Temple’s wise and politic contention. The point I wish to make is that, unless anthropology be given its due place among university studies proper, there is little or no chance that tech- nical applications of anthropological knowledge will 180 NATURE [NovEMBER 2, 1916. prove of the slightest avail, whether attempted within our universities or outside them. Anthropology must be studied in a scientific spirit—that is, for its own sake—and then the practical results will follow in due course. Light first, fruit afterwards, as Bacon says. So it has always been, and must always be, as regards the association of science with the arts of life. That Sir Richard Temple will heartily subscribe to such a principle I have no doubt at all. however, whose long and wide experience of adminis- tration and of the problems of empire had convinced him of the utility of the anthropological habit of mind to the official who has to deal with ‘“‘all sorts and conditions of men,” he naturally insisted on the value of anthropology in its applied character. On the other hand, it is equally natural that one whose career. has been wholly academic should lay emphasis on the other side of the educational question, maintaining as an eminently practical proposition—for what can be more practical than to educate the nation on sound lines?—the necessity of establishing anthropology among the leading studies of our universities. How, then, is this end to be attained? The all- important condition of success, in my belief, is that all branches of anthropological study and research should be concentrated within a single school. For it is conceivable that a university may seek to satisfy its conscience in regard to the teaching of anthropology by trusting to the scattered efforts of a number of faculties and institutions, each of which is designed in the first instance to fulfil some other purpose Thus tor physical anthropology a would-be student must resort to the medical school, for social anthropology to the faculty of arts, for linguistics to the department of philology, for prehistorics to the archaeological museum, and soon. Such.a policy, to my mind, is a downright insult to our science. Is the anthropologist no better than a tramp that he should be expected to hang about academic back-doors in search of broken victuals? Fed on a farrago of heterogeneous by- products, how can the student ever be taught to en- visage his subject as a whole? How, for instance, is he ever to acquire the comprehensive outlook of the competent field-worker? Such a makeshift arrange- ment can at the most but produce certain specialists of the narrower sort. In ‘‘The Hunting of the Snark” they engaged a baker who could only bake bride-cake. | Anthropological expeditions have, per- haps, been entrusted before now to experts of this type; but they have not proved an entire success. I am not ashamed to deciare that the anthropologist, be he field-worker or study-worker—and, ideally, he should be both in one—must be something of a Jack- of-all-trades. This statement, of course, needs qualifi- cation, inasmuch as I would have him know every- thing about something, as well as something about everything. But the pure specialist, however useful he may be to society in his own way, is not as a rule a man of wide sympathies; whereas the student of mankind in the concrete must bring to his task, before all else, an intelligence steeped in sympathy and imagination. His soul, in fact, must be as many- sided as that complex soul-life of humanity which it is his ultimate business to understand. . .-. It has sometimes been objected that, however much we strive by means of organisation to invest anthro- As a man of affairs,’ pology with an external semblance of unity, the sub- . ject is essentially wanting in any sort of inner co- hesion. Nor does such criticism come merely from the ignorant outsider; for I remember how, when the programme for our diploma course at’ Oxford was first announced to the world, Father Schmidt found fault with it in the columns of Anthropos on the | ground that it was not the part of one and the same |! petent to teach in a broad and humanising way. man to combine the diverse special studies to which NO. 2453, VOL. 98] we had assigned a common anthropological bearing. m In the face of such strictures, however—and they were © likewise levelled at us from quarters nearer home— — we persisted in our design of training anthropologists — who should be what 1 may ‘eall ‘all-round men.” Let them, we thought, by all means devote themselves later on to whatever branch of the subject might attract them most; but let them in the first instance learn as students of human life to ‘‘see it steadily and see it. whole.” considerable number of students has passed throu our hands, and we are convinced that the composite curriculum provided in our diploma course works per- fectly in practice, and, in fact, well-nigh amounts to a liberal education in itself. It is true that it cuts across certain established lines of demarcation, such as, notably, the traditional frontier that divides the faculty of arts from the faculty of natural science. But what of that? Indeed, at the present moment, when the popular demand is for more science in educa- tion—and I am personally convinced that there is sound reason behind it—I am inclined to claim for our system of combined anthropological studies that it affords a crucial instance of the way in which natural science and the humanities, the interest in material things and the interest in the great civilising ideas, can be imparted conjointly, and with a due appreciation of their mutual relations. Now, there is tolerable agreement, to judge from the university syllabuses which I have been able to examine, as to the main constituents of a full course of anthropological studies. In the first place, physical anthropology must form part of such a training. I need not here go into the nature of the topics comprised under this head, the more so as I am no authority on this side of the subject. Suffice it to say that this kind of work involves the constant use of a well- equipped anatomical laboratory, with occasional excur- sions into the psychological laboratory which every university ought likewise to possess. It is notably this branch of anthropology which some would hand over entirely to the specialist, allowing him no part or lot in the complementary subjects of which I am about to speak: I can only say, with a due sense, I trust, of the want of expert knowledge on my part, that the results of the purely somato- logical study of man, at any rate apart from what has been done in the way of human palzon- tology, have so far proved rather disappointing; and I would ‘venture to suggest that the reason for this comparative sterility may lie not so much in the intrinsic difficulties of the subject as in a want of constructive imagination, such as must at once be stimulated by a fuller grasp of the possibilities of anthropological science as a whole. In the next place, cultural, as distinct from physical, anthropology must be represented in our ideal course by at least two distinct departments. The first of these, the department of prehistoric archeology and technology, involves the use of a museum capable of illustrating the material culture of mankind in all its rich variety. Here instruction will necessarily take the form of demonstration-lectures held in the presence of the objects themselves. To a limited extent it should even be possible to enable the student to acquire practical experience of the more elementary techno- logical processes, as, for instance, flint-knapping, fire- making, weaving, the manufacture of pottery, and so on. May I repeat that, to serve such educational pur- poses, a special kind of museum organisation is re- quired? Moreover, it will be necessary to include in the museum staff such persons as have had a comprehensive training in anthropology, and are consequently com- ‘The other department of cultural anthropology is one Since this resolve was taken, a _ \NovEMBER 2, 1916] _ that embraces a considerable complex of studies At _ Oxford we term this branch of the subject social anthropology, and I do not think that there is much amiss with such a title. Among the chief topics that it comprises are kinship- and marriage-organisation, religion, government, law, and morals. Further, economic and zsthetic developments have to be _ examined in their reference to the social life, as apart _ from their bearing on technology. ' In one aspect all _ these subjects lend themselves to a sociological method _ of treatment; and, though no one is more concerned than myself to insist on the paramount importance of psychology in the equipment of the perfect anthro- pologist, 1 would concede that the sociological aspect ought so far as possible to be considered first, as lending itself more readily to direct observation. To reveal the inner workings of the social movement, however, nothing short of psychological insight will suffice. Indeed, all, I hope, will agree that the anthropologist ought to be so trained as to be able to fulfil the functions of sociologist and psychologist at once and together. It remains to add that no training in social anthro- logy can be regarded as. complete that does not include the study of the development of language. On the theoretical side of his work the stident should acquire a general acquaintance with the principles of _ .comparative philology, and, in particular, should pay ; attention to the relations between speech and thought. _ On the practical side he should be instrutted in Z ; . phonetics as a preparation for linguistic researches in the field. But detailed instruction in particular languages, more especially if these are not embodied in a literature, is scarcely the business of a school of anthropology such as every university may aspire to possess. ... ; So much, then, for the multiplicity which an anthro- ological curriculum must involve if it consist, as has en suggested, of physical anthropology, technology with prehistoric archeology, and social anthropology with linguistics.. And now what of its unity? How best can these diverse studies be directed to a common end? I would submit that there are two ways in which the student may most readily be made to realise the scope of anthropology as a whole, the one way having reference to theory and the other to practice. The theoretical way of making it plain that the special studies among which the student divides his time can, and must, serve a single scientific purpose is to make his work culminate in the determination of problems concerning the movement of peoples and the diffusion of culture—in a word, of ethnological problems (if, as is most convenient, the term ‘“ethnology”’ be taken to signify the theory of the development of the various ethnic groups or “ peoples’? of the world). A great impetus was given to the investigation of such matters by Dr. Rivers in a now famous presidential address to this section, followed up, as it was shortly afterwards, by a monumental work on the ethnology of the Pacific region. But it would be quite a mistake to suppose that anthropologists were not previously alive to the importance of the ethnological point of view as a unifying interest in anthropological theory. So far back as 1891, when the second Folklore Con- gress met in London, under the presidency of the late Andrew Lang, the burning question was how far a theory of diffusion and how far a theory of independent origins would take us in the explanation of the. facts with which the science of folklore is more particularly concerned. It is true that there has been in the past a tendency to describe the theory of independent origins as the ‘‘anthropological’’ argument; but such a mis- nomer is much to be regretted. Anthropology stands not for this line of explanation, or for that, but for the truth, by whatever way it is reached; and ethno- NO. 2453, VoL. 98] NALTURE 181 logy, in the sense that 1 have given to the term, is so far from constituting the antithesis of anthropology that it is rather, as | have tried to show, its final outcome and consummation. Recognising this, the Oxford School of Anthropology from the first insisted that candidates for the diploma should face an exam- ination paper in ethnology, in which they must bring the various kinds of evidence derived from physical type, from arts, from customs, and from language. to bear at once on the problem how the various ethnic individualities have been formed. ‘The result, I think, has been that our students have all along recognised, even when most deeply immersed in one or other of their special studies, a centripetal tendency, an orienta- tion towards a common scientific purpose, that has saved them from one-sidedness, and kept them loyal to the interests of anthropology as a whole. Let me add that, as our anthropological course ends in ethno- logy, so it begins in ethnography, by which I mean the descriptive account of the various peoples con- sidered mainly in their relation to their geographical environment. Thus, from the beginning to the end of his work, the student of anthropology is reminded that he is trying to deal with the varieties of human life in the concrete. He must first make acquaintance with the peoples of the world in their unanalysed diversity, must next proceed to the separate consideration of the universal constituent aspects of their life, and then, finally, must return to a concrete study of these peoples in order to explain, as well as he can, from every abstract point of view at once how they have come to be what they are. If this theoretical path be pursued, I have little fear lest anthropology appear to the man who has really given his mind to it a thing of rags and tatters. The second way in which the unity of anthropology may be made manifest ‘is, as I have said, practical. The ideal university course in anthropology should aim directly and even primarily at producing the field- worker. I cannot go here into the question whether better work is done in the field by large expeditions or by small. For educational purposes, however, I would have every student imagine that he is about to proceed on an anthropological expedition by himself. Every part of his work will gain in actuality if he thinks of it as something likely to be of practical ser- vice hereafter ; and, to judge from my own experience as a teacher, the presence in a class of even a few ardent spirits who are about to enter the field, or, better still, have already had field-experience and are equipping themselves for further efforts, proves in- finitely inspiring alike to the class and to the teacher himself. Once the future campaigner realises that he must prepare himself so as to be able to collect and interpret any kind of evidence of anthropological value that he comes across, he is bound to acquire in a practical way, and, as it were, instinctively, a com- prehensive grasp of the subject, such as cannot fail to reinforce the demand for correlation and unification that comes from the side of theory... . The conclusion, then, of the whole matter is that, for practical and scientific reasons alike, our “universi- ties must endow schools of anthropology on a liberal scale, providing funds not only for the needs of teach- ing, but likewise for the needs of research. Money may be hard to get, but nevertheless it can be got. We must not hesitate, as organisers of education, to cultivate the predatory instincts. For the rest, it is simply a question of rousing public opinion in respect to a matter of truly national importance. If anything that I have said to-day can help in any way to improve the position of anthropology among university studies, I shall be satisfied that, trite as my subject may have seemed to be, I have not misused the great. opportunity afforded to every holder of my present office. 182 UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Liverroot.—Mr. C. Sydney Jones has given the University the sum of 8oool. for the endowment of the chair of classical archaeology, in memory of his father, the late Mr. C. W. Jones, who was one of the founders of the chair in 1906, Lonpon.—The several faculties have elected their respective deans for the period 1916-18; among these are :—Medicine, Sir Bertrand E. Dawson, London Hospital Medical College; Science, Prof. Herbert Jackson, King’s College; Engineering, Dr. H. C. H. Carpenter, Imperial College of Science and Tech- nology; Economics, the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, London School of Economics, Oxrorp.—Much interest has been aroused in Oxford by the debate in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Rhodes Estate Bill. The Bill proposes to establish twelve scholarships of 30ol. a year each in lieu of the fifteen scholarships of 250l. tenable by German students nominated by the Kaiser. The scheme in its present form contemplates the distribu- tion of the twelve new scholarships among colonists of the British Empire, but it is felt in some quarters that it might be advantageous, and not out of accord- ance with Mr. Rhodes’s intention, to extend the benefit to a wider sphere. The adoption of Lord H. Cecil’s proposal to give the committee power to grant discretion to the trustees to make the substituted scholarships available for students whether within or without the British Empire has accordingly been received by many with approval. It remains to be seen what form the Bill will ultimately take in its passage through Parliament. , SIR Dovucias Haic, Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in France, has been elected rector of he Andrews University, in succession to Lord Aber- een, ACCORDING to the Nieuwe Courant, the number of women students in the German universities during the last summer semester was 5460, or double the number of 1911. The women now represent 10:5 per cent. of matriculated students, as against 4-8 per cent. in 1911. Of the students actually present in the universities (i.e. outside the Army), the women now form one- third. The number of women medical students is now 1394, aS against 582 in 1911. In this way the losses caused by the war will to some extent be repaired, for the first 600 German casualty lists contain 1500 names of medical men. Tue Institution scholarship of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders for the pre- sent year has been awarded to E. V. Telfer. The council of the institution, believing that the time has arrived for making the subjects of the scholarship examination of. the institution more comprehensive than hitherto, has decided that the syllabus of future examinations shall be :—(1) English; (2) English his- tory and geography; (3) Latin, Greek, French, or Ger- man (one of the four); (4) extra mathematics; (5) and (6) either experimental science and mechanics, or any two of the following :—Chemistry, physics, mechanics. A COMMITTEE was appointed at the Newcastle meet- ing of the British Association to report upon the method and substance of science teaching in secondary schools, with particular reference to the place of such instruction in general education. lution was adopted by the committee at a meeting held on October 18 :—‘‘That in order to secure free- dom of action for teachers of Science in schools, and NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE The following reso- | [NOVEMBER 2, 1916 to prevent the instruction from becoming stereotyped, it is undesirable for any external authority to pre- scribe a detailed syllabus in science for use in schools, whether intended as the basis of. examinations or otherwise.” ” ! In his recent presidential address to the Institution of Automobile Engineers Mr, L. A. Legros dealt, among other topics, with the part science might with ad- vantage take in the education of our governing classes. He spoke of the deplorable ignorance of technical and scientific matters among those on whom the responsi- bilities for running the war have fallen. Never, he said, in the history of engineering has the ignorance of science by the politicians, the military, and the other authorities been so openly displayed as in the early stages of the war, and never has it proved so costly in time, in life, and in substance. The views of teachers brought up on classical lines are, he main- tained, devoid of that perspective which would enable them to realise that for the majority of their pupils the dead languages are useless except as a discipline or gymnastic which can be provided as efficiently in the course of work which is really useful to them. A knowledge, of the classics is undoubtedly of value to men of the clerical, legal, literary, and even of the medical professions, but, Mr. Legros urged, how much greater would have been the value, in this war, of that small section which deals with politics had it been as well grounded in the sciences as in the dead languages? Mr. M.’S, Pease has sent us from Ruhleben a copy of the prospectus of work for the autumn term at the Ruhleben Camp School. It would be difficult to pro- vide more convincing proof of the hope for the future which inspires our countrymen at Ruhleben and of the courage and initiative of these prisoners there than the arrangements they have made for study and self- improvement. The camp school is in charge of a businesslike general committee, which has discovered in the camp teachers of nearly every conceivable subject, means for arranging and equipping laboratories for practical work, for starting a good library, and for holding examinations in connection with the home examining authorities. The prospectus is able to print the proud boast that ‘“‘in most subjects the tuition provided by the school ranges from that required by absolute beginners to that required by advanced uni- versity students.’”” We can refer here only to some of the numerous departments, and mention may be made of those for biological sciences, mathematics and physics, chemistry, engineering, and nautical sub- jects. In zoology, for example, courses are being given in vertebrate embryology, and in the study of the Echinodermata; in botany the Gymnosverme are being studied, with laboratory work; all branches of pure mathematics, including, for instance, infinitesimal calculus and differential equations, are being taught; — lectures and laboratory work are available in all branches of chemistry; and every branch of engineer- ing is catered for. No saner way of relieving the awful tedium of prison camp life could be found than the classes and circles for study which have ~ been provided by the Ruhleben Camp Committee. In Scotland for some time it has been possible for young men to obtain engineering training by attend- ing during the winter classes in the universities, and by getting works experience in the .summer. This plan suits Scotland, where the university session is con- densed and there is a long interval between the closing of the university and its reopening. In England the university session is distributed more evenly through- out the vear, and Dr. Wertheimer, the dean of the faculty of engineering of the University of Bristel, has, NOVEMBER 2, 1916] training. A student on leaving school will enter the university and will spend a session there, passing the intermediate examination for the B.Sc. degree - in engineering at the end; if his record is good, and he is a promising student, he will be recommended to a firm which will allow him to enter its works for a period of fourteen months, This will enable the student to judge to what extent he is fitted for an engineering career, and will also enable the manu- _ facturers to form an.impression as to his suitability. _ He will then return to the university and continue his studies for a further period of two years, in some cases spending the long vacation in the works; after that he will return to the same works, if he has given satisfaction, for another period of fourteen months. A number of firms have already agreed to talke part in the experiment, so that a satisfactory trial is assured. The “sandwich”’ scheme, besides provid- _ ing an improved method of engineering training, will also, it is hoped, bring the important firms which are _ taking part in it into closer touch with the. University, _ and thus lead to more co-operation in research and other matters. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, October 3.—Prof. S. J. Hickson, president, in the chair.—Prof. F. E. Weiss; Sir E, Kutherford, WW. Thomson, and Dr. G. Hickling ; The discussions at the Newcastle meeting of the British Association. October 17.—Prof. S. J. Hickson, president, in the chair.—Prof. W. H. Lang: Rhynia Gwynne-Vaughant, Kidston and Lang, a new type of vascular cryptogam from the Old Red Sandstone of Rhynie, Aberdeen- shire. The chert in which the plant occurs was dis- covered by Dr. Mackie, of Elgin, and the plant re- mains are being studied by Dr, R. Kidston and Prof. W. H. Lang, the results being published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Photographic slides showed the underground rhizomes attached to the peaty soil by rhizoids, the branched cylindrical aerial stems, which were leafless, and the large cylindrical sporangia. The internal structure is well preserved, so that our knowledge of this ancient land plant is pretty complete. Rhynia differs so much from other vascular cryptogams that a new class, the Psilo- phytales, has been founded to contain it. Paris. Academy of Sciences, October 9.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—P. Puiseux: The physical libration of _ the moon, studied on forty photographs obtained at the Paris.Observatory between the years 1894 and 1909. The method of measurement and calculation employed is fully described, and the conclusion is drawn that the theory of the movement of the moon round its centre of gravity, established by considering the satel- lite as an indeformable body, does not correspond with the facts.—D. Eydoux : The transmission of strokes of a hydraulic ram in pipes with bifurcations.—F. Houssay : The sound of distant cannonades. The com- plexity of the question. A description of observations made at Sceaux. Heavy cannonades can be heard at distances at which single cannon-shots cannot be detected; there would appear to be a summation effect. —M. de Broglie: On.a-system of absorption bands corresponding to the L-rays of X-ray spectra of the elements, and on the importance of the phenomena of selective absorption in radiography. Commenting on a recent communication by M. Boll and L. Mallet. the author agrees that the radiations emitted by a Coolidge NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE therefore, proposed a modified ‘‘sandwich’’ system of 183 tube are as heterogeneous as those given by other bulbs, and give a relatively complex spectrum. Filtra- tion through a non-selective screen, such as aluminium, may be made to give a roughly monochromatic beam. From a discussion of the action on a silver bromide emulsion, it is shown that a practically monochromatic | radiation can be obtained by interposing a selective screen containing a substance (cadmium, antimony) with an atomic weight slightly higher than that of silver.—P, Nicolardot; The action of reagents upon French, Bohemian, and German glassware. Glass- ware for chemical purposes is now made by several firms in France. Some of these glasses have been sub- mitted to the attack of various chemical reagents (water, solutions of hydrochloric acid, ammonia, ammonium chloride, sodium carbonate), comparative tests being carried out under the same conditions with Jena glass, two Bohemian and two Thuringian glasses. The French glasses proved to be equal to the best German glasses. Comparative tests were also carried out on the resistance of the glasses to sudden changes of temperature and to the action of water at temperatures up to 160° C. Complete analyses of the French; Jena, and Bohemian glasses used are given.— A. Pictet, L, Ramseyer, and O. Kaiser: Some hydro- carbons contained in coal. A soft Sarre coal was extracted on the large scale (five and a half tons) with benzene. From the extraction product (0-25 per cent. of the coal) seven unsaturated and seven saturated hydrocarbons were isolated. These have been com- pared with the hydrocarbons obtained by the distilla- tion of coal at 450° C. in a vacuum, and it is shown that a part, at least, of the hydrocarbons of the vacuum tar exist as such in the coal. The extracted material proved to be optically active, although no fraction from the vacuum tar possessed this property. Hence it would appear that a temperature of 450° is sufficient -to racemise the volatile active substances contained in coal. This furnishes a proof that the materials from which the coal has been formed have never been carried to that temperature.—R. Masse and H. Leroux : The estimation of phenol in crude tar phenols. The process suggested consists of a preliminary fractional distillation, followed by a determination of the melting point.—J. Bougault: The semicarbazones of a-ketonic acids. The a-iodocinnamic acids.—G, Barthelat: The structure of the floral pedicel of Mesembryanthemum. —M. Mirande: The cytological formation of antho- eyanin in the living plant.—M. Molliard: The dis- engagement of oxygen arising from the reduction of nitrates by green plants.—Em, Bourquelot : Remarks on the rotatory powers of the a- and B-alcohol-d- glucosides and alcohol-d-galactosides.—J. Legendre : The destruction of mosquitoes by fish. It has been proved that the Chinese carp (Carassius auratus) flourishes when introduced into the rice plantations of Madagascar, devouring the larve of the mosquito in large numbers, thus helping to reduce malaria.—A. Lumiére : The presence of the tetanus bacillus at the surface of projectiles buried in cicatrised wounds. BOOKS RECEIVED. Dyeing in Germany and America, with Notes on Colour Production. By S. H. Higgins. Second edition, Pp. viiit+143. (Manchester: University Press; London: Longmans and Co.) 5s. net. Philips’ Planisphere showing the Principal Stars Visible for Every Hour in the Year. (London: G. Philip and Son, Ltd.) 1s. 6d. net. A Text-Book of Quantitative Chemical Analysis. Bv Drs. A. C. Cumming and S. A. Kay. Second edition. Pp. xv+4o02. (London: Gurney and Jack- son; Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.) gs. net. 184 The Camera as Historian. By H. D. Gower, L: S. jJast, and W. W. Topley. Pp. xv+259. (London: Sampson Low and Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. The Biology of Tumours. Pp. 55. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd.) 2s. 6d. net. Insect Enemies. By C. A. Ealand.. Pp. 223+ plates. (London: Grant Richards, Ltd.) 6s. net. Memoirs of the Geological Survey. Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Museum of Practical Geology for 1915. (Lon- don: H.M.S.O.; E. Stanford, Ltd.) 1s. Dynamics. By R. C. Fawdry. Part i. Pp. viii+ 177+ix. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) 3s. Chronicles of Man. By Dr. C. F. Coxwell. Pp. xiv+654. (London:' Watts and Co.) 6s. net. Elements of Military Education. By W. A. Brock- ington. Pp. xvi+363. (London: Longmans and Co.) 4s. 6d. net. Crowley’s Hygiene of School Life. By Dr. C. W. Hutt. Pp. xv+428. Methuen and Co., Ltd.) 4s. 6d. net. A Hausa Botanical Vocabulary. By J. M. Dalziel. Pp. 119. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.) 6s. 6d. net. The World’s Wonder Stories for Boys and Girls. By A. G, Whyte. Pp. xiv+272. (London: Watts and Co.) 6s. net. New edition, (London : DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, November 2. Rovat Society, at 4.30.—Waves in an Elastic Plate: Prof. H. Lamb.— (1) Multiple Integrals ; (2) The Order of Magnitude of the Coefficients of a Fourier Series: Prof. W. H. Young.—A Determination of the Heat of Vaporisation of Water at 100’ C. and x Atmosphere Pressure in Terms of the Mean Calorie: T. C, Sutton.—The Mechanical Relations of the Energy of Magnetisation: G, H. Livens. MATHEMATICAL SocIETY, at 5.30.—Annual General Meeting.—Address of Retiring President: The Fourier Harmonic Analysis; its Practical Scope and its Limitations: Sir Joseph Larmor.—Multiple Integration by Parts and the Second Theorem of the Mean: Prof. W. H. Young.—Moving Axes and their Uses in the Differential Geometry of Euclidean Space : E. H. Neyille.—Areas and Conformal Reoresentation: I. Hodginson. CHEMICAL SociETy, at 8.—Overvoltage Tables. Part IV. The Theories of Overvoltage and Passivity : E. Newbery.—Studies of the Catbonates. Part II. Hydrolysis of Sodium Carbonate and Bicarbonate, and the Tonisation Constants of Carbonic Acid : C. A. Seyler and P. V. Lloyd.— The Synthesis of Hydroxyquercetin : M. Nierenstein.—(r) The Reaction between Methyl Iodide and some Metallic Cyanides ; (2) Some Reactions produced by Mercuric Iodide: E. G. J. Hartley.—The Dual Theory of Acid Catalysis. A Comparison of the Activities of Certain Strong Acids: . M. Dawson and T. W. Crann. Evucenics Epucation Society, at 5.15.—Mental Differences in Children : C. Burt. FRIDAY, NovemBer 3. InsTiruTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6.—Thomas Hawksley Lecture: The Gas Engineer of the Last Century: H. E. Jones. SATURDAY, November 4. GEoLOoGIsSTS' ASSOCIATION, at 3.—Followed by Annual Conversazione. MONDAY, November 6. Society oF ENGINEERS, at_ 5.30.—Heating and Ventilating Private Dwelling-Houses: C. T. A. Hanssen. ARISTOTELIAN Society. at. §.—Presidential Address: Vhe Priblem of Recognition: Dr. H. Wildon Carr, Rovart Geocrapnicat. Society, at 8.30.—The Great Passes of the Western and Central Alps: The President. TUESDAY, November 7. Zoo.ocicat. Socrety, at 5.30.—Two New Species of Cestodes belonging respectively to the Génera Linstowia and Cotugnia > Dr. F. E. Beddard.— Notes on the Development of the Starfishes Asterias glacialis, O.F.M., Cribrelia oculata (Linck), Forhes, Solaster endeca (Retzius). Forbes, Stichaster roseus (O.F.M.), Sars: Dr. J. F. Gemmill.—Studies on. the Anoplura and Mallophaga, being a Report upon a Collection from the Mammals and Birds in the Society's Gardens. If. : B. F. Cummings.— Notes on a Collection of Heterocera made by Mr. W. Feather in British East Africa, 1911-13: Lt.-Col. J. M. Fawcett.—The Structure and Function of the Mouth-parts of the Palemonid Prawns: L.'A. Borradaile. . zy Heude's Collection of Pigs, Sika,'Serows, and Gorals in the. Sikawei Museum, Shanghai: A, de C. Sowerby.—The Classification of the Tineinz, a Subfamily of Moths of the Family Pyralide: Sir G. F. Hampson. INSTITUTION OF Civit. ENGINEERS, at 5.30.—Address by the President, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, and Presentation of Medals awarded by the Council. MINERALOGICAL Society, at 5-30.—Humite: Prof. W. J. Lewis.—(r) The Combination of Twin, Operations; (2) Modification of the Kohlrausch NO. 2453, VOL. 98] NATURE By Dr. C. M. Moullin. [NovEMBER 2, 1916 Method of Determining Refractive Indices: Dr. J. W. Evans.—The Basalts of Hare Island, West Greenland : A. Holmes. R6NTGEN Society, at 8.15.—Presidential Address; Capt. C. Thurstan ‘ Holland. $28 WEDNESDAY, November 8. : FARAapAy Society, at 5.30-7 and 8. 30-10. 30,—General Discussion on Refrac- tory Materials.—Introductory AddresS: Sir KR. Hadfield.—The Texture of Refractories: Dr. J. W. Mellor.—The reer ee of Petrographic _ Methods to the Study of Refractory Materials: Prof. W. G. Fearnsides.— Silica as a Refractory Material: Cosmo Jones.—The Transmission of Heat through Materials Employed in Furnace Construction: Ezer Griffiths. : GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30. THURSDAY, Novemper 9. baalig Roya Society, at 4.30.—Probable Papers; Methods of Babine a Low Arterial Pressure : Prof. W. M. Bayliss.—Selective Permeability; the Absorption of Phenol and other Solutions by the Seeds of Hordeum vulgare: A, J. Brown and F. Tinker.—The Toxic Action of Dilute Pure Sodium Chloride Solutions on the Meningococeus : C. Shearer.—The Aisle of the Phagocyte in Cerebro-spinal Meningitis: C. Shearer and H. W. Crowe.—Investigation dealing with the Phenomena of ‘‘Clot” Forma- tions. IV. The Diphasic Erosive Action of Salts on the Cholate Gel: S. B. Schryver and Mary, Hewlett.—Some Photochemical Experiments with Pure Chlorophyll and their Rearing on Theories of Carbon Assimila- tion: Ingvar Jorgensen and F. Kidd. Fix Ae oan Society, at 8.—Some Notes on Glass Grinding and Polishing ; . W. French. Rovyat GroGRaPHICAL Society, at 5.—Natural Divisions of England : C. B. Fawcett. FRIDAY, NovemBER 10. es Roya ASTRONOMICAL SCCIETY, at 5. j MALACOLOGICAL Society, at 7.—Has Lymnza an Auriculoid Aneesty C. Hedley.—(1) Anodonta cygnaea, L., and A. anatina, L.; (2) Pseudanodonta rothomagensis, Locard: H. H. Bloomer and H. —-Sexual Characters in the Shell and Radula of Prof. A. E. Boycott. Overton. Cyclostoma elegans: CONTENTS. “PAGE The School of Pythagoras. By Prof. D’Arcy W.- Thompeon, C.B., F;RiS. |. s. .) ys o0 se eae Physiological Chemistry. By W.D.H. ..... 167 Our Bookshelf |, 30.0.0) ) dale Letters to the Editor:— a A Nomenclature for ‘‘ Resistance Derivatives,”— Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S. ie Plastic Flowing of Metals. -W. H. F. Murdoch . 190 Optical Deterioration of the Atmosphere and Volcanic Eruptions.—Prof. A. Riccd Position and Promise of British facture. By ALRate 45%: eye ule Preservation of Natural Colour in Plants. By Dr. A.B. Rendle; FiR-S.,.. . 2... » 4). Dr. J. 0; Backlund.) ... 6) ys, caus 5 hs, Notes ocr. i cceheeiid i> 9 %>=uil 7 aa nn Our Astronomical Column :— The Radial Velocity of 8 Ursze Majoris .. . Radial Motion in Sun-spots Cease Wolf-Rayet Bands in the Nuclei of Nebule ... . Barnard’s High Proper-Motion Star ....... 196 A Catalogue of Meteorites...) .. .. . 2) eMOS! Memorial to the Late Sir William Ramsay .. . The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences. By Grace © Chisholm Young : $ Ss ru) Anthropology at the British Association. .. . 19) An Imperial Department of Minerals and Metals. 199 The British Association at Newcastle :— F Section I—Physiology.—Opening Address (Abridged) by Prof. A. R. Cushny, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., PAGE ‘Dyestuff Manu. an President of the Section be sajs Lis: ogee University and Educational Intelligence .. . . 202 § Societies and! Academies. . .) j1,/. &.../s «5a eee ) Books Received. 22s... s/isy «aay boy"), . Diary of;Societies’ «0. 1 hae ay oo se oie eS 7 Eee . ee Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, WG Is Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. bat), - Editorial Communications to the Editor. Telegraphic Address: Puusts, Lonpon. Telephone Number: Grrrarp 8830. A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye..—WorpDsWwoRTH. No. 2455, VOL., 98]' THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1916 [ PRICE SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] {All Rights Reserved BUY DIRECT FROM F.E.BECKER & CO,BATTON WALL, QW1.&0.GEORGE. LTD., succ%?) Graphite-Selenium Cells FOURNIER D’ALBE’S PATTERN. Great Stability and High Efficiency. With a sensitive Se surface of 5 sq. cm. anda voygnge 20 the additional current obtainable at various illuminations (in metre-candles) is :— At 1 m.c. ... . 4+ milliamp. pgs SR eal 3 8 re eG “= For particulars and prices apply to the SOLE AGENTs : John J. Griffin & Sons, Makers of Physical and Electrical Apparatus, Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. THE “RYSTOS” LANTERN. A Lantern of superior workmanship, fitted with three telescopic draw tubes and interchangeable jacket mount, with rack and pinion, for objectives of various foci, Will be found to be a most suitable Lantern for use in large lecture halls, &c. Complete with superior objective, either 6, 8, 9, or 12 inckes focus, 2i-inch diameter, condenser 44-inch diameter, and high-power limelight burner, in travelling case, £9 00 WAR IN THE BALKANS. A set of lantern slides from negatives taken by members of the Red Cross Missions to Serbia and Montenegro for Sale or Hire, LIST AND PRICE ON APPLICATION. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. EER A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. Ixxxli COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal: J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. DEPARTMENT OF COAL-TAR COLOUR CHEMISTRY. “BRITISH DYES” RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS. The Governors invite applications for two Scholarships of the value of 475 each and tenable for one year in the first instance. The object of these Scholarships is to encourage and afford greater facili- ties for research upon problems in connection with the Coal-Tar Colour In- dustry in Great Britain. The Kesearch is to be carried out in the Department of Coal-Tar Colour Chemistry of the Technical College, Huddersfield. Full particulars may be obtained on application. T. THORP, Secretary. SECONDARY SCHOOL (DUAL), CASTLEFORD, YORKS. ASSISTANT MISTRESS required in January. Special subject— History. Salary £110 to £150, ace rding to experience and qualification. Applications to be sent to the undersigned on or before November 24, 1916. Mr. C. T. LIGHTLEY. 77 Carlton Street, Clerk to the Governors. Castleford. WOOLWICH POLYTECHNIC. WANTED for January and for duration of war— (1) TKACHER OF PHYSICS. (2) TEACHER OF MATHEMATICS. Applications are invited fron men ineligible or discharged from military service, or from women. ALEX. F. HOGG, Principal. ANATOMY ATTENDANT REQUIRED for Dissecting Room, &c. Must be non-eligible for military service. Experience desirable, but not essential. Discharged sailor or soldier would b= considered, if quick at learning. Apply (by leiter only) to Box 838, c/o Messrs. R. F. Waive & Son, General Advertising © gents, 33 Fl et Street, F.C. MASTER required to teach Nature Study and some English. For par- ticulars apply to HeapMasTER, Hulme Grammar School, Manchester, —— WANTED, the following quarter-sheets of the 6-in. Ordnance Survey Map: Surrey XIII., N.E., and XIV., N.W., Edition 1897 (about). “ E P.,” Box 200, NaTuRE Office. NATURE [NoveMBER 16, 1916 BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematies (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logie, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. meats ? Day: Science, £17 10s.; Arts, £10 10s, SESSIONAL FEES {eeemae Science, Arts, or Economics, £5 5s. Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post sd.), from the Secretary. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Courses. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44). SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone: Western 899. For Advertisement Rates, Terms of Subscriptions, Gc., see page \xxxvii of the present issue of ‘“‘ Nature,.’’ Bausch" |omb NEW STAND—DDS for the Highest Grade Research and Photomicrography. DDS 8 (as illustrated) with 16 mm., 4 mm., and 1:9 mm. (oil immersion) objectives, 5x and 10x eyepieces, circular triple nose piece, Abbe condenser, 1°20 N.A., mechanical stage, in cabinet, Catalogue ‘‘Al’’ (Microscopes Of all kinds, & accessories) on reques{,. We have sold over 114,000 Microscopes, which are in use all over the world. NEW 1/12 INCH OIL IMMERSION OBJECTIVE Fluorite System. N.A. 1°32 Price £10 0 O Also MICROTOMES, CENTRIFUGES, PHuTOMICROGRAPHIC and DRAWING APPARATUS, PROJECTION APPARATUS, GANONG’S APPARATUS for PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, VI:COSIMETERS, etc, Bausch & lomb Optical @.[td. Cuntractors to British, Indian, Colonial & Foreign Governments, Agents for BAUSCH &, LOMB OPTICAL COMPANY, OF ROCHESTER, N.Y., U.S.A. 37-38 HATTON GARDEN, LONDON, £.¢. Our Instruments may be obtained through all Dealers. Trape Mark. NATURE 205 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1916. NORTHERN COUNTIES LORE. (1) Highways and Byways in Galloway and Car- rick. By the Rev. C. H. Dick. Pp. xxix +536. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 6s. net. : (2) Cleator and Cleator Moor: Past and Present. By the Rev. Cesar Caine. Pp. xviii+475. (Kendal: Titus Wilson, 1916.) Price 21s, net. (1) ae AY, comprising the county of Wigtown and the Stewartry of Kirkcud- bright, is probably less pervaded by tourists than any other attractive part of Scotland. Messrs. Macmillan have done well to commit to. the Rev. C. H. Dick and Mr. Hugh Thomson the task of dealing with this district in their admirable “Highways and. Byways” series, for these two gentlemen between them, one with his pen, the other with his pencil, have produced an_ ideal volume—not a guide-book in the ordinary sense so much as a vade mecum for the traveller. Mr. Dick, while not neglecting the highways, finds his chief delight in the byways and in those great tracts of moorland and mountain which constitute the southern upland of Scotland. Here he pursues his leisurely way, dropping off his bicycle at little wayside inns and lonely shepherds’ cottages, at solitary pele-towers and immemorial kirkyards, wherever he may glean armfuls of legendary and historic lore, Galloway was the chief stronghold of the westland Whigs; memorials of the heroes and martyrs of the Covenant are as holy in his eyes as the sculptured crosses of the primitive ‘Celtic church or the ruins of such noble fanes as ‘Sweetheart and Dundrennan. Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in vacant places, Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor, Hills of sheep, and the homes of silent vanished races, _ And winds austere and pure. The killing, however, was not all done by Claverhouse and Lagg. The Covenanters did not shrink from shedding blood on occasions. “Carsphairn abounds in hills of sheep and has its circle of standing stones, but is the only parish in the Glenkens where there is no martyr’s grave. The village, however, has its story of the killing time. Pierson, the Episcopal minister, main- tained a persecuting policy towards the Covenan- ters in the parish, and kept Lagg informed of those who absented themselves from church. The people were not cowed, but merely exasperated, and, led by James MacMichael, proposed to make some sort of treaty with the minister to secure peace in the parish. Pierson received a deputa- tion in the manse, but on learning their errand was enraged, would listen to none of their remon- strances, barred the door, and drew out his pistol. Companions of the deputies, who had remained outside, hearing cries from within, broke down the door with MacMichael at their head. He, seeing the pistol outstretched and conceiving his NO. 2455, VOL. 98] friends to be in imminent danger, shot Pierson dead.” In treating of the scenery of Galloway Mr. Dick deals only with its external beauties and its association with legend and history. In a single volume so full of interesting matter it would be too much to expect detailed notice of fauna and flora. The geology of the district has been admirably explained in Sir Archibald Geikie’s “Scenery of Scotland.’’ There is, however, one feature which has long occupied the attention of geologists and deserves notice in any traveller’s handbook. The prevailing formation in this region is Lower Silurian, the beds of which are tossed to a height of 2764 ft. in the Merrick, the loftiest summit in southern Scotland. Twelve miles S.S.W. of Merrick stands Cairnsmore-of- Fleet, 2331 ft., an intrusive mass of granite, altering the Silurian beds around it. On the very summit of Merrick lie many huge blocks of Cairnsmore granite, some of them as big as a small cottage. Ice-borne, no doubt, but how have they been carried to an elevation 400 ft. greater than that of the hill whence they came? The easiest explanation is that Cairnsmore has lost much of its original height by sub-aerial denudation. t We have but a single fault to find with Mr. Thomson’s masterly pencil sketches, namely, that in his otherwise accurate drawing of the Peter Stone at Whithorn (p. 239) he has left out the Chi-Rho loop on the right of the upper limb of the cross. This is a serious omission, seeing that this feature, derived from the Emperor Constan- tine’s labarum, occurs only on two other sculp- tured stones in Scotland, both in Galloway. _ (2) Very different in scope and purpose from Mr. Dick’s rambling notebook is the Rev. Cesar Caine’s “Cleator and Cleator Moor,” which is a record, historical, industrial, geological, and biographical, of this famous ironfield. The earliest documentary evidence of iron-mining in West Cumberland is a deed of gift by William Earl of Albemarle, who died in 1179, of a mine at Egremont and a forge at Wynefell to the Abbey ot Holm Cultram; but relics of the industry in prehistoric and Roman times have been found at Cleator and Furness. Mr. Caine discusses the various theories about the formation of hematite ore, such as aqueous deposition in solution, igneous injection, and chemical displacement. or substitution, and agrees with J. D. Kendall in regarding the metasomatic replacement of lime- stone by ferrous carbonate as the prevailing cause, while less frequently hematite has probably been deposited in fissures by filtration. ’ The output from the Cleator mines shows so serious a falling off, namely, from 4,505,951 tons in the decade 1871-80 to 1,266,208 tons in the decade 1901-10, as to indicate the approaching close of the industry at no very distant date. Mr. Caine, however, looks forward to a day. when “a man with large means and ‘equal courage to carry out his ideas: may. bore-through the coal measures which are known to overlie the car- M 206 NATURE aa ty | [NOVEMBER 16, 1916 boniferous limestone in a large part of the neigh- bourhood of Cleator and find immense bodies of ore to reward him.” It is claimed for the Cleator Linen Thread Mill (now included in the great Thread Combine) that it is “the oldest flax-spinning mill in the country, and perhaps in the world.” Winding thread on spools was first started here, the thread having previously been done up in hanks. It is strange, therefore, that Mr. Caine, in a dissertation upon place-names, should seek to connect that of a field close to the mill, Linethwaite, with the Anglo-Saxon “‘linde,” a lime tree. It is plain Norse for “‘flax-field ”—lin-thveit. A list of the flora and fauna of Cleator is given in an appendix, but it is valueless for any scientific purpose, inas- much as none but English popular names are given. It does not carry one very far to be told that in this parish are found the linnet, the goose, the orchis, the gentian, etc., with no indication of species. A COMPOSITE AMERICAN TEXT-BOOK OF GEOLOGY, A Text-book of Geology. By Prof. L. V. Pirsson and Prof. C. Schuchert. Part i., Geology. By Prof. L. V. Pirsson. Pp. vii+ 444. Price 10s. net. Part ii., Historical Geology. By Prof. C. Schuchert. Pp. yi+ 405-1026. Price 12s. net. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) (5, BOEOEY, being such a many-sided science, is especially handicapped in regard to text- books. It is provided .with a library of books dealing with its various subdivisions and aspects, but the provision of an up-to-date manual which deals with the whole range of the subject in about a thousand pages, and of the standard required by students in higher technical schools and by those taking geology as a secondary subject in universities, is a perennial difficulty. Specialisa- tion in geology has gone so far that it is becoming impossible for any one author to deal with the whole science in the detail required in such a work. The new text-book of geology by Profs. Pirsson and Schuchert, with chapters by Profs. Barrell and Lull and Dr. Ulrich, show the effort to over- come this difficulty by joint authorship. That method has its own drawbacks, for it is very diffi- cult thus to secure that unity of view and uni- formity of standard which are indispensable in an educational text-book. The first part of this work, by Prof. Pirsson, deals with physical geology. It is divided into two divisions, dynamical and structural, and in the course of 400 pages gives a most excellent summary of these subjects. Its illustrations are numerous and clear, and are all useful. Those illustrating the geological conditions of arid re- gions are especially good. His account of the igneous rocks is short and conservative, and British teachers may be grateful for the fact that NO. 2455, VOL. 98] Physical , he does not mention the American classification or adopt its terminology. A few relatively unim- portant slips occur, such, for example, as the remark on p. 178 that the one boring in a coral atoll in the Pacific shows a thin cap of coral “on the volcanic rock which forms the main mass.” The author attributes (p. 79) the fact that the Caspian is fresher than ordinary seas to the pre- cipitation of its’ salt in Karabugas; but it would appear more probably due to the former dilution of the Caspian by the Volga. Prof. Pirsson intro- duces into geology the term “ nonconformity ” for those varieties of unconformity in. which.the dip of the formations is visibly different; for the other section of unconformities he ‘accepts: Grabau’s term of disconformity. His description of pot- holes as a minor feature would appear to under- rate their significance, for their formation is prob- ably the main process by which mountain streams deepen their valleys in hard rock. The chapter on the formation of mountains is one of the most interesting in the volume. In spite of some American opinions to the con- trary, the author concludes that the crust is contracting in consequence of the lessened volume of the earth as a whole; and he is disposed to attribute the shrinkage, not to cooling, but to chemical changes in the internal material. He adopts also the steadily growing view that crustal movements occur with a rhythmic periodic progression; but the author will sur- prise many of his readers by his conclusion that the earth, “except locally or to a superficial depth, may not be hot, at least in any such sense that it could experience the notable contraction from loss of heat demanded for the origin of the folded ranges’’ (p. 366). The author refers to recent suggestions throwing doubt on the origin of the West American block mountains by faulting; but he concludes that the dominant processes in the formation of many, if not most, of these ranges are the faulting of the region and the tilting of the blocks. In his classification of mountains it is perhaps a pity that the author has not adopted the usual sequence of terms. He reverses the order of chain and system, and re- presents several mountain systems as forming a mountain chain; and he continues that a com- bination of mountain chains constitutes a cordil- lera. The term ‘“‘cordillera ”’ seems best restricted to a mountain system such as the Andes, com- posed of parallel chains. ¢ Prof. Schuchert’s part of the work, which is also published as a separate volume, consists of a most interesting series of essays. But it would appear of less use to British students as a college text-book than the first part. It is overweighted at the start by the long hypothetical pre-geological history of the earth. The arrangement of the material, and such illustrations as the portraits of geologists, are less suitable for the technical student than for the general reader; thus most students would probably have found it more con- venient to have the descriptive paleontology all aan NOVEMBER 16, 1916] together instead of distributed between the strati- graphical chapters. Among the excellent features of this part is an explanation of the binomial nomenclature, which students are often expected to understand without any such help; but though the first edition of the “Systema Natura” was published in 1735, that is not accepted as the date of the establishment by Linneus of the binomial system. The relega- tion of the technical names of the fossils illustrated in the text to an appendix is symptomatic of the present state of paleontological nomenclature; only general names are given in the legends of the figures. ‘The use of popular names has the draw- back that they vary so much locally, and English students are not likely to know what are meant by Sowbugss or Pillbugs (p. 605). The author accepts as undoubted the identification of some impressions in pre-Cambrian rocks of Brittany as radiolaria, though this conclusion is rejected by some who have examined the material. There is less evidence for the author’s view that Eozoon is a caleareous alga than for its original reference to the Foraminifera, and it seems rather a “bull ” to refer to some of these plants as fresh-water seaweeds, In the historical geology the chief departures from the usual classification are the adoption of two additional systems; of these the Ozarkian System occurs between the Cambrian and the Ordovician, but as the Beekmantown beds are excluded its value appears doubtful. If the Beekmantown and allied faunas be included in the Ozarkian System a much stronger case could be made out for it. The Lower Cretaceous is raised: to a system, the Comanchian, which in- cludes from the Wealden to Albian inclusive. Prof. Schuchert’s account of the historical geo- graphy is illustrated by admirable maps of geo- graphical distribution; it gives a most useful summary of the stratigraphy of North America, and its up-to-date account of the principles of stratigraphy could be read with advantage by all British teachers of geology; but as the his- torical geology of the British area is incomplete and less accurate, this part of the volume will be of less value to British students than Prof. Pirsson’s section. c The most serious drawback to this valuable text-book is the absence of references. Je Wee Ge RADIOGRAPHIC METHODS. Localization by X-rays and Stereoscopy. By Sir J. Mackenzie Davidson. Pp. xi+72+xxvi plates. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. re this book the author describes in detail several of the methods which have been devised for the accurate localisation of foreign objects in the human body. The first two chapters deal with the experimental ‘conditions which should be observed in order that NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE 207 good radiographs may be obtained, and with some simple yet excellent experiments illustrating the radiographic advantage of a good focus-point on the anti-kathode. The undesirable effects of secondary radiation receive mention; they are re- sponsible for a good many of the defects which occur in radiographs, and constitute a danger (second only to the primary rays) to the operator, which the author does well to insist upon. The main facts of X-ray stereoscopy are de- scribed and illustrated. By transposition of two stereoscopic photographs the point of view of the observer becomes reversed; some explanation of this would be of great assistance to the beginner. The advantages of stereoscopy to the surgeon who is to remove the foreign object are obvious, and we agree with the author that some successful method of rendering stereoscopic images upon a fluorescent screen would be a great advance ‘on present procedure, There are, however, many ex- perimental difficulties to be overcome before this can be effected. The author has done much to elaborate a precise means of localising foreign objects in the human body, and all the details of the “cross-thread” method are entered into. In cases where a foreign body is lodged in the eye or the orbit, precise localisation is absolutely essential; the chapter devoted to such cases is perhaps the best in the book. The author directs attention to the misleading nature of-a single X-ray photograph, but describes a method by which the depth of a foreign body below the surface may be obtained by means of a single X-ray exposure; this method entails the use of two sets of cross-wires which are placed at a known vertical distance apart. An oblique ray from the anti-kathode casts a shadow of the foreign body and of the lower set of cross-wires with respect to the other set of cross-wires, which is in contact with the photographic plate; simple measurements from the single photograph give the vertical depth of the foreign body below any point previously selected on the surface. The book closes with a series of twenty-one stereoscopic illustrations on plates, which will repay careful study; it is worth noting that stereo- scopic vision may be very considerably improved by practice. Much of the wreckage of human life occa- sioned by the war would be past repair were it not for the extra vision vouchsafed to the surgeon by X-rays; whether in dealing with pro- jectiles which have entered the body or in the damage to the structures, bony and otherwise, methods have been evolved which enable the sur- geon to know exactly where to look and almost as surely what to find. The attitude of the author is that too much information cannot be given to the surgeon thus engaged, and it is safe to say that the methods of: localisation described, together with a stereoscopic picture of the foreign. body giving its relation tothe neighbour- ing anatomical parts, inspire confidence. 208 NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 OUR BOOKSHELF, Economics in the Light of War. By Prof. R. A. Lehfeldt. Pp. 56. (Johannesburg: The South African School of Mines and Technology; London: Wm. Wesley and Son, 1916.) Price IS. In this slight, but well-reasoned, essay Prof. Lehfeldt contemplates the influence which the present war has had on economic theory. He deals only with consumption and production, “not,” he says, “because the problems of distri- bution are not urgent, but because there seems to be less that is novel to say about them.” This is surely a remarkable finding in view of the ex- periments in Germany and France. If there be little novel to say, there must then be many striking new proofs of old tenets of belief. More attention will, Prof. Lehfeldt thinks, have to be given in the future to the human factor in economics. We are beginning to realise the necessity of a qualitative as well as a quantitative analysis of consumption. The human powers of production are more dependent than we have supposed on the human will to produce. The essay is strikingly sound, if somewhat un- inspiring ; and it is refreshing after the cant which has been talked on the former and the absurdities which have been written on the latter to read the sound common sense of the author on the two problems of the size of the family and social wel- fare, and of the influence of taxation for the war loan on supplies of capital. It is, however, pre- sumably popular in purport, and Prof. Lehfeldt does not venture on the treacherous currents of finance. A. L. Interpolated Six-Place Tables of the Logarithms of Numbers and the Natural and Logarithmic Trigonometric Functions. Edited by H. W. Marsh. Pp. xii+155. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s. 6d. net. Tue publication of these tables helps to mark a change in the use of logarithms, both for teaching and practical purposes. Nowadays most teachers use four-figure tables for teaching purposes, even in the laboratory; on the other hand, the reason given for the issue of this volume is that in many technical problems five significant figures are essential, so that a six-figure table is necessary. The contents of the book are: (1) logs of numbers, with differences and full tables of pro- portional parts; (2) logarithmic sines, etc., inter- polated to the second; (3) natural sines, etc., tabulated to the minute, with proportional part for the second; (4) lengths of circular arcs to radius unity; (5) various tables of length, specific gravity, etc. Change of a leading figure in a mantissa is indicated in an unusually clear way; the figures used are mostly ‘old faced,” and, although rather fine cut, do not seem to be tiring. But in using the tables it will be almost unavoid- NO. 2455, VOL. 98] able to use a card to guide the eye along the lines ¢ this is suggested in the introduction, which gives other useful hints. It seems to us that it would add considerably to the convenience of the book to give the values and the logarithms of certain constants, such as 7, e, /7, Euler’s constant, and so on; this would not require more than a page. The World’s Wonder Stories for Boys and Girls, By A. G. Whyte. Pp. xiv+270. (London: Watts and Co., 1916.) Price 6s. net. THESE stories take the form of brightly written and interesting answers to a number of questions propounded by the author. How was the world made? Where did the plants and animals come from? Who was the first man? are specimens of questions which provide the opportunity for giving much biological and geological inform- ation, and for introducing a simply worded explanation of evolution. A second type of question is made to serve another and additional purpose. Where did all the religions come from? Where did the Bible come from? Where did right and wrong come from? are questions asked to enable the author primarily to give moral instruction on a rational basis. The chapters throughout are written in easy English which young children can understand; the information is correct and modern; and the language is dignified and circumspect. Orthodox teachers and parents whose teaching of morality follows conventional lines would undoubtedly derive benefit from the method of presentation adopted, while no child could read the book with- out. understanding something of the scientific method and what it has accomplished. Petit Atlas Céleste. By G. Bigourdan. Five charts. Pp. 59. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1915.) ‘Price! 2:75° francs: : An admirable introduction to the study of the heavens is provided by this little book, which has been prepared by a distinguished member of the ~ staff of the Paris Observatory. The constella- tions over the entire sky are represented in con- siderable detail in five excellent maps, the stars being shown in black on a white ground, and names and index letters in red. The introductory text includes a brief history and description of the constellations, and two very useful lists of stars. One of the catalogues is arranged: in order of right ascensions, and is notable as indi- cating the spectra, in addition to the proper names, positions, and magnitudes, of 195 of the principal stars. The other is arranged according to constellations, in alphabetical order, and will be convenient as a means of quickly finding par- ticulars of a star which is indicated only by its constellation and letter. The book is of a con- venient size (9 in. x 54 in.), and may be recom- mended as a handy work of reference for use in the observatory as well as to beginners in observa- tional, astronomy. NoVEMBER 16, 1916] NATURE 209 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 Concilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich. THERE appears to be in England some misapprehen- sion in regard to the Concilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich. All zoologists are probably aware that the international agency founded by the International Con- gresses of Zoology and Physiology has for twenty-one . years been concerned in editing the ‘ Bibliographia Zoologica"; but many seem to believe that the owner- ship has remained vested in the hands of Wilhelm Engelmann, of Leipzig, and that the undertaking has consequently fallen a victim to the war. To give the proper historical perspective to the work, its genealogy may be tabulated as follows :— Titles or (* Bibliotheca historica naturalis,” I.) 1700-1846 13,500 II. (‘* Bibliotheca Zoologica”) ... ... 1846-1861 40,750 III. (‘‘ Bibliotheca Zoologica,” II.) ... 1861-1880 125,000 IV. (Zoologischer Anzeiger) as . 1861-1895 115,000 : Prior to Concilium 294,310 V. (‘ Bibliographia Zoologica”)... ... 1896- 202, 500 ’ Total... 496,810 On the death of Prof. J. Victor Carus, in 1903, the Concilium Bibliographicum became sole editor of the “ Bibliographia Zoologica’’; but the work remained a part of the Zoologischer Anzeiger, and was printed and distributed in Leipzig. In 1909 arrangements were made for printing in Ziirich. Three years later the Concilium Bibliographicum acquired all rights over the “ Bibliographia,” and the relationship with the Zoologischer Anzeiger was severed. Vols, xxiii.— XXv. (1912-13), however, were still distributed to the book trade through the intermediary of Wilhelm Engel- mann, the last part being ready in March, 1914. Vol. xxvi. went to press in April, 1914, and a circular announcing the fact that all services had been brought together in Ziirich and that the new volume would be sent only to such as filed a new order was issued in June and July. The vacations and the outbreak of the war have caused this circular to be entirely over- looked, so that many zoologists have fancied that the great historic work had been suspended. “This is far from being the case. Despite formidable difficulties, vols. xxvi.—-xxix. have appeared, and vol. xxx. is in the press. ‘ ; There has doubtless been a great falling off in the scientific output of all European countries, and the postal service is to blame for many gaps, but, in general, the experience of the past two years has shown the wisdom of the choice of a small neutral State as the centre for international co-operation. It is also worthy of being pointed out to the world of science that Switzerland, in spite of financial difficul- ties, which made it necessary for the Government to suspend almost all its support of Swiss science, made an exception for this international agency. The Presi- dent of the Confederation proclaimed allegiance to the “Red Cross” of science, and our international insti- tute continued to receive State subsidies.. At the same time a public subscription brought together the neces- sary funds for covering the war-time deficit. HERBERT Havitany FIELD, _ Director of the Concilium Bibliographicum. Sunnyside, Mayow Road, Forest Hill, S.E., Loess October 31/0 NO. 2455, VOL. 98] Scarcity of Wasps, Jupcinc from the correspondence which has recently ‘appeared in Nature, the dearth of wasps this autumn in many parts of England has been most pronounced, but I have not noticed any reference to the county of Somerset. From August 26 to September 12 I was staying, with my wife and son, in a cottage on Christon Hill, on the Mendip Hills, situated between Loxton and Banwell, and although sunshine was only occasional, and rain somewhat frequent and often yery heavy, we were simply besieged by wasps, which were particularly tiresome at the breakfast-table. They were so numerous at times, coming in from the open windows, that we frequently had to abandon our meals tem- porarily to punish the offenders, my son continuing his captures often for half an hour at a time. They were killed by the score daily, but still they seemed to infest everything, not only preserves and other food, but one’s clothing also. In neighbouring houses we heard of the abundance of wasps. About 150 yards ‘from our cottage we found a large nest of wasps in a bank by the roadside. ; I cannot recollect ever having seen so many wasps in a house, unless “it was during the hottest part of 1911 (August 31 to September 9), when I was conduct- ing archeological excavations on Exmoor. At the hotel we were greatly pestered by the quantities of wasps which attacked the food. H. Sr. Grorce Gray. Taunton Castle, November 4. A Peculiar Thunderclap. REFERRING to Mr, Don’s letter (NaTuRE, August 17), it may be of interest to note that for many years | have been observing thunderstorms, often from high places on Etna, and from a distance, and I have never seen a lightning flash which was a single one. Light- ning flashes from the clouds to’ the earth are always two, three, or more, either very rapidly repeated on the spot and along the same track, or in different places, sometimes very far apart, and simultaneously. In connection with the remarks by ‘“H. O. F.” (Nature, August 24), it may be worth mentioning that, as is well known, a lightning stroke induces in volcanic rocks a permanent magnetisation, often strong enough to make the needle of a pocket compass turn through an angle of 180°. From a large number of observations on Etna and Stromboli, my brother, Prof. Gaetano, and I have noted that, when lightning strikes a wall, or a large lava block, or the earth- wire of a lightning rod near a wall, south polarity is found in the lava, or in the bricks of the wall, to the right of the observer, and north polarity to the left. Such a disposition shows that the discharge was from +electricity of the ground to —electricity of the clouds. Other observations on similar autoregistrations of lightning strokes and of their direction have shown that the discharge from the clouds to the earth is much less frequent than that from the earth to the clouds. My brother and I will be glad to send our published notes to anyone who cares to have further details on the subject. : GIOVANNI PLaTANia. University of Catania, October 6. The Pollination of Toadflax. Can any reader kindly state—from observation— which insect pollinates the round-leaved toadflax— Linaria spuria? Se: 'Linaria spuria, Miller, is a not uncommon weed of cornfields ori calcareous soils in the Midlands and south of. England,.in’ western, central, and southern 210 Europe, in northern Africa, and in western Asia, and it occurs adventitiously in North America. I have never observed insects pollinating the flower, The’ corolla is closed, and probably small insects are undble to effect an entry; there are no ‘‘nectar-guides”’; the four anthers are adherent, mature simultaneously ‘with the stigma, and dehisce internally. It would seem, therefore, as Kunth (‘‘Handbook of Flower Pollina- Lape English translation by Ainsworth Davis, vol. iii., p- 177) states, that ‘“‘automatic self-pollination is in- evitable.” I fear “S. P.” will regard this answer to his question as analogous with the dictum: ‘“‘ There are no snakes in Iceland! ”’ C. E, Moss. Botany School, Cambridge, November 9. SCIENTIFIC GLASSWARE. Ae interesting account of the efforts which have been made in France to replace glassware for scientific and technical purposes which had formerly been imported from Germany and Aus- tria by home productions is given in an article in the July-August number of the Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour 1l’Industrie Nationale. The article consists of a detailed account of an exhibition of French products of this kind, and affords interesting comparisons with the similar but much smaller exhibition recently held in the rooms of the Institute of Chemistry in Russell Square. The French exhibition included optical glass, and utensils for the heavy chemical trades. In regard to optical glass, of course, it is not surprising to find that the French are in a far better position than that yet reached in this country. The firm of optical glass manufacturers which was founded in Paris by one of the Guinand family has been steadily developed, and has for years past—under the names of Mantois and lat- terly of Parra-Mantois—issued lists of optical glasses of a range and quality quite as wide as, and in many respects more satisfactory than, those of Schott, of Jena, It is, in fact, worth while re- membering that on many occasions during the twelve or fifteen years preceding the war the British manufacturer of optical glass was con- fronted with a more serious competition from Mantois than from Schott. This state of affairs must be held highly to the credit of the French glass-makers, and we see indications of similar skill and enterprise in other directions connected with the glass industry. French plate-glass, asso- ciated with the name of the great firm of St. Gobain, has long held a high reputation, while the name of Appert is a household word wherever glass is studied. Accordingly we see in the present record of the French exhibition a most comprehen- sive list of products of all kinds, including not only laboratory-ware, such as beakers, flasks, etc., but many specialities such as glass for X-ray tubes and glass for serum tubes. The list of exhibitors is so large, the range of products ex- hibited so wide, and the claims made for the quality of the products so sweeping, that one might well suppose that the French efforts in this direction had been crowned with complete success, and that their industries had been rendered NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE [NoveMBER 16, 1916. entirely independent of imported goods. It is sincerely to be hoped, in the interests of our Allies, that this impression is correct, and that the ordinary users of this ware are really able to obtain it in the regularity—as regards both quality and quantity—which is essential for practical purposes. So far as can be judged from the printed descriptions and the photographs with which it is illustrated, the French exhibition was on an altogether larger scale than the one recently held by the Institute of Chemistry. The latter was, in fact, somewhat disappointing as regards both number of exhibitors and range of exhibits. - Some very creditable achievements were, of course, represented, particularly in regard to laboratory-ware, such as flasks, beakers, and similar articles. Those exhibited were excellent examples of their kind so far as workmanship and the obvious qualities of the glass are concerned. It was disappointing to. find, however, that there was no evidence as to the real qualities of the various articles shown. Public testing laboratories are available in this country perfectly competent to give certificates of quality in regard to all articles of this kind; this being the case, why were not these exhibits accompanied by such certificates showing the behaviour of the glass to chemical reagents and to sudden changes of tem- perature? In the absence of such evidence we can only hope that the glasses labelled “resistant ”’ are really fairly satisfactory for their purpose, and that the flasks and beakers will stand the usage to which they are of necessity exposed i in the laboratory. Another marked feature of the Institute of Chemistry exhibition was the circumstance that it was confined very largely to the lighter kinds of laboratory-ware. While manufacturers are to be congratulated upon the measure of success which they have achieved in this very important direc- tion, it seems desirable to direct attention to the fact that laboratories cannot exist on light glass- ware alone, There is a whole range of glass articles of a heavier type which are also neces- sary—such as desiccators, separating funnels, jars and cylinders, etc.—which were formerly obtained from abroad. So far as the writer is aware, English-made articles of this class are not yet available, although the difficulties of manu- facture are probably much less than those con- nected with ware which has to resist severe physical and chemical conditions. In conclusion, it may perhaps be suggested that, while a good exhibition is of considerable value in bringing before those interested the best samples of the home products now available, the future of this glass industry and of the technical and scientific operations related to it depends upon a factor which can never be brought out by any exhibition—i.e. the steady and regular trustworthi- ness of the articles produced. In the chemical laboratory, for instance, it becomes a_ serious matter if at intervals a beaker or a flask should crack at a critical point in a long and delicate: OE —— Novemser 16, 1916] operation, It is only fair to point out that such untoward accidents did occur from time to time when Jena glassware was used, but, broadly speaking, they were rare. It is, of course, too early in their career to pronounce upon the British manufacturers of these goods in this respect, and the matter is only mentioned here in the desire to impress upon them the extreme importance of this factor of uniformity and trustworthiness. - Beauti- ful samples sent for exhibition and specimens sent for trial or test which behave extremely well may serve to initiate trade and to introduce the pro- ducts, but only complete regularity and depend- ence will ever succeed in building up a permanent industry and trade in these goods. PROF. H. H. W. PEARSON, F.R.S. WY the death of Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, which occurred on November 3 at the Mount Royal Hospital, Wynberg, Cape Colony, South Africa is deprived of one of the ablest and most popular of her scientific men, and botanists have lost a colleague richly endowed with the qualities which go to make an ideal student of Nature. Harold Henry Welch Pearson was born at Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, in 1870; he was privately educated; after holding a teaching post in an Eastbourne school he entered the University of Cambridge as a non-collegiate student, and later became a member of Christ’s College, where he remained until his election to the Frank Smart studentship, which necessitated migration to Gonville and Caius College. His Cambridge career was a series of successes: in 1899 he was awarded the Walsingham medal for work in Ceylon on the vegetation of the Patanas. In 1898 he was appointed curator of the Cambridge Herbarium, and in 1899 he joined the staff of the Kew Herbarium. In 1902 he was appointed professor of botany at the South African College, Cape Town, where he laboured with conspicuous success up to the time of his death. He was elected into the Royal Society in the present year. Though the double responsibilities of the pro- fessorship and the Botanic Garden were no light burden, Pearson enlisted as a trooper in a Local Defence corps. Full advantage was taken of the splendid oppor- tunities of exploration afforded by South Africa, and Pearson proved himself to be an explorer of the best type; he visited Damaraland four times, and in January of this year he wrote home from Windhoek after a particularly arduous journey undertaken with the fullest approval and support of General Botha. He also explored Namaqua- land, Bushmanland, Angola, and other regions, always returning with valuable booty, of which he made the best use both by his own researches and by generous gifts to institutions and other botanists. Pearson’s expeditions were readily assisted by scientific bodies, and especially by the Percy Sladen Trustees, whose liberal contribu- tions were well earned and thorouchly appre- ciated. His first paper (1898) dealt with the NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE 21nd anatomy of the seedling of the Cycad Bowenia, and in 1899 the Linnean Society published the results of his field-work in Ceylon. In 1902 he wrote on the double pitchers of a Dischidia. Pearson’s most important work is on Wel- witschia and Gnetum; he not only greatly ex- tended our knowledge of these Gymnosperms, but with conspicuous ability demonstrated the nature of the “endosperm,” for which he proposed the term trophophyte. Pearson’s more recent contributions have strengthened his position on the vexed question of the degree of affinity of the Gnetales to the Angiosperms. In one of his most recent letters Pearson referred to the MS. of a promised volume on the Gnetales as almost com- plete. Observations on South African Cycads, investigations on the common maize disease caused by the root-parasite Striga lutea, an account of the Thymeleacee in the Flora of Tropical Africa, a paper on the internal tem- perature of Euphorbia and Aloe, and well-written descriptions of travels illustrate the wide range of his aetivities, The greatest service rendered by Pearson to South Africa was the part he played in the foundation of the National Botanic Garden, and it was his tactful and untiring efforts which led the Government to set apart about 400 acres on the Kirstenbosch estate, on the east side of Table Mountain, for a National Garden, of which he was appointed honorary director in 1913. Pearson was a botanist of many parts, and a man who inspired affection in an unusual degree by his geniality, honesty of purpose, and boyish enthusiasm. He recognised the almost unlimited possibilities of botanical and economic develop- ments through the Kirstenbosch Garden, and it is for his successors to do their part in carrying out the broadly conceived scheme of the first director. In a letter dated July, 1913, he wrote: “Tt will be a great burden, but it is worth carry- ing, even if it never falls to me to exploit its contents.” A. C. SEwarD. PROF. HENRIK MOHN, | gees death of Henrik Mohn, on September 12 at Christiania, removes from the meteoro- logical world a very well known and popular figure. Born at Bergen on May 15, 1835, he had completed his eighty-first year. He took part in all international assemblies of meteorologists from the commencement of the series of 1873 until the meeting of the International Meteorological Committee at Rome in 1913, when he excused himself on account of the long journey. Shortly afterwards he retired from his appointment as director of the Norwegian Meteorological Service and professor in the University of Christiania, which he had held sirce 1866. He maintained his scientific activity to the end of his life. His most recent work was the discussion of the meteoro- logical observations of Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole, which was published in 1915. It displays remarkable ingenuity in giving. a con- 212 NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 a nected meteorological account of the conditions near the Pole based upon a very limited number of data, but with true insight. Mohn’s best-known work is a text-book of the principles of meteorology, which passed through many editions and was translated into almost all European languages except English. By the series of papers on the movement of the atmo- sphere, written in collaboration with C. M. Guld- berg, and published in Christiania in 1876 (revised 1883), he became one of the most successful ex- ponents of dynamical meteorology. His institute was prominent among its fellows for the excellence of its regular publications and the promptitude with which they were issued. He was a strenuous advocate of the use of the hypsometer for absolute determinations of pressure; and on the occasion of a visit to England he took the opportunity of | making a comparison between barometric stan- dards by that method, which agreed with direct comparisons within a thousandth of an inch. Mohn’s published papers are very numerous and cover all sections of meteorological science. He was the author of the article on the geography of Norway in the ninth edition of the “ Encyclo- pedia Britannica” and a number of articles on the climate of Norway. He had a temarkably close grip of the conditions and limitations of meteorological observations and observers, and on that account was a most valued member of the International Meteorological Committee and of the various conferences and congresses at which the principles and the programmes of international co- operation were discussed. His personal qualities secured for him universal esteem as the doyen of international meteorologists. He was generally chosen by the Norwegian Academy as one of its representatives at international celebrations. The regret called forth by his retirement on account of his advancing years was revived and heightened by the news of his death. NaplieR SHAW. NOTES. WE learn with much regret of the death, on Novem- ber 12, at sixty-one years of age, of Prof. Percival Lowell, director of the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, where his notable work on Mars and other planets has been carried on since 1894. His Majesty tue Kino has been pleased to approve of the following awards this year by the president and council of the Royal Society :—A Royal medal to Dr. J. S. Haldane, for his services to chemical physiology, more especially in reference to the chemical changes of respiration; a Royal medal to Prof. H. M. Mac- donald, for his contributions to mathematical physics. The following awards have also been made by the president and council :—Copley medal to Sir James Dewar, for his investigations in physical chemistry, and more especially his researches on the liquefaction of gases; Rumford medal to Prof. W. H. Bragg, for his researches in X-ray radiation; Davy medal to M. le Prof. H. L. le Chatelier, for his researches in chem- istry; Darwin medal to Prof, Yves Delage, for his researches in zoology and botany; Sylvester medal to M. J. Gaston Darboux, for his contributions to mathe- 1 An English translation is given in Abbé's ‘‘ Mechanics of the Earth's Atmosphere.” Third Collection, (Smithsonian Institution, 1910.) NO. 2455, VOL. 98] | matical science; Hughes medal to Prof. Elihu Thom- son, for his researches in experimental electricity. Tue following is a list of those who have been recom- mended by the president and cguncil of the Royal Society for election into the council at the anniversary meeting on November 30 :—President, Sir J. J. Thom- son; Treasurer, Sir A. B. Kempe; Secretaries, Prof- A. Schuster and Mr. W. B. Hardy; Foreign Secretary, Prof. W. A. Herdman; Other Members of the Coun- cil, Prof. J. G. Adami, Dr. H. T. Brown, Dr. Dugald Clerk, Prof. A. R. Cushny, Prof. A. Dendy, Prof. | P. F. Frankland, Prof. J. W. Gregory, Dr. H. Head, Mr. J. H. Jeans, Major H. G. Lyons, Major P. A: | McMahon, Prof. F. W. Oliver, Prof. C. S. Sherring- ton, Prof. A. Smithells, Hon, R. J. Strutt, and Mr. Richard Threlfall. : ELEVEN members of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Ant- arctic expedition arrived in London last week, includ- ing Mr. Frank Wild (second in command), Messrs. J. Wordie, R. S. Clark, R. James, L. Hussey, and G, Marston (of the scientific staff), Major Orde Lees (motor engineer), and Messrs. A. Macklin and J. Mcllroy (surgeons). The remaining members of the Weddell Sea party will arrive shortly, with the excep- tion of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who is on his way to New Zealand to join the Aurora. In an interview in the Daily Chronicle Mr. Wild gives some account of the experiences. The Endurance was nipped in the ice four months before she eventually sank, and the explorers fortunately had ample time even at the end to remove stores and equipment to the ice. With these stores, and meat provided by shooting the dogs, as well as a few seals and penguins, they managed to survive. On Elephant Island, with its scanty re- sources, the food problem caused grave anxiety, for the stores were running low. We have not heard any details as yet about the scientific results, but they must be considerable, at least in oceanography and meteorology. A number of kinematograph films have been brought back, including views of the crushing of the Endurance, the abandoning of the ship and her foundering, as well as of the explorers’ life on the drifting -ice-floe and on Elephant Island. Tue Women’s National Land Service Corps has just issued an interim report on the work of the last eight months. ‘This organisation is recognised by the Board of Agriculture and has received a Government grant. It has endeavoured to create a favourable opinion as to the value of women’s work in agriculture by supply- ing a body of workers capable of making a good impression, and so break down the prejudice of hess farmers who are opposed to the employment of women. From the start the selection committee has spared no pains to prevent unsuitable women from going on the land, with the result that, considering the difficulties involved, the number of failures has been extraordinarily small. The corps has several training centres in different parts of the country, where women are given short courses of instruction in farm work. Besides supplying labour units to farmers, another, and per- haps more important, branch of the work has been directed against the view, widely held in the rural dis- tricts, that work on the land is derogatory. The in- teresting letters appended to the report give a very clear idea of this difficulty. The corps is urgently in need of more recruits to meet the demand from farmers which cannot now be met, and is certain to become greater after January 1, 1917, when exemptions of agricultural labourers are to be reconsidered. The secretary of the corps is Miss A. C. Franklin, and the Bifeniryey i are at 50 Upper Baker Street, London, : : : NOVEMBER 16, 1916] NATURE 213 AN inter-departmental committee, presided over by Mr. Harcourt, has now arranged the respective spheres of work and co-operation, in dealing with commercial inquiries, of the new Commercial Intelligence Depart- ment of the Board of Trade and the Imperial Institute, which in recent years has become a central department for information and investigation respecting the sources and uses of the raw materials of the Empire. In future the Technical Information Bureau of the Impe- rial Institute will answer all commercial inquiries re- specting the sources of supply, technical uses, and value of raw materials within the Empire, and will be respon- sible for supplying all information required in order to bring the producer overseas in touch with the manu- facturer at home. Inquiries as to immediate supplies may be addressed either to the Board or to the Insti- tute, as may be most convenient, but the Commercial Intelligence Department of the Board of Trade will as a rule be prepared to deal with inquiries for imme- diate supplies of well-known raw materials which can be obtained at once through ordinary trade channels. In answering those inquiries in which special statis- tical or trade information is required, in addition to technical information, the Board and the Institute have arranged to co-operate. Investigations of the possible industrial uses of raw materials will, as here- tofore, be dealt with by the Imperial Institute. The arrangement proposed by the committee has now been accepted by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the President of the Board of Trade, and the Execu- tive Council of the Imperial Institute. Dr. Henry Heap, F.R.S., has been appointed a member of the committee to inquire into the position occupied by natural science in the educational system of Great Britain. WE regret to announce the death on November 13 of Mr. Charles Smith, master of Sidney Sussex Col- lege, Cambridge, and author of many well-known works on mathematics, at seventy-two years of age. Tue Stockholm correspondent of the Morning Post states that the Nobel prize for physiology for 1916 will probably be awarded to Prof. H. J. Hamburger, of Groningen University. It is stated that the Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided not to award this year the Nobel prizes for physics and chemistry. Mr. R. N. Downe, organiser of agricultural edu- cation to the Lindsey County Council, Lincs., has been appointed director of the first Government farm colony for ex-service men in the East Riding of York- shire. An account of the Government scheme for the establishment of this land-settlement colony was given in NaTurE of October 26, p. 152. AT a recent meeting of the Optical Society the elec- tion to honorary membership took place of Sir Frank Dyson, Astronomer Royal, Prof. R. A. Sampson, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and professor of astro- nomy in the University of Edinburgh, and Prof. H. C. Plummer, Royal Astronomer of Ireland and Andrews professor in the University of Dublin. Tue Maria Mitchell Memorial Astronomical Fellow- ship at Harvard Observatory, value trool., is offered to a woman for the year beginning September 15, 1917. The fellowship at all times must be used for purposes of serious study, and the fellow should be as free as possible from other responsibilities. Application must be in the hands of the secretary of the committee, Mrs, Charles S. Hinchman, 3635 Chestnut Street, Phil- adelphia, Pennsylvania, on or before April 1, 1917. THe next award of the quinquennial Cartwright prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England will NO. 2455, VOL. 98] be for the five years ending December 31, 1920. The prize consists of a medal in bronzé and an honorarium of 851. The subject for the competing essays is ‘‘ The Treatment of Injuries of the Jaws, and the Restoration by Mechanical Means of Parts of the Jaws Lost as the Result of Injury or Removed on Account of Disease.’ Further particulars of the competition are obtainable from the secretary of the college. Ir had been proposed to establish a whaling station with its accompanying works near Fiskebickskil, on the Gullmar fjord, north of Gothemburg, .but the Swedish Government has now placed its ban on any such handling within Swedish terrritory of right whale, sperm whale, or beaked whale. This decision will be welcomed by the workers at the neighbouring biological station of Kristineberg, as well as by all naturalists who wish for some limit to be set to the chase of these interesting and threatened animals. Tue introductory lecture of a course of twelve lec- tures (the Swiney Lectures on Geology) on “The Mineral Resources of Europe ’’ was delivered by Dr. J. S. Flett, at the Royal Society of Arts, on Tuesday, November 14. The remaining lectures will be given on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, at 5 p.m., until Friday, December 8. The subjects to be dealt with are coal resources, petroleum, iron ores, copper, tin, manganese, lead, the precious metals, and the salt deposits of Germany, France, and Britain. The lec- tures will be illustrated by lantern-slides, and admission to them is free. Ar the anniversary meeting of the Mineralogical Society held on November 7 the following were elected officers and members of council :—President, Mr. W. Barlow ; Vice-Presidents, Prof. H. L. Bowman and Mr. A. Hutchinson; Treasurer, Sir William P. Beale, Bart.; General Secretary, Dr. G. T. Prior; Foreign Secretary, Prof. W. W. Watts; Editor of the Journal, Mr. L. J. Spencer; Ordinary Members of Council, Capt. W. Campbell Smith, Dr. J. W. Evans, Dr. F. H. Hatch, Mr. J. A. Howe, Mr. T. V. Barker, Mr. G. Barrow, Prof. C. G. Cullis, Mr. F. P. Men- nell, Mr. H. Collingridge, Mr. T. Crook, Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith, and Dr. H. H. Thomas. Capt. R. W. NicHors, who was killed in action on October 23, at thirty-one years of age, entered the service of Messrs. Arthur Guinness, Son, and Co., Ltd., at the age of fifteen. On the formation of the Guinness Research Laboratory in 1901 Capt. Nichols was employed as assistant to Mr. F. Escombe. In all work in connection with this he showed conspicuous ability. He left the service of Messrs. Guinness about five years ago, and, after a short service with an English firm, emigrated to Canada, and soon obtained a position at the Agricultural Station at Ottawa, where he was employed up to the time of joining the Army. Capt. Nichols was an extremely keen worker, and his cheerful temperament gained him a great number of friends. His loss will be deeply regretted by all his associates. “In the Scottish lighthouse service there have been for many years a number of lightlkeepers interested in natural history, especially in bird-life, who have con- tributed valuable records on the migratory movements of birds to the annual reports on Scottish ornithology. One of these has just passed away in the person of Mr. J. M. Campbell, who was, besides, keenly in- terested in the study of marine life, for which his nine years’ residence on the Bell Rock afforded him ample opportunities. In 1904 he published a well- written volume on the ‘‘Natural History of the Bell Rock,” in which he described, month by month, the 214 NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 F seasonal fluctuations of the invertebrate life exposed at low tides on the rocks around the lighthouse, and of the birds visiting it and the lantern. On his trans- ference to the Bass Rock he turned his attention to the hosts of sea-fowl resorting to that famous nesting haunt, more particularly to the gannet, on which he contributed many valuable notes to Mr. Gurney’s monograph of that bird. Mr. Campbell also made some useful contributions to Mr. Evans’s papers on the moths occurring at the lanterns of the northern lighthouses, which recently appeared in the Scottish Naturalist. By the death on November 5, after a long illness, of Prof. H. M, Waynforth—until recently professor of engineering in King’s College, London—engineering teaching has suffered a great loss. Born in 1867, Prof. Waynforth was educated at the Haberdashers’ School and at the Finsbury Technical College, his apprenticeship being served at Messrs. Bennett and Sons, engineers. He was assistant to Prof. Perry at Finsbury for some time, after which he went to Mason College, Birmingham, as demonstrator in engineering, leaving Mason College to join the engineering staff of King’s College, London, in 1896. He was appointed assistant-professor of engineering in 1902, and Univer- sity professor in 1912. His work for engineering teaching in the University of London was most valu- able and important. The present syllabus for the B.Sc. degree in engineering, especially in theory of structures, strength of materials, and theory of machines, owes much to his energy and professional ability. An eminently practical man, he laboured assiduously to keep the syllabus as practical as pos- sible, and at the same time to maintain a high standard of academic attainment. He did a good deal of original work on the testing of materials, but it will be as a great teacher that he will be best remem- bered. His lectures at King’s College were marked by great freshness and vigour, and his breadth of mind and cordial sympathy endeared him to all his students. His. loss will be felt by his old colleagues at King’s College and in the University of London, but he will be especially mourned by the large number of King’s College men who now, on many battle-fronts and in the Grand Fleet, are applying the principles he taught so well to the engineering problems of the war. Tue Kelvin lecture delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers on November 9 by Dr. Alex- ander Russell dealt with some aspects of Lord Kelvin’s life and work. After giving a short account of his early life, Dr. Russell showed how, in many fields of fundamental importance to the electrical engineer, Lord Kelvin’s work had provided the basis on which his successors had built. His solution of the problem of the transmission of signals along a submarine cable given in 1851 only requires a slight extension to make it suitable for the electric transmission of power in a three-phase system, while his proof that the tempera- ture of a heated body may be less when it is surrounded by a bad conducting covering than when it is left bare has been reproduced by others as a new discovery. Many of the theoretical extensions of Lord Kelvin’s work we owe to Dr. Russell himself, as, for example, the calculation of the force between electrified spheres, As, in addition, he is a former pupil of Kelvin, it would have been difficult to find one more fitted than * Dr. Russell to treat of Lord Kelvin’s work with under- standing and with sympathy. As a teacher of the natural philosophy class at Glasgow University, with pupils whose principal ambition was to pass the M.A. examinations, Lord Kelvin was to a great extent wasted. If-he could have spent his time in inspiring with his own spirit and enthusiasm for research a NO. 2455, VOL. 98| selected body of students more capable of appreciating his genius, how much richer science would have ~ been. May we hope that by the time another Kelvin appears we shall have learnt how to utilise his powers to greater advantage than in preparing undergraduates ~ 4 for their degree examinations. At the annual meeting of the Society for ees) é the Rothamsted Experiments, held on November 6, Mr. J. F. Mason, M.P., being in the chair, an address was given by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, President of the Board of Agriculture, who sketched briefly the history of the Rothamsted Experi- ment Station and the part it has played in the develop- ment of British agriculture. During the war the work of the station has necessarily been modified. Two- thirds of the total staff are either fighting or engaged on direct war work, the special experience gained at Rothamsted having proved unexpectedly useful in cer- tain highly important directions. Some of the staff hold commissions in the Sanitary Corps; some are engaged under the Ministry of Munitions in the large- scale manufacture of a certain indispensable consti- tuent of high explosives; while some are fighting in infantry regiments. Those left at the laboratory are kept occupied with special inquiry work sent by the Board of Agriculture and other departments, Nevertheless, the ordinary work is still being con- tinued. Women workers have come in to take the place of some of the men who have gone, and they are keeping nearly all the lines of experiment alive, so that not only is nothing being lost, but steady pro- gress in the experiments is being made. The whole of the organisation is thus being kept in Mia order, and in readiness for full development to dea with the problems of the new situation which will undoubtedly arise after the war. The director of the station, Dr. E. J. Russell, was able to announce some handsome gifts during the year, including 1oool. from the widow and daughter of the late treasurer, Dr. Hugo Miiller; 3o00l. from the Carnegie Trustees for the purchase of books for the library; 2321. from the Rt. Hon. Sir John T. Brunner, P.C., for furnish- ing the library; as well as other gifts for the labora- tories and the library. The sum of 5ool., needed to clear off the Building and Equipment Fund, was raised at the meeting on November 6. In the third issue of Folk-lore for the current year Mr. S. A. H. Burne discusses some examples of sur- vivals of folk memory in Staffordshire. Thus he. points out that local tradition describes with some correctness Cromwell’s action in regard to the rights of freeholders in Needwood Forest, and a local rhyme, still current, expresses the popular joy at the Restora- tion, the despotism of the Executive under Cromwell being much disliked. The idea, still prevalent, that the corpse of a person dying through violence should not be touched before the arrival of the police is traced back to medieval criminal procedure, which imposed a certain presumption of guilt upon the first finder of a dead body. Hence it was manifestly wise to let some- one else discover it, and the current idea is a survival from coroners’ law in the Middle Ages. Tue tests used for determining colour vision and tactile discrimination by the Cambridge Anthropo- logical Expedition to the Torres Straits fifteen years ago are criticised in great detail by Prof. E. B. Titchener in the Proceedings of the American Philo- sophical Society (vol. lv., No. 3). The findings of this expedition have been so often quoted, and so many generalisations from these tests made about the native mind, that the writer of the paper thinks that more attention should be paid to the technique and suitability \ NovEMBER 16, 1916] of the tests. He criticises Dr. McDougall’s use of the zsthesiometer from the point of view ot method, and the apparatus chosen by Dr. Rivers to test colour vision. If the tests themselves are faulty, then the generalisations based on them are invalid, and the writer thinks that the Murray Islanders ought not to be judged by these experiments. Anthropologists and ethnologists will find the whole article of interest. ALTHOUGH the lack of a definition of disease does not prevent the practice of medicine, the amount of litigation which has recently arisen about medical matters, such litigation turning upon the meaning of terms like injury, accident, disease, etc,, necessitates the accurate definition’ of such terms. It is the object of an article by Dr. Charles Mercier in the October number of Science Progress to define ‘‘a disease.” Every part of the human body has a duty towards the whole, which Dr. Mercier calls its extrinsic function, and a duty towards itself (which consists in making good the waste consequent on the performance of its extrinsic function), its intrinsic function. When the intrinsic or extrinsic function of a part of the body is disordered or defective, there is usually scme sign of such disorder or defect. The sign may be per- ceptible to the patient alone, to bystanders alone, to a skilled physician alone, or to all three. Such a sign is termed a symptom. Disease is a term covering not only all disorders of function and all symptoms, but also all results of disorder of function. Indiges- tion, a disorder purely of extrinsic function; atrophy, a disorder purely of intrinsic function; albuminuria, a result of disorder of extrinsic function; cancerous breast, a result of disorder of intrinsic function; and pain, are all disease. But none of these is ‘‘a disease.” Diseases may become symptoms, but the only way they can do so is in the way we contemplate them. Certain things sometimes called diseases are not diseases. Structural disease is not ‘‘a disease "’; thus a cancerous liver may be removed from a dead body and preserved in spirit, and it would obviously be absurd to call the preserved organ a disease. It is a diseased organ, but not a disease. A valve of the heart of a patient suffering from rheumatic fever may undergo | structural damage, which, with its consequences and symptoms, constitutes ‘‘heart disease.”’ But the latter is only part of ‘‘the disease’’ from which the patient suffers, which is acute rheumatism.. When, however, the rheumatism disappears, leaving the heart damaged, this structural damage, together with its symptoms and consequences, becomes ‘the disease.” Dr. A. Rasmussen, in the American Naturalist for October, gives a very valuable summary of all the theories which have been advanced in explanation of the hibernation of animals since Gesner wrote in 1551. Conrad Gesner was apparently the first to con- duct experimental work by way of an attempt to solve the mystery which enshrouds this peculiar state of torpor, though speculation on the subject goes back to the time of Aristotle. Although the author refers occasionally to the hibernation of “‘man and other animals,” yet in his essay he confines his remarks entirely to mammals. He insists that until certain causal relations are definitely established between the factors concerned many of these theories are of little value except as a stimulus to further research. If the hibernation of mammals is only an extreme form of ordinary diurnal sleep, as some maintain, it is especi- ally to be hoped that this subject will continue to be investigated by more modern and adequate means, for no entirely satisfactory theory has yet been ad- vented to explain the physiological cause of ordinary sleep. NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE 215 In a recent report to the governors of the Hudders- field Technical College, Dr, A. E. Everest, the newly appointed head of the Department of Coal-Tar Colour Chemistry, refers to the objects which the governing body had in view in grafting this extension on to the courses already existing in the college. The aim is to establish in Huddersfield ‘‘a laboratory for research and post-graduate work that shall be the national centre to which all firms connected with the coal-tar colour industry shall naturally come for assistance, and around which all matters connected with coal-tar colour chemistry shall centre.’ It is recognised that the first essential to the success of this scheme is to keep the new laboratory open to the participation of all indus- trialists interested in this branch of applied chemistry, and to this end the governors have selected as the head of the department one not in any way tied by appointment to any particular firm, British Dyes, Limited, the directors of which have helped the new venture with a substantial endowment, are now in possession of the Tunbridge works of the old firm of Messrs. Read Halliday and Sons, Limited. Moreover, this company has made great progress with its new fac- tory in the auspiciously named suburb of Dalton. At Deighton, within a stone’s-throw of the Dalton site, are the rapidly extending works of Messrs. L. B. Holliday and Co., at present engaged on an im- proved process for an urgent necessity. At Milns- bridge, also in the same valley, is the old-established firm of.Messrs. Leitch and Co., who have accomplished work of national importance. These and other firms outside Huddersfield have interested themselves in the new department, and have rendered valuable assistance. At present teaching and research work are in pro- gress, temporary accommodation having been found in the chemical department. These facilities are, how- ever, quite inadequate, and a suitable site has been acquired for the colour department, on which well- equipped laboratories, offices, and reference library will be built so soon as the necessary funds are available. Tue ‘‘Galvanoset,” a patented piece of apparatus utilising the ordinary electricity supply for medical purposes, has been submitted to us for examination by the Medical Supply Association, Gray’s Inn Road, W.C. It may be described as a potential divider using tap-water as the medium conveying the main current. The water is contained in a cylindrical glass vessel about 9 in. in diameter and 4 in. deep. Into the water dip two vertical rods of electric light carbon placed as far apart as possible, and supported from the flat ebonite cover of.the glass.vessel.. From these elec- trodes current is taken to the patient. Just below the cover is a horizontal arm which rotates about a vertical central axle and carries at its ends two vertical carbon electrodes which are connected to the mains. When the movable electrodes have their joining line per- pendicular to the line joining the fixed electrodes, there is no potential difference between them, but when their joining line coincides with that between the fixed elec- trodes there is the maximum potential difference. The pairs of electrodes never touch, so there is no danger of passing a large current through the patient. By the aid of a graduated circle on the cover and an outer index attached to the arm carrying the movable electrodes, an approximate notion of the voltage in the derived circuit is obtained, but for greater pre- cision a milliammeter is provided on the cover. A trial shows that when a pressure of 100 volts is applied between the fixed electrodes a maximum current of about 200 milliamperes flows in the derived circuit. Quite apart from the medical purposes for which it is designed, an apparatus such as this would have mani- fold applications in all laboratories where small vari- able currents are required. 216 NATURE OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Ecriesinc Binary RX Hercuris.—An extended series of observations of photographic magnitudes of this variable has lately been made and discussed by R. H. Baker and Edith E. Cummings (Laws Obs. Bull., No. 25). The observations were made by the extra-focal method and, in combination with the spectroscopic evidence, lead to the following conclu- sions :—The two stars are slightly ellipsoidal, and each has a radius about one and a half times that of the sun. The mass of each star is a little less than that of the sun, and the density is about one-fourth of the | sun’s density, The star eclipsed at principal conjunc- tion is of magnitude 7-96, and is brighter by o-12 magnitude than its companion; its surface brightness, mass, and density are greater than those of the fainter star by 12, 6, and g per cent. respectively, and it is of slightly earlier spectral class (A). The distance between the centres of the two stars is about five times the radius of either star, or about 5,280,000 km. At conjunction 7o per cent. of the disc of one star is eclipsed by the other. The period is 1-7785740 days (Shapley), and the semi-duration of eclipse 2h, 53m. The photographic magnitude of the system is 7-264, and the magnitudes at primary and secondary minima 7-84 and 7-71 respectively. Outside eclipse the intensi- ties generally increase towards secondary minimum, showing that the light of the star eclipsed at this time is augmented by radiation of its brighter companion. SpEcrroscopic. RESOLVING Power.—The resolving power of a spectroscope is limited by the diffractional broadening of the geometrical images of the slit, and, following Lord Rayleigh, the limit of resolution usually adopted is determined by the condition that the maximum of the central band corresponding to one of the lines should fall on the minimum of that of the second line. Under these conditions, for two lines of equal intensity, the intensity at the centre of the combined bands is o-81 of that of the maxima. An experimental investigation made by C. M. Sparrow at the University of Virginia (Astrophysical Journal, vol. xliv., p. 76) has led to the result that the limit of resolution is given by the “undulation condition ’’— that is, by the condition that the central minimum shall just disappear. The theoretical resolving power -thus derived is about 26 per cent. greater than that given by the Rayleigh criterion. Among other matters of in- terest, a simple approximate formula is given for the resolving power of the Fabry and Perot interfero- meter, ; Tue Minimum RapiaTion Visually PERCEPTIBLE.— Adopting the light from a 6th magnitude star as the smallest amount perceptible, Dr. H. E. Ives has made an interesting calculation of the corresponding least quantity of radiant energy capable of exciting the sensation of light (Astrophysical Journal, vol. xliv., p. 124). Taking Russell’s estimate that a candle at one metre distance is of stellar magnitude — 14-18, it is easily deduced that the brightness of a 6th magnitude star is o-849x10-° of this. Since a metre-candle is equivalent to 1-59 ergs per sec. per sq. cm., it follows that the least power corresponding to illumination from a light-source of the above brightness is 1-35 x 10-* ergs per sec. per sq. cm. Assuming 6 mm. as the diameter of the pupil, the radiation entering the eye from a light-source of maximum efficiency of the brightness of a 6th magnitude star would be 0-38 x 10° ergs per sec. On the assumptions made, this is the smallest amount of radiation perceivable by the eye, but it is important to note that the figures given only apply to radiation from a distant point-source, such as a star. At this rate of energy-reception the eye would receive through the pupil the elementary energy-quantum in one-thousandth of a second. NO. 2455, VOL. 98] © "Se q [NovEMBER 16, 1916 METEOROLOGY IN WAR. ~ * LONG before the outbreak of the world conflagra- tion of the past two years war and the weather | Was a subject which captivated many minds, mainly | of non-scientific or semi-scientific people who were pre- pared to accept as proof the most superficial circum- belief. Even during the progress of the present war there have been many discussions in the Press and | before societies in this and in other countries which have had for their object the perpetuation of the old belief that gun-firing causes rain, though round Shoebury- /ness, our great gun-firing station, less rain falls than — ,in any other part of the British Isles! These quasi- | learned discussions have been of no assistance to the fighting forces on sea or land. : Scientific investigators, however, have not been idle, though little or nothing of their activities is known outside official circles. The meteorological establish- ments of the various countries involved in the great war have been doing their utmost to utilise the now very greatly increased knowledge of the physics of the atmosphere for the immediate benefit of the armies. meteorologists can go no further than prepare, on the lines familiar to us during the past half-century, pre- | dictions of the weather changes likely to take place within the coming twenty-four hours. But the matter has got far beyond this. annual report of the Meteorological Committee for the year ended March 31 last, just issued (Cd. 8381, price 1d.) :—‘tThe variety of ways in which the weather affects warlike operations in all parts of the world has become very apparent from the diversity of the information which the Office is called upon to supply at short notice. The results of meteorological inquiries initiated in what appeared to be the remote interest of the theory of the circulation of the atmosphere have turned out to have important practical bearings.” Both for naval and military operations accurate ably they are not more important than other tasks now undertaken by the meteorologists—for example, the behaviour of the upper atmosphere for the in- formation of the flying services, and the condition of the surface atmosphere and its relation to gun-sighting and range-finding. According to the official report referred to above a separate unit of the Royal Engineers was created for a meteorological field service, that with the Expeditionary Force in France being under the command of Major Gold, one of the Meteorological Office superintendents, and that in the eastern Mediter- | ranean under Capt. Wedderburn, honorary secretary of the Scottish Meteorological Society, assisted by Lieut. Kidson, of Canterbury College, New Zealand, and magnetician in the service of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In view of the importance of an adequate knowledge of the weather to the proper con- duct of naval and military operations in the Mediter- ranean generally, Major Lyons, R.E., formerly Direc- | tor-General of the Egyptian Survey Department, was appointed to take charge of this section. Further, the importance of co-ordinating the experience of flying officers with the-work of the Office and observatories in order to obtain more effective knowledge of the struc- ture of the atmosphere has led to the appointment of Major G. I. Taylor, Schuster reader in meteorology, to the professorship of meteorology to the Royal Flying Corps. That the responsible authorities appreciate the work performed by the meteorological services is evidenced by the Distinguished Service Order conferred on Major Gold, and the inclusion of some of his assistants in | the Commander-in-Chief’s despatches; while the z 2 stances which seemed to substantiate any popular ~ Perhaps, at first sight, it would be natural to infer that As is stated in the eleventh forecasts have been greatly enhanced in value, yet prob-. = ; NOVEMBER 16, 1916] NATURE 217 Meteorological Office has received the special thanks of the Admiralty for its services in the Mediterranean. The world at large has been unaware of these manifold activities, imagining that the Meteorological Office practically ceased to exist when the daily forecasts in the newspapers came to an end. Yet during its silence the department has been worked far harder than ever before, and it was in recognition of the success of the a that the director received the honour of knight- ood. EDUCATION AT THE BRITISH : ASSOCIATION. Af TER the presidential address, the section took up the discussion of the reform of the primary school. Mr. J. C. Legge dealt with handwork, but unfor- tunately he spent the greater part of his half-hour upon historical and psychological preliminaries. Of the constructive suggestions outlined in the abstract the most interesting was the idea of finding in the soldiers returned from the war a great reservoir of admir- able men who might be trained as teachers of hand- work. , He concluded with a plea for greater freedom to local authorities, a freedom such as would allow them to develop along their own lines, under the gentlest supervision from a very human central authority. Prof. T. P. Nunn pointed out the dangers of formality in handwork—a danger from which Mr. Legge’s paper was not wholly free, in so far as it seemed to separate the activity of muscle and nerve from purposefulness. Manual activity must not be regarded as an end in itself, a danger which it shared with all other school subjects, as shown especially by mathematics and geography. Some body of central interest, life itself perhaps, is essential in order to give meaning to the several parts of the curriculum. In school, handwork should be an aid to the so-called intellectual subjects, and it should be the means of developing the feeling for craftsmanship and art. Prof. J. A. Green pleaded for a larger place and a new use for books. The booki- ness of the primary school was not due to a superfluity of books, but to the unrealities for which books stood. Rightly understood, it is more books, not fewer, that are wanted there. A disappointing discussion fol- lowed, in which side-issues rather than fundamentals were raised—a result perhaps inevitable when the wide range of the subject is remembered. A better result was achieved next day, when the place of science in secondary and higher education was considered. Mr. J. S. Talbot, referring to a com- mittee of the Incorporated Association of Headmasters which had met recently at Wellington, said there was general agreement as to the necessity of finding a place for science amongst the subjects essential to a good school education. From two and a half to four hours a week should be _ pro- vided for it in the school time-table of all boys up to sixteen. At the same time, they were not agreed that the school science of to-day was wholly satisfactory. A well-educated boy should surely know something of men like Newton, Darwin, and Pasteur, though he might now do much science at school without hearing of them. Dr, Gray’s precise scheme of reform followed broadly the same line. The division between classical and modern sides should, he thought, be dropped for all boys in public schools before sixteen, though the division might take place at fourteen in municipal secondary schools, where it would follow technical and commercial lines of demarcation.. After sixteen all boys should be taught the principles of biology. Dr. Hadow dealt with the subject from the point of view of the universities. The present first-year work might NO. 2455, VOL. 98] be better done in the schools, and the three years’ university course begin at the end of what is now the intermediate course. As to research, the pure science student might start immediately he had gradu- ated, but applied science men should go to the works first and return to the university after a year or two there. Dr. E. F. Armstrong deprecated the booky man of science. Present methods produced few men of any use in business where scientific methods of attacking problems were the first essential. But the prizes in industry depended in the last resort upon capacity for organisation and command. In the discussion, all the speakers agreed in con- demning early specialisation and demanding a fuller recognition of. science in the _ schools, and some further emphasis was laid upon the doubt as to whether just the right kind of science was being provided for boys amongst whom a large pro- portion had literary or linguistic tastes. Similar problems in relation to girls’ education were discussed in the afternoon, though the issues were narrowed down to the school science more suited to girls pre- paring for the medical profession on one hand, and for domestic life on the other. The last meeting of the section was devoted to a consideration of the report of the Mental and Physical Factors Committee, which had conducted an inquiry into the development of facility in the first four rules of arithmetic as shown by elementary-school children between eight and fourteen years of age. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT ' NEWCASTLE. SECTION K.. BOTANY. OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) By A. B. RENDLE, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. SINCE our last meeting the Great War has continued to hold chief place in our lives and thoughts, and in various ways, and to a greater or less degree, has influenced our work. In the case of many botany has had for the time being to be set aside, while others have been able to devote only a part of their time to scientific work. On the other hand, it is gratifying to note that some have been able to render helpful service on lines more or less directly connected with theirown science. The trained botanist has shown that he may be an eminently adaptable person, capable, after short preparation on special lines, of taking up positions involving scientific investigation of the highest importance from the points of view of medicine and hygiene. Some months ago the various sectional committees received a request to consider what could be done in their respective sections to meet problems which would arise after the war. Your committee met and dis- cussed the matter, with the result that a set of queries was sent round to representative botanists asking that suggestions might be presented for con- sideration by the committee. A number of sugges- tions were received of a very varied kind, indicating that, in the opinion of many botanists at any rate, much might be done to utilise our science and its trained workers in the interests of the State and Empire. Your committee decided to arrange for re- ports to be prepared on several of the more important aspects by members who were specially fitted to dis- cuss these aspects, and these will be presented in the course of the meeting. These reports will, I am con- vinced, be of great value, and may lead to helpful See they may also open up the wavy to useful work, 218 For many of us this means the breaking ot new ground. We have taken up the science because we soyed it, and if we have been able to sned any lignt on its numerous problems the work has brought its own reward. But some of us have on occasion been brougnt into touch with economic problems, and sucn must have felt how inadequate was our national equipment for dealing with some of these. In recent years we have made several beginnings, but these beginnings must expand mightily 11 present ana future needs are adequately to be met, and if we are deter- mined to make the best use of the material to our hand. Without trenching on the domain of economics, we may assume that increased production of foodstuffs, timber, and other economic products will be desirable. The question has been raised as to the possibility of increasing at the same time industrial and agricultural development. But as in industry perfection of machinery allows a greater output with a diminished number of hands, so in agriculture and horticulture perfection of the machinery of organisation and equip- ment will have the same result. The improvement of the plant from an economic point of view implies the co-operation of the botanist and the plant-breeder, The student of experimental genetics, by directing his work to plants of economic value, is able, with the help of the resources of agri- culture and horticulture, to produce forms of greater economic value, kinds best suited to different locali- ties and ranges of climate, those most immune to disease and of the highest food-value. Let the prac- tical man formulate the ideal, and then let the man of science be invited to supply it. Much valuable work has been done on these lines, but there is still plenty of scope for the organised Mendelian study of plants of economic importance. The introduction of new plants of economic value is within the range of possibility; our répertoire has increased in recent years, but an exhaustive study of food plants and possible food plants for man and stock would doubtless yield good results. We have heard much lately as to the growing of medicinal plants, and experience would indicate that here is opportunity for investigation, and, unless due care is taken, also danger of waste of time, money, and effort. A careful systematic study of species, varieties, and races is in some cases desirable in order to ensure the growth of the most productive or valu- able plant, as in the case of the Aconites; and such a study might also reveal useful substitutes or addi- tions. Here the co-operation between the scientific worker and the commercial man is imperative. The advantages arising from a closer co-operation between the practical man and the botanist is illus- trated by the research laboratories recently organised by the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley. Such an institution forms a common meeting-ground for the grower of plants and. the botanist. The former sets the problems, and the latter takes them in hand under conditions approaching the ideal and with the advantages of mutual discussion and criticism. Insti- tutions such as these will give ample opportunity to the enthusiastic young botanist wha is anxious to embark on work of investigation. The student of plant physiology will find here work of great interest. The grower has perforce gained a great deal of in- formation as to the behaviour of his plants under more or less artificial conditions, but he is unable to analvse these conditions, and the co-operation of the physiologist is an invaluable help. Experiments in the growth of plants under the influence of high- tension electricity are at the present time being carried out at Wisley. Such experiments may be conducted anywhere where land and power are available, but it is NO. 2455, VOL. 98| NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 i ~ 1 obviously advantageous that they should be condueted by an expert plant physiologist versed in scientific — method and not directly interested in the result. Dr. Keeble’s recent series of lectures on ‘* Modern Horti- culture” at the Royal Institution deal with matter — which is full of interest to the botanist. For instance, — he shows how the work of Continental botanists on the forcing of plants has indicated methods, in some cases simple and inexpensive, which have proved of considerable commercial value, and that there is evidently scope for work in this direction, which, while of interest to the plant physiologist, may be also of general utility. The subject of the soil offers problems to the botanist as well as to the chemist and proto-zoologist. In the plant we are dealing with a living organism, not a machine; and an adequate knowledge of the organism is essential to a proper study of its nutrition and growth. The study of manures and their effect on the plant should attract the botanist as well as the chemist. In this connection I may refer to Mr. Martin Sutton’s recent work at Reading on the effects of radio-active ores and residues on plant-life. A series of experi- ments was carried out in two successive years. with various subjects selected for the different character of their produce, and including roots, tubers, bulbs, foliage, and fruit. From the immediate point of view of agriculture and horticulture the results were nega- tive; the experiments gave no hope of the successful employment of radium as an aid to either the farmer or gardener. But, though the immediate result was unsatisfactory to the grower, there were several points of interest which would have appealed to the botanist who was watching the course of the experiments, and, if followed up, might throw light on the effect of radium on plant-life and lead in the end to some useful result. As Mr. Sutton points out, many of the results were ‘contradictory,’ while a close examina- tion of the trial notes, together with the records of weights, will furnish highly interesting problems. For instance, there was evidence in some cases that ger- mination was accelerated by the presence of radium, though subsequent growth was retarded; and the fact that in several of the experiments plants dressed with a complete fertiliser in addition to radium have not done so well as those dressed with the fertiliser only may be regarded as corroborating M. Truffaut’s sug- gestion that radium might possess the power of releas- ing additional nitrogen in the soil for the use of plants, and that the plants in question were suffering from an excess of nitrogen. Certain remarkable varia- tions between the duplicate unmanured control plots in several of the experiments led to the suggestion that radium emanations may have some effect, appar- ently a beneficial one. I have quoted these experi- ments as an example of a case where the co-operation of the botanist and the practical man might lead to useful results, and at the same time afford work of much interest to the botanist. i ! The utilisation of wastelands is a big subject and trenches on the domain of economics. But important botanical problems are involved, and careful ecological study will prepare the way for serious experimental work. The study of the growth of plants in alien situations is fraught with so many surprises and ap- parent contradictions that successful results may be looked for in most unlikely situations. ; The study of the diseases to which plants are liable, and their prevention and cure, offers a wide and in- creasing field for inquiry, and demands a larger supply of trained workers and a more definite and special system of training. For the study of those which are due to fungi it is obviously essential that a thorough general knowledge of fungi and laboratory - 7 a ar _ NOVEMBER 16, 1916] methods should be acquired, preferably at some patho- logical institution which would also be in touch with the cultivator and naturally approached by those re- quiring advice and help in connection with disease, ‘on the same principle that a medical school is attached to a hospital. An important part of the training should be the study of the disease in the field and the cOnditions under which it arises and flourishes. From the point of view of mycology much useful scientific work remains to be done on the life-history of the fungi which are, or may be, the causes of disease. Other plant diseases afford problems for the physio- logist, who is a necessary part of the equipment of the Pathological Institute. The anatomical and chemical study of timbers might with advantage occupy a greater number of workers. The matter is of great economic importance. Ques- tions of identity are continually arising, and in the present vague state of our knowledge it is often diffi- cult or impossible to give a_ satisfactory answer. Samples of timber are put on the market shipped, say, from West Africa under some general name such as mahogany; the importer does not supply leaves and flowers for purposes of identification, and in the pre- sent incomplete state of our knowledge it is often impossible to make more than a vague attempt at determination. Or a merchant brings a sample which has been sent from X as Y, which it obviously is not; but what is it, whence does it probably come, and what supply of it is likely to be forthcoming? These are questions which it would be useful to be able to answer with some greater approach to accuracy than at present. And it should be the work of definitely trained persons. The yarious illustrative suggestions which I have made would imply a close co-operation between the schools of botany and colleges and institutions of agri- culture, horticulture, and forestry; to pass from the former to one or other of the latter for special work or training should be a natural thing. While on one hand a university course is not an essential preliminary to the study of one or other of the applied branches, the advantages of a broad, general training in the prin- ciples of the science cannot be gainsaid. The estab- lishment of professorships, readerships, or lectureships in economic botany at the university would supply a useful link between the pure and applied science, while research fellowships or scholarships would be an in- centive to investigation. There is the wider question of a rapprochement be- tween the man of science and the commercial man. Its desirability is obvious, and the advantages would be mutual; on one hand it would secure the spread and application of the results of research, and on the other the man of science would be directed to economic problems of which otherwise he might not become cognisant. The closer association between the academic institution and those devoted to the appli- cation of the science would be a step in this direction. Our British possessions, especially within the tropics, contain a wealth of material of economic value which has been only partially explored. One of the first needs is a tabulation of the material. In the important series of Colonial floras incepted by Sir Joseph Hooker, and published under the auspices of Kew, lies the foundation for further work. Con- sider, for instance, the ‘Flora of Tropical Africa,’ now rapidly nearing completion. This is a careful and, so far as possible with the material at hand, critical descriptive catalogue of the plants from tropical Africa which are preserved in the great British and European herbaria. The work has been done by men with considerable training in systematic work, but who know nothing at first hand of the country the vegetation of which they are cataloguing. NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE 219 Such a “Flora’’ must be regarded as a basis for further work, Its study will indicate botanical areas and their characteristics, and suggest what areas are likely to prove of greater or less economic value, and on what special lines. It will also indicate the lines on which areas may be mapped out for more detailed botanical exploration. That this is mecessary is obvious to any botanist who has used such a work. A large proportion of the species, some of which may, on further investigation, prove to be of economic value, are known only from a single incomplete frag- ment. Others, for instance, which may be of known economic value, doubtless exist over much larger areas and in much greater quantity than would appear from the “Flora.” The reason of these shortcomings is equally obvious. The collections on which the work is based are largely the result of voluntary effort em- ployed more or less spasmodically. The explorer working out some new route, who brings what he can conveniently carry to illustrate the plant products of the new country; the Government official or his wife, working during their brief leisure or collecting on the track between their different stations; the mis- sionary or soldier, with a penchant for natural history; to these and similar persons we are largely indebted for additions to our knowledge of the plant-life. Ad- vantage has sometimes been taken of a Government expedition to which a medical man with a knowledge of, or taste for, natural history, or, in rare cases, a trained botanist, has been attached. It is time that pioneer work gave place to systematic botanical exploration of our tropical possessions and the preparation of handy working floras and economic handbooks. Work of botanical exploration should be full of interest to the young botanist. But if he is to make the best use of time and opportunity he must have had a proper course of training. After complet- ing his general botanical course, which should natur- ally include an introduction to the principles of classi- fication, he should work for a time in a large herba- rium and thus acquire a knowledge of the details of systematic work and also of the general outlines of the flora of the area which he is to visit later. He should then be given a definite piece of work in the botanical survey of the area. From the collated re- sults of such work convenient handbooks on the botanical resources of regions open to British enter- prise could be compiled. There will be plenty of work for the systematist who cannot leave home. The ulti- mate elaboration of the floristic work must be done in the herbarium with its associated library. There is also need of a careful monographic study of genera of economic value which would be best done by the experienced systematist at home, given a_ plentiful supply of carefully collected and annotated material. Closely allied species or varieties of one and the same species may differ greatly in economic value, and the work of the monographer is to discover and diagnose these different forms and elucidate them for the benefit of the worker in the field. If we are to make the best use of our resources botanical research stations in different parts of the Empire, adequately equipped and under the charge of a capable trained botanist, are a prime necessity. We seem to have been singularly unfortunate in the management of some of our tropical stations and botanical establishments. A botanical station for research to be effective must be under the supervision of .a well-trained botanist with administrative capacity, who must have at his disposal a well-equipped laboratory and ground for experimental work. The director will be ready to give help and advice on questions of a botanical nature arising locally, and he will be on the look-out for local problems which may afford items of botanical research 220 NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 ito visiting students. Means must be adopted to attract the research student, aided, if necessary, by research scholarships from home. The station should have sufficient Imperial support to avoid the hampering of its utility by local prejudice or ignorance. The permanent staff should include a mycologist and a skilled gardener. ; Finally, I should like to suggest the holding of an Imperial Botanical Congress at which matters of general and special interest might be discussed. The visit of the British Association to Australia was, I ‘think, helpful to the Australian botanists; it was «certainly very helpful and of the greatest interest to ‘those coming from home. Many of the addresses and ‘papers were of considerable interest and value, but of ‘greater value was the opportunity of meeting with ‘one’s fellow-workers in different fields, of conversa- ‘tion, discussion, and interchange of ideas, the better realisation of one’s limited outlook, and the stimulus of new associations. A meeting which brought to- gether home botanists and botanical representatives from oversea portions of our Empire to discuss methods -of better utilising our vast resources would be of great ‘interest and supremely helpful. Let us transfer to "peace purposes some of the magnificent enthusiasm which has flowed homewards for the defence of the ‘Empire in war. In this brief address I have tried, however imper- ‘fectly, to indicate some lines on which botanists may ‘render useful service to the community. To a large extent it means the further development and extension of existing facilities added to an organised co-operation ‘between botanists themselves and between botanists and the practical and commercial man; this will in- -clude an efficient, systematic cataloguing of work done and in progress. We do not propose to hand over all our best botanists to the applied branches and to starve pure research, but our aim should be to find a useful career for an increasing number of well-trained ‘botanists and to ensure that our country and Empire shall make the best use of the results of our research. Incidentally there will be an increased demand for the teaching botanist, for he will be responsible for laying the foundations. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. By invitation of the college authorities, the next annual meeting of the Association of Public School Science Masters will be held at Eton on Wednesday and Thursday, January 3 and 4, 1917, under the presi- dency of Prof. H. H. Turner. After the president’s address the main subjects of discussion and _ their openers will be as follows :—Science for the rank and file, Prof. R. A. Gregory; Technical bias in science teaching in schools, Mr. E. R. Thomas; The place of the text-book in science teaching, Mr. G. N. Pingriff. There will be the usual exhibition of apparatus, but it will consist chiefly of exhibits by members of the association. THE current issue of the Fortnightly Review con- tains an article by Dr. R. Brudenell Carter on ‘‘ Science and Education." The subject is made interesting to the general reader from the variety of aspects under which it is viewed, and the interest is enhanced by literary style and historical illustration. The import- ance of early sense-training is emphasised, and atten- tion is directed ‘to the value of a pocket magnifying- glass as a child’s possession. The author’s views on the development of intelligence, individual and racial, appear at times to challenge orthodox genetic psycho- logy, but this may be due to the difficulty of popular ‘exposifion in a short article. However ‘this’ may be, NO, 2455, VOL. 98] general assent will be given to the proposition that instruction in science should “change the view taken by the pupils of the events around them, and produce a conviction of ignorance of many forces and condi- tions by which the lives of nations, as well as of indi- viduals, are liable to be powerfully or overwhelmingly influenced.”” Dr. Carter’s proposals for science instruc- tion in schools will scarcely be accepted as adequate, even as part of the all-round instruction of those who do not intend to pursue a scientific career, since they depend upon lectures alone, a course which teachin experience has proved to be ineffective unless a period — of practical and more intensive study is added. But science teachers will welcome the general trend of the article, and all readers will gain by the freshness and vigour of the essay. Even now our legislators need to be reminded that ‘‘ wisdom is hardly to be expected from men who regard its highest manifestations with the unseeing eyes of the scientifically ignorant.” Tue Mathematical Association has now expressed its agreement with the Classical, English, Geographical, Historical, and Modern Language Associations in the view that any reorganisation of our educational system should make adequate provision for both humanistic and scientific studies; that premature specialisation should be avoided; and that technical preparation for a particular profession should be conceived in such a spirit that it misses none of the essentials of a liberal education (see Nature, September 7, p. 23). The Mathematical Association submits that from a school course of mathematics the pupil should acquire (1) an elementary knowledge of the properties of number and space ; (2) a certain command of the methods by which such knowledge is reached and established, ee with facility in applying mathematical knowledge to the problems of the laboratory and the workshop; f valuable habits of precise thought and expression; (4 some understanding of the part played by mathematics - in industry and the practical arts, as an instrument of discovery in the sciences and as a means of social organisation and progress; and (5) some appreciation of organised abstract thought as one of the highest and most fruitful forms of intellectual activity. This statement is signed by Prof. A. N. Whitehead, presi- dent of the Mathematical Association, and by Mr. A. W. Siddons, chairman of the Teaching Committee. It will be remembered that the Association of Public School Science Masters has also expressed agreement with the resolutions adopted by the associations repre- senting humanistic studies, and has emphasised — the needs which natural science meets in the direction of the search for truth and of a comprehension of the part played by science in modern civilisation (see Nature, October 26, p. 162). To Science Progress for October Sir Ronald Ross contributes an essay dealing with the question whether — our public-school education is in need of reform, and, if so, how much, from the point of view of parents. The discussions which have taken place in the House — of Lords and elsewhere would seem to lead one to believe that there is general agreement as to some reform being necessary, but not as to its amount. Un- fortunately there is a tendency for the modern educa- tionist to believe that he alone should decide the nature of the curriculum, and many people besides the parents — of public-school boys think that boys are taught what the schoolmaster is able to teach rather than what they — should be taught. Lord Desborough’s Committee for Public-School Reform sent to the parents of boys at Eton and other public schools a memorandum (pub- lished in Nature of June 8) urging reform, and re-— questing replies for or against it. The résponse indicated that the parents are’ overwhelmingly in NoveMBER 16, 1916] favour of reform. Sir Ronald Ross urges that early education should be wide rather than deep, and sug- gests a long list of outdoor qualifications, arts, lan- guages, and knowledges which should be the possession of an ideally trained young man of twenty. He refers to many amazing arguments which have been urged in favour of grammatical education (e.g. that to it is due the success of voluntary recruiting in Britain), and from the discussion draws the conclusions :—(1) That the first elements of Greek and Latin are necessary for every intellectual employment; (2) that a complete classical education is necessary for very few intellectual occupations; (3) that an exclusive classical education is insufficient for any such occupation; (4) that a know- ledge of one or more modern languages is more useful than, and just as educative as, similar knowledge of a dead language; and (5) that a man who is entirely ignorant of science can scarcely be considered educated, . Computsory Greek in university entrance examina- tions received little support at the meeting of the Hellenic Society on Tuesday, when the subject of “The Future of Hellenic Studies’? was under dis- cussion. “Dr. Walter Leaf, who was in the chair, declared himself against this condition of entrance at Oxford and Cambridge, which are the only two Universities where Greek is made compulsory for all students; and this was also the view of most of the speakers who followed him. The discussion was in- tended to exhibit the claims of classical studies to con- tinued attention as against the demands made by the advocates of the natural sciences at a meeting held last May, but the impression received from most of the speakers was that which Balak expressed after he had asked Balaam to assist him in stopping the advance of the Israelites: ‘tI called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.” Prof, Conway stated that Greek need not be essential in preparatory schools or in the public schools, and could be studied very successfully by interested students after entering the university. He rightly pointed out that boys working for scholar- ships are not given time for science in preparatory schools or opportunity in public schools. Other speakers agreed that the knowledge of classical lan- guages acquired by most pupils was insufficient to enable authors to be read with intelligence, and that from the point of view of influence upon lifé and character it would be better to devote time to the reading of translations. There was, indeed, little said at the meeting with which reasonable advocates of scientific studies would be disposed to differ, and nothing upon which a conflict between classics and science could be based. What is wanted most of all is joint action to change the attitude of the public in general towards all knowledge of which no direct commercial advantage can be seen. When this has been accomplished, and obscurantists of all kinds have been removed, it will be possible to contemplate courses of study apart from traditional or other in- terests, and to construct them with the sole aim of promoting the development of all that is best in the body and mind of the pupil. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, November 2.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the chair.—Sir William Crookes: The photographic spectra of meteorites. Thirty rare earthy meteorites, mostly acquired through the courtesy of the British Museum Trustees, have been examined. The examination has revealed the presence of un- expectedly large traces of chromium in all the speci- mens, a condition quite different from that found in NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE dorsal 221 the siderites or meteoritic irons, where chromium is practically absent. The proportion between chromium’ and nickel remains constant in twenty-six out of the thirty .aerolites, and is clearly shown in the photo- graphs. In three only nickel is almost absent. From the experience gained it has been possible to make a mixture containing known quantities of nickel and chromium, which, with the addition of iron, produces a spectrum in the neighbourhood of the chromium group that is practically identical with that produced by the aerolite Aubres.—Prof H. Lamb: Waves in an elastic plate. The theory of waves in an infinitely long cylindrical rod was discussed by Pochhammer in 1876. The somewhat simpler problem of two-dimensional waves in a solid bounded by parallel planes was con- sidered by Lord Rayleigh and by the author in 1880. The main object in these investigations was to verify, or to ascertain corrections to, the ordinary theory of the vibrations of thin rods or plates, and the wave- length was accordingly assumed to be great in com- parison with the thickness. It occurred to the author some time ago that a further examination of the two- dimensional problem was desirable for more than one reason. The period-equation is, however, at first sight rather intractable, and it is only recently that a method of dealing with it has suggested itself. The result is to give a fairly complete view of the more important modes of vibration, together with indications as to the character of the higher modes which are of less in- terest.—Prof. W. H. Young: Multiple integrals. This note gives certain results and formulz fundamental in the theory of multiple integration with respect to a function g(x, y,...- y of bounded variation (integrator). For simplicity the discussion is confined to two vari- ables. The integrator may, without loss of generality, be taken to be a positive monotonely monotone ascend- ing function—that is, one the monotone increase of which with respect to either of the variables has an increasing rate as the other variable increases.—Prof. W. H. Young: The order of magnitude of the co- efficients of a Fourier series—T. C. Sutton: A determination of the heat of vaporisation of water at 100° C, and one atmosphere pressure in terms of the mean calorie.—G. H. Livens: The mechanical rela- tions of the energy of magnetisation. The usual mathematical formulation of the relations of the mag- netic field leads to the same expression, viz. «4H?/8z, for the density of the energy associated with the field, whether this arises from rigid magnets or from steady currents; but as in the first case the energy is treated as potential energy, and in the second as kinetic energy, the apparently consistent result in the two cases really involves a discrepancy. In the present paper a new formulation of the relations is given which overcomes the difficulty of interpretation in the two cases. The fundamental change made in the work consists in the choice of the magnetic induction vector B, instead of the more usual magnetic force H, to denote the conditions in the ather. Zoological Society, October 24.—Dr. A. Smith Wood- ward, vice-president, in the chair.—S. Maulik ; Crypto- stome beetles in the collection of the Cambridge Uni- versity Museum. The collection is a representative one, containing species from all parts of the world. Three new genera, one new subgenus, and two new species are described.—H. G. Newth:; Investigations into the early development of the Echinoderm Cucu- maria. ‘The larval life is very short as compared with that of the Auricularia. It takes place at the expense of the yolk, and is complete in about five days. Forma- tion of the ccelomic vesicles occurs by the bending and constriction of the archenteton. No separate anterior coelom appears. The hydroccele ring closes in the left interradius, and the radial canals and five 222 primary oral tentacles arise directly from it, alternating with one another. The internal madreporite arises as a secondary differentiation of the walls of the stone- canal.—R. E. Turner: Wasps of the genus Pison. One hundred: and nine species are dealt with, of which fifteen are described as new. Reasons, drawn from the numerical distribulion of the species in different areas, are given for supposing the genus to be in a declining state—fifty of the total number of species being from the continent of Australia. In addition to Pison, the small allied genera, Aulacophilus and Pison- opsis, are dealt with, one new species of the former being described. Physical Society, October 27.—Mr. F. E. Smith, vice- president, in the chair.—Dr. S. G. Barker : The applica- tion of the Kerr effect to the determination of the saturation values for magnetism of ferro-magnetic metals, compounds, and alloys. The paper describes work carried out in the laboratory of Prof. Du Bois on the relation between the intensity of magnetisation of various ferro-magnetic materials and the rotation of the plane of polarisation of plane polarised light reflected from a polished surface of the material. The specimens, in the form of circular discs 5 mm. in diameter and o-5 mm. thick, were soldered to one of the pole pieces of a large electromagnet. Through an aperture in the other pole monochromatic light, polarised in two nearly coincident planes by means of a Lippich polariser, was incident almost normally on the polished surface of the specimen. The reflected beam passed through an analyser, the rotation of which could be measured, by means of an auxiliary optical system, to a high degree of aécuracy. In the first part of the paper results are given for a number of materials of known magnetic properties in order to establish the validity of the method, due to Du Bois, of obtaining the value of the saturation intensity from the curve connecting field strength with rotation. The method is then applied to materials of unknown pro- perties. The variation of the Kerr constant with the wave-length of the light was also determined for a number of substances.—D. Owen: The influence of the time element on the resistance of a solid rectifying contact. The resistance at a solid rectifying contact, and consequently the exact shape of the resistance characteristic, depend upon the time for which the testing current is allowed to flow. A series of char- acteristics is given corresponding to durations of con- tact extending over the range one forty-thousandth of a second to thirty seconds. The following conclusions are drawn :—(1) That the variation of resistance with voltage may be attributed entirely to thermal effects. (2) That the characteristic obtained by applying the testing voltage for one hundredth of a second is, at moderate voltages, materially the same as that which would be found at the expiry of a period of the order of a millionth of a second. (3) That the sensibility of a wireless receiving circuit (in which the rectifying contact is used) does not differ very appreciably from that deduced from a slow period characteristic. (4) That an important fraction of the contact-resistance resides in a stratum of molecular thickness at the interface of the two elements of the contact; and that it is in this region alone that rectifying action at very high frequencies is effected. Linnean Society, November 2.—Sir David Prain, presi- dent, in the chair.—Prof. G. S. Boulger : Early chapters in plant distribution. The author sketched the first glimpses in the works of Cardinal Bembo, M,. de VObel, Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Christian Mentzel, and J. Pitton de Tournefort. The second chapter was devoted to Carl von Linné, whose ‘‘ Flora lapponica”’ and several theses in the ‘‘Amoenitates academicz ” were brought forward in support. Next followed NO. 2455, VOL. 98] NATURE | individual in the racial experience. | meeting.—Mr. W. Barlow,. president, in the chair.— - . «ee fe [NovEMBER 16, 1916 Haller, J. G. Gmelin, Buffon and Forskl , C. L. Wildenow, with a brief allusion to P. A. Broussonet.— L. A. Borradaile: The Pontonjine and Carides from the western Indian Ocean. Aristotelian Society, November 6.—Dr. H. Wildon Carr, president, in the chair—Dr. H. Wildon Carr: Presidential address: The problem of recognition. In the experience of recognition there is an element which may be named “‘againness.”” The problem of recog- nition is the nature and genesis of this element. There are two forms of recognition, in each of which we meet with this element of ‘‘againness '’—an intelligent form and an instinctive form. These appear to be quite separate, but the cognitive fact is the same in each. In intelligent recognition we seem able to account for the ‘‘againness’’ by repetition, memory, and the judgment or perception of identity or simi- larity—the mental process being an external act of comparison between a present sense-datum and a past. This, however, is an illusion, because in reality the essential factor, repetition, is absent. Recognition implies prior cognition, but does not depend on the presence of a memory-image of the prior cognition. Recognition is the conditionate, and not the condition, of learning by experience; learning by experience is a primary, not a dependent, fact. In instinctive recog- nition there can be no memory-image of the prior cognition, because this prior cognition lies beyond the Yet in instinctive recognition we have sentience, familiarity, and pre- awareness—all of which are mental characteristics. We have, therefore, to conceive the mental process, or the mind, as a continuous organisation of experi- ence. Past experience has not only contributed its quota to this organisation, but is incorporated within it, giving to it, and receiving from it, its character and individuality. New sentient experience in enter- ing this organisation receives the impression of its stamp or mould, and this is the mark of the past on the present cognition which constitutes it recognition. Mineralogical Society, November 7.—Anniversary Dr. J. W. Evans: The combination of twin operations. The question of complex twin-crystals in which two distinct laws of twinning are represented was dealt with. A distinction was made between cases in which the twin-axes are parallel or at right angles, and those in which they are inclined to one another obliquely. In the former the result of the combination is itself a twin operation, while in the latter it is a rotation, the direction of which depends on the order in which the operations are applied; it is in some cases combined with an inversion.—Dr. J. W. Evans: A modification of the Kohlrausch method of determining refractive indices. The observing instrument is a micros placed vertically and fitted with a Bertrand lens. An immersion theodolite stage of the Klein type is used so that the substance under investigation may be rotated beneath a liquid of higher refractive index about two axes, the first at right angles to the optical axis of the instrument, and the second at right angles to the first and to the plane surface of the object. This is observed through the natural surface of the liquid, and rotated in either direction until the position . of total reflection is reached. By rotation of the object about the second axis the refractive indices in all direc- tions parallel to its plane surface may be determined, and the values of the principal refractive indices thus obtained.—A. Holmes and Dr. H. F. Harwood; The basalts of the Brito-Arctic Province. The basalts from Hare Island, which were collected by Thomas Reid in 1855, include six varieties, of which four are free from olivine and carry silica among the amygdale minerals, and the remaining two contain olivine and are with- NovemBeER 16, 1916] NATURE con out free silica. All the rocks are rich in titaniferous magnetite, and analyses indicate that their most. note- worthy feature is the unusual abundance of titania. The analyses cannot be closely matched except by those of basalts from Scoresby Sound, Iceland, the Farée Islands, and the west gf Scotland. This paper is the first of a series in which the authors hope to describe rocks from all the important localities within the province.—Miss N. Hosali exhibited models of crystals constructed by herself. Optical Society, November 9.—Mr. F. J. Cheshire, president, in the chair.—J. W. French: The grinding and polishing of optical surfaces. The polished sur- face of metals consists of a layer which covers over small scratches and pits in the underlying material. When the surface layer is removed by etching, the scratches and pits are exposed. When the polished surface of glass is etched, numerous fine scratches reappear, and it has been wrongly assumed that glass behaves like metals. For purposes of description, the original material is referred to as a glass and the modi- fied material constituting the surface layer as B glass. Clean scratches comparable with those on metal cannot be formed on the a glass. The material splinters in the characteristic conchoidal fashion. . Perfectly clean scratches can be formed in the f layer; they can be filled in by further polishing, and it is these scratches’ that reappear after etching. The cohesion of the sili- cates constituting the surface layer is too small to permit of the bridging over of pits, such as minute airbells, that are just exposed, and no evidence of any inclusion of foreign matter in the B layer scratches has been obtained. An optical glass surface is pro- duced as follows :—The action of the pitch polisher loosens or liquefies, as it were, the surface layer of molecules, which rearrange themselves uniformly under surface tension. The polishing medium subdivides, breaks up, and removes the surface layer, thus expos- ing the underlying material. This process then re- peats itself, and a perfect surface is obtained only by the removal .of material beyond the bottom of the hollows produced in the glass during the earlier abrasion process. Paris. Academy of Sciences, October 23.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—The President announced the death of M. E. F. Maupas, correspondant in the section of anatomy and zoology.—A. Lacroix: The volcanic glasses of the,Cantal massif.—G. Humbert ;: Some re- markable numerical functions.—C. de la Vallée Poussin; The zeros of ((s) of Riemann.—A. Verschafiel ; Advan- tages of circles both mobile and with multiple origin. —W. H. Young: Trigonometrical series and the means of Cesaro.—D., Pompeiu: Series with positive terms and the derived functions.—D, Menchoff : The unicity of the trigonometrical development.—J. Guillaume : Observations of. the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during the third quarter of 1916. Details of observations made on seventy-nine days during the quarter.—C, Camichel: The determination of the velo- city of propagation a in high-pressure water mains.— C. Zenghelis and S, Horsch: The chemical action of sodium peroxide upon hydrogen sulphide. The main product of the reaction is sulphide; polysulphides, sulphate, and thiosulphate are formed in smaller quan- tities—Ph, Flajolet: Perturbations of the magnetic declination at Lyons (Saint-Genis-Laval) during the second quarter of 1916.—L. Vegard and O. Krogness : The results of observations of the aurora borealis carried out at the Observatory of Haldde. The discussion of determinations of heights measured by photographs taken simultaneously from two points. The lower NO. 2455, VOL. 98] limit of height always exceeds 85. kilometres, the upper. limit from. 100 to 330 kilometres.—G, Bourguignon and J: Lucas: Classification of the muscles of the superior member in man following ‘their radi- cular systematisation, by the velocity index of excit- ability.—_M. Weinberg and P. Séguin: Contribution to the etiology of gaseous gangrene. A description of.a new bacillus (B. histolyticus) which, while incapable of itself producing a gaseous infection, appears to play an important part in the etiology of certain cases of gaseous gangrene. . October 30.—M, Camille Jordan in the chair.—G. Bigourdan ; Astronomical observations at Paris from 1632 to the foundation of the Observatory. From 1632 to 1637 work was done by Gassendi, Beaugrand, Boulliau, and Descartes. About this period there commenced scientific gatherings which later resulted in the formation of the Academy of Sciences. The solar eclipse of June 1, 1639, was observed by three different groups. The paper concludes with a tabular statement showing the more important observations made between 1653 and 1667.—H. Le Chatelier and F. Bogitch: The determination of the density of solid bodies. A discussion of the chief causes of error in density measurements of solids. The method sug- gested is based on the direct measurement in a narrow graduated tube of a liquid by the powdered solid. It is shown that either benzene, carbon tetrachloride, or petroleum spirit may serve as the displaced liquid, but that water is quite unsuitable—M. Hamy: A reduc- tion formula for prismatic spectra.—MM. Costantin and Bois: The varieties of vanilla——C. de la Vallée Poussin: The Riemann zeros of ¢(s).—W. Kilian: The exact age of the ‘‘Plaine des Rocailles,” “near the Roche-sur-Foron (Haute-Savoie), and fluvioglacial stages of Genevois-Faucigny.—L. Bouchet : The varia- tions of thickness of a caoutchouc sheet under the influence of an electrostatic field. It is proved experi- mentally that under the action of an electrostatic field vulcanised india-rubber contracts in the direction of the lines of force.—J. Bougault: The semicarbazones of the a-ketonic acids. a-Di-iodo- and a-dibromo- phenylbutyric acids. a-lodo- and a-bromo-phenyl- crotonic acids.—L. Daniel ; Experimental cultures at the seashore. In the course of fifteen years plants of various kinds, transferred from Rennes to Erquy, near the sea, have acquired none of the characteristics of halophytic plants.—P. Lesage : Trials of the seeds of Lepidium sativum under varying conditions. The effects of germination in dilute potash solutions, in alcoholic solutions, in solutions of chlorides, nitrates and sulphates of potassium, sodium, and ammonium were studied. The effects of time of immersion, soak- ing in petrol or ether, of moist air, and of solutions of hydrogen peroxide are also given.—F, Vincens: A Verticilliaceze of doubtful affinities—M. Baudouin : Results of the examination of the mandible of a young infant of the polished Stone age.—W. T. Porter: Low arterial pressures and their treatment. Experiments on animals have proved that when the diastolic pres- sure is as low as 45 mm. to 50 mm.,, unless appro- priate treatment is applied the animal dies. Observa- tions on wounded at the front show that there is no essential difference between the effects of a low pressure in man and in animals, and the same mode of treat- ment can be applied with success in both cases. The means adopted are :—(1) Mechanical; (2) adrenaline ; (3) injection of isotonic serum.—Ch. Richet ; Remarks on the preceding paper.—J. Beauyerie: Researches on the influence of the osmotic pressure on bacteria. The case of the cholera vibrion.—L. C, Bailleul and P. Girard: The polarisation of the cicatricial tissue and the electrical treatment of deep cicatricial adherences. 224 NATURE [NovEMBER 16, 1916 New Sout WaALEs, Linnean Society, July 26.—Mr. A. G, Hamilton, presi- dent, in the chair.—R. J. Tillyard: Studies in Aus- tralian Neuroptera, No. 4 Descriptions of new genera and species of the tanihes Ithonidz, Hemero- biide, Sisyride, Berothidz, and the new family Trichomatide. An attempt is made, by a critical study of the venation, to clear up the difficult question of the relationships of a mass of forms usually rele- gated to the Hemerobiide, Reasons are given for restricting this family to forms combining a number of characters, among which the principal are the number and structure of the radial sectors.—Dr, A. J. Turner : Studies in Australian Microlepidoptera. Five genera and sixty-five species of Meyrick’s two groups, Céco- phorides and Eulechriades, are described as new, and a number of known species are recorded from addi- tional localities—Rev. W. W. Watts: Some crypto- gamic notes from the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. BOOKS RECEIVED. Elementary Practical Chemistry. By Profs. F. Clowes and J. B. Coleman. Part ii. Eighth edition. Pp. xvi+255. (London: J. and A. Churchill.) 3s, 6d. net. A Text-Book of Physics. Fourth edition. Pp. xiv+692. (London: J. and A. Churchill.) tos, 6d, net. Om Ole Roémers Opdagelse of Lysets Toéven. By K. Meyer. (Kgbenhavn: Hgst und Sgn.) 2 kronen. Chemistry for Rural Schools. By E. Jones and J..J. Griffith. Pp. 184.. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd.) 2s. 6d. net. Typographical Printing Surfaces. and J. C. Grant. Pp. xxiv+732. mans and Go:) ~2l}*es-net. Oil-Field Development and Petroleum Mining. By Edited by A. W. Duff. By L. A. Legros (London: Long- A. B. Thomson. Pp. xix+626+maps viii. (London : Crosby Lockwood and Son.) 25s. net. A Concordance to the Works of Horace. .Compiled and edited by L. Cooper. Pp. ix+593. (Washington : Carnegie Taseitation) The Coal Measures Amphibia of North America. By R. L. Moodie. Pp. x+222+plates 26. (Washing- tone : Carnegie Institution.) Gonadectomy in relation to the Secondary Sexual Characters of some Domestic Birds. By H. D. Goodale. Pp. 52+plates vii. (Washington : Carnegie Institution.) A Sylow Factor Table of the First Twelve Thousand Numbers. By H. W. Stager. Pp. xii+120. (Wash- ington: Carnegie Institution.) The Elements of Reconstruction. Pp. 120. (Lon- don: Nisbet and Co., Ltd.) 1s. net. Australasian ‘Antarctic Expedition, 1911—1914. Scientific Reports. Series C, Zoology and Botany. Vol. iii., part i. Fishes. By E. R. Waite. Pp. 92+ plates 5, etc.- (Adelaide : Ra Bak: wegen 8s. 6d. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, November 16. InsTiTUTION OF MINING AND MEVALLURGY, at 5.30.—/nformal Dis- cussion® Standardisation, so far as it affects the Mining and Metallurgical Industries: including the Question of the Adoption of the Metric System. Cup Sruvy Society, at 6—F ixperiments in Hand-writing in Schools : Speed Tests in Manuscrint Writing : Dr. C. W. Kimmins.—The Artistic Aspect of Manuscript Writing: W. Seutt.h—Manuscript Writing in a Central School: J. W. Samuel.—Manuscript Writing in a Boys’ Ele- mentary School: A. Sinelair. LINNEAN Sociz TY, ats5.—(r) Pedanios Dioscorides of Anazarba; his Writings and his Commentators; (2 ) The New Cabinets for the Linnean Herbarium : ‘The General Secretary.—A New Australian Genus of Hydrocharidacez : Dr. A. B. Rendle.—Some Co lestions of the Littoral Marine Faunz of the Cape Verile Islands, made by Cyril Crossland in the Summer of 1904: A. W. Waters. CHEMICAL Soctety, at 8.—A Simple Method of Estimating Arsenic in Organic Derivatives: A. J. Ewins.—A New Method for the Preparation NO. 2455, VOL. 98] of Nitrosyl Tribromide: R. L. Datta and N, R. Chatterjee. —Neutral Potassium Persulphate as a Reagent in Organic Chemistry: = L. Datta’ and J. N. Sen.— he Hydrolysis of Iron Ammonium Alum: W. N. Rae. . FRIDAY, Novemser 17. INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL say thee, at 6.—Report of the Hardness Tests Research Committee. MONDAY, NovEMBEK 20. Royav GEOGRAPHICAL Society, at 8.30.—Easter Island : Mr. and Mrs. w. Scoresby Routledge. TUESDAY, NoveMBER 21. ZooLocicat Society, at 5.30.—The Pectoral and Pelvic Arches of the London Specimen of Archzopter)x: Prof. B, Petronievics and Dr. A. Smith Woodward.—Studies on the Anoplira and Mallophaga, being 2 Ce Report upon a Collection from the Mammals and Birds in the Society's Gardens, IT.: b. F, Cummings.—Notes on a Collection of Heterocera — by Mr. w. Teather! in British East Africa, 1911-13 : Lieut,-Col. J. M. awcett. INSTITUTION OF Civit. ENGINEERS, at 5.30.—Keadby Bridge: J. B. Ball. | INsTITUTION OF PeTROLEUM TECHNOLOGISTS, at 8.—The Pyrogenesis of Hydrocarbons: E. L. Lomax, Dr. A. E. Dunstan, and Dr. F. B. Thole. - Roya Sraristicat Society, at 5.15.—Presidential Address; The Organisation of Registsation in its Heise on Vital Statistics; Sir Bernard Mallet. WEDNESDAY, NovemsBer 22. Royat Society oF ARTS, at 4.30.—The Economic Development of Ria and Britain's Share Therein: I.. Urquhart. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, at 5.30. THURSDAY, November 23. 4 Royat Society, at 4.—Annual Report of Council.—At 4.30 Probable ie The Scattering of Plane Electric Waves by Spheres: Dr. T. J. 'a Bromwich.—Numerical Results of the Theory of the Difft 3 of 2 Plane Electromagnetic Wave by a Perfectly Conducting Sp! J. Proudman, A. T. Doodson, and G. Kennedy. INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL Resear at 8.—The Parallel Operation of Electric Power Stations: J. S. P CONTENTS. ‘PAGE Northern Counties Lore . . ce A Composite American Text- book of Geology. By AT Wig SS OE ra ee Jo.) ae Radiographic Methods Eee tints +d let gee ae Our, Bookatelty 550), cacy sete ene eae ote aa Letters to the Editor:— é The Concilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich.—Herbert Haviland Field... . Ysi/ acye tte ae Scarcity of Wasps.—H. St. Gsaree Gray ort nana A Peculiar Thunderclap.—Prof. Giovanni Platania The Pollination of Toadflax.—S. ea Dr. C. E. Moss Scientific Glassware ..... Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, F.R.S Seward; FBS... ielew +, sys) ONORaaene Prof. Henrik Mohn. By Sir Napier Shaw, F.R.S, 211 " By Prof. A. C. Notesiv. 1-29: se ete pe eUte dy Cpe wine hee Our Astronomical Column :— «yh eee The Eclipsing Binary RX: Hereulis . . . . .. . . 216 Spectroscopic Resolving Power : COs The Minimum Radiation Visually Parceptitle! PR af iy Meteorology in Wat. -) . cin +f © &. 3 ou nae Education at the British Association ...... it The British Association at Newcastle :— Section K.—Botany.—Opening Address (Abridged) by A. B. Rendle, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., Presi- dent of the Section 3. LOS University and Educational Intellfigerice 2 be allel Oe Societies and Academies. ..........+ +6. 220 Books Received ....... Nh eT. 224 Vea. Diary or Societies... CS a ee Editorial and Publishing Offices: MACMILLAN & CO., Lrp., ; ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C, } Adwertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. . Editorial Communications to the Editor. ony Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. oy oi tag Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. se ee eee ™ A WEEKEY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF’ SCIENCE. “To the solid ground Of Necpuak trusts the mind which builds for aye. WORDS WENTR No. 2456, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1916 Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] [Price SIXPENCE. {All Rights Reserved X-RAY TUBES Of all descriptions Made, on the Premises. : Repaired, & Re-exhausted Coolidge Tubes kept in stock. NEWTON & WRIGHT, Ltd. 72 WIGMORE STREET, W. Sole Agents for Macalaster Wiggin X-Ray Tubes, Undoubtedly the Finest Tubes in the World DUROGLASS L 14 GROSS STREET, HATTON CARDEN, E.C. for all purposes, Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. _Beakers. Soft Soda. Tubing for Lamp Work. Flasks, Ete. General Chemical and Scientific Special Glass Apparatus Made to Order. DUROCLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. SOLE SELLING AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. 14 CROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Glassware. TD. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. Chemical Glassware, Chemical and Physical Apparatus Makers to His Majesty's Government (Home and Overseas Dominions), Laboratory Outfitters, &c. Gold Medals at Allahabad and London. Grand Prix and Gold Medal at the International Exhibition, Turin. STROUD & RENDELL SCIENCE LANTERN. The ** University” Lan- tern, with Russan_ iron hody, Sliding baseboard, two superior, objectives, with rack and_ pinion for focnssing,.con- densers 4} in. diam., plane silvered mirror ‘‘ A,’ which is moved by a knob causing the rays to be r flected upwards for the..projectign of objects in a horizontal plane, silvered prism whi.h can be-used at “C," or as an erecting prism in mount ‘ D,” limelight burner, slide carrier... .Price 7 complete in travelling case, Without reversible adjustable stage... 3 or ¥ «£11 8°6 Ditto, ditto, with “* Phoenix” arc lamp .. = 12 18 6 Reversible scabs stage “ B” for supporting ay atus; extra «.. he 5 6 CATALOGUES (Post free): Optical Lanterns and Accessory ‘Apparatus. Chemical Apparatus and Chemicals, 44 pages. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. eer sem es ee A New Barograph—THE ‘* JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 6287.) a Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST.., W. XC UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. BROWN ANIMAL SANATORY INSTITUTION. A Course of Five Public Lectures on ‘THe Part pLAVED IN DISEASE ny WATER, SALTS AND OTHER SimpLe SupsTANces " will be delivered by the Acting-Superintendent of the Institution, Dr. E. MELLANBY, on Mon., Dec, 4, Thurs., Dec. 7, Mon., Dec. 11, Thurs., Dec. 14, and Mon., Dec, 18, 1916, at 5.30 p.m., in the Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. Admission free, without ticket. CHEMICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH FUND. A meeting of the Research Fund Committee will be held in December next. Applications for grants, to be made on forms which can be obtained from the AssisTANT SECRETARY, Chemical Society, Burlington House, W., iuust be received on, or before, Friday, December 8, 1916. All persons who received grants in December, 1915, or in December of any previous year, whose accounts have not been declared closed by the Council, are reminded that reports must be returned by Friday, December x. The Council wish to draw attention to the fact that the income arising from the donation of the Worshipful Company of G Jdsmiths is to be more or less especially devoted to the encouragement of research in inorganic and metallurgical chemistry. Furthermore, that the income due to the sum accruing from the Perkin Memorial Fund is to be applied to investigations relating to problems connected with the coal-tar and allied industries. COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal: J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. DEPARTMENT OF COAL-TAR COLOUR CHEMISTRY. “BRITISH DYES” RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS. The Governors invite applications for two Scholarships of the value of 475 each and tenable for one year in the first instance. The object of these Scholarships is to encourage and afford greater facili- ties for research upon problems in connection with the Coal-Tar Colour In- dustry in Great Britain. The Research is to be carried out in the Department of Coal-Tar Colour Chemistry of the Technical College, Huddersfield. Full particulars may be obtained on application. T. THORP, Secretary. PORTSMOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE. GIRLS’ SECONDARY SCHOOL. Headmistress—Miss A. M. Kenyon Hircncock, B.A. (Lond.), L.C.P. APPOINTMENT OF JUNIOR SCIENCE MISTRESS. Applications are invited for the position of JUNIOR SCIENCE MISTRESS. Salary to a University Graduate, £100, increasing to £110 per annum by £5 annual increments. Applications must be received at once. Further particulars and appli- cation form may be obtained by forwarding stamped addressed foolscap envelope to the SECRETARY to the Committee, at the Municipal College, Portsmouth. LANCASTER GIRLS’ GRAMMAR SCHOOL. - WANTED in January, 1917 :— FORM MISTRESS, graduate, with special qualifications for teaching Mathematics. FORM MISTRESS, graduate, with English or History and Ele- mentary Mathematics. Applications will be considered which will be due according to scale to a commencing salary in one case up to £140, and in the other case up to £120, with subsequent £10 increments in each case to £170. The above appoin'ments are subject to the conditions and regulations respecting County Day Secondary Schools under the Lancashire Mducation Cornmittee. For forms of application and scales of salaries apply to GEO. H. MITCHELL, Town Hall, Lancaster, Clerk and Correspondent. November 9, 19t6. LINCOLN DIOCESAN TRAINING COLLEGE. LECTURER in MATHEMATICS, with knowledge of Drawing or Handwork if possible, required for the above residential College of 116 students. Degree and experience essential. Apply to the Principat. KK RESEARCH CHEMISTS.—Messrs. Levinstein, Limited, have vacancies for well-qualified ORGANIC CHEMISTS in their Research Lxboratories. Applicants must hyve hid academical training, and preferably research experience.—Apply LEvINSTEIN, Limited, Blackley, Manchester. NATURE [NOVEMBER 23, 1916 BOROUGH of KEIGHLEY EDUCATION COMMITTEE. TRADE AND GRAMMAR SCHOOL. WANTED, a MASTER (disqualified fox Military Service) to teach the Subject of Physics in the Secondary School, and Electrical Engineering in the Evening Technical School for the duration of the War. Salary at the rate of £170 per annum, with ras. 6d. per evening extra for evening work. Applicants should send letter of application and copies of testimonials, to the vRinciPaL, Technical Institute, Keighley, on or before December 8, 1916. WANTED, CHEMICAL ASSISTANT, male or female, for testing laboratory engaged on War work in Tyneside District. Apply. stating age, training, and salary required. No one already enzaged on Wer work will be considered.—Box 202, c/o Nature Office. MASTER required to teach Nature Study and some English. For par- ticulars apply to HeapMAsTER, Hulme Grammar School, Manchester. Now Ready. Pp. viii+ 1040. With 78 Illusirations. Price 21s, net. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By A. P. MATHEWS, Ph.D., Professor of Physiological Chemistry, University of Chicago. “This v lume is of ambitious character, and has the merit of being distinctly original. Practical teachers will obtain many useful wrinkles by studying it.”’—Mature. London: BAILLIERE, TINDALL & COX, 8 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. BOO KS ! Edueational, Medical, all other subjects, and for all Exams. SECOND-HAND AT HALF PRICES: New Books at Discount Prices. CATALOGUES FREE. State Wants. Books sent on approva’. BOOKS BOUGHT: Best Prices Given. W. & G. FOYLE, 121-123 Charing Cross Road, London, E E. GEORGE & SONS, Ltd., 23 Jacob Street, London, S.E., England. NATURE. The number for last week (Nov. 16) contained :— Northern Counties Lore. A Composite American Text-book of Geology. By J. W. G. Radiographic Methods. Our Bookshelf. Letters to the Editor :— The Concilium Bibliographicum of Ziirich. HERBERT Havinanp Freip.—Scarcity of Wasps. H. Sr. GzorGE tRAY.—A Peculiar Thunderclap. Prof. G1rovaNNi PLATANIA.—The Pollination of Toadflax. §S. P.; Dr. C. E. Moss. Seientifie Glassware—Prof. H. H. W. Pearson, F.R.S. By Prof. A. C. Sewarp, F.R.S.—Prof. Henrik Mohn. By Sir Naprer Snaw, F.R.S.— Notes.— Our Astronomical Column. — Meteor- ology in War.—Edueation at the British Asso- ciation.—The British Association at Neweastle: Seetion K.—Botany.—Opening Aduress (Abridged) by A. B. Renpie, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., President of the Section.—University and Educational Intelli- gence.—Societies and Academies.—Books Re- eeived.—Diary of Societies. Copies can be obtained through any bookseller or newsagent, or post- free from the Publishers, St. Martin's Street, London, W.C., on receipt of 6}d. from residents in the British Isles, or of 7d. from residents abroad. Books on Scientific, Technical, BOOKS, MAGAZINES and PERIODICALS Despatched regularly to all parts. Can we send you particulars of our — POSTAL SERVICE? Individual requirements studied and lowest prites quoted. alle NATURE 225 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1016. SIR HENRY ROSCOE. The Right Honourable Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe. A Biographical Sketch. By Sir Edward Thorpe. Pp. viii+208. (Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. = pe over ten years ago “The Life and Experi- ences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe” was “written by himself.” Now we have this “bio- graphical sketch,” a substantial volume, about half the size of the “ Experiences,” from the very competent pen of his distinguished former student and lifelong friend, Sir Edward Thorpe. Roscoe the chemist and the man is therefore shown as he appeared to himself on the one hand, and to his friends on the other. As for his enemies or detractors he had none, and therefore there is nothing further to be said. He has so recently been taken from us and his genial, kindly per- sonality was so familiar that to the present generation this good man’s memory will outlive his life so long as any who knew him remain. The present volume contains an excellent and characteristic photographic portrait of obviously recent date. For generations to come there are fortunately two good pictures which show him in the prime of life, one by Burgess in the Common Room at the Owens College, the other by Herkomer in the possession of the family. Readers of the present volume are reminded that Henry Enfield Roscoe was born in London at 10 Powis Place, Great Ormond Street, on January 7, 1833. At the time of his death, December 18, 1915, he was, therefore, within a few days of his eighty-third birthday. His father died at the early age of thirty-eight, when the son was only four years old. The future chemist was brought up by his mother, to whose good sense he owed much in the encouragement she gave to his inclina- tion towards scientific pursuits. After working under Williamson at University College and taking his B.A. degree, he went to Heidelberg, accompanied by his mother and sister, and found a place in the laboratory of Bunsen, then at the height of his fame. The in- fluence of the master served to emphasise Roscoe’s natural bent towards what may be called Operative chemistry, in preference to the theoretical or speculative aspects of the science. Returning to England after three years, having in the meantime secured his Ph.D., he set up a private laboratory in Bedford Place, Russell Square. But this ven- ture was of short duration, for in the following year he was appointed to succeed Frankland, the first professor of chemistry in the newly founded Owens College in Manchester, and there he re- mained for thirty years. From this time forward Roscoe was a diligent and successful investigator of chemical problems, and something over sixty papers stand in the catalogues to the credit of his name, alone or in association with some of his students. It is prob- _able, however, that,’ interesting as were some of his subjects of inquiry, his name will be carried NO. 2456, VOL. 98] | down to posterity less in connection with chemical discovery than with what must be regarded as the great achievement of his life, namely, the creation of the first provincial school of chemistry in this country. Previously to 1860 there had been great schools of medicine with which chemistry was associated in a subordinate position, and great individual professors, such as Graham, Williamson, and Frankland, but with the excep- tion of Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry, they do not seem to have possessed that power of attraction which draws together a crowd of enthusiastic students. But this is what Roscoe did, for although not specially distin- guished as a philosophical chemist, he had that remarkable gift of insight which enabled him to select for his students subjects of inquiry which always led to definite results. He had, moreover, some of the personal charac- teristics which belonged to Bunsen, his own teacher, of whom he speaks in glowing terms of respect and affection. As a man of science actively engaged in research Roscoe’s career came practically to an end when he entered Parliament in 1886. Ass everyone knows, the remaining thirty years of his life were by no means idle or employed unprofitably, for he was busy in all sorts of educational movements, in the offices he held as treasurer and chairman of the Lister Institute and as Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, and in other directions in which he exercised his great influence to the benefit of science and of his country. As to his home life, it is, indeed, true, as the author of the volume before us remarks, that “the hospitality of Woodcote is a treasured memory to numbers of Roscoe’s friends.” And there is one feature of his which is less noticed in the book than it deserves, and that is his quaint humour and love of a joke. It was great fun to hear him telling an amusing story to a certain lady visitor who, he knew quite well, would never see the point of it. An incident may be mentioned which does not appear in the book. At the International Con gress of Applied Chemistry in Rome in igo6 Roscoe was very naturally chosen as honorary president for the next meeting, to be held in London in 1909, Ramsay being the acting presi- dent. And being rightly recognised as the doyen of the English members of the Congress then in Rome, it was Roscoe who, among the King’s guests at the Quirinal, had the honour of attend- ing the Oueen to dinrer and sitting on her right hand. Moissan, the eminent French chemist, sat on her Majesty’s left. W.. AT: rae ut _GROUP-THEORY. Theory and Applications of Finite Groups. By Profs. G. A. Miller, H. F. Blichfeldt, L. E. Dickson. Pp. xvii+390. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 17s. net. ‘PRE English student is fortunate in having, in his own language, a series of excellent treatises on the difficult theory of groups. The N 226 present one is welcome as a record, of progress, even in what may be called the elements of the subject, and as an original work by three distin- guished experts. It is divided into three parts, for each of which one author is mainly responsible. Part i, by Prof. G. A. Miller, deals with the general properties of groups, beginning with sub- stitution-groups, and going on to the abstract definition by generators; there are special chapters on Abelian groups, on groups of order p™ with p prime, on the polyhedral groups, on isO- morphisms, and on solvable groups. Part ii., by Prof. H. F. Blichfeldt, is on linear groups, and a valuable summary of the present stage of that theory; in particular, there is a chapter on char- acteristics. Part iii, by Prof. L. E. Dickson, is on applications, and is naturally of a more elementary character; there are three chapters on the Galoisian theory of equations, one on rule and compass constructions, one on the inflexions of a plane cubic, one on the 27 lines of a cubic sur- face, and one which is a scrap on solutions of equations by a standard form F(z, k) =o, involving one parameter. The outstanding novelty is the early proof of Sylow’s theorem, which actually begins on p. 27. The proof is led up to by the definition and dis- cussion of “double co-sets,” which, it appears, were first used by Cauchy, and long afterwards taken up by Frobenius. In group-theory Sylow’s theorem occupies a place something like that of the law of quadratic reciprocity in arithmetic; it is of a fundamental character, and each distinct proof of it marks an advance in the general theory. It may be noted, however, that the proof given by Prof. Miller assumes the group considered to be given in the form of a substitution-group ; this is not a real limitation, because every group is iso- morphic with a set of substitutions—a theorem proved on p. 63. We may, perhaps, be justified in thinking that the “genuine” proof of Sylow’s theorem has yet to be discovered; that is to say, a proof based on the abstract definitions of a group, without using any special image of it, and also a proof which comes at the proper place in the sequence of the theory. The authors give a considerable number of exer- cises, including some which are really easy. This is important, because every mathematical student ought to know the elements of group-theory ; it is the only thing which gives unity to a host of scattered results in elementary algebra, trigo- nometry, and analytical geometry, and it is often a guide to us when we wish to estimate before- hand the complexity of a particular problem. In the case of some of the harder exercises hints are given to help the reader. How far this treatise will suit a beginner, it is difficult to say. The subject is, for most students, a hard one, except in its very early stages, and Prof. Miller’s contribution is concise as well as abstract. In any case, those who have made some progress in the theory, and wish to know its pre- sent condition, will find the work of great interest and value; a judicious skipper who begins at NO. 2456, voL. 98] NATURE eS SS eee [NovEMBER 23, 1916 2° eS eee enjoy himself than a con- p- 321 or thereabout will perhaps more, and make more progress, scientious plodder with a bookmark. The treatise is appropriately dedicated to M. Camille Jordan, to whom the authors justly assign. the credit of having mainly helped to establish. group-theory as a leading branch of mathematics. G. B. M. AN INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL. EXCURSION. Memorial Volume of the Transcontinental Excur- sion of 1912 of the American Geographical Society of New York. Pp. xi+407. (New York: American Geographical Society, 1915;); Price 3 dollars. W Ga excursion of which this volume is @ memorial was organised by Prof. W. M. of Harvard University, to celebrate two of the foundation of New Davis, things—the sixtieth anniversary of the American Geographical Society York, and the entry of that society into its new building in Broadway at 156th Street. The members of the excursion were mainly geo- graphers invited from nearly every European country, and these were taken in a special train. and by other means of communication over routes amounting in all to nearly 13,000 miles, first west-- wards through the northern tier of States to Seattle, thence south to San F rancisco, and back through the middle States, but going so far south as Birmingham, Ala., in rounding the south of the Appalachians. Besides the European members of the party, there were about a dozen American geographers who went the whole round; and numerous other American geographers, geolo- gists, and others capable of furnishing informa- tion about different parts of the United States. joined the party for shorter or longer stages. In the course of the excursion discussions were constantly being held with regard to the geo- graphical features of the districts visited; and, seeing that Prof. Davis was the leader as well as. the organiser of the party, it is only natural that those discussions should have frequently turned on the interpretation of the features according to” the terminology which he has introduced so widely into geography. The contents of this volume are mainly made up of articles, written in German, English, French, and Italian, by members of the party, and it would have been interesting to find in one of these an example of the applica- tion of that terminology to geographical descrip- tion, the purpose to which its author contends it is pre-eminently suited. But there is none. the other hand, there are two or three in which the morphogenetic nomenclature of Davis is dis- cussed, and more or less criticised, as by Prof. Ricchieri (pp. 63-5), Prof. Jaeger in his (some- what maccaronic—intermingled German and Eng- lish) article entitled ‘“‘Bemerkungen zur system- atischen Beschreibung der Landformen,” and inci- dentally by Waldbaur in his “Bemerkungen tiber Stufeniandschaften ” (bottom of p. 86, etc.). Even On November 23, 1916] NATURE 227 ee eee where critical, however, all these contributors are more or less sympathetic. All the articles except one (by Prof. Weren- skiéld on ‘The Surface of Central Norway ”’) are more or less connected with the United States. A good many come under the head of economic or economico-political geography. Such, for exam- ple, are Prof. Briickner’s on “The Settlement of the United States as Controlled by Climate and Climatic Oscillations ”; that by Prof. Demangeon on Duluth; that by Prof. Partsch on “ Die Nord- pazifische Bahn”; those by Profs. Nussbaum and Oberhummer on American towns, the latter on American towns as compared with the towns of Europe; that by Herbette on “The Harbours of the Pacific North-west of the U.S.’’; and that by Vacher on “Les Environs .de Phoenix et le Barrage Roosevelt.” Several discuss the origin of land forms, as Prof. de Martonne’s on “Le Pare National Yellowstone,”’ and that of Machatschek on “ Ein Profil durch die Sierra Nevada mit einem Vergleich mit der Schollenstruktur in Zentral- asien.’’ There are some interesting ‘“‘ Observations sur deux Petits Geysers du Yellowstone,” by Prof. Chaix, of Geneva; and Mr. E. de Margerie con- tributes an article written in excellent and even fascinating English on ‘‘ The Debt of Geographical ‘Science to American Explorers.”’ Prof. Davis furnishes a brief note on the origin of the excur- ‘sion, and its history is written by Prof. A. P. Brig- ham, of Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y. In addition to a map showing the route, there are numerous photographic, diagrammatic, and other illustrations, and photographs of most of the European members of the party as well as of Profs. Davis and Brigham. The guests would have liked to see also the photographs at least of all those American members who went the whole round. Ge GAC: OUR BOOKSHELF. Mentally Deficient Children: theiy Treatment and Training. By Dr. G. E. Shuttleworth and Dr. W. A. Potts. Pp. xix+284. Fourth edition. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. ‘THe mentally deficient are of considerable im- portance to the community; their behaviour may be offensive, they frequently exhibit criminal pro- pensities, and they are a source of expense in that they need special care and are deficient as producers and wage-earners. The disability is of all grades, and frequently commences in child- hood or may be congenital. The principal causes in children are maldevelopment of certain parts of the brain or retarded development of the brain and its functions from some intercurrent disease. The latter may be due to injury at or after birth, . fevers, convulsions, epilepsy, and syphilis. There are also certain conditions of glandular in- adequacy, as in the cretin whose thyroid gland is atrophied. NO. 2456, VOL. 98] Probably of children of school age some feeble. In this book the authors first detail the patho- logy of mental deficiency in childhood, its etiology, diagnosis, and prognosis. They then describe the methods to be adopted for the medical examination of mentally defective children, and devote considerable space to the medical treat- ment and educational, industrial, and moral train- ing and recreation of mentally deficient children. An important chapter deals with the results of treatment and training. Of the patients treated at the Royal Albert Institution about 50 per cent. do not improve or get worse, while of the re- mainder 10 per cent. become self-supporting, and the rest become of more or less value—surely a very encouraging record. The book gives an excellent summary of the subject, and should be of considerable service to the medical practitioner and to the school officer and teacher, by whom the lesser cases of mental deficiency will first be recognised, and early recognition and treatment are very essential if any good result is to be obtained. The book is illustrated with a number of useful plates. 1 per cent. or thereabouts are mentally The Indo-Aryan Races. A Study of the Origin of Indo-Aryan People and Institutions. By Ramaprasad Chanda. Part i. Pp. xiii+274. (Rajshahi: The Varendra Research Society, 1916.) Price Rs.6 8a. Tuis book, we are told in the preface, was in- tended to provide ‘“‘a monograph on the origin of the Bengali people,” a useful project which has been supported by the newly founded Varendra Research Society. But his “notes,” as the author modestly terms them, have developed into a series of essays on the religion, history, and ethnology of Ancient India. All that is provided as part of the original project is a short series of head measure- ments, published without commentary, which is intended to settle the question whether certain groups of Bengali Brahmans are, or are not, descendants of a few Brahmans imported from Kanauj. So far as we can judge from these scanty statistics the legend is without foundation; but the subject demands much more careful treat- ment before it can be finally settled. The essays, modestly written and creditable to the scholarship of the author, traverse well- trodden ground. The great “Vedic Index” of Profs. Macdonell and Keith has already collected practically all the information that the Vedic literature supplies on Early India. But the byways of Sanskrit writings can still furnish some facts, and much still remains to be done, for the interpretation of these materials. The author might with advantage return in his next venture to the original problem of the origin of the Bengalis. He would probably discard Risley’s theory of Mongoloid infusion in favour of some early entry of an Alpine strain. If he can establish this doctrine he would do useful service to Indian ethnology. nN No rn 2) 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.] War Organisation. In the article ** ‘ Preparedness ’ : The American Way,” in Nature of November 2, the report of the Com- mittee of the Naval Consulting Board, therein quoted, is in some respects open to criticism. That report says :—'' Behind every man in the firing line in Europe, from three to five persons are employed to supply him with food, ammunition, and other needs.”’ For the third step of the programme the committee lays it down that skilled mechanics in all lines of produc- tion must be kept from enrolment in the Army. Rather must bankers, clerks, shopkeepers, and professional men be sent. The skilled workers must be badged, and the only restriction imposed on them by the badge will. be prevention of enlistment. Enrolment in the Industrial Reserve will be considered to carry with it honours equal to enrolment in the fighting forces. From the above it appears that the American view is that, of the men of military age in the nation, one portion should work in safety and comfort while the other portion should do the fighting. To the latter would fall all the loss of life, disablement from wounds and sickness, and extreme hardship; meanwhile the former will live as in time of peace, and enjoy equal honours with the fighting group. A scheme of preparation for war in which sacrifices and benefits are so unequally distributed does not appeal to one as being éither just or admirable, and I shall show that it is not in the least necessary. I will make the following assumptions, which are sufficiently accurate for the purpose of my argu- ment :— (a) I assume the best fighting age at from twenty to twenty-seven. (b) I assume four supply workers as required for one soldier, (c) Unskilled labour is necessary among the supply workers. (d) Men will be efficient as supply workers and for the necessary subsidiary duties certainly up to the age of fifty. (e) It is apparent that there will be at least three men above fighting age available for supply work for each man of fighting age; assume that this is so. Let N be the number of men between twenty and twenty-seven ; we cannot take all of these, for above that age only 3N workers are available. Let x be the number of men we can take; then x(1+4)=4N, therefore x=o0-8N. Hence if we take all men up to twenty-five and a half as soldiers we shall have enough workers to keep them supplied. Doing this, we shall use some skilled workers in the ranks, but skilled work is also required at the front, and this is now provided for. If to this proposition a clause be added whereby he who, either physically or mentally, is unfit to fight shall be held as unfit to vote, we shall have a schenie fair to all, which also does not. offer the glorious opportunities for undue influence and shirkers so thoroughly provided in the report. 3 AOR. Bee Achalader, Blairgowrie, Perthshire. NO. 2456, VoL. 98] CAMPBELL. NATURE i [ NOVEMBER 23, 1916 Farmers and Wheat. In your review of Messrs. Gray and Turner’s “Eclipse or Empire? ’’ (November 9, p. 185) the follow- ing passage occurs :— . “The third chapter, on ‘ The Slackening of Momen- — tum,’ shows by telling figures and statistics how serious has become our competition with better organised or more SE NRE ee nations. . . . British production has increased at a far less rate than that in Germany or in the United States. As regards home-grown wheat, it has fallen by 20 per cent. in the last thirty years in England, and increased in Germany by 50 per cent.” Turning to p. 190 in the same number, I read ;— “|. . Without heavy protective duties, the chemical industry of the finer products, including dyestuffs, cannot possibly be built up and firmly established in this country.” ' The first of these quoted passages seems to impute the fall in production of wheat to “slackening of momentum,’ implying indolence, or at least want of spirit, on the part of British farmers. But what, it may be asked, might have been said of their intelli- gence if, instead of diverting their ‘*momentum” to dairy farming and stock-feeding, they had persisted in growing wheat at a loss after it had fallen to 23s. a quarter? And how would it be consistent with prud- ence now to break up land for wheat-growing in the absence of any guarantee against a prospective ruinous fall in prices? We do not ask for the promise of “heavy protective duties,’ such as your correspondent describes as indispensable, as doubtless they are, for the establishment and maintenance of the finer chem- ical industry, but we do claim that, before investing heavily in wheat production, some assurance may be obtained against the farming industry being wrecked by indiscriminate freedom of imports. Herpert MAXWELL. | Monreith, Greek as a Specialised Study. As you have done me the honour of commenting (Narure, November 16, p. 221) upon what would seem to have been an abbreviated report of what I said at the Hellenic Society’s meeting on November 14, perhaps you would allow me a few lines to remove a misapprehension to which that report seems to have given rise. It is quite true that I deprecate the study of Greek at preparatory schools, as I do not think the language can be begun before thirteen or fourteen yeats of age with- out narrowing unduly the basis of general education ; but I did not in the least wish to suggest, nor do I think, that it need not be studied at publie schools. To abandon it there would be, in my judgment, to abandon the finest part of that humane training which has created all the great traditioas of English public life. I contended, indeed, that students of special ability who had been thoroughly trained in Latin could study Greek fruitfully during their university course if that course extended above four years and were wholly devoted to classical work. This I urged as a reason for allowing clever boys from municipal schools a free choice of the subjects which they are to study by the aid of municipal leaving scholarships. But I be- lieve it would be a national misfortune if the study of Greek in this country were confined to this com- paratively small class of students. The affection felt for the study by those who know what its, is so keen that I do not think there is much danger of this result, j NOVEMBER 23, 1916] NATURE 229 I said nothing on the subject of compulsory Greek, but as my silence has been taken to imply complete assent to its abolition, let me say that while I have voted, and shall vote, against enforcing the study upon candidates for degrees in mathematics or natural science, I am convinced that the quality of any literary, historical, or philosophical study, whether in modern or ancient fields, is gravely injured wherever it is undertaken without a knowledge of Greek. Manchester, November 20. R..S. Conway. The Preservation of Natural Colour in Plants. In Nature of November 9 Dr. Rendle directs atten- tion to a method of producing compounds of chloro- phyll and copper similar in colour to that of the natural pigments of the leaf and of a comparatively stable nature. It may be worth while to point out that the chemical changes underlying the method are fairly well known, as a result of Willstatter’s investigations of chlorophyll and its derivatives. The knowledge derived from Willstatter’s work forms a very profitable basis for an investigation of the problem of preserving the colour of herbarium specimens. The chromogen complex of chlorophyll contains mag- nesium bound to nitrogen in a complex way. The chromogen group of chlorophyll a may be represented by the formula, C,.H,,ON,Mg. ‘The magnesium is easily removed by the action of acids, and the deriva- tives thus obtained, phzophytin, phytochlorin, etc., containing the group C,.H,.ON,, have optical proper- ties different from those of chlorophyll; in solutions they are of a yellowish-olive green colour, and they exhibit characteristic absorption spectra. It is possible in many cases to introduce a metal into these magnesium-free derivatives whereby com- pounds with optical properties similar to those of chlorophyll are produced. le Nae Diary. of Soctietiea:. 5... te eee ee ++ 9244 Editorial and Publishing Offices; MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.c. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications ‘to the Editor. Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. oe hee wy VIO, Cc. wor ian (eee S200 yg fas M m DEC 201916 h, A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye..—WoRDSWORTH. No. 2457, VOL. 98] | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1916 _ [Price SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newsnaner at the General Post Office.] (All Rights Reserved. BUY DIRECT FROM FE.BECKER & CO, HATTON WALL (W.&J.GEORGE. LTD., SUCC#?) Graphite-Selenium Cells FOURNIER D’ALBE’S PATTERN. Great Stability and High Efficiency. With a sensitive Se surface of §.sq. em. and a voltage 20 the additional current ob ainable at various illuminations (in metre-candles) is :— At hi ee .. +} milliamp. MESO. 4, © =x pye ofl ny At 500 2 For particulars and prices apply to the SOLE AGENTs : John J. Griffin & Sons, Makers of Physical and Electrical Apparatus, Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, LONDON, wW.c. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd., Chemical and Scientific Instrument Makers to His Majesty’s Home & Overseas Dominions), Laboratory Furnishers and Manufactu ‘ng Chemists. Government | CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, and TECHNICAL LABORATORIES Fully Furnished with BENCHES, FUME CHAMBERS, &c. INSTITUTIONS EQUIPPED INCLUDE :— St. Mary’s College, Winchester ; and many others Catalogue of Chemical and Physical Apparatus and Chemicals post free. Designs of Benches and Fittings to suit all requirements. 124 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. : & Clonal, Muse? XCVili UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. BROWN ANIMAL SANATORY INSTITUTION. A Course of Five Public Lectures on “‘ THe Part PLAYED IN DISEASE sy WATER, SALTS AND OTHER SIMPLE SUBSTANCES” will be delivered by the Acting-Superintendent of the Institution, Dr. E. MELLANBY, on Mon., Dec, 4, Thurs., Dec. 7, Mon., Dec. 11, Thurs., Dec. 14, and Mon., Dec. 18, 1916, at 5.30 p.m., in the Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. Admission free, without ticket. MEDICAL RESEARCH. DIRECTOR WANTED, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. Salary £800, with yearly premium of £75 for retirement in addition. Tenure, five years. Eligible for reappointment. Whole time. Applications by January 24, 1917, to the AGENT-GENERAL Fok Vicroria, Aldwych, Strand, London, from whom full information can be obtained. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON), REGENT’S PARK, N.W. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. Applications are invited for the post of DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY. Salary £120 a year, rising to £150, non-resident. Six copies of applications, and of not more than three recent testimonials, should be sent not later than ‘Thursday, December 14, to the SECRETARY OF CounciL, from whom further partuculars may be obtained. NORTHAMPTON POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, LONDON, E.C. Applications are invited for the full-time appointment of DEMON- STRATOR inthe DEPARTMENT of ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING and APPLIED PHYSICS. Salary 4125 per annum. Applicants must be jneligible for Military Service. Particulars and forms of application can be obtained on application to R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, D.Sc., Principal. ROYAL SOCIETY. GOVERNMENT GRANT FOR SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. Applications for the year 1917 must be received at the Offices of the Royal Society not later than January 1 next, and must be made on printed forms to be obtained from the Clerk to THE GOVERNMENT GRANT ComMiTTEE, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W. RESEARCH CHEMISTS.—Messrs. Levinstein, Limited, have vacancies for well-qualified ORGANIC CHEMISTS in their Research Laboratories. Applicants must have had academical training, and preferably research experience.—Apply LEvinsTEIN, Limited, Blackley, Manchester. ASSISTANT, junior, man ineligible for the Army, or young lady, wanted, with some knowledge of Optical and Scientific Instruments.—Apply by letter, giving full particulars and salary required. to CHarLes BAKER 244 High Holborn, London, MASTER required to teach Nature Study and some English. For par- ticulars apply to HEapMasteR, Hulme Grammar School, Manchester. PROTOCATECHUIC ACID required for RESEARCH. If anyone has about 100. gr. to dispose of, will he with Dr. NieRENSTEIN, University of Bristol. LABORATORY CENTRIFUGAL MACHINE, hand or power, basket, copper, lead or vulcanite lined, required.—Box 204, clo Naturs ffice. communicate WANTED fora Belgian Hospital, a Second- hand Microscope magnifying 5co times.--Reply Dean, Leigh Place, Brook Street, Holborn. NATURE [ NOVEMBER 30, 1916 BIRKBECK COLLEGE, BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of the UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, Freneh, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logic, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws. POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. Day: Science, £17 10s.; Arts, £10 10s. SESSIONAL FEES Pox siten Science, Arts, or Economics, £5 5s. Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post sd.), from the Secretary. SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Courses. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44). SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone: Western 899. 13, CAMPDEN HILL SQUARE, W. MESSRS. BRODIE, TIMBS & CO. will Sell by Auction on the premises as above on THURSDAY, DEC. 7, 1916, at two o'clock, a number of Photographic, Electrical and Scientific Instruments, including a Field Camera taking plates 22” x 18”, }-plate Camera by Newman & Gardia with Zeiss Lens, Optical Lantern and about 200 Slides mosily from Ganot’s Physics. Cinematograph Camera and Projector, Campbell's Inducto-meter Bridge and Accessories. Ayrton-Mather Galvanometer. Wimshurst Machine Optical Bench. Voltmeters, Transformers, Gassiot Cascade, Double Gyvo-cope, Refraction of Light Tank, Goniometer by tioltzapel, and 95 Volumes of **Nature” from commencement of publication to date, handsomely bound in leather and cloth. Catalogues of the Auctioneers, ‘* Weavers Hail,” 22, Basinghall street, E.C. LANTERN SLIDES.—20,000 in sets ; going up. Hiring Dept. : Travel, Lecture, Educational, Temperance. Illus- trated Songs and Hymns, &c. In sets, 3¢. plain, 6d. coloured; splendid chance. Glasgow. List sent on request.—Rakr, Lrp., 134p St. Vincent Street, HARLING’S NEW ‘“ACRIBO” SECTIONAL PAPER & PADS COMBINE ABSOLUTE ACCURACY—GOOD PAPER—LOW PRICE No. 1: inches and 8ths. No. 2: inches and roths. No. 3: centimetres and millimetres, Price of either, 50 sheets in a pad with cover, 2/6. NEW __LINE :—Sheets, printed on Thin Linen Bank, in same three scales, at 1/3 per quire. fe Narork says: “‘ The paper is excellent, the ruling is accurate, the pad is convenient, and the production is British throughout.” Write for specimens (post free) and compare the accuracy with any you have in use. re d 8 W. H. HARLING, ™ matical, Drawing. and Surveying (Bstab. 1851) 47 FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON, E.C. MICROSCOPES, TELESCOPES, SECOND-HAND SURVEYING AND DRAWING INSTRUMENTS, AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS AND ACCESSORIES BY ALL THE BEST MAKERS. 338 HICH HOLBORN, CLARKSON’S (Opposite Gray’s Inn Road.) LONDON, W.C. 245 URE | NAT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 10916. AMERICAN BOOKS ON AGRICULTURE. (1) Field and Laboratory Studies of Soils. An Elementary Manual for Students of Agriculture. By Prof. A. G. McCall. Pp. viiit+77. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 2s. 6d. net. (2) The Principles of Plant Culture. A Text-book for Beginners in Agriculture and Horticulture. By the late E. S. Goff. Revised by J. G. Moore and L. R. Jones. Eighth edition. Pp. xxiii+ 295. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s. 6d. net. (3) The Principles of Agronomy. A Text-book of Crop Production for High Schools and Short Courses in Agricultural Colleges. By Prof. F. S. Harris and G. Stewart. Pp. xvi+451. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 6s. net. (4) The Marketing of Farm Products. By Prof. L. D. H. Weld. Pp. xiv+483. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 6s. 6d. net. (2) HE first book on the list is a little labora- tory manual for the study of soils by Prof. McCall, of the Ohio State University. The appliances needed are simple, and the exercises are all within the scope of any reasonably intelli- gent pupil. As usual in American books, physical properties attract considerable attention, and most of the exercises are concerned with the water relationships of soils. Only two at the end deal with lime, and none of them with the biochemical processes, such as nitrification, that play so important a part in soil fertility. But within the limits the author has set he has given an interesting course of experiments which the teacher might well use in the study of soils. (2) This book first appeared in 1896, and has been so successful that it is now in its eighth edition; it may fairly claim, therefore, to be a standard text-book on the other side of the Atlantic; one of the revisers is professor of plant pathology and the other professor of horti- culture in the University of Wisconsin. The book was originally intended for agricultural students who had had no preliminary training in botany, and it is written in a way which will appeal to them, all the illustrations being taken from agricultural or horticultural practice. Other authors, both in England and America, have shown that the method is feasible, and that the farm and garden can be made to furnish all the material and illustrations wanted for a very useful course of botany. The drawback is the great difficulty of keeping within some sort of limits, and there is a great temptation, which the authors have not been altogether able to resist, to wander NO. 2457, VOL. 98] into other fields. This has resulted in several rather surprising errors. On both p. 146 and p- 148 the authors refer to rain and snow as con- tributing useful amounts of nitrogenous sub- stances to the soil. This view was formerly held by chemists, but has long been given up by them. Again, wood ashes are stated to be a commercial source of phosphates; surely the authors must mean potassium. ‘There is some confusion between “potash” and “potassium ” which ought to have been put right before now: “Potassium is used by plants in the form of potash, i.e. potassium combined with oxygen. Potash exists in the soil mainly in combination with chlorin (chlorid or muriate of potash), with sulfuric acid (sulfate of potash), or with nitric acid (nitrate of potash).” Now, apart from the fact that the statements are incorrect, most of the potassium being there as complex silicates, and little, if any, as chloride or sulphate, it is misleading to say that muriate of potash is a combination of chlorine and potash, and that potash is a combination of potassium and oxygen. Old terms like muriate of potash still survive in the fertiliser trade, and may perhaps be defended on the ground that they denote a certain trade product; but in explaining them to the student it only adds to the difficulty to use old chemical nomenclature. Much of this chapter might well have been omitted. (3) Agronomy is a new word for the English language, introduced some years ago in America to stand for field husbandry, but already, accord- ing to the authors, it is beginning to be used rather loosely. It covers plant growth and soil management, a branch of knowledge which, as experience has shown, can be brought into a com- pact subject and dealt with by ordinary scientific methods. But, as has often been remarked, there is a great temptation to wander when a man is dealing with a field or garden subject, and it has become almost a convention that books on “‘agro- nomy ” should include chapters on botany, geology, engineering, bacteriology, and sometimes other subjects as well. Obviously this leads to very unequal treatment, and we cannot help thinking that the time has come when the “agronomist ” should think out his position a little more clearly, give a definite meaning to his name, agree to leave out chapters on other things, and confine himself to his own subject, which is already big enough. If we do this with the book before us we get an interesting account of crop production in the United States, obviously written by men who know what they are talking about. The illus- trations in particular are to be commended, some of those dealing with field conditions being un- usually good. (4) The last book on the list deals with a very old subject, which, however, is only just beginning to get a literature of its own. The author acknowledges in the preface his indebtedness to the authorities of the University of Minnesota, who were sufficiently far-seeing to allot funds for a scientific investigation into the marketing of farm produce. The result is very satisfactory, O 246 NATURE and the author has succeeded in bringing together a mass of useful information and presenting it in an interesting form to the reader. A valuable feature in so new a subject is that full references are given for all the data, and at the end there is a bibliography. Hee pee Re MATTER AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE ETHER. The Universe and the Atom. By M. Erwin. Pp. 314. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 8s. 6d. net. ae work is divided into two parts, the first being devoted to a general discussion of wave motion, and the second to a special theory as to the structure of the ether and its conse- quences. The theory called ‘‘the pan-cycle hypo- thesis” deals with “invisible composition light waves, the warp and woof of the ether structure and of all things material.” In spite of some inaccuracies, the first part con- tains quite an interesting account of the nature of wave motion, although the long and frequent quotations from other text-books make the style somewhat disjointed. In some places too much stress is laid on the obvious, which indeed at times is so over-elaborated as to lead to absurdities. It is worth quoting one such passage, for the deduc- tions drawn are used later to explain the theory of the mechanical structure of the ether. ‘Thus if a force of 5 units is operating in one direc- tion, dnd another force of 3 units is operating on the same particle in the opposite direction, we say they are equivalent to a force of 5 - 3=2 units of force operating in the first direction. We mean by that the particle would move from its first position, in the direction impelled by the greater force, and behave as if it were acted on only by a force of 2 units. This is all that composition of force gives us, but it does not speak the full event. It makes 3 of the greater units of force annihilate the 3 units of force operating in the opposite direction. Now force represents energy, and energy is never destroyed” (p. 74). i The second part deals with a new theory of ether structure, the nature of electrons, atomic theories, gravitation, and other fundamental ques- tions based on a conception of the ether organised by so-called ‘force rays” resulting from trains of waves proceeding in different directions through the ether and producing stationary waves. The ideas involved do not seem very helpful in throw- ing light on these fundamental questions, and in many cases there is a marked lack of adequate discussion of existing theories. Thus the modern attempts to explain the Balmer series is dismissed with the following short paragraph :—‘ This for- mula by Balmer was derived entirely by trial from the observed wave lengths of the first fifteen lines of the hydrogen series. It has so far been regarded as entirely an empirical formula which expresses a fact, without anyone being able to state why the relation expressed by the formula should exist” (p. 102). The recent work of Bohr and others in this field might at least have been NO. 2457, VOL. 98] [ NOVEMBER 30, 1916- mentioned. Even facts are sometimes misstated, as will be seen from the two following passages : “The amplitude of some rays, such as X-rays, goes down to the infinitesimal” (p. 84); and “. .. gravitation itself has its limitations, in respect of the distance through which it can effec- tively operate, and its power is also affected by the internal heat or temperature of the body” (p- 125). Many of the fundamental conceptions in the theory are at fault, and these insecure foundations cannot support the elaborate super- structure built upon them. FLOTATION OF ORES. (1) Concentrating Ores by Flotation. By T. J. Hoover. Pp. vit+320. Third edition. (London: The Mining Magazine, 1916.) Price 12s. 6d. net. (2) The Flotation Process. Compiled and edited by T. A. Rickard. Pp. 364. (San Francisco: Mining and Scientific Press, 1916.) Price 8s. 6d. net. Chews subject treated in these two books is one of great and rapidly increasing importance. The practical application of flotation methods is only about thirteen years old, and already the quantity of ore treated by them must amount to little, if any, less than 30,000,000 tons. When it is borne in mind that a large proportion of this quantity consists of slimes and complex ores that had defied all known methods of treatment until flotation processes were intro- duced, the economic importance of the subject can | be readily appreciated. Furthermore, as Mr. Hoover points out in his book, this method is still in some respects in its experimental stage, and its limits of applicability are being rapidly widened, so that there are very good grounds for the opinion expressed by him :—‘It would seem at the present time a justifiable prophecy that flotation methods. of concentration will in the not distant future very largely displace gravity methods.” (1) The mere fact that the third edition of: Mr. Hoover’s work has been called for within four years of the appearance of the first edition is sufficient testimony to the value attached to it by the mining profession. It has from the first been accepted, and still remains to-day the standard work on the concentration of minerals by flotation methods. As regards this third edition now before us, this has simply been produced by reprinting the second edition just as it was, without even at- tempting to correct any mistakes, but merely with the addition of a new chapter, so as to bring it up to date. It is difficult to justify such a method, seeing that some of the mistakes that have been allowed to stand are really serious. Thus it comes as a severe shock to find that Mr. Hoover should not only have written, but have allowed to remain, such a wholly indefensible chemical equation as “KCy+Au=KAuCy”; or to find him stating that “the horizontal sur- face of a liquid at rest’’ may be considered “the limiting surface of a bubble of infinite radius,” NOVEMBER 30, I1916| whereas it is really a portion of what is prac- tically a sphere, with radius equal to its distance from the earth’s centre, and hence quite definite. Advantage should have been taken of a new edition to correct such mistakes, but, even as it is, Mr. Hoover’s work still remains the authoritative text-book on this subject. Like all text-books dealing with a branch of technology in active development, it suffers from the fact that it falls behind the times even whilst it is passing through the press, but this is a disadvantage that the writer of such books must make up his mind to endure. His chief consolation is that it is the production of such books which contributes as much as anything else to the rapid advance of the art that leaves the written page behind. (2) With true journalistic instinct Mr. Rickard has produced his book on “The Flotation Pro- -cess”” at a moment when this method is attract- ing a very large share of attention from the mining profession; the book cannot, however, be said. to form a contribution of any real value to the literature of the subject, seeing that jit is a typical example of a form of. book- making that appears to be in some favour on the other side of the Atlantic, though fortunately not in this country. It consists of a series of mis- cellaneous articles on the subject of flotation by a number of different writers, gathered from various sources, though all have appeared already in the pages of the Mining and Scientific Press; these have been strung together on no particular sys- tem, forming just such a scrap-book as anyone interested in flotation might put together for him- self—very useful, no doubt, to the man who had compiled it for his own purpose, far less so to anyone else, and practically useless to the student who demands a systematic presentment of the ‘subject. The articles vary in length from a few lines to many pages, and are as unequal in value as they are in extent. The best article in the book is probably Mr. Rickard’s own introductory chapter, which is itself a paper presented at a meeting of the Canadian Mining Institute. Whilst Mr. Hoover’s book can be recom- mended to the student who wishes to know what the various flotation processes are, how they are carried out, and what results are obtained by them, Mr. Rickard’s compilation gives informa- tion on none of these points, but exhibits the different and often widely divergent opinions of a number of writers who approach the subject of flotation from very varied points of view, and most of which possess little more than an ephemeral interest. EGE. OUR BOOKSHELF. The Drink Problem of To-day in its Medico- Sociological Aspects. Edited by Dr. T. N. Kelynack. Pp. xii+318. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. Tuts book comprises a number of essays by well- known authorities dealing with various aspects of the alcohol question. Dr. Harry Campbell dis- cusses the biology of alcoholism, and asks, What NO. 2457, VOL. 98] NATURE 247 is the nature of the peculiar attraction which alcohol exercises over mankind? He considers that the essential factor is the power to intoxicate and narcotise. Doubtless this is so for the drunkard, but as regards the moderate drinker we do not believe it: it is the flavour, and the flavour alone, and it is noteworthy that no non-alcoholic drink has yet been manufactured which reproduces to any extent the flavour of an alcoholic one. Prof. Wood- head deals with the pathology, and Dr. Claye Shaw with the psychology, of alcoholism, Mrs. Sharlieb with alcoholism in relation to women and children, Sir Thomas Oliver with alcohol and work, and the Rev. J. C. Pringle, of the Charity Organisation Society, with alcohol and poverty. In the last essay Dr. Kelynack, the editor, dis- cusses the arrest of alcoholism, and considers that the most effective work in limiting the worst manifestations of intemperance has been accom- plished by the action of the Central Control Board, and certainly the statistics of the decline of drunkenness in London since it has been at work bear this out. The book is largely a partisan one, but, with this limitation, all the social problems connected with the consumption of alcohol seem to be covered by it. The vexed question of moderate drinking is not altogether burked, and Dr. Claye Shaw admits that in the present war the teetotalers do not appear to have come out of the ordeal better than those who have a preference for alcohol. “Moderate drinking” is an elastic term: we would lay down that the maximum daily consumption of alcoholic drink should not exceed an equivalent of two fluid ounces of abso- lute alcohol for a weight of ten stones, and that it should be taken in a dilution not stronger than 10 per cent. It is interesting to note that a weighty committee of the French Academy of Medicine has advocated a moderate ration of wine in the French Army on the ground that it replaces a certain amount of meat (protein) and actually diminishes the risk of alcoholism ! Results of Meteorological Observations in the Five Years 1911-1915, also of Underground Temperatures in the Twelve Years 1898-1910. Made at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. Vol. li. Pp. xv+215. (Oxford: Humphrey Milford, 1916.) Price 15s. net. Tue first part of this volume contains daily meteorological data, for the five years 1911 to 1915, in regard to barometric pressure, tempera- ture, wind, cloud, sunshine, rain, ozone, weather notes, and occasional phenomena, according to a plan adopted in previous years. The figures re- lating to wind are from two instruments of different dimensions, and a detailed comparison would be interesting, as the instruments are at very nearly the same height above ground, though not quite so nearly as the table makes them appear, since the higher one, given at 114 ft. in all the tables, is really at 116 ft. For this comparison, however, we must wait, as it cannot be made from the figures in the volume before us. In the appendix, which forms the third section 248 NATURE [| NOVEMBER 30, 1916 of the volume, are two complete 35-year tables of sunshine and wind, and 26-year continuations (1890 to 1915) of eight other tables. It is rather unsatisfactory to find upon investigation that the monthly maximum and minimum temperatures thus tabulated do not, as might be reasonably ex- pected, come from the eye-readings of the maxi- mum and minimum thermometers, but from the thermograph: registers. Discordances ranging up to rather more than five degrees suggest that the Radcliffe thermograph is no more free from error than others, and no shadow of excuse is made for thus regarding it as a standard instru- ment. But the main interest of the volume is, like that of the sandwich, in the middle section, which is devoted to a complete series of twelve years’ daily readings of a set of five platinum resistance ther- mometers sunk in the ground at depths ranging from 6 in. to ro ft. Dr. Rambaut has success- fully resisted the temptation to extend the series indefinitely, and twelve years is very likely quite long enough for this particular purpose. Full accounts are given of the difficulties encountered and the precautions adopted, and a comparison is made of the resulting permeation coefficient with those obtained at Edinburgh and Greenwich. W, W. B. The Involuntary Nervous System. By Dr. W. H. Gaskell. Pp. ix+178. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) Price 6s. net. Ir would be difficult to find anything in the litera- ture of physiology quite comparable to this work of Gaskell’s. The book is of great scientific value, and at the same time an unintended record of the distinctive qualities of a valuable section of English life and thought. Nowhere in this volume is there the slightest chance of contact with either ‘superman’ or “missionary,” but everywhere a gentle man is busy quietly recounting the important business of a valuable lifetime, and setting his intellectual affairs in order so that they may be found clearly expressed and arranged for the advantage of knowledge. His sustained effort has been com- pletely successful, and his son’s valuable aid, which in places he takes quict pains to put clearly on record, has enabled this posthumous publica- tion of a small volume of outstanding value. No student of physiology will neglect to possess a work in which the meaning of the outlying streamers of the central nervous system is de- fined every whit as clearly as it was undoubtedly understood by this master of the subject. Nor, probably, will many morphologists afford to be without this rare testament to the value of their science written by one whom time may well reveal to them as also “master.” The opening chapter has in an odd way—pity that this was not seen and corrected—absorbed for itself the title that should more properly have been given to the book as a whole, “History of the Involuntary Nervous System.” The work is, in fact, such a history, viewed clearly most per- sistently elucidated, and deftly explained. NO. 2457, VOL. 98] LETTERS TO THE. EDITOR, [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neithe can he undertake to relurn, or to correspond wit the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for | this or any other part of Nature. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] ’ A Further Probable Gase of Sex-Limited Transmission in the Lepidoptera. s IN pursuit of my investigations of the past few years in hybridising Lepidoptera, two of the species chosen for experiments were Oporabia dilutata and O. autumnata. Both possible crosses between these two forms were made and fertile ova secured, These ova, as in the pure species, remained as such over the winter, and hatched in the spring of the following year. The larvae fed up rapidly and well, with but little loss, and pupated in May and June. Here, however, an abnormality stepped in; the females of the autumnata 9 X dilutatag cross emerged a few days after pupation. Dissection re- vealed that they lacked ovaries or possessed rudi- mentary ones. This, nevertheless, was not the most important feature. Instead of being distinctly inter- mediate between the original species, as were the males which emerged later, they were of the paternal type—i.e. they displayed the specific characters of dilutata 2 only. : ; In October, accompanied by the males of the former hybrid, both sexes of the reciprocal cross dilwtata 2 X autumnata 3 made their appearance; again the males were clearly intermediate, but the females displayed paternal characters only, being exactly of the autumnata type. ; I had some suspicion that the matter was a case of sex-limited inheritance, but would not form any definite opinion as the result was seriously complicated by abnormal behaviour in the inheritance of the melanism which characterises all Middlesbrough races of dilutata and that race of autumnata used in the experiment. Preparations were therefore made for further trials; to nullify any possible interaction of the melanism a stock of pupz from a local, non- melanic, birch-feeding microgene of autummata was amassed. Local material of a similar form of dilutata not being available, ova of white dilutata from Ennis- Ixillen, Ireland, were obtained and reared. ‘ Utilising these stocks, once more I made the crosses and secured precisely the same results. In both cases the hybrid females were manifestly of paternal type only. To confirm and analyse these facts a further set of crosses, both of the hybrids (when possible) inter se, and back with the parents, has been made, the out- come of which will be detailed later. Still, there can be but little doubt that these observa- tions show that, in these two species, as in Abraxas grossulariata, the female passes on the typical charae- ters of her species to her male offspring only. J. W. H. Harrison. 181 Abingdon Road, Middlesbrough, November 3. _ Scarcity of Wasps. ¥ Tue distribution of wasps this summer would seem to have been rather local, for this village is less than two miles from Christon, where Mr. St. George Gra was plagued with wasps (see Nature, November 16, p. 209), yet here they have been very scarce, small, and apparently starvelings, though a few full-sized queens have been caught recently. Christon lies on a sunny slope, and this village is at the foot of the north side of a hill, vet that could not account for all. the difference, for we have had more wasps than enough in recent years: C..S. Tayior: Banwell Vicarage, Somerset, November 17. Vex) ; =<" tty = NOVEMBER 30, 1916] THE RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE AND ITS SUB-COMMITTEES. oe Prime Minister, in March last, appointed a Committee of the Cabinet, of which he is Chairman, to consider and advise upon the pro- blems that will arise on the conclusion of peace, and to co-ordinate the work which has already been done by various Departments of the Govern- ment in this direction. The constitution of this committee has not been announced, and possibly will not be, but four educational committees con- nected with it have been appointed, to deal re- spectively with (1) education as a whole; (2) teaching of science; (3) teaching of modern lan- guages; (4) education of children and young persons after the war. In addition to these com- mittees, there is a committee on commercial and industrial policy, and this also is a sub-committee of the Reconstruction Committee. No further particulars of sub-committees are available for publication. Announcement was made in June last that any suggestions or other communications from indi- viduals or organisations bearing upon these ques- tions should be addressed to Mr. Vaughan Nash, C.V.O., C.B., Secretary of the Reconstruction Committee, 6, Dean’s Yard, Westminster. It was stated that they would be considered and re- ferred in suitable cases to the Department con- cerned, or to one of the sub-committees to which particular subjects or groups of subjects have been referred by the Reconstruction Committee. Mr. Vaughan Nash has furnished us with eopies of the terms of reference of the several committees mentioned above, and also lists of the members, except in the case of the sub-committee for the review of education, the composition of which, he informs us, is not yet available for publication. The relationship of the various com- mittees to the Reconstruction Committee seems to be as represented in the following table :-— Reconstruction Commitiee | if | Reviewing Commercial and Committee Industrial Policy | 7 Committee ‘ | \ Science Modern Languages Juvenile Committee Committee Education Committee The terms of reference and membership of the committees are as follows :— Review or Epucation Sus-Commitrre.—To con- sider the system of education as a whole; to review and formulate from that point of view proposals for developing it, particularly in directions indicated as desirable or necessary by experience gained during the war, and with special reference to :— (a) Proposals prepared before the war for the de- velopment of the national system of education ; (b) The memoranda already submitted by the Educa- tion Departments for the consideration of the Recon- struction Committee; (c) Any proposals submitted hereafter from the De- partments, or from special committees, or from other responsible organisations; NO. 2457, VOL. 98] NATURE 249 and to recommend from time to time such action, whether by way of legislation or otherwise, as may be practicable. COMMITTEE ON THE TEACHING oF ScIENcE.—To in- quire into the position occupied by natural science in the educational systems of Great Britain, especially in secondary schools and universities; and to advise what measures are needed to promote its study, regard being had to the requirements of a liberal education, to the advancement of pure science, and to the in- terests of the trades, industries, and professions which particularly depend upon applied science. In considering the provision of scholarships, bur- saries, etc., the committee will take into account the report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on this subject. Members: Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., F.R.S. (chair- man), the Right Hon. F. D. Acland, M.P., Prof. H. B. Baker, F.R.S., Mr. Graham Balfour, Sir W. Beardmore, Bart., Sir G. H. Claughton, Bart., Mr. C. W. Crook, Miss E. R. Gwatkin, Mr. A. D. Hall, F.R.S., Sir H. Hibbert, M.P., Mr. D. H. Nagel, Mr. W. Neagle, Dr. F. G. Ogilvie, C.B., Dr. Michael Sadler, C.B., Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., Mr. W. W. Vaughan, Mr. F. B. Stead, Inspector, Board of Educa- tion (secretary). CoMMITTEE ON THE TEACHING oF Moprern_ Lan- GUAGES.—To inquire into the position occupied by the study of modern languages in the educational systems of Great Britain, especially in secondary schools and universities, and to advise what measures are required to promote their study, regard being had to the require- ments of a liberal education, including an appreciation of the history, literature, and civilisation of other countries, and to the interests of commerce and public service. In considering the provision of scholarships, bur- saries, etc., the committee will take into account the report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on this subject. Members: Mr. Stanley Leathes, C.B. (chairman), Mr. C. A. Montague Barlow, M.P., Mr. E. Bullough, Mr. A. C. Coffin, the Right Hon. Sir Maurice de Bunsen, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, Miss Margaret Gilliland, Mr. H. C. Gooch, Mr. J. W. Headlam, Mr. Laurence D. Holt, Dr. Walter Leaf, Dr. George Macdonald, C.B., Mr. Albert Mansbridge, Mr. Nowell Smith, Miss M. J. Tuke, Sir James Yoxall, M.P., Mr, A. E. Twentyman, Board of Education (secretary). Boarp or Epucation CoMMITTEE ON JUVENILE Epu- CATION IN RELATION TO EMPLOYMENT AFTER THE WAR. —To consider what steps should be taken to make provision for the education and instruction of children and young persons after the war, regard being paid particularly to the interests of those— (1) Who have been abnormally employed during the war; (2) Who cannot immediately find advantageous em- ployment; (3) Who require special training for employment. Members: The Right Hon. J. Herbert Lewis, M.P. (chairman), Mr. W. A. Appleton, Mr. R. A. Bray, L.C.C., Mr. F. W. Goldstone, M.P., Mr. Spurley Hey, Alderman Hinchliffe, Miss C. Martineau, Mr. J. F. P. Rawlinson, K.C., M.P., Lady Edmund Tal- bot, Mr. H. M. Thompson, Mr. Christopher H. Turnor, together with the following representatives of the Government Departments concerned :—Mr. A. B. Bruce, of the Board of Agriculture; Mr. E. K. Cham- bers, C.B., of the Board of Education; Mr. F. Laving- ton, of the Board of Trade; Mr. F. Pullinger, C.B.., of the Board of Education: Mr. C. E. B. Russell, of the Home Office; Mr. J. Owen, Board of Education 250 NATURE [NovEMBER 30, 1916 (secretary); Mr. G. McFarlane, Board of Education (assistant secretary). COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL Poricy COMMITTEE.— To consider the commercial and industrial policy to be adopted after the war, with special reference to the conclusions reached at the Economic Conference of the Allies, and to the following questions :— (a) What industries are essential to the future safety of the nation, and what steps should be taken to maintain or establish them. (b) What steps should be taken to recover home and foreign trade lost during the war, and to secure new markets. (c) To what extent, and by what means, the re- sources of the Empire should and can be developed. (d) To what extent, and by what means, the sources of supply within the Empire can be prevented from falling under foreign control. Members: The Lord Balfour of Burleigh, K.T., G.C.M.G. (chairman), Mr. Arthur Balfour, Mr. H. Gosling, Mr. Richard Hazleton, M.P., Mr. W. A. S. Hewins, M.P., Mr. A. H. Illingworth, M.P., Sir Wil- liam McCormick, Mr. A. McDowell, Sir J. P. Maclay, Bart., the Rt. Hon. Sir A. Mond, Bart., M.P., Mr. John O'Neill, Mr. Arthur Pease, Mr. R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., M.P., Sir Frederick H. Smith, Bart., Mr. G, J. Wardle, M.P., together with the following gen- tlemen, who are presiding over Board of Trade com- mittees on the position of important industries after the war :—Sir H. Birchenough, K.C.M.G., Sir A. A. Booth, Bart., the Lord Faringdon, Sir Clarendon Golding Hyde, Sir Gerard A. Muntz, Bart., the Hon. Sir C. A. Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S., the Lord Rhondda, Mr. G. Scoby-Smith; secretaries, Mr. Percy Ashley, Board of Trade, and Mr. G. C. Upcott, Treasury. Boarp OF TRADE COMMITTEES. In Nature of January 6 (vol. xcvi., p. 525) par- ticulars were given of a number of Government and other committees appointed to consider national scientific problems. In addition to these committees and the sub-committees of the Re- construction Committee, the following have been appointed in connection with the Board of Trade “to consider the position of ” the various trades in question “after the war, with special refer- ence to international competition, and to report what measures, if any, are necessary or desirable to safeguard that position.” ExecrricaL Commitrre.—The Hon. Sir Charles 5°3 per cent. This means an average extra yield of 5°3 per cent., with a maximum of 8 per cent. in the case of “Red Western” and a minimum of 4 per cent. with “No. 3 Manitoba.” The Dic- | tionary averages quoted are those of the respec- tive wheats for a number of years, while no doubt the figures in the Government Order are based on actual current crops. It is further enacted that after January 1, 1917, no bread or other article of food shall be manufactured from any wheater flour of a lower amount of yield than that quoted in the schedule. The first problem which arises is the saving in NovEMBER 30, 1916] NATURE 251 wheat which is thereby effected. Taking the in- creased yield of flour at 5°3 per cent., the new regulation will result in only 93 parts of wheat being required instead of roo in order to yield the same amount of flour and bread as hitherto pro- duced. This is a saving in wheat requirements of 7 per cent. Against this must be placed the loss of offals production. This will be diminished in two ways: first, by the actual milling of less wheat for the same amount of flour, and, secondly, by a less percentage of offals from the quantity of wheat milled. The result will be a diminution of the output of offals by 23 per cent. Their feeding value will also be reduced by the abstrac- tion of the most nutritive portion and its trans- ference to the flour-sack. It will be observed that the new regulations cover two distinct points: the first is that of length of flour yield; the second is that all the flour is to be straight-run—that is, there is to be only one even quality. It would be quite possible to prescribe the proportion of flour to be ex- tracted and still to permit the miller to subdivide such flour into two or more qualities. If this were done, the whole of the offal would be con- centrated in the lower grade. There would thus be a white flour of the present “patents” or “supers ”’ type, and a very dark flour. Possibly there is a fear that the darker flour would be so accentuated in character as to be objectionable. There would, however, be one benefit: as a result of the higher price that could be obtained for the better quality, the lower grade could be sold very much more cheaply, and so the extremely poor would reap an advantage. This leads us, naturally, to the question of quality of the new straight-run flour. The writer has already had the opportunity of examining and testing samples submitted by various millers. Such flours are not quite so good commercially as the 7o per cent. straight-run flour, but are better than present ordinary household grades. Compared with the latter, the new flour contains the small proportion of included offal, but this is more than balanced by the retention of the whole of the patent flour. Properly milled from sound wheats, this flour should be found suitable for the manufacture of all forms of bread and cakes, and also for general home-cooking requirements. The question is being asked: But if 7o per cent. can be increased to 75 per cent., why not an 80 per cent., or even an 85 per cent. flour? In reply it may be well to put-on record the reasons why both the makers and users of flour have gravitated to adoption of the whiter sorts. The miller finds that the freer a flour is from offal, the better it keeps. This especially holds with regard to germ, which very quickly causes deterioration in the flour. Then both the germ and the offal are powerfully diastatic in character, and flours in which they are present tend to make a much more sodden and clammy loaf than does a white flour. But a yet more serious objection is the greater bac- teriological impurity of the darker flour. Acidity develops during fermentation to a much greater NO. 2457, VOL. 98] extent in dark than in white flours; in consequence the darker flour is much more liable to produce sour bread. Again, such organisms as B. colt communis are frequently present on wheat, with the result in milling that they are absent from the highest-grade flour, present in small quantity in that of medium grade, and abundant. in whole- meal. The general consensus of scientific opinion goes to show that the bread from white flour is superior in nutritive value to that from the darker kinds. This is vouched for by physicians such as the late Sir Lauder Brunton, and such physiological inves- tigators as Rubner of Munich, Snyder of Minne- sota, and Hutchison of the London Hospital. The general demand of the public is for white bread, and Hutchison sums up most pertinently the great importance which must be attached to its decision on problems of nutrition :—‘“In the last resort, therefore, we are driven for guidance to the results yielded by actual analysis of the diets selected by healthy persons. The value of such results must not be underestimated. Men have found out by long experience what is the best diet, better, perhaps, than science can tell them.” For these reasons any further step in the direc- tion of an additional increase in the flour to be extracted from wheat, and consequently darker bread, should not be taken unless from absolute necessity. The resultant flour would be less nutritious, darker in colour, and more difficult to bake into a sound and satisfactory loaf. It would be less attractive and appetising; and in propor- tion as bread forms the principal article of diet the change would be the more keenly felt. The poorest classes would therefore be the most adversely affected of the whole of the community. WirtiaM Jaco. SCIENCE AND THE CIVIL SERVICE. HE Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury have appointed a Committee to consider and report upon the existing scheme of examination for Class I. of the Home Civil Service. The terms of reference are :— To submit for the consideration of the Lords Com- missioners of his Majesty’s Treasury a revised scheme such as they may judge to be best adapted for the selection of the type of officer required for that class of the Civil Service, and at the same time most ad- vantageous to the higher education of this country; and, in framing such a scheme, to take into account, so far as possible, the various other purposes which the scheme in question has hitherto served, and to consult the India Office, the Foreign Office, and the Colonial Office as to their requirements, in so far as they differ from those of the Home Civil Service. The members of the Committee follows :— Mr. Stanley Leathes, C.B., First Civil Service Commissioner (chairman). Sir Alfred Ewing, K.C.B., F.R.S., Vice-Chan- cellor of the University of Edinburgh. Sir Henry A. Miers, F.R.S., Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester. are as 252 NATURE [NovEMBER 30, 1916 Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. Prof. W. G. Adams, Gladstone Professor of Political Theory and Institutions in the University of Oxford. The secretary to the Committee is Mr. D. B. Mair, Civil Service Commission, Burlington Gardens, W. The Royal Commission on the Civil Service recommended in 1914 the appointment of a com- mittee of this kind to ascertain whether there is any substantial foundation for the view that the scheme of examination for Class If. clerkships unduly favours the curricula of the older universi- ties and handicaps those of the newer. It was suggested that, should it be found that any change is desirable, the Committee, while main- taining the high standard necessary for the examination, should revise and rearrange the syllabus, weighing the educational value of classical learning against those of modern and scientific studies. It will be remembered that the need for change in the present system of allo- cating marks, by which a premium is placed upon knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages and literature, was one of the main subjects brought forward at the meeting on “The Neglect of Science ” held in May last (see Nature, May 11, Pp. 230). In connection with this matter, particular interest attaches to the appeal recently addressed by the Institution of German Engineers to the Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, a translation of which was published in the Times Educational Supplement of November 23. The appeal, which urged that steps should be talcen to extend the avenues of admission to the higher posts in the German Civil Service, with especial regard to graduates completing their courses of study at the technical high schools, will be read with deep interest and not without surprise. Having regard to the important part which science in its various applications has played in the manufacturing and economic de- velopment of Germany, it might have been ex- pected that its claims to due recognition as an essential factor in the equipment of men destined for high administrative posts in the Civil Service would long ago have been fully admitted. The many and new problems evolved by the war have demanded the services of the best intellects in various departments of life, and, in the opinion of the Institution of German Engineers, made mani- fest that much more than a merely legal or classical training is essential to the effective staffing of the service. It is admitted by the Ger- man Government that “the training of the higher Civil Service does not correspond with the require- ments of the day,’’ but such is the force of tradi- tion that, despite years of debate and agitation, the reform is yet to seek alike in Germany and with us. : It is obviously not a matter of importance to us in this country whether or not the German Civil Service is thrown open to duly qualified scientific men, but it is interesting to note that a nation, NO. 2457, VOL. 98] whose advent to the front rank of industry and commerce is due almost entirely to its devotion to science in its various economic aspects and to the encouragement given to research and to the establishment of schools of high rank for this purpose, should shut out from its highest ad- ministrative posts the very men best calculated by their training to enhance the position it has gained. It is not only in industry and com- merce, but in every department of civil life, that science is playing an increasingly important part in the well-being of the community, and therefore demands the trained scientific mind in the adminis- trator and the knowledge and sympathy essential to the successful treatment required for the right solution of the complex problems of our time, both domestic and imperial. If it be true that Germany suffers so much from this want of recognition of her ablest intellects devoted to science and its applications, how much more must it be true of us with far greater responsibilities and where our higher Civil Service has for generations been recruited almost exclusively from a few public schools through the classical and mathematical sides of the ancient universities with which they are associated. POSSIBLE POTASSIC FERTILISERS. a view of the present serious shortage of potassic fertilisers, great efforts are being made to find new sources of supply. A possible source has been indicated by Sir Thomas Mac- kenzie in a recent issue of the Times. It appears that South Island, New Zealand, possesses ex- tensive deposits of a mica schist containing on an average 3 per cent. of potash; the material is soft—indeed, it is said to be the easiest mineral to mine in the whole world. Over great areas it lies on the surface and simply has to be picked up, while when it requires to be blasted it shatters so easily that a single charge will blow out tons at once. When brought to the mill it grinds down very easily; indeed, much of it is already broken up and already lies in a state of powder. Mr. Aston, the chemist to the New Zealand Department of Agriculture, writes enthusiastically about the deposit, stating that at Otago alone there are literally millions of tons of pure potash to the square mile; while Mr. A. D. Bell, another New Zealand chemist, goes so far as to say that these new deposits may reduce the famous Stass- furt mines, On which the world entirely depends at present, to the relative importance of a “bottle of potash on a druggist’s shelf.” This view, how- ever, is controverted by Prof. Wyndham Dunstan, who states that there is not in view any deposit of potash in any country of the Empire compar- able in nature, extent, or value with those of Stassfurt. Agriculturists will want to know what is the fertilising value of the new deposit, as they have learned by experience that chemical analysis some- times overrates minerals as fertilisers. The ordinary potassic fertilisers are the sulphate, which is very soluble and available, and contains NOVEMBER 30, 1916] 48°5 per cent. of K,O, and kainit, a mixture of the chlorides and sulphites of potassium, magnesium, and sodium, containing on an .average 12 per cent. of K,O. Against these, a mica schist with only 3 per cent. of K,O does not look very pro- mising at first sight, and nothing but well-con- ducted vegetation experiments will show exactly what value the mineral does possess. Of course, if the technical chemist can find some easy way of making the sulphate or chloride, the whole aspect of the problem changes. Dr. Voelcker has ex- perimented at Woburn since rort with various potassic minerals, felspars, phonolite, granite, etc., to see if any of them possessed fertilising value, but so far the experiments have been without success. _ There is no experimental foundation for the suggestion sometimes made that these minerals might prove useful on poor soils by the slow libera- tion of potash. As a matter of fact, potash is most needed by plants on light, dry soils, and in these the decomposition of a complex silicate could scarcely be expected to proceed rapidly. NOTES. Tue death of the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth, F.R.S., in his seventy-seventh year, is a loss to the community of a munificent and judicious philanthropist, a pioneer in statistical and sociological work, a writer and speaker of force and attraction, and a sympathetic and prac- tical economist. He published in 1889 the first volume of his series of studies of ‘Life and Labour of the People,” a work which (as the Times truly says) “for nearly a generation profoundly affected public opinion on social questions.” His method was to employ trained investigators, who should ascertain the precise facts about the means of living and the general con- ditions of labour in each part of the district under consideration, and to group the results into classes, graduated according to the resources possessed and the manner in which those resources were applied. The task occupied him seventeen years, and called for an elaborate organisation and a large expenditure of time and money. His services to statistical science were recognised by the award by the Royal Statistical Society of its gold medal in 1892, by his election to the presidency of that society from 1892 to 1894, and by the fellowship of the Royal Society. His services to the public were recognised by the coveted honour of a summons to the Privy Council, and by honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Liverpool. He was an original member of the Sociological Society, and presided at two meetings when Prof. Geddes developed his views on civics. He advocated a scheme of universal non-contributory pen- sions, and when he was asked to help Sir Edward Hamilton’s Committee on that subject he readily con- sented, and attended a meeting of that committee, giving advice which was found of great practical value. Sir Hiram S. Maxi, one of our greatest inventors, died on November 24, at his home at Streatham, after a short illness. Born in 1840, in the State of Maine, he had a childhood and youth of hard work, like the majority of voung Americans of that time. In his autobiography he recounts with pride how he picked up many trades and became skilful in the use of tools. Everything gave him occasion for thoughf and inven- tion, and it was of his early inventions that he was proudest. Before the age of forty he invented mouse- NO. 2457, VOL. 98] NATURE 253 traps, gas machines, fire sprinklers, a steam-trap, loco- motive headlights, electric lights, dynamo machines, and many other things. It is by the first automatic gun—the Maxim—a gun with a single barrel which discharged more than 600 ordinary rifle shots per minute, exhibited thirty-two years ago, that he is best known to the general public. For the next twenty years his time was mainly taken up in developing auto- matic guns of much greater size, and these are now used by all the nations. He had a good working know- ledge of physics and chemistry. He made discoveries about explosives, and seems to have been the first inventor of a smokeless gunpowder. He seems also to have been the first to see clearly the principle on which aeroplanes are worked, and he spent a great deal of money in finding out the horizontal speed required to give to inclined planes a definite amount of lifting power. His difficulty lay in the great weight of the necessary steam-engine and boiler. The later invention of the petrol engine easily made the aero- plane a real flight machine. He made his permanent home in England in r882, and became a British sub- ject. He was knighted in r901. A review of his autobiography will be found in Nature of April 22, Ig15. Scientific men, engineers, and inventors used all to start as amateurs; Maxim was nearly the last of these men of great originality. It will be interest- ing for our successors to notice whether the more orthodox training now in vogue tends better to develop originality or to destroy it. Tue second annual report of the Medical Research Committee, National Health Insurance, has just been issued, and deals with the year ending September 30, 1916. In the introduction it is stated that the schemes for medical research in special directions, framed originally with a view to peace conditions, have for the greater part been suspended, and almost the whole of the available funds and scientific resources have been applied to the solution of medical questions of immediate national urgency in war-time. The sum- mary of research work carried out is divided into three sections—that of the Central Research Institute, Mount Vernon Building, Hampstead, and affiliated laboratories, pre-war schemes for research, and work in connection with the war. In the department of biochemistry much work has been done on the treat- ment of amoebic dysentery with emetine, and as an outcome a double iodide of emetine and bismuth has been ‘introduced by Dr. Dale, and appears to be a valuable drug in the treatment of carriers. Investiga- tions are also in progress by Dr. Barger and Dr. Ewins on organic arsenic compounds with a view to improvement of such remedies as atoxyl and _ sal- varsan. Dr. Leonard Hill and his staff have carried out investigations on the hygiene of munition fac- tories, on dangerous dusts and vapours, and on poison gases. Several pre-war researches on tuberculosis have been continued, and rickets, diabetes, diseases of the heart, anaphylaxis, and the sterilisation and con- tamination of milk are being investigated at several centres. As regards work in connection with the war, the Army medical statistics are being compiled by the committee at their statistical department under the direction of Dr. Brownlee. The treatment of infected wounds and the study of antiseptics are being carried out by the staff of the bacteriological department under the direction of Sir Almroth Wright. Dr. Dakin devised his antiseptic solution of sodium hypochlorite, and as a result of his work on this substance and in collaboration with Prof. Cohen introduced chloro- amine T (toluene sodium sulphochloroamide), a new and potent antiseptic. Typhoid, paratyphoid, and dysentery infections. trench nephritis, cerebro-spinal fever, and disorders of the soldier’s heart are a few of 254 the other subjects dealt with. The report gives an excellent summary of the researches, and is all the more useful as full references are given to the original apers in which they appear. Lord Moulton, Sir Clifford Allbutt, and Prof. Hay retire from the com- mittee, and their places are taken by Viscount Goschen, Dr. Chalmers, and Prof. Murray, and Major Waldorf Astor, M.P., becomes chairman, Tue death is announced from Paris of the Vicomte M, de Vogiié, a member of the French Academy, anda well-known writer and diplomat. Born in 1848, the late Vicomte served in the war of 1870, and after- wards entered the diplomatic service, and held appoint- ments successively at Constantinople, Cairo, and Petrograd. In 1873 his ‘‘ Voyage en Syrie et en Pales- tine,’’ published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, at- tracted much attention. He also edited a posthumous work of the Duc de Luynes entitled ‘‘ Voyage d’ex- ploration 4 la Mer morte, 4 Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain.’”’ The Vicomte de Vogiié was the author of several historical and other volumes, and did much to awaken French interest in the intellectual life of Russia. Since the outbreals of war he had been presi- dent of the Société de Secours aux Blessés. Tue French Academy of Sciences has just lost a mem- ber by the death of M. Léauté. Born in 1847, M. Léauté left the Polytechnic School as a Government indus- trial engineer (ingénieur des manufactures de l’Etat), and eventually became Director of Telephones. After writing some early papers on pure mathematics, he devoted himself to theoretical mechanics, and wrote important papers on linkages, transmission of power by cables, and regulators of hydraulic and_ other machines. By means of a differential equation and an associated graph, he successfully attacked the problem of the dangerous long-period oscillations of hydraulic machinery. In announcing his death to the Academy, the president directed attention to the fact that ‘his work is the best reply to those who fancy that theory and practice are irreconcilable, and that ‘savants’ cannot render any useful service for the advance of industry, even if it is granted that they do not actually retard it.” A SMALL committee has been formed in Glasgow for the procuring of a suitable local memorial of the late Sir William Ramsay. It is proposed that the memo- rial shall be placed in the University buildings, per- haps in the Department of Chemistry. Ramsay was born in Glasgow, and received his education at the Academy and the University. For eight years he ,held, in succession, the posts of assistant in the Young Laboratory of Technical Chemistry, and_ tutorial assistant to the Regius professor of chemistry, the late Dr. John Ferguson. He left Glasgow in 1880 to become professor in University College, Bristol, but he always maintained close relations with the city and with the University, from which he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Lady Ramsay is a member of a well-known Glasgow family. The proposal of the Memorial Committee has received a large measure of support, and it has been thought expedient to limit the subscription to two guineas. Mr. H. B. Fyfe, B.L., of 115 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, is acting as treasurer of the fund. _Appuications for the Government grant for scien- tific investigations for r9r7 must be made on printed forms obtainable from the clerk to the Government Grant Committee, Royal Society, Burlington House, W., and returned to reach the offices of the society by, at latest, January 1. ; To commemorate the fiftieth birthday of Dr. Sam. Eyde, the Norwegian inventor, the sum of 100,000 NO. 2457, VOL. 98| NATURE [NovEMBER 30, 1916 kroner has been set aside by the Norwegian Hydro- Electric Nitrogen Company for the formation of a Sam, Eyde Fund to be devoted to the advancement of chem- ical and physical research. “The fund is to be ad- ministered by the Board of the Nansen Fund, Tue death, on November 20, is announced, from wounds received on October 1, of Lieut. Corin H. B. Cooper, R.E. Mr, Cooper, after graduating in science at McGill College and University, Montreal, specialised in geology, and acted for a time as demonstrator under Profs. Adams and Bancroft at McGill Univer- sity. At the outbreak of the war he was engaged on Government survey work in the oilfields of the Rocky Mountains. ; WE regret to see the announcement of the death on November 23 of Mr. Charles Umney, the pharma- ceutical chemist, in his seventy-fourth year. He was chairman of the Chemical Section of the London ~ Chamber of Commerce, and we learn from the Chemist and Druggist that a measure of his ability and power was then afforded when he took Revenue representatives into his firm’s laboratories in order to watch the experiments that he devised and carried out for the purpose of ascertaining the loss of spirit in making liquid galenicals. Upon these experiments was based the rebate on exportation of spirituous — medicinal preparations under drawback. As a phar- macist pure and simple his history may be found in the records of the Pharmaceutical Society and the British Pharmaceutical Conference. For many years he was one of the society’s examiners. He worked for the conference as a paper contributor, a debater, mem- ber of the committee, and'in 1884 he became the — treasurer, holding that office until, in 1888, he was appointed president of the body, holding the office at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1889 and at Leeds in 1890. Tue death of Mr. R. F. Mann, at the age of thirty- five, occurred on November 17. Mr. Mann had been an X-ray operator at the Middlesex Hospital during — the last seventeen years. He was the inventor of one of the earliest forms of localisers for use in the re- moval of foreign bodies from the limbs. In the years when the effects of X-rays upon malignant disease were being investigated, the risks to which the opera- tors were subject were not known, and it was during this period that he contracted X-ray dermatitis, which had a malignant termination. He underwent numer- ous operations during the last eight years, but bravely and loyally held to his work. Since the outbreak of war he had, in fact, added to his Work by undertaking the radiographic work at the Branch Military Hospital at Clacton (Middlesex Hospital), and later in connec- tion with the Duchess of Bedford’s Military Hospital at Woburn. Tue death, by accident, at Hadley Wood railway station, is announced of Capt. W. H. Jaques, of the United States Navy, known for his scientific work in connection with ordnance engineering and the produc- tion of early submarines. Capt. Jaques was born in Pennsylvania on December 24, 1848, and graduated at the U.S.-Naval Academy in 1867. He was an assistant on the U.S. Coast Survey in 1870-74; with the New York Board of Education, 1874-78; secretary of the U.S. Gun Foundry Board, 1883-85; and secre- tary of the Senate Commission on Ordnance and Warships, 1886-87, when he became superintendent of the gun factory at the Bethlehem works of the Car- negie Steel Co. Oapt. Jaques was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Iron and Steel Insti- tute, and an associate member of the Institution of Naval Architects. His scientific work was concerned chiefly with the manufacture of heavy ordnance, ; i — NovEMBER 30, 1916] armour, torpedoes, and solar evaporators, and he in- vented the double-forging process of armour and other improvements in its manufacture. Tue President of the Board of Agriculture desires to direct public attention to the urgent need that exists for the assistance of women, not already connected with agricultural industry, in the work that is required for food production on the land, and to replace agri- cultural labourers who have been called up for mili- tary service. Hundreds of women have already ren- dered valuable service in maintaining the home-grown food supply, but thousands are now needed to meet the national emergency. Educated women are espe- cially invited to offer their services, and short courses of training can be provided for them. Application should be made to the secretaries of the Women’s War Agricultural Committees in the various counties, or to the Women’s National Land Service Corps, 50 Upper Baker Street, London, N.W. Tue collections of the State Natural History Museum of Sweden have for some time past been in process of transference from their old quarters in Drottninggatan, Stockholm, to the fine new building in the suburb of Frescati, where they have been re- arranged in accordance with modern ideas, special attention being paid to the education of the public. At intervals during the present. year the palazonto- logical, zoological, and mineralogical collections have been made accessible. The botanical galleries have just been completed. On November 13, in the pre- sence of the Crown Prince and other royalties and many notabilities, the whole of the public galleries were declared open by the King of Sweden, who con- ferred distinctions upon the director of the museum, Prof. Einar Lénnberg, the vice-director, Prof. Hjal- mar Sjogren, and the architect of the museum, Mr. A, J. Anderberg. Tue first meeting of the current session of the Royal Society of Arts was held on November 15, when Dr. Dugald Clerk, the chairman of the council, delivered his inaugural address on some conditions of the stability of the British Empire. Dr. Clerk illustrated the economic strength of the United Kingdom by the growth of her trade, her capital, and her income; he indicated the relative weakness of Germany by com- parative statistics of a similar character. While honouring Mr. Hughes, the Premier of Aus- tralia, for his courage and his enthusiasm, he urged a broader and bolder policy. ‘‘No, the Colonies are wrong in the idea of a self-contained Commonwealth, and Britain is right in her idea of expansion in trade over every part of the world."’ Then turning to the fountain-head of the prosperity he antici- pates, he urged with strength and conviction the neces- sity of two things, generous payment of labour, and generous work by labour. Both his optimism and his courage were inspiring, and it would, perhaps, have been an artistic error to have pared the imperfections from a fact or modified the meaning of a figure. But in our moments of cooler thought it is well to remem- ber that figures showing the growth of a country’s wealth must be read together with the curve of money values, that the national incomes of any two countries are dangerous insimilitudes, and that, whatever our income in war-time may be in terms of money, it is, in fact, what Mr. Flux has well called ‘‘an inflated expression in money of a reduced income in goods.” Dr. Etsiz Crews Parsons describes, in the Novem- ber issue of Man, a method for the detection of crime among the Zunis. Anyone could use this method with the curious condition that he had never been bitten, a disqualification which appears in other Zuni NO. 2457, VOL. 98] NATURE 255 rites. The detective, who is by profession a seer, takes a dose of a narcotic, and during the trance which follows a picture of the situation or incidents by which a missing article has been mislaid or stolen will unfold itself to him. So fully is this believed that a thief will smoke during the act of stealing so that the smoke may surround his head and prevent identification. The narcotic used is known as the Jamestown weed (Datura meteloides). An overdose is exceedingly dangerous, and the seer who takes it for the purpose of detection suffers for some time; his head and eyes are heavy, his nerves on edge, and though the fee charged for his services is considerable, one practitioner has retired from business, and recently declined to act in the case of a lost horse, Waite it has long been known that the woodcock carries its young, not merely under the spur of sudden emergency, but as a matter of everyday practice, when the feeding ground is distant from the nest, this does not appear to be the case with the snipe. At need, however, it is clear that this species will also bear its young aloft to a place of safety. A brief but vivid description of the manner in which this is done ap- pears in the Irish Naturalist for October, by Mr. W. J. Nash, who saw a snipe rise from a mud-bank in a bog drain near Lissoy carrying a young one, which was set down some thirty yards off. It seemed to fly with considerable difficulty, and before it alighted the young one was dangling down, held, apparently, by the head only, and seemed to be slipping from its parent’s grasp. The burden seemed to be supported by both bill and feet. Another nestling of about three days old was discovered, just dead from drowning, beside the spot from which the first had been rescued. The young birds had, it is surmised, been driven into the water by fright, caused by a dog which was hunt- ing near the spot alone when the narrator arrived. From the evident labour of the parent in the perform- ance of this rescue work it seems clear that such flights are but rarely undertaken, while the woodcockx is an adept from long practice. Tue fifth and last of Mr. J. H. Owen’s valuable series of notes on the breeding habits of the sparrow- hawk appears in the October issue of British Birds, These notes are the result of long and patient observa- tions from a concealed hut, and are illustrated by some very remarkable photographs. While it is a matter of common knowledge that this bird will use the deserted nest of another hawk, of a crow, or of a wood-pigeon, this is the case only when its own nest has been destroved, and not, as is generally sup- posed, as a matter of caprice. As soon as the young are hatched it seems to be a common practice for the female to eat the empty eggshells, though as often perhaps they are carried away and dropped at a distance from the nest. How greatly fertility is reduced by the strain of increased egg production is shown by the author’s observations to the effect that if the first clutch be.removed more than 25 per cent. of the second will prove infertile, while the number of eggs in the clutch is also reduced. Late in Decem- ber, or early in January, these birds will often build flimsy platforms, which are supposed to be used solely for the purpose of dining-tables, though in many cases, it would seem, they serve neither this nor any other purpose. Possibly it would be more correct to regard them as indications of an incipient sexual activity. Tue timber resources of South America are dis- cussed by Mr. Raphael Zon in the Geographical Re- view for October, 1916 (vol. ii., No. 4). South America is principally rich in hardwoods, of which the so-called 256 NATURE [ NovEMBER 30, 1916 Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) and the quebracho are the most important. These are more than sufficient to meet the home demand, and are largely exported, but at the same time short-sighted exploitation bids fair to impair seriously this industry. On the other hand, it is, of course, quite possible that further study of the timber resources will result in the discovery of other hardwoods of commercial value. Of more economic importance is the supply of softwoods. The Parana pine (Araucaria brasiliensis) of southern Brazil and the Chilean pine (A. imbricata) seem to be the only two species of importance, and are being in- creasingly used in place of imported coniferous wood from the northern hemisphere. But the limited area of these softwoods and the growing demand for cheap timber make it improbable that South America can ever dispense with her timber imports, and certainly there is no hope of her being able to export soft- woods. In view of this paucity of timber there is urgent need of the South American States instituting scientific management of their forests and the pre- vention of undue exploitation. South America is far less rich in commercial timber than might be supposed, and her resources are not inexhaustible. Tue retreat of the Barry glacier in Prince William Sound, Alaska, has been studied for many years. In 1910 the National Geographic Society’s expedition showed that the face had withdrawn three miles since 1899. This expedition gave an exhaustive account of all observations previous to 1910, Later observations are contained in a brief paper by Mr. B. L. Johnson, published as Professional Paper 98 C of the United States Geological Survey. Mr. Johnson _ visited the glacier in 1913 and 1914, and found in both years that the rate of retreat had been maintained. Be- tween 1910 and 1914 the rate of retreat was $200 ft. on the eastern side, and about 2500 ft. on the western side. The rate on the western side seems to have decreased after the uncovering of bedrock on that side. The paper is illustrated with several photo- graphs of the glacier in various stages of its retreat. Some details of the Indo-Russian triangulation con- nection are given in the Geographical Journal for November (vol. xlviii., No. 5). By 1911 Gilgit had been connected with the Indian system, and the Rus- sians on their side had reached Pamirski port in about lat. 38° 13’ N., long. 75° E. But the connection of Gilgit with the Russian survey across a strip of Afghan territory presented difficulties of a formidable nature, as it involved the crossing of the Karakorams. The only feasible route was from Gilgit up the Hunza valley to the Kilik Pass, involving the survey of about one hundred miles up a narrow, precipitous-sided gorge, flanked by mountains rising 6000-7000 ft. above the valley floor. The number of stations in this survey was thirty-three, and their average height is 16,222 ft. The work was carried out in the face of great difficul- ties and hardships by the late Lieut. H. Beli, R.E., in 1911 and 1912, and completed by Lieut. Mason in 1913. A report of the work is contained in the Records of the Survey of India, vol. vi. Capt. R. W. Hing- ston, I.M.S., has some notes of the geology and climate, as well as a valuable paper on his observa- tions of blood at high altitudes. Some observations on the bai, or so-called ‘‘sand- mist,’ a phenomenon of frequent occurrence’ in the Far East, are contributed by Prof. Yuji Wada to Temmon Geppo, the organ of the Astronomical Society of Japan (vol. ix., No. 6, August, 1916). The mist, which is ascribed to an atmospheric depression over the sandy Tsai-pih district of Central China, is prevalent in spring. In winter the ground is frozen, and in summer it is knit together by grass, but between these NO. 2457, VOL. 98] seasons the loose surface is churned up by the wind, and clouds of sand rise to a great height and are carried eastward, afterwards collecting moisture and falling as a coloured mist. Dusing the fall the sun is obscured and objects assume a yellow or ashy hue, the conditions closely resembling those attending a solar eclipse, for which the phenomenon was often mistaken by ancient chroniclers. Characteristic of the bai is the thick coating of very fine yellow dust which settles everywhere. During a sand-mist at Chemulpo on March 4, 1915, the author measured a fall of sand on a sheet of glass in an underground chamber pro- tected from the wind. A twenty-four hours’ deposit on 118-6 sq. cm. weighed one centigram. On the same day a fall of } in. was recorded in Etchu province, Japan. Sometimes the sand descends in a rainstorm. An instance is cited of a violent storm of orange- coloured rain in 1306, which caused the deaths of many persons and cattle. The author concludes that the bai is akin to the ‘‘blood rain”’ and ‘‘red snow” familiar to European meteorologists. Tue July issue of the Agricultural Journal of India (vol, xi., part 3) contains an article on ‘‘ Photographic Illustration,” by Mr. C. M. Hutchinson, which will be very helpful to the many scientific workers whose im- perfect acquaintance with the limitations of the half- tone process of reproduction of photographic illustra- tions has so often led to unexpected disappointment. The questions of lighting, exposure, development, class of plate, and use of light filters are discussed and well illustrated by an excellent series of reproductions. Tue last two parts of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society’s Pticensidee (May and September, 1916) con- tain the usual amount of interesting matter. Perhaps the most important paper is that of Dr. J. Dougall on the solution of Mathieu’s differential equation; this equation is important for physical applications, and Dr. Dougall has found solutions adapted for computa- tion. Possibly they are not the proper analytical forms ; these may be quotients of integral functions, as in the case of the proper representation of the elliptic functions; but the paper certainly shows an advance on the practical side. Other papers deserving atten- tion are Mr. Brown’s on Fourier’s integral, Mr. _Milne’s on differential equations, Mr. D. G. Taylor’s on linear substitutions, and Mr. Tinto’s on space transformations. We have also received Nos. 19 and 20.0f the same society’s Mathematical Notes; they show that the study of mathematics at Edinburgh is in a very healthy condition, and contain a number of elegant demonstrations. Tue researches of Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes have shown that at temperatures below 4° or 5° on the absolute scale mercury, tin, and lead have extremely small electrical resistances. If the temperature of a wire of either of these materials in this super-conduct- ing state is gradually increased, at a certain tempera- ture known as ‘‘the critical temperature” the resist- ance rapidly increases. If the wire is subjected to a magnetic field this critical temperature is lower than it is in the absence of a field. If the current used in testing the resistance is increased, the critical tempera- ture is also lowered. In the Journal of the Washing- ton Academy of Sciences for October 19 Mr. F. B. Silsbee, of the Bureau of Standards, makes use of the experimental data available to show that the effect of the increase of the testing current on the critical tem- perature is due entirely to the magnetic field that current produces. This accounts for the differences observed in the effect of the current according to whether the wire used in the tests is straight or coiled. If further work supports Mr. Silsbee’s theory, it should afford a clue to a more satisfactory explana- : tion of the super-conducting state. on I cecal ail NOVEMBER 30, 1916] NATURE 257 WE have received a little book by Mr. J. W. Giltay dealing with bow instruments from a physical point of view (“De Strijkinstrumenten uit een natuurkundig oogpunt beschouwd”’; Leyden, 1916, pp. xi+ 103, illus- trated). It is a simple description of the action of the various parts of the violin, with a reference here and there to other bowed instruments. An elementary knowledge of acoustics is assumed. The book should appeal in the first place to musicians taking a scientific interest in their instruments, and in the second place to physicists. For the most part the author describes and discusses the results of earlier workers, especially those of Savart, Helmholtz, and Sir William Huggins, but he has also included a number of his own experi- ments, particularly on the effect of the air volume enclosed in the sounding-box. He is not convinced that a violin improves by being played upon. Tue ‘Catalogue (No. 369) of Miscellaneous Litera- ture’? just issued by Mr. F. Edwards, of High Street, Marylebone, though mainly consisting of books of general interest, contains particulars of several works appealing to readers of NarurE—on botany, travel, and, notably, natural history. The catalogue directs attention to many publications of the Zoological Society of London, offered, for the most part, at greatly re- duced prices. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. EPHEMERIS OF Comet 1916) (Wor@).—After having passed conjunction, this comet will again be in a favourable position for observation as a morning star during the winter and spring. The following ephemeris for Greenwich midnight is given by Mr. R - T. Crawford in Lick Observatory Bulletin No. 286 :-— R.A Decl R.A. Decl. he on: Ss. i Pam, «5. iy BeGe tas Go 40 5.13 Jan.29 16 59 56 —5 15 10 25 10 S147) | Mebie or oat 2 4 28 20 239 5.50 18 42 49 3 24 30 16 0 53 605 20 0B 523 es! Jan. 9 19 50 6 2) Mar. 5 16 35 Weis 1) 39 32 5 46 The values of log A on December 1, December 31, February 1, March 1, are 0-5829, 0:3237, 0:4434, 0-3623 respectively. Taking the brightness at discovery on May 10-as unity, the theoretical brightness on these dates is 3-0, +9, 8-8, and 15-6. The path of the comet during the above period is mainly through Ophiuchus. Tue Great Rep Spor on Jupirer.—This planet being now favourably visible in the evening sky, observations can be conveniently made of the surface markings, which are very abundant and diversified at the present time. The red spot is smaller than formerly, and the hollow in the great S. equatorial belt less prominent. The first-named object will be central at about the following times :— h. m. h. m. Dec. 3 9 35 Dec. 13 7 50 4 5 26 He g 28 6 7 & 18 6 59 Q > : 8 8 43 BON Vs, a > Oa Io 10 21 hy adore 9 23 II 6 12 BOk 6 52 Mr. F. Sargent, of Bristol, who has been observing this planet with. considerable success in recent years, informs Mr. Denning that the large dark spot in the S. tropical zone, known as the “south tropical dis- turbance,”’ is now about 120° long, so that it extends over one-third of the circumference of Jupiter.. The middle of this “‘disturbance” follows the middle of the red spot about two and a half hours, and the NO. 2457, VOL. 98] -and Miss Strover at Bexley Heath. preceding end of the former may be expected to over- take the following end of the latter at the end of January. Since June, 1914, the rate of rotation of the red spot has been about gh. 55m. 37s., and this rate may be expected to exhibit an acceleration next year when involved with the S. tropical disturbance. THe Metroric SHOWER FROM BieELA’s ComET.— Though no rich display occurred this year, it is in- teresting to note that this shower visibly returned. Between November 20 and 24 ten slow meteors were recorded giving a fairly well-defined radiant at 27°+42° near y Andromeda. These meteors were seen by various observers, including Mr. Denning at Bristol, Mrs. Wilson at Totteridge, Miss Cook at Stowmarket, It seems prob- able that a few of these Andromedids are visible every year, and that meteors are distributed completely around the cometary orbit, though sparingly in sec- tions of it. Tue Contours or Stars 1N GLopuLaR CLusTERS.— Dr. Shapley has recently obtained further important data relating to the colour-indices of stars included in globular clusters (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sciences, vol. ii., p- 525). The stars in a cluster of this type may be supposed to be at sensibly the same distance from the earth, and apparent magnitudes may accordingly be assumed to be directly proportional to the total light emitted. In four clusters which have now been fully investigated, it has been found that the average colour- index is distinctly greater for the brighter stars than for the fainter ones, or that relatively high luminosity is accompanied by greater redness. The total light emission of the bluer stars, for which the surface tem- perature is presumably in excess of 10,000° C., thus appears to be less than that of many of the redder stars, which have surface temperatures only half as great. Since the emission per unit area is much less for the red than for the bluer stars, it follows that in the clusters investigated the volumes of the bright redder stars are very great in comparison with those of the stars which are fainter and relatively blue. The ancestral relationships of the two classes must be accounted for in any satisfactory hypothesis of the evolutionary sequence of spectral types. FOSSIL VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. HE American Museum of Natural History, New York, has lately issued a fifth volume of papers on fossil vertebrata, reprinted from the Bulletin of the museum for the years 1913-14. It has long taken a leading place in researches of the kind here detailed, and the new contributions to our knowledge of many groups of extinct vertebrate animals are of the usual interest and importance. Besides the members of the staff, the authors include other well-known American paleontologists, while Dr. Robert Broom and Baron F. von Huene make specially interesting contribu- tions, having studied the American fossils after their long experience of corresponding specimens from South Africa and Europe. Dr. Broom has, indeed, furnished the American Museum with a large collection of South Africa Permo-Triassic reptiles for comparison with the contemporaneous American groups, and he describes many of his specimens in the volume before us. Several studies of the early reptiles and labyrinth- odonts are appropriately followed by Dr. Broom’s dis- cussion of the structure and affinities of the Mesozoic multituberculate mammals and their rare Eocene suc- cessors. His description of a new skull of Poly- mastodon is especially interesting, and he agrees with the usual opinion that some of the herbivorous multi- tuberculates were the ancestors of the existing mono- tremes. The latest forms of extinct land-reptiles from . 258 NATURE [NovEMBER 30, 1916 the Upper Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, are also | described in several papers by Mr. Barnum Brown, who discusses chiefly the Trachodontidz (related to Iguanodon) and the horned dinosaurs or Ceratopsia. Among other observations he makes specially valuable notes on the brain-cavities of these two groups. It appears that just before their extinction the dinosaurs in North America exhibited almost incredible variety and eccentricity. When the first Tertiary mammals were discovered in North America, too little attention was paid to the geology of the deposits whence they were obtained. The American Museum has always recognised this deficiency, and the new collection of papers includes some valuable contributions to our knowledge of the lowest Tertiary formations. Of the mammals them- selves, Prof. H. F. Osborn describes the skull of Bathyopsis, a supposed ancestor of the Dinocerata, and a skull with other remains of Eomoropus, a new genus ancestral to the anomalous hoofed animals known as Chalicotheriide. Dr. W. J. Sinclair gives technical descriptions of the rare pieces of jaws of pig-like artiodactyls from the Eocene of North America, and Dr. R. W. Shufeldt discusses many fragmentary remains of birds. Dr. W. D. Matthew also describes the important discovery in the lowest Eocene of New Mexico of the skull of an insectivore related both to the existing Chrysochloris of South Africa and to the extinct Necrolestes of South America, thus proving that the close affinities of these two genera do not imply any former direct connection between the two southern continents in which they occur. All the papers are well illustrated with text-figures and plates, and the American Museum is to be con- gratulated on the manner as well as the matter of its publications. AS Se Ww. STUDIES OF HYMENOPTERA. COME small hymenopterous parasites of the noto- rious Hessian fly form the subject of a paper by C. M. Packard in the Journal of Agricultural Research, vi., No. 10. The life-histories of three species belong- ing to the genera Eupelmus, Merisus, and Micromelus are described, and the figures of eggs, larvae, and pupze are especially valuable. The author concludes that never more than a single individual of either of these parasites can mature inasingle cecid puparium. Where more than one egg was placed on the same host, one larva only survived; ‘‘the rest were killed by that one or starved to death . . . whether the two or more larvae were of the same or different species.’’ It is well known that certain species of the Chalcidide —small Hymenoptera that are typically parasitic in their habits—lay their eggs in plant tissues on which their larvee feed, and the genus Megastigmus has been noticed as injurious to fir seeds. J. M. Miller (Journ. Agric, Research, vi., No. 2) is the first to describe the actual operation of egg-laying by these minute flies; the female pierces the scales of the young cones with her long ovipositor and lays the eggs close to the developing seeds. The process is well illustrated by Mr. Miller’s photographs. The literature of the honey-bee is ever increasing. A noteworthy paper on the sense-organs on the mouth- parts of the bee is published by Dr. N. E. McIndoo in the Smithsonian Misc. Collections (Ixv., No. 14); he gives the results of experiments by feeding bees on various substances, and describes with clear figures the minute structure of the sense-organs under dis- cussion. When “undesirable substances” were added to the bees’ food, the insects were found to refuse such ““after eating more or less of them,” and the author concludes that ‘‘the olfactory sense in the honey-bee NO. 2457, VOL. 98] is highly developed, and that it serves as an olfactory and gustatory perception combined.’” Systematic work on the ants claims the attention of entomologists in distant regions. In the Ann. South African Museum (xiv., part 2), G. Arnold continues his extensive ‘‘ Monograph of the Formicidz of South Africa.” A, Gallardo publishes a monograph of the Dolichoderinz as a contribution to ‘‘ Las Hormigas de la Republica Argentina,” in the Ann, Mus. Nat. de Hist. Nat. de Buenos Aires (xxviii., 1916, pp. 1-130), a praiseworthy feature of which is the addition of at least one clear structural figure to the description of each species. The Argentine ant, Iridomyrmex humilis, is discussed at length, the description of its varieties and habits occupying sixteen pages. This insect has in recent years become a serious pest in parts of the United States; colonies have also been introduced into southern Europe, and some time ago these ants gained a temporary footing in a garden near Belfast, whence they invaded the adjacent dwelling-house, with the result of considerable alarm and inconvenience to the inhabitants. Ga EiG. OBSERVATIONS ON RECENTLY DISCOVERED FOSSIL HUMAN SKULLS.* “]>HE announcements made in Nature last year (1915, August 5, p. 615; September), Pp. 52; and December 2, \p. 380)" Jobs the discovery of fossil human skulls in Australia (Talgai) and South Africa (Boskop) suggest certain observations concerning the problems relating to early mankind. For not only do they add to the number of the distinct types of early humanity with which we are acquainted, but they also force upon us the further consideration of the question of early migrations, of the reality of which the widespread distribution of certain definite types of stone implements already afforded con- vinoing testimony for all who were willing to accept the plain significance of positive evidence. There are reasons for believing that when Homo sapiens first became differentiated from other human species many human strains other than those which made their way into western Europe in the Upper Paleolithic (which may be called the Early Neo- anthropic, see NaTURE, August 17, I916, p. 514) age were also budded off from the original parent stock. Some of these diversely specialised strains were the ancestors of the Australians, others of negroes, others again of the Mongolian race, and yet others of the brachycephalic types of humanity, none of which were represented in Europe, excepting possibly the last of the groups mentioned, which began to filter into eastern Europe in Azilian times, but did not become at all common in the West until the closing phases of the Neolithic. Some of these various strains wandered far from their area of characterisa- tion; and when brought into contact with other stocks were able to transmit their culture. Thus it is possible to explain how, even in the remote period usually called Paleolithic, identical methods of chipping stone implements in widely separated localities can be re- garded as certain evidence of the derivation of the technique from a common source, though the actual makers of the weapons may be of different races. Nor can the source of the inspiration be in doubt even if certain peoples may continue to follow the distinctive methods in the twentieth century. - Further, a particular culture-complex may have been built up of practices and customs derived from varied sources: the particular set of them which becomes intermingled in one area, and the type of culture which develops as the result of the blending of these in- 1 Abstract of a paper read before he Manchester Literary and Philo- | sophical Society on October 3r by Prof. G Elliot Smith, F.R.S. * | NOVEMBER 30, I1916| gredients, are peculiar to, and distinctive of, that area. For example, the well-defined culture-complex which is commonly called Neolithic (see Nature, May 11, 1916) is characteristic of Europe and the immediate neighbourhood; nor, in fact, was it synchronous or of identical composition in different parts of Europe. But when one passes to the East or the South, although all the ingredients out of which the European Neolithic was compounded may be found, there is no phase of culture which can justly be labelled Neolithic in the same sense as the term is applied in Europe. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT NEWCASTLE. SECTION M. AGRICULTURE, ApprEss (ABRIDGED) By E. J. RusSSELL, D.Sc., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. I am going to deal to-day with the possibilities and the prospects of increased crop production, which, both in its narrow aspect as a source of national wealth, and in its wider significance as the material basis of rural civilisation, must always remain one of the most important of human activities. The main obstacles to increased plant-growth lie in the climate and in the soil. Climate apparently cannot be altered; so we have to adapt ourselves to it by growing crops and varieties suiting the conditions that happen to obtain. But soil can be altered, and it is possible to do a good deal in the way of changing it to suit the crops that are wanted. On light soil the two great obstacles to be overcome are the lack of water and the poverty in plant nutrients. Both arise from the same cause, the lack of colloidal substances, such as clay and humus, which have the power of absorbing and retaining water and plant nutrients. There are two ways of dealing with the problem; one is to get round it by increasing the depth of soil through which the roots can range, and the other is to remedy the defect by adding the neces- sary colloidal substances—clay, marl, or organic matter. In practice it is not possible to add sufficient to overcome the defect entirely, and therefore both methods have to be used. Depth of soil is perhaps the most important single test that can be applied to light sands. If the soil is shallow, and is underlain by solid rock, pebbles, or gravel, the case has hitherto been hopeless, excepting where the climate is persistently moist. I know of no instance of successful treatment in tolerably dry re- gions; the areas are generally left alone. They form picturesque heaths, some are used as rabbit-warrens or golf courses, some are recommended for afforesta- tion. If the rock, instead of being solid, is simply a thin layer separating the sand above from a great depth of sand below, then the improvement can be effected by removing it. Once the light soil is made deeper it can be still further improved. The most permanent improvement is to add clay, or preferably nvarl; this used to be done in many parts of England, but it now only sur- vives on certain fen or peaty soils. The usual method of increasing the absorptive power of light sandy soils is to add organic matter, by dressings of farmyard manure, by feeding crops to sheep on the land, or by a method that wants much further investigation, ploughing crops or crop residues straight into the soil. But the organic matter dis- appears at a very rapid rate, so that the process needs repeating in one form or another every second or third NO. 2457, VOL. 98] OPENING NATURE 259 year. The addition of organic matter must generally be accompanied by the aadition of lime or limestone, otherwise the soil may become * sour ’’—a remarkable condition, detrimental to plant-growing, but not yet fully understood by chemists, and therefore more easily detected by the vegetation than by analysis. Few light-land farmers use lime or challx as regularly as they should for the best results. Further, it is necessary to add all the plant-nutrients, for sand is usually deficient in these, excepting in places calcium phosphate. The common English prac- tice is to import feeding-stuffs to be eaten by sheep on the land, so that the great proportion of the nitrogen, potash, and phosphates thus brought on to the farm shall get straight into the soil. This is not sufficient, however, and artificial manures should be used as well and far more extensively than at present; nitrogen, potash, and phosphates are all wanted. These additions do not end the matter. Light sandy soils are very prone to weeds, and _ constant cultivation is necessary to keep them down. For- tunately the cultivation serves another purpose as well; it helps to retain the moisture content of the soil. Thus the management of a light sandy soil is a con- stant struggle; it demands constant surface cultiva- tions, frequent additions of fertilisers, of organic matter and lime, and periodical deep ploughings to check any tendency to pan formation. When all this is done these light soils become very productive; they will grow almost any crops, and they can be cultivated easily and at almost, but not quite, any time. One of their chief defects is that cereal crops do not produce so much grain as might be expected; in the words of the practical man, they will not “corn out.” This phenomenon requires further investigation. On the other hand, neglect in any of these directions soon leads to failure. These are the conditions for the successful manage- ment of light soils; how far can they be attained? This is a purely economic question. It is obvious that success is only possible if the gross returns are suffi- cient to cover the costs. Now, a very great deal of experience has shown that the ordinary farm-crops— wheat, barley, swedes, etc.—do not bring in sufficient gross return to encourage good farming. Numerous instances occur on the tracts of light Bagshot sands. Some of the old four-course farms still survive— wretched little affairs, the tenants of which are con- stantly struggling against chronic poverty. Again, considerable areas of light land in Hertfordshire caused their cultivators to go bankrupt in the ‘nineties when only these ordinary crops were grown. The old Town- shend and Coke method of feeding sheep on the land is satisfactory, but it requires the triple, and not very common, qualifications of capital, good knowledge of sheep, and of crop management. The situation in Hertfordshire was saved by the potato-crop, which, on these farms, brings in a gross return of 25]. or more per acre, against a return of 71. from wheat at pre- war prices. Of course, the expenditure on potatoes is much greater than on wheat, but that does not matter ; the point is that the expenditure has to be incurred in any case if the land is to be kept in good cultiva- tion, and potatoes bring in the necessary return, while wheat does not. Potatoes are the commonest of money-finding crops, but they are not the only one. Greens are in some places very successful, bringing in 17/1. or more gross return. In North Kent various market-garden crops are used. In parts of Norfoll< blue peas have answered satisfactorily. Clover-seed is a useful adjunct in places, but it is not sufficiently trustworthy as the chief money-maker. It is not necessary to take the money-finding crop very often; once in four years may prove sufficient. But the system is capable of considerable intensifica- 200 NATURE [| NOVEMBER 30, 1916 tion if the farmer has sufficient capital, or if his hold- | ing is so small that his capital can be more intensively used. It is possible to grow nothing but crops bring- ing in a large gross return; in districts round Sandy, Biggleswade, etc., the market-garden crops have been exclusively grown for very many years with great success; this method also proves very successful on the Bagshot sands. It is not clear, however, that this type of farming could be indefinitely extended. The best hope for improvement of these light soils lies in increasing the number of money-finding crops, improving the methods of growing them—e.g, the introduction of the boxing and spraying of potatoes— and their relation to the other crops or the live stock, and improving the organisation for disposing of them, so that farmers will feel justified in spending the rather considerable sums of money without which light soils cannot be successfully managed. We can now leave these light soils and pass to the opposite extreme—the heavy clay soils. These suffer from the fundamental defect that the clay easily de- flocculates and assumes a sticky, pasty condition when wet, and a hard, lumpy condition when dry. In spite -of a good deal of laboratory work, deflocculation is not well understood; it is known, however, to be a special -case of a very general phenomenon—flcculation of suspended colloids—and it will presumably succumb to treatment when the general problem is solved. Im- portant advances have been made in the last few years by Perrin, and it would be interesting to apply his methods to clay. For the time being the only feasible method of floc- culating clay is to add lime or chalk, but experience shows that liming and chalking must be accompanied by drainage to be a complete success. Any attempt to improve crop production on heavy lands involves these as the first steps. Where clay soils are drained and limed it is possible to begin to do something with them. Wheat, beans, mangolds, cabbages, and grass can all be produced. But, when all is said and done, clays still suffer from two disadvantages: they are only suited to a limited number of crops, and they are difficult to cultivate. The land may be too hard in autumn to be ploughed for winter corn; too wet in winter to be ploughed for spring corn; and too dry in spring to be prepared for mangolds. There are times in between when some- thing can be done, but only the man who is skilful enough to take full advantage of these intervals has any hope of success. Most men, therefore, prefer not to run the risk of cultivation, and lay the land down to permanent grass. There are two directions in which the risk can be reduced, though it will still remain a serious factor. The great difficulty of cultivation arises largely from the circumstance that only on a relatively small number of days are both soil and weather suitable for plough- ing. The result is that much of the work is left until late, and late work tends to be bad work. This can only be overcome by speeding up the process of plough- ing during the favourable opportunities, and so far as I can see this is only possible by the use of motors. I believe, therefore, that motor-ploughs and cultivating implements will play a considerable part in the im- provement of heavy land. A second direction in which the risk can be reduced is by keeping up the supply of organic matter in the soil. Probably the cheapest and most satisfactory way of doing this is by ploughing in crop residues, such as, for example, are left by a seeds mixture, a clover ley, or ploughed-up grass-land. Once these great fundamental things have received attention, all these soils—loams, sands, and clays—can be further improved by proper treatment with fer- tilisers. A great deal of good work has been done on NO. 2457, VOL. 98] this subject, and the results are steadily being diffused among farmers, ; In most field experiments there is no indication of any end-point, and apparently the more the crop is fed the larger would be the yield. But the process does come to an end. The final limit is ceanhea by the inability of the plant to stand up any longer or to grow any bigger. \When the corn-crop gets beyond a certain size it is almost invariably beaten down by the wind and rain, so that the difficulty of getting it in becomes considerable. Heavy dressings ot nitrogenous manures also predispose the crop to fungoid disease, attacks apparently being facilitated by the thinning of the cell-walls and the change in composition of the cell-sap. The way for further progress is then to seek new varieties that can stand up and resist disease. And here a good deal has been done. Biffen has shown how desirable properties may be transferred from one wheat to another, and his investigations are revealing the limits within which it is possible to construct a variety of wheat according to the grower’s specifica- tion. Similar work is badly wanted for other crops. Fortunately our great seedsmen are fully alive to the possibilities in this direction, and have already done much useful work. It is not only in the case of cereals and potatoes that new varieties can be sought; there is great scope also for new varieties of all other crops. But there is another way in which science can further the problems of crop-production. Instead of aiming solely at increased yields per acre, attempts may be made to reduce the cost and increase the certainty of production per acre. One of the most hopeful ways of attacking this ~ problem is to increase the efficiency of the manurial treatment. No manurial scheme is perfect; no farmer ever recovers in his crop the whole of the fertilising constituents applied to the soil; there is always a loss. In our Broadbalk experiments, where wheat is grown year after year on the same land and large © dressings of artificials are used, we do not recover in the crop more than about 30 to 4o per cent. of the added nitrogen. f Now, whilst we can never hope for perfect efficiency, i.e. for 100 per cent. recovery, we can hope to do better than this. On our own fields we improve considerably on it every year by the adoption of a proper rotation. Further experiments on the relationship between the efficiency of fertiliser action and the rotation are very desirable. Another great direction in which economy is possible is in.the management of farmyard manure. It has been a common complaint against agricultural inves- tigators that they have concerned themselves exclu- sively with artificials, and left untouched the greater problem of the manure-heap. For farmyard manure is the staple manure of the countryside, about 37 mil- lion tons being made per annum in this country The value at 5s. per ton is 9,250,000l.; all the artificial manures consumed in Great Britain probably do not much exceed 6,§00,0001. in value each year. Through the generosity of the Hon. Rupert Guinness we have been able at Rothamsted to attack this impor- tant subject, and Mr. Richards has obtained some striking results, showing what losses may take place and indicating methods of avoiding them. Another direction in which saving is possible is in the soil itself. It is now forty-six years since Lawes and Gilbert built those remarkable drain gauges at Rothamsted which for the first time enabled chemists to determine precisely the quantity of fertilising mate- rial washed out from the soil by rain. When there was no crop on the ground the soil lost by drainage about 4o Ib. of nitrogen in the form of valuable NOVEMBER 30, 1916] NATURE 261 nitrates, a quantity as great as is contained in a 24-Ib. kinds of seeds—the farmer does not grow for con- tracts, but always for what manufacturers would call bushel crop of wheat. ; lt appears that this wastage of nitrates in winter can be greatly reduced, but the process requires suit- able crops and rapid cultivation methods. Neither of these ought to be beyond the power of the agriculturist to provide. The possibilities are many. Wibberley has discussed several schemes of continuous cropping that satisfy these requirements, giving a succession of crops which cover the land at the critical time when losses would occur. And our implement-makers are steadily increasing the number and effectiveness of the implements, while motor traction promises also to increase the speed of working. A further direction in which improvement is possible is in cultivation. Reference has already been made to the necessity for increasing the speed of ploughing so as to get the work forward and enable the farmer to plough just as much as he likes in autumn, or, if he wishes, to get in a bastard fallow or a catch-crop. The motor-plough seems the only solution, and as soon as the difficulties of engine construction are got over and the price becomes sufficiently low, I think it must displace the horse-plough as inevitably as the railway displaced the stage-coach. Both the soil and the human factors tend this way. So long as a man and two horses, and in some parts of the country a man and a boy and three horses, can only manage to plough an acre a day, it is obvious that the farmer cannot afford to pay more than a small wage for the work; but when a man on a motor-plough can do sever.i aie a day a considerably higher wage becomes pos- sible. The last economy to which I shall refer is the choice of crops. The farmer grows his crops for profit, and clearly ought to select the most profitable for the pur- pose. This can only be done by keeping accounts. No crop ought to be grown that does not pay its way; it should be displaced by one that does. On our own farm we find that wheat, oats, and barley are about equally profitable; but the crops jn the root- or fallow- break vary enormously—potatoes bringing in most profit, while swedes, on the other hand, are invariably grown at a loss on our land. I believe this would be found not uncommon in the southern part of England. Amos and Oldershaw have recently gone into the cost of silage crops in these conditions. More experiments and inquiries are greatly needed to widen the range of this class of crops, and give us something that will be as useful as swedes but more profitable. Besides these improvements in crop-production which affect all farmers, even the best, there are two other ways in which we can hope for further developments. One is to raise up the ordinary farmer to the level of the good one. The average crop of wheat for the country is officially reported to be 32 bushels, but no good farmer would be content with less than 40. If we accept the official average there must be a good amount of wheat grown at much less than the best that is possible even now. A vast amount of educa- tional work has to be done to spread the knowledge of the best methods, varieties, manures, etc. The other is to extend the area of Jand under cultiva- tion. There are still wastes to be reclaimed, as Mr. Hall is reminding us, while even on farmed land the proportion under the plough each year is only small, and is constantly decreasing. Grass-land only produces about one-half of what arable-land yields, and it is imperative to the proper development of the country that some of it should be broken un. The farmer knows this. but he does not nut his knowledge into practice. He cannot always afford the risk There is a fundamental distinction between farming ang manu- facturing that is often overlooked in discussions on the subject. Except in rare cases—sugar beet and some NO. 2457, VOL. 98] **stock.’’ The manufacturer makes a contract to sup- ply certain goods at a certain price; he knows what his machinery will do, he can insure against many of his risks, and get out of the contract if others befal him. He knows to a penny how much he will be paid, and so he can calculate to a nicety how much he can afford to spend, and how far he can go in introducing new methods. Now the farmer cannot do this. He cannot be certain what yield or what price he will get. He starts spending money in August | on a crop that will not be sold for fifteen months, and | he has no idea how much money he will receive in return. The whole thing is a hazard which cannot be covered by insurance. Obviously, then, the farmer must leave a big margin for safety, so he balances his risks by laying down some of his land to grass, where the risks are at a minimum. But when you ask him to intensify his methods, and, as a necessary corollary, to break up some of his grass-land, he has a perfect right to ask who is going to bear the extra risk. The problem has been burked in the past, but must be faced in the future. It is essentially a question of distribution of risk, and it ought not to be beyond the political insight and economic wisdom of those whose business it is to settle these matters. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Suerristp.—Dr. W. E. S. Turner has been appointed lecturer in charge .of the new department of glass technology. Mr. G. A. Birkett, formerly of the Uni- versity of Liverpool, has been appointed to the new Vickers lectureship in Russian. A permanent appoint- ment is deferred until the conclusion of the war. The council: has nominated Mr. A. J. Hobson, J.P., to be a pro-chancellor of the University in succession to the late Sir George Franklin. Miss H. pe PENNINGTON, assistant lecturer in chem- istry at the Blackburn Technical School, has been appointed research assistant to Prof. J. B. Cohen at the University of Leeds. We learn from the Miinchener Medizin. Wochen- schrift that the medical faculty of the University of Gottingen has received two legacies, each of 10,000 marks, under the wills of the late Prof. von Esmarck and of the late Prof. Paul Ehrlich, of Frankfurt. The money will form a fund for assisting needy medi- cal students. IN connection with the present campaign for the preservation of infant and child life, the governing body of the Battersea Polytechnic has arranged for a public lecture to be given by Dr. C. W. Saleeby. The lecture will be entitled “‘The Saving of_ the Future,” and will be held at the Battersea Poly- technic, Battersea Park Road, S.W., on Thursday, December 7, at 7.30 p.m. No tickets of admission are required. . Tue fifth annual Conference of Educational Associa- tions is to be held in the University of London ‘on January 1-6 next. The inaugural address is to be delivered on January 1 at 3 p-m. by Mr. A. L. Smith, master of Balliol. Among the associations taking part in the conference this year are the School Nature Study Union, the Child Study Union, the Committee for the Development of Regional Survey, the Associa- tion of Science Teachers, and the National Association for Manual Training. Among the large number of addresses arranged for may be mentioned the follow- ing :—The possible educational value of kinemas, by 262 NATURE [NovEMBER 30, 1916 | eS eee Prof, R. A. Gregory; the response of plants to light, by Dr. Harold Wager; nitrates from the air, by Mr. E. K. Scott; and handwork as character training, by Mr, A. H. Angus and Dr. P. B. Ballard. Full par- ticulars of the arrangements can be obtained from the conference secretary, Mr. Frank’ Fairman, 9 Brunswick Square, London, W.C. : Lorp MILNER presided at a lecture on November 22 at King’s College, by Dr. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, om ‘The Intellectual Groundwork of Politics.” In moving a vote of thanks to Dr. Fisher, Lord Milner referred to recent dis- cussions on the place which science should occupy in the school curriculum. He expressed the opinion that the great progress which the human race has made in recent times has given such an enormous import- ance to applied science that a man is now scarcely at home with the problems of the day—certainly not with the economic questions—without some knowledge of the sciences, and consequently not fully able to master the political problems which depend upon them. The training in physical science is not, he said, so much book learning as actual science and practical acquaintance with some form of science. Whatever the effort, an important share in the educational life of every boy and young man in future should be to bring him into close relation with the great achieve- ments of science. That he believes is essential, and as important to men who are going to devote them- selves to a political career as to men who are going to devote themselves either to scientific research or to the pursuit of some business which largely depends on the results of science. A LECTURE delivered at Stellenbosch, by Prof. S. J. Shand, of Victoria College, on the occasion of the passing of the University of Stellenbosch Act, is pub- lished in the Stellenbosch Students’ Quarterly for June last. Prof. Shand took as his subject the mak- ing of a university, and drew distinctions between colleges and universities. ©The aim of college teaching, he said, is the imparting of ‘existing knowledge with the specific object of enabling a man to pass certain tests and te satisfy necessary conditions in order that he may advance his prospects in life. The only aim of a university, he urged, is, or ought to be, the advancement of learning in the widest sense. When a professor does not work at his subject and is con- tent merely to teach it, he may find a useful place in a school or college, but there is no room for him in a university. It is perhaps, Prof. Shand continued, the most serious charge that can be brought against the South African colleges that they have done nothing to encourage research and discovery. It should be the business of the newly constituted universities to remedy this state of affairs by recognising that the advance- ment of knowledge is the most important service they owe to the State. It should be insisted unon, there- fore, that the professors shall not be regarded simply as teachers; their business is the advancement of knowledge no less than the spreading of it, and that this object may be pursued they must not be too much burdened with formal teaching. Tue council of the Institution of Naval Architects offers for competition the ‘Martell Scholarship in Naval Architecture’ of the annual value of rool., and tenable for three years. Candidates must forward a written application to the secretary of the institution, 5 Adelphi Terrace, W.C., by January 15, 1917. They must not be less than eighteen or more than twenty- one years.of age on March 1, 10917, and must at that date have been continuously employed for at least two years upon naval architecture or marine engineering. The scholarship will be awarded in connection with NO. 2457, VOL. 98] the competitive examinations for scholarships held by the Board of Education next May and June, in the following subjects :—Naval architecture, pure mathe- matics, applied mechanics (materials and structures), and either machines and hydraulics or heat engines. Candidates will be required to furnish by January 15 next evidence that they have passed some literary test in English. If a candidate can produce similar evidence of a knowledge of French, German, or Spanish, credit will be given for such knowledge. Suc- cessful candidates will be required to undergo a three years’ course of study in naval architecture in a college approved by the council, and this course will be com- bined with practical training in a shipyard or marine engine works. The council of the institution ad- ministers other scholarships which are offered for com- petition among students of the institution, particulars concerning which may be obtained from the secretary. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LonpDon. Physical Society, November 10.—Prof. C.. VisBoys; president, in the chair.—B. W. Clack ; Diffusion in liquids. The paper contains the results of the experi- ments described by the author in Proc. Phys. Soc. Lond., xxi., p- 374, 1908; XXiv., p. 40, I9QII; and xxvii., p. 56, 1914, collected and recalculated in accord- ance with a theoretical correction recently communi- cated by Dr. Griffiths (Proc. Phys. Soc., XXVill., Ds 2555 1916). It is found that in the solutions employed the correction is not considerable, except in the case of the strongest solutions of KCI (2-7 normal), where it amounts to 6 per cent. The paper contains the cor- rected theory of the method, and the value of the co- efficient of diffusion is tabulated at different limiting concentrations and at various temperatures.—Prof. H. Nagaoka: The regularity in the distribution of the satellites of spectrum lines, with a note on the struc ture of the green line of mercury, and terms of correc- tion in using a concave grating. ‘The paper describes a further development of the work done by the author and Mr. Takamine on the distribution of the satellites of the mercury lines. It is shown that much of the discord between the results of various observers of these satellites is due to the unsatisfactory nature of the principal line as a datum from which to define | their positions, and that if the distances be measured from one of the distinct satellites good agreement 1s obtained. If these separations be expressed as differ- ences of wave-number, instead of wave-length, a re- markable symmetry in their distribution becomes ap- parent. For example, among the satellites of the green line, 5461, can be found three groups of sym- metrical triplets, of which the wave-number differences are in the simple ratios 1:3:12. Similar results are obtained for other lines, the principal component of 4359 being shown for the first time to consist of a triplet, of which the middle component is relatively weak. A similarity in the distribution of the satellites exists for all the lines examined, and certain wave- number intervals are common to all. CaMBRIDGE. Philosophical Society, November 13.—Dr. Marr, presi- dent, in the chair.—Prof. Wood: The surface law of heat loss in animals. Figures expressing in pounds of starch equivalent a number of successful and econom- ical rations for fattening cattle were shown within the limits of error of experiment to fall on a curve expressing the theoretical food requirements calcu- lated according to Rubner’s surface law for live-weights varying from 80 lb. to 1400 1b.—Prof. Punnett and Capt. P. G. Bailey: Inheritance of henny plumage in NOVEMBER 30, 1916] NATURE 263 cocks. Experiments’ on the inheritance of henny feathering in co-ks were begun in 1910, the original cross being between a gold-pencilled Hamburgh cock and a silver Sebright hen. Both cock-feathered and hen-feathered male offspring resulted from this cross, and the later work has shown that hen-feathering in the male behaves as a dominant character which can be transmitted by either sex.—Dr. Marshall and K. J. J. Mackenzie: Extra mammary glands and the reabsorption of millx sugar. The authors observed that the shape of the udder has been held for some considerable time to be correlated with capacity for mills production in the cow. In three cases examined in which supernumerary glands were in a state of apparently complete functional activity (the mill not being withdrawn from them) there was proof of the Occurrence of reabsorption of milk sugar, since such could be detected in the urine, in one instance in very considerable quantity, and in the middle of the lacta- tion period.—A. Amos: Experimental work on clover sickness. In the past “clover sickness’? has been ascribed to a variety of causes, e.g, exhaustion of plant food, production of toxic substances, lack of lime, plant diseases. Under present conditions in England “clover sickness” is due in most cases to one of two plant diseases: eelworm {Tylenchus devas- tatrix), clover rot (Sclerotinia trifoliorum). Observa- tions on life-history of Sclerotinia trifoliorum :—First Appearance on Clover.—As early as October, or as late as January. Active Growing Period.—From date of appearance until mid-April, especially during moist, dewy weather. Slow growth may be continued through the summer. Formation of Sclerotia—To a small extent on stems during winter months; chiefly on dead roots in April and May. Germination of Sclerotia.—In October after ground is cooled and moistened by first autumn rains. To a less extent in November, and one case recorded on May 3. Depth of Germination of Sclerotia.—The Sclerotia germinates _ more freely on or near the surface than when buried _sorptive capacity of Russian one inch. Distribution of Spores.—The ascospores, formed in the apothecia, are shot into the air and carried by wind. Other Hosts.—By infection : Beans, peas, alsilke, lucerne, white clover, trefoil, sainfoin. By observation in the field : Beans, alsike, lucerne, tre- foil, sainfoin. Methods of Control.—Avoid grow- ing two clover crops in quick succession. Other methods of control are being tested.—G, N. Watson : Bessel’s functions of equal order and argument. PETROGRAD. Imperial Academy of Sciences, October 1.—O. Backlund; Chandler’s period of variation of lati- tude.—A. Kristafovié: Some Chinese forms in the Sarmatian flora of South Russia.—E. F. Liskun: The meat problem under existing economic conditions.— R. E. Regel: The mushroom fungus industry. The value of beardless barley as horse fodder.—B. P. Gerasimovié : The two groups of helium stars.—-S. K. Kostinskij : The probable motions in thé spiral nebula of Canes Venaticorum observed with the stereocompara- tor.—B. N. Gorodkov: Biological study of Pinus sibirica, Mayr, in East Siberia.—S. S. Gane’in: Con- tributions to the flora of the Government of Irkutsk.— P. N. Cirvinskij : Quantitative chemical composition of the pallasites and the application to them of Avogadro’s law.—E. Burkser ; The radio-activity of the lakes and springs of South Russia.—P. Zemiatéenskij: The ab- ; clays. Part i. Experi- mental.—V, Mokrinskij: Geology of the Keré Penin- sula. The sulphur deposit of Cekur-Kojag (Crimea). —V. M. Rylov: Contributions to the fauna of the free fresh-water Copepodes of North Russia.—VI. N. Snitnikov : Itineraries of the excursions in the province NO. 2457, VOL. 98] of Semiré¢ie from 1907-15.—N. N. Adelung: Contri- butions to the knowledge of Palzearctic Blattoides. [. Genus Ectobius, Steph. General considerations: new forms of western Europe.—I, A, Smorodincev: The organic bases of pork.—B. P. Babkin: The natural chemical stimulants of the movements of the small intestines.—I. S. Plotnikov: The addition of bromine to non-saturated hydrocarbons under the influence of light. October 15.—E. S. Fedorov: Systems of plani- gons as technical isohedra in the plane—G. A. Tichov ; New researches on the problem of the cosmic dispersion of light.—N. N. Kalitin: The variable RT Persei.—N. N. Monteverde: Development and ‘present state of the medicinal plant industry in the Poltava Government.—Ja. V. Samoilov: Sources of pyrites in Russia.—F. A. Satsyperov: Russia’s medicinal plants. —S. F. Zeméuznij: Preparation and properties of pure platinum.—K. A, Flaksberg: Russia’s wheats.—E. Miakinen: The discovery of some rare chemical elements in Finland.—E, D, Revutska : Russian sources of Iceland spar.—V. J. Vernadskij: Notes on the dis- tribution of the chemical elements in the earth’s crust. VII. Bismuth.—V, I. Vernadskij: The simple rela- tions found by Prof. Moureu between certain natural gases.—O. O. Backlund: Scapolite from the river Kanda.—K. I. Skriabin: Materials for a monograph on avian Nematodes.—D, Rubinstein: Note on the Sagittz of the Black Sea.—A. N. Kiricenko: Notes on some Reduviidee (Hemiptera-Heteroptera).—P. I. Valden; Sir William Ramsay. Paris. Academy of Sciences, November 13.—M. Camille Jor- dan in the chair.—The President announced the death of Oscar Backlund, correspondant in the section of astronomy.—G. Bigourdan: An old observation of an eclipse of the sun, made at Paris in 1630. A repro- duction of a manuscript found in the National Library. It is anonymous, but is probably due to Gassendi.— C. Guichard: Triple orthogonal systems such that a system of Lamé curves may be formed of spherical lines, the centres of the spheres which contain them being on a sphere, or a paraboloid, of revolution.— W. Kilian and J. Révil: The breccias (conglomerates) of Tarentaise.—G. Vasseur: (Posthumous note.) Dis- covery of remains of Anthracotherium in the San- noisian formations of the basin of Aix-en-Provence.— L. Hartmann ; Systematic variation of the value of the kinetic energy in the elastic shock of bodies.—R. Guillery ; A new’system of transmission by a ball joint. The new joint, described and illustrated, gives a flexible transmission, and is economical in construc- tion, as except for one pair of faces rough castings can be utilised.—E, Belot: The exponential law of the distances of the planets and satellites. New ap- proximations.—H. Bordier and G. Roy: Colloidal iodine. Jn an earlier paper it has been shown that certain characters of solutions of iodine in water indicate that the iodine is in the colloidal state. The amount in solution is too small for the eryoscopic method to give decisive information. | Experiments with the ultra-microscope lead to the conclusion that iodine in pure water is in the colloidal state, but in the form of granules too small to be seen with the ultra-microscope. In the presence of gelatin larger particles, visible in the instrument, are formed.—M. Molliard : The catalytic action of potassium nitrate in the alcoholic fermentation produced by Sterigmato- cystis nigra. The presence of the nitrate prolongs the alcoholic fermentation and gives an increased yield of alcohol. The proportion exerting the maxi- mum effect is much less than with yeasts, 4 per 1000 instead of 50 per 1000.—F. Vincens: The development 264 and structure of the perithecium of a Melanospora.— A, Piédallu ; The acclimatisation in France of a rapidly growing tannin plant, the Canaigre (Ramex hymeno- sepalum). This plant comes from Arizona and the neighbouring regions, and gives tubercles containing 28 to 30 per cent. of tannin. It has been proved to develop naturally in France, and survives the winter. It is rapid in growth, and should prove a valuable source of tanning material. Field cultivation experi- ments will be carried out.—M, Caullery and’ F. Mesnil: Viviparity and parthenogenesis in the poly- chetal Annelids; a new viviparous Syllidian, Ehlersia nepiotoca,—P. Bonnier: Enteritis. BOOKS RECEIVED. Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity’s Greatest Unnecessary Waste. By F. B. Gilbreth and Dr. L. M. Gilbreth. Pp. 159+Figs. 33. (London: G,. Routledge and Sons, Ltd.) 6s. net. An Elementary Grammar of the Ibo Language. By Rev, J. Spencer. Third edition, revised by T. J. Dennis. Pp. x+116. (London: S.P.C.K.) ‘tod. The Rain-Children: A Fairy-Tale in Physics. By T. H. Orpen. Pp. 112. (London: S.P.C.K.) 2s. 6d, Guida Pratica del Meccanico Moderno. By A. Mas- sénz. Pp. xxiv+351. (Milano: U. Hoepli.)) 4.50 lire, Tempera e Cementazione dell’ Acciaio. By M. Levi- Malvano. Pp. xii+261. (Milano: U. Hoepli.) 4 lire. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Session 1915-16. Parts i. and ii. Vol. xxxvi. Pp. 192. (Edinburgh: R. Grant and Son.) 11s, Bacon’s Large Scale Map of the French Battle Front (Peronne to Verdun). (London: G. W. Bacon and Co:., Ltd?) 1s. net. British Birds. By A. Thorburn. Vol. iv. Pp. vii+ 107+plates 61-80. (London: Longmans and Co.) Four vols., 6l. 6s, net. ‘ University of London. University College. Abridged Calendar. Session MDCCCCXVI.-MDCCCCXVII. Pp. cxviti+272. (London: Taylor and Francis.) Cambridge Botanical Handbooks. Alga. Vol. i. By Prof. G. S. West. Pp. x+475. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 25s, net. Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smith- sonian Institution, 1907-1908. Pp. 636. (\Washing- ton: Government Printing Office.) Thirtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- tution, 1908-1909. Pp. 453. (Washington: Govern- ment Printing Office.) Differential and Integral Calculus. Love. Pp. xviiit+343. Ltd.) gs, net. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, NoveMBeER 30. LINNEAN Society, at 5.—(1) The Floral Anatomy of some Composite ; (2) Demonstration on the F: rce for Dispersal of Fruits : J. Small.—A Note on the Seed of ris psevidacorus, Linn. : T. A. Dymes, SATURDAY, DecemBer 2. GroLoaisrs' AssocraTIon, at 3.—The Palzoliths of Farnham: H. Bury. SELBORNE Society, at 5.30.— Russian Ideals and Potentialities; Baron Alphonse Heyking. By Die Ci FE. (London : Maemillan and Co., MONDAY, DECEMBER 4. Roya GroGrapnicat Society, at 8.30.—The Kansu Marches of Tibet: R. Farrer. ARISTOTELIAN Society, at 8 —The Function of the State in Promoting the Unity of Mankind: Dr. B. Bosanquet. Roya Society or Arts, at 5.—Coal and its Economic Utilisation: Prof. J. 5. S. Brame. . TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5. P InsTITUTION OF Crvi1, ENGINEERS, at 5.30.—Kealby Bridge (Discussion) : - B. Ball.—Experiments o» Rarth-pressures: P. M. Crosthwaite. RONTGEN Sociery, at 8.15.—Some Remarks upon Pastilles : Dr. Levy and Mr. Stenning NO. 2457, VOL. 98] NATURE [NOVEMBER 30, 1916 WEDNESDAY, Decemner 6. “4 ENTOMOLOGICAL Society, at 8.—Descriptions of South American Micro- Lepidoptera: E. Meyrick. “igh Sociery or Pustic ANALysTs, at 8.—Copying-Ink Pencils and the Exami- nation of their Pigment in Writing > C. A®Mitchell.—Brazilian Oil Seeds : : E. R. Bolton and Dorothy G. Hewer. 4 Rovat Society or Arrs, at 4.30.—The Coal-tar Colour Industry: C, M. Whittaker. > ' : GEOLOGICAL SociETY, at 5.30. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7. ? (aks Royat Society, at 4.30.—Proballe Papers: The Cytomorphosis of the — Marsupial Enamel-organ and its Signific nce in Relation to the Structure — of the Completed Enamel: J. T. Carter.—The Development of the © Pancreas, the Pancreatic and Hepatic Ducts in /richosurus vulpecula: — Margaret Tribe.—The Foss!l] Human Skull found at Talgai, Saenean ae "i S. A.-Smith.—The Typical Form of the Cochlea and its 7 ariath : H. J. Watt.—The Structureand Hiology of Archotermopsis, together with — Descriptions of New Species of Intestinal Protozoa, and General Observa- tions on the Isoptera: Dr. A. D. Imms. 4 ae CuiLp Stupy Socrery, at 6.—Psycho-analysis in Relation to Children : Dr. Constance E, Long. ey ea CuemicaL Society, at 8.—Spinacidene : A New Hydrocarbon from certain Fish-Liver Oils : A. Chaston Chapman.—The Nitration of 2-acetylamino- — 3:4-dimethoxybenzoic acid and 3-acetylamino-r : 2-dimethoxybenzene : C. S. Gibson, J. L. Simonsen, and M. G. Kau. ‘ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8. : $ Roya ASTRONOMICAL Sociery, at 5. ; . MALACoLOGICAL Sociery, at 7.—A Revision of the Species of the Family Pleurotomide occurring in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and Arabian — Sea: Dr. J. Cosmo Melvill.—The Occurrence in England of Heticella neglecta: A. S. Kennard and B. B. Woodward, with Notes on the — Avatomy by Dr. A. E. Boycott, and on the Kadula by t e Rey. E. W. Bowell. —The Occurrence of Eulota /ruticus ina Living State in Kent: A. S. Kennard and B, B. Woodward. 4 CONTENTS. American Books on Agriculture. By E.J.R.. . . 245° Matter and the Structure of the Ether. ..... “J Flotation’ of Ores. By Hp DL... 2. |. Ree Our Bookshelf : ere Letters to the Editor:— “> A Further Probable Case of Sex-limited Transmission in the Lepidoptera.—J. W. H. Harrison «6 248 Scarcity of Wasps.—Rev, C, S. Taylor r . 24a The keconstiuction Committee and its Sub- nd Committees . aa ehes ait Beer a8 - + 249° 9 Government Control over Flour. By William Jazoe.. Sis ok hem ce fe abe ON lol a Science and the Civil Service sear » ‘ott ae Possible’ Potassic Fertilisers’: . ..-. = .| |) S)amueegen Notes oe «le wee oe Our Astronomical Column -— : ; Ephemeris of Comet 19164 (Wolf) |... 0°.) Sogen gg The Great Red Spot on Jupiter oo. 3 apa ne The Meteoric Shower from Biela’sComet . .. . + 257 The Colours of Stars in Globular Clusters . . . . . 257° © Fossil Vertebrate Animals, By A.S.W. .... Studies of Hymenoptera. By G. H. ©. .- ee Observations on Recently Discovered Fossil Human Skulls. By Prof. G. Elliot smith, F.R.S. The British Association at Newcastle :— : Bre Section M—Agriculture—Opening Address(Abridged) by E. J. Russell, D.Sc., President of the ' Section site 5 (a acepenig University and Educational Intelligence [6 26IkG Societies and Academies... . . 2 eee Books Y » DEC 281916 ar J JOnal Muse” A WEEKLY’ ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground ~ Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye. eoWsicewowa, OO ee ~ = es is - No. 2458, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1916 {Price SIXPENCE. _ Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] {All Rights Reserved. X-RAY TUBES | , | , BEAKERS, BOATS, Of all descriptions Made, - Repaired, & Re-exhausted specialise on the Premises. aa ge TRIANGLES, apparatus to cus- TEST-TUBES, _ Coolidge Tubes kept in stock. stands ceacuciighae ae te TUBING, NEWTON & WRIGHT, Ltd. 2 ORAS Ne Gosia on application to _ 72 WIGMORE™ STREET, Ww. ea Sign (i ll oh si THE SILICA SYNDICATE, Lid., @ Agents for Macalaster Wiggin X-Ray Tubes, ' Undoubtedly the Finest Tubes 82 HATTON GARDEN, “4 in the World for all purposes, f Telephone: Holborn 6380. A New _Baroaranh— THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) DUROGLASS be 14 CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. _Beakers. Flasks, Ete. Soft Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. Special Glass Apparatus Made to Order. _ DUROGLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. Gitaahaitiate Ate: Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to AGENTS: BAIRD. & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 14 CROSS’ ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. cvi NATURE ROYAL SOCIETY. GOVERNMENT GRANT FOR SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS. Applications for the year 1917 must be received at the Offices of the Royal Society not later than January 1 next, and must be made on printed forms to be obtained from the Clerk TO THE GOVERNMENT GRANT Committee, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W. MEDICAL RESEARCH. DIRECTOR WANTED, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. Salary £800, with ly premium of £75 for retirement in addition. ‘Tenure. five years. ible for reappointment. Whole time. Applications by January 24, 1917, to the AGENT-GENERAL FOk Vicroria, Aldwych, Strand, London, from whom full information can be obtained. BEDFORD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON), REGENT’S PARK, N.W. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. Applications are invited for the post of DEMONSTRATOR in CHEMISTRY. Salary £120 a year, rising to £150, non-resident. Six copies of applications, and of not more than three recent tesumonials, should be sent not later than ‘Vhursday, December 14, to the SECRETARY OF Councit, from whom further particulars may be obtained. RESEARCH CHEMISTS.—Messrs. Levinstein, Limited, have vacances for well-qualified ORGANIC CHEMISTS in their Research L»boratories.” Applicants must have hid academical training, and preferably research experience.—Apply Levinsrein, Limited, Blackley, Manchester. ASSISTANT CURATOR, ineligible for service, required for a Museum in London. Previous experience necessary.—Apply, stating age, qualifications, and salary desired, to **Mak,” c/o Street's, 30 Cornhill, E.C. LABORATORY ASSISTANT WANTED at Marlborough College for duration of the War. Knowledge of chemi- cal manipulation necessary. £2 per week. Communicate with R. G, Durrant, Rosetree, Marlrorough, MASTER required to teach Nature Study and some English. For par- ticulars apply to HeapMasTER, Hulme Grammar School, Manchester. LANTERN SLIDES.—20,000 in sets ; going up. Hiring Dept. : Travel, Lecture, Educational, Temperance. Illus- trated Songs and Hymns, &c. In sets, 3a. plain, 6a. coloured; splendid chance. List sent on request.—Rar, Lrp., 134 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. - Now Ready. Pp. viii+1ogo.. With 78 Illustrations. Price 21s, net. PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By A. P. MATHEWS, Ph.D., Professor of Physiological Chemistry, University of Chicago. “This volume is of ambitious character, and has the merit of being distinctly original. Practical teachers will obtain many useful wrinkles by studying it.” —WNadure. London: BAILLIERE, TINDALL & COX, 8 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. M A Anthropological Science, i/- per part, 10/- a year, post free anywhere. CONTENTS OF DECEMBER ISSUE. Oricinat ArvicLtes: Mende Songs.—Photographs of Welsh Anthropo- logical Types.—Notes on the Galla, (With Plate M and Iilustrations.)— rigin and Relationship of Hani, Tewha-Tewha, and Pou-Whenua.— Remarks on Samoan Sound Changes.—Rerviews: The Rock Tombs of Meir. Part 1: The Tomb-Chapel of Ukh-Hotp's Son Senbi. Part I/: The Lomb-Chapel of Senbi's Son Ukh-Hotp.—An Introduction to the Study of Prehistoric Art London: The Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Great Russell St. General Agent: FRANCIS EDWARDS, 83 High Street, Marylebone, W. Edueational, Medieal, all other BOOKS! subjects, and for all Exams, SECOND-HAND AT HALF PRICES: New Books at Discount Prices. CATALOGUES FREE. State Wants. Books sent on approval. BOOKS BOUGHT: Best Prices Given. W, & C, FOYLE, 121-123 Charing Cross Road, London, An illustrated monthly record of Books on Selentifie, Technical, Baker *'D.P.H.,*” No. 1, mechanical stage and substage, Leitz “‘F,” Nos. 3, 7, & 1/r2 fluorite oil imm, objectives, triple Bausch & Lomb Beck ‘* Popular’’ Binocular, 2-in., rin. and }-in. objec: Leitz Ila, Leitz 1b, A and D Zeiss objectives, double nosepiece, eye- Beck ‘ Economic,” 1in. and L obje ctives, 2 eyepieces + beck ‘*Continental,’’ 2/5 [DECEMBER 7, 1916 SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES. 2/3, 1/6, and 1/12 oil imm. objectives, "by Bausch & Lomb, ciple nosepiece, 2 eyepirces, achromatic Abbe condenser... £18 18 © Ip oy! 5 0 15 0 nosepiece, 2 eyepieces, spiral Abbe and iris; all by Leitz £14 Greenough,” one pair of objectives, z 4 12 £8 £7 ms £6 15s £6 10 0 £6 60 one pair of eyepiece:, as new tives, 2 pairs of eyepieces, and plariser sa foo os. 3 and 7 Reichert objectives, double nosepiece, eyepiece, Abbe and iris... oe 15 0 piece ... “Aj and 1/6 objectives, eyepiece... WANTED: MIGROSCOPES and ACCESSORIES by Leading Makers. CLARKSON’S SECOND-HAND OPTICAL MART, 888 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. (Opposite Gray’s Inn Road.) J. POOLE & CO} ESTABLISHED 1854 SCIENTIFIC & EDUCATIONAL} BOOKSELLERS Second Hand Books at about half published price. : i: New Books at discount price. :: ff . . BEN OULIRIESVBYALETS EE RECEIVE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION 104 Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. Part IV. JUST PUBLISHED. , To be issued in Six Parts. Meéd. 8vo. 6s. net each. © A BIBLIOGRAPHY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF 1912 INCLUDING Biographical Accounts of the Principal Writers and Bibliographies of their Published Works < By W. H. MULLENS, .a., LL.M., F.L.S., M.B.O.U., and H. KIRKE SWANN. *|* The aim of the authors has been to give a biographical account of each author. or co-author of a separately published work, followed by a complete bibliography of published works or contributions to works, and of papers contributed to Journals (where such exceed one page in extent), bearing on British Ornithology. Collations are given in all possible instances, together with verbatim spaced titles of separate works published before 1850, and shorter titles of those published since that date. Critical notes on many of the books are also included. To this it is intended to add by way of Supplement a Geographical Bibliography, in which the books and’ articles, as well as the ornithological matter in topographical books, will be arranged under their separate counties, thus affording an index to the work accomplished in the various districts. A Chronological Index to separate books published before 1850 will also be included. MACMILLAN & CO., LTE ST, MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C. NATURE 265 ; ALTERNATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS. (1) The Principles of Electrical Engineering and their Application, By Prof. Gisbert Kapp. Vol. i. © Pp. xii+356. (London: Edward __. Arnold, 1916.) Price 18s. net. (2) A Treatise on the Theory of Alternating Currents. By Dr. Alexander Russell. Vol. ii. ‘Second edition. Pp. xiv+566.¢ (Cambridge : At the University Press.) Price 15s. net. (3) Alternating Currents in Theory and Practice. By W. H. N. James. (Cambridge Technical Series.) Pp. viit353.. (Cambridge: At the _ University Press, 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. abs progress of electrical knowledge and in- vention is so rapid and the ground covered so extensive that the trend of its literature is for the most part in the direction of books or mono- graphs on special departments of it written: by experts.’ On the other hand, as the existing complete treatises become antiquated or too bulky by additions, the necessity arises for rewriting the subject from a more modern point of view. (1) The aim of Prof. Kapp’s book, the first volume of which is before us, is to furnish the engineering student with a-couple of volumes wherein the-principles. and modern practice of electrical engineering are treated compactly, yet completely, with reference to the needs of the engineer rather than to those of the physicist. Although, for the sake of distinction, we divide engineering into various branches, engineers of all kinds are constantly called upon to .use applied electricity in. various. ways... Thus, a mechanical engineer may have to put up a three-phase motor to work a* pump, or a civil engineer may have to lay out an electric tramway system. Hence no one practising any branch of engineering can afford to be ignorant of the principles and methods of elec- trical engineering. A very commendable feature of Prof. Kapp’s book is that the purely mathe- matical aspect of the subject is kept well under | Testraint. Such mathematics as is used rarely goes beyond simple algebra or a simple differentia- tion or integration. This is a distinct advantage, as most engineering students are rather repelled by a book which bristles with mathematical symbols. Again, the verbal explanations are clear and terse, whilst the diagrams have a re- freshing air of originality and have not done duty in other books. The volume under review deals with general principles, and is divided into fifteen chapters. The first six comprise the discussion of electric conduction and resistance, its measurement, and the electrical measurement-of current and voltage generally. It would have been better if the con- nections of the two types of plug Wheatstone’s bridge, viz. the series and dial patterns, had been more fully illustrated. and described. In’ the description on p. 20 of the “Thompson double bridge” the name should be “Thomson,” as the NO. 2458, VoL. 98] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1016. . Jate Lord Kelvin was, prior to his peerage, .Sir William Thomson, The name is correctly spelt in ‘a previous section on the Thomson-Varley bridge. The chapter on potentiometric measurements ‘.contains much useful information. It seems, ' however, to be forgotten that the writer of this review was the first person to suggest “setting the potentiometer ’’ by means of a standard cell of known voltage and a divided potentiometer wire, so as to make it a direct-reading instrument. Curiously enough, this method was first described by the writer in a now extinct paper called Industries in July and August, 1886, which at that time was edited by Prof. Kapp. In the section on standard cells (p. 31) the name “Carhard’’ is a misprint for “Carhart.’’ Chap. v., on the distribution of continuous | currents, contains some valuable information not commonly given in text-books. The analogy between an electric main tapped off at various” intervals and a beam loaded at. intervals with weights is very instructive, and the application of the same graphical method of ‘solution is» sug- gestive. bats} Chap. vii. introduces the reader to the prin-. ciples of electrostatics, and although there: is, nothing, of the nature of great novelty in it, the facts are well. set out. Prof: Kapp defines the electrical capacity as the quotient of:charge and, potential difference. We think that. the definition is better given in the form that the capacity is. measured bythe. charge required. to, raise «the conductor to unit potential when all other sur- rounding conductors are at zero potential. In some of the formule given for capacities the student may perhaps be puzzled by the custom of writing Im for log, or the natural logarithm, and lg for logy, especially when the letter 1 appears, as in formula 66 on p. 116, in the same expression for the length of the conductor. Also the decision to employ e for the dielectric constant is not a happy one. This Greek letter has for ages past | been consecrated to denote the base of. the | Napierian logarithms, viz. 2:71828, etc. Chap. viii., on applied electrostatics, contains | much valuable matter of a practical kind, especi- ally on the subject of cable insulation. Chaps. ix. and x. deal with the subject of magnetism and electromagnetism in an _ interesting. manner. _ There is.on p. 162 another little misprint in a proper name in a reference to .“‘ Hatfield’s ” man- | ganese steel. This should, of course, be ‘ Had-. | field.” Chap. xi. covers elementary. electro- dynamics, and the information given is kept well in touch with practice, as, for instance, in the remarks on p. 223 on the method of reducing. the time constant of motor field circuits. On p. 208, second line, “Lenze’s law” should be ‘“Lenz’s | law.’’ pane The last chapter, xv., discusses alternating currents, and gives in compact form most of the necessary information. Altogether the book is one which can be strongly recommended, and we shall look forward with interest to the second volume as likely to contain much of great value Pp 266 drawn from Prof. Kapp’s large practical experi- ence in electrical engineering. The printing and get-up of the book are all that could be desired. (2) Dr. Alexander Russell’s book is of a more theoretical and mathematical character, and is the second edition of the second volume of a treatise on the theory of alternating currents. It appeals therefore to an advanced student or designer who is not averse to full mathematical treatment. A valuable feature of the book is the list of refer- ences to other works and papers given at the end of each chapter. The book consists of twenty chapters, covering the full theory of alternators, transformers, induction motors, commutator motors, rotary converters, and electric power transmission by alternating currents. Chap. iii. comprises a very complete discussion of Fourier’s theorem and the practical methods of determin- ing the constants in the Fourier expansion. Although chiefly of interest to the pure mathe- matician, the electrical engineer has frequently occasion to enter this field of analysis. Neverthe- less, if much of it has to be done, as in the analysis of tidal curves, then some mechanical means, such as Lord Kelvin’s harmonic analyser, would be used. A’ very important application of pure mathe- matics is dealt with in chap. xix., viz. the discussion of the properties of hyperbolic func- tions and their application in the problem of the long-distance alternating-current' power trans- mission. No electrical engineer concerned with this subject can afford to be ignorant of these modern methods. Chap. xiv gives a good account of the general theory of induction motors, and chap. xvi of the commutator motor. In this con- nection we confess we should like to have seen included the theory of Goldschmidt’s frequency- raising alternator, now of importance in wireless telegraphy. It has been treated by Pupin as a particular case of asymmetrical rotors in unidirec- tional magnetic fields. Also another subject of interest in close connection is the use of pairs of static transformers for raising frequency by means of unsymmetrical flux in the cores. The question of the efficiency of this method of frequency rais- ing needs discussion. It would have been an advantage to in- clude some general description of extra high frequency alternators, such as those of Alexander- son and the method of frequency raising by. alternators in cascade suggested by MM. Latour and Béthenod. Nevertheless, the book as it is is a work.of the greatest value to all concerned with alternating-current working, and no advanced student should neglect it. (3) a he third book on our list is of a less ambitious type, but is intended to provide within very moderate compass for the needs of students in universities and technical colleges whose mathematical knowledge is of restricted range. To each chapter is appended a seriés of examina- tion questions and numerical examples, with the answers in many cases added. The diagrams and Wo. 2458, vor. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916. illustrations are in most cases new and well — selected. 3 | The chapter on switchgear and protective appli- ances for high-tension transmission is a particu- larly useful one, and the diagrams are extremely — instructive. The plates at the end showing the- modern types of switchgear and panels for handling large currents are valuable. The book strikes us as very well adapted for second-year students in the electrical engineering’ departments of our colleges, and as a text-book, from its moderate size and yet thoroughly practical — character, it will be popular. It is one of the ex-_ cellent books in the Cambridge Technical Series’ edited by Mr. P. Abbott, and the fact that it is printed at the Cambridge University Press is a sufficient assurance that its typography and illus- trations are of the very best. ; J. A. FLemInc. THE INFLUENCE OF INTERNAL SECRE- TIONS ON SEX CHARACTERISTICS. — The Sex Complex: A Study of the Relationships - of the Internal Secretions to the Female Char- acteristics and Functions in Health and Disease, - By Dr. W. B. Bell. Pp. xvii+233- (London: Bailliére, Tindall) and Cox, 1916.) Price — 12s. 6d. net. R. BLAIR BELLI, belongs to that limited group of medical men who resort to the experimental laboratory to extend and verify their means of diagnosis and treatment of clinical con-— ditions. He has given us, under the title ‘The Sex — Complex,” observations made in the course of a prolonged inquiry into the nature of the secondary sexual characters of the human body—more par- ticularly the normal and abnormal manifestations. — of sex in woman. His work will appeal to all who are trying to unravel the obscure and delicate manner in which the sexual system is developed and balanced. From prehistoric times mankind has been familiar with the effects of castration; the effects which followed that operation gave rise to the belief that the sexual characteristics of the — male, both mental and bodily, were determined by~ the testes, while, conversely, feminine characters. depended on the ovaries. ‘ ’ The chief aim which Dr, Blair Bell has in view in his present work is to prove that sexual char- acterisation is the manifestation of a complex glandular system of which the sex-glands form’ only a part—a system which includes all the glands of internal secretion—the pituitary, the pineal, the. thyroid and parathyroids—the thymus, and supra- renal bodies. The normal development of male and female characters depends on the interaction and co-operation of all the members of this com~ plex glandular system; it is in a disturbance of - the balance of the various members of the glan- dular system that Dr. Blair Bell seeks for a rational explanation of the sexual disorders to which so many modern women are liable. Beyond doubt the method of investigation which the author has adopted is one which promises a DECEMBER 7, 1916 | scientific basis of treatment for disorders which ‘are as common as they are obscure. For a number of years we have possessed de- finite evidence that the pituitary gland plays a part in the maintenance of sexual life and in the production of the sexual characters of the body. Dr. Blair Bell has carried out a prolonged series of experiments on the pituitary body. His most definite results: were obtained by compressing or cutting the stalk-of the pituitary gland; in such ‘cases the dogs operated on manifested all those characters which clinicians are familiar with in certain patients. Sexual appetite is lost; the genital glands atrophy; there is an abundant de- osit of fat all over the body; the bones become ong and slender. He also places on record the notes of a very instructive case—that of a young woman who began to develop certain male characters in face and voice. It was found that her ovaries were of a complex type; in their cortex were true ova, situated in normal follicles; in the _ centre of the ovariés the tissue assumed a testicular structure, although spermatozoa were not present. It is the examination of such cases which shows how complex are the factors which go to the differentiation of sex. Dr. Blair Bell emphasises the influence of the glandular products on the mental life of the individual. His final conclusion is: Propter secretiones internas totas mulicr est quod est. VIGNETTES OF FRIENDS. Memories. By Edward Clodd. Pp. xi+288. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., . 1916.) Price tos. 6d. net. R. CLODD is well known to readers of NaTuRE as one who has most successfully introduced the discoveries and generalisations of various departments of science to innumerable readers—old and young. In the course of a long and active life he has made friends with a re- markable number of noteworthy people, being tichly endowed with the “genius for friendship.” One has only to look through the table of contents of his “Memories” to see how the sympathy of the author reaches out to very diverse types, and there is scarcely a name on the list which does not stand for pre-eminence in literature, ant, or science. There are constant references to the pleasant Whitsuntide gatherings under Mr. Clodd’s hospitable roof at Aldeburgh, where kindred spirits, but of diverse aptitudes, exchange ideas on all imaginable subjects when éating, smoking, walking, or cruising with their skipper- host in the Lotus. To some extent the book is a series of reminiscences of talks on such occasions. The fragment of his own autobio- graphy that Mr. Clodd gives as a sort of pre- face is interesting reading, and affords a clue to the particular direction of his activity. Most of the “Memories” are very short—like Tantern-slides thrown on a ‘screen to be rapidly NO. 2458, VoL. 98] ' s ‘a a NATURE intellectual ’ 267 replaced by others. Little is said about Thomas Henry Huxley, but in this case the reader should refer to the author’s biography of the biologist. The jottings on Herbert Spencer do not depict the philosopher in a very agreeable light. Con- cerning Henry Walter Bates we read: ‘No word of mine can convey the charm infusing the memory of so rare a soul as that which dwelt in Bates. . . . There was a wonderful freshness in all that he said, and a wonderful magnetism in the way he said it.” The brief account of Joseph Thomson indicates how much was lost by the early death of a brilliant traveller. The few remarks on Paul B. du Chaillu are of interest, as his early work was erroneously discredited. Andrew Lang has been described as having a ‘“‘touch of super- ciliousness in his manner,” but Mr. Clodd says “the .aloofness was only skin-deep . . . those who came to know him longest learned to appre- ciate him most. . . . Sometimes he gave offence by the tone of his.reviews, the temptation to banter being too great to be resisted. But he bore no malice; and they who submit their wares to the critic must not be too squeamish over the verdict.”” Samuel Butler “was of the genus ivvitabile. . . . As Chauncey Depew said: ‘ When once you’ve stood on your head, the public won’t let -you stand on your feet.’ The truth of this was Butler’s irritating experience.”” The appre- ciations of Grant Allen, George Meredith, and George Gissing are among the best things in a ‘book replete with shrewd, kindly criticism. A. C. Happon. OUR BOOKSHELF. Cours d’Hydraulique. By Prof. J. Grialou. Pp. vi+549. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1916.) Price 20 fr. Tuis volume is designed for the use of advanced students; it embodies the third-year course of lectures delivered by Prof. Grialou at the Lyons Central School. Much of it, naturally, is ground covered by the generality of text-books on the subject, but there are also special sections on particular problems, such as the application of cylindrical co-ordinates to the motion of turbines, the loss of head due to abrupt variation of pipe section, fluid resistance, etc. Prof. Grialou’s treatment is rigorously mathe- matical, and he explains that he has endeavoured throughout to make constant use of general equa- tions, whether applicable to “perfect” liquids or to liquids characterised by viscosity. He con- siders that the study of hydraulics has acquired too empirical a character, and that this should be rectified by adhering as closely as possible to theoretical principles. We certainly agree with him in the desirability of directing the attention of students to the lack of scientific precision in many hydraulic formule. but this is in order that too great a degree of accuracy may not be assigned ts the numerical results which they give. The conditions attach- 268 ing’ to hydraulic flow in actual practice are such as to render unavoidable a dependence to a greater or less extent on data derived from observation rather than on the predictions which might be based on the behaviour of a perfect liquid. The book deals with hydrostatics and hydro- dynamics as well as with the field of phenomena more strictly known as hydraulics. Wave theory and tidal action are also touched upon. It will thus be seen that the purview of the volume is fairly extensive, with the consequence that the treatment, in parts, is unavoidably sketchy, but, as a whole, it gives a fair presentment of a sub- ject which is beset by many complexities. One cannot help wondering why such important scientific works in France are published in paper covers, and why it is left to the reader laboriously to cut the pages. B.C. The Origin of Finger-Printing. By Sir William J. Herschel, Bart. Pp. 41. (London: Oxford University Press, 1916.) Price -with © paper covers, Is. net. i : When Sir Francis Galton issued “ Finger-Print Directories” in 1895 he inscribed the volume to Sir William J. Herschel, Bart., in the following words :—“I do myself the pleasure of dedicating this book to you, in recognition of your initiative in employing finger-prints as official signatures, nearly forty years ago, and in grateful remem- brance of the invaluable help you freely gave me when I began to study them.’’ And now, in the year 1916, fifty-eight years after he lighted “upon a discovery which promised escape from one great difficulty of administration in India,” Sir William Herschel tells the story of how our modern system of identification by means of finger-prints was born in the magistrates’ court at Jungipoor, on the upper reaches of the Hooghly. In his’ dedication to Sir Edward Henry, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir William writes as follows :—‘I am offering you this old story of the beginnings of finger- printing, by way of expressing my warm and continuous admiration of those masterly develop- ments of its original applications, whereby, first in Bengal and the Transvaal, and then in England, you have fashioned a weapon of pene- trating certainty for the sterner needs of justice.’’ There can be no doubt that England has given the world the most perfect system: of identifica- tion—identification of an individual by means of his or her finger-prints.. The .method was initiated by Herschel; it was developed and created into a system by Galton; it has been per- fected and applied by Henry. Nor ‘should it be forgotten that it was on the initiative of Mr. Asquith, when Home Secretary in the Liberal Administration of 1892~95, that the method found an early recognition at Scotland Yard. All who are interested in the use and significance of finger- prints will feel grateful to Sir William Herschel for placing on record the first steps of an im- portant development. NO. 2458, VoL. 98] NATURE [DrcEMBER 7, 1916 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.] Robert Recorde. Tue reference to the (probably) unique record of a great Welsh man of science in the Notes columns of Nature (November 2) well illustrates the uncer- tainty of the data of (even scientific) fame, and the subtle comparison of the latter to the river which sub- merges merit and floats mediocrity to its destination. It may now be well affirmed that the writer of the Notes paragraph, or the correspondent of the Western Mail, or Mr. Arthur Mee in his luminous apprecia- tion in the Nationalist of May, 1909, or even the myriad-minded Mr. Lloyd George himself, has done far less than full justice to the achieve- ments of Robert Recorde. Nor has .any of them duly underscored the fact that he was a mem- ber of our medical profession (M.D.Cantab.), in an age, too, in which the pioneers of the “‘advance- ment of science’? were mostly disciples of AZsculapius. Accordingly, inquiring readers may well be reminded that Robert Recorde scored a unique series of “ firsts in the very generation in which England tore off the swaddling-clothes of ‘‘authority’’ and stepped boldly forward to grasp the banner of intellectual empire (1510-58), and which exactly preceded that of Francis Bacon, the so-called ‘‘ Father of Modern Philosophy,” of which he knew so much less than little, but regard- ing the probable value of which he preached with something resembling prophetic inspiration. +: ’ Let the. reader who would estimate the value of popular reputation now remember that not only was, as we have just been reminded, the great Cambrian man of science the first to ‘‘use the sign = to denote equality,’ and the first who wrote in English on arithmetic and geometry respectively, and to treat the doctrine of ‘‘the sphere’’ in the same language; he was also the discoverer of the method of extracting the square root of multinomial algebraic expressions ; his ‘‘Whetstone of Witte" was the first English book to use the signs + and —; and he was “the first Briton (in all probability) who adopted the system of Coper- nicus ’’—a system which (horribile dictu) Francis Bacon remained, in the following generation, permanently unable to comprehend, just as he could neither under- stand nor accept the circulation of the blood, although he had been ‘‘puddering in physicke all his life,” and his medical adviser was William Harvey himself! His ‘“‘ Urinall of Physicke’’ survives as one of the valu- able rarities of medical literature, and contains many observations which could be utilised to save the latter- day bacteriological pathologist much trouble—and in- vention! And not only was he a pioneer in mathe- matics, physics, and medicine, he also was, as we learn from the ‘ Dictionary of National Biography,” “ deeply skilled in rhetoric, philosophy, polite literature, his- tory, cosmogony, astronomy, astrology, physic, music, mineralogy, and every branch of natural history.”’ No wonder that he found no time to thimblerig for a knighthood (but this was long before the degrading Baboo-Yahoo and Blunderboar-Bulephant creations), or that he died in gaol—not for manslaughter, ‘but. for debt, Joun Knorr. Royal Collese of Surgeons, Dublin, © ~ y November to. ———~ = — oe } | | | OSs ee Sc el e”t—— DECEMBER 7, 1916] Luminous Gentipedes. WitH reference to the paragraph in Nature of November 23 (p. 233) on luminous centipedes in France, it may be of interest if I mention that these were very frequent in the neighbourhood of Albert and Fricourt in the autumn and winter months a year ago. They appeared to be Geophilus electricus, which I had often seen glowing, particularly on mild, damp evenings in late autumn, in Surrey lanes, and some- times on garden paths in London suburbs. As the troops marched across the damp grassland to and from the trenches by night, the spots of phos- phorescence on the ground at their feet were taken for glowing match-ends, though one might occasionally hear a man from tke country refer to them as ‘ glow- worms,’”’ JT have more than once known an officer get seriously perturbed when troops were marching across a ‘danger zone and the glowing points on the ground seemed evidence that the men were disobeying the “‘no smoking” order which had been passed along the column! Luminous centipedes were also to be found in the trenches themselves. (Sergt.) F. M. Roserts.., Sutherlands Auxiliary Hospital, Reading, November 27. Searchlights. SEARCHLIGHTS are now so common that it may be of interest to record that, as might have been expected, the beam shows the presence of polarisation, if it is viewed through a Nicol prism, the line of sight through the prism being perpendicular to the direction of the beam. On rotating the prism, the part of the beam viewed changes its intensity in such a way as to show that the light reflected from it is polarised in a plane passing through the length of the beam and the eye of the observer. The best results occur, of course, when the haze reflecting the beam is thin in char- acter, its particles being small.’ In such cases the a nearly disappears for a suitable azimuth of the Nicol. C. T. WuitMett. Invermay, Hyde Park, Leeds, December 1. Columnar Ice-Crystals. AFTER the recent frost a thin layer of gravel became separated from the rest on the paths here (in the park) and on examination was found to be supported by columnar ice-crystals resembling basalt or sal-ammo- hiac in formation, ’ The columns were vertical and parallel, closely packed lead and of uniform length (about one centimetre). ‘ I should be glad if some reader would kindly explain this (to me) remarkable uniformity. A. E. Larkman. County School, Merthyr. AGRICULTURE AND THE WHEAT SUPPLY. Maas present high price of food has directed attention to the urgent need for increasing the production of wheat in this country so that we may be less dependent than at present on foreign supplies. Prior to the outbreak of war the official ‘statistics showed that we were pro- _ ducing only about one-fifth of the wheat we con- sumed. As the war came in August our home- grown supply was at its maximum, and the Board of Agriculture was able to issue a reassuring report as to the quantities in hand. But the shortage of NO. 2458, VOL. 98] | of what cultivation does to the soil. NATURE ay 269 available shipping has so affected the amounts of imported wheat that the demand has exceeded the supply, and in conséquence prices have risen. The production of wheat on a large scale in this country is by no means a simple matter. There are, broadly speaking, three factors, soil and climate, economic conditions, and labour, each of which has to be considered separately. The most fundamental way of increasing the. amount of wheat is to increase the yield per acre, and this can be done by either (a) improving the soil conditions, or (b) introducing new varieties capable of better growth than those already in use. The improvement of soil conditions is. brought about by increasing the supply of plant nutrients, i.e. artificial fertilisers, by cultivation, and in other ways. Before the war the world’s consumption of artificial fertilisers was increasing more rapidly than the supply, so that prices were going up;. this was particularly true of nitrogenous fertilisers. During the war farmers haye had a demonstration of the value of artificial fertilisers, which. will probably lead to a larger consumption after. the war. The whole trend, of the activities of the educational and advisory staffs of the agricultural colleges and other institutions is in this direction.* The newer agriculture in other countries also calls for more fertilisers: Japan, Australia, India, Africa, and Java are all importers of artificial fertilisers from Europe. It seems reasonable to anticipate, therefore, a considerable increase: in the consumption of these fertilisers provided the supply is forthcoming, and one of the most im- portant and most hopeful problems for the future is to ensure these supplies. Better cultivation of the land requires better implements, but, above all, a better understanding Research in this direction is in hand at Rothamsted and else- where, but considerably more work is wanted on the study of implements and better opportunities for testing them. The production of new varieties is another method by which yields may be increased. Soil and climatic conditions are capable of only a certain degree of modification, and it is clearly an advantage when the plant-breeder can meet the soil-improver half-way and produce a new plant better adapted than the old ones to the conditions actually obtaining. The work of the newer school of botanists seems full of promise in this direction; Prof. Biffen at Cambridge has already done a good deal, and the move of the Botanical Section of the’ British Association in appointing a special com- mittee to consider this matter is a welcome sign of their intention to attack an important and highly interesting problem. Another method for increasing the amount of home-grown wheat is to increase the area devoted to wheat either by taking in'’more land or by dis- placing some other crop already grown. Incteas- ing the ‘area of land is a favourite suggestion, but one fraught with numerous difficulties: The non-technical tourist walking over Dartmoor or 270 Bagshot Heath is very apt to ask why this land is not reclaimed and made to grow crops. The question is not a new one. Whenever war has come prices have gone up, and in the old days, when there was less regard than now for public rights, people did not hesitate to enclose any land they thought suitable. The result is that our present waste lands have already been picked over several times, and therefore only the least desirable are left. Some of the land reclaimed in older periods of high prices has gone out of cultivation and could be brought back, but not all of the wastes are suitable, even if the very troublesome questions of public and other rights could be solved. A survey is badly needed of the wastes of the country; there are no statistics giving the information needed, and the loose talk about mil- lions of acres of reclaimable land does not forward matters. A more promising direction is to displace other and less valuable crops by wheat. Of these the most suitable is grass. Mr. Middleton recently showed that the German farmer feeds 70 to 75 people per 100 acres, while the English farmer feeds 4o to 45 only. It is not that the German gets so much more per acre, but that he has two- thirds of his land in arable and only one-third in grass; while in England only one-third is arable and two-thirds is grass. Now grassland only produces about one-half as much food as arable. Many suggestions have been made for breaking up grassland. From the theoretical point of view this course is eminently sound. Unfortunately, there are grave economic objections. Grassland involves so little risk that it serves as a useful counterpoise to the larger risks of arable farming. It is of no use disguising the fact that farmers are not breaking up their grassland, and they meet every appeal with the statement that they cannot afford to do so. - Various ways of meeting their difficulty have been suggested, but as they are mainly political they need not be discussed here. This leads up to the economic factor. The farmer grows wheat for profit and not for pleasure, and when he is presented with a scheme for in- creasing his yield his first question is, ‘‘ Will it pay?” There is a limit set by soil, climate, and the plant itself, beyond which growth will not go. Our average wheat crop is 32 bushels; a good farmer will look for 40, in specially good seasons he may get 50, but 60 bushels would represent & crop he had heard about but probably never seen. There being this limit to the amount producible, the main economic factor becomes the selling: price. This is complicated by the circumstance that wheat takes many months to produce, so that a rise in price does not induce a corresponding in- crease in the supply unless there is good reason to suppose that the increase will recur when the new crop is ready. Thus wheat is now 78s. per quarter, but this circumstance is not so pow erful an incentive to an increase in area as it looks, because the wheat sown now-will not be ready for sale until October or November, 1917, by which NO. 2458, VoL. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 time the price may be down to 30s., or even less. On the other hand, a run of low prices is a power- ful deterrent for a long tithe. For years after the low prices of the early ’nineties farmers were very shy of growing wheat, and even up to the time of the war they were always, afraid that low prices.might come back. Lord Milner’s Committee proposed to overcome this difficulty by guaranteeing a minimum price to: farmers, and thus using a supply even though in particular years the arrangement might involve a charge on the national finances. It is argued that in this case the community would be better off than it is on present lines, where prices sometimes fall very low and sometimes rise considerably higher.. Of course, such a guarantee on the part of the community wouid involve a corresponding obliga~ tion on the part of the farmer, and the precise ad- justment of these obligations affords scope for con- siderable political ingenuity. : The labour question is partly, but not entirely, bound up with the question of cost. The gross return) per acre obviously fixes the amount of money the farmer can afford to spend on the crop, and of this only a portion can be allotted to labour. So long as the work is done, it is immaterial to- the consumer whether labour’s share goes to few or to many. From the labourer’s point of view, however, this is very important; and as he does not like low wages, and as, further, he can often get much higher pay on the railway or other work, no small difficulty has arisen on farms where the efficiency of the labourer is low, and where, there- fore, a good many labour-hours are rede to produce an acre of crop. This difficulty can be met by increasing the labourer’s efficiency and so reducing the number of labour-hours. Machinery can be made to help in two ways: by doing a given piece of work with fewer men and by doing it in less time. In either case the labourer gains more money, unless the machine swallows up the whole. It is certain that considerable possibilities are opened up here. To take a single instance: On an ordinary farm the ploughing of an acre of land takes one man and two horses a whole day, or on some soils it needs — aman, a boy, and three horses. In the writer’s. district the usual rate of pay for such work is about 3s. for the man, and normal prices and yields would not justify much more. But with a motor-plough one man can plough three or four acres per day. The cost of the implement is more than that of a plough and two horses, so that more has to be allowed for interest and depreciation. But there is still a sufficient balance left to justify the payment of a higher wage to the man,, and therefore to induce him to remain on the land. It is impossible to foretell the extent of the revolution caused by the internal-combustion engine. It has given us motor-cars and aero- planes, and thus revolutionised travel by land and by air, and now it is being applied on the farm. For the moment it is being treated as if it were a strange kind of horse, and simply hitched on to the old horse implements. But it is conceivable OO common. knowledge. DECEMBER 7, 1916] that some new kind of implement altogether is needed in order to get the best out of this engine. Experiments are sadly needed on this problem. None of the agricultural experiment stations -are taking the matter up at present because of the cost and other difficulties, but it needs to be done. None of these difficulties are insuperable; the various research institutions which now exist in this country can attack the technical problems with considerable hope of success. The economic pro- blems, however, require different treatment ; above all they require to be approached from the point of view of the business man rather than from that of the party politician. The first thing needed is to decide the import- _ ance of home-grown food: whether it is vitally important to the community or simply highly desir- able. If it is only desirable, things can be left as they are, because agencies are already at work that will take the farmer so far as he feels dis- posed to go with present high costs of produc- tion and the risk of a slump in prices in 1917. If, on the other hand, a large supply of home- grown food is vitally important, then our present methods must be modified so as to aim at maxi- mum-crop production regardless of possible low prices in 1917. At present the farmer is invited to bear the whole of this risk, and with the best will in the world many feel that he cannot do so; it is lack not of patriotism, but of capital that bars the way. The remedy might, and pos- sibly would, involve making agriculture a con- trolled industry, but, at any rate, it would enable big unified schemes of crop production to be put into operation. E. J. Russet. THE JEWELRY TRADE IN WAR-TIME. oh jewelry trade is very largely one of luxury, and consequently serves as an extremely sensitive indicator of the kind of weather the barque of State has encountered. In the bright days of prosperity people are apt to buy jewels: in the dark days of adversity they are no less apt to sell or pawn them. It is not surprising that at the outbreak of war even the most optimistic of jewellers were filled with the gloomiest foreboding's as to the fate the future held in store for their business unless hostilities. were soon brought to a satisfactory close. The war has, however, lasted far longer than was anticipated at the beginning by all save a’ few with exceptional depth of know- ledge, and it is possible now to ascertain how far those forebodingss were fulfilled. The question, “ What is the state of the jewelry trade in days of war?” may, as regards the United States and, to some extent, Great Britain, be answered from the report on the ‘“ Production of Precious Stones for the year 1915,” which, as in former years, has been contributed to Mineral ~ Industry} by the well-known gem-expert, Dr. G. F. The answer agrees with what is within The exceptional prosperity which the war has brought to areas engaged in 1 Vol. xxiv., pp. 591-613, 1916. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Com- pany, Inc. ; London: Hill Publishing Co., Ltd.) NO. 2458, VOL. 98] Kunz. NATURE 271 | the manufacture of munitions is reflected in the trade in precious stones done there. Thus, we read that in May, 1916—Dr. Kunz does not adhere rigidly to the year with which he is sup- posed to deal—upwards of five million dollars’ worth of precious stones were imported into the United States—nearly three times the amount in the corresponding month of the previous year; in fact, all records were broken, even for the “boom” period of 1906. Again, as regards our own country, it is stated :— It is worth noting as one of the curious effects of the war in London trade that the present demand for cheap diamond rings, such as are sold by East End jewellers, is phenomenally large. This is due to the exception- ally high wages earned by many British workers in the special industries, and also to their inclination toward free spending of their money. On the other hand, the demand for the larger diamonds has fallen off in England, since the wealthy classes have suffered a very considerable decline of income, due to industrial derangement and, above all, to heavy taxation. In Birmingham also the trade in low-priced diamond rings is exceedingly brisk. Whether the picture thus outlined is strictly true for Great Britain as a whole we question. We believe that there is a great shortage of labour, not only owing to the requirements of the Army, but because so many of the skilled workers have been drafted into factories, their training having been found to fit them for many of the delicate operations in the manufacture of munitions. Nevertheless, the jewellers will perhaps go so far as to admit that things are very much better at this stage of the war than might have been anticipated beforehand. Since diamonds are of such great importance for working the hard steels largely used in muni- tions, stringent precautions are taken by Great Britain to prevent stones, either cut or rough, from falling into hostile hands. Dr. Kunz prints the guarantees, to the effect that the diamonds will not be exported, directly or indirectly, to any country at war with Great Britain, which before the release of the package in question have to be signed before the British Consul-General by importers into the United States, The report consists of two parts, each of about the same length, the first dealing with general points, and the second with particular species of precious stones. We notice in the former many interesting or curious points in addition to those already referred to. Thus, we are told that before the war much attention was being given in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin to colour-harmony in the wear- ing of jewels; apparently not in London—are we therefore to infer that a lower degree of taste prevails there? The lozenge-shape of cutting so popular for emeralds has been applied to diamonds with good results. The famous gem-district at Pala, San Diego County, California, has yielded magnificent crystals of rubellite weighing as much as.2 to 4 lb. each. Dr. Kunz boasts that the United States to-day possesses greater collections ‘of precious stones than any other nation, and 272 instances the collections in the American Museum of Natural. History at New York, the Field Museum at Chicago, the’ National Museum at Washington, the New York State Museum at Albany, the Golden Gate Museum at San Fran- cisco, and the Public Museum at Oakland. It is ‘certainly an extensive list, but possibly: the col- lections in London and Edinburgh will, for real scientific interest, bear comparison with any of them. F As an indication of trade conditions it is men- tioned that the demand for diamonds has increased .so much that by February of this year the Diamond Syndicate had advanced the price for rough stones about go per cent., and of cut stones be- tween a carat and 5 carats in weight about 21 per cent. Small stones under a carat in size were scarcely affected, no doubt in order to meet the competition of the stones, which are nearly always small, from the fields in what was German South- West Africa. It is stated that many diamond- cutting establishments have been opened in London by Belgian refugees. The omission of ruby from the species of precious stones considered is significant; we be- lieve its fortunes as a gem have been severely affected by the comparative success of the synthetic stone. Sapphires, on the other hand, have prospered, and prices have risen. The trade in the Queensland stones appears to have been brought to a standstill by the war, because all the stones were cut in Germany. Hitherto com- paratively little in detail has been known of the famous emerald mines in Colombia; it is interest- ing, therefore, to learn that a careful survey of the district has recently been published by Dr. J. E. Pogue. STATE AID FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. Pan the Institution of Civil Engineers on Friday last, December 1, the Marquess of Crewe, Chairman of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, with mem- bers of the Committee and of the Advisory Council to the Committee, received a deputation from the Board of Scientific’ Societies. Sir. J. J. Thomson, president of the Royal Society, in introducing the deputation, referred to the functions of the board, which had been formed to promote co-operation be- tween those interested respectively in pure and applied science. The deputation wished to urge the necessity for further grants in aid of research, both in pure science and in its applications to industry. It was often difficult to foresee, at the time a re- search in pure science was carried on, what its ulti- mate applications might be. The Réntgen rays, dis- covered incidentally in a purely physical investi- gation, but now of inestimable value in connection with. surgery, furnished an instance. Therefore men who devoted. themselves to such researches, with little prospect of immediate personal benefit, should receive from the State sufficient assistance to enable them to do their work in comfort. The » = “The Emerald Deposits of Muzo, Colombia,” Bull. Amer. Inst. Min. Eng., May, 1916. NO. 2458, VoL. 98] NATURE followed by an omission to Sow any seed. Sir M. FitzMaurice, president of the Institution . [DECEMBER 7, 1916 neglect of pure science might be compared with the ploughing and manuring of a piece of land, of Civil Engineers, supported Sir J. J. Thomson, and. expressed the hope that research would be conducted in a more systematic manner in ‘the future than it had been in the past. as Prof. H. B. Baker referred to the importance of chemical research in industry. It would’ be found that chemical processes formed the basis of many of the most important national industries. Lord Crewe, replying as Chairman of the Com- mittee of the Privy Council for Scientific and In- dustrial Research, said that increasing attention had been lately devoted to the industrial aspects © of research. It had now become evident that the work of the Advisory Council could no longer be regarded as an annexe to the Board of Education. The Government had therefore decided to form a new department, presided over by the Committee — of Council. ~The Government also recognised the need for further financial assistance for this work, and desired to encourage the application of research to the leading industries of the country on a large scale. It was clear that wealthy in- dustries, which might naturally expect to derive direct profit from researches in their province, should be willing to ‘deffay part of the expendi- ture involved, and the Council was endeavouring to bring about a scheme of co-operation with the chief industries for developing researches of this nature. What they desired to see was the forma- tion of trade associations which would survey the conditions in their respective industries and decide upon and initiate desirable researches. Such associations should work under carefully selected committees of direction, including some leaders in the industry concerned, men of science, and also representatives of the skilled workers in the different trades. > In addition to industrial research of this kind, of direct and immediate value to industry, there would also be other broader researches of great national value, but not offering immediate pros- pects of profits to individuals, which would form fit subjects for Government support. In view of the varied conditions under which co-operation in these different classes of researches would be car- ried on, it was difficult to assess the amount of money required in any particular year, and in the circumstances it was impracticable to proceed by annual estimate. The Chancellor of the Ex- chequer was therefore prepared to advise the Government to devote a large sum to cover opera- tions during the next five years, on a scale which would enable them to spend four, and perhaps five, times as much on such co-operative industrial re- search as had been spent for the whole purposes of research by Vote hitherto. : The Chancellor of the Exchequer had also de- cided that, in order to encourage firms to make generous contributions, money devoted to re- search, on specified terms, will be regarded as “working expenses,” and will thus be free from DEcEMBER 7, 1916] NATURE 273 income tax and excess profits tax. | Money so allotted by traders must be devoted to a research or to an association for research under partial State control. ; Speaking next on the subject of technical edu- cation, Lord Crewe said there had been confer- ences with local authorities with the view of bring- ing the conditions under which public money was granted to educational institutions more up to date. -The new regulations would simplify ad- ministration and stiffen instruction. Special in- creases would be made in the Estimates of the Board of Education to assist local authorities, and improved arrangements would be made for the training of teachers and for scholarships for selected industrial students. There: would also be (in addition to the block sum to cover five years’ expenditure mentioned above) an annual Vote in the Estimates for various purposes, and a sum would be set aside to meet cases in which assistance was required by the in- dividual worker, or by professional societies which stood in need of funds to carry on research work. Sir J. J. Thomson, on behalf of the deputation, _ thanked Lord Crewe for his address. The following official statement has been issued as to the constitution of the new department :— The Government have decided to establish a separate Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for Great Britain and Ireland under the Lord President of the Council, with the President of the Board of Educa- tion as vice-president. They have also decided, sub- ject to the consent of Parliament, to place a large sum of money at the disposal of the new department to be used as a fund for the conduct of research for the benefit of the national industries on a co-operative basis. The Board of Inland Revenue have decided, with the approval of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that no objection shall be offered by their surveyors of taxes to the allowance, as a working expense for income-tax purposes, of contributions by traders to industrial associations which may be formed for the sole purpose of scientific research for the benefit of the various trades; and the allowance would be equally applicable as regards traders’ contributions specifically earmarked to the sole purpose of the research section of an adapted existing association. In both cases the allowance would be subject to cer- tain conditions, e.g. the association or the research section to be under Government supervision and the trader’s contribution to be an out-and-out payment, made from his trade profits and giving him no pro- prietary interest in the property of the association, etc. In order to enable the department to hold the new fund and any other money or property for research purposes, a Royal Charter has been granted to the official members of the Committee of the Privy Coun- cil for Scientific and Industrial Research under the title of the ‘‘ Imperial Trust for the Encouragement of Scientific and Industrial Research.’’ The trust is em- powered “‘to accept, hold, and dispose of money or other personal property in furtherance of the objects for which it has been established, including sums voted by Parliament to that end.” The trust can take and hold land, and can ‘‘accept any trusts, whether sub- ject to special conditions or not, in furtherance of the said objects.” : A substantial gift has already been made to the No. 2458, VoL. 98] trust by two members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for the conduct of a research:in mechanical engineering to be approved by the department in the hope that this example will be followed by other mem- bers of the institution. : Mr. H. Frank Heath, C.B., has been. appointed permanent secretary of the new department, to whom all correspondence should be addressed until December 31 next at the offices of the Board of Education, White- hall. On and after January 1, 1917,. all correspond- ence should be addressed to the Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Great George Street, Westminster, S.W. NOTES. Prors. Paut Parxteveé, of Paris, and Vito Volterra, of Rome, have been elected honorary members of the Royal Institution. : THE sum of troool. has been left tg the Paris Academy of Medicine by Dr. Magnan, a former presi- dent of the academy, for the foundation of a triennial prize for the best work on a subject relating to psychiatry. A COMPETITIVE exhibition of artificial limbs is to be held in Bologna in February next, and the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute of Bologna, under the: auspices of which the exhibition is to take place, offers a prize of 2o0ol. in connection with it. A NEW medical periodical entitled Archives médicales belges is to be published at the beginning of next year. It will contain reports of the medical work done by exiled Belgians, and be issued by the medical de- partment of the Belgian War Ministry. Mr. F. W. Lancuester, the new president of the Junior Institution of Engineers, will deliver his in- augural address to the institution on Monday, Decem- ber 11, on ‘Industrial Engineering : Present Position and Post-War Outlook.” A COMMITTEE has been appointed to promote a memo- rial at the Middlesex Hospital to Mr. F. Clare Mel- hardo, late secretary-superintendent of the hospital. The memorial is to take the form of the raising of a fund for the permanent endowment of the Bland- Sutton Institute of Pathology. ApMIRAL Sir Henry Jackson, K.C.B., F.R.S., First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, has been appointed to the vacant post of President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and has been succeeded as First Sea Lord by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, K.C.B. WE regret to announce the death, on November 30, at a nursing home in London, of Prof. J. Wrightson, president of the College of Agriculture, Downton (1880-1906), honorary professor of agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and professor of agriculture and agricultural. chemistry in the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, from 1882 to 1898. Dr. Eric MjOserG, assistant in the Entomological Department of the Swedish State Museum, has re- ceived leave of absence for three years in order to prepare and conduct an expedition to the interior of New Guinea. His intention is to penetrate into the country by aeroplane, taking as his starting point one of the small islands in Geelwink Bay, at the north- ~west end of the country. Dr. Mjéberg recently left for America to carry out a lecture tour by which he hopes to raise large sums to cover some of the heavy expenses of his expedition. ; 274 NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 THe annual meeting of the Hakluyt Society was held last year on November 23 at the house ‘of the Royal Geographical Society, This year marks the ter- centenary of Hakluyt’s death, and the president of the society, Mr. Albert Gray, in the course of a com- memorative address, remarked that investigations are being made for the purpose of discovering Hakluyt’s birthplace. Nothing seems to be known of his father or mother, but there is a monument to his wife in Ludlow Church. The society hopes to find the original manuscript of a treatise by Hakluyt that was printed in America from a copy. Tue Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine has been established in Melbourne in connection with the Melbourne Hos- pital, through the generosity of the trustees of the Walter and Eliza Hall Fund. The institute: is con- trolled by a board representing the trustees, the Uni- versity of Melbourne, and the Melbourne: Hospital. A spacious building, including a basement and _ three stories, has been erected at a cost of more than 10,0001, in immediate connection with the pathological department of the hospital. The hospital itself~ has recently been entirely rebuilt, and’ now contains 325 beds. Applications for the office of director of the institute are being invited through the Agent-General for Victoria, from whom full information may be obtained, Dr. Euctne L. Doyen, the well-known | Parisian surgeon, died on November 21, aged fifty-seven. He was the author of a number of surgical: treatises, the better known being ‘Traitement’ Chirurgical des Affections de 1’Estomac et du Duodenum’”’- (1895), “Technique Chirurgicale’’ (1897), and ‘‘Atlas de Microbiologie’’ (with _ M, G. Roussel, 1897). His best-known work, however, is ‘‘ Etiologie et Traite- ment du Cancer” (1904). In 1901 he discovered a ‘micro-organism in cancerous growths which ‘he re- garded as the cause of such formations, and named it Micrococcus neoformans. He introduced . serum treatment for cancer, and clAimed he had discovered both the cause and cure of this terrible .disease—a claim which other medical men, with the best will in “the world, have never been able to confirm. At an ‘early date (1898) he utilised the kinematograph as a means of demonstrating his technique and his per- sonality to medical students. He was an enthusiastic worker, but never succeeded in gaining scientific sup- port for his many claims and theories. Capr, H, Farrtey Marris describes a new test for typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, based upon the effect of atropine on the rate of the heart-beat. In a well person, or in one suffering from a number of diseases other than those named, atropine causes an increase of the pulse-rate by about twenty beats or more per minute. Should the pulse-rate increase only ten beats or less, infection by one of these diseases is sug- gested; if the-increase is more than ten and less than twenty beats per minute the interpretation is uncer- tain. The method of applying the test is as follows. At least one hour after a meal should elapse. - The patient should be horizontal and remain perfectly quiet. The pulse-rate is then taken and recorded minute by minute for about ten minutes. Then 1/32 grain of atropine sulphate is injected hypo- dermically, and after an interval of twenty-five minutes the pulse-rate is again taken minute by minute until it is obvious that any rise which may have followed the injection of atropine has occurred and that the pulse- rate is falling again to the lower level—fifteen to twenty minutes may be necessary (British Medical Journal, November 25, p. 717). NO. 2458, vor. 98] ‘Tue ninety-first illustrated Christmas course | juvenile lectures, founded at the Royal Institution 1826 by Michael Faraday, will™be delivered this year by Prof, Arthur Keith, his title being “The Hu Machine which All Must Work.’’ The following are among the lecture arrangements before Easter ;— eg the C.S. Sherrington, six lectures on the old brain and new brain and their meaning, and pain and its neryous basis; Prof. W. E. Dalby, two lectures on the struc- ture of metals; Prof. J. W. Gregory, three lectures on geological war problems; Prof. F, G. Donnan, three lectures on the mechanism of chemical change; two lectures by Prof. E. S. Prior; Prof. A, Dendy, two lectures on sponges: a study in evolutionary biology; Prof. J. A, Fleming, two lectures on modern improve- ments in telegraphy and telephony; Mr, A. R. Hinks, © two lectures onthe. lakes’ and mountains of Central Africa; Mr. Daniel Jones, two lectures on the science of speech; Dr..C. W. Saleeby, two lectures on Impe- rial eugenics; Mr, Stephen Graham, two lectures on Russian idealism.. The Friday evening meetings will commence.on January 19, when Sir James Dewar will deliver a discourse on soap-bubbles of long duration. Sir. Ratpw PayNe-GaLttwey, who died on November 24, at. sixty-eight years of age, was a very famous wildfowler, and it was on his knowledge of the habits and haunts of wildfowl, gained during many winters spent in their pursuit, that his claim to the title of - an ornithologist chiefly rests. -In his knowledge of the habits of these birds as observed by a fowler (who has the best possible chances of observation) he was perhaps unrivalled. The various kinds of fowl have many little peculiarities, all of which have to be humoured, so to say, if the fowler is to get within striking distance of them. Hence the necessity of a knowledge of the general appearance in the distance, distinguishing calls, and different flight of fowl, and the endless ther: characteristics of which no one but those who in winter’ have hied them to the coast with its myriads of wild, wary birds can have any idea, Sir Ralph’s most important book, ‘‘The Wild- fowler in Ireland," is full of out-of-the-way informa- tion of the kind to delight. the naturalist, and as it was begun at sea with a heavy gale blowing there is a certain freshness about it. ‘The Book of Duck Decoys,’’ an exhaustive worl, and the only one on the subject, also contains a good deal about the natural history of ducks and the ways of the birds. For in this kind of fowling the birds are led rather than pursued: His other best-known work is the ‘ Letters to Young Shooters,’’ the third series of which con- tains a useful description of all the wildfowl met with in the British Islands. Sir Ralph earned the gratitude — of those interested in the former state of our avifauna by having the ancient sign of the ‘Dotterel Inn” (which stands on the Yorkshire wolds) restored, after it had been sadly ill-used by a local artist who had repaired it. ; WE regret to announce the death of M. Emile F. Maupas, librarian of the National Library in Algiers, in his seventy-fourth year. M. Maupas devoted his spare time to zoological researches, the results of which appeared in eighteen papers issued between the years 1876 and 1901. His memoirs on the multi- plication and conjugation of ciliate protozoa (1883, 1888, 1889) made his name well Ixnown to all students of zoology. By careful and laborious experiments he determined the rates of fission of about twenty species of ciliates under varying conditions of food and tem- perature. He found that in his cultures—each of which was begun with a single ciliate—there occurred, after a certain number of fissions had taken place, a gradual reduction’ of the ciliary apparatus and a de- ‘ of a wooden club, DECEMBER 7, 1916] NATURE 275 generation of the nuclei, which he regarded as indica- tions of senescence, leading to cessation of fission and death. - If, however, before such degeneration took place in any given culture, individuals of the ‘same species, but of different origin, were introduced, con- jugation took place. M. Maupas traced the nuclear interchange and the complete reorganisation of the nuclear apparatus, and concluded that this syngamic process determined rejuvenescence. Largely on account of his work, conjugation has been regarded as the sole panacea for protoplasmic old age and death. M. Maupas published, in 1890-91, brief accounts of his investigations on reproduction and sex- determination in rotifers, and in 1900-01 detailed researches on the moulting, encystment, and reproduc- tion of nematode worms, in which, in addition to the descriptive matter, there are discussions on points of great general interest, e.g. that the dicecious, and not the hermaphrodite, is the primitive condition, and that sex is determined in the: egg very soon after fertilisation, if not earlier. For these papers on nema- todes M, Maupas was awarded a prize by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1901. Dr, E. W. Scriprure recently read to the Patho- logical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine a communication on registration of speech sounds in the diagnosis of nervous djseases, in which he described a method of recording speech sounds in the early stages of certain diseases of the central nervous sys- tem, such as sclerosis, and he claims that the tracings so obtained are almost an infallible mode of diagnosis. The method has been carried out in various institu- tions in London, It is evident that very slight modi- fications of the articulating mechanism may thus be detected, and it is remarkable that such modifications are characteristic of different diseases; thus an addi- tional ‘method has been placed at the disposal of clinical physicians, and this has come from the region of experimental phonetics. Prors. Sata and Verga deal withthe diagnosis of the peripheral nerve-lesions in 150 cases of gun-shot wounds in a paper just received (“Le lesioni dei nervi periferici per ferite d’arma da fuoco,” Memorie del R. Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, vol, xxi.—xii. della serie iii., fasc. x.; Milano: U, Hoepli). The authors lay stress upon the practicability of ascertain- ing, by study of the disturbances of skin and bone sensation, and: by the electrical reactions of the muscle and nerves, the precise seat of the nerve-lesion, and to some extent whether it involves rupture of struc- tural continuity of the nerve or strangulation of it by cicatricial fibrous tissue. The large part played in the causation of paresis, whether of motion or sensation, by cicatricial bands constricting otherwise uninjured nerve-trunks in such cases is dealt with at length and fully illustrated. The utility of testing at the time of the operation the exposed nerve-trunk with faradism applied by platinum-pointed electrodes, as in the physiological laboratory, is dwelt upon, and shown to be productive of no harm to the nerve-trunks. The operative procedures for freeing nerve-trunks from fibrous bands compressing them, and for repairing disrupted nerve-trunks, are discussed. A full report of the success of the treatment adopted is promised for a later paper, In the November issue of Man Mr, H, D. Skinner traces an interesting link of connection’ between ‘the Melanesian and New Zealand cultures in a description of three characteristic Maori weapons, known as the Hani, Tewha-tewha, and the Pou-whenua—all forms In one form. the carving at the lower end has been boldly designed and finely executed NO. 2458, VOL. 98] | with stone tools, The point represents a human tongue ornamented with scrolls; above it are the teeth and upper lip, above which again may be discerned a diminutive nose, eyes obliquely set and inlaid with circlets of shell, and a beetling brow with conventional forelock, With these forms the writer compares a paddle club from the Solomon Islands, from which, compared with the ordinary paddle of the same group, the difference is slight, and every intermediate grada- tion of shape might be figured. From these facts he arrives at the conclusion that we are justified in claim- ing a Melanesian ancestry for the two-edged clubs of Rarotonga and New Zealand. The question arises; Did the three Maori forms differentiate themselves in New Zealand, or must their point of origin be placed oversea? From a consideration of the facts the writer reaches the conclusion that the differentiation of the Tewha-tewha form had already begun in Melanesia, THE activities of the United States Board of Agri- culture cover a wide field, and, happily, their behests are promptly attended to. Originally the preserva- tion of wild birds was undertaken purely from the point of view of economic zoology. During recent years, however, the Board has taken over the charge of numerous and extensive reservations for the pro- tection of birds to save them from the ravages of the plume-hunter and the egg-collector, and they have done magnificent work in this direction. How great are the difficulties of the Board, and how wide its powers, may be gathered from the statement in the American Museum Journal for October to the effect that news reached the officials that a Japanese poach- ing vessel had been seen in the neighbourhood of the Hawaiian Islands, where a reservation has been estab- lished, At once the Revenue-cutter Thetis was ordered to cruise to the bird islands. In due time the vessel returned, bringing twenty-three Japanese feather-hunters, captured in their work of destruction, In the hold of the vessel were stored 259,000 pairs of wings, 24 tons of baled feathers, and several large cases of skins, for which the Japanese, had they escaped with their booty, would have realised more than a hundred thousand dollars, In Florida, we are glad to learn, the white egrets are slowly recover- ing from the ruthless slaughter to which they have been subjected, though the warden charged with their protection goes in daily peril of his life from desperate and lawless agents of the plume-trade. THE course of lectures on “The Origin and Evolu- tion of Life upon the Earth,” delivered by Prof. H, F. Osborn before the Washington Academy of Sciences earlier in the year, is now being made available to a far wider public through the medium of the Scientific Monthly, The October number contains the first lec- ture of part iv. Herein the contrasts between plant and animal evolution and the origin of animals are discussed. The process of the differentiation of the in- vertebrate types of to-day, it is urged, ‘began in pre- Cambrian times, and among aquatic types, of which we have as yet very imperfect knowledge. The evolution of the terrestrial forms began with the Devonian, when the increasing verdure of the land invited the invasion of life from the waters, the first conquest of the terrestrial environment being attained by the scorpions, shellfish, worms, and insects. This is an instance of the constant dispersion of new animal forms into new environments for their food supply, the chief instinctive cause of all migration. This impulse is constantly acting and reacting throughout geologic time with the migration of the environ- ment.’’ This is an interpretation to which some at any rate will demur. Rether migration seems, in the first place, to’ come about as a result of over- 276 population, when, to avoid competition, the individuals at the periphery of the range of the particular species in distress are compelled to extend farther afield. But be this as it may, these lectures provide most stimulat- ing food for thought, and in their present form they have the further advantage of being most profusely illustrated. Tue failure of the North American wheat crop this | gests, however, that the methods of the industry have year is causing some anxiety in the West Indies, as the islands rely entirely on this source of supply. It seems doubtful if the usual quantities of flour will be available, and the question of possible substitutes is receiving official attention. The Agricultural News (Barbados) of October 21 suggests that the cultivation of maize, Guinea corn, cassava, and sweet potatoes should be extended. All these foodstuffs are already grown in the islands, but, in contrast with the im- ported cereals, none of them will keep without special precautions; the sweet potato, the principal vegetable of the people, is particularly perishable. As regards corn, the difficulty can be overcome by drying, and the Governments of Antigua and St. Vincent have established kiln driers working on a co-operative basis. If the shortage of wheat flour should become serious, the rice crop of British Guiana will have to be drawn on to a greater extent than it is already, and the cultivation of this cereal, which is at present a large industry in Trinidad, may be further developed. In view of the shortage of potash by reason of the cutting off of the supply from German sources, two papers recently issued by the United States Geological Survey are now of especial interest. The first, ‘“Evaporation of Brine from Searles Lake, California” (Professional Paper 98-A), records experiments by Mr. W. B. Hicks designed to discover an economical ‘method of extracting the potash from the brine of Searles Lake. The latter is a bed of crystalline salts, containing in its interstices a brine which carries about 2-1 per cent. of potassium, probably in the form of chloride, sulphate, carbonate, and borate. The brine was fractionally evaporated and crystallised, the de- posits formed during evaporation being kept separate from those resulting on cooling. As a result of a series of seven such evaporations and crystallisations, the author shows that only 8 per cent. of the potassium in the brine is separated, during either the evapora- tion or the subsequent cooling, when this is concen- trated to one-half of its original volume. When the brine thus concentrated is further evaporated to about one-fifteenth of its original volume and cooled, more than 7o per cent. of the total potassium present is deposited, whilst 12-13 per cent. is left in solution. The second paper, entitled ‘‘Experiments on the Ex- traction of Potash from Wyomingite” (Professional Paper 98-D), is by Mr. Roger C. Wells! Wyomingite is a lava composed largely of the mineral: leucite, which is a silicate of alumina and potash. The sub- stance was subjected to levigation with water after crushing, was extracted with water in the presence of gypsum, was heated alone and with gypsum, sulphuric acid, potassium, hydrogen sulphate, alunite, calcium carbonate, calcium and magnesium chlorides, ammonium sulphate, and a bittern respectively. The results indicate that the most promising method would be to heat the wyomingite with so per cent. of its weight of alunite (a naturally occurring sulphate of alumina and potash found in the same neighbourhood as wyomingite), whereby 70 per cent. of the total potash (55 per cent. of that in the wyomingite) is rendered .soluble. z A GENERAL survey of the coke industry of, New South Wales is made by L. F. Harper and J. C. H. Minguye in Paper No. 23 of the New South Wales NO. 2458, VOL. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Chem- ical analyses and physical properties are given for all types of coal found in New South Wales, and also unusually complete analyses of the coal ashes. Coke burning has been established in the colony for half a century, and is an important and growing industry, the production having risen from 304,800 tons in 1914 to 417,753 tons in 1915. A perusal of this report sug- not kept pace with modern coke-oven practice. Pre- liminary coal-washing is carried on to a very limited extent, although the ash content of the cokes is very high, and there is some laboratory evidence that wash- ing would be serviceable. The sulphur in the coals and cokes is quite remarkably low, and might be even lower after washing. Unfortunately the survey has not included nitrogen content. The coking properties of the coals are good. A modified beehive oven is most commonly used for coking, rectangular in plan, but with arched roof. The coke is discharged by a ram and quenched outside the ovens. Heating is effected by burning part of the cole-oven gas in ex- ternal flues, and in some plants the waste heat is collected for power production. The ordinary beehive oven is also in use, but only one modern by-product plant is in full operation (since 1915)—a battery of regenerative Semet-Solvay ovens at Newcastle, N.S.W., with semi-direct ammonia recovery and a benzol plant. Another battery of ovens of the Coppée type has been built in the neighbourhood, but trouble with refractory materials seems to have hindered its operation. Re- sults obtained in the recovery ovens suggest that coking for by-products should have good prospects; . the yields are stated as 30 lb. of ammonium sulphate, 3 gals. of benzol, 8 gals. of tar, 12,600 cub. ft. of gas (585 B.T.U.) per ton of coal. It is believed that these results may give a practical object-lesson on the possi- bilities of by-product coking in the colony, and do something to destroy the prejudices and conservatism evidenced by the general use of older, simpler, and cruder types of plant. SciENTIFIC PaPER No. 294, issued by the U.S, Bureau of Standards, gives an account of the accurate re- determination of the freezing point of mercury made at the bureau by Mr. R. M. Wilhelm. Temperatures ‘were measured by means of three platinum thermo- meters standardised at 0° C., 100° C., and 444-6° C. About 40 c.c. of mercury were placed in a glass tube of 2 cm. inside diameter, and into it the bulb and a considerable length of the stem of the platinum ther- mometer were inserted. The mercury tube was sur- rounded by another glass tube of 3 cm. inside dia- meter, which was placed in a well-stirred freezing bath. In making a determination the temperature of the bath was maintained either a little above or a little below the freezing point of the mercury, and the slow change of temperature of the mercury owing — to the transmission of heat across the layer of air between the two glass tubes was observed. At the melting- or freezing-point the temperature remained constant for ten to twenty minutes. Three different samples of mercury were used, and after purification gave identical results. The final result of the whole series of measurements is —38-873° C. _ Tue Journal of the Franklin Institute for Novem- ber contains an account of some interesting work on riveted joints by Mr. Cyril Batho, of the McGilf University. . By means of the principle of least work it is shown how a series of equations may be obtained for any riveted joint, giving the loads carried by each of the rivets in terms of a quantity K, which depends upon the manner in which work is stored in, or by the action of, the rivets. A large number of experi- ments have been made with the object of determining | | ‘DeEcEMBER 7, 191 6] ‘the distribution of the stresses; from the results of ‘these the author deduces that the extensometer measurements on the outer surfaces of the cover-plates ‘of a riveted joint are sufficient for the determination of the mean stresses in the plates, and that the parti- ‘tion of the load among the rivets may be determined from such measurements. All the experiments tend to show ‘that friction does not play an important part, “but further experiments are necessary on this point. Experiments on a number of specimens having a ‘single line of rivets gave results iff close agreement with the theoretical considerations. An empirical rule ‘for the value of K is given for joints similar to the experimental specimens. We can commend a careful “study of this important article to any who are in- terested in riveted joints. Tue Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, founded _by the late Sir William Turner in 1866, will in future appear under the title Journal of Anatomy, and will be the official organ of the Anatomical Society of _Great Britain and Ireland. In the preface to the first part of the fifty-first volume Prof. R. Howden, president of the society, remarks that until the year 1878 the journal was the organ of the two sciences, anatomy and physiology. In that year the Journal ‘of Physiology was established, and thereafter physio- logical papers became few and far between in the joint journal, and finally ceased to appear. It has therefore been deemed advisable to drop the words ‘‘ and Physio- logy” from the title. The editors of the Journal of Anatomy are Profs. A. Macalister, A. Thomson, A. Keith, and A. Robinson. _ THE catalogue of publishers’ remainders just issued by Mr. H. J. Glaisher, 55 Wigmore Street, W., is full of interest. The works offered for sale at greatly reduced prices are new unless otherwise stated, and cover a wide field. Very many of the books deal with scientific subjects. Among them we notice :—New- ton’s A Dictionary of Birds’’; Galton’s ‘‘ Memories of my Life”; Spence’s ‘Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes”; Mill’s ‘The Siege of the South Pole’; Clerke’s ‘The System of the Stars” and “A Popular History of Astronomy’; Cooke’s ‘ Introduc- ‘tion to the Study of Fungi,” “‘ British Edible Fungi,” and “ Handbook to British Hepaticze ’?; Smith’s “‘ The Life of Sir Joseph Banks’; Bonhote’s “Birds of ‘Britain’’; Amundsen’s ‘‘The North-West Passage”’; “The Angler’s Library,” five vols. ; Gadow’s “Through ‘Southern Mexico”; Scherren’s ‘‘ The Zoological Society .of London.” The catalogue should appeal to readers ‘of Natur in search of standard works at low prices. Ow a previous occasion the attention of readers was directed to the excellence of the pads of ‘‘ Acribo”’ sec- tional paper supplied by Mr. W. H. Harling, 47 Fins- bury Pavement, E.C. He is now able to provide the paper printed on linen bank in three scales, and in ‘this strong form the popularity of such a convenient, accurate, and British-made product should be in- creased. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Zopracat Licut.—Mr. Denning writes us that displays of this light were surprisingly intense on the mornings of December 4 and 5. He has observed it on many hundreds of occasions, both at the morning and evening apparitions, but never remembers to have seen it more conspicuous. It stretched upwards from about E. by S., and its fainter limits were just: trace- able to the stars Regulus and y Leonis in’ the Sickle of Leo. It was best seen at about 5.40 a.m., ‘and as Regulus passed the meridian at Bristol at 5-23 and 5.19 on the mornings mentioned, the light must have extended over a considerable arc. NO. 2458, VoL. 98] NATURE ‘277 A New Comer.—A: telegram from Prof. Pickering, ‘received through the Centralstelle at Copenhagen on November 26, announces the discovery of anew comet by the Rev. Joel Metcalf on November 21. At Green- wich time 13h. 369m. on that day the R.A.. of the comet was 3h. 38m., and the N.P.D. 71° 27'. No indication of the brightness or motion of the comet is given. The above position is located about 5° south of the Pleiades, which are. now visible throughout the night. THE SEARCH FOR A TRANSNEPTUNIAN PLANET.—Not- withstanding the failure of nearly half a century’s systematic search for a planet beyond Neptune, M. A. Borelly, of the Marseilles Observatory, is still hopeful that such a planet may be discovered. The comet- seeker which he has mainly employed in his work on small planets has permitted the observation of stars down to the 12th magnitude, and M. Borelly is now inclined to think that the planet sought for must be of less brightness than this. He believes it possible, however, that the planet might be detected with the aid of the photographic chart of the heavens, which includes stars as faint as the 14th magnitude. If the period of the planet be a little more than double that of Neptune its motion would only be 1° per annum, or about 10” per day, so that the short exposures which suffice to show the motion of planets between Mars and Jupiter would not be effective. The occurrence of what may be called Transneptunian comets, including the comets of 1532, 1661, 1862 (III.), 1843 (I.), 1880: (I.), 1882 (II.), is regarded as an argument in favour of the existence of planets outside the orbit of Neptune (Jour. des Observateurs, vol. i., No. 12). SOLAR PROMINENCES IN 1916.—Admirable records of solar prominences are now being obtained under the direction of Mr. Evershed at Kodaikanal, and prompt publication of the results is a commendable feature of the work carried on. In view of the more satisfactory data relating to position angles, heights, and areas which are obtainable from the spectroheliograph photo- graphs, the visual observations are now practically confined to displacements of the hydrogen lines and to metallic prominences. A summary of the observa- tions for the first half of the present year is given in Kodaikanal Bulletin No. 52. Compared with the pre- vious six months, there was a decrease of 22-6 per cent. in areas and an increase of 26-1 per cent. in the num- ber of prominences, the average area per prominence having diminished by about one-third. The areas show a slight preponderance on the eastern, and the numbers a slight preponderance on the western, limb. Metallic prominences were observed in greater num- ber than during the preceding half-year, and there was also a large increase in the number of displace- ments of the hydrogen lines observed at the limb. In observations on the disc 305 reversals of the C line, 34 darkenings of the D, line, and 103 displacements were recorded; there was a large preponderance of displacements towards the red. Absorption markings in Ha, attributed to prominences projected on the disc, were photographed on 147 days; the daily number was the same as for the previous period, but there was a diminution in area. P ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Society. was held on Thursday last, November 30, when the report of the council was presented, and Sir J. J. Thomson delivered his presidential address, which in- cluded the following statement of the scientific work of this year’s medallists :— . 278 Sir James Dewar, F.R.S. (Copley Medal). The scientific work of Sir James Dewar covers a wide field. By applying his ingenuity to problems of practical and theoretical importance, he has obtained results which have contributed. largely to modern pro- gress in physics. His early work dealt with organic chemistry, the nature and properties of the picoline and quinoline bases, and he investigated the properties of Graham’s hydrogenium. He made a study of the explosion of gaseous compounds, and he was asso- - ciated with Sir Frederick Abel in the introduction of cordite. Experiments on electro-photometry at one time engaged his attention, and he carried through some researches on the physiological and chemical efficiency of light, In conjunction with Prof. Liveing he published many results of spectroscopic investiga- tions, and afterwards devoted considerable time to the spectroscopic examination of the various gaseous con- stituents separated from the atmosphere. Sir James Dewar’s best-known recent work is con- nected with low temperatures and the liquefaction of gases, His introduction of the vacuum flask and his discovery of the power of gaseous absorption of char- coal at low temperatures rendered possible his investi- gation of the properties of many liquefied gases. He was the first to succeed in solidifying hydrogen. Helium was then the only gas which had resisted liquefaction. Sir James Dewar foretold how this refractory gas might be obtained in liquid form, and the efficacy of the method was verified by Dr. H. Kamerlingh Onnes, who, in 1908, obtained liquid helium, and reached the lowest known temperature (about 3° abs.). Sir James Dewar’s experiments in calorimetry and the electrical resistance of metal at low temperatures have opened a wide field of research. Prof, William Henry Bragg, F.R.S. (Rumford Medal). Prof. Bragg has been continuously engaged since 1904 in researches into the nature and properties of the rays from radio-active bodies of other ionising radia- tions. Using new methods in the study of the ionisa- tion of gases by @ rays which greatly simplified the experimental conditions, he investigated the distribu- tion of the ions produced along the path of an a particle through a gas. These experiments threw an entirely new light.on the nature of the absorption of @ rays by matter, and proved that the a rays resulting from each radio-active transformation have a definite char- acteristic range, depending on the initial velocity. These investigations (in which he was assisted by Kleeman) formed one of the most important advances in our knowledge of the properties of these rays since their discovery. Prof. Bragg also made important contributions to ‘our knowledge of the nature and properties of 8 rays and kathode rays, and especially of their relation to y rays and Rontgen rays. He attacked the problem of the nature of the process of ionisation by X-rays and y rays and put forward the view, now generally accepted, that the ionisation is entirely secondary and due to the corpuscular rays produced by the primary radiations. His Bakerian lecture (1915) contains an investigation on the reflection of X-rays from crystals, which has led to most important and novel results. Dr. John Scott Haldane, F.R.S. (Royal Medal). Dr. Haldane is awarded a Royal medal on account of the important contributions he has made to physio- logy, especially on the subject of respiration. ~ His study of the conditions of combination of carbon monoxide with hemoglobin have been fruitful in many directions. They led him to the investigation of gas -explosions in coal mines, which has had important NO. 2458, vor. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 results in the saving. of life in mines. They also. led to the discovery of methods for the determination of the oxygen tension in the blood afd of the total volume of the circulating blood in man, which have had wide clinical applications. , Dr. Haldane has also studied the effect of high temperatures under varying conditions of moisture on the human body, and was the first to lay down the definite conditions under which it is possible to with- stand or to work in high temperatures. The greater number of his papers, and those of his pupils, refer to the conditions of activity of the respiratory centre. He was the first to demonstrate beyond disput the all- important part played by the tension of carbonic acid in the blood in the regulation of the respiratory move- ments, and to elucidate the chemical self-steering mechanism by means of which the pulmonary ventila- tion is adjusted to the respiratory needs of the body and to the activities of the animal. The knowledge obtained in these researches has enabled him to lay down the conditions which must be observed for the preservation of life among divers, and to elucidate the phenomena of mountain sickness and of acclimatisa- tion-to high altitudes. . Prof, Hector Munro Macdonald, F.R.S, (Royal Medal). A Royal medal is awarded to Prof. H. M. Macdonald on the ground of his contributions to mathematical physics. Prof, Macdonald has been engaged continu- ously in original research for the last twenty-five years, and in that time has produced many notable memoirs and one remarkable book (‘‘ Electric Waves,’? Cam- bridge, 1902). His work extends over a wide tange: hydrodynamics, elasticity, electricity, and optics, and branches of pure mathematical analysis which have applications to these subjects, especially the theory of Bessel’s functions, Among the papers of more dis- tinctly physical character, perhaps the most important are the series of papers treating of the theory of diffrac- tion, and especially the diffraction of electric waves by a large spherical obstacle, a problem which is of especial importance in connection with the theory of the transmission over the earth’s surface of the waves utilised in wireless telegraphy. He was the first mathematician to attaclx this problem, and also the first to obtain the correct solution. The interval between the first attack and the final conclu- sion was about eleven years (1903-14), and the discus- sion which took place in the meantime attracted con- tributions from some of the most eminent mathe- maticians of the dav, including such authorities as Lord Rayleigh and the late Henri Poincaré. . Henri Louis le Chatelier, For. Mem. R.S. (Davy Medal), M. le Chatelier, successor to Moissan at the Sor- bonne, is the most distinguished living French chemist. His name will always remain associated with impor- tant discoveries in several divisions of chemistry. In co-operation with M. Mallard, he was the author of an elaborate investigation on the ignition and explo- sion of gaseous mixtures, in which several principles of fundamental importance were established. As the result of much investigation he introduced the le Chatelier thermo-couple, and inaugurated a new period in the measurement of high temperatures. M. le Chatelier was one: of the pioneers of micrometallo- graphy, and one of the first to introduce exact methods and clear ideas into the science of industrial. silicates. His views on the relation of science to industry and on the teaching of chemistry, which command great attention in France, are exemplified in his highly | original book ‘*‘Le Carbone.” _ DECEMBER 7, 1916| - Prof. Yves Delage (Darwin Medal). Prof. Delage is a member of the Institute, professor in the faculty ot science in the University of Paris, and director of the Zoological Station at Roscoff. He is well known for his biological and zoological writ- ings, especially for his great work, ‘‘ L’Hérédité et les Grands Problémes de la Biologie Générale,”’ and his important “ Traité de Zoologie Concréte”’ (the latter published in conjunction with Prof. Hérouard), Prof. Delage’s original memoirs include a very im- portant work on the development of sponges (‘* Em- bryogénie des Eponges; développement postlarvaire des Eponges silicieuses et fibreuses marines et d’eau douce,” Arch. Zool. Expér. (2), x., No. 3, pp. 345-98). M. Jean Gaston Darboux (Sylvester Medal). Professeur de géométrie supérieure A la faculté des sciences de Paris since April, 1881. Secrétaire per- pétuel de l’Académie des Sciences pour les Sciences Mathématiques since May, 1g00. Author of ‘‘ Legons sur la Théorie Générale des Surfaces’? (four volumes), **Lecons sur les Systemes Orthogoneux,”’ and of many individual papers dealing with kinematics, theory of partial differential equations, planetary theory, the principles of infinitesimal geometry, functions of a real variable, and numerous other subjects. He is one of the most distinguished of contemporary French mathematicians, and has been honoured by nearly every academy in Europe. Prof. Elihu Thomson (Hughes Medal). Prof. Elihu Thomson, of Lynn, Massachusetts, has long been a leading man in the technical applications of electricity in the United States. In the early ’seven- ties, when teaching in Philadelphia, he was one of the pioneers of electric arc lighting, and invented numerous pieces of electric apparatus. In 1887 he discovered, experimentally, the repulsion experienced by masses and sheets of conducting metal when placed in an alternating magnetic field. Following up this matter, he devised an alternating-current motor, for some years the only one of its kind. He is the inventor also of the process of electric welding which bears his name, and has made valuable investigations into the production of high-frequency discharges and oscillations. The following are among the subjects referred to in the report of the council of the society :— The late Lieut. H. G. J. Moseley, killed in action, bequeathed to the society the whole of his estate, to be . applied to the furtherance of experimental research in pathology, physics, physiology. chemistry, or other branches of science, but not in pure mathematics, astronomy, or any branch of science which aims merely at describing, cataloguing, or systematising. The value of this bequest has not yet been fully ascer- tained. Under the will of the late Prof. Meldola the society will eventually receive a legacy of 5ool. The council has decided that in present circum- stances it is not desirable that the Central Bureau should undertake any work pledging the society to publication of the International Catalogue beyond the fourteenth issue. The Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has made a grant of 42501. to the catalogue on condition of an equal sum being provided from private sources for the purpose of assisting the society to keep this important scientific undertaking in being. Sir Charles Parsons guaranteed the collection of this second sum of 4250l., and thus secured the contribution from the Treasury. At the request of Dr. Walcott, secretary to the Smith- sonian Institution, Washington, the Carnegie Corpora- tion of New York made a grant to the institution of 6000 dollars (12531. 18s. 4d.) for the International Catalogue. Sir Charles Parsons has collected 1088I. NO. 2458, VOL. 98] NATURE 279 in private subscriptions, and, by himself subscribing 1gogl., made up the sum available from all these sources to 85o0ol,. 18s. 4d. It is believed that this sum will enable the catalogue to be published. to the end of the fourteenth issue without the necessity of asking for further assistance, In June last, at the request of the President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, the president and council appointed a committee to consider and report upon the bionomics and economic importance of grain- infesting insects, with especial reference to imported grain, the committee consisting of the treasurer (chair- man), Prof. V. H. Blackman, Prof. A. Dendy, Prof. Stanley Gardiner, Mr. W. B. Hardy, Prof. R, New- stead, with Mr. J. H. Durrant (of the British Museum), Mr, J, C. F. Fryer (representing the Board of Agricul- ture), and Mr. Oswald E, Robinson (president of the _ Incorporated National Association of British and Irish Millers). This committee has been at work for some time on the important subject referred to it, and has appointed a small sub-committee which is en- gaged upon the necessary investigations and has re- cently presented a progress report. Under regulations for the administration of the re- cruiting schemes adopted by the Government last year the Board of Trade included a provision that analytical, consulting, and research chemists were not allowed to be called up for service with the colours without the consent of the Royal Society. The Military Service Act which became law last March embodied a list of certified occupations, including that of analytical, consulting, and research chemists, *‘if recommended for exemption by the Royal Society.’ These provisions have led to a large number of applications being made to the Royal Society by persons claiming to come within the category of chemists above described, and the consideration of these claims has given, and con- tinues to give, rise to a large amount of labour and difficulty. 5 The Sectional War Committees mentioned in the last report of the council have continued their labours, and several of them have been actively engaged throughout the past year in consultation with the departments of Government concerned. The classified lists for the War Register referred to in the last report of council have been completed so far as possible, printed, and placed in the hands of the naval and military authorities. In addition, a register of scientifically trained men available for work in con- nection with the war, covering roughly the period be- tween the issue of Lord Derby’s scheme and the pass- ing of the first Military Service Act, has been compiled, and arranged in the form of a card index, which has been placed at the disposition of Government depart- ments and freely consulted. Owing to the special test work undertaken, and the large number of special investigations carried out for the Admiralty, the War Office, and the Ministry of Munitions, the work of the National Physical Labora- tory has greatly increased during the past year, and it has been necessary temporarily to make considerable additions to the staff. In the last report of the coun- cil reference was made to the steps which had been taken before the war to secure more adequate support from the Government for the work of the laboratory, and while it is clear that during the war every effort must be given to war work, it is necessary that a scheme, to come into effect as conditions become normal, should be devised to enable the laboratory to take its place in the seneral plan of industrial research. Several of the senior members of the staff have been seconded for service in Government departments, and their responsibilities at the laboratory have had to be assumed, to a great extent, by the vounger men. Since | the formation of the Ministry of Munitions the direc- 280 tor of the laboratory has acted as adviser in physics to the Ministry. He has also acted as chairman of the Instruments Committee of the Munitions Inventions Department, and has served on a number of committees of the Ministry of Munitions, the Munitions Inven- tions Department, and the Board of Invention and Research. Large additions have been made during the year to the laboratory buildings owing to the growth of the work. Early in the year an urgent request was made by the Admiralty and the War Office for an extension of the aeronautics research. This required the pro- vision of two or three additional wind-channels, with increased accommodation for model-making and simi- lar purposes. Authorisation to proceed was imme- diately given by the Treasury, and the necessary build- ing and constructional worl was undertaken by the Office of Works. The new building contains two wind-channels, a 7-ft. and a 4-ft., with pattern- makers’? shop, generator-room, offices, etc. An addi- tion to the metrology building, to provide additional accommodation for the work of gauge-testing, has also recently been erected by the Office of Works, while other buildings have been provided .for tem- porary purposes. = CHEMISTRY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. HE work of Section B (Chemistry) at the recent meeting of the British Association af Newcastle- upon-Tyne differed somewhat from that of pre- vious years in that it was concerned mainly with two subjects—coal and fuel economy, and the future of the British chemical industries. As the first of these important topics will be dealt with separately, the following brief. account of the sectional proceedings will refer chiefly to the second of the subjects of dis- cussion. “The Future of the Synthetic Chemical Industry in Great Britain’? was the subject of a paper by Mr. F. H. Carr, in which the question of training chemists for this branch of the industry was considered at some length. Mr. Carr does not profess to be an education- ist, and that is perhaps the reason why he gave his interesting views on the education of chemists to Section B rather than adding them to the fascina- tions of the programme of Section L. The essence of the educational scheme proposed by Mr. Carr is the establishment of technological col- leges with a course of two years, the college itself being practically a business concern for the manufac- ture of fine chemicals. Students who did not qualify in successive stages would be liable to dismissal, and a daily attendance of eight hours with but short holidays would be demanded. As the colleges would have: practically the ‘equip- ment of a works, the student would learn to look at chemical processes from the point of view of cost of materials, yield of finished product, and value of the time and labour, heat. and ower expended on: any particular operation, while at the same time he would become familiar with the ordinary plant found in actual factories. To impart this training a staff with thorough works experience would be needed, and it is unfortunately not very clear how such a staff could be got together, for such men would most likely be better off financially in works, and might perhaps have little taste for teaching. The college buildings and equipment would be provided by Government, while chemical manufac- turers should supply the endowment. This scheme might be expected to produce technic- ally and scientifically trained men suitable as depart- mental managers, but the equally important trained NO. 2458, VoL. 98] NATURE ‘feels the loss of the old mechanics’ institutes: ‘the present, training will have to be carried out in 'soméwhat doubtful ¢ (DECEMBER 7, 1916 operative must also be considered. Here Mr. Carr regrets the absence of an apprenticeship system, and For. the factory, but he suggests that there should be com- pulsory continuation of education until eighteen years of age, more latitude being given to schools to ‘suit particular industries of the district, and more differ- entiation at the age of thirteen in the training of boys of different aptitudes and tastes. e, Mr. Rintoul, in a paper on the “ Preparation of Chemicals for Laboratory Use,” described the work being carried on by Nobel’s at Ardeer for producin pure reagents and materials hitherto chiefly obtain from Germany. Dealing with the subject in a more general way, Mr. Rintoul was of the opinion that much of the research work for the preparation of such chemicals need not necessarily be carried out in technical labora- tories, as much of it was well suited to university conditions. It would indeed afford an opportunity for bringing chemical industries and universities in con- tact, for instead of producing many papers of perhaps. value, the university labora- tories might produce authoritative statements on new or comparative methods for the preparation of compounds, information on which is at present either lacking or inaccurate. Most of the raw materials required could be obtained in the British Empire, and he deplored the fact of our dependence on Germany for supplies of pure materials the manufacture of which would be of educational value, and at the same time of importance in the industry. A paper by Mr. C..M. Whittaker on the “‘ British Coal-Tar Colour Industry in Peace and in War ”’ gave a summary of the work already carried out, mainly by British Dyes, Ltd., to supply colours for all kinds of dye purposes, ranging from typewriter ribbons to khaki cloth. An immense amount of: work has been / done, and many colours are now made in this country in huge quantities for war purposes, and all credit is due to the firms concerned. The paper conveyed, no doubt rightly, the impression that every soldier and sailor, whether hale or wounded, was a living memorial to the industry of chemists concerned with the British coal-tar colour industry. Many people have perhaps not appreciated this aspect of the war. "9 Apart from the discussions on coal and fuel economy, the three papers above briefly reviewed constituted the piece de résistance of the meetings of the Chemical Sec- tion, but there were also a few short papers of con- siderable interest which must just be mentioned. Dr. J. E. Stead contributed three short papers on (a) the oxidation of nickel steel; (b) the reduction of solid nickel and copper oxides: by solid iron; (¢) the disruptive effect of carbon monoxide at 400° to 500° C. on wrought-iron. These papers, all of interest to metallurgists, have been the subject of a discussion at the Iron and Steel Institute. ie Prof. W. M. Thornton gave an account of his stepped ignition in gases, and after reading the paper illustrated it experimentally. A short discussion on the paper showed that there was considerable diverg- ence of opinion as to the real explanation of the phenomena observed and shown by Prof. Thornton. Dr. J. A. Smythe contributed a note, illustrated by experiment, on a ‘‘ Modified Chlorination Process.” He showed how calcium chloride acted as a catalyst for the chlorination of ethylene and other hydro- carbons. : In conelusion it should be mentioned that through- out the meeting there was opén an exhibition of British-made chemicals and apparatus, which showed what steps have already been made to replace goods in’ this line of enemy origin: a i - DECEMBER 7, 1916] NATURE 281 . REFRACTORY MATERIALS. GENERAL discussion on refractory materials | was held.on: November 8 at the Faraday Society, the chair being occupied by the president, Sir Robert Hadfield. Numerous exhibits were on view, including British, Colonial, and Indian raw materials, manu- factured products, appliances, etc. In his introductory address the president surveyed the whole range of refractory materials, and mentioned that when Belgian sand was no longer available for open-hearth furnace bottoms, those concerned were not long in discovering British sands which~ give prac- tically the same results. This point was emphasised later by Mr. Cosmo Johns and Dr. Boswell. Dr. J. W. Mellor (Stoke-on-Trent) opened the dis- cussion with a paper on S “The Texture of Firebricks.” Dr. Mellor classed texture and refractoriness as the two most important properties, of a firebrick. Numer- ous samples illustrating texture were exhibited, pre- pared by cutting across with a saw, polishing the cut face, and cementing a glass plate on with hot Canada balsam. This method of showing a brick’s texture (now used, it is believed, for the first time) was sug- gested by Mr. Lomax. Size of Grain. | The softening of clay material takes place gradually. From the fact that increased fineness of grain has been found to increase the contraction of fired clay bodies, presumably owing to increased surface reaction in promoting vitrification, it might be expected that pres- sure would also lower the softening temperature of a clay by increasing the: area of contact, and this has recently been shown to be the case.? This effect of fineness ot grain comes out promin- ently in the case of high-temperature fluxes, like mix- tures of clay and fine-grained quartz, where the vitrifi- cation temperature may be brought so low as to spoil the firebrick. Conversely, the presence of coarse- grained quartz appreciably increases the refractoriness of fireclays; the quartz grains, however, should be angular, not rounded, the rounded quartz grains being only loosely held by the clay bind, besides which angu- lar particles pack together more closely and form.a more compact skeleton for the brick, as in samples exhibited. . After-Contraction and After-Expansion. The firebrick manufacturer arrests the chemical re- action at a certain stage. When the brick in use is strongly heated, the uncompleted reaction is continued, giving rise to after-contraction. This after-contraction a few years ago amounted to 2 or 3 per cent., but was reduced by improved methods to 1 per ¢cent., and then to 3 per cent. It is usually impracticable to eliminate all the after-contraction in the original burning of the firebrick.* Silica firebricks show an after-expansion, which may reach up to 16 per cent. The quartzose silica of clays behaves similarly, unless it be dissolved by the fluxes. The fluxes in a clay also expand about 6 per cent. in firing, so that the apparent contraction of a firebrick is a joint effect. In silica bricks the resultant effect is an expansion. Refractoriness and other Qualities. It is clear that conditions which increase the extent of surface of the clay particles in contact or which produce closer contact make the clay soften at a lower temperature, and this indicates how to obtain maxi- mum refractoriness for normal conditions with a given 1 J. W. Mellor and B. J. Moore, Trans. Eng. Cer. Soc., xv., 117, 1916. NO. 2458, VOL. 98] SE ee ee —————— clay. The refractoriness can be further augmented by addition.of some of the higher refractories, like shrunk bauxite, shrunk zirconia, or carborundum. It should, however, be borne in mind that a coarse-grained re- fractory material has low crushing strength and tenacity, and is also very friable and liable to dis- integration by shocks or abrasion, besides being easily penetrated by flue dusts and slags. When maximum refractoriness is not really wanted, some refractoriness may be sacrificed advantageously to improve other desirable qualities. Hand-made v. Machine-made Iirebricks. With reference to the making of firebricks by hand or by machinery, the machines often get blamed for faults which have no direct connection with the use of the machines, but arise from differences in. the _ method of preparing the clay, which affect the uniformity in texture of the product. Corrosion of Firebricks, The joints between firebrieks are the weakest places in a structure. Where slags are concerned. the fire- bricks should be fine-grained, and the jointing clay should quickly vitrify without cracking and weld the bricks together when the furnace is fired for the first time. Where bricks are exposed to corrosive vapours the chemical composition is of special importance, as well as the texture of the bricks. Prof. T. Turner (Birmingham), referring to Dr. Mellor’s statement that angular particles give closer packing than round particles, contended that the. closest packing of all is obtained by adjusting two sizes of round particles so that the smaller grains shall approximately fill up the interspaces between the larger grains, Other Refractory Materials. Dr. Hutton directed attention to the great value as refractories of completely: shrunk silica, alumina, and magnesia, all of which can stand sudden heating and cooling. Dr. W. Rosenhain stated that zirconia has a pro- mising future as a refractory material, especially the purified substance. It withstands very high tempera- tures, but should be previously heated to a higher temperature than that to which it is to be exposed, in order to avoid cracking. It is also very apt to form a carbide in a reducing atmosphere, and the properties of the carbide are very different from those of the oxide. J. A. A: UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Liverroot.—The University has just received two valuable gifts—Soool. from Mr. C. Sydney Jones, to endow the chair of. classical archeology, hitherto maintained by temporary guarantees, and 10,0o0l. from Prof. and Mrs.. Herdman, to establish a chair of geology. Both chairs are memorials: the first of.a father, Mr. Charles W. Jones; the second of a son, Lieut. George A. Herdman, a young student, not merely of promise, but of distinction, who was killed in action in France a few months, ago. . Each satisfies a real need, for at Liverpool the course of study in Latin and in Greek recognises that without some knowledge of life and. custom it is impossible to understand ancient history or to appreciate: classical literature. The professor of classical archzology, therefore, takes an active part throughout the classical course, though his worl: is so arranged as to leave one term in’the session free for research at home or abroad. 282 On the importance of geology it is needless here to dwell. Geology has its own place, and that a high one, among the sciences; without due provision for its study no university is complete. Geologists will be profoundly grateful, therefore, to Prof. and Mrs. Herd- man for having completed the geological chairs in the English universities. Liverpool has long been such an active centre of geological work that the lack of a chair in the science at the University was a regrettable deficiency. New conditions of life have brought with them a growing demand for men whose scientific train- ing shall include not only a knowledge of geological aspects of geography, but also of the earth’s mineral resources. The war has cost science and the universi- ties so much in life and brain, and also in wasted effort, that the example set by Prof. and Mrs. Herd- man in establishing such a useful and appropriate memorial to their son will, we hope, be followed by others. A pupstic lecture on ‘Chemistry and its Relation to National Affairs *’ will be delivered by Sir William A. Tilden, at Birkbeck College, Chancery Lane, on Tues- day, December 12 (Founder’s Day). at 5.45 p.m. The chair will be taken by Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, Vice- Chancellor of the University of London. The lecture is open to the public without fee or ticket. : AccorDING to the Miinchener medizinische Wochen- schrift the number of students during the summer semester of 1916 in the Austrian universities. was as follows :—Vienna, 3472; Prague (Czéch university), 1891; Cracow, 1281; Lemberg, 1174; Graz, 647; Prague (German university), 638; Innsbruck, 584. The proportion of medical students was highest at Vienna and at Graz (both about 30 per cent. of the total). At Vienna nearly two-fifths of the medical students were women. . Tue evening classes held at University of London, King’s College, Strand, W.C., will be open during the session 1916-17 to members of his Majesty's Forces of all ranks wearing uniform who have at any time passed the matriculation examination of the Uni- versity of London, or any examination exempting therefrom, and are desirous of spending what time is available after their military duties in furthering their education in arts or science. In view of the- fact that the attendance of such students will be liable to interruption, no tuition fee will be charged during the war for any classes or course of study entered upon. Those who attend these classes may be registered as internal students of the University of London. ‘THe General Medical Council on December 2 adopted by a majority a proposal to make Latin optional in the medical higher preliminary examination, The Education Committee of the council, in a report, ex- pressed the opinion that the possession by a student of a senior leaving examination certificate or its equiva- lent, the matriculation certificate of the universities, affords ample evidence that all the objects of the coun- cil in preseribing a preliminary examination in general knowledge are fully realised. The report recom- mended the council to accept such certificates without further proviso than that they should embrace at least four subjects, including English and mathematics, the two or more additional to be chosen from among the principal subjects of the school curriculum. On the following day the question of making Latin optional in, the preliminary examination of candidates for ad- mission to the medical curriculum belonging to the junior class-was discussed by the council, and even- tually, at the suggestion of the president, Sir Donald Maealister, the question was referred back to com- mittee. NO. 2458, VOL. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 SOCIETIES AND. ACADEMIES. LONDON. ; Royal Society, November 23.—Sir J. J. Thomson, president, in the chair.—Sir Robert Hadfield and Dr. E. Newbery: The corrosion and electrical properties of steels. The condition that a metal shall dissolve in an acid with evolution of hydrogen is :—Single potential — of metal + over-voltage < single potential of hydrogen electrode, all measurements being, of course, made in — the given acid. If therefore we assume that the atmo-— spheric corrosion of a metal is a process similar to that of dissolution in an acid, it should be possible to pre- dict the corrosion-resisting power of a given metal by determining its single potential referred to. a hydrogen electrode, together with its over-voltage in a. suitable electrolyte. Experiments on a number of special steels have been carried out to test the validity of the above assumption. The over-voltage, single potential, and loss of weight in acid of each soecimen were determined and compared with the atmospheric corrosion observed after exposing clean surfaces to the air for ten weeks? The results showed that the electrical method gives decidedly better estimates of the conrosion- a powers of steels than the acid method, and althoug neither method gives trustworthy estimates in all cases} vet the electrical method appears to rest-upon a sound theoretical foundation, and is probably capable of fur- ther developments which may result in the formation of trustworthy corrosion data.—Dr, A. E. H. Tuttoh: Monoclinic double selenates of the nickel group. In this paper the results are given of the investigation’ of the double salts, potassium nickel selenate, rubidium nickel selenate, caesium nickel, selenate, and ammo- nium nickel selenate, each containing six molecules of water of crystallisation. The results are in line’ with all those already published for the complete monoclinic double sulphate series with 6H,O, and for the iso- morphous magnesium and zinc double selenate groups. The morphological and physical properties exhibit the progression in. accordance’ with the atomic weight of the alkali metal brought out by the previous work, and the ammonium salt is shown to belong to the isomorphous series, and to exhibit the peculiar traits described in connection with the other ammonium salts of this monoclinic series already dealt with.—Dr. - A. E. H. Tutton: X-ray analysis and topic axes of the alkali sulphates and their bearing on the law of valency volumes. An X-ray spectrometric . analysis, carried out with the author’s crystals in, the laboratory of Prof: W. H. Bragg by Prof. A. Ogg and Mr. F. Lloyd Hopwood, of the rhombic crystals of the allali sulphates R,SO,, where R is K, Rb, Cs, and NH,, has indicated that four molecules of R,SO, are con- tained in the unit rectangular cell of the space-lattice, as suggested by the author in 1894. The atoms of sulphur occupy the corners of the rectangular’ cell and the middle point of each side. The planes of sulphur atoms parallel to the (001) face are of pseudo-hexa- gonal structure, the atomic centres being arranged in nearly regular hexagons, as suggested by Federov and adopted by the author. The metallic atoms are also probably arranged in nearly regular hexagons. It is fully substantiated that the constants, molecular volume. and topic axial ratios afford true indications of relative volume and dimensions of elementary space- lattice cells in the cases of crystal structures of iso- morphous series.—Dr. T. J. I’a. Bromwich ; The scat- tering of plane electric waves by soheres. The first section contains a very general solution of the electro- magnetic equations in curvilinear co-ordinates, and it is proved that this solution contains as particular cases those previously obtained by Hertz, Fitzgerald, Ray- leigh, Love, and Lamb. ‘This general solution is then applied to the problem indicated in the title of the DECEMBER 7, 1916| NATURE 283 paper, and the results are analysed further in two | particular cases, corresponding to long waves and to short waves. The formule deduced here for the case of short waves have been tested numerically for. the values given by ka=9 and 10o—that is, for wave-lengths one-ninth and one-tenth of the perimeter of the sphere. —J. Proudman, A. T. Doodson, and G. Kennedy: Numerical results of the theory of the diffraction of a plane electromagnetic wave by a perfectly conducting sphere. This paper is entirely concerned with the computation, from quoted formule, of the electric dis- turbance at a great distance from the sphere. The length of the incident wave being 27/«x, and the radius of the sphere being a, results are obtained for ka=1,2,9,10. Tables and curves are given of the results and also of the principal stages of the work. The methods of carrying out the computations, the means of securing accuracy and detecting errors, and an analysis of the results are also given. Linnean Society, November 16.—Sir David Prain, president, in the chair.—A, W. Waters; Some collec- tions of the littoral marine fauna of the Cape Verde Islands made by Cyril Crossland in the summer of 1904—Bryozoa. The collection made by. Mr. Cyril Crossland consists of forty-five species or varieties, of which twenty-five were,already known from the Atlantic, fifteen are British, twenty-four Mediter- ranean, probably seventeen Australasian. Of the forms in this collection seven are considered either new species or new varieties. Zoological Society, November 21.—Dr. S. F. Harmer, vice-president, in the chair.—Dr. Bb, Petronievics and Dr. A. Smith Woodward: New parts of the pectoral and pelvic arches lately discovered in the London speci- men of Archezopteryx. The coracoid bone most closely resembles that of the ratite birds and the Cretaceous Hesperornis. The pubic bones are twice as long as the ischia and meet distally in an extended symphysis, gradually tapering to a, point, which seems to have been tipped by a mass of imperfectly ossified cartilage. —B. I. Cummings: Studies on the Anoplura and Mallophaga, being a report upon a collection from the mammals and birds in -the society’s gardens— Part II. This paper continues the account of the Mallophaga, and contains descriptions of five new genera and two new species. Some observations are made upon the spermatophores in a genus parasitising the ibises, and emphasis is laid on the frequently remarkable differences found in the structure of the internal organs, especially those of the male repro- ductive system,—Lieut.-Col. J. M. Fawcett: A collec- tion of Heterocera made by Mr. W. Feather in British East Africa. Of the 124 forms dealt with, forty-five are described as new, together with seven new genera. Geological Society, November 22,—Dr. Alfred Harker, president, in the chair.—C, Reid and J. Groves: Characee from the Lower Headon Beds. The inves- tigations here recorded have been made*at Hordle Cliffs (Hampshire), where the strata below the super- ficial gravel belong entirely to the Lower Headon Beds, and consist of fresh-water and brackish-water (more or less calcareous) deposits, laid down apparently in wide shallow lakes and lagoons. Such habitats are the most favourable to the growth of Characez, and several of the beds have yielded numerous remains of these plants. of Chara found, representing evidently a number of species belonging to several ‘different sections or genera. Characez are found in still fresh or brackish water all over the world under widely different condi- tions as regards heat, ete., and may therefore be | expected to occur in almost all fresh-water formations. For these reasons it is suggested that the fruits of this NO. 2458, vor. 98] There is a great diversity in the fruits | group of plants, when more widely collected, may~ prove of considerable: value as zonal fossils for the correlation of - lacustrine deposits lying in isolated basins. Doubtless, on account of their small size, the Characez have in the past often been overlooked. : ~ MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, November 14.—Mr. T. A. Coward (vice-president) in the chair.—Dr. J. S. Thomson ; The Gorgonacea of the Cape of Good Hope. The paper contains descriptions of twenty-nine species . of Gorgonacea, of which twelve are new. The new species are as follows :—Family Briareidae, Anthotheta. parviflora, sp.n.; family Melitodida, Melitodes fauri, sp-n., Melitodes grandis, sp.n., Mopsella singularis, sp.n., Wrightella trilineata, sp.n., Wrightella fragilis, sp.n., Wrightella furcata, sp.n.; family Primnoide, Stachyodes capensis, sp.n.; family Gorgoniida, Lepto- gorgia africana, sp.n., Leptogorgia aurata, sp.n., Lu- gorgia lineata, sp.n., Stenogorgia ‘capensis, sp.n.— Prof, F. E, Weiss: The manufacture of manure from peat. In 1815 a Scottish landowner described a’ method which consisted of spreading alternate layers, about 6 in, deep, of peat and fairly fresh dung, until a heap of about 4 or 5 ft. was constructed, which was then left for some months, The peat was trans- formed into a perfect compost as effective, weight for weight, as farmyard manure. Peat and seaweed have been similarly combined, and it was found unneces- sary to add lime in the preparation of this manure, the acidity of the peat becoming neutralised by the ammonia contained in the dung, while decay-producing bacteria may percolate into the peat, in addition to those normally contained in it, but the activity of which is inhibited by the presence of humic acid. Dachowski’s experiments with bog-water were dealt with. The method of preparation of ‘“bacterised peat”? (humogen) was also explained, and various experiments made to test the value of this manure were discussed.—J. Barnes: Sugar and starch in the banana (Musa paradisiaea). New Sourn WaALEs, Linnean Society, September 27.—Mr. A. G. Hamilton, president, in the chair.—E. F. Hallmann; Revision of the genera with Microscleres included, or provisionally included, in the family Axinellidae (Porifera); with descriptions of some Australian species. Part 11.—The Australian species hitherto comprised in the genus Axinella have been re-examined, and have been found to belong to four distinct genera, Allantophora, Sig- maxinella (s.str.), and two others proposed as new. Reasons for the inclusion of the genera Tylodesma and Biemna in the family Axinellida are adduced.—T. Whitelegge : Preliminary note on the gametophyte of Psilotum triquetrum, Swartz. Spores were success- fully grown on the rhizomes of Davallia pyxidata, but better results were obtained from spores germinated in ‘the synangia.—F. H. Taylor: Contributions to a knowledge of Australian Culicids (Diptera). No. IIT. —Five species are described as new, and notes on synonymy and additional records for known species are given.—Dr. V. H, Brotherus: Some new species of Australian mosses. Thirty-seven species are described as new.—T. G. Sloane; New species of Australian Carabidz belonging to the tribe Scaritini (Coleoptera). Twenty-three species and one genus are proposed as new; these include some interesting forms from’ the Murchison district of West Australia, CaLcurTra, Asiatic Society of Bengal, November 1.—Sir G. Grierson: Ormuri or Bargista Janguage; an account of -a little-known Iranian dialect. . The Ormurs or Baraki are a tribe living in Afghanistan in the midst of Afghans, but do not speak the, Pastu language. 284 NATURE [DECEMBER 7, 1916 Their position and their language were long a problem with ethnographists and linguists. Sir G. Grierson has in this paper satisfactorily solved the problem by a careful examination of their language, which he de- clares to be western Iranian. A full grammar and vocabulary of the language will appear in the appro- priate volume of the Linguistic Survey.—B. A. Gupta ; Folklore in caste proverbs.—Sarat Chandra. Mitra ; Some Indian ceremonies for disease transference.. In this paper the author has described and compared the different ceremonies, current in western and southern India, for conveying the disease-spirit, in a chariot, from one place to another. BOOKS RECEIVED. In Far North-East Siberia. By I. W. Shklovsky (* Dioneo ’’). Translated by L. Edwards and Z. Shklovsky. Pp. vii+264. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) 8s. 6d, net. Geological Map’ of Mysore. ment of Mines and Geology.) : Economic Geology. By Prof. H. Reis. Fourth edition. Pp. xviii+856+plates Ixxv. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) 17s. net. } : The Canning of Fruits and Vegetables. By Z. P. Zavolla. “Pp. xii+214. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.) ros, 6d, net. Stresses in Structures. By A. H. Heller. Revised by C. T. Morris. . Third edition. Pp. xviii+374. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London : Chap- man and Hall, Ltd.) 11s. 6d. net. A Treatise on Mine-Surveying. By B. H. Brough. Fourteenth edition, revised and enlarged by H. Dean. Pp. xviiit+ 477. 7s. Oty ser, aa Studies in Animal Behavior Pp. 266. dollars net, F Cambridge University Calendar for the Year: 1916- 1917. Pp. xxvit+z077.. (Cambridge: At the Univer- sity Press.) 7s. 6d. net. The Anthocyanin Pigments of Plants. dale. Pp. x+318. Press.) . 15s. net At Suvla Bay. By J. Hargrave. Pp. x+182. (Lon- don: Constable and Co., Ltd.) 5s. net. (Bangalore: Depart- By Prof. S. J. Holmes. (Boston, Mass.: R. G. Badger.) 2.50 By M. Whel- (Cambridge: At the University DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, TDecemMBeER 7. Rovat Soctery, at _4.30.—TheCytomorphosis of the Marsupial Enamel- organ and its Significance in Relation’to the Structure of the Completed Enamel: J. T. Carter.—The Development of the Pancreas, the Pan- creatic and Hepatic Ducts in 7'richosurus vulpecula: Margaret Tribe. —The Fossil Human Skull found at Talgai, Queensland: S. A, Smith.— The Typical Form of the Cochlea and its Variations: H. J. Watt.— The Structureand Rio'ogy of Archotermopsis, together with Descriptions of New Species of Intestinal Protozoa, and General Observations on the Isoptera: Dr. A. D. Imms.—Vorsional Hysteresis of Mild Steel: J. J. Guest and F.C. I ; Cuivp Stupy Socre _ Constance E. Long. Cuemicat Society, at 8.—Spinacidene : A New Hydrocarbon from certain Fish-Liv-r Oils : A. Chaston Chapman.—The Nitration of 2-acetylamino- 3:4-dimethoxvbenzoic acid and 3-acetylamino-1 : 2-dimethoxybenzene : C. S. Gibson, J. L. Simonsen, and M. G. Rau. FRIDAY, DecEmBER 8. ; Rovat AstRonomicat Sociery, at 5.—Photographic Determination of the Parallax of Three Southern Binary Systems: J. Votite——Errata in the Double Star Measures of the Monthly Notices, vols. Ixvi. to Ixxv. ? F.. Doolittle—The Choice of an Origin for Galactic Longitudes: C. D. Perrine.—The Radiative Equilibrium of the Sun and Stars: A. S. Eddington.—An Observation by Lamont of Prof. Barnard’s Proper Motion Star: A. C. D. Cromnielin. MALACOLOGICAL Society. at 7.—A Revision of the Species of the Family Plevrotomide occurring in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and Arabian Sea: Dr. J. Cosmo Melvill.—The Occurrence in England of Helicella neglecta: A. S. Kennard and RB. B. Woodward, with Notes on the Anatomy by Dr. A. E. Boycott, and on the Radula by the Rev. F. W. Rowell, —The Occurrence of £u/ota fruticum ina Living State in Kent: A. S. Kennard and B. B. Woodward. NO. 2458, vor. 98] sat 6 —Psycho-analysis in Relation to Children: Dr. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd,)’ ' MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, Society oF ENGINEERS, at 3.—The Sources of the Minerals ie bod by the Iron and Steel Industries of the United Kingdom: Prof, V earnsides.—The Mineral Resources of ‘the British Empire as regards the Production of Non-Ferrous Industrial Metals: Prof. C. G. Cullis. © Rovat Society or Arts, at 5.—Coal and its Economic Utilisation: Prof. J. S.S. Brame. t Vicrorta InstiTUTE, at 4.30.—The Influence of Christianity upon other Religious Systems; Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall. ; WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13. . Royat Society on Arrs, at 4.30.—The Development of Imperi Resources: H. W. Fox. THURSDAY, DrceMBER 14. Royat Society, at 4.30. - : INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8.—Colonial Telegraphs and Telephones: R. W. Weightman. ‘ S MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. at 5.30.—Orbits Asymptotic to an Isosceles Tri- angle Solution of the Problem of Three Bodies: Prof. D. Buchanan.— Diffraction of Waves by a Wedge of any Angle: Prot. H. S. Carslaw.— (x) Proof that almost all numbers # are composed of about | .g log # prime factors ; (2) An Asymptotic Formula for the Number of Partitionsof a Number: G. H. Hardy and S. Ramanujar.—Two Theorems of Combina- tory Analysis and Two Allied Identities: Prof. L. eS Rogers.—The Harmonic Functions associated with the Parabolic Cylinder (second paper): C.*‘N. Watson,—(1) The Internal Structure of a Set of Points in Space of any Number of Dimensions; (2) The Inherently Crystalline Structure of a Function of any Number of Variables: Prof. W..H. Young and Mrs. Young. ‘ Royal GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, at 5.—( Discussion): British and Metric Measures in Geographical Work, opened by the Secretary... Opricat Society, at 8.—The Refractometry and Identification of Glass Specimens—especially Lenses: 1. C. Martin.—A Workshop Method of Determining the Refractive Index of a Piece of Glass having one Flat Surface : Dr. R. S. Clay. yur F Roya Society oF Arts, at 4.30.—The World's Cotton Supply and India’s Share in it: Prof, J. A. ‘Fodd. : LINNEAN Society, at '5.—Observation on the Root System of /mfatiens Roylei, Walp.: Miss Isabel McClatchie.—The Teeth of some Paleozoic Sharks: Dr. A. Smith Woodward.—Sex Distribution in J/yica gale, Linn, ; Miss ‘A. J. Davey and Miss M. Gibson. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15. INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6. yaa IL1,.UMINATING ENGINEFRING Soctrry, at 5.—Suggestions regarding War Economies in Lighting : L. Gaster. : CONTENTS. - PAGE Alternating Electric Currents. By Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S. . . senkg ot ahpedy seem The Influence of Internal Secretions on Sex Charac- teristics : Bite eae ee Anal? Adee Vignettes of Friends. By Dr. A.C,,Haddon, F.R.S. Our ‘Bookshelf: 207"... 5°). 2 be ar les pee Letters to the Editor:— Robert Recorde.—Dr. John Knott. ....... Luminous Centipedes.—F. M. Roberts. ..... Searchlights.x—C. T. Whitmell ........ Columnar Ice-crystals.—A. E, Larkman..., . Agriculture and the Wheat Supply. By Dr. Russell A aPC Shay Eee oo he : The Jewelry Trade in War-time ........4. State Aid for Scientific Research. ........ Notes Sena eeae ont rear Our Astronomical Column :— hi The ‘Zodiacal! Light ..-.1. :otva) Witenes A New Comet .. . Sei histio, de Siale alae 265 The Search for a Transneptunian Planet. . . 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LEZZZLEEEEEE Leff REYNOLDS £ SRANSO fer oe ammo J SN A Contractors to the War Office, Admiralty = and Egyptian Governments, &c 8 | SS Ne “1 = Manufacturers and Exporters of Chemicals, Chemical Glassware and Chemical and Physical Apparatus. OPTICAL & PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS. LQ PURE CHEMICALS AND REAGENTS. LABORATORY FITTINGS & FURNITURE. OPTICAL LANTERNS AND SLIDES. Special designs of BLOWN GLASS executed by our own staff. Quotations and Price Lists on application. AXX KM MA BUY DIRECT FROM F E.BECKER & CO_BATTON WALL (QW.&0. GEORGE. LTD. SUCC4#) YidttddddaddIds TTT I¢ COMMERCIAL ST A New Barograph—THE “JORDAN.” = (Regd. Design 62871.) V Z Graphite-Selenium ells FOURNIER D’ALBE’S PATTERN. Great Stability and High Efficiency. With a sensitive Se surface of 5 sq. cm. and a voltage 20 the additional current obtainable at various illuminations (in metre-candles) is :— x At 1 m.c. ... .. + milliamp. Qe «50. ws a SOL 2 EO. | 55... ss: Sagas oe = For particulars and prices apply to the SOLE AGENTS : iffi S | Shows at a glance the crticennaate! of the barometer during : the preceding days. John J. Gr In & ons, Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to Makers of Physical and Electrical Apparatus, NE GRE TT TL & ZAMBR A Kemble Street, KINGSWAY, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.: ; LONDON, W.C. 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. i CXIV NATURE [DECEMBER 14, 1916 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION| BIRKBECK COLLEGE, OF GREAT BRITAIN, ALBEMARLE STREET, PICCADILLY, wW. LECTURES BEFORE EASTER, 1917. AT THREE O'CLOCK AFTERNOON. » NINETY-FIRST COURSE (ADAPTED TO A JUVENILE AUDITORY) (Experimentally Illustrated). CHRISTMAS LECTURES. Professor ARTHUR KeitH, M.D., F.R.S.—Course of Six Lectures on “Tue Human Macnine wHice Att Must Work.” On December 28 (Thursday), December 30 (Saturday), January 2 (Tuesday), January 4 (Thursday), January 6 (Saturday), January 9 (Tuesday). COURSES OF LECTURES. Professor C. S. SHERRINGTON, M.D., .L.D., F.R.S., Fullerian Professo™ of Physiology.—Six Lectures on ‘THe Otp Brain AND THE NEW Brain AND THEIR MEANING, AND PAIN AND ITs Nervous Basis.” On Tuesdays, January 16, 23, 30, February 6, 13, 20. Professor W. E. Datsy, M.A., B.Sc., F.R.S “THe STRENGTH AND STRUCTURE OF Meta”; (2) “ INTERNAL ComBus- TION ENGINES.” On Tuesdays, February 27, March 6. Professor Joun W. Grecory, D.Sc., F.R.S.—Three Jectures on ‘*GEo- LoGICAL WAR. Prosiems.” On Tuesdays, March 13, 20, 27. Professor Sir Wauter Racreich, M.A.—Two Lectures on ‘THE STRENGIH AND Weakness OF Romantic Poerry.” On Thursdays, January 18, 25. P Professor F. G. Donnan, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.—Three Lectures on “Tur MECHANISM OF CHEMICAL Cuance.” On Thursdays, February 1, 8, 15. : Professor Evwarp S. Prior, A.R.A., M.A., F.S.A.—Two Lectures on (1) ‘“ Memortar Art in History”; (2) ‘‘Memortat Arr To-pay.” On ‘Thursdays, February 22, March 1. ; Profes-or ARTHUR Denby, D.Sc., F.R.S.—Two Lectures on ‘‘ SponGES : A Stupy in Evotutrionary brio.ocy.” On ‘lhursdays, March 8, 15. Professor J. A. FLemiInG, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.—Two Lectures on ** MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHY AND TELEPHONY.” On Thurs- days, March 22, 29. ArTHUR R. Hinks, M.A., F.R.S.—Two Lectures on “THE LAKES AND Mountains or Centra Arrica.” On Saturdays, January 20, 27. Henry Wacrorp Davies, Mus.Doc., I.L.D.—Three Lectures on “* Line AnD CcLour 1n Music.” On Saturdays, February 3, 10, 17. Daniet Jones, M.A.—Two Lectures on ‘‘ THE ScleNCE OF SPEECH.” On Saturdays, February 24, March 3. CaLeB WILLIAMS SALEEBY, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.Z.S.—Two Lectures on “ImMperiaL EuGcenics.” On Saturdays, March ro, 17. SvTeErHEN GraHAM.—Two Lectures. on ‘ RusstaN Ipratism.” On Saturdays, March 24, 31. -—Two Lectures on (1) Subscription (to Non-Members) to all Courses of Lectures, Two Guineas” Subscription to a Single Course of Lectures, One Guinea, or Half-a-Guinea® Tickets issued daily at the Office of the Institution, or sent by post on receipt of Cheque or Post-Office Order. The Fripav Eventnc Mrerines will begin on January roth, at 5.30 p.m., when Professor Sir JAMES Dewar will give a Discourse on ‘‘ Soar Buppies of Lonc Duration,” Succeeding Discourses will probably be given by Profess r GitpeERT Murray, Cuances C. CarPENTER, DANIEL Jonrs, Very Rev. H. HENSLEY Henson (Dean of Durham), H. WickHam STEED, CHarves F, Cross, Sir ALMRoTH WriGuHT, Sir JOHN STiRLING Maxwett, Epwarp Ctopp, and other gentlemen. Members are entitled to attend : All Lectures delivered in the Institution. Friday Eveni g Meetings and Discourses. Libraries and Reading Rooms. Their Families are admitted to the Lectures at a reduced charge. _ Persons desirous of becoming Members can obtain information at the Offi e of the Institution, 2t Albemarle Street, W. HUDDERSFIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal—J. F. Hupson, M.A., B.Sc. DEPARTMENT OF COAL-TAR COLOUR CHEMMSTRY. “BRITISH DYES” RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS. The Governors invite applications for two Scholarships of the value of 475 each and tenable for one year in the first instance. The object of these Schoiarships is to encourage and afford greater facilities for research upon problems in connection with the Coal“'ar Colour Industry in Great Britain. The Fesearch is to be carried out in the Depa'tment of Coal-Tar Colour Chemistry of the Technical College, Huddersfield. i Full particulars may be obtained on application to the SECRETARY, Technical College, Huddersfield, to whom applications should be sent as soon as possible. T. THORP, Secretary. Wanted by large Chemical Works, Assistant ANALYST; only men with previous chemical training and good qualifications need apply.—Box 208, c/o Nature Office. BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. 5 COURSES OF STUDY (Day and Evening) for Degrees of thi UNIVERSITY OF LONDON in the FACULTIES OF SCIENCE & ARTS (PASS AND HONOURS) : Under RECOGNISED TEACHERS of the University. SCIENCE.—Chemistry, Physics, Mathematies (Pure and Applied), Botany, Zoology, Geology. ARTS.—Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Italian, History, Geography, Logic, Economies, Mathematies (Pure and Applied). : Evening Courses for the Degrees in Economics and Laws. POST-GRADUATE AND RESEARCH WORK. a Day: Science, £17 10s.; Arts, £10 10s. SESSIONAL FEES { Regaine Science, Arts, or Economics, £5 5s, Prospectus post free, Calendar 3d. (by post 5d.), from the Secretary. a SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, CHELSEA. Day and Evening Courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. ; , Technical Chemical Courses. Pharmacy and Dispensing Courses. Particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary (Room 44). SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. Telephone : Western 899. THE LONDON SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE (UNDER THE AUsPICEs oF His Masesty’s GOVERNMENT), CONNAUGHT ROAD, ALBERT DOCK, E. In connection with the Hospitals of the Seamen’s Hospital Society. SESSIONS COMMENCE OCTOBER 1, JANUARY 15, and . MAY «x. For prospectus, syllabus, and other particulars apply to the Secretary, P. MicHe tt, Seamen’s Hospital Greenwich, S.E. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. The Senate invite applications for the UNIVERSITY READERSHIP in GRAPHICS and STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING’ tenable at UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. The salary will be £350 a year. ‘lhe Senate desire the appointment to date from January, 1917, but it will be deferred, if necessary, to September, 1917. Applications, together with copies of not more than three testimonials and the names of not more than three persons to whom reference may be made (ten copies of all documents), must he received not later than first post on Monday, January 1, 1917, by the Acapemic ReGistrar, University of London, South Kensington, S.W., from whom further particulars may be obtained. x ALFRED PEARCE GOULD, Vice-Chancellor. OERTLING BALANCE FOR SALE.— No. 3, short beam, chemical; in new condition, £25.—C. BAKER, — 244 High Holborn, London. : OLD PLATINUM, GOLD Dental Alloy, Scrap, &c., Purchased for Cash or Valued. SPINK & SON, Ltd. 17 & 18 PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. EST. 1772. : Fine Jewels or Plate also purchased or valued. NOW READY. NATURE, Vol. 97. Price 15s. net. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. RRReene istity» Educational Reform af nite hewn ema oLit ron The World’s Supply of Phosphates Payee |: Agriculture at the British Association. ... . University and Educational Intelligence... . 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Averaging Instrument (Goodman’s), for Indicator Cards, in leather a «- £0 4 case = ty rr = oo ast 6 6 Descriptive Circular post free on application. 1a COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS A New Barograph—THE “ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements ot the barometer durin the preceding days. j Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; ' 45 CORNHILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. CXXil NOTICE, In the Christmas Holidays NATURE for next week will be published on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29. consequence of ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. A CHRISTMAS COURSE OF ILLUSTRATED | LECTURES. ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN, 21 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. Proressor ARTHUR KEITH, M.D., F.R.C.S., LL.D., F.R.S., will deliver a Christmas Course of Six Illustrated Lectures (adapted toa uvenile Auditory) on ““‘THE HUMAN MACHINE WHICH ALL UST WORK.” “Living Engines,” Thursday, December 28, 1916, at Three o'clock ; “ Living Levers,” Saturday, December 30; “‘ Living Pumps,” Tuesday, January 2, 1917; ‘‘Living Bellows,” Thursday, January 4; “Living Workshops,” Saturday, January 6; ‘‘ Living Wires and Central Exchanges,” Tuesday, January 9. Subscription (for Non-Members) to this Course, One Guinea (Juveniles under sixteen, Half-a-Guinea); to all the Courses in the Session, Two Guineas. Tickets may now be obtained at the Office of the Institution, ORIENTAL STUDIES. THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, London Institution, Finsbury Circus, E.C., will be OPENED on JANUARY 18, 1917. Courses will be held in the Principal Languages of the Near, Middle, and Far East, and of Africa. Courses will also be given on Oriental Religions and Customs. Intending Students are invited to apply at once to the undersigned. E. DENISON ROSS, Director. PORTSMOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE. SECONDARY SCHOOL. Head- Mistress : Miss A. M. Kenyon Hrtcncocr, B.A. (Lond.), L.C.P. APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT SCIENCE MISTRESS. Applications are invited for the position of an ASSISTANT SCIENCE MISLRESS. Salary to a University Graduate, £110, increasing to 4125 per annum by 45 annual increments. Applications must be received at once. Further particulars and appli- cation form may be obtained by forwarding stamped addressed foolscap SaVPIARS iS the SEcRETARY to the Committee, at the Municipal College, ortsmouth, GIRLS’ COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. J. F. HUDSON, M.A., B.Sc. Applications are invited for the following posts :— ASSISTANT LECTURER IN CHEMISTRY, DEMONSTRATOR IN BIOLOGY. Women eligible. PRINCIPAL - Salary £150. Further particulars on application. T. THORP, Secretary. SS MEDICAL RESEARCH. _ DIRECTOR WANTED, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, Melbourne, Australia. Salary £800, with any premium of £75 for retirement in addition, Tenure, five years. Eligible for reappointment. Whole time. Applications by January 24, 19 17, to the AGENT-GENERAL Fox Vicroria, Aldwych, Strand, London from whom full intormation can be obtained, ; NAT.URE [| DECEMBER 21, 1916 | UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE. Coleg Prifathrofaol Deheudir Cymru A Mynwy. The Council of the College invites applications for the post of Temporary Lecturer in Chemistry to Medical Students and Temporary Assistant Lecturer and Demonstiator in Chemistry. Salary £200 per annum. Further particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, by whom applications, with testimonials (which need not be printed), must be received on or before January 8, 1917. P D. J. A. BROWN, Registrar. University College, Cardiff, December 19, 1016. ANALYTICAL CHEMIST. QUALIFIED ASSISTANT, ineligible for military service, required in the laboratory of the Manchester Corporation Sewage Works, Davyhulme, Urmston. Applications, stating age, experience, and salary required, to be addressed immediately to the Chairman of the Rivers Committee, own Hall, Manchester. FIRST BOOK ON CHARTS EVER PUBLISHED. Useful to Sailors, Fishing Authorities, and Students of Marine Science. CHARTS: Their Use and Meaning. . With 13 Figures and 8 Charts. By Dr. G. HERBERT FOWLER, Published by J. D. POTTER, 145 Minories, London, E.C. Price 4s, Books on Seientifie, Teehnieal, Edueational, Medieal, all other 1 BOOKS = subjeets, and for all Exams. SECOND-HAND AT HALF PRICES: New Books at Discount Prices. CATALOGUES FREE. State Wants. Books sent on approval, BOOKS BOUGHT: Best Prices Given. W. & C, FOYLE, 121-123 Charing Cross Road, London, (Ss E. GEORGE & SONS, Ltd., 23 Jacob Street, London, S.E., England. J. POOLE & CO ESTABLISHED 1854 SCIENTIFIC & EDUCATIONAL BOOKSELLERS BOOKS, MAGAZINES and PERIODICALS Despatched regularly to all parts. Can we send you particulars of our POSTAL SERVICE? Individual requirements studied and lowest ' prices quoted. Second Hand Books at about half published price. New Books at discount price. ENQUIRIES BY WAR Ti RECEIVE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION 104 Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. THE IRISH NATURALIST. A Monthly Magazine of Irish Zoology, Botany, and Geology. Price 6d. Edited by Prof. GEO. H. CARPENTER, B.Sc., R. LLOYD PRAEGER, B.A., and ROBERT J. WELCH. Annual Subseription, 5s. Post Free to any Address. Dublin: EASON & SON, Lrp., 40 Lower Sackville Street {to which Address Subscriptions should be sent). NATORE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1916. A ‘TEXT-BOOK OF HUMAN PARASITOLOGY. The Animal Parasites of Man. By Dr. H. B. Fantham, Prof. J. W. W. Stephens, and Prof. F. V. Theobald. Pp. xxxii+g9o00. (London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1916.) Price 45s. net. HIS volume is, according to the title-page, partly adapted from the fourth edition (1908) of Braun’s “Die Tierischen Parasiten des Menschen,” but the section on the Protozoa has been almost entirely rewritten in order to bring it up to date, and the section on the worms has received so many additions to its text and figures, and has consequently been remodelled to such an extent, that it also may be regarded as in large degree new. An introductory chapter deals in an interesting manner with the general characters of parasites and the influence of parasites on their hosts. The section on Protozoa (186 pages, by Dr. Fantham) contains a systematic account of the Protozoa known to occur in man, and also of the more important forms, especially the trypano- somes, which have been found in animals— laboratory, domestic, to come under the notice of medical officers. In addition to the undoubted Protozoa, the Spiro- chetes and the Chlamydozoa receive adequate treatment. The morphology and life-history (so far as this is ascertained) of the various organisms are stated in clear and concise terms, and the results of recent work—up to about July, 1915— are incorporated, the later papers being noticed in an appendix, which also contains directions for preparing culture media and some helpful notes on general protozoological technique. There does not appear to be any mention of Ameebe of the limax type, found from time to time in the large intestine of man; a statement of the characters of this type of Amceba would have been helpful. The whole account is well done, but. the part dealing with the flagellates may be a commended. . The section on the flat and round worms (271 pages, by Prof. Stephens) is an. excellent. piece of work, in which the numerous recent researches on these groups have received full attention. .By the insertion, in the section on Schistosoma (Bil- harzia),. of a slip giving the characters. of the two species, S. haematobium and S. mansoni, based on the observations of the War Office Bilharzia Mis- sion in Egypt, the literature on these parasites is brought down to March, 1916. The anatomy of. the adult, the characters of the egg and the known larval stages, the accompanying symptoms, and the pathological effects of the various parasitic worms recorded from man are clearly set forth. Special praise is due to the author for the excel- lence of the illustrations, many of which are either new or reproduced from recent memoirs. NO. 2460, VOL. 98] 395 The section on the Arthropoda (133 pages, by Prof. Theobald) gives a systematic account of the mites, ticks, and insects which have been recorded as attacking man. Much unaltered text from the previous edition has been retained, and with this numerous paragraphs dealing with new matter have been incorporated. This has no doubt been the cause of the use in places of obsolete nomen- clature, e.g. the dog flea is named Pulex serra- ticeps on p. 546; itscorrect modern name is given on the next page, but without any suggestion that the two names are in any way synonymous. The first part of this section deals with the Arachnida—mites, ticks, etc. Much work has been done on ticks since the last edition was issued, and many excellent figures have been pub- lished, but the present account is illustrated only with the four figures from the edition of 1906. The legend of one of these (Fig. 3598) is incor- rect, the structure shown being the terminal part of the chelicera and not “the terminal joint of the maxillary palpi.” The statement of the char- acters of some of the species of ticks is entirely inadequate, e.g. Amblyomma cajennense is “ char- acterised by the possession of eyés,” and no other characters are given except the measurements of the adult male and female. The short account of the lice is reprinted with the old figures from the edition of 1906, and there is no reference to the body-louse as carrier of relapsing fever and typhus. The five figures of fleas in the former edition are reprinted; new figures should have been added to enable the reader to follow-the essential differences between the principal genera described.. The characters of the plague-flea are insufficiently set forth, and in the short paragraph on the relation of this flea to plague is the statement: “ How the flea infects man does not apparently. seem to have been proved, as it does not do so through its bite.” The work of Bacot and Martin on the part played by fleas in which the proventriculus is blocked by a culture of plague bacilli has evidently been overlooked. In the account of the structure of a mosquito two-defects. may be noted: on pp. 548 (last line) to 550 the terms labium and labrum are transposed (as in the last edition); and the mosquito’ s cesophagus bears one large ventral diverticulum.in addition to the two small lateral (really dorso- lateral) ones mentioned on p. 550. The account of Phlebotomus is wanting in several respects, e.g. the statement of the characters of the larva is so defective as to be valueless. The difficulties to: be overcome in preparing an adequate account of insects in relation to man are undoubtedly great, but the present account does not attain the same high standard of accuracy and completeness as the first two sections of the volume. A supplement (115 pages) contains a Beansla: tion of Dr. Seifert’s appendix to the last German edition giving clinical and therapeutical notes. The first part of this, on the Protozoa, has been Jargely rewritten, but the parts on parasitic worms and arthropods are little changed. R 306 ACOUSTICS AND BEYOND. Hyperacoustics. By J. L. Dunk. Division i., Simultaneous Tonality. Pp. vit311. (Lon- don: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. HE title of the work of which the present volume is but the first division is thus dealt with in the preface: “Between the region of phenomena [undefined] comprised in the science of acoustics, and the experiences of music con- sidered as phenomena, there appears a great gulf, which invites attempts to bridge.’’ “The ‘gulf’ has two sides, and can be approached either by working forward from the material aspect of acoustics, or backward from the experiential aspects of music. However, in the present in- vestigation it is the purely scientific side that is emphatically insisted upon. Hence the name ‘ Hyperacoustics’ may be proposed, as indicative not only of something beyond, but also of a pre- sumption requiring justification as to the existence _and rationality of something beyond the known facts of acoustics.”’ It is held that the subject may be considered under the divisions Tonality, Rhythm, Organisa- tion, and Significance. The present volume is restricted to the aspect of ‘‘Tonality,” the science of musical sound in pitch and quality. As to the treatment of the subject, whenever incidental references are made to the various intervals, whether in the just or equally tempered intonations, the author shows an accurate know- ledge of .the facts. But, immediately he steps beyond the facts themselves to any discussion of them, all seems on a different plane—a plane of pure fancy, or “‘hyperscience.’’ This treatment might conceivably exercise some fascination over certain minds inclined to the occult and esoteric; and in such matters the mere man of science is not competent to judge. It may be that a feeling of shrinking on the part of the ordinary reader is inevitable towards a work designed to bridge in this wise the gulf between physics and music. But, without doubt, the work is quite lacking in all appeal to either the physicist or the musician. Indeed, the scientific reader cannot help wondering whither it all tends or what it is supposed to establish. Every few pages sees the introduction of one or more terms of a strange character and vague import. These are then woven into the discussion, which again continues without any apparent advance. One. of the simplest and least fanciful parts of the work is that in which the intervals are likened to colours. Thus the perfect fourth is regarded as red, the major third as green, and the minor third as violet. Then, by composition, are obtained the following. The perfect fifth is green plus violet equals blue, the minor sixth is red plus violet equals mauve, the major sixth is red plus green. equals yellow. Again, the octave is red plus green plus violet equals white, and the unison is zero equals black. An illustration of the more general style of NQ. 2460, vor. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 21, 1916 the work is afforded by the following quotation (p. 221) :— “The fact that, acoustically, the Seriopolar aspect of the Matrix is only effective in the Fundamental Species, and that the approximation of the Tensor Heptad to the Hemicyclic type is — nearer than the Laxator Heptad, is evidently responsible for the recognition of a distinct chiral bias in progression denoted at an early date by the word ‘ Authentic.’ ” MORPHOLOGY: OLD AND NEW. Form and Function: a Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology. By E. S. Russell. Pp. ix+383. (London: John Murray, 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. Oe and thoughtful book like this. makes one feel how much is lost to students of biology by lack of attention to the historical development of the science. Not only is the human interest missed, but also the educativeness of trac- ing the history of fundamental ideas. Moreover, for lack of historical discipline, the same mistakes. are made over and over again, and sound generalisations which have ceased to be prominent are unconsciously restated as new, it may be in a form far inferior to that given them by Cuvier, E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, von Baer, or some other outstanding thinker of older days. We wel- come, therefore, Mr. Russell’s contribution to the history of morphology, for it is based on many — years of first-hand study of the documents and is illumined by insight. It is true history, not chronicle; it displays the continuous endeavour from Aristotle until to-day to understand the forms of animals, both in their original establishment and in their individual reproduction in every life- cycle. _ The author distinguishes three main currents of morphological thought. The first he calls “functional or synthetic,” which interprets form as the manifestation of function or activity. It is ‘associated with the great names of Aristotle, Cuvier, and von Baer, and leads easily to the more open vitalism of Lamarck and Samuel Butler.” The second he calls “formal or tran- scendental,” which regards function as the result. of form—the outcome of organisation. “The typical representative of the second attitude is E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and this habit of thought has greatly influenced the development of © evolutionary morphology.” The third he calls “materialistic or disintegrative,’ which was greatly influenced by the cell-theory. Hane The author’s general position is with the morphologists of the first school; he believes that attention should be concentrated ‘‘on the active response of the animal, as manifested both im behaviour and in morphogenesis, particularly in the post-embryonic stages.” He frankly adopts “the simple everyday conception of living things —which many of us have had drilled out of us— that they are active, purposeful agents, not mere complicated aggregations of protein and other , substances.” ‘ _ DECEMBER 21, 1916] Mr. Russell displays a fine sense of the his- torian’s function in the way in which he has thought himself into the position of the various morphologists whose ideas he expounds. He shows a remarkably sympathetic imagination, and we suspect that he has understood some of the old masters—Lamarck, for instance—better than they understood themselves. We think his esti- mate of Haeckel is too severe, but his fair- mindedness is so conspicuous that we suspect our partiality may be at fault. The whole book shows fine workmanship, but we may perhaps refer to the outstanding excellence of the discussion of the controversy between Cuvier and Etienne Geof- froy Saint-Hilaire, of the Meckel-Serres law and its successor the recapitulation doctrine, of the work of von Baer, of the cell-theory, and of the import of the young subscience of experimental embryology which Roux founded. No previous English discussions of these subjects show in such high degree the qualities of scholarship, clearness, and grasp of essentials. This masterly book suggests many reflections, and we would try to state two of these. (a) Mr. Russell bids us choose between the position held by Cuvier, which insists on the priority of func- tion to structure, and the position of Geoffroy, which maintains the priority of structure to func- tion. But may we not recognise a partial truth in both positions? The organism is indeed a particular kind of activity, a unified reaction system, but it cannot get on without organisation, any more than a stream without a bed. It condi- tions its organisation as’ the stream makes its bed, but the organisation soon begins to condition it, as the bed the stream. We do not feel com- pelled to admit the rigid antithesis which Mr. Russell would force on us. (b) In his account of the embryological work of Roux the author says that “the introduction of a functional moment into - the concept of heredity was a methodological ad- vance of the first importance, for it linked up in an understandable way the problems of embryology, and indirectly of all morphology, with the problem of hereditary transmission, and gave form and substance to the conception of the organism as a historical being.” What Mr. Russell has said in this book and elsewhere concerning the conception of the organism as a historical being is very im- portant, but what we are not sure’ about is that Roux’s “linking-up”’ was “understandable.” As regards linking-up, did Roux do more than suggest the hypothesis that specific chemical substances produced in connection with functionally acquired form-changes might soak through from body to germ-cells and induce in them a predisposition to similar form-changes in the offspring? The hypo- thesis surely takes a good deal of understanding, and, speaking for ourselves, we are not enamoured with the prospect of interpreting the form of animals in terms of their activity if it cannot be attained without a belief in the transmission of functional modifications more firmly based in fact than that of Lamarck, Samuel Butler, or Semon. Is there not some other way in which an organism may be a historical being ? NO. 2460, VOL. 98] NATURE $97 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF VERTEBRATA, Growth in Length: Embryological Essays. By Richard Assheton. Pp. xi+104. (Cambridge: oak the University Press, 1916.) Price 2s. 6d. foc zoologists will be grateful to Mrs. Assheton for the publication of these embryological essays found amongst the papers of her late husband. Whilst nominally dealing, as the title indicates, with ‘growth in length,” they are really a beautiful and clearly expressed summary of the early stages in development of the Vertebrate embryo, ranging through the whole series from the Elasmobranch to the Mammal. The facts are, of course, interpreted according to the late Dr. Assheton’s views, with most of which we should be inclined to agree. The only point of criticism that seems to us worth raising is . whether Dr. Assheton was justified in accepting on the evidence the statement that the “segmen- tation cavity” in the segmenting eggs of Amphibia becomes incorporated in the gut. Brachet’s work (which Dr. Assheton quoted) does not warrant such a conclusion; he found, indeed, that the wall dividing the gut from the segmenta- tion cavity was often torn during growth, but that the rent healed up again. This tem- porary communication between the two cavities is therefore only one of the dislocations produced by unequal growth, and has no _ further significance. Dr. Assheton arrived at the conclusion that the blastopore in all Vertebrata (including Balano- glossus) becomes the anus, and that the mouth is an entirely new formation—as appears to be the case also in Echinodermata. This is a view for which there is strong evidence. The only consideration which makes us hesitate in accepting the ontogenetic processes in these two groups as a full record of their evolutionary history is that the formation of a new mouth seems to us to in- volve a breach of functional continuity which we find it difficult to picture to ourselves as actually occurring in the history of the race. To the essays on “Growth in Length” is appended a reprint of Dr. Assheton’s paper on “The Geometrical Relation of the Nuclei in an Invaginating Gastrula (Amphioxus),” which was an endeavour to substitute for Driesch’s vague conception of the “entelechy” a force alter- nately monopolar and bipolar, radiating from the nuclei of the blastomeres as the efficient agent in bringing about invagination. This explanation of vital phenomena, like so many others, can be made to fit this particular case; but our doubts as to its validity are raised by its inability to fit other similar cases. How can the position of the nuclei in the cells explain the invagination in the gastrula of Echinus, when this invagination can be changed into an evagination by allowing the egg to de- velop in warmer water? Still, it is only by pro- pounding and testing theories of this kind that progress can be made, and Dr. Assheton’s clear 308 NATURE [DECEMBER 21, 1916 exposition of the problem and his gallant attempt to solve it will, we hope, stimulate other biologists to follow in his footsteps and carry on the work to which his life was devoted, i.e. experimental embryology. E. W. M. OUR BOOKSHELF. The Heat Treatment of Tool Steel. By H. Brearley. Second edition. Pp. .xv+223. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. Tue fact that a demand has arisen for a second edition of this book within four years from its first appearance is the strongest evidence of its practical value. The author states in the preface that he is now less restrained than formerly, and is free to describe in greater detail the different methods of treating steel, and this has enabled him to deal with the subject much more com- pletely than in the first edition. For some time past, and especially during the stress of the last two years, it has been more fully realised than ever that the life of a tool will depend as much on the manner in which it is worked into the finished shape and on the heat treatment it receives as on the material from which it is made, and a record of the practical experience of the author will be of great. value to all directly interested in procuring the best work- ing results from the various steels used in the manufacture of tools. For efficient handling, the subject demands an adequate knowledge of the science bearing on it, and familiarity with the results of recent research, together with a wide experience in workshop practice. The author possesses these qualifica- tions to a high degree, and although the book deals more particularly with the practical than with the scientific aspect, it can be strongly re- commended to all interested in this important subject either from the practical or from the more purely scientific point of view. Alloy steels, and high-speed steels in particular, are more fully dealt with than was the case in the first edition, and the chapter on case-hardening has been omitted, as it has been made the subject of a separate volume. The whole subject is well handled, and the book can be strongly recommended as a clear and com- prehensive treatise on this important branch of technology. F. W. Harzorp. Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology. Pp. xvi+ 418. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. Tuis book is planned to serve as a manual of instruction in practical microbiology. To a large extent it represents the course given in this sub- ject at the Michigan Agricultural College, and it therefore “deals mostly with agricultural. micro- biology, and the disease-producing organisms, with two. or three exceptions, are omitted. The course is divided into 126 lessons or exer- NO. 2460, VoL. 98] cises, of which 53 are devoted to general labora- tory methods and to the general morphology of micro-organisms, 33 to the physiology of micro- organisms, 15 to air, water, sewage, and soil, 11 to dairy and plant microbiology, and 14 to animal diseases and immunity. ov Each lesson is detailed under a definite plan— the apparatus required, the cultures necessary, and the method of carrying out the exercise. At the end of each lesson questions are asked regard- ing the particular results that may be obtained and their significance. The details given for each lesson are sufficiently full to enable the student to work independently of a teacher, and anyone who were to follow them out would possess a good practical knowledge of the subjects dealt with. Formule for stains and special culture media, tables of the coliform organisms, metric and other tables, and a list of works of reference are given in an appendix, and the text is illustrated with a number of plates and figures. : The work should be of considerable value as a laboratory handbook to both teacher and student, and we can cordially recommend it for this pur- pose. R. T. Hewretr. ¢ 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.] Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-Cowrie in America. Tue letter entitled ‘Pre-Columbian Use of the Money-Cowrie in America,” by Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson (NaturE, September 21, p. 48), offers a discouraging instance pf superficial reading of carefully observed and recorded data. In 1915 Mr., Clarence B. Moore unearthed, in the Roden Mound in northern Alabama, five cowries (Cypraea moneta). These shells, which came from a burial in the body of the mound, had been pierced for stringing, and showed evidence of considerable age. They were the only evidence found at this site of con- tact with the Old World (C. B. Moore, ‘ Aboriginal Sites on Tennessee River,’ in Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, second series, xvi., p. 293). In all Mr. Moore’s more than twenty years of most careful and painstaking exploration of mounds, cemeteries, and dwelling sites of the southern United States, from the Atlantic coast to Texas, and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico, no previous instance of the finding of C. moneta had been noted by him, nor has it ever been recorded as occurring with American pre-Colum- bian remains. of this negative evidence is that the Roden Mounds were, in part, early post-Columbian, and that any other evidence of contact they may have contained was of a perishable nature. To-assume, on the basis of this string of shells, the pre-Columbian use of the cowrie in America is no more justified than to claim for iron working a pre-Columbian age in the western hemisphere on the evidence of the iron celts found by the same Tennessee River expedition in Citico Mound, where absolutely nothing else Save four glass beads from a ‘superficial burial suggested the white trader and his wares. In each instance’ the presence The logical conclusion from the mass’ DECEMBER 21, 1916] of these Old World materials dates the grave as later than 1492. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the *‘porcelain shell,’ or cowrie, was the trade medium for both the Orient and Africa, for which purpose it was strung. In a recent statement to the present writer, Dr. William H. Dall, the foremost of ethno-conchologists, so expressed himself :—‘I think the presence of C. moneta in a mound is evidence that the deposit is post- Columbian. Columbus believed that he was on a voyage to the (East) Indies, and no voyager of his day would have fitted out a ship for that goal without including the money-cowrie in his trade goods. That the records make no mention of them is probably due to their being considered too much a matter of course.” Moreover, strings of cowries were a part of the trappings of a gentleman’s mount, and, in this capa- city, some are likely to have reached the southern United States in the days of its earliest exploration. The C. moneta which Mr. Wilfrid Jackson errone- ‘ously states was found in the Serpent Mound, Ontario, is recorded by Mr. Montgomery as among the objects “*which were found in the same locality, some of them last year, and others previous to that time. ‘Some of these were discovered upon the mounds ‘or mear them; others were either found upon the surface of the ground or ploughed up in the neighbouring fields. A few were obtained about four miles distant from the mounds”’ (Trans. Canadian Institute, ix., 1910, p. 6). Mr. Montgomery himself says of the artifacts in this enumeration :—‘‘ Nothing ‘can be positively stated as to who their manufacturer was.’’ The shell was unpierced, and there is nothing in the record, so far as published, to prove that it was ever in the possession of an aboriginal American. As for the Cree dress, decorated with cowries, col- lected by the Lewis and Clark expedition, and described by Mr. Willoughby (American Anthropologist, 1905, p. 640), does Mr, Wilfrid Jackson maintain that the blue glass beads and brass buttons which adorned the opposite side of this shirt are also of pre-Columbian date? In sooth, it proves nothing. In 1804-5 the ‘Cree were in close trade relations with the Hudson Bay Company, and had been in touch with the white man for more than a century and a quarter. The modern use of the cowrie in the ancient cere- monies of the Ojibwa and Menomini tribes, cited by Mr. Jackson, is likewise wholly inconclusive of the antiquity of C. moneta as a culture object. Hoffman, describing ‘‘The Midéwiwin, or ‘Grand Medicine Society ’ of the Ojibwa” (Bureau of American Ethno- logy, vii., Ann. Rept., 1885-6), states :—‘‘The migis is considered the sacred symbol of the Midéwigan, and may consist of any small white shell, though the ‘one believed to be similar to the one mentioned in the above tradition resembles the cowrie. .. . It is admitted by all the Midé priests whom I have con- sulted that much of the information has been lost through the death of their aged predecessors ”’ (p. 167). On p. 191 Hoffman again refers to “the migis, a small white shell (C. moneta, L.),’’ and on p. 220 he further states :—‘t The migis referred to in this descrip- tion of the initiation consists of a small white shell, of almost any species, but the one believed to resemble the form of the mythical migis is similar to the cowrie, C. moneta, L. . . . Nearly all of the shells employed for this purpose are foreign species, and have no doubt been obtained from the,traders. The shells found in the country of the Ojibwa are of rather delicate struc- ture, and it is probable that the salt-water shells are employed as a substitute, chiefly because of their less frangible character.” The related Menomini, in their corresponding cere- mony, were undoubtedly using the money-cowrie as a No. 2460, VoL. 98] NATURE 309 culture object in 1890 (Hoffman, ‘‘The Menomini Indians"; Bureau of American Ethnology, xiv., Ann. Rept., p. tor), but the earliest. records of the doings of this medicine society are not so convincing of the identity of the shell employed (e.g. Schoolcraft, “Indian Tribes,” iii, p. 287). Dr. Dall has kindly permitted me to quote his private communica- ~ tion as follows :—‘‘I believe the cowrie to be a com- paratively late substitution, in the ceremonies of the. Ojibwa and associated tribes, for some native American shell formerly used by them, just as, after the coming: of the traders, the exotic Dentalium tarentinum rapidly. replaced the smaller and more fragile D. indianorum, which was so highly esteemed by the West. Coast tribes. The marine shell, Marginella apicina, which was traded up from the Gulf Coast in large quantities, in pre-Columbian and early post-Columbian times, is likely to have been the object, ‘in shape and colour like a small bean,’ which was thrown at the novice in the Black Dance ceremony of the Dakota, accord- ing to the earlier narrative used by Jonathan Carver. in 1778 (Bureau Amer. Ethnol., Ann. Rept., xiv., p. 112). Fletcher’s report of the corresponding cere- mony of the Winnebago, where they used ‘a small white seashell about the size of a bean’ (ibid., p. 110), exactly fits the Marginella.” : The case thus rests entirely on Mr. Moore’s find, and in the face of perhaps a hundred thousand aboriginal graves innocent of cowries, to construe the single instance of Roden Mounds as evidence of pre- historic acculturation is to sire the concept by a wish. H. NEWELL WaRDLE. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. THE question of the pre-Columbian use of the money- cowrie in America is fully discussed by me in an ex- haustive memoir, dealing with the use of cowries as cult objects in the Old and New Worlds, which is on the eve of publication by the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. (It will probably be pub- lished by the time this letter appears in print.) The whole subject is too vast to be discussed in a short letter, but the following remarks may be offered on the criticism levelled by Mr. H. Newell Wardle at my letter in Nature of September 21. The evidence provided by the remarkable discovery by Mr. C. B. Moore of shells of the money-cowrie, C, moneta, in the Roden Mound, where they were associated with a human skull, forms merely one link in the remarkably complete chain of cultural connection between the Old World and the New in pre-Columbian times. There are other equally suggestive facts, which point conclusively in the same direction, including the significant use of large stone cists for burial purposes in the immediate neighbourhood of the place where the cowries were found, as well as elsewhere in America. The custom of placing money-cowries in graves with the dead is a widespread Old World practice, which has a definite and wholly arbitrary significance; and it ranges in time from pre-dynastic Egypt to the pre- sent day. As for the Cree dress decorated with cowries, I do not pretend to claim that the actual dress, with its blue glass beads and brass buttons, is of pre-Colum- bian date; but the idea of using cowries to decorate such a dress, which again has a very precise meaning in Africa and southern and eastern Asia, was certainly not so. recent .as) the brass buttons suggest. To imagine that the Hudson Bay Company introduced such Oriental customs, or even *knew of their exist- ence, is surely crediting these traders with an extent of ethnological’ knowledge and enthusiasm ‘for disseminat- ing exotic beliefs, with a strong Indonesian colour, which I am not sufficiently imaginative to admit. 310 NATURE [DECEMBER 21, 1916 If it be admitted that the Hudson Bay Company traded cowries, it must have been due to having seen such already in use by the Indians, for without this appreciation of the special mystical value of the cowrie there would have been no demand for them, On the west coast of Africa the cult of the cowrie was certainly not first introduced there by the white traders of the fifteenth century; they found the blacks already in possession of these white shells, the custom of using them and the superstitious reverence attached to such shells having filtered through Central Africa ages prior to the advent of the whites. It is only natural that full advantage should have been taken by traders, and thus an enormous trade in these shells sprang up. So far as I am aware there is no evidence that the Hudson Bay Company traded in the money- cowrie, Mr. Wardle’s arguments do not explain the remark- able identity in the association of the money-cowrie with medicine ceremonies in places so far apart as Africa and America. In both these continents the cowrie is regarded as the ‘‘symbol of life’"—a dis- tinction which no other shell enjoys. In a magazine article he has previously expounded the procedure of Columbus in introducing the cowrie, C. moneta, into the New World. But in his account, the gist of which appears in his foregoing letter, he omits the most wonderful episode of his ‘ wonder- tale,’ as he himself calls it—I refer to the fact that after all the imaginary wanderings and episodes on sea and land, the cowries should eventually have come to rest in the heart of the American continent, and, ‘ of course purely by accident,” have become linked up with the identical beliefs and fantastic practices with which they are associated in Africa, India, and eastern Asia. To such lengths does the American ethnologist go rather than admit the patent fact that these shells, along with the associated beliefs and practices, were taken from eastern Asia to America long before the time of Columbus. J. Witrrip Jackson, Manchester Museum, Field Glasses for Army Use. Soon after the outbreak of the war, my father, Lord Roberts, asked the public to lend their glasses for the use of the Army. After two years I. think your readers may be glad to have some particulars of the result of his request. Upwards of 26,000 glasses have been received, with- out reckoning those which, in pursuance of my father’s suggestion, have been collected in Australia, the Malay States, and elsewhere, and issued forthwith to the local forces on their way to the seat of war. The instruments sent comprise every type, and have been classified and issued according to the needs of different units. Particularly useful have been the fine prismatic glasses sent, which have been allocated to artillery and machine-gun units, according to their power; large mounted telescopes for batteries, deer-stalking telescopes for gunners and snipers, and good old-fashioned non- prismatic racing glasses for detection of the nationality of aircraft, locating snipers, signalling by disc, collect- ing wounded, and musketry instruction. I am indeed grateful for the way in which my father’s appeal has been met. British people all over the world have given their best, recognising that, in spite of the fact that their glasses are on loan and that the organisation for their return has been ar- ranged, the chances of loss are many, and that they may never get them hack. ¢ When I think of the enormous numbers of good glasses sent, it may seem ungracious to ask for more, but the demand is still great. Iam told that at watering- NO. 2460, VoL. 98] places and on racecourses and elsewhere large num- bers of glasses are still to be seen in private hands, and to the owners of these I would once more appeal. I should add that we have been entrusted by the Minis- try of Munitions with the purchase of individuab glasses from those who cannot afford to lend them, and that the address for sending glasses for either pur- pose is the same. Every good glass (except opera- glasses) and every telescope (except toys) is wanted for — the service of the country. December 18. RopseErts. Address for sending:—The Manager of Lady Roberts’s Field Glass Fund, National Service League, 72 Victoria Street, S.W. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA. — HE second report of the Executive Committee of the Advisory Council of Science and Industry for the Commonwealth of Australia shows that energetic steps are being taken to provide and set in motion the necessary machinery for the promotion of industrial research in the Common- wealth. Strong committees have been formed in all the States with the exception of Tasmania, and it is hoped that this State will soon take action and complete the scheme recommended by the Advisory Council. The Executive Committee has commenced its. work in a methodical manner by making inquiries with the view of compiling information regarding Australian industries, problems arising in connec- tion with them, the laboratories and personnel now available for research, and the facilities for the education of future investigators. We look forward with considerable interest to further reports to learn what conclusions are arrived at as to the education of the research workers of the future. The leaders in this re- search movement in Australia are, of course, familiar with all our educational systems in the Old Country, and, indeed, many of them are graduates of British universities. With the special problem’ before them of training research workers, it will be interesting to see to what extent they will go along the old lines, or whether they will recom- mend new methods, having fewer Education Acts and educational interests to take into account. The Executive Committee, since its first: report a few weeks previously, has been able’ not only to complete the machinery of the scheme, but also. to consider many suggested researches. The broad character of these shows that the com- mittee intends that its functions should include. all types of industries that can be benefited by research. Problems relating to engineering, chemistry, gold-mining, diseases of cattle, agri- culture, bread-making, and other matters appear in the list. We notice that a special committee has been appointed to deal with the standardisation of. physical apparatus for the teaching of science in the technical and other schools and colleges of Australia. The object is to enable the apparatus to be made in Australia, as it is inconvenient to depend on supplies imported from a great distance. © DECEMBER 21, 1916] We sometimes wonder whether there is not too much, standardisation in apparatus for elementary teaching. Instrument-makers are, of course, a necessity for specialised and accurate instruments, but it might be better if schools and colleges depended more on their own workshops. The work already accomplished in Australia, and indeed also in Canada, shows that the move- ment towards research methods in industry is going on all over the Empire, and it is encourag- ing to know that the necessary co-operation, with- out too much centralisation, is being arranged between the councils operating abroad and the Advisory Council at work in London. Sufficient organising machinery would seem to have been provided both at home and in Australia and Canada. The supply of trained workers is the _important matter, and that brings us back to our educational systems. Will the universities be able to give the necessary care to research to enable them to meet the demand for trained investigators that we hope to see in the near future? If they are to do so larger staffs will be necessary, and there must be less school-work in the universities. There are few university professors who do not spend a large portion of their time teaching school-work. Higher entrance examinations would remedy this evil, but the university is not always so rich that it can ignore the question of students’ fees. In connection with the establishment of this Federal research scheme in Australia, it is interest- ing to turn to the report of the British Science Guild adopted at the annual meeting on July 1, 1915, and to find that so early as January, 1914, the South Australian branch of the Guild had drawn up plans for a Federal Institute for Original Research which were to be brought before a con- ference of the Australian Premiers. The institute proposed by the Guild was designed to give special attention to agriculture, and to undertake ‘“re- search work beyond experimental farming.” The Guild realised the importance of studying from a research point of view everything underlying the successful use of the land, including the well- being in every respect of the people engaged in farming operations. The list of subjects men- tioned above, which the executive committee deals with in its report, shows that agriculture in all its bearings is receiving attention, and in this respect the idea of the South Australian branch of the British Science Guild has certainly borne fruit. It would be well for us to consider in this country whether our agricultural research deals sufficiently with matters “beyond experimental farming.” Experimental farming in its narrower sense can only lead to improvements in detail. Research work of a more fundamental character is required in agriculture as in other industries. The schemes adopted since the beginning of the war provide for such research work in connection with our manufactures, but it is not sufficiently clear that we intend to give the necessary atten- tion to fundamental research bearing on agri- cultural pursuits. NO. 2460, VOL. 98] NATURE 311 THE ERADICATION OF SLEEPING SICKNESS FROM PRINCIPE. RINCIPE is one of a group of four islands in the Gulf of Guinea. It is 17 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide, and is 200 kilometres distant from the mainland. The main export of the island is cacao; sugar-cane, coffee, and palm kernel being practically negligible. For the cul- tivation of the cacao crop labour has been im- ported in the past from the African mainland. In all probability among these labourers there would be cases of sleeping sickness. These in them- selves would constitute no danger to the island population or to their uninfected fellow-labourers, but in Principe unfortunately the carrier tsetse-fly, Glossina palpalis, also existed, and sleeping sick- ness mortality became so great that the economic life of the island was gravely menaced. The annual mortality was about 200 in a population of 3800 (average), so that in twenty years the mor- tality would be in excess of the total population. How and where the fly was first imported (if it were so) is a matter of conjecture, but it is thought that this occurred in 1825 with the importation of cattle and slaves, and though so far as we are aware there are no other records of the fly putting to sea, Fernando Po, 40 kilometres from the coast, is also fly-infested, whereas San Thomé, 130 kilo- metres south-west of Principe, is free from fly and likewise from sleeping sickness. As regards the distribution of the fly in the island, it is practically identical with that of the wild pigs. Neither is found higher than 250 metres above sea-level. In the case of the pig this distribution is determined by that of the oil-palm, on the fruit of which the pigs feed; but how far it is a case of the fly follow- ing the pig, or the latter finding security in the haunts of the fly, is a matter of some doubt. The section of the work dealing with the trypano- somes of various animals, pig, ox, mule, dog, is unfortunately incomplete. A dimorphic trypano- some—that is, one showing flagellar and aflagellar forms—was found in the ox, dog, and mule, but its identity is not established. It may be the dimorphic trypanosome common in cattle in Africa, T. wgandae (dimorphic form of T. brucei), or it may be T. gambiense, though cattle are not definitely established as hosts of this trypanosome of man. Whether, too, the human trypanosome of Principe is a special variety of T. gambiense must remain doubtful, as the fallacies of the bio- metric method of distinguishing trypanosomes introduced by Bruce and here adopted are so many that its usefulness is problematical. This book gives an account of the results obtained by the third mission dispatched to study sleeping sick- ness by the Portuguese Government, the first having set to work in 1871. Knowledge of the subject has increased greatly since that time, when indeed the cause of the disease was unknown, but the, last mission was so successful in the practical application of this knowledge that the disease, 1 “Sleeping Sickness. A Record of Four Years’ War against It in the Island of Principe." By B. F. Bruto da Costa, J. F. Sant’ Anna, A. C. dos Santos, and M. G. de Araujo Alvares. Translated by Lieut.-Col. J. A Wyllie. Pp. xii+260. (Published for the Centro Colonial, Lisbon b Bailliére; Tindall and Cox London. 1916. Price 7s. 6d. net. 312 or, to be strictly accurate, the carrier of the disease, has been stamped out in the island. The methods used for getting rid of the fly com- prised :—(1) Clearing of vegetation, felling of forest, clearing of woodlands and secondary jungle growth, so as to admit light and air into the haunts of the shade-loving tsetse. (2) Drain- age of swamps and clearing of the banks of streams. (3) Extermination of pigs, dogs, and cattle. For the protection of those at work in the fly areas the Maldonado method of trapping the fly was adopted. The members of the fly brigade wore canvas, back and front, covered with a viscid preparation made in Reading. (It would appear to be composed, like fly-papers, largely of boiled linseed oil.) By this means at the beginning of the campaign as many as 500 flies could occa- sionally be caught by a single man in a day, and the average caught by the gang was about 17,000 a month in 1911, less than 6000 a month in 1912, while in the first three months of 1914 only 14 flies were caught by 297 men, and in the last nine months of the year none. The mission is to be congratulated on the suc- cess of its efforts. Jar WoeWeede CLEMENT REID, F.R.S. HE death of Mr. Clement Reid on December 10 is a severe loss alike to geological and to botanical science. Born on January 6, 1853, Reid joined the Geological Survey in 1874, and began field-work in the south-west of England, but was soon transferred to the eastern counties. Here, in mapping the Cromer Forest Bed and other plant-bearing formations exposed on the coast, he entered upon the investigation of our Pliocene and Pleistocene flora, which thereafter he pursued with characteristic enthusiasm and _ ability throughout his life. Devising ingenious methods for separating out the seeds of plants from any material in which they lay hidden, he showed the significance of these inconspicuous fossils as in- dicators of past climate; and he soon became re- cognised as our leading authority on this sub- ject. In the “Cromer” memoir of the Geological Survey (1882) he firmly established his capability both as an investigator and as an expositor. His next field-work was in Yorkshire, first on the north-eastern moorlands and then in the Holder- ness country, after which it was carried south- ward into Lincolnshire, the results being pub- lished in the “Holderness” memoir (1885). This done, he: was sent to map the South Downs and the coastal tract of Sussex; and he worked west- ward thence through Hampshire and part of the Isle of Wight into Dorset and Wiltshire, » describing this country in several more memoirs, published between 1898 and 1903. Meanwhile, he had also produced a_ collective ‘‘General”’ memoir on the Pliocene deposits of Britain (1890), during the preparation of which he visited Belgium and North Italy for the study of the equivalent deposits there. Besides his official work, Reid had by this time No. 2460, vor. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 21, 1916 contributed many notable and widely discussed papers to scientific societies and periodicals, deal- ing mainly with the paleobotany of the later geo- logical periods; with the climatal conditions indi- cated by geological formations; and with subjects in the debatable territory where geology and archeology meet. In 1899 he summed up his knowledge of past botanical conditions in a book full of acute observation and suggestion, entitled “The Origin of the British Flora”; and, in 1913, he dealt similarly, in a small book, with our “ Sub- merged Forests.” His critical study of the fossil Characee, in collaboration with Mr. J. Groves, of which the first-fruits are in course of publica- tion, has now been lamentably arrested. In his later researches Reid was ably assisted by his wife (previously Miss E. M. Wynne Ed- wards), joint-author with him in his description of the interesting Pliocene flora of Tegelen, Hol- land, and in several other botanical and geologi- cal papers. On his advancement to the post of district geo- logist in 1901, Reid was placed in charge of the Geological Survey work in Cornwall and Devon, and afterwards in the south-eastern district around London. On retiring from official duty early in 1913, he went to live at a chosen spot at Milford-on-Sea, overlooking the Solent, and died there, after a short illness. In recognition of his work, Reid was awarded by the Geological Society the Murchison Fund in 1886, and the Bigsby Medal in 1897; and by the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, the Bolitho Medal in 1911. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1899. He served terms of office on the council of the Linnean Society and of the Geological Society, being vice-president of the latter from 1913 to 1916. He leaves a widow, but no children. WILLIAM ELLIS, F.R.S. OR the third time in about six months the Royal Meteorological Society has to mourn the loss of a past president. Mr. William Ellis was born at Greenwich on February 20, 1828, and succumbed to heart failure on December 11 at Blackheath, having spent nearly the whole of his long life in the immediate neighbourhood of the Royal Observatory. His father, Henry Ellis, was an assistant there, and he himself began work there as a boy computer in 1841. After several years’ experience as an astronomical observer, he ieft in 1852 to take charge of Durham Observa- tory, returning in 1853 when a vacancy occurred on the staff at Greenwich. He was attached to the Time Department, and soon afterwards had charge of it, including the galvanic batteries and circuits, but after eighteen years’ superintendence of that work, and more than twenty years as a regular astronomical observer on the staff, he was transferred, on Glaisher’s retirement, to the Mag- netical and Meteorological Department, of which he was superintendent for nineteen years, until his retirement at the end of 1893, in which year he — DECEMBER 21, 1916] NATURE 313 was elected F.R.S. During his short stay at Dur- ham he communicated results of his observations of minor planets to the Royal Astronomical Society, following them up with further contribu- tions, and was elected a fellow of the society in 1864. Soon after succeeding Glaisher in 1875, he became a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, and was president in 1886 and 1887, also serving as official referee for papers for nearly thirty years. The most important Greenwich publication associated with Ellis’s name is that which deals exhaustively with air temperature for fifty years, 1841-90, in the production of which he did a very great amount of hard work in rendering the earlier observations comparable with those taken under his own superintendence. But he is prob- ably better known in connection with his contribu- tion to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1880, in which he showed for the first time a relation between sun-spot fre- quency and terrestrial magnetic disturbance, a subject which he followed up with further contri- _ butions to the R.A.S. Monthly Notices. He strongly objected to the notion that the moon affects the weather, and so long ago as 1867 maintained in the Philosophical Magazine that the idea of the moon’s clearing away clouds was nothing but a poet’s fancy. To the subject of cloudiness he returned later, dealing in one of his presidential addresses to the Royal Meteorological NOTES. By the will of the late Mr. Percival Lowell, a fund amounting to 10 per cent. of the income of his total | estate of a million dollars is set apart for the main- Society with seventy years’ cloud observations at | Greenwich. His association with the Time Depart- ment is reflected in a highly interesting article in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society dealing with the rating of several clocks destined for use during the observations of the transit of Venus in 1874, in which he showed that the oscillation of one pendulum was dis- tinctly affected by that of another in the vicinity, especially if the clocks were mounted on the same stand. Ellis was a frequent contributor also to the Quarterly Journal of the Royal: Meteorological Society, and for many years a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, in connection with which he investigated the effect of the City and South London Electric Railway trains on the earth-current registers at the Royal Observatory. He was keenly interested in the new magnetic in- struments introduced at Greenwich by the present Astronomer Royal, which he was unfortunately unable to see for himself, as his sight had practi- cally failed for some years before his death. He insisted to the last on attending the annual visita- tion of Greenwich Observatory, putting in his seventy-fifth consecutive appearance at that func- tion last June, but no one who saw him then can be surprised that it was his last visitation day. He was able to appreciate a reference in the cur- rent issue of the Observatory magazine only a few days before his death, but had been for some weeks confined to his bed, though suffering from no specific ailment of any great importance. Though twice married he had no children, but he leaves a widow. He was buried at Charlton Ceme- tery on Saturday, December 16. WwW. W. B. No. 2460, VoL. 98] tenance of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, to be used especially for ‘‘the study of our solar system and its evolutions.’ It is specified that the observatory is never to be merged or joined with any other institution. The fund devoted to this pur- pose is to be held in trust by the late astronomer’s brother-in-law, Mr, W. ‘Lowell Putnam. WE regret to announce the death on December 14, at seventy-three years of age, of Prof. T Purdie, F.R.S., emeritus professor of chemistry in the Univer- sity of St. Andrews. Carr. C. Baruurst has been appointed Parlia- mentary Secretary of the Food Control Department in the new Ministry, and not of the Board of Agriculture, as was expected last week. This office is held by Sir R. Winfrey, who occupied the same post in 1906-10, when Earl Carrington was Minister of Agriculture. Tue death is announced of Dr. Hugo Miinsterberg, since 1892. professor of psychology, and director of the | psychological laboratory, Harvard University. Mr. W. Kewtey has been appointed secretary-super- intendent of the Middlesex Hospital in succession to the late Mr. F. Clare Melhado. Dr. A. YeErRsIN, director of the’ Pasteur Institute of Indo-China, has been awarded the Lasserre prize for the present year for his work on anti-plague serum. Ir is announced in the issue of Science for Novem- ber 17 that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on November 15 presented the Rumford medals to Dr. C. G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian Institution, for his researches on solar radiation. WE learn from the Times that Sub-Lieut. O. J- | Hobbs, previously reported missing, is now reported killed on or about November 13. At the outbreak of war he was science master at the King Edward VI. Grammar School, Southampton. Announcement is also made that Lieut. J. C. Simpson, R.E:, an asso- ciate of tthe Royal School of Mines anda fellow of the Geological Society, was killed on December 4. WE regret to note that Engineering for December 15 | records the death, on December 11, in his sixty-fourth year, of Mr. Archibald Colville, the chairman of Messrs. David Colville and Sons, Ltd., the well-known steel-makers of Motherwell. Mr. Colville was chair- man of the Scottish Steel Makers’ Association, and was a member of the Board of Trade Iron and Steel Industries Committee. A FuND is being raised to purchase the very valuable scientific library of the late Prof. Silvanus Thompson and to present it to the Institution of Electrical Engineers as a memorial of his life and work, the library to be accessible to the public on the same ‘conditions as the Ronalds Library. Those who wish to subscribe to this fund or to have further informa- tion regarding it are requested to communicate with Mr. W. M. Mordey, 82 Victoria Street, London, S.W. AT a recent meeting of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland the following members were appointed to edit and manage the Journal of Anatomy :—Prof. T. H. Bryce, University of Glas- gow; Prof. E. Fawcett, Uniyersity of Bristol; Prof. J. P. Hill, University College, London; Prof. G. Elliot Smith, University of Manchester; and Prof. A. 314 Keith, Royal College of Surgeons of England—the last-named to serve as acting editor. At the same meeting a unanimous vote of thanks was given to Prof. Alex. Macalister, F.R.S., for the able manner in which he had managed and edited the Journal in past years and for his generosity in transferring its control to the Anatomical Society. An expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian ‘Institution will leave shortly for the French Congo and certain of the neighbouring parts of West Africa. It will be known as the “ Collins-Garner Congo Expe- dition, in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution,” and will be headed by Mr. A. M. Collins, of Phil- adelphia, a well-known explorer and sportsman, who has made several trips to Africa and other regions in search of big game. Mr. R. L. Garner, of New York, who has already made extensive investigations concerning the apes and monkeys of Central Africa, is manager of the expedition. The other members ‘of the party are Prof. C. W. Furlong, of Boston, and Mr. C. R. W. Aschemeier, of Washington, who re- ‘presents the Smithsonian Institution as collector of natural history specimens for the United States National Museum. The natural history collections will go to the United States National Museum. Tue trustees of the Elizabeth Thompson Science Fund announce their readiness to consider applications for grants in aid of scientific work. Appropriations are restricted to non-commercial enterprises, and are in- tended solely for the actual expenses of the investiga- tion, not for the support of the investigator or for the ordinary costs of publication. Grants are made only for those researches, not otherwise provided for, the object of which is, broadly, the advancement of human knowledge; requests for researches of a narrow or merely local interest will not be considered. Usually grants are not made in excess of three hundred dollars. Applications for grants from this fund should be accom- panied by a full statement of the nature of the investi- gation, of the conditions under which it is to be prose- cuted, and of the manner in which the appropriation asked for is to be expended. The application should be sent to the secretary of the board of trustees, Dr. W. B. Cannon, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., U.S.A., who will furnish further details. Mucu is being done all over the country to provide entertainment for our soldiers, but the Scientific Society of the Birmingham and Midland Institute appears to have opened up a somewhat new line. On a recent evening many members and friends of the society visited the Y.M.C.A. Hut at Sutton Coldfield to give the convalescents stationed there a ‘“ Popular Science Evening.” The tables were crowded all the evening, and the soldiers evinced the greatest interest in the exhibits and experiments. Exigencies of time had been carefully considered, so that the preparations in the room took only about half-an-hour, whilst an even shorter time served for clearing away. The following list of some of the exhibits may be a useful guide to other societies desirous of organising similar exhibitions :—‘‘ Rainbow Cup,’ showing colours of very thin soap films; Cartesian diver; radiometer; spontaneous combustion; shocking coil; fire from flint, steel, and tinder; floating magnets under a controlling * magnet; diffusion figures, formed by the spreading of dyes in blotting paper; harmonigraph (four-phase) ; “several microscopes; gyroscope, spinning eggs, etc. ; resonance experiments with tuning forks, resonators, ‘swinging balls, etc.; soap bubble experiments. __In an address before the opening meeting of the Illuminating Engineering Society on December 15 NO. 2460, vor. 98] NATURE me ’ P: [DECEMBER 21, 1916 Mr. L. Gaster referred to the great loss which the society had sustained in the death of Prof. Silvanus P. — Thompson. A message of condolence from the Rus- sian Electrotechnical Associationy expressing admira- tion of Prof. Thompson’s great gifts, was also read. The address dealt mainly with the problem of war economies in lighting, which, it was suggested, should take the form of avoiding waste of light rather than aiming at indiscriminate diminution. The prejudicial effect of the darkening of the streets was illustrated by the progressive increase in the number of accidents during the past few years, and the economic loss involved in the interference with traffic was consider- able. The present inethods of screening lamps were in general uneconomical and badly devised, and the conditions varied greatly in different districts. These anomalies appeared to be due to the conflicting claims of different authorities urging respectively the claims of economy, the convenience of traffic and safety, and precautions against hostile aircraft. After two years of war the time was surely ripe for a systematic study of the present lighting conditions and for the estab- lishment of a central authority, acting under expert advice, to determine how these various requirements could best be met. ‘ Mr. J. Reip Morr has sent us, asan excerpt from the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia (vol. ii., part ii., for 1915-16), a paper on a series of pre-Palzolithic implements recently discovered at Darmsden Hall, Suffolk, a place about eight miles . north-west of Ipswich. The sand underlying the pebble-bed is at present undatable, but the deposit was laid down prior to the excavation of the Gipping Valley, and the pebbles were deposited from the Woolwich and Reading beds. These Darmsden implements, which ~ are precisely the same as the sub-Crag specimens, are more-ancient than the Pliocene Red Crag, and can therefore be referred to an early phase of the pre- Palzolithic period. The human origin of the chipping is said to be certain. There is no evidence that they were fractured in the bed in which they are now found, and they show no signs of pressure flaking or scratches, the result of moving pressure. They have obviously been flaked by blows, and thé angles at which the flakes were moved show that such blows were intelligently directed. f In the Psychological Review (vol. xxiii., No. 6) K. S. Lashley raises the problem of the im- portance of the human salivary reflex. He points out that the experiments _of Pawlow have pro- vided a method of _ investigation which has proved useful in the study of the sensory physio- logy of animals, and promises to be even more valu- able in revealing fundamental factors of habit forma- tion and of central inhibition and reinforcement. He suggests that an extension of the method to man is desirable, as in the few attempts already made to investigate the conditioned salivary reflex in man the results are not in harmony with one another, due probably to differences in technique and interpretation. The ease with which the quantity of secretion of the salivary glands can be measured, the consistency of their reactions, and their relative freedom from inhibi- tion, make them especially promising for studies of the relation of the intensity of the stimulus to the organism, which studies have hitherto been restricted to the elaboration of the laws of psycho-physics. A sySTEMATIC entomological paper of much interest is one on the Dermaptera. and Orthoptera of the coastal plain and piedmont region of the south-eastern United States by J. A. G. Rehn and M. Hebard (Proc. Acad. Nat, Sci., Philadelphia, Ixviii., part ~2). ‘DECEMBER 21, 1916] The district. studied extends: over Virginia, the Caro- linas, Georgia, and northern Florida, ranging from the Appalachian summits to the sea-level. Lists of species characteristic of the various regions are given, and in the systematic part of the paper variation is studied so far as possible in relation to geographical conditions. “A Systematic Account of the Prairie-Dogs,” by N. Hollister, has lately been issued (No. 40, ‘‘ North American Fauna,’’ U.S. Dept. Agric. Biol. Survey). The genus Cynomys is divided into two subgenera and five species, in the descriptions of which nearly goo specimens have been utilised. There are com- parative photographs of skulls and _ distributional maps. It seems a pity that in valuable zoological memoirs such as this the ridiculous misnomer ‘‘ dog” should be stereotyped for these animals, which, accord- ing to the author, are ‘‘true ground-squirrels, or spermophiles.”’ A CATALOGUE of the earthquakes felt in the. Philip- pine Islands in the year 1915 has recently been pub- lished in the U.S. Weather Bulletin. The number of shocks recorded during the year is 170, only forty- eight of which reached the degree 4, or a higher degree of the Rossi-Forel scale, though fifty-seven were registered at the Manila Observatory. One earthquake, which occurred on March 12 in south-east Luzon, though it attained an intensity of only 6-7 {that is, of less than destructive intensity), disturbed ' an area of about 45,000 square miles, and was recorded at seismological observatories all over the world. Capt. GourLay’s note on a phosphorescent centi- pede, recorded in Nature of November 23 (p. 233), has elicited some further facts worth putting on record. They have been sent us by Mr. S. Priest, hon. sec., Dartford Naturalists’ Field Club, and relate to the experiences of members of the club residing at Stone and Dartford. He cites two cases of centipedes, seen during October and November, emitting a trail of light as they crawled along, and exuding phos- phorescent matter on to the fingers when handled. Another specimen left ‘‘trail-like drops of green light ”’ behind it. The light in this case was so brilliant as to show through the handkerchief in which it was placed after capture. Finally, Mr. Priest cites a case of this luminosity persisting in a crushed specimen. THE purification of oyster-beds by means of chlor- inated water has formed the subject of experiment by the Board of Fish and Game Commissioners, Cali- fornia. According to California Fish and Game (vol. ii., No. 4), a trace of calcium hypochlorite can be passed through the gills and alimentary canal. of the oyster without any detrimental effect upon the animal, while any water-borne disease, such as typhoid, is effectually destroyed. In the sameissue it is urged that more use should be made of the immense quantities -of the edible mussel to be found along the rocky shores ‘of Humbolt County. Not only, it is insisted, do they provide a most nutritious food when eaten in the fresh state, but they are scarcely, if at all, less palat- able when pickled. Finally, protective measures have been framed for the ‘‘Alabone,” or Haliotis, which thas been almost exterminated for the sake of its shell. It is urged that this mollusc can be made to produce pearls of extreme beauty by inserting foreign bodies ‘between the mantle and the shell. Butietin No. 61 of the Agricultural Research Insti- tute, Pusa, gives an interesting review by Mr. A. Howard of the bearing of soil aeration upon crop pro- ‘duction, with especial reference to the agriculture of India. Striking illustrations of the importance of this NO. 2460, VOL. 98] NATURE 315 factor have been furnished by the experimental work of recent years in that country. The requirements of nodule-producing leguminous crops for supplies of nitrogen and oxygen in the soil render soil aeration a factor of obvious importance in their growth, and experience with the gram and indigo crops and in the general practice of green manuring fully bears this out. The distribution of gram in India follows the occurrence of well-aerated soils. Experiments at Pusa have demonstrated that the growth of gram in deficiently aerated soil can be greatly improved by the simple expedient of incorporating considerable quanti- ties of tile fragments with the soil. The indigo plant provides an even more striking instance of dependence upon soil aeration, and much of the money expended in attempts to improve the production of natural indigo might have been saved had more attention been paid to the needs of the plant in this respect.- Soil aeration has been shown also to have an important bearing upon the maturation and quality of grain, fruit, vegetables, and tobacco. Various practical applications of soil aeration are indicated, including more rational irrigation, manuring, improvement of crops and cattle, and the development of wheat and rice areas. With efficient aeration adequate nitrogen supplies can be derived directly from the air by bacterial activity, whilst soil fungi will liberate supplies of available phosphates and potash. Tue twelfth memorandum of the Health of Muni- tion Workers Committee deals with the output of munition workers in relation to hours of work, and the question has been investigated from a statistical point of view by Dr. H. M. Vernon. It was found that, when the number of working hours per week was increased beyond a certain level, the output was not correspondingly increased, but tended to fall off owing to the occurrence of ‘‘ broken time”’ from sick- ness or fatigue. The number of working hours per week which yielded the maximum output varied with the character of the work. For moderately heavy labour, the maximum output was attained with sixty hours’ work a week, whereas those engaged in light labour worked as much as seventy hours a week in order to reach their maximum output. Dr. Vernon points out that the production of a maximum output day after day by the worker must impose a consider- able strain, and that in many cases the strain became too great to be borne and the worker had to drop out altogether. Hence the optimum length of the working week, suited for peace times, is consider- ably shorter than that mentioned, although the prin- ciple of graduating the number of hours to the type of work performed still holds good. The memo- randum also gives instances of considerable delay in starting the day’s work and of a similar slackening just before the day’s work ceases, and it is pointed out that the elimination of these causes of lost time would increase the worker’s output without lengthen- ing his working day. Tue September number of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity contains the results of the measurements of the deviation of the magnetic com- pass from true north made by the survey ship Car- negie during her circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent between December, 1915, and June, 1916. The great bulk of the observations relate to latitudes between 50° and 60° south, but in the neighbourhood of Australia many observations were taken north of this belt. According to the new survey, the British Admiralty Chart gives the deviation to the west in the South Atlantic a fraction of a degree too great, and the error south of the Cape of Good Hone rises to 6°. : In the south of the Indian Ocean the chart over 10° 316 NATURE of longitude gives the deviation to the west 3° too | numbers shows that the Brinell numbers are not a small. South-west of Western Australia it is in error by 10° in the same direction. South of Australia it agrees with the new observations to within a small fraction of a degree. East of New Zealand there are a few points where the deviation to the east is given in the chart a degree or more greater than it is. In the middle of the South Pacific there is a considerable region over which the chart gives the deviation to the east 2° or 3° too small, while south of Cape Horn it is in fair agreement with the new observations. In an address recently delivered to the Western Sec- tion of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the chairman, Dr. D. Robertson, compared the field of scientific knowledge to a goldfield. The first-comers acquire the surface veins and nuggets with compara- tive ease and with the crudest equipment, but their successors must expend more and more preliminary labour without immediate result, and they must possess more and more knowledge if these labours are not to prove abortive. In the field of research we are past the first stage, and the investigator now must go through a long preliminary training and have behind him resources sufficiently great to support him during the non-productive period. We shall, Dr. Robertson said, never get a sufficient number of men of the right temperament until we offer them prospects comparable with those open to the other learned professions. Dr. Robertson insisted also on the necessity of the scien- tific man keeping in constant touch with the manu- facturing side, if only by weekly visits to the work- shops and chats with the managers and foremen. The remainder of his address was devoted to a considera- tion of new sources of energy for the time when our coalfields are exhausted. He estimated that a dam eight miles long across the Bristol Channel would furnish a million kilowatts of tidal power, and that one at a lower part, thirty miles wide, would give ten million kw. Another suggestion he put forward for consideration was that we should ‘‘ grow our fuel ”’ —that is to say, produce a plant of high calorific value suitable for use directly as fuel, or indirectly by distil- ling alcohol or other spirit from it, or, better still, by taking up the energy electrically from the plant so as to save the thermodynamic losses of the heat engine. Tue Hardness Tests Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers presented a report on November 17 giving particulars of tests made at the National Physical Laboratory by Dr. T. E. Stan- ton. After some preliminary investigations, it was decided to devise a wear test which would apply to cases in which the relative movement of the surfaces was considerable, and thus enable results to be ob- tained which would give information regarding shafts, or pins, working at high speeds under heavy loads. In the machine used, the specimen (diameter d) was revolved, and the load applied by means of an abrading ring (internal diameter D); by means of an Oldham coupling, both specimen and ring revolved at the same speed, hence in each revolution the slip of the ring over the specimen was 7(D-—d). Abraded particles were removed by a strong air-blast. The wear was expressed as thickness of surface layer worn away in mils per tooo ft. of slip, and the relative resistance to sliding abrasion as the reciprocal of this number. The results of the entire investigation show that the Brinell hardness number divided by 6 is approximately equal to the scleroscope number; the characteristic which distinguishes sliding abrasion from rolling abrasion is that the former does not cause any per- ceptible hardening of the surface under wear as the test proceeds. Comparison of the results for the re- sistance to sliding abrasion with the Brinell hardness NO. 2460, vor. 98] safe guide in predicting relative resistances to wear of a miscellaneous selection of steel. The report torms a valuable contribution to our knowledge of this impor- tant practical subject. j : On Friday, December 15, the inaugural address to the Royal College of Science Chemical Society was delivered by Prof. Gilbert T. Morgan, the subject of his lecture being ‘‘Synthetic Chemistry and Renascence of British Chemical Industry.”’ Prof. Mor- gan congratulated the society on having this year reached its twenty-first anniversary, and referred to the developments which had taken place in the Royal College of Science since the foundation of the society by Sir William Tilden in 1895. Affiliation with the Imperial College of Science and Technology had given an increased bias to the college curricula in the direc- tion of applied science, and the war had since revolu- tionised existing ideas as to the national importance of synthetic chemistry. Two chemical crises had arisen; first, the industrial dislocation produced by the. stoppage of German dyes; and, secondly, the shortage of high explosives. These crises pointed the same moral, the vital importance to the nation of a well- organised coal-tar industry. This essential develop- ment can be attained only by the employment of large staffs of well-trained chemists. The prizes of the chemical profession will be greater, but the competi- tion keener, than has hitherto been the case. The student can best prepare for this strenuous struggle by undergoing a thorough training in analytic and synthetic chemistry. On the practical side, he should aim at perfection in all the laboratory arts. On the theoretical side, he should endeavour to acquire that . particularly chemical outlook sometimes termed “ the chemical instinct,” which is gained by a careful study of molecular theories of constitution, and especially of stereochemical relationships. If time permits, some knowledge of the industrial applications of chemical products will be a valuable addition to his fund of knowledge, and an acquaintance with the elements of mechanics and machine design will tend to render more harmonious his relations with his future works colleague, the engineer. The.value of researches in synthetic chemistry, both inorganic and organic, was emphasised by many instances of recent date. Chem- ical synthesis moves forward unceasingly, and progress over one difficulty leads to many fresh advances at different points along the line. In order to ensure the willing co-operation of many trained workers, it will be necessary to introduce the collegiate spirit into our chemical factories and technical laboratories, so that the splendid team work displayed by our new armies in the field may be rendered available for indus- trial developments. r Tue first number of Air—the official organ of the Aeronautical Institute of Great Britain—has just been issued. It is hoped that this publication may stimulate public interest and encourage the study of aeronautics. by L. Blin Desbleds; on the cost of a pre-war aerial misconception, by A. J. Liversedge; and on the steel construction of aeroplanes, by G. C. Loening. Tue following volumes have been arranged for, for appearance in the ‘‘Fauna of British India” Series (London: Taylor and Francis) :—‘‘ Butterflies (Lycoe- nidz and Hesperiidze),’’ H. H. Druce; the ‘‘ Longicorn Beetles," C. J. Gahan; the “‘ Ixodidz and Argaside,”’ C. Warburton ; ‘‘ Leeches,”” W. A. Harding; the “‘ Brachy- urous Crustacea,” Lieut.-Col. A. Alcock; the “‘ Aptery- gota, Termitide and Embiide,’ A. D. Imms; the “Diptera Brachycera,’’ E. Brunetti; the ‘‘ Rutelidz,”. G. J. Arrow, and the ‘‘ Operculata,” G. K. Gude. ; [DECEMBER 21, 1916 Articles are included on the Air Board, ~ : a a a DECEMBER 21, 1916] OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ROmer’s DiscovERY OF THE VELOCITY oF LIGHT (‘Om Ole Romers ‘Opdagelse of* Lysets Toven": Host & Son, Kobenhavn).—When Romer in 1676 announced to the Paris Academy his discovery of the SB Seg propagation of light from observations of the rst satellite of Jupiter in the course of eight years, he gave no details as to these observations. He merely stated that the period of revolution of the satellite deduced from immersions in the shadow of Jupiter (when the earth is approaching Jupiter) was always shorter than the period found from emersions observed when the earth was receding from the planet. The result was that light took about twenty-two minutes to travel over the diameter of the earth’s orbit. (It appears from a letter to Huygens that this was found from observations made in 1671~73.) The only ob- servation quoted in the short paper was one of an emersion on November 9, 1676, at 5h. 35m. 45S. p.m., ten minutes later than was calculated from observa- tions in the previous August, as predicted by Rémer in the beginning of September. Three years ago a sheet was found in the University Library at Copen- hagen on which was written in Rémer’s hand a list of eclipses of the satellites observed in the years 1668-77. In a paper published in the Transactions of the Danish Academy of Sciences Mrs. Kirstine Meyer discusses these observations in order to find whether they represent a part of the material on which Roémer’s discovery was based, and shows that this is really the case. It is shown by several examples that the observations of 1671-73 give, in fact, the approxi- mate result announced by Romer, but that the single results differ a good deal. It is interesting to see from some figures jotted down by Rémer in the MS. in question that among the values found by him for the time light takes to pass from the sun to the earth is also the correct one of about eight minutes, but he probably rejected this result as founded on rather short intervals of time. The author calculates the amount resulting from the published observation of November, 1676, and finds that it is eight and a half minutes. Curiously enough, Newton, in his ‘Optics,’ gives eight minutes, though the only result published by Romer was about eleven minutes. PARALLAXES OF Two STARS WITH Common Mortion.— Some time ago it was found by Adams that the two stars, A.Oe. 14318 and 14320, though separated by 5/ in declination, had remarkably similar proper motions and radial velocities. The parallaxes and proper motions in R.A. of these interesting objects have since been determined by O. J. Lee from plates taken with the 4o-in. refractor of the Yerkes Observatory (Astro- nomical Journal, No. 697). The resulting parallaxes are 0:025"+0-008" and 0-061"+0-012", and the proper motions in R.A. —o-o699s. and —o-o692s. respectively. More trustworthy determinations of proper motion by Prof. J. G. Porter give the total motions as 3-693” in the direction 195-7°. and 3-675" in the direction 195-6°. The difference of parallax, amounting to 0-036", agrees well with the value 0-031" previously given by Russell, and the evidence that the two stars are very Widely separated in space, while having practically identical motions both in and across the line of sight, is now fairly conclusive. It may be recalled that the two stars are of magnitudes 9-6 and 9-2, and of types G4 and G5 respectively. The radial velocities are exceptionally great, being +307 km./sec. and +295 km./sec., according to the observations of Adams, and the difference. is probably — not greater than the errors of observation in the case of such faint stars. The two stars have the same R.A., 15h. 5-5m., while the declinations are —16° 2-5/ and —15° 57-5), NO. 2460, VOL. 98] NATURE 17 2 J THE DIRECT JOINING OF GLASS .AT MODERATE TEMPERATURES. [N a paper presented to the Faraday Society on December 18, Messrs. Parker and Dalladay de- scribed some interesting experiments on the direct join- ing of glass at relatively low temperatures which they have carried out in the research laboratories of Messrs. Adam Hilger, Ltd. The results described are not only of very considerable direct scientific interest, but afford great practical advantages in the construction of glass apparatus out of what is actually a single solid piece instead of using more or less unsatisfactory cements. The advantage of such solid construction is particularly evident in polarimeter tubes and absorption cells—the latter can now be constructed with truly parallel faces and with inside faces optically worked. The process of joining which the authors have worked out consists in placing the surfaces of glass to be united in good optical contact under pressure, and then raising the temperature to a carefully determined degree. The glass surfaces thus treated become per- fectly united, so that the two pieces of glass will not separate along their former interface, and the com- posite piece acts as if it were a single solid mass; even a orack or a diamond-cut will pass through the junc- _ tion without hindrance or deflection. The temperature employed is chosen as high as possible in order to lessen the time required for union of the surfaces, but if distortion of the optically worked surfaces is to be avoided, then the temperature must not be taken too near the limit, which the authors describe as the “annealing point.’ This point they determine by observing the strains set up in a piece of glass while being heated at a definite rate in an electric-tube furnace; for each kind of glass they find that these internal stresses—which are readily observed by means of polarised light—disappear quite suddenly. At this point, also, the glass becomes appreciably soft, and can be indented by a sharp tool. When similar kinds of glass are used, having similar ‘annealing points,” then the welding of surfaces in optical contact tales place well below this annealing point. Very dissimilar glasses, however, cannot well be joined, since the softer becomes distorted before the harder is hot enough to weld freely. THE EXPLOITATION OF INSHORE FISHERIES. WAN* advisory and other committees, some in con- nection with the great Government departments and others among the leading scientific societies, are at present engaged in deliberations in regard not only to immediate and pressing war problems, but also to the later, and possibly equally important, after-war questions, which are bound to arise, affecting the prosperity of the country and the maintenance of the Empire. A large number of these matters turn upon the application of scientific knowledge and scien- tific methods to various industries, and amongst these not the least important are those concerned with the allied subjects of agriculture and aquiculture, or the scientific regulation and cultivation of our land crops and our sea-fisheries. It is recognised that, with the view of making a rapid recovery from the effects of the war, amongst other things, agriculture and allied industries must be promoted, and it must be seen to that no suitable land is wasted, that none is applied to the wrong pur- pose, and that the most favourable treatment to ensure the best results is given to each area. In fact, a more 1 Introductory address (abridged) given by Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., in opening the discussion om Inshore Fisheries in the section of Zoology of the British Association at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on September 7. a > 318 NATURE [DECEMBER 21, 1916 systematic study and more intensive cultivation of the land must be made. In quite a similar way, and for no less important reasons, the harvest of the sea must be promoted, the fisheries must be continuously inves- tigated, and such cultivation as is possible must be applied to our barren shores. All such fisheries culti- vation is one of the natural applications of biological science, and ought therefore to be supported and directed by the members of this section and other marine biologists. Now that considerable areas of the British fishing grounds are either closed to trawlers or impracticable for the usual fishing operations, any increase of employment on the seashore and in shallow waters round the coast may be of direct and immediate advan- tage both to the men and to the country. Such indus- tries as shell-fish cultivation, shrimping and prawning, whitebait and sprat fishing, and herring fishing and curing, if extended and exploited judiciously, will add to employment, will increase the food supply of the country, and may lead to the establishment of per- manent industries of a profitable nature. On the west coast the Lancashire and Western Sea-Fisheries Com- mittee has been alive to such possibilities for some time past, and much of its scientific fisheries work has been directed towards showing the improvements that might be introduced in connection with the local shell-fish industries. It has been shown in_ its annual reports how mussels and cockles can be fat- tened and greatly increased in value by transplanting to better feeding grounds, and how, if reared in sewage-polluted waters, they can then be cleansed and purified before being sent to market. The Lancashire Committee, realising the present opportunity of help- ing such deserving industries, has worked out several concrete cases where a moderate expenditure, either in transplanting or in purifying the shell-fish, or both, would be likely to give immediate beneficial results, and so far as opportunity offers it is endeavouring to promote such useful work. This is not a time when it is easy to induce public bodies to undertake any fresh expense, but it will be unfortunate for the country if such directly productive expenditure, which may reasonably be expected to lead to the establishment of permanent shell-fish industries, be prevented or delayed for want of the comparatively small sums which are necessary to start the work. As_an example of what can be done at a small cost to improve the value of shell-fish by judicious trans- planting, the work of the Lancashire and Western Sea-Fisheries Committee in 1903-5 may be cited.? It was carried out on the mussel beds at Heysham, in Morecambe Bay, probably the most extensive mussel- producing grounds on the west coast of England. In 1903 the committee gave a grant of 5ol. to be expended on labour in transplanting overcrowded and stunted mussels, which were not showing any growth, to neighbouring areas which were not so thickly popu- lated. The result was most striking. Mussels, which in their original condition could never have been of any use as food, had been turned into a valuable com- modity at comparatively little trouble and expense. The money value to the fishermen of these mussels that had been transplanted for sol. was estimated a few months later to have been at least sool. In 1904, again, a grant of sol. resulted in the transplanting of under-sized mussels, which were later on sold at a profit of more than s5ool. In the following year (1905) a grant of 75]. resulted in the sale of the trans- planted mussels some months later for 5791. On that occasion more than 240 tons of the under-sized mussels had been transplanted in six days’ work. It was found that-on the average the transplanting increased 2 See Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory Report for 1905. NO. 2460, vol. 98] the bull of the mussels about two and a half times, and the increase in length to tne original shell Wos in some cases well above an inch. ne Experiments have also been made on the Lancashire coast in the transplantation of co¢kles from overcrowded to less crowded sands with equally favourable results.* It is obvious that when, on the conclusion® ot war, many men return to work along our coasts any in- crease of employment in connection with such local fishing industries will be of direct and immediate ad- vantage to the country. It is to be hoped that notimug will be allowed to interfere with this transplantation and purification work, and that whenever possibie — further funds will be devoted towards the promotion of schemes which seem desirable, if not, indeed, essen- tial, from the point of view of the industry and of public health alike. In connection with the public health aspect of the matter, much of Dr. Johnstone’s work on the Lancashire coast for some years past has dealt with the condition of the shell-fish beds in rela- tion to sewage contamination, by means both of topo- graphical inspections on the shore and of subsequent bacteriological investigations of samples in the labora- tory.* As an example of a local fishery which has been started as the result of a little ingenuity and enter- prise, we may take the Morecambe winter sprat fishery which has developed during the last couple of years. The fish are being caught in great quantities by a new method, which is the ‘tstow'’-net modified to suit the conditions prevailing in the strong tidal currents of the Morecambe Bay channels. The sprats appear in September, then become very abundant off Morecambe in November, and remain in quantity until the end of January, after which the sprats’ become smaller and the.fishery diminishes in value. During the height of the fishery fully 70 tons of fish were landed per day, and the money value of this catch to the fishermen was more than jool. —————- ~~ Deteuern 28, 1916] trigonometrical functions, the equation of time, and the declination of the sun. (2) The author of this little book on the rudiments of astronomy has endeavoured to avoid dealing with matter already treated in other books of the Hoepli series (entitled “Astronomy,” ‘ Gravi- tation,” etc.) by explaining mainly the apparent phenomena on the celestial sphere. The word cosmography is thus used in a sense which is scarcely the usual one, as descriptive astronomy, astrophysics, and the orbits of the planets are omitted altogether; but phenomena like the libra- tion of the moon and the tides are briefly described. Beginning with the figure of the earth and its daily rotation, the author passes on to the apparent annual motion of the sun, defines parallax, both daily and annual, and gives a table of twenty- seven stars the annual parallaxes of which are supposed to be best known, ranging from a Cen- ‘tauri with o76” down to Polaris with o'o07”. The motion of the earth comes next, after which | precession and nutation are briefly alluded to, and aberration more fully. The distances and periods of the satellites of the planets (including the recently discovered ones) are given in tabular form, but the motion of the moon and the effects of its principal perturbations are described in greater detail. The treatment of every subject throughout the book is concise; the explanations are given in simple and unadorned language, and ought to give beginners a clear idea of the prin- cipal phenomena of the heavens within the limits the author has set for himself. OUR BOOKSHELF. British and Foreign Marbles and other Orna- _ mental Stones: a Descriptive Catalogue of the | Specimens in the Sedgwick Museum, Cam- bridge. By J. Watson. Pp. x+485. (Cam- bridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 5s. net. Tue Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, is indebted to the industry of Mr. Watson for its useful ex- hibit of polished marbles. This volume, which is supplementary to the one by the same author on “Building Stones,” is essentially a descriptive guide to the marbles and other ornamental stones in the collection, about eight hundred in number. The specimens have been assembled from many parts of the world, and a number of well-known varieties are represented, as well as some that will be less familiar. The geological arrangement adopted in the companion book has been wisely discarded in favour of a geographical one, but a short account of the distribution and geology of the marbles prefaces the detailed catalogue of each country’s products. As a handbook to the collection this volume is admirable; the descriptions are clear and, on the whole, adequate, and the remarks on the examples to be found in buildings have been prepared with care, but the major title is rather misleading, for as a work of reference its utility is lessened by NO. 2461, VOL. 98] NATURE 327 the circumstance that it deals only with speci- mens which happen to have been acquired by the museum. ‘Thus steatite is represented only from Central Africa and India, and while there is a considerable amount of space devoted to fluor- spar and jade, there is no reference to chalcedony. Again, dolerites and felsites are represented by only a single sample of each, from India, and only two porphyries are mentioned. In view of the fact that so many of the igneous rocks are used primarily as ornamental stones, the inclusion of these few examples serves merely to emphasise the omission of the others. Here and there statements of doubtful accuracy appear, as in the suggested coral origin of Rose- wood marble; and some of the information is a trifle stale—for example, the remarks on the popu- larity of Derbyshire black marble. The index is good and greatly enhances the value of the book for general use, but for practical purposes a list of the marbles grouped according to their prevailing colour should be added in another edition. A Fairy-tale in Physics. With seven illustrations by (London: Society Knowledge, n.d.) The Rain-children. By T. H. Orpen. C. E. Brock. Pp. vi+112. for Promoting Christian Price 2s. 6d. In designing the plan of this book the author seems to have thought of the nursery expedient of administering a medicinal powder in a spoon- ful of jam. His object appears to be to explain to children the formation and uses of the forms of water, but, having doubts of the intrinsic in- terest of the subject for his readers, he creates characters like Aunt Cold, Aunt Heat, Colonel Lightning, Sergeant Thunder, and Rain-children to describe to a little heroine he has created how natural phenomena can be explained. The result is a tale which little girls may like, but we be- lieve boys usually prefer to keep their lessons and stories for separate occasions. 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.] University Doctorates. I see from an announcement in the Times of Decem- ber 22 that facilities are to be offered to advanced students of other universities by the University of Ox- ford in order to allow them to take the degree of Doctor of Science or of Doctor of Letters under new conditions. It is to be hoped that, before any such scheme is discussed, a serious attempt may be made to introduce something like a uniform standard of attainment among our own universities for the doctorate, which is at present awarded for very different degrees of attain- ment and under very different conditions. When that uniformity has been adopted, any scheme offering facilities for the doctorate to graduates of the United States and other universities should be framed by joint representatives of all our universities. It would be a misfortune if anything in the nature of competitive schemes for attracting students were to be evolved independently by different university authorities. J. B. Couen. Leeds, December 23. The Deterioration of the Atmosphere in the Swiss Alps. Dr. Maurer, Director of the Swiss Federal Meteoro- logical Service, sends a further communication about the deterioration of the atmosphere of the Swiss Alps, referring to Prof, Riccé’s letter in Nature of Novem- ber g on the occurrence of an eruption at Stromboli. I am forwarding a translation for your information. Napier SHaw. Meteorological Office, South Kensington, London, $.W., December. 11. This remarkable optical deterioration of the atmo- sphere was visible here (Zurich) until about the middle of November. The thin, cirrus-like layer could ‘be seen on clear mornings just before sunrise at a height of about 14-15 km. above the earth’s surface, according to our reckoning—that is to say, it was situated con- siderably above the usual cirrus region. It consisted of thin horizontal bands, extremely delicate and soft, which soon disappeared after sunrise. A curious fact was that no appreciable effect, either actinometric or photometric, was produced by this thin, mist-like layer. The impression made was that of a most delicate, comet-like veil of mist, yet not dimming the starlight. After sunrise absolutely nothing was to be seen of the phenomenon, in spite of the keenest observation through field-glasses of a weak magnifying power. Synchronising with this remarkable phenomenon, the sun had a large aureole with a diameter of 100°. Here and there the extreme outer edge of this ring was of a pale brown colour. So far we have not been able to offer any explanation as to the cause. During the period of maximum visibility of the thin veil (twilight cirrus), such a conspicuous layer was to be seen in the eastern sky, shortly before sunrise and at a height of 40°, that even an unskilled observer would have noticed it at once.° The structure of the layer was often so regular and definite in its remark- able horizontal stratification that it looked as though an artist with a coarse brush had coloured the whole eastern sky with long horizontal strokes not too neatly laid on. Each time this peculiar veil of “twilight cirrus” reached a maximum of intensity we had a colourless morning twilight with interrupted “purple light.” What can be the cause of all these remarkable pheno- mena? Winter Thunderstorms. _A YEAR ago (December 16, 1915) I asked readers of Nature if they would let me know when they observed thunder or lightning during the first three months of the year. I made a similar request to the observers of the British Rainfall Organisation. The number of replies I received amounted to nearly one thousand, and the rather remarkable fact came to light that during the period in question thunder or lightning occurred somewhere in the British Isles on sixty-four out of the ninety-one days. So numerous were the replies received that I was unable to answer each one personally, but I wish to thank those correspondents who kindly -sent information, and to assure them that every report was of value. The information obtained last winter was so re- markable, and the number of days on which thunder NO. 2461, VOL. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 28, 1916 or lightning occurred so unexpected, that I am anxious to collect information again. Readers of Nature could assist if they wouldgsend me a note by postcard or letter if they observe thunder or lightning between January 1 and March 31, 1917. The follow- ing points are of interest :—(1) Time when storm was nearest or overhead; (2) direction of storm when first observed, and time; (3) direction when last observed, and time; (4) note if there was a change of wind during the storm and if there was a drop in tem- perature; (5) any other information as to heavy rain, hail, snow, or any remarkable feature; (6) if an observer has accurate time, a list of the times of occurrence of flashes would be useful. Many observers may not have the time or oppor- tunity to record all these points, but I should be grate- ful for information on even one of them; No. 1 is the most important. The information is of real value, and every record, however short, is of use. C. J. P. Cave. Meteorological Office, South Farnborough, December 20. GRAVITATION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF , RELATIVITY. pa Geass gia to the principle of relativity in its most extended sense, the space and time of physics are merely a mental scaffolding in which for our own convenience we locate the observable phenomena of Nature. Phenomena are conditioned by other phenomena according to certain laws, but not by the space-time scaffolding, which does’ not exist outside our brains. As usually expressed, the laws of motion and of electrodynamics pre- suppose some particular measurement of space and time; but, if the principle is true, the real laws connecting phenomena must be independent of our framework of reference—the same for all systems of co-ordinates. Of course, it may be that pheno- mena are conditioned by something outside ob- servation—-a substantial azther which plays the part of an absolute frame of reference. But the fol- lowing considerations may show that the ideal of relativity is not unreasonable. Every observa- tion consists of a determination of coincidence in’ This is sufficently obvious in laboratory experiments; and even the crudest visual observation resolves itself into the co- incidence of a light-wave with an element of the human retina. If, then, we trace the path of adventure of a material particle, it intersects in succession the paths of other particles or light- waves, and these intersections or coincidences con- stitute the observable phenomena. We can repre- space or time. sent the course of Nature by drawing the paths — of the different particles—on a sheet of paper in a two-dimensional case. The essential part of the diagram is the order of the intersections; the paths between the intersections are outside ob-. servation altogether, and are merely interpolated. The sequence of phenomena will not be altered if the paper is made elastic and deformed in any way, because the serial order of the intersections is preserved. This deformation of the paper cor- responds to a mathematical transformation of the. space in which for corvenience we have located the phenomena. “DECEMBER 28, 1916] NATURE 329 Until recently the application of the principle of relativity was limited to one particular transforma- tion, namely, a uniform translation of the axes. In this case there is a wide range of experimental evidence in support of the principle. In 1915 Prof. A. Einstein* finally succeeded in developing the complete theory by which the postulate of relativity can be satisfied for all transformations of the co-ordinates. Gravitation plays a part of great importance in the new theory, and therein lies much of the practical interest of Einstein’s work. No attempt is made to explain the cause of gravitation—as a kink in space or anything of that nature. But the extended law of gravitation is determined, to which Newton’s law is an ap- proximation under ordinary conditions. It has long been suspected that there must be some modification of the law when the bodies concerned are in rapid relative motion; moreover, the “mass” of a moving body no longer has a unique meaning, so that a further definition, if not exten- sion, of Newton’s law is clearly needed. Now, although we do not seek a cause of gravitation in the properties of space, it may well happen that the law of gravitation is determined by these pro- perties. The inverse-square law represents the natural weakening of an effect through spreading out in three dimensions; we may say that it is determined by the properties of Euclidean space. There is, therefore, nothing unreasonable in pro- ceeding, as Einstein does, to examine whether a more extended law is suggested by the properties - of generalised space—that is, by geometry. The way in which gravitation enters into the discussion may be seen from the following example. Suppose an observer is in a closed lift; let the supports break and the lift fall freely. To the observer everything in the lift will now appear to be without weight; gravity has been suddenly annihilated. The acceleration of his frame of reference (the lift) is equivalent to an alteration of the gravitational field. Now an acceleration of the axes is one of the transformations contem- plated by the general principle of relativity, and it is therefore necessary to allow that the gravitational field depends on the choice of co-ordinates. There -is a “local” gravity, just as there is a “local” time or magnetic field depending on the co- ordinates selected. We can now take a brief survey of Einstein’s procedure. Suppose that space and time are measured by a system of co-ordinates x, Xo, %3, x4; X4 is the time, but there is no need to dis- criminate between it and the others. If there is a gravitational field at any point, it can be abolished (as in the pores of the att) by choosing new co- ordinates x,!, x5/, x/, x4! accelerated with respect to the old. The necessary transformation could be specified in various ways; the way chosen in- volves the element of length ds, measured by co- incidences with a standard scale, and therefore 1 Einstein, “Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitdtstheorie.” (Leipzig: J. A. Barth, 1016.) A detailed account appears in Monthly Notices, 1916, No. 9, by Prof. W. de Sitter, giving the astronomical applica- tions. See also an article by de Sitter in the Odserwatory, October, 1916. NO. 2461, VOL. 98] independent of the choice of co-ordinates. Since in the x/ co-ordinates there is no gravitation to com- plicate matters, we can safely use the usual formula, as" = dy? + avy? + and this when transformed to the old co-ordinates takes the most general form, AS = AVY? + Lov + The ten g’s depend on the transformation, and can be used to specify it. But they do more than that; they define the original gravitational field, since they specify how it can be got rid of. They usually vary from point to point, because a different transformation is needed to eliminate gravity at different points. In the new theory the g’s are regarded as ten gravitational potentials specifying the field; and, in fact, one of them, £44, iS approximately the same as the Newtonian potential ¢, except for a factor. The inverse-square law can be expressed by the well-known different'al equation y2¢=0. Evi- dently the new law of gravitation must be a’ generalisation equation, or set of equations, involving the ten potentials instead of one. Also, to conform to relativity, the equations must be unaltered by a change of co- ordinates. If new co-ordinates are used the g’s will be different, but the relations between the new g’s and new co-ordinates must be the same as those between the old g’s and old co-ordinates. The possible sets of relations which satisfy this are very limited in number. This subject, known as the theory of tensors, has been worked out very fully by Riemann, Christoffel, and others, and the possible sets of equations can be classified and enumerated. From this limited choice we have further to pick out a set of equations which will reduce to V7g44=0 as a first approximation, and that is found to leave only one possibility. There is just one set of ten differential equations (of which, however, only six are independent) which satisfy both conditions. Einstein takes these as expressing his generalised law of gravitation. It is important to notice exactly how much of this is geometry. Geometry shows that if the equa- tions hold for a particular set of co-ordinates, they hold for every set. We abolish the “if,” and so assert a new jaw of Nature. It is further necessary to consider what must be the generalised equivalent of Poisson’s equa- tion y2¢= — 47p, which supplants Laplace’s equa- tion when matter is present. The extension is not difficult, since it is found that the ten equations above mentioned are the expression of a generalised principle of least action as applied to gravitational energy. Now mass is considered to be simply electromagnetic energy, and since there is no reason to believe that electromagnetic energy will behave differently from gravitational energy in regard to least action, we have only to include both forms of energy together in the equations, treating them as equivalent. It is not possible to write down here these final equations, since a very elaborate notation is needed for their expression. + 29,904 AX y+ 28,01 AX, eres new - 33° NATURE [DECEMBER 28, 1916 | Though highly complicated in form, they can be applied without excessive labour to the more simple problems. One or two of the more elementary consequences of this theory were given by Einstein some years ago. A ray of light must be bent in passing through an intense field of gravitation; thus a star seen close to the limb of the sun during an eclipse should appear displaced 1'7” from its usual position. The vibrations of an atom must be slower in an intense field, so that the lines of the solar spectrum should be displaced slightly to the red as compared with terrestrial spectra. It has not yet been possible to put these predictions to a satisfactory test, and it has been left to the completed theory to furnish the first opportunity of an appeal to observation. In this the new theory has scored a most signal success, for it has cleared up the most celebrated case of discordance in gravitational astronomy. From his generalised law of gravitation Einstein has deduced that the elliptic orbit of a planet will ‘rotate in the direction of motion at the rate of 247° a Here V is the velocity of light, and a, T, e are the semiaxis, period, and eccentricity of the orbit. If v is the velocity of the planet, the amount is practically 67v?/V" radians per revolution. For Mercury this works out at 43” per century—just the amount of the outstanding discordance be- tween observation and theory. The theory also gives rotations for Venus and the earth, but their orbits are so nearly circular that the effect is im- perceptible to observation. For Mars, with its strongly elliptic orbit, the correction is more important, and sensibly improves the accordance between theory and observation.” It is rather difficult to grasp the fact that the same laws of Nature may hold when some bizarre system of co-ordinates is chosen. Suppose an observer A uses rectangular co-ordinates, and B, through some kink in his mind, uses polar co- ordinates without realising that he is doing any- thing unusual. For A a ray of light can travel along the straight line x=constant; but evidently it cannot travel along the circle y=constant, which is B’s idea of a straight line. The answer is that B through his peculiar system of measurement will suppose that he is in an intense gravitational field; he will calculate the curvature in the ray of light produced by this field; and, making allow- ance for it, he will find that the light actually travels along its theoretical curve (i.e. curve for B, but straight line for A). Thus the same general laws of Nature are satisfied for B as well as for A; and it might be difficult to decide which of them radians per revolution of the planet. had got hold of the absolute rectangular co- ordinates. A. S. EppincTon. ® The discordance of the perihelion of Mercury (now removed) was nearly 30 times its probable error. Of the sixteen secu'ar variations of the four inner planets, all are now accordant, except the node of Venus, which deviates by 4} times its probable error. Among sixteen residuals we should expect to find one of three times the probable error, so that the evidence for the remaining discordance is not very strong. There are besides unexplained variations of the longitudes of the moon and planets, but these are in a different category. NO. 2461, VOL. 98] PLANTS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. Pees WEISS and his colleagues have done well in publishing in book-form abstracts of their lectures on Plants in Health and Disease. The lectures were delivered at the University of Manchester during 1915-16, and had for their object the giving of botanical guidance to the many small gardeners and allotment-holders who were, and are, endeavouring by the cultivation of their several plots to add to the food supplies of the country. Although only its friends recognise the fact, science in this country suffers from the virtue of modesty. Accompanying that quality—as is so often the case—is often a certain hauteur. Hence it is that those who—only too rarely, it must be confessed—come seeking guidance from science are often sent empty away. It would be well for science, and also for the country, if this attitude of aloof detachment were to cease to be habitual. It is true that biological science has at present not overmuch to offer to horticulturists; but that is an added reason why closer relations should be established between those who cultivate the land and those who study the science of biology. It is by such means as those adopted by Prof. Weiss and his colleagues that this contact may be best established. It is no adverse criticism on this little book to say that if and when science and practice go hand in hand a thoroughly good botany for gardeners will make its appearance, and not before. One of the results of such a book will be to teach the gardener to do scientifically and better what he now does empirically and well. The day of pub- lication of that perfect book is far off, and botany will have not only to grow but to be pruned very heavily before it is written. The science will have to cast off the pseudo-encyclopedic habit, woven in Germany, which it wears. For example, when talking to gardeners of the importance of restrict- ing water supply in order to.provoke flower and fruit formation (p. 2), why not give an account of the current method of tomato-growing instead of citing examples from ‘“‘tropical climes”? In the cultivation of the tomato the check imposed after the first truss of fruit is set, the pinching-out of side-shoots, the stopping of the leader, and the reduction of leaf surface, all have for their purpose the regulation of the water supply and the reduction of vigour of vegetative growth. Apart, however, from the fact that those who are habitually engaged in gardening might not infre- quently suggest more cogent illustrations of botani- cal principles, the general account given in these lectures of the life of a plant is admirable. Occa- sionally we discover a lapse, as, for example (p. 7), the omission to mention the chief virtue of the hoe, namely, that by its use water is. conserved in the soil. The less difficult parts of the book, those which 1 ‘*Plants in Health and Disease: being an Abstract of a Course of Lectures delivered in the University of Manchester (tgt5-16)." By Prof. F. E. Weiss, Dr. A. D. Imms, and Wilfrid Robinson. Pp. 143. (Man- chester: At the University Press; London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1916.) Price xs. 6d. net. oe ae \ DEcEMBER 28, 1916] NATURE . 331 deal with disease, are no less excellent than the account of the normal life of the plant. In the chapters devoted to fungi such diseases as finger- and-toe, black scab, late blight, rust, and mildews are described. It is curious that no reference appears to be made to the fact that many varieties of potato are now known to resist attack by black scab—a fact of the greatest importance to allot- ment-holders and town gardeners. The remedies suggested for use in the case of mildews certainly ‘do not apply to American gooseberry mildew, a _ disease which is so widespread and so disastrous in its consequences that it might well have received more thorough treatment. Much useful information is provided on the subject of animal pests, but gardeners with a knowledge of their ravages might look for a fuller account of eel- worms, which pests are probably responsible for more damage in gardens than is any other fungus or insect. The accounts of such pests as the cabbage-root fly and the onion fly, which have been very active this year, are particularly clear. We could only wish that the measures whereby these pests are to be combated were half as good; but for more perfect measures we must look to future research, for at present they are unknown. To the reviewer at all events the absence of illustrations is no drawback; it may be, however, that the layman may find it difficult to see mentally the pests and processes without their aid. We trust not; for we hold the belief that pictures are overdone in popular books on science and in science teaching generally. EB. OK. PROF. DANIEL OLIVER, F.R.S. \ \ J1TH deep regret we record the death at Kew on December 21, in his eighty-seventh year, of Emeritus Prof. Daniel Oliver. The eldest son of another Daniel Oliver, the deceased was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on February 6, 1830, and was educated partly in private schools, partly at the Friends’ School, Brookfield, near Wigton. Attached from an early age to botanical study and a youthful member of a local scientific society, we find him in 1847 contributing to the Phyto- logist a list of rare plants from different geo- logical formations, and in 1850 adding a new genus to the flora of the United Kingdom. In 1851 he became a fellow of the Edinburgh Botanical Society,, and in 1853 of the Linnean Society. His reputation as a keen and critical worker, gained in the North of England, was already such as to prompt Sir William Hooker to invite him to assist his son in the heavy task of arranging and distributing the botanical col- lections accumulated by the East India Company and to induce him in 1858 to become an assistant in the herbarium at Kew. On settling there Oliver instituted in 1859 a course of lectures on botany, which he continued to conduct until 1874, for the benefit of the young gardeners. He proved so excellent a teacher that in 1861 he was appointed to the botanical chair which had been occupied by Lindley at University College, London. NO. 2461, VoL. 98] The extent and accuracy of his botanical knowledge led to his ‘election to the Royal Society in 1863 and to his appointment, on the retirement of Mr. A. Black in 1864, to the keepership of the herbarium and library at Kew. The chair at University College, now held by his distinguished son, Oliver retained until 1888; the keepership at Kew he occupied until he retired from the public service in 1890. After his retirement he succeeded Sir Joseph Hooker as editor, on behalf of the Bentham Trustees, of the ‘‘Icones Plan- tarum.”’ This duty he fulfilled for five years, so that his connection with the institution where he worked so long, and for which he did so much, was not finally severed until 1895. The salient features of Oliver’s contributions to botany, too numerous to be recounted here, are the accuracy of his observations, the soundness of his conclusions, and the combined fidelity and artistic skill of his illustrations. But his published works represent only a fraction of his botanical knowledge, so exact as to have earned the justi- fiable confidence of Sir Joseph Hooker and Mr. Bentham while engaged in preparing their great “Genera Plantarum,” so wide that Darwin, when seeking the benefit of his great knowledge of flowering plants, spoke of him to Hooker, only half in play, as the “omniscient” Oliver. This wide knowledge, the outcome of the long and patient devotion to duty of a keen and active intellect, was readily placed at the disposal of all serious students who chose to consult him. If he never sought, neither did he avoid, the outside duties that devolve on men of his capacity; he served twice on the council of the Royal, twice on that of the Linnean Society. He did strive to avoid, but could not wholly escape, honours and distinctions. In 1882 the Edinburgh Botanical Society elected him, after thirty years of ordinary membership, one of their six British honorary fellows. In 1884 the Royal Society recommended him as the recipient of a Royal medal. In 1891 the University of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of LL.D. In 1893 the Linnean Society awarded him its gold medal, and a number of friends arranged for the painting of his portrait by Mr. J. Wilson Foster for presentation to the herbarium at Kew. On his attaining his eightieth birthday in 1910 old colleagues united with the existing herbarium staff in offering him an address of congratulation. After his definite retirement from botanical pursuits in 1895, Oliver devoted himself to his garden and to the further cultivation of that artistic gift to the possession of which his botanical illustrations testify, with such results as to warrant the belief that, had he chosen to make Art his mistress, he might well have merited in her service the eminence which his devotion to Botany deserved. Oliver married in 1861 Miss Harriet Wall, of Sheffield, by whom, by his son, and by two daughters he is survived. Those whose privilege it is to have known Oliver mourn with them the loss of a true and hichly gifted friend. oot PROF. CLEVELAND ABBE. as death of Cleveland Abbe near Washing- ton, D.C., on October 28, in the seventy- eighth year of his age, makes a gap of a special character in the ranks of meteorologists, and par- ticularly among those who use the English lan- guage. From 1871 until August last, when he retired, Abbe was professor of meteorology in the United States Weather Bureau. That is the title which the bureau- gives to the professional meteorologists on its staff. Born and educated in New York, he had been a teacher of mathe- matics in New York and of engineering at the State University, Ann Arbor, Michigan. From there he went to Harvard University, 1860-64, being at the same time aid in the U.S. Coast Survey under B. A. Gould; thence to the Central Observatory of the Russian Meteorological Ser- vice at Petrograd for two years; aid in the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1867—68, and director of the Cincinnati Observatory, 1868-73. The work at the Weather Bureau for which he is best known is the editing of the Monthly Weather Review, which was in his charge from 1893 until his retirement, with a break of a few years from 1go9, during which the Bulletin of Mount Weather Observatory took its place. Be- sides original papers, it includes the best monthly epitome of progress in meteorology in English, and ranks for that purpose with the Meteoro- logische Zeitschrift. This work gave Abbe an unrivalled knowledge of meteorological literature. He was a sort of college-tutor for the Weather Bureau, and with his encyclopedic knowledge he was to a large extent the force behind the organ- isation. He was a very keen advocate of the study of dynamical meteorology. Every student of the subject knows his collections of transla- tions into English of classical papers in French and German which are published by the Smith- sonian Institution. He founded a meteorological library at Johns Hopkins University and was pro- fessor of meteorology in the George Washington University of Washington. He was specially the promoter of meteorology. We owe to his instiga- tion the installation by the Meteorological Office of the station now in operation at St. Helena. He wrote a large volume on the Maryland Weather Service, with a discourse upon aims and methods. That represents his interest. In an article in the “Encyclopedia Britannica” it is the observation of clouds at sea that claims atten- tion. He took part in a number of scientific ex- peditions for eclipses and other purposes, and he started the reform in civil time, reckoning by even hours from the Greenwich meridian, a reform ~ which in Europe has over-shot itself into ‘sum- mer-time.”’ Abbe’s services to meteorology were recognised by the Royal Meteorological Society by the award of the Symons Medal in 1912. He was a man of most genial. disposition. His wife, the daughter of W. G. H. Percival, of St. Kitts, whom he NO. 2461, VoL. 98] NATURE [DECEMBER 28, 1916 married in 1rgog, survives him., One of the sons of his first marriage, Cleveland Abbe, junior, suc- ceeds him as editor at the Weather Bureau. i Napier SHAW. NOTES. OrriciAL information has been received from Paris that from January 1, 1917, the millibar (1000 C.G.S. units) will be used in the publications of the Bureau Central Météorologique for atmospheric pressure, in- stead of the millimetre of mercury. The same unit has been in use in the publications of the British Meteorological Office since the beginning of 1914; the Colonies of British Guiana and Mauritius have already adopted the unit, and it has also been used in some of the publications of the Weather Bureau of the United States, of Harvard University (Blue Hill Ob- servatory), and of Berkeley University, California. The question raised by Prof. McAdie, of Blue Hill, as to whether the proper name for the unit is not a ‘‘ kilobar”’ has still to be considered, on the ground that the name “bar was already appropriated by chemists to mean 1 dyne per sq. cm. It is one of the questions which should have been discussed at an international meet- ing projected for September, 1914. AN interesting discussion took place in the House of Lords on Wednesday, December 20, on a motion by Lord Sudeley requesting H.M. Government to take the steps necessary to provide funds to enable the Imperial Institute to carry out its functions adequately and completely. Lord Sudeley pointed out that, although the institute’s work is of great importance in connection with the war and with the development of the resources of the Empire, and though these ser- vices have been publicly acknowledged in various ways, yet the institute is greatly hampered in its work by want of funds. The motion was supported by Lord Rathcreedon, who gave some examples of the insti- tute’s work, and emphasised the need for more funds and more space in order that full advantage may be taken of the organisations which the institute has de- veloped for the investigation of the resources of the Empire and the dissemination of information regard- ing them. Viscount Haldane, whilst in sympathy with the motion, pointed out that so far as research is con- cerned care must be taken to secure co-operation with the work of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, as otherwise confusion might arise. In his reply Lord Islington gave an account of the developments which have taken place at the Impe- rial Institute since the passing of the new Manage- ment Act eight months ago. Committees are being appointed by the various Dominions and Colonies to consider their needs and interests, and the special com- mittee for India has been requested by the Govern- ment of India to undertake an important inquiry into the possibility of increasing the usage of Indian raw materials within the Empire. A number of technical committees has also been formed to advise with regard to investigations and other work on minerals, timbers, silk, rubber, etc. work in close co-operation with the newly established Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, especially in those cases where more purely scientific investigation is needed. The question of funds is being carefully considered, and the Executive Council of the institute intends to approach the Government in due course with a statement of needs, in order that the work may be maintained and, as opportunity offers, developed. It is hoped that further support The Executive Council also hopes to — i i DEcEMBER 28, 1916] NATURE 333 will be forthcoming from the Dominions, Colonies, and India, which already provide the larger part of the funds available to the institute. | | | | By the death of Mr. F. W. Levander the, British | be _ culture, attended the first meeting of the War Emer- Astronomical Association loses one of its most retiring and yet most useful members. Mr. Levander was for many years on the staff of University College School, then in Gower Street. His duties in this connection were too onerous to allow him much time for the practical pursuit of astronomy, in which science he always took a deep interest; but so early as 1860 he described, in ‘‘Recreative Science,” vol. ii., p- 212, his detection of markings on the surface of Mars with an object-glass only 1} in. in diameter. In 1899 he presented to the Royal Astronomical Society a dis- cussion of the colours of 4984 stars as described by various observers, with the special purpose of reducing such descriptions to a uniform scale; and in 1891 he described, before the British Astronomical Association, an instrument which he had devised—the star chroma- scope—for obtaining definite measures of star colours. But it is to his work in connection with the literature of astronomy that his colleagues in the science owe most to Mr. Levander. He was an original member of the British Astronomical Association, and in 1895, when the association had accumulated the nucleus of, a library, he became librarian, and administered this department for twelve years. In 1900 he was elected editor of the Journals and Memoirs of the association, a post that he fulfilled most efficiently until his death. While editor he drew up a complete index to the first eighteen volumes of the journal of the association, having some years earlier prepared a similar index to the volumes of the Astronomical Register. In 1906 he was elected president of the association, and held the chair for the customary period of two years. Mr. Levander died on December 20, after a very short illness, aged seventy-seven. He was interred-at the Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green, on December 23. THE attention given in the Press to the sudden death, on December 15, of Prof.*Hugo Miinsterberg is due much less ta his scientific eminence than to his noto- rious activities as a pro-German propagandist in the | United States.. Born at Dantzig in 1863, he took his doctorate in philosophy at Leipzig and in medicine at Heidelberg, and began his teaching career as a Privat- dosent at Freiburg-im-Breisgau. | While engaged in this University he produced his first considerable work, “Die Willenshandlung-” (1888), described by William James as ‘‘a little masterpiece,’ and commenced the publication of the ‘‘ Beitrige zur experimentelle Psycho- logie,” of which the “Grundziige der Psychotechnik ” may be regarded as the completion. In 1892 James, who admired the acuteness and vigour of “the irrepressible young Miinsterberg,” invited him to come to Harvard as first director of the psychological laboratory—the forerunner of institutions that have become specially characteristic of American universi- ties. His success as a lecturer and publicist led him to write a series of English works dealing in a semi- | popular way with the applications of psychology to ; law, medicine, education, and the problems of society and industry. The last books of this series were a ‘Business Psychology” (1915) and a study of the “Photoplay ” (1916). While these works undoubtedly did much for the popularisation of psychology, and contain matter of considerable value, they have scarcely added to their author’s reputation | tenancy promised him. as _a man of science. His last serious book in English, “ Psychology,’ General and Applied” (1914), is an extremely interesting exposition | NO. 2461, VOL. 98] of his psychological doctrine, in which the results of the modern experimental and the older philosophical methods were happily and ingeniously combined. Mr. R. Prornero, President of the Board of Agri- gency Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, under the chairmanship of Mr. Adeane. He outlined the Government’s proposals for increasing the production of food, and after his. departure the com- mittee passed the following resolutions, which are being forwarded to the Board of Agriculture :—(r) That this committee is of opinion that a price should not be fixed for any agricultural produce unless the cost | of production is taken into consideration and unless the price of feeding stuffs, fertilisers, etc., is also fixed. The committee questions the wisdom of fixing prices, but in the event of the price of wheat being fixed at 60s. per quarter, the opinion of the committee is that the price of oats should be fixed at not less than 4os. per quarter. (2) The committee is of opinion that where spring sowing of wheat is undertaken care should be taken to ensure that the varieties used should be especially suitable for the purpose—such as Red Marvel, April Bearded, or, in districts where it is known to succeed, Red Fife. (3) The committee feels that the land of this country cannot be made to pro- duce more food unless there be an increase in the supply and use of artificial manures. The manufac- turer of these manures is dependent upon a larger amount of sulphuric acid being made available for the . use of the makers of artificial manures, and the com- mittee urges the Government to set free for the use of those manufacturers such acid as they may require. (4) The committee is of opinion that in view of the great difficulty experienced in obtaining artificial manures in this country, the Government be requested to pro- hibit the export of sulphate of ammonia and basic slag, except to our Colonies, until the requirements of agriculturists in this country have been met. THE King has conferred the honour of knighthood upon the Very Rev. John Herkless, principal of the University of St. Andrews. Mr. F. J. H. Merrit, State geologist of New York from 1890 to 1893, has died at Los Angeles at the age of fifty-five. For the last three years he had been field- assistant to the California State Mining Bureau. Dr. Hjacmar Ourvacr is retiring from the chair of physiology at Uppsala University, having entered his | sixty-sixth year on December 15. THE astronomical institute of Lund University has at last obtained the seismograph for which it prepared an underground chamber two years ago. Tue removal of the natural history collections from the building of the Swedish Academy of Science in Drottninggatan, Stockholm (see Nature, November 30, p. 255), has afforded temporary accommodation therein for the ethnographical collections, which have long had wholly insufficient lodging. Prof. C. V. Hart. man intends to make the most of the eight months’ When the public sees a larger selection from these valuable stores it will surely insist on a suitable and permanent home for them. In this country, where many of our leaders in science have been amateurs, we do not always realise the rarity of such workers in some other countries or the difficulties met with by those who do exist. In Sweden, however, the number of serious amateur 334 workers in biology has so greatly increased of late years that a proposal has emanated from the Univer- sity of Lund to hold, in one or other place, a yearly meeting at which professional biologists may be brought into closer personal relations with their amateur colleagues. The proposal is also supported by Prof. Loénnberg and others, Ir is announced that a school of mothercraft will be opened in February. The scheme is intended for educated women wishing to complete their qualifica- tions for posts as health visitors, superintendents of infant welfare centres, matrons of babies’ and the like. Mothers with babies will be resident, and students will have the care of them and be in- structed in breast-feeding and in various methods of artificial feeding. The course will extend over nine months, of which the first five will be spent in routine nursery work, and the last four at infant welfare centres, home visiting, etc. The school, named the Marlborough School of Mothercraft, is under the presi- dency of the Duchess of Marlborough. Tue second meeting of the Society of Glass Tech- nology was held on December 14, in the University of Sheffield, the president, Mr. W. F. J. Wood, in the chair. Dr. H. Frank Heath, secretary of the Depart- ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, addressed | the meeting, pointing out the good services the society could render to the nation, and assuring it of the | Government’s interest and support. The remarkable developments that have taken place in the glass in- _ dustry during the last two years were emphasised by an exhibition of various types of glass, including (1) scientific ware, (2) optical glass, artistic glass, (4) miscellaneous exhibits. Many firms and private indi- viduals sent collections for exhibition, and it was ap- parent that in chemical ware and other scientific glass there was no necessity to depend on German produc- tion in the future. Beautiful specimens of artistic glass, both ancient and modern, were shown, whilst there were several interesting and instructive exhibits of glasses illustrating the various effects met with in glass production. A MEETING of makers and users of refractory mate- rials was held in the Chemistry Theatre of the Univer- sity of Manchester on Wednesday, December 13, and was well attended. Mr. A. Cliff occupied the chair, and practically all the important manufacturing centres were represented. The opinion was generally ex- pressed that a technical society of some kind ought to be formed, and that it should emphasise the manu- facturers’ side and develop a close relationship with the users in the various industries, so that all may work together in harmony for the general good. After discussion, it was decided to form a special section of the Ceramic Society. which has its headquarters at Stoke-on-Trent. This section is to work independently of the parent body in electing its own officers and in the management of its own meetings, to be held in the different centres. A provisional committee was ap- pointed, which met at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Wed- nesday, December 20, to formulate a scheme for the election of officers, to consider what modifications of the rules of the Ceramic Society are necessary to suit _the requirements of the new section, and to appoint a place for the next general meeting. It was decided to hold this meeting of the section at Leeds early in the new year, when Dr. J. W. Mellor, of Stoke-on-Trent, is to read a paper on ‘‘The Spalling of Magnesite Bricks.” A stupy of the individual and sex differences result- ing from fasting is reported by H. D. Marsh in the NO. 2461, VOL. 98] homes, | NATURE | other articles of great artistic value. [DECEMBER 28, 1916 Psychological Review (vol. xxiii., No. 6). The writer and his wife undertook a fast of three weeks. During the first of the three weeks the food was gradually | reduced from normal to very little? during the second no food was taken except about 600 c.c. of water | daily; the third week reversed the procedure of the first week, The immediate effects of the fast, as shown by the tests, indicate a depletion of vitality and strength and to some extent a slowing down in the speed of activities, more for the motor than the mental. Some improvement in both sexes is shown in mental clear- ness and accuracy, and a most pronounced effect upon memory, disadvantageous for the masculine subject and advantageous for the feminine. It is certainly desir- able that the ultimate effects of fasting upon both health and ability should be made the subject of definite study, and this article is interesting as an example stimulating to further inquiry. The sex differ- ences found, though, may possibly prove to be indi- vidual rather than sexual. Tue Royal Anthropological Institute has been pre- sented with a collection of fifty-nine photographs of Welsh Baptist ministers, dated about 1860-65. This collection was studied by the late Dr. John Beddoe, and notes have been made on each photograph with the. view of determining the various types—Mediterranean, Kymric, Bronze, or Saxon—to which they belong. The question is discussed by Mr. H. J. Fleure in the December issue of Man, who pleads for contributions to a series which is likely to interest anthropologists. In spite of delay caused by the war and the loss of powerful supporters like Lord Ninian Crichton Stuart and Sir John Rhys, the National Museum of Wales is making steady progress, a considerable portion of the new buildings now approaching completion. The appeal of the court of governors for exhibits has been well responded to, but specimens are still much wanted to illustrate the geology and mineralogy of the Principality. The exhibition of Mr. E. Lovett’s collec- tion of dolls was very popular; the governors are now making arrangements for an exhibition to illus- trate the methods of education adopted in bygone times, and an effort is being made to establish a collec- tion of mining appliances, especially such as were used in the past, to illustrate the development of the Welsh mining industry. A special appeal is being ' made for assistance in carrying out these useful pro- jects. In the Museum Journal of the University of Phil- adelphia for June, recently received, Mr. C. W. Bishop gives an account of his expedition to the Far East in search of specimens for the museum. In Japan he was permitted to inspect the Imperial treasury of the Shoshoin, a collection practically un- known to foreigners. It consists chiefly of the palace furniture of the Emperor Shomu, who reigned during the eighth century, when the capital of Japan was at Nara. The collection comprises a wide range of objects, many of Korean, Chinese, and even Persian or Roman-Syrian origin, and, includes bows and arrows, swords, spears, javelins, a curious form of halberd with a blade shaped like a lambent flame—a type peculiar to this period—decorated boxes, collec- tions of Buddhist sutras, masks used in sacred cere- monies, musical instruments, games, robes, shoes, banners, tapestries, jewelry, glassware, and many c Nowhere else in the world does such a collection exist, in particu- lar, containing objects of the T‘ang and preceding Chinese dynasties. Early Korean art is nowhere re- presented with such completeness as in this plain log building in the quiet groves of Nara. | DeEcEMBER 28, 1916] — NATURE CER) ———— eee ee An interesting paper ‘On Plotting the Inflections of the Voice,” by Mr. B. Bradley, well known as a com- parative philologist, appears in the University of Cali- fornia Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology (vol. xii., No. 5). Vocal sounds, and more especially words, appeal to the ear with various inflec- tions, such as ‘‘ high” or ‘‘low,” “rising” or “‘ falling,” etc., and the inflection, both as regards “pitch” and “duration,” often gives a certain character and mean- ing to the word. ‘This is indicated in many languages by the use of ‘accents,’ as in Greek. Mr. Bradley has investigated the nature of such inflections by a new method, unlike the usual methods of the registration of sounds by those interested in phonetics. Recognis- ing that an inflection is determined by pitch and duration, he registers vocal sounds by Rousselot’s apparatus, and then he plots on co-ordinate paper, by an ingenious and most laborious method, the curve obtained by an examination of pitch and duration. The result is, to take an illustration from the Siamese language, with which Mr. Bradley is acquainted, that certain curves represent a rise, or a circumflex (rising and falling), or a more uniform mesial movement, or depression, or falling, all of which can be recognised by the ear. The remarkable thing, however, is that when such curves are studied with care, and with appropriate corrections, variations (often slight) may be observed in the wave-like movement which are not recognised by the ear, and the sound heard conveys a definite meaning, with a wave form different from that of the same word with different inflections. Thus, in Siamese, the syllable na, with a rising inflection, means thick; with a circumflex, uncle or aunt; with a middle, ricefield; with a depressed, indeed; and with a falling, face or front. Tonal inflections or modula- tions ‘tare essential features of every spoken word” in such languages as Chinese. The paper is accom- panied by interesting curves. In 1879 Capt. Kirby, of Gloucester, while fishing for cod and hake south of Nantucket, brought up a new fish, which has been named Lopholatilus chamaeleon- ticeps. Since then, from time to time, other speci- mens of the fish, popularly known as the ‘“‘tile-fish,” have been obtained. In the American Museum Journal for November Mr. G. H. Sherwood describes an expedition in search of specimens. The fiesh of the fish is said to resemble cod, and the remarkable discovery of a new edible fish seems likely to prove of some economic importance. In their third report on the improvement of indigo in Bihar (Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, Bulle- tin 67, 1916) Mr. A. Howard and Mrs. Howard again insist that sound scientific cultivation is the first essential in the resuscitation of the natural indigo industry. Regarding “indigo wilt,’ they explain that, though cure be impossible, prevention, under intelli- gent treatment, is not difficult. The occurrence in the indigo plant of two “nitrogen cycles’? makes the planter’s task something more than the harvesting from a given area of a maximum crop, a given weight of leaf of which shall yield a maximum of indican. The chemical advice under which during recent years this, without due regard to the physiological charac- teristics of the plant, has been the grower’s aim is unwittingly responsible for damage to the industry. Seed of single plants of a wild indigo, separately collected in Natal in 1913 for cultivation at Pusa, yielded a progeny more uniform than the Java indigo first introduced into Bihar in 1898. Colour, it is said, is thereby lent to the idea that Java indigo has arisen as a cross between the Natal plant introduced into Java three-quarters of & NO. 2461, VOL. 98] | | century ago and some species 1 degree square over the Indian Ocean. formerly cultivated in Java. The identity of the latter species is not suggested, nor is it stated where in Natal the seed imported in 1913 was gathered. When, shortly after 1898, attempts to import Natal seed into Bihar were first made, no dye-yielding indigo could be found in Natal; the seed then secured was that of the Zulu indigo plant. All those engaged in the natural indigo industry will welcome this report and look forward with interest to further information from its authors on this important subject. Tue only part of the British Empire that can be looked upon as a producer of thorium minerals in quantities of economic importance is the island of Ceylon, and a good account of their occurrence and distribution will be found in the September Bulletin of the Imperial Institute (vol. xiv., No. 3). The minerals in question are monazite and thorianite, the former containing about 8 per cent. and the latter about 55 per cent. of thoria. The most profitable sources of the former appear to be certain of the beach deposits, where the monazite, together with much black sand, mainly ilmenite, has been concentrated by the action of the sea, whilst the thorianite is obtained from alluvial deposits in the river valleys, being often met with as a by-product in gem-mining ‘operations. Both these minerals have been traced to their parent rocks, their main source being apparently pegmatite veins or lenses in granite, granulite, and charnockite. Up to the present none of these primary occurrences have been found sufficiently important to be capable of economic exploitation; the minerals capable of being worked to advantage are all obtained from clastic deposits, resulting from the degradation of the primary deposits and the subsequent concentration by natural causes of the material thus broken down. THE meteorological observatory at the South Ork- neys, founded by Dr. W. S. Bruce in 1903, is still being maintained by the Argentine Government. Mr. R. C. Mossman, who was in charge of the observa- tory for the first two years of its existence, contri- butes some notes to Symons’s Meteorological Magazine for November (vol. li., No. 610) on the observations during 1915. The year was a remarkably cold one at the South Orkneys, the mean temperature (20-6° F.) being the lowest on record at the islands, and 3-4° below the average. In February, the warmest month, the mean temperature was 31:3°. Mr. Mossman points out that abnormally low temperatures were not prevalent during 1915 in the southern hemisphere; many observatories in middle latitudes showed mean temperatures above the normal. Other departures from the average conditions at the South Orkneys were the low rainfall and cloud amount, while the mean annual wind velocity was the lowest on record. These observations for 1915 will be of great value in conjunction with Sir Ernest Shackleton’s observations further south in the Weddell Sea at the same time. Tue Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands has published a revised edition of the oceanographical and meteorological observations in the Indian Ocean for the months of September, October, and November, which completes the series for the year. The observa- tions embodied are for the years 1856-1914. Results published by the English and French Meteorological Offices have been incorporated, and have added much to the value of the discussion. The work has been car- ried out under the superintendence of M. E. Van Ever- dingen, chief director of the Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The discussion is comprised in letterpress of 240 pages, which give the mean values of the principal meteorological élements for each single- In a separate 336 volume charts are given for the several months of ocean currents and winds, also isobars and isotherms of air and sea, with routes, trajectories of cyclones, limits of fog, ice, and of the trade-winds and mon- soons. For the charts the observations are in some cases grouped into 5° squares, and in others into 2° squares. The results are of a very high order owing to the large number of observations available over the greater part of the Indian Ocean, and the method of dealing with the observations is about all that could be wished. The data are limited solely to the sea, but probably in some cases land data might have been combined with advantage. In the pressure charts isobars are given for each 2:5 millimetres, There are numerous islands over the Indian Ocean at which long series of observations have been main- tained; the entry and use of these stations would have enhanced the value of the work. UnpbeER the joint auspices of the New York State Commission on Ventilation, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Museum of Safety, an investigation of three of the best methods of deter- mining the amount of dust in air has-been carried out | by Messrs. G. T. Palmer, L. V. Coleman, and H. C. Ward, and the results obtained are given in vol. vi. of the American Journal of Public Health. In the first of the methods investigated the dust-laden air is forced against a surface smeared with glycerine, and the number of dust particles caught by the glycerine on selected areas of the surface counted under the micro- scope. In the second method the air is drawn through syrup, which is afterwards diluted with water, a-drop of which is placed in a shallow cell under the micro- scope, and a count made in the same way. In the third method the air is drawn through a spray or curtain of water, which is then examined under the microscope as in the second method. In the second and third methods a rough determination may be made by a comparison of the turbidity of the water with that of a series of prepared samples. The authors conclude that the water-spray method is the best and most convenient to use under normal conditions, and they give a num- ber of directions as to the best way of carrying out the observations. AccorDING to the Chemical Trade Journal of Decem- ber 9, the Secretary of the U.S.A, Department of Agri- culture has decided to erect on the coast of southern California a Government plant for the production of potash from kelp. Unlike the private companies which are already manufacturing potash from this source, the Government is determined not only to produce the potash at the minimum cost, but also to conserve the nitrogen, iodine, and other by-products. In the Government plant the kelp will first be dried in a series of rotary driers. It will then be distilled in a modified coke-oven in such a way as to prevent the loss of the nitrogen, iodine, and other by-products. The potash salts will be dissolved with water out of the resulting charcoal, which may afterwards be used as fuel. The combustible gas obtained by the distilla- tion may also be used as fuel. The U.S.A. Govern- ment experts hold that by such economical methods the process can’ be made to pay in ordinary times. We have received from Messrs. Dulau and Co., Ltd., their December catalogue of botanical and natural history works. It is classified under botany and horticulture; orchids and orchid culture; mam- mals, birds, and reptiles; entomology; mollusca, and periodical publications. Many rare and out-of-print books are included. We notice that a set of NaTuRE from 1869 to 1907 is listed at a low price. NO. 2461, vor. 98] NATURE | DECEMBER 28, 1916 OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ' Mercury aN Eveninc Star.—Mercury will be at its greatest elongation east on the morning of January 3, and visible on several evenings before and after that — date over the W.S.W. horizon about 3h. or th. after sunset. The planet will be visible to the unaided eye should the atmosphere be very clear at the important time, though this apparition will not be so: favourable as the one which will occur on April 24 next. — Be- tween about December 28 and January 10 next Mer- cury will set about 1} hours after the sun, and, with good weather conditions, the ruddy, scintillating light it emits ought to be detected without difficulty, though it will be at a very low altitude. Torat Eciirse or THE Moon,—This phenomenon will take place on the morning of January 8, and the following are the astronomical times of its various stages :— Janeesie . mM. Moon enters penumbra 16 36 Moon enters shadow 17 50 Beginning of total eclipse 19 0 Middle of eclipse 19 45 End of total eclipse 20 29 Moon leaves shadow 21 39 Moon leaves penumbra 22 53 Magnitude of eclipse=1-369 (moon’s diameter=1-0). At Greenwich the moon sets at 20h. 1om., while the moon is totally eclipsed. The various phases of the event may therefore be watched until after the middle of the eclipse. It will be interesting to observe whether the earth’s shadow proves a very dark or light one- on this occasion. At some lunar eclipses the disc of our satellite has remained quite bright, at others it has been scarcely visible at all. It usually happens that, at the time of a lunar eclipse, the atmosphere is sufficiently favourable to allow successful observa- tion. : LonG-PERIOD VARIABLE StTars.—. \ valuable contribu- tion to the investigation of variable stars was recently made by the Rey. T. E. R. Phillips, in a presidential address to the British Astronomical Association (Journ. B.A.A., vol. xxvii., p. 2). Observational data for such stars have been much extended by the carefully determined light-curves of twenty-one long-period stars observed by the members of the Variable Star Section of the association, and by sixty-seven light-curves pub- lished in the Harvard Annals. Mr. Phillips thas analysed the curves of eighty stars, and from a com- parison of the phases of the second and third har- monics he finds that the long-period variables fall into two distinct groups. This grouping is supported by the evidence of the ranges of variation, and, in a somewhat less degree, by the coefficients, brightness, and periods. The general characteristics of the two classes are also shown in the light-curves. In Group I. the intervals from maximum to minimum, and from minimum to maximum, are not very unequal, and there is a tendency for the curve to show a pause on the rise. maximum, followed by a long period of decline. As a rule it is possible to determine the group to which a star belongs by mere inspection of the light-curve, but harmonic analysis is necessary to fix its place in the group. The stars of Group I. are brighter than — those of Group IT., and it is possible that they may be Bs: found to include “‘ giants"’ and ‘‘dwarfs” respectively. The inequalities in the intervals between successive — maxima, and in the brightness at different epochs, call — for much further investigation. In Group II. there is a sharp rise to a DECEMBER 28, 1916] INTERNATIONAL ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC UNITS. HE U.S. Bureau of Standards has issued a use- ful and interesting critical résumé‘ of the prin- ciples underlying the establishment of the present inter- national system of practical electric and magnetic units, together with a survey of the various attempts that have been made ‘to ‘rationalise’? them so as to make the factor 47 one of less prominence in the equations most used in practice. —_ $ The international system of C.G.S. units is not strictly a C.G.S. system, for it is actually defined in terms of two arbitrary units, the international ohm and the international ampere, together with length and time. Nevertheless each unit in the system is the representative for practical purposes of the correspond- ing unit in the C.G.S. electromagnetic system, and differs from it only slightly. The small differences are determined by absolute measurements made from time to time. One of the advantages of the inter- national system is that it does not give undue promin- ence to magnetic pole strength; as Mr. Dellinger puts it: ‘The complexity,of the dimensional expressions of the electromagnetic system and its poor correspondence to the conditions of practice are in part due to its being based upon an unimportant phenomenon.” He points out that a free magnetic pole does not exist in Nature, magnetic pole strength does not appear in engineering formulz, and it is consequently a satis- faction to find«that it can be dispensed with in theory also. Magnetic units, however, are not entirely free from confusion, notwithstanding the casting into oblivion of the once useful but now unnecessary conception of the free magnetic pole. Gauss was a great man with an ugly name. Physicists and “ practicians”’ alike have always been partial to employing the names of great men for electrical and magnetic units (even if the great man in question had not been more par- ticularly identified with the quantity to be christened than with others of the same category), and ugly names for units have had a strange fascination for them. So “gauss” has been seized upon both for the unit of induction and for the unit of magnetising force. This double usage is recognised by the American Society for Testing Materials, and, provisionally, by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, but Mr. Dellinger clearly voices the disapproval of the Bureau of Standards. It is true that the numerical equality of B and H in non-magnetic media, and their appearance as terms in the equation B=H+4zJ, both tend to encourage the idea that they are of the same physical nature, but ‘‘the argument that dimensional identity indicates physical identity is refuted by the example of energy and torque. Who would measure torque in joules or calories?’’ B, in fact, charac- terises the magnetised state of the medium, and H is the agency tending to produce that state, just as the deflection of a spring is physically different from the mechanical force producing it. There is no authority for considering » to be a purely numerical ratio. p is one of the two quantities (« and K) which are effective in the propagation of electromagnetic waves, and must therefore be an actual physical property unless K in- volves both the physical properties which are dynamic- ally necessary in a medium for the propagation of waves. The possibility of comparison is rendered worse by the fact that the name ‘‘ gauss” was tenta- tively adopted in 189s by the B.A. Committee on Elec- trical Standards as the C.G.S. unit of magnetomotive 1 Scientific Papers of the Bureau of Standards. System of Electric and Magnetic Units.” Physicist, Bureau of Standards. Office, 1916.) Price ro cents. NO. 2461, VOL. 98] No. 292, *‘ International _ By J. H. Dellinger, Assistant (Washington: Government Printing NATURE 337 force. Mr. Dellinger suggests that the ‘* gauss”’ be retained as the unit for B only, or that it be avoided altogether. The “ gilbert’”’ has, been adopted as the C.G.S. unit of magnetomotive force, and the gilbert per cm, is already widely used as the C.G.S. unit of H. The C.G.S. unit of magnetic flux is the ‘‘ maxwell,” and B can always be called the maxwell per sq. cm. The attempts to ‘‘rationalise’’ the units to make 47 less conspicuous date back to Oliver Heaviside’s pub- lications in 1882.7 His proposals involved, however, an entirely new set of practical units. Perry, Fessen- den, Fleming, and Giorgi followed with other proposals between 1889 and 1901, and the matter was. revived again by Ascoli last year,* and, finally, by Prof. V. Karapetoff. Prof. Karapetoff uses the international ohm and ampere as fundamental units, the ampere- turn as the unit of magnetomotive force, and the C.G.S. units for magnetic flux and induction. The system of ‘“‘ampere-turn”’ units is treated at some length in Mr. Dellinger’s paper, and the equations required to make the ampere-turn fit in with the units of other Magnetic quantities are given; but he concludes:by ex- pressing the opinior. that none of the proposed changes in some, or all, of the existing systems of international electric and magnetic units offer advantages sufficient to justify the confusion and inconvenience that would be involved, ARGENTINE METEOROLOGY .# Eo YipENCE of the activity and progress of the work carried on under the direction of Mr. W. G. Davis in the years preceding his retirement in March, 1915, after thirty-five years’ service in the Meteoro- logical Department of the Argentine Republic, is con- tained in the undernoted memoirs. . In the work dealing with the ‘‘ History and Organ- isation’’ of the Oficina Meteorolégica, Mr. Davis gives a succinct account of the initiation and develop- ment of the service founded in 1872 by Dr. A. B. Gould, first director of the Cordoba Astronomical Observatory. In 1884, when Dr. Gould retired, there were fewer than twenty meteorological stations in operation. In igor the number had increased sixfold, with, in addition, 240 rainfall stations, while in rg14 there were no fewer than 212 stations, of which forty- two were of the first class, i.e. provided with auto- matic instruments. The rainfall was then being re- corded at no fewer than 1930 points. The great strides made in the meteorological representation of the country during the period covered by the directorship of Mr. Davis is well shown on maps indicating the position of the various classes of stations in 1884, rgor,. and 1914. A Daily Weather Map was started in 1902, and is now based on reports from more than 200 ordinary stations and 1350 rainfall stations, including observations from the neighbouring Republics, An excellent series of maps is given showing seasonal and annual values of all the elements of climate except cloud amount and humidity. A selection of the data on which these are based is given on pp. 154 to 181. 2 The Electrician, vol. x.» p. 6 (1882); ‘Electrical Papers,” vol. i., PP. 199, 262, 432; vol. ii., pp. 543, 575 (1892). 8 L'Elettroternica, vol. li., p. 731 (1915); Electrical World, vol. Ixvii., p- 876 (x916). 4 (1) “ Servicio meteorolégico Argentino : Historia y organizacidn, con un resumen de los resultados.” (In Spanish and English.) Pp. 181-+maps and charts. (Buenos Aires, 1914.) (2) Anales, tomo xv., “Clima de Buenos Aires,” 2 parts. Pp. 1221. (Buenos Aires, 1912.) (3) Anales, tomo xvii., parte 1, “ Observaciones de las Islas Orcadas en los anos 1905 4 roto.” (In Spanish and English.) Pp. 720. (Buenos Aires, 1912.) (4) Anales, tomo xvii., parte 2, ‘‘ Clima de las Islas Orcadas del Sud. Discusidn de las observaciones meteorolégicas y magnéticas en la Isla Laurie.” (In Spanish and English.) Pp. vit+314+22 plates. (Buenos Aires, 1913.) (5) Boletin No. 4, ‘‘ La termodinamica de Ja atmésfera terrestre, desde la superficie hasta el plano de desvanecimiento.” Por F. H. Bigelow. (In Spanish and English.) Pp. 142. (Buenos Aires, 1914.) (6) Boletin No. 5, ‘* Resultado de las observaciones del magnetismo terrestre.” Por Luis G. Schultz. (In Spanish and English.) Pp. 12+4 plates. (Buenos Aires, 1914.) 338 Unfortunately, no heights are given, and there are many errors in the geographical co-ordinates of the stations, some of considerable magnitude. The re- mainder of the meteorological section of the volume is devoted to an important paper by H. Helm Clayton on ‘Atmospheric Circulation and the Weather in Argentina.” The hydrometric section was founded in July, 1902, and there are now 109 gauges at work on the principal rivers and lakes, daily forecasts being made of the probable height at important points. The elevation of the underground water is also gauged at twenty-two stations. The magnetic branch of the service was established in 1904, with a central station at Pilar, near Cordoba, in charge of Mr. L. G. Schultz, who, with assistants, prosecuted field-work at regular inter- vals, notably in 1908 and peer 1912-13. This work is “sufficient to give a very fair knowledge of the values of the magnetic elements in all parts of the country, as well as their respective secular variations.” Lines of equal declination, inclination, horizontal in- tensity, and vertical intensity for the epoch January, 1914, are given in graphic form, while mean hourly values of the principal magnetic elements registered at Pilar from 1905 to 1914 are shown for the months, seasons, and the year (pp. 56-145). Bulletin No. 5 contains a condensed summary of the magnetic results with special reference to the field-worlk accomplished. Vol. xv. of the Anales contains the hourly and other meteorologicai observations made in Buenos Aires from 1877 to 1910, in continuation of the series published in vol. i. of the Anales. The printing of the discussion, which is ready, has been meanwhile postponed owing to the reduction of appropriations. 8 The hourly meteorological and magnetic observations made at Laurie Island, South Orkneys (lat. 61° S.), from 1905 to 1910, with a discussion of all the available material since 1903, appears in vol. xvii. of the Anales. This station was taken over in February, 1904, from the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, and is now completing its thirteenth year under Argentine auspices. The maintenance of this observatory in- volves the dispatch every summer of a relief expedi- tion from Buenos Aires. The climate of the South Orkneys is in general insular from October to March, and continental during the rest of the year, when the surrounding seas are frozen. At all seasons the island is enveloped in a current of Antarctic origin, so that the mean temperature of the warmest month (Febru- ary) does not exceed 06° C. The coldest month is July, with a mean of —11-9° C., and the mean annual temperature is —4-4° C. The extremes noted have been 88° and — 40°. Féhn is not uncommon, and during its occurrence the temperature, even in mid- winter, rises considerably. The mean annual pressure is 744 mm., with extreme readings of 774-7 and 7o9:1 mm. Pressure is low from January to May, and again in November, and relatively high from June to October, and also in December there is much cloud and the air is very humid. Storms are comparatively rare, and are most common at the equinoxes, and least frequent at the solstices. The station lies in the west- wind system, and winds from the east are seldom observed. The upper currents are also from the west, and the cloud drift becomes more and more towards the east as the height increases. The lower clouds are at a greater height in summer than in winter. The precipitation, mostly in the form of snow, and difficult to measure owing to drift, amounts to 447 mm. (17-60 in.) annually. The snow is deepest a month before the winter solstice, and in some summers does not disappear at sea-level. The diurnal range of all the elements, although distinct, is very small. An interesting chapter on the frequency and distribution NO. 2461, VoL. 98] NATURE country of a destructive pest. | DECEMBER 28, 1916 of the ice in the seas surrounding the South Orkneys, showing the very variable conditions experienced from year to year, concludes the meteorological summary of the results. The rest of the volume is taken up with a discussion of the magnetic data to 1912, The analysis of the whole material is very complete, and there are twenty-two plates, some of which possess new features, Bulletin No. 4, by Prof. Bigelow, as the title sug- gests, is highly mathematical, and does not lend itself _ to condensation. R. G. M: A PLAGUE OF VOLES IN ITALY, AND ITS CONTROL, [RES the past summer the province of Foggia in Apulia has suffered great depredations by field-voles (Pytymys savii), the grain crop having been almost entirely destroyed. Prof. Splendore has given an account (in two papers in Rendiconti R. Accad. Lincei, Classe fis. mat. nat., vol. xxv., July and. August, 1916) of his investigations, carried out in Prof. Grassi’s laboratory in Rome, with the view of finding some method of destroying the voles. Of about forty voles sent to him from Cerignola (province Foggia), some died en route, and had been partially eaten by the survivors; the others died a few days after arrival in Rome. In all these a coccobacillus was present in the blood, in the internal organs, and in the lymphatic glands. Around Cerignola there was a remarkably high mortality among the voles, attributed by Prof. Splendore to the cocco- bacillus which was found in all the voles examined. This spontaneous epizootic, which spread extensively, presents the features of a septicaemia, the internal organs being congested, especially the spleen and liver, which are always enlarged. Prof. Splendore has com- pared the coccobacillus with Bacillus typhi muriwn and the typhi-coli group, and considers that it presents such clear differences as to justify him in placing it, provisionally at least, in a new species—Bacterium pytynrysi. Healthy, well-nourished voles from a locality where the epizootic was not known to occur died in less than twenty-four hours after subcutaneous inoculation with an emulsion of the spleen or liver of an infected vole; others fed with infected material died in three or four days. When.dead or infected voles were placed among healthy ones, the latter developed the disease in a few days. The organism was found to be pathogenic also to mice, rats, and rabbits. Prof. Splendore isolated the organism from the in- testine of fleas found on an infected vole. The intes- tinal contents of three similar fleas were inoculated subcutaneously into a healthy vole, which died in less than twenty-four hours. Another healthy vole, placed in a vessel with three vole-fleas, died three days later. Both voles were found to exhibit the usual congestion of the internal organs and to contain the coccobacillus. Prof. Splendore considered that these experiments confirmed his previous suspicion that the natural method of propagation of the infection is by means of fleas. He recommended that voles infected by inoculation should be distributed in the areas in- vaded by voles, where the epizootic has not yet ap- peared, so that the disease would be propagated by fleas and would continually extend until the areas were freed from the rodents. It will be interesting to see how far this method has been successful in ridding the Possibly the new organ- ism may be found useful in attacking other species of destructive rodents, e.g. rats, but investigations will no doubt first be made as to its pathogenic relations to domestic animals and man. — ,*s . a Aye DECEMBER 28, 1916] SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY.! FTER a reference to the work of the Privy Council Committee, the speaker pointed out that, in the words of their first report, ‘‘the object of the scheme is to bring scientific knowledge to bear practically upon our everyday industrial and commercial life.” He continued :—In this process, as we shall see, and as has been well pointed out by various recent writers— see Dr. Rosenhain’s paper before the West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute, ‘*“The National Physical Laboratory: its Work and Aims,” and Dr. Mees’s pamphlet on “Science and Industry,”’ issued by the Advisory Committee of the Privy Council—three dis-° tinct stages may be observed. We need :— (1) The work of the man of science in his research laboratory. (2) Investigations which go on in an industrial re- search laboratorv, developing new processes or intro- ducing new products. (3) The works laboratory proper, controlling the quality of raw materials, finished products, and pro- cesses, Let us note then, in the first place, we must have scientific knowledge. That point I need not labour, but note also that to be successful that knowledge must be pursued for its own sake. Each of the modern practical applications of science had its foundations in purely scientific work, and, to quote Prof. Gregory, in his recent book, ‘* Discovery; or, The Spirit and Service of Science,’ *‘ was not the result of deliberate intention to make something of service to humanity.” It is scarcely necessary to illustrate this; let me, however, give one classical example. ‘The discovery of the laws of electromagnetic induction is due to Faraday, and is described in his first three series of ‘* Experimental Researches,’ published in 1831-33. Oersted, Ampére, and Arago had investigated some of the phenomena connected with the magnetic force produced by an electric current, and to Faraday it appeared clear that, conversely, it should be possible to produce electricity from magnetism, as he put it. It is difficult to picture the world to-day without electric power, and yet the whole development of electrical machinery, as we know it, rests on the laws described in these brief scientific papers. Each advance of knowledge brings its benefits to mankind, and in a general way Faraday may have hoped to be a benefactor to his race by widening the sphere of knowledge, but it was the desire to know the truth which led him on and to which we owe such tremendous consequences, We must have the student of pure research, the genius who goes on his way discovering new truths, irrespective of consequences, laying bare more and more of Nature’s secrets and unravelling her mysteries, In England we have never lacked such men; our roll of great discoverers has been a glorious one. Too frequently their lives have been hard and difficult, prophets without honour they have lived; to-night it is not my task to speak of them beyond urging the importance of giving every encouragement to such men by supporting, in the most generous spirit, any among you here in your University or elsewhere who are advancing the bounds of knowledge, searching for truth in some of its difficult byways.. The endowment of pure science is essential; without it the attempt to apply science to industry fails. This, however, is not my subject to-night; let us 1 Abridged from an address deli d irmi idl: Institute, on December 4, by Dr. ro ek = ae NO. 2461, VOL. 98] NATURE 2 339 turn for a short time to the third need among those enumerated above—the works laboratory proper. My ‘audience will appreciate perhaps more fully than I can the need for this. It is necessary, if for no other reason, to maintain the standard of the output, to secure that the proper grade of material is supplied to the works, to check the instruments in use, and to test the product in its various stages of smanufacture. The days are gone when successful manufacture could be carried on entirely by rule of thumb, trusting to the skill of some trained workman for the success of each delicate opera- tion, when the hereditary instinct, passed down from father to son, was sufficient to produce each year practic- ally the same results. New processes come, which appear likely to improve production or to reduce its cost; the works laboratory serves to test these. New products are suggested, which may or may not have the advantages claimed for them; this can be investigated in the works laboratory, and all these investigations and tests must go on in the works themselves under the eyes of men familiar with the process of manufacture in its every stage. The works laboratory must extend, and others are more competent than I to outline the direction of extension and to guide its growth. Now between these two—the man of sciencé re- searching in his university or college, and the works chemist toiling in his shop—there is a gap. Some means. are needed to make the discoveries of science available to the manufacturer, to secure to him the ad- vantages which come from the growth of knowledge to keep him in the forefront of his trade. This, if I grasp the problem aright, is the function of a labora- tory of industrial research, and among such labora- tories the National Physical Laboratory should hold a prominent place. The National Physical Laboratory has another function to fulfil—it is a great standardis- ing and testing institution. I will recur again to that aspect of its work; for the present let us consider what is required in a laboratory for industrial research and see how far these requisites are supplied at Tedding- ton. Quoting again from Dr. Mees’s paper, already referred to, “‘This kind of research work,’ he says, “involves a laboratory very different from the usual works Jaboratory, and also investigations of a different type from those employed in a purely industrial laboratory. It means a large, elaborately equipped and heavily staffed laboratory engaged largely on work which for many years will be un- remunerative, and which for a _ considerable time after its foundation will obtain no results which can be applied by the manufacturer.” This work clearly needs a special home; it cannot be done in the laboratory of a technical institute. The main work in a laboratory such as that of a technical institute must be educational. The object of the pro- fessor is to educate his pupils so that each may apply his knowledge to his lifework in the future. For this he will teach them to research. They will help him in his own investigations, and these may well have a bearing on the industry of the district. They may commence to solve for themselves simple problems akin to those they will meet with in their future work, but their power and opportunity to apply the new dis- ‘coveries of science to the manifold problems of industry must be limited. For such work training is required, and full and elaborate equipment; the plant of a tech- nical schoo] laboratory must be designed to serve many purposes, all aimed at educating the pupils to apply science, and at teaching them the methods to follow. It is not their work, while still at college, to solve the conundrums of the manufacturer. The research labora- tory is necessary if progress is to be made. Abbe realised somewhere about 1876 that British optical in- 340 struments had reached the highest possible develop- ment unless a radical change could be produced in the optical properties of glass, and the researches of Schott and himself, aided by subsidies from the Bavarian Government, lasted a number of years before the first catalogue of Jena glass was produced. Synthetic in- digo was discovered by von Baeyer about the year 1880; it was not until some twenty years later that it was put commercially on the market, and in that time it is reported that no less than 1,000,000l. was spent by the Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik before this desired end was reached. Standardisation in all its branches is an important function of such a laboratory, and this involves re- search. The methods of measurement, the materials in which the standards can best be expressed, the accuracy of reproduction, and the conditions of use, all need investigation. One other aspect of the matter remains to be con- sidered, though very briefly. If we are to have a National Industrial Research Laboratory, who is to pay for it, who is to support it? The obvious answer is, the nation, but this in some quarters at once raises a difficulty. It is claimed that the results of any suc- cessful research bring profits, in the first instance, to some particular class, and that class ought to pay. For example, the discovery of some new and valuable alloy would profit, in the first instance, the manufac- turer of the alloy and the persons employing it in their special trade. Before, therefore, you undertake an investigation you must secure, so it is ‘said, the co- operation and financial support of a limited class who will presumably benefit by the success of the investiga- tion. And no doubt, as a general rule, in cases in which it can be applied, this principle is a sound one, but such cases are limited. If a manufacturer comes with a conundrum, which he desires to have answered for his own private benefit, he must pay; but if a competent committee controlling an industrial research laboratory concludes that a research is of importance and likely to lead to knowledge of benefit to the whole industry with which it is concerned, I would plead that the cost of such a research should be met out of national funds. It is very difficult to say what indi- vidual will profit most in the end. An improvement in an industrial process leading to more employment and to a cheaper method of manufacture benefits a wide circle beyond the man who introduces the process. Ger- many—not merely Messrs. Schott and Zeiss—has rofited by the labours of Abbe and his co-workers at Reni. labours rendered possible in the first instance by State help. No doubt there are cases where the co- operation of an industry can, and should, be secured; sometimes, too, it will be in the public interest to pro- tect a discovery by a patent, if only to prevent action by a private firm restricting the free use of the dis- covery, but, in my opinion, it is not well to hamper those who control the laboratory by conditions aimed at securing support from industry before any special research is commenced. The needs of the nation at the present time are too serious, the danger of delay too pressing, and the State may well devote large sums to industrial research without minute inquiry as to whether the research is going to benefit Messrs. A. B. specially, and what share, therefore, of the expense Messrs. A. B. must be asked to guarantee. In America the Bureau of Standards, in Germany the Reichsanstalt and the Material-Priifungs-Amt, work thus for the national good, and this should be the task of our English indus- trial research laboratory. a And here let us note the importance of keeping the test work a live thing by the aid of research. Instru- ments are tested to see, among other objects, if they NO. 2461, VoL. 98] NATURE [ DECEMBER 28, 1916 come up to standard, but the standard of to-day is too low some years hence; the tests must be so regulated as to tend to a gradual improvement in the product, and this can be done only by accompanying the tests — with continuous research—research into methods of — construction, into the materials most suitable for use, into the scheme of tests most helpful towards forming a correct opinion of the value, of the instrument. Re- search must go hand in hand with testing. Without | such close co-operation routine tests grow obsolete and cease to be of value; worked thus they prove an impor- tant aid’to the manufacturer and a most desirable check on his production. I trust I have convinced you—probably you did not need convincing—that laboratories of search are necessary. There must be more than one; in many cases an industry can be best served by a laboratory near its principal centre. Large firms, again, may each prefer to have their own; trade secrets and trade jealousies may interfere with full co-operation—this must be so to some extent—but a private laboratory on a really sufficient scale is expensive; too often it becomes little more than what I have called a works laboratory for testing the products of the factory, and for the smaller firms, at least, the only way to secure the full advan- tage of scientific advance is by co-operation—co-opera- tion in the laboratory, co-operation, with specialisation in production, in the works themselves. There is much for us all to do, and I ask your active support to make the National Physical Laboratory more efficient, more worthy of its name. Increased funds must be provided, and it is only through the aid of the manufacturers, and of those who from experience have profited by the work of the laboratory, that the authorities can be induced to do all that is needed to establish the laboratory in a secure position. On Friday, December 1, in the hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, some of us listened to an address by Lord Crewe, President of the Privy Council Com- mittee, on the subject of industrial research. It was in reply to a deputation from the Joint Board of Scientific Societies. Sir J. J. Thomson, president of the Royal Society, had spoken eloquently on the claims of pure science, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice dealt with engineering, and Prof. Baker with industrial chem- istry. Lord Crewe announced that a large sum—the exact figure was not mentioned—is to be at the disposal of the committee during the next five years, and outlined the scheme for its expenditure. Associations are to be formed representing various trades or industries; the representatives of these will discuss with members of the Advisory Committee and other experts questions — needing scientific investigation, and when these are determined the grant, supplemented in most cases by funds raised privately or contributed by the indus- try, is to be used to carry them out. Such work needs laboratories, and it is here, it seems to me, that the future of the National Physical Laboratory lies. Lord Crewe spoke in generous terms of the work of the laboratory in the past; its many friends who heard him were grateful for his cordial recognition of our labours, and he indicated a sphere of wider usefulness under less difficult conditions in the future. Let me picture to you what I trust that sphere may be. In many cases, no doubt, the researches contem- plated must go on in special laboratories arranged and equipped for the purpose—laboratories closely con- nected with the industry it is desired to help, situated | at the great manufacturing centres; but there are many other researches of wide interest and great importance industrial re-~ 4 ] DEcEMBER 28, 1916] for which a central laboratory is the proper home, a laboratory fitted and equipped in an ample manner, with a trained and competent staff animated, like those, my colleagues, who have built up the National Physical Laboratory, with a’ love for science, and yet withal with a keen appreciation of the practical side of the question discussed and a real desire to help our country by the application of science to industry. The body controlling industrial science research must have access to a laboratory in which may be studied the many problems which do not require for their elucidation appliances of the more specialised ‘‘ works” character, or opportunities only to be found in par- ticular localities; where a staff is available, able and experienced, ready to attack under the advice of men skilled in industry the technical difficulties met in applying new discoveries on a manufacturing scale or to develop ideas which promise future success. Such a réle the National Physical Laboratory should be prepared to play; such is the future which I trust may be in store for it. COAL AND FUEL ECONOMY. [ may be hoped that nowadays no one needs to be reminded about the importance of the economical use of coal. We require all, and more than all, of the power and by-products which can be obtained from it, and are beginning to realise the value of the thousands of tons poured annually into our atmo- sphere with none but deleterious effects. A committee of no fewer than forty-six members appointed by the British Association at the 1915 meet- ing, and containing representatives qualified to speak on the various aspects of the problem, presented its first report at the Newcastle meeting last September, when it was the subject of a joint discussion between the Chemical and the Engineering Sections. At the same meeting there was also a discussion by the geologists and the chemists on the chemical and microscopical characters of different varieties of coal with a view to their more effective utilisation as fuel and to the extraction of by-products. The two discus- sions, though at the meeting quite distinct, may well be considered together, since they deal with different aspects of the same question. It is not proposed here to deal with the many papers seriatim, but rather to review the general lines of the discussion. When chemists, geologists, and engineers meet to consider the coal question, three different views are ever present. The chemist regards coal as the valu- able source of raw material for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, dyes, and certain high explosives and ammonium sulphate, and would have us carbonise all our coal in by-product recovery plants so as to waste none of these precious substances. Though these sub- stances represent only a small percentage by weight of the coal, their value to chemical industry is such that he cannot sit idly by and see them burnt away, particularly as the consumption of the resulting coke would help to diminish the smoke nuisance. The geologist looks upon coal as a rock of varying physical properties and chemical composition, and, feeling that his duty is to find coal by mapping outcrops or strati- graphical evidence, regrets, in his endeavours to extend our coalfields, that the chemist does not come to his assistance in assigning a particular value to the coal in each seam. The chemist investigates a sample of coal for some specific purpose, benzol or ammonia content, for example, but the geologist would like him to come forward. with a definite classification, saying which coals were best for steam or domestic NO. 2461, VOL. 98] NATURE 341 purposes, etc. He feels that both ultimate and ordinary commercial analyses should be carried out, and that the chemist should know the nature of the roof and floor of the seam from which his sample was taken. The palzobotanist might be of great value in association with chemistry, for, as it is known that coal consists of an assemblage of the remains of very many kinds of plants, if it could be shown that par- ticular by-products resulted from particular plants or parts thereof, paleobotanical investigation would show the commercial value of coal from any one séam. There are, however, certain difficulties. | Though much has been discovered by the action of solvents, chlorine, etc., on coal as regards the cellulose and resinic constituents, so many secondary changes may have taken place in the history of a seam that to associate them with individual plants or parts of plants may not be justified, for the decomposition of the original vegetable constituents might prove to be more important than the constituents themselves. _ The engineer would have us turn our coal into cheap power, preferably electrical, on account of the ease of distribution. Just as there are trunk lines of railway, so there should be trunk lines of electric power generated from the largest and most economical machines in stations situated in the best localities for the needs of any district where land is cheap and coal and water plentiful. But just as the branches from a trunk railway- enable the towns at their ter- mini to develop in a way impossible without the trunk line, so trunk power mains would enable col- lieries to use their friable coal unfit for transport by turning it into electrical energy, at the same time extracting the by-products, for they would have a means for distributing their power which at present they do not possess. It would really seem that for industrial purposes this is the line for advance, having in view economy, and the North-East Coast power system may be taken as an example in this country of the theory put into successful practice. It goes a long way to satisfy the chemist in his reasonable desire for by-products, and the efficiency of the conversion of coal into electricity is great if properly developed. Economy in the domestic consumption of coal is more difficult. Gas is acceptable for cook- ing purposes, but the Englishman has a strong preference for warming himself by the direct radiation from a fire instead of the far more economical stoves so common in other countries. People must be educated in this matter, and no doubt the Domestic Fuel Sub-Committee of the General Committee mentioned at the commencement of these remarks will see to it that this is attempted. Manu- facturers realise that smoke pouring from their chim- neys implies bad stoking, and this means waste, and is consequently avoided so far as possible, but smoke from a domestic chimney conjures up visions of the crackling fire and genial warmth within the house. The two discussions at Newcastle, if not producing any very new points, helped greatly in showing how we stand in relation to this most important question, and it is to be hoved that the committee will be in a position to present much valuable information in their next report. A rapprochement between chemists and engineers seems to be coming about, but the chemist and the geologist look as though they would continue grubbing for some time yet in a coal-seam on indi- vidual purposes intent. The satisfactory solution of the problem will require all three to work hand in hand, and now is the time, when co-operation is on everyone’s lips, to achieve this happy result in the interest of the nation. 342 NATURE [DECEMBER 28, 1916 i UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. In reply to an inquiry, official confirmation has reached us of the announcement made by the registrar at the meeting of the council of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, on December 15, to the effect that friends of the college had expressed their inten- tion of contributing the sum of 100,0001, to the funds of the college, subject to a reservation of their right to make such proposals as they may deem expedient to the council, either as to the capital or as to the income therefrom. The sum of 20,0001. will be set aside annually by the donors for this purpose for the next five years. THE annual meetings of the Geographical Associa- tion will be held on Friday and Saturday, January 5-6, at the London Day Training College, Southampton Row, W.C. After the presidential address a discussion on the value of modelling in the early teaching of geography will be opened by Miss N. Catty, and a lecture on regions in human geography, with special reference to Europe, will be given by Prof. H. J. Fleure. There will also be a discussion on the resolu- tions drawn up by the Five Associations (now the Council for Humanistic Studies), to be opened by Mr. H. J. Mackinder. On January 6 a joint meeting of the Geographical and Mathematical Associations will be held to discuss ‘‘ The Teaching of Mav Projections.” This discussion will be opened by Prof. T. P. Nunn. Tue Journal of the British Science Guild for Novem- ber contains several reports and memoranda on the organisation of science and the improvement of facili- ties for education. In the ‘‘Memorandum on the Encouragement of Teaching and Research in Science in British Universities’ attention is directed to the great variations in the salaries of professors in the faculty of science at different institutions. Liverpool and Manchester head the list with average salaries of 853. and 8881. respectively, Southampton and Aberyst- wyth coming last with 325]. and 320l. Reference is particularly made to the inadequate arrangements as regards salaries and facilities for scientific education in the University and colleges of Wales, and it is sug- gested that such institutions should receive additional State support. Other suggestions include the elimina- tion of temporary and associate professorships at State- aided universities, and the substitution of ‘ Regius Professorships,’’ appointment and dismissal resting with the Crown or with a body appointed by the Crown. Another important matter is the provision of an adequate scale of pensions. The ‘‘ Report on Re- forms necessary in National Education ’’ covers wide ground, a series of concrete recommendations being made. Various steps are suggested to eliminate the gaps between elementary schools, secondary and tech- nical schools, and the universities. It should be in- cumbent on employers to provide facilities for persons between the ages of fourteen and seventeen to attend continuation schools for six hours per week within the hours of employment, ‘‘leaving certificates ’ should be established at elementary and secondary schools, and scientific method and training should be more generally encouraged. Teachers at training colleges should be given a larger measure of freedom and responsibility. Here again salaries, superannuation schemes, and con- ditions of tenure require to be placed on a more satis- factory footing. In elementary schools the physical development of the children and the encouragement of manual and other work developing initiative should be given especial attention. THE Proceedings of the Institute of Chemistry, part iv. (November, 1916), contains the proposed new NO. 2461, VOL. 98] | originally promulgated in the ' amended in the light of conditions resulting trom the | war. For admission to the associateship a candidate may proceed under either Regulations A or B. The former comprise (1) an approved preliminary exam- ination of matriculation standard; (2) (a) four years’ day training at a recognised university or college, or (b) three years’ such training and two years under a 9, y g ry af fellow of the institute, or (c) a degree in chemistry and physics taken at a recognised university, with, in the case of pass graduates, a subsequent year’s training in chemistry at a recognised university or college, or two years’ experience under a fellow; and (3) an examina- tion in general, theoretical, and practical chemistry conducted by the institute, the candidate having in every case produced satisfactory evidence of training in physics and mathematics. Under Regulations B a candidate is to be admitted if he has a degree with first- or second-class honours in chemistry, or a degree or diploma recognised by the council as equivalent, obtained after a three years’ day course, with three years’ subsequent experience of a standard and char- acter approved by the council, or such degree or diploma obtained after a four years’ day course, with two years’ subsequent experience. The regulation as to training in physics,and mathematics is again applic- able. The qualifications for the fellowship are to con-— sist of three years’ continuous occupation in the study and practical work of applied chemistry since admis- sion as associate, and either the production of records of original research, or the devising of processes or inventions of sufficient merit in the opinion of the council, or the production of evidence of knowledge and ability equivalent to such conditions, or the passing of an examination in a special branch of chemistry. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Anthropological Institute, November 28.— Prof. A. Keith, president, in the chair.—Prof. G. Elliot Smith: The common objections to the reality of the migrations of early culture. After citing a series of in- stances which proved the reality of the cultural migra- tions, and exposing the lack of cogency in the argu- ments commonly brought forward in opposition to the admission of the only possible explanation of the facts, the fashionable speculation of the present generation of ethnologists was then examined, that, ‘“‘in order to meet similar needs’ and ‘“‘in similar circumstances,” two peoples ‘‘in a similar stage of culture’? may in- dependently develop essentially identical customs, arts, and beliefs. Attention was directed to the fact that such cultural identities frequently occur among peoples whose ‘‘needs,’’ ‘ circumstances,”. and “‘states of cul- ture’? are as dissimilar as it was possible for them to be. Moreover, of kindred peoples—even members of the same race—living side by side for many centu- ries, in similar circumstances and with identical needs, one of them may possess the whole of the complex outfit of the megalithic culture, whereas the other may be totally free from any trace of it. As W. J. Perry has shown, the coincidence of the presence of ancient mines or pearl-beds reveals the fact that the stone- using culture-complex was introduced by immigrants who came to exploit these sources of wealth. Linnean Society, December 14.—Sir David Prain, president, in the chair.—Miss I. McClatchie : Observa- tions on the root-system of Impatiens Roylei, Walp. The primary root-system of Impatiens Roylei consists of a somewhat short tap-root, a whorl of four robust lateral roots, and a number of accessory laterals. These soon become obsolete and are replaced by a | regulations for the admission of fellows and associates, — 4 1gI4-15 report, as “ 2 DEcEMBER 28, 1916] large superficial root-system of adventitious origin derived from the lower half of the hypocotyl. In plants in which the first and subsequent nodes trail along the ground, additional roots are produced from these. Abortive roots commonly arise at the bases of lateral branches, and further development can be in- duced also in these by suitable manipulation. Various other factors, such as wounding, increasing the height of the soil, etc., also induce accessory root-formation. —Miss A. J. Davey and Miss M. Gibson: The distribu- tion of moneecious plants, and the occurrence of herm- aphrodite flowers in Myrica Gale, with observations on variations of sex. M. Gale, the common bog myrtle, is described as being typically dioecious, but mention has been made by several authors of the occa- sional occurrence of the moncecious condition. Obser- vations during several successive years on a large area of Myrica in the peat moors of Somerset show that there isalways asmall proportion of moneecious plants, which present all gradations between the normal pistil- late and staminate types. Further, it has been found that the sex of a plant may vary from year to year. Optical Society, December 14.—Mr. F. J. Cheshire, president, in the chair——L. C. Martin: The refracto- metry and identification of glass specimens, especially lenses. The determination of the refractive index generally requires at least one plane-polished surface in the specimen, but the method described could be used for lenticular, irregular, or unpolished pieces of glass. By immersing the specimen in a liquid of equal refractive index the system became optically homo- geneous for light of a particular wave-length. |The liquid, which may be a mixture of carbon disulphide and alcohol or a solution of mercuric potassium iodide, is contained in a prism cell on the table of a spectro- meter, and is kept mechanically stirred. Spectra from the usual sources are observed by refraction through the prism, of which the sides are plane parallel glass. The introduction of the specimen diffuses the light, but any particular spectrum line may be focussed by adjustment of the strength of the liquid. The refrac- tive index of the liquid and specimen is then found in the usual manner.—Dr. R. S. Clay: A workshop method of determining the refractive index of a block of glass of which only one face is polished. The method was shown to be based, as are the Abbe and Pulfrich refractometers, upon the determination of the critical angle when light passes from the medium of which the refractive index is to be found into one of which the index is known. The hemispherical ball of Abbe or the cube of the Pulfrich refractometer is replaced by an isosceles right-angle prism. This must, of course, have a higher refractive index than that of the substance it is required to measure. A simple telescope, composed of two spectacle lenses with a cross- wire at their common focal plane, is used to take the readings. A drop of liquid of high refractive index (e.g. quinoline or oil of cassia) is placed on the hypo- tenuse face of the prism, and this is placed upon the polished face of the glass of which the refractive index is required. Sodium light is caused to fall on one side of the block of glass, and the light emerging from one face of the prism is received by the telescope. The latter is turned until the critical angle is obtained, shown by one-half of the field of the telescope becom- ing black, and the dividing line of the field being on the cross-wire of the telescope. The observation is repeated for light falling on the opposite side of the glass block, and emerging from the other face of the prism. The angular distance between the two posi- tions of the telescope determines the refractive index of the glass by a simple calculation, or the scale can be divided to give the refractive index directly. NO. 2461, VOL. 98] NATURE 543 Royal Meteorological Society, December 20.—Major H. G. Lyons, president, in the chair.—C, Salter: The measurement of rainfall duration. Save for an article by Mr. Baldwin Latham in 1880, practically no atten- tion appeared to have been paid to this subject until 1903, when Dr. H. R. Mill commenced collecting re- cords for the British Isles, the number of which has grown until, in ‘‘ British Rainfall, 1915," as many as forty-eight records were published. An examination of these records revealed certain inconsistencies which were probably due to personal and instrumental causes. The differences appeared to be due principally to the varying degrees of sensitiveness of the recording instru- ments to very light rain, and the suggestion had been made that if rain of very low intensity were omitted from the records a closer approximation to homo- geneity would be attained.—Prof. H. H. Turner: Dis- continuities in meteorological phenomena: third note. In two previous papers it has been suggested that meteorological history is divided into definite chapters of average length 6} years, the separating dates being assigned according to a regular law. Further, that if these chapters are numbered consecutively those with even numbers differ in certain essential respects from those with odd numbers. The present paper gives the systematic analysis of fifty-five years’ monthly rainfalls at twenty-eight European stations. The division into alternating chapters is clearly brought out, and it is apparently possible to assign the separating dates from this material within a month. This precision is made possible by the existence of a five-monthly periodicity, for which some evidence was given in a former com- munication, but which is clearly established by the mass of evidence here submitted. The division into chapters has been connected in a former paper with the movements of the earth’s axis. In the present paper some earthquake statistics are put forward which appear to be favourable to this view. MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, November Mr. T. A. Coward, vice-president, in the chair.—H. Bolton: The Mark Stirrup collection of fossil insects from Commentry, Central France. This collection of insects is now in the Manchester Museum, and was obtained by the late Mr. Mark Stirrup from his friend, Charles Brongniart, author of the classical memoir, ‘Recherches pour servir A histoire des In- sectes Fossiles des Temps Primaires.’”’ It consists of nine specimens, of which five are blattoids, one is a fragmentary wing of Goldenbergia (Microdictya) hamyi, two belong to new genera and species, and one is indeterminable. All the insect remains occur in a compact and thin flaggy mudstone. The blattoid wings belong to five species, of which two are refer- able to the genus Necymylacris, and three to the genus Phvlloblatta. Four of the species are new; the fifth is an example of Phylloblatta brongniarti of Hand- lirsch. Of the two new genera, one is considered to have close relationships with the family Perlida, whilst the second is regarded as an archaic type of the family Panorpide.—J. W. Jackson: Faceted pebbles from Pendleton, Lancashire.—Dr. F. E. Bradley: Presence of arsenic in baking-powder.—W. H. Todd: Behaviour of a blackbird. Dvs in. Royal Dublin Society, November 28.—Prof. G. H. Carpenter in the chair.—Prof. W. Brown: The fatigue of nickel and iron wires when subjected to the influ- ence of transverse alternating magnetic fields. The fatigue under these conditions is less than that due to longitudinal alternating magnetic fields by 5-5 per cent. for nickel and 25 per cent. for iron, and in both 28.— 344 cases the time taken to attain the maximum value of fatigue with the transverse field was about double that with the longitudinal field.—Prof. E. A. Letts: The chemistry of foul mud deposits. The sulphides and carbonates usually present in foul mud deposits are those of iron, calcium, and, more rarely, magnesium and sodium. It has been stated, but also denied, that the action of hydrogen sulphide on carbonates, and the opposite, namely, that of carbon dioxide on sulphides, is a reversible reaction, e.g. : Excess 7 a FeS +2CO,+2H,O—Fe(HCO,).+H,S. Excess In the first part of their paper the authors prove thi at the actions are reversible. The second part of the paper deals with actual analyses of foul mud deposits before and after keeping.—E, J. Sheehy: Abnormality in arterial arches in a rabbit. The right subclavian artery is absent. A blood-vessel which originates from the aorta behind the left subclavian runs dorsal to the cesophagus and trachea, and appears on the right side, where it serves as a subclavian, i.e. it branches into the right vertebral artery and _ blood-vessels to the arm. The _ recurrent laryngeal nerve associated with the abnormal blood-vessel is quite normal, even though the vessel which it usually embraces is absent. Persistence of an unusual portion of the embryological blood system, namely, the right descending aorta, explains this ex- ceptional condition, and the normal position of the recurrent nerve suggests that the nervous system was well developed previous to the obliteration of the embryonic arches. Paris. Academy of Sciences, December 4.—M. Camille Jordan in the chair.—W. Kilian and J. Révil: Discontinuities of sedimentation and the levels of the breccias in the French Alps.—W. Sierpinski; The réle of Zermelo’s axiom in modern analysis.—G. Julia: The forms of Dirichlet and the loxodromic substitutions of the Picard group.—M. Brillouin: Fundamental solution in a heavy liquid with free surface.—M. Baticle ; The cal- culation of thick arches submitted to uniform pressure. -—B. Globa-Mikhailenko ; A new figure of equilibrium of a fluid mass in rotation.—L. Roy : The problem of the wall and its application to the discharge of a condenser on its ‘own dielectric.—L. Gentil: The ‘‘Trouée de Taza,” northern Morocco. The Miocene deposits found at Taza confirm the view put forward in earlier papers, that there was communication between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic during the Neogene epoch, the narrowest point being at the gap of Taza.— J. Boussac: The existence, between Modane and the Col de Chaviére, of a fenétre showing the Trias under the Permian.—-P. de Sousa: The earthquakes of the eighteenth century in the neighbourhood of the oval Lusitania-Spain-Morocco depression.—F, Baco: Varia- tions of a sexual hybrid of the vine by grafting on one of its parents.—C. Sauvageau: A Laminaria new for the French coast, Laminaria Lejolisti—]. Georgévitch : The various forms of Ceratomyxa Her Lumiére and E. Astier; Tetanus and frost-bite. Evi- dence that precautions against tetanus should be taken in cases of lesions caused by frost. bite.—A. Arnoux : The mechanical protection and preservation of eggs. The newly laid egg is wrapped up in layers of a “material impregnated with a solution of sodium silicate, and air- dried for twelve hours. The preservative properties of the alkaline silicate are well known. The above method of applying it gives mechanical strength; the treated eggs can. be allowed to roll down a flight of stairs fees breaking. 98] 2461, VOL. NATURE [DECEMBER 28, 1916 BOOKS RECEIVED. Fertilizers. By the late Dr. E®B. Voorhees. Revised edition by J. H. Voorhees. Pp. xv+365.. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) “6s. 6d. net. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and aa Coleoptera, Rhynchophora, Curculionidae. By Drada. wR. Is. Marshall. Pp. xv+ 367. Tay ie and Francis.) 15s. A Memoir on British Resources of Sands suitable for Glass-making. By Dr. P. G. H. Boswell, with Chemical Analyses by Dr. H. T. Harwood. (London : Longmans and Co.) 1s. 6d. The eescrles of Electric Wave Telegraphy and Telephony. By Prof. J. A. Fleming. Third edition. Pp. oe (London : Longmans and Co.) 30s. net. The ‘Wellcome’? Photographic Exposure Record and Diary, 1917. Edition. Pp. 256. and Co.) Is. Northern Hemisphere and Tropical (London: Burroughs, Wellcome DIARY OF SOCIETIES. * TUESDAY, Jaxnvary 2 RONTGEN Society, at 8.15.—A Spectroscopic Investigation of Some Sources of Ultra-violet Ravistons in Relation to Treatment by Ultra-vio'et Rays: C. A. Schunk. SATURDAY, Janvary 6. Grotoaists’ AssociaATION, at 3.—T he Age of the Chief Intrusions of the | Lake District: J. F. N. Green.—The Ibex-zone at Charmouth: W. D, Lang. CONTENTS. PAGE. The Life-work of Dr. E. K. Muspratt. nati Sir T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S. 2. 4 2, Studies of the Respiratory Exchange . + 0 a Gnomonics and Celestial Movements . ose Our Bookshelf 327 Letters to the Editor:— University Doctorates.—Prof. J. B. Cohen, F.R.S. 327 The Deterioriation of the Atmosphere in the Swiss i Alps.—Sir Napier Shaw, F.K.S.. 328 Winter Thunderstorms.—Capt, C, J. P. Cave. 328 Gravitation and the Principle of Relativity. By Prof, A. S. Eddington, F.R.S. spp ats. «i ae Plants in Health and Disease, By F. K.. ... . 330 Prof. Daniel Oliver, F.R.S. : 331 Prof, Cleveland Abbe. By Sir Napier Shaw | F.R.S. 332 Notes as 332 Our Astronomical ‘Column :— Mercury an Evening Star’ “2 4 2%). 9. . se ‘Total Eclipse'of:the:Moon © <7.) .csusm)) = saan Long-period Variable Stars. . . ee International Electric and Magnetic Units... 337 Argentine Meteorology. By R. C. M. eee A Plague of Voles in Italy, and its Control... 338 Science and Industry, with Special Reference to © the Work of the National Physical jab ¢ By Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S. . ... + 339 Coal and Fuel Economy . 1. oar 341 University and Educational Intelligence o « §342 Societies and Academies. ..... 5 a \e! Books Received UR ef ra, oe 344 Diary of Societies. > =.) eee. 344 Editorial and Publishing ‘Offices : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltp., ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. Editorial Communications to the Fditor. Telegraphic Address: Puusis, Lonpon. Telephone Number: GERRARD $830. (London ; | A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.”-—WorRDSWORTH. _ NO. 2462, VOL. 98] THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1917 [PRicE SIXPENCE. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] [All Rights Reserved. | Meteorological Charts. Complete Sets for the Year for recording Barometric Pressure, Temperature, Rain- fall, Direction of Wind, &c. } 1/- each. Post Free, 1/2 Special “College” Design, large size, for School use, 2/6 Meteorological Instruments of all sorts, Chemical Weather Glasses, &c., in stock, NEWTON & CO., OPTICIANS TO H.M. KING GEORGE V., 72 WIGMORE ST., LONDON, W. ESTABLISHED OVER 200 YEARS. DUROGLASS L”: 14 CROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. - Beakers. Flasks, Etc. Soft:Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. Special.Glass Apparatus Made to Order. DUROGLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. : AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. 14 CROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C. BEAKERS, BOATS, specialise in the manu- facture of apparatus to cus- - New prices and sample on .application to THE SILICA SYNDICATE, Ltd., 82 HATTON CARDEN, LONDON, E.C. Telephone: Holborn 6380. A New Barograph—THE ‘‘ JORDAN.” (Regd. Design 62871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W. CXXXViil NATURE a oe THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. The following Special Courses of Instruction will be given during the Lent Term, 1917 ?— BREWING. By ARTHUR R. LING, F.1.C. A Course of 20 Lectures and associated Laboratory work, Tuesday evenings, 7 to yo p.m., commencing TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1917. THE MECHANICAL TESTING OF METALS AND ALLOYS. By E. M. BOOTE. A Course of Lectures with associated Laboratory work, ‘hursday evenings, 7 to 10 p.m., commencing THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 10917. Detailed Syllabus of the Courses may be had upon, application at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the Principat. ST THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. The following Special Courses of Instruction will be given during the Lent and Summer Terms, r9r7 *— FUEL ANALYSIS. By J. S. S. BRAME. A Course of Laboratory work, Friday evenings, 7 to 10 p.m., commencing FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1917. TECHNICAL GAS ANALYSIS. By CHARLES A. KEANE, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.1.C. A Cour-e of Laboratory wo-k, Wednesday evenings, 7 to 10 p.m., com- mencing WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 1917. A detailed Syllabus of the Courses may be had upon application at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PrincrraL, ee UTE Utd UES BACTERIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. UNIVERSITY LABORATORIES, 62 CHANDOS STREET, CHARING CRO3S, W.C. Bacteriology and Pathology—Professor Hewtert, Dr. F. E. Taytor, and Dr. Hark. Microscopy—Mr. J. E. Baxnaro, F.R.M.S. Parasitology—Dr. Grorce C. Low. The Laboratory is open daily for Instruction and Research. For particulars apply to the Secretary or to Professor HEWLETT, at 62 Chandos Street. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING’S COLLEGE. EVENING CLASS DEPARTMENT. COURSES are arranged for the INTERMEDIATE and FINAL EXAMINATIONS for the B.A. and B.Sc. DEGREES of the UNIVER- SI'LY of LONDON, Students taking the full Course pay Composition Fees and rank as Internal Students of the University. The Classes are also open to Occasional Students in separate subjects. Next TERM will begin on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1917. _For full information and }rospectus, apply to the Dean (Mr. R. W. K. Edwards) or to the SeckeTARY, King’s College, Strand, London, Wc, EEUU EE EEE COUNTY BOROUGH OF HUDDERS- FIELD TECHNICAL COLLEGE. Principal - - J. Fs. HUDSON, M.A., B.Sc. Applications are invited for the following posts :— ~ ASSISTANT LECTURER IN CHFMISTRY. DEMONSTRATOR IN BIOLOGY. Women eligible. Salary £150. Further particulars on application. T. THORP, Secretary. RESEARCH ASSISTANT in the Institu- tion for Research in Animal Nutrition at Leeds University. ‘The Secretary of the University will receive applications for this position up to January 20. Full particulars may be obtained on application. [JANUARY 4, I917 TRANSVAAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, PRETORIA, TRANSVAAL. The establishment of a Faculty of Agrictilture at the Transvaal University College has received the sanction of the Minister of Education, and applica- tions are now invited for the following posts :— (1) Professor of Agriculture and Dean of the Faculty. (2) Professor of Agricultural Botany. (3) Professor of Agricultural Chemistry. The Professor of Agriculture will be expected to organise the work of the Faculty generally, and will at the outset be responsible for the teaching in Field and Animal Husbandry, al-o in Estate Management and Agricultural Economics. : The salaries attached to these posts will be £8co per annum, rising in the cise of the Professor of Agriculture and Dean of the Faculty by annual increments of £50 to £1,000, the first increment to be granted after three years’ service. Applicants must be graduates of a University or Agricultural College, and should be men of some experience buth in teaching and research work. The applicants for the Chairs of Agricultural Botany and Chemi-try should be under 45 years of age and should have received a thorough training in Pure Jotany and Chemistry respectively as well. In the ca-e of the Professor of Agriculture, if any applicant is particularly well qualified in respect of orzanising ability and exrerience, the age limit may be raised to 48 years. Appointments will be made in the first instance for three years; at the expiry of this period, if the appointment is renewed, the incumnent will be placed on the permanent Staff of the College. Conditions as to leave and — pension will be those approved by the Minister of Education for the Univer- sities of the Union of South Africa. Applications (including, besides testimonials, full information as to age, academic standi g, teaching and organi-ing experience, research and pub- lications) should reach the Recistrar, Tran-vaal University College, Pretor a, Transvaal, on or before February 28, 1917- In the case of success- ful applicants from oversea, notification of appointment will be cabled and a first-class passage for the sea voyage will be provided (also for wife if applicant is married). ; Successful applicants from oversea will receive half pay fron the date of sailing. and full pay from the date of assumption of duty. They wil enter upon their duties on May 1, 1917. or as soon thereafter as may be. In the event of any applicant being unable to assume duty on May 1, he should specify in his application the earliest possible date, Tne College possesses the land for an Experimental Farm, and every opportunity for research will be provided. Knglish and Dutch are official languages.of South Africa, and successful applicants not familiar with both will be expected to qualify within a reasonable time. reo SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL OF MINES & TECHNOLOGY, JOHANNESBURG. WANTED, ASSISTANT FOR MATHEMATICAL DEPART- MENT, one who has graiuated with honours in Mathematics. Salary £350 per annum, rising by annual increments of 450 to the maximum of Zi-o. The sum of £50 will be allowed for travelling expenses to South ‘Africa, and half salary from date of sailing till arrival in Johannesburg. A medical ceriificate will be required before appointment. Members of the staff have to supervise and take pari in evening work. The next Session begins early in March. Applications to be sent in triplicate, as early as po sible, to Messrs. CHALMERS, GUTHRIE & Co., Ltd., 9 Idol Lane, London, E.C. — ————— THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Applications are invited for the position of additional Instruct >r in Horti- culture. Salary £150 a year. Applications will be* received up to January 24, 1917, and should be addressed to ‘Yue Seckerary, The Uni- versity, Leeds, from whom further particulars may he obtained. PHYSICS MASTER WANTED. The Headmaster of Bishop's Stortford College requires a TEM PORARY MASTER to replace a master on active service and to teach Physics to the highest Forms up to University Scholarship Standard and som: Mathe- matics. Salary from £225 to 4250 per annum, according to qe and exorrience.—Apply HEAvMasTER, The College, Bishop s Stortford. MERCHANT VENTURERS’ SECOND- ARY SCHOOL, BRISTOL. MISTRESS for PHYSICS (with MATHEMATICS or MECHANICS). £120 (or more if Evening Classes are taught). For Form of Application ‘end stamped. addressed, foolscap envelope to REGISTRAR. ; EEE RESEARCH CHEMISTS.—Messrs. Levinstein, Limited, have vacancies for well-qualified OKGANIC CHEMISTS in their Research Luboratories. Applicants must h.ve hid academical training, and preferably research experience. —Apply LEvVINSTELN, Limited, Blackley, Manchester. ; URGENTLY WANTED, for important work, Copies (complete with supplements) of Beils ein’s “* Handbuch © der organischen Chemie” and Richrer’s “ Lexicon der Koblenston- Ve biniungen.” Would purchase or borrow.—Apply Box 214, c/o NATURE. ULE EEE CHEMISTRY MASTER required for impor- tant School, Commencing salary £180; non-res.—Address GRIFFITHS, Sig & Situ, ‘lutorial Ageuts (std. 1233), 34 Bedford Screet, Strand. ‘ ee NATURE THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1917. GEOLOGY AND SCENERY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT. The Geology of the Lake District and the Scenery - as Influenced by Geological Structure. By Dr. J. E. Marr. Pp. xii+220. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 12s. net. ie since the days of Jonathan Otley and of Sedgwick the Lake District has attracted much attention from geologists, largely on account of the variety and difficulty of the problems that it presents. As is well known, Dr. Marr has devoted a very large part of his life to the study of these problems, and the present volume con- tains an admirable summary of the results ob- tained by his predecessors, by his contemporaries, and by himself in this field. Although compara- tively small when measured in square miles, there is, perhaps, no other well-defined area where so much variety of topography and of geological structure is to be found, or where the connection between geology and scenery is so clearly marked. On this latter feature the author rightly lays much stress, pointing out that each formation gives rise to its own particular type of scenery, easily distinguishable even in the distant view. The arrangement of the book is historical. Beginning with the oldest known rocks, a clear and connected account is given of the origin and characters of each formation, and also of the events that occurred during the intervals when no deposition was in progress. The chapters dealing with the periods of non-deposition are in some ways the most interesting sections of the book, as they give more scope for originality and speculation. Even yet there remain problems among the older rocks still awaiting a final solu- tion; perhaps the most important and the most difficult of these is the question of the true age and tectonic relationships of the Borrowdale vol- canic series. The similarity of these rocks to the Charnian volcanics was long ago noted by Prof. Lapworth, who suggested that they may possibly be of pre-Cambrian age, owing their present posi- tion above the Skiddaw Slates to overthrusting. As a result of the researches of Dr. Marr and Mr. Harker, and the more recent work of Mr. J. F. N. Green, the balance of evidence seems to show that they are in reality, as they appear to be, of Llandeilo age; the. question may eventually be settled by a study of the graptolites of the uppermost Skiddaw Slates. Should these be found to contain, as is possible, a Glenkiln fauna, a place would have to be found for the Borrow- dales elsewhere, since the overlying Coniston Limestone Series is undoubtedly of Carodocian age. The relationship of the Eycott lavas to the Borrowdales and to the Carboniferous rocks which immediately follow them also offers an in- teresting field for investigation. In the Lake District the connection between topography and glaciation is naturally close, and NO. 2462, VOL. 98] 345 this is a subject on which the author is particularly competent to speak with authority. The develop- ment of the drainage system, together with its later modifications, as well as the origin of the lakes and tarns, are dealt with in a masterly manner. It is made abundantly clear that both ice-erosion and glacial deposit have played an important part in producing the characteristic types of scenery to which so much of the present beauty and interest of this region are due, The author has succeeded admirably in the dificult task of producing a book which will be both interesting and instructive to the general reader as well as valuable to the serious student. The portions printed in large type form a con- tinuous narrative of the main features of the geological history of the district, while the sections in smaller type provide a. wealth of descriptive detail with ample references to the original litera- ture, which will be of the greatest value to those who wish to carry out further work along special lines. The book is well printed and the illustrations are numerous and well chosen, a feature of special interest being several reproductions of maps illus- trating, among others, the classical papers of Dr. Marr and Mr. Harker on the Shap granite and of Mr. Harker on the gabbro of Carrock Fell. Both the author and Dr. H. H. Thomas are to be heartily congratulated on the beautiful coloured geological map of the district; possibly this helps in part to account for the very high price at which the book is published. Reo Ta ks A HAUSA BOTANICAL VOCABULARY. A Hausa Botanical Vocabulary. By Dr. J. M. Dalziel. Pp. 119. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.). Price 6s. 6d. net. iB DALZIEL deserves imperial thanks for pro- ducing a little book of imperial importance : the names in Hausa of all the more striking and important trees and plants in the flora of Northern Nigeria. The scope of the book, so far as botanical regions extend, is probably limited by the Sahara Desert on the north, the river Benue on the south, the Chad region on the east, and the course of the Middle Niger on the west. It does not, therefore, extend into the almost oppressively rich flora of Southern Nigeria, be- cause nearly all of Southern Nigeria lies beyond the experiences of the MHausa-speaking folk, though, it is true, that experience does cross the Benue. Companion works to this book ought to make their appearance in all parts of British Tropical Africa. Some years ago the Scottish missionaries of Blantyre (see the present writer’s work on British Central Africa) endeavoured, with the assistance of their native pupils, to print similar researches, at any rate to give the native name of every important tree and plant in Nyasaland. But, unfortunately, they were not able to combine with this in all cases correct botanical identifica- T 346 tion. We ought to have from British East Africa and Uganda, from British Central Africa (Rhodesia and Nyasaland) and each separate colony or pro- tectorate of British West Africa, works similar to that under review, giving in the leading native language or languages the designation of the striking and commercially important trees and plants, and side by side the correct botanical identification. Dr. Dalziel’s book is the model to be followed. It possesses an excellent index which reverses the process of identification by supplying a long list of the botanical names of trees and plants with the number of the page on which they are dealt with. It also throws much light on native drugs, poisons, and aphrodisiacs, and is further a useful catalogue of the outstanding features in the flora of Eastern Nigeria. Hitherto botanical research—and linguistics— have not been sufficiently encouraged by the Colonial Office in our African possessions. Per- haps after the war—if those of us now writing and working live to see an after—we shall be wiser. We shall realise that Africa is as important to us and the rest of the world for its flora as it is for its minerals, and do everything we can to increase native and European knowledge of the same. H. H. Jounston. A GERMAN PSYCHOLOGIST ON THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE, Elements of Folk Psychology: Outlines of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind. By Wilhelm Wundt. Authorised translation by Prof. E. L. Schaub. Pp. xxlii+532. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1916.) Price 15s. net. ROF. WUNDT has been a voluminous writer on psychological and philosophical subjects, and has had a profound effect in Germany and to a large extent also in the United States of America, but of the real value of his psychological investigations this is not the occasion to form an estimate. The “Elemente der Vdélkerpsycho- logie” (1912), of which the book under notice is a translation, breaks new ground, and we have to thank Prof. E. L. Schaub for rendering it available to the English-speaking public. The book gives a synthetic presentation of various stages of human civilisation and of the mental products which are created by communi- ties of human beings at these several stages. The author divides the development of civilisation into four stages: Primitive Man, the Totemic Age, the Age of Heroes and Gods, and the Age of Natural States and Religions—the first three being alone dealt with at length. Prof. Wundt makes certain deductions from the data which he adduces, but before framing hypotheses it is as well to make sure of the premises, and it has been a surprise to the present writer to find upon what inaccurate data—one can scarcely term them “facts”—the superstructure is in many cases reared. : NO. 2462, VoL. 98] NATURE [JANUARY 4, 1917 When dealing with primitive man we find various astonishing statements, thus: “If one were to connect the discovery of this primitive man with any single name, the honour would belong to a German traveller and investigator, George Schweinfurth. He was the first to dis- cover a really primitive tribe.” “When the Veddah enters into marriage, he binds a cord about the loins of his prospective wife. Obviously this is nothing else than a form of the widely current ‘cord-magic’ . . . to secure the faithful- ness of the wife.” As a matter of fact, “the bride gives her spouse a waist string of her own making ” (Seligman), which may or may not have the significance Prof. Wundt attributes to it—we simply do not know. The Veddas do not use poisoned arrows, as he states they do. “Even marriage between brother and sister was origin- ally not prohibited’; but, as Dr. and Mrs. Selig- man point out, Hugh Neville said in 1886: “Much nonsense has been written by persons who ought to have known better, about marriage of Veddas with their sisters. Such incest was never allowed and never could be.” He goes on to explain that “the mistake arose from crass ignorance of Vzedda usages.” Further on we read that the Australian spear-thrower is a “grooved board,” but of the numerous varieties of this implement in Australia not one has this construction. Again, “the shield of the Australians is long, and usually raised toward the centre. It covers the entire body.’” There are several kinds of shields in Australia, the most widely distributed being little more than a parrying stick. We are told that “the Papuans are the first to change the digging stick into the hoe . . . it is the man who makes the furrows with the hoe . . . and the woman follows with the seeds, which she scatters in the furrows.’” But the hoe as derived from the digging stick was unknown, and seeds were never sown in New Guinea until the arrival of civilised people. Another misleading statement is that “to the bow and the lance they [the Polynesians] have added the knife and sword; to the long shield, the small round shield.” If Prof. Wundt had stepped across from his laboratory to the excel- lent Museum fiir Vélkerkunde he need not have made these blunders. The, statement that the Malays came from “the mainland of India” is incorrect; if he meant Further India he should have said so—but that, in any case, is a foolish term. There is no evidence that “the Malayans were the first to create a perfected form of boat.” It is unnecessary to give further examples of misstatements. There are also a considerable number of statements of the origin or evolution of customs and objects of material culture which are given with all the assurance of ascertained facts, though they are merely the unsupported statements of the professor. there are many valuable suggestions and infer- ences which are worthy of the attention of | students. A. C. Happon. On the other hand, - JANUARY 4, 1917] MATHEMATICAL TEXT-BOOKS. (1) A Shilling Arithmetic. By J. W. Robertson. - Pp. viilitigt. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.) (2) Revision Papers in Arithmetic. By C. Pendle- bury. Pp. xv+68+xviii. (London: G, Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1916.) Price 1s. | (3) Preliminary Geometry. By F. Rosenberg. Pp. vi+220. (London: University Tutorial sseress, Lid., 1916.) Price as. (4) Statics: a First Course. By C. O. Tuckey and W. A. Nayler. Pp. 299. (Oxford: At ' the Clarendon Press, 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. (5) Exercices Numériques et Graphiques de Mathématiques. By Prof. L. Zoretti. Pp. xv+ 124. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1914.) Price 7 francs. (6) Ruler and Compasses. Pp. 148. 1916.) By Hilda P. Hudson. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., Price 6s. net. (x) ME ROBERTSON’S “Shilling Arith- metic’? deserves the attention of the teacher if only for the collection of carefully devised and arranged original examples. It is not overloaded with text, nor is undue space given to illustrative examples. Stress is laid upon the use of rough checks. No use is made in H.C.F. of the principle matnb. In finding prime factors the child is told to begin by re- moving the lowest factors first, a practice which does not make for speed, especially as the tests for divisibility by 11, 9, etc., are supposed to be at the service of the student. In the sections on fractions the figures are too small, and in the copy that has reached us they are often of varying degrees of distinctness. It is nothing short of criminal for any publishing firm in these days to issue books for the young upon which any reproach of the kind can be cast. Numbers 24 and 25 (p. 47) are instances of wickedly small type, and the strain to young eyes is greater still when the space between the lines is inadequate, €.g. compare numbers 26-40 on this page with numbers 41-43 on the next, and the relief is instantaneous. In the treatment of stocks we are glad to see that the author banishes the mischievous “ rool. stock” and uses “voucher” in its place. It is curious that in such questions as ‘“ Which is the better investment, 54 per cent. stock at 80, or 4 per cent. stock at 97?” few, if. any, text-books suggest the investment in each stock of the product of the prices—i.e. in the present case, 89ql.x97. This buys 97 bonds giving 53]. each per annum or 8g bonds giving 4l. each per annum. The difference is rapidly found with a minimum of fractional work. There is a useful set of forty test papers. As an instance of the practical tone pervading the book, we may take the warning that the percentage profit in actual commerce is reckoned as often on the cost as on the selling price. . (2) Mr. Pendlebury’s ‘Revision Papers in Arithmetic” provide “a well-graduated and com- NO. 2462, VoL. 98] NATURE 347 prehensive examination course up to the standard of the Oxford and Cambridge Locals.” They seem excellently adapted for such a_ purpose. The Answer pages are perforated for removal if deemed necessary, and our only grumble is with the publisher as to the strain caused here and there by small faint figures to young eyes. (3) Mr. Rosenberg’s ‘Preliminary Geometry ” claims to be a judicious blend of the theoretical and practical. Where possible, “each important proposition . . . is. preceded by introductory analytical practical work, enabling the learner to discover for himself the law formally proved in the proposition.” Parallels follow the work on the angle and triangle, but otherwise the order followed is that of the Oxford and Cambridge syllabus. Where the book is not used by the private student the answers, which contain hints for the solution of many riders, should be detach- able. Boysand girls aremortal. The explanations are clear and precise. Such pages as 67—70, “ Hints on the Solution of Riders,” are invaluable to the private student, and throughout the book there is ample evidence that the author is familiar with every trap into which the unwary beginner may fall. The book enjoys all the devices of type, etc., that are common to works issued by the University Tutorial Press. (4) The “Statics” of Messrs. Tuckey and Nayler must be carefully examined by all who are not so satisfied as to scorn ingenious “tips” on points in the presentation of a subject which is always difficult to a certain type of youthful mind. The figures are large and clear. It would have cost very little more trouble to add the date to the sources—Army, Previous, etc.— from which the questions have been taken. The point is not immaterial, as considerable trouble to examiners might thereby be saved, as a recent trial in the courts may suggest to those who have to set papers. The young teacher will welcome chap. viii., on “The Connections between the Principles”; such pages as 242-243 will be a revelation to many who are inclined to take “Jaws” for granted, and whose historical instinct requires a gentle titillation. The manner in which couples are introduced is worthy of notice, as is also the chapter on geometrical methods, since it is “beginning to be recognised that the relations between three actual forces in equilibrium can be more readily grasped by the beginner than those between two actual forces and their hypo- thetical resultant.”” The book will be a great dis- appointment to those who share with Sir Peter Teazle a horror of principles. (5) Prof. Zoretti’s ‘‘Exercices Numériques ” represents the revolt in French educational circles against a system of teaching which leaves the student unable to use the tools at his disposal. The author’s experience as examiner has brought him fate to face with “bacheliers” in the land of the metric system who do not know the meaning of a decimal or a significant figure; who are checked by a change of units; to whom the real 348 NATURE [January 4, 1917. nature of a vector is a mystery, although they could write out a complete theory of the central axis; and to whom numerical calculations of any description are as the abomination of desolation. In his Lecons the author has provided the student with an ample supply of algebraical exercises, and to these the volume before us provides a supple- ment, the scope of which is indicated by the warning: “ Bien entendu, il n’aura jamais de recul devant les calculs numériques, sans quoi il vaudrait mieux fermer le livre pour toujours et changer de carriere.” The chapters are arranged to be worked through, pari passu, with corresponding sections in the Lecons, so that a wide extent of ground is covered in these 120 odd pages. Close attention is paid throughout to relative and abso- lute errors. Many of the exercises deal with problems occurring in railway management, and may be novel on this side of the Channel. The book will be a useful addition to the library of the teacher or examiner. (6) Miss Hudson’s monograph on “Ruler and Compasses,” which has somehow strayed into this group of elementary text-books, takes us on to a higher plane. Class-book in its entirety it can scarcely be in the schools of to-day, but none the less will it find a place on the shelves of the teacher who is in search of leading ideas, of the follk who in other days would have exhibited their taste for geometrical study in the “Palladium,” the “Apollonius,” or the “Ladies’” and “ Gentle- men’s” Diaries of their time. There must be a considerable proportion of those possessed of general culture who see something repellent in analysis, who find generalities too great a burden for their powers of assimilation, and who never- theless have a native talent for the elementary investigations of pure geometry. Among them is, for instance, that small coterie who feel a never-failing charm in the elusive mysteries of cyclometry. To these it will appeal as well as to the mathematical elect, beginning with the cream of the schools—who will find Miss Hudson’s book uncommonly useful, for example, in pre- paring for their “essay paper,” quite apart from its intrinsic interest and value—and passing on to the trained mathematicians, whose interests have been mainly analytical, and who will be glad to find within two covers a host of material such as that due to Messrs. Richmond, Gérard, Hobson, etc. How many of the old stagers have heard of an Einheitsdreher, or can state the meaning of geometrography? We cannot better describe the author’s scheme than in her own words: “The connecting link through the book is the idea of the whole set of ruler and compass constructions, its extent, its limitations, and its divisions.” In completeness and in clarity of exposition it ranks with a companion volume in the same series, the “Projective Geometry” by Prof. Mathews, and, though not comparable in scale, we do not think that “masterpiete ” is too strong a word to’ apply to each. Some day, but not yet, we may forgive Miss Hudson for the omission of an index. W. J. G. NO. 2462, VoL. 98] OUR BOOKSHELF, First Course in General Sciencg. By Prof. F. D., Barber, M. L. Fuller, Prof. J. L. Pricer, and Prof. H. W. Adams. Pp. vii+6o07. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1916.) Tuts book is written for the American school — child. It opens with the statement that “the primary function of first-year general science is to give, as far as possible, a rational, orderly, scientific understanding of the pupil’s environ- ment to the end that he may, to some extent, cor- rectly interpret that environment and be master of it. It must be justified by its own intrinsic value as a training for life’s work.” Setting out with this idea, the authors take the various phenomena with which the child is likely to be confronted, and deal with them in a manner cal- culated to arouse his interest. The opening chap- ter deals with lighting : with candles, lamps, and kerosene; these subjects lead up to evaporation, boiling temperature, etc., then to petroleum, gaso-. lene, coal gas, and finally to electric lighting. In the second chapter the authors pass .on to. heating: fires, stoves, combustion and energy, chemical compounds, coal, the measurement of heat, house-heating and cooking. A _ third chapter is devoted to the refrigerator, which plays a large part in the domestic economy. of the States; this leads on to ammonia, the freezing of water, and cold storage, The weather is next discussed. The child by this time has gathered some general physical ideas and he can the more easily grasp the somewhat complex problems now presented to him. Meteor- ological instruments, weather charts, the seasons, climate and its relation to health, are all de- scribed. The principles of ventilation are then treated at length, followed by an account of dust,_ the vacuum cleaner, and the dangerous, because dusty, hangings of rooms. The authors then deal with a wholly different. subject: food. They are concerned more parti- cularly with its preparation on both the large and the small scale. The next chapter is devoted to micro-organisms, and later chapters to soil. physics, sewage, and machinery. Thus the whole range of a child’s experience is fairly well covered. It is difficult to form an opinion as to the general suitability of a book of this sort: usually one tells children about these things, and adapts one’s methods to the audience, developing a theme when it seems desirable, but. never treating two different audiences in the same way. Probably the best use of the book is as a teacher’s guide to give him “copy” which he can-work up and adapt to. his own class. The Mechanical Star-bearing Finder: A Simple Guide to Night Marching in Southern England and North France. By E. T, Goldsmith... (London: George Philip and Son, Ltd.) Price 55. net. TuIs is a convenient pocket arrangement by means of which one can solve several of the problems which are capable of solution by the — JanuaRY 4, 1917] NATURE - 349 celestial globe. It is intended primarily for the determination. of bearings by observations of ‘stars, for use in night marching. Briefly, it is a planisphere in which the principal stars which _are not too far from the equator are represented in a cylindrical projection; the star-chart is ad- justable for different dates, and there is a movable celluloid protractor on which are marked the pro- jection of the horizon and the projections of vertical circles at intervals of 10°. Fol- lowing the simple instructions given, the magnetic bearing of a star, even if its name be unknown, can readily be ascertained. The operations are entirely mechanical, and anyone of ordinary intelligence should be able to determine directions with considerable accuracy. The form of projection adopted, how- ever, has the defect of failing to give bearings of stars towards the north, and it is not very clear why the results are expressed in magnetic instead of in true bearings. A protractor adapted for southern Scotland and northern England, is obtainable alternatively or separately. 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 Temperature Coefficient of Gravity. In Phil, Trans., May 17, 1916, Dr. P. E. Shaw published an account of a research from which he deduced that the gravitational constant is increased by one part in eighty thousand when the temperature of the larger mass is raised one degree. According to Dr. Shaw’s interpretation of the experiments, it is the mean temperature of tthe system which affects the coefficient of attraction, so that in the case of extremely unequal masses it is the temperature of the larger mass only which counts. The evidence does not seem strong enough to support so revolutionary a conclusion in view of the almost insuperable theoretical objections. One or two of the more obvious difficulties may be formulated in a few words. Take as an example the earth and a mass of 1 kg. Divide up the earth (ideally) into “ terrestrial particles ” of, say, I mgrm. each. When the temperature of the kilogram mass alone is raised one degree its attrac- tion for each “terrestrial particle’’ should be increased proportionally by 1-2x10-°. But by the same reason- ing the attraction between the kilogram mass and the earth as a whole should remain sensibly unaltered. In like manner, if we keep the kilogram mass at con- stant temperature and alter the temperature of the earth, the attraction between the kilogram and each “terrestrial particle” will be sensibly unaltered, while the attraction between the kilogram and the earth as a whole will have changed. This seems so essentially paradoxical that it is difficult to conceive of any supple- mentary hypothesis elastic enough to reconcile the con- tradiction involved. f The only way of avoiding this inconsistency is to admit that it is the product of the two values of a temperature-function which counts—i.e. that the tem- perature of the smaller mass is just as important as the temperature of the larger mass. Once this is admitted the experiments of Poynting and Phillips NO. 2462,' VOL. 98] prove that no variation exists greater than 10-° per degree Centigrade. It may be argued that the temperature of the attract- ing body determines the attraction—i.e. that action is not necessarily equal to reaction. In addition to violating the principle of momentum, this involves the possibility of constructing a perpetuum mobile, An elongated body, kept hotter at one end than at the other by means of ideal thermal insulation, would experience a resultant force in the direction of its length, and could be made to do work indefinitely by harnessing it like a horse to a mill. Is anybody pre- pared to believe this on any but the most conclusive experimental evidence? Again, it has been suggested by Prof. Barton that the temperature of the intervening radiation may determine the attraction. But the temperature of radiation is independent of the intensity, so that in- definitely feeble radiation would produce a finite effect. If the intensity of the radiation is substituted as the determining factor, it implies that the attraction of two bodies is increased if a beam of light passes be- tween them. If energy is to be conserved, this would imply that two bodies moving relatively to one another could increase or diminish the energy of a beam of light passing between them, and such a result would certainly be rather startling. Still more extraordinary would it be to find that a variation of o-o1 of a stellar magnitude on the part of the sun would change the length of the year by several minutes; yet this is what would be implied. There is no record of an appreciable change in the earth’s orbit caused by sun-spots. When one comes to examine the evidence out of which all these paradoxes arise, it can scarcely be said to be sufficient. Thus, for instance, as ‘‘indirect ex- perimental evidence,” Dr. Shaw cites Cornu, who found 5-50 for the earth’s mean density from winter work, and 5-56 from summer work, a difference of It per cent. To reconcile the sign of this variation with his own temperature coefficient, Dr. Shaw sug- gests that the apparatus in a laboratory may have a higher temperature in winter than in summer. He can scarcely have noticed that the excess of temperature in winter would have to be some goo degrees. Again, from Prof. Boys’s work on the gravitation constant, Dr. Shaw deduces a temperature coefficient of 10-°, of which, according to his own results, 98-7 per cent. must be ascribed to error. Can we have much con- fidence in the remaining 1-3 per cent. ? While we must all admire the experimental skill’ which enabled Dr. Shaw to observe a change of 0-2 mm, at either end in a range of 200 mm., using a telescope and scale (especially when we know the difficulties he had to contend with), we can scarcely be expected to make these radical changes in our theories on the strength of such a very small effect. Though his reasons for rejecting experiments which gave a negative value for the temperature coefficient were no doubt excellent, the fact that such readings occurred is a little disquieting. Again, the readings vary amongst themselves by as much as the whole effect, and one knows how misleading a mean value of, say, 176-2, 175-9, 175-75 may be when the whole residual effect is only o-4 mm. _ In conclusion we should like to express our admira- tion for Dr. Shaw’s experimental work. We feel that as the result of such an elaborate research a null result is quite as important as, if less sensational than, a positive one. To thave reduced the apparent tempera- ture coefficient of gravity from the ro-? deduced from Prof. Boys’s measurements to one-eightieth of that value is certainly no mean achievement. F. A. Linpemany. C, V. Burton. South Farnborough, Hants, December 4. 359 Tue general view held by philosophers seems to be that when temperature rises the gravitative attraction changes (if at all) by a function of temperature only. This leads to the results stated in the beginning of their letter by Dr. Lindemann and Mr. Burton. But itis commonly conceded that at present there is no trustworthy theory of gravitation, so that one seems entitled to suggest that any increment in the force may be a function of both mass and temperature. The simplest formula, that of the weighted mean temperature, brings the facts as at present known into line. It seems that we must await further data; for, of course, a fact, however slight, may shatter a theory lying in its course. If M, m, » are the masses of earth, kilogram, and milligram, we have the cases cited thus. When m alone rises in temperature the increment of its force on p» is GmpaT/d*, and on M is GmmaT/d?. The first is sensible, the second insensible, compared with the forces when cold. Again, when , alone rises in temperature the increment of its force on m is GppaT/d?, but the increment of the force of M (con- sidered as an aggregate of p particles) on m is GppaT/d*?, multiplied by M M ee : p+ _GMmaT/d?. wh M+m im This is identical with the increment of force on m due to M (considered as a whole), and is sensible com- pared with the force when cold. The series forms a consistent whole. If the increments are due to radiation and reson- ance (see Nature for July 13 last), there is an acoustical parallel. A medium forle will set up resonance to a slight degree in a large fork, to a greater degree in a small fork, all the forks having one frequency. I cannot understand how the idea arises that action and reaction would ever, on this theory, be unequal. Let the force of m on M, both cold, be F. When m only rises in temperature the force is (F+f,), and when M only rises it is (F+f.), f2 being of a higher order than f,. But in each of. the three cases the attraction is mutual and equal between M and m. As regards Cornu’s results, I stated that we could ‘deduce nothing’’ from them, so there is a mis- apprehension. I made no attempt to reconcile his results with mine. I do not consider that the indirect results obtained from Prof. Boys’s research can be laid by the side of mine for comparison. In his experiment any rise of temperature would involve both masses. Supposing the increment is due to molecular or other agitation of m due to radiation in my case, in his case there would be an enormously greater agitation in m due to direct rise in temperature. I see no reason why this should not be one hundred times as great as the effect due to radiation. The weighted mean formula was used to account for the effects observed when either mass is heated. The case when both masses are heated is different, and has not been at present con- sidered, the data at hand being indirect and inconclu- sive, The probable result from my experiments is a@=+(1-2+0-05)x 10-°, or, as amended recently at Newcastle, a=+(1-3+0-05)x 10-5. Thus, while indi- vidual results differ among themselves, in some cases, by as much as the whole effect, yet the collective result is not weak. I wish to express my appreciation of the generous terms used regarding my experiments by the authors. , f ; P. E. SHaw. University College, Nottingham, December 13. NO. 2462, VOL. 98] NATURE [JANUARY 4, 1917 — THE USE OF METEORITIC IRON BY ~ PRIMITIVE MAN. Mae as they reach our planet, are of three different kinds, namely, siderites, composed chiefly of nickel-iron; aerolites, com- posed chiefly of stony matter; and siderolites, composed of a mixture of iron and stone. The first and third only are of interest to us in this. inquiry. Great diversity of opinion has always prevailed among archzologists concerning the source of iron used in antiquity before it was intelligently pro- duced from the ore. On the whole these opinions are about equally divided, though perhaps the majority are inclined to the verdict that meteoritic iron was not used by primitive man, for the fol- lowing reasons :—First, because nearly all irom implements of antiquity extant, at least from the Old World (including the piece found in the Great Pyramid of Cheops), are of terrestrial origin; secondly, because it was believed to be non- malleable; thirdly, because it was said to be too scarce; and fourthly, because it was argued that small fragments could not have been detached from meteoritic masses by the means available to primitive man. There is, to the casual observer, a great deal of truth in these four arguments, and they prove that there were several sporadic sources from which the early iron was drawn; perhaps in one locality they were chiefly terrestrial, while the use of extra-terrestrial or meteoritic iron predominated in other localities. The fact that iron, in the earliest ages and from whatever source, was extremely rare is beyond all doubt. One might say that it was at least as rare as, and perhaps more valuable than, gold. It might therefore be asked: If meteoric iron was so rare and valuable, why was it not more care- fully preserved by the people of antiquity? For, whereas we have plenty of gold objects of ancient workmanship in our museums, those of meteoritic iron are conspicuous by their absence. To this we may safely reply that the value of the meteoritic iron lay in its actual employment in the form of tools, implements, and weapons, and to have hidden such objects in treasure stores would have nullified their value, and that is one reason at least why so few were preserved. This disposes of argument number one. | We must bear in mind also that in the New World this argument does not apply with the same force, as we shall see that objects of meteoritic iron are not so rare there as in the Old World. The reason for this is that, whereas iron was pro- duced in the Old World from the ore more than three thousand years ago, it was not introduced into the New World until the discovery of that continent about four hundred years ago, and it is obvious that objects more than three thousand years old have become rarer in our day than those comparatively new ones of only four hundred’ years ago. A paper on this subject was contributed by the: present writer at the autumn meeting of the Irom Janvary 4, 1917] NATURE 351 and Steel Institute. One of the principal features of this paper is a table including practically all known falls of meteoritic iron, their original Fic. 1.—A number of iron meteorites showing their fragmentary form, from which it will be seen that some might be used entirely to form weapons and implements, whilst the protuberances of others might be cut off by primitive implements in order to form other weapons. and Okano are shown in two views each. Rowton is the only British specimen known; it fell near Wellington, Shropshire, on April 20, 1876. These meteorites are all drawn to the same scale, each square surrounding the illustration representing r in. weight, whether malleable (that is, suitable for being wrought into objects of utility) or non- malleable (not suitable for such purposes). This NO. 2462, VOL. 98] table was compiled with the object of removing all doubt concerning argument number two. The résumé of this table gives us the amount of meteoritic iron known at the present day—about 250 tons. Of this total the very consider- able amount of more than 99 per cent. is malleable. Since this considerable mass of ap- proximately 250 tons has been accumulated practically within the last century, we might dis- pose of argument number three, concerning the scarcity of meteoritic iron. This réswme cannot be sur- prising, as meteoritic iron is, generally speaking, pure iron- nickel alloy, such as we are now producing artificially; and the latter is certainly ductile and malleable. The general appearance of the majority of meteorites gives one the impression that they were fragmentary, and suggests that they formed portions of larger masses. A single fall might spread over a considerable area, and it is obvious that many masses of known falls must thus be difficult to find, or be lost, particularly such smaller pieces as might be wrought into useful objects. The accompanying illustration (Fig. 1) shows the fragmentary form of a few masses of meteori- tic iron, from which we see that it is not like a cannon-ball, as is frequently supposed, and that it should not be so very difficult to sever such fragments. This disposes of argument number four. Meteoritic iron was cut by the ancients in the same way as they cut pieces off the large masses of native copper found on the banks of Lake Superior, though it is not of course suggested that iron can be cut as readily as copper. When Cortez com- pleted the conquest of Mexico the Spaniards noticed that the Aztecs possessed knives, dag- gers, etc., made of iron, and the question as to whence they had procured this iron became Algoma, N'Gouroyma, gq perplexing problem to the Spaniards, which they were : never able to solve. When asked, the natives mysteriously pointed to the sky, and indicated that they obtained their iron from the regions above. It was left to science to unravel the mystery. The 352 Aztecs were quite correct ; had made their implements had come to them from the unknown regions of space, and was, in fact, of meteoritic origin. Others, including Eskimos, certain Indian tribes, and the inhabitants of Yakutsk, in Eastern Siberia, used weapons and implements of meteori- tic iron. It would be impossible to mention here, even briefly, all the numerous meteorites of note which have fallen from time to time since the very earliest days. We may mention, however, in passing, the large meteorite which fell in the time of Pindar, 403 B.c., at A2gos Potamos, which is recorded in the Parian Chronicle, engraved in marble; and the stone at Orchomenos, of which Pausanias says that it fell from heaven before the siege of Troy, and during the reign of King Eteocles. Many falls are also mentioned by Pliny. Livy alone mentions twenty-one falls “ Savik” or man’s knife (actual length, 4 in.) ; the handle is of wood and bone, Fic. 2.—Ancient Eskimo knives made from the Melville Bay meteorite found by Rear-Admiral R. E. Peary. in fifty-one years which: fell during his lifetime. Another meteorite of note is the stone in the Kaaba, the most sacred jewel of Islam, called “The right hand of God on earth,” which was probably worshipped formerly at the temple sacred to the Moon that used to stand in Mecca. These few examples will show how well it was under- stood in antiquity that meteorites came from an extra-terrestrial source; this is also the reason why, in practically all the languages of antiquity, iron is called “metal of heaven.” The author be- lieves that the very word metal, from the Greek verb metallao—to search diligently for other things has reference to the diligent search which had to be made by the people of antiquity for meteoritic iron, being the “other things ”’ more coveted by them than their usual raw material, namely, stones. 2462, VOL. 98] » NATURE the iron of which they [JANUARY 4, 1917 If we compare the mention of meteorites in ancient and modern literature, it would almost seem that meteorites were mofe plentiful in olden times; for we must bear in mind that when primi- tive man used iron first, he used it most probably in the same way in which he used copper 8000 B.C.—that is, for pins and needles, and such other objects in which, for instance, small flakes of iron could be inserted in bone handles, like the knives and other implements of the Eskimos (Fig. 2). Where larger masses were used they were prob- ably employed in the same way and form as stone axes and adzes with the haft tied on. Better chisels and knives were probably not made until experience had been gained in the making of needles and pins, and after the use of the smith’s fire was understood. In conclusion we may say that primitive man before 1200 B.c. used iron more or less sparingly, which iron was obtained from the following sporadic sources :— (a) Iron meteorites. (b) Chance productions by a camp fire, a flash of lightning, a forest fire, or through volcanic agency. (c) Telluric or native iron. We thus see that in using the nickelliferous meteoritic iron primitive man had the advantage of a metal that was not available to modern man until 1809, which is the approximate date at which nickel steel was first manufactured in the modern steel industry. G. F. Zier. SURVEY WORK IN THE SINAI PENINSULA.’ & the latest volume of the Egyptian Survey Dr. John Ball describes the geology and geography of an oblong district about 380 square miles in extent, the south-west angle of which rests on the Gulf of Suez, the northern part of it including some of the Gebel el Tih. This is an intensely dissected limestone plateau of about Cretaceous age, rising to nearly 4ooo ft., with northward-facing scarps. South of this comes an undulating sandy upland, about 1600 ft. above the sea, and then (forming about half the district) a highly eroded mountain tract, the highest point of which, Serabit el Khadim, reaches 3596 ft. This tract consists mainly of crystalline rocks— gneisses, granites, diorites, and porphyries— probably Archean, capped in places with sedi- mentaries. Of these the oldest are two sandstones, parted by a limestone, which represent the Car- boniferous system, and the latter is shown by its fossils to be homotaxial with the Mountain Lime- stone in the North of England. The Nubian Sandstone, some 2000 ft. in thickness, which is, roughly speaking, Cenomanian in age, succeeds the upper of these sandstones without any marked break, and its lower part, as it is almost _ unfossiliferous, may represent something older. ” one district, however, “ Survey Department, Egypt. Cun Sinai.” By John Ball, Ph.D., and 54 illustrations in the text. it includes carbonaceous he ge and Geology of West- D.Sc., etc. 3 xi-+219+xxiv plates (Cairo: Government Press.) Price P.T. 30. JaNuaRY 4, 1917] shale and a thin seam of coal, neither being of any value. The remainder of the Cenomanian, above the Nubian Sandstone, contains many fossils, and includes some beds of oil-bearing marls, not, however, valuable. The limestones above these represent the Turonian and Santonian, but are not nearly so rich in fossils as the underlying beds. Eocene strata succeed, chiefly clays, and to them sandy clays and grits representing the Miocene, both being fossiliferous; the coastal deposits are Pleistocene and Recent. The rather frequent dykes and sheets of basalt are probably Miocene, to a later part of which belong the numerous faults. In the neighbourhood of these the strata are often much tilted, but otherwise are not far from horizontal. In one district occur associated ores of iron and manganese, which are now being worked. The climate is temperate, dry, and very healthy. Fic. r.—View of the ‘‘Seil” in Wadi Abu Qada, February 14, 1913. From ‘‘ The Geography and Geology of West-Central Sinai. In winter the frequent north winds cause sharp frosts in the higher districts, but on the coastal lowlands it is often warm and misty. The rain- fall is very slight, generally not more than an inch in a year. But a heavy rainstorm may occur every four or five years, when the water, running rapidly off the steeply sloping sides of the valley, gives rise to a sudden flood which sweeps every- thing before it. Dr. Ball was fortunate enough to secure a photograph showing the front of one of these torrents, of which Fig. 1 is a reproduc- tion. One such flood in 1867 swept away an Arab encampment in Wady Solaf, drowning forty persons, with many camels, sheep, and cattle. But at other times the only sculpturing agents are wind-blown sand and strains set up in rock sur- faces by changes of temperature, both, as Dr. NO. 2462, VOL. 98] NATURE 353 | Ball describes, of considerable importance. But it is scarcely possible that the deeply carved valleys _can be the result of existing conditions; probably | they were produced when the rainfall was much greater, its later part corresponding with an age of ice in our own islands, when a great lake _ occupied the Jordan valley. There is, as a rule, little vegetation or animal life. Of what is found Dr. Ball gives particulars. In short, we are indebted to him for a very full and clearly written account of the geology, geo- graphy, and natural history of this part of the Sinai Peninsula, the value of which is enhanced | by many illustrations—photographs of scenery, | drawings of fossils, and a coloured geological _map. Both he and the Survey may well be con- gratulated, especially in existing circumstances, on the publication of so excellent a memoir. T. G. Bonney. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF FATIGUE. NE effect of the war has been to increase the strain thrown upon industrial workers as a result of longer working hours and insufficient holidays, and efforts are being made not only to counteract the ill-effects of extreme physical fatigue, but also to devise means for the recog- nition of fatigue and to study the conditions under which it occurs. The latter aspect of the question is dealt with by Prof. Kent in a report on indus- trial fatigue recently issued by the Home Office.? For this ‘(purpose Prof. Kent employed as tests of the occurrence of fatigue, in the first place, alterations in the length of the reaction time and in the visual and auditory acuity of the worker, and, in the second place, the influence of overtime | upon the actual output of the worker. A number of workers were examined, the observations in | some cases extending over several weeks. The general conclusion drawn from the inquiry is that overtime—that is to say, a longer working day—leads to increased fatigue, this being mani- fested both by the physiological tests employed and by its effect upon the efficiency and output of the worker. The evidence furnished by the | physiological tests is, however, quite uncon- vincing ; not only do the figures obtained by these tests vary enormously from day to day, but in some instances the tests indicate that the workers are less fatigued in the evening than in the morn- ing, and less tired after a long working day than after a short day. Further, the purely subjective character of these tests renders them liable to be influenced by many causes other than fatigue, and they appear to have little or no value as an | index of general fatigue. The observations on the effect of overtime upon the daily output of work are of interest because, in some instances, the output of the same workers was noted during weeks when over- time was worked and during weeks when no over- time was worked; the total output was unaffected 1 Second Interim Report on an Investigation of Industrial Fatigue. By Prof. A. F. Stanley Kent. [Cd. 8335.] (Issued by the Home Office.) price 1s. 6d. 354 or even lessened by lengthening the working day. The author does not take into consideration, how-’ ever, the view, now becoming recognised, that a worker with a long. day before him tends, con- sciously or unconsciously, to conserve his energy and to distribute it uniformly throughout the day. It is not improbable, indeed, that the ill-effects of unduly long working hours may be not so much the direct result of a greater expenditure of energy as the indirect result of shortening of the time available for leisure and recreation. NOTES. Lone lists of New Year honours—mostly conferred for services rendered in connection with military or naval operations—were published on Monday, We notice in these lists the following names.and distinc- tions :—K.C.S.I.: Sir Francis E. Younghusband, the distinguished traveller and geographer; Maj.-Gen. R. C. O. Stuart, Director-General of Ordnance in India. C.J.E.: S. M. Burrows, secretary to the Ox- ford Delegacy for Oriental Students; P. J. Hartog, lately secretary to departmental committees on the organisation of Oriental Studies in London. Kaisar- i-Hind Medal for Public Services in India, First Class: Sir F, A. Nicholson, Honorary Director of Fisheries, Madras; and Dr. H. H. Mann, principal, Agricultural College, Poona, and agricultural chemist, Bombay. The following medical men are among those on whom honours are conferred for services in the field :— K.C.B.; Surgeon-General H. R. Whitehead. — C.B.: Col. J. M. Irwin, Col. R. L. R. Macleod, Col. G. Cree, Col. A. A. Sutton, Col. G. H. Barefoot, Temp.- Gol. T., ‘Sinclair, . Lieut;-Col, “E..-T,v F.) Birrell: KeCeM Gos (Cols MP: GC. “Holt. s63MG-2, (Cole i. Daly, Col. W. L. Gray, Col. F. R. Newland, Col. H. T. Knaggs, Col. H. I. Pocock, Col. B. H. Scott, Col. R. W. Wright, Col. T. Du Bedal Whaite, Col. F. J. Morgan, Temp.-Col. T. C. English, Lieut.-Col. A. R. Aldridge, Lieut.-Col. J. D. Ferguson, Lieut.- Col, F. H. Withers, Lieut.-Col. F. R. Buswell, Lieut.- Col. L. F. Smith, Lieut.-Col. F. A. Symons, Temp.- Lieut.-Col. G. M. Holmes, Temp.-Lieut.-Col. H. L. Eason. Wuen the Germans introduced the use of poisonous gases into warfare, immediate steps were taken by our military authorities to provide the troops’ with means of protection from them, and action was taken later to organise offensive as well as defensive measures. ‘The matter was put into the hands of lead- ing chemists, physicists, and physiologists, with the result that our gas attacks are now more effective than those of our enemies. _ Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Commanding-in-Chief the British Forces in France, makes the following reference to this. subject in his despatch dated December 23, 1916 :—‘‘ The em- ployment by the enemy of gas and of liquid flame as weapons of offence compelled us not only to discover ways to protect our troops from their effects, but also to devise means to make use of the same instruments of destruction. Great fertility of invention has been shown, and very great credit is due to the special » personnel employed for the rapidity and success with which these new arms have been developed and per- fected, and for the very great devotion to duty they have displayed in a difficult and dangerous service. The Army owes its thanks to the chemists, physio- logists, and physicists of the highest rank who de- voted their “energies to enabling us to surpass the enemy in the use of a means of warfare which. took the civilised world by surprise. Our own experience NO. 2462, VOL. 98] NATURE [JANuaRY 4, I917 of the numerous experiments and trials necessary before gas and flame could be used, of the great Bre parations which had to be made for their manufacture, and of the special training requir by the Germans was not the result of a desperate decision, but had been prepared for deliberately. Since we have been compelled, in self-defence, to use similar methods, it is satisfactory to be able to record, on the evidence of prisoners, of documents captured, and of our own observation, that the enemy has suffered heavy casualties from our gas attacks, while the means of protection adopted by us have proved thoroughly — effective.” Tue Canadian Government has . appointed an honorary advisory council on scientific and industrial research to advise a committee of the Cabinet on all matters relating to scientific and industrial research, with the view of securing the united efforts of scientific workers and industrial. concerns, and of selecting the most pressing problems indicated by industrial neces- sities to be submitted to research institutions and indi- viduals for solution. We learn from Science that the members of this advisory council are:—Dr. A. S. Mackenzie, president of Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S.; Dr. F. D. Adams, dean of the faculty of applied science, McGill University; Dr. R. F. Ruttan, pro- fessor of chemistry, McGill University; Dr. J. C. McLennan, director of the Physical Laboratories, University of Toronto; Dr. A. B. Macallum, president of the Royal Society of Canada, University of Toronto; Dr. W. Murray, president of the University of Sas- katchewan, Saskatoon; Mr. R. Hobson, president of the Steel Company of Canada, Hamilton, Ont.; Mr. R. G. Ross, consulting electrical engineer, Montreal ; and M, Tancréde Bienvenu, manager of La Banque Provinciale, Montreal. The question of co-operation between the scientific men of the country and industrial concerns with the view of solving the problems raised by the war and of placing the industrial resources of the country in a position to meet the conditions that will arise after the war has been under consideration by the Government and by representatives of science and industry for some time, as it was felt to be desir- able to follow the example of the British Government in this matter, In a memorandum Sir George E. Foster, Minister of Trade and Commerce, has pointed out ‘the urgent need of organising, mobilising, and economising the existing resources of scientific and industrial research in Canada with the purpose of utilising waste products, discovering new processes— mechanical, chemical, and metallurgical—and develop- ing into useful adjuncts to industry and commerce the unused natural resources of Canada.” . METEOROLOGY has lost one of its most ardent sup- porters by the sudden death of Mr. William Marriott at Dulwich on December 28. He was sixty-eight years of age, and throughout his life had been remarkably free from illness, but latteriy heart trouble had developed. Mr. Marriott commenced his meteorological work at Greenwich Observatory in Januarv, 1869, and he left the observatory at the end of 1871. Whilst at the Royal Observatory he was in the magnetic and meteorological department under Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., who was very actively associated with the Meteorological Society. Mr. Marriott became assist- ant-secretary to the Meteorological Society in 1872, and he maintained the position until his retirement in Sep- tember, 1915, after forty-three years’ service. He had become a member of the society whilst serving at Greenwich, in 1870. The science of meteorology has steadily developed during the last half-century, and Mr. Marriott, in his official capacity, took the keenest ed for the personnel employed, shows that the employment of such methods i Ditties JaNuaRY 4, 1917] interest in furthering its advancement. From 1881 to 1g11 he edited the Meteorological Record, which contained the monthly results of meteorological ob- servations over England and Wales. For climato- logical questions the Meteorological Record has afforded material of great value. Since 1911 this work has been taken over by the Meteorological Office, Mr. Marriott was the author of “ Hints to Meteorological Observers,”’ a work which constitutes instructions for taking observations, also “‘Some Facts about the Weather." He was a frequent writer for the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, his con- tributions dealing with many and very varied subjects. _ Ligut.-Cot. Sir Freperic S, Eve, who died on December 15, in his sixty-third year, was at one time senior surgeon to the London Hospital. In the earlier part of his career, while acting as curator of the museum of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and patho- logical curator to the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the investigated certain obscure forms of tumour which are apt to occur in the jaws, and cleared up their nature. He published several investigations on tuberculosis and _ other diseases of bones and joints. In 1915 he gave the Bradshaw lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons on “Hemorrhagic and Chronic Inflammation of the Pancreas.” ~ On November 27 the Finnish entomologist, Dr. B. R. Poppius, died at Copenhagen, where he was acting upon the Norvego-Swedish Committee on the Grazing-grounds of Reindeer, He was only forty years old, - Tue death is announced, in his eightieth year, of Dr. J. Little, Regius Professor of physic, Dublin University, and a past-president of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland, and of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Ireland. Tue Royal Swedish Academy of Science has elected as foreign members Sir William Crookes, O.M., Dr. C, A. Angot, director of the Bureau Central Météoro- logique de France, and Prof. August Gartner, pro- fessor of hygiene, University of Jena. Ir is announced that the Welsh National Museum Committee has received a gift of 26,o00l. from anony- mous donors, and that this will enable the committee to complete the building contract. Capt, CuarLes Batuurst, M.P., has, on becoming Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food, re- linquished the post of organiser of the Land Settle- ment Scheme for ex-Service Men which he has held under the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in an honorary capacity for the last eight months, The duties have been taken over by Sir Richard Winfrey, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agri- culture and Fisheries. Tue Massachusetts Horticultural Society has awarded its George Robert White medal to Mr. W. Robinson, of Gravetye Manor, Sussex, for his eminent services in the advancement of horticulture. Ir is announced in the issue of Science for Decem- ber 15 last that a bequest of more than 20,0001, has been left to the American Museum of Natural History by the late Mr. James Gaunt, American representative of Messrs. A. and F. Pears, of London. The bequests are to be paid upon the death of Mr. Gaunt’s brother. THE Optical Society has arranged an exhibition of workshop methods of optical testing to be held at King’s College, Strand, on Thursday, January 11, from 5 to 9.30 p.m. / NO. 2462, VOL. 98] NATURE 355 Tue Alvarenga prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia will be next awarded on July 14 of this year. It will be of the value of about sol. Competing papers may deal with any medical subject, but they must not have been already published. They must reach the secretary of the college on or before May 1. Further particulars are obtainable from Dr. F, R, Packard, 1g South 22nd St:eet, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A. A METEOR of unusual brilliance is reported to have been seen at Churchstoke, in Montgomeryshire, about 5-30 p.m. on December 1g last. It crossed the sky from south to north, and is said to have been ‘“ accom- panied by a slight explosion.” Many people were alarmed by the brilliance of the object, which lighted up the whole countryside. Tue report of the council of the Scottish Meteoro- logical Society, read at the general meeting of the society on December 15, states that the encouragement of rainfall observation in Scotland has been kept steadily in view, and that there are now available in the journal monthly and annual returns for fully 750 stations. There are still, however, large areas in the North of Scotland for which information is either ex- tremely scanty or entirely wanting. The officers and members of the council for the ensuing twelve months will be as follows :—President, Prof. R. A. Sampson; Vice-Presidents, Dr. A, Crichton Mitchell and Mr. M. M’Callum Fairgrieve; Council,. Mr. J. Watt, SirR. P. Wright, Prof, T. Hudson Beare, Dr, J. D. Falconer, Mr. J. Mackay Bernard, Mr. D. A. Stevenson, Mr, R. Cross, Mr. S. B. Hog, and Mr. G. Thomson; Hon. Secretary, Dr. E, M. Wedderburn; Hon, Treasurer, Mr. W. B. Wilson. Tue American Forestry Association has called a con- ference, to be held at Washington on January 18-109, to discuss measures for saving the white pine forests of North America from being destroyed by the blister rust, The Governors of all the States in the white pine belt, and the Government of Canada, are invited to appoint delegates. The disease came from Germany in 1907, when the Forestry Bureaux of several States imported thousands of seedlings and transplants from the nurseries of that country. That they were thus affected was not discovered until many of the trees had been set out, and only during the last year did the disease attain dangerous proportions. The blister rust is described as a fungous growth, which lives one year in the white pine and the next in currant and goose- berry plants. It cannot spread from pine to pine, but travels from pine to ribes and from ribes to pine. In the ribes it appears in the form of raised reddish-brown patches on the under-side of the leaves. In the pine it is more difficult to recognise, and can only be. dis- covered by a scientific expert during the “ fruiting period’’ in the spring, when the base of small trees just above the ground shows a yellowish growth of fungus and is often itself swollen. At present the only effective method of saving the pines that has been suggested is to root out all ribes in the neighbourhood of the forests—a costly remedy in some parts of New York State, where the farmers raise large crops of currants and gooseberries. Mr. G. D. Pratt, the New York State Conservation Commissioner, has announced that no more white pines will be seeded until it has been found what can be done, In the American Museum Journal for November Mr. M. D. C. Crawford discusses the value of design and colour in ancient fabrics to the manufacturer of our day» The Philadelphia Museum has recently obtained a collection of textiles from Peruvian graves which are believed to antedate the Spanish Conquest by some 2000 years. They are said to contain some of the most 356 NATURE [JANUARY 4, I917 wonderful colour combinations in any fabrics hitherto known, Compared with them, we are told, ‘the Coptic fabrics represent a very limited development, and even the interesting cloths recently excavated in Turkestan by Sir Aurel Stein are but a fragmentary record of the art they represent. In Peru every process of decoration of which we know is found, every trick of the weaver’s art, every skilful blending of colours. Nor is this a record of scattered fragments. Even the rarer techniques are well represented, and there is enough material to furnish inspiration for a century of design.” The article contains good photographic reproductions of these interesting fabrics. Dr. W. E. Roru contributes to the thirtieth annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology a com- prehensive paper on the animism and folklore of the Guiana Indians, of which the best hitherto known accounts are those of Brett, im Thurn, and Wallace. He finds no evidence of a belief in a Supreme Being, but the Spirits of the Bush are held in great respect. He describes a remarkable Carib String Puzzle, de- signed to deceive these Bush Spirits, the object being to remove, without cutting or breaking, an endless string from two sticks upon which it has been placed. If an Indian loses his way in the forest, the Spirit is the cause. So he leaves this puzzle on a pathway, and the Spirit, passing by, sees it, starts examining it, and tries to get the string off. So engrossed does he become that he forgets all about the wanderer, who is now free to find the road again. Brett de- scribes an analogous case of a boy on the Lower Amazon, who, in order to protect himself from the Curupari, took a young palm-leaf, plaited it, and formed it into a ring, which he hung on a branch in the track of the party. Tue American Museum of Natural History, New York, continues to make good progress with the pre- paration and study of the remarkable Dinosaurians discovered in the Upper Cretaceous fresh-water deposits of Alberta, Canada. In the latest Bulletin (vol. xxxv., _art. 38) Mr. Barnum Brown’ describes perhaps the strangest of the Trachodonts, Corythosaurus casu- arius, which is a reptile about 20 ft. long, shaped much like the familiar Wealden Iguanodon, but with a high, rounded, bony crest along the top of its head. One well-preserved skeleton is covered with remains of the skin, proving that it did not bear any bony armour. The whole body must have been invested with small epidermal tubercles, which are without any definite pattern over the sides, back, and tail, but are partly modified into rows of larger limpet-shaped tubercles over the ventral surface, If these herbivorous Dinosaurs had any marked external features, it is now clear that they must have been due to colour rather than to special developments of the skin itself. Pror. S. W. Wituiston, of the University of Chicago, continues his important researches on the osteology of American Permian reptiles, and has just published a useful synopsis of all the American Permo- Carboniferous Tetrapoda (Contributions from the Walker Museum, vol. i., No. 9). The various families are defined, and the diagnosis of each genus is accom- panied by a statement as to the parts of the skeleton by which it is known. There is still much difficulty in defining and naming the higher groups, owing to the discovery of intermediate forms and the imperfection of the fossils on which the nomenclature was origin- ally based. It becomes, indeed, continually more evi- dent that the Permo-Carboniferous Tetrapoda are the generalised forerunners of several later groups which soon became very distinct. Prof. Williston’s work is illustrated by numerous excellent figures, from which NO. 2462, VoL. 98] it is possible to realise how many of these strange ancestral land animals are now known by nearly complete skeletons. = Tue Carnegie Institution of Washington has just published an important monograph of the Coal Measures Amphibia of North America, by Dr. Roy Lee Moodie (Publication No. 238). It is a most ex- haustive work, sumptuously illustrated, and not only adds much to our knowledge, but also provides a synopsis which will form a useful basis for future researches on the rare fossils with which it deals. The technical and descriptive part of the monograph is preceded by a historical sketch, notes on the locali- ties whence the fossils were obtained, and a general chapter on the anatomy of the group. Many forms were discovered by the late Sir J. William Dawson in decayed tree-stumps in the South Joggins coalfield, Nova Scotia, but the author remarks that no geologist appears to have collected in this locality during recent years. Other specimens in ironstone nodules from Mazon Creek, Illinois, are so beautifully preserved that — the black pigment of the choroid can be seen in the orbit, and the course of the alimentary canal may be traced in the trunk, arranged almost exactly as in a modern salamander. The whole of the ossified skeleton is well known in many families, and dermal scales occur in several genera of the Branchiosauria and Microsauria. There is remarkable uniformity in the structure of all these early four-footed animals, not- withstanding the numerous variations in general out- ward shape and the relative proportions of parts. Some are even so much specialised as to have lost their limbs and become snake-like. WHILE some animals exhibit wide powers of accom- modation to their environment, and hence are numeric- ally abundant, others display very limited responses — in this regard, and hence are restricted in numbers. This is well illustrated by Miss Maud Haviland in British Birds for December, in the course of a brief but illuminating account of her observations on Tem- minck's stint, made during her stay at Golchika, on the estuary of the Yenisei. For miles along the river bank not a specimen would be seen, but it was abun- dant wherever running water and dwarf willow were found in association. Similarly, she found the little stint, Tringa minuta, breeding near running water only when this occurred in association with a sphagnum swamp. During the pairing season Tem- minck’s stint gives utterance to a long-sustained trill- ing, which “is musical enough to deserve the name of song.”’ It is ‘“‘louder and less mechanical than the note of the grasshopper warbler, more musical than the whir of the fisherman’s reel, and may be likened more truly to the croaking of many natterjack toads in chorus.”’ This song is heard at its best when the bird hangs suspended some qo ft. in the air, but it is also uttered while it is perched on a tree-trunk or on a block of ice. But on such occasions the trill is less perfect. Tue new part of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia (vol. ii., part ii.) contains several papers on flint implements illustrated in the usual effective manner, besides two important discus- sions of the wider problems of British late Tertiary geology. returns to the subject of Grime’s Graves, and after describing and figuring a considerable number of. newly discovered implements from these old flint mines, reiterates his opinion that they are all of Palzo- lithic type. He thinks their date would never have been doubted had they not been associated with a mine and a recent fauna. Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott, in a rather discursive paper, claims that both marine Mr. A. E. Peake, in a presidential address, — January 4, 1917] and fresh-water deposits of Pliocene age are much more widely distributed in south-east England than is commonly supposed to be the case. The late Mr. Charles Dawson’s discovery of rolled remains of Pliocene mammals at Piltdown makes it especially desirable to re-examine all the superficial deposits in the Wealden area. Mr. A. S. Kennard contributes an important summary of the results of his long-con- tinued researches in English Pleistocene geology. He concludes that there is no evidence of more than one glacial period, which occurred towards the close of the Pleistocene, and is represented near London by the Ponders End arctic bed. He is also of opinion that before the end of Pliocene times man was already in the Palzolithic stage of culture in this country. Tue recently published Bulletin of the Imperial In- stitute (vol. xiv., No. 3) contains a brief but highly interesting description of the new Udi-Okwogu coal- field of Southern Nigeria, which is now being ener- getically developed. It lies immediately to the east of the River Niger, and has been opened by means of a railway line running northwards from Port Harcourt, which has already reached the coalfield and is being continued. The coal is of Cretaceous age, and a num- ber of seams, up to six in the Udi district, have been proved; four of these are considered workable, with thicknesses ranging from 2 ft. to 5 ft. 8 in. The coaf is semi-bituminous, and contains a high proportion of volatile matter, averaging about 4o per cent. on the ash-free coal. The percentage of ash varies within very wide limits; in many of the samples it is between 4 and 8 per cent., but is very much higher in some of the others; the coal is everywhere of a non-coking character. The calorific power is, of course, variable, but not very high as a rule, most of the samples giving 6000 to 7ooo calories. A certain amount of dévelop- ment work has already been done, the quantity pro- duced up to the end of 1915 having been 7812 tons. It is unnecessary to point out that this discovery is of the highest economic importance, and will necessarily prove to be a factor of the utmost value in the indus- trial development of our West African Colonies. An informing lecture on the subject of ‘‘ The British Coal-Tar Colour Industry and its Difficulties in Time of War” was delivered at the Society of Arts on December 8 by Mr. C. M. Whittaker, head of the experimental dye-house of British Dyes, Limited. The lecturer replied to the criticism directed at British dye- producers for not assisting dye-users with pattern cards and expert advice in dye practice by referring to the manual of dyeing issued in five languages so far back as 1906 by Messrs. Read Holliday and Sons, Ltd. He also pointed out the difficulty of producing dyes of well-known constitution owing to the circumstance that the primary coal-tar products essential in this manufacture are required for the production of high explosives. In war-time the first duty of the coal-tar industry is to furnish the munitions of war, after which the next important task is the production of colours needed for the military and naval equipments of the British, Colonial, and Allied Governments. That these requirements have been satisfied is a great achievement, which should be remembered by the pri- vate dye-users, whose demands necessarily take a third place. The lecture deals with other shortages of raw materials, and shows how very promising has been the progress of the British dye industry in spite of these numerous handicaps. Notwithstanding all these adverse circumstances, the shares of leading colour-consuming companies in this country have appreciated considerably during the war, and the dyeing trade has never been so prosperous. Continued progress depends on the highly trained chemist, and research is now being organised NO. 2462, VOL. 98] NATURE 357 on a scale never before attempted in Great Britain. One of the first-fruits of this endeavour is the produc- tion of chloranthrene-blue, made by British Dyes, Limited. In the discussion, the chairman, Sir William Tilden, referred to the encouraging outlook to be de- rived from the lecture. In replying to various ques- tions the lecturer stated that bromine was the only product for which we should have to depend on Ger- many. The dye-makers had now mended their ways in regard to teaching institutions, and the grant of 50ool. for dye research by British Dyes, Limited, to the Huddersfield Technical College was a practical proof of this. As regards khaki dyes, the British pro- ductions were equal in fastness to any dyes made abroad. In 1913 the Rubber Research Committee in Ceylon, in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture in the Colony, started a scheme of research work, to be carried out partly on plantations in the island and partly at the Imperial Institute in London. The work in Ceylon includes the preparation of rubber in various ways and under different conditions, with the view of ascertaining the effect of the several factors on the quality of the rubber. The samples so prepared are sent to the Imperial Institute, where they are chemic- ally examined, vulcanised, and their mechanical pro- perties determined. Some results of this’ work are described in Bulletins 23 and 24, issued recently by the Department of Agriculture in Ceylon, which con- tains a number of interim reports from the Imperial Institute. It appears from these reports that as re- gards tensile stress required to rupture and elongation at the point of rupture, well-prepared Ceylon planta- tion rubber is in no way inferior to ‘‘fine hard Para” rubber from Brazil. The variability in properties of plantation rubber of which manufacturers have com- plained appears to be limited to the ‘time of vul- canisation,” which, according to these reports, may vary within wide enough limits to cause trouble in the smooth working of a factory. The cause of this varia- tion is being systematically sought by a careful study of the effects of various coagulants, “improvers,” mechanical treatment, etc., employed in the process of preparation, on the working quality of the rubber, and especially on its ‘‘time of vulcanisation.”” Attention is also being given in Ceylon to the experimental tapping of Hevea trees. In Bulletin No. 25 Mr. Petch gives a further instalment of the results of this work, which has been in progress since 1912, and is designed to ascertain the difference in yield and the final effect on the trees of methods of tapping, which differ in the time interval allowed for resting the trees and in the spacing adopted between the tapping cuts. The results already obtained are of considerable interest, but do not permit of final conclusions being drawn. Tue practical value of the storm warnings issued by the Meteorological Department at Calcutta has twice been illustrated within the past two months, says the Pioneer Mail of December 2 last. Madras had due notice of the approach of the gale which visited it on November 29, the ‘‘ Great Danger” signal having been hoisted a considerable time before the arrival of the storm. Similarlv the hoisting of the “Great Danger” signal warned Calcutta of the approach of the storm of September 21, and the Committee of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce has publicly expressed its appreciation of the ‘‘usefulness and efficiency” of the work of the Meteorological Department on that occa- sion. ‘‘The warnings,” it states, ‘were communi- cated to the public in good time before the storm actually broke, and proper precautions were conse- quently taken. The result was that the casualties to shipping were confined to a few launches and boats, no large vessels being sunk or damaged.”’ OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Comer 1g15sa (MELLisH).—A postcard from the Copenhagen Observatory gives the following ephemeris for comet 1915a, for Greenwich mean midnight :— RA. Decl. Log 4 hm s. e ‘ Jan. 1 Bo St 0 eAGmel Peay 5: 0°7400 9 Ble Sh Mass 42 59:8 - 4 67502 17 6283520 42 518 o-7610 25 BRIO), reas 42 41-2 0-726 Feb. 2 MOG amas 42 29:0 0-7848 10 BOuSs\. eeey 42 16:2 0-7975 18 55 40 «se 42 3:7 08103 26 RR oe abe 4I 52:0 08231 Mar. 6 AVS5NSO.. - —* Sie JANUARY II, 1917] NATURE 375 should ensure the full use of the available scientific data in the design of machines, especially as the name of Dr. T. E. Stanton has been mentioned in. connec- tion with the latter appointment. As is well known, Dr. Stanton has been superintendent of the engineer- ing and aeronautical departments of the National Physical Laboratory for many years, and is theretore in possession of all the necessary scientific knowledge in both the aerodynamical and purely engineering branches of the subject. The proposed housing of the various departments of the Board under one roof, and consequent free exchange of ideas between technical experts of both Services, should do much to advance the scientific design of machines. Another excellent feature of the reorganisation is the possibility of standardising component parts of machines and engines for both Services, and thereby improving the rapidity of construction. If we are to maintain our air supremacy, it is necessary that we should have an ample supply of machines of existing proved types, as ‘well as that we should proceed to new designs, and the centralisation of supply and design should assure both these necessities in the future. In a series of recommendations made by the Federa- tion of British Industries for the development of Government service for the promotion of British trade in foreign countries, it is suggested that foreign trade should be*under a single department operating under Foreign Affairs. The proposed department would undertake the promotion and protection of British trade in foreign countries and the collection and dis- tribution of information relating thereto, support British efforts to secure contracts abroad, and, when possible, make it a condition that goods purchased by loans to foreign countries should be obtained mainly from British sources. Similar functions in regard to Home and Colonial trade should be discharged by the Board of Trade, a Ministry of Commerce, or other appropriate department. With respect to the Diplo- matic Service, it is suggested that the staff should be increased with the view of enabling officials to pay more attention to commercial affairs, and that an officer of high rank designated Commercial Coun- sellor with appropriate assistance should be added. Suggestions are also made for the improved remunera- tion and training of the members of the Consular Service, promotion to be by merit under. the super- vision of a Promotions Board. Candidates for the service should be required to pass a general. course in economics and commercial methods, and should be conversant with two or more foreign languages. Faci- lities for such training should be provided at the uni- versities. Officers should also be granted facilities to visit the leading industrial centres at frequent inter- vals. A staff of experts is also needed to procure detailed information on particular trades, industries, and markets. Finally, the urgency of this reform is pointed out. Steps should be taken immediately in ates to be prepared for conditions after the cessation of war. ‘“Microses and the War,’ with comments on the national neglect of natural science, is the title of a pamphlet by Prof. Ernest Glynn, of the University of Liverpool. | The author first describes, in popular language, the various microbial diseases which attack armies in the field, and comments on the measures that have been taken to combat them, which are the outcome of scientific research as to their nature and prevention. Notable instances of these are typhoid fever and anti-typhoid inoculation, cholera and anti- cholera inoculation, Mediterranean fever and its spread by goats’ milk, and, among animals, glanders and its recognition by the mallein test. By an appreciation NO. 2463, VOL. 98] * of the vast importance of bacteriological science in the present war, our armies ‘‘have won great, though silent and bloodless, victories." Prof. Glynn then pro- ceeds to discuss the general neglect of science by the nation and its disastrous consequences in the present war—our dependence upon the foreigner for dyes, chemicals and synthetic drugs, glassware and optical glass, for example. A Cabinet Minister excused the importation of fat into Germany by the statement that it had only recently been discovered that glycerin could be obtained from lard; Woolwich Arsenal advertised for university-trained research chemists at wages of 2l. os. 6d. per week! Prof. Glynn ascribes the national neglect of science as being largely due to the dominance of vested interests in classics. At Eton, of eighty assistant-masters but five teach science, and the same disproportion holds good for the majority of public schools. The argument is supported by quota- tions from numerous sources that have appeared during the last two years. The pamphlet is issued by Messrs. Tinling and Co. at the modest price of 3d., and should be widely circulated. Tue death is announced, at eighty-nine years of age, of M. J. B. A. Chauveau, member of the section of rural economy of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Pror. W. Ko tte, of the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology at Berne, has been appointed successor to Prof. Paul Ehrlich in the directorship of the Frankfort Institute for Experimental Therapy. Tue Order of the Nile, Second Class, has been con ferred by the Sultan of Egypt upon Mr. S. H. Wells, Director-General of the Department of Technical, In- dustrial, and Commercial Education in Egypt, and formerly principal of the Battersea Polytechnic. Mr. F. A. StockpaLe, Director of Agriculture, Mauritius, has been appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies Director of Agriculture, Ceylon, and Dr. H. A. Tempany, Government Chemist and Super- intendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands, has been appointed to succeed Mr. F. A. Stockdale as Director of Agriculture, Mauritius. CLOsE upon the news of the depredations of the blister rust in the American white-pine forests comes a report from the Department of Agriculture directing attention to the fact that the poplars of the United States are seriously threatened by an outbreak of the European poplar-canker. The States affected include New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- necticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary- land, Ohio, and Nebraska. The disease attacks the twigs, limbs, and trunks of the black and Lombardy poplars, and of the Carolina poplars or cottonwoods. Dr. Frank M. Carman, curator of ornithology at | the American Museum of Natural History, New York, has recently returned from a journey taken largely in order to establish friendly relations with the museums of South America. He has arranged with the directors of several of these museums for regular exchanges of specimens. Many of the directors have also consented to act as local representatives of the New York institution, and to give assistance in the work of exploration. Dr. Ribero, for instance, at Rio de Janeiro, helped Dr. Chapman’s party to find favour- able spots for collecting in the mountains near that city. Dr. Chapman’s report on Colombia is already in type, and reports are in preparation respecting the exploration of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. It is hoped that there may eventually be completed—though not, perhaps, for several generations—a biological survey of the whole of South America, for which the American Museum of Natural History, with the co-operation of the local museums, will be responsible. 376 NATURE Ar the annual general meeting of the Faraday Society arguments advanced, the Bill was suspended for — held on December 18, 1916, the following officers and council were elected :—President, Sir Robert Hadfield ; Vice-Presidents, Prof. K. Birkeland, W. R. Bousfield, Prof. F. G. Donnan, Dr. Eugene Haanel, Prof. A. K. Huntington, and Dr. T. Martin Lowry; Treasurer, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin; Council, W. R. Cooper, Dr. C. H. Desch, Dr. J. A. Harker, Emil Hatschelk, Cosmo Johns, Prof. A. W. Porter, E. H. Rayner, A. Gordon Salamon, Dr. George Senter, and Cav. Magg. E. Stassano. A general discussion, to be opened by Sir George Beilby, F.R.S., will shortly be held on ‘ The Training and Work of the Chemical Engineer.’’ Later in the session general discussions will probably be arranged to deal with ‘‘Osmotic Pressure” and ‘‘ The Setting of Cements and Plasters.” Dr. J. Watrer Tewkes has issued a pamphlet re- porting the progress made in the excavation and repair of the Sun Temple at Mesa Verde National Park. The monument was discovered by Dr. Tewkes in 1909, and since then work has steadily gone on in order to excavate and repair this interesting building. The pamphlet issued by Dr. Tewkes contains a full account of the building, with a ground plan, measurements, and photographs, which make it now possible to understand the character and purpose of this remark- able structure. Unper the title, ‘‘ Some Forest Insects in Aberdeen- shire,’ Mr. Walter Ritchie, in the Scottish Naturalist for December, cites a remarkable case of a beetle which, in different areas of its range, selects different food-plants, though there is no apparent need for this change iin diet. The species in question is Crypto- rhynchus Lapathi, which, in Central Europe, is a destructive enemy of the alder, but on the Dee, near Aboyne, it feeds on the willow. Though alder trees of various ages were growing in abundance among the willows not a single alder was attacked. “Tur Evolution of Provincial Museums and the Obstacles They Have to Surmount ’’ formed the subject of an admirable address by Mr. F. Woolnough at the Ipswich Conference of the Museums Association of 1916. He complains much, in the Museum Journal for December, wherein this address is printed, of the lack of interest taken by the State in the work of museums, hence the want of funds and the restricted usefulness of such institutions. Every museum, he contends, should be provided with a well-equipped lecture-room, wherein the various aspects of this or that section of the collections can be enlarged upon before or after a visit to the actual specimens in the galleries. This provision is not likely to be made in the immediate future, having regard to our depleted exchequer, but nevertheless it is sadly needed. WE note with regret that the Bill for the introduc- tion of protective measures designed to save some of the more interesting birds of Malta from extermina- tion has been shelved, at least temporarily, as the result of an opposition which depended for success on ability to distort facts, in the supposed interests of local sportsmen and those who gain an easy living by exploiting the bird-life of the island. From the report of the debate in the Daily Malta Chronicle, which has been sent us, we learn that the Lieutenant-Governor and the Crown Advocate paid a just tribute to the efforts of Dr. Giuseppe Despott to place this Bill upon the Statute-book. Though the Crown Advocate, in the course of an able and learned speech, showed that the leader of the Opposition was himself but recently urging the very measures he now so strongly opposed, and though he directed a running fire of scathing criti- cism against the manifold absurdities of the NO. 2463, VOL. 98] six months in order that further evidence might be obtained. In the interests of the islanders themselves and of economic ornithology beyond the sphere of | operations of this Bill, it is to be hoped that it will presently find a place on the Statute-book. WitH the November number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. Ixii., part 1) is issued an Index to vols. xxix.—Ixi. (inclusive). The preface is signed by Mrs. H. L. M. Pixell-Goodrich, who is presumably responsible for its compilation on the plan adopted by Dr. G. H. Fowler for the index to vols. i.-xxviii. It is an index of both authors and subjects, and will be an invaluable aid to zoologists, who have so frequently to consult this important periodical. Incidentally, also, it constitutes a very interesting record of contributions made, chiefly by British zoologists, to what we may perhaps be allowed to term the more academic branches of zoological science during the past twenty-eight years, a record with which the editor of the journal, Sir E, Ray Lankester, has every reason to be satisfied. : Tue caterpillars of that destructive insect, the large larch saw-fly, Nematus erichsonii, have been found, and for the first time, in Aberdeenshire. They were met with in considerable numbers during the months of August and September by Mr. Walter Ritchie, who gives a brief account of his discovery in the Scottish Naturalist for December, 1916. He found that the area over which these caterpillars were dispersed measured about eight square miles, and this being so, it is well that the discovery has been made now, in order that immediate steps may be taken to check or suppress its extension. The damage, he remarks, caused by this species in England led to its being placed among the insects scheduled under the Destruc- tive Insect Pests Order. By this Order the presence of the insect in any plantation must be reported at once to the Board of Agriculture. A FURTHER important contribution to the science of animal nutrition in its application to farm animals is furnished by Armsby, Fries, and Braman in their determinations of the net energy values for cattle of red clover hay and maize meal, which are recorded in vol. vii., No. 9, of the Journal of Agricultural Research, Results in close agreement with previous determina- tions were obtained, the general average indicating a net energy value per kilogram of dry matter consumed of 981 Cal. in the case of clover hay, and 1913 Cal- for maize, the total metabolisable energy being 3522 Cal. and 3755 Cal. respectively. For the guidance of farmers the Board of Agricul- ture has issued a leaflet (Special Leaflet No. 64) on ground-nut cake, a feeding-stuff to which much atten- tion has been given since the outbreak of war. As an- important product of British tropical possessions the ground-nut (Arachis hypogaea) has an obvious interest, and in view of the high value of its oil for edible pur- poses and the richness in protein (45 to 50 per cent.) of the press residue, or cake, all efforts to secure its wider use in this country are warmly to be commended. As in the case of palm kernels, the successful develop- ment of the industry is largely dependent upon the creation and maintenance of a large and stable home market for the cake, and the Board’s leaflet should contribute usefully towards this end. THE general concern about rising food prices lends a wider interest than it would normally claim to the recently issued Report on Prices and Supplies of Corn, Live Stock, and other Agricultural Produce in England and Wales in 1915 (Agricultural Statistics, 1915, vol. 1., _ part iii.), presented to the Board of Agriculture and ¢ [JANUARY II, 1917) : JaNuaARY II, 1917] Fisheries by Sir R. H. Rew in October last. Basing his comparison upon the average for the three years 1906-8, he arrives at the general index number of 138 for the year 1915, as compared with 111 in 1914. As compared with the latter year, the greatest increases were in wool (190 as against 133), barley (166 as against 113), and hops (140 as against 92). As com- pared with the average prices of 1906-8, the highest levels were attained by wool (190), barley (166), and oats (163). A notable exception to the general high rate of increase was fruit, which was only 5 per cent. above the standard selected. Tue cereal harvests of Argentina and Australia are now sufficiently advanced to enable the International Institute of Agriculture to issue from Rome its annual survey of the world’s supply of cereals available until next year’s harvest. From this survey the crops of enemy countries are necessarily excluded, but other- wise all significant grain-producing countries are in- cluded. In the case of wheat, the estimate shows a decline of no less than 25:3 per cent. from last year’s figure, or 8-8 per cent. below the average for the period 1909-13. An important factor in this decline is the lamentable decrease in the Argentine crop, which is estimated at little more than one-half (52 per cent.) of the average for the above period. In marked con- trast the Australian crop is estimated to be 4 per cent. higher than last year, and 64 per cent. above the five- year average. For sixteen countries in the northern hemisphere the crop harvested is 9:1 per cent. below the five-year average. Barley, oats, and rye show increases above the five-year average of 1-1, 2-3, and 12 per cent. respectively. For maize, data for the northern hemisphere only are yet available, and show a diminution of 5:3 per cent. below the five-year aver- age. In every case tthe contrast with the excellent crops of 1915 is very marked. Ar a recent meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, U.S.A., Prof. W. M. Davis brought forward a proposal for the exploration of the North Pacific Ocean. Some details of the scheme are given in La Nature for December 16. Prof. Davis’s proposal entails a thorough exploration of vast areas of the ocean in which there are at present few, if any, soundings, not by a single ship, even on the scale of the Challenger Expedition, but by methodical, long- continued efforts, presumably by several vessels, and including work in oceanography, biology, geology, and meteorology, as well as in the anthropology of many little-known islands. He suggests that the United States should undertake the work and be responsible for its cost. A MmeEnmoriaL to Sir Francis Drake was erected last summer on the shores of Drake’s Bay, on the coast of California. According to the Geographical Review for November, 1916 (vol. ii., No. 5), the memorial takes the form of a redwood post bearing a brass plate inscribed with the date of Drake’s landing, June 17, 1579, and is, so far as practicable, a replica of the post set up by Drake himself before leaving the bay. The memorial was erected by the Sir Francis Drake Asso- ciation, a body of persons interested in commemorat- ing Drake’s voyage as a milestone in the history of California. There seems to be little doubt that it was in the bay now named after him, and not in San Francisco Bay, that Drake landed in 1579 on his voyage from Panama. AN article on the climate of Salonica which appears in the Bolletino of the Royal Italian Geographical Society for December (vol. v., No. 12) is of particular importance at present. The article is based on the NO. 2463, VOL. 98] NATURE 377 data obtained from the two observatories founded im 1891 and 1893 respectively, and published in Vienna and Sofia. From the numerous tables which are given it would appear that in January, the coldest month, the mean temperature is 54° C., with an absolute minimum of —7°2° C.; July, the warmest month, has a mean of 266° C. The mean annual rainfall is- 546 mm., with a marked maximum in late autumn and again in May. July, with a mean of 25 mm.,. appears to be the driest month. Snow falls on an. average of six days in winter. The prevailing winds: are south-westerly in summer and northerly in winter. Tue Scientific American for December 2, 1916, con tains an illustrated article on the telescopic rifle- sight of the United States Army. ‘The telescope is of the reflecting prism type, and magnifies six diameters. It is made as nearly as possible dust- and water-proof,. and is furnished with a rubber eyepiece to protect the eye of the marksman from the recoil of the rifle. A dovetailed slot on the telescope slides on to a corre- sponding piece on the service rifle. When detached it is carried in a leather pouch. In sighting, the object is brought on to the point of intersection of the cross lines of the telescope, which is adjusted for ranges up: to 3000 yards by means of a milled and graduated screw-head on the left-hand side, and for direction by a smaller screw-head. As in the case of the majority of soldiers the accuracy of sighting with the ordinary sight exceeds the ability to hold the rifle steady enough to secure a hit, it is not intended to issue a telescope sight to every soldier, but only to those who have shown by their skill as marksmen that they have the requisite steadiness of aim to profit by it. Buttetin No. 147 of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy contains an account of a discussion on. standardisation and the metric system at a recent meet- ing of the institution. The desirability of employing discretion in the adoption of the principle of standard- isation was insisted upon, and it was pointed out that the articles in which standardisation had been success- fully achieved by the Engineering Standards Com- mittee are, in general, parts common to all kinds of machinery, such as nuts, bolt-heads, and wires, and not of a complicated character. In the case of plant that cannot be standardised down to details it may be possible to lay down the broad outlines, such as leading dimensions, speeds, and powers. As examples of mining plant which can be standardised completely were instanced the Californian stamp, amalgamating plates, rock crushers, iron or steel trams for under- ground use, tramway gauges, skips and skip-ways. An important question is whether standardisation should be adopted in terms of our present system of weights and measures, or in terms of the metric system. As regards universality, the metric system has a particular claim to consideration, as it is a system which is continually obtaining official recog- nition in other countries, while our own system is not. In the immediate future competition in trade will be more strenuous than it has ever been before, and in adhering to our present weights and measures we shall be seriously handicapped ; it is therefore necessary to decide at once whether the question of internal convenience shall continue to override all other con- siderations. There is no doubt that the adoption of the metric system in this country is inevitable sooner or later, and the present time appears to be exception- ally suitable for introducing the reform, Mr. H. C. Britt is the author of two papers of considerable biochemical interest in the March number of the Philippine Journal of Science (Section A.). The first deals with the so-called 03178 ““false’’ chaulmoogra oil, which is expressed from the seeds of Hydnocarpus venenata, Gaert- ner. Considerable uncertainty exists as to the origin of true chaulmoogra oil, but it is probably obtained from the seeds of Taraktogenos kurzti, King. Since the latter oil is admittedly the most promising remedy for the treatment of leprosy, it is highly impor- tant to determine whether oils from the seeds of other plants of the same family, such as H. venenata, can be substituted for it, thus largely increasing the quan- tity of the remedy available. The author finds that the oils from T. kursii, H. wightiana, H. anthelmin- ticus, and H. venenata are chemically similar, but differ from the oil of Gynocardia odorata. It is there- fore to be expected that the physiological action of the former oils would be similar, and the outcome of the author’s further work on their physiological properties will be, awaited with interest. The second paper estab- lishes the fact that certain edible beans, particularly warieties of the soy bean, contain a substance which, like the ‘“‘maltol’’ discovered by Brand in caramel malt, gives a reaction with ferric chloride similar to that given by salicylic acid. Of thirty-two varieties of Japanese, Chinese, and American beans, eight brealk- fast foods, six coffee substitutes, and four flours, twenty-one of the bean samples, one breakfast food, and four of the coffee substitutes gave positive results when tested by the ferric chloride reaction; but only the four coffee substitutes gave positive results when tested by Jorissen’s reaction. In testing for the pre- sence of salicylic acid in beans, it is therefore advis- able to use Jorissen’s reagent. Mr, J. H. Lavender gives some interesting notes in Engineering for December 29 on the hardening of screw gauges. From a number of preliminary experi- ments on different brands of cast steel, one having a high percentage of manganese was selected. ‘The reasons for this selection are as follows :—(a) The manganese content of the steel appeared to affect the volume changes in the steel; (b) this particular brand of steel could be quenched in oil, and a better surface finish obtained than from one quenched in water. The analysis of the steel gave the following per- centages :—C, 0-96; Si, 0-19; Mn, 1-20; S, 0:03; P, 002. The furnace used for heating the gauges need not be of any particular kind, so long as the metal is not heated too rapidly and uniformity during heating is obtained. A small Richmond gas furnace is very suitable for the work. From the results given by the pyrometric curves, it was decided to harden gauges from a temperature of 749° C. Gauges quenched from this temperature are quite hard, and the temperature is sufficiently high to provide a fair margin for the hardener. Undue oxidation is pre- vented by providing a reducing atmosphere in the furnace by means of excess of gas, and by having the quenching tank as near as possible to the furnace. Gauges are tempered in oil at 260° C., sufficient time being given for obtaining uniform temperature throughout the metal. Whale oil is used for cooling purposes. The strain produced by sudden quenching is got rid of during the tempering process, and a trust- worthy man, by following the procedure outlined, can produce work which comes within the National Physical Laboratory’s requirements. “Tur Wellcome Photographic Exposure Record and Diary”’ for the new year is issued by Messrs. Bur- roughs Wellcome and Co., a little volume for the pocket that many photographers would be very sorry to be without. It includes, as in past years, not only what the title indicates, but many tables, formula, and other information that photographers need, and the NO. 2463, VoL. 98] NATURE well-known ‘Exposure Calculator ”’ that has stood the test of many years. The formyl are, of course, in terms of ‘tabloids,’ but as the content of each is given, the user of them knows what he is doing. The price of the diary is one shilling, and special editions are issued for the southern hemisphere and U.S.A. AN early publication of the Cambridge University Press will be Dr. J. Y. Buchanan’s ‘Comptes Rendus of Observation and Reasoning."’ It will contain, among others, the following papers :—Recent Antarctic exploration; chemical and physical notes; on ice and brines; on steam and jbrines; the size of the ice-grain in glaciers; ice and its natural history; Beobachtungen tiber die Einwirkung der Strahlung auf das Gletche- reis; in and around the Morteratsch Glacier; a study in the natural history of ice; the use of the globe in the study of crystallography; on a solar calorimeter used in Egypt at the total solar eclipse in 1882; solar radiation; the total eclipse of August 30, 1905; eclipse predictions; the solar eclipse of April 17, 1912; the publication of scientific papers; the Royal Society; nomenclature and notation in calorimetry; thermo- metric scales for meteorological use; and the metrical system. Messrs. SOTHERAN’s new catalogue (No. 767) of second-hand books in zoology, including big-game hunting, and comprising many works relating to ornithology, should be seen by all in search of bargains in these branches of science, most of the works being priced at a great reduction. We mote that the list directs attention to a complete set to 1912 of the Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions and the Proceedings of the Royal Society ; also of the Philosophical Transactions from 1665 to 1910. Messrs. Sotheran announce the continuation, by Mr. W. L. Sclater, of Shelley’s ‘‘The Birds of Africa.” It is hoped to complete the work by the publication of four or five additional volumes. — We have received from Mr. Humphrey Milford a copy of the general catalogue of the Oxford University Press, issued in November last. It contains 574 pages describing the six sections—one of which is concerned with natural science and medicine—into which the catalogue is divided. An exhaustive alphabetical index of authors, editors, and jsome titles makes it easy to discover particulars of jndividual books. The section dealing with natural science runs to thirty-five pages, and describes works on the history and methods of the sciences and on the following, among other sub- jects :—Mathematics, physics and chemistry, astro- nomy, geology, biology, and medicine. The illustra- tions scattered throughout the different sections add to the attractiveness of the catalogue. THE spring announcements of Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., include :—*A Text-Book of Thermo- Chemistry and Thermo-Dynamics,” Prof. O. Sackur, translated and revised by Dr. G. E. Gibson; *‘ Human Physiology,” Prof. L. Luciani, translated by Frances A. Welby, with a preface by Prof. J. N. Langley, illus- trated, in five vols., vol. iv., edited by Dr. G. M. Holmes; *“‘Community: A Sociological Study, being an attempt to set out the Nature and Fundamental Laws of Social Life,” Dr. R. M. Maciver; “The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas,’ Dr. E. Westermarck, vol. ii., second edition; ‘The Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century,” the late Prof. W. Smart, vol. ii., 1821-1830; ‘‘ Higher Educa- tion and the War,” Prof. J. Burnet; ‘‘ Highways and Byways in Wiltshire,’ E. Hutton, illustrated by Nelly Erichsen. [JANUARY II, 1917 | ‘ January 1ty 1917 | OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Larce MrTEor on January 4.—This brilliant object was observed at about 10.20 p.m. at the Royal Ob- servatory, Greenwich; by Mrs. F. Wilson, Totteridge ; by the Rev. Canon Grensted, Liverpool; and by the Kev. H. C. Bender, Chelsea, S.W. As viewed from the metropolitan district the meteor traversed the region of Pisces, while, as seen from Liverpool, the path lay amongst the stars in the western part of Canis Major. Mr. Denning writes us that the data already to hand indicate that the object was very low in the atmosphere, its height being approximately from forty-four to eighteen miles above the earth’s surface from a point six miles E.N.E. of Salisbury to four miles S.E. of Tetbury. Had the meteor survived during another twenty-five miles of flight it would have fallen to the ground in the locality about ten miles S.E. of Ross, or twelve miles E. of Monmouth, and this may have actually occurred, though the descent was not ob- served. The fallen mass may, however, yet be dis- covered. In the case of the meteorite of October 13, 1914, though the light and detonation were noticed over a considerable area, the fall of the object was not witnessed, but it was accidentally discovered, em- bedded in the soil, on the following day. Extra-FocaL PHOTOMETRY.—Among the many methods employed in photographic photometry, the extra-focal method developed by Parkhurst has the great advantage that only a simple equipment is re- quired. The plate being exposed in the camera beyond the focus, the resulting images have relative densities varying with the brightnesses of the stars, and, by means of a Hartmann microphotometer, these can be compared with artificial star discs of known relative magnitudes. At the Laws Observatory, University of Missouri, investigations of the method have lately been made by R. H. Baker and Edith E. Cum- mings, using a s-in. photographic doublet, at- tached to a 7}-in. refractor as guiding _ tele- scope (Bulletin No. 24). The greatest known source of error is sky-fog, the effect of which is greatest for the fainter stars. This and other possible sources of error have been fully investigated, and means of overcoming them have been found. Tests of the accuracy attainable were made on eight plates containing double exposures of selected circumpolar regions, on which 196 stars were suitable for measure- ment. The star images ranged from o-3 to 0-5 mm. in diameter, and it is shown that the advantage of such small images in reducing overlapping and expo- sure time does not involve any loss of accuracy. The probable error of a single observation was about one- twentieth of a magnitude, so that the extra-focal method compares favourably with other methods, Twelve eclipsing variables are under investigation. HyDERABAD ORBSERVATORY.—From the annual report of the director of the Nizamiah Observatory, Hyder- abad, for the year ending October 5, 1916, we learn that, although serious inconveniences have been caused by the war, substantial progress has been made with the worl: for the Astrographic Catalogue. Besides the investigation of proper motions by measurement of plates talken at Oxford, Mr. Pocock reports that 134 plates were taken and measured during the year. In zone —17°, 143 plates, containing 56,302 stars, have now been completely reduced and the results partly printed, while in zone —18° copy for press has been prepared for ro2 plates, containing 42,545 stars. Much work has also been done in connection with the mag- nitude scales of the various catalogues used in connec- tion with the astrographic worl. NO. 2463, VOL. 98] { NATURE RYE) EDUCATIONAL POSITION AND OUTLOOK. FTER-WAR problems dominated the various sec- tional meetings of the Conterence of Educational Associations held last week, and the two schemes of reform suggested by the bkducation Ketorm Council and tthe Workers’ Educational Association were fre- quently in evidence. ‘Lhree main lines of thought could be noted. One took up the burden of the Master of Balliol’s inaugural address in his insistence upon the need for an educated democracy. ‘hus Principal Maxwell Garnett, ot the Manchester School of Tech- nology, speaking on the vocational outlook before the Child Study Association, urged that primitively interest was aroused by things to be done; thus permanent neurographic records were formed, and from these neurograms interest systems were created which tended always to grow. Hence it was wise to develop a single wide interest and a power of concentrated atten- tion, and such interest systems, developing in adolescence, if centred round one’s vocation, would produce a body of workers who would be at once more effective and more contented. At the same time, there was need to reserve from all classes those who would become prophets and thinkers. This last was the note of Prot. Shelley’s address before the Teachers’ Guild; a healthy democracy must evolve an aristocracy whilst at the same time fostering the forces that would destroy it, and always there must be a selection of the most vigorous personalities who would éxpress the ideals and aspirations of the age. This involved, as Principal Garnett also insisted, some other method than the crude intellectual test of selecting those who should proceed by scholarships to higher centres of learning. Prof. Gilbert Murray had pointed out at the previous meeting the corollary to this, that there should be secured to ithe youth of all classes the best education for which each was intellectually fitted. A second main line of thought had to do with the classics-science controversy, with science in favour. Thus Sir Alfred Keogh, presiding at the Education Reform Council meeting, urged that the lack of know- ledge of elementary facts of science and Nature shown by Ministers and administrators was a national mis- fortune, and that every boy destined for public life should have a very liberal education both in science and classics. The other side was given at the Associa- tion for the Reform of Latin Teaching, where, how- ever, Dr. Rouse deplored the almost complete failure of the reformers to influence the teachers of classics. On the question of the teaching of science in second- ary schools, an interesting point was raised by Prof. Nunn, in the discussion on women’s work in boys’ schools, before the Froebel Society. He thought that whilst the biological sciences were safe in their hands, the physical sciences were not. Such _ practical developments of mathematics and the physical sciences as engineering were nearer to men’s interests, and if women were to treat these in any but an academic manner they must be brought into ‘direct contact with such practical developments. A third main line of thought was that of the posi- tion, prestige, and salaries of teachers. At no pre- vious conference has this point been so frequently emphasised by chairmen and lecturers, and in refer- ence to all grades and classes. Greater culture and efficiency and a wider training were constantly in de- mand, and to attract the right men and women to the profession a more generous recognition and remunera- tion were needed—and the teachers were not those who insisted; they only applauded. The annual meeting of the Geographical Association was held at the London Day Training College on January 5-6, with Sir Thomas Holdich, president, in 380 the chair. The position of geography as the bridge subject between tne humanistic and the purely scien- tic studies was well brought out in the papers and discussions. Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.P., in opening a discussion on the resolutions drawn up by the bive Associations, quoted a statement issued by the council of the Geographical Association with regard to the teaching of geography. 1n this document the object of teaching geograpny in schools is said to be to train future citizens to imagine accurately the interaction of human activities and their topographical conditions. It is pointed out that as these conditions have been established partly by natural forces and partly by human effort, any discussion of the correlation of the various conditions must be both scientific and humanistic. The case is summed up thus :—* The unity of geography, tor school purposes at any rate, is essentially humanistic, and on one side related closely to history, but the assembling of the physical data is a very important part of geographical teaching and cannot,be left to the teacher of other subjects.”’ Two other papers brought out the relationships of geography, and at the same time curiously emphasised the fact that geography is a subject in itself. Prof. Fleure read a paper on ** Regions in Human Geo- graphy,” which was saturated with humanism, and was marked by a strong historical flavour, and yet was in no sense history. ‘‘ Correlation of various con- ditions”’ within a region is essentially geography, what- ever is or is not. *‘‘ Though essentially humanistic ”’ and ‘related to history,’’ geography has a unity of its own. Prof. Nunn read a paper to a joint meeting of the association and the Mathematical Association on ““Map Projections.’’ The relationship of geography to science was taken for granted in the meeting, just as the joint meeting last year with the Historical Asso- ciation took the humanistic relation for granted. What was perhaps more striking with regard to the paper was the different point of view of the geographer from that of the mathematician, even a most sympathetic mathematician, in regard to this almost purely mathe- matical subject. It was quite evident that while both geography and mathematics gain immensely by correla- tion, yet there is very distinct work for each. The danger of leaving projections for geographical work entirely to the mathematical teacher, or, indeed, for mathematical training to be left to the geographical teacher, was un- mistakable. Again, to quote the statement, “the assembling of the physical data . . . cannot be left to the teachers of other subjects.’’ The last sentence of the statement starfds true: ‘Experience has shown that the art of geographical correlation depends on specially trained habits of thought.” The Mathematical Association held its annual meet- ing on January 5, under the presidency of Prof. White- head. After the business meeting—at which Prof. T. P. Nunn was elected president for 1917-18—Prof. Nunn read an important paper on ‘The School Course in Geometry,” illustrated by many interesting models and practical devices. He urged that geometry should be closely connected with the facts of life and that the pupils should approach it through practical work of various kinds; that many topics which have hitherto been postponed to a late stage or omitted altogether—e.g. certain facts of solid geometry and the simpler properties of the conic sections—should be in- troduced at a comparatively early stage; and that the reasoning, while of a nature suitable to the stage reached, should throughout be careful and rigid. In this connection he distinguished three stages : the first that of simple intuitional reasoning in connection with direct experience; the second that of deductions based upon the assumption of certain fundamental truths; and the third that of constructing a system of geo- NO. 2463, VOL. 98] NATURE [JANUARY I1, 1917 | metrical truths on the smallest possible basis Of assumptions. ‘NS ; The afternoon session -opeéd with an inspiring ae tion.” His main thesis was that a liberal education - should in all cases be in close touch with the activities of life; and it should include in varying proportions the literary, scientific, and technical elements. These should be closely connected; technical education needs the enlightenment of science, intellectual education lacking some relation to handwork is barren, while the literary element supplies that wider contact with other life and thought which is essential to healthy mental life. Only so can we reach the ideal in which “ work is play and play is life,’ and nothing but harm can come of the assumption that the practical world is one in which high ideals can have no place. ; Later in the afternoon Mr. P. Abbott opened a dis- cussion on ‘‘ The Place of Mathematics in Educational Reconstruction,” dealing chiefly with the mathematics suitable for continuation schools. Other speakers dealt with other aspects of the subject. The twenty-fifth annual general meeting of the Incorporated Association of Headmasters was held at the Guildhall, London, on January 8. The Rev. J. R. Wymnne-Edwards (Leeds Grammar School), in his presidential address, said that in science teaching in schools two chief objects are in view—first, the acquisi- tion of facts that ‘‘every educated man ought to know,’’ the laws of Nature, the constitution of our planet and its atmosphere, the chief properties of light, heat, and electricity, and their bearing on daily life; and secondly, the investigator’s respect for truth, his determination to observe phenomena irrespective of preconceived ideas, and to reason on observed facts without being hampered by preconceived theories. Of these two objects the second is by far the more im- portant. It is agreed that the time has come to im- prove our system of science teaching and to bring science to bear more fully on the problems of our daily life; but difficulties present themselves the solution of which will tax all the ingenuity of the nation. At present there is not an adequate supply of teachers, and it is absolutely essential that a solution of this difficulty should be found. Another difficulty is to adapt science teaching to the need of industry without taking away its power as an intellectual stimulus, and to persuade the manufacturers of the country that it is to their interest to have the very best advice that science can give them and to pay for it accordingly. One still hears of graduates serving in Government munition works as science experts at 21. a week, which they are prepared to accept in their anxiety “to do their bit” for their country, while workmen in the same works may be earning their 5]. or 61. per week. There are, however, signs of a change, and the great demand and very limited supply of expert science men is giving rise to abnormal conditions. The following resolution was carried by 70 votes to 15:—‘That it is of the highest importance to the welfare of this country that the decimal system of weights and measures be adopted, and that this asso- ciation approves of the policy and aims of the Decimal Association, and invites its members to support the proposals.” PRIZE AWARDS OF THE PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOR 1916. Vf ATHEMATICS.— The Grand Prize of the mathe- ‘ matical sciences. No memoir was received deal- ing with the question proposed, buta prize of 2000 francs was awarded to N. E. Norlund, professor at the Uni- versity of Lund, for his work on the linear equations % address from Prof. Whitehead on ‘‘ Technical Educa- . : : 4 a & January 11, 1917] in finite differences. The Bordin prize, Georges Dar- mois and Bertrand Gambier each an honourable men- tion (1000 francs); the Poncelet prize to Charles de la Vallée Poussin, for the whole of his contributions to mathematics; the Francoeur prize to (the late) René pe Gateaux, for his work on the functional cal- culus. _ Mechanics.—The Montyon prize to E. Mérigeault, for his work on the theory of ventilators and centri- fugal pumps and on internal-combustion motors. No memoir was received on the subject proposed for the Fourneyron prize. The H. de Parville prize to Leon- ardo Torres y Quevedo, for his researches on calculat- ing machines and other mechanical inventions. Astronomy.—The Lalande prize (increased to 1000 francs) to Jéré6me Eugéne Coggia, for his astronomical work as a whole; the Valz prize to Giovanni Boc- cardi, for his researches on the variation of latitude; the Janssen prize to MM. Ch. Fabry, Henri Buisson, and Henry Bourget, for their researches on the deter- mination of the temperature, and evaluation of the atomic weights of the unknown gases in the nebula of Orion; the Pierre Guzman prize was not awarded. Geography.—The Delalande-Guérineau prize to Sir Ernest Shackleton, for his explorations in the Ant- arctic continent; the Gay prize to Henri Vallot, for this topographical studies in the French Alps; the Tchi- hatchef prize was not awarded; the Binoux prize to _Eugéne Prévot, for his work in geodesy and topo- graphy. _ Navigation.—The prize of 6000 francs between M. Marbec (3000 francs), for his rapid adaptation of the vessel Gharb as a water-carrier to Gallipoli, P. Dumanois (2000 frances), for his work relating to the installation of Diesel motors on submarines, and M. Le Matelot (1000 francs), for his practical method of determination of position near the coast; the Plumey prize (2000 francs) to Louis Barbillion, for his re- searches on governing motors used in connection with dynamos. Physics.—The La Caze prize is not awarded; the Kastner-Boursault prize to (the late) Eric Gerard; the Hébert prize to Jules Lemoine, for his work on the optical effects of electricity; the Hughes prize to (the late) L. Chaumont, for his memoir on Kerr’s pheno- menon. Chemistry.—The Montyon prize (unhealthy trades) to (the late) Alexandre Hébert, for his researches relat- ing to the hygiene of workshops; honourable mentions _ (1500 frances each) to Charles Samuel Banzet, for his work on respiratory masks for use against noxious gases either at the front or in works, and to Paul Langlais, for his apparatus designed to protect work- people against fumes at shell works; the Jecker prize to (the late) Paul Lemoult, for the whole of his chem- ical work; the La Caze prize is not awarded; the Cohours foundation : the arrears to (the late) Jacques Bongrand; the Houzeau prize to (the late) Edouard Bauer. Mineralogy and Geology.—The Victor Raulin prize to J. de Lapparent, for his work on eruptive rocks. Botany.—The Desmaziéres prize to F. Renault and J. Cardot, for their work on the mosses of Mada- gascar; the de Coincy prize to R. Souéges, for his researches on the embryogeny of the Ranunculacez and Cruciferze; the Montagne and de la Fons Méli- cocq prizes are not awarded. Anatomy and Zoology.—The Cuvier prize to Edouard Chevreux. for his work on the Amphipods; the Savigny prize to Ed. Lamy, for his malacological studies; the Thore vrize is not awarded. Medicine and Surgerv.—Montyon prizes to Octave Laurent (2500 francs). for the whole of his work in surgery; Edmond Sergent and Henri Foley (2500 NO. 2463, VOL. 98] NATURE 381 frances), for their works on recurring fever; Maurice Letulle (2500 francs), for his book on pleuro-pulmonary tuberculosis; mentions to Jules Glover (1500 francs), R. J. Weissenbach (1500 francs), and Henri Stassano (1500 francs); the Barbier prize to G. Moussu, for his researches on the local reactions to tuberculin in domestic animals; the Bréant prize (arrears of interest) to J. Havet (2000 francs), for his work on the nervous system of jnvertebrates; Mme. Marie Phisalix (2000 francs), for her researches on the poison apparatus and poisons of lizards and snakes; Frédéric Bordas and S. Bruére (1000 francs), for their work on the accelerating action of farm manure on the rapid destruction of dead bodies; the Godard and Mége prizes are not awarded; the Bellion prize to (the late) Richard Millant, for his work on opium poisoning; the Baron Larrey prize to Dr. Lasnet, for his essay on the organisation and working of the medical service in Colonial expeditions, A. Tournade receiving a very honourable mention for his work entitled ‘‘The Organisation and Working of No. 13 Temporary Hospital of Verdun.” Physiology.—The Montyon prize to M. Couvreur, for the whole of his work in experimental physiology ; the Lallemand prize, divided equally between Aldo Mas- saglia, for his researches on glycosuria, and L. Launoy, for his work. on. the thyroid, parathyroid, and thymus glands; the La Caze prize is not awarded; the Pourat prize to MM. Mayer and Schaeffer, for their contribu- tions to the physico-chemical properties of the cell and its tissues; the Martin-Damourette prize is not awarded; the Philipeaux prize to Antoine Magnan, for the whole of his work relating to the influences of the medium, movement, and feeding on organisms. Statistics The Montyon prize to Charles Perrier, for his memoir on the criminal skull. ‘ History and Philosophy of Science.—The Binoux prize between Joaquim Bensaude (1000 francs), for his book on nautical astronomy in Portugal at the period of the great discoveries, and (the late) Louis Couturat (tooo francs); a mention (500 francs) to E. Doublet,: for his works relating to the history of astronomy and meteorology. Medals.—The Berthelot medal to Paul Alexandre Hébert, and Edouard Bauer. General Prizes. —The Bordin prize is not awarded; the Jean Reynaud prize to the late Henri Amagat, for the whole of his work; the Baron de Joest prize to Ernest Esclangon, for his researches on the sound phenomena produced by cannon and projectiles; the Houllevigue prize to Edmond Bordage, for his studies on the fauna and flora of Réunion; the Saintour prize is not awarded: the Henri de Parville prize to Auguste Barbev (tooo francs), Louis Raveneau (500 francs), Daniel Bellet (sco francs), and E. Montoriol (500 francs): the Lonchampt prize to Mlle. Thérése Robert (2<00 franes), for her researches on the function of calcium salts on the erowth of plants, and H. Busquet (t<00 franes), fer h's vhvsiological and pharmaco- dynamical researches; the Wilde prize to M. Mansuy (2000 frances) and F. Garrigou (2000 frances). for the whole of their work; the Caméré prize to M. Frevs- sinet. for his novel applications of reinforced concrete; the Gustave Roux prize to (the late) Michel Long- chambon (2000 francs), for his geological and petro- graphical work; the Thorlet prize to Adolnhe Richard ; the Lannelongue foundation between Mmes, Cusco and Riick; the Laplace and Rivot prize is not awarded ; the Trémont foundation (1000 francs) to Charles Fré- ment, for his worl: on the deformations of metals sub- mitted to stresses: the Gegner foundation to A. Claude (2000 francs) and Mlle. I. Totevko (2n00 francs); the Téréme Ponti foundation to MM. Bnattandier and Trabnt, for their botanical worl: in northern Africa; the Henri Becquerel foundation is not awarded. Lemoult, 382 NATURE ay BONAPARTE FOUNDATION. The committee has had to examine thirteen requests for grants from the Bonaparte Fund. The following grants are recommended :—(1) Charles Alluard (4000 francs), for continuing the publication, in conjunction with R. Jeannel, of the scientific results of three expeditions in eastern Africa (1903 to 1912). (2) M. Bondroit (2000 francs), for collecting the material in France necessary for the constitution of a fauna of French ants. , (3) Pierre Lesage (2500 frances), for the continuation of his experiments on the plants of the coast zone, and in particular his researches on the transmissibility of the characters acquired by plants watered with salt water. (4) The Touring Club de France (3000 francs), to contribute to the establishment of the new botanic garden at Lautarel (Hautes-Alpes), (5) Camille Sauvageau (3000 francs), for extending to the species of Laminaria of the Mediterranean and the Channel the remarkable discoveries of the author on the development of a single species which grows in the Bay of Biscay. (6) Em. Vigouroux (2000 francs), to contribute to the purchase of apparatus useful for the continuation of his interesting researches on the state of silicon dissolved in metals. _%) Raoul Bayeux (2000 frances), to aid him in con- tinuing his researches on the physiological effects and the therapeutics of hypodermic injections of gaseous oxygen. The author proposes to study experimentally the action of hypodermic oxygenation on the defensive reactions of the organism against asphyxia and: against infections. : ares (8) Joseph Lais, as a contribution to the expense of photogravures relating to the photographic chart of the heavens, the copper-plates to become the pro- perty of the Paris Observatory. The committee has in reserve, these grants, 55,000 francs. ee a UNIVERSITY AND .- EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Tue fifth election to Beit Fellowships for Scientific Research will take place on or about July 15, Not more than three fellowships will be awarded. Appli- cations must be received on or before April 16. Forms of application and all information may be obtained, by letter only, addressed to the Rector, Imperial Col- lege, South Kensington, London, S.W. Dr. W. H. Hapow, Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle, and Vice-Chancellor of Durham Univer- sity, has been appointed a member of the committee to consider and report on: the scheme of examination for Class I. of the Home Civil Service in lieu of Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, who has found it necessary to resign membership of the committee on assuming the duties of the President of the Board of Education. ‘“ Epucation in the Universities after the War” is the subject of a lecture to be delivered by the Master of Balliol next Tuesday evening, at 5 o'clock, at the meeting-room of the Society of Antiquaries, Burling- ton House, Piccadilly. Mr. Fisher, Minister of Edu- cation, will preside. The lecture will be one ofa series on * Reconstruction,” to be given every Tuesday during January and February. Applications for reserved seats may be made to the hon. secretary, United Workers 175 Piccadilly, W. i 4 _Own December 15 last the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine honoris causa was conferred by Malta University on Col. Ch. A. Ballance, C.B., M.V.O.. Col. Wm. Thorburn, C.B., Col. Arch, E. Garrod, C.M.G., F.R.S., NO. 2463, VOL. 98] after payment of and Col. Howard H. Tooth, C.M.G. -Lord Methuen, the Governor of Malta, presided, and a Latin address was delivered by Prof. A. Bartoli, and a speech made by the rector, Prof. E. Magro. In this concluding re- marks Lord Methuen said Col. Ballance had been in Malta from the time the hospitals were started, Col. Thorburn arrived shortly after, and, together with Col. Garrod and Col. .Tooth, they had rendered ser- vices to the patients that could not be over-estimated.. Tue shortage of colour sensitisers for photographic plates, and the difficulties thereby incurred in the colour-printing trade, are affording another example of the fact that when the requisite stimulus is applied the chemical resources of the country are quite able to meet industrial needs. : The Leeds Education Com- mittee, through its Technical School, having become aware of the situation-in the colour-printing. trade, approached the Leeds University, and the work of supplying the necessary ‘sensitisers has been taken in hand under a joint scheme of research. A preliminary report gives a full description of the preparation of two dyes, formocyanine and tolucyanine, which are stated to be identical in their sensitising powers with those’ of the German products hitherto used. The work is being continued. Tue School of Oriental Studies at the London Insti- tution is, we learn from the Times, to be formally opened by the King near the end of next month, but classes will begin on January 18. A preliminary an- nouncement which has been circulated states that at - the outset teaching will be provided in seven groups of languages, comprising twenty different tongues; but it is hoped at an early date to extend the scope of the school. Courses on the history, religion, and customs of Oriental and African countries will form a special feature in the teaching of the school. The Senate of the University of London has assented to the transfer to the school of the teachers in the Oriental depart- ments at University and. King’s Colleges, excluding certain subjects, such as Egyptology, Assyriology, and Hebrew. The Oriental staffs have accordingly been transferred to the school. but since the teaching at the colleges has been on a restricted scale numerous addi- tional appointments have been made. The school is intended to provide London with a centre for Oriental teaching adequate to the needs of the metropolis and of the Empire. and one that will remove the reproach that London has hitherto been without an Oriental School comparable with those of Paris, Petrograd, and Berlin. Unpver the will of the late Miss A. F. Yule, the daughter of the late Sir Henry Yule, the house and rrounds of Tarradale, or Taradale, in the county of Ross and Cromarty, where Sir Roderick Murchison was born in 1792, are left in trust ‘‘to be preserved for ever to the use and enjoyment of my countrymen under the style and title of the Murchison of Taradale Memorial.”” The executors are left a wide discretion in interpreting the objects of the testatrix, but the idea expressed is that the house, with all its contents, including a library extending to more than 20,000 volumes, should form ‘ta place of rest and refresh- ment for poor scholars or other students, preferentially, but not exclusively, those no longer young.” and pre- ferably also of Scottish birth or descent. If funds do not permit otherwise, the house may only be kent open for three or four months in the year. The desire is also expressed that the grounds of Tarradale House should form a sanctuary or reserve for the preserva- tion of the wild life of the Highlands, more especially” for wild birds, and the trustees are given power to lend the house and grounds to any one or more of the Scottish universities, for a limited period, for pur- poses of scientific research, exclusive of experiments [JaNvaRY 11, 1917 . Bee, Set Bis = trode construction are described. 6 JANUARY II, 1917] on living animals. The whole residue of the estate, apart from a few small legacies to servants and others, is left to the trustees for the purposes of the trust to form a maintenance fund for carrying out the objects named. Should there be any funds in excess of the requirements of the original scheme, the trustees are directed to utilise them for the establishment of ‘t Murchi- son of Taradale Memorial Bursaries” at any of the Scottish universities or places of secondary education in Scotland or elsewhere, for the assistance of young natives of Ross-shire of either sex of any age between fourteen and twenty-four, preferably those able to speak and write the Gaelic language. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LonpDon. : Faraday Society, December 18, 1916.—Sir Robert Hadfield, president, and later Prof. A. W. Porter, in the chair.—Ezer Griffiths and E. A. Griffiths : A carbon tube furnace for testing the softening points and com- pressive strengths of refractories. The paper describes a carbon tube furnace designed for the testing of re- fractory materials under definite load. The specimens are cut from the brick and ground up into the form of short cylinders. Pressure is applied by means of springs suitably connected to carbon rods which carry the specimen under test. Two simple forms of elec- In one of them the current is carried by two copper tubes bent into a zigzag form, and cast into two blocks of white bearing metal. The faces of the blocks are cast to the form of the carbon tube to which they are clamped. The copper tubes also serve for water cooling. The tem- perature of the specimen is directly observed by means of a polarising type of optical pyrometer.—Prof. E. D. Campbell: Do equiatomic solutions in iron possess equal resistances? The conception of steel as a solid solution has long suggested a relationship between its chemical composition and resistance. Benedicks, in 1902, laid down the general law that equiatomic solid solutions in iron possess equal resistances. The ex- perimental work of Arnold has shown the assumptions underlying Benedicks’s law to be untenable, and the object of the author’s experimental work was to seek a more satisfactory hypothesis. The experiments, which are fully described in the paper, were carried out on seven steels of varying composition, and their specific resistances were measured in both the hardened and annealed states. The deviations’from the calcu- lated values cannot be explained on Benedicks’s assumption, but they suggest that it is the molecular concentration of the carbides in solid solution, and not the atomic concentration of the carbon, which deter- mines the influence on the specific resistance exerted by such solutes.—R. H. Sherry: Grain-growth in de- formed and annealed low-carbon steel. Coarse crystal- lisation or grain-growth in pure iron and low-carbon steels permanently deformed and annealed has from time to time caused no little difficulty to workers in sheet, wire, cold-drawn bar, and pressings of these materials. The present paper, based on an extended investigation, explains the conditions under which srain-growth occurs.—R. G. Parker and A. J. Dalladay : The union of glass in optical contact by heat treat- ment (see Naturr, December 21, 1916, p. 317).—Prof. W. C. McCullagh Lewis: The effect of pressure on the equilibrium constant of a reaction in a dilute solution : A simple proof of the expression. The paper indicates a simple mode of deducing the effect of external pres- sure on the equilibrium constant of a reaction in dilute solution. The method, which involves the simple con- cept of maximum work, may be found to be of use bv teachers of physical chemistry, as students gener- allv find the method of Planet: somewhat difficult. NO. 2463, VOL. 98] . NATURE 383 Geological Society, December 20, 1916.—Dr. Alfred Harker, president, in the chair.—Dr. Marie C. Stopes : Recent researches on Mesozoic ** Cycads” (Bennettitales). The paper dealt particularly with recently discovered petrified remains which reveal their cellular tissues in microscopic preparations. The distribution of a few of the most interesting representatives of the Bennetti- tales (including the cohorts Bennettiteze and William- po was shown in a table. The group is by far the most characteristic of all the plants of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous, during which periods its dis- tribution was almost world-wide. It was locally, if not universally, dominant, and was the most highly evolved plant-group of the epoch of which we are cognisant. Three chief points of interest are noted in the geological distribution of these plants :—(a) That the most numerous highly specialised trunks reach their maximum in the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods, when their distribution was prac- tically world-wide; (b) that the oldest and therefore presumably the most primitive tvpe, Wielandiella, is externally less like the living Cycads than the com- moner later forms, while these latter are utterly unlike the living genera in their fructifications; (c) that the geologically youngest cone is the largest vet discovered, occurring in the Gault when the extinction of the group appears already to have set in. Contrary to what might have been anticipated from their external like- ness to the living Cycads, coupled with their great geological age, the fossil ‘‘Cycads’’ are much more complex and on a higher level of evolution than the living group. It seems to the author to be extremely unlikely that the fossil and the living forms have any direct phylogenetic connection nearer than a remote, unknown, common ancestor. The mooted connection between the fossil ‘‘Cycads”’ and the Angiosperms is highly suggestive, but lacks data for its establishment. Royal Microscopical Society, December 20, 1916.—Mr. E. Heron-Allen, president, in the chair.—A. Bacot: Note on the relation between the hatching and develop- ment of the larva of the yellow-fever mosquito (Stego- myia fasciata) and the presence of bacteria and yeasts. In sterile water or in ‘killed’ cultures of various bac- teria and yeasts, the author found that the proportion of mosquito eggs unhatched within a normal period was much larger than when a living culture or stagnant water teeming with organic life was employed. Of the ‘‘ refractory’ eggs first mentioned a large propor- tion hatched out at once on the addition of a small quantity of brewer’s yeast, or other living micro- organisms, to the previously sterile fluid.—Prof. S. J. Hickson : Certain sessile forms of Foraminifera. After discussing the observations of Schultze and Carpenter, the author gave his reasons for regarding the fora- minifer described by the former as identical with Poly- trema miniaceum, but that studied by the latter as being a different organism, for which he now proposed the new generic name of Homotrema; and then de- tailed the differential diagnosis of the two forms. The author next dealt with the form known as P. cylindri- cum, Carter, which he regarded as the type of a new genus, Sporadotrema; all these forms he regarded as having secondarily acquired the sedentary habit after a previous free existence, in contrast with the genus Gypsina, which he considered had always been seden- tary and encrusting in its habit—E. J. Sheppard: Note on an exhibit showing migration of nuclear mate- rial into an adjacent cell. A slide of the ‘“‘pollen mother-cells” of Lilium candidum was exhibited showing migration of nuclear’ material (chromatin) from one cell nucleus into the cytoplasm of an adjacent cell, the migration chromatin being preceded and almost surrounded by a liquefaction or absorption zone of the cytoplasm. So far no fusion of the 384 NATURE [JANUARY II, 1917 chromatin with that of its ‘receptor cell’? had been | observed, and no exnlanation of the phenomenon was | offered. PETROGRAD. Imperial Academy of Sciences, October 19, 1916.— M. D. Zalésskij: The carbon flora discovered by V. N. Robinson and I, I. NiksSié in the N. Caucasus.—A. A. uprov : The mathematical expectancy of the coefficient of dispersion.—V. V. Zalenskij : The fate of the sperma- tozoa and the segmentation of the ovum of Salpa africana,—I, A. Balanoyskij: The new variable in Her- cules.—L. S. Kolovrat-Cervinskij : The disengagement -of the emanation from solid or fused radium salts.— P. A, Zemiatéenskij: Deposits of fireproof clay in the neighbourhood of Latna, on the Kiev-VoroneZ Rail- way, Lepecka (Tambov Government), and Cirikov, on the Griaze-Orlov Railway (Voronez Government).— V. V. Redikorcev: New pseudo-scorpions.—V. A. Lindholm ; Contributions to the malacological fauna of the Government of Niznij Novgorod.—N. S, Kurnakoy : The discovery in Russia of potassium chloride or sylvine. November 2, 1916.—N. Ja. Cinger: The most useful “species of conic projections.—S. I, Metalnikev: The problem of the immortality of unicellular protozoa.— N. A. Bush: Valuable trees of the Caucasus.—N. V. Nasonov: Supplementary notes on Ovis orientalis, Gmel.—A. Martynov: Supplementary note on the Trichoptera fauna of the Crimea, SEcTION oF Historica: SciENcE and PuiLorocy, ‘October 26, 1916.—N. Ja. Marr: The date of the Mosoch migration from Armenia to Svania. November 9, 1916.—K. A. Inostrancev : The Charput inscription (561 H.). BOOKS RECEIVED. The High Price of Sugar and How to Reduce It. By H. H. Smith. Pp. iv+54. (London: John Bale, Ltd.) - 1s. net. Atoms. By Prof. J. Perrin. Hammick. Pp. xiv+2r1. ‘Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. Laboratory Manual of General Chemistry, with Exercises in the Preparation of Inorganic Substances. Translated by D. LI. (London: Constable and By A. B. Lamb. Pp. vit+160+pp. for Notes. (Cam- bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.) Australia. By Prof. J. W. Gregory. Pp. 156. (Cambridge: At the University Press.) 1s. 3d. net. The Classics of International Law :—Synopsis Juris Gentium. By Prof. J. Wolfgang Textor. Edited by Prof. L. von Bar. Vol. i., A Reproduction of the First Edition. Vol. ii., A Translation of the Text. By J. P. Bate. (Washington : Carnegie Institution.) The Interferometry of Reversed and Non-reversed Spectra. By Prof. C. Barus. Pp. 158. (Washing- ton: Carnegie Institution.) Sissano: Movements of Migrations Within and Through Melanesia. By W. Churchill. Pp. x81. (Washington : Carnegie Institution.) A Naturalist in Borneo. By the late R, W. C. Shelford. Edited, with a biographical introduction, by Prof. E. B. Poulton. Pp. xxvii+331+plates xxxii. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.) iss. net. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. THURSDAY, January 11. Rovat Geocrapnicar. Society, at s.10.—The Amazon River and Unex- plored South America: J. Campbe'l Besley. INSTITUTION oF ELecTRICAL ExGINEERs, at 8.—Principles Involved in Computing the Nepreciation of Plant: F. Gill and W. W. Cook. FRIDAY, January 12. Rovat Astronomicat Soctety, at 5.—Probable Motions in the Spiral Nebula M 51 (Canes Venatici) found with the Stere -Comparator.—S, NO. 2463, VOL. 98] r Kostinsky.—A _ Determination of the Constant of Aberration: S. S. Hough.—(1) | he Part played by Rotaticn in Cosmic Evolution cee Note on the Action of Viscosity on Gaseous and®Nebular Masses : . Jeans. —Observations made at Adelaide during the Annular Eclipse of the Sun, July 30, 1916: Adelaide Observatory. F : MALACuLoGICAL SociETY, at 8.—/fatel/a vulvata, L., and its so-called Vaniery, 2. depressa, Penn.: Rev. Dr. A. H. C oke.—The Occurrence of Manganese in Mollusca: Dr. A. E. Boycott.—-Note on the Holotype of Crioceratites bowerbanki: J. de C. Sowerby and G, C. Crick. MONDAY, JANUARY 15. { Vicrorta INSTITUTE, at 4.30.—Christian Mysticism: Very Rey. Dean Inge. . . TUESDAY, JANUARY 16. 6 * Roya Instirution, at 3:—The Old Brain and the New Brain, and their Meaning: Prof, C. S. Sherrington. Roya STATISTICAL SOCIETY, at 5.15. MINERALOGICAL Society, at 5.30.—Tapiolite in the Pilbara Goldfield, Western Australia: EK. S. Simpson.—Paleophysiology; the Organic Origin of some Minerals occur:ing in Sedimenary Rocks: J. V. Samojloff.—The Simondium Meteorite: Dr. G. T. Prior. WEDNESDAY, January 17. F Rovat MrcroscopicaL Society, at 8.—Presidential Address; Alcide d'Orbigny, his Life and his Work: E. Heron-Allen. j RoyaL METEOROLOGICAL SociETY, at 5.—Annual General Meeting.— Presidential Address: The Winds of North Africa: Major H. G. Lyons. ENTOMOLOGICAL Society, at 8.—Annual Meeting. THURSDAY, January 18. LinNEAN Society, at 5.—The Comparative Morphology of the Sorus of Ferns: Prof, F, O. Bower. MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY at 5.30. , Roya. Society or ARTs, at 4.30—Between the Tigris and the Indus. The Ben-i-Israel : Sir T. H. Holdich. ‘ PR ae CuHemicaL Society, at 8.—Alloys of Copper and Tin, Aluminium and Gold : Col. C. T. Heycock. ? FRIDAY, JANvARY 19. A ns Royat InstiTuTIoN, at 5.30.—Scap Bubbles of Long Duration: Sir James Dewar. INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, at 6. SATURDAY, January 20. Royat Institution, at 3.—The Lakes and Mountains of Central Africa of A. R. Hinks. CONTENTS. PAGE Civil Engineering Constructional Work: By , NS 7 ip = PL Borage Pah y : Me ns Organic Chemistry for Agricultural Students. By ’ E. JR: Sdesare Salt eens Miter igo Colour. . “By CiJin spss se jcdul eee eee 366 QuarticSurfaces., By 'G. B. Moo...) 2-0. suena Our Bookshelf. . ce 368 Letters to the Editor:— Meteorology and Wheat Shortage.—Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S.; Sir Napier Shaw, F.R.S. A trost Thistle: A Beautiful Effect of Freezing. j (Zlustrated.)—R. T. Gunther. ©). /....5 370 National Reconstruction . Weert err Accessory Factors, or ‘t Vitamines,” in Diet. By . Prof. W. M, Bayliss, F.R.S. . . ee B7e, Sir E. B. Tylor, F.R.S. l’y Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S. aia ot ti gaa S| Celene ane «ow eae Capt. F. C. Selous, By Sir H. H. Johnston, . Gr, MiG ik. Grek. pene od aa Notes Pel veg aay "a, POR oo) eS. Our Astronomical Column :— Large Meteor on January 4. . dba 9 inane Extra-focal Photometry “) 26 2 00 Wl.) Seg Hyderabad Observatory . . ees 379 Educational Position and Outlook ‘ . | ee Prize Awards of the Paris Academy of Sciences rt for 1618 (iG 4) ee oe ls Sh University and Educational Intelligence ..... 382 Societies and ‘Academies. .: .) shrews Se . 383 Books Received - See a) 8h) +, Lo See Diary of Societies Peeves . ,:,) Editorial and Publishing Offices: : MACMILLAN & CO., Lrp., ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, . > W.c. Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the Publishers. : Editorial Communications to the Editor. . Telegraphic Address: Puusis, LONDON. © . . Telephone Number: GERRARD 8820. Registered as a Newspaper at the General Post Office.] A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE: “To the solid ground Of Nature, trusts the mind which builds for aye."—-WoRDswoRTH. No. 2464, VoL. 98] X-RAY TUBES Of ‘all descriptions Made, Repaired, & Re-exhausted on the Premises. ' Coolidge Tubes kept in iden: ‘NEWTON & WRIGHT, Ltd. 72-WIGMORE STREET, W. Sole Agents for Macalaster Wiggin X-Ray Tubes, Undoubtedly the Finest Tubes in the World for all purposes, DUROGLASS L™: 14 GROSS STREET, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. Manufacturers of Borosilicate Resistance Glassware. Beakers. Flasks, Etc. Soft Soda Tubing for Lamp Work. General Chemical and Scientific Glassware. Special Glass Apparatus Made to Order. DUROGLASS WORKS, WALTHAMSTOW. AGENTS: BAIRD & TATLOCK (LONDON) LTD. 14 GROSS ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.c. THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1917 * [Price SIXPENCE. [All Rights Reserved. _ | REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd. Chemical Glassware, Chemical and Physical Pera Makers to His Majesty's Government (Home and Overseas * Dominions), Laboratory Outfitters, &c. Gold Medals es ee and London. Grand Prix and Gold Medal the International Exhibition, Turin. STeoue z RENDELL SCIENCE LANTERN. The ‘‘ University” Lan tern, with Russan_ iron hody, sliding baseboard, two superior objectives, with rack and pinion for focassing, con- densers 4} in. diam., plane sulvered mirror ‘* A,” which is moved by a knoh causing thé rays to be reflected upwards for the projection of objects in a horizontal, plane, silvered prism which can be used at *C,”orvas an erecting prism in mount “D,” limelight burner, slide casrier. Price opplets: in praygiioe case, without reversible adjustable stage’. es : . £11; .8°6 Ditto, ditto, with “ Pheenix” arc lamp oe = 12.18, 6 Reversible adjustable stage “‘B" for supporting Ss apel oat CXITA,, «0 5 6 CATALOGUES (Post free). Optical Lanterns and Accessory Apparatus. Chemical Apparatus and Chemicals, 44 pages. 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. A New Barograph— THE “JORDAN.” ? (Regd. Desicn €2871.) Shows at a glance the movements of the barometer during the preceding days. Descriptive Leaflet post free on application to NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA, 38 HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C.; 45 CORNBILL, E.C.; 122 REGENT ST., W cliv UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. NOTICE 1S HEREBY GIVEN, That the Senate will proceed to elect External Examiners for the Examinations, other than Medical, above Matr.culation for the year 1917-18 as follows :-— (k) Chemistry; (\) Geology; (m) Mathematics; (n) Physics; (0) Experimental Psychology ; (p) Zoology; (q) Electrical Tech- nology; (x) Agricultural Botany ; Rae ()) Agricultural Chemistry. The Senate will also proceed to elect External Examiners in subjects of the Examinations for Medical Degrees for the year 1917-18 as follows :-— HIGHER EXAMINATIONS FOR MEDICAL DEGREES. One in State Medicine. One in Surgery. One in Forensic Medicine and Hygiene. FIRST EXAMINATION AND SECOND EXAMINATION, PART I, FOR MEDICAL DEGREES. One in General Biology, One in Physics, and One in Chemistry. N.B. Attention is drawn to the provision of Statute 124, whereby the Senate is required, if practicable, to appoint at least one Examiner who is not a Teacher of the University. Particulars of the remuneration and duties can be obtained on application. Candidates must send in their names to the External Registrar, Geo. F. Goodchild, M.A., B.Sc., with any attestation of their qualifications they may think desirable, on or before WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1917, in respect of Examinerships other than Medical ; and on or b fore SA'TUR- DAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1917, in respect of Medical Examinerships. It is particularly desired by the Senate that no application of any kind be made to its individual Members. If testimonials are submitted, three copies at least of each should be sent* Original testimonials should not be forwarded in any case: If more than one Examinership is applied for, a separate complete application, with copies of testimensals, if any, must be "forwarded in respect of each. No special form of application is necessary. University of London, South Kensington, S.W. ASSISTANT METALLURGIST. Vacancy for Temporary Woman Assistant in Metallurgical Research Laboratory. Salary, £130 per annum, Candidates should be University Graduates with some knowledge of photography. Applications, with copies of testimonials, to be forwarded to the SUPERINTENDENT OF RESEARCH, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. BLACKBURN MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL. Applications are invited for the post of chief Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry. Salary about £250 per annum, according to qualifications and experience. Women eligible. The post is not of a t:mporary character. Applications should be sent as soon as possible, and not later than Feb. 2nd, to Dr. R. H. Pickard, Principal, Technical School, Blackburn, from whom information respecting the post can be obtained. A. H. WHIPPLE, Director of Education. THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Applications are invited for the position of additional Instructor in Horti- culture. Salary £150 a year. Applications will be received up to January 24, 1917, and should he addressed to ‘'He Secretary, The Uni- versity, Leeds, from whom further particulars may be obtained. Edueational, Medieal, all other BOOKS : subjects, and for all Exams, SECOND-HAND AT HALF PRICES: New Books at Discount Prices. CATALOGUES FrEE. State Wants. Books sent on approval BOOKS BOUGHT: Best Prices Given. W. & G, FOYLE, 121-123 Charing Cross Road, London, Books on Selentifie, Technical, BOOKS, MAGAZINES and PERIODICALS Despatched regularly to all parts. Can we send you particulars of our POSTAL SERVICE? Individual requirements studied and lowest prices quoted. E. GEORGE & SONS, Ltd., 23 Jacob Street, London, $.E., England. NATURE [January 18, 1917 SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES. Baker ‘‘D.P.H.,’’ No, 1, mechanical stage and substage, 2/3, 1/6, and 1/12 cil imm. objectives, by Bausch & i Gib triple nosepiece, 2 eyepieces, achromatic Abbe condenser... £18 18 Bausch & Lomb Whar rie ol 2 eahs of objectives, 2 pairs of eyepieces, as new re Beck ‘* Popular’’ Binocular, 2-in. 5 rin., and fin. objec- tives, 2 pairs of eyepieces, and _polariser one nS Leitz IIb, Nos. 3 and 6 objectives, 2 eyepieces, Abbe and iris . - Beck Small ‘‘ London,” 2/3 and 6 objectives, double nose+ piece, 2 eyepieces, spiral Abbe and iris aoe ane Zeiss, with triple nosepiece, 2 eyepieces, Abbe and i iris one Leitz IIb, A and D Zeiss objectives, double nasepicers eye- piece ... ase + on Beck ‘* Economic,” 1-in. and 3 objectives, 2 eyepieces ose . £15 0 £8 15 £7 15 £7 15 £7 15 £61 £6. a eo 00 oo 6 8 WANTED: MICROSCOPES and ACCESSORIES by Leading Makers. CLARKSON’S SECOND-HAND OPTICAL MART, 338 HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, (Opposite Gray's Inn Road.) X-RAY TUBES FOR RESEARCH WORK INCLUDING THOSE WITH TUNGSTEN ANTICATHODES BRITISH MADE THROUGHOUT A. C. COSSOR, LTD., 59-61 Clerkenwell Road, London. [ Rapa ON HIRE (Activity 1,800,000). RADIUM MICROSCOPES, Complete with Radium, 2/6 and 7/6 each. These are SELF-LUMINOUS in the dark, showing splendid Scintillations. Pitchblende Scintilloscopes, Extra Screens for gestion Minerals, 7/6 each. 1/6 each, F. HARRISON GLEw, 156 Clapham Rd., London, eae Telephones : 1787 Hop and 3117 Hop. (D -Teees 5 ON | Ge F eS THE BRITISH OXYGEN COMPANY LTD. Works for the production of Oxygen and other gases in London (Westminster, Greenwich and Stratford), Birmingham, Cardiff, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Birkenhead, Sheffield, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow, and Sydney, N.S.W. The Company was formed in 1886 as Brin’s Oxygen Company to develop means for the production of Oxygen on an industrial scale, The Company is not only the acknowledged pioneer of the Oxygen Industry, but possesses the largest organisation in the World for the production an¢ distribution of that gas. The Company also manitfactures and supplies in cylinders, NITROGEN, HYDROGEN, CARBONIC ACID, and other gases. The Company has developed an extensive engineering business, and has specialised in the design and manufacture of Plant for the production and separation of gases by liquefaction, electrolysis, and other methods. The Company is the exclusive manufacturer in the United Kingdom of apparatus tor metal cutting by Oxygen, and also manufactures well- known types of gas Regulators, Oxy-Acetylene and other blowpipes, and a large variety of apparatus tor use with gas cylinders. For illustrated price lists and full particulars application should be sade to any of the Company's Works or to the Head O ce, Elverton —= "Westminster, S.W. Annie NATURE 385 THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1917. AN APPRECIATION OF WORK. (1) Pictures of the Wonder of Work. By Joseph Pennell. Pp. lii. 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (2) Joseph Pennell’s Pictures of War Work in ‘England. With an Introduction by’ H. G. Wells. Pp. xii+plates 51. (London: W. ‘Heinemann, 1917.) Price 6s. net. (2) fas oe author of this interesting volume of ~ illustrations was recently requested by the Ministry of Munitions to record his impres- sions pictorially and in his own inimitable way of the wonder of the work now going on in the mills and factories of Britain and of France in order to enable us to understand better the efforts being made to win the war. These drawings are to be exhibited in all our great cities, and, judging from the quality of the illustrations in the book before us, such an exhibition will attract consider- able public attention. _It is so seldom that a word of appreciation is heard of the conditions of life in our smoky centres of toil that to find an artist of high ‘repute giving himself up enthusiastically to discover the wonder, the power, the romance, and the tragedy of it all is to arrest our attention whether we will or no. y In this handy volume is a.collection of pictorial representations of the work of the world as done in mine, mill, and factory, and as seen under many different conditions and in many lands. To the author the vision of mill-wheel and crane, of tall chimney and of smoke unlimited, is as full of interest and of inspiration as the vacant land- scape or the wooded hillside for the artist of another type of mind. .The book is -a pictorial record of *the wonder of work, in the doing of it rather than. of the product. itself, and it brings home to the mind more vividly than by words the price that is paid by one-half. of our people on behalf of the well-being of the whole. Though the conditions of manual work may im- prove as’time goes on, it is certain that much of the indispensable work of the. world will always be done under conditions of stress and strain almost beyond belief by those. who dwell far from centres of toil. It is well that these condi- tions should be recorded, not only for our informa- tion, but to.awaken in us sentiments of wonder at the skill, the strength, and the persistence of man in overcoming difficulties, and of gratitude to those by whom the work is done and by whose self- sacrificing service we all receive advantage. In this volume we have such a record.conveying to us in a few strokes of the artist’s pencil a vivid | sense of life and reality... ; The striking drawings are accompanied by some very shrewd and characteristic. comments which add much ‘to the interest of the book as a whole. “It -is, far easier,” says the. author, “to paint a heavenly .host.or a. dream-city. in one’s studio than. to make a decoration out of a group of NO. 2464, VOL. 98] (London: W. Heinemann, miners or to draw a rolling-mill in full blast, yet one of these subjects can be as noble as the other.” He has, as he says, “something to say in his own way about his own time.” “I am simply an artist searching for the wonder of work —not for morals, political economy, stories. of sweating, the crime of ugliness. I am trying to record the wonder as I see it, that is all.” We congratulate Mr. Pennell on the success of his effort. ‘ f (2) This is a further volume by the same author, dedicated to the same purpose as the work already noticed. The production of munitions of war is delineated by a succession of marvellously clear and effective pencil drawings showing the various stages involved in the production of munitions from the iron-mine and the coal-mine onwards through the processes of steel melting in fur- naces, of treatment in hammers and presses, and of manufacture in machine-shops, in which women. as well as men are taking so great a part. As Mr. Wells says in his Introduction: “Through all these lithographs runs one present motif, the motif of the supreme effort of Western civilisation to save itself and the world from the dominance of the reactionary German Imperialism that has seized the weapons and resources of modern science.” Mr. Pennell has ‘had exceptional facilities afforded him -for obtaining these pictures. No such opportunity is available: to the ordinary citizen, and next to the privilege of actually visit- ing the works themselves, no more effective means’ are available for obtaining a clear and vivid idea of all that is meant by the manufacture of muni- tions of war than that provided in this most’ in- teresting collection of drawings. W. Ripper. ADJUSTMENT OF OBSERVATIONS. Theory of Errors and Least Squares. By Prof. Le Roy D. Weld. Pp. xii+190. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s. 6d. net. ‘ HIS work, which embodies the material used by .the author as lecture notes at Coe College, Iowa, is intended not only as a text-book for undergraduates, but also as a book of refer- ence which a research worker can read through in a few evenings and then put into immediate. practice. An interesting feature of the work is the wide range involved in the illustrative ex- amples, which include applications to numerous branches of science. The mathematical treatment in the’ text is very elementary, requiring little more than’ a knowledge of the meaning of differ- entiation. This is supplemented in the appendix by a few pages involving rather more advanced methods, but in the main the book is free from mathematical difficulties to a degree quite unusual in works on least squares. The first chapter deals .with the meaning of measurement, estimation, and errors of, measure- ment, and is followed by. some useful exercises, which junior science students will: find very. sug-. gestive. In the next chapter the occurrence and x 386 NATURE [JANUARY 18, 1917 general properties of errors are treated, the dis- tinction between errors and mistakes is carefully explained, and the reader will derive from these few pages a very clear idea of the kind of errors with which it is the mission of least squares to deal. This is followed by a chapter on the general theory of probability treated algebraically, and containing a brief explanation of the application of the theory to practical problems, such as life insurance, together with some examples from mortality tables. : We then reach the most important part of the book, chaps. iv. and v., comprising an exposi- tion of the theory of errors and least squares on very elementary, but quite orthodox, lines. The great variety in the problems introduced to illus- trate the text is very noteworthy: statistical tables, electrical resistance, balance constants, volumetric solutions, specific gravity bottles, surveying, transits of stars, the resolution of apparent parallax into actual parallax and proper motion, the solubility of salts, are all made to serve. The problems on chemical work are par- ticularly suggestive, while the one on locating a distant station in surveying is of interest in employing rectangular co-ordinates instead of angles. There is an unfortunate mistake in the first numerical example of a normal equation (p. 75); the right-hand side of the equation should read 3676, and the results of the problem as given in the text are appreciably inaccurate. -Chap. vi. is on empirical formule, and includes some useful hints as to the choice of mathematical expressions to represent the un- known relations between variables. A problem on the “reduction of pendulum to zero arc,’’ on pp..107 to 110, in which time is measured to the millionth of a second and arcs are recorded in whole degrees only, looks rather uncanny, but may be unexceptionable. The next chapter is on weighted observations, and follows the usual lines. In the final chapter, on the general theory of pre- cision, an elementary knowledge of integration is assumed. The appendix, to which, as already mentioned, the more difficult analysis is relegated, contains also a very complete table of formule, all of which have been deduced in the text. On the whole, this is a good book, and being far less mathematical than most other works on the sub- ject, it is likely to appeal to a wider class of readers. NOXIOUS INSECTS. Medical and Veterinary Entomology. By W. B. Herms. Pp. xii+393. (New York: The Mac- millan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 17s. net. 1 Wait excellent text-book is based on manu- script used in teaching in the University of California and in the San Francisco Veterinary College. It is not intended to be a very com- prehensive treatise, but an attempt to systematise the subject. It, however, goes beyond this, as new matter is here and there incorporated, thus making the volume of greater value. It is mainly NO. 2464, VOL. 98] adapted to the American continent, but will be found of general usefulness elsewhere. For instance, there is only a key of the North American genera of ‘Tabanide. ‘The first chapter is an introduction. The second deals with parasites and parasitism in general; the third with insect anatomy and classification, with a useful working key to the orders of insects. The mouth-parts are shortly but very concisely treated in chap. iv. ;. this portion might well have been amplified. Cockroaches, beetles, and thrips are dealt with, and the small yet important part played by cock- chafers in the spread of Echinorhynchus gigas and. the uses of Spanish fly, etc., are concisely detailed. There is an interesting chapter on lice (pp. 52-68) ; we notice here that the human clothes louse is still called Pediculus vestimenti instead of P. humanus ; the figures given here are not good. Bed-bugs and cone-nose bugs form the theme of chap. viii. An excellent précis on mosquitoes or Culicidz is found in chap ix. (pp. 89-100), the classification used being that of Theobald and others, and not of the American dipterologists. | Mosquito-carried diseases and contro] are also explained, and a full key of classification given under the Theobaldian system. Other blood-sucking flies are dealt with, such as the buffalo-gnats, or Simulidz, and horse-flies, or Tabanidz, and notes on their control and relation to diseases are given. Naturally, the house-fly is fully described, twenty pages being devoted to its life-history, habits, and its relation to diseases, and another twenty-two pages to its control. The African tsetse-flies, or Glossinz, and the horn- and stable-flies, are also fairly fully dealt with in chap. xv. (pp. 207—232). An interesting account of Myiasis is given, in- cluding attacks of flesh-flies and bot-flies, or Gistridee, and others, such as the Congo floor- maggot and the West Indian and American screw- worm. The portion dealing with the ox warble- flies, pp. 251-254, is not quite up to date; for instance, it is said that the larve are licked off by the tongue, and so pass into the cesophagus, Carpenter’s researches in Ireland evidently being unknown to the author; that the larve enter by the skin, especially of the legs, and it is unlikely that any enter as described in this work. Nothing is sai of. their attack on human beings, the so-called “creeping disease,” which is frequent in some countries. The remainder of the work is taken up with chapters on fleas and louse-flies, ticks, mites, including scab in sheep, scaly lege in fowls, and itch, and also an account of venomous insects and arachnoids. The section on louse-flies (Pupipara) might well have been extended; the account of the sheep “ked ” is very brief,. whilst all that is said of the Hippoboscide is contained in five lines, deal- ing with H. equina. Fuller information on Pedicu- loides ventricosus might also have been given, and the recent work of Willcocks in Egypt and others. included. The work ends with a four-page appendix deal-. ing with general classification of bacteria and protozoa. Poe these clearly prove — oe January 18, 1917] NATURE 387 HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS. Historical Introduction to Mathematical Litera- ture. By Prof. G. A. Miller. Pp. xiii+ 302. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; Lon- -don: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. net. ges of the bistong of mathematics are better left to specialists, who still have -plenty of occupation in clearing up doubtful “points and amending errors. But there is a grow- ing opinion among teachers that not only for themselves, but also for their pupils, some know- ledge of the course of mathematical discovery is eminently desirable. Besides being a factor in a -general education, it is stimulating to the learner, and supplies to the teacher a view of human activity and invention which ought to be “suggestive from the psychological side. If there “be a ‘‘natural” order of learning mathematics, it ‘cannot be wholly different in the race and the in- dividual; though, of course, this consideration ought not to be turned into a fad. A year should mot be wasted on heuristic acquisition of the multiplication table. To serve the purposes indicated, we want books ~which are not too long, put the main facts into proper perspective, avoid doubtful assertions, sand show the trend of mathematics at the present ‘time. In all these respects Prof. Miller seems to wus to be successful. As to the perspective, a con- siderable proportion of the space is given to ‘modern mathematics; this is quite justified by the remarkable progress, and in some ways revolu- ‘tion, of recent times. But the earlier history is by no means neglected; thus we have accounts of ancient and medieval arithmetic, geometry, and algebra, including the theory of irrationals*—all in broad outline, but very well arranged. Among modern ‘topics, we have a chapter on the de- ‘velopment of mathematics since the close’ of the ‘eighteenth century, and one on mathematical literature; the last ought to be very useful to those who are serious students of the subject. The last chapter gives brief biographies of twenty-five deceased mathematicians, ranging from Euclid and Archimedes to Lie and Poincaré. ‘The list could scarcely be improved upon, and the notices, on the whole, are excellent. For in- stance, justice is done to Cauchy’s great achieve- ments, at least those in pure mathematics, and the author searcely professes to deal with applied mathematics. At the same time, notice is taken of Newton’s theory of gravitation and of Poin- ‘caré’s work on celestial mechanics, so that we «cannot help being surprised when we find nothing said about Rowan Hamilton’s contributions to dynamics or even his researches on systems of rays. It is curious how many seem to think of Hamilton as the inventor of quaternions and of nothing else. The appendix gives a brief list of books, and is, we-think, the most uneven part of the work; it almost seems as if the author had looked round his bookshelves and put down the titles of those NO. 2464, VOL. 98] volumes that caught his eye. For instance, under “Bibliographies and Encyclopedias” we have, among twenty entries, Mr. Somerville’s biblio- graphy of non-Euclidean geometry; the value of this is indisputable, but it is far too special a - work for a list of this kind. Again, under “ Teach- ing and Philosophy,” we have the “ Monographs ” edited by Prof. J. W. A. Young; these are quite special things, like the Cambridge Tracts and other such publications, and to put them here among eighteen entries shows a lack of propor- tion. Two things may strike the reader of the bio- graphies: the full names are not always stated, and no indication is given of Jewish nationality. The last is a small matter; but the comparatively large number of Jews who have become eminent mathematicians and physicists is certainly remark- able. Prof. Miller has the great merits of being lively and enthusiastic, and appreciating the beauties of his science. His anecdotes and obiter dicta are always interesting, and sometimes highly amus- ing; for instance, Abel writes of Cauchy: “Ses travaux sont excellents, mais il écrit d’une maniére trés confuse.’ ‘Unless we are greatly mistaken, Abel deserves this criticism much more than Cauchy. Again, it will be news to most people that “Omar Alkhayami” (FitzGerald’s Omar Khayyam) ‘‘made. a statement in his algebra which seems to imply that he was able to deter- mine the coefficients of the successive terms in the expansion of a binomial raised to any positive integral power.” We hope that copies of this book will find their way into many of our school libraries; quite a large part of it ought to be thoroughly enjoyed by a mathematical boy. It is well printed, too, and comparatively cheap. Gi5B aM: OUR BOOKSHELF. The Origin of the Earth. By Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin. Pp. xi+271. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; London: At the Cambridge University Press, 1916.) Price 6s. net. Tuts book forms the third of a series of publica- tions intended to “present the complete results of series of investigations which have previously appeared only in scattered articles, if published at all.” Needless to say, it is occupied mainly with a presentation of the planetesimal hypo- thesis, associated with the name of the author and his collaborator, Prof. F. R. Moulton. The original investigations on the planetesimal theory have perhaps been rather more scattered than most, so that an account of them in a compact and continuous form is especially welcome. Prof. Chamberlin’s theory is frankly tentative and speculative, and the reader is invited through- out to form his own judgment of the value of what is offered for his acceptance. The reader will proceed with caution, as indeed he is advised to do, for the progress of astronomy makes it evident 388 NATURE [January 18, 1917 | that much to which the author originally pinned | his faith is no longer tenable. Spiral nebule are proving to be something bigger than the author at first imagined them to be, and both mathe- maticians and observers feel doubts as to whether their particular branches of astronomical science will altogether confirm the author’s predictions | as to the course of events. At the same time the author has always regarded his theory as one to | be continually modified in the light of new facts, so that the question of present interest is whether the theory can be fitted to new knowledge with- out entirely losing its original character. The book will be welcomed as providing a com- plete and authoritative account of a hypothesis which must be considered along with others in our efforts to unravel the history of our system. J. H. J. The Earliest Voyages Round the World, 1519- 1617. Edited by P. F. Alexander. Pp. xxiii+ 216. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1916.) Price 3s. net. In the century, 1519-1617, covered by this travel- book there. were six voyages round the world— one Spanish, led by a Portuguese, Magellan; two English, led by Drake and Cavendish; and three Dutch, led by Van Noort, Speilbergen, and Le Maire and Schouten. Mr. Alexander includes in this volume Pigafetta’s account of the Magellan expedition; Francis Pretty’s narratives of Drake’s piratical voyage, and of Cavendish’s first voyage ; and an account of Le Maire and Schouten’s dis- covery of the route round Cape Horn. There are numerous illustrations, including a sixteenth-cen- tury map of Drake’s voyage corrected by the great navigator; a dozen pages of useful notes; a brief introduction to the narratives; and a table of important dates in the history of discovery. As a contemporary source book, which maintains the atmosphere of the great days of the early voyages, this compilation will prove extremely useful and stimulating. Large-Scale Map of the French Battle-Front. (London: G. W. Bacon and Co., Ltd.) Paper, 1s. net; cloth, 1s. 6d. net. Tuis map, on a scale.of four miles to an inch, shows the battle-front from Peronne to Verdun. There is a gap of about twenty miles to the south of Peronne, but the advance of the Allies will no doubt soon bring this part of the battle-line within the area of the sheet. The map shows woods in green, and the present front, approximately as it was on November 10, by a red line. There is, unfortunately, no attempt to show elevation either by contours or spot-heights. Rivers, railways, and canals are clearly and accurately shown, and there is an abundance of names. The map should make it easy to follow the course of any advance on this front, though the absence of indications of relief will not help the reader to grasp the signi- ficance of the line of front. There is a com- panion map at the same price of the British front to the north. NO. 2464, VoL. 98] 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.] Pa The Permanence of Finger-Print Patterns. — I RECEIVED a féw days ago Sir Wm. J. Herschel’s brochure, “The Origin of Finger-Printing.” His object—in. addition to examining other claims to this method—is stated to be the desire to place on record the discovery of this method of identification “in Bengal in 1858,’’ and the author seems to be piously grateful for the “gift granted" to him of that great and most useful discovery. The evidence for this early date is contained in the imprint of a single hand of one Konai, made at that time. This was issued on a single sheet some years ago, but when, as an eager student of the subject, I applied to the publishers for a copy, I was told it was issued only for private circu- lation, and could not be supplied to me. I now hasten at the first opportunity to give my own opinion of this impression, long guarded so carefully from the inspection of the expert critic. ‘eee The fateful lines so dear to palmistry are quite nicely shown up, and many of the skin furrows, or rugae, on the palm are printed with considerable clear- ness. That is, the part of the hand not at all used in the official system of identification is well done, but what of those parts on which the system entirel relies? The significant pads at the last joint of eath finger, which are full of intricate patterns in every human, or monkey, finger, are not shown at all. They are mere uniform blotches of ink.. There is absolutely no trace of a pattern of the simplest kind in any one of the five fingers shown. I wish to be understood as not exaggerating for any controversial effect, and appeal to any trained detective if this is not as 1 represent. No identification could be effected on such a basis, and the system was therefore clearly not dis- covered in 1858 by the baronet. I cannot perceive that even now the author has any adequate conception of — what the system is, now in general and “satisfactory operation throughout the civilised world. A most curious confusion has arisen from an. original police blunder that no two single finger patterns are ever alike, for which, I think, Sir William himself is mainly responsible. I am quite sure that there is no scien- tific basis for such an assertion. My syllabic system of classification, applied to a large collection, would enable such an assertion tobe severely tested, but I know of noother methodiin existence which could do so, To compare finger by finger in a large collection is utterly impossible. But by giving a short syllabic name to the pattern of each finger those names can be assorted apart from the hand collection, and those which are similar can be compared individually. I have no doubt in my own mind that such a search would reveal closely similar fingers in different individuals, so closely similar indeed that the slightest blur in printing would lead to the fallacious conclusion of identity. It was on getting a clear perception of this very dangerous fallacy, still manfully held and expounded by one or two police experts, that from 1879-80, when I first made public the method, I insisted on the use of the whole set of ten fingers, serially and consecutively printed, for criminal identification. It affords an example of mutations, but for trivial purposes fewer fingers might do very well. The English method, now practically used everywhere, cannot be greatly im- proved upon in this respect for identifying old convicts on reconviction. } January 18, 1917] NATURE 389 The question of what degree of evidence a single bloody smudge may give of the identity of some sup- posed miscreant with a convict having a previous official record is a matter for dispute. Still more is that of a case where, say, the right forefinger of Richard Roe tay be practically identical with the left ring-finger of John Doe. ‘Such similarity would be no evidence whatever for personal identification. In labouring to be brief I trust’ I have not been quite obscure.- Sir William, in his review of the history of this discovery, has not made any reference to my little contributions on the subject. He, however, did acknowledge my priority of publication in your columns of November 22, 1894, and for that ‘gift granted” I must feel grateful. HENRY Fautps. Stoke-on-Trent. _I wavE to thank you for your courtesy in forwarding me a copy of Mr. Faulds’s letter to you, and, in com- pliance with your request, I submit the following remarks, | . The only point I feel bound to notice is his complaint that I have not mentioned his name in my story of “The Origin of Finger-Printing.”” Mr. Faulds’s own account of his claim thas been so fully placed before the public in his letters to you from Japan, of October, 1880, and later, that I think I was right in keeping to that period of history, twenty years further back than his, which lay within my own know- ledge. Bat his present letter breaks through all bounds of social courtesy, and it is only his position as a pro- fessed man of science that justifies me in correcting him. Mr. Faulds has the temerity ‘to scout my statement that I was moved to study finger-printing by the fas- cination of Konai’s hand-mark (taken as it was for the same purpose as finger-prints now are). The finger-tips were badly smudged, but ithe small furrows on the palm were exquisite, and moved me to take better impressions than his from my own fingers, as I tell the reader on the same page, only Mr. Faulds ignores it. This is not the spirit of science. I will now, with your permission, show reason why I could not honestly have introduced Mr. Faulds’s name. His letter of 1880 announced that in the pre- vious year his attention was directed to the peculiari- ties of finger impressions on pottery, and that he had come to the conclusion, by original and patient experi- ment, that finger-prints were sufficiently personal in pattern to supply a long-wanted method of scientific identification, which should enable us to fix his crime upon any offender who left finger-marks behind him, and equally well to disprove the suspected identity of an innocent person. (For all which I gave him, and I still do so, the credit. due for a conception so different from mine.) But he went on to say :— There can be no doubt of the advantage of having a copy of the for-ever-unchangeable finger-furrows of. important criminals.” ' This expression made me protest at once, in my reply, that I could not understand how, in less than two years, he could have come to the knowledge that the furrows were unchangeable. It had taken me nearly twenty years of sustained experiment to demon- strate this persistence of the patterns for at least fifteen years of a man’s life, and it is plainly impossible for any man with a scientific turn of mind to put this doctrine forward after only twenty months or so of experiment. My reply, therefore, of 1886 expressly challenged his authority for the statement, and he has never justified it. My challenge did oblige him to meet it.as best he could, but the nearest approach I have seen to an answer is the following extract from an article of his in Knowledge, April, 1911 :— NO. 2464, VoL. 98] “The mode I took to test whether the ridges ever shifted their situation or changed their form was by shaving away their elevations . . . having first taken careful imprints of the patterns. After the skin grew up again, fresh imprints were taken and compared with the old ones, . . . but in many hundreds of cases, tested thus three or four times, not one solitary example of a variation in pattern was detected.” His return to England broke the further investiga- tion. He goes on to say :—‘The firm conviction, however, was established in my mind, which nothing has occurred to change, that skin furrows for the Heo eee of identification are invariable throughout ife. This quotation is his latest statement of his authority, but it needs to be read with an extract from a previous letter of his, dated June 5, 1909, in which he says :— “One of my earliest experiments was to shave off the ridges of the finger-tips with razors; the pattern on the skin was reproduced with quite unvarying fidelity, unless part of the true (deep) skin was removed.” I take it that this is the only foundation he has for his claim to have known the law of persistency in 1880. I leave it to men of science to judge whether his experiments sufficed to prove persistency of a finger pattern for life. W.. J. HERSCHEL. Warfield. ‘ The Date of the Introduction of the Term ** Metabolic.’’ THE concept and the term ‘‘ metabolism" have played such a prominent part in the development of physio- logical science that it should be interesting to Know by whom, and when, the term was first used. Prof. Bayliss, in his ‘‘ Principles of General Physiology ”’ (1915, p- 263), says that, so far as he can discover, “metabolism "’ was first used by Sir Michael Foster in his “*Text-book of Physiology,” the first edition of Which was published in 1883. It seems, however, that there is a still earlier use of the term in the writings of no less well known an investigator than Theodore Schwann, enunciator of the cell-theory. The passage I allude to occurs in the chapter called ‘Theory of Cells,” the last in Section III. of Schwann’s classic, ‘Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants, by Dr. Th. Schwann, Professor in the University of Louvain,” published in Berlin in 1839. My translation of it is that made in 1847 by Dr. Henry Smith, of London, for the Sydenham Society; it runs thus (p. 193) :— “The question, then, as to the fundamental power of organised bodies resolves itself into that of the fundamental powers of the indi- vidual cells... . These phenomena may be ar- ranged in two natural groups: first, those which relate to the combination of molecules to form a cell; secondly, those which result from chemical changes either in the component particles of the cell itself or in the surrounding cytoblastema, and may be called metabolic phenomena (rd peraBodtxov, implying that which is liable to occasion or suffer change).’"’ The italics are in the original. Here, then, so far as I know, is the first use of the term “ metabolic,” though undoubtedly not the first occurrence of the conception of chemical changes in living matter. Schwann uses the term ‘‘ metabolic’’ exactly in its present-day sense, the phenomena of change, interchanges, of material in and by living matter. The year 1839 may be taken’as the date of the introduction into biological terminology of the expres- sion ‘“‘ metabolic,” and the person Theodore Schwann, at one time professor in the ancient University of Louvain. , 390 NATURE [January 18, 1917 As soon as I came across Prof. Bayliss’s statement I wrote to him pointing out what seemed a use of ““metabolic’’ earlier than 1883. Not possessing the work jn the original, I asked Prof. Bayliss what was the exact word translated ‘‘metabolic,” as I wished to know whether it was any derivative of ‘* Stoffwechsel,’’ the present-day German word for ‘‘metabolism.”’ Prof. Bayliss replied at once to say that he had found the original passage, which he kindly transcribed for me as follows :— Zweitens, Erscheinungen, die sich auf chemische Veranderungen, sowohl der Bestandtheile der Zelle selbst, als des umgebenden Cytoblastems, beziehen, diese kann man metabolische Erschein- ungen nennen (76 peraBoduxdv) was Umwandlung her- vorzubringen oder zu erleiden geneigt ist.” **Metabolische,’’ and not any derivative of ‘‘ Stoff- wechsel,’’ is, therefore, the word employed. Thhis is not the only passage in which Schwann uses the word; on p. 197 he speaks of “metabolic power,’’ and again later, in contrasting a crystal and an organism, he remarks that the metabolic properties are ‘‘ quite pecu- liar to cells... The word occurs twice more at the close of this remarkable chapter. As the origin of anything cannot fail to be interest- ing, and as the word ‘“‘metabolism’’ is so very much used in biological exposition, I have thought it well to ask you to publish these remarks, D. Fraser Harris. Cultural Amebz from the Intestine of Man. I soup like to thank your reviewer for his com- mendatory remarks in Nature of December 21, 1916, on the account of the parasitic Protozoa which I con- tributed to the ‘Animal Parasites of Man.” Without in any way wishing to raise a discussion, I think it should be pointed out, in respect to his statement about Amoeba limax, that much information concerning these cultural organisms that may occur in the human intestine will be found under the designation ‘‘ cultural amoebze’’ on pp. 42, 618, 742 and 743 of my work. As your reviewer rightly infers, A. limax is not now strictly the name of a single species, but rather of a group or type of free-living forms which show differ- ences among themselves, but can be cultivated on artificial media. It is not easy to point out marked differential characters between them and Entamcebz, especially after consideration of the work of Drs. Williams and Calkins, to which reference is made by me on p. 42 and pp. 742 and 743 of the book. H. B. FantHam. Cambridge. Dr. Fantuam has given information concerning the culture of “cultural amcoebe,” and mentions (p. 618) that they are non-pathogenic, but beyond the statement (previously overlooked), on pp. 42, 743, that they exhibit morphological variations there is no note of their characters. The account does not therefore afford adequate help to those who, during microscopic examination of a stool, find for the first time amoebze with a very large karyosome, and desire to know what they are. Although amoebze of the limax type exhibit variations under different methods of culture, as de- scribed by Williams and Calkins, reference might have been made to the striking karyosome by which amcebze of this type, as found in the human, intestine, are often distinguishable. In view of the frequent references in recent literature to ‘“amoebz of the limax type,” some account under this designation might have been given, e.g. on p. 42, following the account of the morphology of species of Entamoeba from the intes- tine. Tue Reviewer. NO. 2464, VoL. 98] FLOUR STANDARDS. EFERENCE was made im Nature of Novem—. ber 23 and 30, 1916, to the Order directing that millers shall increase the yield of flour from: wheat by about 5 per cent. The result was that the corresponding proportion of “offal” was. mixed in with the flour, An Order has now been. made to the effect that a further 5 per cent. must be added to the flour. This may be done- either by taking another five parts of offal for that purpose, or (and this is a most important new departure), at the miller’s option, by adding~ five parts of flour derived from barley, maize, rice, or oats. In addition, he may add voluntarily another five parts, making ten parts in all over and above the previous increase in flour yield of seventy-one to about seventy-six parts of flour’ from 100 parts of wheat. The result is a com- pulsory ro per cent. or a voluntary 15 per cent. more bread with the use of the same quantity of wheat. In his article in Nature of November 30, the present writer deprecated any further addition beyond the first 5 per cent., except in case of dire necessity, because of the deterioration in quality of the resultant flour. The necessity -has- apparently arisen, but the use of flour from other cereals is a valuable alternative in the present difficulty. Except for the absence of gluten, barley and the other flours indicated will not differ greatly from wheaten flour. They will not of themselves have rising power, and conse-- quently the gluten of the wheaten flour present will have to buoy up the whole loaf during fer- mentation. But, on the other hand, there will be an absence of the proteolytic and starch-con-- verting enzymes which are so active in the whiter portion of the offal of wheat, and act so adversely on the gluten and starch of the flour. So early as January, 1915, the Lancet, in a leading article, suggested the use of cornflour in order to eke out the wheat supply. In conse- quence some experiments were made by Lieut.. W. Claude Jago, the results of which were pub- lished in the Lancet of February 13 of the same year. London ‘household flour only, (2) a mixture of ninety parts of the same flour and ten parts of cornflour, and (3) a mixture of eighty parts of the flour and twenty parts of cornflour. The bread from the mixtures was slightly less in volume, but fairly equal to that from the flour only in texture and appearance. This judgment was confirmed by the editor of the Lancet, who stated that the loaves “appeared to be quite acceptable.” Cornflour is, of course, maize starch, and is manu- factured very largely in the United States. If this variant of maize flour be permitted, its em- ployment will result in a considerably larger yield of bread and of a type which will accord with the reasonable tastes and requirements of the British public. Wirttam Jaco. Loaves of bread were baked from (ry . January 18, 1917 | “MORTALITY TABLES AND EXPECTATION OF LIFE. — Nature of July 6 (xcvii., pp. 383-384) reference was made to a statement by Dr. W. W. Campbell, president of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, that recent discoveries in preventive and curative medicine had increased the average length of life by many years, and that the increase so caused had been great for those healthy men whose lives had been accepted as risks to be insured by life assurance companies. While it was admitted that there was a high probability in favour of that conclusion, it was also pointed out that the tables in existing use had been available for fifteen years only, and that the time had not come for them to be super- sseded by fresh observations. Upon this Dr. Camp- bell stated in Nature of September 21 (p. 48) that the data upon which those tables are founded go back to the thirty years from 1863 to 1893, and do not therefore give full effect to the improve- ment in the duration of life which he believes has arisen during the last fifty years. Observations recently made in America and in Australia have raised questions as to this alleged improvement which call for careful consideration. ‘They affect principally the middle-aged man—that is, the man of forty years or more. They do not, therefore, directly negative Dr. Campbell’s con- clusion, which relates to persons under that age as well as to some above it. Dr. C. F. Bolduan, who is director of the Bureau of Public Health Education in New York, is quoted in the Lancet and the Times as having stated in an official report that the death-rate in the United States ‘registration area at the age period forty-five to fifty-four has increased by nearly 2 per cent. -during the last ten years, and that between fifty- five and sixty-four by nearly 7 per cent. When these figures are compared with those representing the variation in death-rates between 1850 and goo, as given in Mr. Gore’s report to the New York International Congress of Actuaries, they acquire some significance. That report records for ages forty to forty-nine a diminution in the rate of mortality of 7} per cent., for fifty to fifty- ‘nine of 7% per cent., and for sixty to sixty-nine of 61 per cent. If it is the fact that this favour- able tendency has been checked at a time when not only the discoveries referred to by Dr. Camp- bell, but other contributory causes, such as better sanitation, have been in full operation and should have produced a further diminution in the rate of mortality, it is evident that some adverse influences are at work which ought to be investigated. Dr. Bolduan finds them in over-strain and over-eating, and a committee appointed by the Department of Trade of the Commonwealth of Australia to in- quire into the causes of death and invalidity has made a report on the risks of middle age which arrives at similar conclusions. Whether a like reaction is observable in this country may be doubted. The report of Mr. Warner to the actuarial congress mentioned above showed that, as between the investigation of the NO. 2464, VOL. 98] NATURE 59! Institute of Actuaries ending in 1863 (termed H™) and that of the Assurance Companies ending in 1893 (termed O™), the expectation of life for males uniformly increased—at age forty from 27°4 years to 27'9; at age fifty from 20°3 to 206; at age sixty from 139 to.14°1; at age seventy from 8°5 to 87. It is unfortunate that the body of experience available relating to female mortality is insufficient for a similar comparison to be made, for there is reason to think that female life is now passed in better hygienic conditions than formerly. The remedy suggested in America and Australia consists in a campaign against avoidable adult mortality; but there is some force in the caution of the Lancet that risk lies in the direction of faddiness. ‘PROF. THOMAS PURDIE, F.R.S. "THE value of a close, sympathetic relationship between professor and student is perhaps not fully recognised, and certainly can be properly appreciated only when it has formed part of a personal experience. The power of winning the affection and confidence of young men was a marked feature of the personality of Prof. Purdie, whose death was announced in Nature of Decem- ber 21 last; and no record of his life, however slight, would be complete without special reference to the wonderful insight and understanding that bound him to his students. During the twenty- five years he occupied the chair of chemistry in St. Andrews he devoted himself to the develop- ment of character in the undergraduate quite as much as to the simpler duty of converting him into a chemist. Purdie’s early experience in life enabled him to escape the limitations frequently imposed on the specialist. Born at Biggar in 1843, he spent seven years of his youth in South America, where, under conditions which were always primitive and often dangerous, he lived an active, open-air life. All his time, however, was not spent in the saddle. The flora of the pampas and the minerals of the hills .claimed his attention and interest, and aroused the spirit of inquiry which was never thereafter quenched. On his return to this country at the age of twenty-seven, definite direc- tion was given to these scientific instincts by a conversation with Huxley while walking under the cliffs at St. Andrews, and probably to this impetus can be traced his subsequent career as a chemist. After studying at the Royal School of Mines under Frankland, he went to Wirzburg, where he came under the inspiring influence of Wis- licenus, and a close and lasting friendship sprang up between the two men, who had much in common. His teaching experience was gained at South Kensington and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and in 1884 he was appointed to the vacant chair at St. Andrews. The University must for all time be grateful to the electors for their choice. Cramped accommodation, imperfect equipment, | and the fact that chemistry had then no official 392 NATURE [January 18, 19177 place in the curriculum were not regarded by him as insuperable difficulties. Original papers, many of which bore the names of students to whom he had communicated the spirit of research, flowed in steady succession from St. Andrews. Fifteen years ago he put into operation a scheme which had long been in his mind. He presented to the University a fully equipped research laboratory. This building, although erected in memory of his uncle, will always be regarded in St. Andrews as the outward symbol of Purdie’s life-work. With rare foresight the laboratories were made self-supporting by means of a generous endow- ment. This not only enables students to work free of charge, but can be used to assist them to remain at the University after graduation. In the best sense of the expression, Purdie founded a “research school.” His publications on optical activity, on the process of alkylation, and on the chemistry of sugars, apart from their intrinsic importance, must be regarded as models of accurate scientific work. Not only the successful student, or those who made chemistry a special study, drew inspiration from Purdie. His arresting personality, his eloquence in the lecture-room, and his philosophic treatment of the subject attracted men from every faculty, who now remember gratefully all they owe to him. The severe handicap of periodic attacks of asthma he bore uncomplainingly and with charac- teristic cheerfulness. His sympathies were im- mense; his door was never closed, his help never denied, to one in trouble. His tastes were simple and his interests varied. During vacations he travelled extensively or plied his rod on Highland lochs, and, as was once said of him, “on the links he played a good game—for a professor.” Although he retired about eight years ago, he’ may be said to have died in harness, for the department he created and the work of the Uni- versity he loved remained absorbing interests to the end. Recognition and honours came to him, and he must have had the satisfaction of looking on his work and finding it good; but what he probably prized most in his official life was the warm feeling he aroused in his students—a feeling which no St. Andrews man would wish to remain unex-, jeer pressed. DR. N. H. J. MILLER. 1? is with deep regret that we record the sudden death of Dr. N. H. J. Miller, at Harpenden, on Friday, January 12, from heart failure. Dr. Miller had worked for many years at Rothamsted ; he began under Lawes and Gilbert, having gone there in 1887 direct from college, and continued up to the day of his death. His chief work was the measurement of the amount of the combined nitrogen brought down in the rain, and of the amounts_of nitric nitrogen washed out from the soil. Both measurements were indispensable for the settlement of important controversies in agri- cultural chemistry. NO. 2464, VOL. 98] Liebig had argued that plants derived their nitrogen supply from the ammonia brought down in the rain, and supported his view by aralyses. which seemed to bear it out. He therefore urged that nitrogen need not be artificially supplied. “Tf the soil be suitable,” he wrote, “if it con- tains a sufficient quantity of alkalis, phosphates, and sulphates, nothing will be wanting. plants will derive their ammonia from the atmo- sphere as they do carbonic acid.” Had this view not been promptly controverted, it might have done untold harm to the new science and industry of artificial manuring by giving it a wrong turn at the outset, for Liebig’s position was very exalted. Lawes and Gilbert were unable to accept this statement, because they knew that in practice plants did require nitrogenous fertilisers, but they were equally unable to refute it because they had only isolated analyses of rain-water to go upon. The pioneering work of Warington had shown its im- probability, but only a long-continued series of analyses could finally dispose of it. This Miller undertook, and he continued the work without intermission for thirty years. A large gauge was erected at Rothamsted, 1/1ooo of an acre in extent, and he himself analysed a sample of every collection of rain. The results completely and finally disposed of Liebig’s erroneous view, and they have provided a remarkably continuous set of observations on the composition of rain which is never likely to be excelled. Nowhere else is there an unbroken series of analyses extending over so long a period made by one and the same man. The analysis of the drainage water settled equally conclusively a difficult and fundamental problem in soil chemistry. It was known that uncropped soils suffered a loss of nitrogen through the effect of weather, but the extent and nature of the loss were not known. In any single year it is too small to be investigated, and the only hope of success is to follow the change for a long period on the same plot of land. This Miller did on the drain gauges. All the drainage water was collected and analysed and the nitrate determined ; the results showed that the land lost in the form of nitrates from 35 to 4o lb. of nitrogen per acre per annum. After the work had continued for many years all these annual losses were added together, and a sample of soil was taken for the determination of the total nitrogen; this was com- pared with the initial amount so as to give the loss. those who had followed the experiment, the loss of nitrogen thus directly determined agreed within 10 per cent. with the amount of nitrate washed out. The result not only demonstrated the accuracy of the working, but it showed that in these conditions the loss is mainly due to the leaching out of nitrate. Miller’s detailed analyses show how the loss is distributed and provide a wealth of material for discussing the many im- portant problems connected with it. The work was tedious and would have been impossible for anyone with less patience and in- ‘The To the great satisfaction of Dr. Miller and — January 18, 1917] spired with less conscientious ideals. But Miller | knew the importance of getting the figures right, and spared no pains to keep his records unbroken. Dr. Miller was deeply interested in the litera- ture of agricultural chemistry, and unreservedly placed his knowledge of it at the disposal of his colleagues. For many years he did nearly the whole of the abstracting in agricultural chemistry for the Chemical Society, and of late years he wrote the society’s annual report on the progress of this subject. He will long be remembered as a painstaking, accurate worker—unhasting, un- resting—who, having undertaken a long investi- gation, would not relinquish it until he had finished it. E. J. Russet. NOTES. _ At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on Friday, January 12, the president announced that the council had awarded the gold medal of the society to Mr. W. S. Adams, of the Mount Wilson Solar Observa- tory, for his investigations in stellar spectroscopy, and especially for his determination of absolute magnitudes, WE learn from Science that the Bruce gold medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for the year 1917 has been awarded to Prof. E. E. Barnard, of the Yerkes Observatory, for his distinguished services to astronomy. The formal presentation will take place at ithe annual meeting of the society at San Francisco, on the evening of January 27. . THe disease known qs ‘‘epidemic jaundice” has occurred of late on the Western front. It is caused by a delicate spiral microbe, or spirochzete, which is present in the blood and ‘tissues in small numbers at certain stages; it was discovered by Inada and other Japanese observers in 1914. The organism probably has its natural habitat in the rat, from which man becomes infected either by direct contact or possibly by insect-carriers. Tue death as announced, in his seventy-first year, of Dr. T. H. Bean, a former president of the American Fisheries Societv. He was for many years connected with the U.S. Fish Commission, and was curator of fishes at the U.S. National Museum from 1880 to 1887. He was director of the New York Aquarium from 1895 to 1898. Since 1906 he had been fish culturist of the State of New York. Dr. Bean was the author of several volumes on ichthyology. Mr. Upny Yure, one of the honorary secretaries of the Royal Statistical Society, has been appointed head of the Information and Statistical ‘Bureau of the Ministry of Food. With Mr. Yule will be associated Prof. T. B. Wood, Drapers professor of agriculture in the University of Cambridge, and Prof. W. H. Thomp- son, professor of physiology, Trinity College, Dublin. THE Food Controller announces that he has ap- pointed a eommittee to make such arrangements as may be mecessary and expedient for the increase of supplies of fertilisers in the United Kingdom and for controlling, so far as may be necessary, their output and distribution. The following are the members of the committee :—Capt. C. Bathurst, M.P. (chairman), Mr. H. R. Campbell. Sir James J. Dobbie, Mr. R. R. Enfield, Capt. R. B. Greig, Mr. T. H. Middleton, Mr. W. Anker Simmons, Prof. W. Somerville, Mr. G. J. Stanley, Mr. R. J. Thompson, and Prof. T. B. Wood. Mr. H. Chambers will be the secretary to the com- mittee. NO. 2464, VoL. 98] NATURE. * 393 Tue council of the Geological Society has this year made the following awards :—Wollaston medal, Prof. A. F. A. Lacroix (Paris); Murchison medal, Dr. G. F. Matthew (Canada); Lyell medal, Dr. Wheelton Hind (Stoke-on-Trent); Bigsby medal, Mr. R. G. ‘Carruthers (H.M. Geological Survey); Wollaston Fund, Dr. P. G. H. Boswell (Imperial College of Science); Murchison Fund, Dr. W. Mackie (Elgin); Lyell Fund, Dr. A, H. Cox (King’s College, London) and Mr. T. C. Nicholas (Trinity College, Cambridge); Barlow- Jameson Fund, Mr. H. Dewey (H.M. Geological Sur- vey). ; Pror. anp Mrs. HerpMan have recently established and endowed an institute at Port Erin, Isle of Man, as a memorial to their son, Lieut. George A. Herdman, who was killed in action near Montaubon, in the battle of the Somme, on July 1, 1916. Lieut. Herdman spent a great part of his boyhood at Port Erin, associating with the local fishermen and working at the Marine Laboratory, and was well known there. The institute has been handed over permanently to the Commis- sioners of Port Erin. It is intended for the rest and social intercourse of the men, boatmen, and fishermen of the port, and to extend hospitality to fishermen, yachtsmen, and sailors visiting the harbour. Arrange- ments are made for the provision of refreshments and recreation, and opportunities for mutual self-education are being given by the collection of a library of works on navigation, fisheries, and general science. The institute was formally opened by Prof. and Mrs. Herd- man, and is now available for the men. PNEUMONIA is a disease of great importance to South African mining communities, contributing from 30 to 60 per cent. of the total mortality among native mine labourers. An exhaustive investigation upon the disease was conducted in 1911 and 1912 by Sir Almroth Wright and co-workers, and he recommended inocula- tion with pneumococcus vaccine as a preventive. ~ Dr. F. S. Lister has now completed a further experimental study of the subject. He finds that several races of pneumococci are associated with pneumonia in the Rand, and that rabbits inoculated three times with Ixilled pneumococcal vaccine in suitable doses are re- sistant to at least eight times the lethal dose of living pneumococcus for an untreated rabbit. For the pre- vention of the disease in man he recommends that three inoculations, at seven-day intervals, should be employed, each dose;consisting of 6000 million pneumo- cocci of each strain against which immunity is desired (the South African Institute for Medical Research, No. VIII., 1916). Tue death is announced in the Morning Post of Vicomte Charles de Foucauld, the French traveller and scholar. Thirty-five years ago Foucauld resigned from the French Army to travel in Morocco. In the dis- guise of a Jew merchant he explored parts of the Atlas region which were, and still are, closed to Christians. An account of these travels, entitled ‘‘ Reconnaissance en Maroc,” was published in 1888, and is still regarded as a standard work. It contains invaluable sketches and views and geographical information collected at great risks. After a brief period of travel in the Cauca- sus, Foucauld became a Trappist monk and returned to Africa. He visited the Targui country, explored it for several years, and collected a vast amount of in- formation on the language, customs, and literature of its people. Later he elected to settle in the desert, and for several years had lived at Tamanraset, half-way between Algeria and French Guinea, where he devoted himself to a study of the country and its people. He never attempted proselytising. Foucauld is reported to have met his death at the hands of brigands, but it is 394 hoped that the valuable manuscripts on the Touareg people which he was preparing may have escaped destruction. Pror. G. Extior SmirH contributes to the Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society for 1g15-16 an important paper on “Ships as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture.” In this commen- tary upon certain aspects of the history of. shipbuild- ing, he lays special stress upon the factors which in- fluenced the early development of the shipbuilder’s craft in Egypt. ‘I have indicated how the dug-out became transformed when more efficient tools enabled the Egyptians to shape the vessel, and add beams, at first tied. to its sides, to increase its capacity. The shape of the papyrus-boat determined the earliest form of the ship; and the Egyptian conception of the vessel as a living thing led to subsequent modifications in its build. All of these features, with distinctive methods of- rigging and steering, represent so many tokens of characteristic Egyptian inventions which can be re- cognised whereon ships have been built.” Tue current number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (vol. Ixii., part 1) contains a very complete and interesting account of the develop- ment of Alcyonium digitatum by Miss Annie Mat- thews. As thiscommon British species forms the usual laboratory type of the Alcyonaria, an up-to-date descrip- tion of its development will be of great value to zoological students, and Miss Matthews’s work is not only up to date, but also readable. One of the most interesting features of the development is the occur- rence of additional, imperfect mesenteries in the primary polyp, a very remarkable fact in view of the constancy with which the normal eight mesenteries occur throughout the entire group, possibly indicating an ancestral condition: in which many: mesenteries were present, Much light is also thrown upon the order of appearance of the polyps in the-young colony, and upon many details of development. An important paper on the early larval stages of the fresh-water eel (Anguilla) and some other Atlantic Murzenoids, by Dr. J. Schmidt, appears in Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Havundersogelser, Serie Fiskeri, Bind. v. ‘The author has had the good fortune to obtain ‘a ‘number. of ‘specimens of between eight and nine millimetres in’ length, which are ‘carefully de- scribed» and’ figured. ~He also describes and figures numerous specimens of the American eel, A. rostrata, and a number,of Leptocephalid forms which he regards as new species. He gives some valuable figures illus- trating the development of the hypural bones, and a number of others, greatly enlarged, showing the teeth during these early stages. As to the nature of the food seized by these teeth, and ‘the precise use of the anterior grasping teeth, which are long, median in position, and forwardly directed, nothing appears to be known. Tue National Geographic Magazine for November, 1916, is devoted to the description of the larger American mammals, and is illustrated by no fewer than thirty-two coloured plates of remarkable beauty by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and in addition to these are a number of uncoloured plates of no less merit. The text is by Mr. E. W. Nelson, the assistant-chief of the U.S. Biological Survey, and is thus in every way worthy of the illustrations. The descriptions are of necessity brief, but they are sufficient to furnish a survey of the salient features of each of the species described; its haunts, range, and numbers. We regret to note that the prong-horn antelope is almost as much in danger of extermination as ‘the sea-otter. Having NO. 2464, vor. 98] NATURE [JANUARY 18, I917 regard to the jealous guardianship which is nov played over the native fauna, it is surprising to be told that complaint has to be ade of ‘the despicable work of poachers, who are shooting elk [wapiti] for their two canine teeth, and leaving the body to the coyotes.” Information has been received that more than 500 were ruthlessly slaughtered for this purpose about the border of Yellowstone National Park during the winter of 1915-16. In referring to the size of the bull sperm-whale no mention was made of the very great disparity in size between the male and the female, nor is any mention made of the teeth of the upper jaw of the male. WE regret to learn that that old-established and very useful journal, the Zoologist, ceased to exist with the issue of the December number. In name, at any raté, it still survives, since it has been incorporated with “British Birds, published by Messrs. Witherby and Co. All other branches of natural history which found a place in the Zoologist will, however, now be excluded. This we gather from the January number of British Birds, which, at the same time, makes the welcome announcement that in future its pages will be open to articles and notes on the avifauna of other parts of the western portion of the Palearctic region, or, in other words, of Europe and North-West Africa. This number includes some valuable observations ‘*On the Breeding Habits of the Red-backed Shrike,” by Mr. J. H. Owen. The author believes that the cock is responsible for the “larder” peculiar to the shrikes, and that it is usually made during the incubating period, presumably for the use of the female. The indigestible parts of the food are thrown up by the young birds, he remarks, in the form of pellets. These are often so large that the very young birds are unable to expel them, so that they have to be drawn out of the mouth by one of the parents. Both birds take part in cleaning the nest, and the excrement for the first few days is swallowed by them, but later it is generally carried away and dropped at a distance from the nest. : AccorD1nG to the Chemical Trade Journal of Decem- © ber 30 the Trade and Industry Committee of the ~ Royal Colonial Institute has investigated the proper- ties of the grass lalang, which is found in large quan- tities close to the coasts of Malaya, as a possible paper- making material. ‘The grass, which can be obtained for the mere cost of collection, is shown by chemical analysis to .be capable of yielding a good quantity of cellulose, quite suitable for the manufacture of paper. It is very susceptible to the action of dilute alkalis, but the final product is unusually pure and readily resolved. After washing, the pulp obtained is uniform in quality and of good colour, and, subject to judicious treatment for the improvement of the latter, it would furnish a paper very suitable for printing purposes. A high-class wrapping paper, strong, and having a com- paratively high resistance to folding, would be obtained by using a mixture of half lalang grass pulp and half cotton beaten together. os Tue November issue of the Journal of the Board of Agriculture contains a useful summary of experimental work with palm-kernel cake’ carried out during the past year by Prof. C. Crowther and his colleagues in the Agricultural Department and Institute for Research in Animal Nutrition of the University of Leeds. The work includes studies of the palatability. digestibility, and keeping properties of the cake, together with an examination of its effects upon the vield and ‘composition of milk and butter. Apart from an initial reluctance of the animals to eat the cake, which was traced to difficulties of mastication, the dis- January 18, 1917] results were generally favourable, and demonstrated that the cake possesses qualities which should secure its*permanent inclusion in the list of feeding-stuffs widely used on British farms. Further work with palm-kernel products is reported by Prof. . Crowther in the December issue of the same journal, in an account of ’a practical feeding experiment with pigs, carried out on behalf of the ‘Co-operative Wholesale Society at their farm near Clitheroe. In this experiment with three groups of eighteen pigs each, palm-kernel cake and extracted palm-kernel meal were compared with the grade of milling offals known as “‘thirds."”” The cake proved an efficient and economical substitute for ‘‘ thirds,” and appreciably superior to the meal. These results should usefully supplement the great efforts now being made to secure for this country the palm-kernel crush- ing industry, the great importance of which from Imperial and national points of view was strikingly revealed in the recently issued report of the Edible Nuts Committee of the Colonial Office. _ Aw article on river frontiers in Europe, by Prof. L. W. Lyde (Scottish Geographical Magazine, xxxii., PP- 545-555), is an able rejoinder to Sir T. H. Holdich’s well-known views on the subject. Prof. Lyde holds that as war is not a normal condition, it is surprising that the accepted theory of frontiers is essentially a military one, the object of which is not to effect an international equilibrium across it, but to make inter- national intercourse, peaceful or otherwise, impossible. Prof. Lyde maintains that the principle of democracy is sufficiently mature to demand that boundaries should make for peace as well as for security. A navigable river €ncourages peaceful intercourse, and so has a civilising influence which cannot be said of any barrier which keeps peoples apart. Sir T. H. Holdich admits that a river makes a good boundary except on its plain course. But this contention, Prof. Lyde says, must be modified in the light of events in the present war. ‘The Danube proved to be an absolute defence to Bel- grade during four months in 1914, and in the great Russian retreat rivers backed by railways were defen- sive positions of enormous strength. Prof. Lyde cites the Plate, the St. Lawrence, and the lower’ Danube to show that a navigable river does not of necessity form an unstable boundary and become the property of the most pushing nation on its banks. Again, economic equilibrium, a necessary factor in inter- national equilibrium, is more likely to result from a river frontier, as that will hold a fair balance of the mineral and other wealth on either side. The author holds that if the new map of Europe is based on purely military lines, Europe will have to expiate it ‘once more on purely military lines. Mr. E. L. TROXELL traces back the one-toed horse toa new species, Pliohippus lullianus, discovered by him in the Lower Pliocene of S, Dakota (Am. Journ. Sci., vol. xlii., p. 335, 1916). This horse presents the unique feature of an ulna unfused at any point with the radius. AN interesting case of the replacement of calcite by iron pyrites as the cementing material of a sandstone is given by Mr. T. A. Jones in a note on Permo- Triassic sandstones of South-west Lancashire (Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc., vol. xii., p. 257, 1916). It may ‘be remembered that even quartz has been thus replaced during the formation of concretions in certain Karroo sandstones (see Nature, vol. xcv., p. 216). Grotocists interested in the much-discussed strati- graphy of New Zealand will find new material con- cerning the junction of Cretaceous and Cainozoic NO. 2464, VOL. 98] NATURE ; annual report (1916), p. 395° horizons in a paper by Mr. P. G. Morgan (‘‘ Notes of a Visit to Marlborough and North Canterbury, with especial reference to Unconformities post-dating the Amuri Limestones,’’ Geological Survey, N.Z., tenth 17). The unconformities traced by the author do not, as the title might imply, assign. a date to the Amuri Limestones, but. are above this horizon, and the lowest one divides the upper lime- stone from the Weka Pass.Stone. This break is shown to be widespread, but, like the others, may not be continuous throughout New Zealand. A “CataLocuE of the Collection of Meteorites” belonging to the Geological Survey of India, and pre- served in the Indian Museum in Calcutta, is given by Mr. J. Coggin Brown in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India (1916, vol, xliii., part 2, pp. 149-287). The private collection of the late R. P. Greg, purchased in 1865, formed the’ nucleus of this collection, which now represents 379 meteoritic falls, and is the largest in Asia. Previous catalogues were prepared in 1867 by Thomas Oldham, and in 1879-80, with a supple- ment in 1901. The main part of the present catalogue is occupied by an alphabetical list of the specimens arranged under the geographical names of the falls. There are brief descriptions of the individual specimens and their weights are recorded. A second short list gives an outline of the Brezina classification of meteor- ites, with the names of-falls represented in the collec- tion under each of the seventy-four groups. Amone the Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences of Washington (1916, xiv., pp. 1-29) Dr. G. P. Merrill, the head curator of geology in the United States National Museum, has recently pub- lished a report on researches on the chemical and mineralogical composition of meteorites, with especial reference to their minor constituents. When preparing an earlier paper on a similar subject he had been struck with the comparatively small number of trust- worthy analyses available, and the apparent similarity in, and simplicity of, the composition of meteorites. At his instigation careful analyses were made of twenty typical meteorites, ranging from irons to stones, by Dr. J. E. Whitfield, of Messrs. Booth, Garrett, and Blair, in Philadelphia, and the results obtained are tabulated, and in some instances compared with those published by earlier workers. | Occasionally considerable dis- crepancies were revealed, the most remarkable being in the case of the Collescipoli stone, in which none of the rare elements noted by Trottarelli could be found; on the other hand, wheyeas the latter gives nearly 8 per cent. of sulphur, Dr. Whitfield found none, and yet in the description of the stone the presence of metallic sulphide is noted. The analysis of meteorites is a task calling for care, skill, and unlimited patience owing to the paucity of material usually available and the necessity for testing for so many elements which can only be present in extremely small amounts, and it should, moreover, be combined with a careful micro. scopic examination of thin sections; obviously such work can only be undertaken as a labour of love. Some excellent specimens of the important tungsten ores, wolframite and scheelite, have just been received at the Imperial Institute from the Federated Malay States, and can be seen in the Malay Court of the Exhibition Galleries. As is now well known, the most important use of tungsten ores is in the manufacture of tungsten steel, of which large quantities are now being employed in munition fac. tories in Sheffield and elsewhere in the manufacture of high-speed tools and for other special purposes. Tungsten is also used in the form of wire in the manu- facture of metallic filaments for electric lamps. Wolf- ramite, commonly called wolfram, which forms the 396 bulk of the tungsten. ore produced, occurs in various parts of the main mountain range in British Malaya, and in Pahang and Trengganu. Scheelite is mined in Perak and Selangor. Tue current issue (vol. xlvii., part 3) of the Records of the Geological Survey of India contains a review of the mineral production of India during 1915, com- piled by the Director of the Survey. The results may fairly be described as satisfactory, having regard to the conditions set up by the European War. The total value of the mineral products shows an increase of more than 700,000l, above that for 1914, some of this in- crease being undoubtedly due to the higher prices obtained for many of the products. The most impor- tant of these, however—coal—actually shows a de- crease in value of 126,o00l., although the output has risen from 16,464,000 tons to 17,104,000 tons, due to the lack of sufficient shipping to transport it, in conse- quence of which the price at the pits necessarily de- clined. The gold output is practically the same as in 1914, but important increases in production are shown in tinstone, wolfram, and lead ore; these minerals come almost exclusively from Burma, where consider- able attention has recently been paid to the improve- ment of the means of transport and other facilities for the development of the mineral resources of the country. Petroleum is another mineral the produc- tion of which shows a very considerable increase. There has been a fall, on the other hand, in the out- put of manganese oré and iron ore; the reason for the former is to be found in the difficulty of . obtaining tonnage and in the high rates of freight. In this connection it is interesting to be able to chronicle the first attempt to utilise the ore within the peninsula, the Tata Company having put a furnace on to ferro- manganese, of which 2658 tons were produced. Atten- tion may also be directed to two pamphlets issued by the Department of Mines and Geology of the State of Mysore, one giving a brief account of the mineral resources of the State, which include, in addition to gold, ores of chromium, iron, and manganese, and the other a synopsis of the laws and regulations governing the issue of mineral licences; both these publications should prove of great interest to all who are, or are likely to be, interested in mining in this part of India. It is well known that the factors which determine the rate of evaporation of water from the earth’s sur- face are the depth of the surface of the water under- ground, the nature of the soil above this surface, the temperature and humidity of the air, and the speed with which it is moving. of the influence of each of these factors on the evaporation is known, but it has not been possible to determine the quantitative laws connecting them. The results of a research carried out by Messrs. F. S. Harris and J. S. Robinson at the Utah Agricultural Experimental Station during the past four years, and published in the United States Department of Agricul- ture Journal of Research for December 4, 1916, appear to justify the belief that before long these laws will have been discovered. By keeping the water level only a centimetre below the level of the surface of the sand or soil used, the authors have greatly reduced the effect of capillarity, and are able to give curves show- ing the effects of percentage of water in the soil, of the amount of dissolved salts in the water, of the size of grains and compactness of the soil, and of the speed, temperature, and humidity of the air on the rate of evaporation.” Copies of the paper may be obtained from the Government Printing Office, Washington, at 1o cents a copy. NO. 2464, VOL. 98] To a great extent the nature. NATURE [January 18, 1917, WuiLE the name of Pappus of Alexandria iis asso- ciated in the minds of modern mathematicians with Guldin in the theorem relating to ghe volume and area of the surface traced out by a moving closed curve, practically nothing is known of the life of. the geometer himself. An introductory paper on Pappus is now given by Dr. J. H. Weaver in the December Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. Of the eight works attributed to him, the only one extant even.in part is the ‘‘ Collectio,’ which is a summary in eight books of the works of preceding Greek mathe- maticians, of which Dr. Weaver gives a_ general account. Of this an edition was published by Hultsch, of Berlin, in 1876-78." Reference is also made to Sir T. J. Heath’s article on Pappus in the “ Encyclo- pedia Britannica,” eleventh edition. An outline of the mathematical course of an Italian — technical school is given by Prof. Virgil Snyder in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (xxiii., 3). The account refers to the Reale Istituto Tecnico Superiore of Milan, where, as elsewhere in Italy, the course extends over five years, and includes a two-year course in mathematics, physics, and chem- istry, as also in Italian and two other languages. Candidates for admission are required to be familiar with plane and solid geometry, plane trigonometry, algebra including determinants, theory of equations, graphical processes, and elementary projective geo- metry. Differential calculus is only commenced as 2 portion of a heavy course in the first term, and integra- tion in the second term is taken by the students, to- gether with an extensive discussion of analytical solid geometry. WHEN all the roots of an algebraic equation are _ complex with modulus unity, it is fairly evident that the equation must be reciprocal. Writing in the Tohoku Mathematical Journal (x., 3), Mr. A. Kempner, of Urbana, U.S.A., gives certain extensions of previous work relating to equations having roots of this special form, and in particular proposes a simple proof of the theorem that if one such pair of roots exists the equation must be reciprocal provided that it is irreducible in the domain of rationality formed by the coefficients. The journal contains the usual summary of new books and contents of mathematical periodicals, of which the latter form a very useful reference cata- logue of current mathematical literature. We could wish, however, that this portion, appealing as it does to readers of all nations, did not contain so much matter in Japanese characters, or that a translation were given in English or French. We have received an official publication of the Government of South Australia entitled ‘‘ An Investi- gation into the Prospects of Establishing a Paper- making Industry in South Australia,” by Mr. W. A. Hargreaves, being Bulletin No. 1 of the Department of Chemistry, of which the author is director, and “issued under the authority of the Hon. R. P. Blun- dell, Minister of Industry.”” Of indigenous raw mate- rials for paper-making Australia presents a conspicu- ous dearth, and Mr. Hargreaves’s conclusion from his — exhaustive investigations is that the only immediate industrial proposition is the utilisation of cereal straws ; lime-boiled for ‘‘strawbdards”’ and caustic-boiled for ‘cellulose’? papers—i.e. for printings and writings; in the latter case the paper-furnish requiring from 30-40 per cent. of bleached wood cellulose, which means an imported raw material. The cost of pro- duction of the bleached straw pulp from the hypo- thetical works’ cost-sheets is 71.-81. per ton; the pro- cess described and ‘costed’? is based on the caustic- soda boil, with So per cent. recovery, and the assump- | tion that ‘the losses of caustic soda are made up January 18, 1917] with sodium sulphate, because it is cheaper.” There is no reference to the consequent modification of the entire scheme in terms of the main product (cellulose) | and of the offensively malodorous volatile by-products. To the main report is appended one by Mr. D. C. Winterbottom on ‘‘Supplies and Cost of Raising * Marine Fibre,’’’ the remarkable product of Posidonia australis, more than one “promotion” has been attempted; according to the author, two of-these survive, of which the Posidonia Fibres Syndicate is producing “six to seven tons per week at Port Broughton. On his esti- mate of the costs of dredging, etc. (ql. 10s. 6d.), and subsequent handling, the clean; air-dry fibre cannot be produced to sell at less than 17l. per ton. A second appendix, by Mr. J. C. Earl, on the paper-making value of various South Australian raw materials, . deals with six indigenous products of little promise. War problems and after-the-war problems are dis- cussed by writers of every varying shade of opinion in Scientia, the Italian equivalent of our own Science Pro- gress, but which exhibits a more international tend- ency by publishing French translations of English and Italian articles. Thus Prof. Sayce (xix., 5) considers that the history of the Assyrian empire under Tiglath Pileser and his successors affords a lesson as to what may be expected from a military nation imbued with the spirit of world-conquest. In the same number Prof. Roberto Michels, of Turin and Bale, deals with - the demolition of the international labour movement. Prof. Knut Wicksell (Lund, Sweden) discusses the influence of over-population in stimulating wars, and expresses the somewhat sanguine prophecy that with the present decline of the birth-rate in European coun- tries peace conditions may become more possible (xix., 6). Prof. A. Pillet, of Paris (xx., 12), considers that the problem of the war from the Allies’ point of view involves the entire crushing of the German Empire. Peace conditions and what is to happen after the war form the subject of speculations at the hands of Prof. E. Catellani, Padua (xx., 8),.and E. Cecotti, Messina (xx., 6). Sir Alfred Hopkinson (xx., 12), while em- phasising the strict adherence to the principles of inter- national. law in the operations of the Allies, blames the neutral countries for not taking action in enforcing ‘the observance of similar principles on the enemy. But an attempt is made to apply the methods of exact science to the problem of when and what offers of peace should be made by a victorious belligerent, in a paper on ‘‘The Economic Dynamics of War,” by Prof. John Bates Clark, of Columbia University. In his opinion the time for making the offer is when the gain to be derived from continuing the war is more than outbalanced by the sacrifice required for its continuance. And the terms to be exacted from the vanquished side should consist of all that the prospective victor could gain by pushing his conquest to the bitter end minus the cost of so pushing it. If these terms are offered and can be secured: there is no advantage for either side to continue the struggle. Tue Open Court Company will publish very shortly a translation, from the first ‘edition, of ‘‘The Geo- metrical Lectures of Isaac Barrow.” The work will contain a portrait of Barrow, and an introduction and notes by J. M. Child. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Avrora Boreatis.—Mr. Denning writes that though the moon was nearly full on the evening of January 4 there was a brilliant occurrence of aurora observed from widely distant stations. The Rev. W. F. A. Ellison observed it from Fethard-on-Sea, near Water- NO. 2464, VOL. 98] ° NATURE For the industrial utilisation of this product 397 ford, and describes it as a particularly magnificent display. From Edinburgh, at about 1o p.m., there was also a fine exhibition, extending along a consider- able range of the northern horizon. Rapid variations were apparent in the details, the light alternately ap- pearing and disappearing. Clouds were very prevalent at low altitudes in the northern region, and the glow spread upwards from behind these with striking effect. At Bristol there was an auroral glow between about 8 and 9 p.m., and at 8.30 a bright streamer shot up- wards to about 15° W. of the Pole star. But the appear- ance was rendered somewhat inconspicuous by the unusual brilliancy of the moon, due to the very clear atmosphere. Dr. A. A. Rambaut, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, sends us the following notes of observations of this aurora made by Mr. W. H. Robinson at that observa- tory, and also of the bright meteor of the same date, referred to in last week’s Nature (p. 379) :—A bright haze in the northern sky attracted considerable atten- tion at Oxford soon after $8 p.m. on January 4. A long segment of an auroral arch lay along the horizon, with its apex at a small altitude in the N.N.W. Isolated streamers ap- peared, but generally for a few seconds only. The finest display occurred at 10.15 p.m. (or perhaps a minute or so later), when streamers suddenly developed all along the arch, lasting for a very brief interval, a white haze taking its place. At about 10.15 p.m. a brilliant fireball attracted notice, which ran rapidly downwards from the direction of the moon, passed 2° or 3° east of Jupiter, and burst, with a blue colour, 10° or 15° below the planet, its trail swiftly disappear- ing. The light of the meteor was distinctly more intense than that of the moon. An approximate esti- mate places the track from 3h. om., +18° (first seen), to oh. 45m., +5°. Cioups on Mars.—In the course of a report on the planet Mars, in which observations made by members of an international organisation are summarised and compared, Prof. W. H. Pickering makes several in- teresting references to clouds which appeared on the planet during the opposition of last year (Popular Astronomy, vol. xxiv., p. 639). Clouds were seen frequently by all the observers, and Prof. Pickering points out that the clouds always lie over the so-called desert regions of the planet, apparently being precipi- tated so soon as the fertile regions are reached. Dis- solution is sometimes very rapid. Only a few years ago it was claimed by some observers that clouds were rarely or never to be seen on Mars, but during the last opposition the planet was scarcely ever seen without them. The existence of clouds in the atmosphere of Mars appears to have been first established by Sir Norman Lockyer in his observations during the opposi- tion of 1862. Tue CEPpHEID VARIABLES.—The results of some fur- ther investigations of the relations between the orbital elements of Cepheid stars have been given by Dr. Ludendorff (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4869). He finds that for several stars resembling 6 Cephei, the elements are closely related, as shown in the formula 100¢ cos w= — 21°8 +.0°963(1 — e2)§K3P. 1073, where e, w, P are respectively the eccentricity, angle from periastron to node, and the period in days, while K is half the total amplitude of the radial velocity. A similar formula is applicable to stars resembling ¢ Geminorum, the two numbers on the right-hand side of the equation then becoming +2-4 and +0-73. Fur- ther confirmation has been obtained of the relation previously given by Dr. Ludendorff, 2K=47-3 A, where A is the range of variation im brightness expressed in magnitudes; this, however, appears to be valid only for stars of types F. to G. ; 395 GEOLOGICAL WORK IN CANADA AND AUSTRALASIA. pe Geological Survey.. of Canada publishes in Memoir 72 an account of *‘The Artesian Wells of Montreal,’ which is suggestive to investigators in other limestone districts. Out of 179 deep wells, only about twenty yield less than 5000 gallons a day. The water. usually comes in greatest abundance from depths of 300 to 1000 ft., and rises to within 30 ft. of the surface. .The chance of finding a good supply below tooo ft. is small, and it seems that the source of the water (p. 26) is the rain that falls on the St. Lawrence highlands and lowlands and creeps into the Palzozoic sediments. This water moves in the limestone along fissures and cracks, and is held up at no particular horizon; the closing of the fissures as the depth increases is held to explain its practical absence below tooo ft. The author, C. L. Cumming, discusses the origin ani possible interactions of the dissolved salts; the proportion of sodium carbonate is high for water in sedimentary deposits (p. 48), and ‘this salt may be derived from flow over the crystalline rocks of the’ Laurentian highlands. Fic. 1.—The Rocky Mountain Trench, looking east across the Kootenay River near Cranbrook, B.C. From ‘‘ Geology of Cranbrook Map-Area, British Columbia.” Four considerable memoirs deal with districts in British Columbia, and are accompanied by geological maps conveniently folded in pockets at the end. Memoir 55, by J. A. Allan, on the “Geology of Field Map-area, B.C. and Alberta,” covers the mountainous district on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains, where Mt. Goodsir rises to 11,676 ft., with residual glaciers on its steep north-east descent. One of the most famous stretches of the Canadian Pacific Railway lies within the area, and the continuous Cambrian section studied by Dr. C. D. Walcott in recent years occurs on Mt. Bosworth, in the north-east corner of the map. A mass of igneous rocks rich in alkalies was intruded through the older Palzozoic strata in post-Cretaceous times, and has been cut into by the valley of the Ice River. The richness of the prevalent nepheline-syenite in lime is attributed (p. 186) to its absorption of limestone at the contact-zone. The author points out (p. 42) the neces- sity for distinguishing cirques formed by local ex- cavation at high levels, by the action of Russell’s ““mountain-side”’ type of glacier, from those left behind as hanging valleys. This. distinction is even NO. 2464, VOL. 98] NATURE “the borders of Alaska. |] ANUARY 18, 1917 now worthy of emphasis, although Matthes’s work on “nivation”’ in .the Bighorn. Mountains has. justly attracted attention. — ; Toxada Island, the elongated and steeply flanked ridge that rises from the Strait. of Georgia, north- west of Vancouver, i$ described by R. G. McConnell (Memoir 58). The main rock is a great body of porphyrite of Lower Jurassic age, which shows pillow- structure (plates iv. and v.), here called nodular structure, though it seems to be an intrusive mass. Magnetite lenses, which sometimes form low hills, have encouraged mining. . They are held to be contact- products (p..77), connected with the younger intrusive rocks, which are in part of Lower Cretaceous age. The Cranbrook map-area has been studied by S. J. Schofield (Memoir 76), on account of the development of gold-mining in lodes in the eastern part of the Kootenay electoral division. The district is well served- by failways, which connect it southward with Mon- tana, and northward with the main Canadian highway west of Field. It includes the south end of the “Rocky Mountain Trench” (p. 10), which extends to Kootenay River runs southward, amid parklike and largely alluvial country, while deeply } dissected mountains of pre-Cambrian sediments rise beyond Cranbrook on ne the west. The Rocky Mountains on the east présent the appearance of a distinct range, their crests of re- markably even altitude _ being touched here and there with snow (Fig. 1). The composite Purcell . sills (p. 75), with upper zones of ».+-| micropegmatitic granite and lower : ‘| gravitational zones of gabbro, have much interest for petrographers. The singular course of the Koote- nay River brings it round the Pur- cell Range again into British Colum- bia, along the flooded valley known as Kootenay Lake, and westward out of this hollow to join, and largely to form, the rapid Columbia River descending on Washington and Oregon. Rossland (Memoir 77) lies on the. upper part of the Colum- bia, close to the International Boun- dary, which cares for none of the things of physical geography. The alpine landscapes here lie away upon the east, and the town has’ grown up in the last twenty-five years among glacially moulded and often wooded hills. From its sulphide ores the output of copper rose to a maximum in 1902. Gold is extracted from massive pyrrhotine and copper pyrites, in which it is occasionally visible in a free form. C. W. Drysdale, in this memoir of 317 pages, deals with mining matters first. The ores made their appearance (p. 92) in fissures in connection with the intrusive rocks of the Jurassic mountain-building stage, and secondary enrichment, including the rise of gold, occurred during the Miocene disturbances. The author inclines (p. 186) towards a ‘' three-cycle hypothesis’ of the development of the surface-features around Rossland, beginning with the dissection of the Cretaceous peneplane, of which very few traces now remain. The Laramide upheavals were the cause of this dissection, which continued through Eocene times. Movements in the Oligocene period led to the destruc- tion of much of the Eocene deposits by renewed erosion; and then Miocene diastrophism, accompanied by the introduction of mineral ores, provided a surface in which broad fairly mature features were established by the close of the Pliocene period. Renewed upwarp- . 4 In this tectonic feature the ~ January 18, 1917 | NATURE oog ing started the present cycle, which includes the modifying erosion of the Glacial epoch, The auther’s treatment involves some repetition from the sketch on pp. 41-43 to the final chapter on geological history (p. 244). His views are opposed to R. A. Daly’s broad conception of the Purcell and Rocky Mountain ranges as derived from the continuous dissection of the folded Laramide mass. The scenery, whether of mines or mountains, the rocks and minerals, and even the useful cores obtained from prospecting bore-holes, are well and fully illustrated. In a paper on the ‘“Nephelite Syenites of Hali- burton County, Ontario"’ (Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. xl., p. 413), W. G. Foye gives reasons for believing that the syenites rich in alkalies arose in the invading granite magma. in consequence of the interactions which converted the local limestone into amphibolite. The production of calcium silicates set free solutions richer in sodium than the invading granite, and these in places modified the granite mass. The field evi- dence adduced thus supports R. A. Daly’s theory of the origin of nepheline-bearing rocks From Australasia we receive E, Riss Saint-Smith’s report on the Stan- thorpe district of S. Queensland (Queensland Geol. Surv., Publication No. 243). The granites of the region show the characteristic “ bouldery weathering associated with tropical sunlight and clear starry nights. These granites and the finely grained more acid types that cut them have brought up cassiterite, wolfram, and molybdenite. The intrusion is pos- sibly of Mesozoic age. In Publica- tion No. 249 L. C. Ball gives a cautious description of the ‘Oil Shales in the Port Curtis District,’ where fireclays may prove to be an important asset. E. C. Andrews (New South Wales Geol. Surv., Mineral Resources, No. 18) regards the copper lodes of the Canbelego district (p. 63) as con- nected with Silurian or even older earth-movements. He reports in de- tail on the mines, which are asso- ciated with those of the Cobar copper- and gold-field, and lie up-country more than 300 miles north-west of Sydney. On p. 62 cerussite has by an accident become included in the oxides. R. L. Jack, with the aid of a team of camels, has explored a region between the Musgrave Ranges and the 28th parallel of latitude in South Australia (Geol. Surv: South Australia, Bulletin No. 5), and reports that the country could rear stock if a trustworthy water- supply could be obtained. He advocates (p. 35) the sinking of further wells; but the forethought required in underte king such w ork i is shown in the necessity for choosing ‘‘a good season, when water is obtainable to enable the first wells to be sunk.’’ The memoir, in addition to geological data, contains papers on the flora and on magnetic observations. The Government astronomer, G. F. Dodwell, contributes maps showing the magnetic declination, inclination, and horizontal intensity in South Australia. . Bulletin No. 61 of the Geological Survey of Western Australia, by J. T. Jutson (price 2s. 6d.), is a volume for geographical libraries and for any general reader interested in colonial progress. Its title, ‘‘An Outline of the Physiographical Geology (Physiography) of Western Australia,” is well borne out in its systemati- cally written chapters. Numerous maps and land- NO. 2464, VOL. 98] Fic. 2.—Natives working red ochre at the cave of Wilgie Mia, Western timber staging. scapes illustrate the surface-features and the flora. The tropical weathering and the arid condition of the interior will impress scholars in our islands, and the memoir may well be used by those who wish to illus- trate geographical principles by a new and unhack- neyed field. H. P. Woodward’s ‘Geological Recon- naissance of a Portion of the Murchison Goldfield”’ (Bull. 57) is of equal interest through its excellent illustrations of the country, several of which reappear in Jutson’s memoir. We are thus able to realise sheet- denudation caused by sudden rains falling on dry sur- faces, laterite caps on crumbling desert hills, and water- holes of dubious character. The holes mentioned on p. 35 have a palzontological interest, since they were found, on being ‘cleaned out,” to be full of dead kangaroos, thus serving as an example of the localisation of such remains in arid lands. Students of prehistoric man will note the valuable and fully illustrated account (pp. 74-89) of the native red-ochre mine at Wilgie Mia, where initiated medicine-men worked the pigment and developed a valuable trade (Fig. 2). The association Australia, with the aid of From *‘ Geological Reconnaissance of the Murchison Goldfield.” of the ochre with legendary blood-stains (p. 88) may be compared with the story of the origin of ‘the hematite veins on the face of Slieve Gallion in Co. Londonderry. The New Zealand Geological Survey, now under the direction of P. G. Morgan, has issued Bulletin No. 17, on the Buller-Mokihinui sub-division, a district on the coast of Westport. Despite preliminary difficulties of access, and in a district of deep gorges and high rain- fall, a large industry has been established in bifumin- ous coals that were formed in Eocene lakes. One seam on Magatini Creek is 54 ft. thick, and the authors, P. G. Morgan and J. A. Bartrum, write (p. 155): ‘‘ The numerous magnificent outcrops of clean, almost ashless, hard coal in this locality cannot fail to arouse enthusiasm in the spectator.’’ This shows the right spirit; and the volume also reveals the impression made by beautiful river-scenery. The word Graben for Graben occurs in several places; we cannot be too care- ful when importing such w ords into our geographical nomenclature, and we have recently noted the strange form dsar nearer home. Goon. Je C. 400 SCIENCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. HE seventeenth annual meeting of the Association of Public-School Science Masters was held at Eton College on January 3 and 4. In his presidential address, Prof. H. H. Turner dealt with two main points, namely, that few boys have in them the making of scientific investigators, and that more openings are required for those who possess these attributes. Just as some boys have no sense of appreciation for music, soothers are dead to scientific things, and may have a habitual dislike to them. It must, of course, be acknowledged that such types exist, but like indiffer- ence or antipathy can be found to all school subjects. Prof. Turner dealt with instruction in science as if its intention was to produce experts, whereas up to the age at which specialisation is. permitted in a school course, the scientific teaching should be that which can claim a place in general education as justly as the teaching of letters, history, and mathematics. Boys who specialise in science afterwards may become in- vestigators, but at present the careers open to them are few, and the prospects in them are unpromising. Prof. Turner suggested the formation of a Research Civil Service, parallel to the existing Administrative Civil ‘Service. There is plenty of work to be done, such as the survey cf our Empire, geodetically, mag- netically, gravitationally, bathymetrically, and in other ways. There are forestry and fisheries, and industrial research of many kinds. Work is less likely to fail than workers. Modern researches aie often of em- barrassing length and involve much labour, but schools may help with some of them, and Prof. Turner gave a number of instances, of which ‘‘ upper-air research” was one. He quoted Capt. Cave’s opinion that such work is suitable for boys, and would be scientifically valuable. Mr. O. H. Latter, of Charterhouse, in seconding a vote of thanks to the president, proposed by Mr. C. E. Ashford, of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, thought that the views of parents would have to be taken into consideration when contemplat- ing purely scientific investigation in schools. In this ‘connection he read the following letter received by him as typical of the attitude of many parents towards certain studies of natural history :— “‘T wonder if I may ask your co-operation in regard to my son? I believe you are the principal natural science master, and that he has been under your tuition from time to time. The boy’s extraordinary liking for what I regard as the most repulsive branch of natural history—newts, beetles, and insects—is a source of much disappointment both to his mother and to me. Can you either directly or indirectly turn his mind to a higher and more refined branch of the subject —hirds, trees, or flowers? I cannot help feeling that the tendency of his present study is degrading, and I | shall be glad to know if you think you can influence him in the wav I suggest. If you can, I shall be extremely grateful to you.” Prof. R, A. Gregory, in opening a discussion on “Science for the Rank and File,” said it is necessary | to distinguish clearly between courses of work suitable for the rank and file and those intended as preliminary training for scientific or industrial careers. One has to do with science as an essential element of a liberal education; the other with vocational instruction. The former is at least as important as the latter, and little justification can be found for the concentrated attention given to a few subjects, with the view of imparting knowledge of experimental methods, when such a course means that the wonders of the fields beyond are kept outside the range of vision. For the impart- ing of the rudiments of a liberal education to all pupils the descriptive and qualitative school science of a NO. 2464, VoL. 98] NATURE [JANUARY 18, 1917 | generation ago is better adapted than the quantitative. work in-the narrow fields mapped out for instruction — to-day. A plea was made for the introduction of de- scriptive lessons and reading intended to stimulate interest in scientific work and achievement and their relation to modern life, instead of limiting the teaching to dehumanised material of physics and chemistry. Different aspects of this general subject of science for. all were put forward in papers on :—A scheme of in- struction in science for all boys throughout their school career, i.e. some science indispensable for all boys, by Mr. F. S. Young (Bishop’s Stortford); the teaching of science on the classical side, by the Rev. S. A. McDowall (Winchester); the age for beginning serious science, by Mr. W. D. Eggar (Eton); classics the basis" of a scientific education, by the Rev. A. L. Cortie, S.J. (Stonyhurst); how far can the advantages derived from teaching classics be derived from science? by the Rev. F. G. Forder (Charterhouse). On the second day of the meeting, the first subject of discussion was technical bias in schools, and the papers read were :—School science in its relation to modern industrial problems, by Mr. E. R. Thomas (Rugby); school chemistry with a technical bias, by Mr. W. J. Gale (King’s College School, Wimbledon) ; value and danger of giving a technical.or topical trend , to scientific education, by Mr. D. Berridge (Malvern). There was also a discussion on the place of text-books in science teaching, opened by Mr. G. N. Pingriff (University College School). In the course of the discussion on technical bias in schools, Prof. A. Smithells said that in teaching science it should never be forgotten that however perfect might be the inculcation of scientific method, however sound the mental discipline, however powerful the in- tellectual weapon they supplied, unless they showed how science bore upon the environment and avocations of human life—unless, in fact, they humanised it— science could not flow effectually into the general cul- ture of the nation. ; i Mr. C. L. Bryant, secretary of the association, in reading the report of the committee, said that towards: — the end of 1915 it was decided to arouse public opinion on the lack of appreciation of science in this country, and as the result of the work of a sub-committee, Mr. M. D. Hill was able to form what became known as the ‘‘ Neglect of Science Committee.” The committee of the association has also drawn up a memo- randum containing a statement of facts, prin- ciples, ‘and policy, which served as a text for discussion between a deputation and the Govern- ment Committee on Science in Education. In view of the growing opinion that training in science forms an essential part of a liberal education, the com- mittee of the association has drafted a scheme of work which it considers to be suitable for all boys at the public schools up to. the age of about sixteen and a half years. The meeting passed, nem. con., a motion expressing general approval of this scheme. FERTILISERS AND AGRICULTURAL ‘ PRODUCTION. ap ee, January issue of Blackwood’s Magazine con- tains an important article by Prof. W. Somer- ville entitled ‘Increased Agricultural Production.” As indicative of the present position of British agri- culture, the author points out that of the food con- sumed we produce only one-fifth of the wheat, rather more than half the meat, one-quarter of the butter and margarine, one-fifth of the cheese, and nearly all the milk. The chief factor causing the reduction of the area of land tilled was the great increase in the : a Sr Or January 18, 1917] amount of wheat imported from North America in the “seventies and ’eighties. In the past forty-three years ‘Great Britain has lost 3} million acres of tillage crops, including 14 million acres of wheat, and has produced no more meat, although the milk production has doubtless increased. This fact supports the contention thatthe area of land under crops may be largely increased without any decrease of stock-keeping. After contrasting the English and German increase in food-production in ‘the past forty years as shown ‘by the recent Memorandum of the Board of Agricul- ‘ture, and summarising the recommendations of the English, Scottish, and Irish Committees for increased food production during the war, Prof. Somerville urges that the post-war problem of a large permanent in- crease in food.production is the more difficult to solve. The solution of the problem is complicated by the con- sideration that if a durable peace is obtained ‘there will be a long period available for the reconstruction of our agriculture, whilst if only an ‘‘armed" peace results from the present conflict, rearrangement will be necessary in the shortest possible time. Given that jit is desirable to secure an increase of a million acres of wheat, many consider that this could be effected by guaranteeing a minimum price, which presumably wwould haye to be extended to oats as well as to wheat, since the latter is of quite subordinate importance in Scotland and Ireland. ; __A rather more attractive suggestion is that farmers ‘should be granted a bonus on the area of grass land ‘converted to arable: this has recently been adopted in France. - But there is one way in which an immediate and large increase in production can be effected, namely, by using on British land the whole of. the ‘ammonium sulphate produced in this country. Of the 400,000 tons of this fertiliser annually produced, 294,000 -tons were exported in 1915, and for 1916 the amount .was probably about 250,000 tons. If the latter were used on one-fourth of the area under wheat, oats, roots, potatoes, and hay, it would only give 60 Ib..to the acre. Representing sulphate of ammonia in terms of wheat. the amount exported in 1916 is equivalent ,to 23 million quarters of wheat—i.e. an addition of ‘more than 30 per cent. to our present home-grown supply. Further, the exportation of fertiliser and im- ‘portation of wheat require shipping to the extent of ‘800,000 tons, and result in an adverse trade balance of 4,575,000. ; ’ The case for prohibiting the export of ammonium sulphate is.enormously strengthened by the reduction in the import.of sodium nitrate in 1916. Since the ‘latter decrease has not been compensated for by in- ‘creased use of sulphate of ammonia, the land must have suffered a reduction in fertility. The 40,000 tons of basic slag exported in 1916 could be used on British land even more easily than the ammonium sulphate. It would suffice to produce 3,200,000 Ib. of meat annually for five years, and here again considerations of freight and exchange are in favour of prohibited export. The use of basic slag on second-rate and inferior pastures is the most certain way of increasing production of food, and it is imvortant now, because it involves only a fraction of the man and horse labour ‘necessary for tillage. : Prof. Somerville is of the opinion that some measure of compulsion will be necessary, and advocates the establishment of local committees to decide which farms can make best use of the sulphate of ammonia and basic slag available, and which grass. lands _are to be tilled. . Although recognising _ their obvious advantages, he considers that the creation of small holdings would prove more a hindrance than a help in regard to the production of the major part of the people’s food. ; . NO. 2464, VoL. 98] NATURE Eee 401 ITALIAN METEOROLOGY} A NUMBER of useful meteorological memoirs by Prof. Eredia, of the Central Meteorological and Geophysical Institute of Rome, deal with various aspects of the meteorology of Italy. No. 1 is the Italian meteorological observers’ handbook, copiously illustrated, in which full instructions are given regard- ing the installation of instruments for a normal sta- tion, along with practical hints regarding its main- tenance. Instructions are also given for the taking of phenological observations. “The Variation of the Climate in Italy” (No. 2) is a reprint of apaper read at the tenth International Geographical Congress held in Rome during 1913, in which the mean annual tempera- ture from 1866 to 1910 at sixteen stations is discussed, The warmest year was 1879, except in the insular areas, while 1900 was the coldest. The temperature varia- tions, it may be said, are in. general the reverse of those in the British Isles.. Fog frequency over the region embraced by Lombardy, Venetia, and Emilia, based on data for twenty-three-stations over the period 1892-1914, forms the subject-matter of No. 3. From May to August there are few fogs, the maximum taking place in winter Maps of fog frequency are given for the autumn, winter, and for the year, while several isobaric charts indicate the conditions asso- ciated with some. winter fogs. The storm of October 7, 1915, along with a synopsis of storm frequency at the Tripoli Observatory from 1892 to 1914, is dealt with in No. 4. Isobaric charts referring to 8 a.m. and 9 p.m, illustrate the progress of the October storm. At Tripoli during the twenty- three years under consideration 164 storms were ob- served, the greatest number recorded being twenty in 1906, and the least number two in 1913 and 1914. The frequency by seasons shows that autumn is the stormiest time of the year with sixty-nine instances, followed by spring with forty-five, winter with thirty- three; while.in summer only seventeen were noted. The diurnal period shows a maximum in the three hours ending 9 p.m., when storms are six times more numerous than in the three hours ending with 3 p.m. The rainfall associated with the storms discussed is small. In forty-five cases none was measured, and in forty-one other cases less than 5 mm. fell. In nine- teen instances the fall exceeded 20 mm. A general review of the various drosometers hitherto employed for the registration of the amount of dew is given in No. s, along with a description of a new form employed by the institute, which has many features to recom- mend it. RvGuMe ETHNOBOTANY OF AMERICAN INDIANS. JN the thirtieth annual report of the Bureau’ of American Ethnology, Mr. M. C. Stevenson pub- lishes an elaborate article on the ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians. This tribe had discovered the medicinal value of a large number of plants, one of the most important of which is the Jamestown weed (Datura meteloides), and the writer observes that from the symptoms caused by this drug, its homeeopathic adapt- ability to hydrophobia will be at once evident. ‘“¥here is-no drug so far proven that deserves as thorough and careful a trial’ in this dread disease as stramanium:” “They learned the value of Datura meteloides as a narcotic perhaps centuries before the birth of Baron Stoerck, of Vienna, who first brought it to the atten- 1 (1) * Norme pe l'impianto e per il funzionamento della stazioni_ ternic- udometriche.” p. 41. (Rome, 1916.) (2) “‘ Le variazioni del clima in Italia.” Pp. 23. (Rome, 1915.) (3) ‘‘ Lenebbie in Val Padana.” Pp. r2+ charts. (Rome, 1916.) (4) ‘‘Sul temporale verificatori a Tripoli nell’ ottobre 1915 € sulla distribuzione dei temporali en Tripolitania.” Pp. 17. (Rome, 1916.).. (5) ‘‘ Sulla misuraz‘one della rugiada.” . Pp. rr. . (Firenze, 1915+) é 402 NATURE [JANUARY 18, 1917 tion of the medical profession, and the use of anti- septics while’ Lister was still unknown. . How long ergot has been employed by the Zuni for the chief purpose to which it is devoted by civilised men, no one ‘can say.” The subject of the ethnobotany of the American Indians is discussed in an elaborate report on “ Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation,’ by Mr. F. W. Waugh, published as Memoir No. 86 by the Department of Mines, Canada. We have a full account of their agri- cultural methods and customs, their cooking and eating ‘customs, and the utensils employed in gathering, pre- paring, and cooking food. The method of rain-making is of interest. The performer, stripped to the waist, or lad only ina breech-cloth, burns tobacco, and calls upon the Thunder Man, in return for his offering of tobacco, to provide abundant rainfall. Another curious custom is that of subjecting girls at puberty to the task of grinding a quantity of the hardest grain which can be found: if she fails to accomplish the task she is believed to be unfit for married life. Spoons used in eating are decorated with designs which are disclosed in dreams, and interpreted by the local seer. Such ‘dream-objects presented to the sick secure recovery. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Lonxpon.—Ten public lectures on ‘‘Science and the Empire: the Exploitation of Plants,” arranged in co- ‘operation with the Imperial Studies Committee, will be delivered at University College during the term which opened on Monday. The introductory lecture on January 22 will be by Prof. F. W. Oliver, and the remaining lectures are to be as follows :—Plant food and soil problems, Prof. W. B. Bottomley; Tim- ber production in Britain, Dr, E. J. Salisbury; Cotton, Dr. W. Lawrence Balls: Tea-making, Dr. ‘S. E. Chandler; The plant as healer, Dr. E. N. Thomas; Tropical exploitation, with especial reference to rubber, Dr. J. C. Willis; Vegetable dyes, Dr. S. M. Baker; Diseases of plants, Dr;.H. €.. i. Gwynne- Vaughan; Coal, Dr. Marie C. Stopes. All these lec- tures are open to the public without fee. Mr. Joserpu Yates, of the Blackburn Technical School, has been appointed head of the chemistry de- partment of the Derby Technical College. Tue sum of 20,0001. has been given anonymously to the Higher Institute of Medicine for Women at Petro- grad for the foundation of scholarships in the name of Count Vorontzoff, who died in 1916. A serIes of popular lectures by Miss Edith’ A. Browne on “The Tropical Products and Industries of the Empire,” illustrated by the collections of the Imperial Institute, began yesterday, and will be con- tinued on Wednesdays in January, February, March, and April, at the Imperial Institute, at 3 o’clock. Ad- mission to the lectures is free by ticket, for which appli- cation should be made to the director of the Imperial Institute, South Kensington. Ar the Guildhall Art Gallery on January 12 the Lord Mayor took the chair at the annual general meeting of the Royal Drawing Society, when the annual report was presented and speeches were made on the need for convincing educationists of the value of. drawing for school work in general, but especially with refer- ence to science teaching. eeite Aurora Borealis- os... » - . 1 “ Vermessungen am Rh onegletscher, 1874-1915." Geleitet und heraus- gegeben von den Gletscher-Kommission der Schweizerischen Naturfor- schenden Gesellschaft (Neue Denkechriften der Schweizerischen Natur- forschenden Gesellschaft). Band lii. Pp. r90 + maps and illustrations. (Bale, Geneva, and Lyons: Georg and Co., 1916.) NO. 2466, voL. 98] NATURE Fic. 1.—The Rhone Glacier in August, 1849. [FEBRUARY I, 1917. five miles distant in a_ straight line from the Rhone Glacier, their phases “are likely to corre- spond. In 1540 these had greatly shrunk, but they made an equally marked advance from 1575, to 1600, and attained, during the next two years,, the greatest extension on record. A retreat then. began, which became important between 1661 and 1686, but the glaciers advanced again in 1703: and retired in 1720. From 1743 to 1779 was a period of marked advance, which culminated im the latter year, and was followed by a retreat, which, if the shepherds of the district can be trusted, had already set in with the Rhone Glacier. But in 1819 the Grindelwald glaciers. had again become large, though they had not: reached the limit of 1602. Then came a period of retreat, but between 1840 and 1855 they again moved forward, like the other glaciers of the From a daguerreotype. Alps, though not to their former limit; then, in the latter year, the recession began, which lasted, with slight oscillations, not always in correspondence, until 1912, when both glaciers moved forward. But this retreat was at first very slow, for in 1858 the torrent from the Lower Glacier issued from an ice-cave on the bed of the main valley, and the deep gorge, now made accessible, was wholly hidden by the ice. In that year also the Rhone Glacier had a swollen end, and in the following one the writer saw the Gorner Glacier at Zermatt ploughing up the turf in front. But two or three years later the retreat became rapid, so that by 1870 the gorge and the old marble quarry at Grindelwald had been exposed. It is difficult to account for these variations in the size of glaciers. The information collected. during recent years indicates that, as a rule,. FEBRUARY I, I9I7| NATURE ~ 431 diminution has affected a wide area, and thus suggests a cause operating on a large part, if not the whole, of the earth’s surface; while, as the supply basin is limited in valley glaciers, it would require a considerable rise or fall in the mean tem- perature materially to affect the volume of them, neither of which has been observed. Still, an increased or diminished precipitation of snow on the névé of the ice-stream would affect the latter, besides altering the surface ablation of the stream itself. But as the amount of precipitation in- creases in ascending a mountain range from the lowlands, and then diminishes, much may depend upon the position of the zone on which it is at a maximum. As that zone probably does not exceed, at any rate in the Alps, a thousand feet Fic. 2.—The Rhone Glacier on August zo, 1912. vertical, rather small variations in the mean tem- perature or snowfall of a region may produce somewhat marked effects. The last period of diminution, now more than half a century, seems to bear no relation to either the eleven-year sun- spot period or Briickner’s thirty-five-year one, and thus suggests a complication of causes. Be that as it may, in this memoir on the Rhone Glacier the variations in its length, area, volume, and level, the snowfall and ablation, the move- ment of its several parts, and the relation between the velocity of the surface and the thickness of the ice, are all placed on record, so that students of glaciers owe a debt of gratitude to the authors of this volume and the Swiss Natural History Society. T. G. Bonney. NO. 2466, VOL. 98] SOURCES OF NITROGEN COMPOUNDS IN. THE UNITED STATES. Ream problem of how to turn the vast store of uncombined nitrogen which exists in the atmosphere into useful products may be said to have been only seriously attacked within the life- time of the present generation. It had its origin in the growing demand for forms of combined nitrogen suitable for use in the arts, and more particularly in agriculture, the oldest of all the arts. But circumstances arising out of the present world-wide struggle, affecting in greater or less degree every nation, but more particularly those engaged in the war, have forced the problem into still greater: prominence by demonstrating how intimately it is bound up with the question of national defence. Indeed, as regards the Central Powers, their very existence is dependent upon it, as they now painfully realise. Accordingly nearly every highly developed nation is considering it, and its urgency is shown by the circumstance that its solution is no longer left wholly to individual effort or private enter- prise. Even our own Government, hitherto not very prompt to initiate action in such matters, has been moved to recognise its national import- ance, and has got so far.as to appoint at least two ' committees associated with public departments to consider and report upon it. In this connection it is of interest to note how the question. strikes American expert opinion. This is revealed in the publication before us by Dr. C. G. Gilbert, recently issued by the Smithsonian Institution. As the author points out, in the extension of chemical needs,.as inthe development of cyaniding in industry, of refrigeration in the preservation of foodstuffs, and more especially in the increased use of fertilisers, nitrogen compounds are now necessary not only to the welfare, but to the very existence of a people living under modern con- ditions of economic development. Until within a few years past, the yields from India, from Con- tinental sewage-farms, together with the natural supplies from -South America, have met the demand for nitrates. Ammoniacal compounds have been produced in rapidly increasing quanti- ties, as by-products, in the various methods of the destructive distillation of coal, peat, and oil- shale ; in producer and blast-furnace gas; in bone carbonising, in sewage and garbage disposal, and in a variety of other methods; and the sulphate of ammonia thus obtained bids fair to overtake, if not largely to supplant, Chile saltpetre as a fertiliser. But even these combined sources are now proving inadequate to meet the world’s de- mands, and the increasing necessity has stimulated efforts to effect the synthetic production of ammonia and nitric acid from atmospheric nitrogen. Of the several methods of accomplishing this synthesis there are at present, so far as is known, ‘only three which are commercially practicable, 1 “*Sources of Nitrogen Compounds in the United States." By Dr. C. G. Gilbert. (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1916.) 432 NATURE [FEBRUARY I, 1917 viz. the are method, the cyanamide process, and the Haber process. It is with the working and the results of these processes that Dr. Gilbert’s report is particularly concerned. In what follows we purpose to summarise, as briefly as possible, the main conclusions to which his critical examina- tion leads him. The arc method in its present state of efficiency requires from 2°75 to 3 h.p.-year of electric power per ton of nitric acid yield. Having regard to conditions in the United States, the 2°75 h.p. needed for the fixation of the nitrogen in one ton of nitric acid costs in power-expense alone more than 4o dollars per ton of product. Inasmuch as the fertiliser equivalent in Chile saltpetre is already available at about the same price, the arc method is not commercially feasible under present con- ditions in America. Notwithstanding this, the U.S. Government is said to be contemplating a twenty million dollar project for atmospheric nitrogen fixation as a military measure. If this sum were put into power-site development it would furnish about £50,000 h.p., capable of yielding. about 50,000 tons of nitric acid, or only about a quarter of that needed in military emer- gency. power generation of about 600,000 h.p. would be needed, or some 50,000 h.p. more than the total Niagara power development. As a commercial proposition for peace-time working the arc method offers not a single advantage, and is of very doubtful benefit even as a measure of military preparedness. The cyanamide process yields three. main pro- ducts, viz. cyanamide, ammonia, and nitric acid, the nitric acid being the end product instead of the first, as in the arc method. Up to the nitric acid stage the power consumption is approximately 4 h.p.-year per ton of nitric acid, or about one-sixth to one-fifth of that of the arc method, and the normal peace-time first product is at once applicable to agricultural purposes. A consideration of all the circumstances makes it abundantly evident that the cyanamide process far outweighs in applicability, convenience, and economy the are method. When all is reckoned it requires only from three-fifths to two-thirds of the total power involved in the arc method manu- facture, in addition to the value of a product normally in demand as against one for which there is relatively very little constant requirement. The Haber process is exclusively worked in Germany. It is a catalytic process involving many technical difficulties which have hitherto pre- vented its extension even under present exigencies. Its production of ammonium sulphate is said to amount to 200,000 tons a year. Nothing is known as to comparative costs, but inasmuch as the process would seem not to have greatly extended, its permanent position is still open to doubt. The general conclusions at which Dr. Gilbert arrives are: (1) That the arc method has not thus far demonstrated its capacity to meet agricultural requirements at all, and defence requirements only very imperfectly. (2) Such knowledge as there is of the Haber process seems to show that its NO. 2466, VoL. 98] To satisfy Government requirements a’ | record of achievement is against it, and in any case it is unsuited to American conditions, at least in its present stage of development. (3) The cyanamide process is readily capable of a develop- ment which at once meets the requirements for a cheapened nitrogenous fertiliser, of which the nitrogen content can be converted into nitric acid. But whatever may be the relative value of these different synthetic processes, and whatever the future may have in store for them, Dr. Gilbert is evidently disposed to believe that it is by the systematic extension of the coking industry, and by the more rational treatment of our coal, so as to increase the yield of by-products, that the main increase in our supply of nitrogenous fertilisers is to be looked for immediately. He calculates that in America a total of about 700,000 tons of sul- phate of ammonia would be possible if all coking were of a by-product nature, and he confidently predicts that not far short of this amount will be reached when the ovens now in course of erection in the States are in full working order. In the meantime are we doing all that we can in this direction ? T. E. THORPE. LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN EDUCATION. eee Dr. Johnson kept school at Lichfield ; in 1736 he drew up a “Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School,” which his~ bio- grapher, Boswell, inserted in the pages of the famous “Life” with the remark that “ Johnson — well knew the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth.’”’ The scheme con- sisted of Latin accidence, translation, and syntax in the lower classes, with the addition of Greek in the third class.. No other subject was men- tioned. For a hundred years or more this was broadly the basis of the system adopted through- out English grammar schools, with the addition of a little arithmetic, geography, and history. Dr. Sleath, High Master of St. Paul’s School down to 1847, is reported to have said once to an inquiring parent: ‘“‘ Madam, at St. Paul’s we teach. only Latin and Greek. We give three half-holidays _ a week that boys may learn mathematics.” In the early fifties of the nineteenth century a little experimental science crept in almost shame- facedly, introduced by the peripatetic teacher with his box of tricks. But probably the first instance of a systematic teaching of science by resident teachers was at the well-known school at Queen- wood, Hants, with Frankland and Tyndall as the masters. This-was in 1847, but it was not until twenty years later that this example was followed in other schools. Then Clifton took the lead in 1867, and was followed immediately by the Man- chester Grammar School. Since that day matters. have improved so substantially that there are few schools of any pretensions which do not possess a good laboratory and competent teachers. Such facts might seem to justify the question by representatives of the older subjects: ‘“‘ What more do you want, then, and what do you mean by the neglect of science?” The fact is that there FEBRUARY 1, 1917] has not been, and in some quarters there is not at the present time, that straightforward dealing with the question to which the advocates of more science think they are entitled. The reluctance of the literary people to yield up a fair propor- tion of the time-table to the modern studies lies at the root of the matter. It is now a question of curriculum, and even in the schools which boast laboratories and appliances the controversy will never end until this barrier is overcome. It is, there- fore, particularly gratifying to observe the attitude of the Headmasters’ Conference as represented by the resolutions printed in Nature of January 4 (p. 359). Among the resolutions passed the fol- lowirig is conspicuous :— (a) That it is essential to a boy’s general education that he should have some knowledge of the natural laws underlying the phenomena of daily life, and some training in their experimental investigation. (b) That, in the opinion of this Conference, this can best be ensured by giving to all boys adequate courses of generalised science work, which would normally be completed for the ordinary boy at the age of sixteen. (c) That, after this stage, boys who require it should take up science work of a more specialised type. Nothing can be better as a statement of a generalised opinion, and we may hope that head- masters will see that it is put into practical effect. There is some ground for belief that this hope will not be in every case disappointed. The address delivered on Tuesday, January 9, by the Rev. J. R. Wynne-Edwards as president of the In- porated Association of Headmasters (see NATURE, January 11, p. 380) does not appear to be the utter- ance of a man who is toying with the question, and the distribution of hours at the Leeds Grammar School, of which he is headmaster, would doubt- less be found more satisfactory than in some other places. There is not great divergence of opinion in respect to fundamental principles, if we except a comparatively few extreme partisans on both sides. But a satisfactory position is not allotted to the natural sciences in those schools in which an engineering or military side composed of special- ists has been established, while the majority of the boys in the school—namely, those to be found on the classical side, which includes many of the best—are put off with two hours a week or less in a time-table which covers thirty hours for other subjects. It is not the function of the schools to provide a body of scientific specialists, but every boy and girl in the kingdom should have time and opportunity for the acquisition of some degree of familiarity with the chief methods and conclusions of the observational and experimental sciences. Concentration on special or technical matters should not be encouraged before the age _ of sixteen or seventeen, and should not be sought in the curriculum of a general education. The testimony of a business man on this point ought to serve to correct the views of many parents, and it is worthy of notice that Mr. W. L. Hichens (chairman of Messrs. Cammell Laird and Co.), in an important paper contributed to the same meeting, expressed the opinion that “specialised education at school was of no practical value.” NO. 2466, VOL. 98] NATURE 433 On the second day of the meeting (January 10) a paper was read by Mr. A. D. Hall, F.R.S., a Development Commissioner and formerly director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, on “A General Course of Science for the Secondary School.” Mr. Hall made no claim for any kind of training directly applicable to industry. He desired to see a broad and liberal treatment of science, and in the outline he proceeded to sketch he included a larger share than is customary of studies in the domain of biology. In doing this he was not afraid of the charge of smattering. It would be interesting indeed to look into the details of his scheme of work, remembering that this is the outcome of the mature experience of a former schoolmaster. Mr. Hall was at one time chief science master in King Edward’s School, Birmingham. A paper by Mr. A. C. Benson, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, read before the Royal Society of Arts on December 20 on the subject of “Literature and Science in Education,” will be welcomed by all teachers of science and others interested in progress towards the com- promise which must be arrived at if peace is to be secured. Mr. Benson is a well-known literary man with full experience as a teacher, having been for twenty years a master at Eton. It is all the more gratifying, therefore, to find the conciliatory spirit, the liberality of view, and the freedom from prejudice which pervade his paper. It is impos- sible adequately to summarise it, and it should be read especially by headmasters. One point on which he lays emphasis is the importance of securing good and enthusiastic teachers, and this implies the necessity for rendering the teaching profession more attractive than it has been in the past. With regard to subjects he says: “I do not believe in intellectual progress being possible without intellectual interest "—a view which will be generally acceptable to the present generation, even among those who are not old enough to look back to the time when Latin grammar with plenty of cane was looked upon as the one effectual and economical basis of education. LORD CROMER, O.M., F.R.S. eee only those who have worked in Egypt, but all who are interested in that country, will have learned with deep regret of the death of Lord Cromer on Monday last, January 29. On returning to Egypt in 1883, six years after his first appointment there as a Commissioner of the Debt, Lord Cromer found the country in a state of administrative chaos after the suppression of Arabi’s rebellion, while bankruptcy appeared imminent. In the Sudan, troubles were already assuming a threatening aspect, and the dervish revolt was shortly to take place. Under such conditions the most urgent needs were to re- organise the administration of the country, and to re-establish its financial position by developing the great agricultural resources of the Nile Valley and Delta. The provision at the International 434 Convention at London in 1885 of a-million-sterling to be devoted to irrigation was the first step towards the regeneration of Egypt,- which- has since ‘gone on with scarcely a check on the lines which he then laid down. Those first six or seven years were years of rigid economy, when all” expenditure had to be strictly'curtailed and every source of revenue carefully husbanded, but by 1890 the race against bankruptcy was won, and it became possible to deal more generously with various branches of the Administration. Lord Cromer was always keenly sympathetic to- wards education, and year by year as means be- came more ample the grants for it were increased. Schools for elementary vernacular education and secondary and technical schools were established in constantly increasing numbers throughout the country, while the training of teachers to staff them was likewise taken -in hand. In a Mohammedan country the education of the female population always presents especial difficulties, but an ever-increasing number of girls’ schools have gradually been established throughout Egypt. Efficient irrigation of the cultivable land being the prime necessity of Egypt’s existence, the first grant which made the restoration of the Delta Barrage practicable was followed by many others, and Lord Cromer supported unceasingly the demands of the irrigation engineers until the present system of dams, barrages, and distributing canals had been, if not completed, at least largely achieved. Closely related to irrigation is the agriculture of the country, and the investigations necessary to improve the principal crops had always his warm support. “The principal function of Government,” said Lord Cromer in his report for the year 1903, “is the prevention of epidemic diseases,” and to provide adequately for the sanitation of the country was increasingly his care as resources became greater. Recent visitations of cholera and bubonic plague have shown how much success has been obtained in this direction; while the hospitals and medical schools which now exist have made many forget the appalling con- ditions which prevailed in that country forty years ago. The geological survey and the cadastral sur- vey of Egypt, from which developed the recent geodetic work in the Nile Valley, are further instances of the way in which Lord Cromer encouraged the more scientific aspects of work of practical importance. In Egypt archeology has a vast and important field of activity, and while his own interests were most closely connected with the classical period, Lord Cromer supported all projects for the better conservation of ancient buildings and the investi- gation of the past history and the ancient civilisa- tion of the country. To his advocacy we owe the systematic study of the Nile Valley in Nubia, which, besides the archeological results, has yielded in the hands of Prof. Elliot Smith such important evidence relating to the Egyptian race. NO. 2466, vor. 98] NATURE [FEBRUARY I, 1917 After his- retirement from Egypt his interest in. science led him, by becoming president of the Research Defence Society, t6 aid the opposition — to the ignorant outcry against vivisection, since \ he recognised its importance in furthering the advancement of medicine and surgery. In 1911 he was elected a fellow-of the Royal Society as ° one who had rendered service to science. 4 Laden with heavy responsibilities of adminis: tration, and fully occupied by the many problems ~ which Egypt presented, he still found time to take interest in all new investigations which were ’ being undertaken; his kindly advice and powerful aid were always available to those who. were’ playing their part in the reconstruction of Egypt, and to them he was one on whose support they could always confidently depend. H. GL. & NOTES. Amonc the list of honours conferred by the King on’ officers of the Army, the Royal Army Medical Service has reason to be gratified by the number bestowed’ upon its members. Sir Alfred Keogh, the Director- General, is promoted to be G.C.B., shaning this dis- tinction. with Sir William Robertson. Sir Alfred Keogh was a former Director-General of the Army Medical Service, and subsequent to his retirement. became rector of the Imperial College of Science — and Technology, but soon after the outbreak of war was recalled to his former post. He found the Royal Army Medical Service confronted with a task of the first magnitude, and its staff numeric- ally wholly inadequate to cope with the work before it. Within a few months he made a’ new force of it; mumbers of the younger medical’ practitioners were enrolled in its ranks, and senior members of the medical profession—physicians,’ surgeons, hygienists, and specialists in all branches—. were attached to it in a consultative capacity. For two years this virtually new force has worked harmoniously and efficiently. Never before have the wounded been. so promptly and so adequately cared for, while the prevention of the numerous diseases which are so- liable to follow on war and the train of an army has never been more successfully accomplished. Tue Kinc has been pleased to confer the Com-. panionship of the Order of the Bath, for services. rendered in connection with the war, upon ~ Lieut.-Col. G.H. Barling, vice-chancellor of the. University of Birmingham, who is now serving as a consulting surgeon to the British Army in: France. The honour of Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George has also been conferred for war services upon Major Bertram Hopkinson, F.R.S., professor of mechanism and applied mechanics, Cambridge University. - WE regret to see in the Morning Post of January 30 the announcement of the death, at eighty-two years. of age, of Mr. John Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South. Wales, where he had an observatory and carried on. ~ very valuable astronomical work for many years. SuRGEON-GENL. Sir G. H. Makins will deliver the Hunterian oration before the Royal College of. Surgeons of England on Wednesday, February 14. The subject will be the influence exerted by the. military experience of John Hunter on himself and on the military surgeon of to-day, : FEBRUARY I, I1917| NATURE 435 Ir is announced in the. Times of January 29 that. , summer time will be reintroduced in Germany and Austria-Hungary on April 1,.and will last until the end of September. Apparently, therefore, the reported. rejection” of the proposal by a committee of the Prussian Diet, referred to last week (p. 414), was either incorrect or will be disregarded. WE note with regret that the Engineer for January | 26 records the death of Mr. James Stirling at the age of eighty-one years. Mr. Stirling was locomotive engineer to the South-Eastern Railway from 1878 to 1898, and introduced many improvements, including the steam reversing gear. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and also of the Institu- tion of Mechanical Engineers. - Tue President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has appointed a committee of representative agriculturists to advise him on questions arising in connection with the increased production of food. The committee is constituted as follows :—The Right Hon. R. E. Prothero (chairman), the Right Hon. Sir Ailwyn E. Fellowes (vice-chairman), the Right Hon. F. D. Acland, the Right Hon. Henry Hobhouse, the Hon. Edward G. Strutt, Sir Sydney Olivier (Board of Agriculture), Mr. W. W. Berry (Development Com- missioner), Mr. S. W. Farmer, Mr. F. L. C. Floud (Board of Agriculture), Mr. A. D. Hall (Development Commissioner), Mr. S. Kidner, Mr. T. H. Middleton {Board of Agriculture), Mr. A. Moscrop, Mr. H. Pad- wick (National Farmers’ Union), Mr. R. G. Paterson, Mr. G. G. Rea, Mr. E. Savill, Mr. Leslie Scott, and Prof. W. Somerville. joined the department for the duration of the war) is the secretary of the committee. AccorDING to a telegram (Daily Mail, January 26) Dr. T. B. Robertson, professor of biochemistry in the University of California, has succeeded in. isolating from an extract of the pituitary gland a substance which has the power to influence and regulate the growth of the body. That the secretion of the pituitary gland does take a part in regulat- ing the growth of the body has been known since 1886, when that remarkable growth disturbance which Marie named acromegaly was discovered to be directly related to a diseased condition of the pituitary gland. In 1895 Oliver and Schafer surprised medical men by isolating from the pituitary gland a substance which has a powerful influence on unstriped muscle fibres and on the walls of blood-vessels. The effects produced by extracts from the pituitary gland are so complex and diverse that it is highly probable it may produce several different substances which act as hormones on the tissues of the body. Hitherto the element which acts as a _ growth-sensitiser or regulator has not been identified. A NuMBER of influential persons interested in the development of the resources of the Empire have formed themselves into a committee, of which Sir Starr Jameson is for the present acting as chairman, Mr. Almeric Paget, M.P., as honorary treasurer, and Mr. Wilson Fox as honorary secretary. The com- mittee, which represents every party in the State, has for its ultimate object the appointment of a board to develop the Empire’s resources; but in the mean- time it has been inquiring into various questions in order to present a prima facie case for. the considera- tion of the Government. The committee has the following purposes :—(1) To advocate (a) the con- servation for the benefit of the Empire of such natural resources as are, or may come, under the ownership or control of .the Imperial, Dominion, or . Indian NO. 2466, VoL. 98] Mr. E. M. Konstam (who has, Governments; (b) the development of selected re-. sources of the Empire under such conditions as will give to. the State an adequate share of the proceeds ; (c) the appointment in due time of a Board for the Conservation and Development of the Resources of the Empire, so that Imperial effort may be concen- trated on assets ripe for development for the common good of the Empire. (2) To take such action as may from time to time appear to be desirable in order to disseminate. information in regard to the objects of the committee, to arouse and maintain public interest, to enlist public sympathy and support, and to co- operate with other committees and associations having similar objects. Dr. H. R. Mitt, director of the British Rainfall Organisation, contributes a special article to the Times of January 25 on the rainfall of 1916. Detailed results are given for 131 stations. Last year is shown to have been generally a wet year; the rainfall was far in excess of the average at most stations, and slightly below it at only a few. A map shows the distribution of rainfall, and forestalls the fuller results, from about 5000 stations, which will appear later in ** British Rainfall, 1916." A deficiency of rainfall for 1916 is shown in the extreme south-west of Wales and the north-west of Devon and Cornwall, and in two areas in the centre of England, one stretching east and south from the north of Anglesey and the estuary of the Mersey, the other in the south-east of Yorkshire. The area over which the year was relatively dry was much less than in any other of the last twelve years, except perhaps 1912. The excess of rain was most pronounced in the south of England, the centre of Scotland, and the south-west, north-west, and east of Ireland. The wettest part of England was in the district of East Grinstead, where the excess was about 40 per cent. In Scotland the excess of rainfall was 20 per cent. over nearly one-half of the country, while in parts there was an excess of more than 4o per cent. The whole of Ireland was wet; the greatest excess of more than 30 per cent. stretched inland from Dublin Bay. No year since 1903 has been wetter than last year in Scotland and Ireland, while the British Isles as a whole have only been wetter than 1916, during the last fifty years, in 1903, 1882, 1877, and 1872. In London the total measurement for the year. was 34-01 in., which is 35 per cent. above the average for fifty years. In 1903, the wettest year on record, the rainfall was 38-10 in., and the only other year since 1858 with as much rain as 1916 was 1878, with 34:08 in. Mr. A. W. Carpinatt, in the January issue of Man, describes a collection of stone jimplements from Ashanti. Most of them are of normal types, but one specimen is peculiar from its remarkable size—14-5 cm. in length, and maximum breadth 5-5 cm. In its coarse flaking it resembles specimens collected by M. Xavier Stainer from the Congo, but in the Ashanti weapon its rounded cutting edge is perfectly distinct, and there 1s no doubt that this has been produced by grinding. WE have received the list of seeds of hardy herba- ceous plants, trees, and shrubs. available for exchange from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, forming Appendix I. of the. Kew Bulletin for 1917. We are glad to notice that the list is a full one, and shows that this important side of the work of a botanic garden has been fully maintained during the past year, despite the large number of men who are absent on military duties. Wart disease of potatoes, which has caused such serious loss in the north of England, is difficult to eradicate from a district owing to the length of time 436 the soil may remain infected with the fungus, Syn- chytrium endobioticum, which is its cause. Owing to the thick coats which cover the sporangia no method of killing them has been discovered, so that soil treatment as a remedy is of no practical use. Experi- ments recently carried out at the pathological labora- tory of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, by Mr. A. D. Cotton (see Kew Bulletin, 1916, No. 10) have proved that, in addition to the potato, our common English weeds, Solanum nigrum and S. dulcamara, can be infected with wart disease, and a few small warts containing the characteristic sporangia of the fungus have been produced on the roots of these two plants. Though these plants may not be active sources of soil infection, it is clear that they should be removed from a wart-disease area. In reference to our recent note (NATURE, vol. xcviii., p- 395) as to the replacement of materials in_sedi- mentary rocks by iron ‘pyrites, Mr. C. Carus-Wilson writes that he has described a case from the base of the Cainozoic strata in Bournemouth Bay, where a lignitic vegetable mud in the interstices of a sand- stone has been thus changed into a pyritic cement. A HANDSOME addition has been made to the repre- sentation of regional geology by the publication of a colour-printed geological map of Mysore on the scale of 1 in. to 8 miles (approximately 1: 500,000). The whole of the rocks are assigned to the Archzean era, with the exception of the ‘“‘sheet laterite’? of the north, which is probably in the main of Cainozoic age. The map, compiled under Dr. Smeeth’s direction by the Department of Mines and Geology of Mysore, gives a clear and harmonious picture of the great folded masses of crystalline rocks, striking N.N.W. from southern India, until they are concealed by the enor- mous Cretaceous lava-flows of the Bombay Presidency and Haidrabad. Dr. Smeeth’s general description of the country was noticed in Nature, vol. xcvii., p. 505. Naturen for October, 1916, contains an appreciative review of the geological work of Prof. Amund Helland, of the University of Christiania, written by Hr. P. A. Oyen in connection with the seventieth birthday of this veteran observer. An attractive portrait accompanies the memoir. The author usefully reminds us that Helland stands as one of the great pioneers in glacial studies, and that before he was thirty years of age he undertook a journey to Greenland in order to satisfy himself of Ramsay’s views on the relation of fjords and cirques to ice-action. This notice makes us turn with pleasure\to Helland’s paper published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London in 1877 (vol. xxxiii.), where the origin of cirques in alternations of frost and thaw, combined with the presence of a transporting glacier, is very clearly stated. Hr. Oyen remarks that even the famous dis- cussion on glacial erosion in Stockholm in 1910 added little to what had been put forward many years before by Ramsay, Lorange, and Helland. Tue Weekly Bulletin of the Hawaiian Volcano Ob- servatory is in reality a monthly paper of some twelve pages, and is supplied to the members of the Hawaiian Volcano Research Association. Movements and changes in the Kilauea crater are reported under weekly headings, and, beginning with the bulletin for August, 1916, photographic plates of the surface of the lava-lake of Halemaumau are issued by Mr. T. A. Jaggar, jun., so as to form a continuous record. The importance of such observations lies in the fact that the stages leading up to a disturbance of unusual magnitude cannot be missed, as is commonly the case where active volcanoes attract spasmodic attention. The Hawaiian Observatory may aid in explaining the NO. 2466, VoL. 98] NATURE [FEBRUARY I, 1917 circular plugs of lava, with radial structure, described as ‘‘craterlets’ in the Decoan Trap (L. L. Fermor and C. S. Fox, Records Geol. Surv. India, vol. xlvii., p. 81, 1916). These occur in a limited region of the Chhind- wara district of the Central Provinces, and are now well illustrated, so that we may hope for their recog- nition elsewhere as the basal portions of spiracles and’ lava-bubbles. Tue difficulty in the spelling and transliteration of place-names arises out of the insufficient number of characters for separate sounds which our alphabet con- tains. This thas been partly overcome by geograph- ical authorities in different countries using an alphabet devised for the purpose, but all present difficulties in the way of phonetic representation. In the Memorial volume of the Transcontinental excursion of 1912 of the American Geographical Society, Mr. G. G. Chisholm suggests an international alphabet as a standard of reference. By comparison with this alphabet geo- graphical authorities of different countries might decide the signs to be used for ticular sounds in their own alphabet. Mr. Chisholm would like the sounds of this alphabet recorded on gramophone re- cords, a copy of which could be kept by every impor- tant geographical society. : In the Geographical Review for December (vol. ii., No. 6) some account is given of the new Museum of the American Indian, the foundation-stone of which was laid in New York in November, 1915. The museum, which will occupy part of the same block as. the American Geographical Society, is the outcome o' the collections of Mr. George G. Heye, and will contain everything of value to the student of the American. Indian, from Fuegia to the Arctic regions. Up to the present all the funds for the furtherance of the work, including many expeditions, publications, and the purchase of collections, have been furnished by Mr. Heye and his mother. Mr. Heye has now turned over all his collections to a board of trustees, of which he has been elected chairman. Mr. Heye re- tains the directorship. The new building will probably. be completed in the spring.” ; ELrcrrostatTic methods have sometimes been tried’ with doubtful success for separating minerals of nearly the same specific gravity. Writing in the Rendiconti del R. Istituto Lombardo (xlix., 15), Dr. Pietio Riboni now proposes a new arrangement consisting of a horizontal plane conductor at zero potential, and a cylindrical charged conductor fixed above it with its axis parallel to the plane. The conducting par- ticles fly to and fro between the two conductors, becoming alternatively positively and negatively charged, and owing to the curvature of the lines of force which are arcs of circles, coupled with the effects of gravity and possibly elasticity, they gradu- ally make their way outwards. The dielectric par- ticles, on the other hand, tend to travel towards the places where the intensity of the field is greatest, and are found in the centre of the field. Although this method is described mainly with a view to the separation of metallic particles, it might be interest- ing to try whether it could be used to eliminate coal- dust from shore gatherings of foraminifera. THE proximity to the field of Italian military opera- tions of portions of the remarkable formation known. as the Karst adds interest to a paper in Scientia (xx.,. 8), by Luigi De Marchi, on ‘t The Waters of the Carso’” (in Italian, with French translation by Dr. S. Jankele- vitch). The tableland between Trieste and Abbazia is simply honeycombed with craters, some no larger than a room, some hundreds of .yards in diameter,. the hollows of which are cultivated with pota- : toes, while at Abbazia springs of cold fresh water FEBRUARY I, I917| NATURE 437 come welling out from beneath the sea and from rocks on the shore in most of the bathing-places and else- where. Some difference of opinion exists as to the condition of the underground waters in such districts, in particular as to the existence of subterranean basins filled with water up to a certain level as distinct from underground rivers, and Dr. De Marchi dis- cusses Grund’s views in this connection. There is in southern Italy another Karst region in the arid por- tions of Puglia, but in this case the fissures are much smaller, and the author here finds conditions under ag the bed of water is not much above the sea- evel, Mr. A. GRANGER, the chief inspector of weights and measures for Birmingham, has written a pamphlet entitled ‘‘Our Weights and Measures ’’ (published by Messrs, Eyre and Spottiswoode, price 6d.), suggesting certain modifications of the imperial system of weights and measures with a view to its simplification. He appears to be of opimion that such a radical change as the displacement of our weights and measures by the metric system is not practicable, and his plan is to modify the present system so as to make it as convenient and rational as possible. His proposal involves the introduction of a new pound weight equal te half a kilogram, which for all ordinary purposes means an increase of the present pound by to per cent., and a new gallon, also 10 per cent. greater than the present one, practically equivalent to 5 litres, or 4 dekalitre. This would not disturb the plan of the imperial system; for example, the legal definition of the gallon as containing ten imperial pounds of dis- tilled water would still hold good. His idea is in- genious, but it seems probable that if any change is effected in our weights and measures it will be in the direction of adopting:the metric system in its entirety, rather than modifying the present imperial units, THE investigation which M, Guillaume, of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Paris, has been conducting into the changes undergone by steels used as length standards has shown results of interest to engineers and scientific workers (La Nature, January 6). Briefly summarised, his conclusions are as follows :—The most important point in connection with the use of steels in the tempered state for the preparation of standards of length is that of the “ stabilisation”’ of the steel. It may be said generally that between o° and 100° C. the transitory variation in length (like that in glass or in the nickel-steels) is proportional to the square of the temperature. With stoving carried to a high limit of duration, the totat variation between o° and 100° C, is about 5 microns. At ordinary temperatures this variation is only of the order of a small fraction of a micron per metre length. For tempered steels stoved for only a short time, the transitory variation is much greater. To conclude: as regards tempered carbon-steels, the variations of all kinds before stoving are appreciable and rapid, but can be so minimised as to cease to be prejudicial to the use of such steels for industrial end standards. Tue Times Engineering Supplement for January 26 is the annual review number, and contains much interesting matter relating to the progress of engineer- ing in 1916. Experience has accumulated during the past year regarding the features of ship-construction which are calculated to enable a ship to remain afloat after torpedo or gunfire attack. Longitudinal sub- division, while practicable in warships at great cost, is impracticable in an ordinary cargo vessel, and it is considered doubtful whether transverse water-tight subdivision would enable a cargo ship to resist torpedo attack. Wihile merchant vessels can be greatly im- proved to protect them from torpedo attack, considera- No. 2466, VoL. 98] tions of design, economy of construction, and carrying and earning power make it preferable to arm the ship. This is the course which will probably be adopted in the new tonnage now building. In America, owing to the enormous demands on the steel industry, it has been found impossible to keep abreast with the demand for shipbuilding material. This has led to a revival of wooden shipbuilding, and a number of wooden hulls are now being constructed in the Seattle district and at various points on the Pacific Coast. Tue South African Journal of Science for October, Ig16, contains a report of the address to Section B. (Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Mineralogy, and Geography) of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science by the president of the sec- tion, Prof. J. A. Wilkinson. The address deals with two general questions: first, the organisation of the South African Union for the fuller development of its. industries and resources, and, secondly, the necessity of research in order to develop existing industries and establish new ones. Dealing with the first question,. Prof. Wilkinson points out_that hitherto South Africa has existed on its raw materials, which are exported whilst articles manufactured from them are imported He gives a long list of imported articles, the most important being coal products, earthenware, glass, cement, condensed milk, paper, sugar products, oils,. fats, and waxes, and medicinal preparations which could be manufactured from the natural resources of the colony. Some of these are, in fact, manufactured there, but the quality is not so good as that of the imported articles, and this is stated to be due to the lack of effective chemical control lin the industries. It is urged that South Africa is not sufficiently self- contained, and that the necessity of establishing chemical industries with chemists, not merely engineers and business men, in control is vital. With regard to the second question, the position of the tannin bark industry of Natal now (tannin was syn- thesised by E. Fischer and K. Freudenberg in 1913): is compared with that of the natural indigo industry in 1880, when indigo had been synthesised in the laboratory, but the long period of development which made it a commercial success was only beginning. It is argued that had as much time and money been spent on the scientific investigation of natural indigo as were spent on the synthetic dye, the vegetable product would have been placed beyond competition. The lesson afforded by indigo should be applied to the case of tannin. Prof. Wilkinson considers that the prime mover in research must be the State, and sub- mits a comprehensive scheme for its inception and organisation. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Comer 1916b (Wotr).—The following ephemeris of this comet, for Greenwich midnight, is given by Dr. Berberich in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4870 :— R.A. Decl Log A Bright- ey Te S : . ness Feb. 2 17 9° 0 =5) 1 Bea 0-4406 10'5 10 Abe 26 5 4 19:9 0-4182 12-3 18 aol EAs 36 3 27:0 03951 145 26 hetateate SR ere a 2 22°1 0°3716 17-0 Mar. 6 fac 19 48 sri oh “3476 20-1 14 ba 38 2 +0 2355 0:3235 23:8 22 ae IGT 28 2 4:0 0:2995 28-1 30 19°16 34° 3) 55:T > 02758-3371 The brightness is expressed in terms of the bright- ness at the time of discovery, 1916, April 3. It is probable that the comet will become a naked-eye object during the summer. 438 INVESTIGATIONS OF STAR CLUSTERS.—Further results of an extensive investigation of the magnitudes and colours of stars in clusters, which is in progress at Mt. Wilson, have been given by Dr. Harlow Shapley (Contributions from the Mt. Wilson Solar Observa- tory, Nos. 115, 116, and 117). The problems presented by clusters are stated in the first paper, while the second and third deal respectively with the globular cluster in Hercules, and the open cluster M37. In the case of the Hercules cluster, a catalogue of 1300 stars has been prepared, involving more than 10,000 estimates and measurements of magnitude. The colour-indices suggest that there is no appreciable selective scattering of light in space in the direction of the Hercules cluster, but the apparent increase of redness towards the centre would seem fo imply an absorption within the cluster itself. There is an almost linear decrease of colour-index with decreasing bright- ness in all regions of the cluster, and this feature will probably have great significance in regard to the evolu- tion of giant stars. A conclusion of special interest is that the parallax of the Hercules cluster must be less than o-ooo1", and is probably greater than o-oooo1". At the provisionally adopted distance of 100,000 light years, the cluster would be more than 1000 light years in diameter. As viewed from the cluster, our sun would appear fainter than the 22nd magnitude, and our entire galactic system would have an angular diameter of about 5°, perhaps comparing closely in general appearance with the Greater Magellanic Cloud as seen from the earth. It is probable that no star so faint as the sun has yet been photographed in this cluster, and that a large number are more than 200 times the solar brightness. Dr. Shapley considers it reasonably clear that the Hercules and other similar clusters are very distant systems, distinct from our galaxy, and perhaps not greatly unlike it in size and form. The open clusters, on the other hand, seem to be relatively small parts of the local system. It is interesting to note further that five new vari- ables have been discovered in the Hercules cluster, making a total of seven now known. It is probable that all of them are of the Cepheid type. THe ALMANAC OF THE MaprIp OpserRvarory.—The issue of this publication for 1917 contains the custo- mary astronomical information, ephemerides, and tables, with the necessary explanatory matter. In addition, there is a useful article on the spectroscopic classification of stars, by Prof. Iniguez, wiith photo- graphic illustrations, and a very full account of the methods of determining latitude. Details of the meteorological observations and of the observations of sun-spots, faculz, and solar prominences made at the Madrid Observatory occupy nearly 300 pages of the volume. SOUND-AREAS OF GREAT EXPLOSIONS. T is not often that a great explosion occurs near the centre of a populous area, and the recent disaster in East London thus offers an opportunity of adding to our knowledge on the transmission of sound- waves by the atmosphere. A brief summary may first be given here of the results obtained in recent investigations. The most remarkable result is the recognition of the fact that there exists sometimes, not always, a zone of silence which separates two detached sound-areas. This zone thas been traced in twenty recent explosions (excluding that of Friday, January 19), two being due to gun-firing, four to ex- plosions of dynamite or gunpowder, and the remainder to volcanic explosions in Japan. The source of sound is always unsymmetrically placed within the inner sound-area, and nearly always NO. 2466, VoL. 98] NATURE / [FEBRUARY I, 1917 lies on the side facing the outer sound-area. On this side the boundary of the inner area may be -as near as 2} miles, or as distant as thity-nine miles, from the source. The most important dimension, however, is the radius, or mean radius, of the curve which forms the outer boundary of the zone of silence. It is far from being constant. It may be as low as fifty miles, as with the minute-guns fired at Spithead on February 1, 1901, or as high as ninety-nine miles, as with the Wiener-Neustadt explosion of 1912. . During the four years 1909-13 eleven explosions of the volcano Asamayama, in central Japan, have given rise to double sound-areas, in most of which the outer area is the larger. The inner area is arranged with a rough approach to symmetry about the ash-precipitation zone. This is usually a long- narrow band, the direction of which is determined by that of the higher air-currents into which the smoke- cloud from the volcano rises. The direction of the band is usually towards the east, but varies between north-east and south-east, and it is a significant fact that, as Prof. Omori has pointed out, the centre of the outer sound-area is usually on or close to the con- tinuation westwards of the ash-precipitation zone. Of twenty-two important explosions of the Asamayama from December, 1909, to the end of 1913, Prof. Omori notices that single sound-areas occur just as fre- quently as double sound-areas. Nine of the former occurred in the six winter months, and ten of the latter in the six summer months. On the theory that the zone of silence is due to the refraction of the sound-rays by winds varying in velocity, and some- times also in direction, with the altitude, Mr. S. Fujiwhara has shown that, with the normal type of winter weather in Japan, the sound-areas would be single, and with that of summer weather, double. With regard to the distance to which explosions may be heard, it would be well to separate those in which the sound-areas were single from those in which they were double. Of the first class, the explosion at Avigliana (northern Italy) in 1900 was heard at Lugano, ninety-nine miles distant. The explosion in the same year at Kobe (southern Japan), which prob- ably belongs to this class, was heard at ninety-seven miles. Of explosions with double sound-areas, the distances are ninety miles for the Hayle (Cornwall) explosion of 1904, about 112 miles for the Pérde (Westphalia) explosion of 1g03 and the Jungfrau rail- way explosion of 1908, and 186 miles for the great explosion at Wiener Neustadt in 1912. Though later accounts may modify some of the dimensions given below, a first analysis of the reports already received shows that the explosion in East London on January 19 belongs to the class with double sound-areas. The inner area is of unusual form, being L-shaped, with the angle near Godalming, the east-and-west limb reaching to Canterbury, and the north-and-south limb to the neighbourhood of North- ampton. The least distance of the boundary of the inner area from the source of sound is about twelve miles, and the greatest distance sixty-five miles. The outer sound-area lies to the north of the other, with its centre a few miles west of King’s Lynn. Its longer axis (131 miles in length) reaches from the neighbourhood of Nottingham to that of Lowestoft, its width being about fifty-five miles. The zone of silence varies in width from sixteen miles (near North- ampton) to fifty-four miles, and the distance of its outer boundary from the source is about sixty miles. So far as is known at present, it includes the greater part of Essex and Suffolk, the southern half of the counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon, and the cen- tral portion of Northamptonshire. Even if observa- tions should be received afterwards from this area, it is significant that, from the inner sound-area of about FEBRUARY I, 1917] 3500 square miles, I have so far received 250 records in which the time is given, from the outer sound-area of about 5700 square) miles 223 records (including 122 from Norfolk and fifty-six from Lincolnshire), and from the zone of: silence of about 4500 square mifes only one, and that one close to the sea. The greatest distance to which the sound-waves penetrated is about 121 miles. A remarkable feature about these records is that, though all of them have been sent in reply to my newspaper letters (and therefore sent as it were at random), they are almost as thickly grouped near the boundaries as near the centres of the two areas. There is none of that increasing sparseness of records near the boundary which is so characteristic of earth- quake investigations. It would seem as if the boundary were determined, not by the sound-vibra- tions becoming inaudibie, but by the absence of sound- vibrations from the area beyond. It may be of interest to add that, at a large number of places, pheasants showed signs of alarm, as they did during the North Sea battle of January 24, 1915. May I, in conclusion, state how glad I should be to receive (address: 16 Manor Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham) further accounts of the explosion, and especially negative records? Observations on the direction of the surface and upper winds would be. of great value. Cuartes Davison. RECENT PAPERS ON PARASITES. O*E of the most notorious of protozoan parasites at the present time is the microsporidian Nosema apis, which, since the well-known researches of Drs. H. B. Fantham and Annie Porter in 1912, has been generally regarded as the cause of ‘Isle of Wight disease’ in hive-bees. In the Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh (vol. xx., part 1) two papers have lately appeared in which this conclu- sion is called in question—one by John Anderson, the other by the same author in collaboration with Dr. John Rennie. Stress is laid on the possibility of bees heavily infested with Nosema showing no symptoms of the disease; this condition was recog- nised by Fantham and Porter, who attributed it to immunity in certain strains, and directed attention to the danger caused to other bees by such ‘‘carriers.” On the other hand, an epidemic of disease among bees on Deeside with all the characteristic ‘‘Isle of Wight’’ symptoms appeared to be unaccompanied by any trace of Nosema in the affected insects. It may, of course, be retorted that the parasites were present in inconspicuous stages and in relatively small numbers, as Fantham and Porter concluded to be the case in similar instances observed by them. Anderson and Rennie, however, ‘‘are unable to recognise any causal relation between the presence of this parasite and the disease,’ though it ‘‘may be a contributing weakening factor favouring in certain cases the de- velopment of the disease.”” It may be doubted if the authors sufficiently recognise the possibly deadly effects, on certain strains of bees, of parasites so few in number as to escape observation. Students of the Sporozoa will read with more than usual interest Dr. Howard Crawley’s paper entitled “The Sexual Evolution of Sarcocystis muris” (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, Ixviii., part 1), in which the early development of the parasites in the intestinal cells of the mouse is described with numer- ous figures.. The spores swallowed by the mouse reach the hinder-end of the smali intestine within an hour and invade the epithelial cells. Some spores then undergo a great enlargement of the nucleus and de- generation of the cytoplasm, while others remain much as when they entered. the cell, becoming, however, NO. 2466, VOL. 98] NATURE 439 relatively. shorter and broader than the original spores ; the author regards the former as male and the latter as female gametes. From six to fifteen hours after penetration chromatin granules separate from the nucleus and are absorbed by the protoplasm; this process is interpreted as maturation. ‘Finally, in the eighteen-hour stage, macrogametes may be found which in some cases show minute, thread-like bodies. upon their surfaces, and in others contain within their substances small, solid chromatic bodies, one in each case. These appearances are regarded as warranting the interpretation that fertilisation talses place.’ Dr. Crawley’s work goes far to establish the existence of a sexual phase in the sarcosporidian life-cycle, but it appears to fall short of demonstration, In the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum (vol. 1., No, 2131) an important systematic paper on ‘* Nematode Parasites of the Rodentia and Hyracoidea ’* has been published by Maurice C. Hall. Most of the species described are illustrated by clear structural figures, and there are diagnoses of the various classifi- catory groups, so that the paper will be of much value to students. In the class-diagnosis of the Nematoda it is rather surprising to find no stress laid on the entirely epithelial nature of the intestinal wall or on the anomalous character of the body-cavity. Several papers on parasites are to be found in the lately issued third and fourth reports of the director of veterinary research for the South African Union Department of Agriculture (Pretoria, 1916). Sir A. Theiler and W. Robertson describe the life-history of Trichostrongylus douglasi, a nematode parasite of the ostrich, somewhat unfortunately called a ‘* wireworm.” The four larval stages are carefully distinguished, and it is shown that the young worm can survive and be- come mature in the bird’s stomach only when swallowed in its late second stage. No evidence that the worms ever enter through the skin could be obtained. Dr. F. Veglia contributes an exhaustive paper on ‘‘ The Anatomy and Life-history of Haemonchus contortus,” a well-known strongylid parasite of the stomach in ruminants; in this memoir a number of structural and bionomic details are recorded. The photographs and careful drawings illustrating these reports are repro- duced in excellent style; it is all the more disappoint- ing to find that for the letterpress of these valuable zoological papers a cheap contract method has appar- ently been adopted by the South African Government which recalls the worst traditions of our Home Sta- tionery Office. THE LOUTREUIL FUND. GRANTS FOR SCIENTIFIC WORK, ps the Comptes rendus of the Paris Academy of Sciences for November 27 is given the report of the council of the Loutreuil Foundation. The grants allotted are divided into three groups, as follows :— I. ESTABLISHMENTS MENTIONED BY THE TESTATOR.— (1) Museum of Natural History. 2000 francs to Prof. Louis Roule for the continuation of his researches on the migratory fishes of French marine and fresh waters, the Salmonidez in particular. 10,000 francs for re- fitting the maritime laboratory of the Island of Tatihou at Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue. This laboratory has been used as a concentration camp since the outbreak of war, and considerable damage has been done. (2) The Collége de France. 700 francs to E, Gley to complete the frigorific installation for which an allocation was made last year. 4350 francs to Prof. Nageotte for the purchase of apparatus for pursuing his studies on the regeneration of nerves. 4000 francs to M. |’Abbé Rousselot for continuing and developing the experi- “ments commenced by him on locating artillery by 440 NATURE [FEBRUARY I; I917 sound. (3) Conseil Central des Observatoires. 15,000 trancs to the Observatory of Paris for the improve- ment of astronomical instruments applied to the deter- mination of time. 1500 francs to the Observatory of Marseilles for ensuring the publication of the Journal des' Observateuts.. (4) Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort. ooo francs to this school for the purchase of an apparatus for kinematographic registration and projection; this will be of great service in the study and demonstration of various movements in the normal or pathological state. (5) Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon. 850 francs: to Charles Porcher for the pur- chase of instruments to be used in his researches on milk. 800 francs to Francois Maignon for the purchase of a balance and a small hydraulic press, to be used in his researches on nutrition. (6) Ecole Nationale Vétérin- aire de Toulouse. 5000 francs to this school for a radiological installation to be used in the diagnosis of diseases of animals. II. EstastisHMENTS NOMINATED TO THE COMMITTEE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE AcADEMy.—(1) Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. 4000 francs to Louis Blaringhem for the creation of a typical collection for the deter- mination and classification of the woods used in the aeronautic industry. 5000 francs conditionally to James Dantzer for the creation of a laboratory for the testing of textiles, fibres, and tissues under the express condition that the Union des Syndicats Patronaux de l’Industrie Textile contributes the same amount. (2) Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines. 10,000 francs to this school for completing the laboratory installa- tion, especially as regards motive power. (3) Institut Catholique de Paris. 2000 francs to Henri Colin for the purchase of apparatus not usually found in botan- ical laboratories, to be used in his researches on the conditions of destruction of various bacilli. 2000 francs to Jules Hamonet for purchasing apparatus for deter- mining the physical constants, particularly refractive indices, of the new substances he has discovered in the glycol group. III. Various Direct ReoQursts FOR GRANTS.— 10,000 francs to Jules Garcon for the preparation of a bibliography of bibliographers, a part to be used in making an inventory of the scientific periodicals con- tained in the libraries of Paris. 3000 francs to Guil- laume Bigourdan for the construction of an angle com- parator for measuring the variation which the angular distance of two stars may show in a short interval of time: 3000 francs to Henri Bourget for his researches on astronomical photometry. 2000 frances to A. Col- son for continuing his researches on solutions. 7000 francs to Augustin Mesnager for improving the equip- ment of the laboratory for testing materials under his direction at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. 2000 franes to Jules Glover for continuing his researches on telephony. ooo francs to Louis Jobin to complete the publication of his studies relating to the material collected’ in the second Antarctic voyage of Jean Char- cot. “5000 francs to the Société de Documentation Paléontologique. 2000 francs to J. M. R. Surcouf for assisting the publication of his work on horse-flies. The total amount in grants is 115,200 francs. THE U.S. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. HE December, 1916, issue of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences contains reports of meetings of the council on November 13 and 14 last, and of the meetings of the Executive Com- mittee of the council held during October and Novem- ber. At these meetings several committees were ap- pointed to. deal with specific questions. Among these may be mentioned that to confer with representatives of the National Canners’ Association in the conduct NO. 2466, voL. 98] of investigations on toxic elements in canned foods; that to co-operate with the Govergment Committee, on_ Ocean Surveys and Ice Patrol; that on the utilisation: of industrial research facilities for the national des fence; that to consider the organisation of research. in anthropological and sociological sciences; and general committees (in addition to that on chemistry previously established) on mathematics, astronomy, physics, geology and paleontology, geography, botany, zoology and animal morphology, physiology, medicine, hygiene, agriculture, psychology, and anthropology. At the meetings of the council in November several members gave addresses, one of which, on scientific research for national defence as illustrated by the problems of aeronautics, was by Lieut.-Col. G. O. Squier, and of this we print an abstract from the Proceedings of the National Academy. ae Scientiric RESEARCH FOR NATIONAL DEFENCE AS ILLUS- TRATED BY THE PROBLEMS OF AERONAUTICS. The following are some present problems connected with the development of military aviation and aero- station, 1. Aerodynamics.—(a) Continue the development of the mathematical theory to explain the aerodynamic phenomena recorded in the aerodynamical laboratories, and to forecast further results. (b) Obtain solutions for the speed and direction of flow of air about geometric and aerotechnic forms and develop experimental means to visualise or map the speed and direction of flow. ; (c) Map the currents of the upper atmosphere which may be of most use in aerial navigation, and evolve simple practical rules for the guidance of pilots. ‘ (d) Give fuller explanation of the phenomena of soaring, i.e. airplaning indefinitely without motive power. (e) Develop equations and laws of comparison by which the behaviour of large aircraft may be more accurately foretold from tests of models. Apply. fur- ther the principle of dynamical similarity. iJ (f) Investigate more direct and effective methods -of securing a lift or thrust in the air from the consump- tion of fuel. ed (g) Complete theory of the air-screw. ‘Rtgs 2. Engine Problems Requiring Research.—(a) Fuel. Possibly the most far-reaching problem jis fuel. A’ fuel that will carry more power into an engine per unit volume will be a direct gain. + ee Attempts have been made to combine alcohol, gaso- lene, acetylene, picric acid, ether, and other hydro- carbons with the above object in view. Questionable results have followed. There has been an increase of EA but nothing so far commercially or practically useful. ay This question must be’ studied with the greatest of care and from a truly research point of view. ~ (b) Solid fuel. Solid’ fuels that can be converted into liquid in small quantities just prior to use are desirable for military aviation. In case of accident from shot or shock, leakage of liquid fuel is a danger. Solid fuel could be carried in quantity with less danger. (c) Engine’ cooling. The problem of radiation is important. If some substance could be found that would circulate through the cooling system, at higher temperatures than water, it is probable that greater engine efficiencies would result. Oils, salt waters, and other materials have been tried with indifferent success. _ (a) Liquid-fuel pipes. Tubing thait will resist vibra- tion (causing rupture) is desired. An oil and gasolene proof rubber tubing is reported as used in Europe. This development is highly important, not only for tubing, but for containers in which to carry liquid fuel. Some sort of fabric and rubber tank that would a { FEBRUARY I, 1917| really resist’ the action of gasolene would be of the highest benefit. A difficulty lies in the fact that the tanks are large {say 20 to 100° gallon capacity), The structural problems would be serious. ‘The tanks now used are large and of metal. Vibration causes much difficulty and leakage. (e) Metal coating. The ‘protecting of. the metal rts of an airplane, especially the fittings and cables, is a serious problem. A material is desired. that would really prevent dangerous corrosion. Nickel-plating ‘over copper is very good, but will not suffice. Rust strikes through very rapidly. Baked enamel is the best coating. It is impossible to apply in many cases. ' (f) Sound. The question of eliminating the noises involved in the operation of aircraft is one of import- ance. The peculiar note of the propeller of a Zeppelin can be heard for several miles, and is usually the first warning of its approach at night. _ 3. Miscellaneous.—(a) Physiological. Study the physiological and psychological effects of low-density air at high altitudes on the performance of pilots. (b) Transparent wing covering for airplanes. A wing covering which would answer the following general requirements would be of great value to mili- tary aviation :-— Weight not more than 5 oz. per square yard. It should present reasonably great resistance to flame. — It should be reasonably proof against action of salt water, moist air, extreme dryness, and quick tempera- ture changes. It should not stretch in any direction. Its ability to retain its original form as placed on the airplane is very important. ; - It should-have tensile strength of at least.75 lb. per inch width in any direction. Its tendency to tear and split because of tac: holes through jit, or because of bullet holes, should be as small as possible. . (c) Development. of light alloys for airplane con- struction. Pure aluminium or aluminium alloys. Itis believed that a great deal can be done in this direc- tion. So far no alloy has been developed, except pos- sibly in Germany, which can compare with average Alaskan: spruce in its ‘ specific tenacity.” (d) The structure of gusts. It is believed that this is of sufficient importance to aviation to warrant con- siderable expense in its study. Painstaking investigation of the character of eddy formations caused when wind strikes trees, hollows, cliffs, etc., and the character of disturbances created by canyons, swamps, deserts, etc., would be of great value to aviators. This can be done not only by smoke and toy balloon work in the vicinity of obstructions such as the above, but also by photographic work in wind channels. A set of simple rules laying down, just what the aviator may expect on one side or another of ‘canyons, cities, trees, lakes, and swamps would be very helpful in aviation. (e) -Radio-apparatus for aircraft. |The subject of radio-intercommunication between aircraft in flight, and between aircraft and the earth, requires for its solution the highest possible efficiency and trustworthi- ness combined with minimum weight. A present tendency is to separate entirely the power plant from the main engine of an aircraft. The gene- rator body in this case has a stream-line figure, and a separate small air-screw is provided. Among other methods the oscillion is being tried as the actual source of continuous electromagnetic waves. (f) Bullet-proof gasolene tanks. material with which to line or construct tanks to con- tain the gasolene in an airplane in which a bullet hole NO. 2466, VoL. 98] NATURE Development of a 441 will quickly close, entirely or at least partly. This would enable many a flyer to get back to his own lines after having been fired upon. (g) Development of a fabric as good as, or better than, Irish linen for the covering of airplanes. There has not been manufactured in the United States a fabric suitable for use in covering airplanes. The fabric should answer all requirements laid down under transparent wing covering, and be, in’ addition, such as to shrink the proper amount without harm when. cellulose solution is applied, It is possible that long-fibre cotton might be de- veloped that would answer the purpose. We must become independent in all lines affecting our military aviation. To-day we depend entirely upon Ireland and England for our linen, and the supply is becoming very low in the United States. (h) Aviator’s clothing. Much has still to be done in devising non-inflammable and protective clothing for aviators. This question is intimately connected with personal armour and safety in case of fall. (i) Ground-speed indicator. An instrument which would measure the actual speed of an aircraft over the ground would be useful in the operation of mili- tary machines. ; 4. Physics of the Air.—A number of physical pro- perties of air, important in the problems of aviation, were also discussed. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. BirMINGHAM.—Miss Helen Caddick has presented to the University a valuable collection of examples of the art of primitive peoples. The collection, which has been made by Miss Caddick in numerous travels, in- cludes specimens from Central Africa, Tonga and Fiji Islands, New Zealand, and Peru. It is hoped that the gift may form the nucleus of an ethnological museum for the University. Lonpon.—At a meeting of the Senate held on January 24, the Vice-Chancellor (Sir Alfred Pearce Gould) being in the chair, Mr. J. J. Guest, of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed as from February 12 next to the University readership in graphics and structural engineering tenable at University College, in succession to Dr. W.-H. Eccles, reader in graphics, who has been appointed professor of applied physics ae electrical engineering at Finsbury Technical Col- ege. The following doctorates have been conferred by the Senate :—In Chemistry: Mr. Guy Barr, an externa] student, for a thesis entitled ‘‘ Researches in Relation to the Tensile Strength of Fabric, and the Effects of Experimental Variations on the Result of Tensile Tests,’’ and other papers. In Botany: Mr. R. C. McLean, an external student, for a thesis entitled “Studies in the Ecology of Tropical Rain Forests,” and other papers. Oxrorp.—On January 30 the preamble of the Statute creating the status of ‘‘ advanced student ’’ and pre- scribing the conditions on which advanced students may obtain certain degrees came before Congregation. An able speech in favour of the Statute was delivered by the Rev. E. M. Walker (Queen’s), who was sup- ported by Prof. - Perkin, Waynflete professor of chemistry, and as to the principle of the Statute by Mr. S. Ball (St. John’s), Dr. Macan, Master of University College, and Dr. -F. C. Schiller (Corpus). The last three speakers argued in favour of the degree ibs doctor of philosophy being offered under the Statute, instead of that of D.Sc. or D.Litt. as was | at present contemplated. Notice was given of an amendment to be proposed in this sense. The only - 442 NATURE , [FEERUARY I, 1917 speaker in .opposition was Prof. J. E., Holland (All Souls), who thought that council should have pro- ceeded by resolution rather than by Statute. On a division the preamble was Carried by 69 to 7. Tue KinG has consented to open the School of Orien- tal Studies, London Institution, on Friday morning, February 23. Dr. C. E. Moss, Botany School, Cambridge, has been appointed professor of botany in the South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannes- burg. Ar the request of Mr. Fisher, Prof. Gilbert Murray, professor of Greek, Oxford University, is undertaking temporary work at the Board of Education, taking the place of Mr. H. F. Heath, C.B., now Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr. Heath was head of the Universities Branch of the Board, and also Director of Special Inquiries and Reports. One of the sections of the report to the Prime Minister of the Speaker’s conference on electoral reform, which was issued on Tuesday, deals with university representation. The following recommenda- tions are made :—(a) The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge shall continue to return two members each ; the electorate shall be widened, and, in order to secure a proper representation of minorities, each voter shall be allowed to vote for one candidate only. (b) The Universities of Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, and the University of Wales shall receive representation; these universi- ties shall be grouped with the University of London so as to form a single constituency returning three members elected on the system of a single transferable vote. (c) The combined Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews and of Glasgow and Aberdeen shall also be grouped so as to form a single constituency returning three members under the system of a single transferable vote. obtaining of a degree shall be the basis for electoral qualification. Tue following resolutions were passed at the annual meeting of the Association of Science Teachers, held at the ‘University of London on January 6 2 That the science teaching in the schools should aim at de- veloping in the pupils (a) the power to observe accu- rately, to reason logically from observed facts, to frame hypotheses and to test these hypotheses by means of their own experiments; (b) a spirit of interest and inquiry with regard to the world around them and the universe at large, an interest in the growth of know- ledge in the past, and an appreciation of some of the wider problems with which science deals at present and which influence modern thought and modern activities. (2) That in order to accomplish the first of these aims a thorough course of experimental work in the laboratory is absolutely necessary, that such a course should be continuous, or nearly so, from the ages of twelve to sixteen, and that in this’course the pupils should, so far as possible, be encouraged to attack problems for themselves. (3) That as such a course by itself would necessarily cover a very narrow field, the work should be supplemented by teaching or by activities on the part of the pupils themselves, de- signed to bring them into contact with the wider issues indicated in (1. b). . (4) That if science is to play its due part in the curriculum as indicated in the fore- going resolutions lessons encouraging the children to observe the phenomena of Nature should be given from the earliest ages, while between the ages of twelve and sixteen not less than an average of one-seventh of the teaching hours of the school should be given to science. NO. 2466, vot. 98] (d) As regards all universities, the’ ' dent, in the chair.—H. A. “Baker : . SOCIETIES AND Ss Giles LonpDon. Geological Society, January 10.—4Dr. A. Harker, presi- The Paleozoic plat- form beneath the London Basin and adjoining areas, and the disposition of the Mesozoic strata upon it. With an appendix by Dr. A. M. Davies. The author carries on the work of tracing the contours of the Palzozoic platform of S.E. England. By comparing these with the contours of the base of the Gault, the probable boundaries of the areas of the platform that were only submerged finally under the Gault sea are determined. The effects of post-Cretaceous tilting and warping are analysed. The successive Mesozoic over- laps on the platform, their probable areas, and the tectonics of the platform are discussed. Evidence is given for a second Charnian axis, proceeding south- eastwards through Norfolk and Suffollk, east of Kent, to the North of France.—-Dr. C. Lapworth: Balston Expedition to Peru: report on graptolites collected by Capt. J. A. Douglas, R.E. The graptolites were collected from the rocks of the Inambari district. The specimens are recorded as all occurring in the same locality, butit is not known whether they were obtained froma single zone. The lithology of the containing rocks and the mode of preservation of the graptolites are similar to those obtaining in the richest of graptolite- bearing strata of Britain, Europe, and North America. Taken as a whole, this graptolite fauna may best be compared with that of the Upper Arenig formation of Britain and its North American equivalents. The assemblage of graptolites discovered in Bolivia a few years ago by Dr. J. W. Evans corresponds closely with this Peruvian fauna, and was probably derived from the southward continuation of the same Andean grap- tolite-band. The Douglas collection of Peruvian graptolites greatly strengthens the inference that in Arenig-Llandeilo times there was open-sea communica- tion admitting of the circulation of sea-currents along some as yet undetermined line or lines, connecting these widely separated regions, which must have ex- tended across the equator and apparently throughout a length nearly equal to that of half the circumference of the globe. Linnean Society, January 18.—Sir David Prain, presi- dent, in the chair.—Prof. F. O. Bower: The morpho- logy of the sorus of ferns. The isolated sporangium (monangial sorus of Prantl) is frequent among primi- tive Filicales. The distal or marginal position of the sorus is prevalent in primitive types. The transition from a marginal to a superficial position has fre- quently occurred. Interpolation of sporangia has led to increased complexity of the sorus. In simple, gradate, and mixed sori thus constituted the receptacle varies: it is not a stable entity, but a result of | elaboration of the vein-ending on which the sporangia are seated. Superficial extension of sori occurs. Duplication of sori also occurs. Fusion of sori occurs progressively in various phyla. The fusion-sorus may disintegrate, but not necessarily along the original lines of fusion.’ The identity of the sorus may be lost by acrostichoid deyelopment, which has occurred along numerous lines of phvyletic advance. The more com- plex sori of ferns, as they are now seen, are referable along such lines of comparison to marginal or distal monangial «sori. Such a position of isolated or. few sporangia is found to prevail in plants of the Lower Devonian period. _The marginal placentation of seed- plants is probably more than a mere analogy. | Aristotelian Society, January 22.—Dr. H. Wildon Carr, president, in the chair.—C. E. M. Joad ; Monism in the light of recent developments in philosophy. — | monistic theory confuses two distinct propositions. A ee |. ee FEBRUARY I, 1917 | NATURE 443 thing is what it is, not only because it has a place in the universe, and because of its relations to other things, but also because those relations are not the thing. To assert that a thing is its relations involves a second and quite different proposition. A thing indeed pre- supposes reality and its connections with it, just as our apprehension of a truth presupposes reality. But when we assert that a thing is what it is because of its connections with reality, we do not mean that the thing is its connections. They condition it, but it is separate from them. The other main monistic argu- ment is to the effect that the ultimate Real being one and indivisible, all analysis by means of which we arrive at a world composed of things and relations .is a false abstraction of thought, which leads us away from Reality. It is true that a whole, although created by its parts, is more than their sum. A whole, as opposed to an aggregate, is a unity—a new entity which has come into being by their synthesis. But such a whole clearly has parts which it cannot be a fiction to distinguish from one another. The fact that analysis of a whole into parts destroys the whole does not mean that it also destroys the parts, or that the parts are not really its parts, or that they cannot exist as distinguished from one another. Paris. Academy of Sciences, January 2.—M. C. Jordan (later M. A. d’Arsonval) in the chair.—G, Bigourdan: The principle of a new zenithal telescope.—Ch. Depéret and L. Gentil: An upper Miocene marine fauna in the R'arb, western Morocco.—C. Guichard: The K_ net- works of general quadrics.—W. Kilian and J. Reévil: The Pleistocene formations and the morphology of the Arc valley, Savoy.—G, Julia: The reduction of binary forms with real coefficients of any degree whatever.—- G. H. Hardy and °S.° Ramanujan: An asymptotic formula for the number‘ of partitions of n.—E. Belot : The theory of spiral nebulz and the true sense of their rotation.—J. Guillaume ; Observations of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during the third quarter of 1916. Observations were possible on eighty-nine days, and the results are given in three tables showing the number of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the faculz in latitude—C. K. Reiman: The absolute density of hydrobromic acid. The gas was prepared by three independent methods, the final purification being by liquefaction and fractional distillation in a vacuum. The mean of thirty-one determinations is 36442 grams per litre.—P. Gaubert : The indices of refraction of the rhombohedral carbon- ates. Figures are given for gioberite, siderite, dialo- gite, smithsonite, dolomite, ankerite, and mesitiite. The value of the indices of refraction of various dolo- mites, ankerites, etc., agrees with that obtained by calculation on applying the laws governing the rela- tions between. the indices of an isomorphous mixture and those of its components, but*the agreement is only approximate.—V. Commont: Tihe Pre-Quaternary Somme-Oise.—E. Harlé and J. Harlé: The maritime dunes of the coast of Gascony.—A, Nodon: Observa- tions of the atmospheric disturbances during the months of October and November, 1916. Confirming earlier researches, there is found to be a close relation between the solar perturbations, electromagnetic disturbances, and disturbances of the terrestrial atmosphere.—Ph. The relative réle of surface and perimeter in the phenomenon of cicatrisation of wounds at the surface and the formula which jinterprets them. January 8.—M. A. d’Arsonval in the chair.—The president announced the death of Prof. Chauveau, in his ninetieth year.—M. Hamy: The approximate value of a definite jntegral—P. Appell: An extension of the equations of the theory of vortices and of the equa- tions of Weber.—M. de Sparre: Calculation of the hammer jin a water-main formed of two sections of different diameters.—M. Depage : The secondary trans- formation. of open into closed fractures. A detailed description of a new application of Carrel’s method: for irrigating fractures.—W. H. Young: A new set of conditions for the convergence of Fourier’s. series.— M. Petrovitch : Phe limit of extensibility of an arc of certain curves. The curves, the deformation of which is examined, are such that on going from one ex- tremity to the other none of the x co-ordinates changes the sense of its variation, each of them increasing or decreasing along the arc.—M. Souslin: A definition of measurable B ensembles without transfinite numbers. —N. Lusin: The classification of M. Baire. Some consequences of the results of M. Souslin in the pre- ceding paper.—L. Hartmann: The systematic variation of the value of the kinetic energy in the elastic re- bound of bodies. According to experiment, in the elastic shock of bodies the sum mV?+m'V” is not constant and independent of V and V’, contrary to the proposition of Leibnitz.—J. Olive: The mechanical trace of the ballistic hodograph.—E. Esclangon: The reflection and refraction of isolated waves at the sur- face of separation of two fluids in repose or in motion. —A, Pereira-Forjaz: Spectrographic. studies of Portu- guese minerals of uranium and _2irconium. Results are given. for chalcolites. from Sabugal and _Nellas, autunite from Nellas, and zircon from Alter Pedroso. Radium was present in the chalcolites.—P. Fallot: The geology of the island of Ibiza—F. Grandjean : The orientation of anisotropic liquids on the cleavages of the crystals. An account of the examination of anisaldazine, p-azoxyanisol, and p-azoxyanisolphenetol. It is concluded that the property of orientation of an anisotropic liquid on a determined cleavage is not a reticular property.—J. Deprat : The geological explora- tion of the part of Yun-nan comprised between the Tonkin frontier, the Kwang-si, and the Kwei-tcheou.— Ph. Glangeaud : The substratum of the volcanic massif of Mont Dore.—E. Belot: Provisional trace of the curve described by the magnetic north pole since 1541. Mile. Y. Dehorne: A new Stromatopore from the Lusitanian of Cezimbra (Portugal).—P. Lesage: The germination of the seeds of Lepidium sativum in solu- tions of electrolytes.—C. Galaine and C. Houlbert : A new arrangement for the rapid filtration of potable waters after their purification by the Lambert-Laurent process. After treatment with potassium perman- ganate, the removal of the precipitated oxide of man- ganese presents practical difficulties. It is proposed to modify the apparatus so that the purification and filtration take place in the same vessel, without trans- ference and possible re-contamination.—F. Dienert and G. Mathieu: Search for typhoid and paratyphoid bacilli. : Flajolet : Disturbances of the magnetic declination at Lyons (Saint-Genis-Laval) during the third quarter of i916.—P. de Beauchamp: New researches on sexuality in Dinophilus.—L. Lindet: Waste in alcoholic fermentation.—F. Garrigou ; Special examina- tion of urines for the rapid and correct choice of a thermal station.—O. Laurent: The realisation of sia- moisism in animals, Experiments on grafting to- gether two different animals.——P. Lecomite du Noiiy : NO. 2466, VOL. 98] BOOKS~ RECEIVED. Recherches sur les Mouvements Propres des Etoiles dans la Zone Photographique de Helsingfors. By R. Furuhjelm. Pp. 190. ‘ (Helsingfors: ‘Société de Littérature Finnoise.) ; Compressed Air Practice in ‘Mining. By D. Pen- man. Pp. vii+221. (London: C. 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